The PERFECT Face Routine!

WOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~~~

It took me SOOOOO long, but I think I finally figured out a perfect routine to get FLAWLESS base makeup EVERY TIME!!!

 

Sorry I’m freaking everyone with the gigantic picture of my ugly face, but I’m trying to prove my point here; that this routine really gives you a PERFECT complexion!!!

 

I have combination skin, with dry cheeks (at least in the winter,) and they get flaky and mixed with oil through the day…>.> which is really nasty…

 

I have an extreme bad case of blemish scarring (as a lot of Asian skin does,) and problems with redness in my cheeks from years of sun damage (as seen obviously from my massive army of freckles…which I hate…)

 

MY GOALS:

1) Balance out skin colour
2) Conceal Blemish Scarring
3) Improve look of skin texture
4) MOISTURIZE
5) Sun protect
6) LONG LASTING-NESS through the oil and everything
7) Routine must be LOW maintenance!!!

 

Here’s what I used:

1) To balance skin colour out, I rely on colour from foundation mainly, and a light foundation would usually do the job for me – since I have oily skin I LOOOOOOOVE my MAC Studio Fix Powdered Foundation, it is SOOO SMOOTH and so fine….I’ve yet found anything that beats it!!!

2) To conceal blemish scarring, I will concentrate my foundation in the area by dabbing it on (I actually rely on BB cream to do this)

3) Improving skin texture is ALL ABOUT PRIMERS!!! Silicon based primers are IDEAL for this job!! I HATE the texture of silicon based primers however, but since they do the job the best, I still use them!! (looking forward to trying Laura Mercier out soon!!!)

4) Moisturizing is so important!!! I LOOOVE BB creams for this!!! Since they are designed to moisturize, sun protect and have other skin care benefits, it’s the PERFECT candidate for the job!

5) BB cream as mentioned – BB cream also contain PA++ properties, which for a lot of Asians, it’s a plus for whitening effects!

6) primer..as usual

7) Any FINE powder and OIL ABSORBANT SHEETS!!!!

 

Order of routine:

1) Primer (Bare Vitamins’ Prime Time ATM.)
2) thin layer of BB cream evenly spread out; concentrate only on scarring areas (Skin79 hot pink/Missha No.21 ATM.)
3) DUST layer of MAC’s Studio Fix Powdered Foundation – sets everything and evens out complexion even more!! (NC30 – which is too dark for me – ATM.)

 

It is SOOOOO simple and yet it will last ALL day and the results are SMOOTH and radiant skin!!! Because this routine barely contains anything, it also decreases the stress on the skin, which I’ve noticed improvement in my skin condition after I followed through with this for a week or two!!

 

6 hours after application:

I get a little shiny and powdery and dry, BUT!! nothing else has moved, and the makeup is still there, doing all of the things that I wanted it to be doing!!!

 

To touch up:

all you need are oil absorbing sheets and a fine blotting powder!!

MAKE SURE!!! the oil absorbing sheets don’t have a shiny waxy coat on them!! those are HORRIBLE at absorbing the oil and they can actually clog pores!!!!

hold the paper to your nose and T-zone area and let it rest to soak up the oil….DO NOT SWEEP ACROSS YOUR FACE WITH THE OIL ABSORBING SHEETS!!!

this will move your foundation and will also stir up the dried layer of cuticle that’s accumulated on your skin throughout the day!!!

Apply your powder in THIN LAYERS!! make sure to use a BLOTTING MOTION (NOT sweeping and NOT pressing!!)

and only go over the areas where you blotted!!!!

you can finish with a setting spray if you like!!

 

Results:

 

This is worked for me continuously for the past 2 weeks now, and for my situation, it is safe to say that this is going to be a ROUTINE that I can follow through without any problems!!

 

I hope some of you might find this helpful and hope you’ll enjoyed this post!!

 

Excuse the large full face pictures…>.<

 

Thanks for reading!! =)

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MAC Spring 2011 Collections!!! Sneak Peak~?!

My FAAAAAAVOURITE Youtube Guru just did a post on her blog on the collections that MAC is going to put out in the spring of 2011!!

Everyone should go and visit her blog for complete details”

 

Tao’s Makeup:

http://iamgrape1119.blogspot.com/2011/02/mac-spring-2011-update.html

 

There are some products that I’m really looking forward to!!

1) from the Jeanius Collection (the patterning on the E/S are SOOOOO CUUUUTE!!!><): Powdered Blush in “Pink cult” [colour on left]

 

 

2) from the Cremeblend Blush collection: Blush in “Something Special” [colour on left]

 

 

3) from the Quite Cute collection: Lipglasses in “I <3 U” and “Fashion Fanatic” [2nd and 4th colour from left]

and last but not least the Lightfully Bright collection (which is already out online): lipglass in “Astro Cool” [colour on bottom]

I’ve already gotten a lipglass from the Wonder Woman collection in Emancipation, which I will be doing a full post on later, but I think I will be returning the lipglass because I found an almost perfect dupe that I never knew I had…xD

Anyway~ Go check out Tao’s blog – she is absolutely AMAZING!! =D

p.s. I just need to get this out there: I think the new Viva Glam Gaga 2 looks….well…really really bad!!! I TOTALLY THINK they should restore the old Viva Glam Gaga and not to mention CYNDI!!!!!! eeek!! O.O

There are many many products that are missing in her post, but you can go to Temptalia.com for more info on the collections and releases…..All pictures in this post are taken from Tao’s Makeup

Thanks for reading!

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Oh My Lady Gaga!!

Haha, has anyone heard of that expression before? I know it’s really popular in the Chinese online communities, but I’ve never really heard anyone outside of that say it.

Anyhow, I’ve just gone through a couple of Gaga’s music videos, and I just couldn’t get over the fact of how PRETTY exactly she can be……regardless of how she usually looks, some of her looks are absolutely breath taking!

I am speaking with reference her Bad Romance video here, does anyone remember that extremely CLEAN and SIMPLE look she had on??? The first time when I saw the video I honestly gasped out loud!

And THIS is what I’m talking about….isn’t this stunning~?!? It makes her face look so angelic and pure….O.O (somehow those words being connected to Lady Gaga just doesn’t sound right…)

There’s also her on the other end of the spectrum in her Poker Face video, where she looks completely innocent and so damn adorable!

She actually looks somewhat really sweet in these pictures! =D

This is all making me want to maybe do a FOTD and see if I can copy these looks…which will be kind of difficult considering I dislike my Asian eyes….=( 

Hopefully I’ll be able to upload something real soon. =)

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Victoria’s Secrets’ Wish List

Ever since I got that AWESOME lip pencil from VS, I’ve been kind of interested in trying out more of their makeup products. I think VS products are reasonably priced, and from what I’ve experienced with the lip pencil I have high hopes for the quality of their items too~

For base makeup:

I’m really interested in the soft focus foundation with SPF 20. I mean the packaging looks great and the words “soft focus” kind of gets me interested because it sounds like it’s going to be a “light” foundation. By “light” I mean something that’s very smooth and light on your skin but also offers the coverage.

The oil free concealer is also something that I would like to try, along with the camouflage palette which reminds me a LOT of the MUFE concealer palettes!

In terms of other products, I want to try the Perfect Lipstick series. There are 3 specific colours that I have my eyes on: Scrumptious, Cabana and Dusk, they are all very natural and soft colours, very typical of something that I would choose. But from the pictures of the swatches, it seems that they are pretty well pigmented, and not very dry in terms of the texture.      

Anyway, that’s pretty much all that I’m looking into so far. These are all from their pro line, which I think is much more promising than the other line…

The packaging of these are really attractive too, and I think that’s a big reason why they’ve caught my attention and is making me want to buy them…EEEK!

Thanks for reading!

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Teenage Dream Pictures

I did my nails again today with OPI Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream.

Here are some pictures:

A very subtle dusty rosy pink with LOTS of sparkles in it!! It kind of reflects blue in light, so I think it matches the whole Theme of Katy Perry’s California Gurls really well~

HOWEVER!! When I tried to take off what was on my nails last time – which was a base coat, 2 coats of Teenage Dream, a coat of Black Shatter and 3 top coats, I had to SCRUB at each one of my nails for 20 min to get everything to come off, so the glitter does get annoying when you’re trying to remove them.

This time, I used: 2 base coats (nail strengthener, hopefully it will make the glitter stick less to the surface of the nail,) 2 coats of Teenage Dream, and 2 more top coats!

I know, so much nail polish is really bad for your nails, but I just can’t help it!! It’s so glittery and SPARKLY…it’s makes me happy!!!

Anyway…I kind of want to get Not Like the Movies which is an interesting purple-green mixed metallic colour… 

Here’s a photo:

(Image from Google, but I believe it comes from this blog: http://www.musingsfrommanhattan.com/)

Let me know what you think!

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Winter Perfect Hands?

Are you tired of your winter withered hands?? =[

Well, have I got a little remedy for you! =]

This simple routine will guarantee you SOFT, SMOOTH, SILKY skin and beautiful YOUTH LOOKING HANDS, no matter what season it is!!

It’s very convenient:

 
Choose a hand cream (preferably something a little thicker,) that has therapeutic properties. Most people have the misconception that thicker hand creams mean greasy, oily hands, but as a matter of fact, there are many different options out there that provide intensive care without the discomfort! I’m recommending Crabtree & Evelyn’s Hand Therapy collection. This has just the right blend of creaminess, and offers beautiful results!! It’s very affordable ($18 for this gigantic tube of 100g, or $10 for 50g,) has an AMAZING collection of different scents, and is made from natural ingredients!! There’s also a selection of Hand Remedies that targets more matured skin, and has anti-aging affects. 

When applying hand cream, make sure that it is applied to the BACKS OF YOUR HANDS. This is very important as rarely does the palms of your hands lose moisture. Most of the moisture is lost on the back of your hands, where it is more exposed to the forces of nature. You also want to focus in the gaps between the fingers, this is where dryness occurs and becomes the most noticeable. Rub the backs of your hands together, and when it is mostly absorbed into your skin, you can rub the rest of it in the palms of your hands. This method will not only give you the best results, but it will also prevent your hands from getting greasy from hand cream!

 

Other than protecting the skin on the backs and palms of your hands, your cuticles are also very important. Often times you would be able to tell if a person’s done a lot of damage to the skin on their hands, if they have dry, cracked, split, and ripped cuticles!! A cuticle pen comes really handy for repairing these damages and protecting these small areas from negligence. I really like this cuticle oil from Sephora, because it contains healing properties. I have very damaged cuticles from vitamin deficiency, and whenever my cuticles are split to the point of bleeding, I would always trust this product to undo the damage in the least amount of time!

Next in line for discussion is the care of your nails! Nails to hands are like faces to people, they are probably the first things that people will notice if you let them see your hands; so be prepared!! The bitter cold weather can cause your nails to become brittle and fragile, this will increase the chances of peeling and make them more prone to breakage. I like to always use a nail strengthener whether I’m wearing nail polish or not. Just a thin layer of this will help your nails grow, and make them healthier and stronger!  Keep in mind, you should always clean your nails before you apply anything to them, and make sure you don’t apply too much since excessive coverage will prevent your nails from breathing, and may be toxic.

Last but not least, I like to keep my nails clear most of the time, and to make them more presentable I would finish with a clear top coat. This is Rimmel’s nail polish, and I really like this because it dries EXTREMELY fast, and lasts for DAYS! It is also not very expensive and you can get this at almost any drugstore near you.

 

 

These tips and tricks should help you keep your hands looking healthy and presentable all year round. They are all very affordable products and are all very travel-friendly!!

I hope you’ve found this to be a helpful post, and enjoyed reading this.

Thanks for stopping by~ =)

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KATY PERRY ROCKS!!! OPI Black Shatter & Teenage Dream – Also a tiny haul…

The hype of this…Week….I think was the OPI collaboration with Katy Perry, and especially the Black Shatter nail polish!

I wasn’t half as excited about the collection, but I was pulled by dear Sam to go HUNT it down.

BUT when I saw how they paired the Shatter nail polish with Teenage Dream, that was what broke down that wall I had around the idea of not getting it, and the shopaholic instinct sort of took over from there.

So here are some pictures:

So here’s the story:

Teenage dream is a rosy-burgundy pink with lots of glitter and shimmer in it! I usually really hate anything that’s not matted out, but somehow this colour, or it might just be because it was paired with Shatter, looked really nice!!!

Black Shatter is basically a thick matte black nail polish, but when it dries, the formula kind of “shrinks” and pulls apart, like how wine does when it sticks to the surface of a wine glass, and creates streaks like that.

I had, and I think still am having, a hard time working and getting the right control when I’m applying Shatter; if you apply too much, the effect doesn’t show up much but if you don’t have enough polish on the brush, it dries REALLY quickly and by the time you bring the brush to your nail, it’s already dried out too much to work with. It took me a COUPLE of tries beforehand to get, sort of, the right amount of polish on the brush and apply it properly.

This is what I did:

I just simply copied whatever they did with the demos in the store that we bought the polish from. A layer of Teenage Dream with a layer of Shatter on top…although mine is probably like 5 layers thick because I had a base coat of nail strengthener, then 2 layers of Teenage Dream, then a layer of Shatter and like 3 more layers of a clear top coat…>< lol!

The pros with these polishes are that they dry REALLY quickly (which could be a good thing or a bad thing like I mentioned,) and the colour payoff and everything is really good, likewise with all other OPI polishes. (I’m just really glade that they didn’t sacrifice their product quality for the special effect!) They are also very easy to remove, which I find with a lot of glitter polishes, that’s not the case; all other polishes seem like they used glue or something to literally glue glitter to your nails…><

The con is that I think Shatter’s formula is WAYYYY too thick for me, and I would’ve liked a little more explanation about how to apply the polish rather than just like a one sentence thing: “Apply one coat of Black Shatter over any completely dry Katy shade for an irresistible ‘shattered’ look.”

Other than that I’m VERY happy with the results, and I think the match between the two polishes are GORGEOUS!!

 

 

 

Also wanted to show you all 2 things that I bought:

1) Victoria’s Secrets’ lip liner in Ginger Spice – very pretty nude lip liner, it’s a good match for my Cherish lipstick if you want sort of an idea with the shade of the pencil. It’s EXTREMELY creamy but it ABSOLUTELY won’t budge from my lips…the quality is rather amazing for the price of $10

2) Philosophy’s micro-exfoliating  wash – I got a sample of this to try out before I bought it and I must say I really enjoy using this! The scrubbing beads are very tiny, and therefore the result is that you would get a very smooth scrub but it doesn’t hurt your skin or damage it like some of the bigger beads do…at least for me~

 

 

So that’s is all…will have more posts coming up!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Thanks for reading~

p.s…..my, again, failed attempts at trying to very Asian styled…><

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I’m BACK!

I’ve been MIA for a while now…exams…then going to China for the winter break…then school started right after I came back…there was the jet lagging…and so on…

BUT I think I’m finally getting back to my balance and ready to start blogging regularly again…

Before I left Blog I was posting a lot of things on LUUUX and then posting it here as well, but I decided to ditch the LUUUX idea and just stick with blog….(LUUUX was such a time waster…)

Anyway, I have MASSIVE HAULS to post on the things that I got in China, which SURPRISE SURPRISE are make-up items mostly….=)

I also have a couple of reviews coming up, on things that I’ve recently tried and liked; updated skin care routine and products etc.

Actually, there are some things that I would like to say about LUUUX.

While it is a creative idea to get people to FEVERISHLY write about what they enjoy in life to earn different things that they might like…most of the site really is just ENDLESS lists of SPAM posts, and I felt like my blog was being spam by MYSELF when I was transferring my LUUUX things here.

It was really a waste of time, people don’t really read or care about what you wrote about at all, and they just commented to earn points. I thought I would be ok with it in the beginning, but I still had my blog habits, and I was writing about serious stuff that I wanted to talk about, and people just didn’t appreciate it on there at all and I sort of got offended by that….

I think even though blog is not built on a reward system, it has a lot more VALUABLE contents to offers and I can actually get something out of spending my time to read BLOG instead of spamming LUUUX…and this has made me appreciate Blog posts so much more, and which means I am going to take Blog much more seriously now. =)

I think that’s quite enough with the rambling.

Hope you all are having a very good 2011 so far!

Will update soon! =)

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SKIN79 Hot Pink Super+ BB Cream - Initial Review

If you've not already heard of BB Creams, just Youtube it, and I'm sure TONES of hits will come up.

I've always wanted to try BB creams, but never got to. Partly because one of my friends back in high school told me that I wouldn't exactly like it, because I've been using foundation and concealer before that, and she said that I would think BB cream didn't give much coverage or effect and would be a waste of money. So I backed down and kinda gave up on the idea of trying a BB Cream.

2 Years later, here I am, reviewing a BB Cream. I've continously been hearing about how wonderful BB Creams are, and it just SUCKED for me to not know what everyone's been raving about. So I decided that I was gonna try it anyway, even if it did turn out horribly, and even if I had to waste my money on it, so be it.

However, I received the BB Cream over the past weekend from my best friend as a birthday present (it was the one that I've always wanted,) and I was soooo excited to try it out!

The first time that I used it, I just put it over my moisturizer and left it alone. At the end of the day when I took it off, I noticed that my skin kinda started to break out. I've always been afraid of this coming from BB creams, because I have SUPER sensitive skin, and I usually break out when sun proteting ingredients is mixed with skin care ingredients (typical of BB creams).

But fundamental knowledges of makeup told me that I should use it for at least 2 weeks before I fail it since your skin needs to adapt to the product first. As a precaution though, the second time that I used it I did apply a primer underneath it just so that I would have at least some protection on my skin, and this time it was a LOT better!! But I wasn't completely satisfied with the application, because I thought it really didn't give much coverage!! At most, it was probably like a good sunscreen on my face, and maybe it would whiten my skin and that's it.

But, I didn't stop there. I continued using it, and today's been maybe the 4th or 5th time of using it, and I'm really starting to like it! First of all it's DEFINITELY lighter than a foundation on my skin! My skin doesn't oil up as much through out the day, because it can breath through this stuff.

I know a lot of people complain about BB creams not having shade selections, and therefore you never get the correct shade that matches your skin. One thing that most people need to realize about BB creams is that they change colour over time! They will warm up to the surface of your skin, and the longer they are exposed to the air, the more colour it will develop - usually they'll end up being a lot more yellow than when they come out of the bottle. Because BB creams were developed in Asia, they are more concerned with the shade ranges of Asians, and usually if you are anywhere between NC20-NC30 a typicall BB cream will work more or less well on you.

As BB cream gets more popular in North America, there are now a few more different option for people with skin tones that are lighter or darker, but these products are usually harder to find. BB creams are not meant to give really full coverages! They are more for balancing out your skin and protecting it than anything else. So when they change colour, they will blend in with your natural skin colour, and even if there is a slight mismatch in terms of shades it's mostly unnoticed.

Because My main problem has always been dicolouration on my face (it drives me insannnnne!!) the BB Cream works REALLY well for me. Foundation tends offer a lot more coverage, BUT I feel like the pigmentation is overqualified for the job of just balancing out colour on my face...and BB Cream does that perfectly!!

As I become more skilled with BB Cream and how to apply it properly, I can now control how much coverage I actually want, and I can manipulate it enough so that it can act as sort of a camouflage for my blemishes! =D

This obviously is an initial review, because I haven't really used it a lot yet, but I can sort of already say that BB Cream would replace my daily go to at the moment which is my MAC studio fix powder foundation.

I will go into some more detail abou the SKIN79 brand, and why I chose this particular BB cream in a later review. I will also let you know what I think of the BB cream later on after more prolonged use of it.

If you're interested in knowing more please check the source link below, which is the SKIN79 English site.
(I'm not paid or affiliated with them or anything)

Let me know your thoughts on this BB Cream! =)

Thanks for reading this REALLY long post!

SKIN79: http://www.skin79.ca/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=86&category_id=28&option=com_virtuemart&

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Garnier Nutritioniste Skin Renew Anti Dark Circle Eye Roller

I bought the orginial version of this (the green one) about a year ago, because it was really popular back then.

They were actually advertizing on the subway and I thought it looked promising with all the caffeine and microcirculation things.

I bought it, and like a lot of other products out there, it was more of a gimmick than anything else.

It did de-puff my eyes really well, but it did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for my dark circles!!

But over the past month, these were on sale at Wal-Mart, and I found myself grabbing for them~?!?~ O.O

I guess after a certain amount of time, even though they didn't do anything to my dark circles, I liked the fact that they applied easily and gave a REALLY cool sensation on the skin! The formula is really thin and not greasy or oily and my skin soaked it up well.

And technically, they did reduce my puffiness a LOT...so I kinda fell for the deducted price and bought it again...O.O

What I'm trying to say is that: if you don't have a really bad case of dark circles, and you would like to refresh your eyes and keep away puffiness then I'd suggest you to give this a try~ (get an extra boost of cooling sensation if you keep this in the fridge!)

I wanted to make a comment about the new formula though: the new formula claims to reduce puffiness and also dark circles, but it's also added CONCEALING PROPERTIES INTO THE FORMULA!! I mean...COME ON GARNIER!! you don't add a concealing property to a product that claims to reduce dark circles on its own....that's just...so stupid to me!! when I first saw it I actually LOLed because I thought it was like: yes the produces reduces dark circles, oh but btw~ it has concealer in it!! O.O

Anyway~ that's kind of my little rant today!
Tell me your experiences with this!

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