It’s been months since I mean to post these photos of my black beauties… I got them while shopping in the city with Grunchkin back in March (which BTW I really am going to post those videos I took! — just need to find the right video editing software. If anyone has any tips pls let me know!). I had been on the hunt for some black flats.. ok not really but I can keep telling myself that. Anyhow, Chanel done me well. You can never go wrong with Chanel. These still look brand spanking new after around 8 wears. They are so sturdy it’s like cleaning a car when I wipe ‘em down. Due to the solidness of the shoe and them being flats, which mean your feet do a lot of bending in the shoe while walking, the back of my ankles get a little irritated from the rubbing. I have my own little foot comfort remedies for that that of course. Let me know what you all think of these. And keep in mind.. I’m 29 now so I’ve got to start thinking about my back… cut down on those 5 inchers..

Ratings (Scale 1-5)

Design: 5

Comfort factor: 4.5

Quality: 5

Price: $$$$

Purchased: Saks Fifth Avenue, San Francisco

I’ll have to provide a legend for this new rating system I just pulled out of my tushy?

Lately while fingering through the racks at the mall I haven’t been able to tell whether it’s a top or a dress,
and the guys are wondering whether we’ve left the house w/o our pants
on. Yes.. that means the mini or should i say micro dress is very much
in these days. I’m going to have to kick it up a little at my
kickboxing this month if I want to be ready for this summer trend..

It’s been awhile since I put together one of these collages.. hope you find something you like. Just remember — wear it bare! A nice tan won’t hurt either.

Click on each item to go directly to the website.

I watched the Korean film 200 Pound Beauty a couple nights ago. The concept of the movie — an overweight sex-phone-operator / lip sync vocalist turns into a bombshell overnight after getting massive plastic surgery — is itself a bit disturbing and yet ridiculously interesting, and there were some parts of the film that I really liked. I thought I’d share these clips with you so you’d be spared from having to watch the whole thing. The main character Hanna (Kim Ah-Joong) is crying through literally
half the movie. It’s got that Clueless/She’s All That theme in the
beginning… building up the evolution of a beast to beauty — through
plastic surgery of course since it’s a Korean film. It seems the
director has A.D.D. though and the plot kind of goes all over the
place. You are of course welcome to watch the full film on You Tube if you’re interested. The movie being a contemporary Korean film has some great fashion in it — of course

I really liked the singing scenes one scene shown below. In this scene Hanna is auditioning for the back-up singer role that she used to play when she was 200 pounds. She’s come back to try out for the role since she’s in love with the music producer (of course). She’s now much skinnier and attractive and no one recognizes her of course but is blown away by her singing.

This next one is the scene where Hanna has to go out and do her first performance in front of a live crowd.

And this final clip is the same "Maria" song but the official music video — provides a quick recap of 200 Pound Beauty. Now tell me, does this look like a Korean Shallow Hal or what??

Across the Social Network-Network (Social Network Services) I guess you’d call it, there is a growing trend of sites trying to offer people within the social community the ability to filter users out depending on their own tastes. So instead of walking into a room of strangers with no idea of who you might have more in common with, these social networks want to give you the tools to weed out those who are less like you and identify those who share the same taste as you. This is an important feature in my mind and once social network sites start to do a better job of it, could possibly take social networking to the next level. YEAH!

Last.FM was the first one I noticed to do it. I’m sure there’s others out there I didn’t know about but they were the first one I tried a compatibility test out to find other people with similar music taste as mine. I mean how cool would that be if I could just download a playlist every week with all new songs that other people with the same music taste as me had sought out? The hardest thing is finding people who’s music taste you can trust. Last.FM has a fair amount of work left to do I can say but they are damn cool for trying to take this on.

So now Kaboodle.com — my favorite Social Shopping site has launched their Style Compatibility Test. I took this a few weeks back and have since been checking out who’s got awesome style like me. So far it looks like Krist7 (top photo) and Mmumu (bottom photo) are the style winners across my Kaboodle Friend List. Nice job ladies — you must have impeccable taste.

How it works

You take a quick quiz where you rate a bunch of items 1-5 stars depending on how much you like the item, so depending on how closely you rated the items with the other users will determine what percentage style compatibility you are. Based on the test I’m 78% compatible with both Kristi7 and Mmumu…

What I just noticed is that I’m actually very low in compatibility on "Style and Fashion" with Kristi but really high on the other categories. It’s good that they break this down I suppose but it seems they should bring the overall score a bit to compensate for that. I barely noticed this.

I wish there was a way I could auto-search across the entire Kaboodle network and find other users who had the highest levels of Style and Fashion compatibility with me. Where are you friends? Come out and play with me…

Mai at Fusion Boutique Blog pointed out some super cutey, playful clutches at Little Odd Forest. It is an odd little forest indeed… The site sells a rambling of handmade goodies from tees to bags to papergoods and more.

I must agree with you Mai that the clutches are the cutest…

At $32.00/pop I could get one for every day of the week Thanks for the find Mai!

I don’t normally blog about beauty here but anything luxe is game so I wanted to share with you the most amazing eye pencil / pencil eyeliner I’ve ever used…

iRobot and I were aimlessly lolling around the makeup counters of the new Bloomies in San Francisco a few months ago… iRobot was looking for some blush and so we hunted the aisles for something she wouldn’t turn her nose to. We ran into a fabulously gay makeup counter attendant. Gay men make the best salesmen to women, wouldn’t you agree? He introduced us to this new line we’d never heard of before — Scott Barnes. Scott Barnes is apparently a high profile makeup artist who created his own line of products.

I gave into the powers of gay persuasion and bought 1 Scott Barnes Eye Pencil in Chocolate and 2 bottles of Eye Ice, one in Glitterachi and the other in Burgundy. Let me tell you, I’ve worn liquid liner ever since I started wearing makeup due to the fact that I could never find a pencil that was thick enough but wouldn’t smudge. Scott Barnes’ Eye Pencil breaks every stereotype I had on pencil liners! First off, it goes on thick and velvety — so important if you ever want that dramatic line. Amazingly, I don’t end up with racoon eyes by the end of the night. It also has just enough firmness to it that it doesn’t break in the pencil sharpener. I’ve sharpened down an entire eye pencil in one sitting when the tip kept breaking off. I loved this eye pencil so much I went back and got it in Moondance (a smoky black). Both are equally luxelicious. At $18.00 they aren’t cheap but to me they’ve been worth every cent.

Eye Pencil in Chocolate — $18.00

The Eye Ice is great too but was not as earth shattering to me as the Eye Pencil.

iRobot ended up getting the Eye Pencil, along with the Chic Palette, a trio of pressed blush powder. Haven’t had a chance to get her reviews on this but hopefully her Scott Barnes experience has been as great as mine!

Chic Palette in Posh — $45.00

The pictures do not justice but the packaging is seriously slick.

I also found a pic of Scott online. I support you Scotty!
 

It was a colorful party. Mostly luxe looks to my satisfaction. Here was the best and the worst of the Red Carpet roll at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards…

What was Luxe

Arielle Kebbel — perfect!

Alex Vega — I’m really into sexy back so I’ll overlook these shoes.

Nay on Rihanna’s hair but I love the unique pattern of this floor length dress. It suits her style perfectly for a Red Carpet look.

Lauren Conrad — her hair is perfect with this dress.. again overlooking the shoes.

I’m a little disappointed with Jessica Alba’s outfit since she normally knocks it out but she still looks good as usual. Again, what’s is wrong with everyone’s shoe selections??

This looks like a classic BCBG dress… Paris’ shoes did it for me though. Classic, safe…

Debbie Matenopoulos — Grecian Goddess of the Red Carpet.

Ashley Tisdale — Barbie doll but cute.

Aly and AJ — Fun I guess.

What was Suxe

Little Eva Mendes on the Prairie.. then she grabs her big ‘ole luxury handbag.

I cease to be amazed.

Vanessa Hudgens — this dress is ok but why the Red Carpet?.. her hair is gorgeous though!

Somewhere in between

Too safe with legs like that. I suppose the legs are the centerpiece..

Maybe it’s her pose, maybe it was how she just blends into the backdrop
– how unfortunate is that?, or maybe it’s just the fredericks of
hollywood feel of the dress… Victoria normally looks posh to me but
all I’m feeling on her are those pretty little silver points.

This look screams overage seductress.

Last week PinkMirage (who btw was the very very first fashion blogger I ever followed) blogged about Miss Universe and Makeup Talk. I agree wholeheartedly with her that it’s so nice to see more Asian females in the media. It sucked growing up and never seeing Asian females on TV, or in the movies and magazine who I could relate to. I mean other than Claudia or whatever her name was in Sweet Valley High… who else did we have to look to as examples or representations of Asian Americans? haha Sweet Valley..

I had heard about the newly crowned Japanese Miss Universe on the radio but after reading Pink Mirage’s post was compelled to do a little more reading up on the topic. I found out Miss Korea came in as 3rd runner-up!

Apparently there’s some controversy over who really deserved to win. I guess the translator did a poor job of translating Miss Korea, Honey Lee’s,  response to the interview question (see below for the clip), and some think that ruined Miss Korea’s chances of winning.

W/o having watched the show, it’s hard to tell who’s the better package overall but from the photos and video clips I’ve seen I must say Honey is Honey. I can’t imagine what guy would not give their right ball for one date with her. She has that sultry but adorably innocent look to her. Guys were made to go ga-ga for that combination. Riyo looks a little Amazon.. esp in this photo below.

Miss Japan– Riyo Mori

Miss Korea — Honey Lee

I love the celebration of culture and fashion through these cultural costumes — amazing.

Pictures taken from Miss Universe.com

A Video Clip of Miss Korea

Warning Advisory: Cheezy korean pop music, skimpily clad girls, and a healthy dosage of gratuitous pageant poses.

Here’s an interesting twist on fashion retail. At Famous Fashions Found.com you can shop — literally by celebrity, movie, or TV Show. This entire online shop is dedicated towards selling items the celebs have been seen wearing. And we’re talking the real stuff, not imitation pieces or knock-offs. The site design is rather crude at this point which is unfortunate since they market themselves as a luxurious, glamorous, exclusive place to shop.

The concept itself has legs. As I mentioned in Celebrities Changing the Face of Fashion we’re social creatures who look to others for fashion inspiration and identification. It’s through others that we learn about our own tastes — dislikes and likes alike. We get to know celebs on such intimate levels that it makes it easy to identify with them, almost as if we knew them personally. I bet we know more about Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton than the people we work with every day!

Anyway, back to the site… Famous Fashions Found has some great potential and I’ll be watching them over the next year. I may even make a purchase… these leather jackets below are… tempting.

If someone from Famous Fashions Found stumbles on this post… please do something about your site design already. I’ll help you create a new logo and "Buy Now" buttons for you asap if you want. It’s really that bad.

But cool site.

Another Celeb Fashion Site I Dig:

Frugal Fashionista — celeb looks deconstructed for frugal prices