The perfect guacamole

I'm a bit of an avocado fiend... I love them. They're good for your skin and delicious.

I love guacamole but hate the store bought muck. So I put together a little recipe of how to make the best guacamole... ever. 

You will need:

-2 ripe avocados
-1 whole lemon
-Hot pepper sauce
-A potato masher
-A bowl

Take the skins off your avocados, pop them in a bowl and mash them up with a potato masher.

Once they are all mushed squeeze a whole lemon and put a heaped tbsp of hot sauce.

Voila! The perfect guac.

If you're tired of the store bought muck too, give this a try! It is healthier, tastier and really quick to do.

Sweet Trees by Rivera

I stumbled upon Sweet Trees by Rivera and thought i'd share it with you. The site sells what the title says, trees made of sweets.

Some of my favourites:

buy (here)

Buy (here)

buy (here)

The last option would be a great alternative for a typical easter egg and the rest could be given as presents or used for decoration/snacks at events.

Spring Candles

Spring is fresh. Why does mother nature seem to think that spring is snow?! Who knows... but to get in the spring mood i've picked out a selection of my favourite spring candles.

Lily Flame party time candle:
 Perfect girlie candle. Pink packaging and the smell. Lily flame says: "A beautiful sensual candle with top notes of Indian rose and Belle de Nuit blossoms, the heart consists of orange, white tree and apricot notes. While the base, sensual and soft, brings waves of vanilla, amber and musk notes." If you've smelt Taylor Swift's Wonderstruck perfume, this is the candle equivalent. It's love. Buy for £8.50 (here)

Lemon Lavender Yankee candle:
Fresh. It reminds me of summer breezes. Imagine a lavender field and a citrus garden having a baby and that is the smell. Absolutely divine. Buy (here)

Trilogy rosehip oil antioxidant+

For the past week, everyone has been asking me if i'm ok, apparently i've been looking extremely pale. Don't worry, i'm not ill! I'm just sun deprived and need to go on holiday ASAP! In an attempt to look a little less zombie-like i picked up a few products, started testing them out and i stumbled upon an absolute gem.

This product has turned my skin, in three days, from dull and lifeless to bright and radiant. Trilogy says: 'Potent super antioxidants Lycopene from Tomato and Phytosterol from Acai help protect from premature ageing caused by environmental free radical damage. Nourishing Essential Fatty Acids (omegas 3 and 6) from Cranberry and Rosehip moisturise and renew. Mineral and vitamin rich Oat  extract provides a soothing and luxurious feel that glides on the skin.'

I've purchased a lot of face oils in the past but this one really tops them all. The product moisturises whilst adding a glow, makes your skin unbelievably soft and the cherry on top is that it doesn't clog your pores! An oil, that doesn't clog your pores? Is this real life? Am i dreaming? No wonder it's a celeb fav to the likes of Miranda Kerr and Victoria Beckham!

I feel this product works best when used at night, allowing time for it to sink in and when paired with a moisturiser to further nourish the skin. This product for is ideal people with scars, birth marks, dull or dry skin. Although it's pricy the product lasts a long time as you only need to use 2-3 drops per use and the full size product is 20ml. I use it on just my face and neck but it can be used all over the upper body too. Buy (here)

Eggvocado

Mornings, bleurgh. I am not a morning person. I hate having to crawl out of my warm, snuggly, bed every morning to spend ages making a warm breakfast then shoved out the door into the cold to make my way to an even colder place to work. So when i stumbled across the eggvocado a little light shone down from heaven and i swear i heard angels sing (ok, maybe i'm exaggerating a little but it definitely felt like that!).

You will need:
1 egg
1 half of an avocado
foil
chilli flakes
golden syrup

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees. Halve your avocado, take out the seed then grab a spoon and hollow out the avocado a little.

Place your avocado on piece of foil, crack an egg and put it in the hollowed out bit of your avocado. Drizzle with golden syrup and sprinkle a few chilli flakes. Carefully wrap it all up and pop in your oven for 14-15 minutes. (I like my yolk really runny, if you want it done a little more pop it back in for a few 2 more minutes.) (NOTE: if you put the syrup on before it will be running and may look like egg whites so don't be fooled. Test the yolk instead or just add syrup after.)

Take it out of the oven and enjoy the gooey goodness that requires minimal effort- what more could you ask for?

Origins face masks

Origins is one of the most established and best brands for skincare. A majority of their products are highly commended and rightly so. After reading so many rave reviews online i had to get my paws on the three most popular masks and having testing them out for a little over two months i thought i'd share my thoughts.

Origins Drink Up mask £20 (buy here)
Having dry skin this product suits me extremely well. It has a cream, almost gel-like, formula which is easy to distribute evenly around the face so you only need the tiniest amount to cover your face and neck resulting in the regular 100ml tubes lasting a while. (I've had mine since early january, use a it twice a week and reckon i've only used a quarter of the tube.) The mask is extremely rich and tackles those nasty dry patches during those cold months. A must-have for all those with dry skin.

Origins Clear Improvement £20 (buy here)
Probably my favourite face mask out of the three, don't get me wrong i'm a big fan of all of them but this one is something special. During the colder months my skin suffers terribly, it gets dry and boy, does it breakout! I tried this at a time when i was particularly spotty, it did nothing for the spots already there but as the spots there began to fade over time i noticed no fresh ones were arising- what is this witchcraft?! The only thing i had changed in my routine was my mask and ever since i have used it religiously. Although this mask is designed for oily skin it works wonders on my dry skin, i just slather on some face cream half an hour after using it. If you were to buy just one of the masks out of the three i would recommend this one the most, especially if you suffer from active breakouts or congested pores.

Origins Out of Trouble £20 (buy here)
This mask is designed for oily skins so i thought it'd be best to use one of my friends with more oily skin as a guinea pig so i could give better feedback. It mattified her skin without drying it out, in fact it left it soft and visibly brighter. Personally i've found this mask to work best on painful spots, it reduces the redness and dries the spot out thus reducing the pain. A holy grail product for all those who suffer from oily skin.

Mother's day gift guide

Mother's day is fast approaching and for all of those clueless i thought i'd make little guide to help you.

Top row (left to right): Pivoine Flora Trio £20(here) Weekend baking £16(here)  DIPTYQUE Mimosa scented candle £40(here)  Sugar-Spots Apron £34(here) Middle row: DIPTYQUE Baies scented candle £40(here)  Pink Champagne truffles £16.50(here) Ren face Mask £30 (here) Bottom row:  CathKidson mug £6.50(here)  Benefit skincare kit £10(here)  The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook £11(here)

http://www.asos.com/ASOS/ASOS-Blouse-With-Detail-Front-And-Drop-Neck/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=2527596&WT.ac=rec_viewed

Top 5 lip care products

I have dry everything. Dry skin, dry hair, dry nails- you get the gist. My biggest problem is my dry lips. They never stay hydrated, no matter how many litres of water i drink! This results in me buying excessive amounts of products to try to solve my problem. When i search for lip care i'm looking for products which make my lips look nice and hydrates at the same time, which is surprisingly hard to come across.

NUXE Reve de Miel Baume Levres Ultra-Nourrissant Ultra-Nourishing Lip Balm:

When i first purchased this in the summer i didn't see why it was raved about so much. I pushed it to the side and completely forgot about it. When i ran out of lip balm, around christmas, i turned to it and boy, have my views changed! I slathered it on my cracked lips before i went to bed and woke up with... hydrated lips! I was flabbergasted to say the least. Ever since i haven't been able to stop using it, it's quite a thick balm so i put it on before bed to let it sink in. The photo online is quite deceptive, it makes it look like it would have a creamy/balmy texture but it has more of a classic lip balm feel. It's £9.50, from Feelunique, which is a little more pricy than most lip care products but it is worth every penny! Buy it (here)

Lanolips Lemonaid Lip Aid with Organic Lemon Oil:

Hands down the best lip product i have ever tried for hydrating. Sinks into you lips after about half an hour, the lemon oil exfoliates and the lanolin moisturises- the perfect lip balm!  Buy it from boots (here)

Rose Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment SPF 15:

I got a mini sample of this in my Birchbox and i think it is fabulous! This product hydrates and leaves a lovely rosy finish on your lips, your lips stay hydrated but the colour fades after, approximately, half an hour. At £14.84 it's pricy, but pretty! Buy it from Sephora (here)


Lush Bubblegum Lip Scrub:

Lip savior. This product is a must-have for anyone who wears lipstick regularly. Leaves lips smooth to touch and looking airbrushed when paired with balm. (here)

Cherry Chapstick:

Last but most definitely not least is the legendary cherry Chapstick. This product hydrates your lips and leaves you with a lovely glow. It's a great product and for £1.05 who can complain? Buy it from boots (here)   

                                                         

Raspberry s'mores

Whenever i watch american films which have camping scenes in them there is always one reoccurring theme. When the day turned to night and the stars shone bright the characters would bring out their crackers and chocolate, roast some marshmallows then smush them all together to create, what looked like, a small piece of heaven. Every time i watch these scenes my eyes grow big and my mouth begins to water. I fancied something a little sweet to eat and guess what my first thought? Yep, s'mores. In an attempt to satisfy my sweet tooth but stay a little healthy i came up with an extremely tasty treat.

You will need:
8 Marshmallows
6 Raspberries
30g Chocolate
4 Digestive biscuits
A saucepan
A bowl

Half all the marshmallows, pop them on a tray and grill them for 20 seconds at most.

If you want solid chocolate in your s'mores ignore this step but I, personally, love a gooey filling. I achieve this by filling a saucepan with boiling and placing a bowl full with chocolate on top and stirring until it melts.

Grab a biscuit, 3 halved marshmallows, 3 raspberries then drizzle some chocolate stick three more halves of marshmallow on top then smush together with the final biscuit and VOILA! Raspberry s'mores!

Prep time- no prep.

Cooking time- 6-10 minutes

Serves- 2
                                                                            Try not to eat them too fast, haha!            

                                                                           

P.S. if anyone knows of anywhere to buy veggie marshmallows, please let Emily know. She will love you forever ...

Low fat peanut butter ice-cream

I love ice-cream. My only problem with it is that it isn't very healthy and the fat free ones tend to taste like absolute muck. After experimenting in my kitchen for a few hours i came up with the perfect recipe: Low fat peanut butter ice-cream. Simple to make and so scrummy.

You will need:

3 bananas

3 tbsps Peanut butter 

A Food Processor

A scraping spatula (Not essential, a spoon does the job too)

Baking tray

Slice up your bananas.

Pop them all on a tray, cover with cling film and freeze them. I tend to freeze them overnight but anything past 7 hours will do. When they come out they should be rock hard. 

(TIP- when freezing the bananas make sure they're separated, it's easier to get them off the tray)

Chuck them all into your food processor.

Weeee watch them go!

When it reaches this stage it will seem for the next few minutes that nothing is happening- trust me, something is but it's just happening very slowly! The banana parts will start to stick to the side of the processor, just used your spatula/spoon to move it down next to the blade. (Make sure the processor is off every time you push the banana down of things could get very messy...)

Told you something would happen! You're left with this creaaaamy fat free goodness. Time to make it a little naughty, add your peanut butter and put the processor back on for 1 more minute.

Prep time- 7-12 hours

Cooking time- 6-10 minutes

Serves- approx. 4

Sit back and enjoy your guilt free ice-cream. Peanut butter isn't the only flavour you can have, when you get to the part where you add the peanut butter swap it for whatever tickles your fancy.  Some of my favourite flavours are:
Nutella - use 3 tbsp Nutella

Berry - use 1 cup of frozen berries

   

                                                                                                 Enjoy!