Shiseido Ibuki Skincare Line Review 資生堂イブキレビュ

I love a lot of the Shiseido 'drugstore' products in Japan but I hadn't tried Shiseido's normal products. Sometimes it can be hard to know which products are good for your skin type and age, so I was happy to hear about the new Ibuki line in the US that is targeted for those in their twenties looking to prevent aging and protect their skin.

Shiseido is also usually really expensive! (At the end of this post I'll share my tips for getting the cheapest deals on their products.) Last November, they had a free gift with purchase so I decided to try out the Ibuki Skincare line!

I bought the Ready, Set, Ibuki Starter Kit from Macy's and chose the Ibuki free gift. I also had a Sephora gift card and a 20% off coupon for their VIP Party and bought the Shiseido Perfect Cleansing Oil. (You can see my haul in this video)

Shiseido product haul! 

As I said before, I was excited to try this line out because it seemed to fit my skin needs perfectly. The products promise to protect skin from environmental stressors, lock in moisture, and also aid fine lines caused by dryness. I noticed my skin texture had worsened from a combination of stress, winter weather, and laziness to pamper my skin! I had been noticing fine lines around my mouth area that would improve with Clinique Moisture Surge at night, but always returned.

The whole skincare line has a floral smell that surprised me at first. After a couple uses I really got attached to the scent! It is not too overpowering.

1. Gentle Cleanser / Purifying Cleanser

My kit included the Gentle Cleanser, and this worked perfectly for my skin. Even though I do break out and have oiliness, I use acne prescriptions so I avoid harsh cleansers. Normally I would use the Clinique mild soap or Perfect Whip for my skin. I sensed that this product can be lathered very similarly to Perfect Whip and would be great to use with the Clarisonic. You only need a very small amount of product and when washed off, there is no residue.

2. Softening Concentrate

The Softening Concentrate is supposed to provide extra moisture and enhance how the rest of the regiment works thereafter. It is different than many "step two" toners in the West because it does not require a cotton pad to strip the skin. For example, I have used Clinique for years. Their toner contains alcohol and I liked how I felt like I could remove any dead skin and further clean my skin. However, I have heard that alcohol can be harsh on skin. After removing makeup, scrubbing again with your cleanser, a harsh toner may just strip your skin of its natural moisture even more. I believe that this concentrate tries to do the exact opposite.

I simply pour some of the product on my palm and pat it on my forehead, cheeks, chin, and also the area around my mouth where I had fine lines. You can massage it until absorbed or lightly pat your skin. After using it, my skin feels refreshed.

3. ULTIMUNE Power Infusing Concentrate

I don't normally use a serum, but when I have, sometimes I experienced some irritation. This serum didn't seem to bother my skin and it felt really nice. I'm not certain if this product also helped with my fine lines from dryness.

4. Protective Moisturizer SPF 18 / Refining Moisturizer / Refining Moisturizer Enriched

I got the Refining Moisturizer in my starter kit. The Protective version only differs because it contains SPF, and the Enriched version is simply a heavier moisturizer (it can be used day or night, but many say they prefer it only for bedtime). I wouldn't have minded to get the Protective Moisturizer because I like my skin care products to have SPF--even in the winter. However, in the summertime I would probably still use a higher SPF product alongside the skincare regimen.

After applying the Softening Concentrate, my skin already feels partially 'rehydrated', if that makes sense, so I only apply a small amount of the moisturizer. It absorbs well and did not break me out or leave me feeling greasy.

4. Eye Correcting Cream

I love getting eye cream samples! Eye creams can be so expensive~so it is always a plus to get a large sample of one, because it will last a long time. This eye cream surprised me...it is a lovely pale pink color that has a little shimmer! (Once applied, no color or shimmer remains, of course.) It is just so pretty and smells nice just like the rest of the regimen.

5. Perfect Cleansing Oil

Normally, I only use this if I was wearing plenty of makeup, and I would use it first of course. I was running out of my Perfect Whip Perfect Oil (if you want to see my review, and also an in-depth explanation of how I use Oil Cleansers, you can watch here). I wanted to compare the two products--and this oil is much more expensive. I can tell it is more effective and higher quality than the Perfect Whip Perfect Oil. It removes my makeup almost completely, but of course needs to be followed with a cleanser.

Shiny but simple packaging. 

I am not sure which products specifically truly improved my fine lines and texture, but overall the regimen worked together very well. I noticed a HUGE improvement in my skin.

As for getting Shiseido products on a budget, look for their gift with purchase. I only buy when there is a free gift, and I try to stick to the minimum purchase requirement. Over time you can accumulate a lot of products, samples and travel sizes too! One of the few stores to offer discounts on high end beauty products is Sephora--twice a year they offer 15% and 20%. If you have a TJ Maxx or Marshall's you can also often find Shiseido products. My store often has them in the clearance section for $10! (Nobody knows these products where I live it seems.)

Lastly, you can also try out the Perfect Whip line or some of the other 'drugstore' lines of Shiseido products in Japan. They are cheaper but still often higher quality than a lot of American drugstore skincare products.

Are there any other Japanese skincare brands I should try or that you like? I'd love to hear.

Here is my video review if you would like to watch!

Also, you can watch my Shiseido at Sephora and Macys: Beauty Haul Video for when I first bought the products!

☆ Kawaii Purse from Japan: Samantha Thavasa Haul サマンサタバサ☆

In the US, it can be hard to find super cute purses like the ones I see in Japanese magazines. In China and Japan you can find cute designs and pastel colors easily. Many of the bags are cheap too!

So when I am looking for a new bag, I usually check Macy's or Marshall's/TJ Maxx for brands like Juicy Couture, Betsey Johnson, or Hello Kitty. (I did a Kawaii What's in My Purse & a Kawaii Purse Guide video if you are interested ^.^)

When I was in Japan, I noticed so many girls with lovely bags. I loved the shapes of the bags, the pastel colors, and the keychains! (Though I hate when my keychains fall off...)

Finally, I discovered that many of the bags were from a brand called Samantha. There is a ton of different categories of Samantha stores based on different age groups and styles (like Samantha Thavasa, Samantha Kingz, Samantha Vega, Sweets, Anniversary, Deluxe, Petit Choice, to name a few!).

I visited several of the Samantha stores--a couple at Skytree Solomachi, several in Shinjuku, and Omotesando. The bags are quite expensive so I wanted to see all different styles before I bought one. I don't have a really expensive designer bag so it really meant a lot to me to use my savings to buy a purse I would wear for a very long time! : o )

I finally found my purse at the Omotesando store! They have a lovely selection (with several floors) of purses, wallets, keychains, and JEWELRY. Next time I will go back!

The keychains displayed on the purses don't come free! Mine was around $30 o_o; but I had to get it!

It comes with a lovely bag (you choose the color!) and a soft protective bag too. Make sure you bring your passport so you can buy it tax free $$$! (When you exit the border, you show them your passport, and they remove the paper that Samantha put in. If you mailed your purchase you may need to show a post office receipt, but he didn't even ask to see my purchase.)

Korilakkuma loves my bag too! It fits so much inside! 

Someday I hope to buy a nice wallet from Samantha, but many are just as expensive as the purses! Also... I have a couple Rilakkuma wallets that I am in love with (currently using my Rainbow Rilakkuma 2010 wallet). Also, next time I would seriously consider one of their jewelry pieces. There is nothing kawaii like their designs in the US!

Unfortunately, there is no longer a Samantha store in NYC, but there is one in Hawaii. If you are looking for these bags, check ebay! I saw a lot of great deals on used ones and also plenty of new bags too.

I take my bag everywhere! It goes well with summer and winter clothes--with pastels and also darker clothes too. I love pairing it with the pink pastel coat I bought from Rakuten last winter.

Yum Yum! Breakfast at Ikea. I love my Kuma keychain! And my fuzzy keychain I call "little friend". 

Here are some links for more info:

Samantha's Japanese website--> http://www.samantha.co.jp/index.php?nomovie

Samantha's global website--> http://global.samantha.co.jp/en/

My video all about my purse!

Kawaii Mall Haul: Shiseido at Sephora & Macy’s かわいいホール

So it took me awhile to post about this, but I thought it would still be fun to blog about. ^o^

Last November, my local Sephora had a VIP party that included a 20% discount and free snacks! I took Bo along and we did some shopping together.

They opened the store an hour or two early for the mini party and had juice and cookies..and some cute Sephora style napkins.

Bo enjoyed the snacks while I took a look around. Normally I do any Sephora shopping online so I can see all the products, get the ebates discount, and get the freebies that come with it. My store doesn't always have all the Hello Kitty or Shiseido section that is like the online one.

I only go to Sephora when I get a coupon and have my gift cards, so I picked up a few things at the event!

So happy to wear my Samantha purse out~~ It really works for any season!! 

I bought the Shiseido Perfect Cleansing Oil because I wanted to compare it to the Perfect Whip Perfect Oil (the 'drugstore' Shiseido line in Japan) that I had reviewed previously. 

So far I really love it! I will do a review of this.

If you don't want to spend a lot of Shiseido products check out your local Marshall's, TJ Maxx or Homegoods. Mine often has Shiseido in their clearance! Sometimes even for $10.

~~~~~♡~~~~~♡~~~~~♡~~~~~♡~~~~~

Luckily, Bo ALSO had some leftover gift cards to Starbucks! So we had some hot chocolate and I got lemon bread! (I really want to make a good lemon bread myself at some point.)

We stopped by Macy's and it turns out that Shiseido was having their gift with purchase! There is a new line of products called Ibuki that is meant for girls around my age. Its purpose it to protect skin from damage and rejuvenate it. I later bought it online (for all the max freebies of course) and selected a starter set, as well as the Shiseido Honey Cake soap. The gift with purchase had lots of Ibuki samples. 

The combined Shiseido Haul!

It's fun to refresh your skin regimen. And I love re-organizing my bathroom with all the new stuff. 

So far I'm loving it! Review to come!

Here's the video!

♡ Kawaii Valentine's Haul: Target • Dollar Tree • Hello Kitty • かわいいバレンタインホール

I love this time of year! There are so many great things in stores in kawaii pastel colors. In this post I'm sharing some kawaii things I have found in my local stores during the Valentine's Day season.

Last year, I got pink, heart shaped measuring spoons from Wal-Mart. And this year, I found a whole set of heart shaped measuring cups and spoons at my local Marc's discount store. (You can never have too many measuring spoons!) It's perfect for my 'kawaii' kitchen theme I am creating.

If you are looking for cute, cheap Japanese stationery, check out the Target dollar section. It is right at the front of the store and has bins of either $1 or $3 goodies. You can also find some Japanese snacks sometimes like Choco Koala. They nearly almost always have Hello Kitty items. This time of year they have a bunch of really fun Valentine's Day themed stickers and goodies.

I also was able to find some discounted Hello Kitty Christmas sets at Target too! It came down to about 70 cents! A lot of these stickers can be used year round, like the Hello Kitty bows. They also had the memo pads at my Target too.

I got this mini mail bin too. I think I'm going to keep stamps and return address labels in it as an organizer on my desk! 

Target also had lots of Disney products as well. I spotted Pooh, Elsa, and also Snoopy items in the bins. I love this Snoopy girl. Anyone can tell me what is the story behind this?

Dollar Tree is my favorite dollar store, for some reason I never have too much luck at the other ones. They have fliers in the store for some DIY Valentine's ideas which are kind of fun. I'm doing my own DIY as well.

I got some cute pink hangers (tucked in with the regular goods) and a cute bear card for Bo!

Here's the video if you'd like to watch! I'll be posting more Valentine's Day videos in the next week or so!

Maid Cafe: Heart of Hearts (Akihabara) Review ハートオブハーツ秋葉原のメイド喫茶

Once you are in Akihabara, you will see maids on every corner advertising their maid cafe! Of course Bo was really excited to go to a maid cafe!

I helped chose a cafe that was a little bit away from the main road and was less crowded--Heart of Hearts. (There was only one other guy there--an obvious 'regular'--when we arrived at opening!) The maid cafe had a school theme and we had to sit at a desk and agree to all of the rules of the cafe when we entered.

It had a very homey and personal feel with about two maids and the chef (also a girl). Our maid knew some English but Bo and I were able to mostly be okay with some simple Japanese. It was really cool to talk to her about games and anime, because it was much more personal than I had anticipated. It was awesome that we could take photos of our food too!

Bo got omurice. The maid actually forgot how to write the character for 'moe' -__- haha. He bought a set with a drink.  I got a tower of pancakes! It was so good, but there was no way I could finish it!

Not to mention, I made sure we went to a maid cafe on Bo's birthday--first, because I knew that's what he wanted and secondly, because I knew this maid cafe's do something special for birthdays!!

Bo got a special cake, sung happy birthday, and we got a picture with our maid! After she took the polaroid picture she drew a cute kitty and Happy Birthday. Such a cute momento!

We got to stay there for about an hour. The other customer had paid for the maid to sing a song, so we saw the performance too! It was a karaoke song.

I recommend this cafe if you want to find a cafe that is low key and more personal! Here is a link to their website.

Let me know about any maid cafes you have been to!

*ﾟRilakkuma Jewelry from J-Plus Rakuten Review リラックマジュエリー楽天*ﾟ

Have you heard about Rilakkuma jewelry? There is a variety of jewelry pieces with Rilakkuma now.

Rilakkuma San-X Jewelry. Photo from San-X online shop.

I was so excited to see the variety of rings, necklaces, earrings and bracelets. Some have pearls or gemstones and can be in silver or gold. One disappointing thing is that most of the series does not use real white gold or pearls--even with the $100 and up price tag.

My ears are easily allergic to materials that are not real gold, so I would need to look into the materials used if I were to buy the earrings. Luckily, with a Google translate add-on you can usually translate the Japanese and find out the material.

If these rings had been made with slightly higher quality gemstones and material, I would have of course chosen it for my engagement ring, but I'm worried if it will last my life! I would be devastated if my wedding ring got old looking after a couple years...

But! Bo knew how much I loved the jewelry and got me the Rilakkuma silver ring for Christmas a year ago. I sometimes even wear it on my ring finger on a daily basis and have not noticed any aging yet. I am careful not to expose it to water or harsh soaps and I take good care of it. I want it to last!

The perks of buying this ring is that you get an adorable Rilakkuma jewelry bag and monogrammed box and bag. So lovely!

Bo bought it from Rakuten. At the time, they had a special sale that they would wrap it for free and have it arrive on the date of your choosing. Since Japanese ring sizes were a little confusing, I think he opted for one of the larger sizes (even though my fingers are very small for a Westerner, about a size 5 3/4). It fits perfect! (*so lucky*) He paid about $120 with shipping, EMS.

Please go here to view the shop he bought from (J-plus).

Photo from J-Plus shop on Rakuten.

Please let me know if you have any Rilakkuma jewelry or experience buying from Rakuten!

My Kawaii Wedding videos:

♡ ALL My Kawaii Wedding videos ♡

♡ My Kawaii Rilakkuma Lolita Bridal Shower ( *＾3＾)～♡リラックマかわいいロリータパーティ

I recently posted my video about the bridal shower and also about our DIY Rilakkuma invitations. (My whole kawaii wedding video playlist can be found here).

At first, I wanted to have my bridal shower at home and cook lots of fun Japanese foods and sweets. But I happened to find this amazing tea restaurant (that also serves asian cuisine!).

It was the perfect atmosphere for a cute, rilakkuma themed shower.

I decided my invitations would be using Rilakkuma Natural Time letter sets. The set is perfect because it comes with beautiful matching letter sheets with envelopes and gold seals. I wrote everything in cursive.

I custom made return address labels using a Korilakkuma image (representing myself :3 ) and I chose a cherry blossom stamp that was offered at the time at my post office. You can get more info on the DIY invites on my other blog post all about it.

I decorated with Rilakkuma bears and doilies!

The tea restaurant had a delicious fancy menu with options for all the guests to chose from when they sent back their RSVPs. I remember getting a fancy blackberry appetizer, tuna salad croissant and of course my choice of tea. (They have so many to chose from).

I bought a Tiramisu cake from Belle's bread in Columbus (SO GOOD). I decorated it with a little ReMent Rilakkuma head from the cake shop series.

I also bought macarons as well as other sweets from Pistacia Vera in Columbus. While visiting the Asian markets, I bought giant pocky and a collection of Japanese sweets to give as goodie bags.

All the flavors were so good....mocha, buckeye, lemon, raspberry, green tea...!

The second favor was a tower of cake shaped hand clothes. They have all colors and sizes available, and I got mine from Amazon. We decorated with them on tiered plates.

For little welcome signs, I made my own print outs using Rilakkuma borders and white frames from Target. And I bought the Rilakkuma with hearts plush that were released in March 2014.

I did not even consider including lolita in the event until my friends were asking me if they could dress in tea outfits and all wear hats! I was so surprised and I decided to wear my fluffy pink lolita dress. Everything came together!
















I was lucky to get so many thoughtful gifts, including a sweet handwritten recipe book (in Chinese!) from Bo's mom, 2014 Rilakkumas (great to remember our big year), and tons of other fun goodies from my friends who know my interests very well. : )

A picture of me and Bo! (He tagged along in the shadows for the yumminess and goodie bags ^.^)

It was a super fun bridal shower and if you are planning a shower I hope you incorporate your own personal interests to yours!

Let me know if you have any questions or if I can assist you with any of your DIY projects.

My Kawaii Wedding blog posts:
♡ Our Kawaii Wedding(s)!
♡ DIY Kawaii Rilakkuma Stationery
♡ DIY Wedding Polaroids with Rilakkuma 
♡ My Kawaii Lolita Rilakkuma Bridal Shower

My Kawaii Wedding videos:
♡ ALL My Kawaii Wedding videos ♡

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