Pink and Undecided: gift set

TDF Gift Set from Miracle Aesthetic Clinic

Hellow^^!

How's everybody doin'? I'm good, feeling very nauseated (not what you're thinking. I'm having my monthly guest at the moment and weirdly i am always nauseated whenever it comes to visit)-worse when i spilled the very concentrated bathroom refreshener (coffee mocha scented-which is very nice but when it's super strong and spilled all over your hands... It's no longer so nice >.<) earlier *sigh*, but good nonetheless.

Anyway, today i just want to show you this gift set Miracle Aesthetic Clinic has sent me (and some other bloggers, including our very own #Undecided).

Thank you, Miracle (and Jennie, or course!)

I was unashamedly very excited when Jennie told us she's sending us some gift set and waited impatiently for it to come hahaha. Got even more excited when i saw how pretty the box was!

I saw the other bloggers posted their boxes and they all got different colored boxes, i couldn't be happier that i got the pastel purple one-which is one of my favorite colors!

A very generous gift set consisting of full sized TDF Age Defense Cleansing Gel and TDF Day Rejuvenation Complex SPF 20, plus 5 sachets of TDF Eye Radiance that we've reviewed here. The TDF Eye Radiance worked pretty well for me so i am quite happy that i got those 5 sachets (that i'm going to squeeze all in a cream jar!) samples because i've ran out of the eye serum a while ago!

I've used both the Cleansing Gel and Day Rejuvenation Complex, it's far too early to say anything about them but so far so good! As usual, i'm going to use them all exclusively for the next two weeks before reviewing them. Hunny has also begun using the Cleansing Gel, mostly because i like to see how a product's working for different skin types (i cannot make him use a day cream or else i would make him use the Day Rejuvenation Complex too hahaha) ^^.

I'm very happy with the gifts, Miracle has been nothing but generous to us bloggers and i feel so spoilt! I hope you'll look forward to the reviews!

Toodles!

Don't mind my pale face, i wore very light makeup today and i had no lip product whatsoever in this pic hahaha

#Pink

11:18:00 PM
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What I Got for Christmas?

bath and body cares

Okay, not really *LOL*.

Hello, hello!

Sorry ah, productivity plummeted a lot this month in this blog *LOL*, too busy doing nothing :p. Anyway, you know i don't (and never) celebrate Christmas, so naturally we do not have any gift-giving session last Christmas (now that i think about it we don't have any gift-giving culture at all except for birthdays. I mean, even on wedding we tend to include cards telling people to give us cash instead *LOLOLOL*. Kiasu Asian) but i was so jealous reading all of those "What I Got for Christmas" blog entries so i decided to make one too. Sort of.

So, what i included in this entry are actually stuffs that i got AROUND Christmas, all of them were from hunny *FHL* but we did call it my "Christmas gifts" from him, because *ahem* i pretty much demand gifts from him for every occasion. I'd be pestering him for a Chinese New Year (and of course, Valentine's Day :p) gift soon enough hahahaha. Just treat this as a more special haul post okay...

My absolute love, Victoria Secrets stuffs!

Even the paper bag makes me giddy with excitement *dork*!

Most important one : Angel perfume set

Since i was whining non-stop for wanting Victoria Secret perfumes (but couldn't justify the price and the fact that i have more than 15 brand new perfumes waiting to be used zzzz ), hunny forced me to pick one as the "main Christmas Gift" (LOL, seriously, he said that! I didn't make that up) but i kept on cancelling because i thought we're going to Hong Kong in less than 2 months and i'd most probably be shopping like a mad woman then, but when we found out that they're having a 30% off on most items (BAD news : Now the discount's 40% off! But fortunately none of the stuffs that i got back then are still available now, yay! Hehehe) i decided it was the right time to get this Angel perfume set.

Original price was IDR 999.000 (faints), hunny got it for IDR 654.000 or something

To be 100% honest, i actually liked a few of their other perfumes' scents better (Bombshell's probably my fave but i have every intention to collect every single one of them) but i am so so so in love with Angel's bottle!

SO PWETTYYYY!!!!!! I cannot stand winged things, i just gotta have them all! One of my most coveted items of all time : a winged high-top sneakers hahaha

And as hunny was paying for the set, i noticed a woman asking the cashier the price of a huge gift set containing 3 (smaller sized) body mists and 3 body lotions, heard the cashier (if you ever went to Victoria Secret's store in GM, you'd know most of their stuffs doesn't have their price tag on and the shop assistants were mostly kinda stupid and not helpful at all. When i spotted the 30% off sale at first hunny went and asked a male SA which items were on sale and he was like "Oh, only these two perfumes" when in fact almost everything was on sale! GRRRR. The cashiers are a lot more helpful (and friendly) so skip yourself some headache if you have any questions and go to the cashier directly!) answered IDR 194.000 and my eyes almost popped out of their sockets!

I mean... IDR 194.000 for 6 items (albeit not the biggest sized ones) was FANTASTIC! So i hurriedly went to gift set section and found this :

This was IDR 146.000!!!! Pure Day Dream Gift Set

The body mist was full (biggest) size and the other two were probably smaller, but still!!! Super cheap!!! Usually it'd cost you IDR 379.000 in the mix and match section (where you can get 3 items : body mist, shower gel and body lotion) for three, which means one item should be around IDR 126.000 (give or take), so this is a pretty fantastic offer! (EDIT : According to #Undecided *who's been using the body mist from this line for a while, i own a few VS fragrances already but not from this line so i wasn't familiar with the sizing*, the body mist WASN'T the biggest size either! Still, for around IDR 48.000 a piece-i stand by my opinion that this is still a fantastic set!)

And comes with such a cute packaging as well

I read on how some UK/USA bloggers wrote that they felt naughty buying gift sets for themselves, but as i do not have anyone to give pressie to (and i'm sure most of those women who also went cray cray at VS' gift set sections at GM also buying for themselves too) i never felt that buying gift sets for myself's anything but normal :p. They are always such a good value for money and super special too! So i do find holiday season to be a great time to hunt for gift sets and stock up :p.

Anyway, i didn't even know how it smelt and just grabbed it because it was so cheap (and promptly told everybody-which caused the havoc around my friends and beauty bloggers i often interact with hahahaha)! Not only that, i found myself regretting only getting ONE set so i *sigh* decided to go back there the next day with #Undecided and check out what other *similar* set they have (this kind of trio set are also sold out in VS store in GM now), there's only one more variant available (and i already knew the scent because #Undecided and her hubby *yes! Really!* use it and i like it) and what do you think? I got it immediately (and good thing too, since they are no longer available now!) :p. #Undecided also picked up the same set.

Love Spell Gift Set

Decided to include the stuffs i got from The Body Shop :p

The reason why we even go to TBS again was because i wanted to use that IDR 100.000 voucher i got from exchanging my points (always exchange your points around holiday season when they accept half of the usual points for the same voucher!) before they expires, and then i saw them having a Buy 2 Get 1 promotion on their mini gift sets, being the kiasu that i am-of course i decided to get them to get even more value for my money (because i didn't have anything specific to get there anyway)-what's better? The cashier offered us to redeem our BCA credit card points, and the bill went from almost IDR 400.000 to IDR 57.000! LOL. Happiness overload!!

Strawberry Body Butter+Shower Gel+Shower Puff Set

Cranberry Joy Body Butter+Shower Gel+Shower Puff Set. It was a bit more expensive than the strawberry one even though they contained the same variant of things and with the same size. Maybe because it's the limited edition that only makes appearance during holiday season?

Peach Body+Lip Butter Set

Then i also got some tees from Stradivarius (i wanted to buy almost everything there *LOL*, but of course i didn't :p. I need more spaceeee).

Love the tees!

I almost always pick up tees in Stradivarius because i really love their super soft material (but #Undecided doesn't like that type of cloth because it sticks to your body and it'd accentuate her tummy-which is her only problem area but my ONLY non-problematic area FML) and also super affordable (even cheaper on sale), their sweaters, dresses, jackets, leggings and skirts were also tempting but still quite pricey after discount and nothing really screamed out to me so i decided to skip them. I think everything that i got this time was under IDR 139.000 each!

I am mad about cropped top lately!

Yep, another cropped top. Even better because its got my fave 3/4 sleeves

The thing that made me returned to Stradivarius on the first place (i saw it before with #Undecided but didn't buy it), so kawaii no???

I found myself getting more and more giraffe illustrated items, and if you're a fellow Running Man fan : no, it's not because i like Lee Kwang Soo okay. In fact, if you've been a loyal reader of this blog then you should know that i LOVE the tiger/commander/Jong Kook Oppa *drool on cue* since i pretty much repeat that in almost every opportunity :P. But i gotta admit, giraffe make a cuter illustration than a fierce tiger :p.

Got this large tote bag from Hush Puppies (special price, IDR 249.000) because it reminded me of Tory Burch bag (i always wanted one because i liked the logo *LOL*, but i don't think i'd spend a lot of money on this kind of bag whereas i also don't want to get the fakes) :p

Best bargain : got this bag on a special price too. Original price was like IDR 400.000 (no, seriously. Who'd have buy it on its original price???? I mean, i don't think it was from a famous brand at alll!) and i got it from IDR 79.000. Heheh. Sorry, i was too lazy to get it out of the plastic wrap, i'm sure you'll see it soon on my outfit posts

And what's this?

Cutest Pony Bag EVER!!!!

As a self-proclaimed Gyaru Mama and a lolita wannabe at heart, i've always been attracted to those crazy cute Japanese biscuit or candy bags i saw lots of J-Inspired fashion bloggers toting in their blogs, but i resisted because : 1. I am way too old to wear them and 2. I live in Indonesia that people would definitely stare , and 3. I might give my super conservative sister a heart attack. But when i saw this to-die-for pastel lilac maned Pony bag (and i just read from one of my fave creative fashion blogger, Lovely Sara that the family this shade, or what they called Radiant Orchid is color of the year for 2014. Again, i always believe i have this ability to in a way "sense" what color would be "in" long before it's actually stated. I've been using a lot of this shade before i even read the blog post about it! Call me "color trend psychic" please! But then again, pastel lilac is 2nd all time favorite color after pink), i just can't say no!!!

The last item would be a pretty weird thing to include on a supposedly Christmassy list :

Risa Sawaswati's third book : Sunyaruri

Why is it weird to include it in a Christmassy list? In case you've never heard of Risa before, she's a writer/singer with a sort of paranormal ability, as in she can see and communicate with no-longer-living-people and even make friends with them. She wrote about her friendship and encounters with those entities in three books (Danur, Maddah and Sunyaruri. I heard they're a trilogy so i don't think she will write about the same "people" in her next book?). I collected all three books and pretty much "fell in love" with her from book one. As a hardcore horror fan, i would say her books aren't scary at all, in fact she calls what she's doing "humanizing" those creatures (that we call ghosts), but i do love how she wave the stories as well as how she's telling the stories.

She's also a vocalist to a horror themed band called Sarasvati . Truth is i first found out about her from Twitter, there was a time in local Twitter scene when lots of "Twit-celebs" twits ghost stories every Tuesday night (because Indonesian believe that the night before Friday's the scariest, most mystical time when all the ghosts comes out hehe) and it was linked back to her. I read about her band and how they bring "kuntilanak" (one of the scariest local ghosts hehe, you know... the stereotype Asian female ghosts with long, flowing hair dressed in white) to their shows and how they burn incense before their performances that adds to the scary image of their band. All and all, my total cup of tea!!! LOL. If you're a horror buff like me (or not, even if you're just a nerd who loves to read, again-just like me) and wants to read good stories, head to her blog here. You might just fall in love with her writing like i did and want to get her books as well!

And that's all of the stuffs i'm gonna show you this time round! Will come back with more hauls soon hahaha. Now you must bear a few self-absorbed pics of me with my "Christmas Gifts"!

MINEEEE, all mine!

LOVE them all!

#Pink

1:02:00 AM
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Etude House : Dear My Blooming Special Gift Set

breath taking

Hi, dears!

I've been meaning to review this super special, pretty and pinky set from Etude House eons ago, i took pictures of them since February actually but of course, it got shoved to the back of the files and (almost) forgotten, but i don't forget things (just procrastinate :P) so here it is, at last!

Image taken from Google

I bought this quite a while ago (and began using them on Valentine's Day this year), knowing Etude House and their penchant on re-package and re-launch their products every few months, i am not even sure if this set's still available. This could be last year's Valentine's Day special set, i don't even know. But i know that Dear My Blooming lippies are still available (is it their permanent line? The one with the metallic pink bow? I dunno, i cannot keep up!) everywhere, and i also saw the set still in stock in some of Etude House's Surabaya counters- but even if they are no longer available i think i'd still review them anyway-i think they tend to bring out similar shades and formulations though with different packaging, so i think if you're thinking of buying their other (similar) lippies of whatsoever you can still benefit by reading this (i hope) hehe.

I actually bought it for quite a cheap price (of course, not as cheap as it'd be if i bought it directly from Korea...), IDR 195.000 if i'm not mistaken, from an old online shop that i frequented (sadly it's no longer operating, i used to buy a LOT of stuffs from this seller. The owner was fast, the stocks were quite complete and the price's quite low), but on the counter i saw them selling for about IDR 325.000 WTF. Yes, cheap Korean brands became quite mid-level brands once they arrived in Indonesia, what with the crazy taxes and all.

The perfume came with a separate pump that i already put on in this pic that's why there's an empty space in the box

It consisted of : Dear My Blooming Nail in #3 Breathtaking Pink, Dear My Blooming Lips in PK 004 also called Breathtaking Pink and a small Eau de Toilette with no specific name, they only stated : Fruity Floral Fragrance *LOL*.

I was madly attracted to its pinky, hearty package, obviously. You know i can never resist cute packaging! Most of the time i don't even care what color i am getting inside for i usually can work any color to match my super pale complexion somehow, as long as they came in a kawaii case, i'd buy them. In bulk. Yep, FML. The ultimate consumerism victim. With a capital V.

But i am happy to say... Nothing in this set disappoint me (but then again you know how easily pleased i am! LOL. I am almost always a happy customer, just treat me nicely i'd be grateful already!)

Let's take a look of the items one by one :

Dear My Blooming Nails #3 Breathtaking Pink (10ml)

Breathtaking Pink translates into a milky hot/bright pink in Etude House's book. As how i found most of Etude House's nail polishes, it was easy to apply, lasts quite long (about 5 days to a week without chipping, with base and top coats though) and they color's quite opaque even from the very first coat.

Sorry for my messy application, this is 1 coat of Revlon's Top Speed Base/Top Coat followed with 1 coat of Breathtaking Pink

1 Coat of base coat+2 coats of Breathtaking Pink

1 Coat of base coat, 2 coats of Breathtaking Pink and 1 coat of the same top coat

Final result after i showered and the excess paints peeled off by itself from my skin :

Yep, this was my Valentine's Day nails haha

I don't have any complaints for this nail polish, i do love it quite a lot!

Next's the lipstick!

Dear My Blooming Lips PK 004 Breathtaking Pink (3.4g)

This kind of pretty embossing can drive me INSANE! SO CUTE!!!

The color is quite similar with the nail polish (hence the same name!), slightly milky bright pink. It is slightly smaller than your typical lipstick bullet but i don't mind, i can never finish a lipstick as it is i think i'd be happy if most lipstick comes in smaller sizes (and maybe lower prices? LOLOLOL) so i can buy tonnes of them and not feel too guilty about it HAHAHA.

As you might already know, i only started to use bright colors on my lips earlier this year (yes yes, super late bloomer, tell me something i don't already know). I used to wear lip glosses all the time and only sometimes would touch my (crazy amount of) lipstick collection-and even so i'd only use the bright colored ones as a lip tint. And so in the beginning i'd only use this as a lip tint as well.

I always always always put on lip balms (and nowadays, petroleum jelly when i first put on my make up but touch up with different kind of lip balms once i go out) before i put on any lippies (so it won't look dry and also because i heard all kinds of horror stories on how lippies can turn your lips darker, and i so don't want that!), so at first i would only use this on top of petroleum jelly.

Let's see how it looked like.

Bare lips+Petroleum Jelly (a bit whitish because it was mixed with foundie from my fingers)

One swipe of Breathtaking Pink on top of Petroleum Jelly

Like most lipstick, it'd be quite hard to show its true color if used on top of such a slippery base so the color seemed not very bright at all (but it's brighter IRL, i always have hard time capturing how bright most of the make ups look with my stupid camera zzz but it was brighter than this okay!). And even though i already used a glossy-looking lip base, i don't like the creamy result, i am a mega gloss kind of girl haha, so i topped it off with a clear gloss.

Petroleum Jelly+Breathtaking Pink+Clear Gloss

Here are some pictures of me using it Breathtaking Pink with this method, it became more of a lip tint though.

Look 1

Look 2

Look 3, when i actually took lip close ups above

I must repeat, it was so much brighter IRL, dunno why it looked so subtle in the pictures! Then one day i was like, if i want to do this review correctly i must use it without any base at all once. So i did :

Breath Taking Pink without base, sorry for blurry pic! And those two dots on the side of my mouth are moles lah, i am getting them removed sometimes soon because people often mistake them as pimples/blackheads and that's super annoying! And those two moles only grew recently, about two years ago or something, i hate them!

I tried using them without anything else on top for a while, and i dunno if it's because i'm not used to (more like, never before), it felt quite drying on me. So maybe it's better to use a lip balm beforehand lah, but if you want the color to be as vivid as in the bullet, choose a less glossy finish lip balms. I am not into creamy/matte lip, so i had to top it up with clear gloss later.

Breathtaking Pink+Clear Gloss, still more vibrant than first method, yes?

Some people complains about Korean lippies being not very pigmented, but for me it is very pigmented, one swipe would result in a very vibrant bright lip (maybe also because my natural lip color's soft pink and my complexion's fair) that it scares me a bit. I don't find the need to swipe it more than once! I do love the color, it brighten my face up so i don't look so pale! And it's not scented, i'd much prefer non-scented than yucky scented lippies (like some of my Revlon lippies that smells and tastes like soap. YUCK!)

As for staying power, i don't think i am the right person to answer this. Any kind of lippies tends to stay FOREVER on my lips. They'd only really go away after i wipe my lips. Even after i eat or drink usually there'd still be a trace of (strong) colors on my lips (except if i wear only lip gloss, obviously), and it's also the case with this one. I'd say the staying power is normal, similar with most lipsticks out there.

Sadly, the plastic tube, cute as it was, wasn't very sturdy at all. It seems to be on the verge of falling apart at all times *LOL*, the inner case (that holds the bullet) would sometimes detached itself from its outer, pink case *LOL*. And i tend to chuck one lipstick in my make up pouch to go and use it for a long period of time (because i am too lazy to switch them, therefore my hundreds of other lippes sat sadly in my drawers, waiting for their turn to glory days), and i did it with this one until one day i realized, the super cute pink metallic bow already started to chipped off, after a month or two :(... Totally broke my heart.

But all and all, quite satisfied with this lippie. Vibrant, comes in a cute packaging, pretty color that compliments my complexion, that's more than enough to make me happy with a lipstick!

Last and not least item, the eau de toilette :

Fruity Floral Fragrance (according to Etude House haha), 10 ml

The only complain i have for this perfume? That it comes in such a small bottle and how they do not have a bigger size available on its own! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this perfume! It's probably my favorite item out of this set!

I am horrible when it comes to describing smells, and the box didn't help because it only stated fruity floral fragrance! I'd say it'd light, girly, feminine, not cloyingly sweet and it embodies the cute, pinky packaging/color to a T! I am sniffing the perfume as i type this but it still doesn't help me to find the words to describe it! I am just that bad when it comes to smells! It does reminds me of some other (more popular) perfume, so it might be inspired by some designer perfume, i can't be sure.

I love it so much that i don't dare to wear it often (only been using it two or three times!), coz it's only 10ml! If i wear it daily it'd be gone in two weeks at most! It has a pretty good staying power, when i go out i'd still be able to smell it on myself late at night, when i got go to bed, so it lasts more than 5-6 hours (in air conditioned room, fragrances tends to dissapear much faster when you're outdoor and even worse, when you sweat!).

If anyone knows what this fragrance smells like, please let me know! I'd love to find other perfumes that smells like this and buy a big sized bottle of it!

In conclusion, i love every single item on this set! I do have a very soft spot for Etude House and their crazily cute packaged items, but i think every products performed nicely too, so i don't think i am being too biased! As a set, i'd very recommend it as a gift for yourself or someone that's girly, loves pink and feminine. Individually i'd also recommend getting them (except the perfume because it's not available by itself!) if you like cute, good performing nail polish and lipstick with a pretty decent price (buy it online though, it's just not worth getting it in their Indonesian counters!).

I'd myself buy different colors from this line if i don't already own hundreds of other stuffs, and the fact that they come in cuter packaging all the time!

I hope the review helps if you're thinking of getting something similar from Etude House, in the meantime, have you joined our mini giveaway? Be a dear and join it (make our days, dear!), i can't wait to send the prizes to the winners!

They are still waiting for their rightful (future) owner, it could be YOU!

Good luck, dears!

#Pink

(who's writing this on a Saturday night at home, didn't feel like going out since we get back from Taiwan, i guess i am still recuperating from all those walking, trying to get over my flu-the super painful and heavy period didn't help! Hope you had a better/more fun weekend than moi!)

PS : We got our first HATER! LOL! I definitely didn't see this day coming, i'm so going to blog about this! And for that particular anonymous hater : LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL! Am i annoying you yet? No? I can go on all day long!