jwklau

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Six Things to do or see in Hackney, London

In order to break up the monotony of droning on about brushes in excruciating detail, I thought I’d do something different this week. I love reading about people’s every day lives: the places they like to go to on the weekends, where they like to eat, the things they see on their commute to work. Toshiya-san from Fude Japan writes regular blogs, mostly about Japanese makeup or brushes that he…

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Travel brushes - Real Techniques minis

I’ve been sitting on this draft about my Real Techniques minis for nearly 2 months now, so it’s high time that I publish it. I didn’t realise it would sprawl into 2,000+ words. Big yikes. I’m sorry. Real Techniques first came on the scene in 2011, in partnership with UK makeup artist Sam Chapman. Her sister Nicola joined soon after. Sam and Nic stepped back from Real Techniques in 2020 but the…

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Thirty-sixth trip around the sun

Tomorrow, I will be 36 years old.  Every 12 years, the Lunar New Year zodiac rolls around again, and this year, the Year of the Rabbit, is my year. For some reason, 36 always seemed like it would be a big deal.  As a kid, I thought that by 36, I imagined that maybe I’d have settled down. Hopefully I’d have a career, maybe a life partner, a number of accomplishments and achievements under my…

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Monthly Makeup Rotation: May Looks

Monthly Makeup Rotation: May Looks

I am trying my damndest to get posts up a day earlier. A weekly post on Mondays when my blog name is Coffee Sundays is just doesn’t have the same zip to it. But alas, here we are, third week in a row with a post on Monday. This will be a quick and dirty post. I’m still deciding the structure of posts on the blog versus Instagram. I have very little motivation to post on IG nowadays since it…

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Monthly Makeup Rotation: Let's Try Something New

Monthly Makeup Rotation: Let’s Try Something New

I’ve been brainstorming on what direction I want this blog to go in, should I decide to continue. I don’t want to keep up with new releases; there are more than enough blogs dedicated to makeup news. On the contrary, I am still committed to reducing my collection. One thing I enjoy are project pan challenges that incorporate a monthly makeup…

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last call for coffee sundays

last call for coffee sundays

This blog is dead. I don’t know if anyone is still subscribed to this. But I haven’t published anything new since 2020. I haven’t been writing consistently… well, ever. Year after year, my domain registration and hosting auto-renews, and for what? This blog doesn’t generate enough traffic for any sort of passive income, so I don’t know why I keep throwing money down the drain. Over the years…

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Six Things I'm Grateful For

Six Things I’m Grateful For

I know, it’s a few days after American Thanksgiving. But, I’m a big believer in practicing gratitude even when it’s not Thanksgiving Day, just like showing love even when it’s not Valentine’s Day.

1. I’m grateful for my husband, Albert.

At least once a week, I reflect on how lucky I am to have met him in Berlin. It was purely by chance and given that we’re from opposite sides of the world,…

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Don't You Forget About Me: theBalm The Manizer Sisters palette

Don’t You Forget About Me: theBalm The Manizer Sisters palette

theBalm The Manizer sisterstheBalm The Manizer Sisters palette

theBalm The Manizer Sisters palette is a great way intro into the brand’s cult product: Mary-Lou Manizer highlighter.

Who else remembers when Mary-Lou Manizer was the It Girl highlighter? All the bloggers wore her. They praised her with the same buzz words: gorgeous, glowy, lit-from-within, buttery, blends like a dream.

While…

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Six Things, 3.10.20

It’s Sunday again!

I didn’t have a post planned for today, but I’m trying to get into the habit of posting every week. I’m also trying to let go of the concept that everything has to be planned and perfect before I hit publish.

So, here we go.

Six things that I think are worth sharing:

1. 750words.com

I use this website to brain dump. The idea is to write at least 750 words, every…

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May 2014 empties

I’ve come to the realization that one of the pitfalls that prevent me from blogging consistently is that I have this habit of taking pictures for posts… and then, nothing. I procrastinate on going through them to find the ones I want use, then cropping and resizing them, then uploading them, then typing some words about it, then hitting the schedule button. Is it hard? No. But I avoid and…

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NOTD: 4th of July

NOTD: 4th of July

It’s not particularly patriotic, but then again, neither am I. Happy Burfday, ‘Murica.

Red: Sephora by OPI Personal Shopper White: Essie Blanc Blue: Sephora by OPI Indi-Go With the Flow

I need to find a new white. This one is pretty goopy and streaky, even after I poured in nail polish thinner, twice. Any suggestions?

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Who are you and what are you doing here?

Who are you and what are you doing here?

Aha, I’ve managed to log back in to this dusty old WordPress blog after not updating it for nearly 2 years.

I keep getting notification emails of new followers on Bloglovin’. I am suspicious. Are you all bots?

If not, prove me wrong. Who are you and what are you doing here? What are you expecting to see here?

Here is a picture of a cat:

My part-time cat in summer 2018: Henrietta…

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FOTD: Monochromatic

Wanna see a makeup look that I did almost a year ago?? *shifty eyes* This was inspired by this Sephora video. I have a couple of the products mentioned, so I decided to give it a try. Turned out pretty well, I think. Can I just say that I love David from the Sephora PRO team? He seems so sweet and down to earth. I also think the model he uses in this video is gorgeous. *stares transfixed* Anyway,…

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8 months worth of trash, part 2

8 months worth of trash, part 2

Let’s power through in our time machine and maybe by the end of this post we’ll catch up to February. Almost immediately after moving to London, I landed a really great job with a furniture company called Adventures in Furniture (shameless plug!) Predictably, settling into a new job took up all of my time. Instead of documenting my empties each month, I just kept throwing all my trash into a bag…

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8 months worth of trash, part 1

8 months worth of trash, part 1

Welcome back to this regularly updated blog! Remember when I used to diligently keep track of my empties every month and showed you what I used up? How about we just pretend that the last 8 months JUSTHAPPENED and that this isn’t embarrassingly late, at all? Cool? June 2017 empties Look, things I threw away before moving from Honolulu to London! In June! 2017! The Body Shop Peppermint Reviving…

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Japanese brushes, part 2

Well, feck. It’s been over two months since I last updated. And yet, I still managed to gain a follower on Bloglovin’, and more likes on my Facebook page. I don’t even know. To be honest, continuing this brush post series feels a bit pointless and incomplete. In typical fashion, I’ve waited far too long to get my thoughts together on brushes and in the meantime I’ve bought more brushes. However,…

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Japanese brushes, part 1

Japanese brushes, part 1

*taps mic* Is anyone still here?? I’m sorry I haven’t posted since July.  Between settling down in a new country and starting a job, this draft post has been gathering dust for about two months. (And yet, despite my silence, my Facebook page has been steadily gaining likes week after week?? I don’t even know. Thank you, though!) Anyway, in the midst of all the crazy bullshit happening in the…