drop to say hi!

Hello there!
its been a while I did not update my blog
I've been very busy this month doing my research
Ummm... but it's not the main reason actually


The biggest thing came this month is I'm pregnant
whoa... big surprise!!! I
This pregnancy really makes me tired all the time
plus the nausea, headache, weakness, they are really annoying

but I' m so excited with my pregnancy, it forces me stronger doing my activities
It's really exciting imagine a beautiful creature growing inside my belly :-)

Pourvous body care contest

Hello..
It's raining outside. I'm just staying at home, sitting down in front of my computer.


Anyway, do you know about Pourvous natural body care?
I just knew this body care line from this blog. Here is Porvous website if you want to know more about them
It is a mom from Surabaya, East Java, who creates Porvous
Porvous claim their products are free of parabens, lanolin, synthetic dye, and sodium lauryl sulphate
The ingredients are mostly natural and came from Indonesia. They also promise to reduce environmental bad impact. Cool !

One of their product. Milk scrub. Sounds delicious !

To celebrate Hari Sumpah Pemuda (Indonesian Youth's Oath Day) on 28 October, they conduct a blog contest. I'm joining it.

The contestant must write an essay titled "My Life My Dreams"

I wrote my essay in Bahasa Indonesia (one of the Oath is using Bahasa Indonesia properly and correctly) and just sent it. Here is my essay..

Halo!

Perkenalkan nama saya Laras. Saya adalah seorang peneliti yang berfokus pada pencegahan kanker (kemopreventif) dan penemuan agen kemopreventif alami. Hal yang menarik, bukan? Itulah mimpi saya, dan saya bersemangat menjalaninya. Bagaimana saya kok bisa terjun di dunia sains seperti ini? Ini dia ceritanya :

Sebetulnya saya takut banget sama penyakit kanker. Membayangkannya saja sudah merinding. Gara-garanya saya pernah melihat sendiri bagaimana menderitanya pasien yang mengalami kanker, termasuk kesedihan yang dialami keluarganya. Ditambah lagi, pengobatan dan upaya pencegahan kanker di Indonesia ini mahal dan belum optimal.

Oleh karena itu, sejak remaja saya mulai peduli dan belajar tentang kanker ini. Hal ini mendorong saya kuliah di jurusan Farmasi. Mmm.. sebetulnya keluarga saya menginginkan saya jadi dokter, karena dokter pekerjaan yang mulia. Tapi saya berpikir lain. Saya ingin menemukan agen anti-kanker, dan Farmasi adalah bidang yang tepat. Apalagi di Indonesia yang kaya akan keragaman hayatinya ini, belum banyak peneliti yang mengeksplorasi kekayaan tersebut untuk dijadikan obat alami Indonesia (Jangan sampai deh kita dikalahin bule dalam menemukan agen kemopreventif alami Indonesia).

Saat kuliah, saya aktif dalam grup riset Cancer Chemoprevention Research Center (CCRC) fakultas Farmasi UGM. Dalam CCRC saya diberi kesempatan belajar dan mengaktualisasikan ide saya. Salah satu penelitian yang saya dan tim lakukan adalah meneliti potensi ekstrak kulit Jeruk Keprok untuk menghambat pembentukan kanker pada sel hati dan payudara tikus yang telah diinduksi karsinogen. Ternyata hasilnya ekstrak kulit Jeruk Keprok terbukti potensial lho mencegah kanker pada tikus. Kulit Jeruk Keprok tersebut kaya akan senyawa flavon yang potensial dikembangkan sebagai agen kemopreventif. Tuh kan… ternyata mencegah kanker ga perlu suplemen mahal, cukup memanfaatkan bahan alam yang ada si sekitar kita, asal sudah ada bukti hasil penelitiannya ya…

Setelah lulus jadi apoteker, orang tua saya menanyakan kesiapan saya jadi peneliti. Mungkin orang tua saya berpikir bisa makan ga saya jadi peneliti padahal saya sudah bisa menghasilkan uang kalau mau membuka apotek atau bekerja di pabrik obat. Tapi profesi jadi peneliti betul-betul membuat saya ketagihan! Akhirnya saya memutuskan sekolah lagi dan meneliti lagi di grup CCRC. Penelitian saya kali ini tidak kalah menarik, yaitu meneliti apakah citrus flavonoid dari kulit jeruk (kulit jeruk ini punya banyak kejutan rupanya) dapat meningkatkan efek terapi obat anti-kanker serviks. Data yang didapat selama ini menunjukkan bahwa citrus flavonoid dan obat kanker bisa bekerja sinergis. Namun penelitian ini masih berlanjut sampai dicapai hasil yang optimal. Bagimana kelanjutannya? Doakan saya ya…biar penelitian ini berhasil. Syukur-syukur kalau ada industri farmasi yang mau membiayai dan membuat sediaan farmasinya, hehe..

Nah itulah mimpi yang sedang saya jalani dengan hati yang gembira. Langkah ke depan saya ingin meneliti kekayaan Indonesia yang lain. Harapan saya juga, semoga bertambah banyak peneliti muda Indonesia yang mau menggali potensi kekayaan Indonesia. Jadi peneliti seru juga lho…

Terima kasih.

The winner of the contest will be chosen on 31 October.

The prize is a voucher cost IDR 175.000

I hope I can win, because I really want to try their products

Wish me luck ;-)

Lady speed stick powder burst review and breast cancer issue

Hello...

The weather is good today, make me feel spirited :-)

It is nice to go out in the good day like this, do a lot of activities, and hang out with friends

But sometimes hot day or activities drive me sweat a lot

So I need antiperspirant which protects me all day long

My favorite antiperspirant is Lady Speed Stick 24/7

white stick

I tried a lot of drugstore deodorant, but nothing can beat lady speed stick

I bought them on sale, $3 each (regular price is $5.5, expensive huh? nett weight is 65 g), so I can't restrain my self grab them two :-) Both are powder burst scent

It is a white stick, glides well, and not sticky at all
Plus I don't get any itches after applying it (my skin is pretty sensitive)

It works nicely, keeps my dry all day long, doesn't leave yucky yellow or white stain on my white shirts

Surprisingly I keep catching the subtle fresh scent until night even though I don't reapply it :-)

Of course I will repurchase it, maybe in another variant.

The ingredients

The active component of antiperspirant is aluminium zirconium tetrachlorohydrex

Most  antiperspirant use aluminium as their main ingredient

Aluminium forms a temporary plug on the top of sweat ducts that stops the flow of sweat (just for a while, don't worry)

Some people believe that aluminium-based deodorant can cause breast cancer, maybe because the antiperspirant is applied to an area near the breast and aluminium is believed can be absorbed through the skin

Well actually, there is no convincing evidence or report that breast cancer can caused by aluminium-based antiperspirant

In 2002, the results of a study looking for a relationship between breast cancer and underarm antiperspirants/deodorants were reported. This study did not show any increased risk for breast cancer in women who reported using an underarm antiperspirant or deodorant.

In fact, when we sweat, we produce acid. Aluminium will form complex with acid. The complex won't be absorbed to our skin and will be gone from our skin surface when we take a bath

Aluminium is found everywhere and aluminium is not categorized as carcinogen. This also includes the FDA (Food and Drug Administration).

Moreover, breast cancer is caused by carcinogen exposure, DNA damage, or mutation

So I believe the claim about breast cancer caused by aluminium-based antiperspirant is still a rumor.

I will update this post if someday I find fact about the opposite claim

That's all for today. Happy weekend :-)

JASSO foundation and Thai food

Well, the subjects in the title don't have any relations to each other :-p


Today I and friends went to JASSO Japan Scholarship Foundation fair

What JASSO web says :

JASSO offers enhanced support programs for international students to maintain their academic level.The programs include: providing scholarships to international students, implementing international exchange programs, maintaining accommodation for international students,and improving application procedures for them by administering Examination for Japanese University Admission for International Students, as well as collecting and disseminating information on study abroad.

I'm a second year graduate student of Pharmaceutical Science major, graduate program of Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Gadjah Mada

I've been thinking to continue my study abroad, may be to take another master or even doctorate program

I think Japan is one of my destination target ;-) though it's really hard to achieve scholarship there

Two of my friends just arrived Japan last week to become each doctorate and research student. Whoaa... I envy them :-D

In the end of JASSO fair (I was still daydreaming about study in Japan), my husband picked me up to have dinner together ;-)

We were so hungry and then we decided to eat at one of our favorites dining place, Phuket restaurant at Jln. Wahidin 8 Yogyakarta

It is a small but nice place to eat, sometimes you need to reserve table first before you get there

The restaurant serves Thai food and beverages, and also plays Thai songs

These are some menus

We ordered their most famous menu, seafood tom yum (we always order it extra hot), naan bread, and Phuket barbeque chicken

barbeque chicken with chilli-in-vinegar sauce

 Naan bread with sweet dipping sauce (is it one of Thai food?). Look at the sesame seed. I like it!

Spicy seafood tom yum 

It was the first time we ordered the barbeque chicken. It tastes good! Sweet barbeque chicken and sour vinegar sauce are good combination

The naan and tom yum were as great as usual. The tom yum contains mostly shrimp (I'm allergic to them so my husband always eat them all), fish ball, oyster, squid, and mushroom for bonus :-)

For the drink, we ordered sugar-free hot tea. All the tasty foods were closed by the right taste :-)

Ok that's all for today, I'm getting sleepy. Good night

xoxo

Herborist banana body butter review

Banana body butter in tube

Herborist is pretty well known in Indonesia for its body scrub product. Nowadays Herborist also produces body lotion and body butter. I will review the body butter ones.

I bought herborist body butter for less than $1 per tube (IDR 9000). Nett weight is 80 g.

I picked the banana variant because it smelled really nice when I sniffed it. Other variants are mango, avocado, and papaya.

The body butter has nice consistency, not too thick, not too thin and easy to be spread, suitable for daytime usage. The good thing is it contains UV filter (octyl methoxy cinnamate) and comes in tube packaging :-)

It moistens my skin well, better than other drugstore lotion. But I don't really like the smell when I put it on skin. Turns out it becomes overpowering fake banana smell. A bit smell of plasticizers too. I only use it on my feet so I don't have to smell it :-(
That's very bad because i like the consistency.

The ingredients are pretty good actually, it contains shea butter which is rich of vitamins, olive oil, vitamin E, UV filter, beeswax, and........real banana!

I don't know which part of banana being used

If it uses the peels, it will be very good because banana's peels contain phytoestrogen

Estrogen (or phytoestrogen) is important to skin because it prevents skin-aging and maintaining skin moisture by increasing skin collagen content :-)

Even so, I don't think to repurchase this product.

burt's bees beeswax lip balm review

old-fashioned tin lip balm

the natural ingredients

Hello!
In this post i will review about burt's bees beeswax lip balm
It comes in two packages, stick and tin. I prefer the tin one because the bee picture on the tin is really cute :-D
I bought this lip balm 3 months ago for about $4 per tin (IDR 40.000). Nett weight is 8.5 g (0.30 oz)
This is a minty refreshing transparent lip balm, contains antioxidant also
It glides smoothly and soothes my lips very well
But it is a very solid lip balm and little hard to apply, so I apply it directly to my lips. I know it's weird :-p
The best thing of this lip balm is it lasts a long time on my lips and the ingredients are natural
So i dont have to be worried to lick my lips unintentionally :-) I don't want to swallow any chemical things contained in lip product.
The lip balm isn't tested on animals so I'm happy using it :-)

Hello everyone!

Hi there!
Finally i create a blog! I'm so excited about this.
This blog is based on my thoughts, ideas and experiences.
I want to share them to you and i hope you will share yours too
I will review some beauty products because I love grooming my self :-)


I will write this blog in english and sometimes bahasa Indonesia
My english is not fluent enough so please excuse me for any errors.


So here is my blog, enjoy!


Warm regards,
Laras