I love reading empties posts on other blogs so I've decided to do one here. An empties post, incase you've never come across one before, is where you photograph all your used up toiletries and do a little review on how you found them and if you'd use them again.

I must warn you, this was an exceptionally boring month for me. I'm on a bit of a buying freeze while I use everything up. And there's a lot to use up!








Garnier Intensive 7 Day Moisturiser This was a 7 day trial, which I used on my legs. I already noticed that, when using the Garnier Gradual Tanner, that my legs were very soft feeling, so I was excited to try this now I'm on a tanning hiatus. This is a milky gel-like consistency with a fresh smell and it did help my legs feel smooth. It soaked in quickly, better that body butters etc that I've tried. Purchase again? Yes, I think I will!

John Freida Brilliant Brunette Liquid Shine and Enhancing Shampoos I had about three John Freida shampoo and conditioner sets on the go at once and this was the last of it used up this month (am I the only person who uses up the conditioner much quicker than the shampoo?). These shampoos are often on offer at Boots and Superdrug. The enhancing shampoo muddied up some highlights that I had last year, and to be honest it was better to use the enhancing shampoo when I was a red head as that faded so quickly! The Liquid Shine range was good though and there is also a Liquid Shine serum with glitter particles in it that is really nice for styling. Purchase again? The enhancing shampoo, no, the liquid shine, yes.

Regis Design Line Get It Pumped Shampoo I was persuaded to buy this by a hairdresser, who insisted on giving me a bouncy hair blowdry once (it was SO bouncy. Hah!). I don't tend to go for a lot of volume in my hair and to be honest, this did previous little for me. Not a bad shampoo, but not worth the price tag on my hair. Purchase again? No.

L'oreal Ever Pure Shampoo and Conditioner Sample This is a sulphate free shampoo and conditioner for coloured hair. I was so impressed with it when I washed and conditioned my hair, but the very next morning (I wash my hair at night normally), my roots were greasy looking, and I had to use dry shampoo on them. Thats supremely not good. I do have another set of samples so I will give it another try, and hope it's better the second time around. Purchase again? Not unless the second sample works miracles.

Imperial Leather Japanese Spa Shower Gel I've had this a while but only just started using it. I use the hand soap version of this sometimes and I like the smell. This is creamy and produces a lot of lather. The smell isn't especially lingering on the skin but its a budget shower gel so I don't mind. I've been showering extremely frequently in that short lived heatwave we had and using lots and lots of shower gel so this got used up in about a week! Purchase again? Not for a while as I have zillions to get through, but yes I would buy this again.

Mitchum Advanced Control 24 Hour Deodorant I started using this when I worked in a job where I was running around all day (even in a 30 degree heatwave, where I found myself on a farm!) and I swear by it. Its really good at keeping me fresh. I don't have such a physically demanding job any more but I carry on using it regardless. This was the unperfumed one so it doesn't interfere with perfume. etc. Purchase again? Yep, I already have!

Caudalie Vinosource Serum S.O.S I got this in a Glossy Box and I assumed I would only use it in emergencies as my face is combination leaning more towards oily. But its totally unlike any other moisturising product I've ever used. Its not remotely greasy and sinks in immediately. Its become a real cult product for me. Purchase again? I already have, but I cheated and bought up all the other 10ml samples on Ebay because that was cheaper than spending £29 on the 30ml bottle.

Not a very inspiring post and I'm really suprised I didn't use up anything else! I'll have to make a more concerted effort next month to use up more interesting products I suppose.

What products did you use up in July?

You know I can't resist pitting beauty boxes against each other! The Glossy Box vs Latest in Beauty posts disappeared for June but they're back for July!

This was a make or break GlossyBox for me this month. There's nothing wrong with the boxes I've had, per se, and I've definitely found some excellent products through them. But everytime I log in to review my products, or read blogs and I see the products that everyone else got, I am pretty much always disappointed and wished to get different products in my box. When I saw spoilers of the July box I knew that there were some amazing products on offer. And I wished and I hoped that I would get the good stuff!










And I DID get the good stuff, yay! My box contained:

• HD Brows Eye & Brow Palette - a fullsize with an RRP of £19.95. I received 'bombshell' which is supposed to be for blondes, but my eyebrows are very fair so this should be the perfect colour for me. I've got some eyebrow pencils but I haven't really mastered the art of defining my brows yet, so I hope this will help!
• Clynol Enrich Colour Shampoo - I've just recently dyed my hair again and so a colour-protecting shampoo is perfect for me.
• Muno Golden Glow - I'm loving gradual tanners and I love Monu so I'm very excited to try this. It says you can use it on the face as well, I'm not sure if I have the guts to try it there though!
• Jelly Pong Pong Lip Frosting - you notice this as soon as you open the box, it has a very strong, sweet smell. You can use it on your cheeks as well as your lips, and it works really nicely on cheeks. And the smell is to die for!
• Elizabeth Arden Visible Difference Balancing Lotion - its great to get a product for combination skin like mine. Unfortunately my dream product, Dr Nick Lowe's oil balancing day cream, is currently out of stock, so I am trying all sorts of products to tide me over!
• There was also a 3-step Elizabeth Arden sample set for combination skin, three small sachets of product.

I'm completely elated by my box this month. I had basically decided if I had another month where I wasn't fussed about the box, I would cancel my subscription. But now I've been suckered back in! I just hope August can be as good :)

Next up, the Latest in Beauty Editor's Picks box. These boxes are getting better and better as the months go on, I'm completely loving them.






This month I received:

• Love Your Skin Exfoliating Wash - this smells delicious and I love the packaging, really high end looking. This is a full size product with a £22 RRP!
• Weleda Pomegranate Night Firming Cream - I'm in the market for a new night cream so I'm looking forward to trying this.
• Weleda Firming Serum - I do love a good serum!
• Mavala mini nail polish in Liberty - I have one other Mavala polish and I love it, so this will be great to try and I do love a nude nail.
• Balance Me Radiance Face Mask - after being a bit disappointed by the face wash, but loving the lip salve and the body washes, I'm hoping this will be another winner.
• Melvita Micellar Water - I'm currently using one of these and I really like it, and you all know I love duplicates, especially for travelling.
• Batiste Dry Shampoo in Cherry - I'm a big dry shampoo lover and I like Batiste, its probably not my favourite but its still really good and I like the scents. A great one for travel.

Another excellent box from Latest in Beauty. A little more expensive that some of their previous boxes at £14.95 but totally worth it for the Love Your Skin wash alone!

Were you delighted or disappointed by GlossyBox this month? Let me know in the comments :)

Have I ever expressed my love for Lakeland on here before? If not, shame on me. If so, sorry, you're going to hear it again. I ADORE Lakeland. Not only can they both amazing customer service both in store and online (and I cannot begin to tell you how important that is to me. I hate going into shops to be met with sales assistants too busy chatting to each other to serve me, or contacting a customer service department by e-mail to be met with useless automated responses or rudeness. URGH. Thankfully, Lakeland do neither!), but their products are wonderful, more to the point. Full of kitchen and homeware gadgetry (a big obsession of mine, I put some sort of kitchen gadget on my wishlist every Christmas and birthday!), but no gimmicks. Everything is actually useful, actually serves a purpose. Yep, you probably did survive without it, but with it, your life is going to be better, in culinary or housekeeping terms.


My most recent Lakeland catalogue arrived in the post. I remember when I was living at home and these would arrive for my Mum, she used to let me open it even though it wasn't addressed to me simply so I could pour through the pages until she got home from work. What an excellent mother she is! Anyway, this particular catalogue was so chock full of things I want I might have to put it in the recycling as quickly as I can bear so I don't spend every penny I own buying up everything. This catalogue is called Simply Home-Made and there's so many amazing things in there. But what really caught my eye was their new range of cheese-making products.


I sort of knew that making soft cheese wasn't especially difficult, nor was it fantastically time consuming, but I hadn't really considered it. However Lakeland have teamed up with BBC Good Food columnist Gerard Baker to produce a recipe book:




Image courtesy of the Lakeland website

How to Make Soft Cheese  is a 34 page book with basic recipes, tips, equipment lists, etc. According to the blurb in the catalogue, you can make cream cheese, 'feta', halloumi, ricotta and mozarella to name a few. I'm hugely tempted by this. What goes one step further than making cheesecake? making cheesecake with homemade cream cheese in it, of course! I love being able to make those extra touches. My 'signature' dish, as it were, is lasagne (I might post a recipe one of these days). Its been a labour of love that I have worked on improving for 10+ years, and I make nearly everything from scratch (never have made the pasta, perhaps that's next!). The idea that I could make the mozarella that goes in the lasagne too just makes me even more excited.


As well as selling a how-to book, Lakeland also sell the other kit you might need to make cheese. Such as a maslin pan, which I would call a 'jam pan'. I already own one, which was a hand-me down from my mother, which was a hand-me-down from my grandmother, so I'm not looking to replace it. But hey, I'm one piece of kit up on the cheese-making thing, winner!




Image courtesey of Lakeland website
This is one of two cheese moulds Lakeland are selling, both this conical mould and the basket mould are a snip at £3.99 each.




Image courtesey of Lakeland website
You'll also need some muslin squares to separate your curds from your whey. Muslin squares can also be used to strain homemade wine or to make bouquet garni, and are re-useable. This pack of 10 can be found here for £5.49.


I'm pretty sure I have just talked myself into buying these up and making soft cheese. I'll be sure to post about how I get on when I do (let's face it, its not 'if', it's when).


If you've never been to a Lakeland store before, shame on you. Get yourself there immediately to immerse yourself in all that is wonderful about kitchenware. The staff know their products and will be more than happy to chat to you if you have any questions at all. Also, check out their bargain corner for some amazing bargain finds. My mother picked up this electric jam maker for £49.99 instead of the £99.99 it was a few years ago simply because the outer box was damaged. Literally, just the packaging was a bit bashed, there was nothing wrong or missing from the product. Half price for a ripped box! That's amazingly good! The Lakeland Store Locator is here but if you get the chance, you have to visit the flagship store in Windermere, Cumbria. Its a vast store in the most beautiful surroundings and the cafe there is completely to die for!


Are you a Lakeland fan like me? Are you a cheese-maker who can give me some tips on my first attempts at cheese? Let me know in the comments!

I'd just like to point out that this is NOT a sponsored post. Lakeland are not paying me in cash or in any of their amazing products for writing this post. I'm a genuine Lakeland fan and this post is therefore genuinely gushing!

When I'm not spending all my pennies on beauty boxes, I can usually be found browsing magazines for their freebies. I've been a Marie Claire subscriber for years , but they long since stopped sending the freebies to subscribers (but they TOTALLY did when I signed up. Its part of the reason why I subscribed! I really dont need a limited edition subscribers cover, I need freebies). This month I believe they were giving away lovely full sized Avon mascaras. Not that I would know *sulks*.

A lot of bloggers post about what the upcoming freebies are for the next month of magazines, which definitely helps you make the decisions about which ones to get. I decided for July I would allow myself two magazines. So imagine how delighted I was when I went to my local Sainsbury's to find that they have 2 for £6 on selected magazines, including the two I wanted. Bargain!




As you can see, I opted for Red for their REN goodies and Elle for their St Tropez gradual tanning sample.




The REN kit contains samples of Vetiver hand and body cream, an eye gel and a hydrating day cream. I'm excited to try these out, especially the eye gel. As you can maybe see from the photo, I opted for the light-medium gradual tanner, as I am super pale. I've tried out the Garnier Summer Body gradual tanner in the past and I liked the results, so I'm looking forward to sampling this as well, I know St Tropez have a good name in the fake tanning world.

If you'd like to give REN a try, after picking up the samples from Red, head on over to the REN website. You get 10% off your first order. But it doesn't stop there. Pop over to Whats In My Handbag and register there, its an excellent beauty website. Now, head back over to REN and choose any item that takes your fancy. I have decided to try out the Kit For Blemish Prone Skin. Add that to your cart, and choose your whopping 4 free samples from REN. Now go to your basket and add the code RENHANDBAG to the voucher code section. You will now have the Six Of The Best kit worth £20 for free! Not forgetting all the samples and the 10% off your first order. They're practically giving it away for you to try! The offer has been going on for a while so if you're interested then I suggest you move fast! I uhmmed and ahhhed for ages about it because I'm supposed to be saving lots of money at the moment. But, well, you know. Ok, I have NO excuse except I decided I'm worth it. Ha!

What magazine freebies did you pick up this month? What were your freebie winners and losers? Are you already a total REN convert?

One thing I love about Being A Grown Up (which basically means living in a place of my own with my lovely other half) is having people over for dinner. So far we've had people over for a couple of BBQs and two 'dinner parties'. And 9 times out of ten I drink too much of my carefully selected wine and regret that decision the next day. Must work on that.

A couple of weeks ago we had my 'in laws' over for dinner. I put it in commas because I'm not married but its easier to call them my 'in laws'. I'll lose the annoying commas from here on in. The food was delicious and I managed to track down a very decently priced wine that went amazingly with our main course. For some reason, when it comes to having people round for dinner, I like to experiment with desserts I've never made before. I wouldn't advise this, it leads to all sorts of silly fretting.

I should start by confessing that this recipe is not of my creation, its based on combining quite a few recipes and scouring various places for inspiration.

I love passion fruit, of all the tropical fruits, its definitely my favourite. I think I like it because it looks so damned weird. You have to question the first person to ever eat it, really. Anyway. White chocolate and passion fruit go very well together and as our other dishes were vaguely Thai themed, but I couldn't find a suitable Thai-style dessert, I decided I would just opt for something with passion fruit and probably white chocolate too. I considered this white chocolate and passion fruit mousse by the lovely Nigella Lawson who I should mention is my cooking idol and my biggest girl crush of all time. If I could look half as good as her now, in my late 20s, as she looks currently, I'd be a happy girl. But on this occasion, I decided I didn't want mousse and I started to think about how much I love cheesecake. So my search continued.

I decided quite early on I didn't want a baked cheesecake, I thought it might be a little bit richer in texture and whilst there are precious few light, low fat ingredients in any cheesecake, with a fluffier texture than baked, it feels lighter. Yep, I'll keep telling myself that. So my search led me here to this amazing website called Great British Chefs. Go and register and bookmark it. But don't do it if you're hungry. Its an amazing website full of excellent recipes by top chefs. Drool-worthy. And many of them look easy enough to do at home. That led me to this recipe by Matthew Tomkinson for white chocolate and passion fruit cheesecake. PERFECT. Except, it made a pretty small quantity and I wasn't sure I had an appropriate tin for such a small amount. But I knew I wanted to make an orange sorbet to go with, and I loosely considered the orange crisps but decided against in the end. Then I saw this recipe by Simon Hulstone and thought I could somehow combine the two. Except, by this time I'd bought white chocolate, so I needed a white chocolate cheesecake recipe, which wasn't baked. That led me to this recipe.  But I made a few little changes. So, after a LOT of waffle, this was my cheesecake recipe:

White Chocolate Cheesecake

200g Hob Nob biscuits, crushed
100g melted butter.

275g white chocolate
450g cream cheese (I used full fat Philadelphia)
375ml double cream
3 gelatine leaves

1 23cm springform tin, with the base lined with greaseproof paper

1. Break the biscuits up roughly in a food processor, then blitz until they resemble a sandy rubble. Pour in the melted butter and blitz again until both are combined. Tip this into your springform tin and flatten out with the back of a spoon. Cover your tin with clingfilm and pop into the freezer for at least a couple of hours to set the base.
2. Melt the white chocolate in a heat-proof bowl over a saucepan of water on the hob. I don't like using the microwave to melt white chocolate, I always burn it!.
3. Find a flat bottomed dish (I used plastic storage tubs, of which I have several), put some cold water in an inch or so deep and place your gelatine leaves in to soften for at least 5 minutes. make sure the leaves do not stick to each other (I used one large tub and one small tub to soften up three leaves)
4. Put the cream cheese in a bowl and if it is still firm from the fridge, beat it to soften it up. Add the white chocolate when melted and slightly cooled and mix thoroughly.
5. Place 75ml of double cream in a small saucepan, adding some vanilla extract if you like, and warm fairly gently. You don't want it to boil, but you do want it to be well over 35 degrees so that the gelatine leaves will melt into it.
6. Place the remaining 300ml of double cream in a bowl and whip to soft peak stage. I used my Kenwood with balloon whisk attachment, but you can use a handheld whisk or do it by hand, it'll just take a bit longer by hand!
7. When the gelatine is squidgy in the cold water, remove the leaves gently and squeeze any excess water out of the leaves. Drop the leaves in the heated cream and stir to dissolve, this will be fairly quick. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly, before stirring into the cream cheese and white chocolate mixture.
8. Finally, fold in the whipped cream, ensuring everything is evenly combined. Drop this mixture into your springform tin and take the time to get the mixture smoothed out as evenly as you can on the top, this will help when you put the jelly layer on later! Ensure there is some space at the top of the springform tin for this jelly later. Cover the cheesecake with clingfilm again and put back into the fridge for several hours to set. I made all of this the night before.

Now your cheesecake is set, you can concentrate on the jelly. I initially bought whole passionfruit, 6 to be exact, but I didn't want to keep the seeds in as people find it a bit off-putting. I quickly realised there wouldn't be enough fruit for my jelly, so I went back to Tesco where I found a 1litre carton of passion fruit juice for only about 80p. I used a combination of the pulp with the seeds removed and the juice but when I make this again I'll just use the carton of juice. It cheaper, its less fiddly and it comes ready sweetened!

Passion Fruit Jelly Topping
500ml passion fruit juice (from a carton is fine)
25g caster sugar (the juice is ready sweetened, but you might want a little extra to take the edge off)
4 gelatine leaves

1. Once again, fill tubs with some water and place your leaves in to soak for at least 5 minutes.
2. Place the passion fruit juice and the caster sugar in a saucepan and heat gently, again, you want to heat it above 35 degrees at least to get the gelatine to melt.
3. When the gelatine has softened, squeeze the excess water out and add to the passion fruit juice in the saucepan, stirring until the leaves have all melted.
4. Pour into a pyrex jug and allow to cool. When its lukewarm, get your cheesecake out of the fridge and pour the juice over the top. Carefully pop the clingfilm back on and slowly and steadily pop the cheesecake back into the fridge for several hours to set. I think the minimum is 4 hours. 

You don't need anything to go with this dessert at all, but having been originally inspired by this recipe I wanted to add a little orange sorbet. To be honest, I was so nervous about the cheesecake setting that I wanted to have something to serve as a bit of a backup! I had bought a bag of oranges with the intention of segmenting them and making the orange crisps, but obviously I gave up on that idea. So I juiced all 6 oranges, and added some orange juice from a carton in the fridge and a bit of the leftover passion fruit juice to make up the desired amount of liquid. To be honest, you probably dont need to use freshly squeezed juice, and it's a nice simple cheat if you dont! My orange sorbet was based on this recipe but I doubled the quantities, omitted the star anise and added some of the passion fruit juice as I had some left over! I made this using the ice cream attachment of my Kenwood, which requires freezing the inner bowl overnight.

Orange and Passion Fruit Sorbet

400ml orange juice (freshly squeezed from oranges, or from a carton, or a bit of both!)
200ml passion fruit juice
200g sugar

1. Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil, which allows the sugar to dissolve.
2. Remove from the heat and cool. This works best if you get the liquid really cold, so once its cool, pop it into the fridge to get cold.
3. Pop the cold liquid into your ice cream maker and churn for 30 minutes.
4. Place the sorbet into a tub and into the freezer until you need it.

Just for a bit of extra overkill, I also make some biscuits with this recipe which you then do this with. That, in all honesty, was too much. But I had made the biscuits for a dessert a few weeks previously, and I had some leftover dough in the freezer. If not for that, I don't think I would have bothered with that extra step!

Now, after all that writing, you're probably dying for a couple of very badly taken photographs, aren't you?






This was completely delicious, so much so that 3 out of the 4 of us all had seconds there and then! And it made loads of cheesecake, so we had lots of yummy leftovers for a few days after.

I'll definitely make this again. It does require a bit of effort but nothing about it is difficult and you just need to plan your time properly and make this well in advance. Its so tasty, not stupidly sweet and does feel quite light. Making this post has made me want to make it again right away!

Please let me know if you try this, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Do you like seeing recipes like this?

I love Primark. I probably shouldn't, but I do. I have Primark items I bought years and years ago that are still going strong. So when I saw this link on the Marie Claire website I had to go check out what the A/W 2012 collection was going to look like. I'm 100% an A/W girl, not a S/S girl. I'm excited to see that yellow is back, that studded collars are here to stay for a bit longer and that leather-esque trims are making an appearance. Here's a handful of my favourite pieces:



I'm hoping my next job is a more managerial one, and therefore I get to cast aside my jeans Mon-Fri in favour of office wear. I've always loved houndstooth print, and pencil skirts. Winner!

I love simple knits and the hint of lurex in here is awesome.

Who says you can't wear blues and blacks together?

See-through, polka dots AND a studded collar? Yes, please.

This, with skinny black trousers and some nude heels. Love it.

I'd like to get involved with the cut out shoulder shirt and this would be a good place to start with it all.

I actually love this skirt. It has a very Chanel-esque jacket that goes with it. I'd wear it with black and look like a bee and be very happy. If I can only afford one item, this will be it.

Finally the coat version of the blazer above. Be still, my heart. There's a waistcoat version too, you know. But all three would be overkill....wouldn't it?!

My choices are all very 'safe', I know. But I prefer to play it safe and then have one thing thats a bit striking about my outfit (unless I'm going for full-blown casual, as I am today in my jeans and breton top!). Being a larger size and not having an especially larger than life personality (I'm just very loud, there's a big difference), I don't tend to wear anything that stands out too much. Except that yellow skirt. Come to mama....

Big huge thanks to Marie Claire for putting the slideshow up. Check out the rest of the slideshow and tell me what your favourites are?

A few more of my favourite pieces are on my Style Pinboard on Pinterest, so please come check it out and add me on there if you like :)

Yep, so, I am very behind in beauty box reviews. I've yet to establish my rhythm with blog posts. As you can tell!

I've done Latest in Beauty vs Glossy Box reviews before, but as I have two LiB boxes to review, its not really very fair. But you are getting three beauty box reviews for the price of one post. Hurray.








June's GlossyBox contained:

• Glossy Box Beauty Brush - not the greatest brush I've ever owned but not bad as a backup.
• Yves Rocher 'Sexy Pulp' Mascara. Yves Rocher are a great brand, and I've used a lot of their products in the past, and used to swear by one of their moisturisers, so I was excited to receive this and be re-introduced to the brand.
• Three Agent Provocateur perfume samples, one of which I had tried before and wasn't quite for me, we'll see how the others pan out. I recall the perfumes are really expensive so if I'm not completely in love with them, I'm not likely to be buying them.
• Vichy Dermablend starter kit - I love this, I love the fact that there are so many samples to allow you to find the perfect shade for you. Haven't tried this yet as its full coverage and despite my skin not being great, I've been leaning towards lighter foundations and  BB creams because its been a bit humid lately.
• BM Beauty Summer Warmth bronzer. This looks too dark for me, but I'll give it a whirl. It might work as an eyeshadow if it doesn't as a bronzer.

Not a huge amount wrong with my box this month (I could have lived without the brush, but when you see the selection of samples, I always get a sense of disappointment. Other boxes contained tweezers by HD Brows (yes please! I'm long overdue a threading session!), a gorgeous nude nail polish by Me Me Me (can't have too many nude nail polishes in my eyes), Caudalie fragrance samples, and a Paul Mitchell conditioner all would have set my heart alight a bit more than the products I got. Money is likely to get tight for me soon, and I think my Glossy Box would be the first expense I'd get rid of if I have to start making big sacrifices.

Something I will only sacrifice if it boils down to food vs beauty boxes, are the Latest in Beauty boxes. Lets start with June's Editor's Picks Box:




Which contained:

• Carmex moisture plus tinted lip balm - this is definitely going in my handbag in my 'essentials' kit.
• Yardley 'Peony' sample - in spite of myself, I love this perfume. This is my second sample and though its very unlike anything I normally wear, its growing on me. I love Royal English Daisy, so when that runs out I might be persuaded to buy this!
• Melvita duo of rose miscellar water and a moisturising rose nectar cream - my first foray into miscellar waters and I like it. It makes my skin feel extra clean after getting all my makeup off (no mean feat!). The rose nectar cream is possibly a smite heavy for my skin, so I've been using it at night only. I'm not a huge rose fan, but I don't hate these products.
• Elemis pro-collagen body cream. I got another sample of this before, and upon using it, discovered it deposits fine glitter all over your body. I can't decide how I feel about that! Its not my favourite moisturiser in the world, so I will add this to a box of products I am collecting for a giveaway which I hope will happen when I have a few more followers :)
• 'Green balm', which I confess to not having used yet, but this is a multi-purpose balm, which I love having in my handbag.
• Percy & Reed dry conditioner, my third sample of this, and I love it. Much better than other dry conditioners I've tried (I should do a post on dry hair products soon, would anyone be interested? I've pretty much tried them all!)
•  Also in this box, but not pictured, was a self tan applicator mitt. A recent attempt to use gradual fake tan showed me that I am so pale I need to consider using a mitt to even apply gradual tan and this looks to be good quality.

All in all, I was really pleased with all these products, even the Elemis as I am happy to pop products into my giveaway box.

The other Latest In Beauty box this month was the Skincare Stars box. This was released in conjunction with You Magazine and I am such a fangirl, I wake up at an ungodly hour on the Sunday these boxes are released to make sure I get one!






The Skincare Stars Box contained:

• Etat Pur Miscellar Water - hooray! Another miscellar water! This is a full sized product which I will be trying out when I have finished the Melvita miscellar water.
• Melvita Naturalift Youthful Skin cream - I'll get stuck into this when my Melvita rose nectar is finished. Again, I think it'll be best as a night cream.
• Murad AHA/BHA exfoliating cleanser - I'm excited to try a Murad product as I've heard lots about them. I'll try this out when my current Korres cleanser is finished up.
• Balance Me Moisture Rich Face Cream - I suspect this will be too heavy for me but I'll try it as a night cream. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Balance Me products, the lip salve is wonderful, I liked the rose otto shower gel, but I tried a cleanser and a moisturiser before and they really didn't do it for me.
• Kiehl's midnight recovery serum - this is one of those cult products and I'm very excited to try it out.
• L'Occitane Angelica Hydration Cream - having tried Divine Cream and realising its not for me, I'm keen to see if this one is better suited!

I'm excited to try all these products, even if on the face of it (oh dear, worst pun ever?! I should take it out, but I'm leaving it in...) some of these products I wouldn't consider suited my skin type. Some of my new favourite products have come from beauty boxes and come from me being very skeptical about how they'd work for me, but trying them anyway and loving them.

In fact, I've been thinking about doing a post all about the products I've received in Beauty Boxes that I've loved and have become real winners and regulars in my skincare routine. Would you want to see that?

Did any of you get these boxes last month? What are your thoughts? Are you excited for your next round of beauty boxes? Please let me know in the comments :)

Im not into trends in any part of life, or at least, I am perpetually months behind due to a combination of being somewhat slow and also because I dislike hype in a big way. The more you hype something up to me, the more disinterested I become (50 Shades Of Dismay, sorry, Grey, anyone?!).

I've enjoyed baking my whole life, when cupcakes were called Queen cakes and made in fairy cake sized cases with chocolate chips that my Mum called 'polka dots' in them. My Mum was an extremely busy woman but she regularly made time to bake with me. She and my Gran had these metal recipe card boxes with handwritten recipes, mostly sweet stuffs but a few savouries too. My Mum used to let me look through and choose a few things to bake on a pretty regular basis and I would get to 'help' (which mostly involved getting in the way, making a mess, and eating all the goodies). And so my love of baking began. I don't think I'll ever get tired of making cupcakes, and I think cupcakes will be one of the things I bake the most forever and ever. But cakepops definitely interested me.

'Proper' cake pops are made by first baking a cake, then letting it cool, then crumbling it up, mixing the crumbs with butter cream icing, forming this icing and cake mix into balls, which are then dipped into 'candy melts' and decorated. A lollypop shape, full of cakey goodness. I've never actually tried a cake pop made this way. Remember what I said about hype?

My favourite shop possibly ever is Lakeland. And the lovely Lakeland sell a cake pop machine, which my OH bought me for Christmas. These make cake pops that are pure cake. You make up a cake batter, heat up the machine (its like a toastie machine, but it makes cake!), drop spoonfuls into the moulds, close the lid and heat for a few minutes. Pop open the lid after this time, and remove little balls of yummy cake. Simples. Here's some very badly taken pictures. The lighting in my kitchen is the thing I hate most about this otherwise excellent house.



The machine in action, this was at the end of  my batter, so I didn't have enough for all the holes!



Cake pop balls cooling

The machine comes with a couple of basic recipes and the quantities are perfect. We decided to make half vanilla and half chocolate cake pops. We opted for a cooking chocolate cover (it needs to be cheap quality stuff, because it needs to have oil in it to be the right consistency and texture. Real proper chocolate need not apply! In order to turn this from a cake ball to a cake pop, you need sticks. These are available at lovely Lakeland, on ebay, and many other places. To attach the cake, you melt the chocolate or candy melt covering, dip the stick into the chocolate, then push it into the ball of cake. When this sets, it'll act as a glue. Like so:




Let this set, then get on with covering each of the balls in chocolate. Before the chocolate sets completely, you can add sprinkles, glitter stars, coconut, all sorts. Once the chocolate is set, you can pipe on some gel icing, drizzle melted white chocolate on top, the world is your oyster. You will need something to help the cake pops stand upright while they dry. As you will see in my photos, we improvised with the large holes in a grater, and some holes we punched into an empty orange juice carton and an empty tagliatelli box. What we should have done really, was used our colander. But we like to think completely outside the box. In fact, we're probably lost inside a box far away from everyone else.






Its quite a time consuming exercise, so if you don't have a great attention span, this probably isn't for you. However, what we also discovered (we might have gotten a bit bored halfway through...) is that 'naked' cake pops are really tasty little treats too! I really liked the way these tasted, just a mini bite of cake. The coconut covered ones were really nice indeed. I think these would also be fun without the sticks, served up at the end of a dinner as a sort of petit four. The recipe booklet that comes with the machine also suggests making mini doughnuts, by cooking vanilla sponge cake balls, injecting them with warmed jam and rolling them in sugar. Sounds delicious!

I'll never be the sort of girl who abandons cupcakes in favour of cake pops, but they are definitely fun and very tasty. I can see kids really enjoying the decorating part as well, because they cry out for an excess of sprinkles and it allows kids to get super creative (even kids as old as me!). My OH also bought me the book Cake Pops by Molly Bakes, which gives recipes for traditional cake pops, but regardless of the innards, there's some excellent decorating and themed ideas in the book.

My verdict? Cake Pops are really yummy. A bit of a faff (the machine takes something like 4 minutes to make each batch of cake pops, and the batter makes 30, and then theres the decorating side) but well worth it. And the cake pops keep really well for a few days, even the 'naked' ones! If you get the chance, give it a go!

Hi readers!

Its been a while, hasn't it. I'm awfully sorry. I've got so many posts I've been meaning to do, but basically I've become lazy and fallen out of the blogging routine. Its been so lovely though to see how many views my blog has had even without any recent content. So a HUGE thanks to each and every one of you that's read my blog, it means a lot to me!

My last Instagram blog post went down pretty well so I thought I'd do another. I definitely think this would make a good monthly post. I'm on Instagram as @whatlozziedid so please feel free to follow me there. I didn't realise how much I'd gotten into Instagram until the servers suffered a power failure and it was down for a day or so. I was in panic mode I tell thee.





Cocktail in a can from M&S, genius (AND STRONG), evil evil spirit from the Czech republic that gave me such a vile hangover on the Jubilee weekend I couldn't go to a street party, excellent patriotic hangover cure care package sent from the street party I missed, popped home to Scotland for a job interview to find a basket of chocolates in my bedroom from my Mum, how brilliant!





The gorgeous dog my Mum was dog-sitting when I went home, canine MySpace picture, horribly creepy glass toy eyeball I found in my garden, a lunch of champions to cheer up a crap day.





Nails of The Day- Nails Inc Bluebell, the table all set for a dinner party, Nails of The Day - Ciate Patsy, our excellent kitchen timer reminding me to go check on the meringues I was cooking (it's technically my OH's timer but its too excellent not to use all the time!)





First foray into cake pops, my cake pop maker, utterly delicious home made meringues with cream and strawberries, my hayfever cure on a day when medication just didn't cut it





Nails of The Day Nails Inc Porchester Square and Bluebell tips, NOTD Nails Inc (can't remember the name!), I finally decided to enter into the somewhat murky (pun perhaps intended) world of self tanning with a gradual tanner, NOTD Chanel Rouge Noir (possibly my favourite!)





Payday treat of a £2 Primark necklace, NOTD Models Own Coral Reef, matching my nails (as before) to my top, getting back into crafting and trying out some jewellery ideas, including this ring made of tiny polished glass chips.





My dazed and confused looking mug, amazing breakfast of waffles and berries with maple syrup as made by my lovely boyfriend, beautiful flowers from my lovely boyfriend, a maple candy to celebrate Canada Day.

And that's been my life recently. Drinking, eating and painting my nails, in a nutshell!

As I said, I have a lot of things to blog about. Including:

• June GlossyBox
• Latest in Beauty Editor's Choice and Skincare Stars boxes
• Recent haul from Johnny Loves Rosie
• Recent MUA purchases and my MUA collection
• Some recent crafty endeavours

And maybe a giveaway! If I get a few more followers then I'll definitely have a giveaway, I've got a few things set aside for that purpose specifically.

Do you like instagram posts like this? Do you have any suggestions for future posts I could do?