Thumbs up to London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony!

Olympics Rings- Image from BBC

Hi everyone! Who DIDN'T watch the ceremony? I think its better to ask that way since I'm sure everyone's watched it. First let me just say my mum's prediction of this opening ceremony was correct, she predicted that it would involve a lot of singing and dancing as that is what Great Britain (GB) is known for.

I remember the closing ceremony at Beijing, what GB did was pretty rubbish to be honest. It seemed as if they rehearsed it the last minute. But they have topped their game up with this thoughtful opening ceremony. I know a lot of people said it's boring and rubbish. I think it's because a lot are comparing it with Beijing's ceremony so were expecting a lot more. I thought it was very British.

Industrial Revolution- Image from Imgace.com

Also, if you don't know about the History of GB you wouldn't find the part about Industrial Revolution interesting or even understand it. Same with the hospital scene National Health Service (NHS). I thought this scene was quite weird especially when J.K. Rowling was reading, then we see monsters and giant blow up dolls on the beds.

NHS-Image from Daily Mail

With all that dancing, singing, live bands and acting, did you guys think the ceremony looked like a musical that you would watch in a theatre? Paul McCartney performing at the end of the ceremony made it seem like a concert. lol .

Mr. Bean taking a photo from his phone-Image from Mirror Online

I liked how they put a bit of humour in it by having Mr. Bean in there. Talking about that, the composer in the Orchestra looks so much like one of the piano teacher in the secondary school I used to go to. I'm wondering if its him because he used to have that messy wind-blown hair too and was the composer for wind band and orchestra in school. Hmmm....maybe I should google that.

Image from Zimbio.com

Mr. Bean bored at the Olympics. Lol! I love that face. I wonder if that guy next to him was really playing the piano. 

Happy Glorious- Image from BBC

James Bond leaping out of the helicopter with the Queen! That was just unexpected, although it wasn't really the Queen who jumped but was funny. Did anyone wonder why was she so serious? She didn't even wave or did I miss that. That's not the usual her at all. lol. How did I know David Beckham was going to be in it? Just knew it! But they should have had him perform at least something.

They even gave us a bit of English weather in it; the part where the family walks into the house and the weatherman says there will not be a storm but ends up raining. Typical English weather! Lol!

China- Image from Zimbio.com

The parade was a good geography lesson for me. Lol. There were so many countries that I have never heard of. If you're wondering, I specifically chose China, Hong Kong and Sweden because of course I'm Chinese, and I was born in Sweden.

Hong Kong & Sweden- Images from Zimbio.com

Overall, I think it was great but wasn't wow like Beijing's opening ceremony. But still I liked it, it was very original and British; I felt that the singing and dancing made it very British. Everything they did had a meaning to it, celebrating all the good things of GB. I also liked how they showed the changes in culture and society of Great Britain.

Cauldron-Image from Evening Standard

Glossy box July

Hi everyone!! Summer is finally here but not sure for how long. I mowed the back garden this morning and I hope I've caught a tan. >.< Anyway, literally after I finished, the postman knocked on my door to give my Glossy Box. I was so excited to find out what I got this month.

I just read Beauty Junkie London's blog and she received some really good products. She had a full kit HD eyebrow kit, a bottle size (not sure if its full size though but more than enough) Elizabeth Arden Gentle Hydrating skincare Moisturiser. So lucky! Anyway, this month I got...

Paul Mitchell Awapuhi Moisture Mist

This is a hydrating spray for hair and skin. I think you can only buy this from Paul Mitchell website. I can't believe I got 100ml of this product, it is a lot for a sample size. Fullsize is 250ml, £9.25.

Monu Eye Gel

This is an eye gel used in the morning and states that it helps to reduce puffiness and fine lines. I think this is an organic skin care line. One strange thing is I received a 20ml tube but on the Glossybox card it says that fullsize is 15ml. So I got 5ml more, brilliant! Available at Monu website, £16.95.

Jelly Pong Pong Cosmetic Lip Frosting

This is a tinted lip balm and can also be used on the cheek to give a rosy glow. This smells really good, smells like bubble gum. Makes you want to eat it! lol. I've tried it on the cheeks; it's a little greasy but gives you a really natural looking blush.  The tube I got is 15ml which is fullsize and costs £10. That is the price of Glossy Box subscription, what a bargain! lol. Available at www.jellypongpong.com

Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse

Not quite sure what this is but you apply the oil onto your face, body and hair all year round. This is available in Marks & Spencer for £17.50/ 50ml.

Elizabeth Arden Hydrating Skincare

This was a bonus product. The 3 sachets are cleanser, skin serum and SPF15 moisturiser. I don't know about the prices.

Bex London, Londoner Urban Fragrance

I got perfume A-GAIN! Why do I keep getting perfumes? I do not like them... Fullsize is £81.00/ 100ml, available at www.zuneta.com 

Despite the perfume I am still happy with what I received, £10 for all this! Get your Glossybox subscription on www.Glossybox.co.uk if you haven't done so.

The Ugly Truth- I'm sure this applies to all women out there.

BBloggers Unite: Guest Post: The Ugly Truth: Katrina is a 21-year-old beauty blogger from Essex (sadly – her word, not ours!) She loves her job in Marketing and IT for a firm of ...

Click on the link above to read the rest of the article

June Haul

Hi everyone, I hope everyone is great! I was meant to blog this a couple of weeks earlier but never got round to it. Last month, I took a trip to Zara and bought two items; a top with Braided collar (that is what Zara calls it) and dip hem dress. I must have been feeling very blue that day because both items happen to be blue.

I have always wanted a top like this but either the price wasn't right or it the style was exactly what I wanted. This was £29.99 but a week later Zara started doing their summer sale so it is now £19.99! Click here 

Never mind. I was lucky to even find my size because there wasn't many small left, and most of them were faulty on the back of the collar. Actually, I'm lucky to find a non faulty one. It comes in white too, I wanted to get it too but all the whites were faulty on the back of the collar-the hooks were made from threads and were coming off. I tried to be cheeky and ask the sales lady if I could get a discount since they didn't have any other that was non faulty. But no, she said they don't do discount, if its faulty they will just send it back to Spain. Fair enough! So, I just bought the blue one.

Initially, I went Zara just to get that top for the video I made for a casting role (Click here to watch it). On my way to the fitting room I saw this beautiful dress.

I have been looking for a dip hem dress for a while now- Zara calls it, 'Dress with front opening'-, I've seen a few but either the pattern/colour wasn't right, or it was the price. This is also on sale right now, I bought it for £29.99 and it is now £17.99. This also comes in white, the thin brown belt is included. On the website, you will find this dress under TRF and not Woman section. Check here

Zara Summer Sale free shipping if you shop online- Zara online sale

Homemade Apple Crumble

My homemade apple crumble

Hi everyone! How are you? Last week I made my first apple crumble since...year 7 which is also when I first learnt how to make it. I loved my cooking lessons because it didn't involve too much writing. How ironic though, I enjoy blogging and I'm not a very good cook either lol.  I love my apple crumble with some hot custard...mmmmmm... it is one of my favourite desserts!

I enjoy baking and I'm not too bad actually...only with easy recipes though. Lol. Short bread, pancake (do they count as bakery?) & sponge cakes. Those are easy and I can make them without any problem and now I know that includes apple crumble. Lol.

I want to share the recipe I used. If you're like me, can only bake easy desserts then this one is perfect. There are so many different recipes out there but I adjusted my one to suit my parents taste buds since they don't like their food too rich. I cut down the sugar a lot and it still tasted good! Yes, I'm very proud of myself. =p

I got this recipe originally from the BBC website by chef Atul Kochhar.

Ingredients:

For the crumble filling

• 4 cooking apples (Bramley/ Granny Smith- I used Granny Smith)
• It depends on the size of the apple and the dish, so add more if necessary.
• 2tbsp Caster sugar/ brown sugar
• 1 tbsp water
• Ground Cinnamon approx. 1 tbsp  (optional)- I love my cinnamon, it just goes so well with apples.

For the crumble

• 75g/2.5 oz cold butter 
• 3 tbsp caster sugar- originally its 75g
• 170g/6 oz plain flour

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C /350F/ Gas mark 4- I always forget to preheat the oven.
2. Peel, core and chop apples into large chunks.
3. Cook apples in a large pan over medium heat with the sugar, cinnamon (optional) and water, stirring occasionnally. The recipe suggested 12-15 minutes until apples have broken down but I like to have a bit of texture so I just cooked them for about 5 minutes or when they are soft.
4. Pour the apples out into the oven-proof dish and cool.
5. While the apples are cooling, start making the crumble. In a large bowl, sieve the flour.
6. Add butter and sugar into flour. Using your fingertips rub in the butter until it becomes like crumbs (If you don't know how to do the rubbing in technique, scroll down to watch a short tutorial video)- make sure the butter is not left out in room temperature for too long or it won't form into crumbs. Very important！It happened to me before. and I was not happy! 
7. Sprinkle the crumble mixture on top of the apples.
8. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown
9. Serve with custard, ice cream or whatever you prefer. Enjoy!

About to be put into the oven



                                     

Night out at Movida Club in Central London

Hi everyone! Hope you're all good. Did anyone celebrate 4th July on Wednesday? I went partying with my boyfriend, we planned to go to an event that one of my acquaintances organised at the club Movida in central London (See the ad below). The event was a fashion show by a young Chinese designer, Pan tong, and then an after party. I was really looking forward to the fashion show but the night didn't happen for us. Why? Keep reading to find out...

Promotion Ad of the event 

At the front of the house there were; a few security guards and 2 clipboard girls- a blonde (Girl A) and a brunette (Girl B). It were these 2 girls that ruined our night. Anyways, doors opened at 10pm and the fashion show was to start at 10:30pm. In order to attend the event, you had to be on the guestlist. Normally, if you're on the guestlist you would have the priority to just walk through. We arrived about 10:15pm and surprisingly there was a long queue. I told one of the staffs that I'm on Vanessa's guestlist for the fashion show. They just pointed to the queue and told to us to wait like everyone else- those people were also on Vanessa's guestlist. I didn't understand why there was a long queue, the show was going to start in 15 minutes. Below are a few rude and pretentious incidents. 

1. We waited in the queue for about 10mins and it hasn't even moved. I thought there were some delays with the show- my boyfriend works part-time in a club and he explained that they are just taking their time to let people in because it makes the club look busy. 

My boyfriend went to the front to speak to one of the security guards to find out if they were admitting people. The security guard seemed frustrated and told my boyfriend to ask Girl A. 

She walks over and looked at my boyfriend up and down and asked in a very rude tone. 

'What's the problem and who are you?' 

 'I'm a customer asking a question.'

Then she walked off. - My boyfriend wasn't even being rude or causing trouble in the first place so this girl had no reason to be rude. Is that how you treat your customers. What customer service do you call that?

While we were in the queue, I've been watching the 2 clipboard girls. They seemed like they had a bad day, fed up and wasn't enjoying the job- they probably wasn't. Their attitude to everyone was appalling, no smile and no politeness. When they asked 'Who's next?', they sounded so frustrated and impatient. 

2. After about 30 minutes of waiting (It was coming to 10:45pm, my boyfriend wasn't happy and I was thinking about the fashion show.) we were almost at the front. In front us, there were 3 Chinese girls. One of the girls showed her ID, next thing I heard was Girl B telling the her to step out of the queue. The girl was confused and asked what the problem was. They ignored her and just told her to step out. The girl got angry and refused to step out.  

Girl A says, 'You are refusing to step out of the queue when we are telling you to step out.'

'I showed her my ID and she just told me to step out. What is the problem?' 

'I do not want to dispute about this with you, you have to step out of the queue.'

Girl B then says, 'Can you step out because you are holding up the queue.'

Eventually she and her friends step out.- The next night, the organiser of the event told us that half of the people on the guestlist were turned away because they didn't have 'the look'. The Look? What look? I didn't see anyone dressed inappropriate, the girls in front were dressed lovely. How pretentious. 

3. After the girls, were us next. Again none of the clipboard girls had a smile on their face, both looked miserable. Anyway, I said to Girl B,

 'We are on Vanessa's guestlist'. 

'How many of you are there?'

 '2.' 

'Only you can go in because there are too many guys inside.' 

'So are you telling me to go inside by myself and my boyfriend will wait outside for me?'

 'That's your choice. I don't want to dispute with you, can you step out because you're holding up the queue.'

We step out and Girl A had a smirk on her face and whispered something into Girl B's ear. It was definitely deliberate, because Girl B looked at us when Girl A whispered to her. Probably also due to earlier incident between her and my boyfriend, Girl A decides not to let us in. O.k., lets say I'm wrong about that but telling us there are too many guys inside, that is a lie. The queue was full of girls. IF there were REALLY too many guys inside, you could at least tell us in more well mannered way. 

4. My boyfriend pulls Girl A to one side to speak to her, he explains that he asked them nicely if they were letting people in because if they weren't, we wasn't going to wait. I don't really remember the whole conversation. But I remember hearing my boyfriend calling her pretentious and then she goes 'most of the times I'm very good at judging people...you're not coming in.' 

Then she goes and gets a security guard to intimidate us him. The security guard didn't intimidate us him, he was nice and polite. The funny thing was when my boyfriend explained that she was being rude, etc, he was making a joke out of her, 'she's a girl, just let her off. You know maybe it's her time of the month.' - Just because she's a girl or it's 'time-of-the-month' it doesn't mean she can be rude to customers for no reason. 

Below is a picture of Girl A that my boyfriend took. LOL! He posted it on his Facebook and Twitter account complaining to Movida. When she realised he took a picture, she shouted, 'If you want a picture, you can just ask!'

 A positive message for this girl- although you didn't let us in but my boyfriend and I felt that you did us a favour because we had a great night at Penthouse. I told some of my friends about what happened and a lot of them said that Movida is a snobbish club, the music isn't very good and the place isn't very nice either. Judging from those comments, don't think we would have enjoyed ourselves even if we got in. Thank you missy! 

Finally, the organisers explained to us that the staff at Movida decided the guestlist was at full capacity when the club was still empty and organisers weren't allowed outside to talk to their guests. The organisers complained to management team but were ignored. A message to Movida- You are apparently London's multi-award winning night club and because of this reason people are hiring your club for their events. That also means they are bringing customers or possible repeat customers and money to you. Choosing to ignore the complaint doesn't create a good image for the club. Irresponsible. Just remember you are not the only VIP club in central London. It seems like you are known to be a pretentious club in central London. 

My Outfit to Penthouse Club

Hi everyone! It was 4th July yesterday and I went out partying last night with my boyfriend. We went Penthouse Club and I was surprise to see it being busy on a week day. Originally we were supposed to go to Movida for an event there but something upsetting happened, I will blog about that later.

Anyways, the main purpose of this blog is to show you my outfit. What do you think? Do you like it? =D
I burnt my left jaw bone while I was curling my hair, there's a brown mark now! :S I hope it goes away soon!!

Dress is from Jane Norman,belt included, £45- bought it at the Spring sale for £22.50

Clutch bag from New Look, £7

Shoes from Office, £79 (don't quite remember)

Earrings are from Topshop (I think) 

Fade Out

Hi everyone, its beauty talk time! A few months ago, my cousin told me about this new (not sure if its new but its new to me) skincare brand called Fade Out. It fades pigmentation, age spots & freckles, giving you brighter and even skin tone, hence the name fade out. I read some good reviews about it so I decided to give it a try. I haven't got many freckles but a few comes out when its sunny and it is really annoying! I bought a day and night cream. Not sure about you but I haven't seen any face moisturiser that specifically indicates that it targets freckles, this is the first one. 

Fade out Protecting Day Cream

The day cream is formulated with SPF 15 to protect the skin from sun damage; wrinkles and dark spots. As well as fading pigmentation, discolouration and age spots, it also prevents the skin from darkening by penetrating deep into the skin's outer layers preventing the melanin from reaching upper layers of the skin. Although it doesn't say 'anti-ageing' but it does indicate that it enhances the cell renewal process. 

Pros

• Very hydrating
• Matte finishing look
• SPF15
• Affordable £9.18 for 50ml at Boots or Boots website.

Cons

• Skin stings a little right after when you apply- just keep massaging the cream in and the stinging will gradually go. I think this is due to the the citric acid in the cream.
• Doesn't leave your skin feeling silky, feels a little sticky.
• Has a weird smell, smells like an unripe banana

Fade Out Night Cream

This night cream is very thick and a little will go a long way. It has the same functions as the day cream except it doesn't have sun protection but repairs the skin with its rich formula to nourish and hydrate skin over night. 

By far this is the best and most hydrating night cream I've ever used. But it also stings your skin a little.

Pros

• Very hydrating-hence the thickness
• Affordable £9.18 for 50ml at Boots and Boots website

Cons

• Stings your skin a little
• Some may not like the thickness
• Sticky finish
• Smells like an unripe banana

The Result? Does it work?

I know you're probably longing for this part. Apparently it is clinically proven to brighten and even skin tone in 4 weeks. Well, I've used this for about 2 months now, I would say my skin does look a bit brighter but not sure about fading the pigmentation out. It's July now and here in the UK, we haven't really had a proper summer...well... we had summer for about 1 week in May (which is when my freckles came out) otherwise mainly rainy and cloudy days. So not sure if its because of that reason that my freckles have faded or its actually the result of the Fade Out cream.