8 THINGS TO DO THIS HALLOWEEN

1. Have a Harry Potter film marathon with salted popcorn and Halloween treats.

2. Bake something spooky. I'm planning on making skeleton gingerbread men, but these marshmallow Rice crispy brains or Pumpkin spiced cupcakes with butterscotch buttercream icing are great to make too!

3. Check Asos and Topshop for early sales creeping in on their incredible Halloween items. I'm keeping my eye on this Velvet Playsuit!

4. Paint your nails in a dark, vampy shade, like Essie Midnight Cami or Essie Wicked.

5. Eat a lot of sweets. Candy corn, Witches Hat Fancies and mini Mars bars are my favourite!

6. Start a new book, The Bone Season and A Discovery Of Witches are great, slightly creepy but non scary options for Halloween. I've just bought The Night Circus to read, it's seems perfect for autumn and Halloween.

7. Have a pumpkin carving competition, me & Alex have one every year, he normally wins!

8. Indulge in a long Halloween Lush bath by candlelight. Lush Sparkly Pumpkin bubble bar is full of uplifting oils, it makes soft bubbles and has a hint of sparkle making it perfect for Halloween!

THE LEAD UP TO HALLOWEEN

Each year, on the week of Halloween, I pull out all of my vampy make up, decorate my home with pumpkins and spooky things and indulge in as many Fiendish Witches Hat Fancies as I can manage. 

I've added halloween touches to my make up, opting for purple eyeshadows, berry lips and dark nails and have even decorated my dressing table for the occasion. Dark, vampy hues like MAC Rebel and Nars Cruella have had a permanent place in my make up bag and I've pulled out my favourite Zara flats (similar here) for the occasion!

In my home, my pumpkin garland is still hanging proudly above my bookcase with my Roberts Radio, Copper lamp, Harry Potter Funko and pumpkin and bat decor atop to give it a festive feel. 

Most likely, I'll be spending Halloween inside, with sweets at the ready for the trick or treaters whilst carving pumpkins before settling down for the night with a Lush bath using the Sparkly Pumpkin bubble bar. Then I'm planning on watching Harry Potter films on repeat whilst feasting on leftover sweets and chocolate.

What are your plans for Halloween?

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A FEW NEW THINGS FOR AUTUMN

With cosy knits, festive decor and beauty sets galore I find it hard to resist spending a little more throughout Autumn & Winter. I buy most of my homeware, clothes and beauty palettes during A/W as I just love the style, shades and decor at this time of the year!

Festive things have been streaming into the shops and I couldn't resist picking up a few things to decorate my home with. I have plans to hang this Sparking Snowflake Decoration from The White Company on my window, I love the way that the glittering beads catch the light and I think it will look so pretty in Winter twinkling on the window pane.

I also picked up these Copper Bells from Paperchase, I'm not quite sure what to do with them yet but I just couldn't resist them!

I love to spend my Sunday Autumn evenings with a cinnamon hot chocolate, flicking through magazines and painting my nails. I hunted high and low for this Rose Gold shade from Orly which is free with this months Elle magazine. After a week of looking (it seems like it's a popular shade!) I finally found it nestled away in the back of a store. It's such a pretty shade, you can't really go wrong with rose gold!

My skin has really taken a hit with the colder weather and my regular morning moisturiser just hasn't been cutting it on these biting, chilly days. After watching Lily Pebbles vlog I popped into L'Occitanne where they offered me a spiced apple tea, a complimentary facial and handed me a sample of the Precious Cream. I've been using it day and night and my skin has been drinking this rich, creamy moisturiser up. They've also popped in a £10 off code for skincare which I'm planning on using for the full sized version when I run out!

I've also been practically living in Lush, with hot bath's becoming a staple for me on cold autumn nights, Lush bath's are the ultimate comforting treat. I'm so excited to test out the Sparkly Pumpkin, with uplifting oils, soft bubbles and a hint of sparkle, it looks perfect for this time of year.

Lastly, I've pulled out my opaque black tights and over the knee boots and have been looking for the perfect skirt to pair with them, this Asos Jacquard number caught my eye in the Asos sale, it's monochrome and so will work perfectly with most of my wardrobe!

Have you picked up anything new recently?

A HALLOWEEN WISHLIST

Although I'll probably just be spending Halloween carving pumpkins and watching Harry Potter and in my pyjamas, I love getting into the Halloween spirit. There are so many great, festive things in store at the moment, here are a few of my favourite picks for Halloween:

Topshop Dress: I adore this velvet and lace dress, although quite pricey I can imagine that it would be a staple throughout Autumn and Halloween, it would work perfectly paired with black tights, ankle boots and a vampy lipstick!

Velvet Cat Ears: It's totally acceptable to wear cat ears all throughout October right? These velvet and lace ones look so pretty!

Cat Velvet Cross Body Bag: This cat bag is unbelievably cute, I can imagine that it would look great paired with a slouchy grey jumper, boots and leggings.

Glitter Cat Purse: Another cute little cat pouch, this coin purse looks like an adorable option to carry around my spare change in.

Nars Train Bleu: I've been looking for a reason to invest in this divine deep aubergine shade ever since I spotted Anna wearing it, Halloween seems like the perfect excuse to pick one up. 

Essie Wicked: The perfect Halloween shade, Essie Wicked is a beautiful, vampy deep red. I can't believe I don't already own this shade!

What's on your wishlist for Halloween?

SWITCHING UP MY MAKE UP FOR HALLOWEEN

With Halloween right around the corner I've been pulling out some of my favourite vampy shades to wear for the lead up to Halloween. Although it's not always the most wearable type of make up, I love adding hints to my make up routine for a festive touch throughout October.

On my eyes, I've been smudging purple eyeshadow under my lower lashes for a soft, smoky effect. Mac Quarry is a beautiful muted plum brown which is perfect for every day wear and for something a little more bold I reach for MAC Nocturnelle, a deep aubergine frosted purple. It works well paired with berry lips and spidery lashes.

Each Halloween, Illamasqua Pure Pigment Powder in Static, a mesmerising pigment with violet and pink micro glitter, makes it into my make up bag. It's ethereal, iridescent pigments are perfect for Halloween, it looks great brushed lightly onto the tops of cheekbones, dotted onto the inner corner of the eyes or onto the centre of the lids.

On my nails, I'm still flitting between the idea of creating a halloween nail art design or sticking to a dark nail polish like Essie Midnight Cami, a dreamy dark sapphire blue or Essie Sole Mate, a glossy, vampy berry.

For lips, I've pulled out Nars Cruella, a rich deep scarlet red. It's creamy, matte formula delivers impressive staying power without drying out your lips too much and looks divine paired with champagne eyeshadow and winged liner.
Another staple for me in October and for Halloween is MAC Rebel, a gorgeous berry that lasts for hours on the lips.
Lastly, Sleek Mulberry* is the perfect shade for Halloween, it's the ultimate vampy shade and an intensely deep burgundy that feels light and moisturising on the lips. I love wearing this applied to the centre of the lips and paired with a fuchsia for an ombre effect. 

Do you like to add halloween touches to your make up?

AUTUMN BLUSHERS

With a biting chill in the air, darker mornings and fallen leaves whipping through the breeze, Autumn is definitely here. I've slowly moved away from the pink and coral hues of Summer and have been gravitating towards rusty oranges, dusky pinks, plums and berry tones for Autumn.

The Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blusher in Mood Exposure has been my daily staple throughout the early autumn months. The dusky mauve/pink shade sculpts the cheeks and compliments a deep berry lip perfectly whilst the swirls of mood exposure lighting powder running through keeps the complexion radiant and bright. This silky soft blusher blends seamlessly onto the skin leaving a beautiful, flawless finish.

Warm pinks like Nars Orgasm are perfect for the transition into the colder months. This pigmented, buttery blusher gives a warm, golden pink flush of colour to your cheeks to perk up dull skin on gloomy autumn days. See me wearing it here.

The dreamy hexagon packaging of the H&M Pure Velvet Cream Blush in Hot Pink completely drew me in to this creamy high street blusher. The formula of this is similar to the Topshop Cream blushers, it blends as a cream before setting in place as a powder making the formula great for all seasons. On the skin, the shade translates as a pretty berry pink, giving you glowy, flushed cheeks.

Finally, Sleek Blush By 3 in Sugar is the perfect cheek palette for autumn. It contains three pigmented, autumnal shades - a berry red similar to Nars Dolce Vita, a deep wine with copper shimmer running through it and a matte rusty orange that has beautiful peach undertones. Best applied with a light hand, these blushers pack a punch and offer an incredible colour pay-off. Each shade is flattering on the skin, the quality as always with Sleek blushers is pretty exceptional and the palette is so handy to take with you when travelling!

What are your favourite blushers for autumn?

8 EASY WAYS TO CUT DOWN ON DAIRY

Whether it's for health reasons, skin concerns or ethical reasons, going dairy free can be quite a big lifestyle change. For me, I started to avoid dairy for health reasons around 5 years ago and aside from the occasional bar of dairy milk & sprinkling of goats cheese I'm now around 90% dairy free. My skin is so much better and I feel a lot healthier, I'm so glad I made the change.

Here's 8 things that will hopefully help if you're considering cutting down on dairy:

1. Discover what you will miss the most and find a really good alternative. For me it was Macaroni cheese, my favourite comfort meal. Luckily I found 'Amy's Dairy & Gluten free Mac & Cheeze' whilst I worked on recipes for a homemade version. It hits the spot, I can pop it in the oven for an easy meal & it keeps my cheesy pasta cravings at bay.

2. Find out which milk is best for you. There's a huge range of dairy free milk options around now meaning that you won't have to miss out on your morning cup of tea or bowl of cereal! Take your pick from Rice milk, Soya milk, Oat milk, Coconut milk, Almond Milk or Hazelnut milk (to name a few!). Hazelnut milk combined with Green & Blacks cocoa powder makes a delicious hot chocolate, Soya Milk is slightly creamy and so good in tea and Alpro Almond milk is my favourite everyday milk for cereal, baking and everything else.

3. Keep frozen bananas at hand to blend with raw cocoa powder & maple syrup to make 'nice-cream', or, if you want something a little more indulgent, try Almond Dream's divine salted caramel ice cream or Booja Booja's incredible Hunky Punky Chocolate Ice cream (made from creamy cashews!).

4. Read Deliciously Ella's Cookbook for meal inspiration, recipes & an awesome alternative to Nutella!

5. Replace Milk chocolate with dairy free Dark chocolate.

6. Check out Gem and Lily's youtube channels, I've discovered so many amazing Vegan snacks (Oreos, Biscoff caramelised biscuit spread, dairy free cream cheese) and got incredible meal inspiration & recipes from their blogs and channels.

7. Create a few favourite, staple dairy free meals. For me it's nourishment bowls with Quinoa, roasted butternut squash, houmous, lettuce and stir-fried cashews, homemade chips sprinkled with chilli & paprika, jacket potatoes loaded with warming vegan chilli (my recipe here!) and pasta with vegan basil pesto.

8. Whether it's pizza, cheesecake or cupcakes that you're looking for, there's normally a great dairy free option available. Pinterest is a great resource to find recipes, #whatveganseat on instagram has so many food inspiration & ideas and amazon has a tonne of incredible recipe books.