The Japan Series: Asian Beauty Haul

I have made it home from Japan! Had a blogging hiatus whilst I was away, mainly because we hardly stopped to breathe let alone blog. So here starts The Japan Series as I have so, so much to blog about. Japan is an incredible place...just when you think you've really seen it all there's something else that'll blow your mind right around the corner.  

But first things first, I spent a pretty penny (or yen) in the Japanese cosmetics aisles, so I thought I'd kick proceedings off with a haul - expect in depth reviews of these products in the next month or so as I can't wait to try them all out. The Japanese drugstore is a sight to behold in itself with shelves of bright packaging and buckets of products to peruse - literal buckets, the Japanese like to rake!

So what did I pick up? The Pikachus and Wallpaper City Guides in these pictures are just for effect...although I have grown rather attached to my Christmas Pikachu.

In Tokyo I hit up Shibuya 109, a magical mall filled with clothes/make up stores - a general girly haven. The top floor was home to Plaza which has a huge international make up section including Etude House, a Korean brand I was hunting for after seeing Fleur De Force's Asian Beauty Haul. I picked up three of their Sheet Masks: Q10, Green Tea, and White Pearl.

Next stop was the drugstore where I picked up another Fleur De Force recommendation, Majolica Majorca Lash King Mascara. I've not tried this yet but it smells really strong. So slightly worried I might be allergic...

Tokyo ladies are so into their liquid liner and the choice was quite overwhelming. The 1 day Tattoo Liner by K-Palette seemed to be on sale everywhere so I'm going to give that a whirl mainly because it wouldn't come off my hand for two days! I wish I'd picked up one of the SEVERAL liners with cats on the packaging but this one was definitely the most long lasting.

In my favourite area of Tokyo, Harajuku, we stumbled upon a Missha store, an inexpensive Korean brand. A very helpful sales assistant pointed me in the direction of their best BB/CC creams so I picked up their Signature Real Complete BB Cream and their Signature Complexion Correcting BB Cream. One for me and one for a friend and fellow blogger. Plus a £4 lipstick with the prettiest packaging.

Phew...I'm almost done. Last up were some bath salts and blotting papers from Tokyu Hands department store. The Japanese certainly like their bath salts as there was hundreds to choose from with weird and wonderful smells I frankly wouldn't want to soak myself in. However I picked up some lavender salts and some ginger scented ones...brands are unknown since all the packaging is in Japanese! The Japanese also do blotting papers pretty well, so I threw some in to try out for those days when my face has more liquid than your average bowl of ramen.

Interestingly I hardly picked up anything that was originally on my original wishlist! The only thing I'm still yearning after is the Fairy Drops Mascara - this isn't widely available in Japan any longer so I'll be making a cheeky BeautyMart order instead.

I hope you enjoyed this rather long post, stay tuned for product reviews, raves about Asian packaging, the lowdown on the best places to shop, and maybe even some highlights that didn't involve shopping (Cat Cafes...)


K x