It has been a long time coming to do this post since going to Japan last Summer. It was so difficult to choose which products to buy because there were so many brands that I have not seen in the UK and it was a land of mistery! What was interesting was that the products sold in the well known brands such as Maybelline was different to the UK market.
Maybelline pure.bb mineral watergel This is a repurchase for me which I am slightly regretting. It is a very light weight BB gel which is very comfortable to wear and is barely detectable on your skin. I loved this because I used to hate feeling anything on my skin but now that I have got over that, I feel like I should have branched out and tried another BB cream. Still, this will be good during Summer and for anyone wanting a light coverage natural looking skin.
CEZANNE UV foundation EX plus Whilst doing some research online, this popped up as the best drugstore summer foundation. Firstly, I was sweating like crazy whilst in Japan so I wanted a foundation that was sweat proof as well as trying out some powder foundation. Having tried it, I was really impressed with the staying power even in the very hot humid weather. I still need to work on the best application method becase it was easy to cake up this product when using the puff that came in the compact.
Cezanne Natural cheek Matte 102 This was an impulse purchase because it was so cheap and I was having an orangy coral blush phase during the summer. I think it was quite good considering the price point.
dejavu Fiberwig This was ranked No.1 mascara in the drugstore that I went and I had heard good things about it so I decided to try in out. It is a tubular mascara that comes off with hot water which is brilliant and it really doesn’t smudge! Pretty much all mascaras that I have tried will smudge under my lower lash line but this didn’t do that! It was good at lengthening and defining lashes.
CANMAKE Gokubuto mascara I made this purchase influenced by a Japanese Youtuber Hashimoto Nami. Apparently it gives good volume but I am yet to try this so we shall see.
KATE slim gel pencil BR-1 I’m not usually a liner person because it is just time consuming to put on and always smudges. (Also my top liner is vertually invisible when open my eyes so I feel it is abit pointless) I though a gel formula in the click up type would be quite a convenient type. I’ve only started using this recently and I’m loving it for lining my lower lashline. It smudges out nicely when applying and then sets in place.
ROSY ROSA eye beauty liquid For most people, eye glue to make your monolid into a double lid may sound very bizzar but it is a massive deal in Japan (and potentially other asian countries?) This is used to make a crease for monolids. I have previously tried the tape version but I found it to be very unnatural so I decided to try out the glue type. This works quite nicely to be honest with a thin brush to apply the glue. However, I’m actually feeling quite alright with my monolid and I feel more selfconsious to wear this so it has just been sitting in my draw.
CEZANNE Lasting Gloss Lip BE1 I got drawn in the by the promotional stand for this product. It is meant to be a shear moisturing glossy lipstick but I found it to be drying on my lips when applied for a long time so I won’t really recommend this one.
NIVEA Natural Colour Lip Bright Up Pink Beige For everyday wear, I thought I’ll get a tinted balm. To be honest, there was very little colour to this but I really like it as a balm. It’s probably best to get the normal balm and get the colour from other more pigmented lipsticks.
CANMAKE Base Coat A random purchase because I was out of any base coats. Nothing extraudinary but it does prevent staining of my nails and don’t seem to interfere with application of nail polishes so I guess it’s OK.
This concludes my makeup purchases whilst I was in Japan. I really think I did well in restraining myself from going over the top with purchasing unnecessary makeup! Let me know if you have any Japanese makeup recomemdations so that I can start to compile a wish list for the next time I visit there!
