REVIEW: SKINFOOD – BLACK SUGAR WASH OFF MASK

Ahh Skinfood, this has been on my list for quite some time to try out – when I first got into Korean beauty and skin care this brand really spoke to me, I love that they include real food ingredients which are beneficial to helping the skin look beautiful. Today I’m going to talk about the Black Sugar Wash Off Mask.

Enriched with minerals and vitamins, this face scrub effectively exfoliates dead skin that prevents makeup application, while revitalizing skin.
HOW TO USE
After washing, apply desired amount onto face, avoiding eye and mouth areas. Mix the black sugar mask with water or oil to reduce skin irritations, and massage your skin with it. Wait 10-15 minutes, and then wash off with lukewarm water. Recommended to use it once a week.

INGREDIENTS
Sucrose, PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate, Clycerin, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Macademia Ternifolia Seed Oil, Lanolin, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Cetyl Ethylhexanoate, Stearalkonium Hectorite, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Limnanthes Alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil, Sorbitan Laurate, Butylparaben, BHT, Caramel, Parfum.

PACKAGING
The product comes in a small plastic tub, there is actually a lot of product so don’t be deceived by the size, you really don’t need a lot. Underneath the lid there is an initial cap to separate the lid and product, this I assume is for hygiene reasons – however I don’t feel it’s necessary as the product is pretty firm and doesn’t move around on it’s own at all. There is also no spatula to scoop out the product which is a little disappointing as it would make it a lot more hygienic. I suggest using your own or a small spoon to get it out!

SCENT & TEXTURE
The smell is pretty sweet, it has an almost citrus smell, like lemons. It’s not overpowering but it has definitely present. I don’t really smell anything sugary just sweet refreshing fruit! The texture however, is exactly as assumed – lots of little pieces of sugar. It can be quite rough on the skin so mixing in the warm water really helps when massaging it in so it doesn’t pull on your skin. You don’t wan’t to apply this onto dry skin, it will just cause a lot of scratching! It’s also pretty thick so thinning it with the water also helps it become easier to spread around.

FINAL THOUGHTS
This mask is quite an affordable alternative to more expensive products (around $8). It does exfoliate very effectively, after washing this mask of you are left with soft and smooth skin, it also helps to get rid of flaky skin (something I struggle with!) so putting makeup on is much easier. I wouldn’t recommend the mask to someone who has sensitive skin, even though you can thin out the product with water it is still pretty rough with all the sugar. The scent may be quite strong to some people also, but I don’t mind it because it is quite refreshing on your skin. It also leaves the skin looking healthy and bright after washing off the mask. I like this mask, and I would re-purchase it again!

WHERE TO BUY
You can purchase the scrub here if you are interested!

REVIEW: KITKAT – MATCHA GREEN TEA FLAVOUR

For as long as I can remember I’ve always wanted to try Matcha KitKat’s, unfortunately I always found them to be quite expensive for me and also they weren’t always the easiest to come across!

However, yesterday as my Boyfriend and I were browsing in the Chinese supermarket we often go to I came across these beauties and I SCREAMED! Instantly threw them into the cart and rushed to the checkout – I wanted to get home fast to eat them! I was so excited!

This package was around $6, most of them are but I decided to just go for it! The package contains 12 miniature KitKat’s which are individually wrapped – adorable.

They are the perfect size to throw into your bag to have as a snack but also if you want a something sweet and small in the afternoon.

On the back of the package you can write a little message if you’re handing these out as a gift which I think is a lovely idea, there’s also a little bit of history about where the flavoring of the Matcha comes from on the back, I can’t read Japanese but luckily my boyfriend is fluent!

The colour is a light green with some darker flecks which I assume would be the Matcha powder, it’s quite a milky green if that makes sense, It’s a very beautiful colour, even the inside of the wafer has green tea cream (and is also green!) instead of the original chocolate.

The smell is so alluring, it doesn’t have a strong smell of green tea, rather a sweet smell, with only slight hints of the green tea, it makes you want to take a bite right away, whenever I opened the package I always had to take a quick sniff it’s a very inviting smell.

So the taste! What we’ve been waiting for! It keeps its creamy flavor, and falls more to a white chocolate taste rather than an overpowering green tea, definitely no strong bitterness, the sweet defiantly is a lot more pronounced – If you’ve ever had an Iced Matcha Green Tea Latte it’s very reminiscent of that! The cream inside of the wafers is also a green tea flavor, although not as strong as the chocolate on the outside it goes really well with the crunch and taste of the wafer. It left me wanting to eat another, and another, and another.. It’s a sweet taste that doesn’t make you feel guilty, it’s very sophisticated and, in a way, refreshing.

Overall, I love this KitKat, so much so that it has made me want to try more Japanese flavors! My boyfriend on the other hand thinks it’s nothing to rave about, but I put it down to him previously living in Japan for 4 years and being Matcha’d out!

If you haven’t tried this KitKat I recommend you do! You can purchase them here or find them in most Asian supermarkets!

What is your favorite flavor of KitKat? What should I try next? Let me know!

REVIEW: ETUDEHOUSE – SRAWBERRY BUBBLE TEA SLEEPING MASK

First of all, how absolutely adorable is this packing? It looks exactly like a fresh milky bubble tea with jelly pearls nestled sweetly in the glass – beautiful!

This was my first experience with a sleeping pack – I’d been interested for quite some time to try one but couldn’t decide on what was best for me, however recently my skin has been having trouble in terms of dryness (winter in Canada is cruel!) which in effect also made it look dull. I decided I needed extra care, so I decided to finally seek out a sleeping pack, and I’m a firm believer that Korea has it down when it comes to skin care so I looked around for what would be best!

I know that ETUDEHOUSE is quite a popular brand in Korea not only for makeup but also skin care, plus they have some seriously cute packing (so hard to not buy everything!) for their products. As soon as I saw this Sleeping Pack which I found JOLSE here I knew it was the one for me! There are 3 options of pack available for different skin needs which are Green Tea – {Clean & Clear Skin} Strawberry – {Healthy & Dewy Skin} Black Tea – {Glowing & Plumps Skin}. I opted for Strawberry!

After cleansing your face apply the gel generously gently massaging it into your skin then sleep, the next morning rinse it off with warm water! I was sceptical at first as I didn’t want to go to bed with a sticky face however the gel does dry over time, not to a complete set state but enough to not feel incredibly sticky!

The texture is quite thick, and it goes on very smooth, plus the smell is amazing! It’s not overly sweet but you can defiantly detect the sweetness of strawberries!

The Strawberry gel delivers moisture to dry skin, during the night it supplies moisture and you wake up with moist and dewy looking skin! There are also bubbles which are at the bottom of the gel that you can pop on your palm before applying to your face if you feel you need extra moisture – this also is a way to ensure you have less moisture loss.

There is also a really handy spatula that clicks onto the lid which helps in scooping out the bubbles at the bottom of the cup and also to keep the product sanitary and also helps to deliver the correct amount (a little goes a long way – I used way too much first time). *Remember to always rinse the spatula before and after using it*

I like to alternate between popping the bubbles and using just the gel, if I feel like my skin really needs a moisture boost or feels flaky I will use the bubble – and it works wonders!

As soon as I put this on my skin it felt so soothing and it had a lovely cooling effect.

I did notice the effects right away the next morning and I am beyond impressed, after rinsing my skin looked so much brighter, it was soft to touch and a lot of the redness had gone down. It does relax your skin and it feels lovely. It also really helped with the dryness – as I mentioned in winter my skin gets incredibly dry and I always feel like I need extra moisture care.

After using this pack my flaking skin from my nose, forehead and cheeks are virtually non-existent, those 3 areas were very troublesome for me but finally I have found something that actually does work, and actually does smooth and give moisture to my skin, it makes using make up the next day a lot easier! It’s a real treat to use and it has literally saved my skin from the harsh effects of winter.

---

HOW TO USE

1. Using the spatula, dispense gel and 1-2 bubbles onto the palm.

2. Gently rupture the bubbles with the spatula onto the palm and rub with the fingers to mix the bubbles and pack.

3. Evenly apply on skin in a massaging motion to promote absorption into skin.

4. Leave it on overnight, and then wash off with lukewarm water the next morning.

Tips! Use only gel depending on the condition of skin. For better moisturising effect, mix the gel with 1-2 bubbles.

 

My Mini Wishlist

 

 

As it’s getting closer to Christmas I’ve been feeling the excitement to shop again! I’ve compiled a short list of what I would love to purchase this year!

I love Justin’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups (so, so much) they’re probably my favourite kind of chocolate out there – finding they have a  Chocolate Hazelnut Spread  is amazing. I loved Nutella before I went vegan so being able to  have this on toast again just makes my mouth water

I’ve been seeing these skirts everywhere! I’ve been wanting to get one specifically for winter to wear with cosy tights and boots – I think it would look so stylish and perfect for the winter weather, this Button Down Skirt is from F21 and is only $19.90!

It’s no surprise I love avocados! Isn’t this just so freakin’ cute though?! This Avocado Necklace is available from Etsy and is perfect for anyone who wants to show some pride and love to avos.

Going to be honest – I’m a sucker for cute and quirky mugs and this Chocolate Sprinkle Doughnut Mug is no exception! I always end up staining my mugs from drinking so much tea, so a new one is just what I need, and what better than a doughnut!

This colour of  NYX Matte Lip Cream is absolutely perfect for winter, I can picture myself wearing it probably every day of the season. I’ve been exploring more cruelty free makeup and I adore these NYX Lip Creams, I believe they’re a great investment, so worth!

I think most people agree that Yankee Candle is one of the best candles you can purchase (THE SMELL IS GLORIOUS) I know we’ve passed fall, but I can’t help but lust over this Pumpkin Candle – I just adore the smell. Pumpkin is really a year round thing because it’s perfect, okay, just perfect!

So, there is my mini wish list! If you want to view these items further click on the links and they’ll take you to the products! Whats on your wish list?

-Jade♡

Black Bean Brownies {VEGAN}

These brownies are so satisfying and delicious, especially loaded with succulent chocolate chips! And the best part is that they are totally vegan! Plus you make it all in ONE BOWL!

I adapted this recipe for Martina from eatyourkimchi on YouTube – I simply veganized it and took out a few ingredients and the result was amazing

I do suggest using a smaller pan to bake these in because I used quite a large one and they ended up pretty cakeish and kind of fell apart around the middle where they weren’t thick!

You want these to be THICK!

Black Bean Brownie Recipe:

---

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 cups (mashed) black beans
• 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup quick oats
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips, or 1/2 cup regular size chocolate chips

METHODE:

• Preheat oven to 350F/160C
• Put all of the dry ingredients into a bowl, then wet and mix well to form a batter – you can literally throw everything into a food processor and blend it all up!
• Grease a brownie pan with your leftover butter and spread batter evenly
• Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes
• Let cool on the counter for 15 minutes or pop it into the fridge for 15
• Cut up and enjoy!

I made a video showing this recipe so you can check it out HERE to see exactly how I made this batch or brownies!

I hope that you enjoyed this recipe and try it out! If you make any changes let me know so I can try it out too! I’m still going to play around with this recipe!

-Jade

 

Best Oatmeal Raisin Cookies EVER

Do you like oatmeal raisin cookies?! Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies?! Plain oatmeal cookies?! Well I do, and this recipe is so incredibly easy that you can bust these babies out in 15 minutes!

The dough is versatile so you can literally add anything you like (or nothing at all). Personally raisin oatmeal is my fave so today this is the recipe for just that!

In my recipe I don’t use an egg so that this recipe is vegan but feel free to do so if you do consume eggs. I use oil as a replacement but I’m going to give alternatives too!

Lets get right into it

---

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies:

Makes about 24 cookies.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine (I use vegan butter)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil** (1 egg if you consume eggs)
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups quick oats
• 1/2 cup raisins

---

**If you don’t want to use oil but still don’t want the egg here are some alternatives:

• 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce.
• 1/4 mashed banana (will give a slight banana taste!)
• Mix 1 tablespoon of ground flax-seed with 3 tablespoons of water
• Mix together 2 tablespoons of water, one teaspoon of vegetable oil and 2 teaspoons of baking powder

---

METHOD:

• Preheat oven to 375F/190C and grease a cookie sheet, or place down parchment paper
• Cover your raisins with boiling water. This will help make them plump.
• In a bowl cream together your white and brown sugar with the butter until light and fluffy.
• Add in the vanilla and oil and mix well together.
• Add in the flour, baking soda and salt, stir, then add in the oats and mix well to combine.
• Drain the water from the raisins and then add them to the mixture and combine.
• Scoop 1 tablespoon of dough and form into a ball, place onto the cookie sheet and press lightly with your palm to flatten slightly.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the cookies are golden-brown around the edges.
• Cool for 10 minutes.
• ENJOY!

I also added a few shredded coconut to the top of some cookies before putting them into the oven! Please feel free to replace raisins with chocolate chips, add nuts, spices or anything else you desire!

I love these cookies, they’re crunchy, a little soft in the middle, full of juicy raisins and perfectly sweet!

My boyfriend likes these cookies too! I use him to taste test all of my recipes – and he is super picky, especially with sweeter foods so if he says these are good then I’m pretty sure they are good!

I hope you like this recipe, a video tutorial will be up on my YouTube channel soon – so subscribe to see that!

– Jade

What I ate today!

I don’t know about you, but I always love to know what people are eating!

It gives me ideas of what I’d like to eat, meal prep ideas and so on. Plus, I enjoy seeing the beauty of food!

I created my own video on so you can click here to watch my video on what I ate today!

---

Breakfast

For breakfast I had some oatmeal and added in some raisins – my raisins had gotten slightly dry so adding them into the boiling water and oatmeal really helps to plump them back up! I also added a sliced banana (my FAVE) with some hemp hearts to top it off. I also drank a small glass of vegetable juice.

Lunch

Lunch was pretty basic as always, but basic to me is totally ok, I enjoy the basic because it’s what I love! I made avocado toast you can find the recipe here to see my post on Avocado Toast in 5 Minutes! I just changed it slightly by missing out the red pepper flakes! I had Miso soup too! Super filling and tasty meal!

Dinner

For dinner we always have a base of white rice, now  I love white rice, if we don’t have it for a day I really miss it! I also made a simple tofu and veggie stir fry you can get the recipe by clicking here it’s seriously so good! We had some left over broccoli too so we also ate that, plus I cooked some zucchini in garlic and it was amazing!

I don’t snack during the day because I don’t really care to, but when I eat I can really eat A LOT, I do usually sometimes end up eating a banana or nice cream around 9-10pm (ish) when I start to feel a little desire to something sweet!

-Jade♡

 

I STARTED YOUTUBE!

Click here to watch my very first video!

It’s been on my mind for a while to start making videos for YouTube, honestly though, it’s something I’ve always dreamed about. I want to make videos that people will enjoy, and want to watch!

I don’t have a fancy camera with a view finder, so I can’t see what I’m filming therefore my skills are not so great yet – but I will learn, I want to learn! I have a little booklet of ideas on what I want to make videos on so throughout the week I’ll be trying to record a lot.

I enjoy social media, for an outlet to share my creativity, thoughts, ideas – it’s great. I’ve been inspired by so many people, I want to be apart of it so I thought why not? I’m not exactly confident, especially on camera, but like I said, I will get there! I still want to blog too, I want to do a lot of things with media so this journey will be interesting and I do hope I can inspire others!

Please watch my video and give me some feedback! Like it if you do and if you want to see me bloom further subscribe! I plan to make videos a lot, I’m excited for it, I hope you will watch me!

-Jade♡

Avocado Toast in 5 Minutes!

I was debating whether or not to post this since it’s literally the easiest and simplest kind of toast there is!

I love avocado toast (I used to hate avocado so much, weird right?), everyone loves avocado toast so I thought I’d share how I make my kind of avo-toast!

There’s a million and one variations but for me, this is a staple – my fave way to eat it!

One avocado, butter, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, hemp hearts – that’s all there is to this perfect piece of toast.

I used a whole avocado, I know some people prefer to use just half but I adore avocado so much I just prefer to eat the whole thing, like an open faced sandwich!

Avocado Toast (5 mins!)

---

INGREDIENTS:

• *unsalted butter (as much as you need)
• 2 slices of bread, toasted
• 1 avocado, sliced or mashed (you can use half)
• 1 tbsp hemp hearts or sesame seeds
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• sprinkle of salt & black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

• Toast the bread and then spread butter on each slice
• Slice avocado or mash it then add to each slice of toast.
• Sprinkle with salt, pepper, red pepper and hemp hearts
• Enjoy!

*I used earth balance vegan butter – you can use any kind you like!

You can eat this for breakfast, lunch or as a snack, I always enjoyed having sandwiches growing up, so I love to have this for lunch, generally after a work out so I feel satisfied and full!

-Jade♡

 

 

Stressed? Colour To Calm

Recently I’ve been feeling overwhelmed by life  – totally stressed out and tired. Personally I find dealing with stress in a creative way helps me get my emotions out as opposed to getting super angry. That’s where this magical little colouring book (for adults, of course) comes in, it can keep me occupied for hours on end and really helps me to relax.

I bought this almost over a year ago, and the only reason I did was for something to do on a 7 hour flight to Canada, I simply though “oh colouring, ought to pass the time!” for sure it did, it was also fun. I purchased it from Waterstones for around £6.99 – there were so many to choose from but I liked the designs inside that this one had to offer!

You literally get enthralled for hours and hours by the beautiful and detailed designs, it feels like 5 minutes pass by the time you’re done. Honestly, there’s so many colour combinations that you can come up with that your mind becomes overcome with creativity and you just can’t pull yourself away. I find colouring whilst I’m listening to music or a TV (any background noise) pushes my creativity further, it’s as if the words help the colours to flow and represent my mood!

After colouring for hours I can rarely finish one page – which is okay, coming back to it with a new perspective and mood is also fun. I love to see my progress and the page really comes to life, It’s a really amazing way to keep you entertained, it’s not only helpful to deal with stress. In a sense, it’s like you are the one in control, you make the choice on what you want to do – whereas with stress, can you really control that? It’s a pretty great coping mechanism, art really helps to relieve this and I can honestly say that after I’m done my mood is completely lifted.

I really think more adults should look into getting one of these books, I’ve seen them even in pharmacies here in Canada for around $2, you don’t even need to have fancy pens to colour in with, pencils, crayons even paint (I used water-colour!!! SO FUN!!!) can be used to make your mark on these pages!

Trust me – you will feel amazing, free and so excited to colour! If you are feeling like you need a distraction, or need to feel calm whilst having space to yourself this an activity book such as this would be perfect, I find it so worth, I’m so glad a bought it a year ago and I only wish that I’d used it more often and sooner too. Give it a try! It’s such a throwback too! You will only have positive thoughts with this!

-Jade♡