Ad Text in Japanese:

おとな。but カワイイ。

otona. but kawaii.

ぷっくりっぷ。

pukkurippu

とろける感触、メリハリきわだつ。魅せる美形リップ。

torokeru kansyoku, merihari kiwadatsu. bakaseru bikei rippu.

Literal Translation:

Adult. But Cute.

Full Lips.

A melting texture, definition which stands out. Enchanting beauty lips.

Harvey Translation:

Mature, yet cute.

Full Lips.

Melting texture which gives definition which stands outs. Beautifully shaped and enchanting lips.

Grammar & Vocab points:

「おとな but カワイイ」

Nothing too tricky here. Remember what I said about writers being able to chose whether or not to use Kanji, Hiragana, or Katakana to write their text? (See the “keitai” explaination)…

おとな (otona) means adult, and is normally written in Kanji like this. 「大人」。

カワイイ means cute, and I usually see it in Hiragana, but it can also be written in Kanji as 「可愛い」. It may be written in Katakana here to ad emphasis.
「ぷっくりっぷ」

「ぷっくりっぷ」(pukku rippu). This is quirky. リップ (rippu) in Katakana means “lip”. 「ぷっく」, is a word I hesitate to call proper Japanese. There is a word, ぷっくり which can mean “puffy”, or “padded”, or something to that effect. Put it together with リップ written in Hiragana for style, and you get “sexy puffy think lips” that Japanese admire so much.

「とろける感触」

The word 「とろける」is usually used to mean “melting”, but not always for something that has melted because of heat. For example, there is a brand of curry called とろける as well. If you can imagine think and creamy curry sauce running down your spoon… That is 「とろける」.

感触 (kansyoku) is a good word to remember. It refers to the feel or something, especially to the touch, or also the texture of food. I used to use this word a lot when explaining to Japanese people why I didn’t like the rubbery texture of octopus or squid.

「感触があまり好きじゃないから食べない。」 (kansyoku ga amari sukijyanaikara tabenai)

I don’t like the texture so much, so I don’t eat it.

For the record, I eat octopus and squid without hesitation now!

「メリハリきわだつ」

メリハリ is a difficult word to translate, but I have usually seen it translated as “definition”. This is definition in the sense of appearance, not like the definition of a word. Also, . However, this usually only used for features of a womans face I believe…

There is also a form of めりはり in Hiragana which means “lively”. Especially used for music or verse.

「きわだつ」is another rare word that means “to stand out”. Check ALC’s definition of 際立つ for various uses of this word. It can be written in Kanji as 「際立つ」.

「魅せる美形リップ」

「魅せる」(bakaseru) is the causative form of the verb 「魅かす」. This is more commonly written with the kanji 「化かす」, and means to “enchant” or “fascinate”. I do not see this often. Only remember it if you’re a maniac. However, the Kanji 「魅」is very often seen, especially in the word 「魅力」(miryoku) which means “charm” or, 「魅力的」(miryokuteki) which can mean “charming” or “attractive”.

「美形」(bikei) means just what the kanji say, 「美」(bi) means “beauty”, and 「形」(katachi) means “shape”. Other words with 「美」, include「美人」(bijin) “beautiful person”, 「美しい」(utsukushii) “beautiful (adj)”, 「美白」(bihaku) “beautiful white skin”.

And that’s that. This was a tough one!

About This Ad:

This is a make-up ad for Esprique, featuring the model Gemma Ward. She has that baby-doll face that Japanese consumers seem to love so much. Though, she was born 1987, which would make her 19 now…

I almost think it’s cheating to use a 19 year old in an ad campaign using the word “adult”.

Or, it could be that this advertisement is targeting 19 year olds, saying that they can look “adult”, yet still keep the Kawaii look.

Not sure, I’m not a make-up expert…

- Harvey