beautify

blogging is a lot harder than i thought - before when i started this thing on vacation, i thought it was the easiest thing ever. anyway, it's my second week back and i'm not even that busy; i've just managed to spend a lot of time doing a few things.

saturday, x and i met up and got a couples (it just meant we were put in the couples room so we could catch up!) facial at sense of touch, apparently one of the best places to get a facial in hong kong. and i thought spa bpz, where i went last time, was a dirthole. these places are all literally holes in the wall, and when you go inside they're these lavish lairs offering all sorts of expensive pampering. i got the balancing detox facial, which consisted of all natural products (the non-all natural one was $200 less so it better have been!) and included a steam/blackhead removing sesh and a wonderful head and neck massage. it was pretty good - i haven't worn makeup since then because my skin feels unreal like it's not mine, kinda like after you get your braces off for the first time and your teeth feel so smooth and nice.

am gearing up for new year's. don't want to overly prepare for fear of getting let down by the crowds and nature of men. until next time!

Hoodrat

having grown up experiencing a white christmas pretty much every year, this year will prove to be quite a cognitive dissonance when i return to HK. most high schoolers today will be enjoying their snow day, sledding down their backyards and sipping on hot chocolate by their space heaters, thawing after frantically peeling off layers of soaking cold bubble vests and ski pants when they return indoors.

this, combined with bitter new england whiplash winds has led me to develop an affinity for cold apparel including the staple zip-up hoodie and more outerwearish hat. it started with a davy crockett hat followed by fleece hats with tassels (which were all the rage cf. old navy, circa 1999), beanies, a knit argyle-pattern hat with ear flaps, and most recently the ushanka (wikipedia: a Russian fur cap with ear flaps that can be tied up to the crown of the cap, or tied at the chin to protect the ears, jaw and lower chin from the cold). seeing as none of these options seem pragmatic for subtropical winters, i'm very excited to try my hand at making the turban happen again.

prada attempted in '07 with their spring RTW collection, which is around the time i purchased my f21 headwrap and when my then-roommate would adamantly advise against wearing it around. we both knew that it was probably going to be misconstrued around our culturally hypersensitive and overly erisitic campus. plus it wasn't like anyone was going to be able to appreciate it.

but oh it has returned, and hopefully with a vengeance this time! shown above are images from yigal azrouel's resort 2010 collection; it's more summery (thus, "resort"y) than not, but i don't see why a workplace or bohemian ensemble couldn't transcend these looks. apparently f21 carried a cold-weather turban a few months ago:

aside from being mad fug, it reminds me of a whoopi goldberg wig with cornrows pinned up. i love wg but this thing is just hideous.

speaking of celeb inspiration, here's a dated photo (prada from '07) of ashley olsen with the turban headband, which seems to yield more search results than turban alone. in any case, can't wait to see where this trend goes - if it goes anywhere, and what will become of it in our neck of the woods!

image creds: style.com, f21, couturecandy

Ring-a-ding-ding

Till very recently, my ring collection was unremarkable, if not nonexistent. Years of piano/string instrument practice yielded unsightly callouses and as a result a desire to shift attention away from my awkwardly ginormous hands (blame it on the small wrists), which meant rare use of nail polish and finger adornments. However! Discovery of this adorable jewelry shop in Harajuku-average 300 Yen for each piece of jewelry, which is about 3 bucks or 25 HKD-revealed that there was much more to the wonderful world of rings than breakup-rendered-meaningless diamond bands or butch class rings.



Three of my fave spoils from the trip were a crown ring, a panther ring, and a bouquet of roses ring, which I couldn't find online but is pretty accurately depicted by the last image in the collage but imagine with two smaller buds on the side. My knock-off crown ring looks pretty much identical to the one here, but looks kind of weird when actually worn around. The spikes don't get in the way, but unless I hold up my hand in deliberate display, people don't immediately get it. As for the panther, my substitute is just solid gold (-colored plastic) all over with two bling eyes, which I prefer to this version with diamond pox. I haven't felt it to be standout enough to wear solo so I usually pair it with my hefty class ring as sort of an inside joke with myself: juxtaposing a cheap mod statement with an 18k symbol of pretentiousness, striking a balance of sorts and bringing geek chic out with attention to nuances beyond the surface. The last one is obviously plastic and has no qualms about being glossy and colorful - more of a play ring than the other two, which I feel are workplace acceptable. And the best part of it was still the fact that they were all 3 bucks!



But the real inspiration behind this entry was a trip L and I took around Soho today. Something interesting i noticed was that fashion is quite accessible even in an area like Soho (this is Manhattan Soho, not Hong Kong foodie Soho)- we took many a detour to boutiques with pretty creative designs at affordable prices (dresses for under $50, boots for $30, sale racks sub $20 items). Originally we had been searching for this funky houseware store, mxyplyzyk, from which i'd only made purchases online before...and I digress, but it was also where I got THE cutest teapot/cup set last Christmas for L and loved so much I bought one for myself:
Anyway, we got distracted by the various boutiques and street vendors that stood in our way, and happily engaged in perusal of a handmade jewelry table.

Image cred: Two- Finger Chatoyant Malachite and Chrysacola Ring, etsy.com

..which brings me to this two finger, three stoned gem. There's probably a name for this but google images gave me what I needed when I typed in that query. My version is not exactly the same, and is cheaper made with gold wire and smaller black stones...what's the name of it? I don't know. but it is surprisingly uninhibiting - a plus when your job is typing intensive. We tried on the three fingered ones which were just as easily navigable but eventually succumbed to the cold that froze our fingers and made ring shopping unsustainable.

I'm waiting for forever21 to come up with their version of two and three fingered rings...if they do I might just pay the $20 for international shipping over to HK.


Image creds for ring collage, from top to bottom: Vivre crown ring, vivre.com: $3850; Anita Ko diamond encrusted panther ring on Net-a-Porter: $5500; Rose ring on fredflare.com, $12

Keepin' it tight

akin to my aforementioned improv (read: messy) style of doing things, i've never been the type of girl to use the same line of shampoo/conditioner/styling products at any given time. makes sense to create variety, no? though it never dawned upon me that perhaps it wasn't just a marketing trick to get me to buy more stuff from the same manufacturer, and that maybe there did indeed exist chemical rhyme or reason behind their doing. regardless, i've stuck by my (lack of) order for my new rigorous skincare regimen- one that i've gradually stumbled upon since I let a Laneige salesgirl in CWB poke around my face with a metal stick and exclaim "aiyo!" to how my apparently awfully dry skin. having braved new england winters with no more than a tube of costco-sized Clean & Clear and Neutrogena tinted moisturizer (which I believed satisfactory, as anything over $10 is a pretty hefty price tag for the CVS beauty section) my skin is now begging for better treatment, and better treatment it has duly received:

i had to really put my foot down with the laneige salesgirl (how persistent they can be!) so as to resist buying their emulsion and delicious looking strawberry night cream. however, i DID ultimately succumb to their cute pump dispensing foundation which comes with a detachable cream concealer and compact mirror. funnily enough, the foundation comes in two or three shades from which i was offered my pick between "normal" and "white". below is the white, which obviously would never work on my skintone (i don't know how even the whitest of whiteys could...we all learned from our crayola colors that flesh = light peach)



as for the shu uemura "Red: Juvenus" line moisturizer, initially i had my doubts because it's LIQUID and to apply it you have to essentially wet a cotton ball and drag it across your face (remember the purple spray sunblock they used to make? so that you'd know where you'd already applied the lotion to? well, that functionality would have been useful here). in any case, i picked a bottle up at the duty free in japan last month and have seen the liquid level decrease slowly but surely, so i know it's been going on my face. needless to say, it's ultra light weight, but you can tell from the consistency that there's more to it than h2o; according to the package, it contains pomegranate and lycopene extracts- mm mm nature! and an added bonus: the formula aims to be anti-aging/anti-wrinkle, which has become my new obsesh.

so i just checked and this pic is of the eye cream, not the face one which is what i use currently but im too lazy to change it. i don't think it matters as much with young skin that's still relatively taut to use the facial cream under the eye as well, and so far it's been good to me. i'm a bit concerned that it hasn't been marketed as "all natural" ...prob because it isn't... and will probably switch to a kiehls or a hipster/farm originating brand when i'm done with dior.this was purchased at the heathrow airport duty-free upon cursory consultation with a saleslady there, so i am pleasantly surprised by the results. christian dior's "first wrinkles" capture line is designed for those in the early 20s age range - perfect for the overworked young females of this generation.

potential placebo effect aside, the combination of lanny, shu and christian baby a few nights a week have yielded skin that i haven't had to use makeup on for weeks! i wish i could say i'd been engaging in activities that promoted the natural healthy glow of my skin but that would be a downright lie. although there are other reasons for skipping out on the makeup routine - hint: say goodbye to your mascara - more to come!

OtK - here to stay?

so i guess i should preface my first entry by saying that this blog is borne of yet another one of my spur-of-the-moment decisions, much like my impromptu trip to NYC and in line with the way i tend to live my life. i like to think of it as inspirational spontaneity and less so an ADD-laced entropy that often beleaguers my apartment (and mind? hm), but moving along...will write an introductory post later, because my recent shopping marathons have yielded these goodies:

i couldn't find a pic of the exact pair that recently came into my possession, but the shaft of the boot fits closest to the marant pair on the far left above. finding the right boot has always been quite the nightmare for my twigs, just as the search for the perfect pair of jeans used to be before the glorious introduction of the skinny jean! i'll still keep my flat suede boots despite the awkward flopping that must be endured, since there's nothing an extra pair of chunky knit legwarmers can't do to add a bit of bulk to temper the calf-slapping. but the second skin fit of my new OtKs are a force to be reckoned with - and one to be wary of while showcasing out in the open. after all, lockhart rd. is just a hop skip and a jump away, and there may very well be a fine line between bohemian grunge and real filth on this side of the harbor. while mine have about a 3 inch stiletto heel, i'm thinking the x-factor can be toned down via baggy harem pants (a la chloe) or even leggings paired correctly with an oversized blazer. speaking of blazers, am still trying to figure out if these can be finagled to become workplace appropriate in any capacity - maybe rolling em down and layering profusely on top? or keeping them long to appear as extra leg coverage with a sweaterdress? will revisit once these have been tried, but in the meantime will keep an eye out!

image creds: coutorture