My sincere apologies to UK - Verridian Recruitment Consultants

Argh, terribly embarrassing! I jumped to conclusions and unfairly maligned UK - Verridian Recruitment Consultants.
I should have contacted them to begin with, but instead unknowingly committed libel.

UK - Verridian Recruitment Consultants are a very reputable agency and are very responsive. My sincere, profuse apologies for my mistake.

soccer fever

It's been quite exciting to watch the World Cup games. I know a lot more about soccer now, haha.

Exciting times for sports! That Wimbledon game between Mahut and Isner was absolutely epic. Insane.

My favorite things...

My favorite things at the moment:
* Rohto Lycé eye wash
* Kanebo Tiffa UV lip balm - has the perfect light and emollient but not too greasy texture.
I can't wait till I use up all my other lip balms - they just don't feel as nice. I have enough for each purse/bag/backpack I own :P
* Canmake cream blush - cheap and effective. If I ever use up all my other blushes, I'll consolidate my stash with just this product. I like Majolica Majorca's blush too, but cream blush is just so easy and portable! Maybe I'll keep one pigmented blush like Bobbi Brown around.

Of my new lip products, my favorites are the Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited Supreme Shine sparkly white lippy in SS WH - pretty sparkle. For work, Shiseido The Makeup in LC2 is really easy to use and the perfect my-lips-but-better shade.

Everything else is rather so-so and I don't plan to repurchase.
Extra Version Olive Oil does remove my makeup very well, but I end up using lots of cotton pads and it stings if it gets into my eyes, so I think the time vs. cost performance is not worth it for me.
I've been using Shiseido Eudermine toner to get any remnants of makeup off, but I'd rather not use too much alcohol on my face.
So I'll probably try Mandom Cleansing Express Cleansing Lotion (Bright Up) next.

I unfairly maligned UK - Verridian Recruitment Consultants

Argh, terribly embarrassing! I jumped to conclusions and unfairly maligned UK - Verridian Recruitment Consultants.
I should have contacted them to begin with, but instead unknowingly committed libel.

UK - Verridian Recruitment Consultants are a very reputable agency and very responsive.

Yahoo jp's mobile site

I found it interesting that the top 4 menu items in Yahoo jp mobile's site are:
weather 天気, stocks 株価, sports スポーツ, baseball 野球

Also, the 4 news items listed today:
* consumer tax
民主、ビラの「消費税」削除
* the sumo wrestler gambling scandal
元力士「自分が賭博胴元」
* Brazil advances over Chile (in the world cup)
ブラジル、チリに3-0で快勝
* 3 members from AKB48 form a new subunit (Akihabara fan(boy) news)
AKB48 から3人組の新ユニット写真

shiseido, impulse spending

Argh, I've been very prudent lately so I guess something was bound to crack.

During lunch I hauled a little at the Shiseido counter. 2 of the new eyeshadows (one from the new collection?) and a lip crayon in a my-lips-but-better. I figured that the crayon would be easy to apply and good for work. Since you know I have absolutely no lipsticks that are good for work. Sigh, a rather unnecessary haul. At least all my purchases were usable colors. I could have bought a cle de peau eyeshadow palette for the same price though. Maybe next time I'll just splurge on that. The Shiseido eyeshadows are very pretty - medium pigment and a nice texture. I hope they have good lasting power.

I looked at the lip pencils because I've heard good things about them, but I never use lip pencils so I passed on them.

materialism: OCC lip tar in Complex

I got this from cosmetic-candy.com - thanks so much!

Complex is a good name for this color, as it's quite complex. A nude-grey color; quite pale, so not a wearable color for everyday events.

I understand what cosmetic-candy.com means when she says it's runny! It's easy to squeeze out too much product and as it's very pigmented a little goes a long way.

It's grey so it turns my brown lipsticks purple, but it works well for lightening my bright orange lipstick and gloss. When I use up the orange lippies, I may give this tube to my makeup artist friend. I forsee this little tube outlasting both of my lippies and more!

I'm quite impressed - at USD$12 it's quite inexpensive, but not easily available in stores, so you end up paying shipping fees.
When I use up a few lippies, I may buy an assortment of these lip tars as a reward to myself. In particular, I'd like the white lip tar to tone down my darkest lippies.

Because of the runniness, this is more of an artist's product - it's not really packaged for easy application. Although if you're used to using a lip brush maybe you'd be perfectly comfortable with the packaging.

Anyway, excellent product. I look forward to trying more offerings from OCC.

when you want that rush

I recommend わさびの鉄火 wasabi rice crackers for a serious wasabi burn.

Good when sleepy.

tech: dropbox, amazon mp3 downloads, ipad, itunes/ipod

Dropbox.com is looking pretty cool so far. It syncs (good grief, I typed "sinks" at first! woe is my English) your files with any computer you download the client onto. Very easy to use interface. 2GB free, with a current promotion for an extra 250 mg for each referral.

If anyone's interested, haha.

U.S. Amazon's mp3 downloads service is great. Their search functionality is still lacking though. But the convenience of their service cannot be beat.

iPad. There are supposedly thousands of applications available for this. Can they improve the search functionality a little better? I just want to check out the free apps first... It looks slick, but I feel so constrained by the limited Yahoo Wi-Fi connectivity in Tokyo. I suppose I need to download videos and watch them on this. It's good for taking notes though.

iTunes seems to be sub-par software, and the iPod has a limited interface that I find frustrating. Surprisingly difficult to use - why do people think it's user-friendly? I want to delete songs from my iPod, but I guess this is too complicated a concept for the iTunes model of syncing.

materialism: stating the obvious: rule 1 of online shopping

Well, rule 1 perhaps should be "don't spend more than you can afford," but I'm going to start with a rule that occurred to me this morning:

1. Shop for specific items. Don't go browsing; it's ideal to go online with a specific item and a price range in mind already. Browsing through stuff is an easy way to end up with things you don't need and won't use.
It's best if you have a specific product in mind too. For example, go shopping for the Manolo Blahnik Kidskin Low-Heel Halter, Navy in size 8 (I wish! Gorgeous shoe).

I was looking for decants of Bergamote by The Different Company, and ended up on Beauty Habit's Outlet page, a very dangerous page with Jurlique products and other delightful skin care and cosmetics offerings. I collected a cart full of products, and had to run off to work. Later on I'll cull out the unnecessary items and perhaps buy something.

bb cream

Ramen update - I still really like 赤のれん in Roppongi - Kyushu style straight noodles and thick pork broth soup. The pork slice was normal, but the soup and noodles were perfect. It's an old-school style restaurant - they've been around for a while. The side dishes are quite good too; we had an overdose of sliced green onions in sesame oil. Yum.

I've been using Legere's Water Drop BB cream on and off during vacation and on hot days.

It's quite nice - if I apply lightly it's natural but more polished - it evens my skin out a bit even though coverage is light. It holds up pretty well in hot and humid conditions.

BB creams are quite nice. I will probably hold off on buying a foundation until I use this up. This particular one is probably a tad dark for me so works well in the summer.

A lovely Biotherm lipstick from Cosmetic-candy.com is great for a sheer holographic shine. Perfect for a light non-makeup look.

6/17 Crystal Kayが原宿でミニライブを！

■日時：6/17(木）　17:30-
■場所：ラフォーレ原宿CKが原宿に登場し、ミニライブの実施予定です！
※荒天中止。雨天決行。

http://www.c-kay.com/info/index.html

聞きに行きたいけど、仕事が邪魔。。。

google desktop rules

It's such a lifesaver when I have to find files in MS Outlook.

shopping my stash

Shopping my stash is fun, as it forces me to figure out ways to use palettes and cosmetics that I haven't had much use for. For example, a smoky/bright blue Visee palette is proving to be surprisingly usable. The white highlighter is very sheer and the sparkle is manageable for work. Not terribly useful, but usable. The blues and blacks are mostly useful as liner colors, so I guess I'll consider this palette an assortment of liners. It's powdery though, so it requires something as a base to stick to (primer, pencil eyeliner, or gel/cream eyeshadows).

Also, there are certain products like primers that I only need for special occasions; I might as well just keep samples on hand as there's no real point in buying a full-sized product.

Some products I can use, but I don't really need. Such as an Anastacia matte highlighter pencil. It's functional and adds a bit of polish to my eye, but I don't find it necessary. I wonder if I should use it up (a very slow process!) or just give it away.

I was only able to cull 2 products from my stash last night. Rather sad that I can't part with anything else. At least I'm making use of more stuff. I have a lot of vivid or sparkly stuff that isn't very useful for work. I need to keep it in my makeup pouch so that I can apply it after work, in a futile effort to use it up.

I've been using extra virgin olive oil. It's super cheap and works, but it takes more time to use. I may try mandom cleaning express cleaning lotion bright up next.

on racism: a thoughtful post by ebert

From Roger Ebert's Journal:
How do they get to be that way?

sunset

Today we were graced with a gorgeous, clear golden sunset fading into a vivid violet coloring the sky.

I wish I had a lens that could capture it.

it's time to simplify

The clutter in my life is getting annoying! Off with you vile entropy, off!

買い物。。。

さあ、東京は本当に買い物の天国（また地獄？）ですね。

物が部屋から溢れているのに、まだ買い物したいです。

今度、マキアージュが限定のミニマニキュアを出しているので、集めたい！気持ちが強いです。マニキュアは使い切れない量を持っているのに、やっぱり持っていない色を手軽に使いきれるサイズであつめたいです。。。

困ったな。けど楽しいです。