Celtic Manor - Pamper at the Manor

Hey All

Last Monday we were lucky enough to be invited to a pamper evening at Celtic Manor. It's a spa I've been dying to go to for ages and we both love a good spa day so couldn't wait to head there.

Celtic Manor is a huge hotel with two separate types of accommodation within the hotel and lodges on site, golf course and many other activites for an stay including the Forum Spa.

This place is huge and after going in a different entrance to L I promptly got lost, the staff instantly impressed me as I must have been looking lost a member of staff walked out of a conference room to ask if I needed help.

On arriving we were taken to the changing rooms where we all had our own personalised lockers filled with robes, towels and some treats. The robes were so big and comfy I wanted to just stay lounged in it.

Once we'd all gotten changed we were welcomed with Champagne and chocolate covered strawberries and taken into the main reception. The forum spa uses Elemis and Leighton Denny products which are two brands I love. Elemis skincare is a current favourite of mine and my skin always feels better after using it.

On the evening we got to have back, neck and shoulder massages, Elemis Biotec Facials, AND a file and polish. We were also allowed to explore the spa area and got to see the treatment room for the Elemis Herbal Steam Temple. The room was beautiful and felt like somewhere in Morocco with the amazing tiles floor and sparkly ceiling. This is a treatment I think I'll be booking if I visit again. You get three different types of mud to apply to different areas of the body and get to relax on the heated seats. At the end of the treatment a rainforest type shower starts. How amazing does that sound!



Every area of the spa felt luxurious and I loved that even the toilets has Elemis products to use. A great feature that we all agreed was great was that the women's changing rooms had a female only sauna, jacuzzi and steam room. This is great for days where you maybe don't want to be around too many people. I imagine this would be really popular area for groups of women enjoying a spa day.

The main swimming pool is one of the most beautiful I've seen. With an amazing mural on the ceiling and massive glass windows behind the hot tub so you can look out to beautiful scenery. It felt so relaxing in there and the swimming pool was a decent size.



The make up was something we of course couldn't resist a little swatch of. These eye shadows were such pretty, easy to wear, everyday colours.

Here I am enjoying my massage chair. We were a bit dubious of the chairs but it was so easy to relax on them. These were put up in a lovely chill out area with sun loungers and magazines. This area also has massive windows with green fields to look out on. We're already planning a day spa trip here and looking forward to some chill time in this area.



The files and polish all uses Leighton Denny products. There were an amazing range of colours. L went for a gorgeous pearl shimmer shade. I couldn't resist a gorgeous greige colour. I've had Leighton Denny manicures before. They always last a resonable amount of time. For me no polish lasts that long without chipping.











We've saved the best till last here. The Biotec Facials. This link explains all the types fully. This is a new and exclusive treatment. There are a combination of seven, target specific treatments to offer personalised facials with great results.

L went with the Resurfacing Facial while I went for the Radiance facial. They both started with a cleanse of the skin followed by a tool that gave the skin a gentle exfoliation. This felt a bit weird at first and made a buzzing sound like you'd expect an ultra-sonic tool to. Next up I had a mask put on then the rollers were used to massage the mask into the skin. L's facial then moved onto a light treatment to help treat scars and fine lines. 

We both felt so relaxed during these and loved how soft our skin felt after. This is another thing we've said we need to go back for more and imagine that if this could be done on a monthly basis we'd really notice the difference in our skin.




The Celtic Manor offer great spa days for all budgets and can include stays in the hotel (Obama stayed here during the NATO talks!!)  and meals. We'll definitely be back.

They even hold bootcamp weekends with Lucy Mecklenburgh (from TOWIE and Results with Lucy) and to experience a bootcamp with her would be amazing!! They consider the whole package in these weekend deals so you get food, exercise classes and wellbeing talks which would be great to listen to.

Huge thanks to Celtic Manor Forum Spa for the amazing treatments and totally relaxing us after some busy weeks.
We also left with an amazing goodie bag of Elemis products so we will be sure to review them when we manage to try them all out - we have been completely overwhelmed with the generosity of Celtic Manor, their customer service is second to none.


Love L and M

xxx

      

Avon Big and Daring Mascara

Hey All

If you've read this blog for a while you'll know I love trying new mascaras and with my mum doing Avon I regularly get to try those as she buys me them before they get released.

The Big and Daring mascara is one I've had sat in my stash for a while but as I'm a fan of big volumised lashes I figured it should come out of the stash.

The packaging is simple black and while with quite a fat tube. I guess added to the big part of the name. The brush is a huge bristle brush which is my favourite type. I'm not a fan of plastic brushes in general and find for how I like my lashes bristle brushes work better. There seems to be a built in filter which stops the brush coming out of the tube with thick layers of mascara on it. The brush also has a slight curve to it which really helps to lift the lashes.

Here you can see how big the brush is and how well the shape of it lifts the lashes up from root.

This curl stays on my lashes all day.

This is with two coats of mascara on. It really thickens my lashes and is a really black colour. It adds length and lifts the lashes too. The brush although big doesn't leave me with loads of mascara all over my face. It can sometimes dispense too much onto the tips of my lashes and leave them looking a little clumpy if I'm not careful.

All in all though a great mascara that seems to do it all. It also lasts all day and doesn't leave any marks in my concealer which I find some mascaras can drift down into it. It's also easy to remove with normal cleanser at the end of the day!

Have you used any Avon Mascaras? I find I love most of them. You can always grab avon through a representative or directly online.

Love M

xxx

Fitness Friday: 5 Ways to Swap Fixed Weight Machines for Free Weights

Morning!

I'm really getting back into my routine so I thought I'd share some ways I'm trying to vary some exercises and make my time spent in the gym the most efficient.
Swapping out using your fixed weight machines for free weights is a great way to use more muscles and burn more fat. So here's my top ones to swap out!

1) Seated Leg Extension. This trains your quads, the huge leg muscle at the front of the thigh.
Now I think we all know that isolating your quads from other leg muscles isn't going to get the results that you want very quickly.
Squats will most definitely help your quads and glutes together, ranging from wide leg squats to one leg pistol squats.............ooh err!

2) Seated Chest Press. This trains your pectoral or chest muscles.

Using your upper body muscles is much better when you use them all at the same time, performing push ups will not only use your chest muscles but your core and shoulders too. Doing them on a box as an incline push up will maximise all of these muscles and help you build up to full push ups when you're strong enough.


3) Seated Leg Press. Another that targets the leg muscles, including quads, glutes and hamstrings.
As mentioned above, squats are the best exercises for these muscles groups. Starting with body weight squats get used to the movement and ensure your form is perfect before progressing to holding weights in each hand or even a barbell.


4) Bicep curl machine. Pretty self explanatory, but I have to admit I really don't get this one!
I'm not sure why you'd use this fixed weight machine when you can pick up a pair of dumbbells and perform a better bicep curl and engage more of your muscles therefore burning more calories and fat.

The same goes for the tricep version, you can do so much more with tricep dips!


5) Any Ab machine such as a Seat rotation or Cruncher. I used to use these all the time and I can honestly say that I never saw any results from using them.
I hate to stick with everyone else but planks are the signle best exercise you can do for your core, you see progress really quickly and just need to persevere. I try to alternate normal planks with side planks, with and without pulsing my hip up and down and curling my arm underneath and back out again. 

Using bodyweight exercises are so much better than fixed weight machines. Not only do you use more muscles because you engage your core and require more muscles to help balance your body during the exercise, but you can see faster results and that's something I can agree with having experienced it myself!

What's your favourite bodyweight exercise? Do you have any favourite routines?

L xxx

Review: Clarins Beauty Flash Balm

Good morning!

This month is just flying past, is it really the 29th already?? Crazy!

Today's review is of a well renowned product in the beauty world that has been around for a while.
Clarins Beauty Flash Balm is a so called wonder product, it's an instant radiance booster that helps to minimise signs of fatigue. It not only acts as a primer but also a moisturiser and mask in one. Is this much of a wonder product even possible??

Allegedly you can use this in place of your normal moisturiser for when you need a bit more of a radiance boost, and as a mask for those reeeeeally long weeks where you just need something to SAVE your skin!

It contains four active ingredients with very specific jobs:

• Witch Hazel and Olive tree extracts tighten and promote radiance

• Algae extract revitalises

• Bisabolol soothes and softens

• Rice Starch purifies the epidermis

I've heard plenty about witch hazel over the years but the others I've not heard of so much. Clarins are generally pretty good at using different natural ingredients in their products though so this doesn't bother me too much.

The packaging is pretty standard for Clarins, their very iconic red and white packaging is simple but distinctive.
This balm comes in 50ml tubes and can be purchased from many department stores, online and if you're lucky in duty free too - always looking for a bargain!

So what did I think? Well I used this mainly as a primer. I did apply it as a moisturiser too on top of my normal moisturiser and I'm pleased to say my skin did look more 'awake' and slightly brighter after use.
As a primer I thought it also worked well, my make up stayed on my face just as well as any other primer I have used. It didn't feel like it was covering my skin as it sunk in like a moisturiser, I'd say this one works as a primer because it creates the perfect base with your own skin, rather than covering it and creating a base for your make up to 'stick' to.......if that makes sense?!

The product itself is a pale apricot kind of colour, and I find this helps it to blend in seamlessly. It really does just disappear!

I haven't used this as a mask, my skin needs a lot more hydration than this could give me and so it is unlikely I would use it as one. I pretty much use hydration masks daily at the moment as it's the only way!

That said, this product has been a fun buy. I've always wanted to try it and I'm glad that after all this time I've had the chance to try such a cult product.

One of my favourite things about it is the fact that even though it is brightening and radiance boosting....it's not glittery at all! Not in the slightest, not even the tiniest hint of a shimmery particle that I could see.

You can snap this up from Escentual for £25.50 at the moment, instead of the full price of £29.

Have you tried the Beauty Flash Balm? What did you think?

Do you like trying cult beauty products? What's next on your list?

L xxx