sorry but not sorry?

September 14, 2017 nikoniko☆blogLeave a comment

I recently learned that things like marble, rose gold, pale wood textures, etc are apparently HUGE cliches in terms of blog layouts, and the tastes of bloggers in general. I am no exception.

so for now, I’ve decided to give my blog layout (potentially temporary) overhaul, to make it a little more me, and a little more fun.

which also means A LOT more atrociously tacky and outdated.

honest to god guys, this is coming from someone who wore this outfit to get coffee with an old friend (given, we’re both heavily into street fashion)

I’m currently working on figuring out how to get the side/widget text more readable, but for now, I’m enjoying having a blog that looks a little bit… quirky… until I can really get better at html, formatting, graphic design, and all of that kind of stuff.

so, I’m sorry for the eyesore– but at the same time, I’m really not~

I’m waiting on a pretty exciting cosmetics delivery later today, so expect a review of that later!! I’m literally sitting in the front room of the house so I can be aware of when the delivery man arrives, I’m not kidding hahah. But yes, that’s all!

xoxo

–NIKO

☆REVIEW☆ Fresh Rose Hydrating Eye Gel Cream

September 13, 2017September 13, 2017 nikoniko☆blogLeave a comment

It’s about time I reviewed a western skincare product, now, isn’t it?

For the inaugural western beauty review post, I also just happened to chose a product that has been a consistent favorite of mine for a few years now, and which I’m about halfway+ through my second container of (a rarity for me, as I tend to explore products so much, I often never hit pan on many that I buy, let alone go through multiple repurchases~)

I can honestly say that I’ve tried to find a cheaper, asian-er alternative for this eye cream– which can be bought at Sephora at $41, though for only 0.5oz/15ml of product (womp womp)— but have failed to find anything that could come close to having such a pleasant texture, and that provides the perfect amount of moisture under my eyes– to the point where it almost seems to perk me up in the mornings!!

No matter how much I may ever seem to preach about the occasional ‘superiority’ of ingredients and prices among Korean/Japanese/Taiwanese skincare products, this is my one product I can’t seem to one-up somehow– not even a hugely popular or well-known one, either– perhaps it was just made for me, in terms of hitting all the right marks!

Allow me to elaborate~

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[13/9] Minor Site Updates / Questions

September 13, 2017September 13, 2017 nikoniko☆blogLeave a comment

[SITE UPDATES]

after looking into some of my new followers and what they’re all about, I’ve decided I want to put some more ‘heart’– more of myself and what I believe in into this blog– though it’s still a beauty blog that will remain at least 80% reviews/swatches/etc or more, I’m assuming. But to reflect that, I changed my tagline– and subsequently, my header, to reflect more of who I am!
A guide, for anyone who may be confused:
- pale: pretty self explanatory lmao.
- nongendered: I don’t really feel much like a boy or a girl? just neutral or neither, really. I honestly don’t fixate on it, or bring it up randomly unless mentioned/relevant, so you don’t have to worry about this one if you don’t really ‘get it’ entirely– I understand. Also, if you choose to ‘disagree’ with my identity, that is alright, too– as long as you are respectful to me as a person~
- “spoonie“: a self-identifying term used by people with debilitating chronic illness, disability, etc. derived from lingo in the chronic illness community, all stemming from this story, the spoon theory. If you want to be a pal to any ‘spoonie’ friends you may have, I’d recommend giving that a read– but it is a bit of a long one, so find the time to really take it in someday c:
- beauty blog: this is my blog to post reviews, swatches, and discussion of both western and asian skincare, makeup, and beauty/cosmetics in general! Though I may make occasional life posts or update posts like these, that shall remain the main purpose of this blog until/unless stated otherwise very overtly.
New page added to ABOUT menu tab: ☆20 Fun Facts☆.
Give it a read if you want to learn a little more randomness about me that’s pretty much all unrelated to beauty/skincare~ ଘ(੭ˊ꒳ˋ)੭♡

[Questions/ISO]

- Looking for advice on how to take nice ‘flat lay’ photography? Like, idk where people who take those beautiful photos have that much space to lay things out, and such bright, clean white surfaces, but I’m really interested in trying my hand at it, as it seems really popular and aesthetically pleasing.
- sorry if it’s weird to ask these things here, but wordpress really isn’t a ‘social network’ as far as I’m aware, so I don’t know where to find advice and information on how to do certain things for my blog, otherwise, hah

[MEME FUN] + [Looking to befriend other Chronically Ill / Disabled / Spoonie Beauty Bloggers!!]

September 12, 2017 nikoniko☆blog4 Comments

[alternate post title: “I post various photos of my cosplay makeup and swear up and down that it’s relevant to the meme I’m filling out”]

So I went out in search of other spoonie beauty bloggers and ended up actually finding one (not sure if she’d be comfortable with me tagging her here, but regardless), which made me so happy!

She had a meme posted on the top of her blog, which I thought might be fun to fill out myself and post here, so you may all get to know me and my habits a bit better through a little harmless fun~

Also consider this an all call– if you know any chronically ill / disabled / spoonie beauty bloggers, send their urls my way, I’m so eager to make new friends with whom I have that in common~!

septemberself — I myself am a spoonie w/ Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome III and its many friends (severe Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, etc!)

Now that we’ve got the melancholic sharing aspects out of the way, check out the fun makeup meme-ery below the cut~

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☆REVIEW☆ Nivea Extra Whitening Pore-Minimizer Roll-On Anti-Antiperspirant

September 12, 2017 nikoniko☆blog1 Comment

This is one of my absolute favorite daily use products which happens to be of general East-Asian origin– and one which I don’t believe we put nearly enough thought into, or due credit towards ones which are deserving: Deodorant!

Though I’m sure I’m far from the first to write one, I don’t know if I can recall ever having read a deodorant review before. As I was reflecting on what to write about today, though, it occurred to me that I had yet to apply my antiperspirant for the day– and when I remembered that the little bugger is from Taiwan, I realized I should seize the opportunity to bring this lesser-discussed topic of beauty and self-care to the table!

Now, I first bought this product as an impulse purchase because it was available for dirt cheap on sasa.com as I was assembling a haul on there, and I also happened to be in search of a deodorant– any deodorant– that wasn’t the sort of chalky stick that I’d been using since I was 11 or 12. After an incident at work in which one exploded in my backpack– covering everything I loved and regularly used in goopy chunks that then reeked of Dove Cucumber Mint for months– I was hell-bent on swearing off any kind of deodorant that could explode in such a horrific manner.

that amount of emptiness reflects months and months of regular use~

So I decided it couldn’t hurt to try this: a cheap roll on, by a brand name I knew and trusted, with some rather outrageous claims (whitening? pore minimizing?? who looks at pit pores?) that I didn’t care as to whether they actually delivered or not– I was just hoping for a stable, trustworthy antiperspirant.

Let’s see if it delivered, huh?

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☆NIKO’S Routine/Regular Products☆ PART 3 [SPF | UV PROTECTION]

September 11, 2017September 11, 2017 nikoniko☆blog2 Comments

One of my biggest regrets in life is not having listened to my mother for all of my youth and adolescent years as she nagged me to wear sun protection when I left the house. I have milky, ghostly white skin, and if I’d listened to her instead of trying to be a little rebel– who hated the texture of American sunscreens more than anything– I would probably look like a porcelain doll right now, instead of being covered in countless freckles and sun damage in general.

To be honest, a lot of the pressure came from being a pale kid living in California. There’s some sort of strange culture here where I was mocked on the rare occasion when I actually did wear SPF as a child, because the other kids would laugh at me and say ‘you’re already so white, Niko, get some sun and try to get a tan for once!’ To a very minor degree, I was mocked and ridiculed for wanting to protect my skin on outdoor days, and just how paper white my skin was in general.

I’m sure you can imagine how shocked and confused my young pre-adolescent self was when I was learning about asian culture, and how pale skin and sun protection is coveted there. It gave me a sort of renewed confidence in my own appearance– that I wasn’t a freak for being tan or non-white like my classmates– and empowered me to become interested in caring for my skin by protecting it from sun damage!

Now, many years later, I have quite the collection of sunscreens– some of which I find don’t work for me as I’d like, but also a small handful which I love and use regularly, which I’d like to share with you today:

Each serves a variety of purposes, from providing more moisture when my face feels dry, to being water + sweatproof, for outdoor and swimming activities– these are my staple sunscreens, and after having tried so, so many out there, I feel pretty confident in saying that these are the right ones for me!

Let me tell you a little about them, starting with the facial UV protectors!

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☆NIKO’s Routine/Regular Products☆ PART 2 [1st & 2nd Cleansers]

September 10, 2017September 10, 2017 nikoniko☆blogLeave a comment

Ask anybody who truly knows me, and they’ll tell you that, even as a person with severe chronic fatigue– who can fall asleep at the drop of a hat when they don’t intend to– I will go to the ends of the earth to make sure that my face has been washed of any and all makeup, sunscreen, or sweat before I go to sleep. I refuse to initiate rapid eye movement until I have double-cleansed my goddamn skin.

And while that may sound a tad… aggressive… to some, this is really one of the first things you should learn to embrace if you want to get into skincare, or try to improve the condition of your skin, in general: always wash your face before you go to sleep!

When I was a teenager, even if I wore the same makeup for two days, went days without soap so much as touching my face, wore sunscreen and didn’t wash it off for a whole weekend ‘so I didn’t have to put as much on the next day’ (I really hate my past self– so much marching band sun damage….), I always managed somehow to have flawless skin. I was known for it, in some circles.

cleanserfamily — author’s note: do not attempt to wash face with bonsai tree.

But now, as an adult, I’m not so lucky– but I am smarter, so I have these products to help me stay clean, and the products I’ll mention in the next post, routine PART 3, to protect me from UV rays!

If there’s one more thing I can add before I list the products, it’s that I personally feel like a lot of the product and cleanser pH hype is a bunch of… well, hype. Try and use products that make your skin feel best– not what rates best on the pH scale (as I did with the CosRX Low pH Cleanser, which was not kind to my skin, but I used because pH, guys! pH!!). My current cleanser sits a bit high, around a 7.5-8, but I’ll explain later how it makes my skin feel, and why it’s right for me in spite of that.

With that said, here we go!

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☆NIKO’s Routine/Regular Products☆ PART 1 [Toner | Serum | Essence | Moisturizer]

September 8, 2017September 8, 2017 nikoniko☆blogLeave a comment

So, here’s a little explanation of how this will work– products are pictured [from left to right] in order of when I apply them, and as such, I will list them in the text body that way, along with a little comment/description of each.

If any of these products catches your eye, and you’d like to know more about it than the short commentary provided in this post, feel free to drop a comment or contact me through any of the contact info provided on the menu bar at the top of the blog, and I’d be happy to do a review request for you~

Let’s get started~!

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☆Series Start!☆ NIKO’s Routine / Regular Products | 3-Part Post Series

September 8, 2017 nikoniko☆blogLeave a comment

This post was relatively inevitable, was it not? Every dedicated asian beauty blogger that follows a daily routine with steps that number in the double digits is going to have to divulge their personal routine and regularly used products eventually; I’ve just been putting it off a bit because I knew this was going to be a whopper of a post. Still, I’m determined to do this toward the very start of my blog, so I can compare in the future to how different my routine may have become from when I first started the blog~

The ‘NIKO’s ROUTINE’ series will be divided into 3 posts, to organize them by purpose– and let’s face it, to abbreviate them, due to how much I tend to babble and digress. When complete, they will be posted in a drop-down menu at the top of the blog layout~

[PART 1] Toner | Serum | Essence | Moisturizer
[PART 2] 1st + 2nd Cleansers [Oil & Foam]
[PART 3] SPF / UV Protection!

I felt the latter two deserve their own posts because I have a variety of cleansing products and sunscreens, based on my daily activities or skin needs~

Tonight, we start with the first post: general products/moisturizers!
Hope you’re ready~

–「ニコニコ」

NIKO

☆SWATCH + MINI-REVIEW☆ SON&PARK Beauty Filter Cream

September 6, 2017September 6, 2017 nikoniko☆blogLeave a comment

When you have skin as sickly-ghost-pale as mine, you often need to devise creative methods of tampering with your skin/base makeup in order to get the shades you buy to eventually acquiesce to match your actual skin tone. The most recent method I’ve devised– which I plan to write a comprehensive post containing many different products and example photos on soon– is to use asian whitening/”tone-up” creams in place of a white mixer, so I can buy a foundation or BB cream based on formula instead of just ‘this is almost remotely white enough to suit me’, then mix in the whitening primer to make it closer to my face shade.

I bought this SON&PARK Beauty Filter Cream– a whitening tone-up cream- for that very reason (that is, to try for mixing in with my makeup, and to have a wider variety of products, including a high-end one, for when I write that future post), and I’m going to be upfront in saying, the most shocking thing about this product for me was the size of the container.

let me just… here’s a size comparison.

plssave — it fits in the palm of my ridiculously tiny baby hands, too…

…but you guys are here for some info on the product, not to stare at an old can of my father’s caffeine free Diet Dr. Pepper, right? Then, onto the swatches + mini-review~

nikoniko☆blog

「that pale, nongendered, spoonie beauty blog」

Author: nikoniko☆blog

sorry but not sorry?

–NIKO

☆REVIEW☆ Fresh Rose Hydrating Eye Gel Cream

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