I’m sure most of you have heard of the famous Shellac polish before. If you haven’t, Shellac is a type of special, patent pending, polish exclusively from CND. Shellac is a hybrid, meaning half nail polish, half gel. It is cured through UV lighting, just like gel nails!

Many nail salons swear by Shellac and use it exclusively. Shellac nails also last up to two weeks, just like gel nails!

The CND summer preview event was held at Oynx Aesthetics Studio, in Vancouver’s Gastown neighbourhood. Oynx just opened up three months ago, the studio is a great addition to the neighbourhood. We got to preview the upcoming shades for their Shellac and Vinylux line!

Pictured above are some shades in the new summer line. I decided to go with a girly nail design, just in time for Valentine’s Day!
Ta-daaa! Here are my finished Shellac nails, created by Linda!

For the base colours, Linda used the new CND Shellac shades ‘be demure’ and ‘sparks fly’. She then used a magenta heart and feather tip pen to create the design, and finished with gold tips.
After the Shellac manicure, Linda finished off with a hand massage using CND Spa’s new lotion. I had the gardenia woods one, which smelled wonderful and floral! It was super moisturizing as well.

I am in love with my new nails, and love how girly they are!

Next time you’re getting a Shellac manicure, check out the new shades, which will be available in March 2016.

Thanks for reading!

Carmen

Media product featured, opinions are own.

For some reason, this Winter season has been the harshest and roughest on my skin than it’s ever been before. I’ve never really had to deal with the problem of dry skin, but it came full force this month as the weather started getting colder and the heat got cranked up.

My usual oily skin became very dry, tight, and rough feeling. I found myself moisturizing three or more times a day just to keep it from becoming so tight and rough! During this time, I also stopped using most of my face washes (as the washes I use are designed to keep oily skin at bay), except a gentle, oil-based cleanser on days I wore foundation.

Vichy’s new Aqualia Thermal Extrasensitive moisturizer is a really intensive cream that will quench your skin’s thirst. It is composed of 10% thermal water. Thermal water comes from rain water that has been seeped deep underground, making the natural water extremely rich in minerals.

I liked the pump bottle design, which gave me the perfect amount of product in one pump. The bottle is also airtight to prevent contamination and to ensure purity of the product.

I was super excited to try this product as my skin was in dire need of some moisture! The first thing I noticed was how nice and refreshing the moisturizer smelled. Putting this in the morning is a great added bonus and can also wake you up a bit.

The moisturizer was very intensive without being greasy! Normally, my oily skin does not require this sort of intensive moisturizer but it absolutely soaked it up instantly.
I use this at night along with the Estee Lauder Nutritious Overnight Cream. In the morning, my skin feels well fed, plump and moisturized.

I also use a pump in the morning, which I feel gives my skin an extra boost in the dry weather. Then, I use it one more time after I get home in the early evening because my skin starts to feel tight and dry again. It instantly replenishes my skin and makes it brighter and healthy looking!

This product is great for those who are suffering from dry skin, whether it be from the weather or that is just your skin type. It does a tremendously well job in repairing and moisturizing your skin and I’ll be using it throughout the winter to prevent that tight and dry skin feeling.

This product retails for $39.50 CAD online at Vichy.ca or in-stores at London Drugs. At the time of writing, London Drugs is having a sale for $31.60 CAD.

Yay!

Thanks for reading!

Carmen

Press sample featured. Opinions are own.

Greetings everyone!

For Jerky’s birthday dinner a few months ago, a bunch of us went to celebrate at Kyo, which is mostly popular for their AYCE (All You Can Eat) Korean BBQ & Sushi dinner. I’ve been here a handful of times already in the past few years, but this was my first time coming here in more than two years.

I took this picture back in 2013 and posted it on Facebook because I thought it was funny how the timing of the bus worked perfectly! Never would I have guessed that I would be using this picture again in a blog post two years later.
We had a group of around 15 people and were split up between 3 tables. All of us were ordering AYCE, they used to allow tables to have both AYCE and non AYCE, but I don’t think they allow that anymore. They also have an all you can drink section as well, but I believe the entire table has to have it in order for it to qualify? Or maybe I am thinking of another restaurant.

I didn’t take pictures of every single dish that came since we were all hungry and impatient, my apologies!

For starters, some of us ordered the spinach gomae and miso soup. I enjoyed the spinach gomae quite a bit and was surprised at how good it tasted. The spinach did not taste old and the peanut butter sauce was a tad sweet. The miso soup was your standard instant package miso soup, and was salty.
One of my favourites that night was the chicken teriyaki, pictured in the back! The chicken was fried nice and crispy, while the inside was warm and juicy. It was lightly covered in teriyaki sauce and sprinkled with sesame. I could easily eat 3 plates of this myself, it was that good!

Unfortunately, the beef teriyaki was not as good. We found it to be a bit watered down, as there was a puddle of water at the bottom of the plate. It was also very bland and overcooked.

Barbeque! And a few tiny pieces of vegetables, hehe… Since I didn’t take a picture of all the meat, I’ll just briefly talk about them here. We ordered the beef, short rib, chicken, pork, and lamb meat. All were pretty delicious and juicy. Some of the meat was a bit too salty as it was already marinated beforehand.  Not bad for all you can eat!
I found the salmon sashimi to be very bland and flavourless. The tuna sashimi was slightly better, but not the best either.
I didn’t try the nigiri pieces seen in the back since I didn’t really enjoy the sashimi to begin with. The tuna tataki was a different story though – it was amazing! It had a slightly grilled taste due to the fish being seared. The tuna tataki was soft and melted in your mouth. Combined with the ponzu sauce and fresh green onions, this was a definite winner!

All in all, Kyo is a hit or miss with their food but it is one of my favourite restaurants to go to for all you can eat. Service was friendly, although they missed a majority of our dishes from the first order. I wished that I had taken more pictures of the food! All of us ended up being so disgustingly full but hey, what is the point of eating AYCE if you don’t feel like you can ever move again? =)

Do you enjoy all you can eat, or rather have quality over quantity?

-Carmen