Skincare Routine || Kate

Hello! 

Today's post is my daily skincare routine - enjoy! 

First of all, I use the Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water to remove the majority of my makeup. It's very gentle and takes off makeup really well!

Next, I use the Neutrogena Visibly Clear Pink Grapefruit Facial Wash. This lathers nicely to create a foam which leaves your skin feeling very clean and fresh after use. I take this off using a Liz Earle Cleansing Cloth which is gentle, but also does the job well! 

If I'm going in the shower, then I use the Elemis Fresh Skin 'Skin Glow' Exfoliating Face Wash. This is a product which I don't tend to use every day, but I do use it when I want my skin to have a deep clean. I find it much easier to take off in the shower, and after I use it my skin feels really well cleaned! 

Finally, I use the Elemis Fresh Skin 'Softly Softly' Daily Moisturiser. This is quite thick, so a little bit goes a long way! It moisturises really well and my skin feels refreshed after I use it.

I hope you've enjoyed this post, have a great summer!

Kate x

@pastel_skies_x

Recent Beauty Buys || Kate

Hello! 

Today I'm going to show you some of the products I have bought during June and July for the summer!

The first products I bought using the points from my Boots advantage card (I had rather a lot of them - oops!) They are the Revlon Ultra HD Lipsticks and I have the colours 825 Hydrangea and 845 Peony. These are lovely bright colours for summer and are really moisturising.

The next product is another lipstick. I bought the Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick by Kate Moss in number 16 as I already have one of these and love it! The colour is a pretty peach, perfect for summer.

My next product is the Collection Eyes Uncovered Nude Palette which I bought for my dancing show at the end of June. I've used it nearly everyday since then! The colours are perfect for everyday and are great quality for only £2.99.

I've also bought the Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector BB Cream as my last one ran out. This has SPF 15 in it so is handy for protection in the summer, or as a light base. Next, I purchased the Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer as I've never tried it before. It smells really nice and I like how it goes on! Finally, is the Maybelline Fit Me Powder which I've had before. I like how this works and it is also handy for carrying out and about as it has a big mirror and comes with an applicator.

Next, I bought the Bourjois Bronzing Powder and Highlighter as I've heard a lot of good things about it. It creates a nice glow and smells delicious! 

I've also bought the Soap and Glory Body Spray in the scent Sugar Crush. It's a light scent which smells really summery!

Next, I bought the Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water. This takes makeup off really well and the mini bottle is perfect for travelling in the summer holidays.

Finally, again for my dancing show, I bought the Maybelline Great Lash Mascara. This works really well and lengthens and volumizes the lashes.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this post - comment below what else you'd like to see! 

Kate x

@pastel_skies_x

No sugar Lemon Loaf cake | Ella

Recently a company called sweet freedom sent me product to try in my baking. It's called sweet freedom original, and its made up of 3 fruits, apple, grapes and carob and is a brilliant alternative to using sugar, in cakes, tea or porridge! Only 100% fruit its suitable for diabetics, vegetarians, vegans, and its GM&Gluten free. 

I was so keen to find a recipe that involved the product they sent me, as it was such a beneficial product to replace sugar with. I struggled to find cake recipie involving it so i created my own. Its no sugar cake (unless you count the icing). 

To make this cake you will need:

-6oz Self raising flour 

-6oz baking butter

-3oz sweet freedom original

-3 eggs

-1 unwaxed lemon

-icing sugar

-greased loaf tin

-mixing bowl

-electric whisk

Set your oven to 180 degrees, and put your flour, butter, eggs and sweet freedom into a bowl, mix until combined and has a smooth texture. 

Next, add in the juice of half a lemon. ( remove the pips! ) To break up the juices inside the lemon, roll it on the table first, it also leaves your hands smelling lovely!

 

Put into your greased baking tin (I get these loaf cases from pound land and are perfect to put in a tin to cook cakes in!) and put in the oven for about 35/40 minutes, or until a knife through the cake comes out clean. Keep checking as your oven may cook your cake slower or faster, so check your cake every 5/10 minutes after half an hour.

When your cake is done, put it on a cooling rack and make the icing. Heat up the juice of half a lemon place in a bowl, and add in a bit of icing sugar at a time. Just keep adding and mixing until the mixture is thick and smooth.

When your cake is cooled pour over the lemon icing and grate the lemon zest on top for a nice decoration! 

This cake tasted amazing, and you wouldn't tell there is no sugar, the perfect summer treat! Tag me in Instagram if you try out this recipie! 

You can buy sweet freedom at most supermarkets such as Asda, Tesco and Sainsburys.

Happy baking

Love Ella x

*disclaimer- this product was sent to me by the lovely people at sweet freedom. But all opinions are my own.

Summer Essentials!

Hello,

A lot of you broke up for summer last week, so yay for summer! I broke up in May, like some of you might have, so yay for ridiculously long summer!

This post is my summer beauty essentials and is another collaboration with the lovely Lauren!

M.A.C Fix+ is my first essential. In the summer your makeup doesn't last as long because of the warm weather which makes priming and setting your makeup all the more important. However, some primers can feel heavy and you don't want to constantly be powdering your face. Fix+ is a spray, it feels refreshing to spritz onto your skin before and after your makeup and will help it to last longer!

L'oreal CC Cream is my next essential, it provides a light-medium coverage and adapts to your skin tone, the green colour counteracts any redness in your skin! Another reason I'm including this is because if you tan when you're on holiday it will adapt to that skin tone too, so you don't need to pack numerous different foundations for your changing skin tone! If you have a pink/cool undertone to your skin it will appear very yellow on you, so it's definitely one for you if you have a more yellow undertone to your skin.

The Bourjois Chocolate Bronzer not only smells amazing but I love the way it warms up your complexion and I think it should be an essential for everyones summer makeup! They also do a half-highlighter half-bronzer version now!

Along with the lighter feeling makeup theme, a liquid highlighter such as the Benefit High Beam is perfect for summer. It adds a subtle glow and sits beautifully on the skin.

M.A.C Pro-Longwear Paint Pot in Rubenesque is my favourite eyeshadow at the moment, the shade is a beautiful peach-gold and will look incredible with all skin tones. As the name suggests, it lasts a long time without creasing!

Waterproof mascara is an all year round essential for me, it holds the curl much much better than a normal mascara, but in summer its great because it won't run! My favourite is Maybelline the Rocket, I've been using it for ages and it's never let me down!

Brows are so important, they can completely transform the way your face looks, so its important to keep them in place, a brow gel is an easy and quick way you can make your brows look fab and for them to stay in place. I love the L'Oreal Brow Artist Plumper, it comes in two different shades and also in transparent!

In summer it's fun to try out brighter lip colours. Bourjois Colour Boost in Peach on the Beach, the new and Revlon Ultra HD lipsticks in HD Rose and HD Peony and Revlon Colour burst Lacquer balm in Coquette are all gorgeous shades for the summer! They're all nice and moisturising too!

Barry M Blueberry and Prickly Pear were two nail polishes I loved wearing on holiday last year, and i still love them, In a Heart Beat, Eat My dust and Sugar Apple are relatively new to my collection but they're also perfect for the summer. I particularly love In a Heart Beat for my toes!

I hope you enjoyed this post, I really enjoyed writing it, and collaborating with Lauren is always a pleasure, you can tell how hard she works on all her blogposts so please go and follow her blog and other social media, you will thank me;) Click here to go to the blogpost she did!

What are some of your essentials for summer?

I hope you're enjoying your summer so far!
Lots of love,
Emma xxx




My song recommendation for today's post is actually a whole album, Handwritten by Shawn Mendes. I couldn't choose just one song because I love every single one and it still baffles me that he is the same age as me, has released an album and been so successful with it!

#1 - Euphoric

Hey! Guess who's back...

It's been a while - much, much longer than I'd hoped to be honest. 

But I'm back, and considering I've finally broken up for summer. I really want to get back into blogging. But I want this time to be a little different. I want to add a new component to this (amazing) blog.

And to do this, I've decided that I am going to create a short playlist that will be posted on here every so often and on my Spotify, which will be based upon what's I've been listening to recently in my summer. These songs featured are by some of my favourite artists, which may be new to many of you, as some are less well known than others. I feel as though these songs have a fresh, summer vibe - which is exactly what you want for the beginning of your summer playlists!

So, for this week's first instalment, the playlist I've created hopefully shows my excitement for the summer and how I am so happy to be finished school for the year - hence why this playlist is called 'Euphoric'. 

The playlists will be short, but hopefully they still fulfil your summer vibe needs...

So, without further ado, I present 'Euphoric' - My first playlist of summer, enjoy!

Lauren :) 

1. Lovesick - Peace

2.       One Long Day - Shortstraw

3.       Check Yes Juliet – We The Kings

4. Shut Up and Dance - Walk the Moon

5.       Oceans – Coasts

6.       Stuck In My Teeth – Circa Waves

7.       Friends – Eliza and the Bear 

8. In The Long Run - Port Isla

9. Jacket - Yo Grapes

10. We Come Running - Youngblood Hawke

Instagram: _laurenmc

Twitter: @imlozza

Lemon Tarts!

Hello!

Today I have a recipe for some yummy lemon tarts!

Ingredients

• 100g plain flour
• 50g butter
• Water
• Rice or baking beans
• 12 teaspoons of your jam of choice or lemon curd

Firstly, you'll need to grease a cupcake tray and preheat your oven to about 180 degrees.

Measure your flour into a bowl and add in your butter (it helps if you cut it up into small cubes). You need to rub in the butter using the tips of you thumb and fingers until the mixture looks a bit like breadcrumbs. You could also add some sugar if you want the pastry to be a bit sweeter!

Next, add water, no more than a tablespoon at a time and mix. Continue adding the water until your mixture forms a dough. If you add too much water just add some more flour!

Place your dough on a floured surface, roll out flat.

Cut out circles of your pastry to put in each hole of the cupcake tray. You should be able to make about 12 tarts from this mixture.

Take some greaseproof paper and cut out a small square big enough for one of the tarts, put this over the tart and then add some baking beans or if you don't have any, you can just use rice! These tarts will need to go in the oven to blind bake for ten minutes.

After ten minutes, take the tray out of the oven, remove the greaseproof paper with the rice or beans and add a teaspoon of your chosen jam or lemon curd to each tart. This will then need to go back in the oven for another five minutes.

Your lemon or jam tarts are now done! Let them cool and then enjoy them, they're especially nice with some vanilla ice cream, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries!

I hope you like this post, let me know what you think if you try making your own!

Lots of love, 

Emma xxx

Spread the Sunshine!

Hello everyone, a bit of a different post today!
My friend Jade recently started her Spread the Sunshine campaign and as someone who encourages positivity I loved the idea and asked if she could write a bit about it so that I could share the idea with you!

'Spread The Sunshine is a campaign, created by me, Jade Millard! The website for it is spreadthesunshine.weebly.com. It is about raising awareness of world wide issues such as self-esteem, confidence, self-harm etc whilst encouraging and enforcing positivity, inspiration and confidence! Although it's very much an individual thing, we are all part of a community and we all support each other. It's a journey to self discovery! We all have the power to change positivity into negativity, so why not do that and make a change whilst we can?!'

This is a wonderful campaign and i really hope lots of you get involved and help to spread some positivity!

Lots of love,

Emma xxx

For the song recommendation of the post, I asked Jade to choose a song!

'Demi Lovato - Skyscraper. 

I know that some of you may be thinking this song is quite a few years old now, but that doesn't change anything for me. Every time I listen to it, I feel so empowered and inspired, almost as if I could take on the world without caring what others think! It is one of the few songs that means a lot to me and has very significant meaning too. Demi Lovato is one of my biggest inspirations and she has been for quite some time, ever since I first got into her and her music. I think that she is by far one of the most influential people and I know for a fact that I'm not the only one who thinks that. I have experienced bullying and people trying to bring me down, but this song is all about not caring and rising up above the hateful people! Just like what my project is trying to show too! Don't allow people to ruin your life and toe happiness. You are in control of your own life. You can choose to be happy, or choose to let the haters win.'