Haul Time!

Haul from Sephora VIB sale and from ELF!

Blink Restaurant and Bar, Calgary Alberta

Stopped by here with a few friends a few weeks ago. First walked in and noticed the well decorated interior and was welcomed instantly by the friendly staff there.

My one friend tried the Twice Baked Cheese Souffle to start and loved it, they thought it was well balanced while for myself it was just a little too much cheese for my liking.  We also decided to start with a beef carpaccio dish which had a great balance of flavor.

For the mains, I decided to go with the salmon for the main, cooked perfectly to my liking (then again, its hard to screw up salmon) but I didn't like the sauce it came with but again personally I prefer my salmon by itself. My other companions tried their rabbit dish. Cooked perfectly, well balanced dish. It was a very comforting dish but not too heavy like most would be.

For desert we did try a strawberry shortcake with basil ice cream. The basil ice cream was a nice refreshing palette cleanser. Was extremely satisfied with this dessert.

Overall, I had no complaints. Well balanced dishes that change with the season, nice atmosphere in a very open spaced venue.

http://blink-calgary.com/

The Body Shop - Hemp Products

Back with a review on a couple products from the Hemp line by The Body Shop.
This line is popular for people with eczema or psoriasis, or just super dry skin! First off, i've had pretty bad eczema throughout my life. I'm slowly growing out of it as I get older but my skin is still dry and sensitive. For me, a good moisturizer is one where i only have to apply once or twice and I'll feel comfortable in my own skin. Most moisturizers I have to layer it up a couple times and then top it off with other products in order for that to happen :(
I finally tried this line out since there has been some buzz for it.
I dislike the smell of all the hemp products, smells like... plastic mixed with random incense.

Hemp Body Butter:
$20/cad per body butter.
Repurchase: No
I've used a bunch of body butters' from The Body Shop before. None are really moisturizing but i was suggest to try the hemp and that it will be more soothing and comforting.
Sadly, it was a no go for me. It wasn't any more moisturizing then the other body butters nor was it any help to my rashes or irritated skin. Didn't like the scent. Didn't like the price. Didn't like the moisturizer it provided (which is bare minimum by itself)

Hemp Moisture High Balm
$15/cad (not sure since it is not for sale anymore?)
Repurchase: No
This item is kinda like vaseline petroleum jelly except not as bad. Sadly I did not like this product, its very greasy - does not absorb into the skin easily. I thought it would help and dry flakey areas but it didn't do much. Preferably i would use an actual body oil for the dry patches since it would be more effective then this product. Another weird thing is that, I didn't touch the product for a few weeks and then when i went to try it again it developed a weird .. skin like film on top. Equivalent to if you left pudding out, you'd have to break through the skin to actually get to the pudding.

Hemp Hand Protector
$20/cad for regular size, $10/small
Repurchase: Most Likely Not
One of the Body Shops Best sellers! Its actually a pretty good hand moisturizer, doesn't take too long to soak in. But the smell puts me off, its different for body products since I usually can't smell whats on my arm. But i do smell my hands often (leaning my face against them, rubbing my nose etc) and the smell of this hemp line just isn't worth it. There are other good hand moisturizers for a lesser value that smell better.

Overall I've tried enough of the Hemp products in that line, to know I will not like any of the others....
None of the products really worked for me even if they did, the smell of the products would turn me off from using it.

http://www.thebodyshop.ca/en/shop-by-line/hemp.aspx#/hemp.aspx

Benefit - Pore Minimizer

Back with a review on Benefit's Porefessional. Says to minimize apperances of pores. 

So you may have noticed, i got this in a kit from benefit, small sample but lasted me a long time!
I really enjoyed this primer. Made my skin super smooth before make up application, it did minimize my pores a bit but not overly.
It did make my make up last longer and well as controlled my oil while being lightweight.
Honestly its a great primer. Only downer is that it's a bit pricey $36/.75 oz BUT one good thing about benefit, is that they also have great gift sets for a great value!
A lot of value sets they offer, have either full size or sample size (which can last a while (2 months for me!)) with other products of theirs to try out!
If you want to try it out, I suggest getting a value set!
I would definitely repurchase!

Butterfly Weed Herbals - Green Wisdom All-Heal Salve

Hey there,

I've been using this for a few months now on my eczema, any rashes, cuts, dry itchy skin...
I love the idea of this, since the alternative that works is steroid creams which isn't too good for the skin in the long run.
I picked this up at Rocky Mountain Soap for about $16/CAD. Product was all made Canada, which is a nice change.
I love the smell of tea tree.. most people hate it. But that medicine smell of tea tree and eucalyptus... its comforting as odd as that sounds. The scent on this balm is very faint!

Overall its a decent product. It is moisturizing and does help the healing process!
The only thing is that it the Chickweed Herb works for anti-itching.. that part I didn't find work...
Little goes a long way.

I could see myself repurchasing this. I was looking at other products they offer, may pick up a few of those too!

Update March 2014 (Nine months of use); Would honestly not repurchase.. sometimes i find myself itching even more....
Update July 2 2014 : Have finished the whole product, recently my eczema has been flaring up pretty bad and i used up this trying in order to stop myself from using my steroid cream... it hasn't had much effect on my skin. Like i've mentioned before, I do find myself still being itchy in some areas or even at times, even more itchier. Won't be repurchasing this for the lack of performance it has shown in the long run...

http://grassrootsblog.ca/2011/09/butterfly-weed-a-herbalists-story/

Thai Express Review - Crossiron Mills, Balzac, Alberta

Hi there,

Was shopping with a friend at Crossirons and we were both craving some thai food!
I was feeling up for some Pad thai but wasn't a fan of the thin rice noodles they were using, I prefer the flat rice noodles though the photos did look appetizing.
We both ended up ordering curry, some spicy Green Chicken Curry for myself and mild Yellow Chicken curry (around $8-9 dollars/each) for my friend. She also ordered a salad roll for around $2.50/ 1 piece + generous amount of peanut sauce.

Yellow Curry with Salad Roll

Green Curry

The curries were pretty good, especially for their price. Personally I like a 2:1 ratio of rice to curry but many places put a ton of curry sauce and very little rice. Luckily Thai express puts just the right amount of rice & curry for this lady :) Good amount of meat and eggplant in mine, my friend's as well. Only thing was that for green curry, i expect it to be pretty spicy - clear my sinus' spicy! And i'm pretty sensitive to spice, a drop of sirachi sauce or a tiny bit of kimchi has my heart going! But the green curry there wasn't really that spicy, it was a "Oh I taste some spicy/thingly feeling on my tongue" which was a bit disappointing. As well as it wasn't .. green...
My friend's curry was mild, perfect for her liking - a good classic yellow curry. Another dislike is that I didn't really taste any coconut milk in the curry, every once in a while a hint of it..

Her salad roll was just a regular vegetarian salad roll, the peanut sauce was a pretty dark brown for what I usually see but it tasted fine. I always think salad rolls are expensive for what they are...

Overall for the price, its a good place to relish your craving for thai food!

www.thaiexpress.ca

Winners finds

I found these goodies at my local winners!

Weren't hugely discounted but enough to make  a difference then buying regular price at sephora. Depending on the product its usually 5-10 off regular price.
I usually never find anything at my local winners but these caught my eyes when i was blowing time there.
There was other popular brands there, from philosphy to stila!
For the eyeshadows and blushes, none of the colors suited me though.

The only thing that sucks is that alot of people open products that aren't cased up like the nars ones to swatch it or to try it out. So basically many of the products are used or have been touched.
They do sell elf there but its marked up vs online (can't remember the prices on the top of my head but it was usually 3-4 dollars more)

I'll have to stop by there more often!