New York Photo Diary

I went to NYC for a girl's trip for 4 days. Here are some shots of from the trip!

The Cartier shop dressed as a giant present

How is this a library?

Gossip Girl anyone?

Obligatory visit to K-town

Rockefeller centre Christmas tree and skating

Saks 5th window display

Disco Empire

LOVE - missing our 4th member

Library again

Bite sized heaven

Chick magnet

Pretty explanatory

Jewellery at an outdoor market

Octopus ink pasta

Giant snail - which I subsequently climbed

Times Square we met again

The Gugenheim

Artsy fartsy

Hi Georgia May

Brooklyn Brooklyn

Best breakfast ever

Jean Paul Gaultier 

A dress fit for Demeter

The Crystal Renn dress

A piano in a tree

bisous,

mooncake

Em. by Michelle Phan

I have been watching YouTube videos since I was in high school. One of my best friends introduced me to make up tutorials and I have been hooked ever since. One of the gurus I have been following for a long time has come out with a highly anticipated make up line - Em by Michelle Phan.

Me, being a subscriber, decided to support Michelle Phan and got a day life palette and a chiaroscuro. Michelle's make up line is priced mid to high end.

The packaging:
I'm not too into the plastic see-through packaging. It seems kind of cheap and... the palette itself is $75. I did however get these products on sale and ended up paying $50 for the chiaroscuro and the life palette. Pricey, but still worth it.

The life palette:
The life palettes are big square palettes with 8 lip colours, 24 eye shadows and 4 blushes. The make up is in circular pans which are magnetic so that the colours can be rearranged and repurchased if necessary. When you order a life palette it comes with a travel palette so that you can design your own essentials palette. What attracted me about the life palette is that there were nice matte and shimmery neutrals in the palette as well as the fact that I could make my own travel palette. I love my day life palette, because I am a huge neutral eye shadow fan. While there are other palettes in the Em collection, you won't find vibrant hues (at least not yet). If you're looking for vibrant eye shadows, I recommend Urban Decay.

The chiaroscuro:
I also purchased a chiaroscuro, a double ended highlight and contour stick, in medium. I love the contouring portion of the stick, however, the highlighter does not suit my face at all. I prefer Watt's Up and High Beam for my complexion. The chiaroscuro is super blendable which is a plus - but that also means that I'll end up using it up a lot faster than I'd like.

Overall:
I am glad I purchased these products, because I want to support Michelle Phan and her endeavours. I plan on doing more of this with other bloggers and YouTubers :)

What I like most about that palette is that the colours are versatile and that the eye shadow colours show up true to colour even without an eye primer.

Bisous,
Mooncake

90 day challenge

In November 2013, I decided to do a 90 day challenge. I planned to start in December of 2013, but due to circumstances I pushed it back to January 2014.

So I am declaring that I am starting this challenge so that I can keep myself accountable throughout the process. I am a bit shy so my stats and goals won't be posted until I achieve them, but they are recorded in my fitness journal. I will be following my own routine and combining it with tips from Cassey Ho from Blogilates. She has some great videos and meal plan schedules for young women like myself. However, my ideal fitness role model is Katie Vella of theminibeast.com. I want to be strong and fit, not just lean. 

I will report back every 2 weeks to share my progress.

Bisous,

mooncake

Carried away at Buddakan

One of the restaurants I had the opportunity to eat at in New York is Buddakan. It is the engagement party restaurant in the Sex and the City movie. My friends and I have been a fan of the Sex and the City series for a long time, because we  identified with the characters and the sisterhood like so many other people in the world.

The long table that they used for the engagement  dinner for the scene.

The food was delicious, service was great, but we had to wait a long time for a table even though we had made reservations. On the side note, we got free drinks and a side out of it. I thought that the price was quite reasonable compared to what I was expecting.

Here is what we ate at Buddakan.

Edamame dumplings on the house

Devilled Tuna Tartare

Pork Scallion Pancakes

Lemon Chicken

Mapo Tofu

Chinese Sausage Fried Rice

My favourite dish was the edamame dumplings and the tuna tartare. I think I may attempt to make edamame dumplings at home when I get the chance!

Here's the link to the "man who got Carried away" scene if you are unfamiliar with the scene.

bisous,

mooncake

Holiday Sparkle

I have always been a fan of glitter liners. My favourite are the ones from Urban Decay that I bought in a set a few years back. But since the UD liners are so pricey, I recently purchased glitter liners from the Sephora line, which are much cheaper. I have yet to try them out, but I'm sure I'll get to it soon, because glitter is a holiday favourite - whether it be on your nails, eyes, clothes or even your christmas tree.

I am a fan of the Pixiwoo sisters on Youtube. Sam and Nick are funny, extremely likeable, and most of all, they make awesome make-up tutorials. I tried out Nick's recent video called "Affordable Christmas Party Makeup Tutorial".

I find that sometimes I can't always pull off what the Pixiwoo sisters can because of the shape of my eyes. This look is gorgeous, but in the future, I think I'm going to have to tweak it a little so it works for me. My eyelid folds are probably 1/8th of the size of Nick's - which is why having glitter on your top lash line can make it slightly difficult to blink. Regardless, I think it's fun trying out new looks, even if it turns into a disaster or doesn't quite live up to your expectations.

A few notes:

• I applied a filter - so the colours are slightly off
• Pardon my 'not so groomed' eyebrows - exams do that to you.
• My eyelashes are so short that they don't even show in the photos. I wish I was blessed with full lashes and brows - but I guess you just gotta rock whatever you were given.

Bisous,
mooncake

Le Sélect Bistro

Today I had a little date with my friend at Le Sélect Bistro in Toronto.
We sat at the bar, and the bartenders there were so friendly! I also loved the food and the ambiance. I'm glad my friend suggested this place.

We were given sample sized french onion soup on the house, which was delicious. For our main, I ordered a croque-monsieur and my friend ordered a salade frisée aux lardons as well as a bison steak tartare. Unfortunately my friend finds it weird that I take pictures of food... so I only took two pictures of our food. I personally liked the salad the most, which consisted of chicory lettuce, avocado, pork lardon (sort of like bacon), cherry tomatoes, a poached egg and sherry vinaigrette. It was delicious - I highly recommend it.

The Bison Tartare

I've tried tuna tartare before, but I've never tried bison, not to mention bison tartare. It was good, but I think it's something I'll have to develop a liking for.

The Croque-Monsieur

Of course the croque-monsieur was yummy, but I wished I had ordered the madame with the egg on top. I tried croque-madame for the first time when I was in France several years ago. I'm not sure if Le Select's version measured up to what I remember, but then again I may be a little bit biased - everything French tastes better in France?

Bisous,
mooncake

Easy Green Curry

Do you sometimes get bored of having the same thing over and over again? I fall into this trap sometimes, because I don't have to think when cooking certain foods, like pasta.

This post is about creating green curry! You could make it from scratch, but if you're like me and want to save some time, I recommend this route.

Warning: I eyeball a lot of what I put in. Yes, this is really bad considering my curry will not be the same each time - but I don't intend on serving this curry to food critics, so I think there is some room for mistake.

Ingredients:

• 1 table spoon of store bought curry paste - this will definitely cut down cooking and preparation time. I used one that I found at a Asian grocery store, but there are many different curry pastes out there that you could easily get your hands on.
• Vegetables:
• 1 eggplant (I usually buy a large one, and just use half)
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1 onion
• 1 table spoon of minced garlic
• 1/2 cup of bamboo shoots (I get the canned one)
• Fresh basil
• 1 lime
• Meat:
• 1 chicken breast
• 2-3 tablespoons of brown sugar (I have coconut sugar, which I find goes amazingly with curry and is not as sweet. You can decide on how much sugar you want, because ultimately, it is your curry)
• 1 can of coconut milk 250ml (not coconut water)

Instructions:

1. Cut/dice all the vegetables and meat.
2. On medium heat, sautée the garlic and then the rest of the vegetables, including basil. Then also add the meat and cook through.
3. Add a table spoon of the store bought curry paste to the veggie and meat and mix well. (this step may be different depending on the curry paste you purchase)
4. Add coconut milk, and bring to a boil, then lower the heat to low.
5. Add sugar.
6. Enjoy your curry on a bed of rice. You can also garnish with leftover fresh basil and a slice of lime.

I am obviously not a curry expert, but this recipe is pretty quick and it's nice to change up meals once in a while!

Enjoy :)

Bisous,

mooncake