Common Scents

Fragrances are such a personal thing. I love historic perfume houses. I got a chance to know Clive Christian through work, and it was love at first smell.

Pictured on the left is the travel size of Clive Christian's 1872 for women. Dated from Queen Victoria, the brand's triple extraction method creates a heady fragrance that is absolutely unique and long-lasting. When I have a big day ahead, a spritz of 1872 really makes me feel ready for it.

Caron is another time-honoured perfume house. Even though the French see it as a bit of an old-fashioned brand, I like it anyway. Mum got me Aimez-moi. The candied scent makes me feel cuddled!

Nordstrom's started carrying these brands a couple of years ago, I believe...?

Questions & Answers

Thanks to Nic Nic for tagging me! This is a fun one.

Here are the rules of the game:

I-Love-Your-Blog Rules:

1. Pass this award on to 7 people.
2. Answer the following questions using only one word (will try my hardest). 



Q&A:

1. Where is your cell phone? Confiscated!


2. Where is your significant other? Sleeping


3. Your hair color? Darkest bronze


4. Your mother? Living

5. Your father? Dead

6. Your favorite thing? A stuffed piggy my brother gave me

7. Your dream last night? Too sound-asleep to dream

8. Your dream/goal? Get rich in a legal way

9. The room you're in? Living room


10. Your hobby? Reading


11. Your fear? Run out of Nutella

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Back in the U.S.

13. Where were you last night? Home (exciting, huh?)

14. What you're not? Fake

15. One of your wish-list items? Cartier Love bangle

16. Where you grew up? Hong Kong

17. The last thing you did? Laughed

18. What are you wearing? Club Monaco t-shirt, Victoria Secret hipsters

19. Your TV? Off (hate TV)

20. Your pet? Hopefully get a pug next year!

21. Your computer? HP

22. Your mood? Good for a Monday night

23. Missing someone? Nope

24. Your car? Sold it!

25. Something you're not wearing? Pants. Apparently I often skip them.

26. Favorite store? Haven't got one yet.

27. Your summer? Spent between Milan and Seattle


28. Love someone? Me-self

29. Your favorite color? Grey

30. When is the last time you laughed? 15 minutes ago


31. Last time you cried? Two weeks ago

32. Are you a bitch? I am trying!


33. Favorite Position? I'm not sure if there's a name for it

34. Favorite Past Time? Work out at the gym

35. Are you a hater or a Lover? Lover

37. Are you genuine or fake? Too genuine

38. Any Vices? Too nice

39. Pro Life or Wire Hanger? What?

40. McCAIN or OBAMA? Whoever can fix the economy.

41. Pro Plastic or Natural? Au naturel!

42. Dream Job? Editor - I am one now.

I'd like to tag these lovely people for their wonderful blogs:

All Things Tokyo
Bliss
Fabu-less Beauty
Fuzkittie
Girl Meets Makeup
Goldfish Cake
My Makeup Affinity

50th Post

Hi, I'd like to say thanks to those of you who've been stopping by my blog. It's probably not as popular as others out there, but I certainly enjoy sharing a thing or two about beauty with you!

Experiment in Grey

The professional camera is fun to use, producing images that are true to the subject. I played around and put together a little collage.


Here's what I used for this grey look:

• MAC Blanc Type as base
  
• MAC Nylon on brow bone


• Make Up For Ever kohl pencil


• Madina Milano eyeshadow #11, #14 (both matte grey), and MAC Electra (silvery grey)


• Madina Milano matte white eye pencil


• Shu Uemura sheer orange blush (too shimmery for my taste)


• MAC 2N lipstick, Clarins Gloss Appeal in #3

In the Mood for Blush

Sofia Coppola is my favourite director. She portrays young women's coming of age wonderfully in films like The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, and Marie Antoinette. I thought the makeup in this last film of hers on Kirsten Dunst was beautiful. I loved the powdered face and matte, stained lips.

I realise that sometimes eye makeup is not necessary what makes a look striking, but the blush. It seems to really set the mood.

I'm playing around with a professional camera, and am trying to take better portraits of myself. Here I used a couple of products that I haven't talked about:

• La Mer Skincolor loose powder in Neutral
  
• Clarins #25 lipstick

Different from all the other powder I have, this one from La Mer has a luminous quality to it. It's amazingly smooth and lightweight without being messy. Thanks to Fuzkittie for mentioning it!

The heavy glass jar makes handling a bit clumsy, but it really prevents dropping the container. (You won't want to know what happened one time when a full pot of French powder slipped out of my hands. It was like the Hiroshima mushroom cloud.)


After concealer, I just use this powder like a foundation. It's pigmented enough to give light coverage. Normally I like my powder extremely matte, but the luminosity of this La Mer product is a fun change.

About the Clarins lipstick, may I just say that I hate it? The colour is a beautiful nude, but the cream texture simply doesn't glide on well. In fact, if I just swipe the lipstick onto my lips, it leaves a horrible layer of stuff. I think I might need a brush to apply it, but the texture just isn't what I'm looking for.