Tarte Amazonian Clay Foundation and Concealer Review

Finally have a second to review Tarte's Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Full Coverage SPF 15 Foundation and Tarte Amazonian Clay Waterproof 12 Hour Concealer.

Previously, I had been using MAC foundations/concealers... but I wanted to use something a little bit more organic. I picked these both up at Sephora back in April during their Beauty Insider sale and to be honest, I was no nervous switching foundations so close to my wedding (I was worried trying a new product would make me break out!) but happy to report that my skin agrees with these products!

I got the foundation in "medium light beige" and the concealer in "medium"

I love both of these products!!

The foundation goes on so smoothly and it blends really well. I find that the colour is matched perfectly with my skin tone so it gives me a really natural/no make up look (which is pretty much my go to look!).

The concealer is also great! It helps cover my acne scars and I love how it comes in a 'lipstick' format. Its super easy to put on (I previously used MAC's pro longwear concealer and I always had issue with pumping out too much product!!) and its not wasteful at all!

Definitely loving Tarte's products - currently looking into Tarte eyeshadow and lipstick/lipgloss...

The forgotten work bag

Bobby left his work bag at home today.... Luckily he put it next to Kiwi and I noticed it this morning when I did my daily Kiwi check in.

Here is his bag with a cold brew coffee and chocolate. FYI Bobby, I ate your chocolate as payment for bringing your work stuff and buying you a coffee!!

Bobby's 29th

It was Bobby's 29th birthday on the 10th... so naturally, we celebrated this entire weekend! 

Side note: because I am the crazy hedgehog lady, and not one post can go by without mentioning, Kiwi, the late Chaos, or hedgehogs in general.... I finally picked up this hedgehog doormat at Crate and Barrel!! 

Hedgehog on hedgehog!

Okay, so it was Bobby's birthday on Friday... and on Thursday, I bought him some beers to drink this weekend. It's increasingly difficult to buy beer for Bobby since he wants to try original craft beers... all I can say is, thank god for untappd!!!!

The first stop on the birthday tour was a romantic dinner for two at Orrange. However, because there was a pet store near the restaurant (and because I knew there are hedgehogs there)... this became our first stop.

Go away crazy humans!!

These hedgies are not socialized so they were really hard to pick up...

Such a little cutie!!!! This hedgie is very shy but it didn't bite!

Okay... so after we played with the hogs, we went next door for some food! Orrange is okay, decent food, decent prices.

Birthday boy with his guinness

After dinner, we went to Bobby's favorite store:

After Home Depot, we went home for affogato (on our super awesome espresso maker)....

... and birthday cake (Chocolate Explosion and Tiramisu from Whole Foods)

Too distracted by the affogato/not realizing there is cake in front of him

Kiwi came out to wish Bobby a happy birthday beg for cake

Bobby and his Rogue Voo Doo Donut beer!!

Okay so that was Friday... the real "party" was Saturday at Port Moody Ribfest!!

Now, it has been uncharacteristically hot in Vancouver the entire month of June. It was 30+ degrees for a couple of weeks and there are 100s of forest fires all over BC due to the extremely hot and dry weather.... Basically, we have all be praying for rain... and while I am glad it rained, I wish it did not happen at Port Moody Ribfest while I was standing in line holding my uncovered half rack of ribs!! It seriously poured rain and all I could think was, should I wait in line for corn as well?!?!? But I digress...

Giant pack of baby wipes to help us get through this meal

The food at Ribfest was okay. Maybe the rain dampened the mood a little bit... but the craft beer was definitely underwhelming!!

Sebastian met up with us at Ribfest and then we met up with Brad-Ja-Luca for menchies!

I hope you had a great birthday weekend Bobby!!! Love you :D

The BBQ dilemma

Someone at work (let's just call him G) offered to buy a communal barbecue for our lunch room patio... such a sweet gesture to be honest... except for my poor coworker who got tasked with sourcing said barbecue!

So my very kind coworker went to Canadian Tire and Home Depot to bargain for a good deal with the sales associates at each store... and in the end, she got a great deal on a floor model barbecue... which is a bonus so we wouldn't have to put it together... and because we work so close to the store, they even wheeled it over for us (reluctantly!!).

This all went down yesterday afternoon. And on my way home from work, I saw a barbecue just outside of Cafe Citadella (super cute coffee shop in a heritage home) that someone was giving away. I seriously laughed so hard at all of the work my coworker had to go through to get our barbecue when one was up for grabs!

In the end, this free barbecue is a lot smaller/less nice than the one we got...and who knows if it's even functional... it was just funny due to the timing of these events ;)

Our Wedding!

So we tied the knot last weekend (June 27th)... after months and months of planning! I wasn't sure if I wanted to blog about our wedding.. but I wanted to give a huuuuge shout out to every single person involved in making our special day a reality.... so, here goes!!

We had our ceremony, reception, dinner and post dinner festivities at Shangri-La Vancouver. From the moment we got in touch with Stephanie (Events Manager) to plan our wedding to the second we checked out of the hotel the day after the wedding, the service we received was A+. Seriously, everyone was so accommodating and kind! We truly felt like royalty! Everything went smoothly (minus my brother almost arriving late for the ceremony!!!). The staff did such a wonderful job! The night before our wedding, they sent us some sparkly wine and chocolate covered strawberries to enjoy... and they included craft beer for Bobby (because they knew that Bobby does not just drink any beer!!). I would definitely recommend holding your event at Shangri-La Vancouver :)

Before walking down the aisle...

Back in January, the minute we secured our venue and paid our deposit, the first thing I did was book a hair and make up consult/appointment. I am so terrible at both of these things and knew I would need to recruit some professional help... a quick google search led me to Beauty Calls, a mobile hair and make up service. Here I met Alysia Hamilton (super sweet owner) and Lily Ling (super awesome hair and make up artist). Both Alysia and Lily are so sweet... and Lily is AMAZING!!!! She did such a wonderful job! I looked and felt so great at my wedding! :) Seriously, book Lily now for your hair and make up needs!!! You will not regret it.

Photo credit: Lily Ling

The second appointment I made was cake tasting! This was a no brainer. When we lived in Yaletown, we frequented Ganache Patisserie. We sat down with Peter and he helped us decide on a custom flavor and cake design. Our guests were impressed and there was no cake left at the end of the night!

Single tier hazelnut chocolate with mango filling... with strawberry macarons... mmm

We had a very small ceremony (15 guests total) and my plan was to wear a plain white dress. This upset my mother greatly and I realized that not taking her wedding dress shopping/wearing a "traditional" wedding dress was robbing her of her mother of the bride experience! So we went to The Bridal Gallery and Debbie helped me pick THE dress ;) Bobby custom made his suit from Indochino.

Photo Credit: John Miguel
Dress: Mori Lee 6794
Flowers and pineapple boutonniere: V&J Plantshop

And last, but most certainly not least, photography was done by Dora and Alex from 21 Mpix Photography and they did such a great job! We've only seen a few pictures and cannot wait to see the rest! Random story: I met Dora through Lily (my hair and make up artist!! You can read more about our meeting here). Make sure to contact Dora if you need a photographer for your upcoming event!

Huuuuge thanks to all for making our wedding a reality! Special shout out to Peter and his crew at V&J Plantshop for custom making Bobby's pineapple boutonniere :)

Kiwi's Blog

Hello! My human mommy is neglecting this blog so I decided to hi-jack it and share some pictures from my photo shoot!

A little back story: 

In May, my mommy had her wedding hair and make up consult with Lily from Beauty Calls. Lily took a picture of me and my mommy and posted it on her Instagram account. One of Lily's friends commented on a photograph about how she has been wanting to do a photo shoot with hedgies so Lily put her and mommy in contact with each other... and voila! Dora from 21 Mpix Photography came to visit me at Lafarge Lake on Monday June 8th and she took so many amazing pictures. Seriously, I have never looked so good ;) 

Below are just a few shots Dora took. Please be sure to request permission before sharing any of these photos… and don’t forget to give Dora credit for all of her amazing work. You can find more pics on Dora’s facebook page

Instagram: @dora_korz

Facebook: www.facebook.com/21mpixphotography

www.21mpixphotography.com

Hanging on a log... this was not my favorite part

Pondering about life.. while on a rock

Eating flowers! My humans did not know that I liked to eat flowers

Obligatory shot with my humans

Hello!

I was really well behaved for the hour long photo shoot. I didn't even poop once even though I don't like being exposed. I kept trying to hide underneath grass but I was too big. Thank you to everyone who stopped by to say hello while I was having my pictures taken... and of course, a huuuuge thank you to Dora for coming out all of the way to take my pictures!

Please follow me on my instagram account: @kiwithehog

- Kiwi

Victoria Day long weekend

We got a three day weekend this weekend thanks to her (former?) Royal Highness, Queen Victoria. It was sunny and 25 degrees all three days so we made sure to enjoy the sunshine!

Saturday:

The first stop was breakfast. Ever since moving to the suburbs, we haven't really found a go to breakfast place. There's a Cora's nearby, but honestly, I am not a fan of that restaurant. The food is only okay... and it's always so busy! So I urbanspooned another place... Bobby was impressed with his food, I wanted to throw up after eating mine. Haha.. 

I will spare ya'll the details and move on to our next stop: the pet store. We want to bring Kiwi around on walks so she can enjoy the sunshine and fresh air (two of her most hated things by the way) so Bobby got her a carrier. Kiwi is a very suspicious hedgehog.. she refused to go in the carrier. I had to force her in the carrier and it took 10 tries to get this blurry pic. Anyway, needless to say, Kiwi hates the carrier.

So after the pet store, we made a quick stop at Walmart/Canadian Tire... and we came home to take Kiwi on a walk. When we lived in downtown, one of our friends always offered to watch Kiwi (and Chaos!) whenever we went on vacation. Our friend lived in New West and Kiwi would ALWAYS get carsick during the 30 minute drive over. We are talking vomiting here. It was always so sad to see because I couldn't do anything to help her :( We stopped taking her on car rides (the last car ride was during our move last year)... I packed her in her new carrier with a towel and a toy and we slowly walked to the lake (10 minutes away) and when I took her out there was vomit all over her towel. Ahhh Kiwi!! But she was fine. I put her on the grass and she had a blast (or probably not) sniffing around.

After she got enough outdoor fun, I put her back in her carrier (where she peacefully napped!) and we sat near the lake while Bobby took pictures of the fountain.

Hello world! I hate this carrier

After the traumatizing experience for Kiwi, we went home.

Sunday:

This day was reserved for a people hike. No hedgehogs allowed. Mainly because the forest we are hiking in has bears and cougars. I mean seriously, this forest should also be no Jennys allowed because I was so stressed out the entire hike. Now, we've done this hike before, and its a really easy hike. It takes about 40 minutes to get to the end where there's an awesome waterfall. So anyway, we did this hike last year... I'm all la-di-da-ing on my way back when a family interrupted us to let us know they spotted a black bear about 10 minutes away. AHHHH. Anyway, so Bobby wanted to go again so he could try something on the new camera.. and we got there and saw that not only were there bears spotted, but there were also cougars spotted. Now, I am not an animal expert, but bears (black bears at least) will likely stay back and not attack unless they are hungry... but cougars!?!?!? They stalk their prey and they are so damn scary in general. I guess I should explain that this "forest" is a part of Coquitlam Mountain... which pretty much connects to Whistler mountain.. so there are tons hungry wildlife!! Anyway... we continued on (even after seeing a sign taped up by hikers saying that "a black bear has been charging at hikers near the waterfall")... I mean honestly... we must be idiots or something ;)

I was sooooo paranoid the entire hike... but we made it to the waterfall... Bobby got his pics... and we headed back and made it out alive! ;)

After the hike, we came home to change and then we headed out again to watch Mad Max. PS: Mad Max is an epic movie if you are into high speed car chases and violence!

Monday:

Today was a day reserved for a pedicure! I went to a salon that offers reasonably priced pedicures about 5 minutes away... Had an excellent time being pampered ;)

My parents are home from their European vacay.. and they brought back presents!

Kiwi and some chocolate from Amsterdam (no there is no weed in it ;))

I hope everyone had a lovely three day weekend! This is our last vacation until our wedding next month.... so it will be all work errday until June 25th for me!

PS: I finally got Kiwi an instagram account so send her some love and follow her :)

Caught in the rain - Monday edition

I check the weather forecast religiously while getting ready for work every morning. How silly of me to believe the forecast!! It predicted sunshine all day, and since it was 25 degrees and humid on Saturday and Sunday, I had no reason to doubt it...

So I was a little bit surprised when the rain started around 7am... While I was waiting for the train.... Umbrella-less

Happy Monday ya'll! Have a great week :)

Hedgehogs!!!! And other Saturday randoms

Yesterday was a day filled with sunshine! First we went to Starbucks for caffeine. Bobby is not a Starbucks fan... but they are now serving cold brew coffee!!! Unfortunately, the store we went to did NOT serve cold brew coffee so we got stuck with frappes.

After Starbucks, we went to Chapters to get Mother's Day cards for our mommies. Found this gem of a card on their shelves:

Now, if you have watched Mean Girls 2920394209734 times like me, you would know that this line is from Mean Girls ;)

After Chapters, we went to Home Depot so Bobby could stock up on supplies. He is finally finished our side table and he ran out of screws and such.... So off to Home Depot we went... PS: Go check out Bobby's blog to read all about it!

We hit up a liquor store after so I could get Bobby some beers for our anniversary.... and right next to the liquor store was a pet store... so we had to go inside..

SOOOO CUUTE!!! I used to have Chinese Dwarf hamsters when I was a kid. These are Russian Dwarf hamsters and they are soooo tiny!

Somebunny loves Bobby!

HEDGEHOGS!! OMG I almost had to have these. There are three female hedgehogs for sale... and I swear one is pregnant (she was as huge as Chaos when Chaos was knocked up!!!). These hedgehogs were REALLY shy and hard to pick up

After all that fun, we went home and walked to the park near our house... Bobby got a new camera he wanted to try out/learn how to properly use. From the park, we walked to the ice cream store... then Best Buy... then we walked home. Now we live on a hill so we got some great exercise in post ice cream :)

Bobby practicing his photography skills

Patio sangria... For one

In a pinch to make sangria... so I grabbed a large (1L) mason jar, cut up some strawberries and added (equal parts) ginger ale and white wine.

Ps: how cuuuuute are these ginger ale bottles I found at IGA? 

A whole lotta mangoes and one kiwano melon

Firstly: Hello! It's been a while ;)

Secondly: I am addicted to mangoes - yellow mangoes if you want to be specific. I found out that Whole Foods had these on special (5 for 5$ for one day... then 4 for 5$) so I went and bought 17 (over a course of three days) and it cost 20$... and it was worth every penny.

While at Whole Foods, Bobby spotted a Kiwano Melon. Now Bobby is all about "experiences" and "trying new things". So somehow, we ended up with this strange prickly fruit in our basket... and it cost 5.99$ (To think, 5.99$ could have bought 5 more mangoes!!!)

Which one doesn't belong?

The Kiwano Melon is very seedy...and it's not sweet at all. I'm pretty sure Bobby wasn't very impressed with it either.

Anyway, nothing new to report here... got some new makeup/beauty products from Sephora that I will be posting reviews on... The PiYo craze has kind of died down a lot (mainly due to low energy levels/nausea from my anemia)... And just like that, we are at the end of April!

Easter 2015

Had an awesome 4 day weekend! We had great weather on Sunday and on Monday (sunshine and 15 degrees!) – needless to say, I am feeling refreshed this morning ;)

The weekend festivities started on Thursday evening – I told Bobby I would hide Easter eggs around our apartment for him to find over the long weekend. I bought some Ferrero Rocher eggs (looks like Ferrero is jumping on the Easter candy band wagon) and some Caramilk Easter eggs (these are the eggs Bobby requested). Each night (Thursday to Sunday), I hid three eggs for Bobby to find the next day (one giant Caramilk egg, and two smaller Ferrero eggs). Bobby was pro and found all of these eggs no problem. Next year, I think I am going to hide plastic eggs and get Bobby to swap them out for real chocolate so I can hide more than three at a time (I was paranoid that if I hid too many, Bobby might miss some and we would be finding old stale chocolate for the rest of our lives).

Easter egg in Bobby's jar o' nuts...

... and one in his scotch everyday drinking glass

Friday:

It was pouring rain on Friday so we stayed at home. I cleaned, cleaned and cleaned our entire apartment. Our apartment was due for some spring cleaning ;)

Bobby worked on our side tables… and while I was cleaning and watching Friends on Netflix, I dropped my phone. Now, I drop my phone on a daily basis. I have not had a phone that I have not dropped/ruined. Bobby calls me clumsy.. but I mean, how do you even begin to “fix” clumsy? I don’t think you can…. Anyway, so I dropped my phone and the screen shattered… I mean, shards of plastic everywhere… All I can say is thank goodness for Groupon – I bought a deal to get my screen fixed (65$ for a new screen when normally it should be 130$). 

Saturday:

I went to PiYo as per usual – we moved studios as of Saturday, and the new place is great! It’s about 5 minutes from the old studio, but it’s a lot bigger, and the layout is better than the old one.

After PiYo, I raced home to make lunch/eat lunch/shower so we could head out for the day. The first stop was to get my phone screen fixed. I went to iFix in International Village and I am impressed with their service! They did a great job and it only took about 25 minutes (one hour for me because I arrived as they were going for lunch). Anyway, I highly recommend them if you need your phone or tablet screen repaired. While we were waiting for my phone to get fixed, we went to Home Depot so that Bobby could buy some things he needed for the side tables… Then we went back to pick up my phone and then headed to Tiffany so I can pick out a birthday present :)

We hit up Thierry Chocolates since they are pretty much right next to Tiffany on Burrard/Alberni. I wanted to buy some lychee macarons but they were all sold out.. so I left empty handed :(

Wet then had dinner at Memphis Blue’s (Southern bbq place) and then we went to Chapter’s on Broadway to kill some time before watching a movie. The movie we watched was “While We’re Young” and let me just save you some time and money by telling you NOT to watch this movie. It is by far the worst Ben Stiller movie ever. No wonder it didn’t make the “big screens”. We watched it at Fifth Avenue Cinemas, a small theatre on Burrard St, which normally only plays small, independent films. Also, no offense, but this theatre is old people central. Like literally, there were elderly people waiting in line with their walkers and oxygen tanks… etc. I mean, I get that we all get old… but I nowknow which cinema I will be hitting up when I am old and gray ;)

Saturday Random: Just a stack of cars... on a tree trunk... in front of Science World-ish

Sunday:

Bobby worked on our side tables some more, and I chilled out and enjoyed the awesome weather. We had dinner at my parents’ house (small Easter dinner with my parents and my bro and his gf). Good food, great company

Here's Bobby eating his favorite Filipino dish (it's a "milk fish" called bangus)

Kiwi's Easter meal was cheerios - her new favorite treat!

Monday:

I hit the mall for some “browsing”. I am in the market for a new blazer… there are a few I am eyeing in Aritzia… also I went to Sephora to try some new foundation. I am wanting to buy some more “organic” make up and am looking into buying the Tarte Amazonian Clay foundation. I wanted to try it out first though since foundation is so expensive… and sometimes, certain foundations make my skin break out. We are less than three months away from the wedding so I don’t want new acne/acne scars). Anyway, so I tried it out for the day (I think I got to Sephora around 10:15am… literally right after they opened and left it on all day until it was time for PiYo around 8pm) and it provided excellent coverage. I think I will be picking this up later on this week ;)

Anyway... so I didn't get anything at the mall (In fact, I actually returned a couple of things!). I did buy a few necessities at Shopper's though: toothpaste, dish soap, mascara, allergy medicine...

... and my first Archie comic book in YEARS

I was a little bit dismayed at the fact that the double digests are now 5.99$ before tax (they used to be 2$ or something!). Luckily, I no longer have to buy these on my meager weekly allowance... 

Monday was also Kiwi’s bath day so yesterday marked the worst day of Kiwi's life (since her last bath) – but her housekeeper came around to wipe down her floors, scrub her wheel down and refill her food… so she was in good spirits post bath!

And the world's meanest April Fool's Joke goes to...

BOBBY

Okay so before I go on complaining how it was cold in Vancouver yesterday (about 4 degrees in the morning), I fully understand that it was much, MUCH colder in other parts of our home and native land. However, the heater was none functional at work so I spent most of the day FREEZING. And, for the most part, we average double digit temperatures in the Lower Mainland… so I get stressed out for Kiwi when the temperature drops. She starts to freeze her skinny little butt off. Usually, she wakes up during the day to poke around/scratch her butt/eat and I get a notification of her activity on my phone (Thanks Drop Cam/Nest) and yesterday she wasn’t active at all. On the train ride home, I called Bobby to ask him to check on Kiwi (he was almost home when I was just leaving work) and also to let him know I was stopping by Shopper’s on the way home.

30 minutes later, I’m in my car driving from the train station to Shopper’s and I receive a text. I didn’t check it until I parked my car and Bobby texted me “Kiwi didn’t make it”. Instantly, I knew it was a joke, but also in the back of my mind, I was like, OH NO KIWI FROZE TO DEATH (which isn’t even likely since she’s never THAT cold) and BOBBY OBVIOUSLY ISN’T JOKING BECAUSE APRIL FOOL’S JOKES STOP AT NOON (this is COMMON KNOWLEDGE IS IT NOT?!?!). I almost burst into tears at the Shopper’s parking lot. I called Bobby and he admitted it was a joke L

Happy to report the world's cutest hedgehog lives on! And she is as feisty as ever!