Chicken & Broccoli Alfredo

My boyfriend wanted to make chicken in a mushroom sauce for dinner tonight, and I came across this recipe.

The recipe is pretty simple; I picked up some boneless chicken breasts and panfried them in butter. I fried up some mushrooms in butter in another pan, and once the chicken was browned I added a can of Campbell's creamy mushroom soup, a can full of skim milk (instead of the 1 can water recommended), some more butter, 1/2 cup parmesean cheese, and mozza cheese. I boiled the linguine and during the last few mins tossed in the cut broccoli.

Although I love mushrooms, I have to say I was never a fan of mushroom soup growing up, so I was a little hesitant in trying this recipe. Honestly, it was a great meal! It would have been even better with a glass of white wine. ;)

Coral & Turquoise

Today's FOTD. I've been having an obsession with turquoise lately, and I'm really loving Evil Shade's lipgloss in Push.

Here's a better view of Sobe's blush, Icing on the Cake. It's a really pretty neutral, and super sparkly! They have an entire line of Duochrome blushes. I'm going to try to do a look for each of the blush samples I purchased.

Eyes: Brazen Coy, Paradox, Incognito, Headstrong
Face: Brazen Hi-Def powder, Sobe Botanicals Icing on the Cake blush
Lips: Evil Shade Push lipgloss

Quintescentials on Etsy

I went to class today only to find out it was cancelled - my instructor lives outside the city and we had a crazy snow storm last night, all highways were closed this morning. I should have known better to check the annoucements online...Gah! Luckily, I came home to a package from Quintescentials! I had added their Chocolate Fudge scrub hearts to my favorites and was dreamily eyeing the listing for days... before finally giving in and placing an order. I contacted the owner, Samantha, and she put up a custom listing for me of 10z of Chocolate Fudge scrubs. For $5.00 you recieve 6oz of scrubs, and $8.00 gives you 10oz. Shipping was very reasonable to Canada.

My order arrived in a small box, wrapped in pink tissue paper. The invoice was also included with a thank you note!

My scrub hearts were beautifully packaged, so cute! I was also sent a bar of Pink Vanilla Sugar as a gift, thanks Samantha!! :) This reminds me of Lush's rockstar, but more cotton candy & vanilla scented.
The scrubs?? They ARE as delicious smelling as they look! Oh goodness... I really do love chocolate, and I love these. I wish I could eat them; they smell like brownies! I used half of a heart on my hands, and they felt really nice. They're exfoliating, but not rough. If you run your hands under some warm water, you can mold the scrub a bit so it becomes more softer. I do like that they come in convienant, one time use sizes! I hate bringing my huge sugar scrubs into the shower, and worry about getting water inside of them. For 10z, I received 15 heart scrubs.

Yum! Don't they look good enough to eat?!?

You can also check out Quintescentials's blog for updates and more! A giveaway just ended today, and i'm sure there will be more in the future.

Evil Shades: Pin Up Girls Swatches

I received my order from Evil Shades today! It was placed on the 21st of Jan and shipped on the 3rd of Feb. Which is weird, because i'm still waiting on two orders which were shipped Jan 10th. Customs must be swatching my order...
I ordered the Pin Up Girls collection in sample sizes, Push lipgloss, and a few other eyeshadow samples.

Limited edition Push lipgloss! The color is quite nice, a coral which is perfect for spring.Yum! The gloss itself is very moisturizing and non-sticky.

Most of my samples were filled to the top, but they were quite varied. Y'know how some companies make eyeshadows with glitter that is hardly visible? The red glitter in this is ACTUALLY present, and visibly shows up when swatched!

Shadows all swatched over primer & Pixie Epoxy.

CC41, sweater girl, pencil skirt, vavavoom, whisper, wink, wiggledress, bombshell, wyvern, glooming, sinister, nightshade, backtalk blush, silk stockings lipstick, push lipgloss

CC41 - matte neon orange

sweater girl - matte neon yellow

pencil skirt - matte blue, I didn't see a shift in this one.

vavavoom - pine green with golden highlights! Would look awesome with brown eyes.

whisper - lavender with silver sparkle

wink - pink with silver sparkle

wiggledress - matte black with visible red sparkles

bombshell - beige with blue shift

wyvern - light green with sparkle

glooming - black with large visible aqua sparkles

sinister - vivid green

nightshade - bright purple.... Yes, let me tell you, this color is bright. The clamshell was packed almost full, and silly me, I sat swatching these in my living room. I spilled my sample ALL over my living room floor.. Thank goodness I managed to get it out. I scrubbed with a kitchen cleansing spray for quite some time. Probably going to get another sample of this with my next order, it is a pretty shade.

backtalk blush - bright pink with golden shimmer; less hot pink than I was expecting, this is totally wearable!

silk stockings lipstick - lighter than it appears here. It's a little darker than the Bombshell eyeshadow.

push lipgloss - coral gloss

My favorites are Whsiper, Wink, Bombshell, and Wyvern! I'm really excited to try the lighter shades out as lipcolors or as a blush. Bombshell is a really pretty neutral, and I plan on wearing Silk Stockings tomorrow. I'm not a fan of matte shades, but i'm thinking of trying the neons over some other shadows, to make them appear brighter!
Did you order anything from the Pin Up Girls collection?

Hi-Fi Zodiac Collection Swatches

I received my sample order from Hi-Fi Cosmetics that I placed on Jan.07/11 today. The TAT was insane before Veronica closed up shop for her move, but the wait was worth it. The set of 12 sample eyeshadows was 8.99, and Veronica had a 10% off coupon when I ordered. She included two free eyeshadow samples, eye glitz in new age sample, and the high impact shadow fix sample! Overall I really like this collection of shadows, all the colors seem to compliment eachother and there's quite a few combos i've been considering, based on these photos alone.

goodbye, pisces - vivid blue with an aqua sheen in the light

dark star capricorn - purple-grey with pale pink highlights

sunrise in aries - peachy orange with yellow sparkle

chinashop taurus - gold with yellow sparkle

scorpio rising - purple with pink and blue sparkle

in love with a sagittarius - baby pink with tiny blue sparkle

age of aquarius - light baby blue with silver sparkle

journey of a gemini - more purple than saggittarius, with a blue/silver duochrome

leo, lord of lights - liquid bronze! the bronzer version of On Tour

gift from virgo - looks white in the bag, but applies to a shimmery pale pink, would make a nice highlight/accent on tearduct

three libras - pale taupe with silver sparkles

tropic of cancer - pink-purple with purple and silver sparkle

queen of disaster - medium bright blue with silver sparkle

wanted - darker, more warm version of leo

new age eye glitz - green, lime green and blue sparkle

My favorites of the bunch are dark star capricorn, journey of a gemini, leo lord of lights, gift from virgo, three libras. I think i'm going to need a full size of Three Libras, it looks like the perfect everyday/neutral shade. I also really want to try sunrise in aries mixed with a peach lipgloss, It's a lot more of a coral color than it appears in some of the photos.

Here's a photo of one of the sample baggies; as always, you get a ton of product with Hi-Fi!

Now for the eye primer, quite a few people compare it to Fyrinnae's pixie epoxy. I applied a pea sized amount, & I found that the shadows applied easier (will have to see how it works for blending shadows later) but it defintely stained as others have mentioned! It is very thick, and when I went to wash it off, the shadows smeard in the direcion I washed, hardly moving at all. I had to scrub my hand for a good couple of minutes to get the shadow all off and my hand still felt sticky afterwards. My hand is now red and a little sore, so i'm a little hesitant to try this on my eyes. Have you tried the High Impact shadow fix?

Happy Valentines!

Happy Valentines Day everyone!
Valentines has never been one of my favorite holidays, as we all know, it's very commercialized. Being in school 5 days a week and my boyfriend working evenings (till midnight), the weekends are the only days we really get to spend more than an hour together lately. Valentines was an excuse for us to take time for ourselves and enjoy a nice dinner by ourselves.
Originally I had assumed we would be going out for valentines, but Matt made me a homecooked meal...Aww! He had been preparing all day Saturday while I was at home & reviewing class notes and made the chicken teriyaki sushi. To be honest, i'm not a fan of fish and Chicken Teriyaki is our favorite sushi, one of the few I'll actually eat when we go out for sushi.

The set up.

He hand-rolled the sushi which included sushi rice, cucumber, and pan-fried teriyaki chicken. He made and fried the chicken dumpling in a deep fryer. I was honestly very impressed, as I do all of the cooking around our house (he loves to cook breakfast though!) It was completely unexpected and I was extremely happy he took the time to do this all for me.

Closeup of the orchid he gave me.

What are your plans for Valentines Day? I have class until 5PM tomorrow, and then am off to the hospital until 8PM or so to research my patients, and he won't be home until late, which is why we celebrated today. Please tell me your V-Day stories tomorrow! :D

Dinner with family FOTD

We went out for dinner tonight with relatives we haven't seen in many, many years. We went out for delicious greek food, one of our new favorite places called Park Towers.

Eyes: Brazen Ice queen, Fyrinnae Damn Paladins, Brazen Cold Shoulder

Face: Brazen Bronzer, Brazen Perfect 10, Brazen Hi-Def Powder

Lips: Brazen Shimmy (smells just like chocolate, yum!)