London by Night/Duck and Waffle

If I had to count how many touristy pictures I've taken of the Thames, Big Ben and the London Eye, it would probably amount to a total of TOO MANY. But this has never stopped me from whipping out my camera and perfecting my photography skills every time I'm in London Town! haha and if I have to be honest, I'd say these pictures are the most satisfying ones I've taken to date. Just shows you don't need to fork out a lot of money on a DSLR to take good photos -- all you need is a steady hand, a good eye and some basic editing skills! ;) Shame the Eye was closed for maintenance so the lights weren't on display.

My friend Ewan, geeking out at M&M world. First time I've ever been.. and I really don't see the point of this shop.. 

Somerset House looking rather plain after the closing of the ice rink! 

Another first visit on the list! I can't believe I've never tried out Patisserie Valerie till now. I've always wanted to go, but something always comes up! Despite being there for a short while, it definitely was worth a visit. The cake I had (Strawberry Gateau) reminded me of a Chinese style cake, soft and moist, yummy-in-my-tummy kinda flavour! ;) Will have to come back again at some point and try some other stuff. Ewan and I were only there to kill time because we had three hours of nothing to do till our dinner reservations at 9.15pm. 

DUCK & WAFFLE 

Branded as one of the more exclusive to places to eat in London, Duck & Waffle is located on the 40th floor of the Heron Tower just across Liverpool Street. They are known for serving a blend of European and English food in which they encourage tables to share a variety of different dishes. In my opinion, I expected a lot from this restaurant, just because of the pricing and the popularity given their mega long waiting list. Originally I phoned up to book for 6pm on a Monday, but they had no spaces till 9pm. But my friend and I decided we'll give it a shot and wait out for dinner till later.

I guess you can call this a review -- but just a disclaimer, I'm no food critic, haha. These views are purely based on my first encounter with this restaurant and my personal expectations.

We arrived at the bottom of the Heron tower where we were greeted by a guy asking whether we had reservations at Duck & Waffle. After a quick confirmation, we were escorted into a fancy lift that took us directly to the 40th floor. The ride was a swift one with views gradually looking over London city.

The bar is the first thing you see when you enter and its definitely a unique looking one! Rather than having a close-countered bar, it is an open-top one which I think makes the atmosphere more intimate. But after checking the prices on the alcoholic beverages list, Ewan and I decided we were better off with just a couple of soft drinks! (Yea.. I'm a student after all, don't judge!) It was actually a long wait before we were seated to our table.. I'd say we didn't sit down at the restaurant till maybe 9:40pm. The waiters/waitresses we had were informative and we were told to order a variety of small dishes and a main dish to share, so Ewan and I settled on some raw scallops, raw oysters, pollock meatballs (which didn't register as fish in our minds..), rosemary and garlic bread and the house dish of duck and waffle.

I'd say the raw scallops and raw oysters took the cake for us. The raw scallops (as pictured above) were served on this block of salt which we were advised to use our hands to rub the scallop on and eat with. It had a really good texture but shame it all disappeared after one bite.. same with the raw oysters. The most disappointing dish had to be the rosemary and garlic bread. I didn't end up taking a picture of that one... because I just didn't think it was worth it! You would think a simple dish like that wouldn't be hard to accomplish, but somehow, it didn't taste anything what we had hoped. They tried to make it authentic but somehow failed.. because the garlic on the bread were actual garlic cloves which were slightly awkward to eat and I guess to compensate the garlic, they loaded the bread with lots of salt, so it ended being salty bread with garlic chunks. The salt was so strong I couldn't even taste the rosemary.

The meatballs were deceivingly not meat! Pollock never registered in our minds as fish.. so when it arrived, we were pleasantly surprised. It wasn't a bad dish, a little on the small size for the price, but it was still good.

Lastly, the duck and waffle took a while to be served. Ewan and I were intrigued to see how this tasted because its such an odd combination of food. The dish came with a fried egg, two waffle pieces, fried duck leg and a pot of syrup and mustard seeds. We took a huge bite with a bit of everything on the plate and it was surprisingly quite good. But if you were to look at it without associating it with the restaurant, something like this could have been mashed up together at home too without costing a bomb.

So overall, I'd say this restaurant is definitely over-hyped. The food we chose were not particularly filling but enough to suffice. But the atmosphere was nice and the views were an added bonus to the evening.

♥

Review: Bare Minerals Foundation

One thing that was on my last-minute to-pack list for Hong Kong was to find some mineral foundation, so that my face can survive the hot and humid weather without my pores being clogged up. In the past, I've always used the Skin79 Hot pink BB Cream, but seeing as it just melted off my face whenever I get super sweaty and hot, it leaves my skin looking majorly oily-- not particularly attractive..

One thing that I do know about mineral foundation is that it is supposedly good for the skin, and it contains elements in the powder that doesn't make your skin look as oily when its humid outside. And this is the sole reason why I opted to try out Bare Escentuals' mineral foundation.

So I wore it for a few days in England, and my skin was fine. But I found that I had to put a lot to cover my blemishes (because it also acts as a concealer) which looked heavy on the skin and slightly off my skin-tone the more you apply.

However, once I touched down Hong Kong, my skin did not look too great after 2 days of use. My face became incredibly dry and bumps and dry patches on my skin appeared. The more I sweat, the more my face burned and became itchy! Needless to say, I had an allergic reaction to the mineral foundation.

I googled searched the stuff and found that Bare Escentuals mineral foundation actually contains a chemical called Bismuth Oxychloride which is the culprit for causing my face to burn and itch so intensely! It is used to help the product blend more smoothly on the skin and some of its by-products contain metals of lead and copper nature which enhances acne growth. -_____- ughh. This also explains why I've been breaking out so much too!

I am not one to usually have such sensitive skin, but I would definitely not recommend this to anyone who does!! This product has seriously damaged my skin and I'm still having a hard time trying to fully recover from the scaring and bouts of breakouts that I'm having.

Despite my unfavoured reaction to the product, it is possibly not to say that I should never try mineral foundation again, but in the future, it is noteworthy to look at the ingredients beforehand and watch out for the deadly Bismuth.

Glossy Box UK - May, 1st Birthday Edition 2012

This month's glossybox arrived incredibly on time, I mean so quick that I got a confirmation email saying that it has been dispatched in the early hours of Wednesday morning and then just a couple of hours later it was sitting outside my bedroom door! Whoop for speed and efficiency! xP

Following on my slight disappointment with my last glossybox, I was hoping that this box would be more promising, and boy am I happy with what I got! Since its the birthday edition, a pink balloon and a compact mirror was also thrown in for good measure!

Despite all the negative comments I read about this box on their facebook page, I think all the products that I received are decent and would be things that I would try out. I know I said I'm not a big fan of sample sized shampoo/shower gel, but the one that I got smells absolutely divineee! My favourite so far is the Berber hair oil which has made my hair amazingly silky smooth.

I probably got lucky with the set of eyelashes, as I've seen some not-so-great ones which people got. I'm also looking forward to try the masks and the only thing I'm not so keen on are the sample perfumes which aren't really to my taste.

Glossybox can either be a hit or a miss, and I'm glad this month's one has given me some great products for me to try. Sadly I'm not able to continue using this service in the UK, since I'm moving to Australia for a year! But I'm most likely to try Glossybox Australian edition just to see what products they have to offer!

Overall, I'd give this box a ☆☆☆☆/★★★★★, 

For more info on the May Glossybox, click here.

GRAZE - Healthy Snacking

Healthy snacks for a healthy mind! 

That was the selling point for me aside from the first free box offer and my vicarious attempt to eat more healthily. It was amidst exams that I decided to give these a try since I tend to snack a lot on junk food when it comes to revision. >_< Graze is an online-delivery service in which you subscribe and pay £3.79 per box filled with 4 different snacks sent to your home/office on an allocated day of the week. Its not one of those services where you are committed to buying one every week, it allows you to be flexible and unsubscribe at any time or change the date of your delivery.

I love how they have layout the site! Once you sign up, you are asked to rate over 100 different types of snacking foods, and if you see something you don't particularly like, you 'bin' them, and they won't send them to you, its worth the money that way.

My first two boxes arrived promptly last week, and I'm really impressed with the quality of the foods. My favourites so far have to got to be the honeycomb flapjacks, the basil garlic olives, and the strawberry milkshake. The one which I have taken the least liking to is the healthy nuts - just because I'm not a huge fan of nuts, and I forgot to 'bin' this one.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is aiming to eat more healthily! They even personalise each box with printing my name on the info booklets and adding a serviette in the box for that extra touch! Its definitely the small gestures that counts! ;)

If you're interested, try your first box for free using this link!

GLOSSY BOX UK - April Organic Edition 2012

Glossy Box has become a renowned company within the Beauty blogasphere for the past year in which for a monthly subscription of £10 (+ £2.95 for p&p) you receive a box filled with 5 luxury skincare/make-up/hair products varying in sample to full size for beauty junkies to test out. I've always been interested in subscribing to one, but I've always been put off to try it out due to the varying products and opinions that I've read or seen from other beauty bloggers. I gathered its a rather hit or miss for some, and especially for people like me who aren't so keen on getting body cream or skincare products which you generally find you get given to for a thoughtless christmas present, it usually gets pushed to one corner gathering dust.

In all honesty, I was much more excited in trying out the alternative make-up products which glossy box has to offer. Skincare on the one hand can be tricky to distribute to the mass as everyone has different skin conditions. Therefore, after seeing previous monthly Glossy boxes, I thought they looked pretty promising so I decided to give it a try.

April was an organic edition and in my box I received an organic eye liner, organic lip balm, body cream (oh dear), serum, and straightening baum to contain frizzy hair.

I liked the fact they went for an organic edition to the products as I'm not particularly aware of organic beauty items that are on the market right now. But to be honest, I was a little disappointed with what I got.. my least favourite has got to be the body cream, followed by the straightening baum. The straightening serum for frizzy hair is definitely not a product suited for me, just because I don't really straighten my hair and my hair is already dead straight anyway let alone the fact I need it to prevent frizzyness. And the body cream...... -___- need I say more?

I have however, tried out the organic lip balm which is a reasonable product. It has a nice peppermint taste to it but I found it didn't hydrate my lips as much as my other lips balms that I own.
My thoughts on the serum is neither good nor bad, I've tested it out for the past week, it has definitely hydrated my skin a little, but for the time being, I have not noticed anything drastic that has changed in my skin. I probably have to use it for a longer period of time to see any changes, if at all.

The eyeliner is possibly one of the better aspects in the box, but I actually swapped this with my housemate who also ordered the April box for the INKA lip liner that she got. I'm not a big fan of blue eyeliner, but I wanted to try out the lip liner so she was happy to exchange. =) I haven't used it yet.. so I can't comment on how its like.

Overall, I'd give this box a ☆☆/★★★★★, 
I'm hopeful the next box will be better as it's the birthday box for Glossy Box's one year anniversary.

For more info on other products of the April glossy box go here.

- Photos credit to Zoe Lee 

Skin 79 Oriental Gold BB Cream vs. Skin79 Super BB Triple Function Cream

So today's post is a review between two different BB Creams from the same company, Skin79. 

One is the Super BB Triple Function (in Hot Pink!) which I've been using religiously for the past 8 months and the other is the Oriental Gold BB Cream which I only just got a week ago. =))

So, I'm going to start with the hot pink one, which is my favourite BB Cream that I've ever tried. The main reason why I like this so much is the fact it doesn't feel heavy on my skin, it blends in well with my skin tone and it keeps it hydrated. For me, it gives me a nice dewy glow complexion, it doesn't clog up my pores and in turn brightens some areas of my face. 

However, the downside is to this cream, is that it only comes in one shade. But generally, how a BB cream works is that it usually oxidises when exposed to air so it matches your skin tone. (clever eh? xP) Although having an easy pump, it's not that hygienic-- so be careful of that. 

In comparison, the Oriental Gold BB cream feels a bit thicker in texture and has better coverage than the hot pink one. Despite being a thicker cream, it doesn't feel as heavy. It is easy to apply, and once applied, it hydrates your skin. For me, it is a bit light and it takes a while for it to oxidise.

And with this BB cream, it comes with its own cream blush and mirror which is amazing! =)) 

The downside of this cream, is that the pump is bit odd. Instead of being at the side, its located in the middle which makes it a bit awkward to get the desired amount of cream. 

Comparisons

As you can see, the Super BB cream has more of a grey undertone compared to the Oriental Gold where it has more of a pink undertone. 

Please excuse the condition of my skin.. it's been so bad lately (mainly due to the stress of schoolwork >_<;;) 

So on my face, the Oriental Gold shows a fairly good coverage with the exception of that random spot on my cheek. 

As for the Super BB Triple Function, it does not have as good coverage as the Oriental Gold, but it provides a nice dewy glow to my skin. This is also not as light as the other BB cream, but I personally think this shade suits me better. 

At the moment due to the condition of my skin, I would choose to use the Oriental Gold more, as it provides more coverage, but normally, when my skin is alright, I would definitely go back to the hot pink one, especially in the summer when the heat is burning you alive! haha 

Overall, both creams are equally as good. I guess it depends what your preferences are as a person and what skin type you have. For me, I have oily skin, so I would prefer to have something lightweight on my skin so it doesn't clog up my pores. In terms of texture, the Oriental Gold is heavy, but in comparison to other BB creams in the market and to foundations, it is definitely light in weight! 

Both of these products were purchased in HK, and the Oriental Gold was more expensive than the Super BB cream -- probably because of the additional blush and mirror? But in my opinion, both products are definitely worth it! 

Hope this will help  those that are considering of converting to BB creams or are starting out/research about them! =))