Friday, June 17, 2016
Entering Harry Potter's World: The House of MinaLima in Soho
When I was 5, and I found out magic couldn't be real -- I was legitimately upset. Enter the amazing books of Harry Potter when I was 11, it was a magical and wonderful journey with our prodigal heroes and heroines! As I mentioned in the previous post, when I snooped that the Harry Potter film memorabilia were on display in the real life Grimmauld Place, Mish & I jumped at the chance after our korean meal.
The House of MinaLima is the brainchild of Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima who both met and worked on the HP franchise, and have decided to showcase some brilliant illustrations, props and artwork that have graced our eyes so many times in the last decade... phenomenal stuff, just look on! And if you're ever intrigued about the details of these items used in the film, it's a 10/10 must-see from both Mish & I. (You can read her take on our visit here!)
Wandering through the unassuming streets of Soho, housed inconspicuously in a brown terraced building is the colourful and whacky gallery. Enter and you're greeted with HP and other memorabilia the founders have worked on, and get sucked in deeper into the wizarding world as you ascend the crooked and narrow-winding stairs...
Mish was in her element - exclaiming that she wanted to buy the entire building and plant it wholesale in her future home. I don't disagree. The orange walls on the 2nd floor is tribute to Fred and George's Diagon Alley shop - Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and is riddled with joke and prankster packaging. One of my faves in the gallery!
The Quibbler! The actual Maurauder's Map used in the film! Gdet up close and personal. We spent ages in each room, taking time absorb the magic of a lifetime, and talked excitedly about what we'd do if we were actually in Hogwarts.
The upper atelier is perhaps the most exquisite of all: The Library and Print Room! It stores and displays limited edition print runs of illustrated book covers, posters and designs... with hand-made gold foil. It was freaking intense. We peeped at the price list, but I hastily bade farewell.
The Print Room was undoubtedly my favourite - it had many familiar Daily Prophet covers, and a hilarious spread on wizard ads. Take your time to read time and transport yourself back in that great and surreal world :')
The books annotated and used in the films! If only I could get my hands on one...
Back downstairs, pick up a treat of a pack of HP notebooks for your Potions university lessons. Also be sure to flick through the prints, but don't blame me if you end up going home with one/a few. They are so exquisitely designed, it's like taking home a piece of that magical world. We went home like happy children, excited and delighted.
The House of Minalima is open now and runs till mid next year, so get over there! Also free entry was a big plus ;-)
26 Greek Street
W1D 5DE
London
Let me know if you've already been too, or if you're planning to go! Are y'all a Harry Potter fan (like me)????? SAY YES! Who's your fave character? (Mine is Luna Lovegood)
Sunday, June 12, 2016
You Whom I Love (I)
You Whom I Love is my new (and feeble) attempt to celebrate little joys, commiserate with the Big Questions, and share the love and ideas of others -- posts, pictures or interesting things that's made life that bit more bearable.
Last week was a difficult one, I was very ill and had to make a detour to the hospital (I'm fine now!) and spent a lot of time trying to recover and work was technically challenging (especially when you're terrible at maths like me = excel hell) so it was a long, exasperated week.
When you spend a lot of time in your head (and bed), it's stifling and uninspiring. For all the melodrama that I hold dear, You Whom I Love seemed fitting - dramatic, melancholic and perhaps uplifting.
Here are just some interesting things that helped me get through a long, long week:
+ Finally well enough to drop by The Travel Cafe for a rainy drink yesterday
Our neighborhood café is finally open! It's cute and have super cool chairs, with books and games on the shelf... great for long thoughts or quick coffee. It's definitely the most stylish addition to the area, with others being more modern and industrial. Looking forward to watching this little space grow~
+ Highlight of the week: meeting Mish for lunch at Seoul Bakery and traveled to a magical place that is The House of Minalima
We ordered way too much, but it was a hilarious time spent talking about Asian food, strange friends and moments in life, yum. She's a cool kid, y'all. Also has way too many things in life, but really awesome things.
We walked off all that rice by venturing into a magical portal, where the unassuming streets of scaffolding hid one of Soho's newest, and greatest treasure: where every Harry Potter maven goes to play pretend (but this is real life, isn't it?) in the wonderful oddity of Minalima...A Harry Potter exhibition with props and illustrations from the franchise! Amazing.
Only a few snaps as I'll include a full-length commentary later in the week ;-) Matt has convinced me to return very soon as he totally geeked out as I told him about our time there.
Other things I really enjoyed:
+ Reading Alex's post on getting lost in life but gradually finding your way back slowly - a reminder that we are all brave in our own ways
+ Discovering Flora's blog and reading about the musings that I can't quite put into words (or no longer being able to, sadly) makes me feel that much less lonely
+ Hanh's awesome pastel outfit is some serious color inspiration for the more sunny (but humid) climes we've been having
+ My friend Lilly who's a legit writer, shared a moment and how we relate to someone close to us in the most inexplicable way
As you can tell, lots of reading and rediscovering smaller moments in life and trying to make sense of it all... hope y'all had a nice weekend, let me know what you've been up to! I'm really excited to travel home in two weeks and the stress of packing has begun ;-)
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Spring makeup with Sam from MyBeautyCloud
Hi friends, today I'll quit the talking and let my homegurl Sam from MyBeautyCloud do the profesh beauty talk on her take on spring makeup – my tendency to talk to strangers online have spawned into beautiful friendships :') Sam is super cool and living that Cali life so she knows what she's on about, okay?! And if you pop over her blog, show her all the lurve.
We've been werkin hard on this collab so you can head over to see my completely awkward makeup talk as well, so let us know what you think!
Cue the symbolic drum roll...
I know it sounds cliche just to even mention it, but can anybody believe that we’re almost halfway through the year? Yeah, crazy, I know.
And I also know that it means spring is coming to a close as summer approaches, but I couldn’t help but NOT share a spring look with ya’ll before all the beach vibes and dewy makeup looks come out. #nomakeupmakeup?
With my spring makeup, I went for a light, feminine look in the most obvious way possibly - utilizing Ametista, the pink and Tempesta, the purple from my 24 Karat Skate Deck Tokidoki eyeshadow palette.
This look is actually quite nostalgic for me because it used to be my go-to look in high school whenever I wore a certain shirt. I got some compliments too, which just reinforced how much I enjoyed this look.
To start off, I do my normal foundation routine which just includes my TonyMoly Egg Pore Primer and my Almay foundation. I know for spring usually calls for a lighter coverage or even a glow, but I haven’t quite found the products that will do that for me, so I stick with what I know.
The bigger part for me is the eyes! I’m usually not a person to go for colored eyeshadows because they seem so… bold. However, the pink and purple from this are fairly buildable and I don’t think it’s going over the top at all. ;P
Because I don’t use an eyeshadow primer, I go straight towards the pink with a big fluffy brush to cover my entire lid. Then, with a smaller blending brush I use the purple on the edge of my eyelid, like creating a smoky look but with more feminine colors.
To finish them up, I pick up my L’Oreal Super Slim liquid eyeliner to create a long cateye, a style I’ve been getting into more recently. I find the L’Oreal Super Slim an awesome drugstore option as opposed to the Sephora Classic Line 24-Hour eyeliner, the biggest difference being that I don’t think it’ll work well on oily skin/eyelids (I have dry skin so it’s not a big deal). Unless you have a bomb primer to keep it in place, it could get smudgy if you’re prone to oily lids.
I usually skip the mascara (not on purpose) but you really can’t see my eyelashes anyway so....
Instead of doing a full-on contour, I mainly stuck to highlighting for this look when it came to the rest of my face. I like using my Carnivora eyeshadow as I love the color and it’s pigmented enough, but I recently picked up the e.l.f. Baked Highlighter which is a gorgeous color, just not as pigmented as I’d want it to be, nor as buildable (but hey, when it’s only $3 you can’t complain).
Aaaand, to finish this look off, I used my Maybelline lipstick in Blushing Bud (see, even the name calls out for this time of year) that I recently picked up. It looks darker in the tube but when you put it on it’s more like a pale pink, which I thought was very suitable for the spring time!
That’s pretty much it - my spring makeup look!
We've been werkin hard on this collab so you can head over to see my completely awkward makeup talk as well, so let us know what you think!
Cue the symbolic drum roll...
I know it sounds cliche just to even mention it, but can anybody believe that we’re almost halfway through the year? Yeah, crazy, I know.
And I also know that it means spring is coming to a close as summer approaches, but I couldn’t help but NOT share a spring look with ya’ll before all the beach vibes and dewy makeup looks come out. #nomakeupmakeup?
With my spring makeup, I went for a light, feminine look in the most obvious way possibly - utilizing Ametista, the pink and Tempesta, the purple from my 24 Karat Skate Deck Tokidoki eyeshadow palette.
This look is actually quite nostalgic for me because it used to be my go-to look in high school whenever I wore a certain shirt. I got some compliments too, which just reinforced how much I enjoyed this look.
To start off, I do my normal foundation routine which just includes my TonyMoly Egg Pore Primer and my Almay foundation. I know for spring usually calls for a lighter coverage or even a glow, but I haven’t quite found the products that will do that for me, so I stick with what I know.
The bigger part for me is the eyes! I’m usually not a person to go for colored eyeshadows because they seem so… bold. However, the pink and purple from this are fairly buildable and I don’t think it’s going over the top at all. ;P
Because I don’t use an eyeshadow primer, I go straight towards the pink with a big fluffy brush to cover my entire lid. Then, with a smaller blending brush I use the purple on the edge of my eyelid, like creating a smoky look but with more feminine colors.
To finish them up, I pick up my L’Oreal Super Slim liquid eyeliner to create a long cateye, a style I’ve been getting into more recently. I find the L’Oreal Super Slim an awesome drugstore option as opposed to the Sephora Classic Line 24-Hour eyeliner, the biggest difference being that I don’t think it’ll work well on oily skin/eyelids (I have dry skin so it’s not a big deal). Unless you have a bomb primer to keep it in place, it could get smudgy if you’re prone to oily lids.
I usually skip the mascara (not on purpose) but you really can’t see my eyelashes anyway so....
Instead of doing a full-on contour, I mainly stuck to highlighting for this look when it came to the rest of my face. I like using my Carnivora eyeshadow as I love the color and it’s pigmented enough, but I recently picked up the e.l.f. Baked Highlighter which is a gorgeous color, just not as pigmented as I’d want it to be, nor as buildable (but hey, when it’s only $3 you can’t complain).
Aaaand, to finish this look off, I used my Maybelline lipstick in Blushing Bud (see, even the name calls out for this time of year) that I recently picked up. It looks darker in the tube but when you put it on it’s more like a pale pink, which I thought was very suitable for the spring time!
That’s pretty much it - my spring makeup look!
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