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?
Travelling and looking good has always been an obstacle for me because A) I’m short on time during a trip, B) I’m short on energy during a trip, and C) I’m short on supplies during a trip… I wrote about how my last vacation to Florida was mostly a mess earlier this year in an entry, and now I’m am going to write about my recent trip to the one and only, New York City. I adore New York City, it stands as being the epitome of urban living culture. From it’s wonderful graffiti lined streets, to its overwhelming skyscrappers on every block, the city makes me feel small and large all at the same time. I didn’t fuss too much on what make-up and clothes to pack for this trip, taking only the essentials, but I feel I was looking my best. Why is looking the part so important on vacations? It’s documented in your photos, and looking good adds to the good memories. So this is my recap of what I sported during the trip! I hope this is not too boring!
Day 1: The High Line Park and Chelsea Market
We took the night bus all the way to NYC and was dropped on the corner of 7th Ave and 23rd. I had taken a sleeping pill on the bus or else I wouldn’t have gotten any sleep. On the bus, I had no make-up on because I felt that it would be cruddy to wear, however I did hydrate my skin on the bus. When we got there, I only had time to put on a little make-up, so I only put on bb cream and powder and mascara. It was not a glamourous look, but at least I didn’t look like I had just gotten off a night bus. We went to a really pretty park called the High Line that was build on a previous above ground train line, and then visited Chelsea market for gourmet delights, and a hand made artist market. I was rocking a natural undone look this day for sure, but at least it matched the activities we were doing!
Day 2: Soho, Chinatown and Times Square
No time for too much primping our second day in NYC, as it was going to be an active walking and shopping day! So what better to wear than a comfy athletic skater dress. Its made more feminine with the floral print and had a cut-out in the back for circulation during the hot and stifling late summer heat. I wore them with my simple jelly shoes. For make-up I worked with simple plum and purple shades, after only bringing one Stila palette with me for ease of packing. But it had all the face colours I needed in that palette, I also brought a liner pen, my bb balm and my own handmade setting powder. Don’t forget the sunscreen! I made my own with cocoa butter and zinc oxide, and it was a dream to use during this trip.
On the way to Soho by foot from Chelsea, what a long walk! On a typical block corner in downtown Manhattan.
Day 3: Late rising, the MET, Central Park and Koreatown
While traveling it’s always tempting to want to cram everything into the day. It’s actually not a good idea, even though you’re excited and want to see and do a lot of things. You will get fatigued, and then anything you do will not be fun. So on Day 3 we slept in and took our time to leave the hotel. And well, ultimately that meant less time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, even though that place could take a week to see–we had two hours! What a sacrifice for extra rest…After it closed we set out into Central Park to enjoy the beauty of the evening in natural surroundings. Then when night hit, we left for Koreatown for BBQ. It was yummy. I was wearing pastel silver purple shadow, and a clean face, with liquid liner and pencil. My choice of dress was a flow-y lavender shirt, and crochet shorts. I feel it fit the overall natural and cultural theme of the day. Too bad that when we got to Koreatown that night, all the make-up stores were shut, as I am quite the fan of Korean make-ups.
Sorry, my expression here isn’t the best, but I wanted to show the plum make-up palette that I wore. This was a romantic feeling day, central park was just like in the movies.
Day 4: Really late rising, Statue of Liberty, Wall St.
So this day was a refuel for us. Everyone needed to shower, and I needed to shampoo, and all in all, we didn’t reach the Statue of Liberty until 3:30, after stumbling around to find the ferry and boating our way there! (Something I am proud of this time around was I asked for minimal directions in the city. I just fumbled a bit and made a few tiny error, but work it to blend in with the locals!) Educational and epic, no trip to NY is complete without a trip to the statue. I had my hair up in a bun, as it was a really hot day, and I wanted to keep my freshly washed hair clean. When night hit, I let my hair down, and because it had been a touch damp when I put it up, it had pretty amounts of wave to it. On this day I was a bit more girly, opting for a strapless summer dress in muted colours of grey, pink and blue. I guess this fit the over all theme of the day, since the concept and notion of “Liberty” can be seen as ladylike and delicate. Or it was just one of those days I felt like primping up…after the statue tour we wandered around Wall Street as the sun set, and watched the last of the hectic suited workers straggle home on the iconic street of commerce.
Day 5: East Village, Greenwich Village, Washinton Square Park
Our last day was a laid back and funky one, as we visited the more “fringe” neighborhoods in Manhattan. There was East Village, my ideal spot to live if I were to move to NY, for its pretty, quiet streets and interesting vintage shops. Then we went over to Greenwich Village, famous for being a bohemian, and political hotbed. Was it radical or edgy? Maybe back in the “hey days”. They were filming an ad in Washington Square park, very far from the image I expected to find of protesters and artist raising up arms. Well, it was still a beautiful iconic park. For this last day, comfort was key, but I didn’t throw on just any ratty shirt and shorts. I had on my floral printed tights, two tank-tops trimmed with lace layered on top of eachother, and some bright purple sneakers that I had bought at Century 21, near wall street, the previous night. I was comfortable, but hopefully not boring, with a laid-back style that was still girlie at heart!
East Village. Quiet, laid back side streets filled with vintage shops and edgy quirky fashion items.
This sums up my New York vacation. When I got back home, I was very tired for a while. Maybe my age is catching up to me because it was only a short vacation that I bore. But boy, was I exhausted for days! All in all it was successful in terms of looking my best, and enjoying the sights…the most rewarding part was knowing that I didn’t fuss over any outfit or make-up while I was there. It just all fell into place, because when you’re winging it, and just trying to have fun, things tend to go well. So don’t be one of those peoples that packs the world whenever travelling. Choose to bring fashion and make-up essentials that you like and are functional enough, and you’ll find that you feel a lot lighter and the trip will be more memorable!
A lot of people are ready to compliment me on my make-up application skills but also with adding the side comment that it’s easy when I have perfect skin anyways. This is not true. My skin is super dry, I have to moisturize like crazy, and I do get breakouts occasionally. But when I apply make up, I do it in a way that hides or detracts from my flaws, and then accentuates the parts of my face that I do like. But a lot of mistakes that I notice in people’s overall make up look can be summed up in skin care and application. You need to perfect the two of these factors to find the right products for your face…and show off what you love about your face.
Common Visible Mistakes:
1) Putting on too much foundation mixed with oily combination skin, mixed with cakey powder to set. I’ve seen this on really pretty young women and almost want to sit them down, wipe off what they are using and reapply it myself. It totally distracts from their great facial shape features, because the skin texture is so wrong. The look is very bumpy, and cakey, it leaves a lot of pores visible, and blemishes are also still visible because of bumps. Uneven foundation is visible everywhere, because foundation builds up in dry areas and cracks, and literally slides off of oily areas.
thick icing on a cake: delicious. Thick foundation on the face: disastrous!
The ways to fix cakey foundation is to first examine your skin type. If you have oily skin, maybe you can skip foundation and powder and go straight to a 2 in 1 cream formula, reducing the layers of make-up needed. Another thing to do is to not use thick foundation as a concealer. If you have blemishes, try to heal them, and cover that area with a thin layer of concealer. Dry flakey skin needs exfoliation. Doubling the foundation is just a bad idea. The bottom line is less is more. You want your real skin to shine through, but piling on the foundation looks just like that. A huge mess on an otherwise pretty face! I know you’re thinking I’m stating the obvious, but a lot of girls don’t really LOOK at their finished made up faces. Examine your skin type, and take care of its needs accordingly.
2) Over done/Undone Brows
I had a really cute co-worker once who was into photos. The only problem was one of her friends took and over exposed photo of her (too bright), and in effect, erased the fact that she had very light, undefined brows. So in the photo she looked browless! That sent her to the nearest Sephora to get a brow pencil. But what she also should have done, was a bit of grooming as well plucking stray hairs, to have a base shape of brow for the pencil to go on top of. But on the other spectrum, over defined brows are not appealing either, even though there was a make-up trend recently on thick defined brows were more youthful (think retro Brook Shields), but in my opinion, nothing beats a balanced brow treatment. The lesson is not to ignore your brows…they frame your eyes which are in essence the most beautiful soulful part of your face…
See how she is famous for her brows? Bold brows work for her, but I still prefer balance.
3) Harshly lined eyes:
Eye liner is something I love to hate. The eyeliner pencil around the eye can turn very dated 80’s for some reason…I think it is the harshness of it. Not to be confused with liquid liner that creates bold lines and shapes, but the ubiquitous black pencil eyeliner that signals the uninspired lining of the eye can look unnatural, and I feel can age a person. My trick is to smudge it, and use with darker shadows, to hide the linear quality of pencil lines. Another trick is to just use black eye shadow and a fine brush to line eyes.
4) Not enough make-up:
I’m never an advocate for looking like a circus clown, but the reverse problem is not wearing enough make-up, which defeats the purpose of wearing make-up. A beautiful cobalt blue eye shadow, lining and accenting the upper eyelid is stunning, but without face foundation and a loose powder to set, the eye colour doesn’t pop, and can easily slide off the face long before the end of the day. The lesson is that beautiful make-up work in any area, needs a base of ample make-up application, or else, it’s quite pointless to even try.
5) No blush
We are living in hectic time crunched times. Also I know our make-up budget is often limited. So what is the first makeup item that gets skipped? Blush. I used to always skip blush when I was a in my twenties. The reason being that I thought it looked too done up. I liked a pale, mal-nurished look (hey, I was a weird art student!), but not anymore. Now a days, I feel blush really puts a finishing touch to a nice make-up application. And it is super pretty to have colour on the cheeks. So don’t skip this…
Gwenyth Paltrow is perfectly blushed in the movie View from the Top. This was the first time I noticed how blush can really make a difference.
