Cheap Stuff: Pure Beauty Perfect Cleansing Liquid and Pomenegrate Eye Cream

I promised myself I'd review my latest make-up love that I bought at a really cheap price at Watsons. Working girls have to put make-up (aka gunk) on their face every day, and have to remove it every night (unless you want break outs). So we always need a good, cheap make-up remover. I stick to washing my face and using a toner until I found Watson's Pure Beauty Perfect Cleansing Liquid.

The best part about this baby is that it's on sale at 99. I read other reviews out there and this thing was apparently released last year July, and it sold then for up to 400. NOW it's only 99! What sorcery is this?


Now to put it to the test!

Me with some eye and brow make-up.

Just some eyeshadow eyeliner, and brow pencil.

With the cleansing oil all over my face. Just rub it in like it's facial wash.

After rinsing with water.

Did it take out my...

• Light powder make-up (eyeshadow, face powder, powder blush-on)? Yup. Pretty easily.
• Waterproof make-up (waterproof liquid eyeliner, mascara)? Yeah, surprisingly. I'm sure it depends on your brand, but for the usual durgstore brands and for Covergirl, it works. I just rub gently a little at my eyelashes to take the mascara out.
• Lead/pencil make-up (eyebrow liner, pencil eyeliner)? Yes, and pretty easily, as you can see in the pics above. The only difficulty was getting the black liner out of my lower lash line/waterline, but no one simply gets that out easily.

It's pretty effective and is a steal at 99. I only put on light make-up so I'm not one to judge for those gals who put on super-waterproof and stay-proof make-up, but after cleaning my face with this, I used some toner just to be sure and found out that my toner didn't pick up any more make-up after I used this! Already amazing for me. AND there's no sting in my eyes when I used it to remove my eye-make-up! They also have Perfect Cleansing Oil for more stubborn waterproof make-up, and Perfect Cleansing Water for more sensitive skin (which you can use with cotton balls if you're a cotton ball kinda gal).

PROS:
I got it ultra cheap.
Doesn't sting the eyes.
Removes mascara and liquid eyeliner.
Comes with a pump stopper so you don't accidentally spill the product.
You can use it without needing cotton balls. (I hate having to buy cotton balls.)
A lot of product at 190ml.
Skin doesn't feel dry and tight after use. Rather, it feels soft and moisturized.


CONS:
You have to rinse it off with water after using it.

Another baby I got was the Pure Beauty Pomenegrate Eye Cream. It was on sale at buy 1 take 1 for 99. I swear not buying things just when they are released pays off.


It's actually pretty effective! I've used eye products like Garnier eye roll-on to reduce the fugliness of my eyes, and this baby actually does its work. I see the effects every day. And again... ultra cheap.


You don't just have to be a sale junkie. You have to be lucky to get actual good stuff.

Baking 101: Whole Wheat Cream Puffs

When I had a short internship in the commissary of a local restaurant/bakeshop, my job there was mostly about finishing, which included piping pastry cream into thousand of choux pastries for cream puffs. Since then, cream puffs had a special place in my heart. Just about as special as croissants or macarons or cheesecakes are to me. I was telling myself to try baking them at home for a long while now, but never really really tried because they seemed difficult to make.

What part of it seemed difficult? Well, firstly cream puffs seem so complex. Your choux pastry has to be crunchy and browned outside and hollow and soft inside. And secondly, I'm horrible with fillings and icings. I wouldn't hesitate to bake a cake but if you told me to make some buttercream icing I would faint and fail.

But I tried the other day, with some help from my brother. He actually gave me P100 to buy some butter and cream. Yay! <3 Jenro you rawk. It isn't as difficult as I thought it was. I picked up a recipe from joyofbaking.com which you can find here. I'll also post it in this blog post for your convenience.

The only adjustments I did was that I used whole wheat flour instead of normal flour since that's what I have on hand and my sis is into the 'healthy food' thing. What's also great about this recipe is that it barely has any sugar in it.

Whole Wheat Cream Puff with Whipped Cream.
Sorry for poor photo, my bro wasn't there to work his photo magic.

Choux Pastry:

1/2 cup (65 grams) all purpose flour  (I used whole wheat flour in the same amount)

1/2 teaspoon granulated white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt (if using salted butter, take this out)

1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) (57 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/2 cup (120 ml) water

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Glaze:

1 large egg

Whipped Cream:
1 cup (240 ml) heavy whipping cream(double cream) (35-40% butterfat)

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (NOTE: This says "PURE VANILLA EXTRACT". So please use that. Do not use the vanilla flavoring that we can buy for 5-10 PHP in le palengke. It will seriously ruin the taste of the whipped cream, trust me. Take this out if you don't have a good vanilla extract, or squeeze in some fresh lemon juice instead.)

1 1/2 tablespoons granulated white sugar, or to taste

Garnish:

Powdered (Confectioners or icing)sugar

PROCEDURES!

Choux Pastry: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly butter or spray the pan with a non stick vegetable spray.

In a bowl sift or whisk together the flour, sugar and salt.

Place the butter and water in a heavy saucepan over medium high heat and bring to a boil. (Make sure that the butter melts before the water boils to reduce the amount of evaporation.) Remove from heat and, with a wooden spoon, add the flour mixture, all at once, and stir until combined. Return saucepan to the heat and stir constantly until the dough comes away from the sides of the pan and forms a thick smooth ball (about 1-2 minutes). Transfer the dough to your electric mixer, or use a hand mixer, and beat on low speed to release the steam from the dough (about a minute). Once the dough is lukewarm start adding the lightly beaten eggs (dough will separate and then come together) and continue to mix until you have a smooth thick paste (dough will fall from a spoon in a thick ribbon). Spoon or pipe 12 small mounds of dough onto the baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches (5 cm) apart. With a pastry brush, gently brush the tops of the dough with a lightly beaten egg.

Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Continue to bake for a further 30 to 35minutesor until the shells are a nice amber color and when split, are almost dry inside. Turn the oven off, poke a couple of holes in each puff and, with the oven door slightly ajar, let the shells completely cool (and dry out). 

They'll keep on expanding and expanding in the oven. I used muffin pans to bake them so they have a uniform shape and aren't messy on a tray.

After they're baked, they look nice with all those little cracks on top that are distinct of choux pastries.

Choux Pastry is sorta hollow inside--that's why it has space inside for all that filling!

 

Whipped Cream: In a large mixing bowl place the whipping cream, vanilla extract, and sugar and stir to combine. Cover and chill the bowl and whisk in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes. When chilled, whip the cream just until stiff peaks form.

To Assemble: Split the pastry shells in half and fill (or pipe) with whipped cream. Place the top half of the pastry shell on the whipped cream and dust with powdered (confectioners or icing) sugar. Leftover Cream Puffs can be stored in the refrigerator.

Makes 12 cream puffs.
Read more:http://joyofbaking.com/CreamPuffs.html#ixzz1r9MuYy2r

Fill them in with the filling of your choice and enjoy.

As I said, I used whole wheat flour and chose to bake these babies in muffin pans so they have a more uniform shape. The butter I used was the Ambassador brand (from President) and it works well with the flour. When I want a good but cheap butter/butter compound I buy that or Queensland. The butter you buy really has an effect on your baked goodies. Ambassador is good because it's unsalted and tastes neutral. Queensland or Magnolia Gold has a salty, savory, butter-spread that you put on your sliced bread taste. The Butterfresh brand has a distinct smell to it. 

The cream you're going to use for the whipped cream matters, too. I only ever use Nestle all-purpose cream, but their premium heavy cream is the best thing I ever used for ganache. But, as with the butter, the taste of your whipped cream will depend on the taste of the cream you use. Buy what you like.

As for the finished product, since I used wheat flour, my bro and I got the impression that this choux pastry will be better fit for a savory filling--like chicken or basil pesto pasta, or something similar. It's texture is great, though, just amazing. The whipped cream was not sweet and it didn't go so well with the whole wheat choux pastry. I'm contemplating cooking some pasta tomorrow to go with the whole wheat whoux pastries. I still prefer putting pastry cream into my cream puffs--like what they do in Dulcinea Restaurant--even if those are absurdly sweet.

Also, I played around with the temperature of my oven for this. I use a small, electrical oven so I always lessen the temperature and cooking time when I bake because if I follow exactly what's on the recipe, I almost always end up with something being burnt. Well, miraculously, nothing burned here. I thought I was burning it, but I found that I wasn't, so maybe I should have stuck to the real temperature, because if I did, I'd get those pretty cracks that choux pastries have on top and a crunchier outside. Will post again if I re-do this.

Have a great day! Feel free to ask or comment here about anything!

Baking 101: Oreo Stuffed Choco Chip Cookies w/ recipe

A few months ago was the 100th anniversary of Oreo, so an Oreo recipe made it to the headlines of Yahoo! News and I just had to try it out. The recipe can be found at Becky Bakes but I'll post it here too for your convenience.

Photo by my amazing brother.

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookiesrecipe from the fantabulous Jenny of Picky Palate

2 sticks (1 cup) softened butter
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
10 oz bag chocolate chips
1 pkg. Oreo cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars together with a mixer until well combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

In a separate bowl mix the flour, salt and baking soda. Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips until just combined. Using a cookie scoop take one scoop of cookie dough and place on top of an Oreo Cookie. Take another scoop of dough and place on bottom of Oreo cookie. Seal edges together by pressing and cupping in hand until Oreo cookie is enclosed with dough. Place onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet and bake cookies 9-13 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Makes about 2 dozen VERY LARGE cookies.

(Above text is copied from here.)
Sad to say, I'm not in-love with these cookies yet. I love Oreos (especially with milk) but I find this recipe a little too sweet for my tastes. I find that replacing Oreos with Cream-Os work wonderfully, Cream-O isn't too sweet and is a lot less cheaper. Don't bake them too long or they'll be hard; you want a softer cookie here because there's still a cookie inside.