Gmarket Tips 2 - Events/Coupons

Gmarket always has lots of fun and interesting events going on (: However most of these are in Korean, but you can still have a look and enjoy them even if you may not understand them~♥And recently GDragon from Big Bang has been appearing in a lot of ads/campaigns for Gmarket too~

There are lots of events/special deals/category offers which are all listed on the Gmarket's front page. You can browse through them, not just for coupons, but also for special price items, daily/weekly deals, bestsellers, popular mini-shops, hot items in various categories etc. It's in Korean but even if you can't read Korean you can read numbers and see pictures right? Just click on whatever looks interesting~♥ ^^

***Note: events change every few weeks or so, so by the time you read this there might be different ongoing event. Go to Gmarket to check them out (: ***

On the left are a bunch of words, as you hover the cursor over them the picture on the right will change. Clicking on the picture will open a new tab/window leading you to that particular event. The list is updated frequently so there's always new stuff popping up~


Also, many discount coupons are available in Gmarket, but you can only see most of them when you shop in Korean. Like if you go to the Korean version of the shop, often there'll be links to applicable coupons. However if you view the same shop in English you won't be able to see the coupons. So, if you want to view the item on its Korean page, change the word everything before the goodscode number in the URL to "http://item.gmarket.co.kr/detailview/Item.asp?goodscode=". The page should change to the Korean version and you'll be able to see the coupons if any (: Eg: http://english.gmarket.co.kr/challenge/neo_goods/goods.asp?goodscode=198545045 becomes: http://http://item.gmarket.co.kr/detailview/Item.asp?goodscode=198545045


Here are examples of coupons available now for some for more popular categories, (on the Korean page) Books/CDs/DVDs, Beauty and Stationery. Currently there are no coupons for Fashion/Clothes/Accessories/Shoes/Bags. (And because I assume not very many overseas buyers shop for Snowboards/Automobile parts so...didn't include them ^^)

♥ BOOKS/CDs/DVDs
So say for example you want to buy a JYJ CD. Going to the page of the item there'll be click-able things which when you click, 'draws' the coupon. The Books/DVD ones are the 'sure win' type, when you draw, you'll definitely get them. However you can only draw one each per day, and they expire within a certain number of days. **the event is not on every month, I think they either alternate or have it randomly. The icon and amount of coupon may change too**
There are 3 which you can get daily:
- w1,000 off w5,000 and above
- w2,000 off w10,000 and above
- w3,000 off w15,000 and above
Usable for all items within the Books/CDs/DVDs category.

***Now it seems that you don't get these anymore, and there are now only 2 coupons which you can get daily: - w1,000 off w5,000 and above, and w2,000 off w15,000 and above***

Click ♥here♥ for the book coupon page.


♥ STATIONERY
There are also free coupons for stationery, however these are of the 'lucky draw' type, you may or may not get them ^^ Going to the page of the stationery item you want to buy, you'll see a round icon near the price and 3 rectangular icons scrolling further down. Clicking either the top or bottom icons will lead you to the same coupon page, where you can draw. Only the left-most 7% one is for stationery. The other 2 I don't know, but they're not applicable for stationery so even if you get them, you can't use them for stationery.

Click ♥here♥ for the stationery coupon page.

Click the one on the LEFT.

Coupon valid for 2weeks after receiving.

You can only draw one once every 2 weeks.


♥ BEAUTY
For Beauty coupons there's the Beauty VIP page, and a Beauty 'club' of sorts whereby you can get free coupons every month. For beauty VIP you can draw:
- w1,000 off w10,000,
- w2,000 off w20,000,
- w3,000 off w30,000.
Again these are the 'lucky draw' type. You may or may not get them. You can draw one of each daily.

Also, if you've purchased any beauty items recently you can draw for:
- Gstamps (if you've purchased at least 1 item from the beauty category, can draw once/day)
- w2,500 off w10,000 (if you've purchased at least 3 items from the beauty category, can draw once/day)
- Gmarket w10,000 coupon (if you've purchased at least 5 items from the beauty category, can draw once/month)
Again, these are also of the 'lucky draw' type.


For the beauty club, Beautifuler, you can get special coupons monthly from many brands while have an 'Official' online shop on Gmarket, eg Etude House, Banila Co, Dr Jart, Enprani, Nature Republic, Clio, Peripera, Skin79 etc. These coupons range from 10%~20% off.


♥ ENGLISH SHOP
For the English page there's also a list of events. Hover over the numbers and the picture will change. Click the picture and it will lead you to the page of that event (: There are hot items for this season, popular mini-shops, featured items for certain categories etc.
For the English version there're coupons too, for the past month it's been 'Overseas Shipping' coupons, there were 3 types:
- 15% off above w20,000
- 10% off above w15,000
- w2,000 off above w7,000.
However this event ended 5th December 2010. Starting 6th Dec there's a new event, you can check it out here. It's in English. Vote for your favorite outfit to enter, and you could win prizes.

Click ♥here♥ and ♥here♥ to draw overseas shipping coupons.
There are a variety available and these are only applicable for overseas shipping orders.
You can draw once per day and they expire 3 days after.
This is the lucky draw type, you may or may not get them.
These are updated/changed every month or so.

Most coupons are only applicable for certain categories. So to see if a coupons can be used for an item, just click the 'My Coupons' box next to the price of the item, and the ones which can be used for that particular item will be shown/be click-able. (See Gmarket Tips 1)

When you draw the coupons, as you're drawing there'll be a gif/flash image playing, then after that you'll see either a successful or unsuccessful notice. The flash picture is of the following spinning round and round.


When you successfully 'win' a coupon, you'll see the following picture of a picture of a megaphone, confetti and a wrapped gift~


When you're unsuccessful there'll be no balloons/confetti, just a pair of floating hot air balloons ^^


♥ GMARKET + G-DRAGON
As you know, G-Dragon recently released a song for Gmarket, called Gmarket Party. It's really really really super addictive! And you may notice him appearing in various corners of the Gmarket site, example, while browsing leg warmers:

I don't think you find it if you start from the English site, but this is the main promotional page for the G-Dragon tie-up special events. So this is what you see when you first reach the page:

Every week/2weeks? There's a new fun event ^^ You can watch the Gmarket Party MV at the side. This week's event it: Fill in the missing lyrics to enter the contest, and you could win Gstamps or w50,000 Gmarket gift coupons~
For the previous event there was a different lyrics quiz and a mini 'treasure hunt mission' ^^ You had to find nine different G-Dragon icons around the Gmarket site to enter a contest to win headphones that G-Dragon wore in the Heartbreaker MV. And the event before there was another lyrics contest and a DDR-like mini-game, where the Gmarket Party song plays while objects come raining down in different columns, you have to press the right keys according to the tempo. You could play for fun (and the song is really catchy) and if you got above a certain score you could enter a contest to win Big Bang CDs (if I recall correctly haha) (:


Scrolling further down the page, you can download free wallpapers and screensavers (: There are other stuff too but I can't read Korean well, so I'm not sure what they're for. You can check it out if you'd like (: **This event is over**

So yeah, there are lots of events going on at Gmarket all the time, some are quite fun and useful (: Games, contests, special deals, recommendations, bestseller lists etc. So if you have time you can go check them out~ ♥ ♥ Do note that events change every few weeks or so (: Links may change over the months too. For the most up to date events, go to the Gmarket main page~

Gmarket Haul - Books, CDs, DVDs and misc ♥

Hello all~ This time round I hauled Korean books, CDs and DVDs! Wanted to make use of the books category coupons available this month, as well as the Bravo Gmarket overseas shipping coupons, hence the haul ♥♥　

Two shipments because I forgot to combine shipping T_T Other than books, CDs and DVDs I actually ordered clothes but since everyone orders clothes/shoes from Gmarket I shalln't be reviewing that today~ Onto the DVDs first!

Clockwise from top left: SS501 Step Up Concert, All About DBSK Season 1, All About DBSK Season 3, DBSK Mirotic Concert, Tohoshinki The Secret Code Concert, DBSK 'O' Concert.

Okay, so I only ordered the last four, the other two I already had but wanted to include in the picture (: Sadly All About DBSK Season 2 was not available on Gmarket, I don't know why. Neither was the Five in the Black Concert DVD. Maybe they're out of stock or I wasn't searching with the right terms?

The O and Mirotic DVDs were from the seller 케이아트+. They were about 23,000 won and 33,000 won after coupons. The Mirotic DVD was supposed to come with 5 bookmarks, but I didn't even get a single one! What happened to it! :( And the posters included weren't matching with the product, they were just random posters of DBSK. The O DVD was supposed to come with a standing calendar, what happened to it!? I never got that either :( But the packaging is cool, the silver portions actually change color reflecting light, that's why you can see the rainbow/spectrum of colors in the picture above ^^

I got the Secret Code and AADBSK3 from 뮤직코리아. Great to watch! :D They were 25,000 won and 33,000 won after coupons. Of the 4 DVDs, only All About has English subtitles, but I speak/read Japanese so Japanese subtitles/audio were fine for me (:

Clockwise from top left: Jejung&Yuchun - Colors, Melody and Harmony; DBSK - Mirotic Ver. C, DBSK - A Christmas Gift from DBSK, DBSK - Hug, DBSK - Vacation OST.

CDs! These are some of their older singles and mini albums, which aren't available in Singapore, so I wanted to grab in case they cease production or something :/ From the seller 음반몰. I actually wanted to grab a couple more but I shouldn't bee too greedy, and get them next time! Totally love the packaging of the Christmas gift, it's so cute, like a gift! Comes with postcards (:

Got some textbooks/workbooks for learning Korean~♥ The Kyunghee University series. The Singapore Korean School uses this for teaching Korean, and apparently in South Korea it's used to teach some foreign diplomats and their family, so it must be effective right? I haven't started reading it yet though! Top row is textbooks, the bottom row the accompanying workbooks. Blue is Beginner's I, red is Beginner's II, green is Intermediate I. I didn't get the Intermediate II and Advanced I&II, I have to actually get started on and finish these three first! :P

Got the workbooks from Libro and the textbooks from 영풍문고. The workbooks come in a 30-hole ring binder, but sadly due to the (rather bad) packaging of the seller, when they reached me the plastic cover and ring openings were cracked and broken. Even worse, the broken bits were nowhere to be found in the boxes! So... Shipping was rather slow too. So I bought new files to put them in. They were around 12-13,000 won each after coupons. The textbooks on the other hand were quick in shipping and came in good condition. They were around 15,000 won.

The 3 thicker bottom ones are workbooks, and the 2 thinner ones are the textbooks. The textbooks are in English and Korean and the paper is of thick, glossy, good quality. However as you can see I'm missing the textbook for the red, Beginner's II, as the two sellers selling it on Gmarket both do not ship it overseas! Which I find odd as everything else in the series (Beginner I, Intermediate I & II, Advanced I & II) all ship overseas! Just not the Beginner's II...

Masking stickers! They're sheets of patterned stickers in strips/circles which you can use to decorate notes, cards etc. Really pretty and can't wait to use them! Hehe I started by decorated the tin above :D

Also got 2 books from (주)수송사샵. They were on 50% sale and cost only 5,400won each! Lee Hyeyoung's Beauty Bible and Fashion Bible. Honestly I doubt I can read them since I don't know much Korean yet but there are pictures, and who could resist such a pretty hot pink book like that! The cover is just so, so pretty, pink, lace pattern, mirror-like image in the middle.

The Beauty Bible also has a sweet pink ribbon bookmark :D

They also came with download coupons (which I do not know how to use since it's in Korean, but maybe someday I'll learn how to!) That is if they don't expire first!

Also got 5 rings (the ones in plastics) from the seller 테이커. The rest are all freebies!

I love these two the most ♥

I love the ribbon one as well, it's so sweet! ♥

Ordered the Dr Jart+ Silver Label BB cream after I finished my Black Label. From the GmarketDr Jart+ shop. I have to say I LOVE THIS! ♥♥ Coverage is really good, yet the finish is natural enough. However I like the Black Label more cos it has a more natural finish, Silver Label can be a bit too dry/matte! Came with 2 satchets of the Silver label, a 30ml miniature of the Whitening Water Drop (which I adore as well, it's great for moisturizing and calms the redness my skin has been experiencing lately), a Pore Medic sheet mask, and a 5,000 won coupon to be used in any of the physical Korea stores, valid till Dec 2011. Also came with a brochure listing their products. Shipping was super quick, I ordered Sunday evening, it finished domestic shipping by Tuesday morning? Hehe I made use of a 20% Beauty VIP coupon for the category foundations I think? Plus Dr Jart+ was having a promotion so it cost 17,000 won if I recall correctly.

I'm going to order a bunch more stuff from Dr Jart+, which I shall review again when it comes! The Vitalaser series (:


Here's the current batch of BB creams I'm trying to finish. I've finished up a Dr Jart Black label, Liole Water Drop. BRTC's almost finishing, but it has no SPF so I'm not using it as often anymore. The Hanskin's almost gone as well. But I can't use it anymore cos I got tanner over summer and it's too white for me now T_T I really loved it, coverage was great. For now my fave is the Silver Label, followed by Banila Co's Let Me Bebe, comes in a hygienic pump tube, I got it from Gmarket a few months ago!

So that's it this time round. Next time shall be my Dr Jart haul! ♥ xoxo

JYJ Showcase!

Fangirl-time! Well, semi-fangirly, I'm not a crazy fangirl haha ^^ So, I've been a DBSK fan since 2004, and they've never performed in Singapore T_T I can't remember how many petitions and fan projects I've participated in hoping they'd be able to come. Anyway, after 6 long years, they finally came, as JYJ!

No, I wasn't able to get ANY photos of them at the airport cos there were mobs of crazier fangirls haha.

My ticket~ Block AA1, Row B, Seat 14. Basically it's two rows from the side of the stage, at the end near the backstage area. Bad cos I was 2 seats away from where the usher was standing so no sneaky fancam-ing, but good cos I had a good view of the stairs where the boys went up and down the stage. And I was only 7m away from where they stood! Jaejoong looks flawless even when he's tired. Poor boys must be exhausted doing 3 showcases in 3 days! Plus all the press cons they had to attend and flying here and there. Hope they rested well after!

Since the airport was one stop away from the Expo where the showcase was gonna be held, I figured I'd just go there to wait. I was within the first 5 people in the queue till late-arriving friends of the people in front of me cut and sat with their earlier-arriving friends. I guess it didn't bother me much cos tickets were seated anyway haha. I was there at 2:30pm, the doors were supposed to open at 6:30pm but only opened at 8pm. So I was 7m from stage and at the side where they go on/off stage, so I saw them a lot! And they looked/moved over to my side a lot too ♥ Showcase ended up starting at 9. But totally didn't mind, I had quite a good view!


One picture right after entering the venue. Anyway, who needs pictures/videos when they were right in front of me! The boys are really a lot better live and in person ♥ Their voices were so good, some of the time I was just closing my eyes and listening to them sing. But of course since finally they were standing in front of me after soooo many years I had to stare...and stare and their awe-inspiring presences. Yuchun was totally rocking the long tied-up hair! And he was super smiley despite looking tired. And he is such a sweet-talker hehe. They had a talk session and Micky was the only one answering in English. His English speaking-voice is soooo hot ♥ the translator was lousy though, could so obviously tell he didn't translate very well. They were sitting host,YC, JJ, JS, translator, so JaeChun soulmate moments! Chun was like Jae's private translator haha while Junsu was stuck with the translator. And Chun kept pushing Jae to answer qns. For intros Jaejoong was like 'How are you? I am JJ!' in English. So cutee ♥♥ Then he switched to Korean haha! They didn't sell the photobook or lightsticks like in the Seoul showcase :( Just CDs/posters. 찾았다 and Empty were amazing ♥♥♥ Their vocals never cease to amaze me, which is why I can go on and on watching their concert DVDs just cos their live voices sound better than their recorded ones. Actually everything was great, just seeing them so close and hearing their voices live! ♥♥♥ すごく感動した。 They never cease to amaze me with their sincerity and their effort, despite seeming really tired, they still gave it their all and put on a great performance. Their love for their fans is amazing and I'm really proud of them for having the courage to stand up for their dreams.

I don't think i could ever bring myself to scream for anyone else, not enough history. Bigbang maybe, Shinhwa maybe, FT Island probably not, SNSD probably not. But DBSK always and forever definitely yes ♥♥

Jaejoong had huuge eyebags but his skin was flawless, my heart skipped a (ok like 500000) beats when he was facing my side dancing/singing the Empty remix ♥♥♥ Why does he always look so good? While dancing the Empty remix on my side he really was looking at the crowd, looking at the faces of the fans who came to see them. After all these years he's still the same ^^ He was a bit quiet though so they must be really tired. Poor guys. Out of Junsu's outfit I like the last one most haha. It was the most casual/un-costumey. Cos for the opening, which Jae and Micky were wearing white suits (which they totally rocked), Junsu was wearing a...white frilly halter :/ But he was really cute when he talked, though the translator and MC made the atmosphere weird :/ Chun was wearing a black baggy thing that ended up falling to one side and exposing his left shoulder hehe.

However I must say that the organization/management of the showcase was really bad. Feel really bad for the boys as well. I know a lot of people were unhappy with ticketing issues and how they had a 60-40 sectioning of VIP tickets to local and international fans? What country does that!! I thought the whole point of bringing in an artist into your country was so locals could have access to see them. Plus the delay of transport and unprofessional translator and delays of everything and etc. Well, I do have a lot of complaints about the organization but everyone else is of pretty much the same opinion so I shalln't be repetitive ^^

Anyway, they were selling the CDs, they had 100 copies of the luxury edition and being one of the first few in line I was able to get one~ They were it for $90 and a bundle of luxury+normal for $100 so I got the bundle, got two posters too.

The front of the box, it really looks and feels luxurious~ ♥

The backs, embossed lettering and tracklist ♥

One of the posters happily up on my wall, the other's safely kept away for emergency ^^

Contents of the luxury edition! Comes with a photobook, 16 good quality glossy photo cards, a T-shirt and of course the CD, in the pretty black 25cm x 25cm box.

Luxury ed with normal ed (made in Singapore, not the Korean normal ed T_T)

The small poster they were selling with the lightstick at the venue. I have two of these, one's a backup in case of emergencies! Hehe and a GG lookalike ♥ If you realized, this is a backdated post ^^ Cos JYJ only started tweeting after BKK/SG/KL showcase. And GG only started appearing in Jae's tweets after. I got my GG lookalike from Gmarket!

Tiramisus ~ ♥♥

Yumyumyum, tiramisu is one of my absolute favorite desserts! So while in Italy this summer, I must've had it at least once every day/other day! But sadly after we left Italy and head west to France and Spain, no more tiramisus for me T_T

Tiramisu from a cafe near our hotel in Rome, a bit dry? I think it was 5euros?

Dinner at Monaco, 7-8euros? But it was good (: Not overly creamy, enough cake and rum.

7.50eurods I think? But it's too creamy for my liking/not enough cake.

Pompi tiramisu from Rome! Pompi, il Regno del Tiramisu, Pompi - the King of Tiramisu. The cafe/bar, Pompi, is near Re di Roma station, and serves mostly desserts. The prices are reasonable, around 4euros each? The tiramisu comes in a 300g serving and mmmmm it's heavenly! I love this type of tiramisu texture!

Closeup of Pompi's tiramisu!

They also have a strawberry tiramisu! Using strawberries instead of coffee. Great as well but I prefer traditional coffee tiramisu (: They also have a banana one I believe?

Tiramisu from a geleteria near the Piazza di Spagna in Rome. 4.50euro. Not that great, for one I hate whipped cream, and secondly the cake was too dry.

Ice cream tiramisu from Roma Termini station. 3euro?

Wonderful tiramisu from an eatery in Venice! It was great! It was part of a set lunch, which was also delicious and very worth it.

First tiramisu we had in Rome, across the street from the monument of Vittorio Emanuele. 5euros? Comes in a chocolate coated waffle.

Not from Rome but tiramisu from Bakerzin in Singapore. Dry, small serving.

Tiramisu from Cova (Italian eatery in Singapore).

Tiramisu from Dome (Singapore). Didn't taste like tiramisu though :/

Tiramisu from Gusttimo (Italian eatery from Korea), heavenly! Left side is the tiramisu cake, and right side is tiramisu icecream.

Shop display in Florence.

Pastry display in Venice.

Another in Venice.

Oh-so-wonderful Laduree macarons in Monaco! So flavorful and perfecttexture. 7.5euros for 4.

A cute porcupine cake in Barcelona haha.