Illumination (photo heavy)

I'm finding it difficult to look through my photos and weed out which photos to post. I was there to visit my family during the holiday season 2010 and as you may have guessed, Japan was nice and 'glammed' up. Lights and decorations everywhere. I was slightly disappointed though, I expected to see more :p

They call Christmas lights and decorations 'illumination' lol. My mother and I went to the Tokyo Dome and I was plesantly surprised :) A lot of the lights changed colours as well.

This one was really pretty. There was a seating area right underneath - it was very pretty :)

They had lettuce growing in this dome

As I mentioned in my previous posts, I spent a lot of my time in japan going to Ginza. When I saw how big Zara was, I had to take a photo! hahaha

Tokyo Metro Ginza Station

Dior so pretty

I'll leave you with this...hee hee :)

.......

Get your mind out of the gutter ... hahaha this was a GAP display for jeans hahaha

Have a happy Valentines day :) I'm actually celebrating my 4 year anniversary with the bf on Feb 15th, but we haven't planned anything for v-day or for our anniversary. Now that I think of it, it's kind of sad :( I think I'm getting old - I'd rather spend the money on clothing or travelling instead of flowers and chocolates. Do you have any special plans (or perhaps you already had your v-day celebrations this weekend?)

A little bit of Japan

Hello! I'm getting requests for photos of Japan, but I have been hesitating posting some of the photos up. I mean it's easy to find photos of Japan that most tourists and people take, so I decided to post photos of things that you usually don't see (hopefully). My trip to Japan in December 2010 was mainly to see my family. I didn't get to do much shopping or site seeing because several of my family members (at that time) weren't doing so well. anyways..enough of me blabbing....

I had a bakery close by and they had so many different types of buns and took several photos of them, but just wanted to share these two.

This one is based on Miffy :)

This one is based on Anpanman (translates to redbean bun-man)

While in Japan, I spent majority of my time near Ginza - here are a couple of photos:

Hello kitty store at Ginza - too many cute things in the store....didn't snap photos :p I felt awkward busting out my camera :p

The teddy bears were really popular when I went in December 2010. I told myself I was going to purchase a small one for my purse, but forgot to pick one up :( This store front display was at Ginza ...(for those Toronto folks, Ginza is like a HUGE yorkville)


These little guys I found on TV - why are the characters so darn cute?! There's domokun (the square brown 'scary' looking thing). Sorry forgot domokun's partner's name.

My first day there, went to the local drug store and bought a bunch of stuff :) So far, I LOVE the chapsticks and sunscreen. I was initially pleased with the DHC produtcts, but lately I don't see the same results as I did while I was in Japan :(

I have a lot more photos...specifically photos of dessert and food :p more to come! (btw, if you want those touristy photos, just let me know and I'll post them too). Have a great week!

Coffret D'or Essence Stay Rouge

Drum roll.....


wahh...so pretty^^ So while I was in Japan, I kept seeing the commercial on TV for the Coffret D'or's essence stay rouge. I was sold when I saw the packaging (>_<) I went to the store to check out prices and if I remember correctly it was about 2600 yen, which is approximately $30 CAD. Initially I told myself that it was too expensive, but then ended up caving in and buying it. I mean c'mon, I'm not in Japan that often -:p


I knew right off the bat that I wanted the coral one. I went to the store and did swatches, but decided the coral was the one for me (my mom thought so too lol)...unfortunately they were sold out. They had the other shades, but were sold out of the OR-106. Disappointed, I kept browsing the store to see if there was anything else that caught my attention. I found one of those beauty packages that came with a compact, one of these lip glosses and eyeshadow. I checked the package and it had the OR-106!!! My mom asked the owner if we could break up the package and he did it for us :D (I felt really bad for doing that because as we were leaving, he told one of his employees to look around in the store to see if they can find another OR-106 to replace it)...ok enough rambling...

I like the fact that you can wear it sheer, and also pack it on to have more colour. As you can see in the picture of the swatch on my hand, its somewhat pigmented. Since my lips are pigmented to begin with, the colour it gives is nice and subtle. Compared to other lip glosses (example MAC), it's not as sticky and glides very easily..I love it! I'm not using it that often because I'm so scared to face the day when I run out..

Good news: You can purchase it online at Adambeauty.com. It's actually cheaper online (approx $26 CAD) and I believe shipping is only $2!..I suppose I can always purchase more from here if I run out (^^)

More stuff from Japan to come....

Happy Weekend!

Mini giveaway winner~

Thanks for the entries - the winner of the mini giveaway is for the love of beauty by lara

I don't know what it is about Australia, but the winners for the 2 giveaways that I have done so far are both from Australia haha

..don't worry, more giveaways to come!

Next up: Japan photos & experience! I'll leave you with a sneak peek...


sigh....things are just so darn cute there! I was sick while I was there so I was downing all drinks with vitamin c...this particular one has 'hachimitsu' and 'lemon c' = honey and vit c

Happy Weekend!!! Please travel with care as it seems like we are all getting hit with the white stuff !

Back from Japan - very mini giveaway

Happy New Year~!

I'm back from Japan and already back into the grind...-_- I'll post some photos of Japan etc in another post. I just wanted to do a quick mini giveaway since the item I am giving away is somewhat time sensitive

I received this 2011 planner in one of my magazines that I have purchased while I was in Japan and decided to give it to someone that will use it. The front says "2011 Diary Biteki x Maybelline" and has a bunch of red hearts. It has a section with months and a section with weeks. It also comes with one of those string dividers (which I love and my current planner does not come with! boo!). It's quite thin (approx 1 cm) -nice and compact :)



- I'll choose the winner using random.org
- Open internationally
- Must be a follower
- Must be of age in your country or have permission to participate
- Please enter something you are proud of - it can be anything you want!
- Contest ends 11:59 pm EST Thurs Jan 13, 2011
- Winner must respond within 48 hours of initial contact by me

Good luck to you all!

It's that time of year again..

...my bday! hahaha j/k..well not really. My bday is actually on Dec 25 :(

Anyways, here are a couple of shots of my tree

Surprisingly I got all decorations from Canadian Tire - what?!~ crazy right? hahah This is my first year getting a normal sized tree so I was very excited to decorate it :) It's a very earthy toned tree with greens, browns, cremes, golds ...me likey!


Then I found this bedazzled tree - it's so pretty! The picture doesn't depict it very well, but it's very sparkly and girly - loves it :D

I already got my bday/xmas gift from my bf...sigh there is no excitement what so ever! He totally lucked out being with me because he only needs to get me one gift for my bday/xmas and one gift for valentines day/anniversary! No fun! When I was a kid, I really wanted my bday in the summer so that I could have bday parties - it's hard to have a party when everyone is spending their day with family and xmas dinner :p Does anyone else have a bday where the holidays over shadow their special day? lol

Today I am thankful for my hearing: to have the ability to listen to music, to hear people speak, to hear the train pass by, to hear my bf's voice. I can't imagine what life would be like if I lost my hearing.......

Have a good weekend ! If I don't post before I leave for my trip: Happy Holidays to you all and be safe!!!

Black Fridays are for Canadians too!

So I went to Sherway this morning since I had to pick up some items for a bday that's coming up soon and was pleasantly surprised with all the great deals the stores had!

The Body Shop has 3 items for $30 for EVERYTHING (excluding gift baskets/kits). Details here. I haven't really tried their skincare line so I decided to go for it! I bought a face powder brush and also a retractable brush as well - both are very soft. I know they were mentioned in Oprah's O magazine as well. I'm contemplating if I should do another Body Shop haul via online lol..Does anyone have any product recommendations on their skincare line?

Urban Behaviour had 40% off everything- bought some earrings. They had a nice military style coat, but I have way too many coats!

Jacob had 40% off everything - this also included their jacob intimates store - bought some nice stuff there!

There were tons of other stores that also had deals (20-40%) going on as well. BR was 25%, Mexx I believe was 40%, costa blanca was 40%...worth while checking out!

Both Sears and The Bay had tons of sales going on too! I'm glad I went today because my bf usually never goes out for boxing day shopping :( I did a big haul at Charlotte Russe online as well -- must save money, what am I doing!

Anyway, I lucked out and got the Naked palette! woop woop! I actually picked it up last Friday at Sephora Square One location. I went there around 11 am and picked up the 2nd last palette haha. I remember the rep from Sephora Eaton Centre telling me that they usually receive stock on Fridays ;)

I put up my xmas tree - will post that up soon as well.

Here I leave you with a photo of me at my bf's brother's wedding :) I was pleased with how my hair turned out :) I usually don't like putting it up because I have big elephant Dumbo ears, but it turned out nicely.


Happy Thanksgiving - Black Friday to those living in the States! Happy Weekend y'all :)