Monthly Archives: May 2012

Beauty Spot: Deborah Lippmann Mermaid’s Dream nail polish review

Posted on May 31, 2012 | 4 Comments

Over time, you may have learnt a couple of my nail polish weaknesses on this blog. Turquoise. Deborah Lippmann. Glitter. So imagine what would happen if all three got rolled into one… well, it did. Helloooo Deborah Lippmann Mermaid’s Dream!

Even from bottle shots, I knew this was going to be one of my favourite polishes ever. Mermaid tail nails has been a long-held obsession of mine and, well, this one even had it in the name. Mermaid in the name and mermaid in the bottle – it was always going to be a winner in my book!

Mermaid’s Dream is an enchantingly intoxicating mix of very very fine aqua, seafoam, silver and gold glitter in a clear base, with larger round pieces of ocean teal-blue glitter mixed in. It’s like the crest of a wave in fairy tales and it is all-out GORGEOUS.

It’s also not your typical Lippmann glitter. Usually, Lippmann glitters are big blingy pieces of glitter mixed with smaller ones in a coloured jelly base; Mermaid’s Dream is made up of this much finer fairy dust in a clear base, but with a stunning super-shimmery iridescent quality too. It is, needless to say, utterly unique.

The very fine dense glitter makes this rather easier to work with than your average Lippmann too, as it means you don’t get big flakes of glitter lodging themselves halfway off the tip of your nail, halfway onto your cuticle or settling at weird angles. The thin consistency of the polish also means it’s easy to apply neatly and flatly, and you get opaque coverage in a quick two coats.

The downside is that this is HELLISH to clean off. I think I was still picking off bits of it around a month later. The foil method (where you soak pieces of cotton in polish remover, wrap them round your nail, then wrap foil around them and wait for the varnish… and half of your skin… to dissolve) is the only solution; honestly, I wouldn’t even bother with any other attempts at scrubbing or rubbing this off, as it would require more elbow grease than a thousand Cinderellas and you’re probably more likely to draw blood before actually removing much.

But it is so SO worth it. This colour is absolute pure mermaid through and through. The gleaming gold glimmer really comes through in real-life, giving the whole thing a fairy-tale shimmer. The careful blend of glitters mixed together to create Mermaid’s Dream is truly mesmerising and just utterly irresistibly perfect. And the bigger pieces of blue glitter floating above it all are just the icing on the (fairy) cake.

It’s a long time since a nail polish this special came into my life and Mermaid’s Dream truly is a treasure from the deep, with a definite sprinkling of that Lippmann magic. If mermaid’s tails were really this beautiful, I find it impossible to believe that Ariel would ever have wanted to grow legs!

Looks good with: beaches, believing in magic, not wanting to grow legs
Drying time required: <2mins
Coats required: 2-3
Chips: 3-5 days

Deborah Lippmann, Mermaid’s Dream, Spring 2012 Collection, $190, JOYCE Beauty

This nail polish was provided for me to review for my day job at Sassy!

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Dessert of the day: there be magic in them Crumbs

Posted on May 28, 2012 | 12 Comments

My fondness for desserts has been well documented so here’s a quick post for one of my favourites: Crumbs Fro Yo!

I was introduced to the delightful Crumbs by my lovely friend Jane… and it’s probably one of my defining moments in Hong Kong! With the fro-yo craze exploding in HK over the last few years, you can barely move for people dripping their icy treats all over you on street pavements – but how do you separate the wheat from the chaff (or whatever the yoghurt equivalent of that saying would be… something to do with curds and whey? I digress…).

Well, Crumbs isn’t just good, it’s great. Whoever thought that a little stand selling fro yos would be quietly making the best fresh brownies in Hong Kong?

Ever since I had my first Crumbs, despite the huge variety of no doubt delicious toppings they offer, I have been unable to deviate from my tried and true topping combo – because it is SO damn good! Crumbs with their signature house crumbs and brownies. On the days when they offer you a free topping… errrr… more brownies please! It’s flipping freezing fabulousness.

House crumbs… no idea what is in those golden crispy sprinkles… magic maybe? It’s cinnamon-y, it’s toast-y, it’s a little bit digestive-y, but who cares when it’s the perfect crunchy complement to those soft creamy waves of white fro-yo clouds.

The double chocolate brownies – not too sweet, not too ‘not sweet’, a just right amount of give and goo, and super-chocolate-y too. (Rach tip: they sell these in bags on their own. I am yet to take them up on the offer fearing the brownie mania it might ignite inside me.) Crumbs also make some very yummy fresh scones, should a more English mood strike you at counter.

I carry their business card with their locations on it at all times, just in case I need to locate a Crumbs in my vicinity STAT. Sadly, my nearest branch in Quarry Bay is not open at weekends (as we found out having made the trek there one weekend!); I have been known to plan my days around trying to sneak a Crumbs in (shhhh… don’t tell my boyfriend). The Crumbs connoisseur in me can also tell you that Quarry Bay does delivery to nearby offices (thank God I don’t work there… fro yo for lunch, anyone?!), the Jordan branch has a few seats inside, the Kowloon Bay branch is in a mall with loads of great places to perch and eat your fro-yo outside (as opposed to Causeway, where I stand in a dinghy back alley near a man cutting someone’s hair into the street… slight mood-killer) and that the Mong Kok branch is absolutely nowhere near the MTR station.

And now I’m craving a Crumbs fro-yo…

Crumbs locations in Hong Kong (someone give me a Foursquare badge already!):

- G/F, 6 Cannon Street, Causeway Bay, 2838 5500
- G/F, 15 Tong Chong Street, Quarry Bay, 2214 1212
- Shop P23, MCL Cinemas Telford, Telford Plaza Phase One, 33 Wai Yip Street, Kowloon Bay, 9537 9695
- Shop B, 64 Bute Street, Mong Kok, 2393 5772
- G/F, Parkes Street, Jordan, 2736 9191

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Beauty Spot: American Apparel Neon Coral nail polish review

Posted on May 21, 2012 | 2 Comments

It is officially summer in the 852 (it must be: Sassy says so!), which means I get even more insane with my make-up than usual! Being my usual stupidly-prepared self, I bagged myself the hottest most searing neon nail polish money could buy around three months ago, thanks to Stateside make-up mule Nunu. First up to give my nails a dose of radioactive summer was American Apparel Neon Coral.

Well, it does what it says on the tin! It is neon. It is coral. BUT IT IS SO MUCH MORE.

In the words of Danny Zucko, ‘It’s electrifffffyin’!’. This is not the nasty orange highlighter colour of yore but a perfect red orange balance, neon-ed to the extreme. It’s electric coral, amplified salmon and peach on heat rolled into one. It is, of course, utterly amazing.

What isn’t amazing is American Apparel nail polish itself. It’s my first experience with AA nail polish and in the words of Shania Twain, ‘that don’t impress me much!’. The thin square bottles look very cool, the print on them is awesome and they look like little hipster bricks of E-number addled candy. But their being so thin means that using them is a precarious business, as one mis-aimed brush dunk results in them tipping over way too easily.

The brush was functional but not great and just served to remind me how much I take the likes of Zoya’s, China Glaze’s, Lippmann’s, Essie’s et al for granted as the way they splay just takes the hard work out of application. The formula of Neon Coral was fine (wait until you hear my horror stories for Neon Orange!), a streaky first coat that built up to opacity in two to three. Like most neons, it dries with a sort of demi-matte finish, though this was definitely still glossy and non-chalky looking enough for me not to consider top coat.

But back onto the colour itself, which is really something. Fabulously fluorescent, it of course caused my camera to have a seizure and never really capture it properly (too orange-leaning and nowhere near bright enough; bizarrely iPhone did a better job, so thank the fact I felt the need to tweet for the top two photos, which are pretty accurate).  As the picture above shows, it near enough glows in the dark.

Retina-searing, sunglasses required, Neon Coral practically enters the room before you. It’s a neon no-brainer. Start waving those glowsticks kids, because the summer of 2012 is set to be a fluorescent one!

Looks good with: colour-clashing, summer brights, beachwear
Drying time: 5 mins
Coats required: 2-3
Chips: 2 days

American Apparel Neon Coral nail polish, released Spring 2011

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Hello Kitty mo liu – the cat’s meow!

Posted on May 14, 2012 | 6 Comments

I was introduced to the term ‘mo liu’ by a few friends on Twitter and rapidly found that it seemed to describe my life!

In English,  mo liu translates to items of frippery, flippant impulse buys that are super-cute but ultimately functionless. I have always been susceptible to pretty things (and indeed, a whole category on here is named thus!) yet in Hong Kong, such mo liu lurks round every street corner, in every market, on the shelves of every shop, supermarket and convenience store. You cannot escape!

Prime offenders are items emblazoned with the likeness of a certain cartoon cat (previously featured on my blog here). And yes, forgive me for I am weak… for I gave into the cute collecting craze again… not once, but two times!

First up, Hello Kitty x Tokidoki at 7-Eleven (the joys of which I proclaimed here!). There was a huge advertising campaign for this and I originally declared myself immune… then I decided I wouldn’t mind Donut Kitty… then I decided I’d quite like Unicorn Kitty and Apples Kitty… and then suddenly all I could think about was how I NEEDED the whole set. Of course, the minute I said I despised Giant Diamond Kitty and Black Star Kitty, they were pretty much the first ones I got… which just fed the addiction more. This is how collecting mania infects you in Hong Kong – you either need to totally abstain and go cold turkey or you just give in and lose your mind for the whole promotion period.

As the end of the sticker redemption period grew ever closer, I started to grow even more insane – 7-Eleven stickers were all I could think/talk/dream about (as evidenced here). This meant that every time my boyfriend called on his way home for work asking if there was anything he could get, my answer would invariably be some frenzied screaming about 7-Eleven. ‘What from 7-Eleven though?’ ‘I don’t know… anything!!!’

Well, 7-Eleven is a convenience store, and convenience stores sell largely junk food… meaning spending over $60 to get my five stickers needed for a toy was pretty tricky. Which was why come the end of February, my freezer was filled with dozens of Dreyers ice-cream cones, my room resembled a Coca-Cola factory filled with bottles ready for shipment, I was practically washing myself in Evian water and there was an entire shelf lined with tub upon tub of mini Oreos. I think we’re still finishing those now. Was the insania worth it? I’ll leave you to decide! But you gotta admit… Donut Kitty is pretty bloody cute!

P.S. I still didn’t get all of them (I want you Adieu Kitty… and Riding With Ghost Kitty… and Comet Kitty!) and I have some doubles… so if you wanna swap, drop me an email!

Secondly, McDonalds x Hello Kitty. This mo liu collection was nowhere near as traumatic as my boyfriend does actually go to McDonalds nearly every day anyway, so nabbing these four was a cinch!

I’m pretty sure Hong Kong is the only McDs in the world where Ronald McDonald is still actively seen hanging around stores promoting, as opposed to having been quietly banished to a dark cupboard somewhere given his inherent creepiness. But hey… cross a child-catching clown with Hello Kitty and anything becomes cute, right?!

This crossover also allows us to appreciate the genius of the pun Hamburglar. As for the other two characters… errr, yeah, me neither… but super-kawaiiiiii!

Actually, I really love this collection. The costumes are really cute in miniature kitty form (Hamburglar is all kinds of wicked-awesome) and the attention-to-detail for a toy given away with fast food is pretty special.

I loved the different drawings on both sides of each box, the minimalist costume design on the back of the packaging and the cut-out golden arches handles – they really do look like collectibles. Which is, of course, what I will be telling my auntie when she screams at me about the amount of random mo liu accumulating dust around the house. They’re an investment, don’t you see?!?!

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Posted in Hong Kong, Pretty Things, Random

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