Whatever Floats Your Boat
^{(Across Canada)}

This is the time of the year when I typically start thinking about my summer vacation plans. Top on my bucket list is houseboating in B.C. and apparently others are also thinking about sailing vacations thanks to reality TV shows like Below the Deck.

In Canada, your nautical dreams come true in Sicamous, B.C., also known as the houseboating capital of Canada. Sicamous Houseboats manages several models from a wallet-friendly $450/night boat for five guests, to a 38-foot, four-bedroom boat, equipped with a kitchen, air conditioning, hot tub and everything 20 guests would need for a sail around the Shuswap Lake.

On the other side of the country, AirBnB floating cottages are numerous around Manitoulin Island and near Quebec’s Eastern Townships, but they tend to be stationary floating cottages. The off-the-grid property (pictured above) in Bury, Quebec, checks all the boxes if you’re looking to truly disconnect and unwind. Located in Trois-Rivières, in between Montreal and Quebec City, this popular floating cottage offers views of the Saint Laurence and Maurice rivers. Ahoy mate!

Curated Canada tip: Did you know that the later you book your AirBnB the cheaper the rate? If you’re flexible and more risk averse, book your AirBnB accommodation a few days before needed for rates that are discounted by 50%. As a backup, reserve a hotel room in advance. You can always cancel the hotel room if you end up getting your AirBnB.

Art Walk
^{(Vaughn, Ontario)}

The East Humber River Valley, one hour north of Toronto, looks like the kind of place where you'd head out on a 10km hike, not where you'd stumble upon one of Canada's greatest art collections. But amongst the cedar and birch trees, you'll find the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. More than 6,500 artworks belong to the gallery with a focus on historical and contemporary Canadian, Indigenous and Inuit art. The gallery has works by all of the Group of Seven, Tom Thomson, Lawren S. Harris, A.Y Jackson and company, alongside Kent Monkmon and Betram Brooker. When you're done visiting the gallery, you can stroll through the McMichael sculpture garden and a cemetery where six of the Group of Seven are buried.

Curated Canada tip: The McMichael Art Collection holds 80,000 Inuit drawings in trust for the West Baffin Eskimo Co-Op. The works were recently digitized and are available online. Visitors are encourage to build their own virtual gallery to share with others.

The New Third Space
^{(Edmonton, Alberta)}

It’s hard to find a coffee shop, let alone any food establishment open after 10pm in Edmonton these days. But if you live north of Edmonton’s 137 Avenue, you know to head to Mokka Coffee House. It’s a Yemini coffee house located in the Greisbach neighbourhood. It usually closes around midnight but during Ramadan, it’s been open till 2am. Canadians aren’t really late-night coffee drinkers, but in Yemini culture, it’s a thing because Muslims don’t drink alcohol.

With more and more Gen Zs drinking less alcohol, Yemini coffee shops are becoming third spaces for non-Muslims too. Most customers arrive at night to socialize, hang out with friends and drink speciality hot beverages. The Adeni chai might be the best cup of brewed tea in the city. It’s only a matter of time until Edmonton has a second Yemini coffee shop. U.S.-chain Qamaria is aggressively eyeing expansion into Canada, with two locations in GTA and one just down the highway in Calgary.

THE THROUPLE

3 Canadian Bottles We’re Not Allowed to Call B**rbon

THE INTERVIEW

Best Face Forward
^{(Calgary, Alberta)}

Makeup artist Shirley Ibe knows how hard it is be for women of colour to find the right makeup shade. So after years of mixing up multiple products in her kitchen to find that perfect shade for clients, she decided to start her own makeup company Madeup Beauty. Within a few short years, Shirley's inclusive, Black-owned makeup brand has been picked up by Shoppers Drug Mart online. Curious Canada caught up in Calgary with Shirley.

How did you get into Shoppers Drug Mart?
It’s been three years and it still feels surreal to talk about this. I did a pitch competition in 2021 through the Black Business Professionals Association who have a relationship with Loblaws who owns Shoppers Drug Mart. About 110 people pitched and they liked my pitch and my product. It was always a dream of mine to be in Shoppers Drug Mart.

What is your hero product?
It’s the Meltdown Lip Therapy.  It’s a lip conditioner that replaces lip balm. It has been our biggest seller since Madeup Beauty started. However, when the company started, it was definitely the liquid lipsticks. I launched in December 2019 and then a few months later the pandemic started. I had to really change what I was marketing because people weren't wearing lipstick.

Have you seen an increase in makeup for people of colour in the market?
Yes I would say there's been a huge increase. Fenty made a lot of beauty brands drop their excuses about why they don't have more inclusive colour ranges. It's viable, and there's no reason why these big brands can’t offer more. However,  I've noticed in the last year or two that a lot of brands are backtracking. They're launching new lines and products, but they are not inclusive. The crazy thing is a lot of these brands are established brands. Why don’t they launch a foundation or contour stick that’s inclusive of people of color? It's very bizarre.

I hear you have a connection to Rihanna
I took a makeup workshop twice with Priscilla Ono who is now the Global Make-Up Artist for Fenty, Rihanna’s beauty line. Priscilla was one of the first makeup artists that I worked with. Back in 2014, I flew to LA to take her master class. I took her class again in 2019 right before I launched my Madeup Beauty.

Are there any other makeup artists you admire?
There are two makeup artists that stand out as my favorites - Keita Moore and King Mali. They are both black makeup artists who I think are incredible. I've worked with Keita previously and he did my makeup for my wedding. He's someone that I've always looked up to. His work is beautiful and flattering to women of colour. Keita doesn't dramatically alter the way someone looks, he just enhances their beauty. And that's something I feel like, especially with our Instagram model and Instagram views and filters that get so skewed and how beauty should look.

Mali really supports black women and black businesses. They're both truly people supportive of people in the industry and want us all to win. And that's something I respect about them. As big as they've gotten, they still make time for the people that follow and support them. 

Any typos in this newsletter are the fault of my own.