When I left to Japan, I had a wishlist that I tried to keep to the minimum :

• Shu Uemura brushes 11 and 15 – found the 11 but the 15 is nowhere to be seen.
• Shu Uemura Hair care, Essence Absolue – could not find any hair care from this line in Japan, not even at their boutique so since it was budgeted I bought it upon my return here in Switzerland where I had discovered in the first place.
• Ipsa face palettes – yep, mission accomplished, big haul!
• Hakuhodo S171 brush –at the very last moment but managed to pick it up.

On my wishlist was also The Process of Hardcore Swatching (sounds like the title for a future book ) You guessed right, this process eventually allows us to discover what brands we could continue hauling while in Switzerland… *whistles*

You already saw what brushes came with me, some were part of gifts, some were purchases but all of them were brushes that I wanted in the first place! I am just lucky and very happy that this blog allows me sometimes to get some return on investment if I may call it like that… not something I expect, but something I warmly welcome when it happens

Today I will only show you what items I bought and tell you why I liked them but I won’t review them, I’ll need some time to try them and get a better opinion on each one. I may not have the time to review all of them but if something is truly amazing, it will get its glory post.

There is something you need to know though: I am not that young and my background and references are already based on super high end products, this is why I am very difficult in terms of texture, pigmentation and quality. Some of the drugstore items in Japan are really nice but most of them are too shimmery, sparkly or powdery when you compare them to what I own today, I don’t want to sound rude at all, it’s just that I cannot afford to wear most of them anyway in terms of finish or texture, sometimes you can find mattes or textures that work really well but there are so so so many brands at the drugstores that there is no easy way to spot something that targets my age and preferences and despite truly hardcore swatching, believe me, I have been swatching hard, I would need your task force to manage to swatch all of them in 15 days

The items that I show here are somehow linked to last year’s haul, because what I loved last year, I got last year. This time it was about what I wanted to add to last year’s haul. In the upcoming weeks I will be reviewing some of this year and last year’s purchases. For example for SK-II I did not buy more items because I am not such a fan of their eyeshadows (bought 1 last year and that’s enough) but I am a huge fan of their blushes and I already have nearly all of them… Same for Chicca, loving their blushes but not a fan of the eyeshadows but I already own most of what I like from them. This is why some Japan brands are not shown here, it’s because I already own them, just need to tell you about

I could not afford to purchase everything that I loved, but most of the items you’ll see here have truly captured my heart, since I haven’t tried them all, there is a possibility I’ll be disappointed with some of them.

I want to point out that my BF was with me the whole time and he dislikes shopping, more than disliking, it’s a nightmare for him to endure browsing for make-up BUT, I want to point out to all your husbands/partners that the sales assistants are so so so so so sweet, respectful, helpful, fun, that he was actually happy to be shopping with me! Unbelievable!

Let’s start with showing how compacts can look over there, really gorgeous right ? and you haven’t seen the best ones but as I said, I could not get everything! Most of the times with higher end brands you can just purchase the refills but sometimes I just love the compacts and like to have at least one…

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