Lush and Lipstick Haul

Hi everyone! HAPPY NEW YEAR! I'm pumped for this year, mainly because its a chance to start over and improve on the last year but also because it's my last year of high school and in some ways my last year of freedom, so I'm eager to make the most of it. However, I'm not a fan of New Years resolutions. Every year we set them and fail at them, and it's kind of just a way of saying 'I'm going to set unrealistic goals of all the things I want to achieve and achieve none of them'. I would love to be one of those people that can 'tackle the problem today instead of tomorrow' but in reality I'm not. So this year instead of coming up with a list of unrealistic resolutions, I'm just going to aim to make the best out of 2015, however I may decide to do that, and really just improve upon myself, so that when I look back on 2015 I'll be satisfied. Anyway, to kick off 2015 I thought I'd do a haul. This is a collection of lipsticks and lush products I got for Christmas and bought in the boxing day sales. They make me very happy, so hopefully they'll make you happy too. :)


Lips:

Revlon lip butter in the shade 050: Berry smoothie

This lipstick is so moisturizing and really pigmented they're a really cool contrast between a lip balm and a lipstick and the colour 050 is gorgeous. Everyone raves about these and I can definitely tell why.

Maybelline Colour whisper in the shade 25: Lust For Blush

Again, these are just as great as the Revlon Lip butters although these have a creamier consistency, are super moisturizing and just as pigmented and  the colour 'lust for blush' is a beautiful pale pink colour. I love it.

Rimmel Kate Moss in the shades 111 and 107

These two lipsticks are just ugh amazing. I love wearing red lipstick and when I'm in a really arty mood these are definitely what I wear haha. They're really pigmented and super long lasting. The shade 111 is really cool vibrant red and the shade 107 is more of a deep maroon, berry red colour.

Lush:

Soap: Fig and Leaves. I have been wanting this soap for soooooo long now. It is my favourite lush soap in terms of scents. It's not for everyone but its got kind of a nutty but fresh smell to it. It's quite hard to explain but oh my gosh it smells so good.

The Christmas Hedgehog bubble bar. This is unfortunately a limited edition Christmas bubble bar but it's so cute! Not to mention it smells incredible and the top bit, the 'spines' I guess, is sort of bath-melty. Yum!

Karma Bubble bar. This bubble smells so good I could smell it through the wrapping paper. The only way to describe it is that it reminds me so much of incense. It is just such a calming smell, I fear I might fall asleep in the bath.

Wizard Bubble Bar. I saw this one and immediately wanted it cause just look at how cute he is! He also smells amazing, possibly one of my all time favorite lush scents.

Lord of Misrule Bathbomb. Although the wizard is possibly one of my favorites, this bath bomb IS my favorite scent from 2014. It just has the best smell. My bathroom now smells like Lord of Misrule and it makes it very difficult to leave. I cant even begin to express how excited I am to find out what this will do in the bath. 

Drummers Drumming Bubble Wand. Even though this smells incredible I had to buy it simply because of how ridiculously cute it is. Also do not give this to a small child as it has bells. :)

Hope I made you happy with my stuff :)

Zoë xx

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DIY paper snowflakes

Hi everyone! Since the Christmas season has flown by and is quickly coming to a close, I though I would get a few Christmassy blog posts in before its over. I go a little crazy at Christmas time and cut about 50000000000 snowflakes out of paper. I don't mean to toot my own horn but my snowflake cutting skills are probably about the only spectacular skill I possess and today I thought I would teach you my ways. 

You want to start with a piece of paper that half the size of an A4 piece of paper. In other words cut a piece of A4 paper  in half.

You then want to fold down the top half of the paper to form a triangle and cut off the excess paper at the bottom like in the picture above.

Once you've got your folded in half triangle, here comes the tricky bit, fold it in half again. 

Now you should have a triangle that been folded in half twice. The next thing you want to do is fold that triangle into thirds, along the lines in the picture above.

Once you've folded the triangle into thirds, cut off the excess paper along the top (picture above) so you end up with a triangle shape (picture below). 

Now the fun bit,

From this triangle you can cut your design. When you cutting out your design make sure you don't cut straight across, obviously that will result in your snowflake being presented in separate little bits of paper and we don't want that. The design above is to create the snowflake at the top of the blog post.

Cut out the shaded areas shown above so you remain with the snowflake pattern below.

Fold it out and Tad-ah! You have created yourself a masterpiece.

Here are some more to get you inspired and coming up with some more crazy designs,

Merry Chistmas!

Zoë xo

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Healthy Sugar Free Blueberry and Oat Muffins

Hello everyone! Since I have now finished school for 2014 (woo!) I am trying a lot harder to be more healthy. I know I'm not the only who gives in to sugar cravings so I have created this recipe that fulfills my sugar needs without actually containing the sugar!

 For this Recipe you will need:

• 1 cup of oat flour
• 1 1/4 cup SR flour 
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 2 1/2 tablespoons of chia seeds
• 2/3 cup of natvia 
• 1/3 cup of coconut oil 
• 1 tablespoon of treacle 
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup of milk
• 1 cup of frozen blue berries or mixed berries

1. sift dry ingredients (oat flour, SR flour and baking powder) into bowl. Add natvia and chia seeds. Combine.
2. Melt coconut oil in microwave for 10 seconds, Keep coconut oil separate from other wet ingredients as cold ingredients such as milk and egg will cause it to clump. 
3. Combine other wet ingredients (treacle, eggs and milk) in a separate jug or bowl. Wisk together with a fork.
4. Add coconut oil and wet ingredients to dry ingredient and mix well. 
5. Once combined add in frozen berries and mix lightly to disperse the berries evenly through the mixture.
6. Spoon into muffin cases and bake in a moderate oven (180 degrees celsius) for 25 minutes or until golden. 

ENJOY!

Zoë xo

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Great-Nana's Custard YoYos

 This is my mum's Grandma's yummy recipe for Custard Biscuits. There's something so lovely about taking the time to make a nice cup of tea, in a nice cup  and sitting down to enjoy it with a nice biscuit. These biscuits are sooo yummy and super easy to make, only five ingredients!

For This Recipe You will need:

 Ingredients: 60g of custard powder, 60g of icing sugar, 170g of Plain flour, 170g of Butter, pinch of salt   

 Method: 

1. preheat oven to 150ºC
2. cream butter and icing sugar together until pale and creamy
3. sift in custard powder and flour. add salt
4. stir together until mixture is formed 
5. role into balls and place on tray. press flat with floured fork
6. bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden
7. allow to cool and crisp
8. eat!! 

Send me a pic on twitter or instagram (@ZOEBO13) if you makes these. I would love to see it!

Zoë xx

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A Holiday in South West Rocks

Hello everyone! So this past week I went for a wonderfully relaxing holiday with my family to the gorgeous little country/seaside town of South West Rocks. This year was actually the second year in a row I'd been to South West Rocks and as much as I'd loved it the first time I cant help but love it even more after seeing it again. It really is one of the most beautiful places on earth and the views are nearly as stunning as my photographic representations of them. It's the perfect balance between being a quaint little country town, with some of the greatest food you'll ever eat ESPECIALLY the gelato, and a relaxing seaside getaway. The whole town is surrounded by the most amazing beaches which you can hear from pretty well anywhere in town at night time. Just off the water is the old Trial Bay Gaol which is one of the most intriguing and spooky places I've ever been. It was built in the 1880's and was used during the first world war as a German internment camp. It's pretty beautiful for a Gaol and certainly has some amazing views over the water where you can see plenty of whales and dolphins. Also included in the 'great views' category is the memorial walk and the old lighthouse. The light house has to be one of my favorite things about this little town, purely because if you can manage to ignore the extremely Aussie foliage that surrounds it you would swear that you were somewhere in Greece. Not to mention the view once you reach the top is pretty spectacular (and a great whale-spotting vantage point). So, if you love a good view and some great food, South West Rocks is the place to be. 

Zoë xx

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7 things to do these holidays

Hi Guys! Zoe here. I am delighted to say that I have finally finished my exams and am about to embark on a measly two weeks of short but glorious holidays. If you live in Australia you'll know it's winter holidays time and if your from America you're probably basking in summer holiday sun. Regardless of what season it is you and I both know you're not just going to spend your few weeks of freedom vegetating in front of a laptop screen. So without further adieu, I would like propose a list of seven, because I couldn't think of ten, things you can do this winter/summer to make you a more interesting person.

1. Plan a prank. For those of you that might not be familiar with the art of pranking, now is the time to unleash your inner prankster. Sit down, tap your fingers together like the sinister beast you are and form a masterful plan to publicly humiliate somebody you despise. The result is always fulfilling.

2. Try something new. Don't think this means you need to do something drastic like jump out of an aeroplane. Simply do something you've been meaning to try for ages like a new food or start that blog you've been meaning to.

3. Cook an incredibly difficult recipe. Now for those of you aren't exactly skilled bakers this may not be the thing for you. If you don't bake very often, why not try now? If you happen to be a little more experienced, try to cook something way out of your league and either impress yourself with your hidden abilities or watch as disaster unfolds. Either way challenge yourself and have fun.

4. Turn something from old to new. As you will find out very soon I have taken on a little furniture project of my own in refurbishing a vintage phone table for my room. I want you guys to find something, whether its an old piece of furniture or an old piece of clothing and transform it into something new. These kind of things are so fun to do and will give you a serious sense of satisfaction when you're done.

5. Venture to new lands. Go somewhere you've never been before. Whether it's a seven hour flight away or a 30 minute drive to a newly discovered hide-away, go and explore somewhere new, open your mind and of course, take as many photos you can.

6. Read a book. Some of you may be very avid readers, good for you this task will be simple, but those of you who can't, for the life of them, seem to make it all the way through a book this is your new mission. I am challenging you to finally make it to the end of that book. I know you can do it.

7. Write a letter. For me, there is nothing better than receiving a hand written letter in the mail. So whip out those smelly pens and get on writing to a long lost friend, relative abroad or pen pale. Or if your lonely, write a letter to your thirty year old self, store it away somewhere safe and prepare to be amused when you read it however many years later.


So there you have it, seven (not ten) very simple things you can do this summer/winter that are guaranteed to make you a more interesting person. Yes, these points are very broad, hence why there are only seven, but the rest is up to you and wherever you are in the world. :)

Have fun!!

Zoe xx

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VS Sassoon Curl Secret Review

yes my absence is horrendous I'm aware...

Hello everybody! 

As I am well and truly overdue for some kind of update on our blog I thought I'd do a review on a curler I got as a Christmas present. The Curl Secret has become my new found love over the past couple of months and is something I feel I have to share with the rest of the world. (or the small crowd of people who read this blog)

If you have no idea what the curl secret is you either A) don't watch enough TV or B) don't waste the majority of your life on the internet. To sum it up it's basically a hair iron that has a large barrel on the end that forms a curl by sucking a strand of hair into that barrel, wrapping it and heating it so once released will form a curl. As I'm 234762398% sure that description made absolutely no sense to any body I did a quick video to show you how it works and when I say short I mean short. 

I have to admit my first impression of this product was oh my god it's going to eat my hair and I will never get it back. (ok maybe not that extreme) But after using it and learning the right amount of hair to put in the hair chamber etc I found it really manageable and easy to use. The thing I love the most about this curler is that you really don't need a great deal of skill to use it. It takes around four seconds for the curl to form and beeps to tell you when to release it from the barrel and the only thing I have to do is hold it.

The thing, I feel, really sets this curler apart from other maybe more affordable curling wands is the type of curl you can create with it. I find it really hard, due to my skill level, to get a defined bouncy curl using just a wand, which is why for me, being able to create a bouncy curl with very little effort and skill with my curl secret is like a gift from the heavens. I use this when I want to curl my whole head. It really doesn't take me very long at all (15 minutes tops). I also really like the look I get by just curling the ends of my hair (I either leave it out or tie it back in a low pony tail). These are by far not the only hairstyles you can create with this. It is really quite diverse and does not take very long at all to create a simple but effective hairstyle.

I definitely read ALOT of reviews about this product when I just began using it to get an idea of other peoples opinions. I was happy to see that the majority of reviews were really positive and I had to have a little laugh at one particular comment I read. It was a mum writing in unhappy with the product, sharing her view and her comment said: I bought one of these for my five year old daughter as a Christmas present and was very unhappy with the product. We tried it out and she had a go herself but we were very mad when we had to cut my daughters hair out of the barrel because it got stuck and we couldn't pull it out. not happy. I had to laugh because what parent would let a five year old use something like this and what the hell does a five year old want with a hair curler anyway. So yes that did make me chuckle, thought I would share that with you.

I'm sorry this post turned out to be so lengthy but I hope this helped anyone out who is thinking of buying the product or just wanted to find out a little more about it. I would highly recommend going out and getting it, it is fab. This was also most definitely not a sponsored blog post I just really love this product.

 xoxo Zoe 

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