The New Essentials | Beauty

Ah payday, that wonderful day every month where everything is great with the world. Then you go to shopping. And then you have no money because you've splurged on hair and beauty products. But, you look great for the rest of the month. A weird all round win-win situation.

I purchased a few much-needed staples this payday - some different iterations of favourite products and some brand spanking new things to try.

Here's the lowdown.

Super Clean Brownies

So it's time for another Weekend Edition, and this weekend, I've mostly been getting my bake on.

Something I've wanted to try and make 'clean' without compromising on taste and chocolately satisfaction has been the king of the traybakes; the Chocolate Brownie. Rich and oh-so indulgent, how can you not love the sweet and moorish goodness of this treat. This version is low sugar, grain free and filled with vitamin E supremos, almonds.

Recipe: Raw Cacao Nib Cookies

I'm on somewhat of a sugar-free tip at the minute thanks to the quite brilliant Sarah Wilson and her I Quit Sugar programme.

Ever since I first discovered Sarah's philosophy in January, I've been all over her way of sugar-free thinking, and trying out her recipes and ideas has been high on my agenda.

I'm going to full a post on things I've learned on IQS and how it's helped my training and general wellbeing, but in the meantime, here's a killer recipe for sugar and gluten-free cookies.

They are super-sweet (without any of the bad, bad, white stuff in there) and are a great fix when all you can think about is chocolate. Oh, and quick and easy to make to boot.

Cacao Nib Cookies (Makes 16 small cookies, or about 9 big cookies)
(adapted from Love & Lentils recipe)
What you'll need:

• 1 1/4 cups ground almonds
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 3 tbsp rice malt syrup ( I used Clearspring Organic Rice Malt Syrup)
• 1/2 desiccated coconut (I actually used coconut flakes, blitzed in the food processor)
• 1/4 cup raw cacao nibs
• 1/4 tsp vanilla powder
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped almonds
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder

1. Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180C/350F

2. In a small mixing bowl, mix the melted coconut oil and rice malt syrup. In a larger bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients; ground almonds, desiccated coconut, cacao nibs, vanilla powder, chopped almonds, sea salt and baking powder.

3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix, mix, mix until you have a cookie dough consistency.
4. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Form cookie dough balls from the mixture, and spread these out evenly on the tray.

5. Pop 'em in the oven for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.
6. Cool on a wire rack. I highly recommend you try one whilst they're still warm. Dreamy.

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The changing face of beauty

L-R some of my beauty essentials: Elemental Herbology Bio-Cellular Super Cleanse, Lush Tea Tree Toner & Origins Make A Difference Plus+ Rejuvenating Treatment (the stuff of DREAMS).

Last week, I headed to London town for the day with my Mum to check out a couple of exhibitions and do a bit of shopping (helloooo Liberty beauty hall).

Whilst on the train, Mum and I were catching up about all things beauty. Well known for being the Barnes beauty obsessive, I pour over skincare blogs and coo over all thing make-up, pretty much on a daily basis; coveting the latest palette release from Nars or pining over foundations with promises of dewy skin and just the right amount of coverage.

As I was extolling the virtues of Caroline Hirons’ blog, singing the praises of Biologique Recherche P50 and how double cleansing has transformed my skin, Mum brought something really interesting up which I think needs a li’l mention. 

When she was younger, her mother (my Granny) had never used a concealer until my Mum and her sister bought some when they first spied it on the high street. Now I know what you’re thinking; she had NEVER used concealer. I know. I can’t imagine a life without concealer. That would be a blotchy, red world I wouldn’t wanna live in. 

I have always heard about Granny’s exceptional skin, using only Wright’s Coal Tar Soap (!), a flannel and moisturiser, then finishing things off with a bit of rouge and a dash of red lipstick. She wouldn’t have even needed the concealer even if it was a fixture in her make up bag, the lucky gal.

This minimal routine obviously treated my Granny well – I always remember she had baby soft skin and a beautifully even complexion, two areas which I definitely lack in. So how was Granny’s skin so amazing even though she used hard soap didn’t deep cleanse and used hardly any other skincare? Now I know everyone’s skin is completely and utterly different, but how amazing is it that 2 generations could get away with literally the bear essentials and still look unreal, and mind-baffling to think how drastically beauty routines have changed over the past few decades. 

It made me think about how many products I use on a daily basis to cleanse, cover and correct. I daily use 2 cleansers, toner, serum, moisturiser and SPF. Primer, foundation, concealer, highlighter and not to mention how much I use on my eyes to make me look some form of awake. I need all of these things to help me look relatively OK.

We obviously now live in a world which is rife with the pollution, high stress levels and an uncountable amount of other day-to-day factors which take themselves out on our lovely faces but I just think it’s such an interesting piece of social commentary as to how much we use now, but back in the day, women barely used a scrap and looked bloody great. 

What kind of skincare routines have women in your family adopted? Are there any old-school routines you advocate over hot cloth cleansers and Clarisonics? 

The New.

The start of the year for me is the time to reboot and refresh.

I tried to stick to some of my 2014 goals before Christmas to ease me in gently and so that when 1st January hit, everything didn't feel like a real uphill struggle.

For the most part though, I relaxed my exercise and healthy eating over the holiday and indulged in more than my fair share of all of the cheeses and more red wine than I care to remember (it tasted damn good at the time though).

I've made a list of not so much resolutions, but just goals for this year which I can work towards over X amounts of weeks or months depending on what they are.

I think some people fall at the first hurdle with 'resolutions' because they go full pelt in January and then their enthusiasm wanes and motivation goes out the window.  For some of my goals, I'm keeping these to six-weekly targets - this keeps things a little bit more achievable.

Here are some of my targets/goals/stuff I want to do in 2014:

- Money detox
I think this is usually the top of everyone's lists but this month particularly, I'm having a total budget overhaul. I already keep a monthly budgeting spreadsheet (sad I know, but canny interesting to see what all of your dollar goes on - £20 here and there in Space NK all adds up...) and need to try ad keep on track with this.

For January at least, I'm curbing unnecessary spending and focussing on planning my budget and how I can make this work in my favour in 2014.

Another thing is credit cards. If you overindulged a bit in 2013 (for me, our big American bonanza holiday really broke the bank, and I wouldn't change it for a second, but still have a bit of debt to pay off on in!) then January is the ideal time to take advantage of balance transfer offers.

The best thing I ever did was to consolidate all of my spendings on a 0% interest balance transfer credit card, which I'm paying off monthly. I'm also making a cull on credit card purchases in general unless I pay it off straight away. Difficult, but definitely needed to help me feel in control of my money again.


- Buy less, buy smarter
A girl I follow on Instagram put this lovely little resolution on from her resolutions last year, as this really resonated, I want to adopt this gem of a resolution this year.

For me it's buying less of things I don't need and buying things I know will last a long time, even if they are a bit more expensive immediately but will benefit me in the long run. For example, really great skincare (I'm obsessed with all things Origins at the moment), a new designer handbag - things with longevity.


- Keep active and healthy
I'm pretty good at doing the above in any case, what with healthy eating, running and personal training, but this year is all about improving my running (stamina and pace), continuing to eat clean and concentrating on strength and toning. I never really let these up in 2013, but I did have a bit more of a relaxed December (which was MUCH needed) so now's the time to get back on track.


What are your plans for 2014?

*beautiful diary above by Marjolein Delhaas (image from byaprilandmay) / Flip clock image by AMB

The Gentlewoman Autumn/Winter 2012

My favourite magazine has released it's A/W 2012 issue.

Behold The Gentlewoman.

And can you think of a better cover star than Angela Landsbury? I think not. Enjoy.

Mantra

This week's inspiration. Found via Black, White, Yellow.

Benefit's Mascarathon for Refuge

I love running. I love mascara. And I really love Benefit Cosmetics. So, when some information on Benefit's Mascarathon for the domestic violence charity, Refuge, landed in my inbox, I wanted to give the spotlight to this great charity event.

Benefit's Mascarathon will be celebrating the success of 'They're Real' - Benefit's No1 premium mascara in the UK, whilst raising funds for a fabulous charity. The run, fronted by TV beauty Caroline Flack will be raising funds and awareness for the national domestic violence charity for women and children, Refuge, reaching out to women who may be affected by domestic violence or know someone who is.

Starting in Edinburgh on June 15th and finishing in London on June 29th, the Mascarathon will call in at Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Oxford. Along the 500+ mile route, there will be a range of areas for fans of Benefit Comestics including make-up stations and some lovely Benefit samples for runners and friends (I'll be there raiding samples of mascara and cheering on the running masses!)

And the fun part? A Benefit mascara baton will be passed from runner to runner as they make their way along the route, each completing 2 miles each; these 2 miles mark the 2 women lost every week because of domestic abuse.

For all the lovely lasses in the Toon, the Mascarathon will be stationed in Newcastle from June 13th-15th when Donna Air will be taking part in the run.

In this Olympic year, it's great to see brands supporting charities through sport and I'll be there cheering on the Benefit beauties when they run through Newcastle (and of course sampling some Benefit make-up delights along the way!)

Follow #mascarathonuk and Benefit UK on Twitter