Korean Hauls (Winter 2016)

Hi everyone!

I’m sorry suddenly I went MIA. It happened because my MacBook got broken and it has rest in peace now. Before, the VGA got broken and I’ve repaired it. The technician said it wouldn’t be the same anymore and it will be easily got broken. But, I never though it would be this soon. I just repaired it on January and it got broken on March. Thankfully, my hard disk was safe, so the files I have inside are perfectly there. Since, Apple has its own operating system, I couldn’t open my hard disk with any other laptop, so I have to wait until I have a new MacBook.

So yeah, I should have sell my MacBook after I repaired it. I learned my lesson now. I didn’t buy the new MacBook Touch Bar thingie because it is damn expensive and Apple removed all the basic features, such as the CD-Room, usb-port, etc. And, I dislike the keyboard of all new MacBook. So, I bought the Retina Display one as it is still the closest to my old MacBook and I liked the keyboard. Please be nice to me, okay? Thank you to my MacBook Pro for the past 6 years, I couldn’t be here right now without you though.

Okay, enough with my short story behind my MIA. I’ll continue to post the delayed posts. Thank you for everyone who read my blog and watch my videos. I appreciate it so much! Love you all!!!

So, this blog is mostly about the products that I bought from my last winter trip to Korea. I will not explained it too much, because it will be a long one and all of the review of each product can be seen in my video. Watch it here.

Few things I want to highlight are the Innisfree Always New Auto Liner and No Sebum Mineral Powder, Son and Park Beauty Water, Wake Make Skinny Lip Crayon, Etude House Play 101 Stick Contour Duo and Color Contour, Holika Holika Pig Nose Clear Blackhead 3 Step Kit, and Labiotte Wine Lipstick.

Innisfree Always New Auto Liner

The first time I knew this product was from Ssinnim (a Korean Beauty Blogger). Since, I have a lot of that type of eyeliner, so I bought a pink color, which functioned as a lip liner. I like the idea of it will always sharp. Whenever, you close the lid and turn it around and you will hear a click sound, then your liner will look new. I found it is interesting since you don’t need to manually sharpened it. I haven’t tried the product yet, but I’m really excited to try it soon. The price is about $10 (9,000 KRW) for 0.3 g worth of product. I think it is still worth it. Buy it here.

Innisfree No Sebum Mineral Powder

I know I’m late to try this product. But, I’m so thankful that I was reminded every time I watched the beauty contributor around the internet to try this. Because this product is magic and a life saver. Actually, I don’t really have an oily skin, but at some days it became oily. Since, I wear sunscreen everyday, at some days my face looks super oily. Thanks to this product, my face looks super normal and it feels soft. It feels like a baby skin. I really want all of you use this affordable mattifying (?) powder. It cost around $7 (6,000 KRW). Buy it here.

Son and Park Beauty Water

Few months ago, I watched Happy Together (KBS TV Program) where Son and Park came as a guest. Son and Park is a two famous Korean makeup artist. They actually a rival, but also best friends. Their real names are Son Daesik and Park Taeyun. Their living canvas are famous artists like, Jun Ji Hyun (actress), Sandara Park (k-pop girlband), SISTAR (k-pop girlband), and many more. So, they collaborate to create a beauty line. Their most famous product would probably this beauty water. Beauty water is actually a toner, which also act as a micellar cleansing water. What I really liked about this product is around more than 90% the ingredients are natural. It also smells good since there are a lot of flowers extract. I think their brand is more to the higher-end price side, but I got this product in a promotion, so I bought it to try it. I bought this product around 25,000 KRW and got a 60ml one for free. Buy it here.

Wake Make Skinny Lip Crayon

While walking around Olive Young, I saw a picture of Yubin from Wonder Girls using this lip crayon. She was once appeared in “Get it Beauty” and she demonstrated her speciality make-up. My friend that I travel with is a lip product junkie. She really liked buying lip products. I ended up buying too. We both bought the same color as Yubin’s. I don’t really use red color much, but I think I need a red lip liner, so I bought it. The color payoff is pretty good and it stays quite a long time. Buy it here.

Etude House Play 101 Stick Contour Duo

Finally, I have a contouring products in my makeup collection. I never tried contouring before in my makeup routine. I think this product is good for beginner like me, because it is easy to blend and look natural. I bought in color #2. It cost 12,000 KRW, but I got discount at that time, so it is quite inexpensive. Buy it here.

Etude House Play 101 Stick Color Contour Duo

Beside its cute packaging, they always have an innovative products also. They introduce contouring with color rather than brown color. We know color correcting products such as, purple, green, blue, etc. So, this stick is used to correct the color of our skin before using foundation. Because this is a stick, so it can cover specific spots. I didn’t really know how it works when I bought it, so I just bought one stick out of three. When I watched the tutorials, most of it using the three of it. Every stick has specific function, so if you want to buy it make sure to know which color suits you. This product cost the same with the contour duo. Buy it here.

Holika Holika Pig Nose Clear Blackhead 3 Step Kit

I finally get it why Chinese bought this product in large quantity. The first time I used it, it really pulls out the whiteheads. I will definitely repurchase this product if I go to Korea again. I really recommend this, even though it is quite takes some time. Every steps takes around 15 minutes, so you might need 45 minutes at least to do this. Buy it here.

Labiotte Wine Lipstick

I’m always amazed with how fast trends happened in Korea. I always found new products, innovation, brands, and many more whenever I came to Korea. This time I found out about this brand, Labiotte. They create products with wine as the main ingredients. It is quite unique and the colors they have were pretty and many. The packaging also in a shape of wine bottle, so cute! Buy it here.

Other products I bought (photos and links):

Etude House 

Buy it here.

Buy it here.

Innisfree

Eco Fragrance Sheet - can be bought at Innisfree Green Cafe

Natural Eyelashes - I can't find the website that sell this

Buy it here.

Buy it here.

Olive Young

Buy it here

Buy it here

Buy it here.

There is one thing that I didn't include in the video, which is Tangle Teezer Hairbrush. I bought it for my mom because it has a Hello Kitty on it. But, I found out that in Sephora Indonesia, they sell it too with cheaper price. So, my mom bought it also and the one I bought in Korea is for me. I really liked this brush. It does smooth out my hair and it less damaging than my usual brush. This one is also my favorite product that I bought.

Holika Holika

Buy it here

Buy it here

Buy it here

Buy it here

Cute gift from Holika Holika

It's a small blanket!

Tony Moly

Buy the Peach Hand Cream here

Buy it here

It is actually the swatches of the contour, but it didn't showed up well on my camera.

Thank you so much for reading. I hope you can try the K-beauty hype with these products I bought and tried. If you have any question, just leave a comment down below or contact me on my social media. Wishing you a beautiful day! See you soon! (Travel Diary series will be coming up soon!)

P.S: I apologized for there are several photos that are not focus and doesn't have the same size. All photos are mine and photographed by myself.

Travel Diary: Korea Winter Wonderland (Part 2)

Hi! I’m back with the second part of my Korea Winter Wonderland trip. Read the first part here. Well now, I’ll continue to day three and four.

Day 3

It was the coldest day in Korea so far. We went to exchange our money at Myungdong. My mom found a good money changer in Myungdong, so I went there as she instruct me to do so. We were supposed to do indoor activities more on that very cold day, but instead we walk around Myungdong, which is a semi-indoor area. It was extremely cold, I couldn’t feel my hand without glove and I didn’t wear a proper warm cloth that day. Nevertheless, it was a fun day. 

When we finished exchange our money, we visited Inissfree Green Café as our first stop. The café is located on the second floor and third floor of the Innisfree biggest shop in Myungdong. It is located to the Lotte Young Plaza side. We warmed ourselves inside the café by ordering a black tea latte and honey lemon tart. It was a very nice warming up snack. The café itself are also nice. I like the ambience and the interior. It felt so warm and homey. I didn’t want to leave.

Green corner everywhere in this Cafe

Christmas Vibes inside

Just acting cute with a nice background

We don't really have much picture together

Honey Lemon Tart & Black Tea Latte

In Korea, mostly we serve ourselves

Not only they sell foods and drinks, they also have a space for watching VR (virtual reality) video. They have 2 scenarios to choose. The most famous one is date with Lee Minho in Jeju Island. Indeed it is very fun! They also have language options; so don’t worry if you don’t understand Korean. I chose English, hoping that Lee Minho speak in English. But, actually it was dubbed, Well, that’s okay since the date is very real and very accelerating. I hope I can see you in the real life, soon. Beside the VR space, they also sell some eco-friendly stuffs, such as notebook, candles, perfume sheets, etc. I bought the perfume sheets, because it smells so good!

On my way seeing Lee Min Ho

After warming up, we are ready to explore Myungdong. We bought some makeup stuffs that we wanted to buy. We visited Etude House, Nature Republic, Olive Young, etc. Fyi, Olive Young is more less the same like Sephora. We bought few interesting stuffs in Olive Young. I’ll make a separate post about my haul. We also visited Style Nanda Pink Hotel and A-Land, my new favorite shop. 

When you have time, you should visit A-Land. I found it fascinating, even though the prices are not on the cheap side. I found about this shop through my friend, who watched Joan Kim’s video. You can check out her video, here. She made a good video, though. By the way, if you go to Myungdong, don't forget to try their street food snacks. I got to try grilled cheese scallop this time. It was quite good, but it's quite expensive though. I don't remember how much it cost, it is around 5,000-8,000 KRW, I think. But the snack or the food matched well with winter season. Yummy!

Trying so hard to use one hand to reply message

The scallopssss! Yummy!

Style Nanda fascinated me because of its interior and its pinkness. HAHA. They sell a good quality products, both makeup and clothing. But the only problem for their clothing line is the size. It is hard for me to buy, because most of them are one-sized. In this branch, they have a rooftop space on the top of the building. As I’ve said before, it was extremely cold, but we still trying to go to their rooftop and sat for a while. Even, we ate triangle kimbab (onigiri) on that rooftop. (it was shown in my travel diary video, watch here). 

Mirror selfie

Laundry Room @ Style Nanda Pink Hotel

Hello Gorgeous!

Matching with my scarf

 

Eating Triangle Kimbab at a rooftop on -9 Degree weather

Then, we off for dinner! We ate at School Food, because it I can find it easily and that is what came to my mind. We ordered my favorite menu, which are, Butter rice bibimbab and Ddeokbokki Carbonara. Then, we head off home! 

Uwa~ 맛이겠다!

Day 4

The next day, I promised my cousin to help her at her church. I was asked to brief the volunteers who will be going to Batam and Singapore on February about Indonesia overall. I thought it was just a 2 people meeting, but it turns out that the whole team was there! Suddenly, I’ve become the center of attention and my Korean suddenly became stuttered,
Anyways, before I met with my cousin, I stopped by at the Seoul Station. We took few photos on that famous spot in Korea and also bought some breads and hot coffee as our breakfast. 

Acting as a "tourist"

Cute Christmas-themed Cup

After the meet-up at my cousin’s church, we headed to Ehwa University. Because, I said to her before, I wanted to walk around the neighborhood. We ate our dinner over there. The restaurant we chose is quite famous for the youngster, because it is located on university area. The restaurant we ate called Bul-bab. They served spicy stew, which you can choose what kind of meat you want inside, such as chicken, octopus, pork, or all of them. The price is pretty reasonable. They have various add-ons, such as, dang-myeon (glass noodles), udon, ramyun, fried dumplings, etc. They sell a package menu, which is the stew, steamed egg, and rice. It is a full course meal and it was very fulfilling dinner. I really liked it. No wonder it is nominated as a mat-jib a.k.a a recommended restaurant. 

My cousin (left), me, my friend, and the food!

After dinner, we stroll around Ehwa area and visited the university. Ehwa University is my dream school since the first time I went there. I wish I can study there in the future! We visited Artbox and bought some random stuffs, such as socks, Christmas and other greetings card, and some magic cleaner stick. 

Ehwa Women University, My Dream School

Taken on my 2012 visit!

The view at night

With my cousin, I look fat.... T_T

A little bit blurry, but that's okaayyy

By the ways, I have a sad story regarding Ehwa University. At the time, I went there, Park Seojun held his fanmeeting at Ehwa University’s hall! My friend and I didn’t realized about it until we saw some girls holding a souvenir from Park Seojun fanmeet! We both were really sad about it because we realized late and we didn’t buy the tickets. T_T 

After the stroll and the bitter fact we got, we went home! But on the way home, we stopped by at Street Churros. It is a quite famous churros shop in Korea. Even though we felt so full, but there's always a space for dessert! Churros is so perfect for winter season, especially when it was still hot (freshly made). After we finished eating our dessert, we really went back home. Oh, by the way I got to see this view and take a photo of it. *feel proud*

Dongdaemun Fashion Complex at Night.

Well, that’s all for now. I’ll post up something new as soon as possible. I’m going to have exams next week. So, be patient, okay? Thank you so much for reading till this part! Love you guyss! Have a nice day! 

P.S: Most of my picture was taken with iPhone 6 and Fujifilm XT10 (Thanks Jesse for taking picture of me with your new camera! love yaaa)

Bonus picture! Taken with an amazing camera *wink*

Details:

Innisfree Green Cafe 
15, Myeongdong-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul
서울특별시 중구 명동길 15 (명동1가)
Phone: +82-2-776-0117
Website: innisfree.co.kr

How to get there: Take Euljiro 1(il)-ga Station (Line 2), Exit 5.
Go to Citi Bank Korea Myeong-dong Branch (40m).
Turn right and continue walking for 225m, after which the store will be seen.

(credit to: visitkorea.or.kr)
or
Take Myungdong Station, Exit 6, then go straight until you see Myungdong Theater, then turn left, then go straight, until you see CGV, Innisfree Green Cafe is on your right side (2nd floor).
  
Style Nanda Pink Hotel
37-8 Myeongdong 8-gil, Chungmuro 2(i)-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul
Phone: +82 2-752-4546
Website: stylenanda.com
  
How to get there: Take MRT to Myungdong Station, Exit 6. Around 200m, you can find this pink shop. You need to turn left to an alley from the exit.    

School Food
Address: 83-5 Myeongdong 2(i)-ga, Jung-gu (M Plaza 5th Floor)
Phone: +82 2-727-3377

How to get there: Take MRT to Myungdong Station, Exit 6. Then, find Zara, the door to M Plaza is next to Zara.
 
Bul Bab
Address: 60-51 Daehyeon-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Phone: +82 2-362-9833
(To know more about the menu: https://www.trazy.com/spot/320/bulbab-%EB%B6%88%EB%B0%A5-restaurant-cafe)

How to get there: Take MRT to Ewha Women University Station, Exit 3. Then turn a little bit to left side then go straight, then when you saw an alley on your right, turn right. Then if you see a steep street, you are on the right track. The restaurant is on your left side.
 
Street Churos (Wangsimni Branch)
Address: 1-99 Haengdang-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Phone: +82-6010-1414 
Website: streetchurros.com (English)

How to get there: Take to Wangsimni Stn, Exit 6, then go to the right, then turn left, the straight for a couple of minutes.
or 
For Sindang Branch (the one I went), Take to Dongdaemun History & Cultural Park, exit 2, then cross the road, then go straight, it will be on your right.