The Linkables

Sparkly Christmas wishlist by Sweet Monday

Fancy giving yourself a Mean Girls manicure?

If you live in Glasgow you need to be subscribing to Bee Waits for No One if you want to have your finger on the pulse of weegie coolness. For those you wanting slightly off-beat Christmas gifts she has started up her Alternative Christmas Shop guide again this year.

From Bee's selection I also discovered Bonnie Bling which brings together the best parts of plastic jewellery and Scottish slang. Extra points for recognising that the whole of Scotland doesn't talk like Glasgow. The Quine necklace is well on my to buy list.

I can't believe I only discovered SkinnyTaste just this week. The Spinach Lasagne Rolls certainly weren't the easiest thing I've ever made but they certainly looked impressive

Urban Decay were bought over by L'Oreal last week - Tashina of Logical Harmony has been documenting it to see what it means for their cruelty-free stance.

If you're looking to buy a Christmas present for a foodie (erm, *hint*) then Rosie's guide to a home-made hamper is a good place to start.

Sorry Gem, I think I might just be nabbing your candy cane Christmas wrapping idea.

I've recently started taking public outfit photos, after wanting to for years, and Elizabeth's post on the issue helped nudge me in that direction.

Just in case you get lost for words with a sad person - Emergency Compliments.

I'm not even going to lie that this is my dream apartment - 32 Signs You're Living in a Hipster Apartment.

And that's clearly you're weekend sorted, not because you're knee deep in Christmas shopping or anything...

Morag

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Beauty Review: MeMeMe Arch Angel

As so many of my beauty reviews recently have been along the lines of okay if you have the money, good if you're travelling but not every day or might be better if you had dry skin I decided I should post about a product that has become part of my daily routine and I really see myself re-purchasing.

Like a lot of beauty bloggers I take more care of my eyebrows than you're average person on the street. I'm also not naturally blessed in the eyebrow department (along with acne, eyebrows are what I see when I see teenage photos of myself) so that also explains why I have a more extensive eyebrow routine than most.

When it comes to similar products I bought the No7 eyebrow tamer back in 2010 but will admit I was unimpressed with it. I bought the MeMeMe version as part of a sale and was more after the highlighter than the tamer but when I received the product it was the eyebrow tamer I was more impressed by.

I find it really does brush my eyebrow hair whichever way I want it to and then keeps it in place. Also because it is brown coloured it means it helps colour my eyebrows. However a negative is that you have to be careful the formula doesn't make it onto your skin and smudge. It easily coverable with concealer but be careful as it can slow you down in the morning if you have to tidy up the edges.

As for the highlighter I have to admit that it is pretty average. Not terrible, but nothing special either. I remember borrowing a really good highlight by Elf a while ago but for some reason never purchased myself. But as it is attached to an amazing product I will accept it as being there (this product in under a tenner, so hardly a waste of money!).

Also, as with all MeMeMe products, the packaging is awesome.

Lots of tamed eyebrow love,

Morag

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fashion

How I Looked: New Winter Coat

Welcome to the blog post in which I hang out in Glasgow Green with my camera and tripod. Thankfully the dog walkers, cyclists, runners and even canoeists kept any curious comments to themselves! This was only my second 'public' outfit photo but I felt as though I was already getting the hang of not being embarrassed, not taking too long and choosing a location. I'm pretty chuffed with how these turned out. Hopefully when the light nights come in I'll be confident enough to do more locations (or will have convinced someone to take photos for me).

As a side note: I remember chuckling whilst photographing this as I could hear an ice-cream van in the distance playing teddy bears picnic...

I knew this winter that I wanted to go fur a faux fur coat and given the selection Primark had last year I thought I should hit it up this year too. I didn't have the guts to go for a full on fur coat last year so settled for a waistcoat but I've become a lot more confident about dressing frivolously since my move to Glasgow (probably because you can get off with it here) as opposed to my parents house in an Aberdeenshire village. Admittedly the selection was pretty poor this year and this jacket was almost about sold out and I seen someone else wearing it on the morning commute the next day. But I feel so cheery walking about knowing there are bear ears on my head.

This coat is super-toasty too. Admittedly my legs and hands were freezing taking these pictures - which probably means this is the kind of winter that calls for trousers - but my torso and head were cosy. My friend at work was wearing it at her desk because she has one of the coldest seats and also confirmed the snugliness of it.

I may still however buy a second winter coat as this is a very casual one. Even though I believe the world would be a better place if we all wore animal ears I realise that there are some situations where resembling a bear just isn't appropriate.

The rest of the outfit is another office outfit I bought/put together. The skirt and shoes have already featured on the blog and they are now very much staples in wardrobe - H&M also do a pale pink version of the skirt which I have my eye on.

Lots and lots of teddy bear love...

Morag x

mòrag

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food

Recipe: Cocoa Pasta & Cream Cheese

Despite being a massive food lover and having loads of compliments weekly on my food dishes my blog has so far been very short on recipes. This is because so many of the dishes you see posted on Instagram were created using someone else's recipe and I feel it would just be wrong to post the recipe. However just before I moved to Glasgow I created this little dish using my own initiative.

I picked up the cocoa pasta from Hotel Chocolat not long after it opened in Aberdeen. Admittedly I am not a huge chocolate person but I find it hard to say no to an opportunity to experiment in the kitchen. I hit up the recipes on Google but found that cocoa pasta usually accompanies...meat. I cooked the one veggie recipe I had unearthed which involved mushrooms but I just wasn't feeling it. The savory taste of a mushroom and the bitter taste of the pasta just wasn't mixing well in my mouth.

A FYI, at the time of the original Instagram I got asked whether or not is tasted like chocolate. It depends what your definition of chocolate is. If you only know chocolate to be a creamy Dairy Milk bar then no, it doesn't taste like chocolate. If however you know that true chocolate is bitter when not mixed with anything, then yes, it does taste like chocolate. Bitter dark chocolate. It is also naturally vegan, though this recipe isn't.

It was then a few days later that I spotted the cream cheese in my parents fridge. And I realised this could be a balance to the bitter flavours of the cocoa pasta.

Ingredients

50g cocoa pasta

100g cream cheese (can add more)

2 spring onions, chopped

1 teaspoon chili flakes

1 teaspoon oil to fry

Method

1. Put the pasta on to cook. My method is to boil water in a kettle, then add to a pan of pasta, then bring back to the boil before simmering until needed.

2. Slice the spring onion.

3. Heat the oil in a frying pan.

4. Gently fry the onions, be careful not to brown and burn They will soften - that is them ready.

5. Add the chili flakes.

6. Take of the heat

7. Put the cream cheese in a bowl and mix until it softens.

8. Add the onions and chilis

9. The pasta should be cooked by now - may need a few more minutes - drain when ready

10. Mix the cream cheese into the pasta

11. Serve

It is still an unusual dish and for someone who tends to avoid bitter foods, this isn't something I'm going to be making a habit of preparing. It is an acquired taste. But where's the fun at avoiding things you haven't tried before?

Morag

mòrag

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beauty make-up

Review: Too Faced Borderline Lip Pencil

Too Faced Boderline lip pencil

Admittedly I've owned this product for a good few months now (could easily be half a year) and I've lost all memory of why I purchased it in the first place. That's not to say it's a bad product but I'm not entirely sure why I decided to purchase an anti- feathering lip-pencil and I always like to start my review with why a product was purchased in the first place.

Either way I think this product is one that I'm not entirely sure what my opinion is about it. It is described as a anti-feathering lip pencil, which is definitely is, I just think that this is a non-essential beauty product which is why despite it doing exactly what it is meant to I feel I can't rave about it because in the grand scheme of things I think there are many other products I'd rather own instead.

No photos were taken for this as the results are difficult to pick up on camera. Just as in real life, if your lipstick doesn't have the smoothest line ever it would go unnoticed unless it was clearly not on your natural lip. As for keeping lipstick on your lips, like a lot of primers, you need to be careful of 'buildable' lipsticks as it only keeps the first layer on the lips; any other layers of lipstick after the first are likely to come off. So only use a pigmented colour that only takes one swipe to get the desired result. And yes, the line around the lips is smoother but only if your make-up was being really scrutinised.

Do I get prizes for the most wordy review ever? In conclusion this product does do what it is meant to and I use it when I'm going out at night and wearing a bright colour (I don't wear lipstick daily). However when it comes to finishing the product I doubt I'll be rushing out to buy it again. If dropping £12 on a beauty product became nothing to me then my opinion might change but as long as I'm still on a graduate salary then I'm using my pennies to buy products that make a much bigger different to my face. I'd recommend this for rich consumers, people who like their make-up pristine, professional make-up artists or someone needing make-up for an important event where perfection is required.

. Morag

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