Life Update #6⎪Traveling

Hey guys! I wanted to do a Life Update post just to tell you a few things. First one is, I'm heading out to California tomorrow. I'm going to be staying mainly in Los Angeles and San Diego. I thought if any of you have been to either, I'd love to get a few of your recommendations. I've been to Los Angeles before, so I guess I really want to know about San Diego: where the best places to eat and sightsee are :)

Another small update I guess is that if you are a subscriber of my Youtube channel, you'll probably know (or maybe not) that most of my videos are gone. I've privatized most of them because I've been coming to a dilemma of whether to continue filming videos or not. So, sorry to a few of you who've asked where my videos have gone or asked about my channel! Thank you for caring and sorry that my channel is down. I'm still contemplating it so, maybe I'll start again at some point? Perhaps when my blog grows a little more or when I grow enough confidence to do it again!

Still, you can enter the giveaway going on on my channel! It ends 7/31 so you've got a few weeks left :) You can enter as much as you want here.

Leave a Comment california, giveaway, life update, travel

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The Travel Edition Beauty Bag⎪skincare, makeup, body, and hair

I do a bit of traveling in a year, and each time I start packing I get so lost in the process I forget to blog about it. But this time around, I made it my business to actually take all the products I put in my bag back out, and take pictures of them. I love looking at my travel beauty bag and finding them so neatly organized, full of products that I fully trust and want to take with me.

I usually divide my travel beauty bag into two or three parts. One, is my skincare. Two, is my makeup. And three is mostly my body and hair products. People who aren't into beauty will probably think this is a bit too much, but gone traveling with these products, I'm fully happy with the products I brought along.

Where did I go: I went to Texas for a week, and will be traveling to California this coming week with probably the same products refilled!
What do I use as travel beauty bags: CVS has these travel clear pouches that come with small plastic disposable containers where you can put in some of your liquid products that are more than 3.4oz. But then, I also have a beauty bag that I keep in my small bag as I'm traveling. It's my usual Tory Burch makeup pouch.

Makeup Pouch:
Let's start with my makeup pouch, since it's the one I used the most throughout the week:

This is something that I put in my carry-on. I have a hand lotion by Josie Maran that has seriously cured my cuticles. Then I've got an In-Flight Face Mist by Kiehl's and then a touch-up powder by Benefit. Also, everyone needs to have a hand sanitizer when traveling, so I've got a generic effective one by Purell. Then to keep myself from feeling icky during flights and traveling, I put in a perfume that I really love by Nuxe. I also have the This Works Deep Sleep Stress Less aromatherapy stick. For lips, I've got one balm and one lipstick. The balm is the Nuxe Reve de Miel. For lips, I have the YSL rouge volupté shine that I recently blogged about here.

Skincare:
You can't believe how handy samples become during travel! I've got my handy ziplock of samples, filled with some lovely Missha products. Then I've got some isoi products that I've been kind of really loving. Then the main skincare you see are really from Mario Badescu. Gosh, I love this brand to pieces! I've got their Buttermilk Moisturizer, Hyaluronic + Vitamin C serum, and their Drying Cream. Then I've got the Bioderma miscellare H20 makeup remover then I can't live without. Because it is traveling, I also put in a handy face wipe by Neutrogena. Then something that I has really grown on me was the First Aid Beauty Red Clay Cleanser. I think I might even go purchase a full size of this!

Makeup:
I took a decent amount of makeup so I'm not going to list everything I took. But you can get a good look at the products laid out. I made sure to take one for everything: foundation, eyebrow, blush, bronzer, lips, mascara, eyeliner, eyeshadows, and concealer.

Hair care:
I was more than impressed to find out that my favorite shampoo has a travel-friendly size. I never blogged about it because once something goes inside my tub, I get so lazy about taking it back out in all its wet mess and take pictures of them! But anyway, this shampoo is the Clear Scalp & Hair brand. I love this shampoo because they really help with lifting roots and getting the scalp to feel so super clean without drying out the hair!

This isn't a conditioner, but it's close enough. In the container that the CVS clear travel bags come in, there are also labels that you can put on them. This one is the L'Oreal Erase Balm Hair Mask that I won't be without! Another hair product that I took with me is the It's a 10 Leave-in Miracle Conditioner. 

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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

Leave a Comment bosie tea parlor, food, life update, lifestyle, london, nyc, soho, tea, travel

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One Fine Day in Strasbourg, France.

It's the first day of February, and that gave me more of a reason to hurry and post this long-due travel diary of my trip around Europe. The final destination of my two week trip was Strasbourg, France. It was a short trip, just one day but I found that was enough to get a good gist of the place. I absolutely loved everything about Strasbourg, besides maybe a few bits that I'll share as we go along, but overall, every single corner was a little gasp of surprise. It was just so beautiful and picturesque! 

We started from Paris, and drove about five hours to Strasbourg. It was my first time seeing the French countryside, and it was quite beautiful. In the morning, we saw a haze of fog all along the hills. I tried to capture it with my camera, but in real life, it looked much more... well, European. Something you would imagine in French paintings! 

After our long drive, we finally arrived at our destination. We gave up trying to find any parking space in their garages. They were all full. Without much help and translation available in the area, we guessed where we could park and hoped for the best. We were able to get street parking, and luckily, our car wasn't towed after five-six hours touring the place. Just driving around and looking for parking space got us excited because everything was so beautiful! Our first stop was the Strasbourg Notre-Dame. It is the definition of grandeur. 

What we didn't know about this area was that it is supposedly the capitale de noel. I guess it's the season for people to just flock into Strasbourg because oh goodness, it was PACKED. There were so many people all around the cathedral and Petite France that I was pretty shocked. Also, I was unaware that they would have Christmas markets tented in front of the cathedral. So when we arrived, we were both surprised and disappointed with what we saw. Surprised because the markets were so festive, but disappointed because we couldn't take in the cathedral for what it was because there was too much going on in front of it! But still, it was breathtakingly beautiful. 

As the sun sets, the gothic detailed cathedral became more and more beautiful as it glistened by the sunset. 

The cathedral just could not be captured in a single shot. It is huge and I think it's larger than the notre dame in Paris! Below are pictures of the market. Look how small they are compared to the massiveness of the cathedral. The markets were selling all sorts of things. What was especially best-selling were the vin chauds and the chestnuts.

Of course, I had to get a small cup of their vin chaud and it helped warm up the coldness of the winter day! 

Here are the pictures of the inside of the cathedral: 

It's also lovely how there were so many musicians playing right outside the cathedral and where the open markets were. It helped created that festive Christmas aura, and it really felt like I was truly in Europe! 

Then, from the cathedral we headed to La Petite France. Here you can really see the German influence of Alsace. I especially loved the architecture of the buildings in this area, and the river that runs throughout reflects the beauty of their town. 

I can't say where exactly we went, but we did wander all throughout La Petite France. We didn't eat anything special, and if anything, I don't recommend US tourists to eat at a restaurant. Rather, eat something from the markets because it saves $$$ and I just did not enjoy the meal I had in a restaurant around here and service was horrible as well! Just sip a few vin chauds, eat chestnuts and hotdogs and fill your tummies with these beautiful sights!

Here you can really see the beautiful buildings of Alsace, the particular architecture that we all know of so well. I felt as though I was in some Disney movie, and it felt so surreal: 

We stayed until late evening. The lights really made the night feel so bright, especially since the river reflected so much of that light. We enjoyed our time here so much (besides the food) and it is somewhere I'd definitely want to visit again and again, but next time not during Christmas season. Perhaps when there are less people and when it is warmer. I think if the weather also was sunnier, it would've been extra beautiful! 

Well, that's really all for this post! I hope you guys enjoyed the pictures. Tell me if any of you have been to Strasbourg, and what you loved or didn't love so much. It'll help me plan my trip better next time I go :) x

1 comment christmas, france, lifestyle, strasbourg, travel

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