Winter Recommendations 2015| It's Carenza B

Hello!
So as my summer recommendations is my most read post, I thought I would do one for Autumn/Winter to spice things up. Again like my summer one it will be split into 3 categories of beauty, books and bits'n'bobs.
Enjoy!

Beauty

The first winter recommendation I have for you is a scent and if you have read my October Favourites post you will already know how much I love the Glazed Apple range from the Body Shop. It is this lovely sharp Apple scent and is perfect for this time of year. I love how long this stays on for as I apply it at about 8 in the morning and I can still smell it at 10 in the evening.

Glazed Apple Body and Room Spray

Next is also a product I featured in my October Favourites, which is an eye-shadow palette from Sleek. It has my 3 go to gold eye-shadows for this time of year and the pigmentation is insane. The palette is called Vintage Romance and have really cute names. This palette also has some really pretty purples in it which I want to have a go at wearing.

Sleek Vintage Romance Palette

Meet in Madrid, Court in Cannes and Lust in LA

For Blusher I have two very similar shades I love wearing at this time of year and they are both from the drugstore. One is from Sleek and the other is from Bourjois, they're both a rose gold shade but the Sleek one is more coral toned than the Bourjois one. Both have amazing pigmentation but my favourite is the Sleek one.

Bourjois 33 Lilas D'or and Sleek Rose Gold

Again we have something from my October Favourites which is a lipstick from Sleek. It's the beautiful red toned purple and is perfect for this time of year. Sleek, in case you haven't guessed, is a brand I rate highly and I would recommend you get your hands on some Sleek makeup. The lipstick is in the colour Dare.

Next, we have something for your hands as they can get very dry at this time of year. It's the Body Shop Almond Hand and Nail Cream. It smells like marzipan and leaves your hands feeling really smooth. 

Almond Hand Cream 

For eyeliners I have two, one is drugstore and one is high-end. The first one I got from a glossy-box, it's a lot lighter than the high-end. The drugstore one is from the brand MeMeMe and it is in the shade Clay. The high-end one is from Urban Decay from their Naked on the Run palette last year, it's a miniature of one of their 24/7 Glide On eye pencil in Stag. It goes on a lot easier than the MeMeMe one and I have used it more than the drugstore one.

Top- MeMeMe in Clay
Bottom- Urban Decay in Stag

Left- MeMeMe
Right- Urban Decay

My favourite face mask at this time of year is the Sanctuary Spa 5 Minute Thermal Detox Mask. This is the only face mask I use. At the slightly pricey cost of £10, this mask is the best I've tried. It literally warms your face and gives it the feeling like it's doing something. Although slightly scary when it comes out, there are noticeable results.

My two favourite nail colours are two dark purples. One is from Bourjois in the colour 34 violine hypnotique and the other is from Illamasqa which I picked up at TK Maxx in the colour Charisma. I prefer the Bourjois one as it is better quality, I wore them both for a week and the Illamasqa one chipped really badly. But they're both lovely colours.

Left- Bourjois
Right- Illamasqa

For hair-care, I love the Tresemme Moisture Rich Luxurious Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner in these massive bottles. They leave your hair feeling silky smooth for days. I had never tried anything from Tresemme before but now I will definitely be trying more.

Finally, we have a hair masque from a Swedish Brand called Maria Nilla. I received this in the September Glossybox and I have nearly used it all up. It is used to bring out your natural hair colour and make it better. I can tell this has been working for me as I have dyed my hair before and am letting it grow out, and the roots of my hair are a lot blonder than before.

Books

My first book Recommendation is a classic and is the Sherlock Holmes Series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I love Sherlock (the TV Series) and have dipped it and out of the books, but I feel like this time of year is perfect to start reading it.

Next we have a modern book which I mentioned in my October Faves and it is The Amazing Book Is Not On Fire by Dan Howell and Phil Lester. You already I know how much I love this book so I won't go into detail.

Again we have another book you know how much I love and this is the Harry Potter Series, I've been banging on about this for ages you guys must be so bored of me mentioning it. I do genuinely love the series and have been re reading it for the 1000th time.

Finally, we have a book that I also mentioned in my October Faves, which is Throne of Glass by Sarah J Mass. I am going to write a review on this and it will hopefully be going up soon. All I will say for now is that it is amazing and you need to read it.

Bits'n'Bobs

First in my Bits'n'Bobs category is bobble hats. I love hats, but I feel like hats don't love me as I have been struggling to find hats that fit me all my life. When I  was in Marks and Spencers recently and found these two hats that fit me I obviously had to get them. 

Next we have my beloved Miss Selfridges scarf which I think I mentioned in my October Faves. It's this massive checkered scarf that can act like a blanket on long car/ train journeys.

Obviously I had to put a candle in here, although not a Christmas scent I love this scent as it's really fresh and just lovely to burn. Don't worry, I'll be getting a Christmas scented one soon.

Next we have Christmas magazines, the ultimate way to get into the festive spirit is by reading them. I have a home and interiors one and a craft one. I love both equally.

Finally we have my well beloved jumper from Marks and Spencers, it's a deep red wine colour. It's super thick and warm, the sleeves are slightly cropped and it is quite a lose jumper but it still manages to keep you warm. I have been wearing this all the time and love it so much.

So those are my winter recommendations, I hope you enjoyed. Don't forget to follow my blog and follow me on my social media accounts (Instagram and Twitter @itscarenzab). If you have any Christmas suggestions email me on my business email itscarenzab@gmail,com. I had planned on doing blogmas, but unfortunately I don't have the time this year but I do have some Christmas post ideas floating round.

Love

Carenza x 

  

  

  

October Favourites 2015| It's Carenza B

Hello!
So here is my my very first favourite post! If you do not follow me on Twitter (@itscarenzab), you will not know that I had a bit of drama while writing my September Favourites. Basically, I wrote the entire post and for some reason it wouldn't save or let me upload it, so I refreshed the page and lost everything I wrote. I was so annoyed with myself, as I had spent ages writing it and it was gone. Anyway, here is my October Favourites and I hope you enjoy it!

Before I start writing, I would like to apologize for the not so great quality of my photos. As it's winter, the lighting isn't great and this means I have to use lights from my lamp and bulb. So I am sorry, but it turned out better than I planned as I used the flash for some of the photos.

Beauty

The first thing I have been loving in the month of October was the new Body Shop Foundation, I have a feeling that this is going to become a holy grail of mine. I am very pale and a lot of foundations, particularly from the Body Shop, are too dark and orange toned. Anyway, this new foundation is a perfect match, maybe even too pale for me. It applies wonderfully and doesn't look cakey, I would say that it's a matte foundation and that it isn't super glowy. I would recommend that you go and get it as it is an amazing product. It retails at £15 which is on the pricey side for a high street foundation but it's totally worth it.

Body Shop Fresh Nude Foundation in Chelsea Porcelain 

Next, we have another Body Shop product but this time it's a scent rather than a makeup product. It is the Glazed Apple scent from the Christmas range. It's a sharp apple scent that stays for the whole day, I apply this once a day before I leave the house and when I go to bed at 9 or 10 o'clock I can still smell it. I have had this bottle for almost a year and its barely gone down. It's a really lovely scent for autumn and Christmas, I would recommend that you go and get it if you love apple scented things.

Body Shop Glazed Apple Room and Body Spray

Recently, I have discovered I have a love for gold eye-shadows and as much as I love my Urban Decay Naked 3 palette, the eye-shadow palette I have been using lots recently is the Sleek Vintage Romance. I got this last Christmas as part of a gift set and never got round to using it till now.

My dirty but well- loved Sleek Palette

The plastic sheet of names

They all have super cute names like the purple one on the bottom row below the silver one is called A Vow in Venice, which is super cute. As you can tell the ones I have been using the most are the three gold ones.

Without the plastic name sheet

From left to right- Meet in Madrid; Court in Cannes; Lust in LA

Another plus is the mirror, although slightly dirty it is one of the largest I have. Overall this is one of the best eye-shadow palettes I own and I would recommend you get your hands on it. I don't know how much it costs as I got it in a set with a lipstick and a mascara.

We have another Sleek product, this time a lipstick. This lipstick is my new favourite lipstick of all time, it is a truly beautiful deep purple with red tones running through it. If you want to start wearing darker lipsticks but don't want to go straight in with the almost black toned purples this is the lipstick for you. The colour is called Dare and is a matte lipstick. Again, this lipstick is perfect for this time of year and I would say is an Autumn essential for beauty lovers.

Next in beauty we have a product from Lush, although it's not a bath-bomb it is from the skincare range which I feel deserves more recognition. The product I have been loving is Grease Lighting. This product is to be used on spots to dry the out, which sounds disgusting but it works really well. It contains witch hazel, which is really good for spots. For some reason this month I had a really bad break out and this product helped. Although over the £15 mark, I have had this for around a year and have barely used any of it, as a little goes a long way. It has a pump and you pump out a small bit, then apply it to the spot for a couple of days and wait for it to do its magic.

Lush's Grease Lighting

Finally, we have my new holy grail for applying foundation and concealer. It is a beauty blender that I got in the October Glossybox . It applies a lot nicer than a brush as it doesn't leave brush marks. However, it takes slightly longer than a brush does the final result is a lot better.

Books

The first book I read in October was The Amazing Book Is Not On Fire by Dan Howell (danisnotonfire) and Phil Lester (amazingphil). This book was massively hyped in the world of YouTube and to some extent it deserved this praise. It was an interesting book to read, finding out all the different things that were a part of the world of Dan and Phil. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed reading it and there were bits that made me laugh, the only issue with it is the price. I feel like its a tall order to ask there viewers to pay £17 for it. I do recommend you go get it if you love watching their videos, I just warn you that the book isn't cheap but then there are a lot of pages in it, it's hard back and there is lots of colour.

TABINOF front cover

Next, I read Throne of Glass by Sarah J Mass. If you read my birthday book haul, you will have seen this book. It is brilliant, I'm in the middle of writing a book review for it. I don't want to give to much away but I recommend you get it and read it. The main character, Celaena is amazing. You'll fall in love with her straight away. I honestly can't wait to finish the series, I'm on the third book and it's definitely getting interesting. The cover design is beautiful and the story is as well.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J Mass

Finally I started reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which is one of my favourite books in the series, as you will know if you read my Harry Potter Tag post from Halloween. I don't need to go into detail as the story is well known. I love it and I really am enjoying re-reading this series.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Bits'n'bob

My first thing to come under the character of Bits'n'Bobs are Tsum Tsums from Japan. These are a thing that Disney started doing and OMG I love them. They are so cute! I collect the small ones and am loving them. Every month they bring out a different collection, like in September it was The Nightmare Before Christmas in time for Halloween.  I have some of the classic Disney characters and some of the collections. The small ones are £3 each and are about the size of your palm. They're filled with beans like bean bags and can be used as screen cleaners, but I have never used mine as screen cleaners.  

Look how cute they are!

Since taking this photo I have got 3 more- Jack Skeleton, Zero and one of the 3 children called Shock, Lock and something I can't remember.

Next I have been loving my scarf from Miss Selfridge, I got it in January in the sales for £16 and love it. It is huge and has this lovely red checkered pattern on it. It also has tassels on it and is the warmest scarf I own. I wear it most days and when I'm doing long journeys either in the car or on a train, I like to use it as a blanket to keep me warm.

Miss Selfridge Scarf

Finally, I have been loving Christmas Magazines. I am getting excited for Christmas way to early this year but I feel like I have got some good ideas for my blog for the festive period and am looking forward to sharing them with you.

Craft and Home-ware Christmas Magazines

So those were my October Favourites, I hope you enjoyed this post and that it has given you some inspiration for the future. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram and Twitter @itscarenzab. Also you can click follow on here to be informed when I post. For business related questions, email me at itscarenzab@gmail.com.

Love,

Carenza B 

x

   

Harry Potter Tag| It's Carenza B

Hello!

So the other day I was looking through a website about different YouTube and Blogging tags, when I stumbled across the Harry Potter Tag and knew I had to do it. In case you haven't read any of my book related posts, you won't know that I'm a big Harry Potter fan. Seriously, I can't imagine life without Harry Potter. I'm currently reading the fifth book and loving it. So without further a do, this is my Harry Potter Tag!

Question 1- Favourite Book?

I would have to say my favourite book is the third book, the Prisoner of Azkaban, because it is the first book to show the dark side to Harry's life. In the first two books it's not as dark as your getting to know the characters and they're laying the foundation for the next books. It's also the only book where Harry doesn't come under threat from Voldemort, instead he faces a threat closer to home. It also shows you what Harry fears and sees Harry finally have a father figure in his life. Another thing it does is show you how even in the wizarding world Harry feels isolated because of his past.

Question 2- Favourite Movie?

My favourite movie is the fifth movie, the Order of the Phoenix, simply because the music in that movie is my favourite from all the movies and the story has a lot more levels to it. It shows Harry experiencing his first kiss and having a love life, fighting against Umbridge and a new regime, dealing with the death of Sirius. It has a lot of aspects in which we can relate to at that point in Harry's life.

Question 3- Least favourite book?

My least favourite book is the second, the Chamber of Secrets, as I find it really boring and in my opinion doesn't add to the franchise or story. It's really flat and doesn't have the different levels of energy the books have. I have never liked the book or the movies, I found them both tedious to read and watch.

Question 4- Parts of the books or movies that made you cry?

Obviously, the deaths of certain characters, in particular Dumbledore, Dobby, Tonks and Lupin, Fred and sometimes Sirius. I remember watching the sixth film and coming out crying when Dumbledore, I would like to say that I almost always cry at a character dying in books but movies never really make me cry, but Dumbledore's death made me cry. Tonks and Lupin's deaths make me cry a lot because they had just had a son and now that child will be an orphan, which is just like Harry and it just really upsets me because I can't stand the thought of him being left on his own.  

Question 5- Favourite character?

My favourite character is Remus Lupin. He is a very level-headed character and goes out of his way to help those around him. I feel sorry for him because he's a werewolf and that he gets hated because of this when it's not his fault. He lost all of his friends the night James and Lily died,  James died, Sirius was taken to prison and Peter was "dead". He just has had lots of trouble and when he finally finds some happiness in his life, he dies. I just love him as a character and he was portrayed wonderfully in the movies by David Thewlis.

Question 6- What would your Patronus be?        

I think my Patronus would be an elephant, as they're my favourite animals and I think they're really cute. Plus they're very big, so they'd be quite strong.

Question 7- If you could have the Resurrection Stone, Invisibility Cloak or the Elder Wand which one would you choose?

I think I'd choose the Invisibility Cloak, as I don't have anyone to bring back from the dead nor would I want to as they become quite sad and the Elder Wand sounds like a burden. I would find it quite useful to have  an Invisibility Cloak as you could walk around without being seen and sometimes it would be quite nice to vanish and have time to yourself.

Question 8- What House would you be in?

I would like to think I'd be in Gryffindor but I don't think I'm to brave, so I'd say I'd probably be in Ravenclaw as I think I can be quite brainy. However, on Pottermore I did get Gryffindor so who knows.

Question 9- If you could meet any member of the cast who would it be?

I would love to meet Evanna Lynch. I don't know why, but I know it would be a really fun experience and that it would be something you'd never forget.  

Question 10- Have you played any of the video games?

I've played one of the games on the DS, but I found it really hard so I gave up. I also played the Lego game with a friend, and if I can remember right we got really far with that. I never played computer games when I was little so this answers really thin.

Question 11- If you were on the Quidditch team which position would you play?

I think I would be a Keeper as I use to play goalie in Hockey for my school team for two years, then gave up. I have quite a powerful strike, if I say so myself.

Question 12- Were you happy with the ending?

I was happy with the ending as it tied everything off nicely and signified that everything was over. There was no way a sequel could be written and I was happy with that.

Question 13- How much does Harry Potter mean to you?  

Harry Potter means a lot to me as it was around for a great part of my childhood, all the movies were released in my lifetime and the later movies, I watched in the cinema. I wasn't allowed to see the movies till I read the books and I'm glad my parents did this as I feel like I understood the world better. I also listened to the audio books read by Stephen Fry and I remember waking up as the final book ended and realizing I'd missed the whole book. 

So that's my Harry Potter tag and I hope you liked it, it was a bit different but I feel like you guys will enjoyed it. Remember to follow me on Instagram and Twitter for more content, @itscarenzab. Also if you have an requests or inquires email me on my business email itscarenzab@gmail.com.

Happy Halloween!

Love,

Carenza x

Chocolate Orange Pumpkin Cupcakes| It's Carenza B

Hello!
So today is another first on my blog, it's my first baking post! When I first started my blog in June, I had no idea in which direction I wanted it to go in.  It was just something I wanted to do as a hobby and now nearly 6 months later, I have a good idea where it's going and have got into the swing of writing, although I don't post as often as I would like, I feel like my posts are better quality than if I spent less time. Anyway, back to baking. I knew I wanted to do a baking post but I decided to wait until now as I wanted it to be something special. This recipe can be used all year round, minus the orange flavoring and still turn out really nice. I'm sure your cakes will turn out a lot better than mine, and if you do make them please tag me on Instagram and Twitter @itscarenzab. Let's bake!

My very bad finished cakes, they look like something a small child had made!

Ingredients

For the cupcakes you will need:
8 oz or 225 grams Caster Sugar
8 oz or 225 grams Butter (unsalted, at room temperature)
8 oz or 225 grams Self Raising Flour
4 Eggs (I used medium, but I don't think it effects it too much)
50 grams White Chocolate Chips
50 grams Milk Chocolate Chips
Orange Zest or Flavoring- you can use vanilla extract, but I would recommend using orange as it gives it a strong orange taste with the orange butter cream
Orange Food Colouring- optional

I would recommend measuring out your ingredients before you start baking as then you have got the boring stuff out of the way.

For decorating the cakes you will need:

1 Terry's chocolate orange

Butter cream- Butter 75 grams, Icing Sugar 175 grams, Milk 1 Tablespoon

Orange Food colouring

Orange Zest or Flavoring 

Equipment

For the Cupcakes you will need:

A large mixing bowl or an electric mixer if you have one

A wooden spoon

A butter knife

A fork or whisk for the eggs

A cup to crack your eggs into 

Cupcake cases

Cupcake tray

For the Decorations you will need:

Piping bags- Normal and Heat resistant= I got mine from Lakeland for £2 for 25

Nozzles- one very small to do intricate designs, the other a medium star nozzle for the butter cream

Baking parchment

Baking tray

Cool display chairs- again from Lakeland for something stupidly cheap for 25, warning they're very tricky to assemble. 

Glass bowl

Pan 

Equipment for the whole process including decorating

Method

Step One: To make the eyes and mouth of the pumpkins, I melted a whole chocolate orange in a ban Marie.  An alternative is you can use black ready rolled icing but this added more orange to the cakes.

If you are using chocolate, quickly put your melted chocolate in your heat proof piping bag with a small nozzle- a quick tip, ask someone to help you decant the chocolate into the piping bag as I split a lot of chocolate and burned myself. Then on some baking parchment draw enough eyes for 20-24 cakes and mouths for the same amount of  cake, I would recommend doing simple designs as the chocolate can be quite fiddly. Once you've got the right amount of eyes and mouths, put them in to the fridge to cool while you make, bake and decorate the cakes. 

Step Two: Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius- that's gas mark 6 or 400 degrees Fahrenheit, if you want a more accurate conversion click the link . Put your room temperature butter and caster sugar in to your mixing bowl and cream them together until the mixture looks white/creamy and fluffy- you don't want any lumps.

Step Three: Add one egg and a quarter of the flour, repeat this step until the eggs and flour have been mixed in. If your mixture is a bit watery, add a small spoonful of flour until it becomes a thicker constancy. I used a wooden spoon to mix it but if you are lucky and have an electric mixer, I'd use that as it will speed things up.

Step Four: Add the milk and white chocolate chips to the mixture and stir thoroughly to get an even balance of white and milk chocolate chips. Then add roughly a quarter of your orange zest, the rest of the zest will be used in the buttercream for decorating the cakes. If you want, you can add a small amount of food colouring to give the cakes a subtle orange hint.

Step Five: Put your cupcake cases in to the cupcake tray, then put the mixture in the cases. I would recommend going no higher than half way on each cake case as otherwise your cakes will be very varied in heights. Then bake for 20-22 mins, this can all depend on your oven but the way to test them is to stick a skewer in and if batter comes out, there not cooked. Mine ended up over cooking and were very solid, but they were still yummy. Take them out to cool, and began decorating.

Ban Marie from step one

Making eyes and mouths for step one

Drawing on before helps you know how many you've done, but leaves marks on the chocolate

Getting someone to hold the parchment down helped, as it stopped it from curling in 

Main ingredients for the cupcakes

Desired look for step two

Adding the flour for step three

Ideal end result for step three

Small amount of orange zest to give the cupcakes a subtle hint of orange

Good look before adding food colouring in step four

Before mixing in the colour on step four

As you can see my cakes ended up pink

My cakes before going into the oven

After coming out of the oven, they no longer looked orange.

Step Six: To make your buttercream, first you want to cream the butter by itself until it is fluffy- this is something I learnt after making mine and is why my buttercream turned out so flat. Then once the butter is nice and fluffy, slowly mix in your icing sugar after having sieved it to remove lumps. Then finally add your milk, I got my recipe of the back of the Taste and Lyle icing sugar box but if you know a better method use it.

Step Seven: Add the food colouring and orange zest to your buttercream, as you've seen the photo of my final cupcakes you will have seen my cupcakes turned out pink as we didn't have orange food colouring and I mixed the red and yellow in the wrong order, but they tested lovely so I ignored it.

Step Eight: Pipe your buttercream on to your cupcake using a disposable piping bag as it saves washing up, to get the desired star shape use a medium sized star nozzle. Mental note, this takes practice and don't expect them to be perfect first time. 

Step Nine: Take out your cooled chocolate eyes and mouths and quickly place them on to the cakes as they start to melt as soon as you touch them. Then enjoy your cakes and have fun tidying up the mess you've made.

I don't have any photos for this step, sorry! So that was my first baking post and I really hope you guys enjoy it (and your cakes)! Don't forget to tag me on Instagram and Twitter at @itscarenzab, if you do make these cakes. If you have any BUSINESS inquires email me at itscarenzab@gmail.com.

Have a spook-tacular Halloween and rest of October.

Love,

Carenza x