• 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

Kose Sekkisei Facial Powder Wash

April 15, 2016

Last year, I was introduced to Sekkisei, a Japanese beauty company that had just launched in Canada. Sekkisei has a beautiful, royal blue packaging for all of its products. Being the communications and marketing nerd that I am, I love design consistency!

I received a number of Sekkisei products for review. However, I don’t like having super long posts so I will be dividing my Sekkisei reviews up as I try and use them more. Today, I will be focusing on the Sekkisei facial powder wash.
Kose Sekkisei Facial Powder WashOne of Sekkisei’s main selling points is that it claims to whiten skin, and make it more translucent. Fair, white skin is considered one of the most beautiful features a woman could have in the Asian culture. There are so many Asian products out there that are marketed towards whitening your skin.

In fact, if you can read Chinese characters, you will see that the first character means ‘snow’ in Chinese.

As Sekkisei is a Japanese based company as mentioned earlier, Sekkisei products are derived from both high quality Chinese and Japanese herbal extracts.

You may be wondering why a Japanese company uses Chinese characters instead of Japanese characters? The Japanese actually have three alphabets, one which is called ‘Kanji’ and uses Chinese characters on writing mixed with the other two Japanese alphabets. The meaning on paper/writing is the same, but pronunciation is completely different.

Kose Sekkisei Facial Powder Wash Anyways, back to the review. The powder wash comes in a sturdy bottle with one small opening, so that the powder does not spill everywhere. The powder is very fine, and very light. One small sneeze can send the product falling everywhere! =P

It reminded me of baby powder, but even softer. Sekkisei describes this product as a ‘skin-clarifying powder wash that leaves skin brighter than and as fine as freshly fallen snow’.

After putting the powder on your hand, lather it up by adding water. You may want to experiment with the amount of water you add to reach your desired consistency. For myself, I added a few drops of water and washed it on my face in a circular motion.

My first impression was that it lathered pretty quickly, and I loved how gentle it was on my skin. It was very smooth, yet did a decent job in making my skin feel very clean and fresh.

You can purchase Sekkisei products online or at select Shoppers Drug Mart stores in Canada!

yay-nay-or-meh

Yay!

Thanks for reading,

Carmen

Press samples featured. Opinions are own. 


Filed Under: face, japanese Tagged: asian beauty, asian product, beauty, beauty blogger, beauty review, japanese, skincare

ColourPop Super Shock Eyeshadows

March 22, 2016

Instagram and Youtube have been blowing up with rave reviews on ColourPop. After seeing SO many of the trusted beauty accounts I follow praising ColourPop, I decided on finally placing my own order! ColourPop is an online makeup store, most famously known for their intensely pigmented lip products (Lippiestix and ultra matte lip), as well as their super shock eyeshadows.

As you can see from my Instagram, I bought three Lippiestix and three super shock eyeshadows. To qualify for free shipping, you need to spend over $40 USD and seeing that I HATE paying for shipping, I decided to get a few more products as I’ve heard such great things about them anyway.

ColourPop Super Shock Eyeshadows Review

Shipping

The processing took five days – I placed my order on a Sunday and it shipped out on Friday. The products arrived to the parcel center on Tuesday, so overall, it was a bit over a week.

Since I am a Canadian based beauty blog, I should mention that shipping to Canada will probably take a bit longer. Luckily, I live about 45 minutes from the USA border so I had my package shipped to a US parcel service, which entitled free US shipping. Otherwise, shipping would have costed almost an additional $20 Canadian to my house (shipping rates differ depending on exchange rate, etc).

Yes, I know you might be thinking it’s not worth it to drive down to the states. If you think it’s not worth it and you rather pay for Canadian shipping & convenience – by all means, you are welcome to. For myself personally, after thinking about the pros and cons and calculating the gas cost, it was still cheaper to drive to the border. As well, I was able to go on a weekday early afternoon so there was no border wait at all. I was in and out of the states in literally 5 minutes, LOL.

For future orders, I might get it shipped to US again if I have time to go. But if not, I’ll just have to suck it up and pay the expensive shipping >.<
ColourPop Super Shock Eyeshadows ReviewHere are the three shades I ordered! For the super shock eyeshadows, ColourPop has six types of finish – satin, matte, metallic, ultra-metallic, pearlized, and pressed pigment.

The dark blue metallic shade is rex. The one beside it is porter, a warm purply/burgundy with gold glitter. Finally, the one on the bottom is stereo, a reddish/burgundy with copper metallic glitter sprinkled on top.

All three shades I ordered were the metallic finish. Upon first touch of the three eyeshadows, I found them to be very bouncy and light. I also find them to be slightly damp too, but the product goes on dry. I really like the formula of the metallic finish super shock eyeshadows and thought they were very unique. I also had no trouble with fallout, which is a major WIN in my books!

Needless to say, I was VERY impressed with the pigmentation and application of all three eyeshadows. I was in love at first application, and couldn’t believe that they were only $5 USD each! What a crazy steal!

ColourPop Super Shock Eyeshadows ReviewHere is one of the looks I created using the eyeshadows. Look how pigmented it looks, and I didn’t even use that much of the product!

For this look, I am wearing stereo all over my eyelid, and used porter just above my upper lashline to give it a pop of colour.
ColourPop Super Shock Eyeshadows ReviewHere is another look I created using all three super shock eyeshadows. I am also wearing ColourPop’s Lippiestix in the shade dalia. I plan on doing a separate review for the Lippiestix!

Overall, I definitely recommend the ColourPop super shock eyeshadow and I wish I ordered more. They are amazingly pigmented, and the fact that they are so affordable makes it even better. Intense pigmentation, no fallout, long wear, and for $5 USD. I’m so glad I finally tried ColourPop because their products are just amazing!

yay-nay-or-meh

Yay!

Thanks for reading,
Carmen


Filed Under: eyes, face, lips, makeup Tagged: beauty, beauty blog, beauty blogger, canada, colourpop, colourpop cosmetics, online shopping, vancouver

Vichy Idealia Skin Sleep Lotion

March 13, 2016

We’ve all heard of getting enough beauty sleep, so that your skin will be radiant, glowing, and eye bag-free! But what if you are just too busy or not sleeping well enough to reach that goal?

For myself, having a good night’s sleep is something I’ve always struggled with and continue to do so. Even though I ‘sleep’ a decent amount of hours, I am constantly waking up throughout the night or plagued with nightmares so sometimes I am just exhausted when I wake up in the morning. It takes a toll on my body and my skin 🙁

Vichy Idealia Skin Sleep LotionVichy’s Idealia Skin Sleep targets skin while you are sleeping, and helps to restore your skin so that it looks healthy even if you didn’t have a good night’s sleep!

The powerful synergy of active ingredients created in the Vichy laboratories makes for a product that is capable of stimulating all of skin’s deep sleep mechanisms to recreate and optimize their repairing effects. The formula also includes caffeine to improve micro-circulation.

Vichy Idealia Skin Sleep LotionThe jar itself is pretty sturdy, and comes with a slightly reflective lid. It is a pretty good size to bring with you on vacation or to just leave at home. One thing I noticed immediately after opening the jar was how great this smelled! It had a very feminine scent, and reminded me of fresh flowers.

I looked forward to putting this on my skin every night because I loved how great it smelled! Sometimes, I’ll also use this as a morning moisturizer as I love the smell of it so much 🙂
Vichy Idealia Skin Sleep LotionI would say that the texture of the cream is more of a gel based. It is also more on the light side and wasn’t that thick or heavy.

As we go into Spring & Summer now, my skin is finally going back to its normal state – aka oily/combination. I only have to use a little bit for my skin to feel moisturized, but I really think it depends on YOUR skin type.

If you have dry skin, I would recommend using a bit more. When I wake up, my face feels plump and moisturized! My skin really does look more ‘energetic’ and less dull – I have the caffeine in the lotion to thank for that.

Overall, I do like the Vichy Idealia Skin Sleep and find it a decent moisturizer. Since it is not too thick but does a great job at moisturizing, I would say that it is probably suitable for most skin types. So far, I am really loving Vichy’s skincare line and have nothing but great words to say about their great quality products!

I also started trying out the new Vichy Aqua Sorbet body lotion, and have been LOVING that as much as I have been with the other Vichy products. Keep your eyes peeled on a review for that!

yay-nay-or-meh

Yay!

Thanks for reading,
Carmen

Press sample featured. Opinions are own.


Filed Under: face Tagged: beauty, beauty blog, beauty blogger, lotion, moisturizer, skin, skincare, sleep

Current Night Routine | Winter Edition

February 22, 2016

Ever since Winter came along, my skin has been pretty dry. I’ve been finding myself wearing more moisturizer and using less abrasive skin products. I thought I would talk about my current night routine, as I don’t think I have before and I always like to see what products other people use before bed!

This routine will probably change once Spring comes – can’t wait for the sun to hang around longer each day! This getting dark at 4 pm business is no bueno…

Also, this is my full face routine that I’ll do after wearing a full makeup look. When I’m just wearing eyeliner or no makeup at all, I often won’t do all these steps.

NightRoutine1) Lancome bi-facil eye makeup remover: I’ve tried many makeup removers, but the Lancome one is the best I’ve used for getting ready to bed. This easily removes ALL your eye makeup, even when you have primer and waterproof product on!

2) First Aid Beauty cleanser: I wrote a review about the First Aid Beauty cleanser last month, and it has currently been my go-to. It effortlessly removes all foundation and leaves your skin feeling moisturized without overdrying.

3) Vichy Idealia Skin Sleep: I only recently started introducing this into my skin regime, but I love it so far! I use this for days when I feel that I need only light moisturizer. The lotion is also a nice, soft pink colour and smells wonderful! It reminds me of a garden.

4) Estee Lauder nutritious vitality8 night cream/mask: I’ve been using this for awhile now! My skin is normally pretty oily so I don’t need heavy moisturizer. However, this has been a saviour in the winter because it is so intensely rich and moisturizing. My skin feels nice and plump when I wake up in the morning, no matter how cold/dry it is!

Thanks for reading!

Carmen


Filed Under: body, face

Valentine’s Day Makeup 2016

February 15, 2016

Happy belated Valentine’s Day, everyone! I hope you had a great day celebrating love. I think it’s a great day to just appreciate each other although yes, you should be doing that everyday 🙂

Last year, I shared my Valentine’s Day makeup look with you all so I thought I would do the same this year too. This year, the boyfriend and I kept things pretty low-key and simple. We just went out to one of my favourite Japanese restaurants in Vancouver and exchanged small gifts!
ValentinesMakeup1Since we are both pretty busy on the weekdays, we use the weekends to just be lazy (although I’ve been pretty busy with school, work and my blog). Admittedly, this makeup look was completed under ten minutes while we were binge-watching Brooklyn 99. But I still think it turned out decently, even if I was partly watching TV!

I wasn’t planning on doing an eyeshadow look, but since I was just wearing my everyday casual clothes, I wanted to dress up my eyes a little bit.

Part of the reason why I like the Naked 3 palette the least is probably due to the more rosy and pink tones they have. I find that it doesn’t really go well with my skin tone.
ValentinesMakeup3I was just planning on using ‘trick’ over my eyelids, but for some reason, I found myself playing with the other colours as well.

To create this look, dust the shade ‘trick’ generously over your eyelid with the larger, round brush in the palette. The goal is to apply it in circles, so that the colour blends more evenly. Then, use the same rounded brush tip in the shade ‘mugshot’ on the outer corners of your eye to start the smoky eye.

Afterwards, use the flatter brush tip in the palette and lightly dab ‘blackheart’  on the outer corner as well. You can build this colour depending on how much of a smoky eye you want. Once you’re satisfied with the amount of colour, use the rounded tip and blend, blend, BLEND!

To freshen up the look, I applied the same shade I used in the beginning, ‘trick’ in the inner corner and middle of my eyelid. Then, I used my Dollywink eyeliner to line my upper eyelids.

ValentinesMakeup2I finished the look on the rest of my face with the Anastasia brow gel, Covergirl clean foundation, and Chanel lipstick in shade ‘etole’.

Thanks for reading!

Carmen


Filed Under: eyes, face, makeup

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • …
  • 19
  • 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