Month: April 2013

Addiction by Ayako Lipstick in Gold Fish

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I did not mean to buy lipstick from Addiction. I was on the look out for their Cheek Sticks and Lip Crayons. On the last day of Japan, though, I somehow wandered to their counter while waiting for Barby and Isa, and picked up this shade and then I had to have it… and two other shades. (But more on those later.) Addiction’s lipsticks are housed in a shiny black plastic and angular tube. You can see the NARS influence even here. Though the iconic rubber packaging is absent, the thin minimalist type is an obvious influence. For now, let me express my love for Gold Fish, a pinky-gold color. If you’ve been reading for a while, you’d know how much I get suckered in by names. Slap a clever, pretty name on a product and there is a 50% chance that I will buy it. Luckily, Gold Fish lives up to its cute name. Gold Fish has a sweet, salmon pink base and almost imperceptible gold flecks. At least, on the tube. Swatched, though, …

Big in Japan: Drugstore Finds, Part I

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One of my favorite places to look for makeup in Japan was your regular ol’ Japanese drugstore. Before leaving, I made a list of things to check out at the drugstore. After a few trips here and there, I’ve found some of my favorite ones (so far). The thing is: the selection at the drugstore is so massive, but it’s so hard to come across a product that sucks. Here are some of the ones I got myself, nevertheless! I decided to just do quick reviews and split them into three or four parts. I’ll save the massive reviews for the more expensive items I ended up getting. 🙂 Lavshuca Dramatic Memory Rouge Lipstick in RS-1 Oh, Dramatic Memory Rouge, how I wanted to hoard you. I saw these first at Kate’s swatch post, and they were on the top of my list to try. I have never owned a lipstick tube so frilly as this: Of course, I gravitated towards the deepest, rosiest shade there was. This is in RS-1, which is a rosy-plummy …

Back from Japan: Some Photos + My Beauty Loot

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Hello everyone, I’m back from my trip! It was, truthfully, too short a trip and I wish I could have stayed longer because Japan is a beautiful country. 🙂 We visited two cities—Osaka and Kyoto—which are about thirty minutes and ¥430 (or about $5) away from each other. This is Doutonbori Street (the English spelling varies), which is filled with food and large recreations of food that hang outside shop windows. On the left part of this picture, you can kind of see a row of gyoza (dumplings), and a large puffer fish that looks like a blimp. This is especially fun to walk around in at night because it’s so busy and alive. Also, Japanese food is one of the tastiest cuisines in the world! Lorita, a Taiwanese tourist on a solo trip, in a kimono, setting up her tripod to take photos with the sakura or cherry blossom tree. This is a nice one, in Kyoto, because the branches were low, so you can be surrounded by beautiful little blossoms. 🙂 This is …

Sample Stash Sunday: Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm

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It’s been a while since I did one of these! Basically, Sample Stash Sunday is a section in my blog dedicated to me using up my samples. I have been lazy on the sample front, however, I have been trying a few products here and there, so I am ready to begin posting entries belonging to this series again. Here’s a good one, though one that’s been covered by a lot of people already: the Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm. I got a deluxe sample in my last UD order. Now, for some reason, I kind of expected a “mini” size. I don’t know why that is, but I did not expect to be holding a peanut. It is 3.7ml. On the tube, it claims to have/do: broad spectrum SPF20 DNA repair Optical Blurring Oil Free Swatches, L-R: Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm unblended, blended. OKAY. So, basically, I don’t know what to say about it because I really don’t feel like it did anything favorable to my skin, aside from providing SPF. …

Quickie: Le Métier de Beauté Colour Core Moisture Stain Lipstick in Bondi Beach

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I’ve had this lipstick for a while now—it’s been in my drafts since January 26—but I haven’t gotten around to writing a proper review, I think because of the pictures. The original pictures I had taken made the lipstick look so red and so vampy, I don’t even know what I did to get that sort of dramatic color shift. Anyway, now that I’ve got a proper picture, let’s talk lipstick! This is the Le Métier de Beauté Colour Core Moisture Stain Lipstick in Bondi Beach. In shorthand, I refer to it as the LMdB Lipstick because there are just too many words. It is a mauve-y rose color with a creamy-smooth texture and consistency and a sort of pleasing quality to it that makes it very agreeable to most people and especially agreeable to me, lover of purples and plums and mauves. I was looking for one shade in the lipstick range to try (because these are expensive at $34 each, yo) and Bondi Beach one called to me the most. Naturally. The color …

Quickie: Snoe Beauty’s Let it B with WasaB BB Cream

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I didn’t really need another face base, let alone two! But let me explain. It all started with soap. My sister wanted me to get her some soap from Snoe Beauty, but I am such a hermit that I ended up buying it online, which is dangerous territory for someone like me because I end up buying other things. Anyway, long story short, I got curious about Let it B with WasaB, a BB Cream. Let it B with WasaB anti-oxidant BB Cream fortified with Wasabi Extract contains a potent mixture of Calcium, Vitamin C, Potassium, Antimicrobial properties and more! It can promote oxygenation of cellular tissues as well as strengthen your skin’s defenses against free radical damage. Tested at SPF 30++. I wanted to try other variants, but this was the cheapest one I was interested in at Php 499. The reason why I have two is because they accidentally sent me the wrong shade (Warm Honey instead of Perfect Beige) and the customer service was awesome because I got it the day after …

If You’re Travelin’ in the North Country Fair: Packing Light on Trips

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In September, I took a month-long trip to Europe, on which my family and I got to go around eight different cities. It was amazing, but also tiring as we took the train to get to each destination. That meant we had to be mobile, so my “beauty regime” had to be fuss-free. This was relatively easy for me, as I wasn’t really that into makeup just yet. Here’s a list of what I brought: Travel Brush Set by The Body Shop BB Cream by The Body Shop NARS Eyeshadow Trio (Ramatuelle) Chanel Rouge Allure Velvet (La Distinguée) NARS Sheer Lipstick (Vendanges) MAC Creme Lipstick (Jubilee) NARS Blush (Orgasm) The Body Shop Eyebrow Kit Etude House Proof 10 Eye Primer It all fit into a little Clinique bag. On the trip, I bought an eyeshadow duo, two singles, a lipstick, and an eye pen. Part of me is a little grateful that I wasn’t all that into makeup then because I would have hated bringing all those delicate~ items around the trip. As of print, …