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GUEST POST: Sasa.com Makeup & Skincare Haul!

April 16, 2015

Hi everyone!

Special blog post today- everyone, virtually meet one of my good friends, Pauline (She’s super awesome)! She has agreed to write a guest post for me and I’m excited to share it with you all today. See what type of Asian cosmetics Pauline bought from Sasa.com and how she wore them to the Japanese cherry blossom festival.

Happy reading everyone!

Carmen

~~~~~

Hello everybody! I am doing this for my friend, Carmen, as a guest post, and will be the very first time doing this! So, hopefully this goes well… haha!

I recently bought some makeup and face products from this super famous Hong Kong make up store: Sasa. I usually purchase my makeup and face products from here because it’s cheap and my skin seems like to like Asian brands of makeup/skin products. They also often do free shipping once in a while!

The first product I’m going to introduce is an eyeliner by Majorlica Majorca: the cream pencil liner.

I must say, this cream liner is super smooth to line your eyes with, and it’s super creamy. Usually with creamy eyeliner, it smudges easily, but this eyeliner didn’t smudge and actually stayed on my eyes for the whole day! Especially when I tight lined with this eyeliner, I was ready for this to smudge all over my eyes by the end of the day. I was so surprised at how it stayed on so well! 5/5 for this product! =)
The second product is: Majorlica Majorca’s jeweling pencil. This product is basically a white eyeliner to put on your eye corners to brightening up your eye as well as giving an illusion of having bigger eyes!

Nothing really special about this eyeliner, as I think all white eyeliners can do the same as this one can. 😛

Third product: Majorlica Marjoca’s perfect automatic liner: This product was kind of weird to use at first. So, the first thing you do is twist the bottom of this eyeliner until the ink comes out from the tip. The con of this is that if you twist too much, the ink will splat out and comes into a big mess.

However, after you clean that up, you can just apply that on your eyes just like any other eyeliner would … If you do not want to clean up the mess, this might not be the best product for you, because you will have to twist the bottom every time you want to use this product.

This eyeliner also stayed on really well on my eyes, and was pretty easy to apply as well. So, other than the whole twisting thing, I would rate this 4.5/5 ☺
Hehe … I have combined the three eyeliners mentioned above today, for my makeup look of the day! I went to the cherry blossom Japanese festival with a couple of my friends today, so I thought “hey, why not try out these products if I am going to blog about them anyway!”

I used the cream eyeliner to tight line my upper line as well as my water line. Like I mentioned, it stayed on without smudging the entire day. I then used the perfect liner to line across my eye and winged it out just a tiny bit, facing downwards, to give an illusion of a cute round eye. (…or eyes…)

Finally, I used the white eyeliner to put on my eye corners to brighten up my eyes. ☺

And here’s me in a Yukata ☺ .. To protect my friends’ privacy, I have turned them into Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma.

Okay, on with the other products!
Fourth product: Shu Uemura Skin purifier (in premium A/I) This product … is godly. Although this is a “cleansing oil”, this will not clog your pores nor will you have a disgusting oily feeling left on your skin after. Honestly, I can say it is like rubbing pearls on your face. There are 4 easy steps to using this purifier:

1.) Pump 4 pumps on your hand (hand and face dry)
2.) Rub the oil all over your face (and eyes if you have eye make up on)
3.) Add water to the oil until it turns into a milky foamy wash
4.) Rinse and wipe your face

Your makeup is literally all gone, and you do not have to go through a second cleanser to clean your face. The oil also leaves you with smooth skin and feeling hydrated.

The best part about this product is : THIS IS FOR SENSITIVE & DRY SKIN!!! Which is a big problem for me, because sadly, I have super sensitive skin … So now that I have found this, I rate it 10/5!
Last product I’m going to talk about is: Laniege Multiberry Yogurt Pack. I have mentioned above that my face is super sensitive … and this mask did not go well with my skin. I gave this mask a try because of all the good things I have heard about it.

It also says that it is for “all skin types” – and let me tell you … It’s not. If you have sensitive skin, do not go for this product. My face reacted one minute after I put this on … The burning sensation and my face was literally all red like a cherry.

I must say, though, this mask smells like as if you are in a strawberry land … So the pro I can only say about this is that it smells super yummy.

That’s it to my guest post! I hope all of you enjoyed reading about these Asian products and maybe try some out on your own as well!

-Pauline

~~~~~

Thanks for guest blogging, Pauline! You look so good in the yukata. I want to wear one too!

What are some of your favourite Asian cosmetics?

-Carmen

{Food Truck Compilation} JJ’s Trucketeria, Guanaco, and Super Thai

February 3, 2015

Food truck invasion! I decided to compile these 3 food trucks into one post as they seemed like it would be three very short posts on their own. These places are a compilation of two visits with coworkers during the Street Food City festival, which was part of DOVF. But, most of these you can have without Dine Out Vancouver. I should have included Vij’s food truck in here as well, oops!

Guanaco is a Salvadorean cuisine food truck, I think it is the only one of its kind in Vancouver but correct me if I’m wrong. I wanted to take a walk around the food truck festival and my coworker decided to come with me as well!

I had already eaten, but I was in the mood for a small snack which is why I settled on this place. My first choice was The Reef food truck, but their Jamaican patties looked kinda gross in the warmer so after walking around three times, I decided to just come here. Ugh indecisiveness.

I ordered two of their snack sized tacos, chicken and chorizo. I felt like a small snack, and felt that $5 would be a reasonable price.

The chicken was tender, while all the vegetables were fresh and crunchy. I liked the addition of fresh onions and loads of cilantro! The taco shell was soft and doughy, with a bit extra powder.

DSC04610-300x168 — Photo credit: Blast Media

Super Thai: On that same day, my coworker ordered the chicken pad thai from Super Thai. I didn’t try any, but she was happy to offer her opinion on it.

She liked how it was warm and comforting on a cloudy day, and said it was pretty flavourful and not watery like other pad thai that she’s had.

However, near the end, a lot of the noodles started to annoyingly stick to the bottom of the take out box, and took too much effort to un-stick. Perhaps it’s the texture of the noodles that makes it do that.

She also thought it wasn’t worth the price she paid. I also think it’s worth nothing that they were sold out on half their menu items by 2 pm that day. I wanted to order the coconut curry rice but there was none left! =(

JJs-Trucketeria-1 — Picture from Follow Me Foodie

JJ’s Trucketeria: While I went to Vij’s, two of my coworkers ordered from JJ’s instead. Funny story, none of us actually knew the name of this place. I didn’t take a close look at the place, and my coworkers didn’t see a name on the truck.. so we just referred to it as the yellow food truck.

I’m not even sure how we figured out the name, LOL! As you can see from the picture, half the name is on the covering which you’re not able to see unless you’re far away, while the other part is covered with their menu.

Flipino BBQ pork, fried egg, and garlic rice. My coworkers were nice enough to share with me as the portion was too big for just one person. The meat was very tender and well seasoned, while the fried egg was cooked perfect and oozed onto the garlic rice.

My favourite part of this was the garlic rice! Although I only had a few bites, I loved the slight garlic flavour. This is perfect Asian comfort food on a rainy day.

Although, I would recommend having gum or mints handy due to the garlic rice.

That sums up my food truck adventures last month, including Vij’s Railway Express!

What are the names of your favourite food trucks? Better question, what is your opinion on food trucks- love ’em, or prefer a traditional sit down meal?

Thanks for reading!
-Carmen

Strike 破店

October 18, 2014

After a night out in Richmond, my friends and I were looking for a late night cafe to go to apart from our usual Well Tea. The past two times we went, they were sold out of pearls and/or something else that I forgot, so we wanted to try someplace new and get to know Richmond a bit better. By the way, if you’re reading this and have a good recommendation for late night cafes in Richmond, please let me know! I texted one of my friends, who suggested we go to Strike because they had cheap bubble tea.
After winding around and getting a bit lost in the plazas that surrounded the neighbourhood, we finally found Strike. We got there around 12am, and it was a full house! Very loud music and many loud conversations among the different tables. There was a very lively atmosphere inside 🙂After taking our names down, we decided to grab the menu while we waited. We were quite confused with the menu as they all looked like they were falling apart, stained, standard non laminated pages stapled together, crumpled and a bit frayed at the edges from the usage. To be honest, the menus looked quite gross to touch. They did say that this was a temporary menu, for their soft opening. We didn’t even know this place was new, but figured that’s why they had so many of those big plants with ribbons outside (Asian tradition).

To make up for the non-aesthetically pleasing menu, there was a really nice mural on one of the walls that I really liked. It took its part from the busy streets of Japanese cities, and reminded me of a documentary that I watched on Tokyo’s dense population and how restaurants managed (I am in love with Japanese culture if you haven’t figured it out already hehe).
They were having a half price special on tea drinks, but since I don’t fare well with caffeine that late I opted for the taro slush. The taro slush wasn’t on the menu, and the server had to double check if they had it. They were also out of pearls (Why do restaurants always run out of pearls?! I’m cursed!) so I got the coconut jelly instead. The taro slush was oddly bland. I say “oddly” because when you first drink it, you can taste the taro but the taste goes away instantly. It felt like I was just drinking ice slush, lightly flavoured with taro. I don’t think I would order this again.

My friends decided to split the Taiwanese chicken nuggets, large size. The chicken nuggets were cooked perfectly, very flavourful with the 5 spice powder (I think that’s what it’s called?) and tasted like what ideal Taiwanese style nuggets should be like. A restaurant that also serves their nuggets with fried basil is a plus in my books as well!
I didn’t take a picture of all my friend’s drinks, but here are two of them. The one in the middle was the honey lemon green tea with grass jelly bubble tea. My friend didn’t really like it because it was a bit bland, but for the special offer they had, they couldn’t really complain. The boyfriend ordered the milk tea with grass jelly and pudding in the back. He said that the milk tea was good, but he had a really hard time getting to the pudding because they were all in big cubes that didn’t agree with the straw. He ended up pulling apart the top of the bubble tea container and scooped it out with his spoon. 😛

All in all, Strike was average. The good thing about Strike is their late hours and their bubble tea special, but other than that, it’s meh. I can get the same tasting chicken nuggets at other Taiwanese places, but perhaps we can try their other dishes if we decide to come back. My slush was very bland, so was my friend’s honey milk tea. In the words of my friend, “I would come back here if I wanted cheap bubble tea”. Yes, cheap bubble tea indeed, but the taste and flavour was definitely sacrificed.

-Carmen

Soho Tea Room

July 26, 2014

Do you ever have posts saved up in your drafts and you forget about them until almost two months later…? Yeah, that happened to me with this post. I’ve heard many great things about this place, but I’m normally not in this neighborhood, so I never got the chance to try it until now (aka 2 months ago when I wrote this draft…oops). Most of the hype that I’ve heard about Soho is due to the fact that you can have alcohol in your bubble tea, and that they serve a delicious honey toast box. I haven’t had a honey toast box for so long :(.
The exterior of Soho was nicer than I expected it to be. I was expecting just the usual store front, but the wood panels and signage was a refreshing sight. If I didn’t know, I would have thought that Soho was a fancy, delicate tea room serving only the highest quality tea from around the world (Say that in a posh English accent, it sounds better, I swear!).

I would never have expected it to be a late night Asian snack joint! Anyways, they do have free parking in the back but the spots are extremely narrow and tight.
Walking in, the restaurant was pretty nice and like the exterior, had a West Coast style as well. Lots of wooden panels, and warm tones. They had a chalkboard wall as well, which listed out the specials. I was a big fan of Soho’s interior and exterior design.

This is their alcoholic menu! I found the “recommendations” part to be pretty interesting, as they suggest what alcohol goes well with which bubble tea. Never have I seen that before! I wasn’t feeling like having alcohol that night, plus we had to drive back so I’ll have to come back for it next time.
I wasn’t that hungry, so just got the standard Taiwanese salt and peppery chicken nuggets ($5-6? I forgot). I was a bit surprised that it came on a long plate like this, because I was used to the bowls or square plates that restaurants normally put it in.

It reminded me a lot of a Western appetizer that I would get at Earls or Cactus Club, doesn’t it? Anyways, despite the presentation, the nuggets tasted pretty good. Well seasoned with the traditional five spice powder. I liked that most of the pieces were pretty lean too.

Taro slush bubble tea ($4). I ordered it with pearls, but unfortunately, they were sold out that night which sucked, because you can tell a lot about a bubble tea joint with the quality and taste of their pearls. Oh well, more reason to come here again!

The taro slush was very sweet and slushy. I was also wanting to try the honey toast box, but no one wanted to share it with me and I didn’t feel like having such a sweet food item after drinking this taro slush. Next time maybe?
My friend got the noodle and Taiwanese nugget combo. I didn’t get a chance to try it but he didn’t complain about it. My cousin got the beef brisket noodles. Their thick noodles were really delicious and had a thick and chewy texture to it, similar to my favourite Taiwanese restaurant, Wang’s, down the block. The soup base was also really good and flavourful, and had a strong beef taste to it.

All in all, I enjoyed my brief visit to Soho Tea Room. We wanted to stay longer, but there was a long line up forming and we felt bad for holding the table. Plus, we were passively getting rushed out by the servers LOL.

With their interior design and plating of certain dishes, Soho really tries to balance both Taiwanese and Western cultures together, which can be a good or bad thing, depending on which way you look at it.

Pros:

Good bubble tea
Delicious soup stock for noodles and delicious noodles
Spent a lot of effort into the design of the place (inside and out)
Service was fast and attentive
Comfortable seating

Cons:

Parking lot was really narrow and squishy
Bubble tea was a bit pricier than what I was used to
Sold out of pearls the night we went 🙁
According to my cousin, there are really long wait times on Fri & Sat nights
If the restaurant is busy, expect to wait 20-30 minutes for your blended drink (disclaimer on the menu)

-Carmen

Etude House- gradient nail trio

July 17, 2014

The full name of this nail polish is actually Etude House Juicy Cocktail Graduation Nails, but that seemed like too long of a name to

include in my title. The name also doesn’t really make sense, but oh well 🙂 I was over at my friend’s house, and loved the gradient and golden shimmer on her nails. She told me that her aunt got the set for her in Hong Kong, and let me use it as well. The nail polish set comes with three shades, which you are supposed to use in a specific order for the desired gradient effect.
The nail polish themselves are smaller in size than your typical drugstore nail polishes. After browsing on Amazon, I found that the average price of one set is around $3-10 dollars. The relatively large price window was very surprising to me!

I also came across a review from Youtube beauty guru FromHeadToToe, who had the same set but in different shades. I have attached her picture here because it explains a lot better.
Straightforward enough, you start with the translucent polish all over your nail. You can choose to use more than one coat, I used two coats for mine and I will attach a picture of my own nails down below.

After it dries, you apply the second polish, which has glitter to half of your nail – from the tip to the middle, not the base. From there, the third polish is applied which has bigger glitter particles, giving it a beautiful gradient!
There are also instructions on the back as well (written in Korean but with straightforward pictures).
Unfortunately, I was only able to wear my nails for one day as I had to work the next day. I work part-time at a coffee shop, where we are not allowed to wear nail polish due to health reasons. This is both good and bad. The good is that I have saved a lot of my money by not buying copious amounts of nail polish.

The bad part, of course, is that I love painted nails and that I miss being able to paint them whenever I want! I apologize for the blurry picture, I was in a hurry to work and quickly snapped this picture. I was having a hard time removing the glitter off my nails. I have yet to find an easy way to remove glitter, if anyone has a solution PLEASE let me know! I know you can wrap your fingers in foil and let it soak but I don’t have the patience to cut up the foil, soak my nails, etc etc etc.
A better, less blurry picture of my nail. I showed this picture to my best friend and she thought my finger was swollen. No, my nail naturally looks like that,I don’t have “lady-like” long, slender, and beautiful fingers :(.

Anyways, since I didn’t get to wear this for as long as I hoped (3+ days at least!), I wasn’t able to test how long lasting it was. One thing that I really liked about the nail polish was that it gave my nails a good healthy and natural shine. My nails also looked thicker and healthier with this on, kinda like gel nails but that might have been the top coat I used from my friend. I am hoping to try this polish out again in the upcoming months so I will post an updated review to this current post when I do!

I also found this awesome compilation online of all their various sets! I used the one in the middle, first one on the left. I really like peachy and pink sets in the first row! What about you?

Pros:

Love the shade and idea of this!
Don’t have to waste time finding three separate nail polishes that will blend well together
Gives your nail a healthy shine
Many beautiful colours to choose from

Cons:

Small nail polish set
Glitter was hard to remove (But then again, all glitter polish is difficult to remove)
Can’t buy this in Western drug stores or Sephora, best bet is online or in Asia

Update: I wore this nail polish for four days again the week after writing this draft. Most of the polish had chipped off, except for the glittery tips. I noticed that my nails began to chip the second day. After going swimming on the third day, more than half the polish had chipped 🙁 But overall, not too bad! I also didn’t wear a top coat, which probably would have helped!

That’s it to this review! Happy painting everyone!
-Carmen