Happy Birthday to me!

Yesterday (June 29th) was my birthday and so I'd like to share all of the wonderful goodies I got with you, but right now I haven't got so much freetime. So till this weekend when I do have time, here's a fun picture from my birthday!

Makeup: The queen has it!

(love the nice, long, voluminous lashes!)

As I posted in my haul about two weeks ago, I recently purchased the Helena Rubinstein Lash Queen mascara. In all honestly I have never spent so much on mascara before as I generally find good ones at the drugstore, but after having read about this particular mascara on Lollipop26's blog I was really curious about it. Then to top it all off I found it for 1/2 the regualr price and saw that as my sign to try it out.

So what are my thoughts? I have been using it for a couple of weeks now, and I really like it. It goes on really nicely and doesn't clump! And in just a couple swipes I get amazing-looking lashes.

Makeup: Visee by Kose Eye Shadow Pallets

Walking into a Japanese drugstore, is kinda like walking into a makeup lovers haven. In most of the bigger cities here you can walk past at least 3-4 drugstores within a matter of minutes. While most of them carry the same products and charge the same prices, its always nice to do a little comparison when you have the chance. One of the drugstore brands I really like here in Japan is the Visee line by Kose. I have three of their eyeshadow pallets one dating back all the way to summer of 2007. I like this brand specifically as you can buy reasonably priced quads (regular price is about 1800yen, but you can find them on sale for 1300yen), which are very pigmented and make pairing e/s very easy! Like most people when getting ready for work there are just some days when you don't want to think about the makeup you are putting on and so these are very portable to bring along with you!


This one is called Glam Nude Eyes in N-2. (still available in stores, released this past spring)



This one with the silver casing is called Jewel Crush Eyes in E-5. (bought in summer of 2007)

Notice how the packaging was a bit nicer back then, it even came with a mirror!


And the one with the black casing is Brilliance Forming Eyes in A-1. (bought in June 2009, and still available)




They just recently came out with a line for summer with lots of shimmery bright pallets (pinks, purples,blues,greens, and corals). I may pick up one of them, I just can't decide which one!

Has anyone else tried the Visee eye shadow? Or other Japanese drugstore brands that they love? Or are you curious about others that you want me to checkout?

Jewelry: Etsy

One of my favorite places to look for jewelry or inspiration to make my own jewelry is etsy.com. The reason I like etsy is because you can find some really original pieces for a decent price. I don't really have much in the way of gold jewelry, so I recently picked up this gold necklace from DelicacyJ's etsy shop.

Does anyone else have etsy experience? Shops to recommend?

Fashion: H&M and Forever 21 Haul

I am not sure if its because my birthday is coming up or if I am just trying to shop away the rainy season blues, regardless I did a bit oh shopping at H&M and Forever 21 this past weekend and here is what I picked up.


From H&M:



From Forever 21:

(this is the same shirt, just showing the front and the back)

TAG: 5 things Dream Haul

I think every woman I know has an ongoing list of things she is lusting after. So if money, location, etc. were no object, these are five things that I would love to have at the moment.

(picture from Polyvore.com)

1. Jeffery Campbell Mary Roks Wedges in Grey
Jeffery Campbell makes some of the best wedges out there, sometimes they are affordable yet often not-so-much. These are about $120USD. I think they would be great in most seasons and are very versatile.

(picture from Superdrug.com)
2. Maybelline The Falsies macara
This one may seem a bit silly, but this mascara has yet to be released here in Japan. I just picked up the HR Lash Queen(which I absolutely LOVE, review to come), but I would love to find something a bit cheaper too.

(picture from balenciaga.com)
3. Balenciaga First in Anthracite
I know many celebrities/bloggers have Balenciaga bags, which make them very trendy. However they are very well-made bags, that will last a while and are ageless so they won't die when the trend does. I like the first bag as it has a slightly more stylish curve to it. The Anthracite color is great to match most of my wardrobe.

(picture from wired.com)
4. Apple Ipad
I finally touched one this weekend at my local Apple store. I would really like to have one and while they are not super expensive, there are of course other things I need more. As much as I want this now, I think it may be beneficial to wait till the next generation comes out seeing as how apple generally makes things better in 2nd generation.

5. Brazilian Blowout
After having my hair both highlighted and Japanese straight permed for the last 3 years, its taken quite a beating. And after having two bloggers I read rave about the Brazilian blowout or 12 week blowdry, I REALLY want one. I would love to have my hair be soft, relaxed, and not super damaged! If I can find a salon in Japan that does this, I would be there in a heartbeat!

What are 5 things you are currently lusting after? I would love to hear about them!

Nail Polish and Mascara Haul

L to R : Apricot, Crushed Coral, HR Lash Queen

Its currently rainy season here in Japan. For those of you who are not familiar with what that is, it means that for about the next month it is going to rain at least a few times a week. You may ask yourself, what is so bad about that...rain isn't awful... I honestly do like a good thunderstorm every now and then, but daily rain combined with hot and very humid weather is never fun. There should be a law against sweating when its raining! The rainy season of (tsuyu in Japanese) is something I still haven't adjusted to even though I have lived here for 5 years now.
Because today was actually a pretty hot and sunny day, I was inspired to pick up a few bright nail polishes. I really want to pick up a few of the new OPI colors, but since I couldn't find the ones I wanted I found some cheaper alternatives (315yen ea.). Both of these are by a line called L.A. Girl Essentials. The darker of the two is in the color Crushed Coral and the lighter is Apricot.
In addition to my polishes on my way home one of my local drugstores was selling the Helena Rubinstein Lash Queen for 2400yen, when it retails for 4200yen. Since I was curious to try it out already, I couldn't pass it up at 1/2 price.
So even though its the worst time weather-wise here, its always fun to do a little shopping to brighten ones day!

Has anyone else tried L.A. Girl essentials nail lacquers? Or have any great summer colors they want to share? Tried the Helena Rubinstein? I would love to read your comments below.

Fashion: T by Alexander Wang

A designer I have recently taken more interest in is Alexander Wang. In 2008 he did a small line for the Designers Invitation Project for Uniqlo stores. I slightly regret not having taken notice of his line then, though I have to say his designs have improved since then. I think the thing I like about his stuff most is that while its stylist, its also very comfortable. This inspired me to buy myself a little early birthday present, well that and shopbop.com was having a sale. I picked up a Mini Pocket Muscle T-shirt in heather grey. While its a little more costly than say a t-shirt from the gap or H&M (both of which I love), its one of the softest shirts I own and I think with good care on my part it will last a long time. In addition to all this its something that at least for me will never go out of style.

If you are interested, here is the shopbop link

What designers does everyone else like? Let me know!

Makeup: FOTD 06/13/2010

Since the weather forcasted that yesterday was going to be the last really nice day before rainy season started, I decided to try out some of the items I got from the MAC to the beach collection.

Here is what I used for this look:

Face:
Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer in porcelain
MAC studio sculpt concealer in NW20
NARS laguna bronzer
NARS orgasm blush
MAC shell pearl beauty powder (highlight)

Eyes:
Two-faced Shadow Insurance
MAC naked lunch (all over the lid and up to the browbone)
MAC firecracker (on the center of the lid)
VISE nude brown pallet n-2 brown color (on the outer corner and in the crease)
Loreal Extra-Collegen Volume Mascara

Lips:
EOS lipbalm
MAC beach bound l/s

Makeup Tools: Sigma brushes

Please ignore the makeup on them, I am about to wash them. :)


When I first bought my makeup brushes I bought the bulk of them in a 15 brush kit that was sold at Costco(I will write more about that in another post). As I started to use more and more makeup and colors, I realized that I needed more eye makeup brushes. I had looked in the drugstores here, but wasn't too impressed with the offering. I then looked at the Sigma website. Many youtubers had mentioned sigma brushes as great dupes for MAC brushes at a fraction of the price. I bought the SS224 blending brush, SS238 shading brush, and the SS219 pencil brush. I have been using all of them for about 3 months now and really like them. Even after washing them and using the brush guard with them, there has been minimal shedding. I think my only woe is that I believe the SS224 is too big for my eyes, so I am now on the lookout for a smaller blending brush.

What are your thoughts on the sigma brushes if you ahve tried them? Does anyone know a good affordable, but smaller than the SS224 blending brush I can try out?

Makeup: Gosh Darling Lipstick

Many of the UK bloggers I read have mentioned this lipstick as a must have, so I thought I would try it out. We don't have the Gosh brand here in Japan so I ordered it off of ebay. It seemed reasonably priced and compared to what MAC charges for lipsticks here in Japan it was cheap.

In general I have come to really like this lipstick, its a nude but it doesn't make me look like a zombie when I wear it. My lips are pretty pigmented, so when I wear nudes the color has to be a good one. I have sometimes used the trick of concealer on my lips before I wear a nude, it helps but I have noticed some shades are just all wrong. This one thankfully is a nice nude with kind of pink undertones, which I think really helps.




What has everyone else been wearing on their lips recently? Do you have a favorite nude? Have you tried Darling by Gosh?
Let me know by commenting below!

Sana Choi's summer giveaway

Like what you see? This is what Sana Choi is giving away, for more details, check out her blog here

Japan: Green Tea

In most offices I worked in when I lived in the USA, the one thing y¥that my work provided for free was coffee. In Japan the same can be said for green tea, in our office at school there is always a tea pot ready to go for a tea break. And well I am not usually one to pass up free things. However as the weather starts to get more and more hot and humid, my desire to drink hot/warm green tes is less and less. Lately I have been drinking alot of Iyemon Cha by Suntory. Its a nice cold green tea.
I used to be a big coffee drinker, but I am glad to find myself drinking green tea more. From everything I have read on the internet it is a very good alternative.

How many of you drink green tea? Or have some other drink you are hooked on?

EleventhofApril's 50+ Followers giveaway

Another beauty blooger I follow (Winnie) is having a giveaway! You should definitely check it out and follow her!


Click Here to check it out

Haircare: How often do you wash your hair?

As most women in the world, when it comes to hair I want something I dont naturally have.
When I was very young my mom had my hair permed a few times and I thought back then it was awful.
Then when I reached high school age I started highlighting my hair. By college I was experimenting with more color with my friends, everyone wanted to look like rogue at one point right?
After all of that hair experimentation, I grew my hair out and let it return to its natural color. That took about a year and a half, it also helped that I cut it pretty short to make the time go by faster.
Just before I moved to Japan in 2005 I decided to have some professional highlights put in my hair again and have been doing that off an on since. In addition to that in 2007 I started getting annual Japanese straight perms to help control the frizzy mess my hair generally becomes in the summer.
So as you can see my hair has been through ALOT! Through all of this I washed my hair on a daily basis, though I have noticed that most people don't wash their hair every day especially if it has been color processed.

This brings me to my question, how often do you wash your hair?
And if you don't wash it daily, how do you deal with the oil that builds up after a few days?
I just started to wash it every 2-3 days and have tried using baby powder to combat the oil...though I am not sure it works that well.
Any help or suggestions would be great!

Inspiration: SATC2 review (with hopefully no spoilers)

Yesterday (6/4/2010) Sex and the City 2 was released, thankfully we didn't have to wait over a month this time. My boyfriend, being the awesome guy that he is, bought tickets in advance and we went after I got home from work.

So what are my thoughts? As much as it is getting bagged by reviewers, I quite liked this movie. It was cute and helped to further along the lives of the characters who I have loved since the very beginning of the show back in 1998. I think the character that definitely had the best parts in this movie was Samantha, she really has some good lines.

I think if you are a SATC lover like me, this is something you should definitely see!

Has anyone else seen this yet? What did you think of it?

Smootchkiss super Giveaway-Contest!

Visit this link to check out all the details:
Smootch Kisss blog
Contest ends July 4th, 2010

Bath: Lush Haul and Review

Like most ladies after a hard day at work or a long week I like to relax with a nice bath. In Japan it is particularly nice as the bath tubs are very deep and when I sit in mine the water level is over my shoulders. After having stayed at an onsen (hot springs) with my bf last weekend I decided to take more baths at home and dropped by my local Lush and pick up a few things. I ended up purchasing two new items and one item I have purchased a few times.


Honey Bee bath bomb
I have purchased this item a few times and really love it. I like the nice honey smell it gives off.
Space Girl Bath Bomb
This is a first time purchase. I have always thought this bath bomb looked cute in its space ship mold, so I finally decided to buy one. I haven't tried it yet, but it smells like black current and has glitter on the outside.
World Peace Bath Bomb
When I stepped into the store this time, this was the first bath bomb I saw. I immediately picked it up and fell in love with the peppermint smell. I used it this past Tuesday and really enjoyed my bath. The water was a lovely blueish-green color and smelled minty and relaxing. I think I will defintely buy this one at least once more.

Has anyone else tried these or any other Lush products? What are your thoughts and do you have any you would like to reccomend?

Makeup : MAC to the Beach collection

This collection was finally released in Japan today! I had some time during my lunch break today and I decided to check the MAC Japan website for another item I was interested in buying when I saw the "To the Beach" image on the front page. I was so happy to have caught this! Generally the new collections sell out very quickly here in Japan, so I quickly ordered the items I wanted online.

I got the Beach Bound lipstick, Firecracker e/s and the Get-Away bronze blush.
I can't wait to try them out, look for a review coming soon!