Review: Dueba G&G DollyEye BT 15 Green Circle Lens

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me by LensVillage.com for the purpose of review. I am not affiliated with the website, company, or brand and I did not receive any monetary compensation. My review is unbiased and 100% my own opinion.

Korean Musical, Kpop and Random Hauls in Seoul

While I was in Seoul, I got to watch the Korean production of the Broadway musical, "Catch Me If You Can" ("?? ? ?? ? ?"), starring Key from SHINee. *squeals* Okay okay, admittedly Key's not one of my favorites from my favorite group, but it was still cool that I could watch him perform live. Basically, see him in person and hear him sing live!

The musical took place at Blue Square, Samsung Card Hall, in Hannam-dong, Seoul.

San Francisco Weekend Trip

Earlier this month I'd visited San Francisco to hang out with some friends, including May, Cat, D, and I also got to meet Lulu. I'd already been to SF a few times within the past year, so all I really wanted to do was just hang out, and of course, eat. I must warn you that this post is extremely picture heavy, especially with pictures of food! You might not want to read this if your stomach's empty, keke.

I stayed in downtown at the Marriott Marquis, which is a very convenient location. Just a quick walk away from Sephora, H&M, and Sephora! However, I didn't do any shopping this time. I got lucky and received a free upgrade to a corner room on the 30th floor. I love city views so I was very happy.

Here's the view from my window. SF was having a warm and sunny weekend while I was there.

Etude House Dear My Blooming Lips-talk Lipsticks

Happy Friday!! Here are the six lovely lippies I got from Etude House while I was in Seoul. Might I refresh your memory of my love for SHINee? It boggles my mind how much Etude House must make from SHINee crazed fangirls (and...fanboys, keke)..obviously, myself included. XD

Sinchon and Edae (Ewha Woman's University)

To me, the coolest places to hang out around Seoul are near the universities. This might sound odd if you are past your college years, but these districts are young, vibrant, and fashionable with a down-to-earth vibe. My kind of atmosphere.

There are several university neighborhoods but I started with Sinchon or Sinchon-dong 신촌동 and Edae 이대 (short for Ewha Woman's University 이화여자대학교). They are very close to each other, just one subway stop away, and Sinchon is also a subway stop away from Hongdae (short for Hongik University 홍익대학교, sort of like how we say So Cal for Southern California; if you don't know, Koreans love to shorten terms to make one word), but I'll talk about Hongdae in another post. Sinchon is also very close to Yonsei University, Sogang University and Myongji University.

Edae is very quaint, cute, trendy and most importantly, affordable! That's to be expected, since it's near a women's university. You don't have to worry about getting ripped off here if you're immediately pinpointed as a tourist. Sales people are also not pushy, and I felt I didn't stand out so much since in this area, since I could easily pass for a student or professor (in other words, foreigner doesn't necessarily equal tourist, as it does in tourist hot spots like Myeongdong). I didn't walk around the campus but I certainly did take a walk down "fashion street."

see, I told you Dunkin' Donuts is everywhere in Seoul!

Bongeunsa Temple and Cherry Blossoms in Yeouido

I meet up with friends and we visited Bongeunsa 봉근사, a Buddist temple in Gangnam 강남 and across from COEX Mall. A little back history: It was built in 794, reconstructed in 1498, mostly destroyed by fire in 1939 and then later in the Korean War in the early 1950s. Now it has been mostly restored and is a large tourist destination spot.

For someone who's not even Buddhist I took tons of pictures. Perhaps I was just overly eager to share and also it was a beautiful day. It finally felt like spring!

Spring flowers and cherry blossoms along the road, just outside of Gangnam Station 강남 역

Etude House Haul and SHINee

Without further ado, I present to you...the beautiful unveiling of my Etude House haul from Myeongdong. Please be forewarned that this post is extremely picture heavy and also filled with lots of pink.

Ahhh the glory...

Their latest hot item for spring is the Dear My Blooming Lips-Talk lipstick. Long story short, I ended up with two gift sets, enticed by the SHINee notebooks they came with.

Innisfree Haul from Myeongdong

Here is my first skincare haul from Myeongdong, Seoul! I have more but think it would be too much for one post, keke. Innisfree is a natural Korean skincare brand. I had heard of the brand before but never tried any of their products, nor was I previously aware that it was a natural brand so of course I was intrigued and wanted to try their products.

I promise it had nothing to do with Lee Minho (of Boys Over Flowers kdrama fame) being the Innisfree poster boy. (Sadly, I did not see any Innisfree posters of him or else I would have asked for one, keke! All I saw were Yoona promos.)

eco-friendly Lee Minho

Myeongdong, Korean Beauty Shopping Mecca

Myeongdong 명동 is a must if you want to shop, especially for Korean skin care and cosmetics! I loved it so much, I went there several times during my trip, kekeke (and I still didn't get to go into every store!).

It is very touristy so there's usually a sea of people. The only time I saw it clearing out was at 10pm, closing time. Its being such a popular tourist destination means you will see and hear a lot of foreigners and in some shops (but not all) the sales assistants speak English, Japanese, and Chinese. (Truthfully I'd only encountered two who spoke fluent English; a sales girl in Nature Republic and in Etude House.) Koreans spoke to me in everything...I found it a bit interesting that they had no clue what ethnicity I am. In my mind, I'd thought Asians could distinguish other Asians, especially if they live in Asia, but apparently that wasn't the case, at least in my experience. They seemed to just randomly guess any Asian ethnicity including Thai, Japanese, Filipino and Chinese. (I was very surprised when one asked me if I was Vietnamese!)

Anyways, on with the pics!

I liked to enter from the Myeongdong exit on the subway near Migliore, a Korean department store.

Kpop idols are much loved in Seoul and you can find their ads and endorsements plastered everywhere and anywhere, but I'll have to do a separate post on that. Here's a huge 4minute endorsement for Shoemarker. (I like 4minute a lot, by the way; that is I like listening to their songs but don't know who's who aside from Hyuna.)

Gwanghwamun Square and Gyeongbokgung Palace

I did the touristy thing and visited Gwanghwamun 광화문 Square and Gyeongbokgung Palace 경복궁 in downtown Seoul. We started by walking from Cheonggyecheon 청계천 stream. This is a very popular spot so you may have seen it in Korean dramas (such as Iris!).

Korea Trip: Settling into Seoul

Yes, finally! My Korea trip post...the first of many, hehe. I'd been wanting to go to Seoul for the past two years and this spring, I decided to just go and make it happen! (Sometimes I am impulsive like that.) Waiting and trying to plan it with people, and match our schedules and budgets...well that obviously didn't get me anywhere over the past two years so I went ahead and traveled on my own for the first time to a foreign country. The cons of traveling alone are rather obvious, I'm sure, even down to minute matters like having someone to take your picture or take a picture with you, but overall I'm very glad I did it because it was a great life experience for me. I definitely learned a lot.

Getting there was a bit of an ordeal. I boarded my plane and was all ready to go, when the captain announced there was a mechanical problem and we had to wait for an engineer to fix it. Waiting, waiting...then the new announcement was that we had to de-plane and quickly head down the terminal to use another plane. Thennn we had the wait at the new gate for another hour...two hours...first because they were prepping the plane, then because they needed to find a new crew due to labor union laws of work hours...they gave us meal vouchers for lunch...and after I had lunch, I saw everyone standing in a longggg line...to rebook! *exasperated sigh* SO I stood in line for another hour or two, and luckily I was able to take the evening flight through Korean Air instead, but I had to wait a few more hours than that. I'm not kidding when I say I spent over 12 hours at LAX, ugh! I got another meal voucher, had cake and coffee for dinner, haha, and because of the delay, I missed my first night in Korea (waste of hotel fare, *sigh*).

Nevertheless I was quite happy to land in Incheon the next morning and headed to my hotel in Yeoksam-dong 역삼동, which is one train stop or a short walk to Gangnam 강남. After showering and resting, I met up with a high school friend who lives in Korea. We walked around Gangnam a bit and then had kbbq in Sinsa-dong 신사동. Of course, Korean barbeque in Korea is a must!

GLOSSYBOX USA April Premiere

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me for the purposes of review. I am not affiliated with the company or brands, nor was I paid for this review. My review is honest and completely my own opinion.

Like many other bloggers, I'd received the premiere US GLOSSYBOX earlier this month. GLOSSYBOX offers a monthly subscription of 5 travel-sized beauty products. I'd seen some of their boxes on blogs and YouTube from girls who received them in other countries, so I was interested in trying a box myself. However, I've read many say that this box is not a true representation since it contains full-sized products in celebration of its US premiere, and future boxes will contain travel-sized products.

The packaging is really nice and you can tell a lot of thought went into presentation.