Product review: GLAM SHINE FRESH LIPGLOSS (L'Oreal)

 

I got this about 14 months ago, but until this Summer, had been using it sparingly. Now, however, it has become one of my favourite lipglosses.

Lipglosses usually lie quite a lot on the promises they deliver, "this lipgloss will make your teeth look whiter", "this lipgloss will make your lips look fuller", "this lipgloss will make you appear taller", yada, yada, but if anything, this lipgloss actually undersells on its promise to stay glossy for 6 hours. In fact, it's often stayed on my lips for the whole days, despite the lengthy amount of talking and consuming beverages I do. 

The pink colour I selected is perfect because it's a good trade-off between looking natural, but not so much so that you can't see the effect of the lipgloss, and the nib of the lipgloss applicant is a great shape to ensure no wastage of the product either. I'm a big fan.

Grade: A

NB: I bought it at its RRP, but I've just found a site that sells them for much cheaper! Score!

For more of my make-up reviews, click here.

Fragrance review: ICY BURST EAU DE TOILETTE (Adidas)

 

I got this in a pound shop purely out of curiosity a while back, and have been alternating between wearing this and the CK Eau de Toilette for work. 

It's a lot less musky than the CK one, smelling not so much icy as sharp, but with a fragrant floral twist. Strength-wise, it doesn't hold up against the CKIn2U, as by the time I get to work, the smell as worn off, meaning I probably won't be repurchasing it. 

For a quick fix, it's a sweet enough smell, packed in a small enough bottle that you can carry it around with you. A word of the wise though: for it to actually have any lingering effect, you'll need to top yourself up with it, a lot.

 

Grade: C

For more of my fragrance reviews, click here.

Restaurant review: NEW CHINA (Leicester Square)

Given the sheer volume of restaurants in Chinatown, it can often be difficult to choose which one to go into. For the uninitiated, they may just pop into one that's closest to Leicester Square, so they can duck out and do their tourist activities sooner if the food really isn't that impressive. New China, which sits on a corner just next to the Leicester Square cinemas, is one such restaurant.

 

Café review: POPPINS (Sutton)

My planned mission to trial various breakfasts across the capital has taken somewhat of a backburner to work, revising for my MSc, and that annoying thing that is having a social life, but the latter and my mission crossed over nicely when I travelled over to Sutton to see off my friend Rahim, who's leaving to go to the States for Uni today. 

I've been to a Poppins before, in Chesham, but I don't remember the breakfast being as good:

 

When I uploaded this to Twitter, quite a few commented on:

 

1) the lack of mushrooms. Not a problem, I don't actually like mushrooms.

2) "anemic looking bacon". That's actually the ridiculous flash on my camera, which I'm still not quite used to. The bacon was fine.

3) too many beans. This is probably the most legitimate point, as I didn't finish all the baked beans, and it adversely affects the presentation of the plate.

 

The meal was £4.60 (£3.60 for everything minus the hash browns plus an extra quid for the hash browns) and I was completely nourished by it. The meat was cooked healthily and I love the yellow yolk of the eggs. The only downside was perhaps too much baked beans; if they'd given me another egg or slice of bacon instead, that would have been perfect.

Grade: A-

 

Whilst in Poppin's, I also helped myself to a banana milkshake (KEY), and some pancakes:

 

 

 

The banana milkshake, was, hand-on-heart, one of the best I've ever tasted. "We don't mess about", the waiter said to me, and he was right; the milkshake is pretty much pure ice cream mixed with milk, meaning whilst it probably ain't great for the heart, it was fantastic for the taste buds. The dessert was also wonderful, although a little too creamy at parts.

Overall, I loved Poppins Sutton, and at £8.80, I really did dine in breakfast heaven.

For more of my café reviews, click here. If you would like me to review your restaurant, drop me an email at lemon_and_lime7@hotmail.com

Restaurant review: GRAPPOLO (Holborn)

My trip to Grappolo was the first time I bought anything off LivingSocial, and it was a good initiation into seeing the difference between what was being sold to you on paper (or screen), and the actual reality.

Located near London’s financial centre, Grappolo is a suitable upmarket-looking place, with attractive waiters and waitresses and an elegant ambiance. The deal I got online was £29 for a three course meal for me and a friend, as well as a bottle of wine to share between us. 

We both ordered different things, so I got to have a trial of six dishes in total. And overall, my impression is positive: five of the six things we ordered tasted great (the only thing that didn't was the , cheesecake dessert), and whilst, presentation-wise, they definitely peaked at the starters, the dishes looked perfectly presentable, if not Michelin-star level.

Bar review: BARRIO CENTRAL (Oxford Circus)

Me and a few colleagues visited Barrio Central after work one Friday, and we really liked what we saw.

Film review: LOVELACE (Rob Epstein, 2013)

Given the current furore over David Cameron’s proposal that we ban porn completely, the release of Lovelace, which charts the story of America’s most celebrated blue movie actress, could not have come at a more topical time. Starring Amanda Seyfried as the eponymous character, the film shows how she came to make porn movies, the ensuing glitterati that followed, before revealing how she was manhandled into it every step of the way, posing the question of just how “liberating” porn really is.

Linda Lovelace, real name Linda Boreman’s, beginnings are no different from many an American good-girl-gone-bad. Raised by a Bible-bashing mother (an unrecognisable Sharon Stone, commendably playing against type) and a meek, hardly there father, Linda’s only bouts of having fun are at her local roller-disco with best friend Patsy (the ever-lovely Juno Temple, adding another independent movie to her growing collection).

Holiday picspam: Copenhagen, 2013.

For this year's holiday, I spent a few days in the capital of Denmark. Photo time!

 

 

Book review: THE INNOCENTS (Francesca Segal)

The Innocents opens with a quote from Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence (and adapted in a 1993 film by my favourite director, Martin Scorsese), and it wasn’t until after I’d read the novel and googled it that I twigged The Innocents is actually a modern day reworking of said novel. Whilst this probably says more about my horrific lack of knowledge of literary classics more than anything, there could not be a better advertisement for Wharton’s book than The Innocents, which moves the setting from 19^th century New York to London, but aside from the setting, the themes, characters and decisions that are central to the novel transition effortlessly.