March Birchbox

First of all, I want to apologise to you all for being MIA, I have completely neglected you guys! In the next few months I have my final exams before heading out into the big world of work and I let the stress get on top of me, last week I also pulled a muscle in my back and I spent most of it moping around feeling sorry for myself and I didn’t have any inspiration about to blog. However, after a nice meal out with Tom and a good start to this week I am back in full swing!

Secondly, the dress I ordered from ASOS was just a big No-No so again, apologies for that post not appearing!

Lastly, I would like to take it all back, all of it! Everything bad I said about Birchbox in this post I want to take it all back after receiving this months Lulu Guiness inspired box. I knew when I saw the gorgeous covering on the box this was gonna be a good one, when I opened it up and saw a Benefit product, oh my, I almost cried! All the products I got this month are ones I would consider using and they were:

Benefit’s Stay Don’t Stray Primer

‘An eye Primer you can count on! Ensure eyeshadow and concealer stays put from AM and PM.’This was ‘Lulu’s Pick’ of the box, so thank you Lula! I have only heard good things about this primer and I am looking forward to try it.

Korres Citrus Body Milk

‘This hydrating lotion not only smells delish, it does your skin good too, thanks to almond oil and shea butter’ I actually got a fairly decent sized bottle of this for a sample and I’m hoping it will last me a while as I love the smell, it’s almost masculine and I have only ever had good experiences with Korres products!

Molton Brown rhubarb & Rose Replenishing Hand Cream

A fast-absorbing, repairing and deeply nourishing lotion to leave hands delectably soft and smelling sweet You know how everyone has that one item that you can always justify buying? That item for me is Hand Cream, I have more hand creams than any other product, crazy. I know. I love everything about this from the texture to the beautiful packaging.

English Laundry No. 7 For Her

Top notes of pear and jasmine blend with gardenia, vanilla and sandalwood in this delightful scent All my perfumes actually ran out recently so this is a handy little sample which means I don’t have to spend any money yet, but overall, not the best perfume I’ve ever tried.

Dr. Brandt Pores No More Pore Refiner

A favourite of photo-ready celebs, the sheer formula minimises pores and absorbs excess oil. This could not have arrived at a more convenient time as my pores look like freaking sinkholes at the moment, so hopefully this will be the kick into shape it needs!

 

What were your thoughts on this months birchbox?

Amy

Instagram | Twitter | Bloglovin’

 

TV Shows I’m Loving

I am only a few months away from my exams so naturally, I have been on a hunt for TV shows to get hooked on as a distraction from the  stress.

*sighs* I know I really don’t help myself.

Once Upon a Time

Over the past year I have seen more and more fanvids on Youtube about this show, so I thought ‘Why not give it a go?’ and I am glad I did. I am only on Episode 14 of the first Season but I am already hooked. When watching I’m either admiring Emma’s hair or marvelling at the Queen’s ability to wear leather trouser or trying to control my emotions! Seriously, most of the time I want to cry whilst angrily throwing my laptop across the room each time Regina reveals one her plans to keep Emma and Henry apart!

Dexter

O M G, his voice! Is it bad that everytime the murdering Sociopath is talking I melt a little bit? Probably. Anyway, this programme is just as addictive, its a police show with a twist, the cop is the murderer, and yet you feel he is is justified? From Dexter’s witty internal monologue to his sisters sarcasm and humour, this show has the perfect mixture of serious and funny!

America’s Next Top Model

I know, it’s not the deepest of TV shows but I can’t help it, the cattiness, the outfits, the fighting, urgh, I love it all. There isn’t much else to say about it!

What have you been loving at the moment?

Amy x

Brownie Recipe + Update

I just want to start of for apologising that this post was not up on Monday as I said, I have unfortunately been suffering from migraines all week which makes staring at a screen unbearable, also my dress arrived but was a sixe too big so the OOTD post will probably be up next week, sorry 😦 Onto the food!

After having some brownies that my friend cooked me on Thursday I knew that the Sunday would be spent making Brownies. So, sure enough I dragged Tom to Waitrose to get the ingredients and the afternoon was spent in chocolate bliss.

Ingredients:

-185g unsalted butter

-185g dark chocolate

-85g plain flour

-40g cocoa powder

-50g white chocolate

-50g milk chocolate

-3 large eggs

-275g caster sugar

Method

1. Quarter fill and pan with water and place it on medium heat, whilst this is heating up cut the unsalted butter into small pieces and into a glass bowl or one that will not melt then break all the dark chocolate up and add it to the bowl. Place the bowl on top of the pan on low heat until the butter and chocolate have melted, stirring occasionally. So it goes from this:

To this:

2. Whilst waiting for the chocolate to melt and then cool down you can preheat your oven to 160C/gas mark 4. Using a 20 square tin cut out a square of baking parchment that covers the bottom of your tin.

3.Tip the flour and the cocoa powder into a sieve over a bowl so they run through together without any lumps.

4.Chop all the white and milk chocolate into rough squares with a large sharp knife.

5.Break the eggs into a bowl and tip in the sugar. Whisk the eggs and sugar until they look thick and creamy, almost like a milk shake. This can take a while and if you have another person available I suggest you take this as this can be a workout for the poor ol’ arms! You should know that it’s ready when it has expanded and is very pale. Another check is to stop mixing, lift out the wisk and shake it  from side to side. If the mixture that runs off leaves a trail on the surface of the mixture in the bowl for a second or two, you’re there.

6.Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the mixture that you just mixed, then gently fold together. Plunge the spatula (not a whisk) in at one side, take it underneath and pull it up the opposite side and in again at the middle. Be gentle as you do not want to knock the air out of it! Continue doing so until it has gone from this:

To This:

7.Sift the flour and chocolate powder combination into the mixture and fold this into the mixture using the same technique as before and then add in the milk and white chocolate chinks and mix in carefully until the chocolate is evenly spread throughout and looks something like this:

8.Pour the mixture into the tin making sure that all the mixture is scraped in and pushed into the corners and place in the oven for 25 minutes. When this 25 minutes is up gently shake the tin and if the middle wobbles then place back in the oven for another 5 minutes by this point they should have a crust on top and the sides will be pulling away from the tin, this is when they are ready.

9. Take out of the oven and leave the whole thing including the tin to cool for 15 minutes then remove from the tin by placing a chopping board on top of the tin and turning upside down with a tiny bit of force and they should slide out of the tin, then place another chopping board or flat plate and flip them onto that. Then cut them into squares or triangles and enjoy!!

This week I… Made Brownies

This week I had a week off work which was great as I managed to paint my nails, you can see what I was wearing on them here, I also ordered a £50 dress of ASOS which for me was a pretty radical decision, it is due to arrive next week sometime and if I can manage to convince my wonderful boyfriend to take some pictures I will do an Outfit of the Day style video for you all 🙂

This week I have not been eating too healthily as you can see from the picture, my Mum came home from work one day via Valerie’s Patisserie with these wonderful fruit tarts which were friggin’ gorgeous and today me and Tom made brownies, but I have been doing my pilates everyday so that makes up for it, right? I’m going to post the brownie recipe within the next two days because they were chewy heaven and everyone should be able to enjoy them! (You’re welcome.)

This week my little sister came home with my Mum and Dad with two adorable creatures, Phoebe (Top right) and Rose (Bottom Left) both of whom were named by Kate (said sister)! Unfortunately, a couple months ago just before christmas my sister’s rabbit Tiger-lily had a stroke and had to be put down and it broke my sisters heart but the excitement and joy on her face when she brought these two home was a touching moment.

That’s my week summarised, what have you been up to?

Amy x

 

 

February Favourites

I’ve only got four products this month as I haven’t really been doing a whole lot!

The first product is the Urban Veda Daily Radiance Face Wash, this was actually a sample out of February’s birchbox which I started using because my Body Shop Tea Tree face wash started to smell a little funky and this was the only other face wash that I had available and I love it!! It comes out as a clear gel with a clean fresh ‘grown-up’ smell. It makes my skin feel so soft and it is made out of natural products so it’s a win-win situation.

I’m not too keen on Rimmel’s Soft Kohl Eye Pencil (in Sable Brown) as an eyeliner but it is the best eyebrow product that I have ever used! I very lightly (and I mean REALLY lightly) brush the colour over my eyebrows and it looks natural but well-groomed!

This one was a rediscovery of an old love! It is Mac’s Eye-shadow Satin Taupe which 99.99% of people who know anything about make up will have heard of! I bought this when I first got into reading beauty blogs and watching YouTube. This is one of 4 mac products have so I am by no means Mac-Obsessed but I love this eyeshadow, it is the perfect crease colour and the purple tones in it make my eyes look even greener than they are! I have not been able to bypass this whilst putting my make up on at all this month, perfection!

For anyone who is subscribed to me and read last week This Week I… post (and for those who didn’t you can find it here) it will come as no surprise that Rimmel’s Match Perfection Foundation is in my favourites for this month and I can’t really say anything about it that I haven’t already said!

What have you been loving this month?

Amy x

Find out what else I’ve been up to here