Icy Tropical Delight

I was talking about wanting to do more makeup related posts. Not really because I'm aspiring to become a guru or anything like that but mainly because I invested so much money into makeup that I don't even use on a daily basis -__-. And in any case, a lot of the makeup I buy is sorta unconventional because they consist of bold colors, like the lipstick I'm wearing and the loud eye colors. I am honestly sucha lazy blogger. I don't wear makeup like this IRL, even though it would be cool too mainly because my eyes are super sensitive so wearing contacts or a lot of eye makeup irritates my eyes super easily. Since I got a new camera, I figured I can take some pictures of my makeup easier instead of trying to take pictures of myself with my big fat DSLR or have crappy quality ones from my Macbook. 

Anyway, I also have a bunch of cosmetic glitters and wanted to use them again! But boy, let me just say that glitter specs falling into your eyes while you're wearing colored contacts is really not so fun. 

(my camera likes focusing on just one eye. Eep.)

It's really difficult to capture the glitter specs on the camera by myelf. In normal shots, the blue kind of just looks like shimmer but it is in fact micro glitter specs. This was the best I could do with some help from photoshop of course. :3

Foundation: BB cream 

Base eye shadow colors: Sugarpill Acidberry and Mochi

Eyeliner: L'oreal gel liner

Lashes: Decorative Eyelash (Japanese brand) 

Cosmetic glitters: (Coastal Scents) Ocean Blue and Tinsel town (silver glitter) on top.

GYARU LOOK ~ Watanabe Kaoru inspired

So I went to Marukai the other day to pick up some stuff and ended up getting some falsies! I actually don't wear false lashes often---more like, AT ALL, because my face and eyes are extremely sensitive and I get really irritated by makeup in general -__- I know. I was not meant to be a beauty guru and this is why. Anyway, so I know a lot of people have been talking about these Japanese lashes called DIAMOND LASH and I actually saw some at Marukai. I was about to pick them up when I came by these other pack of lashes called "PLAYGIRL" and I actually thought those lashes were prettier looking and it was $3 cheaper. So I picked them up and motivated myself to do a GYARU look!

I'm definitely nowhere near a GYARU, basically a fashionable Tokyoite with really specific makeup and fashion style, but I've always liked the style. So this time around I tried it myself!

Here's a picture of me with my natural hair.

If you follow me on INSTAGRAM, you probably saw this already :)
btw add me on INSTAGRAM!: LORAEMON

I tried my best to show you guys the eye makeup. I used my new

SUGARPILL eyeshadows! :B (see last post)

And of course, one for all the beautiful ladies ;) 

.........

I honestly love looking through gyaru magazines and looking at the pictures online occasionally, but I do not know much about the GYARU world. Although I have been told if I were to follow in any gyaru model's footsteps, I'd most closely resemble KAORU WATANABE's style. Which is funny because she's the only gyaru model I really know. LOL I didn't even know she was a gyaru model until someone told me a few years ago on Livejournal. I thought she was just a magazine model in Japan. But she's pretty cool I must admit. 

This was the banner I made! 

I looooooooove her style!! She just looks fierce. LOL

+Lo+

HI HI HI ~ Update* + ARE YOU CONFIDENT?

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I actually blogged......sorry about that. I actually have like a million pictures in my camera that I want to upload and a lot of things I want to blog about and I swear they are beyond just graphic design related things!! But lately it's been kinda...........EH.

And by "EH" I don't necessarily mean things are 'bad' I just mean, things have been boring. Which is kinda not true either.....LOL I don't know.....I guess I've just felt "BLEH". Eh. Eh. Eh. ella ella.......

Anyway, today I wanted to ask you all, HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU IN YOURSELF? 

Renew The Spring

Spring is probably my favorite season. The weather is nice. Sometimes it's a bit colder than I'd like it to be at night in California, but for the most part, the weather is awesome. Sometimes we get those April showers like we did a few days ago. It was actually raining like crazy! I actually really enjoy the rain as long as I'm INDOORS. I catch colds way too easily so I'm not one for jumping in puddles or whatnot. But the rain reminds me of Seattle and call me a weirdo but I actually like gloomy, rainy, drab weather. It's calming.

Grabbed three new CG polishes. (L-->R) Spontaneous, Lighthouse, & Naked.

I'm a whore for pink polish. -___-; and sparkles.

The sunlight hitting the grass creates this warm, almost neon like yellow-green color. It reminds me to keep sporting BRIGHT colors and to stay away from black as much as possible. (I'm a black/grey/white fiend! Trying to sport more upbeat colors while Spring is still lurking.)

And an obligatory cat photo because ya know.....I'm a cat mom.
This is Jax's favorite position. I believe they call it "cat loafing". I think it's pretty funny looking because it makes him look like he has no limbs. LOL.


+Lo+

Oriental Gold BB CREAM + updates

I got this baby in the mail today!
I know there's alot of reviews out there already in regards to this BB cream but I'll see if I'm up to do a real review on it. I haven't used it yet so I'm not really sure how good it will be personally. So far I tested it out on my hands and it smells really good! Kinda reminds me of Korean women who spray a little bit too much perfume when I go to the Korean malls in Ktown lol but in a good way and smells subtle. Okay that was the most fail description but trust me it smells nice.

The other thing I want to try out is the cheek and lip tint. I find it really kinda cool that they implemented that into this BB cream. Like, I wonder what compelled them to add that because none of their other BB creams are like that. So far I've tested it on my hands since I haven't washed my face yet. It does start off really gray/white-ish but it does in fact fade and blend into your actual skin tone. I think maybe the gray is intentional since this is a Korean product and most Asians tend to have yellow tone skin. But I think this is a bit 'too' gray looking. After 15-20 mins I think it's starting to blend in even more so we'll see. The real test is through taking pictures! I'm hoping flash won't make me look ghostly. It also has a bit of a sheen to it but it's semi-matte. I recommend using some powder with it if you're not into looking shiny or dewy. Otherwise from what I can tell, it seems to look very nice and natural which is exactly why I invested in BB creams.

 I don't use any store bought foundations except my Rimmel liquid foundation and a Cover Girl one I used to use a long time ago. My main foundation has always been BARE MINERALS. The thing with my skin is that it's really weird and complex. I swear my skin is like bipolar. Sometimes it's super dry and other times it's gets really oily. Although I have noticed that my skin only gets super oily when I eat something kinda oily. Otherwise it's usually just dry around my mouth and nose. I don't really break out unless I'm on my period or I ate like a bar of chocolate lol so my skin is fairly smooth. I don't like department store foundations either because they tend to be very heavy on my face. I could only stand to use Bare Minerals because it was very light make-up. And although some people might think that's a blessing, I just hate that my skin is so weird. I'm glad I've never needed acne control or anything like that but I wish my face made up it's mind about being oily or dry. Most foundations I've used have made my skin flaky or oil up. So when I heard about BB creams, I had to try it. Since it's not REALLY a foundation, I figured it might be what I'm looking for: something light but has a coverage and can deal with my combo skin.

Anyway, this weekend I'm going to Vegas and I expect to take lots of pictures this time! Since Saturday we'll be around the strip the entire day, I'll get to test out some of my make-up products to see how long they last. The true test to any beauty product is the long term effect after all.

Until then, have a great weekend everyone~!

+Lo+

Pretty&Cute package + Quick review on FAIRY DROPS CANDY BAR BB CREAM

Okay so I gave in to all the beauty blogs out there and ordered from Pretty&Cute.com 
I was actually kinda skeptical at first since I'm skeptical of small online shops in general but I have nothing but good things to say about P&C!

First of all, shipping was extremely fast! I ordered less than a week ago and got my package today. :P
But that might be because I'm in California and the seller is from Oregon. Who knows.
They also have a lot of good Japanese and Korean products that you don't see anywhere else.
As with anything foreign in the US, of course the price is going to be a bit more than what you'd
pay if you were actually in the respected countries. But doing my calculations, you probably spend anywhere
between 1-5 USD's more than the retail price. So it's not too bad! Shipping is free over $50.

I mainly ordered from there because I wanted to try out the infamous FAIRY DROPS: CANDY BAR BB CREAM which is a Japanese BB cream. Since there's been a lot of hype about Korean BB creams I thought I'd give this one a try. I mostly was interested in the fact that it didn't go on grey like most of the Korean bb creams out there. And I liked the sponge applicator because I can take it around and touch up if I need to or go over to people's places without the mess of bringing my brushes with me.

Here's what I ordered. The BB cream and 2 contact lens cases. The lens cases are sooo cute! And they were like $3.50 USD each!

This one is shaped like a bear! The hello kitty one comes with contact tweezers, the case, and a little solution bottle for on the go.

I like the packaging on the fairy drops :3

This BB cream comes in two colors: Ochre (it's pronounced 'OH-KUR' btw. Not "OH-KRA" lol. That would be a vegetable...lol) and Light Ochre. If you read Eki's blog she uses Light Ochre. But to be honest, I think Ochre is the best choice of color for most Asian girls living in the states. Unless Light Ochre is not that much lighter, because I have pretty light skin. I mean, not pale, but I'm pretty 'light' in terms of most foundation I use. But Ochre actually matched my skin perfectly. Perhaps if you're a pale Asian girl I would recommend Light Ochre. If you're CAUCASIAN though, I'd have to say stay away from this BB cream. Why? Most of the Korean BB creams are grey in color but as you've probably read about before, the grey fades after a few minutes and blends in with your true skin color, which is why BB creams don't really have a specific color variation. That's the cool thing about it. THIS BB cream however is more 'yellow' in color and therefore if you have more of a 'blue undertone' (your skin tends to be more RED than YELLOW) I would'nt recommend this BB cream because the yellow may not blend in well but it's worth a try. Also the price would limit for me to recommend it in general.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT IT: The sponge applicator may be a hit or miss to some but I absolutely love it! It blends in my make-up really well without streaks. I also used it to blend in the sample BB cream of HOT PINK that P&C sent me and it works really well.
- Goes on smoothly, blends really well into my skin tone.
- Does not feel dry nor oily. One of the best foundations I've used on my stubborn skin!
- Almost looks as if I'm not wearing any foundation! Coverage is not heavy but at the same time covers my blemishes really well.

WHAT I HATE ABOUT IT: First of all, it's $40 if you order it from P&C. I haven't really seen any other retailer sell this item but the packaging says that it's ¥2,730 which is actually equal to $35USD! So the website is only really making $5 profit off of it but the actual item is pretty expensive as is. You might think, well it's foundation. Department store foundation is around that price. Yeah but this is REALLY small. Like, I think in 25 uses I'd use the entire tube easily.
- Expensive
- Small

I don't want to sound too redundant since there are a lot of blogs and videos about this product, but something you should note is that there's actually 35grams of product in this which equals to about 1.2 ounces. Okay if you know how tiny an ounce is you'll realize that's actually not very much at all. So I'd definitely think twice before getting it. Considering that most of the Skin79 Korean BB creams come in 40grams of product per container and cost half as much on Amazon, I'd say this BB cream is a total rip off! But it does work extremely well for me so....woe is me. -__-; My skin thinks it's some high class rich child. Sigh...

In conclusion, this is a great Japanese BB cream for those with more warm undertones. It blends extremely well and does not feel sticky or too drying. It's a good combination for most skin types. Even though it's costly, if you have trouble finding the perfect foundation or BB cream, I'd definitely give this one a try if you want to invest in it.

Until next time~

+Lo+

Hadanomy Collegen mist

Went to LT today and saw this super cute bottle of Hadanomy mist!! I was actually looking for a facial mist since I haven't been wearing any foundation (I actually ran out loll). My skin tends to freak out though and get super dry during the day, even though at night it's oily as hell. =___= Curse you skin.

I read about this product from a few blogs so I wanted to try it out.
I think it's perfect that they made this super cute smaller bottle because I wanted to try it out instead of paying $12 for a product I'd never use. Plus it's limited edition and super cute! I'll let you know if it actually does anything. I'm very BIG against gimmicky beauty products, especially the ones from foreign countries like Japan or Korea. I know a lot of gyaru bloggers tend to rave about japanese products but honestly, I know a lot of them tend to be bullshit. Just because it's from JAPAN does not mean it's actually better than an American product. But I'm sure for Asian skin, a lot of Japanese and Korean products DO work. That's because over there, they research skin care on Asians exclusively whereas America does skin care research based off a statistic of 'average' people, which includes any kind of race. So hopefully this DOES something.

My DSLR lens is still acting up :(( so I took these on my cellcam.

Make-up station!

Just thought I'd like to share my make-up area. It's not much but at least it's organized! loll I bought the clear container at Target as well as the white 3 tier drawer thing. Pretty nifty yo! Target has these little sale thingys for $1! I bought the heart shaped basket for 1 buck at Target! teehee

The mirror from Costco, which Patrick bought me :3 since before that I was using the big mirror on my closet to do my makeup :( . The drawers have all my compacts, eye shadow palettes, and powders. The top has my brushes and I bought the brush container at some Japanese store in Little Tokyo. Behind my make-up tray are my face wipes and in the pink basket is my lotions, make-up remover, fix+, and other misc.

I've also been experimenting with different eye shadow looks. Glitter!! I'll do a tutorial of this super simple glittery eye lash look later! Stay tuned.