Make your living room inviting with Photowall

Hello again ladies & gents

It’s been quite a while since I published a post and if you’ve read my ‘life lately’ post then you will know that my life is pretty hectic. If you missed it, I’m currently doing my masters in forensic psychology, working full time and learning to drive. Pretty full on I guess but I don’t do things in halves!

So here goes, a new post for you to feast your eyes on. Grab a cup of tea and your all set to read on.

Photo Wall “are a Swedish company with a passion for design and quality. Our wall murals and canvas prints are environmentally friendly, fire-retardant in accordance with Swedish standards and do not fade in sunlight. All our motifs are selected with care.”

With every purchase made through Photo Wall they support Vi Agroforestry and plant 5,000 trees a year around Lake Victoria, Eastern Africa to help fight poverty, improve the environment and combat climate change.

I was lucky to have the opportunity to have a custom canvas* made by Photo Wall, so I began on my hunt for the perfect picture! I flicked through hundreds of pictures and narrowed it down to a couple finally selecting one of my daughter, it’s simple.. yet beautiful.

I have to admit when the print arrived I was slightly confused as it came un-stretched but after reading the provided instructions it’s so easy to assemble.

Just lay your canvas print on a flat surface and position your wooden frames in place removing the 3M tape and fix them into place. Once you’ve positioned the four frames just fold them all into the canvas, bracket them into place with the screws provided and ta-da you’ve got yourself a stretched canvas!

I opted for a 43.31″ x 23.62″ sized canvas for my living room feature wall (£94)*, which is pretty big I must admit but I don’t think any other size would do it justice. Before receiving the canvas I was worrying over how the image quality would be slightly distorted due to the size of the canvas but Photo Wall exceeded my expectations, it’s incredible. So clean and crisp. Just perfect.

I honestly can not recommend Photo Wall enough if your looking for something new for your living room, a gift or just a memory. I’ve found myself wanting more of their products and eyeing up their wall murals for the bedroom because honestly there is some incredible prints.. you won’t be disappointed.

Want 20% off for yourself? Use the code MissaMorganCampaign2017 and what’s even more tempting, they offer free delivery!

*discount valid until 14th Feb 2018

*product sent for review*

NYX Ultimate Shadow Palette |

A couple of weeks ago I was strolling through Boots, I never seem to be able to leave empty handed especially when I head to their bigger stores, there’s so many goodies that I NEED. I found myself having a nosey over at the NYX counter and had my eye on this NYX Ultimate Shadow Palette Warm Neutrals (£16).

How can you deny a palette that’s packed with 16 warm neutral tones and at £1 per shadow, you guys know how much I love copper shades so it definitely wasn’t leaving my basket for anything.

The palette is packed with a mix of mattes, satins, shimmers and metallic shadows. All of the 16 shadows are have great pigmentation and blend beautifully, though I do tend to need to use a primer beforehand as their lasting power without isn’t that great and tends to crease on my eyelids.

Since having the palette I’ve found myself reaching for the bottom two sections of the palette rather first two which contain the lighter tones, I tend to find that the copper shades suit my blue eyes perfectly. The palette allows you to create both day and night looks with ease with a combination of lighter and darker shades making it a truly perfect palette.

I love that these 16 shadows are packed into a palette that is handbag friendly, perfect to stick in your handbag and have a quick top up ready for your night out.

What’s your go to palette?

Life Lately

Hello ladies & gents!

You might have noticed that I haven’t been posting as regular as I would have hoped to, which majorly sucks. I really enjoy blogging but it’s having to take a bit of a back seat at the moment.

If you follow me on Twitter then you’ll know that last year I moved from Manchester to South Wales, originally for University but that didn’t go to plan. I took a full time job as a Mental Health Support Worker, a similar job to what I was doing before hand but a change up with the type of clients I support. After absolutely loving it I applied for senior position and got it, woo!

So after being settled in my job I’ve taken the plunge to begin my Masters in Forensic Psychology at The Open University which is amazing if you have work and home life to juggle. It’s a 2 year course but it’ll hopefully get me on the path to becoming a Forensic Psychologist.. eek.

On top of all of that, not that I don’t have enough on my plate already but I’ve started my driving lessons which was much needed.

So life is pretty hectic lately.

 

LUSH Cosmetics | Mini Haul

It’s been quite a while since i’ve done a Lush haul, my closest store now is Cardiff which isn’t that far away from where I live but I don’t tend to head that way often so when I was in Cardiff last week I HAD to go in store.

I’ve been wanting to pick up Sleepy which is one of Lush’s recent new products for quite some time but I was holding out until I could try it first hand. There’s been a lot of attention on this especially from mums saying how it’s worked wonders with helping their kids sleep so I grabbed a sample of it in store and loved it so I went ahead and purchased the 95g pot (£7.95).

Sleepy has a gentle oatmeal infusion, calming lavender flower and sweet tonka absolute, it smells pretty incredible! I’m not quite sure whether it makes the little one sleep better as she’s always been a pretty good sleeper anyway and always has anything between 10-12 hours a night but it does make her skin incredibly soft and leaves her smelling amazing.

I also grabbed the Lord of Misrule shower cream 250g (£10.75) which I tend to try and grab every year, it’s just a must have in my bathroom and I also grabbed the Lord of Misrule bath bomb (£3.95). Lord of Misrule has a herbal blend of patchouli, peppercorn and black pepper with an intriguing vanilla absolute sweetness, again with most Lush things it smells pretty darn incredible with the scent lingering on your skin hours after.

Lastly I grabbed the Secret Arts jelly bomb (£4.95), i’m a huge fan of anything spooky and Harry Potter so this is perfect! Secret Arts has cinnamon leaf oil, Brazilian orange oil and sweet almond essential oil. I’ve not yet tried this one i’m saving it for one of those much needed pamper days but the sound of cinnamon leaf oil is perfect for these colder nights.

What have you got on your Lush wish list?

 

Get Ready For Autumn With These Cosy Knits!

YAY jumper season is upon us and honestly i’ve never been so excited, i’m obsessed with cosy oversized jumpers they are my absolute favourite. I have to admit that I do get a little miffed off when we have the odd hot day and can’t wear my jumper, i’ve been ready for autumn/winter for so long.

So of course when the shops bring in their autumn wear I HAVE to raid their jumper sections adding more to my wardrobe, to be honest I probably don’t need them but I HAVE to have them. I headed to a couple of my favourite shops that never let me down when it comes to their autumn wear and successfully added to my ever growing collection!

I picked up this New Look Light Grey Long Line Jumper (£9.99), if your a regular reader or if you know me personally then you will know that I LOVE grey so this jumper was given no second thought. This jumper is quite thin and light weight but is super comfy and keeps those arms toasty.

I also headed over to Primark and grabbed this yellow/mustard knitted jumper (£15) it’s thicker than the New Look one I picked up so it would definitely hold up for the colder months, this paired with a pair of black Topshop Joni jeans and Old Skool Vans is my absolute fave!

Lastly I headed to Asda, I always love their autumn ranges they tend to have quite a lot of berry colours which is right up my street. I picked up this navy oversized Knitted Tunic (£18) but I was unsure whether to keep it in my basket because I tend to steer away from blues and generally wear black, white, grey, burgundy & mustard colours but I tried it on and it looked AMAZING. As mentioned it’s oversized which is perfect for me as I always buy jumpers/t-shirts at least 2 sizes bigger than what I am, comfort is definitely key. This jumper keeps heat in so well with the close knits i’m always a toasty marshmallow in this!

What’s on your winter wish list? Comment below or tweet me @beautyandlittle

 

Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake

 I haven’t done a baking post in quite some time and of course with Bake Off being back on TV baking is a must for me, naturally I had to bake one of my favourites.. lemon drizzle. I absolutely love cake and chocolate, but then again who doesn’t?! I could literally live off it which may have possibly contributed to the little lady being 9lb 12oz *hides*.

Ingredients;

200g softened butter

200g caster sugar

4 medium eggs, beaten

250g self-raising flour

For the drizzle;

juice of 2 lemons and 1 whole lemon

100g granulated sugar

Method;

Preheat your oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Line your loaf tin using parchment paper or a loaf case.

Weigh out your butter and caster sugar adding it to a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric whisk until light and creamy.

Gradually add your eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, add a little flour after adding your eggs. Fold in the rest of the flour.

Spread the mixture in the tin and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a skewer comes out cleanly.

To make your drizzle, squeeze the juice from the 2 lemons into a bowl and stir in 75g of the sugar.

Remove the cake from the oven and pierce it all over with a cocktail stick pouring over your lemon drizzle, leave the cake to cool in the tin.

Slice the remaining lemon and put it in a pan with the remaining 25g sugar and 8 tablespoons of water. Bring to the boil then simmer for 12-15 minutes until the lemon slices are tender, watching that the syrup doesn’t burn.

Arrange the slices on top of the cake.

Not to blow my own trumpet but it tastes incredible!

I grabbed the recipe from Sainsbury’s and made some adaptions/removed a couple of steps but if you want to follow it step to step then you can find it here.

What’s your favourite cake?

 

Yankee Candle | Spiced Orange

As soon as 1st September hit like most bloggers it was autumn in my eyes, I always love this time of year, all the dark cosy nights in with autumn inspired candles, chunky knitwear & plenty of hot chocolates.. cliche I know.

Candles to me are the one thing that instantly makes any room look a little bit more cosier and homely, I tend to ALWAYS have a couple of candles in each room, I blame my mother for that but I was out of any autumn inspired candles so I was seriously lacking those cosy vibes. Of course that had to be dealt with, right?

 I headed straight over to the Yankee Candles and had a good old sniff of them all, Spiced Orange (£23.99) instantly caught my eye with it’s dark orange colour and scent. Spiced Orange has fragrance notes of fresh ginger, juicy citrus, ozone, spicy accord and sugared vanilla. It honestly smells incredible and fills the whole room with a spicy scent.

I opted for a large jar which burns between 110-150 hours, there’s nothing worse than your favourite candle running out after 20 hours. Usually I tend to stay away from Yankee Candles because of the price tag is pretty ridiculous at times but I just couldn’t say no to this!

I’ve been burning this none stop for the past week, it honestly smells incredible and perfect for those cosy cold and rainy days!

What’s your perfect autumn scent?

ELF Cosmetics | Getting Your Lips Autumn Ready

I absolutely ADORE the autumn and winter months, so as soon as September approached I did a little squeal of excitement. Everything just feels SO much more cosier, give me all of the knitted jumpers, candles & hot chocolates.. cliche I know but I love it. Unfortunately for me what comes with the colder weather is dry lips so getting them autumn ready is essential!

A good lip scrub is definitely needed to try and tackle those pesky dry lips, I tended to reach for Lush’s Santa Baby Lip Scrub but it does tend to be quite dry and ends up all over your finger so when I was that ELF had their own lip scrub that came presented like a lipstick I NEEDED it.

I was kindly sent the *ELF Studio Lip Exfoliator (£4.50) in sweet cherry, as mentioned the lip exfoliator comes in a lipstick container which makes it SO much easier to apply and completely mess free. The product is creamy but yet gently exfoliates your lips removing any dry and chapped skin. The studio lip exfoliator is infused with Vitamin E, Shea Butter, Avocado, Grape and Jojoba Oils leaving you with that perfect base for any matte lipsticks!

This lip exfoliator has been a life saver, I have absolutely no problems what so ever when applying my matte lipsticks. My favourite go to autumn lipsticks have the be Kat Von D in Exorcism, Revlon Super Lustrous in Black Cherry, Sleek Makeup Matte Lipsticks in Vinto Tinto, Urban Decay in Disturbed and NYX Soft Matte Lip Creme in Havana.

How do you get your lips autumn ready? Do you have a favourite product?

 

*Product sent for review

Cougar Cosmetics | Festival Makeup #CBFEST

Festival season is still upon us with Leeds & Reading festival coming up this weekend, I must admit I am pretty jealous! The last festivals I attended is Parklife and Bingley which were like YEARS ago.. I kinda felt sorry for myself so i’ve had to do something about that and booked tickets for Nothing But Thieves in November YAY.

Cougar Cosmetics challenged bloggers to create their own festival inspired looks using their *’6 Shades Of Nude’ eyeshadow palette (£13), which features nude and copper mineral eyeshadows. With their beautiful warm colours and autumn fast approaching I had to do a more autumnal festival look, of course.

If your one for nude & copper shades then this palette is definitely going to be right up your street, they are super pigmented with just one sweep across your eyelids and are so buttery blending amazingly well.

With their 6 shades it allows you to create a variety of day and night looks with amazing lasting power, perfect for those festivals.  What makes this palette handy for festivals is that it is so compact, it’s about the size of a blusher palette making it handbag friendly.

Grab yourself 20% off their products using CBFEST211

*PR Samples*

Arthur Price | Despicable Me

Despicable Me 3 has recently released in cinemas, I took the little lady to see it a couple of weeks ago and she absolutely LOVED it! it’s such a good film for both adults and kids. With the new release of Despicable Me 3 to celebrate Arthur Price have released their own china and cutlery range, so if your kids love Despicable Me then they will definitely love this, I must admit I am slightly jealous.

I was kindly sent over their *Sea of Minions three piece set (£24.95) and their *Sea of Minions four piece set of cutlery (£24.95) which has made meal time that little bit more exciting for the little one. Scarlett could barely contain her excitement to allow me to take photos before hand, to be honest I know exactly how she feels with that one when I buy a new product for the blog I literally don’t want to wait for a nice sunny day to take photos before using it and sometimes I sneakily use it.

The Sea of Minions three piece set comes with a little china cup, bowl and plate and the four piece cutlery set comes with four stainless steel cutlery including a knife, fork, tea spoon and spoon. The sets are vibrant to make meal times more fun and exciting for the little ones, Scarlett loves having her cereal from the minions bowl in the mornings. The sets are lightweight, high quality and dishwasher safe. All of their Despicable Me items come with free delivery and 15 year guarantee.

*products sent to review