Orange Caramel Lipstick / ラムのラブソング Lum no Love Song - Single Review (CD Only Edition)

My goal in 2022 is to post more CD reviews on Marzipan Wonderland and that is exactly what I'm blogging about today. Decided to go with one of my favourite groups Orange Caramel and we will be looking at one of the Japanese singles - Lipstick / ラムのラブソング Lum no Love Song! This was one of the first Japanese singles I brought so it is quite special to me. Oh how naïve I was back then and knew nothing about the tricks of collecting J-Pop.

Orange Caramel Lipstick / ラムのラブソング Lum no Love Song CD Only Edition

Lipstick / ラムのラブソング Lum no Love Song is Korean girl group Orange Caramel's second Japanese single and was released in December 2012. The single was released in 7 editions: 

• CD+DVD Lipstick Edition
• CD+DVD ラムのラブソング Lum no Love Song Edition
• CD+DVD Variety Edition
• CD Only Edition
• mu-mo CD Edition - Lizzy Picture Label
• mu-mo CD Edition - Nana Picture Label
• mu-mo CD Edition - Raina Picture Label

I brought my CD Only Edition when it came out from YesAsia and I got that edition as it was the cheapest. This was back in the day when I could only afford the CD Only editions but honestly I prefer collecting those as you always get bonus tracks such as B-sides or instrumentals that aren't on the DVD editions. The CD Only Edition came with the following:

• CD - 6 track single
• Jewel Case
• Lyrics booklet
• Photocard

Zenmarket Haul - Red Velvet, Orange Caramel, E-girls, April & Pungdeng-E

Received an exciting Zenmarket haul recently that contained some releases that I have been after for quite some time. I finally found Type A of Pungdeng-E's first Japanese single 側にいて Stay which I have searching forever for! I randomly checked Yahoo Auctions before work one day and came across a listing for Type A and was so excited about it. Told all my workmates about it all day who probably think I'm crazy haha. Anyway, all the items I got are pictured below and I even got photocards with three of the releases.

First up is April's first Japanese single TinkerBell which was something I was looking at collecting for a little while. They're a cute group with some great Korean releases and have only released two Japanese singles so far. I got a brand new unopened copy of the limited edition CD+DVD of TinkerBell. Originally I wanted to get the fanclub edition but it's rare to find so I picked up this one first. The group comes from the same company as KARA who always had great Japanese releases so I'm happy to see DSP sticking with the quality of single designs. 

TinkerBell Limited Edition CD+DVD

Next up is the limited edition CD+PHOTOBOOK edition of Red Velvet's first Japanese mini album #Cookie Jar. I only heard the song recently and decided to pick up the mini straight away after falling in love with it. I found a listing of the mini album in great condition that came with the special HMV sticker with it. It was a decent price and I love this design and concept. It's so typically Red Velvet and has a book design to it which I don't usually see with Japanese releases.

#Cookie Jar HMV Sticker

YesAsia & Zenmarket Hauls - Hong Jin Young, MOMOLAND, myB, Orange Caramel & CLC

Even though I got these items from YesAsia and Zenmarket a while ago, I hadn't share them on here as of yet. Thought I would post about them before I started doing reviews of them. First off is the YesAsia one which is all k-pop releases. The main reason for this order was to get Hong Jin Young's new album as I always collect her releases. I also picked up a MOMOLAND mini album I was missing and myB's second single.

I greatly enjoyed Hong Jin Young's previous physical release from years earlier so I excited to see her release a full album Lots Of Love. It has a few repeat tracks that were already on her previous release but you get plently of new songs. The album has a beautiful aethestic to it and a top notch photobook with different concept photos.

Hong Jin Young - Lots Of Love

Originally I was planning on getting MOMOLAND's recent mini album Show Me when I was making this order which was back when it was announced for pre-orders and so was Hong Jin Young's. When I'm So Hot came out, I just wasn't too into it and didn't really enjoy the other songs on the mini album so I passed on ordering it. I decided to get their 2nd Mini album Freeze! which I hadn't yet brought. This mini album is amazing and I love the songs on it. Pulled another Ahin photocard which was great as I always try to get her photocards now as I seem to have a collection of hers.

A random item here which is totally nugu group myB's second single 또또 DDODDO which came out in 2015. I was super into myB when they were a thing but never picked up their physical singles. This single is super adorable and very colourful which I like. It's quite thin and the CD sits in this weird fold part at the back which causes it to get scratched super easy. Other than that, I really like this single album. No photocard came with it unfortunately but you get some great photos in the photobook.

myB's 2nd Single - 또또 DDODDO

May Favourites

Almost halfway through the year now that May is over and we've moved into June. It's been freezing here lately considering it wasn't even winter yet. Managed to squeeze all my blog updates into this weekend because I had the time. I only realised it was time for another monthly updates yesterday as the start of June really crept up on me. Just a short monthly favourites this month as I didn't have much going on and it's mainly just music related stuff.

Gaming
I've been really into Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp lately and there has been heaps of events recently. I didn't do the rock themed one as I didn't really want the items and I thought the cat themed fishing tourney was adorable. Found it a lot harder than the school one where I got all the items and a high score. Maybe the previous one was easier or I had more time to pay. At the moment, there's a gardening event on which has some gorgeous Gracie rewards. Managed to collect quite a lot of creatures from it this weekend as I've been able to play a fair bit. Bill finally showed up in my game which I was excited for as I love him in the 3DS game. Time to max out his friendship level!! I've been working on my campsite a bit lately and will post another play journal soon. Snapped this super adorable pic of Goldie sleeping at my campsite. It's so cute!!!!

Music
Brought some exciting new CD's from Japan this month so I'm eagerly awaiting their arrival. One is a very special single I've been on the lookout for ages and couldn't believe I finally tracked down. E-girls also announced a new single which will include EG-ENERGY. OMG you can't believe how excited I was to see that announced as I was dying for the instrumental version of that song as it's one of my top E-girls releases. Looking forward to that in a few months then and will pick up some other E-girls singles I'm missing at the same time.

You may have noticed I didn't post any of MOMOLAND's recent releases on here even though I usually get all their releases. Basically I just wasn't into their recent mini-album so I didn't buy it. I am planning to get the Japanese version of I'm So Hot later this year as I much prefer that version to the Korean one. Lately I've just been not interested in the group really and been annoyed about the lack of information about Taeha and Daisy. Like the company said they'll be back next comeback but how long away is that? They aren't even attending any fanmeets or anything, like are they still in the group or what? It really made me lose interest in following the group once they announced the girls wouldn't do I'm So Hot and honestly wasn't into this song as much as their previous releases. Seriously BAAM is still hot on my playlist and that's both the Korean and Japanese versions.

Anyway here are some songs I've really been enjoying this month. Actually been listening to some new girl groups on Spotify such as Weki Meki. I don't mind their songs and they have a certain fun and edgy feel to them.

Orange Caramel The Fourth Single My Copycat 나처럼 해봐요 - Single Review

This week's music review will look at one of my all time favourite groups Orange Caramel! Sadly we will be looking at the final single they released before their hiatus (which we won't discuss because we lost an amazing group *sad face*). Orange Caramel is the sub-unit of the amazing group After School (current status also unknown but most likely disbanded but Pledis won't admit it) and the group's thing was quirky and unique concepts. So let's take a look at My Copycat 나처럼 해봐요 from the group!

My Copycat 나처럼 해봐요 was the fourth Korean single released by Orange Caramel and came out in 2014. The single is the same size as Catallena which was the groups previous release and is about medium size. The single includes the following contents:

• CD- 2 track single
• Photobook
• Photocard 

The design of the single is inspired by Where's Wally (or Where's Waldo in some countries) and the group collaborated with Where's Wally for the concept of the single and MV for My Copycat 나처럼 해봐요. My favourite shoe brand in the entire world Skechers also collaborated with the girls for the single and I even brought the same shoes the girls wear in the MV because of it. I was quite excited to find the exact pair on sale at Skechers once and told the girl where I had seen them before (she must've thought I was nuts). The single has this groovy holographic effect to it when placed in the light and this is a cool little touch to the design. The girls are featured on both front and back cover in their Where's Wall inspired outfit and the design is similar to the group photos from previous Orange Caramel releases. Tiny copies of the girls in different poses are scattered about in the background and the track listing is listed on the back.

The single interior has the famous Where's Wally red stripes and the CD is held in place with a small felt button. This is your typical CD holder for most K-Pop releases, not my favourite but it always looks simplistic. The photobook and photocard are tucked into a holder on the right hand side. The glue on my copy of the single has actually dried out and the holder has come off. It did this a short while after I got my album and I just haven't glued it back in place yet.

30 Day Cosplay Challenge Day 3 - My Copycat by Orange Caramel

First music cosplay of the challenge and it's Orange Caramel's My Copycat! I wanted to do an Orange Caramel cosplay during this challenge as they have such unique and quirky outfits for their songs. I went with My Copycat which is the last Korean single they released. I say last because that was back in 2014 and the girls' haven't had any more Korean releases and Lizzy left the company. But that's another rant for another post, so here's the inspiration images for the outfit. I posted the MV as well if you would like to check it out. My Copycat is one of my favourite Orange Caramel songs (whose kidding, I love them all), but the single was a disappointing release as the physical CD only had two tracks and no instrumentals. Pledis really dropped the ball with the later Orange Caramel releases as they never had instrumentals included anymore.

This outfit was super easy as the items were simple and easy to locate. I mainly searched for red striped items as they are the core elements of the outfit. This outfit actually reminds me of Crayon Pop's Dancing All Night outfits which I was thinking of cosplaying, but they were too similar to My Copycat. I ended up copying Nana's hairstyle as I thought the side ponytail look was cute.

Orange Caramel やさしい悪魔 Yasashii Akuma (My Sweet Devil) - Single Review (CD+Photobook Edition)

One of my favourite music groups is Orange Caramel and I thought it was finally time to review one of their singles on Marzipan Wonderland. The group is the subunit from After School who I've reviewed a few J-Pop albums from. Unfortunately the group (and After School) has pretty much been abandoned by their company and hasn't released anything in a long time, so they are no longer active One member Lizzy (who is my favourite) left the company recently but there is no word on whether the group is technically disbanded. Anyway negative points aside, let's take a look at Orange Caramel's single やさしい悪魔 Yasashii Akuma (My Sweet Devil).

やさしい悪魔 Yasashii Akuma (My Sweet Devil) is Orange Caramel's first Japanese single released in September 2012. The single is available in four editions: CD Only, CD+Photobook, CD+DVD (MV Edition) and CD+DVD (Live Edition). There also was an exclusive CD+Earphones set released in December 2012 with a special remix edition of the title track. The CD Only edition comes with bonus tracks, the MV Edition comes with a DVD of the music video and the Live Edition comes with three live performances from the group. I have the CD+Photobook edition which is the Taiwan edition which is the same as the Japanese one. The CD+Photobook edition of やさしい悪魔 Yasashii Akuma (My Sweet Devil) comes with the following contents:

• CD- 2 Track Album
• Photobook - 32 Pages
• Photocard - Random from 4 types
• Taiwanese Lyrics Booklet
• OBI Stripe
• Plastic Sleeve

Single Front Cover in Plastic Sleeve

The single design of the CD+Photobook edition features this quirky candy land style landscape with the girls in cute devil outfits inspired by the song title. The single is about the size of the book and is quite thin. The single is mainly the photobook with the CD being placed in a slip sleeve cover slotted into the back cover. The CD has a cute dotted pattern and features the group logo.

My K-Pop Collection 2017

During 2017, I focused mainly on building up my Japanese Pop collection and didn't really work much on my Korean Pop collection in terms of physical albums. I did purchased a lot of digital albums this year from a variety of groups. This post will only look at my current physical album collection though. Here is a photo of all my albums which are a lovely selection of crazy sizes.

The albums in my collection include:

• Crayon Pop - Evolution Pop_Vol.1
• I.O.I - Mini Album Volume 1 - Chrysalis (Special Edition)
• T-ARA - Mini Album Volume 11 - So Good
• Strawberry Milk - The 1st Mini Album 
• Crayon Pop - 2015 Mini Album Volume 2 - FM
• Orange Caramel - The Fourth Single - My Copycat/Do It Like Me
• Orange Caramel - The Third Single - Catallena
• I.O.I - Single Album - Whatta Man
• Crayon Pop - Single Album - Uh-Ee
• Hong Jin Young - Mini Album Vol 2 - The Most Beautiful Moment In Life
• AOA - Vol 1 - Angel's Knock (Taiwan Version A)
• April - Single Album Vol 1 - Boing Boing
• Red Velvet - Vol 1 - The Red
• Girls Generation - 2011 Girls Generation Tour (2CD + Photobook)
  
• Crayon Pop - Mini Album - Streets Go Disco (Australian Version)
• Girls Generation - The Boys (US Version)

Crayon Pop makes up the largest part of my collection as they were one of my favourite groups whilst they were still together as a five-member group. Nowadays they don't release anything, so I haven't had anything new to add to my collection. The Evolution Pop album I ordered from KpopMart which I had never used before. I enjoyed getting the free poster, but I was surprised the order reached me as the box was badly beaten up when I received it. I also found (and I know other fans found it as well) that the product was faulty and the CD's weren't held in place well. I easily fixed mine but I heard you could've sent it back or something. I was lucky enough to get the Australian version of Streets Go Disco a few years ago when the group had a deal to sell the album at a local music store chain. The one thing that I don't like about the Crayon Pop albums is the fact they don't come with photocards (the ones I have didn't come with any). FM would've been an amazing album to have photo cards for!

Crayon Pop collection

Orange Caramel is another favourite group of mine and I'm so disappointed that they no longer promote as a group. Cmon on Pledis, just announce that After School and Orange Caramel are disbanded already and put me out of my misery!! Anyway I only have two physical Korean albums from the group and I would collect more if they weren't ridiculously overpriced. One day I like to get the rest of their Korean singles and albums, but for now I'll just stick with the digital versions.

Orange Caramel collection

My J-Pop Collection 2017

This year I added quite a few new albums and singles to my Japanese Pop collection. 2017 was the year I started getting into collecting albums from E-girls and Dream Ami. This month I finally got the last Dream Ami single I was missing to complete my singles collection! Besides those artists, I got a few new albums from some of my favourite groups such as After School and KARA. I got very lucky and managed to get a set of Girls Talk and two Super Girl albums extremely cheap from a seller in Japan. I was so happy when I found them as they are hard to come across, especially the limited edition ones. Here is a photo of my J-Pop collection at the end of 2017. These are all the physical single and albums I have, I have a lot of musically digitally as well.

The albums in my collection include:

• KARA - Girls Talk - Type C (First Press Limited Edition)
• KARA - Super Girl - Type C (First Press Limited Edition)
• KARA - Super Girl - Type A CD+DVD (First Press Limited Edition)
• KARA - Girls Forever - Type A CD+DVD (Taiwan Edition)
• KARA - Best Girls - Type C 2CD's (First Press Limited Edition)
• KARA - Mamma Mia! - Type A CD+DVD (First Press Limited Edition)
• KARA - Girl's Story - CD+DVD (Taiwan First Press Limited Edition)
• AFTERSCHOOL - Bang! - Type C CD Only
• AFTERSCHOOL - Diva - CD Only (First Press Limited Edition)
• AFTERSCHOOL - Heaven - CD Only (First Press Limited Edition)
• AFTERSCHOOL - Lady Luck/Dilly Dally - CD Only (First Press Limited Edition
• AFTERSCHOOL - Dress To Kill - CD+DVD+Photobook (Taiwan First Press Limited Edition)
• Crayon Pop - RaRiRuRe - CD+DVD (First Press Limited Edition)
• Crayon Pop - Dancing All Night - CD Only (First Press Limited Edition)
• Crayon Pop - Crayon Pop - CD+DVD (First Press Limited Edition)
• Crayon Pop - Pop!Pop!Pop! - CD+DVD (First Press Limited Edition)
• AOA - Runway - Type C CD+DVD (Taiwan First Press Limited Edition)
• Kyary Pamyu Pamyu  - PAMYUPAMYU Revolution (Hong Kong Edition)
• Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Pika Pika Fantajin (Australian Edition)
• CocoSori - Itoshi no Mermaid - Type B
• Pungdeng-E - Pungdeng-E 1st Japanese Album Ppi Ppi Ppa Ppa
• Orange Caramel - Lipstick/Lum no Love Song - CD Only (First Press Limited Edition)
• Orange Caramel - ORANGE CARAMEL - CD+DVD (Hong Kong Edition)
• Orange Caramel - Yasashii Akuma - CD+Photobook (Taiwan Edition)
• E-girls - Lesson 1 - CD+DVD+Photobook (Taiwan Limited Edition)
• E-girls - E.G. Time - CD+DVD (Taiwan Edition)
• Dream Ami - Dress wo Nuida Cinderella - CD Only
• Dream Ami - Try Everything - CD Only
• Dream Ami - Lovefool - Sukidatte Itte - CD Only
• Dream Ami - Hayaku Aitai - CD Only
• Dream Ami - Kimi no Tonari - CD Only

Kara makes up the largest part of my collection and they were the first k-pop group I got into many years ago when I first started listening to the genre. I'm hoping to collect the last album I'm missing which is Fantastic Girls next year. I have a number of After School and Orange Caramel (After School's subunit) singles and albums, but I have some more in digital form and haven't got the physical ones yet. Dress To Kill was a great buy that I found this year. I brought the Taiwan edition which was about $40 cheaper than the Japan edition of the exact same CD+DVD+Photobook edition.

KARA Collection

AFTERSCHOOL Collection

Orange Caramel Collection

When buying J-Pop singles, I usually get the CD Only edition as it comes with the instrumentals and occasionally bonus tracks. Plus they are always the cheaper edition to buy. With albums, I try to get the DVD edition and occasionally the photobook as well if it comes in the same edition. However these editions often are extremely expensive or out of print. I often buy the Taiwan edition of albums as it is a cheaper price than the Japanese versions and comes with the same content (sometimes more!). I recently got the Taiwan edition of the E-girls album Lesson 1 and it was a good buy as it came with the CD plus a DVD of the music videos and a 64 page photobook. I also have the Taiwan edition of E.G. Time which came with the CD and DVD of the music videos. This year I managed to collect all the singles from Dream Ami who is my favourite solo artist. The covers of her singles are just gorgeous, I just can't pick which one is my number one favourite. I did not buy her recent album though as it was quite expensive for how many songs I didn't own (was only missing four which were new ones), so I just brought the seperate songs on iTunes. I'm hoping maybe one day to find the CD+DVD+Photobook edition cheap second hand if I ever go to Japan.

November Favourites

I know it's a bit overdue but here are my November favourites! I've been so busy playing New Style Boutique 3: Styling Star that I totally forgot to post this list.

Gaming
All I've pretty much been doing in my spare time is playing New Style Boutique 3. Already have over 30 hours of play time, I think I'm addicted. I believe I'm near the end of the main story which is surprising incredibly long. The new game has so many amazing clothes to list and I haven't even had the chance to experiment with a lot of the features like online as I've been so engrossed in the story.

This dress is too adorable!

The new Try It On animations are great!

Music
The local post system is delivering on weekends here to get through all the Christmas orders and I was lucky enough to receive an order from YesAsia the other day! I thought it would take a lot longer as they said it wouldn't ship until November 29th but shipped on the 21st. Hey, I'm not complaining as it means I get my parcel earlier. So this time I got some J-Pop albums I've had on my wish list for a while and these were:

• KARA - Girl's Story CD+DVD
• Dream Ami - Try Eveything CD Version
• Orange Caramel - Yasashii Akuma CD+Photobook

I'm excited to finally have KARA's album as I've been after it for a few years. I finally built the bullet and brought it as I was worried I wouldn't be able to get the version I wanted if it went out of the print.

Toys
Got two new sets of Barbie Fashionista outfits recently. I literally brought them right after the lady pulled them out of the box to put on the shelf. It's getting pretty hard to find sets here and it's annoying I'll have to wait months for new sets to arrive as now I have all the ones I can find.

I am super excited for the Barbie outfits that will be released soon. I know the Hello Kitty one is already available overseas but I'll have to wait a billion years for it here. A Nintendo line was also announced and I really want to get this one for my collection. How cute is the biker jacket?