☆朝バナナダイエット☆ banana for breakfast diet!

You ask what is 朝バナナダイエット? It's a very simple diet that took Japan by storm! The idea is, you eat a banana or two (or as many as you like), chewing well and drink a big glass of water for breakfast everyday (or for dinner if you want to). Banana is easily digested, has vitamins and is healthy, but it has little calories and the banana + water make you feel full, so it gives you all the energy you need in the morning and the satisfaction you ate breakfast. Also you get the healthy habit of eating breakfast at the same time everyday and it's a diet easy to follow.

For example, I never eat breakfast in the morning, just because I can't eat early, I'm this kind of person who is almost sick at the thought of food just after I wake up. Just coffe and that's it. But even for me, eating a banana is super easy! :3 If you feel like you need to eat a big breakfast thoguh, you can always eat the banana as dinner at 6-7pm. Simple!

Also the diet stresses no stress attitude and just relax, eat your banana, drink lots of water during the day too, be happy, sleep well, etc. And results will show! : ) Of course exersice will help, but just getting the healthy habit of regular small meals will help too.

There is also a cute website in many languages and a book for the diet with a cute character, called Asa Banako (朝バナ子), too cute~ And wallpapers for download:

The diet works for me in a way that it gives me satisfation that my eating habits are more regular and I eat breakfast, so I'm not starving myself 'till 1pm and then I don't over eat in the evening xD
When I was in Japan I also did the tofu diet (make one meal a day mostly about tofu) and cabbage diet, and I must say they are all delicious and easy to follow diets and they really work and help save moeny too. :) Unfortunately, in Poland, I can't buy fresh tofu, so I make my own tofu at home! But it's not enough to eat it everyday, so I just eat tofu because I love it, and do asa-banana diet! :3 It's also very easy to do this diet at work, eating a banana in office is non mesy and fast.
Are you on a diet of any kind? Which one and how's it going? :D

random FOTD and notes

I got to host an event yesterday and I was on stage in front of 200+ people and it was lots of fun! I don`t get stressed out by situations like this at this, especially when I know what I`m talking about, and this time I knew for sure. xD

Anyway, I wore fake lashes of course, the cross&volume type from eBay (what a deal!! 3$ for 10 pairs! And I love them!), Missha Oriental Herbs BB cream and Visee A-2 eyeshadow palette and MAC Azalea Blossom blush! :D My hair is no longer purple luckily, as the dye that caused the accident wasn`t permanent, phew!!

I ordered Estee Lauder`s Advanced Night Repair Eye Recovery Complex eye cream. I was promising myself a good eye cream for a while and decided to go with this one. I hope it works for me! You can read more about it here. We used to have this cream at home already and I liked it, but it was a long time ago and I this time bought my own. I mostly hope it will moisturize and help the dark circles which are really bad some days and help prevent wrinkles. I don`t want wrinkles yet!! D: I almost want to cry when I see girls my age (25) or younger with wrinkles from tanning or smoking or whatnot.

Other notes: The Vitacreme B12 cream is really working soo good imo!! It brightened my blemishes and after acne red marks and I really feel happier about my skin! Get it!!  I need to buy a gel eyeliner and eyeliner brush, can you recomend sth good? Also, Hadabisei sheet masks (blue and red) are really nice! lalalalalaaa

Keep your fingers crossed for me please, as I have one thing I really want to go well today!!!!!

PS. If you have free time read this page, I`ve been enjoying it lately~

want: Vivi 2010.05 issue!

So I've just ordered two JELLY issues, may Happie Nuts, Blenda and SCawaii, but... turns out I want even more magazines now! I want the new Vivi with hamasaki Ayumi on the cover!

Not only is it full of gorgeous spring clothes, but they also throw in this cuuuute little bag as a present!

ZOMG, that's adoribssss <33 8D

And they have my favourite Vivi model Marie all over this issue this time~ I love Marie! :D She looks great in her new hair color! She looks great in anything actually. 8D I love those fringe open toe boots! (*_*)

That's character!

So yeah, I think I will be definitely getting this one way or another. And the second magazine I really want to buy, mostly in hopes to be shocked and amazed, is EGG Beauty, Spring 2010 issue! It comes out 2 times a year and is mostly full of super detailed makeup instructions. And not just some makeup, crazy EGG gyaru makeup, that will take you like 2 hours and make you look like... well, like egg gyarus look! xD

With Kanako grinning like The Cheshire Cat on the cover lol

Ah, what's inside, curious & got to know! 8D

*and now back to work*

new: Sigma brushes

Other than the Viva Glam lipsticks I am sticking to my no (cosmetics) buy march, yay! But since I buy a lot of things online, orders from February are still arriving! This actually arrived a good couple days ago, but I was a bit busy, so I'm writing now.
I ordered the Face Kit Brushes from Sigma makeup. Honestly I think doing your makeup with brushes makes a HUGE difference! So it's worth investing in them, especially because they can last you years if you take good care of them. Anywhoo... I had just a random mix of some brushes from everywhere, and I thought it's time to start getting a nice collection! And actually I was only interested in face brushes now, honestly. So I got the face kit. Here's how it arrived:

very nicely packed and had leaflets about all their brushes

The Face Kit consists of:

- SS150 big powder brush

- SS190 flat liquid foundation brush

- SS 187 Duo Fiber brush (for foundations, blushes, etc. also called Skunk brush)

- SS168 Angled blush Brush

- SS194 Concealer Brush

I also got an eyeshadow brush as an extra gift, the promotion is still on their website, everyone gets it.

They really came in great packaging and they looked great. I won't make a full review just yet, because I've only been using them for a week or so, but so far I think they are rather good value for the money - not expensive at all. I am rarely using the concealer brush, because when I'm using concealer I just pat it into my skin with my fingers and the foundation flat brush is a bit small. I also have Missha flat foundation brush and it's a bit bigger, I dunno I guess I got used to it. Smaller one takes more time. I like the big size and softness of the powder brush, use it everyday! I also love loooove the angled blush brush! It's natural goat bristles and it's angled so it fits face's curves perfectly and is soooo soft and applies just a little bit of blush, so you can do a really super natural blush with this one. Of course you can apply more too if you want, I'm saying, it's practically impossible to harm yourself with this brush! If I could only get one brush, I would get this one! The duo fiber brush is really great for stippling on foundation. I was curious about stippling brushes for a while now and I got this one, tested it and now I'm thinking about getting another stippling brush! I like this one too, but I think it should be more dense!  The extra gift brush is very soft and cute, I like it.

Now there are some repeating complains in reviews, so I'll tell you how the brushes were for me. The ones I got don't shed a lot, except the big powder brush.... it sheds 4-6 hairs eveytime I use it and it's irritating as I'm finishing makeup with a bit of powder and I have to pick those brush hair of my face... D: But I guess, it will stop soon..? The other brushes don't shed at all. I washed them and the Duo Fibre brush bled a bit - when I washed it (with baby shampoo) and squeezed it to drain the water, it was gray, like the black bristles were losing color... :o So I dunno, this probably shouldn't be happening, but I like the Skunk brush a lot anyway! The stippling method really looks nice and it's so good for cream and powder blushes as well, because the white bristles are so soft. :D

So, that is my kind od initial impressions review. If you have any questions hit me and if you have those or other Sigma brushes (or other brushes), what would you recommend? Or what I should I stay away from?

You can buy those brushes here:



BTW, I ordered 2 x JELLY, Happie Nuts, Scawaii and BLENDA. XDDD Cured addiction my a**, lol.

new: MAC Viva Glam Gaga & Cindi

So here`s what I broke my no-buy-march resolution for....(￣_￣ i)
MAC Viva Glam lipsticks in Lady Gaga and Cindi Lauper! At least it`s for a good cause... right?? Here are my photos and swatches and I love both those lipsticks! They will be available for 1 year. ♡

The lipstick boxes have artists` signatures on them and the lipstick tubes have red deco.

Gaga and Cindi (click to zoom)

Time for swatches!

Right is only one sweep, left is heavier application, as you can see the color os completely buildable, from very sheer to very covering.

Swatches on lips. (I only put my skincare routine and some bb cream on my face, so my skin is shiny, but it`s not oil! I hope you are not disgusted! xD) The color made me think of summer and drinking sangria. It`s a red, but hmm like coral-red and a very natural one, as if you drank some sangria and the wine in it stained your lips a bit, kind od red. If you are not used to wearing red (like me), this would be a very good lipstick to start experimenting imo, as you can wear it very sheer and make it more intensive if you feel like it. ^^ Clickable photos. My natural lip color, one layer of Cindi and a couple layers of Cindi:

 

And now Gaga. Just one layer and then a couple layers. The pinkis so light and pale and pink-blueish in tone my camera changes the whole color settings xD But I hope you can see? (I`ll try to take a better photo!) I love this color!!! It`s like a plastic Barbie lips pink! And the lipsticks are LUSTRE finish, so they start from sheer and then you can build up and they have a glossy finish, they reflect the light nicely and basically you don`t really need a glos over them for a delicate shine. And they are soft like butter and it feels great on the lips. But at the same time, because they are so soft and glide on so easily, it`s easy to get excited and  apply it all over you face instead of your lips... xD (happened to me, it just glides on xD). So, no excited application, please. ;D The color is lovely!!

And an update on my current MAC lipsticks collection, love them all and use them in rotation! :D I also got my Sigma brushes face kit, and I will do a review on them after I use them for a while. The first impression is very good. After washing some of them got a bit frizzy, but nothing too dramatic. I brushed them and they are fine. Will update you on that soon~ (^ε^)♪

New issues of magazines I love, JELLY and Happie Nuts ^^

I used to be soo addicted to Ageha xD I got every issue and shipping from Japan to Europe is not cheap! :I And finally I cured my addiction, I was able to settle for online scans, I was so happy, but instead of completely curing myself, I just moved on into another addiction! xDD Now I buy every issue of Happie nuts and JELLY.... (=_=') But half of the time I ask my friends in Japan to send them to me, it's not that bad money-wise. And the magazines are pure love~ But this month I'm also tempted to buy Blenda and SCawaii, because they have my Miliyah on the cover.... ;)

Anyway, here are the new covers for may issues of Happie Nuts and Jelly, out today in Japan! ^^*

I love this HN cover! So simple and cute and sexy! Perfectly in HN's style! 

Hippie lookin' Maichi Mori Maya on the cover of JELLY. I've seen better, but inside is probably great, like always!

Are you getting any new magazines this month? Tomorrow new Ranzuki will be out and Vivi on the 20th and then all the rest on 1st. :)

BTW, I broke my no-buy-march resolution! I was tempted by MAC's Viva Glam lipsticks, I got both Gaga and Cindi and I love them... cause I was afraid they would sell out and then I would have to wait forever for my store to restock. But I will not buy any cosmetics 'till April now, I swear.

Also I had a hair dyeing accident and now my hair is gray-violet in a couple places instead of blonde, LOL!!! Need to go to the hair dresser or re-dye them myself soon. xD It's not really too visible, but I can see it. xD Oh well...  Anyway, I will post about Viva Glam lipsticks, but on the weekend, I have a new baito and other stuff on my shoulders, so I'm pretty busy!

BTW, here's a super cute dress from Scawai!

I want the whole outfit!

new: Vitacreme B12

I am always curious about new and/or hyped about products! So when I saw info about Vitacreme B12 somewhere I got really interested! They have a couple local official pages, like http://www.vitacremeb12.co.uk/ and the cream is supposed to be great for skin and patented "cutting edge" and high quality product. 

It promises:
- Skin Reconditioning
- Very significant reduction in the extent of the wrinkles and fold of the skin
- Improvement in skin elasticity
- Correction of the skin dryness
- On the individuals presenting light burns and dry skin, after several days of application ofVITACREME B12: rapid normalization, skin becoming supple, desquamation stopped. feeling of burning rapidly eased, suntan improvement, eperdimal moisture level re-established.
- On the individuals who showed burnt skin, wrinkled and peeling, gradual improvement of the smoothness of the skin, reduction of wrinkles, desquamation stopped, burns soothed.
- Of the individuals showing badly burned skin: after several days of treatment, no lesions remained. For the people who had applied VITACREME B12 in a preventative way: the treated areas remained soft and moist. No desquamation.


The main ingriedient is vitamin b12; and it`s properties are supposedly:
- Prevents premature wrinkling
- Reduces wrinkles and folds in the epidermis
- Improves skin elasticity
- Corrects epidermal dryness
- Smoothes or alleviates new or old scars
- Regenerates tissues after prolonged exposure to sun, wind or cold (mountain sea etc..)



A crazy long pic on the left with bits and pieces from asian magazines hyping over Vitacreme B12. It supposedly also helps with breakouts! 
Here are some reviews, from Shanghainese Dumpling and Soap of the Day blogs. One more review! People are comparing the cream to De La Mer, wow! Here is a page with ingriedients, sudgested face massage and history of the cream. The cream is supposedly popular over in Japan and Korea, especially after some celebrity said she loves this cream and it makes her skin so beautiful. But when I was in Japan I never heard of it... but I never read those hig end beauty magazines, so maybe that`s why I missed it? If you are in Japan or Korea tell me if it`s really a hit over there! 


There are 50ml of cream and the price is... well, the price is high! :o The canadian website sells it for 48cad, USA one for 36usd and the british webstore sells it for 20gbp... :o While some japanese stores on rakuten.co.jp sell it for as little as 1590yen, which is only 18usd!!! So of course I went shopping in Japan with a shopping service (namely my favourite http://i-tm4u.biz/, check them out and tell them I sent you!) I decided to get 2 creams at the same time and sell the other one if I didn`t like it. I just got it, and I applied it to my forehead and I still can`t review it only after one use, but it really feels like it relaxes my skin - not just the surface, it kind of feels like it relaxes muscles I didn`t know I was using - which I guess lead to wrinkles. :o The cream is pink! And it has a flowery scent, which I don`t mind, it`s not too strong, but I do prefer no fragrance creams!
My photos!

the packaging looks simple and "serious", I like it! It`s easy to use the cream all up with tubes like this.

english info

It`s even pinker in real life xD

And btw here is a bigger pic with massage instructions! You can use it with any cream, especially night cream, to remove puffiness and make your face look better! And it`s very relaxing too. ^^*

Anywhoo, I just got it, so I will be testing it from now. If you have questions or opinions about this cream let me know! 

Tutorial: fake lashes my style! (^ε^)♪

Here comes the fake lashes tutorial I promised~ I do custom lashes on top and cut up lower lashes, and really elongate the eye and make it tare-me, kind of droopy cute eye~ Here is a complete tutorial! Enjoy! And if you do this, make sure to comment and show me your results! (^ε^)♪
(all the photos are thumbnails! click on them and zoom up!)

☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*
Eyelashes and necessary stuff:

1. Decorative eyelash lower lashes - short cross type 2. Long cross type upper lashes, I got those from eBay for less that 3usd including shipping! Yay! They are very good, buy them! 3. Eyelash glue, of course! This is actually double eyelid glue, but it works perfectly as eyelash glue too and it`s cheap, so try it! 4. This is my DIY "currently in use" eyelashes container! Here are better photos of the lashes I will be using, you can of course use other lashes too.

 

And here is the general idea of what I like to do! Recently, when I wear fake lashes, I always wear them this style! It elongated the eye and creates a cute tare-me look! (* ´艸｀)

Our plan just for the fake lashes! 1. bare eye 2. glue on a full pair of upper lashes and cut another pair in half 3. glue the cut up in half eyelash to upper lid to create longer eye and add more volume to outer eye corner! 4. glue on cut up bottom lashes, leaving some space between each piece and between the lashes and real eyelash line! Simple, right? (●´ω｀●)ゞ So now lets do it!

☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*

Other items I will use. Visee eyeshadow palette in A-2. Eyelash curler, Rimmel Sexy Curves mascara, Dior waterproof eyeliner pencil, Majolica Majorca fluid eyeliner. And that`s it! (´∀｀)

 

☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*

Sa! Apply eyeshadow 1 all over the moving lid and eyeshadow 2 over it, for a nice natural sparkling eye, that looks very light - because our lashes will be heavy we want to keep the eyeshadow minimal. 1. is my bare eye  2. with the eyeshadows on:

Take the Dior eyeliner pencil and line carefully on your waterline (under the lashes) and a medium-thick line over lashes. Remember to also draw carefully between your lashes, so there are no non-black spaces left! It looks better this way!

Next step, always curl your lashes first, and then apply mascara to upper lashes (1.). Then looking at the all over balance, go over your pencil line with fluid eyeliner and elongate the line with a horizontal liner with sharp ending! (2.) I actually measured the over line I did and it`s 7-8mm longer than my real eye! (≧▽≦) My real eye is about 3,5cm btw, lol (noone`s interested xD)

1. Glue on the upper lashes! Make sure the size fits your eye, cut it a bit if necessary - I cut mine of course. It looks better if you cut the excess from the outer eye corner side! Here`s my eye with the normal upper lash on, open and closed and the eyelashes I put on:

Next glue on the upper lash cut in half! Make sure the longer lashes are closer to the outer eye corner! Opened and closed and again the lashes I put on!

When the glue dries completely, go over the eyelash band with the fluid liner once again to hide the glue and make it look better and more mergerd with your own lashes! (＾ε＾) And now the upper eyelid is completely done! Next, this is how I do the bottom lash! Apply eyeshadow 4. to lower lid, but only to the 2/3 of the lid, do not apply any dark eyeshadow close to the inner eye corner! Next apply mascara to lower lashes!

Now lets apply the lower lashes!!!! (*≧▽≦*) Cut the lower lash into ~5 pieces, I only use 4 here! And glue them on from outer eye corner first. It`s important to leave some space between your own lashline and the fake lashes, for the tare-me effect. And also the lashes close to the outer eye corner should be pointed down, and the closer to middle of the eye, the more horizontal should the lashes` angle be. (Is my explanation making sense? xD) Anyway, look at the balance and glue them slowly thinking about the position and angle! v(^-^)v

Here`s the final effect! (Sorry for my eyebrows, I`m growing them out to bleach them, I only lightly lined them, haa~) I like to keep the eyeshadows natural, but you can use gray/black eyeshadow for a more dramatic look or draw a longer line and glue the lashes even more outside your real eyelash line! ヽ(゜▽、゜)ノ That would be nice for a rock fashion, etc!

TADAAAAAAAAAM! :*:・(￣∀￣)・:*:*:..｡o○☆ﾟ･:,｡*:..｡o○☆ The final effect!

This is really how I do my fake lashes every time I wear them recently! I love the long and tare-me effect~ And even though it looks super stupid, here is the before - after photo, as I only have one eye done and the other one is my natural eye... lol, ah the magic of makeup!♡ See how longer and bigger my madeup eye seems?!

I love the head scarf trend! Will look for longer scarved to make a cute big ribbon! :D

This scarf is a present from my sister, she bought it in Korea and the design is actually all made with hangeul letter! :)

So, that`s it! I`m looking forward to everybody`s comments and show me photos if you copy this style! Hugs!

My MAC collection - march 2010

Since I got my dazzleglasses and I will not be buying any cosmetics `till April, I thought it would be fun to make a collection post. This will be my MAC cosmetics collection, here`s everything I own!

Here a couple thoughts about MAC. I don`t have much MAC cosmetics, obviously! ;) I really like what I have though and buy only things I will really use a lot. I don`t think there is a point in collecting cosmetics just for the sake of collection them, I want to use them, wheter it`s a limited edition, or not, if I ain`t going to use it, I just won`t buy it. ;) I`m not really convinced I need their eyeshadows, I prefer either high brands for almost the same price or japanese eyeshadows, `cause they are very good and I am influenced by gyaru magazines. ;D (But if there is a must-have MAC eyeshadow let me know! I will check it out.) I have many blushes, so I don`t think I need more from MAC... Uhmm, I will be getting makeup done by MAC makup artist, so we`ll see if I like sth then, but I do have hots for their fake lashes... I also want to try the moisturising compact foundation spf15 (why so low? more spf please!). I really like the lip liner pencils from Too Fabulous collection, but they are so expensive here! The only thing I know I will be getting for sure from MAC in the future is Viva Glam lipsctick Gaga (and maybe Cindy).

With the disclaimers done, here`s my MAC collection. Which I love. ^^*

I think this is all the MAC stuff I own. ^^

Face stuff: MSF Porcelain Pink and two blushes from Spring Colour Forecast collection (from march 2010), Blush Ombre in Ripe Peach and Azalea Blossom! I love all of them, and I`ve been using blush ombres every day since I bought them and I use the MSF on the C line to just highlight my cheekbone and brow bone. :D

This is my Select Moisturecover concealer in NC20, which I came to really like after a while. It gives a reasonable coverage and has a nice powdery finish and the color works really well with my skintone. I like to carry it around in my bag for touch ups when I go out, it works great and looks so natural! :3 (It saved my life and good mood once, when surprise snow storm melted my mascara and turned me into a panda... D: Thanks Select Moisturecover! ;) The small containers are MAC pigment samples. I bought them from a trusted seller after consulting girls from an online forum, so I am 100% sure they are original (hate buying fakes and refuse to!). After testing them I can say I`m not a big pigment fan, but at least I tried them and now I know. ;) I got: push the edge, kitschmas, melon, lovely lily, milk (from Hello Kitty collection), naked, pink bronze and golden lemon pigments. My favorite was definitely naked! Great as a base or jsut for a super natural look, slightly shimmery nudy color = really lovely. But I still wouldn`t buy a full size, I`d never use it up. :o And the black jar is MAC gel eyeliner, in Blacktrack. Ooooh, I love it! When you get used to gel liners, they are fast and easy to use! (I also like to line my water line with it when I`m wearing fake lashes!) I use a Missha eyeliner brush with it.

This photo is out of focus, sorry. Lip stuff from MAC! ^^* Two dazzleglasses, Moth to Flame and Baby Sparks, which is actually a re-buy. And my nudy lipstick! Creme Cup, Myth and Siss! :D Looooove them all and especially Myth looks wicked with dazzleglasses! :D Soon Gaga will join them. :3

So, that is my small MAC collection! Maybe I should do an update in 6 months and see how it changes. If you have any comments or advice, let me know! v^^*