Furless Grunge Manicure!

I won't ramble on too much because I caught my son's virus, so now I'm sick, too. Two Birthdays ruined now, woe is me, and so on and so forth. Anyway, right now I'm wearing Furless nail lacquer in Grunge. It's a very dark green, but it comes off as black in these photos, because I've been too sick to leave the house for some actual sunlight (where it may have appeared greener). Also, this is two coats. I applied a second coat to even it out, however in the future with this polish I will just apply one thicker coat, so the green hue can be picked up.

Products Used:
Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream
Furless nail lacquer in Grunge*
Max Factor Nailfinity Glossy Top Coat

I don't wear dark nail colours all that often, but I must say, I love this modern, sexy look. Other polishes in the cheekily-named Furless Grunge range are Rogue (grey), Trashy (dark red) and Bitch (black). Hehe.

Disclaimer: The Furless Grunge range of polishes were provided for consideration. I did not receive any payment. All opinions are my own.

Chocolate KitKat Birthday Cake Tutorial!

I say Tutorial; this is really more of a Vague General Guide.

What To Buy:
packet of M&Ms
13 (approx) four-finger KitKats
2 boxes Greens Chocolate Cake mix (or whatever brand you prefer)
eggs
milk
butter (get a large size)
vanilla essence
cocoa powder
icing sugar mixture
(use the cake mix packet and Icing recipe for ingredient quantities)

My boy became unwell on his 7th Birthday last week, and is still sick now. We had to cancel his Party, and he hasn't been able to eat any of his Birthday Cake, but he did manage to blow the candles out today. So here's the cake anyway. He wanted a KitKat and M&Ms cake again, but this year I thought I'd make a '7' shape on the top instead of covering the whole thing in M&Ms. This cake is already super rich, it really doesn't need five million M&Ms on top.

The cake is really easy to make, especially since it uses pre-mix. Beginners and inexperienced bakers would definitely be able to give this a go and get impressive results. I used two boxes of Greens (you could use White Wings or any cake mix) Chocolate Cake mix from the supermarket and made the cakes together in one large bowl, as per packet instructions. Because you're doing a double mix it really has to be a large bowl though, because you're mixing together twice as many eggs, twice as much milk etc. I never use a mixer as I can't be stuffed getting it out of the cupboard.

Once it's mixed, divide the cake batter evenly between two identical round cake tins and bake until a skewer comes out clean. Then once they are completely cooled down, cut the most uneven one straight across horizontally with a large serrated knife, and put aside the top (it's now scraps, but you can eat it later with the leftover icing).

Chocolate Icing

I decided to use this Chocolate Icing recipe again, since my son loves it so much. It's seriously the most fluffy, mousse-like icing I've ever made. I'm pretty sure this is because it's mostly butter, so it whips up like nobody's business. It's a little bit fiddly to make, but totally worth it. It makes a fair bit, and each time I make it, I have leftovers.

Time to get acquainted with the 13 KitKats you bought. At this point, I open them all up and carefully snap them all in half so I'm left with a whole bunch of two-finger pieces. Make sure they are all intact when you buy them or they could be broken in the wrong place! You will be sick to death of KitKats once this cake is finished, trust me.

I then put the bottom half of the cake on whatever I'll be serving it on and ice the cut top, then stick the whole other cake on top. It you want, you could easily have cut that one in half as well and do more layers, but I couldn't be stuffed. Once that's on, ice the top and all around the sides, so everything is covered in delicious fluffy icing and no cake is exposed.

Then arrange the M&Ms on top in the shape of a 7 (YAY a nice easy number!). Arrange the two finger KitKat pieces around the edges of the cake, pressing gently so they adhere to the icing, and you are done! 

Now go grab that leftover cake top, slather it in leftover icing, make a cup of tea and put your feet up for half an hour. You deserve it!

Ulta3 Lip Paints and Swatches!

I finally tracked down some Ulta3 Lip Paints at a nearby chemist recently. I love looking through the Ulta3 display because it's such a fun, inexpensive brand, meaning you can pick up quite a few things without going broke. Even though the products are cheap, they don't compromise on quality. I particularly love their expansive nail polish range and have a shit-ton in my collection.

These lip paints retail for only $5.95 each, and for that price tag you get 7ml of bold, 'super-intense' lip colour. These colours are bright, pretty and fun! I picked up Eclectic Orange, Manic Mauve and Radical Red, but there's actually six shades in the range. The others are Extreme Pink, Expressive Fuchsia and Loud Purple.

I feel like the squeezy tubes are slightly on the small side in terms of how much product you get, however at only $5.95 a pop, it's not really an issue. I adore the wand doe-foot spongetip applicator, which is angled for precision application. The product is easy to apply, smoothing on effortlessly. The formula of these lip paints is lovely. It's kind of like a thick, creamy colour-packed gloss, that looks more like a lipstick once it's on. It's not sticky; in fact the texture is moisturising, flexible and very comfortable to wear. You get a shiny finish, but there's no feeling of it sliding off. I found them to be quite long-wearing, as well. These lip paints have a pepperminty fragrance that some people may not like, but I found it OK. 

Apologies in advance, my Eclectic Orange lip swatch was a disaster and basically unusable. So I didn't include it!

L-R: Eclectic Orange, Manic Mauve, Radical Red

Manic Mauve

Radical Red

Colours?
Eclectic Orange, Manic Mauve, Radical Red, Extreme Pink, Expressive Fuchsia, Loud Purple.

Price?
$5.95 for a 7ml tube

Where can I get them?
Ulta3 is stocked at Terry White, Chemmart, Bloom the Chemist, Good Price and other selected pharmacies as well as selected Target stores. This range was released a few months ago, and can be difficult to track down, so if you come across them in your travels, I'd recommend checking them out!

Disclaimer: Non-sponsored. Products bought with my own money and all opinions are my own.