Swagger With Swag!: Korean Beauty Products Giveaway from Lizz Buenaventura

* I don't claim to be a beauty product expert, I just share personal recommendations of products which work best for me. :P What works for me may not work for you, so please proceed with caution, thanks for understanding! ;3


While I understand that Korean beauty is ulzzang/best face style and notably different from gyaru, I have steadily realised that the styles share notable similarities, including the following:

1. Prominent eye make-up - this is one of the biggest things they have in common, because fans of both styles often wear much eyeliner, mascara and eyelash extensions. They also practise face contouring, which aims to make the eyes look bigger. I'm not sure which style promotes the use of contact lenses more, but I am sure glad that eyeglasses have been incorporated into the gyaru wardrobe now! As many of you already know, while I like contact lenses for their high style quotient, I am loathe to use them because my eye area is extremely dry and sensitive, and I'm deathly afraid of going blind. 
2. A certain way of hair styling and colouring - both styles promote coloured hair and the use of bangs, although they rotate between straight, curly and wavy styles in different times. 
3. Face contouring - both styles aim to make the face look really good, with the nose looking less flat and the cheeks looking more prominent. However, gyaru goes for a more natural over-all face look since the eyes are already the star of the make-up style, and ulzzang goes for a polished face look with the works. 
4. Focus on optimum face care - you cannot fake good skin, so every Japanese and Korean magazine I own have skin care product features and demos to ensure you look fresh and flawless every time. But because I have more Japanese magazines (granted, one is a Chinese edition, but still!) and only 2 from Korea, I am not sure which country/fashion style puts more steps into its beauty routine.

This is why I make use of Japanese and Korean (and Chinese - from Hongkong and Taiwain) make-up and beauty goods extensively in my daily (meaning 24/7) wardrobe. In fact, there are four(count 'em!) products which I cannot live without:

Discuss: Tokyo youth fashion invades Paris! [Updated]

So I am currently online checking out articles for work today, when I stumbled upon this from The Philippine Star's website, PhilStar. I know that Japan has belatedly realised that its fashion is very marketable worldwide, and that its brands have trouble finding a larger, more lucrative (read: international) market especially in the face of the global recession (which, strangely, hasn't been felt within and around the Philippines... yet). With all these things happening at the same time, it's nice to see that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is trying helping its fashion designers gain a foothold abroad. Called Tokyoeye, this ambitious pilot project by METI toured the world, starting at Shanghai and finishing in Paris, just after Fashion Week no less. This endeavour follows other similar moves that aim to promote, quite aggressively, Japanese culture to the world, notably the establishment of the Kansei Value Creation Initiative and the opening of the Kansei Value Creation Museum in Kobe and the launch of “NIPPON MONO ICHI – Spirit of Creation” in cooperation with the Organization for Small and Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, Japan (SMRJ) which aims to help SMEs - fashion brands included (they still aren't as big as car companies, banks and electronics corporations, after all) - use consumer-oriented products as mediums for their messages they wish to send to consumers (spirit of creation), by guiding them through the planning and development, distribution and marketing phases.

To quote from the Tokyoeye article on PhilStar:

The closing event in Paris was the highlight of Tokyoeye. From February to March, young Japanese brands like Aula Aila, Valentine’s High, Galaxxxy in Hi-Fi, Sachio Kawasaki, DRESSCAMP, Liz Lisa, Phenomenon, Duck Digger displayed their works at Colette — a boutique known as a bastion of cool.

Also according to the article, the Tranoï Showroom on rue Saint-Honoré opened young designers to deals with fashion buyers and merchandisers. If the designers play their cards right, we can will see some of our favourites in Harvey Nichols, Bloomingdales and Club 21, among others.

I believe that this effort is also related to Tokyoeye:

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) will set up a Japan Booth at "MICAM SHOEVENT", the world’s largest-scale international footwear exhibition, and help Japanese companies exhibit their products. The event, taking place in Milan, Italy, is expected to attract about 40,000 buyers.

While Liz Lisa and even Cocolulu (strangely not a part of this line-up ... maybe because it's not highbrow enough?) are already making in-roads in Asia (I really wish I'd been able to go to the Liz Lisa Taipei store while I was in Taiwan last year), I definitely agree that the other brands need more buzz. Outside of the few people I know who have an idea of

However, the more I learn about the METI's past and present efforts, I'm getting the impression that METI is creating and promoting Tokyoeye as a high-end affair. What would happen to the Japanese street fashion brands and the youth subcultures that they inspired then, like Liz Lisa and Galaxxxy in Hi-Fi? Would it be the end of fukubukuro (loot bags) from our favourite stores? Will this turn our beloved "raw" tribe followings into haute couture exhibitions?



UPDATE: Strangely, there seems to be little news about Tokyoeye available online. Hmm. Here are some of the links that I was able to find (I didn't include those already posted earlier):

Article on Modem Mag
Article on the Mainichi Shimbun's English-language website
Thailand-Japan fabric and textile collaboration article on FashionWindows

OMG OMG OMGGGGGGGGGG!!!

I found out from one of my trusted sellers in Multiply that she's offering a personal shopping service from Japanese stores. Now that I'm leaning heavily towards the gyaru style, I'm going nuts because this is the chance to own something, ANYTHING by Cecil McBee, Gilfy, Swordfish, Ego System, Liz Lisa... OHMYGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.

Unfortunately, I still owe some other sellers money. And I just finished investing quite a heavy sum in retail treasury bonds, so I have absolutely skint. DX

Not to mention that I feel incredibly guilty since there are so many people out there currently living worse off than I am due to Typhoons Ketsana and Parma, which attacked our part of the country in the last 2 weeks.

I just want to go for it SO badly though...! T.T

God, please, I would like a windfall right about now. Please? I've been really, REALLY good! T_____________________T

I can has Poupee! :D

So thanks to Seme GF-chama, I finally joined PoupeeGirl!

For those on Poupee, please add me! ;D

Merry Christmas again! :P

Koakuma Sailormoon, and other things.

What happens when you cross himegyaru style with Sailormoon? v^V^v

Pretty Gyaru Sailormoon, that's what! XD

1	2	3
4	5	6
7	8	9

I want Neptune's hair the most, I hope it fits me! ♥♥♥ Alas, Uranus doesn't look very pretty here, but I guess that's because she's better off translated in terms of either sentaa (the male version of gyaru, aka those dandy boys with tans and ridiculous hairdos), or in bosozoku (biker gang) culture ala Anna Tsuchiya's character Ichigo in Shimotsuma Monogatari. X3

Scans taken from the September 2008 issue of Koakuma Ageha (Koakuma = little devil, ageha = swallowtail/night butterfly depending on the reading, and the magazine caters primarily to girls in, um, hostess bars so please exercise caution when reading!), made available here - please don't forget to say thank you! X3

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Wow... tomorrow, it will be exactly two years since my sister left for the USA. While I have definitely gotten used to her physical absence, I still feel lonely and helpless without her sometimes.

Right now she's having fun gambling with a friend in Nevada. I hope that she actually wins something. d^V~b

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For those who want to see some large photographs of the 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, visit this site! v^_^v

Sticker Pictures! d^~^b

As y'all may have noticed, I'm a tad obsessed with cute things. I guess it comes with the territory of being a fangirl of Japanese pop culture. And few things could possibly be cuter than sticker pictures or purikura!

Sticker pictures can be had at special photobooths, usually in arcades or unused corners of the mall. The older booths (I mean, 1990s sticker picture booths) allowed you only to pick your background or border (or both, but that was rare), then your photo was taken, then you waited a bit until it published. Now, the booths usually let you have your photo taken first, then you can pick borders or go all-out in doodling all over the purikura within a set timeframe. The insanity of it all has always made it fun for group shots, especially if you're amazing and can fit around 10 people in a booth meant for 4 (I've tried it). Oh, and don't forget to wait for your sticker print to dry a few minutes after it comes out of the slot in the booth!

It's sad that I'm older now and my friends and I don't have as much time - or inclination - to go to the booths, since they're always heaps of fun. But, thankfully, a website called Puricute (http://www.puricute.com) was developed so you can turn any digital picture of your liking into a soft-copy version of purikura! You can even pay for it to be delivered to you as a bonafide sticker picture set, for real cheap too (shipping is free within the USA). But right now, for me just decorating my photos is enough. XD

Here's an album of my Puricute photos, lemme know what y'all think! ;3

The Pursuit of Vanity (aka Kabaklaan ng Lola Mo)

This is how I looked up until early Sunday afternoon:

This is how I look like NOW.

And to top it off, I got myself nail art too!

LOL, I can't just say na niyaya ako ni Kaye (my younger sister), though ultimately she did convince me to go. I've been contemplating on looking prettier for some time, and worrying over the increasing thinness and hairfall of my already sparse eyelashes. XD;;; I think I'm becoming too vain for my own good, and it's starting to scare me... O_o

PS everything cost me only PhP1,000.00. Not bad if you consider that there was a manicure, pedicure with foot massage, and threading done to my eyebrows. hearts;