Homemade festive chocolates

Me and my Mum decided that we would make some festive chocolates, she loves baking and creating new things. Probably where I get it from, so tonight we took it upon ourselves to make some delicious delights.

We only used cheap chocolate, as we haven't done this with the different ingredients before, so we bought a fair few bars of tesco value chocolate. I am fully aware that these won't have the best flavour but as we were adding a number of various different flavours  so we didn't see the problem. 

Ingredients

Morello Cherries

Satsumas

Lemon

Raisins

White Chocolate

Milk Chocolate

You can add anything you want to your chocolate but this is just what we added.

Method

Zest one orange

Zest one lemon

Dice cherries

I did all this at the beginning to be prepared.

Then over a pan of boiling water we placed a bowl and melted down the chocolate, when it was all melted we filled the moulds half way and added the desired ingredients, after adding this we would then fill the mould to the top with the rest of the chocolate and place into the freezer for a short time. 

We left ours in the freezer for approximately 20 minutes, but obviously you can adjust the time if needed. You can also place them into the fridge to set if preferred.

We removed them from the freezer and popped them out of their moulds, as we used silicon moulds this was very easy.

You can decorate the chocolates if desired or leave them as they are.

I couldn't believe how easy these were to make and such a beautiful homemade christmas gift to receive. It was also such a lovely thing to be able to do with my mum. My favourite were by far the chocolate orange they were amazing, as were the others.

Thanks for reading

Jade

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My top 5 make up brushes

I have been wanting to do this post for a while now, as I really wanted to share my thoughts with you all.

From left to right

one - realTECHniques Contour brush

Like all of these brushes I use this every day, I use this to apply my contour and highlight. I love the shape of this brush as it is small enough to fit in the groves of your face. But big enough to distribute the product evenly. This brush is a real winner for me, I bought this as part of the Core Collection. You can buy this at Boots by following this link.

two - realTECHniques Expert face brush

Obviously I love this also, however I can't find anything else that does the same job, I feel like this is so consistent in being excellent when blending and applying foundation. I don't feel like it hold onto too much product either which is brilliant. I feel like it will be very hard for me to find anything that matches the quality of finish this leaves me which every day. You can also pick this product up in boots, I will leave the link here for you to have a browse.

three - Sephora Classic crease shadow brush

I bought this brush when I was in Paris in January, every time I apply any type of eye shadow. I use this brush for blending as Its easy to get into my crease to distribute all the product. Although last time I washed it I didn't dry it properly so it looks a little bedraggled. You can buy this online from Sephora though this link.

four - realTECHniques blush brush

I think that this was one of the first make up brushes I ever bought It was a few years ago now, but I don't remember ever disliking this product. I used to use it for applying blusher for the past few months I have been using it to apply bronzer, as I feel it is the right size for my face. The bronzing brush I had before seemed stupidly large. This just allows me to focus on a certain area for application. You can pick this product up also on boots by following this link.

five - Avon

I'm not sure of the name of this brush as it has rubbed of the side of the brush, but I bought it from Avon, I believe it was to be used as a liner brush. But I love it for doing my brows, it is the perfect size and is flexible when using brow wax or powder. I love this brush, as you can imagine it was cheap from Avon but does a fantastic job. I can't find any links to this product online but if you have a Avon book you may be able to find it. 

Thank you so much for reading.

Jade

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Gingerbread Men

My mum made some gingerbread men the other day, they were lovely. So I thought I would give the recipe a go and share my thoughts with you all. I love making gingerbread as they not only taste amazing, but they make the entire house smell like christmas!

Ingredients

125 grams butter

150 grams plain flour

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons of ground ginger

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 egg

4 tablespoons of golden syrup

175 grams of soft brown sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

Sift together all the dry ingredients apart from the sugar, proceed to add the sugar and butter then blend until crumbed. You can use hands to do this, continue until it looks like breadcrumbs. Then stir in the sugar.

Beat the egg and golden syrup together in a separate bowl then add to the current mixture until all the mixture clumps together. Remove the mixture from the bowl onto a flat surface, knead for a short amount of time. Then wrap the dough in clingfilm or place into food bag, then pop it in the fridge for about 15 - 20 minutes.

Remove from fridge, place on a floured surface and roll to desired thickness, the thiner the better as will rise slightly. Begin to cut out with desired cutter and place onto a baking tray (covered in baking paper)ensure you leave gaps in between your gingerbread as the do spread slightly during baking. 

Place into your preheated oven for around 8-12 minutes, just keep checking on them because they cooked in about 9 minutes in my oven. 

When cooked place on to wire cooling rack to cool completely then ice or serve as desired.

Jade

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Explaination

Sooo on the fifth of October I flew to the USA to embark on what I thought was the biggest adventure of my life so far. I had a great first week in New York with all the girls who truly made it. I then arrived in New Jersey on Friday the ninth, for the first couple of days it was amazing. Then I began to realise that it wasn't what I signed up for. Im not going to go into too much detail about what happened because I don't think it is necessary. But I flew home (to England) on the eighteenth of october. I just wanted to write to ensure that I kept you In the loop also so you all knew what country I was in. I spent a week with my family in New Jersey, I spent a lot of time with Alana (my only friend) but I had a blast we didn't get to do all we wanted but we spent time drinking hot chocolate, watching movies and eating food. Basically Im back home in England, I have been here for a few weeks and I'm getting back into the swing of things. I was going to write this post earlier but to be honest I didn't feel ready, the whole thing was very emotional and I'm just getting used  to everything.

 I have no regrets.

Jade

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My iPhone captures September

I haven't done one of these In a while, I love sharing my photos as many of the photos I take are taken with my iPhone.

I took my nephew Zachary to meet the beautiful baby Jude, he loved it

Zachary being cheeky after an over night stay with auntie Jade

My family and friends threw me a surprise leaving party, I loved everyone being in the same place. Im just not very good with suprises.

Another photo with my girlies

Me and zachary took a drive (obviously not driving at the time the photo was taken)

 I went to London for the day with my best friend Kirstie to go to my visa appointment, we went into Liberty and got very excited when we saw they had the christmas room open. We drooled over all the beautiful products.

Me and Kirstie

Always pulling the best faces

Dan took me out for the day to play crazy golf, he only did it to get me away from my surprise party!

Another trip out in the car

All the toys in the world and he loves to play with all my old cuddly toys

Me and my mum visited Sprowston Manor Marriot Spa, it was beautiful although we couldn't book a treatment because we weren't very organised :( 

I know it isn't the end of the month yet, but as for the next week I am seeing family to say goodbye before I go away I thought I would do this now and then do something else when I decide ;)

Thanks for reading

Love Jade

xx

Lush Haul

I wasn't going to do this post because It was one of my recent posts, but for those who share my love for Lush I knew you would enjoy it.

I went to London last Tuesday to apply for my visa to work in America (I have written a post about this already) after my appointment me and my friend Kirstie went to the new Oxford Street Lush store. I thought I would do a haul of some of the new bath bombs, some of these I haven't seen before and some are exclusive to  the Oxford Street store.

I love the store its spacious, clean, easy to navigate and welcoming. All the staff were very helpful as they are in most stores. Compared to the store in Norwich where I live which is cramped. To me Its a love hate thing  with the Norwich Lush Store, I love to go in to browse the latest arrivals but walking around the store on a busy Saturday is awful, its like a war to just get to the till, its just overcrowded. Anyway not sure why I just rambled so much here is to the 'LUSH' store!

Milky Bath (Bubble Bar)

I love the scent of this, when I bought It i was obsessed with the scent. To me it smells like fresh sheets or clean washing. I went on to read the description of the product, it states that the bubble bar, contains 'uplifting orange oil and a dose of skimmed milk to treat your skin' the fact that this is a bubble bar is much more exciting knowing you're going to be neck deep in bubbles brings out my inner child.

Yoga Bomb (Bath Bomb)

For me this bomb smells like It would be best enjoyed in a roll top bath in a wooden lodge in the middle of nowhere, It has quite a masculine smell to it. As the description states 'As the mesmerising colours unfurl, woody olibanum and ho wood create an atmosphere of deep relaxation.'

Avobath (Bath Ballistic)

To me this just screams citrus, I have to say I don't really get a huge scent of avocado which I can only assume by the name is what the product is. Don't get me wrong it smells wonderfully uplifting and refreshing. The description doesn't really say a lot about the scents or what the product is made from it does talk about throwing your bath ballistic into a perfect temperature bath and watching it fizz away.

Blackberry Bath Bomb (Bath Ballistic)

imagine you are on a coming home from a long day at work, this to me smells like the ultimate relaxation, its scents are calming but also very vivid. They are easy to distinguish basically just smell amazing. The label states sticking this in the bath and watching it fizz away.

Intergalactic (Bath Bomb)

Well this is the most exciting product, I don't know about you but I love getting a bomb if I know its going to be a visually entertaining. When I walked into Lush I knew I was going to pick this up because I heard it was amazing, as I walked up the stairs towards the bath bombs. There was a lovely gentleman doing demos using these bombs. They looked absolutely incredible, the colours the scents the glitter. Everything I loved, I am so glad I have finally gotten around to writing this blog post because it mean now that I can use all these beauties. 

Thanks for reading

Jade.

H&M Do Beauty

I went into my local H&M the other day and found that they had discarded a massive section of shoes and made what looked like their very own beauty hall.

They seemed to thought of everything, they sell skincare, make up, brushes, perfume, bags, sponges and much more. 

To be honest I could have spent all day browsing the various different products, the thing that I was automatically drawn too was the face masks. I'm not sure why maybe it was the simplistic beautiful packaging, or It could have been the price. Im not sure but anyway I bought three and here they are. Trying to decide which ones to get though was quite difficult.

These masks are only £1.99 which I think is quite reasonable I haven't used them yet so I could be wrong they could be awful, but I thought I would just write a short post on the overall look of the products.
I believe that H&M have gone down the perfect route with their new products they all look professional and convincing. To me they look like they could be a high end product, lets how the product is as beautiful as the packaging!
If you would like to hear more about this product comment below.

Thanks for reading
Jade
xx

My evening skincare routine

I have been trying to perfect my skin routine for along time and now I feel like I have found the products that work best for my skin. I am very happy with this routine so I thought I would share this to give you all an insight to what works for me.

Skin type : Oily / Combination (mainly oily)

Step one: Firstly I take off my make up, I use the Emma Hardie Cleansing Balm (which Is amazing) to get them majority of my make up off. Taking a small amount and massaging it all over my face, even my eye area working in circular motions to lift of all the dirt and make up. I then go over this with a warm muslin cloth or flannel (whatever is to hand).

Step two: This might sound strange but I then cleanse again with the Clinique liquid face facesoap. I splash my face with warm water, squeeze a pea sized amount into my finger tips and then again massage this into my skin. The reason I do this twice is because I feel this works best for my skin. Because I am so oily I like to know that my skin is completely clear of any dirt or excess oils. I then rinse this off.

Step three: I then after patting my face dry, I apply my Kiehl's Creamy eye treatment. Although I have oily skin, I get very dry under eyes, I also have eczema which on very rare occasions flares up on my eye lids and underneaths of my eyes. This really help, I place a small amount underneath each eye dabbing with my ring finger. This product is amazing. 

Step four: Finally I will apply my moisturiser I am currently using the Clinique dramatically different moisturising gel, which I have found to be really good for my skin. I feel like it soaks in to my skin almost straight away. I only use this at night as I feel it doesn't really help a lot with my oily skin In the day.

Step five: I occasionally use some of the Elizabeth Arden Eight hour cream on my lips if i remember! 

If you would like to see how I change this up for my morning skincare routine then leave a comment to let me know.

xx

OOTD : Afternoon beach walk

Today me and Dan took his dog for a walk on Wells  beach, here are a few pictures of my outfit.

Jeans - Primark

Wellies - Joules

Top - H&M (about 5 years old)

Denim Shirt - Topshop

Coat - H&M

Scarf - H&M

All the clothes listed have links to buy online apart from Primark,

I will putting another post up very soon with some more pictures from our day out.

xx

Lush Haul

I was in Norwich on Saturday running errands, walked past lush so I thought I would pop in, I my stash had recently run out! (worst day EVER!) So I ran in and picked up a few bits. A few are old favourites but many are new ones. Most of which I have used now so I will be able to give a little review on some. They didn't last long, I have come to the realisation that I use bath bombs too quickly so you might be seeing another haul sooner than you think.

This is a bath bomb called Space Girl, i was very excited about this when I saw it in store, I think it might be the aesthetics which made me pick this up. But I just loved the way it looked and smelt (I can't remember what they smelt like now). When I put it in the bath not a lot happened it obviously fizzed away and left some colour in the bath but it wasn't what I was expecting at all! I probably should have read the label on the bag because it states that 'it doesn't do anything exciting it just makes bath time more fun' well they had me fooled. 

As I picked all these up before Easter I managed to pick up some of the Easter collections as well, I really liked this one it was simple but smelt amazing, this is called Hoppity Poppity and as you can probably tell by the name this contained popping candy, at first I wasn't really sure what was happening, I thought there was something wrong with the bath tub. Good job there wasn't really. Other than the popping candy this didn't really do anything, but I did smell amazing, it was like a menthol fresh smell, really relaxing.

This is rose bubble bar, I don't really have much of an opinion on this one, maybe if there was more of a scent and there were more bubbles it would have been better. But just wasn't amazing. Unless I really didn't have the right technique.

You've Been Mangoed Bath Melt, this has to be one of my all time favourites, I have repurchased this for years. I love fruity refreshing bath products and this is just amazing, it leaves your skin lovely and soft when you get out of the bath and its full of fragrant scents.

I cannot for the life of my remember what this was called, the only thing I remember is having some wilted soggy flowers floating around the bath with my after the bomb was all out of fizz. I mean some people might like that and find it romantic or relaxing, I just didn't like the idea of a plant floating around me, I also don't remember much of the scent of the bath bomb so it couldn't have been amazing.

Honey bee this was incredible, it smelt amazing! It smelt how you would expect it to, it was  very subtle. A really good thing about this bath bomb is that it smelt lovely and it also didn't leave marks in the bath. I would definatly buy this again.

Dragons Egg was the one is was most excited about, when i was instore they did a demonstration of them letting go dragons egg, it filled the store with an amazing scent and you could see the thick layer of foam! It fills the room with a citrusy lemon scent. The only problem I found is that when I got home my dragons egg was in half broke right down the middle. Still great though the bath changed to many different colours before staying orange and having a slight gold shimmer.

This was okay, not really a lot to say about it other that it stained my Emma Hardie cleansing cloth, which is annoying. It is very bright and a fun bath bomb

xx

My iPhone Captured March

I literally can't believe how fast this year has gone, I have thrown together another post of the pictures I have taken over the last month because the last post I did seemed to be a big hit!

Anna and I

Hands down my favourite chocolate of the moment

A lovely bike ride in high lodge with Kirstie and Dan, corrggh did by bum hurt the next day though

My cousins came to my house for the weekend and we got up to lots of exciting things, like visiting the park and going out for a lovely meal

I can't believe how quickly my nephew has grown up Zachary will be 6 months this month, where is the time going

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