Christmas Day 2016

Hey all!

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas - I planned on getting some posts up in time for the Christmas period but it didn't happen because of so much food prep being required for the big day! You'll see what I mean below....

I spend Christmas with my family and pretty much move home for the Christmas break, even though I don't live at home any more I still end up decorating the house too, particularly the trees!

I love doing it but now I have my own and often do the ones in work it can mean decorating up to seven! I do love decorating the fireplace though, the lights and candles seem to make it!

Christmas Eve was spent in the kitchen, I honestly spent over 8 hours in there making various things. We pre cooked the turkey in the oven and the ham in the slow cooker. The ham was then put into the oven with a honey and mustard glaze on top to crisp up - it was amazing!

We also made the pretty popular Nutella Christmas tree, this was fun and really easy for such an effective treat.

All you need to do is roll out the pastry, cut it into a tree shape - I found it easiest to put them together and cut the shape first so they were both matching.
Then you need to spread a thick layer of Nutella onto one piece and top with the other. I also filled the off cuts too, I mean those extra bits almost taste better than the main tree right?

Then you just need to cut slices of equal size into the sides and twist upwards to give a better effect. It smells amazing when it's cooking away in the oven and we just dusted some icing sugar on top for some festive snow.

This tree is dangerous as you can so easily just keep pulling off a branch here and there!

After this we made some gingerbread men and I iced them very haphazardly - I attempted to do some bow ties and dresses but they look like they've had quite a few glasses of wine instead...oops!

For the main desserts we made the James Martin cheesecake (recipe can be found on Asda's website) which was a really easy no bake recipe, and covered with macaroons from the frozen section. We also decided that seeing as it was Christmas we'd also smother it in edible glitter and sparkly sugar, it was so easy and a big hit!

Lastly we made a chocolate torte, this was the BBC Good Food recipe. It was about 9pm by the time we started this so we were pretty tired but once the mixture was done it only took 40 minutes in the oven to cook and we had earned a big cup of tea and a sit down by then.

Christmas Day is my favourite, for the food and also for seeing my dog loving playing with the wrapping paper! He goes mad for it, loves helping people unwrap their presents and then rolling around with the paper afterwards.

My brother bought him a little Santa costume (which he absolutely hated!) but he was too big so it didn't stay on, still cute though!

We went to my aunty's for Christmas Day this year, the table was beautifully decorated with a gingerbread man theme. Isn't it amazing?

I piled my plate high with as much veg as possible (yes I did add gravy after taking this picture for anyone wondering where it is!)

We finished off the day with the obvious games and selfies with props - if you have played His and Hers we played it and even though us females outnumbered the guys we lost miserably!

What did you do Christmas Day? Do you have any traditions that you have to complete every year?

L xxx

Collection Primed and Ready Primer Powered by Witch

Morning everyone!

It's my first day off for Christmas and I'm so excited, this is the first time I've taken annual leave at Christmas since being old enough to work so I've got 10 days off which is lovely!

I have lots of family things planned for Christmas time including making some gooey Nutella desserts so I'm very much looking forward to that.

For the last few months I've been testing out lots of high street products, one of which is the Collection Primed and Ready Primer that I picked up from Boots.

The Collection Primed and Ready Primer Powered by Witch is a mattifying pore minimiser. That's a bit of a mouthful!

The primer itself is transparent and contains witch hazel to help keep your skin clear with its antibacterial properties, it has long been known as an aid for spots.
It blends easily on the skin and gives a good base for make up, I haven't had any experience of it coming back off my skin in rolled up bits so that's always a good thing!

It mattifies my skin and has been really good for work, I don't think it would last much longer than that, so not all day and night but for a bargain £4.99 (currently £3.99 on offer at Boots!) I don't think that's a problem.

You could use this primer without make up if you wanted, it does help to keep shine at bay for the day but if I'm having a no make up day I'd also skip the primer.

I've been using this recently with the Invisible Setting Powder which has also been really good. I'd recommend using the two if you have a shiny t-zone like me, and the powder is really fine and doesn't seem to sit on the skin and appear to be powdery

Have you tried anything from Collection? What's your favourite?

I've been trying lots from them recently and have been really impressed, the Lasting Perfection Concealer is a personal favourite!

L xxx

Slunks Cardiff

Hey All

Hope you've had a good weekend. It's nearly Christmas, I'm so ready for a few days off work now. If you've been following the blog for a while now you'll have noticed my hair changes colour a lot.

Here's a selection of some of the colours it's been, as you can see I've tried a lot of colours (there was a bright blue but I can't find a photo) and it gets change regularly. Since moving to Cardiff I've switched between salons a lot. I struggle to find one I like long term so usually just dye my hair myself and then go for a cut. I've now found a salon that are amazing though and perfect for what I want.

Back in November time last year I saw a post asking for hair models, as I like to save money wherever possible I got in touch. I'm totally laid back when it comes to hair so I've done hair modelling before because with colour a hairdresser can do anything they like to it.

Photo credit Alex Keen, Hair Slunk, MUA Ryo Love.

This was the finished result!!! How amazing is the colour. I knew straight away I'd found a hairdressers. 

My hair was bleached up for this shoot at the end of Jan and hasn't been rebleached since. I'm so impressed with how blonde it has stayed by just using the purple shampoos. Last week I decided to book myself in for a pre-xmas hair do and could not be more pleased with the results!! Beware photo spam!! The OH took a lot of photos and the colours looked amazing I couldn't narrow it down ha!

I'm so pleased with how it turned out. I wasn't sure what I wanted so suggested a few colours to them and got this amazing result!! They used a selection of Directions and Crazy Colours (possible other brands too) to create the look. The green is a directions one and now a favourite of mine. I've not had green all over before. I may be doing green and purple next I think. Joel, Chelsea and Chris are all amazing. They also do amazing balayage work and isn't all bright colours but if you are after anything a bit different with your hair Slunks is definitely the hairdressers you need to go to!

Are you experimental with your hair?

Love M

xxx

Winter Skincare Update

Good morning!

We all know skincare needs to change with the seasons just like clothing, mine has changed a lot over the years with ageing being a wonderful factor to add to the mix - so today's post is an update of the latest products I've been using and would recommend for anyone looking to try out some new products.