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Lou Loves

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I did this post just after I started my blog, but this is my favourite recipe of all time so, I thought I'd share it with you again so all my new readers can recreate them as well!

Ingredients for 12 cookies:
 
200g butter
300g caster sugar
1 large egg
275g self-raising flour
75g cocoa powder
Dash of milk (optional)
1 large bar of white chocolate
1 large bar of milk chocolate
1 large bar of dark chocolate
3 Daim bars
 
 
Preheat the oven to 200 C/400 F/Gas Mark 6. Line two trays with greaseproof paper.
 
Cream together the butter and sugar, then add the egg and beat until smooth.
 
Add the dry ingredients - plus a splash of milk if it's looking too dry.
 
Break up the chocolate and add to the mixture.
 
Divide the dough into 12 balls, then squash them gently onto a baking tray (I find it really helpful to use an ice cream scoop - I use 1 scoop per cookie). Remember that the cookies will spread so leave plenty of space between each cookie.
 
Bake for 11 minutes - they may not look cooked by this point but be sure to take them out or they will burn very quickly.
 
So, I hope you enjoyed this post, thank you so much for reading, and I will see you all very soon,
 
Love Lou
xxxxx
 
*Disclaimer - this recipe is not my own and was found in Tanya Bakes by Tanya Burr*
September 18, 2017 No comments
I recently saw that L'Oreal had released a concealer in the same range as their much loved True Match foundation. Having never tried either I took the plunge and got both without having looked into it at all - buying just purely from recommendation, which is so unlike me! So today, I'm going to be sharing with you my first impressions of both of the products.


I actually got colour matched at my L'Oreal counter because I'm awful at picking out the shade that actually matches my skin tone! In the end, I decided on 1.5N but they haven't yet released the concealer in it yet so I went with 1N so I can also use it under my eyes to brighten and highlight.

I have only used this a couple of times so far, but I really like it. The formula makes it feel really lightweight on the skin - you can barely even feel it's there at all- and it's really easy to blend. Another thing I loved about this was the coverage. I didn't really know what to expect from the coverage but I'm really impressed. I used 1 and a half pumps of this and I'd say it's medium coverage but if you have less dry skin than me, you could definitely build it up to a higher coverage.


The only thing I wasn't particularly keen on was that it really clings to the dry skin around my nose. I have really dry skin anyway but this made it look a lot my dry and flaky than it really is.

If you have dry skin like me, I suggest applying less/none at all around the dry areas as it can make it seem a lot worse than it is.


Onto the concealer, I have been really liking this so far. I have been using this for the past week and I can't get enough of it!

The formula of this is obviously very similar to that of the foundation but I find this feel even lighter on the skin. With some concealers I've tried in the past, they tend to feel quite heavy - I've found that the heavier the coverage the heavier it feels on the skin.

I'm really struggling to find what to say on this apart from it being so brilliant! If ever you're in need of a new concealer definitely check this out.

I thought I'd have a little chat about how the L'Oreal shades work. They do shades 1-11in three types ; cool toned, neutral and warm toned. They literally have a shade for everyone! 7

So, I hope you all enjoyed this post, let me know if you've ever tried these in the comments, and I will see you soon,

Love Lou
xxx

Foundation - £9.99, but currently on offer to £8.99
Concealer - £7.99

At time of writing this post, all L'Oreal products are on 3 for 2!
September 15, 2017 2 comments
I am a massive lover of autumn clothing and Pinterest is my go-to place to look for this year's coming trends. I've compiled a list of the top 25 pictures that have given me the most inspiration this year. (P.s. mustard and suede are gonna be big this year 😉)


























So, I hope this has helped you get in the autumnal mood, and I will see you very soon,

Love Lou
xxxx

My Pinterest
This Board

None of these images are my own and were all sourced from www.pinterest.com
September 11, 2017 2 comments
You'll already know by now that I'm a huge skincare lover and I constantly have a long wishlist of products that I want to try next, so today I'm going to share some snippets of that wish with you all!

1- Formula 10.0.6 Best Face Forward Daily Foaming Cleanser - £8.99
2- Botanics Organics Facial Oil - £11.49
3- Neutrogena Hydro Boost Cleanser - Gelee Milk - £7.99
4- Face Inc. Sheet Mask, Instant Detox - £5
5- L'Oreal Pure Clay Detox Wash - £5.99 but currently on offer to £3.99
6- Clinique Pep-Start Double Bubble Purifying Mask- £24
7- Soap and Glory the Ultimelt - £10
8- Garnier Natural 3-in-1 Nourishing Honey Botanical Balm - £12.99 but currently on offer to £8.66
9- L'Oreal Fine Flowers Gel- Cream Wash - £3.99
10- Burt's Bees Deep Pore Scrub - £10.99 but currently on offer to £7.33


 
 
 


So, those are the skincare bits on the top of my wishlist, which are on yours?

Love Lou
xxxx
September 08, 2017 1 comments
It only seems like a few minutes since I was doing my July favourites but nevertheless I'm back with my favourites throughout August!


First off is the Garnier micellar cleansing gel wash and I absolutely love this for taking my make up off because it just does such a good job but it isn't too harsh on your skin. I have been using this every other day along with my No 7 cleansing brush to take my make up of and then give my skin a bit of a deeper cleanse. Whenever I use this I always notice how much cleaner and healthier my skin looks which I definitely think is because I use it so much to cleanse my skin.



Next is the NYX illuminator in 04 - ritualistic - and this is the most gorgeous glowing highlight I've ever seen! It's a lovely shimmery cream/golden glow which you can use just a little bit of for a natural glow or you can build it up more for more of a dramatic look. I use this with my Spectrum A10 brush and they're an absolute highlighting dream team!


Another product I have been loving is the I love... strawberries & cream bath and shower crème. This is probably one of the best scents ever. It's so hard to put into words how amazing it smells but it is an amazing sweet but also quite fruity and fresh scent - as you will probably know by now, I'm awful at describing scents! This lathers up really nice and the scent carries which is one of the things that I really like in  a shower gel.

Finally, I am so happy that the series Victoria has come back onto itv. It's a drama that follows the life of Queen Victoria (played by Jenna Coleman). I watched the first season last year and I couldn't wait for it to hit screens again this year! I already know this season is going to be even better than the last!

So, I hoped you all enjoyed reading what I've been loving the past month and make sure to let me know what you've been loving in the comments,

Love Lou
xxxx
September 04, 2017 2 comments

I am a huge fan of Tanya's baking book "Tanya Bakes" and I always love sharing amazing recipes with you that I find there. That's why today I am back with a brownie cake!

Ingredients (Serves 8-10)

21cm round loose bottomed cake tin

175g unsalted butter
200g dark chocolate
200g light muscovado sugar
3 eggs
70g plain flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
100g milk chocolate chips

To decorate - cocoa powder or icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 160 C/ 320 F/gas make 3. Grease the cake tin with butter.

Break the chocolate into chunks and place in a medium pan. Add the butter and sugar and melt over a low heat, stirring, until fully combined. Remove from heat.

Whisk the eggs, then add into the chocolate mixture.

Stir in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder, then fold in the chocolate chips.

Pout into the cake tin and bake for 30 minutes until a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean. Cool slightly in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. To serve, dust generously with cocoa powder or icing sugar before cutting slices.

So, I hope you all liked this post. thank you all so much for reading and I will see you soon,

Love Lou
xxxx
September 01, 2017 2 comments

Yesterday, the lovely Iris from Get Up and Out Blog nominated me for this award (thank you so much lovely!) so I thought today was the perfect time to do this post. (You can check out Iris' blog by clicking the link above)

Also make sure you check out the creator of this award - Okoto Engima - by clicking just here

The rules for this award are:
1. Put the award logo on the post.
2. List the rules.
3. Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
4. Mention the creator of the award, and provide a link to their blog as well.
5. Tell your readers 3 things about yourself.
6. Answer the 5 questions asked by the person who nominated you
7. Nominate 10-20 people.
8. Notify your nominees by commenting on their blog.
9. Ask your nominees 5 questions of your choice, with one weird or funny question (specify which one that is).
10. Share a link to your best post(s).

So three things about myself (p.s. this is really hard so sorry if you already know these things about me!) :

1) When I was younger I used to love writing stories and that's what gave me the idea to start a blog!

2) My 3 most favourite films are Dirty Dancing, Grease and La La Land

3) Autumn is my favourite season!

Now onto the questions asked by Iris

1~ What are your favourite foods (one for each season)?

This is so hard! For Spring, I love having a barbeque (I mean depending on British weather aha), in summer ice lollies are a must. Then in autumn, chicken pasta bakes are the best. Finally in winter, what's better than a Christmas Dinner?!?

2~ What is/was your favourite part about going back to school?

I always love seeing which teachers I have and seeing who's in each of my lessons!

3~ What is your favourite part about blogging?

My favourite part about blogging is getting to interact with you all! I love seeing what you think of my posts and how I can improve them for you!

4~ What is your favourite time of year and why?

I love Autumn because everything just looks so pretty! (and you can get the best instagram photos)

5~ Funny question ~ Would you rather: read one book series for the rest of your life or listen to one artist for the rest of your life? Why?

I don't know this is so hard, because one artist can keep releasing new material whereas a book series you can only go over and over the same bits! I'm gonna have to go with one artist because I'd get bored of that one book series very quickly!




I nominate...

Life as Tilly Rose
Marti (from Pink Smarties)
Emsi Rose
Olivia Grace
The Batch of Beauty
Girl Abroad
Life as Najida
BethxKate
The Lifestyle Blogger
Beauty Obsessed

My questions for you are:

1- What is your all time favourite film and why?

2- What encouraged you to start blogging?

3- What is your greatest achievement outside of blogging?

4- What do you find most frustrating about blogging?

5- Funny Question - Would you rather have 4 feet or 4 hands?

Three of my favourite posts of mine are : My 2nd Anniversary Post
                                                                   My 1st Anniversary Post
                                                                   S'mores Cupcakes

So, thank you so much for reading this slightly different post, I hope you enjoyed it and I will see you soon,

Love Lou
xxxx
August 28, 2017 8 comments

So, today is the day my blog turns 2 and I can't quite believe that it's happening to be completely honest with you. I started my blog as a past time one summery august day and I didn't know how long I was going to stick at it and where my blog could take me. My blogging experience has been absolutely incredible and I can whole heartedly say that's down to you guys. I couldn't ask for a more lovely or genuinely nice bunch of people. I can't thank you enough for your support, just reading my blog posts twice a week means the world to me. A couple of days ago I asked you guys to ask me some questions over on my Instagram (@louloves01) so I'm here answering them for you all!

@lifeasnajida - What motivated you to blog for so long?

I'm not completely sure. I think it's mainly down to the fact that I love writing so much for you lot twice a week and that you all support me. When I first started blogging I would get really disheartened when I spent a long time on a post for it to get 4/5 views. But when that did happen there was always the few people who would leave really lovely comments and make me keep trying to produce more and more better content for you all.

@bethxkate - Did anything/anyone inspire you to start your blog?

I wouldn't necessarily pin my inspiration down to one person but I saw loads of bloggers genuinely enjoying what they do. Before I made my blog, I had been thinking about it for a while and that day was just the final push I guess. Another thing I really enjoyed growing up was writing, weather that be stories or diaries, I just really enjoyed it and I think this was a way to rekindle that passion.

@artisticanimalblog - Favourite blog post you've been made?

Ahh this is so hard! I love posts where I get to interact with you guys so I really enjoy writing Q and A's for you but I also really enjoyed the two brand collabs that I did with Emma as well as with Heart and Home because they offered a relaly new experience for me!

@martistelling - Have you ever felt discouraged by anything and wanted to stop blogging?

Yes, of course! Especially when I was first starting out, it could be really discouraging look at your view number and comparing it to other more successful bloggers. If this is you at the minute, my best tip for you is to just ignore the views as it doesn't really correlate to how good your content is, you just need some more exposure. I also got quite discouraged recently as well. Back in January/February I went through a major view surge and was getting 200/300 views a day and then in April I think it dropped really dramatically (to about 20 or 30 views). I still haven't got back to where I was but now I don't look at the amount of viewers I lost, I look at how far I've come from the start of my blog and it makes me really proud of how much I have managed to grow my little corner of the internet!

@daisyjaneblog -Have you experienced any hate and if so how do you deal with it?

I've been really lucky and haven't had any hate so far but I know a lot of bloggers that are even smaller than me have but I guess I just got really lucky.

@words_with_el - What have you gained from your experiences as a blogger?

Oh wow, I cant even explain how much I've gained from blogging. The main thing that I have gained though is that in the blogosphere everyone is so supportive of everyone and there is just the best community feel that literally can't be beaten!

@artisticanimalblog -Any advice for starting a blog?

My advice to anyone thinking of starting a blog is to produce content that you would personally want to see. I went through a phase of writing posts that I really didn't enjoy and it think that negativity cam through in my posts so that's when I started posting what I'd want to read and it made me rekindle that love of writing/

@bethxkate and @lifeaskatiex - What have you learnt in your 2 years of blogging?

This is a tricky one... I'd have to say that my follower count and page views don't necessarily reflect how good my content is/ I always make sure that my posts are as good as I can make them and even if the post doesn't get many views, I know it was still good content.

@words_with_el - What's your favourite part about being a blogger?

My favourite part of being a blogger is being able to interact with you all on a pretty much daily basis. I love reading all of your blog posts and seeing everything you post on instagram!

@thebatchofbeauty - What's been the best thing about starting your blog?

The best thing so far has been being able to interact with my readers on a daily basis. Every single one of your comments have been nothing but positive and I cannot thank you all enough for that! I just love blogging in general and this has been an amazing journey for me so far and I can't wait to see where it take me in the future!

@artisticanimalblog - Something you wish you'd known before you started your blog?

I wish that I'd known just how much work it takes to produce content that's up to standard 2/3 times a week. When I first started, I definitely underestimated just how much you had to do and it came as a bit of a shock to me to be honest!

Thank you so much for all you support of these past 2 years, I can't believe the time has gone so quickly! I love you all so much and I'll see you again tomorrow,

Lou Loves
xxxx
August 27, 2017 10 comments
As you'll all probably know by now, I have a true passion for baking and I know that some of you out there do too! So, I'm sharing with you my top 26 recipes!

Apple and Rhubarb Crumble (let me know if you want the recipe for this)
Blueberry Scones
Candice's Cornflake Tart
Doughnuts (again, let me know if you want a post on it!)
Easter nests
Ferrero Rocher Cheesecake
Gingerbread Cake
Hot Cross Buns
Iced Gems
Jammie Dodgers - with a secret twist...
Kit Kats
Lemon Drizzle Cake
Melt in the Middle Chocolate Pudding
Nigella's Cookie Dough Pots
Oreo Cupcakes
Pumpkin Pops
Quick and Easy Risotto
Reindeer Cookies
S'mores Cupcakes
Tanya Burr's Triple Chocolate Cookies
Unicorn Ice Cream
Viennese Whirls
White Chocolate and Nutella Pinwheel Biscuits
Xylophone Cake
Yoghurt Ice Pops
Zesty Orange Drizzle Cake

Congrats you made it to the end! So, that's all for today but make sure you subscribe to my blog to get updates of when I post. I hope you all enjoyed this post, thank you so much for reading and I'll see you very soon,

Love Lou
xxxxxx
August 25, 2017 No comments
I don't know about you guys, but I lovely a good scroll down Pinterest. I'm constantly finding new brands and products that I wouldn't have necessarily have found before, so today I'm sharing with you my favourite of those discoveries!

Rose Quartz Coasters - Currently Sold Out but are from Polyvore
Minimalistic Coffee, Tea and Sugar Pots - DIY from The Lovey Drawer


White Bathroom Ladder Shelf - £295 from The White Company


Dottie Honey Pot - £20 from Anthropologie


Geometric Faux Suede Cushion - £23 from Ethical.Market
Cloud Shelf - £30 from Urban Outfitters

 
Crescent Moon Bowl - £25.46 from Liquorice Moon Studios on Etsy


Copper Terrarium - £20 from JOY


Copper Stationary Set - £5 from Primark
"She believed she could so she did" Quote - £6 from FleurtCollective on Etsy


Marble Pillar Candle - £28 from Nordic House


So, I hope you all enjoyed my Pinterest picks for you and I'll leave a link at the bottom of the post to the board where this lovely lot are pinned. Thank you so much for reading, and I will see you all agin very soon,

Love Lou
xxxx

"My Pinterest Finds Post" Board
My Pinterest

All images sourced from www.pinterest.com
August 21, 2017 2 comments
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Hey! I'm Lou and welcome to my cosy little corner of the internet! I cover everything from the trends of the season to my favourite recipes! Have a look around and don't forget to follow me via the social media links below!

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