Friday, 31 July 2015

Lush | Karma Bubble Bar | prettylittlewriter

Having moved to Devon from up North only recently, I have still yet to find myself a job to earn a bit of money. This means that I've had to cut back pretty much completely on treating myself to items that aren't absolutely necessary.

However, my boyfriend very kindly gave me a little bit of money to spend on Lush goodies, amongst other things.

The two items I bought from Lush were the Kalamazoo Beard and Facial Wash for my boyfriend, and I was going to purchase the Brightside bubble bar for myself, that was until I saw the new Karma Bubble Bar that is only supposed to be available in the Oxford Street Store.



Patchouli, sweet orange, lavender pine, lemongrass and elemi are the key ingredients for creating the heavenly scent included within this bubble bar. A citrus and sweet aroma with added sophistication thanks to the lavender pine and a little spice from the patchouli.

This bubble bar has been completely revamped by Lush, going from an orange oval shaped bar to this purple, orange and glittery pyramid which looks much more eye-catching!





This bubble bar made my bath water a beautiful shade of purple with super soft bubbles and a slight shimmer too. The bathroom smelt absolutely delicious and the scent still lingers now!

I purchased this from the Exeter, Devon UK store, so if you are from around that area, go get your hands on one, there weren't many left!

What Oxford Street products have you guys got your hands on?



Wednesday, 29 July 2015

Graduation Day | prettylittlewriter

For today's post I thought I'd share something extremely exciting with you that recently happened to me.
I graduated University! I finally received my Bachelors Degree in English Literature.
Receiving my degree has been one of the most amazing and crazy times of my life. Three years ago I had never imagined I'd actually manage to make it through and gain a degree.

Here are some photos taken on the day of my graduation. A day I will never forget!
















I honestly couldn't have asked for better people to celebrate such an amazing day with!


Friday, 24 July 2015

Bronze Eye and Pink Lip | prettylittlewriter

The past few months I have been using mostly High-end make up products for my skin and eye make up, however, on this occasion I decided to try and stick to high-street (drug store) brands, and I created a look which I really liked.

The highlight of the look was the eyeshadow, I used Maybelline's Colour Tattoo in On and On Bronze.


To get this highly pigmented shade, I applied the cream eyeshadow with a Real Techniques eyeshadow brush a few times, allowing each coat to dry a little before adding the next one.
This created a really gorgeous bronze/gold shimmery shade, which blended into my brow bone nicely so it looked quite natural and not too harsh.


The rest of the make up used for this look was;
- Rimmel Match Perfection in the shades Ivory and Light Porcelain (I mixed the two together to match my skin tone)
- Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer in Fair and Cool Medium (Fair for brightening under the eyes, Cool Medium for blemishes)
- Rimmel Stay Matte Powder in Transparent
- Mac So Sweet So Easy Cremeblend Blush (Not high street I know, but it's my staple blush right now!)
- HD Brows Brow Palette in 003 Vamp (Also not high street!)

I'm sure there are plenty of different high street options to replace the Mac Blush and HD Brows palette, Benefit's Dandelion Powder is another favourite of mine.

This has to be one of my favourite make up looks so far, and it is great knowing I do not have to break the bank to create it! 

What are your favourite high street products? 




Friday, 17 July 2015

Instagram Diary | May & June | prettylittlewriter

As I haven't been active for the past couple of months, I thought I'd update you all on what I've been up to through my Instagram photos!


1. Selfie with friends on top of Lincoln Cathedral

2. Yummy pudding in a posh hotel whilst visiting my Grandparents

3. Gorgeous wedding pagoda 

4. Stripes & Dungarees selfie

5. My boyfriend and I at his Sister's wedding

6. Taylor Swift Concert in Manchester

7. A beautiful table decoration at the wedding

8. Meal with my friends celebrating our final Uni Exam

9. Cute little nephew (to be) 

10. Another selfie, I think I love stripes

11. Another photo of the boyfriend & I

12. Scarborough Beach & Pier

13. Playtime with my Great-Nephew

14. View from the wedding venue

15. Taylor Swift concert ticket

16. My Mum & I at the Taylor Swift Concert

And amongst all that, I have also moved down South to Devon to live with my boyfriend and his parents! It has been an incredibly busy couple of months, but it has all been worth it!

Have you done anything exciting these past few weeks? I'd love to hear about it :)


Monday, 13 July 2015

Baking | Tanya Burr Triple Chocolate Cookies | prettylittlewriter

Ever since the Youtube and Blog Sensation that is Tanya Burr released her debut book, Love Tanya, I've wanted to bake something from her amazing recipes!
Now I'm finally settled down in Devon with my boyfriend and his family, I thought now would be a great time to try something out.

I chose the Triple Chocolate Cookies as they are quite simple and easy to make, not to mention quick as they only require 11 minutes in the oven!


The ingredients you need are:
275g Self-raising Flour
300g Caster Sugar
200g Butter
75g Cocoa Powder
1 Large Egg
A dash of Milk (If mixture becomes too dry)
And any three kinds of chocolate you'd like to include (I chose Dairy Milk, Galaxy & Milkybar)


The first thing to do is preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Then measure out your butter and sugar and whisk together until a smooth texture (it may help if you microwave the butter so it isn't as hard).

Then you mix in the egg, flour and cocoa powder, adding milk if needed.
You then add in 3 large bars of chocolate, I added one at a time and mixed together so they were evenly spread.

Finally, you then split your mixture into 10 blobs to make 10 cookies. It doesn't seem like a lot, but the cookies spread in the oven and become quite large.


After the 11 minutes in the oven, leave your cookies to cool down for around 30 minutes before attempting to move them, they may crumble. My first attempt is those you can see in the picture above, and they all ended up sticking to each other, so I cut them apart to make them neater.

On a second attempt a day or so later, I baked the cookies without tin foil on the bottom of the baking tray and they came out much nicer and did not stick together.


The final results really were delicious! My boyfriend and one of his friends well and truly devoured them they were that tasty!

If you'd like to try baking these yourself or already have, I would love to see the results! Leave any comments you have below and I will be sure to check them out :)


Saturday, 11 July 2015

Review | HD Brows Palette | prettylittlewriter

I have experimented with many different brands and products for my brows, from high-end brands such as Benefit and Estee Lauder, to high street brands like Maybelline. 
However, none of the products gave me quite enough definition and shading as I'd have liked.

That was until I decided to try out the HD Brows brand. The clue is in the name, their products promise to give you pigmented and 'HD' brows, and they certainly did not disappoint!

The product I purchased was the Eye & Brow Palette in the shade 003 Vamp.




The shade I mainly use is Dark Brown, however Medium Brown also works for my skin tone and hair colour. I apply the product with the thin end of the brush provided, and then pop the highlighter on my brow bone underneath. There is also a wax provided, however I have not tried this part of the product out yet.




As you can see, my brows are highly defined thanks to this product, and it matches my hair colour perfectly. It also adds a little extra 'oomph' to the slight arch of my brows. 

Overall I would highly recommend this to anyone searching for the perfect brow product, and £25 for the palette is great value as the shades last a very long time!

It can be purchased here

Have you tried out any HD Brows products? What have your experiences been?


Friday, 10 July 2015

Review | Mac So Sweet So Easy, Vegas Volt & Brave | prettylittlewriter

I apologise to those of you that may have missed me blogging (if that's possible!) but I have had a very busy couple of months moving house and completing my English Literature Degree. 

Today I realised on the new Facebook memories section that it was a year ago today that I begun writing this blog, and my first ever post was a beauty look. I thought that today would be a brilliant day to finally make a come back and begin updating this page regularly as I used to.
If you would like to check out my first ever blog post, follow the link here.
The photo quality is pretty poor due to not gaining a good camera until Christmas last year. 

So, without further ado, here is today's post!

Mac Review

I have quite recently purchased some Mac products, one of which has become a staple in my daily make up routine. 

The Mac So Sweet So Easy Cremeblend Blush is a brilliant rose shade perfect for my pale skin tone. It gives a natural glow to my cheeks without looking like a child has painted it on, which is often the case with certain blush types.
I just dab it onto the apples of my cheeks and then along the top of my cheekbone towards my hairline to give a gorgeous natural pink pop to my cheeks. This has now become a staple in my make up routine, I find the consistency so easy to apply and there's no risk of it getting on your clothes during application like there can be with powder blushes.

So Sweet So Easy Blush & Lipsticks

New additions to my lipstick collection!

These next two purchases were something I had bought on a whim, I wasn't entirely sure what the colours were going to be like.
However, upon receiving them, I have found that they are both highly pigmented and are a good match for my skin tone.

From left to right: Vegas Volt & Brave
  Vegas Volt is a great summer shade, it has both red and orange undertones which give a more elegant and subtle shade on the lips, adding a pop of colour to any make up look. 
Brave on the other hand is a gorgeous nude with a hint of pink to create colour but still looking natural. If you are a lover of Velvet Teddy but feel you'd like a little more colour, Brave is a great choice!

Swatches left to right: So Sweet So Easy Blush, Brave & Vegas Volt
A recent selfie wearing Mac's Brave and So Sweet So Easy Blush
So there you have it!
I hope you can forgive me for being away so long, I promise that I am going to upload posts much more on the regular from this point onwards, be on the look out for another post this weekend on my staple Brow product!