JCP FEATURES: MAGIC LAMP

“Like so many things, it is not what's on the outside, but inside that counts”

- Merchant, Aladdin

“Wait. I want to post this on my insta-story.”

“I saw this on Instagram and let’s go here too.”

“This was viral on TikTok, let’s make it too.”

Those sentences are some clips of our daily life nowadays. Especially after the soaring high use of Instagram and TikTok. Many are “busy” making content for their profile. Due to the popularity of social media, anyone can be a full-time “content creator”. Compared to 10 years ago, life as a blogger was not much appreciated because it doesn’t seem to be a profitable job and it couldn’t be described as a job. But here we are now, where childhood dream job is no longer to be an astronaut, or a teacher, but to be a YouTuber or an influencer. Well basically, all job is equally good, but we need to aware that what we see is not the whole thing about that job, especially content creator.

Well, actually the content creator is not a new job description since the magazine we used to read, TV programs we watch, or even the flyers you received are created by a content creator. It’s just the form of content that is new and we don’t have the specific job description for it yet. We can call a magazine article creator a magazine editor. For TV shows, we can call the creator as the producer or advertiser for flyers makers. We started to call people who create content on the internet as a blogger around 8 years ago and people who posted a video on YouTube are called YouTuber. All these job naming is just a name for a person who creates content for other people to read, hear, or watch with a more holistic perspective. The distinctive difference between the new content creator and the previous one is the working hours and independence. As for editors, producers, etc they are dependent on a company or brand and have specific working hours. While the new type of content creator is usually self-employed, more on freestyle, and has no specific working hours.

Many think that being a content creator is just the happiest and easiest job on earth. All it takes is to make your content viral and voila! You can get instant popularity. But, there is no way in this world that success can happen in the snap of your hand. All needs hard work and few times of trial and error. (Well, sometimes lucks played some part in someone’s career, but not everyone got the same luck) I was once helped my friend’s brother in running his studio and content creation business. Our client at that time is e-commerce for outdoor activities. So, we went to the mountain to create content. I enjoyed outdoor activities and moreover, this is my first-time experience hiking plus spend the night at the mountain, so I’m very excited about this content making. But, on the way up, I realized this content creation is not easy as what I usually see on social media. To make a 15-second video I had to hike up for more than 3 hours, not taking any bath, get wet due to rain, and most of all I can’t go to the toilet as there was none. In sum, there is no such easy thing in this world, you’ve to work for it.

Besides work hard, time also plays a part in your success. Who would know that YouTubers that started their channel 12 years ago would gain the spotlight like they received now? If you look at it carefully, many of them have started their career 10 years ago and just got the time to shine. More about time and timing, you can read it here. I’ve made a post about it on my previous JCP Features, so you can check it out there.

Actually, being a content creator is not just making any content. They have to carefully think about what they should make because there are thousands, even millions type of people that will look at their content and make a judgment of it. Their reputation is at stake. As you know, there were many issues with public figures or content creators regarding hateful comments. Many of them got hurt badly and many of them chose to end their precious life.

A few months ago, there are many content creators out there that reminds their followers that what they share is just a surface of their life and just like you and me they are not perfect. Like an iceberg, what we see on the internet is just the tip of their life. They choose the best part of their life or what they do and share it on the internet. Everyone has their own problem and mistakes, so they don’t need to add more of them. Mostly, the aim to create content is to give entertainment, hope, or information. As a semi-content creator, I also just wanted to share the good things here, since life is not easy for everyone. Personally, my aim is to encourage others and share the good stuff with all. We are all the same human beings and we are given the same abilities. It’s just you need to take action to make it happened. I watched one of the TEDx Talks videos titled “Stop Looking for Your Passion”. She said that it’s okay that you don’t have passion but do something. She encouraged us to work and take some action whatever it is.

Everyone already has their own problems and crazy life, so why sharing the negativity or discouraging content? We always see other’s grass is greener, but we don’t know how the others make that grass green. So, comparing your life with others is not really a bad thing to do, but you must know that great things don't happen instantly. Everyone has their own pace and there is an endless way how people achieved what they aim for.

2021 is on the way to the end of the first half, yet I’m still doing my 2020 monthly project (surely my time management didn’t get any improvement). It might have heard like an excuse, but being a part-time content creator is damn hard! See, being a content creator need persistence and consistency, which not everyone can have. In the last month of 2020, I learned how to live a content life. Not about being online all the time and sharing content, but how to fully enjoy life. Obviously, 2020 is not the best year ever, but there is always joy in everything. I started to post my daily activities during the Advent weeks in 2018. At first, I wanted to show how great it was spending Christmas in a winter country, but then I got to reflect that there is always a grateful thing every day, especially during the year-end. Then I continued the ritual up until now.

As I enter my 20s, I started to reflect back on my life more. I started to read self-improvement books or contents (like TEDx), or I started to analyze the main idea of the movie or drama that I watched (should I become a movie columnist?). Basically, I started to pay more attention to little details around my surroundings and fill in my mind and heart with positivity. After I got some insights, I have the urge to share them. Both offline and online. I started simple, by sharing it with my friends. Sometimes I shared it on my blog, but mainly on my Instagram, where I can reach more people I know personally but cannot be reached offline.

Just like what ‘The Aladdin’ movie (the older version) portrayed, he once didn’t want to buy the lamp because of its appearance. But the merchant said, “like so many things, it is not what's on the outside, but inside that counts”. And that lamp turns out to be a magic lamp! So, appearance is not everything, but what’s inside that counts.

This is my last post for JCP Features. I’ll prepare more thorough content in the future and share positivity with all of you. In the second half of my 20s, I’ve decided to restructure my life and I will take that as a chance to share more good stuff. It took me a long time to brainstorm and deliberate for this post. Even though I know that there aren’t many people who read my blog, but I had to finish what I started. Anyways, thank you to everyone who read this post and I’m signing out for now.

XOXO,

Further reading:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQaBpe7Fxuz/

(currently the most relatable account on my timeline)

TEDx Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MBaFL7sCb8

https://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/1137037/things-about-aladdin-you-notice-as-an-adult/

JCP FEATURES: GROW UP

"I want to get through these hardships 

and hold your hand"

- Future by Red Velvet (Start Up OST)

The drama “Start-Up” was trending in November 2020. The drama not only watched by K-drama fans but non-K-drama fans as well. This drama inspired me to make this JCP Features since the drama not only portrayed romance, friendship & family, but also mentorship. Have you watched the drama? If so, what do you learn from the drama?

As I’ve mentioned in my previous post, lately I felt burnout and the root cause would probably because of my workplace culture. Even though I just realized about it a few months ago, but I think it’s connected with the main topic I wanted to share in the first place.

The first time I encounter the word ‘mentor’ was when I entered university. On the first day of orientation, newcomers were accompanied by a mentor. My mentor was not really made a big impact on me, but she introduced me to the fun part of being a university student. Well, back then I have few mentors that actively participated in my life-changing journey. Even though the harsh reality separated us now, but once a mentor will be a forever mentor. Anyways, what I wanted to underline here is the importance of a mentor in our lives. After I came out to the real world, I finally realize that having a good mentor is as hard as finding your soulmate. The Oxford Languages defined “mentor” as “an experienced and trusted adviser”. And this definition has summed up all the criteria of being a mentor. Mentors themselves not always need to be older, but they might have more experience than us. Also, most of all are trustworthy. Being trustworthy means they could frankly speak about the harsh fact that we might experience or tell us the ugly truth they’ve experienced. For the past few years, there were many motivational speakers and people we looked up for that seems like a mentor to us. But, unless you know them personally, I don’t think they could be called to be a mentor. As mentioned before, a mentor should be the one we trusted. We could trust someone if we know that person personally right?

In the drama “Start-up” there is a character called Han Ji-pyeong. He is a manager of an investment company and a successful young career man with lots of hardship while he is young. Long story short he happened to become a mentor for the start-ups CEO in Sandbox, the Korean Silicon Valley. There are 3 other mentors and each mentor have different characteristics and personalities, but one thing for sure that a trust is shouldn’t be separated from mentor characteristic. A character named Alex Kwon is the most wanted mentor because he is surely an expert in the world of start-up, but he couldn’t gain the trust of the participants. Another mentor called Won Doo-jung is the CEO of a big firm in Korea. He surely has a personality that people would love to look for, but also he failed to be truthful and even make the mentees uncomfortable and lose respect for him. Han Ji-pyeong himself also not a good mentor at first, but he truly cares about his mentees. At first, he always disagrees and says the bad things only. His mentees feel discouraged and spoke up about their uncomfortableness. After some point in the story, he changed and he truly helped his mentees to be better each day. On the other side, the most senior mentor of four is Yoon Sun-hak. She is the CEO of SH Venture Capital (where Han Ji-pyeong worked) and also the head of Sandbox. She has the experience and also trustworthy, but she also had a painful past. Well, everyone has their own past and goals. Not everyone is perfect, but to be transparent and truthful is what it takes to be a mentor. Life is not always full of rainbows and tastes sweet, but there are some rain or even storm and it can bitter. Having a mentor helps you to be prepared for those bad days and have someone that can support you since they can understand your feelings because they might have experienced the same thing as you.

As I watched the drama, I learned how wonderful it was to be a mentor. I was kind of regretted that I didn’t apply as a mentor like some of my friends back in the university. But after a second thought, actually being my lecturer’s assistant for around a year also considered being a mentor. I became the person my juniors trusted and I could share some experience with them. I feel so grateful for them as they came to congratulate me on my graduation day and I’m also proud that they have successfully graduated on time. I realized that have a mentor title is not always proof that you are a good mentor, but your action is what it takes.

Even though I didn’t closely keep in touch with them, but seeing them to doing well ensure me enough that they’ve become a decent person in this wild society. Thank God I didn’t hear any bad news from them. I never thought that being able to share what you know will be this valuable experience. Actually, I, myself haven’t keep in touch with my mentor for a long time. As I’ve said before, everyone has their own goals and to-do list, which might have them to be focused on their checklist. It’s not that mentee is not important, but in reality, we have to face our own problems too. I think becoming a long-life mentor is not for everyone. It needs dedication. As long as your mentee is doing well on their own or even they became a mentor themselves is a sign that your duty as a mentor has finished. I think it’s okay to finally let off their hands so that they can grab someone else’s hand and guide them.

Currently, I’ve got no one to look up to whenever I had a hard time at work since my current workplace doesn’t have a mentoring system. I never thought working will be this mentally exhausting, but surely having someone you can look up to at work is really important. This job is my first long-term work experience and I finally learned that fully responsible for your job only is not enough. You have to be happy and enjoy your job. No wonder many quit their 9-to-5 job even though they get paid a lot.

Relying solely on other people is not good, but having someone to rely on is pretty important, especially in this vast changing phase. Unfortunately, I had to face this harsh truth myself, but learning from a real-life experience is not so bad. I hope you have a mentor that you can always look up to whenever you face a hard time. Also, you can be the figure others look up for whenever they have a hard time.

Further Readings:

https://hbr.org/2020/08/what-efficient-mentorship-looks-like

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marvinkrislov/2020/01/09/mentorship-good-for-the-mentored-and-good-for-those-mentoring-too/?sh=491e399142b7

https://sheleadsafrica.org/power-of-mentorship/

https://dandavidamazona.medium.com/sandbox-fulfilling-your-life-purpose-start-up-k-drama-analysis-cc1b57f7ea86

JCP FEATURES: Cuckoo... Cuckoo

"Enjoying the process means you appreciate the time"

Hi, I’m back with ‘JCP Features’ for the month of October. I know it’s been way too late, but as I’ve said before, I had to finish what I’ve started no matter what. I just don’t want to give up on the projects I’ve started. It is true that I’m stuck with the topics I should post for this section and I had a ton of work, but now I have a lot to say and I can use this opportunity to reflect and wind down after work.

When I was little, I was amazed by the cuckoo clock (well, obviously not many kids these days now about this clock). I always look forward to the birds that come out when it strikes every hour. I still remember how I used to like watching a clock show at a shopping mall in Jakarta. I was such an innocent kid back then countdown the time for a short performance and now I’m facing a harsh truth about time. I realized that time can be a friend or foe, depends on how you treat it. With a trigger by a few dramas and movies, I got to reflect on my life whether I’m living it right or not and I would like to share it with you.

Like many people said, “life is short”. Sometimes this sentence is true, but sometimes it’s not. Centuries ago, people could reach the age of 700 or even older, but no more in this century. If there is someone who reached the year of 100 or above, many will celebrate but sometimes many will feel sorry about it since they are too old to walk or doing some activities. No one can predict their lifetime in this world, so with the life-is-short mindset, it is necessary to use time wisely. I believe even though we could reach until 100 years old, we probably would say life is short. Not many liked (I’m also not a fan of it) the K-drama, “About Time” (acted by Lee Sungkyung and Lee Sang Yoon), but I learned a lot from this drama despite its’ poor performance. After watching the drama, I got to ask myself, what if I can see my lifespan? Or what if I can see someone else’s one? What kind of life I will live if I have that ability? The drama teaches me that when you know how much time you have you will surely get used the most of it. You will live the life you want it. But, God knows that human is greedy, no matter how much time human have, they will ask to get more time. Think about it, I bet you’ve done it before when you are doing your exam and you need more time because you haven’t finished it yet. Same with life, we tend to need more time because we “haven’t finished” our matters in our life. The drama also taught me, no matter how much we prepared to face eternity (a.k.a death), we are never ready to be separated from the people we love. “Hi, Bye Mama” also taught a similar thing. 

Credit: TvN (sseureki via Tumblr)

We will never win against time, but time has the power to heal. Taking a lyric from a song B1A4 titled,” Like a Child”:

“But time won’t stop just because I tell it to stop 

It’s a meaningless fight”

So, why fight against it when we can befriend it?

I think the playlist in my “2019 K-pop Theme Songs” is quite relatable with this feature (read here).

In 2020, there are many new drama or movie releases that have in common. It talks about a time or the idea of time traveling (since we cannot travel in real life anw). I mentioned the best parallel world drama in 2020 in my previous post, “Jennifer’s Passion 2020 Awards”. Well, what I wanted to say is the common thing between those dramas is the wish to be able to turn back time. I believe almost everyone wants to be able to undo their wrongdoings, mistake, or wrong choices. But, yeah time is unable to move backward nor it can’t be stopped by human choice. Like every other thing, every choice comes with some consequences. One thing that I can take a lesson from watching those dramas is every time the time traveler tries to change the past, they changed the now, and obviously, the future changed too. Time teaches us that the past, now, and future will always be connected and what we did in the past is what shaped us today.

Well, the pandemic messed up our time and planning very much. But, it teaches us to maximize our time in a day, because we never know what will happen. We might have plans, but we never truly know whether we can carry out those plans or not because everyone’s timeline is uncertain. But actually, time is certain and precise because it keeps on moving forward and never moves backward. By the time it moves backward, it might be a doomsday, like what those time-traveling movies pictured.

I don’t know about you, but I feel as I grew older, I feel like time passed by so fast. At some time, I couldn't believe that I’ve graduated senior high 7 years ago already or I’ve been friends with my best friends for 13 years already! By the time I flashbacks those memories, I suddenly realize that I’ve reached the second half of my 20s. Really, I’m very astonished by how time passed by just like that. Especially with the fast changes in the world, many of us feel that 24 hours are not enough to finish the day. Sometimes I feel I was chased. Apparently, when I’m online I tend to compare my story to the others that I saw on social media. Especially with almost everyone around my age is getting married, I feel I was rushed to do the same by society unconsciously. To get rid of those bad thoughts I tend to limit my time online and I prefer watching drama or listening to music. For these past months, I realized that I suddenly forgot how to take it slow. I used to enjoy my life very well. I know how to keep my pace with time, but now I think I’m facing burnout. Well, surely time is ticking and life is short, but it is important to take a rest.

Recently, I flashed back to the day without a smartphone. It took several years before I got to upgrade my phone. But now, within a year the big smartphone companies launched their upgraded product twice, which means many “tech-savvy” people need to upgrade their gear frequently. We didn’t realize that actually we are chased by the name “technology advancement”. Many people are afraid to be left out of the current trend and not going to lie, I sometimes feel that too. Actually, it’s really hard to keep up with the trend, but it’s a life skill that everyone should have in this 21^st century. Also, since everyone has a “time is money” kind of mindset, everything instant is more preferable. But not everything can happen instantly. Even to produce instant foods took a lot of time for research until its finally ready in the market. Instead of “time is money”, I prefer “nothing comes instantly”. This mindset helps me in appreciating the process and enjoy the time until it worked out as I expected. One of my life mentors always said that “a process won’t betray the result”. Think about the chicken soup in the package and the chicken soup made by your mom. The process is different, so does the taste. Your mom probably has to boil the whole chicken to get the flavorful stock, while the packaged one was only a chicken stock kind of flavor. Enjoying the process means you appreciate the time.

I believe everyone has ever wanted to stop the time because you wanted to experience the moment longer. On the other hand, sometimes we wanted time to go faster, because we wanted to pass by that moment as soon as possible, like this pandemic time. I really wanted to move forward to pandemic-free days ahead, which is very unpredictable. But again, time cannot be arranged by human power. Well, I know not every moment is fantastic, but I believe that it will be a great lesson or a memory to remember eventually. Quoting a line from Jennifer (not me, okay?) in “Still 17”,

“it (time) passes by on its own, however, time never comes back. Anyone can be sad about time passing by. Will you leave that sadness into regret or will you leave it as a memory you want to remember?”

Credits: Ramyeoncaps via Tumblr

(Still 17, Ep.8)

A little bit off-track, but there is one memorable moment that I regretted and it taught me a very great lesson. It’s when I didn’t follow my friend’s request to watch Park Seojun fan meeting when we went to Seoul in 2016. At that time, I said to her that I don’t quite like him (since I watched him in Hwarang and it was a total turn-off. Also, I haven’t watched his previous dramas and the One Night Two Days Hwarang Special episode yet that time). I feel terribly sorry to my friend and now I was trapped in Park Seojun’s charm (in Lee Young Joon’s language it’s the spectacular curse). As you probably know, I’m a huge fan of him now. Even though, until now, my friend still mad at me for remembering that incident but, it taught me that everything has its own timing. What is not fit for you now, doesn’t mean it won’t fit you in the future. Look at Brave Girls’ song that went viral 4 years later after it was released. So, don’t get discouraged too fast, because eventually or someday it might change. Just like how seasons change when it’s time, so do our lives.

Timing is very important, but we tend to overlook it. Well, some things happened in the most unexpected way and it is beyond our control. So, “when is the right time?” might pop up next. My answer is I don’t know. I just let it flow. One thing for sure that I knew everyone has their own time and timing, which I believe arranged by God. He is never too early or too late. He planned everything out for each person. It is just humans are too late to realize or have a high expectation or they don't want to wait. As I enter the 20s, I came to realize that God’s time is too good to be true. I never expect that I’ll be able to finish my university with a double degree, joined student organization, became a winner of a guiding competition twice, and many more grateful events. I also started doing mini vlogmas on my Instagram in 2018 which I got to record what are the things I’m grateful for in the month of December. Looking back at those events of my life, I can see and feel how good God is.

Realizing how God guides me in my life, I really appreciate time more nowadays. I took every chance that I get just because I don’t want to regret it later on. One thing that I think I did a great job is when I took every chance I can to travel in 2019. Almost every month I went traveling and a year later who knows that we have to stay at home? Also, I tend not to procrastinate (but I did this a lot at work lol). I am very aware that procrastinating took a lot of energy and it makes me tired and it results in wasting my time. I know it’s hard (especially at the workplace) but I started to brush off that bad habit of mine, just because time is very important. Well, I have to admit that I’m really bad with time management also, (but it is a very crucial skill that everyone should have actually) as you know by how long it took me to upload a regular posting on the blog or my video channel. Lately, I feel so bad at it, even though I have regular scheduled activities every day. And I really hate myself for it sometimes. I read some posts on the internet on how to manage time effectively, how to be a more organized person, and much more, but as soon as I took action for it, I failed most of it. But, I didn’t want to be hard on myself since my life has been pretty hard lately. Changes take time and since I appreciate the time, I will take it easy.

Since time always moves, it makes life more dynamic. Think of a cycle or the four seasons. Sometimes we are happy, sometimes we are sad. I wanted to share a playlist of mine that reminds me that everything happened at the right time at the right moment and everything will fall beautifully in its place.

Well, there are pros and cons about time. But, remember two things. One, time heals. Just remember this whenever you are hurt, broken, or lonely because you are not in that condition forever. Everything we have in this world is temporary. Remember, time moves faster than you can imagine. Two, life is short, just fill in your days with the good thing and let it flow. It’s okay if you take it slow, but you should be happy. Use your energy to do what makes you alive and do not expect everything to be instant. Beautiful things don’t come easily.

Enjoy your time!

Xoxo,

Jennifer

Further Redadings:

https://nymag.com/arts/books/reviews/till-roenneberg-internal-time-2012-5/

https://abcnews.go.com/International/pop-group-brave-girls-forgotten-tops-music-charts/story?id=76672480

https://hbr.org/2020/01/time-management-is-about-more-than-life-hacks

https://jennicpark.blogspot.com/2016/12/life-what-ive-learned-and-thankful-for.html

 

JENNIFER’S PASSION 2020 AWARDS

Hi Everyone!

Taking a little break from my (pending) JCP Features project for a while for a special rewind of 2020. (which is late for 3 months already. I'm sawrryy!) Like I used to do every year in this blog, I reflected on what happened in that year. This time I will do it in a form of awards for every little thing I appreciate in 2020. Since 2016, I have the habit of watching year-end awards and inspired to do in my version this year. 2020 was an unusual year for all of us around the world. The things we used to think it is natural, we couldn’t have anymore, and unexpectedly, we lost many things in 2020. Even so, let’s start 2021 with new fresh energy and hope that all this pandemic drama is over!

The awards will be separated into few categories, such as TV Shows & Music, Foods, and Random stuff. All the awardees listed down below are purely according to my opinions and just for fun.

TV Shows & Music

I spent half of my 2020 watching TV and listening to music, so I have a lot of favorite things to award in this category. I also noticed that many of my friends and acquittances (from Instagram) watched Korean shows during the quarantine days, so I believe many of you might be familiar with the awardees listed down below.

Update: The House Detox is now not just a pilot show. It's become a regular Monday TV Show.

Foods

I loveeee food. Well, I used to be a picky eater, but after hanging around with heavy eater and foodie friends in university, my palette changed. I started to eat most kinds of food. The foods I used to dislike? I ate them now and loved them. I was influenced by my mom for disliking pork, but hell yeah, it was one of the most delicious poultry in the whole world (but it all depends on how they serve it). I dreamt to be a food blogger actually and I travel for trying delicious food out in the world. Also, this year I learned that food does not only give you energy, it gives you comfort. From the food, we could receive warmth. More about this you can look up my Instagram post, here and mentioned a bit of it on my July’s JCP Feature, here.

Random Stuff

This section will be filled in with everything that I like other than TV show, music, and food. Beauty stuff, fashion, and many more.

I have a hard time choosing all of the lists above because I like so many things. This list pretty much sums up how my 2020 be like. Well, as you can see 2020 is not that bad, it’s just hard. I just wanted to thank every medical helper out there wherever you are, so have done well. I hope we can work hand-in-hand to fight this pandemic soon. Please don’t forget to use your mask wherever you go and please wash your hands regularly.

I wish you a great 2021 and hopefully, the world gets better and we finally can have a real warm hug and freely see each other again. Thank you for the support in 2020 and I hope I can have more exciting posts in the future (also reviving my YouTube Channel!). 

Stay safe and be happy everyone!

Love ya,

Jennifer

Further Readings:

https://www.soompi.com/article/1443162wpp/21-k-drama-superlatives-from-2020

https://blog.naver.com/rlawhw1664/220495518202

BEAUTY: Scarlett Brightening Review

Hi semua~ Ini pertama kalinya aku pakai Bahasa Indonesia di blog ini. Mohon maaf jika sedikit aneh dan canggung.

Post kali ini aku mau review produk dari Scarlett Brightening yang lagi hype di internet. Pertama kali aku nemu produk ini adalah waktu aku lagi cari body scrub di Instagram. Aku cari pakai #bodyscrub, terus banyak post Scarlett Brightening ini. Nah, terus akhirnya aku coba deh body scrub dan produk lainnya dari Scarlett Brightening. Hampir seluruh produk dari Scarlett Brightening ini mengandung Vitamin E & glutathione yang berfungsi untuk mencerahkan, melembabkan, dan menutrisi kulit. Lalu, Scarlett Brighening ini sangat ramah sama kantong karena rata-rata harganya adalah 75 ribu rupiah. Jadi sangat affordable kan? Di post kali ini aku akan review 3 produk best seller mereka yaitu, body scrub, body lotion, dan shower scrub.

Body Scrub – Romansa

Produk pertama yang aku coba dari brand ini adalah body scrub-nya yang Romansa. Seperti namanya, wangi body scrub-nya itu kayak wangi bunga mawar yang bisa bikin mood jadi romantis gitu. Secara formula, body scrubini agak creamy dan scrubnya tidak terlalu besar, jadi tidak terlalu kasar. Tapi surprisingly, scrub-nya berfungsi dengan baik untuk menghaluskan kulit. Karena produk ini ada efek brighteningnya, jadi habis menggunakan scrub ini kulitnya terlihat lebih cerah. My verdict is body scrub-nya oke banget untuk ukuran brand lokal dan harga yang sangat affordable.

Body Lotion – Freshy

Hadap Depan

Hadap Belakang

Ini produk favorit dari ketiga produk yang aku punya. Ini wanginya mirip banget sama parfum J* M*****e. Pas terima paketnya lagi buka plastiknya, udah kecium dong wanginya. Wow banget! Aku terkesan banget sih sama wanginya. Karena saking penasarannya sama lotion ini, abis buka aku langsung cobain. Pas aku pencet pump-nya, lotionnya agak terlalu creamy sih buat aku. Terus aku skeptis bakal lengket, eh tapi ternyata engga! Terus lumayan mudah untuk blend-in produknya ke kulit. Body lotion ini punya instant brightening effect yang cukup baik. Rekomen banget lotion ini dan saran aku pake lotion ini sehabis mandi atau sebelum tidur malam. Langsung nyenyak tidur karena wangi. Dan juga, packagingnya sangat aman karena ada safety pinnya. Jadi ga akan tumpah kalau kalian mau bawa-bawa.

Kiri - After; Kanan - Before

Di foto di atas, keliatan banget kan bedanya habis pemakaian? Jadi kalau butuh instant brightening bisa banget pakai lotion ini. Pakai lotion ini bisa bikin happy gitu. Aku percaya bahwa wangi-wangian bisa membuat mood yang baik, apalagi kalau kamu suka sama wanginya. Well, karena aku suka banget wangi parfum J* M*****e, jadi lotion ini bisa bikin mood happy apalagi dengan harga yang sangat ramah di kantong.

Shower Scrub – Pomegranate

Hadap Depan

Hadap Belakang

Sabun ini agak beda dari sabun pada umumnya karena sabun ini mengandung scrub. Karena produk ini 2-in-1, yaitu sabun dan scrub, shower scrub ini bisa digunakan setiap hari karena scrubnya tidak terlalu kasar, sehingga tidak akan melukai kulit. Shower scrub ini juga terdapat Vitamin E dan glutathione yang memberikan efek pencerahan pada kulit, serta melembabkan dan menutrisi kulit. Selain itu, produk ini wanginya seger deh! Karena mereka menggunakan buah pomegranate atau delima, jadi wanginya itu fresh tapi juga masih ada rasa manisnya.

Nah, kira-kira gitu lah review aku tentang produk dari Scarlett Brightening. Oh ya, aku juga dapet stiker lucu yang sesuai sama produk yang aku punya. Overall, aku suka sih sama produk-produknya. Tapi, mungkin kedepannya stiker lulus BPOM-nya jangan nutupin bagian ingredients-nya kali ya? Karena penting buat pembeli mengetahui apa isi dari produk yang mereka beli. Bukan sekedar berdasarkan dari review-review orang lain.

Not so good labeling position

Aku terkesan banget sama produk kecantikan lokal yang makin hari makin meningkat kualitasnya. Terus, yang paling penting, harganya masih ramah sama kantong. Semoga anak-anak bangsa bisa terus maju dan kreatif.

So, now it’s your time to try!

Stay beautiful all!

XOXO,

JCP FEATURES: SWATCHES

“ The beauty of this world is placed in the vivid yet complex colors of nature ”

This September, I got the chance to learn something new. As some of you might know, I worked for a shoe company since July and it produces shoes for a certain brand, which I have to deal with the brand’s standard colors. There is a specific job description for this job and we call it FMCA (Footwear Material Color Approval). The main job is to check the material color against the standard. Sounds simple but, it wasn’t. Everyone has a different ability to see color and color can look different in different lightings.

According to Merriam-Webster, color is “a phenomenon of light (such as red, brown, pink, or gray) or visual perception that enables one to differentiate otherwise identical objects”. I recall my physics class where we are talking about how colors formed. Not a good student of physics, but this topic is the most memorable one. I remembered that I had an experiment using a flashlight and mirror, there we can see a rainbow. You know the colors in a rainbow, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet are the basic colors. From those colors, we could have a thousand possibilities of other colors, like pastel tone, earth-tone color, etc. Since I was a kid, I always like seeing Pantone swatches for wall paintings or swatches of nail polish in the salon. This time, I got to have an access to textiles swatches, we called it scotdic. Finally, I found something I like about my job (but it's also quite annoying).

Ever heard about RGB or CYMK? Primary color and secondary color? RGB is the most basic color usually used widely in the design world, which is Red, Green, and Blue (if you watched ‘Start Up’, you probably know about it since Nam Dosan is obsessed with RGB colors). CYMK is the colors you can see in your printer inks, such as Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, and Black. Primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. The secondary color is orange, green, and purple. After the secondary color, you will have a tertiary color. All of these colors can be seen in the color wheels. I believe you have seen a color wheel before, right? Yeah, the one you can find in photo editing applications. Many are quite familiar with color wheels nowadays and it is very interesting to play with the colors.

RGB (taken from drama "Start-Up"
Credits: Google Images

Actually, color creation is a very interesting topic. Color creation means mixing the basic colors into secondary colors or other colors. For example, if you mix red, yellow, blue, and green with the correct ratio, you will get a violet color. Even to get a black color, you have to mix the right amount of color to have a pure black color. Now, if you look around your closet, you might find your black clothes might have some different hues. Some of them might be a greenish-black, or reddish black, or bluish-black. A greenish-black means the ratio of green color is more than the rest of the color. It’s hard to notice it, but it’s fun.

Speaking of colors, I’m always amazed by how people create names for every color such as the green army, cream, khaki, olive, coral, pink, etc. My favorite color is a baby pink. How about you? But lately, I started to favor dark olive, army green kind of palette. Especially for clothes, I think I have like 5 clothes in those colors in my closet. I think I look good in that tone. I think last year taking a personal color test was quite trending. Every person has a different color tone and you can find out yours by taking a test. There are some websites that provide free tests. I took one from here. I got a deep winter – autumn color palette. For more info about it, you can read it here. You can check out yours and share it with me. I really wanted to try out the test from a professional personal color advisor like Lee Hyeri (Girl’s Day member/Korean actress) ever done before. You can check out her experience here.

Me dressing in shades of dark olives.

Colors are important and beautiful. But, lately, we hear a lot about skin color discrimination. I don’t know why people make a big deal about color difference. We are special in our own way, including what skin color we have. I’m really sad about the fact that people are discriminating against others because their skin color is different from theirs. The skin color discrimination issue has raised since a century ago and it’s getting worse. I mean, come on, we are more civilized and educated. By this time, we should clearly learn and understood that everyone is the same despite their skin color, race, and gender. On my Twitter timeline, there are lots of tweets about this particle issue in the USA. Remember when the #BLACKLIVESMATTERS hashtag was trending all over the media last year? I think it's time to speak out our voices about this issue. No more tolerating discrimination, especially when it comes to taking someone's life. Varieties of skin color make the world more beautiful. Look at the Disney princesses. Disney creates princesses from all kind of culture with different skin tones. Imagine if there is no color to our skin? All of us might look terrible and scary. This kind of issue should have been resolved. I really wish everyone know that skin tone is not defining who you are, your character and attitude do.

Disney Princess from different cultures and skin color, but still beautiful.
Credit: Google Images

Talking about it, the movie ‘Pocahontas’ and its’ theme song, ‘Colors of the Wind’ came across to my mind. ‘Pocahontas’ movie was released in 1995, which is 26 years ago. Even though two decades have passed by, the old same issue is still hanging around in our lives. Despite the underlying storyline about the tribe versus the settlers, this movie delivers an important message. We tend to forget that God gave us beautiful earth so we can live comfortably. We tend to take things for granted. Burning down the forest to get more land to expand, dumping the waste not to the proper place, wasting energy and water, and many more things that resulted in destroying the beautiful mother earth. There is a reason why God provides us the place to stay first before He creates humans. But this sinful human being is not being grateful and like to exploit things. They often forget and overlook their surroundings.

Scene from 'Pocahontas', Disney (1995)
Credit: Google Images

I looked up the lyrics of ‘Colors of the Wind’ after hearing the song few days ago. While looking at the lyrics, I also searched for the messages behind the song and came across this post. As I get older, I tend to focus on the lyrics of the song I listened to.

“For whether we are white or copper skinned

We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains 

We need to paint with all the colors of the wind ”

The song clearly and brutally honest about the color differences. No matter what skin color we have, we are the same and no human power can overcome the power of mother nature. So why bother to fight it, while all you need to do is enjoy the beauty of it. The wind is invisible, but clearly, without the wind, there would be no color in our life. But no matter how smart and powerful humans can be, we surely cannot paint with the wind. It is beyond of our ability. Only God can because He is the Creator. (Well, actually I haven’t really watched ‘Pocahontas’ (poor me, I know), but I really enjoyed the soundtrack, which made me want to watch the full movie again.)

Credit: as tagged (via Google Images)

After months of playing with color, I came to think what if there are no colors in this world? I couldn’t imagine if I’m a color blind too. It’s so good and fun to play with colors and couldn’t see it or differentiate it would be terribly sad. Can you imagine, what if God didn't create color for this world? For me, the beauty of this world is placed in the vivid yet complex colors of the nature. I like the orange, yellow, and green leaves when it’s autumn. Also, how calming it is to shades of blue sea when you need to clear your mind. Imagine if those natures don’t have any colors to it. It would be a suck life, I guess.

As the pandemic got worsen every day, I became to appreciate every photo in my phone gallery for the memories captured. The time I got to see the beach, waterfalls, skyscrapers, and even I’m grateful for the blue sky or pretty cotton candy evening sky around the neighborhood. Not to forget the delicious food we eat every day is way much more delicious when it has pretty colors. Couldn’t get enough chance to travel this year and experiences to be in nature, but still appreciate every little thing in this world. Sharing some of my archives that has pretty colors #nofilterneeded

Somewhere in Bali, 2019

Colors = Baloons

Natural Shades of a Mountain
Mt. Gede, 2018

The Best Point of Seoul

Merry Go Round Lights

At the most colorful place on earth, Universal Studios Japan

Thank you, God, for creating colors and I’m grateful that my eyes are totally good for capturing the beauty of colors.

Actually, I was quite hesitant to write about this topic but turns out it was pretty okay. I got to learn much more stuff rather than the things I learn from work. I know it’s been all over the place and I missed my timeline again, but I tried my best and will keep on posting the rest of the JCP Features ASAP. Have a colorful day and stay safe everyone!

xoxo,

Jennifer

Further Readings:

https://www.popsugar.com/smart-living/biggest-color-trends-2021-48109389