Simple Cookies for all Occasions!

Simple Cookies for all Occasions! 

Cookies and Tea !

My boyfriend and I love making cookies and have come up with our own recipe which we find works the best for us. We love to make a batch if we have friends or family coming over.

Preparation time: 15-20 minutes

Makes: around 27 medium sized cookies 

Oven Temp: 180 degrees Celsius

Cooking time: around 10 minutes

Ingredients:

250g of Plain Flour

150g of Caster Sugar (or granulated if you don't have caster)

150g of Light Brown Sugar or Muscovado Sugar

225g Butter

2tsp Vanilla Extract

1 tsp of bicarbonate soda 

2 medium eggs

Lots of chocolate!

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius

Place half melted butter, sugar (both brown and caster) and vanilla extract in a bowl and mix together

Beat eggs in a cup

Add Plain flour and bicarb soda and beaten eggs to the sugar and butter mixture 

Mix together into a dough and add which ever chocolate you like. We find dividing the batch in three at this stage works best so we can add different fillings for a bit of variety!

Pop in the oven and keep checking them until they are golden brown

Leave on wire rack to cool

Enjoy!

This time we made three different types of cookies. One batch was white chocolate, one milk chocolate and one was chocolate and caramel pieces. Yummy!

Keeping Healthy- Alcohol Free January!

Keeping Healthy- Alcohol Free January!

So I am not one for new years resolutions - as a child I used to say I would make my bed everyday ...I still struggle to make my bed twenty years later! But for some reason I got it in to my head that I wanted to give up alcohol for a while.

It was around the 10th of January and I was getting ready to go out for coffee with friends. Trying to decide whether coffee would turn in to drinks and if I should therefore dress a bit more formally I realised ..huh! I haven't had anything to drink so far in 2015! So I decided ok I am going to have a drink free January! 

I would not consider myself a heavy drinker. I would have a glass of wine or two with my boyfriend during the week and then generally go out for drinks on the weekend. 

My reasoning behind setting up this blog was to better myself so I thought I would document this part of my journey towards a better me too!  

Noticing that January is almost over I decided to search the internet to see what the benefits of giving up alcohol were and here are a few I found..

• As your liver isn't using its energy to break down alcohol it can concentrate on healing any bruises or scrapes you may have! (Fab I am so clumsy that my knees constantly have bruises on them from walking in to things so this will help!)
• Your complexion will even out- always a plus
• It helps you to avoid gaining excess tummy fat- again always a plus
• Better sleep- yippee! 

I didn't find it too challenging to give up alcohol. There were only a few times where I felt a bit left out because I wasn't drinking but I reaped the benefits when I woke up the next morning hangover free and as fresh as a daisy! 

I have noticed my skin has gotten a lot better- I have been using my clarisonic and using Clarins Facial Shaping Lipo Drain Serum so I guess its probably a combination of everything! 

So I think I will continue my drink free January into an alcohol free February! 

As always thanks so much for reading! If you enjoyed this post don't forget to follow me on google+, twitter and bloglovin' 

Love Bobby x  

Cleaning Make Up Brushes

Cleaning Make Up Brushes 

Deep Cleansing Technique

Why do we need to clean our make up brushes?

• So the most obvious reason is that when you use your brushes, especially eye make up brushes, all the different products colour and stain your brush meaning that any residue from previous styles will come through in the look you are recreating today.
• Secondly germs and bacteria gather in your brushes and cause skin problems such as spots and blackheads
• Also if your make up brushes are dirty you are putting that grime and bacteria back into your make up palettes causing them to go bad before their time! 
• Finally clean brushes will last longer.

Dirty brushes getting ready for a bath!

How to clean your make up brushes

There are two different types of cleaning techniques 

1. Spot cleaning which basically means popping a bit of brush cleaner on a make up cotton pad or tissue and rubbing your brushes gently - this should be done at least once a week
2. Deep cleansing (which I am going to explain today) which should be done once a month

Deep Cleansing Technique

Before we start there are a few golden rules which need to be followed..

• Never wash past the bristles of the brush! This will wear down the glue which is holding your brush together.
• Do no try standing up as the brush cleaner and water will drain into the glue in the brush which again will wear away your brush
• Let your brushes dry naturally lying down.
• After a deep cleaning it may take your brushes a few days to dry completely so keep that in mind and only clean the brushes you know you won't need for a few days- I tend to wash my brushes in a rotation so I am never left caught out with no brushes!

1. Firstly fill a clean small basin with luke warm water, or alternatively use a clean sink.  
2. Dip the tip of your brush into the water to wet it
3. Place some washing up liquid or baby shampoo on your palm
4. Swirl the brush in the shampoo against your palm 
5. Gently rub out the soapy make up from your brushes and repeat a few times until the water remains clear.
6. Leave brushes to dry naturally lying down.

Lovely clean brushes relax as they take a few days off to dry!

Tips

One tip I would add is that when you feel that all the old make up is removed from the brush do one more shampoo and rinse just to be sure - you would be surprised at just how much make up can be hiding in all those bristles, especially in flat foundation brushes. Many times I think I have a brush all clean and decide to repeat steps 4 and 5 one more time just in case to find that there was more stubborn make up gunk still buried in the brush.

Do you have any tips to add?

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to follow me on Google +, bloglovin' or Twitter (@Pressed_Powder)

Love Bobby x. 

Guerlain Super Aqua Lotion, Replumping Toner Hydration, Radiance

Guerlain Super Aqua Lotion, Replumping Toner Hydration, Radiance  

Guerlain Super Aqua Lotion, Replumping Toner Hydration, Radiance  

This has to be my favourite toner I have tried so far. As you can see from the picture my Guerlain Super Aqua Lotion is down to the half way mark. I use this product almost everyday.

It is super hydrating and has a beautiful refreshing rose scent. I noticed a change in my skin after using this toner for a couple of days. My skin became much more hydrated and very smooth. It even improved the bags under my eyes. It is also really gently on my skin which is important to me. 

Guerlain Super Aqua Lotion, Replumping Toner, Hydration, Radiance

This is my go to toner and I will be a very tough act to beat !

Have you tried this product?

Do you have a favourite toner?

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to follow me on Google +, bloglovin' or Twitter (@Pressed_Powder)

Bobby x. 

Clarins Paris Shaping Facial Lift Lipo-drain serum

Clarins Paris 

Shaping Facial Lift

Lipo-drain serum

Clarins Paris Shaping Facial Lift Lipo-drain serum

The Clarins Shaping Facial Lift Lipo-drain serum is a serum aimed at creating more defined features to create the much sought after V shape contours. It does this with a combination of different plant extracts such as Baccharin which helps with contouring, Horse chestnut which helps with reducing puffiness and Blue Button Flower which helps reducing fat deposits. It also contains ingredients such as caffeine and alchemilla. Along with creating more defined features it also aims to give an even skin tone and more youthful appearance.

How to use Clarins Paris Shaping Facial Lift Lipo-drain serum

Clarins recommend that you use four pumps of the Shaping Facial Lift Lipo-drain serum and spread evenly all over your face and neck. 

They also provide facial message instructions to carry out to help speed up the process. This massage consists of short exercises which only take a few minutes to carry out. This can be found on the Clarins website.

I have just started using Clarins Paris Shaping Facial Lift Lipo-drain serum last night and I have to say I woke up pleasantly surprised as my skin pigmentation was much more even and radiant looking even after one night! There has been no change yet to the contours of my face but the product indicates that it would take a month before results would be noticeable so I will review again in a month time and see if I notice any significant difference! 

Have you tried this product? What did you think?

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to follow me on Google +, bloglovin' or Twitter (@Pressed_Powder)

Love

Bobby x. 

Clarisonic Mia 2 Hollywood Lights

Clarisonic Mia 2 Hollywood Lights

Clarisonic Mia 2 Hollywood Lights

My sister bought me a Clarisonic Mia 2 Hollywood Lights for Christmas this year and I was very excited to start using it. A month later and I have not been disappointed! I already have friends and family complementing how good my skin looks ( which makes me wonder how bad did it look beforehand! ).

The first time I used it I couldn't get over how amazing my skin felt. I really felt like my skin was glowing and I never remember feeling my skin so soft before- even my boyfriend commented on how soft it felt.

The first two weeks of using the Clarisonic Mia 2 Hollywood Lights I found that my skin broke out a bit with little spots. I feel like this may have been all the impurities in my skin coming to the surface because of the Clarisonic and they have all since disappeared. 

How to use the Clarisonic Mia 2 Hollywood Lights

I tend to give my skin a quick wash beforehand to get rid of all the layers of make up and eye make up and then use the Clarisonic afterwards. I am amazed at the amount of make up which still ends up on the Clarisonic head! 

Clarisonic Mia 2 Hollywood Lights

Next I wet my face and put a few blobs of cleanser on my forehead, cheeks, nose and chin and off we go! 

I love the timer feature on the  Clarisonic. It beeps at different intervals to let you know when you should move to another part of the face. It recommends:  

• 20 seconds on the forehead
• 20 seconds on the nose and chin
• 10 seconds on one cheek
• 10 seconds on the other cheek

Overall I am so happy with this product and my skin has never been so healthy looking.

Do you have a Clarisonic? What is your skin care routine?

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to follow me on Google +, bloglovin' or Twitter (@Pressed_Powder)

Bobby x. 

OOTD

Outfit of the Day

OOTD

I was looking in my wardrobe this morning to try and decide what to wear today and I noticed two things. 

1. It is so disorganised I can't see all the clothes at a glance I have to try and rummage around.  
2. I have so many clothes which I have hardly ever worn.

So I remedy this I have decided to unleash a full wardrobe reorganisation scheme starting from tonight! So this will mean taking out all the clothes sorting them into what I want to keep and what I want to donate and then putting away any summer clothes that are clogging up my wardrobe at the moment. If you have any tips for reorganising your wardrobe let me know! 

My second remedy is aiming to wear an item of that I haven't worn in a few months everyday. I think I am getting to set in my ways of wearing certain outfits over and over. 

So today I decided to wear my Uterque dress and Mexx jumper. The Mexx jumper is new but the Uterque dress hasn't seen the light of day in a while so it is nice to give it an outing!  

Mexx Top

Uterque dress

And that is my outfit for today :) Hope you like it !

As always thank you for reading my blog! Hope you have a great day!

If you liked this post don't forget to follow me on Google +, Bloglovin or Twitter (@Pressed_Powder). 

Love Bobby x.