Beauty | Brand Focus, Davines

For me, the days between Christmas and New Year are a good time for a bit of reflection - and this year has been a great one! I feel incredibly lucky to have the boyfriend, friends and family that I have. Without them none of the wonderful, happy memories of 2013 would exist.

My very good friend Fi has got to know me pretty well over the last 11 years. Her gifts to me are always unexpected, in a really good way! She picks products that she knows I will love and that I've never even heard of.

She also knows that I have a bit of a thing about my hair.  When I was four I wanted to be a hairdresser and I loved playing with my hair - braiding, styling, cutting - eeeek! These days I'm a little less adventurous but I still love trying out new hair products.

This year she bought me the Davines Hair Refresher, Shimmering Mist and a Candle Duo called Wild and Virtuous.

I had already been given the Hammam Ritual Hand Treatment from a Bridal Event I went to with Tia, but had yet to try it out.

I've been ill over the past few days so have had great fun at home trying out my new Davines haul and finding out a little more behind the brand.

Davines is a family-owned Italian haircare company, founded in 1983. They have achieved international success and many celebrity followers for their wide range of high quality hair-care products. As a brand they are highly environmentally aware, not necessarily in terms of their ingredients e.g. they don't claim to be all natural or organic, but their products combine science and function to ensure that they have minimal or negative impact on the environment around us. They focus heavily on sustainability, "zero-impact" products and salons and eco-packaging.

Sound good? Check out their website if you want more info.

The candles smell amazing!! I've already got through one of them. And now I've tried to find them online to buy some more, I can't find them anywhere! I think they must have been an in-salon only promotion or gift-with-purchase, but they smell so fresh and lovely. If you know of a Davines salon get in there and see if they have some left, I will be!

I have a love-hate relationship with dry shampoo. I love it when it's good, I HATE it when it's bad... Happily for me this Hair Refresher is sooo good! It has a really light-weight formula that soaks up any excess oil on your hair without any chalky residue or overpowering scent. Again, it's just a really fresh scent which makes your day-two hair feel like new again. Love, love, love.

I was a bit worried about this Shimmering Mist, glittery hair is a bit Y2K, no?

Luckily this mist just makes your hair look super shiny, healthy and pretty. I spray it through the lengths and ends when I've finished styling for a little extra glow and flyway control. It works a treat and has this yummy vanilla scent.

The Hammam Ritual Hand Treatment consists of a scrub and a cream. They both have they same scent, Bergamot Black Pepper which is deliciously warming and inviting. I really enjoyed the novelty of a hand scrub, although with all the body exfoliating I do in the shower I don't think I'd purchase this as a stand-alone product. The hand cream is really rich and moisturising and sinks in really quickly.

Neither of these products are available for sale online in the UK. Maybe they are the same as the candle-duo above? But I think they would totally add to the salon experience. I love it when I'm offered a hand massage or manicure whilst I'm waiting for my colour to work it's magic.

And that's what I really like about this brand. Aside from the eco-credentials they also want to create the ultimate salon experience for the end-user.

I can't wait to try the NouNou Nourishing Illuminating Shampoo and Conditioner from this brand and when I do I'll let you know what I think.

Fi got these products from Bonomini Salon on Alma Vale Road in Clifton, Bristol.

N.B. Bonomini and Davines have no idea who I am, these products were gifts. All opinions are my own. None of the links are affiliate links.

Food | Delia's Classic Christmas Cake

This year I'm celebrating Christmas with Dan's family. My brother is coming to join the party too and at  last count I think there is about 24 of us in total, phew! 

In order to make-sure we all share a bit of the Hosting-Christmas-Day load, we're all contributing in one way or another. I'm making the Christmas Cake, along with a few other bits and pieces. And Dan? Well apparently he's "in charge of Lego". Brilliant.

I know Christmas Cake is absolutely not everyone's idea of a good time, it's a bit like Marmite, love it or hate it. I happen to completely LOVE it (but hate Marmite if anyone's taking note). 

Now, I've made Christmas Cake once before. I think I was fairly young, and the only thing I can really remember about the experience was that I definitely used the Classic Delia Recipe (the wholly grail of all Christmas Cake Recipe's apparently), and that icing a Christmas Cake is not as easy as one might think. 

Here's hoping this one fairs a little better!

Making a Christmas Cake isn't hard per-se. It just requires quite a bit of prep work and time! Definitely a job for the weekend.

I made my cake a couple of weeks ago but apparently there's a traditional time to make your Christmas Cakes and Puddings called "Stir-Up Sunday". This is the last Sunday before Advent, so this year it's this weekend - Sunday 24th November. The whole family get's together to prepare the Cake/Pudding and each takes a turn at stirring the mixture whilst making their Christmas Wish. Love that.

I jumped the gun because I got a little worried that:

a) I had no free weekends from early Nov to Christmas and would run out of time, and

b) That just three weeks of "feeding' the cake brandy wouldn't a boozy cake make. 

If you're not an alcoholic like me (kidding Dad), then anytime before Christmas is just fine to make your cake. And also my version is completely not child friendly! In my experience most kids are Christmas Cake Haters, and that's what a Christmas Yule Log is for, right?

Ok, so on to the how-to. Have you got a cuppa handy? This is a long one.

The night BEFORE you want to bake, you need to soak your dried fruit in 3 tablespoons of brandy (or your festive liquor of choice). For some reason I forgot to photograph this but it's pretty straight-forward.

Then the next morning you start by lining your 8" cake tin. You need to make sure you have a deep tin. A sandwich tin will absolutely not work here. I got mine from Sainsbury's for about £5 (they had an offer on). Actually, I got all of the ingredients/materials for this cake from Sainsbury's. So if you have a larger store near you, you can pick up everything in one shop.

Delia says to double-line, but I'm a rebel so just did one (spoiler alert - it turned out fine). 

I started by drawing around the base of the tin on parchment/greaseproof paper, and then guestimating a long strip to go around the perimeter.

Once you have your side-piece the right length, fold over the bottom 1/2 inch and make little cuts in it to enable it to sit flat against the sides of your tin.

I then greased both pieces with some butter and stuck them into the tin. Side piece first, then base.

Now you have to line the outside of your tin. This is so the cake bakes slowly and evenly. You need to wrap some brown paper around the outside and then tie with string.

It will look a bit weird but something like this is fine.

And now, after all that. If you can be bothered it's time to bake!

Preheat your oven to 110-120 (degrees). Delia says 140 for her conventional oven, mine's a fan oven so you need to reduce the temp by about 20 degrees. I was scared so was probably closer to 110 than 120 (it's hard to tell exactly).

Next you cream your butter and sugar together. I went for a mix of dark brown and light brown sugar.

In a separate bowl, whisk together your eggs and add to the mix a little at a time.

And then sift in your flour, nutmeg and mixed spice.

At this point you stop with the mixing and fold-in the flour (you're trying to keep as much air from the sifting process as possible).

Then you're ready to add your soaked fruits, chopped almonds, orange and lemon zest (and make your Christmas Wishes!).

Continue to use the same gentle cutting and folding technique.

When it's all combined it's ready to go in your tin.

Spoon it in and level the surface.

Your cake needs a little hat! Take a double sheet of parchment paper wide enough to cover the surface of your tin and cut a hole in the middle. This "hat" will flap around a bit in a fan oven but shouldn't actually fall off.

And then you bake, for a looooong time! Delia says 4 1/2 - 4 3/4 hours, but maybe longer. It's difficult to tell because everyone's oven is different.

I left mine alone for 3 hours and then had a look. It was cooking really slowly so I decided to take it's hat off and look at 4 hours.

At 4 hours in it was looking pretty done but I wanted to try and leave it until the minimum time (4 1/2 hours). At 4 hours, 20 minutes I was scared it would dry out so did the "bounce back" test Delia describes and inserted a clean skewer into the centre of the cake. It came out clean so I decided it was done! It looked like this and smelt amazing. The whole flat smelled like Christmas for a good 6 hours. That's worth your time and energy alone.

I left it in it's tin to cool for a while and then removed the tin to let it cool on a wire rack.

At this point I did the first brandy feed. I made small holes in the top with a skewer and carefully spooned over some brandy (just a few teaspoons). I will be repeating this process every four days until I ice the cake a few days before Christmas.

Finally, when the cake is completely cool it's time to put your Christmas Cake baby to bed.

I laid out two sheets of foil in a cross and then did the same with parchment paper.

I popped my cake in the middle and wrapped it up well. And then put it into an air-tight container.

I gave mine a little wish to be yummy and tasty for us all on Christmas Day and then put it somewhere cool and dry.

And that dear friends is my tale of Christmas Baking. And you know what? It totally got me in the festive spirit. Even Daniel, the Christmas-Cake-Hater, couldn't help but feel Christmassy!

Beauty | Boots Haul and M&S Gift Idea

It's 3-for-2 time at Boots again, we all know this is dangerous territory for me but I managed to reign in my feverish excitement and got just a few new products to try.

1. I need a new foundation for Autumn/Winter. I've been trying to re-purchase my beloved Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum for ages but my shade (53-Light Beige) is never in stock so I had a quick scout around the YouTube Beauty Bloggers and heard good things about Rimmel Match Perfection (£7.99) so though I would try it. I bought it in shade 103 - True Ivory.
2. I also wanted to try a liquid concealer. I have a couple of "highlighting" concealers for under my eyes etc. but not an everyday one for blemishes, red patches etc. I went with L'Oreal True Match in Vanilla (£6.99).
3. Whenever the 3-for-2 deal is on I always treat myself to a "lucky-dip" item. The way I see it you win some, you lose some when it comes to beauty purchases so if it's a "free" try I feel less bad if it doesn't work out (did I mention I have OCD when it comes to wasting money/food?!). I went for the Revlon Just Bitten Lip Stain and Balm in the shade Twilight. It's a rich plum colour stain (kind of vampy?), and it adds a pop of interest. The dark/vamp lip is a key make-up trend for Autumn/Fall, and so far, I really like it. As long as you keep the rest of your make-up low key, it looks really cool.

I also got a couple of hair products. I've heard really good things about the New Dove Style + Care Range and I need a new Heat Protect Spray. It was a third off so I thought I would give this one a whirl. I mentioned I was using the Lee Stafford Argan Oil Miracle Heat Defence Spray in this post. Unfortunately I've had to abandon it, the oil formula is just too heavy for my fine hair - when I use it my hair will not hold a curl for love nor money.

Finally, I was out of Hairspray and the TRESemmé ones are 2 for £4 so I thought I would try them. I got the Ultra-fine formula, helmet-head is not the look I'm going for.

In other beauty deal news I popped into M&S and they were also having a 3-for-2 event.

To be completely honest, if I think of M&S brand beauty products I think of my Gran. You know, the classic Royal Jelly scent. But I have to eat my words thoughts, as they actually have some really lovely ranges in their beauty section. My favourite is La Maison de Senteurs. It's all really beautifully packaged and the Fleur d'Orangier scent smells lovely, and high-end (think Molton Brown Naran Ji).

When I showed Dan he thought I had been somewhere expensive for this little collection of goodies. Speaking of which the whole lot only cost me £10. (Each item was £5 and it was 2-for-3). I just think the hand wash and lotion would look lovely next to anyone's kitchen sink and who doesn't like a nice candle? These three items popped into a pretty gift bag will make a really sweet gift.

Do you guys like to experiment when the 3-for-2 deals are on? What will you be splurging on this time?!

Note: I have not been payed or perked for this post. Boots, Marks & Spencer and all the other brands mentioned have no idea who I am.