Ah, I'm so sorry for the lack of posts. The PC that I usually edit photos with is all sorts of messed up right now and can't be fixed anytime soon. Because of that I kept on making excuses, like "I have no where to edit my pictures...", all month long.
Luckily I was able to score a really relaxed, very part-time, job and could spend my downtime editing photos, blogging, or studying. Although the quality of the edits isn't what I am used to, this will make do for now.
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Since the Spring semester started, I have been able to enjoy a few lunch dates with Bestie C. Some time mid-February we decided to try a (I think...) authentic Japanese meal. We ultimately picked Hiroko's Place in Soho because they had a lot of seating and Bestie C wanted to try their omurice.
(Although...come to think of it, we should really limit our food spendings for the rest of this semester. Explanation coming soon! :P)
Hiroko's Place
75 Thompson St.
New York, NY 10012
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| English Milk Tea |
Err definitely not worth the money. But it was very cold the day we went and I wanted to drink something warm. I should have just had water...
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| Omuhayashi |
This is basically omurice (omlette + rice) & hayashi (beef stew) rice and is an off-menu item that I found through Yelp photos. I was stuck between this and curry rice but ended up with this because I wanted to feel special ordering something off-menu. (I know, it's a silly reason...) I remember liking it a lot because I prefer to eat these type of saucy rice dishes. But the meat was a bit tough? (I'm not too sure though. It's been so long...I don't really remember.)
Ladurée Soho
398 W Broadway
New York, NY 10012
L to R: Pistachio Macaron and Salted Caramel Macaron
While wandering around Soho, Bestie C remembered that a new Ladurée had opened on lower Manhattan and we set to locate it. Somehow we ended up walking a very big circle before realizing we had been walking in the opposite direction from Ladurée. When we got to the storefront there was even a line-up to get inside! Good thing the line moved quickly, otherwise the wait would have been torturous in the cold and snowy weather.
I had not planned on buying anything. Once I got inside the store I couldn't help to pick up two macarons. They are as sweet as I remembered. But of the two, I think I prefer the salted caramel one more.
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Although I have been pretty good at controlling my spendings (excluding food-wise), I did end up making some small impulse purchases this trip.
Murad Acne Spot Treatment - $
Bestie C recommended this to me. I never really had an interest in Murad acne products because I thought they only used salicylic acid (which doesn't really work for me). But this spot treatment product uses sulfur. I have never tried sulfur on breakouts so I got one to try. *Cross my fingers* Hoping for the best!
Sunrise Mart Soho
494 Broome St.
New York, NY 10012
L to R: Kai Bobby Pins, Kao White Bar Soap, Cow Brand SkinLife Medicated Acne Care Cleanser
My beauty buys from the Japanese market. I don't really have an explanation for these other than I wanted to try them? I have heard from somewhere before that Cow Brand cleansers are pretty good, so why not try it out? It wasn't too pricey anyways.
What have you been up to lately?
Woot! My birthday just passed and I am now really an "adult".
Ah...I don't think I am quite ready to face the world as one yet.
Worries aside, I had a pretty awesome birthday.
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Cocoron
37 Kenmare St
New York, NY 10012
b/t Mott St & Elizabeth St
It was hard to decide on a lunch spot, but I settled on Cocoron. This has been on my "To try" list ever since ExtraPetite posted about this a few months ago. Bestie C and I had actually attempted to eat there once before on a Saturday and the place was packed. This time we made sure to get there right when they opened and we were the second to be seated!
Mera Mera Dip Soba
My main agenda at Cocoron was to try their dip soba. I have never had authentically prepared soba and I liked the idea of being able to dip the noodles. I ended up choosing this medium-spicy soup base and really enjoyed it. It wasn't too spicy when eating with the noodles, but definitely too hot for me to drink the soup. I can't wait to go back to try some of their other versions!
Steamed Chicken Meatballs
Yelp reviews raved about this appetizer. I think it is ground chicken (or chicken pieces) that is surrounded by sticky rice. This is pretty simple, but I love the combo (especially how it is bite-sized). For the price, I am not sure if I would get it again...but I enjoyed it while it lasted!
Green Tea Affogato
Again, another item I wanted to try after going through Yelp. (Notice a trend...?) I don't think this was anything too special but it was a nice end to the meal. Something sweet, something bitter, something chewy, something crunchy, and something cold. But because I didn't evenly spread the anko (red beans) out, the last quarter of the dessert just tasted like soggy green tea cereal.
Homemade donuts by Bestie C!
Samoa Donuts and Green Tea Donuts
She's been baking a lot of donuts recently, but I never got the chance to try one. I was so excited to get these. Between the two, I really liked the Samoa ones the most. But then again, I have a bias towards the caramel, coconut, and chocolate trio. These tasted even better with a sip of milk!
Ah the never ending purple themed presents from her. But I am not complaining. I was so surprised by the purple BeautyBlender though. I know the Pantone color this year is Orchid but had no idea BeautyBlender came out with a sponge to match. I hope this is a permanent color! (Is it...?)
As usual, we had two cakes this year as well because my mom invited a lot of family and friends over for dinner. To think the cake almost spelled MADY...
I initially wanted to try a new cake from Paris Baguette that I haven't had before...but I had the hardest time deciding at the store. To save myself the trouble of spending an hour staring hopelessly at all the options, I ended up getting the blueberry one instead. For some reason this one just doesn't compare to the blueberry chiffon cake I had 2 years ago. It tasted slightly sweeter and is definitely less purple than I remember. It was still good nonetheless, just different.
Would it be surprising if I said that yesterday was pretty much my first time having alcohol? (Other than the one mega tiny sip each of beer and wine I had a couple years ago.) Good thing there were 4 of us sharing the bottle, or else I do not know how I would have finished it. Bitter...bitter...bitter! After a few sips of the Heineken, I had to dilute it with Sprite. Yup...I guess I am not a drinker. But then again we also had a Coors Light and that was slightly more enjoyable. Not sure what to think about alcohol now.
How do you typically spend your birthdays?
Big ol' parties or meals with small groups?
Happy Lunar New Year everyone!! ^__^
As always, I cannot believe it is already February.
I finished my first week of the new school semester yesterday and felt so exhausted because I am still on my winter break sleeping schedule (which is completely out of whack). Getting lost on the inter-webs makes being productive extremely hard. (Procrastinator problems!)
I typically finish products very...very slowly. It takes me a good few months or a year sometimes to even accumulate handful of empties. (It doesn't help that I tend to start a whole bunch of new things while using other stuff.)
I had kept a bag of empties all year last year, like the hoarder that I am. Somehow I completely forgot about it until mid January. By then it was probably too late to put up a 2013 empties post. Right?
So here is to a new start! Even though I am still 2 days late, it isn't the end of the world yet.
My very small empties collection:
I haven't been using my masks much lately. But one day during the break I suddenly felt the urge to really cleanse (with my Clarisonic Mia), exfoliate, and enjoy a mask. Does that happen to anyone else?
Although there are so many masks out there that target different things, I find that they all are too short-term for me to see results for the said claims. Instead, I love to use them more for instant moisturization and relaxation.
My Scheming masks seem to fit my face well and the sheet mask comes pretty well soaked in the serums, it even is dripping in serum when you take it out of the packaging.
As for the PINK Sweet & Flirty Body Mist...I have had that since my senior year of high school! I only spray it onto my clothes before wearing them since body sprays scents don't last particularly long anyways. This way it isn't too overpowering. Plus, I can more generously spray this all over since body mists like these tend to be pretty affordable. I am not sure if PINK sells this particular scent anymore because it has been a while since I bought it.
I am not sure why, but ever since I started college my facial and body acne has gotten really bad. They were both under control for the last couple years in high school and I couldn't have been more excited to be finally through with the bad acne stage. But lo and behold, it came back!
There aren't that many products available in the drugstores that treat body acne specifically. The Neutrogena Body Clear Body Wash - Pink Grapefruit, I think, is one of the few. Unfortunately, either my body acne is really bad or this body wash just doesn't work too well. Until I find a better option, I may still repurchase more of this (if on sale) just to use them as a precautionary item. Better than nothing right? Do you have any suggestions?
How many products were you able to finish last month?
I mentioned a while back that I saw a dermatologist, who prescribed a tretinoin gel (generic brand of Retin-A) for me to use for my acne. I did diligently follow her instructions and slowly increased my usage until I reached a once every night application.
Doing so made my skin peel like never before. (When I first started to use the La Roche Pose Efflaclar Duo, my skin did peel but it I don't think it was as bad.) All the exfoliating and moisturizing I was doing did not seem to help either. After a follow-up visit to the derm, she told me to decrease the applications to every other day since daily was, obviously, too strong for me.
But I must admit, I didn't follow the doctor's orders. Instead I completely stopped using the treatment altogether. (I think) I saw her a month or two after the initial appointment and at the time I didn't see too many benefits, acne/break-outs wise, from the tretinoin gel. Pair that with the unsightly flaky skin (in the summer no-less), I wanted to 'run' as far away as possible from the treatment and the dermatologist. (I haven't made a follow-up appointment since that second/last visit.)
After a few months of taking myself off the gel, my skin seemed to regulate itself and there wasn't massive amounts of flakiness on my face. I was and am still breaking out quite often and a lot. But I didn't want to risk using the treatment and having to go out of the house all flaky and peeling. So I took the opportunity before the holidays and right after my Fall semester ended to put on a layer of the tretinoin gel and give it a second chance. "This time I know better!" is what I said to myself.
But I didn't. Either I was a little too heavy-handed or my skin really can't handle the tretinoin because my skin started to immediately peel, flake, dry-up, so on and so forth the day after. Even the trusty ol' Olay Beauty Fluid that I relied on for the past 2 winters didn't help the flakes (which lasted for over a week, not exaggerating).
I hadn't been thinking of getting any new skincare items, despite the skin condition. I even settled on the idea of just riding it out (even though I still sulked about it here and there). But a "quick" stop to a Sephora to check out eye creams got me curious about some new Dr. Jart+ items that I remembered the Muse spoke highly of for drier skin folks. After doing a bit of review searching, the Ceramidin line seems to be pretty effective for other dry-skin gals as well. So with the combination of the weather being all chilly now and having dry-ish/combo & flaky skin, I went from having an itty-bitty speck of curiosity to flown-blown desire to have the products. (Why does this happen?!...)
Here are the items that got:
L to R: Dr. Jart+ Ceramidin Cream, Bobbi Brown Hydrating Eye Cream, Dr. Jart+ Ceramidin Liquid
I can't wait to use them. Maybe with these in-hand, I'll give the tretinoin a third chance. Perhaps third time's the charm?
Has anyone tried any of these products before? How do you like it?
I actually finished this bottle of Skin79 Smart Clear Deep Cleansing Oil a few months back and had every intention to review it. But, unfortunately, it didn't happen. Here's a quick post before I really forgot everything about the product. Hopefully I got down as many details as I can remember.
This was one of those products that I bought because my cleansing oil at the time was running out. I bought it from a beauty store in Chinatown (in Manhattan) for ~$17 (if I remember correctly). However, I purchased this without reading any prior reviews and truly went in with experimentation in mind. Coming from a brand that is most known for their BB Creams, I was thinking that their cleansing oil shouldn't be too bad for makeup removal. So home it went with me!
Here are some of the packaging details for those who understand Korean. Luckily the ingredients list is in English, so don't fret for those who are conscious about what is in products.
As with most cleansing oils that come in pump bottles, the new bottles come sealed and with a stopper to prevent any leakage pre-purchase. The trouble came afterwards when the cleansing oil seemed to slightly burst through the pump with each use and leaves the bottle an oily mess. I wish I took a photo of it to more accurately show what I mean but my mom must have thrown out the bottle when she was doing a thorough cleaning. But compared to something else, this is a rather insignificant problem.
The main dislike I had was this formulation. It really stung my eyes! This was not even a result of me specifically use it to remove eye makeup. Even when I avoided rubbing my eye area with the product, the cleansing oil & residue eventually makes it way around my (closed) eyes when I go to rinse the product off. That milky-residue-water made my eyes really burn. Of the cleansing oils that I have used, some did make my vision a little, temporarily, cloudy. But none has ever stung my eyes like this one did.
Due to that reason, I actually dreaded going through this bottle the whole time I had it. This was also why I ended up trying Bioderma in late-spring through the summer, when I still had about half a bottle of the Skin79 Smart Clear Deep Cleansing Oil left.
Otherwise, the cleansing oil took off both light & heavy-ish face makeup pretty well. This product did leave my skin a bit tight afterwards. But all cleansing oils (that I have used thus far) pretty much have the same effect for me, so I am not going to nit-pick on that point.
I don't quite remember if this cleansing oil had a runnier or thicker consistency, but I do remember that I used around 2 pumps during each cleanse. I presume that a bottle would probably last a few months with consistent usage.
Even though it is on the less expensive side for a cleansing oil, this is something I would definitely not repurchase. Unless, who knows, maybe I got a dud? Any who, with the cleansing oil trend picking up in Western brands I think I may give those a try first before I have to consider this specific one again.
Have you tried any bad cleansing oils before?
Do share! That way we can know beforehand what items to cross off the "To try" list.
First post for 2014!
Thanks Kar Yi for tagging me!
I haven't done a tag post in a loonnngggg time. But I figured I should sit through and type it all out before I get distracted with other things. This should be fun!
30 Random-ish Facts about Me:
1. I am an over-thinker. It takes me forever to start to do or say anything because I try to think of all the consequences.
2. So I am also very indecisive. I almost can never decide what I want to eat/do because everything looks interesting. Or the 'consequences' I come up with end up talking me out of it. Then I tend to stick to the safer/more routine options.
3. But I like and want to try new things (as long as it isn't TOO risky).
4. I have a long list of interests as a result. But don't keep up with as many of them as I would like to. (New year's resolution?)
5. These are reasons why it took me forever to decide on a major. But hopefully, things turn out well. Even if it doesn't, I have come to terms with the idea of not living a 'great' & 'well-off' life.
6. I finally decided to be a Marketing - Advertising major (with a heavier focus on the digital side). Along with being a Graphics Communications and Computer Info Systems (with e-biz and web design focus) minors. Ehh ... not sure why I did this to myself for my last 1.5 years of college, but I think they are all interesting topics.
7. I get very attached to things and people.
8. I have a lot of 'junk' that I think is sentimental. (Like my grandma ... well used to.)
9. I fear of being judged (whether good or bad). I don't like it when people judge me or anyone else. Yet I subconsciously do it all the time. (New year's resolution?)
10. I don't like feeling awkward. But I find myself feeling awkward often. Maybe that's why it's hard for me to meet new friends? Or start and keep conversations?
11. Perhaps a combo of #9 & #10 keeps me from sharing my blog & social medias with people I know in real life?
12. I tend to act like a kid ... a lot.
13. When I am determined ... I fully devote my attention to it and can lose track of time easily.
14. I think I have a lot of patience?
15. But I also get irritated and angry quite easily... (go figure!)
16. I am very emotional. Sad things/fear make me cry very easily. So it probably isn't the best idea to watch a sad movie/TV show with me unless you want to see me bawling my eyes out with a tissue box in hand.
17. When I was little, I wanted to be a teacher because I really love little kids.
18. In high school, I really had no idea what I wanted to be in the future. Some things I listed were interior designer, architect, photographer, and entertainment related (whether in-front or behind-the-scenes).
19. I haven't been outside of North America in 19 years. If things go well and I get to travel next summer, it'd be my first time back in Asia in 20 years!
20. I'm a total homebody. I don't mind just spending my time inside, even if I don't do 'anything'.
21. That being said, I do like to and want to go explore new places.
22. I have been wanting to go to Korea since I was in middle school.
23. I have thought of living/working abroad before. But don't know what I would do there...
24. I sometimes wish I had the courage to do something YouTube related. Not for the fame, but for the more relaxed/do-whenever nature of it.
25. I love to bake and cook. But tend to fail at it most of the time. Practice makes perfect? ... !
26. I am a total night owl. I like to have things done before I go to sleep (or take a nap in some most cases) rather than leaving things unfinished and trying to wake up earlier to complete it.
27. Being a procrastinator doesn't help #24. But I found that keeping lots of lists (everywhere) and a planner helps a little bit.
28. I try to be a perfectionist. Though...sometimes it gets to the point where I have to tell myself to not be.
29. I think I underestimate myself a lot?
30. The future ... My future scares me. Especially since I don't have a concrete plan & am just taking things as they go. (Probably not the smartest idea though.)
Anyways! Here's to 2014!
Hope some of these weren't too personal.
I am not sure who to tag... So I'll leave it open for anyone who wants to share a bit about themselves!
