Askmewhats

Monday, February 9, 2009

Weekend Food Tripping at: Mann Hann

Another salivating post I guess :)

Good day everyone!!! We had Keith's relatives coming over from Hong Kong and we took them to SM Mall of Asia for shopping and of course, give them a bit of a taste of our Chinese fusion dish :) Our favorite place Mann Hann Restaurant!

Food isn't expensive, servings are good and of course, the taste of the food are wonderful!!! :) We stayed there til closing I think! LOL It was a late dinner, and we had fun stuffing ourselves!

Yang Chow Fried Rice
Php170.00 (approx $3.50)

Good for 3-4 person.

Steamed Fish Fillet
Php185.00 (approx $3.85)

Very fresh, love the sauce!

Broccoli Flower with Garlic
Php145.00 (approx $3.00)

I don't usually like to order Broccoli from restaurants
But this one tastes exceptional, the broccoli flower is sweet
and perfect amount of garlic

Sizzling Tofu
less than Php200.00 (approx $4.00)

Favorite tofu dish! I know, I love any tofu dish but this is exceptional!
Must try!

Spicy Spareribs
Php180.000 (approx $3.75)

I am not a Pork spareribs eater,
But this passed the hungry mouth of my hubby :)

Fried Squid
Php175.00 (approx $3.65)

I LOVE this, the squid is tender
and it was actually served with BAGOONG (fish paste)
But chuck the fish paste and ask for VINEGAR!
Perfect!

Maki
Php125.00 (approx $2.60)

Sticky soup with egg and pork
Pork is tender, you can order this with noodles
called MAKI MI

Oyster
sorry forgot the price for this

I personally am NOT an oyster eater,
so I skipped this so I can't tell if it's delicious or not

It was my Mom-in-law's birthday on that day as well
We bought her UBE Cake from Red Ribbon :)
Ube cake also known as TARO cake

YUMMY!!!!

Hope you like my food post :)
Enjoy the week ahead!
Valentine's week!
Again a Valentine's day look will be posted soon!
Stay happy!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Nail Art Tutorial: Nails In Love!

Hello lovelies!!!

Valentine's day is near! I am sure there's a lot of Valentine's day inspired everything! So I've thought of doing a girl "In Love" nails! By the way, I bought art brushes from a local bookstore, I TRIED drawing hearts and I have to say, it is very challenging and I gave up for now...I need to do more practice as I don't want to have "ugly" hearts this coming Valentine's day!

I did an "almost" heart look though --- in a human way hahaha
Here's my version and interpretation, I hope you like it! :)

Step 1:

Apply a base coat, let dry. Apply one layer of any pink matte color. Let dry.

Step 2:

Apply 2nd coat of the base color.

While wet, drop a white colored polish and red colored polish, creating 3 dots. You can choose whatever color combination you like.

Step 3:

Quickly run through a needle going up, between the dots. A 3 heart shape will show up.

Again, you can do something different for the THUMB
In my case, I did 4 dots instead of 2 :)

Step 4:

Leave the nail art for a couple of minutes, making sure it's dry. add a glitter polish on the area where you run through the needle. You may skip this step if you don't have a thin brush.

Step 5:

Using my Testimo Polish for the first time (a gift from a dear friend last Christmas), slowly apply on the "pink" base area only, trying not to touch the hearts. I am trying to create hearts with some falling glitters :)

The reason for not going through the nail art, because the hearts won't show up clearly. I am trying to create a glittery, happy base with the hearts as the MAIN focus. That's LOVE! :P

Step 6:

Making sure the nail art is dry, top your nails with your favorite top coat. In my case, everyone knows its The Face Shop's Top Coat :D <--- for now!

Here's the finished "Nails In Love" look

and the thumb art
Now that sounds like "dumb art' lol

A Valentine's Day inspired eye make-up will be coming up!
What are your plans for the V-day?
Anything special planned out for your loved ones?
Stay loved...stay happy!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

An Initial Look: Coastal Scents Haul

After a month, I FINALLY got my Coastal Scents haul! I honestly thought it got lost over mail. My first order from CS came in 2 weeks or less, and it went straight at home. I braved myself to order again as I'm confident it'll go straight to my home again and less than a month. WRONG!!! NEVER expect the wheel to be on top all the time! LOL My mom-in-law had to help me pick them up! Anyways, enough about shipment...I got them, I'm glad! *wipes forehead*

What did I get?

L-R Deep Plum, 24K and True Black

And see how pretty they are when swatched

Top-bottom: True Black, Deep Plum and 24K

True Black - came in perfect! Now I know why it always goes "Out of Stock", the consistency is great, it is definitely TRUE black, I am excited to use this as my HG Stila Smudgepots is getting dry as it has been almost a year with me!

Deep Plum - it came in with a "mousse-y" texture, I have to swipe a couple of times for the shade to come out as the photo above. I tried putting it on my lid and it looks, different, a good kind of different and the "mousse" texture gets dry.

24K - if Deep Plum is "mousse-y" in texture, 24K felt like whipped cream. LOL it bothers me at first because I have never tried gel liner to be uhm....a real "GEL" in texture lol But the texture can be put to side as one swipe gave out a really nice gold-ish color with the right amount of sparkle. So excited to use this on my lids. I have a feeling I need Truffle as base and top it with this one, have to test it, as it goes so well on my skin tone that it probably won't show up too much on my eyes.

-------------------------------

You guys know me, I'm a smart shopper, since I'm already paying for shipping, why not add an inexpensive item that doesn't weigh so much???

The Pink Angle Taklon Liner Brush has it's own "award" from some of the beauty bloggers, and since my gel liners increase in quantity, I should increase the liner brushes right? RIGHT!

When I got this brush, I was having mixed feeling. Can't say it's bad, but it ain't that good as well. I guess I was expecting something else. I was expecting a slim brush, but the angled liner brush came in, well shaped like hmm how do I explain this... 3 DIMENSIONAL? lol I don't mind though, it's inexpensive, and I love surprises! :D

Here's the look, It's PINK again! :)

A closer look on the brush
The angle is perfect for lining the eye
(excuse the dirty hair coz I used it to swatch the gel liners)

That's the 3D I'm talking about..lol

As compared to my Smashbox Liner Brush,
CS Pink Angle Taklon Liner brush

Smashbox Liner Brush's Ferrule is flattened,
so brush is thinner

And here's a freebie from Coastal Scents
A Blue Diamonds Shadow Sample

It is pretty and the sample is good enough for several applications :)
On finger, without base!
You can't go wrong with pigmented shadows!

Do you own all CS gel liners?
I've read that not all the gel liners are consistent in their pigmentation.
Which color do you think I should include in my gel liner collection?
Any color worth looking back?
Thanks!
Have a great weekend and
Stay Happy!

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Friday, February 6, 2009

UDPP vs. TFSI

I guess a lot of beauty bloggers had done the showdown for both of these. But I'm actually more interested to test it myself as I live in a Tropical Country, who only has 2 season in a year. Rainy and Sunny! I'm glad I had the chance to try on both primers though both are NOT available in our country.

And I'm happy to report I've got results! Well readers, these are my eyes, my lids, my eyeshadows, do NOT take my word for it, some products would work on you but not for me or vice versa :) The report is based on MY experience using MY set of eyes!

I'll report back with Askmewhats Revisits if something happened that would make me change my mind :)

Here's the look I've created using UDPP and TFSI as labeled on the photo. It isn't a heavy eye make up as it's regular office days, so I'm on neutrals.

Not bad huh? Looks like there's no difference,
Read on for reviews and showdown photos

Askmewhats specs ---

lids: not oily
e/s staying power without base: does not last, stays on max 2 hours
problems encountered: bad base or no base would cause my e/s to line on the crease (visibly)
testing period: done the 2 base eye make up look for 4 days straight, shifting bases on different eyes and different e/s brands are used

Askmewhats says ---

Pros

UDPP

e/s stays put for long hours
e/s are vibrant
dries up on lid quickly, shorter time to do your e/s application

TFSI

packaging is wonderful, I love the squeeze tube
creamy, easy to apply
can easily share to other people and still remains hygienic
you have more time to spread this out as this doesn't dry up too quickly on lids

Cons

UDPP

since my lids do not produce a lot of oil, applying too much will cause my lids to dry or flaky
bad packaging, cannot share using a wand unless you already decant this

TFSI

have to wait for a couple of seconds to dry before applying e/s
e/s creases a bit on me and some parts, the e/s are gone

Overall

Photos speak thousand words, so I'll show photos first
Here's a simple Stila Quad look after 10 hours

Found any differences?
I actually did!
It's not as huge of a difference with the other showdown
But I circled the differences
and read on for more in-depth review

UDPP definitely holds my e/s longer than TFSI
You may think that it's after 10 hours, so I should give TFSI a break right? WRONG, the look on photo for TFSI is like that even right after 2-3 hours of e/s application, but the good thing, it didn't go worse, it just stayed that way until I remove it
For people with oilier lids, UDPP definitely is the answer as I've tested UDPP on oily lids (more than 5) and I got the same answer from all of them, it was tested to hold on the e/s without creasing and without fading for hours and hours!
I am honestly not confident to use TFSI on oily lids especially if they are my clients as minimal creasing happened to me, and I have to remember the fact that I have dry lids.
that TFSI is great for cooler season (winter in other countries) while UDPP is perfect for the warm season (summer)