Making A Change: Excuses & Plans

Well I'm back to give you an update on my weight/fitness goals.  To put it bluntly, it hasn't gone anywhere.  In December, I joined the gym so that I could battle the obvious weight gain that was going to happen over the festive period, that way, I wouldn't have as much to lose after Christmas.  You can see my post full of intentions and positive attitude here...however...things just didn't go to plan.

THE EXCUSES

The first few weeks of joining the gym I was doing SO well, I'd book my classes in advance and went every week, even the evenings when I really didn't want to go.  Then around two weeks before Christmas, I got the worst sickness bug and spent five days being sick and all the rest of it that comes with a sick bug, so I never went back.

Then, when I was better and felt ready to leave the house, all the classes were limited because it was Christmas and they didn't come back until almost a week after New Year.  When I did check in the gym, it was literally just to help my boyfriend do his work out, with a few squats thrown in, nothing spectacular or worth while.  I then left my gym card at his and kept forgetting to pick it up, and then it was my birthday and nobody goes to the gym on their bithday.

Excuses, excuses, excuses...

THE PLAN

I have gained 5 pounds since my last post, the opposite of what I wanted to achieve.  I expected some weight gain, but almost half a stone is more than I anticipated so I'm done with making excuses for myself.  I've got my gym card back, I've even grabbed some new gym gear, and I am busy pinning away healthy recipes for what I can do to help my diet.  I've booked my usual classes, and I am back on with my fitness starting this evening.  Hurrah!

I still hate the gym.  I only go to my classes because I have to book in advance so feel like I have to go.  But I guess that's the best way.  I just need to keep reminding myself that I want to get into my healthy weight targets, and have a healthy body.  I need to be realistic with my goals, because I always think that if you set unrealistic targets, you'll be disappointed when you don't get them, or give up because nothing is happening.  I'm never going to have the thigh gap, I've never had a thigh gap - the only gap I've ever had when my feet are together is a small hole below my knees, and a gap for my ankles.  My build isn't one that could get that body shape.  I'm leggy, I'm curvy and I'm a pear.  A big ol' juicy one.  All I want is to lose some weight, and have legs like Beyonce.  (Come on guys...got to have something to aspire to!)

If anyone has any healthy recipes, good healthy blogs to follow, please share them with me in the comments below.  Link me up with your posts too if you have them!  You can also stalk what I'm pinning on my Pinterest account - but, be careful...some recipes on my recipe board aren't so healthy!

Who wants to join me on my mission to get healthier?  What are your top tips?

Butter London The Black Knight

Over the festive and New Year period, this is the nail polish that I was wearing.  I usually hate wearing glitter nail polishes because they are notoriously difficult to remove, but I was literally living in this beauty over the festive period.  It is my first nail polish from Butter London, and this is The Black Knight.

Butter London are "three free" nail polishes and are formulated with no formaldehyde, DBP or Toluene - I had to Google what was so bad about these ingredients, and like practically everything, there have been links with these to cancers in animals so I'm pleased that Butter London are removing these.

So back to The Black Knight...I have never seen a glitter polish like it before, so I was pleased to add it to my collection.  It is a black base with lots of different coloured glitters suspended in it - the glitter is fine grained, so I think it has a slight sandy texture, and I can spy red, blue, pink and silver glitters!

Like the Chanel polishes, these have sneaky grippy caps hidden underneath the original cap so it's easy to hold and use.

I really love this shade, it's a glitter that's not just for Christmas and New Year, you can get away with all year I think.  And if you're a bit wary of using glitter outside of Christmas, this would make an amazing accent nail.  It takes two/three coats to get the shade to go opaque, but you could always put a cheaper black base underneath so you don't use up quite so much product.  I finish mine with a glossy top coat for a high shine feel!  The photo below is without a top coat, and it is just as nice without one!

My only downside to this polish is chipping...  It lasts three days at the most with a top coat, and only lasted me one night without a top coat on my nails, so I've been quite disappointed to be honest.  And it's not small chippage either, they're big chunks missing which I think is really unusual for a glitter polish.  I usually use OPI Nail Envy for my base and top coat, but I think I might experiment with switching my base and top coat to see if Butter London just doesn't agree with Nail Envy.  I bought The Black Knight from Amazon for £12 here!

Have you tried any Butter London nail polishes?  What's your favourite?

Lady Muck Gold Plated Ants Necklace

I'm not really a big fan of gold jewellery, but this necklace is something else.  I don't wear jewellery very often, but when I do it does usually lean towards unique statement pieces.  Before Christmas, I gave my Dad some gentle hints the direct link to something that I really wanted, complete with a discount code in hope that I would get it on Christmas day!  My luck came through (because I bought it myself...) and here it is!

You might have seen this floating around on my Instagram feed, but if you haven't, this is the Gold Plated Ants Necklace from Lady Muck and I love it.  It is on an 18" chain, which if you can't be bothered to measure, is about three horizontal fingers from my collar bone - accurate, I know.

I ought to have taken a photograph before I opened the box, as it arrived beautifully wrapped, but you know...Christmas got in the way of blogging rules and there was no time for photo taking.  The box it comes in though is still gorgeous, recycled packaging with a small, dainty Lady Muck stamp!

Aside from the bold pattern, I love the chain on this necklace.  It's one of those chains that isn't too chunky, but not too dainty so that you don't wear it ever, or if you did, you don't walk around like you've broken your back and are scared to move in case it snaps.  I also love the amazingly glossy gold plating, it's so shiny...yay for shiny!

This Gold Plated Ants Necklace costs £40, which some people might find expensive if you compare it to statement necklaces from high street stores.  But, this is handmade - handmade takes a lot of effort as I've learnt myself, and it is worth every single penny because it's gorgeous!

What do you think of this necklace?  Will you be picking it up?

What I've Bought: ASOS

Since before Christmas, I have had an outrageous number of items in my saved basket on ASOS.  Let me put this out there - ASOS is a dangerous place.  It is too good, and has too much stuff on, but everything is too nice to leave behind so...I bought the majority of my basket, spent my birthday money and probably even a smidge more.

The only positive I can think to point out is that everything was on the sale, and I had a sneaky ASOS Insider discount code which I was allowed to use on sale items!  I've skimmed my basket down to show you my favourite bits of what I scouted from the sale!

1/2/3/4/5/6/7

1.  I have been meaning to switch up my wardrobe for a while now, I'm very much a leggings/jeans girl because that's all that I own.  One pair of good leggings, and one pair of good jeans.  I know...deprived.  So I bought this dress - it's the ASOS Smock Dress In Nepi and I bought mine in green.  It also came in coral and a gorgeous blue, but I have a lot of this bright blue in my wardrobe so fancied a change.  It's half price in the sale at £12.50.

2.  This dress is the Motel Elsa Skull Dress.  It's £35 down from £60, and I think is one of those patterns which are a bit deceptive.  I think it looks like a nice lacey/paisley patterning, but on closer look, it's actually little skulls with a bit of a Mexican sugar skull feel.  Really like this, and I will be wearing this on my next night out!

3.  The item that has been in my basket the longest, and is my absolute favourite buy is this Evil Twin Buzz Kill Babydoll dress.  I love the print on it, it looks like crazy storms with lightening.  I'm a bit unsure if the fit will suit my figure, but I'm giving it a good go! I really hope I can keep it!  It was the most expensive thing in my basket at £45, but it was down from £75.

4.  The Lavish Alice Sweatshirt in Floral Print is something I've been looking at for a while too.  I really love the bright blue rose print and think this would look nice with some leggings for the day, or even with my black jeans in the evening.  They also have matching trousers which I'd love to try, but I just don't think that a print on my bottom half would look very flattering on my pear shape.

5.  This is the Noisy May Harlequin Sweat.  I think that I like this, I'm a little unsure so it may be something that I send back.  But I need to see it in real life to decide if it's a real keeper.  I like that the print is in a t-shirt shape, and it's not something I've ever really seen before.

6.  You didn't think I'd not get a beauty buy in did you?  I got this Nails Inc Kensington Caviar Top and Base Coat Duo for less than £14 with my extra discount, what a bargain.  I've had a mini of the Kensington Caviar Top Coat before, so I'm pleased I managed to get a full size with the base coat for what is essentially free.  It says this has sold out now, but keep your eyes peeled as it might come back!

7.  My favourite of my ridiculous underwear top up was this ASOS Boudoir Floral set.  The bra was a bargain at £8 and the matching bottoms were £4.50.

Did you get anything in the sale?  What did I miss?

Edit: I had to send a few bits back!  Noo!  I was right about the fit for the Babydoll dress, and as much as I loved it, the shape of the dress just didn't flatter my figure at all!  I also had to send back the Smock dress for the same reason, but the colour when it arrived was a lot darker than it looked in the picture, which was disappointing.  The Motel dress was outrageously short, and by short, I mean it didn't even pull past my bum!  It could have passed for a long top - had to go back.  BUT.  I absolutely love everything else, even the Noisy May sweat which is gorgeous!

Chanel Le Vernis Nail Colour

I must have been very good last year, as Santa bought me three beautiful goodies that arrived in a classic, white bag.  Never have I ever even bothered to browse the Chanel counter, as I know it's something that I just couldn't afford.  Well I could probably treat myself, but us beauty addicts all know that when something is good, one is never enough.

To my surprise, my boyfriend Liam got me these!  The only thing I asked for for Christmas was a pair of pyjamas and some unicorn slippers - I couldn't believe it when I spotted a Chanel gift bag, and when he told me he had spent a good part of an hour carefully selecting colours from the counter in House of Fraser!  What a cutie...and what a good job he did!

He bought me the shades Suspicious, Holiday and Taboo, all of which are absolutely gorgeous!  I don't really own any high end nail polish, and at £18 a bottle, this definitely stocks me up more than enough.  Although I do spy a gorgeous white shade called Attraction which will be perfect for the upcoming Spring and Summer nail trends!

I've been waiting to use this nail wheel for forever and here is it's first debut, how sad is that!  Back to the nail polish though...  Holiday first, Suspicious in the centre and Taboo on the end.  Holiday and Suspicious are perfect colour pops for the summer months - Holiday is a true tangerine shade and Suspicious is a raspberry which almost seeps into the Barbie pink!  Taboo is very blue based which I was surprised about as in the bottle it looks like an iridescent red/purple shade.  On the nail, it is a very deep purple and because of its iridescence and tiny blue glitter flecks, it kind of reminds me of space or galaxies or something.  It's so unusual, but so nice! 

Onto formula...I can't get enough of these.  They are really long lasting; they last a long time without a top coat, but last a REALLY long time with one.  I can make this last a week with very minimal chipping, and the top and base coat that I use is just the OPI Nail Envy in Original.  

One thing I did notice though, but it is the same with all nail polish I try, is that I get a really annoying white line where it has chipped off the very tip of my nail.  Well I say chipped, it kind of looks as though the polish has sort of shrunk away from the edge of my nail?  Anyone have any tips on how to stop this?

The brush isn't my favourite type of brush; it's quite long and thing, where as I prefer fat, flat brushes, but it's still nice to use.  The square cap comes off to reveal a grippy cyclinder which was a nice surprise so it was really nice to hold.

So, all in all, the boy did good.  VERY good indeed.  And I was right...when it's good, one is never enough.

Have you tried Chanel Le Vernis Nail Colour?  Any nail tips for me?

Benefit It's A Love Fest

Hello again everybody, and a belated Happy New Year!  You might have been wondering where I had gone off to, well you probably weren't, but all has been quiet on the blog since before Christmas.  I haven't done anything in particular, but I've felt so busy!  I have a LOT of things to share with you, including some gorgeous goodies I got for Christmas, as well as some bits that I've had stored for a while.  I am on a blogging mission in this new year, so expect more regular posts!

It was my birthday yesterday, and one of the things I bought with my Christmas money was this Benefit set using a discount voucher ASOS sent as a birthday present!  It arrived some time last week, but I saved it to get my first uses of it on my birthday weekend!

A few Benefit tins had been released as their Christmas gift sets, but the Benefit It's A Love Fest tin has always been on my radar as it was the only set that contained two full size products.  It was more expensive than the other tins, but what's inside, and the fact I had a 20% discount voucher to use, meant that it was definitely going to be mine.

Inside there are four different products to try; a full size Porefessional, a full size They're Real mascara, a mini Sun Beam and a mini Coralista Lip Gloss.  I have tried, and loved the Porefessional, and the mini that I already had has only just ran out so I was always going to be spending £25 to repurchase a full size Porefessional.  The They're Real mascara was always something that I'd wanted to try aswell as everybody is always telling me how amazing it is.  With my 20% discount code, this gift set cost me just over £31 so I couldn't at all say no.  

I have used everything, and everything as you would expect is gorgeous, so I will post individual, more in depth reviews of each product at a later date!  I don't quite know what I will be doing with the tin just yet, but I don't want to throw it away!  Maybe a flannel storage tin or something...

If you'd like to bag a bargain, or try a selection of Benefit make up, then definitely get this!  I have looked all over for this set, and the only place that I have found to still stock it is ASOS, and you can get it here for £39.50!  For my birthday, I also got a £30 gift voucher for a local department store which stocks Benefit...any recommendations for what I need to try?

Did you manage to grab this in the sale?  What Benefit products are your favourite?

Yu-Be Moisturising Cream

I have had this tiny sample for months, waiting for the perfect time to use it, and winter has been it.  This little tube is ridiculously amazing and I knew that after a tiny test that I would be repurchasing this...the time is coming, but I think I can hold out a little longer!

I actually got this in a Birchbox in April, but it has been securely in my clutches these last few weeks.  It is a pale yellow in colour, and is beautifully rich.  It has a scent similar to a Vicks chest rub or something, which I personally really don't like, but it fades almost instantly, leaving skin or lips perfectly soft and smooth!

Yu-Be Moisturising Skin Cream is Japans top selling skin cream, and has been for almost fifty years!  The ingredients are free from artificial dyes, petroleum and fragrances, but I did spy a sneaky paraben hiding in there for those who are cautious!

I'll one hundred percent be buying this again; it is perfect for curing winter skin!  You can get it from Boots (think of those Boots points...) for £19.50, so it's not the cheapest, but it's definitely long lasting as a little goes a hell of a long way!

Have you tried Yu-Be cream?  What are your Winter skin saviours?