Beijing Shopping

In Beijing I learned that two things were essential regarding beauty for the locals: collagen and masks. The air in Beijing can be very polluted and people love using masks to clean their skin after a long day of being exposed to the smog. Collagen seemed to be very popular just now, almost every brand had their own collagen products. And naturally collagen masks for the ultimate products!

I was staying with the lovely Salla who is not new to China. She writes a blog about her time there. It's in Finnish only, but with lots of lovely pictures. Take look at the blog here!

Here's pictures of the cosmetics I brought back from Beijing.

Pack of sheet masks. This one had a few pieces of each type of mask available at the shop.

Under eye masks. Water cycling sounds like fun ;D

Tony Moly is a Korean brand. I just had to have this lip balm because it's made of awesome. What could be cuter than a tiny banana? ;D

I just had enough time to visit Etude House shop. Salla had told me stories of how cute the products were and she was absolutely right, they were super cute and very interesting! This was the gift I got for making a purchase, a collagen skin care kit.

A toner, emulsion, I take essence to be a serum and the tiny jar is cream.

Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream. I've been using this one for a few years and it's the. best. thing. ever. Trust me! Light enough for my pale skin but with a high SPF and very moisturizing consistency.

Missha is a Korean brand, but since I came across the cream in the shade I use, I decided to get a back-up for the bottle I'm currently going through.

The Missha counter also gave out gifts with purchase. I have no idea what the first product is, but the second one is a BB cream and the tiny bottles could be toner.

Skin Food had lots of interesting things, but I was pretty exhausted after the shopping spree that I couldn't decide and eventually just got this eye sheet mask. I think I have enough masks to at least get me through the winter!

Last but not the least, my Etude House haul! We visited the shop briefly on my last day at Beijing, but it was worth it. The packaging is very cute and pastel, and they had interesting products.

False lashes and an eye dust. The lashes were quite small, so they might work really well with my small-ish eyes. The eye dust jar was just too cute to be left behind ;D

They had lots of nail polishes, but this one caught my eye! It's a dark purple with shimmer in it.

This Hand Bouquet is clearly meant for feet ;P I like foot masks in general, as they help me stay put for a while and not dart around the apartment like crazy. And I have spent a lot of time on my feet lately so a little pampering is in order.

These brushes looked just like my favourite ones by Mariela Sarkima. I'm always on the lookout for new, fluffy, soft eyeshadow brushes, because they work great for light smoky looks which I wear a lot. I haven't tried these yet but I just want to point out how ridiculously cute the packaging and brushes are <3<3<3

Eye dust jar. I tried to show how cute the jar is but I don't think the picture does it justice. You just have to believe me! I have a soft spot for cute pastel stuff and these are right up my alley!

That's a lot of cosmetics! I'll write reviews of my favourites once I get to try these out, right now I've been so busy that they have just sat in their cute Etude House bag in the bedroom. We just took in a new cat today, from a friend who could not keep it anymore, so my whole days has been spent herding cats ;D I have a cold and am staying at home, but the cats need some supervising to get used to the new kitty. They have been getting along nicely and I hope it continues! Once the new kitty settles in, I promise you lots of pictures!

Seattle Shopping

Last weekend I went to a business trip to Seattle for Pax Prime. A cruelling 12+ hours of flying just to get there, and the same back, naturally. The jet lag was horrible! On the bright side I immediately noticed the hotels was to my liking when they told me that they had a complimentary shuttle service that stopped right in front on the biggest Sephora in the city. Perfect!

I've been super busy, but here's a quick look into what I got for myself.

Urban Decay After Dark pencil set, Kat Von D Ink Liner Trio, Urban Decay de-slick makeup setting spray, GlamGlow mud mask, two Kat von D liquid lipsticks, Sephora cream lip stain, two Sephora masks and a tiny pencil sharpener.

I recently fell in love with Urban Decay's pencils, and when I saw that they had a pencil set with the same name as the game expansion I'm working on at the moment, I just had to have this! I tried them out already and really like the shade of purple and brown, they make for great smoky eye looks. The Kat von D liner set was an impulse buy, I wanted to try them out. I'm a bit bummed that only the black liner is waterproof, but I have to see how they perform.

I didn't own any Everlasting Liquid Lipsticks by Kat von D before, but they are a product I've been wanting to try. I like dark, vampy reds so Damned seemed like my kind of a shade, and Echo looked very unique, it's a navy blue.

I tried to hunt down this shade of Sephora's Cream Lip Stain when I was in NY in May, but it was sold out everywhere! Now I finally found it and I love the shade. These have a very thin, light consistency so they are comfortable to wear, but they are still opaque and don't fade.

I needed a pencil sharpener for my carry-on makeup pouch, so I got the smallest one Sephora carried. I haven't tried the masks before but they looked interesting!

The de-slick spray was something I wanted to try, but didn't want to commit to a full size one in case I didn't like it. This smaller version seemed perfect for me! I love GlamGlow's moisturizing mask, so I'm thinking the other ones could be to my liking also and went for a trial size.

This is the Powermud Dualcleanse Treatment, I'm excited to try it!

The After Dark pencil set has an example of a look done with the pencils on the inside cover. The pencils in the set are Voodoo, Zero and Corrupt. Corrupt is especially lovely, it's quite light for a brown liner and looks gorgeous smudged.

The Kat von D liners. These I haven't tried yet!

I'm eager to get to dig in to this pile and tell you what I think of the products, but first I have to handle the anime and roleplaying convention, Tracon, here in Tampere. I'm giving two presentations and participating in a panel discussion tomorrow, so if you are attending, pop in to say hi!

WGT Market Area

I uncovered some more WGT pictures from this year! These are from the marketplace area at Agra. It's a true candy shop for any goth. So many stalls with everything from mass-produced wardrobe staples to unique, hand-crafted items. Something for each wallet and style.

The best kind of shoes: ones with kitties on them.

A gorgeous tricorne hat.

Little pocket watches with unique decorations.

More of the same.

Steampunk style clothing.

Lovely, delicate hairpins.

A little purse.

Drinking horns!

A crystal skull.

Bibian Blue had one of their gorgeous butterfly dresses on show.

And a bunch of corsets.

Bibian Blue skeletal dress.

New Rock boot heaven.

I'm Back!

Whew, what a busy business trip! I had planned to do shopping, but I had no time for that. In the last two days at Cologne the only free time I had I used to wash my hair ;D But it was still fun, it's great to meet fellow game enthusiasts.

Here's a few pictures from my ventures to GDC Europe, Gamescom and the city of Cologne.

Playing Fallout Shelter. I did my nails with an awesome thermo nail polish that goes from black to blue.

Me and a TIE Fighter at Gamescom.

A bathroom selfie from Paradox Fan Gathering.

I had a letter from Urban Decay waiting for me at home, yay!

Möttönen the cat inspecting the loot I brought home. I love my Chirpy plushie with its squished crown!

My vacation is now officially over and I'll be back to business as usual tomorrow. Seems like the summer finally arrived to Finland, but I'll be enjoying the air conditioning at the office ;P

I have a pile of make-up that I want to try out and show you guys! Especially the Colour Pop order that's on its way is very exciting, so expect to have plenty of posts in the future!

Outfit of the Day

One last WGT outfit! For the last day, I knew I had to move around the city a lot, so I wanted an easy outfit. I chose a pair of Lip Service PVC leggings and my new gorgeous Queen of Darkness top, the poncho with big collar! It's a long sleeved loose shirt with knitted sleeves and chiffon sides. A wonderful fit and the perfect addition to a slim pair of pants.

Top - Queen of Darkness poncho with big collar

Leggings - Lip Service

Boots - Unif High Trench

WGT 2015 Part 1

I'm in Leipzig again! Due to the train strike, my other half and I had more time to spend in Berlin than we had anticipated, so we decided to go on a WW2 bunker tour by the Berliner Unterwelten. I've been to the tour years ago, but it was great also this time!

In Leipzig I only did a little shopping before dinner and going to bed, but today the festival starts, yay!

Ready to head out at Leipzig!

I like the U-Bahns, they are so easy to use and the stations are beautiful. This one is
from the U8 platform at Alexanderplatz.

The local DM store at Leipzig is prepared for goth visitors!

I did some shopping. A few goodies from DM and Douglas, and a book from the Berliner Unterwelten shop.

Ropecon Outfits

Here's pictures from my extended Helsinki and Espoo trip! Last week I travelled to Helsinki on Monday evening, gave a presentation at the Games First event on Tuesday, went out for dinner with friends on Wednesday, had sushi lunch and went to Kiasma art museum with my brother on Thursday, then checked out the Steam Helsinki bar with the rest of the Ropecon entourage on Thursday evening.

From Friday to Sunday I enjoyed Ropecon, the largest non-commercial roleplaying event in Europe! I've been going to Ropecon for something like fifteen years and it's always lovely. This year was the first time I participated in the costume competition because I had my Demon Hunter armour with me. I also did a few photoshoots in the armour, it's super tiring because it's so heavy to wear, but the results looked gorgeous!

So today I was a good girl and back at the office with work as usual. On Thursday my other half and I are leaving for Leipzig, so no rest for the wicked! And tomorrow I have another photoshoot with the Demon Hunter costume, it will sure feel lovely to wear the huge pauldron when the bruises it left on Saturday are still sore. But what wouldn't I do for some awesome pictures! ;D

Going to Steam Helsinki

Preparing for Ropecon Friday at the hotel.

Friday's Victorian outfit with steam punk-y sunglasses.

I love how well the top made by Tiina of Rogue fits the skirt!

Look at my muscles ;P

Demon Hunter on Saturday.

On Sunday I spent my day in just jeans and a t-shirt for comfort! I always love the variety of stuff to do at Ropecon, this year I learned about the history of piracy, of how Atlas games publishes games, saw a Game of Thrones burlesque performance and listened to a geek choir sing songs from Skyrim, Doctor Who and the Moomins! Nest year Ropecon will be held at Messukeskus, so it's bye bye to Espoo and Dipoli, looking forward to seeing what wonderful things they have there!