start browsing and shopping part 2: holika holika

Holika holika!!
i am sooo excited to try this new brand!! last year when i stocked up my skincare and cosmetics, browsing here and there, shopping here and there, holika holika was not in indonesia market at that time.. so i didn't know and didn't buy, beginning of 2011, holika holika started booming,, some indonesian online seller started selling their products, ready stocks or pre order.. even now they have a store in singapore!!! arrrrrgggghhh!!! too bad!!i travelled to singapore just last september!! arrrggghh...
anyway.. this is a little bit info about holika holika from the facebook fan page;

Holika Holika is established by Enprani of CJ group in Korea.

Holika Holika means 'Beauty-HOLIC'.

Holika Holika has MAGICAL COSMETICS which will reveal your attractiveness.

Holika Holika has BEAUTY MAGICIANS who will make your dream to be beautiful come true.

If you wanna be pretty, SPELL HOLIKA HOLIKA!!

the packagings are so cute, and they have some interesting stuff i really wanted to try.. look at these adorable products:

aqua splash toner

aqua petit jelly bb cream

and of course, one of the most popular and favourite, egg soap

face2change liquid roller bb cream

this is a new stuff for bb cream lover! bb cream with roller? hmmm can't wait to try this!

aqua splash ice cube?? interesting!

merry all over face

so cute with the cat..

real butter lip balm..

and they have with cheese flavour!

magic pallette lip colour

egg tightening essence

bulgarian rose cream

seriously.. with all that cute packagings, who can resist not to buy them? hehe.. well, at least i can't.hehe i feel like i want to buy them all,, but unfortunetely the price of holika holika is a little bit higher than my other favourite korean brand like skinfood, etude house, baviphat. so i couldn't order much of them.

anyway, i have placed my holika2 order in iheartkoreanbeauty, chicprincessa and intenshop

and this is the list i ordered for holika holika

bulgarian rose toner

bulgarian rose emulsion

bulgarian rose cream

egg cooling toner

egg soap special set

pore cover mousse starter

pudding bubble bubble peeling

face2change liquid roller bb cream

have you tried holika holika products? please share with me or give me the link of your review, or give me recomendation, as at this time intenshop and onikchan still open for pre order and not too late to submit more order! hehe

start browsing and shopping part 1: nature republic

Hi all, lately i have been busy browsing, researching, and at last... started shopping for  my next trip to Jakarta. it's been 2 years i bought lots of skincare/cosmetics from Jakarta for my stocks here for the next 9 months!! hehe.. well, so far i couldn't find any favourite brand here so i kept buying from Indonesian online seller. This year i am interested in trying some new brands.. one of them is nature republic!! i was browsing for reviews, and most of them are good. The packaging, the brand itself, sooo cuttteeee... here are some cute stuff from nature republic:

fresh mousse cake soap orange

green tea ice cream icing

fruits mousse theraphy Banana

by flower series

this would be my first time buying and trying nature republic products, and here is my list for nature republic that i already placed my order (and of course, will have to wait until my next trip to jakarta to get them)

• by flower bb cream
• ice jelly primer
• fruit mousse theraphy banana
• mineral mist peach

by flower bb cream

ice jelly primer cherry

have you tried nature republic product?

Review : skinfood peach sake serum and emulsion

This is the next review of peach sake line..
first, the serum :

first impression of the packaging, i like it! i like pump bottle. and it is also easy to open, so when the product almost finish and when you pump nothing comes out, you can just open the cap and get the serum.
it is a glass bottle, just like other mostly skinfood products, i guess.
this serum is what convinced me to buy the set of peach sake line. so of course, it is good product! the serum is light but soo rich and moisturized enough (for summer. for winter, no)sometimes after toner i applied this serum and i felt enough, like no need for the emulsion. and the most important thing i like from this serum is that it gives my skin very soft silky feeling after application. i can really feel it by touching my skin, sooo sooft.. like it has some silky smoothing effect or something.

next, emulsion.
this is very light, and not as rich as the serum. i can just apply toner and serum, but i can't just apply toner and then emulsion. not moisturized enough. too light for a moisturizer. you reallny need to apply serum before this.
the packaging, of course, glass, with open cap, which is the thing i don't like from skin food. why do they have packaging like this? so unconvinience, hard to get the product out, although after awhile you will get used to it and knows what the trick. but still, the glass bottle itself id too heavy, sooo unconvinience for travelling.

this line of skinfood will suitable for those with oily or oily-combination skin, for summer, or for humid country.

review : Skinfood peach sake toner

If you read my previous post about this skin food peach sake range here then you would know that this range works good on me. I enjoyed this skin care line so much that i just realised that the toner is only 1/3 left and the serum even almost finish and i didn't write a review yet, so here is the review for the toner.
what's written in the packaging:

and the ingridients list :

first, it smell lovely!! just the way i expected it. the fresh sweet peachy smell that you can enjoy while applying the product.. and.. there is alcohol in the ingridients list, and i know some of beauty bloggers nowadays really avoid alcohol as it could make your face dry and some other not so good effects. But this toner i think only contain a little of alcohol, bacause it feels light, didn't sting my face. My face became sensitive of alcohol since i live in Yemen, specially in winter, my face became so sensitive and couldn't stand alcohol. clinique and biotherm that worked well for me when i was in Jakarta, they didn't work good for me here because the alcohol i think too strong, made my face dry, red of irritation, sting and itchy feel. But most of skin food toner worked good for me here. including this one.
It absorbs really quick and good too. after washing my face, apply this toner, and ready for serum and emulsion. love, love it!

Skinfood peach sake series

I think this line from skin food is one of the favourite, specially for indonesian, who mostly have oily-combination type skin. I fell in love straight away since the first time i tries the serum, a sample sachet i got. and of course, it was the nice, sweet scent that gave me "love at the first smell" haha.. and when the serum turned out to be great, i just bought the series of toner, emulsion, serum and silky finish powder.
I bought the bb cream sample 5ml too, and it was fininished so i don't have the picture there.

pic from skinfood website

Here i will just give my general thought about this range. later i will review the products one by one. 

so, in general, i think this is a wonderful products from skin food. specially the skin care (toner-serum-emulsion). the bb cream and silky finih powder are just average, so so, not really special.

You know why i said wonderful? ok i will tell you this.

The problem with my face is... my nose. the pores on my nose are big, and as you can guess, yup.. blackheads, whiteheads, you name it.. KOMEDO, in bahasa. arrrrggghhh.... so, nose strip(biore) is my friend for many years.I remember when i was still in Jakarta, i used nose strip twice a week! because all that blackheads,whiteheads came back in two days.Then, there was this another wonderful product too that i didn't mention here, which is etude house pore tightening sleeping pack. after regular using of that etude house product for a month or two, i used pore strip only once a week, sometimes even once in 2weeks.ok, that's good progress.(will review this product later)

then i started using peach sake skin care line 2 months ago. moring and night, never missed toner-serum-emulsion aplication.

today, i am so proud to tell you that.. it's been more than 3 weeks i didn't use nose pore strip!!

sometimes i looked in the mirror, checking my nose, do i need pore strip? no! my nose is still fine!!

i don't need it yet! i will, of course maybe in 2 or 3 days, as i started seeing them showing up, not as much as before, but enough to notice and i would still need pore strip. i guess you can't just get rid of them forever right. but heeyy.. 3weeks??!! that's a very good progress, and that's why i love this peach sake line!!

in fact, i was wondering why skin food has no more product ranger like this. all their new products are for whitening and wrinkle care. i wish they will have new products range soon for sebum line.

Unfinished Products..

What did you do to all products that you don't really like, or even worse, products that broke you out ?
1- you just put them aside, sometimes you don't even remember you ever bought them, and one day when you were cleaning up your room you found them expired
2- give them away to someone else
3- throw them away straightaway
4- try to use them for different purpose

Last year when i had an indonesian maid here i used to give her all the products i don't like, and she would love to try them. Some even she packed it home to her village in Indonesia. My new maid now not that type. she doesn't like to try something new. Once i offered her one of my shampoo i didn't like, she chose to stick with her current shampoo. so.. now i have no idea what to do with them. All this time i just put them aside in the next empty room (guest room, actually) until recently i realized that.. that's it, i would never use them anymore. no need to keep them. They are here for some reasons. they will not stuck here if they are good. All good products or products i like stay in my room and i will not put them aside until i finish them. so, it is time to put them in a plastic bag. I will give them to my maid, it is up to her whether she will use them or throw them away.

anyway, this is the list of my unfinish products..

• sunsilk hair cream hair fall solution
• palgantong theatrical powder pearl beige
• palgantong one touch bb cream
• bioglo goats milk beauty cream
• bioglo clear pore deep cleansing mask
• biotherm clarifying lotion
• eva honey hair cream
• banana leaf hair crystal
• gold cacao pack
• oriflame milk&honey 2-in-1 face cleanser
• l'oreal true match pact powder
• l'oreal true match foundation

Actually, some of products are not that bad, some even good, like l'oreal true match powder and foundation, i used them until maybe 2/3 part.. but then i bought another products, in this case, i think i stopped using them because i bought skin food powder and bb creams.

well, now it is time to say good bye to them!
in fact right now my daughter is playing with them..

how about you girls? what did you do to your unfinish or not so favourite products?

BB cream swatch and short review 2

This second bb cream swatch is for coogi flowertox, skin79 gold oriental, and Dr.jart black label

with natural sunlight

from left to right: coogi flowertox-skin79 gold oriental-dr.jart black label

with flash

As you can see, all three bb cream have similar colour/tone, and all of them match perfectly on me.

coogi flowertox

This one match perfectly on me. the colour sooo natural. it makes my face smooth and flawless. easy to apply, the texture not too thick and not too watery. Has a good moisturizer too!!the only thing that doesn't make this one mt top fav bb cream is beacause it has no good side effect, like healing effect (like skinfood aloe did to me with its healing effect of dry and flakes skin), or brightening effect that makes my face looks fresh (like dr.jart did to me). so this bb cream just good as a foundation or base of your natural make up before apply your powder.

skin79 gold oriental

i have the skin79 gold oriental pact, so i thought this wiil be a good match for my powder pact. well, the coulour is a match, but the bb cream itself is just so so.. nothing wonderful about it. plus the staying power is not so good. 

Dr.jart black label

this one is not so famous in Indonesia i guess. or is it only me who is not really familiar with this brand? well, not all online seller have this brand. but i tried it anyway, and surprised with how i like it a lot and in fact this one is one of my top fav. the texture is creamy and easy to apply, the colour match perfectly, looks natural and flawless, and what i like it most is the effect it gave to my face.. it gave me fresh natural look, and some natural pinkish that make my face brighter, whiter,, oh, i'm not good in describing it.. hehe.. overall, this is wonderful product for me.if i am fade up trying bb creams in the market i will definetly back to this one.

review : skinfood banana yogurt mask wash off

This mask from skin food is one of the favourite i guess. Because before i decided to choose which one to buy, i made some research from the net, looking for skin food mask wash off review. And i found that this is one of the favourite, together with rice and black sugar. Many bloggers wrote good reviews about this, so i chose this because i have tried rice and black sugar wash off mask.

what's written there:
yogurt mask with banana extracts to prevent skin dehydration and softly soothe sensitive skin
to use: after cleansing, gently massage over dry face.leave on your face for 10-15 minutes.rinse off.

So, how is it?
when i first opened the packaging, i could smell the sweetness straightaway.. for me, it doesn't smell like banana. well, maybe yes but banana in artificial way. for me it smells like that big bubble gum when we put a coin in a machine and a colourfull bubble gum will come out.. for me, i like it. But for somebody else the smell could be too much or overwhelming. too sweet.. too cute.. like this product is for teenager.

the texture, see yourself

ooopppss.. i almost finished it.. i hope you can still see it. it is creamy but not sticky, with a little beads like for scrubbing.
so,i just massage the products on your face and leave it there for a while.. by the time i rinsed it off, i could feel my face became soo moisturised, and i was a little bit surprise when i looked at my face in the mirrow, my face was whiter, lighter, sooo clean. although it didn't say it has whitening effect, but it gave some whitening for a while (yup, only some hours i guess).
and i loved it when i put my emulsion or cream, it felt nice, moisturised, and i got that moment that i couldn;t stop touching my face..haha

what i don't like from this product is of course, the packaging. it is like.. you have to keep on dipping your finger there to get the product? urrrggg... unless you use clean spatula or spoon..

Nightmare for my hair!

When i decided to write this post, i was thinking what would the title be, i was thinking "disaster for hair" or "bad hair day products" or "nightmare for hair" anything that express this 2 products. hehe.. serously, it is a nightmare.. the bad hair day is not just one day but two days! gggrrrrrhhhhh
ok, i will tell you which products i am talking about:

Both products are random products i found here in Taiz, Yemen. Never heard both of them, so of course i didn't expect much, but i didn;t expect it will give me bad hair days 2 days in a row too!!
The first one on the left is Eva honey hair cream, made in egypt. and the second on the rignt is banana leaf hair crystal, made in PRC.

from the packaging it suppose to give my haie shine, add texture and volume, moisture, nourish and soften..bla bla bla.. i didn't expect that much!!! i bought extra hair product just for the moisture and soften effect. the weather is so dry in Yemen, my hair became tangled and not soft anymore,, so i need some cream.. but this cream.. o my god...the direction for use, it said can be used on wet or dry hair. so i tried both.
the texture itself is weird... too thick and it didn't absorb to my hair,, smells weird too, and the worst part is that it stay there on my hair!! i mean, it was sooo hard to remove this cream from my hair... whaaattt... i washed my hair, applied shampoo twice, and couldn't remove the cream, it was like sticky thing that you couldn't remove.. arrrrgggggaaaa....ok, another shampoo.. but still... now it was like oily thing stucked in my hair,, so i gave up, ok maybe after i dried my hair it will be better.. and.. nope. even worse.. it seemed like i couldn't dry my hair.. no matter with hair dryer, natural wind, my hair was oily allllll day..the cream stucked there like an oily stuff.. the next dry, even i applied shampoo again, the cream didn't compeletly removed.. so it was 2 days bad hair days...

Now to the second product, which is Banana leaf hair crystal... it looks so cool with the clear packaging and the ginseng inside, looks do natural,, but it is not cool at all!

can you read the last part written there? it said, "can drying be applied before and after hair" HA? what is that mean? lol. well, i guess what they meant is that you can apply this product before or after drying your hair..
this product is just same as the first one. a total disaster!! smells terrible, and also hard to removed.. even my husband noticed and asked, "what's wrong with your hair? why is it so oily?"
this product also give me 2 days in a row with bad hair day..
the first time i tried this product was before shampooing, and i tried again after shampooing.. and the result was same. disaster!! so, that's it!! i will throw this product away!!

Golden rose : Cosmetic from Turkey

When i went to my favorite shop here in Taiz, Yemen, there was this new cosmetic stall. i thought it was farmasi, also turkish cosmetic brand, that i found some of their stall here. but when i stopped by and look around, hmmm.. what is this? Golden rose. also made in turkey. I asked some price, and all the price i asked under 2000 reyal or under 10 USD, so i thought, ok, i will buy some to give it a try.

so, i bought ball blusher and 1 of the lipstick. i wanted to buy their mousse foundation as i liked the texture (i tried the tester), but too bad they don't have my shade.

  So.. this is how it looks like.. the packaging was ok.. not special, but quite nice..

i tried both, i like the lipstick, it looks natural on my lips and the colour just like the way i like it. the ball blusher is sooo pigmented, soo pinky on me,,, i was just stroke my brush a little, and surprised with the result how only one stroke was enough for both cheeks.

before i wrote this post i checked the website to see and read more about this brand. the website is nice, very informative.

www.goldenrose.com.tr

overall, i am glad that this brand came to Yemen. i would like to try more for sure, as they are cheap.. the lipstick is less than 5USD and the ball blusher is less than 10USD.. i can't remember..