Hi All! I’ve been in the market for some good quality eye creams that could potentially help to hydrate my undereyes which suffered from extreme dryness this last Winter. My skin, lately, seemed to have gone through a lot due to the lack of moisture in the air and that has caused some dry patches and roughness especially around the eye area. So, when VII Code reached out to me to try their eye cream and eye spray, I was totally glad because, to be honest, it’s really kind of hard to find the ideal eye cream for your skin type or for any specific undereye skincare concern. Since I had a good experience with VII Code’s O2M Oxygen Eye Mask for Dark Circles before, which you can read HERE, I had a hunch that I will enjoy their T2 Oxygen Eye Cream and also their latest product, the Oxygen Hydrating Eye Spray immediately.
T2 Oxygen Eye Cream O3.0 (5 ml: $99) – This anti-aging eye cream comes in a beautiful blue packaging that looks unique and sleek. I love looking at its decorative shape that sort of stands out in my sea of skincare products. Upon initial testing, this eye cream has a nice floral scent that goes away after a few minutes of application. It feels really silky and creamy but not sticky and it goes on smooth on my undereyes. My skin absorbs this easily without any residue. The following day, I noticed immediate hydration on my undereye area. It no longer feels rough and it didn’t look very dry. My concealer and foundation adhere well with this eye cream without emphasizing any dry areas. Another thing I love about this is the fact that this is great for my sensitive eyes. I never noticed any burns or stings no matter how much I applied this product close to my eyes. Also, this eye cream comes with its Crescent Activation Strip which doubles as a spatula and as an eye massager. I love it because it conforms to the shape of the eyes and it sorts of stimulates the blood flow around that area.
You can use this eye cream in the evening after cleansing your face, or you can also use this in the morning before applying your makeup. For maximum hydration, you can also supplement this eye cream with VII Code’s Oxygen Eye Mask, available HERE.
Per VII Code’s website, these are the following ingredients of this particular eye cream.
Elderberries: Anti-oxidant content maintains the skin cells, leaving you with glowing, younger skin.
Jojoba Oil: Not only firms and keeps your skin hydrated, but also useful in lessening the appearance of skin wrinkles. Rich in antioxidants, which help regenerate the skin cells.
Evening Primrose: Boosts blood circulation, which is helpful to treat tired skin and eyes and is especially effective in removing wrinkles.
O2.0 Oxygen Hydrating Eye Spray (5 ml: $23) – This is VII Code’s latest eye product and yes you read it right, it’s an eye spray and it has several interesting ingredients that promote undereye skin hydration and nutrition like: Hyaluronic Acid, Vitamins, Minerals, Amino Acids, Glycerin, Red Algae Extract, and an active marine ingredient from the Mediterranean Sea.
Will all those ingredients, I find this eye spray to be very mild, very fluid, clear, non-sticky, and unscented. Therefore, this is great for those with sensitive skin and sensitive eyes. I personally like this a lot because this product does not only maintain undereye hydration, it also feels rejuvenating around the eyes, kinda like an eye/face mist. To use: You can spray this immediately to the eye area (with eyes closed) for a distance of about 15 cm and gently pat the mist around your undereyes for full absorption. Also, you can spray this on a cotton pad and gently press it on your eye area for a very refreshing feel.
Overall, I had a great experience testing these VII Code T2 Oxygen Eye Cream and the O2.0 Oxygen Hydrating Eye Spray. I find these to be beneficial undereye products that suit sensitive skin and with a spa-level feel. These addressed my undereye skincare concern and for that, I’m really grateful.
For more information about these eye products, check out viicode.com (they offer Free Shipping) or you can also purchase these at Amazon
(Disclosure: Sponsored by VII Code. The reviews, photos, and opinions herein are solely mine)
Hi guys, today’s post is an exciting one because we’ll talk about clean skincare, and it’s not just all about clean and natural skincare products, it’s also about a skincare brand based on Ayurvedic principles. Isn’t that cool? I mean, with all the different skincare items spurting every minute nowadays, I feel like it’s about time that we really take a closer look at the ingredients that we put on our skin. While it’s true that there’s a been a huge buzz of using and promoting clean and all-natural skincare ingredients, I feel like there’s this one particular brand that has put a lot of emphasis on quality ingredients when it comes to skincare. If you haven’t heard about them before, then take a closer look at this London-based skincare brand called Samaya.
Samaya is an all-natural skincare brand that is based on the principles of Ayurveda. In Sanskrit, Ayurveda means “Life Knowledge” or “Science of Life”, and this principle promotes a holistic approach when it comes to achieving a balance to our bodily system. One way of achieving that is to pay attention to our lifestyle in general. Having a sound mind and sound body requires regular exercise, nourishing diet, enough sleep, adequate relaxation and of course, proper self-care. If those things aren’t balanced, then chances are our stress levels go high and our skin will suffer. I, for one, can attest to that.
Samaya’s top quality all-natural Ayurvedic ingredients in skincare are really something that will also help us achieve healthy and balanced skin. They offer a curated approach by providing a personalized skincare range, that is, according to your skin type and skincare needs. The goal is to help you achieve your “Samadosha” or to achieve “a perfect balance in our lives” starting with your skin.
To achieve your Samadosha, Samaya provides an online quiz (click HERE) to determine your Dosha type. Doshas are the energies that govern each individual, kinda like their characters. There are primarily three types: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha.
Vata – Energetic and creative in balance, but worried, tired and indecisive when out of balance. Often of slender build and suffers from cold hands and feet. Tends to have delicate dry skin and hair, which may need extra moisturizing and nourishment to keep it glowing and healthy.
Pitta – Well-proportioned and compact build, with a focused mind and a love of order. Confident and passionate, enjoying challenges. Prone to anger and impatience when out of balance. Benefits from gentle skincare as the skin can be sensitive and irritable, susceptible to wrinkles, sunburn, and inflammation.
Kapha – Laidback and easy-going with a stable, steady energy level. Often has a strong physical frame but can be lethargic or apathetic if out of balance. Takes a relaxed, reasonable approach to life and can be compassionate, gentle and kind. Skin is usually thick and pale, can be radiant and glowing, but with clogged pores or excess oil when out-of-balance.
As you can guess, my Dosha is definitely Kapha. I do have clogged pores and I tend to have excess oil on my skin. Samaya sent me two of the products from their Kapha range to try and here’s what I think…
Kapha Anti-Ageing Treatment Oil (30 ml: ยฃ94.80) – This lightweight facial oil has a concentrated blend of Ayurvedic botanicals and it has a very relaxing earthy scent. Its key ingredients are Sandalwood oil, Frankincense oil, Vetivert Oil, Gotu Kola Oil, Apricot Kernel Oil, Turmeric Root, and Ashwagandha Root Extract to mention a few. It’s also free from Parabens, Sulfates, Phthalates, synthetic color/fragrance, mineral oils, silicones and more. I normally avoid using facial oils on my face but this particular oil actually makes my skin smooth. My skin had gone through a lot this Winter and it has some dry patches that I’ve been trying to hydrate. Luckily, with this facial oil, my face has been very moisturized and it feels really soft. It’s non-sticky and I only need one pump to cover my entire face and I massage it gently on my skin for a very relaxing feel. It has a very rejuvenating effect and it makes the face look plump and healthy. You can use this oil right after cleansing and moisturizing the face. On me, I use this as a substitute for my moisturizer.
Kapha Renewing Exfoliant (50 ml: ยฃ70.80) – This is a very interesting enzyme exfoliant because, upon application, this doesn’t feel gritty or scratchy at all. Instead, this actually feels very creamy like a very hydrating facial mask. After washing this off, my face feels really smooth and soft, almost like baby skin. I find that the exfoliating action of this is very gentle but its effect is definitely obvious, and I did notice my skintone looking more radiant and more glowy after every use. I also like the relaxing earthy scent of this exfoliant, and it has Pineapple enzymes, Sodium Hyaluronate, Aloe Leaf, Jojoba, Vitamin E, Avocado and powerful Ayurvedic ingredients such as Amla, Gotu Kola, Vetivert, Sandalwood, Turmeric, Neem, and Ashwagandha, etc. You can use this exfoliating cream every other day and apply this like a face mask, massage gently, and wait 20 minutes before rinsing this off. For deeper exfoliation, leave this on overnight.
Bottom line, I highly recommend this brand and for those of my readers who live in the UK, you guys should check out Samaya’s all-natural Ayurvedic ingredients in skincare. I love their holistic approach to taking care of the skin and the fact that they tailor their products according to your specific skincare needs. Because, after all, if the mind, body, and soul are in perfect harmony then our skin will reflect that from within.
For more information and to order these products online, you can check out
samayaayurveda.com. They currently ship only to countries in the European Union and to the U.S.
Have you tried these before? What’s your Dosha?
(Disclosure: Product samples provided by Samaya. The reviews and opinions herein are solely mine).
Hello everyone! A few weeks ago, I celebrated my birthday and instead of receiving gifts and organizing a party, I decided to do my usual birthday tradition, which is to disappear in the kitchen and cook or bake for my family and friends. In other words, my birthdays are usually not a time for receiving, but instead, a time for giving. So, for this year, I decided to take on the challenge, which is to make my dreaded French Macarons. I finally did it and I will tell you in this post how I made it and how you can make your own delicious French Macarons at home.
I must admit that it took me some time and some practice to figure these finicky pastries out. Well, I did some sort of experiment on a bunch of ingredients first, like making my macarons sugar-free, vegan, and low-histamine. But good Lord, there was no way on earth I could do these things since macarons rely on real sugar for their structure. Neither Xylitol nor Stevia could do that. Also, I couldn’t figure out how to make a decent macaron using Aquafaba a.k.a AquaFabulous (a brine or leftover liquid from a chickpea/garbanzo can which simulate real egg whites). So, if you have some tips on how to successfully make macarons using this specific ingredient, please let me know. However, the fillings in this French Macaron recipe are definitely low-histamine, and since macarons are made of almond flour, they’re of course, gluten-free.
There are several ways to do French Macarons (there’s even an Italian way), and it’s true that making these fickle pastries do require patience, timing, right weather, right temperature, right measurements, right equipments, and heck right mood and energy because these macarons can play tricks on you and you could be at your wits’ end before you’d totally figure it out. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t do it. As the saying goes “Practice makes perfect, but then again, nobody’s perfect, so why practice? LOL ๐ Anyway, here’s how I did my French Macarons and read what has worked for me below.
INGREDIENTS
(Most of the ingredients and the materials used in this recipe can be found in Amazon. You can click directly on the list below.)
Set aside 2 eggs and make sure they’re in room temperature. To bring refrigerated eggs to a room temp, put them in hot water.
Dry Ingredients:
1. In a Food Processor, mix 1 cup Powdered/Confectioners’ Sugar and 3/4 cup Almond Flour for about 5 seconds, then stop. Manually mix with a spoon to make sure all areas are completely mixed. Do this alternate mixing three times.
2. Sieve the Dry Ingredients using a mesh strainer and carefully throw away the large particles. Set aside.
Wet Ingredients (Meringue):
1. Once eggs are warm, separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. Do this very carefully. You can use your hands or you can use a spoon. We only need the egg whites.
2. Using a handheld or stand mixer, slowly whisk/mix the egg whites until they become frothy or bubbly. Add in 1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar and a pinch of salt. Continue mixing. Then slowly add 1/4 cup Caster/Fine Sugar.
3. Keep whisking/mixing progressively the Meringue until it starts to look thick and white.
4. Add Food Color
5. Gradually increase the speed of whisking until the Meringue looks glossy/shiny and develops stiff peaks. Its peaks should not ย fall over or curve. One way to tell is to lift the whisk and make sure it looks stiff at the tips resembling a bird’s beak. Once it does, stop whisking.
6. Mixing Wet & Dry Ingredients (Macaronage):
7. Mix the Dry Ingredients (Almond Flour + Sugar) with the Wet Ingredients (Egg whites etc., Meringue) using a flexible spatula (silicone ones). You can mix half of the dry ingredients first into the bowl of fluffy yet stiff Meringue. Then mix in a circular motion while cutting through and folding over the batter. This is to minimize bubble formation.
8. Finish adding and mixing the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. The batter should start to look like Lava or Sand Mixture and your arm should start to hurt from all the mixing by this time, LOL. I don’t really count the number of mixture to achieve the ideal batter consistency because it’s easy to overlook it or make a mistake that way. Instead, I LOOK at it, because you know what they say “To see is to believe”, LOL. Here’s my cue: If the batter (Macaronage) runs continuously and could form into a ribbon or like a figure 8 without breaking, then you’re doing great. BUT, it should settle back or sink into the batter within 30 seconds (I use my phone’s timer). Once it does, then stop right then and there.
9. Place the batter (Macaronage) into a pastry bag with a piping tip. Make sure you twist the bag on top of the tip to prevent the batter from going through directly and spilling all over the counter.
10. On a Silicone Macaron Mat or Parchment Paper resting on a Baking Pan or Cookie Sheet, pipe out the batter straight through (90ยฐ angle).
11. Bang the pan/tray against the counter several times (as many times as you like, really) in order to bring the bubbles to the surface. Pop the visible bubbles on the surface using a toothpick and bang the tray again to make the batter more even.
12. Let the batter rest for 1 hour or more. It will start to develop a skin which you can touch lightly on your finger and it won’t stick. It will also look shiny and feels dry. I like to rest mine in a cool dry area, preferably close to my AC.
13. Bake for 15-18 minutes at 300 ยฐF or 150 ยฐC.
14. Notice the macarons developing feet.
15. Carefully lift the Silicone Macaron Mat from the pan and put it on the cooling rack. Let it cool for 30-40 minutes. Then slowly peel each macaron shell off the mat and put it on another cooling rack to continuously cool and dry.
16. Refrigerate for storage
Buttercream Fillings
1. Whisk 1/4 cup or 2 sticks of Unsalted, Softened, Room Temperature, Butter
2. Add 1/4 cup Powdered Sugar on it
Add the following Low-Histamine fillings: (I used fresh ingredients for this recipe).
Melon/Mango/Blueberry/Apple
– Cut the Melon/Apple/Mango into thin slices or in cubes, and put them in a saucepan with a cup of water. Bring them to a boil and mash them once soft, turning into a puree. Use 1/2 cup or more according to your preference. For Blueberries, you can mash them directly through a strainer if they’re ripe and soft, separating the skin from the juice. If they’re too hard, you can bring them to a boil with a bit of water.
Peppermint/Decaf Coffee
– Use 1 tbsp peppermint/mint extract and add it to the butter with sugar. For Decaf Coffee filling, I used my Nespresso machine and used one decaf pod. I only needed 2 tbsp of it and it gives a concentrated coffee taste. I then added it to my mixture of butter and sugar.
– You can add some food color to your fillings according to their taste or flavor.
– Pipe out the fillings into one macaron shell and look for its pair.
– Store in refrigerator for 3 days, or in the freezer for 6 months.
– Macarons should taste crunchy on the outside and chewy inside.
Important Things to Consider
Macarons taste better as they age, that is after the next day or so.
In my experience, there are four crucial times that could literally make or break a macaron. First, the Meringue (egg white mixture/wet ingredients) should achieve stiff peaks. Second, mixing the batter is very important. It needs to form a ribbon or a figure 8 and it should also sink into the batter within 30 seconds time. You can’t overmix. Third, check your oven temperature. It’s good to always have an oven thermometer whenever you bake these temperamental beings, LOL. And lastly, bang that tray against the counter, or better yet, drop it on the floor, LOL, but be very careful when doing that. These will help the macarons develop feet and prevent excessive air bubbles which could give you problems during baking.
Silicone Mat vs Parchment Paper? For now, I’m baking with silicone mats because I like that they come in predrawn circular patterns. I’m not good at eyeballing my macaron shapes yet. Also, silicones tend to hold the macaron’s round shape better than the parchment paper. However, silicones don’t dry the macarons completely, and that means the macaron’s bottom could stick to them pretty easily. Parchment paper really dries the macarons which makes them easy to be peeled off.
You can dry the macarons for more than 1 hour. The drier they get, the better they’ll turn out to be.
If you’re not gonna fill them up with fillings immediately, you can store macaron shells on top of each other separated by a parchment paper to prevent them from sticking together
There are several options for fillings and you can do them however you want.
To achieve a smooth top macaron shell, always sift almond flour and powdered sugar after mixing them
Use gel food color since it won’t fade during baking
Troubleshooting Guide
If your macarons are lopsided or its feet are imbalanced, your oven type or your oven temperature could be the culprit, and probably your baking pan as well. Use an oven thermometer and use an Airbake Cookie Sheet to bake the macarons because it allows for an even distribution of temperature when baking.
If your macarons have nipples. No joke, this happens a lot. The batter could be too thick and was undermixed or you didn’t bang the tray/pan more. It could also be that you’re using a narrow piping tip. Use a wide-opening piping tip and bang that tray against the counter. Drop it like it’s hot. LOL.
If your macarons have zits, LOL, you know those pesky bumps that appear after you bang the pan/tray and they look like tiny breakouts? Pop them with a toothpick and bang the tray again to make the batter’s texture more even.
If macarons don’t develop feet, there must be a problem with the way you mixed your batter or you forgot to bang the tray. Also, measure your ingredients accurately.
Cracked macarons? you must’ve overbeaten the egg whites (Meringue) or you probably undermixed the batter (Macaronage) which could also make the macarons hollow.
If your macaron batter didn’t dry after one hour, check your place’s humidity level.
These macarons are probably the most challenging pastries I’ve ever baked, but they’re also the most fulfilling because I received a lot of positive feedback from my friends and family who have tasted them. They’re not that hard to make, but they do require a ton of time and patience. Be ready to spend long hours when making these and be prepared to lose your temper (hope not, LOL), and don’t be afraid to experiment, because just as when you think you’re ready to throw in the towel, it’s when you realized you’ve finally figured it out.
