About a year ago, my mom bought me a bottle of Kylie Minogue Darling perfume. The best thing about it is that it lasted me almost the whole year, even though I was using it frequently.

Image found on the Internet and assumed to be public domain

Personally, I like the way it smells because the smell is noticeable but at the same time it is not too strong. I am not a fan of perfumes that smell so strong that you have to wonder if the person wearing it didn’t just pour the whole bottle of it onto themselves. Subtle-smelling perfumes such as the Kylie Minogue Darling are great for everyday wear.

If I had to compare Kylie Minogue Darling to Fantasy By Britney Spears , Kylie Minogue wins hands down. I found Fantasy By Britney Spears too strong for my liking.

I believe that Kylie’s perfume is appropriately priced for the value that the buyer would be getting.
Cheers,
Aviva

A few days ago, I finished reading “Gunn’s Golden Rules: Life’s Little Lessons for Making It Work”. Usually, I take longer than 1 week to finish a book, but this one, I just couldn’t put down. Tim’s stories are very interesting and the way he presents the lessons is entertaining, to say the least.

Tim Gunn’s story is very inspiring because he came from a humble background and never thought that he would ever be a media person of any kind. However, his people skills, dedication and passion have put him into the position of co-host for reality TV show Project Runway, where he mentors aspiring designers. According to the book, Heidi Klum loves working with Mr. Gunn because he always has excellent advice to offer.

Tim did not start out as a well-spoken gentleman. In fact, in the book, he states that he “was a classic nerd with a terrible stutter” and was “teased and taunted at school”(pg. 13).

He lives with the philosophy that you do not need to be nasty and disrespectful to people in order to get what you want and climb up the ladder in whatever career path you choose. In fact, the nicer you are to others, the better they will react to you and your ideas.

Tim also stated that “the world owes you nothing”. It is through hard work, careful planning, and meeting the right people that you get to where you want to be. He frowns upon demanding divas and gives reasons as to why such attitude will not work.

He also doesn’t believe in trying to get famous fast, and frowns upon those who approach him with the hope (and demand) that he will make them the next star. Those who try to get famous fast are doing it for the wrong reason and people will see through that.

Some of my favorite quotes from the book are:

“People who are used to having things done for them don’t often have a strong grasp on how the real world functions.” (pg. 34)

“Even if you are a really selfish person and are only looking out for your own self-interest, you should treat people well.” (pg. 51)

“My suspicion is that cruelty to those you have power over is insecurity, pure and simple.”(pg. 62)

“As anyone who sticks around in an industry for a while knows, the people who have the best careers and the best lives (and often those who do the best work) are not the demanding, screaming, flinging divas” (pg. 63)

“You don’t have to spend a ton of money to look good” (pg.127)

“My advice to them [people]: Try to take your ego out of it. You don’t make it about you and how hard your life is. You have to focus on what needs to get done and find a way to do it, independent of what your ego may be saying about what you deserve or what is beneath you.” (pg. 233)

If I wrote every single quote that I liked in this book, this post would be far too long to read. So I am going to leave it at that.

However, if you want your own copy of Gunn’s Golden Rules: Life’s Little Lessons for Making It Work, you can order it here.

It is a GREAT read, and I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I did!

Aviva 🙂

What great books have you read lately? Share them in the comments below.

The following is a review of Stila Lip Glazes submitted by model Augustine York
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Most of the things I want for gifts are sexy lingerie and other really inappropriate items, so when my someday-mother-in-law asked me what I wanted for Christmas I had to scramble together a small list of things from Sephora. On Christmas day I found underneath my tree the Stila Lip Glaze Set.

The set contains eight lip glaze shades (Kitten, Guava, Grapefruit, Apricot, Seashell, Blush, Majesty, and Merry Merry) in “travel size” .05oz containers and is priced at $25—a steal considering that a buying one individual lip glaze will cost you $22 (though to be fair, the individual tubes are full size at .08oz). So this set is more of a sample, see-what-you-like-best thing, which is perfect for me as a model because I don’t wear them every day—just on shoots—so I like having a range of shades to use.

The lip glazes each come in a tube with a brush attached, and they have a click/turn method of getting the product out which I’m not a huge fan of. It took a really long time turning the base of the applicator before any glaze came out, and when it finally did, it spurted out too much at once and I ended up with a little extra. Not ideal since there isn’t a lot of product to begin with, but a little goes a long way with this lip glaze, so it’s not a deal breaker for me given the low price of the set.

The smell and taste of the gloss is amazing—very fruity but not sickly sweet like some drugstore glosses. I think the term mouthwatering is appropriate. They look good too: I tried out a vibrant red “Merry Merry”—which is an exclusive holiday color—and was surprised at how much pigment was in it. It is certainly a step above drugstore lip gloss that claims to have color but is just lightly tinted. Application was easy: it slides right onto your lips in all its shiny, delicious goodness.

Overall, this set is a good value, but it’s important to note that while Sephora is still selling this particular kit for $25, you can also buy a seven piece kit directly from Stila for $19.99 – you’ll save $5 and still get a good range of shades. While I do like the set, I can’t bring myself to pay full price for one individual glaze; so if you’re looking for an introduction to Stila’s products or just want a little diversity in your make-up kit, get this set and go to town with it!
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You can also check out Augustine’s blog by clicking HERE.
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I would like to thank Augustine for the review and I wish her all the best!!
We hope that you found this review helpful and that you will come back for more!

Aviva 🙂

If you are considering colouring your hair, I hope that this review will be useful for you.

A few days ago, I went dark (photos of the new hair coming soon) because a recent catalogue shoot called for a darker colour. My hair was blonde before.

Since I have never coloured my own hair (I went to salons) before, I was not sure how my dye job was going to turn out. I was a little worried that I was going to miss strands of blonde hair and that the colour will somehow be off. A bad dye job does not look good, and women should not have to deal with it. If you’ve had a bad dye job, you know exactly what that’s like, and it’s not fun.

So, I went to Shopper’s Drug Mart, and the lady at the counter recommended me L’Oreal Natural Match, Medium Brown, 5N Natural. Let’s just say, it was a wise choice for me to ask her for a recommendation because that colour WORKS. Not only did it cover every strand of blonde hair that I had, but also it was very easy to apply (even for a newbie, like myself). I would highly recommend it to anyone who is considering colouring their hair.

The instruction that came in the box were super easy to follow. After this experience with L’Oreal Natural Match, I will certainly try their other colours when asked to colour my hair a different colour. You can buy theL’Oreal Natural Match on Amazon for about 1/3 of what I paid for it (which is still about 1/10th of what you’d pay at a salon).

Image found on the Internet, but it’s the same box that I have.

What colour would you like to dye your hair (name your favorite products)?
~Aviva