Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Crazy colorful shades from Emporio Armani

These are totally insane!



Emporio Armani is celebrating 30 years in the fashion industry with this psychedelic capsule eyewear collection. They are love! So much fun to look at and, I confess, to collect! The oversize round ones are for women and the aviato-style ones are for men. Both are absolutely transparent and come in delicious colors!

These frames will feature "30 Emporio Armani" on the lens. Lest we forget how old the fashion house is. Well, 30 never looked so fun and fashionable! I want this! I want them all!

Emporio Armani is at Greenbelt 4.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Loving Stila's eye defining pens

Like the new duchess, I like eye liner. I don't have lush lashes, you see, so I rely on eyeliner to define my eyes.
image source
Unlike Catherine, I don't go overboard! Better to keep the eye liner soft since this defines the eyes without making it look smaller, which tons of eye liner tend to do. But don't get me wrong--I love Catherine! She's my hair and style idol!

Anyway, I use Stila liquid eye liner. I love it! It's so easy to use. I never make a mistake when lining my eyes and it stays put all day, despite the heat and humidity. So I got really excited when Stila announced they have new eye liners for their 2011 Fall Collection.

Here's the new Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner, P745. It glides on lids and can be applied thinly or boldly!

I love liquid eye liner because it's easy to apply. A lot of girls won't agree with me, though. Liquid means you have to be very precise, with hands that do not shake at all. But I love my Stila liquid liner because the brush point is so thin, I can draw a skinny line first then just build on it. I can do cat's eye easily!

But if you prefer gentler and mistake-proof application but just as impressive results, the Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liners, 895, are fabulous for the job. They're much more fun with lots of shimmery colors to choose from: triggerfish, lionfish, moray, bluefin, stingray, silver dollar, blue ribbon, peacock, purple tang. Personally, I like moray, which is green. Green brings out the brown of my eyes!

Stila is available at Rustan's Essenses.


Thursday, September 8, 2011

Check out my gorgeous new hair! My many kinds of hair! (Thanks, Tokyo P.O.S.H.!)

Having very thin, fine and flat hair, I have never really grown my hair long. Well, maybe once or twice it's grown as far down as my bra strap but by then it looked like a sad skinny sheet. Because of that, I usually keep my hair's length to as short as a bob to as long as just past my shoulders.

A few weeks ago, The Picky Dresser told me, "I think you'll look so much better with long hair." I told her my dilemma. She laughed, "Do hair extensions! Go to Tokyo P.O.S.H.!" And so I Tweeted about it and the owner of the hair boutique, Denise Aquino, just happened to see my Tweet and we arranged to meet.

But first! This is what my hair looks like. This is my hair when it's unstyled--it's messy, wavy and very fine and soft. Like baby hair. I usually pull it up in a bun or pony. For events I have to work in hair thickener, blow dry then put in curlers for about 10-15 minutes, then blast on hairspray for hold. But because of the humidity, my hair still falls flat within an hour or so.

So when I walked into the Tokyo P.O.S.H. salon, I really was open to anything and yet I was also a bit leery. Hair extensions are so... Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears and J.Lo and... Oh, hair extensions are so Hollywood! And as the editor-in-chief of OK! magazine, I really ought to give this a try.

Then I saw this:
I got a bit creeped out. It looks like someone's scalp! But the hair is so soft and silky that I had to ask, "Is this human hair?" Denise Aquino, the super stylish owner of Tokyo P.O.S.H., giggled, "No! It's high quality fiber from Japan!" Then Denise showed off her own gorgeous mane of hair, "This is hair extensions! Semi-permanent so I have them on, wash them with shampoo, style. But for you, let's try clip-on extensions. It's for girls who can't commit!"

Here's what it looks like underneath. Clips! You tie back half of your hair and clip the extensions under your lifted hair. Release your real hair and voila!

Instant long hair that's already curled and styled! Definitely saves you a lot of time in front of the mirror! The great thing about the Tokyo P.O.S.H. (that's Put On Styled Hair) is their extensions aren't woven, braided or sewn into your hair. So if you feel like wavy today, straight tomorrow, shoulder-length for lunch, then cascading mane for dinner, you can! Just snap on, twist in or tie up! Easy! So perfect for lazy me!

Anyway, the next extension I tried was a twisty. I'll confirm the names later on but for now I do remember this is a twisty. It's like a foot-long wire of short waves. Most of us, when we put our hair in a bun, don't have huge masses of  tresses to make an impressive bun. Well, the twisty solves that--you twist it around your little bun and... presto!

The next thing I tried on was the wrappy. It's basically a sheet of hair that you wrap around your ponytail. Yes, so that instead of your scraggly pony, you have a fountain of lustrous thick locks. See below? That's my real ponytail. It's pathetic.

But with the wrappy, my pony can look this amazing!
There's sleek and straight.
There's sexy and wavy.
I liked the sleek one. Just look at that tail!!! It's amazing! In fact, this was the extension I loved best and took home (thanks, Denise!). I walked around Power Plant and, I swear to you, people treated me better! So that's what having long, thick hair feels like! And when I got home, my husband was just bowled over. It was a ponytail! I think it's the sexiest ponytail ever!

Anyway, I did get to try out one last look--the super long waves-tumbling-down-your-back extensions. I kinda felt weird with such long hair and so much of it, too.

But after staring and staring at myself in the mirror and then later at these photos, I think this is the next style I'm getting. Just look at how much younger I look!
This is me with the utterly fab Denise. She got the idea of hair extensions from her days as a fashion student at Tokyo's premier fashion school Bunka Fashion College. She said that in Japan, fashion isn't just clothes and accessories--the Japanese really literally plan their look from hair and makeup down to their nail polish and shoes. And hair is just a fashion accessory, too. They don't get limited by what they were born with; they just collect hair in all sorts of lengths, textures and colors!

Denise figured that we fashionable Pinays can benefit from this trick. I certainly did! I can't wait for the Kate Middleton waves coming this November. I'm definitely getting myself that. I also want blunt bangs, a twisty and that looooong wavy mass of gorgeousness above. Tokyo P.O.S.H., you just changed my life!

Tokyo P.O.S.H. has a salon at Power Plant Mall, right beside Kabisera. There's also Extensions by Tokyo P.O.S.H. at the third floor of SM North EDSA's main mall. For more info, here's their Facebook page. Girls, go get hair extensions now!