Weekly Reads #110: May 19, 2013

What were your favorite posts this week? 

• Angelina Jolie shares her story, via Temptalia. Empowering!
• Silicones in hair care, via Pink Sith. This is the most detailed explanation I have seen so far. Japanese shampoos are known for having high amounts of silicone in them.
• How I shop for clothes online, via Wardrobe Oxygen. Most stores in Japan (both online and not) do not allow you to return items, so I only buy things online if I am sure of what I want.
• Google penalizing sponsored links? and how to work around it, via Beautyholics Anonymous. Good news for beauty bloggers.
• Song of Healing (from Zelda) played on wine glasses, via Youtube. Amazing!!

Connect with me! I love chatting and connecting with people, and sharing interesting stuff around the web!

• Follow @cosmeddicted on Twitter & Instagram
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You can also subscribe to Cosmeddicted through the feed, email, or Bloglovin!

xoxo, K

Review: Rohto Shirocha Sengan Facial Cleanser - makes fabulous lather

(Purchased product)

Although I used to religiously purchase facial cleansers, I stopped buying them while I was in China. However, this product caught my eye the last time I was in Japan.

This is a review of the Rohto Shirocha Sengan facial cleanser (白茶洗顔). "Shirocha" is Japanese for white tea. "Sengan" means "to wash your face". This product is available in a tube, as a solid soap, and as a mousse. The mousse form is in a can, similar to a bottle of hair mousse. Rohto is a major Japanese brand,  mostly famous in the beauty blogger community for eye drops.

This product is supposed to brighten your complexion by increasing cell turnover. The commercials also talk a lot about how much this product foams up, creating mounds of creamy lather.

(The picture makes the tube look almost white, but it is actually light green)

What it does: (from Rohto's website)
We created a product with creamy lather to gently surround your skin. It is easy to make thick, creamy lather with this product. The firm lather will wash off old skin cells and dirt, without leaving skin feeling tight. Although this product is thick and creamy when washing, it will rinse clean.

Where to purchase: This product is widely available at Japanese drugstores.

Price: Retails for 525 JPY (around $5)

Scent: This product smells faintly of green tea

Pros:

• I LOVE LOVE LOVE how easy it is to create lather with this product. As usual, I use a face wash net to make the lather quickly and easily.
• The lather is really thick and creamy! It felt like I was washing my face with whipped cream.
• Because this product makes lather easily, I can use very little product each time. I probably use less than half the amount I use with other facial cleansers
• I love that I can rinse this product off of my face easily, and it does not leave a film or residue on my face

Cons:

• Despite the claims, this does leave my skin feeling slightly tight. This can be counteracted by moisturizing quickly.

Would I repurchase? Yes, I liked how much lather I could create!

The Rohto website shows that you can do a "mousse facial mask" with the mousse version of this product. I'm not clear on why I couldn't do the same with this product. But be careful - leaving cleanser on your skin, or massaging with it, will increase the cleansing properties. It could make your skin dry out. This is different from the bubble face mask I reviewed before, since that product was not a cleanser.

Hope you enjoyed this review!

xoxo, K

Weekly Reads #109: May 12, 2013

When I was younger, my relationship with my parents was not that good. My parents were extremely strict with me growing up (I had an 8 o'clock curfew in high school). I preferred to keep things to myself rather than talk with my parents, because I knew that they would not be supportive of me.

Moving out improved things. I started appreciating all the things that my parents did for me, like sending me a box of winter clothes, essential kitchen utensils and food when I moved into a new apartment.  My parents stopped judging things that I did, and just listened to me when I was stressed about work.

And I started sending gifts to them, not because I had to, but because I genuinely wanted to.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, and thank you for everything that you do that we don't appreciate just yet.

On to my Weekly Reads!

What were your favorite posts this week? 

• Tai-meshi (mixed rice with sea bream), via cookingwithdog (Youtube). I love this dish soooo much.
• Scallion pancakes, via Christine's Recipes. I ate a lot of these when I was in China.
• Inglot virtual makeover app.  I tried it and it was worth a few laughs! Obviously this doesn't work as well as they say it does.

Connect with me! I love chatting and connecting with people, and sharing interesting stuff around the web!

• Follow @cosmeddicted on Twitter & Instagram
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You can also subscribe to Cosmeddicted through the feed, email, or Bloglovin!

xoxo, K

Review: Bourjois Bio Detox Organic Foundation - a "natural" foundation

(gifted product)

I've posted Weekly Reads in the past about whether a product that labels itself as "natural" is really worth it. I am personally not a big fan of it, as I believe the word is a little overhyped.  The Bourjois Bio Detox Organic Foundation was my chance to see how a "natural" foundation worked.

I have this product in the color 53 Beige Clair / Light Beige. It is a little too dark for my NC20-25 skin, but the next color lighter (52 Vanilla) looks to be too pink for me.

Apologies for the beaten up bottle.  I did not think to take a picture of this product until after I had been using it for nearly 6 months!

What it does: (from the bottle)
Fresh & Even complexion. Detoxified skin.  Ecocert organic cosmetic.  Contains Chlorophyll, brings oxygen & filters pollution.

Ecocert is an organization which certifies natural and organic cosmetics. According to the website, the Ecocert Organic Cosmetics label certifies that "a minimum of 95% of all plant-based ingredients in the formula and a minimum of 10% of all ingredients by weight must come from organic farming". This sounds nice, but I am not sure what good it does for my skin. Also, I was skeptical about the claim that it contains chlorophyll. How could chlorophyll help my skin?

Where to purchase: This product can be found in Boots, Superdrug, and other drugstores in the UK

Price:  Around 11 GBP (approximately $17 USD) for 30 ml/1fl oz on boots.com.  This may seem pricey compared to US drugstore prices. After browsing the Boots website to compare the prices with other drugstore brands, Rimmel seems to be significantly cheaper, and Revlon seems to be more expensive.

Packaging:
Heavy plastic bottle with cap and pump. The pump is not air tight, and the product clogged in the nozzle, although the blockage could be pumped out.  I liked the packaging, and will probably keep it to use with other foundations that do not come with a pump.

Pros:

• I liked the packaging
• This product did not break me out, and was easily removed at night.

Cons:

• This product was extremely hard to blend. Apparently, this product does not contain silicones, which is good for people who are allergic to them, but which makes the product harder to blend. I needed to apply a small bit at a time and work quickly to blend it.
• This product does not last long on my skin. 
• This product just didn't "work" well. When I tried it in cold weather, it wouldn't blend properly. When I tried it in hot weather, it just doesn't last on my skin.  

Would I repurchase? No. I would recommend this product only if you are allergic to silicone, or if you are really looking for a natural product.  Even in those cases, I am pretty sure that there are indy brands which are better.

Unfortunately, this product did not work for me.  I will probably still use this up.  If you are interested in trying out this product, I would strongly recommend using a buffing brush. A traditional foundation brush left streaks, and this product does not blend well enough with a stippling brush.

Hope you enjoyed this review!

xoxo, K

Weekly Reads #108: May 5, 2013

Wow, it's May already! Being in Jakarta makes it hard to feel the changing of the seasons since it is usually very warm and humid.  The only sign that I can see is that the days are getting shorter compared to when I first moved here in November.  Apparently the weather in Japan has been weird as well, with day temperatures more than 10 degrees below what they usually would be for this time of year.

On to my Weekly Reads!

What were your favorite posts this week?

• Beauty regrets, via Beautyholics Anonymous. What are yours?
• Blogging 101, via Wardrobe Oxygen. Yes, simplify your template.
• ELF is launching a flagship store in New York, via Musings of a Muse. I'm not a massive fan of ELF, but I will be stopping there on my next trip to NY.
• Decorating tricks to brighten up your rented room, via Buzzfeed. I should do some of these when I go back to Japan.
• Shrimp with snow peas, via Simply Recipes. I am not sure what this method of cooking is called in Chinese (stir fry with stock, compared to a colored sauce), but I love it.  Surprising that I don't know what it is called since I lived in China for 2 years!
• Grilled chicken pesto wraps, via Emily Bites. I was EXTREMELY excited to see this.

Connect with me! I love chatting and connecting with people, and sharing interesting stuff around the web!

• Follow @cosmeddicted on Twitter & Instagram
• Like Cosmeddicted on Facebook
• Follow Cosmeddicted on Pinterest

You can also subscribe to Cosmeddicted through the feed, email, or Bloglovin!

xoxo, K

Up and Down #33: May, 2013

No sooner than I get an apartment, I have to move back to Japan.

Someone at work asked me whether this was a personal decision, or a business decision. It was 100% a business decision by the company that I work for. I really enjoy living and working in Indonesia, even though I don't like leaving home at 5:30 AM every morning, or getting stuck in traffic jams for 2 hours whenever I want to go somewhere.

But... oh well, I guess. I realize that since I moved to Jakarta, my blog has been suffering a little. I don't have time to travel much, while I previously did a mini travel series for some cities in Japan (link to blog posts for Kobe, Kyoto, Osaka, Fukuoka... a list is in the tags section of my blog). I also stopped cooking as much, when previously I did one cooking post per week. Hopefully, I can start posting more once I'm back in Japan.

On to my Ups and Downs!

Ups:

Lush Dirty Shower Gel

This is the last of the Lush products that I bought in Japan.  A review is coming up!

Bioderma cleanser (link goes to review)

I gave this a "maybe" in my review, but I'm growing to like it a lot. It removes my current mascara (it didn't remove the mascara I wore in my original review), and it is really easy when I come home tired. 

Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye (link goes to review)

I am seriously considering purchasing a full size of this eye cream! I love that it absorbs quickly and does not leave my skin sticky.

Downs:

Moving AGAIN so soon

I'm bummed that I will be missing Eid ul-Fitr (the festival at the end of Ramadan) by a few days, a HUGE cultural part of Indonesia. I'm bummed that I will be missing the best season for mangoes, one of my favorite fruits. I'm tired of having to pack up and move so frequently - this will make the third time in 12 months.

How was your month of April?

xoxo, K

Review: Lush Daddy-O Shampoo - the purple shampoo

(purchased product)

This is a review for the Lush Daddy-O shampoo. This is a purple-tinted shampoo which claims to keep away brassiness in blonde hair. Now, I don't have blonde hair - so why did I purchase this shampoo?

The truth is that when I bought this, I didn't know it was for blonde hair. I also didn't know it was a tinted product!  The "purple tint to keep away brassiness in blondes" claim is clearly stated on the UK version of this product, but not on the Japanese version. I suppose it is because there are less blondes in Japan, but I think people need to know that this is a tinted product!

The Japanese product is called "Sexual Violet No.14", probably after a popular 1970s song called "Sexual Violet No.1" by the Japanese singer Masahiro Kuwana.

What it does: (from the UK bottle)
A purple shampoo to keep blondes from going brassy. Violet and fresh lemons work beautifully together to keep grey and blonde hair bright and shiny (and it works just as well for brunettes too!)
The claim on the Japanese bottle basically omits the first sentence, mentioning that this shampoo will keep hair looking shiny and smelling fresh.

Price: 4.95GBP/100g in the UK, 900JPY/100g in Japan, and $9.95/3.3oz in the US

Where to purchase:  Lush products are available in Lush stores, and Lush Online.

Scent: This product smells like a mixture of floral scents, lemon, and herbs.

Pros:

• On the bottle of the Japanese product, it mentions that this product is formulated for normal to oily hair. This product does a good job of removing oils from the scalp.
• This product rinsed clean and did not make my scalp itch
• A sparkly dark purple shampoo is fun!

Cons:

• I think I have a pretty oily scalp, and I live in a humid country. Yet, I felt that this product stripped too many oils from my hair and scalp
• The purple in this product will stain. After I got some on a towel, I could not rinse the color out until I washed it in the washing machine.

Would I repurchase?  No. I don't know how well this product works to keep away brassiness, but it left my hair too dry.

Unfortunately, this product did not work well for me. I'm not sure that this product should have been released in Japan since the main claim does not work for a large population in Japan. Leaving the claim about the purpleness out felt like misleading to me.

Hope you enjoyed this review!

xoxo, K