Afternoon Tea - Mad Hatter's At The Sanderson Hotel

I was checking my email one day when something caught my eye. Now anything with 'Alice in Wonderland' in the title or description will instantly catch my attention and make me want to read more and this is exactly what happened when I found out that Bookatable.com were offering a £29 per person deal for an afternoon of tea at the Sanderson Hotel. My next step was trying to find someone else that will appreciate this offer and bingo only one person came to mind. Luckily she too was intrigued and so I booked for 2 people the following Friday. The booking on the website was incredibly easy and they didn't even ask for my credit card details (in case of a no-show) but the hotel did call me up one day before just to confirm my booking. The hotel was very easy to find and is only 5-10 minutes walk from Oxford Circus station, I never even knew there was a hotel hidden away up there. Upon entering the hotel it was filled with a lot of random furnishings but somehow they made it work, one of these was the lip couch and another was a swinging oval chair. We made our way to the restaurant which is just past the Long Bar and it wasn't long before we were seated. 

Our waitress for the day presented us with 4 tea leave flavours and these were Strawberry and Cream, Mint Chocolate Chip, Apple Pie and Rhubard Custard. We were then left to smell these to pick our tea. S.D went for Strawberry and Cream which smelt heavenly but very sweet and I went for the Apple Pie because I liked the cinnamon added to it and thought it'd be perfect combined with sweets and savoury. We were not disappointed with the flavours! Our teas came in a King and Queen teapots with little cardboard crowns cut-out on top. Nice touch on the Mad Hatter's theme but a bit twiddly when pouring the tea.

I'm not sure how long we waited as we were busy talking and catching up but then we were served with this cake stand by another waiter who said that our waitress will come-by and explain to us what everything is in a moment. This moment turned out to be at least 10 minutes later which by then me and S.D had already dug-in. Honestly the food was very hit and miss. Starting from the top were these carrot meringues which has no flavour as it was just orange-colour meringue but it was cute. The marshmellow mushrooms were suppose to be strawberry and cream flavoured but it was tasteless to me. Now the 2nd tier! The Victorian spongecake was delicious and the green-tea mouse in a dark chocolate cup was my favourite. I do love anything green-tea but it balances a sweet dessert. The mango cheesecake was a bit weird, the outer colourful part was chocolate and inside the white cream cheese was a mango ball which looked like an egg-yolk in which you have to pop and mix with the cheese. The bottom tier, the scones were lovely and we had jam, butter and cream cheese on the side to add to it. My favourite sandwich had to be the mustard and ham sandwich and the one I liked the least was the salmon one because it was not fresh at all. 

I'm not quite sure what this drink was but it was very nice!

Me and S.D :)

Like I said the food was quite hit-and-miss, some things were lovely and some things not so much but the whole experience is worth going for. If you're into anything cute, then the Mad Hatter's themed afternoon tea is something you should try. Now I am off to find my next afternoon tea hunt!

Liebstar Blogger Award

Okay I am ashamed to say that I haven't been blogging all that often most recently, so imagine my surprise when I signed on today and read a comment that my blog had been nominated for a Liebster Award by Whizzer Rose! Petty Air was also nice enough to mention me in her post in which I am both thankful for. It is always nice to know that people actually do read your blog. Now I haven't heard of the Liebstar Award before but from what I read on google it isn't by an official organisation but rather a fun way to advertise unknown blogs by nominating bloggers and asking them 11 questions that they can then answer in their own post. I, however will not be following the rules and instead will take from Petty Air's idea of listing 5 blogs that I think should have more followers.

1. Good, Bad and the Beautiful

2. Esohlee

3. My Dear Chopsticks

4. Petite Rinni

5. Love Life

11 Questions by Whizzer Rose:

1. If you were to choose only one among these: a. IQ of a genius b. a bank account of  USD 1,000,000 or c. physical beauty -what would you choose? 

IQ of a genius! So then I should be able to come up with a money-making solution and then buy physical beauty if I wanted.

2. What made /urged you (to) put up a blog?

Writing had always been a form of outlet for me since I am quite a shy and quiet person in real life. Blogging allowed me to express myself without the worries of other people judging me. 

3. Give me 5 countries/places you'd want to go to with no 1 as the place you really want to see soon?

1. Japan!
2. Thailand
3. New Zealand
4. New York
5. South Korea

4. What camera do use on your blog and if you can upgrade your camera soon, what model would it be?

I use the Sony DSC-W380 and I have been looking for a new camera recently but have no idea which one I want to get yet. 

5.If you were to live the life of a fictional character for a week-who would you want to be?

Oh wow this is hard, there is so many out there. One that instantly comes to mind is Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City! All those clothes and not forgetting the whirlwind love life. 

6.If you were given any 3 things  for free  from a mall what would be those things?

1. Skincare set
2. Air-con (coinciding with the current heatwave)
3. Shoes

7.What's the most humiliating experience you've ever had?

I honestly cannot think of one, if I have had one I've probably made myself forget it on purpose.

8. If you were to spend one day with any real person living or dead would it be?

Justin Timberlake just because I saw him recently at Wireless and he is just amazing. 

9. Which blogs do you follow (give me 3)?

1. www.suki-pooki.blogspot.co.uk
2. www.stylesuzi.com
3. www.hawaiikawaii.net

10. What is your dream job?

I am still trying to figure it out but I think its to own a boutique store in South East Asia, either Japan or South Korea.

11. The most expensive thing you've ever bought?

My iPhone.

[Review] Simple Radiance Brightening Eye Cream

I am continuing my search for a fairly inexpensive eye cream for dark circles and what better way to go than a brand name that I am already using, as I said before I am a fan of the Simple Kind to Eyes Soothing Balm. The Simple Radiance Eye Cream claims to be 'a perfect blend of active ingredients and light reflecting particles to smooth and illuminate your delicate eye area. Perfect for even sensitive skin.' The consistency of the product is a gel-like cream with a very subtle hint of yellow in it. I like that the eye cream isn't too heavy but it still moisturizes. In terms of the dark circles, I have been using the product for about a month now and honestly I can't really see a difference. I bought this one in Superdrugs for £7.99. 

I will finish the product and hopefully see a difference in my dark circles but I am not holding any hope. I think I'll just stick with the Kind to Eye Balm instead since they both moisturize the eye area. 

 Rating out of 5: 

Birthday Part 2

Tuesday - Sushi with the Bestie

Even on the day we were not sure where we were going to go but then G.C said her friends had recommended Sushi Mania, a sushi buffet for only £14.80 a person! Although you do have to pay extra for certain dishes such as the sashimi. We had a bit of a trek trying to get there as it is quite far, practically on the other side of the tube line, but also a person was taken ill on the train so we had to get off at Camden and get a bus the rest of the way. Again reminding us how thankful we are to have smartphones now. I have to say though, it was worth it. The sushi was nice apart from the spider roll (the softshell crab was not fresh at all) and they have a big selection of hot dishes and sushi dishes which is a nice change from the place we usually go to for sushi buffet, Hi Sushi, who do not have that much of a selection. 

Is it him or is it not!? But yes it was Jonathon Ross in his open-top car casually driving and he had stopped right infront of us! I was questioning myself so I only just managed to get a picture before he drove off.

The seaweed salad was yum! We ordered 3 of these.

_____
Wednesday - Meeting up with the Uni Girls
I didn't want to do a big dinner because it is such a hassle to plan so I only invited my University girls but V.P couldn't make it due to being ill and S.H was in China for 3 weeks! I had a craving for Harvester since watching StyleSuzi's vlogs on youtube so I decided to go there. We were planning on watching The Purge after, even though I am terrified of scary movies but once in awhile one of them pricks my curiosity so much that I just have to go see it, but sadly the last showing was at 9:20pm which we could not have made so instead we just went for drinks at Slug and Lettuce.

J.C, Me & D.N

Whilst I went to the toilet the girls was busy setting up the cake, which I had no idea about. M.N was in such a rush that she accidentally ripped the box but I took my time in the toilet so it ended up being them worried about the candle burning out xD

I am not a fan of wine at all but the girls insisted and even they said this one was not nice, we had to play a game to finish the bottle. Thanks to her losing streak I think D.N ended up drinking the most.

Birthday Part 1

As of lately I feel like all I have been doing is work, work and working so this week I decided to take a whole week off work to celebrate my birthday with family and friends. I filled out each day with plans and honestly I thought with all the walking I had done this week that I would have lost some weight but... It seems that the eating had over-weighed the walking. It was a tiring but happy week, there were times where I felt so emotional and thankful; and though I am an Atheist the word that kept coming to mind, was blessed.

Sunday - Day Out with the Family
There were 10 of us and it started off with dimsum at Golden Dragon, where we ordered far too much. The picture beside was just the start of it, the table was not big enough so we had to leave the dishes stacked.
We then took the kiddies to the arcade in Trocadero and when I say kiddies.. I also mean me, my younger brother and my cousin. We probably had more fun than the babies did. After that we went to Boba Jam for some bubble tea, the babies ordered some crepes there as well, which I got to try for the first time and it was actually quite nice. We then needed some time to digest before dinner so we were walking around Central London before stopping to take tourist pictures in the middle of Trafalgar Square. For dinner we had Korean BBQ at Arirang, usually this place helps you to cook the meat but because there was so many of us they couldn't really get to the table so my uncle and mum volunteered to cook it instead, thereby I have no decent pictures of it lol. My auntie then surprised me with a Patisserie Valerie cake, I say surprised but being sly is not in her vocabulary. I was still thankful though. It is not surprising I finished the day in a food coma.

Left - Duck wings, jelly and pork slices. Right - Crispy pig.

Derp faces with the lil' bro and lil' cousin.

Lil' cousin and me.

Banana and chocolate crepes.

____

Monday - Sketch Restaurant with the Homie

Ever since I saw Miyavi's (a Japanese rock artist) Instagram picture of the Sketch Restaurant toilets' I was intrigued and upon researching about it I became more and more interested. Alas an opportunity had arisen. I know that S.D enjoys visiting these expensive restaurants so she was the first person I thought of. We went shopping in Oxford Street beforehand to buy a few bits and bobs; cue embarrassing story, I was walking out of H&M when the detection machines beeped, the security guard pulled me back to check my bag and out of all the items in the bag, the item that still had the security tag on was a bra. I think he felt quite embarrassed as well since he folded it up really small for me after taking the tag off.

The restaurant is located just off Regent St near Hamleys. The sign for it isn't big at all but you can instantly tell, with the white deer head sticking out of the building and a dressed-to-impress door man waiting at the entrance.

Outside the entrance.

As we entered it was quite dark inside, we were greeted by the lady at the desk, tall and in a tight dress, who gave us directions to The Gallery and to let us know that they also have a cloakroom to leave our bags in if we wish. Upon arriving at The Gallery another lady asked us where we would like to sit and I chose a comfy table at the end which I saw had a sofa chair there. One of the attractions of The Gallery is the mish-mash of the random furniture and cutlery, no 2 items are the same. We were then bombarded with a number of different staff coming up to our table and making sure everything is okay. One was a wine connoisseur, one was a water boy, one was a bread and butter boy, and I think another 2 were the actual waiter/waitress. I must say the staff were very friendly and attentive.

I did read the reviews of the restaurant beforehand and many people were saying that for the quality of the food, it is overpriced and so my expectations for the actual food were not high but it was much better than I had originally anticipated. The snail starters had to be the nicest dish of the day, whilst the mains were okay. My salmon was half-cooked so it was somewhat fishy but S.D's duck was really nice. The side order of the spinach in cream sauce was tasty but the wild rice was somewhat tasteless and hard. For desserts I had the Napoleon pastry dish and S.D got the Malabar dish. The actual pastry in the Napoleon dish seemed to be quite burnt and crispy but I was not sure if that was how it is suppose to be, aside from that it would have been a really nice end to the meal. S.D's dessert was an exploration for the taste-bud but the presentation of it was not so great. I think that you do pay more for the atmosphere rather than the food here but I am glad I can now tick this place off my to-do list.

The funky menu.

Snails for starters.

The mains and side dishes. The portions seem tiny but it was quite filling in the end. 

Our cocktails - Berries on Fire and Perfect Passion. We both liked our own cocktails, I had the berry one which was quite sweet and S.D had the other one which was quite sour. 

I am an artist :D

The view from my sofa seat, straight on was the toilets.

Me and the Homie

The toilets! I was somewhat scared when entering the egg toilets. The toilet actually speaks to you whilst you are trying to do your business. Also bizarrely the cleaning lady was in a maid outfit for some reason.

[Review] Nip + Fab Dark Circle Fix

I have been using the Simple 'Kind to Eyes Soothing Balm' for nearly 2 years now and although it keeps my under eyes moisturized, it does absolutely nothing for my dark circles. 

I tried to look for a fairly inexpensive eye serum. I remember reading in a magazine that eye serums are better to use at night-time because it is lighter opposed to eye creams, which is heavier so sinks into your skin and can make your eyes more puffy. I say serum but came across Nip + Fab's Dark Circle Fix, to be honest it had mixed reviews so I took a gamble. I bought my one from Look Fantastic for £15.95.

The back of the tube reads:
"A 3-in-1 formula that reduces the appearance of puffiness, dark circles + premature ageing. Fast acting formula. 

Dark Circle Fix contains:

• Red Algae targets dark circles
• Tetra Peptide reduces the look of puffiness
• Shea Butter hydrates + softens"

Pump bottle.

The consistency is more of a gel than a cream.

I used this for 2 days 2 nights only and I had to revert back to my Simple Eye Balm because this product was not moisturizing at all, so much so that it left my under-eyes with dry patches! Needless to say I will not be purchasing this product again. I did like the pump bottle, it was easy to use and to control the amount used. Also the consistency is really light, evidently too light for me but this is just my skin's reaction.

 Rating out of 5:  

[Review] Jill Stuart Duo Blush Blossom 02 Sweet Mum

This was from my Hong Kong trip in 2012 but as sad as it sounds it was too pretty to use so that is why it has taken me so long to even test it out. Jill Stuart never fails to wow with the intricate packaging and design of their products and this is definitely one of their selling points. I bought this for $370 HKD which is approximately £31. It also comes with a cute brush with a bow charm. Although I haven't tested out the brush as it seems a bit thin so I choose to use my trusty MAC 129SH brush instead. The blush comes with a set of instructions and for me unluckily it is all in Chinese but they basically suggest 2 techniques which you can use with this blush, 'Sweet' and 'Seductive'.

This white cap is supposedly where you are suppose to tap off the
 excess blush but is seems far too messy.

On the left is a peachy orange which is the 'Shimmer Tint Powder'
whilst on the left is a pink which is the 'Blush Glow Powder'

What I do is apply the orange on first and then use the pink on top. As it is loose powder it was quite difficult to get the right amount at first and it can get quite messy but once you get use to it, it is okay. I do like the overall colour that it gives but it is very shimmery, I don't think I will wear this out in summer as I can imagine it turning my face into a glitter ball. The blush has a nice, not-too-strong, rose smell to it and it is quite pigmented. However it isn't easy to access Jill Stuart products in the UK and the price is high. I don't hate the product but I don't love it either.

Rating out of 5: