a february piece of me

(late, i know.  see below plz)

this month...

i like and i don't like: the sheer amount of stuff going on

• i work part time
• i am a teaching assistant (office hours, exam grading, answering emails)
• i am a community associate (planning events, list moderation, answering emails)
• i am a graduate student (2 programming classes, what was i thinking???)
• i am a girlfriend (planning a trip to europe/asia, my house, darling's house)
• i am on the verge being a real person (apartment hunting, car shopping)
• i am a growing beauty addict (almost a part-time job on its own. i'm sure you know what i mean.  :P)

...definitely very, very busy times.  sometimes it's very stressful, but if i'm careful it's a manageable (albeit nonstop) stream of busy-ness.  i feel very fast-paced, very new-yorker.  and i'm very addicted to caffeine.  my favorite source?

♥ starbucks green tea frappuccino! ♥  sugary and delicious.

i want you to know: most of these things are over in 5 weeks.  i'm planning on being a better blogger after that...

i've planned: more posts!

i want to say to someone special: to all my followers, thank you!  i really love getting your comments and if you have any questions or recommendations let me know!

bonus: best part about frozen drinks like green tea frap and icees ♥ is you can play with them, too:

lol, iphone class was really boring that day.  nail color is sally hansen salon you-gurt me / pardon my french (more on that later)

[learn how to play the "piece of me game" here.]

mascara detective!

so i went a little wild on makeup purchases in january, and two of the items from my january mega-haul were rimmel mascaras:

they are "volume flash" in 005 extreme black and "eye magnifier" in 003 extreme black, and the second came with a black eye pencil wasn't super optimistic about but is not bad (i use it to tightline).  i bought them because they were crazy on sale at CVS: $1.87 for volume flash and $1.82 for eye magnifier. 

even though i won't be opening either of these until i get through my current covergirl lash blast, i think it's really interesting to begin to compare the two, especially since they are the same brand, age, and color. volume flash claims to increase volume by 5x, and eye magnifier claims to increase length by 70%.  

but let's look at the ingredient lists (links are to paula begoun's excellent ingredient dictionary):

• volume flash: aqua/water/eau, paraffin, cera alba/beeswax/cire d'abeille, stearic acid, pvp, cera carnauba/copernicia cerifera (carnauba) wax/cire de carnauba, c18-36 acid triglyceride, triethanolamine, lecithin, acrylates, copolymer, panthenol, propylene glycol, polyvinyl alcohol, phenoxyethanol, methylparaben, talc, tocopheryl acetate, propylparaben, benzyl alcohol, simethicone [may contain iron oxides, carmine, chromium hydroxide green, chromium oxide greens, mica, titanium dioxide, ultramarines]
• eye magnifier: aqua/water/eau, paraffin, cera alba/beeswax/cire d'abeille, stearic acid, pvp, cera carnauba/copernicia cerifera (carnauba) wax/cire de carnauba, c18-36 acid triglyceride, triethanolamine, lecithin, acrylates, copolymer, panthenol, propylene glycol, polyvinyl alcohol, phenoxyethanol, talc, methylparaben, tocopheryl acetate, propylparaben, benzyl alcohol, simethicone [may contain iron oxides, carmine, chromium hydroxide green, chromium oxide greens, mica, titanium dioxide, ultramarines]

seeing double?  i italicized the only difference between these two mascaras, which is the reversed order of talc and methylparaben.  makeup ingredients are listed in order of volume (read more here) except for anything under 1% which can be in any order, so that means talc and methylparaben are probably very similar amounts in these two mascaras.

possible conclusions:

• (pfefi's best bet) most of what rimmel and probably other cosmetic companies change from mascara to mascara product is the wand.  volume flash has a regular spoolie wand, and eye magnifier has a rubber wand.  (but my covergirl lash blast, which promotes volume, has a rubber wand, so clearly different brands have a different strategy?)
• the ratio of talc and methylparaben is key in determining what happens to your lashes
• rimmel's mascara marketing and packaging is a giant genius ploy to get you to repurchase within the brand

in any case, i feel so jaded now with this information.  what do you think?  how much do you usually believe in what the package says to you?  how cynical are you about rimmel or other cosmetic companies?

i know the comparison of these 2 mascaras from 1 brand doesn't effect many people personally, but it caught my attention and motivated me to look more into cosmetics ingredients in general.  in any case, i think this means pfefi has had enough science / coffee for today~ xD

lotuspalace prize: TONS of stuff!

hi everybody!  thanks for reading.  n_n  i hope you are having a decent multi-hoilday weekend.  my last month of school is getting crazy, but i'll spare you (i think?) the details.  suffice to say i never want to look at the iPhone code documentation ever again...  x_x

excuses aside, my giveaway prize!

• LOTS of photos
• click for larger photo
• want a review, translation, or more details on anything?  request in the comments!

first: what got me most excited was FACE MASKS!  ever since seeing the 2NE1 girls using them on their tv special, i've been researching and preparing for a big online purchase but now i have these to play with first.  (:  

5x MJCare sheet masks in essences: raspberry, cucumber, herb, fresh aloe, caviar

5x purederm sheet masks in essences: watermelon, vitamin, potato, lemon, green bean

(i've only tried one - can you tell which one i opened before taking photos? xD)

15 pair pack purederm collagen eyezone mask (omg i think these actually work o_O)

1x purederm almond hand mask

1x purederm avocado foot mask

3x treatments of purederm self-heating moisture mask

1x bison bath addictive in royal honey milk (moisturizing bath powder!)

1x kanebo kracie naive facial cleansing foam, aloe (leaves my face squeaky clean!)

1x kanebo true care lip balm (smells like fresh picked apples!)

1x dennis anderson handmade soap in sleigh ride 

1x etude house moistfull cream gel (imho extremely similar to clinique moisture surge, but cuter. n_n)

under the adorable wrapping and on top of the wonderful variety of skincare products, kathi also included a sweet note and some super cute asian office supplies!  first, the cutest piggy ever~~!  (this is the pen clip)

"don't give up!" n_n

and next, a pocket size 2010 monthly planner:

... and matching kitty stamp!  kathi hand-carved the stamp herself, and it's really good!  you can see the pink stamped kitty looks just like the one on the planner.  i need to go buy some ink, pronto.

it's almost like she's psychic, too - i'm a huuuuge sucker for cute stationery and office supplies.  seriously.  i have gel pen lemmings.  i'm the girl who needs blinders to walk past the office supply aisles at walmart and daiso.

may i also point out that this giveaway was to celebrate her own birthday?  so generous la~  @_@

today: computer engineer barbie!

i think this is a good thing.  maybe.

[from mattel]

computer engineer barbie.  apparently the internet voted computer engineer and news anchor as her 2010 careers over surgeon, environmentalist, architect, and maybe others?  did you vote?  i didn't hear about this until today~!

as elle-woods-ified as this is (what do we expect?) i think i'm pretty happy about this result.  at the same time, i'm not surprised: an internet win for the occupation that invented the internet?  easy.  (:

this is apparently her 125th career.  one of the other 125 was U.S. president... and as an interesting side effect, i really want me some galactic sparkle tights now.  what do you think of her outfit?

...back to real posts when i finish my programming assignment, i promise.  xD  oh the irony!

i AM a panda!

(lotuspalace prize photos in the pipes, please accept this intermission xD)

"i am a panda!" - true story!  i said this to a few people, and i've finally gotten some photographic evidence:

ta-daaaa!  XD

okay, it's a little silly, but at my new job i work in a giant field of cubicles, and they are sectioned off and named after animals.  before i moved into my permanent desk, i sat under a sign screaming, "LLAMA"! i used to say "i just moved from llama to panda", but somebody corrected me.  fact: people from the panda section do not "sit in panda", they are pandas!  i.e., i should be saying, "i used to be a llama but now i am a panda"...!

( ah, it's just one of those things that isn't as funny if you aren't involved, but i'm sharing because it amuses me to no end.  i love how the people i work with find this funny and joke around with it - it reminds me that this is a good office to be in.  n_n )

and to somehow redeem the lameness of this post please enjoy the following panda-related goodies:

panda sneeze: oldie but a goodie

this picture is actually taped to one of our panda signs.  XD

worth1000.com

cuteoverload.com <-- prepare to be sucked in by high volumes of cute

+bonus: an endless supply of cougar jokes!  XD

giveaway prize (teaser)!

eeeeyyyyeaaaaaaah!!!  i just got my giveaway prize package from kathi of lotus palace!!!

the package was huge, and came all the way from austria!  this is definitely the best package i've ever gotten (i think), and for sure the cutest.  n_n  you'll find no black sharpie or scotch tape used here.  we've got super cute strawberry tape:

...lacy doily packaging tape, toki-doki-esque address label:

cute stickers:

and the insides are cute too!!!  xD

there was so much inside!  i think i'll have to leave that for another post several future posts.  (umm, not because it would take me hours to photograph / scan everything or anything like that...  9_9)

seriously, once you see everything inside you will really understand how crazy generous kathi is.  i'm just floored by the amount of care and love went into this package, especially when the recipient is a blogspot nobody like me.  9_9  thank youuuuuuu kathi~~! danke shoen!  ^o^

so, expect a slew of posts coming up since i now have an abundance of beauty / skincare products to try.  the arrival of kathi's package coincided with a huge beauty haul weekend for me (read: i kind of lost it at CVS).  almost everything purchased is drugstore and far from new or exclusive, but i hope to provide some unique thoughts and perspectives, and hopefully not bore the experts who are reading.  n_n

forever grateful,
♥ pfefi