Your avg asian who loves makeup & its chemistry!

No-Poo no Goo?

2009-12-24T20:53:00.000-08:00

I've discovered (partially due to a good friend) the magic of Stumble-upon! Especially when I've chosen only "beauty" stumbles. Increasingly, I've come upon sites talking about "no-poo" and "co-washing" which utterly confused and threw me for a loop. No poo? Someone's not doing the Number 2? Bathing with a partner might be beauty beneficial? I was miraculously relieved when I read on and found that "poo" meant Shampoo, and co-washing referred to washing with conditioner.

These no-poo-ers and co-washers are of the believe that use of the harsh detergents (lauryl-sulfates) in shampoo puts your hair and scalp in an endless cycle of stripping and artificially remoisturizing your hair with shampoo and conditioner. The shampoo strips your hair of its natural oils which causes the scalp to produce me causing "oiliness" and "dandruff". This leads you to wash your hair more often to get rid of the oil produced by your scalp's reaction to the shampoo which thereby starts an endless vicious cycle.

I definitely see how simple and true this is for some people but my scalp takes a long time to become oily and I only shampoo 2-3 times max weekly. In addition to that I use products: leave in conditioner during winter, fortifying spray and heat protectants for when I heat style my hair. This causes gradual build up which I'm not sure would be washed away if I tried to wash with a mild conditioner. Further more, I actually enjoy the shampoo and conditioning process, weird I know right?

Still, the notion of no-poo and co-washing intrigues me, and since I'm on break for the next month, I believe I might try this out.

Nail Polish Galore

2009-12-24T20:18:00.000-08:00

Despite being uber busy and never having time to repair nail boo-boos, I've been in a nail polish kick for the last month or so. I discovered several loves since then: neutral tones, sparkly top coats, and super glitter polishes =)

One of my faves that is limited edition (and sold out already at my Sephora) is Worth My Weight (Sephora by OPI) the texture and uber gold bling glitter is almost gritty on your nails which is oddly appealing to me.

On the flip side, I've also become deeply appreciative of neutrals lately to balance out the color and bling. That's why when I was in ulta I took advantage of their buy 2 get one free promotion by picking up a beige nail polish called "Endless Possibilities" while getting another top coat and pressed powder.

DUDE. You would never guess how AWESOME this nail polish is. It's truly understated loveliness. It's a creamy pink beige with just a subtlest hint of fine gold shimmer. It definitely takes two nice thin coats to get a full coverage but it's soo pretty once you have it! I wore it for two days plain before deciding to spice it up with a sparkly top coat from my latest haul!

I was browsing the Rite Aid a few blocks from my house when I saw clearance stickers out the waazoo and Cover Girl's Boundless Color nail polish were all on 75% clearance which put each nail polish at a WHOMPING 97 cents!

I bought three sparkling top coats in City Lights, Ruby Dust, and Crystal Mist, Midnight Magic, a black with fine blue shimmer, and three creams in Candy Corn, Coral Rose, and Red Revolution.

I decided to top Endless Possibilities with Ruby Dust instead of my usual clear topcoat pick-me-up.

Unfortunately, I've yet to master taking pictures of my nails...trust me though, the pink tone of the ruby dust goes nicely with the pink undertones of Endless Possibilities.

Pic of last week's stab at holiday-y nails:

Update

2009-10-15T20:59:00.001-07:00

Too poor to buy makeup these days =(

Although I bought MUFE aqua eyes pencil last month and it's the BOMB! I also started using the clinique gel liner that I bought this summer in bronze it's it's beautiful and subtler than using black.

Halloween is coming up and I'm filled with ideas! I'm more interested in cool makeup than cool (see slutty) costumes. Like tonight I played around with making myself look rather vampiric with pale and gaunt skin, and dark/purple eyes, and dark defined eyebrows. Don't have much time to really play with my muffa much but from time to time when I feel like its getting neglected I whip out my supplies and go to TOWN for the day! =)

Now I should stop procrastinating and try to study!

Tootles~

New Combos =)

2009-08-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

So I was looking through the few shadows that I brought with me home and decided to do some layering!

So I LOVE woodwinked but tend to do warm colors in the winter and cooler colors in the summer. I know weird, I just like being contrary. Anywho's I brought it along because I [i]always[/i] bring it along just in case.

This fotd is the result:

To do this:
I put woodwinked all over the lid up to my "crease". I lightly blended the edges. Then patted circa plum pigment over the outer 2/3. Next I blended out the edges to my satisfaction with neutral pink. Then to deepen the outer corner/crease slight I mixed beauty marked with a little bit of neutral pink and blended in with a blending brush. I used a little bit of Naked pigment as highlight. To do my blue "pop" of color and to make my eyes appear whiter, I closely lined my lower lashline with black gel liner, over which I smudged Deep truth. I also lined my upper lashline with beauty marked smudged in to make it less dramatic. Curled lashes and a coat of Voluminous and BAM! cool new eye look =)

Well...at least it's new for me.

So that look has actually been the most dramatic look I've done in a while. Lately, I've been really into using neutral pink all over my crease with something dark smudged onto my lashline. OR I go (almost) bare! Sans makeup =) It's been raining almost every day for several weeks! The humidity just isn't makeup friendly so I've been cutting back a lot and sitting around much more comfortable and not paranoid about mascara or eyeliner smudging at random points in the day.

Con of not using much makeup: Not getting any closer to using up old makeup!

But oh well.....

So my next school term starts on the 31st and I'm uber excited. This is my third year as a Chemistry undergrad and I feel like I FINALLY get to the super cool (albeit more difficult) classes! I'm taking Physical Chemistry and Advance Lab 1 (Organic) with several literature/cultural classes. Can you tell I'm a dork that I'm excited about new hard classes? =)

Getting in touch with my masculine side....

2009-08-10T10:08:00.000-07:00

So I went out to first Friday with a few friends in the city, however they failed to mention it was a popular outing. Here I was wearing a tennis skort and a men's tee-shirt without a lick of makeup! Long story short, I was the "butch" one of the night.

The next night I was playing around with makeup when I remember this one post on this awesome girl's blog where she looked at once extremely feminine but yet masculine and so I experimented and slapped on tons of bronzer to contour and came up with this:

While kind of fun and interesting looking in the mirror was kind of freaky since all I recognized of myself was my hair!

Update on Project 10 Pan

2009-08-10T09:57:00.000-07:00

I'm almost done with my first MAC lipstick in Jubilee. While I'm really sad it's almost 3/4 gone I'm really happy that I'm finishing a product (especially one that ran me $15).

I'm also almost out of my Lash Perfection mascara. I think this is the first time I've used up a mascara rather than throwing it out because it went bad!

My too faced shadow insurance is starting to run frighteningly low too after having it for almost a year! I'm on the fence about whether i really need to buy another one of these though because I rarely use it since I have dry monolids and don't have to worry about creasing.

I'm also absolutely determined to use up one thing of eyeliner before long! I just have too many and I want to try out my new clinique gel liner really bad.

Project 10 Pan!

2009-07-19T16:52:00.000-07:00

Inspired by lollipop on youtube =)

The economy sucks and on top of that I just moved out of home and into my own apartment 2 months ago so it DOUBLE sucks. So I've decided to start my own round of Project 10 pan. I'm going to make exceptions for things such as if I run out of lip balm or pressed powder (two must haves for me) I'll go out and buy them but only on a bargain! =)

So here we go!

Thing's close to being done:
Revlon Colorstay Pressed Powder,
Elf Bronzer in Sunkissed,
Clinique Lash Doubling Mascara,
Rimmel Lash Extender.

Of course...I already have back ups for pretty much all of those products so I'm safe even when I run out....which brings me straight back to my problem...D'oh! >.<

CrAzY CoLoRs!

2009-07-19T16:38:00.000-07:00

I've been having lots of fun w/crazy colors this past week!

Yay red! I love red! I just wish I had more chances to wear it on my eyes!
I also entered this into Jesse's Girls Contest online! *crosses fingers*

I wore this one to my friends grad party =)

Yay my first attempt at a semi-cut crease! On asian eyes =) I haven't really seen any examples at all of this technique on asian eyes so I had to pretty much wing it and fix it as a go. All in all I liked it a lot! ^_^

Hung out with a few friends todayyyy

2009-06-19T23:15:00.001-07:00

One of whom, I hadn't seen in over four months cuz she was in korea!!! Can you believe it? I asked her if she checked out the makeup and as typical she said she was more interested in the clothes...>.>

Oh well.....so I also hung out with another friend and she let me do her makeup! =) Just a darker purple smokey eye with some nude lips and a plummy/pink blush. It was good practice though since she has a crease and I had to figure out how to work with them.

I did green today cuz it FINALLY felt like summer (unofficially) after so many days of gray skies and rain rain rain!

Pardon the weird pose I was trying to show off the corners =/

I also did my nails in a white pearl friend with some simple embellishments. :)

Last thing! Here's a dark blue smokey eye with pale lip I did a couple days ago. I REAALLY liked out it turned out =)

and POSE! ^_^

Night time now!

Licensed to wreck havoc :)

2009-06-18T21:26:00.000-07:00

I am now licensed to drive! =)

I was soooo nervous because when I got there, one of the grandfathers (I think) of a girl told me that they had failed everyone before me before even leaving the parking lot! I made a few mistakes which I fixed during the test (like pulling into a parking spot crooked) and the (scary, big, old, black) guy passed me! =)

I couldn't believe it at first! Yay me! I know it's not a huge deal, and the test was easy, but I don't really get that much support or encouragement in my life, especially NOT from my family. The day earlier, my brother told me that I should just reschedule the test because I wasn't fit to drive yet. Anyway, I called my dad and told him I passed and when I came home, he told me that this shouldn't make me excited because "I'm still a very weak driver".

Yes, I'm not experienced, and I make mistakes because I haven't been in EVERY situation on the road. But i'm learning and I'm SUPER careful/paranoid. Sigh. My dad hasn't left the car home since that day. But on to makeup....

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO interested in BB (Blemish Balm) creams right now! I am also soooooooo broke (but that doesn't stop the interest/hunger). I've been watching certain bloggers/yt'ers who use them (like Bubzbeauty and smerfette) and the effect the bb creams have on their face is FLAWLESS. Like korean drama actress flawless!

The only drawback is that I'm south east asian dark. Like NC44, during summer if I don't protect and cover myself religiously, dark. Recently I've been in a kick of trying NOT to tan, because it's not like I'm pale naturally and tanning ISN'T safe anyway. So right now I'm more around NC 30-35ish, and I'm searching for something that'll cover naturally (since I've never gotten into the habit of wearing foundation) and easily, while possibly whitening my skin some.

The Legere looks interesting and apparently it's a bit darker so it might suit my skin tone, but it costs ~$30 dollars and I have to pay the electric bill. =(

I was also interested in the Missha and might get it, but it seems too light.

I'll probably make a detailed list of pros and cons of all the brands I find so I can logically pick the best choice.

So for the past week I've been practicing my smokey eye, and different looks, styles, and techniques. I'll post a few pictures later that I deem worthy (possibly) :)

Updates! Updates!

2009-05-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

Last week I finally got a chance to go to a CCO! it was marvelous! My bf restrained me and only let me get one eyeshadow though...=/

I got neutral pink, which is a muted pink thats a few shades darker than my skin tone. I loooves it!

It's simple and non-shimmery, just what I'm in the kick for.

I also walked a few doors down to the Fragrance Outlet to look at NYX stuff! =) Sans shipping! It was a happy day!

I got Flamingo and Champagne eyeshadow and barely restrained myself from 2193293 other stuff there too...

(Pictures uploaded later)

Anywhoooo I recently had to buy a new mascara (since I haven't had the chance since before the spring semester started) and I decided to get ALMAYS One Coat thickening mascara after seeing Julieg713's review on it. It's a nice seriously hard to clump mascara! Which makes it LOVE for me! Cuz Mascara is probably my least favorite thing.

I also found that I really like Avons Ultra Color Rich lipsticks, not because they're actually all that "color rich" (in my opinion) but more that they're really smooth and creamy with a sheer to medium coverage with a hint of shimmer. It would beat my Jubilee lustre lipstick except I can't seem to find *my* perfect nude shade in their color palette. But oh well, I walked away with a golden beige and a rosy lipstick.

I believe that's all I've gotten into lately. That is, at least for me. My LOVELY dear friend Alex has FINALLY started to really touch makeup! I used to wear some types of cover up for the occasional acne, and maybe a bit of liner. BUT TODAY! we went into different types of liners, eyeshadows, placement and applications, mascara, blush and bronzer application! I was in a special sort of nirvana opening her to makeup! I even bought her her first starter set of brushes from eco-tools (safe for the environment and the purse!) and gave her tips on application. She walked away a new woman and I'm incredibly proud of her.

On another note, I think that I *may* want to start either doing FotD's or mini tutorials on makeup looks...I think mainly out of boredom, or I might start trying to replicate looks by various makeup guru's to see how far my *skills* (if you can call them that yet) have progressed. But alas, it's getting close to my bed time. I'm leaving home for my apartment in the morning and must needs my beauty sleep!

Night!
~Jen

Purple Smokey Look with New CS Palette =)

2009-03-14T18:55:00.000-07:00

I used the fourth column from the right. The first pink & second pink, first purple and second to last color, in the far left column I used the fourth color from the top. The navy blue was used as eyeliner with an eye pencil base and used Naked Pigment as my highlight.

Eeek!
So Bad News: After this palette I'm on a strict NO-BUY! for anything that's not ABSOLUTELY essential (like foundation or concealer!) that means using up what I already have before buying anything new and no more new eyeshadows and such =(

Good News! My bff and I handed in apps for this AWESOME apartment today! HELLOO APARTMENT! GOOD BYE DORMS!

More bad news: I hit pan on my revlon colorstay pressed powder today! =( But that being an essential I can replace it. However, I still have to look for bogo's and coupons being that rent for apartment and utilities are tres expensive!

More later!
Chao!

Yay I got my 88 Palette!

2009-03-14T17:33:00.000-07:00

I've been staring at this palette for MONTHS on youtube and coastal scents but haven't had the right push to get it! That is until coastal scents had a CLEARANCE sale on their 88 shimmer with the shiny case!

I totally snapped it up and then checked less than TWO hours later to find that they'd already sold out! I'm soo stoked with all the rainbow of shimmery color! LOVING the pinks, purples, and reds! (Surprisingly enough being a neutral person...)

More later! <3