Alliance Cosmetics Warehouse Sales…

If you’re looking for some good deals on cosmetics this weekend, why not head over to Alliance Cosmetics in Glenmarie for their warehouse sale?

(click on picture for larger image)


(click on picture for larger image)

If you’re going, I’ll see you there! :)

Results: Stage Cosmetics Giveaway…

*phew*…it wasn’t easy picking a winner out of the comments, I tell you! So many of you sent in lovely comments, and many showed a lot of interest in trying out Stage. I'm only sorry that not all of you could win.

However, the results are in, and the winners are……



1. SET ONE – Stage Wonderluxe Lipstick in #17-Apricot Angel, Stage Nail Colour in #20-Dazzling and a RM10 VIP Beauty Pass discount voucher

RACHEL of rachel[dot]desiree[at]gmail[dot]com

2. SET TWO – Stage Prime Time Eye Perfecting Base in #01-Vanilla and Eye Shadow Mono in #21-Ballerina

ENTWINED of entwinement[at]gmail[dot]com

Congratulations to both of you on winning the giveaway, and I will be emailing you shortly for your mailing details. :)



For those that didn’t win, don’t feel bad…Christmas is just around the corner and I’ve got some plans to bring some joy to your festive season, so do check back regularly k? Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

Agua @ Barcelona…

While going through my photos, I realised that I hadn’t posted about this lovely place that I ate at with SF along the Barceloneta beach. Agua has a gorgeous view overlooking a scenic spot at the end of the Barceloneta beach boardwalk, but wasn’t easy to find! We actually ended up walking along the whole stretch of Barceloneta beach TWICE looking for it…I was ready to strangle SF by the time we finally found the place, but oh, the walking was worth it after tasting the food… :)

Agua doesn’t consider itself one of the hoity-toity eateries in Barcelona, but the place is beautifully laid out. I got the feeling I was rather out of place in my shorts in such a nice place, but judging by the way the locals dressed to eat there, casual dressing is perfectly acceptable…hehe…

You see what I mean? The interior of the restaurant looks more like one of those thematic places we get back in KL like C. Club, and yet it has a very friendly feel about it. A lot of people have commented about the brusqueness of the Barcelonans, but I’ve found some of the friendliest people are the waiters at these places. Despite their limited English, they will happily attempt to explain to you every dish and make their recommendations – and I tell you, their suggestions are always spot on!

We started out with the Andalusian Gazpacho (€7.50) which was served quite interestingly. The waiter served me an empty plate with a small pile of garnishing in the centre and walked off without a word…it wasn’t till later that he came back with a decanter and poured the chilled soup into the plate, and said with a grin, “you no worry, soup sure come” (he must have seen the bewildered looks on our faces!)

The soup itself was very tasty, with bits of crunchy croutons and tangy tomatoes. I normally never go for cold soups (in my head, soups should always be piping hot!) but this one was seriously yummy – maybe the loooong walk had something to do with it, but we totally demolished this dish. :D

The tomato, guacamole and mozzarella salad (€8.50) was also pretty good, although I wasn’t a big fan of the guacamole. Nothing to do with the taste, just a personal preference.

Oooohh…I loved the bread!! The idea of having bread and butter with every meal could seriously send me to heaven (and unfortunately, also to the fat farm – it’s probably a good thing that I’m not living in Barcelona!) Their breads are freshly baked daily and served warm in a bread basket with your choice of butter or olive oil.

Buthan Potatoes / Patatas Buthan (€5.50) was the waiter’s recommendation…I must’ve had a week’s allowance of CHEESE in that one sitting! The mixture of sliced baked potatoes, interlaced with sundried tomatoes, a sprinkling of bacon chips and a thick layer of mozzarella cheese left me speechless. I really have to try making this myself one of these days, since it’s quite simple and yet so nice. This dish has to be eaten piping hot though, since the cheese isn’t as nice or fun once it cools down.

Eating at Agua, you can usually opt to eat inside the restaurant, or on its beachfront terrace. We had originally requested to sit outside, but the terrace had been fully booked in advance. This place is incredibly popular, so I’d suggest you make reservations in advance, or be at the restaurant when it opens at 8.00pm otherwise you may have problems getting a place…hehe…(we did the “be there at 8.00pm” bit!)

The Gratinated Mediterranean Crayfish with fresh pasta (€17) looked fantastic, but this wasn’t my dish – it came to us by mistake (although after seeing it, I was seriously tempted to change my order!)

If you’re a stew lover, you just have to try the monkfish and clam stew (€21)…the monkfish is panfried until the surface is crispy before being put in to the stew and cooked with clams in a tomato-based stock. The result is something similar to bolognaise sauce, but nicer. I particularly liked the fact that it didn’t taste too ‘fishy’ despite having a very generous amount of fish and clams inside.

This was my selection – taglioni with shrimps, fried garlic and cayena chilli (€9). This was just PERFECT for me – al dente taglioni tossed in butter, garlic and chilli with succulent shrimps (just ignore the film of melted butter at the bottom of the plate after finishing!) It wouldn’t have tasted nearly as good without the butter I reckon, since it really brought out the sweetness of the shrimps. Gosh, just thinking about this dish has me wanting more…*drool*

By the time it reached the end of the meal, we were already rather stuffed but thanks to the rest of the diners ordering this mouth-watering looking dessert, we decided “oh heck” and ordered one to share.

Apple and apricot crumble with yoghurt and blackberry ice cream (€6.50) – there’s something to be said about the yoghurt and blackberry ice cream which has a lovely creamy tang to it and goes beautifully with the crumble. The crumble itself is also really good…I think I detected toasted oats, cinnamon and brown crystallised sugar in it…talk about a gastronomical experience!

If you have your dinner at 8.00pm during the spring/summer months, you’ll be able to catch the lovely sunset as you’re eating your dinner since the sun sets as late as 8.30-8.45pm! What’s more, the beachfront makes a perfect setting for a nice after-dinner stroll to work off some of the dinner…*grins*

What can I say – Agua is a lovely place, and despite the hassle in finding it, it was more than worth it. Even if the food wasn’t excellent, the view is breathtaking. Gotta hand it to them…they really knew how to pick prime position on the beachfront! Couple that with a delectable menu selection, and there’s little wonder that Agua’s one of the most popular restaurants along the Barceloneta beachfront!


Agua usually opens from 1.00pm – 3.45pm on weekdays and 1.00pm – 4.30pm on weekends for lunch, while dinner is served from 8.00pm – 11.30pm Sun-Thurs and 8.00pm – 00.30am on Fridays and Saturdays for dinner. You can expect to spend an average of €30 for lunch and €35 for dinner.

Agua
PG Maritim de la Barceloneta, 30
08003 Barcelona, Spain
Tel: (34) 93 225 12 72


Rating: 4.5 / 5
Value: $$

Cats Whiskers Christmas Selections…

Right now, it seems that everyone is looking for the best bargains and cutting down on spending. Cats Whiskers came up with a list of holiday luxuries that are quite budget-friendly, for that added little bit of sparkle to the season. :) Personally, I’m liking the look of those maxi dresses…*tempted tempted*

(click for larger image)


(click for larger image)

Cats Whiskers is located at:-
Sri Hartamas: 34-1, 1st Floor, Jln 27/70A, Desa Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur (above Pills & Potions Pharmacy) Tel: 2300 1264
Damansara Perdana: 22-2, 1st Floor, Jln PJU 8/5G, Damansara Perdana, Petaling Jaya (opposite The Place) Tel: 7728 5662
Bangsar: 7-1, 1st Floor, Jln Telawi 2, Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur (opposite La Bodega) Tel: 2282 7317
Subang Jaya : 32A, 1st Floor, Jln SS15/4D, Subang Jaya (above Pressto) Tel: 5638 3520
Damansara Utama: 52M, 1st Floor, Jln SS21/58, Damansara Utama (opposite RHB Bank, same row as Baskin Robbins) Tel: 7710 5217

Stage Giveaway Closed!

Just a short note to let you all know that entries for the Stage Giveaway are now closed. The names of the winners will be posted up on Monday morning, so stay tuned!

Have a lovely weekend, and thanks for participating!! :)

Have you sent in your entry for the Stage Cosmetics giveaway yet?

The giveaway closes at midnight TODAY local time (GMT+8:00), so you’ve got just over 10 hours left to put in your entry! Have fun, and good luck! :)

Click here to go to the Stage Giveaway!

Gift from a Dear Friend… :)

Some surprises never fail to put a big goofy grin on my face…on Monday night when I got back home, what should I see but this package on the table waiting for me…

It was from none other than fellow bloggie Nikki!! I had sent her some stuff earlier just for her to try, and she wrote to me telling me she had sent off a package to me with a ‘sorry if it’s a bit late for your birthday ya’. Aww babe, I told you you didn’t have to send me anything! (but since you did I’m not complaining either! Hehe…) Anyway, here’s what I found when I opened up the envelope…

A small bubble wrapped package with an eyelash curler!

The package contained an eyelash curler, nail art dotter (I have no idea what this is called!), nail polish, a pot of blush and…yes! Paul & Joe!

I love the way she stuck little post-it notes on every item explaining what it was for – and laughed even harder when she said she doesn’t know why she thought of me when she saw that Hawaiian shade of nail polish… :D thanks to you sending me that dotter thing, I’m now tempted to jump on the nail art bandwagon – horrible though the results may be!!

Nikki also included a pot of Nichido blush in ‘Peach Glow’ as well as *heart* a Paul & Joe facecolour in #46 Etoile Filante which I could not resist taking swatches of on the spot!

Such lovely colours, aren't they?

Nikki, you’re an absolute darling…seriously, you have GOT to get your behind to KL soon k? *grins* And no, I haven't forgotten my promise to fatten you up before you go back with all the yummy food here!!

King Crab Restaurant @ Taman Mewah…

This year for my birthday, my family took me to the King Crab Restaurant in Taman Mewah (it’s directly opposite the Kelana Jaya LRT station) for dinner. King Crab serves primarily seafood dishes, and very fresh seafood at that. Their concept is somewhat similar to that of Pantai Seafood.

Seafood here is about as fresh as you can get it – everything is pretty much swimming in tanks until you place your order. However, if you have any qualms about seeing your food before you eat it, I’d suggest you stay IN the restaurant and away from those tanks…or eat somewhere else altogether!

The main reason we went to King Crab was for their Lobster Sashimi & Superior Boiled Soup dish. And of course, the first dilemma is selecting the TYPE of lobster you want…we settled for the cheaper option – Australian lobster.

Before you ask, yes, I did go downstairs to select the sacrificial lobster with my dad. Hey, at the prices this place charges for fresh seafood, we’d better be picking our money’s worth k?

This was just disturbing – which explains why we didn’t pick the geoduck!

The prawns were a total distraction. Every time someone so much as bumped the tank, the prawns would simply burst into an explosion of flips and somersaults…it’s little wonder that the entire area is extremely wet and slippery!

Sorry Mr Lobster – but you were just sitting right in front of the tank in prime position for the picking. Of course, he had his (sort of) revenge. The minute the staff lifted the lobster out of the tank, it proceeded to splash us with water from its flipping tail. Ah well…

The lobster sashimi comes served on a bed of ice, and can be eaten raw with wasabi (Japanese style) or cooked as desired in the superior soup.

Superior soup – this soup is VERY tasty!! It contains plenty of wolfberries, which sweeten it even more. I preferred my lobster cooked in the soup, especially since it cooks really fast.

Cooked lobster…the meat is oh so sweet and succulent, just thinking about it makes me wanna go back for more!

Of course, not ALL the lobster was turned into sashimi. We had an option to cook the remainder portion of the lobster with noodles, which we agreed with, but opted not to have the lobster head as part of the presentation. I don’t have anything against choosing my food, but having the lifeless head staring at me (and still moving on reflex!) while I’m eating it is not something I can deal with!

Lobster fried noodles…but where are the customary birthday noodles?

Ah, THERE the noodles are – they were buried under all the pieces of lobster and vegetables. And surprisingly, even after that pile of sashimi we devoured there was still a LOT of lobster meat to pick at in the dish, especially in the lobster legs. The noodles itself was RM15, which was decent after you count the amount we spent on the lobster!

We ordered a couple of other dishes to complement the main dish, and one was the fried tofu with mayo (RM16). This one was quite nice, although the chef was probably a little too free-handed with the mayo. Good texture though.

No meal is complete without veggies, so we opted for the stirfried pea sprouts (tao miu) with garlic (RM15). I like my veggies just seared at high temperatures to lock in the flavour – this passes my taste test since the sprouts were crisp and bursting with flavour.

Price-wise, I’d say the prices at King Crab are quite reasonable except for the seafood. Just over a kilo of the Australian lobster cost us close to RM475, while the rest of the bill came up to less than RM100 by comparison. Add in the service and government tax, and you’ve got a really hefty bill!


King Crab Restaurant
No103-105, Jalan SS25/2,
Taman Mewah Jaya,
47301 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7808 2388


Rating: 4 / 5
Value: $

Beauty Blogger Event with Stage – and a GIVEAWAY!

Warning: Picture heavy post!

Last Saturday, a small group of us got a chance to attend a makeup overloaded event at Pavilion organised by the nice people at Stage Cosmetics to introduce us to the brand. And before you ask, yes, Stage is one of our very own home-grown brands, brought to us by none other than Alliance Cosmetics – the same beauty house that handles brands like Revlon, Avene, Elancyl and Silky. There is a giveaway at the bottom of the post, so do continue reading!

The following pictures are either taken by yours truly or Stage’s official photographer for the event – Adam. I finally had the chance to meet Syen and Kahani from So Loverly, as well as meet up with familiar bloggies Paris and Kimberlycun.

Just check out the amount of makeup!!

The session was run by John Boudville (dressed in red) who *cough* attempted to guide us step by step through the various types of makeup Stage had available. Sadly he wasn’t too successful – don’t get me wrong though, he was an excellent guide…just that we were overexcited over the whole mass of makeup in front of us, and gee, I guess all of us were pretty headstrong too! *oops*

See what I mean? I think John was shaking his head in disbelief here…heh…

However, whatever I DID pick up from him was really good. I’d never really applied foundation with a brush before – I usually use my fingers or a sponge, although with the brush the foundation did go on pretty smoothly. Stage’s Opening Act Complexion Enhancer (RM65) provided a great base for their Picture Perfect Foundation (RM90). I have combination skin ranging from dry to oily, but the foundation held up pretty well especially after a dusting of loose powder (RM68).

Some of us that were a little faster ended up taking pictures of those still at work!

I found the Prime Time Eye Perfecting Base (RM75) to be a bit unusual in terms of toning though – one was pink-toned, while the other was yellow-toned! Most fair to medium-skinned Asians would do fine with the yellow-toned one though.

Drawing my eyebrows was a totally different story. While the rest of the ladies were relative pros at filling in all the gaps, or already had nice thick brows (I’m looking at you Syen and Kim!!), I was the one bumbling my way along with the Brow Defining Pencil (RM42). I usually leave my eyebrow shaping to my facialist or just swipe some brow mascara on to tide me through, so actually DRAWING my eyebrows turned out to be a bit of a disaster.

So paiseh – John had to step in to help (although the end result is something I’m definitely going to try!)

Everything you see on the table is what I used for my look – three shades of eyeshadow, the eyelash curler, mascara and the kohl pencil. I really really want to go back and get the Kohl Pencil (RM45) as it simply glided on to my lash line. I normally don’t draw any pencil under my eyes for fear of looking like Morticia Addams, but for this occasion (and after getting egged on by the others) I settled for a half-smudged line underneath. And whaddya know – it looked quite nice in the photos! :D

As far as their mono eyeshadows (RM45) went though, there was a bit of inconsistency as some of the shadows were very pigmented, while others had to be layered on to see any colour. By contrast though, the Cheek Colour blushes (RM58) performed perfectly (although the bunch of us squealing “ooo…Orgasm dupe!” was probably not a wise thing to say out loud with the brand people standing behind us!)

The Wonderlust Moisturising Lipstick (RM48) in #02-Judy as well as Wondergloss High Shine Lipgloss (RM55) in #04-Dido were just amazing. Oh, and did I mention I love the range of colours they have?

There are three types of mascara available – Angel Lash, Drama Lash or Standing Ovation (RM50 each). I tried Angel Lash, which is really good. The testament to that was Syen – you would not believe how amazing her lashes looked after just a light application of mascara.

After the makeup session, we had a chance to go around taking pictures of the store as well as with each other. The makeup displays at Stage are just so pretty and luxurious, no?

Eyeshadows in a kaleidoscope of colours


There’s a full range of brushes and brush cleansers available too

Stage claims to have a really extensive range of products from bases, colour cosmetics, brushes and even cases to suit all skintypes and colour preferences, and after looking at the displays, I’d have to agree! The photos are all about fun from here on out! :)

With the man himself – John Boudville


With the lovely ladies from So Loverly


With Kimberly


Group shot – everyone looks gorgeous!!

The one product that really REALLY stands out for me at Stage is their Pro Lash Curler (RM35). After trying out this curler, I’m so tempted to chuck the rest of my eyelash curlers into the bin! This particular curler is slightly more angled than the others, which avoids pinching at the lash line. I loved it so much that I picked one up immediately after the session – and I wasn’t the only one…Syen, Kahani and Paris picked up one each too! LOL!

For more details on the full range available at Stage, you can surf on over to their website – Stage Cosmetics. You can also read Kahani's account of the blogger workshop HERE.


Now, on to the GIVEAWAY…

Want to try out Stage Cosmetics for yourself? Thanks to the nice people at Stage, I’ve got two cosmetic sets worth approximately RM100 each to give away to two lucky readers! :)

1. SET ONE – Stage Wonderluxe Lipstick in #17-Apricot Angel, Stage Nail Colour in #20-Dazzling and a RM10 VIP Beauty Pass discount voucher

2. SET TWO – Stage Prime Time Eye Perfecting Base in #01-Vanilla and Eye Shadow Mono in #21-Ballerina

How to get it? Simple…just drop me a comment telling me which set you’d like and why, together with your email address. The closing date for entries is by 12 midnight on Friday, 21 November 2008. Good luck!

Terms & Conditions:

• This giveaway is open to residents of Malaysia only.
• One entry per set per person – please play fair and let everyone have an equal chance.
• Entries submitted via email will not be eligible.
• I will be contacting the lucky winner via email, so please use a valid email address. If I do not get a response from you within 2 (two) days, I will pick another winner.

That’s about it from me…hope y’all are enjoying the lovely weekend!