Bourton-on-the-Water - January 2015

Now I know what you are probably thinking, but El you already did a blog post about Bourton-on-the-Water a month ago, but it really is one of my absolute favourite places to be, so for this blog post I took very different pictures to last time so you could see more of Bourton. 

Now it was a pretty gloomy day and basically all the shops and cafe's are shut in January therefore when going with Jess, her mum and my mum we just had a wander around and went into the shops that were open but it was more for a walk around!

I will just leave you to look at the pretty pictures because I think they're pretty self explanatory and I wanted to show you more of Bourton-on-the-Water.

Alright there Jess?

I thought this drawing on the sign was amazing, loved it for some reason!

Even if pretty much every thing was shut due to it being January I always have a good time in Bourton!

Love El
xxx

Best Friend Tag - My Eye Makeup

I know this is probably really random but I liked how I did my eye makeup for my Best Friend Tag post, which you can see in the last two pictures of that post, so I wanted to show you all how it was created! For my eye makeup I went for a pink and lilac look which I have been loving recently and wanted to share it with you all.

What products I used and how I used them:

• First up I used Maybelline's Colour Tattoo in Pink Gold, I applied this all over my lids and also underneath the eyes on the lash line.
• The second Maybelline Colour Tattoo I used was in Metallic Pomegranate, this was placed VERY messily in the outer corner, crease and outer half of my bottom lash line. Both of these colour tattoos are acting as bases for the shadows to come.
• Next up was the pink eyeshadow out of my W7 10 out of 10 assorted eye shadow palette. I put this on top of everywhere Pink Gold had been used - the lids and inner half of my bottom lash line.
• The lilac shadow, from the same W7 palette, was then placed over the top of my Metallic Pomegranate Colour Tattoo - outer corner, crease and outer half of my bottom lash line.
• I then made sure everything was blended properly and applied some coats of the Maybelline The Rocket Waterproof Mascara.

I absolutely love this makeup look and I hope you do too!

Love El

xxx

25 Questions - Best Friend Tag

Since this blog started all the way back in March 2014 my best friend, Jess, has only starred in about 2 posts, and in my opinion that is not enough! So to introduce Jess to El Willmer I thought we better do the best friend tag! I grabbed questions I liked from all over the place and got Jess to answer them with me.

1. How and when did we meet? 

Together: We originally met when Jess's cousin and I started nursery together and Jess hi-jacked the trampoline! That was about 14 and a half years ago.

2. What are your favourite memories together? 

Jess: When I stayed at El's in Year 4. First we went to Pizza Hut and then slept in a pop up tent in the spare room, I also pulled down the curtains while dancing.

El: My favourite memory has to be watching Jess act in her drama company performances, so any of those productions would be a favourite memory, as they were so good!

3. Describe each other in one word.

Jess: Beautiful.

El: Hilarious.

4. What's your best friend's dream job? 

Jess: Well she would really love to do anything involving photography but I think she'd make a great Makeup Artist.

El: Plain and simple, Jess would love to be a Stage Actress.

5. What's your best friend's favourite makeup brand? 

Together: MAC.

6. What is something that annoys you about the other person? 

Jess: That I don't get to see her as much as I need!

El: Jess is an absolute rubbish texter! And also what Jess said of course!

7. If you could go anywhere in the world together, where would it be? 

Together: CORNWALL, UK! And Bora Bora, and anywhere really, we'd have an amazing time!

8. Favourite inside joke? 

Jess: Pony Friends Forever.

El: Can you imagine my face....

9. My best friend looks beautiful when ________

Jess: She has curly hair, and just always.

El: She's happy.

10. Your best friend's favourite season? 

Jess: She likes a bit of everything, she's greedy on the seasons.

El: Summer.

11. If your best friend has a scar, how did they get it? 

Jess: Ellie has one on her knee from my dog pulling her over, and one on her nose from a car crash.

El: Jess has scars on her forehand, knees, arms, thighs, and they're all pretty much from falling over.

12. What is it like being best friends with a blogger. 

Jess: It's great, because I am very proud of her! Reading her blog makes me really happy. 

13. Would your best friend choose heels or flats? 

Jess: Flats.

El: Flats, but we both love looking at heels, they're just so uncomfortable.

14. Would your best friend choose trousers or dresses? 

Jess: Trousers (or skirts).

El: Dresses.

15. Your best friend's favourite animal? 

Jess: She loves her pet rabbit Alfie, wolves, huskies and horses.

El: Cows and her pet dog, Moley, oh and badgers.

16. If your best friend's house was burning down, and their entire family and pets were sure to be okay, what 3 things would your best friend save? 

Jess: Laptop, camera, photo albums.

El: Phone, keyboard, Pandora bracelet.

17. Would your best friend choose comedy, horror, or chick-flick? 

Together: COMEDY.

18. Would your best friend choose Blackberry or iPhone? 

Together: iPhone.

19. Does your best friend have any nicknames?

Jess: Smelly Ellie (although she's not too keen on that one), Ellsie, Ellie, El, Elle.

El: Jess, Jessie, Jessie car car, Jessica.

20. What is something weird that your best friend eats? 

Jess: Barbecue ketchup with everything!

El: Jess always drinks with food in her mouth, which I find pretty weird and has mayonnaise on everything!

21. Do you guys have anything matching? 

Together: A top from Primark, a Jack Wills Gilet and a matching ring set.

22. If you were out together, what would your best friend eat?

Jess: Ellie would have something to do with chicken, pasta or rice.

El: Jess would have a burger.

23. What's something you want to teach your best friend? 

Jess: To teach El how to draw and make my funny lip noise.

El: Teach Jess how to text more.

24. What is something you want to change about your best friend?

Jess: I would want Ellie to have much more confidence in everything!

El: I would change the amount of confidence Jess has in her artwork! It is always amazing!

25. If your best friend were deserted on an island, what are the 3 things she could not live without?

Jess: Laptop, makeup and food!

El: Moley, a hair band and underwear!

And that's our best friend tag!
Hope you enjoyed.

Love El

xxx

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December 2014

January 2015

Nanshy MARVEL 4 in 1 Makeup Blending Sponge

After being part of The Bloggers Hub  Twitter Party I was so kindly gifted Nanshy's brand new MARVEL 4 in 1 Makeup Sponge. This post is going to be 100% full of my own thoughts and opinions about this product! That is a promise. 

I have never tried a beauty sponge even with all the hype surrounding them, but I have always wanted to try products from Nanshy so when seeing this during the Twitter Party I couldn't say no! I will say that I do feel I need a little practise using this as it gives such different results from using a brush.

I decided that as this is a review I would test this sponge to the max and use it for nearly every step of my base makeup routine! Nanshy claims it is tremendous quality at a cheaper price and I have to agree, it is so soft and feels lovely when applying makeup. The sponge is easy to clean, it literally looks brand new again just from a little hand soap and washing it under the tap! To use this sponge just run it under the tap until completely wet, it will expand (and in my opinion feel even more like a soft marshmallow!) you then need to squeeze very gently until the sponge is damp. When applying your makeup I don't really have any tips, just bounce the sponge up and down on your face and use the different surfaces to apply makeup as you wish.

Verdict:

• Foundation: For this I used the bottom of the sponge. It blended out my foundation extremely well and gave a very even and light coverage! 
• Coverage: I am very impressed with how the slanted tip blended out the concealer under my eyes, I have never had my dark circles covered up so perfectly! It also covered up my blemishes pretty well, but not as good as my dark circles.
• Contour: I used a dark liquid concealer so I could test this sponge and check to see if there is anything it can't do and apparently it can do everything! It blended out my contour so well!
• Highlighter: Surprise surprise the sponge blended this out extremely well, I used Benefit's High Beam which I usually struggle to blend but the sponge did not struggle one bit!

Overall thoughts of the sponge and Nanshy

I am very impressed with this sponge and at £5.95 I think it is an incredible price, I would recommend it to anyone, and if you want to get your hands on this sponge it is available from February! You can use it with makeup from liquid to cream, mineral based to wet-dry powders, and cream blushes! And for Nanshy as a company I again am extremely impressed, the delivery very quick, the packaging so sleek and I will certainly be purchasing some things from them! I also love that Nanshy is 100% vegan and cruelty free.

Foundation:

Concealer:

Contour:

Highlight:

Overall:

Do excuse the fact I didn't do anything with my eyebrows and eyelashes, I wanted to keep this post all about the sponge.

Love El
xxx

Banana & Oat Pancakes

A quick and very easy recipe for you today! This one using a blender, a non-stick frying pan and just 5 ingredients.

For this blog post we have healthy pancakes, yes I said healthy! They taste great so that's a plus of course. The recipe I have done here is to serve 1 but you can get 4 small pancakes, which I find A LOT easier than making a big one! If you are not overly keen on the taste of banana and just want a hint of the taste I would suggest using half a banana instead of a whole one.

The Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup of rolled oats
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
• A pinch of salt

The Steps:

First:

In your blender combine your peeled banana, egg, rolled oats, baking powder and salt. Blend until the mixture is smooth.

Second:

Heat your frying pan over a medium heat, and then fry spoonfuls of the batter until golden brown on both sides.

Third:

Serve however you want, I personally love these pancakes with Nutella or fruit!

Fourth:

And that really is it!
ENJOY!

I told you it was nice and easy, so do give them a try yourself!

My Blender - Breville Blend-Active

Love El

xxx

Lush Haul Part 2 (Still Christmas Products)

I know Christmas is well and truly over and we're now into 2015, I'm sorry this is so late but it took me so long to spend my other voucher, and I then bought so many things they took a while to photograph as I don't have baths that regularly! (Obviously though I do shower, just want to point that out!) But I wanted to post this anyway as I personally love taking the photos and reading other people's Lush posts!

Now there are 3 bath bombs here that were in my LAST POST therefore I didn't bother taking photos again so only took pictures of the different products. 

In this post there is a Melted Snowman but he just makes your bath white, so I wasn't sure there was much point photographing that! 

The first Lush product photographed was the Dashing Santa, (middle of photo) I loved this bath bomb the feet are supposed to fizz away first so he floats around you bath which I think is so cute. The scent of this is very citrusy which I personally loved.

Next up we have Father Christmas, I loved this bath bomb itself as the case is red but inside is green, however this smells to me of Candy Mountain of which I am not particularly a fan as I find it so in your face, but I would buy Father Christmas again because I just love the fact it is so Christmassy!!

Last up is Shooting For The Stars, and I LOVED this one, can't wait for this again to come out! The colour that this turned my bath was so gorgeous and it's scent is shared with Honey I Washed The Kids of which is one of my all time favourite smells from Lush so Shooting For The Stars is an absolute winner for me!

Sorry this Lush Haul was so late but hey its here now, hope you enjoyed!

Love El

xxx