Chinese New Year 2026 Year of the Horse

 Happy Year of the Horse!!  I spent New Year Eve cooking with my mom~
Originally she planned eight dishes as there's only two of us, then yesterday it expanded to ten dishes, and by the time we were done cooking, there were twelve 😹

Flower Knows Makeup Review

 Have you heard of Flower Knows?  It's a Chinese makeup brand that exploded in popularity due to its intricate and adorable packaging, relatively affordable price point, and performance.  I've wanted to try it for years, and finally got the chance to physically swatch products when I was in Tokyo last year.

I initially picked up three lip glosses at Don Don Donki in Tokyo.  They smell sweet and delightful, have gorgeous packaging (this is from the mermaid shell series), and are comfortable to wear.  Being that they are lip glosses, the colors are on the sheer side, which makes them easy to reapply without a mirror.  I really like all three!! The colors don't show up too significantly different.  And I couldn't take any lip photos without my skin looking absolutely horrible, so... no photos worn 😹

Because I had a good experience with the lip products, I decided to pick up some blushes also from the mermaid shell collection, and a concealer palette from the Teddy Bear collection online.

The packaging on all three are gorgeous!!!  I'd been looking for a cool pink/purple blush and a red-pink blush to layer together as I currently have a coral, a warm pink, and a cream red blush only.  I'd also been looking into color correction and cream concealer for my under-eye dark shadows, so figured I'd give this multi-purpose palette a try.

The color-correction palette has three different formulas for the four colors.  Here, I am using the peachy corrector for my undereye shadows:

Before

After

It definitely cancels out the bluish purple color under my eyes.  I don't bring it up to my lashline because I put eyeshadow there so  I don't see the point.  The two concealers (light and dark colors) work well for blemishes, but the pinky highlight color is the one I haven't figured out how to make it work!

It's meant to highlight inner corner and stuff like that, but it gets patchy (it's a different formula to the other three creams) and I'm not sure if I should use my fingers, a brush, a sponge-tip applicator, or what!  It does apply all right around the nose and mouth corners with a dense concealer brush, so I may stick to using it for that, or for highlighting eye bags when I want that.

One of the spaces in the concealer palette is a blank space for mixing colors if you need it. Very handy so you don't need to mix it on your hand or the mirror!  I personally hate getting makeup on my hands, so I try to avoid putting any products on my hands or fingers.

 The blushes layer really well! I don't know how well it shows up in photos, but I really like the effect in real life. 

 I usually put the cool pink/purple blush in a large area around the apples of my cheeks up the cheekbones, and then put the darker pink plush with a smaller brush in the center under my eye.

 Overall, I really like the Flower Knows products I've had so far!

🌟Gorgeous packaging 

🌟Powders layer and show up well

🌟Lip glosses smell nice

🌟Lip glosses not sticky

 🌟Wear time seems good (full day wear for me)

💔 Packaging can be bulky; fine for at-home use, but difficult for travel

As somebody who likes makeup to be a full experience, not just the final result, I appreciate the attention to detail in the powder imprints, the package design, and the scented lip products.  It makes the whole application process enjoyable!

How do you enjoy your makeup?  Is it a chore you feel you have to do?  Do you enjoy the final product only?  Do you want the entire process to be visually and aesthetically pleasing in addition to a good final result? 

Valentine's Night Out

 For Valentine's Day (night) I went out to some WLW bars with a couple friends!  During the day I did a bit of free talk practice in Japanese with a friend who is also learning Japanese while I did my makeup.  I really like how the eyeliner turned out!  It's got a little heart at the front.  It's inspired by deerestdiary.makeup in Instagram.  I love her pictorials!  

My "eyeliner" is actually red eyeshadow with Ben Nye mixing medium.  It turned out well and didn't crack this time! I just need to figure out how to not get hard pan in my palette because I dipped the mixing medium directly into my eyeshadow... I likely need to figure out how to scrape it into a mixing palette first.

It was not too cold, but cool enough that I could wear the new jacket my mom bought for me!

I also wore a new bodysuit I got.  It looks fine in photos, but up close I feel like it's a bit cheap-looking.  The design is really nice, though! I should have taken a turnaround video for instagram as the back has a design as well.

Dim Sum and Park with Mom and Friends

 We had a gathering with some family friends from the USA!  It's been decades of friendship and some of them actually saw me growing up, so it was nice to see the aunties and uncles again~

We went for a dim sum buffet.  There wasn't a terribly huge variety of dishes to choose from in my opinion, plus I was limited even further because of so many meat dishes, but the food I did have was pretty good!  I really enjoyed the ice cream flavors as well, though none were labeled 😹

 

Hooters Taipei

 Went to Hooters today with some friends.  Unfortunately, I hadn't slept the night before so was wholly unprepared to manage the level of anxiety I felt in such a chaotic, loud, and oppressive environment. 

I did really like my outfit though!  I wanted to try bringing out multiple colors in the main JSK print, so used a black KC and choker, red blouse, white x gold socks, pink cardigan, and pink shoes.  I also had a pink bag!

KC, Socks: Alice and the Pirates
JSK: BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT x Disney
Blouse: Little Dipper

Shoes: Sheep Puff