reflections on 2012

In General

I'm trying to just get things done, so that I can spend more carefree time on the fun things.  I'm also trying not to over-think things.
* do more vegetable cooking (first up, Ars Aromatica's lentil white bean soup)

* Start on the Chinese

Someday

* Learn to make scallion pancakes (Saveur.com recipe)

* figure out how to make those Bretagne-style galettes

I hope I never develop a gluten allergy.  I'm sure I'll survive, but it would be really sad at first.

Old Favorites

I still love Yves Saint Laurent Golden Gloss.  The messy packaging is annoying; gloss collects around the opening of the container.  However, it's an easy, no-fail glamorous gloss that I look great in.  I have #2 Golden Praline, and the gloss and shimmer are just right for evenings when you want to feel fabulous but not over-the-top.  The color is a totally wearable soft rose, and I enjoy the scent, personally.  When I use it up, I'll want another one, but I won't let myself until I use up my ridiculous stash of glosses.

Saying Goodbye To

I love the festive but wearable Fasio Melting Glossy Rouge RD441, but the lasting power is average-to-poor, so I don't think it's worth repurchasing.  I do love the color though, so if I don't find a replacement in a better formulation, perhaps I'll revisit this decision.  For now I'll just layer one of my many sparkly glosses on top of Addiction lipstick in Last Scene.

New Favorites

Hands down, the most amazing makeup release was Shiseido's Camellia Compact, sadly limited edition to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the brand.  A real pity that it was limited edition.  I have not yet been able to mar the pristine surface of this blush/highlighter, but I will, I swear.

I am still in love with Lavshuca Dramatic Memory Rouge lipstick - BE-2 is my default work lipstick.  Don Quixote offers a small discount on certain Lavshuca products, so I will pick up one in red once I use up a few other lipsticks.

I am quite impressed with the eyeshadow palette in the Lavshuca Pure Blossoming Eyes Limited Edition Set.  I got the PK Pink Variation, which is a bit too warm for me, but the texture of the eyeshadows is fantastic!  If they put out a color variation that I like, I may have to get a Star Decoration Eyes.  However, I have too many neglected eyeshadow palettes; I probably should try a different brand.

I love the liquid blush Cream de Cheek released by Majolica Majorca last year.  I haven't bought any of them yet, but I will definitely be picking up the red RD411 at least.  I'm also tempted to buy the new Clear series of Cream Cheek blushes from Canmake, especially the lovely red.

Clothing

This year I spent a good amount of time editing my closet, however, it is far from finished.  Of course, any fun closet should evolve over time, so the concept of "finishing" is a bit inaccurate, but I am not happy with my closet as it currently is.  Wardrobe Oxygen and Ars Aromatica have　really gotten me thinking about the concept of editing my wardrobe.  I particularly like Wardrobe Oxygen's office wear posts.  I am also being motivated by The Minimalist Mom's journey in minimizing her wardrobe.  More and more, I want to look good without putting effort into it, which often means buying clothing that is comfortable, looks good, and is easy to coordinate.  I've thrown out a lot of awkward clothing this year!  It makes me sad to waste money on clothing, but it's necessary to move forward and cull out the items that waste my time.

I've judiciously indulged in this year's massive New Year sales, picking up some necessities and adding 3 pieces to my work wardrobe.  However, I still lack some basics such as a black coat and suit.  I'm also debating whether to buy a new winter scarf - my silk scarf has seen better days.  Perhaps I will hold out until next year.

I'm breaking in some new winter shoes; I do need to add one casual winter shoe option.  I don't know where to find good quality shoes in my size at a reasonable price in Tokyo.

some recent winter items

I was inspired by Nic Nic's post to write a post.

I've been visiting onsens in Tokyo lately, as I'm too lazy to use the bath at home. There's a really nice one in Sugamo called Sakura, but there are a lot all around Tokyo, it seems. Until now I've only visited the sento in Tokyo and Oedo Monogatari Onsen. Sakura was really nice - the whole process is very smooth. You pay at the end, no money required for the shoe lockers, the locker room is on the spacious side. There are 2 indoor baths - one with jets so it's like a hard massage. 2 sauna rooms. 3 outdoor baths - a small milky one - they generate fine bubbles so it looks milky. 2 regular baths - one stone and one lined with wood. All a little on the hot side for me - around 42 degrees outside. The indoor ones are a little cooler.

I need to exercise too... classes would be good but the few trial lessons I tried I felt very out of place - too shy I guess. I only liked one of the teachers, too, and she was temporarily filling in for the regular one!

I tried a cosme de corte AQ mask last night. After a long sleep, my skin feels soft and moisturized today! The mask is probably quite expensive though, I don't know if I'll buy it regularly.

My friend's family's tea chocolates. Aren't they cute?

Shopping at Narita is dangerous as I spend easily there. This Maquillage lippy is pinker than I would have chosen, but it's a pretty color and rather wearable, with a good deal of sparkle. It looks and feels great. I haven't paid proper attention to the wear.

Inspired by Nic Nic again, I succumbed to this lovely nude face creator from Maquillage. It's quite subtle and really easy to use. Even the center highlight is not over the top. It is a bit expensive though, so I wouldn't say it's a must have.

Last but not least, I've been wanting to buy this Majolica Majorca Majolook Trick On pallette for ages! I might go and get the other one too. It's sad that they're only selling 2 of them now. My only concern is the wear; the shadows usually fade on me. However, I don't use a eyeshadow base, as I'm lazy :)

Max Factor mascara, SilkyGirl eyeliner

Happy New Year!
新年明けましておめでとうございます！

Am liking Max Factor's waterproof Volume Couture mascara in Black Brown so far. I love the rubber comb! It makes it easy to remove clumps, and the formula seems to be fine for adding a bit of curl. I'll have to test the formula after curling my lashes next time.

I've also found that SilkyGirl Funky Eyelights Pencil 01 Olive Green works pretty well if I set it with another eyeshadow. I've been using Majolica Majorca's Shadow Customize lately and the combination works well. I'll get #4 Pure Purple next time.

MAC's penultimate liner doesn't set no matter what eyeshadow I use on top though, so I've practically given up on it except when I don't care if it smudges (which is almost never).

I'm working on a Best of 2010 post, to come later.

blush inventory

I've accumulated quite a collection, although mostly it's quite inexpensive blushes.

* inoui id dusty rose + beige blush
* bobbi brown rose blush
* mac tan-rose blush

* canmake red-brown blush (shimmery chocolate gradation)
* majolica majorca red blush

* majolica majorca peach blush
* canmake pink peach blush

* majolica majorca pink blush

* canmake orange blush
* cezanne orange blush
* rmk tan blush

I'll just get a mini bourjois blush in a cool pink/mauve and my stash will be complete.
I'm nowhere near finishing any of the above blushes. Only the Inoui ID blush has seen any significant use.

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.

materialism: consumerism

I took a look at Majolica Majorca's holiday collection last night.

The Secret Lingerie sparkly scented body cream seems rather nice with mild sparkle and a pleasant scent. It's quite a lot of cream too; I'm not sure I'd be able to use it up. Actually, I'm quite unlikely to be able to use it up unless I use it every day during the winter!

The sparkly powder in the collection was a bit disappointing though - the powder leaves a whitish cast on the skin which is quite noticeable if skin is a bit dry - it'd be difficult for me to use, although the sparkle is rather subtle.

The palettes are cute and the pigmentation of the eyeshadows is pretty good. The dark shade is only slightly powdery, and the lighter shade is rather smooth and shimmery. I found the purple shades to be a bit nicer than the grey ones in softness, but that could be my imagination. The glittery gloss is not really useful, but the pigmented gloss is useable.

Tempting, but I think I'll pass. I just don't need more glosses, and I could buy a regular MM quad palette for the same price.

I may pick up the body cream though.

brand crushes

From cosmetic-candy, 5 current brand crushes:

Giorgio Armani - just fantastic packaging and luxurious products. I've only tried the lipstick and lipgloss and sheer fluids, but they were lovely. If only they weren't ridiculously priced in Japan.
Shu Uemura - the array of colors and the gorgeous collections they put out really draw me in. I love rouge unlimited too; a great formula.
Shiseido - Dick Page! And the lipsticks in most of the ranges are just gorgeous. I adore the metal packaging of the The Makeup Perfecting Lipstick.
Majolica Majorca - I can never remember which order the two words go in, but the brand image is so cute and the eyeshadows are just lovely.
Lunasol - the glittery eyeshadows just draw me in, and the lovely pigmented liquid liners call me. Darn them!

Suqqu - If I had money to burn, all of their products sound fantastic
Chanel - I'd love to try their lipsticks and blushes
Beauty Credit - still addicted to the scent of the Pomegranate skin care series

some Majolica Majorca, Kate, Lavshuca products to be discontinued

Majolica Majorca Cheek Customize OR322(コーラルピンク), Kate Deep Trap Eyes GY-1, all of Kate Dual Caret, and all of the Lavshuca 3 color palettes will be discontinued when the new collections come out.

I've been meaning to pick up Kate Deep Trap Eyes in GY-1 so I'll try to do it today before they take it away for the new display. I only recently picked up Cheek Customize in Red and have yet to try it, but all of the reviews describe OR322 as a nicely pigmented orange, so I'll have to get one also.
I'm also considering Dual Caret in PU-1, as the dark shade is a pretty blue-purple and it is sparkly but still wearable for work. It's not a must-have though, so perhaps I should refrain.

At times like this Daikoku drugstore in Shimokitazawa is great because all Kate products are always 30% off.

favorites update

current favorites
* Seikisho soap - love the delicate herbal scent! can be a little drying though
* Adjuvant Re:>>>Treatment
* Laura Biagiotti Roma edt - lovely fragrance
* Jean Patou Sublime edt
* Kanebo Kate Super Sharp Liner BR-1
* Paul & Joe lipstick - love the shine and subtle sparkle of this lipstick, but it's too expensive to re-purchase (unless I really can't duplicate this with any other lipstick)
* Majolica Majorca Eye Shadow Customize - the metallic shades are really great and so inexpensive!
* Kanebo Lunasol Sheer Contrast eye shadow - limited edition summer palette - too sparkly to re-purchase anything in this series unless I use it up, but I like it a lot

perennial favorites (stuff I re-purchase when possible)
* Barbara Bui Le Parfum (will they hurry up and re-issue this?)
* DHC deep cleansing oil
* Queen Helena clay mask
* Shu Uemura lash curler
* Flamingo foldable brow shaver
* Opera MyLash mascara
* DejaVu Fiberwig mascara
* Inoui ID eyebrow automatic pencil (discontinued)
* Inoui ID eyeshadows (discontinued)
* Inoui ID blush duo (discontinued)
* Shiseido Perfecting Lipstick (too expensive though)
* Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited (lipstick) (too expensive though)
* Bloom lip gloss (in the frosted tube)

materialism: eyeliner update including Fasio liquid eyeliner review

The eyeliner update. Thanks to makeup alley and lots of beauty blogs, I've found using eyeliner to "tightline" the eyes to be a great technique for subtly making my eyes look bigger. However, I have very oily eyelids, which has made the search for a non-smudging eyeliner extremely difficult.

Summary:

Liquid eyeliners: Only liquid eyeliners seem to avoid smudging on me.

Maybelline Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner: could be a winner here!
Lunasol eyeliner (the glittery one): probably will not repurchase.
Fasio liquid eyeliner: will not repurchase
M.A.C. liquidlast eyeliner: will have to try it out again; it's a bit difficult to use but if it doesn't smudge...
Majolica Majorca Neo Automatic Liner: will not repurchase
Iroha dual pencil and liquid eyeliner: will not repurchase

Pencil and gel eyeliners: all fail. They uniformly smudge, so I give up on them, for tightlining. Above the eyelash, I can prevent smudging by putting eyeshadow over the eyeliner, but it doesn't help with tightlining.

Silky Girl Eyeliner: smudges, but really nice above the lash line if you apply powder on top. Inexpensive too, but not available in Japan.
Bourjois clubbing eyeliner: smudges
Kate gel eyeliner: smudges (it won't budge on my hand, but is gone quickly from my eyelid, obviously a challenging spot)
Iroha dual pencil and liquid eyeliner: smudges
Mac automatic pencil eyeliner: smudge city!
Rimmel eyeliner: smudge city!
Shu Uemura drawing pencil: smudges

In the end, Fasio liquid eyeliner went in the trash. It comes in lovely colors (mine was a gunmetal grey with bits of fine green and pink glitter - perfect for a smoky look), but the liner smudges on me, which is simply unacceptable. It's ironic that one of the common complaints in reviews for this liner was that it doesn't budge and is hence terribly annoying to remove. Not for me!

For now I'm going to use up my Lunasol liner (clumpy though it may be). Lunasol comes in the loveliest colors and is reasonably easy to use, but it gets clumpy very easily and the liner is tangible on my skin as a tight feeling. This gets annoying as the day goes on. It's okay if I only apply a bit, but for the price it's not worth repurchasing unless I can't find anything better.

I broke out the Maybelline liquid eyeliner last week. It is doing quite well on my demanding eyelids. No noticeable smudging, although there is some fading as the day wears on. Fading is okay with me; I merely cannot tolerate any smudging. The felt tip is a bit difficult for me to use, as it doesn't glide on my skin unless there is a lot of liquid, but too much liquid makes too thick a line for my taste. It takes a bit of getting used to; at the moment I can usually only get one eye nicely drawn.

When I use the U.S. Maybelline liner up, I will see if Maybelline's Line Allure in Malaysia is the same as Maybelline Nonstop Eyeliner in Japan, as Jojoba seems to have had a good experience with Line Allure. I may also give M.A.C.'s liquidlast eyeliner a try, but all of the M.A.C. sales assistants I have met in Japan have been either unpleasant or bad at applying makeup (or both), so I am rather unwilling to buy anything from M.A.C.

After that, perhaps I will check out Kate and Integrate's pen liners, although I fear that they will peel off as Majolica Majorca does. Peeling off is better than smudging but it's still not ideal. The K-Palette 24 hour liner might be good too.

materialism: quick review: eyeliners

Iroha dual pencil/liquid eyeliner pen (pencil on one side, eyeliner on the other):
* very easy to use
* very black
* creases a bit
* reasonably priced
I tried the black pencil/black eyeliner version. The pencil smudges pretty quickly, so as usual it was pretty useless for me. The eyeliner was nice -very fine tip; very easy to draw with. The black is very black, so actually brown or grey would work better for my purposes - it looks pretty unnatural against my sparse eyelashes. However, formula-wise it is not as good as Majolica Majorca's eyeliner. In the Singapore heat Iroha creased more quickly.
For people who don't have oily lids, this may not be a problem, so I would recommend it for those who are looking for an easy to use black liner.
* Summary: not good for my purposes

Fasio liquid eyeliner (the version in the little pot, rather similar to Maybelline's liner):
* pretty color
* a bit messy to use (line itself is easy to draw, but eyelashes are collateral damage)
* smudges a little (not terrible like pencil, but a little irksome)
* reasonably priced
The metallic black is quite pretty and works out as a nice gunmetal grey, so color-wise it is good for my purposes. Unfortunately it's a little difficult to apply without also coating my eyelashes in the formula. Otherwise it's not difficult to use (Kate's pot liquid liner was just the most difficult to use ever!) but rather messy for my eyelashes. The line you draw is nice, but the eyelashes get coated too. The color is quite lovely, but sadly this stuff also smudges a bit as time goes on. It doesn't peel off like MM will, but it smudges. The Japanese reviews all talked about how this stuff is impossible to get off, but I guess my oily lids defeat it handily.
* Summary: may repurchase if I don't find anything better. Nice selection of colors too - they have a pretty teal and a nice burgundy.

Lunasol geminate liner in a pretty metallic brown:
* Very easy to use
* pretty color
* flakes off a bit late in the day
* expensive
The color is lovely; a metallic, sparkly brown that is still wearable for work. Easy to use brush, very little mess on the eyelashes. However, as the day wears on, bits of the eyeliner can flake off if you touch it. The formula dries so that it as a bit clumpy on the skin - it's not flat like the other eyeliners I've tried. The flaking is not as bad as MM, but it's still an issue for me - if it starts, reapplying won't really fix it so you really need to start over on your eye makeup.
* Summary: will probably not repurchase because of flaking. At this price, I won't compromise on the flaking, and I prefer a little smudging to the flaking - smudging is easier to fix. It's too bad, because it really is easy to use.

The only other eyeliner I have on my list to try is Maybelline's liquid eyeliner. After that, I'm at a loss for what to look at. Gel liners usually seem to smudge on me (Kate, Bobbi Brown) so I don't think the formula works very well. Maybe I'll try MAC's liquid liner.

materialism: to buy or not to buy

I'm contemplating a purchase of Lunasol's Sheer Contrast Eyes eyeshadow quad in EX01 Blue Green Coral. The shimmering sea blue is a gorgeous color that can be layered on for intensity. The pale green and dark silvery brown (as Rouge Deluxe put it) are lovely colors too. However, the shimmering white shade is a standard highlighter of which I have far too many already. Still, the blue and brown are quite gorgeous so I'm debating a purchase (5250yen).

Shadow Customize, Majolica Majorca's individual eyeshadow line, has a lovely shimmery blue-green shade BL724(熱帯魚 tropical fish) that is similar but not as blue as Lunasol's color. Considering how much eyeshadow I own and how much I would be able to use the Lunasol quad, EX01 is really not a justifiable purchase. The quad is also limited edition, so it couldn't be a permanent part of my stash.

This minimalism thing is quite difficult. Or rather, finding the perfect items that would allow me to be minimalistic is quite a time-consuming task.

image from http://www.kanebo-cosmetics.jp/lunasol

Lavshuca summer palettes

After reading about Lavshuca's summer palettes at Rouge Deluxe I was surprised to see them at Limone (cosmetics and sundries store) already. I swatched both palettes - quite shimmery and silky. Each palette is under 2000 yen. The square shadows are a little smaller than I was expecting, but perhaps the same size (or a little bigger) as shadows in Majolica Majorca MajoLook palettes.

The shadows are quite velvety and shimmery. The cool palette has some lovely blues, but I wouldn't use the sparkly silver highlighter much, even though it's quite pretty. Overall it was quite shimmery and most of the colors are light, which would be good for summer. I think I'm looking for deeper and less shimmery colors, however.

I liked the warm palette a bit better, as it has some darker colors. Overall quite shimmery though, so I don't know if I'll pick it up. I don't really need another brown palette.