Accessorize - Stormy Blue Bag

I try to limit myself when buying bags because the reality is that I just don't need as many as what I think I do. I have the staple bags such as, the weekender, the night out one, the holiday, the beach, the practical, I really could go on. But every now and then I spot one that I love and it's usually colourful and recently it's been blue. 

My favourite shop for these statement bags are Accessorize, I mean this shop always has a gorgeous and diverse range, there is literally something for everyone. In fact in one of my older posts, I mention my favourite electric blue bag from Accessorize which you can read here - Feeling Blue . I went in just for a look, but let face it with all the new exciting AW14 collections, I couldn't just leave it at one little look, because I fell in love with this beauty. 

Oh how I love this bag, I mean it really is the most perfect stormy, autumnal blue isn't it? I also really like the little gold details, not too much nor over the top.

This is the "Frances zip top across body bag "as described on the Accessorize website, however I personally wouldn't wear it across my body as it would sit a little funny on me but worn casually on the shoulder is perfect for me. This a very narrow bag, so don't go thinking you're going to get everything and the kitchen sink in it because you simply won't. But if you're like me and sometimes you just want to carry the essentials such as, Travel Card, Bank Card, One Lipstick, One small brush and a work fob then this is the bag for you. 

I haven't even told you the best bit, it was only £15 which is an absolute bargain for something so gorgeous as this. Accessorize really do know how to pair both quality and price so beautifully together. I love this bag and I think I'm definitely going to be getting a lot of wear out of it this AW14. 

What's your latest Accessorize purchase?

A week away...

I've decided I'm going to have a week away from blogging and most things digital, this is partly because I'm going to go away to see my grandparents up north in Doncaster and they don't have internet. However I am also doing this because I think it's good to have a little break, have a little refresh and come back inspired. 

I've not had a break this year at all and I don't mean from blogging I actually mean from work and life. I started a new job in December last year and I've not really had any time off nor actually been away on holiday. So now is a good time to just take a week off and relax, I've not seen my grandparents at all this year so it'll be lovely just to spend some time with them and you know what it's like when you visit grandparents, you get well and truly spoiled. 

However, I will be tweeting my links to older posts over the week and of course adding pictures on instagram so feel free to follow me:

• Twitter - @honeypotblogs
• Instagram - honeypot_blogs

You'll see some new posts when I get back next weekend. 

Have a fab week. 

Benefit Fake Up | Review

I've been looking to a little while to fine something that I could just use around my eyes to cover the dark circles a bit but my massive bug bear is that most shades are slightly too orange for my skin tone. I never think to look at Benefit's range, though I spend a disgusting amount of time in Boots but not every Boots sell Benefit products. 

I was recently given a gift by one of my work colleagues which was the Benefit's Fake Up concealer.

This product is a little different in the sense the concealer is actually encased in a hydrating balm, which kinda reminds me of Vaseline. This is  the lightest shade of 3 and I'm pretty impressed with how it blends as I was sure it was going to be too orange again but it's really not. 

Another thing I was worried about was that this product could be a little too oily, it's incredibly hydrating but how would that actually work on my skin? Not that bad actually, though it does leave some residue on the skin its very easy to rub in and doesn't make the area around your eyes look shiny at all. Pretty impressive. I have read quite a few different reviews, some say it had great coverage and others say the coverage is rubbish but for me, it works really well. I'll be honest, I don't have massively dark circles under my eyes, but more often then not I do have slightly darker circles and a couple of bags hanging "lovingly" under each eye so this works for me.

I will say you don't need a lot of this product under the eye, the more you add the greasier it will get, so just a quick swipe under each eye works really well. 

Have you tried Benefit's Fake Up concealer?

September Birchbox | Review

One of my favourite times of the month as arrived, no not payday, my other fave, Birchbox Delivery Day. Birchbox has once again gone with a theme and this time it was Happy Days. I must admit seeing the box and the vibrant colours did make me happy. 

After I was left a little disappointed from my last Birchbox my hopes weren't that high for this one, but when I saw the theme and saw the little spoilers, I started to get very excited again.

I really enjoy when Birchbox gets into a theme and always try to reuse the prettiest boxes, so you know I'm going to have to use this one for storage. There was a lot of speculation about what would be in this one so I thought I would show you what I recieved in mine. 

Benefits, It's Potent eye cream

Starting with the thing I was most happy to recieve and that was the Benefits, It's Potent eye cream. I absolutely love Benefit samples, most brands spend very little on their samples with regards to packaging but Benefit always stays true to it's brand and put just as much effort in the sample as the full sized versions. This is a teeny tiny sample but it's in a gorgeous little glass jar, I'm so gonna keep and use again. Packaging is a massively important thing for me hence why I am rambling. 

I haven't actually tried this product before, but I've heard some amazing reviews it's supposed to banish dark circles so I'm really excited to try this one out, it smells really nice as well, really fresh. 

Plush Therapy Mid Dermabrasion Face and Body scrub

This face and body scrub has Italian olive granules, which is quite a cute sample. The only thing is because it's small I could probably only use this on my face but as I don't use scrubs on my face I'm just going to have to use this sparingly on my body. Maybe a couple of days after I've had a leg wax or something but I always love a body scrub. 

Model Co lip lacquer

I also recieved Model Co lip lacquer in the shade Morocco, which I felt a little indifferent about. I quite like the shade though, it's got a slight autumnal feel about it. I'm not the biggest fan of lipglosses mainly because I wear my hair down a lot and the wind always blows the wrong way and I end up with my hair stuck to my lips, NEVER a good look. When I pulled the wand out of the tube it was incredibly stringy, gloopy and messy so I was a bit reluctant to try it but was won over by the way it looked on. It's a really pretty shade, but I've just got to make sure I don't use too much of it at once. 

Korres Shower Gel 

This was the only thing I wasn't happy to see when I opened my box which is the Korres shower gel in Citrus. I've actually discussed this with a pal , who loves the Korres shower gels and to be honest I'm sure it's great but it's the scent I don't like. I actually received the Korres body milk in the citrus scent several Birchboxes ago and I just couldn't get on with it. It smells a bit manly for me, I like floral or sweet scents and I like shower gels to be quite creamy and moisturising so this just isn't for me.  

I am however going to give it to my mum, she likes these types of scents.

Agave Healing Oil

Moving swiftly onto Agave healing oil for hair. To be honest, I don't know much about the brand or the product but if it's supposed to help with my hair I'm willing to try. The oil smells amazing, literally almost edible so I've very excited to try this out on my hair. I have quite bad ends in teh sense they always split, year of straightening it everyday is to blame. Now I am trying to be a bit better and nicer to my hair so I can't wait to try this out. 

And finally onto the fun lifestyle pieces, Urban Fruit Strawberries and Birchbox photograph holder. I was so happy when I saw the Urban Fruits and even more some when I realised they were strawberries, I love Urban Fruit and most dried fruits to be honest, so I'm going to devour these in seconds. The photo clip I'm probably never going to use, but it's a nice touch and I love the it kept with the theme. 

Overall a pretty good box. 

What did you get in yours this month?

The Birthday Post

Some of you may or may not know but last weekend was my birthday, no I'm not gonna say how old I am, but I am still definitely twenty something!

I just wanted to share with you how utterly amazing my friends and family are. I never really celebrate my birthday, I hate the attention being on me but my work colleague made me feel so incredibly special and I can't even begin to explain how amazing they are. They spread my birthday out over the entire week with loads of little surprises.

A very foodie indulgent birthday indeed. 

Also, my parents bought my blog domain as you can see which is pretty damn special. 

Tell me how you like to celebrate your birthday?

Beauty Interview

About a month ago the lovely Shannon from Lots of Love, Shannon got in touch with me with a really great idea, she wanted to do a series of beauty interviews with different beauty bloggers and she asked me. I have no idea why anyone would ask me beauty questions but it was so flattering and sounded like a fab idea so of course I said yes. 

I also wanted to share with you guys how I answered her fabulous questions...

1. What is the first piece of makeup you remember owning? 

It has to be a collection 2000 eyeliner pencil. This was the first piece of make-up I really started experimenting with, I definitely when through the grungy teenage phase, where the more black eyeliner I had the better.

2. What is the number one beauty product on your wishlist at the moment?

 I am really in love with the Naked 3 palette, I need it, every bone in my body needs it but I've been very good and not bought it…yet.

3. How many different foundations do you own and which is your favourite? 

To be honest, I only own two right now because I blend them together to create a really nice look. I have the Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation which I absolutely love but it’s just a fraction too light for my skin tone so I mix it up with Max Factor Lasting Performance foundation which is really long wearing.

4. What is the type of beauty product you hoard the most?

I have a stupid amount of lip products that I never use, I love lipsticks but can never find the right shade. I rubbish at remembering to re-apply them as well which makes it pointless in me buying them…but they’re just so pretty.

5. How many steps do you have in your morning skincare routine? 

I am very fussy about what goes on my face and actually I choose to use very few products, I love the Simple face scrub but I only use this twice a week, sometimes 3 times if I feel my face needs it. I moisturise every day and night this is very important to me and I use Simple Deep Cleansing face mask once a week. That's it!

Now onto a few quick-fire this or that questions: 

1. MAC or Nars? Nars, I want everything Nars 

2. Rimmel or Revlon? Rimmel, I don’t even own a Revlon product.

3. Mascara or Concealer? Mascara, I would literally be lost without my mascara, I have blonde eyelashes so I look like an alien without it.

4. Skincare or Haircare? Skincare

5. Purifying mask or hydrating mask? Purifying Mask

6. High end or Drugstore? High End though I clearly only have Drugstore products right now.

7. Blog or Vlog?  I love watching vlogs but would never do one so I’m gonna have to say blogs

8. Hair up or hair down? Hair down.

9. Red or Pink Lipstick? Red, though I would never be able to confidently pull off wearing red lipstick

10. Highlight or Contour? Contour, to fake gorgeous cheek bones of course

Check out her Beauty Interview with me.

Seriously, go and give Shannon some love on her blog! 

Thanks Shannon!

Essie Nail Polish

I know there are so many posts about how amazing the Essie Nail polishes are and the colours are just gorgeous but I didn't realise how much I would love them until I bought Go Ginza. 

But I tried to be good because to be honest they are a little pricey and I didn't buy anymore until I was in Boots recently and they had a 3 for 2 on all Essie Nail polishes. Of course I had to buy three so I thought I would share with you the colours I've picked up. 

As you can see these are 3 quite different shades but I really liked each one.

Mint Candy Apple - To be honest, I have seen this on Anna from Viviannadoesmakeup's nails and vlogs and it always looks gorgeous. I have had serious nail envy every time I see it and I just think it's a really fresh colour. This is going to be the first one I try out. 

Bordeaux - Now we have the exciting Autumn/Winter months coming I knew I've gotta get a good deep red. As soon as I saw it I knew that was the perfect shade I was looking for, I love the colour red on my nails.

Fiji - This one I have been picking up and putting down for well over a month. I was really torn between this and Go Ginza they're fairly similar just slightly different shades, this is more pinky where as Go Ginza is more lilac. 

What is your favourite Essie colour?

Homemade Onion Bread | Recipe

I've always loved the idea of baking bread but I haven't done it since I was about 13 at school and even then they didn't turn out that great so I thought it's about time I try it out again. 

I went to a farm last weekend and as were were looking through the shop they had all these different types of flours, from Apple and Cinnamon to Tomato and Basil, each one smelled amazing. But I was kinda drawn to the simple Onion flour because it reminds me of a time where me an my dad always used to go to another farm of a weekend and buy the most amazing loaves of bread my fave was the Cheese and Onion loaf. 

I like the fact it came with a little recipe, however I didn't quite follow this one but it is handy. 

But I thought I would take you through how I made my bread, but I will just stress, this hasn't turned out amazingly! It's ok, but for my first attempt it's pretty good. 

Ingredients

• 500g of this onion flour
• 12g of yeast
• 40g of soft butter
• Large pinch of salt
• 300ml of tepid water

Nice easy and simple recipe which is what I like. The thing that's the problem is how bloody long you have to leave the dough to prove and how long you should knead it. 

You simply mix all the dry ingredients including the butter together and then add about half of the water. This is where it gets bloody messy, you gotta get your hands in. Start getting the mixture together and making sure you a picking up all of the flour on the side of the bowl. Keep adding the rest of the water little by little to the mixture. Don't add all the water at once, the job is messy enough without excess water. 

Once you have the dough in a pretty solid form, it's time to knead it. On a clean surface just sprinkle with a little plain flour and start working the dough. You wanna make sure that you are really stretching the dough. Personally I would say to do this for at least 5 mins, at least. 

Then you move it into a bowl, put a bit of clingfilm over the top and put it in a warm place 

It kinda looks small, but you need to double in size at least which is why you need it in a warm place, I left mine in there for an hour and this is how it looked after

Once it has doubled, you've gotta knock all that air out of it and get kneading again. I think I didn't knead the second time for long enough which is something I'm going to make sure I do next time. 

Then I transferred mine onto a baking tray and left it in a war place for another 40 mins to get it to rise again. 

I made a couple of little cuts into my loaf but I know think they could have been a little longer. I put it in the oven on gas mark 7 for about 20-22mins. 

The problem I had was the top of my loaf burned a little so next time I'm gonna make a little tin foil hat for it and put it on about 10 mins before it's finished. 

The result 

As you can see a little bit of a burnt top and the onion bits caught as well, but the inside still looks pretty good right?

This was my first attempt and I am going to do a few things differently next time but I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out. 

Any tips for baking bread?

Bourjois Dissolvant Miraculeux | Review

Ok guys I know what you're thinking "she's a bit late to the party" but yes I have just discovered the magic of nail varnish remover in a pot in the form of Bourjois Dissolvant Miraculeux.

A little pot of magical bliss

I love to paint my nails but recently I've been finding it hard to get into a good routine of painting them because I get home late or I do something after work, most of the time I simply cannot be bothered of remove the polish let alone paint them. 

The other day I was just wasting time in Superdrug when I saw this, I have read so many reviews on this product and I actually had chipped nail polish on so I though I would give it a go. 

I got back into the office and thought whilst it was quiet I would just try it out, I was so impressed. You literally stick you finger in the little hole, which in cases your nail with sponge and twist the pot around maybe 2 times, remove you finger and boom! It's all gone. It's that simple, it's that great!  I was that impressed I went running around to other girls in the office to show them, they were all equally as impressed. I have to mention another thing I love about this product is, it actually doesn't have a "nail polish remover" smell, well if you sniff the pot it does, but you shouldn't be sniffing from the pot anyway. It almost leaves an oil on your finger tips, that smells of fruit it's actually really nice. 

I wouldn't quite say it's a "1 second" nail polish remover but it's about a 2 or 3 second remover which is still impressive and far less messy. I'm not sure how glitter is going to fair with this product but I don't really wear a lot of glitter polishes so it doesn't matter too much. I will say it's on the fractionally pricey side of things at £4.99 but I do think it's worth it. 

This is going to make my nail polish life so much easier. 

Have you tried the Bourjois Dissolvant Miraculeux yet?

Big Fat Healthy Hair Shampoo & Conditioner | Review

If you read my previous Boot Haul post you will know that I was going to try out Lee Stafford's My Big Fat Healthy Hair Shampoo and Conditioner to see whether it really could give my hair added volume. 

My hair is pretty flat, it's not very thick but I like to try volumising shampoos and conditioners to see whether they really can do anything for my hair. So this month I thought I would try out this brand, generally speaking I have heard a lot of good reviews about Lee Stafford products as a whole so I thought this was a pretty safe option. 

The product claims to boost the hairs body and texture whilst making it a little glossy and add a bit of shine. I though I would give this product a good go and try it out for nearly a month to see whether I did notice any difference. 

The product smells really lovely, kinda sweet and floral but a really nice fresh scent and when I was rubbish the conditioner in it almost foams up a little bit which is quite difference from other conditioners which i really like. The shampoo is a bit weird because it's see through, I'm not sure I like that because I like to see how much I'm putting in my hand so I know not to use too much but it's ok. 

After blowing drying my hair, it does look good and this shampoo and conditioner definitely makes my hair really soft, it's gorgeous. But the one thing it doesn't do is make my hair look any thicker, at all. It's such a shame because I do think it's a really nice product and had it just be for normal hair I think I would be in love but it doesn't make my hair look any thicker what so ever. It just kinda makes it a little knotty, which I'm not sure whether this is part of the formula to add more texture but I'm really not a fan unfortunately.  

I won't be buying this product again but I definitely would try more Lee Stafford products because they are nice but this one doesn't do what it says it does. 

Have you tried My Big Fat Healthy Hair?