November Purchases & Gifts!

I am developing a liking for a CHANEL blushers! Last month I bought myself two, the Ombre Contraste in Notorious which is a limited edition sculpting powder (from Les Essentiels Fall/Winter 2012) and 73 Star Dust from the Eclats du soir de Chanel Holiday 2012 collection. 

Notorious is perfect for contouring and initially, I sniggered at the morbid colour, wondering who would want to look ashen and dull. But I take it all back!! It is the perfect shade of "shadow" and looks so good on. 

Star Dust was a bit of an impulse buy, I grabbed it without testing it out. It gave off a daytime appropriate glow which I used for friend's morning wedding gatecrash. The fine sparkles gave me a nice subtle glow look when dusted over my cheeks. I really like the quality of these blushers and would love to add a few more colours to my stash.

Rouge, a deep red, from the Byzance collection (pre-Fall 2011) is one that I missed out on and have been eyeing for a piece to pop up on eBay to no avail. When I read that they re-released it in Australia as part of the permanent line, I got a friend to pick it up. So happy!! I will have my Rouge end of this month!! I also picked up the polish in Malice and a CLARINS lippie in Lilac Pink.

I am still on a skincare/bodycare ban- all of the below were either gifted to me or samples from counters.

L'OCCITANE, GUERLAIN, THALGO, MELVITA, CLARINS

Random items from DAISO, the best place for cheap thrills. At MYR5 a pop I picked up Hello Kitty plastic bags, a mouspad, bunny aluminium foil.. and other odd bits.

Haven't bought clothes for the longest time ever! H&M x Maison Martin Margiela belt and leggings, H&M basic dresses for work- so affordable plus good quality too. The last I visited, the MMM collaboration was being sold at 50% off, a little less than 3 weeks after it launched! I only picked up a belt and leggings so I didn't feel the burn. But for those who splurged especially on the leather pants and shoes, OUCH! Sparkly belts from Dorothy Perkins.

A pile of clothes from Kenanga Wholesale City- this place is crazyyyyy, 8 floors of shopping- super affordable and surprisingly good quality for the price, the fabric used are thick and heavy. Items I picked were going for MYR25-35 per piece (around USD8-12). The only downside to the place is that you'd have to buy ALL the colours/sizes to get the low prices. And not all shops are of the same quality so you have to check each piece. But all-in-all, it was a good deal! 

December is here which means 2013 is just around the corner. The older I get, the faster time flies I swear.

Love tokens and Replacements

From Hong Kong, Sanrio Dim Sum and soy flavored instant noodle..

From Papa, Starbucks vouchers!

From Jagi, a Chanel concealer & super yummy cookies!

From JagiBOY, bits and pieces..

Thank you all! I really appreciate the little love tokens you get me from time to time.

The replacements I speak of? Swapping Darphin for Aesop, and SK-II for Hada Labo Retinol lotion.

I have started using the Hada Labo lotion for about 5 days now and I must say that my skin hasn't felt this soft in a long time. Will wait for a month before I do a review.

By the way, did anyone else receive this? (looks at Jargs)

"Beauty in Bloom" by Chanel. The description is so vague and on the pink card there are notes such as ..

I know its definitely not about their Spring/Summer launch.. Its so intriguing! Or maybe its just to lure me into Chanel to buy something. But I would have willingly walked in anyway :/ Haha. Should I make an appointment? Hmmn.

Anyway, still working on my Melbourne post, I didnt forget! :D

...sent from iPhone

Hello Kitty Sweets Cafe in Taiwan ♥

This post is going to be picture heavy!

The Hello Kitty Sweets Cafe in Taipei, Taiwan is so awesome that it needs a separate post from my whole Taiwan trip (which I still have not gotten around to post :/). I did research prior to leaving and I am so glad we made time to have lunch here.

Tummy rumbling after the Flora Expo..

We're here!!

We see Kitty!

No. 90, Da An Road, Section 1, Taipei City.

If you don't speak a word of Mandarin, you can request for your hotel's receptionist to write it down for you and you could pass that to the cab driver. If you need landmarks, it is very close to the SOGO Department Store. Cabs in Taiwan are generally safe and they don't go around ripping tourists off. If they stop for you, they'll most definitely take you wherever you want to go. And they don't try to take a longer route either! 

Digressing a little, on our way back to the hotel, our cabbie misread the hotel address and thus went through a bit of traffic before he finally dropped us off. We were expecting to pay the extra (just a couple of dollars) but he was so honest that he gave us a discount off the meter price! We were tourists and we didn't even try to haggle with him. But of course no good deed goes unnoticed, Papa gave him extra and told him to keep the change. The look on his face was priceless. The world needs more people like the cabbie driver. Okay, back to the post..

Left window display

Right window display

In we go..

Waiting while the waitress checks for a table

From what I gathered online, most people suggested to make reservations but me being a risk taker (read: lazy) and thinking that it was a weekday (Friday), I decided against calling up as we were going for an early lunch. We arrived a little before 12pm and the tables downstairs were already starting to fill up.

Busy waitress taking reservations, behind her are Limited
Edition merchandise only available for sale at this Cafe

Pretty cakes being made..

Drinks are made here..

The waitress finally led us upstairs after our agonizing 5 minute wait. I was getting a little worried that we would be turned away. We were given a nice booth! There was only one other diner upstairs but as soon as we finished placing our orders, the people started streaming in.

A very hungry Papa quickly flips open the menu..

Checking out the menu

Booth behind ours

On the left

Centre

Tables on the right

Papa & Mama

Everything on the menu is written in Chinese, so we mostly relied on the pictures and pointed at what we wanted. In my limited vocabulary, I managed to ask her if they had sets for the day and to my surprise she said everything on the menu comes in a set! Surprise surprise! Most reviews I found online were of their cakes and tea so I had no idea what to expect for lunch. Their sets came with Soup of the day, a Salad, an Entree, our selected Main, a Dessert and a Drink! 6 items for the price listed under the picture? Heck, I was prepared to pay NTD400 (MYR40, USD 13) for the pasta ALONE! 

Here's what we had:

First up, Salads- there were 4 different dressings and it was too hard trying to understand the waitress so we took 1 of each. The little cubes you see in the salad are actually jelly. So cute!

Soup of the day served with some bread, I couldn't tell what went in.. but there were bits of carrot, a touch of cream, maybe some pumpkin? 

Our entrees which we shared:

Mama's roast beef

Papa's pan seared pate

Two serves of escargot for Meimei & I

Yummy, garlic-ey morsels

Our mains which we gobbled up:

Bacon pasta

This was so good, I finished it all. I usually can't finish a cream pasta by myself but this was light, tasty, lots of bacon. YUM!

Pork knuckle

Papa was surprised with the size of his Main but demolished everything. Even he thinks it's value for money, considering how many dishes we were getting.

Salmon Pasta

Meimei's pasta which was YUM too. Most cream sauces taste this same but hers and mine tasted different. Chockful of Salmon bits too.

Cod fish/similar tasting fish! Haha

The size of my Mama's face!

Flakey, moist, juicy /slurp

This was the BEST dish of the lot! It tasted very similar to Cod fish but I am not sure if it is, but for the price we paid, it is a huge slab of fish.

Strawberry jelly all round

Can you see the strawberry seeds?

While my parents opted to have coffee (choice of coffee, iced tea and I can't remember what else) after their meal, my sister and I topped up and selected our drinks from the regular menu..

The washroom

Our bill..

Surprisingly affordable!

All in all, I was very happy with my visit to the Hello Kitty Sweets Cafe ♥ . It was definitely value for money, even my parents think so! The Cafe serves DECENT courses if I may add- the food wasn't just "so-so" it was actually GOOD. When I visit Taipei again I would definitely make time to dine here again.

My tips to visiting the Hello Kitty Sweets Cafe in Taipei, Taiwan:

1. If you do not wish to make a reservation, do arrive early (before 12pm).

2. Getting there is no hassle, most cab drivers know their way around as it is located in the city.

3. Remember to take away some cakes! We forgot T__T

Additional information:

1.Their official website, complete with menu, promotions and everything you need to know. You can use Google Translate like me if you do not read/understand Chinese. However the Menu can't be translated but there are pictures.

2. Opening hours: 11.30AM ~ 10PM

Hope this post was helpful!

**All pictures have been watermarked for ownership. I do not want my pictures to be *right-click-save* and re-posted as someone else's. While googling for reviews, I came across many sites which used the SAME picture, and it came from someone's blog which I also stumbled upon. These pictures were taken by me and my sister so if you would like to use our pictures, please credit us.