Recipe: How to make your own granola

Granola is something I have started to love eating over the past year, I love the crunchy taste of the oats, honey and nuts mixed together in clusters and it makes me feel a lot healthier eating nuts and oats in the morning rather than sugar coated flakes, but compared to other cereals it can get expensive. I was also noticing that towards the end of the box the taste disappears and I'm left with what might as well be cardboard for breakfast - not very appetising. So I decided to try and make my own, turns out it's a lot tastier and cheaper than boxed granola, but is super easy to make.

Double Your Lips In Seconds | Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat in Pillow Talk

Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat in Pillow Talk - £16

You know those products that on first use just make you think "YES, YES, YES!"? This was one of those products. After seeing Amelia Liana talk about it so much I felt like I needed to try it, especially when she said Rimmel's Eastend Snob is a dupe for it because I love that lipliner, knowing I would never pay £16 myself for a lipliner I knew this had to be on my Christmas list.

One of the first things I noticed was that the formulation is slightly drying and the pencil does have a tendency to drag along the lips, the liner basically feels like it's stuck to the lips which does seem to help give it some longevity. I find putting a lip balm on when I first start applying my makeup helps it out and does make it apply and feel more comfortable. Using the lip balm also means the liner doesn't highlight any lines, creases or dryness on the lips, because the formulation is quite drying it can have a tendency to do this.

The colour is a slightly brown, nude with a pinkish undertone to it. It's a typical "my lips but better" shade which means it blends seamlessly in to the lips and helps to enhance and double the size of the lips but still look natural - I apply it all over the lips and ever so slightly overdraw them helping the lips to look really plump and juicy. Full and plump lips are the biggest trend at the moment, but a lot of them I find can be too brown or too mauvey, I still love those shades, but if you're after something to look natural and still enhance, this is your best bet. It has become my go-to lip colour for when I'm in a rush because I know it will look great with any look or outfit, but will also last me the whole day. I find it lasts around 7 hours on the lips even after eating, I do like to top up the lip balm because the dry formula starts to become more obvious and uncomfortable as the day goes on.

I feel like this has caused me to get a bit of a Charlotte Tilbury/high end makeup bug. I barely buy high end makeup for two reasons: I find the stands a little too intimidating or busy and the price just puts me off, I always think for £15 I could get three lipsticks in Boots instead of one from MAC. But every time I try something high end I'm always impressed by it a lot more than I am with budget brands, whether I will ever have the courage to spend £40 on a palette from Charlotte Tilbury is another question. But if you're not as shy with your money as I am I really recommend this lipliner, it's a product I think will suit every skin tone and every look and I'm sure will impress everyone who uses it just as much as it did me.

Have you tried anything from Charlotte Tilbury?

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Review | L'Oreal True Match Foundation

L'Oreal True Match Foundation - £9.99

Funnily enough, this was actually the first foundation I ever bought. I only started wearing makeup in 2012 after discovering Pixiwoo and saw an advert for this in a magazine, Cheryl Cole was the model and for some reason that convinced me it would work wonders for me. It made my skin appear dry, but at the time I had no skincare routine so that could have been the problem. I decided to pick it up again recently after so many raving reviews.