Collection 2000 Cream Puff Lip Cream

It's nice to have the Chanel's lipstick, Bobbi Brown's eye liner or Lancome's mascara but sometimes you can find a really wonderful beauty product at drug stores. And my latest beauty find is the Collection 2000's Cream Puff Lip Cream. It feels like a cream, very soft on your lips but has a matte texture to it, a wonderful combination. Although I don't find it as very dry as some of the matte lipsticks but my advice is to put your lip balm on well before applying the lip cream and allow it to sink it as this cold weather will dry and crack your lips so easily and it's definitely not a good base for the matte finish.

Although the tube is rather small but it's fair for the tiny price tag of £2.99. Too bad that they only come in 4 colours, the one I got here is a light pink, named Cotton Candy. I wish they came in more colours as I can see myself stocking up :D.

Dr Jart Water Fuse BB Cream

I just discovered Dr Jart Water Fuse, a Korean  BB cream and it's amazing! The packaging is nice and slick and the cream comes in a tube. As the label says; it has SPF 25 to protect skin from the sun, aloe juice to slow the water loss from the skin and Portulaca Oleracea Extract to soothe, calm and for anti redness. And yes, I can confirm this BB cream does wonder to your skin after testing it. 

I find the texture quite thick, dry and sticky when first applied to the skin. But it glides on so easily and evenly  and you can see the effect instantly. You only need a tiny amount of the product as it gives a good coverage and dewy finish. Of course, you won't get full coverage as with some foundations but it still gives a good moderate coverage and definitely better than certain other low end BB creams and even on par with some foundation like my Clinque's Superbalanced one. The cream stays put and my skin feels comfortable and hydrated throughout the day. 

The shade looks quite dark but it blends in well with my skins. I find the shade is OK for winter but may be a bit too light for summer time. And this is my only criticism of the product if I have one. I got this BB cream from Boots and it only comes in one shade but they offer a range of shades on Dr Jart's website but still it's hard to tell the exact match if you can't test it. This Water Fuse range is for the 20-35 age bracket who wants natural and fresh coverage, but there are 3 more ranges to target other age groups and skin problems, namely: Regenerating, Plantinum and Premium. So maybe it's worth to do a bit of research before you pick one ;)

Dr Jart's BB cream is priced at £18/ 50ml which I find very reasonable and I can see this will last for a long time. I love this product and think it's one of the best BB cream out there so if you're looking for one, why not give it a go ;)

American Apparel 'Glow in the dark' nail polish

[Image from the American Apparel website]

On top of my 'must get' list at the moment is the 'Glow in the dark' nail polish from American Apparel (AA). It comes in three colours: Jupiter (orange), Neptune (Turquoise- in picture) and moon (white). It's priced at £9 but if you sign up for email alert on the brand's website, you'd get a code for 15% off full priced items (online only). The other day, I was in the AA's shop in High Street Kensington and was given a free headband when I signed up, kinda made my day as I love freebies lol. So maybe, it's worth to ask them if they are doing any sort of promotion for email subscribing ;) Anyway, I think this polish is really fun and totally comes out at the right time for Halloween and you can always use it later for clubbing or fancy dress party. Can't wait to get mine :)

Choccywoccydoodah

When I lived in Brighton 6 years ago, I loved to pass by the window of Choccywoccydoodah to see their wonderful bespoke chocolate cakes so I was happy when they opened a shop off Carnaby Street last year. To be honest, I've never tried their chocolate but I love the cafe on the second floor, which has a quirky feel to it. 

Last Saturday me and my friend went there for a break from shopping. The menu offered a good variety of teas, milkshakes and cakes. We went for peppermint tea for me, milkshake for my friend and the 3 layered cake to share.

 There's nothing extraordinary about my tea but my friend said her milkshake is nice. Sitting opposite the tempting cake display, we were waiting impatiently for our cake. As the cafe got busy, we had to wait for a while. But it was worth it. We were given a huge slice of cake which was served with ice cream, chocolate and berry sauce. Although I have sweet tooth, but we couldn't finish the cake. 

The cake is nice but I think people come here for the pleasant atmosphere, the quirky decor and the lovely people working there. The red wall makes it feel cosy, perfect for a haven from cold weather and get a window seat which looks down the busy Carnaby street for people watching. Even the toilets are very cute with quirky decor. Unlike the uniform politeness of waiters in other cafes, the guy who served us was trying to crack jokes and make the next table laugh so hard as he admitted: 'You can tell I'm not from London, I'm too friendly'. 

When we asked for the bill, our receipt came in a plate with black and white chocolate buttons, a nice touch. Now I wish they give these buttons instead of mints in restaurants :D. Choccywoccydoodah made my Saturday afternoon.

Egyptian food@ Meya Meya

I love to try new things, so was very excited to find this restaurant for Egyptian food which is just around the corner of my flat. Don't let the look deceive you as the first floor is takeaway service and the real restaurant is hidden in the basement.

I've never tried Egyptian food before so decided to order few dishes so me and my bf can have a taste of a bit of everything. We ordered the Cairo fiteer, which is a filo pastry stuffed with smoked beef, tomatoes and olives. At first glance, it looks like a pizza base. The pastry was light but I found the smoked beef and olives together make it rather salty. The next dish was a savory meat filled bread- hawawshi. Our hawawshi was filled with beef mince and green chilli. It was quite spicy but very tasty at the same time. This is my favourite dish of the meal. I don't know how this bread is served in Egypt but I doubt that it'd be served with chips and salads like at Meya Meya. The chips were McDonalds-ish, stayed crunchy till the end of our meal but the salads were clearly not fresh. But I didn't care about chips and salads as I was so happy with the hawawshi and tempted to order one more.My bf ordered the chicken tagine with potatoes. The chicken was tender and fell of the bone easily but I found it bland and lacks seasoning. However, the tomato soup base tasted very fresh. Our last dish was aubergine falafel wrap. We were too full by then so we tore the wrap and only had the falafel inside. The falafel was crunchy outside but not too dry inside, and I love its creamy cheese.

The decor is nothing special but the waitress was really friendly and attentive. Overall, I was happy with the food and definitely will pop in again for the hawawshi take away :)

Meya Meya- 13 Bell Street, NW1 5BY

Burmese food @ Mandalay

I recently moved to Edgware Road area. Apart from the annoyance of packing and unpacking, I'm very excited to explore the variety of food offered in this area as where I lived before, choices mean choosing between McD, KFC, Subway or the pubs (yes I'm talking about Paddington!).

My first on the list is Mandalay, the only Burmese restaurant in London as I read so many good reviews about it and a friend of mine just came back from Myanmar and she was impressed with the cuisine. So on a rainy Monday night, me and my bf decided to check out the place, conveniently 5 mins walking down the road for us. The place is tiny, probably with capacity of 20 people. We arrived at 6.30ish, there were already few people there and the 'reserved' signs were placed on the big tables. I read that the owner is Burmese but the waiter who served us is Bengali, as he was friendly approaching my boyfriend by the language. He told my bf that the food is very similar to Bengali and I also read that Burmese cuisine is the fusion of South and South East Asian cuisines due to its geography so we had a rough idea of what to expect.

For starter, we ordered the egg and potatoes samosas and a platter of vegetable fritters which came with three sauces. I heard good reviews about the fritter and they were decent but the batter doesn't feel fresh and crunchy enough. I've tasted better fritters before. We moved to the main courses of lamb curry with potatoes (KYET-THA & AH-LOO) for my bf and coconut& chicken noodle (KYET-THA OHN-NO KHAUK-SWE) for me. The portion of the curry is relatively small. It was decent, I know you think I'm running out of vocabulary but I can't find anything special or distinctive about this dish. It tastes like a normal curry you'd have in any Indian/ Bengali restaurant. Definitely, not as tasty as the lamb curry in Tayabbs (White Chapel) or my bf's mum's curry. My noodle, well, tastes funny. The texture of the soup is very creamy; with coconut flavour, it tastes more like a Thai curry. The chicken meat is a bit bland and lacks seasoning. I ended up swapping my noodle for my bf's curry. Unimpressed with the starter and main courses, I decided not to try the dessert.

I left Mandalay with disappointment as I couldn't form an idea about Burmese cuisine or point my finger to a distinctive taste or flavour. Maybe I'm the only one who has negative review about this place as I've only come across good reviews of it or perhaps because I entered Mandalay with high expectation from all the hype?

On the good side, the waiters were very attentive and the food is reasonably priced.

I have to stress that I'm not a food critique by any means, what you read here is my personal experience and preference only. If you love to explore new things, give it a try but maybe don't set the expectation too high ;)

A stroll in the park

2 years in London and I've already had 4 house moves. Lucky me, all the places that I've lived in are near big parks and lovely green spaces. My current one is very close to Regents' Park.

On the way home on Monday, I was walking through the park then I stumbled on this little corner near the gate opposite the Parish Church of St Cyprian Clarence. My shoes was soaking wet but I had to stop to take in the beauty of this autumnal scene. Autumn is my least favourite season of the year and it was foggy, misty, rainy and just typical English weather that day :D. But it didn't matter the moment I stepped into this lovely corner. I uploaded this picture on my facebook and a friend of mine commented that it looks like a scene in Alice in Wonderland :).

A stroll in the park is a favourite summer activity but I think it's a great thing to do in this autumn as well, especially with a park full of hidden, beautiful gardens and corners like Regents' Park. Also, a very romantic backdrop for first date maybe ;)

And of course, I couldn't resist a picture against the colourful background :D

[Top: PullnBear, Skirt: Urban Outfitters, Jacket: Topshop, Clutch: Gap]