I’m not quite sure I’ve made it public, but for a little less than a year now, I’ve become a make-up nut. Last summer I bought dresses, I bought stockings, more shoes and more makeup then I could afford. I am an owner of a Sephora rewards card, which at the moment seems a little dangerous due to Tokidoki’s latest collaboration with the makeup super store. Hit the jump to see several photo compilations. I’ve spent the better part of the day getting these screengrabs and close-ups so please, if you’re going to use the images, credit myself or IHCS. Thank you!

And December is finally here!!! Woohoo! I know some people tend to focus on the time flying by, which I admit is something I’ve contemplated myself– but I’ve been anticipating the arrival of December for a while. December officially launches out Holiday Giveaway season. If you recall from last year, I guarantee to giveaway at least one cool item a week. I have taken the necessary steps to push for more freebies for you, the readers, and I hope many more shops, companies and artists jump on board, but I’ve very excited about the giveaways I have lined up so far.

The first giveaway is the Tokidoki Celebrazione Bacio bag. As stated in my video blog, one could use this bag as an oversized wallet, or even as a cheerful bag to stroll down the street with. The bag was given to me by Mr. Tokidoki himself. Sadly, I did not get it signed, but that’s mostly because I’m not a fan of getting anything other than my sketchbook tainted. I participated in my first ever press junket in February for the Tokidoki NY Shop opening, and was gifted a bag filled with tokidoki goodies along with a lookbook of the upcoming styles, most of which have already been released.

To enter this giveaway, leave ONE comment below. Make sure you enter a valid email address where it requests it. Please do not leave your mailing address in the comments section, stalkers exist! Whoever wins will recieve an email from me requesting their mailing address. But wait! There’s more! You can enter again by following @iheartcoolstuff on Twitter and retweeting the line below:

RT @iheartcoolstuff: RT & Follow for a chance to win a Tokidoki Celebrazione Bacio bag from IHCS.me! #IHCSholidaygiveaway01

This Giveaway will close on Saturday December 5th,2009. Winner will be announced on my v-blog! Good Luck!

Right now I’m experiencing loads of excitement. Mostly because a lot of the items that I’ve been looking forward to purchasing are finally being released. Yay! I’ll share those purchases in another post, right now, we must focus on the newest tokidoki collaboration. This time, tokidoki has partnered up with Marvel to bring you some of the sweetest character creations to date, in my opinion of course.

I’m not a big Marvel fan, but I do like their most recognized characters (most of which are part of the New Avengers team) which include; Spiderman, Captain America, Iron Man and Wolverine. With this latest collaboration, Simone Legno has chibi-fied the characters I previously mentioned, along with some others. In my excitement, I already pre-ordered myself a hoodie and tee. Woohoo!! Hit the jump for the image gallery and a link to pre-order the items for cheaps (well, slightly cheaper than currently available).

If you recall, some time ago the Mr. (in all his awesomeness) created a video to show you the tokidoki gear all Xbox Live users can now purchase on their dashboards for their avatars. I’ve already gone ahead and bought myself the ice cream licking t-shirt, along with an eye patch and a pair of gauchos. Anyway, I’m getting off track here. It seems that I wasn’t exaggerating when I said Simone was taking over, since he’s now created art for the upcoming Need for Speed Nitro intended for Nintendo DS and the Wii.

Tokidoki won’t be the only art included from the designer toy/lowbrow movement. The upcoming racing game will also feature the art from Upper Playground artist’s Sam Flores and Jeremy Fish and artists from the well-known I Am 8-Bit collective. I’m loving these news and though I haven’t played a racing game since Burnout (I was so damn addicted and competitive), I think I’ll pick this game up when it’s released. Both the Wii and DS(i) are perfect platforms for tokidoki’s art style.

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Fall ‘09 NXE Xbox Update: Tokidoki Apparel from IHCS on Vimeo.

If you recall, the Mr. and I published a Qik video earlier in the week in which we took a look at some of the NXE additions for avatars. Two days ago it was announced that Tokidoki apparel and accesories will become available– and again, although I find paying for electronic clothing silly, I’m a sucker for cute. Since the Mr. and I are part of the beta releases, we took a look into for you. You’ll see both women’s and men’s apparel and accesories.

I’d spotted this earlier, but the Pimp reminded me to post about it. Tokidoki has unleashed madness onto the internet world, because the physical world just wasn’t enough for them. Spotted on their site, or in my case, my Google Reader– they are offering fans the chance to download a really cool interactive screensaver. I, of course, downloaded immediately to see if it was worth it– and yes, it really is. Below, you’ll find my favorite screenshot:

[Click for larger image]

I really like it when companies show their fans ["friends"] some love and appreciation. This was a very cute touch. I love the flash animations found on each screen and it features many of our favorite characters. Head on over to tokidoki.it to download it.

Leave a comment for a chance to win!

Seeing as how I’ve been very neglectful with the blog– and we’ve officially entered the “spring” season– although stepping outside won’t convince you of the change yet, I’ve decided to give away the OG tokidoki cactus pups. Yes people, I did indeed just use the term “OG” and I giggle every time I do so. =)

I already own the Bastardino (who is Simone Legno’s favorite character– you can listen to the interview I had a couple of weeks ago with him if you don’t believe me) and Polpettina, but one of the treats from the interview was the bag of goodies that I scored. In it, the Tokidoki team gifted me the vibrant pair pictured above. Since I already owned them, why not give them to someone who still doesn’t have them? So, as is customary with other giveaways– leave a comment below (just one please) for a chance to win the pair.

Remember, leave a valid email address where the comment form requests it– I really wouldn’t want to draw twice. Anyone who enters more than once will be disqualified and I really hate doing that, so don’t do it! On Friday April 17th, at NOON I will pick a winner. Good luck and feel free to spread the word, or maybe not, more chances for you to win, right?

Sometime during the week, I was on the search for shops that carried Anna Chambers’ Fresh Fruit Apples, and ended up noticing the Tenacious Toys has begun taking pre-orders on the upcoming Adios Star pillow from Tokidoki. Adios is my favorite character to date from the many kawaii characters Simone Legno has brought to life, so I am very interested on getting my hands on one of these. If you want to place your pre-order– the pillow will cost you $29.99, not including shipping, click here.

**Update** Tenacious Toys also has pre-orders on the plushy Ciao Ciao and Adios ($19.99 ea), along with the upcoming Frenzies Keychains ($4.95ea). Check ‘em out here: tokidoki sales page.

To hear the full interview, keep reading.

If you’re a tokidoki fan, I’m sure you’ve spotted the flyer above somewhere announcing the invasion of tokidoki in NY. Well, I’d gotten this flyer about 2 weeks ago, or so, and was under the impression that the shop would be opening this upcoming weekend. I was wrong, as so was most of the world actually, not our fault, just a bit of miscommunication. Although, this weekend, Simone Legno will indeed be on location for the Grand Opening celebration and signing, the shop’s been open since last week. To those who are familiar with the area, the tokidoki shop has actually taken over the LeSportsac shop that used to be there.

I meant to make the trip to the tokidoki shop this weekend, but thanks to all the fun I was having during the snowstorm, I went today instead. The shop, is just like I remember it, super small! I can only imagine the chaos this weekend is going to bring to the staff. =) If you keep reading, you can see a picture of the new print that is being sold exclusively at the shop, along with upcoming Tokidoki x Hello Kitty Plushies.