I loved all the cute Hello Kitty jewelry that Kimora Lee Simmons designed for Sanrio but the prices – yeesh! Too rich for my blood, I mean this is Hello Kitty after all where I had been buying twee little erasers and memo pads for many years. I wasn’t about to start forking over $450 – $1000 for some sterling silver jewelry! I don’t care who put their name on it. I mean, is Kimora Lee Simmons a factor? Does it give you clout to have Kimora Lee Simmons designed Hello Kitty jewelry to show off to people or will they think oh, cute Hello Kitty stuff and not even process it further? That’s my bet. So aside from some cute old Sanrio kiddie jewelry I had purchased about ten years ago – there was no Hello Kitty bling in my future. UNTIL….

QVC! Yes the veritable home shopping channel developed a line of Hello Kitty jewelry in sterling silver with their Diamonique brand of cubic zirconia. The prices ranged from $80 – $180. Last Christmas my family went wild buying Hello Kitty stuff for me.  (Have I mentioned how great my sister-in-law is? I made a wishlist at QVC and she and my brother got me EVERYTHING on it! How awesome are they?)

Here are some of my gifts:

Now the kitties sparkle a-plenty but you have to be careful with the pave band ring since one slight whack and you will have lost stones. Everything else is very durable and I’ve had no problems with anything tho’ I did have to send the pave band ring back for a new one because a couple of stones mysteriously disappeared. I’ve had excellent luck with the new ring they sent so not to worry.

Hello Kitty will be on the QVC channel again on Thursday, September 3 at 2 – 3 am and 7 – 8pm eastern. Otherwise just visit QVC.com and look under jewelry brands for Hello Kitty.

I am an avid fashion doll collector. I started with Asian Barbies several years ago and this love of fashion dolls grew to include dolls from Fashion Royalty, Misaki, Momoko, Tonner and Pullip. I have hundreds of dollies (as I affectionately call them), most on display in my home office with many of my other kawaii collections.

A new line of dolls I began collecting (since they are super cute and have an excellent price) are from Integrity (they do Fashion Royalty dolls and Misaki)  called The Dynamite Girls.

These fashion forward dolls look like Harajuku Girls in many of their iterations. The dolls range in price from $30-$45 each (which is incredible for articulated collectible dolls) and are created by illustrator (and now doll designer) David Buttry.

These girls are loaded with personality and I have all of the first wave and second wave and what you will see below are the new girls who I plan to add to the collection. Sometimes it can be difficult to find the entire collection at dealers so I usually look on ebay.

Please don’t get the impression that all I do is shop! Well it is kind of a therapy for me, especially now that I have discovered all of these amazing kawaii things on the web at places like Etsy and Shana Logic.

After I got my first shipment from Shana Logic, I went right back to do more shopping. I really adore the unique items they offer and found a couple of brands like Ukiyo-5 and mymimi that I simply cannot be without. Since I am not a crafty person I like to shop from those who do have talent by purchasing what they offer. Plus I love to support artist collectives.

Tonight I wore a totally unique bracelet from pinkSpiderwebs.com and people were grabbing my wrist asking me – hey where did you get a bracelet so cute? I got to tell them where and hopefully send some new customers to that site to enjoy all the kawaii jewelry the artist creates. Thus the artist gets more customers and their art is more lucrative, then they make more! Yay! Everybody wins!

Prices here run from $5 for a ring to $12 for a necklace and $30 for sterling silver items. On the whole the prices are very good but remember most of the items offered are costume jewelry. You will pay more for sterling silver.

This is the stuff that came today:

Some of the artists don’t have their own websites but check out the ones who do!

Ukiyo-5

mymimi

Xenos Designs

Kara Lee Designs

I’ve become an Etsyaholic. I love seeing what people craft, so many unique items and kawaii things – oh my stars! One of my finds is pinkSpiderwebs.

Now when I say this is cute stuff, I mean super-cute. This is the kind of unique jewelry you will simply not find anywhere else. It is also I am happy to say, well-made, so with the terrific price-point ($4 for a ring, $12 for a bracelet) you are getting items that are sturdy and wear well.

Here is what crafty queen Sylvia has to say for herself:

“My name is Sylvia, and i love creating bright and colorful and jewelry!! I am inspired by the Harajuku Japanese street style, and consider my work kawaii (“cute” in Japanese). Hope you enjoy it as well! By the way…I do trades, so let me know if you do as well! I love similar funky jewelry as mine, or anything hello kitty, san x, cupcake, gloomy bear, skulls, etc!”

My purchases below:

Adorable charm bracelet. Quality and unique.

Candy ring, so cute matches my heart necklace.

My favorite little pink bear necklace. Very kawaii!

Adorable chunky cupcake ring.

I am on a quest for kawaii cosmetics. Ever since I was introduced to Hard Candy Cosmetics about a million years ago (well the late eighties I guess it was) I have adored the more “fun” side of make-up and beauty. I have also liked many not terribly cute lines like smashbox, Chanel, Clinique, Laura Mercier and Bobbi Brown but my favorites have always been cute: Hard Candy, Urban Decay, Too Faced, Stila and now new favorites like Eyeko and POPBeauty.

There were other brands I used to buy like Pinkie Swear, Girlactik, Rocket City, Dessert and Sugar but most of those brands have disappeared from Sephora and ULTA and some have disappeared completely as in – sorry not making them anymore.

Dessert Beauty which was Jessica Simpson’s entre into cosmetics was a huge hit at first and I loved the products – I think I bought everything they made! They barely produced two collections and then trouble with lawsuits (one was settled and one was found in their favor) ended up putting the kibosh on the line prematurely. I was sad to see them go since their products were excellent, reasonably priced and tasted yummy. Oh and had super kawaii packaging too. Who wouldn’t love a little tube of “Belly Button Love Potion”?

Sugar, a cute brand that produced a wonderful sugary tasting lip-gloss and a number of other products now has really no make-up to speak of but a few pairs of cute shoes at their website. I don’t really understand what happened with them but they had a great line at one time. I was able to get some of the last of their line so look for an upcoming review.

Sadly my favorite from long ago, Hard Candy didn’t last and they folded their tent up by selling every last thing they had online at 75 percent off. I bought tons. Now they have been sold to Walmart and will be re-branded and appearing in stores next month. I am anxious to see how they represent because they were my first fave and I feel a kind of loyalty to them after twenty years.

I am eager to investigate some of the new lines appearing in Target since they are always on the cutting edge and I have a feeling that I will find kawaii there too.

As for POPBeauty, I was surprised to find their products to be not only terribly cute (and British to boot) but super high quality.

Here’s a run down of what I have tried and loved:

This is for fresh breath and a nice lip glow. It’s not cloying and it doesn’t sting, so you can use this to plump up your pucker before you pucker. I really like this and the bonus was it came in a kit from ULTA (only in the stores) that had the Little Black Dress make-up kit, Sparkle Sauce eyeliner creator and a mini eye shadow primer called Eye Magnet. The kit was only $15! Run now to the ULTA store!

I love the Lip Lust lipstick. It comes in a super kawaii little case and it is very emollient, doesn’t taste awful and gives a sheer glow to your lips. Don’t be scared if you think the color is a bit bold it goes on sheer and gives so much love to your lips.

This is not your regular lip plumper -first of all it doesn’t sting like others and you get a little bonus that you can attach to your cell phone (OMG – cell phone charm, how kawaii!). I used this first then put the Lip Lust lipstick over it and had great color and plumpage too. It is tasty so you won’t be going ick when you lick your lips.

It is hard to see in this photo but you’ve got an entire wardrobe of perfect make-up in this tiny little compact. The top row of eyeshadow pans contain glittery liners, the middle row are lid colors and the bottom row are highlights. There is a face powder, bronzer/blush and gorgeous lip gloss. All you need is your teeny-tiny lip plumper and a twee little mascara and you have everything you would need plus it could fit in an evening bag. I was impressed with the quality of the products – the eye shadow’s are deeply pigmented and non-talc-y. The eyeliners went on perfectly and I was able to create an alluring day-time look from a kit that at first glance seems destined for night. This bad boy does it all – day to night. Why are you still reading this? Go to ULTA now and get yours in the set I told you about for $15!

I decided to go with the Rockstar version of the Goddess Clutch (it comes in two other versions in a silver case and a gold case with different colors each $32) and wow am I a happy girl! The shadows are awesome, there is a matte brown you can use as an eyebrow shade, two liners (the dark metallic grey and plum), three lid shades and two highlight shades. The blush is gorgeous, very silky, the highlighter is glowy and you get a huge pan of frosty lipgloss too. All you need are teeny brushes, a mascara and you have lift-off. The case is very secure and your make-up won’t get crunched which is always good.

You can find POPBeauty online and at ULTA (in store and online).

I cannot recommend the eyeshadows enough. You will have a ball with all the unusual colors they offer as well as adore how well they go on and stay. They don’t cake or crease even with glittery sparkles in them. I did use their new Eye Magnet primer and it was excellent but Urban Decay’s Primer Potion would be good or Too Faced’s Eyeshadow Insurance would also work well.