Through The Looking Glass

FACESSS beauty experiences – a Clarins facial, NARS makeover & Amika hairdo all under one roof!

Posted on April 14, 2014 | 5 comments

So we’ve talked about the new beauty brands available at the revamped FACESSS – but perhaps even better are the all-new beauty experiences now available there too!

I love getting up close and personal with beauty products in-store; it’s the best way to find out how they work… and more importantly, if they’re actually going to work for you! Given the army of offputtingly snooty/unhelpful/pushy sales assistants who give you stink eye whenever you try and swatch their products, I love that FACESSS are being proactive about advertising these beauty services – so you can book in for treatments and trials that guarantee product playtime and plenty of expert tips, rather than scuttling away post-haste when a MUA corners you against a wall of foundations… if a MUA even deigns to serve you in the first place!

I was lucky enough to trial three FACESSS’ beauty services from Clarins, NARS and Amika Hairdo Bar. Here’s how it all went down…

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Posted in Beauty, Hong Kong

Tagged Amika Hairdo Bar Hong Kong, Amika Hong Kong, Beauty, blowout bar Hong Kong, Clarins facial, Clarins facial Hong Kong, cosmetics, express facials Hong Kong, express hair styling Hong Kong, FACES hk, FACES hong kong, FACESSS hong kong, facials Admiralty, facials LAB Concept, Get A V-Shaped Face treatment, LAB Concept Hong Kong, make-up, make-up lesson Hong Kong, Nars, NARS HK, NARS Hong Kong, NARS makeover, review, where to get an updo Hong Kong, where to get your hair styled in Hong Kong, where to get your make-up done Hong Kong, White Plus Total Luminescent treatment

Tsui Hang Village 40th anniversary dim sum review – there ain’t no school like the old-school

Posted on April 7, 2014 | 2 comments

Sometimes, there ain’t no school like the old-school – so long-standing Canto restaurant Tsui Hang Village is making like Kylie and stepping back in time to celebrate their 40^th anniversary in the best possible way… with delicious retro Hong Kong dim sum! Now I can’t claim to remember all of these nostalgic classics from the first time round – but what I can attest to is that most of them are downright delicious!

I’ve been to Tsui Hang Village before for dim sum and have to say that they really do nail it here; unlike many of the other chains in Hong Kong (THV is owned by dining empire The Miramar Group), all their dim sum is prepared in-house, by hand and fresh-to-order – and it totally shows. There’s a certain lightness of touch to even the heaviest of dumplings here – you don’t leave feeling like a char siu bao boulder has plummeted to your stomach, nor do you feel the need to glug down litres of water to combat MSG overload.

Having said that, it soon became clear why this old-school dim sum might have fallen out of fashion over the years… lots of these dishes are pure heart attacks in dumpling form! Oh well, the most delicious food often is (she says, scoffing piles of bacon followed by deep-fried ice-cream), right?!

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Posted in Food, Hong Kong

Tagged 40th anniversary, best Cantonese restaurants in Hong Kong, best char siu in Hong Kong, best Chinese restaurants in Causeway Bay, best Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong, best dim sum in Causeway Bay, best dim sum in Hong Kong, Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, classic dim sum Hong Kong, dim sum, Miramar Dining, Miramar Group, old-school dim sum, retro dim sum, review, Tsui Hang Village

FACESSS Hong Kong gets a makeover – Innisfree, Philosophy, Tony Moly and beauty brands galore hit LAB Concept!

Posted on April 2, 2014 | Leave a comment

As a total beauty junkie, I’m an avid follower of the Hong Kong cosmetics scene – new stores, new brands, new products… the lot!

One of my favourite one-stop-shops in HK for all things pampering and prettifying is FACESSS, a “beauty retail concept” (read: loads of make-up and skincare counters all in one place i.e. total win) whose LAB Concept location in Admiralty has just had its very own makeover… making getting access to more fabulous brands and enticing experiences even easier.

I was invited for a whistlestop tour of the revamped LAB Concept location, so here’s a quick rundown of what’s new that’s cooking in the FACESSS kitchen:

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Clarins Blue Orchid Facial Treatment Oil review – pure liquid gold

Posted on March 31, 2014 | 5 comments

Hong Kong weather has been going a bit haywire recently. One minute, it’ll be so cold that you’re forced to dig out that long-lost mini convection heater whilst wearing seven layers of Uniqlo Heattech… the next it’ll be so muggy that even with dehumidifiers ramped up to the max in every single room of your apartment, water still streams down your walls like the Niagara – and on a couple of occasions, Hong Kong’s freaky ecological bubble has somehow managed to produce both conditions all at once!

The point of this story is – all this meteorological madness can play total havoc with a girl’s skin. But one product that I have fallen in love with recently to help combat the strange ecosystem that is my complexion is Clarins’ Blue Orchid Face Treatment Oil.

Now I know what you’re thinking… I have a greasy nose/chin/forehead/face (delete as applicable), why on earth would I add yet more oil to the mix?! Trust me sistah, I hear ya – and as the owner of a troublesome t-zone, it’s exactly why I’ve previously steered clear of facial oils. But be not afeard my child, for Clarins’ Blue Orchid Oil is friend not foe, I promise!

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Posted in Beauty

Tagged Beauty, best face oils, best treatment oils, Blue Orchid Face Treatment Oil, Blue Orchid Oil, Clarins, Clarins Face Treatment Oils, cosmetics, face oils, hydration, make-up, moisturisers, review, skincare, where to buy Clarins in Hong Kong

Giorgio Armani Fluid Sheer Radiant Pigment highlighter in #13 review

Posted on March 24, 2014 | Leave a comment

Whilst I would love to pretend that every morning I wake up glowing with radiance in the style of a Disney princess, the reality is probably closer to being a member of the Munster family! So for those days where you need a little bit of help to let in the light, may I introduce Giorgio Armani Beauty’s Fluid Sheer Radiant Pigment in #13, from their Spring 2014 Effetto Nudo Collection.

This translucent liquid highlighter is a pretty pearly queen designed to ramp up the radiance – but in a surprisingly subtle and gloriously universal way. However, branding it as just your typical “highlighter” rather undersells it; in addition to streaking it onto your cheek and brow-bones to bring flattering highlights to your face, it’s subtle enough to be blended into your base to give an overall soft glow, or it can even be used as an ever-so-slightly shimmery eye primer too.

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Dilmah Real High Tea Challenge, Hong Kong – not your average cuppa!

Posted on March 18, 2014 | 1 comment

… I think when you’re fielding several requests a month asking for afternoon tea recommendations in Hong Kong, then it probably means that people have realised your favourite foodie weakness! So when I got invited to the results party for the Hong Kong leg of Dilmah’s Real High Tea Challenge, of course I had to go check it out!

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Posted in Pretty Things

Tagged afterafternoon tea Hollywood Hotel Hong Kong, afternoon tea Disneyland Hotel Hong Kong, afternoon tea hong kong, afternoon tea Hotel Icon Hong Kong, afternoon tea Langham Hotel Hong Kong, afternoon tea The Envoy Hong Kong, afternoon tea The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong, dessert, dessert hong kong, Dilmah Real High Tea Challenge, Dilmah Real High Tea Challenge Hong Kong, food photography, high tea hong kong, Pretty Things

Food love – Mochachocolatarita’s cute Valentine’s foodie illustrations

Posted on February 24, 2014 | 8 comments

I’m not one for Valentine’s Day AT ALL… but when I saw these cute and fun V-Day foodie illustrations by my fabulous blogger friend, Mochachocolatarita (try saying that when you’ve had a few!), I knew I just had to share!

Rita has taken some much-loved matches-made-in-HK-food-heaven and turned them into very sweet, loved-up illustrations for Valentine’s Day. Forget cheesy giant teddy bears and half-dead bouquets of flowers… these pictures are much more fun!

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Posted in Hong Kong, Pretty Things, Random

Tagged artists, cute, design, drawings, foodie, funny, Hong Kong, Hong Kong art, Hong Kong artists, Hong Kong food, illustrations, pictures, Pretty Things, Valentine's Day

Chic like chocolate – Mathilde Brunelet’s beautiful Parisian artwork

Posted on February 12, 2014 | 4 comments

I’m a sucker for desserts… and a sucker for pretty packaging. Add the two together and you have Rach dropping hundreds of dollars on chocolate she never even wanted or needed in the first place!

So say hello to these uber pretty chocolate bars from French brand Comptoir du Cacao. They were about $50 each (*wince*) so I have to stick them on here to claim that as a blog investment, right?!

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Posted in Pretty Things

Tagged art, artwork, chocolate, Comptoir du Cacao, design, dessert, drawings, fashion artists, fashion drawings, fashion illustration, French fashion artists, illustration, Mat.b, Mathilde Brunelet, Paris, Paris fashion artists, Pretty Things, sketches

Shu Uemura Dolly Red Lucid Rouge Unlimited Lipstick review

Posted on February 10, 2014 | Leave a comment

Since my review of Shu Uemura’s Baby Flame lipstick got such a lovely response – my #FOTD selfie had over 40 likes on Instagram… you guys like me more than cookies! (Well pictures of cookies… but I’ll take it) – I decided it was high time I showed you another beauty from Shu Uemura’s Sweet Red Collection.

Front: Dolly Red Lucid; Back, left to right: Mon Shu Red, Baby Flame, Lacquer Red

The Dolly Red Lucid Rouge Unlimited Lipstick is the lightest shade of the bunch; however, it’s actually not much of a red at all! Instead, it’s a sweet pink-leaning coral that’s much softer than the comparably orange-leaning colour pop of Baby Flame. If Baby Flame was the bright and bubbly geranium in the Sweet Red bouquet, then Dolly Red is the romantic carnation playing peekaboo and fluttering her eyelashes coyly at the back!

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The best hand creams ever: Physiogel A1 Cream, Cetaphil Intensive Moisturising Cream & Herbacin Wuta Kamille Glycerine Hand Cream

Posted on February 4, 2014 | 9 comments

Think you have dry hands?! Think again! I’ll show you some PROPER dry hands…

Actually, I won’t. My hands had reached such Sahara states of dryness that frankly, they were not fit for public viewing. Upon catching sight of my shedding digits, people would “ewww” entirely unprompted. There was talk of steroid cream. I genuinely had no fingerprints left.

[If you think I’m exaggerating for comic effect, Hong Kong ID Cards use fingerprint recognition machines at immigration; thanks to my fingers being a lovely combination of burn-victim raw red patches and papery dry cracks and ridges, my fingerprints no longer registered. So there!]

My beloved Sebamed Hand & Nail Repair Cream had halted further deterioration but didn’t seem able to actually rescue my skin. I had begun to make peace with the fact that I would be a reasonably preserved twentysomething with the hands of an ancient medieval peasant. But thankfully (!), I had to go to the doctor’s with yet another bout of gastroenteritis (welcome to Hong Kong!) and thought I’d get the good doc’s verdict on my hands whilst I was at it.

Lo and behold, he recommended me a couple of amazing hand creams that performed minor miracles. So I thought I’d spare you the $300 consultation fee and share my three handcare saviours: Physiogel A1 Cream, Cetaphil Intensive Moisturising Cream and Herbacin Wuta Kamille Glycerine Hand Cream.

These hand creams aren’t sexy. They don’t smell delicious, or feel luxurious, or look dressing table worthy. But they bloody hell do the job!

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