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. :)

Been wearing these 3 things lately because Valentine’s Day, February, and greaser inspiration. I picked up this faux leather coat at Zara’s on a huge sale a few months ago. It’s extremely comfortable + I sized up & up so I can wear it over thick sweaters.

Catbird’s Ghost Rose solid perfume is such a true rose smell. You can smell the sort of “green” parts of a rose in this perfume. It’s solid so it’s not very strong but it lingers on the skin. Good for applying to pressure points, you know, so when you start overheating it’ll actually smell nice ha!

I’ve noticed as I’m feeling better and better (from back pain) I didn’t really care about what I wore. Not to say I was sloppy. My closet was still whittled down and matched up enough that I looked fine. But I just didn’t care about shopping, or wearing what I “really” wanted when going out. Mostly because I didn’t go out unless I needed. I’m already starting to forget what that was like; being unable to enjoy going out. But now I have the luxury of putting thought to it. However I keep see-sawing between jeans and skirts. I’ll go on this kick of wanting only denim then suddenly I hate them and switch to skirts with fleece tights. But all-in-all I’m not really shopping much lately. I’m happy with everything I have and would only be interested in spring things now… and warmer weather to go along with it.

Though I did buy this wool coat from Madewell earlier in the month. Finally trading in my previous one of 8 years that I got from Forever 21. I had mended it so so so many times.

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.

And yesterday I got this huge birthday package from Anna filled with things she picked up on her recent trip to Japan. So many of these are my favorite things. Especially loving the yuzu essential oil for my aroma diffuser. It’s smells perfectly like yuzu!

A few things from Mike including Mermaid Shampoo and the “Flowers in Her Hair” Lippmann polish.

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes on IG & Tumblr!

The Petal Pusher Oil is fantastic! Everything about this feels nostalgic. The preserved rose buds, the fact it’s a roll-on, and overall fragrance of the oil. Reminds me of a rose soap scent. Very light and very clean.

The Mermaid Perfume has notes of orange blossom and the overall fragrance reminds me of honeysuckle. It’s very light and airy.

These 2 new perfumes plus the Oceane I bought in February are new for me. I usually like to stick with fragrances I know. I’m sensitive to some notes and can get headaches easily with the wrong perfume (Chloe even causes me nausea even though I think the fragrance is very nice.) The bottom 4 are my “usuals.” The Living Grace is only a little new to me as I bought it last summer because of Supernatural. I’d consider Bvlgari’s au the vert my signature scent. If I could only own 1 it would be that forever & ever.

I’m excited to have more variety for the summer :)

It snowed all day yesterday and again today. I don’t mind the snow. I prefer snow to just cold for cold’s sake. I only want it to warm up because the cold makes my botched root canal ache more. But the sun is out more and more and I feel like dressing in lighter colors more and more. I also want to pick up more of this Elderflower & Rose Lemonade. Elderflower is tastes nice. There’s an Elderflower soda from found that’s really good but since the first time I bought it’s been sold out and the other soda’s don’t taste as good.

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.

Captain Blankenship
Mermaid Mane Sea Salt Hair Spray

I have a new favorite hair product. I picked this Captain Blankenship
Mermaid Mane Spray up at Urban Outfitters while looking for the Mermaid Shampoo to sniff (but it’s online only apparently.) I didn’t find that line but I did find this sea salt spray. I was a little skeptical until I watched this video tutorial on the best way to use the spray. Now I love it. No really, I’m thinking of buying another as backup already!

I had never used a sea salt spray before but I have used other “beach inspired” items like Bumble & Bumble’s Surf Spray and was never happy with how flat and greasy they made my hair. This spray adds a lot of volume and texture to my flat thin hair. The texture is a dry beachy feeling with lots of movement without being brittle or stiff.

And the scent is fantastic! It’s described as a “beach rose” but I find it to be more citrus smelling than floral. Very similar to neroli.

Captain Blankenship
Mermaid Mane Sea Salt Hair Spray

Pros
Extremely easy to use
Works on both wet or dry hair
Great fragrance that isn’t overpowering
All day style hold
Love the packaging design

Cons
Bottle size is small and you have to use a lot of the product
Price is a little high for how quickly you use up the product

As listed, my only complaint is the size of the bottle. It’s small and you tend to need to use a lot of the product for the really beachy look. I think the bottle should be a little bigger or the price should be a few bucks less. It’s more of a splurge item IMO.

But, ya know, mermaid. :)

So the roses Mike ordered and scheduled for delivery on Valentine’s Day didn’t show up due to the snowstorms. No big deal. He called ProFlowers just to see when they would arrive and to ask if they could refund the extra “delivery on Valentine’s Day” shipping fee. The roses showed up the next day but then another set showed up today courtesy of ProFlowers for all the trouble!

Double the roses :)

Snow from Thursday

Valentine’s Day

“Mermaid Mane” a sea salt spray for getting beach hair. Followed by a night out Saturday.

My shoulder’s still a bit sore from shoveling the driveway with Mike. But even with a heavy layer of snow on the ground I went ahead and did some spring cleaning today. It’s been a little bittersweet but I put my spring and summer clothes into 4 piles. Keep, sell, sister, and donate. The keep and donate piles were the smallest. While my pile for handing down to my sis was the biggest. And I have a few Madewell shirts I’ll put up for sale later this month :) I like to do this on days I’m feeling the least sentimental so I can purge the most stuff without regret!

Also watched 3 Olympic Women’s Hockey games and re-caulked a few spots around my shower and bathtub.

It was a bit of a random day off work.

Sunday I went to Georgetown to return some jeans and ended up buying this gingham skirt instead. I also bought some teas from Dean & Deluca. Kusmi’s BB Detox tastes so refreshing. I don’t usually like herbal type teas but this one is just so good! I also picked up TWG’s earl grey with bergamot and rose petals. I’m on such a bergamot kick right now. I’ve used half a bottle of my bergamot essential oil in my diffuser already plus bought a bergamot candle and have been trying to buy only bergamot infused teas. BERGAMOT.

1) Black Gingham skirt from Madewell, I’ve been feeling a little bored with my clothes lately and am excited to add some pattern into my black, navy, burgundy, gray sweater rotation
2) Finally bought Oceane from Anthropologie because mermaid reasons,
3) L’Occitane 25% shea body butter because my skin is screaming & used up everything else at this point,
4) Kusmi Tea BB Detox,
5) Earl Grey Gentleman Tea from TWG (there was a special White House blend that used roses too because of the rose garden but this tea is such a splurge that I just got this one,)
6) rose and champagne flavored macarons,
7) water from Dean and Deluca (my USB humidifier has me obsessed with buying different water bottles now because I have to stare at it on my desk all day.)

Saturday I hit up Max Brenner again and then ShopHouse. I feel like I should really hate ShopHouse. The first time I tried it I thought, “Well that was nice. Probably won’t get it again though.” But then I found myself craving the stuff nonstop! Now I want it all the stupid time.

Saturday night I had the house to myself so I just continued to read a little more The Breath of All Things and fell asleep with the aroma diffuser aimed directly at my face. Honestly my face has had a great winter season using this thing. It’s rarely dry, while no matter how many times a day I moisturize, my body it’s covered in dry patches. Winter is just too intense this year.

I thought I’d recommend some music for February. First is Bitter:Sweet – The Mating Game. Been listening to em since April. The second is a random album I bought the other night! Haute Couture – French Lounge Session. I ended up on it while downloading some Lemongrass. I love it as background music for work or relaxing at home.

I thought I’d update with some recent photos that I’ve been posting here & there. First from today. Cold and rainy. Also some of the things I’ve been wearing lately. The pleated skirt is my favorite. It has 3 different button options so I can wear it even on bloated days.

I did a makeup swap with Anupa recently too! The brown lashes are so pretty. If it stops raining I want to wear them to Oktoberfest this weekend.

I also fished out my balls of yarn and knitting books. I’ve started a basic roll-up hate and some 100% cotton dishtowels.

Last weekend my car broke down and I couldn’t get it fixed until later so I ran my errands using the stores near my house. Usually I drive a bit further out but as a stroke of luck I found these two rose-scented fabric softeners at the other stores! One is a more intense 1-rinse only type that is basically a rose perfume for your clothes from Downy. The other is Suavitel which I usually get in Sunset Rose but this one is Festival of Flowers which is a lighter rose fragrance than the other.

Tokyo Skytree on the Japan Post bag. They’ve always had a little cityscape but now it has the new addition :)
Also I really like these bags Japan Post offers. The US doesn’t have an equivalent to this unfortunately.

• owl print eco bag
• rose scented hand wash and sanitizer
• rose scented bath ball

From a friend, there’s a “bag tax” here and I always need good, sturdy eco bags. The cloth ones don’t hold up for very long actually, maybe a year? So I want to invest in more like this. Durable, washable, etc.

• Moomin tea
• jam
• marimekko bag
• biscuits

From Anna at hotpotcat!! Marimekko prints are so full of energy, this is my first marimekko item actually! It’s such a great size to use as a regular purse + shopper. I also already enjoyed the biscuits (biscotti) with coffee and the Moomin teas which are really good and have names like “Sweetheart” and “Moomin Mama’s Magic Potion.”

• “tea” spoon
• GREAT BRITISH TEA
• Too Faced Boudoir Eyes

From Anupa! [tiny pill message, how even possible!?] I haven’t had the teas yet (likely tomorrow morning!) but I wore the Too Faced palette today and it’s so nice. All the colors are gorgeous and work for both day and night. Plus I love when major base shades are larger than accent colors. :) I really want to play with the black shade. I’m actually… getting back… into black liner/mascara… just a little bit like half the week I wear black again & not brown. WHO AM I ANYMORE, I KNOW!

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.

Je l’aime and Bene Premium Bluria.

Shampoo is a lot like body lotion to me in that I often want a change depending on my mood. I get bored of certain scents or I’ve gained everything I can from certain brands and want a change. Plus Japanese brands often have fragrances difficult to find in the US and their bottles tend to have better aesthetics and hello pump-action.

Bene Premium Bluria [ベーネプレミアムブルーリア - official]

A moisturizing non-silicone rose fragrance hair care that uses rose honey, rose extract, keratin, and hyaluronic acid. This one focuses more on scalp care in order to achieve healthy locks.

Je l’aime [ジュレーム - official]

This is the shiny repair version of the brand. It has a nature fragrance with a combination of orange, lavender, eucalyptus, rose, clove, etc.

Seeing these shampoos available locally is more enticing to me than ordering them online. Shipping can be really pricey for such huge bottles. ┐(‘～`；)┌

I mentioned the Japanese shampoo boom before in this December entry. The increase in new non-silicone shampoos and conditioners is something I can get into as I watch the bath salt trend wane. I prefer silicone-free especially after coloring or perming my hair which I do about twice a year.

And since I’m on the subject of Japanese shampoos here are some of the other brands I’ve tried as well. I often go back to Tsubaki because it’s pretty good and easy to find in my area.

I do have a few holy grail US brands. (・´ｰ｀・)ノ

John Freida’s is fantastic for when I want to get my natural highlights to come out a bit more. But I don’t like using them when I have an active perm. Herbal Essence’s Rose Hip is the best overall for adding volume, shine, and smoothness to my hair. I used to swear by Burt’s Bees Very Volumnizing but their new formula doesn’t give me the same results as before. I’ve tried so many US brands it’s only worth mentioning ones I liked. :)