Some Favorites

As sort of a baseline, I thought I'd list a few of my favorite products. These are the ones I use the most consistently. I'm not including pictures or much in the way of commentary, but for some of these products I intend to come back to them later and write up an actual review.

Eye shadows:
Business natural: Cover Girl Eye Enhancers #265, "Sheerly Nudes"
Shiny natural: Urban Decay "Midnight Cowboy Rides Again" or Sephora "carine no. 26" (they look really similar to me) and Sephora "californian blonde no. 10"
Silver: Sephora "engagement ring no. 01" (the only silver that doesn't look too dark on my skin)
Lavenders (one of my favorite eye shadow colors): Tarina Tarantino Eyedream Highlight Duo "Iris Plume" and "Moon Opal"

Eyes etc.:
Waterproof mascara: Maybelline the Hyper Curl Volum'Express Waterproof Mascara
Non-waterproof mascara: Maybelline Volum'Express Turbo Boost Mascara
Makeup remover: Maybelline Express Care
Under eye concealer: L'Oréal Bare Naturale gentle mineral concealer
Eye shadow primer: Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Brand of false eyelashes: D.U.P.
Eyelash glue: D.U.P. Eyelashes Glue Rubber Type #501
Cream eyeliner: Sephora Waterproof Smoky Cream Liner
Pencil eyeliner: Vivid & Smooth Liner by Eyestudio

Lipsticks:
Long-lasting lip gloss: Lime Crime Carousel Gloss "Cherry on Top" and "Candy Apple"
Bright lip gloss: Revlon Color Burst Lip Gloss #20 (papaya)
Pink lipstick: Maybelline Water Shiny Volumy #004
Purple-pink (mauve?) lipstick: Maybelline Water Shiny Volumy Pearl #107
Wine red lipstick: Maybelline Water Shiny Pure #209
Orange-red lipstick: Revlon Color Burst Lip Butter #35
Orange lipstick: Lime Crime "My Beautiful Rocket"

You can probably see that I favor Maybelline for most things. I don't have a very specific reason for this, other than that they seem to offer a lot of colors that I like. Also, I'm finding that it's one of the easier brands to get in Japan. Most all drug stores here carry Maybelline, but only a few stores I know of have Revlon or Cover Girl. For lipsticks, all I really care about is the color. I like bright colors, so any brand with really vivid shades is good with me.

Well, those are most of my absolute favorites. I intend to come back to the Lime Crime lip glosses because they are amazing and deserve a lot more commentary than what I'm providing here. Look forward to it!

Fun with false eyelashes: the butterfly wings

Recently I bought a set of ridiculously large false eyelashes. The brand is Kosé Cosmeport, and the style is Anmiel type 200: cute. I bought them in Japan, the home of psychotic false eyelashes. Well, maybe Japan doesn't have a monopoly on crazy eyelashes, but I'd say they've got a pretty damn good selection.

Due to the extreme length of the lashes at the outer corners, this set reminds me of butterfly wings. And I guess they'd be pretty good for butterfly kisses, since you wouldn't even have to get your face all that close. I measured them, and at the outer corner they're about 1.5 centimeters long. They come 2 sets to a package, but my photo only shows one set because the other pair is on my face.

Anmiel type 200: cute

I'm not an expert at putting on false eyelashes, so they may be a little wonky in the next few photos, but it should give a general idea of what these lashes look like on a face. I used D.U.P. Eyelashes Glue Rubber Type (#501), which is my favorite eyelash glue. I find it sticks well, but is easy to peel off afterward. Other makeup I am wearing: some old peach eye shadow,  Smashbox eye shadow in "Torch" (orange), Sephora Smoky cream liner in "Must Have" (black),  Maybelline Water Shiny Milky lipstick shade OR615 (Nude Orange, I think), and Maybelline Volum'Express Turbo Boost Mascara in Jet Black. Eye shadows and eyeliner purchased in the U.S., lipstick and mascara purchased in Japan.

Here's the overall look from a distance. I don't look too crazy, but let's just take a closer look...

Okay, looking a bit more dramatic now. Nice thing about wearing giant eyelashes is that you can wear brighter/more intense eye shadow and it doesn't look out of place. Keep zooming in...

GAH! Okay, that is pretty crazy. Let's see what they look like from the top:

Yeah, really freaking long. Still, I've had them on for an hour or two now, and I'm finding them just as comfortable as the more natural false lashes I've tried. Although they're freakishly long, they aren't particularly distracting in my peripheral vision, maybe because they have a bit of curl to them. I wear contact lenses, so when I first put the lashes on they kind of seemed to make my contacts move around a bit on my eye, and I was blinking more than normal. But now I've adjusted and I'm not having any trouble with them.

I can't really think of any situations where I would wear these, but I actually do rather like the effect. Very doll-like. I figure they're more appropriate for a particular Japanese style, and wouldn't really look that good with the sort of clothes I wear on a day to day basis. But I might consider wearing them out at night or to a club if I wanted to look especially doe-eyed. I think the packaging says something about making the eyes look more round (I can only read a little Japanese), and that's not really a concern with me. My eyes are pretty large and round, I'd say. But I'll be keeping these lashes around until I find a suitable opportunity to try them outside the house.

Side note about the incidental makeup: The orange lipstick I'm wearing was kind of a surprising find in that most major brands don't make that color. I'd previously bought some orange lipstick from Lime Crime ("My Beautiful Rocket"), and they're similar in color. The Lime Crime lipstick is much higher pigment and has a nicer smell (marshmallows!), and is slightly more orange-orange. The Maybelline stuff is a little more reddish, but still a fairly true orange. I think I prefer the Lime Crime lipstick, but the Maybelline is good to have on hand in that I'd be less afraid to carry it in my purse on a hot day. Apparently high pigment lipsticks are softer and more liable to melt, and I would hate to ruin my Lime Crime lipstick (and my purse) by exposing it to hot weather. Maybe later I'll do a direct comparison of the two lipsticks.