The Cafe Tag - ZOO COFFEE

Hello beautiful people !

If you know me even a little bit, you know I love coffee, cafes and everything related to that. In Korea the cafe culture is so rich and colorful I could spend all my days in cafes sipping pretty drinks, studying and doing some hardcore people watching (wait that's exactly what I do almost every day). However I've noticed how easy it is to just walk into the closest, familiar cafe near my home and sit there for hours.  Seoul is full of small, not well-known cafes with adorable themes or vintage decoration and whatnot. So to inspire myself to explore more and to also find cool places to suggest to you all I have decided to start doing these "The Cafe Tag" - posts. Sound good, yeah?

I'm gonna start with a "ZOO COFFEE" which is a place I've been meaning to visit for a few months already. It's a pretty popular coffee chain and has several destinations around Seoul. It's literally what the name says, a zoo cafe. Everything inside the cafes are designed to fit the whole zoo slash jungle theme. They also have stuffed zoo animal plushies around the cafe that are, at least at some of their cafes, also for sale. I recognized some of the plushies from my childhood, actually. So that was a weird, nice coincidence.

The cafe I've had my eyes on for a quite a while is located in Hongdae. The atmosphere in Hongdae's ZOO COFFEE is definitely something else. The cafe itself is not very spacious and big, so it makes you feel like you enter a whole new world from the busy streets of Hongdae. They also have this adorable outdoor terrace and the view from there is really pretty with like 2 huge trees right next to the cafe so you feel like you're in a jungle, hahah. Really makes you feel like you are in a completely another world just chilling watching the busy people down on the streets. And can we please take a moment to appreciate those trees they have placed inside the cafe ? They really add this relaxing ambiance to the whole space, and the slightly dim lighting just makes it all very calm and nothing like Hongdae usually is. 

On their menu they have coffees, smoothies, tea & other beverages. They also serve amazing looking waffles with whipped cream and berries or syrup, bingsu (Korean ice dessert) and zoo-themed cake slices (like a cake with zebra stripes, how cute is that?), sandwiches, Gelato, honey bread et cetera. Their "I'm Korean" - menu consists of Korean flavors and original drinks made using very Korean ingredients, for example red ginseng and black beans. 

The price range is your usual price range at most Korean cafes. The drink prices hover between 4000 - 6500 won and the foods and desserts can be up to 13 000 won. 

I should definitely bring up my coffee game the next time I visit one of these new cool cafes because ordering an iced americano is everything but original. But at least it's always definitely delicious and I did enjoy the atmosphere nevertheless with my super boring and simple order. We sat outside on the terrace for couple of hours while chatting and enjoying the nice view. 

The only not so positive thing I could mention about this cafe, as a social media addict who is always fiddling with her phone, is that they didn't seem to have any power outlets in their cafe. The reason for that might be that hey don't want people to like spend hours and hours there taking up all their seats because of the lack of the space and the fact that it is a theme cafe after all, but as a person who absolutely fell in love with the calmness of this place and would like to spend some more time there it was a minor disappointment. But in cafes like these you really should spend your time enjoying the experience and your company instead of your phone screen, right? 

HOW TO GET THERE:

The Hongdae ZOO COFFEE is really close to the Hongdae subway station, so the easiest way to get there is to take line 2 to Hongdae university and get out from exit 9 and it's literally right there, a one minute walk away. 

Have you ever been to any of Korea's zoo coffees or are you planning to visit them? Also let me know if you have any great go-to suggestions here around Seoul! 

xx,
Julia

Afternoon in Idae

Hey sweeties ~

Picture heavy post ahead. Today was such a pretty day and I spent my whole afternoon & evening in Idae. First in this small park right next to Idae station, like 200 meters away from our house, with few of my friends sipping delicious kiwi-banana smoothies & lemonade and taking pictures, and in the evening I met up with yet another friend of mine and had a small 2 hour coffee session in the nearby cafe. All in all it was a really good and relaxing day. Sun was shining, my company was amazing and the lady selling super cheap juices and smoothies was so nice and talkative. Will definitely visit her small street booth again and to everyone travelling here to Idae, try out her drinks! They're only couple thousand won and reaaally tasty, I swear.  Especially the lemonade she makes is like a piece of heaven for only a one dollar.

xx,
Julia

New in: Urban Decay mini haul

Hey guys! 

I know I've been writing a lot of beauty - themed posts lately, but here I go again with another beauty-related post. Obviously haven't had the chance to go around Seoul a lot lately, and I really don't feel like travelling to unnecessary places now because of the mers - virus that's going on here in Seoul right now. I'm trying to be careful and limit my metro rides et cetera on going home and school for the most part. But don't you worry, I am definitely not turning into a full on - beauty blog! 

Anyway, to today's topic! A very good friend of mine went to America during the same time I visited Finland, and got me something I've been craving for years but never actually bought it because of the pretty high price and just simply because Urban Decay doesn't have a store in Finland. I'm not sure if they have a store here in South Korea, most probably yes, but the price is going to be high compared to the original prices in the US. So I asked her for a little favor aand.. 

..Ordered two of the things I wanted the most. I've also wanted to try out their "Eye shadow primer potion" so it's almost amusing that as a free gift I got 4 x a week's worth of that exact product. 

The Naked - palette is a pretty obvious pick, because it's pretty much a legend when it comes to eye shadow palettes. The All nighter makeup setting spray is something I've had my eye on for a few months now and I've heard so much good about it that I decided to give it a try. I already tried this one out last Saturday when I went out with my friends. I sprayed this on around 8pm, and I didn't have to apply or fix any of my makeup during the evening, even though we visited 2 restaurants and hung out outside in the typical Korean humid summer night. When I got home at 5am my eye shadow was not smudged whatsoever and my eyeliner and foundation was perfect. I was so amazed, guys. So. Amazed. If even the Korean June weather can't beat this little thing up, I don't think anything can.

And my absolute, absolute favorite, The Naked - palette. The colors are really pretty and oh, oh the amount of pigment in these shades. I am all about neutral, bronze-ish colors when it comes to eye-makeup, so this palette is like a piece of heaven. Do you know how hard it was not to sit in front of my mirror and try out every combination with these colors I could possibly think of? Really hard. I've been touching and fiddling with this palette every now and then for 2 days already but didn't want to actually use it before taking proper pictures for this post (blogger problems part I don't even know).

The palette has 12 gorgeous colors from which the Sidecar, Half baked, Smog & Hustle are the ones that look the most delicious if you ask me (swatches for those in the last picture). It also has lighter shades for highlighting and few really dark shades to create a great contrast to your eye makeup. And it comes with a really nice shadow & blending brush. 

From upper left corner clockwise: Hustle, Side-car, Smog, Half baked

So this is the story of how I lost my Urban Decay virginity ! That's something every budding makeup junkie will go through, yeah? hahahah~ I'm gonna have so much fun playing with all these colors and I can't wait to get to that.

Now I'm going to study and later on when the weather cools down a bit going to take a long walk and do some cheap fruits - hunting in the small markets around our neighborhood.

Have a great day everyone !

xx,
Julia

New in: H&M Summer haul

Hey yoo

How have you guys been? My first week of school has been pretty chill because of the morning classes, so I actually have time to do homework and study et cetera, but I gotta tell you, level 4 in Hanyang university is haaaard. But otherwise everything's good and life's back to normal. 

H&M isn't my favorite store, but every time I go there I seem to make amazing finds and I just absolutely have to get them. I went on a small shopping spree on my last day in Finland with my mom (Not even embarrassed to admit that shopping days with my own mother are the absolute best days, especially when you live on the other side of the world from her), and made some cute summer finds and wanted to share them with you. 

Anyway, I have to be back at school to meet my friends in like 45 minutes, so I am just gonna let the pictures speak for themselves! Gonna spend this Friday eating bingsu & singing at 노래방 (noraebang) so much I'll lose my voice (cause that's what happens always). Have a great weekend everyone !