Local skincare brand and brief reviews

At the moment, I'm still searching for the best skin care products to use as I'm still suffering from breakouts quite often. My skin type is combination with oily T-zone and this is what I currently use as my daily skincare regimen:

• Cleanser: The Body Shop Vitamin E Cream Cleanser, Mark That's Deep Puriying Cleanser (my skin has improved a lot using this, unfortunately I almost finish this one up and I should try finding other alternatives since it's very hard to get here)
• Toner: ROC Purif AC toner (it leaves my skin feeling sticky)
• Moisturizer: ROC Purif AC Soothing Reparator (I find it a lil bit too greasy to use with the bb creams although it is a GOOD moisturizer)
  

Since ROC is pretty expensive for me and didn't do much for my skin either, I need to try out other products. I figured it has to be cheaper, effective, and easy to get. So I went to the mall yesterday and picked up these skincare products from a local brand called "Bless". Here they are:


Thanks to Modzy for suggesting this brand for me! It's definitely worth to try out. For my Indonesian friends and readers, if you're still searching for a fairly cheap alternative skincare line, you should consider trying this. It's clearly not as cheap as products like Clean and Clear, Pond's, or Viva cosmetics that you can find in any supermarket but it definitely has something more to offer.

This skincare line was actually formulated by Indonesian dermatologists, so at least we know it's safe to use and it should be suitable for women living in the humid Indonesia. Yay!

Now, I can only give you very brief reviews since I only have tried them once, but I will sure update my opinion on them maybe after 3 weeks from now. Here you go...

Bless Acne Cleansing Foam for oily skin
Rp 34.000/ 100 ml
It comes off gel-like in texture (which I love) and it doesn't lather a lot. I like it that way because otherwise, I'd feel like it's too soapy. I don't like soapy cleansers as they tend to make my skin feel tight after washing (cough*POND'S*cough!). This DOESN'T leave my face feeling tight at all. And it cleanses well too, I'm amazed! :D
Additional goodnesses: It contains vitamin E and it's pH balanced.

Bless Light Freshener (toner) for oily skin
Rp 30.300/ 125 ml
The packaging is such a turn off, but the product is OK. First of all, it doesn't sting! I'm happy because usually, cheap toners sting so bad. It leaves no sticky feeling too, so I'm amazed. However, I'm not too keen on the smell: it's a bit too perfume-y for me. It's stated at the back of the packaging that this toner will freshen your skin and control oil, but what surprised me most is that it contains seaweed extract. Yum!

Bless Light Moisturizer for oily skin

Rp 40.400/ 30g
Boo~ it's tiny for the price! And they should come up with something better regarding the packaging because as you could see, I should dip my finger in the container to get the product. Yuck. But other than that, this moisturizer is good! It's light and it won't leave your skin looking shiny or greasy. It also gets absorbed into my skin faster than my ROC soothing reparator (my current moisturizer) which is great, because I'm all about saving time to do my daily makeup routine. Hehe. And the best part is I found my skin felt supple after using this moisturizer. It's just great! I'd definitely use this daily before applying my bb cream. I will now use my ROC moisturizer at night.

That's it ladies! Oh and if you're wondering where to get this product, I believe you could easily find it in drugstores such as Century, Guardian, or Watson. I got mine at the Guardian drugstore.

Thanks for reading!
xoxo,
F.

POP Beauty - Beauty Cabinet in "Sara"

I feel like doing a review today!
Without further ado, meet my Pop Beauty - Beauty Cabinet in "Sara".





I got this about 4 or 5 months ago when I just started with makeup. So it's like an old antique in my makeup stash. Hopefully someone finds this post useful. Enjoy!

Inside this little cabinet there are:

• Cheek blushes: bronze glow, rose glow, matte apricot, and peachy gold glow.

• Eye shadow duos: black gold shimmer & white gold, bronze-gold &opal pink , deep plum & nude sheen, olive nude & vanilla nude glow, olive green & gold green, metallic platinum & crystal pink highlighter.

• Lip glosses: pink glow, bronze nude glow, rusty-red, light strawberry red, peach-gold, and brick tint.

Price: around US$33 (IDR 350,000 or more. I don't remember how much it cost me)

What the site says:
Make a fresh start with these up-to-date necessities to take you from dull to delicious! The perfect home organizer, a dream cabinet loaded with flattering shades for eyes, lips, and cheeks. Sara Strand , Makeup magician and POP muse, designed this clever cabinet using all her fab favorite suit-all shades to make you look un-made up in a sexy radiant way.

What I think:
At first glance, I thought the eyeshadows are great. But after I tried 'em, I was like "BLAH!". Most of the them are too chalky and not so pigmented either. I have to put a lot to bring up the colors. And what happens when I tried to foil it? It changes color! Expecially the olive green and olive yellow ones. Ugh, not the best eye shadows I have ever tried.

The blushes are OK. I like the "rose glow" shade most as it gives me the healthy looking light pinkish glow. Barbie pink blushes are just not my cup of tea, so these shades are just right for me. I usually wear this blush very lightly but the color show up really well. It's easy to blend and the color is buildable as well. You could wear it as bold as you want. =)

The glosses are pretty! I love them! As you can see, I like the bronze nude gloss most. I apply it with my pink kolinsky lip brush from coastal scents. The bronze nude shade is very natural yet very pretty when on. It does feel a bit sticky and have weird smell though. =/

I don't like the packaging though. It looks cheap and you can't bring this cabinet along while traveling. The drawers are too loose so they would easily fall off.

Overall, I think this cabinet is overpriced. It's because of the eyeshadows and the packaging. See, I wish the eyeshadows are more pigmented and less chalky! And it would be great, I think, if this cabinet comes with a lip brush (too much to ask?).

Final judgment: 2.5 out of 5 stars. It's great for someone who just started with makeup as far as the glosses and the blushes go, but I really don't like the eyeshadows. So if you're more of an eyeshadow girl, don't buy this. It's not worth it!

this lipbalm is minty minty

Alternate title: "an unintended haul"
haha~

Picked up some drugstore stuffs on the way home today...

How did I end up having 6 more stuffs in my basket while all I wanted was to buy is a lipbalm??? Another mystery I have yet to solve.

Anyhoo.

I read this post from oui beauty (I really like her blog, so many cute Japanese stuffs!), and I thought it’s the perfect timing to get myself a new lipbalm since I’ve finished up my last one from oriflame (ha! Isn’t it a great feeling to actually finish a product before it got expired?).

Actually, before reading that post, I was planning to get The Body Shop’s vitamin E lipbalm but since it would cost a lot more than the Mentholatum’s Lip Ice, I decided to go with Mentholatum first. Besides, I want to compare it with the ones sold in Japan.

Turns out, our version of the lipbalm has different packaging although I believe it’s the same product (the Japanese ones are so much cuter! Not fair! Hahaha). I saw these lipbalms everywhere here but since it’s a very common drugstore product, I have never even interested to try it out. I thought those lipbalms are crappy and that they won’t do the job. I even didn’t recognize that it actually has SPF 15 like the ones sold in Japan. Coolio!

Now, there are actually two types of Lip Ice sold here Indonesia; this lip ice – lipbalm and lip ice sheer color, which is like the tinted version. The difference between the two is that Lip Ice sheer color doesn’t have SPF in it.

As oui beauty said in her blog, this lipbalm is our old school one. It’s that basic lipbalm you could use all year long to prevent getting chappy lips. I really like the mint sensation it gives to my lips when I first applied it. I now have used it for more than 2 hours in my Air Conditioned room, and this lipbalm does the job pretty well keeping my lips moisturized. Thus, so far, I don’t have any complains yet.

Along with the lipbalm, I also picked up some sheet masks. My first encounter with sheet masks happened a looooong time ago before I got addicted to makeup and beauty related products so I kinda forgot how it feels like using a sheet mask. I hardly can wait to try them! ^^

I chose Garnier Skin Naturals Whitening Infusion Tissue Mask and Shizuku Anti Acne Facial Mask which are sold commonly in many drugstores here. They both cost around 15,500 rupiahs, that’s less thanUS$2. But I guess Shizuku is cheaper since one box contains 2 pieces of mask.

I also got myself a Garnier Pure facial wash, Vaseline Healthy Sunblock, Natur shampoo (which is a well-known local product used to prevent hairloss), and umm… a “V” wash called “Absolute Feminine Hygiene”. Gotta keep it fresh down there, ladies! Haha ^^

Well, since it’s a haulage post, why not showing some stuffs I bought at the mall like 2-3 weeks ago? I have had the pictures in my desktop for so long but I just realized now I haven’t posted them up.

I stopped by The Body Shop and got myself some hair products. It’s the Grapeseed Glossing Serum and Guarana Berry Volumising Conditioner. I like these two products, they make me want to wash my hair every single day! XD

The Guana Berry Volumising Conditioner is really good and smells awesome. So far every conditioner I’ve tried is either weighed my hair down or just didn’t work. I think next time I should post up a more detailed review on these products since I love them sooo much! :D

That’s it, ladies! I'm gonna go and wash my hair now. Hehe :D

XOXO,

F.

*PS: I really like the way I could keep a track record on every beauty-related products I purchased thru this blog. Oh I love beauty blogging! ^^

BB Cream swatches & reviews

Time for swatches comparison, shall we? Here I got you swatches from 4 bb creams I’ve tried: Dodo Club BB cream (the cheapest one), Skin79 Super+ BB Triple Functions (Hot Pink), BRTC Perfect Recover Balm (the one did most damage to my wallet), and Hanskin Glossy Magic BB cream. Mind you, the only bb creams I've consistently used are the ones from BRTC and Dodo Club.

All the BBs (left-right): Skin79, Dodo Club, BRTC, and Hanskin (this one sachet of sample could provide 3x uses!).

First of all, I compare Hanskin glossy with BRTC as some of my Indonesian friends here can’t really tell the difference between glossy/shimmery bb creams and those matte ones. In my opinion, BRTC Perfect recover gives you more matte complexion while the glossy bb creams tend to have tiny shimmery particles in it that gives you glowier complexion. Thus, glossy bb creams, I think, are not too flattering for those of you who have oily type of skin.

O.o my hand looks silver with hanskin! Haha ;P

I don’t know if you could spot the difference, but Hanskin Glossy Magic looks noticeably sheerer than BRTC Perfect Recover AFTER perfectly blended. However, in person I could see clearly that Hanskin Glossy Magic has shimmery particles in it thus creating a dewier look to my skin. The interesting part is, it actually makes the lines on my skin look more noticeable. Is that bad, or good? Nevertheless, I like how my skin feels moisturized after using this particular BB cream.

Off to the next comparison. Skin79 hot pink label vs Dodo Club:

I should have blended more but I didn't because I wanted you to see the difference. Dodo club carries heavier coverage than Skin79 does.

I guess the biggest difference between the two is the consistency. Skin79 is quite runny and light, while Dodo club is a bit on the thicker side, almost as thick as BRTC. Both are very easy to blend though. About the shade, I prefer Skin79 out of all the other bb creams. It’s the darkest bb cream shade I’ve found and it works perfectly with my medium skin tone. I’ve been using Dodo club for a while but so far I don’t think it does any good to my skin. I just like the fact that it could give me the dewiness I miss from using liquid foundation. However, this bb cream from dodo club oxidizes real fast on my skin =(

Quick Reviews

Brand : Dodo Club BB Cream

Price : about $10-$12 for a 60ml tube.

Consitency: creamy, but not as thick as BRTC. Quite easy to blend.

Coverage: sheer-medium

Pros: cheap, even out my skin tone, makes my skin look glowy.

Cons: oxidize fast, don’t see any improvements on my skin after a long term use, on the packaging it stated that this cream provides suncare but no SPF mentioned (odd, huh?).

****

Brand: Hanskin Glossy Magic BB cream

Price: I don’t know, I got this as a free sample. =)

consistency: quite light and liquidy

coverage: sheer

pros: make my skin looks glowy, my skin feels moisturized using this and then after washing my skin feels supple and looks great =)

cons: it could be too shiny if your skin is more of an oily type, it has a bit of a perfumey scent that lasts quite a while, my skin looks oily under sunlight.

*ps: I’ve only used this once, so I don’t know if this does any good after long term use.

****

Brand: Skin79 Super+ Beblesh Balm Triple Functions (Hot Pink label)

Price: about $21 for 40g

consistency: not so thick, very easy to blend

coverage: sheer (probably one of the sheerest coverage of bb creams I’ve ever encountered), it’s suitable for you who wants natural look.

pros: HOT packaging, matches my skin tone very well, SPF25, blendability is great, I wear it with my palgantong theatrical powder and it didn’t oxidize on my face, oil control is good (my face still looks great after 4-5 hours).

cons: the coverage is too sheer for me (I have quite a lot acne scars that need to be covered), it also has a perfumey scent but it doesn’t last long, other than that this could be my HG bb cream! =)

****

Brand: BRTC Perfect Recover

Price: $25 for a 30ml tube (including shipping from Korea and a big jar of BRTC mask)

consistency: pasty, thick, thus it’s harder to blend

coverage: medium

pros: it has the best coverage of all the other bb creams I’ve tried, great oil control, and does help healing and soothing acne scars after a few time uses.

cons: pricey, I don’t know why but I find it a lil bit too whitish for my complexion (I guess it’d be more suitable for women with pink undertones?), no SPF, kinda hard to blend.

****

Phew. What a long post. So far my favorite BB creams are BRTC Perfect Recover and Skin79 hot pink label. I love BRTC the most since it gives me the coverage I need yet it also treats my acne scars. On the other hand, I find Skin79 matches my skin tone well and also gives me a wonderful glowy complexion without looking too shiny. That’s it, ladies. Hope you don't get bb cream overdosed! Haha :P

xoxo,

F.

Can you say HOT PINK?!

I must… I must not… must I?

I MUST!

I couldn’t help it but to order myself a bb cream from the brand skin79. I fell in love with it at my first glance… it's SKIN79 SUPER+ BEBLESH BALM HOT PINK LABEL. I always like the color hot pink. In fact, my old Motorola phone is in hot pink color... too bad it’s broken. I think it must have been the root beer I accidentally spilled on it *whoops*.

So I ordered the bb cream along with the highly raved Palgantong Theatrical Powder (believe me, it IS highly raved here in Indonesia, I don’t know why no one brought it up before in this beauty blogging world). PALGANTONG… Hmm, how weird that sounds. Maybe that’s why people are attracted by it, it sounds suspiciously weird. And you know what, instead of getting one, I got two loose powders!

Sigh… my wallet is crying for help.

Well, without further ado, let’s check out today’s haul (actually, the package arrived yesterday)…

As you can see, the beautiful miss cupcalicious generously gave me some free samples along with my orders (she’s the one holding bb cream sprees). I got a biore nose mask, a Shiseido mask, three Hanskin bb cream samples (Caviar gold bb, Glossy magic bb, and magic bb), and two sample-size tubes of Skin79 diamond collection BB cream (pearl luminous bb & the prestige bb).

DAYUM! I just can’t wait to try them all.

And here’s the hot babe:

I’m so diggin’ the luxurious packaging.

and this is the palgantong Theatrical powder container… Let me open this up for you…

There you go. Now these are the two loose powders I was talking about. The left one is THE original theatrical powder in original beige and the right one is called color pearl powder.

Actually, this set is a special set the company launched called Flower Collection 2 in 1 set, hence the pretty floral packaging. The original packaging, though, is somewhat scary looking:

Now let me tell you a lil something about the stuff, this powder is carried by Dodo, a Japanese cosmetic company (I think it’s the same company carries Dodo Club BB cream?). And yes, this powder is highly raved in Japan and Korea. I heard it is used by the Japanese and Korean actors to set their makeup since the powder gives such flawless velvety finish and has good oil control. The powder is also supposed to make the actors’ faces looking slightly slimmer and younger on stage, hence the “theatrical” thingy. Look, I know it sounds funny, but I don’t make this up. SLIGHTLY SLIMMER! Could you believe that? Sounds like fun, right?

Now click here to read more about the powder (and to make sure that I’m not fooling with ya)

It comes with a sucky puff. I’d rather apply it with my kabuki… It’s too small anyway.

To tell you the truth, at first I wasn’t that interested to try this powder because I already got my ciel minerals veil to set my makeup. But since my lil sister has already tried it and she told me that it’s really good at keeping her skin looking matte during long hours at school, I decided to buy this set.

Luckily for me, I got this set while it's still on sale for 135.000 rupiahs (about US$ 12) . Pretty cheap, right? One 10g jar powder is twice cheaper than my ciel minerals veil!! I believe you could order it off of ebay or Sasa.com.

Alright ladies, I’ll soon put up reviews about them bb cream and powders! Thanks for reading <3<3

Purple & gold eyes (CS 26 combo palette)

Finally, I got the chance to post a look using my new Coastal Scents 26 eyeshadow/blush palette. You know, I barely wear eyeshadows to school, so I rarely put some time on creating dramatic look using the palette. I've been only using the palette to create some of more neutral looks, like this one:

boooooringg... hahahaha~

So, here's the purple & gold EOTD...

WHOA, my lining skill sucks.
eyeliner used: Coastal Scents gel liner - black
mascara used: Maybelline Unstoppable Curly Extensions (I forgot to bring my mascara when I went to Jakarta last week so I bought this. The SA said that the mascara is very easy to remove at the end of the day. Well, she's fooling me. It's just like any other mascara I bought. Damnit.)

The colors I used:

Well, basically I started by putting #4 on the outer V of my eye, then I put #2 on the middle of the lid. Topped it off with #3 which is a very pretty lilac color. And finally I put the gold color, #1, on the rest of the lid and inner V.

oh and I used UDPP as the base and NYX Ultra Pearl Mania in Nude as highlight. =)

The colors are washed out because of the flash :(

Last but not least, a blurry picture just so you think my skin is flawless *insert devilish grin*
puahahahaha~

Thanks for reading, ladies.
xoxo,
F.

This stuff doesn't work!

Hey girls,
you should try putting up feedjit or sitemeter on your site if you haven't. Sometimes people stumbled on your page when they were googling about some random nasty stuffs. HAHA!

Anyway,
I got people stumbled on my page searching a review on Mark Get Clearance anti-acne blemish treatment gel. So I was thinking it might be good to do a review about it. I already did reviews on Mark That's Deep Purifying Cleanser and Mark Matte Chance Mattifying Lotion here.

Mark get clearance Anti-Acne Blemish Treatment Gel

What the site claims:
If just the mere thought of a blemish brings you down then try this quick fix that saves the day and keeps future disasters away with salicylic acid - a proven belmish blaster - together with a powerful mix of black willow bark and sugar cane to keep excess oil under control.

Price: US$ 8 for 5 g (0.17 fl. oz)
But the shipping ripped me off.
What it actually is: it's a non greasy clear gel that you put on to your blemishes IN HOPES that the next day your blemishes would look (and feel) less horrifying.

My review:
I thought this would be one of those 24 hour blemish treatments.. and well, I was wrong. I use this when I got a nasty red blemish. I put it on the troubled spot, at night, after all my skin care regiments. The next day? Nothing happened. My zit was still as RED as a dwarf's nose. So I tried using it more regularly, but still, it did nothing. It does soothe the skin the first time you apply it though, but that's just it.

Would I buy it again: Nope.

So yeah, next time you want to buy a blemish quick fix product, save your penny and try another product instead.

Hope this helps.
xoxo, F.

***

Oh, and here's a random picture of the day:


Jason Mraz at the Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival
March 06, 2009
Yes, I was at the front row! And he's awesome! :D

Happy Women's Day!

Happy women's day for all of you, ladies! Hope y'all have a great time and stay positive always.
xoxo,
F.

( *PS: I saw Jason Mraz live two days ago, it was awesome and I was at the very front row! Hehe I'm happy <3>

Trying out the aspirin mask tonight

After school, I went to the drugstore and got myself some aspirin. My bf was like, "what are those pills for?" Haha he's so clueless. He thought I'd just swallow random pills like that.

Anyway, how many of you have tried this DIY mask? I heard about it like a long time ago, but I was too lazy to give it a try...

...until last night. I signed up to this Indonesian girls forum and found that many of the girls there have tried the mask and found it working. Some say that it has successfully cleared up their skin or at least reduced the oiliness of their complexion.

So I decided to try it out. Besides, it's pretty cheap, it won't hurt to try. Please wish me luck. I hope I won't get a bad reaction from it.