links

Friday 24 October 2014

Pumpkin for Dinner: Recipe for October/Halloween


It's nearly Halloween!! Time to plan our scary outfits, think of cool make up, decorate our houses, drink hot chocolates by the fire, waiting for our hair to dry from the rain and time to carve some pumpkins. However, pumpkins can also be made into a delecious dinner following the next recipe.
Feel free to alter some things to your liking, this is just how I made my dinner.



Halloween Dinner (Pumpkin and Couscous)
For 4 people

Ingredients:
1 small pumpkin
200 gr Couscous
120 gr Snow Peas
100 gr Raisins
Olive oil
Sambal
Mint
Lemon juice
Honey
Chicken Bouillon Cube
Salt
Pepper

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.
Step 2: Cut the pumpkin into little squares. This is harder than it looks, so please be carefull. Put them on a baking tray and sprinkle them with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Put the tray in the oven. Leave the pumpkin in for about 20 minutes.
Step 3: Make a dressing out of half a teaspoon of sambal, the leaves of 6 stems of mint, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, 1 1/2 tablespoons of honey and 4 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil. Mix it well.
Step 4: Boil 400 ml water and add half of the chicken bouillon cube, once the cube is dissolved, add the couscous. Use the instructions on the packaging, because they may vary.
Step 5: Cook the Snow Peas, when they're done, rinse with cold water and cut into smaller pieces.
Step 6: When the couscous is ready, stir with a fork to loosen it up. Add the snow peas and the raisins.
Step 7: Put the couscous on a plate and sprinkle the dressing on top. Add the pumpkin and your done. Enjoy your Halloween Pumpkin dinner!


Let me know how your pumpkin dinner turned out. Also if you have any suggestions for me, please leave them in the comments. Cooking is one of my many hobbies and I love trying new things.
Love you lots,



~Xx

Tuesday 14 October 2014

Review: L'Oréal Paris Collection Exclusive Pure Reds


Hello loves! How are you doing? You're fine? Good, good.
Today I'll be doing a review on these pretty lipsticks which are part of the L'Oréal Paris Collection Exclusive Pure Reds range.
I've noticed we have different colours in the Netherlands than in the UK and probably more countries, so for most people these colours are hard to get by, sorry about that, but I wanted to show them to you anyway. And even though the colours and names might be different, the formula and packaging will probably be the same, so this post will hopefully still be helpful to you, or at least enjoyable to read.
If you're more of a nude lipstick person, I've also reviewed the Collection Privée Nude lipsticks from L'Oréal Paris, which you can check out here.
 

Just like the Collection Privée lipsticks, these come in the most gorgeous black packaging with gold detailing. However, unlike the Collection Privée lipsticks, these have a subtle engraving which looks to me like crocodile print. I really like this, because red lipsticks are a bit more edgy than nude lipsticks, which is visible in the packaging. It also has the signatures of the people by whom this lipstick was inspired on them, which I really like. This way you can find your perfect red lipstick by looking for the person with a similar hair and skin colour, although I didn't really pick my lipsticks this way.


I went for Doutzen's pure red and Laetitia's pure red. I wouldn't really call these lipsticks pure reds, but they're gorgeous, so no complaints from my mouth. The other two colours we have in the Netherlands are Blake's red and Julianne's red, which I believe are also available in the UK, together with Liya's red and Eva's red, if I'm right, correct me if I'm wrong.


Doutzen's pure red is a vibrant orangey red lipstick, which is perfect for summer, but I also like it for autumn with Halloween coming up, due to its very pigmented orange colour. I've been wanting an orange lipstick for such a long time, so I'm glad I finally got my hands on one, and I love it. I'm not really used to wearing this colour on my lips, so it still feels a bit weird when I look in the mirror, but I am looking forward to wearing this loads in summer.
Also I just needed to add this lipstick to my collection, because Doutzen Kroes is a famous model and from the Netherlands! We rule! (: Maybe it's not a coincidence her lipstick looks so orange, because it's our national colour.


Laetitia's pure red is a gorgeous dark berry purple red lipstick. Perfect for the upcoming winter season. I'm not sure yet if this lipstick suits me, but it might be because dark lipsticks are new to me, since I've always been too scared to try them. But I just love this colour so much. It's so deep and rich and amazingly pigmented.

Both lipsticks have amazing pigmentation. They also last a long time on the lips, but they are also very creamy and tend to slip and slide. However, this is easily prevented by using a lip liner. The creaminess also makes these lipsticks moisturizing, which is great for my dry lips and amazing since both lipsticks are semi matte.


I'm so happy I bought these two lipsticks, even though I'm not sure these colours suit me very well. What do you think? It probably just takes some time for me to get used to them, but they are so pretty and feel great on the lips.
I'm really tempted to buy the other two colours and maybe even see if somehow I can buy Eva's and Liya's red as well.


I'm so sorry these two colours aren't available in the UK. If someone knows how to get these, please let me and my readers know in the comments so we can help each other out.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this post, if not, I'm sorry, better luck next time. Let me know if you have tried, or will be trying these pure reds and what you think about them. I want to know.




~Xx

Friday 3 October 2014

Review: Zoella Beauty Blissful Mistful Fragranced Body Mist

When I heard that Zoe (Zoella) was bringing out a range of beauty products I became very excited. A short while back her products launched on the FeelUnique website and I immediately had to order the body mist in the collection. Also, can we all agree on how amazing the launch party of Zoella Beauty looked? It was amazingly decorated and not forgetting Zoe looking more gorgeous than she already normally does, in the most beautiful dress I've ever seen.
I will be talking about the actual product soon, all that I want to say is congratulations Zoe on creating a super sweet collection of beauty products.
 

Let's start with a very important factor of a fragrance: The packaging, and this one is the cutest. It is easy to see that Zoe designed the packaging of the products. Her signatures are all over, from the polka dots, to the handwriting and the red/gold lid. It is a gorgeous glass bottle, which is very compact and looks pretty standing on your dressing table.
 
The bottle contains 45 ml of a gorgeous scent. This is one of a few fragrances which smell better on the skin than from the bottle. With most fragrances I find this to be the other way around, which always bothers me. So if you're going to try this body mist in the store, try it on your skin to sniff the actual scent of the fragrance.
 

The fragerance itself is very light and sweet. I'm not a big fan of strong scents, so this is perfect for me. It smells very fruity and sweet containing notes of wild strawberry, violet, jasmin, gardenia and vanilla, which create a perfect scent altogether. I think this body mist is perfect for younger girls who've just started wearing perfume, but it's also a very nice scent for girls in their 20's and all ages in between.
The lasting power of this body mist is amazing. It is still well noticeable at the end of the day, couldn't be more perfect.

This is a great body mist and only cost me 8 pounds. What a great buy. Thank you Zoe for keeping your products well affordable.

Will you be buying the blissful mistful body mist? Or have you used something else from Zoe's bath & body collection? Let me know what you think in the comments below!



~Xx

Wednesday 1 October 2014

Interior Peek



Hello loves,

Just a quick post before I'm heading out the door again. I recently bought this wooden crate on a marktet to add to my interior and I really love the way it turned out. I placed it next to my bed/couch to use it as a bedside/coffee table. Inside I've put my schoolbooks, but some fashion magazines would look prettier. On top I put some candles I bought on markets as well. It's so simple but I think this adds a nice touch to your room. What do you think?



~Xx