♣ Ai's Hair Colour History and 2010 Spring/Summer Hair Colour

Like many others I get bored of my natural hair colour and I have changed my hair colour often. In highschool, I started experimenting with hair colours; both at home and at salons. This is just a little round-up of my hair colour history :D

These pictures were from 3 years ago, when I went back to Shanghai. I decided to embrace my Asian hair for a period of time; at this stage my hair has been growing for many many years and completely dye free. 

Dyed my hair at a salon after coming back from Shanghai... I decided this was simply not light enough and I hate this typical auburn-redish colour all Chinese salons try to give your hair. In my opinion it is so Oba-san. x_x

Gone lighter, got highlights (for the first time in my life) with bangs (here my hair is light brown with bleached highlights). I sort of miss what I look like in the first picture... very punk lol. My hair was super long it reached my belly button :D

Last year summer. I cut all my hair off T_T............ I got tired of my light and LONG hair. So in this picture I had darkened my hair to a chocolate brown and got a bob cut. This brown did not stay well in my hair, it soon faded to a light brown.

I liked this hair colour but it was completely unexpected... I used L'oreal Perfect 10 in Light Ash Brown. I was expecting to the colour to be dark and my hair colour totally did not match the colour shown on the box. Regardless I thought this colour was good for winter since I wear lots of black.

2010 Spring/Summer Hair Colour:

Since my roots were about an inch long and my bf have been asking me to darken my hair for more than 6 months lol...  

I used L'oreal Excellence Pro-Keratine in Medium Ash Brown (F1). I never knew before I bought this hair dye but hair is mostly made of Keratine, and your hair loses Keratine over time. This hair dye is suppose to "fortify and revitalize" your hair so it is soft and silky.

(Before)                                                      (After)

As you can see my hair is shinier after the dye job :3 My hair looks more ash-tone than the box (I love ash~), but in sun light it looks more brown. 

I am going to leave you with "how to style with curlers" by Rasysa. I followed the tutorial, but only tried with the bottom of my hair. I introduced Rasysa to Mei and since then we always use the site to find hair inspirations.

*Side Note: 

Me and Mei are uber busy for the next 2 weeks due to project deadline and finals, so updates might come slower >< sorry readers. Mei is having a fever at the moment; please get well soon. >''''<

♪ Makeup tips for Asian double lid with no eye crease

Today's tutorial is particularly for Asian girls like me who has double lid that is not so obvious: this means you have double lid but no eye crease! So when the eyes are open the fold sometimes gets lost... This look is basically to make the double lid more obvious, so to speak :3

There are many tutorials about creating deeper set eyes for Asian girls with smokey eye makeup; however it sometimes seem too much and not natural for day time.


Products used

Face:
- Covermark concealer stick in Y-1
- Mary Kay mineral foundation in Ivory 1
- Avon mineral blush in Radiance
Eyes:
- Sweets Sweets eye palette by Cezanne in PE6
- Lise Watier waterproof eye pencil in Tres Noir
- Kate wax mascara
- Neo Angle tritone circle lens Brown

E.L.F eyebrow kit in Light

Foggia hair wax

The usual rule for eyeshadow is to apply the darker shade at the outter corner and blend in; but in order to put emphasis on the fold, I'm applying the darker shade ALONG the fold line. It's better to use an earthy tone palette because the eye shadow is to help creating illusion of deeper eye instead of for showing off nice colours...

Steps for eyes:

• Apply B as overall shade.
• Apply C along the fold line.
• Line upper eye line and extend it to match the line created by C.
• Curl lashes and apply mascara
• Lightly line bottom eye line.

*Somehow the first close up picture looks almost like my eye is bruised lol, but the "line of shadow"won't show up that obvious once you curl the lashes and apply mascara.

Your "line of shadow" should look something like this:

The finished eye look.

Whole face effect. My double lid seems much more defined and obvious; this gives a deeper set effect even though I don't have eye crease.

P.S. Comparison of before hair wax and after! It takes 10 seconds to do and really makes a difference; so I never skip this step even when I'm in a rush!

Before: super flat!!

After: more volumed and airy~ it also makes my face look much smaller :D

Notice even though I'm looking up, you can still see my fold. Usually they get lost! :D

I hope you enjoyed the look :D And thank you everyone who followed us! It's so hard to believe we have 50 followers! :D Me and Ai are thinking of doing video for the next post; to properly thank everyone that reads our blog and to chat about beauty; i.e. recent favourite products; recent failure purchase etc.. please please give us some suggestions about what topic you would be interested to hear about! :D

♣ Circle Lens Review: EOS Adult Brown

Happy "above 10°C"~ Weather is so wonderful this week, even with all my workload I try to walk outside. (slacking =_=;;;)

Me and Mei are circle lens addicts... hence the review :D

Info:

Brand:  EOS Medical., Ltd
Model: Adult Brown
Origin: South Korea

Water Content: 42%

Diameter/Base Curve: 14.0mm/8.6mm
Life Span: 1 Year

Natural Light:

Indoor Light:

Flash:

excuse my bangs in the pictures...

Comfort: 8/10

The lenses are comfortable, I can wear them for 9+ hours no problem. These EOS lenses were actually thinner than GEO lenses, but personally I still find GEO lenses more comfortable and less drying. I wore these lenses on a ski trip and they performed fine; no need for eye drops and other hassle.

Colour/Design: 8/10

The EOS lenses are not exactly brown, they can be perceived as pale/grey-ish gold or even grey if its a quick glance due to its light colour. Even though the colour is light you can see the transition from my natural eye colour to the lenses are quite natural and flawless (see natural light & indoor light); they only look fake when you use flash to take pictures. The design of these lenses makes your eyes look sparkly and glossy - almost wolf/animal like.

Enlargement: 6/10

The outer rim of most circle lenses are outlined with darker colour or black to create the illusion of larger eyes. The outer rim of the EOS lenses are outlined in lilac/light purple, so enlargement does exist but it is a subtle effect. You can actually see its enlarging effect in the above picture comparisons, but I would prefer dolly-er looking lenses. To show you what I mean... 

Comparison with GEO Nudy Browns (L: EOS Adult Brown, R: GEO Nudy Brown):

(Natural)

(Indoor) 

Nudys make my eyes look round and dolly~ (but less sexy lol.)

Overall: 7/10

I like these lenses due to its colour and effect, but I find there is one problem. These lenses do not look good without eye makeup, at least imo. Here is the proof:

Compare left (full makeup) to the right (less makeup). I find my eyes do not "pop" when I wear these lenses and they are in need of liner or heavier eye makeup.

(less makeup)                                            (full makeup)

(less makeup)

(full makeup)

Hmm.. What do you guys think? 

I buy my circle lenses from Meigo Shop. They ship worldwide for free; service is wonderful and quick, tracking number always provided (if your impatient like me and check shipping status 247...).

*Side Note:

FOTD:

The pictures above with liner and heavier makeup look so alien to me... This is so much more normal, I don't really recognize the other me lol.

(wearing GEO Nudy Brown)

Thank you Serena for awarding us with the "I <3 Your Blog" Award~ 

Me and Mei are nominating 15 blogs that we newly discovered and love :)

• bang bang she shoots
• Bihada diaries
• fresh.elle
• Girlish Mood
• Inspired by beauty
• kittyeatdog
• KUROXDOLL
• littomokaa
• Makeup and Life
• My Beauty Spot
• serenene
• SimplyMelMel
• stellarvixen
• swtexcape
• The Beauty Journal
  
• White Rabbits Time

*edit 03/17/2010:  For some reason, White Rabbit Time blog  is not accessible anymore, so we decided to nominate anther great blogger, Michelle of Beauty Journal. I hope your blog gets fixed soon miss p~

Have fun ~ <3

♪ Mei's FOTD: simple sailor girl look

I'm a huge lover of hats, they can easily add fashion element in an outfit; today's look is super easy; point of this look is definitely the hair+ hat. For a day look, I kept the face makeup natural and eye makeup minimal with a punch of lip colour.

Eyes

• Revlon Colorstay eyeshadow in Sterling Rose (I only used the grey colour)
• Using a soft eye pencil to extend upper eye line
• Curl lashes and apply mascara
• Line 2/3 of the bottom eye line VERY lightly

Lip

For the sailor girl look, a punch of lip colour is essential; I used NYX round lipstick in Doll; which is a very soft and dewy pinky red; perfect for a day look.

Hair

Wear your beret hat with bare forehead and bouncy curls for face slimming effect; I used 2 velcro rollers for each side; and used hot roller on the ends to give some extra curl. Use a pin at the back of the hat to hold it in place. My hat is from Uniqlo for only equivalent to $10 :P

Face

• Covermark concealer stick in Y-1
• Mary Kay mineral foundation in Ivory 1
• Diorshow face loose powder (blush) in Catwalk Pink

I hope you enjoyed the look! :D

At the end of this entry, me and Ai would like to thank Serena for giving us the Sunshine Award! We are so honored that you find us inspirational, and here are 12 other awesome bloggers that inspire us!

• a little bit of Eki
• Bang bang she shoots
• Bihada diaries
• Catalina of ♥
• fresh.elle
• kittyeatdog
• My beauty spot
• stellarvixen
• Style SUZI
• swtexcape
• The makeup melody
• YUKLUI STYLE

♣ Step-by-step Lash Sculpting Tutorial

This post will touch upon your relationship with your lashes. Some might have a love and hate relationship with their lashes (most Asians do), but what we are trying to achieve today is to sculpt your lashes so the hate can be eliminated from this relationship :3 My attempt to sound like a therapist: FAIL.

Some of the readers commented on my lashes so I decided to share how I sculpt my lashes. Like everyone who has Asian lashes; my lashes are pin-straight, and lacking in volume.

Here we go~

(A) Shu Uemura lash curler
(B) Sephora heated lash curler
(C) Maybelline Full N' Soft waterproof mascara
(D) Sephora Lash Plumper mascara
(E) Lash comb







Bare:

(wearing GEO Honey Wing circle lenses)

As you can see my lashes are barely visible...

Step 1: Curl Lashes

• Do not just curl your lashes at the base; your lashes will bend at 90 degrees x_x... you are trying to achieve a fan-like-effect. 
• As you move from the base, curl 4 to 5 times until you reach the tips of your lashes. Repeat until desired effect is achieved.
• Now curl only at the base for 5 seconds to hold shape.

Step 2: Apply Base Mascara

• To keep curl you should always use waterproof mascara, they have more wax content compared to non-waterproof. OR look for a mascara with a dryer formula; they will not weight your lashes down and keeps better curl.
• Always zig-zag when applying your mascara (see pic above). When you zig-zag, the brush helps to separate your lashes and coat your lashes evenly.
• Use a lash comb to separate your lashes if they become clumpy; comb while your mascara is wet or you will end up pulling your lashes!!!

 

After 2 coats of waterproof mascara; here I am using Maybelline Full N' Soft waterproof mascara.

Step 2.5: Apply Primer 

I did not use a primer, but if you are using a primer you should apply it after your base/waterproof mascara in order to keep your curl intact. Apply the primer focusing on base to middle section of your lashes. Most primers on the market have poor ability to keep curl but does elongate and create volume. I will recommend some primers at the end of the tutorial~

Step 3: Curl Lashes AGAIN

Using a heated lash curler focus on curling the tips of your lashes (see the arrows in pic) to create that fan-like-effect, this will also clean any spider-leg looking tips. 

Curl your bottom lashes with heated curler.

After curling your lashes, it should look something like this.

Step 4: Create Volume

• When applying your volume mascara, zig-zag and focus on the base to middle section (see pic above) of your lashes, if you apply excessive amount of volume mascara over the entire length of your lashes, it is easy to create spidery lashes and the tips of your lashes will be clumpy :(
• Avoid using a lash comb now... unless you have really clumpy application; at this stage your lashes already have 3 coats of mascara using a lash comb will tug and pull on your lashes.

2 coats of volume mascara should look something like this.

Step 5: Clean/Sculpting

• We are trying to achieve a fan-like-effect therefore the lashes that are too long or have clumpy ends must be cleaned/sculpted to the appropriate length.
• I have a few lashes with spider-leg-ends that are too long (see pic above); I used my finger to pull the excess mascara off the lash tips.

The end result :)

Most days I wear only mascara (for eye makeup)... I think it's enough to define my eyes alone if applied correctly ><.

Side Note:

If you want long lashes I highly recommend using a lash growth serum daily. I have religiously used lash serums every night for the past 2 years and I really believe they have made a difference to my lashes; in terms of length and volume. Currently I am using...

(F) Ardell Brow & Lash Growth Accelerator

*Recommendation: 

High-end Mascara:

• Shu Uemura Mascara Basic (base): HG HG HG, that should explain all. Could be applied over and over again, will never clump.
• MAC Fiber Rich lash (volume): HG for volume and lengthening but could get messy.
• Clinique High Impact mascara (volume): Good overall volume mascara.

Drugstore Mascara:

• Maybelline Full N' Soft waterproof (base): My HG for drugstore base, hold curl and separates.
• Maybelline Volum'Express (volume): I think this is one of the mascara that can do it all, holds curl and gives volume. 

Fool-proof Mascara:

• Anna Sui Long: Fiber mascara, holds curl. You really cannot go wrong.

Primer:

• MAC Prep + Prime lash: Pretty good but can get messy and weight your lashes down if not careful.
• Shiseido The Makeup Mascara Base: recommended by most for Asian lashes.