Archive for the ‘Makeup & Skin’ Category

If the zombie apocalpyse came to my neighborhood I would…

October 26th, 2009 at 9:15 pm No Comments

…Try to stay in my apartment. Movies seem to show survivors always on the move, but I think it’s just for the sake of changing the scenery. Our apartment is on the top floor, has a balcony that no one could jump to, and our hallway has these huge metal firedoors that would close only 2 other units in with us. Both middle-aged couples, so we’d be able to take’em out if they were infected. Stock my room with a few hockey sticks and I’d be good to go for a few months just living off rice.

Few things I’ve been distracted by lately.

Borderlands
Trent picked this up for the PS3 and we’ve been playing it split screened offline. I have to use his account, so I don’t really have a character which sort of sucks. I used to scoff at the girls who’d only have characters for games on their boyfriends’ accounts, but goddamnit I’m on a budget right now. As it stands, I still hate playing an FPS using a controller. Any gun I pick up has to have high accuracy relative to its type because I’m so bad at aiming with the stupid nubby sticks.

Major complaint so far is respawn rate. Holy god. I don’t know if I’m just bad (I average at best at first person shooters) or it’s actually harder to play through with only two people in the game, but respawns eat our asses. Fighting through the same area several times because a quest sends you back and forth really bites for the ammo stock.

Minor complaint is lack of introduction. You get thrown into the world with very little instruction as to how the game…works. I don’t know how to use a med pack without going into my inventory yet. Granted, I haven’t tried very hard, but that kind of stuff should be made a little more transparent. I’d be blown away if it wasn’t possible at all.

Other than those things, fun game to co-op. Going to play more once I finish writing this.

Another layout
I’m planning to separate my “portfolio” out of this site and into a separate page. Something cleaner, more focused, and less personal. After reading about the grid approach I wanted to play around with it, so I’m also using the separate layout as an excuse for that.

Shopping
How is this possible after I made a huge entry about the evils of clothing purchases? We have to make exceptions sometimes. In this case, I went out to Melrose in L.A. with some Blizzard-affiliated womens that I’ve hung out with in larger gatherings a lot, but close to never in small groups. It was good bonding time, and I got a sweet jacket. Pretty impressed by a few of the stores on that street that matched my taste, had sizes that fit well, and were very affordable. I really want to go back again when I have money.

Purchased a Clarisonic of the less expensive kind because Sephora is having it’s F&F sale. 20% off! (FF2009). Got it today, and hope it works some kind of magic for me like it has for my friends.

NaNoWriMo
This isn’t so much of a distraction as it is just being heavily considered. I’ve never attempted to write a story before out of my own interest. In fact, I hated creative writing classes. HATED. But, I like the idea of the challenge, and being able to say that I’ve written a novel-length book of sorts before however crap it may be. It could be an enlightening endeavor. For self discovery or something equally corny! The key will be finding subject matter that I can blather on about.

Categories: Food & Shopping, Gaming, General, Makeup & Skin, Web No Comments

Bobbi Brown Oil-Free Even Finish Foundation

October 18th, 2009 at 5:43 pm No Comments

Two months ago I started seeing Shirley at the David Douglas salon in Tustin, and during one of our sessions we got onto the topic of foundations. I’d never been able to find a good color match for my skin, having tried a range of products from drug store brands to the likes of Prescriptives, MAC, Bare Minerals, and even Prescriptives CUSTOM bended foundations. They were always slightly too pink/orange for my darker asian skin tone. Shirley recommended Bobbi Brown’s Oil-Free Even Finish Foundation since that’s what she’s used for years as a fellow yellow skin-toned asian. I couldn’t even tell that she was wearing anything on her face at the time (she also has a ridiculously good complexion so that probably helped), and being a general fan of Bobbi Brown products I said I’d give it a go.

MUA doesn’t give it very high marks, ranking at 3.5/5 with 275 reviews and only 46% of those saying they would buy the product again. I’m typically heavily reliant on MUA reviews since make-up can be really costly if you try everything that has an appealing box sales pitch, but I picked up a bottle in Natural (4) anyway.

First thing I noticed upon opening the bottle was the smell. If you have a sensitive nose, smearing this scent all over your face might be too much. It’s not odorous or very strong, but it is noticeably chemical.

The application is where I think a lot of nay-sayers might have failed. If you apply it straight from bottle to dry face, it’s a bit chunky and will likely highlight any flakiness you’ve got going on. Two musts for wearing this foundation:
1) Exfoliate beforehand. This is kind of important regardless of what you’re putting on your face though.
2) Apply it while your face is moist, or wet your foundation brush with water and squeeze it out before applying.

Wet application makes a huge difference with any liquid foundation. I may have just been on the slow boat and this is actually a given that most females learn early on. I’m pretty nubly when it comes to makeup though and only learned this approach by accident maybe 4 months ago.

The coverage is very sheer, but easily layerable without looking chalky or thick if you get a good match. It’s light and doesn’t make my skin feel more oily than it would be normally like some other foundations do, plus it has SPF 15. I set it with some Bare Minerals powder and it wears for the entire day.

In sum, I recommend this only if you have:
- yellow based skin.
- an oilier complexion.
- tolerance for scented makeup.
- a good setting powder.
- time in the morning to exfoliate and layer the foundation on slowly.

It’s a lot of effort for someone who wants to roll out of bed and be out the door in 15 minutes, but I’d call this close to my “Holy Grail” of foundations simply because the color matches so well and it’s goddamn hard to find that. Hopefully when next summer rolls around and I get my islander look going, the next shade up still works for me.

[Add] Shirley is absolutely awesome if anyone in the area needs the services she offers. Really comfortable to be around, easy going, and does great work.

Categories: Makeup & Skin No Comments

Detox diets?

October 8th, 2009 at 9:40 pm No Comments

I’d never heard of The Master Cleanse until Jennie twittered about it today, so out of curiosity I started reading up on it. The whole process sounds like insanity but there’s a hefty comment battle going on in response to “Master Cleanse Diet = Master Scam” dating back to the end of 2006 and active up till 10 days ago with a huge number of advocates for the method.

I have absolutely no interest in the weight loss aspect. In fact, it’s a bit of a turn-off since I think I’m already at the lower end of a healthy weight range for my height. The only effect that has allure here is healthier skin. When my mom dragged me to a Chinese medicine doctor for my ever fickle complexion, the doctor did a whole diagnosis thing and gave me herbal medicine to expel “poison” inside my body that she thought was causing my skin problems. I don’t know, really. She only spoke extremely Shanghainese Mandarin. I’ve always been skeptical of certain eastern medicinal ideas, but it seemed to work after a few weeks. The amount of effort involved in cooking Chinese herbs that made my apartment reek of awful on top of the 45 minute drive to the doctor’s house made it ultimately unmanageable though. If a few days of detox on “Master Cleanse” has the same effect, I might give this a go. I feel a little daft for even considering it after reading the instructions and descriptions of what happens during the cleanse. It’ll be a battle between misplaced pride and testamonial draw. Damn infomercial-like tactics. Don’t judge me!

Categories: General, Makeup & Skin No Comments