♣ mad hatter with a haircut

 hat: f21 & bailey / dress: aa u neck dress

 cardigans: f21, vintage / tshirt: ?? / jeans: killcity / ankle cowboy boots: aldo / scarf: h&m / ring: xVELVETx

 

Got my hair trimmed again today with subtle changes. It was getting too long... I don't know if I will attempt long hair again. Sorry readers, I know this is suppose to be a beauty blog but I have not posted anything related to makeup lol. maybe next post? my daily routine is only base makeup, mascara, and lipstick... :[

p.s. for readers in T.O. who would like a cut, I can give you the number to my hairstylist. She is awsome.

♪ Lotd (Vertical mixed curls) + Guerlain BB cream (??)

I posted tutorial for Horizontal curls before; this post is not a tutorial (I will if anyone wants to see :) I haven't done this kind of vertical and mixed curls for a while! It was kind of fun doing it :PP
Basically vertical curls means holding your curling iron vertically, and mixed means inwards and outwards mixed!
This technique creates obvious curls that's a little messy and a glamorous feel
I did this as basically a day look so I matched it with rather simple makeup :)



Half-updo with this hair, it's very simple! All you need is two pins! It's good for dinner, dates etc,, anything that you need to add a little more soft femininity :>



I have started a "Rediscovering Makeup" project after seeing Nic nic's~ and I recently started using this Guerlain product again, Creme Camphrea-Anti Blemish Care.



Back discription: Covers and clears up the superficial imperfections of oily skin. Apply locally.

I don't really know how to call it because it is like a foudation but much more natural, it is thick but not dry, so very easy to blend out. So I decided to call it BB cream lol, since the definition of BB cream is Blemish Balm, and "Balm" is the exact word to describe the texture of this product, thick but easy to blend. BB cream is supposed to heal blemishes like this product as well. I only use it as a concealer (except for my under eye) on spots to covers and some on my cheeks to cover redness.
I do notice my pimples NOT getting irritated after applying this; compare to using regular concealers, they sometimes irritate pimples and make them worse.
The colour though is on the pink side, as my skin is actually quite pink I find it ok for me; some people might find this shade too pink.


I hope everyone had a good weekend! Thank you new followers~ we have reached more than 100 followers!! :DDD
Thank you everyone for liking us and supporting me while Ai is gone :>
See you next time~~

♪ Makeup & hair for hats

I love hats! I have an obsession with accessories such as hats, scarfs, belts etc, I actually took these pics days ago, I was planning to do a video tutorial but since it hasn't been done yet, I thought I would post this on blogger first :)

Makeup for hats should focus on:

• under eye concealer
• bottom eye makeup

Hats tend to cast shadow to darken your black circle so concealer is a key (however I hate to wear loads of concealer so you can still see some darkness under my eyes); and for the same reason we need to add more impact on our bottom eye line. I prefer using shimmer liner or wet a shadow to do my bottom liner instead of harsh black liner or liquid liner because it is for day time after all :) and don't forget to do bottom lashes~

Eye products

• Guerlain shadow Touche de Bronze N.280
• Guerlain Divinora eye pencil (shimmer) Bronze Noir N.7
• Clinique high impact mascara

Hair for hats should be styled after wearing the hat, you need to make extra volume with the hair thats showing to balance the top visually; your hair easily looks flat with a hat so don't think hats are only to save the bad hair days! You still need to style them~!
I usually use hot rollers after wearing the hat, and of course hair sprays to set and add volume.

Army style hat: I loved this hat in winter & fall, but Toronto somehow got reeeeally cold last week :<

This spring/summer's hot item: Boater hat



An OOTD with boater hat :D


What I'm wearing:

• LDS boater hat
• H&M border shirt
• Urban Outfitter ripped jeans
• Vintage belt
• Lowry's Farm wedge shoes with ankle strap
  

♪ Hair tutorial: Horizontal curl (Mei's first video!)

This Spring/Summer the biggest trend with hair style is Horizontal Curl (平巻き) basically it just means to hold your culer flat (parallel to floor) when you are curling the hair instead of vertically.
I found two really cute drawings explaining the difference.

Horizontal Curl

Vertical Curl

The result can look quite different depending on the length of your hair and the way you style it;



The curls you get from Horizontal curl looks more soft and subtle than Vertical curl or Mixed curl; it's more cute and is good for day look; on the other hand Vertical or Mixed curl is good to achieve a more "gorgeous" look







Here is the video tutorial I did for this hair, this is my first video~~:D Subscribe me if you like it :DD




Finaly the eye make today :D I hope you liked the video and tell me your suggestions~!

♣ 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. >''''<

♪ 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

♪ Hair Styling for Thin-hair & Mei's Hair History

I personally have very very fine and very very thin hair... so my hair history is basically a constant battle with my super thin hair and a never ending search for volumizing products. = =
Also my hair falls out easily espacially in spring, fall and winter; it could be Toronto's weather and water; it could be because my scalp is also sensitive just like my skin. But I do notice my hair stop falling when I'm in Japan... when I searched online, I found out that Canada's water is very "hard", which means it contains lots minerals, which can cause hair loss... while Japan's water is very "soft".
Anyhow, basically my hair styling challenge is that I need to add lots volume in my hair but can't use too much products to irritate my scalp (i.e root lifting sprays!); I have found some good product over the years to add volume and is relatively gentle on the hair.

Hair brushes


From left to right:

• Goody Ouchless comb, to use on wet hair for detangling; if you also have thin hair that tend to fall off, don't ever comb your hair with your fingers when it's wet!
• Goody blow drying brush 2 1/4", my favourite hair brush to add volume, because it actually doesnt pull my hair at all, unlike the thinner ones.
• Conair blow drying brush 1 1/4", to add curl while blow drying; like I said the thinner ones pull your hair a little harder; I stopped using it ever since I got a better alternation lol, which is the Ione blow dryer I will introduce later.

Velcro hair rollers

All I use is these 6 lol, in two different sizes of 1 3/4" and 1 1/2" . These don't harm your hair as much as the hot rollers, however they don't really create curls; they basically just add wave and volume. If anyone is interested, I can do a tutorial on them next time :)

Hair styling products

• Tresemme Tres Two ultra fine hair spray. The BEST hair sprey ever for natural hold! This was introduced by Ai and it has become my holy grail hair sprey too. It's super fine and has a rather ok hold considering how light it is; it makes your hair volumed without looking or feeling like you have hair sprey. Another plus is that it smells great! It has a very fresh and feminine smell~
• Tresemme Heat Tamer Spray. I use this prior to blow dryer and hot rollers; after a long time you do notice a difference. It's super light and leaves literally no weight; but the smell... I give it a 6, it has one of those typical hair product smell.

Blow dryer and hot roller

• Conair hot roller in 1 1/2". Nothing much to say except these are your common drug store hot rollers lol = = these are not perticular damaging, probably because I don't use them on my whole head daily and I always use a pretector; but I'v started to realise I need to invest on a good hot roller that is more gentle on my hair.
• Ione blow dryer; I got this in Japan and it's the BEST! It comes with 2 types of brush head, one for volume and one for adding curls; or you can use it with no brush head as a conventional blow dryer. I usually use the bottom brush head when I blow drying, believe or not, it's actually a lot faster than just blow drying with the conventional type. It has Normal and Hair care mode, so when I use the brushes I always set the power on Hair care, which supposed to reduce frizz while blow drying; I use the blow drying like how you would normally with a round brush: lift the roots, roll the brush and brush outwards to add volume. This awesome blow dryer shrinked my get ready time by at least 10 mins. I think you can find similar product made by Braun or order them online :>

Hair wax

I'm a big fan of hair wax! As anyone with flat thin hair should be! :p Japan doesn't make very good hair sprey :p but they do make the best hair wax! I think these should be easily found in Asian beauty stores; in Toronto that would be Pacific Mall for sure.

From left to right, soft to hard.

• Lucidol Perm Hair Wax (Loose Styling) as you can see it's a very liquidy texture basically like a thick serum; these are just for smoothing away frizz and flyaway. I have rather oily hair, so when I use them I just rub some on both hands and "smooth" my hair from top to bottom BARELY touching my hair. Otherwise you might end up with greasy looking hair.
• Mod's Hair wax (Airy Bob) The best hair wax for short~ medium hair in my opinion. It's not thick and easy to spread in hands, and does not leave the hair sticky or bulky; and it smells super nice!
• Lucidol Designing Pot (Smash Fixer) this wax is pretty good for adding volume and setting style; but I find it sticky... I completely abandoned it after Mod's Hair came out with the Airy Bob this summer lol.
• Foggia wax: apparently a classic item used by professionals; it is a pretty hard wax with almost no stickiness and is very mat. I find it a very average product in all aspects, volume, holding power, naturalness and smell; however as my hair is growing longer and longer I'm using this one more than the Airy Bob now... because my hair is not bob anymore! This is kind of a wax that does it all but all very average. lol

Although my hair's natural condition is pretty bad... thin and fine with no body whatsoever; I actually always get complimented on my hair not for its good quality but the style lol... = = I seriously feel that if I can do it, anyone can! So here I present to you~~ Mei's hair history :D

About 3 years ago... I had such long hair... for me! because I can never leave my hair alone lol. My hair is not dyed at this time; I like dying my hair but at that time I was trying to keep it healthy. Me and my boyfriend love these stuffed toy catching machines lol, I was complaining cuz that's not the one I wanted! lol

I dyed my hair to medium brown; and got bangs and new hair cut! This styling above is done by the salon for photoshoot for www.rasysa.com ... too many rollers lol! There is no way I have time to do all that on daily basis; I still like my own styling better! I used 2 velcro roller for top and 2 on each side :>




And~~~ I got short hair! Last winter :D

I loved my short bob!! And I dyed my hair to light brown. This styling is also done by the same salon; which I have tried to copy afterwards lol. I love how the bob cut made my hair so volumized and no hair falling off whatsoever when showering! :D Besides the cut is super face slimming!



The only thing with short hair is.... I completely look like a little boy without makeup!! > <

My own styling, not as poofy as what the salon did but much easier; I only use one velcro roller on each side and 2 on top to get this effect.



This is how it looks when the short bob grew longer; no trimming except for the bangs by myself. I actually like it too because it makes my face look smaller :D



I had the A-line bob cut with heavier bangs and dyed my hair lighter this summer; I liked it too but it's kind of annoying to style especialy I don't have so much time in the morning during school days; because I needed to use 2 more velcro rollers than before and hot rollers too.



I dyed my hair dark again this winter~ hoping to let my hair rest from dye jobs for a while; also I'm getting tired of light hair and dark hair seem to suit winter better. It was so weird to see myself having dark hair tho after almost 2 years lol~



My super boring hair right now!! Because I'm trying to grow my hair long again so I don't want to get it trimmed. I'm also trying to grow my bangs as you can tell from all my previous posts; my hair hasn't looked this boring for many years! > <

I'm still in search of products and ways to improve my hair and styling... forever... lol

I'm in no way an expert in hair styling but hopefully girls out there with flat and thin hair like me can get cheered up a little and found this post useful in some way :> ♪