Colour me cute!

Japanese-speaking readers can find me at cosme.net now: http://my.cosme.net/open_top/show/user_id/2166688 If you are also on cosme.net, please add me as a friend! :) よろしくお願いします。m(_ _)m

Some of you might remember by love for Ichikami's hair products. I was really sad I couldn't take any of them home. :( I thought about it, but my luggage was very heavy already and if I ran out of it, I would have to reorder again... Well, the next time I'll be in Japan! Anyway, as I was standing in front of the Ichikami counter/corner at my local pharmacy, I thought: "Hm, that model looks like Kouda Kumi, just less flashy." Turns out it was her! I stopped following her music ages ago - not because of the bad joke incident after which she lost her contract with Visée, but because I didn't like her style and singing anymore. But I'm glad to see she got a new cosmetics deal, and I still like her enough to be happy about her promoting my favourite hair products! :) On a side note, I need to apologize for not posting reviews for a while. Getting my skin under control is my biggest concern at the moment, and I want to present all the make-up I still...

As I mentioned before, I have purchased the trial set for Sekkisei (to celebrate their 25th Anniversary) last week and have been using it since then, together with another Kosé moisturizer (that smells the same as Sekkisei and is also said to have whitening effects.) I have also been using their sun lotion since late March and just started my second bottle a little while ago. When I googled for Sekkisei's ingredient's, I came across this very handy site: Sun lotion ingredients and their level of irritation and comedogenic effects I didn't get any more acne from it, as the comedogenic levels are only 2, and also no irritation despite it having some level 4 ingredients. Lucky! I also typed in the lotion and the emulsion . So far, it feels like my skin is getting better from the use of the products. My skin got some pimples, which rarely happens, but maybe that's because the cream is too thick for my oily t-zone, or maybe because both lotion and emulsion contain ...

My skin has been looking awful lately, so I went to the local drugstore and had a very nice lady help me a lot. (Well, actually I went there to get some stuff a friend wanted and to stock up for the last time, as tomorrow is my last day in Japan - for a while. Definitely coming back!) I'm one of those people who get break-outs on their cheeks and chin area, which the nice lady said is stress and hormones. She measured my skin's hydration level again and it was very low this time. I probably over-cleaned my skin when the first pimple showed up some weeks ago, and didn't moisturize properly because the last check showed I was fine without using moisturizer. Uh, well. Actually, this describes my skin's state pretty well, and also sums up what the lady at the counter said. After like half an hour of discussing matters with the SA and fighting with myself, I bought the Sekkisei 25th Anniversary trial kit and a Kosé moisturizer that smells nearly the same as Sekkisei do...

In Japan, I often seen girls or women doing their make-up on the train. It's kind of interesting because I like to see what kind of techniques other people use. When I went back from an overnight trip, my friends and me were pretty bored on the long train ride, and I had the crazy, er, glorious idea to re-apply my make-up on the train. I've never done that before and probably will never do it again, but it was fun. For some reason, it is considered bad manners to apply make-up on the train, so the Tokyo Metro launched this some time ago: In many public restrooms here, there are also extra mirrors so you won't block the sinks while doing your hair or make-up. Even at my university! O.o Some people also apply their make-up in the car, I've heard. Seems a bit dangerous to me... ^^; Do you apply your make-up at outside of yor home or bathrooms?

I used Lavshuca's Eye Color Select palette in Br-1, blusher/highlighter duo in RD-2 and Liquid Rouge in RD-1. Also the loose powder Lucent on one side of my face - I powdered the other half with my usual Majolica Majorca powder to see if there's a difference. Time will tell. My base was the Missha Signature BB Cream sample in #21 I reviewed in the post before this. Also, I filled in my eyebrows with a no-name powder, put black gel-liner by Kate on my upper waterline and white My Color Pencil in white, also by Kate, on my lower waterline. And my beloved Majolica Majorca Lash Gorgeous Wing Neo, of course. It looks like my cell phone camera has a tendency to tone down red in pictures. The liquid rouge looks redder in real life, my blush disappeared in the picture (I didn't apply that much to begin with, though - living in Japan doesn't mean imitating their way of applying blusher.) Also, my hair started turning red. O.o I tolf you before that I got it dyed, and some ...

When I bought my blue eyeshadow I still haven't reviewed at the Missha counter in a Shinjuku department store, I got some free samples, one of them the Signature BB Cream in #21. Yes, the first time I got a bright colour that actually fits my face! Usually, both in Germany and in Japan, I get foundation samples that are waaaaaaaaaaaay too dark (and yellow) for me. Is there only one colour for samples or is there a purpose behind giving me the wrong colour? (I know there are some "make-up experts" that give you darker colours on purpose to make you look "more healthy". Um, sure.) Anyway, I just tried the sample and from the first use, I almost like it better than the Perfect Cover one that I used until now! It's not as thick, so it spreads more easily, and it also looks a bit more natural. It lacks the strong fragrance, which might be a plus for people who don't like the other one's smell or react to fragrance. I know you can't judge from samp...