Wednesday, 23 April 2014

Blueberry Pancakes

Too good to resist...

If you watched my March monthly favourites you would of seen my food favourite of the month was Blueberry Pancakes, if you haven't seen this video click here to watch it. Blueberry Pancakes are something that my mum has been making me for years, we lived in America for a year when I was younger and I think this is where she first found the recipe and started making them and I've been addicted to them ever since. These are the American style thicker pancakes with blueberries in or you can put other fruits in like raspberries, I love these so much and their lovely to have as a treat on the weekend so I thought I would share with you how to make them!!

Ingredients


  • 200g Self raising Flour  
  • 1 tsp baking powder 
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 egg
  • 300ml milk
  • 20g butter
  • 1 pack of blueberries (150g)


First start by weighing out all your ingredients, this recipe makes around 10 pancakes. Remember these pancakes are the american style thicker pancakes so are smaller then the thin ones.

Mix all your dry ingredients (flour,baking powder & salt) together into a large bowl. Then mix in a smaller bowl the milk and egg and whisk them together.

Make a small well in the flour mix, this is where you are then going to poor the milk and egg that you have just mixed together. 

Now it's time to whisk all these ingredients together, I am using my Kitchen Aid here because I'm lazy but you could either use an electric whisk or if you want to give your arms a little work out you can whisk by hand.
This is what your pancake mix will look like after whisking, there will be small air bubbles in the mix!


Now it's time to add the final two ingredients, melt the small amount of butter and add that to the mix. I tend to melt my butter in the microwave, now it's time to add the yummy blueberries to the mix (you can add other fruit such as raspberries if you wish), I add all the blueberries to the mix because I love them but you can add as many as you like.

Once all your blueberries are mixed together it's time to heat up your pan, I use a non stick pan and melt a small amount of butter in the pan to make sure they defiantly don't stick. A ladle is normally enough for 1 pancake, I make sure the pan is an a medium heat and then gently spoon the mix. The pancakes need 2-3 minutes each side or until golden on both sides and then they are ready to eat!

This is what your pancakes should look like, I like to have lemon and sugar on mine but you can add more blueberries or syrup. I think these pancakes are so tasty and they make my feel their a bit healthier than normal pancakes because they have fruit in, I would love to see you photos when you make them, please tag me in your photos on Twitter @amybellebeauty or Instagram amybellebeauty.

Have fun making these, I wonder if you'll get as addicted to them as I am!!

X





Tuesday, 22 April 2014

No Chips here....

OPI Topcoat


I hope I'm not the only one to suffer with really weak nails, when I paint my nails they chip within a day and it is my pet hate!! I've always suffered with weak nails I think i've got his from my mum so i've tried lots of different products to try and make my nail polish last longer and stay chip free and I think I may of the product. This OPI nail polish is a 2 in 1 product; it's a base coat and also a top coat which is great because then it means you only need 2 products to do your nails, this and then the colour you are going to apply. 

To start with I make sure my nails are really clean and filed to the shape that I like or to the shape that  I can get them to when their so short. I then wait a minute till the base coat is dry, now it's time to apply the colour nail polish, once the colour polish is all dry its then time to apply the start to finish polish again and all you have to do is wait for it to dry now. I'm a little impatient so I sometimes apply this finishing spray to speed up the drying.

If you are looking for a base and top coat this Start to Finish polish by OPI is a great product, I do agree it is a bit more pricey than your normal high street polish. Costing around £13 but it's a 2 in 1 product and my nails lasted 3-4 days which is really good for my nails. I just use my regular nail polish underneath and does give my nail polish an extra shine. This product would defiantly get a thumbs up from up! (wish i could put a thumbs up emoji in here)

X


Monday, 21 April 2014

YSL Event

I recently attend a YSL Event which was held in the John Lewis Southampton Store. This was a day event and YSL's top international makeup artist; Frederic Letailleur was hosting the event and was teaching us all about the products and also different makeup tips that he has learnt from working the Yves Saint Laurent.
 

Before I went to the event I read up about Frederic Letailleur because I wanted to find out some more about him and what his career has been like as a makeup artist. I have to say he has worked with lots of different celebrities from Kim Cattrall to Cate Blanchett. Follow him on Facebook here or read this interview he did here to find a little bit more about him. 



When I arrived at the counter all the ladies working on the YSL counter were really friendly and welcoming, they made me feel very welcome. Their were glasses or fizz of orange juice offered around and these cute little cupcakes, and yes I did have 1 or maybe 2 of the chocolate ones! We then sat down and got to chat with Frederic and he is so nice and friendly, he asked about me and what I do and all of us makeup lovers got to chat about everything makeup!!


Frederic then started the makeup demonstration, he spoke through all the products he was using in great detail, which was so useful as I didn't know that much about their skincare range but I do now and they are so luxurious and feel lovely on the skin. Once I start earning more money I will defiantly  be tempted to buy some, but while I'm still as student I will just dream about them!!



I learnt new techniques for contouring today which was one of the questions I asked at the start of the  talk, he used a Touche Eclat in a dark shade (number 5 or 6 depending on your skin tone). When he said about using Touche Eclat I wasn't sure how it would work for contouring because I thought the product would reflect light but it worked really well and blended nicely and didn't leave the harsh line.  Learning and try out all their products made me want to buy everything but I resisted and just used a voucher I got for birthday and bought their Hero product; Touche Eclat in the shade 1 which is meant to be amazing for hi lighting. I am going to do a post on it soon and how I'm getting on with it so keep an eye out for that!

I have to say I learnt lots about all their products and how to use them and if I could I would love to buy them all, maybe one day I will!! Everyone was so nice and friendly and I really enjoyed myself, I know they do these events all round the country so if your local YSL Counter have an event like this defiantly book and go, I found it so useful and all the girls on the counter were so helpful. I'm going back to see them soon and have a makeup lesson, I can't wait!!!!!

X



Tuesday, 15 April 2014

Affordable Easter Makeup Tutorial

Have you seen my recent tutorial? I've uploaded it to my Youtube channel which is- Amybellebeauty , please go and subscribe to this channel so you guys can keep up to date with all my videos!!

Here's a makeup tutorial showing you a makeup look that is perfect for the upcoming Easter weekend, and this is great makeup for spring going into summer!! All the makeup I use is really affordable costing £15 and under!! I hope you enjoy!
X


Monday, 14 April 2014

Cheryl's Done it again!!

Cheryl's New Advert


Wow, wow,wow, this video has just been released today for L'Oreal's Feria Hair Colour with the amazing Cheryl Cole. This video was just released an hour ago and  I love it, I am slightly biased as I am a big Cheryl Cole fan, but I this is a great advert and is something very different for L'Oreal. All of the previous adverts have been a lot more static compared to this one, this advert has Cheryl dancing and is very powerful with the music playing. I have to say her hair looks great in this video mainly because of the volume or amount of hair extensions she has in. If you look at my Instagram- amybellebeauty I uploaded a photo of her hair because I want to get my hair as blonde as hers over time.  I'm tempted to go buy a packet of this hair colour if mine could then look like her!!


Haircare Products

My Haircare Products


I've had my hair dyed recently and I have been trying out lots of new haircare products. I've had some bleach put in my hair so I want to make sure that my hair doesn't dry out so I've been looking after it really well. Here's a video showing you my favourite haircare products at the moment, please make sure you go to my Youtube channel and subscribe to my videos. Hope you enjoy this video!!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJrzBNoTHDjnOatYWdiuWAw

Thursday, 10 April 2014

Paris

I recently went to Paris with my University, I have never been away to Paris before so I was excited to go. The Eiffel Tower was beautiful, seeing it in the evening was my favourite I think the lights twinkling on it made it look so pretty. I decided to make a little video to show you some of my favourite parts to Paris, because we were only their for a short period of time I did not get it see everything I wanted to so I'm hoping to go back again!!!