Days Ten & Eleven

Day 10 – A photo of your favorite place to eat.

I was upset that I ate my Filet-O-Fish without taking a picture of it for my Day Ten post. Then I got over it, because everyone know what McDonald look like!

My other favorite places to eat are my house and my parents' house.

Day 11 – What’s in your makeup bag?

The other day, my mom's friend in Japan sent me a bunch of things from the 300 yen store. One was a pencil cup holder-type thing, and another was a makeup bag. This was exciting to me for some reason even though we have such things here in the States. So I cleaned up my makeup area (stuff piled on a TV dinner table from Target). 

This is not a representation of what I actually use in one day, even a fancy day; the bag is just huge and fits anything that I currently use. There are eyeshadows: Visée neutrals, Laura Mercier's Black Karat (more like khaki greenish bronze), MAC's "My Dark Magic" featuring Maleficent of Sleeping Beauty (a shimmery, gothy purple). There's blush by a Japanese company (I accidentally bought the refill without ever having a case for it) and the Chanel case is Orchid Rose. There are four tubes of mascara: Maybelline's standard Great Lash but BIG mascara (whatever), Maybelline's the Falsies Volum' Express (horrible, flimsy wand), a sample of Laura Mercier mascara, and Kiehl's Marvelous Mineral Mascara. I love the last two and am done with drugstore mascara. There are two lipsticks: Shiseido's Perfect Rouge in RD305 (bright berry red as seen here) and MAC's Siss (pale beige), recommended to me by my cousin. I see some nail stuff--cuticle cream and nail strengthening cream. I try to keep my nails nice but it's a tough battle. I also see four eyeliners--two liquid eyeliners (Japanese drugstore--the skinny pink tube is a winner!), Bobbi Brown's creamy liner in a pot, and a smudging eyeliner (also from Japanese drugstores). There are also three lip medications: Blistex (I think that's Mordo's), Kiehl's Lip Balm #1, and skinny Carmex in a tube. I also spy my handy eyebrow pencil with the brush at the end from Sephora. And there's the French lotion in a stick thing (looks like a mini-deodorant) that I should use more often.

I love makeup, but it's so expensive and I don't carve out as much time as I would like for it. I'm sure I'll come back from Japan feeling naked and ignorant though, and will be revitalized in my efforts this summer.

Little League Lotto

For the first time in...ever? at Target, I grabbed Archer's Farm milk instead of Horizon, and Target-brand apricot scrub instead of St. Ives. Ordinarily, this would be a sign that you should keep a helmet nearby you at all times (is another Chicago earthquake on its way?), but there isn't much to fear. Not only do I still want things...I want expensive things! And so, I welcome a little bit of Illinois Lotto into my life.

Canon Rebel XSi

Givenchy platform clogs

Various haircare & makeup goods
Moroccan hair oil, Nars nailpolish in Orgasm, Givenchy Le Prisme eyeshadow in Modish Brown, Moroccan hydrating hair mask, Nars Orgasm Illuminator, Nars duo eyeshadow in Cordura (is it better to have two or four gradating eyeshadow shades?)

Economicus Stimulus Cipangu

I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to lotto, so I'm going to need some help from Joe. If I win, depending on the amount, I'll thank him for his help in the form of baseball card packs/boxes/cases. All I know is that there will be many more days of going to school with coffee instead of getting it at school. Even though he is unemployed, Conan O'Brien will be getting more action this semester in the form of my "Late Night with Conan" coffee container that I got from the NBC store in Manhattan when I first visited.

Weekend

Monolid Mysteries

In grade school, a girl asked me how it's possible that I put contacts in my eyes.


In high school, when we were learning about how the pupil dilates and constricts under different lighting, Mr. Venckus or Ms. Tosto said, "Turn to your neighbor, have them close and open their eyes and then observe the movement of their pupils." My neighbor was unable to make these observations because there is little difference between the color of my pupil and iris.

I am a monolid. It sounds like a bad word, a term of derision, an epithet, but it isn't, and I don't know how else to describe the situation. I do not have any creases in my eyelids, so a) my eyes look tiny and b) unless I pile on the eyeliner like eyeshadow, my eyeliner is rarely visible. When I look downwards, you can see some of it (first photo) but when I look straight ahead or upwards, my precious work disappears into the folds of my eye somewhere (second photo). This is why I've extended my eyeliner past the outer corner of my eye for a cat-eye look. Actually, I took on that look after seeing it so stylishly and nonchalantly on my Plato professor's eyes. Unfortunately, that may have been all I learned that seminar.

I've never considered surgery or temporary methods to get the crease, because while the monolid is inconvenient in some ways, deep down, I like it. I have gotten similar advice from different sources regarding eyeliner on monolids, so I take the following to be the basics of monolid makeup. My cousin Mai gave me a makeup book from Japan, and I was excited to see a whole page dedicated to eyeliner on monolids. It suggests applying thick lines above and below the pupil and on the upper outer corner of the eyelid. Now that I think about it, I don't even follow this advice very well. I'll work on that. Anyway, likewise, the Saks Fifth Avenue man at the Shu Uemura counter (RIP) told me not to apply liner all around the eye, because it makes the eye look smaller. I suppose the excessive eyeliner crowds the eye, emphasizing the darkness of the eyeliner over what little white is visible. Here is the scan from the book Mai got me that may or may not render my words some sense.

If you look carefully, like in the lower right corner (click scan for full size)...GIRL AIN'T EVEN A REAL MONOLID! I spy some folds on the inner and outer corners. Obviously, the editors can't use a real monolid, because the makeup won't be visible, or it won't be visible enough to look sparkly-pretty in a photoshoot or in the final publication. But it must be the case that there are millions of true blue monolids like myself everywhere. I know there are ways around and through it: here's one good example, and she's got the dewy complexion-look down, too. Lulu says she has small double eyelids, but she always has good, glam makeup. We get by!

For the record, I use assorted Japanese brown eyeshadows from drugstores, Shiseido's cream eyeliner, and Givenchy's Phenomen'Eyes mascara.

Colors

School has started again, piano will start again, the end of baseball season is approaching, and football season is on its way. I heard from Sean who heard from his brother that the Farmer's Almanac is predicting a bad winter for the Great Lakes area. Even without that prediction, I'd still be scared of the winter, and I'm preparing for the worst anyway. My plan is to avoid winter blues by paying attention to football, baking, cleaning (!), and keeping color around me. As a result, I've been thinking about changing the background of this blog to white, or some other pastel-y color. Stay tuned. I'm also thinking about highlighting my hair some more. Stay tuned.

For Labor Day weekend, we dog-sat this superdawg named Jackson. He's easy to take care of because he never barks, doesn't eat or beg for people food, doesn't destroy things, and is well-behaved. Well, he does stick his head in your crotch and kind of nuzzles around. Some people find that offensive, and others like myself find it endearing.

I've also gone through three football drafts this past weekend. I have no idea who anyone is, and I've once again upset Joe by taking his preferred players without knowledge of who they are, what position they play, or what team they play for. All I knew was that Andre Johnson was my first auto-pick in Matt's Fleaflicker league, and that some guy named Cole or Coles was bald, and I thought it'd be nice to have a bald man on my team. Where ignorance is bliss for some, it is apparently hell for others.

Sonia Kashuk for Target eyeshadow brush, Shu Uemura lip/eye brush, MAC 187 I-guess-anything-for-face brush

Also, I'm becoming obsessed with makeup. I don't know much, and there are few resources for true-blue monolids and Anpanman faces. Not that I'm complaining about these features. Makeup is so much fun! I never thought this day would come, but here it is. Makeup and football.