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.
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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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
To thank you guys, and also because so many of you love these... I'm doing another Kawaii Christmas Giveaway! I chose a lot of stationery items (Hello Kitty ones) because you guys tend to like that a lot.
Just make sure you are subscribed to my YouTube channel and comment on the video what types of videos you would like to see for my Kawaii Christmas series this year. Last year I did DIYs, baking, hauls and lots of other fun things.
I'm really excited to another Asian beauty-related blog post today. You guys probably know that I am a long time fan of the My Beauty Diary face masks, so I'm glad to do a full review about some of their products--including what is in the Bridal Beauty bag from Beauteque. From getting this bag, I got to try two new flavors/types of their masks, and also a wash-off style mask! They let me know that if you use my username (Pescamaryan) you will get a free mask with your order.
For all the details about the sheet masks, feel free to watch my video. Below, I'll also write a section about my top tips for using sheet masks.
First, I'd like to talk about the Bridal Bag--it's a collection of Asian beauty products and Beauteque.com sent it to me to review. They are a new online seller of Asian beauty products that is located in the US.
I was a bride earlier this year, so it is easy to relate to how I would use this bag : ). It comes with two My Beauty Diary sheet masks, the wash off My Beauty Diary mask, a hair wrap, eyeshadow, eyeshadow brush, shimmering primer and all in a cosmetic bag. (I'm obsessed with cosmetic bags...! I have toooo many..)
1. Two My Beauty Diary Sheet Masks (Pearl Powder Mask & Red Wine Mask)
My favorite sheet mask from My Beauty Diary is the Aloe one but it was nice to try out these varieties. My skin has been very tired and blah lately so I did these two nights in a row and noticed my skin felt much better. I like sheet masks because they can be rejuvenating for skin and these two in particular say they nourish, repair, tighten and refresh skin. I think this is true, though no tightening as the Red Wine mask says. For me that is just fine.
2. Hair wrap
Hair wraps are good for showers, doing makeup, and also while you are doing your sheet masks. I already have one, but now I can keep one in my bathroom and my makeup area to use all the time. This one is very soft.
3. Eyeshadow & Brush
I am a big fan of ELF brushes because they are cheap and they work great, though I do have other higher-end brushes. The brush included in this set is really nice! It doesn't have a cheap feel like many others and works well. I think I will be using it often. It's especially nice to have the two ends.
For the eyeshadow, there are two options--a pearly white and a shimmering pink. I received the pink one and I really love the pigment form. It's a perfect color for me. I plan to do a makeup video soon on some kawaii makeup tips I have, and I think powder form eyeshadows will work great for that look!
Look how pigmented it is!! The left is the eyeshadow, with just one swipe of the brush..and the right is the shimmering primer!
4. My Beauty Diary Cucumber Soothing Wash off Mask (Choice out of 3 varieties)
For this one you can choose your wash off mask, and I choose cucumber so it would be soothing for skin. It's a thick consistency with a mild cucumber scent. I really enjoy using this when I'm taking a long shower! If I take off my makeup at the beginning of the shower, I feel my skin tighten and feel very dry. If I take off my makeup, then use this mask, my skin feels much better and I don't feel as rushed to finish up. Of course after rinsing, I still do the rest of my skincare routine as normal.
5. Liole Blooming Shimmer Pearl BaseThe first thing I noticed was the cute packaging! I fall easily to packaging and I wish big brands like at Sephora could get a little more kawaii : ) This product is meant to be a glowing primer for under your makeup. I like the consistency and the shine but I didn't notice too much of an effect--I usually wear heavier makeup so using a lighter foundation or BB cream (as they suggest) may let it show through more. It would be fun for summer. I may use this to top on my cheeks over my makeup and see how that works too. I'm also really pale so its unique for a product to be light enough to use.
The bridal bag is $30 and can be found here. They also offer a variety of individual products and monthly beauty bags.
To let you guys know, they sent me this bag as a gift for me to give an honest review. If you have any more questions for me, I'd be happy to answer and offer my opinion.
Also, if you are interested in that translated sheet about My Beauty Diary's full mask line..here you go!
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