Tag Archives: review

Akrame restaurant review – modern Michelin-starred dining ahoy!

chef akrame benallal hong kong

*UPDATE: Akrame has now closed*

When did Ship become so hip?

Back when I worked near Ship Street in Wan Chai many moons ago, the greatest culinary achievement it had to offer was a Sloppy Giuseppe at Pizza Express. And as much as I love me some garlic doughballs, they probably won’t be winning a Michelin star anytime soon!

Now, thanks to renowned British chef Jason Atherton moving into the ‘hood with 22 Ships, the area has become a veritable foodie mecca – and one of the newest places for gastro-pilgrimage is Restaurant Akrame.

akrame hong kong

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

nars make-up service faces hong kong

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…

faces lab concept hong kong clarins treatment room

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

tsui hang village hong kong char siu

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 40th 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!

tsui hang village hong kong 40th anniversary

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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Clarins Blue Orchid Facial Treatment Oil review – pure liquid gold

clarins blue orchid face treatment oil

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.

clarins 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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Giorgio Armani Fluid Sheer Radiant Pigment highlighter in #13 review

Giorgio Armani Fluid Sheer Radiant Pigment 13

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.

giorgio armani fluid sheer radiance pigment

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Shu Uemura Dolly Red Lucid Rouge Unlimited Lipstick review

shu uemura dolly red lucid lipstick

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.

shu uemura sweet red collection dolly red lucidFront: 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

best hand creams ever

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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MAC Stay Pretty Pro Longwear Blush & Sunny Seoul Cremesheen Lipstick review – think pink!

mac sunny seoul lipstick stay pretty blush

Remember when I went all coral cray-cray with my review of MAC’s Coral Bliss Lipstick and Stay By Me Blush (basically a distillation of the fact I’m actually coral cray-cray for life!)?

Well, I decided it was time to give some love to the other shades on the blush spectrum and step out of my coral comfort zone, in the form of a pretty-in-pink look using MAC’s Sunny Seoul Cremesheen Lipstick and their Stay Pretty Pro Longwear Blush! Ta-da!

mac stay pretty blush sunny seoul lipstick fotd

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Innisfree Hand Cream Collection review – Green Tea Pure Gel Hand Cream, Tangerine Blossom Perfumed Hand Lotion & Canola Honey Hand Butter

innisfree hand cream set

This is one review I never thought I’d get round to writing.

I have long had to make peace with the fact I’ll never manage to blog about every single piece of make-up I want to; however, after trying the Innisfree Hand Cream Collection, I was so pleasantly surprised that I felt the need to share the good news with you all!

Innisfree is a Korean beauty brand that opened its first stores in Hong Kong (in Causeway Bay and Mong Kok) earlier this year. Unlike other Korean cosmetics brands like Etude House and Tony Moly that concentrate on the cutesier side of beauty, Innisfree has a much fresher, cleaner feel – they’re all about natural pure ingredients found on the Korean volcanic island of Jeju (a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site, doncha’know). Forget hand creams shaped like penguins or make-up ranges themed around princesses – Innisfree’s packaging is simple, chic and eco-friendly; both the store and its products give me a Body Shop vibe but with an Asian twist.

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Hit The Road restaurant review – the long and winding road…

hit the road cafe hong kong

Are there any problems in life that aren’t solved by afternoon tea?!

Well, that’s a question I frequently put to the test with my cake partner-in-crime, Mirander! Our afternoon tea sessions usually consist of long periods of chatting, sighing, ranting and crying – mostly on my side, whilst Mirander says, “There, there,” and orders us some more cake.

hit the road hong kong

Having drank a lot of tea and eaten a lot of cake in our time, the likes of Starbucks and Pacific Coffee just don’t cut it anymore. We love uncovering cute little cafés in Hong Kong where we can vent to our heart’s content in delightful surroundings – and our latest discovery is Hit The Road.

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