All posts tagged: japanese cosmetics

Bring the Sunlight to Your Face with Addiction Cheek Stick in African Sunset

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What? A highlighter again?! Fear not, dear reader. It is not. It is a blush that looks like there is a bit of highlighter thrown in there. HEH. This is the only cheek stick I have that has shimmer in it. It’s a pretty light golden orange, and it’s just marvelous. It was a bit hard to take a swatch of, so have three: Again, I thought this would be too light for my face, but au contraire, it actually adds depth to my round face. Here it is as a blush. Check it out—so beautiful and warm and summery! Perfect for the gloom and doom and humidity that is Manila weather currently. I say perfect, because boo clouds! (Just kidding, I prefer the gloom and doom, but I like brightening up my face, heh.) And here it is on my eyes: You can see a little bit of the prettiness of the blush right in there, too. 🙂 Anyway, while it looks pretty on the eyes, it settles into the fine lines and creases. …

Addiction x Jean Michel Basquiat Ready to Wear Palettes in Tuxedo Moon & Mudd Club

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Oh hello there, pretties. These are two of the six Ready To Wear Palettes that Addiction launched as their Jean-Michel Basquiat collection. I got two shades in the limited edition casing: Tuxedo Moon and Mudd Club, both of which are part of their permanent collection. I posted about another quad, Sugar Rusk yesterday here. In case you are new, I have a bit of a Basquiat obsession. On a trip to NYC in 2005, my life changed when we visited the Basquiat retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum. He remains my favorite artist to this day. You can imagine my reaction to this collection. “I burn, I pine, I perish!” as Cameron in 10 Things About You would dramatically say. Mudd Club is the more adventurous of the two. It features a white, a teal, a purple, and a black. They are all superb textures, with a sort of pearly sheen to them, but the pigmentation is quite subtle. Tuxedo Moon is a beautiful collection of neutrals that differs from Sugar Rusk in drama and texture. …

ADDICTION by Ayako Ready to Wear Eyeshadow Palette in Sugar Rusk

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You’ve read about my ADDICTION addiction. Let me talk about it some more. ADDICTION is a makeup brand by makeup artist Ayako, who worked with François Nars. I discovered and fell in love with their products on a Japan visit, during which I brought home 3 types of products: lipsticks, eyeshadows, and cheek sticks. Unfortunately, I didn’t want to sully the products and didn’t get to buy any more items before leaving for Manila. My friend, Den, kindly muled me some more Addiction goodies when she went on a trip to Osaka a few weeks ago. My Addiction eyeshadow stash grew dramatically, and one of the newest additions was this quad in Sugar Rusk. I was hoping to get this in a limited edition Basquiat case, like two other quads I got, but the pigmentation and colors gave me enough reason to hold on to it. Sugar Rusk has four colors: three shimmery neutrals, and a beautiful matte. The three shimmery neutrals are a white (with a green-gold duochrome), a cool, light brown that is …

Quickie: Hakuhodo H601 Powder Brush

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The Hakuhodo H601 Powder Brush is one of my all-time favorite brushes. It’s a retractable brush that is intensely soft and fluffy. Whenever I wash brushes, this is one of those that take the longest to dry, because it’s so dense. The hairs are black and made from goat’s hair, I believe. I got the H601 in Japan, and it cost about $30 in Japanese yen. It was the only Hakuhodo brush on my list that I was able to get, since they don’t have the full range at the Osaka counter. I use this brush for most of my powder products for the face, so I feel like it’s such a great deal. I’ve used this for a pressed powder, a loose powder, setting powders, finishing powders, et al. and it has worked great every time. This is also an awesome blush brush, because it picks up and deposits just the right amount of pigment. The fact that it retracts makes the “head” of bristles smaller or bigger, catering to your needs. Big and …

Quickie: ADDICTION by Ayako Cheek Stick in Tea Rose

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Here’s a quick review on one of the ADDICTION Cheek Sticks I got recently, Tea Rose. Sorry this isn’t the best picture, but I mistakenly thought it was clear and then used it. Tea Rose is . For a more in-depth review on the Cheek Sticks, click here to read my review on the shade Revenge. Tea Rose is a pretty, muted soft brown with a slight pinky undertone. I froze when I opened the tube, assuming that it would be too light for my face. It turns out, it’s rather pretty! It’s the similar feeling I got when I got Tarte’s Amazonian Clay blush in Exposed. I brought Tea Rose on vacation and wore it for eight days straight without feeling like I was missing out on blush action. Again, it’s awesome on the cheeks, not that great on the lips and I haven’t tried it on my eyes, but I can imagine it being great for that, too. It adds the perfect amount of warmth and a slight, subtle contour on the face, …

Big in Japan: Drugstore Finds, Part IV

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And we’ve come to the end of my Japanese Drugstore finds. Sorry this last part took a while. It’s mostly comprised of stuff I got my mom and sister. 🙂 Majolica Majorca Cream de Cheek in RD411 or Kiichigo/Raspberry Cream and RD310 or Coral Cream. These are liquid blushes I got my mama because she’d been eyeing them for a while. 🙂 They come in this packaging, which is like a frosted glass bottle that resembles a nail polish bottle, right down to the applicator: These seem really complicated to use, but they are honestly the easiest thing in the world. If you know how to apply the liquid highlighters, stains, and whatnot by Benefit, then you’d be a pro at this! First, you put a well-placed dot on your cheeks: This is a really pretty coral, and it’s called Coral Cream (RD310). This is the first and only one my mom has opened, so this is the only one you’ll see for now. 🙂 After placing the drop, blend it out quickly: And that’s …

Quickie: shu uemura Eyelash Curler

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The shu uemura eyelash curler is the sort of thing that has reached a certain level of cult status that no one else bothers to write about it anymore. And, really, why would you even bother? I didn’t really care for curling my lashes because I always seem to get uneven “curlage” anyway. My right set of eyelashes would be more curled up than the left set and my eyes would look wonkier than it already does, which you’d think would be a hard thing to pull off, but it’s really not. Anyway, I don’t really know what to say about this eyelash curler, so I’ll let the pictures speak for it. I have pretty short and invisible lashes, so I tried to do only one eye with the curler and let you see how it compares to my uncurled lashes. See how it opens up my eyes? 🙂 The eyelash curler comes with an extra silicone pad, in case you need to change them. Be warned, though, that they do not sell extra pads. …