July Favourites

Hello! Before I jump in, I don't know how other people feel, but Favourites are one of my favourite (hehe) posts to write because I can cover a range of different things in one post. And month I have quite a few things that have excited me this month and I might have a little rave about some things...

If/Then Soundtrack (Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt)

This is the musical Idina Menzel is currently starring in on Broadway in case you don't know she is the original Elphaba in Wicked and the voice of Elsa in Frozen, and that is how I found out about the musical. As it is on Broadway I'm not going to be able to see it unless it transfers to the West End, but my understanding of the story is Elizabeth is newly divorced woman who moves to New York, the musical follows the parallel lives of 'Beth' and 'Liz' which shows what happens to her depending on what actions she takes when she meets her friends in a park. I just love the whole idea that there are other versions of ourselves whether this is in a parallel world or what not, just living an entirely different life, although this 'idea' isn't a new one I just like that it is being looked at in musical form. I have been listening to the soundtrack over and over throughout the month, even now as I type this, on Spotify, it is just so easy to listen to personally I don't think there is a dud song on the album but I think I have found two favourites although it was really hard to think of them *drum roll* Love While You Can and Always Starting Over. I have one last final thing to say... if you can buy me a flight to New York and a ticket for the show I WILL LOVE YOU FOR EVER.

Casio Watch

I got this for Christmas and I loved it lots and lots, and wore it everyday for months, then classic me I lost it.... which A) was bad because I really liked it a lot B) it's a watch and do you know what they are darn useful, so its safe to say I felt a bit lost. Then one day out of the blue it turned up, and I have been wearing it again, I can't tell you how good it is to wear a watch it reassuring... I hate being late (having said that Hollie will tell you I am terrible at time keeping) and this saves me, plus I have this need to know what the time is all the time, it keeps me happy!

Youtubers

photo credit: Essiebutton

At long last one of my oldest friends has finally started getting into Youtube and has put it back at the forefront of my mind. Two of my faves right now have to be Essiebutton and Amelia Liana I freaking love them. What I like about these two gals is that they are both informative and passionate about the products or whatever they are talking about, but their personalities are absolutely infectious... I just can't stop watching their channels. Plus their friendship is just so cute which has blossomed on screen in their Dallas and Vidcon vlog which makes me so happy for some reason.

Sunbeamsjess, I am so happy to see this gal uploading regularly again Jessie has always been one of my faves I am in love with her style and envious of her Handbag collection, that vintage Chanel backpack in her Birthday Haul, I have deep feelings for. I deffo have a few Jessie inspired items in my wardrobe. I'm just a happy lil monkey to see her back, thats all.

James Patterson's Books

This month I have jumped onto the reading bandwagon. I have read 3 books and they are all by the same author, by the actual end of the month we could make that 4 (yes still the same author). The first two books are from his series Private which is about a private investigation agency, which doesn't necessarily do all investigations by the book. It is run by Jack Morgan who had a near death experience whilst serving for the USA in Iraq, its based in LA and has offices around the world. These are super fast paced books, with multiple overlapping stories, Patterson doesn't mess around with descriptions and gives you information as you got through, and the ending is never quite what you expect it to be. Quite frankly I can't wait for the next in the series to come out as I am up to date.

 

As I was glued to the series, I thought I would try another book by him. I was going to go for another investigative/detective book, but when at my local library I found a book called 'Sam's Letter's to Jennifer'. It has two overlapping Love stories in it one is Jennifer's summer romance with Doctor Brendan and the other which is revealed in a series of letters from Jennifer's grandmother Sam about a secret forbidden romance with a man given the name Doc to hide his identity. The blurb (is that what its called?) sucked me in, and it was such a touching story something I had not expected from Patterson, showing great diversity as an author.

 

I think we need a shout out for the library service here because its just so great to have all these wonderful books with such easy access, and for free, free makes everything better.

 

Thanks for popping by!

 

xxx

Not Wearing Makeup - My Thoughts

*warning of unplanned ramble*

Hello, I feel kind of ironic writing this post right now, considering my last post was about Foundation and I do the occasional beauty post- I would never say I was a beauty blogger at all. If I'm honesty I personally wear make up on average 3 days a week sometimes more sometimes less.

 

I feel that my skin needs to be addressed here, I by no means have the perfect skin I might be 20 in September but my skin is determined to remain teenaged my face has breakouts all over the place, just as I think my skin is clearing up, nope enough eruption appears on my skin. The skin on my face is probably one of my least favourite parts of my body and I am very conscious of it, so much that it has caused my to visit my GP and a GP with a dermatological specialist, but nothing worked for me.

Cue my very naked face post work out and a cleanse so you can see the raw me...

I would consider myself a fairly confident person, and I am lucky enough to not really have any self consciousness issues, maybe due to performing and from that having to have a thicker skin. Wearing make up means my skin is covered,looks clearer and is evened out, for the most part of sixth form I would say I was wearing make up pretty much everyday which boosted confidence. However through a mixture of laziness and impending exams wearing Make Up just didn't seem important at all, so basically I stopped wearing make up all the time, and do you know what it was liberating no one cared, no one commented on how spotty or whatever my skin was. Personally I found more confidence came to me without make up than I was with wearing make up... it was me who was caring not anyone else. I gained confidence and also an extra 10 minutes in bed.

 

Of course I still wear make up because I love it, especially my lip stick and creating eye looks, but its not something I need to put on everyone. Now when I do bother to do my make up, maybe I am going out or something, I can enjoy putting it on, as now it isn't a chore as it isn't something I feel I NEED to do.

 

Thanks for popping by!

 

xxx

Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua | Review

Hello! Today I am attempting a beauty post, really out of my comfort zone right now but I'm going to plough ahead nonetheless as I have a little review for a FleurdeForce inspired purchase Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua.

 

This is my first high end foundation and well £33 isn't exactly cheap is it? On first looks I was like 'oh my gosh I'm not getting much product here am I?' but it just turns out the packaging is very sleek unlike my bulky Revlon foundation.

As with anything from Chanel the packaging is very sleek and not overly complex which I am a fan off. I like the fact it is plastic which means when it gets near to running out the product will be accessible, my favourite part of the bottle is the nib/dropper, which means you can be really precise with the amount of product you want to use, I find 3 drops is plenty for my face.

Onto the actual product, I have this in shade 10 which to my knowledge is the palest shade, this is a super close match to my skin tone, which means I'm not blending in my foundation down my neck, which is a very good thing!! When I put it on it feels like a moisturiser, and smells really nice but I can't put my finger on it! I would say this a light to medium coverage and would definitely say this is buildable. I'm not going to kid you its not going to cover up your spots if you have any, as you will see in the pictures below I do have spots in abundance (oooh nice thought there for you all!), I personally prefer to use a lighter foundation which I feel lets my skin breath more, life is too short to be worrying about that plus you know the ol' concealer can take care of them! I find it does get rid off the redness in my face which for me is my main concern.

 

Before:

After:

Instagram Snap:

 

I hope you enjoyed this post and found it useful!

Thanks for popping by

 

xxx

Chai Latte Cheesecake

Hello! Long time no BAKING post, lets hop in because there's lots of pictures and I don't want to delay you!

Ingredients
For the base-
250g Ginger Nut Biscuits
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
1/4 tsp Ground Cloves
80g Melted Butter

Filling-
500g Cream Cheese
1/2 Cup of Sour Cream
1/2 Cup of Caster Sugar
3 Eggs
1 tbsp Instant Coffee
1 tbsp Boiling Water
1/2 tsp Ground Cardamom
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg

You will also need a 23cm Round Loose Based Tin, greased.

Recipe
Preheat Oven to 160°C/140°C Fan

 Put your biscuits and spices in to a food precessor.

Blitz together the ingredients.

 Add Butter until mixed together. Then press into the tin, leave to set in the fridge for half an hour.

In the mean time.... put cream cheese, sour cream and sugar into the food processor, and mix together.

 Add one egg at a time.

 Mix until thoroughly combined.

 Give the mixture a lil mix with the spoon to make sure everything is being combined.

 Mix coffee and boiling water together in a heat proof jug, then add to the filling mixture.

Blitz again... look at that pretty pattern!

 Give one final miz with the spoon to make sure everything is combined.

 Then pour over the filling mixure onto the biscuit base, and put into the oven for 50 minutes.

Time for a cute lunch break - note advisable not to burn your cheese toasty- or cheesecake for that matter!

 Time is up! Take that beaut cheesecake out of the oven...

 .., and serve perhaps with a sprinkling of icing sugar!

Thanks for popping by!

xxx

July Wishlist

Hello, it seems a super short time since my last wishlist, but it's the start of July and well as I mentioned in my last wishlist post I had just finished my A Levels, I now have a lot of spare time on my hands, and some of that spare time is spent browsing the internet, doing a bit of the ol' window shopping because as per I have no money... so here is what I would buy if I did have some money!

1. Lace Trim A-Line Skirt

2. Cat Wrapped Skirt

3. Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua

4. Jo Malone Earl Grey and Cucumber

1. I saw my girl Estee... just called EssieButton my girl oh dearrrr, I seriously love that human! I saw her wearing this in one of her vlogs at Vidcon, I really liked it the lace and the lil sheer bit I think make this a really unique little number, just that little bit different adding a something, something to what otherwise is just a black skirt. I did see today whilst browsing that they also had this in white, which was equally lovely.

2. My name on Twitter is Krazy Kat Lady, so there is no surprise this skirt has made its way onto my wishlist. Now I have quite a few t-shirts with cats on them, so who knows I may end up looking cray to the cray. Although this has cat silouttes all over it from a distance it just looks like a black and white patterned skirt, so doesn't scream crazy cat lady. I also really like the cut of this skirt and think it would be really flattering.

3. I've been interested in this foundation for a while now mainly thanks to FleurdeForce who raves about this, and she generally is spot on with her advise. So whilst browsing the Chanel counter, Harriet and I found the inner bravery to ask for a sample as for different reasons we find foundations hard to find, but they hadn't been given any sample pots, so next minute I am sat in the make up chair having my foundation done. So far I really like it, the colour is a good match for my skin, it survived dancing just about, doesn't look too cakey either, and has a good coverage but not too much. When I can justify getting this I will, and will probably do a review on it!

4. Firstly if you can go into a Jo Malone shop and not spray a considerable amount of their testers on you, then I am not sure you are human, because quite frankly they know where its at. Today I decided to give the Earl Grey and Cucumber sent, for the yolo, oh my god I think I have found my dream scent. Cue my terrible description a light, fresh, grown up scent. Cue description from the website 'A British tradition...afternoon tea. A fragrance with a burst of bergamot, distinct to Earl Grey, and the cool succulence of crunchy cucumber. Counterpoised with a sweet base of beeswax, vanilla and musk. Reviving and refined.' Seriously go and give this a whiff, I insist.

Thanks for popping by!

xxx