BeautyCon NYC 2015

Well, I had a great weekend. On Saturday I went to BeautyCon for the first time. I'd only watched other people's videos on Youtube so I only had a small idea of what to expect but I knew it was going to be a long day. I left home a little later than expected so I got to Pier 36 around 10 and joined the long general admission line. And there I stood until about 12. The doors for general admission were scheduled to open at 12:30pm so I was happy we got to go in a little early since I was FREEZING MY BUTT OFF outside. It wasn't overly cold but standing under a bridge for an extended period of time with high winds can make anyone cold. The meet and greets that others payed extra for were outside so I happily walked right past them into the warmth of the building and was immediately hit by how large the crowd inside actually was. I did a little lap of all the stalls to see what was where and which booths had the longer lines. Then I started out to see what they all had.

My first stop was the inside stage where Jeannie Mai literally walked RIGHT PAST ME to get to the stage. I was in such shock that I didn't even say anything or try to get a picture. I was a little star struck. I was going to stay for the talk but I had already missed the talk I wanted to see so I went to see the booths.

Stop number 1 was the NYX booth. I basically stood in line not knowing what they were giving away or if you had to do anything to get their free sample. Turns out you just had to post a picture to Instagram and use their hashtag, easy enough.

This was the longest line once I got there so I figured they must have been giving away some good stuff. It was a free ice cream and a lipstick.

There were other shades but I don't own a deep read like this so now I do! :) Of course being lactose allergic/intolerant I didn't take the ice cream but the lady gave me a weird look when I said I didn't want one. That and who would want an ice cream if they were only noooowwww defrosting from standing outside for 2 hours??

Right by the NYX booth was the media area so I kinda stalked it out and got really close to Jay Manuel and Chloe Lukasiak.

After that it was time to tackle another long line, Maybelline. Once again I had no idea what was happening at the both but where there is a long line there is usually free things being given away. I somehow got to this line when it was pretty short and right when I got there the line got really long behind me so that was a stroke of luck for me. Heeerrreee I got a makeup pouch and an eye liner.

Turns out the line was long because the did the screen printing on the bag there for you which was cool. 

The next line to tackle was the longest, QVC. I figured that since the line was so long that it should be good but it took  me an hour and a half to realize that it wasn't. Others who had gotten through the line explained what we were waiting for but I waited anyways. While waiting we got caught up in the crowd surrounding Bethany Mota and through that I made friends with some of the people around me and we saved the other's spot while they went to other lines and booths. While in line I got to go to the Chic Cosmestics booth for one of their events. I was lucky enough that they handed out tickets for their booth during my 2 hour wait outside but some people weren't so lucky. In all I got some good stuff from their booth.

There were 4 events but I only got to go to 3, I missed the first one. 

When I finally got to the front of the QVC line it was basically 8 products and you got to choose 4. I'm really not adventurous in body washes or face washes so I basically just got lip products. The safest option.

I'm curious to try the Mally lip gloss but the other stuff is basically just to try out. The nail polish was the only thing left that wasn't a body wash. There was also a cookie but I ate it....

Next to QVC was a booth for Wen and they gave away a FULL SIZED bottle!!

I know these usually sell for around $50 so I was really surprised that they gave it away to anyone. I don't use Wen but I know that my aunt does so I want to surprise her with it.

What I thought was my last booth where I heard they were giving away a Taylor Swift bag that was apparently worth $40 so that alone would make my trip worth it. You had to spin a wheel to win it and unlucky for me I won a Justin Bieber hair perfume....

I'm not too sure what I'm going to do with that yet but I'll see if I know anyone that wants it.

I made one last lap of the building and realized that the line for Tarte was pretty short so I stood there and waited to see what was going on since the line was long for the entire day. In less that a minute a nice lady handed me a sample of their translucent powder.

I'm thinking I might give this to Brianna since she's looking for a good one. She's still fixed on the Nars powder but until I can get her that she can try this :). 

On my way out I got a sample from the Garnier booth.

I am also not too sure about how this is going to work with my hair but I'll try it first. The other stuff I picked up was from a brand I'm not familiar with but it was a good bag to put stuff in.

They gave away some dry shampoo, a hot oil treatment, conditioner and a compact. And that was all of the stuff I got. 

Even though I didn't pay for the meetups I still got to meet some of the Youtubers that I watch which was awesome. A win win for me. I first went to the meetup with the GlamTwinz, Kendra and Kelsey at the Carol's Daughter booth.

They were the only ones I thought I was going to see but on my way back from them to the QVC line I saw all the other Youtubers that I watch. 

So I saw Jayla, The Glamaholic, and Bri, Smartista Beauty which was really cool. The ladies in the line with me said I looked really happy when I saw them so there's that. At first I didn't think I would be so excited but I surprised myself. 

So that was my day at BeautyCon. It was a fun experience and I met some cool people while we were in line. Honestly for the amount that I paid it was seriously worth it. Now I'm all excited looking for the next beauty event to go to. 

Anyways, I'm typing this while getting through my Tuesday night tv shows. Three hours to tv to get through in one night is a lot. Sort of like a marathon.

Later!!

xoxoxo

My First Interview!!

Helloooo once again!! I was supposed to do this post about 2 days ago but I was just feeling really tired and exhausted and then I started to do it last night but I was missing a couple pictures I wanted to include so here we are. I was feeling a bit under the weather but not in a cough cough sick way. I felf like I've either been hit by a truck and I'm recovering from injuries or like I was dancing for 3 days straight and now I'm tired. The thing is none of those things happened so I'm at a loss as to why I felt like that. I was tired with no energy whatsoever with no reason why I should be feeling like that. On a Friday afternoon, hungry and procrastinating cleaning my room. Tomorrow is BeautyCon so I'm going to be up extra early to get there by 10. I have a general ticket cause I really wasn't about to spend the $135 and up for the other tickets so hopefully everything goes well tomorrow. I'll try to do a blog post on Sunday all about my day on Saturday. :)

Soooo on Monday was my interview, my first one since graduation in May and finishing summer school in July so I was pretty excited. I spent the whole of last week preparing for it so I wasn't that nervous. I practiced questions and the best ways to answer them so I felt good. I woke up and got my breakfast as usual and then I left home actually on time. The journey there took a whole lot shorter than expected so I got there half an hour early. By the time I got there I had developed a serious blister on my toe from shoes I hadn't worn in over a year so that was distracting while I was waiting. I ended up stuffing some tissue on the side of my shoe to help, which it did a little. The interview itself went well I think. I don't really have anything to compare it to so it was a good start I guess. She asked the usual interview questions and explained the position a little more. If I get past this point then there are gonna be 3 more interviews before they make the offer for the position so now I'm just playing the waiting game.

On Tuesday I did my Walmart trip. I left home kinda late, around 2:30pm so it was an interesting time to be on the bus. Kids were coming out of school, people were on their lunch breaks from work and then there was me. Walmart itself was awesome. The lines were short, the shelves were a bit bare but I still found most of what I needed. I didn't get my Uncle Ben's microwave rice that I wanted but I got a new one to try. As usual after Walmart I relaxed in bed and watched tv.

Wednesday was a busy day and a long day. It all started with my hair appointment. To get there I had to switch trains twice because of an "incident" on the E line so I got onto an F train which also had delays. By the time I got off the train it was the time of my appointment and I still had to find an ATM to get cash to pay for my hair so I ended up being half an hour late. Not my brightest moment from that day since I'm usually annoyingly early and on time for things. My hair turned out great though. There wasn't any real breakage in one spot but she said I had a lot of ends which meant a trim which I was expecting. This is the 2nd person to tell me that so I wasn't surprised.

Once I left there I had all intentions of going to Pace and sorting out some business but I stupidly got on the wrong train at Penn Station so once I got to the next stop I got on an E train and went to Time Square to go to Sephora. It looked like it was about to rain so I was trying to get through everything quickly. At Sephora I asked one of the people there if I could get anything as my birthday present and she said yes! She said that I could choose anything and then go up to the counter and say "It's my birthday" and then I'd get that for free....that's not the case. I spent about 20 minutes choosing a colour in a Makeup Forever Ultra HD foundation and then I get to the counter and she pulls out a box and says, "this is gonna be your birthday present." Basically they choose your birthday present so I had to put back the foundation, gotta save up to buy that. So for my birthday from Sephora I got the Nars Matte Lip Pencil.

In it is a really dark red that's really pretty and then there's a light purple-ish and pink one which is a bit too light for me but I think I can make it work. If not I might see if my cousin wants it. 

Also this week I got my Ipsy Glam bag. I can't remember if I got it on Tuesday or Wednesday but I was really excited.

So all of that was my October Glam bag. the little box has in a perfume roller ball which smells really good. I'm also excited to try the mascara and the Browza brow pencil.

That's about it for my week. I started recording things to use for my Youtube channel so I'm gonna be working on that later today. I'm thinking it's gonna be called AndThenWhat to go along with my blog. That way if I forget to vlog or something you can still keep track of what I'm doing with my blog. That and I still want to keep writing. Writing everything down is still therapeutic for me so I'm gonna keep doing it. :) Just keep an eye our for my Youtube videos, I'll put the link in the next post once I have it up and going. 

Soo until next time. :)

xoxoxo

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

It's a nice rainy and thunderstorming night, the perfect night for watching a movie which I'm going to get to riiiiigght after I finish this post. I think tonight is going to be The Age of Adaline. First I wanted to get this post off so that I can finally cross it off my list of things to do.

This week has been pretty quiet. I did my usual trip to Walmart on Monday right after I finally got my camera!!! I spent about 2 months trying to decide which one I should get within a reasonable budget so after a lot of research and watching reviews on Youtube I settled on the Nikon Coolpix 7000. 

This is an upgrade from my last one which stopped working right around the time I decided I wanted to do some vlogging and record things which was terrible timing. That was about 3 months ago, almost exactly since I carried it to get fixed on my way to get my hair done and I'm going to get my hair done next week. I didn't get it fixed since it cost about $100 to replace the lens so I figured I could just buy a new one. 

Anyways so I've been playing with that all week. The most interesting thing to take pictures of since I wasn't doing much outside the house was the fact that the curls I did for the job fair at Pace since the 1st of October lasted an entire week.

This was the state of my curls after 5 days so I was really pleased with myself that I managed to get them to last that long. That's also my new jeans jacket that I bought a couple weeks ago on my excursion to Fulton Street Mall. I always thought it was going to be an actual mall but it was just a street full of stores which work for me as well but it just wasn't what I expected. Yea so my curls were just on point last week. I just washed my hair today and I can now say that my hair was so so soft because of the new Shea Moisture Conditioner. Right now even though my hair has puffed out to be a small afro it is softer that it's been when I have this much new growth. 

On Wednesday I was ready to set up a recording space for videos that I could do for a Youtube channel now that I had a new camera. I couldn't decide on a tripod so I made a makeshift place to put the camera out of boxes but I think I need to actually buy one soon. I did a practice shoot to decide on a spot when I get an email from an employer I gave my resume to at the job fair asking for a time to set up a phone interview for an available position. (Freakout began a little). Then I grab my phone to message someone about this news and I see that I have a missed call and a voicemail. I check it and it's from the recruiting officer. She called and I missed it because my phone was still on vibrate so I quickly call back but there was no answer. (Different kind of freakout began) I waited a while and ate my phone, trying to gather my thoughts before I try calling again. When I call she answers on like the second ring and I start freaking out again but on the inside. The call went well so I now have an interview on Monday. YAAAAAAYYYY!! Finally!! Right when I'm trying to come up with a contingency plan and other countries to apply to I get a call for an interview so hopefully this works out. I really hope it does so please keep your fingers crossed and pray for me!!

That call meant that I've spent the last two days pouring over common interview questions and figuring out the best way to answer them. I'm practicing explaining my resume and trying not to sound lost but to sound knowledgeable about what I've learnt. Just trying to get what I know in my head to be said in the right way. This is also going to be what I'm doing for the weekend. My hair is washed, work clothes clean (just have to iron them) and I can focus on getting these questions done. 

Oh I got my order from Forever 21 package. I honestly thought I only ordered a hoodie and two pairs of leggings but the postman gave me a bigger box than I expected so I was a bit confused. I should have known that I can't stop myself from buying sweaters.

Turns out I bought two sweaters, a hoodie and then the two pairs of leggings. The sweaters are really soft and look comfy. I haven't really tried them on since I've been busy preparing for the interview but I did try on the hoodie since it looked a little small so I'm going to return that this weekend. It's not terribly small but I want it to fit bigger. This is seriously and definitely the last sweaters I'm buying. When I was unpacking my winter suitcase and putting up my sweaters I was kind of shocked at how many I had. I was telling my mum that I hardly had any just two weeks ago because I honestly thought I didn't have many but now I know that I do. And that I need to stop. 

I'm really excited for this interview to turn into something and even if it doesn't I just hope that other calls come in soon. I'm anxious to get a start and to get a job so I can start repaying my dad for some stuff. That and so that I can feel a little less guilty for buying things especially with Christmas coming up. 

Anyways, I'm gonna go get my popcorn and start my snuggle movie night and fall asleep in front of my laptop again. 

Laters!! 
xoxoxo

Feeling Good, Feeling Great!

Helloooo again!! I feel really good right now becaaaauuuusssseee I'm back to planning again. I've always liked planning out my days or making to do lists. It made me feel really accomplished and then it also gave me something to do that day so that I just do fluff around all day. On the other side I had stopped planning and making lists because when I didn't get the things on my list done I felt kind of down and unproductive so I'm going to try my best to be realistic with my lists. So to do all my planning I'm back using my handy dandy weekly planner I got from Barnes and Noble last Christmas. I stopped using it when school was winding down and I didn't have any homework to write in it but I think I need this to avoid another wallowing period.

I feel like by using this it should keep me busy and my spirits up while I look for a job. I also stick some post it notes inside for lists and anything I might need reminding of that doesn't fit into the designated date.

So this is basically what I have planned for tomorrow and next week. I don't plan so far into the future since I have no idea what I want to do until a couple days before. On the big stick note I have a list of things I need to buy from Walmart on Monday and then I can just check the things off my list on my phone in my app Keep since it keeps a list there. I like to do it this way because I don't buy everything every week so the list changes depending on what I ate a lot of that week. The little post it has on topics for my blog to keep track of what happened that week to talk about. 

In other news, my hair is curly!!

This is the final result but before I get ahead of myself I tried two new products this time. As I mentioned before I got the As I Am deep conditioner to try out and I wanted to try the Shea Moisture leave in conditioner from their Jamaican Black Castor Oil line. First was the deep conditioner. When I was applying it after washing my hair I realized it's not a thick conditioner. I'm about 10 weeks post relaxer so I prefer to use thicker deep conditioners when I have this much new growth to help soften my roots so this was a bit of bust but not a complete one. Now I at least know to only use it soon after I get my hair done over. It has the same smell of coconut as the co was so that was good. It comes in a really small container so I don't see it lasting me more than 2 more uses. I can't remember the price but I don't think it was too expensive. I'll have to check. Next came the leave in conditioner. 

This feels really soft in your hands and when it goes in your hair you can really feel a difference. It really conditions your hair well. My hair was soft and relatively manageable. I can't really say how much of a difference it made since I put my moisturizers in right afterwards to de-tangle but when I took the flexi rods out of my hair my curs were softer than they've ever been.

This was after I took out the flexi rods before I separated the curls. I took them out right when I woke up since they were starting to annoy me. It's really not fun sleeping with those things in your head. As usual the middle of my head was still damp somehow but it all turned out great in the end.

I think it's safe to say that I have now maybe perfected doing my hair in this style. This is the second time that I remember it coming out close to perfectly. It could also be the fact that my hair is longer but we'll just say I've gotten better :). 

One thing I'm working on perfecting is using the Real Techniques sponge. I'm still not sure how damp to make it before I use it and I heard that you could use primer water to dampen it or something so I was trying that but it still didn't work that well and I know its just me doing it wrong. The next time I try I'm going to simply try water. Hopefully I can figure it out soon. 

Right so the reason my hair was curly in the first place was for the job and internship fair at Pace on Thursday. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of my full outfit but it was ENTIRELY from Express except for the shoes. I really should take a picture of it next time and do some marketing for them lol. As usual the fair can be stressful at first before you figure out which companies are there and what they're looking for. It's always easier to tackle the upper level first since they have fewer companies there and not a lot of them are finance related so it's a quick intro for the day. The lower level had a lot more companies which took me about two hours to get through and I still didn't get to go to a company I was interested in because the line was so long. 

There are a few things I don't like about the fairs at Pace and this is my 3rd or 4th time going. Firstly the majority of the employers want undergraduates. Once you mention that you're a graduate student and say the word Master's you can see their face change and they write you off a little bit. In a way it makes me work a little harder to sell myself and convince them that I'd be the better choice but they still only want undergraduates. Secondly if you mention that you are an international student, next to none of the companies there sponsor. I tried to explain my situation with my work permit but that got me no where and they left it as "well if your situation changes". How with my situation change if I don't get a job somewhere? And if I do get a job somewhere why would I be contacting a company that still won't sponsor me? That's always been a hard thing since there were a couple cool places that really seemed interested until the sponsorship thing came up. Even if nothing comes from going to the fair it's still good practice for cold interviews and quick introductions which I really needed practice on. 

Right now there is a party going on downstairs but I'm not really in a party mood. It feels like a Netflix and chill night with my bed but the music is too loud so I'm going to try to get some writing done instead. I think in my next post I'll finally explain what writing I've been doing. 

Anyways, I think I'm going to pop downstairs for some food soon and then maybe go to sleep. Knowing me I can sleep through the entire party no problem.

Baii!! xoxoxo