HEALTHY DATE POWER BALL RECIPE

I'm back with another recipe post (it's been stupidly long since my last one - sorry!) and this time I'm going to show you how to make these yummy date and nut truffle balls. They are pretty addictive to make - I've made three batches in the past four days, and they're perfect to curve any chocolate cravings without any chocolate in sight! They're still quite high in sugar and fat, but it's natural and slow releasing, so a lot better for you than eating actual truffles. I first saw this idea on Pinterest probably a year ago, and I wish I had started making them sooner! They're quite similar to the Bounce Balls which you can buy in supermarkets for £1.50-£2 each (absolute rip off) so I recommend making a batch of these and taking them with you to snack on throughout the day!

Firstly gather your ingredients. I used ground almonds, flaxseeds, cashew butter, chia seeds, cashew nuts, desiccated coconut, honey, dates and bircher but what you use it totally up to you. Cranberries, almonds, pistachios and hazelnuts are all really nice in these too!

I'd say there's five main ingredient groups you can use, and just mix and match with anything you like -

Dates these add the sweetness

Some sort of nut butter and honey these help to bind it all together and make them nice and sticky - cashew butter can be swapped for almond butter or peanut butter and honey can be swapped for agave 

Nuts and seeds of your choice 

Something to roll on the outside such as coconut or crushed nuts

Optional extras such as oats, cinnamon and cocoa powder

Firstly remove the stones from the dates (unless you're clever enough to buy the ones with the stones already removed!)

Combine your selection of nuts, oats and seeds (remember to leave out the coconut/crushed nuts which you will be rolling on the outside

Add the honey and the nut butter

 Now the fun part, use your blender to blitz everything up!

When it gets to this stage, keep going and it will eventually form a paste

When it gets to this stage it is done

Roll into your truffle shaped balls, as a rough rule it will make aprox. two times the amount of dates that you used, e.g. I used 8 dates and I made 15 truffles

Roll in the coconut/crushed nuts and then leave to cool in the fridge for half an hour (or in the freezer for five minutes, or if you're super impatient like me - just eat them how they are!)

I would love to see your creations - if you make them please send me a photo on Twitter/Instagram as I absolutely love it when you do!! (@islaay)

HOW TO PRESS A LOOSE MAC PIGMENT USING VODKA NOT RUBBING ALCOHOL

I bought the loose pigment 'Tan' from MAC quite a while ago after falling in love with the sold out limited edition shade 'Sweet Heat' from a recent collection and realising that this was the closest dupe. I wanted it in pan form so that I could use it in a palette as it is much less messy than having it loose as it literally goes everywhere (I ended up with a gold glittery camera after photographing and filming this tutorial!). I hadn't previously pressed an eyeshadow before and was unsure what liquid to use for it as any tutorial I had came across said to use rubbing alcohol which as far as I know isn't avaliable in the UK. I asked in many different pharmacies and most people thought I was meaning white spirit (which definitely isn't suitable for the eye area). After extensive research I decided on using vodka as it is a pure and once most of it evaporates, hardly any residue is left and any that does is safe for the eye area. If you decide to use a different fluid, please make sure it is safe for the eye area before using it!

How to press a loose eyeshadow steps (I have done a video tutorial too which you can watch below)

Put some loose eyeshadow into an egg cup- if you are using a MAC loose pigment, about a third of the pot will do, meaning you will get three eyeshadows from just one pot

Add a very small amount of vodka and mix until there are no lumps and it is a smooth, thick paste

Scoop this mixture into your empty metal pan and spread out to all of the edges

Place a muslin cloth or piece of kitchen roll over the eyeshadow and use a 2p coin to press down on it to make sure it is compacted

Leave this to dry overnight and then pop into your eyeshadow palette

For my metal pan, I used a Natural Collection eyeshadow from Boots and removed the eyeshadow from inside it before lifting out the pan. Depending on how much glue is used to stick it to the pot, you may need to use a candle to melt the glue before lifting it out. The Natural Collection empty pans are the perfect size to fit in a MAC palette (I had to use a bit of force to push it into my palette- simply replace the cloth and 2p coin and push down to get it into the palette. If you want to keep the crushed up Natural Collection eyeshadow, this can be reused by putting it into a clear nail polish to turn it into a personalised DIY coloured nail polish!

I filmed this DIY tutorial as a video too which you can watch below if the step by step photos aren't clear enough for you. It is very easy to do but make sure you don't use too much liquid and ensure you leave it to dry for long enough to get the best results!

Apple cupcake easy cake decorating tutorial

When Carissa was round my house the other day we thought we would make some apple cupcakes and film it as a baking tutorial for you which you can watch below or on my YouTube channel

You will need:
Cupcakes
Mini doughnuts
Premade icing
Sugar
Red food colouring
Wine gums

Firstly we mixed the food colouring into the granulated sugar and icing and mixed so they were both red
Then spread a thin layer of icing onto the top of the cakes
Cut a mini doughnut in half and place it face down on top of the cake then cover it with icing
Put the red sugar on top of the icing by using a spoon and patting it on with the back of it
Cut a green and black wine gum in half and push them in the top to make the stalk and leaf
This step is optional but spoon a small section of the cake out and fill the hole with icing. Then cut two small pieces of black wine gum and put them onto the icing to make it look as if a bite has been taken out of the apple

Your easy apple cupcakes should now be finished! Please let us know if you try them and don't forget to watch the tutorial video!

my nail wheels!

hi guys- I made another YouTube video! This one took foreverrr to upload which completely sucks but oh well it's up now! I thought I would include a few more detailed photos in this post as my filming was probably terrible (I haven't even watched the video back...)
Oh and since making the video I've made another two (and a half) nail wheels but I thought I would just include photos of them!

Let me know what you think and are you enjoying my videos? My channel name is 'islaayx' by the way! :)

DIY dotting tool!

okay so if you've read my blog for a while or have ever checked out one of my nail posts before you'll of heard me nattering on about dotting tools. These little beauties are my a nail art adict's best friend. But did you know there was a really easy and practically free way to make your own one at home?! This is what I used to use before I bought my own set and it did me proud!

You will need:
♥ a pencil with a rubber on the end (mine's Cath Kidston of course...)
♥ a pin

okay now this couldn't be any easier, you simply push the pin into the rubber and voila!

For a smaller dotting tool I used to get a hair pin and open it out and the round ball bit on the end made the perfect circle shape! Also a cocktail stick works well for really tiny dots!

If you don't want to buy your own dotting tools then these are all great alternatives!
I got my dotting tools from eBay and they were around £2 with free delivery for five double ended ones! (just search for dotting tools in the search bar!)

*update* I was just sent a post by Jess on twitter which she has written with another great idea for a dotting tool! Check out her post here to see what her idea is!

let me know how you get on with doing this!

DIY: glitter keys!

We all need a bit of glitter in our lives, right? Well today I thought I would bring you another super easy DIY post! This is something which I saw on pinterest and I thought it was a good idea so I would give it a go and share it with you all!

It's so easy and there's literally no skill involved there's no excuses from you guys saying you can't do it! ;)
You will need:
♥ nail polish (I chose glitter ones but if you prefer you can obviously use plain colours)
♥ a key

I think you'll agree it's pretty self explanatory so I won't ramble on but just paint the top of your key in the colour of your choice! I did three coats on each side to make sure it was opaque.
The colours I used were:
Angelica 'pink glitter' (from Primark)
Barry M 'aqua glitter' swatches on my nails here
Models Own 'disco mix' swatches on my nails here

Let me know if you try this out, I'd love to take a look at them!

how to: easy rose nail art

 I posted this photo on instagram a while ago and I got countless comments and tweets by people asking for a tutorial on how to do them! 

They really are more simple to do than you would think and if I remember correctly a rose was my first ever nail art design I ever did! 
Actually here is a photo!

Obviously I have improved a bit since then and I have found the easiest way to do them!
Step 1: Start off with a base coat to protect your nails
Step 2: paint your nail with the colour you want as a background. For pink and red roses I like to use a minty green such as Essie 'mint candy apple' or Rimmel 'misty jade'
Step 3: with a dotting tool or the brush of your nail varnish do a circleish shape on your nail with the lightest of the two colours
Step 3: once it is dry get a thin dotting tool/end of a hair grip/cocktail stick to do a couple of curved lines inside the circle to make it look like the petals
Step 4: with the lighter of the two greens draw a short triangeish shape coming out from the rose flower
Step 5: once it is dry do a thin line with the darker green inside it
Step 6: finish with a top coat and you're done! 

I've lost count of how many times I've done this design but here are a couple of designs I've done using the roses!

I really hope you give these a go! If you do make sure you tweet me a photo or two @islaay_x

DIY floral pocket top

I'm going to show you how to quickly and easily make this...

You will need...

Instructions...

And it's finished!

I got the idea to do this when I was at victorious vintage, and I thought I would give it a go! It literally only took about 15 minutes to do and I love how it looks!
I love how you can personalise it to how you want it by using a different top/fabric to suit your style!
I think the photos are pretty self explanatory, let me know if you need any help!
I decided to leave the zigzag from the pinking scissors showing, but you could always make the square slightly larger and turn the sides in before you sew it.
If you were wondering, the floral fabric was off of one of my dad's old shirts from M&S (I don't think he ever wore it though, he's not really a floral type of guy!)
If you have a go please let me see the results!

I'm not sure if you noticed but I changed my header last night for a bit of a change, let me know what you think!
I also added a poll to my sidebar so that you can let me know what you want to see more of!

Thankyou for reading, have a lovely day ♥