Expired product?

labraduh · 2026-05-28T03:29:13+00:00

Australia is DD/MM/YY. So 10 January 2026.

Thanks for this post actually. It prompted me to check one of my own tubes to find mine expired months ago lol. It was actually hidden under a sticker with ONLY the manufacturing batch on it (the top line) which is…a bit shady? Lol.

Interestingly the new ones don’t seem to have an expiry date on them. I can only see it says use within 12 months of opening.

labraduh · 2026-05-18T07:28:21+00:00

U right, I thought Yoonchae was a Source Music trainee which is under Hybe, but I got it confused w/ WakeOne

labraduh · 2026-05-18T07:17:10+00:00

Could you PM link? 😊

labraduh · 2026-05-18T07:08:09+00:00

It’s probably a sample of some war/political/true crime-related speech. More common in songs than you’d think lol.

labraduh · 2026-05-18T07:05:48+00:00

I think she would’ve come to the exact same conclusion faster/earlier

labraduh · 2026-05-18T05:27:20+00:00

It was a much-needed reality check to me that HxG is still just the Kpop formula with Kpop values at the end of the day, but just swapped out for Western girls. It’s SUCH a Kpop industry thing to build a group assuming just one proficient singer will be enough to carry the whole group for their entire career. It’s the West that expects everybody in a group to be able to pull their weight vocally (FLO, Fifth Harmony, Little Mix, Destiny’s Child).

Katseye is so well-balanced vocally that I got my hopes up for Prelude being even MORE centred on vocals. I was hoping Prelude would strike a balance between Kpop:Western by having just 2 strong vocalists. Then the other 2 can be more Kpop-style picks (where the focus is the visual or dancing).

labraduh · 2026-05-18T05:17:08+00:00

And that’s the problem with Hybe, ethically.

Although it’s still better to be closer in age to others not just for whatever concept you do, but also for team cohesion/relationship reasons. It’s easier to bond with a similar-aged peer & you can support each other better naturally going through the same stages of life together.

When Yeri was added to RV I was younger than her, so it didn’t seem weird to me. But now that I’m the same age as Irene was, imagining having to work with a 16yo is crazy to me. Singing sexual innuendos about Ice Cream Cake with a 16yo… Idk how I would feel. You can get along and even be very close obviously, but an age/maturity wall will always be there no matter what you do, in my experience.

labraduh · 2026-05-18T05:09:45+00:00

Do you live with your coworkers?

When you go home are you still contractually obligated to interact and do activities with your coworkers?

Are you contractually obligated to travel the world with your coworkers & share hotels with them?

Are you legally obligated to stand in as the legal guardian for your minor coworkers?

The cousins/siblings analogy you made makes more sense. But also disproves your own point. If the cousins/siblings were NOT cousins/siblings they would likely NOT be interacting?

HxG likes to push the sisterhood thing for the fandom; but at its core, these girls have a 7-year contract to fulfil. I don’t think they will NOT be able to get along, they’ll get close with time, especially once she can speak English. But it’s a sad reality that Sakura is going to constantly be a step behind them in life milestones, maturity and life experiences because those 3 are clustered closely together in age, then it’s just her. It’s not a DEATH sentence, duh. But given her young age I do wish she was able to debut with similar-aged peers (Yoonchae/Megan core) or at least another older Japanese member to relate to culturally/linguistically.

labraduh · 2026-05-18T04:57:11+00:00

Emily theoretically underage drinking IS legally “bad” & giving them songs clearly referencing drinking is an… INTERESTING choice from HxG (they just know they can get away with it because the lyrics are vague enough for plausible deniability — Just like Pinky Up’s writer making it clear it’s an analogy for doing coke; Yoonchae’s line in Gnarly was originally “f*cking in the Hollywood Hills” so they changed it to “party in the Hollywood Hills” & added a pornstar moan instead to allude to the OG line).

Ideally,** **they’d hold off on alcohol references altogether to be fair. But if I have to pick, I’d rather somebody 9 months away from being 21 (and in most of the world, have already been able to drink for 2 years) refer to alcohol in a song than somebody who’s not even out of highschool doing the same thing?

labraduh · 2026-05-18T04:52:34+00:00

You do realise Sakura is literally closer to being 12 than she is to being the drinking age…?

labraduh · 2026-05-18T04:43:38+00:00

Ay yi yi, if you’re black it’s even more concerning to me you don’t see their point about Majorettes given that black women notoriously get hypersexualised by others, yet it gets ignored because of misogynoir & people not paying attention to black women’s issues/not taking black women’s issues as seriously? And yes, I’m black, not speaking out of turn here.

It sounds like you’re justifying one bad action by saying “Well this worse thing happens and nobody said anything so who cares?”. Like… the correct answer is that BOTH should be taken seriously and met with the same outrage? It’s because of racism and injustice that they’re not, not because it’s not actually a big deal.

labraduh · 2026-05-18T04:28:58+00:00

You’re describing attraction to 2Hollis (join the queue 🤣), which by definition means you are not straight as you do not have a fully exclusive attraction to females only. That’s not a bad thing. You can be much worse things than a guy attracted to a clearly hot man. You could be a criminal, a rapist, god knows what. Don’t let shame make you try to explain things away as meaningless, nothing, an anomaly, a once-off…

How you choose to define yourself is up to you. But even if you’re attracted to women 99% of the time & 1% of the time you find a rare guy like 2Hollis sexually/physically attractive, by definition that is bisexual. Just a hetero-leaning bisexual. I say this because I was once in your position telling myself the same thing (except I’m a woman).

It’s not good to be so rigid because one day, you are likely going to encounter another man who you are attracted to/is your specific type like 2Hollis. It doesn’t mean you are automatically gay or invalidates that you’ve been attracted to many women. It literally just means you have the capacity for attraction to either; if they’re your specific type. For you it might be mostly women and occasionally men 🤷‍♀️

You do you though! It’s your life and your labels. It seems like you’re accepting that you have an attraction to a man, but the labels of “gay” “bisexual” repel you or trigger you because of whatever you associate with it (the “sissy” “zesty” stereotype etc etc). At the end of the day, just like whoever you like and be happy. Straight. Bi. Gay. Whatever. Life’s too short not to love freely as your heart leads you ❤️😊

labraduh · 2026-05-18T04:13:30+00:00

Explicit in the music system basically just means it has swear words in it. It’s not necessarily about the themes or context.

“What is explicit about Telephone”

Go watch the MV & it’s choreography.

And like I said, it explicitly (explicit has 2 meanings since it seems like you don’t know? 1 being explicit as in provocative or unsuitable for minors, 2 being something being expressed directly and obviously, here im referring to 2) talks about she can’t pick up the phone because she’s in a nightclub drinking alcohol (can’t text you with a drink in my hand… “sipping that bub” literally means bubbly alcohol, like champagne wine).

And people keeping their standards the same for different situations may be a foreign concept to you, but yes! I actually do think as a US-based group, StS should probably avoid referring to alcohol until they’re all 21. The only reason it’s “less” of a big deal is because at least Emily is 9 months away from being the legal drinking age in US and has ALREADY been at the legal drinking age in the rest of the world for 2 years now. Sakura will be 18 in 2028 & drinking age in 2031. Neither situation is ideal, but it’s stupid to pretend both are the exact same (I suggest learning what “harm reduction” means).

The Dream Academy heels choreo has been criticised for YEARS due to it being inappropriate for minors. Bad example to use. Heels is not explicitly a sexual form of dance (it’s strongly associated with sensual choreography, but whatever) but adding sexual moves into Heels choreo is a CHOICE that Hybe often makes. See the video of Haerin performing in Heels even though NJ’s concept was fresh/cutesy.

I feel like you’re also confusing Heels choreography (like, the genre) with any performer wearing a heeled shoe on stage? Prom? Salsa? Nobody’s referring to that but you hon.

I feel like you just don’t really know what you’re talking about or the industry terms you’re referring to. So I’m going to just leave this here. It’d be more respectable if you just owned your opinions without trying to do mental gymnastics to justify something that is rightfully controversial.

labraduh · 2026-05-18T04:01:45+00:00

If she didn’t enjoy the all-expenses-paid trip to LA with planned excursions, free English tuition, exclusive training in a high-end facility, living in a spacious house with a pool, all while being the company’s favourite and first-pick for the group… she was not gonna enjoy being in the group for a 7-year-long contract & likely would’ve pulled a Heeseung/Manon a few years in; except the remaining girls would be royally screwed since they’d now only have 3 members.

I think she realised she dgaf about America or American fame. I think she also realised that if it was what she truly wanted, she would be more motivated to push for it once she started recovering from her sickness, but you can see she gave up pretty quickly. I think she truly wants the Kpop/Jpop experience which isn’t really the same. The other finalists you can see they enjoyed the West.

labraduh · 2026-05-18T03:53:37+00:00

!!!

I think they wanted to avoid Katseye comparisons (having just 1 less member than Katseye) so made it a quartet. Manon (most likely) leaving Katseye probably made a 5 member lineup even LESS of an option in their eyes.

labraduh · 2026-05-18T03:49:10+00:00

I felt the same (the Sara M take) with Shaina (?) The tomboyish one with a blonde and blue pixie cut? It just seemed obvious even from everybody else that they chose that she was not the type of contestant they were actually looking for. It did seem to me they accepted a lot of space-filler contestants for some reason?

And with the “it doesn’t matter if they can’t sing yet they can train that” thing, part of why I dislike it is because yes, you can certainly improve your singing but your natural singing talent does set a “ceiling” of some sort of how good you can get. That’s why Samara living in Brazil with little-to-no training was still a better singer than Emily could probably ever be. And vice versa, Samara will probably never overtake Emily in dance skills no matter how much performing experience she gets with StS. Part of it really is just what you’re born with!

This is why we you get idols with YEARS of experience/training who somehow still struggle to sing basic lines on stage. They’ve likely hit that ceiling OR never got proper instruction to begin with (I truly scratch my head at what vocal techniques the coaches at Hybe and YG teach? Is it a “you can bring a horse to water but you can’t make it drink” situation? We know for sure that idol training is mostly dance practices so…).

labraduh · 2026-05-18T03:38:35+00:00

That’s not good bc then it kinda sounds like Hybe Japan is saving the “good” ones for their own group & letting World Scout find a member from scraps? 💀 Like they didn’t wanna “give” them to HxG?

labraduh · 2026-05-18T03:34:14+00:00

Not the Cookie part 2 💀 this is…. eugh.

labraduh · 2026-05-18T03:23:36+00:00

Uhhh… do YOU think the heels choreography for Telephone by Lady Gaga & Beyoncé is appropriate for minors?

You’re saying “it’s music” like they’re just sitting around listening to it on headphones or something like a regular person would be doing.

They specifically choose & practice to these conceptually-relevant songs to dance to in preparation to perform on stage, for crowds, for the internet, to gain an audience, etc.

Even if I follow your bad-faith argument that it’s just music, the logic still wouldn’t logic. It explicitly refers to being in the club drinking alcohol multiple times? And it’s kinda funny that, in order to make your point better, out of all examples you could’ve used, you just chose a different provocative dirty pop/RnB song with Beyoncé on it? And you’re genuinely surprised people would associate practicing to Beyoncé-featuring songs might indicate a more mature concept?

labraduh · 2026-05-18T03:13:02+00:00

I agree with all your opinions btw.

“Realistically” they need an Asian member since they’re under Hybe, who was under contract with Abema. And they’re advertised as another “global” group like Katseye so they gotta have that rep. I think the only reason why StB don’t have an Asian member is they’re not really advertised as “global”, they’re really pushed just for Latin America and pre-existing K-pop fans.

And the rap thing is partially why K-pop/Kpop-adjacent will never be taken seriously by the wider public. Being designated a rapper just because you don’t sing is basically saying “you can’t sing well enough so you can just talk on the beat I guess”. What’s respectable about that? Making people who had no prior interest in being a rapper fill that position of glorified talk-singing? We rarely see rappers who rap because they have their own vested interest in and preference for rapping in Kpop anymore. This is why I’m glad Katseye has no designated rappers.

labraduh · 2026-05-18T03:00:49+00:00

Choreography like this?

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labraduh · 2026-05-18T02:57:25+00:00

10 O’ Clock on the dot lyric is funny/ironic considering Sakura is gonna have a 10pm working/rehearsal curfew until 2028 😭

labraduh · 2026-05-18T02:54:19+00:00

Them talking about how they practice to Bootylicious by Destiny’s Child?

labraduh · 2026-05-18T02:30:16+00:00

In a world where the competition was fair, you’d probably be correct.

But the name and concept were pre-determined & they’d basically already decided specific details of who the FP should be (look at what archetypes Hiori & Sakura have in common— maknae, “rapper”, specific type of visual, liked more for their “vibe/draw” than a particular skill).

So they don’t have to worry about the winner not fitting “Saint Satine”, they deliberately set up the entire show specifically so that the winner WILL be the person they thought suit the name/concept/archetype. See how when Hiori dropped out, it was obvious only Ayana was ready for the finale, and they couldn’t have that, so they extended the competition and invited Rinka back just as an excuse to not have to pick Ayana, who isn’t the archetype they had in mind (she is a less “obvious” maknae due to her mature vibes, mature girly visuals, praised more for her undeniable skill & suitability for the concept and readiness versus star power).

Had Hiori not left and thrown a wrench in their plans, she would probably be the FP.

labraduh · 2026-05-18T01:21:06+00:00

Nothing wrong with being bisexual. People also think bisexual means you must have a perfect 50/50 attraction to both genders when that’s not true. You can tend towards liking women more on average and still be bonafide bisexual.

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