La Casa Pergola - Red Deer, AB

Oh La Casa Pergola... the great things I've heard about you. In High school my friend and I stopped by this little place and honestly I wasn't a big fan of their lunch menu...
But I've heard from many locals that this is the place for great authentic italian food. When i mention my "Meh" previous experience, they tell me the dinner menu will be worth it.


So a couple of us stopped by to check out this hidden away restaurant in downtown red deer and my reservations about this place prior were correct.

Ordered the Calamari, personally I found it unappetizing and soggy. The sauce, I was told, base is sour cream and it was weak and tasteless... Never had tasteless sour cream. Wasn't a very special dish. I love calamari and find most restaurants make it a little too oily, it wasn't oily here... when i say soggy, i mean it was un crispy from maybe not being properly cooked or sitting there too long before it was brought out...

I had the Fettuccini Con Pollo , small portion for $17. And boy.. was it small. I could probably grab the whole portion in my small hands and cover it all.
I understand fine dining and their small portions, but this place is not exactly the real fine dining experience.
I also found this dish flavorless. The Chicken was cooked perfectly and seasoned well. But that was the only appetizing aspect of this dish.
The pasta sauce is described to be made with all these cheeses yet I honestly didn't taste anything. It just tasted like watered down white sauce with a faint faint hint of cheese.
I think those cheap side kick packages at the grocery store have more flavor then this dish.
And the price... not worth it.
(They ran out of broccoli that night and subbed mushrooms.)

Overall, my experience wasn't memorable at this joint. I love the ambiance of the place. Its quaint and sadly it would be a great restaurant if the food was more flavorable, or at least the price should not be that high for the quality of the food.
Don't see the great food that everyone else is saying so personally, I will not be returning to this restaurant.

Shiseido - Translucent Loose Powder Review

I thought I liked loose powders because its usually the better bang for the buck. But after this product, I realized my big dislike for loose powders and will not continue to purchase pressed powder.
I've heard many good things about this Loose Powder by Shieseido, I've been trying to find something comparable or similar to MUFE's HD finishing powder. You can find this usually around 40/cad at a local beauty counter comes with .63 oz of product... which is a lot! This will last you a good while.

Personally, I am not a big fan of this product. It has very sheer coverage, and was not long lasting because of that fact. You really have to pack this onto your skin to make it last most of the day, which I'm not really use to doing. And i found it wasn't really mattifying because it was so sheer. I have fairy dry skin, never really oily. But even after 12+ hour days a girl will produce oil with a full make up face, unlike MUFE's HD powder, this one would only last maybe 1-3 hours before you start seeing a shine or your make up isn't looking as fresh.

It can be a little bit messy, it being a loose powder and all. I usually just tip it upside down, give it a few shakes and then just use the power on the lid. More even pick up of product on brush that way. It being white/translucent it does not have any color effect on your skin.. that is unless you put a big glob of white powder on your face... it'll be a bit hard to blend out. I didn't notice a difference in my pores either as the product says it would keep it concealed.

Overall, not impressed with the performance of this product. I have moderately dry skin, producing oil after a lonnnng day of work and this product did not help the shine or lasting power of my make up. You can't see in the photos but there was no significant difference between the two sides of my face, with or without powder.
Would not recommend this nor repurchase.

Pointing at the side with powder
4 hrs into wear

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right after application, left side is with powder.

The Coconut Room - Red Deer, AB

Cafes like these are all the fad these days. I'm not a big coffee drinker, prefer to get my caffeine fix from some good ol' green tea but I've heard from many coffee drinkers that they love going to the Coconut Room for 'Real Coffee'. I stopped by here with a friend for lunch when I  heard they have a great lunch menu! I wasn't expecting much for their lunch menu, knowing it was more of a cafe with pastries, but they really only had three meals to be served for their lunch. We had the coconut curry (Which i'm starting to think its one of their most popular dishes) and what I believe was called the burrito bowl...

Its a very open space, with a small gallery in the corner.. did i mention it on top of Sunworks? Nice to do a little shopping on your way out! Their plating is simple yet fitting for the atmosphere. A bit expensive for what you get... but you pay for the quality not quantity.
Didn't find much special about the burrito bowl, pretty generic in my opinion. The Coconut Curry on the other hand, I can see why most people mention this dish when they talk about the food there.
Its a pretty tasty dish, very sweet.. what i love about this dish, is that they put a dollop of coconut on top of the curry, so you can mix it in or add a little to each bite. Both dishes are very hearty. They offer a mason jar with cinnamon sticks and apples... Personally, I didn't like it but it's nice to see that added touch.

They do offer many soups and salads, all of which sound very tasty. And they have a large selection of home made pastries. I've seen from their facebook page that they do offer a changing dinner menu, all of which looks pretty tasty and worth the try. 

If you like coffee, a quiet atmosphere, do not want gluten in your pastries, want into that whole healthy raw food or want to try out one of those trendy cafes that are popping up everywhere than this will be your place. Or even if you just want a decent snack while you are in downtown, try their coconut curry.

It's a quaint little cafe, I'm glad I tried it out. Doubt i'll be there again soon, or often... not really my type of restaurant but It's definitely worth it to stop by and check it out. 

Oh Customer Service Pt1

I decided to document my experiences with what I think are some crazy ass people. Good way to get out the frustration. Seems like these past couple of months, I just keep randomly getting angry people.
Maybe its the weather....

1) Boiling Water Lady
There were two of them that night, two old ladies. And i swear they are off their rockers. They weren't friendly to begin with, one of those people that never return a smile...
It started with the tea... let me start with that for hot water dispenser. Hooked up to the wall, automatically dispenses boiling hot water. Sorta like one of those coffee makers you see at a restaurant, and they have a red little switch above where you put the coffee filter and it dispenses hot water...
So they asked for tea, I proceeded to bring out two cups of hot water, tea bags on the side.
When i come back a few minutes later to take their order, one of the old ladies asked if I could bring her new water and to make sure it's boiling. I looked at her and had to keep my face straight. When I poured that water, i remember seeing steam.
I asked her friend if her water was hot enough since it came from the same dispenser, and she replied "Oh yes, mine was boiling"
What the frack you old cracker?
They had ordered spring rolls. First off, i've never have heard of anyone saying spring rolls being spicy unless it says so in the name. Nor have i ever had spring rolls that were spicy.. anywhere. And being asian, i have had my fair share of eating spring rolls.
Anyways, the lady with the normal hot water told me it was so spicy, she could not handle it.
Long story semi short, I pretty much just gave up on them.

2) The I'm Changing my Story Lady
At the till, I was taking a payment for another customer who had a unfortunate experience with his food, great guy. I gave him a discount on behalf of his bad experience.
The lady behind him, whom was my customer, overheard. I had checked on her party throughout the meal, and they all said everything was great... no complaints whatsoever. After the man left that I discounted for, the lady started complaining about her food.. evidently expecting a discount as well.
If there was a problem, you should have addressed it when I checked on your party multiple times so I could have found a solution, not at the end.
Sadly, there are always people like this that just try and get a deal.

Make Up Forever - Smokey Mascara

Received this mascara as a gift with my purchase. Its a more dry formula which i usually do prefer. It is not a flakey dry formula. It says it will curl,volume, lengthen and give intense pigmentation. Quadruple threat. Who doesn't want lashes like that?? It didn't holy my curl perfectly but it didn't deflate it either. I didn't notice much volume but i did notice a bit of umph with my length. And with the intense pigmentation, I didn't notice it my lashes being darker then with other regular mascaras.

My lashes didn't clump unless i was super slow/distracted and basically tried to layer my mascara. Never had any problems of it smudging on me, its a more a natural looking mascara. Find it around $27/cad for a full size mascara. Comes in different colors.

Honestly, its a pretty average mascara. It didn't do anything stunning that made it stand out from all the other mascaras. Won't be repurchasing it.

Top without mascara,
Bottom with

Urban decay Deluxe Palette

Before this I've never tried anything from the highly raved line, urban decay! So when i saw this deluxe palette floating around on sephora for around $15 CAD i picked it up to try it out. It came with a very small sample size of the urban decay primer potion for eyeshadows (not much product in it) and this palette! While reading online, apparently this palette offers the "deluxe" shadow.. which are suppose to be more pigmented vs their regular ones.
Its a neat packaging, usually urban decay has some fun snazzy packaging for their palettes and products. This one has this sort of silvery chain mesh product, which is pretty neat and on there securely.
It has a nice sized mirror in it, i don't understand why some palettes include a mirror the size on my pupil in them.. why bother?
Personally, im more of a neutral eyeshadow gal... can't give me enough of those brown shades!
But i thought it would be fun to have some funky colors in my collection... you never know ;)
Urban decay has about five colors in this palette that

will most likely not use... can you guess which ones? ;)

I honestly rarely use this palette but I don't regret buying it.

Overall, this is a great palette to get if you are starting off your collection or just want to try out urban decay products. The eyeshadows are smooth, well pigmented and do last a while without any primer. This palette has been floating around for a couple years!

Make Up Forever - HD Invisible Coverage Foundation in 128 Almond

Start of the day make up! 

The highly coveted MUFE HD foundation!  There's a reason why its so popular, its amazing. I'm on my second bottle and my sister (who i converted to this) in on her third!

Its a flawless coverage foundation with medium to heavy coverage. At first i was a bit skeptical because i've read its not that great for dry skin and meant more for oily skin... but i saw pictures of the finish and just had to try it out.
I have really dry skin and usually have to lather my face with some moisturizer. This foundation doesn't dry my skin, sure it's not moisturizing and it is a matifying foundation but it doesn't dry out my skin. As long as you have a good moisturizer on it'll still look great on your skin. If you do have flakey skin, it does show up with this foundation but it in no way enhances it like it has happened to me with other foundations....

They have an extensive line of colors, so you're most likely to find a very close match to your skin tone. It photographs pretty well and doesn't have any white cast that I've noticed. It's extremely long lasting. I've worn it for over 12+ hours, at work and then out at night and it still looks basically flawless...

Four/five hours of wear

You can find it for around $50 dollars CAD in shade 128 almond. Its about the average price for any high end foundation these days. A little goes a long way for this foundation and the price is worth it.

In the photos, i had class for half the day, then work later at night for around six hours serving. And with serving, most of the time you are running around from the kitchen to the dining area. Your make up does get a little runny from all the heat in the kitchen and the mini workout. You can notice in the photos, around my nose and forehead after a couple hours from class it was getting a little shiny. And and the end of the day it has dried up/caked up around my nose a bit and not that you can really tell in the lighting but my t-zone was a bit shiny. No finishing powder was used nor touch ups! And no primer!

The only flaw i have noticed is that it dries quiet quickly and sometimes i do not blend it out evenly enough and if you look closely enough you can see it be a little patchy/uneven however when i say look closely enough in my terms it means basically having your nose to the mirror... but other then that it's my HG foundation. I see myself having a back up of this foundation at all times. Everyone must try this foundation at some point! I think it lives up to its hype!

End of the day, around 14 hrs of wear

End of the day after school + work!