Thanks Lazada & Maybelline!

After my last post, I sent an email to Lazada reporting that their merchant was selling fake cosmetics. Then I also emailed Maybelline Indonesia just to inform them of my case so they are aware their fake products distributed online. I didn't expect any reply or anything, just so they know.

September 15, I suddenly received an email from Maybelline Indonesia (MI). They requested for pictures and info on price. I replied and gave them the link of my post.

September 17, received another email from MI telling me that they have cooperated with Lazada on this matter. To make sure the originality of their products sold at Lazada. I checked Lazada and didn't see the merchant that sold me the fake cosmetics anymore. That was good. Even though Lazada didn't reply to my email, I was still glad that they make an action.

September 17 at night, I received an email from Lazada that they are sending 2 original Maybelline mascara as per my last order as replacement for the fake ones.

September 21, I finally received my mascaras, hooray!!

Lazada's Customer Service also called me and apologized to me for experiencing something unpleasant while shopping with them.

More than for the replacements, I'm happier that Lazada & Maybelline actually did something to ensure that no more people have the same experience like I did. They responded to my email, kicked out the merchant, and eventually sent me  what I ordered. This, is what's called customer satisfaction.

So, thanks Lazada and Maybelline! Keep up the good work and wishing you a more successful business in the future.

Beware of Fake Cosmetics Online

I never had problem ordering Korean cosmetics through this site. As I have mentioned in previous post, I prefer to buy those online for the price since it's quite similar with the originals compared to Indonesian prices.

2 weeks ago I ran out of my Maybelline Mascara. Too lazy to go to the mall to purchase one (and kept forgetting to get one when I went to the mall), I decided to buy through a local online store, Lazada. I never had a problem with this market place before. I pre-ordered my Samsung Galaxy S5 here, I purchased the office's fridge, microwave, vacuum cleaner and many more here. Everything was fine, everything arrived in perfect condition. Until I decided to order my mascara here. I was greedy, there were 2 sellers but I chose the cheaper one (pretty much 50% off the original price in the stores).

The moment I opened my package I knew something was off. A lot of things were off, actually. First off, the packaging looked cheap and the print was smudged. When turned the cap, the inside part got loose and I got sticky ink-like liquid smeared my fingers from the brush like mozzarella cheese. At lunch time, I went to a pharmacy downstairs to buy lozenges and was surprised to see the same mascara on sale when I was never sold there before. So I purchased one (again) and compared it the one I purchased online just to satisfy my curiosity that I was indeed got deceived and received a fake mascara. You can click on the picture to see it in bigger size. Left is the original, Right is the (suspected) fake.

First: The Color of the Printing.

The color is already different. And this is only the front part.

The printing is available on both sides and voila, the fake one has different wordings on the the other side! If you pay attention, the original also has the production date, code and etc printed on the plastic with black ink while the fake one doesn't have it.

Second: Another difference in printing.

See the difference on the description that it contains collagen? Which one is more convincing to you?

Third: The brush and the liquid.

This is the difference that really set me off. Not only that the brush is different, if you enlarge the picture you'll see that the fake one on the right has a very sticky liquid on the brushes!

It took me less than 5 minutes to actually  convinced myself that yes, I was deceived.

Lesson learned. Next time, I'll make sure to get my as off my seat to actually go to a real store to purchase this. And maybe other affordable cosmetics.

Cleaning Up... My Face ^^

Long time ago I wrote about how I finally hooked-up with make-up. And to be honest, I'm even more improved in applying my own make-up compared by then hohoho Lots of youtube tutorial and  practice even when I didn't actually need to go out with make-up, I did LOL And I felt a bit self-conscious going out without eyeliner bwahahaha who would've thought, eh? :p

But as much as I used to think that wearing make-up is a such a hassle, there's another thing that I felt is more bothersome -- cleaning up the make up from my face! I used to do it the old way: milk cleanser (twice) - cleansing foam - toner. When I was too tired after returning home from a party, many times I spilled the cleanser and woke up the next morning with dirty beauty cotton on my shelf. Then I looked into the mirror and saw that there was still leftover mascara or eyeliner. Sooo annoying!

Then I was introduced with Etude House Pore & BB Deep Cleansing Foam (such a long name ^^). It saved a lot of time for me until I realized it didn't erase the eye make-up and mascara well. In the end, I still had to use Etude House Lip & Eye Make-up Remover and Etude House Mascara Remover. Not only I had to do more, I also had to spend more on them as well! Not to mention that my skin became dry and I had to add another gentler foam cleanser after all of that :(

The most irritating part was when traveling, I just had to waste space in my luggage for those stuff! So inconvenient, especially when I wanted to travel light. I tried several make-up remover tissue, but none actually cleaned up really well.

But browsing beauty blogs brought me to this amazing cleanser: The Face Shop Rice Water Bright Cleansing Light Oil (yes, another super long name)!

 

I was a bit skeptical when I read some good reviews on it. I wasn't familiar with cleansing oil and to be honest I always thought cleansing oil would be very, well -- oily. But then I went ahead and purchased one, straight from Korea from here for $10.50 / 150 ml bottle. Once it arrived after 2 weeks of waiting, I just couldn't wait to get home and try it out. I didn't regret it. One pump, and it took out all of my eye make-up & bb-cream off! No mascara nor eyeliner residue.

I didn't need to rub my eyelids hard to get rid of the mascara & eyeliner. Just brush on it gently and it'd washed off. The directions on the bottle says no need to use another cleansing foam after this, just wash with warm water and wipe gently with towel. My face didn't feel oily at all, felt smooth instead. I tried using another cleansing foam right after, but apparently it also wiped out the moisturizing effect of the oil.

I was so satisfied with it but then I thought there may be better cleansing oil out there? :) Browsing again... and I decided to try out other brands, and I ordered 2 more.

I used and really liked Skinfood Black Sugar Scrub Foam, so why not try the Black Sugar Cleansing Oil? It cost the same from the same vendor for a 170 ml bottle. I really liked the smell on first pump. Just like the scrub foam, there's sweet smell from the oil, not too strong but it's a bit disturbing while cleaning my face hahaha Result? Just okay for me. Felt a bit dry on my skin, took a bit of effort to wipe the eye make-up, but overall it cleaned well.Oh, this one required another Cleansing Foam after using. Another small effort but still acceptable for me.

And the last that I tried out was Sulwhasoo Gentle Cleansing Oil. It's the most expensive of all 3, cost me $11.50 for a 50 ml bottle.

 

The reason I chose this product was because Sulwhasoo Concentrated Ginseng Line did wonders to my skin!  Problem was, it's too expensive for me so I only tried out the trial kit. Still, it's still a high scale brand in Korea, so I thought it would do wonder as well in cleaning up my make-up. I was wrong. The smell was nice, not too oily but it didn't erase mascara & eyeliner well :( I had to add more oil and took a long time gently rubbing on my eyelids to completely wipe them off! But at least it also moisturized my face well and it came in a small bottle, I still could use it for traveling. Maybe next time I should try its Deep Cleansing Oil instead. Hm... will have to finish off the other 2 bottles first LOL

So that's my experience with make-up cleaners. I'd still go with The Face Shop Rice Water Bright Cleansing Light Oil  when the bottles run out. But maybe there's still a better one out there? Hahaha

Make-up, make over?

I used to hate doing make-up. Usually someone else has to do it for me. So what changed? My visit to South Korea and Korean cosmetics. ROFL Everywhere I went I would see rows and rows of cosmetics shops from all the Korean brand that I've heard or not heard before. And I was surprised to see the extension of the products, from skin care to make-ups and whatever things I didn't imagine existed hahaha

I actually don't hate the make-ups, but I used to feel that applying them was complicated. I couldn't even apply eye liner until a few months ago when I found this product.

Missha M Real Lasting Pen Eyeliner

I read some nice reviews on this product and how easy to apply it. Honestly, my previous efforts in applying eyeliner were embarrassing enough. I'm glad I never took any pictures of those times when I tried it out in my bedroom! But this thing is something that I can't miss now... The pointy tip makes me more confident in drawing the line, so my hand is more steady when holding it.

And when it comes to eye shadow, I really had no idea how to combine the basic colors. But yes, I could at least apply it, thanks to some basic training from being in church choir a long time ago :) But this thing really helps, I don't need any brush, just my fingers and voila! I got the color combination that I like.

Missha The Style Triple Perfection Shadow

I even got 2 of these, Brownie Pink for day wear and Grape Purple for night wear. Other than these products, I also found that lots of make-up tutorials in youtube also helpful. And finally I got to try to apply my own make-up to a party last weekend. Bwahahaha Can I show off? It's not that visible here, but I hope you notice a little change on my eyes.

How did I look? Hahaha I'm hoping for a compliment when I'm asking :) It's a new pair of glasses that I was wearing, by the way.

And if you're asking why I'm using MISSHA instead of more famous products in Indonesia, well at first it's because my boys were endorsing it. LOL But after trying out its products I''m quite satisfied with the result, so I kept purchasing them.

MISSHA with TVXQ

Just look at the promotion ad! I mean, HOW CAN YOU LOOK AT THEIR FACES AND NOT BUYING ANYTHING? LOL

Oh well, maybe it's just my lame excuses, but they make me feel good and happy. So yeah, let's look at more tutorials and have my own make over. 

Credit: Pictures belong to Missha... except mine, unless they want me to endorse their products :p