Mia's Review: Chicken Up [1-for-1 Bingsu GIVEAWAY]

After my first visit to Chicken Up some time back while on a food trail event, I finally got to return to their newest branch located at Centrepoint along with fellow bloggers Oyhz, Michhysaurous and Susan Wong. 

I'm really thankful to be exclusively invited to try out their latest addition to the menu, the snow squid topokki!

But first let's get back to Chicken Up first. Do you know that they first started up in 2010 in Singapore with a vision to provide a casual dining experience and introduce some of the authentic Korean food here, and it's their 7th year with us this year!

 Grapefruit Sojurita - $20

If you've tried their usual sojurita before, you'll fully understand the 'soju problem' when you get to the bottom of the cup, when all the syrup infused portion of the drink was gone and all you've left with is the bitter soju straight from the upturned bottle. But this eliminated your woes!
Replacing the usual soju with grapefruit flavoured sweeten soju, you're now assured with a yummy sweetness down to your very last sip!

Assorted Lightbulb Drinks - $6

Left to Right: Matcha Latte, Mango, Strawberry Banana, Blue Lemon

Seriously, how can you not want to order every single one of them to take a group picture? 

#woesofaninstagramaddict

While the strawberry banana looks really pretty in a dusty, creamy pink colour, it tasted a lot more like a banana smoothie instead. Too little strawberry taste, probably because banana by itself usually overpowers all other tastes. 

I've never had a banana-something flavoured food that didn't taste all banana-ish. Have you? 

Bulgogi Fries - $18

Probably one of their most popular dishes, Chicken Up's bulgogi fries is made up of crispy golden fries piled up and topped with bulgogi (beef marinated in soy sauce), drizzled over with white garlic sauce and added with spring onions and corianders to garnish.

I didn't try this as I do not take beef for religious reason, but I do love their kimchi cousin! 

Ugly Tang (Army Base Stew) - $30 (Serves 2 pax)

The reason why Chicken Up named it Ugly Tang is because.... it's ugly. If you're an instagram-foodie, I reckon you will understand. But not that much of an understanding from me though, because I'm a huge fan of budae jjigae so they look good in all angles to me. 

And before you start to think I'm trolling on you.... It's really called Ugly Tang. 

They even have a U R Ugly Tang Set! 

Well, that was the before pic and it takes you about 15 minutes of simmering to get to this stage. Full of spams, chicken franks, korean chewy rice cakes, enoki mushroom, and ramyun, how can one not fall in love instantly with this incredibly tasty (and unhealthy) pot of yumminess? 

Chicken Up has also added something unusual into their Ugly Tang, and that's (if you haven't seen it at the top right hand corner of the pot) macaroni! 

The macaroni does taste a little bit strange (especially if you aren't a fan of it when it's not drenched in cheese) in the jjigae, but it might just be me for the feedback Chicken Up received on the addition was quite a good one. 

I'll say, try it out and decide for youself! 

But do note that this will serve two pax provided you ONLY order this stew. Servings aren't that little, so it can probably feed up to 4 pax if you'll prefer to have slightly more dishes on your table. 

Snow Squid Topokki (UFO Topokki) - $39 (Serves 2 Pax)

The first word that came from all of us when this baby was served was, "WHOA!"
And the taste of this was whoa indeed!
A huge platter with topokki (spicy rice cake) in the middle, topped with one whole fried snow squid, and surrounded by side dishes such as caramelised kimchi, corn cheese, melted cheese, steamed egg and kimchi bokkeumbap (kimchi fried rice), this is as good as a mini buffet served on stove.

And don't worry about that snow squid, for it shall be cut nicely for you at your table.

The squid is tender, slightly chewy and tasted really fresh. If you're quick-handed enough to not let the fried batter get utterly drenched in the flavourful topokki sauce, you shall be rewarded with a mouthful of fresh seafood that's crispy on the outside and succulent on the inside.
The topokki was super yummy as well, just spicy enough for you to feel the shiokness and yet not too overpowering.

Watermelon Bingsu - $18

Having their watermelon bingsu once again after 2 years, still as good!
(Read my previous review HERE)

And now, do you wish to have a tasty of these yummy, creamy dessert with a friend?
So, it's going to be a bingsu giveaway time!

I have with me TEN numbers of 1-for-1 Korean Bingsu voucher for giveaway, courtesy of Chicken Up!
Just head down to Chicken Up's instagram account (HERE) and FOLLOW, before coming back here and leave me a comment with your instagram handle and email by 8th March. 
It's really that simple!

ps. I will also be holding another giveway for a 4-piece soya chicken wings redemption voucher on my instagram at a later date, so do keep an eye for it!

Chicken Up (Centrepoint) is located at
Centrepoint #01-33H, 176A Orchard Road

For more information, visit their facebook HERE.

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Mia's Review: Get Glowy Skin with Avalon Stem Cell Beauty Drink! [Advertorial]

Dryness, dullness, wrinkles, sagging. Are your poor diet and living habits costing you your chance of having glowing, younger looking skin? And as if that's not bad enought, time is liken to a thief, slowly and quietly stealing our youth away, leaving behind signs of aging on our faces. Wouldn’t it be good if we can turn back time and lock up our youth so that we can look younger than our biological age?

And what if I tell you, you can easily achieve that by solving 6 different skin problems with just 1 small bottle a day?

AVALON ™ Stem Cell Beauty Drink can help us to restore our youthful, healthy complexion by giving us 6 benefits:

1. Rejuvenates our damaged skin cells

2. Helps reduce wrinkles and fine lines

3. Helps tighten sagging skin by restoring skin's firmness and elasticity

4. Helps brighten dull skin

5. Helps tighten pores

6. Hydrate dry skin by locking in moisture

AVALON ™ Stem Cell Beauty Drink the first beauty drink in Singapore that contains Young Orchid Stem Cells. Enhanced with Litchi Seed Extract, Premium French Marine Collagen and a combination of Fruit Extracts, where taken together helps to repair and rejuvenate our skin cells, retain skin’s moisture, brighten skin tone, tighten pores, improve skin firmness and reduces appearance of wrinkles and fine lines, resolving 6 major skin problems with just one product!

Orchid symbolizes luxury, love, strength and beauty. It represents refinement and perfection. With more than 25,000 species of orchids and over 100,000 hybrids growing throughout the world, these exotic flowers have been a part of many cultures since a long time back. Orchids were used to promote good health and cure diseases by the ancient Chinese, ancient Aztecs brewed a strength potion from its flowers to obtain power over their enemies, Europeans used it in Love potions and the Geeks used it for fertility. 

Today, Orchid extracts (the flower as a whole) are use in multiple varieties of products including hair care, body care, and skincare products. However researchers have found a breakthrough in an untapped part of Orchids; its stem cells. 

And guess what, unlike other beauty drinks in the market with thick texture and strong flavour, AVALON ™ Stem Cell Beauty Drink is made with Sparkling Water that not only adds a refreshing twist to conventional beauty drinks, but in fact sparkling water actually helps to boost nutrients absorption & promotes skin metabolism! The result is a beauty drink that tastes awesome: both tangy and sweet, light and refreshing. 

It's a common myth to think that taking collagen alone is sufficient to fight signs of aging and keep our complexion youthful. However, taking collagen alone is actually insufficient to fight signs of aging. Fundamental to having good skin is maintaining healthy skin cells. To fully benefit from any oral beauty supplements or skincare, it is important to have healthy skin cells to fully absorb and locks in the skin beneficial nutrients. Researchers has discovered that the Orchid Stem Cell is a powerful antioxidant and possesses strong anti-inflammatory properties, particularly young orchid stem cells, which protect the skin from environmental damages while hydrating and renewing our skin cells thus making it an excellent youth revitaliser which works on almost all skin types.

I highly recommend that you store these drinks in the fridge and drink them chilled for an even better taste enjoyment, before bedtime. For 1st timers, drink 1 bottle every night for 7 consecutive nights for maximum results. 

In 7 days you can feel your skin being more supple and hydrated, and in 28 days (our skin renews itself every 28 days) you can see your skin tone brightens up looking more radiant, pores appears to be tighter, wrinkles and fine lines will also look lighter now that your skin is more supple. 

AVALON ™ Stem Cell Beauty Drink retails at only $69.90 for a box of 10 and is available at:

Watsons, Unity Pharmacy, ALT, OG, Robinsons, Yue Hwa & www.hibeau.com

You can get 20% OFF by entering code TSS-20OFF at checkout on hibeau.com 

20% OFF when entering code TSS-20OFF at checkout. Only for purchase online at HERE 

Do head over to SampleStore's FACEBOOK as they are running a giveaway today (17th October) and giving out full sets of AVALON ™ Stem Cell Beauty Drink to 5 lucky winners! In the meanwhile,  head over to Sample Store to read more reviews of AVALON ™ Stem Cell Beauty Drink.

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia's Review: Tony Moly Hug Me Hair Removal Cream

Yup, finally I'm squeezing in a non-sponsored review after a while. Been busy with work (handing over of my projects and getting ready for my new job) recently so I was kind of struggling to keep up with the blog assignment deadlines. 

But now, here it is! A review of Tony Moly's Hug Me hair removal cream. 

So, a hair removal cream that not only works in 5 to 10 minutes, but also soothes and moisturises, leaving our skin smooth and soft? 

Well, let's put it to the test...

On my fat and hairy legs.

I'm always too lazy to shave/epilate my legs, don't judge me. 

As the product comes in a handy squeeze tube, dispensing the cream directly onto the skin surface was a breeze.

And with the curved surface of the plastic applicator that came along with the product, spread out the cream evenly such that every strand of hair is covered. 

As the cream is light and slightly watery, spreading and evening it out was effortless using the applicator. Scent wise, there was a subtle 'ammonia' smell, but nothing unbearable and can also be easily overpowered and neglected with your own room scent that might come from a reed diffuser or scented candle. 

As for the efficacy, I have to say that leaving in on for 5 minutes on my hair didn't work, at all. 10 minutes didn't work brillantly, either.

Undeterred, I applied a little bit more cream and left them on for another 5 minutes (15 minutes in total) before I started using the end of the applicator to start scraping the cream off, which takes away almost all of the hair along with it.

As for the remaining few, they came off easily enough with just a light to medium scrubbing motion of my fingers and viola~

Hairless legs!

True enough, my legs didn't feel dry and tight at all. Instead, it felt soft and smooth to the touch, and obviously, hairless!

Tony Moly Hug Me is available on Qoo10 HERE

On a side note, since spring is almost here, I've collaborated with a few other fellow lifestyle & beauty bloggers to bring you #SpringTreatGiveaway on instagram! One lucky winner will walk away with $180 in PayPal cash plus $80 shop credit from wishtrend. For more information for this awesome giveaway and how to participate, check out my instagram post!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia's International Giveaway!

Yup yup, I've decided to host another small giveaway for all my readers. Before I ramble on about how to join this giveaway, shall we take a look at my humble prizes? 

Well, let me warn you, they're really worthy of the description of humble.

First up, the 'mains' of this giveaway, the full sized retail beauty items. 

1. Tony Moly Mr. Smile Patch & Kiss Kiss Lovely Lip Patch

2. Tony Moly Panda's Dream So Cool Eye Stick

3. Belleme U Can Cover Concealer (No.2 Medium) 

4. Nivea Lip Butter (Original)

Then we have some travel sized & Minis 

1. NOV Face Lotion (toner)

2. Creme 21 Body Milk for Dry Skin

3. Pond's Age Miracle Firm & Lift Day Cream SPF 30 PA+++

4. Schwarzkopf Gliss Hair Repair Shampoo (for normal to stressed hair)

5. Loreal Paris Keratin Smooth 72H Perfecting Shampoo (for rough, unmanageable hair)

6. Klarity Lasertox CC Miracle White Lotion SPF 30 PA++

7. Bliv Squeaky Clean beads cleansing gel & Off With Those Heads blackhead sebum gel

8. The Face Shop Mango Seed Emulsion & Moisturiser

9. Nature Republic Snail Therapy 80 Emulsion

10. Hada Labo Super Hyaluronic Acid Hydrating Lotion

11. Pixi Lip Gloss in Ice Crystal

Then comes the sachet samples...

From beauty brands like....

1. NOV

2. belif

3. goodal

4. White Formula

5. The Face Shop

6. Tony Moly

7. Skinfood

8. Dr. Jart+

9. AquaMoist

10. GoodSkin Labs

11. Orbis

12. Etude House

13. Loreal Paris

And wipes from...

1. FrG

2. Zappy

Giveaway will run for 1 month and ends on 6th Feb 2015 at 2359 hrs and I'll randomly pick out 2 winners via rafflecopter.

This is going to be an international giveaway, so just check out the rafflecopter below and join in!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Lush Christmas Party & Giveaway

Just last week, I was really lucky to be able to RSVP for a small Christmas Party held at Lush Wisma Atria, and we got to make our own Cinders bath bomb and create cute Snowman with their Fun soap. 

And of course, the event was filled with happy colours and yummy scents of their bath goodies. Seriously all of their soaps, bath bombs and bubble bars can totally pass off as desserts. 

This is just too cute! And I'm actually thinking of baking sugar cookies in this shape to give friends this Christmas. 

Don't they remind you of French macarons? Lemon and Lavender flavours. There's another one that looks like Earl Grey and another like Raspberry too. 

More cuteness in these penguins and snow angels. Man, I seriously need to get myself a bath tub!

You can also find shampoo and conditioner bars at Lush too!

And now, let's get down to business. Making our own Cinders bath bomb!

 Their bubbly and cheery staff first gave us a demonstration on how to get a pretty, smooth surfaced bath bomb.

And the rest of us follow suit. I'm not going to lie to you. It was pretty chaotic.

But we still made it! There's mine, Cynthia's and Emily's. Oyhz left hers at the other end of the table, hence not in the bath bomb group picture. Heh!

And after we're done with the Cinders bath bomb, a tray of ice-cold Fun soap was brought out on a tray, and it was their Christmas edition.
White, black, orange... feels familiar?

Yup, you can make a snowman our of it! Or maybe a soapman is a better description.

And so we decided to take a chill pill and relax one corner to let the others have a go at it first.
The result?
They totally ran out of white and the Lush staff brought out the gold one (honey flavoured) instead.

Left with no choice, I made a burger out of the colours...

While Emily made a snail....

And Cynthia made a very melty tanned snowman. Hahaha! Her hands were warmer, which is why the more she mould, the meltier her snowman became.
Oyhz's creation was a heart shape and we all forgot to snap a picture of it before she popped it into her paper bag.
And yes, for the fun soap, keeping them in room temperature (since SG is hot and humid) will make them melt. So if you want to keep your Fun soap hard, do keep them in a ziplock bag and pop them in the fridge.

And now, for my mini Lush giveaway!

Guess what?

 

Yes, it's one Cinders bath bomb and one bar of Snowcake soap for one lucky winner!
I've decided to make this a simple giveaway for my instagram followers!
Just head over to my Instagram (follow the link), follow, look for my Lush giveaway post and tag your Lush-loving friends in the comments!
Giveaway shall end on 24th December 11:59pm!
Good Luck!

Till then,
Mia Foo

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