Curiously Carmen

Favourite Drugstore Facial Washes

February 21, 2015

Good afternoon everyone! (Or whatever time it is where you are!)

I’ll be talking about my favourite drugstore facial washes today. These two face washes never fail to disappoint me, and always do an amazing job taking off my makeup at the end of the night. I’ve tried higher end face washes, such as the Bliss Fabulous Foaming Wash which was pretty disappointing. It’s kind of sad that a $3 product removes makeup better than a $24 product does… and it’s 8x more cheaper!

My two current favourite drugstore washes are the Olay deep cleaning face wash and St. Ives apricot scrub. They are both great at deep cleaning and will remove all your face makeup, no matter how much you have on or how much primer you put on!
Starting with the St. Ives apricot scrub, I’ve been using this for many years now… probably even since high school. I just have nothing bad to say about this product. For $3, it is seriously amazing. It smells great, removes all your makeup, and acts as a great exfoliant. After using this, my skin always feels great, refreshed, and re-energized.

While I was writing this review, I decided to look up some other opinions on this scrub. Some people said that the exfoliant in the apricot scrub was too abrasive and rough on their skin. For me personally, I don’t mind but I don’t use this product daily. I use it on days where I have full foundation coverage on because it does a great job in breaking down the foundation, or days where I feel my skin feels extra oily.

My second favourite drugstore foundation that works wonders is the Olay deep cleansing face wash with witch hazel. My mom bought this and at first, I didn’t really like it because of the scent, but it does a great job at deep cleansing your skin. It has a thicker and creamier texture, and is a weird silvery/grey colour. This one is suitable to use daily as it is not an exfoliating scrub like the apricot scrub.

When I’m taking my foundation off, I first start with the apricot scrub since the naturally grainy texture in it really separates and breaks apart foundation. I gently rub my face in small circles to get all my makeup off. If I feel like going the extra step, I’ll use the Olay wash next which is more gentle. My skin seriously feels soft, refreshing, and is makeup free after these two quick steps.

These two full sized products combined will definitely not break the bank. I get the St. Ives apricot scrub at Wal-mart for $3, I can’t believe how cheap it is. Actually, it might even be $2.50 or $2.95… I can’t remember exactly. I believe the Olay wash is around $4.

You really don’t need to spend lots to have effective face washes! =)

Also, if you’re wondering, my daily cleanser is the Lush herbalism cleanser. While the Lush cleanser is just as effective as these two, it also costs more and I try to only use a little bit each day because of the price. With that said, I need more product when removing a full face of makeup, so I rather use the apricot scrub or Olay wash. You can read my detailed review on the herbalism cleanser here.

What are your favourite face washes? Have you tried any of these products and how did you like them?

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Maybelline Mineral Powder Review

February 20, 2015

I miss writing drugstore makeup reviews so much! Did you miss reading them? =)

Most cases, I find that drugstore makeup isn’t as good as high end makeup… well obviously, that is a given as you pay what you get right? But there are some times where these cheaply priced products shine! (or not, if you’re choosing matte makeup..ha ha ha… get it…) This next product is one of those, in my opinion. I love using this product as a finishing powder and it has become a regular in my face makeup routine, on days where I actually wear foundation!

Announcing… the amazing Maybelline Mineral Power foundation! This has been around for quite a few years now, and you can probably find this at almost every drugstore. I know that I always see this product every time I’m at Target, Shoppers, London Drugs, or Wal-Mart.

Funny thing was that when I first bought this in high school, I really hated it and threw it out. Back then, the product had just been released and came with a free makeup brush. Except that makeup brush was absolutely terrible. Looking back, I realize how important a good makeup brush is because that one made your foundation go on uneven, looked cakey, and was very stiff so it felt a bit unpleasant putting it on.

Anyways, I re-discovered this product after my friend gave me hers. She had bought it and realized that it was the wrong shade, and couldn’t return it. I have the shade 3 – light.

mineral-power-powder-foundation_classic-ivory_pack-shot-crop — Picture from Maybelline.ca

Oh, nevermind, I think it still comes with the brush after checking Maybelline’s website. Has anyone else used this brush? I’m curious to see if it’s really that much of a crappy brush or if I just got a bad batch.

You can use this just by itself for a light coverage, but I prefer medium – heavy coverage so I use this as a finishing powder. I use The Face Shop’s pore balm which smooths the look of my skin, but this is really the cherry on top to a flawless and poreless face. The two combined along with my Urban Decay Naked foundation will never disappoint me.

One con that I should mention about this product is that it can get really messy when you’re applying it. It also doesn’t help that I used to carry this around in my luggage or make up bag, and it doesn’t contain a “stopper” so the foundation will spill out through the holes when it’s being moved. By the time you open it, a lot of the foundation has already fallen out and it can get messy.

Now, I try to just leave this at home or I know I’ll be faced with a messy counter the next time I use it.

Here is the back, which includes the information and further description if you’re interested! I’m not too sure how much this costs since my friend gave it to me and I can’t remember when I first bought it. I would say probably around $8-$10? Leave me a comment if you know and I’ll update this =)

This is the most recent picture I have wearing this foundation! I’m wearing The Face Shop pore balm, Urban Decay Naked foundation, and this to finish off as well as a Lancome blush.

If you have the same skin type as me (oily/combination) then I recommend trying this. I can’t say how it will work for other skin types! Keep an eye out for more drugstore makeup posts =)

Have you tried this product? What are your favourite drugstore foundations?

-Carmen

Valentines Day Makeup 2015

February 19, 2015

Hi everyone,

I apologize for the late post, I have been quite busy outside my blog. I’m really looking forward to having a night to myself where I can peacefully blog without having a million other things to do!

unnamed (1) — Drove to this beautiful viewpoint after Valentines dinner =)

What did you all do for Valentines Day? I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. I spent the day with the boyfriend, we had a good day enjoying our city =) As the weather gets warmer and better, I always get amazed at how lovely and beautiful Vancouver is. It happens every single year and I’ve lived here my whole life, and wouldn’t have it any other way. There’s so much to see, explore, and eat in this beautiful city!

Anyways, since this is my makeup blog, I guess I should stop talking about Vancouver and move on to what you’re all here to read =)

Here is all the makeup I used that day. Usually, I only wear eyeliner and fill in my eyebrows. I like to let my skin breathe!

For my eyes, I wanted something a bit sparkly since I don’t normally wear sparkly eyes. I used my Urban Decay eyeshadow pot in Space Cowboy and Naked 3 palette. Space Cowboy came with my 2014 Sephora Glitz and Glam party bag, and indeed it is a great product to use on a night out!

I created a thicker, winged eyeliner look as well, but I filled in my eyebrows the usual way: Anastasia Brow Gel & the ELF eyebrow set!

Also, I wore contacts! I haven’t worn contacts for almost two months… my eyes get so uncomfortable with contacts after four hours. I envy those who can wear contacts for 12 hours straight.

For the face makeup, I primed my skin with The Face Shop’s pore balm that I just realized I forgot to take a picture of, sorry! But you can read my review of it here =) I have been loving it so far even though it smells a bit medicated, it really does smooth out the appearance of your face. My concealer is also from The Face Shop and you can also read a review here.

To set my foundation, I used the Maybelline Mineral Powder which is probably one of my drugstore favourites of all time. I recently re-discovered this foundation and haven’t looked back! The first time I bought this, it came with a really horrible and stiff brush which looked really cakey and gross on your skin. When using my own regular brush, it’s a really good finishing powder and makes your face look smoother.

SONY DSC — Should have worn lipstick before taking this picture >.< Just ignore my lips!

Finishing off, I used my Lancome Blush Subtil set lightly over my cheeks. I find that this blush, or this shade in particular, gives you a very youthful, rosy, and cute look. It’s also very light, so it might be a bit hard to see here.

Wow, I just noticed how colour-less my lips look…ugh. We had just finished eating dinner and I didn’t think to reapply lipstick for this picture, whoops. Anyways, I’m wore the Chanel Rouge Coco lipstick line in 80 – Etole. It’s a nice, neutral shade. I like it because it looks suitable with many makeup looks.

Anyways, my bunny Benji is going crazy, running and jumping around in circles so I should probably call it a post and play with him (You can probably see him over on the right, in my Instagram preview hehe). I had a fun time writing this post and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed putting it on! Happy late Valentines to all my readers once again =)

Hope to talk soon!

-Carmen

Rain or Shine Ice Cream

February 18, 2015

Hi everyone,

(Disclaimer- I actually wrote this draft last April LOL, I was meaning to publish it once the weather became hotter but I completely forgot!)

I predict that Rain or Shine Ice Cream is going to be the next big ice cream parlour in Vancouver and for outstanding reasons. I mean, come on, ICE CREAM WAFFLE CONE TACOS and ice cream paddles? They take ice cream, which is already a wonderful invention, and find ways to make it more spectacular.

I somehow came across this place while I was reading other food blogs. What caught my eye was that one review said that offer “ice cream flights”. I love beer flights/paddles (Biercraft, St Augs anybody?), so needless to say, I was ecstatic when I heard about this and knew I had to come here. People also said that it was like Earnest ice cream without the line up and popularity.

Upon entering, I noticed that it was a pretty small place. Probably seats around 12 people at most. They had a big cows head statue which reminded me of Marsha the Moose from Big Brother Canada.

The workers let us sample so many different flavours, gave us some history behind the store, and were so patient. Even though they had other customers to serve, they treated everyone equally and had time for everyone’s questions and sampling requests!
We finally decided on our flight flavours. We shared the chocolate, peanut butter, blueberry balsamic, and brown butter snickerdoodle. Ahhhh! All of the flavours were so creamy and rich. The workers told us that they make all their ice cream in the back kitchen with local ingredients as much as possible. The freshness of their ice cream really shines through, and it completely melts in your mouth with every spoonful. It cost $9 which I think was worth it, since it was so fresh and delicious. The following 4 pictures will be a review on each flavour, because I’m that obsessed…
Peanut butter- The boyfriend eats, breathes, and lives peanut butter so it was only natural we got this flavour. Unfortunately for me, I am not a big fan of peanut butter but I still liked the creamy and smooth texture of this. There were also small peanut chunks in the ice cream, which made the ice cream crunchier.
Chocolate- As you can tell, we devoured part of this before I remembered to take a picture. The chocolate was very smooth, and it wasn’t overwhelming sweet.
Brown butter snickerdoodle- This one was my second favourite. As with the chocolate one, this one wasn’t overly sweet other but it had lovely hints of cinnamon spices. IT WAS SO GOOD. On top of the smooth, creamy, cinnamon goodness, there were also generous chunks of cookies inside the ice cream too, which tasted so, so, so, amazing.
Blueberry balsamic- I saved my favourite for last!!! Again, this flavour was very very creamy and delightful. There was a strong blueberry taste to it. There was also generous chunks of blueberries inside which I thoroughly enjoyed. I would definitely recommend trying this flavour!

All in all, we loved our experience at Rain or Shine. It’s definitely worth trying, and if you’re not sure of which flavours to get, try the ice cream flight like we did! Perfect for the indecisive individuals like ourselves. I can predict many Summer nights coming to this place, I better come here more before it gets super popular and impossible to grab a seat or cone (like Earnest)!

-Carmen

Rogue Kitchen & Wetbar- Convention Center location

February 15, 2015

Hi everyone!

Sometimes, as a food blogger, you will visit one of those restaurants that are so bad that you don’t even want to waste your time writing or even thinking about it. But at the same time, you want to warn people before they go to said restaurants. Well, Rogue at the Convention Center is one of those said locations. If I knew how bad the food and service would be, I would have definitely tried another place. This place was definitely one of the worst places I’ve been to in a while, food and service wise.

Walking in, I was very impressed with the decor and location. They had floor to ceiling windows, which let in a lot of sunlight and there was a beautiful view of the water outside. Unfortunately, that’s where it stopped with Carmen being impressed.

My friend and I decided to share the chicken and chorizo cappelini, which sounded delicious on paper. What arrived and what we tasted was another story. The cappelini noodles were extremely mushy, bland and soggy. In addition, the entire plate was void of any flavour, just soggy, mushy, disgusting noodles.

The worst part of the dish was how oily it was. The entire time we were trying to stomach this down, all we saw was oil gleaming from every angle and all we tasted was bland, soggy noodles.

After a few bites, we were done and couldn’t eat anymore. I don’t know how they can serve this out to customers and charge $17 for it. Take it from our experience and save yourself the money, do not order this.
My friend and I also shared the spicy tiger prawn and pesto pizza. I had this at the other Rogue location in Waterfront station, which was really good! However, we were disappointed again when we picked up a slice, and it collapsed due to how much greasy oil was on the thin crust dough. The whole pizza was incredibly oily, to the point where it was so unappetizing that neither of us wanted to eat it anymore.

I tried to salvage it by dabbing my napkin to soak up the oil, but my napkin was drenched in oil after two slices and service was so slow and rude that I didn’t want to ask for more napkins. The pizza was also cut really badly and uneven, some of the pieces were four times larger than others. I’m sorry, but this was just terrible.

There weren’t many prawns on the dish either and tasted nothing like what I had at the other Rogue, I can’t believe they are sister restaurants.
I’m so glad that I ordered a side soup because this was the only minimal dish I had that day. This was the tomato basil soup. I’m not sure if they can cook their soups really well, OR if my standards for this place had gone so low that I thought this was good. There was a strong tomato taste to it, and had a bit of a thicker consistency. It had the right amount of herbs and saltiness, and the melted Parmesan added a nice finishing touch.

Moving on to the rude service. Service was very minimal, and when our server did come, she seemed to be in a really big rush and did not want to serve us. I asked for a hot honey water, which never came so I asked another server as she was walking by. Bad choice. She literally THREW it down on our table and walked away so fast that we couldn’t ask her to bring our server.

My friend was also missing her utensils and water, which took us three tries before our server got it for us.

It’s safe to say that I will not be returning to this Rogue location after how gross our food was and how bad the service was.

-Carmen