Aerial Succulent

my DIY plant hanger..

I decided to declutter my make up table today to make room for more cosmetic products I’m looking to purchase. I realized that, I might as well hang those succulents to free up my vanity table and give me an excuse to draw the curtains to allow the sunshine peer through my window and add warmth to my room. My plant cactus badly needs sun beam in order for it to have a longer life span lol. To address the space shortage I turned jute twines into a plant hanger/holder and I was happy with how it turned out, succulents look so much better aerial.

Matte it!

I am currently stoked with matte lippies because you can wear them almost all day long without the need to retouch every now and then. I’m not a fan of matte lipsticks before since I thought they dry out fast and they flake only to find that I may have been using them incorrectly. When using matte lippies, it is a must to exfoliate first otherwise you won’t get that desired effect which I recently learned since I’m not using liquid lippies before. The release of the Kylie Jenner matte lippies turned many make up fanatics gaga over it (myself included) except I thought it was too expensive for a tube of lipstick even if it came with a lip liner. So, I decided to scour eBay again (yes I’m back on eBay) for affordable matte liquid lippies and found Nyx's Soft Matte Lip Cream lipsticks. I have been yearning to purchase Nyx lippies a long time ago but, since I already have tons of lippies in my possession (I don’t even use some of them) I discarded the thought of purchasing another one until recently. I stumbled upon a local eBay seller that sells Nyx soft matte lip cream lippies and at the same time accepts Paypal so I decided to purchase couple of them to save on shipping fees. I opted for Nyx’s Cairo and London lip creams because I just love Nude shades. 

Nyx soft matte lip cream in London SMLC04

Price: Php300 
Shipping: Php100 
eBay.ph seller

I love this shade because it matches my skin color. It's not so nude that you’re lips won’t pop anymore plus I love the buttery smell. My only complain was, it does not dry quickly and you need to apply more than one coat to achieve your desired shade. The matte quality is also quite good as it does not flake much and yup it's also quite waterproof.

Nyx soft matte lip cream in Cairo SMLC16

Hmm..I didn’t really like this shade quite frankly because the color is so nude for my taste. I actually look pale sick every time I wear it. I think it’s best paired with a smoky eye shadow so the face will not look like a blank canvass lol. Perfect for goth make up I guess.

And the search goes on..

Ok, so I went to the mall early today to see if I could find any liquid matte lippie from the make up stores because I thought my Cairo isn’t going to be something I could wear on a daily basis therefore I need an alternative. I decided to check out BYS first as I use most of their products (bronzer, contour palette, lippies etc.) and I’m glad I asked the make up consultant if they carry out any liquid matte lipsticks. BYS just recently released their matte Velvet Lips liquid lipsticks which was perfect, right on time for my quest. Their nude matte shades weren’t on display yet so I felt the need to ask if they have those and the lady showcased all of them. I was stoked when I saw them but what really caught my attention was the 'Mystical Rose’ shade since I don’t have any lippie yet resembling that color so I decided to purchase it right away. 

BYS Velvet Lips liquid lipstick in Mystical Rose #08

Price: Php399 (Watsons)

BYS’ matte lippies doesn't have that buttery or vanilla scent although I don't really mind since I’m after the shade and not the scent. Same with Nyx matte lip creams, you have to apply more than one coat to achieve your desired shade. Another not so good quality about BYS velvet lips is that the matte quality isn't very waterproof as it flakes terribly if you drink something. Advantage though, it's quick drying so good for ladies on the go like myself who's always racing against the clock. I would also suggest to use any non-flaky matte lippie first for the first coat then use this one afterwards. It's like layering it with good quality matte liquid lipstick first as it's quite disappointing wearing it on its own, I mean it would flake really bad. 

I'm also interested in trying Colourpop's liquid matte lipsticks someday and I sure am will write about it when I get the chance. 

Hassle Free Cabbie

courtesy of google images

Getting to work on commute can be pretty challenging for me due to limited modes of transportation where I live. I can only either take the jeep which would take hours before they arrive or via cab which you have to take by chance. I live in a village where mostly people own a private car and my sister would often drive me to work so supposedly commuting shouldn’t be one of my concerns except the car broke down last week plus my sister got sick (and she drives me to work, yeah I know right? I know how to drive except I haven’t acquired my license yet lol) so I was kind of stressed out how I could get to work, so I resorted to Grab. 

Grab which used to be Grab Taxi, the popular taxi service app you could download from Apple Store or Google Play to your compatible Smartphone which would allow you to book a cab and avoid the hassles fighting over with someone out on the street because you called the cab first and they literally grabbed it from you. Yeah, simple road altercations happens all the time because of a simple I called the cab first. With Grab, no one else can just grab the cab you booked through the app because it's exclusive to you and you alone. 

Grab e-receipt sent to your email...

Let me just share that I downloaded the app ages ago but didn't really get the chance to actually use it because I dismissed the thought of taking public transit due to time wasted waiting for a ride until one fine day my sissy got sick and I have no choice but commute because I don’t have any driver’s license yet. So this is what happened, I updated my Grab app the night before, tested it and made an attempt to book but went panicky because I didn’t know that once you hit the green ‘book’ button it will send a cab right away lol, my bad. The cab driver started calling me to probably ask where exactly he could pick me up so I turned off my phone not knowing what to do because I booked by accident. He sent me an sms after I switched my phone back and told me I shouldn’t book if I’m in a hurry. I was really sorry but I did not respond anymore. I mean, what am I to say right? That I’m just testing the app? Lesson learned: make sure to read the instructions before you book. I actually saw the option to dismiss the booking but I guess I was too sleepy that’s why I failed to do so. Seriously, I felt bad because of the effort he took just to pick up a passenger nevertheless it was an honest mistake. 

Going back, I decided to book a cab to take me to work the next day and it just took me less than five minutes to get a driver. I made sure I’m all set before I made my booking because I don’t have any idea how fast it would take for the cab to arrive. Booking a cab with Grab is pretty simple because all you have to have is a reliable internet connection and a smartphone. 

So, how do you use the Grab app? 

First, make sure you’re already connected to the internet before you open the app, set the pick up and drop off location, hit the neon green button that says ‘book’ and the app will search a driver for you. It’s pretty straightforward that it will allow you to see where the cab driver is already located (kinda like GPS), how long it would take for him to reach your place, the cost, the driver’s name and the plate number. Grab drivers are nice mind you because you have all of their details so they cannot do anything unlawful as it would be suicide for them. Why? you have their name, you could see their mobile number and of course the cab’s plate number. Not that I’m saying that all cab drivers here in the country are unscrupulous, it’s just that I’ve gotten used to getting overcharged by cab drivers in the past before Grab and Uber and came along. 

Overall, I love Grab’s service because it’s very hassle free and it would only take about ten to less than fifteen minutes to book using the app plus you will receive an e-receipt via email confirming the transaction. But then, I would suggest for you guys to try it yourself because the wait time for the cab to arrive may vary depending on your location and of course the traffic as usual. I have a friend at work who told me that Grab doesn’t really work for her because it takes roughly half an hour for the cab driver to arrive so don’t take my word for it really because it’s a case to case basis. All I can say is that so far it works for me. Let me also say that the availability of the cabbie drivers depend on the season as well. Say for instance last Friday, it was a little difficult for me to book a Grab cab because it’s the 15th, payday Friday so expect that a lot of people will take a cab since they have money to splurge. So far, I’ve availed Grab’s service for four consecutive days and it’s pretty consistent. I may be paying P25 more than what I should pay but what the heck, I could care less as I wouldn’t stress myself out waiting for a ride when there’s Grab.

Problem Solved.

I kind of noticed recently that my VLC player is unable to play the video part for some .MOV files, the audio will play though which I found odd. I did not really pay attention to it until last night, I googled and tried to look for a fix. According to most threads that I stumbled upon, you have to twitch something on the video output part and it should work, unfortunately it did not work for me. So, I searched further and found that the problem may have something to do with the VLC version I currently have. 

I updated my VLC player months ago to the newest version called VLC 2.0 Twoflower or version 2.0.9 and found that every time I would play a .MOV file from my Transcend 1TB external hard drive I would have the same problem, no video but there's audio. The file was downloaded from my sisters macbook and her VLC would play it so I found it kind of peculiar that I can’t. I thought she probably has the old VLC version so I decided to uninstall my latest VLC 2.0 and downloaded the earlier Version 2.2.4 Weatherwax and that pretty much solved the problem, I can now play all .MOV files! I wonder why I never thought of that simple fix before? I wasted my time away deleting every .MOV files I downloaded thinking it’s probably a corrupted file geez. Sometimes overthinking won't do you any good lol. It pays to always go back to the basic install/re-install process to troubleshoot any software/program related issue because it works 95% of the time.