Janay Brazier

Here are my favourites for the month of May. I usually have ten favourites, but I can only think of eight this month, so here they are:


I haven't really been using any new or different makeup this month but I have been using bronzer a bit more now that the weather is getting a bit warmer (although this is the UK so that week and a half of sunshine we had was probably it for the year!) My favourite deep bronzer is MAC's 'Give Me Sun'. I use it sparingly and very lightly on my face but it's great for warming up the skin. Buy it here.


Last month I had three books on my 'favourites' post and two of them where by Sarah J Maas. I included A Court of Thorns and Roses and A Court of Mist and Fury, just in time for the release of the third book. So, this month my favourite book had to be A Court of Wings and Ruin. Honestly, this book was incredible. I cannot tell you how much I love this series of books. I tried to explain my feelings in my YouTube video here, but I honestly could have waffled on about these books for hours. Buy the first book here, the second book here and latest book here.

I suppose my Night Court sugar cookie recipe could also be considered a favourite (pictured above) as I ate one every time I sat down with my book. I posted the recipe on my blog earlier this month, which you can find here.

I have a feeling this is going to be quite a short review. It's not that I don't have lots to say about it because I could probably talk about it for hours. I've always loved the Pirates of the Caribbean films, especially the first three. I kind of count those as a trilogy in my head and think of films four and five as completely separate, whether they kind of continue on from them of not.

However, I went into the cinema expecting to be wowed and come out of this movie wanting to go straight back in. Unfortunately, I was wrong...

In my YouTube video last week I shared a selection of books that I really want to reread.

Some of these books I know I will end up rereading sooner than others but there are so many amazing books that I just want to experience all over again that I had to share some of them with you.

Click play on the video below to see my picks:

I saw a few people doing this one on May 10th and I thought of so many ideas of my own straight after watching some of them. So, even though this post was for last week in the Book community, I decided to do it this week.

Here are my top five book event themes (in no particular order):


Harry Potter
This feels like an obvious one for me because of how simple yet effective it could be. Everyone could do the Pottermore quiz to be sorted into their houses and then wear that colour (school uniform is optional!) The decorations would be fun to do, like the floating candles in the great hall, and the food and drink could be so good, like butterbeer, fizzy sweets, chocolate, pumpkin pasties or pies... just a big feast really.

I actually organised a small Harry Potter themed party last year with a few colleagues for a teacher at our school at the end of the year and it was great (if I do say so myself!) We had the floating candles (which are still up in her classroom as decorations in the book corner), we split the class into the four houses and had a top table for myself and a few other adults to play professors, her invitation back to the classroom was a ticket to platform 9 3/4 and we played the film soundtrack in the background the whole time. It was so much fun and I'd love to do it on a bigger scale at some point.

Here are my monthly favourite for April:



This Smashbox highlighter palette is incredible. It was created in collaboration with my favourite beauty YouTuber, Casey Holmes. They have released a 'pearl' palette and a 'gold' palette. I have the 'pearl' because the other was too dark for me. The lightest colour is basically the same as my favourite highlighter in the Smashbox Shape Matters palette, so I had to get it. Plus the other two shades are great for when I want an extra glow (the second one) or to really amp it up when I'm going out (the third one). Buy the Spotlight palettes here.

I posted this photo on my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram story last weekend and since then I've had so many people asking me how I made them and whether I could send them the recipe. So, I've decided to share it with you all.

This isn't my own recipe, but I did adapt it slightly. The original recipe had very bright frosting but it was called a "galaxy" sugar cookie. I wanted mine to look more like a galaxy/night sky, so I changed it up a bit.

I found this recipe in a party pack, posted on Twitter by Bloomsbury Kids, as an idea for something to bake if you were throwing a party for the release of Sarah J Maas's latest book, A Court of Wings and Ruin.

I wasn't throwing a party (unless a party for one is a thing!) but these sugar cookies sounded amazing. You can find the full party pack here. Thanks to Bloomsbury for the amazing idea.

So, here is how I made these Night Court sugar cookie bars, inspired by my favourite High Lord, Rhysand.




Night Court Sugar Cookies (makes approx. 12 bigger bars or 16 smaller squares):

You will need:

• For the cookie:
• 170g unsalted butter
• 200g sugar
• 280g plain flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

• For the frosting:
• 170g butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 320g icing sugar
• 2-3 tbsp milk (in needed - I didn't need it)
• Food colouring (I used 2 gel colours: black and blue)
• Sprinkles (I used white chocolate stars and gold dot sprinkles)