Wednesday 27 August 2014

August 2014 Glossybox

 I have been getting Glossybox now for a couple of years and no matter how many times I think about cancelling it, I can't bring myself to do it. I love the surprise each month, it makes me feel like it's my birthday every month. Anyway, on to this month's box.

This month was the 3 year anniversary of Glossybox, so I had high hopes for this one!


The first item I picked out was the Philip Kingsley Elasticizer. This product was created especially for Audrey Hepburn and is a pre-shampoo treatment. I have never used anything like this before so I decided to give it a go straight away. I'll be honest, at first I didn't think this made much of a difference to my hair, but after styling it and curling it, my hair was so silky smooth, the curls just fell straight out and I was left with shiny soft hair. I only put a tiny bit on as well!


The second product I picked up was the Yves Rocher Nail Varnish in 14. Rose. I really like the colour of this nail varnish, and it only needed a couple of coats to get a strong colour. The mini size won't last long though I imagine!


The third item in my box was the Kryolan Highlighter for Glossybox. I am yet to try this out but it looks like a lovely glowy colour swatched on the skin.


I then checked out the 4th item, the Essence Longlasting Lipstick in 07 Natural Beauty. This is such a nice colour, but I can't say it was overly longlasting and seemed to come off my lips as soon as I ate something. I'll try it out again though and let it set longer and see if that works.


A couple of other items I received was a perfume sample from L'alique called L'Amore. This is a really lovely fresh scent and very floral.  It was also very longlasting on the skin. I also received the Figs and Rouge Mini Hand Cream in Mango Mandarin. I've received a sample of this before in the Rose scent and I wasn't a huge fan, but this one is really fruity and the best thing about it is that it's non greasy on the skin. Definitely a handbag essential!

I look forward to receiving next month's glossybox!

To sign up to glossybox from £8.50 per month (depending on length of subscription), click here!




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Wednesday 20 August 2014

Pop! goes the cake ball.

I have well and truly caught the baking bug! I’ve seen cake pops everywhere at the moment and couldn’t wait to try them out. I saw recently that Pound Land had cake pop moulds in stock, which is brilliant when other shops are selling them from £7-£10, but  when I went to pick some up, I thought they looked a bit small, so I picked up my cake pop set and recipe book from The Works (here) and got my sticks from Poundland.

These couldn't be simpler to make, and the recipe was exactly the same as if I was baking cupcakes, and I followed the below method. I wanted my cake balls to look like mini watermelons!


Cake Pop Ingredients Recipe

 Ingredients
2 x Eggs
120g Flour
120g Sugar
120g Butter
Few Drops of Vanilla Essence
Pink Food Colouring
Chocolate Chips

For the Outside
100g White Chocolate (Melted)
Green Food Colouring

Recipe:
Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.
Add the eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly.
Slowly add the flour and mix until smooth.
Add Vanilla Essence to taste (for Vanilla Cupcakes of course!)
Stir in choc chips & food colouring!
Add to mould and bake in the oven at 180 Degrees for 15-20 Minutes or until Golden


 Cake Pop Cake Ball

It really is that simple! Or so I thought..

I mixed up my ingredients and placed the cake batter into the first mould. I then put the second mould on top and stuck these in the oven. I was a bit dubious that they wouldn’t work, especially as I wasn’t able to check on them or see how they were rising.

After about 20 minutes, I took them out and let them cool. I removed the mould and to my wonder, I was left with cake balls! They didn't actually look TOO bad.



Cake Pop Cake Ball
When the cake balls had cooled off I prepared my coating. For this, I melted white chocolate and added green food colouring as I wanted them to look like mini watermelon balls. I then stuck my cake balls onto the sticks, and dipped them into the chocolate. This is where it all when horribly wrong. The sponge just fell off the sticks. I was left with a big gloopy lumpy mess. It was all going so well too!








Perhaps I should have chilled my balls before I coated them? Perhaps the chocolate didn't melt enough? All I know is that my lovely cake balls were ruined. They look horrible. I wouldn't feed them to my dog (although I can confirm they didn't taste too bad). 
 
These are on the same scale as the time I tried to make a peppa pig cake for my sister's birthday. That also went horribly wrong, but that's a story for another day.


Peppa Pig Cake

 I will learn from my mistakes, and try again another time! Any tips are welcome!
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Monday 18 August 2014

Day out in Cambridge.

A few months ago now, me and my boyfriend visited Cambridge for a couple of days. I’ve been a few times before for various reasons but never for a day out. We started the day in the centre of Cambridge, and had a nice walk around the town and a picnic by a river. If the weather was nicer we would have perhaps went punting but it was freezing and not many people were on the river. We then visited the Cambridge Botanical Gardens and had a walk around. It was really pretty and I got some lovely photos.



We then stayed over the night, and had a meal in one of the shopping centres at a Bella Italia which was nice. The next day we headed to Shepreth Wildlife Park which was a short drive away. It was a small zoo and they didn’t have loads of animals so we managed to make our way round quite quickly. The weather wasn’t the nicest either so a lot of the animals were tucked away. I would like to visit Cambridge again in the summer months and perhaps take advantage of the more touristy things, so that’s something I hope to do in the future!






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Friday 15 August 2014

FREE CAKE?!!

Exactly what it says on the tin! 6 months ago, I applied for a John Lewis card and received 6 months’ worth of vouchers for free coffee and cake! How could I say no?! Each month I have been heading for my freebies and now my vouchers have ran out, I am sad.

Since having my membership card, I have been more conscious of shopping in John Lewis to earn reward points, and hopefully receive more vouchers (who knows!).

The cakes are delicious, I have tried to have a different cake every time. I hope I receive more vouchers, I loved my monthly John Lewis trip!






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Thursday 14 August 2014

First Dates - First Post.

Wow, I can’t believe it’s coming up to the year anniversary of me and my boyfriend’s first ‘date’. He took me to the zoo to "show me how to use my camera" after we had been speaking online for months before that and the rest they say is history! We've been together 9 months now and I have nothing but fabulous memories, all starting from the day we met.

I am looking forward to visiting many other places together.






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