LouLou's Birthday Giveaway - Make Up Revolution, Yankee Candles, Maybelline, Benefit And More x - CLOSED

Hi Everyone x I really wanted to get this post up on Thursday but as you'll see next week something else occupied my time so I hope you don't mind that it's a little bit late x

What am I saying of course you aren't going to mind that it's late, it's a giveaway! Thursday was my birthday, I'm such a child I love birthdays, and seeing as I hit an amazing 600,000 all time page views last week I decided to celebrate with you guys and hold a little giveaway x

I can't afford huge high end prizes at the moment so I've put together a little prize package that I hope you'll like x This isn't all you'll receive but I'm still waiting for a few things to arrive so I'll try and update this post when I get them x

First up you'll receive one of the most talked about eyeshadow palettes of the moment, Make Up Revolution's Iconic 3. I may have picked one up for my self too, whoops! For those of you that don't know Make Up Revolution is the newest budget brand on the beauty scene. With prices ranging from just £1.00 this brand delivers superb quality at an unbelievable price. I was lucky enough to receive a few bits for my birthday and I have to say I'm impressed.

Iconic 3 is basically an affordable dupe of Urban Decay's Naked 3 Palette. Naked 3 is the only one that I don't have but from everything I've seen and read Iconic 3 is pretty much spot on.

Next up another item from Make Up Revolution - their Liquid Concealer in Medium - I originally got this for me but as soon as I saw it in the tube I knew it would be two dark for English rose me (haha) It's not overtly dark so it would probably work for most light skins when tanned to mid tone skins x

The final beauty item I've got for you at the moment, is another iconic product - Maybelline Baby Lips. They are just lip balms but they are pretty good ones. This is the Repair variant which is ideal for the summer months or even today and contains an SPF of 20. This is a UK releases not the Asia ones that seem to be everywhere at the moment bar near me!

At the moment I'm getting right back into my candles, and in particular my fresh and floral fragrances. So I decided to pick up a few from my favourite brand Yankee Candles to add to my prize package.

The lucky winner will receive 3 sampler / votive candles - each one should burn for around 15 hours. The fragrances you will get will be Clean Cotton - an amazing fresh scent and one of Yankee's most popular, just think of being a child and running out of the clean sheets on the washing line and your about there. Next up Fluffy Towels, this is pretty similar, a clean fresh fragrance combined with a bit of baby powder - just imagine been wrapped up a warm towel by your mum when you get out of the bath. The final fragrance is A Childs Wish reminiscent of playing outside in the summer and making daisy chains, with fresh green notes and gentle florals

You can also win a 3g mini Benefit They're Real Mascara x

and a gorgeous Make Up Revolution Vivid Baked Highlighter in Golden Light

This is a gorgeous white gold highlighter ideal for cheeks and eyes x This one is mine your will be brand new and sealed x

As I said more prizes will be added over the next month but I'm choosing carefully so I can post everything overseas if need be, as I know how much some of you non UK ladies want to try out some Make Up Revolution.

All you need to do is fill out the Rafflecopter form below before 18th June for a chance to win x

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Thanks for reading, entering and following x Good Luck xx

Bloggers Teaspoon - Tea, Cakes, And Laughs All In Aid Of Lupus UK

I seem to be blogging quite sporadically at the moment but it's for a good reason, for the first time in a while I'm actually having a social life :) Chronic illness makes life hard on so many levels but one of the biggest ones for me is how much it's affected my social life and relationship with others, so when I've got the chance I'm embracing these opportunities with open arms and resting up whenever and where ever I can.

Sometimes a bit of pain and exhaustion is worth it though, and despite feeling horrid on Sunday, I can honestly say I had one of the best Saturday afternoons that I've had for a long time.

On Saturday afternoon  I attended Bloggers Teaspoon, a social event and tea party arranged and hosted by two lovely North East based bloggers Rachel and Becca, in aid of Lupus UK.

Lupus is an auto immune disease with many varied and debilitating symptoms, including muscle pain, weakness and fatigue, and internal and circulatory problems. At present there is no cure, but like a lot of invisible illnesses the symptoms can be controlled to some degree with varying medications ranging from steroids to immunosuppressants.

Rachel has the disease herself, and it's something that is close to my own heart too, as it's one of the potential auto immune diseases that I could potentially have, so when I heard that these lovely ladies were hosting a tea party on World Lupus Day, I knew that come hell or high water I needed to be there!

The event was held at Salsa Cafe And Tapas Bar, slap bang in the middle of Newcastle City Centre - maybe not the first place you'd think of when it comes to afternoon tea, but the upstairs rooms had been converted into a vintage tea shop, with mismatched vintage china, bunting, balloons, cupcakes courtesy of Alice, sandwiches, sausage rolls, cakes, sweeties and tea courtesy of Tea Pigs.

I have to admit I was a bit nervous because I hadn't been to an event for a while, but there was really no need for the butterflies, everyone was so friendly, and I met lots of new bloggers and caught up with some that I'd met before -  In fact I would probably go so far as to say that I haven't laughed so much in ages! -  bit of an in joke but sausages, NARS, 69's and mince were my highlights!

I wasn't having the best of spoonie days so I didn't circulate as much as I would have liked but it was so nice to meet so many new bloggers, in such a relaxed, friendly and fun atmosphere.

I know it isn't all about the goodie bags, but thanks in part to Hays Travel and Intu Metro Centre these were good ones! I mean look at the bag! that is just so me!

They contained all sorts of beauty samples, lifestyle things, sweets, a holiday voucher! and Vitamin Water (not in the pic I'm afraid I drank it!). I also managed to pick up a few extra Tea Pigs varieties to try - I loved the chai one I had on the day but I can't wait to try the creme caramel and chocolate flake bags! There were also a couple of things in the goodie bag that I'm going to review separately including the most gorgeous candle and a really pretty indie brand nail polish!

Obviously there was a serious side to the event though, and by means of collection tins, the ticket price and the raffle, the event raised nearly £200 for Lupus UK, which was an amazing result. Please, please, please have a look at their website to find out more about the illness and the work that they do. Also If anyone wishes to donate to Lupus UK you can text LUUK16 and the amount you wish to donate to 70070 i.e. LUUK16 £10 to 70070

I'd like to say a huge, huge thank you to Rachel and Becca, their sponsors and their army of little helpers for hosting a fab event for a great cause, you deserve a huge pat on the back xx Definitely a job well done and I hope it won't be the last Teaspoon event x

Sparkles And Sprinkles From W7 - Nails Of The Day

I seem to be on a never ending quest at the moment to get myself organised - I still haven't tackled the scary craft / spare room but I am starting to make a bit of progress with my beauty stash. As well as getting rid of stuff you no longer want, sorting and organising also means that you find things that you've forgotten about, and this was one of them.

Quite a while ago I bough a few sprinkle type polishes from W7 and promptly forgot all about them, that's what happens I guess when you nail varnish collection runs into 3 figures!! I saw this one this morning and decided that it perfect for a sunny day.

W7 Nail Polish in 96 Mosaic features fine gold and purple glitter pieces suspended in a bright turquoise cream polish. It needs a bit of work - this is 3 coats and you can still see a bit of white tip but in my opinion it's worth it. You could layer it over a matching solid colour as a time saver but this dries pretty quickly so I have no problem with doing a couple of coats.

I know these sprinkles and glitters aren't to everyone's taste but I'm definitely a fan and I know fancy adding the Models Own ones to my collection x Are you a fan? let me know in the comments x 

Foodie Friday On A Saturday - What I Ate In April 2014

Hi Guys x I'm late again but better late than never I guess. As I mentioned in my monthly weight loss round up post April was a pretty difficult month when it came to food. I ate a lot of comfort foods and a lot of what I fancied. I made a few recipes that you've seen before including this..

Yes, my winter classic, Broccoli and Stilton Soup (find my recipe here x). My mum got some reduced Stilton and a massive head of broccoli and this was the most obvious outcome. It also gave me an opportunity to try out my mums new toy.

The Bamix - a stupidly expensive but oh so worth it, hand blender and more.  I think I'm going to give it a post all of it's in the future so keep checking back for that, suffice to say though it's unbelievably amazing!

I also made my Nutty Bean Burger recipe but I had a little fiddle with the recipe and made it with chick peas instead of mixed beans. The end result was really tasty but I had real problems when it came to cooking them, the burgers just kept falling apart. I came to the conclusion that I'd probably made them too big, never mind I served them with Slimming World Chips and salad.

Usually I would just make burgers with the left over mixture but this time I decided to have a little play. Using the chick peas made me think of falafels, okay the seasonings etc. would be different but the mix worked in exactly the same way. I rolled the mixture into rough, gold fall sized, balls, then I sprayed them and an oven try with Fry Light, and popped them into a hot oven for about 15 minutes until they were crispy on the outside. It was a revelation and I definitely think that I'll cook them this way again. I served them with a sort of Greek / Middle Easter type salad, with lettuce, grated carrot, cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, black olive and feta cheese, and I served it on a gluten free wrap with homemade yogurt and mint sauce. It was sooo yummy and so filling, and the sauce was gorgeous and only a fraction of the calories of mayonnaise.

Speaking of wraps, I've tried a few different gluten free wraps over the last month or so and I've actually been pretty impressed. My Asda often does the B Free ones which are fabulous calorie wise but they don't don't always seem to be in stock so I tried something that I hadn't tried for a while - the Warburtons Newburn Bakehouse White Wraps. I really like these, you can't tell that their wheat and gluten free at all. Okay I lie you can tell, they £3.10 for 3 wraps which is way more than the normal ones. Why is gluten and wheat free food so expensive? Anyways I've played with them before using them instead of lasagna sheets and of course as wraps but this time I decided to use them to make wrap pizzas :)

All I did was spread the wraps with some tomato puree, before covering them in some sauteed vegetables, and some cheese, and them I popped them in the oven for about 10 minutes - Voila a perfect thin and crispy pizza in minutes :)

Something that I've fallen in love with over the last few months has been Diet Coke Quorn. This is seriously one of the yummiest things I've had in a long time. So I made it again only this time I added a bit of chilli to give it a bit of a kick, and to hopefully help kill off the chest infection that I had :) I'm not sure it worked but we both enjoyed it, I served the first lot with pasta, and the second lot with rice and cauliflower.

The majority of my foodie highlights from April though came from a long weekend and a few days either side of it. I'm talking about Easter of course! I was going to try and be a bit restrained and whilst I didn't go crazy and eat everything at once I did over indulge a bit.

Hot Cross Buns, something that I hated as a child but something as an adult that I can't get enough of. My mum normally makes gluten free ones for me but this year we bought them instead these were from the Tesco Free From range and they were gorgeous warmed in the microwave, with just a tiny scraping of real butter mmmmm.

It wouldn't be Easter without an egg and these were the paste eggs that me and my mum made. Isn't the colour amazing ! All you do is add loads and loads of onion skins to the water when your boiling them, and they go the most amazing reddy, brown colour.

Obviously when the eggs were boiled we ate them, this is just boiled egg mashed up with low fat salad cream, tomato, spring onion and lots of salt and pepper all on top of a gluten free white roll.

Alongside our egg sandwiches it's traditional on Easter Sunday in LouLouLand to eat cake, and this year my mum made a gluten free chocolate cake, covered with buttercream, mini eggs and chocolate buttons, which was supposed to resemble a nest haha.

Yeah, I'm no sure if that's what I'm seeing but by gum it tasted god. Originally it was supposed to have buttercream in the middle but being gluten free it refused to cooperate and crumbled so if in doubt cover the lot in icing and chocolate yum.

It wouldn't be Easter without a chocolate egg or three and I think you'll agree that mine and Mummy Lou's haul was quite impressive.

We didn't eat everything a once but it's safe to say that I was well and truly chocolated out!

Well nearly chocolated out :) I did manage to make a batch of Creme Egg Brownies with - some left over chocolate and creme eggs. This is probably the easiest recipe ever and it's something that I'll share with you soon x

A lot of families have a full on Easter Sunday but we decided to have ours on the Easter Monday instead. My mum roasted a nice chicken for her and the cats and I had a Quorn Roast, served with roasted veg that my mum cooked with fry light - sometimes the simple things are the nicest.

Afterwards we had a homemade gluten free apple pie and cream - naughty but nice!

So they were my April foodie highlights, a mixture of experimentation, sugar rushes and comfort food. I have lots of new foodie posts in the pipeline including my Bamix review, some recipes and a couple of reviews of local places to eat and drink, so I hope you'll stick around x Happy Eating x

Trimming My Stash - April 2014 Edition - Empties And Mini Reviews

Happy May Day Everyone xx I can't believe were into the 5th month of the year already. I think I say this every month but time really does seem to fly by the older you get. Speaking of getting older, May is my birthday month :) I have no idea what I want this year but I know that I'll always, without question get some beauty bits. I love beauty things but it always means that I need to make a bit of space in my current stash. I've haven't been doing too well, when it comes to using things up this year and whilst April was better it still wasn't amazing.

Soap & Glory Pulp Friction Foamy Fruity Body Scrub - 250ml
Bomb Cosmetics Mandarin & Orange Cleansing Shower Butter - 320g
Soap & Glory Clean, Girls Skin Softening Creamy Body Wash - 75ml
Smashbox Photo Op Under Eye Brightener - 7.1 ml
Primark PS Love Your Skin Deep Facial Cleansing Wipes - 25 Wipes
Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow / Liner - 4.5g - Skinny Jeans
L'Occitane Desert Rose Hand Cream - 30ml
Total - 7 Items

Yes, I finished 7 items, I guess I should be happy with that especially since I finished a couple of make up bits but I still think I could have done a little bit better. There are still a few products that just seem to be going on and on and that I can't seem to finish no matter what I do but hopefully I'll manage to break the cycle in May . What about the items that I did finish though? well as I say I finished pretty much a bit of everything in April including two make up items which is always good or is it?

1. Soap & Glory Pulp Friction Foamy Fruity Body Scrub - 250ml

This was from one of the big Soap & Glory Christmas, 2012's I think and I've only just got round to using it up. I have to say I really liked this it gave quite an abrasive scrub but at the same time it felt very creamy and moisturising. I loved the fruity smell and the smoothing effect it had particularly on my upper arms. Mummy Lou wasn't a fan though, as I've probably told you before she detests gritty body scrubs, that leave scratchy particles on the bottom of the bath. So either I don't repurchase or I religiously clean the bath and shower out PROPERLY after every use, decisions, decisions.

2. Bomb Cosmetics Mandarin And Orange Cleansing Shower Butter - 320g

This was a pressie from my bestie a little while go now and I have to say I'm quite devastated that it's finished. I really liked this a lot. The smell was lovely and zesty and citrus based. It's basically a semi solid creamy butter that you massage over your self and rinse off in the shower or you can pop a little bit under a running top for gorgeous soft creamy bubbles. I really loved this and I'll definitely look into repurchasing .

3. Soap & Glory Clean, Girls Skin Softening Creamy Body Wash - 75ml

This was a mini bottle that came in my Boots Advent Calendar. I was expecting to smell like the rest of the Soap & Glory but it was actually quite different. It had a softer more musky based scent. It was okay but I definitely prefer the original fragrance

4. Smashbox Photo Op Under Eye Brightener - 7.1 ml

I used to be quite into Smashbox as a brand but when they left QVC I kind of left them and I haven't purchased anything from them since. I still love the bits that I have especially their cream liners but I just don't find the brand as affordable as what it was. This under eye concealer and brightener retails at £16 in the UK, admittedly it's cheaper than the much hyped YSL number (I'm not a fan personally) but whilst I think it's decent, all be it though a little liquidy, the high street, and budget brands seem to have got this category pretty much covered for a fraction of the price.


5. Primark PS Love Your Skin Deep Facial Cleansing Wipes - 25 Wipes

I mentioned these in my recent beauty post and it hasn't taken me very long to polish off the first packet. These are from Primark's newly revamped beauty range, and you two packets for a pretty bargainous £1. There okay they do the job, I'm not keen on the smell (reminds me a bit of bathroom cleaner) but they are cheap and there certainly no worse then any of the more expensive wipes on the market. I'm probably going to stick to my old faithful Primark tea tree ones but these are fine in an emergency or a quick fix x

6. Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow / Liner - 4.5g - Skinny Jeans

Using something up is always good in my eyes but sometimes you feel a little bit sad about finishing something. It sounds totally dramatic but I was devastated that this little pot reached the end of it's usable life. This has been one of my go to products for nearly 2 years now. It gives a smokey eye look in seconds, it's that perfect silver, blue, grey taupe colour that just works for day or night. I've used it and used it, and used it and up until recently it was fine but that last few millimetres has turned into a dry, clumpy mess, so it's time for the bin and it's time that I got a new one - I'm only thankful that it hasn't been discontinued.

7. L'Occitane Desert Rose Hand Cream - 30ml

I think I will always buy L'Occitane hand creams, you're pretty much guarantee that they will do the job, no matter what the fragrance and how dry your hands are, and this one was no different. This was one of their rose scents - a  fragrance that they do very, very well. It wasn't as thick as some of the hand creams in their range but it was really nice and it left the skin feeling soft and smelling gorgeous.

So they were April's empties, if your doing something similar I'd love to see your posts so please link me up x Thanks for reading