Time + desire to blog = new blog post

It will probably come as no surprise, but I have a week’s worth of vacation I have to take by August 31st or I lose those vacation hours completely. I just discovered this 2 days ago and there’s no reason to waste them. So I’ll be traveling to visit family in late August. This has sort of jolted my mind back to summer thoughts. I had started to drift towards autumn with all the storms passing through and cicada’s buzzing outside.

A few photos of the flowers in my garden this year. The Sunflowers have started finishing up their season while my morning glories are just now at peak bloom. It was a rough year for gardening. Loads of pests and strong rainstorms. But I’ve seen a lot of bees come through so it’s worth it.

Mint is a really easy plant to grow indoors in only water. Just a snipping of it placed in tap water will cause it to root quickly. The trick to keeping it going is finding the right amount of light. It hates direct sunlight but needs to be in a room that’s bright at least a few hours a day or the leaves will yellow. I didn’t think much of the cutting when I started it but now it’s one of my favorite indoor plants.

I didn’t realize how often I change the space around my tub until I saw these photos. I run through a lot of little changes depending on my mood. Some of you may have seen my review of this seaweed powder pack on Instagram. I hated it. Flat-out. So the next week I bought the Big Blue bath bomb from LUSH to cleanse my palette of bad seaweed products. I don’t buy the Big Blue too often because it’s messy. It leaves seaweed in the tub. But it is very nice and mixed with their Avobomb it creates a shimmery blue-green bath.

Highly recommend the Avobomb as a non-messy but shimmery and great smelling bomb. It’s one of my favorites.

Still growing my hair out. I’ve been thinking of getting it trimmed so I’d have a blunt bob but my stylist said if I want it longer it would be best to leave the bottom as-is. I don’t want long hair; I just want hair I can pull back. It’s sort of a strange desire but I just want short ponytails right now. I know that I’ll probably cut it all off again by next spring.

Also my favorite red nail polish is gone so I bought this. I’ve been wearing shimmers since May but I’m starting to get back into more opaque colors now.

Natur Savon Washing Foam

This is a face wash from the Kose brand line Softymo. It’s free of paraben, mineral oil, and silicone. Sounded great! My face had been clear for a while so I was willing to take a risk on a product that was free from many of the things that tend to break me out. However, I was disappointed. First thing I noticed it that it was definitely not fragrance free as the fragrance was very strong. Second, it made my face feel a bit itchy after using it. I used it a handful of times and eventually it broke me out really badly.

Natur Savon Washing Foam

Pros
Super clean skin

Cons
Itchy skin
Causes a major breakout
Very strong fragrance
Bottom line, I won’t be buying this again

NATURAL RESOURCE Moisture Cream

This hypoallergenic moisture cream improves skin tone and complexion by keeping moisture in the skin. Dermatologist-tested, non-silicon, fragrance-, colorant-, mineral oil-, oil-based surfactant-, alcohol-, parabens- and synthetic antioxidant (BHT)-free.

A SANA line of skincare, NATURAL RESOURCE boasts both natural ingredients and being “8 free” of many common skin agitators. It’s a very thick cream and a little went a long way. I used almost this entire container. I found this to be a middle-of-the-road moisturizer. Not bad but not great either. Wouldn’t buy it again but may try something else from the brand line.

NATURAL RESOURCE MOISTURE CREAM

Pros
No break outs!
Moisturizing

Cons
Leaves an all day film that gets flakey
Cannot be worn under makeup
Didn’t notice any special improvements of my skin

RO’S ARGAN BODY CONDITIONER

I got this with LUSH’s rose-themed gift set. It’s a thick lotion you use in the shower or bath. It contains “cocoa butter, cupuacu butter, almond oil and Argan oils, and the fragrant scent of fresh rose petals.” It smells really, really great and softens my skin similar to sing bath oils would but without that slick oily feeling. The first time I used this I was blown away at how soft everything I touched felt because of it. Suddenly I owned the softest PJs and softest bedding and softest couch! It does leave a slight film on the skin that I only notice while still in the bath. I prefer it’s texture to the Skin-So-Soft bath oil texture which is my usual go-to in bath skin softener.

RO’S Argan Body Conditioner

Pros
Super softening
Great rose fragrance without being too floral or heavy
Easy to use

Cons
It’s expensive D;
A little doesn’t seem to go a long way

Caress Forever Collection

I wanted to post these up too because they are cheap and easy to find plus roses! It’s a new body wash line from Caress. It uses what they’ve termed as “fragrance touch technology” to continually surround you with fragrance. And I’ll admit, these sort of do really work. It’s not an obnoxious lingering scent. It really comes and goes as you move or sweat. And the scent that stays is more subtle than when you first apply it. The body wash is quite thick and reminds me of cake batter. The fragrance is less of a pure rose and more of a deep perfume smell. It’s rich and sensual in my opinion so maybe not great for someone super sensitive to fragrance. I’m pretty sensitive to these sort of smells but didn’t notice any headaches or annoyance with it at all. I’ve been using these for weeks now. I literally saw the commercial where roses are falling off this woman and ran that same night to Target and bought a 4-pack that was on sale for the same price as 2!

Caress Forever Collection

Pros
Really works, fragrance is touch-sensitive
Moisturizing!
Even the soap is pretty in color with tons of wash-away shimmer
Rich romantic fragrance

Cons
No “true rose” scent yet
While the black packaging is meant to be seductive, I think a clear package would take better advantage of showing off how attractive the wash itself is

Love Locket

Pretty big bath bomb that’s about twice the size and twice the price. But it’s really nice. It bubbles for a long time and ends with hearts made from seaweed. It uses neroli for a fragrance which is one of my favorites and also jasmine. I wish I had rinsed the hearts out of the tub though after my bath. They stick there for the next few baths but eventually clean-up. They’re harmless :)

Floating Flower

Another limited edition bath bomb for Valentine’s Day. Prettiest rainbow foam I’ve ever seen. Smells like cypress, very clean.

Kao Bubble-cino

Yes as in cappuccino. It’s a bath salt, scented with white rose, that creates a foam similar to that of a cappuccino. When you first add it there are a ton of effervescence bubbles that then rise to the top and leave a white milky foam. Sounds great but honestly this one was so disappointing. It was so pricey too I felt really let down. The foam doesn’t last more than a few minutes, the fragrance is nice but nothing special. There are just cheaper bath salts out there that work just as well or better than this series.

Honeycé Hair Care

Simply love love love this hair care series. It smells fantastic like orange blossom honey and it leaves my hair really shiny and bouncy even when I use it at night and am running out the door the next morning.

Lastly a few other products. A body wash from Kao’s ビオレｕ series with “angel rose” fragrance. It’s a mild body wash with a strong rose scent meant for families. Next is a rose gel-based face wash called ROBERTS FLORENTINE ROSEWATER CLEANSING GEL. It doesn’t create much of a lather but it still works well alone or with a face scrubber like clarisonic. It removes makeup pretty well except for heavy eye makeup and it hasn’t caused me any zits. It also has a really soft scent of roses.

In the pink tube on the left is a Venus Spa hair treatment for moisture. It almost smells too much like roses. Like too green, too leafy, almost like spoiled roses to me. The treatment is ok. It leaves my hair feeling silky and the fragrance doesn’t really stick around.

I usually use the treatment with Clairol’s Hair Food Root Cleansing Shampoo. I really like this shampoo. There isn’t a conditioner counterpart to it and it isn’t meant to be used more than a few times a week. It really helps remove oily build-up. It smells great like ginger and strawberry.

Hair Food is called Hair Recipe in Japan but the line is exactly the same. They launched at the same time as well. I’m linking the Japanese site because Clairol doesn’t have an english site for this line! I actually bought the entire line at Target including the volumizing spray (which I like.)

The volume shampoo & conditioner on the other hand are only decent at best. It does add a lot of fluffiness to my hair but if I add anything else to it like a hair wax it goes flat immediately. So it’s good on days I only want airy, product-free hair. Does smell good though. :)

So here they are in no particular order.

I made a set of mini apple and mini berry pies last week. Baking a whole pie feels like a much bigger hassle than whipping these guys. Basically within an hour I’m eating pie and ice cream. Having this one with Starbuck’s iced coffee. I was giving the brand a try. I prefer Illy’s more bitter taste for quick cold coffee.

I bought some essential oils from muji because they restocked their yuzu. Their yuzu is alright. The yuzu Anna sent me was a million times better but I can deal. Plus the other two scents I got from Muji are really great.

I learned that ivy is another plant that you can propagate and grew in just water. So I clipped a few vines from the shared fence with the neighbor and started growing some in my existing topiary jars. Now I have devil’s ivy with lavender and english ivy.

I found the “Harmony Aroma” body washes from Bathclin. These are really nice and different. The soap is creamy and creates a thick lather. The fragrances have a woodsy, herb note to them, even the rose version.

I also bought Lee magazine. It’s a casual, natural lifestyle magazine for women in their late 20’s to mid 30’s. It includes casual looks for the office, at home, out on dates, or out with young kids. I thought it might be too family oriented but it’s actually pretty balanced between family, working, single, etc. The home section is fantastic with simple aesthetics and recipes. The makeup and clothing is great too. Not too high-end but not overtly trendy and cheap.

I got to have some real German food for the first time in ages as well as remind myself how potent kirschwasser is.

Lastly I’ve started yoga. Though I feel “yoga” is a loaded word full of expectations of health, juice cleanses, studio visits, and kale chips. I didn’t start that yoga lifestyle. I just started Yin Yoga for my back and legs. Yin yoga focuses on stretching the skeletal muscles. There are fewer and easier positions. And I’ve kept doing it because I’m feeling the results. My back and legs are far less tight. I was having troubles walking recently from my calf muscles being so tight even after massages and muscle relaxers.

I do the stretches about every other night usually after a hot bath or right before bed. You keep the positions longer than in traditional yoga. So even though I didn’t get into it for the “peace of mind” you are sort of forced to relax and almost meditate as you keep some positions for 3~5 minutes.

This weekend I got a new sleeveless top and flats from Zara online. It doesn’t really match the tone of all my solid colored tees but something about that clashing with my closet made we really want to add it! After I made a wardrobe capsule for a Tumblr ask using all Zara I decided to order a bunch of stuff from Zara.com since it was free shipping & free returns. Today I returned about half due to fit (mostly too tight in the shoulders.) It was so, so, so much easier than shopping in their hectic store.

Also picked up this cocopalm scalp cleansing gel. I used it tonight. It smells so good and tropical. It’s an extra scalp cleanser you use prior to shampooing. With the heat and sweating waiting on the trains in the mornings and again in the afternoons plus riding my bike and that perm… my scalp could use some TLC.

And the Therapy Mineral Bath Soak is amazing for summer. It’s mentholated and leaves you feel really cool and refresh.

Bought some Japanese greens seeds for early autumn planting.
Tried a new pancake recipe. Failed.
Cooked old pancake recipe with some modifications that made them thicker and fluffier.
Did a ton of laundry.
Made a wedge salad.
Made a banana split.
Painted a little.
…

Oh yeah and watched that insane Hannibal finale!

I’m tired of posting snow so I didn’t, ha! Actually it was nice to see the snow return since I knew it wouldn’t stay warm long. I think it was 9°F this morning

Last weekend it got up into the 60°’s so like any other sane person I ran out immediately and ate ice cream then complained about being cold for an hour afterwards.

I also took the Valentine’s roses and soaked some of the petals in essential rose oil for a bit then added them into the tub for a bath. Will be doing this a lot more often.

Last night I stopped by Madewell to check out a few of their new spring releases. I tried on this skirt and dress but they didn’t fit like I had hoped so I’ll wait for more of their releases to show up in store.

Kitare Nekkan

[来たれ、熱汗]

This is from 乙女の悩みシリーズ or Girl Troubles Series. This one has an “orange citrus” scent and the bath salt is reminiscent of sand on a beach. The bathwater turns a clear orange and contains germanium for a sweat bath effect. I really didn’t like this one though. It reminded me of bathing in brackish water and had the scent of wet dog. I’ve had other unpleasant mud scented bath salts (many germanium only salts smell strongly like mud) but this one in particular was just too sour to deal with for the lack of heat-up effect it actually had.

Onna no yokubo

[女の欲望肌ひきしめ風呂]

This one is a skin tightening bath salt from the brand Train who mainly focus on producing pantyhose and stockings. It has an amazing orange ginger scent with vibrant color. It’s also pretty effective as well! Great for a quick bath since it’s so strong.

Onayami Sukkiri Bath

A very sexy package filled with bright pink bath salt that smells of a powdery rose. When you add it to the water it turns milky pink and you can see small dots of moisturizing extracts floating before they dissolve away into the bath water. The scent is very strong and sexy of course!

Oyu goto biyoueki

お湯ごと美容液

Bison brand of bath salt focusing on moisturizing effects. The scent “pink floral” is mostly made of of wild rose and lily. It’s really nice. It comes with a slippery warning because the salt contains a large amount of collagen.

TBC Hollywood Bubble Bath

A bubble bath type bath salt that turns the water into the purple shade of the package. Creates loads of thick bubbles and the scent is a rich sexy combination of rose and lily. I really liked this one. I found most of this series of bath salts to be really great!

Aroma Resort Dreamy Bloom Rose

Smells amazing and, well, dreamy. Sweet and romantic like berries and English rose. The bath salts are a deep blood red color and so gorgeous before adding into the water.

Fresh Picked Berries and Apples Bath

[もぎたてミックスベリーとすりおろし林檎のキール]

A Charley-zzz brand bath salt it has the aroma of an apple & berries wine cocktail for lifting your spirits on a blue day. Honestly it smells so fruity and amazing and the rock salt looks like beautiful amethyst. This brand always puts out great, whimsical bath additives.

Kao Micro Bubble

Absolutely love these. I tried both the bergamot and the rose. Both smelled amazing. The tiny bubbles keep going for quite a while after adding the powder into the bathwater. Great warming effect for a mild sweat bath.

炭酸エステ Platinum & Beauty and

炭酸エステ Germa & Salt

Both of these are fantastic! They’re both bath salt plus carbonate tablet and both are very, very effective. I just loved them!

Zum Jujucuzzi Dragon’s Blood

I picked up a small sample of this bath salt when at Fresh Market. It’s a Shea butter based salt rather than just pure natural oil-based (which can sometimes irritate my skin.) This one’s name seemed most appealing!

It’s a very potent salt. The scent is strong and invigorating. The water turns a little murky which is a sign of the Shea butter. The scent really lasts after dissolving into the bath water.

Kokubo Hot Bath

I really liked this one! It smells sweet like bubble gum. Specifically big chew bubble gum! The scent stays strong even after adding it to the bathwater which turns a milky neon peach. It’s a sweat bath that contains germanium. It was gradually effective. At first it seemed mild but then 30 minutes in I was really sweating!!!

Unfortunately I lost a few detailed write-ups I did on the bath salts below. I do remember they were all fairly nice but nothing exceptional. Just a nice selection from various series.

Lately the days have been switching between 60F to 85F back to 50F and my skin has really become sensitive to the somewhat extreme changes. I was looking for a nourishing body wash. Since this brand is targeted towards both adults and children I thought it might be exactly what my skin needs. :)

I recently finished up the shampoo & conditioner of Color Me Happy rose scented line. I didn’t get any amazing results but the rose scent was wonderful. Truthfully I don’t really find Herbal Essences to be a holy grail hair care solution for me. I get much better results from Burt’s Bees’ Very Voluminizing series. However sometimes I just don’t care and I just want my hair to smell like freakin’ roses!

And Also

I also got in a big order of detoxing bath salts. Many I’ve used before and liked a lot while some I’m trying are new to me (-c_,-｀ )

This week I’ve spent most of my time marathoning episodes of Supernatural. I’ll probably be able to finish up through season 4 tonight. It’s sort of strange coming into a fandom so, so late in the series. But also it’s magnificent because I always have something to be excited about! Well, until I’m caught up then I’ll have to deal with the torture of waiting week to week. I accredit my Tumblr dash to getting me to finally give the show a chance. So many people who watch other shows I love (Doctor Who, Sherlock, Community) were also blogging Supernatural stuff like craaaaazy.

I’m trying to do my best to stay away from spoilers. And to be honest (I know, usually I talk about TV on my Tumblr but anyway) I’ll need more shows to be excited about since so many of my favorites are ending.

OK here are two songs I’ve been obsessed with this past two weeks!

There’s a lot. So I kept my thoughts on each short.

Kocha de Showga

[紅茶DEしょうが]

A hot black tea bath. The color and scent is like steaming hot black tea. It’s actually a really great scent and very relaxing. Also includes ginger extract. It’s an herbal bath salt. I really liked it. It was fun and simple.

Bubble and Aroma Bath

Hot Water Story Luxury Bubble Bath
[お湯物語 贅沢泡とろ]

I picked up this “feminine rose” bath salt from cow-soap brand. The bath turns a milky pink with a thick layer of foam on top. The citrus-rose scent lasts a long time and the water is full of slippery, moisturizing collagen. I really, really liked this bath salt. It’s one of the better collagen baths I’ve had!

Otome no Nayami Bath

捕まえよ、王子, 女の武器

This is from 乙女の悩みシリーズ or “Girl Troubles Series”. This one has a “ripe plum” scent to it that is very nice. Smells so fruity and sweet like the ice cream the packaging depicts. The way the orange powder changes to a light milky pink bath color is beautiful as well. This particular one has something to do with a mature woman’s weapon of sexy coyness.

Opuro Umi

[website]

A refreshing mint bath salt with the most amazing shade of clear blue color change I’ve ever seen. The packaging is simplistic and beautiful and the fragrance and color are perfect. Wonderful for a summer soak! Contains collagen and hyaluronic acid for moisturizing. Also formulated to counteract the chlorine found in tap water that can leach moisture from your skin.

Amour Rose Pink Salt Bath

Using Andes salt and a heavy helping of rose oil this rose salt bath leaves skin feeling nice and smooth with a little “sweat bath” effect for detoxing. The salt is beautiful and looks just like real rose quartz stones. The scent is rich and a little vintage like patchouli and rose. Surprisingly simple but luxurious bath salt. I really liked it!

Kneipp Gute Balance

Well OMG it’s German! I about lose it when I find German-Japanese items. Two obsessions colliding. Anywho~ this is a nice and quite cheap bath salt. Very popular and easy to find. It’s very simple and reminds me a bit of US bath salts. I picked up “rose” which has a nice fresh clean fragrance with clear pink water. The rose oil is a bit too heavy for my liking and after a while my skin gets a little itchy from the oil. So I probably would try another fragrance next time.

Magma Double Pack

From SEARUN

Himalayan salts in a gauze tea-bag like packet. These are colorless but not odorless. Very stinky sweat bath type bath additive. Because this is not the direct salt but instead a filtered herbal bag I feel it was less effective than their salts. Was kinda neat to see everything in the bag dissolve though :)

Bison Creamy Bubble Pack Princess Fruity

From Bison brand

It’s a sweat bath/beauty bath with loud popping rocks with a foamy layer of bubbles on top. Wonderful sweet scent like that of gummy candy! Very moisturizing too. I just really love the scent. This is a great one from Bison for days you want to pamper yourself.

Honey and Brown Sugar Bath

Sweet Bath Time Series

Another dessert themed bath salt. This one has a very sweet scent of honey. Though can’t help but think of honey flavored cough syrup as I sat in the tub. Really it smelled like cough syrup, haha! Too sweet maybe?

FaFa Spa & Resort, Baden Baden

It’s another Germany meets Japan salt. This is a resort themed bath salt using Snuggle’s FaFa bear. The salt creates a clear green bathwater with the scent of “green oasis” that is supposed to transport you to thoughts of a deep green forest. The scent is really nice.

Himalaya Rock Salt Bath

[website]

This bath salt will make you sweat! It’s impressive for such a small amount of rock salt in the packet. It’s very smelly because of the minerals used but very, very effective. Also the packaging is neat, huh? :) Good for when you overeat or are dieting.

Double Collagen Powder

[website]

A slightly sweet smelling collagen powder you add to the bath. It’s the scent of fresh milk but reminds me of whipped cream. It’s a bit like adding flour to the bath. Mostly aimed at moisturizing the skin. It seemed OK. Nothing special.

Bison Hot Beauty Soak

お湯ごと美容液

A clear pink bath water scented with pomegranate and berry! Softens the water with collagen and Q10. I like it. Smells amazing and feels moisturizing!

よもぎ

[website]

Basically a bath salt for cramps. It uses Japanese mugwort to relieve abdominal pains. Has a strong relaxing fragrance and clear green bath water. It’s OK.

Yuzu Hot Beauty Bath

“I warm the body by bathing and become health and a beautiful woman”

The packaging looks so damn nice! I love yuzu as a fragrance too. Anyway this is supposed to be a beauty and sweat bath. It has a nice yuzu scent accompanied by milky white water. It’s not very effective but smells really great if you like yuzu!

Cariboo Cool

By goshu

A cooling summer bath salt with intense blue rock salt. A really strong invigorating “ocean mint” scent reminds me of men’s sport type cologne!! Turns the water green blue with a cooling sensation. All of this series I think are just OK. But packaging makes up for any lack of effectiveness :)

Sakura Body Dessert Bath

This is from a dessert line but is cherry blossom scented instead of a confection. Honestly it seems a lot like AVON bubble bath. Very floral but also very sweet. It’s a bit too extreme floral sweet for me though the scent becomes more subtle after mixing into the bathwater creating a milky pink shade.

Dreaming Beauty

[website]

What a dreamy looking package that boasts “Tonight you’ll be Sleeping Beauty. Your prince charming is just on the way…”

The salt is a rich royal purple shade and smells like rose and herbs. The bathwater turns to an exact color of the package! A very milky pink purple with a relaxing rose oil scent. Honestly these smell exactly like that rose bath salts I got from Rain and Whole Foods. After a while though this salt irritated my skin a bit and made it feel itchy due to the heavy rose oil.

Pore Smoothing Bath

[website]

Uses baking soda and yogurt extract to help peel away dry skin. It has a light soft powder scent and creates a milky white bath. This powder was popular at Loft for a really long time. I really liked it. It left my skin so smooth and soft.

Germanium Bath Fizz

[website]

Similar to the salts, this is a fizzing tablet that creates an intense sweat bath. Tablet version is still stinky like mud. Only now you must peel shrink-wrapped plastic off said stinky tablet. Still suggested soak time of 20 minutes. Still effective. Reliable!

Germanium Bath

[website]

One of the original germanium bath salts. Smells a bit like mud but super effective!! Great for diet times or detoxing. Always a go-to staple sweat bath salt.

Steaming Bath Salt

[website]

A natural salt steam bath with a refreshing rosemary scent. I really liked this one for detoxing and reinvigorating my body.

Gateau Chocolat Bath

A chocolate dessert themed bath salt. It’s more of a bitter cocoa powder scent that turns the bath water a bit milky brown. Nothing spectacular. Less artificial smelling than some other versions I’ve tried but really weak in both scent and color.

No work today; off for Labor Day.
All weekend I’ve been getting out in between rain showers. Eating out and visiting a few places.

In the photos above there’s a bath salt I used this week. Rose scented and looked exactly like Pop Rocks. Also picked up these Trader Joe’s turkey corn dogs. Quick lunch idea for the days I work from home and at 150 calories not too shabby of a “fun food.”

Also wearing a red gingham silk boyshirt from Madewell I got a few weeks ago. I wanted this blouse so badly I couldn’t wait for it to arrive in stores so I ordered it online instead. Honestly it’s a bit different from everything else in my closet, however matches with so much that I already own. :ok:

I might go to Madewell during Fashion’s Night Out this Thursday.

Q: What is Fashion’s Night Out?

A: Fashion’s Night Out is an unprecedented global initiative created in 2009 to celebrate fashion, restore consumer confidence, boost the industry’s economy during the recession, and put the fun back in shopping! In the United States, the program is a collaboration between American Vogue, the Council of Fashion Designers of America, NYC & Company, and the City of New York.

There’s that sheep sweater I’ve been wanting to checkout from my wishlist and purchase’s over $100 come with a free gift.

Like I said I spent the weekend dining out…

Red Velvet Mason Jar – mason jar filled with layers of red velvet cake, cheesecake, and chocolate rice crisp bars

I tried some of this but I don’t really enjoy beers/ale/etc

Panko breaded vegetables with butternut squash dipping sauce. Zucchini, green tomatoes, and green beans.

Drove out a bit to visit “Crystal Grottoes” which is a cavern.
Absolutely beautiful cavern. So many varying formations and crystallized rocks.
Unfortunately no photos allowed inside :mad:

So this is all I have. I look 2ft tall because this random guy is standing on stairs *promise*

Also…
Proof I do hit pan lolol lolol lolol lolol

I’ll have to say good-bye to my favorite powder by the end of the week. Beyond pan. The light shade went faster because I was too pale to mix the shades. I use the cat’s darker shade as a shading color instead. But I noticed today the far right is hitting pan too now and it’s beginning to crack.

And speaking of favorite makeup I ordered another Bison lip balm. I absolutely love my previous one. I thought I lost it once and went into a panic.

This one is honey ginger. I haven’t tried it yet :)

Ahhhhhhhh while posting this I saw Bison has a new addition to their sweat bath line! Haha omg it’s “cola” themed lolol lolol lolol
Cola Spark and Ginger Ale
The new ingredients look extra intense and extremely focused on skin tightening. Mmmm want to try it~

Crap, actually they are releasing brown eyeliner and other stuff too I want to try! The eyeliners are powder & liquid dual pens and come in bitter or milk chocolate shades. :hungry: :deco3:

OK last thing, I’m still really obsessed with this recent cover of Kansai Girl’s Style

A white Olympus Pen :deco3:

A gift from a friend on my last day in Japan. She was sweet enough to meet me at the hotel the morning of my flight and handed me this. :deco3:

• Strawberry Macaron Bath Fizz
• Antique Rose Bath Salt
• Peach & Rose Fairy Tale Tea
• Merci in China Character Tea

The peach and rose tea was absolutely fantastic. One of the best teas I’ve ever had.

The bath bomb was especially fragrant as well. And the other two items also wonderful.

I don’t know where she manages to find these things but I love them! :deco2:

Finally posting this. These are the bath salts I picked up on my trip~ I mostly focused on getting ones I haven’t tried before :ok:

Got some soaps, face masks, etc bath goods too.

Ishizawa Lab Viva Body

More Hot Fat-Splitting Enzyme
Blood orange

“MORE HOT!!” From Ishizawa Lab. Ok, the package sucked me into purchasing this. Not because it’s cute or sexy, but instead it’s incredibly realistic! Those days your skinny jeans make you feel anything but skinny! It has an intense citrus scent that’s really more zesty orange meets grapefruit. And the water turns a beautiful milky peach-orange. Blood orange is spot on :)

The salt itself is mildly effective but I wasn’t impressed. Smelled great but hardly broke a sweat and I had the bathwater crazy hot with this one.

Rated 5.0 at cosme.net.

Ishizawa Lab Viva Body

More Hot Fat-Splitting Enzyme
Grapefruit

“MORE HOT!!” From Ishizawa Lab. The bright red salt surprised me at first but when the whiff of grapefruit got me it fit together. When added to the water the salt turns it a milky yellow. The scent changes some too. Actually the grapefruit scent turns a bit too bitter smelling for my liking. Just something about it I really ended up not enjoying. I felt the sweat bath is only mildly effective as well.

Rated 3.8 at cosme.net.

Bison Bakkantou Hot Bath Salt

Dreamy Floral

Creamy bath salt! Meant to both tighten and soften skin while delivering a bath fit for a princess! Contains pepper extract, ginger extract, collagen, shea butter and more. A very fruity floral scent in hot magenta colored salts. Turns the water a beautiful milky lilac shade with a layer of white bubble foam on top. The bathwater feels moisturizing and luxurious. Definitely a princess bath experience!

Rated 5.0 at cosme.net.

Rosefull – Bulgarian Wild Rose

ローズフル(ブルガリア風) – From Bison’s Rosefull line, this is the Bulgarian Rose version. It reminds me of a US type bath salt. Fine powder like granules with a heavy powdery-rose scent. Has ingredients such as yogurt to help smooth the skin. The bath salt turns the water a milky white color and the scent lasts throughout the entire bath.

Rated 4.7 at cosme.net

Princess Rose Bath

お姫様風呂 薔薇しずく
A pearl powder blend of rose essence bath salt. When I first opened the pouch the rose scent was super strong and close to a true rose blossom scent. The salt is coral in color. A nice change from the usual white or bright pink. It turns the bath water into a milky coral color as well. The scent remains strong even after being mixed into the water. A great bath for enjoying the aromatherapy if rose!

Dynabody Massage Lotion Bath

ダイナボディ

This is actually a series made by Bison some time ago. A blend of grapefruit and caffeine extracts to tighten the skin. It’s a massage salt meets bath additive. You can wet your body a bit and take some of the salt and massage it in. Then sit in the water and it dissolves into a sweat bath. Amazing grapefruit scent!! Turns the water yellow. Fairly effective but nothing spectacular. Nice for making your skin both smooth & tight.

A few reviews but no overall rating at cosme.net.

TBC Exotic Luxury Dubai SPA

Produced by beauty brand TBC with, this is a line of exotic luxury bath salts. Boasting premium ingredients like royal jelly and silk extract as well as glitter with an aroma and color meant to reflect an atmosphere of mature luxury. If ever there was a series of ultimate luxury gimmick bath salt, this would be it! And I LOVED it. The packaging is so gorgeous and everything about this salt just screams “I’m not your typical bath time.”

The salt itself is so pretty and chocked full of glitter!! Gold and silver. With an intense floral scent. The bath water turns a beautiful and sparkling shade of clear wine (or bordeaux.) Intense floral scent stays even after adding the salt to the water. It definitely has that exotic feel they were going for. From the strong perfumed fragrance to the unique rich color bathing you in shiny glitter. Though I’m not a huge fan of floral and this one was a bit on the strong-side I’d still recommend it. I think it’s perfect for a relaxing soak to wash away a bad day.

Word of advice. When you use deep colored salts like this it’s best to rinse your tub after draining. Though I scrub my tub once a week with a Mr. Clean magic eraser to keep it looking like new, it’s better to be safe than sorry with these darker salts. Don’t want to get yourself into more hardcore tub scrubbing than you possibly have to. :)

TBC Exotic Luxury New Zealand SPA

Another TBC produced exotic luxury SPA bath salt. This one focuses on luxurious honey from the manuka flower found in New Zealand. Includes shea butter, moisturizing oils, royal jelly extract, and beeswax as well.

Man oh man is this golden honey packaging something! Drew me in instantly! The moment I opened the packet I could smell a honey fragrance. The scent sorta fades after adding it to the bath which turns a milky orange color. You do see little orange balls of lotion floating about; clinging to the sides of the tub as they dissolve. The bath water feels moisturizing and my skin had a slight lotion’y feel to it while in the tub. I must admit my whole body was crazy silky smooth after using this salt! I love this series :)

Chocolate Bath Salt

Sweet Bath Time Series

A body dessert bath salt series that specializes in sweet smelling dessert themed salts. Contains collagen and cacao butter for skin moisturizing effects. Chocolate scent with chocolate color this is a salt that’s mostly for fun. The scent is a very artificial chocolate that reminded me of those old chocolate flavored lip smackers. It becomes more subtle after mixing it into the water. Nothing spectacular. Though I was craving sweets the night I used it which was a fun way to sorta get my “fix!” Probably wouldn’t purchase it again though.

Rated 2.0 at cosme.net.

Matcha & Milk Bath Salt

Sweet Bath Time Series

ボディデザート バスソルト 抹茶＆ミルク

It smells so sweetly!!! I love this one. It’s a bit unusual and a fun change of pace for bath salts. It’s from the Sweets Bath Time series and isn’t as sickeningly sweet as the chocolate version. The scent reminded me of the incredibly sweet matcha tea served up at a stall in Asakusa. I don’t care to drink such a sweet version of matcha tea, but bathing in the scent is fine by me! The water turns a milky green and the froth on top is rich and white. No special after effects really. It’s supposed to be moisturizing and skin tightening but I didn’t notice much change. Just a fun relaxing tea bath.

Rated 5.5 at cosme.net.

Tohato Bean Bath Salt

ビーノ　お風呂用

Hot water will be the color of pea green. Yes. It’s a bean themed bath salt! The salt itself is made up of pebble rocks covered in green salt. Okinawa sea salt has been included for moisturizing. The scent is a crisp smelling “marine sea breeze.”

The bath water turns to a clear bright pea green color :)

Romantic Fruit Bath Parlor

Bought this at Loft just because it was cute as hell! They had all sorts of fruit choices but I went with apple. It’s a plastic little apple container with apple scented bath salts inside. Aside from being packaged like drugs (lol Ziploc bag wtf,) they were nice smelling salts and the apple is sitting on my desk at work as decoration now.