24.9.14

Red Dates Tea the Chinese Beauty Tea


In China. red dates are famous of having rich nutrient values. Red dates have high Vitamin A, Vitamin C and iron, which can stimulate the production of white blood cells. These can help to brighten up my skin colour and warm up my body a lot so I always make it for myself.


(1 person per serving)

Red dates (semi-dried):  5-8 
Dried longan:                 3-4
Wolf-berries:                  a handful
Water:                            800 ml (adjustable)
Sugar:                            5g (optional)

The ingredients above is just for reference. There is not strict amount for every single ingredient, the ratio of longans to red dates to wolf-berries should be around 1:2:3. You can add a bit sugar for the taste but I do not add it normally. That is also not a strict amount for how much water is needed. You can also reuse the ingredients just like how you reuse a teabag.

First thing first rinse all the ingredients and then cut open the red dates into half. Remove the seeds. Put them into some water and heat it up to boil to clean it throughly. Remove the water and add in new water. Heat up to boil and turn it into low heat. Put on a lid, wait for around 10 minutes and then fresh red dates tea is ready to drink.







16.9.14

Farewell Cookies

This year of uni is going to be very special to me because my studio class is going to be split into two groups. The first group going to the Shanghai base in semester one and the second half will go in semester two, which means in this whole year I am not see my other half except holidays :( This is really sad. When sending them off I have decided to make them cookies as a farewell gift. 

The idea of this "bye" cookie in pixelated font is inspired by a youtuber Rosanna Pansino, who made the tetris cookies with fun factory. I am going to use the same technique to make it. 
Butter:                     250g
Granulated sugar:   170g
All purpose flour:   500g
Egg:                        1
Water:                     5ml
Salt:                         a pinch 
Vanilla Extract:       2 teaspoon 
Chocolate powder:  reasonable amount

1. Whisk in the sugar into the softened butter until creamy. Then add the rest of the wet ingredients and mix them well.
2. Shift in the flour (with salt in it) and mix gently with a spatular. 
3. Cut 1/3 of the cookie dough and shift in the coco powder till the desirable colour comes out. Mix them well.
4. Put the cookie dough into the freezer for at least 2 hours.
3. Take the cookie doughs out, take out bit by bit and use the fun factory (with the rectangle setting) to make the long squared strips. 
4. Stack the strips on top of each other to create the large cookie dough block (do the math beforehand!) and pop it into the freezer to harden it.
5. Take out the cookie dough block and use a sharp knife to slice out the cookies evenly. They should be ready to bake right away. 




5.9.14

DIY Make up pack (for travel, everyday bag or events)

For me, my main skin problem is dark circles and oily skin. Because of this skin type, my eye make up ALWAYS smudge after just a few hours especially when I am going out for an event (you know, you can get very sweaty when you go out). Therefore, whenever I go out i will bring a tiny make up bag so I can always retouch my face.

First thing first, my number 1 must have is make up remover to remove my smudged eye make up and concealer to hide my dark circles. I cut a sponge into half, soaked the first half into make up remover and the second half into concealer. After that, place them in a tiny container individually and they are ready to go. 
I always buy the smallest size of eye liner and lipstick so they will not take up a lot of space. Sometimes I use the lipstick as my cheek colour as well if the lipstick of choice is a natural colour. However, if it's not, I have to have something to colour my cheek. To decrease the space occupied by my cheek powder, I took out the cheek powder palette from its original container and glued it onto a very shallow slide-out box. I used a eyelash box but any other similar box will be fine like chocolate box etc.
I think this will save up a lot of space so that my clutch will not bloat when I put so much stuff in it. Have fun going out bye :)