December Glossybox! The Rose Gold Edit

A much overdue post on the December Glossybox, especially as January's box has arrived, and February's box is around the corner, nevertheless, here it is!

This month's box came in a pretty (almost rose) gold packaging, Their theme was rose gold or something to that effect if I can remember that far back, but I guess it was reminiscent of that 'gold glam' look most associated with Christmas *boo*.

Inside the Box (left to right)

Etre Belle – Golden Skin Caviar Eye Roll On

This is cooling gel is designed to keep your eyes looking bright, perfect for the ‘party season’. I place this in my fridge for extra ‘coolness’, and place under my eyes when I come out of the shower. Not too sure if it’s worth the £31 the full size retails at, but it sure does wake up my dreary morning eyes. Might stick to the old cucumber trick in the future when this runs out though.

Full Size: £30.66 | 7/10

Philosophy - Purity Made Simple

Now, I haven't used this product, but I feel like this would be an ideal cleanser for the face to carry with me when I'm travelling or going on holiday. It claims to remove all traces of dirt and oil, whilst being gentle and calming on the skin. Personally wouldn't purchase it for myself as I'm quite satisfied with skin care routine, but as I said, will be suitable to pop in the bag if I'm staying over anywhere I don't have access to m usual cleansers.

Full Size: £18

Cheeky - Chat Me Up Nail Paint in 'Peach Love'

Another nail polish to add to the collection which I can't complain about! As far as I know, there were two options for the nail polish, a bronze-y shimmery gold colour, appropriate for the party season, and the one I got, a baby pink colour...which I LOVE. I wouldn't say it's very holiday season appropriate, but I love it regardless. It's quite nude in the sense that I think it would suit most occasions and would go with a lot of outfits. Also, I'm a sucker for anything baby pink. The finish it normal on the nails, and I think with a good top coat, would last longer than the two days it did without chipping.

Full Size (included): £7 | 7.5/10

Essence - Liquid Lipstick in 'Show Off'

A very apt and bright colour for the party season. At first, I was apprehensive about the colour choice being bright pink, as I felt like it would be too bright for my medium-brown skin tone, however, with the spring season approaching, I think a bold colour would be fitting..just need the confidence to wear it! It has a stick, viscous, lipgloss-like consistency that I'm not a fan of. but I'm sure I could pair it with a dark lip liner or base colour.

Full size (included): £2.50 | 6.5/10

So Susan - Statement Skin Highlighter Pencil

Tis/Twas the season to highlight? Highlighting has become a major staple in my makeup routine, and this highlighter, I must say, is absolutely beautiful! I have to worry with certain products being too ashy on my skin complexion as I have strong yellow undertones, but this highlighter I feel caters and will suit most if not ALL which is always a positive. A universal highlighter, compact and easy to carry, that glides on perfectly, leaving a subtle gold shimmery glow to the skin.

Full size (included): £15 | 8.5/10

Starskin Bio-Cellulose Second Skin Mask

Out of four masks, I got the brightening 'After Party' mask, designed to brighten up your skin after late nights, and partying during the holiday season. It claims that there is a 30mls of a vitamin packed serum in the mask to hydrate the skin. I'm always after masks that claim to do just that, so this was a bonus. I planned to use it before I went out for NYE but sadly didn;t have the time to I feel like I will save this for a relatively 'special occasion', such as an important day/night out or even before my birthday or so as a luxury treat to myself. Who doesn't like to pamper themselves?!

Full size (included): £8.50

2016 Resolutions + WHY I've decided to go vegan

I'm a person that likes to have goals to focus on, so when January 1st comes around, instead of getting the 'January Blues', I see the start of the year as a 'new beginning' if you will. Fair enough to say that yes, I may or may not stick to these goals (I broke two simultaneously at 2am on January 1st but we wont go into that...), but a goal is a goal to becoming a 'better you'...or at least a more content you.

So. here are my goals/resolutions for 2016:

-Be an active blogger/YouTuber
-Drink at least 1.5L of water per day
-Lose that pesky 15lbs that is just hanging around on my body!
-Maintain a good hair care routine
-Try to battle/diminish my acne once and for all
-Apply for my PGCE course
-Travel/go on at least ONE holiday
-Move BACK out of London
-Eat well, exercise more (even if it is only 10mins a day!)
-Eat gluten free (I'm gluten and wheat intolerant but I still torture myself with products containing said gluten...*sigh*)
-Eat mostly vegan...

...but...why an earth am I going vegan?!

For me there are many reasons why I am going vegan, and cutting out dairy from my diet, from an ethical stance through to health reasons.

1) I'm lactose intolerant
- Now, this is funny. I'm a vegetarian, and have been since lent/end of February 2009. The only dairy products I ate were cheese, eggs, butter/spread on occasions, and sometimes if I'm out and about, products containing dairy such as cheese & onion crisps for instance. Also pizza. YASSS, PIZZA.

Now, that might seem like a lot of dairy, but the only product I'd eat every day is cheese, and only a couple of slices of it too (as of the last couple of years). During my 1st year at uni (2013), I gave up dairy completely for lent (not religious, just for funzies)...never in my life have I felt so deprived of something. It. Was. AWFUL! But I did it regardless. When Lent was over, I went back to eating dairy, but not in a large quantities I did before (by large I mean 1kg of cheese and a tub of Philadelphia a week...minimum...yep). Summer of 2013 came around, and I was determined to get fit and healthy, and realised that I was eating mostly as a vegan, so I went vegan for 6 weeks until it was time for me to go back to uni...where I became 'pescatarian' for a year or so. I realised that my body was not having a pleasant reaction to dairy after the summer, which was only exacerbated by gastroenteritis and other health complications the following winter/spring. So, since 2014 I've had an on/off relationship with dairy, until December 2015 where I would be in absolute dire pain whenever I ate dairy, and practically fine (I say that because I have IBS as well as a gluten intolerance...*SIGH*), when I used dairy alternatives.

2) Not so good for acne sufferers
- If you follow me on Twitter, or you're a good friend of mine, you know how down my acne can make me feel. I've had it since I was about 10/11 (I'm now 21), and I haven't been able to determine the cause of it. Aside from dairy, my diet is alright, I used to exercise a lot as a teen, always cleansed my face, and generally took the appropriate steps to clearing my acne. However, I would always get bad breakouts, which I can handle, it's the years of scarring that follows. I cannot decisively say whether cutting out dairy has helped as I have just had another breakout *cries*, but I didn't have a spot in the first week of cutting dairy out of my diet (which is a record!!), and I have generally been getting less spots since cutting down on my dairy intake last month.

3) It's a by-product of an animal
- I feel like if I stay on this too long, I'll be sick. Milk from cows = milk for baby cow. Cheese - pus cells. Ew. Ew. Ew. It shouldn't be for human consumption...who an earth thought that it was a good idea to milk a cow for our own consumption?! Also, pus cells. EWWWW.

4) Why should the lifespan of an animal, be there purely to serve for our selfish dietary consumption...?
- We don't do it to our beloved household pets. Are they not animals too?

Now, I'm not so articulate on the industry of dairy/meat, nor do I necessarily want to at this point in time (as it quite distressing to hear), but for me, it's high time to say goodbye to dairy. Will I occasionally eat the odd cheese & onion crisps? Maybe. Will I give up honey? Most certainly not! Also, some gluten free products such as bread do contain dried egg whites, so given any particular circumstance that I'm in that will require me to divulge in such products, I might have do so. Hence why I'm 'mostly vegan'.

Five Bean Chili (Vegetarian and Vegan friendly)

Here is a quick, easy and healthy style five bean chili served with rice and quinoa!

Ingredients:

-Mixed Bean Salad

-Chopped Tomatoes (I made mine from scratch which I liked better than regular tinned ones!)

-Rice and Quinoa (I used leftovers)

-Onions

-Garlic (I used garlic paste)

-Herbs and spices (I used: mixed herbs [thyme, coriander, oregano, basil], paprika, cumin, tumeric, chili powder, salt, black pepper)

Method:

-If you do not have pre-cooked rice and quinoa. I recommend 'Tilda's' own brand which I have used in the past, or make your own blend which should take around 20mins to cook.

-In a pan, melt some oil (I use coconut oil), sauté a generous amount of chopped onions and add a dash of salt, black pepper and garlic to the mix.

-After washing and draining them, add the beans to the pan and cook for 5mins.

-If making the chopped tomato sauce  from scratch, blend four medium sized tomatoes with some mixed herbs and salt. Pulse the blender for about ten seconds so the tomatoes are not 'runny'.

-Add the tomato sauce to the pan after the beans have. and reduce the temperature to a low heat so it can simmer. (Add mixed herbs in at this point if using tinned chopped tomatoes)

-Add paprika, cumin, chili powder and tumeric to the mix.

-Serve the chili over the rice and quinoa, and enjoy!

Nutritional Values per serving: 280cals/44g carbs

L.A Girl Pro Concealer Review + Demo

L-R:Orange & Yellow, Fawn, Chestnut, Mahogany

So, everyone who's anyone knows about these concealers. They've been raved about in the beauty community, especially on YouTube, with makeup lovers and beauty gurus galore, going crazy over these little tubes of amazing-ness.

I've been using one of the concealers, 'Fawn' (every dark skin girls' favourite), to highlight the usual areas of my face (under my eyes, down the bridge of the nose, my forehead, cupids bow and chin), for a while now, but I wanted to expand my collection because...why not? This shade blends so effortlessly so I decided to order a few more shades that I thought I would benefit from on eBay. Just type it into the search bar and there you go, L.A Girl concealers and other products from the same company, galore!

For reference, my shade in MAC is one shade lighter than NC50, with very strong yellow undertones.

L-R: Fawn, Chestnut Mahogany, Yellow & Orange (without flash)

Fawn:
-Perfect highlight shade for those who are about an NC50/NW42-45
-Yellow/warm undertone
Cheshnut:
-Perfect concealer for shades NC50/NW45
-Yellow/warm to neutral undertone
Mahogany:
-Contour shade for anyone darker than NC50/NW42-45 (must be used sparingly tho), would suit shades perfectly as a contour for shades darker than stated above.
-Neutral to warm undertone
Yellow Corrector:
-Perfect for brightening up highlighted areas
-Great for adding more 'yellow' to foundations that might be too pink/red/cool
-Strong yellow undertone
Orange Corrector:
-Great for cancelling out dark circles under the eyes, blemishes, scars and acne scarring
-Great concealer for those with a 'brown/medium' skin tone to dark
-A 'burnt orange' appearance, more neutral to cool undertone

L-R: Fawn, Chestnut Mahogany, Yellow & Orange (with flash)

PROS
-Water based concealer , so no oily faces for my oily/combination skin girls. All the same, it is not drying at all those with drier skin
-Easy application - has a brush attached to the tube
-Small and lightweight -  compact for travel
-Comes in a variety of shades from very fair to very dark, and also also has a green corrector for cancelling out redness.
-Full coverage

CONS
-In major UK cities, acquiring this product shouldn't be a problem as most beauty supply stores (hair shops) usually stock these. Might be a little difficult elsewhere, but if so lots of websites, especially eBay stock these concealers.
-Do not dilly dally when it comes to blending these concealers. As they are water based, they tend to 'dry faster' than other oil or cream based concealers, which might be hard blend out if left too long. Can also get a few droplets of water when squeezing the tube instead of product.

With these ranging from £2.60-5 in the UK, you cannot go wrong with these concealers. For the price point and quality, L.A Girl has created something wonderful that caters for all skin tones and shades!
9.5/10 (-0.5, because I wish they were sold at Boots or Superdrug or something!)

Check out my demo of the concealers HERE on YouTube!

Mini 'Drugstore' Makeup haul/tutorial!

So I recently bought a few items that I've been dying to try out, and what better way than to do it in a full face makeup video?

 Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E13MEtj85D4

FREEDOM Pro Eyebrow palette in Dark
I don't really fill in my brows or do anything to them, apart from concealer to clean up around each row. However, sometimes I do prefer a more defined look towards the tail end of my brow, and sometimes the inner parts of my brows have a tendency to disappear in pictures, so this palette was great for creating natural hair-like strokes. I personally use the wax (bottom right) to create more definition, and set it with the powders (top right/bottom left).

£3.50 | 8.5/10









FREEDOM Eye primer
Nothing worse than your eyeshadow creasing or disappearing after a couple of hours! This kept my eyeshadow on all night, however it did start to look little 'oily' in the crease, but that could be down to my minimal/sparing application of the product.

£2.50 | 7/10

Urban Decay PERVERSION Mascara
The rush and formulation reminds me of that of the old chunky Rimmel mascaras that everyone had at school...and they were amazing! Love the spoolie brush and the formulation is lovely and easy to build, and with a lash primer underneath, my lashes were looking lovely, separated, thick and fake (in a good way)!

(Travel size currently on sale at Debenhams) £8 | 10/10











NYX Jumbo Eye pencil in 'Milk'
This is probably one of the most raved about products on YouTube and I can see why. In itself it acts as a great eyeshadow primer, and it makes any eyeshadow look 'true to colour' and extremely pigmented! It's quite hard to find in the UK, constantly sold out on the UK website, so I jumped for joy when I found out that they were in London Selfridges and always abundantly in stock. Check the Selfridges website also if you're not close to the store itself.

£5.50 | 9.5/10

NYX Butter Gloss in 'Praline'

Obviously I was going to check out the rest of the makeup at the NYX stand in Selfridges, and was beyond eager to try their lip products. Unfortunately, they'd sold out of some of the more popular shades, especially in their infamous 'matte lip cream'. I was on the hunt for something nude-ish, whether it has a slight bit of pink or brown, and this gloss has the right mixture of both so I'm very pleased. I'm also a matte lip kinda girl, and tend to stray away from glosses, but this gloss is absolutely gorgeous! Perfect when you don't want to have a heavy lip colour, combined with a cheeky cute gloss. Oh, and it smells DIVINE. Like some sort of dessert, cant quite work out which one yet. #savourygirlatheart

£5.50 | 9/10

Homemade veggie burger

Boredom, procrastination...oooh I have chickpeas!

I've always wanted to make a burger from scratch, because although I love (I mean REALLY love) the Quorn Southern Fried Chicken style burgers, they're not coeliac or lactose intolerant friendly...aka they have wheat, gluten and milk in them *cries*.

So, out of what I call, 'constructive procrastination', I attempted these vegan, gluten, wheat and dairy free spicy burgers!

Ingredients: (I rarely ever measure so this is a 'decent' guestimate)
-100g chickpeas
-150g buckwheat
-1 egg white (or vegan egg constitute replacement)
-Diced onion
-Seasoning; salt, black pepper, paprika, cumin, basil
-PATIENCE...seriously

Method:

Soak the chickpeas overnight, then with fresh water, bring to boil for 10mins, then simmer for 2hrs.
Add the buckwheat to the chickpeas at 1.5hrs to simmer.
Make sure the chickpeas are fairly soft before draining them.
Drain the chickpeas so there is no liquid whatsoever left (important!), so the mixture will be firm enough to mash and bind.
Add a little bit of seasoning and onions (I forgot this stage so you can always add it later on in the process), and proceed with mashing the chickpea and buckwheat together with a potato masher (thought there was a more technical term for that utensil...apparently not!)
Once they are at a firm consistency, scoop the mixture into cling film and mould into a circular figure. (If you have a lid or any circular mould in the kitchen, it might be easier to form a 'burger' shape. I did both ways and they were both easy to mould the mixture.)
Once moulded and wrapped in the cling film, place in the freezer for 1hr (check at regular intervals so they are not freezing completely.) This binds the mixture.
Preheat the oven for 10mins at 180 degrees, unwrap the burgers onto a lightly greased tray, and place in the oven for 20-25mins.
Take the burgers out of the oven (don't scorch your arm like I did *cries*), and leave to cool for 10mins.
Whilst waiting for them to cool, get your egg white. add the seasoning to it and mix it in a bowl. Saute the onions in olive or coconut oil in a frying pan.
Dip the burger in the egg mixture until it is completely coated and place it in the frying pan with the onions, 2-3mins on each side. Repeat for all burgers and let them stand before serving. Makes 4 large burgers.

Enjoy!

(Ps, I had butternut squash and sweet potato left over from the night before, which I also mashed into the burger mixture - definitely gives the burger a more moist texture which is nice!)

Prudish Pin-up

So, it was the first day back (of my last ever semester) at uni *panics**screams*, and it was lovely to see everyone! On the other hand, it was so cold and I was in a rush for a lecture (I'm not even doing anymore??), so I decided to wear my work clothes from the day before! (I'm lazy ok.)

It was so cold, my photographer's breath made a little appearance ;) nice effect regardless, eh?!

My housemate is now my new personal photographer, she's a little wonderful at this, I must say!

Jacket/Blazer: H&M

Faux fur stole: New Look

Cardigan: Vintage

T-shirt: New Look (Mens)

Midi skirt: New Look

Suede Chelsea boots: New Look

Necklace: Topshop

Bag: Charity shop (brand new!)

Bandana: Vintage

Watch: Tesco (£6 omg!!)