Weekend Food Tripping in Shanghai, China!!!

We've stayed in China for a week, so posting ALL about the food we had would take a lot of time! So, I've decided to share my wonderful food tripping at the lovely Shanghai City for 2 restaurants that are close to my heart, well, close to my brother Nap's heart also because he brought us there because he loves the restaurants as well!

Let me start with the wonderful Lisboa Restaurant located at the Shanghai Times Square. Lisboa Restaurant is known to serve yummy Macau Dish which is also Portuguese inspired. The perfect thing about this restaurant? It's right beside Watson's! lol Where I bought my Tsuabaki hair products :P

Seldom can I find "Kalamansi" in China and I am surprised to taste their "lemon" juice with our very own Philippine Pride...the Kalamansi!!!

I've always been dining out with family on different Chinese Restaurants here in the Philippines, but this Dumpling Soup tastes Authentic! Nothing too overwhelming, with just a few fresh ingredients, everything felt so warm and good

I know we are supposed to eat in a Chinese restaurant with Chinese Dishes
What in the hell is this burger doing?
This was highly recommended by my brother and he's right!
The bread is crunchy, and what's the meat? Grilled Chicken Meat!
Oh so tender and tasty!

Fresh Veggies for the oldies...
NAH! I love veggies, and I'm not an Oldie! lol

The famous Portuguese Rice
I can eat this without any dish!!!!
The rice itself is perfect!

Honeycured Pork
I've tasted so much honeycured pork back home and I live near Chinatown...
Nothing tastes like this!

Fried Chicken Portuguese Style
I love the Garlic Sauce

Grilled Squid
So tender and juicy
To my Philippine Readers who's familiar with Gerry's Grill?
Tastes almost the same!

AND!!!!
When we talk abuot Portuguese Food, we have to include their famous Egg Tarts!
I can't count how many egg tarts I've eaten in my Shanghai Trip LOL
There's a difference between the 2 egg tarts below...
Wanna Guess?

Left - Regular Egg Tart
Right - For diet conscious, without Egg Yolk

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Next, I'd like to talk about another cute restaurant. We traveled quite far just to get into this restaurant, my brother likes to eat here during his lunch time. This is ONION Restaurant. And we're lucky enough to see Mr. Onion himself when we visited there!

Let's strike an ONION POSE hahaha

We ordered a family set meal!
It was good for 6 hungry mammals! :)

The 2 dishes above ..well they're appetizers and we ate it all without having a chance to take a shot of it! Sorry we can't fight hungry hippos! :P

Sausage with Roast Pork
Very tender and juicy, I'm not a fan of Sausages but it tastes alright

Shrimps
Very fresh and sweet! I am not a Shrimp lover due to my allergies
BUT,
I ate these without any problems at all!

Some Chinese Vegetables
They are cooked really fresh and sweet
The peanut is incredibly delicious too!

This is the Spiciest Thing We've ever tasted
They call this "Ma-La"
It's not only Spicy it numbs your tongue as well!

Ready to know what this is????

FROGS!!!!
(I chickened out, I didn't eat the frog, I just ate the Tofu that comes with it)

Yummy Celeries with Scallops
This tastes so rich, Celeries to make me burn calories
And Scallops to make me feel special

After all the eating, I've thought we're done!
Then last came the Chicken Curry!
This is their house specialty, it was housed on a very hard Bread!

It was a wonderful food tripping in Shanghai!
As you can find a lot of dishes from all parts of the world that has a hint of Chinese style of cooking.
I thought I am adventurous with food, I've found out I'm not...
I said "NO" to stinky tofu and Frogs...
So yeah, I'm a sissy..
What about you? Are you adventurous with food?
Happy Start of the Week everyone!

Nail Art Tutorial: "Halloween Colors Inspired" Nails

(Note from author: I'm not an expert on nail art, just someone who loves to play with her nails)

Hi Everyone! Thanks for the wonderful "get well soons" to me and my hubby! After almost a week in bed, getting sick, eating medicines, drinking lots of fluids and sleep...it's time to be alive and kicking! Well, alive -- Yes, Kicking --- not sure yet :P

I've got requests to do Halloween nails but to be honest, I can't seem to put spiders, ghosts, or any scary stuffs on my nails then go to work! LOL

So, today's nail art tutorial would be "Halloween Colors Inspired" nail art, I chose the Halloween color which is bright orange, teeny boppy (not my age) but still, I've done it... all for ya! (Nancy, my nail art friend, if you're reading this, I know this is your favorite nail art design, I've seen you rocking this design!)

Step 1:

I've used Caress Nail Polish in Orange (Bright Orange), applied one coat, let dry

Step 2:

Apply the 2nd coat, while the 2nd coat is still WET, use a dark green nail art pen and create dots, do not be nervous if the dots would blend in with the polish <--- that's what we're aiming for

Step 3: (I have to admit, you have to be quick on Step 2 and 3)

On top of the green dot, apply a white dot over the green dot. It'll look like the photo below

Step 4:

Just like the drawing I did on the photo, the red dots represent the green with white dots you've created, using a needle, draw a line moving upward (as seen in the green arrow, yes! Just imagine that you're messing up the dots!)

Hard to explain but the effect would look like this....

Step 4:

You can be creative and do other designs together with this green leafy thing that you've done. I prefer to make it simple by adding yellow dots on the side to balance out the design.

Step 5:

Never forget to top it with a clear coat for protection. See how dirty my fingers get when I do nail art?

Closer view

What you don't know ----

I was too slow the first few times I tried so the dots dried on me pretty quickly so I had to re-do 2 fingernails :) Trial and error....that's the key!

Update on my health, I'm still not in perfect condition, it's weird, before I left home today, everything was okay and when we had dinner with my family, I am having this huge terrible headache...eyes gets really painful! Even hubby had the same experience with headaches and eye strain...people's just been getting sick nowadays, so you better take care of your health and drink those vitamins!

Be healthy!
Happy Weekend
and keep the smile coming!

Askmewhats Reviews: Beauty and Minerals Kabuki Brush

I've always love to use brushes in my make-up application, yes, even powder foundation! I have been using my super scratchy, shed-dy (if there's such term, I believe I invented this lol), kabuki brush (my first brush buy ever) It was so bad my hubby is using it to clean his keyboard! And funny thing is, he told me it sheds!

Anyways, I messaged my wonderful friend Sophie a.k.a. Beautynomist if she could recommend me a nice Kabuki brush that doesn't hate my face and doesn't leave crime evidence EVERYWHERE! If brush shedding is a crime, I'm already in prison by now! :P

Sophie, if you guys do not know, is also the wonderful seller from Beauty & Minerals
So I'm definitely asking the right person! She was kind enough to ask what my requirements are in a Kabuki brush meaning what type of coverage I would like to achieve, what products I will be using it for....etc... (that's customer service and I wasn't even a customer yet! lol)
Anyways, I finally said YES to the wonderfully soft Kabuki Brush she's talking about and I trust her so much because I didn't even know how it looks like. If you don't know, I love surprises, and I'm glad it was a surprise!

When it was delivered to me (with lovely MMU e/s freebie) I'm in LOVE!!! And I'm falling in love ...this time...to the right brush!

Beauty & Minerals Synthetic Kabuki Brush
*singing* You are so beautiful....to me....can't you see....

** Php700 approx $15.00
available at Beauty & Minerals Website

Beauty & Minerals Says ---

A very very soft kabuki - just because it's synthetic , also perfect for liquid foundations! A crowd favorite!

Askmewhats Says ---

Pros

• does NOT shed, even 1 hair (for the whole month I've been using this)
• no yucky smell
• very soft
• very handy
• doesn't go out of shape
• versatile

Cons

• Nada! Well, there's one, I think it's limited, she doesn't have a lot of stock of this!

Overall
I'm not sure if you guys have seen The Body Shop Mineral Make-up Collection, and they do have their Kabuki Brush as well, I would say this is the same "texture" and "feel" with the Body Shop one, but I believe this one is cheaper.

I have been using this everyday with my EDM foundation, or at times, with my P&J Powder Foundation and it all works well. I have wet my powder foundation with MAC Fix+ and applied foundation using this brush and it performs just as well!


Tips

• use a Kabuki Brush to apply your powder foundation or face powder rather than your sponges, it makes a huge difference and your make-up appears more natural!
• if you have slim face and wants to apply blush on the apple of your cheeks, you can use this brush and the color will show up more as the brush hairs are more compact
• after every powder foundation application, spray the brush with water/Mac Fix+/Mac Charged Water/Bench Mist/Evian Mist etc... and brush it gently on your face to lessen the "powdery" look

Will I repurchase?
YES! Definitely!


Have a great weekend people! It's my brother's birthday yesterday and we'll be going out tonight to eat out (though he's not in the country, nothing is going to stop us from celebrating!!!!) If you're reading this Nap, my dear brother and friend.....
HAPPY HAPPY Birthday!!!!

Joppa Minerals : Free First Class Shipping til October 23rd!

FREE First Class Shipping on all orders (domestic and global) Now through October 23
(Click the banner above to go to Joppa Minerals Website)

Dear Philippine Readers and the rest of the World!

If you want to try on their samples without the expensive shipping rates, this is the right time!

Happy Shopping!

Another Everyday Minerals Haul

I've had my first samples of EDM (Everyday Minerals) arrived last month as seen on the post here

To be honest, I cannot LOVE or HATE the EDM minerals because all the colors of their foundation are quite similar, meaning, I have been using all of the samples randomly each day and they all works well on my skin! Weird huh? Its good and bad at the same time. But I don't mind, I love the coverage and I love the way the foundation stayed on my skin.

I wanted the Flat Top Brush for the longest time since Digital Angel talks so fondly of them. I've seen Lurve bought 3 of them in one order too!!! So this brush should be wonderful right? Anyways, if you buy anything from EDM, you better get their samples anyways because it's free, all you have to do is pay for the shipping :)

I ordered October 1st and I got it roughly 2 weeks after or less!

And here's the package that I got!
I love it that EDM never fails to ship on time!

Here's how it looks like inside,
They pack it really nicely AND the good news is,
they changed their sample jars!!!
It's BIGGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's what I ordered ---

New Flat Top Brush ($10.00)
Free Sample Makeup Kit ($0.00)
Shipping and Handling Fee ($5.30)
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Coupon Discount (5%) less $0.50
Total : $14.80

Here's a side by side comparison on the first sample I got and the new jar they used! Of course the original sample jars are way cuter BUT the bigger jars have more products inside, it's not that hard to choose right?

I've always thought the Flat Top Brush is big!
Here's how big it is on my hand!
(and sad to say, my hands are small)



Comparison against MAC 187



The lovely samples!
Buff - Fair Neutral Intensive
Golden Fair Intensive
Golden Fawn Intensive
Lavender Color Corrector
Corner Office Blush



Swatches for you!

It all came out like it looks wrong right?
But if I rub it a bit you'll get my point :)



It does blend into the skin and I think the closest color would be Golden Fawn. Golden Fair would be ok too! Fair Neutral looks too light on my skin



I've had the Mint Color Corrector (for redness)
And this time, I ordered the Lavender Color Corrector (for sallowness)
Together with Corner Office Blush

I wasn't happy with my first blush sample order which is Matte called Weekend Getaway. Weekend Getaway just disappears and won't stay on my skin. So I ordered a different finish called Sheen, sheen has satin iridescence and it looks so pretty on swatch. I hope it works as nicely on my face!

Can't wait to use my MMU foundation with my New flat top brush!
What do you think about the foundation colors?
Which one would work for me?
Golden Fair? Golden Fawn?