Shara Shara Very Berry Sugar Body Scrub Review

I originally bought this scrub at one of the three Shara Shara boutiques in Myungdong, at 28,000₩ but with a sale of buy one, get one free (I talk about my purchase here). Shara Shara is a Korean cosmetic brand that isn't really known overseas, so its website is all in Korean so I couldn't get much out of its product page. Conveniently the description on the product itself is in well-written English.

The website advertises this product as a multi-use scrub that is also "all-in-one care" and uses real sugar. It uses five berries, which are blueberry, blackberry, cranberry, acai, and raspberry. It is a multi-use scrub that is all-in-one because it can be used to exfoliate your face, lips, and body. I have been using this scrub for a couple of months now and honestly I always thought it was solely for the body, as the name implies, so I'll have to test it out on my face and lips next time! Other included ingredients are sweet almond oil, olive oil, coconut oil, safflower seed oil, some sort or orange oil, and honey.

Here is the container. The only English on the label states that it's a scrub "containing 5 kinds of berry extracts" and "removes dead skin cells and keep skin moist" (they were very close with having perfect English). Then there's lot of Korean information on the side, as well as the QR code to state that it's an official Shara Shara product.

The lid screws off, and then there is a white plastic cover underneath. The scrub is very pink but turns white as you rub it against your skin. It's full of sugar particles so it really feels like a deep cleansing scrub that removes dead skin cells.

Though I'm usually really frugal, when it comes to this scrub I think it's better to use more; if you use too little, the little amount spreads out over too big of a surface and gets washed away too easily, making it useless. So I usually use about this much (refer to the above picture) for each arm which is also equivalent to the amount I use for half of each leg. My skin feels soft and smooth afterwards (though my legs are a lost cause; nothing I do can make them smooth). Also it's best when there's no water in the scrub, because then it's more concentrated with the sugar; but throughout time water just naturally gets into the container since you're in the shower, and then it gets more saturated and you have to use more of the scrub for it to be more effective.

I finally tested the scrub on my face, and it works so well! Because the sugar is so fine, it exfoliates the face really well, but be mindful that it is a bit rough so it might be too powerful for your face. As for lips, it always seems hard using a scrub for your lips in general, so I'd just stick to a toothbrush to exfoliate your lips instead.

The Pros

• 200 grams of this scrub lasts awhile
• The scent is pleasant and smells like strawberry jam (but reminds me of those toy lip balms that little kids use)
• The scrub is rough and really exfoliates well
• It really is a multipurpose scrub, for the body and face
• The container is really durable; I dropped it in my shower from shoulder level and it survived the fall without a crack or scratch.

The Cons

• The packaging could be cuter? Though honestly it doesn't matter when the product itself is nice

Overall, I like this product and I'm most pleased about the roughness of the sugar and how it really feels like I'm exfoliating my skin. I'm definitely glad I ended up with two jars of this scrub since I love using it every day!

Infinite H: Fly Again Mini Album Review

After two years, I'm so happy that Infinite H has officially come back! Infinite H was the second Infinite subunit/solo/project group to debut, yet they're the first to have a comeback. Infinite H began promotions in late January and have currently won 1st place on music shows 5 times! This is the first time for an Infinite subunit/solo/project group to win, let alone 5 times (that's more than Be Mine, Paradise, and Destiny's wins!). They even placed 10th on Music Core's highest scores ever.

I pre-ordered my album from Kpoptown.com and my package arrived in 9 days, wrapped several times in bubble wrap and placed inside their orange waterproof envelope with a bubble wrap liner. They also provided me with a pre-order gift, a set of Infinite monthly calendar photocards.

This album is Infinite H's second mini album, titled "Fly Again" as a sequel to their first mini album, "Fly High," from January 2013. This album shows the duo's growth as talented artists as they've collaborated on creating all the tracks. The album itself is very beautiful, with little details to add more charm. The lettering is reflective, as well as some of the tiny triangles in the background. The dimensions are the same as Infinite's other Korean albums.

The backside is just as elegant, with a shiny H and more silvery triangles. The white design on the H is painted on top of the H, showing more elegance to the design. The front and back covers have a thick paper texture.

The album format is very similar to "Fly High"; it is actually most similar to Lovelyz' first album, but for Inspirits' reference, "Fly High" will probably be best. The two contents slip out from the left, which are the photobook on the top and the CD case on the bottom.

The color schemes are simplistic and elegant with metallic gold on the spine of the photobook and silver for the case with metallic lettering.

The CD case has a nice cover, with the font and parts of their outfits having that reflective coat. The backside is matte silver with the beautiful H logo and includes the tracklist.

Here is a closeup of the tracklist. Infinite H worked with the company Brand New Music for this album, and Hoya and Dongwoo co-wrote the lyrics along with others and solely wrote the rap for all the tracks (excluding the intro). As a sequel to Infinite's first album, this album shows so much growth within the two as they participated a lot in creating these tracks and making them sound like their own unique sound. "Fly High" seemed more like a cross-over between pop and hip-hop, but this album sounds more like hip-hop and rap, which seems more like what the two are wanting to go toward. There are many artists featured (many from Brand New Music, one from Infinite's sister group Lovelyz), but I'm happy that their title track, "예뻐 (Pretty)," is only performed by Dongwoo and Hoya to really showcase their growth as rappers and singers. Also (thanks to my friend for this~) Dongwoo originally performed "부딪쳐" as during his solo stage at Infinite's That Summer Concert 2, but featuring Jin of Lovelyz instead of Sujeong.

Inside the case is the folded poster. I like how even the back of the poster has the album logo.

The poster feels like regular loose-leaf paper, so it seems hard to directly tape it on your wall without damaging it. I was hoping it'd be of thick and nice quality like the Paradise poster that was included in that album. This poster is cute though, with nine images of Infinite H goofing off and posing in front of the camera. Some of these photos are the same as in the photobook, but a few are different. The poster is about 1' 8.5" by 1' 2.5".

The inside design of the case is simple, with the matte silver background and enlarged glittery H on the CD.

The photobook covers are similar to the CD case covers, with another fierce image of Infinite H but with matte gold lettering on the front and the matte gold background and white H on the back.

The photobook has 42 pages and dedicates an entire page to each of the song's lyrics; I like this format rather than cramming all the song lyrics into two pages total, because this really showcases the lyrics and the work that Infinite H put into writing these songs. The photobook includes group and solo images with the same outfits as the photocards (read below to know what I'm referring to), as well as the one with Hoya wearing that black hat and top and Dongwoo wearing white from the music video. I also noticed at the bottom corner it says "Infinite H" and directly underneath it says "Hoya & Dong Woo" or "Dong Woo & Hoya" depending on who's on that page.

My favorite section is the last half of the photobook, which is more like behind-the-scenes and mostly in black and white, giving a nice touch. The top left photo is the one similar to the included poster. The bottom right photo is a beautiful photo of the two and wraps up the album nicely with album credits and the members' "thanks to" section.

The first page of the photobook holds the photocards.

The albums comes with two random photocards, and there are a total of six, all with the holographic background. The backsides of all the photocards have the triangle design but a different font image and color. There are at least four different designs for the backside, so I'm not which photocard each backside design is for. Both my photocards have the same backside design, but one is silver and the other is gold. One photocard is of a black and white photo of each member in their court outfits from the music video. Another photocard is of the each member wearing the outfits from the front cover of their photobook, and the last photocard is of each member wearing the outfits from front cover of the CD case. The photocard images are different from the photobook and posters.

Besides the included poster, this poster also has three exterior posters, one of each member and one group one. Two two individual posters are from the photobook and the group image is the same as the front cover of the CD case.

Overall, I really love this album; the packaging is nice as it includes many elements and the design is very elegant. The songs are also very catchy and though I am not one to listen to hip-hop or rap, Infinite H has opened me to this genre, for which I am grateful. Though it took them two years for the duo to come back, I hope their next album will come much quicker.

"Somewhere Only We Know" Movie Review

Leaving Exo behind, Kris has gone on and done great things, one of them being the main actor of the Chinese movie, "Somewhere Only We Know." This movie was released a week or so early in China, but luckily has also been released in main cities around the US on February 13th, 2015. I'm so happy that this movie is being shown in downtown Seattle as well! Nothing is more amazing than seeing an Asian movie starring an idol in your own, non-Asian country.

"Somewhere Only We Know" is currently playing at Regal Meridian 16 in downtown Seattle from (technically) Thursday night, February 12th to Thursday, February 19th, with four showings a day and is an hour and 49 minutes long, Here is the poster for it! Though Kris is the main image on the poster, his character really wasn't overly dominating and all the main characters had lots of screen time.

This movie is a mix of romance and drama that pulls at your heartstrings (or at least for those easily emotional and sensitive like me, you'll get teary-eyed) and is like every school girl's fantasy while studying abroad. Let me clear things up by giving the summary: There are two to three stories intertwined together, but the main story is about a woman in her late 20s who studies abroad in Prague for the summer. She meets a man, Kris, who lives in Prague and they develop a relationship (this is the fantasy part I was talking about^^) though of course there are complications with them being together (like a typical Korean drama). The parallel story is the woman's only family she's known is her grandmother, who recently passed away and was always single, until the woman (I'm sorry I forgot her name) learns of her grandmother's love in Prague. The woman then decides to search about her grandmother's past in Prague. All that isn't as important as this third story, which includes long flashbacks of the grandmother's time in Prague with the man she fell in love with there.

The first part of the movie is more about the woman's new life abroad and developing the love story between her and Kris. This part really felt like a typical but well-done Korean romantic drama that tugs at your heartstrings. Then it focuses more on her finding more about her grandmother's past and even more on the flashbacks to her grandmother's story. All of this is the deep part that sets this movie apart from typical romantic comedies. It goes back and forth between the two time periods, but it transitions well and all the stories flow well together. Overall, I absolutely love this movie because it really gave me a rush of emotions and it's just one of those movies I can't shut up about because it's the only thing on my mind. The movie was really well done, and I always thought Asian productions have a hard time filming in a western country and then everyone's speaking a certain Asian language like that's everyone's native language, but this movie does it well where they do have Mandarin, English, and Czech where it needs to be. One last note that no one cares about, they also had the "Gwiyomi Song" and Kris sang "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" by Franki Valli, my most favorite American singer; this movie basically brought together everything I love in one. Now, I cannot get over Kris and I can't wait to see his upcoming productions, and I hope they'll be just as big and will be released in the US!

Lovelyz: Girls' Invasion First Album Review

Woollim finally debuted their much anticipated first girl group in November 2014: Lovelyz! Though many used to refer Woollim's girl trainees as the Woollim Girls who have made a few appearances before their debut (such as Infinite's dance partners during their "Man in Love" performance at the 2013 KBS Gayo Daejun and Mijoo as the lead in Infinite's "Last Romeo" music video), and a few even debuted as solo artists with singles released from 2011 to 2013. Their album title Girls' Invasion is quite fitting, since this is Woollim's first girl group where Infinite, Nell and Tasty dominate. As an Inspirit and therefore Woollim fan, I think I'm going to subsequently like Lovelyz (though not nearly as much as for Infinite) as well. I also will refer to some things with Infinite in mind.

I bought my album in Burnaby, Canada at KR Multimedia for $22CAD and buying this album included 10% off any poster, but I decided not to buy one. This album does come with two poster types, one being a group photo in a classroom setting while another being a grid format that are similar to school photos. I usually don't like grid posters and prefer group photos in a unique setting, but for some reason it was the opposite with these posters; the grid one is really cool because it does look like the members' school photos.

The album is the same size as most of Infinite's albums, and looks elegant in its simplicity. The front is matte white with a sparkly red fancy Lovelyz logo. This is all very reminiscent of Infinite's debut album...a simple white album with a sparkly red logo and "Invasion" in the title.

The back cover is just as simple, with a simpler logo. Both sides also have the wording in the sparkly red.

The format of this album is very similar to that of Infinite H's Fly High. Inside is the photobook on the bottom and case for the disc and photocards on the top.

The case looks similar to the album cover, with its reflective logo.

The backside includes the tracklist. The first five tracks are new Lovelyz songs while the remaining four are the pre-released singles when some of the members debuted as solo artists before. Though I thought the title was weird at first, I really do love their title track, "Candy Jelly Love," since it's just so catchy and fun; it did its job well as a hook song to grab my attention. I just wish the members would have better line distribution. Also their secondary title song, "Good Night Like Yesterday," is a beautiful ballad that also has Sunggyu in the music video, reminiscent of his vampire days. Also for the 5th track, "Getaway," honestly is a song I don't like (and I thought being Woollim biased would never have me dislike a Woollim song), but it's just kind of creepy with the "my lies" chants. And my last thought, the 7th track (that features Dongwoo!), after my friend told me, originally it was sang by Babysoul and then Woollim trainee Yoo Jia, but she left and now it's Babysoul and Kei.

Inside the case is like a folder to hold the photocards; it's like a school folder, perfect for their innocent schoolgirl concept. Because there's this folder especially for the photocards, I feel like they belong here rather than in my photocard binder...an empty folder flap would feel weird. The disc is attached by a plastic pentagon holder. I really like this CD holder design, because the CD is sturdy here yet it's still easy to take out the CD.

Underneath the disc has a pretty design as well.

The album comes with two gorgeous photocards. The photocards are really of postcard size and quality, which is no surprise with Woollim creating larger and larger photocards. They're matte photocards with the name of the member at the bottom left. I got Sujeong's and Yein's. There's one photocard per member, for a total of eight.

The backside of the photocard is simple. On my Yein one, there were subtle print marks with a thick horizontal line and "Woollim" repeating on the top left...I guess the photocard was placed on top of other freshly printed parts of the album?

The photobook is very thick, with 54 pages. The cover is the same as the poster design. The logo both on the front and back covers have that gorgeous reflective tint.

The photos overall remind me of L's Bravo Viewtiful: some artsy photos or random objects or of different angles, some behind-the-scenes photos from the photoshoot, and then some typical photos of the members. There are only a few pages with the girls' names, but other than that there aren't any profiles of them. Looking at the photobook, I'm pointing out who's who and trying to put a name to a face...this is just like me starting out with Infinite~ Ahh, good times.

The last few pages are for the lyrics, thanks to, and credits. For the song that features Dongwoo, I'm so happy to see that Dongwoo wrote the rap for it!