Monday, January 27, 2014

No Makeup VS Makeup

So while I was watching one of the latest episode of the show "Generation Tengoku" in which Yamapi is one of the MC hosts in the show, I found some pretty interesting topics that I wanted to also talk about on my blog. I actually quite like watching this show, the topics are always so interesting to watch. I think I would've still watched this show even if Yamapi wasn't in the show at all. 

For those who are not quite familiar with the show and have never heard of it or watched any of the episodes. Generation Tengoku is basically a Japanese variety TV show that talks about various trends and topics that are currently really popular in Japan at the moment. It cover topics such as makeup, fashion, health, beauty, food, music, dramas, anime, etc. Each episode focuses on a different topic that is currently "in trend" or that is really "popular" at the moment. They also invite panel guests on the show to discuss the topic for that episode and all the guests are split into 3 different age groups starting with banana generation (people born in the 50's-60's), kiwi generation (people born in the 70's) and mango generation (people born in the 80's and 90's...this is also where I belong! lol) They also do a top 10 best ranking on the topic and show what is most popular among in all the 3 different generations. It's a really great and interesting show. I'd highly recommend it to anyone to watch it who is not a Yamapi fan (which really Yamapi hardly gets any spotlight in the show. He's soooooo quiet and untalkative that he just fades in the background of the show, LOL!) but if you're interested in knowing what's currently popular and in trend in Japan right now then this is a must watch show for you so don't miss out! Especially if you plan on visiting Japan anytime soon, this show will let you know where to go and the best things to look out for while in Japan. 

Anyway, the latest episode I was watching did a top 10 best ranking for "popular things for women" that Japanese men like in women. And can you guess what was ranked #1? Girls with simple makeup! Yes, apparently believe it or not, the #1 thing that Japanese men find popular or like the most are girls with simple makeup. And of course, one of the host (Imada) goes and ask Yamapi for his opinion on this topic to which Yamapi responds with "It's not simple makeup that men like, it's no makeup!" and all the young female guests on the show react in shock like why?!?!?! Yamapi then explain that he likes girls who wear no makeup because it is more courageous and takes more courage to do so. 

OMG WELL SAID YAMAPI. WELL SAID!!! *applauds* 

It does take more courage to do so and I pretty much agree with Yamapi (even if I am a girl myself), I do think wearing no makeup is better than having a ton of makeup on. And it is true that most guys don't really mind girls who don't wear/have makeup on. It's just that we girls are always our own biggest self critic that we think we look absolutely horrible without makeup on that we should never show anyone with our no make face which is not true.

I think I've already said this before on my blog but I don't wear any makeup at all on a daily basis. ZERO. Absolutely no makeup at all! The only times I do wear makeup is when I take pictures and outfit snaps and occasionally on those special days when I want to look a little pretty just so I can look somewhat presentable. Oh and on a day when I have to go for a job interview so I don't look like a dead zombie because as much as I hate to admit it, how you look also determines whether you get a job or not. We do live in a superficial world where everything is all about looks! But other than that, I generally don't like wearing makeup on a daily basis because I find it unnecessary and I'm totally comfortable with going out with just my bare naked face. It's no big deal, really. Maybe it's because I've been doing so for the past 20 something years of my life. I wish more girls would not be so afraid to do this. I mean I really don't want to become one of those girls who would even refuse to go out to eat or buy something at the grocery store without having any makeup on. Really, it's okay to show a little flaw and be yourself just for 15-30 minutes in your life. No one is perfect in this world. Yes, you might look a little tired with dull looking skin and dark circles showing, so what? WHO CARES! Nobody is going to point at you and pin out all your flaws. There isn't a need to look perfect and flawless every second and minute in your life. 

I mean I guess I can somewhat understand if you are a person with acne prone skin and you have pimples all over your face or if you have really dry skin that you need to wear makeup to cover it up. Otherwise if your skin is perfectly fine with no pimples, no dark spots, no freckles or any dryness at all, why do you need to wear makeup everyday? What is there to cover and hide? I guess I'm more lucky since I don't have any of the skin problems mentioned previously other than I do have a few moles and acne scars on my face. No I don't have perfect skin but I am not afraid to show my imperfections and flaws. Instead of using makeup to cover them up, I just leave them as it is. Because to me what's more important is having clear and smooth skin than to cake my skin with loads of makeup trying to cover my flaws. That is also why I spend much more money on buying skincare products than makeup. Also because I don't share the same love and passion for makeup as I do for fashion. So rather than spending so much money on makeup products to hide the imperfections, why not spend the money to buy skincare products to "fix" the imperfections? Because really when a person has good and clear skin to begin with, then there is no need to be afraid of showing your natural self and be more confident of who you really are. But I'm not trying to say that makeup is bad for you and that you should never wear makeup. While I do think makeup can help to enhance a woman's beauty and make them look beautiful, it is also important for a woman to feel comfortable in her own skin. To be able to look in the mirror everyday and tell yourself that you look beautiful just the way you are. And even though I do think the me with makeup on does make me look a whole lot prettier, I still find myself to love the me without any makeup on because it's the most "自我" (most true) self of me and who I am. No fake mask, no filters and no photoshop edited work...just me! 

And if you look as good as Kitagawa Keiko with no makeup on, why would you even need makeup to begin with? lol. But of course, not everyone has perfect flawless skin as Keiko does (she's just really lucky!), but I'm just saying for those who already have beautiful skin to begin with but still think they look awful without makeup on is being too hard on themselves.



  
This girl looks stunning even without makeup on. Keiko has so many scenes in the drama Buzzer Beat with no makeup on that I applaud her being so brave because not many actress would be as willing to show themselves on TV without makeup. 







And here we have Keiko in very pretty natural makeup. I LOVE her natural makeup in the drama. It's always so natural but yet so pretty! *____* Although I still think she looks much better without all the makeup on her face. What a lucky natural beauty she is! 





Anyway, another rather interesting topic brought up in the show of Generation Tengoku that ranked pretty high for what was most popular for women among Japanese men was wearing all white as it gives out a very "" (pure and innocent) look to women. Yamapi also blurted out with another shocking response when he was asked what he thinks about this topic. Yamapi actually said while the people with this kind of "white pure innocence beauty" image from the banana generation makes it very persuasive to believe but it is also very questionable to him. He later explained how you'd often associate these type of girls to have a very "clean and neat" image but Yamapi isn't so certain of how true this would be as in today's world, everyone likes to play around and it really makes you wonder if such pure innocent beauty even exist anymore.  


OMG THIS IS WHY I LOVE THIS MAN!!! Another great applaud for Yamapi! I LOVE YOU! Very true and well said. In today's world now, there are less people who take relationships seriously and everyone is just all about screwing around and having fun. Even if a girl can appear to be all sweet and innocent with a beautiful face, you never know if she's really an angel or she's really just a devil who goes around sleeping with a bunch of other men and just partying it up. Kind of makes me think if Yamapi had a similar experience in the past where he was "cheated on" with a girl who appears to be all pure and innocent like an angel but she was actually just a devil slut who likes to sleep around and play with emotions. But either way I'm glad that Yamapi actually acknowledge this and brings up a very good point to take into consideration. I've always loved how high Yamapi's EQ is and how smart and mature he thinks for his age. He always has some very deep and insightful view on things that gets to me! ♥_




And another rather interesting thing that was popular for women that Japanese men like was "marshmallow girls" a.k.a chubby girls. Yamapi expresses how he likes this type of girls to which he surprised all the guests and everyone on the show. He explained how he likes the atmosphere of eating together with a marshmallow girl because it increases his appetite to eat more food. AWWWW what a sweet and adorable thing to say! Yamapi sure knows the way to make a girl's heart melt. ♡(˃͈ દ ˂͈ ༶ ) *teehee* Even one of the guest Izumi Pinko was like, "now all the mothers watching this on TV will surely love Yamapi even more and become his fan" and that his fan base would start increasing like a mob. LOL! XD 

What are your thoughts on makeup? Do you think makeup can be deceiving that it can make someone look like a sweet innocent angel to hide their devil and ugly personality? What about people who wear seductive sexy makeup to seek attention from men and gain personal benefits? Comment below and let me know! =)

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Jmovie Review: Confessions

I recently watched this Japanese movie made in 2010 called "Confessions" a month ago I and would highly recommend it to anyone who's into suspense thriller. It's actually quite similar to the old famous film "Battle Royale" with a class of high school students but only with less killing involved and it focuses more on teenage bullying and parenting neglect. 






The story revolves around a single mother high school teacher who suspects that two of the students in her class killed her daughter (for the most stupid reason too that you will find out at the end of the film) and she seeks revenge for her daughter. However, there seems to be this law in Japan which protect teenagers that if someone has committed a crime (in the case of murder), as long as the person is 14 and under years of age, they will NOT be held responsible or charged for the crime they've committed. And because of this very reason, the teacher cannot file a charge against her student because they are all just 14 years old. So instead, the teacher comes up with a very brilliant (even better) way of seeking revenge for her daughter through a crime and she confessed to her students what she has done on the very last day that she is teaching at the school before quitting. The movie starts up really slow with A LOT of things happening at the same time so you need to pay close attention in order to follow along with the sub plots and characters introduced. You slowly get all the clues and hidden secrets and everything starts to pull in and tie together and in the end you are left in this kind of feeling like WTF of crazy shit did I just watch?!?! XD (Or at least that's how I felt) 

I actually think that this film reflects a lot of psychological issues faced by teenagers/young adults in today's society, especially within the Asian culture. All these family pressures and school stress which causes one to commit crime such as killing their own parent, teacher or unnecessary innocent lives all because Asian parents don't even recognize that "depression" can lead to a mental disorder if it is not treated properly. And if you happen to be Asian, you would know that if you ever told your parents you (think) you may have a depression problem and need to seek help, they will give you this straight out answer like, "Damn right you need help, you sound crazy already saying depression is an illness. Did you do all your homework? Just forget it about it and make sure you keep getting those straight As alright?!" Sigh so sad but true! 

I also like how in the movie you get to hear the different "confessions" made by the main characters and have the story told in a different perspective. 

On another note, I realized that the main girl student in the movie is played by the same model/actress that was in the popular famous music video of "Hello, Again ~昔からある場所~" by JUJU. OMG SHE'S SOOO PRETTY!!! ♥_ Her name is 橋本 愛 Hashimoto Ai




She's like sooooooooo pretty...with that natural, sweet and innocent kind of beauty. She's also a pretty decent actress too (from what I've seen so far), there is definitely high potential and room for improvement. She was also in the new Japanese Ring 3D movie as the ghost "Sadako" lol. And she is a fashion model for the magazine Seveteen. Currently she's only 18 years old. I have faith in her that she will make it big to become a big actress in Japan. A Miyazki Aoi #2 perhaps or Aragaki Yui #2? I look forward to watch more of her in Japanese films and dramas! =)

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Outfit: Houndstooth Skirt

Hello, just a quick and short blog post on an outfit that I have submitted for a contest to become an ambassador for a Japanese brand. What brand you ask? I don't know if I should reveal it now or wait until I win the contest or get selected to become an ambassador (which I hope I will) but can you guess from the fashion style and makeup look I am wearing?






I'm wearing the same houndstooth skirt that I got from YesStyle in this post here. It somehow looks bigger on me than it does on the model shown in the pictures and the model is even skinnier than me! o_O I also realized after I was trying to find a top to match this skirt with that I don't have very many tight fitted black tops and this was the only one that I could find in my closet. It fits rather loose on me too so it doesn't quite go well with the skirt since the skirt already looks a bit big on me and it doesn't really flatter my body much and looks as if I have no curves. -___- I need to go shopping for some tight fitted black tops to wear this skirt with. Sigh, the dilemma of getting new clothes because you don't have anything to match them with. >__< 

Anyway, as an ambassador of this Japanese brand, my job would be to promote the brand by writing blog posts about the brand. Anything from the clothes to their makeup, events and special sales, and as well as posting outfits coordinates I put together from the brand's clothing. I would also receive a special discount off their clothes as an ambassador and get to attend their fashion shows in Japan. Omg, free trip to Japan and attend a fashion show, who wouldn't like that?! I am currently still waiting on them to reply back to me if I win or not so please wish me the best of luck! ^____^ 

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Outfit: Otsuka Ai Inspired White Winter Scarf Outfit

It's been yet again so long since my last update. I have been meaning to write a new blog post but I got sooooo busy with work in the start of January that I had no time to do anything. Like seriously, I didn't even have time to sleep. I was running on 4 hours of sleep everyday for 2 weeks straight. My body feels so exhausted!!! Hopefully work will be a little less busy in the upcoming weeks so I can get more rest and get on with actually doing some of my new year resolutions. Like exercising daily and take at least one self-portrait for this month. 

I also noticed that I have gained a few new followers on bloglovin' while I was away and haven't been able to update my blog. So I just want to say a warm hello to my new followers and thanks for following my blog! (o^__^o)v

Anyway, I wanted to share this outfit I put together that's extremely comfy and warm to wear on those cold days during the winter for a home/room wear kind of look. I was actually inspired by Otsuka Ai's outfit in a music show where she performed the song "Pocket". I modified the outfit a bit since I didn't have the exact same things she wore for the performance but I tried to be as close as I could get in mimicking it with what I have in my closet. 






I actually only realized this after I took all my outfit snaps that I forgot to wrap my scarf around my neck once. No wonder I thought it looked a bit strange when I finally imported my photos to my computer to edit them. *total fail* LOL! And I tried to wrap my hair up in a bun and couldn't get it to work. I have very fine, thin and light weight hair. It takes about over 20 pieces of hair put together to make a strand of a hair for me so you can imagine how thin my hair is. I also have no volume to my hair at all and I have very little hair to begin with. When I tried to tie my hair up to make it into a bun, my bun ended up being the size of my thumb finger. It looked as if I have no hair at all! I tried to make it into a bun for about 30 minutes and couldn't get my hair into a big bun and in the end I just decided to leave it in a pony tail instead. But actually even Otsuka Ai doesn't have enough hair to create that voluminous and big bun she has on top of her head. It is actually a fake hair bun that she has on top of her head. I love how she's wearing this really long scarf with feathers attached to them that make it so pretty and winter-y. I didn't have white feathers to attach to my scarf so I wore these white with black polkadots feather earrings that I have. It was as close as I could get! Here are some screencaps from Otsuka Ai's performance outfit for you to compare. 





I love her sparkly gold makeup for the performance too. Comment below to tell me what you think of this outfit look or what you would change or add to the outfit! =)  

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Happy 2014!


Wow it's been awhile since last my last update, hasn't it? 

Really sorry about that but the holiday has got me becoming very lazy which all I did was catch up on sleep and watch a bunch of dramas and eat a lot of good food like a fattie, lol. I actually managed to get some blog work done too but I haven't got the chance to transfer pictures from my phone/camera to edit them and organize them into a blog post, I'll slowly get to it! ^^; Plus I have so much prep and study work to do for my new job too as I have forgotten about 70% of the stuff I learned during my 3 weeks of training and I will have to do some review work refresh my memory which is not as great as I am getting old. o(TヘTo)

Anyway since it's my first post for the new year of 2014, I shall start with sharing what some of my new year resolutions are. I think I did one last year too but I deleted the blog post soon after. But from what I remember one of the things I have listed on my new year resolution for 2013 was to be a happier person and to appreciate the small little things in life that makes me happy. I think I was able to accomplish both so here's hope that I can accomplish more for 2014! =)

New year resolutions for 2014:
  1. Exercise daily
  2. Get rid/fix boobs fat problem
  3. Take more self-portraits
  4. Take some outdoor outfit/photography pictures
  5. Make use of my Sony NEX camera more
  6. To continue to be happy and stay positive and appreciate all the small little things in life
I think I made take more self-portraits a goal for 2013 too but I never ended up doing it, lol! I just never had the time to do it because I was always busy with work or other things. Also because I don't wear makeup everyday (I only wear makeup occasionally and when I take outfit snaps) and sometimes when I'm done taking my outfit snaps (which can take up to 2-3 hours) it's time to remove all my makeup and do other things like cook dinner or clean the house. So if I want to be able to take some self-portraits and outfit snaps then it'd probably take me about 4-5 hours to do. It sucks that I'm not photogenic either so it'd usually take me about 50+ shots to get a nice or decent picture of myself. I'm also a perfectionist where I feel the need to take best quality picture with the perfect moment too and if it's not right then I'd keep doing it until I am satisfied with the results. And sadly I don't have 5 hours a day to devote to just taking pictures because I have other life obligation and duties to do. Perhaps it'd be much easier if I live on my own, which I hope I can probably move out to live on my own with a roommate by 2015 or 2016. I'm going to try to aim to take 1 self portrait shot a week or 2 a month. I don't know if I'll ever be able to make it happen as January will be quite a busy month at work for me and I don't even know what the next few months will be after but I'll see what 2014 has to offer me. =)

I also want to take some outdoor outfit/photography pictures too but it's hard to do it on my own as I'd need someone to be my photographer. I have a lot of ideas and concepts in mind that I want to shoot, but again I'm not sure if I can make it happen as it's not as easy to find someone to help me do the work. 

What are you new year resolutions?
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...