Japan: Autumn drinks!

One of the more notable signs that fall has officially arrived in Japan, is when the convenice stores start to sell the fall flavored drinks. They actually started selling one of my favorite drinks a few weeks ago at the beginning of October. My favorite drink which is limited to the fall/winter season in Japan is called "Choco Banana Au Lait", which is basically chocolate milk with some banana flavoring.
Each year the company that makes this drink changes the pictures on the packaging, but thankfully its always yellow and brown so its a joy for me to spot!



Another drink that is a sign that fall is here is the newest flavor of pepsi. Last year they came out with Azuki flaovred pepsi, this years fall flavor is Mont Blanc. For those not familiar with what Mont Blanc is, its a French dessert made with chesnuts that is really popular in Japan. Last night I had the chance to try this new flavor as my BF brought a bottle home with him. I wish I could say I liked it, but like most of the other "unique" pepsi flavors I am not too keen on it. The carbonation is a bit overpowering and it tastes more like coffe than chesnuts to me. A friend of mine mentioned it may taste better flat, so I think I may take my bottle out of the fridge and let it sit out for a while.




What are some signs of fall for you? What are some interesting drinks you have been drinking?

Nails: NOTD Essie Sew Psyched

In continuing with my muted fall colored nails, this week I am wearing Sew Psyched by Essie. This is my first Essie polish and I have to say I really like it. I found the texture really nice and it went on very easily. The picture below is two coats and topped with my First Kiss brand top coat.

Many bloggers have mentioned that this is a possible dupe for the Channel Khaki vert polish. Having tried the actual Chanel polish on in the store I would say that the Chanel is much more green than this polish. Sew Psyched is much more grey in color and depending on the lighting gives off a green color.

In the end I actually like this one much more than the Chanel and it was cheaper too!

OOTD: Anniversary style

I have never done an outfit of the day post, because a) because I am kinda body shy and b) don't always wear new outfits. Recently I have started reading a couple of blogs that have really inspired me to put together new looks from my closet and by aquiring new basic good pieces. And since I really liked this outfit I threw together for my 3rd year anniversary with my BF, I present to you my first OOTD.


Tucker for Target dress (similar here)
H&M belt (similar here)
Gap Cardigan (similar here)
American Apparel opaque pantyhose in black (found here)
Steve Madden "Intyce" boots in black( found here)

I had seen many posts with the Tucker dress online and am glad I picked one up, my only thing I don't like that much is the elastic on the lower parts of the sleeves. Since I have bigger arms it starts to dig into my arm a bit which can be a bit uncomfortable after a long period of time. I combatted this by throwing the cardigan over it and then rolling the sleeves upward so the elastic was guarded by the fabric of the dress. I hope that made sense!

As I am inspired to throw together more unqiue outfits I may post more OOTD posts in the future!

Nails: TNOTW Eyeko Rain Polish

When I ordered the eyeko saucy polish featured in my last tnotw, I also ordered their rain polish. I was really excited to try this polish out since I really love slate colors. I have to say this color does not disappoint! Its very opaque and after two coats you get a beautiful slate blue nail. I definitely am seeing a trend in my recent color choices, lots of muted blues, greens, browns ; which can only mean fall is in the air!

I also have to say that I am quite impressed with the eyeko polishes in general, they dont seem to chip easily and last for about 5 days or more before they do. I will definitely use this one on my fingers at some point soon too!



What shades are you digging this fall?

Makeup: MAC Venomous Villains

As you can probably guess from some of my previous posts, I am a HUGE disney fan. That being said when I heard that disney was finally doing a collaboration with M.A.C., I got really excited. I felt that this collection could go many different directions and that since they were using villains it would be a lot of fun too! A few months ago a teaser of the four villains selected for the collection (Cruella De-Vil, Dr. Facilier, The Evil Queen, and Maleficient ) was posted on the internet and could be seen on many beauty blogs, this teaser got me even more excited. Then about a month after that pictures of the packaging sprouted up all over the internet, after seeing those I was REALLY turned off. The designs and such made the makeup look like it was meant for little girls and well I am not such a little girl anymore so I kinda stopped paying attention to the news on this collection.

Enter the end of September, many great beauty bloggers started posting their hauls from this collection and re-sparked my interest. Why? Because they were actually showing me the colors inside the gawdy packaging and not continuously going on about how they didn't like it. I suppose like most things in life, you just can't judge a book by its cover...or in this case its packaging. In the end with the help of the wonderful Kat of maikattoshaberi I was able to get my hands on the one thing I found in this collection that I felt I wanted, that being the Briar Rose beauty powder. There are many reasons why I think I fell in love with this, a) I love sleeping beauty b) Princess Aurora/Briar Rose is one of my favorite disney princesses and c) its a BEAUTIFUL color! Lets just take a look at it now shall we.


Many other bloggers have compared this shade to well-dressed or pink swoon also by MAC. I have neither of those so I don't have any basis for comparison, but I really love this color. As I don't already have any cool-toned pink powders/blushes in my collection I feel that this makes a great first one for me.

Did anyone else cave and get anything from the Venomous Villains collection? If so what did you get, I would love to hear about your choices!

Japan: Tokyo Disney Sea (TDS)

If you follow me on twitter you know that I recently went to Tokyo Disney Sea with my bf this past Thursday. It was not our first time going there, but it was the first time we went there when the weather was actually quite nice and not raining. We were able to ride all the rides we wanted to and even took pictures with Mickey and Daisy.

For those of your not completely familiar with TDS, it opened in 2001 and is the second park of the Tokyo Disney Resort. Its theme is all about the sea, the main entrance area is modeled after the canals of Venice and even has a gondola ride with gondolers who sing for you in Italian! There is also an area devoted to Arabia and The Little Mermaid. The park is quite small but has a nice feeling to it. If I had to give a comparison I would say that TDS is like the DIsney California Adventure of Japan. If you are a Disney fan like I am, you should definitely try to make it to Tokyo to check out this park.

Here are some pictures from our trip:

Perfume : Burberry Brit Shear

For the last couple of years I have been wearing various body splashes from Victorias Secret instead of perfume. Some of my favorite body splashes are Berry Kiss and LoveSpell. Recently VS stopped shipping these to Japan, I can only guess because they have alcohol in them and some places sell them for triple the retail price in the US. So because I was running out of my body spray and had time to kill while waiting for my bf, I took a look around the perfume department of a drugstore. I went in search of scents I had heard about via other blogs and on youtube and had narrowed it down to two that I liked, Daisy by Marc Jacobs and this one Brit Sheer by Burberry. I didn't purchase either at the time as I wanted to do some online price comparisons.

This past weekend my bf and I were out shopping together and he wanted to buy some cologne at that time I let him smell these two scents. While he was at the register to pay for his cologne I noticed he had two boxes, which at the time I felt was strange but I didn't think much more of it. Then later when we got home I opened the bag and discovered that he had bought the Brit Sheer for me! Which was a nice surprise!

As I can't describe fragrances well, except to say "I like it" or "It smells nice", I'll refer to what sephora.com has to say about it.


Brit Sheer
Burberry Brit Sheer is a fresh, fruity floral fragrance that is playful and vibrant, embodying the youthful spirit of Burberry Brit. Young and charismatic, the Burberry Brit girl embodies understated elegance and individuality. With a fresh, natural joie de vivre she has a passion for adventure and romance.

Notes:
Bright Yuzu, Pineapple Leaves, Litchi, Mandarin, Grapes, Pink Peony, Peach Blossom, Nashi, White Musk and Creamy Amyris Woods.
Style:
Seductive. Hypnotic. Sparkling.

On a final note, the results of my price comparisons for a 1oz bottle.
drugstore in Japan 2,980yen , ($36.00USD)
Sephora pricing $50USD, (4,100yen)

Finally something cheaper here than back home!

What perfumes/scents do you like? Or would you recommend I try out?

Nails: NOTD Chanel Khaki Rose

First let me say thank you to everyone who commented on my previous post regarding this polish collection. In the end I still didn't know which polish I wanted to bring home with me till I stopped by the Chanel counter in the Yokohama Takashimaya yesterday. I was torn between picking up something wearable and something funky, in the end I was sensible and chose the more wearable color khaki rose. This was not before I took the testers of all three and painted one nail each with them, then walked all the way outside to see what they would look like in the sunlight! Yes I am that crazy! Although given the price for these polishes I think it was a good idea to really make sure which I liked best on.

So now I present to you my first Chanel product: Khaki Rose. I cut my nails short before applying it as I think darker polish looks better on shorter nails.