Event Report : Grand Opening of House of Mustika Ratu

Heyllow :D!

I am very excited to share with you our first event report for a local beauty brand : Mustika Ratu!

Sure, we've been to events where local brands (like Make Over) are the collaborating partners, but as far as i can remember-never a full blown event to celebrate the local brand itself. So i was really stoked when we (yes we, #Undecided and i! I love when the organizers bother to do a research about the bloggers beforehand and when they specifically invited us both as the owners of this blog, in this case we must thank Nikki from The Grand Palace for that!) were invited to Grand Opening of House of Mustika Ratu in The Grand Palace, Grand City Mall Surabaya.

Thank you both Nikki and Lia for the invitation :)

Since i had plans to shop for some stuffs beforehand, i originally wanted to come very early, but yeah... Being very early is a hard task i guess *LOL*. We did arrived very early (half an hour before the invitation stated) but there hardly any time to shop >.<. So after just having a quick drink in Starbucks (insomnia strikes very hard lately, always does around my period zzz) to wake myself up and an emergency trip to a supermarket (for the same reason coz my monthly guest decided to come late and surprise me when i least expect it), we (as in my niece Au and i, Nikki kindly let us brought some non-blogging friends as well!) dashed to the venue only to realize that i forgot to take my camera from hunny >.<! 

I was really panicked and flustered because hunny didn't pick up his phone (as usual) for a very long time zzzz, but thankfully everything went smoothly afterwards because the event itself didn't start before... Almost 6, i believe? Plenty of time to register, take pictures and chit chatting with the others!

First, i did a double register : once to Nikki and once to Mustika Ratu (for media only).

Only managed to snap this pic of the media register booth later because i was still panicking over my camera before haha

Nikki gave us some cards to exchange to goodie bags later and i was given a press kit from Mustika Ratu complete with a voucher for a complimentary mini treatment.

Then some of my blogger friends and i got a very nice chance to snap a pic with VVIPs! (again, thanks to Nikki)

Me, Irma (she's not a blogger, but a beauty enthusiast for sure!), Oline, Lina, Mrs. Jane Andriani (Director of The Grand Palace), Mr. Sim Tang Chuan (CEO Grand City Mall), Kathy, Sabrina and Mr. Randall Gocke (Managing Director of The Grand Palace)

Such an honor!

And when bloggers (or any narcissistic person in general lah hahahaha) sees a nice backdrop... We have to take endless pics, right?

With Au, who i'm hoping to rub some of my girlyness to by dressing her up, putting makeup on (her) and dragging her to girly events haha

Nikki (who met them in previous event where i dragged them to) also invited my cousin L and Wynne so... more pic is in order once they arrived!

Then we dashed to the actual venue (yes, just behind that very backdrop) to score a good seat hehe. Bloggers need to get a front-ish seats so we can snap pictures of the event-afterall, that's why we're there, right?

The stage

The seats were divided into two sides, right and left so we had to split team and i sat on the other side with Kathy, Sabsab and Au (to be joined with L, Wynne and #Undecided later). The seat with the red bows are for VVIPs

Not long after, the event was opened by the MC ^^

Welcome speech by Mr. Sim Tan Chuang, who said he was caught off guard because he didn't know he'd be asked to speak :D

Hi Nessya!

The first segment is a fashion show :

The model in black was really familiar, i finally realized that i've met her before in another event >.< (i have a very bad memory!) it took me very long to realize that

I wonder why the model on the left didn't look familiar to you, #Pink?! You know, since you've walked a fashion show with her and all... Oh btw, this is #Undecided, y'all!! Shall write more later, look for me in Italic Purple *wink*

My favorite outfit, love the flare of the skirt! I would definitely wear the skirt myself ^^

Beautiful pinky shades! I love how when the model lifted up the sleeves it spread out beautifully like a bird!

Next was a make up demo by Moor's Professional Make Up (the professional make up line by Mustika Ratu) Artist.

They also give out tips and tricks for makeup application during the process

Applying eyeshadow

Blush on

Very nice result!

Continued by a Hijab demo, this is when #Undecided (who came straight from work, it was raining very heavily that day that it flooded everywhere and traffic became crazy, some bloggers who were supposed to come also didn't make it that day. Thankfully #Undecided could come!) showed up.

Thankfully I could!! Hello, girls :) #Undecided here, as promised with Italic Purple LOL! Apparently (judging by what #Pink wrote above), I missed a lot LOL. I'm so sorry Nikki, please know that I did try to come earlier, but it was just craziness with the rain and traffic jam...

Right away The MC got my attention. She was funny and vibrant, LOVED her!

I really love when she added the gold chain accent on the hijab, made the whole look special!
The model didn't look too pleased tho hahahaha... I wonder if she wasn't allowed to smile?

Then we watched welcomed finalists of Puteri Indonesia (for my international reader, Puteri means Princess, so literally Puteri Indonesia means Princess of Indonesia, every year the winner of this pageant go to Miss Universe to compete as a representation of Indonesia. Not to be confused with Miss Indonesia, who used to go to Miss World pageant-but i don't think we have Miss Indonesia anymore and the runner up of Puteri Indonesia goes to Miss World now. I know it's confusing, it confuses me too sometimes) East Java region.

Mustika Ratu is the official brand of Puteri Indonesia so they also came out with Mustika Ratu products.

One if the finalists is Sabsab's friend and i personally think she's the most attractive finalist, but i saw in Puteri Jatim's IG that the winner had been chosen (but honest to God, i cannot point out which one of these girls is the winner!) and it's not her (Sabsab's friend is the sensual looking one, second from right in the picture above, wearing purple dress).

Very scary looking Kathy, busy at work

Hi #Undecided!
I seriously should quit it with the peace sign hahaha

Finally it was time for the highlight of the evening : Meet and Greet with Puteri Indonesia 2014, Elvira Devinamira.

Elvira sharing her stories with us, including her preparation for joining the up and coming Miss Universe. I know we should've been paying attention to her speaking, but instead we were attracted to... her shoes....
And how she stayed sitting upright the whole entire night (mind you, not only on the stage!) is just beyond me... LOL... It is TIRING to be the winner of a beauty pageant, I must say! Wonder how many hours with a masseuse she spends at the end of her days just to relax those mucsles LOL.

Q&A session

See, still sitting up perfectly...
LOL, #Undecided... Anyway, it's all about taste of course, Elvira is attractive in a tall, skinny, tanned kind of way 

But i was more entranced by her beautiful, very young looking mother! Yes, she's the fair skinned lady in a black suit. So pretty! (Btw, Tasya, what are you doing there? LOL)
Me too!! I can't get over how youthful looking she is!

Souvenir giving ceremony
I wonder how heavy that crown is...

And the event was closed with another fashion show.

The outfit on the right is very very COOL and we all exclaimed when we saw that! LOVE the poncho and i would definitely wear it in a heartbeat! I also love the dramatic cardi on the left

Then it was the funnest part : roaming around the newly opened House of Mustika Ratu! They were having 25% off all for that day only!

Queuing up to get the goodie bag
Again with the peace sign LOL...

The elegant and very Indonesia counter of Mustika Ratu

This was taken before the bloggers heard that the lipsticks were IDR 16.500 something (that's just a little over 1 USD *faints*) and attacked the counter like zombies that we scare off the other patrons :p

Mustika Ratu Pusaka Indonesia (Mustika Ratu Indonesian Heritage)

I really love their new Simply Stay line (that i have reviewed here)!

Ahhh colorful makeuppp, i loveeeee

House of Mustika Ratu in The Grand Palace, Grand City Mall is the very first in Surabaya, but it is the second counter after Bandung. I've always had hard times finding Mustika Ratu products before, i fell in love with their Simply Stay moisturizer after sampling it for a review, but couldn't find it anywhere. Sure, there are some Mustika Ratu counters in several supermarkets in Surabaya, but those counters are tiny and the collection really incomplete. I didn't see any Simply Stay products there so i am super happy that they finally have their own counter in GC!

I only snapped pictures of Mustika Ratu's makeups, but they actually have a LOT of other lines and products including Moor's and Taman Sari Royal Heritage Spa that i didn't manage to take pictures of due to the crowd. Not only a counter, House of Mustika Ratu actually also has treatment rooms where you can get foot spa, neck and should spa, also body massage with their products! So it's a one stop destination for your beauty needs! 

As for me, I have never sampled Mustika Ratu's make up line prior to this event. Finally did try one of the blush on I got and I must say that I'm very impressed!! It is very pigmented and don't really need to swipe all that much and you get nice rosy (or should I say peachy since I got the Paras Swarnanindya - their 2011's color trend which is an orange color) cheeks. I am a big fan of their Kopi (coffee) bath and shower gel, though. Stocked up for another year or so hahaha that's how many I buy because I'm obsessed with it. I hope they never get discontinued (got myself worried because I just checked Mustika Ratu's website and they don't feature this shower gel anymore *raise one eyebrow*. I shall check with my usual drugstore pronto). 

Since #Undecided wasn't there yet when we snapped pictures in the backdrop, i dragged her there so snap some pics, #Pink and #Undecided style!

Check out our goodie bags!
Yeah, check em out and be jealous LOL... I kid, of course!!

And group picture the other beauty bloggers and beauty enthusiasts, Mrs. Jane and Lia ^^

It was really a fun and cool event, love love it! They were really really generous with the goodie bag too, especially for the bloggers (part of the media)!

The little bag is for every guests while the big bag is especially for bloggers (media)

Look!

My favorite items from the goodie bags : lippies!!! (the pink lipstick is not that bright IRL, it's very soft and subtle actually. No idea why it turned so neon in the pic!)

Like i mentioned above, turned out after the 25% off-their lipstick's only IDR 16.500!!! (real price is also only around IDR 21.000, crazy cheap-and the quality's superb too!) All the beauty bloggers and beauty enthusiast (me included, of course) went absolutely nuts grabbing, swatching and screeching at the BAs, "I want this oneee, this oneeeee!!!" and for once, #Undecided actually joined in the shopping madness hahaha.  

This is what i got :

The moisturizer i coveted, loose powder, blush on, eye shadow, and two more lippies! I only spent IDR 166.300 for the whole bunch! And then they gave me another goodie bag for spending more than IDR 150.000!!! Madness!

I will show you the shades that i got in a haul post, okay! 

And as for me, I got 1 Simply Stay loose powder (in smoothie yellow) and 2 blush on. Show you the blush on I got (photos from mustikaratu.com, which are pixelated because I basically cropped them, but they represent the colors correctly, unlike the ones I took myself LOL):

Swarna Amethyst

Paras Swarnanindya

Meanwhile, i don't normally take so many pictures of a goodie bag but because i was so astounded by their generosity, i couldn't stop snapping to show you how much stuffs we got!

All the freebies (not including the refreshment, of course hahaha)

And all of the products i got altogether (forgot to feat the teas on the pic above)
Oh another thing I love from Mustika Ratu!!! See those yellow packs on the right? Those are Mustika Ratu Herbal Facial Wipes and I swear by them. Super soft and works wonders to clean makeup from my super sensitive facial skin. I've been meaning to buy (but keep on forgetting, what's new...), but now I got one for free! Thank you Mustika Ratu!
Super excited to sample the tea, too! 

Super happy with the fun event and the very generous goodie bags! Thank you so much Mustika Ratu, Nikki and Lia! I will make sure to keep on supporting local products!

Me too!! *grin*

#Pink and #Undecided