What's in my bag?

I decided for my next post to have a little nosey as to what I carry around every time I go out. This is what's in my beautiful bag. 

My bag is from Ralph Lauren, I don't know what model it is sorry. It was a gift from my parents for Christmas and I love it so much. It's a fairly small bag but can surprisingly fit a lot inside. 

A top view of everything crammed in there, there's still room to spare. I do like to switch up what's in side very so often but this is what's in there at the moment. I love this bag because everything is so easily accessible. 

There is a small open pocket on the bag (please excuse the small such on the pocket, I wiped it off after I took the photo). In this I keep my railcard, I like it easy to get to. I will also keep any train tickets in there but I had none at this time of the photo. I have a three year railcard and it is a lifesaver, it's saves so much money on my travels.

The first thing I pulled out are my Ted Baker glasses and my current reading book. I don't wear glasses all the time, only for close up work like reading, writing and drawing, and for electronic screens. I love this style of glasses and I have the mauve pink gradient/ombre pair. This book is 'Happily Ever After' by Harriet Evans. I haven't actually started this much yet but its in their for my next read. It looks a good book so definitely check it out. I like to keep a book in my bag incase i'm ever waiting for anyone or I just need to kill some time.

My phone sits in a pocket inside with my headphones. I have the Sony Xperia Miro, it's getting a bit old now and I definitely need an upgrade but I'm waiting until it fully crashes on me. My headphones are the original apple ones, I really like these ones and think they give good sound quality. However they don't last forever and this is my third pair in about two years, starting to need a new pair. Tempted to try out the Happy Plugs earbuds next in Rose Gold.

I always carry this with me. It's my portable phone charger from Macbeth.

Long story short, I was stranded in Bank (London) at 1am on my own with a dead phone, tubes closed and not knowing any other way home. Thankfully a friend rescued me but if I would have had this little thing with me, I would have been able to phone a taxi or found which night bus I needed to get back to mine.

This gives my phone one full charge and a half.

My beautiful Ted Baker purse is taken everywhere with me. I love this purse so much with the cute sausage dog clasp and the baby pink leather. It has different animals on the front and cute french bulldog interior fabric. I could never let go of this purse, mainly because of how much I paid for it, and because it's so cute. 

There is always some form of jewellery hidden away in my bag because during the day I tend to take jewellery off. Whether it's to wash my hands or something else, I pop it in my bag and forget to put it back on. At least it's always in my bag for next time I want some rings. Here I have my heart cutout gold ring and midi rings from Accessorize and my Daisy Pandora ring. 

I always carry around a spray because you never know when you might need a spritz. A girl always needs to smell good, so do guys. Hehe!

So here I have my travel size Ted Baker body spray, I love this scent. There are two and I'm not sure of the name of this one but definitely check them out. Mine is the one in the orange bottle.

These are kept in one of my inside pouches. I have one of my favourite perfumes which I talked about in my January Favourites. It's 'Under my Spell Noelle' from Benefit.

I also have the Hand Maid hand sanitiser from Soap and Glory and my Too Faced compact powder foundation.

In the pouch next to that I keep some more makeup. I have my travel sized Porefessional from Benefit which I love and it's great for touch ups throughout the day. I also have my YSL Touche Eclat, this has also been featured in my January Favourites if you wish to find out more about it.

I like to keep a compact mirror with me so I have one from Umberto Giannini. 

I the back pouch I like to keep some lip products. Sometimes I'm in too much of a rush to put anything on my lips, so if I ever want to I like to keep some more neutral colours in my handbag. I have a Pencil Lipgloss from Kiko Cosmetics in the shade 07. It's a really nice nude pink and keeps my lips moisturised. There is a lipgloss from Bobbi Brown in the shade Honeysuckle, which I think is limited edition. Rather annoying because I love this colour. I really like it paired over the final lip product, Coloursensational lip pencil from Maybelline in the shade 132 Sweet Pink. Its a nice nude mauve pink.

I hope you enjoyed finding out what I keep in my bag.

XOXO

Valentines Special: Vanilla Hearts ♡

♡ Vanilla Heart Cookies ♡

Valentines Day is just around the corner, it's tomorrow! So I thought I might as well celebrate by writing not only my first valentines post but also my first baking one. I love to bake and these biscuits seem to go down so well at my house so I decided to share the recipe with you. These cute festive heart shaped treats are so easy to make and are perfect as a gift to a loved one. You could even switch up the colour to make them red and pink but I like to keep things simple and sweet. 

This recipe will make 10 - 12 cookies.

To make these you will need:

125 grams of caster sugar, plus extra for dusting

   225 grams of plain flour, plus extra for rolling out

  150 grams of unsalted butter cut into small cubes,

plus extra for greasing

     1-2 tsp of vanilla extract, depending on how vanilla

tasting you want them

You will also need some equipment:
           A large mixing bowl
     A wooden spoon
            A heart cookie cutter
A baking tray
A rolling pin

The last two I forgot to include in the photo.

Begin by preheating your oven to 180°c / 350°f / gas mark 4. Then lightly grease your baking tray/s with your extra butter. I used two baking trays for this recipe.

Then sift your flour into your mixing bowl and add the butter. Begin rubbing the mixture with your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. This may take a while, just make sure there are no lumps of butter left.

Once you have it looking similar to mine, go ahead and stir in the caster sugar and vanilla extract with your wooden spoon. Only add 1tsp of vanilla at the moment.

Once it is sticking start getting your hands in there to form a firm dough, this make take a while to get going. Now is the time to add more vanilla if you want it, this will help to form the dough a bit better if yours is looking dry. You will be able to smell how good the dough is at this point but try and resist eating it until its baked. You will know the dough is done because the bowl will be clean and it won't be sticking to the sides.

Now is the time to sift some flour onto a work surface and start rolling your dough out with a rolling pin. Roll it until it's the thickness you're happy with. I like mine about 1 - 1.5cm thick. If you want them more chunky then just roll it out thicker, these will take slightly longer to bake.

Once it's all rolled out, dust some flour onto your cutter and start cutting out your hearts. Keep re-rolling the dough until all the dough is used up, or most of it. 

 

Place them on your greased baking tray and pop them into the top shelf of your preheated oven for about 12 minutes. Keep an eye on them because if they are thicker they will take longer, and any thinner then they will need less time. You will know when they are done when they start to go golden. Don't worry if they still feel soft to touch as this will give them a softer, more cookie like texture in the middle.

Once baked, place on a cooling rack and sprinkle on your left over caster sugar. You can either leave them to cool, but I can't resist them when they are still warm.

Enjoy!

Have a Happy Valentines Day!

XOXO

Review: Benefit Roller Lash

Benefit Roller Lash

I was so excited when I found out that Elle's March issue came with a travel size of Benefits new mascara. It is called Roller Lash because it is a 'super-curling & lifting mascara'. It gives you curled lashes like rollers in your hair. The facts are: 

97% said it visibly lifts lashes*

87% said it gives long-lasting curl*

94% said eyes look more wide open*

*Consumer panel survey on 31 women after 4 weeks.

The packaging of the full size is slightly different. The lid isn't like a rose gold like the travel size. I was king of disappointed about that as I think the tube looks sleek and everyone loves a bit of rose gold. However the full size tube is typical benefit, cute and girly. They love doing unique designs with their packaging. They always come up with unique ideas, like a mascara that acts like a roller for you lashes. Genius idea. 

The wand itself is interesting. It is the same material as the They're Real mascara wand, a plastic bristle. However, it's curved and without the ball on the end. I personally found the They're Real wand too much and it always left my eye makeup looking messy with blobs of mascara on my eyelids. That could just be me being clumsy though. I also wasn't a huge fan of the formula. Anyway, enough of that one. I'm hear to talk about Roller Lash. The facts on the wand:

Hook'n'Roll brush patent-bending hook design & position catches, lifts and curls.

Here is a (rather sleepy eyed) photo of my eyes. Please excuse the state of my eyebrows too!

On the left side I have one coat of the Roller Lash mascara, on the right I have nothing. 

As you can see, it really lengthened and lifted my lashes. It definitely opened my eye. I am a huge fan of lengthening mascaras so therefore I am a huge fan of this. It is definitely build able, although there I forgot to do a photo with another coat on.

This final photo shows both of my eyes with mascara again. Still looking sleepy but it was early and I had just woken up.

I love this mascara and it definitely does what it says on the box. I always look forward to new Benefit products so I literally dived on this one. Mascaras are my weakness. 

Another thing to mention. Even though this didn't flake or smudge it was so easy to take off at the end of the day. This is definitely a bonus.

I really enjoyed doing this review.

XOXO