Body Shop, Body Shop, Boom Boom Boom

A few weeks ago I was asked to assist on Body Shop's 'Brush With Fashion' catwalk show for the release of their new, sustainable, cruelty free make up range for Spring 2011.

It was a collaboration with London College of Fashion, with alumni Nikki Palmer heading the make up team, alumni designs from the likes of William Tempest and Jena Theo on the catwalk and LCF student Katarina Voloder, a Fashion Illustration student who designed the packaging for the new collection. An LCF family affair!

Here is LCF's own coverage of the night… Snapshot

There were four make up looks all created with the new Body Shop range, and I was in charge of the one above.

It was a really fun night and I learnt something new, LCF keep honey bees on their roof!

I was going to post some photos I took myself, but my iphoto won't open, boo hoo!

So instead here are some links to press coverage of the event, I am proud to link coverage from Vogue, my make up work is on Vogue!!

Vogue, Beauty News

Vogue, Beauty Gallery

Vogue, The Green Style Blog

Grazia

Elle

Bisous bisous xxx

Vegan Holy Grail

Macarons!!

Crispy and smooth shells, moist melt-in-the-mouth with a tiny little ruffled foot (circumference). Kind of.

I had been following a thread on the Post Punk Kitchen forum, started by Andrew, a baker on the vegan macaron quest. It seemed that he was days from revealing his recipe when they archived the live threads and it was lost.

And then he appeared again, with his recipe! http://veganfordracula.blogspot.com/ Hurrah!

And so I got my VersaWhip out and got to work.

For my first ever attempt at Macarons (vegan or not) it wasn't too bad, sort of!

All seemed well until I peeked into the oven after 5 minutes to see the little macaron shells spilling their guts all over the place like tiny volcanoes.

This was for several reasons….

1. The oven was too hot

2. There was too much heat coming from the bottom of the oven

3. The shells had not been left to dry for long enough

I left my shells to dry for over two hours before putting them in the oven, but I think that because it was so cold in the kitchen they had not dried completely, leaving small soft weak spots on the shells where the insides promptly erupted from.

Normally the top of the macarons should be dry to the touch before going in the oven as this helps to prevent cracking and makes the macaron rise up, forming the signature little ruffled foot.

So for my next attempt I shall…

1. Decrease the oven temperature

2. Triple stack the trays, this should prevent too much direct heat getting to the bottom of the macarons, hopefully meaning that they will rise gently

3. Leave the shells to dry COMPLETELY before putting them in the oven, no matter how impatient I am!

Pre-oven, excited!

R.I.P Macarons

I also didn't allow the macarons to

dry before trying to pull one off to eat!

As my boyfriend lovingly commented, they look

like horribly deformed lady bits.

I'm sure I don't know what he means!

You can find the recipe on Andrew's blog. (link above)

I pretty much stuck to the original recipe, apart from I used liquid colouring and vanilla paste rather than powders, which are not readily available in the UK and I was too impatient to make an online order and wait!

The taste was so similar to a non-vegan macaron, I was very pleased on that front!

I think I probably need to grind the almond meal finer to give the shells a smoother dome, but the texture of the shell (and it's spilled guts) were very near perfection. With a little work I think the Holy Grail is in sight!

Bisous bisous xxx