Burberry Sheer Eye Shadow in Pale Barley

I hauled again and this time round, it's Burberry Sheer Eye Shadow in Pale Barley which is part of their 2012 Spring Collection.

It's interesting that despite me reading raves and raves about Burberry eyeshadows, I did not actually cave in and purchase one previously. This is because, whenever I try out the colours or the textures over the counter, it appears to me to look flat most of the time. However, Pale Barley really changed my opinion about their shadows.

In the box, it looks just like any normal taupe like shadows but when swatch, the colour is really much more complex. I can't pinpoint where it is a gold, champagne or taupe. But guess what, it's a combination of all and coupled with the shimmer that is not over the top, it makes a wonderful everyday neutral that is super work-safe (a plus point for me). Sorry that my swatch pic above sucks but it's really hard to capture the swatch correctly. Do check out The Beauty Look Book for better pic of the swatch. Sabrina really has wonderful swatches all the time!

Burberry eyeshadow really managed to win me over with it's smoothy, buttery texture. The hefty price tag of $46 is definitely well-deserved! I am so tempted to pick up more of their shadows but I think that has definitely got to wait. :)

Wild Honey @ Scotts Square

After months and months of wanting to try Wild Honey, I finally tried it!!! And this time, I tried Wild Honey at the new branch at Scotts Square.

For you out there who patronise Wild Honey at Mandarin Gallery, you would know they do not accept reservations. So you either get your butt out of the house early in the morning, or be prepared to queue and wait. Luckily for the new branch at Scotts Square, reservation is possible and thus I was able to finally give this place a try.

When we stepped into the restaurant, we thought the lightings are a bit dim but after a while, we felt it relaxing enough. Smart move to play around with the lightings to give a cozy and relaxing place.

 

Guess what I ordered????? ANYTHING WITH SCRAMBLED EGGS!!! I think I will literally die if scrambled eggs is banned one day. lol. So I ordered 'I love New York' which comes with scrambled eggs with caramelised onion, toasted sesame bagel with their home made cheese spread. It was YUMMY........ The scrambled eggs is smooth and has a taste of salmon and bacon in it, which got me thinking as I was expecting onion in it? But then, who cares if it's yummilicious??? Cheese spread is really good, me and BC finished up the whole cheese spread, which is really sinful. Haha.

 

BC with his sweet tooth of course ordered something sweet and so the order of 'Canadian' which is actually pancakes with blueberry sauce. Man, the pancakes are thick, soft and dense and super filling. The blueberry sauce is good as it's tangy which is a contrast to the sweetness of the maple syrup.

Needless to say, we were both bloated after this meal. It's really filling........ But I guess with the amount they are charging, I jolly well step out bloated then unsatisfied right? Haha.

Give it a try if you like all kinds of breakfast but it's not cheap like $24 for 'I Love New York' and $18 for 'Canadian'. Price is exclusive of GST and service charge. But it's definitely a good place to drop by and have a nice breakfast in town.

All Day Breakfast at cedele

Thankfully, my CNY visiting is over on Day 1 and on Day 2, me and BC slept till we naturally woke up around 9+, close to 10am and ponder on where and what to have for our brunch. Finally, we settled for cedele.

Honestly, cedele disappointed us once when we had to pay for a hefty price tag and the food was so so. BUT we thought, just check it first and we can decide to go somewhere else if we decided not to have it anyways. When we check out the menu, somehow, we thought the price of the breakfast is cheaper now? It's about $12.90 - $14.90++ approximately now but in my mind, I thought it was close to $20 previously? Maybe I was wrong and we headed in.

I am an egg person, I NEED MY SCRAMBLED EGGS, so I order the rosti with the choice of scrambled eggs (you can opt for poached or sunny side up) and sausages (choice of bacon available too). BC with the sweet tooth ordered apple and cinnamon pancakes with sausages (I think you can have a choice of bacon too if you do not want sausages).

BC's apple cinnamon pancake (top) and my rosti with scrambled eggs and sausages (bottom)

Their scrambled eggs is smooth and delicious and the sausages are meaty and filling. The rosti was a disappointment though. It is not crispy and not warm. Marche's rosti win hands down! BC's apple cinnamon pancakes was excellent for those with sweet tooth. They really placed sliced apples in the pancakes (I hope you can see it in the pic above), and the pancake is fluffy and soft, super yummy.

cedele is a nice place for a meal as the place is not too crowded and there are ample space between the tables. On the background, music is played at a not-too-loud-but-i-can hear-you kind of volume so it makes the whole dining experience relaxing.

The cafe latte I had was good, creamy with sufficient caffeine in it and without the sourish coffee taste like how some cafes served their coffee. Well done!

My cafe latte and brunch!

More hauls from Sephora

OMG, I am hauling again......... BUT BUT BUT I am a happy gal!

Remember my post here and here about my love for Sephora highly affordable and super long lasting jumbo liner??? In addition to my existing stash of shade in purple, copper, taupe and grey. I have added colour kaki to my stash (which was what I wanted to get the last round anyways). There is no typo in the shade 'kaki'. It is really printed as 'kaki' and not 'khaki', not sure why too. :)

In addition to the jumbo liner, I also bought Soap & Glory body butter. Usually, I am not a fan of body butter as I do not like thick texture and prefer lighter and watery texture of lotion but given that it's a small tub at $7 which is a good price tag and size as trial, why not? We have to start from somewhere right? This is especially useful during this period when my skin is feeling extremely dry lately. :)

How is the 2nd day of CNY for you? Mine was just pigging out at cedele before heading to Sephora to haul these 2 items. Luckily my CNY visiting is done for the year (all squeezed into Day 1)!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

Wishing one and all Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

Essie Topless & Barefoot

After a few months of having Gelish on my nails, I have finally decided to give my nails some rest and revert to normal polishes until the nails get stronger.

However, for the purpose of CNY tomorrow, I had to have something on my nails to cover the 'scarred' look on the surface so it's time to bring our Essie's Topless & Barefoot!

It's a nice milky nude shade which is universally safe for all occasion. But applying it in my nails is really a pain as I find it so difficult to achieve the smooth consistency. So far I do not have this issue with OPI polishes though. It could be just be issues with my application skills though. Nonetheless, it's still a lovely shade that I would reach out to. :)

黑社会 at VivoCity

As a pre-CNY lunch with L, I suggested for us to head to VivoCity for a nice dim sum lunch at 黑社会 (2nd level, near Sushi Tei). I have heard good comments about this place and thought it would be a nice place to chill and have a nice lunch with my beloved friend, L.

We were served fried fish skin as appetizer the moment we are seated and after asking for our drinks order, tea (our requested drink) was served very shortly. Their fried fish skin is quite nice. Not too oily and salty, and most importantly it does not have any fishy smell. This only shows that the skin is fresh and processed properly before deep frying it.

We order a couple of dishes such as xiao long bao, chicken feet, shrimp dumplings, deep fried beancurd skin roll and rice roll. We actually wanted to order 流沙包 and pan fried carrot cake but the waitress commented that what we ordered is sufficient for 2of us (implying that we should not be too ambitious, lol). Lucky for us, her judgement is real good as we are bloated after these few dishes. Haha.

Braised chicken feet (yums!!) and shrimp dumplings

Usually rice rolls fillings are char siew or shrimps right? They actually have it with shrimps and kai lan!! Interesting right?? We thought it would be nice to give this and try and it is seriously good. The kai lan is not over cooked, shriumps is fresh and succulent and the rice roll is very soft. The sauce is not salty like the usual soya sauce but taste more sweet than salty. Not too bad, in my opinion.

Rice roll with kailan and shrimps

I don't understand why the deep fried beancurd skin roll is served with soup instead???? I thought it is served with a vinegar dip??

For their xiao long bao, sad to say I prefer Din Tai Feng or Paradise Dynasty as the broth in the dumplings is too oily and thick for my liking. Din Tai Feng and Paradise Dynasty's xlb broth is lighter and I do not feel my own mouth is oily and sticky after eating it.

It's a nice place with comfortable seatings to have a simple dim sum meal and I am definitely open to visiting them again. However, I will give the xlb a skip. On the other hand, I want to try their 流沙包!!

Review: LUSH I Love Juicy Shampoo

In the hot and humid Singapore, it is not surprise that many have hair woes. For me, I totally hate that I have greasy scalp and dry hair (yes, they call it combination hair!!!). It's always a challenging to get the right shampoo for me because I need something that can thoroughly cleanse my greasy scalp and yet not too harsh to my dry ends. And so far, from all the trial and errors, it's always expensive shampoo that works or cheap shampoo that doesn't. No surprise hur?

I saw a lot of good reviews abt LUSH Big shampoo that work wonders for greasy scalp but it seems the reviews also mentioned that it is extremely drying to dry ends. Seeing this, I know I cannot use this for me, my dry ends will be totally fried! As I was surfing LUSH UK site, I chanced upon I Love Juicy shampoo which could be the answer that I am looking for!

Picture source: LUSH UK

After purchasing the smallest bottle at 100g from Wisma outlet at $16.00 (not cheap, I know!) and trying it for 3 weeks, I have to say I love it! My scalp feels clean and fresh after using it and the citrusy smell of pineapple and mango lingers on my locks which smells great. It does not smell as citrusy as lemon sa it is coupled with a tinge of sweetness from pineapple and mango. Despite having a good cleanse of my scalp, my hair does not feel dry. However, I do realise I cannot use this shampoo consecutively for 3 days, by the 3rd day, my hair starts to feel dry and coarse. So what I am doing now is to alternate I Love Juicy with my normal shampoo (X brand): 2 days shampoo X and 1 day I Love Juicy. This combination works fine and also more pocket friendly. :)

One thing to note is you have to SHAKE I Love Juicy shampoo before use as it is made from fresh fruit and there will be residue in the shampoo that will sink to the bottom of the bottle. Just give it a simple shake, squeeze out a 20 cents coin size shampoo and lather into your hair.

For you out there who is having combination hair, I would strongly recommend this shampoo to you!

Better with a Cat

Non cat lovers should really watch this video. :)

Follow me on Instagram :)

Call me retarded but I only hopped onto the Instagram bandwagon like a few months ago. As a starter, I thought it is just another one of those Facebook like application on iPhone which you check into places etc etc but alas I am so wrong when I start to appreciate the quality of the pictures that can be taken with this app, coupled with the effects and filters.

A few of what I have taken........

Pardon the amatuerish pics as I am not a very pro photographer yet but feel free to follow me on Instagram and my userid is miaka05. :)

Jerry's BBQ & Grill (Club Street)

L recommended Jerry's BBQ & Grill sometime back and I was telling BC how she raved about the food there so we decided to give it try this afternoon for lunch.

Hidden away (maybe not exactly hidden) at Club Street, it's definitely a good place to go instead of the usual town and Orchard Road whereby you see nothing but people. I have to say that area is pretty charming with the peaceful ambience and self sufficiency and obviously no lack of food and coffee. :)

Just by seeing the deco of the shop and you can tell how American this place is. There are lots of car plates from different states of USA and the main colours of the restaurant are red, blue and white, just like the American flag.

Although the buffalo wings is the highly recommended item on the menu, we decided to go for the BBQ pulled pork and beef brisket combo. Even it is served with steam veg and bun (I believed it is meant to be eaten like a burger), we changed the bun to be replaced with French fries (you can also choose baked potato or baked beans).

We also ordered another hot favorite on the menu as appetizer and it's fried button mushrooms. It's yummy with the mushroom coated with crispy fried batter and with each bite into the mushroom, the juice just burst out! Yes, the fried mushroom is that juicy! It goes very well with the tartar sauce served at the side.

Overall, the food is pretty nice. I especially love the fried mushroom and the pulled pork and beef brisket combo is tender and goes very well with their BBQ sauce. Oh, if you were to eat the meat plain without any sauce, there is a smoky taste to it which is pretty nice too.

More Sephora jumbo eye pencil

After my previous rave of Sephora jumbo eye pencils in this post, I really have to say it again that the lasting power and friendly price tag of $17 is so so so wonderful!!

While having dinner at Great World City yesterday, I stepped into Sephora and couldn't resist checking out the colours of this baby once more.

I have swatched the colours that have caught my attention this time round (with the exception of copper which I bought previously and the liquid eyeliner at the bottom). Purchase was made for taupe (yes, I am sucker for taupe coloured stuff) and grey. I was soooo tempted to add khaki to my basket but I resisted.

On a separate note, the lasting power of the liquid eyeliner is quite lousy, after running under water and rubbing it, it goes off completely!

Have you tried this wonderful product yet? If not, it's really worth giving it a try! I like it how I can use this as a thick eyeliner for my monolids. :)

Black bow nails from The Nail Status

After signing up as a TNS member, I have been enjoying 15% off  normal services and honestly, I have been very happy with them. The manicurists there are lovely and friendly ladies and I always leave the shop with pretty nails. As December is my birthday month, I am entitled to 50% discount on all services and needless to say, I am back to beautify my nails and grab this once a year offer!

I am not a fan of super loud and long nails as it's just not me and it makes removing my contact lens a pain in the ass. Thus I try to keep my nails at a reasonable length that is not too long and also to keep to subtle but nice design. After browsing through their designs, I opted for this design which consist of french tips and small black bow. Love love love it!

You know what? While making a payment at ESPRIT yesterday, the cashier commented that she love my nails! She just made my day, lol.