MERRY CHRISTMAS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Have an amazing time, don't drink to much in front of the relatives, remember to play games and watch a lot of television (call the midwife Christmas special, hello!).

 I'm so looking forward to just spend some quality time with Chris and the famalam. The run up to Christmas is always so hectic for me where I work in retail that I'm going  to really relish Christmas day and boxing day. 

I'm going to leave you guys with some pictures that really summed up this Christmas for me. I'm sure I'll be writing in the new year, even if it's just to say a formal goodbye and a heavy sigh of relief to 2016. It's really been one for drama hasn't it!?

The Good Food show at Hampton Court Palace

Chris and I at Winchester Christmas market

Our Christmas tree

Housemate Christmas Dinner

Like a Child!

Making the Christmas Pudding with Rosie

On the carousel at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

L-R Me,Sam,Kevin and Lex at our staff christmas dinner

Have a very happy time, lots of love and thank you so much for reading,

Lucy 

X 

The Good Food Show at Hampton Court Palace

Okay so something you should know about me is that I love two things in life, food and history. So when I saw that the Christmas BBC Good food show was at Hampton Court palace I knew I just had to go. I'm lucky in that I have a friend who shares the same loves, Jemma, she studies History at Uni and is just as obsessed with the Tudors as me. We got our tickets and have been eagerly awaitting the event for a good two months.

Hampton Court is absolutely amazing, I'd never been before and stepping into somewhere so iconic felt very special. Coming from a family who have always loved history and the arts I'd always been taught about British history but nothing quite prepares you for the grandeur of the building in real life. 

There were some fantastic stalls at the good food show, some of my favourites were at 1920s cocktail bar, a fudge stall that sold dozens of different flavours as well as lots of pie and cake stalls. They also had live music at the event. Christmas Choirs from local schools and a Andrew sisters-esque duo. The atmosphere was wonderfully christmassy and exciting. It was bright and chilly too, my favourite type of winter weather.

During the day we also managed to go to a pomander making workshop, mine is filled with cinnamon and rose and is currently hung on my tree. We also watched a live Tudor cookery demonstration with the palace food historians (the have a youtube channel which you can find here) they made some delicious smelling Tudor dumplings filled with figs and spices. The dumplings were fried and reminded me of Gyoza or Pierogi. 

Our tickets also Included entrance to the palace, having Jemma there was great as she told me lots of little facts about paintings and rooms throughout the palace. We visited the Georgian part first and then wandered into the Tudor section through Henry VIII's apartments. Seeing the art works and the rooms was incredible. the Architecture and sheer scale of the work was mind blowing. See Holbein's portraits of the royal family was one of the best parts of the whole day. 

We headed into Elizabeth I's Privy kitchen cafe for lunch, I had a baked potato with chilli and salad, it was pretty good to be honest. The cafe is pretty cool and it's also the point where we realised that there's free Wi-Fi in the palaces. 

By the time we'd finished it was getting dark, after a quick peep in the Baroque gallery we went into the gift shop for a little look at what the Royal Palace had on offer. The answer is everything from pencils to jewellery, tea towels to snow globes. They had some amazing Tudor inspired Christmas tree decorations.

I'm going to stopping going on a bout it now and show some pictures from the day.

Thank you for reding this, if you enjoyed the please follow this blog, you can find me on bloglovin' too just search for LulabelleMUA.

As if that wasn't enough you can find me on you tube, twitter and instagram, all under the above handle!

TTYL 

xx

Snowflake Nail Art| LulabelleMUA

I made a video! 

If you're looking for some Christmas nail inspo then look no further!

TTYL
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Golden Wonder DEMO | LulabelleMUA

Check out my new video. If you love Lush you'll love this! Please like and subscribe.

A walk through Winchester Cathedral Christmas market

I love Christmas Markets and the one in the grounds of Winchester Cathedral really delivers on what it's all about. 

The sights, smells and sounds are just the epitome of the Festive season. I'm not a particularly religious person but having the cathedral there really reminds me that it's so nice to celebrate family and to be grateful for what I have. It feels magical going around all the stalls, drinking mulled wine and catching snippets of carols from inside.

I'm not going to witter on too much about the market, I'm going to let my photos do all the talking. In short it's the most Christmassy and happy place. Oh, and so, so beautiful. 

TTYL 

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It's begining to look a lot like Christmas...♫

Can you even believe that it's December already?!

The nights have officially drawn in and everything seems festive and snuggley. Southampton has been pretty festive for a month or so now that the German market is up and running. There's even a Father Christmas show that runs every evening.

This month I have so much planned for my youtube channel, I'm really looking forward to getting it all planned and filmed, I've also got a few blog posts planned (yes, planned!) because I feel that keeping the blog up to date is important too. It should be a nice mix of things, so something for everyone. You can click below to find my channel

 ♥♥♥

I Just love this time of year. I'm a person who loves the cold. I love to get cosy by a fire or with a mug of hot chocolate. I love the music at this time of year and now it's December I can actually start playing Christmas songs with out someone saying 'it's a bit early isn't it?' I love every genre of Christmas music. Pop, rock, swing and classic. I love to listen to the King's college choir whilst doing festive things like decorating the tree or cooking. I like to save the swing for tasks like wrapping gifts the pop and rock is for singing loudly at a party or walking to work! 

Let's talk about work for a sec. It's super busy right now and it will be all the way up until Christmas. I'm lucky that I work in a place where there's such a nice feeling this kind of year and our customers are pretty awesome.  It's tiring and we're open quite late at the moment so I'm definitely having to plan my time very well. 

I think I'm going to leave it there and open my Tanya Burr advent Calender, eat some chocolate and watch a good old Christmas film. I'm going to go forrrrrr, Miracle on 34th street!

TTYL

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3 Easy Healthy Breakfasts using bananas

For today's post I wanted to share 3 quick and easy breakfasts all using bananas for when you're in a rush or just if you're having a lazy day off and fancy treating yourself to something tasty filling and kinda healthy.

First recipe

Toast and toppings.

This one is probably the easiest of all three, first toast your bread, any kind you like. I then popped on some peanut butter, try and get a good quality one as it has less added fat and salt. You could also use almond or cashew butter. Slice a banana on top then sprinkle with seeds. Lidl do a great little bag of seeds that includes, sunflower, pumpkin and sesame. 

Now you can enjoy your toast ready to face the day!

Second recipe

Smoothie

This one is easy but you definitely have to own some sort of blender, whether it a submersion, food processor or as I have a nutri bullet. I also recommend buying frozen fruits to stash away in the freezer. Chopping up bananas for the deep freeze is also a great thing to do as smoothies always taste the best cold. 

For this one I used, raspberries, blueberries and bananas, start by popping all the fruit into your blender with a dash of milk (I used soy). the bananas should make it super creamy but you could always add yogurt if you want. Blend it up, once smooth you can taste it. If it needs sweetening up I recommend using a natural sweetener like honey or agave. Give it a mix, transfer into your favourite glass or travel cup and you're all set.

Third recipe

Banana pancakes

 

First take a large banana and mash it up, add 2 large eggs and mix well. Add a teaspoon of baking soda and a teaspoon of vanilla. Whisk together and leave to stand over night or just a few minutes will do. 

This is the time to focus on making a cup of tea.

 Heat a non stick frying pan (if you don't have one be sure to pop a little oil in the pan). When they're ready to flip, little bubbles will appear and they will move about the pan easily. Do keep an eye though they brown quickly. This recipe should make 4 fair sized pancakes. 

Top with honey, yogurt and fresh fruit.

So there we go, my quick go to breakfasts to give me loads of energy and help me start the day right. 

Thanks for reading this, you can also find me on Instagram, Twitter and Youtube under the handle lulabelleMUA.

TTYL 

X

New Video, A closer look at Pumpkin Bath bomb!

It's fall y'all!

Over the next few weeks I'm going to be doing a couple of in depth videos on the halloween and christmas range.

you can see it here!

I also filmed a video with Sam about the whole christmas and halloween range including some showcase exclusives!

TTYL

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M.A.C STAR TREK | Collection Review!

It's here! I have been waiting for these products all year.

Of course I'm talking about the new M.A.C Star Trek collection (or should that be collective, heheh).

As a long term fan of the show I got stupidly excited when I found out these were being released and ordered them the day they were released.

Obviously my pockets are not bulging with latinum so I chose a few bits that I really loved the look of. 

The first product I got was the  Pressed pigment eyeshadow in 'to boldly go'.

The website describes this as a reddish copper pearl with sparkle.This colour is absolutely gorgeous. I've been loving creating halo eye looks with this and using my fingers to really work the pigment to be super sparkly and vibrant. 

The second thing I bought was a really pretty silver nail varnish called 'Enterprise' the website calls it silver chrome (frost). The formula on this is great! one coat completely covers the nail with opaque bright silver chrome. I also bought the gold in the shade 'holladeck', gold sparkle (frost) which I gave to a friend for her birthday. She was also really impressed with the consistency and shade too. 

The last thing I got was actually a present. I had it in my basket and the took it out last minute. Lucky for me my sister also did an on line shop and very kindly bought me the Lip Glass in 'KHAAANNNN! (berry with red reflect). It's lovely and hands down it's my favourite named product in the whole range. Very glittery and shimmery, very nice over a dusky pink lip colour.

Thank you very much Rosie!

There are so many more things to chose from in the collection and there a tutorials on the website on how to recreate some of the looks from the show. 

Have you any of the collection I'd love to know or read any posts you've written of them.

Thanks for reading.

TTYL!

X

New Video and being on a roll!

I've just popped up a new video on my YouTube channel, LulabelleMUA. This one's a haul that I've actually had filmed for a little while but had put off editing as there were a lot of candles to get through. 

I'm quite pleased that I've managed to edit so much recently. I've just had four days off work and it really gave me time to focus on editing and filming. I love where I work but it was so nice to focus on my passion.

 Creating things for people to enjoy. 

I'm also trying to write more, I'm not a natural writer and somtimes it takes me a little longer than some of my rather talented friends (I'm looking at you Lex,Sam and Becky) but I do enjoy it. 

I'm working at getting a desk set up so I can have a nice place to do all the things I want to do. I have big organisation plans in the works.

 I want to have fresh flowers on my desk all the time. Flying tiger have just opened up a store in West Quay and I'm sure they'll be able to help out with cute stationary.

 ♦ Goodbye pay cheque ♦

So here's the video, If you like it then please like and subscribe. 

TTYL

x

I made Cheesecake!

Last week was the start of bake off, oh my god! can we just take that in? I freaking love bake off. I can get in, chill out with a nice cuppa and revel in a barrage of informal finishes and soggy bottoms.

Originally I was going to 'bake along' and upload videos of me attempting to recreate the technical challenges, but that hasn't happened... yet. Maybe if there's something that really tickles my (french) fancy I'll make it.

Back to cake week. I decided that it would be fun to invite some friends along for the ride. I'll pop their social medias in at the end if you want to check them out.

I wanted to have something to eat whist we watched, but good gravy was it hot that day! The temperature had risen to 30•C, for Britain that's pretty damn hot. The answer? Cheesecake. Cold, creamy, cooling cheesecake. So I set to work with the help of Milli, a big thank you to her for helping me film.

After a little search online I came across a recipe for a no bake biscoff recipe. you can find the recipe here.

 

You can find a video of me making the cheesecake on youtube, If you like it then please like and subscribe. All your support is so greatly appreciated.

I hope enjoyed reading/watching this, what's your favourite type of cheesecake? Actually, any cake. I just want to talk about cake!

Sam

Angelica

TTYL

x

Review- Lush Mouthwash

About a month ago Lush revealed that they were going to be releasing solid mouthwash.

This may seem weird to most but Lush is a company renowned for innovation in the beauty industry, having already released toothy tabs and powders as solid tooth paste we shouldn't really be surprised this was somewhere up their sleeves.

The mouthwashes come in 3 flavours, Pan galactic gargle blaster, creme de menthe and ugai. The flavours cover a range of different tastes lemon, mint and a green tea, sea salt number. 

The green lustre from the creme de menthe ones went on the other two but you can see that they all have a different colour. 

The first one is 'Pan galactic gargle blaster'

Invented to banish the age of boring mouthwash, packed with zesty lemon oil, quinine and aniseed to refresh the palette. Designed to give your mouth an 'out of this world' feeling. 

I really enjoyed this one, it was very pleasant and reminiscent of sherbet lemon and I would definitely buy these in a full size bottle.

They even made it go into outer space 😜

https://youtu.be/GrK-v7alu9Y

The middle mouthwash tab is the 'creme de menthe'. This one is the most like a a traditional mouthwash. Peppermint is the thing making it super cooling and fresh. 

 I found, much like the toothy tabs, the first taste you get is a slightly bitter bicarbonate taste but as soon as you start nibbling the mint rushes at you . I'll admit I wasn't fully prepared for it, but it was very pleasant after the initial slap round the chops. I really enjoyed not having the alcohol burn. If you're sensitive to that powerful, stripping feeling then these are a god send! 

The white tabs are called 'Ugai' these seem to have the most complicated flavour palette. Inspired by Shinto the Japanese concept of cleanliness.  They have a brilliant article that you can read here. 

So there we have it, solid mouthwash , we live in the future now. Imagine explaining that to your ancestors. What a world we live in etc etc. 

Seriously though, really good I recommend them. You can buy them on the website or at Oxford street. 

TTYL 

X

Pretty Pink and Gold things.

Story time.

A week or so ago, at work, I wasn't having a particually good day and I just needed to go off and spend half an hour to myself. Anyone who works in retail will tell you, as much as you love your job, there's always a day where someone may not have been nice to you or you keep messing up.

Just stepping away to breathe can do wonders.

On this occasion I decided to go to primark.

I recently lost my gold Casio watch, I'm sure it's in the flat but I cant find it and I'm running out of places it could be. I'm quite sad about it really. It was a christmas present after all.

I was becoming annoyed at looking at my wrist day after day so I went and bought a cheap watch until I find my proper one.

As I was walking around the jewellry section I came across a small selection of watches, most of them fairly ugly, bulky or over engineered. Then I saw this one near the back.





I honestly cannot think of a prettier combination of colours than pink and gold. It's slowly becomming an obbsesion of mine, to be honest, any metallic between gold and copper with a pale sort of pink and I'm yours. So this was perfect. It has a thin, faux leather strap that is pale pink. The watch face is very pale with washed out water colour flowers. I really love the simple design of it.


I still had a little time left on my break so I nipped into boots. Sometimes when I'm a bit down I like to buy myself a new nail varnish. Barry M is a favorite haunt and they've recently done a limited edition nail varnish with boots. To my absolute delight it was pink and gold.





The shade is called 'Golden Sands' it has a semi matte finish. with one coat you get a very sheer clean look with three you get a lovely opaic pale sparkly pink that would be great for making a tan pop.


So all in all I'm fairly happy with my purchases. It just shows that a little retail therapy can work wonders. Just a little of what makes you happy, in this case, pretty pink and gold accessories can boost your mood and remind you that sometimes you just have to do you!







TTYL

x

Revlon Ultra HD matte lip colour

Hello!

Recently I've been using a new lip colour and I just wanted to throw my two cents into the ring, have I just mashed together two metaphors? It feels that I have. I'm going to give you my two cents and throw my hat into the ring. 

Anyhoo, I had been looking at a lot of different reviews for the Revlon Ultra HD matte lipcolour and after reading them I really wanted to try it. I managed to find it in my local Boots. The price is £8.99 ($11.79) which seems quite a lot for a drugstore lip colour. At the moment though, it is on offer. Buy one get the second 1/2 price. 

Just when I was umming and ahhing I saw the shade Devotion, I am an absolute sucker for dusky mid pink shades. I just love wearing them, they're classic yet fresh and always clean looking.

 

 

I really like the packaging, it's quite slimline so it fits nicely in a pocket or bag. The chrome lid is nice and modern. It has an innovative applicator too, kind of like a doe foot but soft and extended to hug the shape of your lips.

 

 

The application is smooth and velvety. As you can see it has a really nice pigmentation to it. It's like a cross between a liquid lipstick and a nourishing lip butter. The colour stays for a long time on the lips, but although it says matte finish I would probably describe it as semi matte myself as it doesn't dry uncomfortably or crack on the lips like other liquid lipstick. I can forget I'm wearing it. 

 

This is for sure my new favourite lip product, I will definitely be buying more in the future! I'm currently eyeing up the shades 'Obsession' and 'Addiction'. 

 

 

Please enjoy this slightly serious looking picture of me wearing it. I was totally digging my eyeliner in this picture.

 

Thank you for reading this blog post. Do you own any of the shades? or what's your 'can't live without' liquid lipstick?  

You can find more of me on twitter, Instagram or Youtube all under the handle LulabelleMUA.

TTYL

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