Chocolate Yule Log with Raspberry Mascarpone Filling

MAC Holiday Collection Objects of Affection

There's nothing I complain about more than MAC limited edition collections (except for maybe every time my laptop switches to Canadian Multilingual). They are always amazing and so it is always a game of risk determining whether something better could be coming out next month. There are too many collections to indulge in some of everything! When I saw this year's MAC holiday collection, I loved the packaging and the theme but I told myself that I didn't really neeeeed anything and this is kinda true. Last night though, I saw the collection in person, in a recently renovated and huge mac counter at our local department store. While I was sitting the changeroom while my mum was trying on a top (we were there for Christmas cards...), my mother asked me how much my ticket home cost and I said you could pay me back in MAC. It was only fair we both went home with something.

Black Friday at Book Outlet and a December TBR

The Black Friday sale at Book Outlet was too good of a deal for me to pass up and discovering BookTube has been such an enabler for book shopping (not that I needed much help in the first place!). If you aren't familiar with Book Outlet, they sell heavily discounted books, marked at the bottom with a marker dot signifying it cannot be returned to the publishers. So if you can deal with a marker dot (one of my books is even mark-free), you need to check out this website. For Black Friday, they offered the chance to get $10 off your purchase. These three books I got for free (well nothing is ever really free!) but I did pay $6.50 in shipping. 

Healing Blemish Scabs

While I definitely suffered from hormonal acne as a teenager (something that has been managed with medication since I was 17), I suffer from something of a ghost limb when it comes to my past skin condition. I do still get the occasional spot and have blackheads and whiteheads on my nose and chin as well as milia around my eye areas. The problem is that rather than leave these spots (so minuscule that I only notice them when I press my face into the mirror), I pick them as if I was still a teenager covered in spots. Nowadays, this is instigated by stress, something to which my friends all say "Oh yeah, I'm always unconsciously picking at them while studying." What I do is take a study break to stand in front of the mirror and very consciously take my stress out on my face. This happened very recently prior to my exams, the last night I was visiting my parents and I had to spend the entire next day in downtown Toronto covered in makeup (but still not enough to cover the "milia spot" I shouldn't have picked because you can't!) feeling self-conscious. If you are a picker like me, here are some of my tips to heal the scabs left from picking blemishes.

Exam Trilogy #3: Cottage Pie Recipe

The final installment of the Exam Trilogy is a recipe. During exams, no one wants to cook and especially when you have an exam at 7, it can be hard to make time to cook dinner. A recipe like Cottage Pie is great because it has the comfort food element, the winter, stick-to-your-bones element and you can just stick some in the microwave for a quick dinner without the food going soggy. I also used minced turkey to make the recipe slightly healthier. If you you want to improve on that you could use a cauliflower mash instead of potatoes. I made mine with a friend to split the food as well as to take a "social" break from studying. 

The Other Sephora Sale

Sephora's November 20% sale gets a lot of well-deserved hype, but since I was buying a $250 study manual this year, I did not indulge. My favourite of Sephora's sales takes place in December and for a student who doesn't drop a hundred dollars at Sephora (in one go, that is), this sale offer's a better deal. This deal was $20 off of $50 for VIB ($15 for BI and $25 for VIB Rouge).

Exam Trilogy #2: How To "Shut Down" At Night

The second post in my Exam Trilogy is about "shutting down" at night. One of the most difficult things about exams is trying to get some R&R. Sometimes I lie in bed all night imaging the next day and organizing my thoughts and then when my alarm goes off at seven, I haven't had enough sleep to get up and accomplish my mental list. Getting a good night's sleep is important for brain-functioning and being able to relax is important for your mental health when you spend all your waking hours worrying about making dean's list. And if you're one of those people who prefer all-nighters you might want to read this.

Exam Trilogy #1: Three Products For Exam Season

This will be the first post in my Exam Trilogy (a la Essie Button) meant to help you through exam stress and time constraints. This first post is three beauty products which will help you look and feel your best when you have no time to "naturally" look and feel your best. 

Weekly Review #1

(from top left) 1. Finishing all my Christmas shopping at Square One before December. 2. Snow accumulating on my apartment window. 3. (way too many) Red Velvet cupcakes. 4. The filling on my front tooth fell out the day before I was going home. I looked like a hillbillie. 5. My first blog post went up of an Indigo haul. 6. Decorating the Christmas tree and trying to keep all mum's creepy elf ornaments at the back (she moved them all to front the next morning).