Curiously Carmen

Ebisu – Richmond Location

October 29, 2016

The boyfriend and I are avid sushi lovers. On any given day, we are probably eating Japanese food or otherwise just cooking at home. One of our favourite places to go is Ebisu, although we don’t go there as often as we’d like.

After a busy summer semester, we decided to celebrate by going to Ebisu in Richmond! I wish I remembered to take a photo of our booth, but unfortunately, I didn’t. We were seated in a booth right next to the bar, and was able to see the exorbitant array of alcohol up close. Although I’m not a fan of hard liquor, their collection was truly impressive and pretty cool!

Prawn tempura nabeyaki udon, $11.50: The price for the udon was a bit steeper than what I normally would pay, but Ebisu is a bit more upscale. I don’t like when the tempura comes inside the soup, as it makes it soggy. We quickly took the tempura out before it got super soggy.

This dish was comforting and filling, and had a good amount of udon in it. It could have used a bit more chicken, and the breast was a bit bland but still juicy. The boyfriend really enjoyed the soup, which was a bonito base.
Miso soup, free: This came with the other dish. The miso soup was pretty standard, but I liked how it came with a good amount of tofu and seaweed inside.
Ebi sunomono, free: Again, this came with the party boat that we ordered. Both of us aren’t really big fans of ebi sunomono, but this one was pretty standard.
Chicken teriyaki boat, $14.95: Don’t let the giant boat fool you, because the boat is actually only good for one person. It looks big but it isn’t really thaaaaat much food.

We really enjoyed the chicken teriyaki. The chicken was very juicy, and the skin had a nice smoky crunch to it. The tempura tasted fresh. Meanwhile, the 3 pieces of california roll and 3 pieces of dynamite roll were pretty standard.
Chicken karaage, $8.25: Yum, this was delicious! My stomach is pretty sensitive to oily foods though, so I only ate the small piece. However, it was very crunchy and fresh! We would definitely order this again. Although, we came back to this location a year later and the chicken karaage was not as good.

All in all, we enjoyed our visit to Ebisu and will be back to one of their locations. The service was a bit slow at times though. There were a couple times where we were trying to order/get our bill, but the server was cleaning and wiping down the tables for closing.

Yay!

Seven Deadly Sins of Makeup Tag

October 25, 2016

So I didn’t feel like writing another review today, and decided I would do a tag! I came across this tag from Robyn of Lipstick on the Lake. This is the Seven Deadly Sins of Makeup Tag!

GREED: What’s your most inexpensive beauty item? What’s your most expensive beauty item?
Hmmm, the most inexpensive beauty item would be the essence eyebrow designer. I bought it in August for only $2, and have been using it everyday! I don’t have a picture of it separately, but I did include it in my Introduction to Essence Cosmetics post.

The most expensive beauty item would have to be a toss up between the Naked 1,2,3, palettes or the Kat Von D shade & light palette. The Naked palettes were gifted to me for my birthday/Christmas over the past three years from two people. So, the most expensive beauty item that I have personally bought would have to be the Kat Von D shade & light palette.
WRATH: What item do you have a love/hate relationship with?

I am going to just make this an overall product instead of an item. It would have to be blush! Out of all makeup, I am the least skilled in blush. It seems like I can never apply it evenly on both sides, one side always has too much/little and then it’s just a slippery slope from there.

Here is one of the only times I liked how my blush turned out! I am wearing the Estee Edit Barest Blush in Coy Coral.

GLUTTONY: What brand takes up most of your collection?

Ooooh… it would definitely have to be Urban Decay. Urban Decay Naked Foundation, Naked 1/2/3 palettes, pencil eyeliner, gel liner, eyeshadow pot, primer potion, setting spray, mascara, erm yea the list goes on! Urban Decay has amazing products if you are looking for something extremely long lasting.

I spy… three Urban Decay products from this Night Out Makeup Look post from a year ago!
SLOTH: What product do you neglect the most due to laziness?

This is probably going to be surprising since I know this product is a favourite for lots of people, but it is mascara. Yup. I rarely use mascara, for many reasons. The main reason I guess since I always wear glasses, you can’t really see my lashes so there isn’t a point.

As well, I just don’t really like using it because it’s either clumpy or it doesn’t hold the whole day.

The picture below is with the Benefit They’re Real! mascara and Naked 3 palette. Even though I don’t like mascaras, one of the best ones I’ve tried (and believe me, I’ve tried a lot in attempt to finally like mascara), is this one! Sorry the picture is so small, it is from 2.5 years ago when I was a blogging noob.

PRIDE: What product gives you the most confidence?

If you asked me this two years ago, or even last year, I would have said eyeliner. Ever since I started wearing makeup almost ten years ago, I would never leave the house without eyeliner!

But, these past few months, it would have to be doing my eyebrows. Doing my eyebrows give me more confidence and makes my face look more defined. I’ve actually stopped wearing eyeliner everyday, never would I have thought that would happen. Instead, I just fill in and shape my eyebrows everyday with my essence brow designer, as mentioned in the first question!
LUST: Which item is at the top of your beauty wishlist?

Oh giiiirl, there are too many!!! Hmm, I was really wanting the Kat Von D palette but I finally took the plunge and splurged on it two months ago. SO, it would probably have to be the Kylie Jenner lipkits. I know right?!

You’re probably going to judge me for supporting the Kardashians or whatever, but Kylie’s matte lipsticks are AMAZING. They seriously stay on for over 10 hours, don’t transfer, AND are comfortable to wear.

But yeah, I would love to get more of her lip products and maybe even the Kyshadows! I just want more of her products. The hard part is that you can only order it online, and it is calculated with USD and pricey international shipping. So boo.
ENVY: Which makeup product looks great on other but not on you?

It would probably have to be mascara! As mentioned previously, you can’t really see it on when I wear glasses (which is all the time) and I never really have good luck with curling my lashes.

However, in an effort to be more body positive and confident, I will say that I think I have nice lower lashes, and lining them with mascara really make my eyes pop!

SONY DSC — Hm, my mascara here doesn’t look bad either!

Kylie Matte Liquid Lip Kit

October 22, 2016

By now, I’m sure you have ALL heard of Kylie Jenner, or at the very least, the Kardashians. I’m not going to go into detail with them because I do not ‘Keep Up with the Kardashians’ (pun intended) and have never watched their ‘reality’ TV show nor do I ever plan to.

I never took an interest in Kylie’s lip products, until Maki told me she was planning on buying her products. The initial reaction of ‘Whaaatt whyyyyy’ shifted to curiosity, which is seemingly fitting for my blog’s name, Curiously Carmen :)!

Maki really enjoyed the formula of her lip kits , much to both of our surprise. Unfortunately, she did not like how one of the shades looked with her skintone, so she gave it to me. Fast forward to today, I am here to review the product!

The product I will be reviewing today is the Kylie matte liquid lipstick in the shade 22. 22 is a beautiful, attention grabbing bright orange-y red.
Whenever I wear 22, I seem to always receive compliments on the colour. People are often surprised that it is by Kylie Jenner, because they didn’t know that her products were actually pretty decent (myself included in the past).
The swatch above is just from one swipe! You can see how pigmented it is. The top corner looks a bit weird because that was the first spot I swatched, and it was still drying.

As the name suggests, it is a true matte finish. Once it dries, it does NOT budge, so it is important to apply it slowly and carefully. This is not one of those lipsticks where you can quickly grab it from your purse, and blindly swipe it on your lips without a mirror.

The few seconds that it takes to dry may feel strange if you’re not used to a matte lip product. It dries out my lip at first and I feel the need to put lip balm on. After a couple of minutes, the feeling goes away and it wears pretty comfortably.

What I love most about this product is how LONG it lasts. As I said above, this lipstick seriously does not budge. I tested it and wore it for over 9 hours, with meals/drinks/snacks in between and only the middle part faded a little. It is really impressive and so far, the longest lasting lip product I’ve tried.

It is also incredibly pigmented and very true to colour. One swipe is all you will need. Although it is extremely long lasting and highly pigmented, there is no chemical scent or taste to the lipstick and it has never smudged on my lip.
Here is a picture taken TEN hours after wear, using bright flash so you can see it better. I applied this at around 1pm, and took it off at 11pm. You can see the middle part start to fade.

During these ten hours, I drank some water, iced tea, and ate a filling sushi & udon dinner. I was positive that the slippery udon would get rid of the lipstick, but nope! Amazing!

Overall, I am really impressed with Kylie’s lip products. I never thought I would try her products, or let alone LOVE it, but I’m really glad I gave it a chance. I’m already thinking of the next shades that I want to try. Unfortunately, they are a bit pricey with the USD conversion and shipping rate seeing how I’m a jobless student right now. But I’m hoping to get some more during Christmas!

Edit: After writing this post, the Kylie Gods were on my side and they offered free international shipping! I wanted to buy them ALLLL, but I behaved and only bought one! It arrived about a week later, and is the Leo shade.

Yay!

Sushi Costume w/ Wasabi Headband DIY (No sewing needed)

October 19, 2016

Yay! Halloween is just around the corner again! I am a bit crazy over costumes because I like to think about them months in advance. In fact, I might actually already think what I’ll be the NEXT year on November 1st!

Although I love costumes and themed events, I am also terrible at DIY, drawing, arts/crafts, and can barely thread a needle. I’ve been wanting to brush up on my sewing skills and maybe take a beginners course somewhere, but haven’t had the time to yet.

Anyway, for Halloween this year, the boyfriend and I have decided to be… SUSHI!!! We seriously LOVE sushi and it is one of foods I can still eat without having a bad reaction.

diy-sushi-costume — Everything prepped and made at home from the boyfriend! <3

Well, I’m going to be a salmon nigiri, but the boyfriend will be a sushi chef. He actually worked as a sushi chef last year in between school (long story). From that job, he’s become really good at making rolls and very knowledgeable in sashimi prep and taste.
I will first start off with the salmon sashimi costume!

MATERIALS NEEDED FOR SUSHI (Wasabi headband part after):

Hot glue gun
Fluffy pillow
Orange pillowcase OR orange fabric to make the pillowcase – approx 1 square meter
White felt
Safety pins – approx 10 (optional if you are planning on sewing your pillow case)
White shirt
A long strip of black fabric approx. 5 inches/12 cm height. Width is depending on your hip size, but it will have to wrap around your body 1.5 times.

1) Put orange fabric around pillow. (Skip if you already have a pillowcase) Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any orange pillowcases so I bought a meter of a random orange fabric at the fabric store. Here is Benji being curious and wondering if there are pellets hidden.

Spread out the fabric and put the pillow in the center. Test out how you’d like to wrap the pillow. I treated mine as if it was a present I needed to wrap.
2) Pin together the fabric. If you have a pillow case, simply pin together the opening. You can also use a hot glue gun for this.

Or, if you know how to sew, just sew it together (Keep in mind this tutorial is for those who can’t sew, so be nice!)
3) Get your white felt and using a ruler, draw equal lines to make the strip. Having lines will make it easier for you to cut the felt evenly.
4) Use the hot glue gun to glue the white strips! You may choose to position them in a V shape like me, or just diagonally.

5) Wear a white shirt. You will be the nigiri rice!

6) Use the black fabric or black belt to wrap the pillow on your back. You may also choose to safety the top part of the pillow to the tshirt for more reinforcement.

7) Done!
MATERIALS NEEDED FOR WASABI & GINGER HEADBAND:

Green loofah
Pink fabric
Scissors
Hot glue gun
Headband (one that matches your hair colour or green, pink)

1) Cut up the pink fabric to 5×1 inch rectangles. It is up to you how many, I chose to do 5 slices of ginger.

2) Glue one end of the strip to the headband w/ hot glue gun, starting from either the left or right.

3) Continue gluing the strips, with each one half overlapping the other. The idea is to glue halfway of the headband. You don’t want it all across or that looks kinda weird and not cute.

4) Glue the green loofah towards the side, on top of the pink fabric.

AND DONEEEE! Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures wearing it as Halloween is still almost about 2 weeks away. I still need to find a white shirt to wear, hoping to find a 3/4 sleeve one so I won’t be that cold. As well, I need to safety pin the pillow to said shirt for more reinforcement.

But I will DEFINITELY update this post with a picture once I find that! I just wanted to post this before Halloween incase you’re looking for ideas and instructions.
As a bonus, you could paint your nails as salmon nigiri too! I used a mix of triangle and diagonally striped sashimi here!

Edit: Us on Halloween with the costume! The boyfriend bought a sushi chef apron off Amazon, and we went to Daiso for the sushi chef hat. It’s actually a decorative towel but it worked as a headband too!

Happy costuming!!!

Tentatsu- Burnaby Location

October 13, 2016

You may be familiar with the original Tentatsu restaurant in East Van, by Hastings and Nanaimo. Tentatsu recently just opened their second location in Burnaby, about a 8 minute drive from the original!

The boyfriend and I decided to try it on a whim one evening.

In addition, Tentatsu was having a 10% grand opening discount! Perfect time to try it out and see if it matched the original.

The restaurant itself is really big and spacious. It reminds me of a dance hall and is good for large groups.

Compared to the original location, I liked the service here a LOT better. Thinking about the service at the original makes me so angry because of how atrocious it was.

The staff weren’t friendly, but quick and efficient enough. Or maybe because I have such low standards from the original Tentatsu that I thought their service was decent (actually, this is definitely the case).

We were also impressed with how they served quality genmaicha tea (Japanese match green tea w/ brown rice) for free! I was happy when our food came quite quickly, unlike the original location where my mom and I waited almost 30 minutes when it wasn’t that busy.

California roll: The California roll was decent, and tasted fresh. It has a good about of ripe avocado inside and topped with crunchy sesame seeds.

Salmon roll: The rice in the salmon roll was still warm, but it was good nonetheless.

Tuna roll: The tuna roll was decent as well, no complaints about it!

Salmon nigiri: I only wanted one to try their sashimi, but the boyfriend insisted I order 3. You will soon see why it was not a good idea!

The sashimi had a slight fishy taste to it and was fresh. Lately, I’ve been tasting ‘sashimi’ that has the texture of sashimi, but no taste. So, it was a relief when there was a slight salmon taste!

Negitoro roll: We were dissappointed with this roll because it barely came with any tuna. However, the tuna was fresh and tasted good! There was only a few measly pieces of green onion inside.

Negihamachi roll: I didn’t try this because I was too busy trying to finish the other dishes. The boyfriend thought it was okay, but could have used more flavour. Again, the rice was slightly warm.

House roll: The house roll was pretty decent! As with all the rolls, it tasted fresh. It is basically a large California roll with tamago and masago.

BC roll: Nope, not as good as Uomo next door. The salmon was a bit dry and bland and way too fishy.

Here is a picture of the negitoro roll. You can see the small amount of tuna compared to rice, and how little onion there was.

With a seemingly negative review, would I come back? Yes! Although it’s not the BEST, the prices are amazing for what you get. Service is quick and efficient too.

We ordered all this food, with so much leftovers for $25 including tip and tax! Granted, there was a 10% opening discount but $27-29 for all this food is really cheap. It’s a good option for a quick bite in the neighbourhood!

Yay!