East vs. West: Lip Trends

Hello again everyone! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

I think I’m really going to love this series! ❤

Lipstick trends are probably my favorite part about makeup. It’s probably because of my obsession with bright colors, but there’s so much room to play around with your lips.

Just a simple change in the color, shape, or style and you can change your entire look!

Let’s start with the Western trend.

And, just a reminder, I will be focusing on the trends in the US and South Korea.

 

Whether the trend has been nude or bright colors, the US has always loved the look of full, pouty lips. I don’t see that changing any time soon.

So far in 2014, the trend has been with bright pinks and oranges. With the occasional purple shade thrown in there ;). Obviously, I’ve had no problem following this particular trend. I can’t tell you how many bold lip colors I have right now!

As far as the shading goes, no matter what color, the emphasis on full lips gives a more mature and sometimes sensual look. Unless you’re me! It does make me look older though.

And for the Eastern trend!

Gradient lips! Oh, gradient lips, how I love you! (｡♥‿♥｡)

This trend has been around for at least a year, but it is still very popular! And it’s very easy to attain. All you have to do is conceal the outside shape of your lips, apply lip color or stain to the very inside, and bled outwards. A lot of times you will see a coat of clear lipgloss as well.

Overall, this style of application makes you look more youthful. And if South Koreans want to look anything in the beauty industry, it’s youthful!

It also softens the look of your lips, makes them look more delicate, and has the side benefit of making your lips look smaller. This is a trend that I haven’t really seen out of Asia, but smaller lips seem to be very appealing.

Small lips + big eyes = very cute, dolly look.

I usually bounce between both trends depending on how I feel on any particular day. This trend is really interesting to me considering how opposite the two cultures feel about lips. I hadn’t even thought about lip shapes until I started to notice the beauty standards in South Korea.

So which one do you like more? Have you tried the gradient lips?

East vs. West: Battle of the Eyebrows

Happy Friday, Lovelies!

Oh Friday, how I love you!

I think today is a good day to introduce a new series that I’ve been playing with in my head for longer than I’ve actually had a blog. Being Multi-Racial, or Mixed, I definitely have a mix of facial features that made it kind of difficult when I first started learning how to use makeup.

Most of what I learned in the beginning came from Asian YouTubers because they were the closest to people that looked like me.

We’re talking about back in 2008 before when there weren’t so many beauty vloggers.

Now that I’ve pretty much figured out my own face and have been in the makeup scene for about 5 years, I figured I might as well use my face for some comparisons ;). I will mostly be talking about American and Korean beauty trends because those are the ones I know best.

Today, the subject is eyebrows! (^▽^)

Now, I know that there a lot of different eyebrow styles, but I’m going to focus on basic straight eyebrows and arched eyebrows.

Although the preference for thickness has changed over the years, arched eyebrows have always been seen as beautiful and elegant in the US. It makes you look more sophisticated in your makeup.

Unless you’re me and still look like a teenager most days at the age of 23 ;).

In the last couple of years a thicker, more youthful arched brow became more popular. But for the most part, most women in the US still prefer a thinner, sleek shape as part of what our culture sees as sexy.

By the way, making my now straight eyebrows look like this was waaay~~~ harder than I thought it would be!

This is the first time in my life that I’ve tried straight eyebrows.

I’ve seen this trend not only in Korea, but also in Taiwan and China. Thick, dark, and straight eyebrows are seen as youthful. They certainly soften your entire face. Or at least, mine.

However, there is a catch. They can look like caterpillars if not shaped a certain way. I’m not kidding! This mostly happens to men though. Google Choi Young Do if you want to see what I mean.

I’m not really sure which style I like more. I’ve seen some really pretty styles from both sides. For myself, I think I like the straighter eyebrows. I may look racially ambiguous, by my features are Eastern enough to keep me from looking too weird. Lord knows I only got my freckles from my Irish side ;).

What do you think? Which eyebrow shape do you prefer?

Let me know if you like this kind of post! I like to explore the different beauty standards especially since I keep finding myself lost somewhere in the middle :).