Okay lovelies, I need everyone's opinion. I fell in love with the amazing Linea Paolo "Adair" studded platform sandal and decided to snatch up the size 4. In my infinite wisdom, I decided to have both colors sent to me so I could decide which to keep. My dilemma is that I have now fallen in love with both, so if you could please tell me which you like best to help me decide I would really appreciate it!

Batter #1, Pew-Pew-Pewter! This one is a bronzier pewter than I had imagined, but since it is closer to my skintone, it also makes my legs look super long. Classy.


Batter #2, Black. Classic color, and the gunmetal studs look pretty awesome. Legs look shorter than the pewter, but the black is way more rockstar.



I didn't expect them to be so different! Please give me your opinion, and if you can, your reasoning. Thank you guys!

Hey everyone! I had a wonderful weekend at the Lifelight festival in South Dakota this past weekend and I am totally pooped. Very glad today was Labor Day because we didn't even get home until 5 AM this morning! 6 hour drive, more than half of which was through thick fog. Red lights on the back of semi-trucks look CREEPY through dense fog but we gladly made it home safe.

I tried to take a photo, but with no tripod, this is all I could get from our parking lot. Very creepy.


Anyway, at the festival we had plenty to be inspired by. Perfect weather, good music, and really cool performers like Superchick whose lead singer is completely gorgeous and had the most amazing mohawk pomp ever. Burgundy eye makeup! I totally have a girl crush. Check out the youtube vid of one of my favorite songs by them, "We Live" here



One of my bffs, Hannah, is a genius with hair and did this amazing french braided pony on her sister Elizabeth.



Elizabeth was cool enough to be our guinea pig throughout the weekend since she rarely wears much makeup or does her hair in crazy ways, although her gorgeous blonde hair is TOTALLY NATURAL! Her favorite colors are pink and purple so I did a rock star look on her.


The concerts were nice during the daytime weather, but nothing compares to the nights. A bajillion people were there. Just a ridiculous number, and it extends just as much to the left and right of this photo. I'm not tall enough to get the whole crowd!


Yummy festival food like funnel cake which we got twice. :3


Just me in my festival gear. The nights were cold but nothing layers and a silly hat can't fix.


And of course my fav-fav, Family Force 5. Last band of the last day on the Souled Out stage! Totally crazy and awesome, all while wearing football padding. So hilarious.



Here's some video I took of their performance last night. They are so crazy, I LOVE it!


I had sooo much fun and I can't wait to go back! :D

One more reminder, there are still a couple days left to enter the Mineral Magic Cosmetics Giveaway so don't forget! For now, I'm gonna wash up and get to bed. Hopefully I won't feel so jet-lagged tomorrow. :)

Hello all! I wanted to do another nail update since it feels like I haven't done one in a while. For some reason, it seems that my nail choices have already been very much suited for Fall. Being in the "real world" (aka, anytime post college graduation) makes it seem like there is no back-to-school season anymore but maybe subconsciously I still want the feeling of it back. Frankly, Summer left far too quickly in my conscious opinion!

Anyway, here are my lying nails. They say, "Come ye turtlenecks! Come ye dark and complex colors!" And I simply comply.

I do want to mention that all of these colors, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE, are not done any justice by my photography. There is just no possible way to capture the depth these polishes have in real life. I swear I tried though!

Starting off, one of my omg-gorgeous lemming polishes, OPI DS Extravagance. I won't even lie. It makes me actually sad how much this picture doesn't do it justice. I might have to wear it again just to take a sunlight photo of it cause it is so beautiful in real life.



Next is a little konadicure I did featuring the awesome m57 plate with a fishnet pattern. I was channeling a little rockstar that day and what better than hot pink fishnet and black tips? The pink polish had gold shimmer that doesn't show at in the pics but it was very cute in person.




I wanted to also try out another magnetic polish and I guess the edgy nail feeling hadn't left so I went with the gorgeous Silver L'Oreal Star Magnet polish, which has this amazing navy shimmer that appears in the magnetized starburst. Totally cool. I always get tons of compliments when I wear these.



Super close up to show the shimmer



Now, here is my husband's favorite Zoya that I own, Posh. It's one of the trendy matte polishes that have been so popular this season and I think Zoya does it better than anyone. I was even happier with this in person since it is so CLASSY. I stared at my nails a lot with this on. (cue artistic photo since I happened to be wearing a red dress that day)



And finally, my hands-down favorite Zoya and the same polish that I have been wearing for a record 13 days, Roxy. Seriously, this must have been some kind of fluke. 1 coat of seche clear, 3 of Roxy, 2 of seche vite to smooth out the glitters. Half a month of wear? I am having to change my polish now due to nail growth, not chipping! Normally I would've gotten bored with a single color before this too, but Roxy is just too amazing and again, these photos do it absolutely no justice. None of these show the hot pink glittery, flashy goodness that is Roxy.


Almost, but nooop, still too dark and it doesn't quite show the jelly quality.


This shows the color best, but doesn't show the glitter. :(


This shows the density and depth of the glitter.


And here are my nails yesterday, day 12. The proof is in the pudding. Crazy nail growth, a bit of tip wear, but no chips. CRAZY.



Oh, and having taken Roxy off, I will say it was unpleasant to remove, even with using felt. Dang glitters.

Now I just applied Zara, with the left hand using Seche Clear base coat and Seche Vite top coat and the right hand using my new Zoya Color-lock system that I won from Zoya's Twitter contest. We'll see how they compare, but I can already tell that Seche has tinted the color of the polish lighter a shade. HMMMMM....

Anyway, the real review + pics of that will be coming soon. Now I need to go finish my packing for a weekend road trip to South Dakota for the Lifelight Festival/Concert. Anyone gonna be there? If you see me, say hi! I'll be the one stalking Family Force 5. :D

PS- One more reminder, don't forget to enter the Mineral Magic Cosmetics Giveaway!

Hey everyone! I just posted up the Youtube video tutorial for applying a smokey eye look for monolids. I know I've said this a few times before, but "single eyelids" are hooded lids that don't have an upper eyelid crease. Because of this feature, eye makeup is applied in a slightly different way. My technique is to use a smooth gradient in sort of an oval shape on the eyelid.

You want to create depth without "faking" any lines, if that makes sense. Monolids tend to be pretty flat in terms of actual depth but I actually find this to be more fun to work with sometimes, like a blank canvas! I especially love it when I work on single-lidded clients because they often find going to traditional makeup artists to be frustrating!



Tools I used:

Face:
Everyday Minerals foundation mix of Fairly Light Neutral and Golden Medium
Lancome Photogenic Conceal in Camee
MAC Hello Kitty beauty powder blush in Fun & Games

Eyes:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
NYX Jumbo Shadow Stick in Black Bean
NYX single eyeshadow in Sweet Lagoon
NYX single eyeshadow in Midnight
NYX single eyeshadow in Opal
MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack
Shiseido Eyelash Curler
Shisem falsies in XOG특
Covergirl Lash Exact Mascara

Lips:
Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Volupte in #13 Peach Passion
Dior Addict Ultra Gloss Reflect in #227 Chiffon Beige

Now, this still follows the basic rules of the smokey eye. When the eyes are the "main attraction" you want to go with a less dominant lip and cheek. I used a milky peach color lipstick with a tan lipgloss on top to help neutralize the bright color. If your lips are less pigmented than mine, you might want to stick to a color that is more milky pink or light tan (NYX round lipstick in strawberry milk or circe). I also matched my blush color to my lips so that they create a monochromatic canvas other than my eyes.

Since monolidders have lashes that are tucked under their lids, a trick to help open up the eyes is to use a good pair of false eyelashes with a nice strong band. I used my favorite lashes of-all-time in this video, Shisem falsies in XOG특. These are nice because they aren't TOO long like most other lashes and I find the criss-cross shape to be quite natural.

The only downfall? Well, in my case falsies sometimes give me a crease inconsistently. Maybe the lashes just create more weight on the lid, pulling the lashline out from being tucked under? I have no idea, but whatever, I roll with it!

the lids, with very subtle "outer v" contouring

One double, one single. LOL.


Me trying really hard to keep both single. :D


Being silly because it TOTALLY stays if I keep my chin tilted up!


And both doubles if I look up or smile.



Oh, and here is a shot of my "workstation" while I was doing the recording. Camera was sitting on this chair with a mirror on top of it. And obviously, I'm sitting on the floor. You can see some of my new camera! I love this little guy (Sony Cybershot DSC-T90), it takes GREAT video, doesn't it? Ridiculously scary HD and pretty pictures! Yay!



Oh, and I just wanted to mention something. I do love all eyelids. I'm not preaching for or against anything, and I never claimed that anything was better than anything else. I simply share my techniques with what I do, and this has no reflection on my racial preferences or lid preferences. I typically use tape because it does keep my eyeliner from smearing and it lifts my lashes, but as you can see here, it does not significantly change my eye shape or size and it doesn't make me look less "Asian." Seriously guys, it's just makeup! It's the magic of being able to play and adapt and change. Don't let anyone berate you just because you want to do your makeup the way you want to (this goes both ways, monolidders don't be ashamed to love your monolids when that's what you prefer)! If it doesn't hurt you or anyone else, why not? Have fun. :)

XOXO

EDIT: Just wanted to add a little note to answer a couple frequently asked questions.
* my nailpolish is Zoya Roxy
* the brushes are Sonia Kashuk Hidden Treasures set from Target
* I bought the lashes locally but you can find similar Korean ones by Darkness at lunabeauty.com

Oh, and don't forget, the Mineral Magic Cosmetics Giveaway is still going on! Please enter. :D