Stories

These hot colourised lashes stand out from the crowd and say “I’m killin’ it”. A bit of sparkle, a dash of  rich purple, green or blue. This look is all about giving those eyes more pop than they've ever experienced before. Beauty and makeup specialist Lauren Proud couldn’t find anyone doing the colourful lash extensions she was looking for, so she set out to do it herself. Lauren’s studio Proud Beauty in central Hereford Street is the culmination of her global experience in TV show, runway, photoshoot, editorial, formal and wedding makeup. As well as custom creative eyelashes, Proud Beauty’s services include henna brow shaping, brow laminations, lash lifts, cosmetic tattooing and teeth whitening.  proudbeauty.co.nz

Try these yummy vegan Panna Soaps for herbal and mineral benefits that go far beyond clean skin. Shea Butter & Lavender Soap: Shea nut extract moisturises, while lavender can calm your mood. Charcoal Soap: Cleanses toxins, binds to the dirt in your pores, and can help with pimply skin. Oatmeal Soap: An all-natural exfoliant, oatmeal protects and gently cleanses dry skin, while balancing pH levels. Pink Clay Soap: Like a moisturising clay mask for your whole body, with tea tree essential oil to help fight fungus. Coffee Soap: Contains antioxidants and age-fighting nutrients to detoxify and cleanse. Panna Soaps are handcrafted in small batches and made with non-GMO ingredients and no artificial preservatives. The scents come from pure essential oils, and the colours come from natural ingredients like clays, herbs, coffee, cocoa powder and spices. pannasoaps.co.nz

Tea is social, calming, and creative. It shouldn’t always be a case of dropping a bag in a cup and forgetting about it. Upping your understanding and getting creative with tea helps you enjoy it even more. Leeya at Christchurch’s own Mikaku Tea is sharing her creativity with the world. Mikaku Tea workshops are an opportunity to learn about tea, blend your own tea, slow down, and connect to yourself. Leeya runs them monthly, and every second month in 2022 she is collaborating with another local creative for an experience that joins a love of tea with activities such as yoga, blending botanical essences, and watercolour painting. Mikaku Tea is a boutique tea studio, drying and hand-making teas from locally grown and foraged organic fruits, herbs, and flowers blended with premium tea bases. mikakutea.co.nz

Lala Lifestyle has arrived in Victoria Street! The high-end linen and homewares store’s new home is a beautiful, spacious studio with huge windows and a ton of possibilities. Cityscape checks it out. The space is fitted out in inspirational design, full of tempting buys for your next interior glow-up. Owner and international interiors pro Monique Bohnenn says customers can expect to see exciting new things. We’re amped to see her promised “huge expansion” of the entire Lala range. Looking for a finishing touch for your interior? Investigate custom cushions from the store’s wide range of fabrics, or book a private consultation with Monique to take your interior decorating game to the next level. She’s got the expert eye to help you design a luxurious and stylish home you never want to leave. lalalinen-nz.com

Hot coffee and a fresh bagel – it’s the classic match-up and Grain Coffee has mastered the art. The Southwark Street café has just launched a killer range of made-to-order bagels. The menu is packed with masterpieces like Apricot and Walnut Cream Cheese with Sprouts, and Sopressa Salami with Chilli Jam and Rocket. Or you can pick your favourite Grizzly bagel (poppy seed for us, please) and design a delicious filled bagel with a selection of tasty fillings or schmears. The team are all geared up so you can grab and go, or eat in and enjoy a moment of peace with a cup of Coffee Supreme. graincoffee.co.nz

The huge amount of houses on the market means buyers have plenty of option, but sellers still hold the reins in Canterbury. According to data from realestate.co.nz, property stock – the number of properties for sale – is up 70.8% around the country compared to this time last year. The property listing website has declared Wellington and Auckland buyers' markets, with prices falling and the average time to sell increasing. Hawke's Bay, Otago, and Manawatū/Whanganui are all likely to follow suit this month, but Canterbury is holding strong for sellers, and prices held more or less steady in the region through April. Vanessa Williams, spokesperson for realestate.co.nz, says buyers are getting a bit more breathing room after a couple of years of having to move quickly to secure property. "These stock increases likely mean there is less of a rush for buyers to make decisions." The number of new listings in...

Located in beautiful Golden Bay, Kiwi Spirit Distillery is family owned and operated, producing unique, quality spirits from the purest homegrown ingredients. The distillery's Waitui Whiskey is based on an old world tradition, with its own uniquely Kiwi flavour. Cityscape asked the creators to show off their whiskey's malty goodness in an original cocktail you can make at home. The addition of apricot liqueur brings new life to this cocktail classic. The apricot is sweet, tart, light and delicious, the perfect addition to almost any whiskey cocktail. Ingredients 30ml Waitui Whiskey20ml Kiwi Spirit Distillery Apricot Liqueur30ml fresh lemon juice3 drops Foamee cocktail foamer Method Add all ingredients into a shaker and shake for 15 seconds. Strain into a martini glass and enjoy. Read more: The story of Waitui Whiskey's unique New Zealand-ness kiwispiritdistillery.co.nz

Local Christchurch distillery The Spirits Workshop believe that, with access to some of the world’s best barley grown right here in Canterbury and some of the world’s best water straight out of the tap, Christchurch should be making the world’s best single malt whisky. Cityscape asked the creators to show off their velvety Divergence Whisky in an original cocktail you can make at home. This recipe is based on the classic Blood and Sand, a scotch-based cocktail that first appeared in 1930. This version is made with local liquors, and you can taste it at the Curiosity Gin bar in Riverside Market.  Ingredients 20ml Divergence Virgin French Oak Single Malt Whisky20ml Curiosity Pinot Barrel Sloe Gin20ml Martini Rosso Vermouth20ml orange juiceOrange peel, for garnish Method Add the whisky, sloe gin, sweet vermouth and orange juice into a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe or cocktail...

Gape in wonder at marvels of modern architecture and be engrossed in tales of design innovation at the Resene Architecture & Design Film Festival 2022. Now in its 11th year, this special film festival brings the latest and most internationally acclaimed films in architecture and design to cinemas around the country, including Deluxe Cinemas at The Tannery. The Christchurch programme runs from Thursday 9 – Sunday 26 June. Rialto Cinemas and Resene have partnered with creative agency ART DEPT to curate this unique programme of content designed for the big screen. Director Yasmine Ganley says, “We are proud to be bringing an inspiring curation of films to Aotearoa. Our four film categories – Quiet Icons, Creativity, Problem Solving and Importance of Place – not only represent pillars in the world of architecture and design, but also speak to the relevancy of the times we are in." Some of the key films...

One of Christchurch's favourite craft breweries is expanding, opening a brand-new brew bar on Colombo Street. Two Thumb Brewing Co.'s original brew bar on Manchester Street has been part of Christchurch's craft brewing scene since 2019, and growing in popularity ever since. The new site fills the gap left behind by The Fermentist, and will have a larger brewing capacity and a more restauranty feel than the original. The selection of drinks is expanding too, including guest brews, local wines, a carefully curated gin menu and some seriously sinful cocktails. Food comes courtesy of Illicit Food and includes burgers and shared grazing platters with temptations like arancini balls and pork belly bites. The inner city location gives relaxed, industrial-cool vibes, and you can enjoy your pint indoors or out in the beer garden. Visitors are also welcome to sneak a peek at the brewery and see where the magic happens. Two...

Get your nosy on this weekend and have a look inside some of Christchurch’s most unique and beautiful buildings as part of the Open Christchurch architecture festival. Unmissable experiences at this year’s festival include getting behind the fences for a tour of Christ Church Cathedral in progress, taking in one of the best views in the city at Te Hononga Christchurch Civic Building, and a chance to have a chat with Mayor Lianne Dalziel in the Mayoral Lounge. The festival kicks off on Friday 29 April at Harewood Crematorium, a celebrated piece of New Zealand architecture. It runs over the whole weekend, and over 40 buildings will be opened to the public over the course of the three-day festival. Most of the programme is free, and it’s a great opportunity for Christchurchians to head out and experience our iconic buildings from an all new perspective. With four guided walks, self-guided and...

The next phase of The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora's post-earthquake upgrade is complete, with the Observatory Hotel set to open next week. The hotel lives up to its arty surrounds, and no two of the 33 rooms are quite alike. Named after the 1896 Observatory Tower, it spans three stone-clad buildings that once housed the physics, observatory and biology buildings of the original University of Canterbury. The décor, by interior designer Jessica Close, incorporates a wild mix of colour, lavish textures and distinctive furnishings made by local craftspeople in the guest rooms as well as the spectacular drawing room and library. “I liked the idea of visiting the hotel and being able to request a particular room that spoke to you,” Jessica says. “Every room has its own design scheme and personality.” Individual guest rooms are named according to their unique colour and décor – such as the Rose Madder,...

Add an element of mystery to your next concert experience. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra will stage a special event in Christchurch where the music to be played is only revealed just before the concert begins. The show, Daily Catch, has been so popular in Wellington, the NZSO has decided to bring it to Ōtautahi for one night only, this Friday 29 April. Here's the basic idea: you pick up a free ticket, knowing you'll be treated to a famous piece performed by a trio of Aotearoa's best musicians. Once you're seated and comfortable at Christchurch Town Hall, the trio will reveal what piece they're playing. This concert features NZSO concertmaster and violinist Vesa-Matti Leppänen, section principal cello Andrew Joyce and associate principal viola Alexander McFarlane. NZSO Chief Executive Peter Biggs says the Daily Catch series was first devised so the orchestra could perform live to limited audience numbers under the...

Joanna Prendergast, AKA Jo Ghastly moonlights from her day job as a psychiatrist to perform stand-up comedy shows. She got into comedy at age 48, turned a cancer battle into a cartwheel challenge, and is proving there’s really nothing a determined Cool Mum can’t do. So, tell us what it takes to be a Cool Mum? The most important part of being a Cool Mum is self-declaring that you are a Cool Mum. Being able to dab, floss and rap certainly helps though. My comedy persona Jo Ghastly decided to share her coolness with the world in the comedy show The Cool Mum. The Cool Mum is on in Christchurch one night only, June 17 at Good Times Comedy Club. Is your Cool Mum status generally accepted in your household? My kids definitely think I’m a Cool Mum. I could tell by my son’s facial expression, when I did ‘the floss’...

Nathan Ingram, AKA Dr Suits, is laying down paint in a big way. He caught up with Cityscape to talk murals, upcoming collaborations, and the ins and outs of running an urban gallery. Congratulations on your massive mural at Akaroa Area School. Tell us about Polymorph. I had just finished painting at Graffiato: Taupo Street Art Festival when I had an email from Akaroa Area School enquiring about having some work installed in their junior area. After a few conversations with the school principal, Ross Dunn, we agreed that the best outcome would be to get as much colour in the space as possible. The surface area for this project was 360 square meters, and was easily my largest project to date, so my approach to this project was to keep it simple and effective. I wanted to make it bold and bright, allowing the kids to engage with the different...

Christchurch artist Janna van Hasselt tells Cityscape about dreaming big, and drawing inspiration from a preschooler’s wardobe. What’s going on in your life right now? I’m in the process of making 400 ceramic works that look like brush strokes for my next show, switching to a plant-based diet, keeping watch on our 32 monarch chrysalises and settling my daughter into preschool. Is that all? You’re not afraid of scale in your art. What’s your dream big project? Ha! My lecturer at Ilam always encouraged me to think big; he was forever coaxing us to scale up. My dream big installation would have to be blinging out the Tate Modern Turbine Hall; completely smothering it in pattern and colour. A lot of your works have a strong emphasis on intense patterns. What do the patterns mean to you? For me, it’s about hand-made graphic marks and how they interrelate to create an...

Drag diva Buckwheat was in Christchurch for the SCAPE Public Art Avant-Garde Summer Gala, and Cityscape took the opportunity to meet the man behind the makeup, Edward Cowley. What brought you to the SCAPE event? I’ve worked with [SCAPE executive director] Deborah McCormick before. She let me know she thought Buckwheat would be good for an event SCAPE was hosting. It was a pleasant surprise. I get a lot of work in Christchurch. I wish I could stay longer! I come in, work, and leave. I was going to ask if you had a favourite spot here, but… The last couple of times I’ve been with the kids, and we go to the Margaret Mahy Playground, which is amazing. Tell us about your family. I hear it’s a little unconventional? I have three children: a 32-year-old, a six-year-old and a four-year-old. We’re a family with two mums and two dads. I...

We round up three great films, reads, shows to bingewatch, new albums to treat your ears to and a couple of decent podcasts to enlighten. Watching The Batman Robert Pattinson takes up the cape in this long-awaited adaption. This is the Caped Crusader for the next generation, in his early days of saving Gotham and coming up against classic foes The Riddler (Paul Dano), The Penguin (Colin Farrell), and Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent A wickedly tongue-in-cheek adventure in which everyone’s favourite Nicholas Cage plays a fictional version of Nicholas Cage, in debt and agreeing to make a celebrity appearance at a birthday party for $1 million. Only things don’t go entirely according to plan, and then the CIA gets involved. Of course. Everything Everywhere All At Once Michelle Yeoh enters the multiverse in this science fiction romp that sees Yeoh’s Evelyn Wang diverted from the...