issue 19 // volume 44 life & style // no. 13

Pre-planning
Valentine's Day
with Dine-Out

> Romantic dinner date options
from Dine-Out Vancouver
Dine-Out cost—we're all poor students

after all. All three of these options
provide a three-course meal for $20.

Brittney MacDonald
Life & Style Editor

 

’m going to be honest, Valentine’s Day

is not my favourite holiday. It has,
however, raised in rank significantly
since | began participating in yearly
romantic rituals with my significant
other. These rituals generally involve
us ceremoniously sacrificing a goat to
ensure a continued stable relationship,
and then going to dinner.

Ask anyone, be they ina relationship
or single, and the general go-to for
date night is dinner and some form of
activity where you don't actually have
to talk to each other all that much.
With Valentine’s Day approaching, you
might be feeling pressured to make
this particular night extra special for
the one you love, or whoever you're
trying to impress off of Tinder. The
easiest way to do that, and to ensure
the continued prosperity of your wallet,
is to look into the various Dine-Out
Vancouver menus provided by many
Lower Mainland restaurants. These
festival-specific menus are available up
until just after Valentine’s Day, and will
provide you and your love pony with a
three-course meal at a set price—the
catch being that you can't really alter
or substitute anything, so make sure
your date will enjoy it before you take
the plunge and make a reservation.

I’ve compiled a list of what I
believe to be some of the most romantic
options available. I’ve filtered out
restaurants that have mostly bar or
large table seating, as well as ones that
might break the bank in terms of their

The Bimini Public House

Located just past the Burrard Bridge, this
place is a short bus ride from Downtown
Vancouver. Not for the traditional couple,
their Dine-Out menu features a slight
Caribbean flare by employing a little

bit of spice. It does have the perfect
ambience for a romantic date, and the bar
itself is a fairly historical landmark as it is
the first in BC to acquire a Neighborhood
Pub License, making it a unique option.

Burnaby Mountain Clubhouse

If you're looking for something a little
more traditional, then I suggest the
Burnaby Mountain Clubhouse. Located
in New Westminster, this place is
perfect if you or your date have dietary
restrictions, as they provide both gluten-
free and vegetarian options. Their menu
features many specialties of the West
Coast: steak, seafood, and some of the
best seasonal mushroom dishes, not to
mention a Black Forest Mousse that looks
like it will be a Valentine’s Day favourite.

The Clough Club

I wouldn't term the Clough Club really

a restaurant—their strength lies in their
delicious cocktails. They have, however,
provided the perfect Dine-Out menu

to compliment said cocktails, and as
they are a cocktail bar, their ambience is
second to none for the $20 price tag. Their
menu is focused more on tapas, so if you
don't feel like stuffing your face before
the big night you can indulge in their
mini-menu, and maybe a few drinks!

 

Illustration by Cara Seccafien

Simple makeup tips
to step up your game

> Sweating the small stuff might

just glam up your look

Rebecca Peterson
Assistant Editor

 

Ma is an art, there’s no doubt
about it. It’s also intensely
individualistic, because the canvases
upon which we practice our art—our
faces—are all unique, which makes

it a challenge to learn and to teach.
However, no matter who you are, if
youre warm, neutral, or cool, or if you
have no idea what those terms mean,
there are some universal tips that can
help dial up your look to a solid 10/10.

Invest in a fluffy blending brush

I absolutely cannot stress how much

of a difference having a proper fluffy
eyeshadow blending brush can make. If
you can only afford one or two brushes—
or even just one brush—I beg you, add one
of these to your makeup arsenal. It covers
and smooths all manner of sins, and can
make a 5-minute rush job look like a
45-minute $50 makeover from Sephora.
Even if you're smearing eyeshadow on
with your fingers (we've all done it), if
you finish with this brush, everything
will look smooth and professional.

Don't neglect your primer

When I started experimenting with
makeup, I completely misunderstood the
purpose of primer, and I partially blame
that on how primer was marketed. I would
apply primer buying in on promises of
“skin perfection” and “reduced blemishes.”
I was basically expecting an effect similar
to that of a tinted moisturizer, and I was
vastly underwhelmed by the results.

l ignored primer for years, basically
assuming it was an invisible product made
up by makeup companies to wring more
money out of the masses. I would then
wonder why my foundation was patchy
and would oxidize so quickly, and why

my eyeshadow kept creasing after only

an hour or two of wear. The best I can

do to describe the importance of primer

is this: You wouldn't cook anything in

a pan without adding oil or butter first,
right? Primer is the cohesive force that
keeps your makeup on your face, and

that helps blend everything in a way that
looks smooth and natural. It perfects

the texture of your face, and places a
barrier between your makeup and the

oils that your skin naturally secretes

that would break the makeup down.

Sharpen your eyeshadow

with makeup remover

Especially if you don't have a lot of

lid space to deal with, eyeshadow can
blend out towards your temples in
unflattering ways. Fix this by taking a
cloth dampened with a little makeup
remover and carefully shape the edges
of your eyeshadow. I like to start from
the outer corner of my eye and swipe
upwards, following the general shape of
how I might draw my winged eyeliner.
This will instantly give your eyeshadow
a controlled and professional edge.

 

Do your eye makeup first

For a long time, I was baffled by makeup
gurus on YouTube and their penchant

for doing their eyes first, and the rest of
their face afterwards. For me, the face was
the canvas you built up from—it didn’t
make sense to start with the eyes when
they were, to me, the icing on the cake.
Talso used to use a giant kabuki brush

to dust setting powder all over my face
(including the eyes) after blending out
my foundation, so I think I was worried
about fallout from the powder in my
eyeshadow. However, when I started using
makeup wipes to sharpen my eyeshadow,
I realized it didn’t make sense to set my
foundation first, only to have to wipe

bits away and start over thanks to fallout
and shaping. The order I tend to do

my makeup in now is eyeshadow, face,
eyebrows, eyeliner, setting spray, mascara,
lips. This allows me greater control over
how I mitigate eyeshadow shape and
fallout without having to worry about
getting pigment all over my foundation.

Figure out what your eye shape is,
and learn how to work with it

I was in denial about having hooded eyes
for a long time. I figured that when I lifted
my eyebrows and closed my eyes, you
could see my eyeshadow, and that was
good enough. I would do thick lines of
eyeliner, enough that the little lid space
that I had would look completely black
when my eyes were open—something
I'm still occasionally guilty of. It was only
when I acknowledged my eye shape and
started working with it that I began to
really make my eyes shine. There are
plenty of tutorials for all kinds of eye
shapes—hooded, downturned, round,
wide-set, mono-lid, almond, etc. No one
eye shape is better than any other, and
the moment you start working with the
eyes you have rather than the eyes you
want, you'll notice a drastic difference

in the overall look of your makeup.

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