Phutawan pomegranate Body Lotion review

So, a friend was coming back from Bangkok, Thailand, and one of the souvenirs she bought from me was this organic pomegranate body lotion, an authentic Thai product, in a small bottle:

100 ml; the size is ideal for travel. Let's close up to what it's written on the packaging: 

Brightening Skin plus sunscreen protection

Pomegranate body lotion that brighten your skin by gently regenerating the new 

skin cells, allows you to always remain young. Blended with vitamin B3, this

amazing lotion helps to (eliminate? reduce?) production of dark-skin cells, thus radiated your skin.

With the nutrients from vitamin C, the perfect anti-oxidant compound, protects your

skin from oxidative elements, brings back your youth skin, to brighten your day.

It's from Phutawan brand; unfortunately they don't have official website that displays their whole product range, but from what I browse this brand makes organic products, which means they contain no paraben, alcohol and artificial fragrances.

Anyway. Although this lotion says it has sunscreen, but I prefer to use it at night before I sleep because it smells so good, so yummy like the real pomegranate fruit, so delicious that I feel like I want to eat my skin, lol. I don't really like to use it in the morning or afternoon since the scent tends to fade quickly when I'm sweating, unless I don't do a lot of activities during daytime. 

By the way, I forgot to photograph the substance, but it comes in this light orange color:

The scent can last for 7 hours, it still lingers on my skin when I wake up. Lovely. And as personal favourite, I love to spray Peach Delima body mist cologne from Dewi Sri Spa after I wear the lotion, for a more long-lasting effect. It makes a perfect combination with the lotion smell. FYI Delima means pomegranate fruit in Indonesian/Malay :)  

Summer 2015 Haul

I thought I had completely lose interest in beauty-blogging since I'm getting reluctant to update about whatever the new stuff that had gone through, under my skin... Oh wait, how long has it been? *checking the archives*

Doesn't matter. Long story short, I found inspiration to write again. I have always been a lazy blogger, I know, my hands and brain only want to synchronize when I'm in the real mood to write. 

But anyway, since this blog is about showcasing things... I'm going to show you some of my latest, favourite purchases this July (it's a month of Summer, right? You tell me, I live in a tropical country). To add new twist, I'm not just going to include beauty product, but food/drink related, such as my new favourite...

 It's Eid Mubarak here, so someone gave my family a parcel full of junk food and drink, but this one really caught my attention since I'm a chocolate lover; Swiss Miss Classics in Rich Chocolate Flavour. Says it has hot cocoa mix and added with real milk from Wisconsin. 

The sachet inside. It's quite large, I have to serve it in a big mug! It comes in paper sachet (not plastic!) so I can tear it off easily... Nice print-out, the graphic has some sort of classic looking. Best thing about this cocoa drink? Unlike Milo or Cadbury or Hersey's, it tastes less sweet which I love most, since I don't like sugary drinks. 

I got another product from cocoa... In lotion bottle. Found this is in Guardian drugstore:

Fruit of the Earth Cocoa Butter lotion, made in USA. It's surprisingly cheap... I got this around $3. Thought I need this for my stretchmarks. 

The back side of the bottle: Cocoa Butter, Aloe Vera, wheat germ and sunflower seed oil... Right. Full of natural bliss, minus the paraben and mineral oil, though; but still I would like to give this a try! Love the smell, it's very subtle, almost unscented (currently I'm into unscented skin-care products, but I shall write about that in different post).

Kleenex tissue special edition. Yea... I only bought this for the pretty vintage design (I LOVE vintage and I'm a huge of Victorian era!). Three packs in one plastic, comes with different design. I think they also got this special edition in box package, which could be a better display to cheer your working desk, dining table or your grandmother's grooming table. The texture is ultra soft, quite feather-like on your skin :)

Kleenex vintage edition also comes in pocket size, 8 sheets per sachet.  Do you know what the graphics remind me of? The Victorian silhouette images! 

Next, I also bought a couple of my favourite fragrance from The Body Shop:

  

Red Musk perfume. Been planning to buy this avant-garde creation since last year... Composed with tobacco, pepper, cinnamon and musk notes. No flower or fruity notes at all. Some say this could be a men perfume based from the note composition. Well, it does smell like a men perfume, but it's more subtle and I found it rebelliously feminine, I guess because of the musk note, so... it's much more suitable for ladies ;) 

I bought Red Musk in oil (30 ml). This is the first perfume I got in oil form; contains no alcohol so the fragrant doesn't smell that strong and sharp, and the best thing -- lasts longer.

Also bought Smoky Rose fragrance in 10 ml EDT (so I could carry it in my purse). Before the Red Musk was out, I was eyeing on Smoky Rose. The rose and tobacco note make it smell seductive, mysterious... It's beautiful. It reminds you with rose and tobacco. The best from White Musk series IMHO. 

Well, actually I think The Body Shop is the best big name perfume and skin care, because they dare to explore beyond the limit. They got products from absinthe and hemp, and perfumes composed with tobacco... Like you see -- alcohol, cannabis and smoking are the things your parents never want to let you try, but The Body Shop creatively infuse those three composition in their products. Genius.

Last but not least... I tried something new for my hair:

These are hair capsules, if you're not familiar with these beads... Well, you don't crush it to your hair and wipe it off, you have to cut it to extract the liquid within: hair oil (so the term hair capsule is not really accurate, huh?). 

I bought black Miranda hair capsules (eucalyptus alba + argan oil), perfect for my thick, black hair... And oh my, argan oil smells damn amazing. I use it about one hour after I wash my hair in damp condition.

Sure, the smell is great but having the oil in sealed latex capsule is so impractical, but I guess they've packed it in right amount for one-time use. Well, I prefer to purchase a bottle of hair oil anyway. You don't need cutter or scissors to open, or worry the precious hair elixir would spill off your hands *grin*

PHB Rosemary & Lavender body care review

[related post]

Few weeks ago, my eczema was flaring up and I was running out of doctor's medicine. Well, I could just go to the clinic and seek a dermatologist again, but I preferred to treat it with something natural (as always). I read that lavender is great for eczema and I was so eager to try restoring body set duo from Pure Ethical Beauty, which consists of body wash and body lotion in pair, made from rosemary and lavender as active ingredients.

It is recommended by the PHB themselves that this restoring body line is good for those who suffer from eczema and psoriasis. 

side view.

Back view.

The packaging

Let me start with the 'outer look' first. They are packaged in elegant and slim bottles, which for me are very convenient with each 250 ml body wash and lotion. The closures are in pump type (you know, like typical spray mist bottle), and they can be locked when not in use, so it's pretty hygienic when I apply the product onto my skin. I also love the soft purple colour that distinct this line from others, most probably because it marks the colour of lavender flower ♥

The products

Since they contain no "heavy" chemicals (like all PHB products), I don't expect them to be strong smelling. The lavender fragrant is subtle, but it is the nicest part of the products :) however, if you're used to fancy-fragrant lotions and body wash, they might not come to your liking. For the body wash, it has little to no foam since it does not contain SLS, but I must say it is very effective to wash away the grease immediately. While for the body lotion, it absorbs quickly and it feels light on my skin... The beauty of organic skincare products :)

The results? I knew I had to be patient, so I didn't expect they would calm my eczema overnight. But with the right diet, developed healthier lifestyle while using these set, just after two weeks of using my skin was improved. And like every organic product (unless you have allergy), I suffered no side effects, unlike when I was taking doctor's medicine. Oh I could also apply them over and over again as I wished when my eczema was dry, without worrying the lotion would irritate my skin.

I hope they won't discontinue these set!

xo

sariayu Toba makeup collection 2010 review

A little bit late to post, but I really want to write this because it's the first makeup collection that basically upgraded my interest from skincare to makeups! All these whiles I'm prioritising skincare over cosmetics and I'd never been a huge fan of makeups until I bought this collection:

Sariayu Colour Trend 2010: "Senandung Rimba Sumatra" (English: Song of Sumatran Forests)

For your info, Sumatra island was used to be called as "The Land of Gold" in the past.

 They advertised that they formulated the ingredients in the eyeshadows with natural Amethyst powder, and Kiss me quick flower extracts, passion fruit fragrant and SPF 15 in their lip makeup.

 Yes, I know it's an old makeup collection, but compare to the Sariayu makeup collections from 2011 onwards, they have bigger packaging on blushers, eyeshadows and powders, and bigger packaging means higher prices. So to put it simply, Sariayu 2010 makeup collection is the last line in which the makeups are sold in smaller packaging.


The colours in this collection, like the name, were inspired from the natures of Sumatra Island. In case you're wondering where on earth Sumatra is, you can peek to the Wikipedia description here, because I can't find a nice map to show you the location (lol).

The Body Shop Morrocan Rose fragrance

A part of consumerism is proudly wearing top designer's perfumes. But not many people know that the rose note in most branded perfumes are concocted from the roses in Kelaa ait M'Gouna valley in the Kingdom of Morocco, North Africa. 

[image]

Morocco is known for its roses. Don't you believe me? Try to type ''Roses of Morocco" in your search engine, and you'll be in amazement if it's your first time discovery :). Morocco is dearly called as 'the land of red and pink', and the country even holds the festival of rose annually (read the latest 2013 Moroccan Rose Festival here). Inspired with this fact, The Body Shop used to launch one of its annual fragrance range, Moroccan Rose:

 

I know it has already been around since a few couples of years ago. But in some stores worldwide, this limited edition is still in stock. I was just registered as The Body shop member last year, and I'M SO LUCKY to have some Moroccan Rose products before they really vanish from the stores!

PHB Pure Ethical Beauty Haircare

Usually a haircare advertisement only claims it nourishes and gives treatment according to your hair needs. Well, surely they can make your hair healthy but they may not be healthy for your skin. Shampoo and conditioner contain harsher chemicals than your body care products, so they can make your skin drier after you take shower. They can also impair other skin problems, especially if you have body acne and scars (can you imagine as you wash the shampoo off your hair, the chemicals that passes down from your head to your back will absorb to your acne and blemish too? How horrible!)

Well I can't remember when was the last time I got body acne, but I have stubborn dark spots (a.k.a acne scars!) on my back, and it frustrates me sometimes, that even routine scrubbing and the spotless cream never successfully regenerates the skin cells. *sigh* I think, it's because all of this time I'm using wrong shampoo and conditioner, plus -- my previous haircare wasn't suit for me. I really needed to change my haircare and at the same time I want to overcome my skin problem. But of course, this post will mainly talk about my hair problem than my skin. *grin*

First of all, I want to try to get a healthy hair only by basic haircare: yes, just shampoo and conditioner (and lots of combing, haha!). My hair problems are kind of weird -- it's slightly dry and falling and worse, I also have tangles and dandruff!

Now I want to see if I only use shampoo and conditioner, how much it will going to fix my combination hair problem. So for some weeks, no hair serum, hair lotion, hair gel, hair oil or other hair intensive treatment products. I aim, for now and next time I will only use haircare that is made from natural or organic ingredients. I know there are a lot of organic product brands out there, but this time I would like to try shampoo and conditioner by an English brand, PHB Ethical Beauty.

PHB stands for Pure Halal Beauty. What I love about PHB is they specialise in organic hair and skincare, so you don't have to worry about what goes into your skin as you use the products. All of their products are handmade (how amazing is that!) from pure natural ingredients. They totally contain no animal products and against animal testing, so in Islamic views they're halal and safe to use :)

These are my new haircare!

July Haul! Sariayu + Mustika Ratu

Just bought some local beauty products, and I really want to write reviews of them, which mainly consist of...

 Sariayu products, and one Mustika Ratu product that I'm just trying now!

From left to right:
1 Acne face mask

2 Acne care lotion

3 (i) front: (small bottle) Breast firming massage oil

3 (ii) back: breast mask

4 (i) back: Mustika Ratu olive oil

4 (ii) Lulur kencana body soap

4 (iii) [White Aromatic] Harmony body lotion

Actually at first, I went to a nearest Sariayu counter only to buy essential items because they're running out soon: my face mask and acne care lotion, but turned out that I used the chance to buy some new products!

Let's start with the essentials first, before I begin reviewing the newly-tried products. Please note that that both  Sariayu and Mustika Ratu use traditional ingredients a lot in their skincare products, so if you're non-Indonesian, bear with me if you find a lot of strange names in my reviews below. Now let's get ready for another long post! 

Home Spa Treatments [à la Sariayu]

Last month, I got Sariayu body scrub as a free gift (with other 2 Martha Tilaar items):

The pink one -- it's actually a body scrub for Sariayu Beauty Spa product range. I show you the catalogue:

[take a look here for a complete Sariayu spa products]

So I thought, why not I buy along the other spa products and try the regimen?  I need another 4 stuffs. Now I already got:

Citra Mangir Body Scrub Review: From the Classic Series

One day, I was hanging out with a friend, and I stepped into a mini market, in an unfamiliar area in town. And I was lucky, because finally I found a beauty product that I thought I would never find it again:

My, my! This is one of the recently discontinued Citra products: the Mangir body scrub! This must be one of the last body scrub from the series that ever distributed before Citra came with new packaging design in all of their products... Because sadly, they stop producing this again :(

Citra Mangir series

For me, the fragrant of Citra mangir series smells authentically 'Indonesian', much more than the bengkoang variant (Indonesian name for Mexican turnip. However it's not a Mexican plant, as it's also native in Indonesia!). That's because mangir is a ancient Javanese beauty secret used by the aristocrat women for a glowing, fair yellowish-white skin (or as the Indonesian call it, kuning langsat skin tone). It's also used to make skin softer.

What is mangir actually? In the old days, Javanese princesses loved to exfoliate their skin, using a natural scrub made from crushed traditional herbs and plants, usually raw rice, turmeric and other herbs from ginger family. This powdery scrub is what they called as mangir. The orange-and-yellow colours from most of the herbs are what makes the skin fairer and more glowing. 

Sariayu 2013 Colours Trend: Pesisir Sentrajawa

Sariayu, one of the legendary brands in Indonesian very own makeup products, must launch their very own colours trend every year. I didn't remember what I was researching about, but gladly I came across a blog post about the latest Sariayu 2013 colours trend!

Beautiful ad, as always ♥
So, this year they feature the colours of Pesisir Sentrajawa, or accurately translated as 'Shore of Central Java'. Sentrajawa actually sounds unusual for Indonesian ears (xD) because we've always called it as Jawa Tengah -- it's the same thing.

The exotic new range from The Body Shop: ABSINTHE!

So this morning, when I was about to browse about Chocomania skincare range (yeah, I'm looking for skincare made with chocolate; but maybe I'm gonna blog about it next time), I found out from the official US The Body Shop website there's a set of new products in the store, made with ABSINTHE!

MY GOSH, HOW EXOTIC IT IS! I want to try these so bad! But I doubt this range would pass the shipping to my home country in Indonesia, and even Brunei (where I currently live now), because absinthe is a kind of alcoholic substance (and it's illegal in most countries!). But skincare products made with absinthe? I don't think it can make us drunk when we use it, haha!

To be specific, this new absinthe range is actually a set of hand care products, consisted of hand cream, hand wash, hand gel and hand butter. The Body Shop claims this specifically to 'purifying' your hands (I don't really get what it means, by "purifying your hands". Like... Purify the hands? How? But maybe it means, 'to make your hands fresher and moisturised, as if you're just finish taking a bath, hahaha!). It doesn't state what kind of skin this suits best, so I guess it can be used for normal to very dry skin. One reviewer said, the texture is lighter than the hemp, so I guess the quality is also as better as hemp hand care (for very dry skin).

What is absinthe, actually?

"Absinthe is historically described as a distilled, highly alcoholic beverage. It is an anise-flavoured spirit derived from botanicals, including the flowers and leaves of Artemisia absinthium (a.k.a. "grand wormwood"), together with green anise, sweet fennel, and other medicinal and culinary herbs. Absinthe traditionally has a natural green colour but may also be colourless. It is commonly referred to in historical literature as "la fée verte" (the green fairy)." -- Wikipedia

The Body Shop always prioritises that all of their products are using natural ingredients as the main ingredient for their products. But as for absinthe, hmm... I don't think they're using real absinthe, as in alcoholic substance for this. And, yes! After I checked about the ingredients, it's the extracts of Artemisia Absinthium plants (which consist of grand wormwood, green anise and fennel) that they use for this range. Perhaps if they put 'green anise', or 'wormwood', it doesn't really really accurate to state the main ingredient, so they still label this range as 'absinthe'! (Yeah, now I get it :D)

The Body Shop Moringa Gift Cube review // about the moringa plant

Bought this last December during Christmas sale! There was a 30% discount for purchasing any packaged stuffs, and I picked this one up, plus -- I wanted to try the moring flavour because I've discovered that it has many benefits for skin, and health in overall.

So, just like any other cube packaged products in The Body Shop, this lovely box consists of mini shower gel, milk lotion and a bath lily. There's nothing change in what it consists, only the box colours, and due to the Christmas festival The Body Shop made over the box appearance with new yellow and tiny white snowflake pattern! ♥

some closer looks inside...

An eco-friendly message on the box, just as I opened it.

White Musk Libertine review

The Body Shop has always been generous to me! (I think it's an advantage of being an active member, hehehe) This is the third perfume sample I recently got, as a bonus when I bought some items there recently (but I just want to review this perfume). Let's take a look inside:

Unlike Dreams Unlimited and Love etc... samples which come in ordinary tiny test tube (where you only open the cap, and dab an amount on your fingertip) this one is a spray perfume:

You can see there's something like a straw and spring on it, it's actually for spraying. It's much easier to apply, as you just spray it on your skin! :)

I've seen the full bottle version of the perfume, for real (as printed on the picture above), and I think the design is quite classy and cute. Also, the packaging -- the fading colour from white to baby pink makes it looks pretty, very attractive, particularly to young women. It's like, when I see at the Body Shop store the perfume bottles itself whispering: "buy me, try me," -- haha, it sounds seductive!

And yes, I've tried wearing this perfume, and seductive is the very first thing I must say about the smell. Traditionally, a musk perfume is made from a substance obtained from a gland of the male musk deer. The odour, was believed, has something that can attract the opposite sex in deers, and apparently, in humans too! While a modern musk perfume, is made from flowers (just like this one :), that has almost similar odour with the one from deers.That's why it's seductive ;)

The Body Shop describes it as, "Sensual, playful and feminine," -- I agree. I think the musks aroma dominating the overall smell, through the top, middle and base notes.

There are also notes of Chantilly cream (a type of whipped cream that you often find on cakes!)

and Turkish delight (sweetened starch and sugar, often used as main ingredients in sweets and candies):

and I can't help but thinking about cakes, because those notes sound delicious for a perfume fragrant, hahaha! But indeed, this is such a perfume that smells sweet and delightful (no wonder, The Body Shop says it's playful. Just think about children who love to play and eat sweet cakes and candies!). And to make it "sensual and feminine", there's also a floral note added: baby orchid.

This is something that you're perfect to wear to a party or whenever you attend something glamorous and lively, because the overall fragrant is strong and bold, and in my experience, it lasts long. However, in my own opinion... Despite the pretty peachy pink bottle and the 'delicious' notes , I think this perfume is not suitable for young girls (I mean teenagers, and I'm talking only about the perfume. There are also eau de toilette and body mist in lighter fragrant). The fragrant is too strong! Sometimes it also reminds me a kind of fragrant that old ladies like to wear, it smells something like... A vintage perfume that your grandmother likes to wear.

Short review: Love etc... Solid Perfume

Packaging is lovely. Small and thick in heart shape. Very girly... The perfume comes in slightly oily light pink cream, and to wear it, you just apply like how you normally apply the liquid perfume: at your pulse points.

I won't go describing about the smell, because I already wrote about it earlier (click the link above). But basically, it is similar like the eau de parfum, it's just I don't find it long-lasting. And the smell is less sharp than the liquid one; it smells much sweeter I think, the vanilla note is quite dominant than the sandalwood, making it smells less exotic than the water perfume one.

I don't know much about solid perfumes, I don't know if it's really a modern, modified form of fragrance, but I think a good perfume always traditionally comes in liquid, because that's how a perfume used to be created centuries ago :-)

Dreams Unlimited fragrance review

Dreams Unlimited is a fragrance by The Body Shop launched in 2010. I just had my try on this fragrance when I got a free 1.8 ml sample from one of the stores. Here it is:

(if you notice there's a torn on the paper, that's because I had to re-take the photo after some months using this perfume, because the old photo couldn't load in this entry...)

Love etc... eau de parfum review

  When I bought something from The Body Shop this morning, I got a little sweet surprise from the staff who assisted me:

 The 'LOVE ETC...' perfume sample, wow! I'm just so happy to receive this, although I found out later that this fragrance has been released in 2009, but hey! It's something new for me! The staff lady gave me just like that after I paid what I bought. There was no special promotion or whatsoever and it's not even my birthday! She gave me along with 20% voucher for that perfume, in case I'm really interested to buy it, I can buy it with 20% off with that voucher. I'm just soooo lucky! (:

Now, let's see about this perfume. It has vanilla and sandalwood notes with jasmine. The Body Shop describes it as 'a perfume that creates magnetism and spontaneity, sensual, radiant and irresistible.' Actually I'm not a fan of anything that contains vanilla in fragrance, but since it's combined with sandalwood and jasmine, so overall it creates a fresh, sweet and energising smell -- something like when you just finished taking a bath, LOL! Yet it's a bit strong at the same time (I guess it's because of the sandalwood), but I think that's what makes the smell sensual too. And since The Body Shop is an earth-friendly brand, this perfume specially using alcohol of organic sugar cane from Ecuador.

Part of the promotional poster of LOVE ETC... I like the smell, so I would likely to buy this. ;)