In the 7 years i've lived in Japan i've only been in the country twice during New Years so this year was only my second time to take part in these and I was very excited. The last time I did it was in 2007 and I feel like it changed a little bit. In 2007 many stores weren't open on Jan 1 so the biggest day was the 2nd. This year I went on the 2nd but found most of the bags to be sold out because they did it on the 1st. Also last time the bags were more of a "surprise". You only vaguely knew what would be in it but this year you mostly knew what was going to be in them and for some stores you could even look in the bags. I think this is partially related to the economy-people not wanting to take so much of a risk but to me it took some of the fun out of it. This year I had it planned out a bit better than I did in 2007 but if i'm here to do it next year I want to plan it out better because its very busy and helps if you know where you want to go.
Fukubukuro I got this year were: Rimmel, Revlon, Converse, and Lush. I also got a few other items which were mostly on sale. Makeup bags are my favorite because I'm the least picky with makeup and I like to try different things. But this year there weren't as many. I wanted Bourjois and Anna Sui ones but I didn't find any, they had the YSL ones I got before but they were very...foundation oriented with alot of highlighters in them and stuff and not really anything interesting. We debated an SK-II bag which was a good deal but eventually passed on it because neither of us were very familiar with that brand and I would rather try a sample before spending 60 bucks on the bag. The most popular bags seem to be clothing ones, but I am far too picky about clothes to ever get one of those.
Without further delay here is the haul.
Revlon: This pack came with two Age Defying powders which I don't really know too much about. I'll give them a try but I doubt the colors are going to be a good match for me. Two Top Speed nail polishes in Celestial and Ocean. Revlon Lip Butter in #50 and a Just Bitten Kissable balm stain in Precious. I'm actually not that crazy about lip butters but I'll try them anyway. The Celestial nail polish is really pretty, its a moon and star glitter polish. The item I was most happy about is the balm stain because i've been wanting to try one for a long time. This is by far a more nude color that I would usually go for but its sheer enough it looks pretty good.
Two of the items did not actually come in my bag, my friend gave them to me from her bag because she didn't like them and was going to trash them. They are a Lip butter in #20 and a nail polish in Fearless.
Rimmel: This bag had three Speedy Finish polishes in #400, #804 and #300. I like all of them except for the peach one in the middle but I can probably figure out a way to use it. Then I got two lipglosses, nude plump in #14 and soft creamy in #4. They are not bad but I rarely wear lipglosses. Then I got an Adjustable Volume mascara, which haven't really figured out yet, but one can always use new mascara! By far the best part of this bag was the eye palette in #4. Its pigmented, soft and very wearable.
Homei: Not really a lucky bag because this was a clear bag of 3 nail polishes for ¥500 ($5). I've always liked this brand of polish because its usually thick glitter. The colors are 18k, d-19, and 7k.
Converse: This bag worked out really well because I was planning to buy those black converse anyway. The bag was ¥7000 ($70) for two pairs, converse are usually ¥4000 ($40) in Japan so its basically like 10 off. The bag said you would get the black pair and then a mystery pair, so the white pair was the surprise pair. I like them and will wear them, I just probably wouldn't have chosen them myself but I wear the hell out of converse so they are still worth it.
Lush: I was excited for this one. Lush did several different lucky boxes such as bath, shower, skin care, soap. I chose the bath one because I knew I would use whatever I got since there are no Lush bath products I *hate*. The box was ¥3000 ($30) for 7 products, a pretty good deal. The top one is a duck shape which i've never seen before but it smells really good. After some digging I found out its an easter bath bomb called Henata. The next 2 are Twilight and Spacegirl both of which i've used before and like. Next is Avobath and ickle baby bot neither of which I tried but both smell pretty good. Next is pop in the bath which i've had before and like, and last is Karma which i've never tried but also smells nice. Of this set my least favorites are avobath and karma, I just never loved the scents enough to actually buy them but they don't smell bad or anything, I just have too many favorites I would purchase instead.
Thats all for the lucky bags, I thought I would have wanted a body shop bag but they were disappointing. You could see everything in them and they had 3 different types, it was all stuff I had or didn't like, such as Moringa and Pink Grapefruit. But I guess its good I didn't like any of their bags because I have SO MUCH Body shop stuff already. The next few items are just sale things I picked up.
I got this horse calendar set that I just saw randomly in a store. Theres a different horse for each month. I get excited any time I see a horse item in Japan and I have to buy it. Horses are just not that popular in Japan so finding any horse stuff is rare and being an equestrian I miss them.
This item was not on sale but I got really excited when I saw it, its called Maybelline Color Ink which is Japan's version of the color tattoos which i've been wanting to try for ages. This color is the pink one. I wasn't going to buy it because it was ¥1000 ($10) but then I swatched it and hours later it just DID NOT come off (and looked pretty) so I went back to get it. If this color works out I will try some of the brighter colors.
I got this gorgeous purple damask bath towel on sale at Loft, I might have to go back and get more. I'm sad they don't have hand or face towels though. I just trashed a bunch of my grimy towels so this worked out well since I actually NEED towels.
Last but not least my favorite item from the trip, these awesome boots at Seibu. A bit pricey but still on sale, I can't remember the brand though. They are SO SOFT and fit me perfectly. This was the last pair left and it was in my size so it must have been meant to be! I didn't plan to buy boots on this shopping trip. I was actually going to buy a chanel blush and maybe some other makeup items but in both of the chanel counters we went to it was sold out. I had a chunk of money left so I decided to look at the shoes, I needed either work shoes or some short boots. I'm so glad I finally found some short boots before winter is over.
And thats all for my new years haul, if you want a review of any individual item post it in the comments below.
