Honestly I feel that I have been fighting with myself all this time. I want to be a better person every time but I don't think I am going anywhere. 

Sometimes I feel confident about myself and I tell myself that I am capable, I can, I am great. But sometimes I feel that I am useless, I can't do anything, and I need external validation from other people that I can. But then when I get external validation most times, I don't believe it and I wonder if people just validate me to please me or make me feel better.

I don't know if this is just my problem, but I wish I am a better person. The person I want to be is the person that is confident that she can do her best. The person I want to be is the person who does not care what other people think of her, but would like to contribute and help other people to be better regardless of the rewards. I find it very hard to get to this ideal state. I don't know why, I get inspired once in while and then I forget.

I want to be less competitive and not trying to please people or trying to proof myself to other people. But it seems to be my natural response in many occasions, which make me hate myself after it happens.

I am battling myself every time, I want to be a better person but will I ever be better if I am constantly stuck in this circle of insecurity?

Catherine in the future - read this and hopefully one day check the box and tell me you have become a better person,

from Catherine 2019.

I shopped at UO Outlet yesterday and it was so much fun! I would like to share with you what I got from the store in this video:

Let me know which one is your favorite and comment below!

xx,

Catherine

Hi guys! Sorry I have not been focusing on my blog lately. I have started a YouTube channel and it has been quite fun.

I am not going to abandon you guys, readers, though. So I will start embedding my YouTube videos here while waiting for legit content.

Lately it has been so friggin cold in Chicago and I have no one to help me snap pictures with walls, so that's a downer. But follow me in my day to day! I can promise you, you will find it fun and quirky!

xx,

Catherine

I don't judge people by the color of their skin, I judge people by the color of their teeth!

I consume a ton of antibiotics, coffee, tea, sweets, and many not very healthy food/drinks since I was young. Living in Indonesia at the time, no one really taught me or prioritize the health and appearance of my teeth. My parents and friends are similar like me in a sense that most of us has pretty yellow teeth. Since I came to the US, I learned that people here take care of their teeth as well as their health. They have really neat and white teeth. This made me became more conscious of myself, it is sometimes embarrassing to smile and open my mouth wide at work or in social life. I also limit how I smiled, trying to close my mouth as much as I can.

I have tried many options to clean my teeth: I got the ashy black powder, use a whitening tooth paste, and got the teeth whitening offer with UV thing at Groupon. Many of them either didn't work or only lasted me a week.

A few months ago, Smile Brilliant reached out to me to do some collaboration. I was wondering why, because my teeth is not great to begin with. But now I understand why! Many of you probably have a problem similar like me, and the product proves to me that it works, and not only for a short time.

In this post I would like to share with you what is the process of whitening my teeth with smile brilliant, and what I like/not like as much about it. I also will share with you a chance to win this kit! So stay tuned!

WANNA GET THIS PRODUCT FOR FREE? SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM!

After I agreed to Smile Brilliant that I would like to give this product a try, the package arrived pretty quick, around 2-3 days. The package was wrapped nicely, and inside there was the kit package in form of a white and blue box. The box was very nice! When I opened the box, there were a lot of things! There were two trays with a half circle shape, six clay looking small tubes (base and catalyst) four of the whitening gels and four of the desensitizing gels, an envelope with shipping label, and a few instruction cards.

Pre-Whitening
First thing first, I read the instruction cards that tells me what I should do at the moment, how to use the whitening and desensitizing gel. So the thing with this kit is that before we start whitening our teeth, we need the custom fitted trays with the shape of our own teeth, called the dental impression. The dental impression ensures that the gels are placed right to the surface of out teeth during the process. Smile Brilliant provide the tools to create dental impression in the box. To do so, you shall mix the base and catalyst, place it on the tray evenly, and now place the tray to your top or bottom teeth. Let it stay for a few minutes but make sure that the clay grasp all your teeth to the gum; so the impression can grasp and lock. Once this is done with both teeth, let the impression sits for a few minutes, and rinse the tray so the clay hardens. There is one form in the package that you have to fill regarding your submitted dental impression. Put this in the envelope as well. Now the last step is to put the trays to the pre-labeled envelope and send it back to Smile Brilliant.

Whitening Process

After a week or so, Smile Brilliant sent me back my custom fitted trays. Now I have the case for the trays that I can bring when I travel, and the trays themselves! Now then my routine starts! Daily or once every two days or so, every night, I start with brushing my teeth without my tooth paste. I then put in a bit of the whitening gel on the trays. Place the trays on the top and bottom teeth. Wait between 45 mins to 3 hours depending on how sensitive your gums are. In the beginning, I test out the water and started with 45 mins. Throughout the end, I went longer with over an hour. Once that's done, now rinse your mouth, brush your teeth with tooth paste, rinse the trays, dry it, and put in desensitizing gel on the impressions. Now place the trays back to your teeth for about 20 minutes long. This step helps with any tooth sensitivity. Once it's done, spit out all the gels, rinse and dry the impressions. You are done for the day!

To be quite frank, I started off with a sensitive gum problem. When I brush my teeth, my gum occassionally bleed. So in the beginning, I felt a bit of swelling on the gum. And for that reason, I changed the frequency of using this product and the amount of gel I put in the trays, so the process took me longer than other people. Towards the end though, I did not feel sensitivity; so I used the product more regularly.

When can I start seeing the results?
In my case, my family could already see the result within one week of usage. They told me my teeth is now white and pretty!

Pro and Cons
I love that this product works, it work fast, and it lasts long. The price point is super reasonable starting from $129 to start. Boy! the price is only 2-3x of those Groupon thing that only lasts you a week. It is much much cheaper than paying the $600 or more fee going to the dentist. Once you have the tray, you really only need to buy the gels starting at $35, if you want to maintain the color again in the future. It's really not a bad deal!

What may be a challenge for me was keeping up with the habit. Each process requires at least 1 hour of putting the gel on. Sometimes when I go home from work late or on a vacation traveling, I find it hard to find an hour to take care of my teeth, so I skipped and went right to the bed. It takes motivation to do, but as you see result starting to come up, I think motivation would actually build! You just have to be willing to do this. Also, I personally was new to this whole dental impressions thing, so I was initially confused as to how to do stuff, but hopefully y'all won't cause I laid out the steps by steps here and your english is probably better than mine when reading the instructions :) But in any case you have a question, the team is actually pretty responsive in making sure consumers do the right thing, so my experience with the Smile Brilliant team has been great!



Now, would I recommend using this product? If you think that your teeth is not white enough or yellow, I would personally recommend this product. It works, it works quickly, it lasts long, and it is affordable. Now I am no longer afraid to open my mouth and smile at work, at home, and when I go on a date! Thanks Smile Brilliant!!!

Want to get yours for FREE? -- EXTENDED!--

Join our giveaway and win $139 credit to Smile Brilliant!

Go to the link below:
https://www.smilebrilliant.com/g/catherineaujong
In order to enter the giveaway, you must submit your name and email address.
 The winner will be selected and contacted via email within 2 weeks (1/7). 

Note that this giveaway open internationally (USA, UK, Canada, Australia). International winners are responsible for partial shipping.

You can get 10% OFF by using the code catherineaujong






xx,

Catherine

I am sure many of you know that I visited Los Angeles a few weeks ago. I went there for the weekend (weekend extender) with my family. The purpose of the trip was primarily eating! If you don't know, Los Angeles has one of the largest Indonesian community in the US; so if you are looking for legit Indo food, then you better go hit up LA.

Even though the purpose of my trip was primarily culinary, I also was looking around hunting so many murals. Of course I was happy but disappointed because a few of the walls are either removed, repainted, or locked (inaccessible). But overall the trip was refreshing, I got to spend a handful of time with my family and plus my tummy was satisfied.

Now my comment about the California life. A lot of people and my own friends/family are really into the Cali-life: sunshine all day long, good food, chill life. But after I visited Los Angeles three times, to be honest I don't think I'm a Cali girl. I know a lot of people like to lay by the beach, play with the water, but there is a bigger part of me that just want to stick with organized, clean, big city like Chicago, Tokyo, Seoul, etc.

As much as I love going on vacation and looking at the sea, tasting good Indonesian food, to be honest I don't foresee myself living in California. Not that it's a bad place, I just think that the lifestyle and the people does not fit me as much. I don't say that it doesn't fit other people, including my friends though. It's obvious that the place has amazing food! But, I think the traffic, the hectic-ness, and the mess of the city is not speaking to me. Yeah, I'm a big -organized- city girl. Maybe I am OCD just like my dad. 

Other than that, though. There are still so many murals that I still have yet to explore in California. So until that is done, I'm still California Dreaming

<3 p="">

<3 p="">

<3 p="">P.S. I just started a YouTube channel 'Catherine Au Jong'. If you haven't already, please subscribe and check out my video! I can guarantee it'd be fun!

<3 p="">

Mural Location:

3485 La Cienega Blvd. 

Los Angeles, CA 

xx,

Catherine. 

Confidence - if you have it, you will make everything look good. - Diane Von Furstenberg

OOTD here, OOTD there. How do instagrammers strike a pose? How fashion bloggers look confident on camera? Ever feel curious? I actually do watch a lot of YouTube videos where famous fashion bloggers or instagrammers teach their subscribers how to pose on OOTD pictures, but I would like to share with you today my version of posing, and it may be a bit crazy, because I am one crazy person, but.. I hope it still helps you own your poses and pictures.

I will split my posing tricks to three groups: 1) The Cover Girl, 2) The 'Own It, Girl!', and 3) The Candid Pretender

The Cover Girl
Is a pose where you try to follow poses you see on magazines, fashion instragrammers, or fashion bloggers. Basically you slay your hair, you swag your outfit and pockets, stand like a model: sideway or from the front. Feel free to play with the positioning of your arms and leg: let it fall naturally, or put it in your pant's pocket. Open up your legs to look stronger or cross your legs to make it look skinnier. If you take the picture sideways, make sure there is a play on the legs, lift one up a little bit on the toe, so you can see the other legs. Smirk and don't smile too huge. You're expensive, girl, you are expensive - you are the cover girl <3 p="">