eye candy

i have always had a bit of an obsession with make-up (mostly eyeshadow and mascara). i've found my soul mate eyeshadow (hi, MAC!) and thought i found the best mascara in christian dior's diorshow...now i realize that it was only runner-up. yes - those of you who know about my blazing love affair with diorshow, pick your jaws up off the floor. there is another woman.

i read about imju fiberwig online. it uses the tubular technology where it coats your lashes in a quasi-cylinder of mascara, and is supposed to be better than the mascara that alerted me to the technology in the first place: blinc's kiss me mascara, which i saw at trade secrets - seems to be a stupid place to find the perfect mascara, not to mention a stupid name for said mascara if you ask me. but i digress.

imju fiberwig is a japanese mascara, and is the best-selling brand there. it boasts that it imitates the look of fake eyelashes, minus the fake-ness. the brush looks different than the one on the sephora website (perhaps because mine is straight from the source - more about this later); mine is definitely more dumbbell shaped which i surprisingly enjoy. it seems like the wider ends help evenly coat the shorter lashes at the edges of my eyes.

application is easy and quick. i was most impressed by the fact that i had beautiful lashes in seconds, thanks to my new friend whom i've named ms. fibby. ms. fibby effortlessly lengthens and separates my lashes and seems to take curl well, despite the reviews that i read that said she can uncurl your lashes. the second time i wore her, i tried following advice i found online, and applied the mascara before curling, first from above on my top lashes, then from below like you normally would apply it...i let it dry, curled and applied a second (technically third?) coat. this was definitely too time-consuming and the curl didn't hold as well as when i just applied it normally the first day. and my lashes got all stuck together, rendering separation with a lash brush necessary. so don't believe everything you read on the internet, folks. except everything that i tell you. like, go buy this mascara, now. and buy two for me while you're at it.

my friend amy and i have been doing some experimenting with mascaras recently. we've been sharing and comparing (*gasp* i know, it's wrong to share eye make-up, so sue us, neither of us have contracted a fatal eye disease from each other, so we're good. for now. sorry, i'm digressing again...), and while i have found that eyelash primers are pretty neat, it just adds an extra step. that's why i like ms. fibby so much, my lashes look great with no extra steps and very little effort.

ms. fibby doesn't smudge, even after hours of wearing it. when you look at the brush straight out of the tube, the formula looks very clumpy but applies cleanly and easily. another huge plus is that she practically falls off your lashes with just a bit of warm water - i don't need to use make-up remover! amazing.

the only downside is that i find ms. fibby doesn't add volume as well as diorshow. so...if diorshow is better at volumizing, and ms. fibby is more about lengthening and separating, what would happen if i combined the two? and if i were to combine them, which would go on first? or do you think it's like mixing cleaning products - the combination creates a toxic gas and makes the user lose consciousness? no?

in terms of price, she sells for about $30 here (same as diorshow). i always feel a sense of guilt indulging in $30 mascara...but. my brother recently went to japan on a business trip and so i asked him to buy ms. fibby for me - it was about $10 with the conversion! woo hoo! $10 is definitely < $30, which makes me > happy. what also makes me > happy is how awesomely i just used the greater-than and less-than signs. uh, miko...grade 3 called, they want their math lesson back.

why am i so crazy today? since i've apparently resorted to talking to myself, i am sending myself to bed. and apparently i've thrown out the idea of writing concise and succinct blogs, sorry k-zo. i'm just long-winded by nature, i guess. maybe i could go back and delete every other word? better yet, if you're still reading this, you should go back and re-read this rather psycho post but only every other word, just for kicks. and since you're not supposed to believe/follow everything you read on the internet with the obvious exception of my blog, this means you have to.

birthday songs

we enjoyed family day and valentine's day weekend our friend's cottage with our friends. good company, good food, good conversation, good tv (we watched the winter olympics on a 100" screen) and a bit of fresh air made for a relaxing weekend - i went cross-country skiing! AND didn't hurt myself! a momentous day, indeed (sorry i can't say the same for my friend sylvie - hope your arm is feeling better, my dear!).

at one point, we decided it was important to look up what songs were number one on the charts on our respective birthdays...then we stumbled upon this website that lists what song was number one in the US on our birthdays, every year. neat!

i think the ultimate highlight of my list is 1990 - i still remember the day my brother dressed up as a new kid at camp and lip-synced (sanc?) and danced for the campers. i do believe he performed hangin' tough, though...oh, and he's asian, so there's no way he could actually be a new kid...but we can pretend.

PS. i can't write about birthdays without saying happy birthday to my dad (february 17) and to dana (february 16). love to you both! ♥

check out my list:

US Number One Songs on June 24

Year					My Age			Artist - Title	Weeks at number one
1980					--			Paul McCartney - Coming Up (Live at Glasgow)	3
1981					1			Kim Carnes - Bette Davis Eyes	9
1982					2			Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder - Ebony and Ivory	7
1983					3			Irene Cara - Flashdance... What a Feeling	6
1984					4			Duran Duran - The Reflex	2
1985					5			Bryan Adams - Heaven	2
1986					6			Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald - On My Own	3
1987					7			Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)	2
1988					8			Debbie Gibson - Foolish Beat	1
1989					9			Richard Marx - Satisfied	1
1990					10			New Kids On The Block - Step by Step	3
1991					11			Paula Abdul - Rush Rush	5
1992					12			Mariah Carey - I'll Be There	2
1993					13			Janet Jackson - That's the Way Love Goes	8
1994					14			All-4-One - I Swear	11
1995					15			Bryan Adams - Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman	5
1996					16			Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - Tha Crossroads	8
1997					17			Puff Daddy and Faith Evans feat. 112 - I'll Be Missing You	11
1998					18			Brandy and Monica - The Boy Is Mine	13
1999					19			Jennifer Lopez - If You Had My Love	5
2000					20			Enrique Iglesias - Be With You	3
2001					21			Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya and Pink - Lady Marmalade	5
2002					22			Nelly - Hot In Herre	7
2003					23			Clay Aiken - This Is The Night	2
2004					24			Usher - Burn	8
2005					25			Mariah Carey - We Belong Together	14
2006					26			Shakira feat. Wyclef Jean - Hips Don't Lie	2
2007					27			Rihanna feat. Jay-Z - Umbrella	7
2008					28			Coldplay - Viva la Vida	1
2009					29			Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow	12

carnation re-evaluation

i've recently had a lot of time on my hands, so i watched the entire sex and the city series, finishing off with the movie, only to start watching the series again. what can i say, i have an addictive personality. at least i'm addicted to tv shows and vibrantly-coloured cupcakes and not drugs or rubber stamps.

the best part about SATC is that, as unrealistic as it is (they make it seem like it's soooo difficult to meet men, but they're all dating new guys every week with the exception of the occasional miranda dry spell...and they can afford to buy $500 shoes as often as they meet new men, in their gorgeous manhattan flats), there are so many "that happened to me or someone i know" or "i've felt the same way" moments that allow you to identify with every character.

like...the fact that steve's dog is named scout?! and here i thought we were being original. i bet that everyone who knows our cat's name is scout thinks we were just copying steve.

and in particular, the episode where charlotte rants about carnation flowers, saying they are just "filler flowers" - i totally feel the same way. don't most women? then carrie shockingly announces that she actually likes carnations, and there's nothing better than a bunch of beautiful pink ones...she gets a bouquet from berger and suddenly carnations look better to me. (i'm so impressionable).

well, for valentine's day, two of my students (brothers) brought me a bouquet of pink carnations. aww. i think it's a sign that carrie and i would be close friends if she didn't live in manhattan. and if she weren't a fictional character.

for k-zo

my bro commented that m'blog is too wordy or long or something like that. so as o'late, i've been trying to keep it brief, for those short-attention-spanned people out there. how'm i doing?

(i considered omitting all vowels in my words, but decided to just combine words wherepossible).

red velvet returns!

you may remember my post about red velvet cupcakes last year at around this time. they're baaaack! i have already enjoyed two (one was stale though, much to my chagrin), and plan on taking advantage of their return because after valentine's day, they will disappear. then i will go back to dreaming about the red, velvety goodness...or maybe i'll be motivated enough to make the cupcakes myself?

please...

dear: edmonton oilers,

while i appreciate that your only win in the past 13 games was against the toronto maple leafs, on my husband's birthday, it would be great if you could win another game sometime soon. you're winning right now - please don't blow it. otherwise i'll un-follow all of you on twitter.

love,
miko

your vote needed!

my good friend, carson is contending for the wind instrumentalist of the year at the canadian smooth jazz awards. the winner is chosen by most online votes - please vote for him!

you can check him out on youtube HERE first if you want to make sure you're making the right decision...which you are. :)

click HERE to vote.

swag-obsessed

some of you may have received an email from me regarding swagbucks. this is a search engine that allows you to collect "bucks," which you can exchange for prizes.

amy and i have become obsessed with swagbuck-ing. there are bonus codes that are released everyday too...which is mostly why i installed the widget to the right ----->

so...if you feel like joining, click on the widget!

RIP doug henderson

today, the world has lost a great man. doug, congratulations on a life well-lived...you will be missed.

squeaky wheel

i bought a pair of boots recently. the sales guy told me that i could wear them and still get the price adjusted if they went on sale within 14 days. i noticed they went on a sale a few days later, but the website said i needed to bring in the merchandise; i called the same store asking whether i needed to bring in the box too (it was quite large so i wasn't going to bring it unless absolutely necessary).

contrary to what the salesman said, the girl who answered the phone told me that the boots can't be worn, and that i had to come in that day because i only had 7 days to get the price adjusted...and their website said i had 14 days, but it said nothing about whether the merchandise could be worn.

i sent a detailed email to the store's customer service outlining my complaint (that the website isn't clear, the staff in their stores are confused and give conflicting information). after a couple weeks, i received an apology, and a promise to do better, but nothing more. i was hoping for free stuff - hmph. in the email, i promised to never shop at said shoe store again, and i stand by that oath.

to be fair, i've decided that every time i write a mean letter complaining about something, i should try to write a nice letter with positive feedback. so i wrote to club monaco for replacing my pants again, thanking them for their commitment to their customers and their high level of customer service. is it possible to have a crush on a clothing store? if so, i've got one!

as for you, shoe-store-who-must-not-be-named? take THAT!