A's: REVIEW ON THE QUEEN AND MANGOSTEEN GOURMET PUB

I am blessed to have someone whom I share my excitement with whenever the 9^th of October comes. And though this year is quite different as neither of us took a day off from work to spend the whole day together, we still made the night of our 8th anniversary really special.

To celebrate this special day, we headed to THE QUEEN AND MANGOSTEEN

Photo sourse: is.asia-city.com

Situated within Vivo City, this gourmet pub can cater both to those who want to savor their meal in a cozy environment and those who want to enjoy some booze with friends while listening to their favorite songs being played by a live band.

They have a wide range of meals from soups to salads to grilled meat. So for starters, we ordered Classic Ceasar Salad with Grilled Chicken and a bowl of chips (aka french fries). The salad is divine. The grilled chicken bits are perfectly tender and juicy. The salad dressing matches the greens in the salad, cruttons, eggs, and cheese.  The chips were nicely fried. We liked how crispy it was on the outside, but soft on the inside.

Classic Ceasar Salad with Grilled Chicken

Chips

For our main dish, we ordered Queen’s Mixed Grill Platter. The platter included pork banger, beef rib eye, chicken chop, lamb rack, jumbo king prawn, and a bowl of salad and mashed potato. 

Dips

Mashed Potato

Salad

Jumbo Prawn, Rib Eye, and Lamb Rack

Pork Banger

Chicken Chop

Here's how I would rate my experience:

Food: 8

Aside from the jumbo prawn that we didn’t really like because it smelled a little too raw to us, every other dish was nice. The slices of meat were perfectly done. Soft enough to be chewed, and juicy enough to have all that taste. 

Serving per meal: 10

Gluttony is what you will call it had we tried to finish everything that we had in front of us. I'd say that their serving for one meal is more than enough to be shared by two. You would need to double check with their staff just how big a meal is before ordering, otherwise, you will end up with way too many food than you can actually consume. Guilty!

Price: 9

A grill platter, mashed potato, salads, and fries for only $87. With that big of a serving, it was like paying for two meals for the price of one. It was worth every dollar.

Service: 6

I regret to say that we experienced very poor service from their crew. It felt like we were more polite to them than they were to us, which should have been okay had we not been their customers. They were taking food requests from us from afar, and that made asking them for something always awkward. There were almost always no one to assist us too. As mentioned earlier, the restaurant also has an area outside and there were just two sets of people who chose to eat inside; us and a group of guys. And we were always left alone. We got our glasses of warm water filled only twice; once while ordering and once when after we already asked for the bill.

Overall, I will give this The Queen and The Mangosteen a clean score of 7. The meal was great, but good service should always come hand-in-hand with an enticing menu, at least I think. Will I suggest the resto to my friends? Yes, I definitely would, but then again, I would give them a heads up on the service. 



Spread the love! 
- A! 

A's: REVIEW ON SIGMA F50 DUO FIBRE and REVLON COLORSTAY LIQUID FOUNDATION

Perfect partners.

Pardon my not-so-clean brush. I will

do a blog on cleaning brushes with my

SIGMA SPA!

Watch our for that! :) 

I have recently decided to jump on the bandwagon and purchase my own set of Sigma makeup brushes. And though the price of the set that I purchased – Essential Kit – is way more than I would spend on any makeup item, I can still say it was worth every cent.

The airbrush effect

I have yet to fully test all of the brushes in the kit – although I already know I will love each one of them. I have, however, made full use of Sigma F50 Duo Fibre; a foundation brush. As  described on the small pamphlet that came with the package: it will work well with powder, cream, and liquid foundation, and will give you an airbrush-like effect. Now, I don’t know how an airbrush effect would look like, but if it is what I get after using F50 to put on foundation, then I am really loving this airbrush-like effect they call.

It is like clouds bouncing on your face

Okay, you got me, I have never felt clouds bouncing on my face, but I bet it would give  the same feeling as when using these brushes –specifically the F50-  for makeup. It is so soft, and comparing it with the other drug store makeup brush brands that I used to own [threw them all after I got my heavenly makeup brush package], this definitely is a lot softer, lighter, and definitely ouch-free.

Nothing can get oilier

Having oily skin, I always opt to buy compact foundations. I don’t know why, but it was what I thought I could ONYL use. But thanks to GOSSMAKEUPARTIST, and thanks to baby J who introduced his Youtube channel to me, I found out that I also have all the rights in this world to use liquid foundation. And to try out a liquid foundation, I bought REVLON COLORSTAY liquid foundation in the shade early tan (no.340). Why Revlon Colorstay? First, it’s a lot more affordable than most liquid foundations, and second, it is for combination or oily skin, which is how my skin is! Plus, Wayne Goss did a quick video about great foundations for oily skin, and Revlon Colorstay happens to be one of them. (smile smile wink wink)

The experience

The Sigma brush will totally help make your foundation application a lot easier, and help distribute the product evenly on the skin. It is very soft, that going back on areas of your face over and over again will neither be painful nor irritating. It does help give a flawless look, which makes the brush even lovelier.

Never did I need to touch up with Revlon Colorstay foundation. And I will say it again, NEVER. Depending on the look you want to have, you can go for medium to full coverage with the product. It is very lightweight on the skin too! It never felt like I was wearing foundation.

Scorecard

I will give both the Sigma Brush and the Revlon Liquid Foundation a 7/10. I am totally in love with these two items. And both make me feel like a pro, because the result that I get after application is REALLY great. Sometimes, you don't need great hands, you just need the right tools. At least I think.

Love note: To purchase your own Sigma brushes, you can simply go to: www.sigmabeauty.com Or you can check out the authorized retailers in your country. You can visit your local makeup stores for Revlon Colorstay foundation. Alternatively, you can visit their site (www.revlon.com)  to purchase items online. :)

Ooohhh spread some makeup-lovin

- A! J

A: WHY SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO BE "PLASTIC"

PLASTIC. According to the second entry on the urban dictionary, this word means, someone who is fake or has a false type of character.

I am blessed to have a lot of friends. There were many down moments in my life that I wouldn’t have survived had I not have all the friends that I have support me. And for them, I will forever be thankful. BUT, just as I had enemies who I am thankful I am friends with now, I have “friends” that I wish I NEVER EVER met. Those people you wish remained as strangers. People you wouldn’t be bothered being enemies with.  

There are a few reasons why some of us remain “friends” with people whom we really want to push off the train track and watch as the ground open and hell eat them ala-drag me to hell (that movie has a bad ending, doesn’t it?). Anyway, to name a few of these reasons, we have:

1.      Sign of gratitude (UTANG NA LOOB)

I hate this feeling. But you know how it is when someone was the only way you could’ve gotten through something really difficult, and though you will forever be grateful for the help he/she gave, you honestly also want to totally delete him/her out of your life. If only that will not make YOU look like a big ahole.

None of us wants to be tagged with the word “ungrateful.” I think most of us, if not all of us, will never want to be called that word. If you did something for me whether I asked for your help or you just willingly gave a helping hand, I will forever be grateful. But gratefulness can only last too long. Let me explain why I say so. If a person starts to treat you like shit after helping you or even worse, because he/she thinks you owe them your life, then doesn’t that give you enough reason why you can start to fade away from that person’s life? One can only haunt someone so much for all the “nice” things done for him/her. A person can choose not to do shit for someone anyway. But if you choose to do good things for someone with the hopes that you can make the person be your slave all your life, then my middle finger goes to you. 

2.      Family friend

You grew up knowing them because they are friends with your mom/dad. You don’t like them, but you have no choice but to be extra nice to them when they are around. Some of them may even be “feeling close” that they become a little too intruding about your personal life. But what can you do, but to be very respectful to them, and just smile and be friendly. You may dislike them, but you clearly do not want them and your parents (or whoever from your family is close to them) to have a misunderstanding if you try to pull a bitch fit in front of them. Right?

3.      They are your boyfriend/girlfriend’s friend OR he/she is your friend's girlfriend/boyfriend

You hang out one time because they boyfriend/girlfriend took you with him/her on a night out with his/her friends, and now you are  forced to accept friend requests from people you barely know. Forced to share with them some of your most personal photos and most precious moments. What the hey. But you got to do it.

4.      You like/love the people who this frenemy knows

Okay, you hate him/her, but you like his/her family. You absolutely despise him/her, but you love all of his friends who are now your friends because he/she introduced them to you. And as a sign of respect, you kind of let the “friendship” stay just so you will not lose your connection with the other friends you’ve made because of this ahole you know. Oh isn’t that a pickle.

5.      You will always bump into him/her so might as well pretend

You live close to each other, or if you luckier, you share the same flat, you're officemates or better your work stations are right next each other. And there is no way in hell you are going to go through some awkward moments of the two of you bumping into each other and not wanting to talk; way to much drama than what you want in the menu. So what to do but to just pretend that you still like him as a person (because you know you’d appreciate him more had he been a foot rest) and just go on with life.

I could go on with the reasons, but at least for this entry, I will stop at 5. I may be raising some eyebrows right now, and maybe there are those who are completely agreeing to every single point I just raised. If you are the former, then I really don’t care. The truth is, all these happen, and it happens to most of us. And though the saying goes, “Honesty is the best policy”, who can really tell when being honest would be most helpful and when being a little bit plastic will come in handy?

- A!