Sakuraism Mood

There's a story told of a little Japanese,
Sitting demurely 'neath the cherry blossom trees.

-- Frank Sinatra "Poor Butterfly"

    To start the post I must say that the words "Limited Edition" should be declared a crime. Yes, the THREE Sakuraism collection is just that criminally evil. As usual I was late to the game, but fortunately not too much so as at the time I was struck by those gorgeous pink-themed promo visuals, the collection was not yet on sale in Tokyo (sold out everywhere in Taiwan though). With the help of Fude Japan, I managed to acquire these lovely pinks at about the same price in Taiwan inclusive of tax, EMS postage and service charge (and a whole lot of Japanese snack freebies ; )  ) . 

    文章開頭一定要說一下，＂限量＂這兩個字真的是太犯規了！！THREE今年超夯的櫻花限定系列就是這麼犯規的邪惡 orz   這次我依然是很慢才被燒到，不過幸好不算太遲，因為當我被粉嫩的宣傳形象照煞到的時候東京區根本還沒開賣  < (￣︶￣)>  （日本按櫻花花期分段上市，在較早上市的台灣則大部分都完售了）。於是聯絡了日本代買 Fude Japan，成功入手了這些粉嫩嫩的戰利品，彩妝品本身+稅+代買費+EMS郵費加起來的價格比在台灣專櫃買還便宜一點點 XDD（然後代買還附了一堆的日本零食 :P）。

    My new acquisitions include the blush in S01 Sakuraism Rising, the eye gloss in S01 Sakuraism Whisper and the lip jam in S01 Sakuraism Sweet, all from the limited edition THREE Sakuraism collection. The swatches on paper in the photo above are taken under indoor natural lighting, with the lip jam on the leftmost, then the eye gloss and the blush (unfortunately the blush does not swatch well on paper, it took considerable finger exertion to achieve this level of (sorta lame) colour payoff ).

    這次入手的是THREE櫻花限定系列的蜜光修容 S01 Sakuraism Rising、魅光眼彩蜜 S01 Sakuraism Whisper 和魅光唇果蜜 S01 Sakuraism Sweet。上面這張是紙上試色，在室內自然光下 － 左起為唇蜜，眼蜜跟腮紅（不過這腮紅在紙上超不吃色的，用手指上了好幾次也只能呈現到這樣的程度  ╮(╯_╰)╭

   

    This is how it looks with only the S01 eye gloss and eyeliner. The colour is a very delicate girlish pink. While I saw some reviews that mentioned the non-LE eye glosses have more of a wet glossy effect, this one I think is not that wet, it is more of a sheer eye colour yet with rather good colour payoff (a bit confusing, I know). If you look closely you can see micro shimmers in the bottle, but it's imperceptible on the lids really. This product blends easily so application is a breeze, but it does crease on me unfortunately (which probably has a lot to do with my being lazy and not using a primer first, duh  :P

    這是只上了S01眼彩蜜加眼線的樣子。顏色就是非常粉嫩溫柔的嬰兒粉。看其他心得文有說常態版眼蜜是屬於比較濕潤的妝感，但是這隻我覺得沒那麼濕潤，大概是顯色但又透亮的妝感（？）。細看瓶身是有細微珠光的，但是在眼皮上看不出來。質地非常好推但是對我來說會積線  (〒︿〒) （不過也可能是因為我偷懶沒用眼部打底啦 XD

    The lip jam, on the other hand, is more of a coral pink. I applied some foundation over the lips in the picture above, so this is a rather accurate presentation of what the colour actually looks like. I love the fact that it is not sticky and has great colour payoff, it does not hide lines nor does it emphasize them. I did not use any lip balm or primer prior to this, so I'd say the moistening effect of this lip jam is quite good as my lips does not look overly dry. As for the blush, I'm sorry I did not take a close-up pic, but you can perceive from the photo above that it is, again, of a sheer quality with great colour payoff. It's a bright pink with a tinge of red in the pan, but on the cheeks it is a girlish pink with a sheerness that reminds me of the English rose complexion.  

    唇蜜的話，顏色比較偏珊瑚粉。上面的照片因為我有先上一點粉底液稍微遮一下唇色，所以呈現的唇蜜本身的顏色應該滿準的。這隻唇蜜我覺得很好用喔，顯色度不錯而且不黏，不太遮唇紋但也不會讓唇紋更明顯。今天所有照片中的唇妝都是在沒有先上護唇或潤唇產品的情況下拍的，我對這隻唇蜜的潤澤妝效還挺滿意的，至少雙唇看起來不會太乾。至於腮紅，很抱歉沒有拍細節照，不過從上面那張應該看得出來它也是走顯色的透亮感的妝效。看腮紅盤本身好像是個帶點紅色調的亮粉紅，但是上在蘋果肌上是好氣色的少女粉紅，而且有點像所謂英倫玫瑰般白裡透紅的透亮效果。

    Please bear with me awhile with the flower wreaths and such, I can't help wanting to transform into another character when doing this kind of more romantic or delicate makeup. I used all three Sakuraism products in this look, but I did not use any foundation on the lips in these photos, so the colour is slightly deeper as my lips were rather pigmented on their own.

    哈哈～請不要介意我花癡的玫瑰頭飾啦，畫這種比較浪漫或誇張的妝容我都忍不住想要整體造型也跟著彩妝主題走。這組照片三樣櫻花限定系列都用上了，不過這部分照片我就沒用粉底液遮唇色，因為我本身唇就滿紅的所以這邊顏色會看起來深一點。

    Here's a video featuring swatches of the three items -- from left, the lip jam, the eye gloss and the blush (as you can see it swatches much better on skin than paper). And lately I've been wearing just brow makeup and the blush to work -- no base makeup other than sunscreen so the dark circles were a bit pronounced, but the blush gave a lovely healthy glow so I'm happy as a clam. 

    拍了個小影片呈現三樣櫻花限定的試色 － 一樣左起為唇蜜，然後依次是眼蜜跟腮紅（可以看出來腮紅在皮膚上比在紙上顯色多了）。然後後面是最近喜歡的上班狀態，只擦防曬跟畫眉毛和腮紅 － 沒有上底妝只擦了防曬所以黑眼圈略明顯，不過S01腮紅薄擦時血色感超棒看上去氣色很好。

    As usual, I'm ending the post with a medley of Instagram pics ( @bonjourjasmineblog ), that BH Cosmetics eyeshadow palette is sooo gorgeous though!

    照例來個Instagram近期照片（帳號 @bonjourjasmineblog）的拼圖當結尾，那盤最近收到的BH Cosmetics 120色眼影真的超級美 ♥

Bises! ♥♥

Through the Looking Glass

Through the looking glass we go,
Searching for the way things used to be.

-- Wonderland "Through the Looking Glass"

NOTES

    Ah, perhaps the last post of my London adventure. On the third day of my London stay, we headed to the beautiful Natural History Museum down South Kensington. The ornate architecture is an attraction in itself, not to mention the tens of thousands of rare specimens housed within its four wings, the most famous being, of course, the gigantic Diplodocus skeleton replica in the central hall affectionately nicknamed "Dippy". We had a leisurely yet informative time strolling along the Romanesque corridors learning about the geological components of the Earth, experiencing volcano and earthquake simulations, admiring the utterly lifelike taxidermied specimens and generally being disconcerted by the roaring and moving dinosaurs occupying the paleontology zone.

    噢～總算來到倫敦穿搭筆記的尾聲啦。在倫敦的第三天我們去了南肯辛頓的大英自然史博物館。博物館本身華麗的建築就是個景點了，更別用說裡面四個大分區裡收藏的成千上萬的稀有標本。當中最有名的鎮館之寶當屬中央大廳裡暱稱為 "Dippy" 的巨型梁龍模型吧！一整個上午走在各個美麗的羅馬式長廊裡，用閒晃的方式學習地球的地質組成、體驗了火山爆發及地震的模擬實驗、欣賞了栩栩如生的各種動物標本以及被古生物展示區裡的會動會吼的仿真恐龍搞到心裡略毛毛的 XDD

    Afternoon had me literally skipping on my way to the Sanderson for a very unique tea experience. The Mad Hatter's Tea held in the courtyard garden of the hotel has the rather self-explanatory theme of Alice in Wonderland, where you'll find menus hidden in old books, sugar cubes in music boxes, crockery and cake trays adorned with matching fanciful prints. For the occasion, I wore the Les Néréides N2 Alice in Wonderland necklace and brought along my trusty blue mouse to add to the whimsy. The food, too, echoed the playful theme, with carrot meringues and strawberry toadstool marshmallows hidden in tufts of grass, the Queen of Hearts and the White Rabbit's pocketwatch in your cakes, a drinkable 　passion fruit pudding and cake that you sip from a potion bottle tied with a "Drink Me" label and a colourful selection of savouries and scones to satisfy your salt cravings. A table of fruit jellies awaits after you have had your fill of cakes and pastries. Yet to me, the highlight of this experience was the tea itself, with a rather unorthodox selection of "Rhubarb and Custard", "Mint Choc Chip", "Strawberries and Cream" and "Apple Pie" flavours. Each one of them was utterly delicious and flavourful, I was sorely tempted to buy one of every flavour until the waitress told me "No, we do not sell them" (sob). As I emerged "from the rabbit hole" like Alice, I felt as if the magic lingered in the air, as if a talking white rabbit would, anytime now, rushed you by with a pocketwatch in tow, scurrying into the busy traffic of Oxford Street. Or I probably just had too much tea.

    下午帶著雀躍的心情來到了桑德森酒店，準備來一場特別的下午茶。這場Mad Hatter's Tea是辦在酒店的開放式庭園裡（當天有點飄雨所以有用透明布簾擋著），是個以愛麗絲夢遊仙境為主題的充滿驚喜的午茶。你會發現菜單藏在舊書本裡，方糖收在音樂盒中，杯子跟碟子們的印花可以拼成一個完整的童趣的圖案。於是我特地戴了Les Néréides N2的愛麗絲項鍊應景，還拎了個童趣的藍色小老鼠包 XDD  餐點方面一樣充滿愛麗絲童話的元素，最上層的杯子裡有蘿蔔蛋白糖霜餅跟草莓蘑菇棉花糖在草叢裡跟你玩躲貓貓，蛋糕中可以遇見紅心皇后跟白兔的懷表。盤子上還有一個標著＂飲我＂的小藥瓶，裡面是可以吸食的百香果布丁蛋糕，最下層滿滿五顏六色的三明治、鹹派和司康餅來滿足鹹點愛好者的口味。這些都吃完後，還有一整桌的各色果凍等著你。然而對我來說，最驚豔的是他們的獨家調製茶，雖然是一些有別於傳統的口味，比如＂大黃卡士達＂、＂薄荷巧克力碎片＂、＂草莓鮮奶油＂和＂蘋果派＂，但每一種都超好喝也有符合名字的獨特香味。當時超想每種口味都買回家，結果服務員告訴我他們家的茶是不賣的  (T︿T)   不過當我從那個＂兔洞＂走出來時，總覺得空氣裡依然停留著奇幻的喜悅，彷彿隨時會有隻手托懷錶的兔子先生從你眼前擦肩而過然後消失在對面牛津街的匆匆人潮裡（大約是我茶喝多了的妄想 ; )

Bises! ♥♥