Prep and Prime Me | Benefits Cosmetics

Yay, FRIDAY has finally reached, please don't leave me so fast.

Without further ado, let's get started. As the title says, today it's all about primers. Primer is the basic but most important to have flawless and smooth skin which helps your complexion looks healthier, glowie and silky.

This product is my all time favorite, I've switched between different brands (from Europe to Asia brands) but I always go back to this because of the consistency and the quality of these primers.

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BENEFIT - POREFESSIONAL 

 

This is my MUST primer even if I'm not wearing makeup on that day. It smoothens all your pores and mattifies your complexion. 

It's a high-end product, cost about $36 (MYR115) but it stays on so well, why not? 

These are some descriptions of the product.

 

This is all you need as a beginner to start of your makeup journey.

The amount I use for whole face is here and a little goes a long way, it's enough for your whole face.

 

Every regular tubes, with this amount used daily, is available to use up to 7 to 8 months, which is a great deal. As you can see in the first picture I've quite a few bottles of them.

Currently I've been using them for almost 2 years and I'm on beginning of my third bottle now. 

 This is the back of my hand after applying Porefessional.  

 

Your right part of my skin is applied with Porefessional. It is a silicon based primer and when you apply on your skin the color does not show up so it's suitable for any skin tones. Besides, it won't be patchy like some primers I've tried out previously.

Reapplication is not needed as it stays so well on your skin. 

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ETUDE HOUSE - PORE EVER 

 If you can't get any Benefit products in your country, you may try this from Etude Houe - PoreEver. It's almost same as the benefit's one and this is transparent. It might not work so well like the Benefit's one but it's good enough.

This product is around $25 (MYR 79.90) but that time there's a big sale going on which you buy 1 and get 1 free so it's much more cheaper. 

Reapplication is needed because my T zone will crease after 4 to 5 hours of study in college. From my experience, this does not stick on my face like the porefessional did. But texture wise, they are almost the same.

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BENEFIT - THAT'S GAL 

I don't really have dull complexion but I absolutely love this product to go along with Porefessional.

Benefit has always been my high-end favorite. <3 The packaging and the way of usage is so adorable. This costs about $36 (MYR115).  

This is a creamy texture brightener primer. I have no idea how much products I left but from what I feel it's still quite heavy. This is my first ever bottle but I don't think it's going to finish anytime soon.

This is how much I use on daily basis after application of  Porefessional.

You basically twist the bottom of the bottle, wipe on the back of your hand and pad it on your face. You can see the effect of instant brighter face which makes you look wide awake.

On your right is where I've used my product. You can see the glowy skin on the back of my hand, you can imagine that in your face. =O

Smooth and bright skin, who needs a foundation? :D Usually if I have some spots or dark circles, I'll use some concealer to cover it up and I'm good to go. If you're afraid it is not long lasting enough you may put some translucent powder over them. 

On my natural-looking day, I usually go out with this. I always get compliment on my "natural" skin from my friends which I'm happy with the results.

Disclaimer : These products above are not sponsored by any company. 

Valentines Cookies

Hey there everyone, it is 14th of August, which means it's the Valentines Day in August which is also known as "Half St. Valentines Day". 

Previously I've bought a cake mix from a baking shop, I have always been obsessed with Red Velvet Cake. The cake mix I've bought is from America, so probably you can find it in any groceries. 

 

My sister and I were planned to bake a cake but we accidentally found another recipe beside the box which tells us that we could make cookies instead of cake. 

I've been always wondering if there is red velvet cookies, but now, I can bake it myself. YEAH, cool !

Ingredients Needed

1 box of red velvet cake mix

 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour

2 large eggs 

0.5 cup of vegetable oil

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/2 packet of Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chip (optional) 

Tools Needed 

 Mixing bowl

Electric Mixer, Whisker or a Fork

Paper Towel 

Knife or spoon 

Cookie Cutter (Optional)

First of all, you'll need to add the wet ingredients (eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla extract) into the mixing bowl and mix well. Then, you may mix the dry ingredients (cake mix, chocolate chips and all purpose flour) with the wet ingredients.

 

This is what you'll get in the middle of the process, don't get freak out by the red color. I'm 100% sure it's not harmful colorings. 

Personal experience here, DO NOT simply try out any red velvet in any stores especially cheap red velvet cake because I've tried a quite cheap but tasty red velvet cake, I love it so much but on the next day, I have red color poop which freaks me out. So please be careful of the red velvet cake you chose.

When the mixture is well mixed, it'll be dry pastry which will enable you to make them flat and use a cookie cutter.

While you're using a cookie cutter, preheat your oven this time at 350 degree Fahrenheit or 180 degree Celsius.   

 This is the shape of the cookie I want them to be because it is VALENTINES. =D

Leave them in the oven for 10-13 minutes and make sure you keep the cookies thin because this will make them crispier. 

When the cookies are baking in the oven, you may place your paper towel on the table. When the cookies are fully baked, you can remove them from the tray using a knife or a spoon.

When it's completely cooled, you may taste it and placed them in air-free container.

 

These are the amount of cookies you can get.

There are different shapes of cookies I've made : Star Shape, Ginger Bread Man Shape, Flower Shape ( I don't know if you can see ) and Normal Cookie Shape.

 This is the final look, cookies for my love ones.

 

Look at the crispy chocolate chips, it's so crispy and chocolaty.  

You can still make it if you're single because you can share them with your love ones. You can have them all, who needs someone to share with?  =P 

Hay Day

Hello there everyone, it's is Wednesday which is applications a.k.a apps day again.

Yippy yay, today I'll be recommending an app as shown at the title "Hay Day". 

The company that owns this awesome game is Supercell which creates a lot of awesome games. To be specific, a lot of FREE, cool games.

To be honest, I've been playing this game over 6 months. It has been like a routine taking care of my baby animals and customers.

Let's get started with this.  

 

Today, I'll show you what I do during my basic Hay Day routine. 

First of all, after loading, you'll be having the newsletter of the day telling you what's new and what is the on-going promotion.  

 

Then I'll screen through whether there is anything I'm interested in, if not I'll go on with my babies.

There is always a "Lucky-Draw" truck visiting your farm in the morning. So, I'll determine my luck of the day using that Wheel of Fortune. 

 

Then I'll go to visit my first ever neighbor - Greg which is a very kind man that sells quite a number of CHEAP things everyday. 

I'll go on with waking my pets up and feeding them. A farm will never get alive with 

 Look at my sleepy doggies and "Hmm, where did my rabbits go to?". 

There they are, waking up and standing there to great me a good morning.

 

Look at the rabbit, playing with pretty little butterfly. 

 Then, I'll move over to my farm animals. What I do is just collects the packets of feeds and make them more packets. 

 

Then, I'll collect the goodies goodies produced by them and feed them with the packets of love.

The goodies produced you can turn them into GOLD by processing them into useful products using these machines.

 

Those trees behind are cherry trees, black berries and raspberries plants.

 In the bright morning you'll always get a lot of beautiful butterflies around your farm which makes it a lot more attractive.

 

Besides that, you can get mining ingredients from a black hole right at the back in a mountain hole. You'll need to get the tools for free by feeding the animals or harvesting.

 

Those tools you can get rid of the trash (rocks / unwanted trees) in your farm. 

Let's move on to another part, there are 3 parts in this game which are added in the latest updates.

 

This is the fisherman valley, where you get to fish and catch lobsters. Look, the lobster is having its spa and saying "Hello". 

 

These are the fishes you'll get each day. By using a web, you'll only get them once a day.

Besides, you'll get a book of record where you have all the fishes you've caught previously.

 

Basically where you sell your products and goodies to the customer is by a boat or a truck. By using the boat, you'll get a boat rank.

 

The exclamation mark is where you asked for help from your neighbors or guild mates. After you have helped your friends, you'll get a ticket where you can exchange with some free farm decorative or useful items or some tools.

This is the latest updates where you can sell your products by train service.

 

Sorry for the crappy design, these are the houses where you can place the visitors in and serve them. It'll take longer than truck service or boat service but you can get upgrade ingredients. 

 

This is them being served and waiting to be served. For now, I focus more on here because I think this is better than usual truck/boat service because you get to actually see your customers walking here and there.

Overall rating is 9.0/10.0 for this game. 

The Nos for this game are it takes time to load from one place to another and upgrade ingredients take long time to save to meet the requirements.

So, question of the day - have you tried this yet? If Yes, please leave a comment below and tell me what you think about this. 

My Big Day

Today is the DAY I've been waiting for 2 months. I've been afraid of today because it is RESULTS DAY. 

I slowly pulled out a paper which contains the information I need to log on to the web for my results to be seen. I've planned to log on to the website using my phone because this gives me more privacy. 

 

Hmm, it's considered above average but I wouldn't tell my results online. =P

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Later, of course I gotta pack up my used papers for recycle purpose. Here is some "trash" that I would miss a lot so I took a photo of them.

 These are some papers that helped me through my studies for one and a half years.

( P.S - p.y.p : Pass Year Papers ) 

Top Left : Notes while doing my p.y.p.

Top Right : Chemistry booklet that's what you all need while doing Chemistry p.y.p.

Bottom Left :  Physics p.y.p. and lab manual.

Bottom Right : Mathematics Formula Sheet (extremely USEFUL) 

These are the summarized needs in Cambridge A levels. It is all about pass year papers and notes, these two are the main thing you'll need to get ready for the exams.

The results are the proof of your effort, so I think my effort actually quite been paid off.

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There goes the LUNCH time. Burgers, Burgers and more Burgers!!!

I've been keeping myself from burgers for 2 months now, but it has been broken today.

Instead of these fries and burgers, 

 

I've had a better one from Big Hug Burger (Big Hug Burger's Link) . 

The restaurant is cutely designed with bears and goodies on the wall. The owner of the shop is extremely friendly and they have the biggest chicken burgers in town. 

Drinks recommended : Lemonade, extremely tasty, the lemons used do not have strange taste.

 

Their opening hours written is Monday - Saturday ( 12.30pm to 10.30pm )

I went there once at 4pm they have breaks for a few hours which disappoints me and my friends. So, what they've written online is not true. 

There is the big hug logo, they have the great sauces for the burgers. Their recommendation is chicken burgers, if you ordered beef or fish burgers, it'll be normal size not as big as those chicken burgers for the same price.

 

Look at those delicious burgers. Compare the size of the normal chips to the burgers. For me, I couldn't finish a whole burger, I chose to share with my friends.  

After that, I was extremely full and I just feel like walking around on and on to digest them. 

Overall rating of the restaurant is : 8.5 / 10.0

They do have FREE snacks available. 

The "NO NO" s of the shop are : 

 Food waiting time is quite long 

 Opening hours are quite short

Limited buns and meats are available 

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TEATIME 

I literally had few pots of Chinese tea on my teatime because I hope it helps me on my digestion with these food in my stomach. 

My mum got us a new cup and pot which is so nice.

I feel like I've gone back to the Kings time where they used to drink with this type of cup.

Conclusion, I think Chinese tea really helps in digestion, I don't feel so full in my stomach now.

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My journey of study hasn't ended yet, so I'll continue studying hard to have my dreams came true. *Finger Crossed* Hope everything happened to me will be smooth and my wishes will come true.

Although I'm waiting for my university to begin, I have some maths-life related photo to show you.

 

Hmm, this is what I think it's quite true. 

By the way, Mathematics has been my favorite subjects all the time since young. I would like to confess to Mr. Math : "Math, I'd loved you for a long long time, I know we both have never failed each other for 10+ years. Let's be together forever."  =P

 How's your results for those who just got their results?

I think everyone should celebrate after you get your results because no matter what your results are, you've worked hard for it, you definitely deserve a treat after that.

Fitness Monday

Hey, how y'all doing? 

For those who are trying to keep fit, like me, you'll always tend to have this in mind, there goes "Okay, I'll leave that to Monday"and "I'll start on Monday".

Here it is, it's Monday. Let's get STARTED. Fitness gurus always say to get healthy, 80% is depends on what you eat and it's only 20% depends on what your eat.

Hence, by starting your fitness journey, I would like to share some information about healthy food, e.g : vegetables and fruits. People tend to get bored when it's just fruits and vegetables everyday, let's put it this way, we get to colour our bowl with healthy stuff in it, so why not?

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Let's get started in the morning, NEVER ever skip your breakfast because it's extremely important to start off your day and your body takes the most nutrients from.

I'm no way to be a guru or any experts but this is what I've made for myself in the morning.

 

Ingredients Used

Green Grapes

 Blueberries

Yogurt (Nestle Fat-Free Yogurt) / Greek Yogurt (Nestle Greek Yogurt)

Granola (French Vanilla Granola (100% Natural)

The links above are the brands that I was and still am using. I couldn't give the exact amount of each products should be used because different people have different preference.

For me, I would prefer more grapes and French vanilla granola, as you can see in the picture, I've put quite a big amount of them.

They are finger-licking good, I wouldn't mind eating them everyday. Hmm...Yum yum.

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People usually get food cravings easily. Sometimes you aren't hungry but you just want the "chewing" feelings, as they always go for bubble gums or chewing gums.

Gums contain high level of sugars which is bad for health so I have an alternative choice of food that I can reach for anytime, anywhere.

 

Tadaaaa, wax apple or rose apple (I think this is what it is called as), it is full of juices and the sugar level is low. Diabetic patients can consume this too.

I usually buy a bunch of them during their seasons. Their water level is higher than usual apples which is a good thing and it can help in prevent cancerous cells.

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Last but not least, fruits before dinner are always the best. This portion I've made is extremely large, so you can share with your family because sharing is caring, and this is HEALTH, why not? 

 

Fruits Used 

Banana

Honeydew 

Papaya 

Portion wise, you can put as many as you want, depends on your preference and family members. I've always been loving honeydews especially the reddish-orangey honeydew. The other fruits (banana and papayas) are my favorite too but BANANA is always in my top one.

Everything on this plate is my favorite fruits of all time. You can always have skimmed milk or almond milk along with these fruits.

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I've always been spotting fruit products like drinks, nata de coco and food. I love banana but I've never tried banana milk or any banana drink products because I think it's gross with the rough and creamy texture it has.

Recently, I've found these products with I think it's cute but I still haven't tried any of these.

 

Look at the packaging, it's so CUTE but I dare not to try, maybe we could buy it for dares game.

 

This is alternative banana milk drinks. This is from Korea, I wonder wouldn't it be brown-black when it has delivered to my country? Lols.

Do tell me the taste and the texture of these banana drinks if you've tried it. The price is quite reasonable, the price is almost same as some milk in my country.

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Here is a list of fruits sugar level content guide, people think that fruits are healthy and tend to overeat them. These are some recommended low or low-medium sugar level fruits.

 

Fruits that have high sugar level : Bananas, Grapes, Pomegranates, Cherries and etc.

Let's get started off the week with a great Monday. 

A kind reminder : Do exercise 30minutes each time and 3 times per week. 

Baking | Tiny Butter Cake

Hey, it's Sunday which means you'll chill and rest at home to get ready for Monday. 

Why just rest when you can get dirty and do something fun?

It's Family Day as well, so let's get dirty with your family. 

On Sundays, I often bake with my sister because we can share it with our families on Sunday (family day) and friends / colleagues on Monday. I'm not a baking expert but this works fine for me so I think I would like to share this with you.

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TINY BUTTER CAKE 

First of all, you need to get yourself some ingredients before you start. 

 

Excuse my bad handwriting because I like to have a note with me when I'm baking so I won't need to refer to my laptop / phone always. 

These are the ingredients for 24 tiny butter cakes.

Ingredients

160 gram of butter

0.5 cup of caster sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

2 medium sized eggs

5/3 cups of self-raising flour

2/5 cup of milk

1 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder  

 Tools that you'll need

1 mixing bowl

1 normal bowl 

1 pack aluminium baking tray (12 trays in a packet)

Cooking Tissue Paper

Electric mixer or a whisker or a fork

Sifter 

Toothpicks 

Measuring tools

Steps

First, you'll need to separate the dry ingredients (caster sugar, self-raising flour, cocoa powder) and the wet ingredients (egg, milk, vanilla essence, butter).

Measure the amount of caster sugar and butter, place them in a mixing bowl you've prepared, and mix well until a cream paste is achieved.

Later on, add on the rest of the wet ingredients and mix well.

You'll need to use a sifter to sift the dry ingredients (exclude the cocoa powder) and pour it into the mixing bowl, mix them completely.

 

Mix until you get this cream texture then get a clean bowl, separate this mixture into half.

In another bowl, add the amount of cocoa powder that's stated.

 

Well, now you'll have 2 mixtures, an original and a cocoa mixture. 

Fill half of the aluminium baking tray with the original mixture and follow by half of the chocolate mixture. Make sure the tray is only 70% full because they will rise.

 

This is the aluminium baking tray I mentioned earlier. 

It costs around $2 (MYR 5) for 12 trays so it's quite a good deal from Daiso Japan.

Then, you'll need a toothpick to mix both of the mixture together to create a pattern.

 

This is what I've done to mix them together. It does not have to be fully combined, just up to your own creativity.

While you're playing with your mixture and filling them into the tray, preheat your oven to 180 degree Celsius or 350 degree Fahrenheit.

 

You can bake all together but I prefer bake them in a small group to try the taste of it.

So I could make some alteration after that.

You'll need to bake them for 10 to 13 minutes.

Use a toothpick to "poke" the middle of butter cake down to the bottom of the tray.

If there's no mixture sticking on your toothpick which means it's fully cooked.

On the left : My sister's Mixture

On the right : My Mixture

The photo shown is the rising process of the mixture. 

 

Ta daaaa...This is my finished tiny butter cake look.

And the picture shown below is my sister's butter cake look. 

 

While leaving them aside to chill in the baking tray, we can leave the second group of trays into the oven. After tasting the freshly baked butter cake, you may put more trays into the oven so the baking time will be shorten.

If you like the cakes to have a crack in the middle like usual butter cake, just leave them in the oven for 1 to 3 minutes, but make sure you cakes do not burn.   

 When it's cooled, where you can use your bare hand to touch the cake and get it out from the tray, place it on a cooking tissue paper to absorb the excess oil.

 

This is my final look of my tiny butter cake, now you may share with your friends and family.

And here comes the Final Step, it's the time to edit photos of your cakes and update your Instagram / Twitter / Facebook.

For all my bakings, I would like to know some information of cakes. 

Information

( For 10 Tiny Butter Cakes) 

 Energy - 1472kJ

Calories - 352cal

Fat Total - 12.80g

Carbohydrate Total - 26.60g

Protein - 3.40g

Sodium - 249.00mg 

Fat saturated : 8.00g

Dietary Fiber - 0.73g

Cholesterol -  68

( For 1 Tiny Butter Cake)

  Energy - 147.2kJ

Calories -  35.2cal

Fat Total - 1.280g

Carbohydrate Total - 2.66g

Protein - 0.34g

Sodium - 24.90mg 

Fat saturated : 0.80g

Dietary Fiber - 0.073g

Cholesterol -  6.8

For me, I would like my cake to be less sweet and healthier, I chose brown sugar instead of white sugar and I reduced the amount of sugar I've put in.

For flour, you may use organic flour if you prefer that.

 For milk, you can use all kinds of milk (Almond Milk / Skimmed Milk).

Hence, the cakes will be healthier and the calories of the cakes will be reduced. 

But, it's baking time and filling your food cravings so who cares about the calories. =D Besides, it's Sunday which means it's BONUS day for those people that is sticking on Meal Plans.

Ta daaa, this will probably take about 3 hours to complete the whole process if you're a beginner like me. Later on you can put them in your container and continue with your pamper evening, what is better with a pamper evening on Sundays?

Life is great with the cute little butter cakes.

Reminder : Drink more plain water after having this.