February Photo A Day last round!

Day21: A fave photo of me

Hoping to go Paris again and take exact photo of this.. (exact clothes would be a nightmare though haha)

Day22: Where I work

This is the tidiest state I can ever get..

Day23: My shoes

Lucia, my lovely flight attendant friend, brings me cute things from all around the world!

Day24: Inside my bathroom cabinet

Day25: Green

Green tea!! yummmmm a delightful snack I've been obsessing with lately :D

Day26: Night

One thing I love about Hong Kong is the harbour view. Absolutely stunning!!

Day27: Something I ate

Mango pancakes!! Havent had these for a really long time... almost forgot how good they are!

Day28: Money

Mum bought this (and 2 more in different size) from India :)))

Day29: Something I'm listening to

This has been fun :) Hope you enjoyed looking at our pics!! xx

- Cora

February photo a day (last part)

 

feb 16: something new

my pretty thermos

 feb 17: time

 feb 18: drink 

hot chocolate with marshmellow=love

feb 19: something i hate to do

feb 20: handwriting

feb 21: a fave photo of me

my fave black furball coat and leopard dress

feb 22: where i work

feb 23: shoes

feb 24: inside my bathroom cabinet

 super messy

feb 25: green

my fave color = my fave bear = my fave cushion

feb 26: night

feb 27: something i ate

feb 28: money

my pinocchio piggy bank with lots of 1p and 2p!

Have a fabulous leap day!

e.

Oscars 2012

Rooney Mara from the girl with the dragon tattoo

Isnt she just gorgeous? *-*

Angelina Jolie

Definitely loving her dress!
(It must be so tiring for her to pose her leg whole night long..)

Gwyneth Paltrow

Soooo elegant with her cape!

George Clooney and Stacy Keibler

Cute flower ruffle at the side!
(And Geroge Clooney in the pic is a huge plus :D)

- Cora

All pictures from Oscars

How I clean my brushes

I know.. I know... cleaning brushes is such a chore. But it is really essential to keep your brushes clean - imagine all the bacteria growing inside your brushes for months!! Also, I have always believed in investing good brushes, because if you keep them in good conditions, they can actually last for years! 

I left a short comment in the post "Day19: Something I Hate to do" on how I clean mine, but I guess it's  easier to illustrate in details with pictures:

Instant cleansing (with Brush Cleanser)

From Rae Morris: "Some of the products out there are laughable; I don't want my brushes to have deep-conditioning treatments, be oiled or smell like roses.... A good brush cleaner will clean a filthy brush instantly, with the brush drying in seconds, ready for its next use."

I have been using M.A.C.'s brush cleanser for a year now (I'm using it everyday and yet I havent even finished a bottle!), so far it does the trick for me. It cleans thoroughly (well at least for the small ones e.g. eyeliner/ eyeshadow brushes) and dries instantly. I usually clean my brushes after my shower in the morning, while they dry it leaves time for me to put on moisturizers and foundation, and the brushes will be ready to use then. 

So first off, as the cleanser bottle comes with a cap, which I find it bit inconvenient, I dispense it to a smaller spray bottle. (Some people say you can pour the cleanser to the cap, and dip the brush into the liquid.. but it's a mess for me because I'm always in rush in the morning haha.)  

Just simply spray the cleanser onto the brushes, work it through on a kitchen paper in circular motion. Repeat until no more products coming out from the brush. That easy!


Deep cleansing (with Washing Detergent)

Once every 2-3 weeks I clean my larger brushes (e.g. blush/powder brushes) with washing detergent. Washing detergent is, in my opinion, more effective and money-friendly in cleansing large brushes, because these brushes soak up so much brush cleanser and yet it takes forever to work out all the products on them.

With a small amount of washing detergent on a white plate (so you can see the color coming out from the brush), rub the damp brush on the plate as the products dissolving from the brush. Continue rubbing the brush under warm running water until the plate is clean and the water runs clear.

Reshape, and let the brushes dry flat overnight.

The brushes are now soft and clean, ready to be used like brand-new!


How do you clean yours?


- Cora xx

Inside my bag

I always love reading posts on what’s inside people’s bags so I thought I’d do one for myself. I dislike my bag being heavy so I usually try to bring as little as I can. 

1. Umbrella
2. Tissue
3. Key with tesco clubcard and bear (I need it to be a big chuck so I can find it easily when I fish down into my bag)
4. Pen
5. Rabbit pouch with random stuff inside (see the next pic)
6. Hand cream (currently using YSL's Parisienne and it smells sooooooooooo good)
7. Book (reading Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton at the moment)
8. More tissue
9. Phone
10. Wallet

Inside my fluffy rabbit pouch:

a.       Band aids
b.      Lip balm (using Rose Petal Salve by Rose & Co. Apothecary now, and I definitely recommend it! It smells nice and is very moisturizing)
c.       Vaseline (great for everything if you have dry skin like me)
d.      Klimt’s The Kiss mirror
e.      Hair clip + bobby pin + hair band
f.        Perfume + lipstick + chapstick (this Nivea Pearly shine chapstick is a little glossy, so it’s nice if you want to be less lip-prominent than putting lipstick on)
g.       Pen (why do I have so many pens!?)
h.      Hand sanitizer (I am not a cleanaholic, but this Body & Works thingy smells really good so I use it whenever I feel like smelling something flowery)

So these are the stuff I usually have in my bag. I am not a tech-savvy person so I don’t have any gadgets with me. Plus I am a supporter of the printed word (see sidebar for my pledge!), so there is always a book, magazine, or newspapers in my bag.

What’s the one thing that you always have in your bag? 

 e. 

Quick snack for the weekend: Cinnamon Bread Sticks

So I went to my friend's house-warming party the other day and his fiancee made this really yummy appetizer: Cinnamon bread sticks! I love love cinnamon.. love it with apple pies, love it with donuts, and definitely with bread! And it is real easy to make:

Ingredients:

• Slices of bread
• Cinnamon
• Sugar
• Butter

First, pre-heat your oven to 180 degree.

Mix the ground cinnamon and sugar, and spread it evenly on a plate.

Butter a slice of bread, on both sides, and place it on the plate so the bread can get a generous amount of cinnamon and sugar. Same for the other side. 

Repeat for the rest of the slices.

Oven the cinnamon-ed bread, until both sides are crispy and golden brown.

Cut the bread and style it the way you desired. As you see in the picture my friend made it like a Jenga tower haha, it looks presentable and adds fun to eating! 

Enjoy with a cup of tea or hot cocoa!

Have a lovely weekend xx

- Cora

Participant Observation: The Parisian

Starting this Friday, I will be writing about my Paris trips, not really the cultural traits that I observed as an anthropologist (I just like the phrase "participant observation"), but more just like a tour guide for those of you interested in going there in the future. 

For some reason I have always had the opportunity to visit Paris although I don’t have special feelings towards the city as many people (especially girls) do… but I thought many of you would be interested in seeing the places and food and random things I encountered there. And I’m not gonna lie, it is a beautiful place with lots of amazing museums (probably the main reason to why I keep going). 

This week I commence with my favorite thing about Paris.

My favorite museums

•          Musée de l'Orangerie

It has a whole gallery of Monet’s water lillies where you can immerse yourself into the beautiful colors, and get that panic attack of knowing how you will never be able to make such great work (I get this feeling ALL the time). And many Matisse, Cezanne, and Laurencin. Plus it’s a fairly small museum so you really get to take your time to look at the work, unlike the Louvre where its million pieces of work can become distractive (to me at least).  

 

 

•          Louvre

Although the Louvre can be too big too filled of objects, I gotta admit that it is simply a treasure for art lovers. The pyramid is a nice spot to take photos (yes Asians!), and I have this thing about the Gold Room. I don’t even know the official name of that gallery but I have been calling it the Gold Room and people seem to understand me… If you haven’t been there and have a thing for shiny/golden/blingbling things like me, then definitely pop in there next time. It is a whole room decorated in gold, with pretty sculptures and paintings and ceiling art and they result in this super decadent golden image that stayed with me since my first visit to the Louvre more than a decade ago.  A general tip for visiting the Louvre: if you want to see the whole museum, plan three days there. No kidding. 

•          Centre Pompidou

Great place to see modern and contemporary work. But the main reason I like the Pompidou is its gift shop! They have an amazing postcard collection there, and also cute stationery and fun weird designs from up-and-coming artists. 

 

These are just three of the more well-known ones among the many museums in Paris.  

What's your favorite museum in Paris?

And I end this post with these super pretty egg-containers. I WANT THEM!

Next week I will talk about Parisian food: eg. Laduree and Pierre Herme (must-eat for Gossip Girl fans!!)

Happy Friday :) 

e.

Our first guest post ever!!

Kristin from mylifeasateacup
(kristin is one of the few people i know in real life who blogs, so this is super exciting to exchange posts for each other! read about how we met two summers ago, and our amazing adventure in hokkaido, japan!)




Erica and me!

Back in 2010, I had the opportunity to study abroad in a small port town in northern Japan called Hakodate. Being there was a literal dream come true, and what's more, I came back with more entertaining stories, great friends and memories than I ever hoped to find. Erica is one of those amazing friends that I met while studying at HIF, and even though we were in different classes, we saw each other quite often, from clubs and class trips and the like.
Every time I flip through pictures of my stay, I can't help but getting nostalgic for bottled green tea, nights out at karaoke, land happy squid everywhere. Some of my favorite memories?
 
1. Staying in Hakodate meant adorable squid everywhere. On signs, on posters, on manholes. The town even has a festival named after these guys (ika odori!). Understandable, since they are what the town is famous for, but it makes it pretty hard to eat squid jerky, make boiled squid, or eat squid sushi when there are a bunch of cute ika with faces staring down at you from the restaurant walls.
2. Everything is wrapped with such care and precision. Nevermind the fact that my roommate and I, upon checking in to our hotel, rushed around to find wrappings for our family's omiyage and had the wrapping paper that we bought wrapped. But it's really quite beautiful; things we would just throw in bags here got extra special care. One little shop down the street from the school hand stamped and decorated my own bag for the hairbands I purchased, completely different from my friend's. Worth the extra minute to have something special and a keepsake in itself.

3. The food. Ramen will never be the same after having Asahikawa's famous syoyuramen. And the little crab-shaped bread from the bakery down the street? Oh how I miss you! Smoked salmon onigiri, Hakodate's famous "Ghengis Khan", egg on top of (most) things, lavender ice cream, and even the canned Boss cafe au lait from the corner vending machine are all things I crave. Desperately. 
I should also mention my favorite breakfast of miso, fried egg & bacon, fish, and toast with apricot-mango jam. My host mom made this every morning almost, except for when Pa decided to make spaghetti.

Except the excessive use of mayo. I could do without that. (my host father once took perfectly good noodles and doused them in a mayonnaise "sauce" D,:)
4. The drive to Sapporo for our mid-term break is something I will always remember. Driving through the valleys of huge mountains, and on a strip of land past the ocean that you can see stretch out so far to either side of you was amazing.
5. Trains and buses that come on time, all the time. I don't know about you, but my hometown can't seem to get it's act together when it comes to public transportation. I have seen a bus be over an hour late on multiple occasions here, and never want to partake in that again. Especially since I know that Japan's got it all worked out. My bus was never late, not once in three months.

6. It's amazing how close knit we all were, and while there were definitely smaller "groups", they were purely based on which class we were in and who we saw most frequently. But the whole of us had plenty of time to see one another, and boy did we. From fitting practically the entirety of us into one karaoke box at the resort in Onuma, to going out to doubly celebrate a friend and America's birthday (and something to do with Dragon Ball Z fireworks on the way home...), we had a lot of good times. And not so good times (the losing of someone's passport in Sapporo among them). But mainly good times. I look back on each one of them fondly and love all of the guys and gals I met that summer.
7. No post about Japan would be complete about Engrish. After learning Japanese I can totally sympathize with how difficult of a language English is and how thankful I am that it is my native language and I didn't have to try and formally learn all of our crazy rules of grammar. But the school cafeteria in particular had a great menu. And boy, did we laugh. I'm pretty sure we laughed so much the staff rewrote the menu just to get us to stop. 

I now know perfectly what 'previously I hope accounting" means. But it's no fun now that they've corrected themselves ><;
8. Vending machines. I can't tell you how often I'm just out and about and thirsty. Or hungry. Or in need to something. And nothing beats having a vending machine on nearly every corner. Here in America, I think I've seen two, one of which I'm pretty sure was out for the trash. Hot coffee, cold coffee, peach juice, and beer - what a selection.
9. Onsen. My first night at the hotel, my roommate from Tokyo and I caught the bus to the local bath house after orientation, on a sort of spur-of-the-moment idea. I was hooked since, and had the chance to hit up the baths on a number of occasions, in Hakodate and on our trip to Onuma (though, not as much as I'd have liked!). Our friend Hillary put it best: I like baths, and I like friends, so why not put the two together?
The very Western-looking alley of ice cream shops behind the school. There's got to be about 4 or 5 on this short stretch!
10. One of my greatest fears about travelling is feeling like a tourist, or feeling out of place. But being in Japan for three months with incredible friends and host families just made me feel all the more at home. It's nice to have a routine, to be friends with the baker on the corner, to know where things are. Above all else, I love that a completely foreign country can make me feel completely at home.


i miss japan so much! the food, the shopping, the beautiful nature, and mostly all the amazing people i met there! we need a HIF reunion!  And thank you Kristin for such a great post! be sure to check out her mylifeasateacup where she blogs about yummy recipes (eg. nutella croissants anyone?!), useful tips on meal planning, and many more fun things happening in her life!

hope you all enjoyed this and there will be more guest posts coming! look forward to my friend who makes her own perfume (OMG isn't this every girl's dream?! chemist is the new cool!) and a friend who designs and paints her own tote bags (i have soooo many tote bags. aren't they everyone's good friend in college?)

happy thursday everyone!

e. xxx

Makeup Wednesdays: Chanel Nail Colours

I LOVE Chanel nail colours. Love the packaging, love the texture (goes on nails really well and doesnt chip much) and love the colour range. I don't own a lot of them, but I can say it's a pretty good investment. I bought my first one few years ago and I am still using it fine! My recent favourite is the one on the left, Miami Peach, its a really nice shimmery coral colour (perfect for spring/summer!). Most colours you'll need 2 coats to get a better finish. 

Check out Chanel Spring 2012 Collection - Loving the nail and lip colours!!

- Cora xx

Day20: Handwriting

I have the handwriting of a 10-year old HAHA!

- Cora x

Day19: Something I Hate to do

One of the chores I hate to do: cleaning my brushes!!

Despite how annoying it is, its really important and has to be done more often than u imagine.

I clean my eyeliner and foundation brushes everyday/after each use to avoid bacteria - whatever goes to your eyes needs double care, and the liquid left on the foundation brush is a perfect place for bacterial rave party!

For other brushes, i clean them with brush cleanser (such as the MAC one here, super easy to use) as often as possible, and shampoo them every 2 weeks.. or... when i have time haha. Too lazy :p

- Cora

Photo A Day second round

Super congratz to Erica and Chloe on the tumblr!! I love it and the drawings are just. so. cute. It goes right to my bookmark list!! Go Meertle!!


Continuing on the photo-a-day project:

Day10: Self Portrait

My cousin's son Glen - had loads of fun taking picture of himself! haha... isnt he super cute and handsome?

Day11: Makes me happy

I see this boy every morning while I'm waiting for the bus to work... he's so adorable cheers up me everyday!

Day12: Inside my closet

I love the mirror my friends sent me on my birthday (while I was in England)... after I graduated I brought it back to Hong Kong and now it's in my closet!

Day13: Blue

My pajama pants!!!

Day14: Heart

I was looking around the house for a snack, and my mum found this potato chips I bought in Korea few months ago. It's cheese flavoured (so yum!) and, surprisingly, heart-shaped!!

When you're (or your friends/family) going Korea next time be sure to check out the snacks from Market O, they do great snacks!! My favourite (which is sooo popular now even in HK) is their brownies - it's not too sweet and the texture is so light.. every bite is like wowwww!

Day15: Phone

Since the invention of smart phone and 3G (4G soon!), life hasnt been more convenient and it's just so easy to connect with people and get updates anytime, anywhere. I'm a real sucker for Apple stuff.

Day16: Something New

Bought a ring from Accessorize, super cute!! Loveeee the blingbling eyes!

Day17: Time

We cant change what happened in the past, but we have the power to change the future.

Day18: Drink

My friend's house warming party tonight, I brought a bottle of Moscato to go with the cinnamon bread, nachos, pizza, chicken, pasta... Perfect!

Bye for now!

- Cora x