Holika Holika Pig Nose Three Step Kit First Impression and Review

Unless you're counting a Skin79 BB Cream and a PeriPera lip tint I got, I really haven't gotten to try Korean cosmetics or skin care things. I've heard so many people say good things about them so I did decide to give it a try. I ended up going on the cheaper end and I saw Holika Holika had something for a dollar so I grabbed at it, Holika Holika has always been pretty appealing to me in terms of make-up and skin care. Not because I know what the products are like but because they have interesting ways of marketing and packaging their products. I've always wanted to try Holika Holika and here was my chance. 

I ended up trying the Pig Nose Three Step Kit~ 

Three Steps in Detail: 

This product is supposed to clean your pores of any type of dirt/black heads and also minimize your pores. Unfortunately I don't have good quality pictures to really show you plus I think taking pictures of my nose are pretty gross regardless of results. SO I will be telling you about it instead and showing you a first impression video (ew me make up less). 

First off I did no research on how to use this product and the instructions were in Korean. So you will definitely see me in the video fiddling with the product a little bit because I had no idea what was what. The first step felt like a deep toner. It wasn't as harsh as my Neutrogena toner that I use but there was definitely a sting there. And you know what they say, if it hurts? It's working. It didn't look at my nose beforehand to see if it was dirty but it seems like it wasn't. Nothing came off onto any of the pads at all. I had just cleaned my face before filming because you should probably be doing this with a clean face. My cleanser is the Biore Charcoal Cleaner that is also supposed to be for pores, so maybe that is why!

The second step was a pore strip. I did not know what was was... It wasn't a super sticky pore strip at all which was confusing and made me thing that I needed to peel that bit too! The pore strips I have experienced in the past are pretty sticky so this was like...a milder form of that. Eventually as you'll see in the video, I figured out what was what and figured out to put it on my nose. It kind of had an herbally scent? Maybe things that are good for your skin? It also had a slight warming effect which was interesting.

Peeling it off wasn't as bad as other pore strips I've encountered, It was a slight pull but it wasn't like peeling duct tape off your skin. The third step was a little confusing because there was a white strip and then a gel strip. I assume you use the gel strip and I'm not exactly sure what it did but I'm assuming it's like a face mask but for your nose. It's probably adding moisture back in after peeling things away and cleaning it out with the last two steps. 

End results: 

The end results were really nice. I don't think I had any black heads or anything to begin with but it did minimize my super huge pores sufficiently. Which was great. Usually I have to use a pore filler before applying concealer and foundation for my face but when I placed on my make up the next day there wasn't huge holes in my foundation.

Verdict: 

I really like this product! It did exactly what it had claimed. It really makes me want to try out more Korean Skincare products and Korean

Cosmetics as well. I'm really interested in trying a ton of stuff out now! This was super well priced and I would definitely purchase again. Hopefully soon I'll be able to purchase some more Holika Holika or other Korean make-up or skin care brands. 

Video:

So here is the first impression video... It's more of a reaction video if anything. I was very very wary of posting it up because this is the first time I've ever posted myself on the internet with a totally bare face with no make-up. For this product though, I needed to have a clean face and you can't exactly do that when you have a full face of make-up on. That would be silly. Yes my skin isn't the greatest and hasn't been so I'm very very self conscious but here is the video... If you can't tell from this, I place A LOT of effort into my make-up artistry for other videos or even for pictures/going out. It's a long process but it is a process that I am proud of. I do hope this video helps you guys who want to try this Three Step Kit out. I included all the mistakes I made and everything just so people would know what not to do. Haha enjoy you guys!!

Lush Product Haul and Review: Bathbombs and Shimmy Shimmy Bar

Hello lovelies! I'm back once again with a bit of a product/brand review on something that I've mentioned quite a bit on the blog before and happens to be my newest obsession. This obsession happens to be over bath and body products-this one being Lush! I stumbled across Lush during the holiday season and realized that the bathbombs make great little small Christmas gifts. So I bought a couple for the family (the holiday limited edition ones) and the Sakura Bathbomb for myself insisting that this was for occasions only. The cool thing about Lush is that it is natural and vegan for those of you who are concerned about it being that and cruelty free. Their products are handmade. They do everything from bath salts, lotions, to skin care and body glitter infested lotions. I've been on kind of 
a fix. 

*~BATHBOMBS~*

This is where I was wrong however! First off the bathbombs smell GREAT. You don't even have to use them for the bathtub, you can place them in your room or closet and it will smell up your whole room. The scents of this stuff is amazing. I almost didn't want to throw them into the tub because then my room wouldn't smell nearly as nice. 

Now these bathbombs are quite pricey for just one use admittedly. I kind of wish they'd come in little sets of minis that do the same thing for the tub but maybe not be as much of a waste. I try to soak in the tub for as long as I possibly can while putting on a sheet mask for a full pampering effect.

Every time I get out of the tub not only do I *smell* amazing but my skin feels so much softer. I feel less sore and feel a lot more refreshed. 

I've used two bathbombs so far! 

Sakura Bathbomb:

I ADORE this bathbomb. Now I've always had a thing for Bath and Body Work's "Japanese Cherry Blossom" which is why I tried this out but this is nothing like that. It's not woody scented or as strong. This smells exactly like spring. I'm not sure if you'd say that it is a really sakura blossom smell but it is quite floraly. 

This one doesn't do too much to the water admittedly at all. You water turns out being kind of a milky color to then clear so it doesn't do nearly as much as the fancier ones but I have an appreciation for this bathbomb and it's kind of been a regular purchase when I have hit up Lush. 

Space Girl:

Space Girl was my first "fancy" bathbomb from Lush. I liked it because it had gorgeous flecks of silver glitter in it and kind of reminded me of Sailor Saturn from Sailor Moon. It's purple with a splash of red and has a much stronger scent than the Sakura Bathbomb.

However this scent in my honest opinion smells super sweet and like berries. It made my room smell flipping amazing. 

As for dropping this into the water it turns the water a deep red color. Now I hear this can vary. I've heard of people's bomb turning purple but mine turned the blood of my enemies as shown here. There were also really awesome flecks of sparkling glitter in the tub but it wasn't like..obnoxious or affected the bath in any type of way. 

A question I got was whether or not the red dye stained the tub? No. It didn't. There was no glitter remains either! Yet again it left my skin feeling super soft!

*~SHIMMY SHIMMY BAR~*

This is the other product that I tried. I'm not sure if it's considered one of their 'massage bars' or not but it really has a pretty scent of coco butter which is amazing. I saw Michelle Phan and XiaXue's video on their Lush haul from way back a long time ago and they were using the bronzing bar. So I went into Lush to see what it was and if it was nice. 

Unfortunately I'm too pale for that one but the sale's lady then showed me the Shimmy Shimmy bar which was light and had flecks of glitter in it. I have a weakness for glitter and this was an awesome alternative to body glitter. Plus it smelled super good!

Here is the swatch of how it looks on skin! I think it looks really pretty! I'm shocked my iPhone 4 quality pictures actually was capable of picking up the specks of glitter and show the shimmer.

In all I highly recommend Lush for the days where you just want to spoil and pamper yourself. I really want to try out more things from them like their skin care and all. Maybe one day!  All their products so far are kind of a guilty indulgence of mine and make me feel a bit like a princess. 

*~First Post of the New Year~* Fashion Progression and Life

Hello lovelies! This will be the first post of 2015, and while 2014 was a clusterfuck of things, I'm happy to say that 2015 has started off on a well well thought-out, optimistic, and productive start. While I personally didn't do a lot over the holiday season I did go out just a little bit and splurged on a couple of items as Christmas gifts for myself! I'm actually still waiting for a couple small cute things to come in the mail. 

So I'll probably do more indepth reviews on the things I've purchased but this is going to be more of a generalized entry just for some personal things like where I'm at in terms of J-Fashion or things I am into. 

FIRST OFF Christmas? What did I do on Christmas? Absolutely nothing. I potato'd around since work had sufficiently slowed down a shit ton thanks to less of a holiday rush. I work at a make-up store but in the middle of nowhere so people coming in and there being lines at the register have slowed down quite a bit. But that also means everything that I had to rush and skip over in terms of learning can now properly be learnt. This is my first full on retail job-before this I worked for a kid's party place and a seasonal retail job that didn't last long at all. So this hopefully will be a job that lasts for a bit. But because it's slowed down a bit (yay more time to rest but boo less bank rolling in) I have been able to actually go out and do things or just buy small little things for myself with the money I have left over after paying bills.

 For Christmas I went out to eat at Texas Road House (ew it was no good) just to say that I actually went somewhere on Christmas. I end up partially wearing agejo-esque clothing out. I didn't pop in lenses at all which while that might seem odd for the rest of you-this is typically how I look out in my home town somewhat. I really don't get to throw in lashes or circle lenses as often as I would like. Usually I only go out for work or errands. Never leisure. Leisure is for everywhere but where I live. But lately in terms of gyaru fashion I've noticed that my style has simplified a bit and that it's matured. Don't get me wrong I super love flashy prints and bling and florals. Hell that's what got me into gyaru but I've noticed that I've worn a lot of lace and solids.

My Christmas Eve outfit was a simple white throw over dress with less at the edges with Yumetenbo thigh boots (I highly suggest everyone own a pair of thigh high boots, they seriously make or break an outfit) and a leather fur trimmed jacket. My eye make-up was slightly Namie Amuro inspired since I decided not to throw in lashes or circle lenses. I'm realizing I can't wear bows in my hair like I used to...

On the actual day of Christmas I spent it with the lovely fellow gyaru babe in crime Jobi~ It was mainly just girl talk and Denny's shenanigans but it was really fun getting to catch up with her and just have some really deep girl talk with someone who I seriously look up to and have a lot in common with in terms of hobbies. Getting to know each other beyond just the convention life and all was really great~

I can always learn a lot from her!


As for Christmas gifts? I bought myself some! First of was the Ageha Memorial issue which I will make a totally separate post about just explaining the goodness of this magazine! I was pretty thrilled to get it because I seriously love Koakuma Ageha so much and I was seriously sad when I couldn't get the last issue. So now I have both EGG and Ageha's accumulation issues which makes me pretty satisfied. 

Other things I bought were a Sakura bathbomb from Lush and later on MORE bath bombs (I will be doing a huge Lush post in a bit so no worries, I'll go into detail later) lacey nail stickers for french tips, a Holika Holika pore strip thingie (curious to see how well that's going to work), Ageha eye lashes (they're not here yet but once again for sure expect a review!),  and last but not least I bought myself my first Gold's Infinity dress! I was super excited to get it and I actually haven't seen any other person wear this dress.

I eventually wore it on a day out with Jett, Jobi, and Sara in San Jose. For this look I seriously went all out in hopes of really trying to look agejo. I really love the detailing on the Gold's Infinity dress first of all. The cut is a baby doll cut which everyone insists makes my chest look huger (wth guys), the color is a beautiful mint green, the dress has pleats in the chest area and blinged out studs, in the middle of is a detachable mirror like brooch, and on the back there's a dainty gold chain with a heart charm. The cut, color, and acessories are all really attracted me to this dress. It was too cute to pass up and was on sale.

As for how I coordinated it, this was clearly a spring/summer collection dress on clearance and I didn't exactly know how to make it winter appropriate at first. I knew how I wanted to wear this in the summer but for the winter I wasn't so sure. I eventually decided yet again on the trusty thigh boots to keep my legs warm-because they were black I attached a black belt around in the middle just so there would be some type of color matching going on. Jett kept insisting it looked like a mature Bubbles from the Powerpuff Girls! What do you guys think? Is he right? LOL Jobi and Sara totally agreed on it too. 

As for make-up I had no qualms about mixing palettes for some serious romantic gold shades. On my eyes I'm wearing Urban Decay's Amo Palette's 'Sin' as a base with 'Chopper' as a transition color. On the outer corner for shimmer I used Naked 3's 'Trick' eye shadow-I also used this under the eye as well and then for the crease color I used a combination of 'Factory' and 'Darkside' to make my eyes look wider. I also used the corner on the outer end of my lower eye for some added definition. I used Brigette cream eye shadow in white to bring out light into my eyes and over that I applied the Dollywink Lame Shadow pen in 'white' for added affect. Liner wise I used the Urban Decay Heavy Metal Glitter eye liner in 'Midnight Cowboy' for a really glitter fairy like affect and to compliment the dress I used a limited edition Mac Fluidline eye liner in 'Sassy Moss' for the lower eye line for a pop of color. Finally I used Dollywink eye liner in black for a precise line.

I'm wearing both Diamond Lash falsies both upper and lower for a full doll-like look. As usual I'm sporting Princess Mimi's in Sesame Grey for a super gyaru look thanks to a flawless color transition and thick limbal ring on the outer edges. As for the glowing skin? All NARS face productions. I'm wearing the Sheer Glow foundation in Monte Blanc (second lightest color shade), using TokiDoki high lighter underneath two shades of NARS blush with are both Angelika and Super Orgasm..for a pigmented color I sprayed my blush brush in MAC Fix+ spray to before dipping my brushes into the pan for a dewy glow. For a finished look I also added a second high lighter color-NARS Liquid Illuminator in Super Orgasm. As for lip color I'm wearing Mac's Angel and for gloss Bridgette lipgloss in Nude.

Inspiration was between Shizuka Mutou and Tsubasa Masuwaka... I think it was a good inbetween!

As for my trip with the lovelies? It was a lot of fooding and boba! Jett and I pregamed boba before picking up Sara at TapEx. I got a peach tea with pudding and jellies with some takoyaki that I killed in the car because yet again, I am a piggy like that and we had to stall for about an hour. I can never get enough of TapEx and it's a good half way point when Jett and I are needing to stall before hitting SF or San Jose. 

We eventually picked up Sara in San Jose and hit the little plaza where Mitsuwa is. Our ramen of choice was Kahoo Ramen. This happens to be Jett and Sara's favorite place. Personally I'm bigger on Santouka butttt it's because I am a HUGE broth snob. Kahoo kind of tastes islandy? I dunno how to explain it but regardless it's pretty good. Oddly I think they have a bit of a kick to their broth...? There's always a big ass line outside of the place and a wait time so that for sure tells you how good it is. Me being dressed the way I was ended up for sure warming the hell up after that broth! Here's their terrified faces while we wait outside in that long line!!!

After warming up with soup we hit Mitsuwa. Sara raided mochi cream for some type of roll? I'm not exactly sure what but I think if I hit there on a weekend that I will have to see what's so good about that roll. 

As for myself every time I hit Mitsuwa (every single effing time now) because I never really raid that area often-I always go for the beauty section. Every now and then they will have those limited edition

special sets of Dollywinks. What I mean by this is Dollywinks that already come with a full size of glue for the price of just the eye lashes or better yet a third pair of eye lashes in them. Regardless, it's a super good deal and I never can find something like that anywhere else so I usually grab for them. The glue this time was purple? New packaging or just limited edition? Not sure but I like the cute purple better than the bright pink but it ALMOST made me think that the glue was black. I was so relieved when I figured out that the glue was clear. 

Snack section had Melty blends and I grabbed at them because I never see them. When I do though it's such a huge haul or just a lot of money spent on just chocolate. LOL Kinokuniya lacked recent Popteens and Kera's so thankfully I didn't spent more cash than I needed to. However I DID find a really cute Blue Rose alpaca in the midst of a bunch of Tiger and Bunny alpacas. I really wanted it but it was 23.00. TAT That's actually a super good deal for an alpaca but I just COULD NOT justify it. haha

Afterward we shortly met up with Jobi at the mall nearby. Parking was a fucking nightmare. I never ever saw it that bad. Ever. FML 

So we only got to see Jobi for a first time but I did share a new experience with the ladies by hitting the very popular/controversial/overly talked about Brandy Melville. There are only two stores in the Bay Area. One in San Jose in a mall and one in SF that isn't in a mall and kind of far. So I thought while we were here I would see what all the hype was about.. The store was definitely Sara's style too and I was in search for a specific necklace and a black cardigan. 

First off their clothes are incredibly basic. Don't let that hinder you because these clothes are made to drape a certain way so they will actually look better on you probably than on the hanger. The material is also very very soft-you're paying for the fabric of choice. What's controversial about this store is it is one size fits all. I can see where this can be a huge problem because let's face it, not everyone is one size. But being into Japanese fashion the way I am, I'm so used to one size fitting from things like Liz Lisa, ma*rs, Baby the Stars Shine Bright, ect that I'm not too offended by it. It's easy for me to say though because I do fit... because these clothes aren't hugely detailed though you can find alternatives. It's not you're paying for the uniqueness. Just the quality and draping affect.

Brandy Melville is very 90s-esque in terms of style. This is easily identified by the crop tops, plastic tattoo chokers, and thin horizontal striped t-shirt dresses. In all the store was super cute. A bit pricey but I'd like to own a couple pieces just because of exactly what I explained. I'm actually fond of 90s fashion. Some pieces I swear looked like they just came out of "The Craft". 

In the end I just ended up purchasing a 'Fuck You' neckace that was on a heart pendant. It was very smartass and everyone insisted it was very much so me. I'm slightly afraid of it being super offensive or there being small children around but....oh wells. The deed was done! My friend Tammy just visited this weekend that passed and went there and ended up buying the same exact necklace. SO now we match.

Afterward we ended up hitting Forever21 and browsing a bit. Jobi ended up having to leave early however we ended up taking a super cheerful bright selca that imma show you and steal from her because its the only picture that we have of us all! It was super silly and I loved how bright and happy everyone looks! Like Jobi captioned it 'we have reached unicorn status'.

Afterward we browsed around in a couple places but honestly for us all, the mall was super crowded and overwhelming. So we ended up leaving and headed back to the Mitsuwa plaza for boba. I ended up getting Tea Station's hot honey dew milk tea with boba to go. For a chilly night like that it was so perfect. It's one of my favorite drinks from Tea Station! Milk tea hot is by far the best!

We dropped Sara off eventually because she was tired and went on over to downtown San Jose just to chill and hang out. To our surprise there was a carnival going on in the downtown area and we were a bit bummed that we weren't with a huge group of people to pressure us to brave the cold and walk around in it because otherwise we weren't going to.

Jett and I ended up chilling for a bit in the very empty convention center where Fanime takes place to warm up and charge phones and shit. Everyone was at SacAnime Winter that weekend so we ended up bothering them a bit and just talking. Eventually we trekked over to Pizza my Heart for dinner and basically ended our night there because we couldn't figure out what else to do without being incredibly cold or stuffing our faces.

It was an interesting winged out trip for the most part but very fun!

Here's the little haul. YES there's a lot of Lush...

And that's mainly been my outings transitioning into last year to this year. It's kind of surreal how much things have changed in such a weird span of time. Even my style is changing a bit. Anyway hopefully soon I will be updating with a couple of product/brand reviews. I for sure want to talk about the amazingness that is Lush and also gush over how great the Koakuma Ageha Memorial magazine is! Plus I have some Dollywink and Ageha eyelashes to try out so stay tuned!!!