Posts Tagged ‘Saizen’
I’m definitely obsessed with eyebrows recently, and I’m trying very hard not to accumulate too many eyebrow products as I only have two brows! One of my recent acquisitions in one of my moments of weakness is this Daiso Japan Eyebrow Pencil. Actually, I’m not quite sure if that is the brand of this pencil, as for some reason I threw away its packaging. Absent-minded blogger moment there.
It’s a very simple product really. It’s an eyebrow pencil in a brown shade basically. The pencil is pink with brown dots, and it has a silver cap. I really like the tiny rose detail. It reflects what I usually associate with Japanese products, the cuteness.
At the back is some stuff written in Japanese. The interesting part here is that this pencil has 1.7 grams of product (which may or may not include the actual wood of the pencil itself), and that it’s made in Korea.
The pencil tip itself looks like any regular writing pencil. It has a hard “lead” that works pretty well with brows. It’s not an automatic pencil, which means it has to be sharpened with a sharpener when it loses that nice pointy tip.
This arm swatch doesn’t give it justice, I think. Here it looks like it’s yet another light brown shade, which will probably not suit the brows of someone with undyed hair.
On my brows though it’s another matter. It looks pretty dark and actually matches my hair color. It’s quite easy to use as well, and scratches the lazy girl itch handily. Good eyebrow pencils can draw and complete the brow the fastest (compared to eyebrow powders and mascaras). On a lazy day I’ll just draw a hasty brow and put on a lip balm and I’m out the door in five minutes! Quite convenient really.
This pencil set me back by just Php85.
Pros: convenient; very affordable; matches my hair color
Cons: needs to be sharpened; unknown brand
Daiso Japan has many branches! The one I’m most familiar with are Glorietta 3, Robinson’s Galleria, and Trinoma. Connect with them at their Facebook page and Twitter.
New Daiso Japan at Glorietta 3
Posted on: May 23, 2014
- In: Musings
- 10 Comments
My favorite “dollar” store is now in Makati! Daiso Japan (formerly Saizen) has opened a branch at Glorietta 3, and it may possibly be the biggest one yet! It’s a toss up between this and the Robinsons Galleria branch, but both stores are pretty big. The moment I heard that they’re open for business, I took the time to visit and see what they have to offer. Let me show you some things I was interested in. Please remember that almost everything in this store costs Php88 each.
This post is image heavy!
Food-related
First let’s start with things related to food. Did I mention I am also a food blogger/bento enthusiast? I no longer update that blog as frequently but I am still quite interested in cooking and baking. Check out my food-related finds. First up: coffee-filters! I am a huge coffee addict and this shelf sent me in an excited little dance. I’ve finally found the perfect sized filter for my one-person coffeemaker! I don’t know the difference between the white and the brown filters (bleached vs unbleached) but I’ve always used white filters so that’s what I got.
Here is a series of shelves that carry kitchen utensils and tools. I’ve bought some of these before and they work quite well.
Cookie cutters! This branch seems to have a huge variety of cutters that can also be used for things beyond cookies. I’ve used some of these metal ones in my bentos before (to cut veggies and cheese), and of course for the purpose of actually cutting cookie shapes.
Daiso also has all your food storage needs! Shown here are various plastic and metal containers that are food safe. They have a separate shelf for non-food storage options.
I found myself in need of new ice trays so I snagged a couple of these. They also have other ice-related accessories like an ice scoop and popsicle molds.
Bento boxes are also plentiful! Check out all of these, in various sizes too. Most of these bento boxes will indicate in milliliters how much food they can contain.
Random other stuff
Pardon me but I put the “other” stuff in the middle of the food-related ones and the beauty ones. Here are the things I found interesting. First one is this shelf of floor mop wipes. I have a Swiffer (see photo for reference), but sometimes it’s difficult to find refills of the wet and dry wipes. I’m quite ecstatic to find that Daiso carries their own version of both wet and dry wipes! The pink one (with 45 sheets) is the dry and the blue one on the lower right (with 30 sheets) is the wet. The other ones in the photo are generic kitchen cleaners. [PS It’s really helpful to know how to read kana so you know which one to buy.]
Feeling hot this summer? These stylish and cute fans will definitely come in handy. The ones captured in this photo are the usual folding fans (portable!) but they also have the abaniko-style fans at the bottom.
This is but a small glimpse at the extensive craft selections at Daiso! Here we have various notebooks, a wide selection of washi tapes, origami paper, scrapbook materials, and printed cardboard containers. I forgot to take a photo but they also have a shelf just for writing materials! I’m definitely going back for a craft haul.
Beauty
I’ve saved the best for last! Daiso’s beauty section did not disappoint, although they did have a slightly different selection compared to the Robinsons and Trinoma branches. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but there are absolutely zero testers so you will be buying blind. Check out the internet for swatches. Anyway! First up we have the shelf containing powder foundations and blushes. They have various options and shades for the foundations, as well as several options for blushes.
Close up of two shade options for the Ellefar Princess Duo Color Cheek: Orange and Strawberry. I bought one of these, which I will show you along with the swatches in a separate post.
Close up of another couple of blushers called Special! Mix Cheek Powder, in Magic color and Cute color. These are pretty cool as they have four shades in a single pan, and you can mix and match! I also bought one of these.
Here is the shelf containing falsies and lip products. There seem to be a wide selection of falsies available, as well as eyelash glue. For lip products there are several balms, lip glosses, and a couple of brands of lipstick (Ellefar and Winmax).
But the Winmax lipsticks come in five shades! The shades they have available are Cherry Pink, Deep Rose, Coral Orange, Beige Pink, and Peach. To be honest I am quite wary of Daiso lipsticks based on my prior not-so-happy experience, but I couldn’t really resist. I got two of these. :sheepish grin:
One of my favorite Daiso spots is this shelf, filled with eyeshadow palettes of course! My much-loved Ellefar Princess quads are here, as well as some new palettes I haven’t tried. There are also some glitter eyeshadow sticks on the left side. It was really hard to resist getting some of these!
Check out this Special! Colorful Eye Shadow quads! These two palettes are the ones I was interested in the most, the Golden and the Brown. I was able to resist buying any palettes that day, so no upcoming swatches of these. Yet. (um)
Finally we have the shelf containing the other eye products. There’s some mascara and mascara bases, some liquid eyeliners, and a lot (as in a lot!) of eyebrow products! As I have already purchased one of those dual-ended eyebrow pens and a pot of liquid eyeliner, I was able to resist getting anything from this shelf. Still terribly tempting though!
There you have it! Daiso is such a huge wasteland and money/time sink for me, but it makes me super happy. I’m looking forward to my next visit!
FOTD: Valentines Day
Posted on: February 15, 2014
- In: FOTD
- 2 Comments
My husband and I rarely celebrate Valentines Day on the actual day itself, mostly because eating out, parking, and traffic are all such a hassle. We just celebrate on some other day, and this year we took our daughter along for a Valentines family day.
On the actual Valentines Day itself, I had to go to work. I didn’t want to let the day pass without somehow looking a bit dolled up! I amped up my “office” look a bit by going for a somewhat smokey eye look. My go-to eye palette was again the Saizen Eye Shadow in Brown.
I used #3 as the overall lid color, and #4 on the crease and outer corner. Underneath all of that I used the Crystal Cream Eyecolor to put a bit of sparkle.
Here’s a better view of the eye look without the glasses.
Products used:
Face
Holika Holika Face 2 Change CC Cream
Avon Ideal Luminous Blush in Peach
Essence All About Matt! Fixing Loose Powder
Eyes
In2It Eyebrow Powder in Eyebrowns
Essence I Love Stage Eyeshadow Base
Saizen Eye Shadow in Brown
Saizen Crystal Cream Eyecolor in Cocoa
Lips
Ever Bilena Shade Lipstick in Flaring Cranberry
Eyeshadow experts, I need your feedback! What can I do to improve my eyeshadow application?
FOTD: Muted Neutral
Posted on: February 7, 2014
- In: FOTD
- 6 Comments
Last week I hauled some nice Saizen cosmetics, and I couldn’t wait to try them out. I got the chance to try out the Eye Shadow Brown palette and I wanted to show it to you. Let me first refresh you on how the palette looks like.
I have arbitrarily decided to call the individual shades by numbers 1 to 6 from left to right. In this muted neutral look I used shades 2, 3, 5, and 6. Here is how it looks like.
After applying eye primer, I applied #6 as a lid wash to make the colors pop out more. I then applied #2 in the inner 2/3 of the lid and #3 on the outer 1/3 and blended it well. I used an angled liner brush to apply #5 as an eyeliner. Here is the whole look:
Products used:
Face
Myra Tinted Moisturizer
Avon Ideal Luminous Blush in Peach
Snoe Poudre Extraordinaire (shade unknown)
Eyes
In2It Eyebrow Powder in Eyebrowns
Essence I Love Stage Eyeshadow Base
Saizen Eye Shadow in Brown
Benefit They’re Real Mascara
Haul: Saizen Cosmetics
Posted on: February 11, 2013
- In: Haul
- 4 Comments
[Preface: Been on an unannounced hiatus for a week, but I’m back! Lots of posts on the backburn, nail posts and reviews coming up. Expecting my subscription boxes soon as well, so there will be unboxing posts scheduled. Thanks for your patience!]
I want to start by saying, I LOVE Saizen. I have always loved their bento materials back when I still had time to make everyday bentos. Now that I’m concentrating on cosmetics and beauty products, I came back to my original love and found great products for my newfound hobby.
I was lucky to catch an end of season sale at Saizen, and I got this Creation Eyeshadow palette for only, get this, Php25! It’s even in the 2013 color, green! This amazingly cheap palette has six pans of eyeshadow, three of which is a shade of green. The other three are a very light baby blue, a taupe/tan, and what is probably white or very pale cream. All shades are shimmery. It also comes with a probably-unusable double-ended brush, and it has no mirror.
I also got a couple of this Ellefar Princess Chiffon Eyeshadow, a 4-color eyeshadow palette that comes in an attractive black plastic compact with rose details. The first palette is in Twilight, and the shades are (clockwise from top left): a very light pink as a highlighting color, a tan/brown for the crease, a yellowish beige for the lid, and a dark chocolate for either brows or as a liner color. I should also mention that all colors are shimmery, and it doesn’t come with a mirror.
The second Ellefar Princess Chiffon Eyeshadow palette is in Bronze. The shades are (clockwise from top left): a very light gray or slightly dirty white as a highlighting color, a pale tan for the lid, a black or dark gray for the brows or as a liner color, and a bronze for the crease. Again, all shades are shimmery, and the palette has no mirror. Both of these palettes are the standard Php88.
Finally, I got a Winmax Nail Lacquer, Nail Sparks variant (#8 shade). It’s a very shimmery candy red shade. It’s also Php88. Here are shots of the bottle, and the swatch (3 layers).
I’ve used all of the products above and I am generally pleased with all of them. I use the Ellefar palettes regularly, although usually only single colors as the shimmers are pretty strong to use for the office. I really like the Winmax polish, it’s a fun sparkly shade to wear!
Do you shop cosmetics at Saizen? Tell me about it!
Becoming Sleek 