Festival Essentials Pack

Hello lovelies!

I've got a totally random and fun review for you today. A few weeks back my brother got me a birthday present that 100% confused me. Imagine being faced with opening up a present looking like the bag below:

I was so confused! What on earth was in this drawstring bag??

Well let me enlighten you....

Very important ear plugs for starters! I've heard that whatever you take with you, if you intend to get any sleep at all you 100% need these, or some hefty ear phones that will block out noise from rowdy partiers walking past your tents.

Sun lotion sachet; very handy. I will of course be taking a full bottle with me but this can be my emergency sachet for times of last minute sun that appears. So many people I've known have burnt to a crisps at festivals because of the rare sunshine in the UK and I don't intend to be one of them! Though a golden glow would be LOVELY!

Next up some real hygiene essentials. Deodorant, a festival must have, It should rate up there with oxygen and water. Do not leave home without it for the sake of everyone.
Tissues, pack copious amounts of these! Saving you from the sniffles induced by crap food/drink/no sleep etc, the inevitable toilet trips and spillages of any kind. Saviours.

Hand gel; when those inevitable toilet trips arrive you should be armed. Sanitise those hands of yours to protect from unthinkable germs, imagine over 100,000 people using the same toilets for a week. GERM HEAVEN. Protect yourself as much as possible!

Lastly a few girly essentials. Carex wipes will also help against sticky spillage, I'm talking pints of cider flying everywhere, falling over in the mud and those dirty dirty burgers you'll be chowing down on. (I'm drooling already, cider and burgers yummmmmm)

Plasters and toothbrush are also essential; for the love of GOD do not leave home without a toothbrush EVER. Festivals included, your breath should still be smelling fresh and a lack of a sink is no excuse!

The torch is a nice little touch really, I hadn't thought about taking one of these but without any electrical lighting in a tent how on earth would you be able to do anything otherwise! Can you tell I've never actually been proper camping?? Cue a big shock coming my way!

And last but not least........a nail file. One of the most important tools known to women kind, imagine breaking a nail and not being able to file it away for 7 days? Unthinkable!

You can find this specific set on ebay here, but there are tonnes on there that would be great gifts for a festival goer this year!
It's a genius present and I love it, cannot wait to take it to Glastonbury and put it to good use.

What do you think of my festival essentials? Do you have anything to add to the list?

Would you love to give or receive this pack as a gift?

L xxx

China Glaze Be Bright Nail Polish Set

Hi there!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had a friend in the US who sent me a few goodies just after Christmas, this nail polish set was one of them. It was a Christmas set but lets be honest, it's not like there's a ban on glitter and metallics for the rest of the year is there?!

This set is Be Bright and contains 1 metallic nail polish and three glitter top coats.

Here is Your Presents Required over Essie's Fiji. This polish doesn't look much in the bottle but once I'd applied it to my ring finger I then had to put it on all the others too! It has so many colours in it that it looks perfect over a nude colour like Fiji

There are also multiple sizes of the different colours of glitter too which make it look a lot more authentic and less perfect making it look a lot better, in my opinion. This one is my favourite out of the whole packet!


This nail polish is Mingle with Kringle, a gorgeous super shimmery gold polish.



The photo above shows one coat, and the photos below show two coats. Two coats are definitely required for opacity and the colour is gorgeous. It's a true gold and extremely shimmery! I really like this shade but I do have quite a few polishes like this already.




For the next glitter, Bells will be Blinging was applied to my ring finger over an Essie polish called Parka Perfect. The photos below shows one coat of the glitter polish:





And the above shows 2 coats. You can see it definitely needs two coats for the full amount of sparkle, I can't say this is one that I'll use too often as I much prefer the first polish for glitter and don't often wear blues generally. But I was impressed how well this showed up after one coat, but as always you'll need 2 for the full effect!

Lastly we have Be Merry, Be Bright another multicoloured and multi sized glitter which I have applied over Ballet Slippers.

In all honesty I didn't think I'd like this at all, I'm not sure why, maybe it was the blue glitter in it. In the bottle I think the blue glitter looks a considerable amount more than it does on the nails and I've surprised myself by actually loving it!

Which is your favourite? I really have surprised myself by which ones of these are my favourites. China glaze is one of my favourite nail polish brands and I love every collection they bring out! 

Do you have any China Glaze favourites?

L xxx

Banana Protein Pancakes

Hey All

A double post from me today. L's being sharing some tasty healthy treats and tips lately so I thought I'd share one I did at the weekend. We are both pancake fans. I love american style fluffy pancakes covered in all sorts of treats. One weekend at L's after a night out we used some of her brothers protein pancake mix (post here) and they were amazing so I decided it was time to try and make the banana pancakes I've seen everywhere!

These literally need 2 ingredients though from L's recommendation I added a third. You need 1 ripe banana, 1 egg and I used one scoop of chocolate whey protein (you could use 1 tablespoon of oat flour - just grind oats in a food blender, or even normal flour). L had warned me the mixture was a little wet using just a banana and egg.

I was sceptical as to how good these would be as they are so basic. This weekend I decided to give them a go. They are the easiest thing to make too. All you need to do is mash up a banana (this is where having a ripe banana really helps, mine wasn't ripe enough, mashing was hard work so I used to my hands to mush it!).

To the mashed up banana crack the egg and mix.

Then add the scoop of protein powder, oat flour or normal flour. 

Mix all the ingredients well and heat oil of choice in a fry pan over a medium heat. I used coconut oil (to my South Wales bloggers the health food shop in the arcade with Wally's sells it for a bargain £6.99 for 500g!).

When the oil of choice has melted add a scoop of pancake mix. I found using my 1/3 cup measure with this mixture got me three pancakes.

I left then for about 90 seconds. You can see as the mixture starts to set. Flip over and leave for about 60 seconds and serve.

How quick and easy. They were so light, fluffy and tasty. I covered mine in peanut butter (in the same health food shop you can get 1kg of 100% peanuts peanut butter for £5.99!!) and a small amount of maple syrup. They can literally be topped with anything. I'd usually go for Greek yoghurt and berries!

Will be trying these as a healthy weekend treat. Let me know how you get on!

Love M

xxx

Rimmel Stay Matte Powder

Morning All

I should be revising right now but blogging is a much better choice! I'm all about procrastination. Lately I've found my skin hates powder, no matter what foundation or powder combination I was using my skin was looking awful and cakey, so for the past few months I've given up using powder and taken to blotting my face. This pay day I couldn't resist shopping. (you can view my haul here) A trip to boots made me decide to try it. I've only heard good things about the Rimmel Stay Matte Powder and I know L loves it. She's reviewed it here.

I picked up the shade translucent. In powders I'd rather go for translucent as I find powders tend to make my skin look orange toned otherwise. The thing that put me off this powder for ages was the packaging. With a powder I'd rather it was more handbag friendly and come with a sponge for if I need to top up during the day. The packaging is basic and I do worry the lid will get broken with my clumsiness at some point.

Onto the product. Let's start with this is fully deserving of all the hype it gets! It perfectly sets my make up, leaves my face shine free without my foundation looking heavy, clumpy or cakey. My make up lasts longer and while keeping my face shine free it doesn't look powdery or too matte. I've only been using it for the past two weeks but so far it really is worth all the hype.

Best of all it is only £3.99 and usually on 3 for 2! I'm regretting not giving in to this hyped up product sooner. It really does everything you'd want a powder to do. My only downside to it is the packaging but for the price I can't really complain.

Have you tried Rimmel Stay Matte Powder?

Love M

xxx