Curiously Carmen

Beauty: Four Brands I Have Discovered Through Blogging

January 31, 2018

Four may seem like a bit of a random number, but the reason why I chose four is because it is my four year blogiversary today! Yup, four years ago, I created this lil blog… with no idea what I would have in store.

It’s crazy how this blog has been such an integral part of my life and identity now. I never expected to be this involved with it but it combines my love of writing and sharing what I know.

In celebration of my four years of blogging, I thought I would share four of my absolute favourite brands that I have discovered (through beauty bloggers or as PR products). This does not include brands that I have heard of prior to blogging!

Amie: I feel like this brand came as quickly as it disappeared… LOL I say this because I was told that they were launching in Canada at Shoppers Drug Mart, but I haven’t seen there products on shelf either. I asked the beauty counter and called a couple stores too, and they were confused.

Anyways, I ran out of their mask which I love for spot treatment (seriously kills pimples overnight) so I just ordered off Amazon and they shipped it from the UK. Their other face products are pretty good and affordable as well.

KORRES: Wild Rose Brightening Oil. Need I say more?! <3

essence: I discovered this brand off other bloggers, who raved about their affordability and effectiveness. For $2, the eyebrow pencil is great and lasts all day (as long it doesn’t get wet).

Seche Vite: Again, I discovered this off other bloggers as a great top coat, and I haven’t looked back since purchasing a bottle off of Nail Polish Canada. It’s the only top coat I use. My nail polish lasts for days, before it used to only last a day which was annoying.

Food: Angel Cafe (Revisit)

January 25, 2018

I normally don’t tend to write revisit posts even if I visit the restaurant multiple times after, but I felt like I should make an exception with Angel Cafe. Or maybe I should write revist posts more often? I’m open to feedback and suggestions 🙂

Anyways, the reason why I decided on writing a revisit was that my original post was singing praise about only one combo dish in particular. The boyfriend and I go to Angel regularly but order the same combo dish that I reviewed, until our last visit.

We decided to get some new things and seeing how my old review focused only on the combo dish, I thought I would share some other menu items that they offered!
French toast: Funny story, the boyfriend and I wanted to order a main dish but turns out I only had $25 cash, which wasn’t enough LOLOL. So, we decided to order the french toast which was cheaper. It was our first time having the french toast here.

I absolutely love Asian french toast, and this was done perfectly. It was slightly fried due to the egg batter on the outside. But the inside was soft and full of custard goodness.
Garlic fried rice: The boyfriend and I were introduced to this dish over a year ago when we came with my cousins. This is their go-to, and for good reason! Over a year later, we decided to order it again. It comes with a TON of fried garlic on the top that you mix in with the rest of the rice. You have to remember to mix the fried garlic or else the bottom of the bowl won’t be garlicky.

With the stone bowl rice, parts of the rice become hardened which is actually a type of Chinese dish (‘fan jew’ in Cantonese). It’s a pretty big bowl and one person definitely can not finish it. With the french toast and garlic fried rice, we were both really full and satisfied.

Angel has not disappointed us thus far and we will continue to come here for our HK style cravings. Perhaps stay tuned for a part 3 when we venture out of our go-to dish again?! =P

Yay!

Food: Vallarta’s Mexican Restaurant

January 22, 2018

The boyfriend and I were feeling adventurous one weekend, and wanted to try some new restaurants. After trying Basil Garden, we saw an inconspicuous Mexican restaurant next door named Vallarta’s, which we have not noticed before.

We decided to try it for dinner the next day!

To be honest, I was a bit hesitant and started to regret it after we sat down and ordered. For a Saturday night, it was absolutely quiet and we were the only customers… I was really hoping we wouldn’t get food poisoning.
As well, the lady did not understand much English so when we asked for less spicy she didn’t know what we meant. So we decided to just say nevermind and go with full spice.

Horchata: Horchata is a Mexican drink made with water, milk, rice, sesame, cinnamon and other various spices. The boyfriend and some friends tried it once at Sal Y Limon and said it reminded them of drinking the milk after having Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal.

Compared to Sal Y Limon, this horchata was a lot less sweet and more nutty. It has a strong sesame taste to it. This proved to be helpful with the spicy tomato sauce later on.
Beef burrito, $14.50: The beef burrito was absolutely ginourmous. It came slathered with a spicy tomato sauce and melted cheese on top.

Inside, the beef cubes were very flavorful and delicious! The burrito was really delicious and different than your usual burrito. We would definitely get this again.

Hand comparison for the burrito! HALF of the burrito is the size of my hand!!! =O
Chicken enchilada, $16.50: Our first time trying enchiladas! We weren’t sure what to expect other than reading descriptions from Google.

The enchiladas came slathered with the same spicy tomato sauce. It was delicious. The chicken was seasoned and very tender.

The side of rice was also nice and fluffy with some herb flavor. As well, the free guacamole on the side was very fresh although some bites were very spicy, if you had a spoonful with jalapeno seeds.
Tortilla soup, $10: Our first tortilla soup! I read a review with this soup which said it was good, so we wanted to try it too.

It was essentially a chicken broth soup with tortilla and avocado inside. I’ve never had avocado in soup so it was a cool experience! I didn’t really like the tortilla inside because it got very soggy.

Half way done the bowl, we discovered that there was melted cheese and shredded chicken on the bottom! It’s like Christmas came early haha!

We ended up packing half the burrito home. I was quite shocked because the boyfriend has a huge appetite for burritos, but this one was just huge (to compare, he can easily eat two burritos at Sal Y Limon).

I’m really glad we tried this place! It deserves more recognition because the food is delicious. I noticed a Door Dash guy come in so perhaps we will get delivery someone! (Update: We ordered take out and it was just as delicious).

Travel: Isla Mujeres

January 16, 2018

Off the coast of Cancun, about a 15 minute ferry ride away, lies the small island known as Isla Mujeres. The boyfriend and I spent a couple hours exploring this quaint island during our vacation. Here is what we did!

There are three ferry ports which all dock from Cancun. To get to the ferry port, we took the local bus which was $1 USD each. Round-trip ferry was about $20 USD.

Tip: Board at either the Punta Sam or Puerto Juarez terminals and save yourself the taxes. If you board at the Playa Linda terminal, you’ll need to pay the taxes since this port is closest to the resorts, aka the Hotel Zone. However, Puerto Juarez is only an additional 5 minutes away so it’s not that inconvenient.

The ferry ride to Isla Mujeres is quite nice. There are two levels of the ferry, which also contains washrooms and a place to store luggage. The second level is open air, which is more popular for obvious reasons! During the 15 minute ferry ride, there was a live singer and on the way back, live instrumental music.

A few minutes before we docked, we were greeted by a sudden downpour of rain! Within 3 minutes, everyone on the top deck (including ourselves), were soaked! It was really funny and everyone on the ferry was laughing about it.

It was still drizzling a tiny bit, but we were greeted within seconds from a golf cart rental person. We probably looked like prime tourist bait, but he was nice and the rate was reasonable (our resort agent told us not to spend more than $20/hour for the rental).

So we paid for our golf cart and off we went! We drove along the beautiful coast, the drizzle from the rain dusting our skin softly. We blended in nicely with all the other golf carts around the island.

We didn’t really have a plan, but life shouldn’t always be planned out. There should be room for spontaneity too. All we knew was that we wanted to visit the Tortugranja, the sea turtle conservatory on the island.

There was a$3 USD fee to visit Tortugranja, which we didn’t mind paying because that was pretty cheap compared to other attractions. Plus, we love sea turtles and it goes to a good cause 🙂 You could also buy turtle food and feed the cute turtles too!

After checking out the sea turtle conservatory, our hours were an empty canvas. So we decided to just follow the main road which loops around the island. During our ride, we got lost once and ended up in the residential part of town and saw some locals.

Punta Sur – The calm & relaxing side of the island

Eventually, we made it to Punta Sur, which is the southern tip of the island. There was a restaurant, souvenir shop, and mayan temples… but the most breathtaking part of Punta Sur was nature.

The southern tip was characterized by high, rugged, and rocky cliffs whereas the nothern tip (Punta Norte) features white sand beaches. It reminded me of Maui with all the lush tropical vegetation but also of Ireland’s cliffs.

We spent some time walking around here, and I also purchased a fresh coconut for only $3 usd! It was delicious and much needed hydration.

Fresh coconut juice for $3 USD! Please excuse my face… I was not mad LOL

It was time to continue driving on the main road around the island. The drive to the north tip, Punta Norte, was about 15 minutes so you can see how small the island is. During the drive, it was mostly cliffs and rocky beaches so we just enjoyed the scenery from the golf cart. We passed some stray dogs and saw some beautifully designed Mexican-style homes. It was truly a sight for our eyes, since we watch a lot of interior design & HGTV shows!

The main road back to Punta Norte/ferry terminal/golf cart rental place.

Playa Norte is the postcard staple of Isla Mujeres – beautiful white sand beach, blue water, palm trees. However, it was also very crowded and hectic and not like Google Images. Souvenir stores dot the road and the sales people are extremely pushy, going up and following you.

In all honesty, I liked the southern tip more because it was calmer and no pushy sales people. Playa Norte was too busy for me, and we had the beautiful white sand beach and blue water at Cancun anyways!

The southern tip had more of the quiet, calm island vibe I was wanting. So after buying some souvenirs (and avoiding very pushy sales people), we quickly got out of Playa Norte and returned our golf cart and went back to the ferry terminal to our resort!

Writing this post, I just realized I didn’t take any pics at Playa Norte because it was so hectic and pushy that I just wanted to buy my souvenirs and go to the ferry terminal!

I would definitely recommend a few hours at Isla Mujeres. There are many restaurants to relax at, swimming with sharks, whales, snorkeling, etc etc. Although we didn’t partake in these activities as we wanted to save money, I have no regrets and enjoyed simply golf carting around the island with my other half.

Beauty: Mario Badescu Drying Lotion

January 12, 2018

For Secret Santa this past Christmas, I was gifted the Mario Badescu drying lotion. I have heard many great things about the drying lotion when combating breakouts, so I wanted to try it for myself.

Here’s what I thought of it!

What it says (Taken from website):
This is the original, award-winning spot treatment for pimples. Renowned for its ability to help dry up whiteheads overnight, our iconic Drying Lotion continues to reign as a best-selling favorite amongst beauty editors, celebrities, and professionals worldwide. This fast-acting, effective spot treatment is specially formulated with Salicylic Acid, Sulfur, and Zinc Oxide to help draw impurities from the skin and target pesky pimples while you sleep.

Application: The application process was unique compared to most other beauty products because you are not supposed to shake the bottle. As you can see from the picture below, you are supposed to leave the glass bottle on a flat surface to let it settle. To apply, you use a q-tip and dip it into the pink solution to apply on your pimple.

One thing that turned me off was the scent. The scent is not pleasant, it has a medicated prescription cream smell that I did not like. I would attribute the bad scent to calamine (used to soothe skin when you have chicken pox) and sulphur.

I was feeling a pimple coming in on my chin, one of those bad pimples that hurt as well. It was the perfect time to test it out and prevent it from forming so I applied the drying lotion before I slept. In the morning, the pain around the pimple had decreased and I felt it shrinking. However, it was not enough so I used it the next night too.

Do not shake the bottle – Let the product separate and dip a Q-tip into the pink solution on the bottom.

The pimple did not surface and the pain is gone! So if it is a big pimple, it would probably take 2-3 nights to successfully kill it. If it’s a small one, 1 night would be enough.

The products are simple and I can see why this product works so well – all of these ingredients are known pimple killers! Combine them all into one, and BAM – they don’t stand a chance!

For the past two years, I have been using my trusty Amie Deep Cleaning mask which works amazingly (I find it too harsh to use as a full face mask but works wonders as a spot treatment). Moving forward, I plan to switch between both!

Yay!