Polo At The Manor

Hey all!

Today we've got a really exciting event to tell you about - Celtic Manor's Polo At The Manor.

On Saturday 13th of June the annual event takes place with the most glamorous of affairs - champagne, ponies and picnics, what's not to love?!

Tickets cost only £18 and for a day of glamour and indulgence the only thing you need to worry about is what to wear! 

This is where Lydia Rose Bright has come to your rescue and created a video to help you choose!

You can watch the video below or check out the original using this link HERE.

I don't know about you but I think the skirt above is absolutely beautiful, I love the high waist and the pastel blue colour and the lace top is so dainty.

I love the neckline of the dress below too, very pretty but not too revealing either and the fitted waist is perfect for giving you an hourglass figure.

Lastly how beautiful is this lacy white dress?! It's very fitted but the longer length complements this.

If I was going to the Polo I would choose the blue dress and definitely invest in a comfortable pair of nude wedges - the ones in Lydia's video are perfect! Pretty and also comfortable and much better for a long day of eating and drinking and watching the Polo.

The only thing I can recommend in addition to these gorgeous outfit choices is a blazer! There's no trusting the weather in South Wales and a blazer is a must for the potential showers and breezy evenings....as optimistic as I'd like to be there's nothing worse than getting chilly and a blazer is a chic way to cover up.

Lydia has also helpfully created another video to help with your hair and make up choices:

If I was going to the Polo I'd go for dewy skin and pick a nude smokey eye and a coral lip - I love coral lipstick! As for hair, I'm a firm believe in the bigger the better and I would love to have waves just like Lydias.....all the time!

What would you wear to the Polo At The Manor? Do you like Lydia's outfit choices?
How would you do your hair and make up?

Not only is there lots of glamour at the event, there is also an Elemis Bus for spa treatments and Depot are providing a wonderful array of streetfood, including Beetlejuice Campervan who create wonderful cocktails.

Tweet us with your choices and use the hashtag #polomanorstyle

L xxx

Neal's Yard Remedies Organic Pamper Party

Good afternoon!

Our last post for the 'event weekend' is from Neal's Yard Remedies. We were very excited to be invited to the pamper party happening in Bristol this week, and after a bit of a delay getting completely lost (oops!) we eventually arrived at the apartment where the party had already started.

The lovely Sue was giving a demonstration facial which was really interesting as we could pick up on tips and tricks and see the products in action.

One of the new products on the scene with NYR is the Frankincense Intense Concentrate, which is basically a concentrated version of the Frankincense Intense cream and is a best seller for its effects already. The concentrate is a serum type product which promises to deliver even more of a punch than it's original product. The concentrate will retail at £65 for 30ml compared to the original cream which is £55 for 50ml.

It was lovely to be hands on with the products as they were being used and we had the most moisturised and best smelling hands in the whole of the UK after we'd finished testing everything!

They had the whole range there including cleansers, toners, mists, serums and creams galore. We also tried out some of their other products including roller balls with essential oils and body butters.

We were very lucky to leave with a goodie bag with a full size pot of the Wild Rose Beauty Balm. As you can see from the gift bag and packaging of the balm itself, it's currently celebrating its 10th Anniversary and so has a special design by Alice Shields. I absolutely love that they've done this and the packaging is gorgeous, although it's still NYR with its blue glass pot it has a gorgeous flowery label covered in bright colours.

After playing with all the products i have been making an extensive wishlist for future purchases. Having recently been to an interview where it turns out I'd be involved in animal testing I have been looking at things a little differently. We love products that are 'free from' and NYR definitely have that covered by the endless list of awards and accolades that you can find on their website here, it is seriously impressive.

They also as a rule never test on animals, so not only are they free from all the chemical nasties they also don't partake in unnecessary actions to develop their products which is great. I can definitely see my skincare shifting towards NYR a lot faster than expected!

It surprised me how many products NYR have in their books; not only the skincare and other products of the same kind, but also a make up range, superfood and tea range, and remedies and therapies section too.

We had a lovely evening and would like to thank Sue and Jessica for a fun and informative evening!

We even grabbed a few cans of Pimms to drink on the train back to Cardiff to finish off our night!

What's your favourite products form Neal's Yard Remedies? Have you tried the Wild Rose Beauty Balm?
Have you made the shift to cruelty free products?

L & M xxx

Healthy Girls Nights In

Good afternoon!

As I've previously mentioned I'm trying to get in some extra posts over the next few weeks about my general lifestyle changes, recipes, fitness routines and tips for weight loss and healthier ways of life. I'm planning on doing this on Fridays so will be calling it Fitness Friday....though I doubt it will always be on a Friday!

With Valentine's Day being tomorrow I thought maybe a few suggestions for the single ladies to have a girls night in...the healthy way.
Stuffing chocolate and necking wine probably isn't going to help you in the long run....let's face it you're very likely to end up texting an ex or current love interest if you attack the vino too hard or single handedly scoff your weeks calories in one go making you feel worse about yourself and your relationship status.

As my friend's 'token single friend' I am permanently single and Valentine's is never a big day for me, in fact I've always thought it was a bit rubbish and an excuse for the card and gift companies to cash in.
To be honest I've no idea what my plans are as I don't have many single friends now that they're all getting hitched one by one BUT if i did I would definitely throw a party like this. And I just might...on my own ;)



First things first the food and drink are number one priority.

Are you a salty snack fan? Try Kale Chips. Super easy to make, salty as you like but none of the ridiculous carbs and bad fats you can get when attacking the Kettle Chips family size bag (the plain salt ones are my fave!). The link shows how to make some Asian ones with soy sauce and sesame seeds but you can make any flavour you like!

Sweet Tooth? Try having a huge bowl of different fruits cut up ready to grab and dip in yogurt and honey. Yes honey is probably not good when consumed in huge quantities but its unlikely you'll eat as much of this as you would if you were dipping chocolate, plus its one of the most natural sweeteners. I cannot get enough of the yogurt/honey combo!

You could even pre-dip the fruit in yogurt and freeze them for your guests if you're an organised lady and fancy a few extra cold snacks.

Looking for something more substantial? You can always try the old houmous and veggie sticks, they are always a hit everywhere I've been and with flavoured pots of houmous available now its a no brainer for ease too! You can get caramelised onion, sweet chilli, beetroot and moroccan with peppers.

As for drinks I recommend smoothies and juices. There are the biggest lists on the internet so I won't even bother to attempt a recipe list as it totally depends on what you like and have available.

Juices would be great as you can always sneak a little bit of vodka or rum in if you're that way inclined....and I definitely am. Particularly if its more like 50% alcohol. (Just don't drive home afterwards!).

I recommend getting lots of berries, citrus fruits and some apple and cranberry juices in to help you along your way.


Now that the important things are out of the way, what on earth are you going to do with your time?

I'd recommend raiding anyones DVD collection and selecting yourself whichever types of films are your faves. Chick flicks are the easy options but I am personally a huge fan of action and superhero films so a night with Ironman, Thor, Batman and Channing Tatum in White House Down is just FINE with me.

Get your favourite face masks on the go, sit back and relax with a friends nail varnish collection and create your own little pamper parlour. I always find nights like this the time absolutely flies, you end up nattering about your latest beauty purchases, the latest guy to wander into your life and the current work gossip and I love them! There's nothing better than a catch up with friends.

Obviously....if you really do feel like pigging out just grab the ice cream bucket, family size bags of minstrel and a few pots of pringles and live it up with Bridget Jones. You can always try and be healthy tomorrow right?

What's your girls night in suggestions? Do you go healthy or gluttonous? Will you be taking any tips from this post for your next one?


L xxx

Benefit Carnaby Street

Good morning!

I was so relieved for it to be the weekend.....until I realised that I have to work my first Saturday in my new job!
I've managed to put it off for 3 months as i didn't have enough training and had to wait for my jabs to take effect, but now there's no excuse....so instead of spending it in bed I'll be up at 6 again and hitting the road at 7....booooooooo!

If you follow us on twitter you'll have seen a few tweets from us about attending London Fashion Week (LFW) on Monday to see the hair and make up being done backstage at some of the shows. We're writing a full post on that tomorrow so please check back to see some amazing pictures!

Whilst we were there we decided to have a good old wander around London, particularly some of the not so obvious places. We ended up near Liberty's and Carnaby Street and low and behold, we found the Benefit bus!
This bus looks amazing, its beautifully pink exactly how you'd expect from Benefit and is fully kitted out with seats, ipads, tv screens and obviously lots and lots of make up!

It was of course celebrating the fact that Benefit have a new store opened on Carnaby Street, but this is not just any store as it's a boutique where you can not only have your make up done and pick up some lovely new products, but also have your hair blow dried, nails painted, spray tans and waxes all in the convenience of one beautiful store with champagne!
What an amazing idea!

We were welcomed onto the bus by Lisa Benefit and Alyson Rowe which was lovely, and they managed to get the AMAZING Pocket Belles to sing us a few numbers which were unbelievable.
They are amazing singers and performers and they're songs were brilliant!

I particularly loved the Benefit song and their Benefit print dresses.

 



I was lucky enough to have my eye make up done by Lisa as she showed us the looks they used at the Matthew Williamson show at LFW, the eyeshadows were beautiful browns and bronzey colours which she also mixed together to create an amazing shimmery bronzer which I will definitely be trying in future!



Alyson then arranged for us to travel to the new Benefit Carnaby Street store by rickshaw and it was brilliant, I've never been on one before so it was a lot of fun and I did feel like I was going to fall out!



So...onto the new store!

This was downstairs (we forgot to take photos upstairs....) and shows the make up bar with brow bar the other side and hair and nail salon in the background.

The blowouts are all on the wall for you to choose from and this was such a nice touch, I would personally pick Carrie if i was having mine done as I love big and voluminous hair!

One of the BEST things was that we were able to look at all the beautiful Christmas sets that Benefit are bringing out for this year.
I can safely say that I want all of them, and did end up picking one up to take home with me.....

This one was one of my favourites because of the variety of products in it and I will surely be picking it up. As soon as I get paid next!

This kit was great, such a bargain for essential Benefit products to try.

All of the kits vary in price and there is a picture of the pricelist further on below if you'd like to see. Some do seem a bit steep but when you look at the products inside and see that they're either full size or between full and sample size then you understand.

They also have a new fragrance out in time for Christmas which M loves, it's a very heavy warm and musky scent but I love that it's called Under My Spell Noelle!





The rest of the store was beautiful as well, there was a bar where you could order drinks from including Champagne which we were given a glass of and it was lovely surprise.





The store was (luckily for us!) really quiet so we could browse in peace and play around the with infamous blush boxes and new lip products out







The nail bar above and hair salon below look really cosy and I can see myself spending a lot of time in here if given half a chance!
I could quite easily spend a day moving through the different areas and having a complete pamper day before a night out. It would be perfect for hen nights and work parties!







Whilst there both me and M were treated to an eyebrow shape and wax. It was my first EVER time having my brows done professionally as I've never bothered before and so I was equally nervous and excited to have them done.
I've always been worried that someone would make them too thin or too arched and weird looking but obviously Benefit know their brow stuff and after meeting the girls I knew I was in safe hands!

After a quick consultation she got to work and this is what my brows looked like afterwards:



I absolutely love them!!! They're beautifully arched now which is something I couldn't get quite right and I'm hoping I can keep this up for a while before I get them done again. I would definitely go again as any pain and tadpole brow worries I had have been put to rest and I'd definitely go to get them reshaped again to save me the hassle.

The store is beautiful and we had so much fun. For an impromptu trip to London and ending up on the Benebus we had an amazing time and that was all down to Lisa, Alyson and the girls working at Benefit Carnaby Street so thank you so much to you all for making us feel welcome.

We even both made a sneaky purchase of the Christmas sets and I imagine there will be more made in the future!

I for one will be aiming to collect all the sets which may be a little expensive. I'm one down tho so it can't be all that hard right??
I think I need to get a boyfriend to afford all of them..... I just cannot resist all of those quirky tins!

Have you been to Benefit Carnaby Street? Will you be making a trip there to see the new store and all it has to offer?
Which of the Christmas sets have tickled your fancy?

I'm honestly having trouble deciding between Groovy Kind of Love, It's a Love Fest and Gimme Some Lovin!

L xxx