Pure Smile Japanese Masquerade Sheet Masks Review

Pure Smile Japanese Art Face Mask
Price: $5.70 - $7.22 USD/ pc (Amazon)

Blogsters' Rating: 3.5/5

Packaging

I got 2 different masquerade sheet masks as a gift from my family (Green Dot and Pink Flower). They both have beautiful packaging and lovely artwork that illustrate the design of the actual mask. Although this product is mainy written in Japanese, It is made in Korea. 

Serum
One package contains 27ml of serum and contains Collagen, Hyaluronic Acid and Vitamin E. Sure enough there is a lot of serum left over in the package once you take out the sheet mask. 

Scent

It is advertised to have a rose scent and sure enough, once you open the packaging, you can immediately smell a strong floral scent.  Although I am quite sensitive to cosmetic products with a strong scent, this particular one was not overwhelming or unpleasant for me although I would not recommended it to people who are sensitive to scented cosmetic products since the the mask has to be on the face for 15-20 minutes. The scent lingers after you remove the sheet mask as well unless you rinse off the serum afterwards.

Fit

A beautiful and elegant design on the sheet mask nonetheless but I found the material of the sheet mask a little thick so it does not cling to the skin as nicely as other thinner sheet masks. You would notice that as the serum is being absorbed by the skin / evaporates, the mask warps and create air pockets between the skin and the sheet. To avoid this from happening, you can apply the left over serum onto the mask and smooth it out over the skin once you feel like the mask is drying.  

After Use

I left the mask on my face for 20 minutes and skin definitely felt moisturized and gave off a healthy glow. Although I have to say that it left my skin a little sticky so I had to rinse off some of the residue. The texture of the mask also left an imprint on my cheeks but it went away after a few minutes.  

Be sure to check out more of our beauty product experiences by clicking the Beauty Tab on the top of this page. For more fun cosmetic product review, please stay tuned and check back more for! Thanks for joining us today!   

Much Love, 

Joyce

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LOVE ME SWEET Japanese Cheesecake

Love Me Sweet Japanese Cheesecake

Address: 7181 Yonge Street, Unit #16

Access: Along YRT & VIVA bus route, free parking available

Price: $10 per cheesecake

Blogsters' Rating: 5/5

The much anticipated opening of Love Me Sweet is finally here!  At first, I was very skeptical about Love Me Sweet and thought, "Oh, it's just another cheesecake place". However, I kept hearing good things about them from friends and other people around me, so I decided to give them a try.  They are currently offering two flavours of cheesecake: original and chocolate.  I payed them a visit on a random day before their actual grand opening.  I was unaware of the high demand for their cheesecakes until the staff told me that it would be best if I call in to reserve my cake.  Luckily, I got my hands onto one of their original flavours (the chocolate were all sold out).

The design of the store was quite minimalistic.  As you can tell, their main colour was this coral orange red, which really caught my attention.  Over 80 different drawings were displayed on one of the wall; it would probably take a whole day just to go through and analyze all these intricate drawings.  Nonetheless, the artwork adds an interesting theme to the whole bakery.

I noticed that the packaging of Love Me Sweet was very similar to Uncle Tetsu.  From the cardboard box to the cotton cloth, it's exactly like Uncle Tetsu's. Since I don't have much knowledge about cheesecake, I would have to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that this is actually the best way to keep the freshness, moisture, and flavour of the cheesecake until it is being consumed.

Here's a look at the cheesecake; it looks just like any other cheesecake. The logo of "Love Me Sweet" was actually engraved on the cake, however, you might have a hard time seeing it among the wrinkles of the cake. The texture of the cake was very soft, almost to a point where I felt like it was too soft. As I was cutting the cake, it started to crumble and fell apart.  I love how their cheesecakes have a lot more cheese flavour compared to Uncle Tetsu's.  Also, the cake was very light, airy, and smooth, and could probably be eaten without any teeth because it simply melts in your mouth.  

I would definitely pay them a visit again because I have yet to try their chocolate flavour cheesecake and I really admire their service.  They take phone orders, which means you are guaranteed to have a cheesecake in your hand with no line ups =)  Plus, there are no limitations on how many cheesecake you can purchase.  If any of you have a sweet tooth like me, do give them a try, and remember to call them and reserve your cheesecake =)

*Click here if you would like to read about our experience at Uncle Tetsu's Japanese Cheesecake*

xoxo,

Janet

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MOON PRISM POWER MAKEUP! Miracle Romance SAILOR MOON Liquid Eyeliner

Creer Beaute Miracle Romance Sailor Moon Liquid Eyeliner

Price: $23.50 CAD on Amazon

Blogsters' Rating: 3.5/5

I have recently received this as a gift from one of my friends, and had immediately fell in love with it the moment I saw it.  It brought back many childhood memories - Sailor Moon, Luna, Tuxedo Mask (o*v*o).  

To be honest, I couldn't help myself spending the whole day playing with the wand, pretending to be Sailor Moon, and yelling out "Moon prism power makeup!", instead of trying out the eyeliner...

Anyhow, my first impression of this eyeliner was it looks exactly like the Dolly Wink Liquid Eyeliner.  The felt tip, the cap, and the size of the eyeliner is very similar to the Dolly Wink one.  The felt tip is claimed to be as thin as 0.1mm.  I also found this eyeliner very skeptical as it claimed to be waterproof, but it is removable with hot water? Huh?!

I first tested it our on my wrist.  The felt tip is very easy to control, you can draw thin and thick lines fairly easily.  However, I noticed the pigmentation is not that great.  The black colour is not as solid as I would like it to be.  I would have to apply it on my eye for 2-3 times to get the desired "black".  I have also noticed that this eyeliner smudges easily.  If you have oily eyelids or watery eyes like I do, I would not recommend this for you.   The only way for this eyeliner not to smudge is to apply a very thin layer of it.  But then again, it won't be as pigmented.

Hope you guys like this short review of the Miracle Romance Sailor Moon Liquid Eyeliner.  If you have any questions or would like to recommend a product for our next review, please don't hesitate to leave a comment.  Until next time!

xoxo,

Janet

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The Sushi Takeout of Choice - Kim's Ichiban Market

  

Kim's Ichiban Market

Location: Times Square, 550 Hwy.#7 East, Richmond Hill

Accessibility: Along Viva Bus Route, Public parking available 

Price: $10 - $30 

Blogsters' Rating: 4/5

I would consider this place a hidden gem as we come to this plaza quite often yet we have never tried it under the impression that they only do large takeout orders.

Located in one of the oldest Asian Plazas, Kim's Ichiban is a very small take out sushi restaurant that specializes in sushi and sashimi platter. Kim's has been around for years, we're aware of it yet we've never tried it. Surely we don't regret visiting as this has become a new favorite!

There are around 6 small tables in the cozy restaurant space that provide customers a dine-in option. They also have a self serve hot tea station. 

For the 3 of us, we ordered a 40 pieces sushi and sashimi platter. This particular tray consists of salmon, tuna, surf clam, butter fish, snapper, BC tuna, octopus, inari, flying fish roe sushi, california roll, bulgogi roll etc. The friendly staff also served us miso soup with our platter. It was a good portion and we were very satisfied with our meal. 

Mmmmm Look at how fresh the sashimi looks! Of course they taste as fresh as they look.  Although we only ordered 40 pieces, they gave us more than that. 

This is the Kimchi Salmon Handroll with avocado and cucumber. This was probably the favorite part of our meal! The rice was flavored just right, the kimchi gives it a good amount of spiciness and texture. Together with the creaminess of the avocado and salmon, all the ingredients compliment each other extremely well and leaves you craving for more.   

All in all we enjoyed the experience at Kim's. Food was great and service was excellent. We are aware that they are a take out restaurant but it would be great if they provide more comfortable  seating giving customers a dine-in option. Nonetheless, we would definitely return again!

xoxo,
Joyce & Janet

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Hokkaido Ramen Santouka

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka

Location: 91 Dundas Street East (Dundas & Church St.)

Access: Along TTC bus and street car routes, street parking available

Price: Avgerage $12-15 per person

Blogsters' Rating: 3/5

We finally have the chance to try out Hokkaido Ramen Santouka.  This ramen place was recommended by many of our friends.  All of them said Santouka has one of the best ramen in Toronto and here we are giving it a try.

I would say Santouka is mid-size for a ramen place.  It could fit around 40 customers at a time.  When we got there after work (around 6:30ish), there was a line up already, but luckily we only waited for 10-15 minutes. The design of the restaurant is very modern, yet it also has a raw and rustic feeling.  It is very different from other ramen places we have been to where the whole place is decorated with Japanese decor.

This platform is located in the centre of the bar area.  Customers can see their ramen being prepared by chefs in the kitchen.  The wait staffs can also easily access this area, and making sure the ramen is served to customers the moment they are ready.

Santouka is famous for their Shio ramen as it is the only item on the menu when the very first Sankouka was found in 1988 - Hokkaido, Japan.  After having the first sip of the soup, I can totally understand the hype of this place.  The soup is pearl colour, very creamy, and has a very rich pork bone flavour.  We later found out that they simmer the pork bones for over 20 hours (before adding any other ingredients), coaxing out all the flavours and keeping the richness and purity of the pork bones.

Like most other miso ramen I had, the miso soup base was very rich but a little too salty. The ramen had a very good texture that was neither too soft or too hard and the pork had an even distribution of fat on it which made it very soft. The Grilled Salmon Bowl on the other hand was not that great.  It tasted very salty and fishy.  The saltiness of the salmon was to the point where you couldn't eat it alone, and had to eat it with rice to balance out the saltiness.  A sip of water was needed for every bite of the fish. With this combo, I drank almost 3 cups of ice water.

During the whole time at Santouka, staff were friendly and attentive to the customers.  However, in the meantime, we also felt like we were being rushed.  The wait staff was asking what we would like to drink the moment we sat down at our table.  Two minutes later, the same waiter came back to ask if we're ready to place an order for ramen.  They also tried to take away my ramen before I was done with it.  And needless to say the bill was brought to our table without asking for it.  We were not very pleased with their customer service.  If their service was better, our rating for Santouka would be much higher.

Bye for now Hokkaido Ramen Santouka, until next time.

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Blogsters in NYC - Ramen Burger

Location: 

South Street Smorgasburg, South Street Seaport, 19 Fulton Street, New York, NY

Access: Along bus route, street parking available

Price: $10-$15

Blogsters' Rating: 3/5

On a beautiful Saturday in New York City (back in August), we headed down to South Street Seaport to catch some sun and good food =P Despite the heat and scorching sun, this place is packed! 

There were a lot of unique food booths down this little street like lobsters, pizza, oysters, grilled cheese etc. We decided to give Ramen Burger a try since it's such an innovative way to eat ramen and burger. 

The Original Ramen Burger by Keizo Shimamoto was voted #17 most influential burger of all time by Times magazine.

Like any typical food vendors/ restaurants in New York, there was a line up at the Ramen Burger booth. It took around 15 minutes from line up to ordering to actually getting our burger as they made the burgers fresh. There were basically 2 options on the menu- vegetarian or beef. We ordered a original burger made with Angus beef.

The burger came with a small coleslaw and the portion of the meal was surprisingly small. It was however wrapped and presented nicely distinguishing it from your typical burgers.  

So is it a ramen or is it a burger? To me it more closely resembles a stir-fried beef noodle that you could order from a Chinese restaurant and tasted nothing like your typical ramen or burger. Aside from being served with a fork and a knife, I believe the culprit is in the condiments. There were parsley, green onion and the sauce tasted like a cross between teriyaki and soy sauce which are typical ingredients used in Chinese and Japanese food. Without the sauce, the ramen 'bun' was tasteless, however the texture was just right- not too stiff, not too soggy. The patty was nothing special and tasted like your average burger. It was nonetheless a unique experience as I still don't know how to categorize this hybrid meal. I wouldn't say I loved it but it is definitely worth a try for the novelty and creativity.     

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Japanese AYCE at Cynthia's Paradise

Cynthia's Paradise

Location: 16175 Yonge Street. Unit 7, Newmarket

Access: Public parking available , along VIVA bus route

Price: $20 - $28

Blogsters' Rating: 4.5/5

This is my very first time at one of these high tech all you can eat restaurants where you place order with an ipad. I like the idea of a picture menu, besides being able to visualize what I'm getting, looking at the food pictures made me really hungry =p


Take a look at Cynthia's Paradise grandiose interior! Comfortable seating and intricate decorations give this place a very fancy and luxurious feeling. Definitely one of the fanciest looking JAYCE restaurant I've been to.

Grilled Salmon Belly and Grilled Salmon Fillet. Fresh from the grill made with high quality Norwegian salmon (as recommended by our host Andy) the grilled salmon are some of the must- order items on the menu. If you're up for something juicy, fatty and crispy, the grilled salmon belly is the perfect choice for you. However, if you don't like bones or fish fat jelly, the salmon fillet would be an awesome choice.

And of course, the highlight of any JAYCE meal has to be the sushi and sashimi. We got a good variety of items in this boat including fresh sashimi ( salmon, tuna, octopus, surf clam etc). Some unique items included the smoked duck breast cucumber sushi and marinated sashimi on chips.

Green Dragon Roll
Avocado, Tempura shrimp, cucumber topped with mango sauce. A refreshing combination of green dragon with mango sauce gave it a very interesting flavour where the sweetness of the sauce balanced out with the richness of avocado and deep fried shrimp.

Grilled beef short ribs is another classic and favourite dish. They were very tender with the perfect texture and slightly sweet with teriyaki sauce as marinate.  

Since I'm a huge veggie lover, the grilled zucchini and grilled eggplant are definitely must gets. Seasoned with ground pepper and light teriyaki sauce, these tasted really good and we ordered the them more than once cause they were so delicious. Also good items to clear the palette with in between dishes.

And of course, white wine pairs amazingly with sushi.  We had the Riesling which was super refreshing and had the perfect level of sweetness. 

To end off the wonderful night, we had some of my favorite desserts- mango/ greentea ice cream and mango yogurt! I loved the mango yogurt, it wasn't too sweet or too sour and is not something you can order everywhere. 

Cynthia's Paradise is definitely one of the most grand and classy Japanese all you can eat restaurants I've been to. Unlike most other JAYCE restaurants out there, the quality, presentation and detail of food served at Cynthia's Paradise can match up to many authentic a la carte Japanese restaurants.  You can tell that chefs here put much more attention and care on the presentation of each dish despite it being a busy all you can eat location. Although it's located up in New Market far away from us, it is definitely worth a visit. If you plan to visit on the weekend, be sure to make a reservation as it does get busy. Oh Did I mention that if you go on your birthday, you can get an on stage performance from the superstar singer staffs here?   

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