DIY in Hawaii

Because I have been bringing my LV Speedy 30 around EVERYWHERE, including my hikes, I have resolved to make a new beach bag. I don't know what my problem is, I didn't bring my Longchamp Eiffel with me. Well at the time I was packing, I had just gotten out of school so maybe I didn't want to be reminded of it. HAHA I had been using that as a school bag for my entire third year of college.

So how did I make these babies? click over the jump to learn more!

Chronicles of Hawaii: The Great Hike up Koko Head

Heads up for a pretty photo-heavy post; I'm pretty sure I won't be going up there ever again so my dad and I made sure to take as many photos of each other. Haha!

I would say that I'm a pretty fit person. I was an athlete in high school, being varsity of my school swimming team and even captain of my local club team. When I went to college I went on a 2-year hiatus from exercising because I got so burned out with all the requirements for swimming. It was no joke! But early this year I started going to the gym almost every day, and since Christmas I have lost about 13 pounds. Only 5 more pounds away from my thinnest weight EVER since I was 13!

But in Hawaii, at first I was dieting, not eating so much. Now I eat like a baby dinosaur! HAHA. I figured I should just worry when I get back to Manila. But in the mean time, my dad and I have found a new way to try to keep off those extra pounds, and it's through hiking! Click on the jump to read more about this. :)

One Less Lonely Girl Collection by Justin Bieber: Step 2 the Beat of my ♥ Nail Polish Review

Okay everyone, I'll say it loud and proud: I'M A BELIEBER!

Mwahaha, I'm 20 years old and at work last month I listened to nothing but Justin Bieber songs all day while doing my assigned tasks. Oh, and Katy Perry too. I have a playlist each for all of their songs. How funny, the two of them have lines for OPI, my number one nail polish brand!

So you wouldn't believe my excitement when I saw a line of Nicole by OPI in the nearest drugstore, apparently these bottles were rare!

The bottle of pink and purple hearts with glitters looked interesting to me so I just picked it up to take a better look. But when I saw that it was part of the Justin Bieber collection, with the cutest name ever I just had to get it!

Mika Ninagawa for Shu Uemura

Last summer, I had a major tan from all the beach trips that I was going to with friends and family. So all of a sudden when I had to go to a wedding, I was fixing my makeup and aaaah! My foundation wasn't my shade anymore! I survived that day with my mom's foundation, but the next weeks I searched far and wide for the perfect shade for me.

I tried Maybelline, Loreal and even Shiseido, but wasn't happy with them! Something always bothered me: some went on too thick, some made me look too yellow and even too white. People say that in love, it is when you're not looking when you find, and wow this renders true for me even when it's not about love! Haha :)

I actually fell in love with the compact before the actual powder. Yes, I am a sucker for super cute packaging. Aside from Shu's limited edition guest artist collections, I love Benefit's cheeky names for their lines and hollywood packaging. So anyway! I bought the compact case along with my mom's cleansing oil, and just carded it without asking her so that she would get me the refill! Haha. The powder itself isn't cheap, and what sucks is that you have to get the case individually as well. The case costs 700 Php at Rustan's and the refill is 1800 Php.

What I love about Shu is that it's an Asian brand, so what company would know better about Asian skin tones than ones that were based here? :) Plus because I'm one of the lighter skin tones, but with yellow as my base, it's often hard to find a powder with my exact skin tone. So yeah, this one impressed me very much!

My shade is no. 764-described as a warm undertone. Since this is a powder foundation, I pat it on lightly with the sponge and it gives me minimal coverage. Just what I need for sunny hawaii! And a good plus is that it's SPF 26++! So yay for that! I still put on sunscreen moisturizer daily though. :)

Greetings from sunny Hawaii, by the way! Will get back to blogging very soon. I apologize for the huge, unannounced hiatus as to I was a working girl for the whole month of April! But now that that's over, I've been able to settle down and relax. Back to la dolce vita! :)

Will keep you posted!

xx Saira

FOR SALE! Tory Burch Reva Flats

SOLD :)

Hello everybody! After a few months of thinking about it, I've finally decided to sell my Tory Burch Reva Flats.

These are super super like new and come with the box. I can give them for 8,000 Php, since they're an old style and in Rustan's they sell for 10,800 Php. They're a US women's size 10 but run a little small, about 9-9.5 I would say.

They're gold hardware with leather trim, and rubber soles. Really gorgeous, but too bad they don't fit well on me :(

See, super almost new! They can be considered as brand new. Look at their undersides! :)

For more details, please text ------- :) Please, these are authentic. You don't even have to ask. Haha

iPad 2

I can't wait to go to the States, mainly because I'm getting an iPad 2 when I go! My parents already agreed to half with me. HD apps and Architectural reference books in full color, here I come!

The reason to why I'm getting this aside from a Kindle is because I noticed that the Kindle is only for reading novels and the like. It's not so good for full-color, graphical books like my architctural reference books because

a) it's black and white only,

b) it's kind of slow when showing graphic photos,

c) zooming in is kind of hard and

d) its capacity is only 4GB and one architectural book is almost 500MB. So yeah, I really need an iPad for my architecture books. :)

Look at the iPad vs. the iPad 2. Super big differences:

iPad

iPad 2

Display	9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD	9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD
Resolution	1024 x 768	1024 x 768
Processor	1GHz Apple A4	1GHz dual-core Apple A5
Graphics	PowerVR SGX 535	?
Memory	256MB RAM	?
Storage	16GB / 32GB / 64GB	16GB / 32GB / 64GB
Front camera	none	VGA
Rear camera	none	720p
Cellular radio	EDGE plus triband HSPA	EDGE plus quadband HSPA or CDMA / EV-DO Rev. A
WiFi	802.11a/b/g/n	802.11a/b/g/n
Bluetooth	2.1 + EDR	2.1 + EDR
Accelerometer	3-axis	3-axis
Gyroscope	No	3-axis
Thickness	13.4mm	8.8mm
Weight	680g (WiFi), 730g (WiFi + 3G)	601g (WiFi), 607g (Verizon), 613g (AT&T)

Table c/o Http://engadget.com. :) As you can see, it's lighter, faster and has two cameras, one in the front and the back. AND another thing to look forward to is the Smart Cover!What is so impressive about this Smart Cover? First, when it's covering your iPad it automatically locks it, and when you lift the flap, it automatically wakes it up. It also doubles as a stand for your iPad, and of course protects it from all the other objects around it in your bag.
Of course I'm going to get one in pink, but I'm quite sad that the genuine leather ones are all the boring colors only! I wish the fun colors were made of leather as well and not polyurethane. :( It better last me long!
So there, hello iPad in more or less a month! :)

Kindle post

I'm on a short break from school (finally!), so now I can't believe it, I can actually choose what I read!

Hi everybody, meet my Kindle reading device! With all the talk going out and about with the iPad 2, I must say I am tempted to get one for reading my architectural reference books and HD apps, but I'm still an original Kindle girl. It's strictly for black and white text reading only. I love reading from it because it really looks like a printed page.

I received this Kindle for Christmas from my parents, and from my godfather I got its Kate Spade cover. I love my case! It's made of patent leather with canvas inside. It's plain but pretty and makes a statement every time I pull my Kindle out. :)

This is my favorite screensaver. One amazing thing about the Kindle is that its battery can last up to 30 days! Also, anywhere I go that has 3G, I can surf for free! But of course it's black and white and navigation is not so good. It works though, and is very handy especially when you need to Google something quickly for reference.

The back has speakers, in which you can use the text-to-speech function that it offers for most books downloaded from Amazon. It's pretty cool if you ask me, but audiobooks don't work for me because they put me to sleep. Haha! I chose the white over graphite because it looks more clean-cut and futuristic. :)

If you ask me, the Kindle is a great buy if you love reading novels and printed books! Imagine not worrying about messing up the cover or spines of your books, tearing or folding any pages and lugging around heavy hardbound books? Up to 4 GB worth of books can be stored in your device, and one book is just 125 KB, more or less! But don't expect much out of this device if you want to use it to surf or play games. It's really just for reading. But it's really amazing, how it looks like a printed page. The eyes don't strain at all :)

And I leave you with this photo. Spot the odd one out? :P