Kim Kardashian Smokey Eyes!!!

Last week I showed you a cool video of Kim Kardashian's makeup artist applying her makeup base.  Today I want to show you the second part of the video in which he does her eyes.  This is a really cool smokey eye look with a light base colour and very dark corner and crease. I love this type of contrast and  I suggested similar colours to my friend Meaghan around Christmas time.  This is really easy to accomplish if you have deep set eyes because you have a natural receding crease to follow. 

For those of us with smaller or hooded eyelids, or even those with monolids, this look is much harder to accomplish as you have to apply the darker colour higher than your natural crease.  I'll show you how to do this next week!! 

For now...ENJOY THIS VIDEO!!!!


Video shared from You Tube MakeupCoutureTV channel

L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadow!!!

Over the new year's break, I created a wishlist of makeup items for 2012.  In the list was the L'Oreal Colour Infallible eyeshadow.  I first heard about this from various blogs I follow.  Bloggers have been raving about how beautiful, vibrant and affordable it is.  So, obviously, I HAD to get my hands on it too.  The promise of this product is vibrant, long lasting colour!!!!

I bought three colours.  White, Permanent Khaki (a khaki green) and Goldmine (gold)

Texture:
The texture is very smooth, soft and creamy.  However, this is NOT a cream eyeshadow.  It's a powder eyeshadow. The powder is very fine and smooth and it is packed into the container very tightly so it doesn't come apart.  

Colour:
The colour  is as intense as promised.  I picked up some product with my fingers, applied it on my hand once for each, and it was already more vibrant than regular eyeshadow.  However, when I applied it to my eyes with a brush, it did not appear to be as vibrant.  I suggest using your fingers if you prefer a more prominent look.

Staying power:
This weekend, I went out using all three colours.  The gold as my middle base colour, the green on the outer corners and the white as my highlighter colour on my brow bones and inner corners.  I was out for several hours, came home and left it on until the evening before heading in for the night.  I was impressed at how it had not budged at all.

The colours can be much brighter than what you see on my eyes.  For those of you who have known me for a while, or have followed this blog since it started, you may have noticed I like to wear my makeup more natural unless there's an occasion for something more vibrant!!!!

Price:
I bought my colours for only GBP 3.99 each.  The regular price is GBP 6.99 but it is still on post Christmas offer at Boots Pharmacy and Superdrug.

Regardless of your location in the world, I think it is priced very reasonable for such a good quality product.  They have a range of colours in both shimmery and matte finishes.  Because the colours are so bright, I recommend this if you are just starting out with eyeshadow.  You can just use one shade and it will look gorgeous

Lunch Time Thoughts!!!

Makeup is a really key part of how you portray yourself to others.  Since working in front line customer services several years ago, I can no longer leave the house with what I call "pyjama face". Putting on makeup is like getting dressed in the morning.  You won't go out in your pyjamas would you?  It's about looking like you bothered.  No matter what your job is, customers, clients and bosses will look at you a little differently.

Now I'm not suggesting you have to do the whole works like I do but it really is amazing how a little can brighten up your face. Cover up the dark circles with a concealer, curl and apply mascara to your eyelashes and wear a natural but slightly brighter coloured lipstick. 

People react differently to you when you wear a bit of makeup and look more presentable.  Why do you think it is mandatory for customer service officers in reputable companies to wear makeup?  It makes you look fresh and as I mentioned before, like you bothered...about your job, your customers, your clients etc.  And it's so true that many people who don't wear makeup like to say "I can't be bothered!"  Think about what that really means!!!  Usually when you don't really care about something that much, you don't bother to put in much effort for it.  You may say it means you don't bother about your looks...which is fine...but...when it comes to work...you should (with some professions obviously being an exception)!!!! 

So if you rarely wear makeup to work or to go out, give it a go.  You'll be surprised at how differently people react to you, even if it could just be a simple matter of you feeling better about yourself and projecting that to others, creating a more positive energy around you in general. 

Not everyone is born with a captivating smile or a striking personality BUT everyone has access to makeup to make them look alive, refreshed, professional and memorable!!!! 

Curling Your Hair with a Hair Straightener!!!!

This is a bit of a departure from what I usually talk about but I recently learned how to curl my hair with a hair straightener and I love how easy it was and how natural it looked so I wanted to share it with you. 

Before watching the video, here are some.....

Important Tips:

1) After applying mousse to your hair, make sure you dry your hair before using the straightener on it.

2) Once you've curled all your hair, to give it even more staying power, spray some hair spray.

3) Separate bigger chunks of curls to give your hair a more natural look. 

Big Dolly Eyes!!!

Last week, I went on a rant about the whole dolly eyes trend in Asia.  Well, I've never really tried the look before but there are countless tutorials on YouTube that teach you how to do it.  Here is my guide to my version of the look.

The general idea is to create an illusion of deep set eyes.  If you already have deep set eyes you can skip to eyeliner after applying your eyeshadow how you normally would.

If you have narrow eyelids like I do or have monolids, you can create the illusion of deep set eyes by applying your darkest colour in the area where your eye socket goes in, just below your brow bone.  This would be the area where your eyelids would recede if you had deep set eyes.  Apply this colour on your outer corners too.

When using eyeliner, extend it past the natural edges of your eyes and bring the eyeliner down, lining only the outer area of your lower lash line.  Use white eyeliner on your water line.

Highlight the inner corners of your eyes and put on some false eyelashes.

Many girls will wear circle lenses to complete the look but since lasik surgery a few years ago, I'm afraid of wearing any type of contact lens.

Use blush only on the apples of your cheeks and a pink glossy lipstick to finish off the look.

Important tip:  If you want to to create a more voluminous but natural eyelash look, instead of wearing a chunky pair of false lashes, use the criss-cross type instead but double them up.

What I used:

FACE: Missha Perfect M BB Cream in #31, MAC Studio Fix Fluid in NC45, MAC Studio Fix Powder in NC43, MAC contour powder in Shadester, Benefit Cosmetics Watts Up

EYES: MAC Prep and Prime in medium, MAC Paintpot in Bare Study, MAC eyeshadows in Pink Freeze and Satellite Dreams, Dior Show waterproof pencil eyeliner in black, Kryolan eyeshadow in white, N17 eyebrow pencil in natural brown, 2 pairs of criss-cross eyelashes

CHEEKS: Clinique blush in Iced Lotus

LIPS: MAC lipstick in Angel, Forever 21 clear lipgloss

Do Asian Girls Really Want to Look Caucasian?

On New Years Eve a group of us sat down at the end of a long and eventful night to watch a video clip of Russell Peters.  He is an Indian Canadian stand up comedian whose jokes revolve mainly around race.  He is absolutely hilarious and not a single race of people is safe from his jokes.  In this clip, he made a joke and then proceeded to point out the Asian (oriental) guy in the audience and made fun of him, saying he's never seen an Asian guy open his eyes so wide before.  It got me thinking about the accusation that many Westerners make about Asians wanting to look more Caucasian or thinking that Caucasian features are more attractive.  For those of you reading from the UK, when we say Asian in North America we are usually referring to North or South East Asians (not Indians). 

You've probably seen photos of Asian girls made up to look like they have big, round eyes on the Internet or the bleached blond Japanese girls on cosmetic product pakaging.  Don't you think those girls look like something out of a Japanese Anime Cartoon? 

The dolly, big eye, long lashes look is incredibly popular all over Asia.  Many westerners think that Asians want to look more Caucasian and don't understand why many of us do not embrace our naturally smaller and almond shaped eyes.  I've thought about this a lot and question whether these girls really do want to look more Caucasian.  I've realized that they don't, but they are just like everyone else and a victim of the media that surrounds them. 

Ever since we were children we've been exposed to teasing about our eyes and not just by other Asians but by people of all races.  Remember the teasing rhyme when you were a child that goes "Chinese, Japanese, Swiss cheese" in which the person saying the rhyme would stretch out their eyes until it was long and thin?  How then does a child grow up thinking their Asian eyes are beautiful?  My husband even had an ESL student who had never had Asian friends before ask if Asians have such eyes because of the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima!!!  Shocking, I know!!!  But these types of comments are everywhere. 

In addition to the teasing, beauty ads everywhere around the world are telling us that bigger eyes are beautiful, with mascara commercials being a huge culprit.  American commercials and other forms of media dominate in Asia too.  If girls in the West aren't safe from falling victim to them, why would anyone think it would be different on the other side of the planet?  And, I don't think men are an exception either.

Think about it more, it's not just Asian girls who want bigger eyes and fuller and longer lashes.  Girls all around the world want this too if they feel their eyes are not as big or their lashes are not as long as the media portrays the ideal to be. 

You've probably also seen bleached blond Asian girls or Asians with blond highlights or light brown hair.  Again, people think these Asian blondies want to look more Caucasian.  NOT TRUE!!!  Think about it!!!  White girls change their hair colour all the time but they aren't accused of trying to switch races because their genes produce such a wide variety of colours.  Asian girls are just like other girls from all over the world.  We want to play around with hair colour too.  However, we are all born with black or extremely dark brown hair so playing with our possible genetic colours can be quite limiting and not to mention, super boring!!!  So, we play with all the same hair colours that white girls play with.  And its NOT because we want to look Caucasian but because we also get bored of our hair colour and like to play around with it. 

I think people should stop giving Asian girls a hard time about colouring hair or making our eyes look bigger through makeup and circle lenses.  We all want something we weren't born with.  Many people want to be skinnier, more tanned, fairer, taller, have fuller lips or curly hair if they have straight hair and vice versa.  So why are we accused of wanting to look Caucasian if we want the same thing too?

For the girls out there who have the big eyes, big lashes, big boobs and skinny body naturally, who say you don't buy into the media...I don't believe you for a second.  You are probably happy with your God given features because the media has told you that's ideal.

However, if you are fat, have eyes that look like you're asleep, have non existent lashes, love your hair colour and have never changed it, nor changed your hair from straight to curly and vice versa and you're proud of all that...you may be the one person in the world that truly hasn't fallen victim to the media!!! 

So, I conclude that Asian girls do not want to look Caucasian...we are just victims of the media like everyone out there who is exposed to it!!!!  It is not Caucasian features we want...but rather what society, shaped by the media, deems as attractive!!!  At the end of the day, everyone just wants to feel beautiful!!!

Easy, Lazy Smokey Eyes!!!

It's Friday and I'm suppose to do my alter ego look for you but unfortunately for the blog (but fortunately for me) I finally landed a job after 3 months of countless job applications.  However, I promise to work on an alter ego look this weekend for next Friday's posting.

So, today I will be showing you what I call my easy, lazy smokey eyes.  The smokey eye look is my favourite.  I find that a darker, more intense smokey eye look works well for the night but a less intense look can be achieved for work or a day out as well.  When I have no time to fuss over my face but want this look, I ditch the whole middle base, inner and outer corner technique (http://jazzo-princessjasminem.blogspot.com/2011/12/basic-eyeshadow-application.html). 

The technique I'm about to show you is fool proof.  To do this, you need to create a sort of gradation with the darkest colour closest to the lash line and the lightest closest to the brow bone.   Here's a step by step guide.

Step 1:

You need a black eyeshadow, a highlighter and 2 other eyeshadow colours.  The 2 colours should be in the same family with one being dark and the other in a medium tone.

highlighter         medium colour        darker colour          black

Step 2:

Apply the medium colour first.  Apply the eyeshadow to the part of your eyes you would put your middle base colour.  Blend out the harsh edges.

Step 3:

Apply the darker of the 2 colours in the same area, but not as high. 

Blend the harsh edges to make the darker colour look as if it has faded into the first one. 

Step 4:

Apply your black shadow from the lash line up but not as high as either of the other colours.  

Blend to soften the harsh edges.  It should now look as if the black is fading gradually as it moves away from your lash line.

Step 5: 

Apply a highlighter to your brow bone, blend and you're done!!!

This is a much easier technique.  For people who are not as "art savvy", it  may be hard to do a smokey eye the way it was done in my first blog (http://jazzo-princessjasminem.blogspot.com/2011/12/smokey-eyes-for-night-out.html).  Knowing how or where exactly to place the darkest colour on the outer corners is difficult if you can't understand the contours of your eyes. In the current method, because you have chosen colours that are similar to each other, even if your blending skills are not in tip top shape it won't be as noticeable. 

Try it out and let me know how it goes!!! 

Have a great weekend everyone!!!  This is a great time to try out some new looks!!!!