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 

Simple Day Out with Mama Wolfie

 My mom was feeling energetic yesterday so we went to a nearby shopping area to walk around and have a meal!

 

Blouse: BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT

KC, JSK: handmade by me
Underskirt: Forest Song

Shoes: Sheep Puff 

I'm really loving how many outfits this blouse can match!

Violet also has a matching dress! You just can't see it well here

We had dinner at Coco Ichibanya and I got the level 5 spicy, which wasn't very spicy to be honest.  The seafood curry with extra serving of veg was not exactly cheap, but at least it tasted good!

My mom also bought me a faux leather jacket that was on sale for NT$1000.  I was hesitant to get it because it's faux leather, which is plastic, which will eventually break down and need to be thrown away in a landfill and never break down.  My mom really loved how it looked on me though (she knows I love motorcycle style jackets) and gifted it to me.  The seller said it lasts three years, which is actually a really really short amount of time considering it's made of a material that will never break down!  That's just a bit of my fashion guilt coming through.  It really does look nice and I can't wait to make a coordinate with it!

 I personally want my clothes to last around 30-50 years at least (effectively all my life) and contain natural fibers such as cotton as much as possible.  But I know that's not actually feasible with the current market, so hopefully I'm doing my best!

Do you have fashion rules you try to follow when deciding what pieces to add to your collection?  Subculture fashion seem to value impact more than mainstream fast fashion, so I'm interested how you decide what to buy! 

Fun with Friends Pt. 10 - The Final Part!

I got one day of gremlin mode on Saturday to rest, and then had a full full day on Sunday with my friend Pikawu!

We met up around 8:45 for breakfast at my favorite breakfast shop! They've got a branch right outside the MRT station now, though there's no tables there so we sat on some benches outside a shop that's not open yet.

I don't know why my face is looking so awkward here.  I don't know how to smile naturally 🙀 

 

 
I tried to texture my hair with braids overnight. It didn't last long, so you can only see it in this photo haha!  I've also been doing braids from the sides and adding ribbon clips to the back (the white one in this photo) to try and make my hair look a bit more interesting from more angles.

Fun with Friends Pt. 9

 Exotic animal restaurants can be a bit of a tricky topic as they often involve animal cruelty for the sake of profit, especially in countries with lax animal welfare laws (e.g., teacup pig cafes, fox cafes, owl cafes, etc.) so I've been pretty hesitant to visit any that feature non-domesticated animals.

Based on reviews, this one called 肉球森林/Paws Forest seems to prioritize the animals and so we gave it a shot!  

Dinner with the Family!

On Tuesday I met up with my cousin and uncle for dinner!  I got to coordinate this dress with the blue blouse.  I really nice how it looks! It brings out the blue stripes in the print.

KC, blouse, JSK: BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT

Underskirt: Forest SOng

Shoes: Sheep Puff 

Fun with Friends Pt. 8

This has got to be the longest backlog of posts in the history of this blog!  I have not run around this many days in a row in so long!

KC: Alice and the Pirates

JSK: Handmade by Me

Underskirt: Forest Song

Shoes: Sheep Puff

Fun with Friends Pt. 7

On February 1st we all met up at Syntrend again!  Different group this time 😹

 

KC, JSK: Innocent World

Rings: BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT
Earrings: Arin_Honeymignon

Shoes: Sheep Puff 

I guess it's not very visible in the photo, but my tights had rhinestones on them!  I bought one white pair and one nude pair.  I have to stretch them a lot because I'm taller than average, but I really like the effect!  Unfortunately I get the feeling they will tear easily due to how thin they have to be to pull off the effect, so I need to be careful as my foot shape/body shape already causes regular tights and socks to tear after 1-3 wears.

Coordinate Reviews

 Since one of my goals for the year was to coordinate my main pieces in more varying ways, I decided to put together a few collages of dresses to see how I have been coordinating them.

It was a lot of scrolling through my phone camera!  I just put together the most recent four photos of each dress that I could find.  I don't always take coordinate photos though, so there's some missing.

Blouse: Blue or white
Socks: White
Shoes: Blue or white (but the white ones have since been tossed)

 

I really like how this looks with the blue blouse and shoes,though I think white blouse and blue shoes is good, too.  I'm not sure if this would look good with black at all?  The telephones in the print are a bit darker, but I'm afraid black would be too heavy.

 

I think a lavender blouse would also look nice!  I should have a short-sleeve lavender blouse I believe... unless that's the one I lost in Japan years ago 🙀  Pink shoes should also work due to the pink ribbons in the print... I'll have to try a white blouse and pink shoes or pink blouse and pink shoes! 

Blouse: Teal, blue, pink
Socks: White, blue
Shoes: Pink, blue

I actually bought a pair of yellow shoes for this dress but had to return them due to wrong size (that's a whole other drama story that's not resolved yet) and the proper size is not in stock yet

 

The blue blouse also allows me to remove the yoke piece on this dress!  The teal and pink blouses are a bit transparent, so I have to keep the yoke in place. I think I could also coordinate this with a while blouse as that would match the underskirt!

 I have a short-sleeve white blouse with blue ribbon detail that would work well.  The long-sleeve white blouse would also work, I think! 

Taipei Game Show 2026 + Monster Hunter Wilds Taiwan Championship

 On the 31st I got up bright and early to meet my teammate Exo for the Monster Hunter Wilds Taiwan Championship!  I'll be honest - the organizers were not very well-organized and we received information bit by bit rather than all at once.  We didn't even know we had to check-in between 8-10AM until a few days before the event.

In addition, they doxxed our emails to the whole email list by using CC instead of BCC when sending out the initial notification.  This also led to multiple people responding to the incorrect person when confirming their participation.  

I did call the organizers to express displeasure at the doxxing, and they sent an email claiming there'd been a "problem with BCC" which sounds like a lie to me, to be honest.  If the email system was down, they would not have been able to send the email in the first place.  If regular emailing was available but BCC was not, they should have sent each email individually rather than doxxing everybody's emails (and legal names, if they had their real name on their profile. Fortunately I used my creator email so mine only said "Sparklewolfie")

Despite that fiasco, the day of the event went pretty smoothly.  We checked it around 9:30 and got a pass to go to 5F to queue for our group number.

Quick Outfit Snap

 On the 5th I ran some errands with my mom! Dressed casually for it~

KC: BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT 

Jacket: Hot Topic

Shirt: My merch on fourthwall 

Skirt: ACDC Rag 

Shoes: Sheep Puff 

In the evening I actually went to a night market, but didn't get any photos. I'm starting to cough a bit and getting sick!

Fun with Friends Pt. 6: Clubbing!

 I was able to rest most of the day on the 29th and play some games, do some cursed cooking, etc. Which was good because I went clubbing that night with Xerenite!!

Fun with Friends Pt. 5

 On the 28th it was a relatively quiet day. Kaizo went home and I just met up with Exo for lunch!

Also the jacket I ordered for my little sister arrived!

Constantly out of stock!

Fun with Friends Pt. 4

 I'm falling behind on blogging because I'm still going out every day!!!

On the 27th we went to Syntrend, the tech district area. First we had lunch at this restaurant I've been meaning to try for ages!

Really good and fresh seafood!  My bowl was piled high and came with an onsen egg for mixing into the extra rice. Very filling!

International Alcohol Exhibit 2026

 On Monday I went to an alcohol exhibit with a friend!  I don't have a very good photo of my outfit, but hopefully you get the general idea!  There's loads of details in the dress and bodice.

JSK: Ozzon Japan
Underskirt: Forest Song
Shoes: Sheep Puff