What’s In My Makeup Bag + Why I Blog

Why hello there! We’re at the end of the November Blog(ger) Challenge! :D Feel free to link up the last of your posts if you’re participating in it!

11/29: What’s In My Makeup Bag

Now, this isn’t to say that this is all the makeup I own…but this is what my bag contains, and I use about 0% of it on a daily basis because I value sleep and food over most other things in life. >_>

If I’m using makeup, it generally means I’m attending some srs-bsns-fancy-schmancy event and/or my friends and I are dressing up and going out somewhere…or I’m attempting to look less like I just graduated from high school so that the people I’m meeting up with will possibly take me more seriously.

Every now and then, I’ll use a little if I’m going to meet someone (aka date), but in recent years, my track record has included showing up in clothes covered in mud and possible dog poop (…I’d just finished volunteering at the dog rescue), yoga pants, sweats, and the like. In my defense, they knew this about me, and for the mud one, we were going shooting and 4-wheeling, so there. :O

• Skinfood Gingko BB Cream in #2
  This is technically supposed to be used as a foundation, but I don’t like the feeling of having a whole ton of product on my face, so I’ve been using it as a concealer, and thus, I’ve been on the same tube since forever. Come to think of it, I’ve had most of these in forever because I rarely use makeup to begin with. But I especially love this one! It’s lightweight and goes on sheer (yay), and its ingredients include gingko leaf, green tea extracts and vitamin B. If I’m not mistaken was originally developed in Korea by plastic surgeons to help their patients’ skin heal more efficiently . If this had SPF in it, it’d be perfect, but since I don’t even use it for its intended purpose, I guess the lack of SPF really doesn’t matter.
• Revlon Colorstay 12 Hour Eyeshadow – Nude Elements
  This is pretty much the only eyeshadow pallet I ever use. (Hooray for drugstore makeup!) It’s what I used when I took a makeup class with my mom in Hong Kong, so I basically know how to do just that one look. :O (Fortunately, it was one of those no-makeup-makeup looks for a professional setting, so it’s wildly useful.) I think it’s great for a more natural look, and if I ever managed to perfect/learn how to do a smoky eye, I’m pretty sure this would be perfect for that too. It’s long-lasting and even I can put it on, so I’d say it scores points for ease of application! :P I also got it for under $4, so I mean…kinda hard to go wrong there.
• Dr. Jart+ Renewalist Sun Powder
  I got this while I was over in HK, by recommendation of that makeup class I took. Normally, I wouldn’t use a powder because I feel like it wouldn’t go on evenly, but apparently, this is really only the case if your skin is super super dry. (More motivation to drink more water and stay well-hydated, I suppose?) There is technical SPF in here, but said SPF coverage would depend on how well you applied it, as it’s still a powder.
• NYX Eye Pencil – Seafoam Green, Silver, Black
  These are, hands down, my favorite eyeliners, and pretty much the only ones I ever use. :] I think I have a Purple and a Baby Blue one somewhere, but the ones I tend to reach for most are the green/silver/black. <3 I’ve tried other ones but have never really had as much success with them. These are fairly cheap and last a long while for me. :]
• Clinique High Impact Mascara
  My mom gets these as “free gifts” when she buys makeup at the mall, so I capitalize on this. (Most of my makeup collection is derived from free samples from her. <3) It lasts a long time and doesn’t clump. Gets the job done, and isn’t exceedingly difficult to remove!
• Elizabeth Arden Blush – Romantic Rose
  Same deal as the mascara in terms of how I obtained this! This blush gives my cheeks a sort of just-finished-working-out glowiness (but minus the sweat, obviously :P ). It’s a pretty color, and a little goes a long way!
• L’Oreal Studio Elements – Electrified
  I bought this back in…2012? I use Jen @ frmheadtotoe’s makeup tutorials when I need to figure out how to do my makeup for photoshoots/events, and ended up doing somewhat of a mix of two different tutorials because I suck at life at makeup. I only use this if I’m going out, which as we’ve probably noticed, only happens once in a blue moon, but the pigment is nice, the colors are pretty, and it lasts a long time!

11/30: Why I Blog

Originally, I started this blog because I wanted to document my adventures after I left sunny California to embark on the next chapter of my life–moving to the opposite coast/bitter cold for grad school, and my pre-med struggles. (It was also a fun way for me to keep some of my friends updated on my life while I was gone.) I’ve always loved to write, and I’ve been keeping journals for ages (past 15 years?), both in notebooks and online. I loved my LJ (after all, I’d kept it going for over a decade), but it started getting all spammy and sad, so I decided to migrate to wordpress in September of 2011. I had to budget more than ever since I no longer had my three jobs, so I started learning to cook, and before long, my blog became the place where I’d write about all my kitchen experiments.

I actually kept my blog pretty private for the longest of times (aka up until March-ish of 2014, when I got accepted into the Recipe ReDux group). I wasn’t on social media much, and never promoted my blog anywhere, so I would just write as if I had no audience because that’s what I’d always been used to. A couple of my friends knew of its existence, but I never went out of my way to tell them about it unless they specifically asked about it.

At the time, I was on a hobby-ban because my parents had convinced me that the reason I didn’t get into med school right after undergrad (y’know, other than the fact that I had yet to take the MCAT or fill out any applications) was that I’d tried to do way too much in undergrad. While the latter might have been true, doing nothing but studying chipped away at my soul. What I loved about blogging was having an outlet, a place that was “mine” where I could write again. I used it to document my thoughts and experiences, stockpile all my recipes, advocate for things I really liked and believed in, and to take a break from school.

Every now and then, there’d be spurts of unexpected traffic–for instance, when SouperVan found out about my blog and gave me a shoutout! Hooray for internet infamy from one of my favorite establishments ever! :O (You can read more about them in my “Causes” page!)

One of my acquaintances at the time read that post and saw me later that week. Here’s the conversation that ensued!

I: Hey, I was on facebook today and read about this girl who loves SouperVan just as much as you do. She’s going through a money challenge or grocery ban or something like that. Isn’t that what you were doing too? You two would probably get along really well.
F: So uh…fun fact! That’s actually my blog! :D?
I: …Ah. Well, that explains a lot.

Two-ish years later, I’ve finally emerged from my shell, so here I am now, weaving my way through the world of social media, and ready to take on the world! :P

---

• What’s one beauty/skincare product you sincerely adore?
• If you have a blog, what made you start it up?
• What do you find the most difficult about writing?