Edinburgh Zoo

About a month ago me and Mr Kay took a short trip to Edinburgh.  After our first visit a good few years ago now, we were adamant we'd go back again at some point. We finally got around to booking it for his birthday, and one of the highlights was a day at the zoo!

Even though we visited the zoo last time we were in Edinburgh, and we were only at London zoo (in the rain!) last year, it was certainly on our list of must do's this time around.  Luckily the weather was much better than our rainy London Zoo visit; it was a bright and sunny day, not overly warm that the animals were hiding in the shade, but not too cold for us to spend pretty much the whole day walking round. And believe me, we must have walked miles!

One of the main reasons we went to the zoo was to see the Giant Pandas. They're a relatively new addition and so they weren't there last time. They're so in demand that we had to book our viewing slot as we booked our tickets.  We opted for the 11am slot and then had the rest of the day to make our way round the rest of the zoo, coinciding with the 'Penguin Parade' at 2pm!

I got pretty snap happy as we walked around, I mastered the art of positioning my camera so the wires of the enclosures weren't in shot.  I thought I'd use this post to share a few of my favourite snaps.

One of two Giant Pandas currently residing at Edinburgh Zoo

Can't remember what this cutie was, but love this photo!

Meerkats

Chimpanzees. Was so fun watching them

Penguins!

More penguins!

Loved watching these playing. Their game mainly consisted of pushing each other this rock haha!

Beautiful Lion. Unfortunately the Tigers were sleeping so we couldn't see them.

It was a trek and a half to see the Zebras!

Back to see the Penguins before we left. This is a Rockhopper penguin.

Spotted another monkey enclosure as we were leaving. This little guy came right up to the glass!

I'd highly recommend Edinburgh Zoo if you're visiting the city. This was my second visit and I actually think I enjoyed it more.  It's easy enough to get to from the city centre; there's buses that stop right outside, or if you're not sure a taxi isn't too pricey.  We got a taxi there and then a bus back to the city.  We spent probably about 5 or 6 hours there but you could easily spend more if you went to more of the talks or demonstrations.  My highlights were seeing the pandas as I'd never seen them before. Also the penguins were adorable, although only a couple came out for the Parade whereas last time, there was loads! We're hoping to visit Chester Zoo in the near future, although  don't think we'll get chance til next year now.

Have you been to Edinburgh Zoo? What were your favourite animals?

July Favourites

Since we're already four days into August, I'm assuming I'm a little late in getting this up... apoligies! Like pretty much everybody says in these posts of videos, I can't believe we're in August already. Seriously, where is this year going?! It really is true what they say, the older you get, the faster the years seem to go by! Anyway, onto the products...

First up is the L'Oreal 3-in-1 Purifying Micellar Solution. Until this came along I'd been using the La Roche Posay Micellar water, which I loved, but at around £10 it was pretty pricey and I seemed to use it up quite fast.  I was so happy to see a high street brand come out with a micellar water, and I've even managed to get a couple of my friends to give it a go now it's more accessible and a bit more purse friendly.  It does a really good job at getting the majority of my make up off before I do a proper cleanse, and I sometimes even use it first thing on a morning to wake my skin up a bit.

I've been using the  Bourjois Bronzing Primer as my bronzer of choice this month and I really like the results it gives.  I'm yet to try it out as an all over primer, but when applied either before or after foundation, buffing it into my temples, under my cheek bones and on my nose, it gives a lovely warmth to my usually pale complexion.  I've been teaming it with my Cha Cha Tint from Benefit on my cheeks for a nice summery look.  This has been a firm favourite of mine since it first came out, especially in the summer months.

Also from Benefit, I've been turning to my World Famous Neutrals kit for pretty much all of my eye looks lately. The one  I have is the 'Eyenessa's most glamorous nudes ever' and I've found it so versatile. These were the only shadows I took on a weekend away to Edinburgh recently and I honestly didn't wish I'd brought more.  With four powder and two cream shadows there was plenty to create a variety of looks, but not so many that I was sat for ages decided which to use each day.  It's also seen me through a hen weekend in Liverpool, and is also what I used when I was bridesmaid.  Definitely had my money's worth out of this one that's for sure!

Last up is actually a present from my boyfriend.  He doesn't buy me presents that often, which I don't actually mind because then when he does, it feels extra special. I'd been wanting the Marc Jacobs' Dot perfume for ages so when he said he wanted to treat me, this is what I went for.  It's a little heavy for my taste for day to day but for evenings I think it's perfect.  And as usual with Marc Jacobs' perfumes, the bottle is beautiful!

So that's what I've been loving in the month of July! Have you tried any of these products? Did you like them as much as I did? Let me know in the comments!

Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes

I'm usually pretty lucky when it comes to baking; I've never really had one of those days where I wish I'd never bothered. Today I came pretty close! I was a little hesitant to make this post, but everyone loves a bit of cake, and while these aren't the best ones I've ever made I thought I'd show them anyway.

I'm a massive fan of the Hummingbird Bakery and their books are my first (to be fair, they're my only) point of call when I'm in the mood to bake. I decided to go for the Salted Caramel Cupcakes, but given that it'd be mainly family eating them and they're a little picky, I omitted the 'Salted' part of the recipe and instead made regular chocolate caramel cupcakes!

Everything was going well; I combined the dry ingredients (after a last minute dash to get Cocoa Powder as I forgot to get some in Tesco this morning!), then added the milk and eggs to the mixture and mixed thoroughly. I lined my tin with these cute cases I picked up on a recent trip to Edinburgh, and poured in the mixture. I generally find using an ice-cream scoop makes this process a little easier and makes your cupcakes nice and even... except on this occasion. For some reason, I didn't realise these cases were slightly smaller than the regular muffin cases Hummingbird suggest you use. Needless to say, my cupcakes overflowed and weren't nice and evenly filled. Ooops!

Never mind, I thought, it's nothing trimming off the excess and adding a nice bit of buttercream can't fix. Wrong again! As I carefully tried to cut away the bits of cake that had overflowed, the cake started to come away from the case, which just made them look even worse. Argh! When I came to make the buttercream, I realised that this ridiculously warm weather we're having at the moment does not help! The recipe says to use softened butter, but to be honest, I think this just turned into a big gloopy mess. Once I managed to get some onto the cake, I had to put them in the fridge to set it slightly, which is something I hate to do as I'm scared the cakes dry out!

But at the end of the day, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, as they say, and they taste pretty damn good if I say so myself! The frosting could definitely do with being a little thicker, and maybe have a bit more caramel added to it, as the 30g the recipe states doesn't seem enough.

So, yeah not my best effort, but I think I know where I went wrong at least, so I may give these another go sometime soon and hopefully I'll get on a little better.

Review: Nivea In-Shower Body Moisturiser.

I'm going to skim over the fact that I've not blogged in literally months and do share my thoughts on a product that's certainly been doing the rounds in the blogosphere of late.

I'm the laziest person in the world when it comes to applying body lotions (and blogging, apparently!) and admittedly I skip it way more than I should. So in theory, something that would do the job of one of my many bottles and tubs of body lotion before I even get out of the shower, sounded too good to be true. Having said that, at first I really wasn't convinced, and dismissed it as being gimmicky and over-hyped. My curiosity soon got the better of me and last weekend I spotted it with a third off in Boots so decided to go for it, and was actually quite excited to try it!

As you'll probably know by now, there's a white bottle for normal skin, and a blue bottle of dry skin. I actually preferred the smell of the one for normal skin, but as I was still a little sceptical as to how moisturising this stuff would be, I opted for the dry skin version. My skin's not overly dry, but I do get the odd dry patch here and there, so I guess it made sense.

Onto the actual product. It's a creamy white liquid, not quite as thick as your hair conditioner, but thicker than your usual shower gel.  After exfoliating any dry patches with my beloved Sugar Crush scrub and then using my new Soap and Glory Whipped Clean shower butter, I applied a generous amount of the conditioner, leaving it for a few seconds, and rinsing away. Initially my skin didn't feel overly soft, or any different to normal, but once I was out of the shower and dried myself with a towel, my skin did feel very soft and moisturised. Plus I didn't have to wait around for ages for any body lotions to sink in, which is definitely a bonus in this warm weather as they always feel really sticky on my skin. I was pretty impressed!

All in all, I really like this product, although I do feel you need to use quite a bit each time so it may run out quite quickly. Also, I did use a very moisturising body wash beforehand (Soap and Glory claim you don't need to moisturise after using it!) which may have helped soften my skin. I do feel that using this alone without a regular body moisturiser wouldn't be enough, especially if you have drier skin. But as a quick fix product, it's brilliant and will definitely save you a few precious minutes getting ready in the mornings!