Zoella Beauty: First Impressions

If you know anything about or follow the online beauty vlogging world, (or watch the x factor adverts!!) then you'll know that one of the most highly anticipated beauty launches of the year finally landed in Superdrug stores Monday 29th September. Zoe Sugg aka Zoella has launched her own range of bath and body pamper products, that I couldn't wait to get my hands on and try out. 

On first glance the gorgeous cute, girly packaging screams out Zoe and has a real vintage chic look that I personally adore. 

There are 7 products: The 'Let's Glow' scented candle, 'Soak Opera' bath & shower cream, 'Blissful Mistful' fragranced body mist, 'Creamy, Madly Dreamy' body lotion, 'Fizz Bar' fragranced bath fizzers and two cute-as-a-button makeup bags. Everything is priced at £5 except the makeup bags and body mist, which are £8.

I've tired and tested the products for a week now and I'm really impressed with the quality bearing in mind the price. I love the novelty of the bath fizzer shaped like a chocolate bar so you can break a square or two off and save the rest for later (remember they're not edible!). 

The Soak Opera shower cream feels very luxurious with a sweet floral scent. The body mist is the only product that doesn't quite get my 5 stars due to the shear sweet scent that unlike the shower cream is just a tad too sweet for my liking, but make sure you give it a sniff for yourself in store.

Overall I am really impressed with Zoe's line and think these products would make a very cute Christmas gift idea! Well done Zoe!

The Zoella Beauty range is available online at feelunique.com and in Superdrug stores. 

Emma xxx

My Afternoon Pistachio, Cardamon and Lime Loaf Cake

Get your bake on with this scrumptious loaf cake, it's not only mega easy to make but looks the part too! A real crowd pleaser! 

For this recipe you are going to need:

Cake Batter:

185g self raising flour

185g caster sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
150g ground/bashed pistachio nuts
150g softened unsalted butter
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
3 large free-range eggs
125g plain yoghurt

Glaze:

Zest of 1 lime
Juice of 2 limes
125g caster sugar
75ml water

80g bashed pistachio nuts

Equipment:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 170°C.

2. Pop the flour, sugar, baking powder, pistachio nuts, butter, cardamom and eggs into your mixer bowl.

3. Beat all the ingredients together on a low speed, gradually increasing to a medium speed for approx. 1 minute. 

4. Pause your mixer and add the plain yoghurt, then mix this in for 30 seconds.  

5. Pour the cake batter into your prepared loaf tin and level the mixture out.

6. Bake at 170°C for 1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clean. 

7. Once your loaf is baked to perfection leave it to cool on a cooling rack whilst you make your lime glaze syrup. 

8. Pop the caster sugar, juice of 2 limes and water into a small saucepan and bring to the boil for 2 minutes.

9. Add the zest of 1 lime into the saucepan and simmer for a further 2 minutes stirring occasionally until it is nice and syrupy. 

10. Take your scrummy cake out of the tin and place onto your decorative plate of choice. Stab the top of the cake with a skewer evenly. 

11. Pour the glaze over the top of your cake. Sprinkle the remaining pistachio nuts over the top.

12. EAT A SLICE! 

Enjoy,

Emma xxx

My Nail Polish Storage Solution

As my obsession for nail polish is now out of control, so is my ever growing collection...

 For the past few weeks it has been one of my missions to come up with a solution on how the heck to store them all, as they have been currently living in a crammed tiny side drawer. I wanted something that would show them off, but also keep my room uncluttered. I began by gaining inspiration from sites such as pinterest, looking at all the cool ways other people store their polishes.  

I've recently decorated my room in a rather shabby chic decor with lots of vintage looking hearts and creams, and I wanted to keep that vibe shouting through my nail polish storage.  I stumbled across this fab heart shaped shelf unit on ebay that I instantly fell in love with. It screams shabby chic with the not so perfect paint work and wonky shelf slots. 

With the help of my dad to nail it up on my wall (he's a DIY guru), I instantly began filling it with my nail polishes...in colour co-ordination of course.

So here it is the final outcome of my nail polish storage, I hope you like it and it's given you some inspiration on how to tackle your beauty storage woes. 

Emma x