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Review : Everyday Mineral Brushes

Its been a while since I’ve done a female vanities post, so today I’d thought that I’d share with you my Everyday Mineral Brushes collection.

Here it is! Isn’t it a beauty?

Everyday Minerals Brush Collection

I’ve pretty much everything except for the new dome blush brush which came out just a few months after I’ve placed my last order.

I love my brushes. I’ve been using Everyday Minerals for close to two years and no complains from me so far! EDM is a cosmetics brand which uses mineral make-up. Previously the company offered free sample kits and I’m happy that through it, I’ve found a good colour match for my skin.

Everyday Minerals

It was a long toss up between the EDM brush sets or the brushes from Sigma Makeup (which claims to have brushes as good as Mac Cosmetics) but eventually I chose EDM on account of its price. 12 items and above gets a 45% discount. So it makes more sense to do a collective spree with friends and have it cheaper.

The company promotes itself as eco and animal friendly. Its brushes itself are said to be made from synthetic cruelty-free fibres and bamboo handles which is recyclable. But one of the things that makes EDM brushes very memorable to me is how extremely soft the brushes are.

Face brushes

Here are probably one of the most popular brushes in Everyday Minerals. On the left is the kabuki brush and on the right, the flat top brush.

Everyday Minerals - The Kabuki Brush and the Flat Top Brush

As you could see, these brushes are very dense. These are necessary so that it will be able to pick up the loose mineral powder and be ready to be distributed on your face. As already mentioned, these brushes are very soft. Kind of like rubbing a bunny on your face.

Everyday Minerals - The Kabuki Brush and the Flat Top Brush

While most would prefer the long handled kabuki brush, I find myself reaching the flat top brush instead. Its more straightforward for me when applying my base powder. Because of its flat top, I could buffer it and my face would be done in a few minutes. In comparison to the kabuki brush, because of how soft it is, application takes a longer time.

Everyday Minerals - The Kabuki Brush and the Flat Top Brush

Next in the face brush segments are the angled blush brush, the foundation brush and the concealer brush

Everyday Minerals - The angled blush brush, the foundation brush and the concealer brush

I don’t usually use the foundation and the concealer brush that much, and I usually skip that part.

But I love my blush brush. Because of its shape, it’s fantastic to use it as a regular blush brush or turn the handle as a highlighter. At this point of time, the angle blush brush is discontinued and is replaced by the new dome blush brush. I’m not sure why its replaced though, as I don’t see anything wrong with it.

And now lets see the eye brushes.

Eye Brushes

Here are the Eye Kabuki Junior and the Eye Kabuki. If you notice that the logos are different, the reason is that the brushes with the round logo are from the late 2008 batch while the rectangle logo are from the late 2009 batch.

Everyday Minerals - The Eye Kabuki Junior Brush and the Eye Kabuki Brush

Initially, EDM released the Eye Kabuki brush as an all over eye-shadow brush. But as you can see, it’s really huge. Bigger than the size of my finger, so it’s not very practical for me. But it can be used as a concealer brush and it works great for the under-eye part.

While junior on the other hand, actually does a great job for smudging. Works great for the creation of smoky eyes looks.

And below are the rest of the eye brushes – The everyday eye-shadow brush, the eye blending brush, the everyday eye smudge brush, the dome blending eye brush and the angled brow and liner brush.

Everyday Minerals - The Everyday eyeshadow brush, eye blending brush, everyday eye smudge brush, dome blending eye brush and the angled brow and liner brush

Truth be told, I don’t use all of these brushes all that much in the end as I’m more into neutral eye looks. But so far, I think it does a fair job when it comes to application mineral eye make up.

Just do be careful when using these brushes on regular eye-shadow, especially bright colours as there is a big chance that it will stain these brushes. And because EDM brushes all have their tips dyed white, it makes it VERY visible. But don’t worry too much if it does happen as some stains are inevitable. Just keep deep cleaning it with baby shampoo as regularly used.

If anyone asked me, which are the most basic brushes that I would get from Everyday Minerals, I think I would pick these since I use them more regularly compared to the others :

Everyday Minerals brushes that rinaz.net uses

Angled Blush Brush for blush application Flat top brush for base powder application, Eye Kabuki Jr for smudging, Everyday Eyeshadow brush for all over eye-shadow application and the Dome Blending Eyebrush as a highligher.

To end, I’ll put up a nice picture of me with rainbow eye-shadow using mineral mekap.

Rinaz Rainbow Eyeshadow

You like?

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Mayday Concert in Rome

Cart and I were planning to go to the Concerto del Primo Maggio held at the Piazza di San Giovanni. However when the day arrived, I was feeling quite moody. Coupled with the fact that the concert was really huge, even larger scale than the one at Circo Massimo, I wasn’t feeling it. Cart thinks that I had the bout of PMS which I denied. Men always blame women’s mood swings on this, which I think is such a diatribe.

Italian brand Premenstrual Pills

Cart got it right though. Because a few days later, I needed a couple of these buscofen pills. Actually its a little scary at how Cart knows me so well to the point that he knows exactly what I am thinking at that point of time

Anyway!

We did manage to catch it live on the telley and I saw a couple of interesting acts, even if I was not familiar with most of them. One of the acts was the Tre allegri ragazzi morti. Translated, it means Three happy dead guys.

Tre allegri ragazzi morti

At first they reminded me of the Insane Clown Posse which at this moment has an extremely odd music video out. But the tre allegri ragazzi morti has an easy going grunge rock sound. Kind of like Smashing Pumpkins in their days of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and before.

The concert was hosted by this lady. Her name is Sabrina Impacciatore. Its probably a bad picture, but seeing the long hair and the white dress … the first thing that came to my mind was a pontianak.

Sabrina Impacciatore

But to her credit, she’s the first woman ever to host the concert. And, she is so funny! This is she in a Tomb Raider parody where she gives a tutorial for new users.

Its in Italian, but still amusing to watch anyway

As a person who spent hours playing Tomb Raider back in my pre-university days, I appreciated the poses and gestures like the flailing arms, the running and jumping which is quite on the spot in the actual game!

And then I noticed this :

These are the same guys who sang the annoying Carla Bruni song. This song is amusing because it sounds so much like they were saying, “Boleh. Boleh. Tak Boleh” which means, “Possible. Possible. Not possible” in Malay

As you can see, I’m easily amused

Si luncai terjun dengan labu-labunya. Biarkan. Biarkan. Biarkan. Biarkan

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How to make vegetarian meatballs

There was some melanzane in the fridge and I was wondering what to do with it.

Melanzane means eggplants in Italian or as we Asians call it, brinjal. I would normally just slice and fry them to be eaten with sambal, or have it be made into Roasted Eggplant soup.

Roasted Eggplant Soup
Roasted eggplant soup

I was reading a recipe on to make Polpette di Melanzane, and not too long ago I made Polpette Al Sugo, which is an Italian version of meatballs in tomato sauce, so I thought I’d give it a try with my own touch

First, take some melanzane, rinse and then slice them thinly. Some recipes want you to peel the skin but I left it on, on purpose as I think that it tastes just as good with the skin.

Polpette di Melanzane

Next, arrange the slices and sprinkle salt on to them. Then repeat the step by adding another layer of the melanzane slices on top and sprinkle more salt till all the slices are gone.

Polpette di Melanzane

Then put a plate on top of it and put something heavy to squash them. This is supposed to remove the eggplant juice which has a bitter taste. Then leave it be for some hours. And when you come back, indeed you’ll see liquid dripping out.

So at this time, boil some water in a pot. While waiting for the water to boil, rinse the melanzane slices thoroughly and then drop them in the boiling water. Let it to cook for a few minutes like less than 5 minutes. Dont let it get soggy.

Polpette di Melanzane

Then drain the boiled melanzane slices. Get rid of as much of the liquid as possible. So I guess this is a great time to *ahem* fondle and squeeze them. After which, chop them up as finely as possible. Or dump them in the food processor.

This, by the way, is Pecorino cheese. Sheep cheese! It has a slightly stronger taste compared to cow cheese.

Polpette di Melanzane

Grate some pecorino cheese and dump them in a bowl. Add a clove of mashed garlic, a couple of egg yolks, breadcrumbs, chopped fresh basil, salt and pepper to taste. Oh and not forgetting the chopped melanzane of course.

Polpette di Melanzane

And then mix them all up nicely. If it feels too squishy, just add more breadcrumbs and leave it in the fridge to settle for a while 😀

By this time, your hand will smell like Parmigiana. Ooh! Another food that I like to eat!

In any case, then take a small bit of the mix and form a ball and roll it in your hand. Squash the middle as how you’d make begedil and then coat them with breadcrumbs

Polpette di Melanzane

And then fry them in hot oil till its golden brown. I used olive oil, but other vegetable oils would be fine too. Anyway, this is what it looks like in the end!

Polpette di Melanzane

It might look plain but trust me, its delicious! So much so that when Cart finished my freshly made batch, he turned into a zombie and bawled out, “Want MOARRRR!”

Cart want moar

Uh oh

Sidenote : Feliza was asking that I have a link to all the food that I made. I do! Its right under the food fascination category