4 x spring liquid lipsticks

Hey guys ! 

It's officially spring here in Korea now ! The cherry blossom time is right around the corner and we are already busy making plans with school friends to go have picnics in the park and ride bicycles along Han river. Spring is my favorite season in Korea because it's not too hot and it's so incredibly pretty.

Anyway! With spring comes spring colors. I updated my liquid lipstick / liptint collection by few new colors from Innisfree. I've had the same kind of lipstick from them before too and I liked it a lot so I decided to go for the same brand and collection. 

[From L. to R.] Innisfree Real fluid rouge NO. 6 햇살 사과 한입, NO. 4사과나무 옆  오렌지, NO. 5 볼 빨간아기사과, NO. 3발그레 꽃송이

I was stupid and swatched the colors in wrong order, so the number order for this picture is from L. to R. 6, 5, 4, 3 !

[From L. to R.] Top: NO 6 & 5 Bottom: NO 4 & 3

I hardly ever go full coverage with these lipsticks but for the sake of proper color payoff I did the whole lip - look. Usually I use these as a tint on my inner lips with a lot of blending and lip balm and go for the typical Korean gradient lip (click) but the lipsticks work really either way ! I am especially loving the orange one, which looks just adorable and very subtle when used just to give that small tint of color to your lips. You can see what I meant by checking that picture I linked in the previous sentence, picture no. 4. Orange is a really popular lip color here in Korea and I've honestly felt kind of weird about it until I went and gave it a try. 

Anyway yes I've been loving these new lipsticks for the past week and I love how they go with spring makeup! I've been doing lots of like peachy / orange-ish looks lately. I don't know what's with me and orange suddenly, hahah! But you gotta try new things, right?  Just proved myself wrong with the whole Orange lip situation. They have really nice light pink colors in this collection too so next time I go lipstick shopping I will probably check those out too. 

On completely other news I just got a message from my classmate informing me we are keeping a pajama party at my place and asking what day suits me the best, hahah! I also joined a club & have literally every other day of this week full of plans with my friends except for today, but I will get back to that in the next post. 

I hope you all are enjoying this new week and have a great day / night ! <3 

ps. Holding a Korean beauty giveaway on tumblr when I reach my next thousand, stay tuned !

xx,
Julia

Life update + apartment sneak peek + university life

Hello beautiful people ! 

It's been a while, hasn't it? I know a lot of you follow me on another social medias that I have been updating somewhat regularly but there's also some of you who only follow me through blogger so I thought I'd make some time for a proper blog post. It's 11:50pm and I have school tomorrow morning so as you can see I am literally just running out of hours nowadays and that's why I haven't been able to write here. 

It's been about 3 and a half weeks since I came to Korea and my first weeks were kind of a blur with me meeting and catching up with friends, trying to find Korean language somehow again (lol) and looking for an apartment and then handling the whole moving houses - process along with signing papers and you know boring adult stuff like that. And then once that was over I had about a week to settle down and get ready for university that started like 4 days ago. It's been hell of a month but everything is slowly settling down again and now that I have an apartment and steady weekly schedule with classes and whatnot I feel like I can breathe again and I am, indeed, back home. 

On the 22th of February I moved from Idae to Hongdae. I live in an officitel style loft apartment, which means I have a small upstairs and a window almost the size of a wall. Before I came to Korea I used to day dream about an apartment like this and now few years later I am living in one. Which feels pretty great. It's about 8 minutes from Hongdae station and in a very quiet, pretty and clean neighborhood with lots of like kindergartens, parks and coffee shops. For the first time I actually can see people walking their dogs on the streets. I am absolutely in love with my new neighborhood and I feel like I'm gonna be spending more than just a year in this apartment. I have published pictures in snapchat and whatnot but here's a small sneak peek of how it looks at the moment.

As you can see I still have stuff under the stairs waiting to find a right place and the downstairs has only a desk at the moment, that will move upstairs to serve as a drawer & a TV stand later on when I get a new table, mat and a sofa downstairs to make it look like a hanging out - area instead of a...well, floor. I will update you guys later on on this issue when it actually starts to look like an apartment and do like a proper apartment post. I will also do a neighborhood video / photo post in couple of weeks when the spring kicks in and it will be nicer to take pictures. 

What comes to university life, I'm really super excited. Today I got added into the kakaotalk group of this year's media communication freshmen and we already have like few events coming up together and everyone seemed so welcoming and cute, I can't wait to get to know all my fellow media students. The first weeks are pretty much just chilling having fun and drinking with your school friends especially because we are freshmen now, but it will probably change a lot in few weeks when the exams and essays start so let me get back at you with that later on too, my opinion might change a lot when the stress kicks in. Tomorrow I have a "understanding of philosophy" lecture for like 2 hours all in Korean so I might just come home crying. 

Besides the philosophy course I am also taking "basics of mass media", "human leadership", "The language of cinema & movies", "speaking & writing" & one extra course on like university life and studying in a university. My timetable looks pretty chill with only max 2 classes a day and a Friday completely free, which I did on purpose so that I have time to get used to studying in Korean and have time to finish all my assignments et cetera.

Otherwise everything is going well here! I will keep updating you guys through snapchat (juliaaaey), twitter (sidebar) and instagram (also on sidebar).  I hope you all have a great week coming up ! 

xx,
Julia

VLOG & I'M IN KOREA !

Hey guys ! 

I've settled back down to Korea and I gotta say it feels good to be home. The last 2 days have been a blur and I've been running around literally nonstop. Today I went apartment hunting and if you follow me on any other social medias you probably know that I found the most amazing apartment from Hongdae and went to sign the contract right away. It's a very clean loft apartment on a quiet, super cozy area in Hongdae with like a window the size of a wall. It's literally a dream come true. More about that later when I actually get to the moving part in about 11 days ! 

As I promised I will start trying to put together some vlogs and upload them on youtube as well and I thought I'd start right away on my way back to Seoul. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed capturing small moments on camera like that. I'll probably get super hooked and do a bunch more during this year so if you want to stay updated feel free to subscribe to my channel. 

We had a super nice flight to Korea with my friend because they upgraded us to the business class for free. I don't think I've ever been treated with such luxury before in my life, hahah! I'll get back to you guys later this week and I hope you all are doing well and having a great week!

xx,
Julia

Back to Korea in 3 2 1

Hey guys ! 

I would be lying if I told you I haven't had time to write here. Honestly I've had plenty of time but haven't been able to sit down and concentrate on writing a blog post. My life has been filled with doctor visits & other plans with my family and friends, and I decided to just rather enjoy my last weeks here in Finland, because when I'm in Korea I have plenty of time to write here but I only see my family once or twice a year. 

I just came here to tell you I am flying back to Korea on 9th of February which is in 2 days. I'm very happy to go back and I feel like I've truly recharged all my batteries and rested well and have this whole new energy for another year of Korea life. 

Also ! My next post will most probably be a vlog ! I'm planning to start slowly and get used to this whole talking in English to my camera - thing. Believe me, it's easier said than done. But I'm gonna take baby steps at first with my snapchat (juliaaaey) and film my day & flight back to Korea on Tuesday and we'll see how this all goes. 

I'll write to you again from Korea later this week! 

xx,
Julia

Things that make me unhappy in Korea

Hey! 

So... Writing this post was really difficult because at this moment I am missing Korea like crazy so suddenly coming up with things that irritate me was hard haha. It's a good sign because I came here being completely done with 2015 and school and the Korean mindset I work hard everyday to understand but now I have had my rest, I've recharged and ready to go back to my other home! I still have few weeks left here in Finland though; I had to change my flight because I have to deal with some urgent things here in my home country related to my health and health comes first so! As for now I am flying back to Korea around 15th of February. But let's go to the main point of this post. Here goes, things that make me unhappy in Korea! ps. These are my honest opinions BUT this text is coated with some sarcasm so no need for anyone to get butt-hurt ~ In the end I wouldn't be living in Korea if I didn't like it there. 

1. You're always gonna get treated like a foreigner 
While sometimes this can be a good thing, most of the time I just find it really frustrating. I'm the kind of person who wishes they would just blend in as well as possible. Random people (most of the time really, really creepy old men or young people who will in the end of the conversation ask you to join their religion?) will stop and start asking you questions out of nowhere. Once I was going to school when a guy driving a meat delivery truck or something just stopped the whole traffic, rolled down the window and started asking me too personal questions. People stare. And some of them, I swear, can stare at you for good 15 minutes without even being ashamed of it. People will yell you random stuff in English, which is honestly just plain stupid and amusing. Would you start yelling "yo yo whats up" to someone random on the street only because he / she is a foreigner? I don't think so. I've found out replying "Sorry I don't speak English" in Korean is a pretty strong response and leaves them just confused and embarrassed, hahhah. This probably wouldn't bother me so much if I was here as an exchange student or as a tourist but I actually see myself living here in the future for a long time and building my life here so this is something I'm trying to desperately escape from.

2. Oh you speak Korean? I'm gonna speak to you in English anyway.
Most Koreans are not good at English, but there's always that one older gentleman who will refuse serving you in his restaurant in his own language, or that one friend who no matter how persistently you try to speak Korean to, will always reply to you in English. I don't want to talk in English. I want to talk in Korean. I am in Korea, not America. I am studying Korean, not English. I already know my English. 

3. Summer (weather)
Yes. I just experienced my first summer in Korea and it definitely deserves its spot on this list. It's like 40 degrees and so humid you're gonna be sweating before you even make it out the door in the morning. Also the weather makes you not want to eat or do absolutely anything. I thought summer in Japan was bad, but it was child's play compared to Korea's summer. I'm definitely more of a fall & spring person. The weather we had here back in like March is the summer weather we have in Finland- There's absolutely nothing wrong with warm weather when you're lying next to a pool sipping margaritas or on a beach in Spain but when you're stuck in a metropolitan city with no water near you and even the air conditioning doesn't help it's just. Not cool. Love how the city looks during summer though! Absolutely gorgeous. 

4. Obsession with beauty standards
Something I really find sad about this country is its obsession with beauty, diets, plastic surgery, etc. Looks are super important here. So important It's not even annoying but sad. I feel genuinely bad for all us girls having to deal with this, lol. Getting an eyelid surgery as a high school graduation present is completely normal. My facebook wall as well as the subway walls are full of dieting tips and programs and company ads that will help you achieve the "perfect S line" and your "dream weight" (49kg). You only need to walk 100 meters from Sinsa station in Gangnam and you've already walked past 3 different plastic surgery hospitals. I mean I love doing my makeup, I have clip-in hair extensions that I used to worship, I use fake-eyelashes and own a pair of eye contacts that make my eyes clearly look bigger, so I am definitely in no position to preach about us girls having to be naturally beautiful. No, do what you want, it's your body, your empty canvas, do what you need to make yourself feel pretty and good about yourself. The thing that makes me sad is that it's not about just wanting to enhance something to feel prettier, it's become an obsession, an obligation. Worst thing, the absolutely worst thing is that guys think they have a say on this. 3 years ago a Korean guy told me if I lost a little bit of weight he'd like me. That was the most, absolutely ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my entire life and I can't help but feel just so frustrated when I think about these little kids who grow up in a society like this where they hear boys, TV & commercials telling stuff like this to them for 18 years. Hell, anyone would be ready to go under a knife after a childhood like that. 

5. Lack of common sense
This is something I also ran into while living in Japan. No matter how simple, daily thing it is I feel like Koreans love to handle things the most complicated way even though there would be a super simple solution to the problem. Especially when dealing with school stuff, presentations & group projects (Instead of sharing responsibilities all 5 people will research the same info at the same time which just takes so much longer). Also no matter how simple the task Korean people will make sure you will lose your one week's sleep over it trying to think of a way to handle it. 

6. Proper ventilation is a strange word for Koreans 
Which equals hello mold ! Hello mold everywhere ! In the kitchen sink, in the wall, in my shoes & clothes, in the bathroom sink ! Ask some advice from any Korean and they will tell you they have a solution for this problem. Which never works but you know, it's okay because everyone keeps telling you mold is not dangerous and bad for your health. Oh, you have sudden headaches daily and your immune system is crashing? Definitely not the mold's fault! Let us put new wallpaper on top of the mold and it's gone ! There's windows in the bathrooms but they do not help the situation at all. And how are you supposed to cook with your windows and doors open in the middle of the winter? After living a year in an apartment full of mold I am ready to pay myself sick to get a good apartment from a high-rise apartment because apparently those are the only places with a ventilation system. 

7. Racism 
"No foreigners allowed in this bar." "Free entrance for ladies ! Unless you're a foreigner then you need to pay up." "God those foreigners are loud and annoying." "I'm not gonna sit down next to you because your skin tone is different from mine." And the list goes on. I've heard so much stories about racism in Korea and even though I haven't experienced it much on my own part (besides from some eye rolling or some guy telling his girlfriend in Korean how annoying foreigners are and how they should go back to their own countries) it still annoys me to no end. But luckily most Koreans are very open minded and excited to meet people around the world. Screw those racists, we don't need that negativity in our lives. 

8. Fruits are a luxury ? ?? ???? 
Who pays 15 dollars for a watermelon or 6 dollars for 3 apples? Nothing else to add here. 

9. Throw toilet paper into the toilet and you break the whole plumbing system 
Toilet papers are always thrown into trash cans which is, if you ask me, really uncomfortable and not..just..cool. At all. And this is not only in the public bathrooms, also at homes they suggest you to throw all papers into a trashcan. Very sanitary. Very nice. Also a small tip for all the fellow ladies out there; bring your own toilet paper when in public. There's a 99% chance you will need it. 


In the end I do love this stupid country. Things that make me happy in Korea here. 
xx,
Julia