The Body Shop Shimmer Cubes Part II

I really love The Body Shop Shimmer Cubes and have been collecting them for several years now. I don't have all the colors though because I've been skip the ones I'm not too thrilled about ^.^ Even among those I own, I do have favorites, because unfortunately a few of them look pretty in the pan but don't quite show up as well as they look.

I think the concept of these shimmer cubes is pretty neat. Four baked eyeshadows that can be used dry or wet and packaged in a box of 4 individually encased cubes with their own lid. I have 3 minor complaints though: the box is kind of bulky, these cubes aren't something I can take with me on the road as they do crumble and break, and I get color repeats in different palettes. But aside from that, one of these shimmer cubes will last me for freakin' ever!  

Shimmer Cubes Palette 16, all pictures taken indoor with flash unless otherwise noted.

Shimmer Cubes Palette 18

Lux Super Rich Shine Shampoo

Accidentally bought 2 sets of these Lux Super Rich Shine Shampoo and Conditioner Set from 2 separate trips to the local drug store. I forgot I had already bought one, and proceeded to buy another set. Oops. Good thing I actually like the shampoo ^.^'

Cooling down a bit (finally!)

It's been cooling down just a tiny bit around here, phew! I thought I was going to melt and shrink. It's too bad we can't burn off calories with just heat-induced (and not exercise haha) sweating...

A second typhoon is hitting Tokyo and we are finally able to turn off our AC again (the last typhoon was a few weeks ago when it cooled down for a few days too). Let's hope this time the cooler days are here to stay, though I should be careful what I wish for. I remember last year, the summer to fall change seemed to happen within a week, and one week we were sweating buckets the next week we froze our butts off. Just can't win with the weather.

And cooler weather means I can finally pull out my -tahdah- sweat sarouel pants again ^.^ I actually own a few pairs but have only worn one pair back in May, which started my debate with hubby about whether these Aladdin/harem -or according to this blog- MC Hammer pants *giggles* are pjs or pants that are appropriate to step out in. This time, to my surprise hubby didn't protest my choice of outfit much. He actually thought they didn't look so bad xD

Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick Eye Palette

I bought this Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick Eye Palette while in flight on route to the US of A from Tokyo several years back. I believe it was a 2006 Duty Free Exclusive then, before it was made available to retail as the Sandwash Palette. See what I mean with some things getting buried in my cabinet? Five years is a looooong time! *sniff* Good thing the eyeshadows is still works perfectly, probably because it was never even opened to begin with!

All pictures taken indoor with flash, unless otherwise noted.

Canmake Jewelstar Eyes Part II

Ever since Julia left a comment in my Visee x Mercury Duo Brilliance Forming Eyes post, suggesting I should use the cream eyeshadows on my lower lash lines instead of my upper lids (it was actually part of the how-to instructions on for the Visee palette, but silly me never bothered to look at it...ha), I experienced a complete 180-degrees turnaround in opinion regarding these cream shadows I deemed too greasy (they are greasy!).

And thanks to Julia for pointing out the obvious (and it's necessary to have someone pointing out the obvious sometimes), not only I gained a new found appreciation for my Canmake Jewelstar Eye in 01 Crystal Silver, I actually went out and bought more colors ^.^ Hooray! I finally finally know how to use these cream shadows ^.^ ...though had I been more diligent in reading my instructions, I would have learned much sooner :P Owe Julia one all the same!

07 Stone Gold, all pictures taken in natural light without flash.

10 Heart Snow White

KATE Powder Gel Liner

I have had this Kate Powder Gel Liner for a while now too but haven't had the chance to use it at all. I prefer my makeup sheer, and when I do line my eyes, I line it with powder for a sheerer and smudgy effect. With gel/cream liners like these, I save for "special occasions" where my makeup needs to be more on the "dramatic" side. Then again, these "special occasions" rarely, if ever, come around (yeah, sad, *sniff*), so items like these in my cabinet never gets to see the light of day.

All pictures taken indoor with flash.

Benefit Cosmetics Creaseless Cream Shadow-Liner

I got this full size Benefit Cosmetics Creaseless Cream Shadow-Liner as a GWP a while back from Sephora when it first came out. At the time I was taken with Laura Mercier Metallic Creme Eye Colours and this Creaseless Cream Shadow-Liner got sidelined, but it quickly became, and still is, quite popular. Now that I'm back in my liquid/gel/cream eyeshadows craze, I can totally see why people have the hots for it! I've only been playing around with mine, but I can tell it's quality stuff! What took me so long to jump on these? Hmm...

All pictures are taken indoor with flash.

Maybelline Eye Studio Color Plush Silk Eyeshadow

When I first saw these Maybelline Eye Studio Color Plush Silk Eyeshadows (bleh what a mouthful!) I was quite intrigued. Let's just say it has been a very long time since I've seen something interesting at an American drugstore. The last blip of interest I had was with Revlon's A Golden Affair Sculpting Blush and a Floral Affair Sheer Powder Blush back in 2008. Long post ahead, by the way. Took me days to write!!!

Now I'll be honest and admit that I'm completely biased. It was Japanese cosmetics (drugstore, low to mid-end) that turned my attention to makeup and skincare to begin with. That means American drugstore brands will always be at a disadvantage and will have to go much further to impress me. It really doesn't help my opinion that whenever I visit a local Walgreens or CVS, all I see are these super-sized to the point of vulgar compacts, compounded by colors that were either way too harsh, plain and boring, or just downright ugly. It seems some American drugstore brands don't give much thought to the crap they throw together. Am I being unfair? Perhaps. Am I generalizing? May be. Stay with me here, this is not a bash-American-drugstore-brands post.

By the way, I bought these palettes at different times, so some pictures were taken indoor with flash and others in natural light without flash. I will note either way.

#30 Purple Icon, picture taken in natural light without flash, and #40 Green With Envy, taken indoor with flash.

The Body Shop Shimmer Cubes

Update Monday, September 12, 2011.

I did a bunch of swatches over the weekend for some upcoming posts and thought I'd throw in the dry and wet swatches for this Body Shop Shimmer Cubes Palette 12 too ^.^ Just look how much more intense the colors are when used wet! 

The Sunrise Pink (the powder pink with violet sheen) and Starlight Gold colors get a foiled effect, the lilac iridescent in the Sunset Berry color becomes much more pronounced, and woowee, watch out for that black! 

When use wet:

- Sunrise Pink: metallic pearl, high intensity, loses its violet iridescent sheen but becomes opaque and gains a foiled effect.
- Twilight Black: shimmer, [dangerously] high intensity, the shimmer particles becomes more visible and it would make a pretty sparkling black gel liner!
- Sunset Berry: metallic pearl, high intensity, becomes almost duo-chrome as the lilac iridescent sheen gets much more pronounced.
- Starlight Gold: metallic, high intensity, somewhat looses the pearl effect and becomes more metallic, also gaining a foiled effect. Also, it turns a cooler ashy gold too and not so much champagne anymore.

Wet swatches applied with a damp brush, picture taken in natural light without flash.

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Original post Saturday, March 29, 2008.

I never ever paid much attention to The Body Shop, until one night at dinner with my SIL. She was wearing this gorgeous beige-cream eye shadow that was so metallic it looked like wet foil. I kept staring at it all night when we got to her pad, she pointed to her vanity, saying, "That's the stuff I used." It turned out to be The Body Shop Shimmer Cubes Palette 10, and while I'm still unsuccessful in locating this particular palette (it has been discontinued for a while), I've since collected The Body Shop Shimmer Cubes ^.^

Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, Tokyo

If you are a fan of Hayao Miyazaki or of any Studio Ghibli's production, you should definitely visit the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo. For one, Miyazaki himself designed the building, and there you can let your inner kid out as it is built like an easy going maze ^.^ That, and the official tag line is "Let's lose our way together."

Santon Restaurant

Santon (山東) Restaurant features homestyle Chinese cooking and is rather hidden from Yokohama Chukagai's bustling main street. And might as well it should stay hidden, because sadly we won't be going back there again. Ever. Erhh...let's see, out of the 4 dishes hubby and I ordered, 1 had no taste, 2 had the same taste, and the third was just a sauteed green leafy vegetable dish and to me, it didn't count because if a so-esteemed "Chinese" restaurant can't even sauteed green leafy vegetables right, well, shoot me now.

Apparently the place was "famous" for boiled dumplings, and hubby loves boiled dumplings and has been wanting to go try it out. The boiled dumplings was the first thing we ordered too, and it came out steaming hot, freshly fished from the boiling water in which it was cooked. The waitress then brought us a far of what looks like flavored sate (aka shacha) sauce (not the same as the peanut-based Southeast Asian satay), which we happily doused our dumplings with because we love sate! It's savory, spicy, with briny flavor mixed in, what's not to love?

Non-no July 2011

This Non-no July 2011 is the last of my July issues - phew! I was starting to think I'd never catch up, because October magazines are already on the stands... T.T

 

A Few Changes

Hi gals, this crazy hot and humid summer is *almost* over. Hang in there. 

Citrine has brought some things to my attention, and she said will be putting up a similar post on her blog soon too so look out for it.

But here's to let you know there will be couple of new changes to my blog:
1 - You've probably noticed that I've started to watermarking my pictures. 

Yes, I've known that intellectual thievery on the internet has always been rampant, but since 2007 when I started blogging, I've avoided watermarking my pictures. Of course because the watermark gets in the way and "uglifies" the pictures. My rationale was simple - since this is an amateur blog that stemmed from my hobby of squealing over sparkly pretty eyeshadows, people would leave it alone. But I was just being foolish and naive after all. Because neither myself or my blog hold any influence or clout over anything or anyone, it's even easier to bully me and steal my blog contents.

CuteOverload's Emo Bun disapproves of internet dick-faced thieves.

Diamond Beauty Diamond Nose Makeup

I've never heard of Diamond Beauty, and only after some research did I learn it is a small brand that mainly features fake eye lashes. They do carry point makeup too, just not as many variety and color selection is quite limited. 

That said, browsing through Don Quixote's drugstore floor I chanced upon the testers for this Diamond Nose Makeup (arhh?!?) and found these, yes, contouring and highlighting powders to be exquisitely fine and silky! So even though the small and totally generic and somewhat cheap-looking compact is actually pricier than similar items from other drugstore brands, 1,050yen versus 6-800yen from Canmake, Visee, Kate, etc., I picked one up! 

Diamond Nose Makeup 01 Princess Nose and 02 Dolly Nose (...I didn't come up with these names...)

***Picture from Diamond Beauty.

Tokyo Sundubu

Tokyo Sundubu is a restaurant dedicated to serving sundubu jjigae with various ingredients and toppings. And boy do I love the place! I honestly have never heard of sundubu until I spotted a branch in Minato Mirai Queen's Square, right across the hall from Keawjal. And having had lunch there once was enough for me to come home and comb the internet for a recipe, which I later tweaked to my taste at home.

Hubby's lunch set, beef tendon sundubu, which he said was pretty tasty!

Sankeien, Yokohama, Kanagawa (Picture heavy!)

Hubby and I had planned to see Sankeien way back in December when my brother was here visiting, but we kept pushing back, and back, and back until a recent afternoon when we finally dragged ourselves out the door ^.^

View of the Main Pond from the Outer Garden.

 

The Body Shop Moroccan Rose RoseFlower Blush

Been using The Body Shop RoseFlower Blush from the Moroccan Rose collection that came out in Spring 2009 for a few weeks now and loving it! Yeah, I know I'm a bit behind the times...

The Body Shop RoseFlower Blush 01 Pink


The Body Shop RoseFlower Blush 02 Fuchsia

Tabibijin Cha Sekken Tea Facial Cleansing Bar

This is really not a review because I've only used this Tabibijin Cha Sekken Tea Facial Cleansing Bar a few times at the onsens I've been to, with Ayasa Hotel being the most recent. That said, I've consistently seen this brand of Tabibijin skincare at the spas and onsens I visited, the Tea Facial Cleansing Bar inside the bathhouses and the Tea Peeling Gel at the vanity counters, I decided I should get some and try for myself and ended up with this 3-set for my sister and my mum too.

Tabibijin Cha Sekken Tea Facial Cleansing Bar

When was the last time you had an ice pop?

I know I know, hubby and I are way past the age of ice pops, and we didn't think we'd be addicted to such kiddy treats but hey, we surprise ourselves sometimes ^.^

With the year-long language program over, many of hubby's classmates went home and moved on to other adventures of their lives. One of them used to live in the same building as we do, and prior to leaving she gave us her snacks, which included a few sticks of these Simple Mini Fruit Yogurts.

Cream Soda and Fruit Yogurt flavors

***Pictures from Shinko, Inc.

Taiyaki Part VII

More taiyaki for you with 3 different flavors!!! ^.^

Johnson's Body Care Dreamy Skin Relax Body Wash

Johnson's Body Care Dream Skin Relax Body Wash is unfortunately neither dreamy or relaxing. Reading the "aroma soothe" tagline at the bottom of the package, I was hoping for light fragrance. And it did smell mild enough, that is, the sample perfumed beads they leave out for you to take a whiff :P

Goodies from Nikko

From our trip to Nikko, we brought back a couple of goodies, Nikko's well known local specialty of yokan (jellied sweet bean paste) and yuba (tofu skin).

Shio Yokan (salted yokan) and Yuba Shiitake pickles ^.^