California Photo Diary

I hope you are all having a great week so far. Last week, I went to California with my parents during my school break. I present to you my 3 days in Cali by means of photographs! The weather was so gorgeous the entire stay (it was perfect). The favorite spots I visited would definitely be USC (such a beautiful campus), Little Tokyo (it was so serene and calm, yet bustling at the same time), and In-N-Out (those were DELICIOUS). I'll let the pictures do the talking so ready your eyes for some picture spam!

You know you're in California when you see these every two seconds...

My hotel room had a little balcony overlooking the harbor!

Creepy creepy pelicans, man. Their heads turned like 360-degrees.

It flew away!

We got a little hungry from all the walking so we got some fried clams.

Koreatown -- too much Korean, not enough English!

We ate at this Korean Tofu House Restaurant (can't seem to remember the name). The soup was so yummy and the tofu so fresh!

I ordered the Bibimbap.

Who goes to LA and doesn't visit the LA County Museum of Art? Not to mention the freaking amazing LAMPS!? They're gorgeous. I definitely want to go back again when the lights are actually turned on.

Little Tokyo.

The famous Daikokuya Ramen! 

USC...it's SO beautiful. The campus tour was amazing.

Santa Monica Beach -- there's something about this photo that I like a lot. Empty beach; calm, clear blue sky with a streak or two of clouds; the shack in the distance.

Venice Beach Boardwalk at a distance -- the beaches are SO clean in Cali.

In-N-Out, babyyy!

The Kodak Theatre -- they were prepping for the Oscars, so the road was fenced off.

Hello there, giant Oscar all wrapped up and ready to shine.

Grauman's Chinese Theater.

The Hollywood sign from a distance...and that gorgeous church!

I just had to do a jump picture. Excuse the skin exposure, but this was the only one that turned out decently. Look at the waves! A very relevant picture because...

HAPPY LEAP DAY!!! 

One thing I learned though...don't ever give Chinese parents a GPS because they will never ever listen to or understand it properly.

A Sahara Treasure from London

L'Oreal's new Infaillible eyeshadows: not really a pressed eyeshadow nor a cream one -- somewhere in between. 

A hybrid of sorts? 

It's hard to put a label on this new breed of eyeshadows, but it's definitely not hard to see how awesome they are. The lovely Jian (not really from London but close enough!) sent me a UK-only Infaillible, Sahara Treasure. Thus ensued a mini-photoshoot with the eyeshadow. Here are some of its best shots.

Sahara Treasure standing tall and proud.

Uncapped and ready to be swatched.

Look at me and my pretty iridescence!

In the pot, it appears to be a bronzey-taupe color, but when swatched and applied the color turns into a muted, grayish gold. It's a really interesting color, yet perfect for everyday wear. It also has such a gorgeous iridescent/metallic sheen. Using my ring finger, a simple swipe of this all over the lid provides the prettiest wash of color. 

Sahara Treasure on the lid, nothing else.

I'm thoroughly impressed and intrigued by this product and can't wait to go get more. I have my eyes on Iced Latte and Bronzed Taupe. Is this the re-awakening of Maggie's makeup obsession in a time of needed penny-pinching? Sadly indeed I think it is so.

Jian also sent me a bunch of other goodies. She is definitely one of the funniest and most honest bloggers I know. Thank you so much for everything! I've never owned such a fancily-packaged lipstick and the nail polish looks/sounds so cool. I can't wait to try them all! :D

She cut out the twitter bird (perfectly) herself, how awesome is that?!

I hope you had an awesome weekend and will have an even more awesome week ahead! My Cali post is up next -- be ready for tons of picture vomit!

I'm seeing blue

Before last week's NYFW becomes completely irrelevant, I wanted to recreate another one of the makeup looks at the shows. This one is from Anna Sui. The model here is Xiao Wen, one of my absolute favorites. I'm so glad she's been getting more editorials and shows! She's so beautiful and she reminds me of a delicate porcelain doll.

The look is really fun and quirky! The little dots under the eyes are actually stickers, so I tried my best to create little circles with my eyeliner (though I failed in the end).

This was the most precise I could get with my pencil eyeliner. But the blue is gorgeous, no? I brought the color up until my fold because then there would be a nice, sharp natural line (see below pictures). I think not putting on mascara really let the already-loud blue stand out.

It didn't look like Xiao Wen was wearing any lip color yet, so I decided to be ever-so-spontaneous and go for an orange lip! The bright orange really compliments the blue. It pulled the look together quite nicely.

I Used...

-Lancome Le Crayon Kohl in Le Bleu de Jim

-Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Tutti Frutti

It really is such a quirky look! I actually quite like it (maybe without the dots) and wish I had the guts to rock it out in public.


I wrote this post up last weekend, but forgot to schedule it. Just got back from California! I must say it's such a huge state compared to mine. I think LA is basically the size of Massachusetts LOL. I took so many pictures, be ready for lots and lots of picture spam. But firstly, my birthday is tomorrow! However, I think I'll just be sleeping or doing all the homework I should have done last weekend. Anyway off to sleep I go!

Signs of Spring

...in my outfit!

It's been such a mild winter...which I don't quite like. WHERE'S MY SNOW?! However, this gives me a chance to wear skirts without freezing my legs off! This was my outfit from Friday.

Like I said before, I love love love color blocking so this sweater is just the bomb. And in my favorite color too? Basically me in sweater form!

I didn't want to over color-block, so I broke it with a girly floral skirt. I also contrasted all the girly brightness with these combat boots.

Colorblock Sweater - Gap, Floral Skirt - Forever21, Gray Cable Knit Tights - J.Crew, Combat Boots - Timberland

Have a great week, everyone! I'm flying to Cali today YAAAY!

Teal Enchantment

I'm sure you all follow Eva Chen, Beauty Editor of Teen Vogue, right? Well, if you haven't already, you must! Her tweets and posts give you the best inside look on various fashion weeks and upcoming makeup collections. NYFW just ended, and I must say I loved so many collections.

On her tumblr, she posted a photo of this stunning eyeshadow look (done by MAC) on one of the models at Prabal Gurung.

I swoooooooooooooned.

Gorgeous, right? I was so inspired, or should I say, enchanted to take a spin on this look. It's not a recreation, but more so an inspired look.

Wait, I mean an enchanted look.

I hadn't touched my makeup brushes in almost a year, so I'm a little rusty on the whole eyeshadow application. However, it felt like I was painting, which was really nice...me likey!

I tried my best to find similar colors in my collection, but alas! I don't have that GOSH-DARN-GORGEOUS cobalt blue. I settled with the brightest blue I could find.

It is actually a very "undone" look, so I didn't use eyeliner and I actually thought it looked better without mascara on.

And a mugshot for good measure! This actually shows the colors much better than the close-ups. The model had a very natural lip color on, so I went for that too.

What I used:

-Avon Big Color Eye Pencil in Bluesmoke

-MAC Pigment in Deep Blue Green

-Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Painkiller

-Revlon Matte Eyeshadow in Tempting Teal and Vintage Lace

-Maybelline XXL Pro Volume in Very Black (only used the mascara side)

-Revlon Colorburst Lipstick in Soft Nude

-Lancome Juicy Tubes Jelly in Kiwi Slice

Maggie's eye looks are back with a bang!? Hope you all are having a great weekend! :)

Cupid's Colors

"Life without you would be like a broken pencil...pointless."

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! I hope you had a lovely day with your friends OR your significant other (if you have one). I spent mine at school (of course), but it was still a festive day full of my lovely friends!

For my school newspaper, the past two weeks I (along with my fellow associates of course) had been selling our yearly carnations with cheesy pick up lines in tow. They're always such fun and games, and look! I got a few from my friends! :)

Carnations are actually rather pretty flowers, no?

Also, for my art class we decided to do a little something special today. That was to put our interpretations of the heartbeat into four 2x2 squares. This is what I ended up with! They contrast and correspond with each other.

My favorite one of the four (and also what I think most applies to me) was this! "A world of colors..." I actually made a mistake on this at first, but it turned out well, right?

And so, in honor of this love-filled day, I decided to swatch some makeup! I think this is going to be a series called 'Color Play,' starting with the one I did a few weeks ago. Today, I went for some romantic, cute, sweet shades like rose, pink, and red.

Starting with the lipsticks and going clockwise:

• Revlon Superlustrous Lipstick in Pink in the Afternoon -- this is the most unique pink lip color I've ever encountered. All the other pinks I own and quite a lot of the pinks on the market are cool-toned. Pink in the Afternoon is a warm, mid-tone pink that I find so sophisticated. I adore it and I should probably wear it more often.
• Revlon Colorburst Lipstick in Soft Rose -- a soft, romantic, effortless rosy shade. This has been my everyday lipstick as of late; I love it very much!
• Sephora Flashy Liner in Flashy Pink -- you know those cutesy pale pink-tinted pearls? This is basically that in an eyeliner. Looks lovely on the waterline and the inner corners of the eye!
• Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Woodstock -- the craziest fuschia pink eyeshadow ever! It has a lovely satin finish and the eyeshadow itself is buttery smooth (like most UD shadows).
• Rimmel Powder Blush in Pink Rose -- I raved about this on my old blog and I still think it deserves that praise. For such a cheap price, the pigmentation and texture of the blush is phenomenal. Too bad it's discontinued now!! This gives such a cute pop of pink on your cheeks.
• Covergirl Outlast Lipstain in Plum Pout -- this is the only red lipcolor I own and I love it to death! It creates the prettiest berry-stained lip! I really want to get more red lip products, any recommendations?
• MAC Pigment in Kitschmas -- a gorgeous silver glitter with a pale pink sheen/duo-chrome running through. It definitely is a really unique color.
• Revlon Superlustrous Lipgloss in Pink Pop -- the best neon pink lip gloss ever! The swatch below does not do it justice at all (I was too focused on making it into a heart).

CAUTION: Abusing of hearts! Please avert your eyes if you must!

Ah, well I thought it was cute. But it kind of turned into too much...what do you think? Too much? LOL! I guess making my swatches into a gif is going to be a thing for this series, huh? This time it's much clearer!

1. Pink Pop, 2. Plum Pout, 3. Flashy Pink, 4. Pink in the Afternoon, 5. Soft Rose, 6. Woodstock, 7. Pink Rose, 8. Kitschmas

Do tell me (or show me) how you interpret a heartbeat! May the rest of your week be just as cheery as well!

Tooting this Frutti Lip Balm

Revlon's Tutti Frutti Colorburst Lip Butter.

Yum?

First off, for some reason, I really really really like the color of the cap -- I really don't know why I like the color this much. I also like how it's matte. I love matte-textured things. And of course, the quilting. Basically, I really like the packaging of this. Props to the Revlon design team, yo.

I went into CVS a couple weeks back to get some Revlon Lip Butters. I had heard all the raves about these, so I thought I should give them a try. The display had quite a plethora of shades, but none of them really caught my attention...except Tutti Frutti. It was a nice, bright orange amongst a sea of pinks. I already had too many pink lipsticks, so I decided to settle with this.

Aside from the packaging, I have to say that I don't really think this product is as amazing and life-changing as it was raved to be. Indeed it is smooth and relatively moisturizing, but really, a lot of lipsticks offer that. Essentially, this "lip butter" is like another lipstick to me. I might just be a little put-off by the hype of this product, maybe I'll love it with a couple more uses, but at the moment...I'm not really feeling it that much. I like it, but I don't love it enough to tell everyone to "go out and get them right now before they're gone!"

It is indeed, quite orange. But somehow, it kind of works on my complexion? Hmmm, perhaps I should have gotten a more wearable color...

Going to SoCal!

Hey everyone! How has your week been going so far? I've been super busy/crashing when I get home lately, so sorry for the lack of posts!

Next next week (Feb. 20-24), I'm going to be in SoCal visiting some colleges! What places would you suggest me to hit up? My parents have been pestering me to come up with an itinerary (besides the colleges). So far on my list are: In N' Out, Mitsuwa, and Koreatown. Some suggestions would be awesome! :D

And to not have this post be image-less, here's this little stop motion movie I made a couple months ago for fun. I was bored out of my mind and didn't know where it was heading, but I kind of like how it turned out! It was really fun (though it took up my entire day).

Have a great rest of the week! :)

Linoleum Block Printing

Stemming from Japanese Woodblock printing in Japan, linoleum block printing is a somewhat easier, more modern twist on the magnificent art.

We just wrapped up our project on block printing and carving in my Art class. I'm quite proud of my carving. :D Many back-breaking hours were spent carving this sucker out! Because I want to enroll in AP Art next year, I had to do a self portrait. Here is what I ended up with!

I'm really proud of how I did my hat and sweater sleeve. I actually accidentally cut off part of the other side of my nose. The nostril was so perfect, but alas my hand slipped. You really have to try to make it work, so I just cut it all off and ended up with only one nostril. O! if only I had been more careful! Le sigh le sigh!

This is the original photo. I wanted to go for a more fun/interesting self-portrait, which my Art teacher thoroughly enjoyed! (Rather than a pretty pretty one.)

Some of the prints I made!

For some reason, I really like this print. It might just be that it has my favorite color, but I also really like the gradient I made. It reminds me of the sun/summer. Not the best print out of the bunch (a bit too much paint -- goopy goopy), but I really like it.

Whoooaaa trippy? I made a 3-D print, which ended up being super cool! I was blown away by all the awesome things I could do with my block.

This was the best print I had. The paint transferred really well in this, and I really enjoyed the colors I made (maroon was black + red and navy was black + blue)! It's kind of like a comic strip, yah?

I feel like my actual block carving looks more like me than my prints, but ah oh well. I'm really proud overall despite the non-resemblance to myself hahaha.