Friday, August 19, 2016

Stop & Chat: August 16-19 - Garden 5, EMart, IPark... Everywhere


I got a very special package on Tuesday that I will be blogging about soon. In any case, Tuesday was spent waiting for that package. I'm actually disappointed in myself. I spent so much time worried about that package that I didn't really do anything. I watched YouTube all day and played the various Halo games with my siblings. Technology is so awesome, so long as you don't become completely entrenched in it.

Anyways, on to the rest of my week!




M and I visited the Garden 5/Garden 5 Life to check out the Arts & Crafts section, Etude House, and the pet store for some fluffybutt supplies. No, the hamsters aren't ever referred to as hamsters in this household. They are either Fluffybutt, Hammy/Bunny, or Cutie Patootie.

We are very mature.


While we were there we noticed that the hamsters on sale were tiny. These were baby/"teen" hamsters!



M and I made several high pitched noises while looking at these little cuties.


I can't handle how small and fluffy and cute these guys are. I do this with all pets, but to have so many little baby pets in one place made my brain crash.


I know that sleeping position all too well. Bunny and Hammy are masters of this sleeping position.

Anyways, we also checked out Etude House to buy the full sized White Toning C skin care set, as I really loved what the samples did to my skin in such a short time. Luckily for me, they were having some sort of 50% off sale on most of the products so I got an even bigger discount than I was hoping for!

Once we finished that up, we drove to Yongsan and the IPark mall to look for the Elizavecca Milky Piggy Carbonated Mask. No luck, but I got my steps in so my Fitbit was happy. While we were in the area we checked out a table top game store for M.

Heading home, we checked out a shopping center in Ilsan that had a Jill Stuart store for something a bloggy friend has been looking for, but that location did not have the stuff we were looking for.



The shopping center that had the Jill Stuart had a lot of higher end makeup brands like MAC, Bobbi Brown, Benefit, and so, so much more. I was in heaven and ended up buying something.

To get back on to the topic of what is in the pictures...


One floor of the shopping center had a grocery/food market. Being the Americans we are, we bee-lined for the pizza.



That pizza log was about $7.


We ended up getting two pizza logs for about $14.


While we were waiting on our pizza, we checked out the makeup counters. Here I am getting ready out to try one of Benefit's eyebrow powders.

After I was done Ooohing and Aaahing over the makeup, we picked up our pizza and went home. All in all, we had a 10 hour day out. Exhausting, and we saved money on electricity by not being home and using the AC... but I think we ended up spending the money we would have saved. LOL!

Thursday we decided to check out the shopping district in Gangnam, as well as check out a standalone Jill Stuart store that an English travel website told me existed.


Lanes are more of a suggestion here in Korea.

I kid, I kid. With cars parked on the sides and the width (or lack thereof) of the streets, it's quite common for cars to go in the middle of the street.



For it being a weekday it was quite crowded.


Back to Jill Stuart. While that store may have existed at one point, it no longer exists. In fact, the location for the store is completely leveled and undergoing construction. Bummer.


We still walked around and checked out stores.


Pedestrians don't care about cars here. They don't care about cars in lots of places. It makes driving down these streets a hassle at times.

Once we were done looking around, we decided to double back and check out Skin Food.



Oh man, my legs/arms don't look as white as I always think they do. Score!

M was the photographer for the day so he's the one I get to thank for all of these pictures.


I was a good girl and did not pick up any more nail polish.


There was a new line of honey based skincare products. The only English speaking employee was already helping someone else, so I couldn't ask her for more details on these products.

After our window shopping, we stopped off at another table top gaming store for M before heading home.


Oh, don't mind this ginormous (fake) crab scaling the side of a building. No big deal.


The lovely traffic that is Korea. On Wednesday we were exiting a highway and the lane was wide, but a single lane exit. While M and I were exiting a truck almost side swiped us on the left. If he hadn't noticed it and swerved out of the way we would have had an accident just like in March. It put a damper on my mood and created some extra anxiety about being in the car for the rest of the week, but as you can tell I'm still alive so I guess everything turned out okay.

Now for a mini-haul!



While we were in the Garden 5 Life, I saw some washi tapes and scooped them up. They turned out quite pricey, about $5 per roll, but I was willing to pay the price as I hadn't found any washi tape in Korea in the past 8 months I've been here.

Lo and behold, that same day I found some washi tapes in the Daiso. Which is the equivalent of a Dollar General store. Those particular washi tapes were only ₩1,000/~90¢. Ugh.

Oh well, I got some washi tapes and that's the important thing!


Remember my visit to Benefit just a few paragraphs ago? I spent some coin there.


The top part comes off and turns into the application brush. It'll be interesting to see how much/if I use it. I've always felt my eyebrows were too sparse/light, but I've never done anything about it until now.

Today has been a very busy day at home. I cleaned for about four hours and reorganized/decluttered some places in the house that had gotten out of hand since we bought our XBox. I also unloaded all of the pictures from my camera and got the pictures ready for blog posting. I've been a busy bee today! I'm so proud of myself. The bad part is all the moving around has given me some restless legs, so it was rather hard to get myself to sit down and type out this blog post. I had planned to work on more posts, but I think I'm going to instead go for a run or do something else that keeps me moving.

4 comments:

  1. I don't remember if you've posted about this, but what does the countryside look like around there? Are there farms like here in the US? Lots of fields? Or is it all more compact and urban everywhere?

    ~Deb

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    Replies
    1. I don't think I've posted too much about the countryside. In the areas closer to Seongnam, which is the city we live in, the countryside is very mountainous. When we drive south to visit Osan or Humphreys there are lots of rice patty type farms. I wouldn't say there are fields, as that's a waste of space in the eyes of Koreans. Especially in the city or neighborhoods, empty space is cultivated to become community farms. Michael and I walk by several when we walk around our neighborhood.

      I have to take pictures next time we go out to illustrate this. It definitely has a different feel than in the States.

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  2. What a fabulous day! That SkinFood store looked cool. And the crab scaling the building made me laugh. Let us know how that Benefit eyebrow doo-hickey works out. I use Anastacia Beverly Hills eyebrow powder for definition right now but that bottle of the Benefit one intrigues me. The pizzas looked pretty yummy. Glad you had a nice time. Thank you for trying for the Jill Stuart. I appreciate the thought <3 Stay cool over there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The SkinFood store was too bright and cheery NOT to check out!
      I like the Benefit eyebrow doo-hickey :P but I don't have much to compare it to. I've never used eyebrow products before. One thing I can say is it is very pigmented and the brush allows for both precision and fill-in work without being harsh on the skin.
      Those pizzas were DELICIOUS. I'm used to Korean 'salty' foods having a bit of sweetness to it (honeyed garlic bread, for example. Ick) but this tasted like a bit of home. Either that or my taste buds are slowly evolving and I will have a rude awakening when we return to the States.

      I'll keep an eye out for more Jill Stuart locations as we go on outings, but I was super bummed about our lack of success. All my research into the products has me wanting to try some as well.

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