Eye Makeup Staple Items

For this post, I thought I'd recommend some of my favorite eye makeup products!

Mascara

Yves Saint Laurent Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils

$28.50 at Sephora.com

This mascara is amazing! It extends and gives volume to every lash. It's scented though, and some people may not like the smell. 

For a more everyday natural look, my favorite is:

Clinique Naturally Glossy Mascara

 $14 at Sephora.com

Applies beautifully and really makes your lashes open up for a natural look.

Eyeshadow

Eyeshadow base color: MAC Naked Lunch

$14.50 at MAC

I often do not repurchase the same eyeshadow color multiple times because one eyeshadow tends to last me a long long time. But I've already repurchased Naked Lunch a couple times. It's the perfect shade as an all-over eyeshadow base.

MAC Idol Eyes

$14.50 at MAC

Idol Eyes is one of the best colors from MAC I've ever purchased. It's a glittery lavender color. You can apply just a little to add some sparkle for an everyday look or add a lot to spice up a nighttime look. 

Too Faced Socialite

$16 at Sephora.com

Described as a "pink copper" shade, this pink is the perfect color to wear everyday. It's not metallic, not too sparkly, not too bright, and not too dull. One of my most frequently used eyeshadows.

Other colors that I love are: 

- MAC Black Tied (sparkly black shadow)

- MAC Mancatcher (lilac color)

- MAC Paradisco (pink-coral with pearl)

- MAC Nighttrain (shimmery dark gray)

- Urban Decay Midnight Cowboy (pink champagne with lots of silver glitter)

- Victoria's Secret Mink (shimmery copper)

Eyeliner

MAC Fluidline

$15 at Sephora.com

One of the best eyeliners I've ever used. Only downside is you have to apply with a brush - less portable than regular liners.

Urban Decay Liquid Liner

 

$18 at Sephora.com

Amazing liquid liner, but the packaging is terrible. 

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencil

 

$17 at Sephora.com

Softer than a regular eye pencil, yet not a liquid liner. Easy to apply and stays on all day long. 

e.l.f. Waterproof Eyeliner Pen

$1 at elfcosmetics.com

For $1, this eyeliner pen is awesome! My first time using an eyeliner pen and this worked great. It's very easy to apply, but can fade throughout a long day or when you're sweaty. 

Other eye products

Benefit Gilded Highlighter

$20

This can be used on your cheeks and lips, but I use it primarily for my eyes. It's a gorgeous tequila gold shade with some shimmer. I can't find it on the Sephora or Benefit websites anymore, so I think it's discontinued. But I know it's still in some Sephora and Ulta stores right now!

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion

$17 at Sephora.com

There's a reason why everyone in the world loves this primer. But Too Faced Shadow Insurance is great too! I love them both.

That's it! These are all my eye makeup staple items (:

Alice in Wonderland

To prepare for Alice in Wonderland's premiere on March 5th, 2010, many companies have released promotional products for the movie! Here are some of my favorites:

Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows

$52 at Urban Decay - sold out online!

Alice in Wonderland Collection by OPI

$8.50 each

Disney Couture 14K Gold Bracelet with Flowers in Purple Leather  

$102 at 80spurple.com

Alice Gold Suits Bracelet  

$130 at 80spurple.com

Stella McCartney Alice in Wonderland Necklace and Bracelet

 

$425 (necklace), $395 (bracelet) - available in February

Sue Wong for Walt Disney Signature

 

$329 - $609 

Alice in Wonderland Dream Tee

 $22 at Hot Topic

Taryn Rose ankle boots

My mom bought me these Taryn Rose ankle boots while I was out of town last week.

Apparently Taryn Rose used to be an orthopedic surgeon and founded this shoe company in order to make comfortable shoes (and yes, these booties are super comfortable!). They use cushioning inside the shoes and use lightweight material and Italian leather for the outside. These particular booties are also handmade.

They retail for $595, on sale at TarynRose.com for $297.50 -- but my mom bought them for $99 at Nordstrom Rack. It's a great deal, but I'm still debating on whether or not I should keep them...

Cheeseburger

Finally... a fat-free cheeseburger!

Another creation made from polymer clay (:

New layout!

New layout featuring the girls of 2NE1! This may be a temporary layout, but we'll see (:

Tutorial: Double-chained ribbon necklace

I made this simple necklace recently. I've seen a lot of necklaces lately with this kind of weaving pattern, so I thought I'd try to make one myself.

It's super easy to make! Mine hits about right at the chest. If you want yours longer or shorter, just adjust the length of your ribbon and chains. Here are the tools you'll need:

- Ribbon - about 1 yard

- Thick silver chain - 24 inches long (I used Jewelry Essentials Chain)

- Thin silver chain - 24 inches long (I used Jewelry Essentials Chain)

- Chain nose pliers

The first thing to do is weave the ribbon in and out of your thick chain. Make sure to leave some extra ribbon at each end so you can tie the ends into a bow.

Once you weave the ribbon all the way through, tie a knot to the end of the thick chain. Repeat for the other end. Tie the remaining ribbon into a bow. Then take your thin chain and open the end loop with your pliers. Attach the chain onto the end of the thick chain and close the loop. Repeat for the other end.

Now you have a simple double chain necklace! You can add more chains onto the necklace if you'd like. I was going to add a string of pearls, but I ran out of pearls! So I wore this necklace with my pearl necklace and the combination looked sophisticated yet edgy.

Hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial!

p.s. - if you guys have any suggestions on what I should blog about in the future, please let me know!

Beauty Review: Shiseido vs. shu uemura

First, I'd like to say thank you to anyone out there reading and to people who have commented or followed my blog! It's awesome to get a great response after only a week of blogging. This will definitely motivate me to keep blogging as often as I can. If there's anything specific you guys want me to blog about, leave a comment!

I'm doing another beauty review, but this time it's a battle between eyelash curlers: Shiseido vs. shu uemura.

These two eyelash curlers are two of the most popular. I've seen many people wonder which one is better, so I decided to do a beauty review comparing the two.

Shiseido was my first eyelash curler that I bought back when I just started experimenting in makeup at 15 years old. Six years later, I felt like it was time to buy a new one, so a couple weeks ago I received my new shu uemura curler in the mail from Sephora!

Back when I was 15, I did the same debate between Shiseido vs. shu uemura. I chose Shiseido because I had used their skincare products with success, and thought their products might be just as great.

$19 at Sephora.com

It's $19 and comes with one replacement pad. When I first used this, I thought it had a nice comfortable grip and was easy to use. With one squeeze, my short Asian lashes curled decently well. The eyelash curler worked even better when I squeezed once on the lashes near my lid and once again in the middle of my lashes. I used this curler for 6 years and always loved it.

The shu uemura curler is also $19 and comes with one replacement pad.

 

$19 at Sephora.com

The first thing I noticed when I used this was that the grip is not as comfortable as the Shiseido. It just didn't feel that comfortable in my hands. If you get a chance to hold both, you might know what I'm talking about... or maybe it's just me =X 

But when I used it, I definitely fell in love. With one squeeze, my lashes curled perfectly. Just one quick squeeze and my short lashes are curled up nicely for mascara. 

In my opinion, the shu uemura works better than the Shiseido, although they are both very similar. But maybe the Shiseido has upgraded their curler since I last bought it 6 years ago! Either way, you won't be disappointed with either one. My preference is the shu uemura, but yours might be different!

Zac Posen for Target

The looks for the Zac Posen and Target collaboration were released last week.

It's not coming out until April 25th, but it's nice to get a sneak peek at the looks beforehand. What do you guys think?

I wasn't a big fan of the current Rodarte for Target collection, but it looks like this Zac Posen collection may be much better.

Hot booties... that I can't afford

Aren't these Sam Edelman booties hot??

On sale for $204.60 (which I can't afford!) at Akira Chicago. Definitely check out Akira! It's a great brand based in Chicago. They carry tons of popular brands and designers. Their dresses are worth checking out! They have clothes at every price... mostly fancy wear, club wear, party wear, etc. It's worth taking a look (:

Polymer Clay Basics

Lately, I've seen a lot of questions about polymer clay from people who are just starting out. Now, I'm definitely no expert, but I've done plenty of research recently and can share a few general tips.

Choosing Your Clay
There are three main brands of clay that most people work with. Sculpey, Fimo, and Premo. I, personally have not used Fimo so I don't know much about it. It's more similar to Premo than it is to Sculpey though. Sculpey is very good for beginners. It's the softest and comes in a wide variety of colors. Premo is made by the Sculpey company, but it is firmer. It takes some time to condition (softening the clay in your hands) before you can work with it, whereas you can work with Sculpey pretty much right out of the package. You'll find that later on, when you're working with small tiny pieces, soft clay tends to mush in your fingers and it gets hard to sculpt details. But for beginners, I definitely recommend Sculpey.

Preparation
The basic tools you will need are clay (obviously), something to use as a rolling pin (a pencil works), and an x-acto knife. I like to work on top of wax paper. The clay doesn't stick to it (it sticks to paper) and it's a smooth surface. Other tools you might need are eyepins (to make charms), cookie cutters, cute add-ins (like crystals, pearls, etc. that you can stick into your pieces). Also, make sure to wash your hands well and dry with a paper towel. You don't want to get dust into your clay, which is very easy to do!

Making
Fingerprints are hard to avoid! After you construct your clay piece, you can rub some water over the prints to slightly rub them out. Or you can wear latex gloves, but most of the time it wrinkles up and makes lines in my clay. I only wear gloves when I'm working with dark clay. Speaking of dark clay, they will stain your hands! And if you do not wash it out before working with lighter clay, it will stain your clay as well! Make sure to wash your hands thoroughly in between switching colors. 

 

Baking
Bake according to the directions on the package. I recommend using parchment paper laid in an aluminum baking pan. Baking on aluminum foil will leave a shiny spot on the bottom of your clay pieces. You can use your home oven or a toaster oven to bake your pieces. Just make sure not to over-bake, or else the clay can release toxic fumes that will stick to the walls of your oven... which is bad if you plan on using the same oven for food =X

After Baking
To get the shiny look on your clay pieces, apply Sculpey Gloss Glaze after your pieces have cooled. They will dry after about 30 minutes and you'll get a nice shiny finish.

How do I make cute little charms that look like little characters or tiny food?
There are tons of tutorials online. YouTube and DeviantArt have a ton of great tutorials made by people who are awesome at this. You can also look on flickr and etsy for inspiration.

This book is great too:

The Polymer Clay Cookbook

By: Jessica and Susan Partain

They have an excellent intro chapter that teaches you all the basics about types of clay, color mixing, and jewelry techniques. Their tutorials cover a bunch of cute tiny food you can make, such as pretzels, cupcakes, coffee cups, ice cream, tacos, etc.

Just remember, anyone can learn how to make cute charms out of polymer clay. If you got some time on your hands, it's a fun hobby to learn! And with practice, it'll get much easier.

Hope this helps for the beginners out there!

Beauty Review: Shiseido The Skincare

So lately, I've been trying to find some new skincare products. I've used Shiseido Pureness (aimed for breakout prone skin) for the past several years, but now that I'm older, I need something else.

That's why for the past couple days I've tried out Shiseido The Skincare. I've had good experiences from the Pureness line, so I thought I'll get the same benefits from The Skincare line. Definitely not!

I didn't try the facial cleanser, only the toner and moisturizer. The moisturizer had SPF in it, which was nice. But it made my combination skin oily and greasy. I thought it would go away after the product sinks in a little, but definitely not. My little brother even asked me why my skin was so oily -_-

$39 at Sephora

 

This would be great for normal or dry, but for my combination skin, it was too heavy and felt like it was clogging up my pores.

The softener was a little better though... it absorbed into my skin right away. Honestly, I'm not an expert in skincare to know how softener/toners benefit your skin. I guess it's something to do with preparing your face before applying moisturizer? But, yeah... even though I don't exactly know the benefits of softeners, I liked how this one felt on my skin.

$34 at Sephora

 

It felt heavier than the Pureness softener, but I didn't mind. 

Overall, I won't be using this as my new skincare. For those of you with normal or dry skin, I definitely recommend this, but not for combination. I'm still on the hunt to find something for my combination skin that has SPF in it. Any suggestions?

New updates to the store

If anyone from Soompi is reading this, you might know that I have a store in the selling & trading section. I just added some new items, so if you're interested, please take a look! I'm in desperate need to sell these items because I need money! =X

 

Check it out HERE.

New bags!

So I went to Nordstrom a couple days ago and walked out with two very cute new bags, courtesy of my lovely mother!

Marc by Marc Jacobs Classic Q Baby Groovee in black is amazing! I was debating at the store for like 40 minutes whether I should get the regular size or the baby size. The baby size is still roomy inside and is super cute. I've wanting this bag for so long... so excited I finally got it!

I love the logo print on the inside (:

The second bag I got is this cute Dooney and Bourke Juliette canvas bag in ivory. I bought it to use as a school bag. It's definitely a great alternative to the ubiquitous Longchamp tote. Love that it has a long adjustable strap. Plus the bright yellow inside is so cute! For those of you wanting a fashionable designer school tote, I recommend this one.

Cupcakes

Since I don't have school these days, this blogging everyday thing is not so hard (:
Although I doubt anyone is reading... hehe~

Made these cute clay cupcakes a few days ago. The colors turned out a little darker in the pic... they're actually lighter and kind of a pastel color. But yeah, it's hard to do piping on tiny cupcake bases =X

On a different note, I want to plug these two sites. I'm doing small internships for them this winter and they're both great sites!

Second City Style: A fashion online magazine and blog. The magazine has interesting articles every few days while the blog is updated very regularly with news, trends, best dressed, outfit ideas, etc.

Cuff Luv: A local Chicago designer that sells cute cuffs that you can add to your long-sleeved shirts. Plus, there's 10-way cardigan wraps and magnetic pins. Unique and adorable items =)

I think I'm going to do another beauty review soon... maybe tonight. Just used a product that I am not fond of -_-

Beauty Review: Etude House

I've seen some people curious about Etude House makeup products (from Korea), so I decided to do a quick, but detailed, review on some of the products that I've tried.

For those of you that don't know Etude House, it's a super cute makeup store in Korea. Its directed toward younger people and they have good prices on all their products.

An example of one of their super cute stores in Korea!

Now, some of the items that I purchased before are now discontinued. I can't seem to find them on the official site, but I'll give a brief review of them anyway.

From their discontinued line, Trouble Eraser, I used both the gel moisturizer and the cleaning pads.

Honestly, it's a good thing they discontinued this line, because it did not produce any great effects for my skin. Never made me break out or anything, but it claims to "erase" all your acne trouble. I didn't see that much of a difference in my skin after using these products, but they didn't have any negative effects either. The lotion did help moisturize my face and I liked that it was a gel lotion. The clear pads were pretty much useless for me though.

Now for the makeup!

This O~ m'Eye Lash Mascara is cheap (around $4 I think) and works well for its price. It's a great basic mascara. Of course, it can't compare to YSL or Dior mascaras, but it's good for the price.

I had minor clumping issues with this mascara, though I think it's because the mascara was getting a bit old. Also, this mascara advertised maximum volume, which I didn't really get. It's more of a basic mascara for me.

More with eye makeup... these shine up sticks are awesome! I have these three colors and I want to get more when I go back!

04: Pink, 05: Berry, 09: Lavender

My favorite is #04 Pink. It's a little bit darker than #05 Berry, which is more of a light pink. These sticks are super glittery, so I only recommend them for going-out makeup. Easy to apply and just a little bit gives you a lot of shimmer. I think these were $3 or $4 each.

Lastly is this lip & eye makeup remover. It works very well! It works just as well as my Clinique "Take the Day Off" makeup remover which is around $13, whereas this EH remover is only about $5 or $6.

Similar to Clinique's makeup remover, there are two layers and you have to shake the bottle to mix the oil and water liquids together. There is another EH remover specifically for mascara, but this remover was able to get my mascara off too. I don't wear waterproof makeup though, so I don't know how effective this will be for that. But it worked well for me.

Hope this quick review was helpful for some of you guys who were curious about EH products. I know there's only a few that I've tried so far, but I'm hoping to get more products when I go to Korea next month. I'll do another review then!

Hello!

Hello! This is the first post of my new blog. I'll just be posting stuff about fashion, my craft projects, and just any random thoughts.

First post... made this clay charms a few days ago. Just started polymer clay recently... definitely need to get better! I want to be good enough to sell my stuff on etsy (:

That's it for today! As part of a new year resolution, I'm going to try to blog as frequently as I can... even if no one is reading lol