Japan Travel Diaries: Tokyo (Part 2)

Hello again! Today is a continuation of yesterdays’ travel post, where I’ll be talking about the second part of our stay in Tokyo.

DAY 4

We started Day 4 in Asakusa, another district of Tokyo. It is well-known for the Senso-Ji Temple, as you can gather by all of the tourists gathered here even though it was really early and drizzling out.

Up next was Ueno Park, which is situated near the Akihabara area. I thought of it as a mini Central Park, because like Central Park, it has its own zoo and some museums around it. The day we visited Ueno Park was a rainy one, so we avoided a bit of the rain by going to the National Museum of Nature and Science, which was inside the park. The museum ended up being a lot better than we both expected!

Japan Travel Diaries: Tokyo, Japan (Part 1)

Hello, everyone! Today I am continuing my Japan travel post and writing all about our stay in Tokyo. I feel like it’s taken forever for me to get through my travel posts, and it’s because I’ve only posted one a week to spread them out and not inundate you guys with them. However, this means it feels like I’ve been dragging them on, so I’m going to try to finish them up this week. Tokyo will be the last installment, but I have split it up into two posts as there’s just so much to talk about. Part 2 will be up tomorrow! I also have to work on replying to comments soon, which I’m so behind on!

When people think of Japan, they most likely think of Tokyo. While a city like Kyoto is historical and traditional, Tokyo is a bustling modern metropolis. I especially loved Tokyo for all of the eating and shopping, but we visited a lot of interesting places here too! We spent 5 full days here, and two half days at the beginning and end.

Sephora Beauty Insider Sale Wish List

It is that time of the year again where the largely anticipated Sephora Sale rolls around. I thought I would be writing this blog post closer to mid-November rather than now, but it looks like Sephora decided to roll their sale out early for Rouge this year. This works perfectly fine for me, since I was worried that the sale was going to be on while we were on vacation mid-November (#priorities).

For those of you who are Rouge members, the 20% off sale is online (code: ROUGEBONUS) and in stores from October 26-29th, and again on November 2nd-5th. The sale goes from November 9-12 for VIB members, who get a 20% discount in stores and online using the code VIBBONUS. For BIs, the sale is 15% off from November 16-19th in stores and online using the code BIBONUS.

Every time the sale rolls around, I always share my wish list. One thing I’m going to try really hard to stay away from this time is eyeshadow palettes. I bought 3 palettes in Japan (they’re all quads, but still), and I haven’t broken any of them out yet, not to mention I still have a lot of eyeshadows at home that I don’t touch often. As much as I want to, I can’t justify buying any more eyeshadows! I did do a big haul in Japan, but I haven’t bought much makeup at home in the last few months, so I feel a little deprived right now. I’m going to try to not go crazy but we’ll see how that goes! 😂

I’ve organized my wish list by things I’ll definitely get (100% purchase), I might purchase (50% purchase) and products that will most likely stay on my wishlist. Without further ado, these are the products I have my eye on!

Japan Travel Diaries: Nara and Osaka

Hi everyone! Today is another installment of our Japan travels. This time, I’m talking about our day trip out to Nara and Osaka, both of which are just a short bullet train ride away from Kyoto. Our original plan was to visit these places on separate days to allow for more time to look around, but because we missed a day due to our cancelled flight, we had no choice but to do them together. It would’ve been nice to spend some extra time in both places, but I think it general it worked out just fine.

Our first stop of the day was Nara. There are a few different ways to get to Nara from Kyoto, but we took the bullet train, which took about 50 minutes. Once you arrive, the main attraction, Nara Park, is about a 20 minute walk from the station.

NARA

If you’ve heard of the city of Nara, you probably know it for Nara Park, which is a huge park that is also a home to hundreds of deer. Before visiting Nara, we thought there would only be a few deer lounging around, but they are roaming freely everywhere! At the park grounds, standing around on the middle of the sidewalk, crossing the intersection right in front of cars…everywhere! Not surprisingly, the mascot of this city is a deer.

Creating a Capsule Beauty Collection

In the last few years, you may have heard of the term “capsule wardrobe”. It means a compact collection of outfit staples, which not only include clothing, but shoes and accessories as well. The term was coined by London boutique owner Susie Faux, who thought that the capsule wardrobe should consist of no more than 30 pieces. If we’re able to condense our clothing into such a small collection, shouldn’t we be able to apply the same concept to our makeup?

When I first started dabbling in makeup, I had a capsule beauty collection. At one point, all I owned was three eyeshadow singles and one blush! It’s been a long time since those days, as I keep collecting more and more makeup with no end in sight, but sometimes I feel overwhelmed by how much I own, and I don’t even have nearly as much as most beauty bloggers! Sometimes I long for a more simple collection.

Below, I’m sharing a list of product categories and suggestions on how to put together a capsule makeup collection. Including tools, I’m trying to keep it under 30 products as per Susie Faux’s idea of a capsule wardrobe. This list isn’t meant to mean you have to own X amount of this category and Y amount of this category – of course it’s fluid based on your makeup routine. It also doesn’t mean you have to use the same blush, lipstick, or mascara for the rest of your life, but just to own one at a time. I’ve also included which specific products I would choose for my own capsule makeup collection – they’re all products that are either in my current collection or have used in the past.

Japan Travel Diaries: Kyoto

Hi everyone! Today’s post is a continuation of my Japan General Observations post – I’m going to be talking about our first leg of our Japan trip, which was the city of Kyoto. We had five days in Kyoto, one of which was spent on a day trip out to Nara and Osaka, but that will be the topic of discussion the next Japan Travel Diaries blog post.

Kyoto is an old historic city full of culture and tradition; compared to the fast-paced Tokyo, it is a more “outdoorsy” and relaxing city. Apparently, there are over 1,600 shrines in Kyoto! As you’ll be able to see in pictures, there’s a lot of greenery here, which was quite different than what we saw in Tokyo. Read on to see what we got up to in this beautiful city.!

PS – I am sorry about all of the photos taken in portrait mode, especially ones that should have been in landscape. I noticed while looking at my photos that I did this a lot during the trip and I have no idea why! Also, I did not take a lot of food photos in Kyoto because I literally stuffed all the food in my face before I remembered that I was supposed to take a photo 😂

Review: Too Faced Just Peachy Mattes Eyeshadow Palette

Hi everyone! Today’s post is a review of the Too Faced Just Peachy Mattes palette. This palette was released last August so I’m more than a little late to the game, but that’s okay! When this palette first came out, I really wanted it, but after sleeping on it for a few weeks, I decided I wasn’t going to get it. As pretty as the palette was, I know my own taste in eye looks, and I knew I wasn’t going to get much use out of a bunch of red-based shades.

Fast-forward to this July, and I saw that this palette was part of the Sephora Weekly Wow sale. At half the original price, I was happy to add the palette to my collection. I was still a little skeptical on how often I would use the palette, but at least I wouldn’t be paying full price for a palette I might rarely touch. Read on to see what I think about this palette that I was unsure about!

Japan Diaries: General Observations

Hi everyone! If you’ve been following my Instagram, you may know that I recently took a trip to Japan. Japan is such a unique country and there is so much to talk about that I’ve decided to write a separate post on general information and observations. I took more photos of the activities we did, so I don’t have too many pictures of these random things, but in the following few weeks, I’ll be posting individual travel posts about each city we visited. I’ll have more photos to share then!

First of all, our trip totally started off on the wrong foot. Originally, our flight was meant to fly into Osaka, but it was cancelled because of the typhoon that hit the city the week before we were due to leave. The Osaka airport wasn’t taking any international flights at the time, so we called Air Canada and asked for our flight to be changed. They switched us onto a direct flight to Tokyo for the same day with no fuss or extra charge, which was great. On the day we were supposed to leave for our trip, we arrived at the airport as per usual, and around the time that we were to begin boarding, they announced that our flight had been delayed for an hour due to mechanical issues. After that hour passed, they made another announcement that they were still looking into the issue, and if they didn’t have the right part to fix the issue, they’d have to fly the part in from Vancouver – which would take at least another hour and a half! By 3:30pm, at which point we’ve been at the airport for five hours, they announce that the flight has been cancelled, and that we will need to come back the next morning for our 7:00am flight. Not only was it annoying to have waited an entire day at the airport and the fact that we lost a day of our vacation, but it meant we had to wake up at 4am the next morning to make it for our 7am flight. It was an inconvenience for sure, but I didn’t want it to be a point of stress or negativity because we were still going on vacation and it was supposed to be fun! Anyways, once we arrive in Japan, all of our flight issues were quickly forgotten anyways.

The Makeup Wishlist Tag

Hi everyone! Today’s post is a tag on all the goodies currently on my beauty wish list. I took this tag from Nova of Super Nova Beauty and Cleia of Always Cleia, who shared their wishlist a few weeks back – please check out their posts as well!

1. What is the very next makeup item you’re planning on buying?

I’m going on a no-buy in October because I’ve spent too much money, and because November will be heavy on purchases. I won’t be buying anything until the November VIB sale, so I don’t have any firm plans yet. I always have products on my list that I say I will buy next, but then I end up keeping it on my wish list for years. I will very likely buy another Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche Liquified Lipstick. I purchased the shade Chutney in August and fell in love with the formula, so I would like to own a few more shades in this range. I also really want to try the Laneige Kiss and Make Up set which comes with all the limited edition scents! I’ve been wanting to try them since they announced they were coming out with the limited edition scents; however, I don’t need 4 lip masks so that’s something to think about. Otherwise, the Laura Mercier Shadows & Brights Metallic Cavier Stick set is also high on my list.

Japan Beauty Haul

Hi everyone! If you’ve been following me on my blog or Instagram, you might know that I recently went on a trip to Japan. I will do a thorough travel series on Japan in the upcoming month, but for now, here’s what most of you are more interested in: all of the makeup and skincare I hauled!

In recent years, Korean beauty has really seemed to dominate the Asian skincare market, but Japanese skincare has been a thing way before Korean products came onto the scene. I’ve been using Shiseido since I was a teen because of my mom, who has been using it since SHE was a teen! Although I had a long list of brands to check out while I was in Japan, I didn’t actually go too crazy in terms of actually hauling any makeup. First of all, Japanese makeup is a bit on the expensive side. I spent a little over $200 CAD for this all of these products, the majority of which are drugstore brands. Second of all, a lot of the products weren’t really “my thing”, which I’ll go into detail about later on in this post.

From previous experience, I know that the packaging of Japanese makeup is mostly (if not all) written in Japanese, so it’s hard to know what you’re buying. Before going on the trip, I had done a lot of research on the Asian Beauty subreddit to get some ideas of popular products that people recommended. I also referred to Stashy’s post on what she hauled in Japan two years ago, which gave me more ideas I had not encountered on Reddit.