Well well well,
look at this. Today I have another short HAULy friday blog post for you. As you might have seen through my TK maxx store opening blog post, I have been shopping again haha
It was also my birthday, so I treated myself to a few new sheet masks, skin care products and nail care products.
Read below to find out what I got.
Disclaimer: advertisement – the following products were bought and paid by myself.
Hey everyone,
those of you who follow me on Instagram or Facebook know that last week was time for another SocialMovieNight. This time we watched Pitch Perfect 2 and I was super excited about it! I really liked the first movie, so I was curious to see what happened to the Bella’s.
If you haven’t watched either of those two movies, feel free to check the trailers.
For this SocialMovieNight I prepared something very special. You might not know it, but I LOVE baking! So I decided to create a Pitch Perfect 2 cake to give the winners of the SocialMovieNight tickets something delicious to nom on and welcome the star guests Rebel Wilson and Elizabeth Banks to the SocialMovieNight.
Today I want to show you the making of the cake, as well as the making of my self-made Pitch Perfect 2 t-shirt.
Recipe for the cakes
What you will need:
The cake was baked in 4 steps, meaning I prepared the cake dough in 4 equal portions and baked each of it in a square cake-pan of roughly 30 to 23 cm. I own an adjustable cake pan which can actually be adjusted to the original size of the cake (32 to 54 cm) but that wouldn’t have fit into my oven, so I had to size it down.
Put the butter, white sugar and vanillin sugar in your mixing bowl and mix it with a hand mixer until it becomes fluffy. Add your complete eggs and then the egg whites, mix well. In a separate bowl add the flour, salt and baking powder and pour the buttermilk into a pot. Now carefully add the flour mix and the buttermilk in turns while mixing the dough with your hand mixer. Put the mixture into the baking-pan and sit it into the oven with circulating air at 170 degrees for about 20-30 minutes. Make sure to test the cake towards the end with a wooden skewer. When it’s done take it out the oven, sit it where it can cool off and carefully loosen the sides of the pan to remove it and use for the next cake.
As I said, I prepared and baked this recipe 4 times and let it cool off. It took me about 3-4 hours. Since I did it in the evening, I covered it with clear foil and put the pieces together the next day, using self-made icing.
Recipe for the icing
What you will need:
Take a bowl and a sieve and add the powdered sugar into the sieve. Now strain it through the sieve to get rid of any bumps. Sit it aside and put the soft butter into your mixing bowl. Mix it until it becomes fluffy and almost white for roughly 3-4 minutes on highest speed. Make sure to scratch the butter off the sides of the bowl to get a nice even mass. Slowly add the powdered sugar 2-3 spoons at a time and mix it well so the butter covers all of the sugar. In between turn the mixer on highest speed to get a nice fluffy icing. When that’s done gently fold in the Philadelphia.
Take your cakes and carefully cut off the top to get a nice even surface. Decide which sides will be in the middle – at the part where you stick them together and cut the edge to a nice straight line. Put those two cakes onto a cake board next to each other (I cut mine myself and covered it with wrapping paper and clear wrapping foil) and line them up so you will have a nice big cake base. In between add some icing to stick the cakes together. Add icing onto the surface and put the other two cakes on top. Remember to cut the two middle edges to size so they stick together nicely. Now you should have a nice big cake base. All you have to do now, is to cut the cake to size and clean up the edges.
Now add the rest of the icing as a crumb coat and spread it out evenly. Let that sit for about 30 minutes before you add the fondant.
I recently bought THE MAT from Sweetwise (PRO size), a great tool for rolling out and placing fondant without loosing your mind.
When the fondant is rolled out flat and the icing had enough time to set, get ready to place the fondant onto your cake. When you are done and you cut off the excess, it should look like this.
Now the fun part begins. You can start decorating your cake. I decided for a simple “Welcome back PITCHES” and a black banner with yellow writing “#PitchPerfect2” since that is the official hash-tag for the new movie.
I rolled out fondant in yellow and black and cut out the letters by hand using cut out paper letters as a guideline.
The next day I also prepared around 24 cupcakes with different colored icing to match the movie poster and the cake.
Here you can see the finished product from the Instagram post by Robert Hofmann (YouTube | FB | Instagram | Twitter), the creator of the SocialMovieNight.
I was very excited to do this kind of creative output for the SocialMovieNight. Everyone was happy with the result and the fans also enjoyed the taste, which made me very happy. I like to surprise people, so this was really fun!
For me it was also very exciting that Rebel Wilson and Elizabeth Banks got to see and cut the cake. They also complimented me for making this.
My shirt for the night was also made by myself. I used textile colors and pens to draw on some headphones, a tape, as well as the #PitchPerfect2 and SocialMovieNight on the border of the back.
As always I prepared a little nail design. This time only a fun look using Ciaté’s – Big yellow taxi and O.P.I.’s – Alpine Snow as a base, as well as a black polish and on top Maybelline’s Colorshow Street Artist LE with some studs.
This was such a Super Fun Night (get it? That was the name of Rebel Wilson’s TV Show in 2013/14). I always get excited to see how much fun everyone is having and how much effort everyone from the team puts into those community events. As always there were awesome pictures taken by L. from Red Carpets Reports.
All the pictures used below are from him and were also posted on the SocialMovieNight Facebook page.
Please check the links below.
RedCarpetReports: Website | FB
SocialMovieNight: FB | Instagram | Twitter
PureOnline: Website | FB | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube
Patrice Bouédibéla (FB | Instagram | Twitter) was once again the moderator for the whole evening.
Creator of the Social Movie Night, Robert Hofmann with his two co-host’s of the night, Chrissy and Mirella.
Cute fans who loved my cake :)
Cinema and stage program
SocialMovieNight selfie in the making
Adorable and super nice Elizabeth Banks and Rebel Wilson …..
…. cutting my cake
I am really curious to read what you think. Please let me know in the comments below.
Good Evening everyone,
today I have a huge review on different matte top coats from different brands for you. I hope this will help you guys to find the right product for your needs.
Let’s see which matte top coats I have to review:
Let me start with the one product I only could review by memory – Manhattan – ProMat Top Coat.
When I prepard this review I saw that this top coat already had dried in and kind of seperated, so the important part of the product was setting at the base of the bottle. I remember when I bought it I paid around 3 euro. Before I bought it I searched on the Internet for good matte top coats, since the trend just started. A lot of people recommended this on by Manhattan, but I must say I was kind of disappointed. I felt that it always worked or didn’t work that well. Sometimes it even showed strokes which looked very unprofessional.
On the pictures you can see the result with the ruined product. Of course when it wasn’t dried in, it didn’t look this bad ;)
Anyway, I would not recommend this to you, there are much better alternatives on the market.
Let’s take a look at the other products. I know it might be hard to actually see the result on the tips, but that’s the best I could do. In general you will have to take my word for it when I tell you my opinion^^
Sadly I can not show you the tips directly and even then they all look pretty similar. But sinde I used them with different base colors and brand I can give you a piece of my mind on these.
O.P.I. – Matte Top Coat
This is honestly a really good matte top coat. It is easy to apply, spreads smoothly and dries fast. It gives a nice matte finish and was my favorite for a long time. Sadly the price is a bit heavy with around 13 euro.
ORLY – Matte Top
Even though most matte top coats are clear or rather milky looking, this product is more yellow-ish. The result is just as matte though. I haven’t used it on white polish yet, so I don’t know how the original “color” would affect the white polish. It is a nice product, even though I must say, compared to other matte top coats, this is not in my top three. It felt more like a satin matte. not a full matte top coat. The price is in the same range as the O.P.I. matte top coat.
wet n wild – wild shine – E4073 Matte Top Coat
This product is defenitly on eof the cheaper alternatives. This wet n wild top coat costs around 1,50 euro and is a nice alternative for people whoe can’t or don’t want to pay a lot of money for a matte top coat. The result is nice and shows a nice matte finish once it dried. What I would like them to change though is the thin brush. I am not a big fan of them and find wider brushes to spread the product more evenly.
Ciaté – Mattnificent
I own two different versions of this product, one was included in my chalkboard manicure kit and the other I bought by the beginning of 2015 before they changed the packaging.
left -> newer version
right -> older version
newer version
The product is, again, one of the more expensive ones. It is currently for sale at around 17 euro. When I first tried this top coat I was surprised how well those products could work, because it was my 2nd matte top coat after I bought the one from Manhattan, which didn’t work well for me. It has a wider brush then most others and allows the application to be really easy. It dries fast and leaves a nice matte finish. Sometimes, it leaves strokes though if you don’t work fast enough. So you gotta be quick when you apply your top coat. But it also happens when your products gets too old, which you can see on the pictures below.
left -> older version
right -> newer version
older version
p2 – Fancy Beauty Tales LE – Scandalous Matte Nail Top Coat
This matte top coat is probably not available anymore. It was sold within the Fancy Beauty Tales LE from p2 in February and March 2015. I found it to be okay. The price was around 2-3 euro, but again the brush was too thin for my taste. The result though was good. It took a bit longer to dry, but not an awful lot. All together this was an okay product, but it’s also not in my top three.
Essence – Satin Matte – 26 matte about you
This is one of the two top coats with a satin matte finish, meaning it is not as matte as the ones from O.P.I. or Ciate for examply. It is nice that the cheaper brands try to publish matte top coats as well, but I am wondering why they choose satin matte insteat of nice full matte top coats. The result is okay for a satin matte finish, even though I prefere the full matte effect. The price is around 2-3 euro, so not bad. If what you are looking is a satin matte top coat, you might want to go with the one from Essence or Catrice. To me they felt like the same product. The result looked the same :)
Catrice – Silk Matte Top Coat
Since the top coat from Catrice was very very similar to the one from Essence, there is not much I have to add here. The Essence top coat contains only 8ml, the one from Catrice 10ml. Also the brush from Catrice is a bit wider then the one from Essence, a bit too wide for my taste, but if you can handle it that won’t bother you I think. Again, the results are very similar. I like the Catrice bottle design more though ;)
Cosmetica Fanatica – Top Coat Matte
Most of you might not know, but there is a 1 euro shop called Pfennigland, which sells Cosmetica Fanatica products. This super affordable company sells many different colored nail polish, nail care products, as well as base / top coats and polishes for artificial nails.
This is their matte top coat and is one of my favorites from the ones I have showed you today. It only costs 1,49 euro and gives a nice full matte finish. So the price-performance ratio is really good with this one. For thos of you, who don’t have much money or don’t want to pay a lot of money for a matte top coat, this one is for you.
p2 – Ultimate Matte Top Coat
Last but not least, p2 also came out with a new matte top coat in their standart range. It costs 2,45 euro and gives a solid matte finish. Again, the brush is not my favorite, but all together this is a good choice since it’s much easier to purchase then the one from Cosmetica Fanatica.
I hope this overview gave you some tips on good deals and products. My personal top three are the following:
3) Ciaté – high price, but a great product with a good brush
2) Cosmetica Fanatica – very good price-performance ratio: good result for a cheap price
1) O.P.I. – very high quality: perfect combination of brush, product and result
Let me know about your experiences with matte top coats. Do you have any additional tipps for me?
all the small stuff and things 