curiouslycarmen, Author at Curiously Carmen

6 Eye Makeup Looks With One Liquid Eyeliner (Part 1/2)!

April 6, 2015

Hi everyone =)

What else is there to do on a rainy, wet, Vancouver day? I had already baked a batch of fresh, delicious hot chocolate cocoa cookies and made a big bowl of spicy chicken stew. The next logical step was to obviously experiment with different eye liner looks.

As you may all know, my makeup always consists of liquid eyeliner. I’ve been using it for many years now, and over the years, the style of my eyeliner has changed depending on the occasion or my mood.

I decided to come up with a few fun liquid eyeliner looks for you all today, and to show you all that eyeliner should not be a daunting task! Depending on your look and application style, it can drastically change your eye shape or dress you up/down.

Instead of using my Kat Von D eyeliner for this post, I decided to bring out my Dolly Wink eyeliner! Dolly Wink products are tremendously popular in Asia, it is probably their equivalent to a Covergirl/Maybelline. I’ve heard such great things about this product from the Asian community, and when my friends went to Hong Kong last summer, I asked them to buy it for me.

The fine, thin tip (as you can see above) of this product makes it very versatile. It is probably the thinnest liquid eyeliner pen I own. I also love the super cute and girly packaging!

No eyeliner: Here is what my eye looked like before starting. I’m showing this to give you an idea of how the following different looks will change my eye shape. I’m also not wearing any mascara in this post, but adding mascara will intensify the look of your eyeliner.
The tightline: Tight-lining your eyes is a great way to naturally make your eyes seem larger and rounder. Tight lining refers to putting the eyeliner as close to your lash line as possible, so that it sort of blends in with your lashes. Doing this makes your eye lashes look thicker, which will make your eyes stand out.

To do: This look is best achieved with a thin liquid eyeliner. Simply put the tip of the eyeliner as close to your lash line as possible, and draw a line. To keep it natural, don’t wing it out and stop where your outer eyelashes end =)

The slight flick: Sorry for lack of better titles to name these eyeliner looks! This past week, I have been really loving this look as I find that it makes my eyes look rounder due to the thickness of the liner. It’s also a bit more natural looking than my usual dramatic wing and casual. I would use this look on a daily basis, but not for special occasions.

To do: If tightlining looks too natural for you, add a few thicker strokes of the eyeliner and extend it slightly past the outer corner of your eye. I start by tightlining, then adding about 5 stokes until it reaches a visible thickness. The slight flick at the end opens up your eyes, but not enough to make it a dramatic look.

The classic wing: I called this the classic wing because it has been my go-to eyeliner look for a couple of years now. I can easily do this with my eyes closed, that’s how familiar this look is to me! Compared to the look above, this one is more feminine and girly. This look is great for both casual days and special occasions.

To do: Start by tight lining your eye. When you reach the outer corner, extend the line upwards and imagine that it slightly curves to reach the tip of your eyebrow. After that initial wing, it is up to you on how thick or thin you want to retrace the line on your eyelid. After winging it out, I go back to the outer area of my eye, making the line there thicker and keeping the inner corner the same.

I decided to split this into two posts as I thought that one post would be waaay too long for one post! I hope that you all enjoyed these three looks, and/or that it inspires you to create your own! Maybe I’ll write a review on my Dolly Wink eyeliner soon as well =)

What is your go-to eyeliner look? These days, I have been alternating between the slight flick and the classic wing.

Happy Easter & hope you all enjoyed the long weekend! Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Archimallows – Homemade Gourmet Marshmallows

March 30, 2015

Hello everyone!

Archimallows is a pop-up marshmallow shop, with their kitchen located in South Vancouver. They’re probably best known for being the adorable pop-up stand at Pacific Center’s Holt Renfrew in Downtown Vancouver, but they do private functions all over town.
At the social, Kyle had a small little table decorated with cute pieces of fake moss, fresh marshmallows in mason jars and white rice, finished off with polka dots! I LOVE POLKA DOTS, so naturally we were off to a great start. In fact, I’m wearing my polka dot printed PJs and have my polka dotted phone case to my left right now.

His flavours rotate depending on the week. At the event I attended, he had dark chocolate salted caramel, lemon meringue, vanilla sprinkle, and cola float (pictured above).

After lightly torching the marshmallows, you have a selection of finishing it off with a quick dip in coca-cola or Bailey’s (yes, the alcohol). You can see the bowl of Bailey’s in the first picture, the cola is a bit hidden behind the marshmallows =)
Here is Kyle lightly torching the lemon meringue marshmallow. Each of the marshmallows are individually torched in front of your eyes!
After toasting, Kyle asked if I wanted to try it as a s’more… the answer was a 100 percent YES!

Oh man, this was heaven in a bite. The graham crackers were crunchy and had a light flavour to them, so that it did not steal the spotlight from the marshmallow. The lemon meringue had a slight lemon taste, but it wasn’t super sour. It was soft and melted in your mouth, but had a nice, thin crisp exterior.
Vanilla sprinkles! Just like the lemon meringue, it tasted really fresh and the marshmallow was very soft. This was dipped in Bailey’s so it had a slight caramel taste to it, which enhanced the lightly torched exterior. There isn’t much Bailey’s on the marshmallow, it is definitely not enough to get you drunk if you’re worried about that.

Kyle was also nice enough to make more s’mores for my friends and I! I had the salted caramel s’more, and it was probably my favourite flavour of the night. It came with dark chocolate flakes which were slightly melted due to them being torched. I liked how it was slightly salty and had a caramel taste, even before it was dipped into the Bailey’s!

My marshmallow experience before trying Archimallows went only as far as jumbo-puffs, or those generic store brand marshmallows. I got to try and see a whole new wide of fancy, quality marshmallows!

The best bet to find Kyle and his pop up stand is at Holt Renfrew! If you’ve ever been there, you might recall seeing his stand right near the bridge/tunnel that connects Holts and Pacific Center. Next time I’m in the area (which is often considering I work closely), I am definitely going to try to find Archimallows!

Which flavour sounds the best to you? Dark chocolate salted caramel, lemon meringue, vanilla sprinkle, or cola float? Let me know in the comments down below!

Thanks for reading!

Carmen

Estée Lauder Spring/Summer 2015 Preview Event

March 27, 2015

Hi readers!

Back in August, I had the pleasure of attending my first Estée Lauder media preview event. I was thrilled when they invited me back to their Spring/Summer 2015 preview event this month!

The format of the media preview event this season was a bit different, but I still enjoyed it. Here are some of the highlights, plus some products that I am looking forward to in the upcoming season!

Bronze Goddess shimmer collection: Want to achieve that tanned, golden, bronze look with a hint of shimmer this season? My favourite from this line would have to be the shimmery body spray, seen in the back left. An Estee Lauder spokesperson showed us how to apply this product by gently dabbing it onto your skin to achieve a glowing sheen.

I love this line because it reminds me of a tropical vacation… if I had these products, I would bring them on my next tropical excursion!

Up next, a pretty array of lipstick and nail polish shades for this season! I am a huge fan of coral and pinks, so these products are wonderful to me! My favourite would have to be the coral nail polish in the front.
Next up, my FAVOURITE Estee Lauder products… their perfumes! I’ve never encountered an Estee Lauder perfume scent that I did not like, so I was quite excited to see how these smelled. Of course, they did not disappoint.

The AERIN line, launched last season from Estee Lauder’s granddaughter Aerin Lauder, has the most amazing scents so I’m glad they came out with a few more this time around.
This was definitely an interesting product that captivated my eye. It is their new finishing mineral powder.

It looks like a regular, mineral, loose powder foundation but upon application, it feels like pure silk. It is unbelievably soft and has a nice, smooth finish to it.
We also previewed the new Courreges x Estee Lauder line, which the attendees were really excited about. Andre Courreges is a French fashion designer, known for his modern and futuristic design.

This preview session definitely did not disappoint. I’m super excited to see the new AERIN perfumes and finishing powder foundation on the shelves!

What were your favourite products that I talked about? Let me know in the comments down below!

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Steel Toad Brewpub & Dining Hall – Two Visits

March 24, 2015

My coworker had been talking about a new pub that opened recently at Olympic Village.. I didn’t believe him because I pass by or go to that neighbourhood relatively often and I haven’t seen it before! So, after a disappointing and expensive dinner at The Flying Pig, we decided to walk around. Sure enough, there was Steel Toad! How did I miss seeing this place?!
I told Macaroni about this place and she wanted to check it out as well, so we decided to have a double date dinner here a couple of weeks after. Steel Toad underwent massive construction for five years, this place used to be a warehouse of some sort.

Walking in, the place was really big and spacious! Compared to Craft next door, it is a lot bigger and that’s saying something since Craft is already a large restaurant as well. There was a bouncer and hostess that greeted us at the door. Since we had made reservations for the busy weekend night, we were seated on the second floor alcove which gave us a nice view of the restaurant.

The atmosphere there was fantastic – live, buzzing with energy coupled with a nice smooth melody of a live band that was playing that night. If anything, I would recommend going just for the energy because as you’ll find out, the food was just meh to us.
I was pleasantly surprised that the beer here was pretty cheap for a fancy gastropub! Maybe because they brew everything in house? Definitely the lowest prices I’ve seen compared to Craft, Tap & Barrel, St. Augs, Biercraft, etc etc. I forgot what I ordered, but our server recommended this to us.
Macaroni ordered the margherita pizza. This was probably the best tasting dish we had that night. The dough was nice and chewy, although some parts were super burnt and charred black. It came with a generous amount of melted cheese and the tomato sauce had a nice herb-like flavour to it.
The second dish that arrived was the roast beef sandwich, which came with a side of fries. The roast beef sandwich was pretty disappointing, it came on a single slice of plain toast that you can buy at any grocery store. For the roast beef itself, it was pretty bland. We expected more from this dish than a single slice of toast topped with flavourless roast beef and sauce.

I’m glad we ordered the pretzel, or else we would have gone hungry! The pretzel was warm, fresh, and chewy. It was lightly sprinkled with salt and the dijon mustard complemented the flavours. I really enjoyed the pretzel and would probably order it again if we came back.
The most disappointing dish of all – the shepard’s pie. I’ve never had a bad shephard’s pie until that night. To start, the server over-exaggerated at how big the portion would be, she told us it was really big and that it was super delicious. When it arrived, we all stared at the size of it and were thinking “….this is it?” The boyfriend and I shared this, and I was glad I wasn’t that hungry or else it wouldn’t have filled us up at all.

It was severely bland and lacking any type of flavour. We had to sprinkle a lot of salt on top to make this mediocre. We weren’t sure why the server had recommended this dish to us, and how it passed for “super delicious” because it was quite the exact opposite.
The service? What service? Not so great. Although our server was friendly, she was really slow and we saw her socializing with other servers instead. We tried to ask her for salt and pepper since out shephard’s pie was so bland, but she never acknowledged or checked up on us. We ended up walking to the bar and asking the bartender if we could use it. We also asked the bartender if we could get our water refilled.

On a separate visit, the boyfriend and I came back for a beer, but with caution since our first visit wasn’t spectacular. Since we only wanted to grab a couple drinks, we decided to come back as I liked the drink prices and how you can get a smaller size (250ml). We came on a late afternoon just in time for happy hour!

We weren’t planning on eating, but the happy hour deal was so great that we couldn’t pass it up. A pint of house beer and choice of pizza for $11, which is about 50% off depending on which pizza you order. We ordered the Hawaiian pizza, which came with your standard ham, pineapples and also capicola. Just like our first visit, we enjoyed the pizza and it had a generous amount of capicola!
Since the happy hour came with a pint, the boyfriend ordered one of the house beers, the saison sauvignon. It was slightly salty and a tad hoppy, it reminded me of the more popular seedspitter watermelon wit from Parallel 49.

I really wanted the beer I had last time (which was the purpose of our visit), but unfortunately they were sold out =( I settled on the Lonetree cider instead. It tasted like your typical cider, but I would have liked it more cold since I found it to be only a tiny bit above room temperature.

The service this time was phenomenal! We had a different server, who was super nice and friendly, and gave us many drink recommendations. He checked up on us many times and made our visit a delight. It’s amazing how much the service can change your perception of a place! I’m glad we gave this place a second try.

Steel Toad is still less than a year old, with room for improvement. Some of their dishes are executed nicely, while others could use work. The service is inconsistent as well, but I’m glad our second time was a lot better!

Read my reviews on Tap and Barrel and CRAFT as well, all three of which are located within blocks of each other!

Thanks for reading!
-Carmen

Beauty Tips I Wish I Knew at 15

March 21, 2015

Hello fellow readers!

Ah, beauty tips. I love beauty tips and tricks, especially those that simplify a beauty routine or can improve the way you look and feel. Today, I’m taking it back a few steps and talking about 15 year old me. Fifteen year old me had just started to get into makeup and enjoyed countless hours pouring over the pages of Seventeen magazine (There were more teen magazines, but that was my favourite).

A bit embarassing... but here is fifteen year old me — A bit embarassing… but here is fifteen year old me on a good hair day LOL!

From Seventeen magazine, I read on a lot of tips but being so young, the words of wisdom that were shared with me were often tossed away or easily forgotten. Unless it was a major life-changing life hack, I didn’t really think much of it.

I’ve come a long way since then and am in my twenties now =) For privacy reasons, I don’t want to disclose my exact age here but trust me when I say, I’ve had my fair share of beauty mistakes! I thought of my top five and albeit embarrassing, I’d still love to share them with you all today so that hopefully you won’t make the same mistakes as I did at fifteen.

Here are some beauty tips I wish I knew at 15:

Drink lots of water.

Back in high school, I barely drank ANY water. Looking back, I’m not even sure how I survived because these days, I get headaches when I don’t feel hydrated enough. I remember bringing those plastic water bottles to school, and getting home only to see that only 2 sips had been taken the whole school day. Shudder…

These days, part of my daily routine is to drink a full glass of water when I wake up. I do this because it refreshes my body and also so I don’t start off my day with a possible headache due to dehydration.

In the beauty sense, think of drinking water as an internal moisturizer! Your skin is properly quenched from the inside out, which will radiant healthy and fresh looking skin on the outside. Without water, your skin becomes dehydrated and can start to look dull.

There are tons of moisturizers and makeup products that can instantly perk up your skin, but that is only skin deep. Drinking fresh water is very important if you want lasting results and great skin!

Combat pimples before they form.

Puberty was not kind to me. Puberty was especially not kind to my poor skin, and I started noticing that my skin type was always prone to breakouts and oiliness. My skin has gotten a lot better over the years, but I wouldn’t say I have perfect skin as I’ve mentioned numerous times on my blog.

One thing I used to do was spot treatments on pimples after I broke out. Now, when I feel a pimple forming, I apply either toothpaste (it really works) or spot treat Amie deep cleansing mask before going to sleep. Most of the time, the newly formed pimple will have disappeared or have shrunk. Of course, not every single pimple that you try this method on will work, but it’s better having one pimple than five =)

Here are some words to live by, not just beauty related: If you see a problem, try to combat it before it gets even worse. Apply this to your skincare regime and your breakouts won’t be as bad.

The miracle of face primers.

I don’t even know where to start with face primers, I wish I started using them sooner! Now, I don’t know what I would do without a face primer.

My face makeup has improved drastically since I incorporated the use of face primers into my makeup process. My absolute favourite is The Face Shop’s oil cut pore balm followed by the infamous Porefessional by Benefit. I like TFS one more because it’s a lot cheaper and comes with a lot more product for under $20, the Porefessional is a bit pricey for me.

Using an effective and good face primer will smooth out the look of your skin, and make it last longer as well. Yes, foundation can do that as well but when you do both together, they are an unstoppable team. Then, add a setting powder and your foundation will be flawless for hours =)

Importance of finding the right foundation shade.

Left: Correct colour Right: Incorrect colour, unless my skin got darker?

Back in high school, I didn’t really care that much about finding the right foundation shade. I would just eyeball a bottle of foundation, and just hope that it matched. It also doesn’t really help that my washroom lighting isn’t the best. I just realized a few months ago, when I dug out an old foundation I used (right side). I was horrified at the shade because it was obviously too light for my face, or maybe my skin just got darker over the years?

I’m sure a lot of us do this by accident, I’ve sure seen it on people when I go out! I understand – we’re in a rush, and just want to quickly grab something off the shelf that works, who cares about the detail? This is why I recommend never buying foundation in a hurry.

Not sure what foundation shade is right for you? I discovered mine through Sephora colour IQ. If you’ve never heard of it, you go to any Sephora store where a rep will take three pictures of your skin with a small device. From there, you can also customize it by skin type, ingredients, and coverage type. That was how I found my Urban Decay Naked foundation, which remains to be my favourite foundation to this day.

Avoid mini eyebrow razor blades.

Why do I even still have these?! I should just chuck them out.

Eyebrow razor blades are the devil in the beauty world. At least to me, anyways. There was a brief period of time where I relied on these things because of how insanely cheap, convenient and fast it was to shape your eyebrows.

I stopped using them a couple of years ago because I hated the way my eyebrows grew out after I used it. Since you are just shaving the hair that is above the skin, it will grow back really quickly. To make things worse, it grows back very stubbly and rough! No bueno =(

*Warning- graphic blurb * Oh yeah, once the cap of the blade was stuck, so I had to pull really hard to get the cap off. It came off really suddenly after I applied a lot of force, and I sliced my thumb really badly. The cut was so deep that I thought I had to get stitches, it was so painful. That was seven years ago and I still have the stupid scar on my thumb. That incident literally scarred me for life and I’m very wary of these devilish eyebrow razors. UGH.The scar has gotten a lot smaller over the past 7 years, it used to be a lot deeper and extended out longer. =( You might not really be able to see it in the picture, you can open the photo in a separate window to see it better if you want.

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Well, those are the top 5 beauty tips I wish I knew at 15. What are some tips that you would love to give your younger self? Share them with me in the comments down below!

Thanks for reading!

Carmen