Tag Archives: review

OPI Did It On ‘Em nail polish review

Posted on April 30, 2012 | 4 comments

With summer well and truly ready to kick in over here, my body starts to crave brights – and my nails are no exception! So next up from the Nicki Minaj Collection is OPI’s Did It On ‘Em.

A lot of people commented on the similarity between Minaj’s collection and the Shrek one OPI put out a few years back – and Did It On ‘Em is basically the lovechild of Who The Shrek Are You (the Shrek green) and Fiercely Fiona (yellow). Basically, it’s a bright amped-up chartreuse… and my, how long I have been dying to use the world chartreuse!

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Posted in Beauty

Tagged Beauty, chartreuse, cosmetics, Did It On 'Em, make-up, nail lacquer, nail polish, nail varnish, Nicki Minaj Collection, O.P.I, OPI, review, swatch, ugly-pretty

OPI Pink Friday nail polish review

Posted on April 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

Over my many nail polish reviews, you may have noticed a slight disparaging tone whenever pink is mentioned. Suffice to say, “traditional” nail polish colours just do not do it for me… save them for my wedding day I say (though I’m still not guaranteeing I won’t waltz down the aisle sporting some blingy-holo-flakie goodness!). However, I recently picked up OPI Pink Friday as part of their Nicki Minaj Collection set of minis, and in the interests of fairness and not wasting my money, I’m willing to try any shade once!

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Nicole By OPI Nicole’s Nickel nail polish review

Posted on April 13, 2012 | 2 comments

In the States, Nicole by OPI is apparently easier to get hold of than OPI itself. Not the case in Hong Kong! Its sole point of distribution here is Sasa – and even then, it’s a case of a limited number of colours in a limited number of Sasas… and as for new collections, forget it!

However, from these slim pickings, I spotted what looked like a pretty awesome glitter amongst the multitude of boring pinks and reds – Nicole by OPI Nicole’s Nickel, a Target exclusive in the States (whatever that means!). Call it the needle in the haystack, the wheat amongst the chaff or whatever other convoluted idiom you choose to come up with, Nicole’s Nickel is a winner.

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Posted in Beauty

Tagged Beauty, cosmetics, glitter, make-up, nail polish, nail varnish, Nicole By OPI, Nicole's Nickel, NOPI, photo, review, Sasa, silver, swatch, where to buy Nicole by OPI in Hong Kong

La Creperie restaurant review – why every day should be Pancake Day

Posted on April 6, 2012 | 2 comments

Whenever my friend Mirander and I meet up, we fall into incredibly girlie stereotypes. We gossip, we shop, we eat desserts. You’ve already followed our expedition for high tea at Robuchon, but now for one of our favourite pit-stops… La Creperie.

Unassumingly tucked away on the first floor of some nondescript serviced apartment building mid-way between Admiralty and Wan Chai, La Creperie is probably Hong Kong’s most authentic purveyor of French crepes – specifically buckwheat pancakes, galettes hailing from Brittany (thinner, larger, darker and crisper than the more conventional ones). Sweet, savoury, seafood, salad… they’ve stuffed them with anything they can get their hands on here… great news for greedy cochons like me, who can opt for crepes as both a main course and dessert!

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Posted in Food, Hong Kong

Tagged Admiralty, afternoon tea, best crepes in hk, best crepes in hong kong, best dessert hong kong, best galettes in Hong Kong, best pancakes in Hong Kong, Causeway Bay, crepes, dessert, dessert hong kong, desserts, galettes, la creperie, La Creperie Hong Kong, la defi, le four, pancakes, restaurant, review, salted caramel, salted caramel Hong Kong, Wan Chai, where to eat in Admiralty, where to eat in Causeway Bay, where to eat in Sheung Wan

China Glaze Lorelei’s Tiara nail polish review

Posted on March 1, 2012 | Leave a comment

Over Christmas, my make-up inevitably turns to bling. Oh, who am I kidding, it turns to bling nearly all the time! And, of course, where else to start with the sparkles than the nails?!

My manicure over Christmas fell into the silvery sparkly hands of China Glaze’s Lorelei’s Tiara, part of their Eye Candy 3D Glitters Collection. You know you’re onto something special once China Glaze busts out those silver caps – as seen on their Kaleidoscope and OMG collections of holographic polishes, need I say more!

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Brasserie De L’ile restaurant review – frites for my sweet…

Posted on February 22, 2012 | 6 comments

UPDATE: Brasserie De L’ile is now closed.

I may have mentioned on just a couple of occasions (like here… and here… and errr… here too) that my boyfriend is a bit of a chip connoisseur. For him, fries are one of the main food groups and golden chip fat probably runs through his veins. So when I heard about a new joint in town, Brasserie de L’ile, that was serving all you can eat fries, I knew it wasn’t a matter of if we would go, but WHEN!

Luckily for Brasserie de L’ile, it is located on Arbuthnot Road – and Central not being one of our frequent hang-outs, I felt slightly less nervous that my boyfriend would manage to put them out of business in just one visit!

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Posted in Food, Hong Kong

Tagged best moules in hong kong, best mussels in hong kong, Brasserie De L'ile, crepes, eating out, F&B, fine dining, fleur de sel, French cuisine, frites, HK, Hong Kong, Moules Mariniere, restaurant, review, salted caramel

NARS Night Rider nail polish review

Posted on February 21, 2012 | 2 comments

A few months ago, I made a brand new discovery… the NARS counter! Why had no-one told me about this brand before?! All the amazing colours, powerful pigmentation and cosmetics expertise of MAC, but without the crazily made-up sales assistants – what’s not to love?

I’m blaming the fact that I was oblivious to NARS for so long on the fact that it just didn’t exist in Nottingham (back when I lived there anyway) – unsurprising given that I remember the big fuss made when we finally got our own MAC store. And as you can imagine, as soon as I knew about NARS… and knew about its nail polish… the make-up hauls began!

A beneficiary of one such shopping spree, NARS Night Rider nail polish is part of their Night Series Collection, with the lacquer shades based on some of their pre-existing eye shadow colours (ones preceded by the word ‘Night’ – see it all makes sense now!). Night Rider is a soft dusky lilac with tonnes of silver flakes of glitter and a quite unique but very pretty finish.

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Posted in Beauty

Tagged Beauty, cosmetics, make-up, nail lacquer, nail polish, nail varnish, Nars, Night Rider, Night Series Collection, purple, review, swatch

OPI Nicki Minaj Fly nail polish review

Posted on February 18, 2012 | 2 comments

Celebrity nail polish collaborations seem to be the next big thing. Forget fragrances, Katy Perry, the Kardashians and even Justin Bieber have been at it recently. The latest celeb lining up to get her mitts on some endorsement money is Nicki Minaj and OPI’s Fly is one of six polishes in her small but perfectly-formed collection.

At least, unlike Bieber, Minaj’s collection is exactly fitting with her image (not sure when you’d expect to see Justin sporting polish with little heart sequins in it). It’s loads of in-your-face brights, vibrant rainbow hues that would totally clash if all worn together – and I’m sure Minaj has probably tried!

Fly is vividly vibrant teal crème. I’ve seen a lot of photos on the Internet (damn you swatches!) that made it look rather more blue-leaning but in reality, I found this was pretty much a straight-up teal in my book.

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Posted in Beauty

Tagged Beauty, cosmetics, Fly, make-up, nail lacquer, nail polish, nail varnish, Nicki Minaj Collection, O.P.I, OPI, review, swatch, teal, turquoise

Illamasqua Raindrops nail polish review

Posted on January 15, 2012 | 4 comments

I never bothered to do a list of my favourite beauty products for 2011… but if I did, this lovely would have been right up there!

Illamasqua’s Raindrops is a truly beautiful polish, which is absolutely true to its name – a bit of a rarity in the cute but crazy world of nail polish naming! A dusty pale blue jelly base with tiny iridescent flakies suspended within, Raindrops came into being thanks to an Illamasqua competition winner who was inspired by a photograph of raindrops on a windowpane.

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Posted in Beauty

Tagged Beauty, cosmetics, dusty blue, flakies, Illamasqua, make-up, nail lacquer, nail polish, nail varnish, Raindrops, review, swatch

OPI Steady As She Rose nail polish review

Posted on January 3, 2012 | 4 comments

Aharrr me hearties! Yes, you’ve guessed it; I’m still slowly making my way through OPI’s Pirates Of The Caribbean Collection and today it’s the turn of OPI Steady As She Rose to join her mates Stranger Tides, Mermaid’s Tears and Planks-A-Lot on-board the good ship Through The Looking Glass!

The Pirates Of The Caribbean set is one of my favourite OPI collections… well, ever, really. I know a lot of people out there weren’t impressed that the colours were so un-Jack Sparrow like, but its range of dusty creamy pastels totally did the business for me – pirate-appropriate or not!