A little Giveaway with Sudocream!

Hey lovelies, I was contacted by the lovely Hayden on behalf of Sudocream to review a tube of it and do a little giveaway.

I’ve heard amazing things about Sudocream recently in the beauty world, I think Cheryl Cole has a bit to do with it too since stating it was her fav cream. Anyway, I’ll be honest, I never bought any of this before simply because of the packaging, I felt it was quite bulky and a little annoying to carry around when on holidays etc, since being sent a tube though it has definitely improved. It’s a thick protective cream that soothes immediately (hence why we slap it on the kids bums for nappy rash), the formula helps repair any irritations and gets the skin back to it’s best.

Hayden sent me some a couple of months ago and I have made a conscious effort to use it at least 2-3 times a week. The smell is a little off putting and after a few applications Darren ♥ asked me if I could do it at the weekend and not wear it to bed! Haha. He said I smelt like a chemist. I do really like the cream and think it’s a must have in the bathroom cupboard or First Aid box but for me it doesn’t belong in my beauty regime.

What are your thoughts on this?

I am giving away 2 tubes of this stuff, (one per person, that’s 2 seperate prizes).

You must be a follower through GFC

Leave me a comment below telling me if you use the cream and why?

Also for a bit of fun (not compulsory) you can see what the bagology app reveals about you on facebook, if you do it let me know below!

Please leave me your email address so I can email you for your address.

This giveaway closes on Friday 16th September at 12 noon, where I will choose 2 separate winners from your entries below.

Good Luck beauties!

♥

NOTD - Cross it baby!

OPI Vodka and Caviar, GOSH Holographic and red rhinestones from eBay

Really not impressed with the longevity of GOSH holographic polish, it is renowned for chipping/peeling but 2 hours after application! That just takes the biscuit!

Did we all have a nice weekend?

♥

NYX Round Lipsticks with lip swatches! - PIC HEAVY

Hey lovers! I’ve always wanted to try NYX lipsticks after watching You Tube videos with girls in the US using them. They are available on Love-Makeup for £3.50 but with £2.95 delivery. I looked on eBay and found a seller in the US that ships to the UK, I got 6 NYX round lipsticks for £10.44! What a bargain eh!

I ordered these on the 17^th August and they came on the 24^th all wrapped in bubble wrap. When ordering these I had to write the number and the name of each lipstick I wanted in a message to the SELLER.

Whilst looking on eBay a few other sellers had listed Strawberry Milk (595) as a dupe for MAC’s Snob and Thalia as a dupe for MAC’s Viva Glam  I don’t own either of these MAC lippies so can’t do a fair comparison I just thought I’d let you know what a few others think.

Now for the swatches

Fig

Strawberry Milk

Thalia

Indian Pink

Tea Rose

Paris

Apologies for my Fox-like whiskers round my lips, I need a wax! haha!

Having never tried these lippies before I applied some vaseline so that my lips wouldn't be too dry, but boy there really wasn't any need, these lippies are so moisturising. I didn't find them drying at all.

My favourites so far are Fig, Thalia, Tea Rose and Paris. These are all what I would call safe colours for me, soft pinks and purples are so easy to wear on day to day. Before buying these I've been using Patisserie by MAC every day (which my chum Charlotte Taylor described as 'My lips but better' and I agree with that) however having these NYX lippies, I can now use these day to day instead. I've read a few reviews saying the staying power of them isn't too great but for the money I paid for them I don't mind that.

Indian Pink is a beautiful colour, an orange creme shot through with gold and Strawberry Milk is a very light barbie like colour I will keep them, I'm sure I'll get a use out of them one day.

Do any of you have NYX lipsticks? What colours am I missing out on?

♥

Unleash the Beast You Tube video

Hey lovelies! I finally got round to filming a video for my You Tube channel, it's the tutorial for my Unleash the Beast post which you can see HERE. This post was from back in March.

However the video tutorial for it is below, give me a thumbs up for the editing of this bad boy it was originally 26 mins long. I had so much fun recording it.

Unleash the Beast You Tube Tutorial

Hope you enjoy it!

♥

Carrot Cake

Hey girlies! I had another go at baking the weekend and made this Carrot Cake for my Father-in-law ♥ to be, it went down a storm. I think if I was to make it again I think would only make it 2 layers deep and maybe use the rest for cupcakes or something, it was a big cake!

Ingredients

350g light soft brown sugar

3 large eggs

350ml sunflower oil

350g plain flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

2tsp ground cinnamon

1tsp ground ginger

350g peeled and grated

75g finely chopped walnuts or raisins

For the icing

200g icing sugar

10-15 ml (2-3tsp) freshly squeezed orange juice

65g unsalted butter, softened

¾tsp finely grated rind unwaxed orange

You will also need

3 x 20cm/8in cake tins

Baking paper

Special Thanks to Darren for making the icing and decorating the top =D

 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170ºC/Fan 150ºC/325ºF/gas mark 3.

2. Lightly oil three sandwich tins and base line with baking parchment.

3. Place the sugar, oil, and eggs in a large bowl and beat together with a wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth and thickened. Sift over the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger then fold in until well mixed. Fold in the carrots and walnuts or raisins.

4. Divide the mixture between the prepared cake tins. Bake in the middle of the oven for 30-35 mins or until golden, risen and the middle bounces back when lightly pressed. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. For the icing: Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl, add the soft butter, orange juice and rind. Use an electric whisk on low, to beat this until it is well mixed.

6. When the cakes are cold, peel away the baking parchment. Divide the icing between the three cakes, spreading it evenly over the top of each. Stack the cakes one on top of the other. Top with the walnut halves and orange rind curls. Store in a cool place.

We were a little impatient with icing this cake and Darren ♥ was rushing me a bit because we had to get it round there quick. The cakes were still warm and the icing was melting slightly but it still looked good and tasted good so that’s all that matters.

I should have taken some home for me and Darren ♥ but it was baked for Dad ♥ so it was only fair I had to leave it. Look out for my next installment in the baking series!

♥

Sigma Flare palette giveaway over at Sara Hassans blog

Hey girlies, just a quick heads up about a giveaway going on over at Sara Hassan's blog, up for grabs is the Sigma Flare palette that Sara reviewed the day before posting this giveaway.

Check out her giveaway here!

Good Luck lovelies!

♥

FOTD/N – Monaco Madness!

Afternoon girlies! I finally got round to having a play with make-up this weekend. Thank you to those of you that asked about my father-in-law ♥ I picked him up on Saturday (we had to wait 4.5 hours to be discharged out of intensive care, what a joke!) He’s making good progress at home, I baked him a big carrot cake on Sunday morning, which was still warm when I took it round to him, he ate it like he hadn’t eaten in a week! Haha nom nom nom.

Back to the post, I hadn’t really had a proper look at my Monaco palette by Sleek since buying it really so thought I would have a play with a few colours from it. For this look I used Hummingbird, Moors Treasure, Bamboo and Aquamarine. I didn’t realise how much red Moors Treasure had in it, in some of these shots my eyes look a bit sore and I did actually poke myself in the left eye whilst doing this so that didn’t help things. I still wanted to upload it to my blog because I am still learning. I should have maybe used a flat matte brown instead but hey ho!

Face

Chanel Vitalumiere 20

MAC Select Moisture cover NC30

MAC Ladyblush Cremeblush

MAC MSF natural in medium

Eyes

NYX Jumbo pencil in Milk under Aquamarine

Aquamarine, Bamboo and Moors Treasure from Sleek Moncao Palette

Clinqiue True Black Gel liner

Matte brown from Sleek Storm palette for brows

Max Factor False Lash Effect Fusion mascara

Lips

Gosh Darling Lipstick

MAC Boy Bait lipglass

Sorry for the stray hair coming across, was feeling a little left out! ;p

Method

I moisturised my face using Liz Earle moisturiser for normal to combination skin, I have dry skin but it seems to be behaving itself recently and I love this moisturiser. I applied my foundation with my new(ish) Sigma F82 brush, buffing it into the skin. Using my Real Techniques Deluxe Crease brush I applied MAC Select moisture cover under my eyes and blended in. I applied NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk to the inner third of my eye using the heat from my finger to blend it in. Then I applied Aquamarine over the top, doing this really makes the eye shadow pop and gives it a bit more staying power. Using a MAC 217 I blended Moors Treasure into the outer V. I applied Bamboo under my brow bone as a highlight. Using a pencil brush I dragged Moors Treasure under the eye and applied Hummingbird in the inner corner. Using a MAC 210 brush I drew a thin line (which turned into a heavy line) of Clinique True Black liner, after curling my lashes I applied some Max Factor Mascara. I then dabbed a tiny amount of MAC Ladyblush cremeblush to my cheeks just to give a touch of pink. I didn’t want the lipstick to steal the show so went for a fairly nude lip, applying GOSH Darling lipstick then MAC Boy Bait over the top. I powdered through the centre of my face using MAC MSF natural in Medium and Voila!

That’s it lovelies, hope you enjoyed this, I have this Friday off work and have a few posts planned and hopefully some more FOTD/Ns. I love creating different looks and learning things along the way.

Did any of you pick up this palette? Any other combinations I could have a go at?

♥

Summary

Afternoon lovelies, just a little update with what’s going on with me at the minute, I do have some planned posts written down to do it’s just finding the time to do them.

Slimming World – I had to go back! My eating habits were becoming shocking and I was also being very lazy with no exercise. I haven’t been to Slimming World since the beginning of June which is when I got my 1 stone award, I went back last Thursday (weigh in last night) and put on 8.5 pounds since my last weigh in back in June! 8.5 pounds! My god, it just goes to show how easy it is to do. I went last night and lost 3 pound and it was 'star week' for me so I was pretty chuffed. I am really enjoying the diet again this time round and I hope I can keep this up!

Baking – If you follow me on Twitter (if not, why not? =D @TheHQofBeauty) you will know that I have gone baking mad! Darren ♥ and I recently got a new oven installed in our flat which is fan assisted which means my cakes come out taller than me! So far I have made, Red Velvet Cupcakes and a Lemon Drizzle Cake. I have a carrot cake to make this weekend, it’s all go go go! I’ve been looking up cake decorations, piping bags and nozzles on eBay and last night I even watched a couple of YT videos on how to make fondant icing! Darren ♥ made a joke that I could make our wedding cake. We haven’t even talked about ‘the wedding’ but it got me thinking about it and I do like a challenge! Kind of wish I waited another month before going back to Slimming World…….man I love da cake! =D

I could eat one of these right now!

Blogposts and You Tube videos – You may have noticed that there has been a bit of a dip in my posts and videos, I’ve had a few family matters to attend to. Right this minute my Father-in-Law ♥ to be is recovering from major surgery so my blog and YT have had to take a back seat whilst we all pull together for him. I’m fattening him back up with Carrot Cake this weekend! I also had a massive phone bill from Turkey to pay and that kinda sucked up all my money that I usually spend on myself/cosmetics. Hopefully I will be back on track this month.

Cosmo Blog Awards – My sister Faye ♥ entered me in for the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards under ‘New Beauty Blog’ category, I’ve put off asking anything like this as I didn’t want it to come across as ‘begging’ but it would really make my day if you voted for my blog in the ‘New Beauty Blog’ category. I have voted for a couple of favourites this year, good luck to everyone.

That’s it for me really, I’m having a nightmare trying to track down the Oh So Special Palette by Sleek, I’ve tried the Superdrug over Monument twice and the Superdrug at Fenchurch Street, I even have my sister on the lookout. Thanks Fuzz ♥

I hope you all have a fab weekend, I should hopefully get a couple of posts done over the weekend and maybe even a video! Have you subbed to my You Tube channel too?

The HQ of Beauty

♥

Red Velvet Cupcakes (or Orange like mine!) =D

This is going to be a new section on the blog, I love baking cakes and since me and Darren ♥ bagged ourselves a new fan assisted oven I thought I would try some cupcakes. We were off to our friends house later that night so thought I could take some round with us. The cakes I made in my previous oven were coming out like biscuits so I knew it was the oven that had to be changed. These cupcakes came out taller than me, they were huge!

Recipe: (this will make 12 cupcakes)

60g unsalted butter, at room temperature

150g caster sugar

1 egg

1 tbspn cocoa powder

20ml red food colouring (preferably Dr. Oetker's as red food colourings vary in strength)

½tsp vanilla extract

120ml buttermilk

150g plain flour

½tsp salt

½tsp bicarbonate of soda

1½tsp white wine vinegar

For the cream cheese frosting:

For the frosty topping:

300g icing sugar, sifted

50g unsalted butter, at room temperature

125g cream cheese, cold

100s and 1000s

You'll also need:

100s and 1000s, water daisies, individual cupcake cases, I also used silicone holders as I didn’t have a 12 holed oven tray, they work brilliantly and are safe up to 220’C.

Method

1.Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/gas mark 3.

2.Put the butter and the sugar in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy and well mixed. Turn the mixer up to high speed, slowly add the egg and beat until everything is well incorporated.

3.In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a thick, dark paste. Add to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly until evenly combined and coloured (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). Turn the mixer down to slow speed and slowly pour in half the buttermilk. Beat until well mixed, then add half the flour, and beat until everything is well incorporated. Repeat this process until all the buttermilk and flour have been added. Scrape down the side of the bowl again. Turn the mixer up to high speed and beat until you have a smooth, even mixture. Turn the mixer down to low speed and add the salt, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. Beat until well mixed, then turn up the speed again and beat for a couple more minutes.

4.Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20–25 mins, or until the sponge bounces back when touched. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Mine are Orange cupcakes! Maybe I should have put more food colouring in?

5.Meanwhile for the cream cheese frosting: Beat the icing sugar and butter together in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is completely incorporated. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 mins. Do not overbeat, as it can quickly become runny.

6.When the cupcakes are cold, spoon over the cream cheese frosting on top, sprinkle on the 100s and 1000s and add the water daisy (optional but they look shit hot!)

Ahhh They're so pretty!

Are any of you keen bakers too?

♥

KMS California Event

Hey girlies, on Monday night I was very fortunate to go to the KMS California Event over at Putney Bridge. I met up with Emma-Jayne from Flossies Beauty Love and walked the short distance to the Hurlingham Club. The grounds around the Hurlingham Club are just beautiful. I’m kicking myself for not getting any pics! Me and Emma-Jayne chatted away as we walked along to the event. We arrived about 5.30pm had a quick chat to Sammy who’s from the in-house PR team for KMS California and their sister brand Goldwell. We both had a Mo’ito from the bar.

Sammy and a few from the team gave us a run through of the products and how these new products are being reloaded (re-launched) on 1st September. After the presentation there was a photo booth there with various different props, there was also a ‘wind machine’ inside. Emma-Jayne and I were the first ones to jump in and have a go, not overly happy with the first bunch so we had another go.

Sammy said we were more than welcome to stay for the after party which started around 8pm and about 800 hairdressers, professionals and trainees, were also attending. Emma-Jayne and I were both thinking about staying for a while, if not for the booze and Bar-be-que then to see Stacey Solomon perform later on! But alas Monday was the night the mayhem kicked off in Hackney, which is where I live. After speaking to Darren ♥ over the phone who told me I wasn’t going to get home I thought it was best to leave. As we were walking out the party people were starting to arrive and boy did we make the right decision! They were dressed up like the TOWIE bunch, Emma-Jayne and I both felt very under dressed!

Before we left Sammy gave us a massive goody bag each, this alone is worth £100. I couldn’t wait to see what was inside it was so heavy! We both opened them at the tube station to have a nosey.

Left to Right

Quick Blow Dry – Speeds up drying time by up to 50% while protecting against heat damage. Top Tip – use your usual products then spray quick blow dry as a last step before blow-drying. RRP £13.00

Dry Touch-Up – Instant conditioning on-the-go, simply use on dull hait to add shine and revive. Top Tip – perfect for reviving a lack-lutre fringe before a night out! RRP £14.30

Style Boost – A primer for hair. Boosts the performance of your styling products and helps your style last up to 3x longer! Top Tip – Use on its own to enhance natural texture and boost body. RRP £14.50

Molding Paste – No.1 Worldwide bestseller within KMS range. Provides tecture with a pliable hold. Top Tip – Reactivate your style at the end of the day, simply wet hands and reshape! RRP £17.50

Hot Flex Spray – Unlimited heat styling without damage for styles that last until the next wash. Top Tip – use on hair before blow-drying to set your style with heat-activated technology! RRP £15.95

Also in our goody bags were 2 Orly polishes I got Hottie and White Cap and a bristled back combing brush for making our hair ma-hoosive!

How cute is this little USB stick in the shape of one of their bottles! This USB has the whole presentation on it and I’m pretty sure it can be wiped for us to use personally. So cute.

I haven’t had a chance to use the products just yet but I am washing my hair Saturday morning and setting in Velcro rollers so we’ll see how the Style Boost fairs up to my cheap ol’ setting lotion! I’ve got high hopes for the KMS products, they do seem a little steep in price and I probably wouldn’t spend that much on hair products, but I will confirm more after I have used each item.

All in all I had a fab time even if it was slightly marred by the riots that were happening. I had to get a black cab home from Liverpool Street as the buses weren’t running. The first cabbie said he wouldn’t take me anywhere near it telling me ‘it’s on fire’ – Yeah that’s my home pal! I got another black cab and had a lovely ol’ chat all the way home. Beats a bus anyday!

Thank you Sammy for letting me come along to this event, Emma-Jayne it was lovely to meet you, a girl after my own heart! =D

This doesn’t launch until 1st September 2011 but here’s the link, well worth saving in your favourites!

♥