Sephora Indonesia's First Haul

Hello beauties,

As you already knew that Sephora has opened its first store in Jakarta (Plaza Indonesia), I was coming to the opening session on last Saturday,12 July after got some encouragement from my sister :P

So, a day before, my sister was asking me whether Sephora was really opening the store in Jakarta. I said, yes, it was not hoax. I got information that the first 100 customers would be given goodie bag. She was mesmerized. She's not typical of feminine woman, never wear any make up on her face (the latest beauty item she has is the first BB cream that she bought in The Body Shop), just because she's now a big baby, 20 years old :)

Before she jumped to me angrily because I am talking about her, let's just hear my story below =)

So, actually, at that moment I didn't need anything to add on my make up stash, but I don't know, I always have a reason add some :p Basically, my sister was curious on how the opening session would look like. I said, it would be more crowded than usual. So, we went to Plaza Indonesia at very early morning, 8AM. Can you believe that I could do this in fasting month? :)) We arrived at 9AM sharp, we went into the mall and we saw there were 7-8 girls before us in the queue. Ah, great, we must get the goodie bag, but the thing is, we must wait for 1 hour in this fasting month. Oh, no!

  
You can see on the top right, that we arrived early and was in the top 10 customers. I could not see how many people were behind us precisely, but I can tell that around 100 people coming at the store before 10AM. At 10AM sharp, they opened the store and welcome us with the a dance. That was hilarious.

I saw some make ups from Sephora line but too bad it's not as complete as in Singapore. Of course, far less complete than what Sephora USA has. Most of the brands can be found here already, such as Benefit, Laneige, Anna Sui, Clarins, Shiseido. I noticed some are new; Too Faced, Philosophy and Glam Glow. I was quite disappointed with their first collection in Indonesia, but I think they will keep growing and adding some more brands. I hope they will give us NARS soon!

However, we were still happy because of the goodie bag thingy. Although they were not generous in giving samples (only 2 sachet of Sephora primer samples and 1 sachet of Crabtree & Evelyn body lotion), they included a colorful mirror and a cute pouch. The biggest thing of the day was Sephora would give a beauty case for the first 150 customers who spent minimum IDR 750,000 at the store. We were rushing to be qualified in the race, as more and more people we saw coming to the store that morning.

So, here are what we grabbed:

Anna Sui Liquid Foundation #102 Medium Beige

Benefit They're Real Mascara (travel size)

Sephora Creamy Lip Stain #4 Endless Purple

Sephora Kohl Eye Pencil in Dark Grey

Sephora Glossy Lip Pencil #5 Glossy Pale Pink

We also bought an eyebrow from Bourjois but we didn't manage to capture it here, for Mom. Yes we were qualified to get the prize, and if you are wondering how the beauty case looks like, I'll give you the clear picture here:

See? It's a medium-sized black leather beauty case which can keep all my stuff neatly inside (the oversized canvas tote bag is a bonus!) I am glad that my make ups are no longer scattered everywhere :) Thanks my sis for accompanying me to Sephora <3

Will review the items later. Which one would you like to hear first? ~xoxo~

Me and my not-look-alike-sis, we did exist ;D

Natural Plum Make Up: TheBalm Pinstripe & NARS Tonkin Review

Hello, Missy!

Duh, mau blogging tapi kok lagi gak mood nulis bahasa Inggris, jadi mari yuk kita review produk kali ini dengan bahasa Indonesia aja (walaupun berasanya jadi aneh tapi marilah kita coba).
Jadi hari ini judulnya aku mau share pengalaman aku yang paling seneng sama warna ungu, pake baju nuansa ungu, dan ber-make up pun hobi banget sama warna yang satu ini. Nah, berhubung kulitku ini gelap (hey, I'm proud of having tanned skin loh!), jadi mesti rada hati2 juga milih warna ungu, karena gak semua ungu cocok untuk kulit gelap.

Lavender mood

Lavender looks good on Natalie's Portman skin!

Jenis ungu yang menyerupai warna lavender atau ungu muda akan lebih bagus kalau diaplikasikan di kulit cenderung terang. Selain warnanya akan lebih kelihatan, warna ini juga akan menonjolkan kelembutan di wajah. Dan buat yang bosen sama warna abadi yang namanya 'pink', warna lavender bisa jadi alternatif yang paling oke selain peach/coral. So, princess-y look is no longer boring :)

Glam plum

Untuk kulit yang mendium-tan alias lebih gelap, warna ungu yang bisa dipilih adalah warna ungu cenderung plum, magenta atau berry. Kalau saya pribadi prefer plum atau magenta, karena berry akan kelihatan lebih cocok untuk kulit yang warnanya olive (seperti orang Latin atau Italiano).

Plum does match the darker skin tone

Warna plum di atas bisa kelihatan sangat glamor kalau diaplikasikan dengan tepat dan sesuai proporsi. Maksudnya, antara mata, pipi atau bibir, kita harus milih dua diantara tiga yang bisa dipakaikan warna plum. Yang satunya harus dibiarkan nude/polos. Biar nggak kayak nge-lenong ya Ciin :p

Nah, untuk urusan make up plum, aku serahkan sama blush on favoritku yang satu ini: TheBalm Instain Blush Pinstripe. Seperti yang para bloggers udah tau, Instain ini punya 6 shades warna yang cantik-cantik, yaitu Swissdot (orange/peach), Houndstooth (mauvey pink), Toile (strawberry/red), Lace (bright/barbie pink), Argyle (petal pink) dan Pinstripe (plum). Pinstripe bisa dibilang warna paling gelap dari keenam shades yang ada. Alasan kenapa saya pilih ini karena jarang sekali ada blush on merk lain yang warnanya menyerupai Pinstripe.

TheBalm Instain in Pinstripe

Vintage design, lovin' it!

The bold plum looks much softer on my skin

TheBalm sekarang ini jadi brand make up favorit aku. Selain packaging-nya yang super vintage dan cantik, kualitasnya juga worth it sama harganya. Oiya, kalau beli Instain baiknya sih di online shop, karena mereka biasanya beli saat TheBalm lagi diskon besar di negara asalnya USA sana, kalau beli di counter-nya (Debenhams Senayan City, misalnya), harganya sudah hampir dua kali lipat. Overall rating untuk blusher ini 4.0/5.0

Kalau untuk bibir, aku prefer warna plummy nude alias lipstik yang judulnya nude tapi punya hint coklat keunguan sehingga kalau diaplikasikan ke bibir jatuhnya plum. Bulan lalu, aku nitip salah satu temanku yang business trip ke USA karena aku penasaran sama lipstick NARS. Harga lipstick ini kalau pre-order di online shop berkisar di angka 380 ribuan. Wow, it's so pricey! Harga aslinya di Sephora adalah usd 26 plus pajak, jadilah aku beli NARS Pure Matte Lipstick ini 'cuma' seharga 320 ribu. Tetep mahal, dan officially jadi lipstick termahal dari semua koleksi, tapi it's definitely recommended for matte & nude lip lovers!

Kenapa?

Look how small NARS lipstick is!

Plummy nude colour

• NARS Pure Matte Lipstick ini gak bikin bibir terasa kering. 
• Konsistensinya bagus, kelihatan banget kalau ini barang high-end
• Opaque dan pigmented
• Tahan lama, kalau gak pakai makan (hanya minum) warnanya bakalan stay di bibir sampai 6 jam
• Gak gampang faded 
• Review lebih lengkap ada di sini

It's plummy but natural

Kalau ada pro, pasti tetap ada cons ya. Aku gak suka banget sama kemasannya yang walaupun sturdy, tapi KECIL! Saking kecilnya, lipstick ini baru aku pakai 3 minggu dan sudah habis hampir sepertiga walaupun cuma apply 2x sehari.

Courtesy of Karlasugar

Tonkin sendiri dideskripsikan oleh webiste Sephora sebagai "Cinnamon Plum", dan buatku warnanya memang jadi plum di bibir dan bukan beige seperti swatch di atas. Overall rating 4.0/5.0 untuk lipstik ini.

Finally, FOTD! Till the next review... <3

My MAC's Haul: A Birthday Self-Present

Ladies, how are you?

It's been a while since I published my last post. I have been quite busy since the first day of January. Details? Better not. You wouldn't wanna hear about the baby's thingy, how difficult I was struggling for her weaning process and how cranky she was in a couple of weeks after I stopped breastfeed her. Thanks God it's over now. Last weekend, we managed to go to Singapore for a family vacation. And MAC is a must-buy items when we visiting Changi Airport, yes because the price is even slightly cheaper than in Indonesia.  Actually, I only had time to shop at the airport since the 4 days of vacation were full with activities for kiddo. I also bought this a a self-made birthday present (ssst, I'll be in the last year of twentysomething in the next few days!)

Sooo, let's jump to the best part!

These are my additional MAC stuff after possessed the Select Sheer Compact Powder that I bought from the www.strawberrynet.com a couple of months ago. I was thinking, as an Asian, my skin would be most likely categorized in NC section instead of NW. NC means Neutral Cool, which is the best for yellow-toned skin like almost Asian and Chinese. Meanwhile, NW stands for Neutral Warm. It better describes the Caucasian skin, which has a lot of pink/red undertone. But, the lady in MAC Counter told me different way.


MAC Studio Fix Fluid #NW30 - SGD 43

She firstly tried the #NC40 on me. I know, some people would think that my skin is suitable for #NC40, that medium-tan yellow-based shade, but the SA said: "No, Ma'am...your skin has a more beige tone so this is too yellow for you. Yellow shades, if it doesn't fit the skin correctly, will make face turn into greyish after long hours of application." Ow! I've never known that before. But one thing for sure, I always looked for a pink/red based concealer to hide some imperfection on my face because the yellow-based liquid foundation never succeeded to cover the acne marks and dark spots on my skin perfectly, even if I applied the second or third layer. Maybe, the SA was just saying right.

Thus, she applied the #NW30 on me, because the #NW40 is way too dark and could make myself turn into red. "See? This color looks more natural and I could barely see it contrast to your neck color. It suits you. I'll recommend you to buy this shade." I saw my face in the mirror. Yes, I could see my original face color, with more even tone, and the best thing: it didn't look cakey or heavy at all.

MAC Studio Fix Fluid is the permanent range of MAC Foundation and it is suitable for oily-combination skin. I see that the texture is quite a lot similar with Revlon Colorstay Liquid Foundation, with almost similar waxy scent, too. I am not sensitive with overpowering scent so I don't mind with this. The SA said that the best way applying this is with the brush/stippling brush. But I don't have one yet (I have many things to consider before buying brushes/beauty blender, since I used to apply foundation with fingers all the time). For me, using fingers is simple and more efficient. This foundation stays on my skin during the day from morning until evening. It doesn't make my face oily and greasy, and I only need to blot once in the evening to keep my face fresh. Enough said, I think the price fairly shows the quality. Although this product doesn't blow me away, but I am happy with the finish and its staying power. Plus, it has the very wide range of shades so it must be easy for someone to get the rightest color, unlike Revlon Colorstay.

At the SGD 43 price tag, I will rate this with 3.8/5.0

MAC Extra Dimension Blush in Autoerotique - SGD 35

MAC Autoerotique is one of the shades from Magnetic Nude range that launched in 2013. I saw the review at my most favorite beauty blogger Karen's site. The SA recommended me to pick Autoerotique color instead of At Dusk and Pleasure Model. I'll tell you why.

 Autoerotique is best described as dusky rose with super soft satin finish. No shimmer, not glittery (who wants a glittery blush anyway if I have these gigantic pores around the nose? LOL) The color is not too attractive in pan, but I am so happy I bought this because it is pretty on cheeks. Not too pink, just a perfect rosy. It suits to any skin tones because the color isn't overpowering, so it's easy to determine how bold you want to apply this on the apple of your cheeks. Most of my blushes are also more on orangy and corally sides, so yes I am officially glad that now I have the rosy one. The best part is, it stays on your face like forever! I put it in my morning routine, around 6 am, and the color still shows when I arrived home at 9 pm. So far, only the Illamasqua Blush that can do this.

I am rating this with 3.9/5.0


MAC Matte Lipstick in Chilli - SGD 25

Beauty, to me, is about being comfortable in your own skin. That, or a kick-ass red lipstick. ~Gwyneth Paltrow~

Yes, I currently surprisingly crazy in love with red lippies! After the nudes and chocolate era, now I never bored hunting for that kick-ass red lipstick, like Gwyneth said. I already have one red lipstick, the iconic  Anna Sui Lip Rouge V, but the color isn't true red, it's leaning towards a bold framboise with dark fuchsia hue on my lips. So, I asked the SA about one red lipstick that has warmer undertone, to match with my earthy make up look daily. She gave me MAC Matte Lipstick in Chilli.

At first sight, I thought it was a meh. What kind of brick red color is that? I am not fan of brick red color, as it only make my face looks darker. But, when swatched on lips, this color is much better than it looks. It is a real chilli red with orange hue, not to bold for my medium skin, yet it brighten up my face. Seriously, it does. It has a truly matte finish, but not too drying. For the staying power, I can say it's a little bit shorter than my MUFE matte / aqua rouge lipstick, around 6-7 hours and one time lunch it will fade. After that, you need to re-apply. But for a matte lipstick, it is more important for the lipstick to be able to hydrate your lips rather than just giving a long staying effect but drying out the lips like crazy. As for the color, I am in love. Totally in love.

My rate is 4.1/5.0

Picture below is my overall look after wearing those new stuff.
See you again in my next post, bye! ~xoxo~

Beauty, to me, is about being comfortable in your own skin. That, or a kick-ass red lipstick.

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/red_lipstick.html#QmJpfkTTvOTTmXRo.99

Beauty, to me, is about being comfortable in your own skin. That, or a kick-ass red lipstick.

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/red_lipstick.html#QmJpfkTTvOTTmXRo.99

Beauty, to me, is about being comfortable in your own skin. That, or a kick-ass red lipstick.

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/red_lipstick.html#QmJpfkTTvOTTmXRo.99