Hyper Japan Photos + Shopping Haul

Hello Lovelies!

As promised here are my photos, video and shopping haul from Hyper Japan!

First things first! When we eventually got in we went to find Keren at Tea Time Treasures! Keren and I have been friends for quite a long time now but we've never actually met in person until now. I didn't realise how much of a giant I am until I saw this photo!

Keren's stall had a lot of Lolita, Kawaii and Die Milch merchandise - Tea Time Treasures was one of the very few stalls I found that weren't scalping.

From here I bought two Die Milch Cd's (which they very kindly signed for me! Yay! I'm so happy!)

And a Sailor Moon Twinkle Dolly charm. 

Keren also very kindly picked up a few items for me in Japan on her last visit (Another post on these later!) But she also gave me this adorable Rilakkuma bottle cover! I've gotten a lot of use out of this already and I just love the picture on it.

Next we went to find Love Jojo's stall as my sister and I had joined in the give-away event - we both got given these cute little squishy panda charms.

We then had a look around the other stalls and did a little shopping, whilst trying to work out where everything was.

We came across LoLiBuNNi quite early on as my sister happened to know one of the people running the stall! They had some goregous items for sale (You should go check out their site) but my favourite thing was the Sailor Moon necklaces.

Look how pretty these are!

I bought one of the necklaces - I really like how it has both cord and ribbon for the chain as it gives it a softer look.

Close up of the charm - it's just such a pretty image and is really lovely on too.

Last year I bought a ton from Dreamy Bows - this year I could only find one of the items I wanted in my price range, they did have the powder compacts, room fragrance and perfume but these were all out of my budget.

I did buy the locket tablet case - now oddly, and I didn't notice at the time as my purchase was taken from the stock they had an put straight in the bag, the candy is missing! There is a sticker on the bottom of the box saying that the it doesn't contain sweets but I'm 99% sure there should have been some in there - it's rather odd as it means someone has gone through, taken these out of the packet and removed the candy? I found it a little odd but not a major thing.

Now I'm not sure whose stall I bought this from as I couldn't see the name of the stall, but I bought Sailor Uranus's liprod, two petite chara (I was hoping for Sailor Moon) and two of the little capsule prizes (I've wanted the Grail for such a long time!) I think this was my favourite stall next to JP Books and I do wish I'd bought Neptune's rod and more of the petite chara as well.

From Roxie Sweethearts stall I bought this adorable pair of pastel bat earrings! I have a necklace already that would go really well with these too!

There was a stall selling all sorts of traditional Japanese tableware too - I bought this cute little kitty bowl to use at work. Next time I would buy some dinner plates for home too!

Lastly was JP Books - I love this stall, and I'm definitely going to go find the store next time I'm in London to buy a Rilakkuma bear! I bought the kitty bag mascot, 3 scented pens and a magnet.

I've wanted the mascot from this series for quite awhile so I'm really happen to have been able to purchase this! There's a little bell on him too so he jingles!

Then it was time for Die Milch's performance!

 I managed to get some of the performance on my phone!

Afterwards I was lucky enough to get a photo with them.

And that's pretty much it! We headed home shortly after that as we had another engagement to go to!  We did buy some Taiyaki, Takoyaki and nice ice but forgot to photograph it before scoffing it. 

I hope you enjoyed reading! Did you go to Hyper Japan? Let me know in the comments!

Ta-ta for now,

X

Hyper Japan Summer Festival 2015

Hello Lovelies!

It's taken me a little while to write this up as I wanted to reflect on the event, and it's turned into a bit of a wall of text which I hadn't intended on. 

Two weeks ago I attended the Hyper Japan Festival with my youngest Sister at the O2 in London. Now, many of you know how much I was looking forward to this, not only so I could finally meet my lovely friend Keren, watch Die Milch perform, but also so I could watch some of the other performances and events such as the bento making. I hate to say it but all though I had good time (So much so I almost went for a second day), but it was absolutely chaotic, and not set out in any sensible way what so ever - and oh my stars, it was so, so, SO hot! I don't think there can of been any kind of air conditioning in the area.

For those of you that have been to the O2 it was based in building six, across several floors and separated out into different sections, with the gaming area and a couple of random stalls as you walked into building six, the Hyper Kawaii on the right in the next part and most of the food stalls wedged right in the back. Lord only knows where the maid café and garden was as we sure as hell couldn't find it, nor find any signs as to where it was. This was also the same situation with finding the restrooms - when we approached the staff to find out where they were, we were pretty rudely told where to go and it turned out they were using porta-cabin bathrooms outside the building (Which were pretty gross, if I'm honest.)

To get in any of the areas you had to queue and present your wrist band which you needed to collect before entering the O2 (I'd heard a lot of people didn't realise this and were turned away to go get the wrist bands). I don't understand why everything was sectioned off like this, it made everything so much harder to get in and out of, and most of the sections didn't make much sense as part of the food court was in the back of Hyper Kawaii.

Hyper Kawaii itself was pretty full as well and we were continuously finding we couldn't get to the stalls we wanted due to people filming and taking photos (I gave up trying to film anything for you on my phone it was so busy). Unlike at Kensington Olympia, this time they had two stages for performances, once seemed to be for official acts like Die Milch and had a big lit stage with a very small seating area and the other was for dance groups and other performers. The problem with this is that they were so close to each other you could hear both performances going on at the same time, and the sound was very loud! (At one point someone was murdering karaoke songs. The other issue with the performer stage was that most of the acts seemed to be dancers to anime songs, whilst some were very entertaining it became very repetitive very quickly.

The food court seemed to be split between a sectioned off bit at the back of building six and Hyper Kawaii - there was far less seating this time and we ended up sitting on the floor to eat our lunch - I think we must have started something as a lot of people joined us on the floor for a make shift picnic!

I have no idea where the actual events were that I wanted to see, we never found the Bento making or anything else. I had found a schedule on line before we left that said Die Milch would be on at 4:00pm - it was only when I got back to see Keren that she told me they had already gone on and we could here Rosaria playing - I don't think I've ever run so fast across a building whilst trying to work out which of the two stages they were on (I picked right thankfully!) But I'm gutted that I missed the beginning of my favourite song.

The last thing that really irked me was the insane scalping on some of the stalls and people pretending that bought items were handmade. In some cases I saw items being sold for more than 3x their actual cost to purchase. I understand that people need to make a profit but a huge mark up is just disgusting and meant that I didn't purchase some of the planned items I wanted, and other people felt utterly ripped off when they realised, for example the bag they just paid £35 for actually retails at £13. Items bought on aliexpress or similar being sold as handmade. Yes they may have been handmade somewhere in China but not handmade by you, this isn't the same thing and you can't pass them off as being made by you, there were quite a few people doing this.

Hyper Japan is advertised as being a cultural event too. How ever I didn't see this in the slightest this time round. There were far less traditional stalls. I did see the Sake stalls in the food court, and one maybe two travel companies, but that was it, considering this was one of the main draws of the event it was pretty disappointing.

I know I'm not the only to think this. I've spoken to several people since HJ weekend and I don't know if the Saturday or Sunday were any better but from what I've been told it was even more chaotic. The winter event is being held in a different location and I'm hoping that will improve the situation as it'll be in one place and probably not as split up as this one was. I'm also hoping there will be a better schedule for events and that they will be easier to find as well, I think though I will be treating this as a shopping event rather than anything else.

Don't get me wrong, I really did have a great day out with my Sister and I finally got to meet my friend and I did a ton of shopping and did find some pretty good bargains! (Which was what this post was originally going to be about, but will have it's own separate post). But I have to say that if I wasn't as close to London as I am, and I wasn't going to meet up with friends, and if it was at the O2 again I think I'd have serious doubts about going again as I could have saved myself the ticket/travel money and bought everything I wanted on-line instead.

Anyway! Enough of the downsides, next post up will be my small haul from Hyper Japan!

Ta-ta for now

X

Glossy Box July 2015 + Bonus box review ~*~Neutral/Negative~*~

Hello Lovelies!

So I've tried something new and made a video for you to review the Glossy Boxes I recently received! I hope you like it!

So Lovelies, which do you prefer? Video or picture reviews? Let me know in the comments!

Ta-ta for now,

X

Nice Nails Baby ~ Walking on air pedicure! ~*~SPONSORED REVIEW~*~

Hello Lovelies!

Today I have an exciting review for you! The lovely Michelle from Nice Nails Baby invited me to come and try out her 'Walking on air pedicure'.

'Nice Nails Baby is an exquisite nail salon located in London's Clapham Junction. 

Our salon provides the affordable luxury of fabulous nails without the drama of using the electrical nail file in a small chic lively atmosphere. We have created the perfect environment for you to chill and enjoy your treatments, which are provided by our experienced technicians – our aim is to make you feel special when you visit our salon. It’s all about having a great experiences in a salon.'

This sounded fantastic to me, so I booked in to go check out Nice Nails baby! The salon is based at Clapham Junction inside Electric Beach - it's really easy to locate as its right opposite the Clapham Junction Station, so it was just a short train ride from Reading to get to the Salon.

The salon is located downstairs inside Electric Beach, where I met the lovely Michelle who showed me into the nail bar to pick out a polish whilst she finished setting up. It's super light an airy in the salon and I love the décor - there's lots of pictures of manicures on the wall which makes it very colourful too.

There are different sections for manicures and pedicures, This is the Nail bar, the way everything is set out is fantastic! I love the way that you can see all the colours of nail polish easily on the wall which makes it much easier to see what colour you might like to try! (I wish I had my polish at home set up like this, I can never find the colour I'm looking for!) I opted for an awesome glittery/metallic pink.

When Michelle was ready she showed me into the pedicure area! This area has a built up bench that you sit on, and is so, so cosy! I could have quite happily taken a nap up here!

Feeling cosy on the bench with lots of soft pillows!

So the first part of the pedicure was the foot soak! This was a bubbly foot spa filled with warm water to soften up the skin and nails.

Next was the fruit foot mask! This smelt really good.

Then my feet were wrapped in film to retain warmth whilst the foot mask did it's thing, but left my toes free!

Michelle then carefully filed my nails. (I never make a good job of them and get them even, but Michelle did a perfect job!)

Next came the foot scrub before my feet went back into the foot spa for another soak. The foot scrub was kinda tingly as it was mint which was nice! (It smelt great too!) I then put on my flip flops so Michelle could paint my nails witho out me smudging her hard work once she'd finished ! (I thought this was a fantastic idea, so many places don't do this and I nearly almost wreck it before I get out the door!)

Once they were painted with a base coat, the colour and a top coat,  I sat back in the waiting area with a little fan to let the polish dry - I could use doing this at home!

Perfect toes! And I do love the colour, it's such a vibrant pink!

The lovely Michelle and myself!

I had an absolutely fantastic morning chatting to Michelle whilst she gave my feet a make over! When I left she gave me a bottle of hand and skin cream with her business card which smells divine! She really makes you feel at home and her talents with nails are amazing! (I've been looking at her facebook page over the last few weeks and some of the manicures she has done are spectacular!) I'd really love to go again, and I really think that Nice Nails Baby is totally worth a visit too!

If you'd like more information or to make an appointment you can contact Nice Nails Baby at:-

Nice Nails baby Ltd Website

info@nicenailsbabyltd.com

07940451001 / 02079766696

Inside Electric Beach

33 St. John's Hill

Battersea

London

SW11 1TT

Let me know if you pay a visit to Nice Nails Baby in the comments!

Ta-ta for now,

X