• About / Contact
  • Work With Me
  • Food & Drink
    • asian —>
      • chinese
      • indian
      • japanese
      • korean
      • malaysian
      • taiwanese
      • thai
      • vietnamese
    • brunch
    • coffee and tea
    • dessert
    • fusion
    • happy hour
    • italian
    • greek
    • mexican
    • pub
    • seafood
    • steakhouse
    • vegetarian/vegan
    • western
  • Travel
    • Canada ->
      • Kelowna
      • Sunshine Coast
      • Victoria
    • Japan ->
      • Himeji
      • Kamakura
      • Kobe
      • Kyoto
      • Osaka
      • Tokyo
    • Mexico ->
      • Cancun
      • Isla Mujeres
      • Playa Del Carmen
    • USA ->
      • Las Vegas
      • Los Angeles
      • New York City
      • Seattle
    • Europe ->
      • London
  • Beauty
    • beauty events
    • body
    • eyes
    • face
    • costumes
    • hair
    • lips
    • nails
    • skincare

Curiously Carmen

Monsters Inc. Mike & Sully DIY Costume (No Sewing Necessary) 

October 7, 2016

For Halloween 2015, the boyfriend and I decided to be Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc! We didn’t do anything big or special last year, just hung out at home, and gave out candy. We also decided to watch the movie while giving out candy!

sully mike diy costume monsters inc couplesAs with all my costumes, they are extremely simple to create. I can not sew, and am abysmal at arts/crafts but that doesn’t mean I can’t find ways to save money and come up with costume ideas!

Materials:

  • Hot glue gun
  • Coloured felt fabric: White, black, light blue, purple
  • 2 Hard hats
  • Monsters Inc logo- Either print one or it’s easy to draw
  • Bright green tshirt
  • Dark turquoise tshirt
  • Blue acrylic paint
  • Paint brush
  • Packing tape (optional for logo on the hard hat)

sully mike diy costume monsters inc couples costume

Mike: You will need the white, black, and light blue fabric. Simply cut out the appropriate shapes for his big eye, surprised looking mouth and teeth. Then, position them on your green shirt before hot gluing the pieces on!

Sully: You will need the white, black, light blue, and purple fabric. Again, cut out the shapes for Sully’s face and horns as shown in my picture. For the purple spots, cut out irregularly shaped ovals and hot glue gun them on the back of the tshirt.

Hats: Can’t forget their safety hats! We were firefighters the year before, so we had leftover hard hats. These are really easy to find at any costume or toy store! Just paint liberally, we painted 3-4 layers before the paint was a nice solid light blue.
diy costume monsters inc logo couples

Then, I found a Monsters Inc logo online and printed two copies out. I then stuck them on the hard hats using tape.

If you’re going to be outdoors, I recommend laminating the logos incase it starts to rain. You can either go to Staples or simply use packing tape to laminate.

There you go! Super simple, no sewing required. This costume is also great with a friend!
sully-mike-diy-costume-monsters-inc-couples-3Happy DIY costuming!


Filed Under: costumes, misc

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Pencil

October 5, 2016

It is no surprise that I am a huge Urban Decay fan. I have quite a number of their products, and I absolutely love them all! They also opened up the first Urban Decay freestanding store in Vancouver, which I still have to check out. I am not a big fan of crowds so I figured I would wait a few weeks before going.

I’m currently at school, but I have a break between my classes so I thought I would write my review on this now! I just started a short term, part time job so the next couple of weeks will be dedicated to finishing that project.
urban-decay-247-glide-on-pencilThis Urban Decay 24/7 glide on pencil came in one of the Sephora favourites sets two years ago. I was a bit sad to see that an eyeliner kit wasn’t offered in the Sephora favourites sets this year, but it is understandable as eyeliners aren’t as popular as other products at the moment. But, I am thinking of purchasing the highlighting kit instead!

This is the last product I have tried in that kit, but I really like it so far. I’ve been using this daily in conjunction with my Kat Von D tattoo liner. First, I’ll talk about both shades individually and then review their formula.
urban-decay-247-glide-on-pencil-2On one end of the pencil, is the shade ‘rockstar’. Rockstar is a really unique shade because I still have yet to figure out exactly what colour or shade this is. When I first used this, I thought it was a brown. But, it also has a slight metallic purple tint to it. I guess it depends on the angle, and which type of light you are seeing it from. I think this shade is really, really pretty.

For over seven years now, I’ve been used to using jet black liner shades. Using this shade was one of the few times where I branched away from that, and I really liked it. It gave my eyes a softer look. I’m not a big fan of lining my bottom lash line, because I think it looks too harsh on me.

But when I use a bit of this metallic brown/purple/whatever it is, it looks pretty good!
urban-decay-247-glide-on-pencil-3The other side is your classic, jet black liner in the shade ‘perversion’. Urban Decay also has a line with the same name, you may remember their perversion mascara. I love using this to tightline and line the middle part of my eye, to give it a consistent and thicker look (if that makes any sense, I’m bad at explaining).

Using this is a lot easier to make sure my eyes are lined proportionately, and takes less time! Then, I would use my Kat Von D tattoo liner to wing out the liner, and to clean the look up.
urban-decay-247-glide-on-pencil-4Here is a swatch on both colours. Rockstar looks more like a brown here, but you can kind of see the metallic finish towards the left?

What I love most about both of these is how easy they are to apply. As the name suggests, you can just gently glide this over your lid once. The result is a very pigmented and smooth colour. Rockstar has more of a softer look, while perversion is very jet black. The staying power of these are also amazing. My lids can get oily, but both shades do not smudge the whole day.

In fact, I took the swatch picture above two days ago. I can still see perversion on my hand, even though I’ve washed my hands countless times and showered twice already!

I don’t really have any complaints about the liner. I mean, if I was to be very picky, the pencils are very soft (since they glide on very easily), so perhaps take caution in not pressing that hard. I’ve also dented the liner a couple times when putting the plastic cap on because of how soft it is, but that’s because I’m a klutz.

Once again, Urban Decay has not disappointed. I am a huge fan of these liners and would recommend it for those who are looking for a long lasting, pigmented liner.
yay-nay-or-meh

Yay!


Filed Under: Beauty, eyes, makeup Tagged: beauty, beauty blog, beauty blogger, beauty community, eyeliner, urban decay

Kilala Sushi

October 2, 2016

Earlier in the summer, myself, the boyfriend, and Sangria decided to venture out from our usual sushi joints and try a longstanding but hidden restaurant, Kilala Sushi. They’ve been around for awhile now, and I hear their name getting tossed around from time to time.

Kilala Sushi is an authentic Japanese restaurant, run solely by a husband and wife team. They also specialize in distributing tamago for various restaurants in Vancouver, so this place is half restaurant/half tamago-making factory? I say that because the sitting area itself is quite small but you can see that the back is a bit factory like, with a very big stainless steel kitchen.
Kilala SushiAppetizer sashimi, $5.95: The appetizer sashimi comes with three pieces of tuna, and two pieces of salmon. The salmon was average, but the tuna was really good. It was very soft and buttery, and melted in your mouth.
Kilala Sushi 2Tamago roll, $2.25: As I mentioned above, they specialize in tamago, so it was only natural to try it! The tamago was sweet, fluffy, and tasted fresh. I really liked how it had a fluffy texture, as a lot of places I’ve been to have a harder texture with dried edges (which means it’s not fresh and has fried out).

Negitoro roll, $3.00: The boyfriend and I ALWAYS order negitoro roll, so we had to try Kilala’s version of it! It was pretty good, and above average. Just like the tuna sashimi, the tuna in here was also soft and buttery. It was filled with lots of green onion too. They definitely did not skimp out on the tuna and the onion.
Kilala Sushi 1Hmmm, I don’t recall what these two rolls were called and I can’t find anything similar on the online menu! Sorry.

Even though I don’t remember what they were called, I remember how they tasted! Both tasted very fresh, and were filling. Just look at how big that salmon sashimi is inside the roll!

All in all, Kilala serves quality and authentic sushi, and the three of us enjoyed our meal. Everything was fresh, and even though there was only one server (the wife, husband was the chef), service was quick and friendly.

The only downside of this place is that it is quite hidden behind a bush and the seating is also a cramped.

yay-nay-or-meh

Yay!

Kilala Sushi Bar Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato


Filed Under: food & drink, japanese Tagged: burnaby, food, food blogger, food review, foodie, fresh, japanese, negitoro, salmon, sashimi, seafood, sushi, tamago, tuna, vancouver, yvr

Stila All Day Matte’ificent Lipstick

September 29, 2016

As I am writing this, there is a slight twinge of guilt because I feel like I should be focusing on finishing up an assignment due later this week. To make myself feel less guilty and to continue writing this post, I will justify it by assuring myself that it is a small assignment and I still have a few days to finish! 😀

Fun fact – I hate procrastinating and doing papers/assignments last minute. Throughout my five years in university so far, I have never had to pull an all nighter. But with that said, I am definitely not a straight A honours student either!

Anyways, I hope you like these sort of off-topic and random intros! I like throwing these types of intros in here because this blog also acts as a journal. I love going through old posts and reading what I was up to at the time of writing!
stila-stay-all-day-matteficient-mon-amiNow, onto the actual makeup review! Today, I will be reviewing the Stila Stay All Day Matte’ificent lipstick. I am a big fan of Stila’s Stay All Day foundation and eyeliner. This is my first time trying their lipsticks for the Stay All Day line.

This lipstick is also not completely matte, it is described as a creamy matte. So if you’re someone who is looking for a completely matte product, this isn’t for you.
stila-stay-all-day-matteficient-mon-ami-2I received the shade mon ami. It is described on Sephora’s website as a “rose nude”. I personally think this shade is more of a muted pink! I normally don’t wear this colour, but I thought I would give it a try.

Honestly, this shade in particular clashed with my skin tone. I’ve always avoided pinks like this in the past because I find it makes me look sick! However, I decided to keep it on the whole day for the sake of this review and to test out the formula!

Apart from this shade, I really enjoyed the formula. As it is described, I found the lipstick to be very lightweight, but very pigmented with a creamy matte finish. Throughout the day, I didn’t find my lips to be sucked dry from the formula, which I was very grateful for. It is infused with castor oil, argon oil, and vitamin E for moisture.

stila-stay-all-day-matteficient-mon-ami-4The lipstick lasted around six hours, with snacking and a meal in between. After about seven hours, half the pigment was gone, particularly in the middle of my lips. I mean, you could definitely still wear it past six hours because it was still there, but it looked pretty dull and not vibrant anymore.

For $29, I found this lipstick to be just alright. It didn’t blow my mind away, but it is a decent quality product. My favourite part of the product was how pigmented and creamy it was. My least favourite part was that it looked very dull towards the end, and you could see the drying lines.
stila-stay-all-day-matteficient-mon-ami-3On a side note, here is a beauty blogger fail that I’d like to share with you. The struggle of a broken lipstick, SIGH. Yes, there are hacks that you can use to fix this, but the lipstick is inconveniently stuck in the lid and I can’t scoop it out without ruining it and getting it all messy =(

If you are a clumsy person like me, I warn you to be careful with this lipstick as it is very creamy. It is also skinnier than most lipsticks, which increases the chance of it breaking =(
yay-nay-or-meh

Meh…

Press product featured. Opinions are own.

 

 


Filed Under: Beauty, lips, makeup Tagged: beauty, beauty blog, beauty blogger, beauty blogging, lipstick, matte lipstick, stila, vancouver

Mr. Red Cafe

September 26, 2016

This visit should be officially named as ‘Two girls who knew they ordered too much, but everything is good here so they had to order a lot’.

I’ve been meaning to try Mr. Red Cafe for months now, if not almost a year! Every time we drive by, I make a mental note to try it but it never works out. Well, I was finally able to try it back in June! This is a review of their original location in East Van. Based on the success and popularity of this location, another one opened on Broadway Street earlier this year.

Mr. Red Cafe is not your typical Vietnamese restaurant! Their dishes and food are based on northern Vietnamese cuisine, which is slightly different from the usual which is the south.
Mr Red1Rare beef & beef ball pho: A $9 bowl of pho is more than I’m used to paying, but it was pretty good. I liked how it was not oily.

Even though they don’t use MSG, there was still the standard broth taste to it and I did not leave the restaurant thirsty! Overall, the pho was really great quality and the portion was big, with lots of meat, so I can see why they charge a bit more than normal.
Mr RedSpecial beef noodle pho: Macaroni has been here a few times already, and this is her go-to pho each time. The broth is the same, but the ‘special’ part just means there is an assorted selection of meat. You can see the generous portion of meat that they serve, and how clear the broth is! We both really enjoyed our pho.
Mr Red2Sticky rice & mung bean dumpling: Most of the reason why I really wanted to try Mr. Red Cafe is because my friend, and fellow food blogger, Eatmunchlove, couldn’t stop raving about these. And they sounded delicious too! So, even though I had already ordered a pho, I couldn’t come here without trying these.

The inside of this filled with mung bean, pork floss, and green rice. I really enjoyed the chewy texture to these. I haven’t had green rice before so I’m not sure what it’s supposed to taste like, but it was salty and sticky as well.

I LOVE my savoury/salty foods and would pick salty over dessert, so I really loved this dish! The sticky rice makes it REALLY filling, and I felt sooo uncomfortably full after having the pho and one of these. So, I ended up bringing the second one home and my mom ended up eating it.
Mr Red 3Banh mi: Macaroni already knew she would not be able to finish both the giant bowl of pho AND this sandwich, but she said it was really good so she had to order it anyways. She ended up taking half of it back home as well!

I had a bite of the banh mi, and it was incredibly delicious and oh so fresh. The bread was lightly toasted, while the veggies were super fresh and crunchy.

Overall, I really enjoyed Mr. Red and wish I had come sooner! Although the prices are slightly more than I’m used to for Vietnamese food, the quality and portion is very evident. The service was also quick and efficient, and the restaurant was clean and comfortable.

yay-nay-or-meh

Yay!

Mr. Red Cafe Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato


Filed Under: food & drink, vietnamese Tagged: banh mi, canada, food, food blogger, foodie, northern vietnam, pho, vancouver, vietnam, vietnamese, vietnamese food

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 106
  • 107
  • 108
  • 109
  • 110
  • …
  • 171
  • Next Page »

Hello!

Hi and welcome to Curiously Carmen! I am Carmen, the girl behind the blog. You can read more about me here!

Recent Posts

  • H&P Noodle House Burnaby
  • Travel: Harry Potter Studio Tour (Watford, UK)
  • Travel: The Resident Soho Hotel, London UK
  • North Noodle House
  • Grand Crystal Seafood Restaurant

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Partnerships

View my food journey on Zomato!

Archives

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2025

Copyright © 2025 · Young Blush Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in