Five Summer Beauty Hacks

Tags

24 hour, BB Cream, bed, cling film, cool, Decleor Green Mandarin Sun-Kissed Glow Cream, Decleor Satin Softening Dry Oil, dry oil, even, fake tan, feminine, fine lines, flawless, fragrance, fridge, glow, glowing, gradual, hair, heat, hydration, illuminates, Multi-Functional Products, nail polish, night, nourished, oil, refrigerated, rehydrating, shiny, sleep, SPF, summer, sun, Sun cream, sun-kissed, sunny, tan, tanner, tanning, warm, warmer, weather, wrinkles

Photo by Tamara Bellis on Unsplash

Now that we’ve has a stretch of half decent weather which has lasted for more than a week, we’re finally confident that we can say “summer is on it’s way!”. With the changes in weather and longer days, most of us like to change our beauty routines at this time of year, so we thought we’d give you five hacks that you can use in summer to make your life easier and more comfortable.

Cling Film

If you live alone but need to apply fake tan or sun lotion to your back, there’s a simple solution that you won’t believe until you try it…head to the kitchen and grab some cling film! Cut a piece around one metre long and apply a blob of your sun cream or fake tan to the centre of the film. Then take both ends of the film and use it to rub the lotion over your back as if you were drying off with a towel to evenly spread the lotion.

Get Chilly in the Fridge

A lot of beauty products work better in the summer when you keep them in the fridge – thinks like foundation, nail polish, after sun and lip balms all stay in better condition and work more optimally when they’re refrigerated during the hot weather, and keeping them safe will protect your investment, too.

Multi-Functional Products

If you’re anything like us, you won’t feel like layering a dozen products on your skin on a hot day, so finding products which do more than one things is a good idea. Decleor Green Mandarin Sun-Kissed Glow Cream is a day cream to moisturise, help to prevent fine lines and wrinkles while giving an immediate even sun-kissed glow to all skin types.

Overnight Magic

Night creams are great for rehydrating your skin while you sleep, but if you want your hair looking its best all summer, using some dry oil before bed is a good way to do it. Decleor Satin Softening Dry Oil is scented with a subtle, delicate and beautifully feminine fragrance, and leaves your hair nourished and looking shiny.

Lighten Up

A lot of facial products feel too heavy when the sun is shining, so changing your foundation for a BB cream will help you to achieve a flawless finish without foundation. It contains an SPF and offers 24 hour hydration, as well as a natural looking tint which illuminates and evens out the complexion.

Christmas cooking the fun way

Tags

are easy to make, bake, baking powder, baking trays, caster sugar, cheese, cheese stars, cherry tomatoes, Christmas tree cookies, Christmas tree cuter, cling film, cook, cookies, cream, cucumber, decorate, dough, drinks, eat, eggs, escaping, family and friends, festive fun, fridge, friends, goodness, grated cheese, herbs, homemade biscuits and snacks, icing sugar, jolly, look good, love, messy, mild cheddar, milk, mix, mozzarella, mug, parchment, pens, plain flour, pre-made puff pastry, pretty boxes, recipes, salt, school party, scrubbing, sift, silver balls, silver foil platter, star cutter, stars, super healthy, table salt, tissue paper, tree, tree trunk, unsalted butter, vanilla extract, veggie, winning treats, wrap, yellow pepper

This year, why not impress family and friends with homemade biscuits and snacks, and as well as saving yourself some money, you can have festive fun too? We have several tried and tested recipes we love, and hope you will too!

Christmas tree cookies
These cute cookies look good, taste great, are easy to make and even the youngest members of the family can get involved and help you to decorate them!

For these winning treats, you will need:

470g of plain flour
1 level teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of table salt
225g of unsalted butter
300g of caster sugar
Two medium eggs
Two teaspoons of vanilla extract
A Christmas tree cuter
Colouring icing sugar pens
Silver balls

Sift together the baking powder, flour and salt. Cream together the butter and sugar until you have a light and fluffy mix, then beat in the eggs (one at a time) and finally stir in the vanilla. At this point you can then slowly add the flour mix, and when you have a ball of dough, wrap it in cling film and put it in the fridge for around an hour.

When you get the dough from the fridge, pre-heat your oven to 200 C / gas mark 6 /180C fan and line two baking trays with parchment paper – this means the cookies will slide off once cool and you won’t have any nasty pan scrubbing to do.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut out your cookies.

Bake for about eight minutes or until the edges are just turning light brown, and transfer from the baking trays to cooling racks.

Decorate with the icing pens when the cookies are completely cool and put on the little silver balls for an added touch, then either eat them (fast) or put them in pretty boxes with tissue paper and give them out as presents!

Cheese Stars

For the school party, or drinks with friends, these easy to make cheese stars are winners.

You will need:

A pack of pre-made puff pastry
One mug of grated cheese – a mild cheddar / mozzarella mix works well
Flour for dusting
2 table spoons of whole milk
A star cutter

It is best to make these on the day of eating, so when you are ready, preheat the oven to 200C / 180C fan / gas mark 6 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper, or grease them with a little butter.

Next roll out the sheet of pastry and put your grated cheese on half of it, fold it over and then on a floured surface, gently roll to around double the size. At this point just make sure no cheese is escaping from the sides as this can get messy in the oven! Next, cut out star shapes from the folded sheet and place on the baking sheets, brush with milk and cook for around ten minutes. You can add some herbs or salt to the tops of the stars if you like! They will last for a couple of days in a tin, but we don’t think they will be around that long!

Veggie Tree

For something super healthy for the party table, you can’t go wrong with savoury festive tree made with goodness and love.

For this you will need:

Lots of cherry tomatoes – cut in half
Green grapes – cut in half
A yellow pepper with a piece of the flesh cut into a star shape
Half a cucumber
Salsa
A large silver foil platter

Chop a 5cm piece of cucumber and place it at the bottom of the foil platter to make the tree trunk. Then you need to make a row of tomatoes and grapes to make the first part of the tree, and then add more layers, each one shorter than the last so you end up with a cute Christmas tree shape. At the top you can add your yellow pepper star, then serve with the salsa and the rest of the cucumber cut into sticks! This looks fun and jolly and also help to keep up your five a day!

Got a recipe you love, let us know about!

Team Pure Beauty

Easter treats

Tags

apart, £2 coin, bank holiday, blunt knife, bottles, bunny, buns, butter, butter and jam, caster sugar, catch up, chill, cling film, corners, cream, cross, crosses, cup of tea, cuppa, designs, digestives, dough, dried fruit, Easter, eating, egg, enjoy, flour, fluffy, fold, food colouring, full fat milk, fun, goodies ], hide, hone, honey, hop, ingredients, jam, mini eggs, mixed spice, oval, oven, packet, pipe, plastic food bag, pre-heat, rack, roll, rub, shapes, shopping basket, space, sprinkles, tablespoons, thickness, trim, vanilla extract, warm, yeats

With Easter just around the corner and the long bank holiday ahead of us, you just know people will be popping by for a cuppa and catch up.

Rather than being caught on the hop (see what we did there) and having to dig out a packet of dodgy digestives, what not make some Easter goodies at home and you will be ready for anything?

Easter isn’t Easter without hot cross buns and they taste better than ever if you make your own.

To make eight tasty treats, add the following ingredients to your shopping basket:

• 500g strong white
bread flour
• 1⁄2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 heaped teaspoons of mixed spice
• 50g caster sugar
• 50g salted butter
• 200ml full fat milk
• 200g mixed dried fruit
• 2 medium free range eggs
• 7g sachet easy-blend dried yeast
• Honey

To make the buns, first pre-heat your oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas.

Sift the flour into a bowl and stir in the mixed spice, salt and sugar then rub in the butter with your fingertips. Add the dried fruit, then sprinkle over the yeast and stir in. Gently warm the milk then beat with the eggs and pour in the dried ingredients. Using a blunt knife, mix the ingredients to a moist dough, then leave to settled for 20 minutes.

Cut the dough into eight equal pieces and shaped these into buns. Space apart on a baking sheet, cover loosely with cling film and leave in a warm place until for around 45 minutes until they are half the size again. Mix a little flour with two tablespoons of water to make a paste, pour into a plastic food bag and make a tiny hole in one of the corners. Pipe crosses on top of each bun, put them in the oven and cook for 15 minutes until risen and golden. Trim the excess cross mixture from the buns, then brush with the honey and enjoy warm with butter and jam.

A plate of beautiful biscuits will impress your guests. This recipe is super easy to make and you can be as creative as you like with the decorations. For one batch, you will need:

• 125g butter, softened
• 125g caster sugar, plus 1 tbsp. extra
• One free range egg, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 250g plain flour
• Icing sugar
• Bottles of food colouring
• Sprinkles and mini eggs

To get things started, pre-heat the oven to gas 5, 190°C, fan 170°C and line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

Cream together the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy then add the egg and vanilla extract. Gradually fold in the flour then create a ball of dough and wrapped this in cling film and chill in the fridge for an hour.

Take the dough out and roll out to the thickness of a £2 coin, then cut the dough into oval shapes; if you can find bunny or oval cutters, these are perfect.

Chill for another 30 minutes before baking for 15 minutes and then leave to cool on a rack.

Make up the icing according to pack instructions and add food colouring to make your designs really stand out. Ice, add sprinkles and mini eggs then leave to dry before eating with a cup of tea!

Now all that is left to do is hide those eggs and let the Easter fun begin.

Team Pure Beauty