Japanese makeup goodness!

You all know what a fan I am of ANYTHING Japanese, I'm obsessed with the country, the food, the wonderful people and of course, the makeup.  So when Lunatu approached me and said "Hey, can we send you a couple pieces of our Japanese makeup for your blog" I wasn't about to say No!

So, lets start in reverse order (saving my favourite product for last!)....

Dolly wink false eyelashes (No.2 sweet girly) - £10.50*

The reason it's taken me a while to review all these products (I've had them for weeks) is because I don't wear false eyelashes very often and I wanted to wait for an opportunity when I was going to wear them so I could give them a proper excursion!  The lashes themselves are really lovely and vary in density all the way down.  The were a little too long for me so I needed to trim them down by just under a centimetre.  Here's the good and bad bit - the glue.  It was good, it really held the lashes in place, probably better than any other glue I've tried, however, it took an AGE to go clear, and when I took the above pics, I didn't think it was going to go clear as that was after 30 mins of wear - so I'd applied liquid eyeliner over most of the white leaving only the bits you can see.  But it did eventually go clear, so my tip, if you're using these, put them on in plenty of time before you go out :)

Canmake BB Cream 01 light £9.25

Now, you know me, when I review a foundation/bb cream or whatever, I *always* show it in place on the face.  Sadly, because of the 'Yes to Cucumbers' face wipes I have an eczema breakout all over my face and as much as it doesn't look that bad, any foundation is looking terrible on my skin due to all the dryness, and I'm trying not to wear any so not to aggravate it any further.  What I can say about this, is when I first got it a few weeks ago, I wore it a lot and managed to road test it.

It's thick, very blendable and for me, a great colour match, if not the tiniest shade too dark (I had the lightest shade).  It covers as well as any foundation and stays put just as long, but with the added benefit of SPF 50 pa+++ protection.  I've been a big fan of Canmake for a while, ever since I did my Japanese makeup swap and fell in love with the Canmake duo blusher in 01.  Eastern BB creams are the best, Western ones just don't compare, so if you're thinking about getting one, definitely make sure you aim for an Eastern one :)  And at £9.25 this one is really well priced.

Dolly Wink liquid eyeliner in deep black £10.50

So what makes these my favourite of the three products? That's simple, it's amazing.  It's better than my Chanel Ecriture (holy grail) liquid liner hands down.  This is cheaper than half the price, has a finer point to it so it's more precise, it's just as black, it doesn't get on my lashes, it stays put all day, it doesn't transfer to the top of my lid and it's not crazy hard to remove, oh it's buildable too so you can make it blacker and blacker.  The Chanel one comes in around £26, and this is just £10.50 - it's a guaranteed repurchase for me.  

Since I've had this (mid-end March) I haven't used my Chanel eyeliner once!  That's how good it is, and you know how much I loved that liner!!  I love that I can get a much prettier and finer winged look, and this is friendlier on slightly 'older' lids too - on my eyelid on the inner corner, I have tiny little hairline wrinkles, and my Chanel liner bleeds into them while it's still wet, this doesn't.

So there you have it - I hope you've enjoyed this triple review, I've really enjoyed trying these out, and I've found an absolute gem with the liquid eyeliner :)  Thank you Lunatu for introducing me to it :D

This months Biggest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Jaina from Which Beauty Box UK

 

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Canmake cheek & cheek in 01

About a year ago Miss Glamorazzi went to Thailand & brought back a haul - she raved about the Canmake blusher in 01.  So when I had the opportunity to do a makeup swap with A beauty maniac in Japan, I jumped at the change to request this.  So without further ado, here's the pics and my thoughts.

CANMAKE CHEEK & CHEEK IN 01

The biggest thing to bear in mind here with the photo's is that my camera did darken them, and these were taken before I dyed my hair :)

Now that's cleared up, on with the review.  If you have a small enough blusher brush, it is possible to just pick up the one colour, but personally, I much prefer swooshing the brush over both, it creates a beautiful and almost natural glow with very little shimmer, despite how glittery the orange looks in the photograph.  Where you can see it on my cheeks, that's both the colours swatched.

Now, I know I say this about a lot of blushers, but this really has become a bit of a go-to blusher for me, it's so so pretty and not easy to overdo.  It will compliment a range of different skin tones and has lovely pigmentation.  What I don't like in a blusher is where the pigmentation is crazy and you're scared to use it incase it makes you look like a clown.  Well, this won't do that.  It's not sheer either, it's just right.

The sad part is, it's hard to get hold of over here in the UK.  If you're in an eastern/asian country like Japan or Thailand you may well be able to get hold of it quite easily, but if you're most other places in the world, ebay is where you're most likely to pick it up.  Of course, it goes without saying, if you're buying makeup on ebay, shop very carefully and from a reputable seller.

This months Bigest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Karen from Liverpool Lashes

 

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Things I love #1

Since today is a super sad day for me (anniversary of my mum passing away), I thought I'd create a blog series that's the opposite, things I love :)  Each one will feature a different theme, today's theme is Japan - everything that I love that's Japanese, there's quite a bit :)

My new phone cover

One of the bloggers I follow Instagrammed a YYKawaii phone cover they had and I loved it!  I love anything Kawaii, so I popped over to their Etsy store and saw that they even do Totoro cases! (another Japanese thing I love which I'll be coming to!).  Very quickly I found I was placing an order for an HTC One purple Totoro case ;)  Well, it turned up a couple of days ago and I really couldn't be happier.  It was about £15 all together, which for a custom made case is pretty fantastic and it looks so cute, it's absolutely one of a kind :)

If you're interested in having one made, you can find her Etsy store here :)

My Totoro teddy bear

This I had for Christmas last year and was hands down my favourite present :)  It's the official Studio Ghibli one (more on that later), he lives on my desk behind my laptop, it's like he's always photobombing me :P

Studio Ghibli

** My Totoro/Ghibli computer wallpaper **

I think this is what first started getting me into Japanese culture.  I saw Spirited Away one Sunday morning while I was having breakfast and I was really drawn into the stunning animation, the amazing story, everything about it I loved and just instantly clicked with it.  After that a friend of mine bought Howl's Moving Castle for me for my birthday, I loved that too, so I started buying the DVD's and building up a collection.  My favourites are My Neighbour Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Arrietty, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle and The Cat Returns.  I love others too - but they're my favs. Warning though, if you decide to watch Grave of the Fireflies, back it up with a comedy or nice heart warming film afterwards, Grave of the Fireflies is probably the saddest film I've ever seen - have tissues handy for the tears that ensue.

Sushi

** Sushi lunchboxes we made the first time we made Sushi **

Ever since the first conveyor belt sushi restaurant (Zushi) came to Wales (it's now closed down...) I've loved sushi.  As I became vegetarian my love of sushi didn't change, as pretty much the only sushi I ate anyway was the vegetarian ones.  Now, I love nothing more than heading to Yo Sushi! for dinner, or more recently the hubby and I have taken to making our own sushi.  It takes a while with letting the rice soak etc, but it's totally worth it, it tastes exactly like ones you get in Yo Sushi!

Kawaii International

This is a show I discovered over on NHK, which is another Japanese thing I like, both me and the hubby love leaving this channel on :)  This show has 3 presenters and they showcase Kawaii fashion and culture from around Japan, and around the globe.  Just like the phone case at the top of this post, they show you how to make cute things like that too :)  Sadly, I haven't seen it on TV in a while, but I always keep the last episode series linked ready for when the next one will be on, if you like anything Kawaii you need to see this :)  I think you can watch their episodes online too, which is what I might be doing too :P

So they're my main Japanese obsessions at the moment - there's a few other little things too, like the language and the history, the culture, but they're a bit broad for me to put into a blog post :)  Hope you enjoyed this little insight into some of the things I love.

This months Bigest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Hayley from Water Painted Dreams

 

Written by Georgina Kent