Review : Althea Mermaid Box (SPONSORED)

Hey guys!

I am BACK with more reviews for ya! This review is going to be pretty long (as usual) especially because i am going to review not one, not two, not three, but SIX products at one go! And those products are from Althea's Mermaid Box!

Althea Mermaid Box inside a jumbo sized pink box ^^!

Now, if you're a Korean beauty enthusiasts then i'm sure Althea needs no more introduction-and if you've been following this blog then you'd know i've repeatedly featured them in my blog posts. It's safe to say that i LOVE Althea, it's definitely my favorite K-Beauty online shop EVER EVER EVER! From January Surabaya Beauty Blogger are on a long term collaboration with Althea Korea and we well be reviewing different Althea boxes every month!

What's Althea Beauty Boxes? They are limited edition boxes of goodies specially curated by Althea Korea Team back in Seoul! As they are limited edition and limited in stock, they pretty much permanently on a sold out status within days (or even hours) of being launched. Unlike the traditional beauty boxes where you have to pay monthly in subscriptions-Althea Beauty Boxes are non-string-attached, which means you can get them when you fancy them and there's no pressure in getting boxes which don't appeal to you. You also get to see what's inside of each box first so you don't have to deal with products that you don't even want!

What's super special about the boxes is that they always feature full size products only with crazy price reductions! The products inside would usually worth more than 1 mill and they sell the boxes for 380-420k, less than half of the amount you need to pay if you purchase all of the products individually-totally crazy value for money!!! 

I am one of the lucky ladies from SBB who get our hands in this very sought after Mermaid Box (which is the first Althea Beauty Box in January. Althea releases 3 different boxes each month). FYI, this Mermaid Box contains products worth IDR 2.254.633 and it was sold for IDR 394.000 - 82% discount!!! OMG OMG! How did they do this???).

It was my first time receiving a jumbo Althea pink box!

With greeting cards, all securely bubble-wrapped as usual

Now, at the first glance after marveling at how many products i get in the box, i didn't really see the "Mermaid" theme other than the obvious Mermaid sheet mask-not until i started using them that i see that every single product is totally well-thought of and fit perfectly into the theme! You'll soon see what i mean!

Most of the products are skin cares-and honestly, i am not a skin care enthusiast. I mean, i have a strict cleanse-tone-moisturize regimen that i do not skip every single day (no matter how deadly tired i am-especially the cleanse part), but i am not very adventurous with my skin care so i just use whatever i have in my stash and tend to be happy enough with them *LOL*. But with these products inside Mermaid Box... I never knew skin care products can be so pretty, and you know how i love anything and everything pretty!

Chica Y Chico Skin Glow Essence IDR 300.000 (40ml) . OMG, the first product price's almost cover the box' price already!

So at first glance you totally wouldn't connect the simple but chic white bottle with black topper to the theme, right? (this product comes in a pump bottle, btw)

But look at what you'd got once you pump the product out! Pearlescent, holographic, glittery beaut! 

The texture is runny, watery gel, it's super cooling on the skin, gets absorbed into the skin fast  and leaves no sticky residue behind!

The skin glow resembles liquid pearl (it does contains pearl extract btw), and mermaids totally wear pearls as accessories, right??? LOL. Btw, if you worry about the glitters, don't! Once you apply them on your skin, it'll leave behind the tiniest specks of glitters that is not visible to naked eyes. Except if you inspect your skin like, 2 cm off the mirror *LOL*. The skin glow essence has a very refreshing, soothing scent that i really enjoy.

If you know your Korean beauty, you'd know that Koreans usually have 7 steps or so skin care routine. While you can definitely follow suit, i personally don't think this works for tropical climate and especially if you already have very oily skin like myself. Essence is normally used after toner, before moisturizer-but i use it on its own in the morning and it's more than enough to keep my skin hydrated. It doesn't make my skin greasy or anything, but after a few hours my skin does get quite oily (which is normal for me). I also find this essence prep my skin so well for makeup too so i love wearing this under my makeup! 

It's supposed to give your skin an inner glow, and yep.. I think it does what i claims to do! If you have normal/dry skin you need to follow the essence with another moisturizer tho!

I've been using all of the products in this blog post for more than two weeks and so far they all work well for me. No breakout, no sensitivity-nothing bad at all!

RiRe Lucent White Pearl Cream IDR 146.300 (30g)

Now this one i immediately see the connection with mermaid once i open the box, i mean... Doesn't it look like a giant pearl???

You see what i mean with beautiful skin care? I am enchanted by this product!

I seriously think the holo cap is enough to make holosexuals drool :D

And inside the giant pearl, there are little white pearls!!! The most unique and aesthetically pleasing skin care i've ever seen for sure!

The pearl cream comes with a tiny little transparent plastic spatula to scoop out the pearls

For each use, scoop out one pearl, add some of the pearl essence, then crush the gelatinous-feeling pearl with you fingers and mix them up

Don't worry, crushing the pearl does not add extra time in your skin care regime, it can be done in a jivy! I personally find the novelty of this step actually makes me look forward to moisturizing! FYI, it looks very shiny on my palm but once applied onto my face, it doesn't leave behind any glitters

The crushed pearls can feel a little dry so make sure you scoop some of the essence to mix them too! This pearl cream also has a very refreshing and soothing scent. When it first applied, i actually feel like it leaves a velvety, matte feeling on my skin-no greasiness whatsoever, but after a few hours my skin would feel quite dewy due to my natural oil-so again i personally think this might not be moisturizing enough for people with normal/dry skin to use on its own-but i use this every night after toner and it's more than enough to moisturize my skin. The Chica Y Chico essence is a perfect partner for this pearl cream and i would recommend using them simultaneously for drier skin than mine.

Son & Park Beauty Water IDR 345.000 (340ml)

First of all, i need to tell you that the bottle is quite massive and you get a lot of products in it!

It may look like a regular toner, but it's not! It's a smart toning, cleansing, and moisturizing  liquid that exfoliates and cleanse the skin at once

So you can use this Beauty Water for an emergency cleanser (but i definitely do not recommend using it on its own daily!), but i personally use it after i cleanse my face (i am very anal about cleansing. I always triple cleanse my face whenever i have the littlest makeup on) to tone, final cleansing (making sure there's no dirt/makeup left on my skin) and prep my skin for moisturizer.

Again it has a very refreshing scent (i pick up a hit of lemongrass scent, but don't take my word for it as i am horrible at detecting/explaining scents), it definitely doesn't sting, it soothes my skin and it just makes my skin feels great in general!

Chica Y Chico Urban Princess Mask in Aqua. Unfortunately i cannot find it in Althea website anymore so i have no idea how much this cost. Btw i took the longest to finally use this mask because i think the packaging is just so pretty i didn't want to threw it away *LOL*

The mask has a crazy amount of serum, there are enough serum left in the package to moisturize my arms and legs hahaha

The Urban Princess Aqua mask also has a refreshing scent (which seems to be quite a theme too here), the serum is quite thick and feels a bit slimy (this usually means that it's deeply moisturizing in my experience). The sheet is nice, thick and very soft-it's very durable to and doesn't tear easily. It gives a cooling, soothing feeling and it's super moisturizing. After i take the mask of, my skin does feel kinda sticky and very greasy-but that's okay! The next day i woke up with a very hydrated, supple skin so it's totally worth it!

CFC Argan Glow Hair Oil IDR 147.000 (110ml)

Again, this product is quite huge for a hair oil! I've been using hair oil/serum from different brands for the past few years and this one is by far the biggest and it's super affordable too! When it's brand new, it has a little white cap that you can replace with a pump they already provide for an easy use

Korean products are always nicely sealed to ensure hygiene and no spillage

The texture of the hair oil is quite thick, thicker than most hair oil/serum that i've used in the past but it gets absorbed very fast into my hair and leaves no stickiness on my palm

The CFC Lab Argan Glow Hair Oil has a refreshing scent, it's floral but with a hint of sweet tangy-ness. Apparently it does have a mixture or fruit and flower as its scent! I heard nothing but good thing about argan oil so i did have high hopes for this product-it doesn't disappoint! My hair ends are very very dry due to multiple bleaching procedures-and even though i've been using hair serum/oil every single time i wash my hair, my hair still got super tangled-but no more! Ever since i've been using this argan glow hair oil, combing through my hair is a total breeze and my hair feels a lot softer and healthier! The massive bottle will last me a very long time and if there's just one product that i can repurchase from this box, it'd be this!

Witch's Pouch Real Skin Moisture Ampoule Base IDR 220.000 (40ml)

It's a base makeup/primer with 24k gold powder in it, i've been eyeing and wanting this product ever since i first saw it in Althea months ago. Totally reminds me of the Guarlain gold primer!

It has a runny, light gel consistency with specks of gold in it, once applied the gold would blend into your skin

It feels very cooling and refreshing on my skin, it gets absorbed into the skin super fast and you do need quite a bit for the entire face-i personally use at least two pumps. It leaves my skin feeling super refreshed and perked up, very slightly tacky and it makes makeup application smoother and blending easier. I also feel like using this product makes my makeup less cakey (me having a very oily skin can make my base makeup kinda cakey in a long and tiring day). I don't think it does anything to keep my oil at bay though, but then again it never claims to do so in the first place :D.

TonyMoly Luminous Goddess Aura Crystal Light. Again i cannot find it in Althea's website :(. But TonyMoly is a more affordable Korean brand so i'm sure this one's not crazy expensive

This is my first liquid highlighter!

It comes in a small glass bottle, and looks exactly like a bottle of nail polish!

It has this plastic spatula/applicator

This one is in shade 01 which is pinky-champagne color. In the box it is suggested to mix it into your foundation to make your skin glowy and dewy, i am not a fan of dewy makeup tho-i prefer matte skin with mega watt glow on certain points so i use it as i would a normal highlighter.

It gives a very natural, pretty glow from within type. It has tiny specks of glitter but they're very fine and non chunky so on the skin it looks shimmery instead of glittery. I love high shine for my highlight so i applied a very generous amount on my skin

I gotta admit, i was a bit scared to use this product at first. We all know how tricky liquid highlighter can be and i would most probably never even think of using a liquid highlighter if i didn't get it in this box. I did struggle quite a lot when i first use it, i know that you have to put on liquid highlighter directly on top of your foundation-i totally forgot that i wanted to use this and went on baking my under eyes! I was determined to use it anyway and that's when all hell breaks loose >.<. My advise is, if you already went and bake your under eyes, you need to abort mission and revert to powder highlighter instead!

I did use it again in correct order the next time and proud to say i nailed it in second attempt! It is actually super pretty if done right-especially if you enjoy subtle, glow from within kind of highlight. I did piled on quite a lot (best way to blend it is using a dry sponge, IMO) and it manages to shine through beautifully. I still prefer powder highlight for the convenience, but i do enjoy this highlighter a lot . Plus it has the prettiest, soft floral scent to it!

And that concludes all of the products inside Althea's Mermaid Box! Phew!

I totally love this box and enjoy every single product in it. It's an amazing value for money (i cannot stress it enough)-and so are the other Althea beauty boxes that our SBB chat group alway abuzz whenever Althea announce their newest box, we just keep on wanting to buy every single one >.<!

I would totally highly recommend Althea Beauty Boxes, they're simply amazing! So the next time you see a box that catches your fancy, do make an order ASAP since they sold out super fast!

Thank you again Althea for the chance to try out this wonderful box, can't wait to test out another one :D!

#Pink