Tuesday 16 April 2013

Melbourne Supanova 2013~

I AM BACK!~ 8'D

I haven't abandoned this blog I swear! I've been so busy with school/uni and cosplay making~ ><

Here's some photos from Melbourne Supanova weekend of me and my lovely Dead or Alive group to make up for it?~ ^^;

Kasumi @ http://bbchibi.deviantart.com
Ayane @ http://rinni64.deviantart.com
Hayate @ http://caliburex.deviantart.com/
Zack @ http://shinyspikes.deviantart.com/

Photos by:
https://www.facebook.com/maxphotovn
https://www.facebook.com/L2.Photography.L2
http://wolfenheim84.deviantart.com/








Hope you guys like! There will probably be more photos sent to me soon so I'll keep updating~ ^^

(Also, out group, or at least me and Rin (Ayane), will be doing another photoshoot together again sometime~ :D)

~ アキ

Sunday 15 July 2012

Alice Themed Photoshoot~

Yet another photoshoot for my friend's art folio!~ ^^

This one's the normal Alice themed shoot, we'll be doing a creepy Alice shoot later in the year. probably September, if we both have time! :D

Photos by Alex @http://emberfox666.deviantart.com










I'll be putting up at least one HQ photo on deviantart by the end of the week!~ ^^

~アキ

Sunday 17 June 2012

Angel Themed Photoshoot~

Hello!~ ^^

This post will have a bunch of photos from my friend's angel themed photoshoot for her art folio~

There's heaps of good photos from this one (or at least I like them? XD) so I should be putting up at least 10 or so in the next few weeks! :D

All photos by Alex @ http://emberfox666.deviantart.com





Aaaaand as usual, crack photo!~ ^^ *PONPONPON* 


Saturday 2 June 2012

Top 10 Makeup Mistakes I've Made~

Hello~ ^^

I got the idea to do this off a video I saw on youtube! :D

Disclaimer: I am FAR from pro at makeup, so not everything I say here is necessarily 100% right! This is just based on what I've learned from my past experiences~
I've been experimenting with makeup for about 4-5 years now, and wearing makeup on a regular basis for 2 years, so I still have a long way to go! >_<

So in no particular order:

1. Not using concealer
Until about 2 years ago, I just put foundation over my entire face until my blemishes were pretty much covered. Yeah... Don't do that ^^;

What works better (at least for me), is to put a fairly thin layer of BB cream (for everyday wear) or foundation (for heavier makeup looks) to even out skin tone, and then use concealer to add extra coverage over areas that need it, like over blemishes or dark circles.

2.  Not matching my foundation
Again, until quite recently, I never matched my foundation properly. I just bought colours that looked 'close enough' without really thinking about it. I always ended up getting foundations too dark/orange for my skin, which was especially bad, because I tend to prefer looking a bit lighter >_<

Now, I use mostly BB creams for everyday wear since it's better for your skin, and since most asian BB creams are made to suit oriental skin tones, the colour almost always matches me perfectly. When it comes to foundation, I've gotten WAY better at estimating what colours will match me well, but I always try the testers first if at all possible.

3. Just putting black eyeliner all round my eye.
Some people look amazing with any style of eyeliner, including just a black rim around their entire eye. I am NOT one of those people. When I first started out with eyeliner, I completely disregarded my eye shape, and would just draw around my entire eye with black eyeliner. It ended up just making my small eyes look even smaller >_< (Also, totally emo XD)

I've found that what tends to look better for me is top liner only for a light everyday look, and for heavier looks, I need to vary the line length/placement etc.
I'm not going into detail for this one, because very different eyeliner looks good on different people~

4. Using just my favourite colours
There are very few skin tones where every colour looks good, and it took me a while to realise this. I used to love pinks and purples, so I used those eyeshadow colours, which just ended up making my eyes look a bit swollen ^^;

I find that for my skin tone, I should stick to neutrals, blacks/whites or bright cool colours. This is another one that varies person to person of course~

5. Not doing my eyebrows
My natural eyebrows aren't very sparse or very thick, but are far from perfect, with quite a lot of stray hairs, which I used to just ignore.

Eyebrows make a huge difference to the overall face, so it's important to keep them nice and clean looking! Even if you don't want to change their shape, it's still good to get rid of the messy stray hairs around the main shape to give a neater look. I have a full front fringe these days, so you actually can't see my eyebrows, but I make sure to fix them up every week or 2, just in case~

6. Not matching my eyebrow colour
I put highlight in my hair for the first time when I was 13, and dyed it fully when I was 15, so I haven't had completely black hair for many years now, even though it's still pretty dark. I would fill in my eyebrows with a black eyeshadow or eyebrow pencil, and never noticed how harsh and strange it looked.

Now that my hair is a medium-dark brown, I need to fill in my brows with a medium/light brown if I want to show them without looking strange, since they're naturally black. Thinning out my eyebrows and filling them in with colour is especially important when I cosplay and wear different wigs. For me, I've found that with dark hair, the eyebrows look best a shade or two lighter, and with light hair, the eyebrows look best the same colour, or slightly darker. I've seen waaaaay too many girls walking around with light hair and black eyebrows, don't be one of them! >_< (Unless you're doing it on purpose of course XD)

7. Not using eye primer
I have incredibly oily eyelids (and super dry skin almost everywhere else >_>), and my eyeliners and eyeshadows crease/smudge really easily. When I wore just liner on my top lid, it would smudge on the outer corner within a few hours of putting it on, and even with touchups, by the end of the day, my makeup would look very messy.

I'm quite obsessive with eye primers now, I never wear eye makeup without it! If you have monolids, small eyelid folds, or oily eyelids, a good eye primer will most likely allow your makeup to stay on for longer without smudging or creasing~

8. Not doing any conturing, highlighting or applying blush
I first started doing makeup on a regular basis because of cosplay, and since anime characters' faces are just one colour, I would only ever put one colour of foundation/BB cream (often a little lighter than my natural skin colour) over my face and move on. And then, one day, I looked at my face in the mirror at school under bright lighting, and I looked almost sickly O_o

I have a very wide and flat face, so a little bit of very basic conturing does a lot. Also, applying base makeup tends to cancel out any natural pinkness in the cheeks, making you look a bit washed out and unhealthy. When time allows, I always make sure to apply at least a little bit of blush for a natural glow.

9. Buying only cheap makeup
Although many cheaper makeup brands have some pretty good stuff, I was not good at finding them when I was younger. I would usually buy the least expensive things I could find, since I didn't have much money. Combined with my oily eyelids and no primer, cheap eye makeup just would not stay for very long.

I still don't tend to buy high end makeup, since I'm still a student, but I've gotten better at deciding what cheap products are good to use (Eg. Eyeshadows, brushes), and what products I should invest a bit more in (Foundation, eyeliner etc.)

10. Not checking my makeup under different lighting/in different mirrors
Bright lighting like in my bathroom, and slightly dirty/scratched compact mirrors can make your makeup and skin look better and smoother than it really does. I never used to check my makeup under natural lighting, in a perfectly clean mirror before going out, so my makeup would sometimes be messy/uneven, and I would not even notice it unless someone pointed it out (Which nobody really ever does)

I always make sure to take a proper look at my makeup before going out these days, ESPECIALLY if I'm going to be taking photos, just in case~ ^^


So those are my 10 makeup mistakes I've made in the past! Of course, these are not even half of the mistakes that I've ever made, and I am still making heaps of makeup mistakes even now, so hopefully I will continue to learn from my mistakes! ^^

~ アキ

Sunday 29 April 2012

Photoshoot for My Friend's Art Folio~

Hello!~ ^^

These are a few of the photos my friend took for her art folio, I'm wearing half of my Sonohara Anri (Durarara) cosplay and half of my Secret Police Luka (Vocaloid) costume, I didn't really want to upload these photos on deviantart since they're far from an accurate cosplay... So I will be slowly uploading them here instead!~ ^^

Will update as more photos get sent to me~ ^^


Kao Prettia (Leise) High Bleach Bubble Dye Review

I (finally) redyed my hair today!~ ^^

(My roots are starting to look terrible  >_<)

This time I decided to use Prettia because I'd heard a lot of good things about it from my friends! I chose a medium/light honey brown colour this time~ ^^

The box says 'high bleach' (or 'hi bleach'?), but other than that I don't seem to see a colour name... (Correct me if I'm wrong!) I do remember seeing a lighter shade of Prettia high bleach in the shop though~

Let's get started with this review!~ :D

So here's the packaging and all the stuff that came in the box~



Two bottles of dye mixture, pump lid, sachet of conditioner, rubber gloves, instruction booklet


My original color is quite close to the 2nd 'before' picture and I was aiming for the 1st or 2nd shade from the 2nd row

Taken less than 1 month after dyeing with Palty Creamy Caramel

 Recent photo, almost 4 months after dyeing, it barely faded but roots are becoming obvious~

 My disgusting roots today~ Please excuse the oiliness! I've been told never to dye hair soon after washing and my hair gets oily VERY quickly >_<;

So to mix the dye, you pour the liquid from the little bottle into the larger clear bottle and close the lid, then tip it upside down a few times (do NOT shake it). Then you replace the normal lid with the pink lid with the nozzle. To make the foam/bubbles, you just squeeze the bottle~

I thought it looked really awesome, since the stuff in the bottle was just normal liquid and came out as pretty bubbles~ *easily amused* XD

The first thing I noticed about the dye was how strong the fumes were, although I did expect it since the product is meant to contain bleach. I just spread a bunch of foam over all of my hair and combed through/massaged with my fingers (making sure to wear gloves!), then repeated a few times, since there was a LOT of product! It only took about half the bottle to cover all of my hair, but for it to be covered with a layer of foam like on the diagrams, it did take most of the bottle. My hair is quite thin and layered, but the longest bits are around quite long, about waist length, although the bulk of it is chest length or shorter.

The fumes stung my eyes a bit when I first started applying it, but it was bearable, and stopped stinging after the first few minutes. My scalp stung a little bit too the whole time the dye was on, but again, it didn't bother me too much, and I have a pretty low tolerance for pain. Also, the foam doesn't drip, which is especially awesome for me, since I spill everything everywhere~ XD

I don't trust the colour charts since my colour never comes out nearly as light as the charts predict, so I left the dye in for 40 minutes (not including the ~10 mins used to apply it) instead of the 20-30 minutes I needed to achieve the colour that I wanted. I also turned the heating in my house up because hair dye works better/faster when heated a bit.

Here's the result!~

 Before and After:


Under bright lighting, the colour turned out quite similar to the 'after 20 minutes' colour I was aiming for, a honey toned light/medium brown, but under normal lighting it's a bit darker. The change in colour is still very visible though, and I honestly love the result! The colour is very even and covered up my roots perfectly, which is the most important part! ^^

After applying the conditioner that came with the dye and drying my hair, it didn't feel super damaged, although the ends do seem slightly drier than they were before, but that was to be expected~

The Final Verdict: 9/10
I really like this dye! The colour was much more true to the colour chart than the other dyes I have used (L'Oreal, Garnier and Palty), and wasn't very damaging either. The fumes and stinging were slightly annoying but definitely tolerable. The instructions were easy to follow, and the bottle was easy to use. I remember seeing Prettia dyes for quite cheap when I was in Japan (Equivalent to a bit over $10 AUD), and I got mine for $21 at a shop in in city, which was the best price I could find over here, so it's a bit on the expensive side, but definitely worth the price, and I would definitely recommend it to people hoping to dye their hair lighter from a fairly dark colour! ^^

So that's all for now!~ Might upload a some more photos in a week's time after washing a few times~ ^^

~アキ

Saturday 21 April 2012

Dolly Wink No. 2 Sweet Girly + No. 6 Baby Cute

Hey guys!~ ^^

I've always been a huge fan of Tsubasa (She's so gorgeous~ X3), and I've recently started collecting stuff from Dolly Wink! So far I have the eyeliner (haven't tried yet) plus 4 boxes of falsies from the original series~ ^^
I really love Tsubasa's makeup, because it's not super super dramatic like a lot of other gyarus, but still very pretty and dolly~
I'll also start collecting Candy Doll products when my current heap of makeup starts to run out/expire~ :D

No. 2 Sweet Girly was the first pair of Dolly Wink eyelashes I bought, and No. 6 Baby Cute was the first pair of bottom lashes I bought. It wasn't until almost a month later that I realized they are supposed to be worn together~ (Skills!) ^^

Now, on with the review!~

No. 2 Sweet Girly


Packaging: 10/10
The packaging is super pretty of course! It's easy to open (I cannot stand packaging that is really strongly sealed and takes forever to open >_<), and has a nice little box inside the main box that's easy to carry around in my bag.

Design: 9/10
I absolutely love the design, it's very flattering and as natural looking as lashes this dramatic can possibly look~ XD
The thick part near the middle emphasizes the middle of the eye and makes it look wider which I really love.
They're perfect for me since I love wearing quite heavy makeup when I go out, but should probably be saved for special occasions if you prefer to wear mostly light makeup.

The only (tiny) problem was that these lashes need to be curled before or after you put them on, or else they tend to look quite droopy (unless you like that look?), I had to curl mine before and after applying them for them to curl up significantly~

Also the band is really loooooong because I have small eyes! Even though I wear my lashes with at least a few millimeters extra to extend the eye, it was still a little bit too long. It would be the perfect length for people with big eyes though!

Comfort: 9/10
The band is flexible and easy to apply into the shape that you want, although they are quite long, they are not too heavy, although they do start to feel a bit heavy after wearing them for 12+ hours, but that is to be expected~ XD

Price: 7/10
I've looked around in almost every asian makeup store in the city over here, and the cheapest price that I found was $21.95 AUD, which is quite expensive, considering I've bought boxes of 10 lashes for less than $20, however, the price in Japan/China is a fairly reasonable $13-15 AUD. Also, the quality/design of these are far more flattering than most eyelashes from Australian brands that I've tried that cost around $10 a pair, so can't really complain~ ^^

It also comes with a little tube of eyelash glue, the glue works well, and there is quite a generous amount.

Reusable? 9/10
Yes! I used my first pair of No. 2 at least 6-8 times (My memory sucks) before it started to lose it's shape and glue started to get everywhere, and I wasn't particularly careful with it either, so the quality is definitely good! Considering I paid $11 for each pair and used it about 7 times, that's less the 2 dollars per use.

Overall: 9/10
I love these and am definitely stocking up at least a box or two next time I go to Japan! ^^

No. 6 Baby Cute



Packaging: 10/10

Same as No. 2, the packaging is gorgeous! This shade of pink is so pretty~ :3

Design: 9/10
I was a little bit iffy about the design when I first saw it in the box, but they looked amazing on Tsubasa (doesn't everything?) and I had a bit of extra money, so I thought why not? Each of the little sections are separate which I didn't realize until I tried them up, and then were quite hard to apply.

HOWEVER, they looked awesome! ... Or at least I think that they do?
I used a bit of light eyeliner/eyeshadow as a guideline for where to stick them, and used tweezers to apply them, and it actually didn't nearly look as strange as I had expected, although it did take quite a few minutes to get them all on. The separate chunks also mean that you don't need to worry about bending the bands into shape, which is something that is a huge relief to me, since the bands of bottom lashes usually hate me. XD

Comfort: 10/10
These are super comfortable since they don't have a whole band, and I could barely feel them at all. The only problem with this is that I'm constantly paranoid and checking if they're still stuck on ^^;

Price: 7/10
Again, the same as before, a bit on the expensive side over here, but well worth it! ^^ 

Reusable? 8/10
I've used the first pair 3 times already and they're still fine to reuse. The only problem (and this might just be me) is that since you need tweezers to apply them, I sometimes squeeze a bit too hard and ruin the shape of the lashes >_<

Overall: 9/10
They're my new favourite bottom lashes, but they're definitely not for people who think that spending more than 30 minutes on makeup is too long~ XD


Here's a few photos of what they look like on me~ ^^
(Might add a few more after this weekend~)
No. 2 + No.6

No. 2 + No. 6
The top ones tend to droop after wearing them for a few hours~ >_<