Eye Base vs. Eye Primer

When I started experimenting with makeup for the first time, I slowly began to use eyeshadows and eyeliner and all that other good stuff. After a couple hours though, I noticed that my eyeshadows would eventually fade or crease, leaving my eyes looking like two huge blobs. It's not a pretty sight, let me tell you. Especially because I was only applying neutral colors, my eyes looked like two darkened black eyes by the end of the day. My dad would always have a good laugh whenever I came home at the end of the day.

So I bought myself eye base, thinking it was the same thing as eye primer. Although they're both used for the eyelids, there is a different purpose for each.

Eye Base
Eye base is applied over the eyelid to bring out an enhanced, maximum hue of eyeshadows. For example, if your gold eyeshadow only gave a 'hint' of color on your skin tone, with eye base it becomes a prominent gold that makes your eyes 'pop'!

Eye base is especially great for when you're using bright colors during the summer or when you go clubbing. One good eye base that I recommend is the NYX Eyeshadow Base:

NYX Eyeshadow Base ($7 on NYX website)

Great thing for NYX is that they have three different colored eyeshadow bases in white, skin toned, and white pearl. You can use each one for a different purpose; white for bright colors that are matte, skin-toned for neutral browns and earth tones, and pearl for any glitter/metallic eyeshadows you've been dying to use. :-)

Now, onto eye primer.


Eye Primer
Eye primer is a little different in my opinion. For those who don't use eye shadow primer, you'll see in a couple hours that your eyeshadow will fade...and you might even have to reapply again in the restroom (as I have done many times in the past). Eye primer's purpose is for longlasting eyeshadow that will stay put whether you have oily lids, sweaty face, etc.

Pretty straightforward, right? Here are some good eye primers:

Urban Decay's Primer Potion ($10 @ Ulta)

This primer potion is very popular; if you go watch any makeup gurus on Youtube, they'll most likely be using Urban Decay's Primer Potion to prepare their eyelids for eyeshadow application. Like NYX you'll notice that this primer potion comes in different colors (Sin, Eden, Greed, and of course, the Original) so be sure to check out all the different ones on Urban Decay.

And that's it for today! Hope it helped a bit!

Cheers!

Kimova

The Power of Makeup (no joke!)

Whenever I sign into Youtube, I'll find recommendations for new videos that I should watch. I found a video clip that was extracted from an Asian television show (I can't tell if it's Chinese or Taiwanese or something completely different, forgive me). Since then, I've watched a variety different clips from this show and here is one of many. I found this very fascinating:

Isn't it amazing? I find it refreshing to see; it's definitely a safer alternative than going under the knife to get something fixed permanently. They both look very different but in a good way. When I see this, it doesn't seem like anything vain; it reminds me that every girl deserves to be pretty for themselves without compromising themselves to paying huge sums of money and pain to reconstruct their face (by all means, if you want to do it though and you know for sure you'll be happy, then go for it as well! Only you know what will make you happy. :) )

So, the moral of this post? Go learn and find your own way to beautify yourself so that you'll leave the people around you breathless. ;)

What are your thoughts on all of this? I would love to read what your thoughts are about this.

Cheers!

Kimova

P.S.: Hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving. :)

Want: Book by NARS

So I was browsing through Facebook because I was bored and came across this on the NARS facebook page:

I probably would have passed by this photo if it were not for the oriental beauty who graced the cover of this hardcover book. Personally in my experience in reading fashion mags and what not, it's hard to find Asian models gracing the covers of anything unless they have the double eyelids and they look more European than Asian. I find it sort of sad how Asians, especially Koreans, are not embracing their oriental beauty and instead going all out to get cosmetic surgery to 'correct' anything that they feel makes them too "Asian" (i.e.: monolids...I have them, but I love mine!)

Anyway, sorry about the off-topic subject. But that is why this cover really fascinated me and caught my eye, haha.

I got this from the Barnes and Nobles website. Here's a synopsis:

...Here Nars combines his expertise in makeup and photography to create a makeover manual that transforms the application of makeup into the ultimate form of self-expression...inspiring readers to re-create his lessons on their own...Employing Nars’s own before and after makeover photographs of a variety of models of all different ages, races, and skin tones—and combining these images with the designer’s instructional sketches on transparent overlays—this volume is the definitive do-it-yourself guide for anyone interested in the transformative power of cosmetics.

The synopsis was pretty long, so I had to cut it down. But doesn't that sound fabulous? I might go and buy this book once I get my next paycheck, heehee.

Is there anyone who has gotten this book, yet? Would love to read what your thoughts were on it.

Cheers!

Kimova.

I have a blog...?

Yup, I have a blog.

Just to let you know, I've tried making so many blogs but ended up deleting each and every one of them. Why? Because I just suck at blogs. I just don't know what to write about, and I just fucking suck at it.

But, alas, I am trying again to see if I can really do this for real and keep up with it because...why the hell not, right?

So, my username is kimova, but my actual name is Alice. I'm Asian, specifically, Korean. I'm twenty years old and I live in the busy part of Los Angeles, California. Pretty straightforward introduction, in my opinion. :)

You can sort of relate me to ugly duckling though I don't look like anything like Tyra Banks or Jessica Stam or anything like that... but what I want to say is that I was the gawky, awkward, depressed, and shy kid who never really opened out of her shell until she graduated high school (<-- random note, hated high school.)
Since then, I feel that I have become much more open and have come to embrace flaws about myself that I thought I never could. I'm glad I'm going towards a better place in life where I am able to accept things that my pride once could not.

Hmmm...what else to add for an introduction? Oh! How could I forget. I'm a dancer - a ballet dancer. Yup, the pointe shoes and everything else inbetween all that mess. -___-;; I'm not in a company yet because I started late when I was sixteen...yeah, pretty late, right? But I've been catching up and it's been working for the past couple of years - but we'll have to see if I really want to pursue this because it's really fucking hard. People who have never encountered dance will never understand the strong discipline that is required of your body and mind to do this shit.

Sorry if I cuss too much. I'm just on a rampage.

Also, I'm a sucker for makeup. Yup, I'm one of those girls... I'm also a fan of Michelle Phan on Youtube. I think she's really great and fabulous - she erases that whole stereotype that makeup is only for the prissy, you know? She gives makeup a whole new meaning - it's a form of self-expression and you get to express yourself anyway you want on your face. And what a better way to represent yourself than to put the art literally on you, right? I'm a sucker for art too, if you haven't noticed.

Anyway, I think that's good enough for an introduction. Nice to meet you. :) This will be the start of me babbling and recording my life on this blog.

Cheers!

Kimova