Month: November 2012

FOTD + OOTD: Yummy Umami

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This is not how I looked like, after sampling one (or three) Umami burgers. It just so happens that I’m prone to making such faces. The burgers were quite good, actually, but that’s another tale for another time. Angry Face of the Day. This is just here because it shows off the mauvey-ness of my makeup the most. On my face: Face: Ahava Light Foundation, The Body Shop Tea Tree Oil Pore Minimiser, Guerlain Météorites (Perles d’Azur) Eyes: Benefit Lemon Aid, The Body Shop Tea Tree Oil Concealer, bareMinerals A Vision in Velvet (Satin Gold, Velvet Mauve, Velvet Vanilla), Karl Lagerfeld for Shu Uemura Painting Liner (Blackish Satin Purple), The Body Shop Brow Kit, Majolica Majorca Lash Expander Frame Plus 12 Cheeks: NARS Illuminator (Orgasm), Revlon Color Stay Mineral BLush (Roseberry) Lips: NARS Sheer Lipstick (Vendanges) This was my outfit for the day! As you can see, I am quite an awkward individual (with funny proportions), which explains the surprise displayed by people who know me in real life, upon learning about this recent beauty …

Made-Up History: The Birth of Venus

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Made-Up History (get it?) will be a series of translations of art (for now) onto makeup. It merges two growing loves, one old and one new, which is why I have resolved to do it. In the process, I hope to get better at both, but I guess this really works out my makeup muscle more. Today, I chose to do Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus or “Nascita di Venere,” which is a very famous painting. We saw this in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy about two months ago, and I was completely enamored by it. The Birth of Venus presents a scene—the goddess of love stepping ashore on a shell—and is the sort of story that unfurls the more you look at it. In the 1350s, Christianity was prevalent in places like Florence. In Siena, war was attributed to the town’s reverence for a statue of Venus, a sort of idolatry that someone warned was forbidden by their faith. This followed the destruction of the Sienese statue, as Venus was then regarded …

EOTD: Something Out of Nothing

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Here is today’s EOTD featuring the Avon True Color Quad in Sandy Corals (reviewed here) and my new favorite weapon, Majolica Majorca Lash Expander Frame Plus 12! I have practically no relationship with mascara, because I never understood how to use it. Every time I tried one on, my lashes would look the same and I’d end up with black brush imprints on my lid or under eye area. I never knew I wanted lusher lashes until now! Luckily, my mom had an extra bottle because of a sale purchase a few months ago. So now, I have my own. 🙂 It’s got a two-sided applicator, one side a comb and the other a coil. I haven’t used it all that much to master application, though. There’s a slight blue-grey tinge to it that I don’t mind and actually enjoy quite a bit. It’s also a fibre-based formula, which has fibres that stick to your lashes, helping to elongate them. At first, I thought they were hairs from my mom’s lashes! Here’s my whole FOTD, …

Makeup Raves from the Unlikeliest Or, Why This Blog Exists

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I have had apprehensions about this descent into makeup madness, especially about actually writing about cosmetics and other girly things. It’s partly because it was a foreign sort of obsession, in that it was far removed from things I usually liked. Also, I didn’t really know all that much about it yet, so I didn’t know if I “deserved” to talk about it like I was an expert. Mainly though, I shied away from the idea because there’s a certain stigma associated with “frivolous” endeavors like this. I suppose things that focus on physicality and vanity, instead of “nobler pursuits” like literature, culture, art or whatever else people think falls in that category. I finally put this blog up less than a month ago because makeup made me happy. That’s the simplest reason there is. It made me happy to talk about it and to share the great and not-so-great things I’ve tried. I liked writing about makeup and discovering new things about it. Since it’s not a conversation staple with people I hang out …

Tips & Tricks: Zap That Zit with Tea Tree Oil!

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I grew up pretty zit-free, so whenever I got the occasional pimple, I just had to wait it out for a bit and it would disappear. As I got older, my face got oilier, and the zits now came in twos and threes. This year, I found the magic solution—a natural spot treatment that was just under my nose all these years! Presenting—The Body Shop’s Tea Tree Oil! Sarie said this got rid of pimples, and I’ve tried it on the first blemish sightings and away they go. Bigger, pus-filled (sorry) pimples are harder to get rid of with this, but it helps dry those out, too. I’ve noticed it’s best used on the beginnings of a pimple and blemishes. Tea tree oil is a byproduct of the distillation of Melaleuca alternifolia leaves, a plant native to Australia. It has had a long aboriginal history of healing wounds and cuts. There are various other uses for tea tree oil, including getting rid of athlete’s foot. Here is a list I got from Care2, on the …

A Tiny Lament: bareMinerals’ Ready 8.0 in The Playlist

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Ever since I swatched a couple of bareMinerals’ Ready 2.0 shadows, I have been increasingly obsessed at looking at swatches and thinking of what to buy next (lol, I know), but holding off until December 15, which is when my makeup ban will be lifted. I think I’ve been pretty good at keeping it, faltering only once for a MAC Paint Pot, and lipstick and gloss from NARS. (My new Revlon sale stash doesn’t count because it was from my mom!) ANYWAY. My obsessive self checked the bareMinerals website again today and the 8-pan palette I was eyeing—bareMinerals Ready 8.0 in The Playlist—was nowhere to be found! Panic-stricken, I found it on Amazon, but with an added $5 for shipping to the US and only 6 stocks left. Why do I want it so much? Introducing an extraordinary limited-edition palette, featuring 8 pure, intense, provocative shades in a glitzy gold case. An innovative new solid mineral technology that delivers spectacular stay-true color with seamless blendability and anti-aging benefits. I had the bright idea of checking …

FOTD + OOTD: Transition

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What I wore to my mom’s exhibit: Shirt from Primark, skinnies from Zara, Clarks Desert Grace, leather bag from a market. Super light FOTD: Mac Paint Pot (Rubenesque), NARS eyeshadow duo (Paramaribo), NARS blush (Orgasm), Karl Lagerfeld for Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited Lipstick (Celebrity Beige), Guerlain Météorites (Perles d’Azur). Photos by Sarie Cruz