I've gotta admit - I haven't been up to date with drugstore brands, and I was blown away when I was able to purchase 14 lipsticks with 30 bucks! You can't even buy two MAC lipsticks with that money o_O (..well, tax and everything kicks up the price from $15/ea)!


I'm always on the hunt for good lipstick and I stumbled upon someone's review on the Wet n' Wild megalast lipsticks. With Walgreens having a 'Buy 1, get 1 half off' deal, I was able to pick out all the shades that tickled my interest without worrying about my wallet shrinking.

Initially, I ordered 16 lipsticks, but 2 were out of stock and I only received 14 in the mail.
5 MegaShield Lipcolor lipsticks and 9 MegaLast lipsticks.



Let's start with the five MegaShield Lip Colors.

First off, the packaging is atrocious... After pealing off layers and layers of packaging and tape, I was able to open up the plastic clear tops.

I've always had a weird habit of buying high-end mascaras and never fully utilizing them. Yesterday, while cleaning out my makeup, I decided to dump all of my mascaras and start anew.  I was always curious about Physicians Formula Organic Wear Mascaras, so bought two at rite aid for $9.99 (it was BOGO so the second one was free :).

One is Lash Boosting Mascara and the other one is Jumbo Lash Mascara.


The shape of the bottle is enticing and 70% organic seems better than non-organic formula (I dunno, I'm a sucker for marketing gimmicks).

I didn't want to open and try out both at the same time, so I opened up the Jumbo Lash bottle for review. The smell of the mascara isn't my cup of tea. I'm not a huge fan of perfumed products, but I'm also not a fan of such weird-smelling products. It almost smells like rubber and plastic combined.

The brush is round with short spikes to separate and coat your lashes. I don't mind these wands as it helps avoid the dreadful spider legs look. It's great for coating the upper lashes, but when applying it to my almost nonexistent lower lashes, it tends to get messy.


Okay, so now with the application and my first impression.

- Application is smooth and non-crummy. It's actually rather wet and very silky.
- Drying time takes a bit long
- Color is pitch black (very good)
- Double coater? no problem - you can keep building additional coats without clumping
- Spider legs? nope.
- Lengthening? It does elongate your lashes, but it's not a crazy 'OMG!' amount.
- Volumizing? Not really..

Here's some before after shots.
As you can see my natural lashes are brittle, short and limp.
Even when curled, it lacks volume and length.
(Please ignore my red eyeball..)


And here's the after.
VERY silky texture. Lashes look extremely glossy and smooth.
Lower lashes can be a bit tricky if you don't have much to work with like me.



Here's a better comparison at similar angles.


Overall, Jumbo Lashes is great for lengthening, but it's not a volumizing mascara.
I will have to try this out more before coming to a final verdict, but so far, I'm okay with it.
So far, it seems decent! :)

My room is arranged so that I can watch my huge-ass TV in my bed like a queen.  Since my bed is pretty high and watching TV on my back is a wee-bit different than sitting on a couch, I had to place my TV on a 2x4 and 2x2 IKEA Expedit (which worked out perfectly!).

I was starring at my expedite last night thinking 'Oh my god, look at all the space wasted on this'.

It's really messy - but the red highlighted areas are the 'empty spaces' I thought were being wasted.  

The cubbies are nice and large, but most of the stuff I had in them barely took up half of the real estate given.  I was noticing that a lot of the upper half of the cubes weren't being utilized.  I started looking up Expedite solutions and found out that IKEA had insert drawers that seemed perfect to store my beauty products!

Ever since I moved to LA, I've had a huge struggle with my products because they weren't streamlined to fit my routine and everything was scattered all over the place! For example, I wake up in the morning and put on face products (sunscreen, foundation, concealer, blush) while I am curling or straightening my hair. I really need all of the products in my bathroom, but most of my face products are in my bedroom sitting around in one of the Expedit cubbies. I have a huge drawer in my bathroom filled with nail polishes, which I don't really need in the morning.  It's already jam packed and I don't have room to expand my collection. I would always think that it'll be super nice to move all of the polishes out and use that drawer to store my face products so I don't have to go back and forth so much in the morning.

 The current bathroom situation. Drawer is filled with nail polish (and some with nowhere to go), and no place for face products..

I thought this will be a perfect opportunity to clean up and re-organize my products.  So today I headed to IKEA and brought home 2 inserts for my expedit.  They are priced 20 dollars per pack (which I think is a rip off considering that the Expedit itself is 69 dollars!).

Here's how it looks like when it is assembled and inserted.
Nice and flush!!

...And this is how it looks with the new tenants moving in. I have 7 China Glaze and 1 OPI bottle lined up.

As you can see the fit is perfect for these sized bottles. I have more than enough breathing room with the height of the drawer too.



First drawer is filled with China Glaze, OPI, Essie, Chanel, Mac, American Apparel, Butter London and Illamasqua (holds about 80 polishes in one shelf).



The second drawer has Zoya, Orly, NYX, Revlon, Sinful Colors, Sally Hansen, Missha and random other brands.


The second set will go two cubes left.


Here's how the top shelf looks like with my lipsticks filled in. I love how it holds over 100+ lipsticks with no struggle at all.

And last but not least, this is how it looks like all closed.

I'm still in the process of organizing/rearranging my products, but I wanted to hurry and share with you guys this great storage solution :p I know it's not the reinvention of the wheel, but I love the size and compactness of the insert shelves.  Expedit is a wildly popular IKEA product that sits in so many people's places, and if you're a junkie like me, the inserts could be a great solution to tuck everything away in an organized manner.

Now I can save some time with my morning routine. :)
It's great for me anyway because I usually paint my nails at night while watching the TV or sitting on my bed and doing the computer.


Here's a peek of my bathroom where some of my foundations are taking refuge.

I've also started to move in some face products to where the polishes were once residing.

I will have an updated post when everything is settled, cleaned up and presentable.. :p
I just wanted to share my new inserts and couldn't wait to finish up before posting.

Yay for IKEA and their brilliant small space solutions!