♪ 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 :> ♪

♣ Mini March Haul & Ai's FOTD: Day 8 (Lipstick-A-Day)

Sephora visit and I picked up some stuff at PharmaPlus (there was a sale). Of course like always I buy more than I should...
Here it is.

Marcelle: 

L: Lace Duo Face Powder in Mademoiselle ($15)

R: Lace Eyeshadow Trio in Fancy Pink ($12)

Swatches:

IMO: 

Ok. I admit I am a fan of cute packaging. I have a tendency to lose to cute packaging; 10 out of 10 times. That should have explained why I made these purchases. The Lace Duo Face Powder includes a blush (top) and a bronzer (bottom). See the packaging!!! So so cute!!! Useless product; the cute lace graphics automatically disappear when you put your brush to it, so that just about ended the product for me. lol. The blush is a strange iridescent pink, where it is ultra hot pink on an angle, but a pale pink at frontal view... I think this is because of the bright pink frost in the blush, regardless not my preference as of now. The bronzer is "meh" ok, but it could have more pigmentation. On to the eyeshadow, Lace Eyeshadow Tri in Fancy Pink. Again the cute graphics disappear when you use it, but the colour are usable, still lacking pigmentation imo. You could tell from the swatches that there are not enough pigmentation in this product. Too costly for a product that is below my standard.

Sephora:

Harmony Trio Bronzer ($16)

Swatches:

IMO: 

Strangely enough I never wear or own any bronzer. First bronzer purchase ever. This could replace both of the Marcelle products above. When used together it is a peachy gold colour that could be used as bronzer or even pass as a blush. When used separately, it becomes 3 eye shadows. Great pigmentation, application is smooth and silky. Overall <3. 

Sally Hansen:

Hard As Nails in Stony Creme ($2)

IMO: 

I have never bought nail polish for $2 before... It could come off as a little granny-ish, but I love the colour. Looks like a brownish purple to me, a bit of vintage feel. In the pictures I applied basecoat, 2 coats of Stony Creme, and topcoat. No chips so far; thats amazing for me because I am reckless with my hands and nails.

FOTD (my face):

(wearing GEO Honey Wing)

Eyes: 

- shimmer gold/champagne colour all over upper lid

- apply 1/3 of punch colour in bronze from outer corner; here I used the middle colour of the Sephora Harmony Trio bronzer

- eye line 2/3 of upper lash line from the outer corner

- dust white pearl shadow to bottom inner corner

Face: 

I used the Sephora Harmony Trio bronzer as a blush. 

Lips:

New obsession or interest of nude lipstick led me to purchase Sephora Maniac lipstick in Paris. The colour is very nude, if I did not apply any makeup I would look sickly. Coverage is mediocre, not as moisturizing as Rimmel Renew but its staying power is quite good. It makes you feel like you are wearing lipstick though, I personally like that feeling. 

Hair talk: Sorry readers... my bangs are growing out and the length is a little strange so my hair is up all the time, which is sad. Looking on the brighter side: I can wear nice earrings.

Hope you liked it~ Have fun <3

♣ Ai' FOTD: DAY 6 (Lipstick-A-Day)

Not much of an update I would say >< (sorry readers...) 

Just showing my FOTD/my face.

On a day-to-day basis my makeup is very simple and easy to do. This is basically what I look like on a normal day. 

(wearing GEO Ash Wing circle lenses)

Eyes:

- Line top and bottom lash line with a peach-gold shimmer eyeliner; here I used Jumbo Pencil from Sephora in Flesh. 

- Apply mascara: 2 coats of Maybelline Full N' Soft waterproof mascara and 2 coats of Sephora Lash plumper mascara. (curl lashes prior to applying mascara)

*For those who are tight on time in the morning, lining the top and bottom lash line with a colour liner or shimmer liner will create interest and dramatize your eyes. It takes longer to apply black eyeliner versus colour/shimmer liners, because black eyeliner requires precision and careful application. You never want your black eyeliner to smudge (unless its smokey eye), but it really doesn't matter if your shimmer liner smudges. If you are lazy like me, you should definitely include different type of liners in your makeup routine.

Lips:

Another wonderful peachy nude lipstick; NYX Round lipstick in Frappucino. It is a colour you can use everyday. I find NYX Round lipsticks a little more drying than the Rimmel lipsticks, but they are great for their price ($2) and pigmentation is consistent. To keep you lips moisturized, remember to apply vaseline or lip balm prior to applying the lipstick. 

Base makeup:

After preping my skin, I mix Clarins UV Plus sunscreen (spf 40) with La Roche-Posay Toleriane corrective fluid foundation and apply it all over my face, then I proceed to conceal any imperfections with La Roche foundation. This foundation covers redness like no other and it is a full coverage foundation, any minor imperfections can be easily covered.

That's all~ Have fun <3

♪ Mei's FOTD Tutorial: False lashes that look like your own!

Today's look is super easy; still using false lashes, but today I will only use top lash; and since it's a natural look for daytime, the main point is to make the falsies look real :D

The false lashes I'm using today is Ardell 108; do they look kind of short to you? The perfect natural false lashes is about 2~3mm longer than your natural lashes; don't worry about it being not long enough. Because false lashes have a much better and even distribution and nicer curve, once they are applied, they still add lots length and volume to my real lashes, without looking overdone. They are perfect for daytime; I always use these when I don't have time for sculpting (lol, I'm not kidding) my lashes with mascara but still want to look good, AND natural :D

Steps for eyes:

• a basic earthy shadow with shimmer for upper lid
• highlight inner corner
• line upper lashline very closely, point: don't go past your eyeline for a more natural look :)
• curl lashes
• apply false lashes; be sure to trim them ahead of time so they are juuuust about 2~3mm longer than your actual eyeline.
• apply mascara to combine the real and the fake :P
• starting from the end of top lash line, line 1/2 of the bottom eyeline. Make sure to rim them out a bit so the corner part connect visually. But we don't need to do the little triangle here, which is introduced in a previous post. http://aimeidaily.blogspot.com/2010/01/testing.html Basically the rule for bottom liner for a natural day look is no falsies= do triangle, falsies= no triangle. LOL I feel like I'm talking codes here! Please refer to this post, the part for bottom liner.

Please excuse me for my blood shot eyeball... I use these eye drops, which helps reduce redness; however I have to say I find it too blurry... Does anyone have same experience with eye drops? That when they are reeeeally moisturising, you have blurry vision for a while and it just feels weird...

Lycee eye drop from Rohto

View when eyes are closed; if you look closely, it's actually coming off a little in the middle lol! I didn't notice at all until I took this pic! Of course I fixed it after hoho~

Lips:

Any natural colour moisturising lipstick or lip gloss would do in this look; I'm using Cover FX Lip FX lipstick in Rose blush; it comes with lip balm on the other end; it's a very moisturising lipstick but I think the price is a little high...

Products I used for base makeup:

• Covermark Bright Up concealer stick in Y-1
• Mary Kay mineral foundation in Ivory 1
• Avon mineral blush in Radiance

A little closer up, can you tell I'm wearing fake lashes? :D

I hope you found this tutorial useful :D

Have fun~ <3

♣ On-The-Go Makeup Tutorial

Sorry everyone >'''<... I have been MIA for a while due to reading week, road trip, and my birthday.

While staying at my boyfriend's place I only had 2 items for eye makeup; a quad eyeshadow palette and a glitter eyeliner. For this tutorial I created 5 different looks with the 2 items.
Base makeup includes concealer, blush, and mascara.

On to the tutorial!!!

A,B,C,D: Maybelline Exper Wear Eyeshadow in Sunlit Bronze
E: Lise Watier Eye Glitter Liner in Cognac


"DAY 1"


Eyes:

(wearing GEO Honey Wing circle lenses)

This is a natural look by using eyeshadow to contour your eyes

Face & Lips:

For all the looks I used the blush previously mentioned here. Being consistent with the natural look I used a nude-pink lipstick; I am using Rimmel Lasting Finish lipstick in Airy Fairy. This was my first Rimmel lipstick purchase, it gives great pigmentation and keeps your lips moisturized :D.

"DAY 2" 

Eyes:

(wearing GEO Honey Wing circle lenses)

To create a dolly look; emphasizing (contouring) the outer corner of your eyes with the darkest shadow (D) to create drama and dimension.

Face & Lips:

With eyes being the focus I used a nude lipstick; Rimmel Moisture Renew lipstick in Nude Delight. Being pale I generally deter from nude lipsticks, since they tend to make me look sickly. This lipstick has a peachy undertone which works my complexion and it is more moisturizing than the Lasting Finish Rimmel lipsticks.

"DAY 3"

Eyes:

(wearing GEO Angel brown circle lenses)

To create this look; contour using (D) at outer corner of eyes then glitter liner is used. Create some drama with the bling bling. Some people might find glitter liners too much to wear during the day but when it is not overdone, it will give your eyes a dreamy effect. I wore this look on my birthday :P.

Face & Lips:

To balance out the eyes I used a nude lipstick; Rimmel Moisture Renew lipstick in Nude Delight.

"DAY 4"

Eyes:

(wearing GEO Honey Wing circle lenses)

Cute look with emphasis on the bottom lash line using bronze shadow (B) and glitter liner (E).

Face & Lips:

To top of the cute eye makeup I used a peach lipstick; Lancome Rouge Absolu Creme lipstick in Peach. I think this was my first lipstick lol. It smells gorgeous and have great coverage/pigmentation, but have potential to break your wallet. 

"DAY 5"

Eyes:

(wearing GEO Nudy brown circle lenses)

Girly and cute look with the use of punch colour (C) and glitter liner (E)

Face & Lips:

Adding a little colour on the lips with a berry lipstick, here I am using Rimmel Lasting Finish lipstick in Just So. It is the perfect shade for that "just pinched" lip colour.

Have fun <3