Short trip to Orlando: Universal Studios and Seaworld

Hey everyone! It’s been a while that I haven’t blogged. Even though summer is over and my post was way past overdue, I still wanted to share my short trip to Orlando with my boyfriend during the Quebec day weekend.

DAY 1 – Revisiting Philadelphia

At around 7 am we left Montreal to Philadelphia for our lay over and arrived at around 9 am. We had about 11 hours there so we decided to visit the city again. We had another chance to visit downtown this time and go where our bus tour didn’t go when we went there a couple months ago(see my older post here when I went to Washington).

We took the train Septa to downtown and turns out that we were in Chinatown. Starved as we were, we tried to find something decent to eat. We stopped at a café and beer resto and turns out that their food was served like a buffet. I was in awe of all the choices they had. We took a plate with General Tao chicken, chicken skewers, soft noodles with soya sauce, and some dumplings. The food was okay and some were not hot enough even if they were just putting out the food. It was expensive for one plate (about 14$USD) including a bottle of green tea and of course it was by the weight. It’s a place close to the Bloomingdale’s Outlet which I would not go back to.

Chinatown

Walking towards downtown

Beer café place close to Bloomingdale’s Outlet

As we were still hungry, we found a bagel breakfast place named Manhattan Bagel. We took a bagel sandwich with bacon, cheddar cheese, and eggs. The bagel’s bread was really different. It was soft, less filling and seemed kinda fatty. Nevertheless, it was still very good. Anything with bacon is good.

After breakfast, we continued strolling in the city and went to a Nordstrom rack store. We didn’t find anything. We were both looking for shorts since I was wearing leggings and he was wearing jeans on a super hot and humid day. It was like 36 degrees and 100% humidity. A while later, we went to the Bloomingdale’s outlet. It had nothing interesting. It was weird having a Victoria’s Secret there, it made no sense compared to the less expensive shops they had. It didn’t have many shops and it was definitely not an outlet.

We continued walking in the city and by around 2 pm, we decided to have a sushi burrito in Chinatown (it was tasty and fresh), some curry fish balls and finished our meal with a bubble tea at VIVI bubble tea where we had previously gone on my first trip to Philadelphia. Then, we decide to go to the Spruce Harbour. It was really empty, not crowded at all. The little amusement park was even empty. We wished we went there during night time since there were some cool green and blue lights located in the hammocks zone to relax with music from the stage that they were preparing during the day.

Burrito Sushi at Oishii Poke

Subway exit

Spruce harbour

As we walked back to downtown. It started to rain but not enough to get rid of the humidity. We finally found shorts in a Century 21 store. I got 2 dresses and a pair of shorts from Angie’s brand. I really love the bohemian style. We walked all day… I was already dead and exhausted since I only slept 2 and half hours the night we left. We stopped into a hotel again to refresh. Then we took the train back to Philadelphia’s airport and left to ORLANDO WOOHOO. We arrived at midnight in our hotel which is 12 mins walk from the Universal amusement park.

DAY 2 – Sea World and City Walk

We weren’t sure what we wanted to do on the first day in Orlando, so we decided to drive in the city in a convertible that we rented and looked for a place to eat in the Kissimmee area. We ate in a place called Chipotle. We took a bowl with rice, salad, diced beef, beans, spicy sauce, guacamole and sour cream. It was healthy and delicious.

At Chipotle

After we wanted to see how Disney World looked, but turns out we can get in there unless you pay for the parking lot. We decided to go Seaworld instead since my boyfriend never saw or touch dolphins. What another hot and humid day ahhh. Once there, we went to the dolphins’ area and paid an additional 15$ each to meet the dolphins up close. Waited about 20 mins to actually see them and touch them. Got splashed big time by one of them. Felt more refreshed afterward ahaha. Then we saw a dolphin show, then a Shamu show and ended with a bubble pop show. It was nice and magical. We relaxed in the waiting area of a shark restaurant. Yes with real sharks in front of you. Too bad the restaurant was seafood only cuz we would have eaten there.

After a little break, we went back to our hotel and prepared ourselves to go the City Walk to discover their nightlife. Apparently, it seemed to be the best nightlife that you could get over there which has huge entrance area before actually entering the Universal park. Plenty of lights everywhere that lit up very nicely the area. It was like an ideal nightlife on a little island that never ends with a perfect view of reflecting lights on the lake. It had a Hard Rock Café, a Chocolate Emporium, some clothes shops, nightclubs and some other restaurants.

DAY 3 – Visiting Universal Studios

We took a buffet breakfast at TGI Friday’s which was about 2 mins away from our hotel. Then we headed to the Universal Park. We waited only about 20 mins to get in. Once in, we automatically walked towards the Harry Potter’s Dragon Alley.

The Harry Potter Dragon Alley was so awesome. Everything looked so real like the movie. We tried their butter beer which had a lot of caramel flavor and sweetness to it. I personally didn’t like it since I don’t like things that are too sweet. We did the Gringotts roller coaster just like in the movie when Harry and his friends are going down the bank. It’s the best ride I ever had, it’s nothing like the La Ronde that we have in Montreal. It has 3D visuals, music, and sounds. It is much more entertaining than regular roller coasters. There’s one part where you go down and you are in total darkness for about 10 seconds which was bit scary but fun! We waited about an hour for the ride which is a bit too long. For a speed pass, it’s like 90$USD per person which is freaking expensive, so we decided to not get it.

Dragon that actually throws fire

 

A talking Gringott

After a while, we went to eat in the resto that looks exactly like the Poulard’s dining room, only much smaller. I chose wrongly for the food and ended up with lots of cheese(which I detest), bread, a salad and two cut fried whiskey boiled eggs.

Then we took the Poudlard train with an hour of waiting to go the second Harry Potter’s Hogsmeade park. It was showing movie parts in the window frames of the train. It was quite hot in there, not much of air conditioning and no windows during a super hot day. When we arrived at Hogsmeade, it felt like winter due to the fake snow on the houses. We checked some stores and headed to the Poudlard castle. Then it started to rain like crazy with thunderstorms. Everyone rushed to the roller coaster in the castle and it was chaos. It was hard to get a locker to put our stuff in it because we were all crammed like sardines.

It took almost 2 hours to finally ride the roller coaster. When we finally reached into the insides of the castle, plenty of frames were hanging on the walls. Some were still and some were talking framed images just like in the movie. The ride was crazy. We had to walk fast to sit on the ride because the floor was moving. We were sat in a closed bench that looks like an old church bench. The ride gave me a headache because we were being shaken a lot, from all sides. At some point, I was afraid that I was going fall upside down.

After the ride, we decided to walk back to the Dragon Alley. In the meantime, we saw some superheroes rides, the King Kong entrance and much more. Seeing the Dragon Alley at night, was totally different, mysterious and even a bit scary. We walked all around the Orlando park to check everything and ate in the Simpsons food court.

We arrived at our hotel at around midnight super dead. Barely slept again to go back to Philadelphia, then Montreal.

We had an exhausting trip but it was fun. I would not go back to Universal Studios. We only did three rides which were plenty enough. The Harry Potter rides seemed the most decorated and fun to do, thus why we did them. It was so well done that it looks real for example the Gringott’s bank, fake marble looking and the building itself is all designed from scratch. It’s a great place for kids or anyone who wants to get involved with magic. You can cast a spell, point and stand at the right spot to make the water fall from a statue or move objects. And of course, you need to buy a magic wand(that costs about 50$USD made from special kind of wood…pretty expensive) to cast a spell.

If we had another day we would have gone to the Daytona Beach. We would have also visited some more of Orlando like the Eola park, the Millenia Premium Outlet, Orlando’s downtown and much more.

Here goes the end of my post. Hope you all enjoyed it. Have you ever been to the Universal Studios? How did you find it? Which one was your favorite ride?

Thanks for reading and have a great week 🙂

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My 4 Day Road Trip to Washington D.C.

Hi everyone,

How have you been all? I’m good! My today’s post will be about what I did during my Easter break. Sorry, this post was long overdue, anyhow I still wanted to share my experience. I went on a 4-day road trip to Philadelphia, Washington, and Baltimore with Wonder Travel.

DAY 1

Once arrived in Philadelphia, we decided to go our own way, we didn’t want to go on a tour bus since we wanted to experience it first hand instead of just sightseeing. We were also tired of being seated. We’ve walked to their Chinatown. Their gate looked like ours in Montreal, except nicer since it looked renovated and shinier. It had more restaurants and the Chinatown area was more spread out. We ordered bubble teas at VIVI Bubble tea. The tapioca bubbles were really good. The flavor I had was decent for a black tea bubble tea. I would go back there simply for their bubbles. They were soft, honey taste like and not too chewy.

One hour later, we had to go back the bus and head to a seafood buffet called Flaming Grill & Supreme Buffet. Our tour guide sold us on the crabs and snow crabs, but once tasted… it was meh… We only had one hour to eat which was not enough. Their ribs were good. The food overall was okay.

Food from Flaming Grill & Supreme Buffet

Leaving Philadelphia

DAY 2

After barely 6 hours of sleep, we went to Washington D.C. to visit the first cemetery made in the United States named the Arlington cemetery.  Not very exciting huh? It was although a very nice place except knowing that we were among the dead.  The place was huge and circular shaped. The areas were well maintained and clean. We saw about half of it, which is immensely enough. At the top of the hill, we could see the Washington monument from there. Lots of people were visiting it that day but it didn’t seem too overly crowded since it was a huge park.

We were brought to the Smithsonian Museums a couple of hours after. I was interested in going there before leaving Montreal, but once there we were really tired of visiting buildings and we were starving like hell. We wanted to do locals stuff and go where local people eat and spend their time. The museums are huge and take up large street blocks. The area was weirdly constructed, no restaurant around the museums, only food trucks.

We had to walk 30 mins to find a restaurant. We ate at a delicious place called Roti. They serve healthy and Mediterranean food. I had a grilled chicken pita with different types of veggies. I loved it. I wish there was a restaurant like that here in MTL. They even had fountain machines of different kinds of iced tea.

After that, we went shopping at Nordstrom Rack. They had great stuff cheaper than the Nordstrom. I found some Urban Decay makeup. The prices were really cheap. I didn’t get anything since I had enough of lipsticks. I had an eye for a Kate Spade little crossbody bag. It was 179.99$ USD instead of 299.99$USD. In Montreal, they would sell it at its regular price(299.99$CAD) even if it’s an older model. It was a pretty good bargain but I didn’t need it since I’m looking for something bigger.

We found the Chinatown in Washington yes! We thought there weren’t any since my friends looked online and didn’t find it. When we saw the Chinatown’s gate from far we totally got excited. We ate in a great Japanese restaurant called Momiji. I took their Bento box and it was tasty. Every part was good! Then, we went to the bar part of Daikaya Izakaya which is on the second floor. The first floor is ramen. I did not like my cocktail, it was super sour and strong. They even forgot my drink until I asked about it. The appetizers were okay, not wow. I tried the pork belly, the meat was very tender and soft but the sauce was very salty and was bitter due to the black beans inside. The grilled chicken wings were good.

DAY 3

The next day we jumped on a boat to see Washington D.C. by the water but there wasn’t much to see. Seriously, no cityscapes like NYC. The Pentagon seen from far well it looks dull and flat. The only fun part was seeing tourists taking a bunch of selfies by the water side. Out of boredom, we did the same ahaahha.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Washington Monument

The Pentagon

After the boat ride, we went to see the Lincoln Memorial. Abraham Lincoln’s statue was really tall and impressive to see. The view from the top, inside the Lincoln Memorial, was grandiose. The view of the fountain with the Washington Tower was so peaceful and mesmerizing that I could stare at it for hours. A must see the scenery.

Not very long after, we went to visit the Jefferson Memorial. It was one of the specific spots to see cherry blossoms but there were only 3 trees left with flowers. We were all sad that they were gone since it was one of the main reason that we went to Washington.

Washington Monument

Lincoln Statue

Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Thomas Jefferson’s Statue

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Inside of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial

After visiting all the memorials, we went to the Union Station for lunch. Me and my friends we all tried a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich. It was really tasty.  I couldn’t finish half of it since I thought I would be hungrier. I would definitely want to try their other types of sandwiches since it was really good the one I had.

One hour later, we left to go to Baltimore’s harbor. It seemed to be a nice place to be, people playing music outside. There was even a submarine that you could go in and see fishes underwater. There was also dragon-shaped boats which seemed fun. It had a lobster and crab restaurant that looked great to eat at. We tried to make the most of it within 30 mins of visiting. I wish we could have stayed longer. After getting back to our hotel, we wanted to go out on our last night before going to back to Montreal. We decided to go to a shisha place called the Maya Hookah Lounge. It was very well decorated for a lounge with nice couches. Great service and friendly. I was really pleased with their type of shisha. It had iced tubed handle that filters the smoke. It felt like i was smoking a vapor cigarettes because the smoke was clean unlike the ones in MTL. The MTL shisha systems leaves pieces and bits of ashes into the mouth once sucked which is unpleasant and annoys the throat. It makes you want to cough. A spot to go back to.

DAY 4

On our last day in the states, we visited the West Point Military Academy before going back to Montreal. I expected it to be a normal big school but in fact, it was much much more bigger than I thought with many different departments. We had a guide explaining to us the history of the school and requirements of enlistment in the bus while rolling in the restricted area. They had 3 different churches: protestants, Catholics, and Jewish. We only visited the catholic one. It was really nice and patriotic. She explained to us that many wedding would happen a lot after graduation(4-year program). During lunch time, the students would only have 20 mins to eat. They would start and finish all at the same time to minimize the chit chats. We finished the tour by going to a park showing a part of the Hudson’s Bay which was really nice to see.  It was important to place during the first world war, it was vantage point to see enemies coming from above. A lot to learn from this place, I didn’t remember it all but I enjoyed it a lot. It was an interesting and enriched experience.

Catholic church

West Point Academy (the catholic church on top)

Hudsons’ Bay river

I had a great time with my friends during my trip. I can’t wait to travel again.

Thanks for reading my long post and hope you all had a great easter break.

Simplee Apparel | Summer dress wishlist

Hi girls!

I just stop onto an webpage store named Simplee Apparel while browsing on Aliexpress.com and I found myself wanting a lot of their clothes 😛 I love floral patterns and the boho style so i’m totally drawn them. They have simple things with some delicate details that makes them special and unique. They also offer decent prices too 😛

Here are some selections that i loved:

Woow that red dress is so sexy with the small straps!

Guaranteed to be noticed with the red and yellow dress.

These embroidered roses are now trendy and well applied to this black sexy cropped dress.

This one is not patterned but i still love this simple striped dress showing off shoulders which is also now a trend.

Freestyle semi-dress is lovely and also comes in red. Can go perfectly with very short shorts and black boots.

That’s it for my little introduction to this online store and my little wish list.

Which one is your favourite?

Review | Estée Lauder Night Serum

Woohooooooooo!!!! I have finally received the gift that i won from a contest made by a very nice blogger Beautyowls. Check out her blog. She has some great reviews!

When i opened the package, there was a really nice fragrance to it. The serum box was wrapped in a golden silk paper. The bottle is really nice with a metallic red colour promoted for the Chinese New Year event.

Product claims:

Reveal a smoother, more radiant, younger look. Wake up to more beautiful skin every day.

Lines and wrinkles look significantly reduced. More than 75% of women felt their skin looked more youthful in just 4 weeks. Skin feels smoother, hydrated, stronger. 82% felt their skin was immediately hydrated.

The use of the eye dropper tool is really easy and i can simply apply the serum onto my skin. The eye dropper makes a big difference in how you use it and makes it more hygienic. Simply for that detail, i’m loving it.

As for the serum itself, the effect onto the skin matches their claims. The fragrance is not too pronounced compared to other serums which is good for me. It has a fluid texture which reminded me of a snail gel that i have. It has a slight yellowish transparent colour. It absorbs quickly and makes the skin automatically soft but not slick. It made my skin firm and made it feel like as if my skin was bit thicker.

After a full face application and a couple of minutes later, my face did feel freshen up and smooth.  I also noticed that the very dry areas of my face were still dry. It was written that you need to apply it before your daily care. Thus why the very dry areas was not fully hydrated. Although, I’m happy that it didn’t make any parts of my skin red and it didn’t make it tingle which is big plus for me since I have very sensitive skin. In the morning, my skin looked healthy, shiny and soft. It felt better than having my daily night cream only.

I will still definitely use it again to see how my skin turns out after a couple of weeks. Although i would probably not purchased it simply because it is definitely an expensive night serum(118$ CAD), maybe during some big sales event.

That’s if for my review 😛 Hope it helped you.

Thanks for reading and take care 🙂

 

 

Zoé Dessert | Review

Hi everyone!

I’ve found a new popular dessert place from my friends that opened about 4 months ago, so i decided that it was my next place to visit. It is located in downtown Montreal on St. Mathieu street, where Nos Thés was previously situated.

Upon arrival, there was no free seated place for our group of 7 people. The waitress inquired the people next to a free table for 4 and came back to us saying that they were going to leave soon and that we can now sit at the free table until they leave so that we can also take their table.

The decor of the restaurant is simple and modern. From the entrance your eyes sits on the light bulbs attached to one another and twisted in almost a lettering shape hanged on one half of the brick wall. On the other half of the brick wall, it was decorated with plated New York photographs. The room is filled with small squared wooden tables with black contemporary funky chairs. The restaurant has a clean and fresh feel and was very welcoming. It was filled with people even on a rainy day. At the end of the room, there was a counter filled with aligned cute emoticon cushions which made the atmosphere very friendly. I saw people taking pictures with them which made me want to do the same thing and post it on Instagram.

To see pics of the place, check out Jeff on the Road’s webpage. There are really great pics!

They serve Hong Kong style cakes, ice creams, bubble teas and hot and cold beverages and special desserts. They even have a Tiramisu Potted Plant cake which is in a pot and looks literally like a plant. it can only be taken once you’ve ordered in advance. I took the most popular desserts which are the matcha layered cake and the egg puffs with ice cream. Both desserts were great. The matcha cake is preferably eaten with hot tea or a drink, since the top is dusted with matcha powder and makes the mouth dry. The cake itself is rather soft and a bit dense but easy to chew. I chose the black sesame ice cream to go with my egg-puffs dessert. I loved the egg puffs which were crunchy and soft, the sesame ice cream was okay and a bit too sweet for me. The ice cream was semi hard. I personally prefer soft ice cream. The one thing that i didn’t like was the fact it had those multi coloured cake sprinkles onto the ice cream, which i hated in my mouth which made me enjoy less the ice cream.

I also tried my friend’s soft vanilla ice cream mixed with diced mangoes inside a bun shape like dessert which was very delicious!!! ;-P

Here are 2 pics that i took of my desserts:

Black Sesame Waffle Ice Cream

Matcha Layered Cake

Overall the experience, the service and the desserts were really good! I will definitely return to try other treats.

Here is their Facebook page if you wanna learn more about them: http://bit.ly/2lElVR4

Thanks for reading and I hope you had the chance try or that one day you will their desserts because they are really good.

Free gift set from L’Occitane review

Hello Beauties 😛

How have you all been? I’m good, I’ve been pretty busy lately. Now that i’m more free, i can talk about my free gift set from L’Occitane that i got without any prior purchase. It came with a 20% Shea butter hand cream, a divine cream and a cleansing oil. The value of this gift set was 20$. A pretty good gift. I already used my hand cream which works very well. It’s oily and a bit sticky and has a thick texture. It takes a while for it to absorb well. It’s a good cream for dry hands, although you have to rub it very well in the corners and cracks of the hand due to its texture.

It’s not my favourite cream by choice, my etude house collagen Oh Happy Day cream works even better. The texture is more fluid and leaves my hands moisturized without a greasy feeling. It takes me less time to apply it all over my hands.

 

The cleansing oil did it’s job very well by removing my makeup. The cleansing oil has a dry feel, so it’s not sticky on the skin. It also has a light lavender fragrance.

The Divine Cream has a very strong aroma, smells kinda like ground cherries(physalis) which is lovely but a bit overwhelming. The cream is smooth yet a bit mushy and is light yellow. It gives a funny texture on the skin. While rubbing it with my fingers after a while, i felt like i was rubbing a thin layer of wet flour on my face. The cream felt grainy and small rounded pieces of cream was stuck onto my face and fingers(which could mean that the cream was getting off my face, therefore it’s not getting absorbed into the skin. My face was slick before the application of the cream, after my face was rather texturized. I was definitely not pleased with the result and the texture itself. I applied it at night, the next day my face was not really better and was a bit dry.

Overall, this free gift set was pretty good except for the Divine Cream. At least i’ve tried it, and now i know that i won’t be purchasing it at it’s full size and regular price. For the hand cream, I can find something as equally as good and cheaper.  Same thing goes for the cleansing oil.

That’s it for my little review 🙂 Thanks for reading and have a nice day 😛

Have you tried these products before? What did you think of them?

 

 

Valentine Giveaway

Hello Beautyowls!

Given the occasion I would like to say a big THANK YOU for all the support, kind comments and ideas I have received from you all since the launch of Beautyowls.

It’s time to give something back and I would, therefore, like to offer to a lucky subscriber a Limited Edition Advanced Night Repair Serum from Estée Lauder. (Total value of 95$)

Source:Valentine Wishes – GIVEAWAY

New picks

Hi everyone!

I added new stuff to my closet, woohooo. I have so much clothes in my closet already. Anyhow… girls will be girls…I love to find new stuff to wear. It gives me an extra boost for the day. It always feels good to wear something new, different or something that makes us feel excited and confident. To be in another genre or style for one day. My comfortable style of clothes is rather simple, a bit sexy, urban, and comfy. I also like to mix it up too sometimes such as cute, floral, sporty or wtv i feel like.

So here’s what i got lately. I found this cool pair of jegging jeans from American Eagle for 30$. I can still wear it during winter times since the holes are only noticeable once my knees are bent so it’s not cold when i walk. The fabric is soft and stretchy.

I found 2 other tank shirts to match with the pair of jeans. Simple and comfy shirts. A white and a faded pink one also from AE for about 9$. I can also wear them when i go to the gym.

Other than clothes, i also got hair products since i intend to dye my hair soon sometime, i started the process of getting the bottom of my hair light blond like with different natural(or mostly natural) techniques. I bought the Teal Colorista dye for 13$ and a light brown purple #5.20 dye from Solfine for 8$. I will try the Teal color sometime in the summer and the light brown purple when my bottom of the hair will be blond enough or this weekend ;P I’ve been dying to color my hair. It’s been months that i haven’t changed it.

I also got this Damage Eraser from Garnier for 2$.

Product info:  Reconstructs hair’s strength and helps prevent split-ends for hair that looks rejuvenated. 

I’ve used it several times so far it works well. I makes my hair softer. The texture is light, not sticky and smells citrusy. I didn’t have split-ends hair to begin with but prevention is always good(damage only appear couple weeks or months later). Thought it would help condition and soften my hair when i’m damaging a bit my hair by using with peroxyde hydrogen or even lemon to lighten my hair.

When using color dye, you want the color you have to last and stay as vibrant as possible. So i got this Color Radiance spray for 2$ to protect the color from sunlight. Haven’t tried it yet. Hope it will works well.

All right that’s it for my purchases. How about you guys? Got anything new?

Feel free to share your new picks in the comments. I would love to hear about them.

Thank you all and I wish you all a nice weekend and see you in my next post. 😉

Natural Look Makeup Routine

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share with you my natural look makeup ritual. Sometimes i don’t wear any makeup but when i do, I would start by spraying my face with the Tarte Rainforest Mist booster to smooth my face and to use it as a primer. My review here.

Then i would apply my daily moisturizer. Either the Lancôme Bienfait Multi-Vital or the Clinique dramatically different gel moisturizer. The CLINIQUE gel is lighter on the skin(good for humid days, good for mixed skin and absorbs very fast). The Lancôme cream is good for winter since it’s a bit more oily and good for summer with 30 fps.

After moisturizing, i would apply the Misha BB cream n.23 (10-15$) or the Yves St-Laurent Touche Éclat B40 foundation (pretty expensive 65$ but i got it for 30$ yéé). The YSL is a half coverage foundation which i love since I still wanna look natural. I really love the texture, not thick at all and has a great fragrance. It leaves my skin looking great, barely oily. It is very lightweight on the face. It makes my face look and feel smoother. The Misha BB cream’s texture is a bit more thicker but it’s also a good moisturizer and has 42 fps, therefore it’s a bit oily.  Great for cold and dry days.

After the foundation, i would brush up my face with the Maybelline Dream Sun #3 bronzer powder for contouring. I find the color a bit too orangy. I need to find another. I only tested it on my hand, it look fine, but not on the face. 😦 I simply blend it on my face which makes it fine after. I then brush my cheeks with the Breathless Buxom blush. I love the color! I only apply a little, since it’s very pigmented.

For my eyes, i would use an eye shadow primer from Urban Decay(the original) and choose colors from the UD shadowbox palette(my review here) or the Maybelline nude smokey palette.

I don’t always wear mascara, but when i do, i  use the UD perversion mascara because it curls and makes my eye lashes thicker. The Lancôme Hypnôse mascara is also great, it makes my eyes lashes longer and keeps them quite thin. Mascara can dry up eyes very easily after a couple of hours and makes my eye tingle or itchy and makes me want to rub it which i shouldn’t. It can be very annoying by the end of the day.

 

Then, i puff my face with the Mac Blotte compressed powder (my review here) and finish with a thermal water spray from Vichy or the Grape water spray from Caudalie cuz brushing and puffing the face can make it a bit dry, so the thermal water hydrates the face and gives a natural and healthy looking skin.

At last, i moisturize my lips with the Pomegranate lip balm from Burt’s Bees that is a bit rosy cherry color which gives a natural looking lip color. It also smells good 😛

Well that’s it for my natural look makeup ritual. ;-P

What did you think of the products i use? Have any of you tried them?

Thanks for reading 😛

 

Long awaiting visit to the Crew Collective Cafe

Hello everyone!

I love finding new places to go to drink or eat, relax and chat. The Crew Collective Café was one of the places that i definitely wanted to see and try their drinks. I finally went there this weekend. Yééé 🙂

It is situated on Saint-Jacques street in the Old Montreal. Built between 1926 and 1928, it used to be occupied by the Royal Bank of Canada and used to be one of the tallest building with ceilings of 50 feet high in the British Empire.

Now it became a co-working place where people come with their laptops and work together or next to each other. The main room contains large wooden tables with plugs under the table and boxed safes with a digit code to protect your belongings if you are leaving for a while. There are individual small rooms and larger rooms that you can reserve for the amount of 25$, if you need to work more privately. There are even inside balconies with sofas available with reservations. The only thing is missing would little lamps on each table for darker days or night times, since it’s a little dark to read or study.

The ordering of food or drinks is done online to minimize conversations and noises for the working people. I ordered a green tea matcha with soy milk. It was not bad, creamy but I honestly preferred Starbucks’ version since i mostly taste the soy milk rather than the matcha. It was also weirdly served, in a large low cup of glass. I mean really? There’s so many nice cups available and it is served in like a regular water glass cup?

I also ordered a scone, which was pretty good. I tried my friends burned marshmallow latte. It was not bad, but the coffee was bad. I don’t like coffee in general due to the fact that it has too much caffeine in it and it makes me shake. I can still somehow handle iced coffee frappuccinos or cappuccinos. Although i’m not much of coffee connoisseur, the coffee was bad. My friend who loves coffee didn’t like it either.

Anyhow, i came there to see the place which was really nice to see. The ceilings embossed with golden patterns and chandeliers all around were marvelous. The architecture is just wow, grandiose! Crew Collective Café kept the place as it was and used the building to their advantage.

Here are some pics taken with my cell phone that describes much better than my words.

It’s still a nice to place to study or visit, even if the drinks were so-so. I will definitely go back there to shoot pics with my DSLR.

Have you ever been there? What did you think of the café or their concept?

Thanks for reading and see you in my next post 😛