Thursday, 16 October 2014

Why should my makeup go cruelty free?

Hello All!

Something very close to my heart, and that I'm honestly very passionate about, is the elimination of animal testing. My reasons for this are broad, first of all, I obviously love animals, I feel I have a true bond with them. However my other reasons are more on the philosophical side, and stem from the idea that animals should have the exact same rights as humans, as humans are animals themselves!! I won't bore you going into the deep details, but maybe one day I'll do a post about it...

As a massive beauty lover myself, this is something very close to my heart...

I understand that many may disagree with what I'm saying, and I don't mean to offend anyone, these are just my opinions! I want everyone to know that I'm not trying to impose my views at all, and of course people who do use animal tested brands aren't bad people, I'd just like people to know more about it :)

Anyways, I feel that those who aren't cruelty free allow themselves to become ignorant, mainly due to the fact they don't understand the torture animals go through. Others are also lazy, and decide not to go cruelty free as it may inconvenience them, or because it would mean they couldn't use their favorite brand of makeup anymore, I'll admit I used to be like that! But that doesn't mean your view can't change! Most don't understand that animal testing isn't just spraying perfume on a bunny to see how it smells, rather animal testing includes burning, poisoning and numerous forms of torture on these innocent and vulnerable animals (I wont go into the gory details). Popular makeup brand that test on animals include, M.A.C Cosmetics, Chanel, Lancome, L'Oreal and Bobbi Brown just to name a few.

To live in a peaceful world how can humans be doing this to their fellow animal? We can no longer allow the human race to corrupt the innocent, naive and vulnerable in our world. We cannot call ourselves harmonious people if we allow destruction to continue in our world, so if this post can make at least one person understand the true consequences of our actions, then I will be happy! :)

On a lighter note, I though I would list a few of of my favourite cruelty free brands:


  • Anastasia Beverly Hills
  • Barefaced Mineral Cosmetics
  • Bare Minerals
  • Barry M
  • ELF Cosmetics
  • Eyeko
  • Illamasqua
  • LUSH
  • Milani
  • Model's Own
  • NARS Cosmetics
  • NYX
  • Sigma Beauty
  • Smashbox Cosmetics
  • Soap & Glory
  • Sonia Kashuk
  • Stila Cosmetics
  • Suki
  • Tarte Cosmetics
  • The Body Shop
  • Too Faced Cosmetics
  • Urban Decay
  • Victoria's Secret
...And that's just to name a few! For more brands look at the Peta website, they are very helpful!

Sorry if this post was a bit full on, but I just felt that as a beauty lover it was something I had to speak about.

All My Love
The Titian Mermaid
xoxo


Monday, 6 October 2014

How To: Make a HOMEMADE Pizza Cake

Hello All!




I though I would do something adventurous this week, so I attempted to make a pizza cake! I've seen all the hype about this BEAUTIFUL looking dish, so I though why not?! I would like to emphasize how homemade this, as I am definitely not a professional cook...plus I kind of made up the recipe as I went along! Anyways, I hope you enjoy, and please let me know if you attempt this!





Step 1: So, the first step is to make the base of the pizza, yum! You will firstly need to gather all of your ingredients.

Here is what you will need for the base:

  • 400g of Bread Flower
  • 50g of Margarine
  • 1 Tablespoon of Sugar
  • 2 and a half Tablespoons of Salt (less if you prefer)
  • 1 packet of Yeast
  • A splash of Olive Oil
  • The tiniest splash of Milk!
  • And around 250ml of water, make sure not to add too much!



Step 2: Next, get a big bowel, and mix all of your ingredients together (add them one by one in the order as listed above) and mix together until you get dough in a ball shape like mine!

Then, put this ball of dough into the fridge for around 30 minutes.









Step 3: Whilst leaving your dough in the fridge, grab a cake tin, and line it with brown paper, and then cut it, and fiddle until it fits nicely. 

Next, butter up the brown paper, so that when the dough is cooked, it slips out of the paper nicely.















Step 4: Take your dough out of the fridge, and split it into 4 smaller balls of dough.

Then, take your first ball of dough, and roll it out onto your board, adding flour throughout the process to make sure the dough is nice and doughy, and not too sticky! Make sure you roll it into a spherical shape, and not too think, so it can nicely fit onto the base of the tin (similar to my picture).






Step 5: Take your next ball of dough, roll it out, and add it to the corners of your cake tin, leaving you with the base structure of your pizza cake.















Step 6: Grab a tomato sauce of your choice, and add it to the bottom layer of your pizza cake. Then get some mozzarella, cut it up, and then add that on top of the sauce. 
















Step 7: Grab your next ball of dough, and make your next layer of pizza, and add more tomato sauce and mozzarella. 

Carry on doing this until you have no more balls of dough! (But make sure that you have enough dough to make crust for the top layer of your pizza cake)













 Step 8: Make sure you have used up all your dough, and if you have any extra you can make a mini pizza as a cherry on top of the cake (like mine)! And carry on adding loads of cheese and LOADS of sauce!















Step 9: Put your almost ready pizza cake in the oven for around 35 minutes (or until you think its ready, with the cheese bubbling) at around 210 C
















Step 10: Take out your delicious pizza cake, wait for it to cool down...and ENJOY!





















All the best
The Titian Mermaid
xoxo

Wednesday, 1 October 2014

First Things First...


Hello All!

I'm very new to this whole blogging thing so sorry if I'm bad at it! But i'll give it my best shot...

First things first I guess I should tell you a bit about myself...so where shall I begin?! Well, my name is Lara and I am just your typical kinda gal! I am currently studying for my A Levels, and taking Drama, History and Psychology, and having a hoot! (sarcasm intended) and I am looking to blogging for my creative outlet, which allows me to maybe talk about things other than UCAS and how not going to university can ruin your life (yeah right!) Anyway I hope you enjoy reading my little rants about things in life that I find interesting!

Anyway...I assume you are all dying to know about the title of my blog, I can already hear you asking "Does this girl really think she's a mermaid? She wishes" or maybe "OhMy, this girl must have gills!!!!" Well, to clarify any confusion, and to put all your minds at rest, sadly I am not a real mermaid (although I do wish I could splash around with Flounder and Sebastian #notsoindirectLittleMermaidjoke). I am although, as if you hadn't already guessed...a Little Mermaid fanatic! Plus, in case you didn't know, Titian is a brownish-red hair colour (basically another word for ginger) which is the colour of my hair. To cut a long story short, the reasons behind my 'ginger denial' (not that there's anything wrong with being ginger!) is that when I was younger I was teased for looking like Garfield, and like my hair was on fire. So to make me feel more confident about my hair my lovely father instructed me to tell these silly sods where to shove their opinions, and to tell them of my actual hair colour [Titian]! That's me below just incase you were wondering who that weird chick was!

In my blog I just hope to talk about any wonderful randomness that may occur in my life, and I hope that it may even bring a smile to your face!

Until next time cheerio friends
Your Truly
The Titian Princess