Beauty, Belly and Big Fans of #4

Hi there, here is this week's useless snippet of our lives.

Beauty...

I went to a wedding recently (weddings are officially my favourite hobby now) and thought what better opportunity to use one of those products that I had set aside for 'a special occasion' - along with a multitude of glittery body lotions. I received the Anatomicals - Puffy The Eye Bag Slayer Under Eye Patches in a Glossybox (more to come on these boxes of genius). They promise to reduce dark circles and eliminate puffiness and are enriched with moisturising agents. As well as preventing the signs of under eye ageing. Being a dehydrated skin gal I leaped for joy upon reading this. 

I'm not sure they do achieve all these goals however they a bloody good fun to put on. Like little slippery jelly fish hanging out on your face. I used them for 30 minutes before applying my make up. They definitely woke my eyes up, and the skin did appear slightly brighter. I'm not sure they were moisturising enough for me but for anybody who suffers from puffy eyes these are perfect! 

I would recommend them for a relaxing pick me up when you are about to hammer your face with lotions and potions for a big night out - or even after! 

Belly...

So I decided to go on some weird health kick - but obviously I still want chocolate - so I went a googling to find a low fat low calorie brownie recipe - this one promised me the world. (You'll find it if you google it involves; oats, cocoa powder, fake sugar, greek yoghurt, baking powder and some milk). 

DO NOT MAKE this - it was horrendous - I ate the corner as you can see then put it in the bin! It looked like it was doing well in the oven but it tasted like poop, not sweet chocolate porridge. My advice - eat a full fat brownie and move on, this one will scar you!

Big Fans of...

Twittering tweeting and twooting! It's so exciting getting involved in the beauty bloggers' chats. I have never been a huge fan of twitter personally but now I can see how addictive it is! So many little gems to be picked up on here. If you haven't already found us, here we are...@barrelandbean 

Beauty, Belly and Big Fans of #3

Hello there all! I hope you are enjoying the drastic improvement in British weather as much as us. I have already managed to spend 20 minutes in the sun and gained a shameful t-shirt tan/burn line...let the vicious circle of attempting to correct tan lines while creating worse ones begin! aka summer (for some not entirely keep your peepers open for the fake tan blog coming soon. Here's what we've been loving this week...

Beauty...
Time for a rant about my dry skin that resembles a grape found at the bottom of the fruit bowl whe i don't drink any water. I have a classic case of dehydrated skin. I try my best to drink water and I do notice the difference when I do. However there are times when I literally forget because I can't fit fifteen wees into one day. All concealer and foundation seems to apply gloriously, but when I get home I look in the mirror and do a big sigh. It tends to highlight any fine lines and generally appear matte in the wrong way. 


So after much viewing of make up tutorials for varying skin types, a general all round favourite seems to be Bobbi Brown - Creamy Concealer. I went in to the shop (in duty free...bargain!) and had it properly colour matched. They do one with a setting powder but it came up a bit yellow on my skin so i ended up going with a rose toned one. AMAZING. I live for it. It lasts and very little goes a long way, i feel this little compact (with mirror...excellent) will be my friend for a long while yet!

Barrel



Belly...

In a bid to be healthy I picked up a GIANT bag of kale (not influenced by the fact it was reduced to 30p). After trying to eat it by boiling, using in a risotto and mixing it with mash - it still tasted bland and like it was healthy. So I went a googling and decided to make kale crisps and they were AMAZING and still healthy. Here is how I did it...

1- buy kale

2- make sure you buy pre cut kale (if not cut out all the biggish stalks leaving the leaves)

3- put in a mixing bowl and use a tablespoon or so of any oil (I used vegetable) 

4- salt the leaves, add any other flavours you want - eg, black pepper, lemon, paprika and so on 

5- spread out on a baking tray and bake at 180 until crispy!

Word of warning do NOT open the oven when they are cooking, kale smells like rotting seaweed when cooking, never an appetising smell. 

Bean

Big Fans Of...
Why has no one told me that Forever 21 exists? Ventured in today and amidst disco hot pants (you did not misread that) and 57 varieties of crop top there are some gems. 

Now I don't have any thing exciting to show you as I was on my own and attempting to buy clothes to make me 'cool' and 'edgy' without Barrel's stern words means like I end up looking like the weird theatre kids at uni. But I did buy leggings for £3 - who can hate on that! And a makeup bag along with £7 jeans stretchy enough so I can wear them all month long!

Bean


Hope we made you smile...

Barrel & Bean

Beauty, Belly, Big Fans of #2

Round 2 - hope everyone has has a good week and isn't resenting getting back to work after the bank holiday weekend! Here are some thoughts to get you smiling ...

Beauty...

You can sniff Lush shops from 20 furlongs away because they smell like a bunch of pungent flowers has mated with the fruit and veg aisle. I held my breath and ventured in because I wanted a face mask. I'm pretty sure every product you buy despite ingredients has been infiltrated by the Lush trademark smell. I opted for 'The Sacred Truth'- anti ageing because being in my twenties I thought this was essential. 

In fact, it was the only one that didn't look like porridge or another brown concoction. It makes me look like the witch from Wicked and has no lasting effect on my visage. It's fun, I guess, and doesn't aggravate my skin, being oily it has a slightly drying effect. The best thing is the tightening effect whilst it's on I feel that my lines are being stretched into baby soft skin. Won't re purchase - will be sticking to the £1 sachet numbers because... They do the same thing ! 

Belly...
Ice cream for fatties who don't like feeling guilty! So I am keen to try anything that tricks my stomach that it's bad for me, when in fact, it is the opposite. In and effort to inspire/guilt trip myself into doing exercise I follow many a clean eating Instagram pages. For any of you who haven't yet stumbled across these - imagine a page with alternating posts of beautifully toned abs, fruit salads and protein shakes. This is how I found cheat's ice cream. I am honestly not exaggerating when I say it has changed my life. All you will need is a magimix resembling blender (the kind with a bowl and a decent blade), ripe bananas, honey, peanut butter and raw cacoa powder.

1. slice your bananas and put in a zip and seal bag. put these in the freezer for about 5 hours (or overnight).

2. remove from freezer and put in the magimix. Here's a tip...allow them to defrost a wee bit so they aren't quite like ice cubes. Otherwise you have a very tense moment when you think you may have broken your £250 magimix as bullet like banana slices batter the blade. If you have cheap blender then whack them on in there...who cares?!

3. to the bananas add 1 tbsp peanut butter (eat a spoonful to check it's good quality...), 1 or 2 tbsp of honey (up to you) and as much cacao as you would like depending on chocolate preference.

4. blend away! keep on blending until the mix resembles creamy beautiful ice cream...honestly it does, literally like magic. If you have an element of self control put the mix in the freezer and serve as and when you need an ice cream fix. Or if you are like me...whip out the blade (safety first) and devour the entire bowl full.

Top tip is to use really ripe bananas for maximum flavour!

Enjoy!

Big Fans of...

Britain's got talent - JOKE - my Saturday nights are now ruined by a show that could be condensed into 20 mins. A genuine big fan of Vera on Itv Sunday at 8pm - yes I have the taste of a 68 year old and yes I have a penchant for murder mysteries - but I'm content with that! 

Love 

Barrel & Bean