Archive for the ‘New Products’ category

Five Steps to Dramatic Eye Makeup

November 21st, 2012

Dramatic eye makeup can be very intimidating. It’s like you have to follow a lot of steps very carefully because one wrong move can ruin the whole look. But there’s an easy way to achieve the smoky-eye effect. All you need is an eyebrow pencil, a smoky eye shadow pallet, black eyeliner, mascara, and a pair of faux eyelashes.

Step 1: Fill in Your Eyebrows.

Trace the outside of your eyebrows, making an outline, using an eyebrow pencil. Make sure that it is two shades lighter than your hair color so it will appear more natural. Next, using a small angle brush, dust a little eyebrow powder or eye shadow to fill in your eyebrow starting with the part nearest to your nose. Again, like the pencil, make sure that it is two shades lighter than your hair color. Use the same brush to soften the outline you drew with the pencil to remove the hard lines.

Step 2: Highlight Your Brow Bones.

Using the lightest shade of your chosen eye shadow pallet, highlight your brow bones (it is located in between your upper eyelid and your eyebrow).

Step 3: Apply the Eye Shadow on Your Eyelids.

Apply a dark eye shadow on your entire eyelids evenly. Next, choose a darker eye shadow and apply it on the creases of your eyes and below your brow bone. It important to make sure that you shade both your eyelids evenly because if one’s darker than the other, it might create an illusion that your eyes are not of the same size. Once done, fill your inner lids with a lighter eye shadow. Then, apply the darkest shade of your eye shadow pallet on your lower lid (closest to the lash line).

Step 4: Line Your Lash Lines.

Use black eyeliner to line your upper lash lines and your waterlines. It makes your eye color pop and creates the drama to the shape of your eyes. Gel eyeliner is best for lining your lash lines because most formulas are smudge-proof or tear-proof, avoiding raccoon eyes.

Step 5: Va-va-voom Lashes!

Glue your faux lashes closest to your natural lashes as possible. Apply a volumizing mascara to make your natural lashes and your faux lashes come together somewhat. For a more dramatic effect, you can curl your lashes up and make your peepers looking awake and bigger.

Neutral shades are usually preferred for smoky-eyes but for a different and younger taste, blue and purple pallets are also must-tries. Perfecting the smoky-eye makeup may take a lot of practice but hey, it ups your glam to a whole new level. Just be patient and do 3 things: practice, practice, and more practice!

Product Spotlight: PIPO MAX-M1 9.7″ Android Tablet

September 29th, 2012

Companies like Ainol, ONDA, and RAmos have, historically, led the pack on the Chinese Android tablet scene when it comes to releasing tablets with the latest non-proprietary hardware available. However, late game entrant PiPo Technology, which only recently started producing Android tablets in 2010, is beginning to stir up the markets with it’s newly released PiPo Max-M1 9.7″ Android Tablet.

Built on the new high-speed Rockchip 3066 system-on-a-chip, the PiPo Max-M1 is promising to be a glimpse into the future of Chinese Android tablets. If you think that Chinese manufacturers still have quite a way to go before they can compete against industry leaders like Apple, Samsung, and HTC, then this tablet might actually make you think carefully about revising your projections.

In a world dominated by speed, the Rockchip 3066 is the answer of low cost system-on-a-chip manufacturer, Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics, to the proprietary processing solutions often implemented in high-end devices like the new iPad and the Galaxy Note 10.1. Based on a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor clocked at 1.6GHz with a quad-core Mali 400 graphics processing unit, it scores well in most available benchmarking tools and performs comparably close to the ASUS Transformer Prime.

With that kind of hardware on board, the PiPo Max-M1 handles apps of every shape and size flawlessly on the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system it ships with. To improve system performance even further, the manufacturers have also advised that a firmware upgrade will be available for the device within the next few weeks.

To keep costs down, however, you might find this tablet’s screen a little bit of a letdown. With a rather measly 1024 x 768 resolution, it certainly has a lot to make up for to match the head-turning Retina display on Apple’s new iPad, but it isn’t too big of a problem considering that it uses a 10-point multi-touch IPS screen that makes up for in functionality what it doesn’t quite achieve in clarity.

Construction-wise, the PiPo Max-M1 is no pushover. A strong and sturdy alloy rear plate keeps its high-performance innards safe and sound and the unit feels well-built overall. Weighing in at around 520 grams, it’s not the lightest tablet in the world, but that certainly doesn’t detract from its value in any way — if at all, it actually adds to the robustness of the feel and feels more like a reassuring weight rather than an encumerbance.

With both rear-facing and front-facing cameras and a huge 8000mAh battery to complete the picture, you’d easily expect to dish out at least $300 dollars for this baby. But at a price of $205.89 at Bigboxsave, it’s definitely a bargain considering the kind of quality you’ll be getting. Click here to check out the PiPo Max-M1 in more detail or continue below to see the tablet’s unboxing and benchmarking tests performed by YouTube user DotGeekTube.