Best Smart Phone Apps for a Glamorous New Year's Selfie

Tired of struggling to add 10+ filters and way too much lighting to your ill-taken selfie before posting it with a half shrug? Well, here are a few awesome android/iPhone apps to make the selfie experience a one-take post.

Now, I'm not saying that we have to share a totally foreign version of ourselves unrecognizable to our friends -- but many of us can't afford a $100,000 Hollywood photo shoot and just want to feel good for a moment, so there's no harm in putting your best face forward. Why not remove a few pimples, blemish, and make your teeth whiter in a swipe? I say go for it.

Happy New Year. Look and be the beautiful person you are, even if it's for a silly selfie and embracing the social media moment. Happy Posing!

1. WonderCam: I've been having great fun with app because it gives you the choice to take your pic with the "wonder" filters built in to blast all your blemishes away. Amazing! (Free for iPhone)

2. Beauty Booth Pro: If you don't need the whole face blast effect, this app lets you just fix blemishes and play up your eyelashes (very popular in Asian beauty culture where we so often lack thick lashes!). You can even add cute stickers. ($1.99 for Android and iPhone)

3. Facetune: Need instantly whiter teeth? Want to remove a stray hair? Facetune is like a light photoshop for your phone and very easy to use. ($3.99 for Android and iPhone)

-N.C.

Disclaimer: Nuy Cho has no affiliation to any of the beauty companies mentioned on www.nuybeauty.com.

How to Apply Smudgeproof Mascara - No Matter How Short or Long Your Lashes!

I was born with really sparse lashes. I used to despise this, but as you grow older you learn to appreciate that some things on your body you like, some you don't -- so you just appreciate the good things. I've never had to shave my legs or mustache (GOOD) so that meant the counterpoint was I had no lashes! `Yin and Yang' as we say in Asian culture.

But it doesn't mean I can't rock mascara, and make my lashes look a lot thicker. It really works, when done well. A lot of us suffer from thin or not-a-full-rack of lashes. But mascara can do a lot for you. Use a smudgeproof and/or thickening mascara, and one pro tip I'll give you, is to use a high quality waterproof eyeliner to individually coat each lash, if yours are as sparse as mine. Then brush them out after the application with a disposable mascara wand. You can buy these at any beauty supply store, like a Sally's.

Here's my how-to video I did for StyleUnited by P&G Beauty on how to effectively apply smudgeproof mascara, if you need help on technique. Or just a refresher course. Enjoy! Happy Mascara Wanding!

xo

--N.C.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with the companies I write and vlog about. My picks and decisions are always editorially and artistically-based and independent.

Do You See What I See?

Everyday I weave through ups and downs, chaos and order, as I try to raise A alone in the best way I know how. After having her, I realized that parenting is essentially a constant vacillation between chaos and joy. A reads a book to herself in a language only she can understand: joy. A gets overstimulated at our local burger joint and I end up with french fries smeared like iron-on graphics on the back of my Levi's: chaos. It's a defining and sensational experience, but the balancing act can be rigorous. You can be the most type-A, hyper-organized and efficient person, but parenting will always find a way to change the game on you -- and the minute you think you've got something figured out, it'll dare to change on you again. It's not always easy to see clearly.

It's hard not to focus on what your child is or isn't doing at the moment -- to not worry about their future, whatever phase they may be in, etc. Like the way I'm scared of weaning A off the bottle, and stress about having a house laced in pee and painted with poo once potty training is in full effect. We naturally get caught up in all the invisibles in our lives: the hopes, heartaches, the songs of the past. And ultimately we can fall into cyclic patterns of obsessing about how things should be.

Many of us are guilty of doing the same with our faces. Since I was a teenager I coveted much bigger eyelids and deeper set eyes, like those of my non-Asian friends. I've probably over-analyzed every feature of my face at one point or another thinking it might be better to have this or that. But in the end, we have what we have. And it's good to remind oneself that more often than not, what we have is actually quite all right.

I have regular beauty discussions with my good friend and make-up artist Jason Hoffman. In response to a question I had about what he would do with my eyes and face on an everyday, easy-to-manage basis, he recently said to me: "Nuy, focus on what you see and what's right there. With you, it's brows, cheeks, lashes and lips." He prescribed a recipe of (after some basic foundation) light brow filling, mascara and lip gloss. I was trying to steer the conversation toward a whole to-do on how to work with smaller/Asian eyelids, but he was essentially reminding me: Honey, keep it simple, make what you've got, fabulous.

For some time after, I thought about what Jason had said, and how so often we forget to look closely at what is right in front of us. And to work with those things instead of wishing for something different or resisting them. I actually ditched my liquid eyeliner for the last couple of weeks as a test, and probably saved a good 3-5 minutes per day ...

It's beauty for thought.


-N.C.

Disclaimer: Nuy Cho has no affiliation to any of the beauty companies mentioned on www.nuybeauty.com.