Reptile sheen

Slap on your sunscreen kiddies, it's going to be HOT this weekend

OPI's Just Spotted the Lizard

off to the beach for bumming and drinks :)

xo batterlash

Purple polish + sparkly half moon

Light Shortbread

A batch of yummy shortbread cookies I made for my boyfriend's birthday.
Everybody at his work loved 'em apparently :)

Recipe from Sweetopia

Brilliant Wish - Chopard

I smelt Brilliant Wish on paper weeks before and found it to be a synthetic, brash, and gaudy version of Angel by Thierry Mugler (my uncle's HG). Gorgeous bottle, disappointing scent.

I chucked the tester in my purse and forgot about it until I found it again in my wallet days later. I swear it didn’t even smell like the same perfume... This was more pleasant, more angel-like. Could it be that I never gave it enough time to develop? This scent may have mixed up with the other testers in my wallet, but for a moment, it made a blind-buy of Brilliant Wish seem like ...an okay idea. Logic Win…!
After all, it was released in 2008, and flankers could be more successful and nose worthy - right?
... Right? :p

Fast forward 2 weeks later, and I received my bottle of Brilliant Wish in the mail. I was over the moon! Running back to my apartment, I ripped the plastic off the box, pulled the beautiful diamond-shaped bottle out, uncapped the perfume, and spritzed it on my arm like a junkie hungry for a fix-

only instead of the comfort and joy that was anticipated,
I was slapped senseless with whop of bitter citrus.

This unexpected harshness initially annoyed me a little; looking at the bottle in my hand, I was slowly overcome with disappointment, ala the dismayed Asian parent woefully confused about their child's scholastic B-average. You should never judge a book by its cover, but quite honestly, the beauty of the bottle brought about high expectations.

Why wasn't this gold colored liquid more classy and pleasant?
Why aren't you more like lady million (my guilty pleasure. :p Review on that coming up soonish).
Why aren’t you more perfect, like your broth– errrrr – like that other perfume…!?

The scent of this one reminded me of long rides in the confines of a car fumigated by 3 pine/lemon air fresheners hanging by the air-conditioner. I never understood why we had that much car freshener then.With or without the freshener, the car didn't smell, and none of us stank. I entertained the thought that the fresheners were purchased in bulk; that maybe there was a prize at the bottom of the box (a mini air freshener! *glee*), or a golden ticket of some sort. One thing I knew for sure, was that it was nauseating. Can you say death by freshener?

Thankfully, Brilliant Wish mellowed to a warm saccharine amber - the sort of grown up sweetness locked behind the diabetic chambers of Willy Wonka lawsuits that never came to be.


I honestly didn’t like it, but had to run a few errands so I left it on...

only to grow accustomed to the scent 15 minutes after that nasty first spritz.

As I type this entry, it nuzzles up against my skin like a well-behaved pup.

It seems that Chopard has turned the 180 again.

Final thoughts and rating:

Though it lacks the bearing of a signature fragrance, it seems pleasant enough to warrant a 6/10
(whereas i would have given it a 3 on my initial spritz).

It's possibly more of a cold weather fragrance. I can imagine this getting too heady during summer -_-

Have you tried Brilliant Wish or any of Chopard's other fragrances before?

Xo batterlash

Cherry and white chocolate chip cupcakes

Fluffy and light cupcakes with a tang balanced off by the sweetness of white chocolate. I've made this several times and always got rave reviews!

I read somewhere that sour cream usually gives your final product a boost of moisture, which is why I've taken to replacing a lot of the liquids (like milk or water) in many of the recipes I've come across with sour cream. Haven't regretted any of my substitutions so far :)

Another thing I tried and haven't regretted is subbing the white chocolate in this recipe with dark chocolate, and adding chocolate powder to the batter for a black-forest type cherry cupcake. Absolutely to die for. <3

Anyways, here's the recipe!

Cherry and White Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
Ingredients

1.5 c sifted flour
⅔ c sugar, or any sugar substitute. I recommend Xylitol

2 dashes cinnamon or all-spice powder

¾ tsp baking powder

¾ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 egg

1 c (8 oz) sour cream

5 tbs butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla extract

¾ c white chocolate chips

 ½ c morello cherries, pitted and chopped (you can use fresh cherries as well)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 173 C

Prep your cupcake tins with cups

In a large bowl, combine butter, vanilla, sour cream and egg

Sift in the flour, and mix in the rest of the dry ingredients (except the cherries and white chocolate chips)

until just incorporated

Gently fold in the chocolate chips and cherries

Scoop in enough batter to fill 3/4s of the cupcake tin

Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean

Let cool for at least 5 minutes before serving it up! :)