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Thursday, January 24, 2019

Lovelyz: Sanctuary 5th Mini Album (Normal Version) Unboxing Review

Lovelyz has made their comeback on November 26, 2018 with fifth mini album Sanctuary! This mini album has a limited version and a normal version. I previously gave a brief intro, wrote about ordering both versions, and displayed the exterior first press posters in my limited version unboxing post here. I'll be unboxing the normal version in this blog post and will include a breakdown of the tracklist.
The normal version is packaged as a paperback book. In my opinion out of all of Lovelyz' albums, this album has the worst packaging for two reasons. One is because the paperback front cover naturally curls upward (whereas their albums of similar size usually have a hardcover) the other because the included folded poster is rather thick to be slipped into such a small book. But regardless, the contents of the album are superb as always!
A group photo taken from Lovelyz' bridal photoshoot shines on the front cover. The front cover is rather simplistic for an album cover, as the bird (Lovelyz' new logo for the era) and the artist name are subtly embossed in silver in the corner. The front cover has the same dimensions as most of Lovelyz' other albums (Fall in Lovelyz, Heal, etc.) but Sanctuary is a bit thinner at 0.3125".
The back cover and spine are silver, matching the highly reflective and metallic finish of the front cover. The tracklist and a motif matching the indie theme are also printed on the back.
The photobook has 80 pages. The first portion is dedicated to the wedding photoshoot.
There are mostly all individual photos of each member in their elegant wedding gowns.
The photos are laid out in different formats for variation.
There are also page numbers in the bottom inner corners.
This portion wraps up with a two-page spread of the girls, which is the same image as the front cover. (Is it weird that I really like this photo I took...Lovelyz album while listening to Golden Child and wearing Woohyun's ring^^).
The second portion contains the other photoshoot.
While it's been awhile since Lovelyz first stepped away from their cute and innocent style, I'm still blown away with how mature they look with every comeback, especially Yein!
There is only one two-page spread that isn't a group photo, and it's dedicated to Jisoo! This photo is absolutely gorgeous, especially with the soft background and lighting.
Again, majority of these photos are individual shots, the pages have different layouts, and the page numbers persist at the inner corners near the spine.
The last two pages of this section contain a group photo. Both group photos are also used as the two exterior first press posters. Seems like there weren't many group photos from these photoshoots.
The next section includes one page per track for the lyrics and song credits. The first track also includes a beautiful photo of Jiae's bouquet.
There are seven pages for the song credits section.
The following three pages are for the Thanks To section.
The last page has the album credits. The backside of the back cover has a cardstock backing to securely house the CD.
The disc design is simplistic, with the dove logo on top and album title on the bottom.
The three inclusions were all placed together in between pages 56 and 57. All of the inclusions within the normal version are different from the inclusions within the limited version.
The normal version includes a matte pastel pink bookmark made of card stock with the new Lovelyz logo embossed. There is a perforated slit separating the bird from the leaf in its beak for you to slip pages in between to act as a bookmark. The backside is white. The dimensions are 2" by 1.5".
Also included is one random member photocard out of eight, all of which are different from the limited version photocards. I pulled Sujeong. I really don't know how they chose this photo to blow up as a photocard, because it's rather blurry.
The backside has Sujeong's printed message and autograph. The design on the backside (leaf motif and album info printed on the top and bottom) is also the same as the limited version photocards. These cards are glossy and have the same dimensions and roundness as the photocards from A New Trilogy, R U Ready?, and the limited version of Sanctuary.
The last inclusion is a random folded matte poster about four times the size of the album. There are two versions, one from each photoshoot.

Lastly, several first press albums from both the limited and normal version contain a "special Polaroid film", or a random Polaroid of the members. Neither of my albums had one.

This mini album contains 7 tracks, with Lovelyz promoting "Like U" and "Rewind" along with title "Lost N Found".
  1. Never Ending - is the intro track. In my opinion, the first half of the track sounds similar to "Candy Jelly Love" and the second half sounds completely different, but much similar to the next track.
  2. 찾아가세요 (Lost N Found) - is the title, another brilliant piece with lyrics by SWEETUNE! This song has the classic Lovelyz feel and I've been putting it on repeat because I love it so much. While the choreography seems to be lacking, I do like how they've made handheld mics a crucial part of the performance; it adds a nice touch!
  3. Like U - is created by the same team (1Take, TAK, AARAN) as Lovelyz' songs "Twinkle" and "Shining★Star".
  4. Rewind - Lovelyz has been performing this track during their follow-up promotions. I'm really happy Golden Child's Joochan mentioned his love for this song (since the two groups were promoting at the same time so they heard each other's performances often!) and sang along during a solo vlive.
  5. Rain - is a slow ballad.
  6. 백일몽 (Daydream) - Babysoul participated in the lyrics for this track! This is the most upbeat track of the ones not being promoted.
  7. 꽃점 (Floral) - is a beautiful pop ballad that sounds like it'd suit really well as a drama OST!
The tracklist as a whole is not my favorite; I usually like Lovelyz' more poppy and upbeat tracks, but the focus of this album seems to be on ballads.

Overall, the highlight of this album for me is the wedding pictorial. These photos are absolutely gorgeous and show how much the girls have matured from their student days in "Candy Jelly Love" era.

Sunday, January 6, 2019

loveydovey x Golden Child Fabric Mist Set Review

Korean fragrance / home brand loveydovey has partnered up with Woollim to release limited edition fabric mist sets for Infinite, Lovelyz, and Golden Child. Details of these special sets were displayed on loveydovey's website here on October 20th while Woollim tweeted about these here on the 22nd. These sets can be pre-ordered on their website for 30,000₩ per set with the option to pick up at DDP on October 27th or 28th or for delivery. Unfortunately the site has no English version, so it was a bit hard to understand, but I think if you had selected pick-up on a specific date, you also receive an additional poster or banner. Furthermore, the site only ships within Korea. It was difficult to get myself a set, but with the generous help of my friend (and her friend), I was able to get my own set of Golden Child-branded scents!

About two weeks after the release of the Infinite and Golden Child, loveydovey sent updated sleeves and additional stickers for those who ordered these sets. It turns out, the original sleeves listed "Lovelyz" instead of "Infinite" or "Golden Child" respectively on the backsides of the sleeves!
I finally received my fabric mist set! The box on the right is the original set and on the left are the additional sleeve and sticker set which came packed in a sealed plastic bag. The original box set is 7.25" by 6.5" by 2.25".
The exterior sleeve is matte and has the Golden Child name embossed in gloss black on the top. Two stickers held together the box and the sleeve (this was taken after I had opened it, hence why the sticker looks so limp). The sides of the sleeves have printed the "loveydovey x Golden Child" collaboration. The box itself is black and the Golden Child logo is printed on both sides in orange, most closely matching Wish era.
The bottom of the original sleeve has the fabric mist info in Korean, as well as the holographic Woollim sticker.
Here is a closeup of the original sleeve. Where it states the descriptions of the four mists, "러블리즈 (Lovelyz)" is printed instead of "골든차일드 (Golden Child)".
And here is the backside of the new sleeve, with the correct name listed. The new sleeve didn't come with the holographic Woollim sticker.
Push the box out front the sleeve to reveal the contents inside. At the top are the set of photocards and the black photo sticker set. The lip of the box also has the collaboration name printed.
There are 10 glossy photocards placed in a sealed plastic bag. The photocards were placed randomly, from top left to right then bottom left to right (Jaehyun to Jibeom). The member's printed autograph is printed on his respective photocard.
The backside of the photocards have the collaboration name printed. These photocards are about the same height as other Golden Child photocards, but are much skinnier.
The photo sticker set from the original set has a matte finish and includes two group photos from Goldenness era, as well as 10 member selcas taken from throughout 2018. It's really cool seeing these selcas from various eras and schedules, especially Jangjun's during the Goldenness Founding Ceremony fanmeeting photoshoot! And I love Jaehyun with glasses and Daeyeol in his Damdadi jersey, both of which we don't see often enough!
The additional photo sticker set also has a matte finish and is marginally smaller than the original sticker set. There is one group photo from Wish era, and 10 member selcas. Many of these stickers are from the same setting as from the original sticker set, but what stands out is Jangjun during Golden Child's 2019 Season's Greetings and Tag in his Damdadi jersey and with the runebong.
Between the sticker set and fabric mists is thin cardboard acting as a makeshift shelf.
And now onto the fabric mists! The set comes with four fabric mists: GOLDENNESS, Gol - Cha!, 奇跡(기적), and WISH. Golden Child's fourth album release Wish just occurred a few days before the release of these fabric mists, in time for loveydovey to be able to release four fabric mists in Golden Child's set.
The matte cardboard boxes for each fabric mist match really well with their respective album designs.
One side of the boxes continues the album design. The WISH box is definitely the most basic, though I'm unsure what more could have been added that relates to that era. The holographic Woollim sticker is also placed on this side of the boxes.
The backside gives product info and instructions in Korean while the other side has the collaboration name printed.
Here are the tops of these mist boxes. There is a sticker that seals the flap of each box. At first I tried peeling the sticker to open up the box, but to no avail. I then used an X-Acto knife to cleanly slice the sticker.
The bottom of the boxes, as well as the fabric mist bottles, state the creation (I think?) and expiration dates. These mists were all created between October 22nd and 24th of 2018 and have an expiry date three full years later.
And here are the fabric mists! The mists come in clear plastic bottles with a white plastic cap and a simple design label.
The backside of the label has product info in Korean.
The mists come with a typical spray dispenser.

loveydovey's webpage for this set here describes each scent (in English), ingredients used (in Korean) and audience range (in English) in detail. The scales are as follows: Gender is Woman to Man, Age is 10 to 40, Type is Fresh to Warm, and Weight is Heavy to Light.
GOLDENNESS
Scent: Woody & Floral
Gender: None (Unisex?)
Age: 20 to 40
Type:Fresh
Weight: Heavy
My Thoughts: I can't put a distinct scent to this mist, even after reading the ingredients used to the top, middle, and base layers. It just smells very clean, like it can purify and cleanse anything.
Gol - Cha!
Scent: Fresh
Gender: Man
Age: 20 to 30
Type: Fresh
Weight: Light
My Thoughts: This mist smells exactly like aloe vera, again very fresh and clean.
奇跡(기적)
Scent: Powder & Musk
Gender: Woman
Age: 10 to 20
Type: Warm
Weight: Heavy
My Thoughts: This mist smells exactly like baby powder, fitting well with the cleanly theme.
WISH
Scent: Cotton & Citrus
Gender: Women to Man (Unisex?)
Age: 10 to 30
Type: Fresh
Weight: Light
My Thoughts: I also can't place the scent of this mist, but like GOLDENNESS, it smells very clean and refreshing.

This set of fabric mists overall has a neutral, light cleanliness to these scents. They all smell like clean laundry. My favorite scents might be GOLDENNESS, followed by WISH, just because those scents are so mysterious to me. But these mists are too precious to me, I'll just continue weirdly sniffing the scents through the dispensers rather than spraying them.
At the very bottom of the box is a thin cardboard sheet with Golden Child's logo.
Overall, I'm so excited for this collaboration! All of the inclusions are really adorable and the fabric mist boxes embody their respective albums so well. The scents are really mild and in this sense I wish I had gotten Lovelyz' or Infinite's sets which have stronger scents, but there's nothing wrong with the fresh scent of clean laundry!