[Food] Bubbies Ice Cream Mochi

One of my favorite things about Hawaii (well other than the beautiful weather and scenery) is the food! There is such an amazing diverse amount of food available to eat and it was all great (at least what I tried, which this trip was a lot of Japanese food, and a lot of Bubbies!) I seriously wouldn't shut up about how excited I was to get to eat as many Bubbies Ice Cream Mochi as I could handle while I was there!

Bubbies is a local Hawaiian Ice Cream company, that also make delicious Ice Cream Mochi (in my opinion it is the best I have ever tried, for the moment.) They have 20 flavors (I believe they add others from time to time.) I have tried 10 of the flavors, and I really cannot say a bad thing about any of them! The ice cream is delicious, and the mochi is soft and chewy.

During my trip this time I tried the Lychee, Li Hing Mango, Chocolate Mint, Blueberry, Passion Fruit, and Guava. Many of these I had tried on my last visit to Honolulu 10 years ago, and the Blueberry is still one of my favorite flavors that they make, it is just so good.

Li Hing Mango, Lychee and Blueberry

Li Hing Mango, Passion Fruit and Chocolate Mint

I was able to find Bubbies sold individually at Lawsons Market in downtown Waikiki and at Tea Boss as well, but they also sell them in grocery stores all over Honolulu.

(I purchased mine years ago at a coffee shop that had different flavors each day too.) depending on the grocery stores you visit depends on your selection. I visited a Safe Way that only had three flavors and a Foodland that had six flavors.

Safe Way Selection

Food Land Selection

On the mainland, depending on where you live you can even find Bubbies at Whole Foods and some higher end grocery stores, but it is hit or miss if your store will have them (I know the ones near me do not, while I have friends who can get them easy.)

The packaging for the store bought Bubbies is really nice too presentation wise. The boxes have 8 ice cream mochi pieces in them, and have a piece of tissue paper over them.

If you get the chance definitely try them out! They are delicious and your taste buds will thank you! Check out Bubbies online here!

[Geek Makeup Review!] More Ways to Have an Awesome Nerd Manicure!

So I sat looking at the extra on my Espionage Cosmetics Nail Wraps the other day and decided to do something different to use up the extra bits I had left. I decided to try out a somewhat french manicure with the extra bits that I had on the ends of the nail wraps I had originally cut off, and I love the results! 

Over the last few months (since the end of February) I have work four different Espionage Nail Wraps (Literary,Orange and Pink Masks, Pitch Perfect and Nebulae.) I wanted some cute music nails again, so I grabbed the remainder of the Pitch Perfect and my Lavender Probelle Nail Polish I got in my Ipsy Bag this month and went to town! 

Doing the tips did take a lot longer than just putting on the wraps, the challenge was making sure the nail polish was completely dry and wouldn't dent when applying them. I got them on and love the overall look of them, but I also know better for next time to paint my nails and let them dry for at least 30 min. or so before I try to put the tips on. I finished them off with Essie gel nail top coat so there wasn't a gap between the nail wrap and the nail to pull it off (I always use this top coat on my nail wraps anyways since it helps keep them on, in my opinion.)

I definitely will try this out with my other leftovers from my nail wraps (I knew I saved them for a reason!) I would also suggest this to others who want to try out a different look on their nails, who also love the nail wraps and nail polish! 

You can check out Espionage Cosmetics here

Essie Nail Polish Here

And Probelle Nail Polish Here

[Tea Travels] Lupicia Hawaii (Ala Moana Mall)

While in Hawaii I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the Lupicia store, I had visited there many many years ago when I last vacationed in Honolulu, and was really looking forward to going back and getting some amazing tea!

 

Lupicia is a Japanese Tea company that started in 1994 in Japan. They have since opened stores in Hawaii, and California in the United States. As you can see from the photo above of the store in the Ala Moana Mall, they have a lot of tea, but it is still very wonderfully laid out! 

They have a large variety of loose teas as you can see from the teas that are along the top of the ceiling in the store. 

 

They also had some of their teas displayed so customers can smell and read what are in them. 

 

They had their special Sakura line of teas available right now for Spring, I picked up a few of these (I reviewed the Sakura Tea last week as my first review of teas I purchased in Hawaii, the others will be coming soon!) 

And their Hawaii Teas and other Spring Teas they bring out for the season! The Hawaii Teas are exclusive to Hawaii (and online) I picked up a tea bag sampler pack as well as a loose tin of one of the teas as well (I also got a few of the Spring teas too!) 

 

All together, a bunch of teas to enjoy and I will be reviewing all of them for all of you! I love their packaging, and the tins are so pretty with their lovely artwork!

During my trip I got a number of teas. The left side is pretty much all the teas I purchased from Lupicia. The right side are all the of other teas I bought to try out (since the last time I was in Hawaii I only tried one or two of the teas on the right.)

You can check out Lupicia online here!

[Geek Girl Clothing] Hot Topic's DC Bombshells Clothing Line

So I was in Hot Topic the other day, and stumbled across this fantastic line of clothing! I cried as my wallet gave me a big "nope" to it at the moment, but look at these amazing outfits for the lady who loves DC in your life! The outfits are based on the DC Bombshells, comic covers, comics, posters and statues that they have produced with each of the DC ladies wearing an iconic bombshell inspired outfit! While there are many more than four in the comic line of Bombshells, Hot Topic has made outfits for four of the ladies so far; Bat Woman, Poison Ivy, Wonder Woman, and Harley Quinn.

I grabbed a few photos of the displays in the store, and they are wonderfully made. The Wonder Woman is a set (sold seperately) a top and shorts. The top is a Rayon, Polyester and spandex blend and was nicely made ($39.50). The shorts were a Cotton, Polyester and Spandex blend, and has some stretch to them, which is always nice. ($34.50)

The Poison Ivy Dress ($69.50) If a Polyester and Spandex Mix, and has to be one of my favorites from the line (next to the BatWoman dress.) The dress is really cute and has a raised velour-esque print on it that has vines and little bat symbols on it. 

Such wonderful detail on it. I also really liked how the back was not super low cut. The entire line comes in sizes Small to 3XL, and the shorts go from 0-17 in juniors sizes, which is great since it means way more Geeky ladies can enjoy the clothing (which Hot Top is already great at since Torrid also has plus sizes for many of the geeky dresses/clothing they make)

I wish I could have gotten some good shots of the Bat Woman dress ($59.50), that is awesome looking or the Harley coat ($74.50) that has a joker design on the back, both were also wonderfully made and looked awesome in person! 

You can find the line on the Hot Topic webpage here, or check it out now in stores!

[Conventions] Zenkaikon 2016

Convention: ZenkaiKon 10
Location: Lancaster, Pa.
Date: April 1st-3rd 2016
Webpage: https://zenkaikon.com/

This was my first ZenkaiKon, and I was super excited for it! I have never done a convention in Pa. so I was excited for it! I was asked to judge the cosplay masquerade for the weekend so I was also excited to judge at a convention I had never judged at!

I arrived at the con Friday afternoon, I am not familiar with Lancaster since I have only been to a Vietnamese restaurant there called Rice and Noodles, and never downtown, so it was a bit of an adventure! I park and walked to the convention center (GPS why did you fail me!) since I had to end up asking some convention goers if I was going in the correct direction!

I found the convention center (but not before passing a French bakery and buying French Macarons, because they are one of my food weaknesses.) Got my badge and made a b-line to the dealers room to put out the Intervention flyers, also visited the Otakon table to see some friends. The dealers room and artist alley were all in a large room all together. Before leaving Lancaster for the night I had a great dinner at the Federal Tap House.

The convention lay out was nice for the space, they had Main events in a large room next to the dealers room. Sci-fi photo guys were doing green screen photos the level above and there were panel rooms, where they had fan panels and guest panels going on. There was a cosplay exhibit with costumes from the DC opera and award winning costumes from cosplayers. They also had a maid cafe and other events going on as well.

Saturday I got to the convention center bright and early, worked at the two tables promoting cons I work for (Intervention and Otakon), then judged the costume contest! Judging is always fun because you get to see the costumes in the contest up close that the entrants work so hard on. There are so many talented people in cosplay, it is always so fun to get to see that talent up close! Once judging was done, I did a friends makeup for her Amethyst costume then got into my TARDIS dress for the contest. I also got to play some Ukulele since my friend is learning how to play, so helped him get used to strumming!

I also got to eat at Issei Noodles (which I have only ever eaten at their Camp Hill location so I was really excited to eat there again!) I got Spicey Tan-Tan  Ramen and a Matcha Bubble Tea.

The cosplay contest was a lot of fun! The skits were entertaining and the MC was funny, so what more could you ask for? Oh and the contest itself was also incredibly well run, so that too! Picking winners is always a hard choice, because so many people bring their A game!

The room is filling up before the start of the Cosplay Contest! 

I had a blast for the Friday and Saturday that I attended ZenkaiKon. This was a really fun con, and hopefully I'll make it back there next year! I also got some really cute stuff in the dealers room/ artist alley too!

I did finish off my weekend at my favorite Vietnamese restaurant in all of Pa.! Rice and Noodles! Which has some of the best Pho I have ever eaten.

Lancaster is a great location for this con, there are so many great food places around the convention center/hotel. It is a very busy downtown area, and there were so many amazing food places to eat at! (which is always a big plus for a con to have so many options and price options for food!) If you are near the Lancaster area, I would definitely check out this awesome con! 

[Kickstarter] Norfolk Merpugs by Shlii

So I am way behind on writing about some of the fun Kickstarters I helped fund. I got this one back in November, if that says anything! I love Pugs (If you couldn't tell.) So when I found out about Shlii's Merpug plushy kickstarter, I had to donate and get one! I love Pug stuffed animals and this one was also a mermaid, which are also pretty awesome. 

I donated $25.00 to this one, which got me the Mer Pug plush, a sticker, and a computer wallpaper. The quality of the plush is fantastic and it is so soft and squishy! Also being from Virginia, I thought the concept of taking the Norfolk Mermaid and making it into cute dogs was a really fun idea!

Even my grumpy Siamese kitty thought so!

I was able to pick my stuff up at NekoCon once Shlii found out I donated and had stuff in it, since it saved her on having to ship it to me, which I was thrilled since I really wanted this little guy! 

And now he has a wonderful home next to all my other Pug plushies (which truthfully are not that many.) I would definately check out all the awesome stuff that Shlii does, her Facebook page is here, and it has links to her other sites that she has. 

You can check out the link to see how well her Kickstarter did here. 

[Tea Review] Lupicia's "Sakura" Tea

While in Hawaii I bought a ton of tea! many are from the store Lupicia. I bought a variety of loose tea and tea bags while at the store and even got a small thing of their local honey as well. I will start out my reviews of all the teas I bought while in Hawaii with their Sakura tea. 

The description of this tea from their webpage is;

"Black tea blended with lots of salted cherry leaves. LUPICIA's spring special tea"

I was super excited about all the Sakura teas that they had in the store for spring, so of course I had to try a bunch of them! I purchased a variety of loose teas and tea bags as well so I had some variety.

The tea bags are very well made pyramid tea bags and the packaging is very nice, they are completely sealed so no air gets in them. The box of tea bags came with six tea bags of the Sakura tea. The initial smell of the tea has a black tea smell, not fruity, but still pleasing to the nose.

The taste is also a wonderful black tea taste, you can taste the salted cherries, but they are not overpowering. A great taste for drinking anytime. Not too strong and not weak either. 

Lupicia does sell their teas online, or if you are in Hawaii or California you can visit one of their stores. You can find the Sakura Tea on their webpage here. 

[Geek Chic] Her Universe Avengers Active Wear at Kohls

Kohl's with Her Universe released a set of Avengers active wear in their stores towards the end of March. I went and checked them out (and purchased three items.) and was really thrilled with the quality of everything! I love Her Universe and own a lot of stuff from them, so the fact I could drive to a store and see their brand there made me a very happy geek girl! The Kohl's I visited didn't have all the items (I was hoping for some of the Iron Man items) or a bunch of sizes (second choice was a Black Widow top that they didn't have in my size.) However, I did drool over the items they did have which were the sports bras, Capri exercise pants, shorts and some of the shirts. All of them were on sale too, so that made it even sweeter.

The Avengers active wear line, at the moment has items for Captain America, Iron Man and Black Widow. I purchased a Captain America top and the Black Widow yoga shorts.

The Captain America Shield muscle tee was probably the softest shirt they had that I felt. This fabric is so soft and comfortable. It is made big since it is a muscle tee and meant for working out in. It is very comfortable when I tried it on and wore it for a little while. The top retails for $24, and can be found on Kohl's webpage here (or in the store)

The second item I purchased were the Black Widow yoga shorts. These shorts are perfect for working out in, or if you need a pair of shorts to wear under a short skirt (which they will be used for both most likely.) They are comfortable, stretchy and look good when wearing them, I really have nothing bad to say about these. I am incredibly happy with the quality and it is exactly what I expect from Her Universe. I am also really happy to see so many Black Widow themed items! These retail for $24.00 and can be found online here or in the store. 

The last item I purchased were the Black, Black Widow Capri exercise pants. I am so excited for these pants, they are stetchy, soft and look wonderful! I am so excited for there to be geeky workout clothing options! (You can see them on the mannequin in the first photo.) These retail for $36.00 (but are on sale right now.) you can find them here.

Overall I am so thrilled with this clothing line and I hope it does well that Her Universe starts showing up in more stores. I also hope they do a Hulk set since that would mean Green and Purple Hulk inspired clothing! The sizes are also in Junior and plus sizes, so Her Universe is showing that all ladies who love Geeky clothing can wear them, no matter their size!