Sea, make, eat

My latest thing is to roll two weekly at-home date nights into one because the rest of you are probably returning to some semblance of normal now that pubs and restaurants are open and I'm guessing you don't want the date night updates weekly. So here we are again, with another 2 date nights to tell all about! Weeks 15 and 16...

This time was the turn of another of my favourite palettes; my Lorac pro 3. Lorac is an annoyingly unobtainable brand in the UK so I always make the most of being able to get my hands on it when I'm in the US and I got this bad boy when I was in Miami. Why they don't make themselves more available over here is a mystery to me because they're the best quality eyeshadows I've ever used; super buttery, super pigmented, super staying power. I love my Revolution x Soph palette for its varied range of colours and great value, but when it comes to a winning eyeshadow brand, Lorac takes the crown hands down. The Lorac pro 3 has a lot of beautiful shimmer shades but I decided to mix it up and wanted something a bit bolder and darker on my lid (seeing as medium crease, dark corners and bright shimmer lid is the norm). I started by blending terracotta and clay through my crease and then pressed amethyst onto my lid. It's the most beautiful jewel purple tone and definitely one I don't get to use enough. I finished by adding some dark brown to my lower lash line and outer corners and then added lashes, mascara and ginger rose lipstick by No7.

Normally, I let my outfit be influenced by the cuisine of each date night but this weeks wasn't one that I could easily get any ideas from, so I just went with something summery and flouncy instead. Normally I wear this white frill bralet over another bralet of a different colour (usually black) to make a little dual-tone top but I wore it on its own this time with its plunging neckline, and added coral shorts and then black and white court heels to pull the whole thing together. My accessories also pulled the whole thing together as I wore black and white statement flower earrings that are very heavy but very pretty.

This was a cuisine I'd had in mind for ages but I had to talk Ollie round as it's not his favourite; seafood! Well, I say that but he likes every fish dish I cook so I think it's just the idea of seafood he doesn't like. We ended up ordering from The Lobster Pot (as the local chippy is not exactly date night worthy) and went with a nice selection; crab cake bites, calamari rings, scallops, salmon, fries and fried potato slices. The crab cakes were amazing, the salmon was really nice, the calamari - I've had better, and the scallops weren't great (it's like they'd been poached or boiled instead of pan fried so they didn't have that lovely crispy outside). On the whole, not the best order we've had during lockdown but also not the worst and it was enjoyable enough that I'd go again.

In to this weekend's date night and I took considerably fewer photos (probably because I got ready in a rush after spending 3 hours doing my nails, which you can see later tonight on my instagram). I was already wearing my normal daily makeup so I simply added lashes and velvet teddy lipstick and I was ready to go! I did love my outfit though. This snake print dress is one that instantly grew on me by 100x when I started wearing it differently than you're meant to. It's meant to be an off-the-shoulder, bardot style but when you wear it like that, it makes your boobs look a weird shape, it pinches on the wrong part of your shoulder and makes your overall silhouette look bottom-heavy. But wear it with a normal bra rather than a strapless and hoik the sleeves up over the shoulders and you've got yourself a killer dress! I added multi layer gold necklace and caged black heels to complete the look.

Week 16's cuisine is one that I've wanted to do for ages because I've done it with my friend's a few times and it's always so much fun. Pizza making! Normally I'd make the dough and sauce myself but cutting a few corners with ready-rolled pizza dough and a jar of sauce didn't make all that much difference. Well, apart from the fact that I normally roll/stretch my dough out as thin as possible so it's an italian crust - this was more of a doughy, deep dish kind of vibe but still very tasty. We used tomato and chilli sauce on the base and then loaded our pizzas up with italian meat selection, sliced peppers, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, italian seasoning, garlic and chilli flakes. In the oven for about 15 minutes and hey presto! They were SO good but deceptively filling, although that kind of worked in our favour because it meant we ended up with enough for leftover lunches! All's well that ends well.