I first heard about this trend two years ago when I was working retail with this girl who had taught English in South Korea for a year. This is a common thing people with a undergrad degree in the Arts do, but then most of them come back to North America somewhat jaded with job prospects and life in general. Anyways, so we worked together and she often complained about how ridiculous the make-up trends were there. The “gradient lip” trend was her favourite one to dis-credit. She said she hated the look of it, but I think she just hated cute ideas in general! But I digress. Basically, the trend involves painting your whole lips nude, then, just in the center, placing red so it looks as if you ate some ripe red fruit, and it had stained just the inner part of the lips. The motivation behind this trend is that it is supposed to look cuter and younger. So let’s put this to the test on me!
You need two lip colours to do this. Make sure they contrast each other enough. The main point of this trend is nude coloured lips, with a gradient dab of bright colour in the center.Come close for a kiss! ha ha. This is how it looked on me. I don’t know if you can see it. But it is indeed two toned, with the red in the center, fading out to nudey pink on the edges. Like?
How I find this look:
I can see why it might be a trend in Korea. There is something very natural about this red in the center lip…because that is where lips tend to be redder anyhow. When I showed this lip trend to my kid, he couldn’t tell I was wearing lipcolour! Another thing I like about this trend is that it’s an easy way to wear a bright red lip colour without looking like you’re screaming “look at my lips”! It is more subtle. And that’s why I like it. 🙂 My tips for getting a more defined gradient is to do the center part bright red first, then outline it with the nude lip colour to blend and smudge it. What do you think about it?
No smiling, no tilting the head, no posing, no hair in the face…etc. These are all the restrictions that come with the territory of taking an ID photo. I used to think it was pretty simple, but now I realize the government doesn’t want you to look good, or look like you are having any fun in these photos. In all seriousness, they want you to look miserable so they can capture the facial features of the face in a “no frills” kind of way. As a result, a passport photo that you barely even like, and barely looks like “you”, becomes the representation of you for the next five to ten years. Yes, you will have to look at it every so often, and see the unflattering lighting, how it hit your face at a bad angle, making you look not your best. *sigh* It’s not that bad, or is it? Without sounding vain, wouldn’t you want to have the best photo you can get while still meeting requirements the government demands for formal IDs? Here are some of my tips for making the best of a trying situation:
My Personal Tips
1. Don’t wear dark colours like black, navy or charcoal. They weigh you down in spirit, which will weigh you down in the photo too. I like to wear pastels and cheerful colours to reflect a lighter mood, to combat that downer feeling that taking a non-smiling ID photo can give.
2. Don’t smile, but think happy, relaxed thoughts. Make your eyes smile. This may sound crazy, but they can smile! Look into the mirror prior the photo, breathe, relax, and look at your non-smiling expression. I find practicing your “non-pose” can really help you see if you are making a weird face by default, or just looking too severe.
3. Wear your hair DOWN. I can’t say this enough. But for some reason, this makes all the difference. Hair that is up makes your face look larger, because of the awkward cropping of all ID photos. Not that a large face is bad, but in photos, smaller usually looks better in my humble opinion.
4. Make-up: Lots of people say to wear neutral make-up, and I kind of disagree. I feel you ought to wear the make-up colours you feel like wearing. So if you often wear bright eye shadows, why change to neutral for a passport photo? For my most recent passport photo I wore a bright fushia eye shadow in the corners of my lids and I love how they made my eyes pop!
5. Concealer and other tricks: I love the look of natural skin with its freckles and marks, and am not a big fan of concealer just because unless you have acne, what good is it really for on a day to day basis? But for ID photos I would recommend it. I saw the way those flashes magnify every flaw on the face…so use accordingly. The day of my photo taking I had under-eye puffiness, so I used a bit of ice on it to deflate them before my photo. Stay really hydrated to avoid water retention and bloat. All these little things do make a difference to the end result.
What tips do you find help you take good government ID photos? Is it just too much trouble to worry about these things and do you just don’t care when it comes to how you look on photo documentations? Or do you think official documents should show a good photo of you most definitely? During my recent photograph session, I remember a lady customer before me at the shop. She was also taking her passport photo, and she walked into it with no prep, just dabbed some lipstick on before jumping into it. The lady was so disappointed with her results, when the store showed her the proofs. Don’t we all wish that it was just as easy as putting on lipstick!
This is my new pic. It looked better in the proofs, but the reprint of it into the passport is very grainy. Still, I liked it, considering how I couldn’t smile, and the photo peeps took it in 2 seconds flat! Does it say “run away with me!”? Hee hee.
So this year, I wanted to do a low fuss halloween costume. For those of you that know me…low key is not usually what I am known for during Halloween. As a fan of cosplay, over the years, on a most costume fussy night such as Halloween, I have been such things as a zombie cheerleader, day of the dead sugar skull, Poison Ivy, Queen of Hearts, a Witch, a nurse, woodland Faerie, and “Kyo” from Blackbird just to name a few. So ya, I like me the costumes. But when fall hit this year, my desire to go over the top was curbed by a keen realization: being someone other than yourself can be as simple as wearing different make-up and clothes, and having a different mind set. And I have always been a fan of the unassuming, hidden horror that came from the manga character Tomie. On the surface she appears as a normal pretty asian girl, but her ability to haunt and entrap men into dark obsession is what makes Tomie truly fearful.
Tomie is a curious monstrosity and freak girl created by Japanese manga artist Junji Ito–one of my fave manga artists. I give him total props for thinking up and drawing out this female horror icon. In his series of horror stories, Tomie is an eternally youthful, pretty girl who mentally tortures and manipulates vulnerable men, until they ultimately “snap”, and in a fit of possession/obsession, murder her in often gruesome ways. To her victims’ horror, no matter how violent her death (such as being chopped up into hundreds of pieces), she always regenerates in twisted haunted ways, always remaining tempting and attractive, until she gets killed again. It’s hard to explain the premise, but you gotta read the mangas and see Ito’s artwork to be truly drawn in. In Japan, Tomie is famous for having spawned many B movies and such. Forget Freddie Kruger, and Jason Vorheses, Tomie has gotten them beat. A monster in a youthful Asian girl.
A coloured manga cover depicting a typical Tomie pose. Demure and threatening underneath.This is how Tomie regenerates and reproduces herself after being murdered, She can grow from any severed member of her body until she has many evil copies of herself. Creepy.
For my costume homage to Tomie, I already have her bangs and long hair…so it is not a hard costume for me at all! The make-up I did for Tomie was simple. Lashes was key. Two coats of mascara top and bottom lashes. Liquid liner in inky black was also key in making her bold slanted eyes. I drew the top liquid liner on a slant, making it thicker and higher in angle near the outer corners of my eyes. The signature mole that Tomie has under her left eye was created with liner and was enough to set the look. And I looked for any girly clothes that can be seen as something Japanese girls wear. I really liked my results. I felt like the evil Tomie all Halloween night! What fun.
Tomie as a school girl, is one of the ways she appears in the series!Do I bear a resemblance to the evil freak girl Tomie?
Dreamy Reveries: a journal of make-up and fashion 