Valentines Day look: Ombre lips, blush, and a clear complexion

Hello all you beautiful people, Carmen here! As many of you may know, Valentines Day is coming up this thursday. Yes, creative makeup is fun to play with (especially with all those different colours and palettes out there), but I think the ultimate purpose of makeup is to enhance the features that you are already blessed with. Therefore for Valentines Day, instead of "hiding" your natural features by exaggerating your eyeliners, and shadows, why not stick to simplicity? Afterall, more is less. And really, your significant other should love you for who you are, not how you put on your makeup, or how you dress. Anyways, here's a look that is refreshing, and super girly for all you ladies out there.

 top: carmen | bottom: doris

photography, makeup, hair: carmen
photography, hair: doris

So for both of our makeup, the main focus is on clear and dewy skin with highlighting and blush. The ombre lips help make your lips look smaller and more natural with a warm flush. Shadow is kept to a bare minimum, and the eyeliner follows closely to the crease of the eye.

For clear skin and makeup:
There's quite a few youtube videos out there on how to get a clear complexion, but here is my take on it:

1. Wash your face (preferably with cool water and a cleanser that suits your skin type). Not only does this give you a clean canvas to work on, but the cold water helps to tighten up your pores.
2. Use a toner and an oil-free moisturizer (preferably with SPF if you are planning to go outdoors, and no SPF if you are planning to take pictures with flash). A good toner helps to tighten up pores in order to prep your skin for moisturizing. One of my favourite moisturizers is the Kiehl's ultra facial toner, and the ultra facial cream (no SPF). For this shoot, I used the Moisture Rescue Lightweight UV-lotion by Garnier.
3. BB cream: A lighter alternative to foundation is the hyper up BB cream (I used the skin79 Super Beblesh balm triple functions). I personally don't ever use foundation just because I find it too thick. For this look, I mixed a pea sized amount of the Moisture Rescue lotion with a pea sized amount of BB cream. Dab tiny amounts onto the T-zone, C-zone, chin, the area around the nose, and blend away!
4. Concealer: I like going in with concealer after bb cream to brighten up any areas. In this shoot I used the TonyMoly Baby Doll pot concealer in #1 light beige on the area under the eyes, nose, and lips.
5. Blush: I used Tarina Tarantino's Dollskin cheek blush in Feather on the apples of the cheeks, and I brushed the Dior Beauty Confidential in 001 Sun Illusion higher up to the cheekbone area to get more of that rosey flush.
6. Highlighting: This is pretty much the most important step to achieve the illusion of youthful, dewy skin. I used the Temptu Retouch Highlighter in Pink Pearl on the T-zone, C-zone, chin, and the eyebrow bone area.
7. Powder: For this look, I skipped powder simply because I didn't want the look to be too matte. However, you can lightly sweep powder over oily areas just to soak up excess sebum.
8. Done! These are only steps for a really light coverage. If you do need more coverage, then you may want to invest in foundation.

Tips:
1. Try not to keep your makeup on for over 8 hours, and your skin will love you. Spend as much time cleaning and taking your makeup off, as the time used to put your makeup on. If you spent 10-15 minutes to put on makeup, then invest 10-15 minutes to take it off!

2. Water and exercising are important ingredients for clear skin. Drinking water will help your skin retain its elasticy, while sweating will help clear out your pores, so drink up! Also, breakouts are sometimes due to hormone imbalance, so exercising will always help. Oh and as well, eat your veggies, people!

3. Love and respect yourself for who you are =)

All right, I think I'm done blabbering. For all of you who actually read through this, I congratulate you. You deserve a sticker. Happy early Valentines everyone!

Royal Red

I think this is the first time in my life that I've ever painted my nails red. Literally. I always thought the colour was way too feminine, and it's not just a colour that I can pull off. However, one of my cousins got me the "After Party" set by Nails Inc. (posted previously here), and I couldn't resist trying it out again. As mentioned before, it chipped after a short while. This time, I went over with a top coat from the Korean brand Etude House, and it's still holding flawlessly on the fourth day. So yeah, stick a few rhinestones on, and you've got yourself a personalized nail design that's probably charged $45 or more at nail salons. Yay for DIY.

PS: I just realized that these red nails are perfect for the New Years coming up next week in Asia.

Bye for now,
Carmen

Scarf junkie

So lately I've been staring at my closet...and I have come to realize how much stuff I have crammed in there. Stuff as in my keyboard and the stand, snowboard, mountains of clothing, stacks of books, hats, shoe boxes, bags, and other useless things. I probably have a few rodents living in there too. Just joking...maybe. Anyways, I think scarves are the best accessories, which enable us to dress up or down pretty much any outfit. I came across my scarf section and it kind of scared me a little when I raked it all out. I came to realize what a scarf junke I am. I've neglected some of thesse pieces, and just left them there to collect dust.

Well...why not make something artsy out of them? They've once again re-debuted. This time they aren't just to be worn as scarves, but to be made into a carpet. Or mat. Or whatever you want to call it. The scarves below are a combo of Doris' and mine. All you scarf fanatics out there...please do show us your collection too!

Have a blessed week,
Carmen