There are just some things that one can't outgrow, and for me, Prince of Tennis (TeniPuri) is one of them. I first got into TeniPuri back in 2007,  when I was still in highschool and eight years later I'm, once again, hooked on the series and its franchise (anime, manga, character songs, stage musicals– you name it). It's ridiculous, really, how much I love this series with all the outlandish tennis moves with just as outlandish names. Would you believe they made a stage musical out of it? A hugely successful one at that? I've been practically drowning in TeniPuri for the past month and it was only a matter of time before I did something TeniPuri-related.

So here it is: TeniPuri-inspired nails. To be more specific, Hyotei Gakuen-inspired nails. Prince of Tennis tells of Seigaku's, a middle-school tennis team, bid to win the National Tournament and Hyotei Gakuen is one of the many rival schools they face.

Image from Zero-chan.net

Like many of the other rival schools in the series, Hyotei is full of eccentric characters that are all strangely endearing that it's difficult not to root for them. Eventually, they ended up as my second favorite rival school in the series, the first one being Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku.

Hyotei's color motif leans more towards  light blues and gray it was easy for me to find lacquers from my collection that would suit their image. 

(L-R) Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat, OPI Teal the Cows Come Home, Clinique Made of Steel

In Japanese, Hyotei (氷帝) can be roughly translated into "ruler of ice." (If I'm not mistaken.) Due to this, Hyotei is associated with ice.  This association is most notable when it comes to the captain and one of my favorite characters, Atobe Keigo. This is largely due to one of his techniques in the series called "World of Ice", where he can see an opponent's weak spots which are represented by shards of ice. (Sshhh. This is anime/manga. It's allowed to be outrageous.) In the musicals, Hyotei even has their own version of what I call the "douchebag rival song" aptly entitled "Ice Emperor" in which they pretty much tell the protagonist team, and everyone else to "Kneel down, worship, and honor us." This is why I opted for an icy blue and I thought Teal The Cows Come Home was perfect. I added Made of Steel as an accent nail to nail (pun intended) that Hyotei Gakuen color motif. 

Anyone who knows me knows that I am weak against sparkly things, so instead of just going with the icy blue and dark grey I added on rhinestones and glitter. It may seem a bit over the top, but I was going for Atobe Keigo, arguably the center of Hyotei and known for being over the top. Self-styled and widely recognized as "King," Atobe's flamboyant tendencies have been somewhat of a running joke within the franchise and the fandom, so the rhinestones play into the theme well. Maybe I should change the title of this post to "Shousha wa Atobe!" instead. 

I had a lot of fun with this nail art. Granted, it was a bit difficult getting the rhinestones on my nails, but seeing the end-result is satisfying. Isn't it pretty? Not only is it a combination of two of my interests (anime/manga and cosmetics holla), but it suits the Christmas Season as well! December is drawing near and nothing says Christmas festivities quite like a little sparkle sparkle.

I'm hoping I could do more of these cross-overs in the future. Rikkai nail art would be nice, if only I could pull off yellow nails.

Until next time!

anime/manga beauty nail art nail polish

Friday, November 27, 2015

Guess who just stepped into the world of lippies? I used to be not too keen on lip products aside from lip balm or lip tints, but I am a changed woman now. I do use lipstick occasionally, when I know that I won't be eating or drinking any time soon, but it's still one of those things I usually forgo when I put on makeup.

My biggest problem with lipstick is that it tends to transfer and fade easily, even when I'm just taking a drink. It might be just me over-reacting, but whenever I see lipstick left on that straw I just used, or the glass I took a sip from, all I could see was the money that went into that lipstick. Still, I did like lipstick well enough, so I began my search for resilient lip colors. During my last visit to Taipei, I found out about Clio's Lipnicure, which had a lot of raving reviews. Sadly though, the original matte Lipnicure was no longer on sale, and I wasn't too keen on the new Lipnicure Glass and its shades. However, I did find the Lipmanicure by RiRe, an obscure Korean cosmetics brand. It was obviously a dupe of the Lipnicure, but since I fell in love with the Wine Burgundy color, I went for it.

Rire's Lipmanicure in Wine Burgundy and Muse Red

Rire's Lipmanicure comes in 11 shades, but they're not easy to find. In Taipei, they're not available in most drugstores or beauty stores. I was lucky enough to find these two colors at Strawberry Paradise Beauty House in one of the alleys in Ximending. In most other places, like 86shop, the shades available were either too pink, or too orange. These were on sale when I bought them, so I bought two colors: Wine Burgundy and Muse Red. At first glance, they look like cute little bottles of nail polish and come with a short applicator. Upon opening the bottles, you get hit by this artificial-smelling fragrance of sort, but it disappears after a while, so I didn't get too concerned about it.

Personally, the applicator was too short and wide cap made it really difficult to apply the lipmanicure. Especially for someone like me who prefers clean lines when it comes to my lips, the applicator was a nightmare. Midway into applying this for the first time, I gave up and switched to a lip brush.

Muse Red (L) and Wine Burgundy (R) applied with the built-in applicator.

Muse Red is a warm, matte, bright red shade, while Wine Burgundy is a rather cool, matte, dark red. All of the Lipmanicure colors come in matte, but you can also opt to purchase the top coat if you want a glossy finish. (Just like a real manicure!)

When it comes to application, awkward applicator aside, the product applies smoothly. However, it is important to note that the product dries quickly. This is because once the lip manicure dries, it will not budge. If you try to even out layers by building it up, you're going to end up with patchy looking lips. What I do is, working one lip at a time, I outline my lips with it, then fill it into get a nice, even layer. The great thing about these shades though, is that one layer is enough for a solid finish. Honestly, two layers might be a bit too much.

Aside from Wine Burgundy and Muse Red being just the colors I wanted for my lips, I loved how resilient it is.This is what the Lipmanicure looked like after I put it under running water and tried to smudge it with a finger.

It smears a bit, but otherwise, it looks untouched. If I hadn't touched it right after wetting it, I doubt it would have smeared. I've worn Wine Burgundy a couple of times, and it really doesn't transfer onto anything. Not on my glass, not on a straw, not on a bottle of water...that's how resilient it is! Though wiping my mouth with a tissue did cause some of it to come off, it was barely noticeable. It did start fading and smudging when I had oily food, but that's understandable. 

Removing it is a bit of a challenge. Although my Shu Uemura Cleaning Oil had very little problems getting it off my lips, it did require a bit of elbow grease to get the stains off the area around my lips where it had smeared while I was trying to remove it. 

The RiRe Lipmanicure dried my lips out so much, that it cancels out its other positive qualities. It's such a shame because I really love the Wine Burgundy shade and it's staying power. If anything, I'll just end up putting this on whenever I feel like taking a nice selfie and then removing it immediately after.

Here is a little selca of me when I first tried out the Wine Burgundy color:

Isn't the color so lovely? I feel like an evil queen. Or a teleserye contrabida mom.

beauty

Friday, November 20, 2015

Why yes, I do have a tiny tiara just lying around.

Huzzah! This blog is alive!

Considering my updates have been few and far in-between, and by that I mean I've only updated TWICE within the past year, this blog is going through a reboot of sorts. I've been considering going through a revamp for a while now, but I've been otherwise occupied with work, animes about tennis, musicals about tennis, and well, the prince of tennis. Encouraging words from my lovely Elaine-jiejie gave me that final push to restart this blog. That and now that I've found the charger for my camera, THERE IS NOTHING IN MY WAY! (Excuses, excuses.)

So, here it is. Welcome to The Princess Build 2.0! Isn't the new layout nice? The old one took ages to load, and not minimalist enough for my liking. It still needs a bit more pink though. Though my posts will still be mostly about cosmetics (I mean, where else is it socially acceptable to ramble on and on about make up?), I do intend to branch out and post about my other interests and more of my photography. Who knows, maybe I'll even post about stage musicals with people dancing around with tennis rackets.

Until next time!

Thursday, November 19, 2015