April Favourites

Hey guys,

My blogging hiatus lasted a long time didn't it! I thought i'd treat myself to a little break seeing as it's Saturday night! As it's getting close to the end of April I thought i'd share with you the products that i've been loving most this month!

First up is something that I never knew I needed until I bought it. My eyebrow brush.

I know the MAC 266 is isn't the brow brush (208) but it's pretty much the same shape, and just a bit bigger so I can use it for my eyeliner too when I feel like using an eyeshadow as a liner. I used to use a pencil to lightly highlight my eyebrows, and thought it was sufficient but using a brush is just so much better and this one really has been perfect! It allows you to give your eyebrows a defined line, without it looking like you've just drawn them on. I only bought it a couple of days ago but I really do love it, and i'll definitely be using it for months to come!

Next is something a bit different, my favourite shampoo and conditioner. 

I used to just buy the Tresemme shampoo and conditioners as they did their job without drying my hair or making it feel greasy which a lot of products do, and also came in big bottles meaning I didn't have to buy them often (how lazy is that!) but my mum recently bought this Shampoo and Conditioner from the OGX Brazilian Keratin Therapy range and swears by it, so thought i'd give them a try, and I really couldn't believe the difference! I always just shampoo my hair twice quickly, and then for my conditioner I always spend a good 4-5 minutes massaging it into my scalp then I leave it for another 5 minutes before rinsing it out. After using these my hair smells amazing, and it leaves it in the best condition it's ever been in! I so silky and shiny, and it's even made my hair feel a bit thicker. I cannot recommend this enough, and I don't think i'll ever use a different range again! The only place in the UK (As far as i'm aware) that stocks these is Boots but if you're in the USA they sell them everywhere! :)

Along the same lines is another favourite of mine. This time shower gels/exfoliators.

At £15 each these were a little more expensive, however they are also 2 for £18 so really only £9 each. However, they smell INCREDIBLE. I've always been a fan of victoria's secret and their perfumes and until recently I hadn't tried their beauty products from the PINK range, I love the smell of the PINK wild and breezy though so I thought i'd give these a try. When you first squeeze them out of the bottles they come out as an exfoliating gel but then after a few seconds they start to lather up into a foamy soap. Which is perfect as it's two products in one! I really love the smell and although they are a little more pricey than the usual body wash/exfoliator they are a combined product and personally, I think they are worth it! (as you can probably tell by the fact i've had them two weeks and the blue one is almost gone!) Even though victoria's secret has stores open in the UK, you can't buy their products online from the UK (unless you want to pay for international shipping from the USA) so i'd recommend just popping into a store the next time you see one rather than buying it online!

One final product that i've been loving this month is my Juicy Couture perfume

I got this as a present from my boyfriend's sister for Christmas but i've only recently started wearing it everyday, and I wish i'd started sooner! The smell is really light and sweet, perfect for a summer's day! The fragrance is really light and i'm always complimented on it when I'm wearing it! As it is an Eau de Parfum rather than an Eau de Toilette you only need to spray a small amount and the fragrance whilst not being overpowering lasts all day and is just amazing really, there isn't much more to it than that! Whilst I couldn't find it for sale on the Juicy Couture website, I did find it on the Debenhams website!

These are just a few products that i've been loving this month!

What have been your favourite things this April?

Love, Amylou x

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A little blogging break :(

Hey guys,

I've been loving updating my blog everyday for the past couple of weeks, however I have to stop for a little while! :( I've got some exams starting this time next week and they are rather important ones for my degree so I have to focus on those :( 

The good news is that once they are over, I will have time after work/dissertation writing to put more posts up and hopefully more time for baking/day trips and other adventures so I will have more to write about!

After my exams also begins the countdown to summer! (For me anyway) and the countdown to my trip to mexico! Which I will hopefully get to share with you all on here! 

I'll only be not posting for a week and a half, but it seems like a really long time! I hope I don't fall out of the habit of posting daily or every other day!

My question for you guys is what makes you want to blog? Is it wanting to share your adventures with others? Is it wanting a place to write down what you're thinking?

I use my blog as a way to document what I've been doing, and a way to share my experiences with other people! It can be a great way to get new inspiration for things to do and try!

As hard as it will be to only focus on my books for the next few days, it'll be worth it for summer!

The view from our suite when we visited the Dolphin Bay Hotel in Pismo Beach last year (absolute heaven)

Love, Amylou x

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OOTD

Hey guys!

This is my first outfit of the day post! Apologies that my photos aren't great!

I was on my way out to a restaurant called Coast to Coast in Sheffield (amazing by the way) and thought i'd share my first OOTD post with you! I'll try to post links to anything still for sale! :)

Top - Topshop (old)

'Textured Leather Look' Leggings - Topshop

'Lenny' Blazer - Tommy Hilfiger

'Black Western' Ankle Boots - Next

'Scarlette' Sunglasses - Guess

Handbag - Accessorize (old)

Watch - Breil at Selfridges - Discontinued (Amazon)

'Return to Tiffany' Necklace - Tiffany & Co

Bracelets (all charm bracelets with charms) - Tiffany & Co, Pandora, Thomas Sabo, Topshop (old)

Love Amylou x

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NOTD

Hey guys!

Today I thought i'd try something new! My NOTD (Nails of the Day!)

I absolutely love OPI nail polishes. I've never bought an OPI nail polish and been disappointed!  The colours are always fantastic and they last a lot longer than most other nail polishes!

I always start out by applying a base coat, I think this is especially important when applying bright or dark colours, so that you don't stain your nails, but it doesn't hurt to use one all the time!

My favourite base coat to use is the Natural Nail Base Coat from OPI which is NT T10 if you're looking for specific numbers! You only need a thin layer, and i've found that my nails actually feel less damaged when i'm using this, rather than just applying the colour straight off, so that's always a bonus!

For my nail colour today I chose the OPI liquid sand in Tiffany Case NL M51. It really is the most beautiful blue colour. And unlike many glitter nail polishes, it only takes one coat for your nails to have full glitter coverage, meaning it takes less time to dry, and your nail polish won't feel as thick and heavy! I really can't recommend this colour enough!

For my top coat, I strayed away! I do own an OPI top coat (NT T30 if you're wondering!) and whilst it is great, nothing compares to the CND Vinylux Weekly Top Coat. I couldn't find a number on it, though there could be one somewhere! I know what you're thinking, why do you need a weekly topcoat on glitter, it never comes off! But this top coat really is amazing, and it does exactly what it says, my nail polish usually lasts a week without a single chip when I use this! Though it is a specialised product, and I had to buy it from my friend's beauty salon, but totally worth it!

I recently broke a nail and had to cut them all short :( but I hope you can see how good the cover is, with just one layer of colour on!

You can get the base coat from the UK OPI store here for £11.95

I couldn't find the Tiffany Case on the OPI website but you can get it here on nail polish direct for £9.95

You can get the weekly top coat here on amazon for £7.99 however i've been recommended that you buy them direct through a beauty salon if you want your own to make sure they are 100% genuine!

I tried to give a better review than usual, hope I managed it well enough!

What's your favourite nail polish colour? 

Love Amylou x

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Possibly The Worst Cookies Ever

Hey guys,

So i'm gonna start off by saying, I should never mess with recipes. Whenever I try to change something, they always taste awful. And today, was no exception. and I mean AWFUL.

I started out with a harmless cookie recipe from All Recipes for Best Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, which sounds amazing right? and I thought to myself, I bet I can change a few ingredients and make them a bit healthier.

This is really where I should have stopped myself, cookies are not meant to be healthy, they are meant to be delicious chocolately treats. If it was that simple, everyone would be making really healthy cookies. Also, I know nothing about healthy eating. My little sister is a vegetarian and lives off a fresh, organic and mostly vegan diet, whereas I love pizza, ribs, fried chicken and really any sort of potatoes. Not asking her for help, was my biggest flaw here I think!

I kept the recipe mostly the same, however I replaced the butter with banana, the egg with flaxseed and water, and the sugar with a truvia substitute. I think next time if I do attempt it again (maybe, maybe not) i'll just replace one thing, and experiment to see how I can make them taste good.

As there is banana instead of butter, I thought i'd make my cookies into chocolate banoffee cookies. So instead of just chocolate chips I used chocolate chips and fudge pieces and even cut up some galaxy counters (so upset I wasted my galaxy!)

I really would have been better off just eating this! (and it would have tasted amazing)

The cookie dough itself looked nothing like my usual cookie dough:

 Usually I can roll my dough up into balls and put it in the oven, but this was still quite runny!

That does not look appetizing at all does it! I cooked them for 15 minutes and when they came out they looked a little odd!

They were really dark and had big holes in! Turns out fudge isn't a massive fan of being cooked! I let them cool a little but couldn't wait to try one!

MISTAKE

They taste awful. Like really, really bad. If you've ever been to a brewery and seen the leftover yeast, or you've ever worked or studied in a lab with yeast, you'll know exactly how awful they tasted when I say that's exactly what it was like.

I don't really get it, because there isn't even any yeast in it! My sister thinks its the flaxseed. 

I think in the future i'll definitely stick to baking something tried and tested before!

Have you ever tried to make up your own recipe and its gone terribly wrong? I know I can't be the only one!

Love Amylou x

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A little flight...

 Hey guys,

I was looking through my photo albums the other day when I came across these two:

The photo on the left was the view when we were leaving New York City, although it was warm it was quite cloudy, and so even in August, I was carrying a little jacket. 

The photo on the right is arriving in Las Vegas, if you look closely you can see the strip. Vegas, is hot. I don't think i've ever felt heat like I have in Vegas. It was almost like we HAD to stop off at the margarita bar in Caesar's Palace ;)

It just reminded me that I never got to share all the places that I visited in the short space of three and a half weeks, and what an amazing experience it really was. 

I wasn't expecting to like Vegas, I thought it would be tacky, but it's just one of those places that you have to go to, but I actually loved it. Obviously it has its nice places and its tacky places, but the nice places really are something special.

I stayed in the tower suites in the Wynn hotel, and I don't think I would ever stay anywhere else, it was just perfect. They really do make you feel special, and they couldn't do enough for you! I might dedicate a blog post to my (very short) trip across America, and it really was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

What has been your favourite place to travel to? Even if it was just a 10 minute drive away! I love exploring new places in the UK and around the world, so i'd love to hear! :)

Love Amylou x

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A Trio of Pastels - Fashion

Electric Day Dream Tunic - Ted Baker

As I mentioned in a previous blog post I LOVE pastels, and so what better way to spend my time than looking for my favourite pastel pieces for this spring/summer and sharing them with you?

I previously blogged about my favourite pastel beauty products, and you can see those here! :)

This post is going to be dedicated to my favourite pastel fashion items, the photos will all have links underneath the photos so if you see something you like, just click the link to be sent to the store's website! :)

Mint Trim Playsuit - Miss Selfridge

Boucle Mini Skirt - Ted Baker

Snake Chain Cross Body Bag - ASOS

Coat With Zips - ZARA

Oversized asymmetric Tee - House of Fraser

It's so hard to limit down the options, but I had to try or this blog post would have gone on forever! I think the first photo of the Ted Baker dress is my absolute favourite!

Are you a fan of the pastel trend, or do you prefer your clothes just that little bit brighter? 

Love, Amylou x

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A Spring Day Out

Hey Guys!

As the weather was so nice today my sister and I decided to venture out for a little walk around Newmiller Dam in west Yorkshire. As it was such a lovely day I just thought i'd take some photos and upload them onto here! :) 

I don't know why, i'm not a great photographer (obviously) but I just find it calming to take photos of things around me!

I loved spending an afternoon with my little sister, it's a rare occasion when we are both free to just spend some time doing nothing together.

What are some of your favourite places to go for a relaxing walk? and how do you make sure you fit in time for relaxing with family?

Love, Amylou x

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A Trio of Pastels - Beauty

Spring pastels are one my absolute favourite things ever! They are just so perfect for all things beauty, fashion and home related!

I've decided to upload a trio of posts showing you my favourite pastel products for this spring/summer, so look out for my other posts on fashion and home products!

Each photo will be linked to the store where it can be bought from at the time of posting, so if you like something, just give it a click! :)

It was so hard to narrow everything down into just my few favourite beauty products, but I hope you like these as much as I do! :)

What are your favourite spring beauty products?

Love Amylou x

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A new recipe?

Hey guys,

If any of you follow me on instagram, you'll know how much I love baking (a lot), however you might also know how much I love to visit new places (hot places, bikini weather places), and in twelve weeks i'll be going to Mexico. Cancun to be precise! and so maybe now isn't the best time to be making (amazing) chocolate brownies or (the best) mars bar cake!

(sorry i'm getting a little too excited with my brackets)

So I decided i'd try to make up (or maybe it's already out there somewhere) a healthy-ISH cookie recipe. I've heard that you can replace butter in your baking for banana in equal parts, which makes them slightly healthier. Then i'm not really sure what the bad part about eggs is? but you can replace them with ground flax seeds and water, which I think is meant to be a lot better for you?

Then i'll be using a sugar substitute (i'll ask my sister for advice as she is studying food technology at the moment for her A-Levels). I could use almond flour instead of plain flour, but i'm not sure if that will make them taste too nutty? Then for an entirely unhealthy part i'm going to add either toffee chips or toffee flavour chips so that they taste like banoffee!

That was a whole load of questions! As you can probably tell, i'm not tooo sure how it's going to work out! But i'm all for giving things a go! :) 

If it goes well, i'll put my final recipe up on here, along with some photos. If it doesn't, well then i'll still put up the photos, but i'll just tell you how terribly they turned out instead! :)

Let me know any ideas you have for making normal recipes into healthier recipes, and what healthy treats you like to snack on!

Much Love, Amylou x

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Clinique High Impact Lip Colour

Hey everyone,

So whilst out for a food shop I thought i'd take a quick trip to the Debenhams next door and found the most gorgeous red lipstick.

 

The photo has been edited (obviously) but the red colour is still the same. Isn't it just amazing! I've always wanted to find the perfect red lipstick to wear as a statement with a black dress  or even a deep red dress but never quite found the right shade. (It's the Clinique High Impact Lip Colour Rouge Impact in shade 12 red-y to wear)

It feels really moisturising, and isn't drying like i've found some lipsticks to be. It also doesn't sit on top of your lips looking a bit too shiny like some can, it isn't quite matte but it just has a lovely deep red colour and I would definitely recommend it!

If you want to look at this lipstick or any others in their range you can visit the Clinique website here :)

Love, Amylou x

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MAC Prep + Prime

Hey everyone!

This is a post that i've been meaning to do for a while now! One of my best friends Jo gave me her MAC Prep and Prime Skin to try out, and i'm really glad that she did!

It's a rare occasion that I buy MAC products as there are so many to choose from, and I just don't know where to start, but when I do get them, they are always amazing.

I had been using my benefit primers for a while and whilst they were doing a great job making my make up last longer, they sometimes made my skin feel oily towards the end of the day, which isn't a problem if you're just wearing it on a night out or to go to work, but if you're wanting a look that will last you from morning into the evening, it can be a hassle having to re-do your make up! 

You only need to use a little bit of the MAC base, a little goes a long way! It isn't heavy like some bases can be, and it doesn't make your skin feel powdery which i've found when sampling other primers before. It makes your skin just feel soft and can help even out your skin tone by calming redness under your foundation.

Definitely one of my new favourites!

If you want to buy this primer you can do here! My product is just a sample size so the bottles will look different to this :)

Love Amylou x

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Internet has returned!

It's been quite a while since my last blog post! As you know I was moving house and BT kindly shut my internet off two weeks early, then once I was all moved in it took a week to get my computer up and connected again! But it's all up and running again now!

There's many many things that I want to write about but I think i'll save some for later, then maybe it won't be as long before my next post!

This week has been a big one for love in my family. This wednesday was the 50th anniversary of my grandparents wedding. A golden wedding anniversary is a very special occasion and the family all got together to go back to the church where my grandparents got married (coincidentally my grandparents on both sides both got married in the same church!) and they renewed their vows. It was a short ceremony but it was beautiful.

It's times like this when I realise just how lucky I am to have such a loving family, and it really does instill in me the belief that love can last a lifetime, and there is a soulmate out there for everyone. (cheesy I know, but these occasions do that sort of thing to me!)

I'm not sure what else i'll be posting on here but I think i'm going to try and update this blog more often (I'll believe it when I see it too) and try to change what I'm posting so I have more photos and maybe even videos to put up, so it's not just plain text all the time! 

I'll have to have a read of my favourite blogs and try to take some inspiration! If you were wondering which my favourite blogs are i'd have to say they are Zoella's Blog and Sprinkle of Glitter's Blog :)

I guess that's it for now! Hope you have a wonderful day!

Love Amylou x

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