The Japanese Beauty Magazines I got this month

As you may know already, we have a few monthly beauty magazines in Japan. Voce, Maquia, Biteki, BiST, bea's up and some magazines fully dedicated to nail designs etc...you have some to choose from. I tend to buy Maquia and Biteki the most because they are targeting women in the same age group as myself which means the articles and products they are showing are very familiar and useful for me. Voce is also a very nice magazine that I still like, but it's targeting younger readers meaning sometimes their articles aren't informative enough for me. This month I got Maquia and Biteki as usual, so I thought to show you inside!

This month's issue of Biteki is much thicker than usual. It came with a little booklet showing Christmas Coffret from 109 brands in total. I was looking forward to this but to be honest, the layout of the booklet is really boring and it was truly disappointing. Other than that, the articles teaching how to make the most of your 30's are so-so, and some makeup tips are pretty useful.

Maquia did a much better job when it comes to showing Christmas Coffret in a nice layout, but to be honest Voce did the best job in my opinion. So if you want to enjoy discovering all the Coffret for this year, buy Voce!

I loved the fact they've got quite a few pages dedicated to makeup in this month's issue, you can keep up with Japanese trends by reading it. And also I found the one showing many red lipsticks in different undertones pretty helpful.

Next month, most of the beauty magazines will be revealing the beauty awards 2015, which I cannot wait for! I find Japanese beauty magazines the best, I enjoy them much more than I enjoy allure!

Japanese Beauty Magazines available on Beaut in Japan!

Last week, I added some Japanese beauty magazines on Beaut in Japan. I still have more than 5 mags to update, which will appear on the list very soon. Right now we have Voce, which is targeting women in 20's, Maquia which is great if you're in your 20's to 30's, Bea's up which is thinner than any other beauty magazines, and Biteki which is a little more mature (I am loving Biteki recently!).

As Japanese mags are heavy because of the quality of the paper (It's much thicker than the foreign magazines!) and generally they are pretty thick, the postage is a little high. That's something I cannot control, but I hope the price I'm offering is reasonable. If you want to know how much the postage would be, simply add a magazine and put your address in it. It calculates based on your address and the weight of the magazine!

The good news is that there are two handbag size magazines, Maquia Jan issue and Biteki Feb issue!  They are half the weight compared to the normal size, but unfortunately they don't come out with the minis every month. So if you're interested in these Japanese beauty magazines but haven't been able to purchase because of the postage, take the opportunity to purchase one for cheaper ;)

I'm still thinking what to introduce to you all next beauty wise, I'm eying on some new launches coming out next month from some drugstore brands! If you have any requests, feel free to let me know!

Japanese magazine heaven

I'm not going to lie, I admit that I am a junkie when it comes to magazines. But usually I much prefer British or sometimes American magazines to Japanese ones. So it was expecting that I bought 6 Japanese magazines in November. That's crazy. And Japanese magazines aren't that cheap, what was I thinking? But I have a good excuse for each magazine.

Bea's up is a beauty magazine that used to be really popular I remember. It's not as popular as other beauty magazines now, but actually I really do like it. It's thinner which makes it easier to travel with, and the product reviews in this magazine is insane (of course in a good way). I had to buy it because it's the beauty award issue!

Voce I believe is the best selling Japanese beauty magazine. I feel like it's targeting younger readers than I am, but I still enjoy it a lot. This is also a beauty award issue, and it came with a sample of Biore Face Wash that won a best cleanser award or something.

Yup, another beauty magazine. MAQUIA is my favourite beauty magazine I must say, because they show different looks that are on trend each month and it's really enjoyable to look at. And this is also a beauty award issue. It made me really happy that MAQUIA finally came in a smaller size ;) I also love the cover photo of Erika Sawajiri, I wish I could exchange my whole face with hers.

ELLE is a hit and miss recently. I was obsessed with ELLE when I was in high school, but it became more and more conservative and boring in the past decade and recently I don't buy it much. The reason why I bought the latest issue was because I was interested in the book recommendations by celebrities including Natalie Portman and James Franco. Then I found out that a full-sized hand cream was coming with it. SOLD.

Vogue is also one of the mags I was obsessed when I was a teenager, but just like ELLE, it became crappier and crappier that I don't even have a look at a bookstore now. But you know what, when Vogue talks about beauty award, they know what they are talking about.

This thick book-in-book is all dedicated for the beauty award and oh my gosh it's amazing. 

Last by not least, ELLE girl. I know I'm not a girl anymore, but I bought it only because I wanted Revlon Colorburst Lacquer Balm. I've been loving the shade COY, and I was eying on INGENUE which I got with this mag for 390yen instead of 1200yen. I will write an in-depth review on the two shades another day, but they both are gorgeous.

So now I am surrounded by magazines and books that I haven't read. I feel pressure every single day that I have to read, because all the magazines are getting older and older that they don't even make sense anymore. I just don't have time for reading because I've been juggling my personal life, job, 3 blogs and eBay, and now I will be writing some column for a website. Enough with me rambling, I hope you enjoyed the post! Oh, and I will be selling magazines on eBay as well, send me a request if you have any mags you would like.

US beauty mag VS Japanse beauty mag

I've been buying allure nearly every month since the beginning of this year. I didn't enjoy allure at all when I was younger, maybe because it's got many articles rather than fancy photos of beauty products, but now I enjoy reading every single article in the magazine. As for Japanese mags, we have like 5 monthly beauty mags here. I usually don't buy Japanese magazines (including fashion / lifestyle ones) because they are quite boring to me, but recently I've been enjoying reading beauty magazines such as Voce, Maquia, Bea's up and Biteki. 

Every 2-3 months, my fellow blogger Mel from The Beauty Dispensary exchange magazines. I send her one or two beauty mags from Japan, and she sends me a couple of Australian (or sometimes British as she knows I'm into the UK) mags. This month I bought Maquia for her -or let's say, to share with her since I've read through too- so I thought to show you what the difference is between allure and Maquia!

First of all, allure always features amazing models and celebrities. Most of the time they are the mature and independent women which I think is great. I hate it when a magazine targeting grown women features teenage idols. It disappoints me a lot.

As you can see, the photos in allure are very artistic. In my opinion their photos are similar to the ones in Vogue, from an aesthetic perspective. 

Let's see what's inside of Maquia now then.

In the Japanese beauty magazines, there are quite a lot of articles about How-To. How to wear black and blown on your eyes at the same time, how to wear red lips, how to apply foundation in the "correct" way, how to shape your brows blah blah blah.

Product suggestions / recommendations according to different lifestyles / likings. 

A calender with the information of new products is pretty useful.

This month, Maquia came with this additional magazine which shows all the new products which will be launched in this autumn.
 

The conclusion is, that Japanese beauty magazines have much more volume of information. Everything is in detail and you get all the information you need from the articles. 

If you are interested in Japanese beauty products, these magazines are a must-read! I'm sure you will enjoy it even though you don't read Japanese. If you do read Japanese, even better. The mags have so much information about products, skin, makeup techniques and more. I wish there was a UK beauty magazine like these...! I've been reading TWO magazine created by Pixiwoo sisters on my iPhone but you know how hard it is to read a mag on your iPhone. It's ridiculous. 

Anyway, hope you enjoy the comparison of the biggest US beauty magazine and my favourite Japanese beauty magazine!

Goodies from Australia!

 

I received a lovely package from Australia the other day!! The sender was Mel from thebeautydispensary, who kindly offered to send me some magazines! We exchanged magazines, I sent her a Japanese beauty magazine called "MAQUIA" and tiny gifts and she sent me these Australian mags with a pretty gift!

As you may have noticed I love magazines like LOOK and  Grazia, and I have read the UK ones but have never read the Australian one, so it was very interesting! I haven't read Shop till you drop yet but it looks really nice and I'm sure I'll love it!

This lip gloss made me feel so excited!!! It's from Bath & Body Works which I was obsessed with a few years ago. After I started Aromatherapy I stopped buying their products as they smelt a little bit strong as I was used to essential oils, but recently I'm into sweet scents like vanilla, sugar, almond and maple syrup. So when I saw this lip gloss I was like "B&BW! How could I forget about you?" and got so excited.

 

This one is called "Cozy Autumn Vanilla" which sounds really nice. I like the packaging as well, I like the combination of the purple body and the gold lid.

Here's the swatch. It's a clear-based lip gloss with glitters in it! And you know what, it smells SO good. I love this smell, as the name of it claims it smells of vanilla!! And it tastes like vanilla when I accidentally licked my lips with this lip gloss on.

This is how it looks like on the lips. I wasn't wearing lipstick underneath when I took this photo, but I often apply it on top of my Revlon Lip Butter! Actually I was just thinking of getting a clear lip gloss to pair with my lipsticks, and this one is absolutely perfect :)

Now I want to get some B&BW products, my favourite scent is warm vanilla sugar and I'm thinking of getting shower gel once I've used up the ones I have now...I actually just purchased Caudalie shower gel from lookfantastic, so I shouldn't get another one yet! And it's not fair that B&BW doesn't ship to Japan :( 

Thanks so much Mel, I really hope you like your package too!

Goodies from Netherlands!

It started from the conversation here between me and Zanka from Zanka Talks Cosmetics, when she offered to send me some magazines from Netherlands. I offered to send some beauty products in return, and we ended up swapping some products. You can check what I sent her on her blog post here.

Here are the goodies she sent me! They look interesting and I cannot wait to try them all! 

I'm especially interested in these things, I guess they're facial masks (...right?). The packaging is beautiful and I really love the individual paper packages! They look really nice.

 
This eyeshadow from Aveda also looks nice, it's perfect for daily makeup. I might use the brown colour in the middle on my eyebrows.

I LOVE Weleda, and this day cream smells so good. It smells of fresh rose which is perfect for a busy morning to relax for a minute, and the texture is very light. And this lip balm is my favourite. It smells like vanilla and armond and I'm totally in love with this smell. It's the best scented lip balm I've ever used!!!

And some magazines! I don't understand a word, but it's actually fun to guess what it says. Some words are similar to English ones, so it's not so difficult to guess. I wish I could speak some more languages, that would expand my world more! It's also fun to see what's on trend over there. I think I'm a real magazine freak.

I haven't used all of the products Zanka sent me yet but I'm enjoying this goodies swapping very much! It's great to be friends with people from all over the world who love beauty just as I do and share passion with them. Zanka has been really nice to me since I started blogging, and I think we have similar tastes in beauty products. This is when I rediscover why I love blogging. So I would like to thank Zanka! :) I hope she's enjoying the beauty products from Japan too.

Have you ever tried beauty products from Netherlands? And are you interested in Japanese beauty products?

Magazines wanted!!

As I'm living in Japan, it's very hard to get British magazines. They are very expensive in Japan, and there are only limited selection of the magazines to be sold here. Now I have two magazines I'm dying to get, but I lost my ebay bit and there is no other way to get them besides asking for help here...

Look Magazine September 24 / Beauty Issue
I wanted it since the day I saw the cover on Twitter, as it's a beauty issue!!! Imagine the pages full of British beauty products...!! Look magazine is not sold in Japan, so I placed a bit on ebay but I lost it in the last minute. If you've got this issue and you feel like selling it, please leave a comment with your email address, I will email you!!

Marie Claire October 2012
This is another beauty issue,  and again I'm dying to get it too. It's about 14 pounds in Japan, but am not sure if it's got the beauty guide inside. -sometimes they take freebies out when they sell them in Japan...

So if you've got it and feel like selling it, please leave a message.

Of course I will pay for the magazine and postage!

Magazine heaven

There is the CD shop called "Tower Record" in Japan, which has got many branches all over the country. I love their Shibuya branch because their 7th floor is full of foreign magazines and books. Also they offer much cheaper prices for the magazines than other bookstores, which was the biggest reason why I have been going there once a month for more than 10 years. A few days ago I dropped by after work although I was tired, I wanted to buy some new magazines looking for thick September issues. Then I found out that they had a huge sale going on, because the 7th floor will be closed down in a week, and will move to the 2nd floor in this autumn with much less selection of magazines and books. I was devastated because this shop was the only place I could buy American magazines from. I don't know what to do from next month....sigh....

 Recently I've been into British magazines as I fell in love with London when I visited there in June, but still couldn't help myself picking this one up. I love People Stylewatch, and this September issue was quite thick!

I was going to get Vogue but it was TOO thick which I couldn't carry, so instead I picked up InStyle. I usually don't read it, I thought it was for a bit older people but maybe not really. I am enjoying it.

This one I didn't get from the shop, I got it from ebay. Once a month I buy British magazines on ebay, usually I get Grazia or Look magazine, but I always wanted to have a loot at more! magazine. In my opinion it seems to be targeting younger girls than me, I would prefer Grazia and Look magazine more. But you know it costs so much to buy British magazines on ebay, this more! magazine was about  6 pounds. I can't keep doing this, so am thinking of subscribing to Grazia or Look soon.  Which one do you like better?