Becoming Sleek

After taking you on a virtual tour of the new branch of Daiso Japan at Glorietta 3, let me show you the cosmetics I bought from there. Here are the items I bought, each at Php88.

Warning: This post is image heavy!

Let’s start off with the lipsticks. I bought two shades of Winmax Pearl Rouge Lipsticks: [96] Deep Rose and [98] Cherry Pink. These are the two darkest shades among the five available at Daiso Japan. As you can see, it comes sealed in these clear plastic boxes attached to the cardboard. You can see the actual product extended to its maximum length. On the very bottom right you will see that the amount of product is 3 grams.

At the back is a lot of information, fortunately with english translation at the bottom half.

Here is a close up on the list of ingredients.

Here are the actual tubes. They are basically a navy blue and gold tube, of very flimsy plastic. That clear tube on top is included only to allow the buyer to see the actual product while sealed. You have to set it aside and use the actual caps, which is here shown beside them.

Here is how it looks like closed. That gold band is a huge fingerprint magnet. It otherwise looks sturdy, and the cap seals properly and won’t fall out by itself in your bag.

The actual lipstick product looks just as flimsy as the rest of the tube. Make sure to double check the one you are purchasing, as I’ve seen some tubes with already-damaged product in the store.

The bottom of the tubes have some information but all of it is in kanji/kana, with a big red number stamped on top of them. The #3 tube is the Deep Rose while the #5 is the Cherry Pink; you can tell by the code number “5207-#” right under the “Winmax Pearl Rouge”, and this corresponds to the one printed on the left side of the back of the card (check out the third photo above). It’s a little confusing, and they should have just printed the shade name here somewhere instead of using some number code.

And here are the arm swatches. You’ll notice I didn’t bother to label them, because they look exactly alike on this swatch. It’s a little unfortunate, because I had assumed that one of them will be more plum and the other more coral.

It does look different on the lips though, which is a happy conclusion. The one on the left is the #5/Cherry Pink/98, and the one on the right is #3/Deep Rose/96. Cherry Pink really leans more towards berry, while Deep Rose is almost a nude shade on me, but is a dusty plum. It applies quite easily on primed lips (ie I applied lip balm beforehand) and lasts a weak 3 hours without eating or drinking.

Next item we have is the Ellefar Princess Duo Color Cheek in Strawberry [61]. It comes sealed in this plastic covering which is attached to the cardboard backing. It has a little tab on the upper right, which makes opening it a lot easier. The other available shade in Daiso is Orange, which I decided to skip since I just got the Canmake Cheek&Cheek in Orange Bouquet.

This is the back of the cardboard, which thankfully also comes with english translation at the bottom. There is also a diagram on the right side which shows where to apply which color.

Here is a close up of the ingredient list. Note that the amount of product this has is 5 grams.

And here it is, free of the plastic wrapping. The compact is made of black plastic with a clear window so you can see the shades of the product. The name of the product is printed in reflective silver, along with a rose applique which was a nice touch.

Opened up, you can see that the compact actually comes with a mirror and a brush. The mirror is tiny, but it works in a pinch. The brush looks weak and is very thin, and I probably will not use this ever. The blush itself comes in two shades: a bright pink in the bigger pan on the left, and a lighter, more glittery pink on the slightly smaller right pan. I gather that this second shade is for highlighting to create a more dimensional effect on the cheeks.

Here is the arm swatch. These are about two swipes of product each using my finger. The left shade comes out as a medium pink and the right shade is almost entirely made up of pinkish sparkle. I don’t have an actual cheek swatch of this yet, because honestly I am using the other one exclusively these days.

The fourth item I bought at Daiso Japan is this Special! Mix Cheek Powder in Magic Color (No.2). It again comes sealed in plastic wrap, but its cardboard backing is much smaller. This Magic Color variant’s shades are mostly pinks and purples. The other variant, Cute Color, comes in mostly peaches and oranges.

This is the back of that tiny cardboard on top. Again it’s great that there’s english translation there, and you can easily read the list of ingredients as well. Here is where it tells us that this compact contains 6 grams of product.

Here it is, freed of the plastic wrap. It comes in a nice sturdy plastic compact, with a clear cap so you can see all four shades of the blush. The cover has some fancy gold print on it which I really like.

When opened, it’s basically just the blush itself. There is no mirror nor brush, which isn’t such a big deal to me to be honest. There are also no partitions between the four shades, which encourages blending and combining. I use my Artist Studio blush brush or Charm blush brush to apply this.

Here are the arm swatches of all four shades, clockwise starting from the upper left. Again, I used my fingers to swipe two layers. Upper left is a very light candy pink, a highlight shade, similar to the Ellefar one above. Upper right is a shimmery pink that’s a little darker than the highlight shade. The lower right shade is a strong coral pink. Lower left is a magenta-leaning purple.

This pair of looks uses some combination of this mix cheek powder. It blends quite well and doesn’t look as intense as the arm swatch, even the coral one. This is all I’ve been using recently and I really love this! I want to get the other variants!

There you have it! Each of these items costs only Php88 which is such great value!