My week in photos

Morning!!

Apologies for the lack of posts. I've finally caught the dreaded illness that has been circling around my housemates and work colleagues. Yesterday I went to just chill at a friends and be looked after. Nothing better than soup and a cwtch when you're feeling horrible.

I thought I'd share my week in photos with you before I get ready for work. I love having a nosey through photos and seeing what people have been up to!

On Wednesday evening I headed down to the big blue tent and watched the Cardiff Devils take on the Belfast Giants for my second ice hockey match of the week. I absolutely love live ice hockey. It has an amazing atmosphere and is a great game to watch!

On Thursday L and I had a chill and spa day. We'd picked up a voucher before Christmas for a few treatments and afternoon tea (definitely one of my favourite things, cake, cream and tea mmm!!) apart from the most painful massage ever it was a good day and I got another thing ticked of my list. Fish pedicure is something I think I'll only be doing once. We both squealed a bit putting our feet in and had to build ourselves up to do it!

After hearing so many good things about this book I couldn't resist downloading it onto my kindle last weekend. I was hooked so quickly and finished it in 3 days! It was an amazing book but I ended up a crying mess at the end!

On Friday evening L and I were lucky enough to go to a showcase for Urban Decay and see and play with some of the new products that have come out lately. Ffion and Haddie showed us lots of tricks and treats and I couldn't resit treating myself to Naked 3! It's too pretty. The cupcakes matched the new lip glosses which we were lucky enough to take away along with a few other bits. Beso I was instantly drawn to! I love that it means kiss.

Saturday saw the rubgy and a night out! A good result for England. I was so glad we won after last week losing it so late in the game! I love watching Six Nations.

After the rugby we headed out to enjoy a few too many drinks! I certainly suffered on Sunday. A hangover and painful chesty cough were not a great mix!!

So that's been my past week! Last night involved soup and mint chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream (I forgot I wasn't eating chocolate in February so I've got to start again today!) which is amazing!!

Hope you've had good weeks!

Love M

xxx

Lancome Hypnose Mascara

Good morning lovelies!

I hope you're looking forward to your Saturday, me and M have got friends staying today and we're so excited! We're hoping to get a bit of shopping done before some food and then some cocktails and dancing the night away!

Ideally I'd also like to see some of the Wales v Ireland Six nations match....I'm your typical welsh girl loving the rugby and I love nights out after a match so I'm really looking forward to it.

That aside, I've been using another of my Christmas presents (that I bought for myself...) and have been LOVING the effects.

M has long been a big fan of Lancome mascaras and her comments eventually wore me down and I couldn't help but pick up the Hypnose set that they had out in Boots.

The set contains a full size Hypnose mascara along with three miniatures of the Doll Eyes, Drama and Star.
I've heard so much about all of these mascaras, not just from M, but from many bloggers so I was really looking forward to trying these out.

Starting with the packaging I obviously love it. Black and gold simple tubes with the Lancome flower at the top next to the name of each mascara.
I love simplicity so this ticks all the boxes for me although the Hypnose mascara does have a slightly curvier shape than the three miniatures and I still love these.

The Hypnose mascara brush looks pretty normal to be honest and I didn't expect much from it. I do think that some fancy brushes are far too over the top and don't provide anything different to a simple brush but I did think it might have looked a bit more....special? I don't know, looking at the above photo it doesn't look very different to any Rimmel or Collection mascara that are obviously much cheaper and so I didn't expect a lot even after the reviews I've read.

I've mentioned before how I am lucky with my lashes, they are long and thick but generally straight as they REFUSE to curl. Whatever I do (even heated curlers) they don't stay curled at all. I've been tempted to have them professionally done but haven't ever got round to it, any one who has had this done please get in touch!

Because of this I don't find that I need expensive mascaras as I don't generally need the additional length or volume.

Having used this mascara only a few times I was quite honestly surprised and amazed at how much I loved it. It separated my lashes super easily, lengthened them and even, dare I say it, made them appear to be more curled.

You can see from the photos below how my lashes looked after applying just ONE coat of the Hypnose mascara:

I am such a convert to this mascara now I'm finding it hard to leave it alone!

I loved the results and with just one coat for application  that doesn't clump and gives amazing results means that the mascara will also last a bit longer.

I am yet to try the miniatures from the collection (Drama, Doll Eyes and Star) as I've been saving them for when the original Hypnose runs out, but I've got high hopes if they're as good as the first one I've tried!

Have you tried any Lancome mascaras before? Which are your favourites?
Do you have a favourite 'premium beauty' mascara? If so which one?

I'm intrigued to know which other mascaras can be as good as this!

L xxx

Fitness Fridays: Soups!

Good afternoon!

I hope you're all looking forward to your weekends, not many hours to go now!

The last few weeks I've been trying to incorporate soup into my diet as much as possible.
I'm not sure if I've told you much about my diet but I eat breakfast at 6am, have a break at 11am, lunch at 2ish, snack at 5 whilst driving before the gym and my evening meal at 8 when I get home. Its a very long day and I need constant grazing to get me through.

I work in a lab so grazing at a desk isn't something that I can do. I'll be writing about my breakfasts and lunches in future, but my 11am break is currently dedicated to soup. I'm lucky that my mum is super amazing and makes soup weekly, if not twice a week because we all love it. Here's some recipe and flavour suggestions:

My mum is a very big fan of cooking and we rarely have evening meals that aren't 100% prepared by her. We have a slow cooker that is perfect for casseroles, curries, chilli and pasta sauces and if not its freshly cooked stir fry, pasta bakes and fish and veg.

She absolutely loves her Creuset dishes though and most soups are prepared in these. As a general rule, the veg is prepared and chopped, sweated in the Creuset dish on a high heat with 1 cal spray for 5 minutes and then vegetable stock is added. This is then brought to the boil and then simmers for 20 minutes before being whizzed by a hand mixer and ta dah, a home made batch of soup. We normally add in an onion and some garlic to every recipe so these get added in and cooked in the 1 cal spray first and I can tell you it smells AMAZING.

It's super easy and I wish more people would make their own. It's much healthier than tinned soup with preservatives and cream etc thrown into them to make them taste better.


The photo below shows Pea and Courgette soup, its super green and therefore super nutritious with lots of vitamins and antioxidants. When my mum first made it I was a bit worried I'd hate it....but actually its amazing and it's now one of my favourites.

For this recipe you need 3 courgettes with the garlic and onion, and then add a load of frozen peas at the same time you add the stock. My amounts are a little vague I'll admit...measuring in my house is rarely done unless its cakes so just add 2 mugs or so and go from there. They don't take long to cook in the stock so you can always add more!

Another favourite of mine is Sweet Potato and Butternut squash, you can also substitute the butternut squash for carrot as well. I love that it's bright orange! Using squash and pumpkins in soup is a great way to try new vegetables that you haven't tried before, just add them into a soup that you know you like already and the bigger the variety the better.
I think for this one it's normally 3 sweet potatoes and a whole butternut squash.

Leek and potato was my favourite when I was younger as my nan always used to make it. Now though I much prefer my mums recipe (the horror!) as she makes it without any cream, milk etc and I find it tastes much better. For this recipe its a packet of leeks, normally 4 I think? And then 2 medium sized potatoes.
If you feel you need the creaminess you can add milk instead of cream to save on calories, but I find that it's completely pointless and it tastes much better without!

At home we tend to eat soup from these really cute sets from Ikea, thought I try and forget the plate underneath is for bread.....

For work I have one of these pots which you can buy from Asda. They're so handy and you can put any hot food in them, put them in the microwave and depress the button on the lid to allow some steam out.
They're also great for salads especially as you can shake them up and ensure the dressing is equally distributed.

Most of the soups on this page, as they contain only veg and stock, are only around 100 calories per portion. Although I do eat a lot throughout the day (and some people at work definitely made a few comments at me having soup on my 'tea break') by the time I get to 11am I've been awake 5 hours and need some more sustenance. A 100 calorie portion of soup is a great way to fill you up, get more of your 5 a day in and its lovely and warm on these current rainy days.
I follow it up at 2ish with a salad and a yogurt, so i am unlikely to go over my calorie intake!

Do you like soup? What's your favourite flavour? Do you have any recipes you can link me to?

I looooooooove soup and think so many more people should get involved!

L xxx

Hip and Healthy Box

Hey lovelies!

I've got an awesome post for you today. I'm sure you love beauty boxes just as much as I do....but Latest in Beauty have recently brought out their Hip and Healthy* box featuring a whole host of products including organic skincare, free from foods and interesting teas and powders.

They were lovely enough to send me a box to review after they loved my post on their Glamour Beauty Edit box before Christmas so I was very excited as I was already considering buying it when I got paid.

I love the presentation of these boxes, the tissue paper is always gorgeous and its always a feelgood thing to open these boxes with the pretty presentation.

There's a huge and varied selection of items in this box and you can see how tightly packed in they are!

There's a photo below of the full size products so you can see and even an example of a recipe:

Starting with the sachets below we have Teapigs Matcha Green Tea at the bottom, Aduna Baobab, Organic Super Blends Omega 3 powder and Together Health Multi Vitamins.

Teapigs Matcha Green Tea is green tea leaves ground to a fine powder. Just 1/2 a teaspoon has the same benefits as 15 cups of normal green tea.....FIFTEEN!!! That's unbelievable! This means it gives you a natural energy boost for up to 6 hours, has 70 times the antioxidants of orange juice and can boost your metabolism. The also claim that 60% had improved skin, hair and nail condition in just 2 weeks.I cannot wait to try this!

Aduna Baobab is created from the African Baobab and contains 14 essential vitamins and minerals. It is 50% fibre and has one of the highest antioxidant capacities in the world. Nickname the 'Feel Good Fruit' it can hlep with energy, immune system and a reduction of tiredness and fatigue. Not only all this plus it helping your skin look great on the outside it also helps sustain 6-8 million households in rural Africa. You can mix this into shakes, smoothies, yogurt and porridge for a boost your day.

Organic Super Blends have been created to suit different purposes and all are soy, dairy, gluten, wheat and sugar free (woo!). The main ingredient was Chia and then each of the blends; Omega 3, Skin Food, Alkaline Greens or Energise, have their own individual ingredients. These powders can be added in to smoothies, porridge etc for a nutritious boost.

I've just added both of these powders to a smoothie (recipe coming soon!) and can tell you they're both very tasty.

Together Health Multi Vitamins are made from the highest quality natural foods and contains no hidden nasties, not even preservatives, sugars, synthetics, wheat, gluten or lactose. They really are super pills! My sample only contained 4 capsules so I'm afraid I won't be able to comment on the effects of these too much.

As part of the beauty product offering the Neom Organic Hand Cream is packed with antioxidant extracts including Acai and argan oil to aid collagen production and tighten the skin. It's very absorbent and feel thick and luxurious.

Balance Me Cleanse and Smooth Face Balm is an oil based balm with a combination of oatmeal and Arctic cloudberry (never heard of this!) to cleanse and smooth your skin just like a facial would.

Nourish Golden Glow Face Shimmer is a really nice product, a tiny bit goes a long way as its so moisturising. It's totally organic and whilst it's moisturising and helps reduce the appearance of uneven skin tone and age spots it also contains golden mineral powders for a healthy and vibrant glow. The shimmer particles in this are so fine that you can barely see them which I find is best in a highlighter, I don't want a glittery look!

Rude Health Ultimate Granola is a blend of oats, spelt, barley and puffed amaranth bked with honey and date syrup  and roasted nuts to create a breakfast cereal to keep you full until lunch time. My plan is to try this in the morning with Greek yogurt and some blueberries so I'm really looking forward to it! There's no added salt or sugar so you can rest assured that what you're eating is completely guilt free.

Jax Coco is 100% coconut water and is only 50 calories for the whole 250ml. It is allegedly one of the best ways to rehydrate after a workout and give you a natural boost. I mixed this in with the smoothie that I made with the above powders and it was really tasty. I'd definitely mix this into more things in the future!

I have previously posted about Bounce balls before and I'm already a huge fan. I have tried all flavours apart from the Walnut one and would recommend them all. The peanut and almond balls are great for filling you up with protein, the coconut ball is perfect for a sweet snack and the spirulina and ginseng ball is a great pick me up for your immune system.

This box was a great way to try new products as beauty boxes always are, but this box was even better with the new food products and so many different ways to try them out.

I've already made a smoothie with all of the powders and coconut water and will be posting a recipe soon.
Are you a smoothie fan? Do you like clean snack such as granola and bounce balls?

This box can be bought from the Latest in Beauty website for just £9.95 (plus £3.95 P&P) but is worth over £50. You also get a free days pass into a Virgin Active health club which would be a great way to try a new gym.

Do you like beauty boxes? Would you like to try the Hip and Healthy box?

L xxx