Easy No-Bake Wintery Treat

These are one of my favourite treats for this time of year, I discovered them years ago when I went skiing in Sweden, over there they are known as Chokladbollars which simply means chocolate balls.

They are a mix of some of my favourite ingredients, chocolate, coconut and coffee. They are such a comfort to eat and they go perfectly with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate. These also work as a lovely little extra gift for your family or friends, just pop a few into a cellophane bag and tie up with some ribbon. 

Ingredients for 20 balls:

100g Butter
100g Sugar
2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
1 Tbsp Vanilla Sugar
450g Oats
2 Tbsp Coffee (mixed with cold water)
A bag of coconut flakes

Now time to put it all together:

Step 1 | Soften the butter and mix in the sugar in a food processor.

Step 2 | Add the cocoa powder, vanilla sugar, oats and coffee.

Step 3 | Blend until the oats are broken down so the mixture is less lumpy.

Step 4 | Roll the mixture into truffle sized balls.

Step 5 | Roll the balls in the coconut shavings and place on a tray.

Step 6 | Leave the balls to chill in a fridge for about 30mins and then they are ready to serve!

If you make any I'd love to see, just tag me either on Instagram or Twitter with @Alexandraahowe

LUSH Halloween & Christmas Launch Event

I was lucky enough to attend an event at LUSH in Nottingham earlier last week where other bloggers and I had an early insight into their Halloween and Christmas collections. To start off, it smelt so damn amazing in there! I was first shown the very striking Sparkly Pumpkin which features an energising blend of juniper-berry, lime, grapefruit oil and a whole lot glitter that stuck to my hands all evening. Then we were shown a demonstration of Sparkler which was pretty cool as its just yellow from the outside but when popped into water it sparkles out orange from the centre and spins around in the bath like a Catherine wheel! Northern lights also does this but its purple with a bright green centre to look just like the northern lights when mixed into your bath. They were the main Halloween ones I liked but there were also lots of soaps and gift boxes that snap like a cracker when you open them! You can check out the rest of the Halloween collection here. 

Then we moved onto looking at the Christmas collection which features lots of glitter, stars and cute animal shapes. The Holly Golightly is extremely christmassy looking, silver glitter on the outside, bright dark green in the centre with spicy scents and all topped off with holly and cherries. I loved the look of The Christmas Hedgehog  but I don't think I could ever bring myself to use it, I can't just crumble up such a cute looking thing! However, it does contain shea and cocoa butter which is so good for your skin, especially from the harsh winter temperatures. I tried out Yog Nog which is a very creamy skin drink that smells like fudge, it left my skin so soft and smelt incredible. If they had this as a shower gel or moisturiser I would have probably picked that to take home but it's a soap which isn't a product I personally use. Again there are so many products I could talk about so you can check out the rest of the Christmas collection here.

At the end of the event we got to pick 3 products to take home and I chose Northern Lights as it was such an exciting concept of how it dissolves in the bath and I just want to see those amazing colours explode in my bath. After hearing soooooo much about Snow Fairy I had to try it out for myself and it smells just like the Bubble Gum lip scrub that I've used for years. I finally picked Candy Mountain as it smells like vanilla and candy which are my favourite smells! It's also not an animal shape so I do think I'll actually use it instead of having it as a cute decoration in my room.

It was so lovely to meet lots of other bloggers that live in or near Nottingham, I've never really had a chance to before and I hope to become good friends with them and meet up again in the future. 

Thank you to LUSH for hosting the event and offering us lots of yummy sweets and cake as well as a few products to take home. 

Will you be trying any of these products out this Halloween or Christmas?

If you haven't already entered, check out my giveaway here where you can win a £20 ASOS voucher!

Review: Benefit BADgal Lash Mascara

I never tend to buy mascara's that are over £10 as I've had pricey mascaras as gifts in the past and found them to be nothing special compared to high street brands. However, in Company magazine earlier this year I got a sample of the Benefit BADgal lash mascara, I remember that I loved it but once it ran out I didn't bother buying it mainly because of its price. 

The other day I was browsing over the Benefit stand and saw this little deal where you paid £1 more than the normal price and you got a travel sized one as well as the full size! Not only did I get that sweet deal but the lovely woman working at the counter also gave me a bunch of samples of some of their other products. I don't know if this deal is limited or not but if it is I would go get it now before it's gone!

Below I've posted a photo just to show you how much a difference this mascara makes to your lashes! I only had 2 thin coats on and my lashes are so much fuller and also have good length without any clumps. What else can you ask for from a mascara?

Another thing I love about this mascara is the bristles of the wand, they are so soft, I'm not a fan of the really short plastic bristles you get on some mascara wands. I much prefer the full soft bristles, I find they reduce the amount of clumps, they don't pull on my lashes as much and they have a really nice even distribution of the product onto the lashes. 

Christmas isn't far off so maybe you could ask for a Benefit gift set where they have a miniature of this mascara or you could even ask for this little set I got, I would've if I hadn't bought it myself!
What do you think of Benefit's mascaras? Let me know in the comments.