Joining in: {Wine Circle}
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Good Luck Cafe {Illovo}
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Getting {Korea} ready...
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Flat White Concepts {Magazine}
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Chocolate Brownies {recipe}
/I made these delicious chocolate brownies again, and every time I do I am (or rather my tummy is!) thrilled with what comes out of the oven.
125g butter
45g cocoa powder
2 large eggs
200g castor sugar
150 self raising flour
60g chopped dark chocolate
makes 12 brownies
**I doubled the recipe and ended up making about 35 delicious, melt-in-your-mouth brownies**
1. Melt the butter. Remove from the heat and stir in the cocoa.
2. Beat the eggs until light, add the sugar and beat well. Stir in the cocoa mixture. Sift in the flour, and fold in along with the chocolate.
3. Pour into a greased and lined 20cm square tin. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 25 mins or until cooked through but still moist.
Don't forget to store them in an unusual looking tin for safe keeping!
{A Beautiful Mess} app
/I love following the American lifestyle blog A Beautiful Mess which follows the lives of the lovely Elsie & Emma. These creatives recently launched an amazing photo app for download on the Itunes store. The app comes with fourteen cute photo border options, lots of sweet doodles and phrases and a stack of fonts to customize your photographs. Its such a steal at 99c. That covers a lot of the goodies in the app, but to get more options, you need to pay a little extra for each extra set of fonts/borders/doodles.
Here are some of my creations, using original photographs as well as Instagram snaps...I love it! So easy to use and super quick to create gorgeous customized images.
Have any of you tried this app before?
xxx
Essence BB Cream {review}
/BB creams (or beauty balms as their full name) are all the rage right now as they offer loads more benefits than traditional foundations. BB creams prime, hydrate, protect & perfect skin while providing a range of coverage. They also contain SPF to protect your skin from harmful UV rays. Originating in Japan and South Korea (where I was at first very wary of trying them out while we were living there back in 2010), they can be worn alone as a tinted moisturizer, over serum and moisturizer as a regular foundation, or under powder, depending on the desired amount of coverage.
Revlon & Garnier have been the first that I have seen to introduce their versions, but I have been a little wary of forking out too much to try out something that seems very gimmicky. Which is why when I saw this one from Essence at Dischem for R54.95 I thought I'd give it a bash.
It's light and blends seamlessly into skin with very little effort. Providing light to medium coverage depending on how much you build up the product. It leaves my skin feeling soft and moisturized, and so far has lasted the whole day without leaving me looking oily. As you can see from my slightly cheesy and ID look a like photo's below, the coverage is light, but definitely evens out my complexion, and does a decent job of covering up my pigmentation without looking cakey.
My only concern is that currently there are only 3 shades, so if you don't fit into the light/medium or dark category you are kinda stuck. But, its very easily to blend with a concealer for added coverage or colour options.
If you have tried and liked any other BB creams on the market please feel free to drop your thoughts in the comments section below :)
Bye Bye Pietermaritzburg!
/Today was our last official day in our little flat here in Pietermaritzburg. Tomorrow we head out to the farm, where we will spend the next 10 days with Farmboy's family, before heading to Joburg to see mine. Then, on the 20th June we will be leaving South Africa for lots of adventures in Asia!
Even though we stay in a {tiny} 1 bedroom flat, the amount of stuff that keeps materializing and needing to be packed is frightening. I would never have guessed we would need 4 x cars, 2 x trailers, 15 x 160l HUGE black plastic boxes, and 10 x suitcases to pack up our life here. It's a little sad (especially saying goodbye to all our wonderful friends here) but at the same time, we are both so looking forward to this new season in our lives.
I do hope you will continue to follow along here on my blog, you can expect lots of great makeup posts (the makeup in Korea is incredible), stationary is gorgeous (see here) and lots of travel pics from the places we see along the way.
Thank you to each and everyone of my readers, for the comments, the likes on Facebook & the tweets. The support for CityGirlSearching means so much to me.
Expect some lovely photographs of our last few weeks in sunny South Africa, some cute creatures wandering around our complex, as well as a few last minute makeup reviews to come on the blog.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
x
Dove Deep Repair Treatment Mask {review}
/Winter always leaves me feeling like I've been left out in a desert for days, and it's not just my skin that takes a beating. My hair feels (and looks!) dry and ill cared for, and I'm often to be found patrolling the aisles of Dischem looking for the latest hair care offering. I picked up this little beauty in Pick n Pay (I know, most people would never admit that publicly!) and thought I'd share my thoughts...
I have really been loving this treatment hair mask from Dove's Nourishing Oil Care range of hair products. Not only does it smell heavenly, but it leaves my tresses silky soft, and without the tell tale oiliness of most hair masks.
The packing looks great, but is a bit of a pain to travel with, as it doesn't really 'fit' well with the other goodies in my toiletry bag. Nonetheless, a small price to pay really for such a great product.
Once applied, the creamy textures glided on smoothly and easily right through to the ends of my hair. My hair is really long, and tends to get very knotty at the ends. Once applied, my hair felt velvety soft, and my comb slid right through without a pull or a tug in sight.
After a quick rinse, my hair was left feeling clean and fresh (I am currently using L'oreal Elvive Re-Nutrition Shampoo) and silky soft. The fragrance is light and lasts even after blow drying. I use it 3 times a week, in place of my regular L'oreal Elvive Re-Nutrition conditioner.
All in all, I am very happy with this new addition to my beauty regime. Get your hands it at most Clicks/Dischems/Checkers/Pick n Pay's from -+R53.
Crystal Waters, Drakensberg
/This past weekend was spent with my hubby's family in the Drakensberg at a little piece of heaven called Crystal Waters. Nestled away between lush green trees and open fields of golden grass lies 3 stone cottages and a trout dam. Electricity was limited to a few 110 V light bulbs, while gas provided us with hot water and a place to cook yummy meals.
This was one of our last weekends spent in South Africa, before we jet setted off to Asia on the 20th June 2013.
I hope you all had a wonderfully relaxing weekend, and are ready for the week ahead!
Happy Monday everyone!
xxx
{Golden Hour}
/A few photographs with my new camera of our drive to the farm last weekend. With this kind of late afternoon wintery light, how can one resist not pulling over and snapping away...
Taking a MINI out for a spin!
/A few weeks ago a Chloe (of DearChloePhotography) and I attended a very cool meet up with other local photographers in the KZN area. We headed out to MINI in Umhalanga to test drive some very snazzy cars, and learn a thing or two about photographing cars from one of Top Gear SA's very own local photographers. Such fun!
Below are some snaps of the day.
xxx
It's Official...We are South Korea Bound!
/A few weeks ago I mentioned some new adventures Farmboy & I have lined up. Well everything seems to have fast tracked and we are set to leave South Africa on the 20th June (a few nights stop over in Hong Kong) and then arrive in South Korea around the 24th.
I've got lots of lovely posts lined up for the our last few weeks here, and then, well, you'll just have to wait and see...
xxx
Our {Le Creuset} plunger gets a photoshoot!
/After getting my new camera {a Nikon d300s} and needing to get to grips with all the new buttons and levers, i decided to try it out on our favourite new kitchen piece.
I now present to you, our Le Creuset Coffee Plunger.
Coffee will never be the same again...
I also had to squeeze in a few shots of the rest of our collection (thanks mainly to the very generous guests at
last year!)
You can get your paws on other lovely Le Creuset pieces online directly from the Le Creuset online store by clicking here, or through Yuppiechef.
And they both deliver for free...score!
Happy shopping!
xx
Stationary Giveaway {WINNER}
/And the winner of a gorgeous collection of South Korean stationery bits and pieces hand picked by me is...
Well done Nicola! Please drop me a tweet/email/comment below with your postal address and I will get your goodies off to you right away!
Thanks so much to everyone who entered!
xxx

{I'm back!}
/Farmboy and I arrived back in KZN late yesterday afternoon after a wonderful road trip through the Western and Eastern Cape. Here is a little glimpse into the beauty we past along the way...
I'm going to be picking a winner for the {stationery giveaway} I'm running! All you have to do is like RoxyPictures & CityGirlSearching
on Facebook, and then tweet me (@RoxyPearce) to let me you have done so...
Good luck!
x
{Road Trip} away from the blog...
/Dear readers,
I am typing this post from the gorgeous town/city/plekkie of Knysna. Farmboy had lots of important work related stuff to do here in the Western & Eastern Cape, and I have been lucky enough to tag along for the ride. So there won't be much posted on here until we hit home this weekend. In the mean time, here are some photographs (albeit Instagram snaps) till then.
I hope you are all having a wonderful week.
x