I watched this new Fall 2010 Korean drama, My Girlfriend is a Nine Tailed Fox in 2 days, well, maybe it was 3...but that's just how good it is! I highly recommend it, not just because the story is good, but also because they are wearing the latest trends!
And I just have to point this out: can you tell that the lead actress is the same in both pictures? Because I have seen both actors in several dramas previously and I could not recognize her. I just saw that poster and I thought oh she looks familiar, but I couldn't pin point why. Her face is not even that sharp o.o Talk about photoshoping...
Shin Min Ah plays Gumiho and she only wears this dress. At some point I thought he would never buy her clothes and she would just wear this forever...Then I thought how funny that the producers would let her wear something so fitted and up-to-date as her go-to-dress for 500 years. She only wears dresses throughout 16 episodes, they're all similar in style and are light colored to show her innocence. Actually this drama is pretty well written in that there were a number of good metaphors...it doesn't go downhill till around episode 13-14 (I heard they changed the ending?) and that's quite rare.
And she also started out barefoot, but in a short while (how?) ended up with nude flats. Since then she wore a lot of ballerina flats and one pair of white lace up boots paired with white socks (like a little girl). Very cute.
Now the main girl actually just wears a lot of plain 60's style mini dresses (London dress trend) that tend to be flow-y and "light". Combined with her long hair creates an angelic effect at first, and later a "good girl" image that Asians have always preferred. There was only one scene where she wore something different, and that was a special moment in which she wore a high-waisted pencil skirt (with heels!).
Her lover rival wears a lot of mini dresses too, but with more of an edge as they are all sleek and the shoulders are padded for a "stronger" effect (they are like opposites).
Love her bag, notice the externally padded trench coat and the flow y dress!
Other characters wear pretty clothes too!
And while the main guy is not my favorite in terms of looks, I think he is a good actor. Not too crazy about his albums either though...I think he's better at acting than Rain, but Rain gives off a better feeling overall....
The main actress I've always found pretty, though I'm not entirely sure why. I don't think I could explain it, it's just that when she plays cute and cuddly in dramas instead of a gag reflex I go awww, which normally only happens when I see babies or toddlers. So that's how I feel about her. She has evidently touched all of Korea based on this story about how every girl wants to be Shin Min Ah. I can't blame them, I find her "Woong-a!" calls super cute! ^_______^
A while back I decided to try the "new" ELF (I tried purchasing a ton of ELF products about two years ago, some I liked, some I didn't) by purchasing a $5 dollar palette from Ross ($4.49 + tax). Normally I think it retails for about $8, so it's not a big difference. I've been testing it out for at least a month now, usually by using it for work in the morning.
This palette is supposed to have 12 powder eye shadows and 2 creme eye shadows, but I didn't realize this until a week ago! I swear I thought those two big ones were lip gloss...as they often are in these palettes...XD
The first two colors are the cream shadows, which I personally thinks has no lasting power. I tried it on one morning in a hurry and I swear it was gone in just a few hours. I saw a hint of shine after that but I was not impressed. Plus it feels very...greasy? More so than others, and I have used Maybelline cool shadows, Clinique, as well as Victoria's Secret cream shadows...It's also impossible to layer any of the powder colors on top of the cream.
The second color from the left is actually the deep purple that you can see from the palette. However note that once it goes on my (yellowish) skin it turns into this weird grayish color. Now you might think it is my skin tone, but I swear that it looks the same on my (non-yellowish) eye lids. Except under the sun, in which case it looks purple again.
The color underneath the purple is actually a different purple. It's the shimmery one that you see in the palette above the dark purple. It's good for using it alongside the dark purple, but as you can see from the big blob of mess I made; it is not very pigmented. I think this is one of those eyeshadows that need a lot of "packing on", meaning you actually have to be careful not to blend too much as the color will fade. That blob of purple in the middle was just packed on as it is (the cream required a lot of cream to be that visible too).
So in a nut shell:
+ colors are nice and match each other well for everyday use
+ instructions on how to get the "perfect eye make up"
+ good price for the number of colors
+ I like how it came with a small brush & eye liner, both of which I think were decent
+ I think you can take the colors out of the box it came in and put it in your own palette. I might try it one day and let you know...
- not enough pigment
- not long lasting, MUST use primer if you want it to last more than 2 hours
- cream eye shadow was kind of...non eye shadow looking. Could have sworn it was lip gloss. Or even cream blush (had they been lighter colors)
- cheap packaging
Overall...I would not buy their eye shadows any more. The only eye shadow product that I have ever liked from ELF was their mineral eye shadow, which came in pots. I haven't checked on their recent selections but I love the ones I bought maybe a year ago and I still use them! A lot more color in those...
My friend told me about her dark eyelids, and she looked me, and said "Oh I guess you don't have them 'cause you don't use as much make up". That was two years ago.
Now I find myself seeing slightly darker eyelids, I mean really they're only bad when I don't sleep enough, most of the time they're not too ugly. However, it does make me feel like I need to wear eye shadow every day, even if I'm just going to the grocery store on a Sunday afternoon. I've always thought that it is wrong to think you need make up. Make up is an accessory, just like you shouldn't think you can't walk out the door without earrings, you should not worry about exiting your home without make up.
So first of all, to cover your dark eye lids is really easy with make up, I mean all you need is a colored primer, such as the MAC ones that everyone seems to like. I personally use a cream shadow as a base, sometimes Clinique Touch Base for Eyes (mine's silver), but I have been eying the Urban Decay Primer Lotion in Champagne (pictured) as well. Some people just use concealer, and others choose a specific undertone for their skin type, like bluish for warm skin and yellowish for cool skin. I think it really depends on your make up routine. I had purchased one of those complicated concealer quads before and it was just too much trouble figuring out how to mix them that I ended up giving it to my sister (wonder if she uses it...).
But what if you want to get rid of them so that you don't have to apply something just to look normal at home or outside? Well, have you ever wondered: WHY CUCUMBERS? I have--but no longer! Cucumbers apparently have a lot antioxidants and really help reduce hyper pigmentation. Raw slices of potato placed on your eyes have been successful in achieving results, as well as applying aloe vera on your eyelids, or even used mint tea bags (which also helps reduce swelling). You'll notice that often toners often have cucumbers, rose, or lemon as their main ingredients. Since rose water and lemon juice both have "brightening" effects, when mixed equally together they will do your eyelids wonders! And when in toner ingredients (I have used all three types of toners :3) your whole face will be brightened! I've also read that almond oil, diffused with water, and applied with Q-Tip helps. These are home remedies worth trying on a Saturday or Sunday morning while you are still half asleep ;D I'll let you know when I personally have the time to try them!
Let's not forget that beauty comes from the inside! So to reduce hyper-pigmentation you should eat healthy (lots of fruits and veggies), take your vitamins (B, C, Omega 3), and drink a lot of water!
Let me know what has worked for you! I'll try them all!
Today I was held back by an interviewee for almost half an hour, during which we talked about pretty much everything from the company to children to what kids should major in college. Of course the interview was for a sales position (how else could all the applicants have been so talkative?), but our conversation was lively and interesting in that we discussed some of the fundamentals of beauty, or at least aesthetics.
He made interesting points, about how when you think of aesthetics in Los Angeles, often you think of Beverly Hills (where we were at the moment) as the hub of vanity. So when you, or your children (he is older than I), live here, you will either be molded by the dominant values of your environment, or you will be a victim of them. The question most bloggers raise is: how do we change the concept of beauty in our culture? But I think culture develops slow over time, it cannot be changed overnight, and telling beautiful people they are shallow is probably not the best way to introduce less-popular images as "acceptable".
For example, if you wanted to preach about how we should promote "plumpness" in our culture to diminish the number of girls and boys with eating disorders, the correct way is probably not to tell skinny people that they are too skinny. Why? Because now we are against skinny people and many skinny people are skinny because they are born so, not because they choose to be skinny. It's discrimination with the tables turned.
Instead, plump people should be featured as beautiful, without too much airbrushing, and then little by little celebrities might realize that if they gained some weight they would look a lot more youthful and "wholesome" (always pleasant to look at wholesome people). In fact, the interviewee was saying that as long as you are "good to look at" it doesn't matter if you are not the perfect size, and I think many men think this way. I think it's mostly women who are obsessed with being skinnier than some other woman, or am I wrong? Do men think this way too, towards other men? You know the thought, thank gawd my thighs are not as fat as hers, or her face might be prettier but I'm skinnier (or do you?) So we ended up agreeing that beauty is being "good to look at", pleasant to look at, and proportionally wholesome. We agreed that skinny-like-starving-refugees is a bad look, while being plumper, in a proportional way, is totally okay. What do you think?
I mean our company comes into the picture when people are obese to the point where it is harmful to their health, and you would be surprised how many problems go away with a little weight loss...but other than health concerns the interviewee raised a few interesting points on how socially unacceptable obesity is, especially in LA.
As mentioned, LA is where Hollywood is, we have celebrities, wannabe celebrities, models, actors, etc. walking our streets looking fabulous. He said entire Southern California is concerned with aesthetics (more than in other places), and, well, did you watch OC? I watched like five episodes and all I remember are beautiful people, looking tanned and skinny, laying on the beach or surfing while seemingly having all the time in the world to party--sound familiar? California girls? California dreamin'? You think all of that is going to go away just by changing our minds? I don't think so. Even if 20% of Californians decided to relinquish certain trends, guess what? The rest of the world is going to expect them. The rest of the world is going to look at a Californian and be like, why aren't you blonde, skinny, and tanned?And yes, perhaps it is the media coverage that we blame, but you know what's funny about the media? They only broadcast what sells, so if surveys show that people like seeing beautiful skinny on people on screen, that's what they'll broadcast. Remember Rosanne's show? She was funny 20 years ago, wonder why she's not on anymore? Because our culture has shifted since then. Wait for the next wave people!
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