Monday, July 28, 2014

Beauty Tutorial: Simple Everyday Makeup and Loose Curls With Panasonic Beauty Tools

It's been quite a hectic journey this Singapore Blog Awards, because I've been busy at work (yes, I do have a full-time job outside of blogging, because unlike some celebrity bloggers I don't get paid to blog), and also, as awesome as the Blog Awards have been, it also means extra work for me, in the form of extra blogposts. Now, if you read my blog, you'll know I don't always blog that regularly - sure every week there will be at least one post or two, but I'm not really a "blog every day" type of blogger. Because so much work and research goes into my posts, either for things like ingredients analysis, or looking up the science behind a claim, I can't really blog everyday. But at the same time, I'm also quite sad that my blogging journey for the Singapore Blog Awards is coming to an end. Yes, this is my third and final post! But I've made sure it's a good one - here's a tutorial with some simple everyday makeup, and loose curls, using some Panasonic Beauty Tools, namely the Facial Ionic Steamer EH-SA31 VP, the Eyelash Curler EH-SE60 VP (both of which I've previously done tutorials for), the Multi-Styling Straightener EH-HW588-K (new to this post!) and the Panasonic Hair Straightener EH=HS95-K (which I've already spoken about in this post). Behold, the transformation:


Now you guys know from my previous post that I don't often curl my hair, so that is one of my maiden voyages into hair curling. The makeup - now that's another matter. This makeup is actually something I wear out quite often, and in fact, you could even say it's my go-to look: bright cheeks, bright lips, a clean, fuss-free eye - it's a look that is classic, easy to wear, and suits everyone. It looks like there's a lot going on, but don't worry - it's less hassle than you think! Below are all the products I used to achieve that look. It's not actually that much, right? (Okay, so I was a horrible person and left out the Multi-Styling Straightener EH-HW588-K from the photo below, because there wasn't enough space - not to worry, more photos of that coming up later!)

Panasonic Beauty Tutorial All

Without further ado, let's start. First you have a bare face. Please don't laugh at how ugly I look, or at my skin. This is considered a VERY GOOD SKIN DAY for me, because the blemishes I have are all right at the sides of my face, not in the middle, so you can't actually see them from a head-on angle. Hehe. But anyway, yes, the bare face, with hair in a ponytail:

Panasonic Beauty Tutorial Before

If you've been reading my previous post, then you'll know the importance of skincare. In my previous tutorial, I've shown how easy it is to incorporate the Panasonic Facial Ionic Steamer in your daily routine - a full cycle only takes 6 minutes, but yes, if you're lazy, you could skip this part, I suppose. If you've just got up, then whether you steam before or after cleansing (or during cleansing, as I spoke about in my previous post) is entirely your choice, but, because steaming can dry out your skin (I also mentioned this in my previous post!) you'll want to have some moisturizer handy to quickly moisturize your skin immediately after you're done with your steam routine. For the moisturizer, I picked a light but still moisturizing one, the L'Oreal HydraFresh Supreme Emulsion (which I've reviewed before). And you shouldn't forget your eye cream because your eyes get dry too! I have on hand the L'Oreal Revitalift Laser Eye Cream, which I've instagrammed about before, too. Because I'm targeting a simple, quick look, so I didn't bother with any serums, pimple creams, etc. But certainly you can include your favourites too!

Panasonic Beauty Tutorial Skincare

After the skincare, you probably want to start on makeup. I know a good makeup base is always a must. Since the weather has been hot lately, I'm using MUFE's Pro Finish Powder Foundation in shade #113, a neutral light beige (previously reviewed here) because it's good at oil control, and is a good match for my skin. (If you don't have the budget for MUFE, then L'Oreal's Magic Matte Transforming Powder is also another one I've reviewed that's good at oil control. So that's the base. If I have things to conceal, I usually apply my concealers before my foundation.

For an "eye base", because this is a simple look tutorial, I'm just using a cream eyeshadow with good staying power as a base. In this case, I'm using Benefit's Creaseless Cream Eyeshadow in Tattletale - I'm not sure if they still have this colour since they repackaged their products, but it's a shimmery vanilla colour. (I have quite the collection of Benefit eyeshadows, so sometimes it's hard to keep track of what's new and what's not.)

After I apply my foundation powder and eye base, this is what my look is like. Basically it's just a base with a clean slate. You are now ready to apply whatever colour products you want! Yay!

Panasonic Beauty Tutorial Skincare (2)

For colour makeup, I used the below. You can see in the photo also the base makeup - there's the MUFE Pro Finish Powder Foundation, the Benefit Creaseless Cream Eyeshadow in TattleTale. In the rest of the photo, you can see my blush, which is Benefit's Hervana (also reviewed previously), and my highlighter, which is Laura Mercier's Matte Radiance Baked Powder in 02, a light pink shade with subtle luminosity. You can also see my eyeliner, which is Urban Decay Bourbon, a shimmery brown, and my lipcolor, which is Etude House's Color Pop Lip Tint in #08 Berry Pop (which I also wore to the Singapore Blog Awards event). So, these are pretty much daily staples that I'm using.

Panasonic Beauty Tutorial Makeup

Of course, you can also see my Panasonic Eyelash Curler EH-SE60 VP, which I used to curl my lashes. I've done a tutorial for it before, so I won't repeat myself, but suffice to say, if you look at the tutorial post you can see my lashes in their gory/glorious before/after state up close. You use it much like applying mascara - just be sure to hold the curler at the base and tip of your lashes for 2-3 seconds each, to really reinforce the curl. And because it's a heating tool, you want to make sure you don't accidentally burn your eyelid (don't worry, it's not that easy to do). Also, if you don't like the curl the first time round, feel free to re-heat your lash curler and start again. After curling my lashes, I applied just a little bit of Bobbi Brown's No Smudge Mascara - another of my favourites.

Once you're done with all of that, you now have a pretty complete face. You can go out and face the world!

Panasonic Beauty Tutorial Makeup (2)

What's that, you say? You don't like my hair and I shouldn't walk out like that? It's true - my hair is indeed kinda flat and lifeless. So with the Panasonic Multi-Styling Straightener EH-HW588-K, and the Panasonic Hair Straightener EH-HS95-K, I will get my hair ready to see other people. I've showed you how I've previously used the Panasonic Hair Straightener EH-HS95-K, so I won't go into detail - but suffice to say, the technique is the same for both the Multi-Styling Straightener EH-HW588-K, and the Hair Straightener EH-HS95-K. You take a tendril of hair, put it in the straightener, and, as your hair passes through it, make sure to curl your arm inwards, to curl the hair as it gets heated!

Basically, if you do it right, you will look like this. You can see I'm using both my hands to really get that curl coming out:

Panasonic Beauty Tutorial Hair Curling 2

So I know what you're asking: if both the Multi-Styling Straightener EH-HW588-K and the Panasonic Hair Straightener EH-HS95-K use similar techniques, then what's the difference? Well, basically the Multi-Styling Straightener EH-HW588-K is a more souped-up version of the Hair Straightener EH-HS95-K. Allow me to explain. Take a look at the Multi-Styling Straightener EH-HW588-K. See anything different?

Panasonic Hair Straightener Curler

Yup, the Multi-Styling Straightener EH-HW588-K has all these extra sleeves, that you see below. You can see they are marked with names like "Medium Curl", "Large Curl", "Very Large Curl", "Volumizer" and so on. These are basically the functions of the sleeves. You can use the gadget without the sleeves, or you can slip on a sleeve of your choice to make it easier to achieve the desired hair effect.

Panasonic Multi-Styling Straightener EH-HW588-K Sleeves

This is how you slip on a sleeve onto the straightener. It's quite easy, just slip on and slip off. (Yes, this tutorial mentions how to slip on and off the sleeve. I don't know, I guess I'm just detail-oriented?)

Panasonic Multi-Styling Straightener EH-HW588-K Sleeve in Use

So basically, the presence of sleeves is the difference between the Multi-Styling Straightener EH-HW588-K and the Panasonic Hair Straightener EH-HS95-K, but either one can give you a nice curl. It's just that if you particularly like a larger curl, or a smaller curl, or if you're a techie and want different choices, then the Multi-Styling Straightener EH-HW588-K might appeal to you.

Panasonic Multi-Styling Straightener EH-HW588-K

In any case, for this tutorial, I was using mostly the Panasonic Hair Straightener EH-HS95-K, with the Multi-Styling Straightener EH-HW588-K at strategic portions of my hair. I wanted this to be an everyday look, so I was using the "Medium Curls" sleeve. (Please pardon my lack of smile in the photo, I was looking at the mirror I put behind the camera and concentrating to make sure I was curling my hair right - I'm obviously not pro enough to do it without looking at my reflection!)

Panasonic Beauty Tutorial Hair Curling 3

Did I mention how hard hair tutorials are to do? It was really impossible to smile in any of the photos, because I was just concentrating so hard! Well, here's a photo with a smile, sort of. It was the most I could get without breaking concentration:

Panasonic Beauty Tutorial Hair Curling

But anyway, after that, you'll have very nice hair that has volume and some loose curls. The only thing I'm lacking hair-wise is some volume at the crown. This can be done by applying some volumizing powder to the hair, and then backcombing (that is, combing from the tip of your hair to the root, rather than the usual way from the root to tip) from maybe one-third of the hair down to the roots.

Panasonic Beauty Tutorial Hair

Just a little haircare tip though: backcombing is quite a nifty technique to give your hair volume, because when hou do so, you literally comb your hair backwards. But while it can be tempting to do this everyday, I wouldn't advise backcombing your hair too often, because in the long run, it damages your hair.

How does it damage your hair? Well, the hair is covered by small scales, or cuticles. The damage to your hair done via backcombing has to do with your hair cuticles. (Images below are courtesy of P&G Beauty Science - being the beauty nerd I am, I do like to browse around on beauty science sites like these.)


As the hair grows, the way the cuticles form, they overlap with each other, and the leading edge of the cuticle faces toward the end of the hair shaft. During backcombing, the act of combing your hair backwards means that you're actually combing in the opposite direction of the lay of the hair cuticle. This means that as you backcomb, you lift the cuticle up and it stands away from the hair shaft, rather than lying flat against it. This "standing up" of the cuticle is what gives your hair more volume when you backcomb, but over the long run, continued backcombing that keeps lifting the cuticles will make them come loose, and eventually break off. And when you do that, your hair wont be as strong, or shiny as it normally is, because the cuticles lie flat against your hair strand to 1) protect the inner layers of your hair strand (called the medulla and cortex) from mechanical damage (e.g. if you brush your hair roughly, the cuticle protects the cortex and medulla), and 2) regulates the water content of the hair strand to ensure it's not too dry or wet.

And just because I'm into science, take a look at how your hair works. (More images from P&G Beauty Science.)

Below, this is a strand of hair in really good condition. You can see the cuticles are laying perfectly flat against each other, and there is absolutely no lifting up from the hair strand at all.


Now below, the strand of a hair that has suffered some damage. Can you see the cuticles lifting?


So, this is why I just face the world with my flat volume-less hair, and save the backcombing for special occasions, because once your cuticles are lifted, you can't really make them lay flat against your hair again. You can condition your hair, because conditioner smooths your hair and helps to smoothen the cuticles, making them appear glossy again, but as with all damage-to-your-skin, damage-to-your-hair or damage-to-your-health type issues, prevention is better than cure. (Which is why I'm also glad that Panasonic has its Nanocare technology to prevent waterloss from hair while you use it!)

And with that, here ends my tutorial and my final blogpost for the Singapore Blog Awards! I'm personally happy with this blogpost - I'm kinda known for my beauty science posts, so I'm glad I got to sneak a little hair science in there!

1 comments:

  1. Great!! I love your final look and the best part is its pretty simple!! I'm too bad at doing makeup and stuff and I avoid experimenting with my hair too. I was actually looking for some simple and effective beauty tips for myself since my friends have been pestering me that I'm a tom boy and I've literally started to hate that. Thanks for these useful tips. Love you!!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for commenting! I read each and every single comment! If you ask a question in your comment, please check back to this post, as I will reply in a comment to this post as well :) Please note that comments with soliciting links to shops or websites will be removed. Thanks!