My New Beauty Product Storage!

Hello! The corner where I store all my beauty products has had a make-over! It looks so much better in real life - If only I could capture it with my eyes for you, instead of with a camera. I had been wanting to change my beauty product storage for months, but could never find the right chest of drawers. As you can see, my products were taking over my room!

The white chest of drawers are from Argos and are from the Aviemore collection. They were £99.99, but I've just checked and they are now £67.99 - Bloody typical! Why does this always happen?! Anyway, I like them (I would like them a lot more if I paid £67.99 for them though). They're not solid wood, but they're still sturdy. The top two drawers hold my make-up, the third drawer holds my skincare products, the fourth drawer holds my body products, the fifth drawer holds my hair products and the sixth drawer just contains boxes and extra products. The two white wicker baskets on top of the chest of drawers, the white wicker chest next to the chest of drawers, the patterned shoe box and the bin all come from Store Twenty One via QS (I wrote a post about them here). I've even changed my make-up brush holder to try and look more sophisticated. My brushes were in a pink smiley face cup (Can you spot it amongst all the mess in the 'before' photo?) and now they are in a glass. A cup for a glass - I think I've grown up ;)

I hope you're enjoying your Saturday. I've had a headache and cramps all day, but I'm about to make fajitas and paint my nails neon orange, which should cheer me up!

Also, I've recently hit 1000 GFC readers! Thank you so much, you lovely bunch!

Update: I contacted Argos about the reduction in price days after I ordered and they've just refunded me the difference! How nice of them!

Lemon Fairy Cakes Recipe

I've just made these yummy little treats and thought I'd post the recipe! I didn't get this recipe from anywhere specific - It's just from my general knowledge.

Lemon Fairy Cakes Recipe - Makes about 25

You will need:

200g of self-raising flour

200g of caster sugar

200g of soft butter or margarine

3 large eggs/4 medium eggs

1 teaspoon of baking powder

The rind of 1 lemon

Lemon juice (About half a lemons worth)

Lemon icing-

100g icing sugar (This will cover about 12 fairy cakes. If you do not want buttercream or plain ones, just double the amount)

1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice

1-2 tablespoons of water

Lemon buttercream (I didn't weigh these ingredients, so just use your own judgement!)-

Butter or margarine

Caster sugar

Lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 190C and line your bun trays with baking cases.

2. Cream together the butter, sugar, beaten eggs, lemon rind and lemon juice.

3. Add in the flour and baking powder, and beat well.

4. Distribute the mixture evenly in the baking cases.

5. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

6. Wait until the fairy cakes are cool and then decorate with lemon icing and/or buttercream (To make the icing and/or buttercream, just beat the ingredients together).

New Storage!

Yesterday, my mum and I went down to the square to pick up some baking ingredients and groceries. My mum wanted to go in QS, so off we went. She ended up buying a top and I bought more than I could carry! I really loved their homeware section. All of the tags for these items say 'Store Twenty One', like most of the homeware items I saw.

The large, white wicker chest with floral lining was £24.99. I'm going to use it to store my shoes. Currently, my shoes are lined up against a wall and get covered in dust easily, especially my suede heels! The white wicker bin with floral lining retails at £5, but I was only charged £2.99 (Yay!). The teal patterned, cardboard box was also £2.99. I love the colour and pattern, and it's sturdy. I don't know what I'm going to store in it yet, but I couldn't resist buying it! There are a few other designs and sizes, which I may have to buy. The small, white wicker baskets were £3.99 each. I'm going to put these on my future white chest of drawers that will hold my beauty products. In one basket, I am going to store my everyday make-up products, and in the other, I'm going to store some eyeshadow palettes, face masks, nail wraps and false eyelashes.

I just need a white chest of drawers now! All of my beauty products are out to be seen, which makes my room look more untidy than it is. The trouble is, is that I don't want to spend over £100, but cheaper draws have mixed reviews. I normally wouldn't mind if a chest of drawers were not very sturdy, but they need to store my (heavy) beauty products in.

I had to include this photo of Puddin'!

I hope you're enjoying your day!

Crunchy Peanut Butter Biscuits Recipe

Hello! I've caught the baking bug. I made cookies yesterday (They're misshaped, but taste really good), I've just made crunchy peanut butter biscuits and I will be making a lemon cake tomorrow.

I absolutely love peanut butter, so I can't see these lasting long! I thought I'd post the recipe, so you can make them too, if you would like. I got the recipe from The Farmhouse Kitchen Baking Book. I picked it up at a charity shop a while ago.

You will need:

175g of plain white or wholemeal flour (I used plain)

125g of caster sugar

50g of light soft brown sugar

75g of softened butter or margarine (If yours has just come out of the fridge, place in a bowl and microwave for a few seconds)

4 tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter

1 medium egg, beaten

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

1 tablespoon of milk

1. Line trays with baking paper (I used 1 large baking tray because I didn't separate the mixture. I cut it into slices after it was baked) and preheat the oven to 200C.

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter or margarine, and the two sugars.

3. Add the beaten egg a little at a time, beating well after each addition.

4. Beat in the peanut butter (Again, to make it easier, I put the peanut butter in the microwave for a few seconds).

5. Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda into the mixing bowl.

6. Fold the flour into the creamed mixture, add the milk and beat. Add a little more milk, if necessary, to achieve a soft dropping consistency.

7. Place onto the baking tray(s). I covered the whole baking tray, but if you want to bake separate portions, place teaspoons of the mixture about 7.5cm/3 inches apart on the trays and flatten each one.

8. Bake for about 10-15 minutes. Allow the biscuits to firm up on the tray, then turn out onto wire trays to cool. I then cut mine into slices.

The recipe states that it will make around 30 biscuits. I made 20 large biscuits, but I could easily cut them in half again and make 30-40.

They're similar to a flapjack consistency and are really delicious!

Please let me know if you make them!

Happy baking!

Wordless Wednesday

Cornflour in Beauty Products - Save Money!

ELF Mineral Booster, Lush Vanilla Puff Dusting Powder, Batiste Nude Dry Shampoo

Tesco Cornflour 250g - 69p

After reading this post, I went and had a look at some of my powdered beauty products. The three products above, which I love, all have the main ingredient in common: Cornflour! In fact, the Batiste Nude Dry Shampoo only contains cornflour and talc. 'Zea mays starch' is another name that cornflour (or 'cornstarch', if you live in America) is called.

So, with a box of standard cornflour (250g from Tesco will set you back 69p), you can mattify your face, soften your skin and use it in your hair as a dry shampoo. The Batiste Nude Dry Shampoo packaging is useful, so I'm just going to refill that. I don't think it will completely replace my Lush Vanilla Puff Dusting Powder though, because I love the scent of it. However, I could easily find some vanilla essence and pods.

And with the rest of the box, you can thicken your gravy ;)

EcoTools Bamboo Bronzer Brush from eBay

After buying the EcoTools 5 Piece Brush Set from eBay and writing a post about it here, I ordered the Bamboo Bronzer Brush. I bought it from here and it cost £4.96, including P&P. Boots are selling it for £9.99, so that's quite a saving!

It's big, it's chunky and it's very soft! It also washes well.

After talking to a few people and comparing my brushes to the ones in Boots, I think the eBay ones are real. Even if they're not, they're great quality!