Don't judge the food from the menu

I had a great dinner with my good friends, Junie and Joanna , last week to celebrate Junie's Birthday. We had dinner at Pasta De Waraku and till now, I was still amazed at how things can look different from the menu.

I quite like the food at Pasta De Waraku so far though it's not exactly fantastic but the service is not bad and still, the food is yummy. Well, I felt that the standard dropped a little and I still prefer the Pasta De Waraku when it first opened a few years ago. What kinda disappointed me was the Ichigo Milk. When I saw the menu, the Ichigo milk looks so good so I ordered.

Alas! What came to me was like a glass of Dutch Lady Strawberry Milk with less than 5 mini strawberry bits. "Huh? Like that only ar..?" was what came to me. I felt really 'cheated' by the menu and I was not in the mood of questioning the mamager whether he has given me the right order. Oh well, it was really Ichigo Milk when I drank it. It was obviously bought from the supermarket and poured into a nice-looking glass to fit the image in the menu which failed terribly. It tastes simply like the cheap strawberry milk from the supermarket. And it costs me $3.80!!! At least they should have bought Meiji milk la.

I was disappointed lor. $3.80 for a glass of strawberry milk from the supermarket. I've learnt to not judge the food by the pictures in the menu!

Nature Republic Products

Just recently, I kinda fell in love with products from this Korean brand - Nature Republic. Besides loving their products, their customer service is SUPERB!!!! I've been there twice and every shopping experience was a great one. I mean, there has been quite a number of Korean brand skincare shops sprouting over Singapore such as Face Shop, Skin Food, Etude House and Beauty Credit.

There's actually a Nature Republic shop at Junction 8 and it was there quite some time ago but I did not take a look at their products before. To me, what they were selling were pretty the same as those in Face Shop and Skin Food. After I had my foot massage at Kenshington the other day, I just felt like doing some window shopping and I headed towards Nature Republic. I thought of just getting a gel eyeliner brush as I just got a gel eyeliner and I did not have a brush to apply. When I was browsing through the brushes, the salesgirl came over and told me that there's a storewide 15% off.

After getting what I needed, I decided to just walk one round the shop before making payment... but the lip glosses and lipsticks caught my eye. I started trying the glosses on my hand to check out the colours. The salesgirl quickly came over and handed me a facial cotton dapped with makeup remover so that I can clean my hand. I was already quite impressed with that quick response from the salesgirl. I mean, I didn't get the same treatment when I was in the other Korean brand shops. The salesgirl then started explaining to me the different lip glosses that they have and asked me what kind of colour I was looking for. She started applying the colours on her own hand. And know what? All the colours are so 'lolita'!!! I mean, it's pretty difficult to find lolita-like colour lipsticks in these shops. Most of them are either too brown or too light or too red. I was trying to find sweet pink shades and Nature Republic carries many of them! Finally, I decided on the lipstick and lip gloss that I wanted. The colour is fantastic.

I continued to browse through the other products such as the mens' range and other facial products. She recommended me the Eco Garden series which is an organic product but I already had the full skin care at home. She was not pushy at all and told me that I can give it a try after I have finished with my present one. She recommended a few products for men and I thought I can let my hubby try it. Finally, I got my hubby a facial wash, serum and a facial toner. I didn't buy much for myself but I got a whole lot of freebies from them. Facial masks and samples too.

So far, I love their body scrub. It's black berry and blue berry body scrub. It smells heavenly and the exfoliating beads are gentle on the skin too. I have dry and sensitive skin and this product is really good. My skin feels completely relaxed after the scrub and the wonderful smell is therapeutic too. I feel as if I'm in a garden full of berries. I look forward to the next body scrub bath everytime!

In the end, I bought a whole of stuff --> a total of $120! So I got two foot masks for free and a few facial masks. I also bought fake eye lashes which the salesgirl went the extra mile to show the slight differences among them. I love my first shopping experience at Nature Republic.

Crazy over Head Bands & Headdresses

Recently, I'm kind of crazy over head bands and headdresses and I'm always on the search for cheap ones. I mean I can't keeping pouring out $$ to get the Lolita brands. They are just so expensive! Well, of course they are really pretty but forking out like $50 plus just to get a head dress is realli xim tia! And just this week, I bought maybe 5 head bands for loli use. Most of them cost less than $10 each and they look pretty fine as Lolita head dresses.

And really, I always believed that there's no need to wear loli that is branded from head to toe. I can always find many other alternatives such as accessories that go well with loli too. I've found shops now that I go to buy my accessories.

One of the shops that I think I'll constantly patronise is Mini Princess at Bishan Junction 8. This shop is sister store of Mini Toons that is located at the 4th level of the Junction 8. And really, this shop just tells us one thing - If you have children who are girls, you gonna be broke. They sell a wide range of princess-like clothings for little girls, accessories and even items like laced baskets, display boxes etc. And indeed they are pretty loli in some ways. They have a whole lot of pink head bands!!! So lolis who are looking for pink headbands can definitely find something there. Of course, they have bling styles, as well as lacy and sweet ones.

Mini Princess Shop at Junction 8

I love this cutesy crown in pink on one side of the head band. So pretty!!!!

The cherries look great and yummy! And the colour of this head band is a comfy pink too!

This is a simple head band that matches with many lolita outfits.

Bridal-like ribbon and mesh

Another great shop that sells a variety of accessories of different styles is Diva. They have a branch in Junction 8 just opened and haz! I guess they pose a great threat to Helen that's just a few steps away. Personally, I prefer Diva to Helen as the things are actually cheaper and more unique. Diva even sell necklaces that has a pendant like an antique watch, lacy necklaces with pearls etc and they are not ex. The previous time I check out Helen on a necklace and it costs $30 plus $40.

I love this very much. It's really sweet and simple. Thinking of wearing this for ROM.

Simple Off-white mesh head band

I think it's time to stop buying head bows and head bands already. I have to STOP!!! I can't help it but go gaga when I see beautiful head bands!

Mom's handmade skirt and headdress & my make up

It's a super long time since I updated my blog. I felt so bad... so bad!!! Well, I've been so busy so busy with work for the last few weeks! It's CRAZY!!!! I just had time now for holidays and of course, taking a breather and went around for facial, eye treatment and shopping!

Last Saturday, I attended my cousin's wedding at Four Seasons Hotel and I also helped out at the reception. It was a wonderful wedding and I really enjoyed myself. I was so touched as he was a very close cousin of mine. And of course, how can I forget to dress up to his wedding???? I wore my mother's masterpiece - handmade skirt and headdress. She made this last year and I wore it for last years' National Day lolita gathering. And my mom was also proud of herself. Everyone was like "Huh? Aunt made this?" or "Your mother made this?"

I also quite like the make up that I did that day. I used the colours from the Sephora palette and the effect turned out pretty good.

I used Shade 1 as the base. It's actually a light shimmer pink.

After which, I used Shade 2 on the crease. It's a light sea blue.

And I used Shade 3 to emphasise the corner of the lid.

The three colours actually blended very well.

And not forgetting to highlight the area under the eye brow with white eye shadow 4.

I used this eye lash style from Bodyline this time.

It was pretty easy to fix.

For the lips, I used the shade marked '1'. This is a lip palette from Skin Food.

I really love the Sephora palette. It's made up of 5 different looks and the colours are gorgeous! And the quality is super good and the colours are matched just the way you can apply and you don't have to crack ur brains to think what colours you need to match with.