Candy Cane Vodka...

So loads of you followed our advice back in September, and made some alcohol with different fruits and sugar. The only downside to Blackberry Gin (that we've found) is how long it takes.

So what do you do if you don't have that long?

Easy - use sweets!


You can flavour alcohol with any hard candy - just make sure it's vegan if you are, and then you're laughing. We made Candy Cane vodka for a party we've having on New Year's Eve, but you could go wild - how about using hard fruit sweets to make a rainbow of different flavours! What about Rhubarb and Custard, or Kola Kubes?

All you need is two ingredients - alcohol, and sweets. We chose vodka, but it's totally up to your personal preference.

Per 1 litre bottle of spirits you'll need around 100g of sweets - or however many you've got. The more you have, the stronger the taste will be. For our Candy Cane vodka, we had 10 full size candy canes, so we used those.

In order to make this drink ready in the shortest amount of time, whack your sweets in the food processor, and whizz them into a fine powder. The finer the powder, the quicker it works. We had some chunks in ours, but it turned out fine!

Next, funnel the powder into an empty bottle, and top with the alcohol. Give it a good shake. Your alcohol will be ready to drink once the powder has all disappeared - this will be around 24-48 hours. If you don't have that long, leave it as long as possible, then  sieve out the bits before serving.

Tesco's own vodka has been TRANSFORMED

The photo above shows the bottle 24 hours later- it's nearly ready to drink, Here you can see a little sediment at the bottom, but this had disappeared by the 48 hour mark.

So we'll be racking these up as shots tomorrow night - we'll let you know how it tastes! We'll be serving our guests some food too, so we're not irresponsible hosts! Hope you all have a lovely New Year's Eve! xox

Father Christmas is coming!

We know that you're already aware that he's on his way - we don't have to tell you that.

This time tomorrow all the excitement will be over - and we don't mind telling you that Christmas Eve is far more special to us than the big day itself. As you read this, we'll be all tucked up with our family, watching a Christmas film, and eating food that's really bad for us.

So we just wanted to take this opportunity to thank every one of our customers for all the support they've given to Fairypants over the last year.

We'd be nothing without you, so give yourselves a great big squeeze from us - and a lick from Fairycat!

We hope that tomorrow and 2016 bring you and your family joy, and health - and we'll be seeing you soon. Eat, drink and be merry!

Merry Christmas, guys!

xox

STOP - Hamper time!

If you’ve been reading some of our earlier posts about food stuff you can make, now is the time to capitalise on it! Did you follow our instructions and make your own alcohol back in September? Are you queen of jam making, or do you just make a mean mince pie?

Get yourself some nice boxes, and you’re set. You can collect some from online shopping deliveries, or you can pick them up pretty cheaply online too. You can also go upmarket and use baskets, buckets, cake tins – anything you like! You just need to make it look pretty.

Decide how much stuff you’re going to fill each hamper with, and see if you have enough in stock – do you need to make more, or do you need to make anything fresh, like gingerbread?

Let’s start with that alcohol. Homemade alcohol just gets better with age, but if like us, you used fruit to flavour it, it’s about time you strained that out. Open your bottles, and strain the fruit out over a jug or bowl. You can save this alcohol soaked fruit too – it’s really nice on ice cream for a simple, yet grown up dessert!

Now you need to decant those big bottles – I usually use the retro milk bottles you can get. Some places charge a lot of money for those, but if you do your research you can pick them up fairly cheaply.  All I’ve done here is fill the bottle with the strained alcohol, then labelled it around the neck. Check that the seal is water tight before you pack up the hamper – you don’t want any leakages!

Alcohol sorted, let’s move on to jams and other preserves. We’ve shared our basic jam recipe before, and we reviewed Mary Berry’s Christmas Chutney for you too – take your pick! We’ve made three different kinds of jam this year, so we can offer a choice of flavours to our friends and family! Normally I’d label each jar with a sticker, but I’ve done some with the same labels as the bottles too. Mix it up!

Now we’re adding our infamous pickled onions – we’ll probably never make these ever again, so the lucky recipients need to make the most of them! Again we’ve added a label, though you really don’t have to, it’s obvious what they are!

Finally, we’re adding fresh stuff. These home bakes can’t really be made too far in advance, but they also need to last a few weeks. If you exchange gifts early, the recipient won’t be opening your box until the 25^th, and they need to last a few weeks after that so they have time to eat them!

So chocolates are nice and easy – if you get yourself some small moulds (Lakeland do good ones, but so do the pound shops!) all you need to do is melt the chocolate and pour it in. Our favourite is dark, salted chocolate. Melt the chocolate as you normally would, add in some good quality sea salt. Let them set in the moulds, and bag them up in cellophane. Don’t forget the labels – especially if you get excited, and add something like chilli!

Another good one is gingerbread – we’ve shared a few good vegan recipes, and there are plenty available online. The good thing about gingerbread is even if it does go soft, it still tastes good!

Finally, we’ve got an excellent old fashioned recipe for peppermint creams  - you can get vegan and non vegan recipes online, so just have a gander! It can be hard work creaming the icing sugar, but it’s a very vintage festive treat.

So have you got all the ingredients for hampers? Who’ll be opening one of yours on Christmas Day? xox

Holo tastic!

Do you remember when we launched our amazing holographic nail varnishes? If you are a fan of our different nail shades you’ll know we usually release ranges of 5 shades – but when we unleashed these bad boys we couldn’t choose, so we ended up with 10!

As such, they’re our largest range, and they’re so versatile – because they’re a bit textured, it helps the glitter stick, and you end up with really decent coverage after just a couple of coats – check out one of our amazing Instagram followers – give her a follow over at @nonsmudjnails – she posts lovely photos, mainly of indie polishes like us! Look at those talons!

Earth, worn by @nonsmudjnails

Check out some of our other shades though – you’ve already seen Earth, but what do you think of the others? Like we said, we can’t pick a favourite!

Venus

You can buy the whole gift set for £30 too, all 10 bottles working out at £3 each – perfect if you’ve got a few presents to buy, or if you and your mates want to save some money!

Sun 

 You can also get a free bottle of our amazing Nail Varnish remover if you buy any Nail Varnish gift set before Sunday 20^th December, so get on it! Each polish is £3.99, or the gift set of all 10 shades is £30 - get them here. xox

Good things come in small packages!

We thought it was about time we gave you what you want. You’ve been buying our super kind to skin Dry Skin Balms for a while now – and although you lovely lot seemed pretty pleased with the two different sizes available, we had a few requests to make them even smaller.

So we did – now you can buy mini sizes of each of our 3 varieties. Unscented, Rose & Mint and Orange & Vanilla now come in 30ml as well as the standard 60ml and 100ml.

30ml Unscented Dry Skin Balm £3.99

This is good for many, many reasons.

You can now try different scents, without committing yourself to a really big tub of the stuff. Brilliant if you’re dying to try one of the scented versions, but you’re not sure how your skin will react.

They make perfect stocking fillers – they’re the right size, and more importantly- the right price!

30ml Rose & Mint Dry Skin Balm £3.99

You can now get one of each scent in a gift box for the same price as one large 100ml tin. Bargain. Perfect if you’re indecisive.

They fit in your handbag – if you’re a bit of an on-the-go person, your 30ml Life Saver will take up much less space.

30ml Orange & Vanilla Dry Skin Balm £3.99

If you’re going on holiday – don’t forget to pack one for your (inevitable) sunburn. Al least now it will fit snugly in your hand luggage.

If there’s a couple of you that would like to try the Skin Balm, you can buy the gift set then split it between you – just make sure you get the one you want!

30ml Dry Skin Balm Gift Set £10.00

So how about it?! Give one a try, and you’ll never look back!

xox

Some last minute present ideas!

Sunday 20th December is your last day to order for guaranteed Christmas delivery  -so we wanted to make it a bit easier for you.

We imagine you’ll be ordering a few gift sets (they’ll help you tick a few of your mates off in one go), so we want to give you a little treat too.

Pastel Nail Varnish Gift Set £15.00

Specifically, if you order one of our £15 Nail Varnish gift sets you’ll receive one of our amazing new scented Nail Varnish removers for free! It’s up to you if you keep that for yourself or give it away – we don’t judge! If you’re super organised you can even let us know which scent you’d like to try – otherwise we’ll send you a random one!

Strawberry & Grape Nail Varnish Remover £4.99

If you order any of our other gift sets you’ll receive a skincare freebie – it might be a sample of something we sell already, like our Dry Skin Balm, or we might be sending you something totally new to try out!

So freebies are always exciting, especially if you keep it for yourself (shush, we won’t say anything if you don’t)

But which gift set to buy? That’s the question. It depends entirely who the gift is for – are they into skincare, perfume, what? Do they want a mix of products or the full range?

Nail Care Gift Set £10.00

For your mate who’s obsessed with creating the perfect mani, give her the gift of a perfect foundation with our Nail Care kit. Cuticle oil, base coat and top coat make the perfect base for whichever crazy nail art she fancies next.

Cocktail Gift Set £50.00

For your mate who likes smelling sweet we’ve got you covered with our perfume gift set – choose from Sweet Treats, Sweet Shop or Cocktails. Give the whole gift to one lucky friend or split it and solve several present dilemmas at once.

Mini Skin Balm Gift Set £10.00

Finally, have a look at our brand new Mini Skin Balm gift set- this is perfect for your cold weather conscious friend – if they’ve got eczema or psoriasis then this is the gift they’re craving! Even if they just suffer with dryness in the winter months, you’ll perk them right up with our full range of scents all in the perfect 30ml handbag size.

So good luck with your shopping – just think of all those smiling faces on Christmas Day! xox

More freebies?

You know how much we love you, right? RIGHT?

Well we'd like you all to know about our latest act of kindness - we know how hard it is in December - you have to buy all the right presents, for the right people. But how are you supposed to find the time?

We do all our Christmas Shopping online, so we thought it was possible you might do, too.

To make it even easier for you, we want to offer you Free Delivery until Monday 8th December - that means you have all of this weekend to get your orders in.

And, if you're getting free delivery from us, it means you can save some of your pennies to pay for all the other stuff you need, like sprouts and mince pies.

What will you be treating your friends to?

xox

More Sweet Shop Favourites!

You’ll know all about our sweet shop inspired perfumes (or have you been living on the moon?!) but we thought it was about time we expanded our Sweet Shop lipbalms!

We’ve been selling our Parma Violet lipbalm for a god while now, and you guys just can’t get enough! So we decided to introduce Rhubarb & Custard and Pear Drop into the mix too! What do you reckon?

Rhubarb & Custard Lipbalm £3.99

Rhubarb and Custard tastes just like our perfume smells, so if that’s your favourite scent, or if you just can’t get enough of the sweeties then this is the balm for you.

Fruity and a little bit sour, the rhubarb is balanced perfectly with creamy, vanilla-y custard. So good you’ll be licking it off straight away. Don’t blame us.

Pear Drop Lipbalm £3.99

Pear Drop is the total opposite – it starts off sour, and it stays sour! It says something that just putting it on makes my mouth start to water!

Both of these amazing new flavours are really yummy, and they’re available in a gift set with Parma Violet for just £10! How good is that?

Sweet Shop Gift Set £10.00

xox

On the naughty list!

Ohmygosh we’re so good to you – bringing you lots of lovely new products ready for your Christmas list! You’ve already been introduced to our ace new nail varnish remover – but have you seen our new Deadly Sins metallic nail varnishes?

They’re all dark, mysterious and luscious – and we can’t choose a favourite, so we wore them all at once! Totally perfect for the cold winter, but they’ll look dramatic at any other time of the year too!

We always release a range of 5 shades, so we’ve missed out two of the deadly sins – but let’s gloss over that, and move onto something amazing!

Say hello to Lust. A rich, deep burgundy red – it’s like dipping your nails in a good, mulled wine. In some lights, it even looks black.

Next up is Envy – if I had to pick a favourite, this would be it. I’ve always loved a green nail varnish, and this is no different!

This is Greed. It’s a deep, bronzey gold – warm, rich and very festive!

Pride is a super dark navy – almost black, just with a hint of blue. Like painting your nails with the dark night sky.

Lastly, we’ve got Wrath – this is a deep, smoky black/grey – it’s actually a very good match for our Desdemona eyeshadow, if you like your lids and tips to match!

So what do you reckon, can you choose a favourite? Cause we can’t!

xox

Get Glittered!

You may or may not be aware that it is now November, and so we all need to start incorporating glitter into our lives as much as possible.

We’re here to help you – introducing our amazeballs glittery eyeshadows. Perfect for the party season, they’re bold and beautiful – just like you!

We name all our eyeshadows after Shakespearean heroines, so we continued the trend with these lovelies.

Cordelia Eyeshadow £3.99

First up is Cordelia – she’s black and sparkly like the perfect New Year’s Eve night. Dramatic and glamourous, it’s the perfect base for a smoky eye.  Try teaming it with another of our shades to make a real impact. Packed with glitter, she’s perfect for the dancefloor!

Bianca Eyeshadow £3.99

Next it’s Bianca – light and silvery, use it all over to chrome your lids, or smudge it into Cordelia for a typical silver to black smoke. The pale shade and the glitter also makes it perfect to use as a highlighter on your brow line, or even washed lightly over your cheekbones. It’s a super duper multi use shade!

Cleopatra Eyeshadow £3.99

Lastly, this is Cordelia. Rich, festive gold full of golden specks it looks gorgeous swept across your whole socket for a really dramatic look. You can also blend it into Cordelia for a really modern take on blended shadow – gold into black will give you a real pop of colour, perfect for making a statement. Cordelia would also be great mixed lightly into your foundation for a dewy, shimmery glow.

Eyeshadow Gift Set £10.00

All in all, they’re brilliant for the party season, but they’ll end up multi tasking, and working hard for you all year round. It’s £3.99 for one, or you can get all three shades for £10, served up to you in a lovely little gift box – give it as a present if you can bear to part with it!

What will your party looks involve this season – and how are you planning on making your cosmetic bag really work for you? xox 

Get all our lovely eyeshadows here! 

It's competition time!

We've bent your ears enough now about our brand spanking new Nail Varnish Remover.

Here it is again, in case you'd forgotten. Aren't they amazing?

Strawberry & Grape Nail Varnish Remover, £4.99

So yeah - we think they're so, so amazing, that we'd like to give you the chance to win a bottle, in the scent of your choice.

We just need you to fill out our short survey, just three questions. The deadline for competition entries is midnight this Sunday, 22nd November.

So get cracking - we'll announce the winner on Monday 23rd November.

To fill out our survey please click here, and we'd love it if you could share the competition and our Facebook page with all your friends.

Good luck! xox

Nails November is underway...

We feel like we’ve waited so long to show you this amazing new product – there were a few reasons why we were late, but here it is – Scented Nail Varnish Remover!

Are you as excited as we are?

We’ve made nail varnish for a while now, and recently we’ve launched a new range of nail care products, including cuticle oil and base and top coats. We realised something pretty major was missing from our nail care routine, and that was a perfect, vegan and cruelty free remover!

So we got to work, had a play, did a little research and we’ve settled on these three bad boys. They’re all scented too, just to sweeten the deal.

First up is Lemon and Lime – this is a really fresh scent, it’s probably best if you’re not a big fan of sweet scents – it’s still fruity, without being too over the top.

Next we’ve got Strawberry and Grape – I think this is my favourite. It’s sweet, fruity and delicate- it makes me think of a bag of jelly sweets!

Lastly we’ve got Blueberry and Pomegranate – this is great if you like your scents a little different, it’s still sweet, but there’s a certain something else there, too.

These removers are all acetone free, so they’re much kinder to your nails – by the very nature of the fact they need to remove nail varnish, they do contain chemicals, but as few as possible, and nothing nasty.

In our own tests we found them to be great at removing normal polish and glitter polish – but we won’t expect you to trust us, have a look at what some of our testers had to say –

‘It’s great, works better than my current polish remover and smells amazing!’ Samantha

‘ I’ve used it twice, both times to remove glittery Fairypants nail varnish and I think it did a better, quicker job than the famous chemist remover I was previously using. No stubborn glitter left on my nails and the burst of lemon and lime scent is an improvement on the usual remover smell too!’ Claudia

So don’t hesitate – get your bottle now!

xox

12 days of Christmas

So, we're looking ahead to December, and we'll be offering 12 very different offers from the 1st - 12th December.

It'll help brighten up those first few days of the Most Wonderful Time Of The Year, and since we can't guarantee Christmas delivery closer to the big day, we thought the first 12 days would make for easier Christmas shopping, and maybe a nice little treat for yourself!

We won't spoil all the surprises just yet, but we can tell you that the offer for the 1st December will be super duper Free Delivery!

Everyone loves Free Delivery, but it's only for one day, so you'd better get your skates on! We'll also be offering freebies across our whole range, including our brand new nail varnish remover. We'll give you a heads up every couple of days, so you know what kinds of lovely offers are coming your way.

We'll definitely be giving away some of our super popular classic lipbalms - in one of four fantastic festive flavours! Just look at that alliteration. Marvelous.

And don't worry if it's your super hot bod that needs some TLC, we'll be offering samples of our gorgeous Dry Skin Balm too - how could you not?

We can't wait to help you celebrate Christmas! xox

Accidentally Vegan Food

These are a few of our favourite things – whether you’ve recently turned vegan, or you’re just keen that your snacks don’t contain bits of animals, then these are the treats for you!

Most of these will be readily available in most supermarkets, but do make sure you check the ingredients before buying, big companies are well known for suddenly changing their ingredients with no notice.

So without further ado, here’s our Top Ten.

10 Warburtons Crumpets

Other brands of crumpets might well be vegan too – just check the label. Whack ‘em in your toaster, then spread them with whatever joy you choose.

9 Lotus Smooth Caramelised Biscuit Spread

This stuff could go on your crumpets, if you like – it tastes just like those little biscuits you get in a packet when you stay at a hotel, or go to a conference. They taste buttery and smooth, and the spread is also excellent for putting in/spreading on cakes.

8 Skips

Weird that prawn cocktail flavour crisps are vegan, but they are! Made with tapioca, they’re nice and light, and a relatively guilt free snack at that. As someone who has eaten real prawns, these taste nothing like them, so don’t feel too icky.

7 Starburst

How insane is this? As a vegan, you’re taught to avoid all chewy sweets, their chewy nature is what normally marks them out as non-vegan, but not in this case! Chew on.

6 Love Hearts

We love these. We like to put them in our parcels when someone buys something, cause vegan or non vegan, nothing unites us like a good sweet from our childhood.

5 Chipsticks Salt and Vinegar

Another childhood favourite, I especially like crisps that are not crisps – they give me that savoury buzz, without feeling like I’ve consumed half my daily allowance of fat. I also like the super retro packaging.

4 Fox’s Party Rings

I feel like I’m just listing things from my childhood here – even as a grown up, these make a great addition to any buffet table. I especially like to place them around someone’s straw when I’ve made them a nice, sweet cocktail.

3 Oreos

Again – an old favourite. Not really a childhood staple, as they hadn’t come over from America yet, but they definitely got me through many a University hangover.

2 Flying Saucers

I like these partly because they’re so cheap, but also because they’re so easy to eat, one wrong move and the whole bag is gone. Bad/good times indeed.

1 Fry’s Chocolate Cream

I’ve always loved this since I was a wee nipper – it’s my mum’s favourite chocolate bar, so I’ve grown up with it. And, now it’s my favourite kind! The regular one, the minty one or the orangey one – they’re all good, and they’re all vegan! Huzzah!

So, go forth and snack like you’ve never snacked before. xox

Get cooking!

It’s that time of year – we thought we’d share some of our favourite vegan recipes for festive treats.

The first is Mary Berry’s Christmas Chutney. Now, we’ve trialled this recipe so you don’t have to! Learn from our pain, and don’t repeat our mistakes.

So, whenever I make stuff like this, I like to make lots, because I jar it up and give it as gifts. I followed the recipe exactly, and it made about 6 small-ish jars. The official recipe states it makes about 6lb, if that means anything to you.

Here are your ingredients –

900g tomatoes

3 red peppers

1 large aubergine

1 green pepper

700g onions

4 garlic cloves

350g granulated sugar

300ml white wine vinegar

1tbsp salt

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tbsp paprika

2 tsp cayenne pepper

According to Mary, this should take you around 2 and a half hours – mine took closer to four, but that’s because I wasn’t certain of the consistency- it didn’t seem chutney-y enough for me, so I left it longer. It didn’t seem to thicken up too much, so I could probably have left it at the stated time. I also added a bit more sugar at the end, so just keep tasting it – you’ll know when it’s right for you!

First you need to peel your tomatoes – Mary gives a good tip – just prick the skins of the tomatoes and plonk them in boiling water- scoop them out after 30 seconds, the skins will just peel off. To be honest – I’ll be making this again this year, and I might not bother skinning the tomatoes, so miss this step out if you’d like.

Now chop the tomatoes, aubergine and peppers. Boil them up with your onions and garlic, then lower the heat and simmer, for about an hour.

Add the sugar, vinegar, salt, coriander, paprika and cayenne, and bring it back to the boil, for 30 minutes. It should be chunkys and sticky – this is the point where I lept mine boiling for a bit, so just go with the flow.

Jar it up, seal it while it’s still hot, and leave it to mature for a month before eating it. Voila! xox

Have a right Royal November!

Ahhh it's that time of year- time for sparkles, glitter, shimmer and... metallics! Let us ease you gently into the party season with our oh-so-lovely range of metallic nail varnishes.

We created these polishes about a year ago, and you guys seem to love them all year round - but especially now!

So this is Mary – she’s named after Mary Tudor, the first daughter of Henry the 8^th and she’s a gorgeous, deep wine red. Mary was sometimes known as Bloody Mary, what with her propensity for killing those who didn’t agree with her religious views-hence why we’ve likened her to this amazing shade!

Here’s Elizabeth – named for Queen Elizabeth the first. She was known for her long, gold and copper hair, which was a family trait. Her father Henry the 8^th was famously ginger, and we thought this rich gold would have suited her quite well.

Next is Anne, well known as Henry’s second wife. She was supposed to be quite the flirt, and he eventually beheaded her for cavorting with other men. She tried hard to be a good Tudor though, and would often wear green – it is said that Henry composed ‘Greensleeves’ just for her. This green is a bit coquettish, just like Anne.

Another of Henry’s wives, Katherine is named for Katherine Howard, his 5^th wife. He also had her beheaded, for the same reasons as Anne- but she was just 19. She certainly wasn’t pure, but this gorgeous silver probably represents her quite well.

The only one of our Queens to not rule during the Tudor period – this is Victoria. Prior to our current Monarch, she held the record for the longest period on the throne, and she gave her name to a whole time period – the Victorian age. This rich purple blue would have suited her very well!

So take your pick, and liven up your nails – and now, when people say how lovely they look, you can tell them all about the reasoning behind the name, too!

xox