Current staples

It can take a while to work out whether I like a product or not. They're often more complex than immediately apparent.

My current favorites are

• Lipgloss: Bloom lip gloss is my undisputed favorite at the moment. Giorgio Armani lipshimmer is prettier (it sparkles!), but Bloom feels better.
• Mascara: Opera MyLash; a lot of Japanese mascaras are wonderfully smudge-free and MyLash is a moderately priced (about 1000 yen) non-fiber mascara with good lengthening and darkening properties, and some ability to thicken lashes. The formula is pretty light and not watery or goopy.
• Nail polish: Mavala Ottoman; a shimmery bright red. Not a true red, it has a bit of a fuschia tinge with one coat, but two coats gives a lovely, bright, rich red. Reds and burgundies look fantastic on my toes. I don't wear anything on my fingernails because my nails feel like they can't breathe with nailpolish. My toenails don't have any objections. I love the tiny 5ml size. I've never used up a polish in my life, so with Mavala and mini Bourjois, I can stick to small sizes from now on. Ettusais has a charming summer collection of small polishes too.
• Eye shadow: Inoui ID and Majolica Majorca eye shadow; wonderful texture and fun, wearable colors. My brown Kate quad is lovely but the colors just aren't very exciting. My taupe Shu Uemura shadow has the most beautiful texture and shimmer but the color closely approximates shadows on my skin. Not the most flattering effect on me; I'll have to try mixing it up with some other colors.
• Lipstick: I still love my Armanisilk, Dior Addict 2, and Shiseido lipsticks, but I get bored of lipstick colors pretty quickly. I have to change it up more than once a week.
• Eyebrow color: Inoui ID eyebrow pencil. I need nothing more than this. Canmake's eyebrow powder duo is also very nice and creates a natural look.
  

I can live without everything else, although I wouldn't want to. I suppose I shouldn't buy makeup again for a year or two. Maybe even three years.

Jean Patou's Sublime is rather a comforting scent on me. Warm and close to the skin. It's rather similar to Ungaro's Desnuda on me. I wonder which I like better. At the moment I'm leaning towards Desnuda.

Elizabeth Arden's Iced Green Tea turns into something akin to astringent herbs on my skin. Not a particularly pleasant smell. Rather medicinal.

I love the hit of grapefruit in the opening of YSL In Love; the perfect slightly bitter scent of a cut grapefruit. It's pretty addictive. Too bad it's only the top notes of a limited edition fragrance. I no longer buy limited editions; at least not for personal use.

On Saturday I bought a nice rugged nylon bag for work - about messenger bag size, with a zip pocket and two magnetic snap enclosure pockets in front, a zip pocket on the back, and one zip pocket plus two open pockets inside. The color is not very exciting, an olive brown, but very functional and appropriately muted for work. Large enough to fit my textbooks and any documents I may be carrying around.

So, having just bought this bag (and retiring a similarly sized corduroy bag), I have zero need for another bag. However! Before I went on vacation I had been eyeing a sky blue nylon Mandarina Duck bag. It was sold out when I went to look again on Saturday, so I ended up buying the olive brown bag instead. The coveted blue bag is now back in stock so I'm going to take a look at it this weekend. In terms of shape, my brown bag is nicer, but the sky blue color and futuristic design of the Mandarina Duck bag make me covet it also. I will probably buy it, because I can't think of a reason not to. I've been looking for large bags for more than a year, so I buy them if I find them.

Ugh. I need to go donate some money. My materialism has been out of control this year! At least I'm sick of shopping right now.

life passing us by: children are the smartest

I posted on my regular blog about a fascinating experiment by The Washington Post and violinist Joshua Bell.

It's a bit of a sad commentary on the daily grind, but very interesting nonetheless. And the music is stunning. Even the jerky video feed takes my breath away. ドキドキしてしまいました！

I have to see Joshua Bell in concert sometime.

On the perfume front, I gave away those samples and bottles of stuff that I never touched. One step closer to minimal! My new policy is to only buy a new sample/bottle if I use up a sample/bottle, so it's going to be a while before I can make a sample order. YSL In Love might be the first to get used up; there're only a couple spritzes left. It'll be hard to throw away the cute little sample atomizer though. I really like the top notes: it's a very authentic burst of grapefruit to me. Unfortunately I don't detect much after the top notes evaporate.

I will wear Ungaro's Desnuda tomorrow. It's been a while since I've touched it; looking forward to it!

use up my perfume

Having a surfeit of perfume, I've resolved to put on perfume everyday (at night, as I never seem to remember in the morning) and give away the perfume that I don't particularly like.

* A little square pendant of stuff - definitely a candidate to give away. Don't particularly like it. It's either Calvin Klein Eternity Summer or the local perfume shop's homemade Green Tea fragrance.
* A sample of Curve; definitely, as I already have a bottle thanks to Brooke.
* Lanvin Eclat d'Arpege - nice but I just don't reach for it. I'll keep a little sample but give away the rest.
* debating about Crazylibellule and the Poppies Tout Oublier solid perfume. It's nice, and I haven't gotten sick of it like other perfumes I own. But it's not really me. It's rather colder than I'm usually in the mood for, although I quite like it. It's very easy to wear though. We'll see. It's handy to carry around so I am using it quite a bit.

Everything else I'll rotate through. I should only own 5 ml or less of any particular perfume. Anything more is really excessive considering how much I use it. I have yet to open my Chanel No. 5 or Le Feu d'Issey light. I might open Le Feu as a treat after taking my Java exam. I'm going to wait till my nose progresses a bit more before opening No. 5. Have to be able to appreciate it fully, although I'm making progress on that front.

That mystery perfume that Amy gave me is quite nice, I have to ask her what it is. I may be Michael Kors.

You know you have too much stuff when the thought of getting rid of it is exciting. I like a lot of the stuff, but I just want to focus on the stuff I love. I'm planning to do the same thing with my clothing. At least only 2 items in my closet are unworn.

Because making lists is fun, I will list my collection (minus that little square pendant of perfume):

1. agnes b. le petit b.b.
2. Amy's mystery perfume
3. Bvlgari Omnia Amethyste
4. Caron Farnesiana
5. Chanel No. 5
6. Crazylibellule and the Poppies Tout Oublier solid perfume
7. Givenchy Oblique
8. Emanuel Ungaro Desnuda
9. Etude House Bijou Pure White solid perfume
10. Fragonard Eau du Bonheur solid perfume
11. Hermes Eau de Cologne (wonder if I'll grow to like this)
12. Issey Miyake L'eau d'Issey
13. Issey Miyake Le Feu d'Issey light
14. Jean Patou Sublime
15. Lanvin Eclat d'Arpege
16. Laura Biagiotti Roma (wonder if I'll grow to like this)
17. Laurent Le Guernec's perfume mod
18. Les Parfums de Rosine Un Zest de Rose
19. Liz Clairborne Curve
20. Missha
21. Muelhens 4711 original cologne
22. The Body Shop Indian Gardenia
23. Yves Saint Laurent With Love

Gee, seems like I have a ton of stuff. Most of these are little sample vials though. Quite a random collection, don't you think?

In other perfume "news," I finally got a chance to try ElisabethW's perfumes in Kichijoji a while back. Everything was really nice, but the Sweet Tea was too sweet (imagine that). A pity. Very nice fragrances though. I need to go back and sniff again. They appear to have discontinued 6 of their scents though; what a pity. Violet, Woods, Redwoods, and Blue Sage sounded very nice.

I am not my hair

Loving India.Arie's song "I Am Not My Hair"! I also caught a bit of her duet with Anthony David called "Words." That is music. Great duet. Yes, yes, I am way behind on music news, but some of this stuff just doesn't come here. We get Beyonce and Paris Hilton and Posh Spice.

cooking

I'm shifting my energy from makeup to being healthy; exercising and eating well. Real Simple has some excellent suggestions for alternative cooking with one's rice cooker; I'm going to try the risotto tomorrow.

These recipes look scrumptious too:
Barley Risotto with Asparagas
Corn Risotto
Sweet Pea Risotto

Marina's new fragrance mods are out!

The newest versions of Marina's Holy Grail fragrance are out! Marina has posted on Made By Blog about her impressions of the two versions created by perfumer Clement Gavarry of International Flavors & Fragrances Inc.

I made a comment about my impressions too.

In other news, Scentzilla has an extremely well-written post about blogging and ethics.

About me, I am cleaning house! I won't be buying any more makeup or perfume for myself for the rest of the year. Other than one good concealer. I'm just going to run around sampling fragrances for the rest of 2007. Maybe I'll finally get through my list of fragrances-to-sniff. Isetan department store is going to be sick of me soon, haha.

skincare and sunscreen

Since my skin has been freaking out lately, I haven't been using much on my face. It's down to salicylic acid for the breakouts, a bit of Avene thermal water as moisturizer, lip balm, and sunscreen. Unfortunately the sunscreen has been one of the reasons I've been breaking out, so I've been scrambling for other sunscreens to try.

It's kind of a pain. I think the DHC and Fancl cleansing oils leave my skin sensitive to other products. Perhaps they're just too harsh. I've been using them everyday as a makeup remover, but I will try getting a separate makeup remover and using the oils two or three times a week.