Aomori Hiba Incense

Aomori Hiba is a type of cypress, a rather strong smelling wood.  The wood smells rather sharp, so I was surprised that this incense has a lovely, mild scent.  I would definitely recommend this to incense lovers (although it's quite light as incenses go), and plan to repurchase when my generous box runs out.

ADDICTION eyeliner pencil

ADDICTION eyeliner pencil comes in a lot of lovely colors but after wearing Brown Bunny for a while, I'm not really impressed by the wear time on my oily lids.
Pixi and Shiseido INTEGRATE's liners give me much better cost performance!  THREE also wears better on my lids.

Mini review: Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Even Finish Foundation SPF 15 (Sand 2) and Addiction Dewy Glow Foundation (#3)

Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Even Finish Foundation SPF 15 (Sand 2) 

- Emphasized dry patches of skin
- Not much coverage of reddish areas
- Definitely too pale for me
- a little itchyBecause of the poor coverage and bad color match, I won't bother to continue testing the sample.

Addiction Dewy Glow Foundation (#3)

- Some coverage of reddish areas
- A little pale on me
- a little itchy
I like a foundation to cover up red areas so I probably won't continue to test this one out.

SUGAO Air Fit CC Cream SPF 23 PA+++ Pure Natural

The texture is like mousse; quite similar to Maybelline's mouse blushes.  It feels quite dry on the skin, which is a texture that I personally don't like.  The Pure Natural color is also too light for my skin and the color pools in my pores, looking quite unnattractive.

Not a fan because of the color and texture so far, but other people may like the whipped mousse feel.

lipstick musings - Canmake Stay-On Balm Rouge

キャンメイク　ステイオンバームルージュ￥580(税抜) [02]スマイリーガーベラ

I tried Canmake Stay-On Balm Rouge in Smiley Gerbera [02]スマイリーガーベラ and I enjoy the shiny pigmented effect.  For whatever reason, I prefer this finish over KATE Rouge HG - maybe I'm not much of a creamy lipstick fan.  However, the Balm Rouge doesn't stain in any way, so I probably won't pick up any other colors, as I'm slowly weeding out products to make my makeup collection a low maintenance one.  I love makeup, but I only rarely have the time to indulge, so high maintenance products just don't make sense.  There are currently 7 colors, but [01] has been discontinued so when stock runs out it will be gone.

A Dream of Tokyo's review is pretty much spot on for all the details about the Stay-On Balm Rouge.

Meh: THREE eyeliner and K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner 24h

I'm forced to conclude that on my eyes, pencil eyeliners just don't cut it.  I thought that the THREE flash performance eyeliner held up pretty well, but at the end of the day it does crease on me.  The same goes for INTEGRATE Kira Wink Gel liners, and Pixi endless silky eye pens.  I just got an ADDICTION pencil eyeliner so I'll give that one last try, then I give up on pencils.  MUFE aqua eyes don't last on me either.

It's a pity.  All those unobtainable pretty colors!

This probably means I should be using a primer, but I haven't figured out how to use those, and the KATE Super sharp liner still works for me, so I am fine with that.

K-Palette 1 Day Tattoo Real Lasting Eyeliner 24h (wp) is pretty easy to use, but after a few hours it smudges on my oily lids, so I won't be repurchasing.  Interestingly, they didn't shy away from the word "tattoo," but Maybelline chose to rename their "Color Tattoo" eyeshadows for the Japanese market as "Color Ink."

orange! bags!

Gosh, I love the look of this orange blazer from Zara.

This orange shopper also looks amazing, but I need a zipper.

This brown square bowling bag is also cute, but not quite as stunning.

H&M is taking in clothes for recycling; they give a 500 yen coupon (good for any purchase 3000 yen or more) and will take any clothes, even if there are holes or stains, as they can recycle them for purposes other than re-wear.  Unlike Uniqlo, they will take any brand of clothing.  That's pretty awesome, as currently I just throw out such clothing with the burnable trash.

These bags look like they'd be great for work:

Brown H&M bag

 

Black H&M bag