★ It's London Calling! ★

I'm a bit ashamed to admit, that I've never been to Britain or London before... It's not that it's too far away (straight flight from Finland takes about 3 hours) or that I wasn't interested in UK, but more like I've never had the time to go there. I've been so busy going to Tokyo and other trips... But now finally me and my dear friend Riina are going to London to stay with our friend Anna, who is studying in London's University.

It's not going to be a long trip, only 4 nights - which me and Riina are going to spend sleeping on their sofas in their living room. Yes, THEIR. Anna lives with 4 or 5 (I never remember) other people: some other Finnish girls and one British boy. It's gonna be interesting... I'm kinda nervous about sleeping in a ''public'' living room, 'cos I'm not sure about in which positions I sleep, and it would be embarrassing if the British boy came to the living room while us sleeping and he saw my butt hanging loose or something.... LOL. and ps. no i don't sleep naked... 

But anyways it's still nice to stay at Anna's place, 'cos we don't have to pay anything for the nights.

We had some serious troubles with booking the flight. I mean I've booked many many flights and I'm not a novice at the matter, but still..... How hard it can be to get a flight from Finland to London - one of the biggest capitals in Europe? well, apparently it's very fucking difficult! first of all a straight flight from Finland would've been much too expensive (500-600€ - notice that the last year's flight to Tokyo was less than 600€), so we had to take a flight with a stop at Copenhagen. I've been to Copenhagen's airport and I liked it - it was compact, fairly small which i like, and the people were kind.

BUT the first flight we booked was already pretty expensive -  the prices went up and down like crazy (about 390€) and after we had booked it the price went up again! We hadn't gotten the reservation number or confirmation yet, and on the next day they raised the price of our flight with more than 150€!!! I mean what the...?? I got so pissed off. I said that I will definitely not pay that much money for a flight to Europe with one stop included. So we cancelled the flight - thank god it was free to cancel it..
 

On the same day (Friday) I decided to book the flight by myself and I finally found one pretty good :

Leaving on 24.6. 17:30 from Helsinki Airport
Landing on Copenhagen at 18:10 (local time)

Departure at 20:05 from Copenhagen 
Landing on London at 21:05 (local time)

Return Flight: 

Leaving on 28.6. 10:20 from London Heathrow 
Landing on Helsinki at 15:15 (local time, straight flight, flight time 2h 55min)

and with price: 316.90€ / person. 

I'm happy with this flight. Even though it's still kinda expensive, but at least we're saving by living at Anna's place.

I've been to many countries: Sweden, Hungary, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Turkey, Japan, Thailand....... and the list goes on. But nevertheless I'm always excited about traveling! I more likely use my money on traveling than fancy clothes, phones, electronics, etc.

And the more people you can travel with and meet while traveling, the more merrier! 

So, what are your summer plans? Going to foreign countries? or just enjoying the holiday with friends and family? I'm gonna do both...  We have a midsummer festive in Finland this week and I'm gonna spend it with my Sister and her boyfriend - whom are both very dear to me. It's gonna be fun! Maybe we're gonna go to some road trip with a car?
 

But we'll see next time after my London journey. :) I'M GONNA TRY TO TAKE AS MUCH PHOTOS AS I CAN!!!! this time....... lol. (word: journey always reminds me of Lord of the Rings or Hobbit... So I'm gonna go bare foot like a good hobbit, and defeat the evil! )

XXX,
TOKI

Make Up Store : A Big Disappointment

Hey everyone! I'm truly glad to say that the summer is finally here! I'm sitting in front of a fan and enjoying the warmth and sun. I watched the news and they said that the rest of the Europe is battling against floods and cold weather. So I think we Finns should be pretty happy about this weather we have atm. I don't recall any other summer that has had this many extremely warm and sunny days in a row... But I'm not complaining! Even though our dog is having a bit rough time - but cold showers and a fan blowing all the time i think he'll survive! :)

But now back to the topic! So I went to the Make Up Store in Helsinki this one day ( I had a 50€ gift card so I decided to use it and actually buy some expensive make ups, what I usually rarely do!) I Had already checked out from the internet some products that i wanted to buy and i had BIG hopes for them, 'cos I've heard that Make Up Store's products have very good quality!

So This is what I was GOING to buy: 

So all these would have costed 48€ and I was pretty excited about these products! But when I got there (on Thursday morning) all of these products were sold out! Every last one of them. I am obviously too mainstream... But the story doesn't end there, no. Almost all the shelves were half empty (or half full, depending on how optimistic you are). I was truly, truly disappointed! The lady on the counter didn't offer to help me she just sulked there doing something on the computer - probably she was on facebook. DAMN FACEBOOK! Gladly I had my friend with me so I was able to go through the products with her.

I had decided to use the gift card that day, since it was soon to be expired...
So this is what i bought in the end:

Make Up Store: Tanja (shimmer), 14€

Make Up Store: Gardenia, 16€

Make Up Store: Vanilla, 18€
(yes i know the internet site says 16€, but in the shop it was 18€...)

and some mascaras - not obviously from Make Up Store. They were
RIMMEL's. 

....and after purchasing an expensive (in my opinion)  nail polish
THIS is what i got!! First of all it wasn't the one I wanted in the
first place - it's a slightly darker color, and now this! 

 And the worst thing was that I threw away the pig paper bag that i got from the shop because i had a grocery store bag and purse, so it was only making my life more difficult and the ticket went in to the garbage bin with the bag, so i couldn't even return or change this damaged one. Honestly! I've never been this unhappy with any store never before! And this is supposed to be high-quality? yeah, right. Never buying anything from Make Up Store again.

one layer of nail polish. I didn't want it to be so glimmering...

And I was also disappointed in the MicroShadow. The color is not appealing on my face and the pigment is not the best what I've seen. I've tried to put some water in it - didn't work out. I mean yes, someone might still like these products and i can't blame her. The brand has a high-value mark on it, and i have heard some good things about it, but I was just so disappointed that I lost my faith in the brand.

I've bought some very low-cost make ups and they've been many times more better than these ones. I think they're not worth the money! It's not always like '' the most expensive ones are the best ''. I have learnt that now... the lipgloss is not bad. It smells and tastes sweet (yes it's important, because i wouldn't want to put something smelly and bad tasting on my lips...... lol)  and it said to give you irresistible lips - and i can grant that: my dog cannot resist my lips after putting on the lipgloss... you decide if that is a good or a bad thing.

but still even though the lipgloss is pretty nice, it is not worth the 16€. I mean you can get as good products with half the price from some basic stores.

I don't want you to get upset about this post. If you like Make Up Store then you should like it even after me mocking it. This is not universal opinion - just mine. I just want to know have you had any experience like  this? Or do you have absolutely the opposite opinion about this store? Please comment and let me know - I'm interested in all the stories! 

Here are some pictures of my coords:  (and other things I've bought)

Lace Dress: Vero Moda, 40€. 

Shirt: From eBay. P.S. Sorry about the derp face.. lol

Black Skull Scarf: Gina Tricot ~8€
White Lace Scarf: Flash, on sale 12€.

Shirt: Amsterdam, NEW YORK 22€
Same Skull Scarf
Jeans: Gina Tricot 35€
Boots: Zalando, ~30€

random stuff.....  snail cream example. 

eBay, Brown MISSHA Brow Mascara. ~11€

ASOS, Studded waist belt. ~5€

ASOS.com Evil Eye bracelet, ~6€

ASOS.com studded bow leather  waist belt, ~6€

Nelly.com it was supposed to be waterproof mascara, but it turned out to be normal one...
lash Building Mascara: 5€
Lip Volume with collagen, lip balm: 3€.
(sting like hell, swelling your lips a bit.. really hurts.. XD )

Dress: Only, from sale ~21€.
necklace: Asos.com ~10€.
Boots: Zalando.

we went to the movies to watch the new Evil Dead. it was pretty good..
Even though they had changed it from the original movie,
which was made in the 80's. 

This was all of it for now!  Thank you for reading! Leave comment and questions. :)) see you!!

XXXX, 
TOKI

* Teeth Whitening *

So i just wanted to share my experience with these teeth whitening products!

First of all I drink coffee and tea - a lot of tea, i'm like a sponge! I don't drink fizzy drinks like cola or sprite, but i do drink juices. and i smoke occasionally.... so all these harm my teeth and discolor them. I became very self-conscious about the color of my teeth. and it did affect my self-esteem.

So last summer i tried this Pepsodent White Now -paste for four weeks (we were in Japan and I bought this paste for the journey and i threw it away when we left Japan).

it promises immediately whiter teeth but for my experience it did nothing. Maybe the change was to subtle that I didn't notice it. But it was a total waste of money. And yes I used it at least twice a day.

So i started to look for other options. I really thought about going to the dentist to get them whitened, but... jeez it's __really expensive! about 400-500 euros! this one La Chica does it for 140e-350e. the cheapest one is a basic whitening and there are other options and prices depending on how white you want you teeth.

So i think for my budget it is too expensive!

So finally my friend in Japan told me that she had used this Crest 3D White Strips and that they really worked! The only problem was that you cannot buy these from Finland's drug stores. God bless we have eBay!! (i'n not even religious.)

So i went to search these from eBay and they had many options - some expensive and some inexpensive. I did some comparing and i found the best price! They were bout 11e/9 pouches. (Link to the site)
I just noticed that they do not ship to Finland anymore...? What is going on? I just bought these strips from this seller and i was going to buy more later on... OK.

I sent the seller a message considering this matter. That's weird really.

well anyways! I used these strips one in every morning and they did work! My teeth are not yellow anymore! They're not super-extremely white, but I wouldn't even want that - i wished for naturally white teeth. I was quite happy with the result. The package contained 9 pouches which includes 2 strips - one upper and one lower strip.

So how you use them? 

* first of all, don't brush your teeth right before the strips! It might irritate your gums more. My gums are pretty healthy atm so it did not hurt for me, except the first morning when i brushed my teeth just before applying these. 

* make sure you get the strip in every corner so it affects your whole teeth. 

* Dry your teeth before applying! With paper or breathing through your mouth for a moment. The strip stays on and affects better that way! 

* After taking them off you have a nasty gel on your teeth and i just flushed my mouth with cold water to get rid of it. 

At first you won't be seeing much change. For me it took about 4 days before I noticed any difference, but keep using them nevertheless! I don't have any BEFORE/AFTER -pictures, but I'll link some other pics:

I was very skeptic about this product at first, but now I'm a believer. It says that the effect will last about 12 months. And I recommend you to use at least 9 pouches (7 if your teeth are not that yellow) - more if you want even whiter teeth. but use them daily unless you feel too much irritation on your gum. Then just take the strips away. Too strong pain is not normal and you should stop if it occurs.

For those who don't want to put plastic in mouth i recommend other ways. I have heard about mixing a little bit of water and baking soda together, making it into a paste and rubbing it to your teeth with toothbrush. This should be done 2-3 times in a week. it starts to affect after 2 weeks - so it's not as fast as this is, but it's natural, cheap and pretty safe. I'm going to try it soon and I'll come here and tell you if anything has changed or if it works! I'll be your guinea pig!

I'll tell you more about this topic when i have more info. Thank you for reading!

Please ask if you have any questions!

XXX,
TOKI