the life of a pastel baby ♡

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Clarisonic Mia Review ♡

Hi there darlings! I'm finally writing up this review that was requested a few months ago!! I'll just dive right in, so here we go!

What I'm reviewing today is the Clarisonic Mia! It's a facial cleansing system that supposedly cleanses 6 times better than normal hand washing! I decided to splurge and buy it back in May after reading one of my friends, Karina, bought and reviewed her own!! (She started a new blog recently, so follow her and look out for her posts!~) She spoke very highly of it, so I was pretty excited to get mine! I went to Ulta and picked up the light pink one you see above!

This is the simplest model of the Clarisonic Mia line and runs about $99! It comes with the Mia, a starter brush head, a charger, and a 1 oz bottle of facial cleanser! You don't have to use the cleanser it comes with, but I did because I wanted to try something new. However, if you already have a favorite cleanser you should be able to use it with the Mia fine. ♥

Pictured above is the full size bottle (6 oz) of the cleanser that it comes with! It usually runs about $25 per bottle, but I didn't run out of the 1 oz bottle for about a month and a half with daily use! I really like this cleanser which is why I purchased the full size after running out :> (I used coupons and rewards points at Ulta of course haha!) It claims to "relieves and protects oily and congested skin" and I'd definitely have to agree with the the relieving of congested skin claim!!

My skin type is dry/combination (one of the worst types to have I heard...I'm normal on my cheeks, oily on my T-Zone (nose), and dry between my brows, above my brows, under my nose, and on my chin!) and this cleanser does a good job of sucking away any oiliness from my T-Zone, while being gentle on my dry parts! Personally, however, if I wait too long to apply my moisturizer after cleansing with this my face minus my cheeks get really flaky and dry because it strips the moisture so much :<
I do very much love this cleanser, I wear face makeup very frequently (whether it's just blush or a full on face including medium/heavy foundation) and after wiping off as much as I can with a makeup wipe then using this, it's like a breath of fresh air. I feel as if my pores are completely clear of any makeup and it's a really good thing because it causes less breakouts!

One of the other things you get with the Mia like I mentioned before, are the brush heads! They usually run about $27 and up depending on the brush head and they have 2-packs that are usually $44! Ulta sometimes runs promotions where you can buy one and get the next for 50%, but I've only seen it once (last week!). Originally, my Mia came with the "Sensitive" brush head (which claims to be for all skin types!!), but after a while I found it way too abrasive on my skin :< so when it was time to replace it (you're supposed to replace your brush heads every 3 months!) I opted to get the "Delicate" brush head which is supposed to be a bit softer compared to the "Sensitive" and for extra-sensitive skin!

I found the "Delicate" to be a better match for me, because while it is softer than the "Sensitive" brush head, it still cleanses deeply and makes me face feel clean after use! I highly recommend the "Delicate" brush head if you try out the "Sensitive"!

Simply put, the charger for the Mia is a magnetic little circle that connects to the bottom handle! When the Mia needs to charge, it vibrates once after you finish using it! When you connect it to the handle it vibrates once and gives off a tiny light to show it's charging! When it's done it vibrates twice and you're good to go! ♥ I've found that with daily use I only need to charge after a week to a week and a half, which is really good in my opinion.

Either once or twice a day (morning/night), over the sink, or in the shower, I use my Clarisonic Mia after wiping my entire face down with my makeup wipes! (I get them in bulk for about $1 per pack, but looking online I don't really see them for a comparable price :<)

I'd really suggest you wipe down your face down with a makeup remover wipe, especially if you're wearing makeup, before you use the Mia! If you don't I don't think it serves your best interests because the cleanser would have to work twice as hard to remove the dirt and makeup from your face! After I finish wiping my face and cleansing I apply my moisturizer, Clinique Moisture Surge Intense Skin Fortifying Hydrator! The Mia claims that with use, moisturizers sink in your skin better! With my first use, my moisturizer melted so fast into my skin that I couldn't believe it.

All in all, I'd really recommend splurging on the Clarisonic Mia if you can! After a few months of use my skin has gotten brighter and smoother and my makeup goes on much better than before!

Sorry for all the rambles, but I'm happy I finally completed this review! I don't do a lot of skincare/makeup reviews, so I wasn't sure how this would go!

Thank you for reading ♥

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

JetPens Haul ♡

Today's blog post is a small haul of my first order from JetPens! I'm a total pen junkie and I've been meaning to make an order here for a while, so I thought why not now? Anyways, on with the post!

Here's a picture of everything I ordered! I tried to focus on getting a few pencils, pens, and 2 highlighter colors I've wanted for a while! Clearly, my color preferences shine through with my purchases and it really makes it easier for me to wanna use everything at once haha!

The first things I got were pink ink refills for my favorite pens, Pentel EnerGel Deluxe RTX! I use the Breast Cancer Awareness type which isn't sold on the Jetpens site, but you can get it here on Amazon! (Jetpens doesn't seem to sell the Pentel pens I use, just the refills but I'm totally ok with that!~) I also got these bunny planner stickers that are reusable! I'm waiting for my new planner to come in to use them, so for now I'll just admire them. I also got the Tombow Mono 2way Correction Tape & Eraser! I write in pen a lot and I make a lot of mistakes, so I knew I had to get this (especially when I saw the pink one!), it's refillable but the refills are like a dollar less that the correction tape itself, so if I manage to use it all I might just opt to buy a new one instead of the refills!

I finally got to order the lavender and gray Zebra Mildliner highlighters that go with the other highlighters that I own and love! I tested these out and like my other colors they're pastel and not completely painful to look at like other normal highlighters. They're also very affordable (about $1.50 per highlighter and around $8 for the 5 color pack!). I also bought the pink and lavender Kokuyo mechanical pencils (both pencils use the lead size 0.5!) and the erasers twist up, are hexagonal shaped, and match the color of the pencil itself, which I find super cute ♥

I also got the pink and lavender Uni Jetstream Ballpoint Pens! I really needed to try out some 0.5 pens (my Pentel Energel pens are 0.7!) so I could have pens to write with in my planner! They're one of the most popular pens on the site and they were pretty cheap, so I just gave it a try! They come in a lot of different colors and they're really adorable in person! It's a definite change from my usual pens, but I think they'll work super well for my planner. I found the Zebra Fullst Mechanical Pencil (lead size is 0.5) only because I looked at Jetpens' "Back to School Favorites" collection! The green one was out of stock, so I got the pink color instead and I love writing with this! It was the main pencil I used today while taking notes in my Botany class and the eraser twists out on this pencil also. The little green stick that looks like a pencil is actually an eraser, called the Uni E-Knock! One of my favorite artists, Justin Wallis (owner/artist of Milkbbi), has this eraser (and also the Mildliners that I mentioned above!) and that was pretty much the only reason I got it. However, I have to say that it's super convenient! I usually use Pentel polymer erasers (they erase really well and don't make a big mess of shavings), but I can keep this in my pencil case along with all my pens/pencils and it doesn't take much of the eraser to erase.

I think this order went extremely well and I'm definitely gonna make another JetPens order soon! They give free shipping to orders that are over $25, and while it seems really easy to make, it was pretty hard for me to pick and choose to reach $25 haha!

I placed my order on September 1st, it shipped out on the 2nd, and I received it on the 5th! Almost everything I've seen on the site says that it ships out in 24 hours and I definitely agree with that claim. I was extremely excited to get my package and everything was either bubble wrapped or placed in a durable folder to keep from bending!

I definitely recommend JetPens!

Thank you for reading ♥

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Rilakkuma Laptop Bag Review ♡

Hello! Today's blog post is gonna be a review on this Rilakkuma laptop case that I've purchased~! I've had this laptop case in my eBay watch list for months before I found it again and decided to purchase it! Luckily, after a quick search on Amazon I found the same one and got it in 2 days! (I would've had to wait 2 weeks if I had ordered it from eBay.)

I used it all last week when I was going to and from classes at my college! And I'd have to say that I really love this bag!

It has one front compartment for miscellaneous items and one main compartment for your laptop! Inside the main compartment there are 2 smaller pockets on the side of the bag, which I didn't know would be there. The bag itself felt a little thin, which kinda worried me, but after giving it a test run my worries faded away! There weren't any loose strings or seams and the zippers don't jam or catch onto itself!

The dimensions of the bag that I've seen for the bag have been: 15.5 in x 12 in x 5 in! (Also most of the descriptions say suitable for laptops from 8"-15"!) I have a white 13-inch Macbook that I use as an everyday and school computer, so I was pretty certain my laptop would fit in the bag without any issues and it did!

With my Macbook seated at the very bottom of the bag you can see the extra amount of space left over! It isn't much at all, maybe about an inch and a half, but I can say with some certainty that it could fit laptops up to 15" (slimmer ones more than bulky ones especially).

I used the front compartment to house my charging cable for my Macbook and it fits very nicely inside.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this laptop bag to people with laptops 15" or smaller! (Especially smaller!) The seams didn't rip at all or even pull much with my Macbook, mouse, charging cable, iPad, and school planner inside the bag! I wouldn't recommend this if you laptop is heavy because it'd just be a catalyst for shoulder pain in the future and a ripped laptop bag.

You can buy your own laptop bag here on Amazon!

I give this bag a 9/10!

Thank you so much for reading! I have a few more review blog posts on the way, so stay tuned and stuff! ♥