Lunasol FOTD and a Shu haul

Face: Nars Siberia (it's drying me out horribly -- now remember I can't wear this more than once a week), Chantecaille Total Concealer Alabaster
Eyes: Lunasol 3D Eyes 03 Mysterious Beige, Majo Majo LEFP mascara
Cheeks: Shu M33E, Shiseido High Beam White
Lips: Dior Addict Tokyo

outdoors, natural light

Eye close-ups.
Bronze on the inner 2/3 of the lid, lilac on the outer v, blended in
Satiny off-white to highlight brow bone and inner corner
Blended all 3 pans of the dark black-brown to line upper and lower lashlines, flicked out.
More lilac smudged over the black-brown on the bottom lashline

National Day Shu haul (possibly made under the influence of fireworks)

Mallrat

...because, like, duh, one of the best movies of the 90s. And also because I am easily confused by maze-like structures

 

(See that girl, that's a poor fellow rodent, she's been wandering the corridors for days. And those schoolgirls? Originally swam into the mall as foetuses. True story.)

...so I always end up wandering into the creepy corner with the kinky maid outfit shop:

Don't try to ask for directions. However deceptively simple they seem, they will all lead you back to this accessory cul de sac where the rings will MOCK YOU.

Right, scene-setting. I forgot there was a world outside LaForet or Island Beverley for a minute there. Both of which are 'youth' malls with some eateries (ice cream, pick'n'mix, pizza, sushi -- y'know, the essentials) but mainly 3-4 floors packed with tiny shops (we're talking cupboard-under-the-stairs here) selling ALL TEH THINGS what the youfs currently find cool

like blinged-out phone cases and danglies

...let's just call these accoutrements. Local designer-owned shop.

Many of LaForet's boutiques stock items imported from Japan and Korea, while Island Beverley has more local and Chinese designers mixed in (and prices are a bit cheaper). They have more in common than not, though, and being about 5 feet apart, across the street from the Causeway Bay metro station, are a convenient way to get a shot of Asian pop culture. If you can find your way back out.

(There is a shop of cunning hats if you end up wintering here)

Clothes shops, which all cater neatly to a certain style niche, advertised in the windows e.g.

boho

slouchy minimalism

OL (office ladies)

and queens.

There were quite a few bodycon clubwear shops as well as those specialising in different Japanese and Korean street styles. (I'll do a separate post on those in future.) As you can see, these shops tend to display and sell things in outfit-sized units. The 'layering' pieces are actually often sewn together and sold as one.

That's not to say you can't find some fun cheap thrills if you dig, some of which are even workable into a 20- or 30-something wardrobe. And of course, there are shops like this, which are just made of awesome.

And if you do manage to make your way to the exit and back onto a metro train, you're home safe. Sailor Moon is there to show you the way.

Chanel Asian foundations -- palest shades

Most Western brands, high end to drugstore, have separate ranges exclusive to the Asian market. Usually these are formulated and manufactured in Japan, and they tend to follow Asian beauty trends to compete with local brands. Summer foundations are usually formulated to withstand heat and high humidity and winter releases usually emphasise illuminating and moisturising properties.

Of course, the foundations available in American/European countries are also usually available in Asia, although darker shades may not be stocked, and there may be additional paler shades which are not sold outside of E. Asian countries.

I thought it would be interesting to compare some of Chanel's palest offerings (both pink and yellow) here. The starred items are Asia-exclusive.

Left to Right:
Lift Lumiere 05 Faience
*Vitalumiere Hydra 10 Beige
*Vitalumiere Hydra 12 Beige Rose
Pro Lumiere 10 Limpide
*Le Blanc Light Mastering Fluid BR10 Beige Rose Pastel
*Le Blanc Light Mastering Fluid B10 Beige Pastel
Vitalumiere Aqua B10 Beige Pastel
Vitalumiere Aqua BR10 Beige Rose Pastel

natural light

As you can probably guess from the shade names, Vitalumiere Aqua was formulated for the Asian market originally, then rolled out to Western ones. It uses a silicone-water-alcohol base commonly found in Japanese milk sunscreens and the marketing (emphasising a weightless 'watery' feel) is also typical.

See the full range available in Hong Kong here (some only have a few shades available because they're being phased out).

Obviously there are quite a few more Asia-exclusive powder foundations I haven't swatched (powders are more popular here than in the West), because they're tricky to swatch true-to-shade. If anyone has any tips, please leave me a comment. :)

Modern 60s FOTD and quick reviews

Excuse the hair. It was being all emo and "Y U subject me to air-conditioning? WHYYYYYY??"

Face: Lunasol Water Cream foundation OC-01, Chantecaille Total concealer Alabaster
Eyes: Too Faced Romantic palette Bouquet Toss all over, I Do in crease (*gag* btw); Koji Linequeen 1 day long strong black liquid liner, Majolica Majorca LEFP
Cheeks: Shiseido High Beam White as highlighter
Lips: Guerlain Girly (2 coats, applied with lip brush)

Guerlain Girly is from the Rouge G line and is part of the Autumn 2011 collection (permanent). I've been a long-time fan of Guerlain lipsticks (the old Kiss Kiss Gloss Sticks is my favourite glossy formula, and I adore the new Rouge Automatiques) but their 'flagship' line, Rouge G, was always just meh to me. Textures were hit and miss, some surprisingly sheer, others dry, and many of the shades had shimmer. The case looks cool but it's extremely unwieldy and heavy and WILL destroy all teh electronic devices if you are a chuck-everything-in-your-bag-and-run-for-the-bus girl.
(Admittedly we are probably not the target audience for Rouge G's.)
BUT these three new Rouge Gs are a vast improvement formula-wise, so I will forgive the packaging and the silly price. Girly, like Garçonne, is pigmented, easy to apply (just the right amount of slip), wears comfortably for hours without drying my lips out, and after a 14 hour day and a few meals, fades to a very pretty and even stain. Scent/taste: faint, Guerlain's usual candied violets.

Koji Linequeen 1 day long strong black liquid liner
Holy Grail potential. Since Kanebo KATE messed with perfection and thickened up their supersharp liquid liner brush to a typical size, I've been hunting for a replacement. And this may be even better. It's black-black (no stupid grey tones), opaque in one light stroke, glossy (and stays that way all day), no smudging/flaking/transfer and it's 0.1mm in diameter. So far, so KATE. Where this wins out is that it takes a few seconds to set, so if you do mess up your line, you have time to correct it without having to take off all your eye makeup. With KATE, the indelibility sometimes felt like a curse.
Unlike Hourglass Script Precision liner, the Koji applicator is a brush not a needle-like pen, and doesn't attempt to exfoliate your lashline off when you tightline.

Lunasol Autumn 2011 swatches

So I was initially put off the Three Dimensional Eyes because they seemed gritty and dry in the early swatches. Having played with them in person, I declare them beautifully buttery and pigmented! The triple split-pans are not just a gimmick, it's easy to pick up just one strip so that you can avoid glitter altogether and create a completely satiny EOTD, or use the glitter judiciously. Or go nuts and foil it...

The textures are an improvement on previous Lunasol quads and this series now joins Star Shower and Ocean Scene Eyes as my favourites.

I bought 03 Mysterious Beige (HK$440, 4g), as the mix of colours is unique to my stash:

 with flash

natural light, no flash

Shades:
1. Sparkly white gold, satin-matte white, iridescent off-white
2. Neutral-warm bronze with gold and peach microshimmer (metallic finish)
3. Cool lilac with blue and pink microshimmer (shimmer)
4. Warm dark satin-matte brown, neutral iridescent black/brown, cool metallic black with silver shimmer

Swatches: I swatched the split pans separately, from left to right, then blended them together for the strip along the bottom. Bare arm, one swipe.

Natural light, cloudy

 Natural light + flash

Artificial light + flash

Fuzzy flash pic to show the complex multi-coloured shimmer

The rest.These are all swatches made in-store and taken in artificial lighting. Sorry, but the sky was like this (yeah, that'd be Typhoon Nestat a-gestatin')

(this is what he looks like now, don't they grow up fast?)

Anyway, 01 Neutral Beige and 02 Soft Beige are the warm quads.

Artificial light, no flash

Artificial light + flash

04 Cool Beige is, despite the name, neutral IMO. 05 Deep Beige is cool.

Artificial light, no flash

 Artificial light + flash 

 

There were also 5 new shades each of Full Glamour Lips G (lipstick) and Full Glamour Liquid Lips (liquid lipstick), all permanent additions to the line. All of the lipsticks had too much shimmer for me, so they were an easy pass. I prefer the lipsticks from Lunasol's drugstore sister-brand Lavshuca anyway...

However, the liquid lipsticks are one of my favourite formulas. Well-pigmented, non-sticky and weightless, scentless and with good wear-time. They aren't particularly shiny/glossy once applied on the lips, so they do a great job of making dry, cracked lips look plump without veering on porn-y. Also, if you have problems with lip products accentuating vertical lip lines, these don't. Even the pale pinks/nudes :)

Oh, and the angled doe-foot applicator is the best design I've ever encountered (in fact I'd never given them a second thought until trying this and realising the amount of engineering that had gone into it).

Shades:

11 Neutral Light Beige (more a warm peachy nude imo)

12 Soft Rose Beige (delicate baby pink without blue tones)

13 Pink Rose Beige (bright mauve rose)

14 Coral Light Beige (ok, no quibble)

15 Clear Red Beige (neutral strawberry red. Has the word 'beige' lost all meaning yet?)

Artificial light

 

Artificial light + flash

 Beige! erm...I mean 'bye'

A different thread

Something that always made me happy in previous visits to Hong Kong was seeing the number of people KIP (that's 'knitting in public' to muggles), on the metro, in restaurants, occasionally whilst strolling about grocery-shopping, haggling and ducking+diving passers-by *major props* Logically this meant there had to be yarn shops around, and this time I finally got off my arse and tracked some down.

Tailor and Alteration turned out to be on the 14th floor of a nondescript buildling (other residents including offices, a dentist's practice, and a couple of flats) in the middle of a major road. It was a tiny room CRAMMED wall-to-ceiling with yarn, books, fabric, buttons, notions... *craftgasm* Being of relatively hefty giantess proportions, this was tricky to navigate but the staff were incredibly warm and helpful (and dainty). I don't speak (understandable) Cantonese, but using a combination of English, Japanese, Mandarin and writing/drawing/interpretive dance managed to:
1. Join their lifetime membership program (lol)
2. Order in some obscure Japanese tweed that had been on my w/l for a year
3. Haul:

Addi Turbos, a Japanese stitchionary that I've been lemming for years, some cheap merino to swatch with, and some Italian mohair that looked like fog and moonlight (but hairier)

Close-ups of the Bertagna Filati mohair on its way to shawldom (aircon = shawl weather)

Click to enlarge. Inside the stitchionary (everything is charted with Japanese symbols, which are awesome and pretty intuitive):

 SO INSPIRATIONAL

This one would make an awesome preppy cropped sweater in white or navy

This one some kind of structured jacket?

At a loose gauge in delicate golden laceweight/cobweb for a triangular shawl?

I also visited Cheer Wool, a much more 'normal' kind of shop -- a door that leads out onto the street, floor space for walking while you browse and squish things... and also an awesome used book sale section, where I picked up:

Wintery 'Going-outdoors' knits (sorry, my translation brain no worky) But it has a mix of cosy jackets, ponchos, gloves, socks, hats and accessories, and everything is adorably styled. <3