8/25/2012

A little Priceline/Gloss Haul (Bourjois, Rimmel, V05, Sally Hansen)

Thanks to Jodi from GooRoo Beauty -
(she's a gorgeous beauty blogger and youtuber from Australia - one of my absolute favorites! <3 You can find her blog here: http://www.gooroobeauty.net/)

I found out about a bourjois offer online that gets you $10 off of any bourjois purchase at Priceline! You can just go to www.bourjoisoffer.com.au and you will receive a barcode and numbers. Just show this number (I showed mine from my iPhone) to the person at the cashier and receive your $10 discount :) This offer is valid until AUG 31st.

As usual, a "quick stop" by Priceline for "just one product" never works. I ended up getting two other products hehe. Here's an overview of all the things I got (Priceline + Gloss)


An overview of the items from the little shopping spree!




With the $10 discount, I decided to jump on this opportunity to get the Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation that has so many people have raved about!  I wasn't sure about how to match my color, so the lady in Priceline helped me pick out one, and she recommended me the shade 52 - Vanilla.

I do not own any foundations because it feels uncomfortable on my skin. I have sensitive skin that sways between the two extremes of being very dry and then at times very oily. My dermatologist told me once that I had oily skin, but it gets dehydrated very easily.

For this occasion I specifically wanted a foundation or BB cream with NO SPF because I wanted to wear it during night time when I go out, as anything with spf will flash back when photos are taken. Not to mention it makes my face glow weirdly in certain club lighting (I've had parts of my face glow in the dark before, and trust me, you don't want that -__-') With this foundation, I would still be able to put on my sunscreen underneath for day time wear as well. Yay for doubling up!


Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in shade 52 Vanilla

I tried this foundation on my skin in the store and fell in love with the finish. It was not overly matte nor dewy. It had the right amount of glow without making me look oily. The texture was nice as well, not overly runny nor thick. It felt comfortable to wear on the skin. I have yet to wear it for a whole day so I can't comment on the longevity of the product (though the 16-hr claim is unlikely), but so far, yes, it is simply a beautiful product.  Love this!


V05 Hot Oil Treatment


With the harsh winds from winter and constant hot showers, my hair has been getting more and more dry. I wanted to get a hair treatment that is budget-friendly (this one was around $5-$6) and one that I can use perhaps once or twice a week. This little set came with 4 tubes, and one tube is more than enough to thoroughly coat my long hair. I Probably won't be using it any more often than that, as it is very rich and I don't want my hair to get too oily. I tried it yesterday and so far, with just one use, I definitely feel the difference! My hair felt more smooth and soft, so again, LOVE LOVE LOVE. If next week the results are the same, this would no doubt be my holy grail hair treatment product.


Rimmel Match Perfection Blush in Light

There was a 20% off the entire range of products for Rimmel @ Priceline, so I couldn't resist. This blush was absolutely beautiful. It's a perfect everyday neutral beige-pinky-peachy shade shows up more peachy on my yellow skin tone. For approx. $11 for 15g (!!) of product, this is a great deal. I use this with my Eco Tools Buffing Brush and it works wonderfully! Here's another picture of the product which I edited - just so you can see the imprinted design on the product more clearly.


Will you look at the beautiful design pressed onto the blush? So cute!! The packaging is just like the Rimmel Stay Matte Powder line. There are two other colors - Medium and Dark. I am considering going back to Priceline to see the other colors since I love this one so much.
(Better save money? lol) Anyhoos. LOVE LOVE LOVE this.

And lastly, my nails have been peeling like crazy, so I wanted to try a Sally Hansen Nail treatment. I love nail polish, but I also work in a restaurant, so my hands and nails really suffer from that. (Think detergents, cooking, handling food, etc. etc.) I found this one at Gloss for approx. $5, which wasn't bad at all. So I decided to give it a try.

Sally Hansen Marine Extract Nail Treatment

I have been using this for maybe two days now, and to be honest, so far it is actually kind of working! I'm quite surprised. My thumb nail was peeling so I put on two layers of this product before I go to bed. Now the nail looks more moisturized and the peels are smoother. I'll give it the full 5 days to compare with the claims on the package, but so far, again this is a good product.

It appears I got really lucky this round, since I am loving all of the items I bought in this haul so far! Yayyyyyy

That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by ^___^

xoxo




8/17/2012

Shyun (Japanese Restaurant) in Carnegie

I went to this restaurant around about 2 or 3 weeks ago with some of my friends after a meeting. I am already a sucker for Japanese food, so I was super excited to go!

The ambience was cozy and welcoming - which reminds me of the restaurants I had been to in Japan. We were there a bit late, so there weren't any tables save for the couple of spaces at the counter. I actually quite liked sitting right in front of all the sushi-making action :)

There was a special for the Shake Rice (Salmon Rice), so being a raw salmon lover, the choice was easy. If memory serves me right, I believe it was around $9-10 but definitely no more than $12

Rice topped with Shake!


This was absolutely delicious!!! Yum yum yum yum. The raw salmon was cut into thin strips then mixed with a sauce (with traces of sesame oil as well?) then placed on top of sushi rice and sprinkled with fresh spring onions. The bowl didn't seem that big, but once you actually start eating it, you get full faster than you think. The freshness of the fish was good, especially at this price range, but don't expect it to be as fresh as e.g. a sushi store selling chirashi sushi @ Tsukiji market. Still, I really enjoyed it!

My friend knew the owner so she ordered some additional sushi that wasn't on the menu -

Torched Salmon Sushi with sweet miso sauce


This was again another wonderful dish! The colors in the above picture have been altered a bit, given that I took this picture with Instagram. But hey, you get the idea. :) The torched salmon went really well with the sweet auce (I'm thinking something along the lines of miso, shoyu, mirin) and I would definitely order more if I knew how to order it! lol

I shared a little bit of my friend's Soy Corokke (not pictured) as well, which I personally liked but my friend did not. I might have been a bit biased though, since I do like soy milk in general.  I also had the tiramisu daifuku for dessert (not pictured - it was way too messy to hold the camera and eat the sticky dessert at the same time) which was awesome! The soft and gooey layer of the mochi matched well with the cool and creamy tiramisu ice cream inside. Yum! Will definitely try other flavors next time.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to visit there again soon. When I do, I'll definitely share my experience here. For now, this restaurant has definitely gotten a thumbs-up from me! :)

xoxo

8/13/2012

Pappa Rich @ Chadstone Shopping Center

Back with another short food post! (As I also need to practice my Spanish writing, this post will be in both English and Spanish)

Un post sobre la comida! (de nuevo) Dado que necesito practicar más el sintaxis español, escribiré en inglés y también en español. Empezemos!

Since I've never been to Pappa Rich before, I was rather excite to give it a try - I've heard good things about certain things on their menu, and not so good things on others. Plus it was after a very long 9am-7pm day, with barely any breaks in between, so I figured, why not. (Mental note: save money rather than spend it all on eating out!)

Dado que nunca había comido en el restaurante famoso "Pappa Rich" me sentí muy emocionada de probarlo. He oído muchas cosas - algunas buenas y algunas no tan buenas acerca de la comida. Además fue un día bastante larga - empecé a las 9 en la mañana y terminé casi a las 7 de la tarde casi sin descanso - y entonces, ¿porqué no? (Nota mental: ahorrar dinero en vez de gastar todo con la comida!)

The food at Papa Rich appeared to be a mix of Malaysian, Indonesian and Singaporean cuisine. I decided to go for a refreshing drink (I can't remember exactly what this was, but I think it was a mix between milk tea and coffee and jelly as well ($4.90)

La comida en Papa Rich me pareció ser una mezcla de comida de Malasia, Indonesia y Singapur. Elegí una bebida que fue una mezcla de té con leche, café y jelatina ($4.90).


The drink itself was nothing out of the ordinary. I still miss the most awesome Black Canyon Coffee in BKK the most. This just helped curb the craving, and nothing more. When the drink came to the table, I could feel that the glass was warm, especially at the bottom. It made me wonder for a moment if the drink I had ordered was supposed to be served warm. It didn't bother me too much since I was tired, but in general I don't think that's how it's supposed to be.

De hecho esta bebida fue ordinario - nada especial. A mi me gusta mucha el café con leche del restaurante en Tailandia que se llama "Black Canyon". Solo quise disminuir el nivel de unas ganas locas de beberlo que tuve desde algunas semanas. Me ayudé pero en realidad no fue suficiente y no se puede hacer nada. No puedo comprar un boleto de avión a Bangkok solo para beber un café. Cuando llegó ese café, la taza fue un poco caliente, aunque debe ser una bebida fría. No me molestó tanto porque me sentía tan cansada pero generalmente no pienso que no fue correcto.

For the main course, I chose a Roti dish with Tandoori Chicken ($11.90).

Yo elegí un plato con Roti y pollo asado del estilo Tandoori.
Roti + Tandoori Chicken 

The portion was huge! For $11.90, I think the value for the money I paid was justified. Let's take a closer look.

La porción de comida fue larga! Al pagar 11.90 dólares para ese plato, pienso y estoy segura que el precio fue apropiado. Ahora tengamos una mirada más cercana.

Tandoori Chicken
 The chicken itself was tender and moist. It was cooked nicely although I did find that it was a bit too salty for my liking. I had some trouble eating the chicken meat by itself and found that I had to dip it into the dipping sauces to tone down that salt a bit. I still thought it was good overall, but do keep in mind that this is coming from a Thai person who already loves lots of strong flavors. So that means if I say it's salty, then many others may find the amount of salt to be even more harsh for their palate. 

La carne misma fue tierna y fue bastante jugosa. Yo la encontré buena pero personalmente pienso que fue demasiado salada. No pude comer la carne sin mojarla primero en la salsa de yogur. Me gusta el polllo en general pero si fuera menos salada, sería mejor. Y ese comentario es de una persona tailandesa que a ella le gusta condimento y mucha sabor. Entonces, si yo encuentro que es demasiado salado, eso significa que a otras personas (los demás) les pueden encontrar que el nivel de sal es extremadamente fuerte para su paladar.

Roti
The Roti was sooooooooo goooooooood!!! It was the right amount of crispiness and chewiness. The color was gorgeous and it was not too oily at all. I would have been happy to just have the roti with the yoghurt sauce! This was spot-on. Love, love it <3

El pan ("roti") fue muy, muy, muy rica!!!! El pan tuvo un balance perfecto - crujiente y a la misma vez duro. La textura fue absolutamente fantástica. El color fue bonito y además no fue demasiado grasiento. Yo estara satisfecha con solamente ese roti y la salsa de yogur. Hmm!

Yoghurt Sauce
This yoghurt (at least that's what I think it is) was nothing life-changing, but it was life-saving for without this, the dish would have been too heavy and salty. It helped balance out the dish overall. Cool and refreshing to the taste.

Esta salsa de yogur (bueno, adivino que se consiste en yogur) fue normal pero me ayudó a comer la carne como ya he dicho antes. Ese plato sería demasiado salado sin esta salsa porque ayudó establecer un balance entre los sabores en el plato en general. Fue frio y refrescante.

Spicy and Sweet Tamarind Sauce

This sauce was absolutely yummy! It tasted like a mix between the Thai tamarind sauce and the Thai sweet chilli paste. Dipping the roti bread in this then alternating with the yoghurt sauce was wonderful :) If memory serves me right, there were also some bits of dried shrimp in there as well.

Esta salsa fue también muy rica! Me pareció como una mezcla de la salsa de tamarindo y la salsa de chile dulce de Tailandia. Mojar el pan roti en esta salsa y después en la salsa de yogur fue una experiencia maravillosa. Si recuerdo correctamente, hubieron también piezas pequeñitas de gambas secas dentro de la salsa.

Overall, I had a good experience at Pappa Rich and would go back to try some other items on their menu!

En general tuve una experiencia buena en este restaurante y regresaría allí de nuevo para probar otros platos en su menú!

xoxo


8/09/2012

Comida China en Clayton Campus

Para tener éxito como un restaurante de "fast food" o "take away joint", específicamente en un entorno universitario, necesita ser muy rápido, ofrecer suficientes opciones (en términos de la variedad de comida), vender algo barrato y a la misma vez algo que llena. Nadie le gusta un estudiante que tiene mucho hambre, porque un estudiante que tiene hambre y tal vez también que tiene solamente 1-2 horas de sueño estará sin duda una persona de mal humor.

Aquí tengo las fotos de dos comidas en la cafeteria del Clayton campus la semana pasada -


Aquí tengo pollo frito crujiente, con una salsa de limón. Abajo hay arroz frito del estilo chino y también verduras. Compré la comida en el tamaño pequeño pero le aseguro que es bastante mucha comida todavía! Siempre me cuesta comer toda la comida aunque es "pequeño". Costó 6 dólares australianos. El pollo fue riquísimo (aunque no me dieron bastante salsa de limón). Si tuviera más salsa de limón o de miel, sería más sabroso. Las verduras y el arroz frito no fueron especiales sino completamente comúnes, pero no me molestó mucho. En aquél tiempo la única cosa más importante fue que hay comida para comer.



Aquí es la comida del tamaño "medio" que mi novio comió. El tuvo arroz frito con tofu, verduras y también pollo frito con una salsa de miel. A él también le costó comer toda la comida! jajaja. Me dijo que le gustó dado la rapidez, la cantidad y el precio. Encuentro que el pollo con salsa de miel fue un poco demasiado dulce dado que las piezas de carne fueron cubiertos por la salsa por un periodo de tiempo extendido antes de que llegamos. Pero en general, a mi me gusta tanto como a mi novio le gusta ese plato. Esto costó solo un dólar australiano más que la comida de tamaño pequeña!

Ahora ya no queda tiempo para escribir más. Tengo más que 80 páginas de leer para la clase en la mañana! Pero la próxima vez será acerca de Makeup. O tal vez acerca de la comida de nuevo. Como siempre. ;P

xoxo