Reviews and Other Stuff

How To Make Christmas Tree Cupcakes

December 25, 2020 / FOOD STUFF / 0 comments

Merry snowy Christmas everybody! It’s gloomy, cold, and frosty where I am, but the spirit of Christmas is alive despite what’s going on with the world right now. I hope you’re all having a good time with your loved ones and are staying well this holiday season. As for me, I’m taking some time to rest and chill. I’ve been doing some cooking and baking lately and, in this post, I’m showing you how I made my own version of Christmas tree cupcakes.

You can call this a lazy guide Christmas cupcake recipe because this is quick, delicious, and practical to make. You can even substitute the cupcake for a brownie or muffin mix. Excited to know how? Keep on reading.

INGREDIENTS

Philadelphia whipping cream cheese (3 x 8 oz tub)
Cupcake/muffin/brownie mix (1 box. I like the Ghirardelli ones)
Confectioner’s sugar
Granulated sugar
Gel food coloring in green

MATERIALS

Mixing bowls
Cupcake/muffin liners
Whisk or electric handheld mixer
Non-stick muffin pan
Ice cream sugar cones
Butter knife
Icing tips (round and star-shaped tips)
Pastry bag
Strainer (optional)

PROCEDURE

Cupcake/Muffin/Brownie

Line muffin pan with cupcake/muffin liners. Prepare the mixture by following the box’s instructions for baking preparation and overall baking time. Once done, let the pastries cool down. Set-aside.

FROSTINGS

Green

In a mixing bowl, mix two 8 oz tubs of Philadelphia whipping cream cheese along with 2/4 cups of granulated sugar. Add green food color. Make it dark, like the color of pine trees. Set aside 1/3 of it in a separate bowl (to be used later to cover the sugar cones). Place the rest inside a pastry bag with the star-shaped icing tip

Plain

In another mixing bowl, mix one 8 oz tub of Philadelphia whipping cream cheese along with 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. Do not add any food color. Place this inside a pastry bag with the round icing tip.

Christmas Tree

Cover one sugar cone with green cream cheese mixture using a butter knife.

Pipe in a circular motion the plain frosting around the top portion of the cupcake/muffin. This will be the base of the Christmas tree.

Place the green sugar cone on top of the plain frosting.

With the green frosting, start piping to simulate the pine leaves all over the sugar cone. (This is the most tedious part, but well worth it).

With a small strainer or by using your fingers, throw in some confectioner’s sugar, to simulate the look of snow on pine trees. 

Easy peasy! This recipe can create 4-5 Christmas cupcakes which are so fun to do with your families. The finished product is so cute that you will not want to eat them. Also, your fingers will turn green either while making them or by eating them (you’ve been warned, lol).

Have a very Merry Christmas everybody!

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Chanel Rouge Allure Ink + Rouge Allure Ink Fusion Favorite Shades

December 14, 2020 / FASHION & BEAUTY / 0 comments

Hi all! Here’s a post I’ve been meaning to share months ago, but, I was so busy that I forgot about sharing them. Now that I have some time, I’m sharing with you my favorite shades of the Chanel Rouge Allure Ink lip color line.

I love these lipsticks so much and I use them a lot, especially Pre-Covid. Chanel, initially had the Rouge Allure Ink line only, which is their version of matte lipstick. However, some of the shades had questionable formulations due to being quite streaky upon application. I never really actually experienced that and had been very happy with the line. Last year, I was in Singapore and I found myself wandering at a Chanel beauty counter. I saw that they launched an improved version of the Rouge Allure Ink line, which is called Rouge Allure Ink Fusion. I was so excited because the formula is exactly what I wanted in a matte lip color – lightweight, pigmented, non-sticky, no strong scent, and totally wearable.

Curious to see what my favorites shades are from these Chanel matte liquid lipstick lines?

Read below.

Rouge Allure Ink: Creamy, velvety, and with a flat brush applicator

154 Expérimenté – deep brick red
224 Harmonie – medium mauve, my favorite shade
150 Luxuriant – deep red-orange coral

Rouge Allure Ink Fusion: Similar formula to Nars’ Powermatte which is very fluid. Sets easily, very lightweight, doesn’t try the lips. Applicator is somewhat pointy.

804 Mauvy Nude – nude mauve, works well for any skin tone. I wear this a lot.
806 Pink Brown – muted pinkish/rosy brown. This shade is so beautiful and one of my favorites as well.

Other shades not mentioned here is the beautiful Rouge Allure Ink Fall-Winter shade, called Melancholia (swatched HERE) and Ambiguïté (released this year), which is a brownish-red tone.

The Chanel Rouge Allure Ink, especially the Rouge Allure Ink Fusion, are refinements of what used to be the matte liquid lipsticks we’ve known (drying, sticky, uncomfortable). These are my top favorites when it comes to matte liquid lipsticks because these are truly reliable and will make you look fabulous on any occasion.

Are you a big fan of these too?

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Rare Beauty First Impressions

December 7, 2020 / FASHION & BEAUTY / 0 comments

Hello gorgeous! Been testing the new Rare Beauty makeup line by Selena Gomez and I can definitely say that I think the packaging of these beauties is so pretty and quite different. I love the smooth matte tubes with rounded curves of the matte lip creams and lip balms, along with the blushes. I also like that there’s a variety of products available from the line, including an eyeliner and a blotting sheet.

So, without any fuss, let’s talk about my first impressions of these products. So far, I’ve only tried a few, and here are my two cents.

With Gratitude Dewy Lip Balm in Support – Plum brown. The packaging of this lip product is magnetic and the other side is flat, which is nice because then the product won’t roll on its own. I don’t think this product can be considered as a lip balm because the coverage is not sheer. I find the coverage to be actually opaque and the color is so saturated. The texture of this is quite balmy, yet, not thick and not sticky at all. This reminds me of a creamy version of the Glossier Generation G lipsticks, reviewed HERE. Also, there is a light floral scent to this.

Lip Souffle Matte Cream Lipstick: These are whipped velvety matte lip creams that are so light and with very light floral scent. There is still some transfer of colors, but not as much. I find that these do set on the lips immediately right after application and these, for sure, make the lips look full – the type of effect you would typically see in most matte lipsticks. Also, using these can still emphasize the lips’ fine lines, but not as much. The effect may look matte on the lips but there’s no drying feeling. I think these lipsticks seem like a mix between the Burberry Liquid Lip Velvet (in terms of texture) and Ciaté Liquid Velvet (in terms of scent).

Courage – Nude Mauve. Not really my color, but it still works well for my skin
Fearless – Deep Mauve Rose. I love this shade. This complements my skin tone.

Note. These two colors look very similar on the swatches, but both will look very different once applied.

Perfect Strokes Matte Liquid Liner – This waterproof matte liquid eyeliner really stays in place but I’m not quite thrilled with the thickness of the tip. I think this doesn’t work really well if you have small lids and if you only want to make a thin cat-eye. But, if you love to do those bold, thick, and dramatic cat eye makeup, then you will most probably love this.

Blot & Glow Blotting Paper – This works in blotting away excess oil off the face, and this reminds me of one of my favorite blotting sheets of all time – the Tatcha Aburatorigami Japanese Blotting Paper. However, I’m not a fan of the size of each sheet because each sheet is really tiny, which therefore doesn’t really help. I would need an 8.5 x 11 blotting paper to wipe off the excess oil from my face, lol.

Overall, I like the Rare Beauty line especially in terms of the way the products are named, and I like the overall feminine aesthetic of the brand’s design. I will definitely be using the matte lip creams often and would love to test more products from the brand in the future.

Have you tried these already? What are your first impressions of these?

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