The Boyfriend is currently in Japan on vacation with his bachelor mates. I thought about tagging along, but I would have stuck out like a sore thumb. With Stephie still in Europe, I feel a little left behind this few days. But there’s a silver lining to every dark cloud, and in this case, it’ll be how the Boyfriend will be able to help me get cute Japanese cosmetics! 
Yesterday, I was frantically doing research on what there is to buy in Japan. Most people told me to grab some of their cosmetics because there are so much good stuff to be had in that department. So I googled around and found A Touch of Blusher. PJ from the UK is obviously enamored with Japanese cosmetics because she writes so much about them, which is really helpful for my purpose!
Going through her extremely well put-together lists of Japanese make-up and skincare (she even has a special All about Japanese Cosmetics category), I discovered Japanese drugstore brands that looks incredibly pretty! And they are supposedly really good – they totally changed my mindset regarding shelf-top cosmetics (I don’t use them very much).
Here are my favourites:
Love Clover
The packaging for Love Clover products is irresistible for me because it is always ultra-girlie and dreamy. Like something you’ll find on a princess’ vanity!
I’d email PJ regarding these PonPonCheek from Love Clover face powder/blusher, and she replied really promptly. I will be getting this – hopefully the Boyfriend will be able to find it!
I’m really tempted to get their compact and loose powder too. I mean, how adorable are those powder puffs with the lace?!
Lavshuca
I have a thing for how my lipstick looks. If the packaging is beautiful, it scores a lot of bonus points with me and I’m usually sold. Yes, I’m aware that I’m superficial 
I will buy these lippies from Lavshuca just to look at them.
I may be going to Japan in a few months time myself 
I suspect I will go quite crazy over these when I’m there (and these will make perfect presents for my girlfriends!). Must remember to have extra packing space…
Dreaming of the Land of Cute (Girls + Makeup),
Dottie
13 Comments
May 15, 2008 at 7:55 pm
wowza the packaging is almost better than the actual makeup!
May 15, 2008 at 10:15 pm
u can try Majolica Majorca. The packaging is soo cute and the effect is good. On par with Lavshuca. They have soo many things at the drug store, that I think ur bf will have to spend quite some time searchign for what u wanted
However, if im not wrong, LC could not be bought from normal drugstore, for i could not find those somehow. If im not wrong, it is available at a place called Plaza. But im not too sure.
May 16, 2008 at 12:01 am
Hi Sam
Thanks a lot for the tip! I will definitely tell my Boyfriend what you told me – hopefully he have an idea of where ‘Plaza’ is. And I will make him ask around until he find it LOL
Selina: They’re lovely! Oh, and I still owe you an email about Copenhagen! Sorry am so tied up right now. Will do so soon!
May 16, 2008 at 2:45 am
I don’t wear makeup (apart from the odd foray into red lipstick), but these are tempting- they’re so pretty I’d buy them as trinkets to strew around my study table, if nothing else!
May 16, 2008 at 10:41 am
Kawaii packaging kills me every time.
May 16, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Do you use eyeliner? I know that the_kitten loves K-Palette Tattoo Eyeliner because it lasts really the whole day.
In general I like to try out various make up but I’m very lazy to put it everyday on my face. I live with my kajal, mascara and eyeshadow in brown, that’s all
May 16, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Hi Fruchtzwerg
I am also pretty minimalist regarding my makeup regime (although I’m completely taken by the Jap ones that I wrote about in this post). I like eye-liner, but don’t wear it regularly simply because I’m too lazy in the morning.
Things I wear every day will just a little of the Chanel Matte Lumiere liquid foundation, Benefit blusher and lipstick/gloss. I use mascara regularly as well, but I usually take a break from that every few days cos I have this great paranoia is making my lashes drop extensively
I didn’t want to get my bf to buy too much for me because I will most likely be going there myself later this year
So, to minimize him getting the wrong colour etc., I shall just have him buy me the PonPonCheeks 
May 17, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Minimalists are great
What kind of blusher are you using from Benefit? I just starting with blushers and mine is by Mac, which is great. Once somebody from Benefit had done a make up on me with the peachy blusher, which also nice. It’s hard for me to handle the liquid blush because I’m afraid of looking strange and failing the intended effect.
Oh, you’re gonna fly to Japan this year? That sounds fantastic! I wished I could go back to Japan as well.
May 17, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Hi Fruchtzwerg
I’m using Dandelion from Benefit – it can actually be an all-round face powder, but I use it as a blusher. Stephie and quite a number of our friends use it as well
But it is not exactly peachy. Its definitely a cool pink. I’d never use anything but a powder blusher, so I don’t know about the liquid kind. However, I did hear that Benetint from Benefit (a lip and cheek stain) is not bad.
As for Japan, I am quite sure I will be going later this year. On the other hand, it is a work trip, and I foresee I will be super busy so I do not know if I will get the time to shop around or do anything fashion-related.
And you’d been to Japan?
You used to live there or something like that? I’m really curious, so tell me about it!
October 6, 2008 at 3:33 pm
[...] really dying to get my hands on those cute Japanese cosmetics I wrote about previously, so if you have any idea where I can get them, please give me details! In [...]
October 30, 2008 at 12:37 am
Another great blog devoted to Japanese brands is rougedeluxe.blogspot.com.
Shiseido Majolica Majorca just hit our shores; do check the brand out.
I wrote about it here: http://www.makeupstash.com/2008/10/majolica-majorca-in-singapore-at-last.html
=)
April 15, 2009 at 7:58 pm
This is quite a hot information. I’ll share it on Delicious.
June 7, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Hi Dottie, a great Japanese cosmetics / skincare blog I go to is A touch of blusher http://atouchofblusher.blogspot.com/ the blog owner PJ is really friendly and she gives great advice on Japanese cosmetics and skincare