2014 – Christa Bercerita

The thing about.. Lipstick

I feel really funny writing this, really. Because I’m not a beauty blogger. Oh I don’t even use make up on a daily basis! But here I am finding myself writing a blog post about lipstick. Hahahaha. Okay, please bear with me for the kind of post that you might not see often in this blog! 😉

So, as I mentioned before, I don’t use make up on a daily basis. I don’t even follow a sophisticated skincare routine. Every morning I wash my face using a facial wash, use a moisturizer/sunblock, put on some powder and lip balm. At night I wash my face again and that’s it. No eye brow pencil, no foundation, no primer, no toner, etc etc. The case is of course different when I go to parties, I’d put on more stuffs on my face, like eye liner and colorful lipstick. I don’t have many colors though, probably 2 or 3.

But I started to feel a liiiiiil bit of pressure when going out with my friends. Especially after work. Whenever we take pictures, I always see my face looks pale compared to my friends. Of course, they put on more make up than myself. I don’t want to put a lot of make up though, I know I won’t be comfortable. But I think I should do something, I don’t want to appear pale and worn out every time I go out after work.

Now, as 2015 is just around the corner, I have another resolution. That is, to use more lipstick. Hahahaha. Yep, I figure lipstick would solve my problem. It won’t be such effort and Hopefully can make my face more “lively”. Quite a plan, right? Hehehe. Now it’s just a matter of sticking to the plan.

Last week I took my mum shopping for lipstick. Unlike me, she looooves lipstick and probably have a 1000 of them (hahaha jk). She does not wear heavy make up though, in fact, she only wear moisturizer and lipstick on a daily basis. Not even face powder. But she has a lot of colors and even like to combine them, resulting in unique colors. We went to Metro Department Store in Gandaria City Mall and I saw NYX booth. I remember the brand is constantly being talked about by my friends and on Instagram.

We spent some time in the booth, mum ended up buying 2 lipsticks. I ended up buying one, this Butter Lipstick in shade “BLS17”. It’s a basic soft color, I was still afraid to take risks a.k.a choosing bold colors. For Rp.115.000, I think it’s a good value for money, perfect for my daily use.

/home/wpcom/public_html/wp-content/blogs.dir/ad8/62165477/files/2014/12/img_1841.jpg — The first NYX lipstick that I bought

At the office, I casually told the story to a friend of mine. Knowing that I bought a NYX lipstick, she suggested to try their Soft Matte Lip Cream as well. At first I was hesitant because I doubt the texture. But when I tried it on, I instantly fall in love…. and decided to buy two colors :p

/home/wpcom/public_html/wp-content/blogs.dir/ad8/62165477/files/2014/12/img_1843.png — My current addiction!

Now I find it a bit hard to review the product as I’m not used to reviewing make up. But I can list down the reasons of me liking this product so much.

First – the colors. Look at the vibrant pink! and juicy plum! I never thought those colors suit me but they turn out to be very nice on me.

Second – price. It’s only Rp.100.000! ($6 in the US last time I checked). Very much affordable and won’t give you buyer’s remorse if you happened to purchase more than 1 like me 😉

Third – the texture. It lives up to the name, matte, but not heavy. I feel like wearing nothing at all, which is a good thing because I don’t like the “heavy make up” feeling.

Fourth – the durability. It lasts long. Really. I put in on once in the morning and I still got a teeny bit of pink shade even after lunch. Mind you I drink at least 2 bottles of water before lunch, and the colors stay.

I can’t wait to try on other colors but I think I gotta be wise on my spending budget, so probably 1 color per month will do :p

What about you, do you use lipstick on a daily basis? Any recommendations for me? 🙂

From my family to yours.. :)

My thoughts on 2014 Indonesian Presidential Election

Disclaimer : This post is surely based on my thoughts only and does not reflect my support towards a particular candidate. 🙂

This coming presidential election will be my 3rd election. I remember my first election, I was so excited to finally be able to vote, though I was not sure why I had to vote and who to vote.. voting at that time seemed cool, sort like some coming-of-age moment. I voted, but now I can’t remember who did I give my vote to. My second election was more or less the same. But this time I remember clearly that I did not vote. I was not satisfied with the current president at that time and since he’s running for his second period.. I did not want to vote for him. Nor did I want to vote for his opponent. So I came to the booth on election day, and deliberately gave my vote to all candidates – so my vote would be considered not valid. Not really proud, but that has happened.

This year, we will vote for our president in less than a week. As I’m not so much (if not at all) into politics, I had to admit that I haven’t been really paying attention to either candidates.. but I’ve been exposed to a lot of news about them. The thing is, in every social media I have, I see people posting about either candidate. BUT.. instead of posting the good things about their president of choice, most of them seem to frequently post negatively about the opponent. This makes me confused because I don’t know what to believe anymore. Should I believe that candidate number 1 is behind the 1998 tragedy? or should I believe that candidate number 2 is a “puppet”, steered by old political figure? I really can’t tell which to believe.

So I posted a status in my facebook and ask if any of my friends have made their choice and would willing to share the reason to me, with hope that none of them would expose me to some kind of negative campaign. They did not! I was so happy to see a lot of comments coming in, and some even sent me direct messages with their solid reason to vote for their president of choice. NONE told me any negative news about the opponent. It looks like I’m friends with the right people 🙂

Oh, one other thing that makes me so impressed – despite the mushrooming negative campaign, I also see bits and pieces of passionate posts from my generation! Good to see that so many young people are willing to give their time and effort to show their support towards a candidate.

Just look at this music video from Jokowi’s supporters :

or this video from Prabowo’s supporters :

And then there’s also these people on Twitter who often tweets about their support for their president of choice. Though I see more (in my following list) declared their support towards Jokowi like @mrshananto, @jokoanwar, or @jflowrightthere (and also the creative hashtags which follows their tweets such as #akhirnyapilihjokowi or #salam2jari), I also came across these two young people (both younger than me) who passionately expressed their support towards Prabowo – @RizkiAljupri and @Dirgayuza…. and I salute all of them. It’s good to see diversity and freedom of expression, yes? 🙂

As for me? I still have not decided. I am what they call a swing voter, and I’ll take that. I’ll give myself a time to think carefully this weekend and will surely vote on July 9th. I just wish that whatever’s the result, things will be better for Indonesia. Happy voting, Indonesians! 🙂

Ticket for one, please.

Have you ever been to the movies by yourself? I have, and I like it.

I still remember the first movie that I watched by myself- Babel, back in 2006 – did it because I had to kill time. It became a routine for a while, but then I had a boyfriend, and I never went to the movies by myself anymore, because it was always part of our dating activities.

But when I was in the UK, I came back to my old routine. The first movie that I watched by myself in the UK was Michael Jackson’s This is it. While watching it, I immediately noticed the cultural difference between Indonesia and the UK in terms of going to the movies. In Indonesia, you barely see people going to the movies alone. In the UK, it’s a normal thing to do!

Now, being back home, as much as I enjoy going to the movies with company, I always try to spare some me – time and watch movies by myself. I found it relaxing, because I can totally focus on the movie, and enjoying the movie experience. Going to the movies by myself also give me the freedom to choose whatever movies I want to watch. You know how sometimes we’d have to argue with our friends/partner/family over choosing a movie to watch? Sometimes I don’t want to be bothered with that – sometimes I just want to watch a movie, any kind of movie, regardless if it involves a shiny vampire, crazy killer, or mean girls.

Of course, being back home, I have to face people’s shocked expression whenever I told them that I watched that brilliant Oscar nominee movie over the weekend, alone. When I was still single after my previous relationship, some would sympathetically offer their company – thought it’s because I didn’t have a boyfriend to go to the movies with! But still, I’m now in a relationship (a long distance one…), and some would (again) sympathetically offer their company, while jokingly telling me to tell R to come home soon so that I can have someone to go to the movies with!

Anyway… Yesterday I went to the movies alone again, but it was special. A milestone was made, that is, I watch thriller movie BY MYSELF! Yeaaayy me! Well this is something that I haven’t disclosed yet.. I am afraid to watch movies that involve blood, graves, death, and anything in between.

But yesterday, I went to see KILLERS movie, an Indonesian movie produced by the Mo Brothers. They produced “Rumah Dara” before, I watched it with friends and I remember closing my eyes most of the movie. That’s not the case yesterday. I watched Killers by myself (I chose the “safe” seat, not the one in the corner), and I successfully faced my fear! Wooohooo! You should go and see it! I won’t tell spoilers, all I got to say that it’s worth to watch. Now, will you watch it by yourself like I did? 🙂

Hello!

Hello, 2014.

It’s a funny feeling, writing a first post again. Well that because the last time I wrote a first post was back in 2005! hahaha time flies and here I am almost 9 years later,decided to give a fresh start to my blogging routine.

In this blog I’ll tell you stories about my daily life, my travels, what I’m eating/listening/reading/seeing, and wearing (??) hahaha not so much a fashion blogger, so I guess there won’t be much (if not any) fashion related posts here. I’ll try to post more pictures too, and most surely will try to have a lot of fun in the process!

Oh one more thing, I’d be happy to hear from you! please click this link for questions and feedback, or simply a Holla back 😉