August Favorites | Beauty

I can't believe August is nearly over! With the first day of September, fall beginns to slowly creep its way back into our lives with its sweater weather and rainy days.

For me, August has been one hell of a busy month. Because the majority of my summer break happens during August, I was on the move pretty much all the time - I travelled more than ever and made so many amazing memories, so you can imagine that my heart is breaking at the thought of my favorite month being over.

For most of the past month, very much like in July, a heatwave has been sweeping across Germany, blessing/cursing us with temperatures up to 40 degrees Celsius - which I was happy about at first, but really, what European can handle those kinds of temperatures for next to to months on end? Not me.

The extreme weather is probably showing in my favorite products of the month as well.

Maybelline Dream Pure 8-In-1 BB Cream (12,99)

I didn't wear make up a lot during August most of the time due to the heat that made me feel all kinds of gross, but one day, when I was getting ready to go out with my friends, I realized that I had a problem. Due to the tan that I got during the first few days of August, my foundation was suddenly way too light for me.

I found Maybelline's BB cream while rumaging through my drawers, and I was almost estatic when I swatched it and it matched my skin tone.
What I like about this is that it feels insanely light on the skin while managing to make my pores appear smaller and hiding any redness that I had going on.

Sadly, the shade 'light' is too dark for my skin when I'm not tanned, so sadly this will probably stay a summer fling.

Lush's Mask of Magnaminty (7,95€)

It's no secret that I love everything Lush, and their face masks are not exception. Their 'Cupcake' mask helped me rid my skin of redness and spots a lot, so I had high expectations for the Mask of Magnaminty, which I had heard lots of great things about.

And rightly so! Using this twice a week to exfoliate my skin has improved it more than I hoped for.

I love sitting down to read a magazine while this mask gives my skin a deep cleanse. Its smell of mint makes me feel even more at ease and clean.

If you want to find out more about this product, I have a review about it up here.

KIKO Smart Lip Pencil in 702 (2,50€)

As I mentioned earlier, August was kind of my 'no make up month', but when I got myself to do my make up, it mostly consisted of only my BB cream and a bright lippy, which is usually waaay out of my comfort zone, but when I re-discovered this gem, I desperately wanted to get more wear out of it.

KIKO's lip pencils are pretty creamy, which makes application a whole lot easier. I also found the color pay-off amazing for a lip pencil, the shade stayed vibrant for hours without fading or smudging.

The quality you get for such low price is definitely outstanding!

702 is a bright coral shade, which I thought was a perfect summer shade, especially when you've got a slight tan going on.

John Frieda Frizz Ease 'Beyond Smooth' Shampoo (8,99€)

To me, summer is tanning and loads and loads of swimming - and with that comes frizzy hair.
When I, at one point, was struggling to even brush my hair, I knew that it was time to switch up my hair cair products in order to do something about my hair's horrendous state.

I had read some reviews by bloggers who were really happy with John Frieda's products, so I picked up their Frizz Ease Beyond Smooth shampoo when it was on offer, and that was one of the best decisions I ever made.

This shampoo has made my hair so unbelievably smooth, while also getting rid of all the frizz within just a few washes, and my hair's condition has been nothing but great ever since I started using this!

Victoria's Secret Hydrating Body Lotion in 'Love Spell' (12,95€)

One thing you need to know about me is that my skin does not get tan - it gets red. Every single time I try to tan, even though I'm wearing layers of sunscreen. Fab.

Because of my recurring sunburns, I was forced to mosturizes my skin almost 24/7, and once I ran out of my Body Shop body sorbet, I had to find something else to use.
Luckly, there was a travel sized version of the hydrating body lotion included in the Victoria's Secret 'Layers & Love' set I picked up while I was in the US last year.

This body lotion seems to have quite the thick consistency at first, but it does sink into the skin fairly quickly, leaving the skin all smooth and silky.
What I also love about this is that it smells of cherry blossoms and peach, which is absolutely heavenly.

What have you been loving in August?

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A Skin Savior | Beauty

Usually, summer works wonders for my skin. Well, emphasis on usually.

I don't know what happened, but for some reason my skin decided to full on break out by the time August rolled around, which left me feeling insecure, and most of all, angry - because I go several months without any issues, and as my vacation nears, my chin turns into the hotspot for red spots. Incredible.

On top of that, I'm someone who's really fussy with their skincare. I've experienced more than enough allergic reactions to products in the pasts, so I often hold back from trying out new stuff because I' afraid that it'll cause my skin to break out even more.

I was stuck in the same dilemma with Lush's "Mask of Magnaminty" which I picked up at the beginning of August, when I had run out of my trusty Cupcake mask and shit really hit the fan.

Do I try it and risk my skin to look worse? Or do I not and eventually miss out on the good effects it might have?

In the end, I ended up putting this off for way too long.

Lush calls this mask a "multi-purpose mask with a mixture of gentle yet effective ingredients to clean, calm and clear the skin", some of the ingredients mentioned are vanilla absolute, peppermint oil and honey.

The first few times I opened up the tub the smell of mint was actually a bit overpowering for me, but I got used to that pretty quickly.

Once applied to the skin, the mask feels insanely cooling and fresh, which is very nice compared to various masks that made my skin all kinds of itchy.

After letting it dry up for the recommended five to ten minutes, you are instructed to carefully wash the mask of with warm water.

I don't think my skin has ever felt more smooth than after washing this mask of. On top of that, my skin is left feeling refreshed, clean and smelling faintly of mint, which I like a lot.

Despite my worries, while it makes my skin feel a little tight right, the mask has not once caused any irritations whatsoever. It even helped my skin clear up a lot during continued use!

All in all, I think it's clear that with this mask, Lush have once again done my skin a huge favor.

I love watching my skin improve more and more with each and every use, and even though at first sight, the container might look kind of small to you, you really get a hell load of uses out of it.

I'm definitely excited to try out more of the masks Lush has to offer in the future.

What is your favorite one out of the bunch?

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Europa Park Adventure Outfit | Fashion

Guess who's back, back again?

As some of you may know, I was on holiday last week, and what better place to spend the most wonderful time of the year at my number one happy place?

I've been visiting the "Europa Park" ever since the year I turned nine - which I just realized, is a really long time. How did I grow up so fast?

It's the second largest amusment/theme park in Europe (only beaten by Paris' Disneyland) and is a park themed around 13 different European countries, every single one of which features the country's food, music to add to the overall vibe and, most importantly, killer rollercoasters (and other rides, but let's be real here, the rollercoasters are the ones that make me go all heart eye emoji.)

If you're interested to hear more about this beautiful place full of adventure and excitement and glorious food, keep your eyes peeled - I'm going to dedicate an entire post to our trip there soon.

We spent three days there, and they really were amazing. Something about this park feels so magical to me - yes, even more than Disneyland - and not only the location and surroundings, but also the staff make you feel so at home and cosy that I wish I could live there.

We spent three days there, I didn't have too many great photo ops on the second and third one, so I'm still debating whether or not to share those two outfits with you.

However, my wonderful assistant - thanks, Mom - managed to snap away quite a lot on Saturday.

The day started out kind of cold and cloudy, so I decided to opt for my trusty dark blue jeans and a cardigan that I picked up from Primark while I was in Berlin.

I had bought the tank top specifically for this trip, so I was really excited to show it of. It has tiny (plastic) pearls running along the tribal pattern on its straps, which I found to a nice twists to a simple black top.

As I knew that I'd be on my feet for around 12 hours every single day, I decided that my Nike Free's were the shoes to go with. Wearing these makes you feel like you're walking on clouds - they're that comfy.

I've also really been into Accessorize's arrow necklace lately, which I actually won in Sarah's giveaway a while back. It goes with next to all of my outifts and I love the stone detais on the arrow.

TOP - Colloseum  |  JEANS - Pimkie  |  CARDIGAN - Primark (similar)  |  SHOES - Nike  |  NECKLACE - Accessorize (similar)

How did you spend your summer holidays?

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A Fool-Proof Taco Recipe | Lifestyle

Ever since moving out earlier this year, I've had to cook a lot more than I used to do, which led to me living off toast and cereal for weeks because I came to relize that, oh my god, I hardly know how to cook.

I got tired of making the same three or four meals that I know how to cook over and over all the time - and when I invited friends over to my new place for the first time, I headed over to Pinterest, hoping to find some new recipes because I was seriously lacking inspiration and quite honestly on the verge of a mini breakdown.

I stumbled upon this recipe for tacos, which looked easy enough, yet sounded pretty darn delicious.

And it definitely was! The instructions were really easy to follow, so us girls had no trouble prepearing the tacos. And if a bunch of teens can cook up this dish, I'm pretty sure you should be able to, too!

As this has easily turned into my favorite dish - and it's totally healthy as well because there's vegetables in it, right? - I decided to share it with you guys.

[source]

Ingredients:

- 2 lbs ground beef (alternatively chicken/turkey)

- 1 onion, diced

- 1 can tomato sauce

- 1 can refried beans 

- 2 cups shredded cheese

- 18-20 hard taco shells

Optinal Ingredients:

- Lettuce (shredded)

- Tomato (diced)

- Pepper (diced)

- Salsa

- Sour Cream

- Guacamole

Homemade Taco Seasoning:

- 1 tabelspoon chilli powder

- 1/4 tabelspoon garlic powder

- 1/4 tabelspoon onion powder

- 1/4 tabelspoon dried oregano

- 1/2 teaspoon paprika

- 1 teaspoon pepper

- 1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.

In a large skillet brown the meat of your choice and onion over medium-high heat. Drain of any excess liquid.

Return to the pan, add your refired beans as well as the tomato sauce and homemade taco seasoning.

Mix well and cook for a few minutes until the mixture doesn't seem runny anymore.

Spoon the meat mixture into the taco shells and add all the optional ingredients you would like to include in your taco, like lettuce or tomatoes.

Place the tacos in a baking dish, standing up. Then sprincle the tacos with the shredded cheese.

Place into the ofen and bake at 200 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the tacos are heated through.

What is your absolute favorite dish?

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How The 'Pretty Little Liars' A-Reveal Let Us All Down | Lifestyle

[source]

Before I get into all this, beware: If you have not watched Pretty Little Liars' summer finale yet, you might want to run while you still can, because I'm definitely going to spoil it for you in just a split second.

Amongst the huge amount of TV shows I've watched, Pretty Little Liars might be my favorite TV show of all time. For some reason, it got me hooked on all its mysteries and drama for almost two years now, so naturally, I was over-excited to finally find out who has been behind the alias 'A' on Tuesday.

My friends and I had planned a viewing party, because gurl can't take all this suspension on her own, and we waited eagerly until two in the morning (!) because us Germans are just so damn unlucky when it comes to th air-time of US TV shows.

After what was promoted as "The Summer Of Answers" by the network, we had still only found out little to no real clues regarding A's identity, but when the episode started, we were still pretty positive and eager to finally put a face to that name.

A few minutes into the episode, the bomb was officially dropped - CeCe Drake has been the liars' tormentor all this time!

That alone actually didn't upset me, I had read a ton, and I mean hours worth of theories about who could be A/Charles during the weeks before the finale, and I came across some very, very well tought out ones featuring CeCe.

What did leave me feeling like I kind of wasted two years of my life waiting for that reveal was next to everything that followed.

CeCe explained that she is actually Charles, who was sent to the mental institution Radley as a young child for putting his baby sister Alison in the bathtub in order to stop her from crying and "make her feel better". In Radley, Charles became good friends with Bethany, the girl that Mrs. DiLaurentis payed visits to years later. We were shown that it was indeed Bethany who pushed Marion Cavanaugh, Toby's mother, off Radley's roof - which she blamed on Charles.

At quite a young age, Charles started dressing in his mothers clothes and continued doing so after he was sent away. Somewhere between the Marion incident and Mrs. DiLaurentis faking Charles' death, Charles decided to go through a gender change, eventually becoming Charlotte, who we have known as CeCe Drake all this time.

Charlotte became a very studious young woman and due to that was allowed to attend classes at UPenn. Around that time, she started dating Jason - who is her brother, might I add. Is this Game of Thrones now? - to be closer to her family.

The night Alison dissapeared, Bethany stole Charlotte's clothes and fled Radley thinking that Mrs. DiLaurentis had an affair with her father, possibly plotting revenge. Charlotte took after her and hit Ali, who she tought was Bethany, on the head with a rock. After burying Ali, Mrs.DiLaurentis payed Wilden to take CeCe back to Radley and keep quiet about it. And well, the rest is, as they say, history.

My problem with this reveal is that it felt insanely rushed, which eventually led to a ton of unneeded plotholes. For some reason, Marion apparently died when Charles was still young - yet Marion was very well alive when Alison tried to seduce Toby when they were teenagers. Huh? Same goes for Red Coat, who was said to have an individual scene with each of the liars, and Black Widow, who we apparently saw unmasked in season four - all lies, as Sara Harvey, who is starting to get well on my nerves, was revealed to be both of the above. I was very let down by that, not gonna lie, because Sara has been around for a total of five episodes and was introduced this season, so she feels pretty irrelevant to the entire plot. And we don't even know how she got to know CeCe. Damnit.

On top of that, the episodes leading up to this summer finale included red herrings, false evidence - donated organs? - random characters, but no answers. All the answers we got were crammed into a 45 minute long episode - how could that ever work out - so obviously, quite a few questions were left unanswered, leading Marlene King, the series developer, to answer said questions in an interview.

Obviously, some might still be answered in the upcoming time jump, which did look pretty exciting. The liars seem to be up against a new Big Bad, who appears to be a male, five years later.

That turned into one hell of a rant, didn't it? Woah.
Sorry for that verbal diarrhea that just happened all over your screen, but I just really felt the need to voice my opinon, because quite frankly, I feel let down and angry.

Obviously, there are people who liked the episode because everyone has a different mindset on the show, and we were told that "the producers are not aiming to please everybody", but from the reactions after the finale, the majority of the fanbase was sad, angered or at the very least insanely dissapointed. 

I hope that the team working on this show somehow manages to make up for all this mess during season 6B, which will air in January 2016, because really, I love this show to death and I'm curious to see how it continues, but this episode, even though it was so important for the development of the show's plot, was a total letdown.

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