I am not a shopaholic.

Admittedly, I probably spend more money than anyone else in the family. But that's a given. No one else buys clothes. I was accused of being a shopaholic today for making 'several' purchases in the past week. Wearing a couple of them here.
Obey t-shirt and Docs from Buffalo Exchange, padlock chain necklace from Sex Pot Revenge, freebie donation tights.

While I was in LA, I passed by a Buffalo Exchange store, and thought it looked like a thrift store and wanted to go in, but I was in a hurry and wasn't able to. Coincidentally, I stumbled upon another one while I was in the OC.

After passing by the LA one, I looked for some reviews, and it's a pretty mixed bag. Personally, I really like the store. Because I was on my way to the airport when I passed by the shop, I only had about 20 minutes in the store. If I were at Goodwill, 20 minutes isn't nearly enough time for me to find something I like. I was surprised how quickly I was able to find things I liked at Buffalo Exchange. The clothes are screened and hand picked, so there were a lot of good pieces being sold. The catch is the prices. The prices are reminiscent of what you would see at Forever 21. Which isn't too bad, really. Though everything is secondhand, it all looks pretty new and free of rips and holes.

I left the store with two items.
An oversized Obey Clothing t-shirt and
A pair of vintage Doc Martens. They're design number 2071047, not the well known 1460 with yellow stitches, so I hesitated a little. But they're made in England and extremely comfortable and fit perfectly, so I could pass them up.

The total for these two items came up to be around $35, which is a lot more than I would spend at say, the Salvation Army. But I wouldn't mind visiting every once in a while as a treat.

On my last trip to Goodwill, I saw a pair of Dolce Vita Target shoes that I wanted, but were three full sizes too big for me. I planned on searching for them on eBay, but ended up not having to. They're on clearance on the Target website for $12, or $18 after shipping and tax. Bomb! New shoes under $20.


And the last of the purchases. I've made three separate trips to three different Kinokuniyas in the past week. I've now been to all four locations in California! Now I know price differences and that kind of stuff.
I was really surprised to see that the Los Angeles store had airmail magazines, and swoop up the April issue right away. I was so excited to get it because Midori is this month's covergirl. In the San Jose store, magazines take about a month to arrive, so I always get my issues a month late. I later went to the Costa Mesa location, which also had the airmail magazine, except a dollar cheaper. Ffffffff. And then saw that their Japanese manga were $1.40 cheaper. Fffffff. Japanese manga is expensive now, man. I might as well learn to read Chinese so I can buy Chinese manga and actually read it.

Oh wait, I lied.
I also bought more Seibei shirts yesterday. Couldn't help it.

Love, Kai

going nude: mac viva glam gaga 2 review, comparisons, and swatches.

I was finally able to go to MAC to pick up my Viva Glam Gaga today. Stopped by Borders on the way, so I was able to pick up the March issue of Vogue. I wasn't careful and accidentally chose one with a rip on the bottom. Dangit.
I was kind of hoping that the MAC store would be giving out free Gaga posters. No luck there.

I only bought the lipstick, but I might go back for the lipglass. In general, I'm not a huge fan of lipglosses, but I can make an exception if it's MAC and Gaga. The lipstick is a nice warm flesh nude shade. It doesn't apply as dark as it looks. The only other MAC nude color I am familiar with is Myth, which applies really light. Viva Glam Gaga 2 is a darker shade than Myth, and is more flattering on different skin tones.


Here are my other nude lipsticks. From left to right, Victoria's Secret Femme, MAC Viva Glam Gaga 2, and Revlon Nude Attitude.
And some swatches on my arm for color comparison. After getting this MAC one, I don't think I can go back to using the other two. The MAC formula is that good. It glides on smoothly and easily and goes on creamy, while the Victoria's Secret one is hard to apply and makes my lips look cracked and flaky. The only other formula that I can think of that might be better is the Yves Saint Laurent lipsticks, which are over twice the price of MAC.

Here it is worn. Left is before and right is after.
Kissy face. I tried doing a toothy smile, but I haven't been able to do one of those since 9th grade. The all came out looking really forced, so I decided against putting it in.

The color is pretty light. When I was looking in the mirror, in the bathroom light, it looked like my skin is darker than the lipstick. In most lighting, it looks about the same. I would like it to be a tad darker, but I do like this lipstick quite a bit.
I tried to take a closeup, but my lips are extremely non-photogenic. At least that's not too much of a concern as a style blogger.

Overall, I do recommend this lipstick. Like most nudes, it does tend to flatter the fair skinned more, but it is quite wearable on non-fair skinned people. My skintone is not particularly light, which is something I have to take into consideration when choosing out cosmetics. (Someone once said to me, 'if you have sun allergies, why is your skin so dark?').

Bonus time. I thought this kind of went with the nude theme. I'm currently wearing Chanel Inattendu nail polish. My grandmother bought it for me as a present last year before I returned to America. If it were a little less warm and orangy, it might possibly be my mannequin hands color. Chanel polish has the most flawless formula for application, but is too much of a splurge for me to buy. Thought the colors are great and the formula is great, Chanel varnish is really just for the name. For the time being, I'll just stick with dupes.

Beauty blogging is probably not for me.

Love, Kai

hard at work.

These past few weeks have been dedicated mostly to my FIT portfolio. I guess I've posted bits and pieces of my work, but since it hasn't been much, I'm making this post to showcase a few of my favorites.

Yesterday wasn't the best day. I caught a stomach bug early in the day and rested for three class periods. Then after school, I went to look for fabrics to cut into swatches. I chose out $30 worth of fabric in 0.5 yard increments. But at the cutting counter, and the computers and price scanners were out of order so the lady at the counter had to hand-write all of the fabrics and prices. She did her math wrong while calculating prices and it made it really difficult to make the purchase at the counter. Also, I was supposed to call my mom after I was done shopping, but I accidentally grabbed my iPod instead of my cell phone, and couldn't make the call, and ended up waiting for her to realize I couldn't get home.

The ones I like are mostly the later ones; it took me a while to start getting the hang of it. At first, I was planning on not drawing faces, but after coloring everything in, I thought no faces looked weird, so I drew them in afterwards. Bad move. I'll have to photoshop those faces out.
I think this one was the last one I finished. Tiered dress and bubble vest with a floral print hood.

Here's one that I didn't like very much originally. I had designed it to be a white deconstructed sleeveless dress, but then I found some mesh in my room, and decided to make it black instead.


For this one, I wanted to use nylon for the fabric. But I couldn't afford to get the nylon at the fabric store, and opted for cotton instead. Boring. But half the price. Features a zip up galaxy print hood and fastenable cowl neck.


Right now, I'm working on the sewing portion. I started sewing in 6th grade, but haven't improved at all since then. I busted out my sewing machine for the first time in years this week. Fabric is expensive, especially nice materials. So I used the cloth from old pieces of clothing to sew. I sewed a pair of pants out of an old oversized skirt.
Droopy butt pants yayy. My favorite.
Depending on what else I come up with, I might show more designs and pieces in later posts.

Today I went to Barnes and Nobles to use my coupon. Magazines are never included in sales, though I wish they would be. Some magazines are much more expensive than books are. I wanted to buy the Spring/Summer 2011 runway report, but the issues were all bent up and cost $40, which is more than is in my pocket. I opted out for Vogue Italia, which included a Fashion Show report.
I regret getting it, a bit. This report left out several designers that I wanted to see, including Alexander Wang and Tao Kurihara. Just a bit disappointing, for $17.

Since I couldn't use a coupon on the magazine, I got THIS.
It's Colors for Modern Fashion by Nancy Riegelman. I wanted to get 9 Heads some time ago, but hadn't had any luck with finding a copy, so I decided on getting the second best option. The coupon was 50% off, so this became $34.40. It would have helped if I had a guide before I started my designs.

Back to work.

Love, Kai

if I were a boy.

Yesterday, I attended National Portfolio Day in San Francisco. I had been planning on going to sleep early so I could look plenty awake in front of the college representatives. But I couldn't find glue, and spent the whole night looking for it. And went to sleep at 5am, and woke up at 7am. So sleep deprived.

There's a loose hair in my peripheral view and I keep thinking it's a spider. I've lost count how many times I turned already. I can't find which strand of hair it is.

I picked up the February issue of KERA magazine, featuring Neeko and Takeru on the cover.
Though I try to get an issue every month, I've missed a ton of issues from last year just because I couldn't dish out the money.

I loved the makeup section in this issue. "Boy makeup." Boystyle Midori! Midori is the cutest person in the world. She's my idol. It'd be my dream job to be a KERA model.
Here's another spread with Yura(left) and Re:NO(right). I thought Yura was Akira in the picture.And here's one with Runa-Luna.

I see a trend. Boystyle makeup = wig + nude lipstick + black eyeliner and BAM. I sort of tried to do it. I can't apply eyeliner for my life.
This hair length is really difficult to manage.

Love, Kai

and thank you, daylight savings.

When I started my blog, I could take pictures at 6:30 and it would still be bright enough for the photos to be decent. Recently, I've had trouble getting good lighting when I get home from school at 4pm.


Oh right, I got a haircut yesterday. And here's today's outfit. Short hair makes my face look round. Not in this picture, but in some others. Right, so besides the haircut, I went thrift shopping yesterday. I was surprised by how much stuff I bought. Right away, I picked out two pairs of shoes. Sorry, my face is pixeled out because I was making some ridiculous face.
One of them was this pair. They're a little bit big, but I think I can add something to the bottom to make them fit better. Steve Madden wedges for ten bucks! Besides this pair, I also bought a pair of Steven by Steve Madden snakeskin peep toe heels. These were only $6.99!
They're really tall. The inside is cushioned so they're actually pretty comfortable. I haven't tried walking in them yet, so maybe it's still to early to say that. Either way, I won't be wearing them anytime soon. I did make that post about not wearing heels anymore. Which reminds me, I still want a pair of Docs. And Nikes. Oh and I liked those sequined and black glitter oxfords at Forever21. Shoes, can't get enough of them. Too bad there's not enough money to go around to get them all. I think I'll just save up for those Docs first.

My magazines arrived, by the way. I love that I don't have to worry about not having space for them anymore. I wasn't careful and asked for a copy that I already had, instead of a different one that I wanted to order, so I'm going back for that one separately.


I got a copy of Marie Claire today too. Emma is kind of sort of incredibly cute. I love her new hair! I liked it before too, but that just shows she can rock any hairstyle.


I went off on a tangent again. I'll probably post my thrift shop purchases tomorrow, due to the poor lighting.

Love, Kai

sleep deprived.

It's been a while since my last update. Last week was a pretty sleep deprived week, and that hasn't changed much this week. Yesterday, my friend and I worked on a project together and practiced until around 1am, when we started on all our other homework.

On Sunday, I went off to Korean stores to look for CDs and magazines. The price for a Korean magazine was around $21, which shocked me so much that I walked out without a second thought. I was expecting the $10-$15 range, especially because most Japanese magazines are less than $10. The Korean CDs were in the $37 range, which is blatantly overpriced, considering YesAsia sells them for less than $20.

At Kinokuniya, I picked up a copy of KERA and a CD.



Scanned these because they're so goshdarn pretty! I'd really like to do an outfit like that first one, with the big pink bow. I haven't had a chance to flip through the whole magazine yet.

I also bought the new LM.C single, because I was tired of waiting.

Sorry for the glare. I hurts my eyes too. The CD plus the magazine left me with less than $3 less in my wallet. I feel like such a poor kid.

Ironically, the CD that I ordered online arrived yesterday, the day after I bought the other CD from the store. I looked pretty bad from stress, so blurred my face a bit.

About this jacket I'm wearing.

I bought it off of a Taiwanese website, thinking it was military green. The pictures on the website were all green, and it was even labeled so. But when I received it, it turned out to be completely brown. I've got nothing against brown, but it's not military green. I'm dying to find an affordable military jacket.

Oh almost forgot to mention, I bought a chain necklace along with my CD purchase.

I wanted to buy the kind that LM.C wears, but it costs about twice as much as this one. I wore it today.

chain necklace: Sex Pot Revenge, tank from Peace Now, thrifted jacket, pants and shoes from Taiwan

Oh snap, dinner time. Yesterday, I was working so intensely that I forgot to eat dinner. That sounds pretty ridiculous, yeah.

Love, Kai

I think I'm obsessed.

Photos from November issue of Korean Esquire

I need this magazine. Man, if they have these pictures in the magazine, I need this magazine. I'll give in to the import prices and put aside all the awkwardness of buying a men's magazine (what's the point of putting pretty boys in a men's magazine?). These are two of the five members from the Korean boy group, SHINee. I've recently gotten really into them. Not only are they extremely adorable ahem Taemin, with the light colored hair he's my favorite, good at dancing, and have catchy songs, but they also have pretty darn good style.

I want Taemin's hair.
...maybe I'll get it cut again.

Love, Kai

sometimes I don't understand cheap people.

I bought a shelf yesterday, finally! Since I have my bookshelf where my swivel chair was, I now have a squishy microfiber chair for my work desk. Wheee. I just wanted to say that first. Now onto my entry.

I am undoubtedly a cheap person. I don't know who else in school thinks $7 for a t-shirt is an outrage (yes, I occasionally give in and buy them anyway). But I'm nowhere as frugal as my parents are.

My parents bought two boxes of microwavable dinners yesterday, at a little bit over $3 each. It was already on sale, and they hadn't seen a cheaper price, so they bought it. Later in the day, we went to Target, and there was a sale going on for about $2.50. Goodness, were they riled up. Go get the receipt! Get the boxes! Go return them to Safeway! It was quite a scene, caused by $0.50.

Then at Target, I spotted a shelf on sale for $26, marked down from $30. I asked my mother if we could buy it, and she gave me one of those IT'S ONLY $4 OFF? looks. It's a sale! It doesn't matter if it's not 50% off and on clearance. $4 off is $4 saved, since I was going to buy that shelf anyway.

Well anyway, the important thing is that I got my shelf. It was one of those self assembling shelves that needs to be put together piece by piece. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't even a bit proud of putting it together (with my dad's help, of course). At $26, well...you get what you pay for. I mean, the backing of the shelf are foldable pieces of cardboard. How much cheaper can it get?
It doesn't look that bad when assembled though. This will be my magazine shelf. The magazines that were on the floor have a place to go now! My stuffed animals will be be occupying the space for now, until I find room elsewhere for them to go. And get some book shelf holders.
My mother bought me Vogue Italia as a shelfwarming gift. Actually, I told her I needed it for school, WHICH I DO, and to make it fair, I was going to buy it myself. Until I went to the cashier with my 40% off Borders coupon, only to be informed that the system isn't swiping it because it's a magazine, and coupons can't be used on magazines. Crud. And because of my complete defeatedness, and the fact that I said it would be used for school, my mother took it and bought it for me. She can be so sweet. Although she flipped through Vogue Paris with a look of distaste on her face. I thought the October issue of Vogue Paris is pretty incredible, but I can understand where she's coming from. She complains to me about what Gaga is wearing (I love Gaga, by the way) because she's on the Chinese newspaper from time to time. If it weren't for the tears and folds on the last remaining issue of Vogue Paris, I would have gotten that instead. Vogue Italia was $20. Plus tax. I haven't been this excited to flip through a magazine in a while. I haven't done that yet, actually. Not until after I finish this entry.

I still want to get the Tavi issue of Pop and the recent Gaga/ New York issue of V Magazine. If anyone sees it around, please tell me! I've searched several books stores and still no luck. I don't want to resort to buying it online, with those shipping costs. Shuddering just thinking about it. You know what I regret? Halloween. I wish I dressed up as Tavi for Halloween. Too late for that, I guess.

Today's outfit. I'm back to black again, dangit. I'll try not to tomorrow.
My bangs are long enough to go into my eyes when I comb them down now. Deciding if I want to grow them out and cut them into a different style or not. By the way? What color does my laptop look like? Not a trick question.

Oh right, before I forget. Congratulations to the Giants.

Oh right, another note. You may or may not have noticed that I changed my temporary blog title to a hopefully less temporary blog title. Hopefully the only time I'll need to change it. Hopefully. Still working on a banner and layout.

Love, Kai