spot on: Sevenly

Sevenly is a company that raises money for a different cause every week by selling “unique and exclusive products”. Every seven days they support on another non-profit organization. Their products are created for that week’s cause only and are therefore limited edition. For every sold product Sevenly donates $7 to that week’s non-profit organization.

Their product range involves clothing, jewelry, prints, bags, accessories, etc. priced between $15 for a print to $100 for an iPhone4/4S Juice Pack Plus. But the price of the product doesn’t affect the donation of $7. On their website they say “$7.00 per sale is more than 25% of our total revenue (all products combined) (…) We do give $7.00 for every product sold. Not 6.99. Not $7.00 minus expenses. We give $7.00 cash, every time. Below is what the rest of our revenue is used for.”

In my opinion that is a whole lot more than it may sound like. I bought a racer back shirt a while ago and still love it. The material is very soft; the shirt is loose fit and still looks like it did on the day I got it. And shipping to Austria was no problem at all.

I also like that you can see on their homepage how much money was raised for this week’s cause and how much time there is left.

I love the idea of combining art with charity and will definitely support Sevenly again when I can.

Lips by Kate

This fall and winter I want to get more into wearing lipstick. I really like buying them but I have to admit I don’t have the best hand in choosing which color suits me. I do plan on wearing a lipstick often and than don't go through with it because I feel like it is inappropriate in one way or the other. I am never short of an excuse.

 

Anyway, I want to share with you the last three lipsticks I bought. I got them online because they are not sold where I live right now. I don’t know if they ever were.

 

 

I think the rose one suits me the least. Or maybe I just haven’t found a way to make it work yet. It looks nice on the picture but on my lips it looks a little dull because it has a semi-matte finish. The swatch looks a lot shinier than it is on my lips. Maybe I can make it work with a little gloss on top. The thing is though that I don’t like extra glossy lips..

 

The second color is really fall-y to me. It is also a rose color with a Brown undertone if that makes any sense. You can definetly wear it during the day with out being to bold and out there. As a matter of fact, I already did. *yay*

 

The red lipstick is my favorite. It is on the darker side but not too dark. Definetly not an everyday color. But if you feel like wearing statement lips, this is the one. Unfortunately I haven't found the right day/occation to wear it yet.

what a lovely duo

I don't remember how it hit me but when it did, it hit me hard. ;) *haha* What a phrase!

I have the very bad habit that when I like something a blogger or youtuber recommends or wears, I just have to do some research on it and most of the time buy it. This time it was Essie's “penny talk”. When I googled it I stumbled across a picture that was breath taking. That pretty much did it for me. I had to have this nail polish in my collection - especially because I already owned the glitter polish!

Unfortunately “penny talk” was limited edition. Great. But what would the world be without Amazon. Of course they have some in stock but there it now is €13,25. I can’t spend that much money on a nail polish. I mean I can but I really shouldn’t.

A few days later I saw Essie’s “buy me a cameo” in a drugstore and guess what? It was on sale! I googled comparisons of the two nail polishes and figured it was close enough. 

This is my interpretation of the lovely manicure from lackfein. I might have to practice my photography skills a little... But that's another story.

 

zebra aka. psychedelic cake

Confession: I am a baking disaster. There were times when I only needed to stand in a room next to an experienced baker and everything would go terribly wrong for no particular reason. My sheer present was enough. Needless to say that my own attempts at baking were pretty disastrous as well. But I still love to bake.

I tried to cure my baking-disability by trying the easiest recipes I could possibly find. And all of the sudden what I baked was eatable. Yay!

Long story short, I want to share my latest baking success with you. It is called a zebra cake - or like my boyfriend calls it "psychedelic cake". I got the original recipe from ichkoche.at. There are tons of recipes and even videos online. I felt very bold that day and altered the recipe slightly and it still worked. ;)

 

 

Ingredients I used:

-      5 eggs

-      150 g sugar

-      1 pack (8 g) vanilla sugar

-      125 ml Water

-      250 ml vegetable oil

-      300 g flower

-      75 g ground almonds

-      2 tablespoons sweetened cocoa powder

-      1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

-      1 pack (8 g) baking powder

-      a pinch of cinnamon

Preparation:
Preheat your oven at 160°C and grease a 24cm round cake pan.

 

Separate the eggs and whisk the egg whites until they are stiff. Mix egg yolk, sugar and vanilla sugar together until frothy. Then add water, vegetable oil, flower, ground almonds, baking powder and cinnamon. Carefully fold in the beaten egg white. Done. Not it's time for layering. Separate halve the batter into a separate bowl.

 

Add the sweetened and unsweetened cocoa powder to one of the bowls and mix it in.

 

Use two tablespoons for each batter to create the layers of batter in the pan. Start by putting two tablespoons of white batter in the middle of the pan. (I used the second spoon to whipe off the spoon full of batter.) Then put two tablespoons of chocolate batter in the middle of the white batter and repeat this step until all batter has been used.

 

Bake for 60 minutes.

 

spot on: Anatomicals

Anatomicals is a British Company, or like they say, a washing and bathing brand that "only wants you for your body". Their products are free from animal testing and also paraben free. So far, so good.

The main thing why you should check out Anatomicals' products though, are the product names. But doing some more reading like the "about us" section will definetly make you laugh just as much.

I got my first Anatomicals product in my Glossybox. It was the "you need a blooming shower" body wash. I gave it to my sister because she loved the smell and forgot about it pretty quickly. In another Glossybox they gave me "puffy the eye bag slayer".

Pause for reaction...

Brilliant name! Brillant!

Puffy the eyebag slayer actually did save me from looking like a zombie when I was maybe being a little hung over after a night out. So I guess their products are not only creatively named but also do what they claim. :)

When I was thinking about an unusual birthday gift for a friend, it didn't take my long to decide on Anatomicals. Google led me to Asos when I typed in "puffy the eye bag slayer". I didn' remember the companie's name at that time so I went for it. If I had invested more time in research, I would have ended up at their actual homepage and bought a lot more than I did. Of course Asos' selection is limited. Don't knowing all about it saved me some money in the end.

A few days later I went on two of their websites (Anatomicals.com.mt and Anatomicals.net) to take a closer look at the brand and had the best time I have ever had on a companie's homepage. Their product names are so funny and ful of wit. You definetly need to check it out yourself!

This is what I bought as a birthday gift:

 

 

 

“summer edition” The Body Shop shock

I love and have been loving The Body Shop’s moringa scent for years. But this summer I discovered a new love. One of my favorite Youtubers raved about the vineyard peach bodybutter. She lives in the U.S. so I rarely am able to try things she recommends. But the next time I was at The Body Shop I gave it a go.

 

Oh my god I found my new favorite scent! Normally I don’t like the smell of peach other than the actual fruit but this time I fell in love with it and - of course - went home with the body butter.
 

A few weeks later I still couldn’t get enough of the smell and wanted to buy the shower gel. At the store I was told that the vineyard peach collection was out of stock and would not come back. I have to admit I did feel a slight hint of panic at that moment. Was this love story ending as sudden as it started?

No! I would not give up this quickly. I went online and saw they were still selling the peach shower gel. I have to admit I did get a little carried away and bought two vineyard peach shower gels, another body butter and the body lotion - just in case.

It is amazing what an effect the word “discontinued” can have on a person. I checked the Body Shop website today - weeks later - and you can still buy everything from the peach scented line. At least now I know I can use all the products up without having to panic again. ;)