Nicocosity: July 2020

Before we finally move on from Tokyo ~~I mean, will I ever move one from such a magical place???~~ I decided to do a pahabol post, particularly about Arts!

I've probably mentioned Sekaido hundreds of time in my blog, that if I could get 10 pesos per mention I would have enough funds to buy myself a Kate Spade bag hahahahaha! But we don't leave in a world where I get paid by mentioning that piece of heaven, so let's proceed on a little discovery I stumbled upon during my last day in Tokyo- when I went there October of last year!

Tucked inside the chic mall Lumine in Shinjuku, one could not expect to stumble upon an art supply store-and no, this is not a branch of Tokyu Hands. In the myriad of clothing and accessories shop at the 6th store, you'll find the store Tools.

I'm not kidding, the store's name really is Tools hahaha! In fairness, the name fits well with the store because inside you'll see a lot of art tools you'll want to burn your Yens at!

While Sekaido is just a couple of steps away from Lumine if you don't have the luxury of time to go there, Tools has a surprisingly wide range of art materials, particularly their calligraphy and stationery items. In comparison to Sekaido, Tools have a couple of brands from outside of Japan, and even stuff that came from smaller players of the art material's world.

One brand that I haven't seen much of in Sekaido is Sailor, which is a brand of pens that also carries calligraphy markers in their portfolio. If you're like me, who likes to try different brands by buying at least one from their line, I think you'll fall in love with Tools, too!

JUMBO!

If you're into creating sketches and illustrations, you'll bound to find something that will tickle your fancy here. They have your standard Staedtlers that come in regular and JUMBO size, they also have a couple of Tombow mechanical pencils here and there, and some brands that I have only seen there!

As I have mentioned, they also have a surprisingly wide variety of stationery products! You'll see oodles of rolls of washi tapes that come in different sizes and different prints! Tools is actually pretty small at a first glance, but maaaan they are stocked with the good stuff!

Speaking of good stuff, YEP, THEY HAVE COPICS! I think I did mention in my Sekaido trip blogs that while they seem to have EVERYTHING your art-crazed heart beats for, they do not carry Copics. Sure they have a myriad of marker brands such as Uni Posca, Tombow, Sakura, Kuretake, and Sai, but nothing compares to Copics!

What's even amazing is that they not only carry the different kinds of Copic pens, but they also sell books and activity sheets if you want to master your rendering skills with your brand new set of 24's Copic Sketch ♡

Look at those activity books, they feel like a slightly more adult coloring book! Tools seem to have everything you need if you want to start collecting Copics because they also sell bags where you can store your essential markers.

As for the price of their Copics I noticed that it's pretty similar to the pricing if you buy it in Yamamoto Bumpodo (In Fukuoka), or in some selected Tokyu Hands branches.

The only setbacks I have noticed in shopping in Tools are:

💔 They don't have as much variety in the watercolor department as they do with the markers. If you're looking for some Kissho glittery watercolor palette, go and take the extra steps to Sekaido.

💔 When I was in Tokyo in February I noticed that Sekaido had a shop wide sale on EVERYTHING, and it helps a lot if you apply for a membership card, but unlike in Tools, while they have a membership program too it only applies to free 2-hour parking in Lumine- which is useless if you're a tourist in Tokyo.

But aside these two, I actually like Tools enough to buy a ￥400 washi tape.

I know, Php 200 for a washi tape if a waste of money!

Lastly, if you also get easily overwhelmed I suggest going to Tools first then once you're ready, go ahead and embark on your journey to Sekaido haha! 🛒🛍 Happy Shopping!

Love Always,

Nicole ❤

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A foreword: This isn't about ambition and stuff like that just good ol' dreams.

Ever since I have really vivid dreams, and I suppose I am lucky to always remember as much as 70-80% of my dreams even after 5 minutes after waking up. Since I am such a sucker for things like kokology, and basically tests that try to uncover your truest self -naks-

The more you're disappointed of yourself ahahahhahaha awuw

Let's just begin.

My dream is pretty simple to be honest. In my dream I am a student once again, and I was running late for a class. I had to go to the building, but in order to go there you have to climb the stairs to the main door.

Here's a drawing of how the front looks, I know my drawing is fantastic hahahah!

I remember in my dreams I was so pissed at the people who are going down in the left side, when people are supposed to go down on the right side. While climbing the stairs I was struggling with my bag, which looks like this:

Hahaha no shit, this is how my bag looks like in my dreams! Anyhoo, I had such a hard time carrying this bag, even accidentally dropped it several steps below! But after trying my best to carry, I was able to reach the door at the top floor- yup the tinier one! I see a couple of children easily get in it, but when I tried to go through it, I find the door too small, or too narrow for me to fit in. I figured I don't want to force myself in fear of tearing a part of my dress, so I decided to just enter the lower floor door, which is a standard sized door.

Once inside I passed through the hallway, and get to be in the foyer where I noticed that time has passed, from it being around 4 PM, it turned into 6 PM where the sun is about to go down. One thing I noticed about the place is it has SOOOOO many huge windows without glass, and a bunch of plants, particularly ones with vines cascading on the walls.

Imagine x10 of these everywhere! HAHAHA!

After running around like a headless chicken, I heard an authoritative woman calling out my last name, and by following the sound I ended up on the tables part, where I finally see my classmates, one of which is my real-life best friend, Zai. Once I was able to plop down to my seat next to her, she told me they have started coloring, and the subject of our artworks is focused on fashion illustrations wth dynamic hair poses. As I take out my watercolor papers, I realized I wasn't able to bring any watercolor palette, which to be honest is so uncharacteristic of me since I always bring one (The Prima one to be exact, because it's so handy), but good thing Zai has one and she shared it with me.... and that's when my dream ended.

Probably. There are so many theories why we dream, but no one really have an answer why, and what's the purpose of this. I have always had this notion that our dreams are like leftover thoughts of things we are thinking about before we fall asleep, because I did have A LOT of dreams that was influenced by the things I was thinking of before going to sleep, which usually translated into nightmares of escaping from zombies.

So really, do dreams mean anything? A lot of philososphers and psychologist on this matter, some well-known distinguished people like professor and psychologist, G. Domhoff Wilholm. who concludes that:

Dreaming likely serves no adaptive function in an evolutionary sense

While Sigmund Freud actually sees it as the "royal road" which could actually tell you a thing or two about who you really are deep down... WOW hahaha! So if this is the case, things in my dreams must have meant something, like the door must have symbolize opportunities, or something.

ANYHOOOOOOO I just really want to share this weird dream because I've started writing my dreams in a journal hahaha!

Love always,

Nicole 🖤

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I've been meaning to write about this eyeliner for sooooo long, and by 'soooo long' I meant since 2018!

Me, as always

In all fairness I have to say I have improved a little bit with my eyeliner drawing skillz since the last time I did a post about eyeliners *ehem Miniso Make-up blog post here ehem*. Since then I have found a better eyeliner, and that is...

Yes, my friends, I have discovered the Canmake Tokyo Quick Easy Eyeliner a year after my Miniso Make-Up blog post, particularly when I received my first Canmake blusher and became attracted to Canmake's girly aesthetic.

But what is Canmake Tokyo exactly?

Yup!

Canmake Tokyo is an affordable line of make-up popular with teens in Japan. As I see it, they are like South Korea's Etude House's Japanese equivalent, because they are both REALLY GIRLY, affordable, and has a wide array of product to experiment with, from eyeshadows to lippies! I was actually first introduced to their creamy blusher after my cousin, Lot, gave me one after a trip to Japan. I actually liked the product, and I suppose that's what fueled my curiosity with this brand.

Anyhooo, let's start with our #NicDoesReviews on Canmake Tokyo's Quick Easy Eyeliner!

One notable thing about Canmake Tokyo products are its girly packaging. If I were to compare this to South Korean brands-well, comparing Japanese make-up brands to South Korean ones, Japanese' make-up are more subdued in terms of packaging, and overall aesthetic, unlike South Koreans where they seem to be VERY adventurous with packaging ~~looking at you Tony Moly Egg mask~~!

The Canmake Tokyo's Quick Easy Eyeliner is incased in this plastic box, where at the back I suppose it says a thing or two about the ingredients used to create this product. Also, good news, ALL CANMAKE TOKYO MAKE-UP ARE MADE IN JAPAN! Talk about quality 😉

As for the main eyeliner pen, it's thin and small, which means it perfectly fits even in the smallest of bags for quick touch-ups. What I absolutely adore about this eyeliner is its thin brush tips that is more forgiving if you create wonky lines, since it's thin you can try to layer it until it starts to look somehow decent hahaha! But joking aside, with its medium-soft thin brush tips, it makes the product easy to glide on your lids, which means less tugging and less hassle.

Unlike other eyeliners in the market, much like the Oh M'Eye Liquid Eyeliner by Etude House, the Canmake Tokyo Eyeliner dries into a matte black, rather than a glossy tacky one. With just one swipe, you get to have a black line, staying true to its quick and easy claim.

But if you want a richer bolder line, little extra swipes won't hurt to achieve a strong black cat-eye ala Adele. When the eyeliner dries on your skin it doesn't dry into a velvety feel, but rather more of like a tattoo, slightly faded black, not quite Jet Black. I say this is best in creating like the outline of the cat-eye then fill it up with a more opaque eyeliner, a pencil Kohl-based one perhaps?

This is it pansit, now let's see how this holds up in a day :)

7:00 AM

This is how it looks like after I apply it on my eyes. I only used the Canmake Tokyo Quick Easy Eyeliner even in filling up to make the cat eye. It's really easy to apply and the brush glides smoothly, and no tugging!!!

12:00 Noon

It's going strong, holding on 💪the 'blackness' starts to fade a bit, but it's not smudging, so we're still good. It's still in tact, but if you look really close, you'll see flaws already.

5:00 P.M

As you can see in the photo, yep that's a helmet because I went biking from my office to SM Megamall- which is 400 meters away hahaha! Due to sweat the eyeliner continues to fade, and what is left is the outline of the eyeliner.

7:30 P.M.

What we now have are remnants of what it was hahaha! With sweat and skin oils it wiped out whatever remained of my eyeliner.

By the way just a disclaimer I did not do any re-application or touch-up, oks?

Finally our classic Pros and Cons...

PROS:

💓 If you're in Japan you won't have a hard time finding a Canmake Tokyo booth in department stores. Also this retails for Php 300+!

💓 It's affordable

💓 The brush is thin and flexible, really helpful in applying the eyeliner because it results to less tugging.

💓 Once applied it doesn't fade fast.

💓 The eyeliner dries into a matte black feel, which is oretty good if you are not into a vinyl-lile glossy black (like the Oh M'Eyeliners of Etude House).

💓 Satisfactory marks for its pigmentation. With just 1 swipe you get to see a solid color. Yep, even without the use of a primer.

💓 Despite its small size, this eyeliner pen really lasts! I tried using this eyeliner for 3 months almost everyday, and til now it's going strong (a disclaimer: An eyeliner's shelf life is only around 6 to 8 months, mkaaay?).

💓 It's also available in Brown 👌

CONS:

💔 While yes it is available in most SM department stores nationwide, and even online (you can buy them here in Lazada), the price is very different unlike if you buy it in Japan. Here in The Philippines it retails for around Php 500- 600! Yes, almost double the price! But heyyy, a plane ticket costs more than 200 pesos, diba???

💔 It fades after a couple of hours, so it's a must to do some touch-ups with this bb.

💔 Staying power is 😔 But hey, this eyeliner does not have such claims like "long-wearing" or "water-proof", so I'm gonna cut this one some slack.

💔 The brush tends to fray in the long run. This one is actually a repurchase, and the first one that I bought frayed. Though I'm also at fault here because I like drawing hearts on my cheeks using this hahahaha!

As I have mentioned, this is a repurchase already and I think I have already used around 2 in the past, and given this statement I can definitely vouch for this eyeliner. Prior to using this I've tried a couple of brands, some more expensive than this one, that only gave disappointing results.

That said, I think Canmake Tokyo Quick Easy Eyeliner is a great addition to anyone's make-up arsenal, especially for those who doesn't want to break the bank. It's affordable, does the job, and easy-to-use, what more can you ask for?

MWAH!

Love Always,

Nicole ♡♡♡

P.S.

Ohhhh I've got a lot of make-up stuff to review hihihi! Stay tuned! 😍

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