Jumper: Jack Wills

Jeans: Union Blues @ Jacamo*

Watch: Daniel Wellington

Trainers: Y3 Yohji Run's

The guys over at Jacamo very kindly asked if I would like to do a blog post styling my boyfriend (now fiancee!!!) in their new range of menswear, in particular their jeans (Link Here). I jumped at the chance and chose this staple pair of skinny black jeans by a brand called Union Blues. They are a bargain at only £25, something that surprised my fiancee, and he said they fitted really well compared with the expensive jeans he usually buys. He loves his labels so anything that encourages him to buy more affordable clothing is a win win for me.

I paired the jeans with his new favourite trainers and the Jack Wills jumper I bought him for Christmas! Overall I'm quite pleased with the casual day look.

 

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www.caffezonzo.com

Newcastle has to be one of my favourite places to eat, so many cute cafes, gorgeous restaurants and beautiful places to eat! So I was pretty excited to get involved in Newcastle's hidden food gems in partnership with Millennium Hotels and Resorts. Me and my boyfriend love nothing more than going out to eat and if I'm honest it's one of our guilty pleasures and we definitely spend way too much money than we should on eating out. However one of our favourite places to go is Caffe Zonzo in Sandyford, it's a family-ran Italian restaurant and serves some incredible food! They have a menu called Peasant's Lunch which is available everyday until 6:30, with dishes starting from £3.95, a bargain! They also serve cocktails for £5, my favourite is their Expresso Martini. I would highly recommend a visit, and I can't wait to try some of the other places listed below. 

Newcastle's Hidden Food Gems

What are your hidden food gems?

 

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I thought I'd start a new series on my blog called Food Fridays. I'm a massive foodie and so I thought it was about time I started sharing my food interests with you guys. I'm not going to post a food post every friday but maybe one friday a month I'll either do a restaurant review or a recipe! This week I embarked on making my very first pie, a Steak & Guinness pie. This was purely because I found a Le Creuset pie dish at TK Maxx for a bargain price of £12.99 and I was desperate to use it.

I used a basic recipe from Jamie Oliver and altered it to suit my needs.

Steak & Guinness Pie

INGREDIENTS

olive oil

2 medium red onions, peeled and chopped

3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

2 sticks celery, trimmed and chopped

a handful of baby mushrooms, whole

750g quality diced beef

a few sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves picked and chopped

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

440 ml Guinness

2 heaped tablespoons plain flour

600g ready-made Jus-Rol shortcrust pastry

1 large free-range egg, beaten

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 220ºC/gas 5. In a large pan with a lid, heat a lug of olive oil on a medium heat. Start by browning the meat then remove from the pan and set aside. Put the onions in the pan and fry gently for about 10 minutes – try not to colour them too much. Turn the heat up, add the garlic, carrots and celery and scatter in the mushrooms. Mix everything together before stirring in the browned beef, rosemary, a pinch of salt and a level teaspoon of pepper.

Fry for 3 or 4 minutes, then pour in the Guinness, stir in the flour and add just enough water to cover. Bring to a simmer, cover the pan with a lid and leave on a very low heat for 1 and a half hours, stirring every 20 minutes or so. A perfect pie filling needs to be robust, so if it’s still quite liquidy after 1 and a half hours then remove lid and turn up the heat, reduce until the sauce thickens. Remove from the heat and season carefully and leave to cool slightly (even better leave to cool completely and then put in the fridge for a day).

Grease and flour a 24cm pie dish, before laying a round of pastry big enough to fall over the edges, making sure to press into the sides gently.Tip the stew into your dish and even it out before brushing egg wash around the edge of the pastry in the pie dish and then placing the rest of the pastry over the top of the pie. Trim and then crimp the edges and maybe even make some decoration out of the leftover pastry for the top (I went Christmas themed). Brush the top with beaten egg, then bake the pie directly on the bottom of the oven for 40 minutes, until the pastry is cooked and golden. Delicious served simply with peas, gravy and some mash potato if you're feeling like a treat!

It really is a delicious pie and surprisingly easy once you have prepared everything, what do you think? Will you be trying this?

 

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I've been loving Barry M lately, and I especially have since they released some super dark vampy shades in there Gelly Hi-Shine range! The shade I decided to buy was called Blackcurrant and is a very dark plum colour. Its so gorgeous especially for throughout the Winter months. The three other shades in the collection are a dark red, dark blue and dark green. My only issue with these new polishes is the formula, I have been buying from the Gelly Hi-Shine range ever since it was released and its always been a thick formula which hardens and stays put for days on end. However with these new shades the formula has definitely been changed, its a lot thinner and to be honest not nearly as good! These nails lasted 2 days before 3 of them had chipped and 1 was peeling off completely! Its a shame because the shades are gorgeous!

Nonetheless I paired this polish with a Barry M glitter, a stunning bronze and gold glitter called 'Copper', perfect for Christmas! Ever since the start of November I've been dying to wear glitter polishes and this one is definitely going to be a firm favourite this Winter I think!

What glitter polishes have you been loving?

 

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Dove DermaSpa Range*

If I'm completely honest Dove is always a brand that I tend to forget about, when I'm after a new skincare product I don't tend to think about Dove first and foremost. However that is definitely going to change as I recently received their new DermaSpa range and it is amazing! The range is Dove's most scientifically advanced skincare range and combines dermatological care with spa-like formulations. The range is divided into two parts, the Goodness3 range which is designed to smooth the skins texture and the Uplifted+ range which supplies moisture to restore the skin's natural elasticity.

The Goodness3 Body Cream is one of my favourites from the collection, it's a super thick consistency and really makes your skin feel soft and nourished. It also smells amazing! I was sent two of the new hand creams, one is a Goodness3 Hand Cream and the other is an Intensive Hand Cream, I love the Goodness3 one, it again smells really good and made my hands really soft without being greasy, personally I found the Intensive hand cream too heavy for my hands but it would be great for slightly older hands or those who get very dry hands, my mum tried it and she loved it! The Uplifted+ Satin Smooth Body Oil was one of the products I was most excited to try as I haven't had much experience with body oils and I absolutely love it! Its not at all greasy and has a really nice strong scent to it, its perfect for using in the winter months. Finally is the Uplifted+ Massaging Roll-On, I wasn't sure what exactly to expect with this product. The three massaging balls feel really nice on the skin and the gel soaks in really well however in my opinion it just feels like another moisturiser. I've only been trying it for just over a week so I will continue to use it and update you guys in a few weeks!

Overall I'm really happy with the range, and I would definitely recommend you giving it a try! Well done Dove!

 

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As soon as I heard about the new H&M beauty range I couldn't wait to give it a go, however I soon discovered that my local store didn't stock it and after browsing online for what felt like days I just couldn't decide what to get without trying it out. So I made the trip to a store slightly further out in the hope that they would have the range and hallelujah, they did!! I was so excited, the whole range really is beautiful and I had to stop myself from buying every single product. So I narrowed it down to the thing that excites me the most, eye makeup, with a couple of nail polishes thrown in on top.

H&M Nail Polish in U-Taupe-Ia and Verdigris

I always love to try out a new nail polish so I was obviously going to be trying out H&Ms range and boy is there a lot to choose from! I eventually decided to go for a slightly different shade to what I would usually go for (burgundys all the time!) and a lovely glitter to get into the Christmas spirit. The taupe shade is really nice, it came out slightly darker than I expected it to but don't all nail polishes? The brush is thick and wide so this nail polish is so easy to apply; the glitter is gorgeous, although the glittery blues and oranges look scary in the pot, it gives a beautiful coppery look on the nails!

H&M Colour Essence Eye Pencil in Raw Umber

I used to be obsessed with bronze eye liners but have recently been going blacks and dark browns however I could resist giving this beautiful shade a go. The eyeliner is really smooth and creamy, not as long lasting as some waterproof eye liners however the shades they have are beautiful and still last for a good few hours before wearing off.

H&M Eye Colour Palette in Smoky Nudes

I was most excited about these palettes but to be honest they are probably the most disappointing. The shades are all really nice and I'd definitely get wear out of them all however the actual shadows aren't the same as the single shadows. They are okay, but quite chalky and definitely not as silky as the single shadows. I like the palette and will use it but it's nothing special.

H&M High Impact Eye Colour in Shiitake, Woodwork and Candied Almond

These are my favourite out of the whole collection. Seriously, such good quality for the price. The pigmentation is amazing and the actual shadow is silky and glides on to the eyelid so easily. There are so many shades to choose from and I struggled to pick out these three. Shiitake is a gorgeous pale, shimmery brown, Woodwork is a darker brown with gold shimmer in it and Candied Almond slightly more matte chesnut brown, perfect for the crease!

Next up on my list is the cream shadows, have you tried this collection?

 

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