My Holy Grail: Mascara

MAYBELLINE 'THE FALSIES- VOLUME EXPRESS' MASCARA

This is honestly the best mascara I have ever come across! And so I decided it was finally time for a blog post to share it with all of you! I have been using this mascara for quite some time now actually, but in between have tried a whole bunch of other mascaras too, but I always seem to come back to this one, because it is just so good and I've yet to find a highstreet brand of mascara that is nearly as good as this one!

This one, in the purpley-magenta tube is the original one and there are a whole bunch of other types within the "The Falsies" range, but I've tried two of the others and in my opinion, this original one is still by far the best! 

Maybelline 'The Falsies' just makes my lashes look so much longer and fuller but is also not cake-y or clumpy and so separates the lashes really nicely. I tend to avoid mascara on my bottom lashes, but the few times I have done those, this works nicely for bottom lashes too. 

The wand is not one of those horrible plastic ones and I find that it grips the lashes really well. The shape of the end is also really helpful in coating all your lashes without any smudges anywhere else on your face (this is something I tend to end up doing quite a lot usually). 

Click here, to check it out on Feel Unique where you can check out reviews and prices or order it online if you want. 

It costs about R130 here and lasts a good while! So yeah, looking for a relatively cheap, really good quality mascara? 

This is your one. 

Check out some of the other posts in the "Holy Grail" series:
Bronzer

Baking Oreo Cupcakes

A couple of weeks back, I baked these super easy and delicious Oreo cupcakes and took some pictures to share the recipe with you all, so here they are, hope you enjoy!

YOU WILL NEED:

* 1 cup of flour

* 1 cup of sugar

* 3 teaspoons of baking powder

* 3 eggs

* Half a cup of oil

* Half a cup of water

* 3 packets of Oreos

*  2 cups icing sugar (confectioners sugar)

* 125g butter

* Vanilla essence

* Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius/ 350 degrees Farenheit. 

So first thing to do is to sieve the flour, ordinary sugar and baking powder into a mixing bowl. 

Now add the oil, water and 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence. 

Next, you need to separate all three eggs. Put the whites into a fairy large bowl as we are going to whisk them just now. Toss the yolks into your flour-sugar-oil-water mixture and mix it all up with a whisk/spoon until the yolks are properly blended in. 

The egg whites need to be beaten now, and I highly suggest you use an electric whisk if you can! Beat them on high until they are stiff enough that they won't fall out the bowl if you tipped it upside down. When they are stiff, add another teaspoon of vanilla essence and mix that in. 

Fold the whites into the batter now, do so with a spatula and make sure you don't stir it any more than it needs. 

Take 3/4 of a packet of Oreos and use a food processor to make them into tiny little crumbs. You could rather do this by hand by popping them in a sandwich bag and hitting them with a rolling pin, but either way make sure they are very fine. Add the Oreo crumbs to the batter. 

They are almost ready to go into the oven. But first, put cupcake holders into your cupcake tins and at the bottom of each holder, place down a whole Oreo for a little treat at the bottom. 

Now pour the batter into the holders and put them in the oven for 15-25 minutes, it completely depends on your oven, but I'd start checking from about 15 minutes. To tell if they're done, just stick a knife or toothpick into them and they are done if it comes out clean (without any batter on it). 

When they are done, let them cool completely. Meanwhile, you can make the icing. To make this, let the butter soften (if you do this by putting it in the microwave, make sure it doesn't melt, just softens) and then combine it with the icing sugar (sifted), 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence and 3/4 of a pack of ground up Oreos again. If the Oreos make it too thick, just add a little cold water. And if it is too runny, add some more icing sugar. 

Now you can ice the cupcakes and for a little last decoration, add half an Oreo on top. 

And that's it! I hope you enjoy!

(This recipe was "inspired" by Tanya Burr's video on them, but the actual icing and cupcake recipes are mine :) ) 

Happy baking!

Room DIY Ideas

So in March this year I moved into a new room and because I didn't have much time to decorate and stuff, as I had varsity, I just haven't got around to changing it up, getting organised and making it a bit more homely. Seeing as it's relatively new, it's felt a little bare cause I never had time to add decorations/art/any other little bits and bobs, so that's what I've been doing recently. That means a lot of DIY room stuff, so I thought I might share some of these (mostly from Pinterest) with you, if any of you are looking for some quick and easy room DIY ideas. 

MY DRESSING TABLE

The first thing I did was sort out my make-up. I bought a white cake stand type thing to put all my everyday make-up on, like the stuff I really do use on a day-to-day basis. I previously kept these in an old and not-so-attractive travel bag, so I'm really happy with having this little stand, and it's just so handy having my essentials laid out and stuff. 

The next thing I did was put all my make-up brushes into a pretty mug on my dressing table. I don't have a huge amount of them, but I think they look really nice like this, and it's a good way to keep them clean and organised. 

In my re-decorating, I have truly embraced by love of candles. I really do love them, and I think that having a couple lit for an hour or so always adds such a lovely scent to the room. I bought these three vanilla scented candles in these cute little jars and I just think they look very pretty on my dressing table. 

The last thing I've added to my dressing table are some little jars. I love the idea of organising things with jars as they look so cute, and are just a great way to keep stuff in order. So I bought these three and then, inspired by an idea I saw on Pinterest, I gave them chalkboard labels. 

To make the jar labels I just painted some black acrylic chalkboard paint onto blank white paper. Once that dried, I cut the paper into equal sized labels and then used spray adhesive glue to stick them onto the jars. I also bought this really cool chalkboard pen which makes it a whole lot easier to write neatly in chalk!

On the one side of my dressing table, I attached a really pretty piece of material ribbon to the wooden edge by hammering two drawing pins into the wood. I made sure the ribbon was a little slack and then I just pushed through all my earrings. I just think this is a really simple, pretty way to store earrings, instead of in a jar or something where they get all tangled up and the butterflies lost and what not. 

And so that's it for my dressing table. The only thing I'm still wanting to do is maybe buy a pretty small vase with some fake flowers (although nice ones that look real hehe) and then also, I want to see if I can't get some draw dividers to organise my make-up and hair stuff in those drawers a bit more. 

DESK 

For my desk, I didn't want to fill it up too much because even though it looks clear now, during the semester it is a whole different story. 

So the first thing I did was buy this turquoise/teal-ish coloured wooden A4 sized box to store any loose papers, forms and bits and bobs to file, that sort of thing. I have needed something like this so badly recently, just to make sure I can keep organised, particularly during the semester, and not lose any important papers, etc. I also just painted the wooden tag on the box with chalkboard paint again, which I think is a cute little touch I guess. This was slightly pricey (particularly for Mr Price Home), but I think probably a worthy investment. 

The next thing I did (a month or two ago) was to attach some little white lanterns to the shelf above my desk. I just think that fairy lights and lanterns make everything so much warmer and homely, and so I like having these on. 

Another thing I did for my desk was to buy a couple of glass mini milk-bottle jars to store all my pens and stationary. I obviously have a different pencil case for varsity, but I just like having these to store any loose stationary, etc. I decorated the jars by adding some decorative pegs and stuff and then I also used this mug with a quote on it for other bits and pieces on my desk. 

MY SHELVES

Around my book shelves I have this big canvas of a world map, and I decided that I wanted to put this picture-bunting type thing up on the shelf above it. This definitely wasn't my idea, I saw it on Pinterest and loved the idea, so made my own one. It was super easy to make and then I just pinned it up on my shelf. 

All you need is some yarn/string, some pretty little pegs, the photos you want and some pins to pin it up.

DOOR HANDLES

The last little thing I added was these pretty little ceramic hearts on my bedroom door and patio door handles. I just thought they are a pretty little touch. 

And that's all for now! I have been wanting to make a few small changes like this to make my room more organised and also a bit more homely by adding a few pretty touches. If you  are redecorating any time soon, I hope that maybe these inspire you a little! All of this was just putting stuff together or very basic DIY (I am no craftsman haha) so it is super easy and I actually had quite a bit of fun doing it! 

Lots of love