Body Shop's Honey Bronze Shimmering Dry Oil

 Lately, I have been obsessing about enhancing my originally tanned skin. You see, I am Indonesian, and unlike other Indonesian girls in my country, who dream about having fair skin like those girls in the whitening/lightening product commercials, I embrace my skin color. I have had enough with all of those whitening product those Asian cosmetic companies are selling. I think their jargon "white is beautiful" is just full of crap (pardon my French!). We need  to be comfortable being yourself and embrace our own natural features and flaws. Only then we will be able to figure how to enhance our features and make our flaws work for us. 

This is why I was so happy to find this product from Body Shop. It is called the Honey Bronze Shimmering Body Oil. I was almost jumping up and down in the store when I found it. Finally, a cosmetic company who sells a bronzing product in my own country!

However, I gotta warn you. It doesn't come cheap. I paid Rp.250.000,- for a 3.3oz bottle.
I love the way it makes my skin look so healthy. It moisturizes well without being greasy. Sadly, I really can't stand the smell. It reminds of Indonesian traditional body scrub or lulur. I mean, body scrub needs to be washed away, but this body oil stays with me for the whole day or until after I take the next shower. The smell also gets transfered to my clothes, cluthes or any bags I use for the day. It is definitely not a good thing! *sigh*

Straight out of the bottle.

After blended into the skin.

The packaging is also problematic for me. It comes in a glass bottle with a screw on cap. If only it comes in plastic bottle and a flip top. 

I really hope that the Body Shop will reformulate and repackage this product someday. For now, I just have to try to handle the smell whenever I decide to wear it.


Love,

Arummmanis

DIY : Belly Dancers' Bra Top

This year, the school I am working in held an annual Arts Festival. The title for this year's performance was "Around The World In 80 Minutes". The Dance Crew performed ethnic dances from the Phillipines, Saudi Arabia, China, Indonesia and Hawaii. We rented some of the costume, but I also contributed in making some items. For example, these brasseries worn by my lovely dancers, Tania, Felia and Astari.

Since I didn't have a lot of time to spare, I also made the dancers to help me embellish the bras they are going to wear on stage.

Check below for what you will need to make one.

• Bling material. I got mine in black and gold. 
• Black bras. I bought mine in Jatinegara and it comes in a dozen a package. They're quite cheap. I only spent Rp.100.000,- for all twelve of them. 
• Glue gun.
• Coin-shaped sequins.
• 3-milimetre golden seed beads. 

First, cover the bra using the bling material. I just put the bra on the bling material and then draw a pattern of it. Remember to add 2-3 cm on the pattern so that it will be easier for you to glue it. This is how it looks after you cover it up.

Second, sew the sequins and seed beads on.

That's it! Very easy and simple isn't it?

It looks so pretty after it has been put together with the the skirt, belt and headdress.I think it will look good, not only for belly dancing, but also for a modern dance or hiphop costume. Just add leather jacket to balance out the sexiness and maybe some slashed up legging and boots.

Click here and watch our dance performance video and see how pretty the DIY belly dance costumes worn by the dancers!

Love,

Arummmanis 

DIY: Feather Tails and Shoulders Accessories

I have been slacking in my blogging lately. I would blame it all to work, moving house and dance competitions. Not all bad actually, in a matter of fact, I enjoyed them a lot.

In this post I want to share show off a DIY project I did for my dance crew costume. It's inexpensive, and also turned out very pretty.

You will need:

• 4 1-metre feather boa. I chose mine in shocking pink.
• Safety pins or brooch pins, if you'd like. 
• Glue gun 
• A little bit of tulle fabric

First, cut two of the feather boas into two-longer pieces and cut the other two into four-shorter pieces. We will use the longer strips for tails and the shorter ones for shoulder accessories.

Two, cut the tulle fabric into a 3-by-3-cm squares and glue gun each of them on the ends of all of the longer and shorter feather boa strips like shown below. Then while the glue is still hot, push through a pin or a brooch pin on it.

Voila! Your feather embelishments are ready to be worn. Just add a corset of your choice and dance costume is ready!

Here is how they look on the Mascherata girls.

Those feathers are so versatile. I also add them to my hula dancers costume for Arts Fest 2013.

 I turned the tails into hula necklaces and the shoulder embelishment into hula anklets. So pretty, right?




Love,

Arummmanis