Foodie Moments

xI have major sweet tooth and like to buy cupcakes and macarons. I went to Napa, CA recently and made myself snap a few pictures before I started to devouring all the yummy goodies.

I bought a LivingSocial voucher for a six course prix fixe meal at Morimoto Napa. Can you imagine, six courses!

We started with a yellow snapper tartar with little rice crackers, guacamole, chives, sour cream, wasabi, seaweek puree and soy sauce. The best part is that we eat it with a spatula lol. The meal also came with half glass of bubblies. How romantic!

Second course was a seared beef with micro greens and sesame oil. It was cooked just right. Third course was a clam miso soup which I completely forgot to take of. We also had a mochi cucumber melon sorbet as a intermezzo. Fourth course was a 4 piece nigiri plate which I also forgot to snap a picture.

Luckily I did take a picture of my main course. Pork chop on a bed of bacon kimchi. Although this was not a authentic Japanese this, it sure is delicious. The meat was well cooked but not dry and the kimchee was not too spicy, but overly salty. And for dessert we got a mango mousse with mango sorbet and little pop rock like candy inside. 

Overall the meal was delicious but I'm sure our meal would have cost more if everything was ordered a la cart.

We went to Yountville, CA for the famous Bouchon Bakery for their giant macarons. Bouchon Bakery is also part of Thomas Keller's Bouchon series. Let me tell you, the line for this baker is crazy, we definitely waited half an hour to get inside the bakery to pick out our baked good, but it was worth it.

I bought two types of macaron and they are both almost the size of my palm. The macaron that is wrapped in foil is chocolate dipped pistachio macaron. The other two are salted caramel and passion fruit. These were very chewy and flavorful. 

I always loved Vietnamese sandwiches also called Bahn mi. I decided to get one for dinner this today long with a delicious cup of Che dessert. Che is a type of Vietnamese dessert with coconut milk, pandan noodles, taro noodles, and many other fruits mixed with ice. 

I got a meatball sandwich today, it came with pickled vegetables, cilantro, sliced jalapeño, and cucumbers served on crunchy baguette.

I had a great food week so far and I know more is to come. This week is Lunar New Year, so I'm definitely going to be going a lot of eating in the coming days. I can't wait!

February Pijon Unboxing and Review

I left the subscription box world two years ago when I went to grad school. Now that I'm back, I've discovered boxes that I never knew existed. Oh how I missed my subscription boxes and I'm so glad to rediscover them all over again. For me subscription boxes are like little gifts I receive every month and become overjoyed by the little discoveries I make. 

This month I was very happy to take advantage of Pijon's free box offer back in December and paid $1.99 for shipping. I wanted to test out the box before I gift a subscription to my little sister who is in college right now. Pijon is a subscription box for college students, sort of like a care box they get every month. I find the contents to be suitable for almost anyone.

This box contained a good variety of products from tea to lifestyle items all from brands that can be easily found online or in stores.

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These revolution teas smell delicious! I got two blackberry jasmine oolong, mango peach green tea, and raspberry black tea. I love fruit infused teas and drank them all the first chance I got. I only thing I didn't like about them was that the mesh bags allowed some off the fine grains of tea and herbs to escape into my cup, but that's nothing a quick rinse can't fix.

I had the Oat Works smoothies for breakfast the day after I got my Pijon box. I couldn't taste the oats in this smoothie and it did indeed taste is pomegranate blueberry. The bottle tells me that it's gluten-free and contain 2 servings of oats. It did keep me full for a while and almost made me forget to eat lunch haha.

I like "Not Your Mother" products. I'm currently using their dry shampoo and it does the job and is not overly scented like some I have used. I'm not sure if I will use this product because I don't style my hair at all. I just didn't have the talent for hairstyling. But I do know of someone who asked for hair products so I know this spray will go to a good home.  

I have this obsession with cups, bottles, and tumblers, so this little portable and light weight Vapur Reflex Foldable Bottle is right up my alley. It's actually the one item I'm super happy to receive, I have been looking for a similar one to carry with me when I go snowboarding and this came just in time. I just wish it was pink, I wish everything is pink. 

I have a lot of Color Club nail polish, I think about 40 bottles as of right now. I usually get mine at Ross because the are sell the entire sets at a heavy discount. Each bottle around $8 according to their websites, but I find time for much less. When I showed my friend my new nail polishes she literally ran off the the nude polish. I'm was planning on find the nude polish a new home anyways since I don't wear nude colors, but the red polish is definitely living on my fingers once my shellac manicure grows out. 

I really enjoyed this Pijon box. When I got an email from Pijon asking if I want to continue my subscription for the next three months I immediately paid for the next three. I decided that I will get these boxes and review them, then send the entire collection of items to my little sister when I'm done reviewing. Let's hope I don't keep everything. 

Current Obsessions

I've always loved BB creams when I discovered them about 6 years ago while researching mineral foundations. This loved has blossomed into pretty big collection.

These are some of the new BB/CC creams I have collected in the past few months. I know few months should not have landed me with this many, but hey that gives me more to talk about. 

BB creams have been a staple in my routine since I found them, but now I'm getting into CC creams. CC creams are more for correcting my skin tone then for coverage. 'm very excited to try all of these in the next few weeks. 

My current obsessions are BB/CC cushions and founpacts. What are founpacts? Founpact, I believe, stand for foundation pact. It's a creamy foundation that is stored in a compact (kinda like Benefit's "some kind-a gorgeous"). From left to right and top to bottom we have  Chosungah X Memebox Get Peachy Glowpact,  Laneige BB Cushion (Target version), The Face Shop FACE it Aura CC Cream, Missha Magic Cushion, and Dr. MJ Real Mucin Restore Cushion. 

Missha Magic Cushion is a DIY cushion. I bought the case, which came with a cushion sponge and applicator sponge. I added my own BB cream (Original Raw 10 Cushion Foundation) in the case and made my own cushion.

This last type of BB creams that is getting my attention are these cute little BB creams that come in jars. I remember when I first started using foundation that came in a jar and hated them because I always pour more then I needed. But now these cute little jars are changing my mind again! The opening are wide, like facial cream jars, I can use spatulas to take out the products without dripping my fingers in them!

Current obsession part two will be posted as soon as I get the orders I placed via a few shopping sites that specialize in Asian Beauty products. I can't wait!!!

Getting back into the (beauty) game

I've always loved make up and have most likely have collected way too much over the past few years. One big problem I have is hoarding makeup and keeping them forever. So... in order to encourage myself to use up my stash and and justify my makeup hoarding habits, I'm getting back into the (beauty) game.

My current obsession is once again Korean cosmetics! This time it's all about bb/cc cushion and cream (has it ever not been?) and exploring skincare. Once I really get into something, I just have to get every single product every single company launched. I have made about 6 fairly large Korean cosmetics orders in the past months. More on that once my goodies arrive hehe. 

I got into the Memebox game pretty late and was obsessing over their boxing for a good 6 months, but now Memebox decided to go a different direction (which I'm not interested in at the moment). But I still want to share my thoughts on the boxes I bought from them. And today, I would like to start sharing a couple of boxes I have recently received to get the ball rolling.

Lucky Box 13

Today is Friday the 13th and what an appropriate day to talk about Memebox Lucky Box 13

This box had 6 items for skincare and hair care. Like I said earlier I have not been in the Memebox game long at all and there is already 3 items in this box that I personally have received before. 

Oh Shara Shara, why do you keep showing up in Memeboxes? I know you're cute but why so many times? This is a massage cream made with avocado oil, cocoa extracts, and banana extracts. Memebox suggested massageing for 5 minutes and wash off with warm water. Hmmmm, not sure about everyone else but I don't think I have the patience to massage my face for 5 minutes but I will give it a try eventually. I also received this cream in the Chocolate Mania box. 

Mise En Scene Prefect Serum is a highly-concentrated serum for your hair. Like all hair serums you massage this serum in your hair after towel-drying. I heard great things about Mise En Scene from a lot of people so this is also in my long queue of things to try. I have previously received this item from Memebox as a free gift with my purchase of the B.E.T mask set, so I'll count this as a half repeat. 

La Bellona Camellia Oleifera Oil Clinic. Wow that was a mouth full and I still don't know what it does by reading the name. According to Memebox this could be used as a hair conditioner or hair mask depending on how much and long you use it. Memebox even included a shower cap for my convenience. Sadly enough I received this in the Daily Must-Wears box that was shipped out late January/beginning of February. Repeat!

Dr. MJ! Yay! I really like Dr. MJ products and this Moisture Bounce Collagen Capsule will go perfectly with my Moisture Bounce Aqua Memory BB SPF 30 PA++. I love it when I get things that are from the same series. It has a strong fragrance and it texture is more gel then cream.

I'm not much of a spot treatment person even when I get pimples, instead I just like to pop them (Ha!) This Yadah Anti-T Spot Cream will definitely come handy when the seasons change and my dry winter skin decides to change to summer skin and get very oily very fast.  

Lassie'el Night Miracle Sleeping Packs. I had to admit, I had little bit of box envy when these packs came in the one box I didn't get. I was savaging the internet looking for someone to selling it, but no such luck until this box came. I immediately tried this sleep pack and I have to say it works quite well and it's super duper uper cute! My box had the pearl shell and avocado packs. I would like to thank my friends on Facebook for sharing that some Forever 21 stores sell it. I haven't checked, so I can't guarantee. I will definitely update once I find it.  

I do have to say Lucky Box 13 was one of the better boxes this year and this year was not a good year when we are talking about Memeboxes. Another unfortunate piece of news regarding Memebox is that they no longer offer international shipping and the way they do boxes have change too. The US site is looking more like the China site now. 

Disclosure: All products in this post was purchased by me for my own enjoyment. My full disclosure is here.