canadian – Tiana Feng

Anastasia Beverly Hills Subculture Palette

February 24, 2018Beauty1 Comment

A few months ago, when the Anastasia Beverly Hills Subculture palette went on sale, I couldn’t resist getting it despite the mixed reviews online. The Modern Renaissance palette is one of my most used, so I thought I’d give it this a try for the discounted price.

A lot of the critique on this palette stems from the formula which is different from Modern Renaissance’s mica base. This one is primarily talc. When I swatched the colours, they were very pigmented! I didn’t have to press very hard.

I found the more matte colours were a bit chalky, and when applying on lids I had to be careful not to be heavy-handed or else I would get a weird smudge of dark colour on them.

Otherwise, I found the shadows to be quite gorgeous and found myself reaching for a few constantly. While the quality isn’t as great as the MR palette, if you can get this one discounted, it’s worth it!

Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore

March 27, 2013Books, Entertainment1 Comment

I always wondered what it would be like to write fiction that took place in today’s world. Robin Sloan pulled it off in his mysterious novel Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore.

The premise is the main character, Clay Jannon, works in a bookstore that is open at all hours of the night. He soon realizes the books in the “Wayback” catalogue are full of strange codes instead of text and story. There is a strange cult of people that take out these books and of course Clay decides to find out more about them.

Sloan writes in a way that is so believable I had to look up if some of the things actually exist. It takes place in a strange San Francisco book store, one of the characters work for Google and it also involves a reddit-style mystery man.

It’s a short easy read for those looking for a geeky codebreaking adventure in the present-day. It wouldn’t surprise me if this ever turned into a movie one day.

Burgers and Tacos @ Tallboys

January 25, 2013March 27, 2013Food, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

Before yesterday’s installment of The Big Smoke Music Festival, we grabbed food inside the venue, Tallboys Craft Beer House.

I ordered the Pan Seared Fish Tacos ($12). The fish sat in a soft corn tortilla with guacamole salsa fresca, lettuce and sour cream. They were served with fries. They’re very similar in style to the fish tacos at Tacos El Asador with just the right amount of coriander. The fries made it a decent amount of food, and I swear they had a little bit of sour cream in them because of their interesting taste.

Nash had the Tallboys Signature Bacon Chili Burger ($13). The chili was mixed in with melted cheese and onions resulting in awesomness between two buns. They also have a burger with kimchi in it which we will definitely come back to try.

Since we were at Tallboys, it was only appropriate that we did get some tallboys. I had the Nickel Brook Green Apple Pilsner. It was a good amount of sweetness in a beer. Nash had some kind of cider, I forgot.