Garmin Vivosmart HR Review

Hey All

It's been quite a while since I shared fitness related stuff on the blog. Lately I tend to just do kickboxing. It's what I love and I've just recently got to a senior grade in it. I love learning new kicks and punches and the workout it gives me but I'm also aware I need to up my general fitness as well. Around Christmas time I decided it was time to see what this whole fitness watch craze was about and after lots of research decided the Garmin Vivosmart HR was the one for me. There was a lot of debate between the Garmin Vivosmart HR and the Fitbit Charge HR (which L now has and I'm sure she'll share her thoughts on it with you).

I do think the fitbit looks better but I preferred some of the functionality of the Garmin (and in the end it was £10 cheaper than I could find the fitbit for!). The Garmin Vivosmart HR comes in three colours in regular size black, midnight blue and imperial purple (which I have) and in the extra large size comes in black.

The display on it is quite large but I like that. It clearly displays the time and date and then when you swipe through shows you steps and what your target it, it does the same for floors climbed, it shows weekly active minutes and how many you should aim for, calories burnt, distance walked and heartrate as well as display average resting heartrate. When connected with a phone you can read new messages and notifications on your phone, control your music and see the weather. I love how many features you can access with just swiping through.

Then by clicking the button which you can see on right of the photo above you access a new window where you can start a run, put the watch in sleep mode (so you don't receive notifications), see alarms set, sync it to your phone, access settings and a few other options.

Here you can see the heartrate monitor. As I have nothing to compare it too as I've never monitored my heartbeat I can't judge how accurate it is but it recieves good reviews and I love that now having this when I exercise the calories I've burnt are now more accurately counted rather than going by what myfitness pal tells me. Another thing I love is that you can connect it to your myfitness pal as well as other apps and it then synchronises that information to what the watch has logged.

The strap on it is secure and fastens like a normal watch. I usually wear it on the 4th or 5th whole from the top so it's a secure fit.

To get the most from the watch you connect it up to the app. The app allows you to see all previous data and addition information such as sleep and calories consumed. You can click on each of the options for more information on them too. You can see alarms through the app which I really like. The alarm feature if something I'm enjoying, I like waking up to a subtle vibrate on the wrist rather than loud alarm sounds. You can also make running and walking tracking more accurate by setting your stride distance. I'm yet to do this as I've not measured mine to know but as I walk it seems pretty accurate at calculating mine. You put in height and weight as you set it up so it goes on an average of those anyway. 

Other features I love is that it is waterproof so I don't have to worry about wearing it in the shower and it can track activities such as swimming as it's waterproof to 5 ATMs which I know some of the equivalent trackers aren't. 

Overall I love it so far, it's easy and very quick to charge. It lasts a good few days and I if it runs out mid day I charge it for an hour at my desk and I'm good to go again. It really does make me more conscious of how active I am and pushes me to do those extra steps on day's I've not quite made it.

Have you got a fitness tracker? How do you find it?

Love M

xxx

Miss Patisserie Spring Blogger Event

Good morning!

This weekend we were invited to an event at the Miss Patisserie store to see their new collection and it was so much fun!

The store was as beautiful as always, and there were so many lovely products to have a look at and smell that we got stuck in as soon as possible.

The store is really well laid out and although simple, everything is easy to access and it looks really stylish.
The use of wooden crates on the walls for each type of bath bomb looks really cool, and also extremely difficult to choose what you want as they all look amazing!

The window display is always a favourite, the rows of their bath bakes are so pretty and the flowers cascading all along the window are perfect for spring time. In fact I'd like to have a wall of these flowers in my house!

We browsed the store and basically tried as many products as we could.

Charlotte was in store and lovely as always, she showed us a few different scrubs, body butters and dry oils. I never really thought too much of scrubbing and moisturising my hands but dear lord, my hands were so soft that it was unbelievable - I will certainly be paying them a lot more attention from now on.

M particularly liked the sound of the coffee scrubs, they have three different types and are supposed to be great for cellulite.

During our demonstration Charlotte showed us the Bath Crumble, which is basically a bag full of crushed up bath bombs. The bath art is beautiful, with all of the colours mixed together the patterns and swirls are amazing!

They have a great range of candles too, lots of different scents and the lemon grass one particularly caught my eye. Citrus scents are my favourite!
I bought my mum a candle at Christmas and she loved the scent, the candle didn't last very long as she had it lit all the time.

The facial oils have been something I've had my eye on for a while but as I've got two in my stash at the moment I am trying to wait out and buy it when I've run out. The Goji oil is definitely the one I'd choose, it smells great and a tiny bit goes a long way!

The Bath Shards are a new addition and look really exciting, they are large flat pieces that you can snap off and place into the bath. There are three types altogether and one has a bit of fizz in. I can't find the full info on the website yet but you really need to try these, for £2.80 you can get a packet and you just need to snap off a section and let it melt in the bath water.

There were so many new things and beautiful sets to try out, and with some discount available on the day me and M both spent so much! We have a lot of posts coming up with plenty of beautiful bath bombs and wonderful smelling products, have you got any favourites from Miss Patisserie that you would recommend??


We can't wait to try out everything!


L and M xxx

Lush Intergalactic Bath Bomb

Hey all!

Lush bath bombs are a blogger fave - and we are not any different. It has taken me a long time to come around to baths as normally I prefer showers and don't have the time or patience to run a bath and lie in it - I get twitchy!

However, now that I have my own house and as a consequence not having much money, baths have become a treat for me and I've been enjoying catching up on all of the bath bombs and bubble bars that Lush have to offer - it's hard but someone has to do it, right?

Today's review is all about the infamous Intergalactic bath bomb. It has had many many reviews and instagram posts (you can check out mine @thecsigirls!) but I couldn't resist sharing my own thoughts too.

The bath bomb starts by looking like the image below, blue with streaks of pink and a hint of sparkle.

Dunking it into my bath and giving it a spin was the best start, the blue colour just exploded everywhere and the bath bomb fizzed away.

After a few short minutes the whole bath was a really dark blue and glittery, that was when the pink, yellow and green started to come through.

Can't resist setting the scene with a few products and candles too!

This bath bomb contains peppermint oil, grapefruit oil, vetivert oil and cedarwood oil so it is really uplifting and invigorating. Peppermint and grapefruit are some of my favourite scents and I obviously loved the art work in the bath too!

The Intergalactic Bath Bomb will set you back £3.95 and it's worth all of the pennies for a beautiful scene of space in your own bath - I mean making your own constellations in your bath is pretty cool!

Have you tried Intergalactic? Of course you have! Isn't it a dream?!

L xxx

Celtic Manor Resort: Chocolate Afternoon Tea

Hey All

A few weeks ago we decided to visit Celtic Manor for Afternoon tea to celebrate L's birthday. L had been previously and I'd been looking for a reason to try it out. We both love The Celtic Manor spa and are always looking for reasons to visit. 

On at the moment (until the 19th June) is the Chocolate Afternoon Tea. You can see the afternoon tea options here. I was excited to try this as I've only been for traditional and gin afternoon teas before.

Above you can see the menu selection. This is placed on each place setting so you can easily identify what you are eating as it comes out and it also states the allergy information of each item on it. Firstly we were asked what tea we would like and both went for English Breakfast. It was a tough choice as we are both big tea drinkers but wanted to start traditional.

Then our tower of treats were delivered (scone come out later!). It really was visually impressive and for ease the plates lift out so you can move them towards you to save from constantly leaning over. At first I was concerned by the large amount of cakes so got stuck straight in. The first one I tried was the triple chocolate cube which wasn't at all what I expected but really delicious, I wasn't expecting the soft jelly like texture but it was a nice surprise. My favourite was definitely the chocolate raspberry and almond tart. The raspberry made it so fresh and gave it a lift!

I like to wash cake down with sandwiches so that I don't end up feeling too sick. The cheese and plum chutney was especially delicious. If we're honest though we were both disappointed with the size of the sandwiches. They were tiny!! Much smaller than normal afternoon tea and with such a sweet afternoon tea a little more sandwich would be nice. The fillings were lovely though. 

The little chocolate coffee cups were a great touch! I love the attention to detail that really goes into making each dessert look amazing!

Once you're done with the stack above a warm chocolate chip scone gets delivered to the table!! These were so tasty!! I love the edition of chocolate in a scone and the rum and raisin stop it being overly sweet!

The chocolate afternoon tea is definitely worth a visit and makes a tasty change! It's costs £19 Monday to Friday, and £27 on the weekends.

Are you a fan of afternoon tea? Have you tried afternoon tea at Celtic Manor?

Love L and M

xxx