Respect My Face!

Paul & Joe Beaute Disney Character Collection 2010 ~ Alice in Wonderland!

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Here are the highlights from Japan’s beauty magazines MAQUIA, VoCE and Biteki…

Best of 2009 Product Round-up

Pretty much all magazines have a round-up for best products of the year.  Th products are usually picked by beauty editors, makeup artists, celebrities and readers.  The following is Biteki‘s best-of report…

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Multipurpose balms are all the rage in beauty magazines now, and Beauté Minéral have one of the best out there!  A must-have for jet-setting beauties and everyone else, BM’s Beauté Balm is handcrafted with rich, nourishing and all natural ingredients.   Organic shea butter, jojoba oil, rose hip oil and evening primrose oil moisturize, beeswax protects, and a special blend of exquisite essential oils repairs and nourishes.  Use it on lips, dry skin, cuticles and even split ends, Beauté Balm is a little miracle in a jar!  Its compact size makes it easy to carry around in your purse, and is totally airport security-proof!

Now available: Beauté {Lip} Balm, which Beauté Balm in a tube formulated specifically for lips.

Ever heard of those jokes about women piling makeup on so thick it’s like they are plastering house paint on their faces?  A new foundation from L’Oreal kind of made this joke the real deal…  May be they are being innovative or may be they are being gimmicky; but what’s with Lancome and L’Oreal’s penchant for “out there” makeup applicators?

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Image via fashionista.com

Of all the discount retailers, Target is my favorite.  Theirs stores are generally speaking clean, brightly lid with decent size aisles and not too horribly messy.  With many of the discount retailers carrying designer brands, Target has some of the best names and selections.  Isaac Mizrahi, Anna Sui, Paul & Joe are just a few to name.

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Recently I picked up PRO Makeup – Salon secrets of the professionals by Kit Spencer, who is a makeup artist with 10+ year experience.  I don’t think she is as famous as Kevyn Aucoin or Bobbi Brown, but her book is a wonderful reference and a fun read, and it has become one of my favorites.

In a spiral bound format (so it feels like a note book), PRO Makeup is divided into 4 chapters, plus an introduction, a section on going pro, a list of suppliers and index.  Within each chapter there a several sections or subchapters.  The chapters and subchapters are clearly marked on the top of each page.

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Be good to your skin... Get that makeup off!

How’s your New Year’s resolution going?  Are you keeping up?  And I hope you have been taking good care of your skin with the simple steps of cleanse  ~>  tone ~> moisturize.

But sometimes the simple 3-step regiment is not enough.  “Sometimes” means whenever you wear makeup; and “makeup” means anything that’s not your skin care product: foundation, powder, eyeshadow, blush, eyeliner, lipstick, concealer, mascara, etc…

When you wear makeup, there’s an extra layer of gunk that your cleanser needs to get rid of.  If your cleanser cannot get all that dirt, oil, makeup and such off your face, it is as good as not washing your face at all.  And unfortunately most cleansers, at least the ones that don’t take a layer of skin off, fail to remove everything in one step.  And sometimes even the harsh cleansers still can’t get the job done… {read more…}

I LOVE Japanese beauty magazines. They are great source of information on trends, products and makeup technique.  Yes, they are hard to find, and yes, they are more expensive than the US counterparts, but if you consider yourself a beauty addict or pro, you have to read them at least once in a while.  They offer you a glimpse into the Japanese beauty culture, an exotic world of beauty trends, secrets and insights.  These magazines are well worth the time and money you spend looking for them. I’ll tell you why: {read more…}

Remember a couple of years back, Environment Working Group (EWG) and Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (CSC) published a report on lead in lipsticks?  I was really happy to see that report and the spotlight it shined on cosmetics product safety.  It was definitely informative and eye opening… {read more…}