Author

Carol RHM

in Europe, France, Paris, Travel

Travel: The rest of our 2nd day in Paris (Pantheon + Champs Élysées + Ladurée

December 2, 2015

* So sorry for the short hiatus! I’ve been running around like a headless chicken these days as I’m so busy with some freelance work, family visits, and travels. If you ever miss me for not being on the blog, you can always find out what I’m up to on Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat (carolific) though I do suck in making snaps on the go too. 🙂

Paris, Travel, Diplomat's Wife, France, Budget Travel, Europe, Europe Travel, Pantheon

We started Day 2 with a quick trip to the Pantheon which is located in the city’s Latin quarter.

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Before entering, a photo of the husband outside the Universite de Paris’ Faculté de Droit (Law). Yep, I married a lawyer. A geeky one at that. 😉

Okay, back to the Pantheon. Originally built as a church for St. Genevieve, it was turned into mausoleum after the French Revolution and is now a place to bury remarkable French people.

Paris, Travel, Diplomat's Wife, France, Budget Travel, Europe, Europe Travel, Pantheon

Its crypt is the final resting place of writer/philosopher extraordinaire Voltaire, philosopher/writer/composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau, poet/dramatist/writer Victor Hugo, and chemist-physcist Marie Curie to name a few.

A lot of visitors to this place – particularly foreigners – often forget the nature of this building. Most visitors make so much noise, blowing the solemnity of the Pantheon into smithereens. That’s why I suggest to visit this place early in the morning. Less people – like parents laughing and shouting at their kids as they run after them across the vast hallways.

Paris, Travel, Diplomat's Wife, France, Budget Travel, Europe, Europe Travel, Pantheon

Behind the Pantheon is the St. Etienne du Mont that contains the shrine of St Genevieve – the patron saint of Paris.

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Beauty, Makeup, Tutorial, Video, Beauty Blogger, Contouring, Highlighting, Contour and Highlight, Cream Contour, No 7 Cosmetics, Too Faced, Bobbi Brown, Nars, Tarte, The Balm, Mary Lou Manizer. Tarte CC Undereye, Nars Brigitte Lipstick, Benefit, They're Real Mascara, Makeup, Bright Makeup Look, Daytime Contouring
in Beauty & Fashion, Video

Beauty + Video: Contouring & Highlighting using creamy stick concealers

November 21, 2015

I finally got the time to film, edit, and upload a new video. Whew! This time, it’s about my contouring routine that I usually use for events.

Honestly, I don’t do this everyday as it does take up a lot of time. It might not look it, but there are days when I’m just to lazy to put some makeup on. However, when you know you’re going to a place where there will be photographers, well, a girl’s gotta do a bit of work. 😉

A lot of girls are scared of trying contouring. I was actually one of them before but it turns out, it’s actually quite fun and easy! And it’s not as if you’re altering your features. You can always contour just to define and show off your natural angles. 😉

Hope you find this helpful, my loves. :-*

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NARS, Nars KLCC, Nars Malaysia, Nars Cosmetics, Nars Makeup, Nars Event, Audrey, Brigitte, Audacious Lipsticks, Swatches, Makeup, Beauty, Diplomat's Wife, Events,
in Beauty & Fashion

Beauty: NARS opens KLCC branch + Audacious lipsticks Audrey & Brigitte swatches + Steven Klein Collection

November 19, 2015

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Last week, my friend Tammy and I attended NARS‘ opening in Suria KLCC. It’s their flagship store and I was really happy about going since

a) it’s a brand that never disappointed me (Orgasm and Laguna are cult favourites for a reason and they’re a combo I keep coming back to ever since I started using makeup)

and b) Suria KLCC is about a minute away from where we live. Easy peasy. 😉

https://instagram.com/p/9_F3KfCqbW/

 

Chocolates, champagne, a photobooth which we abused, an orchestra, and the launch of their Steven Klein collection. Not bad for a weeknight, right? 😉

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in France

Travel: (Paris Day 2) The Louvre + Tuileries Garden + Place de la Concorde

November 15, 2015

** It’s quite sad that this post (which has been sitting in my draft pile for over a week due to pending edits) was scheduled for posting in the wake of the senseless acts of violence in Paris. My heart goes to the victims and their families as well as those who perished in Beirut due to a similar incident.

A visit to Paris won’t be complete without stopping by The Louvre. While the city does have a lot of museums, nothing compares to the Louvre when it comes to the number of historical artefacts it hosts. It sounds so basic to say that the Louvre has got to be one of my favourite museums in Europe – but it is. Tied with Rijksmuseum, to be honest.

A dream job of mine would be to work there and have a humungous employee discount at their souvenir shop. I’ll just buy all the books I want. 😀 😀

My last visit before this year was in January 2013 and I wrote a quick article for Rappler on some of my must-see pieces. You can find that article by clicking on this link: Visiting The Louvre. If you’re a first time visitor and would love to get a few tips in getting in and exploring the museum, I think that article can serve as a primer.

For this post, I won’t go into detail on the pieces anymore since I already did that in the Rappler article. This is going to be more of a photo diary from our recent visit in August.

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in Beauty & Fashion

Beauty: MAC Dark Side Lipstick (Holiday 2015 Magic of the Night) Review + Swatches

November 10, 2015

I know, I know. I said I’ll post some things up that aren’t about beauty. But when I checked my beauty backlog, it was horrendously long and I knew I just had to do something about it. By that, I mean start posting the reviews.

I’m having a hard time writing and editing some posts that will go into the ‘Diplomatic Incidents’ category of this blog recently. You know how delicate some of the topics might be. But I’ll get to that soon. I promise. Right now, I’m having a bit of trouble with writer’s block.

So to cure that, I’m going for something lighter – a beauty post.

So I guess it’s no news by now how I was so giddy a couple of weeks ago over MAC’s Holiday collection for this year. They’ve got tons of beautiful pieces in the collection – from the Oh, Darling highlighter to a limited edition lipstick shade called Evening Rendezvous.

I usually go for the limited edition shades when new collections pop up. So of course, some friends were expecting that I’ll get Evening Rendezvous since it was the only limited edition shade while the rest of the lipsticks were permanent but instead, I went for Dark Side – a shade I always wanted but always forget to get.

I guess it has something to do with my excitement for Star Wars: The Force Awakens or maybe just my never ending love for dark, bold, daring lips. Or maybe it’s the pretty packaging that makes the wait for me to get this shade worth it… Lots of reasons. If you’re new to the blog, you should know that even though I do love makeup, I often get told that I’m smart with my purchases. I do over think most of them, to be honest.

Also, I tried on Evening Rendezvous and took it for a walk around the mall before deciding. It’s a pretty colour but it fades so easily and not in a nice way. It only left a bit of colour on the outline of my lips making it look like I just decided to wear lipliner today and skipped the lipstick. What is this? The 80s?!

So there. Now that I have justified this purchase to my over thinking self, let’s move on to the review.

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Almost Diplomatic - Newens Tea House - Kuala Lumpur - Diplomat's Wife
in Asia, Expat Life, KL Food, Kuala Lumpur

Foodie Adventures: Newens Teahouse at Starhill Gallery

November 9, 2015

Tea is a part of my everyday life. Ever since I cured my coffee addiction, tea has been my everything – and while that may not sound like much of an improvement to some people, well, in my case… it kinda is. Even before the major shift to tea happened, I’ve been drinking it in lattes and during afternoon tea (and sometimes even high tea) as this a part of British culture that always had a special place in my girly-girl heart.

There’s just something about sitting with some of your best girls, talking about topics that range from politics to makeup while you sip on something that relaxes you as you treat yourself to a couple of sweets and sandwiches. Not to mention my love for fancy table settings, cutlery, and plates that actually play a big role in my ever so often afternoon tea excursions with friends.

Recently, my friend (and actually one of my fave afternoon tea buddies) Tammy brought me to Newens Teahouse in Starhill Gallery for a new menu item preview and we ended up seeing some of our other friends there – ShopGirl and Kelly. ❤️

Fancy tea places are kind of a fun splurge every-now-and-then for me and our last afternoon tea date at the Ritz-Carlton Lobby Lounge, left us thinking where we should go next.

Newens is the home of the original Maids of Honour tart. Its recipe dates back to the time of King Henry VIII and coincidentally, one of my favourite ladies in British history – Anne Boleyn. After the tussle with Catherine of Aragon that was followed by the creation of the Church of England, Anne married the King. She eventually had maids of honour (ladies in waiting) following her around and entertaining her in the ladies’ private chambers. One of these ladies created a tart so exquisitely delicious that Anne got the King to try it.

When the King tasted how good it was, he just knew that he couldn’t share it with others and he decided to have the lady imprisoned and only let out to bake for the Royal Court. Such a Henry VIII move if you ask me. *rolls eyes*

After the lady died, everyone thought that the recipe was forever lost but it resurfaced 200 years later when a palace cook leaked the recipe to a baker named John Billet. In 1850, one of Billet’s apprentices – John Newens – opened his own bakery and used the recipe.

Almost two centuries later, Newens Teahouse is still making the tarts based on that same recipe down to the T. And it has been loved by generations of British people from Winston Churchill to Queen Elizabeth II.

The recipe made its way out of the United Kingdom for the first time last year and landed in Kuala Lumpur – inside Starhill Gallery to be exact.

Sandwiched between Dior and Louis Vuitton, it’s hard to miss Newens. With its posh yet inviting couches and the sweet smell of tea and pastries wafting through the halls of the luxury mall. It can be quite intimidating to some but I find the servers are quite nice and welcoming.

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in Beauty & Fashion, Skincare, Video

Beauty + Video: October Favourites (Matrixyderm, Beauté FX, Dr Jart, Tarte, IOPE, Happy Skin, MAC, Star Wars!)

November 2, 2015

Hello, my dears! Sharing with you my October faves video consisting of skin care and beauty products as well as an app! 😉 Not really a techie but this app has got me head over heels. I think most of you might have already guessed what it is.

Also, allow me to just address three things before we go into the products. 😉

Hope you enjoyed it, my loves! Next post probably won’t be about beauty. I plan to write about a recent realisation I had over diplomatic life. Hope that will also interest you! 😉

Till then,

Carol

in Uncategorized

Travel: Paris Day 1 – Musée de l’Armée + Les Invalides + Napoleon Bonaparte Tomb + Eiffel Tower

October 28, 2015

Back to travel posts! Right after we arrived in Paris, my husband and I freshened up and went straight to exploring for a bit. The first stop was Musée d’Orsay.

And since it’s summer in Paris and it was about two in the afternoon, we found the longest line known to mankind.

Of course, my spirits weren’t dampened. We each have a Paris Pass! Surely, there’s a special line. Yes, there is! But it’s also equally long. *insert disappointed face emoji here 😒*

For those who haven’t heard of the Paris Pass, it’s your ticket to a lot of the attractions in Paris and includes a lot of perks and freebies too. Oh, you can also opt to get a train ticket with them that will give you unlimited Metro rides for the duration of your stay.

Some would say it’s kinda gimmicky but you actually save money and time by using it if you plan to go to a lot of museums and attractions. Since it’s the husband’s first time in Paris, we had a pretty tight itinerary so we could go to a lot of the ‘must-sees’.

Sadly, we had to skip Musée d’Orsay for this trip due to the crazy line. I really wanted to go show him my favourite Renoir which can be found in this museum. 🙁 Weird enough, we didn’t have the same problem with the Louvre. But I’ll talk about this on a different post.

We then moved on to Musée de l’Armée which is something we’re really excited about.

Almost Diplomatic - calorific - Diplomat’s Wife - Travel - Paris - Musée de l'Armée

France’s National Military Museum is located inside Les Invalides. A compound in the 7th Arrondissement that houses a couple of beautiful buildings that relate to the country’s rich military history. Aside from Musée de l’Armée, you can also find a couple of war monuments, a hospital and retirement home for war veterans, and even a former Church that houses Napoleon Bonaparte’s tomb. We’ll get to that in a bit. 😉

 

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in Beauty & Fashion

Beauty + Review: IOPE Air Cushion XP (Cover)

October 23, 2015

So I’m back with another review and this time, we’ll be talking about the IOPE Air Cushion XP which is one of the most popular brands in the market today – both in Korea and in other countries.

IOPE has 3 kinds of this cushion – sheer, natural, and cover. So as the names suggest, sheer provides very minimal coverage and works well in just brightening your skin, natural gives you light coverage, and cover gives pretty good coverage while maintaining the fresh and dewy finish this cushion is famous for.

I got the Air Cushion XP Cover in the shade C23 from Althea Korea. When ordering, do consider that IOPE’s shades are really light so be careful in choosing the shade for your skin tone.

At RM115 (Regular Price: RM199), the Air Cushion has 15g of product and comes with a refill that also contains 15g. So technically, you are getting a beauty product that will last you twice as long than your normal foundation or BB cream.

The compact is similar to the size of the Laneige BB Cushion Pore Control. Looking at the top surface, this compact is pretty standard in size but like the Laneige cushion, the IOPE Air Cushion XP is a bit on the thicker side so it has the tendency to take more space in your makeup bag.

Like most cushions, it comes in with an awesome sponge that applies and blends the product really well just by patting it on to the skin. No swiping as it won’t deposit the foundation properly on your skin.

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in Beauty & Fashion, Skincare

Smart Buys: Support Breast Cancer Awareness while getting Velvety-Smooth Feet with Scholl

October 20, 2015

Just a quickie post to let you lovelies know about something awesome!

I’m all for a good cause and with October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, painting the town pink is something we should all be up for.

I’m sure every one’s familiar with Scholl‘s nifty contraption – the Velvet Smooth Express Pedi. Almost everyone and their mothers are talking about how it gives you smooth and baby-soft feet! 😉 But for those who need a refresher, do allow me to give you a short run through of what this device is all about along with a bit of comments here and there that will serve as my mini review. 😉

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