FOTD // A Casual Wednesday

At the moment, I can't do an "Everyday Make Up" routine because I don't wear make up everyday. I think this will be changing soon those as I think I would probably scare everyone at work coming in with a bare face. For now, I thought I would show you the products I throw on my face when I'm just running errands.

As a base, I used the Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation and dotted some of the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer under my eyes and onto any spots. I then used the Mavala Transparent Pressed Powder anywhere on my face that my get oily throughout the day. To add a bit of colour to my cheeks, I used the Natural Collection Blush in Peach Melba.
For the eyes, I kept things pretty simple and used two shades from the Make Up Revolution's Iconic 3 palette. I lined my tight-line with Rimmel Soft Khol Kajal Eye Pencil and added a coat of Maybelline The Rocket Volum' Express Mascara to my lashes.

I apologise for the poor photo of this look. I am awful at taking pictures of myself and taking pictures of make up looks is totally new to me, so hopefully I will improve. 

Leave a comment below letting me know if you liked the format of this post & if you would like to see more of them! 

REVIEW: Boots Extracts Body Butter & Sugar Scrub

Boots Extracts Cocoa Butter Body Butter:  I'm sure we can all agree that moisturising isn't top on any of our lists of things to do. The only time I really moisturise is when I've just shaved my legs or I'm having a pamper evening. Neither of which happen too often. However, this body butter makes me want to make more of an effort. It smells amazing and leaves my skin feeling super silky soft. The smell also lingers on your skin, which I really like. It't not extremely greasy and doesn't take too long to dry in. I would call it a dupe for the body shop's body butter and at half the price you can't really go wrong!

Boots Extracts Cocoa Butter Sugar Scrub: This is my favourite scrub to use before shaving my legs. It's the perfect consistency, really easy to scrub in, almost melts into the skin. It's not extremely abrasive, so if that's what you're looking for I would try a salt scrub. However, for me and my sensitive skin, this is perfect. Again, it smells amazing and leaves you feeling moisturised before you even use the body butter.

This is my first ever review, so I'd love some feedback. I would highly recommend these products, let me know if you've tried them or anything else from the Boots Extracts range!

A Sunday Chat

Good morning and happy Sunday to you all! I'm taking a break from "Seven Happy Things" this Sunday and just sitting down to have a chat with you guys. This week has been crazy for me. I feel slightly disconnected with my blog this week and I didn't get the chance to get involved with blogger chats last week.  Exciting things have been having in my life this week though so I thought I'd share them with you.

I finally managed to find a job. This has been an ongoing task for way too long now, which has proved to be very difficult and often just plain upsetting and disheartening. However, I am happy to report that it has happened and I could not be happier. I don't think it'll be something that I will be mentioning on my blog again, as it probably won't be relevant, but as a life event for me, it is huge. I'm hoping that my blog won't suffer massively because of it. I'm excited to see how I'm going to organise everything, I'm sure I will get into the swing of scheduling posts. I feel like a lot more than that has actually happened this week, but it's just such a huge thing that has included a lot of little steps along the way.

My confidence has taken a massive hit in the past two years. I became a lot more shy and reclusive, I had trouble talking to people, online and in real life. I didn't feel like myself and I didn't feel worthy of being around other people. Within the past few months, that has all changed and it is mostly down to this blog and it's readers. It has given me something to focus on and something to be proud of. I'm not as afraid to talk to people, in fact I really enjoy interacting with everyone. So I would just like to say a massive thank you to everyone that reads, comments, follows me on twitter and all that jazz. So I took my new found belief in myself and wandered off into the real world, I would like to think it helped me secure my place in college and my new job. I am so happy I started this blog and I am so thankful to everyone that supports me.

I am extremely excited for all the positive changes that are happening in my life and I hope you guys will stick around to see things out with me. I can see a Boots Haul in the not so distant future, people underestimate how hard it is to be a beauty blogger when you're broke. I have a list as long as my arm of things I am lusting after, you have been warned.

So thank you again and I hope you all have had a wonderful week. Leave a comment below telling me the positive things that have been happening in your lives lately! 

Chocolate & Raspberry Cupcakes

One step down from my favourite ever baked treat, brownies, are chocolate cupcakes. I've made chocolate orange cupcakes before, you can find the recipe here. However, this week I thought I'd try a new fruity addition in the form of some freshly picked raspberries. Creating the perfect chocolate cupcake is something I am still striving towards. Although, everyone's definition of what the perfect chocolate cupcake is like will be different, I'm sure. I think I would rate these a 8/10 on perfect cupcake scale.

The addition of the raspberries was wonderful. You're first greeted by the rich taste of the dark chocolate then the sweet, almost sour taste of the raspberries hits and it is magical. This may be how I am justifying the fact that I ate nearly the whole batch in a matter of days. I also added a tablespoon of coffee to the water, which is totally optional but I really think it helped to enhance the flavour of the chocolate. This recipe makes 18 cupcakes and they are super simple to make, I promise! Happy baking!

Ingredients:

60g butter, softened
200g caster sugar
60g dark chocolate
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
120ml vegetable oil
1tsp vanilla extract
140g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
1tsp baking powder
100ml water ( +1tsp instant coffee, optional)
250g frozen raspberries

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 and line your cupcake tin with cases.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the butter and sugar.

3. Melt the chocolate, leave aside until it is cool to the touch, add to your butter and sugar mixture. 

4. Add in the eggs and egg yolks, one by one. Whisk until fully combined. 

5. Mix in the oil and vanilla. The oil may lay on the top for awhile, so be sure to give it a good mix with an electric mixer. 

6. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Slowly combine with the wet ingredients. 

7. Add in the water and give the mixture on last stir. If you're adding coffee, brew it at normal but leave to cool until it's at room temperature before mixing  it in. 

8. Fill your cases to be about 3/4 of the way full and pop in the oven for 20 minutes. 

9. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool!

Kitchen Wishlist

KitchenAid Artisan KSM150 Red Stand Mixer // Debenhams 

Printed Tea Towel // H&M

Ceramic Floral Scalloped Mixing Bowl // Debenhams 

Little Bird Wire Cake Stand // Next 

Wooden Egg House // Next

Blue Spotted Dog Oven Mitt // Debenhams

"Eat Me" Cookie Stamp // Not On The Highstreet

Red Wire Recipe Stand // Debenhams 

Vintage Three Tier Cake Stand // Not On The Highstreet

I have been wanting to make a "Kitchen Wishlist" for awhile now. I am obsessed with cute little kitchen knick knacks and baking utensils. Of course, I had to included the KitchenAid, every girl dreams of some day owning one, right? I also absolutely adore the wooden egg house, we have one in our kitchen at the moment, but it's no where near as adorable as this one. I hope you liked having a look at the things I'm dying to put into my own kitchen. Have you seen anything you like in this wishlist?