LOHAS stands for "Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability". Be Lohas is a restaurant that is committed to promote healthy vegetarian cuisine which promises their customers only the best, delicious healthy organic dishes. I was invited to try the very healthy and organic food at Be Lohas , a restaurant under BMS Organics two weeks ago. The Be Lohas outlet in One Utama is next to Cold Storage and opposite Obanhmi. It serves as both an F &B outlet and a retail store. The store was medium sized. It could fit about 50 ish people. The tables were very close together. BMS Organics started promoting healthy organic vegetarian lifestyles since 1997. While there were many vegetarian shops out there, many of their dishes contained MSG, GMO ingredients, preservatives, pesticides and were prepared with high temperature deep frying. BMS wanted to be the first in the market to provide genuinely clean and healthy food. Be Lohas Healthy Cuisine organic Cafe was first introduced in 2007 with their outlet in Bandar Puteri Puchong. They now have 16 outlets around KL and another 46 retail outlets. Check out their FB page here. I brought along the Grumpy Cat and his family for the review because good food needs to be enjoyed with good company. Before our meal came, we were each given two complimentary organic Spirulina pills to chew and a cup of lemon grass ginger tea. It even came with instructions! Never have I been to a restaurant where I needed to take pills first before I eat. This was rather exciting for me. Out of the 4 of us that day, 3 of us were completely new to this experience.
"What is this foreign pill that I am about to consume?"
Questions running in our head were "Should we really be eating this?" , "MMM, let's smell it first? ", "Okay, Smells like an ordinary vitamin pill". However, the grumpy cat's mom, who is not a stranger to such organic restaurants assured us that it was a very okay and even a healthy thing to do. To read about the benefits of Spirulina click here to be directed to the Wikipedia page or here to read an article about it on Live Strong. The lemon grass ginger tea was really good. If I hadn't already got my months' supply of tea in the office, I would have definitely bought it. I would not mind drinking only that for the rest of the day. #GoodTea #IReallyLikeTea
It was really good tea!
Aunty ordered the famous " 5 Colours Energy Lei Cha". Though the dish was completely foreign to me, I have to say it was a very Instragram worthy dish.
What it looked like in the menu.
All the pretty colours! According to aunty, you are supposed to have different colours of vegetables and fruits a day. Each colour nourishes different parts of our organs. You can read about it in the Be Lohas E-Book Menu here. This is the Lei Cha's "soup". You're supposed to combine all the ingredients given with your rice and then soak it with the soup given.
Look at this colourful and healthy goodness
It was such a fun dish to have. It felt like you were playing masak-masak. Taste wise, Aunty gave it a 7/10. When I asked her what could be improved more about it, she said that she wished it had more taste but that would mean adding MSG. She says that maybe her tastebuds were already used to food with so much MSG that when she ate something as healthy as this, it taste very plain and bland. Health wise however, she gave it a big 10/10! I did give it a try myself. I've never had Lei Cha before so I don't think I'm the right person to review it. It did taste very 'green' though. I later realised from tasting that the soup was actually made out of mint. Definitely gave my tastebuds a good jolt! It was something new for me that I got to experience. However, I don't think I could order it in the future. It's way to "green" for my liking. Grumpy Cat got himself the Soy Cheese Baked Spiral with Tomato Sauce.
What it looked like in the menu.
In my opinion, this was the best dish among all of them. It was so cheesy. I was under the impression that soy cheese would not taste as good as regular cheese but I was wrong. In fact, it was way cheesier but tasted less 'heavy' (or ' zhai' in chinese) which meant that I could eat way more! I stole this dish after trying it and he ended up eating the rest of mine. Inside the dish was spiral spaghetti, vegetables and more cheese that have been mixed with tomato sauce and it was goooooood. I wold give it an 8/10.It was missing more points was because I kept thinking that some ground beef or pepperoni slices would have gone so well with the dish. Oh well, you can't have best of both worlds. The Grumpy Cat's younger brother was not too pleased to come along. Being a teen, I don't think eating healthy was his interest yet. However, I do see a new trend emerging among the young to be fit ,strong and healthy. Maybe he had not picked up on it yet. He got himself a Pesto Sauce Spaghetti
What it looked like in the menu.
Doesn't it look delicious?
I love how they had olives and pecans in them. The younger brother however was not a fan, He mentioned that the dish had no taste and felt like he was eating plain noodles. He playfully gave the dish a rating of 3 but later changed it to 5.
But doesn't it look like a pretty dish?
I tried the dish as well, and I have to agree that it was rather tasteless. Maybe there was not enough pesto sauce. However, it did taste very clean . I would give it a 5 as well. I believe that it would have tasted better if there was more tasteful ingredients or more sauce. I ordered myself their "Rainbow Claypot Rice"
What it looked like in the menu.
*GAAAAH. I was editing the pictures and then accidentally deleted all the pictures of this dish*
Sigh blogger fail.
Never mind, I'll
This picture was taken from www.selinawing.com . She blogged about Be Lohas as well.
I enjoyed this dish. It had a mix of flavours that the spaghetti was lacking. The rise was cooked well. I would give it a 7/10. I only wish they had some of those fake meat in it. (Haha, I don't think I can ever be vegetarian, I want meat in everything). Maybe fake salted fish? Or a fried egg?
This picture was from secret-spices.blogspot.com .
I could not finish the entire thing on my own. Had to share with the Grumpy Cat. He enjoyed the dish as well. He said it tasted like 'usual clay pot rice, just without the meat and way healthier"
I surely did enjoy myself. I think the lesson I learnt today was that tasty and flavourful food does not always translate to healthy food. Sometimes, you just need to go back to basics and have a clean , green meal! After our meal, we walked around a bit in their retail outlet. They had a large selection of products to choose from. Some of them were even at really reasonable prices. I don't think I could ever bring myself to go fully organic or vegetarian. I have been influenced by the wonders of burgers and tacos way too much. However, it would be something I turn to whenever I feel like my body needs a cleanse. Do give Be Lohas a visit if you're ever looking for a clean, healthy and green meal. LG 310, One Utama Shopping Mall (New Wing), 1 Persiaran Bandar Utama, Bandar Utama, 47800 Petaling Jaya, Selangor D.E. Tel: 03-7725 0828 Business Hours : Mon-Thurs & Sun : 10am-10pm / Fri-Sat : 10am-10.30pm Website: http://www.bmsorganics.com/home/ Want to keep in touch? Follow my daily adventures and escapades on Instagram! Labels: adverts, food, health, kl, malaysia, reviews 0 lovely comments ✿
After a recent visit to KO Skincare specialist, I realized there were a couple of things in my daily skin care routine that I have been doing wrong this entire time. I thought I'd share them with you .
Thanks for having me KO Skincare Specialist! They told me to come bare faced. I guess it made sense. I was visiting a dermatologist after all.
I went to their outlet in Damansara. I was afraid that it would be hard to find but the large KO Skincare Specialist signage made the outlet easy to spot. I was expecting to be greeted with a spa or beauty saloon like environment. I was surprised to find myself in an actual clinic. It was a very "shit got real" moment for me. Like, I'm at an actual clinic now. I'm going to see a real doctor. Not just a random person who went to beauty school. I had to fill up a patient form. They had the usual nurse at the reception and pharmacist dispensing the 'medications'. This was an actual professional clinic. It made me feel assured that I was getting good treatment and professional advice. Another thing I noticed was that everyone working at KO Skincare Specialist had awesome skin! I wanted to take pictures of all of them but they were all too shy.
But I managed to take a picture of Dr Loh and her colleague. Both of them were consulting me.
I went in for my consultation and found out a great deal of helpful information. 1. Do you always wash your face with face soap/ cleanser ? Did you know that some types of face cleansers could be harmful to your face? Everyone's face is different and would react to different things but at the end of the day, putting too much of anything on your face is bad. The reason why washing your face with soap / cleanser could be bad? "In a nutshell, soap can mess with your face’s natural oil balance. The ingredients in typical face soaps can be pretty cringe-worthy, such as sodium lauryl sulfate, a chemical that was listed as causing “possible mutilations and cancer” by the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Reviews. Soap strips your skin of its natural oils and can cause that tight, dry feeling I used to experience twice a day. “Feeling squeaky clean — we don't want to go there. It's too aggressive," Dr. Patricia Farris, a fellow at the American Academy of Dermatology, told The Wall Street Journal. Signs of harmful stripping to your skin are stinging, burning, and irradiation, Farris explained. In fact many doctors advise that most people without serious skin issues such as acne, only need to wash their face once everyday day, before they go to bed, The Wall Street Journal reported." The above was adapted from the website, Medical Daily. To read the whole article, click here. However, don't get me wrong. Not all facial soaps / cleansers are bad for you. Some are not as strong and much gentler on the skin. Remember to always look out for toxic ingredients and consult with a more knowledgeable professional. Before visiting KO Skincare Specialist, I was washing my face with a cleanser only once a day and the rest of the time, I used water alone. For a list of toxic ingredients to avoid in your beauty products, click here. I was given the KO Dermacare Purifying Cleansing Gel(220ml / RM198) to try out. I will be putting up a review about it soon. I was assured that it was safe for my skin to use. I could even use it twice a day without worrying about it damaging my face. Best of all, it doubles up as a makeup remover! 2. Do you use face scrubs instead of a facial soap/ cleanser? Does your daily face soap/cleanser have bits of 'scrubbing' pieces on them like below? If so, then you might be using a bit too much of it. I used to think that the harder and more often I scrub my skin, the more dirt would come off thus, the cleaner my face. However what I didn't know that as I was scrubbing harder and harder, I was also removing my skin's protective layer. I remember Dr Loh saying to me, if you remove your protective layer, what is going to protect you face? She also mentioned that too much scrubbing will also cause your skin to be dehydrated . That is because having no protective layer on your skin causes the moisture to seep out of your skin cells. Scrubbing your skin does bring benefits like opening clogged pores, removing dead skin, smoothing the texture of the skin and encouraging new collagen formation but too much scrubbing may lead to dryness, dehydration, ageing and destruction of healthy cells. 3. Do you frequently use blackhead strips? I love using blackhead strips. It makes me feel like i'm removing all the 'dirtyness' from my skin. I feel extremely accomplished when I see all the tiny blackheads on the strip after yanking it out. I love it so much that I even put them on the Grumpy Cat. And then I would compare both of our results and see who is more 'geng'.
The strip of victory. Not mine, I'm not that disgusting kay. I took it off Google.
So I mentioned this during my consultation and Dr Loh mentioned that although the strips does get the blackheads out, it just leaves an empty hole behind. If nothing is put to cover the hole, dust can just go back in again. Also, contrary to many believes, these nose strips only removes the black heads on the surface of your nose. They don't even touch the ones that are deep inside. Dr Loh mentioned that rather than focusing of removing the blackheads, we should instead treat them and let them naturally come out. Lastly and most scarily, did you know that if you keep pulling out your blackheads, the blackhead holes on your nose will actually become bigger.
You imagine if your nose looks like this. Cannot. Cannot.
According to Dr Loh, it is best that you only use blackhead strips one every 1 or 2 weeks. I was given the Ko Dermacare Vitality Purifying Essence (30ml / RM 120) to try. According to Dr Loh, I was to put it on acne and blackhead prone areas. I will be reviewing it soon. 4. How do you apply your sunscreen? Sunscreen is a must especially now that our entire lives are revolved around looking at computer, phone and TV screens. Putting on sunscreen is important, but are you putting it on correctly? Did you know that if you do not put on sunscreen correctly, it won't work and give you the protection you need? For example, I learn from my visit at KO Skincare Specialist that sunscreen is not meant to be rubbed onto your face but dapped on instead. To find out more about the right ways to apply sunscreen click here. I was given the KO Dermaceutical Perfect Block Plus Skin Perfecting Cream with SPF 80 PA+++ (30g / RM380) to try. It doubles up as a sunscreen and a foundation. I will be reviewing it soon. 5. Does your skin feel tight whenever you use your beauty products? Contrary to popular believe, tight skin does not mean that your face is cleaner. Instead, it means that it is dehydrated. If you're products makes your skin feel tight after using them, then you're using products that are too harsh for your skin type. Tight skin is a sign that the skin has been stripped of all its water, therefore causing surfacing dead skin build up. Too strong products for your skin can not only cause skin to be dry and flaky, but increase the appearance of emotion lines and often triggers breakouts. To read about other surprising skin care mistakes, click here.
I took another picture of Dr Loh without her noticing. She had flawless skin. I was like a fan girl.
Other products that I got to get my skin back into shape were:
KO Dermaceutical Perfect Radiance Toner (120ml / RM198)
KO Dermaceutical Perfect C Serum 23 (40ml / RM280)
Ko Dermacare Aqua Hydrating Moisturizer I (60g / RM280)
I will be posting a review on all their products soon.
They were ever so nice. They saw that I was getting a little flustered with all the new products. What to put first, apply what where, that they even took the time to draw out a chart for my morning and night routines. I love it when people go the extra mile to give you great service. Find out more about KO Skincare Specialist on their website here and the FB page here.
You can now purchase KO Skincare Specialist products online
at http://www.drkoskincare.com/
Download the KO Skincare Specialist mobile app to receive a
RM20.00 e-voucher code (you will find the e-voucher code displayed under the
Promotion Tab). One (1) redemption per account and it is valid with the 20%
storewide discount.
Apple App Store – https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ko-skin-specialist/id959443985?mt=8
The Dr. Ko Skin Specialist headquarters is located at:
Klinik Pakar Kulit Ko Sdn Bhd
10A-22A, Jalan Temoh,
Off Jalan Goh Hock Huat,
41400 Klang, Selangor,
Malaysia.
T:+603 3343 3140
You can also head over to http://www.koskinspecialist.com/to find the complete list of branches.
Telephone: 1-800-22-33-22
To read about "The Real Dirt On Face Washing" by the Wall Street Journal, click here. Want to keep in touch? Follow my daily adventures and escapades on Instagram! Labels: adverts, health, kl, malaysia, me, reviews 0 lovely comments ✿
I don't think I'm going to run down every detail that happened like my previous Pageant Diaries post. Partially because I can't remember them as well anymore and also because well, I'm plain lazy. That does not mean that I will stop answering your questions though. Keep them coming at sabrinaclilian@gmail.com Day 1 I arrived early at Corus Hotel which meant that I could take my time unpacking and getting myself comfortable with my 'home' for the next one week. I was put in the first room. I kept my door open so I could greet all the girls as they arrived. The room was not bad. I've stayed in better hotels but I was not complaining. Internet however, was a problem. How do you put 20 beauty queens together and only allow TWO devices to connect to the internet per room. Cannot. Cannot.
Yen Qi and my room at Corus Hotel. It was going to get messy really fast!
We were already emailed out itineraries before so I knew what to pack (even though i'm sure I over packed a ton!). Before boot camp started, I got in touch with a couple of the previous year's finalist. What a lot of them said was that I should throw away the itinerary because plans kept on changing last minute!. I was sure that the Miss World Malaysia Organization had learned from their mistakes and was hoping that this year's pageant was going to be a more organized one. Yen Qi arrived later. We both decided on toilet arrangements for the morning. She would wake up first since I only needed 30 minutes in the bathroom. Some girls came to hang out in our room, we got ready and headed down for lunch and to meet the other girls.
L-R, T-B : Tracey, Lisa, Sue Sien , Vidi and Me
Our first stop was to Empire shopping mall in Subang. We were going to meet the past year's winner, Melinder Bhullar for tea before attending the opening of the Wacoal outlet in the shopping mall. My impression on Melinder was that she was a very nice girl. Very soft spoken and would come off as shy at first. Someone that was easy to work with and did not have many demands.
L-R: Ruth, Yen Qi, Me, Melinder, Shanti, Mabel and Dhivya.
The girls were divided into many tables so I would walk from table to table to chat with the girls. You know me, I LOVE to talk! While walking to another table, I was stopped by Dato' Anna, the Miss World Malaysia pageant director.
I walked away not sure to feel hurt or offended or thankful. I was rather confused. At that time , I thought I was wearing a subsequent amount of makeup. However,looking back at the pictures, I can see that Dato' Anna was right. Compared the other girls, my makeup was definitely way less. I had my usual make up on, but I know that I should have known better. You can be the judge. See the pictures. Dato' Anna had all the right intentions for telling me off like that. I was still rather oblivious to the fact that I was competing in a beauty pageant. I was also rather silly. Even after Dato' Anna pulled me out of the crowd, I did not try to 'fix' the issue. I should have asked the girls if they had makeup to spare or went somewhere to do my touch up. I did not do any of this. Silly me. The Wacoal representatives came over to introduce themselves. They briefed us about what we were going to do. We were told that after parading around, we'll be assembled in front of a crowd and had to answer some questions. Some girls were again nervous about being put on the spot.
A group pictures of the girls and Melinder outside the new Wacoal outlet. As you can see, we haven't mastered squatting at the right angle yet. You'd notice that we'll get better at this as the days go by.
After our little catch up session with Melinder, we headed to the Wacoal Outlet for their opening. We were all given balloons and coupons. We were asked to walk in a line around the mall. Give out the balloons and coupons and to escort the VIP's from the entrance to the outlet. It was rather awkward actually. I felt no different from a sales representative. Only thing different was that I was wearing a sash. Didn't feel very beauty queen like. But that's just my two cents. We were then brought to a small stage where we took group photos. It was then the Q&;A time. I was thinking to myself "Okay, I'm at a slight disadvantage here because many of the girl look more presentable than me, but I know I can make people notice me at the Q&A round. Talking is my thing". So I was really pumped. Turns out that, we were the ones asking the questions -.- There was a bit of a miscommunication . We were suppose to ask the crowd random questions about Wacoal and Miss Malaysia World. Those who had the correct answers would walk about with gifts from Wacoal.. What a bummer. I really wanted to shine :(
Shanti and I making new friends.
Before leaving to our next location, we were given goodie bags that had 2 pairs of panties for all of us. They were really comfortable. All the girls were all "Wah the panties so soft". We were also asked to check out the Wacoal store so that the photographers could take pictures of us. We were then off to Dr Alice Wellness Center. There was an open house going on and we were there to take pictures. We then boarded the bus once more and headed to Jaya Shopping center. My legs were already killing me by then. We had been walking so much. Luckily for me, I brought my wedges along so I changed shoes in the bus. We were having a rehearsal for a fashion show that day so I knew that even though I was wearing my wedges, I would need to bring my heels down with me. However, I did not have a bag to hold them so as I left the bus, I just held my heels with my hands. Dato' Anna saw this an immediately called me out. Again. For the second time that day.
Once again, I was in the wrong. It's like when I was doing it, it didn't feel like I was doing anything wrong. I was just trying to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. But if I were to look at it in the bigger picture- as how I was portraying myself as a beauty queen, I could totally see where Dato' Anna was coming from. I felt quite stupid. Especially being singled out like that in front of the other girls. But I did not allow that to bring down my spirits. It was also partly because me and the rest of the girls were met with a big surprise when we enter Jaya Shopping Center.
Hey that's me!
The very nice people at Jaya One had printed out individual pictures and write ups of us for the public to get to know us better. I understand that these posters are still up in the mall today because I still have amazing friends who take pictures of them and Whatsapp them to me. What I felt was odd was that the other girl's pictures were the same as the officially released photos, but mine was not.
This was my officially released photo. Not the best, but in my eyes, still better than what was printed.
And this was what was printed. Um yeah. You be the judge.
I felt that the chosen poster showed a rather unflattering picture of me and I would like to think that I had way better pictures than this. A friend mentioned to me that it may have been because another contestant, Rebecca ,was doing the same one legged flamingo like pose as me as you can see below. But there were many contestants that were doing similar posses as well but they're pictures didn't get changed. I didn't dare to question why my picture was changed. I already got 2 strikes that day from Dato' Anna and didn't want to get on her bad books. However, till today I still wonder why they changed my picture. Was it a mistake? or was it part of a bigger picture of something they had planned? Either ways, I was still grateful and excited to see my picture there. We were than treated to dinner at Kenny Rogers. A free meal is always a good one in my books.
L-R: Me, Yen Qi, Shanti, Claire, Dhivya and Rebecca.
After a quick dinner, we headed for rehearsals for our fashion show that was going on the next day. We were \briefed and divided into 3 groups. Each group of girls were wearing clothes from different sponsors. We trained for about 3 hours that night. It was not too tiring. If anything, it was really fun. I got to get to know the girls a little more and we had time to be silly with one another.
L-R: Ruth, Cheryl, Cassandra, Dhivya and Me
L-R: Me,Dhivya Cassandra, Cheryl and Ruth
I had to learnt to perfect my walk again but I have to say I was no where near to perfect. I think walking might not be one of my best talents. If I think too much, I tend to look stiff, but if I don't think at all, I am all over the place like an excited puppy.
Us getting briefed by the catwalk trainer.
L'oreal, the past years 1st runner up, was there as well. It was great to see a familiar face again. She too guided us with our walk. I was paired to walk with Cheryl and Ruth. Cheryl was calmed and composed. She always looked like she knew what she was doing. Ruth on the other hand took a little longer to pick up. Cheryl and I tried our best to help her and we practiced whenever we had free time to help Ruth remember the choreography.
L-R: Ruth, Cheryl and Me.
After about 2-3 hours, we all got a little restless and tired. It had been a long day. We were learning the last bit of our routine . I don't think we were as aware and excited as we were when we first started out training. A lot of us were making silly mistakes. The catwalk coach had to give us a good sounding to 'wake us up' before we all got on our A game again.
L-R: Ruth, Cheryl, Me and Cassie.
That night our photographer ,Cyrus, who had been following us around that day told me he wanted to show me a funny picture. He showed me this.
L-R: Me, Dhivya, Sue Sien , Dato' Anna and Vidiana.
It definitely caused some giggles when I showed it to the girls. They would say "Yeah , Sabrina, your personality always stands out everywhere". But looking at that picture also reminded me how un-beauty queen like I was. I really needed to brush up if I wanted to remain competitive in the competition. When I went back to my room that night, I ran through the day to myself. I needed to wear more makeup, be more lady like in pictures and also learn to present myself in a more prim and proper manner. Thinking back, it was a lot of pressure; having to change so much of myself in a day, but it was nothing that I could not handle. Want to keep in touch? Follow my daily adventures and escapades on Instagram! Labels: events, friends, kl, malaysia, me, pageant diaries 0 lovely comments ✿ |