Practice makes perfect

I am a late bloomer when it came to the whole beauty thing. Literally so late that I almost passed my teens before getting into make up, hair and skin. In the beginning, I did not know what I was doing because my mom did not wear a lot of make up. Her whole morning routine, as beauty gurus would say, was put on Johnson baby powder, eyeliner and blush. Of course I saw all those glam girls doing highlighting and contouring, smokey eyes, and ombre lip colors and I wanted to be able to have those make up skills too. 

I started out researching products because I didn't want to pay for something that did not do its job properly and waste my money. I found out everyone was raving over the Kat Von D tattoo liner. (And I really wanted to be able to do a cat eye and look super fierce). It was my first ever investment into make up products, but from my research, I knew it was good. I just had to apply it to my eye lids properly. That, my friend, was the challenge. At first I spend literally 15 minutes trying to get both eyes to look symmetrical and then would spend another 10 rubbing it off with make up remover because I didn't like how it turned out. But I felt (somehow) more confident with that little black line of extension on my eye. 

Soon cat eyes were a thing of the past, I could whip one out in a heartbeat. Now it was onto that smokey eye. I struggle, looking like a panda at the beginning. My makeup artist friend even said I should stop doing make up because I was embarrassing myself. That, of course, coming from not only a good friend, but a make up artist, hurt my feelings. But to spite him, I watched even more tutorials and practiced even more. Smokey eye, hun, I've got you. 

If you are going to start something, maybe its doing make up or maybe its starting a business or blog, know that in the beginning, things are going to be hard. And I'm not saying it gets better as time goes along, you just adapt better to the situations brought at hand. Be persistent and tenacious. You might not get into the swing of things the first time around. But I promise you, you're going to get better at it. The first thing you should do is take the first step. 

Streetstyle mode: Coat on the Shoulders

As fashion people, we read online magazines, news forums and blogs about streetstyle. It starting becoming this hot topic only a couple of years ago by their pioneers such as Tommy Ton, Phil Oh and Scott Schuman. As the years progress people in fashion, who typically would not dress for other people, but themselves, started getting more creative with their looks to get photographers' attentions. One trend that made its trademark, especially in fashion week (doesn't matter the season) is the sophisticated I-delicately-put-a-coat-on-my-shoulder look. 

Lets be real here, it may look sophisticated, elegant and fashion forward, but boy is it hard to get in and out of cars still steadying the coat on your shoulders. Let's not even talk about reaching for things. The whole coat on shoulders look science was specifically made for going to a fashion show, getting photographed and sitting down. And number one rule in rocking this trend, don't fuss with your coat! It ruins the whole enigma of how you can balance a clothing item on your shoulder without looking like you've tried too hard. 

Coat: Uniqlo

Vest: England

Top: gifted

Pants: Zara

Boots: Macy's 

Sunnies: Aldo

Hat: Urban

Bag: Thailand

Morning walk

I typically was not a morning person when I was younger. Sure, I had to wake up early for school, but that didn't mean I was awake and alert. But now as I mature and am becoming more of an adult, I really enjoy my early mornings. I get things done in the morning time, so my afternoon and evenings can be more relaxed and laid back. 

This morning for instance, I woke up (no alarm needed) at 7 am, got dressed, and headed out with my friend and my camera to the nearby park around my house. It was nice to breathe in the crisp, cold, morning air and take some pictures for the blog and portfolio as well. 

My advice for people who want to get more into mornings is to ease into it. First start off maybe getting up an hour or two before you usually wake up. Set up a list of things you want to accomplish in the morning and go through them one by one. If you try to multi-task, you may get overwhelmed and stressed. Take it easy.  It starts becoming a routine by itself soon enough. If you want to start exercising or running in the morning, schedule it in. It doesn't take more than half an hour to an hour to run. You realize how much time you've been wasting before sitting around watching hulu and netflix when you could be (as a photographer, blogger, model and singer) editing some photos, writing a blog post, emailing casting directors or writing song lyrics. Once you get up and start doing things with your morning, you realize that you have time to get things done. 

Jacket: Lululemon

Pants: Nike

Shoes Nike

Cap: Adidas