Captains Log Stardate 0738.2

I'm so not a dedicated beauty blogger haha! I guess I should be writing about beauty products and things but I get bored of it sometimes. So here's just another rambling post of nothing super significant.

Well today has been a rather shit day. I found out that either the Canadian Embassy or the Swiss postal service have somehow managed to completely screw things up, and the issuing of my passport has thus been delayed. I'm flying on December 4th so I called the Embassy today inquiring where the hell is my passport? Looks like I now have to pay an additional $67 for a bloody emergency temporary passport which is only valid for 30 days use, and then I'll have to pay another $100 or so for another normal passport!! All because either the Embassy or the Postal people screwed up, through no fault of my own, and I now have to have an emergency passport issued so that I can fly on Friday. Great. $167 for a bloody passport. (Not to mention the additional costs I had of about $20 for getting a reference slip signed by my doctor, and another $30 I'll now have to spend to go to Bern tomorrow by train. So a grand total of $217 for a freaking passport. Yeah, I'm pissed off! What a waste of money!! Especially because it's not my fault and due to the error of inefficient offices.

Then I spent like an hour arguing with my stinking cell phone provider because these morons wanted to force me into another year long contract without any additional benefits like a new phone, because apparently I didn't cancel 2 months in advance. The funny thing is I called about 3 weeks ago and told them to cancel my contract, which doesn't even expire until January 15, 2010! So finally after being passed through endless waiting lines on hold and arguing with several people, I managed to turn my contract into a pay-as-you-go, which is what I wanted as I've barely been using my phone lately. Sunrise, are you reading this? I hate you! Next contract will be with another company, for sure.

Meh, so this whole day has just been one endless headache and yes I'm going to vent on my blog. Tomorrow I'll have to somehow manage a trip to Bern to the embassy head office to get my emergency passport issued, and it snowed today so it will be extra soggy and slushy by then I bet. Yay me!!

Then today I found out I can only take on one 23kg baggage piece on my flight to Canada, which is supposed to have enough clothes and makeup and all the stuff I wanted to bring for about 3.5 weeks. Yeah I can wash there, but I want to have lots of wardrobe options as I'm not sure of all the activities and things I'll be doing there. I'll just bring minimal cosmetic items as they are bulky and heavy and I'll just buy shampoo, shower gel, body lotion and stuff like that there. Anyway I was planning to do a lot of hauling for makeup there so I'll bring minimal makeup stuff.

I am however really looking forward to my trip to Vancouver and am really ready for a break and overall change of scenery, even if it's just for 3 weeks. Really looking forward to seeing my family and spending some quality time together, doing fun stuff and shopping, etc. I've prepared some makeup videos in advance so I'll have stuff to upload while I'm on vacation, and I'll probably be vlogging on my other channel around Vancouver, and uploading haul videos or things like that.

Today was also the first day of snow. It's pretty but - bah humbug!! Hope your day was better than mine!

Meet MissChievous in Canada

Just a quick update on the possible meet & greet! If you're subscribed to my TheThirdShift Youtube channel, you will already have heard about this. I'm going to be in Vancouver for 3 weeks over December for the holidays, and am planning to maybe host a meet & greet for my subscribers and fans! I'd really love to meet some of you guys, and it would just be so much fun! And you could also meet fellow makeup fiends!

OK here's the preliminaries as outlined in my video on the subject:

The meet-up would be in December, probably on the second or third weekend of December (Saturday or Sunday), during the daytime, likely to be downtown in Vancouver, Canada. Possible ideas would be a communal makeup shopping trip to Sephora or MAC, Holt Renfrew, Pacific Center, or something like that. The meet-up would be 1-2 hours and all ages are welcome! If you are 14 years of age or younger, you must come with an older person (friend, sibling, parent, etc) just because I want to make sure you all get there and home safe and I can't be held responsible for very young people. If you're below 18 years, you should of course ask your parents or guardians for permission so that they know where you are going and meeting someone from the Internet - I could be a crazy axe murderer! LOL (We will be meeting in a public place like a shopping mall.)

If you think you can attend, please use my preliminary sign-up sheet! This is just to give me a basic idea of numbers, nothing is 100% definite yet but if there is enough interest, I definitely want to make this happen. Please click here to go to the sign-up sheet, add your first name, tick the box, and press OK. That would really help. I'll update with more conrete infos regarding date, time, location closer to the time on my main Youtube channel.

So excited!!

Thanksgiving Look

This look was inspired by Thanksgiving, using some of the color recommendations given to me by my viewers via my Twitter page. Primarily I used brown, orange and gold to give a warm fall look. I hope you enjoy - Happy Thanksgiving!

Eyes

ArtDeco e/s base, 88 Warm Palette from ebay, L'Oreal black kohl pencil, Maybelline The Colossal mascara

Cheeks
Barry M Natural Dazzle bronzer, MAC Shimpagne MSF

Lips

NYX Herades lipstick

Nails

Barry M Racing Green, CND Effects (the blue shimmer one)

My new IKEA Storage

Today I headed to IKEA with my boyfriend as we've been meaning to make a few purchases recently. We decided instead of wasting money on silly Christmas gifts this year, we'd just spend our allotted budget for improving our home and buy a few larger things that we've wanted for a while now. One of the items I desperately needed was additional makeup storage, so my original plan was to get the Helmer cabinet. But upon seeing how tiny (and ugly) that one was, I realized that wasn't going to cut it, so I decided to go for the large, 9-drawer Alex unit. It was on sale too for about $100, down from $150. This drawer unit is absolutely perfect for beauty product storage as the drawers aren't too wide or deep, making it perfect for lots of smaller items on the top 5 smaller drawers, and some bulkier items on the larger bottom 4 drawers. I would recommend the large Alex unit for the serious makeup junky or collector, as it offers a lot of space. The Helmer unit would probably suffice if you have a smaller collection, and it's also a favorite among nailpolish junkies as it fits the bottles perfectly.

Alex was a bit of a pain to assemble...but instead of asking my boyfriend to do it, I decided to "man up" and do it myself for a change. Girls can do this stuff too! And with my shorter nails, I didn't even have to worry about breaking them either - hah!

Looking a bit worse for wear after a long, long day. I haz a hammer!

Whoopee! One drawer screwed and assembled, 8 to go. *sigh*

Finished!! Isn't Alex handsome??

Standing next to my vanity - excuse the untidiness! I also got a beautiful orchid at IKEA - my fav flower.

My previous plastic storage set - begone ugliness! Hiding the hideousness beneath my vanity. My old traincase seen on the far right. Can you believe that all my makeup used to once fit in that thing??!!! LOL!

Top drawer: Nail care supplies and Sally Hansen backups - plastic insert also from IKEA.

All my nailpolishes fit in one drawer - omg! It looks like so much less, but there's over 100 bottles in here I believe. I definitely prefer this over a polish rack, less dust and more space. I decided to organize them in rows by brand as I can easily find the color I'm looking for that way.

Random stuff and some things for giveaways.

All brand new stuff to give away in a contest.

I found a better home for my butterflies...

My new orchid plant - so pretty. And so much cheaper at IKEA!

Some of the other drawers just have some random bulky things in but most of them are still empty. Which is what I like - more room to grow. I'll probably do some more re-organizing tomorrow and dedicate one drawer to hair tools and my GHD flat iron and other hair things. This is definitely the best purchase I made since my Malm vanity table!

What do you think? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for looking :) Toodaloo!

xo,

Jules

True Blood look

This look was voted by you as your top choice of celebrity looks a while ago, and I've finally had the time to film it for you. This look is replicating Evan Rachel Wood's classic look from the TV show True Blood, and I had to watch the episode numerous times to see how her makeup was done. I couldn't find any good close-up pictures online, but after looking and pausing the episode many times, I finally figured out why this pin-up look is so unique. It's the subtle but noticeable double wing eyeliner effect, and the highlight of a light eyeliner above the black winged liner on the top lid. I hope you enjoy this look!

And these are the colors I used from the Warm palette:

Face

Revlon Colorstay foundation in Ivory, Ben Nye Natural blush

Eyes

Urban Decay Primer Potion, Warm palette eyeshadows, Revlon Colorstay liquid eyeliner, Max Factor eyeliner in Natural Glaze, Revlon brown eyeliner pencil, Maybelline The Colossal mascara

Lips

MAC Red Enriched lipliner, MAC So Scarlet lipstick, MAC Red Romp lipglass

Holiday Gift Guide

I've put together a video of some great makeup gifts that you can put on your wishlist, or get for other people interested in makeup and cosmetics. These include some of my favorite products, and other great offers I've been able to find for you on various websites. All stores except MAC, Sephora, Body Shop, and maybe Lush ship worldwide - please see their country specific websites to find out if they ship to where you live. I cannot answer questions regarding shipping of any store mentioned. I've made sure to include gift ideas for all price categories, starting at about $2 and going up from there! So you can be sure to find some stocking stuffer ideas as well.


Urban Decay Book of Shadows, Smashbox palette, Lash Stash Sampler, Stila Lip Glaze Collection all from Sephora stores or:
http://sephora.com/

Handmade Makeup brush rolls:
http://www.etsy.com/ (Various sellers, search for "brush roll" or "cosmetic roll")

Lipsmackers:
Most drugstores / pharmacies in North America

Body Shop Body Butters:
http://www.thebodyshop-usa.com/ (they have country specific websites too)

Crown Brushes:
http://crownbrush.com/
http://www.crownbrush.co.uk/

MAC Cosmetics:
MAC Counters at Nordstrom or Macy's, freestanding stores, or online through country-specific websites
http://www.maccosmetics.com/

Lush Cosmetics:
http://www.lush.com/

NYX Cosmetics:
http://www.nyxcosmetics.com (USA only)
http://www.shopcraze.com/
http://www.mscuppycakes.com/

Ben Nye Grande Lumiere palette:
http://bubbasikes.com/supersavers.html
http://sillyfarm.com/

Generic makeup palettes from China:
http://stores.ebay.ch/jolieeeeeboutique
http://stores.ebay.ch/abestlife

Brush Guard:
http://www.thebrushguard.com/

Happy Holiday shopping!

xoxo,
Julia

Down with the flu

Sorry for the lack of updates and lack of videos - I've been down and out with a nasty cold. And I thought I was doing so well too, trying to stay healthy. The best way I've found to help stave off the common cold is frequent hand washing especially before eating or touching your mouth or nose, getting enough sleep, and eating foods rich in Vitamin C. But somehow I still managed to come down with a cold, but I'm glad it's not swine flu!

My goodness, some people are in such a panic / hysteria about this darn swine flu, rushing to their doctor at the first sign of a cold. Not to downplay the seriousness of the pandemic but the chance of contracting swine flu is probably less than getting in a car accident. I always find it strange how the media manages to drum up a near hysteria as soon as some new pandemic is making its rounds. By all means if your symptoms are serious and correlate to the symptoms of swine flu, a doctors visit is recommended - but some family members were urging me to go to the doctor as soon as I had a sore throat and fever. Several days later my nose is still stuffed up but I'm on the mends.

What are your tips for battling a cold? I'm a big baby and fall back on medicine - NeoCitran, sore throat lozenges, disinfecting gargle wash, cough syrup, echinacea, and Vics Vaporub inhalations are my weapons of choice - the full works. Takes care of it in a jiffy! The sore throat and fever is always the worst for me, and the body aches and chills - hate it! Nothing to do but lie in bed all day drinking plenty of green tea, take meds, and watch TV or sleep. Thank god for my wall mounted flatscreen TV in the bedroom, that definitely staved off the boredom.

Picture source: Wikipedia (not mine!)

But today I feel much better and I was able to have an actual dinner of homemade sushi. We made rolls with tuna, scallop, makerel, avocado, cress, chives, cucumber, tamago egg, and tempura with shrimp and shitake mushrooms. It was divine! Only the makerel was odd - I think the fish wasn't very fresh. I love making sushi because here in Switzerland, sushi is very expensive and the portions are usually very skimpy with barely any fish inside. So we make our own now with a very thin layer of rice, and tons of filling. So much cheaper and tastier! A lot of people on Twitter requested a how-to video on making sushi, so I will try to film one next time and post it on my TheThirdShift channel. It's actually pretty easy once you learn some tricks and get the hang of it.

I can't wait to be back to healthy again and get to making some more videos. I need to film the celeb look that was voted on a while ago, some Christmas looks, and also some videos to upload in December while I'm gone on holiday in Canada, as my video-making time will be rather limited there and I won't have my regular setup.

Anyway that's all for now! Hope you're keeping healthy during this time of year. :)

xo,

Julia

Winter Skincare Tips

Winter season is upon us and lately I've noticed my skin has been getting a bit drier and has needed a bit more attention than in the hot summer months. Here's some basic tips on how you can adjust your skincare for the colder months.

Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize!

A lot of people (but not all) notice their skin starts to feel tighter and drier in the winter months, due to dropping temperatures, exposure to nature's elements like wind, rain or snow, and increased temperatures at home or in public buildings. This can take its toll! If you're using a light moisturizer and have noticed increased dryness, choose a more emollient, richer daytime and nighttime moisturizer. You don't have to break the bank - you can even get some good products on the cheap from Olay, Cetaphil, Dove, etc. Also use a richer body lotion if you experience dry skin on your legs, arms, back, and elbows.

Exfoliate!

Use a facial exfoliator to rid your skin of dead skin cells, which can leave a patchy, uneven appearance and make it hard to apply foundation evenly. Some inexpensive brands are from the Body Shop, or St. Ives, or even the generic aspirin mask. Use a loofah sponge or a natural fiber scrub mitten to exfoliate your body such as your legs, back, etc. You won't get that annoying itchiness associated with dry body skin - just make sure to follow up with moisturizer after.

Hydrate yourself!

Drinking lots of water, or non-alcoholic beverages like green tea can help to restore the natural moisture to the epidermis. Especially in winter when you might not feel thirsty as often, it's important to drink enough water each day. Drinking water has many other benefits, such as reduced water retention, and clearer skin that is less prone to break-outs. Keep a jug of Britta water at the office, or a large bottle of mineral water, and make sure to drink it throughout the day.

Turn down the temperature!

Increased room temperatures in the cold winter months can cause your skin to dry out. There's no need to jack up the thermostat like crazy - keep at an even 21 degrees Celsius. If you get chilly, put on a sweater rather than waste energy and dry out your skin by running your heater on high and running around in shorts and t-shirt.

Protect yourself!

Even though the sun might not be as intense as in the summer, UV rays can damage your skin even in winter so be sure to wear sunscreen during the day. People often wear sunscreen in the summer and then totally forget it in the winter - big mistake! Wearing sunscreen everyday will greatly help to prevent the onset of premature wrinkles. Try to go for at least SPF 15 or above - just because the sun might be hiding behind some clouds, doesn't mean your skin is not exposed to harmful UV rays.

Pamper your skin!

Use a moisturizing or balancing face mask once a week. Again, you don't have to splurge on expensive brands, the Internet boasts hundreds of recipes of great DIY home remedy masks using everyday ingredients such as eggs, olive oil, sugar, or honey. I've also found inexpensive but good single-use masks at the drugstore that cost around $1 each.

Switch your Cleanser

If you're using a harsh facial cleanser, try switching to something more gentle. Try a cream or lotion based cleanser without perfumes, this will calm your skin and not strip off your natural oils that lead to healthy, balanced, and supple skin. Cetaphil or Spectrojel are two inexpensive drugstore brands that are geared towards sensitive, dry, or problem skin.

Got any great winter skincare tips? Tried any great products? Share them in the comments below!

Mukluks - Help!

All I want for Christmas is a pair of mukluks! These are traditional handicrafted First Nations People boots that are extremely amazing for the winter. I bought something similar to this a few years ago in Montreal where it was so so darn cold and snow aplenty, but they were "Made in China" imitations. They were real suede and rabbit fur, but the inner lining is synthetic. The real mukluks have a sheep wool lining which makes them super cozy but also breathable.

They are absolutely ideal for the colder climates, especially when I go up to the cabin in the mountains here. Over the winter we often go up skiing and there's usually a ton of snow about, so these boots are absolutely ideal for that. I always get extremely cold feet and I hate any kind of synthetics around my feet because then I start sweating. So these are absolutely ideal for my needs.

Since I'm going to be in Vancouver over Christmas, I think I'm going to look for some. I know there are some shops run by First Nations bands that sell traditional handicrafts and such, either around North Van or around Squamish / Horseshoe Bay. I'd be really thankful for any Vancouverites who could point me in the right direction, of potential stores I can check out. I found some online places but I'd prefer to buy in a store and be able to try them on first. Leave a comment below if you know somewhere that has boots like this around the Vancouver / Whistler area! It would be really helpful if you could post names of the stores or where exactly they are located. :)

MissChievous.TV

Just wanted to let you know I've updated and purchased my own domain now. My blog address is now www.misschievous.tv and I hope everything should be working ok now. I believe Blogger will automatically redirect you from your old bookmarks (mizzchievouz.blogspot.com) but in case it doesn't, you can just update your subscription in Google Reader to my new website URL.

I plan to build a proper website soon and am looking at getting some hosting service and eventually moving my blog over to Wordpress to integrate it into a bigger site, but for now, this will have to do. If you are still having sporadic issues, give it some time. If the problems do not go away at all, please leave a comment below and I'll see if I can try to fix it. The page didn't load for me for a while, then it was stuck in a redirecting loop, and now everything seems to be working. It might be that your ISP has not updated its DNS servers, which is done sporadically.

Yay!

Blue Lagoon Look

 

 

Another German tutorial since it was so much requested since my last one, and I just felt like doing another one. This one is very blue and dramatic with some creative eyeliner shaping! No subtitles as it's just too much work, hopefully non-German speaking people can follow along by the visuals.

Eyes

Art Deco e/s base, NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk, 88 matte & satin finish palette from ebay, gel eyeliner from ebay in dark blue (generic brand), Maybelline white kohl pencil, L'Oreal Voluminous mascara, NYX White e/s, Max Factor blue kohl pencil,

Cheeks

Bobbi Brown Shimmerbrick in Peony

Lips

Barry M Palest Lavender lipstick

Link to the video

My Christmas Plans

Image credit: Tommy Au

I'm so excited!!! I'm going to be in my hometown Vancouver, Canada over Christmas! Booked my flight and will be flying out on December 4th, returning December 28th. That's a hell of a long time, but it was the cheapest rate I could find and it's still crazy expensive. Cross-Atlantic travel can be really expensive, especially over Christmastime, but what can you do? On the way home I have a really long stop-over in Amsterdam, so I've decided I'm going to take the train into town if I'm feeling up to it, and do some strolling around the city before my connection flight back to Switzerland - how fun!

I haven't visited Vancouver in years, in fact I can't remember the last time I was there. It must have been over 3 years by now. My family lives there, by now I'm the only one still remaining in Europe. My sister lived in London for a long time, but she recently moved back to Canada for good. So this will be the first Christmas that my family has celebrated together in a long, long time and I think it will be really fun.

Image credit: ~jah

Since I'm going to be there for so long, I'm going to write up a whole list of things I want to do! I'm definitely going to have at least a daytrip to Seattle to do some cheap shopping and visit some American stores, and see if there's a Cosmetic Company Outlet somewhere nearby. (Still have to look into that!) But Vancouver now has a lot of these American chainstores already, like Sephora, Forever21, etc. so I know I'll be doing some major damage.

I also want to eat lots of yummy ethnic food - Vancouver boasts a huge cultural variety, especially in regards to Asian cuisine, and I have been desperately missing that in Switzerland. I am bored to tears of European restaurants here, and there are not many authentic Asian restaurants here where the food doesn't taste like Europeanized crap, and overpriced to say the least! I've been following a really good Vancouver food blog called Ethniceats.ca and I've been salivating and making a list of all the places I want to hit up. I'm really upset the Richmond Night Market won't be on when I'm there, I was planning on gorging myself with authentic stall food! But there's still so many other places to check out. Sushi and Japanese food in general is going to be number one on my list as it comes plentiful and of high quality in Vancouver, followed by some great Indian and Chinese places. I need to have my dim sum fix!! If any locals can share their favorite ethnic food eats in Vancouver, I'd be really happy! Especially for some great sushi, dim sum, Chinese hotpot, and bubble tea places, or any great Vancouver food websites. I'm not looking for swanky, trendy places - more like cheap, good and authentic! I personally prefer hole in the wall places rather than overpriced scenester hangout restaurants with nouvelle cuisine.

Image credit: disneymike

Speaking of Seattle, what are some must see spots I should hit up to shop? I'm definitely going to go to Sephora and MAC and F21, but what are some other great stores? Also, does anyone know if there is a Cosmetic Company Outlet somewhere around or close to Seattle? I found this one in Tulalip - anyone been there before and how was it? I honestly don't plan to do any sightseeing in Seattle, I did that before.

Lastly, I'm thinking about hosting some kind of a meet & greet during this time in Vancouver to meet up with some subscibers - I would of course announce it on my Youtube channel and first see what kind of feedback it gets, if people would be into it. Anyone could come, even if you're in Seattle or somewhere close to the border. It would be super low key and probably be a couple hours at most, just some time to hang out and maybe have a communal trip to MAC or Sephora or something, and have a coffee. Would anyone be into this? Please let me know in comments if you live in the area and would be interested in attending such a function, nothing formal or concrete yet, just tossing some ideas around!

So, those are my Christmas plans. Going to have to tighten the financial belt a bit leading up to December, so I will have lots of spending and "fun money" in Vancouver. I'll be blogging and vlogging hopefully lots in Vancouver, and prepare some makeup videos ahead of time to upload while I'm there so my makeup channel doesn't just "dry up" for all of December! Anyone got any traveling plans coming up? Share in the comments!

Halloween Recreations Pt. 2

Here's some more recreations that were sent in from people who used one of my Halloween tutorials - the last ones for this year! Thanks so much to everyone for sending in your pictures, and sorry in advance to anyone whose picture I missed.

Aggie used my vampire look - she did a great job and her costume is vampalicious!

Allyson wearing the Fallen Angel look - very sinister looking!

Amber with the vampire look - great job and it looks creepy!

Andrea using my witch tutorial - it looks great on her!

Aysh with the Fallen Angel look - beautifully done!

Brittany replicating my Cleopatra look - great use of color, especially the golds!

Caroline using the Fallen Angel look - great job and the costume looks amazing too!

Casie with the Witch look - fabulously executed!

Christina using my corpse bride look - love the twist with the blue lips!

Christy using my Fallen Angel look - looks great with the purple as well!

Delia using my Cherry blossom Look for her geisha costume - amazing! Love all the red.

Elsy with my mermaid look - great job! I know how time consuming this look is to pull off, you did great.

Gaby with the vampire look - she looks great and love the earrings.

Gigi using a mix of the corpse bride and the vampire look - great job combining the looks and it looks scary!

Gillian using my vampire look for her "Fang Banger" costume - very True Blood!

Gloria's take on the Fallen Angel look - great use of color!

Jane using my vampire look - great job, the red looks great!

Janet combining my Fallen Angel and my Vampire looks - very creative and it looks amazing!

Jody as a Fallen Angel - looks great and the cobweb earrings are a fun touch!

Katherine using my Witch tutorial - great job! The green looks great with her brown eyes.

Kendra as a Fallen Angel - love it! The eyelashes are so fun.

Liliana as a Fallen Angel - she looks stunning and the long eyelashes are fab!

Martina as a vampire with her husband Federigo - hubba hubba! Great job Martina.

Megan as a Fallen Angel - love the colors in this one, great job!

Melissa used my Pantomime look for her Pierrot costume - can I just say that costume is spot on!! Very Pierrot, she captured the character perfectly.

Monica as a Fallen Angel - very captivating!

Nadia using my Forest Nymph look - amazing job and spot on costume too!

Natalie as a Fallen Angel - great combination of colours again and she did an amazing job!

Olivia's take on the Fallen Angel look - love the creativity of the added stones on her face, gives it a sort of tribal mythical flare.

Paris used my Fallen Angel look and combined it with deep burgundy lips - awesome job!

Rebecca used my vampire look and she looks scary! Great costume too.

Sophie using the vampire look - bitetastic!

Sophie also used my Fallen Angel look and added a cobweb for a black widow look - very creative!

Stephanie wearing my Ventriloquist Doll look - great execution! And your boxboy friend looks creepy as hell haha!

Sue as a scary vampire - creepy! And great teeth too.

Victoria used my Forest Fairy look and she looks great! The green colors work well with her costume.

Vlasta used my Ladybug look and she did a fantastic job! This is still one of my fav Halloween looks.

Zulimar used my Cleopatra look and she looks exotic!

Thanks so much for all your pictures everyone and you all did me proud. :) I hope you all had a great Halloween, and I'm already excited for next year's tutorials.