Lauren Conrad's Style half price!

In Lauren Conrad's latest book, Style, Lauren shares her style and beauty secrets. From the daytime girl next door look to evening glamour, you too can pull off as many looks as she can with this guide.

Plus now Lauren Conrad: Style is half price on Amazon.co.uk!

If you haven't yet gotten yourself a copy, get it now as this is a limited offer. It would also make a great Christmas present for those of you getting your shopping done early.

What I made today

Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream icing

These didn't come out perfect. They were a bit too moist because I used vanilla syrup instead of vanilla essence and the cheap butter ruined the sponge and the icing (the buttercream icing is supposed to look whipped!) Other than that they were quite nice.

Hopefully they'll turn out better next time.

Friday funnies

Happy weekend!

xoxo

Hotel Chocolat's Vanilla and Butterscotch

(Please excuse the quality of the picture.

I gobbled them all up before managing to take a photo

so this is the best I could find online)

When I read the word ‘butterscotch’ on the front of the packet, I instantly had to have it. Milk chocolate enrobes a hybrid of butterscotch and vanilla in this square shaped creation. Biting into the milk chocolate shell, I instantly tasted a powerful blow of the strong vanilla taste. The butterscotch flavour is quite subtle in comparison. Nonetheless, it contributes to its creamy texture and sweetness.

I’m not a big fan of vanilla in chocolate myself but if you are or happen to be adventurous, give it a go. You might fall in love.

xoxo

Hotel Chocolat's Sticky Toffee

 I normally don't like dark chocolate but Hotel Chocolat’s dark chocolate is something else. It is full of cocoa flavour, which takes away some of the bitterness. Furthermore, the sweet toffee sauce filling in this creation added some sugary sweetness to the intense cocoa flavour.

I didn’t know what to expect of the toffee sauce in the beginning. Is it gooey caramel? Is it chewy toffee (which I detest)? Biting into the chocolate, I reached the smooth centre of the most perfectly textured caramel I have come across. The taste was beautiful but lacked enough caramel flavour found in cheaper chocolates such as Galaxy Caramel. Maybe the chocolate is too overpowering to focus on the flavour, which is a shame.

Nonetheless, it is definitely a nice after dinner treat full of cocoa flavour with caramel sweetness. If you need a quick cocoa and caramel fix, one piece is enough to satisfy your sweet tooth. But that doesn’t mean you can’t finish the whole packet of course! ;)

Cargo PlantLove haul!

My package from Puresha.com arrived yesterday full of natural goodies lovingly wrapped in Furoshiki. Here are all the things I bought...

I actually bought 2 other items (a hot pink lipstick and a nude eyeshadow) which I was later told are out of stock :'(

I'll be reviewing all these products as well as putting up some FOTD's soon so look out for them on Love From Eden.

Should people be forced to smell your perfume?

As you may know from my previous post, I am trying my very best to stay away from synthetic products. So this includes perfume. It has been over a month since I last put on any perfume. Since then, I have begun noticing scents a lot better. My nose has, for some reason, become extra sensitive to perfume worn by others and it's suffocating!

It is mostly the floral scents that smell too sickly sweet to me these days, which is surprising since I used to love sweet smelling perfumes in my perfume wearing days. I actually put on a little perfume today and I felt physically sick. That serves me right for spraying toxic chemicals onto myself! Never again!

Though while I stay away from spraying any perfume, I can't help what other people are polluting my fresh air with. These days, I am either breathing in people's toxic perfumes, people's toxic car fumes or people's toxic cigarette smoke. It is a shame that everyone else gets the smell of freedom while they pollute the very air that I'm breathing! What happened to the freedom to smell some fresh air for once!

I'm not saying people shouldn't have their freedom to do as they wish, but they should really be considerate of others by spraying less perfume. I mean if you wanna smell your own perfume, go ahead! But there's no need to spray so much and make everyone else smell it. If I get nauseous smelling certain fragrances, then I hate to imagine the experiences of those who actually suffer from perfume allergy or asthma!

In related news, check this out: Perfume protest: Teens Storm 'Toxic' Abercrombie and Fitch

My opinion? You guessed it! Quit spraying!

x

Making rice pudding - first attempt

I have been craving rice pudding the past few days. It's just that kinda weather. The kind that makes you wanna sit at home and fill your belly with warm food all day long. If you're British then you should know exactly what I'm talkin' about.

Since I don't like buying ready made food, I decided that the only way I could satisfy my rice pudding craving is to make it myself. I didn't realise that it takes too long to cook and when my belly craves something, it wants it now not 45 mins cooking time later! Yes it takes that long! And that is the 'quick' version! Some ask for 2 and a half hours!

So here's the recipe (The only problem I had with this recipe is that the rice wasn't soft enough so I would suggest using pudding rice instead):

1 cup uncooked soft grain rice

3 cups milk

Half cup sugar

2 tbsp butter

Pinch salt (optional)

Pinch cinnamon (optional)

1. Cook the rice according to packet instructions. This should take about 10-15 mins.

2. Once cooked, add the milk, sugar, butter and salt

3. As soon as it starts to boil, turn to low heat and allow to simmer for 25-30 mins whilst stirring occasionally

4. Once the rice pudding is nice and thick, it is ready to serve hot or cold. Add cinnamon for extra flavour.

Please remember that this is only my first attempt so if you have any tips on how to improve it then please share.

Enjoy and keep warm! x

Just a reminder...

... because we all need reminding now and then.



Happy weekend :) x