What I'm Eating, Granny says Breakfast is important

This is the beginning of something new for me and you my lovely readers. I am going to start sharing with you all some of my most favouritest recipes.

I think its only right that my first What I'm Eating post be focused on the most important meal of the day which is obviously (as our grannies are always telling us) Breakfast. I don't know about you but I love muesli, most people when I tell them that say "urrhh its rabbit food!" but I really love it and I buy the sugar free stuff so its not even the sugar that has me hooked. However, I have been eating a mixture of muesli and bran-flakes for about 3 years now and I was really bored so I though right what can I do to spice things up a bit.

I came up with a lovely little mixture of some fresh fruit, muesli, natural yogurt and honey.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup nonfat or low-fat plain yogurt

1/2 cup blueberries

1/4 cup diced apple

1/4 cup diced banana

1/4 cup unsweetened muesli

1-2 teaspoons honey 

Method: Stir together yogurt, blueberries, apple, banana, muesli and honey to taste in a bowl. 

You may also notice something else tasty in my picture, whats thats you ask? Why its a Berry Banana Crunch Smoothie this recipe is actually from Jason Vale the Juice Master. I found this and a couple of other recipes he shared on Elle.

                

           

Ingredients:

Golden Delicious Apples x 2

Blueberries, Blackberries, Raspberries, Strawberries x 2 handfuls in total (fresh or frozen)

Natural Yogurt x 2 tablespoons 

Banana x ½

Mixed Seeds x 1 tablespoon

Ice Cubes x 1 handful

Method: Juice the apples and pour into the blender. Add all the berries, natural yogurt, banana, seeds and ice and blend for a just a few seconds. If you use frozen berries there is no need to add extra ice to the blender.

I really like that one of the ingredients were mixed seeds as I have always wished ~I had a way to squeeze them into my diet, I bought a packet out of Lidl for like 60p so they are super cheap (as is everything in Lidl -my favourite shop, it just smells so good).

I made a video of my smoothie being made just for fun, take a quick look.

OOTD - After Dark

I haven't done an outfit of the day - after dark post in a while because I have been such a loser and haven't been out much at all. Thought I would share with you all the outfit I wore to a family friends 21st Birthday party on Saturday night as the dress and shoes were such bargains!

 Dress: New Look £10

Shoes: Primark £12

Belt: old

 I really loved the chain straps as a little extra detail, its really warm here in Scotland just now so little floaty dresses like this are perfect for keeping cool. The strap detail just takes it from ordinary to a little special.

Even my make up was bought on a budget I use this fab purple eyeshadow from Elf in Amethyst and also Elf's Luxe palette to create a bright smokey look. I love colour and in summer cant stand using or wearing anything dull so even my make up bag receives injections of colour. These shadows are so well priced and give such high colour payoff, Amethyst has 10% off it at the moment and so is just £3.38 and the Luxe palette comes in at just £1.50, cant complain about those prices girls.

Kate Morton The Distance Hours Book Review

Today is the start of something new so rather than talk to you about beauty or fashion I wanted to share another of my passions which is reading. I always have a book with me where ever I go, its always in my handbag. I started to notice recently a lot of friends asking what I was reading and to recommend some good books so  I thought it would be much easier if they just checked out the new 'What I'm Reading' tab here on Label V Look.

My first review is dedicated to one of my favourite and in my opinion one of the best written books I have ever read. It is Kate Morton's The Distant Hours. The back of the book sucked me before I had even read one page, it details;

"Edie Burchill and her mother have never been close, but when a long lost letter arrives one sunday afternoon with the return address of Milderhurst Castle, Kent, printed on its envelope, Edie begins to suspect that her mothers emotional distance masks an old secret.

Evacuated from London as a thirteen year old girl, Edie's mother is chosen by the mysterious Juniper Blythe, and take to live at Milderhurst Castle with the Blyth family: Juniper, her twin sisters and their father, Raymond, author of the 1918 children's classic The true story of the Mud Man. In  the grand and glorious Milderhurst Castle, a new world opens up for Edie's mother. She discovers the joys of books and fantasy and writing, but also ultimately, the dangers.

Fifty years later, as Edie chases the answers to her mothers riddle, she, too, is drawn to Milderhurst Castle and the eccentric Sisters Blythe.Old ladies now, the three still live together, the twins nursing Juniper, whose abandonment by her fiancé in 1941 plunged her into madness.

Inside the Decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother's past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stone of Milderhurst Castle, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in the distant hours has been waiting a long time for someone to find it."

Even as I tell you about this book all the emotions I felt whilst reading are rushing back to me, I want to forget about writing this post and fling myself back into that book. As a reader you really are taken on a roller coaster of thought and feelings, I continuously thought I had sussed the secrets but was then thrust back off the cliff into unknowing again.

If you do one thing today you must order a copy of this book  you will find the paperback on Amazon for just £4.99. I actually own two more of Kate's books and cant wait to delve into these worlds, they are The House at Riverton and The Forgotten Garden.  As for The Distant Hours I am awarding this book a definite 5 star rating, this book has 676 pages and I read it all in just over four days (whilst also having to go to work).

An Insta Catch Up

So I thought since i have been so ignorant over the past few months I could catch you up through the world of Instagram as I have not being neglecting it, therefore it has captured a lot of whats being going on....

Mandy sucks at tutorials

So today I attempted to make an everyday make up tutorial, well I could not stay serious for any more than 3 seconds so the full thing ended up one big blooper.

I have decided to share it with you guys anyway, as it explains perfectly why I don't do more video tutorials for you all.

Incase you need the link, here it is;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLCIP_4Ok6s 

Omg at Selfridges Sale!

My goodness girls, if your out for a bargain, or two, today you have to get on to Selfridges online sale!

It is amazing, so many brilliants buys, below are my faves but definitely go on and have a little look. I promise you will not be disappointed!

Hi Highstreet- Dupes I've Discovered

In my quest for fab high street products I have discovered a couple of products that's are dead ringers for a product I was already using from a luxury brand. Thought I would share them with you guys so use could start saving as well. 

First up Benefit Girl Meets Pearl Illuminator, so this product retails at £24.50 and is one of my all time favourites. I know it is an illuminator not a primer but I use it as if its a primer as I love a dewy glow all over the face :-)

As you can see from the picture above Ive discovered that Revlon Photo Ready Sunlights Illuminator which is priced at just £11.99. Obviously this is a fab saving and the products although they are not completely identical are very very similar, as is the finished look.

Below is a swatch of both the Benefit illuminator appears at the bottom of my wrist and the Revlon illuminator at the top.

As you can see the products appear very similar, however a slight difference can be seen, but when rubbed into the face this difference disappears. I have put Girl Meets Pearl on the right hand side of my face in the picture below and Photoready Sunlights on the left. It is almost impossible to see any difference in the product on the skin, they both feel very smooth and soften the skin. The one  point of difference I would make is that the Revlon product does not have just as high of gold shine throughout. But for almost half the price and more than twice as much (GMP is 12ml, PRS is 30ml) I would say that's a small price to pay for this high street dupe.

Next dupe up is Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Damned this costs £17.50 and I have found that a suitable high street replacement is Topshop's Lip Crayon in Suspect which cost just £7.00, I don't know whether Topshop have stopped doing these Lip Crayons now maybe as I am having trouble finding them on their website with the exception of one very pink shade, that's really disappointing if they have I really liked it.  

When comparing the pencils they are almost identical, the Topshop pencil has more of a blue tone to its purple.

As you can see from this swatch with Topshop's Lip Crayon at the top and Nars Velvet Matte at the bottom on the skin the colours are very hard to distinguish between. Other than texture the same applies to the product on the lips. In the first picture below is the Topshop Lip Crayon, on the lips these two are very similar colours however consistency wise the Topshop product is a lot thicker and actually a lot more velvet and matte than the Nars pencil.

As you can see from the picture below showing the Nars pencil the finished look is a lot more satin looking rather than velvet and the colour is slightly brighter due to the lack of blue that the Topshop pencil has.

I am left undecided which I prefer as I love the colour of the Topshop pencil but the consistency and finish of the Nars pencil, hmmmm... I'll let you know!

Have you discovered any fab high street dupes? If so please do share, save us all a buck or two.

Blogvertising

Hey guys,

You may have noticed something new on the right hand side of my blog, its a small box advertising recent voucher offers from a site called Love My Vouchers. This new addition to my blog is there to highlight to you guys any promotions that are going on across the fashion scene.

I have chosen the fashion category at first for you all as I suspect that is what you guys shop most on line, however I can change it up s you can view promotional codes for health and beauty sites for instance.

I just wanted to let you all now this wasn't spam and would not lead to any dodgy sites that will rip you off and steal all your pennies. Instead when you follow the link on a offer you like the sound of say '10% of Boden with free delivery and returns' you would take note of the promotional code shown in the magic blue box, click the ad and there you go your at the Boden on line shop and can begin selecting all the items you want to receive 10% off and have delivered for free.

The site that provides the promotional codes Love My Vouchers is host to whole load of fab retailers who regularly run promotion such as; 

So if your looking for a bargain make sure you double check the magic blue box to see if there are any promotions that suit you.

Much love,

M xx

So long Google Reader

So as you may have realised Google Reader is being retired (all together, awwwwwww....), I am actually really pretty p***ed off about this. I love Google Reader its really easy when you have an android phone like I do to keep yourself up to date with the latest posts and scroll through. But oh well all things must come to an end. blah blah blah!

ANYWAYS so next best thing, Bloglovin! I have spent some time this morning ensuring I do not loose any of the blogs that I love to read so have been transferring my subscriptions from Google Reader over to Bloglovin.

This is super easy to do but just in case you struggle I will show you how later in this post first let me introduce you to Bloglovin, as a site it is much more attractive than Google Reader.

 The app is also a lot prettier and pleasing visually than Google Reader, I do enjoy that unlike Reader it places emphasis on images. Images are crucial in blogging, I know people who wont read a post that does not contain some visual element so on that point Bloglovin wins.

Bloglovin does make it super easy to follow the blogs you love and does do a better job of presenting them to you, my problem is there isn't a Bloglovin widget yet and that is what I loved about Reader. So back to me telling you how to transfer your subscriptions, obviously first of all register on Bloglovin, download the app, bookmark the page etc etc...

To begin transferring your subscriptions click on the link below;

http://www.bloglovin.com/import/reader

Then the page below will appear, click the big blue button that says "Import you favourite blogs from Google Reader" and that's you. Organised to come July the 1st when Google Reader goes bye bye you will still be able to read the blogs you love on a daily basis.

Hi Highstreet - faves at the mo

So recently I have been trying and kind of succeeding to make myself fall in love with highstreet make up. For the past 5 years I have worked in Debenhams so have been able to enjoy a fabulous discount on cosmetics, however hopefully soon I will find a marketing job and therefore bye bye discount.
Its hard people i have fell in love with many of the brands and their products such as Guerlain's bronzers, Estee Lauder's highlighters, Lancome's mascaras, Nars' foundations, Chanels glosses and YSL's lip stains and now we are going to be torn apart (hopefully).
So yeh back to the point high street been trying to cheapen it down a bit and well I've spent quite a bit of money and have sort of succeeded although I expect as soon as I am earning a good salary I will be back in Debenhams going crazy like a big kid in a candy shop (do not get in y way that day).
I have managed to find some gems hidden amongst well the utter crap for lack of a better word, and throughout a few posts i am going to show you guys my highstreet faves, the dupes i have discovered and then I'm going to be a right beatch and slag some really rubbishy finds off, if i haven't already chucked them out.
Starting off being nice here are my faves right now;

1. Bourjois 123 Perfecting Foundation

I have only been using this product for a couple of weeks but feel confident enough that it is not going to break me out now or have some other adverse affect. A highstreet foundation was the top of my to do list as the foundation I currently use is usually Nars sheer glow or Guerlain Lingerie de peau neither of which are cheap. 

Well my verdict on this foundation, I like, I am using it right now every day and loving it, it not only stays on but manages not to cake in places or look very matte. I had read much about this and the Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation so I actually bought both, I do like the Healthy Mix but it has much less staying power, it will be fab for very natural days. Colour wise I am very fair so got 51 in both foundations and they are perfect, see the swatch below showing both the product rubbed into the skin and not rubbed in. 

2. Front Cover baked Powder Eyeshadow

I stumbled upon this build your own kit by accident whilst looking into Front Cover in a little more detail. The idea is is you pay £4 for the empty case and then pick whatever eyeshadows you like to go inside which are also each priced at £4. So for £20 I made myself this fab little kit.

Starting from the left of the above picture the colours are Gold Mine, Caramel, Copper Oro and Ginger.

The colour payoff from these shadows is amazing for the price of them, the level of pigment in each is really high therefore it doesn't take much to build the colour and shine up on the eye. 

3. ELF Baked Blushes

I ordered these from Elf about 4 weeks ago during a rather indulgent Elf haul, the first is Pinktastic and the second is Passion Pink. They are each priced at just £3.75 and I do really like them, the colour pay off is fab from both and the level of shine from Pinktastic is just what I was looking, as it was meant to be more of a highlighter for the cheekbone rather than a blush.

As you can see from the swatch below Pinktastic o the left has an amazing high shine so was exactly what I wanted and Passion Pink on the right gives a good level of colour not so much its hard to work with but not so little you have to reapply (80 times). 

However, be warned as below is the picture of Pinktastic from the ELf website as you can see the colour looks a lot lighter with barley any pink tones, yet when looking at the picture I have taken the product actually contain a lot of pink. Passion Pink on the other hand is a dead ringer for the picture shown on the website.

4. Makeup Academy Lipsticks (all of them)

I have loads of these little beauties, at £1 I can never resist picking one up when in Superdrug, I just love that if you unscrew the bottom there is more lipstick hidden. These have fab colour pay off, they are creamy and soft on the lip and have an average lasting time on the lips, the brand could definitely charge me more and I would still buy these little beauts. Also fab from MUA right now are the Power Pouts Lipstick range, I bough Irreplaceable and love it. They are a chunky lipstick pencil, the colour Irreplaceable is a rich purple. I actually think these guys have better staying power but they should as they are more expensive at £3 :-)

5. Barbara Daly Concealer

I am a new customer to this brand, only discovering it whilst hunting for cotton wool in Tesco. I have been pleasantly surprised, at first I didn't want to invest too much well in case the products were rubbish but the concealer, I bought in fair, is fab. Not too heavy that it sits on the skin, or make it look dry but is enough coverage to hide annoying blemishes and is light enough for around the eye area. The consistency is a soft cream, its not sticky in any way (thank goodness, nothing worse than sticky concealer).

The Barbara Daly range is exclusive to Tesco, this concealer cost me just £5, I am eager to try her Face Lift foundation which seems to be receiving a lot of love online. Whilst doing some Barabara research myself I stumbled upon this article by the Mail Online which is a good read, really interesting, its called Make-up guru Barbara Daly: ‘I’ve worked with the world’s most perfect faces, and I tell you, there is no such thing’ . Go and have a read girls and remember this is the lady who was commissioned to do Princess Diana's make up on her wedding day.

Also if you fancy a little laugh check out her 1980's Make Up tutorial on Youtube, its called Barabara Daly - Face to Face - the Body Shop. 

7. Avon Supershock Mascara

Normally I would not touch any mascara except Benefit They're Real, however recently I had left all my  every day make up at my boyfriends so was forced out of my comfort area and into using products that live in my make up drawer but never get used and this mascara was one of them. I was absolutely amazed at the finish this mascara gave my lashes, alright I am lucky I do have long lashes but this made them look feather soft, spread them equally like fans and did not clump anywhere. I love They're real but if I'm not paying attention it can clump this however does not! I also thought since I was trying new things I would give the new YSL Baby Doll Mascara a go, again easier to clump than the Avon Supershock which is priced at just £8.50. Normally this mascara is packaged in black but I'm sure this was a free gift at Christmas time and that's why mines is red. 

 9. Avon Ideal Flawless BB Cream

I must admit all the hype surrounding BB and CC creams make me yawn, I am always saying its just smart marketing nothing more than a repackaged tinted moisturiser. However, whilst swearing off them I have gave them a go in the form of Avon's Ideal Flawless BB Cream and Ren's Satin Perfection BB Cream. So price wise Avon's answer to BB Cream is normally £12 but on special offer for just £6.99 right now on their website however Ren ask a massive £26 for their BB Cream. After using both I am more inclined to in future buy the Avon product rather than the Ren. I really disliked the consistency of the Ren Satin Perfection, it was almost like a moose, there is one colour and it did not suit my skin further more although I am not expecting wonders as I know its not a foundation the coverage was rubbish in comparison to the Avon Ideal Flawless. Which was a lovely creamy consistency, it gave the skin a healthy glow and covered any uneven sin tones without having the 'make uppy' look of a foundation. 

Still on the list of highstreet replacements is a compact cream foundation, I love Chanel Vitalumiere aqua and need to find a cheap replacement, so if any of you use one let me know and I will pick it up and give it a try.