Some Gift from Japan╰(✿´⌣`✿)╯

Helooo ~

i'm not in mood to write a review about beauty product, so today i'm just wanna share about gift i got from Japan~ ╰(✿´⌣`✿)

That's my cousin who get scholarship for second degree in Japan, he's coming home for the last time before working there. I'm expected nothing since he's just home several months ago, and gave me some gift too. But here it is .. Green tea product from japan! ♥(人´3｀)

i'm a matcha green tea lovers, and he's gave me a bag of milk green tea (which usually called matcha) candy and pocky matcha cream ~ so touching ( ☌ω☌)ｼﾞ

i haven't try anything so i can't tell you how does it taste.. but i'm sure pocky will be great! it's pocky ~

As additional, he also gave me a chocolate wrapped by golden medal titled Kyoto University (because he's there) .. i don't even have heart to eat it! *(╥﹏╥)*

I feel sooo happy just to see them ~ ヾ(☆▽☆)

Thanks a lot Cuz! i appreciated them so MUCH ..

(err so sorry for this "so nothing" post LOL)

Swallow Bird Nest Information & Lovely Lue's Giveaway ^^

Hi Belle ~

Yesterday i read Yves Saint Laurent's awesome quote :

“The most beautiful makeup of a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy.”

This sentence is running in my head all day long, you know, like when you heard about a song or a jingle and you keep singing it in your head (or in shower hehe ..) but in this case, a sentence. I keep thinking about it and decided that it's somehow true. Passion is coming from inside, cosmetics are outsider. Passion brings a lot of things make up don't. There's no one selling passion, right?

So, ladies, what's insider product you might consider to buy, to make you look beautiful from inside? Swallow's Bird Nest, maybe? i know it's so expensive, let's find out more about it before decided to get it :D

Swallow's Bird Nest is a kind of saliva-nest type. It means, the swallows use their saliva to make a cup form and use it as their nest. Human has consume it for thousand years, since Chinese's Dinasty era, because of the benefits.

There's 2 kind of swallow's bird nest, the red nest and white nest. They are supposedly rich in nutrients, which are traditionally believed to provide health benefits, such as :

• aiding digestion
• raising libido
• improving the voice (la ~ la ~~ la~~~)
• alleviating asthma
• improving focus, If you're lost focus while reading my post, you might need swallow bird nest badly XD

Talking about beauty, swallow bird nest is known as a secret to get eternal beauty, and i am not talking about Cullen Family, it's about humanity *LOL..  There's no one like to see an aging process on their face, right? It's not only a belief, it's even proved scientifically. According to data from Hongkong Polytechnic University, Swallow bird nest contain glycoprotein (a protein composition that has 17 amino acid in various quantities)  which could help to facillitate human body system in repairing and creating immunity, such essential process of anti aging.

For pregnant women, swallow bird nest is also help to maintain their stamina, help fetus to grown better, and also help restoring body shape and skin after childbirth. I guess it might help non pregnant women to get better body shape maybe? X)

Indonesia is the largest producer of Swallow Bird Nest, the white one of course, since red nest is only produced in Thailand. If you're live in Indonesia, it's kinda easy to get a raw bird nest.. i put a picture of it below :

source

err .. i can't find a better picture of it, this is the best i can get, but in reality, it's darker and more dirty. It's still has a part of swallow's feather, dust, ashes, a part of their food, and so on. The raw bird nest is free from color agent and preservatives, it's very trusted but also need so many times to clean it because the mucks are so small. And when i say 'small' i mean super-small that hard to see without magnifier. As far as i know, the raw one is about idr 7,000,000/kilogram (last August, i heard from someone, not from web). Their price is up and down according to demand and supply.

If you dont have many hours nor diligence to clean it yourself, it's so much way easier to get the cleaned one. It's not very clean as if you clean it yourself, but acceptable to consume. I can say it because someone in my family told me so, She bought raw and cleaned version and decided to clean it herself. Well, she's so diligent while i am not .. hahaha .. Dry and Cleaned version price is a lil bit more expensive, about idr 1,000,000 more than the raw one, while bottled version cost you more.


For all of those benefits and the fact that it's even appreciated by Chinese Emperor because of it's rareness, its reasonable that Swallow Bird Nest is expensive in the market, right?

Sadly, these days theres many producer adding a whitening agent to their product to make it seems better or adding red pigment to mark up the price (white nest cost you USD 200/kilogram while red nest cost you USD 10,000/kilogram). Crazyyyyy .. Thats why you have to be very very very careful to buy! Choose a trusted producer, do some test, and if it's right, you can repurchase it safely ^^


Of course there's no instant way to get the beauty-benefit, you have to consume it continously, along with some other good benefit product. There's an Indonesian Beauty Blogger named Luelue (lovelylue.blogspot.com) who already consume Swallow bird nest for years, along with fruit juice (especially tomato) and water. There's her pict :

source & link to her post about her beauty secret 

what a good skin she has! i am soooo envy because i have looots of problem with my skin >.<" *beside the fact that she's very pretty and lovely .. hehe ..

and now LueLue is organizing a giveway! she's kindly added this multi benefit swallow bird nest as one of the prize in her giveaway *taratatataaaa i'm loving it!*

I am really interested with this giveaway, it's not only about filling a rafflecopter or random giveaway, but it's a challenge. Beside of Swallow bird nest, she also provide 2 other prize : an urban decay naked palette original (the famous one!) and crafting materials, and all of them got their own challenge, yummy .. haha ..

wanna join her giveaway too? click here (i think it's only for indonesian residence but do ask her if you're interested, she's a very kind person ^^)

and now about the form i have to fill :

a. why do you follow lovelylue.blogspot.com?

because she's a very talented person : she's a make up artist, very great in crafting, even great in kitchen (her food is always made me drooling *sigh*) and photography, the great collection she has, her language (so simple but very fun), and her princess-y life ~

i always waiting for her new blog post.. even i'm not always write a comment, hehe ..

b. why do you choose swallow bird nest for the prize?

swallow bird nest has a lot of benefits, it's about beauty from inside body. And i want to give it to my mom, who got a problem with her lungs. It's getting better already, but there always a chance that her ill  will have a relapse again. It's better to prevent than solve, right?

.. and those teddy bear is too cute to passed .. XD

c. what do you know about swallow bird nest?

it's been written above ^^

thats all about, i might add another information in future about the swallow bird nest. And wish me luck for lovelylue's giveaway ^^

glossary :
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/28802-the-most-beautiful-makeup-of-a-woman-is-passion-but?auto_login_attempted=true
http://fashionesedaily.com/blog/2011/04/22/swallow-birds-nest-in-a-bottle-to-maintain-skin-youth/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird's_nest_soup
http://panturaswallow.blogspot.com/2008/04/benefit.html

Something You Need to Know : Fatal Attraction of Cosmetics and Chemical

Hi Ladies,
maybe you've read this post in somewhere else, i myself find it in some other blogs, and i repost it for my readers because it's so important to check what's in your product (especially the one you use in daily routine). I found out many of skincare focus person are more concern about the ingredients in product they use, while the make up focus person are less care about it.


I love skincare, so much in love with them. I also love make up, but i've got what i have to take care from product's ingredient. And here it is, some important things you have to care.

I can't say anything about deodorant since i'm not using any deodorant after one of my friend (who get scholarship to NTU Singapore, studying about Chemical Engineering) said that deodorant, logically, might cause cancer. He don't know what's that about, but since deodorant prevent the skin from sweating, it's change something naturally happen, and logically, it might cause cancer. So i stopped using deodorant. And he's right, Aluminium which prevent your skin from sweating, could cause Alzheimer. Don't forget to read that as deodorant sales increasing, the breast cancer rates also increasing at the same time. Something related, huh?


So if you're using deodorant, especially in daily routine, please check if it's contains of aluminium and propylene glycol or not. If yes, throw it out! But for me, it's better to smell bad, but with less risk.


Second, about the lipstick thing. I know, i know, i know .. they're so pretty right?
But.. have you check what's in your lipstick before you buy it? Because 1 in 3 brands of red Lipstick tested by FDA contains more lead than the FDA's acceptable upper limit for candy. Too bad! and what's worst? Because you put lipstick on your lips (yeah) and it makes the harmful things easier to be inside your system.


Well, what is lead anyway?

Lead is a proven neurotoxin that can cause learning, language and behavioral problems such as lowered IQ, reduced school performance and increased aggression. Pregnant women and young children are particularly vulnerable to lead exposure, because lead easily crosses the placenta and enters the fetal brain where it can interfere with normal development,” according to Sean Palfrey, MD, a professor of pediatrics and public health at Boston University and the medical director of Boston's Lead Poisoning Prevention Program.

“Lead builds up in the body over time and lead-containing lipstick applied several times a day, every day, can add up to significant exposure levels. The latest studies show there is no safe level of lead exposure,” according to Mark Mitchell, MD, MPH, policy advisor of the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice and co-chair of the Environmental Health Task Force for the National Medical Association. 

I was get a kind of heart attack since i read this, it's awful thinking of how ignorant those companies about the product safety. Come on, some of them are huge companies who should know about this!

You can read FDA's list about 400 shade of lipstick which known contains more lead in their ingredients than upper limit of candy here.

Third, sunscreen.

Ooh i wish i've finished my post-to-be about sunscreen.. It's coming up btw, i'll continue working on it.

Well, sunscreen supposed to protect you from UV, to get out the harmful things out of your skin. But too bad, some of them are contains Oxybenzone, which has a bad side to hormone distruption and cellular damage. Oxybenzone also known as : benzophenone-3, BP 3, Uvinul M40 and Escalol 567. If you find your sunscreen are containing one of this chemical, throw it out! It has a destructive effect to DNA whenever it's exposed to sunlight.. So check it now!

About the baby shampoo and other baby products. Let's start about finding out what quarternium-15 and 1,4 dioxane are.

Quaternium-15 releases formaldehyde into cosmetics products. Formaldehyde is classified as a known human carcinogen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the International Agency for Research on Cancer.Formaldehyde and quaternium-15 are also potent allergens that can trigger rashes and other skin inflammation problems. The North American Contact Dermatitis Group considers quaternium-15 to be among the most clinically significant contact allergens in children.

Formaldehyde work as preservatives in a product, to kill bacterias. But when it also being a carcinogen, it's better to stop using it.

The most  dangerous part of 1,4 dioxane is very few, if any, cosmetics or personal care products list 1,4-dioxane as an ingredient, even though an analysis by Campaign for Safe Cosmetics co-founder the Environmental Working Group suggests that it may be found in 22 percent of the more than 25,000 products in the Skin Deepdatabase of cosmetics products. That's because 1,4-dioxane is a frequent contaminant of common cosmetics ingredients, but as a contaminant it is not listed among intentionally added ingredients. 

Research shows that 1,4-dioxane readily penetrates the skin. 1,4-dioxane is considered a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and listed as an animal carcinogen by the National Toxicology Program. It is included on California’s Proposition 65 list of chemicals known or suspected by the state to cause cancer or birth defects . The California Environmental Protection Agency also lists 1,4-dioxane as a suspected kidney toxicant, neurotoxicant and respiratory toxicant. 
It is highly unlikely that any one product containing 1,4-dioxane will cause harm on its own. However, repeated exposures from many different products add up. The same baby could be exposed to 1,4-dioxane from baby shampoo, bath bubbles and body wash in a single bath, as well as from other contaminated personal care products today, tomorrow and the next day. Repeated exposures to a single carcinogen, synergistic effects from exposures to multiple carcinogenic and mutagenic ingredients, and concerns about exposures at key points in development (such as pregnancy, infancy and puberty) are cause for concern even though little risk is evident from a single small exposure.  

Well, since 1,4-dioxane can't be found in ingredient list, it's better to take care your baby(es) using less amount of product, and Mom, during feeding period. The babies doesn't have immune which adult does have. How could they do that to the babies? >3<"

The last things, i wouldn't say that US product are better than Europe's. Always check the ingredients before using a product. If you could, reduce of using product that contains paraben, because even there's no certified result said that parabens are dangerous, we don't know what they'll find next.

i can't write this post without some source, which are :
http://safecosmetics.org
http://cosmetologyschool.org
http://skinacea.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com

ps. i'm so sorry for putting too many "!" in this post. I can get control of my self, thinking of the companies and the user are both (mostly) won't care about the dangerous things in product :(

thanks for reading anyway :)

Happy New Yeaaaarrrr!

it seems to late, but it's better than nothing at all right? :p

have you ever heard a proverb said "new year new hope"?

do you have a product-wishlist for 2012?

well, i have.

Since i'm a skincare holic for so many years, and just passed my make up life with few products, i want to walk in 2012 with some changes. I never mean that i will life without my skincare(s), i would only add a new old friends with them, the make up!

.. and here are my wishlist :
☺ Urban Decay Naked Palette
i still can't choose between the original one or naked 2. Both are too similar but difference in the same time.

the famous urban decay naked palette original


the new naked palette 2

i never read a bad review about them, yet. The original naked palette came with good charma brush and UDPP, while the naked palette 2 came with good charma brush and lip junkie gloss in naked. And naked 2 seems like brighten colors in my eyes, compared to the original one. And the naked 2 has transformed with a tin can packaging while the original naked came with velvet case, easily to attract dirt.

Will choose it later! Writing this just make me want them more-more-more.

☺ Sleek Paraguaya [sleek avoir de la peche]

Sleek has produced many good palettes, and some of them are in limited edition section. Too bad i miss this one.





i really-really in love with 'persimmon' and 'persian orange'!
seems like i will spend a lot of time looking for this, but it's all worth!


☺ Benefit Bella Bamba
i never pay attention in benefit before, really.



i used to thought that benefit only has high beam and cha cha tint (they're reviewed a lot by many bloggers), never pay attention with the blush part (i was happy with my etude house lovely cookie blusher), but when i see this, i just think that i have to try it!
it described with "watermelon color" which i never tried to my face before. And has attracted me more than another blush i saw (except milani baked blush in dolce pink which i already ordered). I doesn't need full size item, just want to try~~!

it's enough for now, wish i can get all of them in 2012!


see you later!


picture are taken from :
www.urbandecay.com
www.the-beauty-spot.net
www.temptalia.com