Sweet-tooth finds solace in Venchi offerings

Choose one: chocolates or gelatos? Last week I attended the opening of a new Venchi cafe at Central and -what can I say? The foodie inside me finds solace in the numerous gelato and chocolate offerings!

Double the Pleasure at duality-themed Taboo bar & lounge

Situated at Arbuthnot Road, next to the famous bar area of Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Taboo is the hottest bar & lounge in the city that is sure to make your pleasure double-fold. The club aims to bring forward the Parisian and New York club scene to Hong Kong.

Hello, Kitty Cafe!!! Purrrr // 呀貓地攤

Any animal lovers here??! Come and smell the prrrrr....Cuteness here! In the past I'd been to some dog cafes, with real puppies/dogs inside so you can play with them when you eat and drink. (NO cruelty here okay?) Then two weeks ago I visited this Kitty Cafe (called Choco Cat Cafe I believe) for a late lunch fix. There were about 10-13 cats there when we arrived. There were 2 British shorthairs waiting for us on our table XD ohmygod, you wouldn't want to wake them up right? I could literally stare at their sleep-deprived faces forever...

愛貓之人請進! 我聽過"呀貓地攤"好耐, 但前排先第一次去幫襯, 狗狗cafe我就去得多. 呀貓地攤有成10-13隻貓攤係度, 任摸任玩. 一去到就有2隻英國短毛訓左係我地張凳度, 見到佢咁可愛都唔好意思整醒佢啦, 係咪? 最鍾意就係睇佢地既訓覺樣...嘿嘿...

See how *lazy* the cat is?

睇佢幾懶既樣:

I sat next to this cat (painstakingly without waking it up), it's sooo fluffy.

坐底要好小心, 唔好整醒佢丫嘛... 佢D毛好柔軟.
Er...did anyone think of "fat" when you think of British short-hairs? A few friends of mine kept British short-hairs and man...they were so plump!! hahaha

一諗起英國短毛貓就好自然聯想到"肥", 哈哈!
This shot made it looked like a human's face, like, a frowning face /__\

佢訓覺既樣好似人既煩惱樣.I'm no expert when it comes to cats, but here were two of them (a mother and a baby) cuddling.

母子/女, 好溫馨呢.
Painting on the wall, cats-related of course ;)

裝修當然係以貓為主題 ;)
Er something's not right. See the cat's hindlegs? (This is another cat btw) They're not properly stowed on his seat up there... The way he climbed to his seat up there (almost the top of a fridge) made me bewildered. He couldn't get up there without his hindlegs pushing the menu board below... he made a cracking sound, the whole shelf that supported him seem to collapse any moment. But anyway, he got there (and TWICE I saw it).

我望住佢2次好辛苦地跳上櫃頂, 用下面塊餐牌借力 (當然有巨响配合), 個架好似就黎塌咁, 我仲驚過佢 O_O 睇清楚, 佢隻後腿係未上晒去架! 真係好好野.

On each table there was a cup full of water with pebbles inside and it's for the cats to drink (another excuse they would come near you, haha)

每張台上都有一杯細水俾貓貓飲, 所以佢會隨時行埋黎.
I love the color of this cat, he has got this 'air' of charisma...like he's the royal highness.

頗喜歡這隻, 毛既顏色很漂亮高貴.
Caught in the act:

偷懶中既貓樣:

Now to the food, we ordered some pasta and this cute kitten-print toast! The toast was super crunchy and is squeezed with chocolate sauce.

食物方面, 我地點左2碟意粉, 都唔錯. 之後叫了貓多士, 好鬆脆, 仲有好得意既貓樣~用朱古力醬塗上. 用煉奶同朱古力醬點黎食! D貓樣可愛到我唔想食左佢...

Pictures of every cat in the cafe stuck on the wall. I literally want to squeeze the pictures because all of them were so freaking cute.

牆上的貓貓照片, 隻隻都咁可愛!

I know what you're thinking...under the table is such a safe place to hide?

佢一定係以為無人知佢係度 =.=.....
And lastly, this cutie performed a difficult stunt: the stretch of his hind-leg, it made me think of: "Any questions?" "Yes I do!"

高難度動作 - 隻後腳伸到好高:
Doesn't it make you LMAO?

佢呢張個樣好搞笑!
I know I'm gorgeous, but...damn have you taken enough pics of meeeeee?

夠喇夠喇! 影夠未呀你?

It has been ages since I last did a non-beauty related post :P hope you guys have fun looking at the cat pictures!

STARBUCKS gone RETRO!! ;) *Pic Heavy*

Hi girlies and the little curious tourist in you :) today I'm straying off a bit from the topic of makeup and onto food and history. I promise it won't be boring - because this Starbucks store I"m going to show you in this post, you won't see it anywhere else but Hong Kong, guaranteed. I have no affiliations with Starbucks, but I thought it'd be interesting to show how "Glocal" Starbucks have gone.

This particular Starbucks is located at the heart of the city - Central and adopts a Bing-Sutt (literally Ice-House) design. Ice-house is equivalent to ice-tea-house, the average local restaurant you go to and get your stomach cured. Fast and Cheaply. To see how 'glocal' this Starbucks have gone, click here for a glimpse of how local restaurants in Hong Kong *used* to look like :)

A poster that said "Chocolate and coffee is served - cold or hot".
You may wonder what food is sold at this Starbucks: egg tarts, cha-siu pastries etc. These are local snacks, they made it so awfully inedible. Please go to any other local restaurants to try typical Hong Kong fast food/snacks OKAY :)?
Old style clock and menu:
A sign that says "please take photos randomly/take as much photos as you want". (Since other Starbucks don't allow you to take photos inside their store. You will be given a crossed face if you do, haha) So this store is photographiles- and tourist-friendly.
Menu displayed on a column's wall. Yes, Chinese words can be written vertically and horizontally! The walls are made with old-style window-panes painted in navy green. Very 60s-70s.
Cooking utensils from the past:
Paper boardgames - used to play them when I was little.
Retro toys:
Retro stationary:
Tea cups and a cigarette-ash spinner:
Toys and bowls from the old days:


The good old days being brought here:

a hot pineapple bun (with a small piece of butter taken out from a fridge) and a cold milk tea. This bun is a famous local snack. It is the hotness and the coldness that earned its popularity.

Notice the hanging-fan on the ceiling - so retro but still in use (at least my high school had it)
The red sign far off: from a pawn shop. Pawn shops are where people bring valuable belongings and 'pawn' them for cash-ins when they're in financially difficult situations. When they got through the difficulty they will come back to the shop with more money than he has taken away, and 'pawn' for their belongings back. Basically, you bring a watch/gold necklace/jewelery there in exchange for money, and a while later you go back there with money and take away your stuff. (For those who're curious about this neon street sign, CNN has a special feature on this traditional pawning profession.)

Papercut figures - lives of people in all walks of life. The words painted in white at the background is the old style of street advertisement, you found them in lamp boxes on the street, walls, anywhere but not now. Haha the words represent the 'profession' (doctors, pipe-plumbers, etc) and the numbers represent the phone numbers you dial to call for these services.

Old style calendar (think my grandmother still uses this at her home), above the calendar is a plate painted with chinese drawings. And next to it is a small retro-style fan located above a cupboard storing kitchen utensils. Folded table on the left.
Menu in Chinese and English hid under the glass panel on the eating table :) like most menus which appear in any other local restaurants (even up to now!)

Old-fashioned standup electrical fan:
Layout of the chairs and tables:
Looking at the paper-cut cartoon figures mimicking life in Hong Kong in the past - social caricatures who reflect the colonial era. ( ^_^In case you didn't know, Hong Kong was under British colonial rule until 1997)

A birdcage hung on the ceiling - you will see this in old-fashioned chinese tea houses, but they don't allow birds /birdcages to be brought inside nowadays.

Look carefully at the last pic ;) if it isn't clear, click to enlarge, LOL!

This post is longer than I expected, if you have read up to here, thanks for your time! :D

I'm thinking of doing some posts on photos I took from traveling in Europe (city by city), and would love to know what all of you think!

(My previous travel post to Greece HERE, click this link and you won't regret it I assure you. I highly recommend you to check this island out!)

It's NOT a haul! *AHEM*

I've probably said this many times already that I'm 'on a no-buy'. But every single time the results proved the aforementioned phrase was a epic fail. LOL To give you some insight into my uncurable obsession and hobby, here's what I did today: sorting out a CP (custom purchase) with the wonderful Justine today (thanks to Sheila for introducing us to each other!). I was struggling to get some NARS blushes but then I abandoned the idea.

In case you didn't know, I offer CP for Kanebo Lunasol Christmas Coffret ^_^ along with other brands like Canmake, Shu Uemura, Shiseido Maquillage, Sofina, RMK, Majolica Majorca, Jill Stuart, Paul & Joe, well pretty much every brand that has stores in Hong Kong.

What you see in the picture below is not my haul, they're items given to me by my friend who worked in a beauty magazine.

On the left is Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate (launched a month ago I guess?), it's a beauty serum, so far I've only tried a few times intermittently, will do a full review on it later. Then is the Burberry eyeshadow in Pale Rose (review here), MAC Tartan Tale Follow Your Fantasy eyeshadow (review here), FANCL Liquid Foundation, MAC Antique Green pigment, MAC Venomous Villains eyeshadow single in Vile Violet. And Bliss roller-ball EDT on top of the picture. There's also a lip liner from MAC unpictured here.

The EDT from Bliss: looks so sleek and the scent makes me think of the ocean, which resembles the bluish color of the tube too.

My right eye is feeling a bit weird for few days, think I might be having an eye infection @_@ meaning I have to stop using mascaras for a few days even though it's in my plan to use it up.

On an unrelated note, here's some dessert porn...haha!

Do you have a sweet tooth?

xoxo