I thought it would be helpful for you to know my skin tone, skin type, hair type, etc., so that when I do reviews, there is a basis for my preferences.

Face: I’m ethnically Asian, originally from Hong Kong.  For now I’ve made the conscious decision to not post my full mug online, so you’ll have to imagine what I look like.  If forced to play “Which celebrity do I look like?”, the answer would be… Lucy Liu.  I personally don’t think there’s a strong resemblance (maybe a bit in the eyes and cheekbones?  I have freckles too?) but I get this comment often (it always starts out with “Has anyone ever told you…?”).   So I guess if complete strangers say this, they must see something I don’t (although I always assume that strangers are just being nice and want to pay me a compliment, and they think telling me that I look like Lucy Liu is the best way?)

Skin tone: I’m light-medium complected with a neutral slightly warm undertone.  Foundation shade matches include:  MAC NC20-25, Shiseido i20 Natural Light Ivory, Illamasqua 6.5, and MUFE 120 Soft Sand (of these, the Shiseido matches me best).  I don’t have a strong yellow undertone typical of Asians, I’m fairly neutral and sometimes cool leaning shades work fine on me.  Even though I will not be posting photos of my face, I will still do swatches on my skin (probably inner forearm) to show how products look on my skin tone.

Skin type: I have combination sensitive skin.  My t-zone is slightly oily and my problematic area for hormonal blemishes is on my chin.  My cheeks are normal, bordering on dry.  Having combination skin means that I often use 2 completely different sets of skincare to treat the 2 different skin types.

Eyes: dark brown iris, hooded with a small visible crease, with “meh” lashes (mine aren’t bone straight, but they’re short and sparse), and I have non-existent lower lashes.  My eyebrows are also quite sparse although I am lucky to have naturally well shaped brows that don’t require much grooming, I just mainly need to fill them in.

Lips: I personally feel like my lips are too full in proportion to my face but others say no.  My lips are small width-wise but thick-ish in my opinion (I measured: 5cm wide by 3.2cm high full height of lips closed at the highest point).  They’re so quite pigmented (the above drawing shows my actual lip colour using the eyedropper tool) so I can get away with sheer tinted lip balms.  Lipsticks – any shade – often turn fuchsia on me.

Nails: my nails are fairly strong, they have some flex and don’t break easily, but I’m prone to my nails peeling because I’m a frequent hand washer.  I try to combat this with nail strengtheners and by moisturizing often.  I like to keep my nails not too long with a squoval shape.

Hair: dark brown slightly wavy with long layers hanging past my shoulders.  I have an average amount of hair – not too thick or thin, and it’s not susceptible to damage.  I do have to wash my hair daily or else it’s a greasy stringy mess.  In the winter I do battle with dry itchy scalp and some noticeable hair loss but come Springtime, this all disappears.

Body type: I’m a petite person, just shy of 5’3″.  I wear xs/s.  I’ve been told that I have child-sized hands (ring size 4.  I can just manage an octave on the piano).  I wear size 6-6.5 shoes.

I think I’ve covered the significant attributes.  I hope this is useful when you read my reviews.

(That was an interesting exercise – I challenge everyone to write a self description like this!  I used the Smashbox Shape Matters site to help me with the facial features.)

For those of you do know me, how accurately did I portray myself?