Makeup You Want But Cannot Have: Yojiya Red

We interrupt the long hiatus with a short bout of Makeup You Want But Cannot Have, a series made of the unabashedly gleeful smirks of the few within the beauty community who managed to get their hands on coveted-but-impossible-to-get products and lived to snap pictures and tell the tale to yearning readers who cannot but bemoan the existence of such discontinued magnificence (Pink Sith, I'm looking at you). And since that last sentence was far too long I think it's time to quit the words and show you said rare item.

On my family trip to Japan last year, we stopped by Kyoto for a couple of days and my ambivalent-towards-makeup sister insisted on bringing me to this shop called Yojiya that apparently makes oil-blotting papers! and cute mirrors! and did she mention their makeup was what the geishas of yore used when preparing their elaborately painted faces? 

I didn't really need persuading in the first place, but that last morsel of information was the tipping point from excitement to feverish frenzy. When we spotted the modest little shop I insisted on staying in it for over an hour. I wasn't about to leave till I played with everything.

My mother was with me at the time so I forced restraint when it came time to purchase. I only managed to procure a blush brush, some blotting papers, and a brick red lipstick, the latter of which is featured here. 

One glide was all it took to achieve opacity. It's smooth but not slippery, moisturizing, and (dare I claim?) universally flattering. This lipstick flew off shelves when I was at the store. It astounds me that even my mother (who frowns at me on the regular for wearing "so much" makeup) and my sister (remember the ambivalence?) snatched one each for themselves.

In its defense, the lipstick is not a discontinued product so it is possible to still obtain it. However, Yojiya is only available in Kyoto and select airports in Japan. Needless to say, I am devastated that I let rationality and my mother's pleasure limit me in my purchase. Next time I'll leave them both at a (comfortable) teahouse so I can fulfill my beauty junkie duties to the fullest extent.