Hey guys! After a bit of a blogging hiatus I wanted to tip-toe my way back into the blogging world and share a couple of incredible milestones I recently reached.

First of all, today officially marks my 7 year anniversary of when I wrote my first blog entry here at From Head To Toe. This was back before there were a plethora of beauty and fashion blogs glittering up the internet, and I took the humble request of girl on a forum I posted makeup tips on to create my own space for sharing tutorials and reviews and I thought, "why not!"

Is it too late to say 'thank you' to that girl? You basically changed my entire life.

Hey everyone! I wanted to share a recent interview I did with Soompi.com. A few of you old school FHTT fans might remember that I started out posting little makeup tutorials in the Soompi forums years ago (2007!) which actually led to the creation of my blog, so I feel like I have a lot that I owe to the Soompi community for helping my site grow into what it is now. I'm truly honored and humbled for things to have come around full circle like that.


If you are interested in reading the article, click on the image above or check it out here.

Thank you so much to Soompi, as well as all you Soompiers out there who followed along on my journey experimenting with everything from circle lenses to eyelid tape to sharing monolid tutorials and my acne story. It has been, and still is, an incredible experience being open and sharing my life and experiences with you guys. As long as my blogs and videos can encourage women to be self-confident, knowledgeable, and beautiful (inside and out), I feel endlessly blessed to be working for something greater than myself.

I love you guys so much! :)

Happy weekend everyone! I just wanted to pop in and share a recent interview I had with The Korea Times which covers my whole background and experience developing From Head To Toe.


It's been a surreal journey going from making home videos on my Sony Cybershot and blogging in my free time after my 8-to-5 in Kansas to, well, making home videos (In HD this time! With lights! And a mic!) and sending Tweets, Instagrams, and blog posts out to hundreds of thousands. It's not the numbers that give me the most pride, it's the exponential ability to send waves of positivity out that really brings a happy-tear lump to my throat.

To read the article you can click here or the photo above. Thank you so much to Julie Carlson and The Korea Times. I am beyond honored to be featured.

Just because it's crazy to see the changes my Youtube channel has gone through over the years, here's a look back at some of my past videos and how they've molded into what they are now!

Uploaded September 2009, Just Mascara + Monolid Tutorial is one of the oldest tutorials I posted on Youtube that still remains on my channel. Earlier videos were deleted at one point or another before I was aware you could private them. 


I really started falling in love with doing more dramatic K-pop inspired makeup tutorials and Rania "Dr. Feel Good" is one of my favorites from May 2011. You can see I started talking through tutorials compared to just being shy and typing out text before.

Hey guys! So it's been a dream of mine, literally for years, to develop a platform for a really positive beauty community where we could share makeup looks, reviews, and experiences. For me, makeup has always been so much more than just about making yourself pretty. Pretty changes. Cosmetic trends come and go, and physical beauty doesn't last as well. What does last is how you feel about yourself on the inside and as crazy as it is, how you express yourself on the outside does mirror that too.

One of the reasons I started blogging nearly 6 years ago is that I felt like I was alone in my journey of discovering how to apply makeup to my monolid, Asian eyes while growing up in Midwest America surrounded by very little diversity.

Hey everyone! So I was recently browsing my blog feed (are you following mine on Blogvin' yet?) and came across the ever-sweet Emily from Beauty Broadcast who posted a blog tag called the "Procrastinating Beauty Blogger Tag". Hmm... Procrasting? Me? OF COURSE! ;)

I thought it would be fun to share my answers and definitely would love to see yours too! Lets kick things off with a photo of me applying makeup while sitting in a pile of makeup. Typical. Clean that pile up, lady!

Hey everyone! I recently did a really fun interview plus a bright neon makeup look on the ever-witty Jeff Klima of New Media Rockstars at my apartment. It was fun pulling out some of my favorite books, games, and of course makeup to share with you guys plus you'll also get a peek at my space so I hope you enjoy the interview and pics! Read the full interview here or click the image below.


See the video interview with Jeff's gorgeous drag makeup plus more pics after the jump!

Hello everyone. Today's update has a little bit less to do about makeup and a little more about true beauty, strength of the spirit, and real life. I know I don't always go into my personal life here on the blog but every now and then I feel compelled to speak about things that are pressing on my heart and it seems the season has come to spread some branches out and grow.

The last couple of months for me have been rather life-changing. As you know, I had an amazing whirlwind of a trip with my family and husband to South Korea in May where I got to share with him the roots of my family and culture. I feel like it was such a God-blessed trip that it could happen at all, but also that I got to share laughter and tears with relatives I hadn't been able to see in 8 years and also hold my own meetup in Seoul which I anticipated maybe 20 people to show up. I never expected that in a foreign, non-English speaking country that 5 times that number would arrive instead. I was utterly speechless with appreciation and overwhelmed to tears at the thought of each person taking time out of their day to meet me, someone who does nothing more than type on a computer and talk to a lonely camera in her living room. Although embarrassing, my tears were because I felt very loved and unworthy in that moment.


In juxtaposition to all of the new experiences of Korea, it was then that I also found out that my sister, only 2.5 years older than me, was diagnosed with Adenocarcinoma (glandular cancer) which was in its early stages but had an aggressive onset in a very short period of time in my sister's case. Since we've been back to the US, she has faced 2 major surgeries. Obviously for being so young and beautiful, this came as such a shock with great emotional turmoil for my entire family.
At nearly the same time, my husband Ben found out that his father was also diagnosed with prostate cancer, the same cancer that Ben's grandfather on his mom's side just passed away from last year. Again, it was alarming to find that in someone so young and healthy. My father-in-law is an avid cyclist and has always been a wonderful example of what a father should be in body, mind, and spirit. He went into major surgery on the same morning as my sister, thousands of miles away.

The mental and emotional burden of everything we experienced must have been too much for me because a couple days after both had surgery, I came down with fevers, body aches, and a cough which I am only now recovering from. Most days I was weak and delirious in bed, I would check Facebook Angels For Talia to see how Talia Castillano, also known as Taliajoy18 on youtube, has been doing. If you haven't heard of Talia, she is an amazingly brave and vivacious 13-year old makeup enthusiast, artist, and Youtube beauty guru who battled multiple types of cancers for 6 years. I had the honor of meeting her earlier this year and I was blown away by her vibrancy and humbled to find we were mutual fans of each other. We talked about fashion, being petite and how that makes people see you, and how she reminds me of myself not only when I was younger but also the person I am now. Such a lifetime had already been bottled into that little girl, it really leaves you impacted on so many levels.


I've found out that Talia has joined the angels in Heaven today (Tuesday July 16th as I'm writing this blog entry) after fulfilling her purpose here on Earth and touching and inspiring countless numbers of people. In lieu of all that has happened in my own life, I can't help but feel great depths of emotions ranging from a deep sadness that we've lost a beautiful human, to relief that she's no longer in the pain and suffering that she'd fought especially hard in the last 6 months, to an intense determination to spread the message to love harder.

There are always horrible things happening everyday. Things that are unfair and wrong and have no answers. The only conclusion that we can come to is not that we can fix those things or to justify them, but instead we have to focus on loving those who need it to make up for all the unfairness out there. To love deeply, desperately, generously, and selflessly.

It's easy to see snippets of other people's lives and think that they live such an enchanted existence, but the reality of the matter is that we are all faced with truths in life that slap us in the face and remind us what is really important: to love those we encounter and touch each other's lives one by one. Lets all actively love out loud, for Talia, for my sister, my father in law, for everyone who has had sickness, heartache, or loss.

Be humble, give grace, love deeply - my purpose and yours.

Hi everyone! While you read this I will likely be sleeping or packing in preparation for my month-long trip to South Korea with my family. As you can well imagine, things have been insane here trying to get everything ready and pre-recording videos so that you guys won't be left alone while I take my vacay, so I unfortunately don't have a Mani Monday for this week. (Two of the tell-tale gauges of being super stressed or busy for me is not keeping up with wearing lots of rings and how nice my nails look, ha!)

The GOOD news is that I have a video that I wanted to share that is really quite personal and is more open than I've ever been in the 5+ years that I've shared my life online. I shed a lot of tears and it took a lot of bravery to put my Draw My Life video together but I have to say, I feel a strange sense of relief to talk about some of the ups and downs that I've been through. Nobody's life is perfect or easy but I hope that some of you out there can relate to my story. :) You can watch the video below.

Today I wanted to share with you a couple of interviews I've had the honor of being a part of from around the 'net!

First off the lovely Kat from one of my favorite fashion & lifestyle blogs, Feather Factor, posted this in-depth peek at my style, favorite things, and advice on what to shop for. I'm a huge fan of the interview series on her blog (past interviewees include A Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin as well as fascinating and successful women from all walks of life... I'm so flattered to be a part of this list!) so definitely check them out if you enjoy reading about different people or seeing drool-worthy bag and designer collections. Thank you so much Kat for the interview and I can't wait to read your future interviews as well!

Next, I wanted to share the LA18 interview I did last month. The show was "Halo Halo with Kat Iniba" and I got the opportunity to talk a bit about my experience being on the cast of Away We Happened.

Hey guys! I've been out of internet at where I'm staying for the last few days but I popped into a Panera to catch their free wifi so that I can update you with a few things. First of all, I was interviewed by Stylet, a popular fashion web magazine in Korea so if you are interested in seeing the article you can click here or the image below to read it. The article itself in Korean, but the interview questions are written in both English and Korean so most of my readers should be able to enjoy it. Shoutout to my Korean readers! :)



Also, on Tuesday I went and did an interview with LA18 so hopefully you guys local to LA will be able to see me on your local TVs in the next week! When I get more information about the exact day and time it will air I will post it here on the blog.

Here's a little behind-the-scenes photo from my Instagram while we were there. You can follow @frmheadtotoe for future pics. :)


Finally, I wanted to announce that I'll be officially guest judging at Kollaboration going on at the Ford Amphitheater tonight in Los Angeles, July 13, 2012 at 8:30PM. You can find out more information about the event on the Kollaboration Facebook page. If you are going, hope to see you there. Please come up and say hi if you see me!



Thank you for all of your love, encouragement, and support! You don't realize how much I think about you guys and keep you in my thoughts and prayers. Just knowing that you might take 5 minutes out of your day to read my little blog or watch any of my videos really blows my mind. I feel blessed beyond words everyday I play out this LA adventure and I know it wasn't my own doing that got me here.

Getting back to beauty posts, I'll have a new tutorial up next so check back soon! Much love and lots of hugs! xoxo

Happy Bloggers With No Makeup Day! I'm aware that this tradition was probably a short-lived one for most, starting two years ago (see my previous Heart 2 Heart posts), but I've found that sticking with this day for the last 3 years has not only given me strength and encouragement, but also a greater hope that youtube and blogs can really make waves of positive impact. As much as I love makeup, I love encouraging women to love themselves even more.

The concept is that today, we share with the world our bare face. No eyeliner, concealer, mascara, foundation, lipstick, or whatever else it is that we hold dear to our makeup pouches. I've found that this annual "holiday" has made me grow as a person and there are few things that I've done as a blogger that have been as rewarding as being open about my imperfections.

Video and my makeup history below.

Hello everyone! Lately there has been a tag that I've seen a lot of other beauty gurus doing that I thought was really cute. It's called the "7 Deadly Sins of Beauty" which are questions that relate to each of the 7 deadly sins, such as Greed, Sloth, Lust, and so on.

As much as we all try to be good about keeping those vices in check, come on, we are talking about beauty products here! Surely everyone has a few deadly sins hidden in their closet, am I right?

Hi everyone! Today's post is another one taking a bit of a look into my life and introducing you my one and only sibling: my sister Linda! You may remember seeing her in my Cali visit posts here and here but this time she came home to visit my parents and me instead. :)

I know many of you have sisters and would probably relate to some of the answers we gave in the sister tag, so while she was visiting I had her sit down and do a video with me. Without further ado, please warmly welcome my unnie.

Video and tag questions, plus more pics of my sister after the jump!

Out of all the clothes I have, some of my most adored fashion items are shoes. I'm the type to always notice details and I really believe that what a person chooses to wear on their feet says a lot about them in general. Does anyone remember that scene in Legally Blonde where Elle spots the missing clue to the trial by commenting on the pool boy's shoes? Genius!



When I saw this shoe tag going around Youtube a couple of months ago, I had a lot of fun being nosy about seeing what others wore on their feet so I thought I'd share some of my favorite shoes with you today too.

Hello everyone! I just wanted to share with my Korean readers this recent article from the Korea Times Los Angeles newspaper. I feel very honored that they would feature me and I feel like it's extra special since it's in Korean. My parents aren't the type to give me tons of accolades for my online achievements, but somehow if it's written in Korean they seem to become very proud of me, which means a lot. ^_^


To my Korean and international readers, thank you so much for all of your love and support! I would never believe in a million years that a small midwest girl like me could reach so far around the world and receive such great love and kindness back. It's a truly incredible thing to know that we can touch each other's hearts simply through a computer screen. That, to me, is magic!

I love you guys and with my humblest and joy-filled heart, I want to say thank you!

Ahh, 2012 is finally here! Last night as the seconds hit to midnight, I was already busy tweeting away wishing everyone a Happy New Year. 2011 came to a delightful end as we spent time surrounded by friends with a taco and Dance Central party. Could I ask for anything better? ;)

Today is officially the first day of January, 2012 and it's time to slough off the old and begin anew with brand new goals, hopes, dreams, and ideas for self improvement for another year. In this video, I share what my personal goals for this year are.


My New Years Resolutions for 2012:

1. Redesign my blog, Youtube, twitter, etc.


I designed my current blog layout about 3 years ago and it's really in need of a good facelift! As much as I do love this layout, it reflects the person who I was three years ago and I think I've really changed a lot since then. I want to focus a lot of my energies into visually expressing the person I am now, as well as improving the usability and navigation of the site. I'm not a web designer so it will be a challenge for me, but it's a challenge I am looking forward to tackling. Any of you coding gurus out there are free to e-mail me if you might be able to help. ^_^

2. Get on a regular sleep schedule


I'm a night owl by nature and I've always had trouble falling asleep ever since I was a child, so going to bed "on time" has always been a challenge for me. I just feel more awake and productive at night! Unfortunately, this leads to tired, unproductive, and long work days where I just feel like I'm not operating at 100%. I really want to change that this year for my health and workday efficiency. 7-8 hours of sleep every night! Bright, productive days full of energy! Yes, please!

3. Gold star every song on Dance Central 2 on Hard


My current favorite method of exercising is playing the XBOX Kinect game, Dance Central 2. In the game, if you do very well you can 5 star the song. If you do extremely well, almost perfectly, you can gold star the song. I want to make it my goal to gold star every song in Dance Central 2 on the hardest difficulty. Hopefully this will keep me motivated to go through each song and stay fit at the same time! Although I don't diet, I try to live a healthy lifestyle and regular exercise is an important part of that regardless of age, weight, and body type. :)

4. Use and wash only my "favorite" brushes regularly

I honestly detest deep cleaning my brushes. It's probably one of my least favorite things to do when it comes to makeup maintenance. I have a ton of brushes and this fact has enabled me to go through brush after brush before I finally use them all up and am forced to deep clean the whole lot which takes a very long time. Since it's annoying using second and third-tier brushes that I don't love as much, I've decided that I want to curate a selection of favorite brushes which I can stick to and deep clean once a week. Hopefully soon, I can share with you this group of favorites as well as showing how I both spot clean and deep clean my brushes!

5. Read more books!


I know this really isn't beauty, health, or blog-related but I want to get back into reading. I've always been a big nerdy bookworm and really enjoy delving into some nice fiction about free-thinkers breaking from a socialist society (o hai Hunger Games, Brave New World, Animal Farm, Anthem) or children rising beyond their youth and maturity levels to be the hero (Ender's Game, Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia) or even guilty pleasure reads (Charlane Harris's "True Blood" vampire series, Twilight). My goal is to finish at least 1 book per month with the key word being finish, as the past year saw a few books half-read and abandoned. I've listed a few books above that are in my queue but let me know your suggestions of good page-turners!

Fingers crossed I will stick to all of my goals this year! Do you have any resolutions for 2012? Let me know in the comments!

Today's post has nothing to do with beauty and fashion but it's a tag that has been going around youtube that is one of my favorites to date! The "Get Your Freak On" tag is a fun group of 15 questions that give us a bit of insight on the weird inside all of us. ;)

Questions
#1. What's a nickname only your family calls you?
#2. What's a weird habit of yours?
#3. Do you have any weird phobias?
#4. What's a song you secretly LOVE to blast & belt out when you're alone?
#5. What's one of your biggest pet peeves?
#6. What's one of your nervous habits?
#7. What side of the bed do you sleep on?
#8. What was your first stuffed animal && it's name?
#9. What's the drink you ALWAYS order at starbucks?
#10. What's the beauty rule you preach.. but never ACTUALLY practice?
#11. Which way do you face in the shower?
#12. Do you have any 'weird' body 'skills'?
#13. What's your favorite 'comfort food'/food thats 'bad' but you love to eat it anyways?
#14. What's a phrase or exclamation you always say?
#15. Time to sleep- what are you ACTUALLY wearing?


I hope you enjoyed watching me being silly (as usual)! I'd love for you blogger ladies to do the tag as well so please feel free to post a blog on your answers as well and share your link in the comments.

I know I'm not the only one who listens to Powerline and wears the best PJs in the world the bed, right?

Ahh, May 14th, I remember you so fondly for all of the laughter and tears from last year's post and video. The post I am talking about was my first Heart 2 Heart where I recorded myself with my bare face, telling you guys about how I struggled with acne for half my life.

In lieu of the anniversary of this very open, very beautifully vulnerable holiday I wanted to record another Heart 2 Heart speaking about a topic that has been pressing upon my heart lately: Body Image.

Last year's video here:

I didn't intend for all of my Heart 2 Heart episodes to be without makeup, but somehow I think it keeps me and the audience more honest. In a way, it does take some bravery to put yourself up there in front of thousands of people just waiting to get hit by a bunch of twisted comments reiterating all the things you are self-conscious about, but I think it's also cathartic too.

I'm not the type of person who seeks out tons of admiration and it really turns my insides when I see comments from girls who seem to put bloggers and youtubers up on some kind of pedestal, as if they are idols, and stating how sad they are about their own lives, bodies, faces, or situations. Obviously it is very difficult to show people in 5 or 10 minutes who you truly are as a person. We do put up our best faces for our videos and pictures so it's easy to be fooled by the smoke and mirrors. At the end of the day, we are all human with our imperfections.

In terms of body image, I've mentioned this a bit here and there but my body size has made it very difficult for me to find clothes and shoes that fit... on top of all of the mean comments I've been called for it throughout my entire life. If I had a dime for every lewd comment a guy made about my height, or a snarky person saying I need to eat a burger, or cruel girls who tell me I look anorexic, I would be a very rich lady.

Somehow in our society it is completely unacceptable to tell an overweight person that they should "lose weight, fatty" but to say "you look so bony, eat a sandwich" it's totally okay. Why is that? It's a popular message to say that women are beautiful at any size except when they are skinny. I'm sure you've heard women themselves complaining saying, "Who wants a woman with no curves?" and "Women with no curves look like 12 year old boys." I'm not saying one or the other is right, I'm just saying for goodness sakes, can we just accept who we are, whatever our size?

It's so easy to put others down because of our own insecurities but the answer is not in pointing fingers and degrading others, especially for things they can't change. Instead we need to stop and take a good look in the mirror and accept who we are today, just as we are. Only then can we use the fun stuff like makeup, hairstyling, and fashion to honestly express who we are and not just what we want others to think we are.

Yes, I know I am skinny. I used to feel insecure about my spine looking like a stegosaurus. I hated wearing tank tops because my shoulders were bony. I hated how my wrists and knees looked because of how pronounced they are. But the thing is, is I don't actually weigh any differently than when I felt that way in middle school. The only thing that changed is my perception about my body and that if I am healthy IT'S OKAY!

Alright, onward marching with my bare-faced pics. No tweaking, editing, photoshopping, etc except to add my watermark.