Lipstick Smash

photo courtesy of amlp311.blogspot.com

You all know what lipstick do for women.  It can change our mood, ourselves, the meaning of life!  Well, maybe not the last part, but it does give us a great opportunity to showcase our puckers. Now that you've understood the importance of color and of cool/warm hues, pick out a few shades for yourself!  Example:  an olive medium toned Hispanic woman may look better in an orangey red or even a burgundy lipstick while a really pale peaches and cream allergic to sunshine type of gal will do well to choose a blue red lipstick.  Sales Associates at any makeup counter will be happy to help you determine which shades go better with your skintone, but beware, (or go with a girlfriend to play it safe) as they may be only focused on making a sale!



Wearing Lipstick

• Begin with clean lightly moisturized lips. (I'm a fanatic of lip balm)
• If you have feathering or flaking of skin, slough off dead skin with a mixture of olive oil and sugar!
• Line lips with a nude/natural tone lip pencil. (In school we learn to line from outer corner to inner corner or cupid's bow)
• If your lips naturally are darker or have a lot of color, either use foundation or a product such as Laura Gellar's Lip Spackle to stiple the beigey color over your lips before using lip color.

photo courtesy of forum.hawaaworld.com

•  Choose a shade or two of lipstick and fill in lips either straight from the tube or with a lip brush for more precision.
• If you wish to blend two (or more colors) or even mix and match a lipstick with a gloss you can do so on your lips or on your palette using a palette knife.
• Scrape off lipstick color thinly from the back of the lipstick
• Add another lipstick color, a tint, gloss, whatever you want to the palette.
• Using the knife, scrape and blend all colors together to achieve the right shade/consistency.
• Now you have a unique color that's all YOU!
• Add a dash of high shine gloss in the middle of your lower lip pout for fuller looking lips.

Simply Superficial TIP #1:  Set with a tissue by blotting and reapplying.  Then lightly brush translucent powder through the tissue for ultimate staying power.

Simply Superficial TIP #2:  Stick one index finger into your mouth and close your mouth as your pull your finger out. Sounds kinda kinky but the remnants of lipstick that WOULD have gotten all over your pearly whites are now on your fingers... wipe off.


Simply Superficial TIP #3: If you believe your lips are too plump (no such thing!!) or too thin... play with the lip liner, line slightly outside the edge for a thin lip and slightly inside the lip line for a fuller lip.

Simply Superficial TIP #4:  If you want the focus to be on your lips (say, red sassy lipstick) go easy on the eye makeup and blush!  There's nothing like overkill to take your from looking fierce to looking like a straight up clown.

Simply Superficial TIP #5: To make yellow teeth appear more white, use colors with blue-ish undertones, asking sales associates for help can make this easy for anyone.

Simply Superficial TIP #6: If you're in a tight jam, lipstick can sub for a blush!




I will be adding tips occasionally so I hope you had fun reading...





Keep Color'in!  xoxox.

Understanding Color

For our simple makeup purposes, we only need to understand the basics of the color wheel.

Primary colors: as we should remember from dipping our hands into messy pots of paints as kids, are the most basic colors from which all other colors are created: red, yellow, blue.

Secondary colors: are derived from mixing the primary colors together: orange, green and purple.

Tertiary colors: are the colors you get from mixing the primary and the tertiary colors (next to each other) on the color wheel...

In looking at the outermost circle containing all colors, we can choose one color and go across the midpoint of the circle to the other side, where we can find it's color opposite and complementary color. For example, green and red, purple and yellow. These colors tell can often bring out other colors simply by being its striking opposite.. * think how awesome the color green looks on a redhead and you'll catch my drift...

Taking the information from these color wheels, we can learn about a variety of other clues including our *undertones and how to balance them, *what it means to be cool or warm hued, * what shadows look great together.

Now we can try to tackle these questions with the help of the color wheel.



Now you've all seen these strange color coded things whether they are in a tube, paste or powder form, our faces aren't lilac colored so what are these candy inspired creations for?? Well, you don't have lilac skin, but have you breakouts, ruddy skin, and dark under eye areas?

-Acne, breakouts and other blemishes are usually a shade of red... therefor the green concealor will work to cancel out the red to a neutral.

-Dark eye circles are usually a shade of blue or purple, choose the yellow tinged concealor to cancel out the violet undertone.

** Always match concealors to skintone not the color of discoloration.



Ever wonder if you were a cool tone vs. a warm tone person?? Simply strap on a siver and gold necklace and see which precious metal looks the best with your skin. Usually the silver tone indicate cool tone which means you look wonderful in
colors (both makeup and clothing)that exist on the right side of the color wheel. For the gold: warm tone lovelies you look best in warm tones or colors on the left side of the color wheel. For the red lipstick test: try wearing red lipstick in shades that flatter either the cool/warm undertone I guarantee you'll look awesome!!



Wearing eyeshadow can get pretty tricky given the myriad of colors available to us... using the color wheel as a hint, a general rule (that was made to be broken, as there ARE NO rules in makeup)can be created: colors next to each other on the color wheel fade nicely from one to the next. I like to place darker colors on the bottom and trick the eyes into seeing lighter and lighter as you go up. For example, choose a dark purple hue close to the lash line a mid purple or lilac as a mid color and blend upwards into a pale baby pink. so pretty!!

Until next time, have fun with makeup!

Makeup: getting started

What every good artist needs, a set of brushes, palette knife, and colors.  A good brush rinse and alcohol sprays are good for sanitizing... but this is for those of you whom want to learn makeup to practice on yourself, rather than make it a vocation... a makeup artist by trade spends a ton of time sanitizing btw... safety's always first!

Brushes: implements for placement and blending of colors.  This is kind of a no-brainer.  Brushes differ with the fibers (hair) used whether it is animal hair or synthetic plastic bristles.

 photo courtesy of buycheapmakeupandtips

Generally, if you're buying a powder, blush, eyebrow, eyeshadow, angled eyeliners etc... it is good to go with a decent quality animal hair brush.  When using flat foundation brushes or even fine eyeliner brushes, synthetic may be a better choice.  The reason is that the synthetic bristles impede bacteria growth so while using things that are more "wet" or have more slip, such as liquid foundation and liquid eye liner, it is better to go with using a synthetic, or else get used to washing brushes everyday!

Palette Knife:  is an actual knife that scrapes off color.

photo courtesy of ffcrafts

I'm showing a picture of the many types of artists' palette knifes however, you only need one.  What is this good for?  My favorite palette knife has lasted me years and enables me to blend all sorts of lipcolors together as well as stick foundations to suit a perfect shade.   You use the sharp end to scrape or cut off some makeup and the flat edge to mix and mash the colors until you have one unique color that's especially YOU!

Colors: Are the most fun part of all!  A plethora of eyeshadows, bases, foundations, powders, eyeliners, lipsticks ... what is makeup if not a wide array of colors with what we use to color our lives?

photo courtesy of alceevents

You thought diamonds are a girls' best friend? I'm here to tell you that the real best friend is color!  They have the ability to brighten, to widen, to POP!, to encourage, to motivate, and to brave the world... nothing is as fierce as a woman who entrances the world with a bright red lipstick!

Armed with these tools we are ready to move full throttle forward!

Does the world really need yet another beauty blogger?

An Asian one, at that??

Photo courtesy of Bamboonation

The answer, hopefully, is YES. 


You see I'm not just another Asian girl that loves all things Juicy and princessy, the color pink or its derivatives, loves playing with makeup and looks 18. 

I'm 32.

That's sort of mature, no?  I am definitely old enough to appreciate beauty, despite seeing the changes that come with age.  I am also a licensed Esthetician and a have Make-Up Artist certification from a respected makeup school, M.U.D (Makeup Designory, Burbank, CA).  While it is true that I've only held a few makeup related odd jobs throughout the years, the love of enhancement never quite leaves my soul.  

I am here to share with you my knowledge (by the books) as well as what I've picked up on "the streets" of life.  I will hopefully be doing almost a school of sorts, that tackles everything from skincare to lipstick.  I will add quick "how to-s" and maybe even some tutorials, depending on where this blog takes me...

While beauty is definitely more than skin deep, it is the means for us to enhance our favorite features so that when we are out in the world we can present the best version of ourselves possible.  Simply Superficial is born of the mentality that makeup should be: accessible, easy, adaptable, fun, and expressive.  Just like the how the latest fashion isn't necessarily suited to all shapes and sizes, we can pick and choose from the latest to select the looks we believe best fit our face, skin, coloring, and personality!

Have fun with colors everyone!!!