Travel: Oiso Long Beach!

Summer has finally arrived in Japan and with it comes the awful humidity that makes me feel gross! In all of my previous years here I have worked summer school at the preschool where I have my part-time job, however this year they didn't need me to help out so I have a lot of free-time on my hands. Generally when I have time like this I like to travel and get outdoors, but in this heat I tend to stay inside and sit in front of my fan/AC as much as possible! My boyfriend being the awesome man that he is knew that I had been looking for swimming pools and ways to cool off outside, so he suggested we go to Oiso long beach. It was a lot of fun despite it being very windy and rainy. I hope we can go there again when the weather is better!

The Oiso sign just outside of Oiso station.

The longest pool in Japan!

Finally swimming in a swimming after a 5 year absence!

GIveaway winner!

Hi! Sorry I didn't post this sooner, I had a busy weekend and I am just now slowing down.

So without further ado, the winner is:

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K

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Congrats!

I plan on having a beauty-related contest once I have a few more followers to make it more interesting!

Thanks for all the great music recommendations!

Nails: TNOTW (toe nails of the week)

Most people do nails of the day, so I decided to change it up and show off my toe nails as I paint my toes more than my fingers. This holds true even more during summer!

This week I decided to go for a different color from my usual coral ones. I picked up Catch Me in Your Net by OPI. It is a very sparkly bluish-green color. I like to think of it like a color for mermaids!

What polish colors do you love for summer?

Nails: Eyeko Polishes

This is my review of the Eyeko nail polishes.

After having seen a few blog posts by other beauty blog

gers about these nail polishes, I was curious to try them out myself. I bought them in the following colors. (all descriptions are from eyeko.com)

Eyeko Posh Polish
(For ladylike nails this chic taupe shade wins hands down. )

Eyeko Vintage Polish
(The only green to be seen in! Stay on trend with this lush jade green hue. )

Eyeko Coral Polish
(Dreaming of Ipanema beach? This flattering coral bright will get your toes resort-ready.)

And if you spend more than 10GBP and enter a special code they throw in a little something extra, in my case it was the Tea Rose polish.

Eyeko Tea Rose Polish
(A soft pink cream that is the picture of pastoral elegance.)

I have worn both the coral polish and the posh polish now and absolutely love them. They offer nice coverage in 1-2 coats and are great colors. The coral polish is especially unique as I haven't found another polish that is in this color, anything remotely close is usually has more orange in it.

My only downfall to ordering when I did is that they just released the rain and saucy polishes and they look great. I am especially interested in the rain polish, as it looks like a great matte baby blue polish thats not too bright!

Has anyone else tried eyeko polishes? If so what did you think?

Jewelry artist?

I have always been a creative person, which is probably why things like make-up and crafting appeal to me. I have been making my own various types of jewelry since high school and have recently started up again. I was inspired by a necklace my friend Steph had on her Amazon wishlist and I immediately thought "I can make that!" And well I did!

Here is a picture or her wearing it. It can also be worn with the long chain of flowers in the back.

(photo is from Stephanie)

What do you guys think? What are some jewelry designs that you like? I would love to see pictures for more inspiration!

Beauty: Pure Smile beauty masks

The current trend I recently noticed while walking through my local drugstore are these masks. Naturally I was curious about them so I picked up about 10 of them! I think I honestly know why products come in so many variations, its so that us beauty junkies end up buying them all! It's like pokemon, I had to collect them all...or at least try. It turns out there are actually 18 different kinds. Thankfully they are only 105 yen each, so it was not too bad on my wallet!

I have used a couple of them now and find them to be really hydrating and moisturizing. I have normal to oily skin and they didn't leave my skin feeling like the grease ball that is usually is during the hot summer months, so that is definitely a plus!

These are from Korea, so there is a likely-hood you may be able to find them outside of Japan. Has anyone else tried these masks or is curious to try them out?

***CLOSED***And now for a non-beauty product related giveaway!

As I posted in my previous post, I received a new ipod touch for my birthday since my old ipod's HD died. My problem is that when it died, a lot of my old music collection died with it. So in an effort to be introduced to new music and to share something with those who helpout, I will be holding a small giveaway.

Please read all of the rules before posting a comment to enter. :)

(image from apple.com)

The winner receives : one $25 iTunes gift card

Here's what you need to do to win this!
In the comments, please post:

Your top 10 favorite songs of all time, by artist and song title!

Comment Below with the following:

1. Your name and blogger link if you have one.

2. Enter a comment telling me your top 10 songs of all time.

3. Don't forget to leave your email address so I can contact you if you win!

4. If you post/link this in your blog you will receive one extra entry. (put the link to the entry here)

The RULES:

1) open to everyone that follows me publicly.

2) Open worldwide. It's not my responsibility after it is mailed to you (if stolen or lost).

3) You will have 24-hours to respond if you are the chosen winner or else a new winner will be chosen.

4) Contest ends: July 24th, 2010 at 23:59PM Japan Time. All entries posted after this time will not be included.

5) Winner will be chosen using random.org.

Thanks to everyone for helping me!! Good Luck! :)

My birthday schwag!

I thought since I just had my birthday, I would show you some of the things I got. Some of this was given to me by friends, family and bf and a few things were gifts I "gave" myself.

*Top Shop Sunglasses: These are one of the gifts I bought for myself. I got them at the Top Shop bargain sale in Yokohama. I got them for 1/2 price!

* dresses from Target: My mom picked out these dresses from Target. Very cute and functional.

*Express Maxi dress: My mother had asked me to pick a few things I want and to send her images, so I looked on the Express website and found this Maxi dress. Its really soft and great colors, I just need to have it shortened a bit as I am only 5'2" and even with tall shoes it is too long.

*Captain EO t-shirt from Tokyo Disneyland: My BF and I went to TDL as part of my week-long birthday celebration and I picked this t-shirt up as a memento of it. Its super soft and great for sleeping.

*Cynthia Vincent Sandals from Target: I am absolutely in love with these, they go great with almost anything. I loved them so much I asked my mom to pick up another pair if she could for a backup. These clearly were not made to be walked in as much as I walk in mine, but they are cute and comfortable. (these are the backup pair)

* 2 pairs of earrings: The blue pair was from a Japanese English teacher at the school I work at, her birthday is 2 days before mine so we exchange gifts each year. The pink pair is from one of my BF's coworkers, who I always exchange omiyage (souveniers) with. I have met her a couple of times and she is really nice.

*YSL volume effet faux cils: This was a complete surprise to me. My good friend back in California Steph secretly found my Amazon wish list and sent this off to me. I have wanted to try it for a while now (but didn't want to pay Japanese prices), I am still using my HR lash queen so I will post a review of this once I start using it.

*MAC Otherworldly blush: This was one of the things I bought myself. Winnie at eleventh0fapril (you should check out her blog, she is awesome!)snatched this up at the MAC warehouse sale in Canada and she was selling it on her blogsale. I had heard alot about this blush and decided to pick it up. Its a really nice bronzy gold color.

*64GB Apple iPod touch: My old 32GB iPod video decided to die about a week before my birthday and so my boyfriend recycled it at the apple store and got me a new 64GB iPod touch. Its really fun, but I am still learning how to use it!

Beauty: Nivea My Leg Beauty lotion

I was checking out a new drugstore that had opened up near my house when I spotted this new item from Nivea Japan. According to the packaging it is a gel that is supposed to make your legs feel firm in addition to help make them feel smoother and cool. The thing that caught my eye about this product is that it was made with natural ingredients. The firming properties are from green tea and strawberry extracts. I will say when I bought this product, I had very little expections. I bought it mainly because I wanted to try out a lotion/gel and it was on sale and smelled nice.
So what are my thoughts?

After having used the lotion for a week, my legs feel smooth but no smoother than they did before as I always use lotion on them after a shower. As for the firming, I haven't notice any changes but I didn't expect any either. What I do find quite nice about this product is its cooling properties. Recently its been very humid here in Japan and after a nice warm shower this product makes me legs tingle and feel nice and cool just before heading off to bed.

Overall the smell and cooling properties make this a product I would buy again, but purely for use in the summer. During winter I prefer to use a thicker cream.

Have any of you tried this lotion or something similar?

Blogger Love: Bihadadiaries

Last week K(bihadadiaries) and I were chatting via twitter about iviscents. She got her order from them in 9 days after having placed it online. For international online shopping without paying for any kind of express shipping, that is pretty amazing! Later she was so sweet and offered to send me a couple of samples from her order. I just got her package last night, she was too generous! Not only did she send 2 samples of products she got from iviscents (the ozone soap and sandcastle body frosting), she also included EDM Medium Bronzer, Skinfood sleep mask, Missha BB cream in #23, and some camu camu! This package totally made my day after a gloomy and super humid day! I can't wait to try it all out!

Thank you so much K!! I hope I get to meet up with you in Kansai this summer!
If you don't already read her blog, I think you should definitely check it out!

Japan: Tokyo Disneyland

As part of my birthday celebration, my bf and I went to Tokyo Disneyland last Thursday after work. Something that Tokyo Disneyland does that the other parks in the world do not, is offer an After 6 passport. It's nice because you get to spend about 4 hours (from 6PM till close) in the park for a fraction of the cost, the After 6 passport costs 3,100yen ($31USD) compared the the regular admission price of 5,800yen.

In addition to going in honor of my birthday, yesterday was the first day of Captain EO's return to Tokyo Disneyland. The last time I saw Captain EO at Disneyland had to have been when I was about 15-16 years old, I have seen it on youtube since then but of course its not really the same. Watching it again at Disneyland after all these years, really brough back happy memories of my childhood. It's sad that it took Michael Jackson's death to bring this back to Disneyland, I honestly like this much better than what replaced it (Honey I Shrunk the Audience). We also got to check out the revamped Monsters Inc. ride, which I recommend checking out if you have a chance to as its alot of fun.