Designer Beverly Hsu has made these delicious Helvetica Cookie Cutters for those of us who lick the type specimen sheets when no one else is looking.Come on. I know you do it, too. I’ve seen you at our support group.
(via swissmiss)
I’ve been thinking about creating some artwork for the wall at home for quite some time now, not necessarily like this, but something that doesn’t involve using a computer. I want to be a bit more ‘hands on’ with the decoration of my home.
(via blackeiffel)
Who would live in a house like this? Wayne Coyne, that’s who.
via black eiffel
Sea-salted chocolate and pecan tart recipe
175g butter
75g golden caster sugar
2 egg yolks
250g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
200g Madagascan 64% dark chocolate, broken into pieces
200ml whipping or double cream (whipping cream gives a slightly lighter texture)
200g light muscovado sugar
10g Maldon sea salt
100g caster sugar
1 teaspoon Maldon sea salt
100g pecan halves
To make the crust, cream together the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until light and creamy. Add the egg yolks and 35ml water and mix well until all the liquid has been incorporated. Gradually add the flour and cocoa powder until a paste is formed. This can all be done in an electric mixer or food processor if you prefer.
Wrap the pastry in foil or clingfilm, flatten it with your hand and refrigerate for 1 hour. The pastry can be made 2 days ahead, or even longer since it freezes well, though in this case you may want to knead the pastry to soften it before rolling.
Sprinkle your surface with flour and roll out the pastry until it is about 5cm bigger than your tart ring or tin. I recommend using a ring that is 24cm in diameter and 2.5cm deep.
Carefully line the ring or tin, pushing the pastry well into the bottom edges and folding the excess over the top. Trim off the excess. Refrigerate for 15 minutes to relax the pastry and to help prevent it from shrinking during cooking.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Line the tart with a sheet of parchment paper – scrunch it up first to soften it – then tip in baking beans, rice or lentils and bake blind for 20 minutes. Lift out the beans and bake for a further 5 to 8 minutes, until the base is dry. Allow to cool.
To make the filling, put all the ingredients in a glass or metal mixing bowl – place it over a pan of very hot water and allow them to melt together until glossy and thick. Pour into your cold, baked crust and refrigerate for 2 hours.
For the topping, heat a saucepan until warm and add the sugar, gradually mixing until you have a golden liquid caramel. Add the salt and mix well. Pour in the pecans and, mixing thoroughly, quickly pour the mixture on to a parchment sheet and spread out with a spatula. Allow to cool thoroughly, then break or chop up into shards or chunky pieces to sprinkle over the ganache.
Cut the tart with a hot, wet knife for perfect, restaurant-quality slices.
recipe courtesy of guardian
We already know that the Chanel brand wants to conquer your nails, lips, purses, and—with the advent of Chanel’s temporary tattoos—the top layers of your epidermis, so what surface will Chanel conquer next? How about your forehead? Art student Ryan McSorley thinks so.
In his final project for a product design class at Central Saint Martins, Ryan created Skin by Chanel, a collection of skincare standbys including a cleanser, toner, and moisturizer, but with an unexpected addition: There’s also a headband that imprints the double C’s on your forehead, cheek, or facial surface of choice. If his prediction about the future of extreme branding ever comes true, people won’t have to ask you what moisturizer you’re using—the answer will be written on your face.
via the pipeline
These Jacket+Bookmarks put a huge smile on my face. An idea by Igor “Rogix” Udushlivy who thought it would be great to use dust jackets and bookmarks together to create a unique image of a paper book.
via swiss miss
What Watt? is a memorial to and a celebration of the humble incandescent lightbulb by London based designer Tim Fishlock. It’s a spherical chandelier, 1010mm in diameter made up of 1243 suspended bulbs of various shape and size, illuminated by a single low-energy light source. By 2011, all forms of incandescent light bulb will have been phased out in favour of greener alternatives. What Watt? marks the passing of a beautiful design that has remained relatively unchanged since its invention 130 years ago.
via Contemporist
I’ve been thinking about doing some product reviews for a long time, but never quite got round to it. I spend way too much money on make-up, some of the things that I buy I love, some not so much. I’ve also been reading a lot of other people’s blogs — lollipop26, gem’s maquillage and lily loves lola — to name but a few and feeling quite inspired to share my knowledge and experiences and put them to some use.
I know there are tonnes of other review sites around, and I’m certainly not claiming to be any different, or better than the rest and I’ll also still be blogging or posting about the usual things that you find on here such as bits of nice design that I’ve seen elsewhere.
So, for my first review, here are some of the products that I’ve been using a lot of lately. Clockwise from the top left is:
I love this Max Factor mascara. I wouldn’t necessarily say that it was my HG, but I do use it every day. I usually layer it on top of another mascara, currently Prestige ‘my biggest lashes’, because it separates and defines the lashes really well. For a drug store mascara it’s reasonably expensive, around £10, and I’m sure that there are cheaper mascaras on the market that do the job just as well, but I like it and I prefer it to more expensive mascaras that I’ve used before.
Lancome Adaptive - I’ve been using this foundation for about a month now and I really like it. I originally bought it, because the foundation I was using was drying my skin out, serves me right really for using something cheap, but also, I do occasionally get an oily t-zone, so needed something that was for combination skin. I find that it lasts pretty well throughout the day, so long as I powder my face too. If I don’t, then by the end of a day at work, the foundation has pretty much worn off, but with a light dusting of MAC Mineralize Skin Finish (MSF) Natural, it lasts and I don’t really need to touch up, apart from my nose perhaps. The colour match is good and they have quite a few shades to choose from. This also doesn’t dry too quickly, meaning it’s easy to blend, and the pump applicator means it’s much less messy than similar alternatives. I’d say that this was a medium coverage foundation and because it blends so well, you don’t really need to use all that much of it.
I bought the Urban Decay Volume II eye palette a while back and with it came the two eye liners. I haven’t really tried tight lining or using these on my waterline because they’re pretty smudgy, so didn’t think they’d really be suitable, but you may know different. These are great for using though because they do as they say, they glide on, which means no dragging of the eyelid. I always manage to get a really smooth line with these and would re-purchase when they are no more.
I’d been looking for a suitable red lipstick for ages and tried one from MAC and a Revlon one too, I found them way too red for my skin tone, but have seen how wonderful they look on other people. I picked up the Rimmel lipstick in Coral Queen because a friend, with a similar skin tone to mine had been using a coraly coloured lipstick, no idea which one though, and I thought that maybe a coral shade would suit me best. I didn’t really want to spend too much money though so thought I’d check out Rimmel. I picked this up and again I love it. I don’t use it everyday, in fact, I don’t even always use it on a night out because I quite like a natural lip colour, but I do use it quite a bit and it’s the perfect shade for me.
Last but not least, wow this has been a long post, is lemon aid by Benefit. I bought this years ago originally (probably about 6 years ago, when I was first hit by the Benefit bug) and never re-purchased it. However, a few months ago, another friend, was round at mine and I commented on the colour of what I thought was her eye shadow. It was in fact lemon aid. During the day I use this product alone to even out the colour of my lids or at night, when I tend to wear some shadow on my eyes, I use this as a primer. It’s probably not as effective as the Urban Decay primer, and I wouldn’t really recommend it as a primer for for particularly heavy or glittery shadows, but for me, it does what I want, and that’s to keep my shadow in place and my colour looking even.
Hmm, so I hope that I haven’t bored you all with my thoughts, if anyone has even managed to get this far that is. In future I’ll be doing more reviews, probably not quite so long as this one though, so if there is anything in particular that you want to see a review of, let me know.
I really want this TBA silk dress so much, but at the moment, I’m supposed to be saving money and just can’t afford the £150 that it’s retailing for. I’m one of those people who is constantly buying new dresses, because I don’t want to be seen in the same outfit too many times.
When said outfit is a little black dress, it can be worn in many different ways and with many different things, belts, cardigans etc, and therefore it’s not quite so obvious that you’re essentially wearing the same outfit over and over again, and so I don’t feel quite so bad in splashing the cash, because I know that I’ll get my money’s worth from it.
However, when the dress in question is quite unique or has a bit of a pattern to it, I have to really limit myself to how much I wear it, I don’t like looking through facebook photos and seeing myself in the same dress on numerous nights out. So, as stunning as the dress is and as much as I would dearly love to own it, unless I see this piece drastically reduced in price, it will simply remain as something I want, but will never have.
photo via wishwishwish
Graphic Design Study of the Snowflake by Andrei D. Robu.
via swiss miss