Contouring & Highlighting 101

Okay, so let's get right down to it. There's this makeup technique that has been around for ages in the industry but is fairly new when it comes to regular people like us. And it's getting a lot of buzz. Why? Because this is one of the ultimate secrets - sculpting your face. It's a method of making your face look amazing in pictures which, being a 2-D medium are, by default, flat. But it can also be used in everyday life! It's one of the questions I get asked a lot and it's one of those things people seem to be a bit wary of (which, fair enough, if done wrong, you can look crazy!)

I've always known that I was never super happy w/ how my face looks in photos. I'm Asian (obviously, haha) so my face is flatter and I also have monolids. In photos, I can look pretty damn flat, even though in real life, I do have cheekbones and eye sockets. When I first discovered contouring, I was thrilled. In fact, I went super crazy and probably looked utterly absurd for the longest time (streaks of bronzer right down my face anyone?) But this is something that everyone can do. And, yeah, there are a million tutorials on this, but I'm throwing my hat into the ring also, okay? Haha, enough rambling, right?

This is picture-heavy and will still be pretty long, so let's get this show on the road!

My Hair Dye Routine

I get a ton of questions about my hair during my day to day life. It's kind of funny, but I've actually been using the exact same hair dye for most of my hair dyeing days. My hair has been blue, teal, green, blond, yellow, orange, purple, burgundy, and pink over the course of my life and I've gone through various different types of dyes from Manic Panic to the dye you can get from Hot Topic to Sally Beauty Supply dyes but I always go back to red. Red was actually the first color I dyed my hair to and I just fell in love w/ how I look w/ it. I don't actually have black hair - I know it looks dark and I've actually gotten into shouting matches w/ people over this, but my hair is a very dark reddish-brown and it is QUITE obvious when you see my hair in sunlight.

Anyway, I've been using this dye from L'Oreal since I was 15...So almost a decade! I've had my hair other colors but I seriously always end up going back to the red. This stuff is super easy to use - it's specifically formulated for dark hair and it has the bleach built-in to the dye so you don't have to do multiple steps. I've always colored my own hair and I don't really have a method; it's literally just slap-dash style!