from perfume to makeup

While search for the perfect grapefruit perfume, I ran across this mini-essay on eyeshadow. It looks terribly interesting. I guess strong opinions are pretty interesting. Anyway, many more entries to look forward to reading.

Perfumebay has a nice selection of sampler vials available to order. And, they have YSL's In Love Again (the relaunch)! So I ordered a bunch. One for my mom, one for me, and a couple presents. I also got some Chanel for my mother. I know she already has Chanel, but I don't know how well the bottles have kept so little samplers wouldn't hurt at all.

wanna go shoooooooooooooopping

It's gotten too cold for my light jackets, which means that I need a warmer one, of course!

And, I want some comfy birkenstock-like shoes. Wearable with or without socks! Brilliant.

Oh, and I want this purse. Of course, it's a present with a purchase of a pair of their shoes, and they don't carry my size. :P

perfume: anna sui's secret wish part 2

As my recent obsession lingers, I searched for Secret Wish online. Apparently it does come in a mini size for the reasonable cost of $12. Shall I risk the online order with a random company? I'll debate it.

While searching, I ran across a blog entry in Japanese where an office lady (OL) was mentioning that her older colleague (a friend) suggested that she wear a slightly more fruity perfume at work. I found this amusing for several reasons.
1) Her colleague is concerned about work appropriate perfumes (which makes sense, but indicates more sophisticated thinking than mine :D).
2) Her colleague found it important enough to mention to this blogger. It's probably important to note that the 2 apparently get along well.

I think I put on too much perfume today. The sillage is a bit strong! I tried washing it off but it hasn't worked. I hope my coworkers aren't too bothered.

perfume

It just occurred to me that perfume is not a terribly good gift. Since the fragrance of a perfume depends on how it reacts with a person's skin, one has to wear it for a while in order to decide whether onelikes it.

So, if you'd like to give someone perfume that they will wear, it will have to be something that they've tried before.

I can still give people miniature sets, just for fun.

brands and luca turin

Luca Turin's site is a lovely read. I found it through through katiedid's Scentzilla site.

I love words like "sillage." I still don't quite know what it means (it's something about wearing perfume) but it sounds absolutely marvelous. Refined like smooth powder. I'll look it up someday soon.

Today I ran across Turin's article on brands.

the greatest unenlightened scam, the one they teach in business schools, is the one where a) you screw the customer, b) they still trust you and c) they come back for more. Example: Louis Vuitton luggage. Rubbish quality (the Thai fakes are better than the real thing), dubious taste (to reverse Marx, what started as a '30s farce, "let's put the lining on the outside", is now a tragedy), outrageous price. And yet they sell. Why ?

...

sense takes longer to acquire than cash

perfume: anna sui's secret wish

So, I'm not a fan of Anna Sui's branding or clothing. It has such a baroque, overly feminine feel to it. But, spurred on by Chandler Burr's ravings about her "delightfully weird" frangrances, I tried on Secret Wish at the duty free shop in Okinawa's Naha Airport.

I was really surprised. It's a lovely perfume! Perfectly normal but very interesting. No wacky anise scent or anything like that. I hate licorice, so for me anise is a very undesired smell. There's a really fun hint of what smelled like vanilla in the perfume, so I kept sniffing my wrist because the perfume smelled so nice. Of course, Burr was speaking of Sui's perfumes in general, so Secret Wish might be a normal concoction compared to her other perfumes. It's the only one I've tried.

I think I could really get into buying perfumes. Too bad that a lot of them are so terribly expensive. At $47 a bottle, I won't be buying Secret Wish. But if I find small sample sizes, I would definitely pick it up.

Didn't wear perfume today.

racquetball

I played racquetball for the first time today. It's quite fun, but there are some differences between tennis which take some getting used to.

mystery of life

Why do I like Sarah Michelle Gellar better than Reese Witherspoon? It must be because she's cuter. And I hate that movie "Legally Blond".

reasons it's bad to know japanese

I found all this SlamDunk stuff that I can buy at bookstores here. Doh!

ＳＬＡＭ　ＤＵＮＫ完全解析書
ISBN:4876894078
フットワーク出版 (2001-11-22出版)
This looks like a Japanese issue of Rolling Stone.

SLAM DUNK
作者：井上雄彦, 菅良幸
出版社/メーカー：集英社
定価：￥ 780
発売日：1994/12
メディア：単行本（ソフトカバー）
ISBN：4087030288

スラムダンク勝利学
作者：辻秀一
出版社/メーカー：集英社インターナショナル
定価：￥ 1,050
発売日：2000/10
ISBN：479767024X

ＳＬＡＭＤＡＮＫ桜木花道の秘密
スラムダンク研究会 著　文化創作出版 版
1,020円（税込）　1993年11月 発行　ISBN4-89387-073-4
書棚は、集英社新書版男性です。

スラムダンク延長戦桜木花道の秘密　２
スラムダンク研究会 著　文化創作出版 版
1,020円（税込）　1994年07月 発行　ISBN4-89387-094-7
書棚は、コミックです。

スラムダンク桜木花道　３　私たちの秘密
文化創作出版 版
1,020円（税込）　1995年10月 発行　ISBN4-89387-119-6
書棚は、コミックです。

スラムダンク超人気の秘密
神奈川スラムダンク調査団アルファ遊撃隊 著　データ・ハウス 版
1,020円（税込）　1995年03月 発行　ISBN4-88718-282-1
書棚は、マンガ論です。

スラムダンクの秘密
作者：神奈川スラムダンク調査団アルファ遊撃隊
出版社/メーカー：データハウス
定価：￥ 1,050
発売日：2005/03
ISBN：4887188110
I might not want this, although it looks like a comic book. Issued recently.

スラムダンクの秘密 (2)
作者：神奈川スラムダンク調査団アルファ遊撃隊
出版社/メーカー：データハウス
定価：￥ 1,050
発売日：2005/06
ISBN：4887188285

スラムダンクの秘密　３
神奈川スラムダンク調査団 著　データ・ハウス 版
1,020円（税込）　1994年09月 発行　ISBN4-88718-262-7
書棚は、マンガ論です。

紀伊国屋(kinokuniya) actually has a fair number of the above books in stock. Junkudo also has some of them. I'll have to print this list out and go look this weekend. I just ordered Howl's Moving Castle and Ghibli Shorts yesterday. Ah, materialism.

猫の恩返し / ギブリーズ episode2
出演： 池脇千鶴, 袴田吉彦, その他
監督： 森田宏幸
ASIN： B00008WI78

ギブリーズ episode1 apparently was only released with a special edition of もののけ姫。

Ooh, and I found more Here is Greenwood card goods (out of print since 1989! That's when Castle Cagliostro was made, haha).
カ－ドギャラリ－ ここはグリ－ンウッド
那州雪絵　２
カードギャラリー
那州　雪絵 著　白泉社 版
1989年03月 発行　価格確認中
ISBN 4-592-72020-2　C-CODE 0179　

For the above card gallery (collection?) I find it amusing that Kinokuniya catalogued Nasu's last name as 「那須」when it's actually 「那州」.

The first card gallery (which Kinokuniya catalogued correctly):
那州雪絵集
那州　雪絵 著　白泉社 版
500円（税込）　1988年02月 発行　ISBN4-592-72013-X
書棚は、コミックです。

I want these, but as they've been out of print for a while, it's unlikely I'll get them.

ここはグリ－ン・ウッド　１　愛蔵版
那州　雪絵 著　白泉社 版
1,220円（税込）　1996年08月 発行　ISBN4-592-13836-8
書棚は、白泉社Ｂ６版女性です。

ここはグリーン・ウッド　２　愛蔵版
那州　雪絵 著　白泉社 版
1,220円（税込）　1996年07月 発行　ISBN4-592-13837-6
書棚は、白泉社Ｂ６版女性です。

ここはグリ－ン・ウッド　３　愛蔵版
那州　雪絵 著　白泉社 版
1,220円（税込）　1996年09月 発行　ISBN4-592-13838-4
書棚は、白泉社Ｂ６版女性です。

ここはグリ－ン・ウッド　４　愛蔵版
那州　雪絵 著　白泉社 版
1,220円（税込）　1996年09月 発行　ISBN4-592-13839-2
書棚は、白泉社Ｂ６版女性です。

poverty

I don't have time to read this!!! but I want to read this essay on poverty being relative.

shopping urge is back

After being happy about not buying any new clothes for ... actually I can't remember the last time I bought new clothes. Perhaps last winter? So half a year at least! Oh , I did buy new clothes in July. Nevermind. I have the urge to shop again, after 2 months. I bought a beach patterned camisole for $4. I love Uniqlo sales. That wasn't enough so I'm keeping an eye out for midweight jackets and nice tops that don't have to be ironed. Of course, I don't really need anything; I just find my current wardrobe terribly boring.

sunlight

I love the clear sunlight of bright mornings. It gives me hope that everything will turn out well. The day seems more pure.

tacky

From a recent Miss Manners column:

There is no proper way to be tacky. Miss Manners hopes this doesn't come as too much of a shock to you.

calcium

Today I begin my quest to get 1200 mg of calcium a day. 600 mg for breakfast (milk and drinkable yogurt). Apparently you can only absorb 600 mg every six hours. So I probably should split up the intake between breakfast and lunch for better absorption.