Tryvertising

This is so neat.  


CLICK ME:  Digital makeup mirror enables virtual tryvertising

How often do you browse around Sephora, wondering how the makeup would look on you with your skin tone and all? I guess there is a bit of skill needed to apply propertly.. but with practice, anyone can learn! And hellooooo - it's somewhat more environmentally conscious with the decrease of sample waste.. but an increase in paper waste (gah capitalism is getting to me with all this increase and decreaseness.. just finished attending 2 hr tutorial an hour ago). Possibly expensive to maintain, replenishing the ink cartridges as a lot of ink probably needs to be used to produce a high quality picture!

Anyway, tryvertising is great. Genius! It's a pretty recent trend.. you see it when you sample the first 30 seconds of a song in itunes, you get it for "free" in hotels with their luxury brand-name shampoo, conditioner, and soap samples, when you attend events and get those goodie bags full of packaged goodness.. on airplanes.. in store with their displays (ie. apple store).. those hair websites where you can try on different virtual hair styles when you submit a picture.. -- all try before you buy.. and it works! We're pretty much all trysumers!

Some neat versions:
Charmin restrooms!

From 20 November 2006 to 1 January 2007, Procter and Gamble's bathroom tissue brand operated a 20-stall restroom in the heart of Times Square at 1540 Broadway, between 45th and 46th Streets, calling the service 'Charmin's holiday gift to New York'. The facilities offered clean, deluxe bathrooms, baby changing stations, stroller parking, seating areas, and of course lots of luxury toilet paper. Cleanliness was guaranteed by the presence of one bathroom attendant for every two stalls, cleaning after each use. Close to 430,000 people made use of the service.

Nike Trial Vans

Nike trial vans are currently touring the UK/Ireland, France, Italy and Spain, stocking 1,000 pairs of shoes. It’s a free trial, no strings attached. To deliver on the crucial element of TRYVERTISING, total relevance of placement, the vans will pop up in places where people actually run. From athletic events to well-known running spots.

A Japanese Fix @ Chura

About a week ago, I went to Chura hair salon to get my hair redyed at 10AM. The first dye came out a lot lighter than I was hoping and now it's partly ash (green undertone) and partly copper (orange undertone) so it looks different in different lights. Was surprised to walk into a 3/4 full salon at 10AM! wow no wonder they couldn't fit me in any other time. Mark, the hair stylist I've been requesting for the past 3 times, is hilarious. He's one of the few who can speak good English.  He's so nice, too.  It's so odd to have so much to talk about with a hair stylist! I usually sit silently in the chair unless a friend was with me because the hair dresser would either not speak English very well, would be boring, or just plain creepy... Anyway, I think I've mentioned Mark before - we talk about fashion and trends and such. He showed me this men's magazine for teens to early 20's age category called "Men's Egg" (LOL). There's a girl's version called "Egg" and even a "Men's Egg Bitter" for men 23 years of age and up. Anyway, this magazine was so amusing! Mark was talking about the new trends for guys in Japan. Eyeliner was already a done that sort of trend. Now it has evolved to FALSE EYELASHES!! Their eyes look soooo girly.. some of them even wore PURPLE eyelashes! Another trend is foundation for guys to achieve flawless skin. That, I understand. I totally think guys should wear foundation if they have uneven skin and/or suffer from blemishes or discoloured skin. I guess it'd be a bit odd if they did have facial hair.. harder to apply unnoticeably. And the third trend is a manicure. Dark, vampy colours have been done before, but now look!

The quality isn't great because I took it with my cell phone, but every nail is different and two of them are silver and covered with chunky sparkles! The other ones have cute yellow characters on them like a star or even pikachu! The picture below this of a guy wearing an ivory nail polish and thin black swirls painted on. It's even too elegant for me! Soooo funny. And if you think girls can look so different/better with makeup on, the same definitely goes for men! I think Mark said that this style is mainly seen in the Shinjuku (lol, which sounded like Shingiku (a Japanese vegetable I love)) district of Tokyo.
Also saw some cute Bento boxes