Friday, August 27, 2010

recent adventures :)

Ah, it's been a while!! The week after summer school ended, I was having a major cupcake craving!! So boyfriend and I went to Kara's Cupcakes in Santana Row.  Surprisingly, they don't make red velvet cupcakes?? WHAT?? What kind of cupcake bakery does not make red velvet?? X_X 

Actually, when I was there, they only had like four or five flavors to choose from :(  Now that I'm looking at the website, they actually have lots of flavors that sound promising, but none for me that day :( But of all the flavors they had, strawberry looked the most enticing. 

vanilla cupcake with organic local strawberries and cream
I was expecting the strawberry cupcake to be pink!! Like most strawberry cupcakes, but this one was just strawberry filled.  Still pretty yummy I think!!  Despite the lack of cupcakes to choose from, my cupcake craving was SATISFIED :D

Meyer Lemony Lemon, Strawberry Cream, Vanilla Chocolate, and Kara's  Karrot
I also bought a box of 4 cupcakes as a present for my sister's birthday.  Unfortunately, they melted a little bit by the time I came home and gave them to her. O well!! They were still pretty tasty.  I picked the all the cutest cupcakes they had, all the ones with flowers on top :) It also gave me a chance to try the other flavors.  The lemon one was very very lemony, true to its name!! The chocolate frosting on the vanilla chocolate was SUPER chocolaty, like tooooo chocolaty!!  It was like eating very dense chocolate pudding X_X My sister liked the carrot one the best, it just tastes like carrot cake to me.

Overall, I'm not a big fan of Kara's Cupcakes.  I'd rather eat other cupcakes.  But this will have to do for now :P

MoGo
Besides cupcakes, I have also been craving Korean food.  Just my luck, the MoGo truck was in town.  Actually, it's always in town near my house every week lol!  Well, I was super excited, because I have always wanted to try the interesting food truck fusion cuisine.  The truck opens at 7:45, and we came at 7:30, and the line was just SUPER LONG X_X We ended up waiting maybe about nan hour before we finally made it to the front and ordered, and then we had to wait about half an hour to get our food.  Then we just sat down in the parkinglot and ate!!
short rib burrito with melted cheese, lettuce/cabbage slaw, kimchi fried rice, and a spicy chiplote sauce
I only took a bite of the burrito, but it was surprisingly good!! I didn't want to eat anymore of it because I had other things to eat, and I can't handle spicy food.  I didn't bite into any of the rice, so I just basically ate meat and lettuce.  Pretty good!

short rib sliders with spam, cheese, and slaw
Please excuse the neon lettuce, lol.  We were sitting underneath yellow parking lot lights, and I tried to tweak the yellowness out of my picture, and I ended up with neon purple slaw LOL.  Anyway, the sliders were pretty good!!   I kind of expected it to come out as like little burgers, not meat and stuffed just poured over three attached buns lol.  The spam was a surprise, but I think it adds to the flavor.  The bread was just normal hawaiian buns, toasted with butter? Or it could've been the cheese.  It was dark :P Oh yea, when I ate this, I kept dropping all my short rib meat and spam all over the ground :(

short rib tacos
The cheapest item on the menu, $2 per taco!  But they were my least favorite.  In fact, I didn't like them at all!! It was just SUPER dry.  Not good :P

Overall, MoGo was OKAY. The tacos and burritos didn't taste like anything special to me.  I think it would've been better if they used beef bulgolgi instead :)

Treatbot the Karoake Ice Cream Truck
Treatbot the Karoake Ice Cream Truck was there too.  I think they collaborate with MoGo.  They have a magic mike set up there, and if you score 90+, you get free ice cream!! We tried 3 times, and FAIL!! It's pretty hard! It didn't help that they had a really poor song selection.  It was mostly all oldies, but they didn't even have Journey - Don't Stop Believing!! That is like the ultimate karoaking song!!
mexican chocolate and horchata
Maybe it was just too cold to eat ice cream ( it was about 10pm by the time we got our ice cream) or I just simply didn't get the right flavors for me but I wasn't too crazy for it! Mexican chocolate tasted nothing like chocoalate.  It tasted more like cinnamon and spices.  Horchata, was cinnamonny  and sweet.  I don't know.  I didn't like it.  I usually kind of like exotic flavors, like the ones at Ici's, but I wasn't too fond of these.

Capitola Beach
This past Tuesday was the hottest day of summer thus far, so boyfriend and I decided to randomly go to the beach in Santa Cruz that night!  He took me to Capitola.  The beach was small, but there were lots of restaurants and little shops nearby.  He told me to take a picture of the view. That picture above was taken without flash.. um, it looks like daytime.  It was actually around 8:30 at the time, long past sunset!!


So I tried using the night function on my camera, and this is what I got. I think it has an interesting rustic feel to it, but the flash left me with all those misty spots!!


Finally, I tried the long shutter function, and this was the result!!  This is what we really saw, pretty huh!! You can still kind of see the surfer in the water!! And just look at the almost full moon!! It was a very pretty night :)

Here's the other side of the beach.  Those lights are from a restaurant at on a pier.

Well, we left San Jose around 7:30, so when we got to the beach, we were pretty hungry since we didn't eat dinner yet!! I was craving some sort of fruity salad, and the boyfriend had to eat vegetarian that day too.  We wandered around the various restaurants nearby to see what they had.  Most of them were bars.  We finally ended up at the Paradise Beach Grille.  The decor made it look like a fancy restaurant, but it's pretty laid-back inside with butcher paper tabletop covering and crayons for you to draw with!

Fuji Apple, Walnut & Gorgonzola Salad - Mixed spring greens topped with crumbled Gorgonzola cheese, candied walnuts & thinly sliced Fuji apples. Served with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette.
This salad definitely satisfied my craving.  We were hungry and started digging in when I remembered I had to take a picture!! I wish it had more fruit though, I'm sure I could make something like this at home.

Beach Blanket Breadalon - 16 oz. Sourdough bread boule filled with smoked Gouda, Mozzerella, garlic, green onions & olive oil.
This bread sounded good... but they gave it to us after we finished our salad.  It wasn't as flavorful as I thought it would be, and it was just too rich, i guess from all the cheese.  I felt kind of sick after eating this.  :P  no good!!!  I think it would've been better if we ate this first or something.  I was still feeling this bread well into the next morning!!

Caramel Apple Pie -  This delectable dessert made with buttery caramel poured over Granny Smith apples and a shortbread crust is especially comforting because it is served warm
I can't end a meal without dessert!!! And especially after that bread, I really needed to end my meal on a sweet note.  I also wanted something a bit fruity to get rid of all that cheesiness I still tasted in my mouth.  Apple pie sounded good, and it could've been better if the apple pie was warmer!!! Yes, they gave us barely warm apple pie.  Like apple pie that was taken out of the fridge and  microwaved for only 10 seconds :(  Don't get me wrong, it was still good, but it would've been 10X better if it was even slightly warmer!!!

Well now that all that's done, my plans this weekend is to go to the Eat Real Fesitval in Oakland!! :) I'm super excited!!! A whole bunch of food vendors in one place for me to try!!! :)  I have got to try Kung Fu Taco, Gobba Gobba Hey, Seoul on Wheels, and the Creme Brulee Cart.  Those were the first bay area food trucks I heard about and have been on my "to try" list for a reallly long time!!  There are many other interesting food vendors there I want to try too, hopefully it won't be too expensive and that the lines won't be too long and that they won't run out of food!!!

I've been in a pretty good mood lately. Mostly because I'm excited to eat this weekend, but also because I got this:

Urban Decay Naked Palette!!!

I randomly saw that it was in stock at Sephora.com, so I ordered it using my cashback rewards points!! YES, free :) LOVE IT!! :)

The pic's a little blurry from me being too excited and anxious to try the colors.  It's so pretty! I've been trying it out everyday this week since I got it :)

Sunday, August 8, 2010

elf haul

YAY! My first ever make-up post :)
So, about a month ago, ELF had this giant anniversary sale where everything on the website was 60% off!!  Well, I've tried various elf products before and really liked them, and this was the perfect chance to buy a few things to try that aren't available at Target!  So I bought a total of 17 items for $28.55 including shipping!

My Haul :)
 I havn't had the chance to try everything, but I did try most things.  So I'll just do a quick review for the things I have tried...

Elf High Definition Powder:


I bought this just to try it.  It normally retails for $6, but with the 60% off deal, it was only $2.40, so OF COURSE I had to buy it to try, such a steal!! Anyway, I was hoping I could use this to replace my Bare Escentuals Mineral Veil as like a cheaper alternative for everyday use.  I was kind of reluctant to buy this, because other reviews I have read about this mention it leaving a white cast on the face, and my skin is somewhat tan.
So, I use this with my kabuki brush, instead of the given powder puff, after foundation and contouring, and I have not noticed any "white cast" from using this, but it does mute out my contouring.  I mean, I can still see the contouring, but it's a bit lighter. Not too bad, since it kind of makes the contouring look more natural.
My skin is also a little oily, and this does seem to keep the oil at bay.  It definitely absorbs the oil right as I apply it, but my face can still be a little oily at the end of the day, similar to my mineral veil.
And as for it's high def photo qualities, eh.. I can't tell any difference, lol.
So would I buy this again? YES! :)


Contouring Blush and Bronzer Powder:



 I actually bought this at Target before, and I really love it!  I decided to buy it again during the 60% off deal since it's cheaper.  I think I should've bought more things lol.  I think this looks very similar to that one Nars duo, but I don't have that so I can't tell you if its the same.  Regardless, I still really like this product.  I use the bronzer to contour, and I think it's a really good color for that.  The blush is a really pretty corally-peachy shade. I'll definitely buy this again!!

Cool Bronzer:


I bought this hoping I could use it as a contouring palette, since it has dark shades and white highlighting shade.  I chose this over the other two because it's matte and the other two seemed really shimmery from their descriptions.
Contouring Blush and Bronzer on top
Cool Bronzer on bottom
Compared to the blush&bronzer duo, the browns of the cool bronzer are definitely more blue.  The cool bronzer is overall darker, like it makes my face darker.  I did try mixing the shades together, and I think it's more wearable than trying to wear it separately. But I still only use the two left shades the most.  I don't think i would buy this again.  I might want to try the warm bronzer though!

Blush:
Studio Blush in Fushia Fusion
Elf blush in Flushed

Fushia Fusion on the left, Flushed on the right
I really like the studio line blushes.  I also own peachykeen and tickled pink, which are both really pretty colors.  I actually wanted to buy pink passion to try, but it was sold out.  So I opt for fushia fusion instead, even though it looked sparkly on the website.  In reality, it's very sparkly in the pan, but when you apply it to your face, the sparkles fall off!

I bought flushed just to try too, because I've never tried the elf line blushes before.  It's also pretty shimmery, shimmery not glittery.  Or it's more like a pearlescent sheen, and it does stay on your face kind of.

It's hard to tell in the swatch, but both colors of pretty similar, and both colors leave my face looking sunburned.  Or maybe I just need to work with a much lighter hand when using this!!
Nope, I would not buy either blushes again!

Eyebrow Treat & Tame:
Eye Primer & Liner Sealer to the left, Eyebrow Treat & Tame to the right

I  bought this in dark, and I've only tried this once, which is enough for me to tell you that I prefer a pencil or the gel to the mascara like applicator of the eyebrow treat & tame.  I havn't tried this enough to tell if the "tame" side works.  I wouldn't buy this again.

the brow wand
the tame brush
so little product!!!
I hope you can see how little product there is in the "tame" side.  Just look at all those empty gaps in the tube!! 

Eye Primer & Liner Sealer:
I've only tried this once.  The eye primer reminded me of those covergirl shadowblast, except less creamy.  It still made my eyeshadow crease though!  And the liner sealer side burned my eyes! :(

primer - eyeliner - eyeliner w/sealer
primer - smudged eye liners

To show you how effective the liner sealer even is, I swatched it over my smudgiest eyeliner, almay intense i-color.  As you can see, when i put the sealer over the eyeliner, it kind of washed the eyeliner off, and then when I rubbed both, the eyeliner came off completely.  In fact, you can barely see the liner that had the sealer on it anymore!! NOPE! I definitely would not buy this again!

Luscious Liquid Lipstick:

I bought this in perfect pink.  I wanted to try strawberry, but it was sold out.  Perfect pink turned out to be a lot brighter than it appeared on the website!  But it turns out to look really pretty on the lips and when paired with other lipsticks.  It just makes everything more pinky!! I also own baby lips and pink lemonade, which I also love.  I like perfect pink looks glossier than baby lips.
I would definitely buy perfect pink again! And I would really like to try more colors!

Lip Stain:
I was pretty intrigued when I first saw the lip stains in Target, but I didn't want to spend $3 on them! There are many colors to choose from, but I bought heartbreaker, because it looked like a pretty nude color.  I was curious about how this lipstain would work, because all the other lipstains I've seen darken your lips and this one would make it lighter. Well, it definitely colors your lips, very close to the color in the tube. But it leaves me lips with this wierd sticky dry feeling that won't go away even with chapstick.  I didn't try the lipgloss over it yet.  I don't think I will use this often, and I wouldn't buy this particular color again, but I would still like to try the other colors.

Mineral Lipstick:

Runway Pink - Nicely Nude - Just Bitten
I've been in a lipstick craze for a while, so OF COURSE I had to snag a few of these to try!  Normally $5, they were only $2 after the sale.  I only regret not buying more to try!!  I bought runway pink, a baby pink color, nicely nude,  a really pretty warm pinky nude, and barely bitten, a sheer berry red. They're also pretty creamy and moisturizing.  Out of all three, the only one I didn't like was runway pink, it's a lot lighter than I expected it to be, so it really washes out my face.  Barely bitten is nice, I honestly really like it, but I don't see myself wearing this everyday, or at least for now! and I absolutely love nicely nude, it simply gives my lip and really nice shade of pink that's almost nude.  Very wearable!  For sure, I would buy this color again if I run out, and I would buy more colors to try :)

left to right:
Lipstain: Heartbreaker
Luscious Liquid Lipstick: Perfect Pink
Mineral Lipstick: Runway Pink - Nicely Nude - Barely Bitten


The Beauty Encyclopedia Lips Edition:
Like I said, I've been into lipsticks lately, so I bought this to try a whole bunch of different colors for cheap :)  Overall, I was really suprised by this.  I was expecting really cheap product, but the lipsticks in the palette were pretty creamy!!

I only swatched the palette once, and the dents I made in each pan were from dipping the accompanying lipbrush back and forth once or twice.  Yup, soft and smooth and creamy!! Except for the two lipglosses, which were hard, which was what I expected for the lipsticks. 

lipsticks in order from left to right, top to bottom
the lip glosses
Another big suprise, just look at how pigmented the lipsticks are!! Most of them are pretty wearable, especially the four in the top row.  The two lipglosses are pretty sheer, but that's expected for lipglosses.  I havn't actually used any of these lipsticks out yet, but they're fun to play with!  I don't think I would buy another one of these again, but only because I think this one will last me quite a while!

Nail Polish:
I bought a bottle of nail polish in hot pink.  It's darker than how it appeared on the website.  I havn't actually tried this yet, but according to the box, it's toluene free, formaldehyde free, and dibutyl phthalate free.

Brushes:


Last but not least, I bought two brushes just to see, the studio line small angled brush and the elf line blending eye brush.  I tried the angled brush with my mac fluid line, and it's too flimsy to line the eyes with. I couldn't get a nice defined unstreaky line no matter how much I tried. So maybe i'll just use it for the eyebrows, or to put eyeshadow on my bottom lash line.  As for the blending brush, I havn't really tried applying eyeshadows with it yet, but I did try just simply blending.  It was just okay.. nothing great.  I have better blending brushes to use.  I wouldn't buy either of these again.


Okay, phew!! That was a really big haul and a really long post.  Overall, I really like elf products, and I would really like to try more.. I'm just waiting for the next big sale..

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

22!!

I turned 22 this Sunday, but I celebrated with my friends Saturday night.

3561 El Camino Real Santa Clara, CA 95051
I was really craving Korean, and I figured, why not?  I for sure wanted to go karaoking for my bday,  and there are plenty of Korean restaurants around the area.  The problem was picking one!!  Most of the restaurants have 4.5 - 4 stars!!  So I just picked one that had the most reviews with best ratings and best pictures LOL.  Actually I picked Jang Su Jang because I saw a picture of the potato ban chan, which I really love!!!

BAN CHAN!!
MmMM lots of yummy ban chan! Unfortunately, they did not have my favorite potato ones.  All good, because they had this apple one covered in mayo sauce.  Yum! I havn't had that before, but it was nice to munch on :)

Bi Bim Bap

I didn't actually get to eat a lot of this, because we shared it among 8 people lol. But it was pretty good! I liked that it has actual pieces of meat in it, other places I've had it put in ground meat.  I would definitely come back to order this for myself!

Beef Tofu Soup

Pork Bulgolgi
not a fan lol

Beef Bulgolgi- YUM!!!! :)
LA Galbi Ribs - I only ate one, I hate eating around bones lol

Yakult

They gave us complimentary yakults for dessert!! Pretty cool! I like this better than like getting candy :)

Banana, Strawberry, Red Velvet, and Cookies and Cream


My boyfriend bought me cupcakes from some bakery near De Anza, because I've been pestering him for some cupcakes!! ♥ teehee!! Well, they were OKAY,  I still miss the cupcakes they had around East Bay, MmMM Love at First Bite, Teacake Bake Shop, Cupkates, ahh I'm drooooling!! lol o well.  I thought these cupcakes were TOO SWEET!!  Well, the banana and the cookies and creme one definately were.  Actually I don't remember if the banana one tasted like bananas.  The strawberry one was cool! It had strawberry jam in the middle! But the texture of the cake was like grocery store strawberry shortcake cup texture X_X like sticky and moist, oh! like angel food cake!  Not my thing. :P  and that red velvet was the reddest red velvet I have ever seen!! But it tasted like boxed cake mix :P  booo!!

Oh, before I forget, I must note that the service at Jang Su Jang was EXCELLENT :)  First of all, I made a reservation for 7 people.  But my friend's boyfriend came too, and I didn't know, so we had 8 people!  I told the people working there, and they tried to get us a bigger table. But the place is like packed.  They didn't want us to just add an extra chair, because it would make it harder for the waitresses to give us food.  In the end, they just let us have an extra chair, because no one else was leaving anytime soon.  And then later, I wanted to cut my cupcakes to share with everyone, so I asked them for a knife.  They apparently didn't have any knives, so they went next door to Paris Baguette to get a plastic knife for me, awesome!! So yes, EXCELLENT service :)

After dinner, we drove down the street to Renaissance Karaoke bar. We sang for 3 hours, and then called it a night.  Unfortunately, despite the camera picture taking whore in me, I for reason forgot to charge my camera battery (I actually almost forgot to bring my camera too), so I don't have many pictures from karaoking.  I need to get them from my friends!  So I'll leave you with this one last picture I have on my camera.  I can't remember if someone took this or if I took this myself LOL...

happy 22 to me :)