Juno what I want.

There arent many better ways to feel awesome than getting your hair done. I’m currently munching on a blueberry bagel after a wonderful experience at Juno hair and I’m feeling pretty great ^^!

Juno is the second hair salon I’ve been to in Seoul and I think it’s gonna be my new go-to. The first was the Green Turtle in Itaewon which was really nice but after my first visit they stopped giving me the nice head massage. Plus Juno hair salon in Gangnam is much closer to my house.

My visit started with the staff taking my coat and giving me a drink with clementines and cookies. Pretty good start. Then my stylist came over to consult and gush over my hair colour (apparently lots of Asian women spend a lot of time trying to get my colour!).
Already feeling pretty good, I headed over to the shampoo room for a lovely 20 minute wash and massage. Awesome~! Then I sat down with my new bff while she gave me the exact cut I asked for. I had shown her a pic of Emma Stone with a nice side bang and she gave me pretty much exactly that.

The pic I showed her.

The side bang! Don’t worry Grandma, they won’t always be in my eyes, just showing a close-up!

 

I wouldn’t say I’m over the moon about the new cut, simply because it doesn’t look much different than before. I do think it frames my face better and gives my hair more shape. Plus it’s gonna be fun to pin it back with cute clips ^^!
Overall it was a really nice experience and now with my fancypants phone I’m able to update my blog almost immediately! Aren’t you so lucky ;).
Oh, and the whole thing cost ₩25,000 which is quite reasonable- especially for Gangnam.

Bithday shoutout to my baby brother who’s 24 today :D!

sunshine, lollipops, hearts and butterflies

Hooray for cute nails! Over the past month, my nails have never had a boring moment. Sure, they’ve had their chipped and dry moments but overall I’ve loved experimenting with different polishes and tools.

Shortly after my pandas, I got these cute nail stickers at Nature Republic and decided to experiment a little bit!

Mine weren’t exactly like this but you get the idea!

They were so easy to stick on then I just added some of my own little designs like dots and hearts. I was pretty happy with how they turned out although my base coat was a little sloppy as you can tell! I think next time I will try it with girlier colours.

Pretty butterflies and hearts!

Speaking of girlier colours! For the past 2 weeks I’ve been wearing this super girlie pink from Innisfree (colour #8 if you wanted to know). It’s just so sweet and goes with a lot of different outfits. I tried doing a heart stencil using scotch tape BUT it took me several tries to get a shape that I liked then it broke after the first nail (#pinterestfail)!! So I just took a toothpick and made little hearts on a few fingers.

Girlie in pink!

My most recent nail colour is also from Innisfree! It’s number 104 and it is really really cool!! It’s a sparkly purple but depending how the light hits it, it can look blue as well. It’s very 3-dimensional-looking and reminds me of the “galaxy nails” that I’ve been seeing a lot on pinterest.

AH! Giant man fingers :P!!

Nail art is not nearly as scary as I thought it was! If I can do it, anyone can :)!!

Let me know if you like reading these beauty-realted posts! Thanks for visiting and please like, follow and leave a comment :)!

skin for life!

Here are a few very important beauty tips that I have picked up while living in Korea. They’re not necessarily Korean beauty tips, just things that I have become much more aware of since living here.

Here are some simple rules to follow for healthy, beautiful skin :):

1. Don’t tan. Growing up in Canada I believed that being ‘hot’ means being tanned. When I came to Korea I was so proud to be the most tan person I knew. Then I noticed how well people take care of their skin so I started looking more closely at my own skin. I noticed spots and wrinkles and damage that I really hadn’t noticed before. The idea is that being tanned makes your body look more defined and slimmer. Well… it does make a marginal difference but being tan does not make you hot. If you’re slim and pale you’re going still going to look slim, and vice versa. But tanning CAN make the difference between getting skin cancer and not. I have opted to stay out of the sun and stick with my natural skin colour.

I’m not sure who’s acting is worse but I do know whose skin I would want!!

2. Be good to your eyes. I shudder to think of how I used to remove my eye make-up. I used to just wash my face then literally rub it off with my finger or dry tissue. I’ve worn make-up for almost 10 years now so if you think about how much I was tugging at the sensitive under-eye skin each day there’s no wonder I have wrinkles! I now remove my make-up properly using make-up remover and a soft tissue. I gently apply wrinkle eye cream twice a day and I try to avoid rubbing my eyes as much as possible. I think it is helping a lot and hopefully I will preserve my under-eye skin for the next ten years!

I know it looks funny but I would actually take off my make-up like this! :S

3. Moisturize moisturize moisturize! Moisture does not equal oiliness. Whenever I used to get a pimple I would avoid moisturizing that area of my face because I thought it would make it worse. Moisturizing can actually help prevent pimples. When your skin is too dry (most acne medication dries out the skin) it is more susceptible to bacteria getting into the pores. If the pores are already sealed with moisture there is less chance that bacteria will form (that’s my understanding of it anyways).

What a pimple looks like under the surface.

4. Get to know your products. In Korea when you buy cosmetics the store will always give you tons of free samples. I love getting these because it means I can test out a product before I commit to buying the whole tube! In Canada I would often just buy whatever product was the cheapest or that my friends were using. Now I consider what I want the product to do, and how it looks and feels on my face before I add it to my daily routine.

Ok, this one was free but it’s so silky smooth!

5. Drink up! Your body requires water to carry out every single molecular process. This includes everything from digesting the hot dog you just ate to fighting off diseases. Your body needs water to break down unwanted cells (ie. bacteria in your pores…), repair damaged cells and create new ones. Over the past few months I have made an effort to drink a lot more water. I try to keep a full cup of water on my counter and take a drink every time I walk by it. I have to pee a lot more often but I have noticed a difference in my skin!

Don’t you want your skin to look like that!?

I don’t look too happy here but my skin looks all glowy and such :)!

That’s all I’ve got for now! If you want more advice, I’d suggest searching the World Wide Web. It’s great! ^^

 

panda-licious

Yesss… my first nail art ever!!! Korean women are ALL about the nail art. So many people spend incredible amounts of time and money at nail parlours, changing their nails to match their mood, the latest trends or the season. After watching Bubz paint mini pandas on her nails I thought “hey, I might just be able to do this”! Watch her video tutorial here.

So here is my first attempt at nail art:

Supplies! My nail polish is from Nature Republic. Wine is optional.

First I put a light taupe as a base coat. Easy!

Next, I painted a “squished circle” as Bubz calls it on the tip of my nail. This was also pretty easy. I just used to the nail polish brush. I had to do two coats but the second coat was a lot easier than the first!

Then I used a bobby pin to make the ears. They’re all lopsided and different shapes but I figure real pandas don’t have perfectly shaped ears…

Then I took the same bobby pin and made the eyes. I was always hesitant about nail art because I didn’t think I had the right tools (or steadiness-of-hand) but who doesn’t have a million bobby pins lying around!?

For the nose and whites of the eyes I used a safety pin since I don’t have toothpicks. Just don’t press too hard ;)!

Finito! I just added a top coat once it was dry. It was so easy and quick… the only frustrating part is the drying time. I did little paws on some of my fingers just to test it out! The result was so cute, I can’t wait to try another style!! Awesome!

Mr. Panda loves them too!!

skin deep

I’ve been inspired by my latest youtube obsession – bubzbeauty (check her out!)- to share with you some of my daily make-up routine. You may be thinking… “I thought this blog was supposed to be about Korean things?” and you would be perfectly correct. Korea has some of the best cosmetics in the world. Women and men from all over Asia (and probably the world) flock to Korea for skin and hair products… some of which I will be demonstrating in this blog. Instead of just telling you about some popular products, I thought I would show you my personal supplies and how they work on my face.

Let’s get started – what Korea is known for first and foremost (cosmetics-wise) is BB Cream. BB stands for blemish balm and was first developed to help people’s skin heal after plastic surgery. It has miraculously turned mainstream and we can now buy it for very cheap. Personally, I use power perfection from The Face Shop. It costs about $20 for 1.4 oz. If you are buying BB cream in Korea, be careful of products containing a whitening agent if you don’t want to go for the paler-than-pale look.

You can order this one online if you’re not in Korea, but there are lots of international brands that have started making their own!

I start out with a primer (I use Nature Republic ‘provence’ blending primer) to help control oiliness, minimize pores and of course it helps blend the bb cream for a more even look.

Applying primer to my not-so-fresh morning face!

I use just a tiny dab of BB cream to cover my face and blend it in with a make-up sponge. I use this instead of sunscreen (it’s SPF 37), cover-up and foundation. ‘Tis a miracle cream!

Just a dot will do!

After I’m all blended in, I like to use an eye highlighter to brighten up the bags under my eyes. and to highlight my cheekbones. This one is called ‘Botanical Vanilla Eye Brightener’ by Nature Republic. It cost about $5 and blends nicely with my skin.

I highlight down my nose, under my eyes and the tops of my cheekbones. There are lots of diagrams online to show you what will be the best for your face.

The post primer, BB and highlighter face.

A bit of blush, eye makeup and hair and I’m ready to start the day!

Another very Korean product is the sheet face mask. These are like very cheap facials in a pouch. A sheet mask is different from a regular face mask because it actually comes in mask-form… no sloppy goo to layer on your face and wash off, just open, stick, wait and peel.

These are not even a fraction of your options but you get the idea!

Ok, the flash fades out the wrinkles a bit but believe me, they’re there!!

The one I’m showing you is from Olive Young (Korean Rexall equivalent) and cost about 80 cents CAD. I chose the collagen for tonight because just today one of my students was pointing out all my wrinkles to me (she’s so considerate!). There are tons of different types, made for everything from moisturizing to firming to whitening.

Spooky!!

There is no possible way to make this look cute!

These masks always leave my face feeling smooth and refreshed but I’ll sometimes get a pimple the day after I use one. Maybe it clogs my pores? As you can see, I still have the wrinkles, but I like to think it makes a difference little by little.

Ahhh, silky smooth. Mr. Snowman says hi!!

I’ll just demonstrate one more product for today but I have lots more to show you :)! I like to use a tint on my lips when I want to add some colour. I use ‘mango-tinted lip & cheek stain’ by benefit. I won’t tell you how much it cost but I will tell you that I used a gift card!

So shiny!

It feels like I’m painting my lips with nail polish!

I like tint so much better than lipstick because it gets absorbed right into your lips and you don’t even feel it. I apply lip chap over it so my lips don’t get tried out and the colour lasts for a few hours! You can use it on your cheeks too but I haven’t gotten used to that yet.

MUAH!

So those are my top 3 favourite beauty products that I have only started using since I got to Korea. I love to experiment with make-up so any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Can’t resist ;)! Peace out!!