Showing posts with label tea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tea. Show all posts

a new york girl searching for london in soho





When I went to London last winter, I had searched up tea parlors to have my experience being British. It failed all together when Google only provided the very best ones, ones that cost more than 60 pounds per person. I mean, that was a lot and definitely more than I was willing to spend. But then I spent months thereafter whining about wanting a proper afternoon tea, and being sullen over the fact that I didn't get to try it out in London. 

But today, my friend and I whisked ourselves to the city where we found a small tea heaven called Bosie Tea Parlor. I was promised that I would get that "afternoon tea" here. 

Although I had always imagined a tearoom to be one of those in a luxury hotel, I was more than thrilled to have a quaint one if I must! It is located deep in Soho (downtown NYC) where all the quaint shops reside. When I walked in, it was definitely a cozy, quaint, and very Soho-esque shop. It had small round tables, about six in the front by the entrance, and about three more near the back. You immediately see an array of tea buckets displayed all along the way. You also see their cute pastry display full of macarons, cakes, and scones. 

My friend and I went for their tea service. They have three selections, but cheapest one seemed to be sufficient for us. The most basic tea service for 2-persons came with a selection of 2 teapots of our choice, 3 choices of tea sandwiches for each person, 2 scones per person, 2 macarons per person, and 4 assortment of cake/bread. I thought that was quite a nice deal!  



I highly recommend their "Brandied Apricot" tea, as it was light with flavorful notes of apricot. It was neither too light nor too heavy, with the perfect amount of sweetness and flavor. The other tea we ordered was Fujian white tea, which wasn't all that great. We first chose Island White, but they no longer had the tea, hence. 

As for their pastries: I highly recommend their salmon cream cheese sandwich and their cucumber cream cheese sandwich. I particular loved those two! And macarons? They had a few seasonal macarons out, but I definitely enjoyed a classic Pistachio and Earl Grey. 

But, what I really enjoyed the most? Their scones. Crusty outside, moist inside. They came with cream and jam, and oh they were seriously so good. I had to get two more to bring home for some of my family to try!






And just look how well we finished our plates! We spent a good hour and a half there, having a swell time. The staff there were so friendly and kind, and that really matters to me. Service is 80% when it comes to rating any eating place, and they definitely was full score for me! They were so helpful picking out which teas and pastries. 

If you are ever around Soho, I highly recommend this tea parlor! Of course, if you're from the UK, you may not find the need to go to a place like this. But if you're an American girl looking to nurture the British girl within, you may want to give yourself a pick-me-up at a relaxing quaint Soho tea parlor as this place! xx


DIY Tea-Puff Facial Mist!

Have I ever done a DIY post? I don't think I have but today's post is just that! It's a really super easy but really effective way to "depuff" the face. It is this homemade facial mist targeting those days when you wake up to a thick layer of cushion on your face. Your eyes are about to disappear, and your nose has mounted some extra skin. Perhaps you've eaten pizza the night before, our Chinese take-out? Whatever the case, most of us suffer from swollen and bloated faces. This DIY is perfect for those kinds of days, and really all kinds of days!


All you need is either green tea or oolong tea, both known to have high percentage of caffeine. As you all know, caffeine helps depuff. A lot of depuffing products therefore uses caffeine to bring about those results. So, green tea and oolong would be perfect for this.

Brew it completely in really warm water. Make sure you leave the tea bag in as long as you can. The longer the better because that much more caffeine comes out. For drinking though, it is recommended that you brew only for about 2 minutes for that reason. 

I chose this tropical green tea because the tropical part of it just makes everything better because it smells so fresh and nice when you spritz it on your face! After you brew it, let it cool. You can either cover it and leave it in the refrigerator or let it cool naturally. 

Then what would be great is if you had an empty bottle of spray. I had an empty spray bottle I bought from CVS but right when I needed it, I couldn't find it! So, I emptied out this certain bottle and made sure to clean it nice and well (since the product in it will soon be going on your face!). Then, I carefully poured the tea into the bottle.

It is ideal to leave this in the refrigerator and to wake up every morning and mist your face with this. The caffeine plus the coolness will further help the depuffing process. You can take it with you throughout the day and mist it whenever. The great thing about this is that it leaves no stickiness and it's so cost efficient! I decided to paint my bottle so that I can easily find it amongst all my products. 

Just for bonus, I also added a certain ph- water. I honestly forgot what PH this water was, but it's a PH level that it supposed to be ideal for the skin! So along with depuffing the face, this facial mist will also help the skin. And plus, it's always nice to keep the face hydrated :)

Do tell me if you try this out and what you think of it! I've been spritzing this all day and I've seen the effects. Of course, it's not going to shrink your face immediately and so obviously. 

I'm going to call this my Tea-Puff Facial Mist!





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