This Week The Mice Have Mostly Been

Whoop! Let's hear it for Friday!

We've all survived another week, and now a couple of long, languid weekend days of freedom stretch before us. Oh, and Hong Kongers, let's get a double whoop for that extra day of weekend deliciousness we're getting on Monday courtesy of the Brits handing HK back to the Chinese - I heart Hong Kong's neverending bank holidays!

The general theme in Miceland this week appears to be that if summer won't come to us, we'll have to go to summer... Mini Mouse zipped off to Portugal on Thursday and I'm off to Fiji tomorrow in search of some sun. Poor old Middle Mouse will be holding the fort while we're away, but we'll be thinking of her while we laze in our holiday hammocks...

When we haven't been smugly gloating to anyone who'll listen (and lots of people with their fingers in their ears), this week the Mice have mostly been...

Getting all wrapped up in stunning scarfs at the launch party of Era Ora's second collection of scarfs and pocket squares.

It's no secret that us Mice have a bit of a scarf obsession and we've discovered this week that we're pretty keen on pocket squares too... It seems a pop of silk tucked into the top pocket of a man's blazer makes him infinitely more George Clooney-esque and it just so happens that a pocket square doubles nicely as a neckerchief/ ponytail accessory/ makeshift bracelet for us... win, win!

So we were thrilled this week to discover the super fab, Era Ora, a Singaporean accessories label specialising in printed silk and cashmere scarfs and pocket squares. The new collection is inspired by creator and founder, Euny L's, travels with a bit of a surrealist twist, think old world maps and Dali meets Georgia O'Keeffe art prints. Let's just say from the second we clapped our eyes on the collection we were carefully planning how to get our mitts on every single piece!

 

 

 

We toasted the new collection on Thursday evening with champagne and cocktails at Boujis and left with a very, very long Era Ora wishlist...
 

If you want to bag yourself some Era Ora gorgeousness (frankly, who wouldn't?!) you can buy the new collection from various stockists in Singapore and Hong Kong (check the website for details) and for everyone else, everywhere else, visit the online store at www.eraorashop.com.

 

Meating Blue Butcher for an evening of food, wine and lots of fashion natter with the rest of Team Sassy. While I'm a big fan of it's Mexican sister restaurant, Brickhouse, I'd somehow neglected to give steak specialists, Blue Butcher a try until this week. All I can say is BIG mistake... HUGE! Blue Butcher is now firmly on the list of HK favs. 

We arrived and were ushered into a cosy private room complete with some lethally beautiful steak knife chandeliers glinting in the candle-light above our heads...

 

 

Over a couple of pre-dinner drinks we got down to some serious debate on all the most important issues of the day - the Valentino Rockstuds, Topshop Personal Shopping and sequinned blazers... Just as the volume in the room was reaching deafening level, the food began to arrive - cue a roomful of girls falling silent and descending on great plates of deliciousness!

 

We ate family style, sharing several starters and main courses between us. Each and every dish was mind-blowingly good but my favourites were the burrata and tomato salad and the veal cheek, sweet breads and truffle orzo. This is true comfort food - guaranteed to leave you groaningly well-fed! As we scraped our plates clean, the fashion goss recommenced with the ocassional short Instagram/Twitter/FB break...

We finished our feast on a sweet note with maple syrup tart and sugar whipped cream before rolling back down the stairs and onto Hollywood Road - Sassy girls are very clearly not buying into the "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" mantra...

I hear rumours that the truffle fries are life-changing. Nothing for it, a second date with this meaty hunk of a restaurant already in the diary...

Blue Butcher

108 Hollywood Road,

Central District,Hong Kong.

Phone: +852 2613 9286

Website: www.bluebutcher.com

Stopping to smell the roses... and the hydraengas... and the sea holly at my new favourite HK florists, Ellermann.

Nothing makes me happier than fresh flowers scattered around my flat - they brighten even the drabbest, dreariest days and make the house smell amazing. Until this week I'd always grabbed my Hong Kong blooms from the market and then cobbled together a pretty amateur hash of an arrangement as best I could. Gone are those days! This week I popped into Hong Kong flower boutique, Ellermann, a gorgeous little shop in Poho bursting at the seams with stunning flowers and candy coloured Pip Studio homeware. Floral fans this is absolute heaven and I warn you is likely to be your undoing...

I managed to avert my eyes from teapots, cups and saucers and tea towels and headed straight for the buckets of blooms. The lovely Ellermann ladies then asked me a couple of questions about my likes and dislikes and within minutes had whipped up a beautiful bouquet, wrapped it in dove grey tissue and tied it all up with a dusky pink bow. 

Four days on, and my flowers are still going strong.  Ellermann may be a bit more pricey than the market stalls but it's the perfect spot to pick up a present (which obviously includes self-gifting...). And I'm definitely heading back very soon for one of those teapots...

Ellermann
Ground Floor, 36 Tung Street,
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
Phone: +852 2291 0388
Website: www.ellermanndesign.com

Scraping by on minimal sleep after developing a pretty chronic addiction to the awesome Netflix TV series, House of Cards. Yes, I'm well aware that I'm about six hundred years behind everyone else on this one, but given that I've only just discovered Homeland, I'd say I'm actually relatively ahead of the curve for me. With a stellar cast (Kevin Spacey is incredible) and nail-bitingly good storylines, it's pretty much impossible to press the pause button once you start watching. If you've been living under a rock or are equally slow as me at catching on to a good thing, I command you to get watching immediately!

And that's all from us this week! All that remains to be said is - let's get the weekend rolling baby...

x

The Mice

New HK Beauty Hotspot: Flawless

A couple of weeks ago I put together my Hong Kong Beauty Little Black Book and I already have a little update... Say hello to Hong Kong's newest beauty hotspot, Flawless! If you're a fan of Brickhouse's Margaritas, you love Blue Butcher's surf & turf or if no night out's complete without a spin around the danceflor at Play, then you'll be very excited to hear that the people behind these three top nightspots are also responsible for Flawless...

 

 

Slap bang in the centre of town (conveniently in a building just a couple of doors up from Christian Louboutin...) this urban spa specialises in nails, facials and make-up. Having only ever had my make-up done professionally once when I was a bridesmaid last summer, I was very interested to try out the make-up service and jumped at the chance to get a sneaky peek at the spa during the soft opening a couple of Friday's ago...

The spa interior is bright, modern and a little bit quirky - I particularly love the Schiap pink treatment room door which has an Alice in Wonderland-esque feel to it.

The main spa space is divided into two, one half a nail area decked with big, chocolate brown leather sofas to snuggle into while your talons get pimped and the other a make-up area with huge mirrors and a veritable sweet shop of cosmetics filling every surface. Just beyond the make-up area, a wall of French doors open out onto a sofa strewn terrace - the perfect spot to catch some rays while you're beautified.

I arrived a little hot and bothered after a gridlocked taxi ride at rush hour and a brisk jog from the wrong end of Wyndham Street but it was nothing that a glass of the Flawless fresh fruit-infused water couldn't cure!

As I settled into a high stool in front of one of the Hollywood dressing room style mirrors, my make-up artist, Sarah, asked me questions about my usual cosmetic routine and my favourite products.

Having established that I like a light base that still allows my freckles to show through, and a smoky eye with lashings of liner, Sarah got to work, all the while talking me through the products that she was using and dropping in beauty expert hints and tips.

The end result was perfect for my Friday night out - glowy skin and a slight twist on my standard smoky eye - plum tones rather than my usual boring brown. I stupidly didn't get a photo of my finished face, but it lasted all evening and I liked it so much that I snapped up the foundation and powder that Sarah had used on me - both Laura Mercier products (Flawless is the only make-up studio in Hong Kong working with Laura Mercier).

The Flawless make-up artists are super friendly and very knowledgeable about all things beauty related. With fun music playing in the background, the atmosphere is much more getting ready for a night out with your best girlfriends than stuffy spa.

I'll be heading back very soon to give the nails and facials a whirl but I can't recommend the make-up service enough. The ideal solution for a big event or even just for those days when you've forgotten your make-up bag and perfect if you feel like your normal make-up routine needs a little shake-up.

Flawless
4th Floor Sea Bird House
22-28 Wyndham Street
Hong Kong
+852 2869 5868
www.flawless.hk.com