Colour me cute!

Seriously, this is the first time I've been to the salon this year. Oo My hair had gotten pretty long (about bra-level-length xD) and I felt like cutting it all off. So here: None of these is very accurate colour-wise. ^^; Also sporting: Everyday Minerals Matte Foundation in Fair Neutral Paul&Joe Duo Eye Gloss in #04 Bourgeoisie, Majolica Majorca Creamy Pencil Liner in brown and Lash Gorgeous Wing Mascara Lavshuca Star Glow Rouge in RS-2 (which is darker in real life, a very nice berry colour)

I just placed my first Sasa.com order! They are offering free expedited shipping til the 19th if you buy products for $49 or more, and the Jill Stuart Blush Compact in #11 Rose Fairy was $44, so I ordered an SK-II sample with it. Paid €39 in the end, which isn't bad at all. :) (Usually, Sasa.com only ships for free (and standard shipping, not expedited) if you order for over $100, and while I could totally find enough stuff I want *cough*, my bank account will not agree with me then.) I wonder if it will be here before Christmas, so I can wear it with my new eye jelly I got this week (#10 Vintage Decor) and which I love. <3

I just got my first blog award from the dear CamiKatze, a fellow blogger from Berlin. I totally didn't expect this, so now is my time to say a huge THANK YOU and to give out seven blog awards in return! But first of all, let me say a few words about CamiKatze's blog " VANITAS ". Unfortunately, it is in German only, but I think it is worth using google translator or similar means for international visitors, because it is full of interesting reviews (about Asian cosmetics, too) from a very honest yet sweet blogger. (I love our long conversations about literature and the world! Yes, we don't just talk about make-up. xD) The seven blogs I'd like to hand this award on to are: VANITAS (right back at you! XP) Lotus Palace (which I must visit every day) My Women Stuff  Rouge Deluxe A Touch of Blusher Of Toys and Tokyo Beauty Box

And here I bring you the swatches of all foundations I own, which I promised like half a year ago? This is as accurate as my camera was willing to get. (I know it looks shadey and dark, but this was the only photo with accurate contrast, the lighter ones also made the foundation seem too light and actually match my skintone. In fact, the contrast is even bigger in reality, and I got a little shock when I looked at my arm.) From left to right: Kate High Coverage Liquid Foundation (Bright-up Color) Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in #51 Astor Matitude HD in ... there's no colour ID written on my bottle, but the lightest colour there is Maybelline Pure Make-up in Porcelaine Ivory BRTC Blemish Recover Balm Holika Holika Petite Watery BB Cream Take a look at this picture (click to enlarge): See what I mean? As you can see, only the Kate actually matches my skin - and that is the one that has almost zero coverage (despite its name. ^^;) Bourjois is a bit too dark...

Just a pic - I know there are swatches around already, and I don't see much sense in posting pictures of me wearing this as blush colours are hardly distinctable on the face - or should be, at least. Isn't it lovely? And I got samples, too! My next Jill Stuart order will be from Gooddealer again!

In case anyone's looking for a Christmas present for me. XD Nah, just for me to keep track of, my wishlist at the moment is: - Jill Stuart Jelly Eye Color N in either 02, 10 or 13 (can't decide yet, but definitely neutral colours) - Jill Stuart Mix Blush Compact in 11 Rose Fairy - Jill Stuart Nail Lacquer N in 19 Treasure Box (these wishes alone will easily cost me 100€ >.<) - Anna Sui Eye Color #700 - Lavshuca Star Decoration Eyes BR-2 - Lavshuca Star Glow Rouge RS-2 -  Majolica Majorca Cheek Color in PK333 Berry Pink - Coffret d'Or Bright Up Rouge Long Keep in PK-260 ? - Maquillage Lasting Perfect Rouge RS347 ? (that looks a lot darker on my sample card and on my lips than here ) (I was eyeing Maquillage's new lip product, and also the high ranking Aube one, but I simply do not like liquid lipsticks - for some reason, they always look overdone on me. Although Coffret d'Or's Essence Stay Rouge looks really good here , especially RD-...

(Shouldn't that be Blemish solutions , btw? It's like people saying they're doing something "against anti-aging". Huh?) pic taken from Clinique.de So I was rather fed up with my skin for quite some time, specifically after I went off the pill (which I had only taken for a year) last summer. Nothing really helped, and lately, my skin was horribly itchy and irritated. I tried using basic care and proper hydration to cure it, but it failed. So when Clinique re-issued its trial kits for 9€, I was sold. The kit from the Anti-Blemish range includes: Anti-Blemish Solutions Cleansing Bar 50 g Anti-Blemish Clarifying Lotion 60ml Anti-Blemish Solutions Clearing Moisturizer 30ml The SA told me that the kit should last for about 3 weeks. I've been using it for 4 weeks now, and have only run out of the lotion last week. The moisturizer is about to finish now, and the soap is still pretty big and I estimate it might last another two to three months .(I bought a...

(Ugh, I woke up with severely peeling skin due to the Clinique stuff. >.<) Anyway, since you'll have to wait a little longer for the next review(s), I thought it's time to tell you something about who's blog you're reading here anyway. Not the usual "I'm 22, a taurus and have almost finished my bachelor in Japanese studies and want to be a teacher after that" stuff, but a lot more random. xD 1. I love turtles . Almost everything I own sports at least one turtle on it (except for my clothes - although I do have a few turtle shirts.) I do not own an actual living turtle, though. 2. Harry Potter is awesome - Twilight makes me want to barf. Don't even get me started on the whole portrayal of abusive relationships as true love. 3. I am a Gleek . And yes, the show makes no sense, but if you take it like that, it's so much fun. Oh, how I miss my choir days... (If you want to know which character I identify with most, I'd have to say Rac...

Since I handed in my essay yesterday (and it seems like my classmates haven't yet - what did I pressure myself for? -.-), I decided to reward myself and ended up buying my very first Jill Stuart item, the limited Charming Lily Blush Blossom (#07) I had spotted in Gooddealer.com! It's quite expensive, almost 44€, but I don't really have any nice blush apart from the two Mix Color Cheeks by Lavshuca, and while those are incredibly travel-friendly, I wanted something to put on my (not yet existent) vanity table. xD (I am eyeing the Mix Blush Compact in #11,Rose Fairy, too. (You probably don't know it, but apart from my cosmetics addiction, I am also a total geek and at the moment writing a Pokémon story about two sisters named Rose and Lily. xD Yes, I know that I'm 22 - but come on, don't you sometimes wish Pokémon - or Harry Potter - were real?) I also want one of her eye jellys, probably #13 Antique Chiffon. <3 Anyway, once I get the blush, I will review it,...

One month, to be exact. I apologize! >.< I was writing an essay for university (my last one - now there's only the B.A. thesis left!) and just handed it in yesterday. Phew. ^^; Also, my skin was acting up, so I decided to stop experimenting and simplify my routine. Luckily, Clinique had their trial kits on offer, and I snagged one from the Anti Blemish line for only 9€. (^.^)/ So far, it really has helped, but I will test for a bit longer until I give you guys my final opinion. (And even if it helps at first, I've had products I loved before give me bad results after a while. Knocking on wood here, really.) As for the BB cream post I owe you: Let me keep it short: - Hanskin Mineral Magic BB: became my new under eye concealer xD - BRTC Blemish Recover Balm: made my skin itch and break up - I guess I am indeed allergic to tea tree oil - Holika Holika Petit Watery BB Cream: nice, but simply too dark I'll keep you updated with the Clinique stuff, and will also ...

... and maybe my last. ^^; I had ordered an IPKN BB Cream Kathi in LotusPalace had recommended as being really pale (although I've come to think that her definition of pale isn't as white as mine) containing aloe vera, which I am a sucker for anyway, plus two tubes of aloe vera gel at a really good price - or at least I thought. My BB Cream got cancelled last week due to insufficient supplies. Really, they noticed that weeks after I ordered? Why do they put the item out for sale then, anyway? I did get a refund for the item price, but not for the estimated shipping fee I had paid in advance. I didn't get anything back now that the parcel has arrived, either, although it should have been considerably lighter without the BB cream. But still, they put the one small package from the other seller into an unncessarily huge package and sent that to me. No wonder shipping costs an arm and a leg at Gmarket! -.- Turns out the two aloe vera gels I had thought I'd bought had o...

Using Lavshuca's Light Mix Eyes in BU-1, Long Length Mascara and Star Glow Rouge in PK. Excuse the horrible light, I don't know what went wrong there. When I checked the pictures on my camera's screen, they looked clear and bright. >.< featuring not yet healed breakout and Holika Holika's Petit Watery BB Cream - see the wall behind me? That's actually white. (And so is my face. O.o)

Two of my BB creams have arrived today! I am wearing the Holika Holika one and using the Hanskin mini size as an under-eye concealer (which might be what I will use it as forever because the big size would cost me a fortune. xD) The customs office is still holding my parcel with the trial size SK-II lotion hostage. >.< I thought I'd do my skin something good, it really needs it. (Currently, I am breaking out on the new La Roche-Posay Toleriane Fluid I bought last week - it only has 8 ingredients, but my skin acts up anyway. Maybe it just needs to adjust.) As for toners, I am almost done with my Sekkisei Lotion (I had 100 ml in a trial set) and thought of replacing it because I did like the scent and all, but then I stumbled upon this: http://www.cosmetic-ingredients.net/product.php?brand=285&type=Toner&lang=English#16816 It has job's tears as well, much less alcohol, and the ingredients look really good overall, plus it's not even half the price of Sekki...

Especially Everday Mineral's foundation? I am really tempted to get this , as the ingredient list looks really good and I wouldn't mind having a really fair powder foundation for summer (next summer, obviously ^^;) when I don't feel like slathering on BB cream. Hm, maybe I should order the trial kit next month. (Trying to keep my few Euros in my bank account for the rest of this month. xD) I do have some other BB creams I'd like to try, though, too, especially for winter, plus the Bourjois Bio Detox foundation. Hmmm...

Luckily, I don't have any (known) food allergies, nor do I suffer from hay fever or the likes. I am, however, very sensitive to skin care and make-up ingredients, it seems. During my four weeks of "holiday" between the end of the semester and the start of my internship on Tuesday, I was mostly at home, and my skin greatly improved from not wearing make-up and sunscreen all the time. Yet, when I did go out and thus put on my BB cream (I still owe you a review, I know!), I had a new breakout. :( Both my sunscreens and the Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream contain zinc oxide, and I know that ParisB from mywomenstuff is, for example, sensitive to it, despite people usually claiming it to be good for the skin. So at the moment, I am testing out my skin's reaction to it. After all, it might be something else in the ingredients list, right? I also have the feeling that I get little breakouts after using Hada Labo's Super Hyaluronic Acid Lotion, so I am doing a little tri...

Okay, my nose is still there - phew. But a half centimeter of skin is missing from its top. Ouch! What happened, you may ask? I was trying to get rid of those stubborn blackheads by using a pretty rough washcloth in the shower. You know, hot water, open pores, rub out all the dirt... Um, I guess I didn't think this through fully. Anyway, I guess it's a good thing I will spend the next few days at home working on a paper for university. ^^;;;

I already posted about UV nail care a few days ago, but how about your hair? As I dyed by hair darker again last weekend, I went to get new shampoo for colour-treated hair, replacing my Body Shop Rainforest Shine shampoo with the Radiance one. (I know, Body Shop shampoos aren't exactly cheap, but they're silicone-free and my hair likes them, plus I only use very little. Conditioner, however, is a different story. I use so much people might think I drink that stuff in the shower  - ew! -, so I use a drugstore one with aloe vera (my absolute skincare love <3) and hibiscus that is also silicon-free. Btw, did you jump on the "no silicone!"-bandwagon yet?) Anyway, after a while, a sales assistant came around and as I have lately become a bit more ingredient-savvy, I decided to ask him some questions. Like, why on earth does a shampoo claim to have UV filters when you rinse it after 2 minutes anyway? He claimed, of course, that the ingredients stay in the hair, but I ...

When my top coat ran out and I couldn't find the same one in stores anymore, I looked for a replacement yesterday while shopping with my Mum. I ended up buying the "p2 UV Super Protector" (p2 is a cheap German drugstore brand) because I realized, while I put sunscreen on my skin every day, I usually neglect my nails! Seeing as I almost always wear coloured nail polish, not much sun should get through to the skin underneath, but I guess a UV top coat can't hurt, although it probably doesn't help much, either. Have you tried UV care for nails before? What are your experiences? Or do you think it is bogus? (Btw, the weather in Germany doesn't feel like summer at all at the moment. Still, since UV rays penetrate clouds, too, UV care is necessary!)

Hello, readers! (Does anyone actually read my blog? ^^;) Sorry for the long absence, but real life was a bit tough lately. >.< I will continue my foundation series and also try to post looks soon, but for now, let me ask you a quick question. Do you sometimes have products you really like, but find kind of expensive? This trick doesn't work all the time, of course, but if you have an expensive hair treatment, for example, that contains a certain oil, you could try to buy that oil in pure form and use it instead of the expensive treatment that probably has a lot of unnecessary ingredients. This also works if you want to avoid some ingredients that bother you in your favourite product. At the moment, I am using camellia (tsubaki) oil as a hair treatment. For my face, I like to use pure (well, as pure as they sell it) aloe vera gel (at the moment Nature Republic's - my third pot!) You can use aloe vera for so many purposes, facial moisture, instead of body lotion, af...

Okay, so here is post #1 of my pale foundation series! I apologize in advance for the lack of photos, but my camera just doesn't get the colours right no matter what I do. :( To show you my skin colour, here's a reference picture: I was wearing Missha's Perfect Cover BB Cream in 21 here, mixed with sun screen to make it brighter - glad they introduced # 13 now! You can see I am not white pale, but quite pale with neutral undertones, which makes an extra challenge as many foundations tend to be yellow or pink. :(   Maybelline Pure Make-up in Porcelain Ivory (Light 1) I've used this foundation some years ago, but stopped because the colour match wasn't so great - for some reason, they never sell all shades in Germany, and finding a really pale foundation here is probably harder than the search for the infamous holy grail. Recently, I've had the idea of searching the internet for it, though, and discovered the lightest shade for about 7$ at ebay. Of course...

It's not yet out on Cosme.net, but some blogs (e.g. Rouge Deluxe) are already showing preview pictures of Majoromantica F! <3 I love Majoromantica so much I ordered a back-up this week although my first bottle is still almost full. (Stress-relief shopping. ^^;) I hope the new version will be as good as the "old" one - and that the normal one won't get discontinued! Update: I got the Majoromantica F, and it stinks. I don't know what went wrong there, but it smells nothing like the original, and instead really strong and very cheap. :(

Inspired by a German blog's "kawaii week", I decided to upload some purikura pictures I took over the course of my exchange year in Japan. I don't think I'm as cute as a Japanese girl could be, but for some reason, I often got called "kawaii" nonetheless. (Hehe, so white skin really makes up for seven flaws - if I really only have seven. ^^;) Purikura machines also have an "automatic beautification modus", which means your skin looks more flawless (and a bit scary, like in that Murakami Ryu novel) and your eyes look more pronounced, like the outer rims look blacker. I will spare you one picture where I was wearing blue eyeshadow. ^^;;; Since I couldn't ask all of my friends for their approvement, I "blacked out" their faces. (Although they totally all upload pictures of me on Facebook. -.-) I hope you don't mind. I am, of course, the crazy chick who's on all pictures. xD Plus a random "cute" pic I took w...

Dear readers, first of all, let me assure you that I am not in Japan at the moment. I am not sure if this was clear from my previous posts, but I left Japan last year in September, as my exchange ended then, and am in Germany at the moment. I do, however, have plenty of friends in Japan. My foreign friends have almost all left the country by now, but the Japanese ones can't (and won't) do that so easily. So far, everyone seems safe, as Tokyo wasn't hit as hard as the Touhoku area, but I am still worried a lot about possible new quakes, and also the atom reactors in Fukushima. At the moment, it seems like there is nothing we can do but wait and encourage our friends. I donated to various organizations, although only a bit so far, as I don't have much money on my bank account at the moment, and once my friends tell me the postal system is back to normal, I am planning on sending some food and maybe daily goods or warm clothes over. This is a difficult time, and altho...

Gosh, I so want a pair of these: http://shop.julujewelry.com/product/raincloud-earrings# Wonder if I can make some myself, because 20$ is not very cheap. Hm...

Just a short post on my nails for this "special" day. (Although all I did was go to classes. ^^;) (Took those before I cleaned the excess polish off, sorry!) I used Kiko 248 and stamped Kiko 241 over it with a sponge, then applied different heart stickers and topped everything off with a Kiko glitter polish (270).

Hello folks! I've been absent again, I know, but my really good excuse is, my computer isn't working, my camera (well, Mum's camera) won't produce good pictures (they look fine on the screen, but awfully blurry on my computer! >.<) and I have exams. Expect some longer posts in 2 to 3 weeks - if my Japanese friends don't ALL come at the same time and leave me bsuy showing them through Berlin. xD Since I already have many eye shadows, I have now started to get into lip products. Usually, I just take whatever Lip Smacker appeals to me that morning and leave the house, but now I want to match my lip colour to my eye shadow. As I like purple shadows, I am stocking up on pinks and mauves to go with the looks. So far, I have Lavshuca's Moist Melting Bar in PK-5 and RS-2 and Kate's Rouge Luster in PK-3 on my list. I'd also like one of the(seemingly popular) Coffret d'Or Rouge Glow lipsticks in RS-244 it was, I believe, but that's coming later...