Hello! I've been a good adult and been diligently saving my money. I've left my bank account be basically at a standstill throughout much of this month until my car payment came out on the 10th (so I'd for sure have enough $$) and insurance, yesterday, even though I've been in turn, using my credit card more food purchases. I've been good!

Yesterday, I went on a short, unexpected trip up north, to Seattle. I drove and mainly went for the driving practice (that was my first time of ME driving to Seattle) and also that I haven't been up there for almost two years, so I figured why not. In retrospect, I do prefer the roads south, towards Portland and will probably not do a drive north again for a long while--too much stress. Unless, there's a meetup....but, just...no.

Anyway, I did spend a little more than I anticipated but my plan was to buy a couple of products for my body, to expand/start a routine for the rest of my body.  I am also going on a no-buy until I use up more products, probably until October, and will be increasing the reviews on here again.
Compared my usual haunts at the Uwajimaya down in Beaverton, the Seattle store has a lot more range. During this visit, I realised two important things: a) Japanese products are generally more expensive than Korean and in turn, don't get as high of rabid following as Korean products do, especially on US-centric social media, but that doesn't mean that Japanese products are inherently bad or lesser quality that Korean products, so J-beauty deserves some love (including on my own SNS); and b) I really fucking love skincare!!!

Basically, I had a blast reading kanji and all the brand names on the products. I had forgotten how much Japanese I actually know, as I've been leaning toward trying to learn bits of Korean, and I just fell in love, all of again.

For the small area, Uwajimaya packs in A LOT of product.

This is the back wall, with most of the makeup items (should I say eye-tems), mostly eyeliner, mascara and lip care, plus tools. I saw a wide range of Herione Make and a bunch of Dolly Wink products--all of it was almost overwhelming.






Spotted Kumamon on the front of these organic skin creams, next to Dolly Wink lashes:






Directly underneath the back wall was more product. Right in the middle was where I found Kikumasamune mask packs (center front in photo), each containing 7 masks; the wipes and also My Beauty Diary eye masks (right)--something I've only seen on other folks' blogs.









A lot of goodies:



Hada Labo!!! I almost considering buying the Oil Cleanser ($18) but for that price, I knew I could buy it online off of eBay for more around $12. I also took some photos as visual reminders to myself of products to go look up Japanese review of, in the next couple of weeks--I definitely did not capture it all.

Loshi horse oil products are on the bottom shelf.



Lots of "whitening" bihada products and more Biore cleansing goodies. I did wonder about that Hada Labo Shirojun set (bottom shelf, right) and the price, but I didn't think to check ahahaha!

(continued in the same aisle)

I'm kind of regretting not picking up one of SANA's ZuboLabo emulsions. It's supposed to be an AIO type of lotion-y emulsion, available in a "morning" and "night" version.  On eBay, there's only the wipes available.  Yamibuy has them for about $12 something! I may consider trying it out later this year, once I've gone through more products.






More Kikumasamune!!!! There was a lot of range: emulsion, lotion (regular, high moist), and even an essence!? I didn't know they did an essence!!!

 
Kose Softymo + refills, and other Softymo items including some cleansers, to the left. The bottom shelf housed a decent range of foaming cleansers, mostly from Biore with a couple from Naive. I wish I had had more time to look at this area more--I wanted another foaming cleanser that is low pH but isn't as hard to source online as the Cow Brand one that I currently have (and love).


Unexpected, but there was a good range of Biroderma products! I have no thoughts, never tried them yet but I've read a lot of buzz.



Next to hefty stacks of Bifesta moist wipes on the middle shelf, I saw the Heroine Make eye make up remover and I meant to get it, but there's always next time. I'm sure I'll be back in a couple of months, hopefully for a meetup....? (I need the driving practice for high traffic city areas lol)