Crystal Castle on Formspring!

Hello lovelies, you can now ask me questions via Formspring! I thought it might be a good idea to set up a page for my blog as some of you might find it easier to ask a short question there rather than writing me an email. You can visit my Formspring by clicking the little icon on the right hand side or why not ask your questions directly via the widget on the bottom of my sidebar? I'll try my best to answer all your questions as soon as possible!

Recipe: Oreo Cream Cheese Brownies

If you're a fan of chocolate, cheesecake and oreos then you will definitely LOVE these! I've not been baking and cooking as much as I wanted to lately, but today I finally had time to get back into the kitchen and bake these incredibly delicious Oreo Cream Cheese Brownies! To be fair, mine look more like a chocolate cake rather than 'real' brownies as I don't own a square baking tin but obviously it doesn't affect the taste at all. I came across this recipe earlier on today when I was reading 'New Kitch On The Blog', a fantastic German food blog full of mouthwatering recipes, and I simply couldn't resist... Luckily, I had all the ingredients at hand aswell - it was fate!
And here's the recipe translated into English for all my non-German speaking readers..

• 115g butter
• 100g caster sugar
• 250g cream cheese
• 80g icing sugar
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 120g plain flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• 1/2tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 150g chopped oreo biscuits

Preheat your oven to 180°C. Start by melting the butter and sugar in a saucepan and leave to cool for a couple of minutes. Place the cream cheese, vanilla extract and icing sugar in a bowl and mix until well combined, then put it in the fridge to cool - this will make it easier to spread later on. In another bowl, combine the flour, salt and cocoa powder. And finally, in yet another mixing bowl, whizz the eggs with an electric mixer until light and fluffy before slowly pouring in the butter-sugar-mix and the flour-cocoa-mix. Make sure everything is well combined before adding the chopped oreo biscuits. Pour one half of the brownie mix into your greased baking tin, spread the cream cheese mix on top and cover it with the other half of the brownie mix - and it's ready to bake in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes. It's best to let the brownies cool down and chill in the fridge for a while before eating them.. Enjoy! :)

Foundations For Pale Girls!

Hi girls! First of all, I'm really sorry it's been so quiet here over the past few days.. I've been working a lot more than usual and getting home at 9pm after a long and tiring day doesn't help either! Luckily I'm off for a couple of days now so I'll have lots of time to prepare posts, take photos and just look after my blog a bit more! :) 

For now, I've got some foundations to show you - these have been my four favourites for quite some while now and I know that there's a lot of very pale girls out there who are struggling to find a foundation light enough to match their skin tone. I have finally found a few which are light enough for me and also have a brilliant formula. Unfortunately I'm not blessed with very clear skin which is why I want my foundation to have medium to full coverage, preferably a matte or semi-matte finish, good staying power and the more affordable the better!

 

Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream #21 Light Beige (50ml for £10, ebay)

Medium to full coverage, very creamy, adapts to my skin tone perfectly, pleasant scent, stays put all day, dewy finish (powder is vital for me!) and a little goes a long way! This has been my favourite ever foundation for almost a year now.

Astor Mattitude 001 Ivory (30ml for £5)

Light to medium coverage, matte finish (no powder necessary for me), easy application, feels lovely on skin and great staying power.

Bourjois Healthy Mix 51 Light Vanilla (30ml for £10)

Medium coverage, lovely floral scent, semi-matte finish, good staying power, quite runny, easy application. Just a little too yellow for me.

L'Oréal Infallible 15 Porcelain (30ml for £13)

Medium coverage, very light (maybe even a tiny bit too light for me), semi-matt finish, lovely scent, easy to apply, stays put all day, feels very light on skin and gives my skin a flawless look. Definitely my favourite alongside Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream!

NOTD: Peach and Pink Tips

Hello girls! I hope you are all having a lovely, relaxing Sunday. I had a long lie and very yummy porridge for breakfast - I'm still in my pyjamas! I need to start getting ready now though as me and Kev are going for some delicious Italian food at Zizzi's soon, I can't wait! I thought I'd quickly show you my nails before I head out: I gave my nail art pen from Essence another shot but unfortunately my skills haven't improved yet haha!
I used 'Miss Stone Heart' by H&M as my base colour and painted on triangles on the tips of my nails with 'Peach Melba' and 'Flamingo Pink' by Barry M. Using a black nail art pen (and a very unsteady hand) I outlined the tip design and finished it off with a layer of top coat to avoid smudging. Do you like it?

MAC Cremesheen Lipstick 'Crosswires'

Hello lovelies! I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day yesterday! As I was working late yesterday, me and Kev celebrated Valentine's on Monday instead: we had really yummy dinner and cocktails at TGI Friday's and did a little bit of shopping where he let me choose some goodies at the MAC counter.. Definitely not a very exciting part of the day for him haha! One of the things I chose is a Cremesheen lipstick in the shade 'Crosswires' which is described as a 'clean pinky orange' but to me it definitely looks more coral/red which leans towards orange ever so slightly. Cremesheen lipsticks are pigmented, long-lasting, yet moisturising and shiny - a winning combination for me! I really do love the shade, it's bright and fun but still subtle enough to wear at work.
All in all, Crosswires looks and applies beautifully, makes my lips feel hydrated and stays put for around three hours. It has already become one of my favourite lippies and I will definitely get my hands on some more MAC lipsticks as soon as I can! What are your favourite shades, and which ones can you recommend for pigmented lips? xx

Rose Quartz EOTD

Good morning lovelies! I'm heading out in a few minutes so I'll just quickly show you my eye make up before I go. I bought an eyeshadow from 17 called 'Rose Quartz' quite a while ago and totally forgot about it - today is the first time I used it. It's a subtle, shimmery grey/pink, nicely pigmented and very silky - really easy to work with and brilliant for when you're short on time as it looks lovely on its own. I really enjoy using 17's eyeshadows and I can totally recommend them because of the decent quality and they're also great value for money.
Anyway, here are the products I used:

Eyeshadows: 17 'Rose Quartz' (all over lid), Sleek Bad Girl Palette 'Underground' (crease), Artdeco '27' (highlight)
Eyeliner: Mac Fluidline 'Blacktrack'
Mascara: Maybelline The Falsies

Beauty Lust List #2

1. Mac Mineralize Skin Finish 'Blonde' 2. Mac Pro Longwear Concealer 3. Topshop Nail Polish 'Ice Crush' 4. Topshop Nail Polish 'Green Room' 5. Too Faced Leopard Bronzer 'Peach' 6. Too Faced Shadow Insurance 7. Sleel Pout Polish 'Powder Pink' 8. Mac Painpot 'Rubenesque' 9. Topshop Lipstick 'Brigthon Rock' 10. Moroccan Oil 11. Benefit They're Real Mascara 12. Dior Diorskin Forever Foundation