Wiping Away Eye Bag-Blues

B. B Cream (SPF 15) 

Rimmel's Wake Me Up concealer (020 True Ivory) 

B. Sculpted Contour Kit

It seems that no matter how much sleep I get, I always wake up with seemingly all-encompassing purpley-grey bags under my eyes. Maybe it's something that runs in my family, or maybe I have a skewed sleep pattern that hasn't rectified in years. Who knows. Anyway, this means that I'm always trying to find a way to make it look like I've had more than four hours sleep on any formal occasion/night out I want to impress on. With these products, I think I've pretty much round my answer - for now at least.

I'll start off with the B. B cream, as this is what I applied first. For someone with combination skin, this product remarkably leaves my skin feeling better than before I put it on. It's refreshing and really feels as though it moisturises my skin. It's also definitely something that needs to be put on with a make-up brush, as otherwise half the product will end up helping to smooth the skin of your hands!

The Wake Me Up concealer is great for going over the bags under your eyes. The stick looks like a lip gloss stick, and you apply it in a similar way. I found that it's best to wipe a bit of excess off before using, because otherwise you end up spending forever gently blending it half way across your face in an attempt to not make it too obvious that you're under-eyes don't naturally look like that in the morning.

Finally, I applied the contour. As you can probably tell from the pictures, it's not too bold or extreme, but just gives a nice edge to your cheekbones/jawline. The main problem I've found with it is that if you do want a more definitive contour, this product can be quite hard to blend. 

I couldn;t resist popping up a picture of me and Ted as part of this one! He turned a year old a couple of months ago and is definitely one of the things I get most homesick for when I'm at uni! 

Love and Light

Steph

Hearty Healthy Lamb Casserole

In England we're now firmly settling into Autumn. The trees have reached a gourgeous yellow/red/orange colour and everything looks quite pretty. Unless it's raining. Which sadly it now does at least every other day. I guess we can start dreaming about summer again .... Anyway, Autumn does have some advantages. There's nothing nicer than to snuggle up on a cold November evening with a steaming hot meal in front of you. One that you don't have to feel will add on those winter pounds is always a bonus as well. 

Ingredients (serves 4):

2lb diced lamb.

1 carrot

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

2 teaspoons fresh ginger

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

750ml chicken stock

2 teaspoons fresh rosemary

Extra virgin olive oil

Ground black pepper

Sea salt

Dried chili flakes

1.) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. 

2.) Finely chop the onion and garlic. Chop the carrot.

3.) Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan. Cook the onion, garlic and carrot for roughly five minutes on a medium heat. Take care not to burn as it can alter the taste of the entire casserole (from experience, burnt onion is noticeable in pretty much every dish!). 

4.) Whilst this is cooking, put another tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan or wok. Brown the chunks of lamb.

5.) Grate the ginger and add to the cooking vegetables. Add the chili flakes. Cook for one minute. Put the vegetables in a casserole dish. 

6.) Add the lamb to the casserole dish.

7.) Put the rosemary (taken off the sticks) into the pan which the lamb was cooked in. Add the stock. Heat until the stock is bubbling. 

8.) Add the stock to the casserole. Stir and put in the oven for 1 hour.

9.) Add the Worcestershire sauce, ground black pepper and sea salt. Put back in the oven for another hour.

10.) Et voila, you have a gourgeous casserole for the whole family, or, if you're just cooking for yourself it's suitable for freezing (great for long days where you don't want to cook!).

Love and Light

Steph

Any comments/questions are always welcome!

**DISCLAIMER**

All photos are property of Sophie Hartley

Review of The Body Shop's Smoky 2 in 1 Gel Liner for Eyes and Brows

As you can see from the title for this piece, The Body Shop's smoky liner is designed for both eyes and brows. However, a black brow liner is far too dark for my eyebrows and looks more than slightly ridiculous, so I'll just be reviewing it's purposes as an eyeliner. Previously I've used Maybelline's gel liner, and it got me hooked on gel eyeliner (goodbye Barry M kohl pencils!), so as it was running out I thought it was a great opportunity to try something new. 

If you've read some of my previous posts you'll know that I'm pretty much in love with a lot of The Body Shop's products. You can see how much I rate some of their skincare products here. Having said that, this fell a bit flat. I've bought a fair amount of makeup from here before and on the whole it's pretty fab. But this wasn't the best for it's price tag, which is similar to Maybelline's gel liner. The brush is awesome, incredibly soft on your lids even after a few weeks of not cleaning it (whoops). The liner itself is very hard to get on without it looking streaky. At first I thought it was the brush, but sadly nope. Anyhow, now I think I've got the knack of making it streak-free, even if it takes a while. 

To move away from the negatives, I hope everyone has had a great Halloween. And anyway, as long as you can create a number of different styles with an eyeliner - I didn't accidentally have one flick and one wing on different eyes in the picture - you can step out of the door with confidence.

Love and Light

Steph