Organi: Organic Night Cream

Many people believe that night cream is the most importance. It is said that night cream works when we are sleeping. Night time is the optimal time to maximize existing natural processes that occur in your skin. It is more receptive to ingredients that will help restore and revitalize its appearance. Therefore, night cream should contain ingredients that support the skins natural regeneration process during night time. It usually comes in thicker texture than day cream.  

 

Anyway, for last two weeks, I used Organi Night Cream. Now, here is my say:

Benefit: Intensive night moisturizer

 

Detail:

What can I say? Well, the texture is thicker than the day cream but no greasy at all. It’s easy to apply and easy to be absorbed. This brown cream did a good job in moisturizing my skin. But, just like the day cream, it triggered my skin to break out. In addition, my skin looks so dull. Despite of its beautiful packaging and price, this product doesn’t work for me. I couldn’t say anything more. At the end, I used this product as my day hand cream – even as a hand cream, this product didn’t perform well. The moisturizing effect didn’t last.

Drawback:

It seems that my skin reacted negatively to this product. This product might be good for people with different skin conditions. 

Corine de Farme: Baby Lotion

At first, I was looking for a natural body lotion – I went to pharmacies, checked department stores as well as online stores but I didn’t find any good body lotion (natural ingredients with good value for money). Then I remembered Corine de Farme! They have baby products and yes, they have baby lotion with natural ingredients – based on 97% of natural origins. Here is my second Corine de Farme product: baby lotion for myself!

After using this baby lotion for 2 weeks, here is my experience:

Benefit: Gentle moisturizer for babies and adults

Ingredients:

Detail:

I use this baby lotion twice a day, after morning and evening shower. The texture of this baby lotion is lightweight and easy to applied and quickly absorbed into my skin. It doesn’t leave greasy residue. This lotion makes my skin soft and what I love most from this product is the sweet almond scent – it’s so wonderfully sweet and not overpowering. This ultra light body lotion is perfect in a sunny day and perfect for tropical weather. I will not recommend this lotion for someone with dry skin. For my normal to dry skin, I’m happy using this lotion, even though sometimes I combine it with MooGoo Udder Cream. Overall, I love it!

Drawback:  

There is no sunscreen nor SPF ingredients listed – hey, wait this is a baby lotion! Well, yes I use sunscreen after applying this baby lotion during day time.

Last thing to say: I wish Corine de Farme in the near future launch the real body lotion for adults in Indonesia…

Bersih Sehat Menteng, Jakarta

 Minggu lalu, teman baik saya, Ibu Adry, mengajak saya untuk menjajal pijat di tempat pijat yang terkenal seantero Jakarta, Bersih Sehat, yang berada di kawasan Menteng – tepatnya di KH Wahid Hasyim 106, yang merupakan pusatnya Bersih Sehat. Sebagai pecinta massage dan reflexology, saya antusias mencoba pijat di tempat yang saya belum pernah coba sebelumnya.

Bersih Sehat ini berdiri tahun 1983 dan merupakan tempat pijat yang memiliki sertifikat ISO 9001 – yang menunjukkan akreditasi terhadap kualitas system manajemen dari suatu organisasi.  Sertifikat ini memberikan assurance bahwa Bersih Sehat mestinya punya prosedur baku penerimaan booking, prosedur pijat, sampe prosedur bayar dan kalo dibutuhkan, prosedur complain. Bersih Sehat ini menawarkan menu pijat dan lulur. Menu pijatnya dikategorikan berdasar waktu – minimal 1 jam. Terdapat beberapa jenis pilihan lulur – termasuk di dalamnya lulur green tea, bengkoang dan coffee. Di beberapa cabang, Bersih Sehat menyediakan sauna dan hair salon.

Receptionist area di Bersih Sehat Menteng bersebelahan dengan restoran Jepang Midori yang merupakan sister company-nya. Teman saya sudah booking sebelumnya, sehingga ketika kami datang, kami tinggal memilih menu dan kemudian receptionist memanggil therapist. Setelah therapist datang, kami diantar ke ruang massage – yang merupakan bilik-bilik yang disekat dengan gorden kain saja. Berbeda dengan tempat spa dan massage yang lain, di Bersih Sehat tidak ada alunan music sama sekali – it’s very quiet!

Setelah saya ready, here is the massage process for 1.5 hours:

• Posisi telungkup dan badan dipijat dengan injakan kaki – untung mbak therapist-nya kecil hehehehe. Pijatan mulai dari betis, ke paha dan bagian punggung. Pijatan dengan kaki ini berlangsung sekitar 15 sampai 30 menit .
• Pijatan dilanjutkan dengan tekanan menggunakan telapak tangan dan jari, mulai dari punggung sampai telapak kaki. Tekanannya cukup mantap dan merelaksasikan.
• Badan dibalur dengan massage oil, pijatan dengan teknik urut dimulai dari telapak kaki ke betis, paha, punggung dan lengan. Pijat urutnya berasa mengendorkan saraf-saraf yang kaku…
• Posisi telentang: pijatan dimulai dari telapak kaki sampai ke paha dengan menekan menggunakan telapak tangan dan jari, dilanjutkan dengan pijatan teknik urut menggunakan massage oil
• Pijatan bagian lengan dengan ritme dan metode yang sama.
• Pijatan bagian pundak dalam posisi telentang dengan massage oil
• Posisi duduk: pijatan tanpa massage oil di bagian punggung dan pundak, diakhiri dengan tepukan di bagian punggung. Huah, badan jadi berasa lebih segar dan enteng!

Setelah selesai sesi massage, therapist – Mbak Cicih, mempersilahkan jika saya mau mandi – uh ternyata ada tempat bilas, ruang bersolek dan toilet di dalam massage area! Therapist memberikan semacam kuitansi yang berisi menu, nama therapist untuk diberikan ke kasir – ah ini pasti bagian dari ISO 9001 heheheh. Saya pun bergegas mandi kemudian mengenakan kembali baju dan bergegas ke lobby dimana teman saya sudah menunggu dan menyelesaikan pembayaran di kasir dengan menyerahkan kuitansi dari therapist.

Overall, I was satisfied with 1.5 hours massage session at Bersih Sehat. Apakah saya akan kembali? Definitely! Thanks to Bu Adry who introduces me to this place and thanks bu, for the voucher!!

Branding What is Beautiful

Last weekend, my best friend, Yaya, asked me to join her in the University of Sydney alumni reception at Four Seasons Hotel. This reception was not only a gathering event for UniSyd alumni in Jakarta, but also a seminar about branding in relations with beauty products – which is my interest! I was so excited to attend this event and meet Dr. Jeanny Yip – the lecturer in marketing department at University of Sydney who presented her research at that event.

Dr Jeaney Yip started her presentation with a brief explanation on branding – the history of branding, as well as the definition and examples of branding. Then she continued to branding related to beauty. She said that what she presented in the event about branding and beauty products and beauty meaning was her preliminary research. Dr. Jeaney Yip explained, there are three concepts of beauty:

1.Naturalization of beauty 
In this concept, beauty is related with nature. There are many beauty brands using this concept. This concept highlights the utilization of fruits, herbs and vegetables as the main ingredients in beauty products. In Australia, the leading brand applying this concept is Jurlique, while in Indonesia; we have Mustika Ratu, Citra and Martha Tilaar. The market of these natural beauty products – including organic ones, is growing significantly worldwide, with North America and Europe as the biggest market for these products (data from In-cosmetics website).

2. Scientification of beauty 
Beauty, according to this concept, is related to science. It means beauty products should be able to show the evidence, the rational of using a certain product, such as: fair your skin in 7 days; minimize skin pores, skin lines and get rid of acnes. Many brands using this concept in their promotion, including Pond’s, SKII miracle water, Clinique and L’Oreal. Interestingly, natural products currently are also adopting this concept since generally people will associate natural products with slow performance, and think that natural products are not able to do corrective performance. Then, it is very common now to see advertisement of beauty products promising of instant, quick results, showing laboratories tubes, etc to show its “science".

3.Socio-culturalisation of beauty  
Here, beauty is related to socio-cultural values. Growing sales of whitening products in Asia is one example of socio-culturalisation of beauty. Looking back to women’s magazines in Indonesia in 1980s, beauty at that time was related to Hollywood, and yellowish skin tone. Then Japanese beauty was adopted – kawaii, cute and baby look beauty. Nowadays, we adore Korean beauty and no wonder that the sales of Korean beauty products increase dramatically.  In fact, in Australia, whitening products are not popular – they adore tan skin. Therefore in Australia, whitening products are named as brightening/lightening products or luminescent products. Dr. Jeaney concerned on whitening products because they are strongly related to culture and history (colonialism).

Dr. Jeaney Yip concluded her presentation by highlighting the fact that beauty has multi layered meanings – I couldn’t agree more!