Pink and Undecided

South Korea 2017 : Gongju - 63rd Baekje Cultural Festival

Hey guys!

Yes yes, trying my best to be more productive here. Imma try to clear out my South Korea trip posts from last year *LOL*.

I made it no secret that i (MUCH) favour Japan than South Korea, i have no idea why but i guess it's a public secret that one that has a strong feeling for one of the country would usually not feel the same about the other (Cheesie from Cheeserland even took it to the next level by saying that Korea is like the more attractive step sister or something and that annoyed her because she loves Japan so much and now Japan seems to be overshadowed by South Korea? We all also know that those who are true blue Japan lovers would not be able to turn their hearts tho) and i've always love Japan to my core since my teenage years so yeah, i do feel meh towards Korea.

But i must also admit that South Korea is starting to grow on me, especially after we spent sometime in Busan, exploring other, smaller, quieter cities. Contrary to how people would most probably judge me by the way i look (and act), i am not a fan of big, metropolitan cities - especially not when i travel. I sort of hate Jakarta, even Tokyo is my least fave city in Japan so far (i loveeee Kyoto and Yokohama!), and Seoul is just not interesting for me. Busan is a much much better match for someone like me who prefers slower pace of life and offers a lot more nature attractions to explore - so yeah, i definitely would not say no to visiting Busan and other cities in South Korea, just... Not Seoul *LOL*.

My South Korea trip post would not be in particular order, and i might not blog too much about the places that i've been and blogged about previously - i think i'm only gonna have around five blog post in total.

CL planned our itinerary as usual and one of my favorite places that we visited is this quiet, vintage little city called Gongju.

Hunny and i having loads of fun at Gongju

We went to Gongju from Seoul by bus and it didn't took too long.

Hello bare face haha, sleepy face drinking uyu in the morning

Saw an advert for (insert biscuit's name here, i don't remember!) coffee at Angel-in-us and i just had to try it! (although i knew it was going to be too sweet and i don't like sweet things *LOL*)

Our bus tickets

Gongju is a very quiet city, we were amazed when we first arrived because it felt very empty :)).

The whole vibe reminded me of rural Taiwan, very old skool and charming. It felt sort of village-y and therefore i kept on joking that we were in Nganjuk (in case you don't know where Nganjuk is, it's a little town in East Java *LOL*, lots of my maids came from there so the name randomly popped into my mind).

The first thing we did was finding an open restaurant for us to have lunch (when you travel with the elderly, it's a little bit like traveling with kids - we can't skip meal time!). I seem to forgot to take photos of the charming little eatery we had lunch at. It was very cheap too, made us excited because meals in Seoul are pretty expensive (and you have to order per person in South Korea, this makes the total bill can come up higher for people like me who loves to share food haha).

We actually went to Gongju because there was a festival there (CL took all the information from our ex tour leader's IG who moved to South Korea to work there haha), so after lunch we walked to the park where the festival was held. Communicating in Korea can be though, especially in a smaller cities like this one (where the population mostly are compiled with elderly) so we got some help from other foreigners actually.

It wasn't too long of a walk, we just had to cross the bridge. Well, it wasn't bad because the weather was nice, i know i would feel miserable if i had to walk that far in tropical countries...

Okay, we can spot the festival already

I stood a bit in the bridge to take photos of the surrounding to show you how the city of Gongju looks like

We saw very old, out of business hotels in the streets leading to the park. I wonder if this city used to get a lot more visitors in the past?

Okay we are here hehe

This scenery reminds me strongly of Hualien! (check out my blog post about Hualien here)

South Koreans takes festivals seriously, let me tell you

Can't even count how many floaties were there

Then hunny randomly found a public fitness centre haha.

I'm not sure if we have these type of things in Indonesia too, it's just that we don't typically go to parks (we live indoor 95% of the time sadly) in Indonesia that these areas really fascinates us. Saw similar things in Vietnam and Taiwan before, am i really that ignorant and that these facilities are actually everywhere? LOL, i truly don't know okay!

Now, i know why the city was so quiet, maybe all of the populations were gathering here haha

I don't even know if it's true, but it seems like Gongju's speciality is chestnuts? There were endless types of chestnut based foods in the festival

My mum almost bought some raw chestnuts *LOL*, thankfully the Ahjummas saw her confusions and steered her to the roasted ones after returning her money *LOLOLOL*, not all Ahjummas as scary as those horror stories about South Korean's hospitality...

Enjoyed the chestnuts that are huge... I prefer Singaporean water chestnuts tho

So, the front area of the festival is free, but if you want to go to the flowers area (which is the interesting part ofc for a IG ho like me) you'd have to buy tickets.

Had to walk further down to get to the area

There were free shows too, my parents decided they were not interested in the photo taking area and chose to stay around here instead

Look at those little boat floaties

Seriously there were probably hundreds of them

Entrance tickets were very affordable

As soon as we stepped in, we found the uber IG worthy sunflowers.

They were seriously huge and tall!

Hunny managed to take some nice pics of me, thankfully. Although i would kill to come back with Olin hahaha

You're getting the raw, unedited version of me in my blog posts because i ish too lazy to edit my blog post photos hahahaha. Anyway, i may look serene in the photos but in reality... Well, i take it you know that i am deadly afraid of bugs? Hunny actually managed to take one pic where i looked super assaulted when i saw a bug flying by. I truly love nature too but i am also an extremely city girl, i was not feeling comfortable being too close to the plants. What is there's worm or something rite???

No idea what flowers were these but i know they are pretty! Haha

Another destination conquered with this one ^^

One very touristy photo. Again, it looks so much like Taiwan! It's a good thing okay, i love Taiwan

Soooo pretty!

Exploring new places that we've never been before : that's my favorite thing in the world. Gotta do it again soon! We've just been a bit too boring and comfortable of the places we visited lately

Okay now these colors are def my aesthetic!

And yes, in case you're wondering : i packed all tutus for my South Korea trip. Tutus are comfortable and they photograph so well!

A tourist gotta do what a tourist gotta do, ya dig?

Twas very hard to try to look cool in a swaying bridge full of people okay hahaha

CL queued for so long for these... chestnut puffs? Then we got to the station and found an empty store selling the same thing *LOLOLOL*

We had to rush back to the bus station after this since our bus was leaving soon. I do wonder what else that we can see in Gongju, i would love to return and maybe stay one night and explore the city. I always find it to be such a shame when you have to go to one place and rush through it because you don't have enough time. I am definitely the type that would take my time and really explore the place. So anyone wanna go explore more smaller cities in Korea with me? I am down!

I will be back (hopefully) soon to blog about our other destinations. Meanwhile, stay happy people!

#Pink

8:14:00 PM
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One Brand Look and Mini Review : Savvy Minerals by Young Living

beauty

Hey guys!

How y'all doin?

I was hoping that i would be in a higher spirit in the beginning of the new month, but we got super sick in the past two days OMG i wonder what's going on... By we i am talking about hunny and i - even Oline too *LOL*.

I do feel better now tho so i decided to sit myself down and talk to y'all about this new brand that i've been using a lot lately :

Savvy Minerals by Young Living Oil

I don't know if any of you've heard about Young Living already? Well, seeing as they are the pioneer in the essential oil world, i'm guessing at least some of you are. I've never been too into essential oils before, but #Undecided is a loyal user and obviously she told me all about it (more than i care to hear *LOL*) and i ended up absorbing more information than i'm conscious of doing (and to date i've been using a few oils from YLEO and they work wonderfully for me-trust me when i say this comes from a skeptic!) . YL is the number one producer of therapeutic grade essential oils that are beneficial to people leading natural and toxic free lifetyle and staying true to its motto "seed to seal", YL continues to up its game by introducing their first ever make up line : Savvy Minerals.

A few weeks ago, we had an event with Healthy & Wealthy Oils (one of Indonesia's independent distributor groups for YL and one that i can vouch for the originality and trust worthy-ness so if you are interested in becoming a member or just order something from YL/Savvy Minerals, you can contact them) where they launched Savvy Minerals for the first time in Surabaya. Oline and i were kindly gifted a full set of Savvy Minerals products by Healthy & Wealthy Oils beforehand so during the event we were able to share our experiences with Savvy Minerals as well as sharing a few tips and tricks on how to use mineral makeup (not the easiest to handle if you're used to regular makeups) and Oline even had a demo on how to use Savvy Minerals for a party look. Don't worry, i will share everything with you too today!

The main point of Savvy Minerals is the fact that it is a worry free makeup options as their products are very natural, toxin free, safe for your everyday use (their products are so gentle and natural that you can safely use it on babies!) - as someone who wears makeup on a daily due to my profession a a blogger and influencer who often have to put on full glam for events, knowing that the option is there is a huge relief. After all, who wants to keep on piling tonnes of toxin on our skin everyday, right?

On the other hand, one of the main concerns about mineral (and all natural makeups in general) is the fact that they are super gentle that none of the pigment would show. This can be true in some cases, but don't worry - like i said, with Savvy you can even pull a full on party look as long as you know the tricks! (as for newbie to makeups or people who likes light makeups, Savvy is actually very easy to use as they are so light and soft, you can glow and be naturally pretty without too much effort!).

This soft glam makeup is done with almost all Savvy Minerals products

The full set of Savvy Minerals i got from Healthy & Wealthy Oils

So, let's go into details on which products i love, which ones i would not recommend (this is strictly from my POV as someone who use heavy makeups most of the times, there are just things that i can't compromise because i want a perfect result for my looks. This does not mean the product itself is bad ofc, and that i cannot work for someone who has different priorities than me) and what i think of every single product i got.

Packaging wise, i like how they look. Everything is in black with white lettering, very chic, simple but elegant - honestly reminded me of a high end makeup brand that shall remain nameless in this post *LOL*. As they are mineral makeups, most of the products are in powder form (which is the best form to minimize use of preservatives) and the one thing that i am not a huge fan of is the fact that (almost) everything comes in a very similar jar. It's very confusing for me because most of their products has the same size as well so i have to fumble and rummage through them one by one every single time i wanna do my face - and that's bad news if you have a full collection and you don't have a lot of time to do your face! I hope they would come up with something in the future for user's ease, maybe more info on the lid of the actual product inside so we don't have to tilt to peek in the bottom every single time to know what product we are holding on our hand!

Start from the base, ofc :

Savvy Minerals Foundation - 5gr

So their other point is the fact that their products are multi functional and multi purposes. All of their products can be used in any way you want on your face and you can mix and match everything. I was given the foundation powder in two shades, one that matches my skin tone and one that is very dark that i can use for shading and contouring (they work pretty nicely)

All of the powder products (which is almost all of their products *LOL*) comes in a jar like this so i'm only going to put up one photo okay

Here is the Savvy Minerals foundation in shade 200 and Dark No 3

The foundation is one of my favorite products of Savvy Minerals - but i like to use them as my setting powder. It leaves my skin looking super smooth and flawless (i feel that i has a blurring effect as well) BUT it has no coverage. They would tell you to mix the powder with their sunscreen, but i know for a fact while it helps application easier (especially if you have dry skin, we all know that putting dry powder on dry skin is a no no!) it doesn't help with the coverage at all.

You can always mix it with sunscreen, apply it in cream form then top it up with the powder again, this might work for dry skin but people with oily skin like me, it would break up in no time and that wouldn't be a good look. I personally would wear a regular liquid foundation/BB Cream underneath if you want a decent coverage. If you love a good setting powder that can help perfect your base, i would highly recommend this, but if you want an all in one foundation with good coverage, this is not what you're looking for.

Savvy Minerals Bronzer - 1.8gr

I got the shade 500, they don't seem to have a wide variety of shades when it comes to bronzer and this one is definitely too light for me

Now, the bronzer is probably one of the products that i am most underwhelmed by. It's very shimmery and sheer, and i got the shade that is almost identical to the blush when swatched (although they look different in the jar). I am very pale but it almost doesn't show up on my skin, i can't imagine it would fare any better for anyone with deeper skin tone so maybe it would only work for pasty white skins *LOL*. I just don't see the bronzer to do anything to my makeup so i personally would not recommend you to grab this.

Savvy Minerals Blush - 1.8gr

I got the shade 503 and yes, you can hardly see it in this photo. And yep, it is very shimmery as well but when worn the shimmer is pretty sublte

To be honest, i am also not very enthusiastic about the blush and that's probably because of the shade. The shade i got is very pale and almost didn't show on my skin, it was pretty frustrating at first. I also used the misting spray that is meant to be used to give the pigmentation a boost but it still didn't help. Then i realized that you need to use like... A LOT of them for them to show up. Once i figured out how much products i need to use for it to show, i don't have a lot of problems with it - but it's still not my favorite. I might change my mind if i get another, rosier shade but 503 is just too pale and muddy for my skin tone. Savvy Minerals products are not cheap so i personally would skip the blush and go for something else from the line.

Savvy Minerals Diamond Dust - 5gr

It doesn't look like much in the photo, but... i actually love this product!

So they have two type of what they call "veil" (i guess they are finishing powder), one is in matte and the other one if this : diamond dust. It supposed to be used all over your face thinly for a glowy result but i am not interested in using it this way as it is quite white and glittery - i like to use it with a wet brush and it would turn into an almost holo, dual chrome (lilac and pink) kind of highlighter. It is stunning! The powder size is pretty big and if you use it as highlighter like me, it would last for a pretty long time - so we can justify the hefty price tag! It is very blinding though (i don't recommend using it dry as highlighter because it would look just like a white powder) so if you want a very natural, subtle highlight... You might not like this!

Savvy Minerals Eyeshadow - 0.8gr

402 : pearly white and 407 : purply pinkish shade

I feel quite neutral about the eyeshadows. I don't hate them but i am also not a big fan. They are decent, the pigmentation is not the best but it still can be worked on. If you are a basic makeup kind of gal or like i mentioned before, a newbie in makeup, then i don't think you will complain about the eyeshadow. As for me, i love colors and their color chart simply doesn't excite me. I also prefer my eyeshadow to pack a bit of a punch and not as bland as this.

Other than that, i like to do more complicated eye makeup than the basics, i love halo eyes and it's not very easy to do with these. I tried wetting the brush to make the pearly white more metallic but it ended up being transparent instead, i had a bit of a hard time building it up but in the end i found out that you can just top it up with your fingers to pack the shine and conceal the transparent, bald patches. It's just a little bit too much work for me to like it. They recently come up with a palette tho and i am pretty interested in them!

Savvy Minerals Multi Tasker - 1.5gr

Mine is in shade 409, a very dark brown

Another favorite product of mine from Savvy Minerals, the Multi Tasker! This product, like its name clearly states, can be used for various purposes. You can use it on your eyebrow, eyeliner, eyeshadow or even mix it with your foundation powder to use as contour. Unlike its eyeshadow, the Multi Tasker is very pigmented and bold. Everybody who do full makeup knows the importance of having a dark brown in their collection as it can be used in any eye makeup to deepen the crease and voila - instant glam. I love to use it as eyeshadow (it helps tying the whole look together, which is never gonna happen if i had to rely on the actual eyeshadows) and i witnessed Oline using it as eyebrow powder on our model. It's actually pretty affordable considering the tiny amount you need everytime and also the amount of work you can put on it. Recommended!

Savvy Minerals Misting Spray - 59ml

This misting spray is the product that can be used to enhance all of your Savvy Minerals powder products, but i personally don't find a lot of use for it. Wetting your brush to get a bolder pigmentation is general knowledge, but i don't find it to be working for like foundation and stuffs, if anything i feel like it makes application patchy and blotchy. Even for eyeshadow, i find using eyeshadow primer helps better than using the misting spray. I only don't mind using it to use diamond dust. If this is a facial mist then i would probably like it more, but as it is meant to only wet your brush... Yeah, i personally think it's pretty useless. Sorry, you know i only share my honest thoughts here!

Last but not least :

Savvy Minerals Lipstick - 4.8gr

As someone who's into cute stuffs, the aesthetic of this lipstick totally pleases me hahaha

Look at how cute the embossing on the lipstick is!

I got the shade On A Whim, which is a pale, metallic nude

You know i love lipsticks and i tend to be comfortable rocking any color, but i am not into nude shades, especially not frosty nude shades :(... I did try wearing it on its own and it made me look like someone who's stuck in the 80s *LOL*. It's just too pale and frosty for me, just not the right kind of shade for me. I do like using it as a lip topper tho, i love to put on dark, bold lipstick shade and put it on top - it'd totally transforms the lip color into something else - which is unique and trendy!

Btw, don't judge the lipstick just by the one that i am showing you because i saw their other shades and they appeal so much more to me than this one haha. Sometimes it just can't be helped that the shades that we got would affect the way my review shapes, do i try to keep an open mind and focus on the quality tho - and i am still not the biggest fan of their lipstick so far because they do feel a bit dry. I think their lip gloss is much better tho!

Close up on my makeup using Savvy Minerals

I used the multi tasker to deepen my eye makeup and the lipstick as a lip topper here

All in all, i enjoyed my experience with Savvy Minerals, it's my very first time experiencing with mineral makeups and i learn a lot. One thing that i must point out, they are really really kind to my face as my skin behaves perfectly when i used Savvy Minerals exclusively for more than a week even though i wear makeup almost everyday.

Like all brands, there are products that i like and there are products that are not my favorite - this is totally the case with Savvy Minerals as well. If i am to recommend their products based on my experience (and my taste in makeup in general), i would recommend their foundation (as setting powder), diamond dust (use with wet brush for highlighter) and multi tasker - those are my top 3 out of all the Savvy Minerals products i have used.

If you are interested in anything from this blog post (or anything from Savvy Minerals or Young Living), you can contact Healthy & Wealthy Oils via DM or Wassap Yuki at +62877-7180-8009.

Thank you Healthy & Wealthy Oils for the chance to try out these lovely products from Savvy Minerals ^^. Now is the time for you to share with me, have you ever tried Mineral makeups? And what do you think of them?

#Pink