Vacation Time + Upcoming Videos

Just letting you know that I'm going on holidays for 3 weeks to Vancouver on Saturday with my boyfriend, and I can't wait! I'm really looking forward to having some time off, and doing some traveling. We'll be going on a road- and camping trip to Vancouver Island as well, which is an absolutely beautiful part of Canada, and maybe even up to Whistler for a few days. Summer is definitely my favorite season to be in Vancouver because of the great weather and plethora of activities: biking, swimming, kiting, picnicking, hiking, camping, etc.

This means I'll be away from Youtube for 3 weeks, BUT I have pre-recorded lots of videos to upload during my holidays. (Not looking forward to uploading from my parent's slow Internet connection though, oy!)

Here's a list of upcoming videos, in random order:

Lime Crime Lipstick review
China Glaze Vintage Vixen Polish Overview
Soft, Wearable Colors for Summer Makeup Tutorial
Makeup Tutorial in German language
5 Minute Summer Updo Hair Tutorial
Cirque du Soleil Makeup Tutorial
My first cooking tutorial!

So fret not, there's bound to be something for everyone, and you'll be sure to get your "MissChievous fix" in those 3 weeks. (Not like you can't live without my videos, but you know what I mean, haha!) Now I still have to run some last minute errands, buy some gifts for family and friends, wash laundry and pack. Our flight is very early Saturday morning, so we'll probably have to get up at 5am or some inhuman hour.

OK so that's it, I'm off! See you soon :)

You can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook for updates and pictures during my time on holiday.

Pakistan blocks Youtube & Facebook

It's a sad day for many Pakistanis who no longer have access to Facebook and Youtube due to their government blocking these sites due to "offensive material" that reportedly shows the Prophet Muhammad in a blasphemous way. You can read more about it here, here and elsewhere. Restriced access is also being implemented to Wikipedia and Flickr.

I am sorry for all my Pakistani followers on Youtube who can no longer watch Youtube videos, or who can no longer access Facebook, which make up a large component for free expression online.

While some supporters may applaud the decision in Pakistan, I strongly believe in free speech, and don't take it for granted by any means. I value the freedom that I enjoy to go on Youtube, Facebook or other online sites and say whatever I choose to. To me, it is sad that people other countries cannot enjoy this freedom due to ruling such as these in places where free expression is looked down upon.

I would rather be offended once in a while, and I may not agree with everything that people say or write be it online, or in print, TV, or otherwise, but I stand firmly by their right to say it.

Hopefully the people in Pakistan who are against this grave form of censorship will find out a way around it, such as proxies or IP masking. If not, I hope this heavy-handed ban will soon be lifted and I will be happy to have my Pakistani subscribers back and active on Youtube.

Essence In The Jungle

What's currently on my nails? Essence "In the Jungle" toe nail polish. Essence has released a few polishes marketed directly for toe nails, why I'm not really sure. Personally I prefer this one on my fingernails. The color reminds me somewhat of OPI Jade is the New Black, it's a medium to dark jade green with blue undertones, with a cream finish. I really like this, it "glows" a bit more in real life. What I also love about this polish is the wide brush. Unlike the finger nail polishes by Essence, the toe nail polishes come with a brush not unlike the OPI pro-wide, which is my favorite for application. This polish was opaque in 2 coats and applied very smoothly.

In other news, my balcony herb garden is thriving fabulously! I only have one container so far with coriander (cilantro), flat leaf parsley, and chives. I'll have to get another container for basil, mint, rosemary, and maybe a second coriander, I inhale that stuff!

By the way, I'm back from Italy and my trip was fab. I vlogged a lot and am uploading a 3-part video series on my roadtrip through Piemonte on my second channel so you can check it out there. Hope you all have a great weekend!

What's currently on your nails? Share in the comments! :)

Italy Bound

I'm off for a few days to Italy, a short getaway trip with my boyfriend, to celebrate our birthdays. Mine is April 27 and his is April 29! We're heading to Piemonte, a lovely wine region, where the famous Barolo wine also comes from. Piemonte is also known for its truffle mushrooms, so I hope to eat a lot of homemade truffle pasta while I'm there! Hopefully we'll also get to do some wine tasting, I'm planning to buy some Barolo for sure.

We'll be staying at a charming, country inn that was recommended to us. It's called the Osteria Del Maiale Pezzato and is located in Sinio. We'll be taking some trips around the region and explore this lovely part of Italy. Hopefully the weather will remain pleasant!

I'm taking my filming camera with me so hopefully I'll remember to film as much as I can, and will upload that on my second Youtube channel. I'll "see" you all in a few days when I get back! Now to finish up my packing...Toodaloo :)

Alice in Wonderland

I went to see Alice in Wonderland today in 3D and had a great time! What a lovely fairytale! I personally liked it a lot, although the film has gotten some negative reviews. Meh, whatever, I went purely to delve into Tim Burton's vision of Wonderland and it was a thrilling adventure indeed. I love how he re-interpreted the fantasy world, the rich colors, the mesmerizing costumes of all the characters, the makeup - it was a visual feast. Storyline comes second in such a movie, in my opinion. When I go to see a 3D movie, I want to have a visual orgasm. I don't care too much about the story. The same reason I loved Avatar - great movie, awful story. But really, who cares?? I'm there to enjoy the ride, that's all.

I loved all the costumes, how cute were all the versions of Alice's blue dress? Her red dress at the palace of the Red Queen was so couture! Stunning!! I also thought the Cheshire cat was so cute, I loved how his coloring was gray and teal. I was very inspired by the movie, so as soon as I got home tonight I ordered this wig:

I hope it arrives soon!! It's being sent all the way from China, gotta love cheap deals on eBay. Can you guess what it will be for?

Anyway, if you are into 3D movies and just want to be entertained for 2 hours, I definitely recommend you check out this movie.

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!

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

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!

Quick personal update

It's been a while since I uploaded a new video on my makeup channel, or posted here! I've just been really busy lately and my mother Elisabeth has also been visiting me and her family for the past few days. She is Swiss but lives in Canada with my father for the past 20 years or so, while I've moved back to Switzerland. Funny thing.

Anyhow it's been really great to see her again, we went on various little trips around the region where I live and had lots of fun together. I often wish I lived closer to my parents, living in a different continent across a vast ocean makes frequent visits very cost prohibitive. It's been years since I've been to visit them in Vancouver - I am hoping to have the chance to go next summer maybe and also go on a little roadtrip through BC. Hmmm....

On Sunday my mother, my boyfriend and I went on a boating trip over the Thunersee, which is a beautiful lake located near the Swiss alps. The lake is so turquoise blue and we had a lot of luck with the weather - sunshine, warm, superb. We took a trip on a restored steam paddle boat called the "Bluemlisalp" which was originally built in 1905 but recently renovated. The engine and the paddle wheels still function in the traditional method, and the inside of the boat looks really old fashioned but beautiful. It was so much fun. I've been trying to upload a video of our daytrip to my other channel for the past few days without success - Youtube seems to be having some hiccups and it's very frustrating. *sigh* Subscribe to my new channel if you want to get an update when that video goes up.

In the meantime, you can watch this funny vlog my mom and I filmed where we ramble about a bunch of nonsense and spend a lot of time giggling and acting silly.



Makeup wise I really need to get my butt in gear and film more Halloween videos. Things have been so busy on my end that I'm afraid I won't have enough time to be able to complete as many videos and requests as I initially had aimed for - but, that's life and Youtube isn't my Nr.1 priority sometimes.

Oh, I've also been using some new makeup brushes that I am absolutely over the moon about. So I will be doing a video on those new brushes soon, they are the softest natural hair makeup brushes I have ever used, softer than MAC even! They are simply amazing. So keep on the lookout for that video, can't give away too many details yet.

Well, hope you have a great Monday! Toodaloo!

Blogging block

What does a beauty blogger blog about when she isn't currently buying many beauty products? I feel a bit at a loss what I could write about or blog about sometimes as I've currently put myself on a no-buy clause due to various reasons. For one, I have so much makeup that I sometimes feel like I'm just wasting my money on another product I probably don't need that much, and two, right now things aren't looking so great on the financial aspect due to some issues going on in my personal life.

But then I realized - goddamnit this is my blog, and I can write about whatever I want, even if it's just some rambley nonsense about nothing in particular.

Well, we've been having a heat wave lately and it's been ridiculously hot here in Switzerland - but I am loving it! I'm definitely more of a summer person than a winter person - as far as I'm concerned it could be summer forever. Although I love early fall too, the turning leaves, chilly mornings with mist on the hills, collecting chestnuts, and wearing cozy pashmina shawls and cute fall jackets. This summer has been pretty uneventful for me overall - I am really ready for a vacation. Unfortunately this summer I could not go on holiday - but hopefully that will change soon. I remember the 2 week road trip my boyfriend and I did last September through Tuscany and it was one of the best vacations I ever had. I would love to go back there sometime, maybe in spring, when everything is green and in bloom. Although yesterday I was watching a travel documentary about a trip East along the Danube river. In case you don't know where this is, it's a large river in Europe that flows into the Black Sea.

Well anyhow, the documentary traveled along this river and it looked absolutely beautiful, especially the farther East it went - everything looked much more rural and untouched. That would be a really great trip to take, and to see some of these places in Eastern Europe that I haven't been to yet. I miss traveling and am a bit of a traveling nut - I traveled for nearly 2 years after high school around Europe and Asia. But, as you get older and have more responsibilities and monthly bills to pay, and a job, it just becomes so hard to take off for a longer amount of time. Sometimes I feel like so much time is wasted working at some McJob, to buy material objects to give meaning to our rather shallow lives, when that time could be spent actually living and doing other things.

Hm, well that's enough rambling for one day. Let me know if you want to see more of these off-topic kind of posts or if they bore you to death - haha! Although I do write this blog for myself mainly, it's always good to get audience input.


Hope you are having a great Sunday! Anyone going to watch True Blood tonight? I personally can't wait to catch the new episode ahhhhh! I'm in love with Eric.