I don't think many people are interested at all in what kinds of cosmetics and stationeries I use, haha, but today, I'll introduce some of my favorites.
The photo above shows a cosmetic pouch I bought last month. I haven't used it yet, actually. It's too cute to use.
Photo (left): loose leaf holders. Purple is Rapunzel from "Tangled," and yellow is Belle from "Beauty & the Beast." Photo (right): a memo pad & an appointment book of "Beauty & the Beast."
Card holders. Purple one is "Tangled" and yellow is "Beauty & the Beast."
I use Belle's for restaurants' cards including Eggs 'n Things locations that I've visited so far.
I've been to 9 locations in Kanto region and Kyoto location of Eggs 'n Things, and I wanna visit the other locaitons too in my 30s, to enjoy each original menu and to meet OHANA, staff members of Eggs 'n Things. Well, of couse this card folder has other restaurants' cards too. For example, my favorite Korean restaurant and Vietnamese cuisine restaurant located in Akasaka. I'll write about them some other time.
I bought many of them at some Kiddy Land shops. You know what? Kiddy Land's Harajuku location has been there for many years. I remember I sometimes went there when I was little.
I like "Beauty & the Beast" the best among Disney animated movies, so I got Bell's items. Actually, yellow was not my favorite color before, but for me, now it's the color of Eggs 'n Things, you know. And I do like purple color, so that's why I chose Rapunzel's ones. Though I got them last month, it seems that this series was released in April this year, and the series has more items and characters too, such as Ariel from "the Little Mermaid"and Alice from "Alice's Adventure in Wonderland". I'm afraid most of the item sold out and are not available now.
I don't know who the illustrater is, but I like her or his drawing and coloring. Above all, the idea is amazing. I mean, various makeup items that remind us of each character's feature and story. I think some of them should be real makeup products.
These disney princes' items are "Makeup Rouge" series produced by Kamio Japan. It's not a famous company, but it has released a lot of cute goods including disney items like these, and their disney princes' items must have fans. I hear a new version of "Makeup Rouge" has been released, next time with Jasmin from "Alaggin", Ariel, Alice and Rapunzel.
These letter writing sets are also from Kamio Japan. I got them a few years ago.
These are too. The right photo shows sticky memos and the left one is the photo of boxes for gifts. I use the boxes to place stickers.
Belle's makeup bag with Tully's Hot Honey Milk Latte.
To be honest, I sometimes don't make myself up ... it's a bother sometimes. I don't change that much with makeup. Besides, I don't look good in photos even though I wear makeup. Oh, if we don't wear makeup, Japanese people call this state すっぴん (suppin).
But, some makeup products make me feel like putting on makeup.
First of all, eyeshadows of "ESPRIQUE", a brand by Kose.
I started to use ESPRIQUE's "select eye colors" last year. I like KATE's eyeshadows too, one of the popular brands of Kanebo. Some of their colors are like moon colors. ESPRIQUE's eyeshadows are also popular. Each color is beautiful, and their items are offered at a reasonal price. It sometimes offers limited colors.
Also, ESPRIQUE sells other cosmetic items, and it seems that ESPRIQUE releases their gel-type pencil eyeliners in limited design this week, on November 16. 
Though this limited design is to my taste, which has a moon and stars, I prefer liquid eyeliners to pencil ones, so I don't think I'll buy one, but I'm looking forwad to new colors of ESPRIQUE's eyeshadows. I really like their purple color, which is not a limited one, and I have two in the color as the photo shows. I have pink color's too, though I haven't taken pictures of this. But I don't have their light green one yet, and it looks beautiful, so I'll have it soon.
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Second, mascara and lip gloss of OROFLUIDO.
My sister gave OROFLUIDO's makeup items because she doesn't have to make herself up while taking maternity leave and raising children. I didn't know this brand at all before my sis gave these to me. It's not a Japanese brand while many of the cosmetic brands I introduce today were born in Japan, I think.
I took the photos above and below just today. I use these two almost every time I make myself up afer I got them, so some parts of both surfaces are peeling off. Their surfaces are like mirrors, see? Well, I should have taken photos of these two products before I started to use them. They were new and looked more cool without any flaws.
They are lighting up like this when we remove each cap. On top of that, both items smell great when they are opened. I do like especially OROFLUIDO's lip gloss, so after I use it up, I'll buy a new one. I wonder where I can find it.
Dejavu is also a popular item in Japan.ﾟ･:,｡ﾟ･:,｡★ﾟ･:,｡ﾟ･:,｡☆ﾟ･:,｡ﾟ･:,｡★ﾟ･:,｡ﾟ･:,｡☆ﾟ･:,｡ﾟ･:,｡★ﾟ･:,｡ﾟ･:,｡☆ﾟ･:,｡ﾟ･:,｡★ﾟ･:,｡ﾟ･:,｡☆ﾟ･:,｡ﾟ･:,｡★ﾟ･:,｡ﾟ･:,｡☆
Fourth, Cherry Blossom Shimmering Body Milk of L'OCCITANE.
This item is great.
It's color, fragrance, appearance, shining ... I really like this.
Cherry blossoms, or sakura, are famous spring flowers and many tourists from other countries come to Japan to see sakura, and Japanese people also enjoy sakura.
The left pink one is Tully's "coffee drop glass," which was realesed in spring this year and came in 2 colors. I think some locations still have this. The other color is brown, and both are useful. Oh, I took the photos of Cherry Blossom Shimmering Body Milk before I started to use it. I bought that in spring this year, so that's why it's next to the Tully's item that started to be sold in the spring. I checked my appointment book and I find I bought both of them on the same day in March this year.
LOCCITANE's Cherry Blossom Shimmering Body Milk is a long seller, and it has been sold for years, maybe almost 8 years or so, I guess.
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Fifth, Gloss of ARIMINO's Spice tube series. It's a hair wax, actually. Spice series has many other products, and there's a purple one in the same shape (I mean the same tube type) with circles on it, but I always use this stars printed one.
I first use this item when I was a high school student and had my hair cut short. I still use this though my hair is long. This smells good. Guess what? Recently I've got a new one. The photo shows the previous one, though.
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Sixth and the last one, "media BB cream" from Kanebo. I guess this is the 3rd or 4th one of the same item that I bought, so I use the same brand's BB cream again and again. Though the characters fade away and are difficult to read, it says "BB cream m media Kanebo".
To be honest, I use this as a liquid foundation and that's all. I apply this foundation with my fingers. I guess some people use this kind of item (maybe CC cream, not BB cream?) as a base makeup and use a foundation after this step, but I just don't think applying too much and using too many cosmetic items are good for skin. I don't exactly know the difference between BB creams and CC creams, but I read people using BB cream just wear that as a liquid foundation while people with CC cream apply foundation after using it.
Kanebo's media BB cream comes in three colors: 01. Bright Skin Color, 02. Natural Skin Color, and 03. Healthy and Natural Skin Color. My skin is not white, and I always use the number 3 one.
Kanebo's media BB cream works great on my sensitive skin, and it saves my life, haha. But I'm serious.
I started to wear makeup after entering university, so I was 18 years old. My mother bought makeup items of Shiseido's MAQuillAGE for me, like its foundation, eyeshadow and so on. Actually, I used to use powder foundation when I was in my late teens and in my early 20s. But I found liquid foundations (strictly speaking BB creams) match my skin. I'm not sure I've tried CC creams before though.
Nice skin gives me confidence even though I can't get any younger. I think especially women want to get great skin. I didn't get it when I was younger, but I came to understand why. To tell the truth, my skin is more beautiful than it was in my early 20s, I think. My skin was terrible especially around 20 years old. Now I'm 30 years old but I have better skin. Why is that? I think it's because I got stronger as I got older, and mental strength affects my physical health and vice versa. Also, they affect skin, I guess. Like, gastrointestinal conditions have an effect on skin condition.
This reminds me that I suffered from IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, when I was 20 years old or so.
I still remember that one day I woke up, looked at the mirror, and I was very shocked to learn that my skin was ... how should I put it in English? I saw a large number of red bumps on my face ... around my neck and chin. I was having a lot of red bumps overnight.
I don't remeber exactly when it was, but I remember it was in the summer or in the autumn in 2007 or so.
On top of that, since that day, I had been having a stomachache all the time every day until I cured IBS. I went to some hospitals and doctors told me I had IBS and that stomach pains and skin problems occurred because of this disorder. You know, hair goes gray overnight from stress in some cases while alopecia areata is caused by stressed. In my case, I usually get a stomachache when I'm stressed, but that was the first time I had ever suffered (or suffered) from troublesome disorder like that.
I couldn't eat enough and have enough sleep either for almost half a year because of stomachache, and I lost 10 kg or more in a few months. Besides, it took almost a year to recover from my bad skin. It hurt sometimes. I don't know exactly when those red bumps completely dissapeared, but it took time. I tried hiding red bumps around my neck and lower jaw by wearing a turtleneck and applying too much powder foundation only to make my skin worse. As I mentioned earlier, I used powder foundation at that time, but I don't think I should have applied powder foundation to red bumps on my face in the first place though I was ashamed of my bad skin. I shouldn't have worn a turteneck, either. Actually, to heal my skin faster, I took herbal medicine, but it didn't work. To calm the autonomic nervous system, I swam quite often, maybe almost every day, and it calmed me down, so it worked more or less. I started to go to the gym before IBS happened.
At firtst, I worked out very hard, such as sit-ups, push-ups and back extensions, and after that I swam for at least an hour. I heard IBS has some types; IBS-C, IBS-M, IBS-D, and IBS-U. I suffer from IBS-C, Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Constipation. And some say those who suffer from IBS with Constipation need to calm and relax the autonomic nerve system, and that working out especially doing sit-ups has an opposite effect on them like the old me, because autonomic nerves (I guess one of these two, the sympathetic nerve and the parasympathetic nerve) work more actively by workout and it's not good for them, according to this theory. On the other hand, others say those with IBS-C should train their abdominal muscles. I'm not sure which is true or wrong, but while I suffered from IBS-C, I decided not to work out too much, and concentrated on swimming instead because I realized swimming is good for my mental health as well as my physical health. Above all, I enjoyed swimming though I didn't like it at all when I was much younger.
From this experience, I learned a lot. One of them is that physical health is deeply connected to mental health and that skin can be a barometer of mental health and physical health. I know some people have stronger skin naturally while other people have sensitive skin like me, just in case. What we eat in our daily lives does affect our skin, you know, but before IBS-C happened, I had a balanced diet. Still, it occurred, mainly because I felt stressed, though I didn't notice until then. I was sensitive and tended to think negatively, but I grew up and can look at the bright side of life.
You know what? When I was a teenager, I used to read "Don't Sweat The Small Stuff ... and It's All Small Stuff," do you know that? It is a popular book written by the author in the United States and was published many years ago, and here in Japan, many people have read this in Japanese, I think. The Japanese translation of this "小さいことにくよくよするな！しょせん、すべては小さなこと." I've read a series, which consists of three or four volumes. I threw away all of them, but I still have a picture book of this. It was published by a Japanese publisher, but this picture book has English sentences as well, so I didn't throw it away to learn English, maybe. But I feel like reading the 1st and the original volume again. 
From the picture book, I especially like these; Understand the Statement, "Wherenever You Go, There You Are." and "Be Happy Where You Are."
I guess some wonder why today's title is like that though I've written about cosmetic items. There are reasons. Well, the words themselves are printed in the Belle's makeup bag I mentioned earlier and they exactly come from "Beauty & the Beast." One reason is that I couldn't come up with the better title, and another is that I think it's ture, and I also think his or her inner beauty can be seen to some extent by seeing their appearances including facial expressions and atmospheres. How should I say? It's not only about mental and physical health. It's not about skin or makeups or outfits. It's about what they think, how they think or feel ... it's difficult to explain. I'll try though. ←I'll write about it maybe some other time.
Personally, I want to age gracefully, with beautiful mind and heart. For example, Hiromi Nagasaku and Kyoka Suzuki ... both of them are Japanese female actors, and they look much younger than their real age. Both are in their 40s, but they do look younger. I actually don't watch Japanese films and dramas and I like watching English movies instead, but they are my favorite Japanese actors. Many Japanese people agree that they have nice skin and that the former is beautiful and the latter is cute. I guess (and I hope) they are not mean to other women and younger girls who are as popular as they are, look happy, or more popular or stand out more than they do. I'd say some women with ugly mind and heart in their age are very mean to women and younger girls and they look ugly though some of them are doing many things for their beauty. Sorry to say this. In my opinion, they have NOT aged gracefully. Even though some people look very happy and don't seem to have any troubles, worries or difficulties, everyone has difficulties or hardships in their lives, you know. Why can't mean people understand this?
Good night. A good night's sleep is good for your skin, you know.
I took this photo in spring this year after one of my favorite Tully's Coffee locations gave black hats to me. In the photo above, Kuro is sleeping with a hat on his head. That pink dressing table behind Kuro, I have been using for many years since I was a teenager. LOCCITANE's Cherry Blossom item looks cuter on that dressing table, right?
Well, how old do you think he is?
Actually, in human years, he is 88 years old or older. He looks younger, right? When I first met him, he was an abandoned kitten, and I was 12 years old or so. Almost 18 years have passed since then. Well, he drinks a lot of water every day, and he sleeps a lot, haha. He sometimes snores loudly...