Autumn Treats | Apple, Cinnamon, and Raisin Muffins

I hadn't baked in months, so wanted to change that yesterday. I found a basic muffin recipe, changed it to my liking, and then added my fruit and flavours of choice. Thankfully, they turned out well (my dad ate six last night), so thought I'd share it with you. I wasn't planning on blogging about them, and they're already gone, hence the Instagram photo! Feel free to change the measures and ingredients to your taste!

Makes 12

You will need:

260g self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

100g caster sugar

100g butter

180ml milk (I used full fat, but semi skimmed will be fine)

2-3 peeled and chopped apples (I used granny smith, but you can use cooking ones if you have them to hand)

Raisins (I just dumped these in the bowl without measuring, so it's up to you!)

Demerara or brown sugar to sprinkle over the top

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C and line your muffin tray with cases

2. Cream together the butter and caster sugar

3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon

4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar, alternating with the milk

5. Fold in the fruit

6. Spoon the mixture into the cases and sprinkle with demerara/brown sugar

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes

I'm definitely going to bake these again this autumn, and I think they would be perfect in a bowl with some hot custard. Let me know what your favourite muffin recipe is!

AW14 with GOSH | New Velvet Touch Lipstick Shades and Giant Blush Sticks

GOSH Velvet Touch Lipsticks in Angel, Adorable, Temptation, Divine, Scarlet, Diva, Pretty, Night Kiss, and Twilight, Velvet Touch Lipliner in Raspberry Dream, and Giant Blush Sticks in Shy and Passion*

Angel, Divine

I feel like GOSH products haven't been spoken about much recently. I personally haven't used them in ages. So, I was intrigued to see if these AW14 releases were any good! 

The lipsticks haven't disappointed, and are just as intense and long lasting as I remember, without being drying. I dislike Adorable because I'm really not a fan of candy pinks, and Angel is a little too light for my liking, but the rest of the shades are beautiful. Although Angel has the potential to make me look like a corpse, I wanted to show you it on the lips because it's not chalky at all, and that surprised me.  

The lipliner has impressed me more than I thought it would. First of all, the colour is beautiful. It's also creamy and very long lasting. I'll definitely be taking a look at the other shades available next time I'm in store!

The blush sticks are okay. I don't like them as much as the lipsticks, but then I think I'm going through a lipstick phase at the moment! They're supposed to have a cream to powder formula, but I feel like it varies between the shades a lot. Shy is very dewy, even when blended, and it almost disappears, so you need to build the colour up. Passion, on the other hand, has more of a satin finish and is a lot more pigmented. A little amount with considerable blending is needed. I like them, but would like them a lot more if the formula was in between both.

The Velvet Touch Lipsticks are £6.49, the Velvet Touch Lipliner is £4.99, and the Giant Blush Sticks are £6.99, so they're all reasonably priced. You can purchase them from Superdrug stores and superdrug.com

Huge Boots Haul!

1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/16/17/18/19/20/21/22/23/24/25/26/27/28/29/30/31/32/33/34/35

Boots staff double discount happened, and this isn't even all of it! I've removed some presents and doubles from the photo, and I forgot to include the No7 mirror and foundations (which I paid pennies for thanks to clearance and vouchers). In my defence, a number of items above are Christmas presents for various people. I'm just going to talk through a handful of things because we'll be here for a long time else!

I'm not one for false lashes, but I had a few styes and started pulling mine out (I know), so needed something to fill the gaps while they grow back! The individual lashes have been great, and while they don't last for days and days, they look natural. I remove them every night like I do with any cosmetic. This would be time consuming if I applied a full set every morning, but I only apply a couple. The Naturalites (10) also look promising!

I well and truly stocked up on the Tresemme Platinum Strength shampoo and conditioner because they ended up being just £1.87 a bottle. It's definitely a range I'd recommend trying!

Original Source have brought out some body moisturisers, and I couldn't resist buying the peach and apricot lotion. It smells like a peach and apricot yoghurt! There's also a watermelon one, which I wouldn't mind smelling at some point.

29, 34, and 35 were on clearance in my store, so I ended up paying just 39p and 87p for them! Another exciting lip product purchase is L'Oreal's Colour Riche Exclusive Red Lipstick in Julianne. It's beautiful!

The Babyliss straighteners and Soap & Glory gift sets are for my mum for Christmas. She's only ever had mine and my sister's old straighteners, and her favourite colour is purple, so I thought the Elegance Pro would be perfect. She's not familiar with Soap & Glory, but after telling her a bit about the products and showing her reviews/swatches, she's excited to start using them!

Other points to mention: I'm excited to use the No7 makeup products (7 and 25-28) because they all have great reviews, I love the Laura Ashley kitchen accessories, and I don't know why I included the anti-blister stick and spray plaster. It must have been a long day!

Have you splurged recently?

Graduation Dresses

I'm graduating this month! Finally. Other universities had their ceremonies months ago. So, weeks had gone by, thousands upon thousands of dresses were looked at, and I didn't like any. Then I stumbled upon House of Fraser and Zalando, and they both had dresses from the brand Closet. I'd never heard of this brand before, but liked it straight away. The dresses were closer to what I had in mind than any others. They were just the right amount of formal, and the shapes and cuts were simple yet flattering. 

I ordered the two above within five minutes of each other, and I'm keeping both! The first one, with the little heart print, was from House of Fraser here, and the second one was from Zalando here. I wasn't planning on going with navy (they look black in the photo, but they're definitely navy), but that must be what I gravitate towards. Both feel like great quality (I ordered another from Miss Guided, but it felt and looked cheap) and both have pockets! I love that they have pockets. They don't look like much on the hangers, but they really are beautiful. I think I'm probably going to go with the laced bottom one for this occasion, though. It doesn't look as nice as the heart print one on the hanger, but it fits perfectly. The shape is just what I wanted.

I just need to find shoes and a necklace now. I'm thinking these should have a pop of colour. I've seen some dark red, perfect-for-autumn heels, which I think would go beautifully with the navy. My dad thinks I'll look like Dorothy, but is there really anything wrong with that?! I'm not talking about a bright red anyway, so I don't think I will.

What accessories would you choose?