homemade granola

Granola is such a great add on to yogurt, or cereal, and the brands provided in supermarkets tend to be pretty high in sugar. Making your own is wonderfully easy, and you can tweak it to exactly how you like your granola.

Ingredients...
- rolled oats
- cinnamon
- pepitas
- salt
- raisins
- almonds
- vanilla extract
- honey
- oil (olive or coconut)

How to...
- Mix all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl
- Spread on a large roasting tray and roast for 15-20 minutes depending on your toasty-ness preference

apple tart

Ingredients...
- apples
- cinnamon
- butter
- brown sugar
- puff pastry

How to...
- Defrost the puff pastry, and lay it out once it's malleable and warm
- Slice up the apples on a mandolin or however you'd like
- Toss sliced applies in cinnamon, brown sugar, and a bit of melted butter
- Lay apples out on the tart in whatever manner you would like. When doing mine, I laid them out horizontally in opposite directions for aesthetic purposes, but you can do a flower shape or whatever else floats your boat.
- Sprinkle with some more cinnamon and maybe a spritz of honey!
- Bake until puff pastry has risen and apples look crisp and golden brown.

budapest

After my brief few days in Copenhagen, I went to Budapest. It's a pretty awesome historical city, a bit run-down in certain areas, but stunning nonetheless. The views were phenomenal from from the peak of the Buda side, especially at Buda Castle. Everyone who visits needs to take a mandatory evening river cruise - it's such a relaxing way to see both sides of the city, and the castle is beautiful when lit up at night. The "ruin bars" (unused spaces that have been turned into pubs and bars), are pretty awesome, Szimpla Kert is one of the more famous ones, and definitely worth a trip. 

sólheimajökull & skogafoss

Greetings blogging world, it's been a while but here are some late images from Iceland, yet again.

poached eggs on avocado toast

It's been a busy couple of months; here's a snippet of a very simple meal which is one of my favourites.

brunch at home

Thought I would break up the Iceland posts a tad with a few snippets from a homemade brunch; sorbet champagne cocktail, mussels in garlic white wine, Gorgonzola tortellini, chicken sausage Parmesan fettuine, salmon avocado salad with caviar, tomato bruschetta, bread, and more cheese. We all ate so much food we basically rolled around afterwards.

 

pink shoes

loves of the summer so far: base

1. Maybelline Pure Mineral Concealer in 02

This is probably the best concealer of my life. I have been through countless tubes of this and thank god it is a fairly cheap product as I manage to get through it all quite quickly. It's the perfect consistency, blends evenly, can be layered for more coverage and is magically somehow the perfect shade for me from when I'm super pale to tan. I had a heart attack when I thought it was discontinued because it wasn't available in the US or UK, but then I found out it was only on the Asian market and all was right in the universe again. I love this to the moon and back and, god forbid, the day it becomes discontinued, I will buy my local drugstore's full stock then cry myself to sleep.

2. Laura Mercier Secret Concealer in 02

I bought this quite a while ago when I decided I had to move away from the Maybelline Mineral Concealer and also when I was slightly more tanned. For quite a while I used it but decided that it was too dry and thick for my liking, then I got pale and it was completely the wrong shade for my ghastly face. Since I've gained a bit of colour again, I've been using this as an undereye conealer and found that the peachy-warm tones of it are perfect in masking the blue-y, green-y eyebags that seem to perpetually hang below my eyes. It's not as long lasting as I'd like it to be, but then again, my many undereye creases don't help when using any type of concealer in said region. It can get a bit powdery and cake-y looking when constantly reapplied but I've learned to mix this up with a bit of my Maybelline concealer to stop my eyes from looking like they have been dipped in flour.

3. Inglot Bronzing Powder in 75

One of the softest powder products of my collection, this gives a pleasant bit of colour to the face on those "why do I look like I've lived in a cave for the last month" days. I've been applying this with the Real Techniques Buffing Brush for god knows what reason, but it seems to deposit just the right amount of colour and shimmer on the areas of my face the sun would naturally hit, leaving me with a lovely dew-y "I've just sat out in the sun for the afternoon" glow. I like to think that it doesn't look overly orange or that it's a muddy bronzer and it looks like I've stuck my face in pot of dirt, but then again there are some days I might be wrong and I'm actually walking around looking like a giant Cheeto-face. Who knows.

4. Laura Mercier Invisible Loose Setting Powder in Universal

A long term favourite of mine, I have gone through quite a few tubs of this stuff and in-between have tried multiple other pressed powders (e.g. the Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder). Nothing quite gives the same smooth and silky finish to my skin the way this does, though I have to say I haven't had the guts to try any other loose powders because I just love this far too much and would carry this to my grave if I could. It is neither overly mattifying nor too dewy looking and manages to keep my oil at bay for most of the day.

5. Laura Mercier Smooth Focus Shine Control Pressed Setting Powder in Matte Translucent

I have almost finished up my MAC Pressed Blot Powder, (there is literally  the thinnest ring of product around the edge of the pan I have yet to use), but this has made it into my daily makeup bag in place of the aforementioned. Since my skin has become significantly less oily over the last year and almost a bit dry and dehydrated, I was starting to find that the MAC powder was sucking even more moisture out of my skin, leaving unappealing dry patches of flaky skin in certain areas. This looks oddly blue in the pan which can be ever so slightly off-putting. But when dusted over my face in the middle of the day after reapplying concealer where necessary, it manages to mattify my skin just the perfect amount without leaving my face feeling like it has turned into the Sahara Desert.