pixelbunny's picks

Deluxe sample size jar that packs a hydrating punch!

This past winter month has taken a serious beating on my skin and my usual moisturizers just isn’t cutting it. Coupled with the fact that I’m trying to use something with SPF during the day time has been tricky, as I don’t like the overbearing smell of sunscreen in my products. Enter Lancôme’s Bienfait Multi-Vital High Potency Daily Moisturizing Cream. I received this as a gift with purchase a couple years ago but had completely forgotten about it until now. After using it for the past 2 weeks, I am obsessed with how hydrating it is, as well as how there is virtually no SPF smell to it. It’s a winner for me.

The Packaging

Being a deluxe sample size, there’s only 15g of product in here. It’s a small, sturdy plastic jar with a screw top lid.

The Product

Swatch

The product is a thick cream, but it readily absorbs into my dry skin and leaves no greasy residue afterwards. It has a pleasant fragrance to it that isn’t overbearing at all. Best of all, no SPF smell! My skin is left feeling perfectly smooth and soft.

The Verdict

I’m so happy with this deluxe sample that I am most definitely going to repurchase this again, especially for the drying winter months. For those of you who are looking for a heavy duty day time moisturizer without the SPF smell, this is the one for you!

Where to Buy – $58 CND

• Lancome
• The Bay
• Sephora

Sea Witch Fish & Chips has been on the Mr’s list of things to eat for half a year now. We had a day off together one weekday, and decided, why not make the drive and have some good ol’ fish and chips?

The Atmosphere

Old church pew hymnal holders

The place is really neat. All booths and benches are made out of old church pews, with these hymnal holders on the wall holding up some kids’ activities. The fryer is near the front and open, so you can see all the frying action once you place your order. The back is where the fries are made, with a traditional potato fry press and big tubs of already cut potatoes, just waiting to be freshly fried with your order.

The Food

Menu

The menu is simple and easy to read. I didn’t realize there was so many different kinds of fish you could use for fish and chips. I must come back and eat some more!

Halibut cakes – $10

We started with halibut cakes. Lightly battered in panko crumbs and fried, these little cakes are chock full of halibut fish!

Inside halibut cakes

Look at this picture. It is literally full of fish flakes, and hardly any flour filling. Now that’s my kind of fish cake! It’s served with a pickled cabbage which gave a nice tart flavour to add to the fish cake. I did end up with a fish bone in one of my fish cakes so beware of that, but that just confirms that it’s made of whole fish and not processed.

The Witch’s Brew – $6

The Witch’s Brew is their house chowder, and it’s also full of great ingredients. Lots of fish chunks, carrots, potatoes and corn. It’s creamy, flavourful and not overly salty. I found another fish bone in my bowl, but like I said earlier, it confirms that there’s whole fish in there!

Pacific cod – $8

I was pretty sure Mr’s plate was going to have lots of chips so I opted for pacific cod only. My only complaint is that because the fillet piece had a thick and thin part to it, the thin part ended up overly battered and dry. The thick part was moist and flaky as you can see in the image below.

Inside pacific cod

Mmm that flaky goodness was so delicious. The fish was moist too.

Pacific halibut and chips – $15 

The Mr ordered pacific halibut and chips. His halibut fillet had a more uniform thickness, so he didn’t have the issue of a thinner part being dried out. His halibut was more dense than my cod, and very juicy. The chips were ok and a little on the soft side. I prefer my chips to be more crispy but to each his own. The chips portion was huge, and even with the two of us eating it, we still couldn’t finish the pile.

The Verdict

Definitely a fantastic fish and chips place to go to! Their fish is fresh and made to order, and the portion sizes are great. I really recommend you give this place a try!

The Place

Sea Witch Fish & Chips
636 St Clair Ave West,
Toronto, ON
647-349-4824 (647-34 WITCH)

I finally had the chance to go to Grand Electric for dinner! Ever since one of my coworkers raved about where to go for cheap tacos, and even after the Mr went with a friend, I have been eyeing this place for a long time. And now, finally, I can say I’ve been!

The Atmosphere

The place is small with a very large bar situated to the right. There are tables, picnic tables, and bar seating. At the bar, a huge list of bourbon is listed on a chalkboard menu. The music is loud and the atmosphere is very casual. A warning that for the winter, it might get a little chilly with the doors opening and closing all the time, especially if people don’t properly closer the inner door.

The Food

I ordered one of everything. Hey, I had to try them all, right?

Crispy cauliflower taco – $3.60

This was easily my most favourite taco out of the whole night. Funnily enough, I ate it first because I figured the veggie tacos wouldn’t be as good as the meat tacos. Boy was I wrong. The crispy cauliflower taco was AMAZING. Each cauliflower floret was lightly battered and fried, almost tempura-like. It had a hint of salt and white pepperiness to it, which reminded me of some chinese spicy squid. It’s topped oodles of chopped scallions and the occasional hot pepper. It gave it a slight kick, but not enough to make my eyes water.

Baja fish taco – $3.60

A close second, the baja fish taco was also excellent. They use tilapia fillets that are lightly battered and fried. It’s topped with this green paste (avocado-based?) and radish slaw. Our waitress served the mayonnaise on the side for us, as she saw that I was pregnant (thank you!). The fish was hearty and moist, and the slaw was a great pairing with the fish.

Pulled pork taco – $3.60 

I was a little underwhelmed with this one. I was expecting some sort of BBQ taste with the pulled pork taco, but instead it was on the dry side and chewy. It’s topped with a red onion slaw and chopped italian parsley.

Pork belly taco – $3.60 

The pork belly taco was ok – cubed pork belly pieces, with mango and pickled turnip(?) cubes. It is also topped with italian parsley. The pork belly could have been a little more moist, but the slight dryness was cancelled out by the sweet and soft mango.

Spicy arbol chicken taco – $3.60

The spicy arbol chicken taco is certainly spicy! Unfortunately, the chicken was definitely dry. The cheese and sour cream helped with that though.

Roasted squash taco – $3.60

This is a new menu on the item, just started the previous day our waitress told us. The roasted squash taco is almost as good as the crispy cauliflower. Creamy roasted squash (is it butternut? acorn?) with some cheese, nuts and seeds (of which I can’t identify – I know it’s not sunflower nor pumpkin), and topped with chopped scallion.

Coconut cream and key lime dessert – $5 each

For dessert, I had to try both. Coconut cream had layers of coconut cream of pudding consistency, graham crumbs, and another layer of coconut cream. It’s topped with three very large sheets of toasted meringue sheets. Key lime is essentially a mini key lime pie, but topped with a leaning tower of whipped cream and fresh lime zest. I personally preferred the key lime whereas the Mr preferred the coconut cream.

The Verdict

This place is absolutely delicious and it won’t break the bank. I am definitely going back here again, especially since beef cheek wasn’t on the menu. I am told beef cheek is one of my friend’s favourites so I am hoping they will bring it back. Plus, I want to try some of their appetizers too.

The Place

Grand Electric
1330 Queen Street West,
Toronto, ON
416-627-3459

Squeeze tube format

One thing I’ve learnt from reading about pregnancies is that everyone seems to be obsessed with stretch marks. Why do we get stretch marks? How do I make them go away? How do I prevent stretch marks from appearing? Does everyone get them?

Forums are the worst for gleaning information, and I’ve tried to steer clear away from them. Instead, I tried turning to more trusted sites such as BabyCenter Canada and What to Expect. Really, there’s no avoiding stretch marks. You either get them or you don’t to varying degrees. Stretch marks appear because the skin is stretching, and once that baby is born, your skin doesn’t fully reduce back to what it once was before. To help minimize the amount of stretch marks, just make sure your skin is well hydrated and moisturized.

For this, I’ve been religiously using my regular body lotion every day after showering. After all, it’s the best time to lock in moisture, right? Over the Christmas holidays, my mom took me maternity clothes shopping and we snagged some good boxing day sales at Thyme Maternity. One of the things I picked up was this, the Soothing Therapy Stretch Mark Cream.

It contains seaweed extract, vitamin E, avocado oil, and argan kernel oil just to name a few ingredients. These ingredients help boost circulation, moisturize, reduce scar tissue, and leaves your skin feeling ultra smooth.

The Packaging

Flip/push nozzle

The tube itself is pliable, so it returns to its original shape after being squeezed. The nozzle is at the bottom of the tube, so gravity becomes your friend in helping pull the product down the tube. The cap is sturdy, so I’m not afraid of accidentally ripping it off by accident.

The Product

Swatch

It’s not as thick as a cream, and slightly lighter than a lotion. It feels lighter than Garnier’s Body Intensive 7 days lotion, that’s for sure. It does take a little bit of rubbing to absorb fully into the skin, but once it’s worked in, my skin is feeling quite soft and smooth.

One thing I’ve noticed is the fragrance – it smells just like The Body Shop’s satsuma. I, for one, absolute adore that scent so I love applying this cream on. The nice thing is that the smell doesn’t linger for long, and I can’t smell it on myself.

The Verdict

So far so good, this cream moisturizes and makes my skin feel soft and smooth. I don’t find it as moisturizing as my Garnier Body Intensive 7 days lotion, but it still leaves the skin feeling nice. No sign of stretch marks yet, though unknown if it’s because of my diligence in moisturizing, or because I haven’t grown that large yet (currently at 33 weeks!).

Where to Buy – $20 CND

• Thyme Maternity

Larger pump bottle and the smaller 250ml bottle

I knew I had try this out ever since I first heard about it from Beautezine. Little did I know that many other Canadian beauty bloggers also swear by this cleanser/makeup remover so I figured, why not try it out? What first started out as a one bottle purchase turned into a mega pump bottle purchase with 3 back up bottles. I’m down to my last bottle now so that means it’s time for a full review.

What is Bioderma Sensibio? It’s a water-based cleanser and make up remover that’s super effective, and gentle enough for the most sensitive of skin. The micellar properties help remove makeup and leaves skin feeling fresh, and no rinsing is required afterwards.

The Packaging

Pump mechanism of the 500ml pump bottle

I’ve purchased 2 types of bottles so far: the larger 500ml pump bottle, and the regular 250ml bottle. I’m not going to lie, once the pump bottle was empty, I rinsed it out, then emptied the smaller bottles into the pump bottle so I could get more use out of the pump. The pump is great and makes it easier to dispense the liquid onto a cotton pad. Three pumps is all I need to have the pad wet enough so that I can use both sides of the pad for my whole face.

Bottles are made of plastic, with a pink cap. The pump bottle has a flip cap, which reveals the pump underneath. You use a cotton pad to press down on the pad, and when you lift up, product comes up and soaks into the pad. The non pump bottles also have a flip cap, but you have to turn the bottle upside down to dispense the product yourself.

The Product

Product is clear and very water-like, which makes sense as it is considered a cleansing water. It removes face makeup with ease, and most of my waterproof eyeliner and mascara. I do find it doesn’t take off all waterproof eyeliner and mascara, but a good chunk of it comes off after holding a soaked pad up to my eye for a little bit to soak in. Two soaked pads removes all traces of face makeup. There is no menthol-like sting that you get from some cleansers and toners, which is great for those with sensitive skin. It’s also great for when you have the occasional breakout or broken skin, as the gentleness of the liquid doesn’t irritate the skin at all.

The Verdict

Having been through 3 bottles so far, I can safely say that I love this stuff. It is perfect for removing the day’s face make up away. Since it doesn’t remove all waterproof eyeliner and mascara, I do turn to my trusty Lancôme Bi-Facil to do the the eye makeup removal. On days when my skin is really dry, Bioderma Sensibio also does double duty as a toner to cleanse and prep my skin before I put on the serums and moisturizers. This product is amazing and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone else.

Where to Buy – 250ml for $21.95 CND | 500ml for $26.95 CND

• Shoppers Drug Mart
• Murale

Just a small amount of empties to start off this year 

Nexxus Therappe Ultimate Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner

I’ve been using this shampoo and conditioner for the past year and like it a lot. It leaves my hair really shiny and soft. The only thing with my oily scalp is that I do need to wash daily or else I have too much oil built up in the hair. Otherwise, my hair is healthy and beautiful. Definitely will be repurchasing this one. These giant pump bottles were purchased at my local Costco.

Lancôme Tonique Radiance

Full review here. I especially love this stuff in the summer time.

Lancôme Bi-Facil

I have lost track of how many bottles I’ve gone through but I love this stuff and will continue to use it. Waterproof eye makeup just melts off with ease. I still have 2 more back-up bottles in my stash.