Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of where I am…

I mentioned that I bought a Paul & Joe Protective Foundation Primer UV 02 a month back and after using it consistently for three weeks, I think it’s safe to say I’m a fan. Last winter, I found that my skin had many creases when I put on just liquid foundation and loose powder and read that a primer would help decrease the look of fine lines emphasized by foundation.

I chose this product because it was number one last year in its category on Japanese cosmetics ranking site, Cosme.

Yeah, I’m a sucker for ultra-girly packaging.

My thoughts: It has a thin liquid finish that sits well under my foundation and loose powder. My crease lines were reduced by 80 per cent so I’m very pleased with this product. Usually I have fine lines from my nose to my cheeks when I smile but with this primer, I don’t suffer from these at all. Yay.

The fragrance is a light rose scent which thankfully I love. I hate wearing makeup when I don’t take to the fragrance and it follows you every second of the day so it’s important to me what a product smells like.

Would I buy this again? YES! It’s affordable at 3,600JPY (USD37) and I only need a tiny bit daily so I can forsee this lasting for at least six months. Does anyone have positive reviews of other primers?

Here are the freebies that came with my purchase…

A small satchet of cleansing milk which I probably will use while travelling — I’m more of a cleansing oil girl so this doesn’t excite me very much.

Ooo, this one looks interesting: Protective Powder Compact Foundation. I’ve not tried it yet but will do so to see if this is something I would switch to.

Alrighty, time for me to head off to my couch again. We’re going to watch Avatar at the open-air cinema on the beach and munch on dinner from the pub next to it. Just gotta love being in an Aussie resort. Don’t forget to take part in our fabulous Summer Giveaway — you’ll get a chance to win a tin of Meiji Amino Collagen Apple & Ginger, a Vit C mask set (5 pieces), and a Hanayuki Gel Cream perfect for summer and has collagen essence!

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I’m always on the lookout for fabulous natural products that work so my curiosity was piqued when I read an entry on a rave about Trilogy’s Organic Rose Hip Oil. The blogger has gorgeous looking skin so I had to try it. Plus, I have a new found interest in different types of oils for skin and hair…

Sometimes I pass by Cosme Kitchen in Daikanyama so I popped in and saw this product on sale. To my delight, this treatment oil sits at second place in the Special Care category on Cosme, a beauty product ranking site based on ordinary Japanese women’s reviews. Sure enough, there was good feedback on Makeup Alley, too.

It has been two weeks since I used this rose hip oil on my face. I mainly used it at night and my skin would look refreshed and smooth in the morning. I had these tiny little bumps on my cheek area and those disappeared. I also tried using it in the day under makeup and it felt and looked fine, too.

Upon further research, this oil is made by an Australian company owned by a pair of sisters. Their story is delightful and you just feel this simple, yet elegant brand is for regular women, like you and me. It’s very affordable in Australia (AUD20 – 35; USD18 – 32) and the US (USD20 on Amazon), so I felt the pinch because I bought it for 3,990JPY (USD44) in Japan.

What I love about it too is that there’s no fragrance and just two small drops are enough for my face and neck. The applicator keeps things very hygienic and the best part is, it works well in dry to semi-dry weather.

Spring is just around the corner so it isn’t so drying but the tropical nature of my skin is so used to high humidity that it gets affected easily by dehydration.

Trilogy’s Organic Rose Hip Oil is definitely an HG product of mine.

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Monoi oil by The Body Shop is my new HG moisturizer for winter. In a desperate hunt for a solution for extremely parched skin, I found this to be a miracle (you can read more about it here).

Makeup Alley reviewers also gave monoi oil the thumbs up as a great way to smooth frizzy hair out.

Perhaps it was my five-week hiatus in the tropics that made me sensitive to this winter season. I thought I nailed it after I bought a humidifier in 2008 but I felt dried out — inside and out.

While my dehydration-related headaches were gone (lots of green juice and water to the rescue!), flaky dry skin still plagued me. I would slather on lots of shea body butter but the skin on my legs especially would feel stretched and itchy from the extreme dryness.

When my usual mustard seed oil (I have a review here on this product) did not work, I rummaged my pantry and used extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil.

I even tried layering different types of oil on my legs but 12 hours later, my skin would flake.

I also tried Palmer’s Skin Oil Therapy that is a cocoa butter formula with vitamin E but it made my skin even drier if you would believe it. I really wanted to like this product especially since it won the Australian Beauty Awards last year. There are a few suspicious chemicals in the ingredients list that could be the culprit: cetearyl ethylhexanoate, isopropyl myristate and tocopheryl acetate. A quick search online told me that the first ingredient I listed is an “ester of Cetearyl Alcohol and 2-ethylhexanoic acid (octanoic acid)”. Hmm, alcohol is always bad for dry skin. Whatever it was, it didn’t work.

I also finally got down and dirty with pure vitamin E oil to help fade my sand fly bites. For those you who have had this before, you know it takes a long time for these scars to fade. My eczema patches on my limbs drank up the vitamin E oil, and within two weeks, the patches have healed.

So, monoi oil plus vitamin E oil are my two staples this winter.

Oh and I have been ingesting a lot of cucumber (silica heaven; great for building collagen) and coriander (cilantro to my American readers) for drawing out toxins, just to put that extra punch into my skin regime.

What are your winter beauty must-haves?

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There’s a lovely natural beauty products store, Cosme Kitchen, just outside Daikanyama station. They carry a big range of products that use natural and/or organic ingredients which you know appeals very much to moi.

As the weather is turning colder and drier, I felt like getting something to pamper my skin and my gaze fell on Burt’s Bees Milk & Honey Body Lotion. The scent and texture were divine so I paid for it and made my way home.

If you ask me, I don’t think this concoction smells like milk or honey, but coconut with a bit of lemon and baby powder. The lotion is very liquidy and light but moisturizes well. Even my PJs smell gorgeous the following night after I slather this magical lotion all over.

I’m quite a scrouge when it comes to buying makeup but I definitely spend good money on body products. After a hard day’s work, there is nothing sweeter than engulfing myself in a cocoon of lush fragrance.

By the way, it’s also a recommendation by experts as a way to cut down on binge-eating. If you think that hoovering ice-cream, chocolate, or chips is a way to indulge yourself, why not splurge on yourself in a non-food way?

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I’m totally a fan of Kerastase, but it’s expensive to keep up, especially if you need a lot of it to make it work.

Since I was a teenager, I used oil on my hair to transform it from dull locks to mirror shiny tresses. Although I see some advice articles recommending a bit of oil to be smeared on after washing your hair, I prefer to oil my hair for at least half an hour and then shampoo it off. Normally, I would smooth some into my hair and tie it into a pony tail and then work out or run for an hour. The longer you leave in the oil, the more stunning your hair will look and feel.

Putting on oil after a wash doesn’t do it for me — it’s just too oily and my hair gets all clumpy. But would a normal shampoo work on oiled hair? No, using a shampoo for dry hair will not remove all the oil, so opting for a clarifying shampoo makes sense. The Body Shop’s Nettle Oil Balance Shampoo works wonders, and I would highly recommend it to those who have an oily scalp. Clairol’s Drama Clean is excellent, too.

So I started with olive oil, and then progressed to mustard seed oil, which is much more moisturizing than the former. Although mustard seed oil has a miraculous effect on limp, dry hair, it smells baaaad. Even after years of using it, I still think it’s unpleasant. But it’s not so strong that your shampoo can’t take its pungent nature away.

What’s another good oil that smells great and does the job? Almond oil. I received L’Occitane’s almond-scented Supple Skin Oil as a gift and swooned at the gorgeous scent.

Unfortunately, I don’t usually lather oil on my skin so I thought, “Hey, I’ll use it on my hair!” Alright, you’re thinking, doesn’t the label say it’s for skin? Well, my personal opinion is, it’s oil and it ain’t gonna wreck your hair. It’s not like I’m slathering hair conditioner on my thighs.

Anyway, this is an excellent treatment for your hair once a week and I can guarantee that whatever shampoo you use, the sexy almond scent will shine through. It makes my long, thick hair shiny, soft, and more manageable. It is a fairly pricey product but you only need a little each time, and believe me when I say it, it’s been two years since I started using this bottle and it still has about 10 per cent left.

I would probably buy a bottle of pure almond oil to put in my hair when this finishes. I’ve tried sniffing those in the baking section at the supermarket and they smell awesome. Remember, oil is oil — it’ll do the job. In fact, the more natural it is, the better it would be for your hair, I reckon.

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They are small and cute — what’s not to like? I sometimes squeeze my usual beauty essentials into travel-sized containers and tubes but nothing beats ready-made ones.

These Jurlique minis (left: Citrus Clarifying Mist; right: Clarifying Day Care Lotion) are great for my oily/combination skin in the super dry wintry air of Hokkaido. This Aussie brand, by the way, is white hot in Japan and Japanese women fight tooth and nail to get them cheaper outside of Japan.

Here are the Bliss minis I used in a Brisbane hotel.

They were not too bad at all in terms of quality. What I dread about hotel-branded toiletries is they use really cheap and nasty ingredients, which leave your skin and hair dried out and itchy.

The best minis I’ve spotted so far in my travels are hotels that stock L’Occitane and Bvlgari beauty products. They make your stay (and you) smell heavenly.

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I wasn’t going to go crazy and haul back a bunch to Tokyo — limited luggage space. So I allowed myself one treat: The Body Collection Australia Mango & Shea Butter Body Exfoliating Polish.

It’s a creamy, fluid scrub with real bits of apricot shells that is not as gentle as plastic beads but not overly harsh.

The overall experience is a comforting shower regime that leaves skin a little smoother.

I think if you want something that has a more dramatic effect, you would need to reach for something like The Body Shop’s African Spa Salt Scrub.

I probably may not buy this tube again but it’s not because I don’t like it but I won’t be able to find it in Tokyo.

And there are way too many brands Down Under to try! Seriously, the huge chemists (or pharmacies) stock an incredible range of domestic brands that all look and sound like they could be good beauty companions for a beach holiday.

PS: I couldn’t spot any of the products in my Allure write-up. I think Australia probably gets new products quite a while after they are launched in the US. Boo. Oh and Sydney has rainy weather now so no beaching in bikinis till the sun comes out.

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While I was browsing its online site recently, I spotted a few lovely affordable beauty buys I might want to get when I fly to Sydney for Christmas — and that’s just next week!

Some of these brands are available in Japan but I’m keen to check out these four Allure picks because they are either not sold here or they are more expensive.

Revlon ColorStay Soft & Smooth Lipcolor, $9.99.

L’Oréal Paris Liquid Liner Brush Tip Liquid Eyeliner ($7.99)

St. Ives Elements Microdermabrasion ($6.99)

Pantene Pro-V Restoratives Time Renewal Replenishing Mask

Actually I’m one who likes to travel with products that are familiar to me. I would squeeze all kinds of shampoo, conditioner, moisturizers into mini containers or if it’s a long trip, I’ll just take along the full size product. In this way, I wouldn’t have to go without the stuff I know that works.

But the boyfriend bought us Jetstar tickets and we are only allowed one large check-in suitcase (20kg) between us. EEP! What is a beauty junkie to do? Plus my shoes and bags?! I didn’t panic for long because Australia is chock full of awesome beauty products, so look out for incoming posts about what I find Down Under.

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I started using Paul & Joe Eye Gloss in yellow-gold and silver when I worked at a women’s magazine in Singapore four years ago. I sat next to the beauty writer and she always passed me stuff she didn’t want when she cleaned out her drawers.

Silly me used it on its own and found it too light, so I rubbed it over my eye shadow and I’ve been lovin’ that sheer shimmer effect ever since. Unfortunately, my Paul & Joe eye gloss is on its last legs and I think it’s prudent to get rid of such old makeup.

Before my flight from Singapore to Tokyo, I got this lil’ baby:

Clinique Quick Eyes Cream Shadow in 11 Glimmering Gold. Apparently, it’s great for those who wear contacts as it is not gloopy or contains dusty sparkles that irritate eyes.

When I tested it, it felt so powdery smooth even though it’s liquid. It’s sheer enough to use over other eye colours, but I think you could have a dramatic gold look if you apply more layers — brownie point for flexibility. My Paul & Joe one is really much more liquid and it is after all an eye gloss.

Since we’re talking about eye makeup, here’s a small plug on something on sale at Beauty Box — a limited edition Shu Uemura Eye Shadow in a pretty lilac shade with a gorgeous flower design on the powder palette itself.

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