Selfridge's Beauty Box winner!

After 2 weeks of entries we can finally announce the winner of the Selfridge's Beauty Box giveaway was Lola from Lola in the Lounge!

Congratulations Lola, I hope you enjoy the skincare products they're such a treat!

We'll be contacting you on twitter today (if we haven't already!) to get your details.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you to everyone who entered.

We'll be having another giveaway soon featuring some products hard to get your hands on in the UK, so look out for it soon!

L and M xxx

Guest Post: Aisle Three

Happy Friday to everyone!

If you haven't seen on Twitter I ,(that is L), am currently nearing the end of my dissertation for my Masters which should be handed in within the next 2 weeks.....eek!

Because of this I decided I should probably spend a little less time blogging and more time writing!

I didn't want to leave M with loads of days to cover so we decided to hold some guest posts which helps us out and is a fun way to find some new blogs :)

We've had lots of tweets but are still looking for another blogger to cover one more day in a few weeks so if you'd like to do a guest post for us, whether its a review, top 5 products etc then let us know via email or twitter and we'll work something out!

So without further waffling on, here is our very first guest post courtesy of Joanne from Aisle Three:

Lancome Hypnose Mascara Review

Hello! My name’s Joanne, I’m a fashion and beauty blogger and I own a little blog called Aisle Three.

I contacted the girls on Twitter regarding a guest blog on CSI, so I was delighted when they agreed to let me write a review for the site. So, without further ado, I’d like to welcome you to my review on Lancome’s Hypnose Mascara and send a massive thank you to L and M for letting me guest post on the blog today!



RRP: £21

What they say: “Turn up the volume of your lashes for hypnotising eyes! Control the look of your lashes – from subtle to sexy! With our exclusive SoftSculpt™ formula and patented Powerful brush, you can build up to 6x more volume…without caking or flaking. Result? Truly hypnotic eyes!”



Mascara, along with foundation, is definitely one of my must-haves! I have small, deep-set eyes so I’m forever on a mission to find a mascara that makes them look wider and brighter, but also natural looking for the daytime with a product that I can build up to create more dramatic, night-time looks too.

I’ve very quickly defeated tube after tube of mascara, looking for one that meets all of my requirements and as great as some of them have treated me, none of them compare to this one… We’ve quickly become engaged in a whirlwind romance that I’ll never forget.

I was gifted the Lancome Hypnose Mascara on my birthday, by my boyfriend. The sales assistant kindly gave him this travel sized mascara for free with another Lancome purchase (who doesn’t love a good freebie, eh?!)



I tried the mascara that day.

(I understand that this is a travel version but on first looks it didn’t look all that special. To be honest, the brush looked rather generic and I didn’t expect any miracles from this product, but boy! How wrong I was.)

Just one swift coat extended, separated and added heaps of volume to my lashes. My eyes looked widened and defined and whereas I would normally use an eyelash curler to add even more drama and curl, with this amazing product there is just no need. That was one box ticked, now onto staying power.

Almost every other mascara I’ve used has flaked and ran and there has been little to no mascara left on my peepers at the end of the day. With the Lancome Hypnose Mascara, even after hours and hours, it still hadn’t budged by the time I was climbing into bed and taking off my makeup. I can honestly say I’ve never used a mascara before that has lasted so well but at the same time was a dream to remove when necessary. 

Overall, I rate the Lancome Hypnose Mascara an amazing 9/10. It’s a tad pricey with a £21 price tag but I’m quickly becoming hooked to the Lancome product range and you have to pay for quality, right? 

Have you tried the Hypnose Mascara? Which Lancome products do you like and why? Be sure to let me know on my blog or send me a tweet: @joannesherrell.




Thanks Joanne for your post!

If anyone else would like to do a guest post for us, just give us a tweet/email :)

Bloggers Unite to Loose Weight

After asking on twitter whether you would prefer a post on tan or my progress on my couch to 10k post I wrote a few weeks back (link) I was contacted by Holly from Holly's Beauty Box to see if I wanted to be included in her weekly  bloggers unite to loose weight  posts. I thought this was a great idea and I think being involved in a group and documenting your progress weekly helps you to achieve your goals. I find I feel more guilty if I do gain weight if I know others are following my progress.

These's are the Do's and Don'ts suggested by Holly and if any of you fancy joining this too you can get in touch with Holly via her blog (linked above) or twitter (@holly1986)

• DO's
• Do highlight your aims in terms of health, maintaining weight loss, losing weight, eating better, toning up. Whichever your aims are, highlight them. 
• Detail your plan - how you hope to achieve your target. 
• Detail your moods within each weekly vlog and blog entry.
• Do award yourself! theres bound to be something you really want, a dress or something, so detail what that will be and upon achieving your target  award yourself with your item of choice!
• Make sure youre completely honest, your vlogs are also helping other people and they need to see the highs and the lows!

DONT's

• The rules are, no-one states their start weight! 
• Dont fail to vlog on a weekly basis or its unlikely you'll stick to it
• Don't lie in your vlogs! youre only lying to yourself! 
• Don't make unrealistic goals.

My aims

I should mention I originally started trying to run back in June and get my fitness up but didn't match my diet with it. For the past 5 weeks I've matched a healthy eating plan and exercise and have so far lost 10lbs. L and I also send each other motivaional photos of gym quotes or bodies we want. Seeing amazing photos of Kelly Brook makes me want to put the chocolate down ha. I love her toned curvy shape.

So my aims are for regular exercise. I am for everyday, it's rare this will happen and usually I will exercise between 3 to 5 times a week. In the evenings sometimes I don't feel like it and if I really am tired I won't push myself. The exercise I am to do is a run or Jillian Michaels 30 day Shread. 

Food wise I use My Fitness Pal app which is an app I would recommend to everyone and anyone. It's so great to track what you eat and calorie count which is something I wouldn't do with out it and the support from others using it is great.

Exercise

As mentioned above I run. I find road running a great form of exercise to really burn fat. Back in June I struggled to run for a few minutes now I can run for at least 35 minutes solid or 3 15 minute runs. The key is to start slow. The couch to 10k app is another great one to follow. I followed solidly for 6 weeks then did my own thing. It's great for non runners as the first week is run for a minute walk for 90 seconds and you do that 8 times. sounds easy right? If you've never run it'll make you out of breath. As I said by week 6 I just wasn't feeling it. I didn't want to do solid 20 minutes of running and kept finding myself an excuse not to do it. I decided to then do my own thing. This started off doing 6 minute runs 2 minute walks and I just increased the run time as I felt ready and kept the walks in. Some days I now run 10 minute blocks some days I'll run for 35 minutes. With running do what you want. Have upbeat music, carry water and plan your route before hand. Once you start actually running what you think is a long distance doesn't actually turn out to be that long.

The other exercise I do is Jillian Michaels 30 day shred. I use this as my toning tool. It's a simple concept exercise daily for 20 minutes. 20 minutes is all it takes but my god it's harder than you'd think. I end up a sweaty mess. She works by doing 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs and this is repeated 3 times with a 1 minute warm up and cool down. This is great for if you are short of time and need inspiration to keep you going. All you need is weights (I picked them up from TK Maxx and a mat, I use a blanket) and the dvd is cheap on Amazon. I add extra sit ups to this work out now. On Tuesday I did the level two for the first time. Hello plank pain ha!!

Food

With the app I try to stick to 1200 calories before exercise and it's surprisingly easy to do.  My breakfast is either cereals or yoghurt and fruit and a black coffee. Lunch is green tea with salad, soup or left overs and Dinner is usually a slimming world recipe or one of The Hairy Dieters recipes. I fully recommend this cook book. I will include a recipe a week on here. Snacks I have more fruit or veg, humous, crispbreads, chocolate or a frozen muller light.

Freezing muller light kind of makes me feel like I'm having ice cream. I also keep a big bar of chocolate in the fridge and if I want it I'll have 4 squares a night. Diet coke is also only 1 calorie for a sweet treat.

Aims

I weigh once a week on Tuesday and don't peek at my weight before this. If I've had a bad week I'll still weigh as it's important to know where I am.

This week I will be going to celebrate a friends birthday. If I have an occasion like this I won't log my calories for the day but will pick healthy choices like having gin and tonics and will do extra exercise. For weekends if you want treats have them. For the rest of the week it'll be sticking to my food plan.

I also plan to run three times this week. I really want to up the exercise as my holiday is in 4 weeks and I aim for my thighs to not touch in the middle. Being pear shaped makes me feel really out of proportion and I'd just like a toned lower half and smaller arms.

On holiday I will be exercising still but not worrying about food. Long term I want to maintain healthy food and exercise to feel happy and confident with my body.

Hope you like this post and I'd be interested in reading yours if you are sticking to something like this for inspiration.

Love M

xxx

Sleek Pout Polish Perfect Plum

It's been a while since I've done a lipstick post (previously my Lipstick Monday's series which can be found here) my last post was the gorgeous Kate Moss for Rimmel lipstick in shade 20 which is a bright pink. I'm loving bright pink shades on my lips and find myself grabbing these over others a lot. But as winter seems to be quickly approaching us (except today where it's lush and sunny) and soon I can grab for the vampy burgundy reds again soon I thought I'd share one of my favourite A/W shades with you.

This is the Sleek Pout Polish in Perfect Plum. They are available from Superdrug or the Sleek website and cost £4.29. I think it's a good price as you get a lot of product. The packaging is a round pot with a screw on lid. Perfect for the handbag as the lid isn't going to come off.

The product is a sort of glossy coloured balm. It's a lovely soft texture. Due to being a cross with a balm and a lipgloss obviously lasting power isn't something that is expected with this product. I love the perfect plum colour. It's a sort of deep reddy plum a darker version of lip tone in my opinion. The downside to his product is it's in a pot and you dip your finger in which is something I don't like.

A bonus with this is if you forget blusher it can double up as a cream blusher but is very pigmented so only the smallest amount is needed. It also contains SPF 15 so it's a great product for summer to protect the lips as well.

I can't wait to pick up more of these in other shades as I love the texture and finish. A great cheap lip colour and one that keeps your lips moisturised.

Have you got any of these pout polishes? Do you have any products that are like a gloss in a tub? I'm really liking sleek make up at the moment.

Love M

xxx