Las Vegas Trip!! [photo heavy]

I went to Vegas for a few days before I started my new job, just as a mini vacation for myself. We stayed at Vdara, which is a non-gaming hotel a part of the MGM Grand family of hotels. I will do a separate hotel review later because I have some strong feelings towards this place.

The purpose of the trip wasn’t to gamble or the night-life, rather it was to get some good shopping and eating time. We basically shopped every single day we were there for at least 12 hours a day. The only day we didn’t go shopping, we took a tour to the Grand Canyon which was also very enjoyable. We ate at a buffet twice during our time there, and also had Cheesecake Factory and some Italian food as well.

Me at Wynn before we ate at the Buffet there. Wynn had one of our favourite interior decors.

The Venetian… some fobby guy taking photos and me =)

FOOD! We ate at the Wolfgang Puck cafe/restaurant inside the Crystals shopping centre.

Me in front of the Bellagio fountain. The fountain show was beautiful but a little short *sad face*

At the Grand Canyon! It was a great day to go because it was mainly cloudy, so the temperature wasn’t too cold or hot. Halfway through our tour, the sky opened up and we watched the sunset. If you are planning to do a Grand Canyon tour, I highly recommend Grand Adventures. The buses are the smaller 10-seater ones so you can really interact with your tour-mates. Also our guide, Alfonso, was super nice and very knowledgeable. The drive there was very long but he entertained us with facts about the surrounding area during the drive. I had an amazing time.

I’m trying to jump here, but the shutter speed was too fast to catch it (it would take the photo as I start to jump off the ground) and my friend didn’t have very good timing, so we kept failing.

The view from our hotel at night time. Las Vegas is beautiful at night and this beats views of the strip at night, in my opinion =)

My next post will be my haul!

A Travelers Guide to Makeup

In this post, I will attempt to show you how I try to pack for trips. I’m a minimalist when it comes to makeup, as long as it looks clean, I’m good. Also I usually try to travel light, especially because I know I’ll probably be buying a lot of things on the trip (especially if I’m flying, duty free is dangerous!). So here are just some basic things I usually like to travel with.

For base makeup, I bring one bottle of liquid foundation (Bourjois Healthy Mix) and one powder foundation compact (Jill Stuart Moist Silk Powder Foundation). The powder foundation can double as just powder used to set makeup, and also be used on lazy days.

For eye makeup, I just bring one neutral palette (Lunasol Skin Modelling Eyes in 01 Beige Beige). I tend to wear more neutrals than anything else these days, and I find that a neutral palette can be worn either for the day or spiced up for the night. Depending on if I think I’ll be going out at night, I may bring a grey/black smokey palette for that extra kick, otherwise its neutrals all the day.

For cheeks, I bring two blushers (Jill Stuart Mix Blush Compact in 09 Little Bouquet and Rock & Republic Contrived Pressed Blush in Call Me). I like to have one rosy-pink blush with me for night-time looks and one peachy, highlighter blush for daytime wear. They can also be coordinated and worn together, one as the colour the other as the highlight.

For lip products, I bring one peachy gloss (Paul & Joe Lip Gloss G in 04), one red lipstick (Chanel Rouge Allure Laque in 75 Dragon) and one peachy/neutral lipstick (YSL Rouge Volupte in 26 Tender Peach). The peachy lip stuff are for the daytime and I can either wear just lipgloss or lipstick on its own (YSL Rouge Voluptes have a satin, almost gloss finish), or layer on top of each other for extra plumpness. The Dragon Rouge Allure Laque is more for nighttime looks, especially for nice dinners.

I believe that brushes are essential to bring on a trip. I can sacrifice not bringing an additional eye palette and instead bring brushes. Brushes really make or break your look, and they don’t necessarily have to be good brushes, just any brushes. I like to bring a blush brush (top, no idea what brand, was purchased by my dear Macnunu at IMATS), three eye brushes (MAC 239, MAC 226 and a mini flat liner brush from Sasa) and one powder brush (Sonia Kashuk). Eyelash curler is also essential. And of course other things that I promptly forgot to photograph, like eyeliner (MUFE Aqua Eyes) and mascara (Clinique High Impact Curling Mascara).

Everything fits nicely in my Cath Kidston pouch and ready to stuff into a suitcase.

Beijing 2010: the Temple of Heaven (pic heavy)

Me in front of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests at the Temple of Heaven park.

I made it a priority on my trip to Beijing this year to revisit the Temple of Heaven. I haven’t seen it since more than 10 years ago when I came to Beijing with my grandfather. I didn’t visit the Imperial Palace or Great Wall this time because I was just there about four years ago.

Basically the Temple of Heaven is where past emperors went for prayers, I believe twice a year, for good harvests and hope for peaceful country without war or any other problems. The park is pretty big, but because it was so hot out that day, we just went to see the Hall of Prayers for Good Harvests and then left for somewhere air conditioned.

Me again. You might be wondering why I have an umbrella when its sunny out. Well thats why, because its sunny out. It was maybe 38-39 degrees out that day and the sun was brutally hot. I wore sunscreen and everything but in order to not burn myself, I used an umbrella. This is actually common practice in China and many other Asian countries.

Beijing 2010: Jay Chou Concert (very pic heavy)

I absolutely LOVE this costume that he wore during just one of his songs. I guess it was too hot since the temperature that day was 38 degrees Celsius... The picture itself, I thought, was taken pretty artfully too. | Image Source: ent.qq.com

I went to the Jay Chou concert in Beijing during the first week of July. If you know me at all, then you will know I am a huge fan of him. Basically this concert was to celebrate his newest album as well as the 10-years of him being a singer/songwriter. The entire concert was about 2.5 hours long and he sang songs from over the 10 years. Some of the songs he sang were among my favourites, like “Superman can’t fly (超人不会飞)” and “Dragon Knight (龙战骑士).” He also invited a few of the artists from his management company to sing, including Lara who collaborated with him on “Coral Sea (珊瑚海)” and “Snake Dance (蛇舞).”

The tickets that my cousin got weren’t spectacular. We were quite far away and there was this huge metal stand thingy in front of us that was used to place stadium lights. I think from our seats, Jay’s entire body was about the size of my thumb nail, AKA tiny.

Me in front of Beijing Workers Stadium where the concert took place. The shirt I'm wearing is from a brand that Jay is the spokesperson for, called Metersbonwe <3

Welcome to my hometown: Fuzhou, China

I’m leaving here this Thursday, but I realized I never took pictures of the city itself to show you guys. Some background info, I was born and lived in Fuzhou, China until the age of 6 when I moved to Vancouver. My whole extended family (with the exception of a few semi-far off relatives who live in NYC) live here. My parents were both born and raised here. Its a relatively unknown city compared to Shanghai, Beijing or even Suzhou, Hangzhou and some of the bigger cities, but its equally awesome.

Traditional street markets here. You see a lot of this in China. Most people have moved on to shopping at Western-style mega supermarkets, but some people still prefer the street market.

There is meat, fish, vegetables of all kind here. Anyone who's taken biology knows its probably not very sanitary for meat to put out like this, which is why I would never buy meat here.

There are a lot of selection for vegetables. Prices are cheap too and you're supporting local farmers.

A typical street in China, lined with small, family owned stores. There are some chain stores in China but its very rare. Even clothing stores are mainly boutiques, there aren't many chains unless you go to the big department stores.

Here is where you see the modern side of the city. Fuzhou is a mid-sized (mid-size still means about 5+ million people) city in the midst of development. Construction goes on everywhere.

I think they're trying to incorporate more of the traditional Chinese types of buildings. These buildings were just finished recently but they reflect traditional Chinese culture.

The bus stop lined with people. The public transportation system is actually not bad (and cheap). They've also started building the metro system, I'm hoping by the time I get back in a few years, there will be a subway for me to take!

This is where you see a mix of developed with undeveloped. You see older buildings like this scattered around the city. I believe these are dorms for workers. This one is in better condition, I've seen buildings that look like they're going to fall apart but people still live in them.

More construction. Its probably not going to stop in the near future.

Hey look, its Chairman Mao! XD

This is near the downtown core area of the city. One of my cousin works for Bank of China (the commercial bank, not the central bank, thats the People's Bank of China XD) in that building.

Woot for construction!

Sorry if some of the pictures aren’t top-quality photos. I took these pictures either while walking or in the car. I didn’t want to have my camera out for too long in case someone comes along and snatches it… But I do hope you enjoy this post. It’s been a very memorable 2.5 months (the longest I’ve ever stayed here since I immigrated to Canada) and I do hope to come back again soon.

Here’s a super random photo for you to finish off this entry.

This was an ad posted up in the elevator of my aunt's apartment. Basically its Minute Maid (by Coca Cola Co.) but available in 3 different flavours: pomegranate, kiwi and lemon. I wondered to myself why we never get stuff this good in Canada...