i Heart Ipsy - My October Glam Bag

Hi dolls!

Yay it's that time again! The arrival of my October Ipsy Glam Bag, and I'm super stoked about it!!! I swear, I think what's most appealing to me about this subscription is the surprise! I love that we have no clue as to what's coming in our pretty coloured envelopes, adds to the excitement... I CAN'T EVEN TAKE IT!!

Let's open my Ipsy October Glam bag together, befrore I explode with the anticipation!!

First out of the bag...

Coastal Scents Medium Shadow Brush - I can't believe I got a full sized brush! It says 'Sample Brush', but I'm almost positive that it's full sized. Yay! I love brushes, trying new brushes, playing with brushes - everything but cleaning them. Super excited to finally try this brand and a brush none the less! Off to a great start with my Glam Bag so far!

Zoya Professional Lacquer in 'Giovanna' - another brand I've always wanted to try but haven't gotten the chance to - until now! I've always known the brand and known people to love their lacquers, so I super excited to try out this nail colour! I love this pearlized teal, it's so pretty and reminds me of mermaids. Let me know in the comments box below if you would like to see a review of this item, you will definitely see it in future manicures!

Ole Henriksen Truth Cream Advanced Hydration Facial Moisturizer - I have heard about this brand and have seen it for sale at Sephora and other department stores, but I have not heard any opinions or reviews - so we will have to see how this goes. I am always looking for a great travel sized moisturizer, and I don't like committing to full size skincare with a line that's new to me - so this is perfect. And if this ends up being a total fail, at least the little jar it comes in can be reused for something awesome!

 Style Sexy Hair Spray Clay Texturizing Spray Clay - another great travel goodie! I have used their hairspray in the past, and I can't remember anything negative so it must have been an OK experience. I have never used a Clay, so I'm excited to try something new! Hoping this will give me 'beach hair' in the Fall and Winter months.

Bella Terra Mineral Cosmetics Mineral Shimmer in 'Navy' - Again, this is another brand that I have not heard of, but that's what Ipsy is all about right? Trying new things and beauty brands :). This is a beautiful deep navy blue mineral pigment with a fuchsia purple pearl. Love love love this colour and I am excited to see how it applies and wears on the lid! Let me know in the comments box below if you would like to see a review with swatches, it would be fun to put this baby to the test!

And of course, no Glam Bag would be complete without all the goodies arriving I this cute little case.  I love the quote on it, reminds us that creativity is beauty and beauty is creative :)!

Well that's it for this months goodie bag! I am really happy with the items that I got and stoked to try out the new brands and products. This month had great Glam Goodies, what did you get? Did you love the items in your October Glam Bag? I would love to hear your thoughts on Ipsy and their subscription in the comments box below and don't forget to let me know what you want to see reviewed in the future! Email me makeupmasochist@gmail.com and don't forget to love my looks and heart me on Ipsy.com (Makeupmasochist).

Make sure to subscribe to my blog so you can see what I get in Novembers Glam Bag and you can wait with me in anticipation until then! Just type in your email into the box at the top of this page, or follow my blog on Bloglovin' (makeupmasochist@gmail.com). For more beauty posts and photos of everyday life, follow me on Instagram @fernonje and don't forget to tag me #MakeupMasochist so I can see your Ipsy goodies!!

For more information on Ipsy and their Glam Bag Subscription, please visit the link below:

http://www.ipsy.com

Have a good week muffins!

xoxo
Ashley

Food for Thought: Pasta Carbonara

Happy Friday Eve!

Wow it's already Thursday, I've been so busy this week that I hardly saw it pass me by! Since there has been a change in our work schedules recently, I have taken on the task of cooking meals. So I wanted to document and share with you all my failures, successes and everything in between when it comes to cooking. I have also made cooking one of my Fall Bucket List tasks (to read my full bucket list, click here), so I want to make sure I stick to it, and hope you'll try the recipes with me!

In all honesty, a couple weeks ago I was looking for something to watch on TV, and came across 'Chef at Home' and 'Chef Michael's Kitchen' on the Food Network - 1 whole hour of Chef Michael Smith! I've watched these shows before but had a hard time catching them on a regular basis. So now that they're on everyday at 11am, when I'm home - I always tune in. This was what originally made me want to cook more, he inspired me and made it look so easy! This recipe (and most likely others to come) will be Chef Michael Smith inspired, but I will be putting my own twist to it a bit ;)!






This recipe first caught my eye because it seemed so quick and easy, but also because my partner LOVES pasta. I have made some tweeks to the recipe, the biggest one being that I used chicken bacon rather than prosciutto and pancetta. We don't eat pork, not for any religious reason or anything, but because we just prefer other meats instead. The other little personal add on is that I add parsley to the mix- you'll read about that later too. Feel free to use the original ingredients or even mixing in some of your own!

Let's get started...

So first thing I like to prepare, since it takes the longest to cook, is the bacon. I start with 8 slices and cut them into small strips before adding them to a hot pan with some oil. It seems like a lot of bacon at the time, but these small pieces will crisp up and really are the star of the dish.

While my bacon is frying up, I salt my pasta water (I like to do this before I add the pasta, and I'm not stingy either!) and a table spoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil so my pasta wont stick. I add 1 box of penne once my water has boiled over. You can use different pastas if you like, I just find that penne really holds the sauce well for this dish. Linguine, fettuccine, any pasta that would be used with cream pastas can be used instead of the penne.

Now that my pasta is boiling and my bacon bits are frying, now is a good time to make the carbonara sauce. Honestly while you are making this dish, you will find that its a lot quicker to make than you might have expected. This order of steps helps keep it quick and time efficient, I find. So to make the sauce we start with 4 egg yolks. The allure and appeal of the carbonara sauce is the hearty, yet cheesy flavour of the sauce. The egg yolks are added raw with the sauce to the hot pasta, and the heat from the pasta cooks the egg yolks - making it safe for consumption.

In a separate bowl, I put in the four egg yolks and add equal parts marscarpone cheese and parmesan cheese flakes - 1 cup of each. You want to add the seasoning to the sauce rather than season the dish after adding the cheese, adding the seasoning post cheese and bacon will be harder to evenly distribute through the dish. For seasoning, I put in 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, 1 teaspoon of dried parsley, salt and pepper. I mixed that all together and had it ready for when my pasta was done.

Once my pasta was done and drained, my bacon was nice and crispy, I grabbed my sauce and mixed it all three elements together in the same pot I cooked the pasta in. Garnish as preferred, parsley, grated cheese, etc. This served about 5, so it's a great and quick option for a family without much time consumed to make it.

I have to say that everyone who had some of this pasta, really loved it (huge relief... But I couldn't go wrong with Chef Michael Smith in my corner!). I'm not usually one for pasta, I find it heavy and carbs are not friends, but I really liked this pasta because of the flavours of the sauce. I will definitely be keeping this one in my routine, I can't believe how quickly it was done!

Do you love to cook? Have some quick and easy recipes you would like me to try? I would love to get some suggestions by email (makeuomasochist@gmail.com) or in the comments box below! Will you try this recipe? What would you do different? I would love to read all about it!

For more information on this recipe and Chef Michael Smith, please visit the links below:

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipe/pasta-carbonara/12933/

http://chefmichaelsmith.com/

Don't forget to subscribe to my blog to keep up with all my new cooking adventures and to try the recipes with me, just type in your email into the box at the top of this page! You can also follow my blog along with your favourites on Bloglovin! Just click on the icon at the top of this post or search my blog and follow! I would love to see your culinary successes on Instagram, tag me #makeupmasochist and don't forget to follow (@fernonje)!

Until next time. Same cooking time. Same cooking channel.

xoxo
Ashley

Nails of the Week: Pretty in Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Happy Humpday dolls!

Since October is 'National Breast Cancer Awareness Month', I see it only fitting to do a manicure to honour and bring awareness of this disease that affects so many. I have been lucky enough to not experience the big C, as well as my family members, but I have friends that have been diagnosed with this condition and fought it into remission - thank goodness! They are definitely some of the luckier ones and they know it as well. In honour of those lucky and unlucky, I created this manicure to bring awareness and promote prevention of this awful disease.

Not only is pink the official colour for Breast Cancer Awareness, it has also been the 'It' colour of the season. I love wearing pink on my nails, it's one of my favourite colours to sport when I'm feeling girly. Naturally, this manicure was a labour of love. I grabbed my two favourite pinks - OPI 'It's A Girl' & MAC 'Comic Cutie' (Archie's Girls LE Collection) and these new nail art brushes that I picked up from my local beauty supply. These brushes are a great deal and come in super handy for nail art! Here are the steps to how I created this nail art:

I started with clean, groomed nails and cuticles. after washing my hands and making sure they were dry, I applied petroleum jelly (Vaseline) to the skin around my nail beds. I find that his helps me "colour inside the lines" and makes any oopsies easy to clean later.








I applied my first coat of OPI 'It's A Girl' polish...

And a second...

And a third.

This polish can be pretty sheer, so 3 coats or more are needed to ensure a streak free and opaque application. I made sure to let each coat dry before applying the next one and once I finished, I let it completely dry for almost an hour before doing anything.

Once my base colour was nice and dry, I grabbed my 'Comic Cutie' polish and one of my new nail art brushes to paint on the ribbon. I chose a thinner and longer nail art brush, I wanted the bristles to be more pliable to paint a smooth loop for the ribbon.

In small strokes I painted the shape of the ribbon on my ring finger.

Once that dried a bit, I applied more polish to the ribbon, giving it a second coat of colour to even it out and correct the shape. Finishing touch was a coat of clear top coat to seal it all in, and...

...Voila!

What do you think? I think this is a cute and pretty way to bring awareness to something that's sooo not cute and pretty. I love pink nails and nail art, and have been looking forward to this manicure since August lol. Tell me what you think in the comments box below! Do you have a way that you like to bring awareness to this disease or any other illness? I would love to know how you show your support, tell me in the comments box below or email me at makeupmasochist@gmail.com !

For more manicure ideas and inspiration, please subscribe to my blog by inputting your email into the box at the top of this page. You can also follow my blog on Bloglovin', just click on the icon or search my blog on the app and follow. I want to see how you bring awareness to breast cancer or any other disease, on Instagram. Tag me #MakeupMasochist so I can see and don't forget to follow (@fernonje)!





For anyone that has had his awful illness or had someone close suffer from this, God bless you. For the lucky ones, - you go girl! Lets all show our support to the brave women and their families and bring as much awareness as we can this month! And don't forget self examination and early diagnosis is key to a high survival rate. I encourage you and hope you encourage other women to self examine often and schedule mammograms as required. Such easy steps to save your life and others.

To learn more about how you can bring awareness or donate to the cause, please visit the link below:

http://www.cbcf.org/Pages/default.aspx






F*ck cancer!

xoxo
Ashley

September Favourites!

Hi Dolls,

I know this is late, to be honest I almost forgot to post this because I'm excited to post other things. But, there's no way I could not post my favourite's from last month and feel okay about it. Sorry its a little late, but I'm a little OCD about these things.

Last month with the introduction to Fall, along with that came so much fun and opportunity to be had - in both life and beauty. I absolutely love Fall, even though I am always super-reluctant to let go of Summer, I love Fall colours, how the Fall changes the scenery around us and most of all - the Fall Holidays! Fall is always like a new start for me, new things are always afoot and I wanted to give myself a good head start and introduction to Fall (and maybe a little boost to get my Fall Bucket List done - To read my list, click here). September, I felt was a fabulous way to do just that!

Here's what I loved most in September:

A little tidbit about me that you might not know of -  I LOVE the Wizard of OZ and anything related to it (ie. books, movies, TV shows, theatre, etc). Since the last week of September marked the 75th Anniversary of the movie production, I thought it only wise to pay tribute with this cute manicure. I used this Deborah Lippmann Nail Polish to achieve this Ruby Red Slipper inspired look with a cute yellow brick road detail (for the complete tutorial, click here). I had so much fun with this manicure, can't wait to do it again! Hmm, costume ideas! ;)

Another manicure that I absolutely loved was my Maven Manicure this past month, I felt with the help of this gorgeous dark plum colour it helped me get back in touch with my dark side! That's another thing I love about this season, you cant help but feel kinda creepy-vampy-sexy in a way, and dark colours definitely do that for me! Such a rich, dark colour that kicked me into Fall mode, which I needed to be honest (for the full September review and manicure tutorial, click here). Excited to keep up with my new found darkness, I can't wait for my October box!!

Speaking of beauty subscriptions, last month I had signed up with a new type of beauty subscription and got to share my first bag of goodies with my readers! I signed up to Ipsy's Glam Bag subscription that, like Julep's Maven program, sends out a box/bag of goodies for you to try and love (to see my first Glam Bag from Ipsy, click here). I love this new program and the community on the site! Come find me, I'm MakeupMasochist, of course!

One of the items I was really excited to get with my Ipsy Glam Bag, was Jesse's Girl Liquid Eyeliner Pen. I had heard such great things about this brand and since I love this type of eyeliner, I knew I had to do a review for my lovelies (to read my full review of this product, click here). If anyone reading this loves eyeliner pens, than you definitely need to read my review on it and try it for yourself. I'll make sure to leave links at the bottom of this page for more information and don't forget to leave me what you thought of this eyeliner in the comments box below! It's a staple in my collection now and for all my makeup looks, I looove it!

My favorite makeup pieces that I used last month were definitely the pieces I purchased from MAC's 'Indulge' Limited Edition Collection (to see my Indulge haul and swatches, click here), and I had posted one of my favourite ways to wear my babies from this collection. There were so many pieces from this collection to work with and so many looks that could be done, but I'm a sucker for purples and gold together, and this look was on rotation most often (to see my full look and read the tutorial, click here). MAC's 'Feed the Senses' Lipstick is still one of my everyday favourites and I deeply regret not getting backups of this colour. So pretty to wear with any makeup look! <3_<3! Did you love this look? I think its perfect for Fall!

I decided that this month, I would skip out on some of the collections that MAC put out there, since most of what was introduced is permanent now anyway. Their 'Retro Matte' Lipsticks, Pro Longwear Eyeliners, Paintpots and Lipliners, are all AMAZING and GORGEOUS, but since their permanent now, I figured I would take my time to collect what I really want (and save my money for some upcoming huge LE collections that I'm dying for! ;)).

Since I was missing a Limited Edition Collection from MAC and showing my readers some makeup porn from my hauls, I thought a good way to fill the void was to go shopping at an exclusive MAC/Estee Lauder/Clinque Sale. Every 3 months, Estee Lauder and all the brands under their umbrella, hold a sale here in the east end of Toronto. This is a 'by-invitation only' event and I was lucky enough to get my paws on some tickets to go. I got some great beauty and hair products (that I am currently reviewing for future 'Rant or Rave?' posts), but my favourite items that I purchased from that sale were my MAC brushes (to read my haul, click here). I bought the '205' & '184' Fan brushes, these were my biggest scores of the sale! I love my new brushes and these babies have found a special place in my kit!

My favourite moment and day in September was when my new nephew Marcus was born. September 4th, 2 days before he was due, he came into this world and has brought such love into our family. It was instant love that was more than we could have ever imagined it to be. We love you so much my little guy!

Those are my favourite things of this past September, and I think October had quite a month to follow! Lots of fun ways to get into the mood of the new season, how did you do it? What traditions or ways do you get into the Fall spirit? I would love to hear in the comments box below or send me your suggestions by email at makeupmasochist@gmail.com ! Don't forget to let me know what reviews you want to see first from the new items in my September posts, I'll have those up soon!



To make sure that you don't miss out on any of October's beauty and lifestyle activities, be sure to subscribe to my blog by inputting your email into the box at the top of this page! You can also follow my blog on Bloglovin', there's an icon at the top of this page or search my blog and follow! Follow me on Instagram (@fernonje) and tag me with #MakeupMasochist so I can see all the things you loved in September!




For more information on Ipsy and their Glam Bag: www.Ipsy.com

For more information on Julep and their Maven Program: http://www.julep.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/230456/

For more information and where to purchase the products mentionned, please visit:
www.maccosmetics.ca
www.jessesgirlcosmetics.com


Happy Friday!

xoxo
Ashley