I was so happy to be part of a Secret Santa gift exchange this year! It's my first one I've ever been a part of among the blogger rings, and it was a lot of fun sharing this with some of my favorite petite fashion bloggers. The idea was brought up on the Alterations Needed forum which is a great community of petite ladies who love talking about how their new purchases fit. Anyone who is 5'4" or under knows how invaluable this can be!


Jessy of The Little Dust Princess herded the exchange and did a lovely job managing it. Definitely check out her blog, since I've heard people tell me she's like my fashion double. We seem to have the same body type and I can see myself wearing just about everything she owns! She just wears more brogues and I wear more boots. ^_^

My Secret Santa ended up being Megan from the AN forums, who doesn't have a blog but she does hail all the way from Australia. If you follow my twitter you will know that I was totally stumped about a random package from Oregon without a return name and lo and behold, Megan had gotten a friend to send me my gift from the US!

It's the LOFT Petite Metallic Cable Sweater! I had been eyeing this sweater lately since my closet is rather slim on the "cable knit sweater" category of winter-wear this year. It's lovely and so warm!



Here's a close-up so you can see the little metallic threads woven into the sweater. It's quite shimmery in real life.


The sweater is currently on promotion for 50% off so I do recommend snagging it if you can. The sleeves are nice and slim but the torso is loose enough to layer comfortably underneath. The fabric breakdown of the one I received is 16% Cotton, 16% Nylon, 22% Wool, 5% Rabbit Hair, 41% Rayon so it's hand wash only but if you are averse to hand-washing, there is also the exact same version of this sweater in all cotton here at LOFT as well.

For those of you who are curious about what I got my Secret Santa, you can check out Elaine of Curls and Pearls post here. :)

Check out the rest of the participants of this exchange (btw, how cute are their blog names? ^o^):

1. Kelly of Alterations Needed
2. Elaine of Curls and Pearls
3. Kileen of Cute and Little
4. Jean of Extra Petite
5. Elle of Fast Food and Fast Fashion
6. Jess of The Little Dust Princess
7. Sydney of PetiteLG
8. Liane of PetiteXXS
9. Annie of Really Petite
10. Cynthia of Shorty Stories
11. Jess of Style Pint
12. Erin of The Life of Ann James

Thank you so much ladies! I had a fabulous time exchanging presents with ladies who are so tuned into what the others would love or want. It's actually really, really impressive. :D Hope we can do another one next year!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to everyone. Stay safe and have fun at those New Years parties. ^_~

Just wanted to send out some Christmas love to everyone out in the blog world! I'm sitting here with my family, listening to Christmas songs, eating good lasagna (lol) and brisket, taking hours-long naps, and feeling very blessed. Presents have been given and received, including a very generous donation toward World Vision that my sister-in-law is doing on behalf of our family.

I'm still deciding on what I want to donate. Maybe a goat? Or a duck? Chickens? They are all so cute, not to mention very helpful! (Let me know what I should choose in the comments. ^_^)

I just think it's so cool that you can donate an actual animal to a family in need. ^_^ There are also so many other things that the donation can go toward like job training for sexually exploited women and medical care, one of the most desperately needed things in impoverished areas.

Looking through the catalogue, I was very moved and going into the new year I want to make it a goal to do some fundraising to donate to World Vision. I haven't planned anything yet, it's just been rolling around in my thoughts. This isn't some promotion for the organization or anything, it's just been something pressing upon my heart. I hope that when my idea comes to fruition, we will be able to show others the kind of love and generosity that many of us have been blessed with. Food on the table, warm clothes to wear, clean water to drink, and health. *teary*

Yes, I'm allowed to be emotional on Christmas, right? :)

Anyway, that is for shortly into the future. For now I wanted to announce the giveaway winners for the Jewelry Payless giveaway I've been sitting on for a while.

First place for a $50 toward jewelry is Rinny:

Second place for $30 toward Jewelry Payless is Paige:

I've already sent the winners e-mails so please respond asap! Congratulations and Merry Christmas!

New youtube giveaway will be announced in a couple days for all your <3!

Much love, and thank you so much to the One who we remember on this day who has blessed our lives in immeasurable ways. You breathe life, you authored love, and you keep me humble. Thank you. ^_^

Probably one of the most requested looks that I've gotten in the last couple of months is to do a pinup-style red lipped look, particularly the one that I have as my youtube profile image here. What better time than the holidays to do this type of tutorial? :)

I'm not one who usually wears really bright lipstick on a daily basis but hubby's company holiday party gave me a good excuse to don this really classic makeup look. For this iteration, I pulled inspiration from the always effervescent Taylor Swift. She has done this type of look a few times on the red carpet, including fairly recently at the Academy Country of Music Awards, and seems to really embrace it! I love a good excuse to get all dressed up, so here is my take!


Products mentioned:

Skin79 Super + Hot Pink bb cream
Lioele Help Me Dark Circle Concealer
MAC Blot Powder in Medium Dark
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Urban Decay Naked Palette (Sin for lid, Buck for crease, Gunmetal for lower lash line)
Lioele Real Stick Eyeshadow in White
MAC Shroom eyeshadow
MAC Blacktrack Fluidline
Majolica Majorca Lash Expander Frame Plus Mascara
Model 21 lashes in #21
Revlon Matte Luxurious Color Pencil in white
NYX Auto Eyebrow Pencil
Rock & Republic blush in Bedroom
NYX lip pencil in Plush Red
NYX Round Lipstick in Eros

Here are some of the images that I used for reference. I really love Taylor's natural cat-eye shape! I think she wears bold makeup so easily and her face can handle a lot of makeup without looking over-the-top.






Here are some of my favorite ornaments on our tree this year. Squirrel! =^.^= He also has matching hedgehog and mouse friends.

Hey everyone! First of all I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all of my bloggy and youtube readers and viewers for being so sweet and supportive through the last year. My 25th year was full of blessings and although there were a few ups and downs, I can truly feel the warmth of love from the blogging community. I also feel like I don't deserve so much support since I'm just a short, nobody Asian girl from the midwest but it's so humbling at the same time to believe that I really do have the love of a whole community behind me who can relate to the silly things I love like "OMG a really cool holographic nailpolish!" and "OMG sparkly eyeliner!" If entusiasm were a sport, then I'm pretty sure we would win Gold medals in the Blogolymics. ^_~

So THANK YOU! I love you!!!


I know I don't usually talk about myself and my personal life *too* often but for my birthday, I wanted to share a few facts that you may not know about me. I was tagged for the 7 confessions post similar to this by Jean but instead of just 7, I figured I'd do 26 for my age. If you get bored after reading 3 I totally understand and you can just skip this entry. LOL!

1. I'm highly allergic to pepperoni. I break out in giant welts-like hives all over! It's very intense and bad, not to mention awkward to explain to people ordering pizza. :(


2. My favorite food is ice cream. Current favorite flavor is dulce de leche.

3. On mornings where I'm short on time, I'd rather do makeup over hair although I used to be the opposite.

4. I have one sister who is 2.5 years older than me. If you are reading this, hello seeeeester!


5. I made my senior high school prom dress. It was an ivory strapless with a black lace overlay. Loved it!

6. I was voted artist of the year for my high school graduating class.

7. I didn't wear makeup regularly until I was a junior in college. I knew how, I just didn't want people to judge me for how I looked over who I was as a person. I still don't regret doing this.

8. I have very good visual memory and therefore did very well in Art History classes. Unfortunately, I'm not as great at listening to lectures without any visual aids. Booooring...


9. I played violin and piano in the past. I know, so Asian right? XD

10. I'm a total theater junkie! I did drama in junior high and high school and although I never wanted to be a serious actress, it is still very dear to my heart.

11. I also took choir for 9 years. I love singing and I'll never forget my musical theater experiences.

12. My favorite tv shows are Glee, America's Next Top Model, Project Runway, True Blood, and a new favorite is Mad Men. The costumes kill me. I wish everyone still went out looking so put-together!


13. I have a Bachelor's of Fine arts in Industrial Design. In layman's terms, I'm a trained product designer.

14. I've always had long hair and never cut my longest layers shorter than my armpits. I love having long hair. ^_^

15. My ears were pierced at age 5, and I obtained the two side piercings on my right ear on a trip to Korea at age 21.

16. I would rather be too hot than too cold. I'm always cold!

17. My current beauty obsession is wearing false eyelashes. I wear them every time I wear makeup, even if it's just eyeliner and falsies. :)

18. I won my 6th grade spelling bee and got straight A's until college. What a nerd. ;B


19. I don't cuss. I don't think twice when others do but it's just not in my vocabulary.

20. I really enjoy salsa clubbing and used to go dancing about once a week in college when I could. You'd be shocked at how great merengue is for toning your abs. XD

21. I've never dyed my hair all over or very light. It's currently about the lightest I've ever gone. Too much maintenance!

22. I know lots of random animal facts (Did you know that cheetahs are the only cats without retractable claws? Or that ringworm can help calm symptoms of really bad allergies? Or that colossal squids have the largest eyeballs of any animal on earth?)


23. I have a cousin who was born on my birthday. He was supposed to be born on Friday the 13th but waited just a bit longer to be born on my 7th birthday. Cute, right? ^_^

24. My favorite color is white but I also love lavender, pink, and mint green.

25. My special days are multiples of 7: hubby's bday is the 7th, mine is the 14th, and our anniversary is the 21st.

26. Hubby is 14.5" taller than me. We get a lot of stares when we go out but I don't care, I'll still wear flats. lol.

Ok, that's it! I'm going to work on editing that holiday look before the holidays are over. Hehe. Wish me luck. ;)

Hello everyone and happy holidays!

Today's post is a bit more holiday-themed, and instead of doing the yearly wrap-up of favorite products that everyone always does, I thought up a little tag that I hope a few more of you blogger ladies participate in! I call this my Naughty & Nice List for 2010.


Everyone knows that Santa Claus has his list of naughty and nice children each year and this year I am playing Santa with my beauty products. You better believe I have a naughty list for sure! Not just a list of things I got bored of and didn't use, but these are explicitly things that I regret ever buying or using. On the flip side, I also want to share with you a few of my Holy Grail products of this year as well. ^_^

Hi everyone! So today's blog post is going to cover a topic that is probably one of the most-requested subjects that I get: BB Cream.

To explain quickly, BB Cream or "blemish balm" is sheer foundation-like, multi-functional cosmetic that is purported to be good for your skin. It was initially developed in Germany as a healing cream with coverage properties to help patients who have undergone plastic surgery or other cosmetic procedures. The Korean cosmetics industry took that idea and ran with it, creating various different "bb creams" that usually have skin benefits such as SPF, whitening, anti-wrinkle, and nutrients to help improve the health of your skin.

I've entrusted my friend Hannah to help me review 9 different BB Creams to show their effectiveness and shades on varying skintones and skin types. :)

For reference, Jen is MAC foundation shades NC25-30 and combo-oily to normal skin, and Hannah is NW15-NC15 (NC15 is slightly darker than NW15) with eczema and dry skin.


(For those asking, Jen's headband is from Urban Outfitters, necklace is from See Jewelry, and cardigan is from Banana Republic. Hannah's hair was curled using the Remington Air Wave which I did a tutorial on in this blog post. ^_^)

BB Creams reviewed:
Skin79 DermaRX BB Cream
Skin79 Super Plus Triple Functions BB Cream (hot pink)
Lioele Beyond the Solution BB Cream
BRTC Gold Caviar BB Cream
Missha M Perfect Cover BB Cream No. 23
Missha M Perfect Cover BB Cream No. 21
BRTC Jasmine Water BB Cream
Skinfood Ginko Green BB Cream
Hanskin Super Magic BB Cream

Skin79 DermaRX BB Cream
Consistency: light like tinted moisturizer
Shade: oxidizes to NC30, greyer
Benefits: fades acne scars (contains arbutin), SPF 15, softens skin texture
Oil-control: Medium. I had to powder in summer, in winter I can just wear this alone.
Bottom line: Best I've tried for acne-prone skin. Fades acne scars, but coverage is light so it doesn't fully cover hyperpigmentation.








Bottom line: Basically just has sheer coverage. No SPF and no noticeable moisturizing or skin improvement.




And here are the very-important comparison swatches:


As you can see from the swatches, most of these bb's look very grey. Thankfully they tend to blend in better after oxidizing but it's definitely something to keep in mind if you apply it heavily and it looks off at first.

In the Summer, I tend to match Missha M #23 and Skin79 DermaRX best but they do tend to both lean grey/pink at first and are lightweight. For winter at my lightest I will probably go for BRTC Gold Caviar or Hanskin Super Magic. Currently, I've been using Skin79 Hot Pink and it's been working out great. :)

Hannah likes the Missha M #21 a lot and will probably also use the BRTC Jasmine Water more through Winter. She is also going to look for the new Missha color #18 which is supposed to be super fair! We learned about that one from reading the Youtube comments. Speaking of that, there is also a darker tan Missha color #32 that I'm quite curious about since it apparently matches NC35-40 and leans very yellow. Maybe I could mix that with my Missha 23 to make it less grey? Hmmmm...

One last note, I do want to emphasize that BB Creams ARE makeup and you must remove it at the end of the night just like regular foundation. There is a possibility that some BBs can break you out like any other makeup and everyone's body chemistry can react a little bit differently to each one so it's helpful to try samples if you can. I believe they do contain parabens so if you are hesitant about that sort of thing then be sure to watch out for it.

Alright, I hope that was helpful for those of you who are wanting to try out BB Creams but don't know where to start. It sure took a long time to put together! Also, HUGE thank you to Hannah for helping me with these videos and swatches. You reviewed for the first time like a pro! <3

Let me know if you guys have any more questions in the comments and I'll try to answer to the best of my knowledge. I haven't tried any other BB Creams yet but maybe some of you can add your own knowledge there as well, so go ahead and comment about your favorites too. :)

Disclaimer: BRTC BB Creams were provided by a representative of the company. Lioele Beyond the Solution was provided by prettyandcute.com. Skin79 hot pink was provided by Pinky Paradise. All other items mentioned were purchased by ourselves because we are crazy maniacs obsessed with bb creams.