Easter Nests

It's that time of year again, and come on who can resist a chocolate shredded wheat Easter nest?!

Earlier today me and my sister decided that although it's not Easter quite yet, it being the Easter Holidays was a good enough excuse.

For this recipe (20 nests) you will need:

360g Milk Chocolate

75g Shredded Wheat

Mini Eggs

Firstly boil a kettle (you can also boil the water straight over the hop, however I've found boiling a kettle is a lot less time consuming) and pour the boiling water into a saucepan. Break the chocolate into chunks and place into a ceramic/Pyrex bowl (This can be any bowl as long as it's heat proof and sits just inside the rim of the saucepan, above the water). Place the bowl over the boiling water as a Bain Marie and stir at regular intervals to prevent the chocolate burning to the bottom of the bowl.

Once the chocolate has completely melted, remove from the heat and carefully take the bowl 'out' of the saucepan (this will be hotter than you think, I learnt the hard way!!). Now gradually add the shredded wheat, grumbling it as you go and then stir it into the mixture until it looks as if there's a even spread of both the chocolate and the shredded wheat.

Now into the cake cases add an even amount of the chocolate goodness to each and create a well in the middle for the mini eggs. I found in mine there was only really enough room for three mini eggs in each nest and so this meant there were mini eggs left over for me to just devour (this may have been planned..)

And what's a spring 'baking' session without some pink lemonade?!

Are you a fan of Easter Nests? Or is there a better alternative that I've yet to discover?

♥

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Bourjois Happy Light Concealer

Boujous Happy Light Concealer

Another make-up post today (I've become obsessed recently - more so that normal). I brought this not too long ago after realising that liquid concealer just wasn't doing it for me. A friend recommended to me the MAC Studio Finish Concealer, however I decided that since that was priced at £15 I'd try a cheaper alternative to test if a more 'mousse' concealer presented the benefits I was hoping it would.

The Boujous concealer comes in two shades 21 - Ivoire and 22 - Beige Rose. I opted for the slightly lighter shade as here in the UK we've seen very little sun and so my skin is extremely pale at the moment. It's priced around £8.99 and is available from Boots, Superdrug and other large beauty retailers.

I'm so happy with the way this blends with my skin and the way it covers blemishes so flawlessly. The packaging is so handy, what with a small mirror in the lid for on the go touch ups and it's summed up quite correctly on the outer packaging 'ultra-covering'. It's a very luminous finish, that gives my skin quite a natural glow, which is always good!

Although I haven't tried the MAC alternative, I feel I've already found my concealer and at £8.99, I think it's worth every penny.

Have you tried the Boujous Happy Light Concealer? What were your thoughts?

♥

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YSL Touche Eclat

YSLTouche Eclat

Okay so I may have literally brought this product 24 hours, after eyeing it up in Boots for some time and finally decided that with my friend being a Boots employee with 12% discount, it was about time! I am already in love with this product, I'm prone to dark circles under my eyes (I've tried everything nothing works) my collection 2000 concealer was doing the job, however for me it just needed something else. This is that something else, it works wonders! I look so much more awake and vibrant, who'd have thought? It's got a great coverage and one 'pump' is enough to cover everything I want covered on my face.

I brought it in the shade '1' which is known as their universal colour, that literally blends with any skin pigment. I comes out a very peachy colour, however is extremely easy to blend in.

It retails at £25 and is available in Boots flagship stores as well as House of Fraser, John Lewis and Debenhams.

Have you tried the YSL Touche Eclat? What were your thoughts?

♥

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Hco Fragrances

I've never been a massive fan of the Hollister/Gilly Hicks clothing brand and in fact I'd never even been in a Gilly Hicks store until November/December when I was up at Bluewater with my sister. You probably all, already know but Gilly Hicks is shutting down and so they have got quite a good sale on and I happened to go over and look at their Body Mists. And I quite liked a few of them and so at £5 I brought one, Linden Wylder. It's very fresh and summery and I must say it's now one of my favorites! The size of the bottle is also decent as every spray covers a large area as it's angle of trajectory (is that the right word?) is very wide.

One of my best friends (she has a blog here) will always have a bottle of spray on her at all times and recently it's been Hollister's Tidelands Beach. Which again is quite fresh, flowery and summery and I instantly fell in love with it, and although we don't necessarily want to smell like twins, I couldn't not have it, to spray at my leisure. This bottle is a little more expensive than Gilly Hicks at £12, but lets be honest is hardly extortionate.

Also a quick side note, I know they're only stickers on what are essentially just plastic bottles but I think the packaging looks quite cute and summery (do you see the theme here?)

Hollister Tidelands Beach and Gilly Hicks Linden Wylder

Do you own a Hco fragrance/body mist? What are your thoughts?

♥

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The Ted Baker Purse

Ted Baker leather purse

I have wanted to have this purse in my possession for so long, but every time I came close I convinced myself I couldn't afford it as at full price they're quite a hefty £75! However a couple of weeks ago I found out Ted Baker actually accept student cards, with 15% discount! It was now that I decided I couldn't talk myself out of it and the next thing I knew, it was mine!

I got it in a nude and it's such a gorgeous colour, with rose gold trims, that really finish it off well. You can't fault the quality of these purses, and they're extremely easy to keep clean, as they're real leather and so therefore are wipe clean.

The fastening is also so decorative, unlike the fastenings I've seen on other purses. However, this is where the one fault in this product comes in. The oval shaped hole in the 'cover flap' isn't big enough for the fastening and therefore it catches everything damaging the trim that's making the purse look finished. This sugests to me that there is a slight design floor, that said however, in no way am I put off this product, I will continue to use it until it physically falls apart.

Do you own/want to own this purse? What are your opinions?

♥

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Little Duck - Tanya Burr Nail Polish

Tanya Burr Nail Polish - Little Duck (ignore my disgusting fingers)

I originally said I'd post this sooner than I am, so apologies for that, but here is my review of Tanya Burr's new range of Nail Polishes (I reviewed her lipgloss in Vampire Kiss here). I've been a subscriber of Tanya Burr's for ages, and was super excited when I learned she would be releasing a line of lipglosses and nail polishes. When they were released I brought one of each, and oh my god wasn't that decision difficult! 

There are 10 nail polishes to chose from in Tanya's range, all of which are completely different making her range appealing to an extremely wide range of people with incredibly different tastes.

I chose Little Duck, because we're coming into spring now and I felt this colour was perfect. This colour is appropriate for everyday wear, it's subtle yet still noticeable (if that even makes sense?)

This nail polish retails at £5.99 for 12ml which, just like the lipglosses, is incredibly good value for money. 

I can be very lazy when it comes to nail polish if I'm not in the mood, if a nail chips it could be days before I do anything about it. I would probably put it down to that I only touch up my nails when I'm going to work, and if I were to be unemployed this bad habit may even be worse. However after going of at that tangent the point I'm trying to make is that this nail polish must contain some sort of magic potion as I've been wearing it for around 5 days now and it is still yet to chip. It also only takes one coat to cover the nail to 'full colour' and it's relatively quick drying! What more could you want from a nail polish?

Tanya has since reveled that her line will be introduced to Superdrug stores across the country and let me tell you, I'll 100% be in there purchasing her entire range.

Have you brought/tried anything for Tanya's new range? What were your thoughts?

♥

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Real Technique Brushes

I read Jemma's post on her Real Technique brushes, and felt I had to share mine with you. I've been a lover of these since I can remember and at this present time own around 17. I won't bore you with them all, instead just a few of my favourites that I use daily.

Real Technique Brushes By Sam and Nic Chapman

Powder Brush

I love the feel this brush has on my skin and the way it'll hold enough powder to cover just over half of my face in one go. I also purchased the MAC powder brush not long ago as I'd seen someone rave about it and if I'm honest I wouldn't even rate it against this masterpiece created by Samantha Chapman.

Retractable Bronzing Brush

This brush is so handy, it fits perfectly into my clutch for a night out and unlike other retractable brushes I've tried (i.e. eco tools) the quality of the brush isn't affected by the retracting motion and I've yet to lose any fibres.

Brow Brush

I've found this is be the prefect size for my eye brows, and evenly fills them in, the fibres are ridgid to give the brow it's shape, yet they still effortlessly glide through the brow.

Expert Face Brush

I've recently seized using my loved Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation and switched to the Bare Minerals Foundation Powder (review coming soon!) My skin is naturally quite oily and so I found liquid foundation made my t zone quite shiny after a couple of hours of wear. This brush is now such a god send. It's great for the coverage, and leaves the powder on my faces stroke-less.

Foundation Brush

This brush is angled perfectly for me and I'll occasionally still use my liquid foundation and when I do this is always the brush I'll use, since converting from using my fingers, I've never looked back, there's very little 'mess' and this brush makes it so easy to blend the foundation into my skin and give my face an even coverage.

Buffing Brush

I'll occasionally still use my liquid foundation and when I do, this is great for buffing it into my skin to minimize shine and again remove any stroke marks left by my foundation brush.

Deluxe Crease Brush

I'm well aware that I don't use this brush for it's intended purpose, however I've found it perfect for blending in my concealer. The head is just the right size to evenly hide any blemish, making my skin look 100% more even across my entire face.

These brushes around £5.99 to about £16.99 and are available from most beauty retailers.

Do you own any Real Technique brush? What are your thoughts on them?

♥

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