Lorde

Lorde, birth name Ella, is an extremely talented 16 year old from New Zealand. She's pretty brand new on the scene and unfortunately not available on i-tunes here in the UK yet. However head to her website and have a listen through the tracks from the soon to be released E.P. 'The Love Club'.

If you've not got a lot of time to spare, head straight to Royals (above.) I have to confess to having this on repeat for my entire journey to work at 7am this morning and again for my entire journey home. That may have been slightly excessive but its a bloody fantastic song. The lyrics aren't much to get excited about in my opinion but her voice excellent and there's a sort of notion of moving forward in the song, it evokes a ing of empowering feeling. Well it does for me. I like it alright. 

Have a go. Stick it on. You'll feel better for it. Honest.

For a more in depth look into the music by someone with far more attuned ears and greater musical vocabulary than my own, head here to a review via The Recommender.

James Blake

I want you all to take your hands, take them up your neck either side of your head, keep going... whats that? Something in your way? Fleshy little head handles? They are ears mate. Pretty useful little buggers, and while wiggling them up and down (a skill known by only a few among us, wizards of the lobe) for the entertainment of young children is one of those uses, listening is the other.

What you choose to listen to is entirely up to you of course (except in those dire circumstances where by the audio space around you is being held hostage by a screaming child or DIY enthusiast neighbour), but if you're looking for a suggestion as to what to expose yourself to next then here is mine...

The Album, entitled 'Overgrown' was released yesterday, and I have retreated into it's beautiful all encompassing sound at every given opportunity. I don't feel like I'm able to describe Blake's sound in a way that justifies his genius, so if you have a spare 5 minutes, give him a listen. You'll love him or think I'm talking total bollocks but ya might as well give it a go though eh?

Bacon & Egg Breakfast Bread Cups

Night Out? House Party? Living Room stacked high with slumbering bodies all secreting sweat thats probably about 90% alcohol? Yeah, me too.

On those sunday mornings when all you want to do is get the hungover masses, about,and most importantly out of your house so you can watch friends re-runs and drink vast amounts of tea in peace, this is your new shining light.

Not only does this super scrummy breakfast offering look impressive but it's so damn easy to do that even if you are, in fact, actually still drunk from the previous nights escapades (shouldn't have had those last 3 tequila shots should you? hummm.), you're still guna ace it. So put the headache on hold for a half hour, whip up a batch, serve with orange juice and tell those freeloading mates of yours to eat up and shove off.


The quantities below makes two cups, which I'd say is enough for one person, so just multiple by the number of eye bagged, sorrow-filled buddies you're attempting to fuel.

Ingredients:

2 X Rashers of Bacon (Smoked or Unsmoked)
2 X Eggs
2 X Slices of Bread (Whatever variety you prefer)
Butter


You'll also need a rolling pin, a frying pan and muffin tin.


Pop your oven up to around 180º C / 356º F

Get your frying pan, slap the bacon in there and start cooking, you'll need a little oil to stop it sticking. Keep an eye on it while taking a rolling pin to your bread, steam roller those slices till they are nice and flat then lightly butter both sides. Grab your muffin tin, use a slice of bread per slot (yeah I'm going with 'slot' here), you want to create a case out of the bread by pushing it into the slot and there needs to be no holes. I tend to rip the slice of bread in half, lay the halves in a cross, push these down and maneuver the sticky out bits together to make a real nice cup shape. Set aside.

Once your bacon's well done and turning crispy but isn't stiff whip it out the pan and use scissors or a knife to chop it up into a few smaller bits. Push the bacon into the buttery bread cups, then break an egg carefully into each cup. Season to taste with a little salt and pepper.

Stick your marvelous creation into the oven for around 15-20 mins or until the egg white is solid. Removed from the oven, gasp at the sheer awesomeness of your achievement, serve and enjoy the round of feeble applause as your guests tuck in.

When the last forkful has disappeared, kick em all out and set up camp on your sofa. #Winning.




Recipe adapted from Domestic Sluttery.

Cashmere Soft & Kissable.

A combination of my love of salt rimmed Margaritas, Mac's super matte Ruby Woo iconic red lipstick and the great British spring (HA!) have left my lips dryer than Gandi's flip flop.


I've been down most avenues, and while Blistex Relief Cream  (£2.25 - Superdrug)  has been my saviour when I'm heading to the land of ZZzzz's, it's not overly suitable for day time use as its very white. Unless you have the time to really buff it into your lips and have a mirror for the double check I wouldn't risk it.


Blistex Daily Lip conditioner (£2.49 - Boots) gets an honourable mention alongside Burt's Bees Replenishing Lip Balm with Pomegranate Oil (£3.69 - Boots) my absolute 100% go to, recommend it to a friend, shout it from the rooftops product has to be the Molton Brown - Protecting Vitamin Lipsaver.

Now this little tube isn't cheap at £12 a pop, but you get 15ml of product which lasts for absolutely ages and seriously guys, it's the best. This stuff has saved me. I'm tempted to create a small shrine to in in the corner of my room and present daily offerings. I won't though coz that would be weeeeyrd.


It's long lasting, has a real cashmere softness about it and gives lips a subtle sheen but not a full on wet look gloss type shine. My lips have seriously never been so soft and nourished.


I know it's early on and we don't know each other that well yet, but I'm guna lay it down for ya'll. This shit is HG. Full on Holy Grail material.

Post-Easter Nail Biter

Illamasqua's Imperfection Collection

The first time I saw the press shots for the limited edition imperfection collection from Illamasqua I wasn't overly taken aback, lipstick, blush & eyeliner all in slightly different shades of those already existing. Snooze. A green (seriously wtf?) lipgloss was the only thing that seemed vaguely unusual. But then dear reader I spotted the nail varnish...

Taken from Illamasqua's Press Release

OH MY!

Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?

Now I'm a bit of a nail art fiend (blog post on my various escapades to follow shortly), but even if your interest in painted talons only stretches as far as the occasional lick of red I'm sure you can still appreciate the wonder contained within this beautiful bottle.

What set's this polish apart from the masses is the matt black 'speckle' effect running through the varnish colour. The shade range includes a beige, lilac, dusky pink, a light almost pastel green and my personal favourite,  'fragile', a glorious robin's egg blue.

I received 'fragile' as an easter gift from my mother due to the uncanny resemblance the outcome of a couple of layers of the stuff has to a cadbury's mini egg! Ridiculously cute!

I used two coats with OPI Nail Envy as a base and Seche Vite as a top coat. The colour was lovely and opaque (with the double coat) and lasted about 4 days until wear was visible at the nail tip and chipping became evident. 

Absolutely adore this product. Illamasqua have really got something special here and I know I'll be painting this over my talons and tootsies over and over again throughout spring and summer.