Face Good

The Bohemian look is all about layering fabric and prints with earthy hues and accessorizing with bold ethnic-inspired jewellery. Bohemian fashion had been the ‘it’ thing for a time being in Singapore a few years back. Now it's back in fashion, this time with a little evolvement. While keeping it's laid-back style, it has branched out into styles like Bohamian Chic and Bohemian Glamour, giving its wearer more choices of clothing and occasions to wear the style to. Now it’s time to bring back those earthy threads for the summer!

Bohemian fashion typical involved little make-up because it’s a fashion that evokes the feeling of returning to nature. That’s such a pity when there are so many glamorous bohemian accessories in the market that simply look odd when they don't complement with the make-up! Bohemian Glamour is a great look that achieves a fine balance between nature and city girl charm. This gentle smoky eye make-up is popular in Asian countries like Japan and Taiwan for it’s ability to make eyes look bigger, brighter and alluring without excessive use of dark eye make-up.

Here's a step-by-step guide for one typical way of doing your Bohemian Glamour make-up.

First of all, choose a variety of shades you'd like to use. Grey and purplish-grey are colours used to achieve the look in the first image, and they are good choices because they are such mystical colours.

Step 1: Apply a layer of primer to increase the lasting power of your eye makeup as well as prevent caking.

Step 2: Using the darkest grey as a base colour, coat your eyelid and above crease in it.

Step 3: For the next layer, purplish grey would be a great choice for the above crease. There will be no need to blend it with the first layer.

Step 4: Choose a lighter grey for the next layer. Apply a stroke in the middle of your above crease to blend the 2 different shades previously applied without having to layer over both shades. This presents a subtle variation in shades in your eyemakeup. Gently shade the same colour at the inner edge of the brow bone.

Step 5: Use your lightest eyeshadow (preferably pink hues) shade the outer edge your brow bone. This will illuminate your eyes as well as create the illusion that your eye sockets are deeper.

Step 6: Apply a pale shade of shimmering eyeshadow (preferably nude) on your undereye.

Step 7: Using the same grey eyeshadow that you used in step four as an eyeliner, apply in a thin stroke on your undereye, adhering closely to the eyelid and only covering 2/3 of the space from the outer lower lash line.

Step 8: Last but not least, Use the same nude shimmer eyeshadow from step 6 to highlight your undereye right to the tip of your cheek bones.

That's all! Simple isn't it? Now you can hit town as a glamourous Boho Queen with your loudest accessories!

Picture by YOKA时尚网

I'm back with the final installment (for now) of beauty tips for late nighters!

If you're going to be up late, the least you can do is make the night constructive for your skin! With some simple steps, you can improve your skin's ability to absorb nutrients from skin care product, and subject your skin to more restful sleep, almost making up for the damage wrought from late nights!


Apply night serum before 11pm

In a previous article, I mentioned that 11pm is the recommended time for your body to rest since it would be when various detoxification processes begin in your body. Sadly that seems to be a luxury that not everyone can afford. Most people apply night serum / moisturizer just before bed time as it is the last step of your nightly skin care routine. I would recommend you do it before 11pm instead, so that the detoxification process does not affect the skin’s ability to absorb the serum.

Take your supplements at night

When your body (and consequently your skin) lacks sleep, nutrient loss outweighs nutrient gains from your diet. If you have a habit of taking supplements, do take them at night, instead of taking them in the morning, especially Vitamin C and collagen. When your body is in its rest state at night, it will absorb the supplements more effectively for efficient reparation.

DIY Aromatherapy

Most salons these days add some fragrance to your treatment room or incorporate fragrance oils into the beauty treatment process because natural fragrance helps your mind to relax.
You can also include fragrance oils in your steam facial to relax your skin and help you sleep more soundly at night.

After cleansing your face, prepare a basin of steaming hot water. Add a few drops of fragrance oil and stir evenly. Place your face over the basin so that the steam emitting from the hot water opens your pores. Cover your head and the basin with a towel to prevent the steam from escaping. When the water has cooled down significantly, cleanse your face with the water. If you’re afraid of perspiration dripping from your hair and dirtying the water, you should wrap up your hair in a towel prior to steaming.

Different fragrance oils can help to improve different skin conditions:
Rose, sandalwood and chamomile are kind on dry, peeling skin. Rose and chamomile will also restore radiance in dull skin.
Geranium and lavender are suitable for oily, moisture-deprived skin.
For those plagued with acne problems, go with chamomile, peppermint, eucalyptus and frankincense.
These fragrances can usually be found in skincare specialty shops like The Body Shop, or shops specializing in aromatherapy.

Apologies for the lack of updates last week! It was a pretty hectic week, having to juggle visitations and work (with people popping in for lao qi when you’ve just got home feeling all ready to fall into bed, and those obligatory visits that simply had to be made or it would be considered rude otherwise, despite having spoken only spoken a few sentences to the host in the entire 20+ years of my life. Good grief). How nice it would be if we got 15 days of holiday like China :D I wouldn’t mind all the socializing.

So back to beauty and skin care. I promised to write more about how to protect your skin against late nights.
In the study of Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is believed that healthy blood circulation makes your skin look radiant and healthy. And what better than a good massage to relax your skin and drive the blood up your skin capillaries?

3 minutes facial massage before bedtime

You can perform a simple massaging exercise just before bed time, which will help to improve your blood circulation, as well as improve sagging and wrinkling skin!

Step 1: Rub your palms vigorously together. Place your warm palms over your face (Be sure to wash your hands beforehand!)

Step 2: When the heat has retreated, keep your palms firmly on your face, and move your palms in a gentle up-down movement for 10 times.

Step 3: Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for up to five times.

Step 4: Tap your face repetitively with the tips of your fingers, starting from your cheeks, surroundings of your eye, sides of your nose, and the area around your mouth, with emphasis on the chin. Always tap in an inside-to-outside circular motion or bottom-to-top vertical motion.

With improved blood circulation, your skin cells will mend in a shorter time!



Acupoint Eye Massage for Brighter Eyes

If you are plagued with dark eye circles, eye bags, puffy eyes amongst various problems attributed to late nights, this is a massage that’s made for you! Chinese physicians believe that massaging the acupoints above, between and at the tail end of your eyebrows reduces swelling and exhaustion in the eyes. When you’re applying your eye cream at night, be sure to massage them by using your index and middle fingers to trace a line from your temples, to the tail end of your brow, over your brow and finally stopping at the spot between your brows. You can keep retracing back and forth 20 times. Your eyes should feel refreshed!

As you can see, TCM isn't all about old fuddy duddies meddling with nasty jars of preserved centipedes. From sidelined alternative medication, TCM has progressed into a mainstream replacement for Western medical services and procedures and is now seeing an increasing involvement in beauty and slimming. Best of all, the medical procedures are usually completely natural without side effects! In the near future, I intend to do more research and share more information about TCM's relation to beauty care.

I'll complete this series of late night skin care tips with another relevant post by this week. Stay tuned!