Hello Kitty Japanese Hairdo (pretty!)

Etsumi Kawashima is probably the greatest hairdresser in Japan and has been proposed to make a "bald" kitty become a beautiful hairy star! Well, a star she is already, and below you can see her hairdo variations, all to die for! Kawashima-san has been nominated by Sanrio, the official Hello Kitty hairdresser! Kudos to him!

Shu Uemura beautiful picture

Shu Uemura, the best makeup creator ever. I love all his products (except the bronzer, tee-hee!), and he is pure genius. In this business for years and with the most superb colours and minimalist designs. One can only love him.

I found this picture of Uemura-san in one of the Shu Uemura's websites. It is gorgeous, a wonderful picture. He is holding his famous Botan (peony) brush, which is very, very dear by the way! I love his face, his eyes and wrinkles. Just beautiful!

For more info, please click here.

Theoty by Shiseido (Bénéfique)

Adam sent me some samples of this lipstick, Theoty Bénéfique by Shiseido. My favourite colour must be the one in the picture, nr. 58, a brown, coppery nude shade, very warm and shimmery. The texture is amazing, and it stays for quite some time.

One of the things I love about Shiseido is the variety of lines and the amazing design of the items. Pity we don't have most of these wonders here in this region (they are Asia exclusive).

Little beauty tips

OK! I was in one of these days where I had nothing to do and just wanted to chat online a bit (yes, that happens). I was in a girly board to which I subscribe to, then one of the threads was about beauty tips, namely, you should go there and add some beauty tips that you judge are handy, or cool, or beauty things you can't live without.

I have some. As in Brazil we say, if a piece of advice were really worth it, then it would not be given but sold. What I mean is, I don't follow all (or rather part of) these tips every single day, of course not. But I can safely say that I try and practice most of them.

I think it's always good to share those things.

- Do not wash your face with soap. That's my Mom's wise advice. She is 62 and has got gorgeous skin. Only water and products with no soap, no alcohol or abrasive chemicals are enough.

- Always use a sunblock. At least SPF15, even when it rains, in the office, whenever exposed to daylight, directly or indirectly.

- Do not use a cream with sunblock at night time, when going to sleep. It will irritate your skin. Use instead, if needs be, a night cream. Your skin has different rhythms at night.

- Do use oil for cleansing your face: Shu Uemura (my favourite), FANCL mild cleansing oil, or RMK are great options. It leaves skin baby-soft and it's much milder than exfoliators.

- Do use a primer before foundation and after moisturiser. Clarins Perfecting Touch is gorgeous and does not irritate problematic complexions.
- Do glow: undereye concealer and a nice subtle shimmery veil always look nice. I use the Shiseido concealers or Clé de Peau stick (also from Shiseido), and for the "shimmery" touch a Japanese pressed powder called "Maikohan", from Sana. This goes over everything else: foundation, powder, blush if any, always dusted very lightly.



- Do not smoke.

- Do drink lots of green tea.

Fashion and Beauty Ignominies (Part 2)

I forgot to mention some other ignominies in my previous post. And these may be the worst. Ever.

- "Teint d'Orange" effect: it means "orange's complexion" effect. Namely, when one's skin acquires the colour of a fruit - orange. Or a vegetable - carrot. Or an oompa-loompa. Not very natural. And we humans come in a fantastic, beautiful range of colours: from deep ebony black to pale, almost blueish white, passing through warm and cool shades of delectable browns, mysterious olives, peaches and cream, flawless yellows, roses, autumn earthy shades, golden, copper and bronze skins, neutral beiges, sallow beauties etc... But no oranges. Not a glimpse of an oompa-loompa. Or a green Martian, for that matter. So, people love fake tans. Fact. But fake tans risk to turn us into orange, tangoed beings. Looks weird. It's a little crime against beauty. And diversity.

- Ornamental Fish Syndrome: now, I must point out I am not against plastic surgery. If you have the money, the guts and if it will make you happier and improve your quality of life, go for it. Most important is to find a very good surgeon. What I am against here is a bad, unprofessional practice with dodgy results. The Ornamental Fish has eyes that pop out, an unchangeable inquisitive expression, and lips that also pop out. The "inquisitive expression" consists of eyebrows bordering the hairline (yeah, "up there"), simulating an air of frozen, constant surprise: "Ooooohhh"... And foreheads that do not move. Excessive face lifts, botox injections, restylane, you name it. Looks bad. Plain bad.

- Breast enhancements: as above, but this time the breasts popping out. Who says bigger is better? Can be very bad for your back. Carnival in Rio is where you can see all these atrocities. On parade. From ornamental fish to big-is-better. Again, I am definitely not against it. I just think the humongous, fake, heavy effect is a no-no. It's great if you can lift it up when it gets saggy, or correct it if necessary or if it annoys you somehow. But the obviously fake big thing is completely out, in my humble opinion.

Well, that's it for today. I don't want to sound like an inquisitor or anything. Just sharing my opinion on these things, and whenever we are bombarded with celebrities' bodies and crazy beauty fads. I don't know...

Ah well, I am tired now. Had a bad night, and Mark too. Now we both got a headcold and are taking our Lemsips. Bleeeaaarrgghh...

Hasta la vista,

a.

Fashion and Beauty Ignominies

I may sound a bit pretentious here, but while resting at home these days, I started to think about these little "crimes" of beauty and fashion that make me really freak out, and worry a bit, and question my very own standards, blah blah. Don't take me wrong though. Maybe I am just not very tolerant, but these things drive me nuts. I must say I am not quite the fashionable lady either, I am too basic in what I wear: jeans, floaty boho skirts, boots or sandals. Things like that. And I dislike anything that is tight, flashy or that clings onto my figure. However I consider these things to be quite elementar and, when I see them, I probably make a funny face and start to wonder how the heck, and why, and with which purpose they are "carried on".

What are they? Let's go then.

- White shoes: I can perfectly understand Kathleen Turner's character's behaviour towards this little piece of fashion heresy in that brilliant flick "Serial Mom". Agreed and signed-off. If I were that psycho, would probably have done the same.

Alternative: nude, buff coloured shoes. Never white. Puh-leease.

- Thongs, tangas, g-strings: how low can people go? I mean literally. Not metaphorically low here. These are not meant to be seen over the waist of your jeans. Or are they? No V-signs, no straps or lacy bits popping out. This is a no-no. Definitely. Well, that's how I think, at least. Not elegant.

In Brasil (they are oh so irreverent there!) they call these "dental floss", easy to see why, no? I don't think it's very hygienic either. And not comfortable. If a normal pair of knickers can become hell if they get - sorry for being so explicit now - "stuck" between one's buttocks, I cannot figure how knickers that are purposedly designed to really stick in there may be of any comfort. Rather a self-inflicted punishment.

Are they really supposed to eliminate VPL's (aka "Visible Panty Lines")? Don't think so. I've seen many a lady walking in front of me with, let's say, linen trousers and thongs underneath. Were they hiding anything? Afraid not. Actually it only made things worse, especially those with cellulitis in their buttocks. Very wobbly, very visible, very hypnotic almost. To hide anything (including panty lines), go for a Spanx. Hide, conceal, tuck - everything in one package. And they will not stick "there", uninvited. At least.

Alternative: boyshorts. These are low-waist knickers, and super-comfy. You can even get cute Hello Kitty ones. The best. Ever. Period.

- Clothes that are too tight: hey, clothes are meant to be worn comfortably. Ideally, they should be one's very own "official" size, maybe 1/2 point larger (if that's possible). Never buy smaller sizes thinking "I can always lose some weight and that will be perfect". No. Forget it. Easy to alter your clothes than alter yourself, right?

- Very short tees + very low waisted trousers or skirts = very apparent belly, not very composed look.

- Trousers dragging on the streets: a phenomena very common here in Dublin, especially among teens and young adults. The seams get awfully dirty, black in some cases, several shades of gray in others. Again, not hygienic at all. Think about it: it means you carry home all those unwelcome guests (bacteria in general, fecal coliforms more specifically etc). It does mean if these bacteria were homeless before, now, thanks to this new transportation method, they can find a home. Yes, dragged directly to the peace of your home! And your body! Seriously now: who wants that? Yeuck...

- Visible Lip Liner and Very Visible Lip Liner: whoa, whoa, whoa... Stop there. Who wants to look like Batman's arch-enemy??? Hhhhmmmm... Afraid not. Light to medium-coloured lips with a seriously darker contour. That is freaky. Why not something the same colour of the lipstick? Or nude? Or just lipstick, lipstain, gloss, whatever, with no lining? Why... why not???

I once went to the Clinique counter in a very hip department store here in Dublin. The sales rep (how could she dare, tell me?) had indeed such visibly-lined-lips. Scary. She was a nice, young blond lady and started to talk to me through those l-i-p-s. I only had eyes for them, which seemed big, and bigger, and biggest. However, I could not quite hear what she was saying. All I could see was the lips, horribly magnified and lined, muttering some unintelligible words right to my face, slow-motion. The sound of these words? Think about a female Dart Vader. Or a Warlock. Or the Big Boss on that scary video-game. I just showed her a piece of paper with the name of a product scribbled on it, could not even talk. That was it. Spooky.

Alternative: skip lip liner, or go for the nude ones.

I guess that's it for today. I know I sounded quite nasty, but maybe I am in a bad mood, being sick and all. Sorry if by any chance any of you-my-17-readers just love the looks, but I needed to talk about it, vent a bit...

Good night/time to inject myself,

a.

News: Wearing Glasses!

OK, let's face it. If you have more than one pair of glasses in your handbag, you are:

(a) a fashion victim?
(b) getting old?

In my case, check (b). I am getting old! Well, SITA sent us for some eye tests in order to check if we need to use glasses for VDU (fancy acronym for monitors, or "video display unit") and my results were... "positive"! I am near-sighted - as I already suspected.

And I have more than one pair in my handbag because I need to use sunglasses as well. I just cannot stand the sun on my eyes, thus I need sunglasses. I hate bright, blinding lights, thus I need sunglasses, and so on... Shades, whatever you want to call them. And, yes, I must admit these are a bit of a fashion statement. Utilitary, but glamourous.

As for the serious glasses, things got worse after I had the optic neuritis, almost 3 years ago, when I lost part of the vision in my right eye. Moreover, I turned 40, 41, 42... And started realising that my vision was not as sharp as before. In short, I needed glasses (or so I thought, having suspicions confirmed thanks to my employer). I need them for VDU use, reading, drawing (whenever I decide to come back to it, that is) and "close" stuff. For watching TV it turns out to be quite handy as well.

I have now a lovely pair of DG's (yeah, babe! Dolce & Gabbana alright! For that asphyxiated fashion-victim portion of me!) and I am quite glad because they not only look good (a bit of a retro vibe and so on) but I am also getting used to it! So used to it, that two nights ago I tried to go to bed wearing them and then, while switching off the bedside lamp, noticed: "what the hell am I doing with these here?".

Well, they seem to be helping me, though it was not easy when I started some 2 or 3 weeks ago. Everything looked a bit floaty, out of balance, with a strange, surrealistic "depth", blah-blah... Probably because my right side is much stronger than the left, but hey, it was not comfortable, oh no! But now I am happy to say I am adusting. As with (mostly) anything in life, I am adjusting. That makes me kinda happy!