A Little Catch up and Favourite items

I feel like this post has been a long time coming, like I have been such a bad blogger posting once a month if lucky (sorry) however I thought I would do a little catch up on my little busy life. 

Now we are talking the end of July, which does feel years ago. But I went to York Races where Jess Glynne was performing. And sadly, the weather wasn’t great.  It poured down like no tomorrow. Luckily, we found somewhere to sit indoors, however for her performance we were outside. We bought ponchos for a £1, which kept us kind of dry. However, I was wearing a white dress and I slipped over in the mud. Ahhhh the joys of British weather hey!

Only a couple of months ago now, we had V Fest which I did a post on, which you can read here And that was the best weekend ever, on an alcohol detox now! Then last week I went for dinner at Turtle Bay, and sadly I can’t say I was very impressed. It was very reasonably priced; however, the food was very average! However, we didn’t try the cocktails, but they looked incredible... so I will return for cocktails one time! Also I had some friends round the other night for a pizza night which was lovely. I was just nice to be in a comfies just eating lots of pizza.

And the littlest thing please me in life, all I can say is ASOS a lister! I love it, I redeemed my £10 voucher the other day, which meant I only had to pay £15 for a new pair of jeans, bargain! So now ASOS is my only go to shop now!

So here are my Current Favourites

Shooter- You can read my post about what I have been loving on Netflix here I am actually addicted to this TV show, its only coming out weekly, and its killing me but I am so engrossed with it. So, I recommend this to anyone who hasn’t watched it!

Miss Gorgeous makeup applicator- Ah this makeup applicator has been amazing! So useful for carrying around in your hand bag and with a mirror you can fix your makeup so easily. And with this protection cover, you don't have to worry about any germs sticking to it!

Swimming- So i recently did the Great North Swim ( Well back in June I did). And I have kept swimming since then, I just find its a place where I can completely switch off and just relax so that is definitely a current favourite of mine. 


Oh and last but not least, I have started a new job, which I have been focusing a lot hence the lack of blog posts. So yeah that is a catch up from over the past months, which has been keeping me very busy!!

Anyway, how are all you guys doing? As excited for Christmas as I am?

Lots of love,
Nicole xx 

Maybelline 24 hour Colour Stay

Lipsticks, the bain of my life finding a product that sticks around all day, without constant reapplying. To find the perfect lip product, it takes trying so many and wasting so much money.  I have found a few products in the past that have lasted all day, and they are lip stain, which were a task to remove at the end of the day. 

So, I always find it very optimistic when brands say ‘24hr’ wear, it’s like yeah right like that will happened. And I guess they can say that, as who wears makeup for 24 hours?! I have always been a big fan of the Maybelline Colour stay, as at work, I am eating/ drinking throughout the day and, I go to the gym, where my makeup is put under the test (I know you shouldn’t wear makeup for the gym). So my lip products are always under strain.

When I came across the Maybelline 24 colour stay lip product, I believe it is the only lip product that I have ever repurchase (which says something, how much I loved and how much I used the product). I repurchased ‘into the nude shade’, as it I wore it every day as the shade was beautiful. Such easy wearing. I also picked up '240 Plum Seduction' shade, as I wanted a lip product with a little more colour in it, for any time I wanted a different look.

Just a little heads up, wait for the colour to dry on your lips, and your lips will go very tacky. Then apply the conditioning coat, and then it’s done. It feels so lovely and light on the lips. And I have had many compliments about the nude shade before, which is why I wanted to purchase an assorted colour.

So I wear it all day, for over 8 hours and it is still stuck to my lips like glue. Which is what I want from a lip product, low maintence that keeps it colour all day.  Also a little heads up, these retail for around £9, however usually they are offer, so I always stock up then!

What is your favourite lip products? Have you tried these before?

Lots of love,

Nicole xx

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Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

 Apologies to anyone that's on a diet/healthy eating while reading this! I was doing so well eating well through the week, then it gets to the weekend and bam I struggle big time! 

Recipe

150g Butter

150 g Caster Sugar

3 Eggs

1tsp Vanilla

175g Self Raising Flour

25g Cocoa powder

To be fair, it is a pretty basic recipe to follow. So, cream the butter and the sugar together. Then add in the eggs and vanilla extract. Then add the flour and cocoa powder and mix together. And bob your uncle. It’s that simple. Then obviously fill your cupcakes cases- it should fill 12 cases. Then bake at 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes (mine took 20 minutes).

Icing

So, this is the Hummingbird Chocolate icing- literally has been my all-time favourite icing ever! You can buy their recipe book here, which has lots of other amazing flavours of icing! I have always been an icing girl, weather its fondant or butter cream. So, topping these cupcakes with this icing made it a chocolate heaven!

Recipe

300g Icing Sugar

100g Butter

40g Cocoa Powder

40 ml Whole Milk ( I used semi skimmed and it still worked fine)

Beat the icing sugar, butter and cocoa Powder together until they all come together ( this takes a little bit of time but eventually is does come together). Slowly add the milk to the mixture. Once all the ingredients are together, turn the mixer on high until the frosting is light and fluffy.

And there you go, lovely chocolate cupcakes with the most amazing icing!

Do you like baking? What is yours favourite recipe?

Lots of love,

Nicole x 


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Blogging a year on

So I know it has been over a year, but last year I didn’t post anything for 3 months, so I don’t count that as my year. I just feel like it has only just been a year hence this post. I just cant believe how much my blog has changed. 

Investing money into my blog

I have changed my layout twice, and I am so happy with my layout now so I seriously recommend Kotryna Bass. She even helps with sorting everything for you, no task was too big for her! I bought my own domain, which made me take my blog a little more seriously as I had actually invested money into it. And I also invested in a camera to try make my blog photography a little better.   Also I have found what I love writing about, and what I feel passionately about, I love writing travel posts, which will never been too often as I can't afford to go often, but when I do its my favourite thing to write about. I also do still love writing beauty posts, but also adding Lifestyle content to the 

mix.

Setting up a Youtube Channel

I also set up a Youtube channel, which I will get back into eventually, you can see my channel here. 

Blogging Break

However this year hasn’t been all plain sailing, I recently had a blogging break which you can read the post here  I did that as I found blogging wasn’t ‘fun’ anymore as I was putting too much pressure on myself to try get a post up on time, however I have learnt a lot since then.

Social medias

I set up a new Instagram just for my blog, however I have stopped looking at how many followers I have, as I was always gaining one and losing two, and I’m much happier with my Instagram now. You can follow me here. My Instagram has no theme, which I kinda like, as I can just post whatever I want whether it suits it or not. 

Also with twitter, this is now my favourite social media to promote my blog. I try and take part in as many as twitter chats as I can, as there is so many lovely, genuine interesting bloggers out there, so I love chatting to them!

So I thought I would put some picture together to show how much my blog has come on, and looking back its made me realise how far I have come on my blog. So here is too another year. I have learnt so much through blogging, and it really is the best hobby!

Lots of love,
Nicole xx


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