Recent Purchases

If you've been reading this blog for a while then you'll know that I've been jobless and therefore a little bit poor for quite a while now.

But obviously writing this and also being the spendaholic that I am I end up buying items that I mostly could live without.

Obviously I broke my spending ban again by going on a few little shopping trips and surfing eBay at home!

My first trip was into town and I ended up in Internacionale where I picked up a number of bracelets which were on offer, buy one get one half price.

For the past year I've mostly been obsessed wth make up, skin care and various other related products but my focus seems to have shifted recently to clothes, bags, shoes and jewellery!

I couldn't resist these bracelets, they look good together and with other items in my collection that can be added to any outfit to dress up/dress down

I loooooooove how shiny and sparkly they looked in the sun!
Definitely can't wait to be rocking these for the rest of the year, I love spikes and skulls and these were made for me.

They're currently all available in Internacionale and because of their deal (think its buy one get one half price) costs me about £8....bargain!

My next trip was to Matalan.

Between me and M we'd heard about their peplum tops somewhere along the grape vine and my mum promised she'd take me if I finished a part of my work. Incentives work ya know!

So I hastily typed my way to finishing the section of my diss and she took me there.
Funnily enough I text M whilst there to send her a picture of the peplums, where she replied saying she was also in Matalan but at home (which is a few hundred miles away!).

This was just too funny, not even spoken to each other all day yet happen to be in the same shop!

So here are Matalan's peplum tops.

I ended up buying the black and the white, though I wanted the maroon coloured one also in my store and the blue one M found in her store!

I was surprised as although they're less than half the price of the Topshop ones (coming in at £12 I think!) they're actually pretty good and fit really well.

I was also surprised that I liked the white one so much as I normally avoid lighter colours and expected it to be a bit see through but it wasn't at all.

In fact I forgot I took this photo in the changing room and here's what the white looked like on!

I think they're an absolute bargain and cannot wait to go out wearing them.

I also picked up some new leggings with zips on the hips (ooh!)

These are really thick and good quality, I only had to throw out my old ones as they went a bit grey after 2 years of hard core wearing so would definitely recommend these (£12 Papaya make in Matalan)

Also as if it was my lucky day these bags were right at the front of the store:

There were a few different colour combos but I picked up the navy and black one as I was instantly drawn to it whilst my mum struggled to choose between the camel and black, bottle green and black and the plum and black.

To be honest at the time these were down from £12 to £5 so I told her to pick up 2 and I can't even remember which one she actually picked up!

Definitely worth a trip down there if you're passing as there's some really good stuff there at the moment!

And last but not least my latest product buys (inevitably they exist too!)

I'm sure you're aware but both me and M have been struggling with our skin recently and having read much about Alpha H Liquid Gold we were both looking forward to trying it, but obviously skint students don't have much of a fund to use!

Eventually though the angry scars left on my face got to me and I found an ebay seller who had it for £25 with free postage so I instantly snapped it up.

After one use I've seen a difference and hopefully it will continue to improve (will be doing a full post on it!)

For those who don't know what it is, basically you use it as you would a toner after cleansing.

Pour some onto a cotton pad and swipe it over your face avoiding eyes and lips.

Then to let it work most effectively do NOT apply moisturiser, just eye cream if you want.

The main active ingredient in this is glycolic acid which helps to ward off any blemishes, heal scars and fight ageing, I was instantly won over by these multi tasking properties!

A full review will be up in a few weeks with pictures of the offending marks for you to decide if it was worth it or not.

Because of the acid effects, using SPF is a complete must so I purchased Avene high protection SPF for intolerant skin.

I've been meaning to get into using SPF and some of my moisturisers have it and others don't, so eventually I just bought this to be done with it and am hoping it doesn't cause me to break out having an extra layer on my face all day.

For £3 I couldn't help but want to see what the fuss was all about with the thermal spring water.

Me and M have had many conversations about it and whether it actually works and in a moment of weakness I snapped up a mini canister to try out whilst working at home on my dissertation. 

I'm looking forward to wearing and using these products asap!!

What have you been buying recently? Have you picked up any bargains?

L xxx

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