This is the second Hada Labo product I bought from my recent Adambeauty haul. I also bought the tamagohada AHA+BHA Cleansing Foam which I haven’t used yet.

It took one brand – Hada Labo – for me to get back into the whole BB Cream (or, what I consider to be, tinted moisturizer) fad again.

Oh, SkinFood. It’s my favourite Korean beauty fix of late; since I had gone cruelty free, I had sworn off a few of my favourites – Sulwhasoo, Isa Knox, The History of Whoo, etc. But am I glad SkinFood is not animal tested!

It’s really just a matter of time before magazines go digital. For years, I had been paying US$15+ (plus 13% taxes) per issue of Biteki and VoCE; an exorbitant amount considering these are just magazines, which cost considerably more than books due to the shipping costs from Japan. I have enough copies to make my eyes roll – the money I spent on mere magazines is enough to feed a village in Africa!

It’s a scary world we live in, when mickey mouse operations like Yak.ca can claim you owe them money without any proof.

Now, anyone (except robots) can post their reviews on Joseibi.com! (No login required)

It was the year 1988 – I was thirteen and my older sister sixteen. We watched Tsukai! Rock-n-Roll Toori starring Kumiko Goto and Yatsuko Sawaguchi as sisters and I thought those two were the prettiest girls. A few years later, I went to the U.S. and then we moved to Canada, so I lost track of both actresses.

I apologize that it’s been quite almost a month since I last posted! Even the posts before, I had them on schedule so I actually wrote them long ago. It’s been hard – I hadn’t slept more than 3 hours a night for the past 4 months (more on that on my sister blog).

According to PETA and many other animal rights group (except for GAN), Shiseido is still testing on animals. But when I reviewed their company website, I noticed that it had added that its products are not tested on animals, while their ingredients may be:

It’s not often that I fall in love with drug store cosmetics/accessories. I am a self-admitted cosmetics snob; but once in a blue moon, there are just some products from drug stores I find better than their high end counterparts and at a fraction of the price!

I got this as part of a mini set (with Lashfusion XL) on Sephora.com during a clearance event, at US$3.75. It was too good a price to pass up! While I wasn’t too crazy about Lashfusion (reviewed a long time ago), I had wanted to try LipFusion since nothing – I mean NOTHING – had worked on my dry, dehydrated lips with increasingly prominent lip wrinkles.

I had blogged about my recent experience with identity theft on mommyjoseibi.com. It left me paranoid, so I had since removed any personal information (e.g. age) and pictures of myself from the website, except in select reviews where my face was shown (can’t recall which ones and no time to dig them up).

Ok, that was my attempt to imitate PETA’s “Tofu Don’t Scream” slogan. If you had visited my blog a few times before today, you might notice that I had removed PETA’s web banner and link from my site today. I think I owe it to my readers why I did this. You may be surprised.

I haven’t used a toner in awhile. I didn’t really notice much of a difference with or without it, but lately, I needed a little extra help with exfoliation so I wanted a toner with a bit of AHA in it. I came across this brand called DeVita – it is not just cruelty free, it’s vegan! The ingredients are all natural and sound great. Essentialdayspa.com sells this at parity with the US pricing, and I bought the Moroccan Rose Facial Toner.

I had used a half size version of this when it was on special at Sephora before, and while it wasn’t my HG loose powder, I decided to buy this so I can salvage my Origins All and Nothing loose powder which was too dark.

My lips are very dry so these days I opt for lip tint. It’s easy to apply without a mirror and it doesn’t get caught with my hair in the wind (which leaves streaks on my face)!

After learning of all the horror of fur farms and animals killed for our makeup brushes, I had sworn off all the squirrel hair and goat brushes I had. One of my favorite makeup brands, Too Faced, is famous for their cruelty free makeup brushes, so I made a purchase to replace one of my always-shedding goat hair kabuki brushes.

This is one of the best reviewed translucent pressed powder there is on the market. I have tried to purchase this in person at Sephora, but was told that they no longer carried the brand, but you can still purchase TheBalm from Sephora.com, ebeauty.ca or directly from TheBalm.com.

I got a deluxe sample size of this popular mineral setting powder from Sephora. My skin has become so dry that my Marcelle pressed powder actually hurt a bit these days, so I had to find a talc-free powder to go over my Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer.

Hoping to completely camouflage my dark circles (Bobbi Brown Corrector doesn’t do it completely), I use the Creamy Concealer on top of the Corrector (in Bisque). When I was talking to the makeup artist at Bobbi Brown, I was torn between two shades – Cool Sand and Sand – Cool Sand being a little lighter (just a little) than Sand. She assured me that Sand is better for coverage because it is more pigmented, so I went with Sand.

I bought this for US$10/CAD$11 from Sephora’s clearance sale, a real steal because the retail price is expensive! I am using a couple of great primers (Laura Mercier and Smashbox) but at this price, I cannot pass up. And this didn’t disappoint!

I am an avid tea drinker (when you have a young child, you need caffeine!), and I have noticed that my once-white teeth aren’t so white anymore. After reading so many great reviews about the Go Smile products, I decided to try it, especially when a very expensive system was marked down to only CAD$77 at theshoppingchannel.com.

I got a sample of this in my last order from Sephora.com, and loved it so much that I went and bought the to-go size. While I loved Laura Mercier’s primer, I found that this one from Smashbox really does provide a perfectly smooth canvas for makeup application, without feeling too slicky, silicone-y (think DHC’s Velvet Skin Coat) or flake off. It is also absolutely colorless and contains peptides.

Wishing all my Chinese and Vietnamese readers (and all who celebrate the lunar new year) a prosperous and healthy year!

Never in a millions did I think I would fall head over heels in love with a Philosophy product!