Japanese Makeup Blog

After subscribing to three years of Cawaii, I have a binder full of makeup tips and ideas. This site is a great resource for looking up ideas for Asian beauty. Do know that in these magazines that they tend to go for a double lid so its up to you whether or not to have eyelid glue or fake lashes at your disposal.

http://www.japanesefashionstyle.blogspot.com/

Fyrinnae Liquid Eyeliners

I've been a fan of Fyrinnae eyeshadows since they were Bombshellbaths. They have nearly 800 different color choices in eyeshadows and from what I heard (thank you hours of killing time on message boards), they also offer foundation for the palest of the pale which would be awesome for you pale ladies out there.

Since I missed out on their gel eyeliners (and I hope they do reformulate them badly!) and heard rave reviews on their liners, I decided to order some (plus at the moment they are $7.75 as opposed to their usual $9.00 and free shipping for over $25):

Flamboyant Forest – Shimmery forest green with a teal hue.

Turquoise Tease – Bright light turquoise with coordinating shimmer.

Dazzling Darkness – Black with blue and purple "flecks" of shimmer.

Violet Vendetta – Shimmery dark purple.

Midnight Mistress – Somewhat shimmery midnight blue with violet hues.

Ninja – Black, black, black. No shimmer. Nothing but darkness.

Sensual Scarlet – Shimmery, rich red that may vary between a warm and a cool shade, depending on each user. This shade can also be used on lips (we recommend using over balm or lipstick).

Can't wait to get them to play with them. After sometime, you learn what colors make your eyes pop. These definitely do.

Who are my readers?

This blog has been here for two weeks and I didn't really promote it. I'm just curious as to who reads it? I would love to know who you are! Plus I'm looking for some cowriters for the domain. One girl can't do too much, even on her summer break. (Now I wished I chose teaching as a career for the whole summer off. I still do love my advertising though.)

Diva Cup

I'm going to copy and paste this from my own personal blog. I'm really exhausted from my period. I spent the whole day clutching at my stomach and rolling around. Not to mention, a new symptom had decided to join my painful cramps and aching back. Now nausea is in the list. If this keeps going on, I may have to start using birth control. Something that I am totally against but this pain is quite debilitating.

So here it is:

Menstrual cups are the best things ever invented!

Ever since I got tired of using tampons and pads, I’ve been looking at other altnernatives. Pads feel like a diaper and tempons, I’m pretty sure, is the cause of pain down there. I mean it really hurts, especially during sex that I need to take a break for at least ten minutes so I can keep going. So I stumbled upon the DivaCup. The DivaCup is a menstrual cup that collects the blood that you take out after a number of hours. It doesn’t mess with the natural PH of your vagina and doesn’t have to be changed as frequently as a tampon. My period even shortened a day as a result!

I just wished I didn’t lose my first one but I got my replacement ready for my next period. I felt cruddy that I had to use tampons in my last cycle. Let me tell you, did my stomach hurt again.

I just wished people didn’t get so grossed out by this. I love knowing my cycles are regular and I am as nature intended me to be. A period is natural and not meant to be hassle. Yes I’m crazy bitchy and in a good deal of pain right beforehand, but I will never switch it for the world. Nor for that quarterly birth control medicine. Seriously, how much artificial hormones do you want to pump into yourself?

The Illusion of Perfect Skin - Aspirin Mask Part 1

My skin was flawless in high school until my habit of picking at my skin emerged. Picking at your skin is a big no-no. Not only does it damage your skin, it also scars it. Bacteria and dirt are stuffed into your skin and creating more problems. Avoid picking, popping, scratching and rubbing it. If there is something stuck in there, such as a whitehead or a blackhead, steam your face first to open up your pore and gently massage it out.

Now with the wrong choice of foundation, stress and a poor diet my skin went nuts on me. Steps had to be taken to bring things back to control.

Masks:



My personal favorite is doing an aspirin mask with Queen Helene's Mint Julip mask. Both are super cheap and super effective. Aspirin around $4 and the mask also around $4 for a big bottle. Both can be found in your local drugstore.

With the aspirin, I prefer using uncoated but you can use coated too, however you'll need to grind the hell out of it and I don't have the patience for this at all and you'll need a mortar to grind. Unless you plant your own herbs, you don't need it. Aspirin is great since it contains BHA and is awesome in clearing your skin and exfoliating dead skin. The mint julep mask is that classic green mask you are so used to seeing since you were child. Its great for evening the skin tone and cleaning out pores.

Materials:

• 6-8 aspirins
• Queen Helene Mint Julep Mask
• 1 tsp of water

Directions:

1. Place the aspirin in the palm of your hand. I put it on my left hand since I'm a righthanded.
2. Add the 1 tsp of water (just eye it, you don't need a spoon really) and let the aspirin dissolve.
3. Once it dissolves (after about 10 seconds or so), add a quarter to 1/2 dollar size amount of the mask to the aspirin and mix it with your finger.
4. When it becomes evenly coated, apply it to your face and neck, making sure every part is evenly coated. I prefer a thin coat since it does the job especially when I'm going out later (like tonight!)
5. Let the mask dry on your face. The great thing about adding the mint julep mask is the mask makes your skin feels refreshed and holds onto the aspirin since you don't want it getting into your nose (I did and my nose was runny for two days. Not fun I tell you.)
6. Gently, splash some water onto your face and wet your fingers. Gently massage your face with your fingers as the aspirin provides great scrubbing to your face. Scrub it till you feel it good enough to stop scrubbing and wash off the mixture.
7. Stare at yourself in the mirror and preen. Take a towel to gently dry your skin and moisturize. You can use your moisturizer, do OCM (Oil Cleansing Method, I'll post this in the future) or add a moisturizing mask.
8. Voila! You are good to go now!

Note: Please don't do this more than twice a week as it could dry out your skin. Experiment to see what other combinations work for you. I'll be posting a future DIY list of materials you can use and what benefits they provide.

MAC Rushmetal

image courtesy of maccosmetics.com

Pigment

• Rushmetal: a rich copper sparkle.
• Revved-up: an icy rose with reflects.
• Gold Mode: a tan gold.
• Mauvement: a cool taupe with gold pearl.
• Off The Radar: a warm orange with gold sparkle.
• Copperized: an olive green with gold pearl.
• Quick Frost: a creamy white with soft green pearl.
• Cocomotion: a dirty gold with olive undertone and gold sparkle.

Lipstick

• Thrills: a rosy copper with gold pearl.
• Frenzy: a soft muted pinky-peach beige with golden shimmer.
• Soft Lust: a tan with white pearl.
• Fast Lane: a mauve with silver pearl.

information courtesy of product-girl.com

MAC Flashtronic

Been busy cleaning the house and working up a sweat (another useful tool in keeping clean pores!) Also working on layout idea for the domain and other fun stuff such as figuring out a way to promote it! LOL. I'm going to be adding ads to it eventually only because it will help pay for it.


Image courtesy of maccosmetics.com

Ok now back to MAC's new collection, Flashtronic. Already available at pro stores, ready to be ordered online and coming available at your nearest freestanding stores and counters on Thursday in the US, this collection consist of their ever popular mineralize skin finishes (MSFs), mineralized eye shadows and lip gloss. I'm addicted to their MSFs, my HG (holy grails) consisting which are Lightscapade (great for all over glow, evening skintone, and highlighting) and Stereo Rose (a corally-pinkish color great for blush and my skintone, I have a 4 backups of this.)

Mineralize Eye Shadow

• Quarry Sky - Blue with olive, coral, and beige veining (LE, frost)
• By Jupiter - Light taupe with beige and deep brown veining (LE, frost)
• Mercurial - Yellow gold with lilac and chestnut veining (LE, frost)
• Lovestone - Raspberry with wine and copper veining (LE, frost)
• Tectonic - Yellow gold with lime green, warm brown, and black veining (LE, frost)
• Ether - Deep aqua with silver, black, and gold veining (LE, frost)

Lipglass

• Electro-Lush - Creamy blue pink (LE, cream)
• Flashtronic - Caramel bronze with subtle gold pearl (LE, cream)
• Perfectly Pink - Creamy mid-tone pink (LE, cream)
• Young Spark - Neutral pink with subtle gold pearl (LE, cream)

Mineralize Skinfinish

• Gold Spill - Pink peach with warm brown and cream pearl (LE)
• Global Glow - Mid-tone brown with gold pearl (LE)
• Northern Light - Mid-tone pink with rust and grey brown veining (LE)

Information courtesy of Specktra.net

And to my readers who read this, yes I am pretty much screwed in this collection. It will require a LOT of will power for me not to buy anything lest I wanna put myself in further makeup debt. From the mouth of an addict.

The Illusion of Perfect Skin - prologue

A childhood friend of mine left me a question on facebook, asking what was my secret to nice skin. My skin isn't all that great, it was better just a few years ago but I have a unconscious urge to pick at things which isn't all that great. Now there are some big pores from all that abuse. However with the right techniques, you can hide all that.

Sure, Ricebunny has some great tutorials on her xanga and youtube but her skin is pretty much flawless to begin with, with years of skin care at a young age. What about those has the subconcious need to pick like me or at even at least a bit abusive to their skin or genetically unlucky with acne'd skin?

This leads to an even wider and broader group of the population. What exactly are they supposed to do. I'll be providing tutorials for this area in the next few days including foundation application (mineral though, I stopped using any other foundation since then.)

Yesterday's FOTD

Went to watch King Lear done in Chinese Opera style last night. Have to admit, it was interesting minus me trying hard not to fall asleep!

Face: EDM Light Neutral in Semi-Matte, EDM Concealer, EDM Silk Powder, MAC Stereo Rose MSF, MAC Bronzer, MAC Lightscapade.
Lips: MAC Pink Cabana

Off Topic: the scars above my eye was a result of a dog bite

Ikea Vinstra Cabinet

After staring at this cabinet for nearly three months, I gave up and bought it last week. I've officially had it for a week and I love it! Well minus the fact that my wall is made out of plaster and would be a pain in the ass to secure it on to the wall.. OH and the face that I forgot to buy the light fixtures for it. Oh well.

Dupe Spreadsheet Galore

I made this a while back and forgot to link it. Hope this helps someone and if anyone has a comment, please let me know! Thanks

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?k...N7JXfvR59EatWQ

PS. I will be doing a comparison shot of MAC Stereo Rose MSF and Sweetscents Tibetan Ochre. Its ridiculous how similar these two are!

PPS. On the update of the domain, I need to do some finishing touches and what not so hopefully soon!

Guess what!?

I purchased the hosting and domain for Lilydrop. I may be over my head for doing so but it doesn't hurt I guess. Plus, if that doesn't succeed, I can always host a number of beauty blogs on it :D

Storage Solutions

Someone like me must have a billion and so different pieces of makeup. Well near a billion and so, rather hundreds I'm pretty sure. So what must a girl do when her old method of just having her bare essentials in a makeup bag proves to be too much for? She moves into a bigger and better world of organizations. Its amazing how much you'll learn about organizing your little knick knacks from this. Oh, I never seemed to have mentioned my other (not quite so) little obsessions. That you can find on my own personal site which I'll link later on when I remember to. I'll categorize make up collectors in my terms but you are free to make up your own!

Category 1: The Nudist
These people rarely if ever put on makeup. Sure they might have an occasional lip balm here and there but other than that, they place their obsessions into other areas. Probably will spend a couple of bucks on basic skin care and thats pretty much it.

Category 2: The Essentialist
With them you'll find the them with the most essentials of makeup. I was in this area in high school. You'll have that one to two eyeshadow palettes (definitely not the huge ones), an eyeliner, eyelash curler, mascara, a few lip products sprawled out here and there, blush, foundation, powder and/or a few brushes from a brush set. Possibly one of the sane ones in the group now that I think about it.

Category 3: The Extremist
Usually has a lot, a lot of makeup that they sort of made into a display area and worship it, Ok maybe not to that point but I know there are those out there who do so (I can hear my friends going, YEA! YOU! heh). They would have multiples of the same color but can tell the difference if they are pearl, matte, mixed with other colors, sheer, possibly which brands if an orgy of different brands sat in a MAC palette and so forth. They also have a tendency to hoard their HG (holy grails), especially if its being discontinued or limited edition. They will browse through makeup communities seeing whats new, whats coming out, who has a sale and so on. They will hunt for a new HG even if they have one.

Now that we have the three categories down, you can see that the Nudist would not need anything more than a makeup bag for her stuff. In fact, she can board a plane without much worries that an expensive make up will be taken and tossed (does anyone know what ever happens to those makeup? Its such a waste. Makes me cry a little inside.) She'll never need the hassle of finding storage solutions.

Next we have the Essentialist, she would suffice with a slightly larger makeup bag but if she doesn't like the hassle of going through it, she'd consider a small empty drawer (hopefully NOT in the bathroom, the changing temperature and humidity can cause it to go bad faster), or an acrylic organizer you can find in Target-like stores.

Last and not least we have the Extremist, possibly aka as me to my friends, where we have not that basic makeup bag lying around, its possible that its a number of makeup bags. Sometimes hidden treasure can be those oh so many bags. There is also the usage of sterlite drawer to hold the massive amount, each drawer to a different product or use. I've gotten to the point where I just bought a two door cabinet from Ikea in the Vinstra collection. May I tell you, I love it. Somehow the majority of my makeup fits in there and my makeup I hoard, I keep it in the boxes above my cabinet.

Please look forward to my mini tour of my makeup cabinet!

2007/07/07 FOTD

Face: MAC Prep and Prime SPF50, Pure Luxe Creme Eraser, EDM concealer, EDM Light Neutral in Semi-Matte, EDM Silk Powder, MAC Stereo Rose MSF, MAC Bronzer, Aromaleigh Luminesce Divine Finishing Powder in Cherub

Eyes: UDPP, MAC Goldmine in inner corner, I forgot what the blue was, MAC Meadowland on outer corner, MAC Summer Neutral below brow bone, MAC Vanilla Pigment on brow bone, MAC Blacktrack Fluidliner topped with the following Glitter liners: Divine Line, Peacocky, can't remember; lower lined with MAC gold dusk pigment and I think MAC Satellite Dream; Dejavu Fiberwig for Mascara

Lips: MAC Pink Cabana lipstick

MAC Medium Dark MSF

image courtesy of maccosmetics.com

In my never ending quest to find the perfect bronzer/darker powder for contouring and slimming down certain parts of my face (oh the obsession) I decided to pick up the natural mineral skin finish in medium dark. I'll be testing it out and seeing how it goes. I wanted to get it in dark but they were out so I figured if this doesn't work out, I can always return it for a dark once they have it in stock. Hopefully I don't need to and that this would tide me over (says the girl with two bronzers on hand already) and yea. Too bad I'm pretty pale faced when I think about it! Lol.

Shu Uemura 24th Birthday

Image courtesy of www.shuuemura-usa.com

Any birthday is a great reason to celebrate, whether human, animal or even a store. Shu Uemura is celebrating the opening of his store 24 years ago. With that in mind, a collection of colors and accessories are made. All of the accessories were designed by Hideki Inaba, a graphic artist with his whimsical artwork. I'm personally drooling over the traincase, although I have one at home.

BTB24 Lip Palette Palette of 4 luscious lip gloss shades in varying sheer and shimmering finishes inspired by the color of Japanese organic design. Limited Edition.

BTB24 Eye & Cheek Palette A customized palette for the eye and the cheek inspired by the whimsical design of Japanese organic art. Limited edition.

BTB24 Compact Palette Portable compact palette designed to hold shu uemura Pressed Eye Shadows and Glow Ons designed with whimsical floral artwork. Limited edition.

False Eyelashes Partial Floret Separated clusters of cross-twill eyelashes in black with subtle accents of pink and yellow. Limited edition.

BTB24 Makeup Box Chic pearl-white mini makeup box designed with whimsical floral artwork. Ideal for frequent travelers to house makeup and skincare products. Limited edition.

Designer Brush & Makeup Bag Makeup and brush holder designed with whimsical floral artwork. Lies flat for portability and resistant to travel and frequent usage. Limited edition.

Find them here.

C-Shock - June 14, 2007

image from maccosmetics.com

MAC came out with a collection of eye shadows, lipsticks and lipgelees full of bright colors on June 14, 2007. Yes I am a little late in blogging this since the blog was started yesterday but its still worth posting. With summer just beginning, bright colors are a fun way to greet the coming days and nights filled with beaches and lazy afternoons.

Eyeshadow

• Passionate - Bright red (Matte) [repromote, nocturnelle '06]
• Going bananas - Soft lemon yellow (Frost, LE)
• Eyepopping - Soft limegreen with gold/yellow pearlized pigments (Frost, LE)
• Wondergrass - Intense kiwi green (Frost, LE)
• Bang on Blue - Royal blue with pink pearlized pigments (Frost, LE)
• Romping - Rich magenta with pink pearlized pigments (Frost, LE)
• Big T - Intense aqua with green pearlized pigments (Frost, LE)
• Fab & Flashy - Midtone orange with gold pearlized pigments (Frost, LE)

Lipstick

• Vivacious - Sheer midtone pink with silver pearlized pigments (Lustre, LE)
• Pomposity - Bright raspberry with silver/pink pearlized pigments (Frost, LE)
• Blast o' Blue - Sheer midtone blue (Lustre, LE)
• Overrich - Soft metallic coral with silver pearlized pigments (Glaze, LE)
• Out to Shock - Creamy silver pink with silver pearlized pigments (Frost, LE)

Lipgelee

• She-boom! - Creamy magenta (Cream, LE)
• Mega - Soft metallic lavender with silver sparkle (Frost, LE)
• Sugar Shock - Sheer red berry (Cream, LE)
• Lil' Sizzler - Metallic peach with pink/white pearlized pigments (Frost, LE)

Descriptions from Specktra.net

A New Beginning

I've decided to open a makeup blog. Actually, it was something that I've been meaning to do. I've been blogging for some number of years but never really settled down on a domain name. Hopefully I can do that now.

So what am I planning to do with this blog? Well, if possible, I want to open up to product reviews, upcoming collections, sales (who doesn't love these?), weekly q&a's and so forth. Do know this advance that I'm Asian and this blog will be more Asian oriented. However I will be glad to help anyone, no matter was nationality, sex or who knows what.

So I hope to see a brighter future for this blog. I do plan on buying a domain in the near future and creating a forum for Asian American women (believe it or not, its a much needed forum online. I'm surprised that there isn't any.) Even if I don't buy the domain, I will look for a free forum host, I suppose. Although having a real domain and hosting would be a much better idea.