Love Package from CrazyPopLock in India!

Hiya! Look what the posty delivered yday morning!!! I was abit confused when I first saw it ...thinking to myself  'what is this battered looking package?' upon closer inspection I realised it was the gift Bharti from CrazyPopLock sent me from India!! She was 3rd prize winner of my giveaway earlier this year but unfortunately her actual prize got lost in the post so I sent her another gift as a replacement (click here). Even though she had told me she had sent me something I didnt hold much hope on it arriving especially because it was sent standard mail and tbh I had actually kinda forgotten about it (sorry B) so when I saw Indian Post on the package I was crrrrazzzzzyyy excited!! I tweeted a pic of it immediately!! 

Bharti loves all things Korean - K-dramas, K-pop, anime, food and of course their sincare so as well as including a couple of Indian items she threw in a bunch of Korean masks from Sasa.com. I was soooo happy to see all these masks!! I've been eyeing up Sasa.com for a while but resisted the temptation so far so when I saw all these it was like korean face mask heaven! Thank you sooo much Bharti, I really really appreciate it!

Hand painted...how cute!!

Sweet letter and loving the Superwoman pic in the corner! lol

My Beauty Diary Chocolate Truffle Sheet face mask, FaceQ Grapeseed & Green Tea mask,
FaceQ Peony, Snow Lotus and Sake Yeast (how unusual!) whitening mask, Softymo Pore Strip

Pink package - FaceQ Red Pomegranate CoQ10 mask. Bottom of pic - My Scheming Mint Collagen Mask

4x Sunsilk Jasmine Black Shampoo with Jasmine & Teetha, VLCC Matt Look Sunscreen SPF 30, 2x Lotus Sunscreen SPF30

My Beauty Diary Black Pearl face mask, Crystal Hydrating Eye Mask

I cant wait to try all these out!! Have you tried of these before or bought anything from Sasa.com?

Cherry Lane xoxo

Cherry Forest Chocolatey Nutella-y Cakiness without Egg!

In case you havent noticed I love baking! Its my favourite thing to do when I have some free time and I find the whole process of measuring out the ingredients, whisking & mixing and waiting for them to rise so therapeutic. This week me and my friend were at her place and abit bored so as her flat is a egg-free area we tried out this eggless Cherry Forrest Chocolate Cake with Nutella Buttercream. (sorry for the quality of pics, I only had my phone camera with me).

INGREDIENTS

Cake:

4 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 cup plain flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1 can (400 grams for full can) condensed milk
1 cup melted butter
2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Nutella butter cream & toppings:
1 cup Nutella
1/2 cup butter
1 icing sugar
1 tsp milk
2 tubs whipping cream
I carton of Morello cherry fruit filling

METHOD

For the cake:

1. Sift the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and bicarbonate soda.

2. Combine all the remaining ingredients with the dry ingredients together with 1 cup (200 ml.) of water in a bowl and mix well using a whisk.

3. Divide into two and pour this mixture into two greased 150 mm. (6") diameter baking tins.
4. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180°C (360°F) for 20 minutes or until a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean.

5. Unmould and cool on a wire rack

For the Nutella Buttercream and cream:

1.Beat the butter until smooth, then add the Nutella and beat until all combined. Slowly mix in the icing sugar and milk until combined.
2. Whisk the whipping cream until is forms stiff peaks or until is reaches your desired consistency. I put the cream in a piping bag swirted on top and around the sides

Then assemble your cake like so...

Et voilà!

Cherry Lane xoxo

Recipe Source: Chef in You 

Beachy Dreamy Mani by Kiko

                                               

Hiya! Ever since I saw this photo (above) on Pinterest I instantly fell in love with it...It just reminds me of summertime and partying on the beaches of Mykonos! So I set my sights on tracking down the exact nail polish colour. Its quite a bright ocean greeny/blue almost neon and as we are currently going through a pastels phase it was a bit tricky but I think I found a close match by Kiko No. 389 Mint Milk.  I'm loving Kiko nail polishes atm...I got my sister to pick up three from their store in Stratford Westfields which I will show you in the next couple weeks.

If you haven't heard of Kiko before, they are an Italian brand selling cosmetics and skincare at high street/'drugstore' prices.

The colour in my photo's have come our a little more pastely than its true colour which is much brighter and slighty more on the green side and although the name of the colour is Mint Milk its definitely brighter than your standard mint creme. The formula and brush can be a touch streaky but if you apply it carefully you should have a nice finish. The great thing about these polishes is they have great staying power! I put two coats and it lasted me a good 5 days. I was also inspired by today's Nail Art & Things post and accented one of my nails with a black nail striping foil I bought from eBay a while back but never got round to using.

So what do you think? If you know of any other polishes like the pic above please let me know! And of you have tried any of Kiko's other makeup or skincare I'd love to know how you got on. I'm pretty intrigued as they're products look great on the website.

These Kiko polishes are £3.90 for 11ml and can be purchased from their stores in Stratford Westfields and Shepherds Bush Westfields, London or on KikoCosmetics.com.

Cherry Lane xoxo

Wordless Wednesday

Earth Day: Free Origins Full Sized Moisturiser worth £32?! Yes Please!!

I love a good bargain and this is beyond amazing and generous of Origins!

Origins are passionate about nature and the environment, so as part of Earth Month (this month) Origins are trying to encourage us to recycle our packaging by holding a 'trade-in' day.

On 21st April you can take any empty moisturiser in to any Origins store or counter in Boots, Debenhams, House of Fraser or Selfridges and they will swap it for you for a FULL SIZE Starting Over Age-Erasing Moisturizer with Mimosa (£36) or A Perfect World SPF25 Age-defense Moisturizer with White Tea (£32).

If you are in the US, the same offer applies but the trade-in day is 22nd April (dont ask me why they are different dates?!)

I will be keeping my empties ready! :-)

Cherry Lane xoxo

Cleopatra Eye Makeup Contest - Please Vote for me!

Hiya beauts! I love playing around make-up and trying out different colours so I was pretty excited when I heard about Purplle.com's creative eye make-up contest and decided to give it a go! Here's a sneak peek of my look below...you can see all three photo's here...mine are entries 8, 9 and 10. If you would be able to vote for entry 10 here I would be soooo grateful!! All you have to do is hit the 'Like' facebook button on the right hand side under 'Show Your Appreciation'. Thank you soooo much my gorgeous friends!!

Cherry Lane xoxo

Wordless Wednesday

Nars Thakoon Nails

Lal Mirchi, Anardana, Ratin Jot, Amchoor, Kuhti and Koliary

Nars are getting ready for Spring/Summer by partnering with designed Thakoon Panichgul to develop a new limited edition six-shade collection of nail polishes.

According to Nars, in conceptualising the shade range, Thakoon was inspired by the vibrant colors found in Indian spice markets. The highly saturated, high-shine shades come in an opaque finish, perfect for spring. Formula is long-wearing, chip-resistant and toluene-, formaldehyde- and DBP-free.

Priced at £14 each they are currently available for pre-order from the NarsCosmetics.co.uk ready for their full launch on 16th April.

Lal Mirchi Mandarin red   Anardana – Azalea pink

Amchoor Bright yellow   Ratin Jot Orchid purple

Kutki Powder blue   Koliary Cyan blue

Although these colours are gorgeous I have seen quite a few similar colours around...the purple immediately reminds me of Illamasqua's Stance. For me the most unique is Lal Mirchi which looks like a kinda burnt orange.

Which one is your favourite?

Cherry Lane xoxo

Cherry Batiste Dry Shampoo

Batiste have done it again!

I first heard about this product about two months ago and wanted to get my hands on some immediately! I searched in every single Boots, Superdrug and supermarket I came across (my home town, Coventry, Leicester, Stratford-Upon-Avon, London and more) all the while I kept seeing more and reviews cropping up on blogs everywhere driving me insane with lust (ok slight exaggeration but I was getting annoyed I couldn't find it) I even enlisted my best friend to help me with my search and had show to her the reviews because after a while she was starting to believe it didn't exist. Finally....about 2 wks ago I saw it there sitting pretty on a shelf in Coventry's Boots...I felt like I had found the holy grail! lol I was soo happy and couldnt stop grinning the whole day... literally!

It was all worth it...this is definitely my favourite out of all the Batiste varieties and not just because its cherry (well maybe lol)! It gives my hair the same fresh and clean feeling as the others but I just LOVE the fragrance of this one! Being the cherry fanatic that I am it doesn't have than intense cherry scent but it does have a subtle sweet scent which is reeeally lovely and just the perfect balance of freshness and sweet femininity.

LOVE the cherry print...isn't it so cute!! 

Cherry Batiste retails at £2.99 for a 200ml can and is available in Boots.

Cherry Lane xoxo

Ombré Tights by BZR

Hola chica's! Hope you're all good and looking forward to Easter weekend!! As soon as I saw these ombré tights...I fell in love and had to share them with the world!

Arent they gorgeous!! My heart flutters everytime I set eyes on the Fuscian Violet!

I also love that these tights are the creation of an independent designer in the US named Tiffany Ju and from the tweets I've seen it looks like she manufactures them herself too (working 9-5am lol)! Although these tights are pricy at $45 per pair each item is hand dyed and made to order. If I was going to splurge on something special I would much rather give my money to an independent manufacturer rather than the Topshop's and Armani's of the world.

You can grab a pair for yourself at BZR's Etsy store. Delivery worldwide.

Cherry Lane xoxo