Kimono inspired clothing, bags and pouches by local designer Alice.K

Day 4 of our Beauty Week was all about cosmetics and transforming ourselves from ordinary ladies into kawaii (cute) Japanese dolls! The workshop was led by Mia Yeh of M.Y. Makeup Artist, a freelance makeup artist whose services are listed on Pásshen.

Mia started the workshop by asking the class to imagine that they're now in Japan, surrounded by cherry blossoms and whatever screams 'Japan' to us. Why was it important to imagine this? Similar to the mindfulness workshop, if the mind is thinking of it, the end result of our makeup will definitely be more Japanese than if we were not conscious about the 'goal'.

Once we imagined ourselves in Japan, Mia then went on to show several images of Japanese celebrities dressed in kimonos and pointed out that what makes Japanese makeup different is that it's clean, flawless, simple with emphasis on large round eyes. It's almost natural-like makeup, which is one of the hardest to achieve.

Mia applying customised foundation on a participant

In order to achieve that flawless look, the foundation was of utmost importance. As there seldom is a shade of foundation that is exactly the same as our skin, Mia then showed the participants how to mix foundations with tinted moisturiser or serum in order to achieve a customised foundation that's perfect for each individual. As it is normal for makeup to oxidise, Mia recommended that we mix the foundation such that it is one tone lighter than our actual skin.

Mia showing where to apply the blusher for that trendy 'cute' blush

Next came the blusher. Mia mentioned how the new trend is to apply the blusher directly under the eyes, where the apple of the cheeks are. However, she stressed that this was only suitable for those with high cheekbones and if your cheeks were more towards the sides of your face, it should be applied directly where your cheeks show up when you smile. Nonetheless, it should not go towards the ears as this is only suitable for high fashion photoshoots and not real life. Moreover, we were told to be bold and put on more blusher than we normally would as the final dusting of loose powder would lighten everything.


After letting our foundation 'settle' through the warmth of our skin, we were soon ready for eyebrows and eye makeup!


The Japanese tend to have the eyebrows looking very natural so no fancy shapes or arches. The doll-like eyes also mean that we had to draw thin eye liner around the lids and even the waterline at the bottom of the eye to make our eyes seem rounder than usual.

The difference between falsie and none

False eyelashes also really help to make the eyes seem larger than usual, which you can see from above the difference it makes!

To complete the transformation to Japanese ladies, Mia then helped each of us with a more Japanese hairstyle, complete with flowers to adorn! We then tried on the various kimono inspired outfits courtesy of local designer Alice.K.

Chantek Rena transformed into a Japanese lady

The end results!

We all had so much fun that we didn't realise that we overran the time! One attendee remarked after the event that she enjoyed herself so much during the workshop that from today onwards, she will really read Pásshen's newsletters so that she is aware of future workshops!

Mia does weekly 2-hour makeup lessons every Thursday at her home and Pásshen members get a discounted price of $35 instead of $38! To book the class or any other of Mia's services, please visit M.Y. Makeup Artist's page here.