♡ August Wishlist ♡

1. Home-style Taiwanese Cooking cookbook

2. Kamigami no Asobi artbook

3. Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", "The Little Mermaid" and "Tarzan" DVD's

4. Lime Crime Velvetines in Wicked, Pink Velvet and Black Velvet

5. Lime Crime Opaque lipstick in Poisonberry

6. VIXX "Eternity" single

7. VIXX Hex Sign official goods - photo album

Thanks for reading!

xoxo

♡ Amazon.co.jp / Net off ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

Do you know when you shouldn't be spending money but find such an amazing deal on something, you just have to break your rules and go for it? Yeah I did that...

BUT. For a good reason! A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing amazon.co.jp for some birthday ideas on what to get for some friends and I stumbled across Net Off's amazon site! Net Off, in my eyes, is kind of like Japan's answer to a second hand online store... like Book Off I suppose but with a wider range of things to purchase - why do I have a feeling that they're both under the same company... ANYWAY, when browsing I came across the entire manga series of スイッチガール!! (Switch Girl) selling for less than what you'd pay for if you were to get each individual book separately - saving about ￥1,500 at the end of it.

￥2,497 + ￥ 1,400 = ￥3,897!!! (£15.19 + £8.51 = £23.70!!!)

Another small surprise was the fact that on the selling page - Net Off redirects you to the page where you can look up similar prices and see which ones ship overseas etc - in the description, I was told that the items were USED - GOOD so I was expecting a little wear and tear along the spines and for the price I got them for I wasn't going to complain about it but the books are all brand new! Surprising right?

Honestly; if you are looking for a great deal on mangas, DVD's, CD's, and other books without burning massive holes into your savings then I honestly recommend this site from the bottom of my heart. I placed my order on a Friday and it arrived to me, from the seller not Net Off, on the Monday morning! I thought that I only paid for the weight of my shipment (hence the ￥1,400) but I must have paid for EMS without realising it... boom!

Oh, one last note. I went on the official Net Off website and if you signed up to Tenso.com - a service that gives you a Japanese shipping address so you can purchase straight off a website and get it sent to you overseas without the use of a shopping service - then you can buy straight off the Net Off website if you didn't want the hassle of using amazon.co.jp! Pretty sweet to be honest, I'll be definitely trying that service out in the future!

Net Off amazon page; long link is long so I'll do this instead
Net Off website; http://www.netoff.co.jp/index.jsp
Tenso website; http://www.tenso.com/en/guide/shop/shop.html 

Thanks for reading!
xoxo

♡ Welcome to Candy Land ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

Have you heard about the Candyman? The Candyman you say? Why yes the Candyman is a bastard because he's created such wonderful sweets for all the boys and girls of the world to devour and break their diets and become fat again *cries internally a little*

Today's subject is less about sweets and angling more towards potato snacks really... but there are sweets involved, just not so many as you'd think. Also the delectables mentioned today shall be from Japan as over the past couple of weeks, I have been accumulating some pieces and tasting and just... wow. I am in love with some pieces whilst others are just... meh. But all in all, I can see why some people go for these delights more than pieces from their own country. Personally, I've only just stuck to sweets purchased from Expo (from Sushi Noms and Tofu Cute) and sometimes branched out when gone to certain shops in Chinatown that sell Japanese sweets/snacks or even at Japan Centre with their extortionate prices.... but anyway back to the actual subjects of this post. I'm not sure how I'll write this post so bear with me please!

Candies - Gummy, Chewy and Hard

Suica and Kakikori Gumi

I love themed sweets and as it's summer, how can you resist summer themed ones? The watermelon gummies were going to be an obvious choice, as watermelon is one of my favourite fruits, and I decided to go with 'shaved ice' style gummies to see what they were like. Honestly, I was extremely disappointed with the watermelon gummy... I was expecting to taste more like watermelon? Instead, it felt like I was just eating an overly sweet lump of sugar and that's just nasty to me as I hate extremely sickly, sweet items. However though, I was surprised at how tasty the shaved ice gummies were! There was, hmm to describe it is difficult as it was like a sugar layer but it wasn't sugar? In fact, the shaved ice gummies tasted less sweeter than the watermelon altogether as there was a squishy centre, almost liquid but it wasn't quite liquid nor in solid gummy state. I'd definitely get the shaved ice gummies again in the future and hopefully they'll come back for next summers sweets line.

Milky (Creamy)

I love Milky's and I especially love this creamy version. I originally purchased a packet back at May's Expo as an impulse buy and I'm so glad I did. Also, my mam likes these sweets as well! They're a chewy sweet but they're not too chewy - if you eat toffees they're kind of like soft toffees and not the hard toffees that take forever to get through. I loved the extra creamy surprise in the middle as well, it kind of made the sweet feel kind of like a milkshake and it helped ease the chewing. Again, I find these sweets not too overly sweet which are perfect for me! Even though I find it hard sometimes, I do restrict myself to eating one of these delights per day to make them last longer!

Puccho

Puccho, by far, is one of my ultimate go-to chewy sweets! Because I like sour foods, some of the flavours appeal to me the most - the raume and cola ones more - as they have some sharp, sour pieces embedded in the chew! The others have gummy pieces which give a burst of juicy flavour instead of sharpness and that's also nice to eat as well... but the cola and ramune flavours will always be my favourite followed by the peach flavour.

Chocolate

CRUNKY

Chocolates can sometimes be a hit or miss for me. In the past, most chocolates from Japan have mainly been a miss because the taste just has never appealed to me and I sometimes find them a little too sweet. Even though I don't like overly sweet sweets, I do however enjoy eating white chocolate every now and again and with this particular Crunky bar there are hidden... how can I put it... rice pieces? You know like rice krispies? Them. The contrast of the texture works really well against the creaminess of the chocolate and because it didn't really have a flavour, it kind of tones down the sweetness. However, I won't be purchasing this again as once is enough for me!

Kit Kats

Japanese kit kats are definitely on a whole different level than the kit kats here in the UK! Over here, the flavours are quite boring and only recently, have branched out with some new ones. Another little perk of these kit kats are the fact that they come in mini size so you can share them with others and still have loads left over! I still have all of these flavours pictured above after getting some sent to me via my penpal whilst the others were purchased from Hyper Japan and on ebay. Also, if you have tried any of the kit kat flavours, has anybody noticed how strong certain flavours come out? For example; I don't drink and so when I purchased the rum rain kit kat, I thought it would be a very mild flavour but it wasn't, the rum is extremely over powering to the point where it feels like I could get drunk off one kit kat! In the end, I gave the box to my parents and they've been enjoying them instead, I wish I could have liked them but hey, you can't like everything right?

Snacks

Umaibo

Umaibo is a strange thing for me... it's sort of crossed between a puffed snack and a crisp snack... more puffed than a crisp in looks though. The flavours are really intense on these creations but they seriously are super delicious! My favourite flavours so far are the cheese, tonkatsu sauce and the beef tongue! I'm surprised that I enjoyed the beef tongue actually but the flavours available are so unique and different that it would be a shame to miss out! I need to get some more flavours of these things as I haven't tried them all yet, but I'm looking forward to tasting what is left! I think the only one I'm steering clear of is natto flavour as I'm not too keen on natto in general!

Chip Star

These were another impulse purchase. I noticed that they resemble Pringles a little bit so I was curious about them. I was kind of right, they are like Pringles but they taste less... stuffed with preservatives and e-numbers if that makes any sense? They taste very light and I don't feel bloated and over stuffed after having a couple. Plus the big tube on the left lasted me almost a month because inside the tube they have a foil inside which keeps the chips fresher for longer! No more stale Pringles for me!

Scones & Cheetos

Scones and Cheetos... two different labels and brands but pretty much almost the same product at the end of the day. Cheetos are actually, my all time favourite crisp snack and I would eat them 24/7 if I could. So when I read that Scones were a cheeto-esque product, I was curious to find out how "cheeto like" these crisps were. I was not disappointed. The flavours are amazing - especially the triple cheese flavour (white packet in left picture) as it really tends to a cheese-a-holics needs! The flavours, also, are not overpowering at all - which is a nice bonus - and they don't taste greasy nor do they have the tendency to leave a thin film of flavour on your fingertips like some crisp products do. The points I've stated above are exactly the same with the Cheetos, I'm really glad that I was able to taste some other flavours besides the ones we get over here - puffs, jalapeno and crunchy. Honestly, go on ebay for the Cheeto flavours and go to either Oyatsucafe or Candysan for the Scones, you won't regret it.

And thus, I bring this post to a close. I hope you all enjoyed what you read and if you ever decide to try any of the products listed above - let me know! I also want to write more food/snack posts like this in the future but I'm not sure how to go about it really - maybe recipes or restaurant reviews on where I go to eat when out in London? Any suggestions about this subject would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks for reading!
xoxo

♡ What Dramas & Animes Make Me Tick ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

I've decided to have a months break from writing make-up/skin care reviews as I just don't feel really up to it even thought I want to blog? So, I thought that maybe I should just do a couple of posts based around what I do like other than make-up etc and apologies if you follow this blog just for the reviews but hey, I'm not a machine and you can't force someone to do something if their heart is not 100% into it.

As you can see from the title, the first post in my little month of anti-make-up reviews is about dramas and animes. If you follow me on twitter, then you know that I'm such a massive drama freak it's honestly a part of my daily life now... little sad yes but when you don't have the money to go out for a day (and boy do things cost a lot where I live) as well as living in the middle of nowhere (like, I live literally in the middle of the countryside) you find other things to do, that's for sure. I'd thought, to stop this post becoming very long and tedious that I would narrow it down to thirteen items (as thirteen is my lucky number) and I don't think it'll be an equal amount of dramas vs. animes, it'll just be what it is.

Switch Girl

"Switch Girl" is ultimately my favourite drama, hands down. I actually watched it before I read the manga because this drama was an accidental stumble upon! Also, with Renn Kiriyama as the main male role - and with the fact that he is one of my favourite actors-  it makes the watching a lot more interesting! Also; the storyline is quirky, upbeat and pretty hilarious as it has OTT moments that would only go on either in your mind or in animes.

Beyblade

People are always surprised when I say that "Beyblade" is my favourite anime ever. It's actually a reaction I love to see because, sometimes, people tend to believe that they know you like the back of their hand and then BAM you hit them with a curveball and this anime is my curveball. When this anime came out in the UK wwwaaayyy back in 2001 (and when I was a mere tender age of 11/12) it was the reason how I became to know of Japan and its culture. Also, small honesty session but when I found out about "Metal Fusion Beyblade" I was excited at first because I was hoping they were using all of the original characters from the first three seasons and then, literally, my heart sank when I heard that it was a complete overhaul and I tried to get into MFB, I really did try but alas I just couldn't. 

Ao no Exorcist

"Ao no Excorcist" is a recent add to my favourite list as I only watched this at the beginning of 2014 but it was an instant hit after the first episode that I just couldn't stop watching it. Swear down, I watched the whole series in two days straight (bye weekend of being productive) and now because of the anime, I'm loving the manga. I have a thing for quirkiness and this anime certainly delivers on the quirkiness as well as other qualities such as a 4D lead role - he literally uses all the range of emotions in one episode - and fantasy creatures. What's not to love?

Ouran High School Host Club

Aha I'm tricking you with this one! I adore the live action drama more than the anime, I don't know why it's just more appealing to me? Take away the fact that Yamamoto Yusuke (another favourite actor) is the lead role and I really don't understand why I prefer it more than the anime. The order of how I got into this series goes like this; gets referred to by a friend > watches anime > reads manga > watches live action series and SP. As you can see, just a normal way of getting into a series so no idea how wires managed to criss cross here, there and everywhere but oh well! A favourite is a favourite.

You're Beautiful / Ikemen Desu ne / Fabulous Boys

From the order of the title, that is how I have watched this particular series. Upon watching 'You're Beautiful' when it first aired, I was hooked so when hearing about the remakes I was so stoked and excited about how they would turn out and each one didn't disappoint me. One note though; I was slightly taken aback by Tamamori Yuta's acting in 'Ikemen Desu ne' because I felt that as he had some major shoes to fill in after Jang Geun Suk's role in the Korean version, so he probably had to overdo it with certain parts to keep the role of the main character going... I hope you all got that because I've got a headache re-reading it all! Honestly, the reason why I enjoy all the versions of this drama is because I love seeing the one storyline portrayed with different actors and in different languages, that is all.

Can You Hear My Heart

My first Korean drama after a massive break from them. Literally, it probably sounds really extreme but I had about six/seven months away from watching Korean dramas as I just didn't have the heart to keep up with them so I immersed myself in, mainly, Taiwanese and Japanese dramas. Also, I had never heard of a couple of the actors in this drama so it opened me up to watching some more of their work and thus branching me back out into the k-drama world!

Sailor Moon

Surprise, surprise 'Sailor Moon' is in my list! Well, like Beyblade it is an anime I grew up on and (as a secret shoujo manga/anime princess) it has everything I love. I won't go into all of the details because of the next anime in the list, but hey; magical talking cats, make-up transformation and the planet system for code names pretty much sums up what I enjoy the most... plus the main characters traits of eating and sleeping (hello dream life) Also, I am so excited about watching 'Sailor Moon Crystal' I could pee my pants... not literally because ew.

Cardcaptor Sakura

This is another anime I grew up on as well as I vaguely remember it airing over here in the UK but on specialist channels like Nicklelodeon BUT it did have it on CITV before they both went pants (sorry, only UK'ers will probably understand what I mean there!) Also, I don't know if anyone remembered this but they editing out a lot of things when making it 'presentable' for Western culture and when I re-watched this series again - in Japanese sub - I was so confused with certain parts because I couldn't remember them until I read about the editing! TCH!

Kamen Rider

'Kamen Rider' was introduced to me via Toni... I curse her yet thank her everyday for bringing this amazing tonkusatsu series and (as well, I had an awesome childhood with the shows that were out by the way) with growing up on shows such as Power Rangers, Biker Mice From Mars, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Thundercats, Thunderbirds, and Captain Scarlet it was an instant chemistry. One of the main things I like about 'Kamen Rider' is that you can start with a random series and you wouldn't be confused with what's happening/gone on in previous and wondered if it's all linked. Plus; it's kind of like a weirder, grown up version of Power Rangers in my own opinion...

SIGN

An accidental watch but I'm glad that I decided to watch it. This drama has such a beautiful storyline about how a person copes with deafness as well as the people around him. The ups and downs the characters face are simply powerful with actions more than words and it's a real hard hitter. Literally, whenever someone asks me about what dramas to watch, 9 times out of 10 I will always recommend this drama.

Daisuke!!

Another accidental stumble upon, but again like with 'SIGN' I'm so glad I found this drama. My favourite ever actress, Karina, portrays a woman with disabilities and has a child. We see the hardships she has to face as a mother with these disabilities having her every move watched, even though it may seem for the child's sake, but really what comes across is that they just want her to fail. Having a disability always comes across as a taboo subject (in my opinion here as well as in any other country) so it was a real eye opener to watch this drama as it hits all the right spots.

Tokyo Mew Mew

I think it's no secret any more than I like shoujo animes/mangas...I honestly can't explain why I like this particular anime (cats and cakes mainly) but I just do and it can be overly cutesy/sweet in certain parts but hey... it kind of works? 

Iris 

My first ever Korean drama (that I watched) will always have a special place in my heart. It doesn't seem like the kind of drama I would watch normally but I do like genres like this! Watching 'Iris' opened me up to the world of Korean drama and its culture from then on! I'm slightly ashamed to admit this but I haven't even gotten around to watching the second season yet! D'OH!

So there we go! This has taken me a while to write as I found it hard on what to put down what I wanted to say that was in my mind. I hope this post was, somewhat, vaguely interesting and was a nice distraction from the usual reviews!

Thanks for reading!
xoxo

♡ Etude House Princess Happy Ending Collection ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

How is it, with my luck and all, that when I decide to go on a make-up ban and use up what I have lying in my make-up storages that a completely gorgeous new make-up line appears in front of my eyes?! The fact that it's two of my favourite things combined - Disney and Etude House - it's just made me feel worse! 

I adore the four princess they chose to base this line around, but one day I hope they bring out more products based on other princess like the popular Ariel (The Little Mermaid) and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) or even the not so well talked about Jane (Tarzan) and Kida (Atlantis: The Lost Empire). Also, after doing some research on the line, I found out that a couple of the products are re-packaged versions and if I had not found this out, I would have been disappointed with one of these products as it is not my favourite whatsoever, even though my mind is contradicting myself into wanting it because the packaging is too super duper adorable.

On the facebook page for Etude House - they seem to be popping out videos of make-up tutorials using the products (and others from recent lines like the Play 101 Pencils) to re-create a specific look linked to each individual princess. I love this idea so much because there are people, i.e. like myself, who cannot re-create looks just by staring at a picture. I hope they bring out the other two princesses looks as they only seem to have done Cinderella and Snow White for now.

Also, I don't know if it's just me, but it kind of sucks that they've only done two products for Jasmine - and the mascara is a re-package anyway so technically there is only one new product for her... boo. I honestly want them to expand on her more like... now please?!

Princess Happy Ending Precious Mineral BB Cream Blooming Fit
프린세스 해피엔딩 진주알 맑은 BB크림 블루밍핏 | 60g - 15,000원

Princess Happy Ending Lash Perm Proof Shockcara
프린세스 해피엔딩 래쉬펌 방수 쇼크카라 | 10g - 11,000원

Princess Happy Ending Rose Cheek Blusher
프린세스 해피엔딩 로즈 치크 블러셔 | 4.8g - 8,500원

Happy Princess Ending Fairy Glitter Shadow
프린세스 해피엔딩 페어리 글리터 섀도우 | 4.5g - 8,000원

Princess Happy Ending Lipstick
프린세스 해피엔딩 립스 | 3.5g - 9,000원

Princess Happy Ending Nail Kit
프린세스 해피엔딩 네일키트 | 8mlx2 - 6,500원

Does this line not make you want to go out and spend all your money frivolously on it? I am honestly stumped on which product is my favourite... I cannot decide between Belle's lipsticks because the colour is simply divine nor the eyeshadow as the colours chosen are just really on point. Again, I really hope the expand this line in the future as this is, by far, my ultimate favourite of the collections Etude House has brought out over the past few years, bypassing the Princess Etoinette collection by a long shot. I honestly cannot wait until these products start being sold online... goodbye make-up ban you were fun whilst you lasted a whole three weeks.

What product captures your eyes the most? Would any of you be 'investing' in a couple of things or even the entire collection? Please note that all pictures displayed here are from the Etude House homepage/facebook page and are NOT my own work. Also the information, such as the product name and pricing is taken from the homepage also. Thank you!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo