It's MY Makeup!

We internet bloggers get a lot of inspiration from Japanese fashion, but also from Korean music videos. The pop culture in Korea is very cutting edge, and we are always looking for the new trends. Thank God for YouTube!  These days, everyone is talking about Girls Generation’s latest music video ‘Run Devil Run’ (you can see it above).

There are so many girls in the Korean groups, so there are lots of different looks in one video. I have included the ones that I like best below, and also videos that will let you know how to achieve their looks! It’s easier than you think!

Anyway, excuse my ’slight’ mind diversion, have fun,

Sun ^^)

Tae-yon

Tiffany

photos: fanpop.com

videos: tiffany’s look from iiheartmakeup14 on youtube.com
tae-yon’s look from beautycentric on youtube.com

Check out these great channels and websites ^^)

Have you ever tried the Friday Test? It’s what happens when paint your nails on a Sunday, and see if you can get your nail polish to last until Friday! This doesn’t usually happen to me, even if I use a base coat, top coat, and two coats of nail varnish in between! So, how do you preserve all the hard work you’ve done on your nails?

I use gel nails.

Nails aren’t strictly makeup, but they are definitely an artful way of decorating and expressing yourself. I started to get interested in gel manicures after talking to a friend who’d just gotten back from Hong Kong– her nails looked amazing! I had to find out how she did it and what she’d used. Gel nails are really popular in East Asia at the moment, especially in places like Japan. They’re starting to spread to the USA and Europe, because it’s so easy to do, and because the manicures last for such a long time (up to a month).

How do you make a gel nail manicure? You must first release the oils from the nail, then you apply the gels to the nail. The gels can be any colour, and you can also blend the colours into one another. At this point, you can add glitter, 3-D art or details (see above!). Then, you put your nails ner a UV light until the gel dries. After this point, you might want to add additional nail stickers or art to your nails.  Finally, buff your nails to make sure that they look polished and finished. And you’re done.

I think they look cute and they last a LOT longer than traditional nail manicures.

Sun ^^)

[image: reproduced with permission from rubyran on flikr.com]

Red lipsticks look fabulous on our Asian skin, as well as really making a statement. Because many of us have yellow and olive undertones, the best colors for us are ones that have warm undertones as well, like berries, cherries, and even fire engine reds.

In order to make sure your red lips look amazing, be sure to follow these steps:

1. Exfoliate your lips with a toothbrush in order to make them smooth, plump and ready to be the focal point of your face.

2. Add a dab of lip conditioner or lip balm onto your lips to keep them moisturised. Don’t add too much though, or the red colour won’t stay on your lips.

3.  Apply some of your regular concealer around the edges of your lips so your red lips really stand out.

4. To keep your lipstick from running, apply a lip liner to your lips in a red that’s quite close to the red you’ve chosen for your lipstick.

5. Use a small lip brush to apply the color onto your lips. If you apply straight from the tube, you have a greater chance of making mistakes which are harder to correct with such a bold colour.

6. Build up the pigment gradually. Apply a thin layer of lipstick, then blot your mouth with a tissue and then apply another layer. Repeat these steps until you’re happy with the color and shape of your red lips!

7. Finally, keep the rest of your makeup simple and understated. Your skin should be fresh looking, your eye makeup should be simple, and just use the tiniest bit of blush on the apples of your cheeks to top off the look.

Sun **)

image: shuuemura.com

Sometimes when we talk about makeup looks, it’s hard to create what the Internet gurus are doing if you don’t have any makeup brushes! Here are the basic brushes I think that everyone should have. It’s important for your brushes to be good quality, because the quality of the makeup is only as good as the makeup brushes. Here are the 5 makeup brushes I think should be in your basic collection.

1. Stipling Brush for Foundation or Sponge like the Beauty Blender Sponge
2. Powder or Kabuki Brush
3. Blush Brush
4. Flat Shading Brush for Eye Colour
5. Crease or Blending Brush for Eye Colour

You can get good brushes from any some good brands are:

• Shu Uemura (top of the line)
• Mac
• The Body Shop (best value for money)

To keep your makeup brushes clean, wash them with a mild shampoo once a week and leave them to dry on the edge of your sink.

^^) Sun ****

Take a look at these photos from PopTeen magazine, a popular Japanese magazine:

Japanese magazines are famous for telling you how to do makeup step by step. Of course, these magazines are in Japanese! So it’s hard to read them. I’ll translate for you as best I can what they are saying, which will help you to recreate the doll-like, luminous look that’s pictured here.

1. Start with skin thats been cleansed, moisturised, and primed. We want the skin to look as flawless as possible.

2. Apply a translucent liquid foundation all over the face. Blend.

3. Apply concealer under the eyes, around the mouth, in the corners of the nose. Blend.

4. Apply hilighter down the bridge of the nose, under the eyes, under the eyebrows, just under the center of the bottom lip, and in the center of the forehead. Blend.

5. Japanese artists usually draw in circles, rather than in lines like we do in the West. So, using a peachy eye shadow, draw in a circular motion on the top lid, taking the shadow up a little past the crease. Blend.

6. Using a brown/taupe colour, make a small circle on the outer 1/3 of your top eyelid, just to add dimension to your face. Blend.

7. Using a gel eyeliner, line the top of your eyelid, making the line thicker towards the outside corner of your eye.

8. Using a darker brown eyeshadow, trace the outer 1/2 of your bottom eyelid, connecting to the black eyeliner on the outer corner of your top lid. Blend.

9. Apply a shimmery white shadow to the inner corner of your bottom eyelid, to brighten and open up your eye.

10. Add individual false eyelashes to your lids. Use longer lasheson the outer corner of the top eyelids, medium length single lashes in the center of the upper eyelids, and shorter lashes all along the bottom eyelids.

11. Apply mascara to top and bottom lashes, blending the false lashes with your regular eye lashes.

12. For this look, your eyebrows should be relatively light. Fill them in gently with a light brown pencil.

13. Apply a peachy blush to the apples of your cheeks.

14. Insert circle contact lenses to create the illusion of larger, doll-like eyes.

15. Add a baby pink pearlised lip colour to your lips, and top it off with a baby pink gloss.

16. With a small powder brush, dust your face with a pearlised loose powder.

You’re done!

Sun ^^)

This week’s post is going to be about applying blush on Asian faces to suit our skin tone and our face shapes.

COLORS
Many asians have yellow undertones and olive skin. The colors of blush that look best with our colouring include oranges, peach, coral, and very soft pink. Of course, you can always try different shades for fun to experiment.

HOW TO APPLY
Most Asians have a round or a square face shape, which means that it is more wide and doesn’t always have very defined cheekbones.

If you want to create cheekbones, apply the blush on your cheekbones and blend outwards towards your ears.

We often want to create the illusion of a slimmer face, apply blush in a sideways V on your face’s sides and then blend your makeup up and outwards.  Take a look at the green hilights on the pictures below for some examples.

EXAMPLE VIDEOS
These tutorials are from the famous Korean makeup artist Jung Saem Mool.

Sunkissed Glow

Soft Pink Makeup

I hope this tutorial is helpful for you.

Sun ^^) xoxox

Park Bom is in the Korean Girl Group 2NE1. She’s probably the one who stands out the most, and she also has a very distinct eye makeup. Here are some great closeup pics:

As you can see in the closeup, she uses a very thick liquid or gel liner that’s winged out on the edges, and it’s thicker towards the ends. She lines her eyes all the way around, and puts eyeliner in the waterline of her bottom lid, again making the line thicker towards the outside.  She’s hilighted above the eye with either a bright colour, and then it’s also hilighted underneath her eye with a white or baby pink. She tends to use dark circle lenses and some false eyelashes that are concentrated on the outside corners of her eyes.

Here are some examples of how she varies her look with colour for appearances:

As you can see, you can vary the look with a pop bright colour on top of the eye that doesn’t go above the double fold in your eye.

Vloggers on youtube have also weighed in on how to do Park Bom’s makeup look, and I’ve included a few of the best videos below. I don’t think any of them got it exactly right– they seemed like they thought it was a little too simple and didn’t use two colours. I think you should use one colour on the top lid, and another, lighter colour underneath the bottom lid. I also think they should have made their eyeliner more solid on the top with no obvious upward slant to the wing, but this is hard to do based on the shape of your eye. Take a look, and tell me what you think! Do you think these young ladies achieved Park Bom’s look?

FUZKITTIE

BUBZBEAUTY

JINAHCHAE

<3333,

Sun ^_^

[images: hube4u.com, xii4.files.wordpress.com, 2.bp.blogspot.com, lh3.ggpht.com, 1.bp.blogspot.com]

[videos: youtube.com/user/fuzkittie, youtube.com/user/bubzbeauty, youtube.com/user/jinahchae]

“Well honey, your eyes are just so FLAT!”

I’ll never forget the first time I got a makeover at a makeup counter, and the sales associate said that to me… I went to the counter to feel beautiful, and I came away feeling like there was something I needed to compensate for. AND the makeup the woman put on me looked terrible!!

If you’ve got almond-shaped Asian eyes like I do, you might find it difficult to pull off lots of the looks you’ll find in many magazines and online. Part of the reason I’ve started this blog is so that I can communicate with other people who might be feeling the same thing– and lots of other Asian girls are online as well! I think it’s great that, using the Internet, we can find makeup that suits our faces and tutorials from really talented Asian women from all over the globe — some of my favourites are Taiwanese-American, Chinese-Australian, Korean-American, and Vietnamese-American to name a few.

I can’t talk about makeup gurus without mentioning THE YouTube makeup guru–  Michelle Phan. She has really created an Internet presence for herself by making high quality makeup videos that show you step-by-step how to get lots of different looks. She’s also used the YouTube platform to help her launch her own cosmetics line called IQQU. Some of the best products from her line include her sunscreen, which can be applied over makeup, the acne serum, and the rice facial scrub.

But back to online makeup tutorials! Here are some lovely looks from Michelle Phan for you to enjoy.

Sun

SIMPLE EVERYDAY MAKEUP

SEDUCTIVE SMOKEY EYES

ROMANTIC VALENTINE’S LOOK

Arabic makeup is really dramatic and colourful, and it has always inspired me. It’s also a great makeup option for Asian and almond-shaped eyes. One of the things that’s really important about Arabic Makeup is the shape of the eyeliner– it’s a very specific angular, pointed shape that goes all the way around the eye, and has a sharp point facing the nose, as well as a sharp cat eye on the outside wing. Here’s an example picture:

That just covers the basics of Arabic makeup though– the fun thing about this makeup is that you can be incredibly creative and use bright, intense colours. I’ve included two really inspiring YouTube makeup tutorials in this post so you can take a look at how the experts do it!

ARABIC INSPIRED SUNSET MAKEUP

SUNSET INSPIRED ARABIC MAKEUP

I hope this inspires you as much as it inspires me!
Stay Tuned,
Sun

I’ve always really liked the look of soft flawless skin, and eyes that are pinkish or reddish, a little unhealthy looking but also very ethereal. Barbie Hsu wears her makeup like this a lot:

Here’s a tutorial on how to do Barie’s makeup:

I feel that it’s a modern take on Japanese Geisha makeup, which is characterised by pale white skin, red lips and pink eye makeup. Here’s a great modern tutorial on geisha makeup from YouTube makeup guru Catalina:

If you want a more dramatic look for when you go out, here’s a dramatic tutorial you can use fron youtube vlogger Sirvinya:

I hope you all like the looks and you try it for yourself at home!

–Stay tuned,
Sun

[image: images.china.cn]
[video: youtube.com/user/fuzkittie, youtube.com/user/cl2425, youtube.com/user/Sirvinya]