Festive Degustabox Review + £5 off Discount Code!

Hey beaut's!

I have a subscription box review for you all today but it's a subscription box with a difference.... it contains yummy food and drink, so say hello to Degustabox*. Degustabox works very much like how beauty subscription boxes work, for £12.99 a month (postage included within the £12.99 price) you will receive 10 to 15 surprise food/drink products, many that are completely new to the market! So if your a bit of a foodie like myself and you love subscription boxes your going to love this beaut's!

The shortlist for this months box is:

- NICK'S Coconut Bar £1.45
- Weetabix On The Go Kids £2.99
- Reese's Peanut Butter Snowman £3.00
- Amy's Kitchen Organic Chunky Tomato & Vegetable Soup £1.80
- Emily Veg Crisps Sweet Potato Sticks £1.00
- Jules Destrooper Almond & Belgian Chocolate Thins
- Tabasco Red Pepper Sauce £2.00
- Kallo Organic Vegetable Stock Cubes 
- The Bees Knees Non Alcoholic Sparkling Wine £1.89
- Jack Daniel's Whisky Cola + Light Cola
- Mallow & Marsh Cranberry Marshmallows

Overall I think this months box has a great variety of yummy treats to try, theres everything from Christmas chocolate, warming soups, alcohol for a festive tipple, crisps to snack on, stock cubes to help with festive dinners plus so much more.

If you like the look and sound of Degustabox you can grab your first box for just £7.99 with the code 039DB HERE.

Mince Pie Cupcake Recipe - It's Affordable Too!

Hey beaut's!

Arhhh behold the mince pie cupcake, this was a completely new recipe for me and I had no idea if that festive stuff we call mincemeat would work well in a cupcake but being the cupcake lover that I am I just had to give it a go and wow....it honestly tastes like Christmas in a cupcake! I got all my ingredients from Aldi*, which I would really recommend doing because it's soooo much more affordable, I'm talking half the price of other supermarkets, I literally wont get my baking ingredients from anywhere else now.

What You Will Need For The Cupcakes

125g self raising flour

2 tsp mixed spice 

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

65g caster sugar

60 light soft brown sugar

75g mince meat or brandy mince meat (Aldi sell both)

3 tbsp raisins/currants

140g butter

2 large eggs

1.5 tbsp milk

What You Will Need For The Buttercream

150g soft butter

300g icing sugar

1/4 tsp orange extract/juice of an orange (optional)

1/4 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

How To - Cupcakes

* Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 4 /180 and line a muffin tin with your cupcake cases.

* In a large mixing bowl, throw in your butter and whip it up for a minute or two until it's fluffy and whippy then whack in the rest of your cupcake ingredients and mix with an electric whizzer until well combined, this is such an easy 'throw it all in' recipe!

*Once your mixture is smooth pop a heaped tablespoon of the cupcake batter into each cupcake case and bake in the oven for around 15 minutes or until the top of the cupcakes are springy to the touch, then transfer onto a wire rack to cool.

How To - Buttercream

* In a large bowl, beat the butter until it becomes super whippy, then start adding the icing sugar slowly to avoid the dreaded icing sugar cloud and mix until combined. Depending on what flavour buttercream your after will depend on what extract you pop in, orange extract or juice from an orange works really well with these cupcakes and makes it even more seasonal if that's even possible, however if you want to keep things simple then just pop in some vanilla!

* Pipe or spoon the icing on top of the cupcakes and decorate how you wish, I sprinkled over some little gold star sprinkles to add a festive touch, and voila!

I honestly cant believe how well mincemeat works mixed within cupcake batter, it adds such a festive taste and feel to the cupcakes but their still super light and fluffy, they where gorgeous even if I do say so myself!

Magnitone Blend Up Makeup Blending Brush - Christmas Gift Idea

Hey beaut's!

When your trying to buy a Christmas gift for that makeup loving guy or gal in your life it can be quite tricky because you don't know if your going to buy them makeup or beauty items that they already own, but something which is always a winner in my opinion is makeup tools/brushes, we always need a supply of those don't we beaut's! One makeup tool that really caught my eye and had me very intrigued was the Magnitone Blend Up Makeup Blending Brush, and after trying it I really cant recommend it enough for a Christmas prezzie!

The Magnitone Blend Up* is a Vibra-Sonic™ Makeup brush, it flawlessly blends powder and liquid makeup like a professional makeup artist by moving across the skin over 250 times a second to give the softest looking, most natural, airbrushed effect, which is healthier for the skin and leaves it free from clumping, clogged pores, edge-lines and streaks. 

Now although the Blend Up is super easy to use, I'm not going to lie this does take a big of getting used to when you first start using it, however once you get to grips with how it feels you will notice just how quickly your makeup goes on and wow it looks so, so flawless! I like to use the Blend Up brush mainly for my liquid foundation application but I've also used it for powder, blush and bronzer too, all I do is dot my foundation around my face as usual I then blend the brush over my face for a few seconds and voila, I kind of hold and use it just like I would a buffing brush and the head of the brush and the bristles are very much like a buffing brush actually with the added bonus of 2 speed movement and vibration he he. Talking of the bristles...their super soft and feel very high quality, their also covered with Biomaster antibacterial protection to help prevent cross-contamination and unwanted breakouts.

The Blend Up brush is available in white or black, I opted for the black version because I love it's sleek design and rose gold accents, it's very me although I do love the white version too. The Blend Up brush also comes with a USB charger which fully chargers the brush within 2 hours which is pretty good, and theres also two other brush heads that you can buy separately and swap between if you wish.

Overall I think this is a such a genious idea and maybe something you wouldn't think of buying yourself that's why I think it's such an epic Christmas prezzie idea. I certainly love mine and use it everyday to apply my foundation now, it's amazing how natural it makes the foundation look on the skin, my skin still looks and feels like skin but the coverage is there without any caking, it's fab!

You can find the Magnitone Blend Up Makeup Blending Brush*  for £70.00 HERE.