June: The Food Month

This month in particular, I went out a lot to eat. Like the typical instagrammer, I always took pictures of my food because they just looked so darn delicious. And yes, I am one of those who just must tell the world what I am eating at that moment. I'm a food lover, I can't help it!

Olive Garden
This restaurant is my roomie's favorite so I end up going here a lot when I let her choose where to eat. I always get their raspberry lemonade, especially since it comes with free refills! A lot of places I've been to don't offer that with their flavored lemonades and iced teas. I got the braised beef and tortelloni. Our appetizer were these yummy cheese balls, umm I don't remember what they are called. Then my roomie always gets the chicken alfredo. Not to mention, free unlimited breadsticks and salad!

Sweet Frog
I'm surprised how much this company has expanded in the last few years. Of all the froyo places I have tried (and I've tried a lot), Sweet Frog offers the most choices at the best price. Marvel at my $8 creation, filled with cake batter and vanilla froyo, topped with strawberries, strawberry poppers, mango poppers, and peanuts then white chocolate sauce and hot fudge. Told you they had a lot of choices.

Bobalicious
It's so hard to get good boba these days. This place is ok but my choices are limited. My favorite type of boba is Taro and my favorite place to get it is in the Philippines. It just seems sweeter over there.

Chili's
I was craving burgers that day. I got the Southern Smokehouse burger and added avocados. My friend got the Parmesan Crusted Steak. Dessert was a Molten Chocolate Lava Cake. We were so full from all this food.

Carabba's
Went to this restaurant for an aunt's birthday. For an appetizer, we got calamari and mussels to share. Then I ordered their Sirloin and Steak, which came with a ceasar salad. I went all out with the seafood that day. After all, who doesn't love seafood?

Ford's Fish Shack
We had been trying to get into this restaurant for a while. We decided to go on a weekday where it was less crowded. Apparently this restaurant has really great reviews and I can see why. I tried their Maine Blueberry Soda and Maine Rootbeer, but I liked the soda better. For my entree, I got a pecan crusted trout with a side of chorizo mac n cheese. It was so delicious!

Azur
This is a restaurant in D.C. that is apparently very well known but the only thing I can say for sure is that this place is expensive. The place has a bar in the first floor then the next three floors are for eating. The food is good and their alcoholic drinks are pretty cool looking. I got their Steak Frites and it was so good. The food took a while to get to the table though. They didn't have much of a dessert menu so we ate dessert elsewhere.

Serendipity
Now this place is very well known. The other Serendipity I know of is in New York. If you have never gone, you definitely should go. Their normal food for breakfast and lunch are good, but not the greatest ever. What really makes them special is their dessert. They are best known for their frozen hot chocolate. I usually get the white chocolate frozen hot chocolate but decided to get something different. I got their Cookie Dough Sundae. The rest of my company got a Frozen Hot Chocolate in regular and Mochaccino and also a huge slice of Carrot Cake.

Yen's Cafe
My mom was having a craving for their pan fried noodles. We also got their sesame chicken. I had never tried pan fried noodles before but man, they are really good. My parents got two containers of those pan fried noodles and we did manage to finish most of it for dinner.

Cheesecake Factory
Everyone knows about the Cheesecake Factory. They have a restaurant everywhere, it seems. Ate dinner with two friends from high school. For dessert, we shared an Oreo Cheesecake and a Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake. We decided to get one that is chocolatey then the other fruity. They were a great combination! We would mix the two and it just tasted so delicious.

Other
Just various other things. Some pineapple tarts made by my mom's friend who is thinking of going into the bakery business. Magnum ice cream in regular and double caramel. I prefer the double caramel. A very berry sundae and tres leches cake from Costco. The cake is so sweet. One small slice is enough to satisfy your craving. That's for this month. Oh I hope next month has delicious food to come as well!

Essence Nude Glam

I was looking around ULTA one day, just through their sale rack, where I found this cute little bottle of nail polish. I had been looking for a nice nude colored nail polish, which seems perfect that these were on sale at the time. And they were only 99 cents! I can't pass up such a cheap find. I don't recognize the Essence brand but I'm not very familiar with most nail polish brands in general.

What I do love is that the color definitely is exactly the same as the bottle. Sometimes the two don't match. However, the color is so very sheer. I needed to put on three thick coats to be able to get an opaqueness that satisfied me. I like opaque colors so that was a con for me.  The brush, though, is really wide. I mean really wide, wider than most brushes I've seen. It has the brushes that top coats usually have, so that was weird. Still, for the price, it's pretty good. I don't actually know what color this is, it just says 84 on the bottom of the bottle.  Oh well.

Barbie Diamond 3 tone Grey

I got these lenses because Uniqso was having a deal where per piece was only $4.90, making a pair only $9.80! That was too good of a deal to pass up. I just had to buy these. Plus, I had a pretty good experience with the Barbie brand before so I didn't really have any hesitations in getting these lenses.

The normal price per piece is $7.90, making a pair cost $15.80, which still isn't bad. That's a lot less expensive than most other lenses. The brand Barbie is part of the better known brand Dueba, which sells a lot of other lenses.

Design & Color
The design is very cool and eye catching. It definitely makes your eyes sparkle. There are hints of red and black but I don't really see much of the gray. This is not a lens that is made to look natural. It is very unnatural in terms of the design and the red accents. It is something people will definitely notice.

Enlargement
They seem larger than the barbie puffy 3 tone series I have tried mostly because the lenses are darker, making them look more enlarging. These lenses boast a 16.5mm diameter with a 17.5mm effect. However, I wouldn't at all believe that they are that large. I would say they are about as enlarging as some 14.8mm and 15mm lenses that I have tried before. In dark environments, it looks like the lenses are black and therefore gives you an eerie dolly eyed look.

Comfort
Like all the other Barbie brands I have tried, these lenses are super comfortable. I can wear them all day long and I don't even notice them in. Honestly, I think that if that isn't how your lens feel to you, then they might have something wrong with them. But yes, barely noticeable. It doesn't move or shift around to block my vision or anything.

A similar lens that I wouldn't mind trying is the Dolly Eye (EOS) Ariale Grey. Another lens that is quite similar to these in design also is the GEO Xtra WTB35 Grey or Diamond Grey. I took a chance on these lenses because they were on sale and although they are really nice, I prefer more natural looking designs. These lenses are great but I wouldn't buy them again.

ULTA Beauty Smoothie

In my quest for things that smell delicious, I came upon ULTA beauty smoothies in my local ULTA store. Now, these bottles are normally $16 each, but if you happen to find them on sale, they are only $6.99! That's a pretty good deal to me. Sometimes they have a deal for buy 2, get 2 free also. These have such delicious scents and names, I want to try all of them! These are a 3-in-1 shower gel, bubble bath, and shampoo. I mainly use it as shower gel because my hair only likes a particular type of shampoo and I don't really take bubble baths. I want to try all the flavors! Here are the ones I've tried so far:

Note: The Apple Envy smells terrible. I literally smell like alcohol, like I had walked out of a bar from drinking all night. It seriously smells like rubbing alcohol.

The description provided by ULTA:

Free of Parabens, Phthalates, DEA and Gluten.

The rich and indulgent recipe leaves skin and hair soft and smooth with every yummy cleansing. What's our special recipe? A superboost antioxidant complex of acai, goji berry and mangosteen super fruits to enhance your health and beauty.

Directions
Take one part Beauty Smoothie 3-in-1, put on body, hair and bath. Swirl with water to mix. Make a rich lather. Luxuriate in the foam. Let the superfruits do their magic. Rinse and repeat for pure pleasure.

Perforated Lace-Up Heel Bootie - Coral

I was in Charlotte Russe one day with a friend, accompanying her to shop. I don't know why I expect to just window shop and not buy things because I always end up buying something. I just have this impulse to get everything. In the very back of the store are the shoes. They had a display of shoes that were the last size of their style (basically the last shoes of the line) and they were 50% off. That's where I saw these shoes.

They were originally $50 but were $25 in the store! Online, they are still listed as $50. You can check out the shoes here. In my pictures, they look a lot darker. The color really changes depending on the lighting. In bright light, then look orange-ish pink but in darker settings they can be red to almost a dark red. They are perforated so they have small holes in the side, which is fine to me. It lets my feet breathe. Here is the description provided online:

Go chic with this heeled ankle boot! Vegan nubuck upper includes a lace-up front and perforated design. Inner 5.5" zipper gets you in and out fast. Features a hidden 1.25" platform and 4.5" heel in faux wood. Style: PUFFIN 41

So they are laced up but have a zipper on the side, which in my opinion makes them easier to put on. The perforations don't extend to the toes so you don't see the toes, which is a plus for me. They are really comfortable and the shoe is made of a rubber kind of material rather than the cloth or suede material that make up most other boots this style. For me, it's easier to clean if it ever gets a stain and won't get soaked when it rains. It provides a lot of height, which is good for someone as short as me.

I almost did not get these shoes. I didn't want to spend so much on shoes even though at 50%, they were quite a deal. I had actually put them back and a lot of people were picking them up but they weren't their size (not many size 6 feet out there, I guess). With some words of encouragement by a certain awesome sales lady and my friend, I did finally decide to buy it. I get quite a few compliments when I wear them out. I don't regret the buy at all.

SOHO Beauty Sponge

So I have been seeing a lot of people using the Beauty Blender and they rave about it and say it's awesome. When I went to Sephora, I saw the beauty blender and it is so much smaller than I thought it would be. I mean, it's pretty tiny but it cost $19.95. I don't put on foundation or anything on a regular basis so for me, it is just too expensive for something I won't really use a lot. I decided to go for a cheaper alternative.

For my cheaper alternative, I go to stores like Ulta, Target, or Walmart. This particular product, the Beauty Sponge by SOHO, was from Walmart. It cost me $4.92 or something like that. I can't remember the exact price but it is under $5, which is way cheaper than the beauty blender. That for me is a good plus and it is latex free. Although I'm not allergic to latex at the moment, it is said that repeated exposure to latex can increase the risk of development of a latex allergy. So I might not have it now, but I could still develop it in the future. Might as well try decreasing my risk.

In my opinion, though I have not put the two products next to each other for comparison, this product is longer in length than the beauty blender but they seem about the same in width/circumference at the widest part. It has a much more different shape than the beauty blender but it still works for me. The product is much denser than other foundation sponges I have used, which I see as a pro. It has the density almost like a stress ball, just a little less dense. It has a lot of usable surface area and I like that.

Another cheaper alternative to the beauty blender that has a shape that is more similar is the Super Blender Sponge by ULTA. The site says it costs $4.99 so I may get that as well sometime in the near future. In the meantime. I can throw out my old makeup sponges because I like the quality of this sponge a lot better.

"Flurry Up" top Coat Sephora by OPI & NYC "Matte Me Crazy" Mattifying Top Coat

I really loved my "Only Gold for Me" Top Coat from Sephora by OPI that I just had to have the silver version of it to match my silver nails. I had bought a cheapo dollar store version but obviously that just could not compare at all. So when I had the money, I went to my local Sephora store and bought myself the silver version, which is "Flurry Up". I had been reluctant to buy it before because one bottle costs $9.50, which in my perspective is pretty expensive for a single bottle of nail polish. However, the "Only Gold for Me" was just one of my favorites and other top coats just didn't compare so I dished out the money.

I am so happy I bought this. The nail polish has both big and little flakes in it. Now, I do put another clear coat on top of the top coat usually because the flakes can feel a little rough. However, that top coat stays like no other. Seriously, trying to take it off with nail polish remover is a workout. I remember I was at the mall and one of the guys in charge of this kiosk was taking out the nail polish in one of my nails to use the product he is selling on it. I could tell her was getting frustrated because it just would not come off, though he tried not to show it. It's good because it lasts long and it's durable but it sucks when you are trying to take it off. This top coat needs serious professional nail polish remover to come off easily. Well, now my gold top coat has his silver version to keep him company.

The next nail polish I bought is a polish that leaves a matte finish over any polish it's on. I have been seeing matte nails a lot lately and I really want to try it out. With all things I try for the first time, I go for the cheap version and decide from there if it is worth getting the more expensive versions.

This is "Matte me Crazy" Mattifying Top Coat but NYC that I bought at Walmart for $1.79, which is cheaper than many other matte top coats I have seen in ULTA or Sephora. I do love it and it works great with making nail polish matte. The brush is a wider brush than other nail polishes and I thought it made it so much easier to apply. If ever I do run out, though I probably won't since it takes me forever to use up nail polishes  I would definitely buy this again. The result along with the price is pretty unbeatable, in my opinion.

Used these two along with my China Glaze "White on White". My mother commented that the matte white looks like white out. The matte over glitter/shimmer polish gives it a dull shine. It looks like a really interesting texture although the feel of the nail is quite smooth. I will definitely be enjoying doing my nails this whole summer. I should because when school starts, I can't wear nail polish anymore.

China Glaze - Cranberry Splash & White on White

Went to ULTA again this past weekend (obviously my one of my favorite stores) to go buy something since I had a coupon for $3.50 off of any $10 or more purchase. Truly, I would love to buy some Butter London nail items but I just can't afford that on my college student budget. Instead, I got two nail polishes by China Glaze. I do love this brand ever since my friend introduced me to it and the China Glaze gift she gave me has become my favorite nail polishes ever. So I'll stick with what I know. Tried and true is better than new?

Cranberry Splash is such a pretty color and it was on sale for $4.99! I always get some kind of red color on my toes (please don't mind my icky feet and terrible nail painting effort) and I usually get a pedicure with my mom but I went ahead and bought my own nail polish this time. I could always bring it in and get the nail people to use it. I like China Glaze much better than their OPI brands even though OPI is more expensive.

I got the white just so I can do French tips on my nails but who knows, I will do something different with it this time. I feel like white, along with black, is always a nice neutral nail polish color to have. But yeah, a french manicure is hard to maintain, in my opinion. Especially when your nails grow quickly, you may have to update that manicure every two weeks or so, which can get very expensive. I can pair this with any of my glitter nail polishes.