What's In My Bag Valentines/Night Out Edition

Morning All

My cough is still trying to defeat me so the post I had planned to do will have to wait! As Valentine's day is here on Friday I thought I'd share what I'd take out on a date with me. It's pretty much the same as I'd take out on a night out.

This year I'm technically single. I'm seeing someone but it's complicated (that's a whole other blog post ;)!) so my Valentines is likely to be a girly night in with my housemates. Not that I mind, it's easier! 

I do still like Valentine's day I think if you are in a relationship it is nice to celebrate that and if you aren't it's a good excuse for a girly night. 

For me whether it's for a date or a night out the smaller the bag the better (this only applies if I can actually walk in the shoe of choice otherwise the bag has to have space for flats!). I like to be able to just forget I have it which is why this Ollie & Nic one appeals to me. A purse and bag in one with space for the essentials that I can put over my wrist! It really ticks all the boxes. The gorgeous bright pink and the floral inside print just make it even better. The purse is also only £15!

In the main pocket there is space for cards and cash which make it easy to find and I like that it's not just floating in the bottom.

In the front pocket I keep a powder. A shiny face is never a good look! I love the vintage powder holder I have. My mum picked it up from eBay. I just pop the middle out of the powder I'm using at the time. Some are easier than others!

I usually carry a hairbrush .Not only does it double for a mirror (the one in my powder compact is usually so dirty I can't see my face) but it's handy for this horrible whether. Windswept and fabulous is not something my hair does! 

Mints are a must for me. Extra strong are the preferred. No one wants smelly breath and I always seem to order a massively garlic dish and forget when I'm on a date.

Nars concealer is something I can't be without at the moment. It's amazing. Creamy, great coverage and perfect for any touch ups that may be needed. Or in my case lately to cover up a pesky spot that's decided to appear.

I always like to carry a perfume on me to make sure I'm smelling pretty. The Ted Baker one is one I recently got sent to test and I'm loving. Perfect handbag size, lasts well, reasonable price and smells pretty! They can be purchased from Boots for £15

Lastly lip product of choice! A night out would probably be a lipstick but if I was going out on Valentine's I'd be picking this lip gloss because of the name! Beso which means kiss in Spanish. I was lucky enough to be given it after an Urban Decay event and have been wearing it non stop since the weekend. Non Sticky (perfect for kissing, no guys wants sticky lip gloss), subtle colour that just makes me lips look better and moisturising! The perfect valentine's lip choice! They are available now for £14

What essentials would you take on a date or night out?

Love M

xxx

   this post contains PR samples but opinions are always honest!

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