review: Lotree Rosa Davurica Oil Skin Care Pact & Triple Cake SPF32PA++

My secret to a long lasting make up throughout a busy day:
Primer + good BB Cream + Powder Pact

Powder pact's purpose is to set your foundation/ BB cream and give extra coverage for that matt finish. This is extremely important for my skin type, where my face gets shiny pretty easily.
I have tried a few Korean powder pacts out there: BRTC Sun Pact, Sulwhasoo's I-forget-what-its-name, Hera, to name a few.

Then, I came across Lotree and their Rosa Davurica line, a very pretty looking cosmetic line with rose scented powder pacts.
My first dab on Lotree was a purchase of Rosa Davurica Two Way Cake; which gives adequate coverage and shine control, but then I sorta upgraded to their Triple Cake. And I never looked back.... .... ... until of course, my curiosity got the better of me and I ended up buying their Triple Balance Oil Skin Care Pact. GMarket Shop HERE.

Lotree Rosa Davurica Triple Balance Oil Skin Care Pact

The box looks pretty as usual, there is no difference in outer packaging and the pact case. It is pretty, it is purple :D. The shop always gives some freebies that changes every once in a while. On this occasion, I received an eyebrow pencil, mascara, and some face lotion.
However, to a bit of my disappointment, I canNOT use this Oil Pact as a substitute to the Triple Cake Pact.

Lotree Rosa Davurica Triple Cake. Received freebies: face lotion & primer, and pink eyeshadow.

Lotree Rosa Davurica Triple Cake with SPF32PA++. GMarket Shop HERE

The Oil Pact does not set into the skin like the Triple Cake Pact does. It provides decent coverage (as good as Triple Cake Pact), but in a few hours, it kind of melt off your face. Not a pretty look where your face looks blotchy.
What I found out though, it provides REALLY good shine control if used after the Triple Cake Pact. It easily add a few hours of shine control compared to using the Triple Cake alone.

However, I don't really use the sponge applicator that comes with the Oil Pact. Instead, I just use my big kabuki brush to lightly cover my face with the powder. Works a charm, and looks very natural.

On a side note, if you just want adequate coverage, go for the Triple Cake. It has SPF32 and it holds pretty well on its own.

The Triple Cake Pact though, apart from its usual purple applicator, also comes with a white sponge applicator that is of the usual kind you use to apply liquid foundations. I tried using the Triple Cake Pact wet, but I still much prefer it as a setting powder.

Boxes' comparison. Bottom shows Triple Cake box with the white sponge applicator

NomNom: Dan's House, Sydney CBD

*Update March 2014

We went to Dan's again last weekend, and noticed that this place is now under different owner/management? The menu is now under 'New Shanghai something or rather (couldn't recall the full name)'. We went there especially for the duck, however there is no duck on the new glossy menu. We asked the waitress, and she simply said the duck chef is not in.

What!

We did end up ordering some new dishes from the menu, but all of them are forgettable, bland, and definitely not worth the price.

Not going to go back again.

*update over

Went to a relatively new tacky trendy Chinese restaurant in Sydney, Dan's House over the weekend to try their acclaimed Peking Duck. After all, it has been more than 6 months since we gorged ourselves to Peking Duck and Goose feast (during our holiday in Hong Kong last December), and it was time to put more duck in us.

Dan's House is located in George Street, Sydney CBD, hardly a block away from World Square. You have to board the lift to reach the dining area (the upper floor is for VIP/private function, and the bottom floor is for regular dining).
Enetring the premise, I could see that Dan's House tries so hard to present themselves as funky and trendy restaurant, but woe is me, I am not a fan of the much blingness and all the gold details.

Interior of Dan's House dining area

But nevertheless, it's all about the food right?

Deep Fried Tofu with Thousand Year Eggs

Deep Fried Tofu with Thousand Year Eggs: This tofu dish is a bit similar - appearance and texture wise - to the one served at Chef's Gallery's (egg tofu). No complain with the taste, but the thousand year eggs - contained in bits and pieces in the tofu mix - does not really add weight or taste to the dish. It is quite light and enjoyable for an entree though.

Green Tea Noodle with Duck Meat

Green Tea Noodle with Duck Meat: Again, texture and consistency of the noodle itself is nice. (Well, for the price, I expect it to be nice!), however the taste overall is quite bland.

Duck Soup

Peking Duck - half

We ordered their house specialty - Peking Duck. Since there were only the two of us, we ordered half of the duck, which costed around A$39. Luckily, the portion is generous, as the way they present it is similar to Hong Kong/ China - where the cuts actually include the skin and the meat (in some chinese restaurants, they only serve the skin to be eaten with the pancake roll, where the meat was taken away to be made into sang choy bow or noodle dish).
This dish came with duck soup, which was hearty and thick, and nice to have in winter. The duck is juicy and the skin is crispy with only a thin layer of fats underneath. With this set, they also provide the standard pancake rolls (nothing to shout about), thinly sliced cucumbers & spring onions, and their peking duck sauce.

It is a very nice dish, if you are not thinking about the bill that would come afterwards.

Dan's House

710 George Street, Haymarket, NSW 2000

website

It's that time of the year again...

... when I need to put my cooking hat on and creativity level to the max. Erm, maybe not to the max, since I cheated on presentation aspect by purchasing some uberly cute disposable lunch containers for my project.

Anyways, what kind of project? It's my 1/2heart's birthday. Let's just say he's 30 something year old man who still look and *sometimes* act like a kid (well, who would blame him. I do too). I did not feel like baking cakes, so I made him a lunch bento box instead.

And wow, what would I do without GMarket where I could find all these incredible shops selling awesomely cutesy bento box' peripherals.

All disposable containers, stickers, and utensils bought from the following shops: One, Two, and Three

NomNom: Jean's Chilli Chicken, Eastwood.

Have you guys noticed that rather than ' Every Other Day', I blog a new post 'Every Other Month'. Haha.... . BUT! This is mainly because I like to blog about cosmetics or skincare, and I usually only post reviews on stuffs that I have used for a considerable amount of time.

Yes, I use myself as guinea pig. For the better of the *ahem* me world!

Anyways, I think I will start blogging about my gluttony adventures as well. After all, it is included in the sub-title :D

I & 1/2heart went to Jean's Chilli Chicken, Eastwood on Saturday, being our virgin visit to this premise (and because I could not stand my colleagues raving about this place Every Single Day). So I succumbed to my curiosity and there we were.

We ordered:

Egg Roll - A$18

The Egg Roll is massive! And it is not just a plain egg roll. It contains chicken bits. And you see the weird balls thingy at the side? Those are sticky rice balls made by the friendly staff (since we were a newcomer at his place and he gracefully taught us how to eat the food), containing ginseng fried chicken bits (pic below), topped with grilled eel (pic below as well). Those tiny morsels are better (and fattier and definitely tons more calories) than your average nigiri eel sushi.

Ginseng Fried Chicken - A$32 

Crispy oily KFC (Korean Fried Chicken). Hmmmmmm... calories.... . So anyways, more in-depth about the romance between the rice balls and the fried chicken:

We were given (as a complimentary) two massive bowls of sticky rice mix (we were told: about 20% sticky rice, then the rest of regular rice and special (??) rice). The staff crushed the fried chicken with a cool 5 bladed scissors and mixed them with the rice, then shaped the rice into small balls. 

Topped with the eel, I quickly elevated to glutton heaven where pants size doesn't matter.

Grilled Spicy Eel - A$30

Spicy? SPICY? Ohoho, you don't know yours truly. I am a self-proclaimed chilli queen. There is nothing spicy about this dish at all, but hey, who cares? It's grilled eel. And I shall haz them, spicy or not.

(But then again, my friends have been constantly telling me that there must be something wrong with my chilli-receptor tastebuds. So, whatever I consider not spicy might send you rocketing off the toilet bowl).

The portions are huge, so it is best to share the meal with your friends. When me & 1/2 heart placed our order, "OK, we would like the Ginseng Fried Chicken,..... , and then the Grilled Spicy Eel,....", we were cut off by the staff, "Yes, that is enough! Too much."

:D

".... and Egg Roll...."

Of course, we ended up taking away some leftover home... . We always overestimate our bellies' capacity.

Jean's Chilli Chicken

Eastwood Hotel

115 Rowe St, Eastwood, NSW 2122

review: IOPE Air Cushion Sun Block Ex-Cover

My good friend who resides in Singapore texted me about a month ago, bringing my attention to a quite recent addition of Laneige BB Cream - Laneige Snow BB Soothing Cushion.

They claim to be anti-sweat and provide long-lasting shine-free make up.

With that alone, I'm sold.

Alas, unlike Singapore, Laneige selection in Australia is exteremely limited; and I could not find one to buy from GMarket either.
After a bit of research, apparently Laneige's new addition is not too new for the brain behind the brand. The mother company (Amore Pacific) carries quite a range of cosmetic and skin-care brands - some of which I am using and absolutely loving (e.g. Sulwhasoo and Etude). And one of the brands under their wing has been carrying the same/similar Air Cushion BB foundation type for a while.

And yay, GMarket has it: IOPE Air Cushion Sun Block Ex-Cover  (I bought tone no. 21)

Note that there are 2 kinds of this item: the EX, and the EX-COVER. As you might have guessed from the name, the Ex-Cover provides more coverage (thicker and more even application) on the skin.

I compared the result with my long-lasting BB cream friend - BRTC Blemish Recover Balm.

The above was after 8 hours of windy but extremely sunny Australia autumn day. No blotting, no touch ups.

Verdict:
Shine-Proof: IOPE > BRTC
Sweat-resistance: IOPE > BRTC
Brighter complexion: IOPE > BRTC
Value for Money: IOPE < BRTC

Summary:


I actually have a kind of love and hate relationship with the sponge/cushion-thingy applicator of the IOPE. The cushion is velvety and kinda moist upon application and - granted - the cream glides evenly on the face. In fact, in the end, it creates almost of an air-brush look. It took several layers of the BRTC to reach the coverage that I got from one swipe of IOPE.
However, it seems that a lot of the cream actually were left inside the sponge, which is wasteful. I know this, because when I cleaned the sponge, I could squeeze out a lot of the cream out of it.
So now I ditch the cushion applicator altogether - unless if I have special occasions where I really need to be airbrushed :D - and just use my usual foundation brush.

For users of BRTC Blemish Recover Balm, perhaps you already notice that your complexion tone would change somewhat after a few hours of application - slightly darkens the tone. I was glad that the difference was not too obvious (though you could see it somewhat from the direct comparison above), otherwise, I'd already be walking around with half of my face darker than the other.