Col­or­ways: White

Retail Price: $19.99 + tax in applicable areas

Uses: Exfoliater, cleaner

Over­all Score: 3/5

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to stop using a towel for a sad excuse for exfoliation and purchase a generic brand facial brush from my work. This product was compared to the Olay brand facial brush; compared to the Clarisonic. The price between the three was exponential.  Which made it a decent buy if you’re not interested in dropping $30.00-$200.00 for the Olay or Clarisonic units.

This unit only comes in white. It has two speeds and two directions for maximum exfoliation. It’s pretty gentle, and you can really see the skin and buildup coming off when you rinse the brush. As I used it, I found less and less buildup coming off on the brush. Though if I lapsed, it was right back to pulling off lots. I tend to have lots of build up to begin with due to having large pores on my nose and near my cheeks so if I lapse, it’s like starting all over again. I did notice some skin tightening after using it. It was like my skin was able to breathe properly and because of the blood stimulation, it was better oxygenated. It alleviated some darkness under my eyes because it also worked like a massage for my face.

The one thing I didn’t really notice was any minimization of my pores. I used a daily cleaner from Clearisol to help reduce oil build on my face (it helps some but I’ve got mixed skin). They clear up really nicely, but I probably should use a pore closer right after to help with clogging.

The unit is battery powered. Taking two AA batteries to power it. If you use it a lot, this will make up its cost in batteries alone. If you’ve purchased rechargeable batteries, then this product will actually need minimal charges and will give you more bang for your buck.

The unit is mostly waterproof and the battery cover has two covers for safety! (DO not SUBMERSE IN WATER.) The brush heads are small, but nice and soft with enough stiffness to get the job done. They say you have to replace them as soon as they start to indent or wear; I haven’t noticed any indenting but I’m also not grinding the thing into my face either. 

Overall, it’s good for a cheapie. I don’t expect the motor to last long in it because battery motors tend to wear quickly with exchangeable power sources. It does a decent job of removing makeup and day to day grime but, it may be worth the cost to invest into one that has an AC cord. The one thing I do like a lot though is that your replacement brushes are super cheap. I do recommend it for a broke fashionista who wants to keep her skin looking like porcelain.

Featured outfit of the day! (Meant to post this a bit earlier but I was caught up doing work.) This features Saint Mephisto, and some items I scooped together using Polyvore. It’s a simple coord with more of a focus on the tinier details of the dress coming out in the accents and accessories!

Print Name: Saint Mephisto’s Cathedral

Col­or­ways: Black, Iris, Ivory, Pink

Retail Price: Esti­mated $250-$350USD (Non-inclusive)

Rar­ity: (Of the orig­i­nal) Mod­er­ately Rare

Repli­ca­tor: Oo Jia

Price of Replica: $104.50 USD (inclu­sive of ship­ping)

Over­all Score: 4.5/5

The purchase of this dress was shortly after Oo Jia featured her Iris colorway of Saint Mephisto. I didn’t particularly like it since it seemed a bit “muddy”, if you will. The color seemed off from the photos, so I settled for the black as it looked pretty close in terms of print quality to the brand. It was purchased April 6th, and I received it May 1st.

The print features actually, minor details that are designed to make you look all over. It’s decorated with little white crosses in the pattern and the border print features religious scripts, crosses and a few (of course) cathedrals outlined by roses. It’s very visually appealing and I have already received many comments on it.

The dress is actually quite beautiful for a replica. The details are beautiful, but there are a couple of things that set this off from the original, which we will get to in a bit. It came out of package with just a head bow this time. I was expecting socks again, but I also didn’t ask for them like I did with Midsummer Night. So that was probably my fault.

Beautiful, clear print. The fabric, again, not textured as AATP uses, but that’s one of the details that lets you know this is a replica.

No lace on the hem. The original uses a beautiful, almost hand-tatted looking lace lace that’s very soft to the touch. Oo Jia used grosgrain ribbon in place of the lace. It’s a nice touch but it takes away a little bit of the flare of the bottom. I’m going to see about finding some black chiffon trimming to put around the bottom just to give it a little something extra.

Beautiful stitch work. It’s a lot cleaner than Midsummer night’s dream. There were some crooked seams on the inside of Midsummer, but these are pretty straight and very well put together.

Oo Jia used beautiful venetian lace being used in the bust details. It’s not quite like the lace on the original but this lace is quite the eye-catcher. Very soft to the touch and just beautiful. I kind of wish she had hemmed it with this lace but venetian laces cost a bit more. I remember paying $13.50 a yard on some gorgeous venetian lace I found at a fabric shop. Spensive, but damn does it look good on a garment. 

The dress is a dream fit. Last time, the bust was a bit tight, but for some reason, this dress fits quite a bit better.  I ordered with the same measurements. Maybe it was a fluke, but it’s ok. I’m not bothered by it so much.

Eh, I thew the hair and make up together on a quick whim. It doesn’t really suit the look as well as I would like, but it would really suit hime-lolita or maybe gyaru. 

Publisher: Takayoshi Kurachi (Awaresoft)

Price: Free

Marketplaces: iTunes (Japan, USA, etc)

Compatible: iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later

Overall rating: 3.00/5.00

I have been hanging on to this app for a little while now. I have several methods of tracking my weight and what I consume, but the cutest, and by far the most simple, is a tracker that I found on iTunes Japan while perusing around. (It’s available on the US iTunes market as well) It’s called Simple Weight. Boy, it’s simple too.

The idea behind this application is that you simply track your weight from day to day, with a goal of seeing an over all loss by the end of a week, month or whatever you’re trying to set a goal for. You don’t track your calories, you just keep an eye on the scale. Which for some people, works really well. It allows them to judge what they are that day (or the day before if you weigh in the mornings like I do) that may have lead to a lose or gain on that log.

The application has a beautiful wood theme that you can change. It takes into account your height, age and BMI as well. The calculation input prompts you as soon as you log in so you can’t even try to forget to log your weight for the day.

Seeing your weight displayed in Days, Weeks, and Months allows you to see what your progress looks like on a sliding graph. It really paints a picture about how your weight fluctuates naturally and when you have gains or significant losses. Which I think is something that is important not only to weight loss, but to learning how your body works for yourself.

Mini notes or journals that can be shared among your social feeds are also small contributors to keeping yourself focused and on track with such a simple application. It records how you feel that day which is a huge deciding factor in most weight loss. Too many times, we will over eat, feel guilty and not want to track it. With a rating system for the way you went about your diet and exercise, you feel less like of a sloth/glutton and you’ll probably track it more. Not everyone likes seeing what they ate from day to day and posting it for all to see. It’s tedious to others. This is a happy medium, if you ask me. You can put what you ate, or you can rate it and skip it. 

Over all, this app has been one of the cornerstones to my weight loss journey. I track as often as I can, and I’ve started to recognize patterns in my weight plateaus, gains and losses. This is going to help me, and it’s also going to help my health care provider during visits in a visual way. Maintaining a weight history with your physician is a good idea so he can monitor that you are staying healthy! Having such a convenient app will make this much easier!

That’s gonna be hard for me because I typically never have to save more then 2–3 pay periods for anything. Oh, well. Time to be an adult. 

As a result, I got a few things on my last available weekend down in LA. Mostly collectibles, but I got some make up/bath stuff too since I won’t have the money to make another trip down there for another 6 months at least.

Actually, the 3D case, I bought a couple of weeks back. The front sticker/protector was what I purchased today. It’s actually sitting on top of one of those ZaGG (or whatever) protectors, so I actually have two skins on my iphone.  Mostly, this is because I’m paranoid about my screen getting cracked or scratched. Thankfully, it hasn’t affected the sensitivity of my screen, so I can carry on like a weirdo.

Mobile phone/card case because Richard says I lose my phone too often. “You lose it in your hand.” He even thinks that I’d lose it in the case while it’s sitting around my neck.

Phone stand! I wanted to buy a cradle, but when I saw this thing, I jumped for it.

You can see how grossly large my san-x collection is getting in the background. 

Found a Swimmer bambi headband/earmuff at Q-Pop! Amazing find, considering that these have been sold out for like 5 months.

My largest purchase of the day. Literally and financially.   A giant korilakkuma pullow. It takes up nearly the whole width of my bed. I’m not really sure if I want to take it out of the packaging because I’d hate for it to get schmutzy. Maybe I’ll just pull a granny move and keep the plastic on the pillow. 

Print Name: Midsummer Night Dream Version II

Colorways: Navy, Ivory, Black

Retail Price: Estimated $250-$350USD (Non-inclusive)

Rarity: (Of the original) Moderately Rare

Replicator: Oo Jia

Price of Replica: $104.50 USD (inclusive of shipping, and extras)

Overall Score: 4/5

On Tuesday, I received the Oo Jia replica I ordered in February. I have never ordered from Oo Jia so this is a first time, unbiased review for her and her replications.

I IM’d her via Facebook on the 12th of February and received it just about a month later. I have heard of occasional delay, so the experience with shipping and make time will vary with her.

The package was surprisingly undamaged except for what looks like a hole that someone tried to poke open. The overall package looked like it hadn’t spent more than a day in transit.

Packaged dress shown here. Already, you can see the details of the dress. They look fairly decent.

The first things to come out of the wrapping! A headbow, corset-lacing bodice bows and a pair of Secret Shop socks.

The dress laid out is quite impressive. It has volume of its own without a petticoat, and while missing a few minor details, the print quality is surprisingly vivid and accurate with minimal edge blurring.

The back of the dress is shirred with the lace serving as the looping for the corset ties. As far as the sizing accuracy goes for this dress, I’d say it was ok. It was a little on the tight side, but it’s not terrible and unwearable. The zipper does get stuck (actually, most invisa-zips seem to do this. Or atleast they do for me. orz)

Details in the straps of the JSK.

Having seen this print in real life, it looks almost real. The actual give away, isn’t so much the print quality itself, rather, the original has a type of waffle weave in the fabric and because of this, you can see the texture of it from a glance. The replica is printed on a poplin(?) cotton and is very smooth to look at. 

The beautiful silver rose buttons used to attach the waist ties.

The brand name of the original printed on to the replica. Which doesn’t bother me because it shows who really owns the print.

The stitch quality. Not terrible. So far, I’ve only found two loose threads that were probably from the bobbin thread.

On the ruffle of the dress, I did find a few weird little white spots in the print that shouldn’t be there. Keep in mind however, I was scrutinizing this dress with pretty much a magnifying glass.

The only thing I hate about the head bow (actually this goes for the bodice bows too) is that the middle is not secured entirely. Thus, the bottom wings of the bow are free to slide around giving them a sloppy look. Especially so for the bodice bows because they are satin and that stuff slides like ice on glass.

Decent looking but slippery. The pins in them aren’t secured either.

Over all, I really do like this replica. I made a mistake in the type of JSK I wanted as I wanted JSK ver. I and not Ver II (shown). This was entirely my fault. The extra bow on the bodice does not suit me, so adding a waist belt, helps with defining my shape in the (for me) some-what unflattering cut. I give this an 4/5

Alterations I am considering:

- A pocket.

- Removal of the bottom bodice bow/lacing.

Suddenly, Fenix is a camera ham. 

Anyways, I wanted to share the things that inspire me to be fit. (of course, it’s mostly wishlist items. Oh well. LOL)

Mostly, it’s my extreme desire to wear one-piece style minis and salopettes from Angelic Pretty. I’m not a sweet lolita, but the two minis that you see listed don’t really strike me as “sweet” per se. I get more fairy-kei or maybe even gyaru.  I could really see them working for gyaru. (Roma-gyaru maybe? IDK.)

Now, why would I pick dresses as my fitspiration? Why not a person or something? Because when you have to rip open a coveted and rare print (Lotta deer…) it breaks my heart. It really does. I just forced a dress to fit me instead of working to fit the dress. All I want to do is take it back in and remove the panel I added. Even if I can’t fit any of the dresses shown after I lose weight, I’d like to take Lotta back in and wear it the way it was intended to be worn. That’s just my wish.

These past weeks have been absolutely atrocious and I feel like I’m gonna die from the mental exhaustion.

Some amazing news, I was hired by CVS Pharmacy as a technician. Even though it’s not much more than Clark’s as far as pay goes, the hours will be full time which is something I could really use right now. I was able to quit Clark’s as my bills are up to date, and won’t be needing money until April or so. (They haven’t given me a schedule yet because they’re waiting on drug test results. Which are drug free, cause drugs are bad, mmkay.)

Some bad news: Richard’s appendix burst.  He was rushed to the ER by family for excruciating bloat and abdominal pain, and in the middle of surgery it ruptured. Thankfully, it was under the eye of the surgeon that it did, because a ruptured appendix is actually quite fatal. They had the surgical trauma team called up for him and everything. It was bad timing and now my poor baby is at home with a drainage tube on his gut and has only just begun eating solids. (This is after nearly a week and a half of no appetite)

We’re keeping an eye on him, but he’s also on some heavy duty antibiotics and antibacterials (Metronidazole and Ciprofloxapin) to keep infections like peritonitis from setting in. That was a huge issue with the rupture because of all the contaminants and such coming into contact with the rest of the lower abdominal cavity. Yeck. In all cases though, he’s faring well, and is even walking around now.