Baking | Valentine's Day Donuts ♡

I think Valentine's Day is one of my favourite days of the year. I am such a sucker for anything pink, heart-shaped or chocolatey. I also love to bake for Valentine's day, so as the big day quickly approaches I got into the kitchen and started baking. I found the recipe for these baked donuts in the February issue of Chatelaine magazine. You can find the recipe online here. Strangely, I don't own any plain round cookie cutters (note to self: buy some asap!) so I went down the untraditional route of square donuts.  

This recipe is great because they are baked, no deep-fryer needed. The taste was pretty good, though a bit bland. I think they would have been better if I had made the donuts (or the glaze) a different flavour. Though, they were still quite nice! After the donuts were completely cooled, I dipped the tops in the glaze and let that dry and then dipped them again. You don't need to do this, but I wanted a more opaque look for the glaze. Then I topped them with some festive sprinkles and voila!! Adorable Valentine's day donuts!

♡

Beauty | Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics

Back in December when I visited New York City I did my fair bit of shopping. While I was perusing the makeup counters inside the lovely Henri Bendel I was stopped by a makeup artist asking if she could freshen up my look. I happily agreed and sat down. The line of cosmetics she was using was called Youngblood, a brand that I have never heard of before so I was very interested to see what she had in store for me. Once the makeup brushes were set back down and I looked in the mirror I knew I needed to buy some of these products. My skin looked absolutely incredibly. I had sat down on that chair with tired and dull looking skin and I left absolutely glowing. Not only did my skin look great, but it felt great, as well. It didn't even feel like I had any makeup on. I knew I needed some of this magical makeup (yeah, I was that impressed), so I bought the two products that the MUA suggested. After walking around the freezing cold city for several more hours, I came back to the hotel and my makeup looked as if it had just been applied. Very impressive. 

The first product is the Minerals in the Mist facial mist in Restore ($24). I use this facial mist after cleansing and moisturizing my face to lock in moisture and again after applying my makeup to set my foundation. You can also spritz this facial mist on during the day to freshen up your look. I think this will be especially great during the hot summer months to give your face a bit of refreshment. This spray uses a combination of grapefruit, lime and rosemary which give it a bit of a citrus-y smell that I absolutely love. It reminds me of Sprite!

The second product I picked up is the Mineral Primer ($41), one of Youngbloods's best selling products. What really sold me on this product was how soft and silky it made my skin feel. One pump is enough to cover your face, so the 30mL bottle is lasting quite nicely. Once you apply the product to your face using circular motions, your skin is left feeling like you have got nothing on. I have always had issues with other primers being either too heavy or incredibly greasy once applied, so this is a welcomed change. You can wear the primer by itself or as a base for your foundation or tinted moisturizer. When used on its own, it helps to reduce the visibility of pores or fine lines. When used as a base for foundation it helps create a smooth and even base that helps create a flawless look. 

When using both of these products together I really find that my makeup stays on all day long. I believe Youngblood is only in stores in the U.S but you can order online, which I intend to do after these guys run out. You can visit their website here and take a look around. 

Recently

Hi! Long time no see. I made a new years resolution to update this blog more frequently and with a total of one measly post in January I think I can safely say this resolution got off to a bad start. Oops. But it's February now and I am going to try really hard to get a new post up at least once a week. While I was MIA from the blogging world in January, I celebrated my twenty-second birthday! On the day of my actual birthday I went out for a lovely meal at the Burger Cellar, one my favourite restaurants. I ordered the vegetarian burger with sweet potato fries. I have eaten a lot of veggie burgers and this one from the Burger Cellar is definitely the best I've had. 

All through January some friends and I have been getting together to plan an exciting trip this June! We have been discussing taking a trip to Europe for a while now and as of last week my plane tickets have been booked! I'm so excited! We are going to be starting off our trip in Austria, then Germany and then I'll be splitting up from my friends and heading over to England to meet up with another friend. I have wanted to visit England for as long as I can remember and now that I'm finally going I honestly cannot believe it! 

This past weekend I celebrated my birthday with six of my closest friends. We started the evening by going out for dinner at this super cozy and cool restaurant called 7 West Cafe. During dinner I totally forgot that I had brought along my camera and took no photos, which really sucks because the place was so cool and the food was incredibly tasty. I ordered a wedding cake martini (!!!) which was awesome, bruschetta and a veggie burger which was piled high with the most delicious hummus! I would really like to go back and make sure to take plenty of photos of the place. After dinner we headed back to my friend Monika's place where she had the most adorable mini Krispy Kreme donuts set up with candles! After being serenaded to with happy birthday we got ourselves dolled up to go and watch the Rocky Horror Picture Show! Rocky Horror is one of my all-time favourite films and going to the cinema to watch it is one of our traditions. We dressed in character and had such an amazing time doing the time warp and putting my new Instax camera to good use!

Well, that is really all that I have been up to lately. Thank you for reading!

PS: I just reached over 100 followers on Bloglovin'! I'm super stoked and amazed that people enjoy reading my blog. I want to thank every single one of you for taking the time to check me out! THANK YOU! xxxxxx