Next week I’ll be doing a spotlight on Japanese Brand cosmetics for the week you’ll see a new video each day starting Monday and ending on Friday.
I get many questions in regards to Japanese Brands and I thought I’d spotlight some different brands for you to view close up. I’ll be doing impressions of the products, reviews, pictures, and of course the video that goes along with it.
In preparation for the week in video I made this one in explanation of why MuseTV has been out of commission for a month or more!
Note: The video on Jill Stuart will be on display for your viewing pleasure on Monday! Check back!
I’ve no idea how old this gift set is but it could be Christmas last year! After hearing the tale of T’estimo demise I went into mourning and soon after decided to make it my business to collect what remaining T’estimo I don’t already own and stash it away in my collection before it was gone for good!
This nifty little kit contained two mini lipsticks and two cream eyeshadows in pink and gold colors! Overall it was quite a cute gift set and I’m thrilled to own it!
Shiseido as we know it here, in the US, is not a cheap brand of cosmetic. It’s a high end of make-up that is purchased in posh shops. Shiseido is on a different sphere in Japan and how the Japanese know the brand. Shiseido is well known for not only expensive designer cosmetics in Japan but also cheaper drugstore brands such as Majorca Majolica, Maquillage, Etc… Shiseido has some amazingly inexpensive and fabulous branch offs in Japan that are not available in the states or Europe. Some of these brands are my truest love. The following are a new line, for me, that I came across. It’s a very inexpensive brand of cosmetic that Shiseido has out and quite nice for such a low end brand of make-up!
Update: With a little help from your friends you can find just what you need! The website for this cheesy little brand can be found here: http://www.kesho-wakusei.com/lineup/makeup/index.htm Thanks so much to Flecks for the information!
Trio Palette
These palettes slide open to reveal two shadows and a glittering lipgloss. Not the best palette in the world but quite cute for a casual, minimal make-up look!
Loose Powder Blushes
I got two of these loose powder blushes. The pink is ultra sheer but does give a bit of a wash of color! The white is gorgeous and pretty pigmented, I probably won’t use it much on my cheeks but it will make a great base for shadows! Plenty of shimmer in the white too! The Muse likes shimmer!
Dual Contouring Blushes/Highlighters
Interesting blushes. One in glittering white and one in gold. Ok in the pigment department but does hold a nice glitter content, good for contouring or highlighting your face. One side holds a shimmering side and the other a matte side. Overall I’m pretty happy with these and I’m eager to try them out for size!
Pinkolors Palette
I’ve never seen this brand before and it’s brand new to my eyes. I’ve searched but I haven’t found a word about Pinkolors on the internet aside from some auctions selling it! This was a last minute purchase due to the cute packaging design! The colors in the palette are pretty nice but sheer. Good for a casual make-up day or using them as a base for a more vibrant shade!
All in all some interesting little tidbits in this haul!
Last weekend I had missed the Steals and Deals of the week but this weekend I’m back with some great finds just for you!
Click over and print out this coupon for a Free Wallflower or Scentport Starter Kit from Bath and Body Works! Get your home smelling lovely and hey it’s free! $15 Value!
Head on over to QVC and add a quad of Philosophy lipglosses into your cart for $33! These normally retail for $10 each but you can get all four for $33 (Item Number A12627). The kit includes lemonade, mint, apple, and coconut! And while you’re at it you might want to sneak on over and check out the Muse’s review on these glosses prior to purchasing!
Since you’re at QVC browsing around for lipglosses on sale why not indulge your sweet tooth and check out their newest three in one shower gel duo for $30! You’ll get both Sweet Creamy Frosting and Red Velvet Cake with this kit! Mmmmm!
And hey, the Muse advises and says that it’s never to early for Christmas shopping! So check out Item Number A5322 for a fab deal! This is a trio of full size (16oz) Philosophy Three in One shower gels with cute gift bags! The Muse purchased a few of these last year for various Christmas gifts, grab bags, etc..and they were a huge success! And at the price of $35 bucks for all three they come cheap (That’s less than $12 each!) The Muse advises purchasing these prior to November as last year they sold out and were on wait list forever! So grab ‘em while the grabbing is good! They make great gifts as a set or given away indivdually!
Lush wants you naked! Head on over to Lush and purchase any two of their bare-ly wrapped products and get the third absolutely free! Promo Code: BARENAKED
Keep your brows in order for free! Beauty.com will include a free Anastasia brow gel with any purchase!
Enjoy Free Shipping from Sasa with any $50 Purchase! Did the Muse happen to mention how much she LOVES free shipping?
Burt’s Bees happens to be one of the Muse’s favorite brands and it’s on sale at Drugstore.com! 30% Off All Burt’s Bees Stock plus Free Shipping!
Bobodave is offering 10% off All Sofina Stock from September 24th to the 30th. Discount will be refunded after purchase.
Glossy Lips anyone? Get a double ended gloss wand with any $50 Benefit purchase free! Enter Coupon Code GLOSSIX2 to receive your free gloss!
Grab yourself Free Shipping and a Free Full Size product of your choice if you spend $39.50 at Beach Girl Beauty.
It’s not beauty but it is Bollywood! If you happen to love Hindi films, like me, the Muse advises you to click over to Nehaflix to nab some great deals on Bollywood DVD’s and receive Free Shipping with your order of $30 or more!
Nordstrom is giving away a soft traincase full of goodies to Lancome customers who spend $35 or more! Now might be a good time to nab yourself some of the Limited Edition Mystery Game goodies to get your free traincase!
Ahhhh it’s that special time of the week kids! When I can kick back, relax and of course catch up on reading all my sister blog posts on the Beauty Blog Network!
This week quite a few items caught my eyes and I’ll be ever so nice and share them specially with you!
I’m tempted by Bonacure Hair Products especially the Kick Leave in Conditioner! Sounds like something my dry hair might like! Do check out the review from Beauty and Fashion Tech!
The lovely Elke Von Freudenberg brings us the WORST Beauty Trends of Fashion Week! Wander over to her blog and have a look! The Muse must say that she agrees the “no make-up” just doesn’t do it!
Oh my am I drooling! PJ has posted up the Dior Holiday Collection and the Muse has decided to make it her business to get this collection as soon as it pops up UK side! Repeat after me…Must Have…Must Have…..click on over to see the pictures and PJ’s first impression of the collection!
The Muse really has a thing for soap. What’s that? You do too!? Great! you should visit the Etailers Mall and have a peek at the perfect soap for fashionista little minions like ourselves! Believe me it’s quite the perfect little gift or maybe you want to get a few to spoil yourself with! Have a peek!
Ahhh..pink…ever girl’s signature color! Hello Dollface brings the pink this weekend with a great blog about Jaqua’s Pink Potion Collection! Jaqua makes great products and this Pink Potion is one the Muse hasn’t had the pleasure of using! Uh oh I do believe the folk at Hello Dollface have created a bit of a “want” here!
Makeup Bags…we all need ‘em…! Organization is quite important with a large, medium, or even small collection! Lipstick, Powder ‘n Paint show us some nifty little bags to organize our cosmetic bits and pieces!
Temptalia is busy tempting the Muse with visions of MAC’s new color story, Mattene. The Muse promised herself she’d be TRY to be good until the Holiday goodies arrived! But reading Temptalia’s blog is making me want Mattene! Click on over and check out reviews and swatches for this new collection!
The most lovely Marina from Makeup Loves Me discusses the trend of the half moon nail this week! Sadly, the Muse bites her nails like mad but reading and viewing the picture on Marina’s site makes the Muse realize it’s about time she stops and starts taking better care of her nails so she might partake of this latest trend! Have a click and visit with Marina!
Face Candy brings a tale of mini! Dontcha love mini cosmetics? I sure do! Sneak a peek at Face Candy’s blog of mini!
Canadian Beauty has helpful hints for prolonging your summer tan into the Fall! Click over and have a look!
Want radiant skin? Mytical Beauty’s Musings has the secret to gorgeous skin!
Might I also pimp Makeup Moxie’s Beauty Blog! Jazmin, a most gorgeous girl, runs this great blog! Do check it out! The Moxie and the Muse got on famously during the live chat the other night and with that I present to you her blog! Do visit this darling girl! Her site is Muse approved
And with that said and done I say have a great weekend and I’ll see all of you Monday!
A short note please keep in mind that I hide little hot links all over my blog entries! Particularly the Weekly Beauty Read! So if you happen upon a blog with a word that might be colored purple that means it’s a hotlink, click and you’ll be magically whisked away to a new site to explore!
Well..my German is rusty but if you happen to head over to Bjooti you can lay eyes on something that the Muse wants under her Christmas Tree this year! Diamonds.
Givenchy is giving us girls our very best friend for Christmas! The Diamantisimme collection looks like something the Muse may likely kill for (not really but I can’t promise I won’t hurt someone for it! I’m kidding! I’m kidding!).
This powder looks astounding!
The Muse’s new mate and reader, Sarah, is possibly peeing her pants while reading this right now (She loves Givenchy just as much as I do)! Sarah, honey, I’m with you!
The Muse is beyond excitement! Now if I can just brush up on my German and firgure out what’s being said about this collection hmmmmm……where’d I put that dictionary?
This is on the Wish List for sure! Now the question remains how to find it before it sells out faster than the Muse can whip her credit card out!
Alexander McQueen, a goddess in his own mind (and mine for that matter) brings to us a new MAC Collection.
Now you might be lemming this for several reasons such as the vibrant, eyepopping colors. The fact that’s it’s limited edition must also be tempting you and of course it has cute packaging details that also might put you in that “want” frame of mind.
But I think we can all be honest and admit that the reason we REALLY want the collection is for the coveted and long gone repromote of New Vegas Mineralize Skinfinish.
I can’t tell you how often I’ve searched on E-bay for a New Vegas and failed finding one that hadn’t hit the $60 or more mark upon auction end (Stereo Rose is another item I’ve failed miserably at locating for a price that didn’t include a contract for my first born child!)! The Muse sometimes has to give herself limits and purchasing a MSF for $60 or more dollars is one of her cut off points (however she has been known to sell an organ for parrot but that’s another story for another day)!
Well…girls…look no further New Vegas is back with a bang and we can all bow low to Alexander McQueen for it’s return!
Aside from the very exciting repromote of New Vegas I’d say we have quite a nice lot of goodies to look forward to with this collection and truly if you love awe inspiring shades this be the color story for you!
The colors look just perfect and not a doubt crosses my mine that they will be a nice little investment as well! These are bound to go up in price drastically after they are sold out so you can grab yourself a nice little piece of history here for it’s original, cheap price and next year you can laugh at all the n00bs who are searching their lemming out on E-bay and successfully finding ridiculously priced paint pots, MSF, and other yummie items from this color story! Although, the Muse highly recommends be nice and not laughing at the n00blets, after all, we were one ourselves at one time (as you can see the Muse has been playing far to much WoW and she’s reverted to leet speak! Do forgive her! She’ll be back to her beautified, non geeky self shortly. Well back to beautified not being geeky might not be possible!)!
The Muse says…GO YOU…GET TO THE STORE…and do purchase this collection! October 11th the Muse will bounce her way to her Nordie’s counter and give her monthly donation to the MAC counter so that she might have these wonderful, gorgeous goodies for her very own!
Happy Shopping!
Alexander McQueen for MAC
Eyeshadow Haunting – Sea green Nile – Soft royal blue with white pearl Pagan – Yellow lime green with yellow pearl
Lipstick Masque – Rosy pink Archtype – Light gold
Lipglass Nothingless – Baby pink with white pearl White Magic – White gold with yellow pearl
Kohl Power Black Karat – Black with gold pearl Feline – Rich black Jealous – Black with green pearl
Paint Pots Electro Sky – Royal intense blue Pharaoh – Creamy yellow green Otherworldly – Mid tone sea blue
Mineralize Skinfinish New Vegas – Golden beige with bronze pearl
Update: The lovely Marina from Make Up Loves Me just asked me where I had gathered my info from! And let me share, dear readers, with you, where I get the great updates on color stories! If you happen to visit the Specktra forum a lovely lady by the name of Janice puts alot of heart and soul into keeping the masses updated on all good things MAC! This is where the Muse gathers all the best info about upcoming color stories!
You can visit Janice by clicking over to either the forum or her blog at Specktra Blog.
After much debate the Muse has decided to order the Smokey “V” Eye Kit from Bare Escentuals.
I really didn’t need or want the kit when I originally seen it pop up online at Sephora however I’ve changed my mind since seeing the “V” Brush in action.
I scoured around E-bay for the Brush and it looks like, at the moment, it’s going for anywhere between $14-22 USD. For that price I figured I might as well just dive in and buy the whole kit which is available on an E-bay auction for $29.99 plus free shipping or from Sephora for $32 (but then I’d have to pay taxes and shipping so E-bay seems a good idea!).
Ok…anyway…let’s get back to the brush!
The brush was intriguing when I first seen it but I wasn’t sure how exactly it was supposed to work. It basically resembles a fishtail and I was assuming that to apply you’d be dipping into your shadow and just using the brush in the outer corner of the eye where the area creates a “V” however since viewing a demo on QVC (which I am sad to say I am unable to locate for you to view) that’s not the case at all!
Photos of the brush that I nicked from E-bay
Ok so this might be hard to explain but basically to use the brush you’ll be dipping into your shadow or better yet coating both sides of the brush in whatever color you are using at the moment. After your brush is nicely coated in color you’ll be dragging the brush from the inner corner of the eye all the way outward to the V of your eye where you’ll proceed to twist the brush up slightly. The entire effect basically coats your crease and lower lash liner with color while avoiding your middle eye and lid area! The twist towards the end will emphasize the V area and create a more intense effect.
So..that sounds really complicated but I promise you when I seen how it was used I was really delighted and instantly in “want” mode!
The Muse has decided that she needs this kit and highly recommends scouring around E-bay for either the kit or to try to locate the brush at a decent price! It seems a really good tool to add to the beauty arsenal! All in all I’d say you’ll make good use of the shadow and glimmer that comes with the kit! They are perfect colors for the fall/winter and evening looks plus you end up with the nifty brush.
You might remember a few months ago I had gotten some Clio Eyeshadows that I really liked.
I was dead curious about the entire line so I googled a little and came across the website for Clio. Upon viewing the website I fell in love with just about everything the line offers as the items are so damn cute!
Of course when it’s cute that normally means it’s some sort of Asian cosmetic that the Muse will have a hard time getting her hands on! *sad sigh*
Lucky enough the Muse happens to have friends in high places (sort of, kinda) and she ended up nabbing two of the Clio Blushes that were extremely difficult to locate here in the US!
I must say these are everything the Muse wants in a MAC Skinfinish! They are silky, smooth, and pigmented! MAC Skinfinish are amazing but I’d love a bit more color to some of them, that, is in fact, where Clio picks up the bag. Clio Blushes give a gorgeous wash of color on the cheeks that looks amazingly natural and just downright pretty! The brushes they come with are very soft, no shedding, and nicely rounded and large for good coverage!
I ended up getting two of these FINE blushes and I wish I could have gotten the other colors! If you have access do pick up a few of these as they are fantastic!
I love the Clio eyeshadows I’ve purchased prior to this but I must say they out did themselves on the blushes!
Bravo!
Now..solving the problem of locating Clio stateside…hmmmmmmm……….
Imagine a box full of sample and full size products that you can enjoy at a low price.
Excited?
Check out The Little Black Box for a fabulous box of goodies. For $23.50 you get a box full of interesting tidbits to try out! Cosmetics, Candles, and Bath and Body bits and bobs are only some of what you’ll find in the box you order!
The Little Black Box is on sale monthly and each month is a great time to experience new goodies! It’s an awesome way to discover interesting new shops on the internet that you may never have thought of trying before!
The next box is on sale October 19th and includes samples (and if you’re lucky full size items) from over 35 online shops!
The Muse loves the idea of a big old sample box of goodies! She can’t wait to order her box!
I had to remove Shout Box due to a slightly rude comment! So sorry about that! I wasn’t sure how long it’d last before rude bits started popping out and was vaguely shocked that it lasted as long as it did!
It was a nice medium to have for quick replies and such but sadly I have no control over it and since the Muse prefers that her blog remain a happy place minus insults to her person she’s taken down Shout Box for now!
Comments are always open on any of my blog entries and I ADORE speaking to each and everyone of you via that! Or e-mail of course Both of which I have way much more control over!
Hugs girls! Speak to you all soon in the comment box =)
I wanted to thank all the fine bloggers from the Beauty Blog Network that stopped into my chat tonight! You guys sure do know how to support a girl
Elke, Jazmin, Marina, Shannon…etc…Thanks! It truly meant the world to me that you came to show your support!
The lovely Miss Sarah, a reader of the Muse’s blog, stopped in as well!
The chat was somewhat slow in regard to readers but everyone that did pop in made the entire experience a fun one!
Thanks so much again and hope to do this with everyone in the future!
A little Update: A big Hello to Betsy who was having problems accessing the chatroom tonight! Betsy so sorry you missed us I believe the chat works a ok with IE and Firefox! Sarah mentioned she had a problem loading up with a browser and turned to IE where it worked a ok! In the future, hopefully, we’ll have a better chat room to use
For the longest time, in order to get my Shu dosage, I ordered from the Shu Uemura website but now I can shop Shu from Sephora!
Sephora used to carry a limited range of Shu cosmetics but it now offers quite a few more items! It doesn’t yet carry the entire line but it’s slowly adding more and more items.
This makes the Muse happy! Especially when it’s time for the Friends and Family discount at Sephora! Shu discounted! Yes, indeed the Muse is content!
I mentioned Lush’s newest haircare line in a prior blog if you remember.
In honor of the new haircare lineup Lush is throwing a little party on it’s website that includes previews of the upcoming products, games, prizes, specials, and other fun little bits and bobs!
The online party takes place tomorrow between 2-7pm PST and can be reached via their website!
Hop on over to the site and you’ll find out how you can participate in the live chat! The Muse won’t be there but do tell her how it was if you happen to go!
My chatroom is up and available. Below my picture on the right hand side of the page is a “click to chat” button (be sure your pop up stopper is off). Do click it tomorrow night at around 7pm eastern and you’ll find the Muse inside!
I believe the chat works a ok with IE and Firefox! Sarah mentioned she had a problem loading up with a browser and turned to IE where it worked a ok! In the future, hopefully, we’ll have a better chat room to use 
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