My Glam Bag December

After watching so many videos about Birch Box while I was in Japan, I became really curious about sample subscription services. Sadly by the time I moved back to the US, Birch Box was no longer appealing to me as it seemed like the products they were sending out were more like rejected items rather than items people would actually like to use. I recently watched a couple of videos by Michelle Phan and Andreas Choice, which spoke about this new subscription service called My Glam. I checked out the website and saw what they had planned to include in the December bag and decided to take their profile quiz and subscribe. I figured for $10 it seemed like a good deal. Here is what I got in my December Glam Bag:



*The Bag*
Its not the best beauty bag, its definitely cheaply made but for $10 its not bad. And I would rather them spend the money on what is inside, so this doesn't bother me at all!

*Mai Couture** Salicylic Acid Blemish Control blotting paper (full size) valued at $20USD*
In my quiz I had mentioned that I have oily skin and sometimes get blemishes, so I believe that is why I got these blotting sheets. I haven't tried them out yet, but will review them when I do.

*NYX Soft Matte lip cream in the color Istanbul (full size) valued at $6USD*
I just started getting into lip products so I was excited to see this, however I am not sure about the color as I think it may be too pink for my pale skin at the moment.

*Tart Lights, Camera, Action Mascara sample size*
I saw this and was excited as I had been wanting to try it out!

*Urban Decay Original Primer Potion sample*
I love this stuff and was happy to see it, even if it is in the old packaging.

*Urban Decay Eye Shadow in Sin (full Size) valued at $17USD*
One of my favorite shadows in my Naked palette, so I was glad to get this for when I run out....I am almost hitting pan!

Overall I would have to say this service is off to a great start. I hope that next months bag continues with this standard and is as much a value as December's. Has anyone else subscribed to this service? If so what did you get in your bag?

Hope you are all having a wonderful week! I hope this post starts me back on regular blog posting!

Happy November!

It's been a rough couple of months here in the city of angels! It seems as though all of my free moments have been spent either supporting my husbands career or with family. Both of these are great, but I also have come to the realization that I need some time just for me and the things I like to do. One of those being to write this blog, which has been pretty neglected lately.

So with the start of the new month, I thought I would share one of my newest changes in recent days. That change being my hair color! I'm now a brunette. For the past few months I had been playing with the idea of dying my hair dark, so this past weekend I finally decided to go for it. I used a L'Oreal cream color hair dye in dark brown. It's one that gradually fades in 28 washes, so I am able to try being a brunette for a while without committing to the color if I want to go back to blonder hair.

How do I feel about this new, dramatic, and somewhat out of my comfort-zone look? It's going to take some getting used to, but overall I am pleased with how it turned out. After being a blonder girl for at least the past six years, it's been fun experimenting with make as it now looks a bit different.

Have any of you ever tried a hair color (or anything) that was out of your comfort zone? If not what are things you would love to try, but haven't?

2011 Fashions Night Out, LA!

Last year was my first time attending the Vogue Fashion's Night Out event, I went in Tokyo and you can read about it here. I had such a wonderful time so I was very much so looking forward to this years event. It took place on September 8th this year and due to the fact that I am now living in Los Angeles, there was a plethora of places that I could go to participate in the event. I however chose to go to the Beverly Center and The Grove which are in West LA. Here are some of the pictures that my husband (bless him for being so patient) and I took of the evening.

The opening ceremony at the Beverly Center, we saw Randy Jackson and Nicole Richie there.




The fashion show that took place at the Beverly Center.


I got to meet Lauren Conrad at The Grove's Nordstrom, she was there promoting her new clothing line Paper Moon. She very sweet in person!


Some of the models from ANTM's current cycle at Express.


Some of the cute cupcakes given out at Bloomingdales.



I only purchased one this that night (despite being tempted to buy many things I wanted), I picked up a top at Banana Republic for 40% that night only.

Did anyone else participate in Fashion's Night Out this year? If so where, I would love to hear about your experience! Also if you are in Japan, you still have a chance to go as its been pushed back to 11/5/2011 this year because they want to conserve energy there.

NOTD: Essie Carry On

Hello ladies (and gentleman?), long time no blog! For the last month I have spent most of my time trying to learn the ropes at not only one new job, but two! I have to say it hasn't been easy, but I am finally feeling comfortable at both and hope that in my free time I am more motivated to blog again rather than just sleeping. Despite my absence on this blog for about a month, I have managed to acquire some new items through purchases and friends.
One of these items is this new nail polish by Essie in the color Carry On. With all of the warm weather and sunshine we are having here in Los Angeles, it is hard to believe that autumn is actually here. I don't mind the warm weather, but I wouldn't mind some cooler weather so I can breakout some of my autumn clothes and boots. I think this desire for autumn also lead me to this color polish.


Carry On is a reddish eggplant color, which at times reads brown in various lighting.
When I first applied this polish, I wasn't sure if I liked it as I am not used to seeing my nails so dark. It has since grown on me and I am looking for more darker colors to try out. I am open to suggestions if anyone has any they think I need to try out!

Was it purple or blue?!

When I last wrote about fashion I was left with the dilemma of having to chose between a purple or blue top from Target. During my shopping trip there I even asked a woman working there which color I should chose based on two pictures I snapped on my iphone, her chose helped sway my decision. I chose the purple color, so therefore Kat of Maitokatoshaberi chose correctly! Congrats Kat! I have already sent out some goodies to her, which I hope she likes. I am also considering picking up the blue shirt as well as its now on super clearance at Target and so many of you thought I chose the blue, which must mean it also looks good!

In other news I have been busy working 12 hour days with my two jobs, its funny how a person can go from having no jobs to two in such a short period of time! I have more posts planned, just need to sit down and type them out!

I hope you are all having a good Monday (or Tuesday in other parts of the world)!

WnW Dancing in the clouds

Another benefit of living stateside again is having access to drugstore brands that are affordable, one of them is Wet n Wild. I grew up with this brand, but didn't think much of them then. I would always shop the Wet n Wild area when I was looking for cheap cheap disposable makeup that I was likely only going to use once. Well times have changed and that once super cheap brand has improved its quality without having to increase their price. There are not too many brands out there that you can say that about.

I stopped into my local Rite Aid in search of a different WnW trio called The Guilded Age, but since that was nowhere to be found I noticed that they did have another more sought after trio called Dancing in the Clouds. This appears to be WnW's version of last years Urban Decay Summer of Love Palette, minus the shade to match Smog. I don't have that palette, but here is a link to Temptalia's review of it if you are curious.

Here are my swatches of Dancing in the Clouds, as you can see the purple is not very pigmented, which is a shame but for $2.99 you can't really complain too much. I have other shades of purple I could use to intensify this with if I wanted.




And here is a shot of me wearing the trio as the matching imprints in the shadows say to. I lined my eyes with Urban Decay 24/7 pencil in zero and topped them off with some fairy drops mascara. Excuse my oily face, I'm currently trying to figure out ways to combat that. If you have suggests, please comment me with them! It's like an oil slick these days!

Take me out to the ballgame!

One of the things I used to do a lot as a child and before I moved to Japan was go to baseball games. I think this had something to do with the fact that my grandmother was a HUGE fan of both baseball and football and my parents were both employed at the local baseball stadium in San Diego at one point while I was growing up. I remember fondly going to games with my grandmother and brother and then visiting my mother who was working at the game. As a adult baseball games became even more of a social thing when you introduced beer into the picture. During university I would go to Oakland A's and San Francisco Giants games then.

Fast-forward to now, this is honestly the first time I have ever lived in Los Angeles and so I had not much experience with the local ball teams here. The only thing I really know is that they have a national league team; the Dodgers and an american league team; the Angels. Though I never really considered the Angels to be an LA team, but more of one from Orange County as Anaheim is in that area. We got free tickets to go to a game and decided to make use of them recently.

Here are some pictures from our experience, sadly the Angels lost but it was a nice experience.



Shots of the field before the game started.

Can you find the Angels logo?

I'm not sure I if I have become an Angels fan, but at least I have a shirt to wear if I do, lol.
I do enjoy baseball, but I can't wait for ice hockey season to start. Do you have any sports you enjoy watching?