I realize in our country, the weather has been unpredictable recently.  The month of May used to be hot and summer-y all day long. Anyway, I still feel the enthusiasm of summer.  If you’re working in this industry, and seeing makeup brands releasing their summer collection, you just can’t resist.  Anyway, as most of us probably know, summer is identical with bright fun colors.  And I’m not complaining here.  Even though I’m not wearing those bright colors on a daily basis, that doesn’t mean that I’m anti-summer.  Sometimes I just want to play with my makeup, you know what I mean, right?  In fact, recently I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE wearing bright bold colors on my lips.  At the Female Daily Headquarter, I think Dhany and I are the ones who usually play with “crazy” lip colors, and as far as I know, neither of us is tired with those bright colors just yet.

Now, after getting used to bright, bold lip colors, I want to try other “areas” on my face.  Eyes are the first ones that came across my mind.  I see models wearing fun colors on their eyes, and that makes me want to try them as well.  I already imagined that I want to put blue, green, or purple on my waterline to make my eyes pop and more open.  That would be fun.

So, I gathered information of makeup brands that have launched their summer collection, and Make Up For Ever stood out the most.  Affi wrote an article about Make Up For Ever Aqua Collection here, and I couldn’t agree more.  Waterproof, creamy, long-wearing, stunning color, great pigmentation.  What more could I ask for?

This June, Make Up For Ever will release Aqua Summer Collection, adding new colors for Aqua Eyes, Aqua Lip, Aqua Rouge and Aqua Cream to complete the collection. They are for a limited time only, so I am excited for the rest of the gang to arrive and available in Indonesia.  Now, let me give you a short “tour”.

If someone asked me what color I love the most, I will definitely have a hard time answering because I love every single color. Seriously. I love it all: blue, green, pink, brown, orange, red, black, white, yellow. You name it, I probably love it! I can’t pick just one. I can easily fall in love with red one day, and then go head over heels for green the next.

I’ve recently found myself surrounded by pinks. The fun thing about color is how we can get a varied spectrum of shades in one color family. In my case, I have four favorite pink items right now, and they are all a different shade of pink. One is hot fuschia pink, the other one is baby pink, and as you can see, the rest are all different variations on pink.

Jerawat di wajah itu, sih, biasa.  Apalagi bagi kebanyakan wanita, sebulan sekali sudah biasa, kan, dengan munculnya satu atau dua jerawat. Walaupun SANGAT mengganggu, jerawat di wajah itu bisa disamarkan oleh makeup dengan cukup mudah.  Mudah karena kita bisa melihat wajah kita di kaca, dan juga mudah mengaplikasikan foundation atau concealer untuk menyamarkannya.  Namun, bagaimana kalau jerawat itu ada di badan kita?  In my case, di punggung yang sulit dijangkau dengan tangan.

Bisa-bisa saja, sih, kalau mau menutupi jerawat di badan dengan makeup, tapi karena letak jerawat badan saya di punggung, saya merasa kesulitan untuk melakukannya. Tangan saya kurang cukup panjang (atau fleksibel?) untuk meraih bagian-bagian tertentu.  Belum lagi, untuk melihat bayangan di kaca.  Tentunya pilihan busana yang bisa dikenakan kalau ada jerawat di badan itu jadi terbatas, ya.  Krim jerawat untuk wajah pun sudah saya coba oleskan di punggung, lho.  Tapi entah kenapa belum kelihatan juga efeknya. *sigh* dan juga kalau menggunakan obat jerawat yang teksturnya krim, saya tidak nyaman memakainya karena terasa lengket jika bersentuhan dengan pakaian.

Penyebab jerawat di badan sebenarnya kurang lebih sama dengan jerawat di wajah: ada produksi hormon yang menyebabkan produksi sebum menjadi terlalu aktif, sel-sel kulit mati yang menumpuk sehingga menyumbat pori-pori, dan bisa juga karena ada bakteri yang menyebabkan iritasi kulit.  

Tapi, kok, jerawat di badan kesannya lebih bandel?  Itu karena kulit punggung mempunyai pori-pori yang lebih besar dari kulit wajah.  Otomatis produksi sebumnya pun lebih banyak.  Belum lagi, kulit punggung terus-menerus bersentuhan dengan pakaian (hampir 24 jam tiap harinya!). Kalau kita menghabiskan waktu di luar dan terkena panas sinar matahari, semakin sedikit waktu istirahat kulit punggung.

Karena memang jerawat badan butuh pengobatan yang berbeda, saya akhirnya memutuskan untuk mencoba Erha21 Acne Body Spray.  Produk ini sebagai perawatan untuk jerawat ringan hingga sedang sehingga saya rasa cocok untuk mengobati jerawat punggung saya.  Erha21 Acne Body Spray mengandung beberapa bahan aktif seperti :

1. Salicylic Acid yang berperan sebagai anti bakteri dan membantu meningkatkan daya penetrasi bahan aktif lainnya untuk membuang sel kulit mati.
2. Zinc Gluconate yang dapat membantu untuk mengecilkan pori-pori dan menyerap sebum yang berlebih.
3. Triclosan yang efektif sebagai antiseptic agent dan anti inflamasi.
4. Aloe Vera Extract sebagai anti inflamsi, anti bakteri, anti pruritic, antioksidan, dan melembabkan kulit.
5. Allantoin sebagai soothing agent yang aman untuk kulit sensitif dan menyembuhkan luka.
6. Benzoyl Peroxide berperan juga sebagai anti bakteri dan efektif mengurangi penumpukan sel kulit mati dan memberikan efek manfaat pengelupasan untuk mencegah penyumbatan pori-pori.

Cara memakainya pun sangat mudah.   l love how easy and practical this product is! Cukup mengocoknya terlebih dahulu, lalu semprotkan di area kulit yang berjerawat sesudah mandi dua kali sehari, dan kalau memang dibutuhkan saya bisa ratakan dengan tangan. Tunggu beberapa detik untuk memastikan kulit menyerap produknya, lalu mengenakan pakaian seperti biasa.  Selama 10 hari pemakaian Erha21 Acne Body Spray ini, jerawat punggung saya membaik, kering namun bukan dalam tahap kering yang sampai membuat semua kulit terkelupas, keringnya pas sehingga saya bisa mengangkat sel kulit mati di punggung.  Jerawat punggung yang sedang pun mengecil, dan beberapa jerawat punggung kecil sudah hilang. I highly recommend this product if you have body acnes, IDR 50.000 for 60ml product is totally worth the money.

I have horrific eye bags, and I have accepted this fact years ago.  It’s genetics and I can’t get rid of these bags even though I sleep 8 hours a day.  I can’t find a way to make them disappear without having surgery or injection or something that requires me to go to the doctor, clinic, or hospital.  Something that I don’t favor at this moment, but who knows, probably ten years from now I’ll do that. Unpredictable is one of human’s natures, right?  :)

That doesn’t mean I don’t take care of my eyes area.  No matter how my eyes look with their bags, I do my best to take care of them.  I want to prevent the signs of aging like fine lines, wrinkles and uneven skin tone.  I want to keep the skin around my eyes soft, supple, and healthy as well.  I bet most of you already know that out of our face areas, our eyes have the most thin and delicate skin, so we have to take care and maintain the skin without harming that delicate skin.  What kind of things are we talking about right now?  Let’s see the simple ones: rubbing and applying eye makeup in excessive amount, especially when you put eyeliner on the waterline and you drag down your eye bag.  Do not do that, ladies. Just don’t!

So it’s very important to take care of our eyes.  There are a lot of eye creams and eye serums out there, and the one that I’ve been using since last month is Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye Serum Infusion. A super-potent, fast-penetrating repair serum with all the repair benefits of Advanced Night Repair, made specifically for the delicate eye area in a new lightweight, refreshing texture – as stated from the press release.

If you’re confused about the difference between Advanced Night Repair Eye Serum Infusion with the old one, the main difference is basically the texture.  I have never tried the old one, but one thing for sure, the new one has a light texture so I don’t have to worry about my eyes looking cakey if I put foundation or concealer over the serum. On the contrary, it makes makeup products stay on pretty well.

The new Advanced Night Repair Eye Serum Infusion claims to contain high-performance technologies such as:

• Anti-pollution technology: Comprehensive repair technology including encapsulated Alkyl Guanine Transferase (AGT) that helps to continuously repair the appearance of damage to the eye area caused by every major environmental assault including ozone, pollution and UV rays.
• Exclusive Chronolux™ Technology helps support the natural synchronization of skin’s repair around the eye area at exactly the right time. Consequently, signs of aging that can first appear around the eyes are reduced over time.
• Prevention and hydration: A high concentration of shooting anti-irritants plus a proprietary blend of antioxidants and high levels of proven Hyaluronic Acid working together to create the optimal environment for the natural protection and repair of the delicate eye area, thus helping reduce the look of dark circles, puffiness and crepiness around the eye.

My verdict about this eye serum is that it does the job like I expected.  It hydrates and moisturizes the skin around my eyes.  It doesn’t sting at all (this is the first factor for me whether to keep an eye product or give it away to someone else).  But don’t expect this serum can make your eye bags disappear, because in my case, I still have visible eye bags.  However, I can feel the eye area feeling supple and fresh now, and since it is a serum, I can layer it with another eye cream to add more treatment on the eye area.

Do you have an eye serum that you love?