a hoarder's blog

Just some preview pics of what I hauled last week when I was in Hong Kong for a quick break.

Makeup stuff:

Non makeup stuff:

So I mentioned 2 more hauls from my trip to Taipei and Hong Kong. Well, here they are! Looking at your comments in the previous entry, some of you guessed right! Yes I bought me some NARS! Totally unexpected actually. I didn't think I'd have time to drop by SOGO, but as fate would have it, one night, we travelled to some place to have beef and dumpling noodles and there was a SOGO nearby. OK, wait, rewind that. I think I should put it another way: we had planned to go eat at this small noodle shop which is just behind SOGO (alight at Zhongxiao Fuxing train station), and if there was still time, I wanted to drop by SOGO, even if just for a little while, to swatch nars' new blush Sex Appeal. Upon coming out of the station, I was so surprised to see crowds of people hanging around outside. I didn't know what was happening, but I thought to myself, there MUST be some kind of sale going on. I started getting excited and couldn't wait to get dinner over and done with. So later on after dinner, we walked to SOGO and I was overwhelmed by the crowd inside as well. From the entrance itself, there were promoters shoving pamphlets into my face, and others approaching me to ask me whether I wanted to check out this and that brand. It was insane! I did one round with the hubs looking around everywhere in amazement, and then he decided to give up and told me to meet him at a later time. Haha! So after that, I was on my own wandering about. I must have done a few rounds collecting pamphlets and looking at the deals that were being offered.

I first went to the nars counter to do some swatching. Saw the sheer glow foundation and asked someone to match my shade. A male BA recommended me Santa Fe which I must say matched me pretty well. But I didn't buy it then and walked on. I stopped by Laura Mercier where a rather attractive male BA attended to me. Asked him about loose powder etc, but after all the explanation, he didn't quite convince me to buy from him. haha. Too bad! I also checked out the MUFE counter, but nobody paid any attention to me. Bah! So I kept on walking around and ended up at nars once again. Swatched Sex Appeal and it didn't show up on my hand at all. Someone must have seen the frown on my face and this time round, a female BA approached me. I had seen her looking at me from the corner of my eye, and she eventually did come nearer to ask me if I needed help. So I asked for a match for sheer glow once more. She matched me to Ceylan. I told her that just now, I was matched to Santa Fe. She said that it would also suit me, but as it is pinker, it would make my face more "red", while Ceylan would lighten up my skintone cos of the yellow undertone. She asked me to trust her recommendation. How could I argue with that? And so she introduced me to the offer they had for the sheer glow foundation. Here's the snapshot from the pamphlet. You get a skin milk cleanser, a sheer glow foundation and a loose powder for TWD3350. I admit I didn't go into the details of how much each costs individually and whether it would make sense to buy the set there and then. I was all set to get it since I was there at the sale and all. And if all other reasons fail, there's always the "But-I'm-holiday" tagline!

Loose powder in Eden

Sheer Glow in Ceylan. Bummer! It doesn't come with a pump!

And oh did anybody notice an extra item in the first pic? Well I bought a blush called Crazed. I really thought I didn't have it in my stash and I remembered not ever seeing it online on beauty.com or narscosmetics.com. I remembered well.

This was not part of the set, but there was still a discount on it (10% I think).

And a free gift: a mirror!

My second big buy on this trip is from...KATE SPADE. Another unexpected buy this time at Citygate Outlets in Hong Kong. Went in to have a look and oops came out with this. I tried on the canvas version first, then the sales lady told me that it also came in the full leather version and that it cost slightly more only. So I sat there, not really wanting to buy, but also wanting to buy, that kinda feeling. The hubs was like, just get it if you like it. So be it. Maybe he was just tired of waiting...

The paper bag:

The interior and bottom of the bag:

And the bag in full glory! Sorry to disappoint, but it's a boring black bag. But I like bags that will go with anything I wear. It still smells of new leather. I love the smell! I haven't used it yet. Same goes for all the nars above. I do take a while to unpack. LOL!

Hope you enjoyed this entry. :)

It has already been over a week (ok lah, almost 2 weeks) since coming back from my short trip to Taiwan and Hong Kong, and I've just been too busy to do this haul entry earlier. But I'd better get to it before I forget.

TAIWAN

OK so we shall start with some stuff that I bought whilst in Taiwan. The following were bought at night markets (Raohe and Shilin). I used the exchange rate of SGD1=TWD25 for easy conversion on the go, when in reality it was about TWD23.

• Misc hairbands: all, except the middle one with the thicker braid design, cost TWD100. The middle one costs TWD40.
• Socks: 6 pairs for TWD100 (cheap or what?)
• Card holder: TWD100, hairclips (1 for TWD15), bun holder TWD40 (I don't know how to call that, it's something that helps you hold your hair in a bun and you can do it real fast apparently. The seller demo-ed on me and I was so impressed that I bought it, but I haven't tried it myself. Haha! But it was so cheap anyway)
• A pair of flats (super soft and comfy): TWD199

NEXT!....

• Masks! These were bought at the 7-11 opposite the hotel I was staying at (Rainbow hotel which is in the heart of Ximending). There was some promo going on, 2 boxes for TWD378 (U.P. TWD199 per box). I randomly chose Japanese Cherry Blossom, Black Pearl, Mixed Berries and Q10 rejuvenating masks just cos I can't read a word of chinese and didn't really know which ones to get.

Took a few trips to Watsons and I brought back...

• Neutrogena oil-free eye makeup remover (TWD299, apparently it's BOGO. I don't know how much this costs in Singapore)
• Neutrogena Hydro Boost mousse cleaner which was on sale at TWD199 (again I don't know the retail price locally).
• Carmex in Jasmine Green Tea flavour TWD99
• MM mascaras, each going for TWD340. And if you buy a mascara, there was a promo where you could buy the Eyes Reset Gel for only TWD99 (Bought a set for Kim too).
• MM Skin Lingerie Pore Cover also at TWD340 I think.
• One Lavshuca Melting Eyes quad at TWD400. My most expensive drugstore purchase! At first, I didn't wanna get it, but everytime I stepped into Watsons, I went to swatch it, so I finally gave in. They had 5 or 6 quads in this series and I bought one in OR-1. I also wanted RD-1 but it was OOS at the store I was in. The reason why you see two quads in the pic is cos I bought the other one in Hong Kong for HKD98. So I managed to get the ones I wanted in the end.

HONG KONG

Currency conversion SGD=~HKD5. Again, I used a rough conversion rate.

• YSL mook from the news vendor at the corner of the street from the hotel I was staying at. HKD148. I haven't opened it yet..Oops.

• My first LUSH items! Mask Of Magnanimity (HKD109 after 30% off) and Lemony Flutter (HKD99). I was looking around the shop so hard for more stuff to buy, but couldn't decide. I thought of not getting soap bars cos I didn't trust myself to use them. So yep, that was it. Maybe next time.
• Clinique moisture surge in travel size jars HKD50 from a shop round the corner.
• Davidoff Cool Water HKD105 from the same shop round the corner.
• Gosh in Purple Heart and Blue Monday HKD 78 each at Watsons.

I do still have 2 major hauls from Taipei and Hong Kong to update. Will do so in the next entry. Hehe. Anybody wanna guess what else I bought?