Korean Beauty products!

A few months ago, I ordered a bunch of beauty products from Korea. They arrived a few months ago (don't worry, it didn't take MONTHS for it to get here-more like a week) and I've been using them this past while, and want to review/gush about a few of them. If this isn't your kind of thing, move along and come back later, or look at my other posts!

So, of course, I ordered things that weren't just beauty products-there were a number of foods and snacks that I missed. I ordered cheese bokki and these super yummy bon bons. I wanted to order my fave Korean chips, which are honey and cinnamon flavoured, but I cannot remember the name of them-do any of you guys know?

Anyways, to the beauty products! Before we continue, I should add that all of this is ordered from Korea Depart, which is an online Korean department store. You can order food, beauty products, makeup, clothing, specialty items, and hair products all from the same site, which cuts down on shipping costs. Well, sorta. The shipping is still expensive, but much cheaper than ordering it all separably.

 First up, BB cream by Nature Republic. I actually love this brand quite a bit. They are really good about using many natural ingredients in their products, which make them small very lovely. This BB cream goes on well, gives good coverage, smells super great and lasts a long time. The price is quite good too, coming in at $5.00USD per container.

CC cream is actually different than BB cream. While BB cream acts more like makeup with skin care, CC cream is designed to be skin care that is able to smooth the skin, hide dark spots, and be a makeup base. This is a brand that I have never worked with before, and, frankly, its kinda meh. I get a nice coverage, yes, but it also makes me skin so pale, I should be in a Twilight movie. The SPF (50) and price are quite nice though-$7.00USD

Tony Moly egg pore cleaning is amazing. I LOVE Tony Moly as a brand. It is just fantastic. I love the pore cleanser series-its super smooth, super foamy and FEELS like its cleaning deep. It has nice little beads that exfoliate the skin, that are big enough to not cause irritation, and able to be used daily. Which I do.  I find my skin has been smoother since using it. At $6.00USD I call it pretty awesome.

This is a cleanser that is used for that blackhead problem area of the nose (we all have it, there's no shame in it!). This is part of a set by Holika Holika, which had a cleanser and a massage oil and a nose peel. Now, we only bought this steam starter, as we already have the sticky peel things. Now, the peels are totally required for this to be any good. Ideally, get the whole set if you can. Its a great starter kit and really works well. This item is $4.00, and the set is $8.00.

Oh Happy Days by Etude House is just fantastic. I loved the way my hands felt after using it. I actually went through this container in just over a month, I loved it so much. It smelled great as well. My husband didn't like the smell really, but whatever. It was light and floral, and super summery. At $3.00 its pretty much a steal.

Finally, another cleanser. This one is by The Face Shop, and is a lemon cleanser that is really good for more oily skin. it helps reduce redness and the acid in the lemon helps to 'burn' away the top layer of dead skin cells. I use this daily (in the morning to get off all the sleepy dirt on my skin) and my skin is super soft all day. It foams up really nicely and each bottle lasts a long time. Again, the price is amazing too-$4.00USD

I hope you guys enjoyed this little review-if you have any questions about these products, or others like it, or want me to do a video showing how to use them,  feel free to drop me a line!

Happy Birthday to me

Another year. I like to think that I'm wiser, and this time, I think I actually am. I thought about doing this post before, like when it was an actual year since my arrival in Korea, but decided to do it to celebrate my birthday.

This will be part 1 of 2. There has been so many amazing things this past year. There have been some bad ones too, but the good far outshine the bad. There has been so many things that I've done, it is almost unreal.

Awesome things since my last birthday (in no particular order)!

Last years birthday parties.
That's right, I had 3 parties. 2 of them surprise parties. One with fireworks, friends, booze, cake and love. Another with cake, music and Korean love. The third with obscene amounts of booze, friends, and dancing. So many amazing people made me feel so special and loved, it almost brings a tear to my eye. My best birthday, by far.

Korea
Yea. I lived in South Korea for nearly a year. That is an experience that I know many people will never have. I am so lucky to have been able to go there and experience a culture to vastly different than my own. I met so many people, did so many things, ate so much food, and had such a good time. It was hard to say goodbye.

Friends
I keep mentioning the people that I met, and with good reason. I don't think that my past year would have been nearly as good without the people. There were so many awesome, open and caring people that I met, that accepted me for being me. A lot of us saw each other at our worst-but didn't judge, or change opinions. It was an eye opening experience for me, and made me a lot more comfortable being my dorky myself around strangers.

Temple Stay
This is about the first post on this site, and that was when I went to Myogaksa Temple in Seoul. It was a practicing, full functioning Buddhist temple, complete with monks and the bells, and everything. I got to spend a day and night as a monk, learning the Buddhist teachings practices. Now, I am against religion as a rule. All religions, since I think they are stupid, useless, and crutch for people whose minds are broken. Buddhism is NOT a religion, but a way of thinking, and being able to experience a different way of thinking, a different way of life, was awe inspiring. It made me feel at peace-not because of the spiritual aspect-but the chance to sit down and just not think for a while, and have it be alright. Facing the inside of my head is a scary thing, and the meditation the monk taught us quieted the rage inside of me.
***Photo by Ben Etienne, found over here***

Friendship fieldtrip The trip was a lot of fun in itself, especially since it was paid for by the Korean government. I hung out with my suitemates, as well as my husbands' suitemates, and got to see some parts of Korea that I wouldn't have. I also got to spend time with someone whom I now consider to be a good friend. He may live in the states, but I know that we will see each other again.
                                    

This ends part 1! Part 2 will be coming soon! <3

June is hella busy

This is my last month in Korea, and I am going to make the most out of it! Or at least, as much as my budget can handle. That's the problem with being a "mature student"-you have to pay for everything yourself. Not just here in Korea, but also when I go back to Canada.
There are, of course, some things here that I will not get to see or do, but time and money prevent them. I'll come back to Korea at some point-I've come too far in learning the language to not use it again.

So, here is the plans for the next (stupid) busy month!

June 9-Tattoo appointment.
June 18-20-6 exams/packing
June 21-25-Vietnam trip (?!?! I know, right?)
June 26-Move out of SCH
June 28-World Expo in Yeosu
June 30-July 2-Busan
July 3-Seoul
July 4-Fly to Canada.
July 4-?-Sleep like the dead.

The only place I am sad I don't get to visit in Korea is Jeju Island. But, it is SO expensive to get to, and then expensive to be at. It's sad, but it is also necessary. Oh well, next time!

This all said, if my updates-both here and at my comic-are spotty, please forgive me! I'll do my best!

xox

Dream Concert

Last weekend I had the pleasure to go to the Dream concert in Seoul. What is the dream concert, you might ask? Well, it is 20 of the top Korean K-pop bands doing a really cheap show for charity. Cheap, as in 5,000W. So, basically, 4.70$ for a 5 hour concert of all popular bands.

Good deal, I would say.

Now, as I have said before, I am not a huge K-pop fan. Not really, not as much as many of the people who were in attendance at the show. Don't get me wrong, I DO like some of it, and I have some groups that I enjoy quite a bit. I even know quite a bit about the bands and members, but this is mostly due to my workout partner, who is a huge fan of K-pop.

So, the show was held in the World Cup Stadium, which is massive, and was filled to the brim with Koreans and foreigners alike. But mostly tiny teenage girls. Hoards of them. It was...something else.

I got a lot of pictures, but most of them turned out really badly.

The highlights?

 Mostly the boy groups. I have nothing against the girl groups at all-and some of them were good, but I thought the boys had more energy, better dance moves, and better songs. They seemed to rely less on the idea of being physically attractive and more on talent. The girls were sexy, that can't be argued, but, they weren't much else, in many cases.

My faves? 

Alright, I LOVE Exo-k. A lot. And Mblaq. They were both awesome-good energy, good song choices, and great outfits. B1A4 was great too-and they won my personal outfit of the night award. The girl who's name I can NEVER remember, but she sings that Heaves song-she was brilliant. Her voice is fantastic, her song is catchy and her outfit was nice, without being over done. Sistar was also on the side of better girl groups.

Unpopular opinion?

Girls generation left something to be desired. Only the subgroup came (something I learned from other people-i had no idea) and it was...not a big deal. Not really. They were alright, but, meh. K-ara? Same boat.

I had a great time overall though, and can't complain much, seeing as it was a super cheap show, and there were more good performances than bad ones. There were a few groups I wish were there, but, whatever.

It was good.

Bau House

It took a long time to do this, but I finally went to the dog cafe-bau House- in Hongdae, Seoul. Now, this was not the first time I ever tried to find it, no. This was the second, maybe the third?

The thing is, there are a LOT of places online that will give you directions to get there, and, let me assure you, they are just about all wrong.

Yes. All of them. Even the people at the damn information booth in Hongdae are wrong.

You would think they didn't want you to find it, the way they screw up the directions.

Even with google maps, it took about an house for us to find it, running into a few places that we had never seen before, including the Cure bar! I HAVE to go here! 

BUT, back to the dog cafe. It is super hard to find, and yet, once you find it, you'll have one of those OMGWTF moments.

To save you time and patience-the easiest way to get there!

Take exit 9 from Hongik Station, go towards the taco bell, and staying on the taco bell side of the street, turn up the MAIN drinking street. You know, the one with S-club, the shopping, and, like, 5 of the Ho bars. Keep walking on that main street for a WHILE. There will be a 7-11 on the left. Keep going. You will see the SECOND 7-11 on the left. At that one, there is a intersecting street, take a right, and its pretty much right at the corner. It looks like this.

And to greet you is this.

It is actually a pretty legit cafe. The coffee was pretty good, and so were the shakes. There was no food to speak of, which is a good thing, since the dogs would be all in your face over it. There are anywhere from 15-30ish dogs there at a time, and some people brought their own as well. Even with all those dogs though, there are never any real hygiene issues-the staff there are armed to the teeth with mops, towels, cleaner and freshener. And they are FAST with the cleaning. 

There are treats there for sale to feed the dogs-and they LOVE them. Most of them anyways. Oh, and, before you go and waste money-you can't bring in your own treats due to allergies, health, and money making reasons. The last one is implied, but likely. So, yes, don't bother with that. They are fairly reasonable in price-even for the 'fancy' ones, so it shouldn't be an issue. And the dogs love the fancy ones. This guy? he got the fancy ones. Can you tell?

I had a great time playing with the dogs, and it is totally a good place to go with friends and time. If I only had 1 week on Seoul, this is one of those things I would do. This guy was my favourite. He was so friendly, and a beautiful dog. And, for being a big dog surrounded by other dogs, he was very well tempered and good with everyone. Did I mention that he's a beautiful dog?

xox

Cherry Blossom Festival, Concerts and Towers, Oh my!

This past weekend was one of those amazing weekends that I wish could happen all the time. It also reminded my of why I am here in Korea, and why I love this country, which I haven't been lately. I have had a hate-hate relationship with Korea, and all that, but I won't get into it. It's going well now, and whats past is past, right?

So, back to this weekend!

Originally, a group of us had planned on going to a Strawberry festival in a town about an hour south. Unfortunately, we were unable to get bus/train tickets to get there, so we decided to go to the Yeouido Cherry Blossom Festival in Seoul. Which was a fantastic idea. Spring (봄) is a little late this year, so there wasn't TOO many cherry blossoms in full bloom, but we DID manage to catch a free K-pop concert with some BIG names!
Like, Sistar

And SHINee

And Shinhwa

It was pretty awesome. I am not a huge fan of K-pop, but I will admit that some of these guys have some major talent. And those songs are catchy as hell. I listen to them a lot when I am at the gym, as they play K-pop ALL the time.

After that, we made the treck up to Namsan Mountain-AKA Seoul Tower! It was my first time up the tower and, let me assure you, the view was totally worth it! It was fantastic! Sometimes I forget that I am in the third biggest city in the world.
And now that I have seen the night view, I want to go back to see the day view!

The next day was devoted to the shopping and the Hello Kitty cafe. We actually wanted to go to a dog cafe, but we had the hardest time finding one, that we decided to wait until next trip to Seoul.
It was a great weekend, with great food, great events, great conversation and amazing friends. I hope to have a few more of these memories before I leave here.

xox

There is always a first

I went to Seoul-Hongdae, to be specific-and had my first go at a Korean tattoo shop. I had send a few emails to several shops over the past month or so in order to find a shop that could speak any English, and was up to my (very high) standards. Eventually, after several conversations, I decided to go with Sunrat tattoo.
There were three of us getting tattoos this day-two Canadians and a Japanese.
We also had a Korean friend with us to help with the translations, which was very handy once we got there. The artist could speak very little English, and having our friend with us was amazing. It was also his first time seeing a tattoo be done, so it was a new experience for everyone. Our Japanese friend was also a tattoo newbie, so this was a brand new thing for him as well.
This is what I got, which is based off of a painting from the Museum of Korean history, which is also below.

Forgive the picture quality.
Overall, I really liked Sunrat tattoo, and I will gladly go back there again soon. They were clean, professional, and they did some great work. They were also decently priced, and efficient. From what I could tell, between their broken English, and my broken Korean, they were very nice as well.