Scented Candles

Hubby and I have been burning through a bunch of scented candles so I thought I'd post about them.

First up was this Capri Blue Scented Candle in a 226g/8oz Tiffany blue glass jar with a metal lid. The scent was Volcano. This candle was all bark and no bite. The fragrance was a sweet tropical fruit punch and was on the strong side. However, once lit the fragrance disappeared and I could hardly smell anything at all. Either way, it was ok while it lasted, and it didn't last very long at all! Will not repurchase.

Trina Turk Scented Candles

Here's something both hubby and I love that I discovered by accident: these Trina Turk 3-Wick Scented Candles. I bought Birchwood first as a cart-filler, then came right back and nabbed Harvest Moon because Birchwood was a hit. Then I went totally crazy and grabbed another, like, half a dozen other scents from Amazon because Harvest Moon was even better than Birchwood. Holy moly, these candles are hands down the best scented candles hubby and I have ever owned!

Voluspa Candles Part II

I picked up these large 397g/14oz. jars of Voluspa Two Wick Glass Candles from Nordstrom during the winter of 2020 I think. They were cart fillers because I thought the etched glass jars were pretty, and they were. From the description of the fragrances, I chose two I thought hubby and I might like: Panjore Lychee and Japanese Plum Bloom.

Household Goodies

Long post ahead with lots of photos. First Household Goodies post to share some neat stuff I found over the past couple of years, since hubby and I moved into our permanent home.

***Disclaimer: I'm *not affiliated* with any of these brands or vendors. Just sharing the goodies I enjoy is all.

I'd mentioned Heartfelt SF in my latest Tea Time post, an SF locally owned gift shop our friends N. and A. introduced us to where I source my most favorite Earl Grey Lavender tea ever. Turns out they have a bunch of great kitchen stuff too. One time I was browsing their online shop and found these two adorable sets of pinch bowls and couldn't resist.

Look how cute these are! Hubby and I have found ourselves reaching for them constantly, to put our tea bag, to rest our tea spoon, dipping sauces, etc.

Air-drying Racks for Makeup Brushes

A while back Bellyhead posted on Instagram a picture of her freshly washed makeup brushes drying upside down on some nifty brush stands. What brilliant drying racks, I thought, and immediately asked her where to buy them. She named Benjabelle, a brand that supposedly invented these drying racks. However, by the time I got to Benjabelle, severe copycat competitions from Amazon had priced the company out of the market and they had stopped (hand!)making these brush stands altogether :(

Benjabelle drying rack for makeup brushes, sadly no longer available.

***Image from Wondedondigo Instagram page.

Voluspa Candles

During Nordstrom's Anniversary Sale I picked up two sets of Voluspa Two-Wick Tin Candle Trios, a Maison Blanc and a Maison Noir. I'd been looking for candles to decorate my new home with and these caught my eyes with the colorful tins.

Maison Blanc

Maison Noir

Paul & Joe Lipstick and Lipstick CS Comparison Swatches

Here's my humble Paul & Joe Lipstick and Lipstick CS collection so far, along with their Lipstick Case CS. These aren't all of them as I've passed on several colors I don't use to family and friends, but I'm pretty happy with those that remains.

What I've noticed over the years is that the collection gets repetitive. There are few exceptions like the 2016 fall collection with different and lovely colors that were still seasonally appropriate. Otherwise, there's always a shade of pink, coral or orange, and red, and while I love those colors I'm getting bored seeing the same stuff over and over. So I'll probably stop here unless P&J comes up with something really fresh.

Lipstick Case CS. All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

Stila Convertible Color Part IV

These Stila x Baublebar Gift Sets in Glow & Behold and Merry & Bright were from the 2014 holiday season. I've had them since last summer when they went on clearance. After months of using Canmake Cream Cheeks and the new Lip & Cheek Gels, I finally dug them out, ready for more Convertible Colors I don't yet have.

Glow & Behold and Merry & Bright Gift Sets. All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

Storage for Makeup Brushes Part II

I've posted about my custom makeup brush stands, so this post is dedicated to the makeup brush rolls I use for travels. These lovelies are handmade by May Ling of EJCDezines (not affiliated!), from Melbourne, Australia.


I browsed through hundreds of different Etsy shops that made fabric brush rolls and fell in love with May Ling's fabrics and simple designs. I especially love that many of her fabrics are textured and quite thick. And plus she lined these rolls so padding was unnecessary. May Ling was very patient when working with my requests for different size pockets, because...Koyudo fu-pas ^.^ Do check out her shop if you're interested. I might have to get a couple more rolls myself as my brush collection have grown!

Chikuhodo Brushes Part V

Are you sick of brushes yet? ^.^ I purposely held onto this post because I figured there were back to back brush posts in February. Anyway, every year there are limited edition brush sets released for the holidays, and Chikuhodo had 2 gorgeous Noel Collection sets, Etoile and Neige. 

The Etoile set went for $275-300 depends on your source. It came with a full gray squirrel powder brush, a goat and gray squirrel mixed cheek brush, 2 Canadian squirrel eye shadow brushes L and S, a water badger eyebrow brush, a weasel lip brush, and a gold carrying case.

The Neige set went for $135-150 and came with a powder, cheek, and an eye shadow brush M, all in undyed sokoho goat hair, with a silver carriage case. Can you guess which I bought? ^.^

***Stock photos from Chikuhodo Japan and Beautylish.com. 

Storage for Makeup Brushes

Now that I've got the Storage for Cosmetics out of the way, I will share with you how I store my makeup brushes. The easy answer is - brush stands ^.^ The hard part is to find the perfect brush stands. So I searched high and low on the internet for brush stands and got, well, paint brush stands. These would be fine for some of the smaller Hakuhodo eye brushes with standard long handles, but for everything else, especially the Koyudo fu-pas, they wouldn't do at all. So back to the drawing board. This time, I searched for pencil holders, which yielded a ton of aluminum or mesh wire holders. Nope. Tried again for desktop organizers and finally somewhere.

Having found some interesting looking desktop organizers, I applied my criteria. I didn't want plastic or metal. I had considered bamboo, but bamboo can be splintery, which is a no-go because it'll scratch the nice lacquer on some of the brush handles. So solid wood only. I must have looked through hundreds of shops on Etsy but found nothing I liked. I know, all that work just to find holder(s) for my makeup brushes. Crazy, right? I was this close to giving up when I stumbled upon some beautiful woodworks from the most unlikely place: a shop that specializes in organizers/holders for e-cigarette/vaporizer pipes, "juices," and accessories. 

My first thought was, hmm, e-cigarettes/vaporizers... 

My second thought was, damn, those organizers/holders are gorgeous! 

My third thought was, well, these organizers/holders may have been made for e-cigarettes/vaporizers, but I'm going to use them however I damn pleased! Who the hell cares anyway?

So I contacted the shop owner, a gentleman named Byron from Texas, and told him I'm looking for brush holders for makeup brushes. He thought it was a novel idea (he was being nice :P) because no one has ever approached him for such a thing, so why the hell not?! Damn right! He agreed to do some customization for me and asked for pictures of the end-product in action so he could post them on his FB xD 

Behold my lovely trio of desktop, vanity, and brush organizers, handcrafted with tender love and care from Texas Premier Woodwork (not affiliated)!

Storage for Cosmetics

So after moving so many times in the past decade, I finally fulfilled my dream of having a *real* storage solution for my makeup collection. While I was away, they've been scattered in a few locations, at my parents' house, grandma's basement, etc. In Japan, Taiwan, and even San Francisco, I only had a few of my favorites with me, stuffed into various toiletry bags :( Since hubby and I moved home from the west coast, I decided my babies will no longer be subjected to toiletry bags, not even plastic tubberwares or organizers.

I had in mind exactly what I wanted, a multi-drawer craft chest. But locating one in a good size with good size drawers was a pain, not to mention the sticker shock. One place quoted me a whopping $800 for an oak-wood (the cheapest wood) unfinished chest with 12 drawers and stands to my chest. Finishing it (staining, painting, etc.) would be another $200, so a total of $1K plus tax! Erhh, come again?!?

I was really heartbroken thinking I'd never be able to afford decent storage for my goodies. Then came my dame in shiny armor: sis-in-law who was moving away to the west coast (I know, just as we moved home from there, they moved out there -.-"). She's an artsy one who's been doing craft since high school, and of course in her possession is a gorgeous unfinished craft chest with 14 drawers in 3 different sizes, also made of oak wood. She even took the pain to replace all the drawer knobs with quirky things. A craft chest with personality, just about perfect. And she gave it to me. For free. Weeeeheee *happy dance*

Koyudo Brushes Part V

Okay, I didn't intend to review these newer Koyudo additions until much later but an anonymous reader left a comment asking me about my Koyudo favorites, so she/he can hurry and get her order in before the crazy price increase. I do share her/his sentiment, having put in a huge order myself yesterday T.T

And before I post a list of my favorites, I figured I should review these first. So sorry to overload you with brushes for the past week, but here are more of my most recent Koyudo acquisitions. All prices listed are current, as the new prices won't go into effect until March 2, 2015.

Brushes in this batch:
- Left photo: BP020, BP040, Sakura022, Red Large Shader, Black Large Shader, Black Medium Shader, and Black Small Shader.
- Right photo: Brush Stand Pouch, H Series White Kinoko, and fu-pa14 Ena White Series.

Paul & Joe Lipstick and Lipstick CS

I've been staying away from Paul & Joe for a long time, not because I'm not interested but because I'd be in trouble if I get started ^.^" They keep coming out with one limited edition collection after another, which I'm a total sucker for, not to mention many of those items are always super duper cute!   

Anyway, last winter 2012 I actually caved and bought a few items from Beauty Habit right after moving home from Taipei. But then I had to pack again for SF, and so didn't get to the stuff I bought until now: Face & Eye Color CS 73 42nd Street, 74 Empire State, and 75 Brooklyn Bridge from the Manhattan Collection released fall 2011, and Color Powder CS 79 Les Tourtereaux released fall 2012. This year another death blow came in the form of an adorable kitty blanket GWP, also via Beauty Habit, and so I decided to give some of the Lipsticks and Lipstick CS a try. 

Top: the 2 orders from Beauty Habit, last winter and this fall. All pictures taken in natural light without flash. 

Face Colors and one more Lipstick refill ordered via Beauty Bay.

The evil kitty blanket that's found a permanent home on my couch. It's so, so, so soft and measures 44 x 26 inches.

Glow August 2011

Last back-issue of 2011, hooray! This Glow August 2011 came with a Wedgwood tote in a cute flowery vine print on off white background.

Steady August 2011

Trying to get these out before they pickle any longer -.-' This Steady August 2011 issue came with a L'est Rose multi-purpose bag-in-bag tote, and I picked it for the pretty pink rose bouquet print on a baby blue gingham background. 

Non-no August 2011

Long time no magazine posts! You thought I gave these up, didn't you? ^.^

While packing up my apartment in Japan, it wasn't just a few mooks I found under a layer of dust. There were a few magazines too from late summer 2011 I had totally forgotten about! So here's to better late than never, this is Non-no August 2011. It came with a Coach fan and handkerchief. These freebies made it a popular issue and it was sold out quickly. I was so lucky to get even one issue, and there I was letting it sit for more than a year!