Getting Festival Ready With Mad Beauty*

Today I wanted to talk about getting festival ready with a brand I've recently discovered, who have a range of the most perfect products! Mad Beauty are basically serious about making cosmetics fun, and I just love that. They provide a range of novel, fun and interesting pieces all perfect for yourself or as a gift for a loved one. I was sent the Disney Handy Set which is £7.99 and contains a moisturising hand sanitizer, hand cream and a hand warmer.

First of all I know the pictures I got aren't amazing. The lighting was shocking when I took some of them but I did my best. Anyway, when you go to a festival you expect to get messy, dirty and probably not wash for a few days so things like the hand sanitizers are life savers! This is such a lovely little set to pack with you, with a few essential items in, all of which I'm sure you'd need at some point. Also as these come in a little case, you can pack a few other bits in there too like makeup, toiletries and maybe even things like cash, and your phone if you need to keep them somewhere safe.

Moisturising Hand Sanitizer - The first thing I used was the hand sanitizer, and OMG it smells incredible! I've already mentioned this a few times on my instagram and insta stories, because I just want to tell everyone about it! I love using hand sanitizer, especially when we go away, they are perfect handbag size and are brilliant to just get out when you need to. What I particuarly love about this is that it is a spray sanitizer. Just spray a few times onto your hand and rub in, it doesn't feel sticky in any way. Just makes your hands feel and smell lovely. I think this actually smells like cherryade which is just amazing. As its quite slim packaging this would be perfect to just keep in your back pocket of your shorts or jeans at a festival. Honestly I could go on about this for ages.

Hand Cream - Next I tried the hand cream. I love a good hand cream as they always make my skin feel so soft. I've been using this each day, sometimes before bed or after a shower and it's been making my hands feel so nice. This also smells lovely, just so sweet and refreshing and again something else perfect to take away with you.

Hand Warmer - The last thing in the set is the hand warmer. We're really getting into summer now so it's unlikely we'll be needing these much but I do think they'd be perfect for the evening if you're at a festival when the weather drops a little. It's just a cute little item to take with you if you're a bit cold at night. This is so easy to use, just gently bend the metal disc thats inside which will activate the crystals inside, knead gently to soften them and then just apply to wherever you need too. The lighting wasn't brilliant when I took these photos so you might not be able to see very well but this says practically perfect in every way. I love all of the disney quotes on each product.

I'm really not just saying this, I think this is such a lovely gift set and so perfect if you're going away for a few days or heading to a festival. The hand sanitizer in particular is so good to just keep in your pocket or handbag. Mad Beauty do a huge range of products, including more of these sets, I for one love that this is a disney one. I really think this would be such a lovely present for someone if you know anyone that has a birthday coming up! If you want to see what else they have check out their wesbite here! They do so many other lovely bits including lots more disney things! I think I might have to treat myself to a few bits soon!

Have you ever tried anything from Mad Beauty? Do you think this set would be good for a festival?

*Thanks so much to Mad Beauty for sending me this set to feature on my blog. As always all opinions are my own.

Follow Me - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest & Bloglovin!

May Favourites - Seventeen, Line Of Duty & Insta Stories

I feel like I've been so slack with my monthly favourites this time! Normally I'm sure a few weeks before the post goes live what I want to include but this time I really struggled! Regardless of that, I can't believe we are now in June! How did that happen? Anyway, in the end I managed to find a few bits I've been loving, aswell as a few tv shows which I have just been obsessed with and really wanted to mention.

Alberto Balsam Shampoo & Conditioner - I really don't think I look after my hair that well, I literally go for the cheapest shampoo and conditioner, and very rarely treat myself to something a bit more expensive. I just go through hair products so quickly, especially conditioner so I never think it's worth it. One of my favourite brands for cheap haircare products is Alberto Balsam and recently I've been buying the Mango and Passionfruit scented ones which are new and available in B&M for £1 each. You can probably get them at other places but thats where I've been getting them from. This just smells gorgeous. They do so many different ones but I love anything mango and passionfruit scented so these are amazing. Like all their other shampoos and conditioners these make my hair feel so nice. It always smells incredible for ages and just feels so soft when it's dry. I very rarely look to any other brand as these are so good for the price!

Seventeen Contour Kit - This is one of those trusty make up products I never want to get rid of. I've hit pan on the bronzer so at some point I will need to repurchase but for now I'm switching between this and my Barry M Chisel Cheeks kit. I just always find myself going back to this. The Barry M one requires a bit more time and effort whereas with this I find it takes no time at all and is just so easy to do, but it actually makes a difference. I love the bronzer in this kit as it gives me a nice glow but theres no need to worry about it looking muddy or just slapped onto my face. It's not hard to blend at all and I just love how it looks. I'm so glad I decided to buy this ages ago as now I couldn't be without it. 

The Body Shop Satsuma Shower Gel - I'm such a huge fan of the body shops shower gels. I've tried countless amounts of them and I definitely have my favourites - Grapefruit and Passion Fruit. But when I won a giveaway recently, one of the things I received was a mini shower gel in the scent satsuma. I'm pretty sure this is one I've never bought before so this has been a really nice one to try before purchasing in the future. This is just so lovely and refreshing. It's nice and zingy and definitely wakes me up if I use it in the morning and I just always love how body shop products make my skin feel. This is one I'll definitely be buying at some point in full size.

Insta Stories & Snapchat - I'm not sure if it is completely vain or not to put 3 selfies in this post, and trust me this isn't something I would do often but I have been absolutely loving snapchat over the last few weeks. I just love playing about with the filters and there has been some pretty cute ones on recently which I am a little obsessed with. I mainly annoy George while he's at work with a load of ugly funny photos but there have been a few that I like that I wanted to put in this post. I don't think I ever wanna take photos without a filter on again. Aswell as snapchat I've also been loving Insta stories. It's nice to share other pictures I don't want to put on my actual page of food, or just random things really, and it's a good extra way to promote my new pictures and new blog posts. I finally get why people jumped over to there from snapchat, I love seeing peoples stories each day.

Bates Motel - I'm not sure where to even start with this show. It's just full of drama and every single episode keeps me hooked throughout. It's basically about Norman and Norma bates, mother and son who are kind of obsessed with each other, and have quite a strange relationship, who move to a new town and start running a motel. It's inspired by the film Psycho, and it's a sort of prequel I think, it explores the years of Norman bates and how he ends up becoming a serial killer. I'm sorry if I've not explained it well, I'm never good at that but trust me when I say it's one you need to watch. We've just finished series 4 which had a pretty insane and twisted ending. I can't wait to see what the final series is like which we're just about to start!

Source.

Line Of Duty - Another program I've just been obsessed with in May. People have recommended this for so long and I've seen so many tweets about it but we only got round to starting it recently. I think in the end we watched all 4 seasons in about 2 weeks, I was just obsessed and each episode was so tense. If you've never seen it it's about 3 police officers in the anti-corruption unit, they're basically always out for the corrupt officers, and trust me there are some serious twists and turns in each series. I don't really know what else to say about it without ruining anything, just please watch it if you haven't. I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy it but I'm now kind of sad how fast we finished it!

Source.

I can't recommend both tv programs enough, they're probably my favourite things out of this post! I'd love to know if you've seen either of them, or if you've tried any of the other things I've mentioned in this post!

Last months favourites - April (New Prints, Bad Moms and Santa Clarita Diet)

Follow Me - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest & Bloglovin!

Slow Cooker Italian Chicken Recipe

I mentioned this in my second Slow Cooker Favourites post and said that I wanted to do a recipe post on it, so here it is! This is something I just sort of went for, didn't really know what I was doing, didn't follow a recipe and just hoped it turned out okay!

Ingredients: (for 2 people)

2 Chicken breasts

1 red onion, finely diced

1 pepper or a handful of frozen

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tin of water (I refill the tomato one rather than using a jug)

2 tbsp of tomato puree

Salt & Pepper

Loads of italian seasoning

A little chilli powder 

Method:

1. Finely dice your onion and pepper and put into the slow cooker

2. Cut any bad bits of the chicken and place in the slow cooker, I don't like to cut into chunks as I like to shred it at the end instead

3. Stir then pour in 1 tin of chopped tomatoes, re fill the tin with cold water and pour that in too

4. I then added in 2 tbsp of tomato puree and gave everything a stir

5. Finally add in as much seasoning you want, I used salt, pepper, italian herbs and a tiny bit of chilli powder. How much is really up to you and what you like

6. Leave on high for 4 hours or if you'd prefer you can cook on low for 8 hours. After either 4 or 8 hours, take chicken out and shred, it should pull apart with two forks really easily

7. Put chicken back into slow cooker and stir in with all the sauce, now serve with rice or pasta!

That's it, really easy to make and a perfect one for days you might be working or just don't want to spend ages cooking. It tastes delicious - the tomato and herb sauce that I just winged went really well with the chicken and it was lovely with rice but you can serve with whatever you want. I think it would go really nice with new potatoes and salad in summer!

Let me know if you ever give this recipe a try!

Follow Me - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest & Bloglovin!

Bakerdays Letterbox Cake Review*

As a blogger I have a list of brands I would love to work with one day, some small and some huge, some beauty, some food, and so many others, and believe it or not bakerdays has always been one of them. I first found out about them on Twitter around the time I started my blog and I thought then that I would love to get the chance to work with them one day, so to be writing this post on their cakes a few years later, makes me so happy. 

If you didn't know, bakerdays is a personalised celebration cake specialist and they provide cakes for all sorts of occassions! You can personalise the cakes with your own message or even upload a photo onto one of their designs, and you can pick the flavour, either traditional sponge, rich chocolate chip, lemon drizzle, gluten wheat free sponge, dairy free sponge or fabulous fruit. They'll even design a cake especially for you if you ask and can't pick from the range on their website! All cakes are handmade to order and only the best ingredients are used so no need to worry about the quality. The cakes are available in a variety of sizes - letterbox gift cake, small party cake, medium cake or large cake. I was sent one of the letterbox cakes to review, which was perfect as I tend to miss deliveries and with one of these I didn't have to worry about that happening! These fit perfectly through the letterbox and are packaged securely in a protective cake tin and a bespoke bakerdays box, to make sure it survives a drop to the floor!

When it came to picking a cake and personalising it, I spoke to George and we decided to get one made for his brothers, as it was their birthday earlier this month. We've both already had our birthday this year and it's not our anniversary until July so we thought it was a perfect opportunity to get a birthday cake for them, as we would have gone and bought one anyway from somewhere for the weekend. I had no idea which design to go for as they had so many to choose from but I ended up picking the Do I Smell Cake? letterbox cake, chocolate chip flavoured, and I personalised it to say Happy Birthday Boys! I just love the dog on it, I think it's so cute. I received this cake on Tuesday 23rd which is exactly when I asked for. You can pick when you want your cake delivering, even up to 1 year in advance, and I wanted to get one in time for the weekend just gone as I knew thats when we were next having them over to stop. I wanted to get it a few days before we actually needed it just in case their was any problems and as they stay fresh for 14 days, I didn't need to worry about the taste being affected at all. I kept it in the kitchen in its tin until Friday when they arrived.

The cake arrived in perfect condition and I was so impressed by it. I was so happy with the design and just how it had all turned out. We all couldn't wait to cut into it and see what it tasted like. As the letterbox cakes are quite small, these are perfect for 4 people. We all had a slice each and it was just delicious. The cake had kept so well, tasted so fresh, like it literally just been made, honestly I was so happy with it. The rich chocolate chip cake was just delicious, so moist and spongy, just lovely. The icing on top, which I'm not normally too fussed about was absolutely gorgeous. So smooth and sweet. Just everything about it was perfect, I'm so glad we had the chance to try out one of these, as it was just as good if not better than a shop bought cake, and so special.

I did get a few pictures of the cake when we cut into it, but when I went back to check them, they had all come out blurry which is extremely irritating but there is nothing I can do about it now. I just wish I could have shown you a picture of the chocolate cake inside.

If you can't already tell, I just loved this cake, as did everyone else. It tasted lovely, was the perfect size and just looks adorable. It looked even better up close. The letterbox cakes are £14.99 which isn't the cheapest, but you're paying for the quality, personalisation and convenience. If you're not someone who can whip up a cake, or are too busy to get out to buy one, for birthdays and anniversaries aswell as so many other occassions one of these would be brilliant. No need to worry about being in while it's delivered, and you can choose exactly when you want it for. I'll definitely be getting a cake from bakerdays again in the future. If you want to know more about bakerdays, check out their website here, where you can find lots of info about them aswell as seeing all of their cakes and designs, there are loads!

Have you ever tried a cake from bakerdays? Do you think you'd like to try a personalised cake?

*Thank you so much to bakerdays for sending me a cake to review and feature on my blog. This is genuinely a company I've wanted to work with for a while. All opinions are my own as always.

Follow Me - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest & Bloglovin!