Poutine: Smoke's Poutinerie

I'm going to end this year with my favourite food: poutine! I finally got around to trying Smoke's Poutinerie, which is just past Smithe on Granville street in downtown Vancouver. The prices were average (about $8), all poutine was one size and there is a TON of variety!

I opted for the traditional, but some of my friends got a little more adventurous! Hopefully I remember all the names...

Traditional

Chicken Chili

Country Style

Double Pork

That same week I went again and tried the Double Pork, which includes bacon and pulled pork. The menu is quite extensive and though the boxes appear small when you get them, it is definitely a LOT of food!

Now for the breakdown on the traditional... The gravy was pretty good, but nothing special and the cheese was squeaky, though also nothing special. The fries were also average and got soggy pretty fast. The double pork one was considerably better, though that might just be because of bacon... and pulled pork.

As it stands, I think I have to give some bonus points for the variety which puts it right...

1. Dunn's Famous
2. Preston's
3. Brado Pizza
4. Mean Poutine
5. Smoke's Poutinerie
6. Zako's Deli
7. The Kaboom Box
8. Club Ilia
9. The Spud Shack
10. Belgian Fries
11. Frenchies
12. La Poutinerie
13. Fritz
14. La Belle Patate
15. The Cambie
16. The Metropole Community Pub
17. Dougie Dog

I had to think really hard about how it stacked against Mean Poutine, but nothing beats those batter Costco-style fries.

Have you guys been to Smoke's before? Where would you rank it?

(Happy new year by the way! See you next year!)

Simple Double Accent

Alright! I hope everybody scored some fantastic deals on Boxing Day! I didn't do any shopping because I am literally down to my last $20 but I did spend some good times with Branden's famjam =3 (I also got some studs and loose glitter to play with, thanks Antayas! I'll be getting on those soon!)

Anyway, you knew I couldn't leave that last post with just a glitter double accent, right? I completely wasn't feeling it and felt like it needed a little something else. I kept it simple and just took Julep Cara with a dotting tool and tried to make little swirlies over Andrea. I like how it turned out, and I think if I try the double accent again, it's going to require a design just as this one did.

What do you think? I hope you like it as much as I do!

Swatch: Julep Cara and Andrea

I hope everyone had a good Christmas! Time for the countdown to New Years!

So I finally liked a Julep Maven box to use the 2000 points I had accumulated via bonuses and birthday things. They called this collection the "glitterati" which is a name I actually quite like xP. I chose to actually get the Bombshell box I was assigned this time and it came with two very gorgeous colours.

Julep Cara is "cranberry" red shimmer. The "" is because I always imagined cranberries much less pink but I'm probably wrong since I've never actually seen one... This is two coats and I really liked it.

Julep Andrea is a sparkly gold that's got quite good coverage. I think next time I would just put down two coats on its own and have very glittery fingers. This is 1 coat I believe, with a second to cover bald spots. It dried relatively flat, and very evenly so I didn't bother with topcoat.

I really like it, though I'm not sold on this double accent nail thing. Come back soon to see what else I did with it.

Oh, Julep does that thing where I can refer you for stuff, so here's the link, and if you use the code PENNY your first box is *free* :D Let me know what you think!

Press Release: Babyliss Miracurl

I was contacted by a representative from NailPolishCanada.com about posting to you guys about a new product they're offering. I feel like I've seen it somewhere before recently, but it really is pretty neat looking and it makes me miss my long, long hair. I was looking at just copy-pasting the press release I was sent but it was really cheesy and silly and just a little too blech for me, especially when it's talking about flat hair being the most horrible thing and kids are freezing without families in first world countries....

ON THAT HAPPY NOTE: It's called the "Miracurl" and Nail Polish Canada wants to give away three of them if you just click here and scroll to the bottom to tell them why you need a "Christmas Miracurl" (lol).

They also have this stupidly long video.

The giveaway is open to Canada and the US. It's always fun to win stuff so give it a shot and let me know if you do!

I really, really, really miss my long hair guys... (sometimes... when stuff like this comes up. Bah.)

Montagne Jeunesse Clay Spas

So I've already written about this in the Influenster Master Post but they like it better if I whore out my blog a little more and write a dedicated blog post. That's fine because I can take you through it step by step, I guess.

I received a face mask with Influenster in Arctic Cloudberry and Red Grape. Apparently arctic cloudberry is a thing...

Go figure. (Source)

Anyway, the first step is to cleanse your face (for which I used this Estee Lauder cleansing foam for normal/combination skin.

Source

And then I got the package open with wet hands, which I mentioned before was very easy.

This face is the face of someone who did not know what was actually going to be in the package. I have never used a mask before.

And then I was terrifying. The mask stayed on pretty easily, except under my chin and above my lips (which is the most mobile part of my face I think).

I sat on my computer for 15 minutes and then pulled off the mask.

To rinse it, I just got in the shower.

My face felt really clean and smooth right after, and it lasted a couple hours after. The smell of arctic cloudberry and red grape was still present, and actually remained quite strongly hours after the fact. This is a good thing for some people but as I mentioned before, I spend a lot of time in close proximity with people who have sensitive noses.

So there you have it. A dedicated Montagne Jeunesse post. Despite the blog-whoring, I guarantee that this is my honest review.

NCC December #1: Inspired by Art (Monet)

Oh god, I was really tempted to not post this. I didn't bother watermarking this mess anyway. I googled "art" and went through what came up which included the usual (Mona Lisa, Van Gogh...) and also Monet.

That looked easy enough, right? Some gradient sponging...?

Sure.

I started with Julep Marisa, then sponged on Julep Nessa but that wasn't working, so I picked up Zoya Solange (Pixie Dust) because it needed to be opaque if nothing else! Definitely opaque. I continued on that stream with Destiny and Beatrix.

I used black acrylic paint to try to get the uh... cathedral or whatever on there...

Bah. I tried though.

My Influenster Maple VoxBox Master Post!

I'm sure by now you've all heard of Influenster, an invite-only hub of product reviews and reviewers. Somehow I managed to sneak my way into this and they finally creeped up into the Great White North and I was chosen to receive the first ever Maple VoxBox! It came with a ton of goodies!

Just to overview, above you'll see NYC Mascara and plumping lip gloss, imPRESS manicure set, two coupons for NYC goodies and an all natural Arctic Cloudberry and Red Grape clay face mask.

It also came with Icebreakers Duo mints (Raspberry mint) and two Skinny Cow goodies (pecan clusters and "Heavenly Crisp").

I'm gonna start with the Big Bold NYC plumping lip gloss in Big City Blush!

BIG FAT DOE FOOT APPLICATOR! It's huge. It was shiny, and I could feel it tingle though I'm not sure it did any actual plumping. I liked it a lot though.

 Ignore my terrible hair please >_>;

And then the mascara...

The brush was also huge, and slightly curved but not enough to bother me. I couldn't get a decent photo of my eyes but it was definitely thickening and lengthening. I was surprised I liked the brush as much as I did. It seemed to have a mix of fine and thick hairs to help it do whatever it did to make my eyelashes look amazing so this is definitely totally cool (and may actually replace my current mascara, L'Oreal voluminizing...)

Here are some not decent photos that don't really focus on my eyes... I look fabulous though. Also it snowed >_<

NEXT: FOOD.

Kind of.

These were pretty good. They're mints, so they're not very calorie heavy and they certainly made my breath fresher. The packaging was labeled backwards (the side that said "one" opened up entirely and the side that said "many" is what you can see above) but I figured it out so it's okay, right?

Okay, I'm really excited to get to this Skinny Cow stuff. Shown below is the crisp thing and homg it tastes like KitKat and it's only 100 calories. I don't really know if I believe it.

Next up is "dreamy clusters" and these were amazing too! You always think you're gonna taste the "low cal" but these tasted just like the regular clusters you get by the box on holidays.

And now my forte! NAILS. As someone who has never worn fake nails, ever, this was an interesting experience for me. As advertised, it took me less than ten minutes to apply these. Keep some tweezers handy when you do though, and maybe apply the pinkie first and move towards the thumbs... (I didn't think that one too)

Looks pretty good right! For my first time with fakies, these were a good experience! Be sure to apply them carefully so they don't pinch. Also, my nails curve downwards toward the ends, so these didn't stick all the way along my nail and if I looked underneath it bothered me to see the big space between my natural nail and the fakes. BUT, you'd never tell by looking at them like a normal person  (lol) so I'd definitely recommend these to people who want nice nails without the work and who probably don't do any typing at work =3

Last but not least: Montagne Jeunesse Real Clay, Arctic Cloudberry and Red Grape facial mask!

First of all, it smells AMAZING. Arctic Cloudberry and Red Grape is a good smell. (What the flap is "Arctic Cloudberry" anyway?) And I have some terrifying photos for you...

A+ for packaging, which was easy to get open with wet hands. That's pretty important for this kind of thing. I completely looked like Frankenstein's monster for about 15 minutes though. It was very cooling while it was on and I didn't have any problems with sticking it to my face or making it stay there.

After I pulled off the mask, and after I rinsed (showered). My face certainly felt nice. The scent of "arctic cloudberry" and "red grape" was quite strong and lingered for a long time though which isn't such a good thing when you live around people with sensitive airways. Other than that, it was pretty nice, and something new. If someone were to buy these for me, I would definitely use them, but I doubt I would start doing this on a regular basis by myself.

Well! That was a long post and it took a lot of work! What did you think? Have you ever gotten an influenster VoxBox? Which of those (or these!) products would you recommend?