Product Review - Too Faced Absolutely Invisible Translucent Pressed Powder

I read about this product online around the same time when Sephora just arrived in town. So the timing is right and I picked this up while joining the crowd to 'celebrate' the opening of Sephora at Bukit Bintang.

The packaging is sort of old-fashioned, but I do fancy vintage looking stuff, hehe...

A simple case with the brand name printed in bold on top. It reminds me of the packaging of Anna Sui's cosmetics, maybe it's the color combination of black and purple?? What do you think? This pressed powder comes with a sponge that is well hidden in a 'space' underneath the powder palette. Personally I prefer to use a brush instead of the sponge for application though.

The color of the powder looks like a pale pinkish shade in the picture above due to lighting issues. The actual color is a soft beige tone, in which the website describes as translucent.

Product : Too Faced Absolutely Invisible Translucent Presses Powder

Size : 9g

Price : Retailed at $27.00 in the official website. (I can't remember the actual price, it's slightly above RM100)

Directions for use: I applied the powder on top of a thin layer of BB cream.

Likes: Nice and practical packaging and case, not some flimsy cheap plastic case. The product really live up to its name 'Absolutely Invisible'. The oil control effect is long lasting and provides a nice flawness finish as the product claims.

Dislikes: None so far, I just love this product!

Overall: This product eliminates shine from my face for up to 5 hours, but honestly the shine is really not that noticeable even up to 10 hours on my personal experience. It's way better compared to the days when I only applied BB cream without the pressed powder. The best thing is even when you apply a few layers (accidentally or purposely, haha) of powder, it won't cause built-up like other pressed powders do. At first your face might look a bit too white and pale, but it'll absorb and blend in nicely with your face color in no time.

Hakka Cuisine for Lunch

Yesterday me and my friend went to The Curve for lunch, as well as to enjoy the nice and relaxed sunny Monday. Initially we planned to have lunch at Sakae Sushi, but it was soon cancelled after being offered their 'incredible' services. Yes, incredible in the sense of incredibly bad! We stood at the entrance waiting to be seated after informing the manager/senior staff (the guy was wearing a suit and tie) of the number of seats needed. We were the only customers in the waiting line at that time, but the waiters paid no attention to us. There were plenty of empty tables actually. After waited for a couple of minutes, we called the waiters but were completely ignored. Okay, that's the last straw, we left. This is not the first time I encountered bad service in Sakae Sushi at The Curve anyway...

We decided to try a new restaurant instead, so we picked Ying Ker Lou that serves Hakka cuisine. The contemporary decor in the restaurant exudes tranquility with dark brown leather and wooden furnitures and fittings. While the ambience looks rather calm, the 'noise pollution level' is not much different with a typical Chinese restaurant. Yup, I can say it's quite noisy during lunch hours, especially if you intend to enjoy a quiet lunch.

I like the look of its main entrance. :)

Since it's a weekday, we ordered a special saving set lunch each. Each set lunch comes with dim sum and drink, apart from the main meal.

My friend had the Hakka Pan Mee, a generous portion with pork meat balls and mushroom slices.

I ordered the Crispy Fried Chicken with Fermented Bean Curd that comes with a bowl of rice. The portion is just right for girls, but might not be enough to feed a hungry guy. Back to my meal, I quite enjoy the crispiness of the chicken although it's not juicy and succulent.

Here are the free dim sum that comes with the set lunches, one spring roll for each person (haha, kinda stingy). Don't expect much of this 'free' item though, it's filled with turnip and one thin stripe of carrot (yes, just one...). Basically this is the same sort of spring roll where we can get from the roadside stalls that sell fried stuff. The one and only good thing about it is you don't see oil dripping out from the spring rolls, not even a drop. Less oil = healthier, right?

Our side order, the Fried Yam Cake. Again, it's not the typical ones in dim sum restaurants, where the oil keeps on dripping out like crazy and you can even taste the oil in your mouth. The outer layer/skin is quite dry as if they bake the yam cake in an oven. The inner texture is softer, filled with bite sized yam cubes.

The bill arrived at less than RM50 for two persons. The food is not bad, however it's not up to the standard yet judging from the fact that it's a restaurant and the pricing charged. Will I visit again? Hmm... maybe yes and maybe no, but I'll prefer to save the money to try out other restaurants.

Product Review - Arimino Spice Mist Gloss Water

I first heard of the hair product brand Arimino in a hair saloon, where they shampooed and styled my hair with the products. The effectiveness is unknown since I only tried once, but I was immediately hooked by the nice and relaxing sweet fruity smell.

Arimino is a Japanese brand, which specializes in hair products of different ranges such as Mint, Spice, Caretrico and so on. If you can read Japanese, you might be interested to visit their official website to get to know more. Some but not all of the Arimino products can be bought from K Care Shop. You can choose to purchase online or visit their physical shops located in various places around Klang Valley. I was really anxious to get the product, so I went to the shop after browsing through the available product list online.

Since I'm not lack of shampoo, conditioner or treatment mask at the moment, I picked the Arimino Spice Mist Gloss Water. I've never tried gloss water/hair mist before, so I decided to give it a go. This is how the product looks like, pretty in pink!

I bought mine from the K Care Shop located in Puchong. Do remember to 'alert' the SA if she quotes you a different price, as it happened in my case where I had to inform her the correct promotional price as stated in their website.

Product : Arimino Spice Mist Gloss Water

Size : 250ml

Price : RM47.20

Directions for use : Spray on towel dried hair and comb through for even coverage

Likes: Nice packaging in pink. Slim bottle design, so it's easy to hold and spray. Faint fruity smell, although I prefer stronger ones. :)

Dislikes:  A bit expensive. Original price as stated in K Care Shop website is RM59, while RM47.20 is the current promotional price. I'm not sure if this is a marketing tactic or the price will really go back to RM59 sooner or later.

Overall: The fruity smell is not as strong as the other hair spray (failed to take a glimpse of it) and shampoo that I tried in the hair saloon. After spraying the gloss water, no entanglement and my hair is easier to comb. I'm still a bit sceptical of its effectiveness because my hair is not prone to tangles anyway, maybe a person who faces this problem can tell me if it really works?? My hair does become a bit shinier than usual. I'm not sure if I'll make a second purchase on this same product, guess I need a hair hydrating spray more than this.

Eat Green - Salad for Lunch

It's another sunny Saturday. Slowed and dazed by heat, I decided to have something light and simple for lunch; partly due to a whole week of indulgence on high calorie fatty food as well. So I made myself a bowl of salad, which is relatively easy compared to other recipes that requires you to stir-fry, bake or steam etc.

Eating salad is one of the best way to consume fresh greens when you're feeling lazy. If you're concern about the energy and nutrient balance, just feel free to add in other ingredients with protein or carbohydrate. I'll be sharing my recipe for the salad, only for reference purpose, because the ingredients used in salads are limitless so just let your imagination run wild! Are you prepared for some greens today?

Easy Lettuce Salad

Ingredients:

1/2 tablespoon whole grain mustard

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

1 tablespoon Italian dressing

Salt & black pepper to taste

4 cherry tomatoes
1 egg
1 cup corn kernels

120g prawns

4 to 5 leaves of lettuce

Instructions:

1. Clean and tear lettuce leaves into bite size pieces. Cut each tomato into four.

2. Cook hard boiled egg and cut into wedges.

3. Cook corn kernels and prawns in hot water. Drain when cooked and cool slightly. Set aside.

4. Mix whole grain mustard, mayonnaise and salt into corn kernels and prawns.

5. Add corn kernels and prawns into the bowl of lettuce, egg and tomatoes.

6. Dress salad with black pepper and Italian dressing. Toss well.

My Latest Discovery - A Free Worldwide Delivery Online Bookstore!

Being an avid reader and a self-proclaimed book shopaholic, I miss no chance of buying books at the lowest prices possible. Although I do spend generously on my favourite titles sometimes, but the joy of getting a price cut is still undeniably tempting!

While there are some pretty decent bookstores around such as Borders, MPH and Popular, the world of books is just too huge with uncountable titles being published every month, so it's impossible to expect our local bookstores to have all the titles we want. I started to consider purchasing online and the first store comes to mind is Amazon.com. However, since I don't live in the US, the shipping fees can be rather steep especially when I only purchase one or two books. I completely ditched the idea of buying books online, not until I found this...

I was reading a post about some online purchased books in My Women Stuff the other day, when the phrase "free delivery" suddenly caught my eyes. This is how I discovered The Book Depository thanks to the blogger Paris B. The Book Depository is a UK online bookseller that offers free worldwide delivery to over 100 countries. Isnt't it amazing?

This is the book I ordered, 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, which only cost me $4.67. The best thing about this website is it actually list out all the different versions for a single title, so you'll be spoilt with choices of various covers, formats and of course prices. This is definitely something impossible for a brick and mortar bookstore.

They're now having a summer book festival, which features a different genre of books each week and offers great discounts. To the fans of romance novels, this is the week where you can score yourself a nice deal!