Christmas LUSH Haul & Gifts

Hi everyone,
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are all still enjoying the excuse to eat loads of food! I apologise for my lack of posts over the festive period, I was working every single day except Christmas Day itself so I literally had no time at all to post.
It seems that everyone found out about my love for LUSH this Christmas because I received 5 bath ballistics on Christmas day. I then went and bought 4 other bits from LUSH in their half price sale yesterday, oops, but I thought I would share them all with you because they are some of my favourite ever bath and shower products.
1. The Christmas Penguin Santa kindly left this adorable bubble bar in my stocking for Christmas. The smell of this one is not very sweet but more sophisticated I find, and perfect for an evening bath. I believe that two of the main ingredients are orange and lemon, which explains the citrus tinge to the product. I think I love this one so much because it is a penguin...and they're my favourite animals because they are so adorable. LUSH suggest to only use half of the bubble bar and agitate the bath to create more bubbles, so I will definitely be trying this out.

2.  Avobath This is one of the more basic Bath Ballistics that LUSH do, with a lemongrass and avocado scent. Its such a refreshing scent, probably not to everyone's taste but I think its perfect for a morning bath or an early evening bath to give you that little pick me up. They say that the Avobath is good for thirsty skin, however since I have not tried it yet I can't tell you whether that is true. Although it looks fairly boring I reckon it'll be one of the ones that will do wonders for my skin.

3. Luxury Lush Pud I have seen so many people talk about this Bath Ballistic on Youtube, it seems to be one of the more popular Christmas products. This one is meant to turn your bath a wonderful purple/pink colour which is rather exciting! It used to turn baths brown but I believe they reviewed the product and changed it so it was more appealing. With some of the ingredients being lavender oil, ylang ylang and tonka, the smell is really relaxing.

4. Dragons Egg One of my all time favourites from the regular lush Bath Ballistic collection! This bath bomb is full of surprises, changing your bath to every colour under the sun, and leaving it at a final colour of gold. One of the main ingredients is Lemon Oil, so again the smell is fairly fruity. Boring on the outside but rather intriguing. Don't judge a book by its cover!

5. Father Christmas Unfortunately I was dying to use this one on Christmas Day so I don't have a decent picture of it. The detailing was so fantastic with the Santa face on the front. Now when I first looked at this I wondered why it was so expensive for what it was, but when I popped it in the bath I soon realised. It turned my bath bright green! It was so crazy. The main ingredients in terms of the scent are mandarin oil and orange flower, which makes this a very feminine smelling bath ballistic. 

6. Candy Mountain My favourite Bubble Bar. Vanilla, sweet, sugary goodness. It just reminds me of rainbows and unicorns and all things dreamy. I literally want to use this every single day it smells divine! It creates so many bubbles and turns your bath a pretty pink. I'm not actually too sure if this is a Christmas special because when I went in it was in their 50% off sale - I'm hoping its not a Limited Edition because I didn't stock up!

7. Santa's Lip Scrub Now I know a lot of people have negative opinions on the LUSH lip scrubs, saying that they are very overpriced for what they do, which is true, they are fairly expensive, but I got this one half price. It smells of Cola, although the smell is not to strong. I did want to buy the Popcorn one which is very popular, but it wasn't reduced and this was only £2.75. I am yet to try it but when I do, I will tell you if it is better than old fashioned Lemon, Olive Oil and Sugar.

8. Snow Fairy Shower Gel Need I say anymore? An incredibly popular item amongst beauty bloggers and I am not at all surprised. This was in the 50% off sale, so this 250g bottle cost me £3.43 which is amazing. I was hoping to get the larger bottle but it was completely sold out but the time I got there. This smells of candyfloss and pear AND ITS GLITTERY! Perfection in a bottle.

9. Snow Fairy Massage Bar Now, I didn't actually pay for this one, the lovely lady at the LUSH store was talking to me and turns out I served her at my work earlier that week and she remembered me. She asked me if I liked Glitter, obviously I said yes, and then she gave me this for free! I was super happy because I was actually going to buy one but it was one of those things I was unsure as to whether I would use it or not. But I definitely will now that she has explained to me how it works and how much it moisturizes your skin! It smells exactly like the shower gel too which is just yummy!

Unfortunately, since a couple of these products were Christmas Limited Edition ones, they may not still be available in your local LUSH store. 
Did any of you receive any LUSH things for Christmas?

Nail Art: Distressed Nails

Hey guys!
Apologies for not posting on Monday, I had a meeting at work and did not get back till late. 
I wanted to do a nail art tutorial today as I have not done one in ages and I did this gorgeous design this week and had to share it! Sorry it's a bit chipped here - this was taken after 3 days.

Its the simplest design ever to create - it just involves you being a bit messy.  Here are the colours that I used to create the look, I won't bore you by naming the colours - you can use whichever colours you want, it really doesn't matter too much.

1. Firstly, paint a white base coat on all of your nails - two coats usually looks better, especially if the polish is very thin like the Barry M Matte White that I used. 
2. Then take your first colour - wipe the brush on the sides of the bottle to take off nearly all of the polish that is on the brush. Then, apply random strokes onto the nail. It should look something like this.

3. Then repeat step 2 with the other colours that you have chosen - I find it best to apply the darkest colour last, and then add extra lighter colours on top if needed. 

I have to admit there is slightly too much black on this nail for my liking - however I still love the distressed look and the way it looks messy yet artistic. 

If anyone tries this out please leave me a comment and tell me how it went!

Don't forget to follow on GFC and Bloglovin'!

Recipe: The Best Lemon Drizzle Cake

Hi guys!

I know this post isn't the usual, but I'm thinking I might post a few more things like this because it makes my blog a bit more diverse.

Recently I've been enjoying making Lemon Drizzle cake - which is weird because I'm not that fond of lemon flavored things, but this cake is divine!

You will need :

110g Softened Butter
170g Flour
170g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Lemon
1tsp Baking Powder
6tsp Milk

110g Icing Sugar

Before you start baking, make sure that your oven is lit at 190 degrees centigrade!

1. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
2. Gradually add in the eggs and ensure they are whisked into the mixture thoroughly
3. Then it is time to add the flour and baking powder - make sure you use a sift of else the mixture will go lumpy and horrible!

4. Once all the flour is mixed in, you must add the milk and the the juice of half a lemon

5. The final thing to do is to line the loaf tin with baking paper and then pour the mixture in. Put the cake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until cooked throughout

I usually hate everything that I bake, and this is the one thing that I actually love and eat. Its not too sweet, but if you are trying to make it healthier you could always keep the icing off (but personally I think its the best part). I think next time I make it I will add some Poppy Seeds because it'd make the cake slightly different and add more textures.

If any of you try to make this please send me a photo on twitter (@daenabe) or leave me a comment down below.

If you enjoy these recipe posts then also let me know because I might do one every now and again if people enjoy reading them!

Collection Deluxe Lipstick

Hello Amigos!

Surprise surprise I was in Superdrug the other day, and I was browsing at the Collection stand and saw they have released a new range of lipsticks called "Deluxe" lipsticks (after my research I found they were actually released a few months ago!). I saw this gorgeous pinky red colour and I couldn't walk away without it, so I bought it...oops.

The one I bought is called Prohibition, however there are 5 colours in the range, all with 20's themed names which is super cute. The formulation of the lipstick is so creamy and smooth to apply due to the Shea Butter ingredient, and this makes the product wonderful for this time of year when your lips can become dry and chapped due to the cold weather. Overall the texture is very velvety and the lipstick itself has a fairly average staying power, not amazing, although I do find that most Collection lipsticks do not have great staying power. The finish is glossy and wearable, with no shimmer or glitter.

WHY does my camera make my skin look so awful and dry?!

 

This colour is a gorgeous pink toned red for autumn, and not as daring as a bold bright red such as MAC's Ruby Woo. It works so well with darker coloured clothing and I truly am so glad I picked this lipstick up to add to my collection.

It was only £3.99 - however Boots and Superdrug do have all their makeup on 3 for 2 at the moment (at least they did when I bought this lipstick) so it could be a wonderful bargain if you have other things to buy. Another great product from Collection in my eyes!

Have you guys tried any of the other colours from this range?

                                                                                

Glossybox November 2013

Guess what arrived ? ;)

I was totally not expecting my monthly Glossybox so early, but it turned up at my door today and I was super excited to see what goodies had been popped inside!

Vichy - Idealia Life Serum - £29.50 30ml

Vichy is such a wonderful skincare brand and I had not tried anything from them prior to my November Glossybox. The serum says that it will improve the appearance of your skin, evening out the skin tone and giving a radiant glow. I tried  the serum a few days ago, and I applied it before my BB cream. It did make my skin look more radiant as it has light reflecting particles in it, but it made me slightly sparkly which was a bit too much in my opinion.

Emite Make Up - Micronized Eyeshadow - Dams - £16.80

Dams is a matte black eyeshadow with an incredibly high pigmentation. I believe that Emite is a Swedish brand which is probably why not many people have heard of it, in comparison to something like Vichy. It has a very fine texture and is very soft rather than grainy. Personally, I think the pigmentation is higher than that of MAC which is fairly rare for single eyeshadows. This colour is perfect for creating an intense smokey eye, which I will definitely have to try and create soon. Incidentally  I dropped this eyeshadow as soon as I finished taking these pictures and it smashed into a million pieces, and fixing it with Vodka hasn't worked. I'm so upset to say the least. 

Yves Rocher France Hand Cream - £1.95

This hand cream initially didn't appeal to me because I saw the scent and was not impressed. Personally I do not like things that are chocolate scented, that are going on my body. It can just be incredibly sickly and overwhelming. And my expectations in terms of smell were met. However, the cream itself is so moisturising and absorbs into the skin fairly quickly. It did leave the insides of my hands slightly greasy but not too much so that I wanted to wash the product off my hands. I kind of wish I was sent the Cocoa and Pistachio one rather than the Cocoa and Orange, but other than that this is a fairly decent hand cream for £1.95.

Elegant Touch - Rapid Dry for Nails - £3

Now this is a product that I have tried before and have been meaning to repurchase, so I was delighted when I saw this in my box! You spray this on your nails after you have painted them, and they are then touch dry in 60 seconds. Not only does it dry the polish but it also conditions the cuticles which leaves them soft and wonderful. Honestly, if you hate painting your nails because you know they will take ages to dry, then this is the perfect solution!

B.Quick One Coat Professional Finish Nail Polish - £4.99

I have to admit, B. is one of those brands that I just walk past in Superdrug so that I can get to Revlon or some other stand that I am far more familiar with. It claims to only require one coat for a full coverage, but you need at least 2 coats to get the desired colour, and for me it chipped fairly quickly and within 3 days I felt I needed to redo my nails. Not quite Barry M Gelly standard but it was nice to try something different. The colour that I was sent is called Mermaid, which is a gorgeous pale teal colour, personally not very Autumnal but it is a nice colour for Spring and maybe Winter.

Did you guys like the November box?

 ♥