Tag Archives: review

Models Own Slate Green nail polish review

models own slate green

I can’t remember what I heard about first: the existence of British nail polish brand Models Own… or the fact that they regularly have amazing 50% off sales on their website!

They recently had another such sale and of course, I immediately began to get itchy buying fingers. But for once, I managed to exercise some cosmetics control and instead decided to shop from my substantial stash instead – resulting in a quick mani using Models Own Slate Green.

The results? I really need to start shopping my stash more often! How on earth did I let this colour go undiscovered in the murky depths of my drawers for so long?

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Sense Of Touch Sai Ying Pun Spa review – good morning Vietnam!

sense of touch hong kong massage

UPDATE: Sense Of Touch Sai Ying Pun has now closed; don’t worry though, the awesome Sense Of Touch Tseung Kwan O is still very much open!

Soho – say whaaat? Poho – pah! These days, Hong Kong’s hottest area is strictly Westside, with more hipsters heading there than a gallery opening serving craft beers and burger sliders.

So far, most of the buzz has been around Western District’s new bars and restaurants, but now there’s something to make us beauty geeks sit up and take notice too – Sense Of Touch Sai Ying Pun.

I’m a big fan of Sense Of Touch, a homegrown spa chain that has now grown to eight locations in Hong Kong, as I think that they deliver quality and consistency across all the venues I’ve visited. The Sai Ying Pun Sense Of Touch is a little smaller than most of their other spas (i.e. the Tseung Kwan O branch) with only around five treatment rooms, but it’s still just as stylishly decked out as all its bigger sisters. I loved the colourful armchairs and Vietnamese-style white latticework screens in the foyer, where manicures, pedicures and foot massages take place. Meanwhile, the treatment rooms are simple and small – but they certainly don’t feel cramped or bare either.

sense of touch sai ying pun

I was booked in for Good Morning Vietnam – an exfoliation, steam shower and massage treatment that’s only available at Sense Of Touch Sai Ying Pun. Your 105 minutes of pure pampering bliss begins with an Elemis ginger and lime scrub, which is every bit as invigorating and defiantly un-abrasive as only the best scrubs can be.

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Grand Hyatt Hong Kong afternoon tea – a work of art

grand hyatt hong kong cake painting afternoon tea

Forget March Madness, the Mad March Hare or even the March winds and April showers that bring forth May flowers – March in Hong Kong means art mania… also known as any party/event/celebrity visit that-can-vaguely-be-connected-to-art mania.

Sadly I’m not really into art – or parties – but what I can get on-board with is another opportunity to stuff my face. Enter the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong’s Cake Painting Afternoon Tea, a fun collaboration with British/Japanese artist Peter McDonald. Consisting of edible treats inspired by McDonald’s art, plus several of his original works on display too (including some created especially in honour of the tea), this is probably the closest I’ll get to embracing my artistic side this March!

grand hyatt afternoon tea peter mcdonald

In what will go down in history as The Day Of Two Afternoon Teas, I actually ended up eating the Cake Painting Afternoon Tea for ummm… breakfast (I know, I know) – but what a wonderful way to start the day it was! I’m not going to be giving Brian Sewell a run for his money anytime soon, but I can tell you that Peter McDonald’s art is eye-catchingly bright, vibrant and imaginative, abstract but not in that “well now I feel stupid” pretentious way, and with a tangible sense of fun and playfulness. The Grand Hyatt’s Executive Pastry Chef David White has done a great job of translating all this to the afternoon tea, creating colourful edible creations that still taste good too. Now that’s the kind of work of art I can truly appreciate!

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Island Shangri-La Hong Kong afternoon tea – a right bobby dazzler

island shangri-la hong kong best of london afternoon tea

I’ve had a stressful couple of weeks recently – so of course, the best way to combat this was to have two afternoon teas in one day. Obvious really, isn’t it? (Note: here‘s the one I had for breakfast!)

As luck would have it, our trip to the Island Shangri-La Hong Kong happened just in time to catch their Best Of London Afternoon Tea – a collaboration with Chef Nicholas Patterson, award-winning pastry chef from the Shangri-La at The Shard, London.

island shangri-la hong kong lobby lounge

I love the Island Shangri-La for its old-school glamour (who can resist the plush carpets in their lifts, which are changed every 24 hours to feature each day of the week?) and their Lobby Lounge is no exception – plump sateen armchairs, marble tables, sparkling chandeliers and a live pianist tinkling away in the corner. The room feels like something out of the castle in Disney’s Beauty & The Beast… no doubt helped by the fact that said pianist was playing Tale As Old As Time when I walked in!

Although it doesn’t have the grandiose cityscape views of other afternoon teas in town, the Lobby Lounge’s enormous windows offer a different but equally lovely panorama – of the Island Shangri-La’s gorgeous tropical garden and giant Banyan Tree. It’s a view totally different to any other I can think of in Hong Kong, and further adds to the place’s quiet and relaxed charm.

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Shu Uemura Laque Supreme in Chu Chu Coral and Wild Rose review – baby got laque!

shu uemura laque supreme

The arrival of Shu Uemura’s latest lip product = this baby’s got laque!

Oh come on, you know I can never resist a good pun… and nor can I resist a good lippie. Shu Uemura’s Laque Supreme is a gorgeous halfway house between a lipstick and a lip gloss – but there certainly isn’t anything half-hearted about the final results!

Inspired by the high shine and rich colours of Japanese lacquerware, Laque Supreme essentially marries the consistency of a lip gloss with the intense pigmentation of a lipstick. But actually, it’s even better than that.

shu uemura laque supreme swatches wn02 cr01Top to bottom: Wild Rose/Wild Fuchsia (WN02), Chu Chu Coral (CR01)

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Arcane restaurant review – can you keep a secret?

arcane hong kong suckling pig

Arcane /ɑːˈkeɪn/ adjective
Understood by few; mysterious or secret

Despite the dictionary definition, I promise that you won’t need a degree from Hogwarts to understand the food at Shane Osborn’s new restaurant, Arcane. It’s simple – it’s stunning.

Having fallen head over taste buds in love with Osborn’s cooking, I was absolutely gutted to hear that he had left St Betty, the restaurant that brought him to Hong Kong following his award-winning stint at London’s Pied a Terre. But that sadness quickly turned into elation when I discovered that Osbourn was in fact opening his own restaurant in Central.

Arcane Hong Kong

Located on the third floor of a brand new building on On Lan Street, the interior of Arcane is pretty unassuming – the décor is nothing exciting (although there is a lovely terrace garden where Shane grows fruit, veggies and herbs for the kitchen) – but frankly, you don’t need design tricks and kicks when your food is this good.

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Benefit Roller Lash mascara review – curl power

benefit roller lash

Beauty confessions: I hate mascara.

I know, I know… mascara is like, everyone else’s desert island essential. But with crazy-sensitive eyes that tear up at the merest suggestion of the music from Up (the other day I even cried about how cute a dog on Instagram was), I very rarely wear the stuff. In general, I find mascara heavy, that it irritates my eyes, that it’s a pain to remove… and for all that, it doesn’t even make that much of a difference to how my face looks. [Note: I opt for lashings of eyeliner instead.]

benefit roller lash mascara brush

BUT if I did wear mascara often, then Benefit’s Roller Lash mascara would probably be high on my list.

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Rose Bakery café review – every rose has its thorn…

rose bakery hong kong marbled chocolate loaf

UPDATE: Rose Bakery has closed.

Not much beats curling up with a good book and a piece of cake… so I think it’s pretty clever for Hong Kong bookshop Page One to have stuck a café in their recently renovated Harbour City store – the Parisian import Rose Bakery, to be exact.

rose bakery hong kong

That said, I don’t think Rose Bakery’s décor is the most welcoming. It’s the same signature look in every city (London, New York, Tokyo and counting) but I found its stark industrial design rather chilly, and somewhat at odds with the traditional dark wood bookshelves lining the walls at Page One. With a bare cement floor, cold glass tables and stainless steel surfaces, it feels like a cross between a disused aircraft hangar and the Industrial Zone on The Crystal Maze (and yes, I know I seem to reference The Crystal Maze way more than the average person!).

Come 4pm and my mind immediately turns to cake… hell, who am I fooling, my mind is usually fixated on cake at all times of the day! So on our visit, afternoon tea partner-in-crime Mirander and I decided to bypass Rose Bakery’s savoury offerings of salads and quiches for cake, cake and more cake; a balanced diet means that not all the cakes we chose are chocolate ones, right?

rose bakery hk carrot cake

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Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cream Intense Hydration moisturiser review – he ain’t heavy, he’s my brother

kiehls ultra facial cream intense hydration

If you thought that living in Hong Kong meant you got to avoid the vagaries of winter weather, think again. The only difference? Unlike the UK, we’re just vastly unprepared for it!

Nevertheless, there are a couple of things you can buy to lessen the pain. Millions of Uniqlo Heattech tops. A mini convection heater to tote around wherever you go. And a really really good winter moisturiser. Which is exactly where Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cream Intense Hydration comes in.

Add dry weather to drying conditions (hello that beloved convection heater!) and you end up with pretty parched skin. Given that Hong Kong’s usual climate of heat and humidity is the exact opposite of this and you can see why a change in your skincare routine is most definitely called for! So it’s out with light, gel-based moisturisers and in with heavy-duty hydrating creams. However, what’s amazing about Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Intense Hydration Cream is that whilst it’s heavy-duty, it does so without actually being heavy. Which has to be some sort of make-up miracle.

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Afternoon tea at The Intercontinental Hong Kong review – a view to a kill

the intercontinental hong kong le chocolat alain ducasse tea set

In a city swarming with afternoon teas, there are a couple of stone cold (or rather, scone cold hehe) classics that rarely disappoint – The Mandarin Oriental, The Four Seasons, The Peninsula… and I think it’s about time that I added The Intercontinental Hong Kong to the list.

Whilst many hotel teas here boast pretty sweet views of the city thanks to their lofty heights (à la The Ritz-Carlton or The Upper House’s Café Gray Deluxe), The Intercontinental’s might just be my new favourite based on sheer spectacle alone. The laidback surrounds of the Lobby Lounge essentially give you front row seats to the best show Hong Kong has to offer – our magnificent harbour skyline, laid out for all to see via a giant wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. It’s like you’re sitting on the ocean. As far as tea settings go, you can’t get much better… oh, until the sun sets and then you get to see Hong Kong’s glittering skyline by night instead.

the intercontinental hong kong lobby lounge

With that view, The Intercon could serve me tap water and gruel and I’d probably still be making a return booking. Thankfully, they do a whole lot better than that – and their afternoon tea set is definitely up there with Hong Kong’s stronger offerings. Continue reading