A while ago I posted photos of my Solotica Hidrocor Ocre contacts on my black eyes. I had written that I didn’t really like the color, especially when compared to my Hidrocharme Mels. Also, I missed having the limbal ring which covered up any iris overlap.

A couple days ago, I decided to give them another try. I wore them for several hours and the color really grew on me. I like the gray they give off now but I think the iris overlap is noticeable if you look for it. It’s the pale yellow ring around my iris where the edge of the colored part of the contact is bigger than my actual iris. I don’t think it’s a deal breaker but might be of a concern to some.

Here’s an updated picture to help anyone who may be wondering what the Solotica Hidrocor Ocre colored contacts look on dark brown/black eyes.

Solotica Hidrocor Ocre Contacts on Black Asian Eyes

…and other recent purchases that make me happy.

Total Gym

I got a Total Gym Elite from Out of The Closet (a local thrift store) for only $45.  Found out after the fact that I could have bargained it down to $30 because of a missing (and unnecessary) accessory, but oh well, it all goes to charity anyway.  (I also found a $54 large cork memo board there for only $8—I love finding bargains!)

You’ve probably seen the infomercials with Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley.  It’s a piece of exercise equipment that uses your body weight and gravity as resistance.  You can find commercial Total Gym models at some gyms where they are better known as Gravity machines.

Despite the infomercial, the Total Gym won’t give you muscles like Chuck Norris.  You need a lot more resistance than your body weight for that, not to mention a good diet and probably supplement plan.  However, if used correctly, it is great for toning, strength building, flexibility and increasing your endurance.  Since I’m more interested in defining my muscles rather than growing them, the Total Gym is perfect for my needs.  I’ve been using it almost every day now and it’s amazing how many different exercises you can do on it.  Based on my body weight and at the top incline, the max resistance I can get is about 50 lbs using one hand or 25 lbs in each hand (or foot).  Coupled with high reps and about 3 sets, it’s perfect for me to get toned and stronger.  I have been doing many of the same exercises I had been doing at the gym on this one machine now.  Since I’m now working with a flexible cable system instead of a fixed machine, I can feel a lot more muscles firing up to stabilize my form with each rep.  In other words, each rep is harder yet more effective!

I used my Total Gym for lunges and squats yesterday and I can totally feel it in my legs today.  It’s also great for cardio as a rowing machine, and on a lower incline, it’s actually pretty fun.

Latisse

I’ve also had great success with another celebrity-endorsed product, Latisse.  It’s a liquid solution that Brooke Shields has been promoting which promises to grow thicker, longer lashes.  The choice of Brooke Shields is odd to me since she has always had naturally thick lashes and brows.  I was a bit skeptical, but since I was able to get the normally $120 product for just $10, I gave it a go.  Full results are supposed to be seen at Week 16, but here is a photo of my eyelashes at Week 0 (before application) and now, which is Week 10:

Latisse: Before use and then at Week 10

It definitely works!  A word of caution though: it has the potential to permanently turn you eye color brown.  If I didn’t already have dark eyes, I definitely would not risk it.  Also, $10 is cheaper than most tubes of mascara so it was a great value to me but I would not pay full price for this.  It’s a nice little feminine perk, but not worth $120 especially since your lashes will regrow at their normal length once you stop using it.

Food

I love food. I love saving money. I love saving money on food!

Pork spareribs were on sale and a $6 slab has lasted me 4 days! Yum! I never get sick of ribs.

Also, bought a bar of Lindt 70% dark chocolate bar with cherry and chili and it was da bomb! So good, and when eaten in moderation, is good for you with all the antioxidants and flavonoids found in dark chocolate.  I don’t have a problem with moderating my sweets and am satisfied after just one or two squares.  When buying chocolate, the darker the better, and make sure the first ingredient is chocolate not sugar like it is with many mainstream brands.

Alright, that’s it for now.  Can you tell I’m trying to blog more often?

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But it’s not more than most girls have, is it?

A girl can never have enough eye shadows.

I’m a lazy girl. Unless I’m going out to a bar, club or nice restaurant, I very rarely wear makeup.  Some lotion and chapstick is enough for me (though I should be wearing sunscreen).  However, I love the look of well-applied makeup, especially eye makeup.  I have a slight obsession with eye shadows and find myself buying them constantly.  I just love owning a little pot of color; it’s like owning a brilliant jewel with no two brands/shades being alike.

As I mentioned at the end of an earlier post, I jumped on the NXY lot sale and got Lot 3 (now sold out), which consisted of 43 of their great eye shadows.  So now I have 43 new shadows to play with, though I admit I probably have used less than 25% of the shadows I already own.  Despite my fascination with owning eye shadows, I don’t often put them to good use.

I think this is because I am never quite satisfied with how eye shadow looks on me.  Unlike my three younger sisters, I have monolids, also known as single lids or what one would consider typical “Asian eyes.”  Eye shadow is usually applied on the upper eyelid, but that’s pretty pointless for me because you can’t see my upper eyelid when my eyes are opened.  My eyelids disappear underneath my fatty epicanthal fold.  So, if I want to actually wear eye shadow and have the color be visible, I have to apply it higher than my natural eyelid area; I have a lot of visible space between my opened eye and eyebrows.  It’s like a big blank canvas with no guidelines.  I want guidelines dammit! A lot of traditional instructions for applying eyeshadows use your upper eyelid crease and browbone as a guide for where to apply color.  Well, I don’t have an eyelid crease and my browbone is pretty flat, so it’s not easy knowing where exactly to put the color and what “shape” to apply it in.

So many possibilities; with no crease to follow, what does one do?

There are tutorials out there for single lidded Asian girls, but they don’t really work for me.  Even though I’m monolid, my eye shape is rounder and larger than those in the tutorials:

I like how my eyes look here, but want to jazz them up with some color.

Also, a lot of tutorials don’t get very specific about what exactly they’re doing, especially video tutorials.  It’s very easy to take for granted something you yourself already know how to do (guilty!).

Well, I finally found two detailed tutorials that work for me.  One of them actually draws guidelines to help me determine where to shade:

Guidelines for monolid eye shadow

Christine wrote a great tutorial at Asian Beauty Blog, which you can read here.

I followed the steps earlier and was very happy with how it came out.

I also found a detailed video by mulzana on YouTube with a different technique especially good for creating a smokey eye:

So now that I’ve found a couple techniques that work for my eyes, I hope to actually use all the eye shadows I have!  In addition to having quality shadows, I’ve also come to realize that good brushes and a primer are important tools for great eye makeup.  I use Urban Decay’s Primer Potion, a small brush for applying precise color and a larger brush for blending colors.  Black eyeliner and mascara are key too!

I’m also wondering how to achieve the eye looks in the following two pictures.  Any thoughts?

Love this, but thinking maybe you need this exact eye shape for this look?

What a gorgeous, deep smokey eye!

As promised, here’s a picture I just took of my Solotica Hidrocor Ocre colored contact lenses on my nearly black eyes.  They look gray in these photos, but in real life I think they look more brownish-gray.  I asked Tim and he said they look brownish green.  Huh?

I’m still getting used to them… they look kinda cloudy in my opinion.  Not that my vision is cloudy, but the appearance of the contacts itself is.  Hmph.

Solotica Hidrocor Ocre

Solotica Hidrocor Ocre

I made a list of where to buy these Solotica contacts and other contacts on my other entry.

Update February 2010: I put up a better picture of Solotica Hidrocor Ocres here.

A few months ago I bought I decided to try colored contacts again after a disaster a few years ago.

Back then I bought a colored pair, sight unseen, with my regular contact lens order. It was Acuvue 2 Colors in hazel. And it was horrible. The colored area looked like it was painted on harshly and the crazy pupil hole made it appear as if I was looking off in different directions.

My regular eye color is very dark, basically black, and unless there’s bright light right in my eye, you really can’t tell my iris from my pupil.

Now this isn’t me, but this is what I looked like with my hazel contacts:

Ugh! Well after a lot of research, joining a messageboard, and looking at before and after pictures of various colored contact lenses, I decided on a Brazilian brand called Solotica. They are well-known for having high-quality lens that focus on replicating the depth seen on natural eyes.  They were especially recommended for dark eyes.

Solotica contact lenses come in 3 different types: Natural Colors, Hidrocor, and Hidrocharme. That’s also the order of their opacity, with NC being the most see-through. Additionally, Natural Colors and Hidrocharme both have limbal rings while Hidrocor does not. (The limbal ring is the ring of darker color around the iris.)

I decided on the Hidrocharme in the “mel” shade. Now although mel means “honey” and is shown as a golden yellow lens, I read that on brown and dark eyes, the resulting blend looks more green. With my eyes being so dark, I was worried that I would be wasting my money, but I was feeling impulsive and bought a pair anyway.

Well they are green! I really like the results:

Solotica Hidrocharme Mel on Black Eyes

I do have a few issues with it though.

1. They’re not as comfortable as my regular Acuvue 2 lenses that I wear daily for vision correction. These Solotica lenses are much thicker, which I guess is necessary in order for that color to show up. I can’t wear them for more than 4 or 5 hours without getting really tired eyes.
2. There seems to be manufacturing inconsistencies.  One of the lenses is about 30% thicker than the other. If you’re a regular contact lens wearer, you’ll notice the difference right away not only on your finger but also in your eyes.
3. It makes me look like I have a huge pupil.  Most well-designed colored contact lenses create an “unpainted” circle in the middle for your pupil to show through.  Around this circle they may fade the dominant lens color and add in touches of other colors to create a nice blend with the lens and your natural eye color for a natural looking starburst around your pupil.  Well, since my natural eye color is basically the same color as my pupil, that “starburst” is just a big black pupil.  It looks kinda weird to me, but I don’t think most people even notice.  Example:
   

   Big Pupil Hole on Solotica Hidrocharme Mel

Despite all these, Solotica gives me the most natural look I think I can get with colored contacts.  It’s been a lot of fun being able to change my eye color so dramatically.  It’s like changing your hair color or painting you fingernail—quite quick and easy, but makes a huge difference.

Anyway, I was so impressed with my Hidrocharme Mels that I decided to buy another pair of Soloticas.  This time I wanted to try something without the limbal ring so I ordered the Hidrocor in ocre.  Ocre is supposed to be a grayish brown color.

Well, I received the order last week and I’m on the fence about it.  It’s a much lighter color than my Hidrocharme Mels, and I don’t know if I like it.  It almost makes my eyes look milky or cloudy, and I think I kinda miss having a limbal ring that define my eyes.

I had a few pics of me wearing the Hidrocor Ocres, but I accidentally deleted them.  I’ll take new ones soon; I need an excuse to try them out again.  I haven’t worn my new Hidrocor Ocres often enough to say definitively if I like them or not.  For now though, with it being fall allergy season and the wildfires filling the air with smoke, I’m sticking to my glasses and my comfortable clear lenses.

Where to buy Solotica Colored Contact Lenses and other Contacts:

While shopping for contacts, I found some great deals online, though you can’t really find the Solotica brand here you can browse for other types of colored or regular contact lenses:

• Get $20 off a $200 order. Use coupon code DCL20 at checkout. Expires 2/11/09.
• Same site, but coupon code DCL5 is for $5 off an order of $50. This is good until 12/31/09.
• Get free shipping on contact lens orders over $89 at ACLens.
• Contacts America and Lens Mart have a lot lower prices than most eye doctors and a good selection too.
• Free shipping plus $5 off on all orders of $199 or more at at 1-800-GET-LENS. Use code 1800-OL09. Expires 1/31/09.
• Just Lenses has a similar deal. Their code is JUST-FK09.
• Lens.com has free shipping on all orders of $99 or more if you use the code AF09-MZIX. Offer expires 1/31/09.

If you really want the Solotica, you can try to buy them from this Brazilian site: Viallure. Shipping takes a while and it’s pretty pricey compared to most other sites. Not really worth it for me since I don’t wear my contacts that often, but might be for you.

Update: A photo of my hidrocor ocres can be seen here.

Update #2: New pic of my Solotica Hidrocharme Mel contacts on my nearly black eyes, taken 12/08:

Love them but wish they were more comfy!

Update 09/08/09: A comment about soloticastore.com can be found at the bottom of the page.