Burt's Bees Mama Bee Belly Butter

My sister gave me this giant 185g/6.5oz. tub of Burt's Bees Mama Bee Belly Butter over the holidays, but I didn't get to it until a few weeks ago after exhausting my supply of YuSkin A.

To be honest, I was quite iffy about this Belly Butter, not because it's "belly butter" but because it's Burt's Bees. The last time I used BB was almost a decade ago. I tried several of their products (reviewed four!) but didn't like any of them. All I remember is that they were all very heavy and greasy, and they just stayed on top of my skin and never really absorbed at all.

Sonia Kashuk Shine Luxe Sheer Lip Colour Part II

Resuming the pre-scheduled posts.

I was so impressed with Sonia Kashuk Shine Luxe Sheer Lip Colour in 23 Sheer Juicy Coral that I went straight out to my local Target to check out the range. ...And subsequently came home with 26 Sheer Berry and 28 Sheer Plum ^.^"

All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

Boiron Homeoplasmine Ointment

Now that I'm feeling almost human (almost...) and not a couch-bound road-kill, I have some good news to share: our little one arrived 1-2 weeks early on the wee morning of last Friday, May 19 (I had 2 due dates, differed by a week) ^.^

The nurses called him "little peanut" because he's tiny, weighing in only at the 8th percentile of the average birth weight. He's a perfectly healthy little boy, just small, perfect for his mum's size, or so the doctor said. I'm not sure what shape I'd be in if he were any bigger...

So here he is, a few hours old versus a day old and yawning as we were leaving the hospital the next day.

Some ten days later, he's developed a favorite past time (napping with his papa) as well as a favorite sleeping pose on the couch (I did *not* pose him!).

And no, I haven't been blogging daily since the little one's arrival. Are you kidding? I was merely surviving up until now +.+ You see, knowing June was imminent I'd spent the earlier part of May writing post after post and scheduled their daily releases ahead of time.

With the exception of this post :)

Ladies and gentlemen, I interrupted the daily stream of scheduled posts to bring you a review for Boiron Homeoplasmine Ointment.

Urban Decay Vice Lipstick Vintage

I wasn't going to even go near Urban Decay's new massive collection of Vice Lipstick. That was, until I saw these Vice Lipstick Vintage on sale. There were several colors available, but I thought they were all pretty garish save for one color, Bruise in a sheer finish. So I picked it up to compare with Sheer Revolution Sheer Shame. What? It's called research, folks, research! xD

All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

Suqqu 2015 Christmas Makeup Kit B

Call this Suqqu 2015 Christmas Makeup Kit B a nostalgic purchase, because I'd already swatched it in person and went with Kit A instead. And then over the holidays, I spotted this Kit B on Rakuten JP for 7,000yen with free shipping. At the time, I also had about 1,800 Rakuten points (1,800yen's worth!), so I didn't hesitate and got this Kit B for 5,200yen, or about 35% off of the 8,000yen retail. Woot!

All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

Yoku Moku Cookies

Cookies!!!

Unsurprisingly, hubby and I have found that of all the gifts we brought back from Japan, the snacks are some of most popular among our family and friends. And not just any snacks but iconic ones:
1. Kit Kats in multitude of flavors. Cliche? Yes. Fun? Yes! You can definitely find some of these at your local Japanese (or even Korean!) grocery store, but of course flavors are limited. I've consistently seen matcha and strawberry, both are ubiquitous and boring. The more interesting LE releases are Japan-only, like wasabi (sweet, with only a faint taste of wasabi) and toast-able "pudding" (by "pudding" they always mean Spanish-style flan, I did toast them, and they did have a custard-like flavor).

***Stock photos from Amazon and RocketNews24.

2. Shiroi Koibito. Our family went nuts for these and for good reasons. They're delicious, enough said. You can get them via Rakuten Global or even Amazon, but you sure pay one way or another, via shipping from Rakuten or marked up prices from Amazon, take your pick. Which was why we loaded them up with our move home and even then, our 12 boxes were woefully inadequate and disappeared pretty much instantly.


Then came this past holiday season and one of my sister's friend in Japan sent her a giant tin of Yoku Moku Cookies. Like Shiroi Koibito, Yoku Moku is a brand of premium cookies. The founder Noriichi Fujinawa first tasted a variety of butter cookies when he visited the town Jokkmokk of Sweden. Upon coming home to Japan, he went straight to work recreating the goodies he had and couldn't forget.

Maquillage Dramatic Rouge Part III

I thought I was done with Maquillage Dramatic Rouge but they released 3 LE colors in the fall of 2016, one of which caught my eyes. I looked them up on Rakuten JP and found a good deal, so I went ahead and picked up all three PK240 Airy Pink, RD330 Swing Red, and RS555 Chic Rose.

All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

Lunasol Colorful Sky Eyes

While there was some excitement over the 2017 Spring release of Lunasol Color Sky Eyes, in the end boring me went for the same-old same-old combination of 03 Pink Orange. Sure, 01 Yellow Lilac has that yellow and the purple, but I just know I'll rarely touch the other 3 colors. It's even worse with 02 Blue Green--I'll probably only use the darkest color to line my eyes. The LE EX01 Colorful is very pretty, but again I know I'll only use half of the palette, the orange and the pink. So practicality wins over novelty this time.

 ***Screencap from Lunasol JP.

All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

Deborah Lippmann Lipstick

Welp, Citrine sold me on yet another lipstick formula, the Deborah Lippmann Lipstick.

Deborah Lippmann is a celebrity manicurist and it's expected that she focuses on all things hands, feet, and nails. But there was a while when she branched out into lipsticks, which were available in sets along with a matching nail color for $24 or individually for $22. The lipsticks are discontinued now but a few colors can still be found in various discounted shops and of course E(vil)bay. I was able to find 3 colors I like, Call Me Maybe, Let's Do It, and She Bangs.

All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

Soap Crazy Part XIII

Yet another 2 years since the last Soap Crazy post!

No, we used up a whole lot more than the 11 bars below in the past 2 years. Most of them were repeats though, like the L'Occitane Bonne Mere Soap Milk for example. We must have gone through at least a dozen of the 50g Milk bars during our time in Tokyo, because we just love that scent so much. Anyway, it wasn't until we moved home that I decided to change things up a bit. Being home means I have access to my soap stash again, and it's been fun to go through and pick out a new soap every other month or so.

- Fresh & Clean Almond Silk Glycerin Goats Milk Soap: more nutty and vanilla than almond but I enjoyed the scent nonetheless.

RMK Irresistible Glow Lips

These RMK Irresistible Glow Lips were really what I was looking forward to trying, though the one Irresistible Bright Lips I got was decent too. It was much easier for me to pick out colors from the Glow line, because these are supposedly more translucent and less pigmented. I went with 01 Cherry Red (obviously!), 06 Red Brown Beige, 12 Mix Berry Rose, EX-08 Nude Pink, and EX-09 Nude Rose.

All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

L'Occitane Hand Creams Part V

More L'Occitane Hand Creams, with the last post being two years ago in 2015. Wow! It's not that it takes me that long to use up the below tubes. More like I have multiples of the same scents and I only post about the scents I haven't posted on before.

- Shea Butter Whipped Hand Cream: smells like the regular Shea Butter Hand Cream, only with a whipped texture. I was actually expecting a thinner, mousse-like texture but it turned out to be quite thick, thicker than the regular Shea Butter Hand Cream even.

RMK Irresistible Bright Lips

Read Citrine's review of RMK Irresistible Glow Lips in EX-06 and got curious, so I picked up a few colors from Selfridge's UK online store to try. While at it I thought I'd try one color from the Irresistible Bright Lips also. Knowing this is supposedly the more pigmented line, I went for 02 Pink Red.

All pictures taken in natural light without flash.