DIY Cocoa Lip Scrub

In anticipation on the blisteringly hot Perth summer and the blisteringly bright lip colours I hope to wear, I made a handy dandy lip scrub to whip my lips into shape. Winter was a cold hard mistress and my lips definitely suffered! I used to just give my lips a quick scrub with my toothbrush after brushing my teeth but I decided that this delicious sugar lip scrub is a way more fun way of getting the same job done! Read on for the recipe!

Nude is the new black

Confession time. I'm a little over nail art. There, I said it. I'm just too impatient to spend hours painstakingly drawing unicorns on my nails these days. I do love the old accent nail though, which is as easy as unscrewing another bottle of nail polish. What I'm also a big fan of, is nude nail polish. I mean, just check out my girl Rihanna up there with her adorable beige talons. Gorgeous. Nude nails are definitely having their moment in the sun after years of being shunted to the side as the supporting act to a French manicure. Nude nails, unlike dark, vampy colours, look great on both long and short nails. When I say nude nails I think of colours that are either delicate and whispery or shades similar to your own skin tone which have the miraculous ability to lengthen the look of your hands and make them look super elegant. Think mannequin hands. Okay, maybe that's not the best image to sway your opinion but trust me, nude is the new black. Read on for swatches of my favourite nude shades.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Am I the only one that thinks these cookies look Christmassy? There's something about the snowy white icing sugar that makes me think of Yuletide. Every November, I tell myself I'm going to be super organised and do the whole homemade, personalised Christmas gift thing and then spend December in a state of relaxation and poise. Instead, I always find myself getting sucked into the shopping spirit and spend December running around malls like a madwoman, snapping up Christmas presents left, right and centre! However, these cookies are amazingly easy and so pretty that I may be able to inject a little homemade love into my Christmas gift giving this year. These cookies are known as both Chocolate Crinkles or  Chocolate Crackles. Personally, when I think of Chocolate Crackles, I think of the treats made out of Rice Bubbles, Copha and cocoa so to me, these are Crinkles! Read on for the recipe!

Spicy Coconut Prawns (Ginataang Hipon)

 This is one of my absolute, hands down, favourite Filipino dishes. Fresh prawns, poached in a spicy coconut milk sauce, served over fluffy jasmine rice - can't beat it! It's known as Ginataang Hipon in the Philippines; ginataang means to cook in coconut milk and hipon means prawns, ergo prawns cooked in coconut milk. With this dish; be prepared to get messy! You'll also need asbestos fingers to handle peeling the steaming hot prawns. Totally worth it though, I promise! When my dad would make this for us as kids, he would always tell us to suck on the prawn heads before discarding them. The thought of sucking on prawn brains used to gross me out to no end but I eventually gave it a shot and wouldn't you know? Dad was right. The broth soaks into every nook and cranny and you'll want to get to every last, delicious drop. Read on for my recipe!

Homemade Cacao-Coconut Body Butter

Have you ever had a lipgloss or a shampoo or something that smelled so good you just wanted to eat it? This is exactly like that... except you probably could eat it if you really wanted to! I've never really been one to worry about the effects of chemicals on my skin (in my own twisted logic I figured the more preservatives in my cosmetics, the more preserved I would end up. WRONG!) but lately I've been more and more interested in natural beauty alternatives. Not to say I'll be turning my back on lab produced goodies but once in a while, it's nice to give your skin a bit of a break. After all, it does such a marvellous job of holding in all your organs, the least you could do is feed it something good! This lush body butter has only 3 ingredients; cacao butter, coconut oil and sweet almond oil. It smells like a coconut truffle. If you've ever wanted to smell like an expensive box of chocolate then this is for you! Read on for my recipe.