Beauty Favourites: Lipstick and Gloss

This month, Letters to LA LA Land team will share our favourite lip products and as always we would love to hear what products you love or don't love. When it comes to lip products, there are so many choices, how does one decide? I believe that all lip shades are fair game for everyone but texture, coverage, stay and finish are key when considering what to get. 

Amy :

Currently my favourite lipstick is Lise Watier - Fashion Kiss. This is my fave right now, but it's always changing. Love it because this particular shade of red looks fantastic and bold BUT also doesn't make my teeth look yellow. Some reds have that nasty effect. It's a nice red matte that goes on smooth.

Zahra:

Currently loving Nars Cruella! I love the colour and how it glides on easily and has staying power.

Nermisa:

I love lip-gloss, chap sticks and lipstick. I carry like five everyday in my purse. Dior Addict Lip Maximizer and lip glow in peach are a staple in my make up, I never run out of it. I alternate to a lot of colours, currently Mac Mac Red and Labradorable are my favorite colours.

 

What lip gloss do you use? Any colours we should try?

Crème Brulee

Last week we were talking about Vegas and made me crave the crème brulee from Mon Ami Gabi. That was one of the most delicious crème brulee's I have ever tried so I decided to try and make some; now its turned out nowhere near the greatness that we had at Mon Ami Gabi but it was still delicious.

I looked over few recipes from all over and landed on this one at one of the cookbooks. The original recipe calls for 8/8 eggs to sugar ratio so I improvised a bit.

Ingredients:  

6 egg yolks
6 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1/2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Directions:

Beat egg yolks, 5 tablespoons white sugar and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl until thick and creamy.

Combine mixture and cream into a saucepan and stir over low heat until it almost comes to boil. Remove the cream from heat and stir for about 2 minutes pour into a shallow heat-proof dish. Let mixture cool for an hour

Mix brown sugar and 1 table spoon of white sugar, sift this mixture evenly over custard.

Preheat oven to broil or use a blow torch to brown the sugar. Place dish under broiler until sugar melts, about 2 minutes. Watch carefully so as not to burn. Using a blow torch starting at one end melt the sugar mixture, watch not to burn.

Top with raspberries (or strawberries) and mint, serve immediately.
Have you tried making crème brulee? What is your go-to recipe?

OOTD - LBD ft. Hye Fashion

Can you have too many perfect little black dresses? I think not! This asymmetrical black dress is another piece I found at Hye Fashion and fell in love with it immediately. Its long enough so I can wear it to work and easily transition it into an outfit for a night on the town. I like that the dark grey adds more dimension to the dress. I kept the outfit simple with a black leather jacket and black pumps.

dress: Press c/o Hye Fashion

shoes: Joe Fresh

jacket: Bano eeMee

purse: vintage

 There is nothing worse than finding a perfect dress or pants and you try them on and its two inches too short. Hye Fashion is a local #YEG store that caters to taller women, along with styles for all other women. They are moving to a BRAND NEW bigger space in April, be sure to check on their website and here for all the cool things going down for the Hye Fashion grand opening. Have you heard of Hye Fashion?

Thank you for supporting brands and companies that support LetterstoLALAland.

Standard Kombucha

Amy talked about her new years resolution earlier today, which got me thinking about mine… year in year out I try and be healthier and make better choices. Recently, my sister introduced me to something called Standard Kombucha, which is a company that brews a probiotic, antioxidant rich, 100% Organic drinks. Since I love shopping and supporting local and Canadian owned companies, I was all for trying it out. This all came about at the perfect time, just when I started training for Spartan Race.  So my lemon ginger Kombuch is a small step towards being healthier.

Fun facts about Standard Kombucha:

Owned and brewed in Canada, Vancouver to be exact.

Available at #YEG Remedy locations.

Comes in three different flavors.

There is science behind it!

Have you tried it? What is your favorite flavor?


Thank you for supporting brands and companies that support LetterstoLALAland. This is NOT a sponsored post - just a product we love at Letters to LA LA Land

Stickin With a Resolution . . . 3 Months Later

(source)

There are so many years when I chose hard resolutions that I didn't really want to do - if we wanted to "go to the gym more, do more yoga, eat less junk food, do less bad..." then wouldn't we already be doing them? This year, I took a whole different approach. And so far it seems to be working!

I chose to finally learn to play an instrument. Music has always been a big part of my life; but faced with my patience (or lack there of) and craziness as a child, learning anything other than the recorder wasn't high on my list of things to do. Then once you hit a certain age, many people think it's too late and they make sure to tell you so. Instead of listening, I thought "fuck it, who cares if I'm too old!"

(source)

It wasn't hard. Jumped online and found an instructor within minutes. There were a ton on kijiji; this guy stood out because he plays multiple instruments, had individual or group lessons, and half hour or hour lesson options. He also led to me a local shop where I could rent a violin monthly - just in case the resolution didn't pan out.

Four lessons later and I can barely make notes sound like music, it's more like screeching nails on a chalkboard. But I'm having a blast trying, my neighbours probably hate me, the tips of my fingers are usually tender, and it's all so much fun! Maybe by the end of the year I'll even be able to play an actual song or two!

How are your resolutions going? Hangin in there or abandoned like yesterday's undies? 

OOTD - Stripes and Hunter Boots

Spring has sprung! A couple of years ago I got my first pair of Hunter Boots. I love how versatile they are, especially in spring and fall with all the melting snow and rain. However, they're definitely not just for rainy days, but sure make me feel like a kid again running though puddles! Since it was warm out, I styled these boots with a simple striped dress and brought the whole outfit together with a wrap sweater. It's an easy and comfortable outfit for spring days. Who else loves rocking their Hunters?

dress: Joe Fresh

boots: Hunters

sweater: Aritzia

purse:  Steve Madden

#FollowFriday

#FollowFriday is fast becoming my one of my favourite segments on Letters to LA LA Land. I love being able to share amazing people and their blogs that inspire me.
Here is this weeks #FollowFriday:

1) Carrie Bradshaw Lied

2) Mash Elle

3) The Mop Top

4) Marie's Bazaar

Have you read any of these blogs? How amazing are they?

Stop by my instagram and twitter to find all four linked bloggers social media accounts.

Have a wonderful weekend.

(All images are owned by their respective blog/bloggers and should not be distributed without explicit permission!)

OOTD - Denim Dress ft. Hye Fashion

I love the versatility of button-down dress. The denim dress is great way to transition from spring to summer. Since I am so tall, I have a hard time finding dresses that are long enough. When I got a chance to work with a local store called Hye Fashion and found this amazing denim dress, I was thrilled! Their mission is to offer great style for all women - especially TALL women. This dress is just a perfect length, simple and can be worn so many ways. I paired it with simple grey lace-up shoes and a grey cross-body bag.

dress: Buffalo c/o Hye Fashion

shoes: Call it Spring

purse: Zac Posen

sunglasses: Ray Ban

You can pair a denim button-down with white sneakers; combine this pale blue denim with black leather jacket, shoulder bag and black kicks for day on the town; or combine the dress with strappy heel and a hat… possibilities with this dress are endless. How do you style your denim dresses?

Thank you for supporting brands and companies that support LetterstoLALAland.

Apps We Can't Live Without

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Many of us have had the dreaded message box pop up forbidding any new downloads. Now comes the hard part - what gets moved to the memory card or deleted to make room? After many taxing days (minutes) of contemplation - some apps and photos and songs were moved.

It's always interesting to see which ones always survive the uninstall button. Here's the apps that made it through this round of 'You are the weakest app, Good Bye".

Google Play Music - The only thing that could have made Google Play Music better was having it be as awesome as Songza - or take it over, which is exactly what happened! You can house up to 25GB in your library, which can be brought from places other than just Google. You can stream and download straight from Google Play Music, create tons of playlists, share and listen to other playlists, and stream tons of "radio stations". For the price of one album, it's unlimited tunes and listening.

Instagram - It's not all pictures of what your neighbour ate for breakfast and your Grandma's Sister's cat. There are stunning pictures from all over the world, art work in so many formats, you can stalk your favourite celebs, and post 100 or 0 selfies.

Snapchat - This app is a win across the board! Full on conversations can be had accompanied with a picture. You can draw, you can type, you can become a dog (why this one is so popular escapes me). There are new filters to try most days and they keep adding new little things to keep you interested.

Pinterest - The amount of hours that completely vanished into Pinterest land can't even be counted. This site isn't all cooking and crafting. Although that's totally on there. It's fashion, makeup, hairstyles, motorcycles, books, music, travel. This list could go on. There's no requirement to make a board or actually pin anything; once you start browsing you just might want to.

What apps can't you live without? Any that we left out?

Top 5 Tutorials for Curling Hair

c/o Elvisa Omerovic

Hair can be a tricky business, some girls are really great at figuring out how to style it and take care of it. I unfortunately am not one of those girls, but have no fear there are some great tutorials out there that can make you a pro in no time. With a little bit of practice of course, and as you know practice makes perfect. Below is a list of tutorials I tried and found easy to follow and they work. 

MakeUpByCamila2 - Camila Coelho has a lot of tutorials and her own youtube channel.  The tutorial that I tried is the Loose Curls tutorial which uses a curling iron. She started with a Portuguese channel and now has an English channel. While she has other hair tutorials, I found this technique easy to follow especially for a beginner.

Fancy Hair - Niki has a hair obsession, which is great for me because she has a great tutorial for curling hair. While this one uses a flat iron to create curls, I like this tutorial because she shows 3 different techniques one using tin foil, which I would have never thought to use. She also shows how to frame your face. Find the tutorial here.

Carli Bybel - This tutorial uses a hair wand so if you don't own a straightner but you have a wand then check out this tutorial here. She shows you how to get old Hollywood Glam Curls; it's an easy to follow tutorial without a lot of steps, the only tricky part is using your opposite hand to curl the other side. I love the look of these curls, they're big and sexy and easy to achieve once you practice a bit.

Rachelleea - Rachel is an Australian YouTuber who has a great tutorial for beginners. Her instructions are easy to follow and she has a great method for doing both sides of the hair that doesn't have you needing to be ambidextrous. With this tutorial you get great effortless curls using a flat iron and it takes no time at all.

Emily Liu - If you are like me and would rather press snooze another 5 more times rather than get up and do your hair then this tutorial is for you. This tutorial shows you how to get your curls the night before with no heat required. I love this tutorial because it's fast, it's easy and at the end of it you get to go to sleep. Or if you are going out on the town, go take a nap and let your hair get done while you nap. Click here for the tutorial.

c/o Stephanie Topliss

What tool do you use to curl your hair? Any suggestions for techniques to try out?

OOTD - Grey Boots and Leather

I have been loving grey this year, more so than previous years but I think it is because of the overwhelming amount of nice grey items in stores. (also might be the fact Amy loves grey.) I feel in love with these boots the moment I saw them at Joe Fresh (although I fall in love with everything there lately). They are super comfortable and hit just above the knee (or can be folded over). I paired them up with more grey and black to add to the crispness and make the boots stand out. Adding leather to anything looks classy but comfy at the same time and its perfect to wear on weekend lunches.

boots: Joe Fresh

shirt: Forever XII

pants: Reitmans

purse: Zac, Zac Posen

What is your go to color? Is grey too dark for spring?