DIY valentines oreo truffles

Hi Beauties,

Jessica again with another post (don't I spoil you). Vic and I, are both advocates that a little indulgence every once in a while is healthy and therefore I am sharing with you an extremely simple oreo truffle recipe, that I made for Joe last valentines day - as they say, one of the best ways to a mans heart is through food.

Ingredients:

• 2 packs of original oreos (or a different flavour if you want to mix things up)
• 100g of cream cheese (I tend to use philadelphia cream cheese)
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract (OPTIONAL)
• 250g of chocolate for coating (I like to use dairy milk or red choco melts)
• Any decorations such as red icing or pink glitter sprinkles

Amount of time to create: 2 hours

Step 1

This is the fun part crushing up the oreos. If you haven't got a food processor use a sandwich bag and zip all the oreos tight within it. Then, a trick I use is to stop the bag bursting is place that bag within another bag but the opposite side. Once you're all set use a rolling pin or spoon if you're a student and can't afford luxuries like rolling pins to bash the oreos into tiny pieces so they look almost sandy.

Step 2

Now to add the cream cheese! For this part I would recommend if you have one to use a large mixing bowl so the crumbs don't go flying everywhere. Add in the cream cheese and vanilla essence to the crushes oreos and keep mixing until all the crumbs are combined. You should end up with sticky mush.

Step 3

Next, grab a handful of mixture and roll into a ball. Place them on some sort of tray and put them in the freezer for at least an hour - the longer they are frozen, the easier they are to roll in chocolate later. When placing them on the tray, it's best to separate them to ensure they don't stick together. However, as I have to share a freezer with another student, there isn't much freezer space.

Step 4

Once they are all frozen the fun part begins! Break up all the chocolate into a microwavable bowl so it's easier to melt and then place in the microwave for 30 seconds. When melting chocolate in the microwave, you have to pay close attention as there's nothing worse than burnt chocolate. Take the chocolate out the microwave and give it a really good stir. If it's still not melted enough, put it in the microwave again 10 seconds at a time.

Once your chocolate is lovely and melted place one oreo ball in the mixture at a time, use two forks to move the oreo around, ensuring its all coated. Then lift up the oreo and use the other fork to gently scrape any excess chocolate off. Place the oreo onto the tray again.

Now would be the time to quickly decorate so go to town with the decorations. As you can see, because I couldn't find red choco melts, I used red icing and pink glitter sprinkles.

Step 5

Repeat this process until all your oreo truffles are coated and decorate and then freeze for around 30 minutes (or have them runny if you really can't wait). Voila! Display them in any way you like. Last year, I stored them all in a decorated mason jar to give to Joe. Also, keep them in the fridge for as long as you can so the chocolate doesn't start to melt.

As you can tell, this recipe is so simple with no baking involved however they taste amazing and look like you've spent ages on them!

Until next time beauties.
Love,
The Hamptons x

Getting my eyebrows and eyelashes tinted

Hi Beauties,

Jess here with a life post about getting my eyebrows and eyelashes tinted for the first time. Now a bit of a back story I usually get my eyebrows threaded once they've grown significantly as I like there to be some well thickness there.. However, during my last threading she unfortunately threaded way too much and I've been spending a good few months growing them back ever since. But finally it was time to get the tamed.

Eyebrows with eyebrow tint on and eyelashes tinted

I didn't have much time to be fully pampered so I went to a small but lovely beauty salon called Beautify in Newcastle-under-lyme. The woman was lovely and talked me through the process asking how much I wanted waxed off (my eyebrows were also waxed) and how dark I wanted the tint. I wanted to have my eyebrows looking as natural as possible as it was my first time getting them tinted, as well as my hair being grey-silver. She explained she would first apply the tint, using the dark brown shade but only keeping it on for 5 minutes so they would still be light. After this she would begin tinting my eyelashes as that takes longer (about 10-15 minutes) and then finish off by waxing and plucking my brows.

As you can see from the above pic, when the tint is applied you don't look your best...She cleaned all the area taking my makeup off around my eyes and brows and then applied the tint carefully even to the sparse middle hairs of my brows. The tint looks scary and extremely dark when placed on your brows but I can guarantee it does not turn that colour!

While the tint was well tinting she started on my eyelashes placing these sticky pads under my eyes to stop any tint going onto my face. This part was lovely as they had some sort of refreshing oil on so felt very relaxing. Once my eyes were all prepped she mixed the tint (apparently it was called blue black but it was just black) and carefully coated all my lashes. While this is happening you have to keep your eyes closed which for some reason, I was struggling to do. To relax me and stop me being tempted to peak she put some cotton pads soaked with more refreshing cream over the top.

By the time this was complete the tint on my brows was ready to come off. She simply swiped the tint away with some makeup remover and then said that once I could see again I could decide if I wanted them darker or not. The tint should last 4-6 weeks and its advised to avoid getting them wet as it is a tint which can fade.

While my lashes were still tinting she prepared the hot wax and then removed the tint from my eyelashes once they were ready. The she waxed a little to shape them and voila!

I never really saw the hipe of getting my eyebrows tinted but it literally is one of the best beauty things I've done! Usually I'd spend ages every morning draw them on but now I can roll out of bed and they're ready! Plus it means Joe doesn't have to see my non-existent eyebrows at night anymore- bonus.
If anyone's reading this post considering about getting them tinted then I highly recommend you do it.They last ages, save time and always look amazing.

Love,
The Hamptons