PSA - Gift Exchange Scammer

Hi everyone~ It's that time of the year again! It's December so that means we are going into the 🎄holiday season🎄! Now, everyone tend to get into the holiday spirit and tries to give a bit more than usual such that everyone can have a good holiday. Unfortunately, there is always some people out there who is just looking to take advantage of people's generosity. 😥

If you read my blog before, I have mentioned of this person who have taken advantage of me a couple years ago by offering to do a gift exchange. I sent over my package and of course never received the package she supposedly sent over. I tried to give her the benefit of doubt but seeing how two years later, I still haven't received it. I am pretty sure she's scammed me.

Here are what my communications with her.

 

Now, the reason why I am writing up this post today is because well.. it appears this person is still at it. 😡😤 I actually been contacted by two different person this year regarding this person, whom I am going to call Person X👿.

The first, whom I will go with her initials, A.D, contacted me in April this year. She was very upset because she had sent over a gift exchange that is worth of hundreds of dollars and subsequently found my post from last year. She informed me of how much they have communicated, even via phone calls, to ensure the other person truly exist. A.D. even obtained supposedly personal photos of this person, and a tracking number for the package. Unfortunately, after she discovered my post, Person X stopped correspondence and deleted her Instagram account. A.D. was very upset but there really was nothing the both of us can do at this point. 😓😓 Below are the images of their communication, all of which are being posted with A.D's consent.

Fast forward to today, December 3rd. Imagine my surprise when I received a message from M.K, asking me if I have the name of the person mentioned in my post. She said she is doing a gift exchange with someone in India and found my post and is afraid she's been scammed too. So I provided her with both the names A.D. and I have received. M.K. confirmed the mailing address is the same but the names were different. This was not a big surprise considering how Person X has been changing their names with each person they scammed. M.K. offered to send me pictures of their communication, and here they are below, with M.K's consent.

This is the current account Person X is using. Ironic the caption says "believer of karma", as a true believer would know all these action are bringing in bad karma...😠

Did you catch it? Person X sent the same picture to both A.D. and M.K! When I first saw the picture from M.K., I was thinking oh, maybe it is a genuine package. But I thought I would go through the pictures A.D. sent me just in case. So imagine my surprise when I found the EXACT same image being sent to both. That right there confirmed everything, Person X is pulling the exact same gift exchange scam to various people on Instagram using different accounts.  So now I don't feel so bad about posting all that I have on this person.

Update: Wow.. I am surprised at Person X's audacity. Since I posted on Instagram, I gotten response from peeps from the r/AsianBeauty community that they have been approached. The most recent is today, a day after I posted this.. Yikes.. 😤😤😱

 She has since made her account private, so I am assuming she is aware this account has been exposed. Sadly, there is a high likelihood that she will just make a new account to scam more people.. 😤😤

Update #2: 
It hit me last night that image of the address will not be searchable via Google, so I am updating the post with a text version of the address.

C-144 Ashok Vihar

Phase-1 Ground Floor

Delhi-110052

India

Looks like the common name Person X uses includes Kaur and Preet. 

A small victory from this is that M.K. managed to find my post before she bought all of the gifts and mailed it out! Both A.D. and I are so happy about that! 😄😄 I hope this post will help prevent more people from falling for Person X's schtick and spend their hard earned money on a scammer!

P.S. I am not saying every gift exchange offer coming out of India is bad. But just be cautious when you get unsolicited exchange offers on Instagram. It's always fun to do a gift exchange with a stranger and it could lead to wonderful surprises. But do it through somewhere there is a third party somewhat moderating, like Reddit gift exchange. 😊 There are rules in those gift exchanges to prevent the parties involved from being scammed.

Choosy Night Lip Treatment

I done review on the Pure Smile lip treatments before, and was saddened to see that Pure Smile has decided to discontinue the line. So imagine my surprise when I saw a post on r/AsianBeauty stating there is a new lip treatment that is comparable to it. And to make it even better, the eBay page has it on sale for 1+1. I snagged it up rightaway! However, this wasn't offered through eBay Canada so I just did it through eBay.com and those lip treatments were on their way to me!

A photo posted by @addictedtocrafts12 on Oct 3, 2016 at 7:15pm PDT

The seller was nice and included some point pads as free gifts. I was quite mifted as to why I connected Pure Smile with Choosy. Then I realized, all of the eBay listings label it as Pure Smile Choosy. NO WONDER!!!!

Anyways, moving on.

To make things easier, I'll refer to the Choosy Night lip treatments as the Choosy lip treatments and the Pure Smile Snail lip treatments as the Pure Smile treatments.

The Choosy and Pure Smile has similar packaging, with similar sizes. The Choosy treatments are 10ml each, and the Pure Smile treatments are 10g each, which is essentially 10ml as well.

The lip treatments comes in two flavours, milk vanilla and bergamot. I got one of each. Bergamot is a type of orange, so I expected it to smell like orange. It actually smells like those cheap No Name brand vanilla wafers. That cheap but super sweet vanilla smell with a tinge of tartness to it. I like it actually. Whereas milk vanilla smells of very sweet artificially flavoured coconut treats.

The Pure Smile treatments came in a variety of flavours. They were milk, honey, assorted fruits, chocolate and strawberry. I only got the milk as I couldn't tolerate the honey smell from its lotions and loved the sweet milk scent.

Both treatments has the same applicator, which is not surprising given how they are the same packaging. But this is where the similarities end.

Difficulties in photographing transparent product on a white background while using flash.. =__=

The Pure Smile treatment comes out in a thick transparent gel like consistency. It goes on sticky, and remains for hours. I always put it on when I leave the house for the day, as I tend to roll around too much during my sleep and I don't want to rub it everywhere. Every time I put it on, I have to make sure I have my hair tied up, as it it will cling onto everything that comes into contact with it. It is THICK! But it does wonders. Every time I use it, my lips are just so much more moisturized afterwards.

The Choosy lip treatment is different. It is also a night treatment but it doesn't perform as well. It is a tad bit opaque compared to Pure Smile. It is more of a thinner consistency, and it is quite slippery so it applies more like a lip gloss. I would apply a thin coat of it over the Peripera velvet lip tint for a nice glossy look. I would also apply a thin coat over bare lips right before I leave the house. By the time I reach the office, which takes about 1.5 hours, the treatment is pretty much "gone".

Dry, chapped lips 

A coat of Choosy lip treatment 

2.5 hours later, no drinking or eating. 

Let me put it this way, I would always want to but won't actually put on the Pure Smile treatment when I leave the office, despite how much I wanted to. This is because I know, despite the 1.5 hour travel time, the treatment will still be sticky as hell when I get home. This wouldn't be a problem except the fact that I have a super hairy dog named Panda, and one of the first things I do when I get home is to shower him in kisses. So if I had the Pure Smile treatment on, my lips would have been covered in dog hair, or as I like to refer to it, Panda hair, and some of it would have rubbed off on my dog.

On the other hand, I have absolutely no problem with putting on the Choosy treatment before I go home. In fact, I often find myself reaching for it while I wait for the bus. This is because I know it will most likely be "gone" by the time I reach home and I don't have the risk of being covered in Panda hair.

Why did I put gone in quotation marks you may ask? Well, I am not sure if it actually sunk in, I am not sure what actually happens to it. I don't eat or drink while on the bus ride so it can't have rubbed off. I also know it haven't sunk in as my lips often feels dry when I get home. So it must have evaporated? I am not sure. Hence the "gone" reference.

Overall, I would say this is not a replacement for the beloved Pure Smile lip treatment, despite being made by the same company. But the highlight of these treatments is that it is not sticky and can act as a nice light gloss for everyday wear.

Clio Kill Black Waterproof Eyeliner

So it took me forever, but I finally figured out the proper term to my eye lids! I don't have double eyelids, but I also don't have monolids. I got what they call hooded eyelids. Such that my eyelid kind of creates a fold over itself when my eyes are open so it looks like I got monolids, when I actually don't. (I actually used to have all monolids, but as I was going through high school, one of my eyes started to become hooded while the other was monolid still. Then it slowly developed to hooded lids on both eyes through university. Ah, the wonder of human body)

You can see there is skin under the "flap" on my eyes? The layer of skin above the "line/flap" essentially covers all the makeup I apply. 

Anyways, the issue with having a hooded lid is having eye makeup to show up without being super heavy handed. The flap covers most of my eyeliner and eye shadow, making it super hard to do any eye make up. Add to that the fact that the covered portion of the eyelid gets quite oily so the makeup tend to fall off easily. So I definitely need waterproof products!!

Oh did I mention it's so hard to find Asian makeup tutorials for hooded eyes.. T___T I can't find any. Everything is for monolids or double lids. So if you know any, please let me know!!

My favourite eye products to use are form the Kiss Me Heroine Make line, especially the mascara, which is my holy grail and I recommend it to everyone. I only use their mascara as it holds my curls all day and would not budge until I use the remover.

However, I do have a problem with their eyeliners. The non-waterproof eyeliner is wonderful for drawing the thin lines that I like to do, and for tightlining. However, it does NOT stand up against my oily lids. So it flakes off and smudges very easily, and I often ends up looking like a panda. On the other hand, their waterproof eyeliner is wonderful but it cannot draw lines that are as thin. Therefore, I often end up drawing super thick lines on my lid and I don't like that. So I decided to try the Clio New Born Kill Black Waterproof Eyeliner when Jolse had it on sale.

A photo posted by @addictedtocrafts12 on Oct 3, 2016 at 7:15pm PDT

The website shows it comes with a sample size of the make up remover. But that's the old packaging. The new packaging includes a sample size of their mascara. Since I love Kiss Me's mascara, I'll probably just give it away instead.

I did my research and found that the brush liner is the thinner one between pen and brush. So I had to get it and try it out and see how it performs against Kiss Me.

 Without taking off the caps, the Clio & KM regular eyeliner have very similar packaging. They look like pens while the waterproof eyeliner is a lot chunkier. I actually thought the KM regular was the waterproof one until I tried to rub off the swatch with water.

 Close ups of the eyeliner brushes. As you can see, the KM regular is just a tad thinner than Clio. While the KM waterproof is a lot thicker than the other liners.

 The sizes of the brushes is definitely reflected in the swatches. I tried to draw the thinnest lines possible with each eyeliner, and the results match the size of their tips. The KM regular has the thinnest line, with Clio being just a tad thicker. Whereas the KM waterproof draws the thickest, almost tripe the size of the KM regular.

I mentioned earlier how easy the KM regular comes off, and this just illustrate that. I decided to rub some of my own saliva, because I was lazy to go to the sink, and rubbed against my skin. And..... The KM regular just comes off very easily while the other two stayed. So... This is why I can't use the KM regular eyeliner, despite its ability to draw the thinnest lines! ( ˃̣̣̥ω˂̣̣̥ )

Let's test it out in real life and see how Clio performs against my oily lids!

The Clio is great for tightlining! I had no problem drawing super thin lines with it as I was rushing to get out in the morning. You can barely even see I got eyeliner on in the picture above. YES!

Right eye 

Left Eye 

You can barely see the eyeliner on both eyes, thanks to my hooded lids. You can also see the left eye is just a bit messier than the right eye. I definitely need to work on that.

Oh, mascara is Kiss Me Heroine Make waterproof mascara. My holy grail, as I have mentioned earlier. These pictures were taken about an hour and after I put it on. This is only a simple pinch with the Shiseido eyelash curler and a coat of mascara. You'll also see how it performs throughout the day!

AHHHHHH!!! Hahhaha sorry. o(*^▽^*)o This looks so silly but it's the only way to show the eyeliner on my eyes. Anyways, this was at 8:30AM. So far so good!

Right in natural light

Left  in natural light 

 These are taken around 2PM. If you look closely on both pictures, you can see that there are definitely flaking going on. The tightline is also a bit "broken", as I have no other words to describe it. There are some little spaces in the "line" along the lash line, where it flaked off.

This kept up for the rest of the day. I didn't bother to take more pictures because it was no longer bright out and I didn't want to do flash in my eyes. But trust me, there was just a little bit more flaking off but no smudges. So while it is technically waterproof, it's no competition against my oily lids. The line stayed for the whole day but I definitely needed to touch up on it.

Just a quick comment on the Kiss Me mascara. If you compare it against the pictures from the morning, it's still the same. This continued until I used the mascara remover made specifically for it.

Right eye, bathroom lighting 

Left eye, bathroom lighting

I took off the Kiss Me mascara with its specific remover, and the Clio with just some Neogen Cleansing water (oh my goodness, this cleansing water is sooo wonderful I should really do up a post about it).

As you can see above, as soon as my mascara came off, the eyelashes are back to its downward pointing selves. The eyeliner was pretty easy to remove too, considering I was able to remove it with the cleansing water. However, it is quite difficult to clean it right on the lash line. There is still some remnants left and I haven't figured out how to clean it without stabbing my eyes. If you got any suggestions, please let me know!

Overall, I like the Clio brush liner. It produces the thin lines I desire while remaining on my oily lids. While it does flake off throughout the day, it only require minimal touch ups. I don't get smudges or panda eyes with the brush liner. It is relatively easy to remove for a waterproof product and it's comparable in prices with Kiss Me liners. So this is a good product to have until I find THE liner that will stand up against my oily lids.

Update:  I am sad to report that this eyeliner does not stand up to my oily lids. I did a wing tip and most of that wing has been come off in the 5 hours I had it on... T___T Oddly enough, the tightline against my waterline is mostly fine, but the extended wing has mostly come off. The search for an affordable waterproof eyeliner continues... 😢😢

Peripera Peri's Ink the Velvet

Yay for new posts! Haha! Hopefully it's keeping you readers entertained. I should really stop being so lazy all the time. Anyways. Here is another one, but this time the product is still relevant and can be obtained. ^_^

I got this Peripera Peri's Ink the Velvet in No.7 Dollish Beige Rose from Jolse. I was contemplating for most of the day, on whether to go with No.7 or No.8 Pretty Coral. No.8 stood out to me and caught my attention first, but after seeing the swatches floating around, I decided upon No.7. 

I made my purchase and kind of forgot I got it coming my way. Which was good, because it took slightly longer than the usual 2 weeks to get to me. 

Ooh my pretty. It's so purdy!!! 

 

Okay, let's just get to it. You need very little to have great payoff of colour! I tried it with just a quick swab on the center of my lips, and then spread it out with my pinky finger. That little swab was enough for both top and bottom lips while still being highly pigmented. 

The downside is that this does cling to the dry skin on my lips so be sure to do a scrub on your lips before you put some on. 

Bare lips with natural lighting 

Now, I got the velvet version as it is suppose to dry out as "dry" and not glossy. This does what it says it will do. It does dry out to be "dry". Depending on how much you put on, the drying time varies. But once the tint dried on my lips, it made it felt so smooth. I kept on touching my lips because of how smooth it is. ( ◞･౪･) 

Natural lighting.

The colour was much brighter than the swatch has shown. It was very pink and obvious that I had lip product on. My manager even commented how I was putting on makeup and looking pretty for work. (*´∀`*)

With Flash 

I found that I prefer to dab just a little bit on the center of my lips and spread it out with my finger. It ends up looking kind of like a gradient lip and a bit more subdued than a full swab with the wand. Though the downside is that the product stains my finger like no tomorrow, so maybe use a cotton swab instead. (I didn't think to take a picture of it so the above pictures are not it!)

Last thing about this product is how long it lasts. Once it dries on your lips.. Good luck getting it off without some kind of remover. It stayed on my lips for a full day of eat and drinking, and it still isn't off until I washed it off with some lip remover. Even then I don't think I got all of it out. And this is only with dabs of the tint!! 

I am now a believer of Peripera and its lip tints. I am tempted to buy more shades but I am kind of been on a darker lip shades kind of mood. So I am waiting until they come out with more shades.