23

Hello. I turned 23 nearly a month ago. For my birthday, some friends got me books and makeup. Mostly makeup. I also got other things (Thanks, friends!), but I'll only be sharing the books and makeup part, since I usually only talk about those two things whenever I make 'haul' posts.

Every Day by David Levithan and Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley, both from Jam. Magonia doesn't have its dust jacket in the picture because I was still reading it when this was taken. Every Day is special because it's Jam's own copy, and I've always associated Levithan with her, probably because the first ever Levithan book I read was How They Met and Other Stories, which Jam had lent me some years ago.

Inglot pigment from Alex! It matches with the liquid eyeliner my grandma coincidentally got me as well.

Said grandma also gave me a couple of her Revlon lippies. She's been an advocate of Revlon for 48965734896 years.

Eyeshadows from Camille! Who finally came to my house last month as well! Miracles do exist!!!!!

Sephora palette from my aunt and her family. Didn't bother swatching because I never really swatch palettes I guess...?

Thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes!

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In other news, I went back to grandma hair again.

~*~spastic gif time~*~

It's a subtle duo-tone, where one side is grayer than the other. As of this post, my hair color has faded and is less gray now and more ash blonde, I think.

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I have been unwell. I thought I was okay in April, but by the beginning of May I had a complete relapse. I haven't been able to recover since then, and I feel myself continuously falling backwards in a downward spiral. I thought turning 23 would be great, considering how that's also my favorite number (how naive), but so far my days have been obscured by a dark filter that I can't seem to look past.

I don't know what happened to me.

I don't know what to do.

#makeuptransformation

LOJK NO

Just another ~*~makeup haul~*~ post.

GURL THANGZ

~*~MAKEUP HAUL TIME~*~

Prom 4.0

I've been to prom four times now.

From Hong Kong top/dress (worn underneath), Miss Selfridge dress, Thrifted shoes

Well, I didn't attend a prom four times, per se. The first and only one I really attended was my own, in my junior year of high school. The following year, as a senior, I had a partner-in-crime in an attempted crashing of our juniors' prom. The year after (or possibly the same year), I attended the debut of a friend, and the event room across ours was hosting a school's promenade, which we promptly crashed for about thirty seconds.

This year, my friend Jam thought it'd be fun to have a prom-themed birthday celebration, and I'm always game for themed anythings.

From Palawan pearl rings, Apostrophe eyeball bracelet, Thomas Sabo pearl bracelet (gifted), Gachapon ring, Forever 21 knot ring, J & C Online Boutique bracelet

Zara earrings, from HK choker

If I had to relive my prom again, I would totally wear this. Maybe I'd switch the shoes for something more 'appropriate,' and maybe I'd ditch the choker too, only because my high school was very conservative. But besides those two things, I think this seems like a very 'prom' outfit, though still something I'd wear out (which I did, because Jam celebrated her birthday in Bonifacio High Street, and we ended the night at this bar called Rue Bourbon.) To be honest though, I thought prom was so overrated. Not Jam's theme, but my actual prom years ago. Everybody made such a big fuss over it. I didn't make an effort to go find some fancy dress (in fact, the dress I wore was something I just spotted at the department store- when I saw it, I simply thought, "Oh hey, this seems 'formal' enough.") and I didn't stress over it at all. It was no big deal to me then, and I don't regret that to this day. I didn't see the point in spending a notable amount of money on a dress that I'd probably only wear once... unless maybe said dress is my wedding dress or something. (Though my friends and I also joked that this outfit was my wedding dress for the night, heh.)

That said, I didn't spend a substantial amount of cash on this dress either. Miss Selfridge is pretty expensive for me, however this was on sale; it was around P800+ or so, which is pretty reasonable for something from Miss Selfridge. (If I remember right, my actual prom dress back then was probably around that price range too, if not less.) I really liked how feminine the dress was when I saw it, and when it was purchased, I suddenly realized I had something fitting for Jam's prom-themed birthday!

For makeup, I sorta played around with the colors of my dress and used some light blue shades on my eyes, then adding some silver eyeshadow below. Then for lips I just used a pale lavender with purple on the insides.

I'll blog about the actual celebration some other time, on a separate post. Thanks again for that night, Jam, and a belated happy birthday again! I love you!

Also, thank you Papa for taking my outfit pictures because I was too lazy to do my actual usual set up. And the sun was going down so I was pressed for time. Youz a lifesaver, appa.

FFF (Forever 21, Fruits, Flowers)

Forever 21: Kam in ur best F21 outfit pls

Ina: Dafuq does dat even entail bro

Ina: Imma just wear my THUG LIFE tank since it's from F21

Ina: Iz dat coo

F21: We coo

Ina: Ok

F21: Ok

I got to attend the Forever 21 party last night thanks to some work (read: YStyle next Friday, August 16 -- photos by me!) and while I am hardly a ~*~party girl~*~ (you have no idea, NO IDEA, how wrong it would be to even associate me with that label), I very much enjoyed myself because I had a horrible, horrible day. It was a bad day, and it was crummy even until the very moment I stepped into the building where the party was held. (No really, stuff took place even en route to the party.) There were tears. And slight profanity, which only made this party a much-needed escape even if I was on the job.

From Hong Kong collared top, Forever 21 tank top and shoes, H&M skirt and bag

There is something about working with PhilStar that allows me to meet some really rad people. Seriously, this is the fourth time I've been blessed with the opportunity to work with them and for all four times I got to meet some cool beans kids. Last night, I finally got to befriend someone whom I had only admired from afar on the world wide web, met several other bloggers (this is already a given considering the event), a U.N. Ambassador (??!!!?!?!?!), people at SM, and I even got to see some college friends which was totes the highlight of my day. I even got to see Jacque of Stylebible, and she remembered me!!! (Omg sorry I didn't really think I was rememberable especially considering how brief my interning stint was.)

Kate Torralba for Leg Love tights, from HK neon socks

Tofu says hi. I'm pretty sure these tights/stockings are KT, and my mom found them on sale which is cool because I mean we get to feed my tights/socks obsession for less right?

H&M ring, Regina's spike bracelet, Bershka neon cuff

Guys. I am not much of a fruits person. If anything, I really enjoy mostly mangoes and oranges, and grapes if I could have them. But that's it. You know how nearly every kid loved apple juice? Nope, not this one. Hated apple juice (but I'm okay with it now.) I eat apples but not often. I don't even like pineapples. Or watermelons. BUT I AM OBSESSED WITH FRUIT-PRINTED FASHION OKAY CAN WE JUST MAKE THIS A THING??? I need mango-printed clothing to profess my love for the fruit okay. (Actually, just food-printed clothing in general will make me happy.)

To be honest I would've blogged this over on CS, but I didn't want to use up any precious battery juice for the night ahead. It would've been fun to film this outfit though!

The option for heels did not cross my mind at all because my mindset was comfort, obviously because I was going to be working. And I mean these sneaks are F21! If I don't really want to fit the F21 brand image then I figured wearing some pieces from the brand would be enough compensation.

Forever 21 headband, Secondhand (Bloggers United) earrings

I was supposed to wear my fruits headband (it has bananas on it -- I don't eat that often, either) but then I spotted this baby and I was like OH HEEEEY THIS SEEMS MORE FOREVER 21 and the only time I got to wear this out was during my flight home from HK. It was a good decision because it was a big hit with the crowd HAHAHA no joke, a lot of people liked it! And then they gushed over my hair which made me happy. Thank you.

Even my makeup was partially F21! All of the eyeshadows I used were from F21; I went with some purple on the lids then blue on the bottom lashline, while I opted for a bright pink on the lips with some purple on the inner part.

I may not party but I really enjoyed myself. (Admittedly, I found myself semi-dancing -- definition of this term is highly subjective -- some time in the night. One of the DJs even played some Gorillaz and I was like UM OMG I LUV GORILLAS PLS!!!!!!) It was a great kick-off to the long weekend, and now after a night of staying up late, my body is recuperating because it is no longer used to staying up. I am a grandma who goes to sleep early and wakes up early now, which is a far cry from that kid in college who lacked sleep all the time. Am I growing up yet? No? Okay.

Congrats again Forever 21 PH! You are now three years old even if it feels like you were established here for much longer. Three years ago I was just wrapping up my first year in college. Ah how time flies...

Akahome + FOTD

Hello! I will blog about my relatively new hair because I like keeping a record of my hair transitions on the internet.

Blue hair! I actually had this pot of dye set aside when I went pink and pretty much had it planned for this month. To be honest I was actually a little on the fence with the pink because it looked horrible with my roots. The dark roots just looked a lot less awful with the blonde I had, so when I transitioned to pink I was like, "OH COOL but uhm BUT HEY IT'S COOL but uhm........." With this blue though my roots sort of transition seamlessly. It's great. What's not great is how much this blue stains. It stains so much that I've been wearing a lot of dark colors lately, but it's natsu bad.

One of my friends said that it's Akane Tendo (Ranma 1/2) hair, which I think is pretty spot on, not just with the shade but also with the cut (Akane has short hair too but not really as similar as what I have.) Another friend called it Tamahome (Fushigi Yuugi) hair WHICH WAS THE FUNNIEST THING EVER AND IT WAS PERFECT. Therefore, Akane + Tamahome = Akahome.

I've been really liking colored cut-crease looks lately, although for this look I did blend it out a little bit. A little unrelated to this look, but I once tried matching my brow color to my hair color and it didn't work out because I didn't have the right shade of blue. Also, I've seen the beginnings of how this blue will transition out, and I'm excited. With the pink it went from a bright pink, to a normal pink (normal???), then peach, then blonde peach, until the pink was practically gone and I was a warm-toned blonde. But anyway, this blue is awesome. Mostly because I don't hafta deal with my stupid roots being so prominent anymore. Thumbs up.

FOTD: Siriusly

I have further delayed this post in order to further ~*~revere~*~ my B.A.P LOE HK feels post. Really. Because it felt like by making another post it would mean like I had already moved on from the concert. I haven't. I never will. However, a week after that, B.A.P came out with a new MV and I kind of just died a little (read: scream at my laptop screen while choking on my lunch.) And now, two weeks after the concert, I am obsessing over another K-pop group, all because of another group. (I am vague. I will explain someday.)

Of course a post with my face was the one deemed worthy enough to follow the LOE HK one, huh? (I just really needed to get this post out of the way once and for all.)

Anyway, this was the makeup I wore for this post and this video. Terry and I wanted to do Harry Potter-inspired meiku, and my character that day was Sirius Black. Instead of just doing the regular yellow-lid-black-crease (it might come off as Hufflepuff-ish) I just went with something subtler. The yellow in the inner corners was for the grim's ~*~glowing~*~ eyes, and instead of black I just went with gray on the top crease as a sort of softer approach. Sort of. (I achully don't remember the reason behind the gray anymore HAHA but I know there was a reason for it and I'm pretty sure this was it?)

Instead of on the eyes, I put some black on my lips instead!

And that is all. I like making makeup looks inspired by stuff. They're just as fun as making inspired by- outfits, and... idk, doing both just seems to bring the entire look together? It's just fun. It's a nice way to explore your ~*~creativity~*~ and ~*~individuality~*~ too. Okay. Happy July everyone!

Internationally Legal

So five days ago, I officially became internationally legal. Some time in those five days, I dyed my hair pink.

It was a little spontaneous, to be honest. I stumbled upon Manic Panic sellers in Hong Kong, the price was cheaper, I figured I should make the most of my still-blonde hair while I'm still unemployed and not bound by work on what my appearance should be (of course, that depends on where I end up working, but you know.) I've known about Manic Panic since my high school days (thanks to a certain LiveJournal hair community hohoho) but never tried them out because of, duh, SCHOOL. Even in college I wasn't permitted to have bright hair. Oh what years of creative oppression can do to you LOLJK

Talking makeup, I used one of the Maybelline Color Tattoos I mentioned here as a base and placed a similar, if not slightly lighter, shimmery shadow over it. Then I used a shimmery taupe shade in my crease and just did the usual liner routine. On the lips I have a mix of the blue and pink Pout Paints from Sleek Cosmetics.

This is the loudest my hair color has been, at least to me. When my hair was red it was pretty saturated, although I never realized just how red it became until it was gone because it was the kind of color that would only really show up under the light. This pink hair is independent from whatever lighting there is, but of course, that comes with bleached hair. The blue hair I had was pretty opaque too, but I always had to hide that in school so it wasn't like I could prance around in it as much as I'd like.

Pink was always one of the colors I've wanted for hair. I've already said that all of my dream hair colors are pastels (mint green, powder blue, lavender, etc.) and while this hair dye's name is "Cotton Candy Pink", it's not as light as I'd like it to be because my hair was light enough to begin with. Not that I could be bothered to bleach again anyway, but hey, at least I can say my hair went pink already! That's like two dream colors off the bucket list (I only wish my ash color stayed longer), and next year I wanna go for a really vibrant, light blue.

This is what my hair went through, basically. I really liked the pink at first but I feel like it makes my dark roots more prominent. So maybe I miss my blonde hair? Or maybe my roots looked less like a wreck with my blonde hair is why I think I might miss it. This pink hair is really enjoyable though, and I'm interested in seeing how it'll transition out.

As for my birthday, my parents and I spent it at the mall and watching Fast & Furious 6. At least now I can say I turned a year older AND saw a movie at the cinemas in another country. It's a little crazy how I'm considered an ~*~adult~*~ everywhere now, and lately I find myself looking back on my life. Mostly schooling life, grade school included. When I look back on it, I've come to realize that I do NOT want to go back there again because it's just awkward and tiring to have to deal with all those emotions and angst and friendlessness and shyness. I am verrily nostalgic, but I like where I am now. I only hope I manage to improve myself in the years to come without completely losing myself to ~*~wisdom~*~ and becoming a drag.

I might be an adult now, but I feel like I'll always see myself as a kid. Or maybe it's just my short stature talking.

FOTD: Blushing Blossom

Surprise! Another blog post just a day after the previous one! Except it's another FOTD post, which means it's a lot of my face, which means it's another annoying post, but that's okay, I think we can deal.

So this was a look I wore early on in my Hong Kong trip, back when it was still major sweater weather. (For the record, the weather in Hong Kong as of this post is stormy, however some time last week it was a bit humid.) I did the whole blush-high-up-reaching-the-eyes look that I've always seen on Japanese girls. Like, always. Okay, not always and not on all Japanese girls, but I've seen them a lot. I think it's a pretty look so I don't know why I never tried it before.

Oh and remember that Too Cool For School gloss I talked about? I was wearing it here, with the stain on the inside of the lips/gradient lips thing that I love doing. I remember trying that look out for the first time in... 2011? Yeah, around that time, except back then I muted the rest of my lip color. I don't know the relevance of that story with this look, BUT THE GLOSS OF THIS THING IS AMAZANG I MEAN LOOK AT DEM JUICY LIPS unless that's not really your thing I can totes understand that too.

I mentioned in this post that I've picked up a new method of wearing eyeliner, and this is it. Just some minor lining on the outer corners fading in. For years I would line my entire eye and I'm not really sure why I suddenly decided to switch it up. Maybe I just grew out of the old method? Occasionally I'll still line my entire eye, but that's pretty rare now.

Besides this method, I sometimes like to make a sharp, long wing and fading it inwards as well without lining the entire eye. I like how both methods sort of allow your ~*~natural eye look~*~ (pfft Ina dafuq r u sayin') to surface while still providing definition.

Check out dat sexy bruise Tofu gave me when I was bathing him a few weeks back. He hates baths and while I was carrying him to the bathroom he latched onto me and one of his claws dug just a little too deep.

I think the floral headband worked well with the makeup look. Very ~*~spring~*~-y-esque. Hahaha no Ina no don't even try.

I almost forgot to mention that this is my last post before becoming internationally legal! SEE Y'ALL IN MY NEXT LIFE, KIDDIES!

Collective Makeup Acquisitions

By 'collective' I mean stuff from... late last year. So some of these might be half a year old already. Please note that some of these were gifts; Christmas gifts even. I've been meaning to post some of these but I never got around to, so now I just put them together to make a collective post.

The gloss and MAC (it's fake, so don't go all "woah ~*~MAC~*~" on me kids) lippie were gifts, and the two L.A. Girl lipsticks were from Eastwood's tiangge. They were P150 each, and that's pretty cheap 'cause I saw the exact same tubes at Watsons and the price was hiked to about double the amount.

Aaand a swatch of all four! The gloss is pretty sheer (well, sheer enough for me; it looks weird on the lips on its own) so I like to wear it with another dark lip and just make everything darker and glossy when I feel like it. The MAC faker (I'm sorry if you have issues with buying fake MAC but not everyone can afford that brand MYSELF ESPECIALLY I WANT TO OWN MAC PRODUCTS BUT I CANNOT BRING MYSELF TO SPEND SO MUCH ON IT OKAY) is a nice everyday kind of color. The L.A. Girl lippies are nice and bright and obnoxious and I love it.

NYX eyeshadow bases! I FINALLY HAVE THE JUMBO EYESHADOW PENCIL IN MILK I HAVE BEEN HUNTING THIS DOWN IN FOREVER OKAY OKAY I MEAN

Forever 21 eyeshadow palette that I got as a Christmas gift last year. AAAAH DOESN'T IT LOOK SO PRETTY???

Concealer palette that I got from Terry's mom. It used to be hers, but she tried it out and basically it just burned on her face. Then she gave it to me since I could use it for shoots and whatnot; the note on the palette cover is a reminder of what happened to Terry's mom's face which means a similar effect could happen to Terry should I decide to use it on her for a shoot. Thanks for the reminder, Ted. In any case, these are pretty good concealers! I've actually already hit pan on my shade huhu.

Loose face powder from Nichido. I think it's a bargain because it's cheap but you get a ton of product!

ELF goodies! I don't have that many bronzers (I usually skip any bronzing because I kind of struggle with sculpting my face, but now I've gotten the hang of it!) and ELF's pretty affordable so I thought why not? Also, I've been needing a good face primer and I've heard ELF's is pretty good. I've been really liking it so far. (Later on I compulsively got Maybelline's Baby Face pore eraser and it works just as good and I even heard it was a good dupe for the Benefit primer? Idk. It was compulsive buy because I already had the ELF face primer but the Maybelline one was on sale so it just got to me.)

Lippies from Nichido and Ever Bilena + swatches. I'm sorry for my blotchy hand; I must've been swatching the hell out of stuff the day I photographed this hahaha.

THESE MAKEUP BRUSHES OHMYGOD THEY ARE MAGIC AND SO AFFORDABLE OKAY I MEAN WOW YOU GUYS SHOULD GET THESE They're from Landmark. As in, department store. Go on. Go. Go. Go get 'em. GO.

And then I found out Beauty Bar carried brush guards and then wow. They're not as sturdy as the originals (it can't support your brushes if you're drying them upside down in a cup or smthn) but they do the job and FINALLY I've just been needing brush guards for when I clean my brushes.

Speaking of, I am the WORST at cleaning my brushes. I just find them to be a chore, so my mom got me this brush cleaner from Japonesque. A bit of a splurge, really, considering how pricey the brand is, but the price difference between this and Beauty Bar's wasn't much so my mom went with this one instead.

And then I stocked up on makeup remover wipes because I was running out and these things just make removing your makeup so much easier really.

A beauty blender dupe from Etude House. Isn't the packaging so adorbs? This makes applying face makeup a DREAM.

A silver pigment we got from... James Cooper? Fanny Serrano? One of the two. It's a magical silver and I had never owned any pigments until this one. It's the same silver I was wearing in these pictures.

Goodies that I got in Macau but are actually available in Hong Kong as well. I wasn't really going to get these shades from Maybelline as I wanted the taupe, orange, and emerald ones, but the shades Macau and HK carry are only these two, the blue, purple, silver, and white and I tried these two and actually liked them and since the Philippines does not carry this for some strange reason, my mom pushed me to get them. (Not pictured is the blue shade that we got when we got back to HK because I caved lol.) I'll save you from any swatches because there is enough of that on the worldwideweb.

ALSO GUYS MY FIRST EVER CANMAKE PRODUCT!!! I find Canmake to be really expensive actually, so this is prolly a one-time thing. It's a cream blush that feels like it could go on to a powder finish and it has these pretty gold sparkles. It's a light pink and it's a shade that I don't have yet so yay!

So I was curious about the whole snail face mask fiasco and decided to try it out, along with another face mask for oil control and stuff. These are from Sasa, by the way. I really liked the snail mask so my mom and I went to Bonjour (some of their products are cheaper than Sasa) and stocked up on a couple more.

AND THEN I GOT MY HANDS ON TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL AND DIED AT EVERYTHING. I'm pretty sure the major appeal of this brand is its packaging because wow did they match their packaging to their brand name.

I got this pink multi color paint and it's a nice, bright pink. I swatched it and it looked so good. More than anything I'll be using this on the eyes because I already have several pinks for the lips. It looks like... a small pot of poster paint. So cute.

This lipgloss thing has a stain on one end and a gloss on the other. I saw this on a model on the brand's website and I think it's meant to make your lips kind of jelly-like and I just really liked how it looked. The gloss is pretty thick so it really does look like jelly when applied. *__*

OF COURSE, THESE STUPID LIP CRAYONS. I COULDN'T NOT GET THESE. THEY ARE THE EPITOME OF MY OLD BLOG USERNAME ("crayoneyeliner" -- alright so these aren't eyeliners but they look like crayons and CAN YOU NOT SEE THE CONNECTION?? PLEASE FREAK OUT WITH ME???) AND HOW CAN YOU NOT GET THEM

They're like tinted lip balms so the color payoff is pretty sheer. I think they're sheerer when applied on the lips, especially the pink one. I actually wanted to get the yellow crayon because it's my favorite color, but it hardly had any color payoff. Out of all the shades I think the orange one was the most saturated. Originally the pink one was my mom's, but she ended up not liking how it looked on her (she's used to more opaque pinks lol) so it ended up being mine mwahaha. I have orange lippies here and there, but nothing as subtle as this one. Overall I really like these for everyday, wala lang kind of things.

This eyeshadow is from Forever 21 and it's a duochrome. A FLIPPING DUOCHROME EVERYBODY!!! There is not enough of duochromes in makeup stores I step into, be it in Manila or HK; I think I own about two, but they're really old The Body Shop eyeshadows from my mom that I crushed into pseudo-pigments because they were already busted in the pot. SERIOUSLY THOUGH, DUOCHROME. I love duochromes and I barely have any of them in my life so I kinda freaked out at this also it was dirt cheap and it's actually pretty big and the packaging's pretty swanky too and AAAAHHHH

Seriously, I am obsessed with duochromes. Partially because they are so absent in my life.

One rainy day I was going around Causeway Bay and randomly decided to go into a Maple store. And then I found these colored mascaras by Collection 2000 (the only time I ever hear about this brand is from this one YouTuber and it's only about their concealer; I have never heard about the brand outside of this YT-er) and well I really love colored mascaras okay. There's not enough of them in the market either, though I guess that's understandable since colored eyelashes aren't everyone's kind of party. The liquid liner is this turquoise shade and looks really pretty.

When I got home though, I suddenly realized I had an extra mascara tube (the one that says "LONGER LASH" in the picture.) I was like, "NO I DIDN'T BUY THIS DON'T TELL ME I SPENT MONEY ON SOMETHING I ALREADY HAVE NO NO NO" because it's a dark brown and my Ever Bilena brown mascara's similar. And then I checked my receipt and I wasn't charged for it, but it was on the list of items purchased, so I think they just threw this one in for free? It was the only item without a price sticker on it, so I really do think they gave it for free. Score.

Here's a swatch of all of them. The green mascara's more opaque than the purple one, but both are still pretty saturated. The mascara that came for free is a little darker than my brown EB mascara, but boy does it sure live up to its 'longer lash' claim because one coat of it is enough to lengthen my lashes.

Eyebrow pencil + nude-colored pencil from NYX. The nude one can act as a nude lipliner, and a spot concealer, and a liner for the waterline. My mom and I use it for the waterline, although hers is about a shade up.

AND SO THAT IS ALL. Man when I continue to push blog posts further back they just accumulate into one big post. Whatevs. I am sorry if you come across posts like this one and think that the author is shallow and materialistic; I don't think of it that way at all but there's a possibility that others do. I just... really love makeup okay. =)) I know Terry likes posts like these so at least I know I'm not the only one who enjoys them.