Mad about Mangoes

What do I love about late spring/summer? MANGOES! They're one of the best, most delicious fruits ever. My love for mangoes, however, does not stop at just the fruit. It has spilled over to beauty products as well! 

Every time I see something mango-scented or flavored, I have to stop in my tracks and take a whiff of it. It's becoming an obsession, and I think I can confidently say that The Body Shop has probably THE BEST mango scent ever -- it smells sooosooso so good!

Also, mango froyo at Pinkberry is da bomb.

I've accumulated a little collection of mango-flavored things and I plan on trying to find more! So far I have:

• C.O. Bigelow Mango Lip Butter: This smells and feels great. It's really moisturizing and the lip butter isn't too thick or greasy; it's juuuuust right!
• Burt's Bees Nourishing Lip Balm with Mango Butter: This. Is. One. Of. The. Best. Lip. Balms. I've. Ever. Tried. It smells so good and moisturizes so well! There's a really really teeny tingling sensation (like basically all Burt's Bees), which is actually really pleasant.
• The Body Shop Mango Body Butter: Umm. Two phrases: The Body Shop and Mango Body Butter? Is there anything more perfect than this? The Body Shop has the best body butters ever; they're creamy and not too thick. They don't feel oily on your skin. This smells AMAZING!

As you can tell, I really enjoy these products. What can I say? I'm mad about mangoes. ;)

Next on my list of mango-y things to try is Korres's lip butter and their mango lipsticks! Are there any others you would recommend? Do you have your own flavor/scent/fruit obsession?

Summertime Lovin'

Ahhhh yes. 

The beautiful summer weather has finally arrived here in Boston! Since it's a long weekend, my club and I decided to hold our last bonding event before the seniors all went off to college. One of them is going all the way over to Occidental in California! We went onto our friend's rooftop and we ate, laughed, presented them with gifts, took tons of pictures, got our tan on, and later on we even watched a movie. It was such an amazing last hurrah for our seniors, and definitely one of the best days ever in my book. I could literally just imagine The Beach Boys playing in the background of our entire day.

And without further ado, here are some shots to some everything up!

The view from up there was absolutely beautiful.

Grillin' it up.

Veggies and dip!

My beautiful burger.

Sweet and juicy grapes (gonna buy a ton of grapes this summer).

One of us made a delicious fudgy chocolate cake!

And a picture of my goofin' self for good measure! I was shredding the lettuce hehe.

This weekend really gave me a taste of the summer. I can't wait for it to arrive already; I still have three weeks of school left! I already got a tan/tan lines from yesterday! I hope this post made you want summer to come faster too hehehe, because I know I can't wait for summer now. How did you spend this (long) weekend?

Lace and Blue

I volunteered as an usher at the Harvard Commencement today, so I had to dress up all nicely! We all had to wear a white top and a black/dark blue bottom. It was nice to see us all (me and my classmates) dressed up in (almost) uniform. We had to get to school by 6 AM and get on bus to go there, though, which was quite enjoyable, to say the least. Anyway, I thought my outfit looked quite nice (the contrast between textures and patterns), so I wanted to share it with you!

The lace top was so nice and flowy, I felt like a butterfly! It's actually my mom's. I don't really have nice white tops so I scoped this one out. Love the lacy details on it. It was really flowy up top so I balanced the outfit out with a pencil skirt. It's probably the best quality and most professional skirt I own, and I got it for a steal at J. Crew! I really dig the pattern and color of it.

Full outfit shot! I tried to pose for this one...I think I might need some modeling tips. But oh my, this is one really awkwardly unattractive picture of my leg. I probably shouldn't have leaned my calf muscle onto the other leg...it looks HUGE! Hahaha!

And then my hair! I french braided my bangs up and then braided it regularly toward the back and tied it up in a ponytail. I always get so many compliments when I do this, but it's so simple! 

I felt so official today: I got a Harvard "Commencement Monitor" ribbon to wear/keep and I got to take a program home with me. I handed out and placed the programs and did the usual "ushering duties." It was really fun and awe-inspiring seeing so many smart people. The amount of PhD's during that march, holy crap! It makes me feel a little sad because I know I'm never going to go to Harvard -- not not not smart enough AT ALL. These people are all geniuses, my goodness.

But it's nice to wistfully think sometimes, right? HA!

Top: Macy's, Skirt: J. Crew, Tights: H&M, Flats: Payless

After finishing my commencement duties, I went to IHOP with my friend. This was my first time ever going there and I have to say, that place is diabetes in restaurant form. But...it...was...soooo...GOOD. Mmmm, pancakes...and bacon...mmmmm.

Charlie and the Chocolate Swatchery

In the midst of writing my research paper on Roald Dahl, I took a break to play with some of my makeup. I had hit a bump in the road, so I decided to take a breather to loosen up my mind a little. Isn't it awesome that I'm doing my research paper on Roald Dahl? I'm comparing his children's and adult's stories. I've always loved him as an author (his short stories are fantastic), and so I was really glad my English teacher approved of him for my research project!

One of the books I'm using is the classic, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so I pulled some inspiration from all the sweets and chocolates to make a theme for my swatches. 

So I was basically still doing "research" on it, right? Ehehe. Here is one of my favorite passages from the book:

"Charlie was holding tightly onto his grandfather's bony old hand. He was in a whirl of excitement. Everything he had seen so far -- the great chocolate river, the waterfall, the huge sucking pipes, the candy meadows, the Oompa-Loompas, the beautiful punk boat, and most of all, Mr. Willy Wonka himself -- had been so astonishing that he began to wonder whether there could be more astonishments left. Where were they going now? What were they going to see? And what in the world was going to happen in the next room?"

Here's what I pulled out from my stash:

• C.O. Bigelow Winter Cordials Glossy Lip Balm in Triple Hot Chocolate: I just had to. Triple Hot Chocolate? YUM! The smell can get a little overpowering, though. The gloss is very nicely moisturizing (like most C.O. Bigelow's) and has the tiniest bit of subtle shimmer.
• Revlon Beyond Natural Defining Eye Pencil in Brown: It's such a pretty, rich red-brown color! For some reason, it reminds me of peanut butter chocolates. It's really nice and smooth.
• MAC Pigment in Cocomotion: Hehehe, just for the name, y'know? It's a gorgeous bronze gold with a stunning metallic finish.
• Benefit Box Blush/Highlighter in Sugarbomb: It has chocolate on the box! The four colors mixed together create a nice and sweet pale peachy pink color. The blush smell nice too!
• Revlon Matte Eyeshadow in Rich Sable: This color just screams dark chocolate to me! It's such a nice and smooth dark brown. This used to be my go-to color for defining the crease (I don't really wear much makeup nowadays).
• L'Oreal HiP Shadow Stick in Meticulous: The prettiest pale taupe ever! This reminds me of chocolate milk; it's one of the best shadow stick bases ever. I love love love it.
• Revlon Colorstay Eyeshadow Quad in Coffee Bean: I realize I have a lot of makeup items with food names. Or rather companies like to name their shades after food. This is a great everyday eye palette, and I'm quite sad they don't have this quad anymore (I think).
• B&BW Liplicious Lip Gloss in Strawberry Bling: Needed something to pump up the excitement, yeah? Having all muted colors would have been a little boring, so this sparkle/glitter-packed gloss was perfect. It's SO condensed with glitters -- so pretty! It reminds me of sugar and rock candy.
• The Body Shop Lip Butter in Coconut: This smells and feels delicious! I really want to get the mango one too, especially now that they're 2 for $10. But boy, I really do NOT need another lip balm. I need to get crackin' on them!

This was really fun and such a nice little break! I think not only having a color theme but an actual theme is really fun when you're just having some fun swatching your makeup. Well, I just like swatching stuff in general LOL. So here are the swatches:

1. The Body Shop Coconut Lip Butter, 2. Benefit Sugarbomb, 3. C.O. Bigelow Triple Hot Chocolate, 4. Strawberry Bling, 5. Revlon Beyond Natural in Brown, 6. L'Oreal HiP in Meticulous, 7. Revlon Matte Eyeshadow in Rich Sable, 8. MAC Cocomotion, 9. Revlon Coffee Bean Quad.

Don't you just wanna go munch on some chocolates now?

HUGE Life Update!

Wassup y'all?

I'm back! I'm back! I'm back! I'm back! I'm back! I'm back! I'm back! I'm back!

Where have I been? Well, school and extracurriculars have taken over my life lately, but I'm basically done with all of that! I only need to take my SAT Subject Tests in June and then I shall be done for the year (hopefully)! I also had a little job hunt going on as well, interviews and everything -- which were a little nerve-wracking. However, I did get the job I wanted! AT A DESIGN FIRM! I'm so so so SO excited!

I've missed you all SO MUCH! I totally abandoned the blogging world for a few months (no twitter/blogspot, my goodness), but it was worth it to get ahead more in my schoolwork AND life!

The thing that's been taking up so much, though, has been my baby.

Yes, my baby.

JUST KIDDING! Fooled you, didn't I? I meant my metaphorical baby: my stage backdrop for my huge Asian Night/talent show! I spent 3.5 months (blood, sweat, and tears -- the whole sha-bang) with my volunteers on it! They're all Asian landmarks, see if you can ID a few? Check it out!

I'm pretty mean thuggin', aren't I?

If you want to see more of what this 'Asian Night' I speak of is like, and if you want to see my baby in action, check out these videos my friend recorded of the show! The whole show was completely student-run and planned, I'm really proud and happy that it turned out well. I hope to make an even better show next year!

In addition to painting for that up there, I've also been spending more time painting and making things on my own for pleasure. It's been really great. Very calming and joy-inducing!

"Birds of a Feather Flock Together" Watercolor + Pen

I also dabbled in my first 3-D art/recycled art/sculpture/thing/I-don't-know-what-to-categorize-it-as, and it was really fun! Meticulous, but amazingly enjoyable!

"Whoops!" Craploads of metal stuff

What do you think I was trying to express in these? I'll answer you in the comments! But anyway, enough of my boring life. I'll write about more interesting things like makeup and fashion...with some of this still of course!