Collection Event

Hi guys!

It's time for another joint post! Most of you should already know if you read my post slash invitation for a brand i was working part time for, Collection, that we held a mini focus group last Saturday where we invited 30 girls to basically play around with make ups, didn't it sound exciting??? Yeah, it really was!

I was pretty anxious about this event, after all, not only this is the first time ever that i attended this kind of thingy (we are pretty new bloggers, after all. And we're more of a lifestyle blogger than focusing on beauty, so no, sadly we've never been invited to any event so far *LOLOLOL*) but i was actually HOSTING it. Like i said, i was super grateful when Donna (she's the Marketing Manager for the company that owns Collection) told me she's flying to Surabaya for the event! And even more so when #Undecided immediately said "YES!" when i asked her to help out. That's the importance of having a BFF, you guys. You know there's always someone ready to help you out any time you need it, without asking anything in return! Love you so much, #Undecided!

#Pink, #Undecided and Miss Donna!

Before we get into the event itself, i'd like to shout out to Donna, thank you for being so friendly and sweet! We went to Jakarta for three days, and when normally i don't feel comfortable around strangers (or even non-strangers that i am not close to), but she made me feel so comfortable and safe (haha), i totally felt like we've known each other for a very long time already :p. And we just found out that the three of us are the same age (well, Donna and i aren't officially 30 like #Undecided yet... :p) so we had lots in common, like being Spice Girls fans, and she's apparently is a TwiHard! Team Edward, baby!

Did you really have to mention about me being officially 30, #Pink?! LOL. Anyway, have you guys ever seen us looking so businesslike? LOL. But we pulled out the look okay, right? Right?!?! Hahahahaha... Originally I wanted to wear a pair of hotpants to go with my silk floral shirt and black blazer, you know, to keep it strictly #Undecided-like, but #Pink scolded me and said "NO HOTPANTS BB, WEAR A SKIRT!". Haih... Shouldn't have asked and just wore the pants anyways!!! Lucky me I have my trusty scandalously short skirt so I didn't have to pull a school teacher look. Especially with my bang which was super long I had to pin it to the side LOL, I couldn't afford to look even more serious with longer skirt, now could I...

What I worried about most wasn't the outfit actually, but honestly, I was super worried about my make up *saying it in my head with Donna's British accent LOL* knowledge. Which is, well... limited to the self-explanatory basics (like foundation, eye shadow, blush on, you know...), so I told #Pink that I would just help the best I know how: being the event organizer. 

Yeah, speaking of outfit... I've never really attended any formal events that demanded me to wear anything formal (not counting my school/university days, okay...), so i naturally didn't have anything to wear *gasp!*, so yep... You guessed it. I bought that peplum dress *LOL*. It was from Gaudi.. In my defense, the blazer wasn't new! I mean, it's new as in never worn before, but i bought it long time ago. Hoarding has its moments, like when you suddenly need to find something specific to wear. If i am being completely honest, i'm sure i can find an appropriate outfit in my massive wardrobe, but where's the fun in that, right? Ironically... Donna dressed up super casually in her girly dress! LOL! After all of our efforts to look businesslike...

So, like #Undecided said, she was in full control for the event organizing part. She even went and made me contacted Donna for all three of us to meet up the night before at the hotel to talk about the step by step of the event. Donna and i were ready to just wing it, i guess *LOLOL* *amateur*. Of course i'm glad we did met Donna first so the initial awkward stage when you just met someone (albeit already been talking to her on the phone and e-mail for months) for the very first time out of the way. And we get to arrange everything so there was no problem at all the next day.

The event itself was held in Plaza Surabaya Hotel's The Boardroom, and there were two sessions. The first session was originally planned to start at 10 AM, but i had hard time gathering participants (because most of the girls would still be in school or work by that time), but with the help of super nice Henny (thank you, Henny!!!), she single-handedly helped me gathered like 9 girls out of 15! And since 5 or 6 of them (one of them is her little sis) studied at the same school and their school hour ended at 10, we pushed the event's hour back and started at 10.30. Again, irony is everywhere, those high school girls were the first to arrived, it was probably before 10! LOL! 

The super early high school girls (actually, we did tell them to arrive at 10 because we wanted them to jet right after school was over, little did i know that their school would end much earlier :p...)

They waited in silence, and then excused themselves, we thought they were going to the bath room, but apparently they went to have a meal at KFC at Surabaya Plaza next door! Poor girls were starving and didn't dare to tell us *LOL*, did we look that scary?

While waiting for the participants to arrive... we cam-who hahaha...

In times like this, i know i need a new camera... But.. i just don't have the will to buy a new one...

Even though #Undecided's crappy at taking non-alive objects pictures, she's superb at taking MY pictures! Like, a total opposite of my hunny WTH

A little confession... We towered over Donna because... We were in heels. And Donna was in flats *told ya, she was super casual, she told us later that she felt under dressed LOL, because a lot of the girls also wore heels and dressed very prettily*. In reality, i am almost the same height with Donna. Probably one or two (max) centimeter taller, but that's all :p.

This event is basically an introduction to the brand COLLECTION which btw ranks at #3 in The UK. Obviously COLLECTION is not a new brand (they've been around since the 80'es), but we just don't have them here in Indonesia. 

A little more notes from #Pink : Collection is a 25 year old British brand, and they used to be available in the UK only. Since the last two years, they began branching out, in Asia! They are already available in some Asian countries like Hong Kong, Philippines and Thailand (and a few more), and setting up to launch soon in Singapore, Malaysia and a few other. They have their eyes set on Indonesia next, obviously, but so far there's no set date or time frame on when they will finally come to Indonesia. Fingers crossed, it'll be sooner than later! Oh, they used to go with the name Collection 2000 but recently dropped the 2000 and re-name themselves simply, Collection.

Okay, now that you have learnt about what COLLECTION is, let's move on to the actual event, shall we! Basically we gathered up some girls to sample some of COLLECTION products to get their feedback and see what they think about them. It was pretty cray cray I tell ya... Throw in some girls in a confined room and then some make up *still cannot get over Donna's accent*, and you'll get some serious madness hahahaha... That is how much fun we had that day :D

Some pictures from the first session : 

The younger girls from the first session - just as we expected - took a bit more coaxing to speak their minds, but luckily we have 3 beauty bloggers/v-loggers/make up artists (which originally wanted to join the second session but were too late to sign up-not all of them though! Hana signed up for the first session from the beginning :)!) whom brought their A-game. Thank you Shelley, Yennyca and Hana for your help, we appreciate it *kisses*.

If i'm not mistaken, all three of them are professional make up artists too!

Seeing them play with them made me choke, i wanna play too!!!!

They are all so shinyy!!! Arghhhh!!! Lemme play with them too!!!

Yep, we smuggled G in :p

A particular pink thing drove me crazy, i practically begged G to let me touch it zzzzz, i was working you know, how i wished i was one of the participants instead :p

Ghost-like #Undecided, who never stopped moving around helping out hahaha

Shelley knew how i kept on panting and restrained myself really hard to stop myself from freaking out, i wanna touchhhh!!!

G's game plan, came with a clean face, went home ready to parteeeeyy!

Hana, trying on the nail polish

While Shelley swatching on the eye palette, which i covet!

Thanks so much, you three!

Everybody with their goodie bag :D

G with her snacks hahaha

Snack time! We jokingly said that the first session was more interested in the food than the makeup, while the second session couldn't care less about the food, they went gaga over the products!

The first session was... very quiet and calm, to say the least, but the second session was the complete 360 of it hahaha. It was loud, cheerful and fun from the beginning! The second session started really late (i smuggled my cousin L too here, and if you've been reading this blog religiously then you'd know how impossible it is for L to be on time! And she was one of the first to arrive, so... Imagine how late the event was LOLOLOL FOL), i'm so sorry for those who arrived super early! One participant even arrived like, 30 minutes early, before the first session even finished (the first session finished much later than anticipated, because as #Undecided said, when we asked questions we pretty much had to coax the answers out of the participants so it took quite long), but i hope how the session went out was worth waiting for *wink wink*

We were pretty bored *and anxious, time was ticking away! Thankfully the banquet manager was nice enough to gave us a lot more extra time, we actually only had time until 2 PM to use the room, but we only vacated it around 3? Accidentally, we both painted our nails in somewhat reddish tones so.... 

#Undecided's actually more on the orange side but it photographed red somehow (it was one of the souvenirs #Pink gave her-it was from Rubi), #Pink's a metallic glittery red from O.P.I Burlesque series

The sequence of the session was exactly the same as the first one, chit chatting (though the second session the chit chatting part really went well, on the first session it felt a little bit like an interrogation since the questions went from one direction and so was the answer *LOL*), i guess it was easier because most of the participants in the second session was beauty bloggers and some of them knew each other. And maybe because they were older (except for our youngest member for the second session, Caroline, who's 17! While in the first, well... i smuggled my nieces in, and y'all know how young they are LOLOLOL-OMG i smuggled so many people in) so they're less shy, i guess? Hahahaha.

Special thanks to the bloggers (and non bloggers) that participate in the second session and made the session super special haha, i don't remember every single person's name but i remember most of them : Shasha, Sabrina, Yessy, Caroline, Shelvi (Xiao Vee), Irma, Qonita, Tasya, Lina, Glory, Katherin, Kiki, Irma, and if you don't see your name here put it in the comment below so i can edit this (and those that i mention but i didn't link (okay, i only link-ed Shasha *LOL*) also please leave your link below so i can link them properly :)!)

 

Three pretty hijabers!

See the second girl from Donna? That's Sabrina (who also helped me hyped about the event, thank you!), she's super tall (and skinny, lemme give you some slices of fats Sab...)! Coincidentally we had one super tall girl in every session. Shelley on the first, and Sabrina on the second. Really... And i thought we were tall, bb...

Spot my cousin L? LOL. She totally bonded with Kiki, the girl in stripes, over nails! I think they're obsessed with nails hahaha

Lina, Caroline, Yessy and Shasha, hello!

See. Bonding straight away. Even forced me to take a pic of the two of them. I'm not a free photog okay!!!

Look a bit like they're having a test hahaha

Hi Katherin! Haha!

 And then... Of course, testing the products out, all hell broke loose!

 

Don't you envy those girls? They are the first people to try out Collection products in Indonesia (unless you've been to UK and tried their stuffs, of course)

Shasha was so cute, she went gaga over the glittery liquid eyeliners (G, you've found your match!), and kept on asking if she can bring them all home.

How many of those babies did you end up with, Sha?

Look at Caroline snapping pictures of swatches, once a beauty blogger, always a beauty blogger!

Even crazier, because Donna then gave all of the products they've been playing with to all of the participants (and #Undecided and i, we got the first dibs, obviously hehehe... Jealous? You should be! *evil grin*), so on top of five random products that were already been waiting for them in every goodie bag, Donna just kept on adding *again randomly* stuffs inside them, so in the end every participants got around 12 products each! How cray cray was that???

They were also allowed to exchange *with each other, clearly, because Donna had already gave out all of the samples she brought with her all the way from Hong Kong!* products with each other, and it was sooo loud and crazy! LOL. My cousin L totally jumped in the craziness and shouting and grabbing things around, it was worse than a fish market LOLOLOL!

They were moving super fast i only caught blurs LOL

Oh, i should tell you guys from the first session, Donna felt really bad about the goodie bag that only consisted of five items (but i told her that she shouldn't be, because i think that's quite a generous goodie bag anyway!), she wished she could give you guys more stuffs, but we needed the samples for the second session so there was nothing that we could do about it. Hope the girls from the first session understands (and not preparing some voodoo dolls of the three of us LOL). 

I asked them later if they love Collection stuffs and they all seemed very enthusiastic, raving and keep on asking when it's coming to Indonesia (soon, i hope!), so... i take it y'all happy with Collection? *grin* 

L was like, let's all take a pic, let THEM *as in #Undecided and i* take the pictures! WTH! If i wasn't maintaining my image i probably would tackle her or something! I'm not inviting you to another event, L! ZZZ!

It was super fun, even for us, the hosts! It was around 3, and we haven't even had lunch (or in my case, breakfast, but that's good for diet LOLOL) yet (and we were super tired too, been up since 7), so as soon as Donna said "that's it, girls! That's the end of our session!", we grab some food and stuff ourselves!

Thank you so much for your help, #Undecided!

Hahaha you're most welcome, #Pink. It was so much fun, so no complaint!! LOL. Now let's get to the fun part of the event: the goody bags!! Even the-not-so-girly-#Undecided got excited when Donna said to #Pink and I, "okay girls, you pick whichever samples you want!" and I managed to snatched 9 items to add to my goody bag which already consisted of 5 items *grin*.

#Undecided with her goodie bag

These are what I got:

In details :

Face products : Foundation&Concealer in one tube, Lasting Perfection Concealer and Illuminating Touch Concealer

Eyes: eye shadows (trio and pencil), eye liners and mascaras

I eventually passed one item to #Pink and it was the red glittery eyeliner (see above). LOL. I can tolerate a lot of things but glitter is most def not something that I can pull out of my repertoire. LOL.

Lips : Cream Puff Moisturising Lip Creams

Blush&Highlight Cream Duo

My fave item of the bunch? The Cream Puff Lip Cream. Ohhhh it's to die for and thinking about it puts me in such a girly mode, I will definitely write a review about it LOL. The best part is: I GOT TWO OF THEM!!! Hahahaha... Thank you Donna, thank you COLLECTION! :D 

#Undecided also got two nail polishes that she forgot to bring when we took those pictures, so... no pictures of them. 

Oh not so fast, #Pink. I did take a picture of them hahahaha... It's might not be as pretty as the pics you took, but at least it's something, right? :D

As always I took a sucky picture hahaha... IRL the one on the left is dark blue and the other one is bright purple

Now it's my turn to show you my MASSIVE goodie bag! LOL. Seriously, i was in a panic mode when Donna told us to grab whatever we wanted (and she was so sweet that she remembered the neon Pink thingy i was spazzing about that she made sure she put it inside my goodie bag first!) and i kept on shoving stuffs inside, not to mention #Undecided was like "Look at this #Pink, you'd want this!", "This #Pink! You'll love this!" every few seconds that... er... i ended up with over 30 pieces of make up. OMG, me!

MYYYY PRECIOUSSSSS!!!!

Don't be fooled by the small-ish paper bag size, it was brimming with goodies!

Have a peek! Yes, that's the pink thingy i kept on mentioning on the left :p

Are you ready to see my steal???? *Rubbing hands greedily*, don't be jealous!

Yessss, all of thoseeeee *muffled scream*

To be honest with you, i think it's human nature to be greedy and never be satisfied *LOL*, because there were some stuffs missing from this almost complete collection! I was so focused on those stuffs i totally forgot that i wanted to hunt down the lip stain *drool*, and later i realize i only got one concealer *the illuminating type, that i've never tried before*. 

After i counted my treasures, i realized that i am also missing the foundie&concealer thingy that #Undecided got. I totally was focusing on more of the decorative stuffs because i still got lots of foundie/BB cream/concealers at home and i don't want them to go bad (whereas the decorative ones i tend to use them all anytime instead of waiting for one to run out before opening up another), but yeah... lip stains and foundie&concealer (i think it's called Cover&Go) are the stuffs i'd love to get my hand on sometime in the future *hoping Donna reads this and sends them my way LOLOLOL kidding*.

Okay, a closer look at my new babies!

Eyes:

Trio eye shadows

Extreme eyeliners

Glitter liquid eyeliners (Glam Crystals)

You can see i got two of the red ones because #Undecided passed it to me, i only realized later that i also got the same one! I'm going to trade it with one that one of my nieces got, a neon green one! I've tried it on (the red one) and it's awesome, i'm gonna review it soon!

Chubby eyeshadow pencils

Face :

Like i said, i only got one concealer, very excited to try it on because Donna said it's a dupe for YSL's Touche Eclat that every beauty bloggers seems to rave about

Blush&Highlight Cream Duo that looks exactly the same with the one that #Undecided got, wonder if they have other shades? Now that i think about it, i'd also love to get my hands on their other single blush on, one that G raved about (she said it was glittery, i think she meant shimmery because.. Glittery would be scary for blush ons!)

Nails :

And the part i am most excited about, my fave one... Lippies!!!

Various kinds of lip glosses *MYYY PRECIOUSSSSSSS*

I just grabbed as many lipglosses as i could because i LOVE lip glosses, and Collection has the most awesome collection! I've tried on the Lock N Hold one (the neon pink that actually goes very soft and not at all neon on my lips) and it really lasts, plus it smells AMAZING! And the Hot Lights ones made the girls in session 2 went nutz because it has an INBUILT light that lights up when you open it, hence the name Hot LIGHTS! I was so awestruck too *crazy about gimmicky packaging* and i grabbed them in as much color as i could find!

Coincidentally got three lippies from each line! I think the black one was their regular ones, and the pink one.... I don't remember, i'm gonna have to check later *LOL*. I am addicted to lip colors lately, after more than quarter of a century shying away from them, always choosing pale, sheer glosses with hardly any color, i am now so in love with how they light my complexion (that's more than a little pale) up instantly! I didn't grab any of those Cream Puffs (don't you just love the name?) because i am not a matte lip kind of girl. I tried #Undecided's and it's really nice on (matte but non drying), and super pretty (plus it smells sooo yummy!) but if i were to wear them out, i'd put on a gloss on top of them *coz i can't get enough of glossy lips*, so what's the point?

And those are all of my newest babies! Are you jealous? Don't be. I have some spare Collection face products and we're thinking of hosting our first giveaway (since Donna already told me it's okay to give them away to bloggers preferably), what do you think? Should we do it? Will you enter it?

This is taken last week, now our bangs are cute again :p

Toodles for now!

#Pink and #Undecided

PS : For all of the participants, especially the bloggers, feel free to grab the pictures from this entry. Please don't forget to link it back to this blog though, and if you do write a post about this event (or any review for the Collection products you received), please leave a link in the comment below, we'd love to check them out!