BONFIRE NIGHT NAILS

I've been a bit wary of bonfire night ever since a rogue firework burnt its way through the audience when I was younger. The booming explosions echoing through the skies and the thick smog that's left behind means that I always approach fireworks night with an air of caution. This year, behind the safety of our balcony, we plan to watch the glittering skies whilst eating foil wrapped baked potatoes loaded with butter, salt and cracked black pepper.

I've painted my nails in honour of the occasion with Maxfactor Prussian Blue and glittered tips for the fireworks. For the tips I chose five of my favourite glitter nail polishes - On my index finger is Models Own Southern Lights which is a stunning lilac holographic glitter, on my middle finger Barry M Magenta Glitter, my ring finger Barry M Blue Glitter and Nails inc Electric Avenue on my little finger. I painted the glitters onto the tips of my nails before sealing them with Sally Hansen Insta Dri. I really love this effect and feel like its perfect for fireworks night!

What are your plans this bonfire night?

OCTOBER MONOCHROME FAVOURITES

Following on with the colour theme, I thought that monochrome would be good for October as it seemed to fit well with Halloween. Here are my October favourites:

Kiehls Ultra facial cream: This is a lovely, rich moisturiser that sinks into the skin quickly, keeps the skin hydrated and in great condition. I'm literally scraping the last of this out of the pot now and I'm torn as to whether I should repurchase or not as it contains parabens which puts me off slightly. I've written a full review here, it's the best moisturiser that i've used and on the days that I don't use it I really notice a difference to my skin. If anyone knows a good paraben free alternative then I would love to know!

Etsy black cat sleep mask: This is such a cute, silky soft little sleep mask. I don't always wear a mask to sleep but lately as the mornings have been a bit lighter I pop this on if I wake up early and it really blocks out the light and helps me get back to sleep. It was also great to add a halloween touch during October!

Barry M nail paint in matte black: I used this nail polish to create my black cat nail design last week. The effect looked really good on my nails, matte and almost leather like which was perfect over halloween. It also lasted really well and was a nice change from having glossy nails.

Eysilix Eye Cream: I bought this after Caroline Hirons blogged that this was practically every eye cream that you've tried with added peptides. This helps to reduce dark circles, fine lines and keeps the eye area feeling soft and hydrated.

MAC 150 brush: This is my every day bronzer and contour brush. The slightly tapered end sits perfectly in the hollows of my cheeks and it's the perfect size to sweep bronzer over my temples and on my jawline. I've had this for over 4 years now and have used it almost every day in my make up routine. The only downside I've found with this brush is that it sheds when being washed so you have to be quite gentle with it.

SEPTEMBER BROWN FAVOURITES/AUGUST FUCHSIA FAVOURITES/JULYS CORAL FAVOURITES/JUNES GREEN FAVOURITES/MAYS GOLD FAVOURITES/APRILS BLUE FAVOURITES/MARCH MINT FAVOURITES/FEBRUARYS ORANGE FAVOURITES/JANUARYS PINK FAVOURITES

HALLOWEEK DAY #5 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The instant Alex arrived home from work on Monday we wolfed down our tea and got started on our Pumpkins ready for Halloweek. Its become quite a yearly tradition for us to have a little Pumping carving competition, I had been secretly researching my chosen face for months now (little to Alex's knowledge) as he is really quite artistic and wins every year. This year I had it in the bag, surely...

With newspaper laid and our carving weapons of choice in hand, we laughed as pumpkin seeds bounced off the walls and our little pumpkins faces slowly came to life. I went for a feline style for my face, Alex a smirking zombie. After removing sticky seeds from the kitchen and washing up the evidence, we popped in tealights and admired our handiwork.

I think it was a draw this year, (I'll have him next year!) Right now our pumpkins are in pride of place shining out on our balcony. With tea lights flickering and dancing inside illuminating  their cheeky pumpkin faces and giving off a faint scent of roasted pumpkin, it truly feels like Halloween.

I've really enjoyed doing 'Halloweek' this year - I hope you enjoyed the posts?

Happy Halloween!

5 Fandom Friday: The Halloween Candy I Always Hope For

Happy Halloween!!

Also, it's time for 5 Fandom Friday! This week's topic: The Halloween Candy I Always Hope For When Trick-Or-Treating!

(in no particular order)

1. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

I say in no particular order, but these would probably top the list. I just love how perfectly the peanut butter and chocolate go together and that slightly salty taste to balance out all the sweetness. 

2. Almond Joy 

I LOVE coconut anything and these were my dad's favorite candy so I always hoped for lots of Almond Joys while trick-or-treating so the two of us could share ^^ Funny enough, however, I actually didn't like the almonds and would always eat around it so Mounds would've been better for me but because of my dad, I have a weird bias for Almond Joy.

3. Airhead Xtreme 

I loved Airheads as a kid and my all-time favorite were the sour rainbow strips. Just thinking about them makes my mouth water. 

4. Sour Patch

I love how these are both sour and sweet! They also taste great whether they're fresh and soft or a little older and hard which is ideal when you have a lot of Halloween candy to go through.

5. 3 Musketeers

Love the fluffy inside! Some chocolate bars can be a little TOO intense and rich for my taste with all they've got going on inside so I liked these because they just felt lighter while still being so good.

Honorable Mentions: Kit Kats, War Heads, and Twix

I hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween and get all the Halloween candy you always hope for! 

What's your favorite candy?

HALLOWEEK DAY #4 - PUMPKIN SPICED CUPCAKES WITH GHOSTLY BUTTERSCOTCH BUTTERSCREAM ICING

These little ghost cupcakes are perfect for halloween. The combination of warming pumpkin spice and sweet butterscotch make these cupcakes a perfect autumnal treat! I made six large ghostly cupcakes but you could also make 12 small ones with the recipe.

You will need:

For the cupcakes-

70g Brown Sugar

75g Butter, softened.

2 Large Eggs

150g Self Raising Flour, sifted.

1 tsp Vanilla extract

2-3 tbsp Milk or milk alternative (I used Almond milk)

2 tsp Pumpkin spice - (I used this recipe to make a batch but added a little more cinnamon than the recipe states as I love cinnamon!)

Pinch of salt

And for the buttercream Icing -

250g Icing Sugar

75g Softened Unsalted Butter

2 tsp Lyles Butterscotch Syrup
2 tbsp milk

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius (160 fan oven)

Place all of the cupcake ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat until well mixed and smooth with an electric whisk. Add a little more milk if needed so that the batter is of dropping consistency. Spoon the cupcake batter into your cupcake cases so that they are  half to 2/3rds full and then place in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until they are starting to turn golden brown and the middle is cooked (check with a skewer). Once they are cooked, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the buttercream: Add all of the buttercream icing ingredients above to a clean mixing bowl and beat until thick and smooth. 
Add the icing to a piping bag and then to make little ghosts hold the bag steady and pipe down onto the cupcakes until it spreads out to make the base of the ghost. For the head, stop squeezing and lift up slightly and then pipe a smaller amount. To get the point, pull sharply up as you stop squeezing and then pop in two little chocolate drops in for the eyes.

I've made these twice now as they taste so good. I only like to add a small amount of sugar to the cupcake batter as the butterscotch buttercream icing is pretty sweet, but add more if you like super sweet cupcakes!

Let me know if you give these a go!

HALLOWEEK DAY #3 HALLOWEEN PUMPKIN NAILS

For the past two years I've created a Halloween nail art design. This year, I've been loving decorating my home with little pumpkins and drinking pumpkin spice hot chocolates so much that I decided to create a little pumpkin nail art tutorial. I thought that I would have a go at dabbling in the world of youtube and make a video tutorial this year. I'm still getting used to the filming and editing but I really hope you like it!

Products used: 

Nails Inc Savile Row Nail polish
Soigne Permission Nail Polish
Sally Hansen Haute Chocolate Nail polish
Max Factor Cactus Green Nail Polish
Sally Hansen Insta Dri Top coat
Nail Dotting Tool

What do you think of these pumpkin nails?

HALLOWEEK DAY #2 MERMAID MAKE UP

My 'I am Mermaid' make up post is probably my most viewed post on my blog. I created the look over three years ago now, I've always been unhappy with the way that the post looked and so I thought it was about time to revisit it! This is a really easy and effective way to create a halloween mermaid make up look, the photo's don't quite pick up how pretty it looks, it's so simple but looks like it could have taken hours! This time, I wanted the scales to blend in a little bit more and to look almost like skin whilst still having a pretty aquatic mermaid feel.

I kept my base make up pretty simple, foundation, a hint of pink blusher and Revlon Sweet Tart lip butter on the lips with a small amount of iridescent glitter dabbed in the centre.

For the scales - You can cut out a square of fishnet tights and then pin it into your hair and over the areas that you want to create the scales on but I find it so much quicker and easier to just pop the tights over your head and pin the back so that you can then just dab the pigments easily where you want the scales. Using a big powder brush I started with collection dazzle me eye dust in Spellbound and pressed and swept the pigment over the fishnets roughly where I would normally contour - the hollows of my cheeks and high on  the temples, forehead and into the hairline. I then used Barry M dazzle dust in purple and overlapped the blue slightly and blended down onto my forehead and up onto my cheeks, I repeated this with Barry M Dazzle dust in Kingfisher, blending slightly onto the purple so that it created a fading/ombre effect. I then dusted a gold pigment - Collection Dazzle me dust in Bedazzle onto my cheekbones, the middle of my forehead and dusted any excess gold over the whole scales.

The thinner the fishnets, the more it blends into the skin and looks more realistic, in my previous attempt I used a thicker material fishnets, which gave a bolder look which still looked effective but less skin-like and realistic.

To finish the look I ran the purple pigment under my jaw and blended a mixture of the colours down my neck and onto my chest, adding more scales on the body and giving a blueish green aquatic effect to the skin. I also sprayed blue chalk spray through the ends of my hair and added Barry M Dazzle dust in iridescent (I can't find this online but Illamasqua Static is similar) on the top of my cheeks and under my brow bone.

What do you think of this halloween mermaid look?