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Sun Kissed Beauty Shop | Brush Cleaner Review

/ May 13, 2018
Sun Kissed Beauty Shop is a shop that sells chokers, key chains, and their famous brush cleaner. I've seen it around so much on twitter that I just had to buy it. I also bought a ton of chokers for affordable prices. It is run by a lovely lady who takes pride in what she does. She also has a partner business that creates 3D printed items for people to use. 


I wanted to see what the hype was all about with the Brush cleaner. I had been wanting to try it out for some time but never could afford to. Until she had a nice sale and free shipping, I always fall for free shipping. I bought the 8oz Urbandoll collaboration. Mostly because it was pink, not gonna lie. It attracted me the most with its beautiful pink color. The others seem really nice as well and I have no idea if they are any different than the one I bought other than scent of course. I assume it's sort of like the candy Nerds. They have different colors but all taste the same. One day I might be able to test it out if I buy them all. 

My very first impression when opening the package was that it was very nicely packed, I got free goodies one of which my boyfriend loved. A Blue Raspberry Jolly Rancher; it's his favorite. The bottle is sleek, and filled to the brim in a very cute bottle. What I did find just a bit odd was that if you want a pump nozzle you have to purchase it separately. Which isn't bad, it's just something I've never really seen before. Though I think it's a wonderful idea so you can only buy one nozzle for all the future ones you purchase. Less plastic waste is always good in my book. 

Upon looking at the bottle I noticed something that threw me a bit off. It doesn't list the ingredients. Which is a must in most laws, even if you list the ingredients on the site you must have them on the product as well. There is room in the back for all the missing requirements to belong. Reading it on the site is fine and dandy but it has to be on the bottle as well. 

The scent of the cleaner is very... perfumey? I can't quite put my finger on it. it's fruity and floral at the same time as clean smelling. It's a unique scent for sure that is quite nice, I don't mind my hand smelling like it once I am done cleaning my brushes. It's a pretty sweet scent that fits its pretty pink color. The soap itself looks like normal pink soap, if not just a tad more watery. It suds up nicely and cleans like any other soap would. 

I compared both with regular soap, the Dove I have and the cleaner. The soap took more effort to clean and having to always go back for more while the brush cleaner, I only needed one pump. It is a time saver that much is certain. The effects of it though are not too different. The soap cleaned it nicely and so did the brush cleaner. The only noticeable difference is the softness of the bristles. For the brush cleaner they are noticeably softer and dry much better than just regular soap. Soap can also leave that gross white film on things and the brush cleaner does not. 


Being completely honest I would love for this to be hand soap, my hands are so soft after using it to clean them all. Moving on though to old make up sponges and brushes. It did not get all the product out of my sponges, some was still there. I haven't used those sponges in a year and wanted to test out if it worked great on old make up. It did a great job but it did not remove everything. That is to be expected, I'm still pleased with now nice my weird looking sponges look now. Same goes for my brushes that had old product on them as well. 
I cannot find the before picture so here is the after

I didn't just want to test make up so I tested them on my artist brushes as well. To which I was very surprised. They worked wonderful! I have three brushes that my mother gave to me and I never use because they are so old. The bristles are ready to snap off at any moment. But I keep them because they were hers. The brushes are older than I am and not in the greatest condition. However, after cleaning them with the brush cleaner some life was brought back into them. The bristles feel softer, almost usable and to my surprise they didn't just snap off when I was trying to clean them. The brush cleaner also cleaned off some 10+ year old paint off the wand of the brushes as well. 


Then I tested it on my cheap sponge I use to give texture to things. Now that had a lot of old paint on it. Just like the sponge it did not clean it all off but it did a great job at removing most of it. It also made the sponge more softer since it had grown hard over the years. Over all I had better results testing on my artist brushes than the make up brushes but both still worked wonderfully. Even with fresh paint on one of my cheap plastic feeling brushes. It took the paint off in one go and even got some old paint out of the bristles. It made plastic feel soft. That is no easy feat. 


I will be using this for all my brushes in the future and it is better than soap but it didn't fully live up to the hype. That is to be expected, it's still a great product that I will buy once my other one is empty. It has brought life into dead brushes and cleaned things I never thought would be clean again. It's a wonderful product and much much safer than regular soap. If you use a lot of brushes, make up or art, then it's something worth buying. Not to mention it's totally affordable and the site has a ton of sales. Below will be links to their site, instagram, and twitter as well as some of my previous reviews. 

Where To Find Them

Previous Reviews

Look out in the following days for a review of the site itself and the other products I purchased. 
Sun Kissed Beauty Shop is a shop that sells chokers, key chains, and their famous brush cleaner. I've seen it around so much on twitter that I just had to buy it. I also bought a ton of chokers for affordable prices. It is run by a lovely lady who takes pride in what she does. She also has a partner business that creates 3D printed items for people to use. 


I wanted to see what the hype was all about with the Brush cleaner. I had been wanting to try it out for some time but never could afford to. Until she had a nice sale and free shipping, I always fall for free shipping. I bought the 8oz Urbandoll collaboration. Mostly because it was pink, not gonna lie. It attracted me the most with its beautiful pink color. The others seem really nice as well and I have no idea if they are any different than the one I bought other than scent of course. I assume it's sort of like the candy Nerds. They have different colors but all taste the same. One day I might be able to test it out if I buy them all. 

My very first impression when opening the package was that it was very nicely packed, I got free goodies one of which my boyfriend loved. A Blue Raspberry Jolly Rancher; it's his favorite. The bottle is sleek, and filled to the brim in a very cute bottle. What I did find just a bit odd was that if you want a pump nozzle you have to purchase it separately. Which isn't bad, it's just something I've never really seen before. Though I think it's a wonderful idea so you can only buy one nozzle for all the future ones you purchase. Less plastic waste is always good in my book. 

Upon looking at the bottle I noticed something that threw me a bit off. It doesn't list the ingredients. Which is a must in most laws, even if you list the ingredients on the site you must have them on the product as well. There is room in the back for all the missing requirements to belong. Reading it on the site is fine and dandy but it has to be on the bottle as well. 

The scent of the cleaner is very... perfumey? I can't quite put my finger on it. it's fruity and floral at the same time as clean smelling. It's a unique scent for sure that is quite nice, I don't mind my hand smelling like it once I am done cleaning my brushes. It's a pretty sweet scent that fits its pretty pink color. The soap itself looks like normal pink soap, if not just a tad more watery. It suds up nicely and cleans like any other soap would. 

I compared both with regular soap, the Dove I have and the cleaner. The soap took more effort to clean and having to always go back for more while the brush cleaner, I only needed one pump. It is a time saver that much is certain. The effects of it though are not too different. The soap cleaned it nicely and so did the brush cleaner. The only noticeable difference is the softness of the bristles. For the brush cleaner they are noticeably softer and dry much better than just regular soap. Soap can also leave that gross white film on things and the brush cleaner does not. 


Being completely honest I would love for this to be hand soap, my hands are so soft after using it to clean them all. Moving on though to old make up sponges and brushes. It did not get all the product out of my sponges, some was still there. I haven't used those sponges in a year and wanted to test out if it worked great on old make up. It did a great job but it did not remove everything. That is to be expected, I'm still pleased with now nice my weird looking sponges look now. Same goes for my brushes that had old product on them as well. 
I cannot find the before picture so here is the after

I didn't just want to test make up so I tested them on my artist brushes as well. To which I was very surprised. They worked wonderful! I have three brushes that my mother gave to me and I never use because they are so old. The bristles are ready to snap off at any moment. But I keep them because they were hers. The brushes are older than I am and not in the greatest condition. However, after cleaning them with the brush cleaner some life was brought back into them. The bristles feel softer, almost usable and to my surprise they didn't just snap off when I was trying to clean them. The brush cleaner also cleaned off some 10+ year old paint off the wand of the brushes as well. 


Then I tested it on my cheap sponge I use to give texture to things. Now that had a lot of old paint on it. Just like the sponge it did not clean it all off but it did a great job at removing most of it. It also made the sponge more softer since it had grown hard over the years. Over all I had better results testing on my artist brushes than the make up brushes but both still worked wonderfully. Even with fresh paint on one of my cheap plastic feeling brushes. It took the paint off in one go and even got some old paint out of the bristles. It made plastic feel soft. That is no easy feat. 


I will be using this for all my brushes in the future and it is better than soap but it didn't fully live up to the hype. That is to be expected, it's still a great product that I will buy once my other one is empty. It has brought life into dead brushes and cleaned things I never thought would be clean again. It's a wonderful product and much much safer than regular soap. If you use a lot of brushes, make up or art, then it's something worth buying. Not to mention it's totally affordable and the site has a ton of sales. Below will be links to their site, instagram, and twitter as well as some of my previous reviews. 

Where To Find Them

Previous Reviews

Look out in the following days for a review of the site itself and the other products I purchased. 
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SOO'AE is an affordable sheet mask that can be found at walmart. This mask costs around $2.50USD to purchase however it is listed on their site for $4.00USD. I received this as a gift from a friend over the Holiday's. It took me a while to use it simply because I have so many other masks to try out and brands I want to try. I feel as if I was also pushing it away because it was a brand I've never used. Until I used the Charcoal Mask by them. Which was a nice mask but it didn't do too much for my skin. I was hoping this mask would be different and it was, for good and for bad. 



 For starters the mask itself was not made for a face like mine. My eyes are much larger and my nose was too small for it. It did not reach to my jawline like some other masks do. Also the forehead part was way too long for me. Those are things I can look past though I also had to keep my lips pressed together since the part that went under the nose was too large for me. I was going to take a picture of myself in the mask but I just hated the look of it so much, however you can find other people wearing it if you want to see. I felt like the man in the iron mask. While the plastic let me put on my glasses I couldn't stand it. I don't want to put plastic on my face. 

 I could not get the mask to form into all of the small curves of my face, it kept popping out since the plastic wasn't all too manageable. The nose area was way too long and I felt as if I was just wasting product the entire time. I would have had a better job if I just scrapped all the product off of the plastic and put it on myself. The no mess part is true but is it really worth it? Not in my book. The product wasted was too great and the plastic was annoying and suffocating. My skin could not breath while in the mask and the small holes made it hard for me to look around. 

 While the mask part itself was a disaster to me I did like the product on it. The mud was a bit cooling but not too much. I couldn't keep it on for the full 30 minutes since my eyes were starting to burn. That could have been my glasses, I don't know for certain but around 26 minutes I had to wash it off. The scent was very minimal and not bad, I could still breath through my nose even though it was almost covered. 

 In the end you still have to wash it off with water and if you aren't careful you can get it in your hair, on your clothes, anywhere and still make a mess. So I guess their "No mess" wasn't fully true. Once my face was clean I will admit that my skin felt amazing. It still does as i am typing this. My skin is soft, it feels hydrated and It did it's job lovely, at least on the places it could touch. My forehead is my trouble area and thankfully it was all over that. 

 Over all I love the product I just hate the gimmick of it. I don't like putting the plastic on my face and wearing the mask as it was. Plastic is not good, and it was a waste of product. I'd rather have the wonderful product in a form where i could just apply myself. The "mess" is worth it than to suffer through that horrible mask again. I will not be buying it but the product on the mask is worth finding a version by itself. 
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These are five sites I use to gather free stock images. I use them when I am creating photomanipulations or creating a pamphlet for a company who has no images for me to use. The people who share their images are wonderful and even though they don't have to be credited you should still list the site where you got them from. They take the time out of their days to take pictures that people use for free. They save so many people from spending money on photos when they can't afford to do so. Below are the top five sites I use. Click on the names of the sites to be directed to them. 

How are they all free? 

They are under the creative commons licence for the most part. Each site shows you the license they have as you can see by the images below, at least some. By clicking on it you can see just exactly how they are free. Most of the time they are under a cc which allows you to use them for personal and commercial use. Even when you click on an image on some of the sites they will tell you what exactly you can do with the image. I'm not the best at explaining it so if you want to know more check out the sites licensing before downloading. You should do that anyways, it's good practice. 


Pexels


Pexels offers a wide variety of photos for you to choose from. They also below their searches offer sites you have to pay for like shutterstock. So when you click and think it's theirs just look carefully. I've done that a few times not paying attention and then clicking on an image that took me to another site. Though they do make it obvious if you pay attention. They offer such a wonderful variety of pictures that people upload for others to use, completely free. The photographers who post there really take their time to create a wonderful picture. Just type what you want and you'll most likely find it. It's the one I use the most. Once you download it will ask if you wish to donate to the site / photographer. If you click on the arrow next to download you can pick the size you want, you don't need to create an account to get the full size, which is nice. I also like that it tells you what you can and cannot do with the image above the download button. 

 Unsplash offers you high quality photos for free just like the other sites. Just type what you want and bam, instant photos of wonderful quality for you to pick. Just click on the image and it gives you the download button and other images you might like to see. A nice feature it has is when you download a little window will pop up telling you that you don't have to credit but perhaps give the artist a nice thank you / shout out to give them exposure. In this case exposure is good. You don't have to create an account to get the images what so ever. You instantly get the full sized image upon downloading but unlike the other two sites it doesn't tell you the copyrights with the image when you are seeing the image. You can however, click on info to see more about it. 

PixaBay

Pixabay and Unsplash are almost exactly the same. To be quite honest all the sites are almost the same. They give you photos, they tell you the copyright, and they ask if you'd like to shout out or donate. Pixabays layout is the most fluid to me. I like how smooth it works and how easy it is to navigate. Not that the other two aren't but sometimes the others can lag just a bit. I've had no issues with Pixabay what so ever. I love when you click on the image it tells you what you can and cannot do with the image. Like Pexels it let's you pick the size of image you want to download but if you wish to download the full res size you must create an account with them. 

Three Royalty Free Stock Sites

by on April 21, 2018
These are five sites I use to gather free stock images. I use them when I am creating photomanipulations or creating a pamphlet for a compa...
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About Tarabusi Creek
Tarabusi Creek is a small business based in Michigan that focuses on your skin care needs. They are cruelty free and vegan and is run by a lovely woman who creates wonderful products that you can spoil yourself with. Luxury for under 15 dollars. Tarabusi Creek offers a wide variety of products such as: soap, candles, face masks, face scrubs, and even bubble bars. She is always striving to provide more products and improve on ones already in stock. Tarabusi listens to their customers ideas and improves upon what they don't like. They are a business worth checking out. 

Ocean Mist Clay Face Mask

The Ocean Mist Clay Face Mask is a very thick mask since most of it's components are indeed clay. It is made out of bentonite clay and kaolin clay, which are not ones to absorb oil so they are not ideal for extra oily skin but perfect for those with dry to combination skin. The ingredients also include coconut milk which gives your skin a nice boost of vitamin C. What that does is help the elasticity of your skin. Which is good going down the line as you age. It also contains Aloe Vera gel which soothes the skin and gives it plenty of moisture. Below is the list of the full ingredients of the product. They use preservatives to give it longer shelf life but do not use the harmful ones most large brands put into their products. 

Ingredients 
bentonite clay, kaolin clay, coconut milk, aloe vera, vitamin E oil, jojoba oil, fragrance oil, mica colorants, phenonip, glycerin, water, sodium cocoyl isethionate, sorbitol, propylene glycol, disodium lauryl sulfosuccinate, stearic acid, sodium chloride, diozolidinyl urea, iodopropynyl butylcarbamate

I want to make sure that you know to always read the ingredients on the site before you purchase in case there are allergies you might have in there. On the container it's very small since I purchased a 1oz but that is not really an issue since it's listed very clearly on the site itself.  I can't stress enough how important it is to not only read ingredients but for small businesses to list them all as well. 

I did purchase the small 1oz bottle of the mask since I was afraid I might be allergic. I was willing to purchase it to test it out, I was so happy to find out I had no reaction at all. The 1oz container is filled to the brim with product, it's completely full and you get your money's worth. For 3USD it is totally worth it if you are wanting to try it out. It's the cheapest 1oz on the site so far but that does not diminish the quality.  


The formula of the mask is very thick due to all the clay in it.  That makes it hard to apply and you have to really scoop out a lot of it if you want to do a full face. So if you are the type that only does full face then I suggest purchasing a larger size such as 2oz if you like it. A little bit does not go a long way in this sense. But the mask is very lovely once it is on the skin. The scent of it is very strong and makes me feel as if I am walking on a beach. It makes me want to drive the two hours to see the beach, that is how lovely it is. However, it is a bit strong, all their product scents tend to be on the strong side which is not a bad thing. Though if you have a sensitive nose like I do it takes a bit to adjust. This one was almost an exception since the scent is just so lovely. 

The color of the mask is quite beautiful, though with handmade products it tends to vary from batch to batch. Mine was a beautiful gray blue color which made me feel as if I was putting that mud on my face from those hot springs. Once it's on your face it does not move and it feels very nice on the skin. You leave the mask on for about 10-15 minutes and then wash off with water. However, when the mask is on I noted no burning sensation, a slight cold tingling feeling which I love, and I could wear my glasses while I had it on, which is always a plus in my book. 

The mask was easy to wash off and it bubbled up just like the rest of their products. A feature I truly love, makes it so much more fun to take off. Once the mask was off my skin felt a bit textured and I was worried it didn't really do anything to my skin. Though after about 10 minutes my skin started to become softer and softer. So if that happens to you don't be worried about it, just give it time, you did just rub your face after all. Your skin will start to soften and feel luxurious like it does with the other face mask I reviewed. 

Overall this mask is lovely and it is one I find myself getting excited to use. I would purchase a larger version again in a heartbeat. Not only is the company cruelty free and vegan they also have so many wonderful promoters on twitter. They will be there in a flash to give you their 10% off code which will save you a lot in the long run. There are always restocks, and always discounts if you use promoters codes or subscribe to their site via email to get special discount codes during restocks. Below are the links to their site, twitter, and instagram. 


Previous Tarabusi Creek Reviews
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Shop Miss A is a great site, I love it so much. I get most of my lip products from there since they are cheap and I don't wear them much. Granted I have a tooon of lip products and most of them are from this site. The eye shadows are almost always a miss to me though, we'll get into that with the one I have from there. The site itself is easy to navigate and they tell you at the bottom in little pop ups what people are buying. I find that super neat since it lets you know what's popular. On top of that they let people rate and give reviews. I've yet to give them on there yet but I plan to soon. 

I have bought quite a bit of things from this site but it was my first time getting a Misstery Bag. Which is just a cute little lace / see through ribbon tied bag that holds 10 items. It was 5USD for myself when I bought it and I got 5 Make up / Nail Items and 5 Accessories / Jewelry pirces. I had no real interest in getting it other than review it on here. I also bought four things for myself that I wanted from there. Now, in order to get free shipping on the site you have to spend quite a bit of money which I never do. I never spend over 20USD on the site so I'll never get free shipping. But shipping inside of the US is not so bad. It's almost 4USD which is pretty cheap compared to other places. The site has so many things you might end up getting free shipping. 



These are the items that I received in my Misstery Bag. You can see the lace bag underneath. The bag itself is really cute and I plan on reusing. Getting into the items in the bag I was not overly surprised with anything inside other than the Cellphone ring, choker, and eyebrow pencil since I had never used those before and it is reliant on shade. That in itself made me nervous that it might be the wrong shade. I was correct, the color is more red and my eyebrows are almost like an ashy blond / brown color. It looked strange on my eyebrows but it wasn't too bad. I could make it work if I knew what I was doing. However after testing it out I did like how it made my eyebrows more full. Granted they don't need much help with that in some aspects but I still enjoyed it. I would buy again in a shade closer to the color of my eyebrows or the color I tend to dye my hair soon. The application was easy, smooth and once it set it didn't budge all too much. 

I don't have my ears pierced nor did I wear cheap earrings so I wasn't going to use those at all. I will probably give to someone who doesn't mind and can use them. However, they are pretty and there is quite the selection. Though I cannot give a proper review on those. 


So I moved to the next item and that was the bracelets. It came with three and they are so cute. I love them except the top one in the picture keeps breaking off every now and then, it's an easy fix but it's annoying. The heart one is a fabric like so I have to really lay it flat and put something on top of it so it won't be bent from the packaging. You can see the glue of it being made on some of them. Other than that they are super pretty and I love them. 




Then there was the eye primer. I was miffed about this one since one of the items I bought was an eye primer. Their in house brand AOA. The primer in the Misstery Bag ended up better than the AOA brand, which disappointed me but I was glad at the same time. I can't tell if they were looking out for me or didn't pay attention at all. The primer was creamy and it covered a lot with just a little bit. I don't own the best eye shadows or the best brushes but when I applied it the color was much more pronounced than using their AOA brand. I'll use both but the Kleancolor was better by far. 


The cellphone ring is great. I haven't tried out the other bit it came with. It comes with a little plastic hook to use in your car. However, it states that you can remove it at any time and reapply it. That was not the case when we put it on and tried to take it off. First off it sticks like crazy so make sure you know where you want it. The adhesive was sticking to the phone case and the metal part was coming off when we tried. My fiance pulled on it so hard he popped the ring out. I would trust a more reliable brand with something like that since now I'm going to need a new cellphone case soon. 


The choker was nice, a bit fake feeling but not too bad. I really like the gem it's super pretty and colorful though I don't like how it has a pointed back. It keeps hitting my throat every time it dangles. Also it's a bit hard to put on since the clasp is a bit hard to open. The gem is too low on the fabric which makes the whole choker droop which I personally don't like. I will continue to wear it however since besides all that it's pretty. If you are looking for chokers there are far better places / small businesses to get them from. 

The last three I'm going to move through quickly. The silver nail polish was not that great. It was sheer and you had to apply three coats for you to not see your nail. Not only that it was streaky and took forever to get close to dry It didn't fully dry, after five minutes it was still sticky. Perhaps someone who is more adapt with nails can make it work but I couldn't. The eyeliner and mascara duo stole the show. They worked beautiful and I will be using them a lot and possible getting more. The eyeliner doesn't smudge once it's dry unless you use water. It is not water proof what so ever. 

The eye shadow pallet was a huge miss. It smelled strongly of baby powder which only means one thing. Yep, talc was the first ingredient. Talc isn't the worst thing but it's still not very good to keep using. It's in almost everything but if it's the first ingredient? Run. It was hardly pigmented and I just not good, not even good enough for kids makeup. 



Oh, yeah, I forgot about the mustache ring they gave me... Yeah, I am not a fan of that at all. Just like the bracelets you can still see the glue of when it was made. Unlike the bracelets it has no saving grace. It's ugly, it's not cool, and it's poorly put together. I have no idea who would wear such a thing. The picture makes it look almost nice but in person it is not. .That's all I need to say about the Misstery Bag. A lot of misses but some pretty good hits. You take a chance with those type of purchases. 




Now, I bought a few things of my own accord. Such as the amazing scissor tweezers. Truly a life saver, I love them to pieces. They are so easy to use and pick up so much more than any tweezers I've bought. The flamingo bag is honestly so cute and it seems pretty durable for only a dollar. I am in love with it and I plan to use it till it breaks. The primer, I already stated above that I wasn't a fan but I'll still use it. Then last but not least an empty spray bottle I plan to make my own screen cleaner in. 

I hope you liked my very long review / haul of the site. My photos are not the greatest since  they are taken with poor light since it's been very cloudy and on my phone. I try my best but to no avail. Remember when buying mystery bundles, you won't always get good things, buy at your own risk. 
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This is my very first time making gluten free brownies and it was stressful due to my own errors and the fact that brownies can burn very easily. I hope you enjoy my review / walk through of how I made them! 


My friend gave me the Krusteaz Gluten Free Brownie Mix. This brownie mix came with little chocolate chips in the mix already which was amazing but they were so small you didn't really notice them. That can be fixed if you add your own into the mix as well, give a bit extra chocolaty goodness. The mix itself looks like a basic brownie mix. You add your water, oil, and egg. Or your egg substitute. It mixes very easily and it's quite a lot of fun to do. I love watching it turn dark and as I mix it feeling the chocolate chips brush against the fork, that just makes me sound weird, I know. Anyways I had no parchment paper so I just oiled it up with vegetable oil I had, which worked just fine, though I could have used a bit more oil. I had messed up with the pan since all I had was a 9x11 but the recipe called for an 8x8. That isn't a big thing other than it means the cooking time would not be what the box says. I watched it like a hawk and didn't leave the kitchen. Towards the end I kept checking it to see if it was as done as it should be. Apparently brownies are suppose to be slightly underdone, which made me so nervous. 


As you can see from the picture below I poked it to see how hard it was at the top, didn't turn out very well since my finger sunk in pretty quickly. So I kept cooking it in intervals of two to five minutes and kept checking it because I was so nervous. That's why there are so many tiny toothpick holes, trying to see how done it was. I was really determined not to mess this up since I don't have the best of luck with baking things with chocolate in them. 

Once I deemed them done enough I let them cool and let the underdone parts cook on their own without the added heat of the oven. It took a bit but they became less squishy and more soft. But i like my brownies a bit gooey and soft so it was perfect for myself. Since my stove is at an angle apparently one side was a little thinner and it ended up turning a bit hard.


They tasted amazing though! My fiance who is nervous about trying gluten free foods and isn't really a fan of chocolate loved them, so I call that a sucess. My friend had given these to me to bake so I can have gluten free sweets. I would most definitely by this box of brownie mix again or try another gluten free kind. You cannot taste any difference between a normal brownie and the gluten free version. At least to my taste buds. These retail for about 5 or so dollars in most places. Not gonna lie the end picture is not that great but I realized it so late, I'm sorry for the blurry picture. I hope you found my review helpful and honestly you should go try this gluten free brownie mix. 
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Hey everyone! I recently was able to attend the pass members only event at Universal Studios Hollywood. I didn't take many photos because I was a bit too nervous to take any but I do have a few. From what I saw they didn't mind too much. So if I go again I'll be sure to post more on my twitter @lynnllia. Anyways, the store is just lovely. They gave my boyfriend and myself free cute hello kitty headbands and we also got a free heart shaped cookie. It in itself was a bit bland almost milky tasting so I didn't finish it but it was super cute.

They had so much to offer with all sorts of animation. I really really wanted the Back to the Future feat Hello Kitty mug. I wanted everything pretty much. Though it is of course all on the pricey side. It's Universal after all. The things I did buy though were a cute set of magnetic bookmarks and a cute set of small notebooks. Those are the two things I will be reviewing. Also, it took everything in my power not to buy a 20 dollar mug or an 80 dollar purse. I can't help myself when it comes to Hello Kitty or anything cute for that matter.





Let's get started! First up is the magnetic bookmarks. They were around 8 dollars for two which honestly isn't that bad considering there is two in there and they are magnetic. The packaging is super cute and I love how they showcase the back of the bookmarks more than the front so it's a little surprise. The red is super cute though taking the bookmarks out was a bit hard since I was trying not to ruin the backing it was on.

The bookmarks themselves are pretty nice, they aren't amazing and they had a little  overlap that I ended up taking off, which was nothing really. They are pretty strong magnets but not strong enough to do much damage. I tested them out on one sheet vs a couple sheets vs a lot. On one sheet of my book if you move the magnet a bit too fast it will rip the page. Thankfully I only had minor damage done to mine when I attempted it. I'm generally a more careful person when it comes to things like that so if you aren't, be careful. So using it on one page is fine but you do have to move it slowly up and separate them so you can get it off.

Then I tested it on a few pages, about five or so and it worked much better. No damage was done and I could remove it a lot faster because I wasn't as worried. Though I would still be careful. If you don't place it right it can bunch up the pages and create a little air in between the pages and it appears even more so the more pages you add. I did that with my book and I'm waiting to see if it has any adverse affects on the pages themselves. Possibly ruining a book for the sake of bookmark science.

Yes yes I am reading the hobbit, I am super late on that train but still, the bookmarks hold up and they do their job. There isn't much to be said in that department. The look super cute, I love how they look like tickets, I find that absolutely adorable. They are great at being a bookmark if you know how to use them and if you are careful. Just don't put them near your electronics.


Moving on to the set of three small notebooks. these were around 15 to 16 dollars I don't remember the exact price since I threw away the plastic covering. However, they were a dollar cheaper than a bigger notebook which honestly I thought was a steal. They look to be about the same amount of pages and I myself personally prefer small notebooks. I already have one small Hello Kitty notebook so I decided to get her three sisters. The notebooks are alright. They are a good price for three of them and since it was a pass members only event the whole store was 20% off and I love me a sale.




The notebooks are super cute and they even have art inside on the back of the cover. Which I found completely adorable. However they aren't exactly the best made. They are glued notebooks which means they have no rings around them and are harder to keep open. Unless you train it to stay open then you'll be holding it the whole time. The downside of training them to stay open is that they won't close fully. I'm not a fan of that style of notebooks but it's something that is more of a personal preference than anything else.

The cover is durable but it does feel a bit cheap sometimes when I grab it. The pages themselves are super cute and they seem to work just fine. Each notebook has the same pages in them. All black lines with a little Hello Kitty in the corner just smiling at you. The cover art and the inside art is the only thing that makes them different. Which I don't mind at all. I don't like a lot of art on the notebook pages because I buy them to write in them more than anything. If you don't mind the notebook never closing fully unless something is on top if it then I suggest trying it out. They are cute little notebooks that were not bad for their price. It's what I expected out of them and nothing more or nothing less.

Those two items totaled around 21USD which is what I expecting. That is with the 20% off. It's a huge name brand and inside an amusement part so it's to be expected to be cheap. My other notebook that I bought years ago is ringed and it cost around 10 dollars just by itself. So for three none ringed they are worth their money. I will be using them a lot. One of them is already designated my blog notebook. If you love Hello Kitty then the shop is worth checking out. It opens to the public on March 1st and I will for sure be going in there again. Perhaps next time I'll do the Make Your Own Headband station.
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