Makeup for my guts.

This fictitious commercial in Gumball.

 ...is beyond funny.

Because, for the past few days, people tried sooooooooo hard to avoid asking me:
1. "So, tell me, the secret to your snow-white face." or,
2. "Hey, how you managed to keep your face so fair while tanning the rest of your body?"

or in short,

3. "WHY DOES YOUR FACE LOOK LIKE CRAP!?"

Thanks a lot to the product on sale at the drug store which claimed to cover pores. Just take a look on the effect one of the ugliest part of my body - my elbow... there weren't much changes, except it looked fairer and ugly parts appeared a little uglier. 

  

This product had only two shades, and the one I chose was supposedly the darker one. After thinly applying some translucent loose powder to finish up my face, look what happened...

Original on the left, adjusted on the right

I ACTUALLY HAD TO ADJUST THE REST OF MY BODY'S COLOUR TO MATCH MY FACE'S WHITENESS. It's unusual to even virtually tweak my skin tones! (Usually I adjust only the brightness/contrast.) Just a single application and my face looked like the New York Cheesecake you get a Maccas'. Perhaps you could define this as a sub-branch of "horror-kawaii".

The product can be forgiven if it kept to its promise of "smooth cover", but nope, my moon craters actually looked worse (you don't want to see), worse than what you just saw on my unsightly elbow.  Even Pluto looks better without all the powder. Beauty bloggers are gonna be like "ohhh a poor carpenter blames his tools".

Thank goodness this was only a photo shoot which can be saved with modern technology.

So what's the awesome product you ask, or what's my secret.  Presenting a poorly made drug-store decision... *drumrooooooooooll*  

"HEROINE MAKE smooth cover powder mineral"

The powder came in a cute black mirror compact and a fluffy sponge. I don't know how has the powder made me a "Heroine". Maybe it made me a few girl-otakus' idol for having a reverse ganguro look, or maybe it made me a heroine for my guts.

After screwing up my own face for a few days, I went to look up on its reviews online. Most "beauty blogger" reviews were for a slightly different version of this thing, and comments were from mainly positive to neutral. For me at least, the fluffy sponge will stay. It may be able to cook me a few burgers.

Disclaimer: I'm not a beauty blogger. I admit I only know how to smear my face with the BB cream, loose powder, eyeliner and cheek powder from the usual brands I buy.

Live in Japan? Nah.

Very long absence + SORWEE!!!!!!! 

Here's the final styled-in-Japan outfit before I left for good! Hope you'll try something similar this summer (or not, your choice!（￣ー￣）) Fig&Viper's denim bustier used in this look was also previously featured in my late spring/early summer post over here and Ironfist's "Nightmare Catcher"skirt from my late winter look here.

Majority of the super cute accessories in this look were from www.bornprettystore.com as usual! The heart sunglasses, cross earrings, unicorn stud, lion necklace and a probably Cartier inspired nail ring in gold were all from here (THANKS!!❤)

 

This look was also an experiment for myself to see how many accessories I can throw into a single outfit before I start looking like a homeless person or the front of a garbage truck.

 

Few words of caution to those who are intending to get the unicorn stud. Although it's an excellent and super kawaii product, be sure to order two pieces if you intend to wear on both ears. Also, its needle and catcher parts are opposite from those of a usual earring i.e. the head's the catcher and the tail's the needle which made it quite difficult for me to wear. Make sure you have sufficient time to put it on before you go out.

 

BPS' simple gold ring could be Cartier-inspired or maybe not. Just saying was the first thing that crossed my mind when I first saw it on BPS. I am still trying to ask for saving up for the actual Juste un Clou thingy!

  

If you're interested in getting the same stuff + more awesome stuff from www.bornprettystore.com, remember to enter my coupon code "LEET10" when you check out!! Now, back sorting out my life back in Singapore! ❤❤❤ (My number/email address are all the same just in case you need to contact me!)

Let me repeat again.

As much as I may look like the super cool Sailor Mars, the same hair colour and wearing a similar dress, kind, brave, super cute and all, this is NOT A COSPLAY.

 

THIS IS A COSPLAY.

For the how many times I've said - LEARN TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE. You can see I don't wear a choker on my forehead. (FYI I love Sailor Moon but no cosplays.)

Anyway. Ran out of places to shoot and went to the sea. A total disaster. Winds at the sea totally messed up my hair. Some sea equation or what? The more perfect the hair, the stronger and douchier the winds.

Today's look is about forcefully combining sailor + horror-kawaii items to recreate a pin-up (Asian) girl look. Not too bad an end result though! I thought I wouldn't have been able to pass off a pinup-ish look (because I am Asian and some times I forget I am Asian). Still looks okay! Many thanks to my ikemen man restyling everything on the spot at the beach + newly acquired divine powers from Goddess Photoshop, I was able to salvage my hair. No thanks again, sea typhoon breeze.

 

Creating a horror-kawaii look is simple. Just stick an eyeball, a zombie limb or a bone onto your hair. I chose www.bornprettystore.com (BPS) 's skeleton hair pin, one item that I always wanted to have! It came in a thousand colours and I was so lost! Picked a red and a blue at the every end. Almost in tears when both came in the mail. TOO AWESOME! United Kingdom brand KREEPSVILLE666 carries similar ones too! They even have skeleton necklaces and in diamante! Gosh! Want them for my wedding!

Sailor dress not from Sailor Moon but from Harajuku brand kawi jamele. KJ's stuff are designed by J-POP singer Milliyah Kato. Cool gal.

Satchel with regards from my dearest friend and sis Sheen. She definitely has the best fashion sense! Can't wait to see her back at home soon!

Ending off again with a coupon code! If you'd like to spook up your hair like mine or looking for other awesome items, visit my friends at  www.bornprettystore.com and enter my coupon code "LEET10" upon check out. 

Gaikokujin? Gaikokujin? Koreanna? Koreanna?

One thing awesome about Tokyo - trains. No, not those shuttling sardine cans you see on some Japan Hour programme. THESE.

THESE PRETTY LONG-NOSED GAIS. The "SHINKANSEN" BULLET TRAINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Recently bought a semi-pro DSLR and decided to spend a little more on train tickets just to get into Tokyo Station's Shinkansen platforms to do some test shots and try on the lastest and currently fastest Shinkansens "E6 Komachi" (red) and "E5 Hayabusa" (emerald). "Komachi" means in Japanese Akita dialect "beautiful lady" and "Hayabusa" is an agile species of eagle. At a certain stretch of the Tohoku Shinkansen Line, their top speed hits 320km/h, which I have yet to, perhaps never will experience because I'll probably need to sell my TV to do that. Isn't that ridiculous that Shinkansen rides actually cost more than domestic flights?

Seeing folks in down jackets? Yep, this' a waaaaaaaaaaaaay tooooo laaaate post. Everything was shot in February, the coldest month in Japan and it took me until late Spring to get everything nicely edited. Anyway back then I never gave a damn about the weather (8 deg, sunny) and only wore a thin MA-1 Jacket, cropped tank top, high-waist shorts, boots and a camera strapped over my jacket. Totally touristy, totally regrettable.

Dead by the time I finished the test shots. Started queuing up for the my train, not knowing it was the wrong queue for a later train. Tokyo Olympics 2020 huh? Where the English signs? Then this train otaku dude tried to be very kind and asked me in some Tohoku-ish dialect if I am really waiting for this particular later train. He went on to try to ask me for tea or something. NO WAY DUDE. I didn't reply at all and he kept asking "Gaikokujin? Gaikokujin? Koreanna? Koreanna? This? Train?". THE HECK DUDE WHAT'S A "KOREANNA"? I tried so hard not to laugh, headed back to where I came and found the right queue. The shit that I always get if I pay for a non-reserve shit - weird-as-fuck people. The price to pay for being cheap though, can't complain more. Come to think of it, I should have replied him "Ya know? Wakaru? Mirror? Kagami?? Look??? Face???"

Oh yes Shinkansen tickets allow for transfers in between different trains as long as you pay the correct fare so it means I get to board 2 different kinds of trains for my very short 1400yen ($14), 25-minute trip.

Boarded the right train to do a little more test shots at Ueno's underground platform. Can't get used to DSLRs. Still doing fine with a little Photoshop help.

Transferred to the next train here, a "Hayabusa" train to meet up with my friend at the next major station, Omiya. She was kindly waiting at the Shinkansen exit so she could punch me for taking a bullet train to visit her at a place totally accesible via a normal train at a friendly, civilian price of $5.

There's so much more photos that I still want to share! If you are interested, please see my genious test shots over here on my facebook page (no sign-up required)→ http://is.gd/JkTd6T

Ending with the mandatory what-kind-of-camera-used show off thingy. PENTAX Q10 in RED!! READ THAT? READ THAT????

All photos taken and edited by me. Please credit if you intend to use any of them, if not I will find you and tie you onto one of these trains JUST LIKE THIS:

HAPPY NEET YEAR!!

NEET - No education, no employment = this is me!!

The company I was working at decided that it should shut down for good and everyone lost their jobs on the last working day of 2013. HUHHH?  A business is not like your favourite instant cup noodles, dude? You don't make a  huge decision and get everything done in 3 minutes!

What's best, I wasn't even personally informed.  I was back in Singapore, but tell me people running web businesses don't know how to write emails. Heard about what happened from one of my colleagues. Told my parents and they weren't angry, in fact, VERY HAPPY. The company was not exactly the most desirable. What to do for the moment?  NEET LIFE!!

Shopping for Chinese New Year stuff at Chinatown and totally enjoying the night view at Swissotel the Stamford's 70th floor - waaay higher Marina Bay Sands' SKYPARK!

No thanks to certain people, I've been taking a lot of time trying to deal with lots of boring applications to get myself compensated the minute I returned to Japan. Got to consider myself lucky 'cos so far, all the public servants that I had to deal with (or rather, that had to deal with a foreigner like me) were aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall nice, some sweet and helped made the miserable procedures so much easier. Utterly grateful. 感謝感謝!! ♥♥♥♥♥



Celebrated the first day of Chinese New Year with the darling ex-colleagues in Tokyo. Shinjuku at 5AM in the morning was amazing. So many people waited for the first train to get home!

At Tokaimura.

My outfit screams "FOREIGNERRRRRRRRRR!!" or "HEYY I AM FROM TOKYO!!" because there's absolutely no villagers dressed like this in Tokaimura (direct translation: Tokai Village), Ibaraki. I'm no villager obviously, neither a Japanese to begin with, and, I don't care? Anyway here's the final Spring collection photo set in collab with my friends at KATE-KATY!! ♥♥♥ This time, they put me in a funny t-shirt!! ♥♥ Photos taken my a Tokai boy at Muramatsu sea-side (Muramatsu-kaigan). AIRRR-REE-GA-TOE! (British accent)

Left's Pacific Ocean and faintly in the background, a research facility called J-PARC (Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex)

Found an abandoned sofa by the sea. Not bad!

The BROOKYLN hat (that came with VIVI/109 BOOK) was bought together with my friend Eri-chan so that we can do a "twin styling" soon. See her in the same cap, here.

 

T-shirt and accessories: KATE-KATY♥

Necklace: MAISON GILFY

Cap: VIVI/109 BOOK

Skirt← all-occasion item♥: GLAD NEWS

Shoes: RNA SWEAT

 

 

ではでは、よい週末を！Have a beautiful weekend, all!! 

Foreigner at Yurakucho

Yurakucho (Tokyo) is unbelievably convenient. It's the next stop from major Tokyo Station and a 3-minute walk to Ginza. Yurakucho is almost the awesomest place to shop in Tokyo. Everything one needs to buy from electronics aaaaaallll the way to branded stuff like Hermes, LV (at Ginza), anything you. Hibiya Park is near by too though I haven't got a chance to visit.

It's "ALMOST the awesomest" because one of Tokyo's busiest business districts and it's only logical that Yurakucho's target customers are the salarymen and the OLs (late twenties onwards). So, don't expect "younger" fashion like those in Shibuya and Harajuku and ridiculously otaku Akihabara stuff. Theses not-so-important cons aside, if you're in a rush to catch a shinkansen (bullet train) at Tokyo or a flight from Haneda Airport and realise you haven't done enough shopping, Yurakucho is the place to go!

Tip for people using JR PASS! If you're thinking to go to Ginza but don't want to pay that extra subway fee (like me), ALIGHT AT YURAKUCHO. It IS Ginza. Get out from Yurakucho's Ginza Exit and ...magic!! 


Scramble crossing at Yurakucho/Ginza

Super Express Nozomi (bullet train)  zooming past JR Yurakucho Station.

Bag the latest at MARUI CITY or exclusively for the gentlemen - HANKYU MEN'S TOKYO (right photos), catch a movie at Toho Cinemas or stroll the branded streets of Ginza.



The underpass to nowhere on the basement of Marui City, Parisan Tengu at HERMES Ginza and the occasional flower market outside Yurakucho Station. So much to see and explore!♪

And then there's a suspicious skater-foreigner turning the underpass into her private runway. Peplum top and accessories from the always lovely Kate-Katy, GLAD NEWS' very dangerous cap, Uniqlo's torn BF jeans, Thrasher skate-pouch and Dr Marten's cutest Adrian loafers.

By the way, here's one of my favourite places for lepak lepak kopi kopi relak one korner (tea time) at Ginza. Atas (up-class) DOUTOR!!♪

 

Read more about it in my earlier post here.

 

Yurakucho/Ginza Access

From Tokyo Station:
■JR YAMANOTE LINE (towards Shinagawa/Shibuya)
■JR KEIHIN-TOHOKU LINE (towards Ofuna/Tsurumi) - PEAK hours only. Keihin-Tohoku Line operates as a rapid service and skips Yurakucho Station during OFF PEAK hours.

Via Tokyo Metro (subway)
Ginza Line and Hibiya Line

I never kua buay kui hor!!

NO. I wasn't intending to jump off my dearest Chef Son-Son. Never kua buay kui hor! (Singlish/Hokkien: devastated at something) I was merely taking a breather from my desk work. And not many people are able to take breathers at a rooftops facing one of Tokyo's landmarks, the Rainbow Bridge.

 

 

Bling bling shirt courtesy of Kate-Katy

Attire details here: http://lookbook.nu/look/4909517-Katekaty-Bling-Shirt-Diy-Cropped-Denim-Shorts

Nemophila Harmony and Tulip World

Reeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaallli lucky to be able to see some flowers at Hitachi Sea Side Park at the end of April before returning Singapore. Born along the equator, it was the first time seeing beautiful spring flowers like tulips and nemophila, also known as baby blue eyes.  Photos and Insta-spam!

Nemophila Harmony at Miharashi Hill (miharashino-oka), Hitachi Sea Side Park

The final opportunity to view nemophila because they won't be able to last until late Spring (May). Cute baby flowers!! I'm such a sua koo (country bumpkin). Didn't know they existed until I first saw them. Why? Because they'd probably turn into ashes the moment they come into contact with the ridiculous Singaporean weather.

 

More photos of nemophila taken by the Park rangers here:

http://www.hitachikaihin.go.jp/?post_type=hana&p=1982

 

(Matching blue attire - striped top & chain tattoo tights courtesy of Kate-Katy)

Tulip World at Eggs Forest (Tamago-no-mori), Hitachi Sea Side Park

THE flower of the Netherlands. Tulips were also being exhibited at one of the conservatories at Gardens By the Bay. However it's a completely different experience to be able to view these fairies indoors and outdoors. In the "English" of embarrassing Singaporean office ladies "more authentic". HA!

 

 

 

More photos of tulips at Eggs Forest taken by the rangers here:

http://hitachikaihin.go.jp/?post_type=hana&p=1876?post_type=hana&p=1876

 

Gawd, their camera's awesome!! My android and digital camera didn't do justice to these beautiful flowers so please please visit their page! Can't wait to see the roses at the park when I return to Ibaraki!

 

 (Photo by Hitachi Sea Side Park)



 

Hitachi Sea Side Park 国営ひたち海浜公園
http://hitachikaihin.go.jp/
605-4, Mawatari Aza Oonuma, Hitachinaka-City
tel: 029-265-9001
Accessible via JR KATSUTA Station (1 hour 20 mins on Limited Express Hitachi from JR UENO, Tokyo)

Speak Good English? Only happens in Singapore lah!

An actual episode that happened at my Tokyo office, one fine autumn day.

Designer: How do you say "a lot of great discounts" in a few words? I'm making a banner for our home page.

Me: How about "HUGE discounts" with some impact? We use this all the time in Singapore.

Designer:  Awesome, thanks!

(Ex-)Supervisor, who doesn't speak any English but refusing to lose out to a foreigner and insisting on joining the conversation: OOOOHHHHH WAIT. I think nobody in Japan understands English like "HUGE". To make it easier, how about "DISCOUNT BIG VOLUME?".

DTP designer, rather reluctant: ooooooohhhhhh.ohhhhkaaaaay.

Me, not giving a damn any more:  Awesome idea, go ahead!


on the company home page

 

(not the actual banner)

 

(Good job. Allow your father to clap for you) 

Nobody in the world describes sale and discount using capacity. Now my English looks messed up. Conclusion? Don't know, don't use (If you don't understand, don't use it).