Swatch: Essence's Colour 3 | Midnight Date & City That Never Sleeps

Yay! I'm doing yet another swatch for my favourite nail polish brand, Essence. I actually got this polish and a couple more together with my last Essence's polish, Chic Reloaded. So, you'll be seeing about a couple more swatches from Essence over the next few weeks. This time around, the nail polish is from a different collection and also range actually. This range is called the Essence's Colour 3 because there is two different nail polish in one bottle but you'll get three colour from the bottle.

Meet the two polishes | Midnight Date & City That Never Sleeps | Painted with two coats

Eat: Delicious Cafe

It never struck me to pop over to Delicious for breakfast. That's mainly because I have always seen them as a place for pasta and mushroom soup. Ah, and maybe some cakes or hi-tea but never breakfast. So, anyway I was there during lunch time, looking at the menu and I saw that they served Egg's Benedict too. It looks really good from the menu (although I know how these photos can often be misleading), so I ordered that.

Egg's Benedict | RM15.90

Swatch: Essence’s Chic Reloaded

I started blogging seriously about a year back, and it all started with my passion for painting nails. I will always remember which was my first polish and who got that polish for me. Since then, I started getting more polishes, started applying them, photographing them and then uploading it to my blog. My blog then was filled with nails and nails and more nails. My favourite will always be Spongebob nail art that I did, which was a popular read. I can totally see why, it was too adorable! In fact, the online shop which I got the stickers used my picture too, but unfortunately she didn’t bother crediting me. Ouch.

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Anyway, I’m back to reviewing another polish which have been sitting in my polishes box far too long. It’s one from my favourite nail polish brand, Essence. I have always loved Essence because it’s so affordable. You can get a great polish with excellent formulation for less than RM 10. Such a steal, when compared to OPI, Colour Club and China Glaze which goes for more than RM20 per bottle.

This time around the Essence’s polish I swatched is Chic Reloaded, a gorgeous micro glitters holographic almost metallic nail polish. Can you visualize how beautiful it is already? Micro glitter + holographic + metallic?

 Chic Reloaded | RM6.90

Eat: Old School, Bandar Puteri Puchong

I have recently been based around Puchong area for my work assignment and I am sure foodies out there would agree with me that Puchong is a mini food haven for many. I said mini because for me, KL as a whole city will always be my food haven. I'm actually planning for an ultimate full day street food outing for my friends come November, where we go out and eat KL's best street and hawker food. I can barely wait for that. So, back to Puchong, I am actually pretty unfamiliar with that area because it is one area I would avoid for fear of getting caught in jams and what not. I have this constant impression that everywhere in Puchong is constantly jammed up.  

Anyway, we were in the Bandar Puteri Puchong when one of colleague pointed out this place called "Old School" where they serves pork pork everything pork. Basically, their speciality is pork dishes. From the looks, I thought the place served western dishes. But it turns out that they actually serve a variety of Malaysian dishes like the 'laksa' and 'nasi lemak' too. Think of it as a kopitiam basically, they have kaya toast too.

I finally had a chance to give the place a try on a fine Friday afternoon. When I sat down, I realised that the restaurant had the school-like concept in mind. You can see it from the deco on the wall, to the menu and finally on the waiters/waitress and even the manager. The waiters and waitresses were dressed in school uniforms, complete with the typical white school shoes and the nerdy glasses too. And you'll find the manager dressed in blue, much like how the prefects in schools used to dress like. So, you get the whole school like atmosphere there although the chairs and tables were more to the modern ones.

When it came to deciding what to eat, I was spoilt for choice because there was so many different type of dishes but one dish caught my eye and it was the Old School “Grilled Pork Cutlet”. I did a quick Google check on that dish just to see if it was any good. I read one blog which said it was nice, so I decided on that. As it turns out, my colleagues had decided to order the same dish. Haha.

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Grilled Pork Shoulder Steak | RM22.90

When it arrived, I thought the steak looks really good even though it lacked an obvious accompanying sauce with it. The steak comes with vegetables, wedges and tomato chutney sauce. It looks extremely simple and one anyone could make too. Like most steaks, this came in a thick juicy slab of meat but from pictures, it looks a tad bit small. However, for someone like me, I found the whole meal quite filling. I managed to finish everything on the plate, feeling a little bit bloated. 

Snaps: Red Beanbag Cafe, Publika

You’d probably be wondering why I titled this post as one from the Snaps series, rather than Eat. Just like one of my Snaps post on Artisan Roast, TTDI, I posted a photo set of the pictures I took in that cafe and I’m doing almost the similar thing here. I was at Artisan the last time with a friend and we were there for quite a while. That’s why I had time to take pictures and what not. I do not just barge into a cafe and start snapping pictures of the baristas making coffee. I pretty much ask for permission first. :D

Anyway, I was at Publika and I had time to kill before my next dinner appointment, so I decided to spend a couple of hours at a cafe. It’s such a lovely thing to do, to spend some time alone in a nice cafe where the environment is laid back and pretty much chilled. There are many cafes around Publika, but I decided to head over to Red Beanbag because of two reasons. One, I love the place (been there for breakfast & dinner). Two, because I saw this adorable cute guy from my last dinner visit there and I wanted to pop by, in hopes to see him again.

I was there around tea time, slightly after three in the afternoon. I wanted to order something light, along with a drink but everything on the menu itself looks too heavy for me. I ended up picking Kooky Berry and a cup of Hot Chocolate. 

Kooky Berry | Strawberry crumble topped with lemon custard, RM8

RBB Hot Chocolate | RM9

Eat: myBurgerLab, OUG (Jalan Awan Hijau)

So, you must have heard the news by now that myBurgerLab has finally opened a second branch and it’s located at Taman Overseas Union Garden. Hooray, for those living close to Old Klang Road, Sri Petaling and Bukit Jalil area. At least now, it’s so much more easier for the KL peeps to hop over compared to the first branch in Taman Seapark area.

I’m back in myBurgerLab after a period of more than a year, if I’m not mistaken. I have loved their burgers but not enough, never enough to travel all the way there and braved myself for the long queues. In fact, I thought that since they have opened a second branch, the queue ought to be less. Except that on the day I went, they closed the Seapark branch for renovation works, driving the rest of the crowd to OUG. =.="

It was a long queue when I arrived there, close to one shop length. And when we finally got to order, we waited even longer for the burgers to arrive. Oh, well. What’s new? At least in the new place it’s so much more spacious and I wouldn’t mind the wait for the burgers ad I’m with my friends then. It helped that I wasn’t too famished then either.

It was my friends’ first time there and everyone else ended up ordering the same burgers, A+. I brought my little brother along and he ordered the Say Cheese. As for myself, since I had them both before, I wanted to try something different so I ordered The Hulk. 

Say Cheese | RM17 per set

Talika Body Shaping Challenge: Shaping Serum, Stage 2

Hello girls! It’s been a while since my last Talika Body Shaping Challenge’s update, close to one month to be exact. Gee, how time flies! Super short recap on what the Stage 2 of this challenge entails; well, I was given two other products to use which are the Shaping Serum and Zero Stretch Marks. The Zero Stretch Marks are supposed to help lighten the appearance of the stretch marks to make them less noticeable. I will be talking about the Zero Stretch Marks in another post as I have given them to my mom to test it.

So back to the Shaping Serum. The serum is supposed help with shaping problem areas by converting fat cells into energy by using any light source. This feels like a Chemistry equation. From a ‘scientific’ point of view, I’m thinking that the serum combined with the light activates the fatty cells to vibrate and when that happens, energy is then released. Obviously, it is not an obvious reaction that we can all see with our naked eyes, but that happens under our skin anyway.

Shaping Serum + Light + Fatty Cells -------------> ENERGY 

Snaps: Chow Kit in Colours!

If you read my last post on shooting the Chow Kit Market (if you haven’t, click to read it here ; Chow Kit Market in Monochrome), I said I would upload another series of pictures from the shoot but this time in glorious colours. :) I have contemplated in uploading everything in the same post but I decided otherwise because they would be too many pictures in one post and it might bore you to go through, so two separate post it is.

Hope you liked the pictures from this set as much as I did.

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Snaps: Chow Kit Market in Monochrome

A couple of days ago, I blogged about trying Kin Kin Chilli Pan Mee for the first time ever in the Chow Kit area. (Funny thing was that although the pan mee wasn’t fantastic, I find myself craving for them now). I was around the Chow Kit area for another round of street shooting with a couple friends, it’s one of Robin’s favourite place to shoot.

As we were making our way to the pan mee shop, the skies were gloomy and I was worried it might rain. Even though, we were shooting indoors (inside the market), I know the pictures would turn out greyish, so I thought to myself, if it did rain, I would just shoot in black and white. That’s an easy way out, and shall I add lazy too?

It didn’t rain in the end after our breakfast. In fact, the sun was shinning gloriously, for which I am extremely thankful for. We managed to shoot the streets leading to the market and then at the market itself. I was told the market would be worse than the Pudu one, but honestly I still think Pudu is awful. I have yet to shoot there, but I have been there with my parents and it’s always so crowded inside there. Chow Kit is less crowded but it could have been due to the public holiday.

I had not intended to post process my pictures into black and white initially, but I did not like the colours as it was when I captured them. In most of the pictures below, I found the coloured version too distracting from what the picture was supposed to convey or feel. (I mean these are in my opinions at least.) 

I will post another set of pictures from the streets of Chow Kit in colour, look out for that other post. That is very colourful!

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Eat: Kin Kin Chilli Pan Mee, off Jalan TAR

“Nope, I’m not interested in chilli pan mee.”

That would be my standard response to anyone who tries to introduce me to another “awesome” chilli pan mee. Ha?! And I’m supposed to be one of those people who writes about food? Yes, unfortunately I have preferences too. I don’t eat chillies! Okay, well I do, but marginally. I avoid them most of the time, but I can take chillies.

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So, I finally tried the super-duper-awesome-everyone-was-talking-about-it-chilli-pan-mee from Kin Kin, located off Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman in the Chow Kit area. And they came in one size, one bowl and only one type of pan mee.

Pan Mee | RM6.50 per bowl

When our noodles arrived, my bowl of noodles didn’t look as good as pictured. The perfect poached eggs, that I’m supposed to get had burst and the yolk flowed through the noodles. The egg white had shrunk too. Well, okay. So, I borrowed my Robin’s one to shoot.

Snaps: Deepavali, the festival of lights.

If you read my latest post - Happy Deepavali, then you’d know that I posted that in a completely sleep deprived condition in my attempt to be productive. Who am I kidding? I’m the best procrastinator I have ever met, so I ended up posting two pictures from the shoot when in my head I planned for like five. ha-ha. =.=’

(and now I’m thinking nobody wants to read what crap I have to say)

Seriously. 

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Like I briefly mentioned in my previous post, I was out shooting with a group of friends at an Indian temple yesterday night. It was my first time attending and shooting a Deepavali celebration, although the atmosphere yesterday was not so much of a festive celebration. What went down yesterday was the lighting of hundreds of candles all over the temple, where people donated money and in exchange, they were given candles to light and to place them in the temple. In other words, it is called “Diva Lighting For Charity”. I am not familiar as to whether any other Indian temple practice the same tradition, to light candles on the eve of the Deepavali celebration. Yes, today is the actual day by the way.

For this shoot, I went trigger happy and shot quite a number of pictures. But as I came back and reviewed the pictures, I realised most of them were repetitive and for the rest, they were just pictures which doesn’t tell stories, or I just didn’t like them. In the end, out of all the pictures I took, there is about give and take ten photos at most. I’m going to stop rambling now, so enjoy the pictures! 

If you noticed I shot a picture of this deity (I'm sorry I didn't get the name) from a different angle in my previous post (Happy Deepavali). Similar to that picture, this was also shot with the 25mm CCTV lens. During my post-processing, I didn't add any vignette to it so this is as it is from the lens. I'm pretty happy with the results from the CCTV lens, I think I'll do a separate post on that lens alone.

Happy Deepavali!

Update: I have posted the pictures from this Deepavali shoot in my latest entry here: http://www.carmenhong.com/2013/11/snaps-deepavali-festival-of-lights.html

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Before I begin this post, let me wish everyone a very “Happy Deepavali” to all. :)

I have just returned back from a shoot with my friends (Robin, Alex, Jason and made new friends!)  at an Indian temple, and I decided that for once I will try to post up my pictures within 12 hours of the shoot. This is inspired from Robin, who had always posted up his pictures from shoots on the same day itself. His overproductive-ness is making me look awful in comparison. I have tonnes of backlogs which I don’t want to think about now.

Since it’s 2am in the morning, I decided to make this post a quick one and so, I’ll be posting some SOOC (straight out of camera) pictures where I got my JPEG right and you can see how gorgeous Olympus colours are. This time around I shot most of the pictures with Alex’s Olympus 45mm f/1.8 ED M.Zuiko Digital and a 25mm f/1.4 CCTV lens.

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