Sweet Award :9

Sweet Surrender! An award talking about sweetness! :D

-Give credit to the person who gave you this award: LYNN! Thanks, Fella!  :D

-Answer the following questions

Cookies or Cake?

Both! I’m not being greedy, but I love cookies and cake and Christmas is always the best moment because we get a lot of cookies and cakes.  So I eat them without being boring at all.  My favorite cookie is kaastengels, from cheese.  While cake, ugh, I do love cheese cake! I’m a true cheeser. 

Chocolate or Vanila?

More to vanilla. :9 Chocolate is nice and addictive, but when eating, I prefer vanilla! Too much chocolate cream or paste or anything makes me feel a little dizzy somehow. 

What is my favourite sweet treat?

Apple pie! I always love apple pie, or other fruits pie.  The dough of pie is sooo delicious and when it is mixed with vla plus fresh kiwis, peaches, apples, strawberries…HEAVEN.

Oh, I love klepon too! And kue nagasari, something milky, solid, with a banana slice inside, wrapped in a banana leave.  Superb!

And fruits! I love fruits! They are sweet, naturally.  And fresh, and full of vitamins! :D

Oh, another one: Elle & Vire Creme Dessert in vanilla or chocolate! So yummy!

When do I crave sweet things the most?

I usually start to find some chocolate bar, cupcake, pudding, or crème brulee when I’m so happy or so nervous or when I’m sad or missing someone. Or when my body simply ask for something sweet!

If you had a sweet nickname, what would it be?

I don’t know.  Maybe…Sugar? Brown Sugar?  :p The way people  call me itself, ‘Ning’, has created a sweet sound to me.  It’s just so girly and traditional dan cute. 

Okay, now I want to resend this award to..my sweet new follower:

Aimee of chocobunnii13 (http://chocobunnii13.blogspot.com/)! :D

Kissable Cheeks!

I used to be faithful to powdered blush since the first time I know what blush on is.  I believe that I have oily skin, so cream blush would be clogging and make my face shining like a diamond! LOL.

But yeah, deep in the heart I always be attracted to cream blushes.  They usually come in a beautiful jar or tube or pump bottle or even in stick form! Somehow it looks simple and cute!

There are several products in my mind when it comes to ‘cream blush’ (or liquid ones) : 100% Pure lip and cheek tint that looks so promising, Make Up Forever cream blush (with thousand shades they have, yeah!), Benefit Cha-Cha tint, Skin Food’s lip and cheek tint with a cute tin packaging, Etude House jelly blusher, oh, and another ones! Yes, cream blushes are too sweet!

 I finally decided to own one from 100% Pure since, it’s all natural, fruit-pigmented, free of animal-cruelty, it’s cute and it works both for lip and cheek, a blush and a lip colour, what a combo! It might not so easy to be bought in store, but thankfully The Universe supports me always!

But what is this thing I talk about, actually? Here, some words to clear your mind:

100% natural formula was designed to be used as a cream blush and a lip tint. Pure fruit pigments in a base of skin and lip softening and moisturizing shea and cocoa butters. Highly concentrated with anti-aging vitamins and antioxidants.

Got a little clue, Ladies? ;)

This is a stick cream blush that can be used as your lip colour, that’s how I describe the thing. And I’ve been hooked with this since January 2012! And finally I found a way to get this product, hehe.

The only trouble I got is: what shade to choose? They offer 6 shades of this tint: Peach Glow, Pink Grapefruit, Cranberry Glow, Cocoa Berry, Strawberry, and Sugar Plum.   At first, I thought the best shade would be Cranberry Glow or Peach Glow, both may contain more warm tone, so for my yellow-brown-red-something skin tone,  it will be fine.  And the Cranberry is red, I want to achieve red lips! Peach sounds great too for peachy nude lips! These two shades also come without shimmer! :)

But that only the first expectation.  Suddenly, I read Lynn’s review of this lip and cheek tint.  She owns the one in Pink Grapefruit.  She said it was good for her skin tone, and it looks good when I saw her review photos.  She also sent me a little sample because I was SO curious!

Then here it goes, the sample plus swatch (double layered) on cassava paper:

So pink! Bright and cheerful pink, some kind of pink I rarely use.  Hehe.  How it goes on my skin? It leaves a truly pink colour, but don’t worry, we can blend it with fingers and make it more natural. 

For lip usage, it’s quite pretty.  Surprisingly, I look nice with pink lips! But no, for me, it’s still too magenta, especially on my cheeks. 

Thankfully, I have tried this shade before, and learned that it’s not for me.  So when I finally ordered the full version, I decided to choose Peach Glow. Maybe later I will try Cranberry too, but for now, I’m satisfied with this warm peach colour, because it suits me very well!

Here’s the swatch, the appearance of this product itself, and my opinions! :D

Is it drying? Nope.  And on lips, it looks matte, not glossy at all.  I love it! I think I want to try Cranberry Glow someday to see myself with matte red lips!

It feels creamy, yummy, smells fruity! It’s not greasy, nor too glossy for your cheeks and lips.  If you love a natural look, with literally natural materials, then this lip and cheek tint is for you! :D

Okay now, from the skincare side, do I notice any breakouts by using this formula almost everyday? Nope! Both the pink one, the peach one, they act nicely on my skin, not to mention the different shade and effect.   

Anyway, the ingredients are:

Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter, Honey Beeswax, Grapeseed Oil, Vitamin E (a-tocopherol), Vitamin C (ascorbyl palmitate), Pigments of Plum, Cranberry, Pomegranate, Blackberry, Raspberry and Cabernet Grape, Strawberry Extract, Pigments of Strawberry, Cherry, Cocoa Bean, Peach, Apricot, Blueberry, Carrot and Tomato

 To see another shade and products of 100% Pure, simply visit their webpage: http://100percentpure.com/i

And this is my self-portrait, using real make up on paper, by colouring it with near-my-skin-tone marker.

Yes, I have a stick of Alima Pure Nourishing Lip Balm, I swapped it with my mineral blush of TBS with Lynn.  Here’s the lip balm illustrated by watercolour, all infos and ingredients are available to be seen on their website (http://alimapure.com/).

I got the Holly Berry shade. It has beautiful sheer red tint.  Just get a minus feeling about the glossy effect!

That’s all for today, folks! Happy Wednesday! And may your green effort be bigger everyday! Come on, we’re living on Earth, there’s nothing wrong with loving Earth and trying to protect the natural habits of it. Because we love cleanliness and happiness!

I love you, Dear Girrafe :*

Love, Love, All You Need is Love and Respect and Go Vegan!

Love, Love, All You Need is Love and Respect and Go Vegan!

Raju

Hello, People! Do you know that elephants are ‘umbrella creature’? They protect rainforests,  and they are very charming! Their pregnancy takes 2 years long.  And when a baby elephant died, surely, every elephant around will be so sad, so that…Raju.  Baby Raju is about 2 or 3 months old.  He’s cute, he’s nice, he’s an orphan.  People has tried the best to keep him alive and happy, to grow and someday he will be a masculine strong man who conquer rainforest in Sumatra. 

 

I only see him via Twitpics, but he has stolen my heart!

But he passed away this afternoon.  And I tried to hold my tears because I was in a public transportation when I read about his sad ending.  He was rescued, he was helped, yeah, God took him.  Maybe he’ll be happier there, he has better life and environment now.  Bye, Little Raju.  :’)

Been craving for galaxy prints stuffs! <3 

Ladies, This is a Secret. Tell Everybody about This! :D

This is gonna be a serious post. Really.  I don’t even smile when writing this. Yes, I’m having my serious face and I’m on period. So please be careful and read this seriously.


…



Oh, please, I need to laugh now! LOL.
:)))

Okay, ladies. I’ll make a very feminine post. And it’ll change your mind about something we call…feminine napkins. *giggle giggle*

So, since I’ve been a little-green-monster and being really care about garbage and orangutans in junior high school, then a little guilty feeling appeared on me.

I asked a lot to the world: How to reduce waste? How to save orangutans? How to delete air pollution? And many other questions.

But there’s also one thing I’ve been worrying about: my feminine napkins rubbish. Well, firstly, it’s not biodegradable as a trash.

Then a woman told me that those disposable menspads are dangerous too because of the materials! Yo, people, some of them are from recycled paper, bleached with chemical stuffs, and again, and again.  She even did a little test to make sure that your menspad contains whitening-agent plus made from paper.

And, paper to absorb liquid? Are you kidding me!?  Recycled paper is great, but not for this purpose, please!

Okay, so, this ‘Tante’ said she sells menspads from cotton with Anion strips. Seems promising at first, because it releases some oxygen particles that is good for your health. And it’s 100% cotton she told me. It absorbs liquid perfectly thanks to the gel inside. It’s made in China.

And it’s IDR 40.000 per pack.  8 pads.  Me and my Mom agreed to use it for me.  Surely, a mother will choose a better product for her daughter! I was happy at that time, but still, it’s quite expensive and…I have no idea about the continuation of the pads’ life.  They’ll end up at landfills, suck up Earth’s pores and no word biodegradable, too.

Okay, I used to hang on this Anion stuff for a while.  After that, there’s also My Lady menspad that contains Anion too, in a cheaper price, so I bought that and stopped the one from China.

Has it released my mind from the guilt? NEVER.

I always dreamed about a biodegradable menspad. Or maybe a menspad from bamboo or whatever.  LOL. I invented a lot of idea but they’re only in my head.

Then I found a very BRIGHTENING post about menspad at Lynn’s page! (http://lovelycosme.blogspot.com/)

SO, PEOPLE, WE ACTUALLY HAVE A BETTER ALTERNATIVE CALLED…cloth menspad. 


 



It’s a menspad, made from cloth.  You don’t have to trash it everyday, you can just simply wash it and reuse the thing! IT’S AMAZING.  And again, mostly made in Indonesia!

Maybe some of you (and me) will experience some awkwardness about washing it.  Sometimes it’s hard to remove the stain.You are not suggested to use powder detergent because it’s more likely to disturb the absorption power of your menspad.  Also avoid cleansers with softener and whitener. But then it’s not that easy to wash with liquid one.  In my case, Lynn gave me free ecospot, an all-natural spot remover stick.  It’s gel-like with more thick consistency. It works. J  Other alternatives to erase the spot: baking soda, lemon peel, etc.  You can buy this stick here: http://eco-ball.biz/

After washing with room-temperature water (don’t use hot/warm water!), please let it dry under the sun! It’s free, it’s natural, and it’s anti-bacterial.  :D

For now on, I have 5 menspads from various brands: Green Nappy, Ziggie Zag, Baby Oz, and Clue Bebe.   And how’s my impression about this revolution? Well, good!  It’s such a good thing to reduce your period’s bad mood by decreasing guilty feeling!

And, just so you know, in my opinion, cloth menspads absorb even better than disposable ones. It’s less leaky, it’s not wrinkling to the center because they have wings with ‘click’ button. Yay! The best thing is, they are very comfortable!

Now the question is: Where can we buy this kind of menspad? They aren’t appear on store shelves with beautiful plastic wrap, so…

Most cloth menspads can be bought online.  Here are links I know, for you:


http://facebook.com/istanamenspad/


http://cluebebe.com/


https://www.facebook.com/BabyOzIndonesia‎/


You’ll feel more responsible with yourself, especially in this girl’s business! :D

And yes, happier Earth!  <3 Mother Earth will be happy for you!

Please search this hastag on Twitter, and be prepared to cry and angry at the same time after you know what is this about:

#RIPPapaGenk

We love Papa Genk and we won’t ever let this thing happen again to the elephants! Stop animal cruelty!

Oh, and, God bless Cory Monteith.  So sad he left so early.  I’ve just rewatched Glee last week! :’(

My fruity cosmetics have arrived home safely! I hide one stuff from the complete haul, cause I want to make it as a gift for my Mom, so I hide it for a while. :D

Anyway, it seems so tempting, safe, and cute! <3 

Recycle Your Powdered Blush, Baby!

Once upon a time, I got a little pocket of powdered mineral blush sample of The All Natural Face (from Lynn, again).  I love the colour, it looks pale compared to my warm yellow something skin, but when it’s applied, it’s perfectly peach and nice!

I wonder how it works in a different form, for example, in creamy texture? And I heard a lot about cream blush anywhere, I have real cream blushes, but I really want to try to make a cream blush.

So I changed the rest of this blush I have into a creamy cosmetic!

n.b: The oil shouldn’t always be VCO. You may use other oils, like olive oil, sweet almond oil, or anything. 

good luck in trials! ;)

The L-Ascorbic Acid Project

Oui, I talk about a vitamin.  The special vitamin that everyone loves! Vitamin C! The scientific name is Ascorbic Acid.  Some of them called Magnesium Ascorbyl Phospate. 

 Vitamin C, usually found in oranges, strawberries, tomatoes, watermelons, and almost every fruits, has good intentions for you.

I will mention things I know so far: it brightens your day and your skin tone, it cures scar, it is a shield from influenza and other viruses, it reduces wrinkles, it makes your skin more supple and healthy, it protects your skin from ultraviolet damage, oh, Vitamin C is so smart you can’t imagine how God created that vitamin, actually!

Vitamin C serums are everywhere on the market, but have you ever imagine about…making it yourself? Because, yes, you can! The ‘serum’ word may be threatening.  It sounds difficult, it needs scientific research, and whatsoever.   But think about how many additional added to those serums out there.  If you make one yourself, you’ll simply apply only pure water + the vitamin on your face!

I’ve been knowing that we can make our vitamin C serum ourselves, but I don’t have the materials and I was too lazy to make it (LOL).   Once, Lynn The Lovely Cosme Blogger sent me a little jar of Ascorbic Acid powder (or crystals?) plus glycerine along with another stuffs I ordered.  So I decided to make this serum finally!

 

And there you are, I introduce you to my C Serum!  Yep, labeled it myself.  Reusing glass bottle.  Freshly made new drops every 3-4 days!

Here’s the ingredients:

I don’t know the exact measure of every ingredients, so, please make yours proportionally, or you can Google a better recipe.  :)  Sorry to not being scientific.  <3

Glycerin is not required. You can use it or not anyway. ;)

I’ve been using it religiously in a week, so far, my skin doesn’t show any dislikes to this serum.  It’s more supple and because the texture is juicy, it’s fine, not pore-clogging! I wish it will erase my acne scars and tone my skin! :D But so far, I have a nice facial skin condition, since I changed to all-natural habit!

By the way, one of my friend, he knows thing like that based on his school faculty, he told me to keep the serum in the refrigerator.  Vitamin C is easily evaporate in warm temperature.  So, please keep it safely inside that ‘kulkas’, please.

Oh, and, attention please: don’t mix the materials with metal stuff! Vitamin C and metal are not good friends, please use plastic or glass mixer and jar.  :D

And make sure you use demineralized water, like Amidis.  Vitamin C and minerals are not fine, too.

Let’s try this recipe happily! ;) 

To find the vitamin C powder, maybe you can find it at pharmacists.  I don’t know how to get it here, since Lynn also bought it from US.

N.B:

Be careful with this DIY, vitamin C needs special percentage to be used.  So, please, since I’m not a pharmacist, ask Google or other professionals if you’re worry about the safe amount of vitamin C topical usage.

Do a little test before you use your serum.  It might be irritating or sting sometimes. :D

Rima Juwita

A lot of girls suffer from oily hair.  Me too.

So they do hairwash almost everyday.  I don’t, since I have  thick hair that needs almost 24 hours to dry after wash.  Crazy, huh?

But actually, it doesn’t really help.  It might cause the hair even more oily, I read about this somewhere.  Maybe, the science is similar with our skin.  It’s oily because it’s dry!

Anyway, away from that theory, we’re living in the world where shampoos are made with sulphates! So, to be honest, it’s like actually we wash our beautiful keratin group with…detergent, like, literally.  Somehow, there are also synthetic unsafe preservatives like parabens and DMDM Hydantoin (read your commercial shampoo’s ingredients now, and you’ll find this name, yes, it is actually a formaldehyde-releaser). 

Note this: our hair is not dishes! LOL.  We shouldn’t wash it with dishwasher thingy, right?

Well, it won’t be easy for us, with this longlife habit to wash our hair routinely and to have that feeling of ‘the more it foams, the more it cleans’.  Yes, we may feel cleaner with sulphates, but, no, it’s not really safe.  What about your sensitive scalp or natural hair condition?

Anyway, my better-hair-softer-foam journey started from The Body Shop.  I tried their Olive Shampoo by understanding about this foam things.  The shampoo is clear, smells natural, with thin-bubbles, not like the others.  It’s in 2010.  I changed to Bilberry one, then to Banana, along with the conditioner, because I love the scent. 

Not so long after that, TBS launched their biodegradable shampoo called Rainforest Haircare.  I have tried two of them Balance and Shine (which the scent is nice, grassy!).  Unfortunately, it didn’t really fix my amazing hair.  It’s a little drying.  And my scalp isn’t an easy topic, too.  It’s dry! The review is here:http://citraramya.tumblr.com/post/20653791495/deep-down-the-sea-is-my-fear-factor)

Then I shifted to L’Occitane with their promising Soothing Shampoo and I love this heaven-made shampoo, especially the after-cleanse-effect and the special sweet scent! But I haven’t been satisfied yet.  I need something without sulphates!

So, yep, I tried to multiuse my Nicole’s Natural shower gel as a body wash and hair wash! And what I got? It’s silly at first.  The Citrus one was too thick for my hair needs.  Then I moved to Green Tea and I’m not going back! This choice is the best! Besides its lovely aroma, it’s also great to clean my hair properly, plus it’s not drying.  Yay for no more nay sulphates!

It’s not the end yet! I found out that actually we have this thing called ‘dry shampoo’ in the rare society lately.  Girls believe in baby powder.  This stuff can solve your greasy hair.  If you don’t have time to wash your hair with water + a proper shampoo, you may simply pour down the powder to absorb some oils. 

And then I think about talc.  Talc has been considered as containing asbestos.  Sounds like something for your house’s roofs, maybe? I don’t really understand, but it could disturb your health anyway.  Imagine this material used for innocent sensitive babies. 

Not every talc in the market contains asbestos, actually.  But I decided to not using talc anywhere I can.  So, to constitute baby powder, I made myself a dry shampoo with ingredients you can find in the kitchen! Yes, in the kitchen.  I found this recipe somewhere on the blog of someone cool, but I forget where it is actually, so sorry.  Hey, your recipe’s good, by the way! It consists of cocoa powder and corn starch (a.k.a maizena). 

I added new formula for my dry shampoo: grounded coffee.  It came in my mind first when I thought I have no cocoa powder (then I found a jar of it, LOL).  I don’t want my dry shampoo to dye my hair and make it grayish, so I give it dark tones, as suggested in that blog too. :p

Some people in green blogs have actually tried to not using any shampoo through the days, only water, and they solve their trouble with this dry shampoo, but I don’t really dare to do the same, though I think it’s gonna be good! I’m too lazy to wash my hair, sometimes.  But, shampooing your hair is nice, too, with nice fragrance and everything.  Yeah but for hectic days, it might be COOL to the max to save my hair fully dry but healthy. :p

This is my dry shampoo in reality, kept in a small bottle, with washi tape from Hong Kong (thanks my Bro!) labelled with handwritings):

What about my dry shampoo, by the way? I LOVE THIS DECISION OF MINE TO MAKE A DRY SHAMPOO! As you can see in the illustration, yes, I simply love those powdery friends of mine.  They save my day, my hair, and I get rima juwita, pretty hair!

Is that enough for me to treat my hair with dry shampoo, a sulphate-free shower gel, and some love? It should be enough, but, I often go anywhere with public transports, the place where sometimes you’ll be accompanied with smoke-scent! Ugh, I hate cigarettes.  And the smell of it! Once in my life, I smelled a cigarette stick, not burnt yet, it smells like spices.  It’s good, hahaha.  Sadly, when it comes in contact with lighter, it’s smoky and…yucky, and unhealthy for both passive smoker and the smoker itself. 

OH PLEASE DELETE THE CIGARETTES IN HUMAN WORLD!

Err, okay, out from that protest, yep, I don’t like it when my hair is smelly.  So I bought a hair mist from Etude House via my friend, since I couldn’t find it at any stores.  It called Silk Scarf.  I’m in love with its sweetly-designed bottle.   It gives you a clean floral soapy fragrance on your hair.  And no, it’s not greasy unless you drop a half bottle of on your hair! :D

 

Please Google yourself the ingredients.  It’s not printed on the bottle.  It contains some oils and preservatives, but not out from my border. J

Yo, that’s my hair story, People! What about yours?  ;)

saya, kamu, kalian, kita

pilihan

What about dry shampoo? What about homemade Vit.C serum? What about no-soap days? Oh I love living like this!

KN

Rosey Rose Floral Life

Well, I guess, I’m surrounded with ROSE thingy anywhere, mostly in toiletries life.  I have Atlas Mountain Rose EDT from The Body Shop, and I routinely apply Nicole’s Natural's Rose Body Lotion. 

One day, Lynn kindly share another rose stuff to me. Here’s the product: Utama Spice Rose Allure Body Lotion. I’ve been interested with Utama Spice since Lynn wrote a review about their products.  I’m mostly excited that they have Cocoa Love Body Butter that seems tempting with simple and yummy ingredients.


But the first produit I got the chance to try is the rosey lotion:




Yep, the famous Bali Island, Pulau Dewata (Island of Gods), the place with aromatic scent everywhere, there’s a brand named Utama Spice with nice all-natural products you would love to try!






Well there, you can see the real bottle and the ingredients rightly. Quite nice with flip cap. For body lotions, flip cap is right, but for more liquid products, flip cap is not a good choice. I’s untidy! Just IMO.


The other trouble I have with the bottle is: it’s rockin’ hard.  But you have to squeeze if you want the lotion to come out.  And it’s quite difficult and painful to squeeze it!


What about the fragrance? I guess my nose catches it as lemongrass (sereh) + rose + other spices I can’t classifiy, it is. Like I even believe it can avoid me from mosquitos bite! Because once, I used to have one tube of Soffell’s Anti Nyamuk with this kind of scent, but less rosey.


And yo, it has funny texture.  When I first try to test the product, a transparent water came out from the bottle.  I was like, ‘what’? But then I shake the bottle and finally the true from of lotion appeared.


Soft white with, still, a little border or difference between that transparent liquid (is it the VCO or the spring water?) and the cream. Just like you spoon a little asparagus soup. :p  But it doesn’t cause any trouble.  It might make you say that the consistensy is…weird.


When applied, it’s a little thick, oily, for a while it might feel annoying for you who don’t like greasy feeling. Absorption takes a minute or more, so when you’re in a hurry, be quick and don’t apply too generously! LOL.
But the moisturizing effect is true.  I usually use this at night or day when I’m in the mood for floral.  :) 


I like this lotion so far.  Thank you, Lynn, for sharing with me! ;)


I also have a little jar of Utama Spice’s body butter in Cocoa Love. Lynn shared it also.  And I guess I’ll purchase the full jar because I love the texture, its supple effect on skin, and especially the chocolatey-vanilla-y aroma! Feel like eating a newly baked chocolate-spices cookies or ‘kue bolu’ too.  :9

You can get Utama Spice’s products online, or if you live in Bali or travel around there, they launch some stores in The Island. ;)


***all photos and illustrations belong to me, please mention a permission to use it in another media, if only. :p