Naked Palette Review

My sister bought me the Naked eye shadow palette from Urban Decay, and I absolutely love it :D the colour combination gives a warm, brown tone, which is ideal for subtle yet elegant make-up, or can be worn everyday for a simple, natural look.

There's also some darker shades which are good for creating more emphasis, like for the smoky-eye make-up style. All the pigments in the palette stick very well to my skin, so it is quite long-lasting. I personally like 'Darkhorse' the best as it can be used to give more definition to the eyes and it is quite flexible to suit any style really.

The only thing I can fault with this palette is that I wish it had a white eye shadow, which would come in very handy. The lightest shade they have is 'Virgin', which is more of a cream colour. It has a good mix of matte and shimmery eye shadows though.



The brush is also very good~ the pigment sticks very well to it, so it is easy to apply and is very smooth on the eye. The casing has a velvet feel to it, which is nice, whereas the other palettes (Naked 2 and 3) have a tin casing.

The eye shadow palette came with tester primers for their eye shadow primer potion:

Inside, there are 4 different primers to try~ Original (Nude), Eden (Nude matte), Sin (Champagne shimmer) and Anti-Aging (Nude). There's a little description about each primer.



On the back of the descriptions contains the primers.



I think this is a nice little freebie to come with the eyeshadow palette, as it can be used to make the eye shadow last longer on your eyes when you apply it before you put on the eye shadow. The Anti-Aging primer is also a nude colour (same as the Original primer), but it helps to colour-correct the skin and blur out any flaws and fine lines.

Overall, I am very happy with this eye shadow palette, it is definitely my favourite so far, so I would recommend it to anyone! Compared to the Naked 2 and Naked 3 palettes, this one is good if you want to create warmer, natural tones to the skin. I think Naked 2 can create more of a cooler, darker look, but it also has many of the same colours as the Naked palette, so it can also create a similar effect. The Naked 3 palette has a rose-gold feel to it, which can give a more girly and cute look. So each palette is quite unique in its own way.

I hope you enjoyed reading my review, and thank you for visiting my blog!

Naked Palette: Urban Decay

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My Old Dutch - Sweet and Savoury Pancake House

#Throwback to these yummy pancakes at My Old Dutch in Holborn, London! Their extensive pancake menu meant we were sitting there for a while trying to choose what toppings to have XD They have both savoury and sweet pancakes, and many can be made gluten free. There are many sauces to choose from such as maple syrup and chocolate sauce, and you can mix and match fruit and ice cream with your pancakes.

 

Some savoury pancakes they offer include Crispy Bacon and Spinach, Mediterranean, and Chilli Con Carne~ very unusual but creative! haha :P Some sweet pancakes include Apple and Cinnamon, Banana, Nuts & Chocolate Sauce, and Sugar & Lemon pancakes. Most of them have the option to add cream or ice cream.

 

You can also order a My Old Dutch Platter (for 2 people), or other desserts such as dutch apple pie or waffles.

 

It's a great dessert place to visit, and the atmosphere was very American-style! I really enjoyed it here, and I'll definitely want to come back again :)

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Make your own Matcha Latte

 

 

If you're a big green tea/matcha fan like me, wouldn't it be great if you could have your matcha latte any time you want? In the UK there are not many places that serve green tea beverages, so instead of scouring the land for green tea, here are a few simple and easy ways you could make it at home!

Number 1:
"Marukyu Koyamaen Chigi no Shiro" Powdered Green Tea:

 

 

This powdered green tea is very strong and concentrated, so you only need a small amount, about one teaspoon. Boil some water in a kettle then leave it for about 10 minutes to cool down to about 70 degrees. Don't have the water too hot as it will destroy all the nutrients in the green tea. Then add about 100ml of water to a mug with the green tea powder and stir well. If you want to make a latte instead of tea, then you can add hot milk to it, about 75ml. This will make the drink more creamy. Add a tablespoon of honey to make it sweeter. And that's it!

 

To make a green tea iced latte instead, just add a little hot water to the green tea powder just to dissolve it, add honey or sugar to make it sweeter, then add 100-200ml cold milk to it and stir well.

 

There are other powdered green tea that you can purchase from the same brand, but this one is premium in that it has a more intense flavour. This one has 40g of green tea powder. You can also use green tea powder to make smoothies and milkshakes, or add it to baking recipes such as cakes, cookies and brownies. I have yet to bake a green tea cake with this!

 

Powdered Green Tea: Japan Centre

 

Number 2:

Nestle Bokujo Uji Matcha Green Tea:

 

 

 

This one is imported from Japan, and it comes in a box of 9, each sachet contains 5.6g. These already have the necessary ingredients in them (e.g. green tea powder, milk powder and sugar), so all you have to add is hot water (about 180ml).

 

To make a green tea iced latte, just add 90ml of hot water to one sachet and then add ice.

 

This one had a nice taste, but the green tea flavour was not as strong as the "Marukyu Koyamaen Chigi no Shiro" one above. To make it stronger, you can either add some green tea powder to it or use less water so it's not as dilute. Unfortunately the UK doesn't sell this so you can only buy it online.

 

Bokujo Uji Matcha: Amazon

 

Number 3:

Matcha Ginger Latte:

 

 

 

 

If you fancy having matcha with a twist, you can opt for a Matcha Ginger Latte. This one comes in a box of 10, each sachet contains 25g. Simply pour the powder into a mug and add about 180ml of hot water (again not too hot) and stir. To make the drink thicker and creamier, you can add hot milk to it.

 

To serve it cold, add 90ml of hot water to one sachet, stir evenly and add ice.

 

In my opinion, this one was quite gingery for me, so I prefer having the original green tea powder, but it's worth a try! I bought this from a local oriental store, so I'm sure you can buy these in UK shops that sell oriental food, or you can order it online.

 

Matcha Ginger Latte: Amazon

 

Overall, I enjoyed using all 3 products, but my favourite has got to be the first one, (Marukyu Koyamaen Chigi no Shiro) because the green tea flavour was more intense, and you only need a small amount, so the pot can last you quite some time. If you are going to try any of these products, do let me know what you think of them by leaving a comment below! I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog.

 

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Sushi Mania and Baskin Robbins, London

On Saturday my boyfriend and I headed down to Edgeware, London to have a catch up with some friends over sushi - and what better place to have it than at Sushi Mania :D This is a sushi buffet restaurant, and the food here is so good! We ordered a lot of sushi, salmon sashimi, prawn tempura, fried tofu, dumplings, chicken and beef skewers, and seaweed salad. They also serve hot food like ramen. I've been to Sushi Mania before in Brighton and in Reading, which were also very good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we'd stuffed ourselves with sushi, we decided to go to Baskin Robbins for ice cream~ yes, there's always room for dessert! haha it was right opposite Sushi Mania, so that was convenient xD

 My boyfriend treated me to pistachio ice cream and rainbow ice cream (which had different fruit flavours, including mango and raspberry).

Going all the way out to Edgeware is not a common thing for us, so we went all out today!

Thank you for reading my blog, I shall be posting more foodie and lifestyle posts soon!

 

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Dazs Dazs Dazs

 Just realised how many foodie pictures I have on my phone and camera that I have yet to show you guys! Although they are long overdue ><  Today I was scrolling through my food pictures and found this~ Haagen Dazs desserts <3 OMG just looking back at them makes my mouth water! This Haagen-Dazs café was located in Leicester Square, London.

 

 

We chose quite a few different flavours of ice cream, such as strawberry cheesecake, baileys, tiramisu, banoffee, cookies and cream, and macadamia nut brittle. We took a long time to decide which flavours to have, as there was so much choice! Besides the many flavours of ice cream they have on offer, they also have other dessert combos with the ice cream, like waffles, crepes, macarons, brownies, muffins, and they even serve afternoon tea! which we couldn't resist trying :P The afternoon tea consisted of ice cream muffins, brownie pieces, a chocolate cookie, 4 different macarons, 2 small cakes and some fruit. The desserts were so yummy and sweet~ if you have a sweet tooth, you'll love it here!

 

Thank you for reading my blog :D

 

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