Blue and Green Eyes

Ohisashiburi! I Went to the M.A.C Pro store after I got off work this morning, and bought three new eyeshadow refills:
Shimmer Moss (green w/turquoise shimmer), Freshwater (bright shimmery sky blue) and Black Tied (black with silver glitter). I wanted to upgrade my collection, and I was missing bright blues and greens. I also wandered around Harajuku and went to the ANAP outlet. I walked out with another hooded jacket (I LOVE jackets!) and a mini-dress. I need to stop shopping after night shifts!

So here's the look I created with my purchases:

From L to R: Shimmer Moss, Freshwater, Black Tied

Face:
- M.A.C StudioFix Powder in NC30

Eyes:
- M.A.C Paint Pot in Painterly
- M.A.C e/s in Shimmer Moss
- M.A.C e/s in Freshwater
- M.A.C e/s in Black Tied
- M.A.C pigment in Vanilla
- Revlon ColorStay Liquid Liner in Black
- Maybelline Volum' Express Mascara in Black

Cheeks:
- Jordana Blush in Stardust

Lips:
- Too Faced Juicy Jewels Lip Gloss duo in Vanilla Ice

Step One:

Apply Paint Pot in Painterly all over lid.

Step Two:
Apply Shimmer Moss from lash line and extend above crease.

Step Three:
Apply Freshwater to outer corner, and outer V. Define outer V as well, in same color.

Step Four:
Apply Black Tied to outer V, blending towards the middle of lid. Lightly contour shape of eye.

It should look like this so far...
Step Five:
Apply Vanilla pigment with a wide brush to highlight. Blend into contour.

Step Six:
Blend with a tapered blending brush between each color, so they all blend from one color to another seamlessly. Also soften harsh lines.
It should look like this now...Feel free to pack on more color and blend some more!

Step Seven:
Line with liquid eyeliner. Curl eyelashes and apply two coats of volumizing mascara. Your lashes need to be as strong as the eyeshadow color so that everything looks balanced.

Step Eight:
Apply blush and lip gloss. I used Jordana Blush in Stardust, a shimmery peach-orange, and matching lip gloss from Too Faced.
Voila!


My new jacket...A great steal for 3900 yen...gotta love end-of-the-season deals!
The Too Faced lip gloss duo I used:
Brushes used for this look:

I ordered a ton of stuff from www.bestbeautyonline.com
This is only a third of the haul...I ordered a lot of Milani and Jordana eyeshadows, lipstick and lip glosses.

Hope everyone has a grrreat weekend!

Just me ranting...about me.

I’m an inquisitive learner, and am always reading. I scour and devour fashion magazines. I hoard back-issues of Glamour and Allure in my living room. My boyfriend hates this, since it takes up precious space where he could have hidden his dirty gym clothes and empty Cheetos bags, but a girl needs to have handy access to references of new antioxidants at all times, right?

I’ve loved writing and makeup since around the fifth grade when my ‘pretty’ classmates started modeling and would bring to show-and-tell posters of their handiwork for the new Coca-Cola or Friskies ad. So it’s no coincidence I fell in love with fashion and makeup photography as well. I constantly daydream of becoming a beauty writer someday. In eighth grade my classmate read aloud an essay she wrote about me and my acute obsession of the many uses of skin-toned loose powder. I never should have shared my private notes and stolen Clinique lipstick with her! (That was an EXTREMELY embarrassing experience by the way, since my dear mother and teachers all thought of me as a lost cause, and this essay only drove their ill-conceived notions of me even further.)

Many years later, I’m still a beauty junkie, and my cluttered kitchen is my crackhouse. I store all of my M.A.C, Stila, and NARS indulgences on my kitchen table, not to mention my drugstore-makeup binges that I hide in the spare bedroom. According to le boyfriend, I have a ‘rich girl’s makeup collection’…I wish…but I’m getting there! Seriously, someone needs to help me get help. Start by tell me not to buy things I DON’T NEED! Every inch of that poor table is covered with empty eyeshadow boxes and lip-gloss spills. Ha, with all the money I spend on beauty products I could afford to live in a six-mat apartment (one measly room) in Ebisu or Ginza! But obviously that’s not what I want at all.

Although I haven’t made it as a writer yet, I have defied all the rules and broke all molds my family and private schools that I attended tried so vehemently to impose. I set my own standards of normalcy and own a lifestyle where I don’t need to be cramped in a glorified shoebox in a glitzier part of town. I can still feed my M.A.C addiction, AND pay all the bills. Besides, I’ve always loved the ‘burbs anyway. I get to spy on my weird retired neighbors and their promiscuous grown children who bike home at odd hours of the night!

I want to know everything about high and low beauty brands and their products. I want to write about their good products and the awful ones too, the ones that smell halfway between rotten maraschino cherries and Chinese medicine, a.k.a. moldy roots and plants (lots of recent organic, preservative-free makeup smell and taste like this, I swear). I want to help women (and men!) by making their search of products an easier endeavor. Essentially, I want to write things that will assure them that yes, inner beauty always wins, but it’s not shallow or self-righteous to want to look just as hot on the outside as well.

This is why I gave birth to this blog. I hope my product reviews and rants help females of all ages and sizes (I’m only 5'0 by the way) feel excited about all the fun, functional AND funky-smellin’ products out there to make us look and feel great in and out. Enjoy, and feel free to write me any time, I’m always here!

Favorite Beauty Products and Tricks

Here are some of my favorite beauty products as well tips and tricks I've learned over the last few years either by trial and error or word of mouth. I have uber-sensitive skin, so I'm not all gung-ho about trying new things but the stuff I've listed really do miracles! Try them out yourself and see what works for you :)

• For irritated and flaky skin on your face or any part of your body, try Mamiya Aloe Nanko (Mamiya's Aloe Salve/Ointment). It comes in a retro white plastic pot with a green screw-top lid. It's also sold in a tube. It consists of aloe stem, vaseline, lanolin, olive oil and cornstarch. It has a calming herbal scent. This green ointment has the consistency of hair molding wax and it's a little greasy when first applied, but a little goes a loooong way. I use it when my nose gets all red and peely when I'm sick (gross, I know), on my cuticles, my hands when they're really chapped, and even my lips. It can also be used as a sooting ointment for light burns and small cuts. My parents used it, and it was always a staple in our household. It's like vaseline, but even better for your skin! You can find it at any drugstore/pharmacy in Japan. Here's what the packaging looks like:

• I LOVE Carmex. I just do. I've tried every single chapstick/lip balm out there on the market in both the U.S. and Japan, but nothing beats Carmex! Other products make my lips even MORE flaky and achy, but Carmex keeps them hydrated all day...which is really important because my office is REALLY dry. The heater AND AC are on at all times to keep us humanoids warm and at the same time, the network equipment cool...bad combo for sensitive skin for sure! It's not as smooth as Blistex or the Chapstick brand, but works as a great base since it matte-fies lips and acts as a glue for any lipcolor.

• Receipts as nail buffers. You may not believe me, but this FREE alternative to store-bought nail buffers actually work! Use a receipt to buff your nails...the idea is similar to wiping glass or a mirror with newspaper to make it shiny. The oils used in the ink give a smooth appearance/sheen. Don't use receipts that use cheap soy ink though, this'll just make your hands and nails sooty and gross.

• Oil-Free moisturizer as makeup remover. Mid-day when I have scary raccoon eyes from staring too hard at all the monitors at work, I run to the ladies room and whip out my Neutrogena Oil-Free Moisturizer for combination skin, dab some on a cotton swab and wipe away migrated eye makeup. This technique also works great when your eyeliner (pencil or liquid) is squiggly and needs to be fixed. Instead of tugging on your sensitive eyelid with your fingers, use oil-free moisturizer to fix unwanted lines or smudges without having to remove everything and start from scratch. Simple, no?

• A Korean nail buffer called Crystal nail. It's a new type of nail buffer that uses a compressed sponge that pros are using everywhere, now available to the public. The block has three sides you use to polish your nails. It's like an effortless manicure in MINUTES! I had my doubts when I saw it at the drugstore near work, and tried it out during my lunch break...I came back to work with ten shiny, beautiful nails! I hate doing nails, so this is a great, quick alternative for me. None of the previous buffers I've owned made my nails this shiny. It seriously makes your nails look as if they have topcoat on 'em! There are a lot of imitations sold now. I bought a no-name brand one myself because it was cheaper. Crystal nail is sold all over the web as well, for about 1050 yen for one (about $8 USD).

That's all I can think of now, I'm pretty tired...spent over twelve hours at work trying to stay awake! Oh, and here is the pretty Coach purse my boyfriend got me for Valentine's. I LOVE it! It's a small-ish shoulder bag, but big enough to fit my wallet, train pass, makeup (but only the essentials), keys and nano. It's from the 'Bleecker' collection. He has great taste, don't you think?
Here's one he got me for Christmas, it's a big hobo. I can fit two magazines in here! It's so big that he calls it 'the couch' instead of Coach...like "maybe your 'couch' ate your phone!" (he says this when I whine and cry when I can't find my cell phone.)Oyasumi everyone!

First Photo Tutorial

I FINALLY had free time today, and wanted to get my blog on! My boyfriend just got a MacBook, so I've been trying to learn how to use it...I'm having a hard time typing correctly.

Last week I bought some new stuff from MAC, including a Mineralize Skinfinish in Light Flush, from the N Collection. It's a soft pastel pink with bronze swirls. It just came out here in Japan on Feb. 7th. I used it in the tutorial today. I also bought a new Amplified Creme lipstick in Blankety, a soft pink-beige. I love the Amplified Creme finish because it's not too sheer, but not all cakey and matte. Oh, I also bought an eyeshadow from the N Collection, Modest Tone, a neutral light tan in a satin finish. I wanted Bisque, but apparently they don't sell that here, so I got Modest Tone instead. I found out recently that they don't sell a LOT of colors here...I wonder why?

I used light gold and plum-brown for today's tutorial. I wear this look a LOT, especially for work, since it's smokey enough, but not overpowering...I love the dark eye and nude lips, but I don't think I can pull off blacks/grays at work...The photos are kinda crappy, it was my first time taking pictures while applying makeup. Hopefully I'll get better at this...anyway, Enjoy!

FACE:
M.A.C StudioFix powder foundation in NC30

EYES:
-Cream color base in Fawntastic



-White Pearl eyeshadow from NYX Palette
-M.A.C eyeshadow in All That Glitters (light champagne pink with gold pearl)


-M.A.C eyeshadow in Sable (muted plum brown with bronze shimmer)

-M.A.C eyeshadow in Twinks (dirty plum with gold flecks)
-Revlon ColorStay Eyeliner and Liquid Liner in Black and Blackest Black


Cheeks:
-M.A.C. Sheertone Blush in Blushbaby (beige-pink)
-M.A.C. Mineralize Skinfinish in Light Flush

Lips:
-NYX lipliner in Beige (not shown)
-M.A.C Amplified Creme Lipstick in BlanketyStep One:
Apply foundation. I usually use an oil-free moisturizer and primer beforehand.

Step Two:
Apply Fawntastic Cream Color Base to entire eyelid. This will help your eyeshadow adhere, last, and color will appear more pigmented.Step Three:
Apply white pearl eyeshadow from lashline to brow with a fat flat e/s brush.
Step Four:
Apply M.A.C All That Glitters e/s from lash line to just above your crease (if you have bigger eyes, you may want to apply color to middle of eyelid). I used M.A.C's 224 blending brush.Step Five:
Apply M.A.C Sable e/s from lashine to crease. Extend slightly past upper corners.
Step Six:
Apply M.A.C. Twinks e/s from MIDDLE of eyelid, to outer corner.
Outline outer-V as shown.Then contour eyelid with edge of brush with a single inward sweep (top of eyeball, right underneath eyesocket bone, does that even make sense?)It should look like this so far...Step Seven:
BLEND harsh lines with a blending brush.

Step Eight:
Apply All That Glitters e/s again from inner corner of eyelid to middle of lid to intensify lighter color.
Step Nine:
Apply white e/s again to highlight, and to blend harsh lines. Remember, always blend from LIGHT to DARK.Step Ten:
Line eyes with choice eyeliner. Lately I like using Revlon's Colorstay pencil eyeliner, then tracing over the line with Revlon's liquid eyeliner. This really seals the line! When I actually have time though, I like to use M.A.C's Gel Eyeliner. Nothing beats that stuff. I also applied one coat of M.A.C Plush Lash Mascara in Plush Black.
Step Eleven:
Apply M.A.C Blush in Blushbaby onto cheekbones. I like to make a 'sideways fish-face' to find my cheekbones, like so. Wierd face, I know...
Then apply M.A.C Mineralize Skinfinish in Light Flush to apples of cheeks. Blend with face brush. I love my M.A.C 187 brush!!!
Step Twelve:
Apply lipliner and lipstick....
Voila!