New Music Obsession!

So, here's the deal:
I love Ed Sheeran.
His music is just so gorgeous and it's so unbelievably real. He sings about real problems (see "Little Lady") and his own life. Both is just so perfect.
Seriously, go listen to one of his songs right now! I. DARE. YOU.
My current favorite is Radio (ft. JME), but all of his songs are amazing. I haven't encountered a single one I didn't like. And that says quite a lot about an artist. (I'm hard to please musically)
So yeah, just a little opinion here. Dang, I really want to see him play live one day. :D

A few thoughts (GLEE & Cory)

So, as many of you might know, Cory Monteith passed away last Saturday. He played FInn Hudson in the TV show "Glee".
If you know me personally, you'll know that I absolutely love Glee (even though I was pretty disappointed with the S4 finale). I also loved Cory a lot. I don't care if he had a drug problem.
I don't care if that's why he died.
All I know is that he was on his best way to recovery, he went to rehab and finished it. Now, I don't know if he was forced to take heroin and drink alcohol that night. All I know is that IT DOES NOT MATTER to me. I don't care, seriously. He was a good person and he had a good life. He was supposed to get married in two weeks. TWO WEEKS.
I can only imagine Lea's grief in this hard time. I've had people I loved pass away, but most of them died of old age. I knew that they were in a bad state and their hearts are malfunctioning.
But Lea; She didn't know. She couldn't prepare. She's didn't have a chance to say goodbye. Her fiancee   was taken away from her.
As if that didn't make me sad and thoughtful enough; They are gonna start filming Glee in early August. That's soon. Very soon.
I don't know anything about the first few episodes. I don't know if Lea's gonna be in them.
But honestly, if I were one of the writers/producers, I probably would've put the show on hold. Or quit it completely. I know, there are a lot of open questions remaining in the show, but one of the actors passed away. He's dead. I have absolutely no idea how they're gonna justify him not being there. Maybe Glee is actually gonna focus on the high school stuff only. Maybe they're not gonna film any stories in New York anymore. I would understand. And I'm pretty sure most of the "gleeks" are going to understand it too.

So all in all, I'm sad and confused at the same time. I don't know when exactly I'll be able to listen to glee songs again. I mean, without tearing up.

RIP Cory Monteith. 1982 - 2013 <3

Cookies!

On my last video, I promised to put up recipes for Christmas cookies, so here you go!

Warning: This post will be long!

In case you missed it, here's my last video:

Vlogmas Day 2: Cookies!

Apricot Hearts:

What you will need:

250g flour

150g butter

80g powdered sugar

1 egg

1 package vanilla sugar

apricot jam/jelly

heart-shaped cookie cutter

thimble

baking paper

rolling pin 

How to:

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Knead it until the dough is smooth. If it’s too sticky, add a little bit of flour. If it’s too dry, add a little bit of butter.
3. Roll out the dough on a flat and clean working surface. Make sure the dough isn’t too thin or too thick!
4. Cut out an even number of hearts with your cookie cutter. Make a hole in half of the hearts (with your thimble).
5. Place the hearts onto a baking tray covered with baking paper.
6. Bake them at 170°C for approximately 10 minutes, or until firm.
7. After letting them cool down, spread the jam on the whole hearts and place the ones with the holes on top.
8. Optionally, you can either sprinkle the cookies with powdered sugar or add your favorite sugar frosting on top. If you do so, let them dry for about an hour before putting them away.

Vanilla Crescent Cookies/Vanillekipferl

Ingredients:

280g flour

210g butter

100g grinded hazelnuts or almonds

70g powdered sugar

1 egg yolk

1 package vanilla sugar

How to:

1. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl until you get a smooth dough.
2. Put into the fridge for one hour.
3. Cut off small pieces, form it until finger-shaped, then curl in the end until it is shaped like a crescent moon or a croissant.
4. After putting it onto a baking tray with paking paper, bake it at 170°C for about 15 minutes or until slightly gold-brown.
5. Let it cool down just a bit, then roll in a bowl with sugar and vanilla sugar.
6. Put away when cool.

Star Windows

Ingredients:

250g flour

1 tsp baking powder

50g powdered sugar

170g soft butter

1 egg

jam/jelly

How to:

1. Mix the flour and baking powder together in a bowl.
2. Mix in the other ingredients one at a time.
3. Knead the dough and put it into the fridge for about half an hour.
4. Roll out the dough and cut out circles with a cookie cutter. In half of these, cut a little star out of the middle.
5. Bake at 180° for about 12 minutes.
6. After they cooled down, spread jam onto the whole circles and put the ones with the star on top. 
7. Wait for an hour before putting them away.

Simple Sugar Cookies

Ingredients: 

250g flour

80g butter

80g sugar

1 egg

1 tsp lemon juice or zest

1 tbsp milk

How to:

1. Mix together all the ingredients and knead until smooth.
2. Put the dough into the fridge for 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Roll it out and cut out your preferred shapes.
4. Bake the cookies at 160°C for about 8 minutes or until gold-brown.
5. Put away after letting them cool down.

Sooo, I hope you enjoy making these! We make them every year and they are always very popular among my family and friends. I hope you are having a nice day and I’ll see you in my next post!

<3

Boulevard de Beauté Palette review!

Today I want to do a quick review of the "Boulevard de Beauté" Palette.
It does not have a specific name, but this is what it looks like:

If you open it up, there are a couple of drawers to slide out. All opened up, it looks like this:

As you can see, it includes 20 eyeshadows, 8 lip glosses, 2 powders, 6 foundations and 5 pieces that I would probably describe as "paint pots". Along with all of this, 8 brushes are included, 2 of which are lip brushes. The other 8 are eyeshadow applicators.
There is also a large mirror included.

I will start reviewing the eyeshadows first.

                                         For easier understanding, I numbered them.

SWATCHES (my hand was prepped with a medium coverage foundation):
A1: A white eyeshadow with a frost finish. At first it looks a bit chalky, but if you blend it in properly, it looks really cool!
A2: A light to mint green eyeshadow, also with a frost finish. It looks fairly bright in the pan, but it translates onto the skin a bit more muted. However, it is still a bit too bright to be a mint green colour.
A3: A light blue eyeshadow. Frost finish again. The first swatch doesn't do it justice, because my flash hit it directly, thus making it look lighter.
A4: A dark blue to teal eyeshadow, with an almost matte finish. It has really little bits of glitter in it, but it isn't too present. Probably my favourite in this part of the palette.
A5: Another dark blue shadow. This one has less green in it, making it a rather clean blue. This has more of a semi-frost finish with microfine silver glitter. You can't see it in the picture, though.

B1: A grey-ish purple eyeshadow with a frost finish. It looks very good as a slightly tinted highlight (in the middle of the lid)
B2: Very similar to B2, but this one is slightly more purple. These two colours blend into each other quite nicely.
B3: A rather sheer lilac shadow. This one also has microfine silver glitter in it. I think this would be a very good colour for spring time!
B4: This is a very beautiful taupe-y lilac colour. This has a frost finish too.
B5: Similar to B4, but a bit more on the taupe side. Again, these last two colours are very similar.


Overall, I really like this side of the palette. However, I wish there were more matte colours!


C1: This shadow has a really pretty baby pink colour with a (who would've guessed?) frost finish. This could be used as a highlight anywhere, but I find it juuust a little bit too shimmery.
C2: A very light champagne colour (frost finish - again!). This doesn't show up from every angle, so it can be used as just a really subtle all over the lid colour.
C3: A slightly orange-y champagne colour. Very pretty, looks fairly natural. Frost finish.
C4: This is a very pigmented orange-red brown colour. I think it would look great with any of the lighter colours on this side of the palette! It thankfully has a matte finish!
C5: A slightly darker reddish brown colour. It has very subtle glitter in it, but unless you get up close, it isn't very noticeable.

D1: This shadow is a quite sheer salmon colour. This has a shimmery to frost finish, but it is very subtle and not too harsh either.
D2: A quite unusual reddish orange colour with a matte finish. Very pretty, very unlike anything else I own.
D3: This is a very shimmery pinkish red colour. If it wasn't that shimmery,
you could probably use it as a blush!
D4: A very pretty bronze colour with a hint of red. It is shimmery, but more like metallic.
D5: A rather dark, dusty brown colour. It looks a bit like ash, but with shimmer ;)

Overall, I like all of these colours, but the ones that are richer in colour appeal to me the most!

Now on to the "paint pots"!

These come in white, lilac/pink, creme, blue and green!

 <-- White: A very pretty, sheer white (that is packed with glitter and shimmer). Even though it is quite sheer, it is noticeable due to the glitter/shimmer.

Lilac:                                                                   -->
Also quite sheer, but again; noticable due to the shimmer/glitter. It would probably be very pretty as a highlight with just a hint of colour (on the lid).                                    

<-- Creme:
Unlike the previous two colours, this one is quite pigmented! Again, it has tons of glitter and shimmer in it! And like most of the powder eyeshadows, this has a frost finish.

Blue:                                                                   -->
This creme eyeshadow is absolutely gorgeous!! In the picture, it looks a bit sheer, but it is definitely bulidable!

Green: This color is a beautiful light green color with a hint of lime. Again, this is definitely buildable!

Overall, these are great! They're cream eyeshadows that dry to a powder form. I think it's amazing how much you can build 'em up to reach opaqueness!

Now, on to the rest of the palette!

Like I said in the beginning of this review, the palette comes with two powders. I think they are good for beginners, but they definitely can't reach the quality of any high-end make-up brands!

I didn't swatch them, because my camera couldn't capture it well enough. But I think you can imagine what they look like, but they are pretty much just regular pressed face powders!

They only come in two different shades, but considering this is a palette that has pretty much everything except for blushes, it's quite awesome!

The palette also came with 8 lip glosses, but as I put them on my lips, they didn't really add colour. :(

Last, but not least; the palette also came with 6 "foundations". I put that in quotation marks, because I honestly wouldn't use it as a full face foundation. Maybe as a concealer. Maybe.

They have great coverage, but they also look a bit cakey on the skin. As a concealer, however, I think it might actually work!

So yeah, that pretty much concludes my extremely long review of this palette! I do not know where and if this is available anywhere in the world. I bought it at a local grocery store for €9.99. 

I know it's a German brand or at least that usually German bloggers write about it, but I bet you could get their products somewhere online. So yeah, if you made it this far: thanks a lot! If you could do me a favor and share this with your friends, that'd be awesome! 

Thanks :D

New Obsession!

So, I just watched the following video yesterday and I LOVE the song in the back:

It's called "Last One You Love" by Breathe Electric/Goldhouse (Technically, Goldhouse. It is the same person, but he put it out as Goldhouse, shortly after changing his name. Y'know from Breathe Electric to Goldhouse)
I LOOOOOVE that song! I've been listening to it pretty much nonstop.
So yeah, just wanted to throw that out there...
Also: Subscribe to both Nikki and Rachel, they are both amazing!

New video!

I just put up a new video on my YT channel:

YAY :D
I promised to put up pictures, because the lighting was horrible:

Food Friday

Just looked at my calendar today and saw that I missed Food Friday :O

I thought I'd post it late, so here we go:

The food I would like to blog about today is POP TARTS!
I Looooooove Pop Tarts!
My favorite flavor so far is "Frosted Wild! Grape"
A close second is Brown Sugar Cinnamon.
Tell me in the comments below which flavor is your FAVORITE!
Until next time, bye!