Hello my lovelies, how are you? I’m blogging from NYC and taking a break to just chill and be still for a day. I wouldn’t say I’ve been having terribly action-packed days but I have been shopping quite a lot and catching up with friends here. I’m surprisingly keeping up with my workout regime plus I’m walking around a lot which is a good thing because I’m eating way too well in this city. 

Just a picture of my delicious brunch of eggs florentine in the East Village on a Saturday morning with Mr BB. So you can see why all this walking and shopping are absolutely necessary.

Anyway, onto my real purpose for blogging today – I would like to show you the contents of my emergency beauty pouch after an “ugly day on the go”. I have morphed into one of those ladies who put on makeup on the train. I really think it’s the best solution when I’m running late because not only would I be on time but I would be made-up! 

This is obviously a work in progress and the main theme I found in the products I chose were either drugstore makeup that I wouldn’t mind trashing around in my handbag, makeup that I hardly reach for and would like to use more of, and reliable staples that would never go wrong in any situation.

Back row from left to right: 

Hada Labo BB Cream in Natural Ochre; Paul & Joe Cream Cheek Butter 03; Nivea Lip Balm; Majolica Majorca Lash Expander; Esprique Mellow Rouge 422; Urban Decay Primer Potion

Middle row left to right:

Canmake Eyebrow Kit; Revlon ColorStay Pressed Powder; Visee Blondy eyeshadow palette; Maquillage Single Eyeshadow Trio Palette

Front row:

Hair-ties; Shu Uemura Face Brush

The Hada Labo BB Cream is a great match for my skin tone and has medium coverage so I won’t have to bother with blending or concealing. The Paul & Joe blush is a pretty peachy coral that is an excellent everyday shade, while the Visee Blondy palette gives a delicate neutral eye and you can’t put on too much of it so great for nervous hands and a stressed brain.

The ones that I’m valiantly trying to use are the Revlon ColorStay Pressed Powder and the Maquillage Single Eyeshadow Trio Palette. The pressed powder is not very finely milled as my other ones so I really don’t tend to reach for this but I would use it if I had no other choice. The Maquillage shadows actually have a lot of fallout so I think it wasn’t out of convenience that I stuck it into my pouch but I hope to reach for it more though this might stress me out more if I had to deal with fallout on the go.

What type of products do you pack in your emergency makeup pouch? And why do you choose them?
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Happy New Year, my beautiful readers! I’m probably on a sunny beach somewhere in Vietnam. As you can probably guess, I’ve pre-written a bunch of posts to be published while I’m on holiday. How was your New Year’s?

I was inspired to do a series of posts on finding good Japanese cosmetics below 2,000JPY (USDD25). When I first moved to Japan, I found it very challenging to find brands that were affordable and kick-ass. I was also afraid of trying unfamiliar brands because I might break out and the overall shopping experience at the drugstore was just confusing and I felt so lost.

Furthermore, counter cosmetics are really expensive, local and foreign, due to the strong yen and imported products are just generally astronomical. Case in point, a MAC eyeshadow is three times the price in Japan, compared to North American rates. Even SKII, which is made in Japan, is cheaper to buy in Singapore than in Japan.

So, I made it my personal mission to check out cheap and good cosmetics at the Japanese drugstore that I think are stellar and worth looking for. Some of them are well-ranked at Cosme, Japan’s answer to Makeup Alley, which is a guide I always reach for to see if anyone is talking about a particular product in question.

To make it more challenging, I’m also leaving out more expensive drugstore brands, like Esprique, Maquillage, Aube etc., as they don’t really have that “cheap as chips” price tag although they are only sold in drugstores. To me, they are not exactly “pure” drugstore brands because of their price point. An eyeshadow palette from Esprique is 2940JPY (USD37.80) which is actually more expensive than some high-end Western brands like Too Faced, or comparable to Urban Decay’s Box of Shadows palettes, to quote an example.

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To kick things off, I’m going to start with lip gloss and you might guess what is up my sleeve…

Canmake Candy Wrap Lip (also featured in my November Faves video) is one of the best drugstore lip glosses around. At the time of writing this post, it was standing at number three after Dior and Maquillage. Though it might be above brands like Chanel, please don’t think it’s naturally better than Chanel. It’s not but I think its friendly 600JPY (USD7.70) price tag helps to boost its ranking, plus it is a great lip gloss.

It has medium pigmentation, is non-sticky, fragrance-free, and quite long lasting for a gloss. I ate a bowl of oats after slicking it on to put it to the test and there was some gloss left on my lips. The only downside is that it only comes in four colours and I got two — a cherry red and a warm pink. The others on sale were a coral and a cool pink. Canmake, please make more shades!

The only other thing I could think of that would stop people from buying this is that Canmake is a very teenagery brand and I know that is a turn-off for some women. It’s probably okay to say you use Canmake in your 20s, but beyond that, it’s a little weird in Japan (I obviously don’t care) where being age-appropriate is very important.

Another brand that is more “neutral” in terms of branding is Visee. It’s still for younger women but it doesn’t have that cutesy image like Canmake. I’m a huge fan of Visee and think not only do they have solid products but their image is quite pretty and veers to being a bit edgy with their various fashion collaborations (you can read about the Smacky Glam limited edition lip gloss and eye shadow palette here).

I loved the Smacky Glam lip gloss in Bitter (right) so much that I bought another one from their permanent collection in BE304(left) which is a pinkier nude than the Bitter one. The texture is more like MAC’s lip glass but is less sticky and less shiny. The pigmentation is on the sheer side and it’s more of a lip enhancer than something you would wear on its own. I could wear the Canmake Candy Wrap ones on their own because there is more colour to them. Compared to Canmake, Visee has a bigger range of colour and they are usually wearable shades suitable for everyday.

Visee lipglosses are about 1,400JPY (USD18) each but I always get them discounted without even trying. They seem to be on sale a lot of the time and I usually pay 1,100JPY (USD14) at Matsumotokiyoshi (for those unfamiliar with this drugstore chain, it’s the one with the bright yellow sign with stark black characters).

Do you have any other products or brands to recommend for drugstore lipglosses?
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Guess what I got?….

Visee feat. Smacky Glam Glam Glow Eyes and Glossy Nude Rouge Limited Edition. Visee’s official website is here and if you are interested in looking at what Smacky Glam is, you can click here. I’m not familiar with Smacky Glam at all but it looks like a boho-chic type fashion label that is on the pricey side (a jacket costs 38,000JPY).

The pretty packaging had me at “hello” but I’ve always been a fan of Visee (here & here). This is totally not a review post because I’ve not even worn any of these but I thought you Visee fans out there might like to see the products up close

I only got the “Bitter” products which are a warm nude eye palette (BR-7) and nude lip gloss (BE305). I didn’t get the “Sweet” set because the pink is rather cool and I’ve already got a cool pink in my Dior travel palette (would like to do a review on this soonish – loving it!) and the lip gloss is quite a run-of-the-mill shade so I decided against getting the whole LE set.

I especially love the peachy champagne shade on the top left corner (I know you can barely see it but it’s more pigmented in person, I promise) and the warm taupe on the top right. The dark brown eyeshadow is surprisingly matte looking when swatched.

My least favourite is definitely the shimmery white eyeshadow on the bottom left. It is very flaky and I’m kind of over highlighting my eyes with what seems like light glitter dust.

This nude lip gloss is definitely quite unique where drugstore cosmetics are concerned. It’s not super pigmented nor is it sheer — kind of in between.

I think it gives the lips a slightly milky nude look which is very pretty.

Visee is under the Kose umbrella and is so affordable (the eyeshadow palette is 1,600JPY at retail but Matsukiyo was having a sale so it was marked down further by 20%) but yet has very good quality eyeshadows, as mentioned by Glossed in Translation too, so I would highly recommend you getting some Visee if you can.

Other bloggers like Rouge Deluxe and Bittenbefore have written about this LE collection too.

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Hello my fellow beauty addicts, as you are reading this I’m still in Hokkaido and about to be married a second time. I can’t ever get over how decadent it feels to be married twice! But when it’s all over, I would think it’s all worth it and bask in this new chapter of life.

No matter how organized or cool you may be, I think any bride would feel some stress in the lead up before the big event and I remember I needed some type of therapy that didn’t involve me hoovering junky carbs so I turned to my other non-caloric vice — puchipura cosmetics shopping (read here for puchipura explanation).

It sure did make me escape for a bit as I played with colours and debated which palette to get at the drugstore but I stowed these away and haven’t really used them much — I still intend to use them more though!

My BB cream fetish could not be tamed and no amount of logic could prevent me from trying the Visee Mineral BB Cream Baby Finish SPF25 PA++. Generally, I’m wary of BB creams in drugstores that do not have a tester and furthermore only one shade is available. However, I think this BB cream is marketed more as a makeup primer than a foundation — it really does give very light coverage and barely covers up the red areas around my nose. Another red flag was alcohol was listed as the fifth ingredient on the list (normally I would feel more comfortable if it’s in the bottom half) but I thought, “What the heck – it’s so cheap (about 1400JPY)!”

Another downer was it was not a match for my NC25-30 skin tone at all. It was too light and a bit too beige/neutral for me.

It does have a nice creamy finish that is not oily at all.

See – way too light for me…

If you can compare my fingers to my hand, you would see they are of different colours. I don’t think I would bin this BB cream just yet but it’s definitely one of those products that you have to make it “work” — I would use this in winter as a primer under a liquid foundation since this cannot act as the main base.

Some of my Japanese girlfriends prefer to use BB creams as a primer and not their main foundation. How about you?

The best part of the haul was this Visee Mineral Cheeks Baby Finish blush — a matte red that is a real gem. I have corals and pinks but no reds in my collection so I was pleasantly surprised by how nicely it swatched.

The pretty floral design is lovely but the low price point means the palette is in a cheap plastic casing which is par for the course.

This the a swatch of the colours all swirled together. I love it that the main red matte shade is just a pure red without any brown in it and the shimmers in the other quads tones down the redness — but I like how both look.

These Visee nail polishes were 350JPY in a bin, so I fished out two colours — a bright blue and nude that look like chic shades to have. I like the quilted pattern on the glass bottle, too. I haven’t used these polishes yet so have not much to report on these.

I’ll be back in Tokyo next week!

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Do you remember this Visee Royal Party Nude palette from Oct 2010? I don’t believe it myself but I really love these eyeshadow shades which are so elegant and pigmented. This palette is no longer available and Visee has changed their look for fall (click here to see).

I don’t know about you but I tend to buy drugstore makeup, use them for a little while, and then forget about them because they are more exciting high-end palettes to be had. As much as I think that Japanese drugstore brands are of much higher quality than non-Japanese ones (eg. Maybelline and L’Oreal to name a few), I still have this mentality they are very “throwaway” items just because they are so cheap and affordable.

However there is nothing cheap looking about this neutral shade palette by Visee if you judge it purely by the shade and texture. I liked it when I bought it almost a year ago, but it is one of my go-to palettes now.

I’ve reached for this more often that I ever thought I would. The only slight quibble I have is that the lighter shades, i.e. from top left clockwise to the top two shades on the right, look incredibly similar when I swipe them on my eyelid. The real gems are really the two darker shades which I love.

There is no fall out whatsoever and the colours really stay put even after a long day and it matches my skin tone in a flattering way. I have an Integrate Butterfly Grade neutral palette and it doesn’t even compare to this Visee one. This makes me look at Visee quite differently in terms of quality. Unfortunately, I do find that their offerings are limited but then this is the nature of some of the cheaper Japanese drugstore brands.

What’s an oldie that you are loving right now?

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With the changing season, I felt the need to refresh my wardrobe and make up a little. I’ve not indulged in this type of thing for awhile and it feels good to focus on being girly.

I want to get away from wearing sad old tired stuff all the time, but that’s not to say I’m dumping out a whole lot of stuff and buying hordes of new ones. I just added in new things to spruce up the old.

Personally I think it’s important to rejuvenate yourself in one way or another every few months — clearing out and organizing to make way for clearer thinking and being.

Okay, that’s my intellectual spiel to justify some new cosmetics…

Let’s cut to the chase, what did I get with my 10% Matsumotokiyoshi discount? Compared with other bloggers’ hauls, this is quite small, I’ve to warn you, but there are pretty colours all the same…

I’m so in love with Integrate’s Butterfly Grade palettes — the purple palette won me over so I decided to load up on more. I’m not keen on the packaging but the shades are pigmented and sparkly…

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