I was so happy to receive an invitation from Unilever Indonesia to join their BeautyIsU weekend getaway to Bali a few weeks ago. It arrived during one of the busiest and most stressful times at work and I desperately needed a short break from all the hustle and bustle. I was even more excited to know that this event was held to make us reacquainted with Unilever beauty brands. This made me realize that even though I use more than one beauty products for my skin, body and hair, I’ve been using products from Unilever personal care brands as my staples for quite some time. I swear by Pond’s Age Miracle, I’ve been using Clear shampoo to treat my itchy and dry scalp, and Fashionese Daily girls, including me, have been going gaga for Vaseline cocoa glow body lotion. My deodorant of choice has always been from Dove, and before my scalp problem, I used to use Dove Damagetherapy shampoo and my current favorite leave-in conditioner / serum is Dove Oil Nourishing Oil Care Nutri-Oil Serum which I just reviewed last week. And I’m always curious to find out stories behind my favorite beauty products, so that made me look forward to the trip even further. So off I went to Bali that weekend. The whole trip itself was organized meticulously and with style. We all stayed in the beautiful St. Regis, where Unilever Vice President of Personal Care, Ms Deby Sadrach herself, greeted all of the guests and made us feel extremely welcome. After lunch, we all went to the beautiful Strand Villas, where there were 3 villas transformed into Unilever beauty residences, each representing one category in personal care: Hair Residence, Skin Residence and Essential Residence.
We visited these residences one by one and in each residence, we met different speakers who presented to us the latest findings from the research and survey conducted by Unilever, the technology used in their product development, as well as some exciting plans for the future. As I soaked in the information, it occurred to me how much time and money the company has spent in trying to understand what their Indonesian customers are looking for in beauty products and also in developing the products that answer to those needs. No wonder Unilever has created such legacy in the market for the past 60 years. Anyway, there were many interesting insights I got from this session, which I will definitely share with you in the next posts.
After that, we enjoyed a beautiful dinner at W Resort while enjoying performance from Otty Jamalus band and Dira Sugandi, who has such incredible voice, I should add. Also present during the event were Unilever brand ambassadors, Nadia Hutagalung, Tamara Blezinsky, Ersa Mayori, Sandra Dewi, Atiqah Hasiholan, Maia Estianty and Mesty Ariotedjo. The beautiful dinner was followed by an after party at the impossibly hip Woo Bar!
Pre dinner pose, wearing a mullet dress from Mazee, unbranded sequin top (“stolen” from Hanzky’s closet! :D), Ciciero clucth and Mango shoes (not seen).
Biyan receiving bouquet from Unilever as a token of appreciation from the company on his support to the whole program. The brand ambassadors and Unilever team were all wearing Biyan’s creations that night!
The fabulous Dira Sugandi
With my sister at Woo Bar. She’s the Editor in Chief of Cleo Magazine so we took the trip together which made it even more fun 🙂
The next day, I woke up early so I could explore the beautiful resort more, which I didn’t get to do the previous day because our schedule was quite packed. Each of the editor who was invited to this trip stayed alone in the huge suite, which was fully stocked with Unilever products. Each corner, I found body lotions, shower cream, shampoo, moisturizer and many more products that made me feel like I should take a bath and slather myself from head to toe in lotions and creams every hour 🙂
Each of us gets this Kate Spade tote bag. Oh yes, I love my job 😀
After a scrumptious breakfast in Boneka restaurant (it was soooo good I still can’t stop thinking about it till now), we headed down to the Remede spa for an hour-long massage treatment. As the skillful therapists kneaded my sore muscles, I could have sworn I heard my body said “Thank you!” 😀
Post-massage, while still feeling incredibly relaxed and serene, I went back to my suite to take long leisurely shower, packed my suitcase and got ready to fly back to Jakarta, also toting a huge bag (okay, a cardboard box actually) full of beauty products I couldn’t wait to try and review!
Last photo taken at St. Regis, wearing Alexaalexa reversible square dress, Jim Thompson bag and Vincci sandals.
Thank you so much for the beautiful weekend getaway, Unilever Indonesia!
