Tomato Parmesan Croissants

Hey! I hope you all are enjoying this chilly November weather. (I'm just assuming that by the time I publish this the weather is still chilly. While I'm writing this, it's like 28* out. But yesterday it was in the 70's, so there's really no telling.) Anyway! Cold weather calls for warm and rich food stuffs so I'm going to provide you with a DELICIOUS party appetizer that is perfect warming your core.

I LOVE making stuff out of croissants, and this has been one of my favorite creations, so I hope you enjoy it. Okay! First things first! Gather some ingredients:

You'll need a roll of crescent rolls, some cherry tomatoes, and fresh parmesan cheese. It's not included in this picture but you also need some spices ("Which spices!?!?" I don't care, man, it's your life. Get whatever.) and some butter. ("But I bought buttery crescent rolls." So? You still want to add more butter. Unless you hate yourself. If you hate yourself, don't use butter. I don't care. No, I care, don't hate yourself, I think you're awesome.)

Okay! Let's get cookin'.

Spread some butter on your croissants. Then, add a pinch of parmesan cheese. Then, add a few slices/wedges of tomato.

Next, add some spices. "Which spices?" We've been over this before, I really don't care. Personally, I used garlic salt and basil leaves. You can use whatever you want, though. Sea salt, pepper, onion powder, Italian seasoning, parsley. Whatever. "How about cinnamon?" Sure, fine, whatever, ya' nasty.

Seriously, don't use cinnamon. That sounds gross. No judgements, but ewe.

Then, fold them up. You can roll them croissant stile, but there will probably be a lot of stuff spilling out the sides. So, instead, I recommend folding the corners of the triangles in and pinching closed any gaps. They turn out kind of like delicious cheese/tomato filled rolls. Add a bit more parmesan cheese to the top and then bake them!

They turn out pretty delicious, so I hope you enjoy!

Film Fashion: Clueless

Okay, so, any 90's kid will tell you: the epitome of fashion is, was, and will always be represented by Clueless. Clueless is a modernized telling of Emma by Jane Austen. Since Emma is Jane Austen's best novel, it's no surprise that Clueless is one freaking great film.

It starts out with this montage of our main character, Cher, and all of her cool/rich friends, which Cher describes as, "So, okay, you're probably going, 'Is this, like, a Noxzema commercial or what?'" It quickly sets the fashion tone with tall boots and socks, miniskirts, and monochromatic or dichromatic color pallets. Everyone is so happy and fabulous.

Skincare Product Reviews

Okay! So I have a bunch of skin care product samples (given to me by friends, stores, or birchbox) that I have decided to review on this here blog. Explanation over, let's get to it!

VASANTI "BrightenUp!" Exfoliating Cleanser

A Bit About It:

This was given to me by my lovely friend Nikki who gifted me a bunch of samples to try out and review for my birthday! It is "enriched with papaya, micro-crystals, and aloe." It claims to "dramatically improve your skin's texture to reveal softer, brighter, and younger looking skin."

Pros:

• It felt super cool. Like, it felt the way I imagine rubbing kinetic sand on your face would feel. I can't really explain it any other way.
• I had like no acne while I was using it. Which is impressive enough for your average day, but the no acne phenomenon became more of a phenomenon because it kept me acne free even throughout my period. (Which, let's be real, because your hormone levels are off while you're menstruating, it's pretty common for women to break out kind of badly then. I usually do. But I didn't! It was crazy.)
• It didn't smell like anything. Which is great because sometimes you use a face wash and it smells like hospitals or glue or sweat and chlorine. 
• It really did make my skin feel softer. 

Cons:

• I'm not really sure it "brightened up" my face. And since it is called "BrightenUp!" I feel like that's the one thing it really should do. 
• It didn't smell like anything. Which is a bummer because sometimes you use a face wash and it smells like fruit or bubblegum or Hilary Duff or 2003. 
• It didn't reduce any discolorations. I know it didn't claim that it would, but... Well, I have red-splotched-scarred-skin and am trying to even out my skin tone. So, I was just a little bummed that it didn't. As I am a little bummed whenever anything doesn't help even out my skin tone. 
• It's $34.00 for 4.23 oz of face wash. I know that's not TERRIBLE, but it's also not GREAT and I'm borderline broke so I'm going to have to put that price on my con-list. 
• It possibly compliant in a weird allergic reaction I had that caused my lips to swell up and get tight and kind of burn. But then again, that could have been something else. It occurred right at the end of my Vasanti BrightenUp! trial period. 

Rose Hips Black Soap Deep Pore Facial Cleanser

A Bit About It: 

I got this stuff in one of the last Birchboxes I ever received. Birchbox is an awesome way to try out new products that are too pricey for you to buy just HOPING that it'll work for you. It's also nice to get those little sample size things that you can bring with you traveling. Anyway. This came in a Birchbox, but then I discontinued my Birchbox subscription to save money. 

Pros:

• It kind of feels like it's stabbing your pores when you use it. I love skincare products that hurt. But who knows, that might not be your thing.
• My skin was slightly better than "usual"...

Cons: 

• My skin was way worse than it was when I using the Vasanti BrightenUp! stuff. WAY WORSE. So that super bummed me out. 
• It looks like a weird putrid slime that you're coating your face in.
• It smells like old people and decay. 

Masque Bar: Anti-Blemish Mud Mask

A Bit About It:

My lovely friend Sarah gave me this and some other stuff to try out for my birthday. It is supposed to soothe irritated skin and leave skin feeling calm and looking clear. So that's cool. 

Pros: 

• Mud masks are fun. That's just a fact. There's a reason that they're featured in like every movie teenage girl sleepover ever. 
• It contains tea tree which, as we all know, is incredibly good for your skin. 
• It makes your skin feel nice and soft and smooth after you take it off.
• It's opaque, which is nice because when I wear mud masks, I like to take pictures like this:

Cons: 

• It didn't really prevent or reduce any breaking out, but I guess it's possible you would have to use it more regularly--every couple weeks or so--in order for it to be effective. 

Biore Deep Pore Charcoal Cleanser

A Bit About It:

Okay, I got this from a magazine. Clearly. It came with a one day free trial thing and a coupon for $3.00 off or something like that, so I ended up buying the stuff. Don't read that as a recommendation too eagerly, though. I'd only had a one-time sample size to use before buying it.

Pros:

• It really seems to draw out junk from your pores, which is cool.
• I honestly can't think of any other pros, but that "draws junk out of your pores" one is pretty top notch, I think.

Cons:

• It hurts like a mother. Seriously, you know me. My skincare philosophy is "if it doesn't hurt a little it isn't working" but my goodness this stuff makes me want to sob. It's like torture. Egad.
• The smell gives me the sensation of sucking on really gross cough drops. I can't explain it, but if you use it I'm sure you'll understand. 
• It's the color of granite. It doesn't look like granite when it's all on your face and stuff and I get that it's made out of charcoal but it's still hella weird.
• My face has recently began flaking off. I can't prove that it's related to this face cleanser. But still, it's unfortunate.

How do I end these things? Do I, like, make some sort of decision? Or do I just? I'm not sure. Skincare products. They exist. Woohoo.

Best Dressed On TV: Part 2

Okay! So! Here it is. The much anticipated sequel to my Best Dressed on TV blogpost. Just kidding. It's, like, possibly anticipated by some of my friends who had a lot of suggestions after my last post went up. But I thought I'd do another couple "best dressed on TV" segments because holy moly there are a lot of well dressed women on the televisions, yeah? Like before, these are in alphabetical order by first name. Just because that's how they were saved in my little file deal. Right. Let's get going.

Abby Mills - Sleepy Hollow

Abby Mills rocks strictly neutral colors. She layers up camis, t-shirts, and jackets. She has one serious tough-chick jacket collection. Her clothes are always well fitted. She's always wearing a "seriously fed up with this nonsense" facial expression and her favorite accessory is a super hot angry-old-man-in-a-young-man's-body. There is a reason that everyone who meets her immediately becomes instilled with the desire to help and protect her. And that reason is that she is freaking fabulous. 

April Ludgate - Parks and Recreation

April wears a lot of loose clothing and she usually wears layers. Often, she'll wear pants, a loose t-shirt, and a cardigan but she also likes to pair button downs with loose sweaters. When she wears dresses, she usually wears pretty simple cuts that hang loosely around her. Her preferred accesories include: a biting wit; Champion, her three legged dog; Andy, her goof of a husband; and a sour expression. Straight up, April Ludgate is a goddess and we all kind of want to be her, right? 

Belle Gold - Once Upon A Time

Straight up, what was her last name before she married Rumpelstiltskin? Anyway, Belle is pretty pro at "wearing exactly what she feels like." Sometimes, she's like straight out of a 1930's film, and sometimes she's dressed like a hot modern hipster, but no matter what she looks preppy and polished. Yeah, even that time she paired a pattern button down sleeveless shirt with a high-waisted miniskirt that quite frankly didn't match anything in all of Storybrooke. You know the time I'm talking about, right? No? Oh well. Anyway, she's super stylin' which is impressive because she went from the enchanted forest to a 28 year sentence in an insane asylum. Like, she did not have 28 years to acclimate to modern era attire like the rest of Storybrooke did. AND YET, she did not pull a Captain Guyliner and insist on wearing her old threads once she got her memory restored. It's impressive. The big downside to Belle, though, is that she is literally always with Rumpelstiltskin. Like, she's smart and cool and has a whole host of awesome lady friends but can you find her hanging out with anyone who isn't her greasy-haired hubby? No. (I know, I know, usually I'm like, "check out the dude who puppy dog style follows her around" but in this instance? I don't think he's good enough for her. So sue me. PLUS the other ladies in the show who are in relationships I approve of still get to hang out with people who aren't their significant other. You know what I'm saying.)

Emily Fields: Pretty Little Liars

All of the little liars are pretty fashionable from time to time... but unlike Hannah or Aria, Emily never wears rose-patterned leggings with a weird jacket dress. That's not a real outfit reference, but Hannah and Aria both wear really weird things from time to time. And unlike Spencer, Emily has yet to go to sweatpants/sweatshirt/unbrushed hair/drug addiction levels of depressed. Anyway! Emily wears a lot of fitted jeans, long sleeve shirts, vests, and jackets. Plus she has gorgeous hair. Like seriously, seriously gorgeous hair. And there's always some pretty girl following her around, trying to make out with her. Okay, sometimes the "pretty girl following her around" isn't "trying to make out with her" and is "trying to ruin her and her friends' lives" but whatever. You get my point. 

Felicity Smoak - Arrow and sometimes Flash

Felicity Smoak is super kind and super smart. And I think kindness and intelligence are top notch stylistic attributes. She's also brave enough to rock bright blush and lipsticks. Sometimes she wears really short and fitted ensembles which makes you totally not suspect that she's assisting a super hero. Her signature look is the pulled-back-ponytail but she'll let her hair down if she's got a date. Or if she's acting as psycho-serial-killer bate. Point is, if I was a billionaire vigilante, I'd be crazy in love with her, too. (Also sometimes the people in love with her are just billionaires or just vigilantes but if Oliver Queen could just get over his obnoxious bullspit we wouldn't have to worry about the other billionaires or the other vigilantes and she could have the whole billionaire/vigilante package. Sigh.)

Jessica Williams - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Okay so TECHNICALLY Jessica Williams is a person and not a "character" per se, but she's well dressed and lovely and on TV so... she counts. Jessica Williams is SO FUNNY. She's seriously SERIOUSLY funny. And lovely. And I'm in love with her. Anyway, you know how I said kindness and intelligence are stylish attributes? Well, humor? SO STYLISH. Jessica Williams fashion wise is awesome. She wears a lot of suits, which is really exciting because women look good in suits and one time Tina Fey said that the first woman to be a late night TV show host would probably be a suit-wearer and I would watch the heck out of Late Night With Jessica Williams. Also, she can really rock a costume. Plus her hair always looks amazing. And did I mention that she's super funny?

Kira Yukimura - Teen Wolf

Kira wears a lot of tights, mini skirts, patterned dresses, and leather jackets. She wields weapons like a pro, is super pretty, and always hangs out with other well-dressed and gorgeous ladies. She pulls off every look from the "hoodlum about to steal this stuff" to "sporty about to steal this base" to "gorgeous about to steal this heart from this dude right here." Also all the wolves are in love with her.

Sookie St. James - Gilmore Girls

Sookie is so cute. Seriously, seriously cute. She's always doing something fun with her hair: ponytails, braids, curls, and bandanas. When she's cheffin' it up, she wears chef's jackets with really cute and fun patterns and bandanas to protect the food from her hair. Outside of the kitchen, she wears cute skirts, patterned button downs, and cardigans. And whenever the town is having some cool shindig, she's 110% in, which is why in that picture on the far right she's rocking the victory rolls and a vintage dress. And! When there's a fancy event, she's always dolled up in pretty dresses. (Also props to Gilmore Girls for promoting female friendships/relationships and for having a curvy character who is never mocked or scolded or even insecure about her size AND gets everything she wants! You have no idea how hard I clutch onto Sookie St. James from Gilmore Girls.) 

Sophia Burset - Orange Is The New Black

Pre-transition, Sophia hid her femininity beneath masculine clothing. But even then she seriously loved beautiful things. The bulk of the show is set in a women's prison, so 99% of the time, Sophia is dressed like all of the other ladies in bland jumpsuits (although, her hair and makeup are always scores better than the rest of theirs. PLUS she has a really cute robe and made herself some super stylish duct tape shower shoes, so there's that.) But before being arrested, her style was really polished. She primarily wore solid-colored dresses and took tips from her wife to dress polished.

Okay! So, those are my nine features for this segment of "Best Dressed On TV!" I will probably be doing another one of these posts someday... SO leave any suggestions for well dressed women in the comments and I may feature them next time around!

Salted Carmel Hot Chocolate

The weather's getting colder and that means... it's the perfect time for warmth and chocolate and toasty drinks. One of my favorite drinks this time of year is salted caramel hot chocolate. So, here! Have a recipe!

You're going to want to warm up some milk on the stovetop. You should set your burner on a fairly low setting, like two or three. 

Pick your favorite milk--I prefer vanilla almond milk, but it can really be whatever--and pour out one cup. 

Warm up your milk in a saucepan on the stovetop.

Now you have to add some stuff to your saucepan milk. Otherwise you'll just have warm milk. Anyway, you want to add 2-3 spoon fulls of Nesquick and a few drops of vanilla and 1 tsp of sugar.

So add all that stuff to your saucepan and stir everything up so it's nice and even. Keep it on low heat, okay? Because if you take it off the heat too soon it'll become just fancy chocolate milk.

Now get out your mug and caramel syrup. 

Drizzle some caramel syrup around the bottom of your mug. You can do a pretty design. I tried to do a pretty design but it turned out kind of rough, huh? It doesn't matter, you'll pour hot chocolate over it and nobody can see it.

Take a little skewer guy and roast a few giant marshmallows over one of your burners. My brother calls this a "gross waste of energy" though because so much heat escapes and goes nowhere I guess. Anyway, I don't know if it helps with the energy thing but another option is to stick the marshmallows on an oven-safe plate and broil them for a minute or so. They probably won't get all fireside golden, but they will get gooey in the middle and that's really the main effect that you're shooting for.

By this point, your hot chocolate should be all hot and chocolatey so go ahead and dump it into your caramel drizzled mug.

You should have enough marshmallows to completely cover the surface of your beverage. I did not roast enough so I tore a fourth marshmallow into smaller pieces and filled in the gaps. Since they were torn and their little marshmallow insides were exposed it made them nice and gooey so they fit right in with the roasted ones.

Now, drizzle over your marshmallows with some more caramel sauce. The golden brown of the roasted marshmallow looks nice with the golden brown of the syrup. Am I right, or am I right? Oh, yeah, and they taste awesome together, too.

Now, get out your sea salt. If you're someone who hasn't ever had salted caramel or salted chocolate you might be a little standoffish at this point, but trust me, it's the tastiest thing in the world. Oh! And it has to be sea salt. I mean, I've never tried it with table salt and that MIGHT be fine but let's be real it isn't, so go ahead and get out your sea salt.

So, sprinkle a bit of sea salt on top of your hot chocolate. This is totally to taste. If you're wary of salted-sweets you might want to go light on it for your first try. If you're a total sea-salt-chocolate-caramel fiend like I was freshman year of college, go wild, dump a whole bunch on. It's all about your preferences, friend.

But there you go! There you have it! A delicious warm and toasty treat. 

Halloween Party

So this year I decided to have a Halloween Party. It was fun but, to be honest, I don't know how well I like throwing parties on classic party holidays. Anyway, I thought I would kind of outline the party plans.

I'll start with food stuffs because, let's be honest, food stuffs are about 98% of what makes a good shindig.

I made homemade devils food cupcakes. I used store bought chocolate fudge frosting and zig-zagged Halloween Icing over the tops. I'm no cake decorating pro so if I tried to make them look like spiders or pumpkins or whatever I'm pretty sure they would have looked a hot mess. The zig-zag look is a simple way to capture the Halloween theme. I also scored some harvest mix candy corn from the grocery store because no Halloween shindig would be complete without pumpkin shaped sweetened wax. Also I made puppy chow which is a staple party food, in my opinion.

Since you can't exclusively serve sweets at any sort of party, I also made some jalapeno popper croissants. This is a pretty simple recipe. You mix together shredded cheddar cheese, finely chopped jalapenos, cream cheese, and salt. Then you spread the mixture on a croissant, roll that sucker up, and pop it in the oven. Real simple. Also delicious. You're welcome. The middle picture is of some spooky punch. It's just lime sherbet and 7up. One of the English Club girls made it for our ghost stories and campfire night the first year that I was English Club president. I also made baked macaroni and cheese which you can find a ton of recipes for online but I just made it up as I went along and it still turned out pretty darn good.

I also made some cheddar/corn/biscuit things that my brother totally jokingly came up with and suggested but then I took seriously. For a centerpiece, I put together a floral arrangement (using fake flowers of course it's not like I had real money to throw this shindig with) and used a fake skull (pretty cheap from Walmart), and a pie pumpkin.

So, I set this up and I'm a little wary to even share it because once the party was going I kind of forgot about the whole thing and we never used it. But I bought hair chalk and body glitter and set up a little station in case people wanted to play with cosmetics on the sacredest of playing with cosmetics days. But, like I said, I kind of forgot about it so they didn't get used. On the bright side, I can just hang onto them for another shindig at a later date.

We set up a little movie theater in our living room using a karaoke machine that my brother bought at a thrift store, a projector, a DVD player, a sheet, and few strings of Christmas lights. We watched Young Frankenstein and the set up worked so well that my parents have kept it up and we've been watching Wes Anderson films on it in the evenings.

Halloween is 9/10s about your costumes. I dressed as Morgana Penndragon. These pictures were taken after four hours of partying, so my hair has fallen down and I am beyond exhausted, but it's a pretty cute costume, yeah?

And, uh, to wind everything up, here are a few more pictures of some of my guests:

And here's a picture that my parents kept insisting someone take of me standing in front of the table:

I think my parents were so determined to get this picture taken because I spent SO MUCH TIME prepping food.

Anyway, all in all, it went pretty well. So! Before I send you all off, I just want to assert a special "thank you" to everyone who came by and partied with me!

Get Ready With Me: Halloween Night

So, this Halloween I decided to dress up as Morgana Pendragon from BBC's Merlin. I mean, Morgana Pendragon season four or five when she's all hot and evil. Anyway! I thought I'd do a get ready with me featuring my Halloween makeup!

So, to begin with, Morgana is very pale. She's paler than I get with all my covering up and super pale makeup, but what can you do about that? The point is, first I tried to get my skin to look lighter than it really is. Also, I tried to make all of my excessive discolorations disappear. I started with Clindamycin Phosphate Lotion (prescribed by a dermatologist) as my moisturizer. I topped that with ALMAY Smart Shade CC Luminous Primer to prep my face. Next, I used ALMAY Smart Shade CC Cream. Normally, I wouldn't use moisturizer and a tinted moisturizer because that seems like overkill... BUT I've had a few patches of dry skin across my forehead and chin as of late, so I was trying to fend that off a bit. Then, I used NYX HD Photogenic Concealer to cover up blemishes and discolorations. Then, I applied Neutrogena SkinCleaning Oil-Free Liquid Foundation evenly all over my face. I used a very light foundation to try and recreate Morgana's pale, pale face.

Next, I moved on to my eyes. I started with LORAC Eyelid Primer to prepare my eyelids for makeup. Then, I applied bareMinerals "ice queen" eyeshadow. Unfortunately, this gorgeous eyeshadow is not available any more. But I guess any shimmery white eyeshadow will do. Then, I used a skinny brush to apply shimmery black from a gray and black duo eye shadow from icing like eyeliner along my upper lashline. I kind of flared the eyeshadow/eyeliner out a bit near the edges of my eyelids, too. And, uh, yeah. Unfortunately I couldn't find a link for this eyeshadow either. Then, I doubled up on mascaras, first using tarte lights camera lashes to really grab and lengthen all of my lashes. Then, I used NYX Pin-Up Tease to thicken my lashes and really draw out the lashes at the outer corners of my eyes.

Then, I used New York Color Cheek Glow Powder Blush in Central Park Pink which I dusted upwards along my cheekbones to give myself a hint of pinkish color. Finally, I used NYX Mineral "Set It & Don't Fret It" Matte Finishing Powder to finish my look. It isn't really a very pigmented powder, but it does a really nice job of making your face look natural. Like maybe you aren't wearing concealer and liquid foundation. Maybe that's just your skin!

Now, for my hair, I used some frizz managing oil and curl constructing mousse to kind of keep the wild curls rained it a bit. I teased up my bangs and pinned them back in a bit of a poof. I braided a couple of strips of hair and held them in place with small bands. Also, I flipped one braid over my head like a headband and pinned it to the side. You can't tell all of that by looking at that picture. But it's okay. I think the important things to remember are: poofed bangs, a couple braids, dark curls. There you go. Evil Morgana hair.

My final cosmetic step was lipstick. I started with moisturizing lip butter. I used AJs Country Cottage Lip Butter and then I used NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Sydney as my lip color.

And there you have it! My look was finished!

Anyway! I hope you had a fabulous Halloween!