T2 Tea - T2 Choc

Morning all!

As with most British people, we are also tea addicts. We love a normal Tetley brew but also love trying out herbal and loose leaf teas. My brother knows this and he bought me the T2 Choc loose leaf tea selection box when he went to Bath.

It was a lovely surprise and I've been really enjoying trying out the flavours, but first up, look at the funky packaging!

How funky is it?! I love the contrasting colours and the writing, I wonder what it actually says!

The T2 Choc contains 10 loose leaf tea sachets of varying flavours, I'd say each sachet would make a small pot of tea or two cups. This is extremely useful as sometimes I've botched the first cup by making it too strong or adding milk when I shouldn't!

Each sachet does have it's own instructions, including the temperature of the water, the brewing time and what you need to enjoy it with.

This was a god send as at the time I was still a novice with loose leaf tea!





The first flavour I tried was Choc Chip Chai, and it didn't disappoint. However it did have a lot of cloves, and I missed the part when it said to add milk and honey....

My second cup of it was beautiful though, so I was glad that I did it in two sittings. I took out a few cloves and added the milk and honey and it was awesome. I was eagerly awaiting my next cup to try a different flavour.

Also in the box was White White Cocoa, Terrific Toffee, Red Choc Mint, Cocoa Loco, Caramel Brownie, Chocolate, Jade Mountain, Lamington and Creme Brulee.

I've tried most of the dessert sounding flavours - Terrific Toffee, Caramel Brownie and Creme Brulee all smell and taste really good, although I think the smells are particularly inviting!

I've still got a few to try out but I've been really impressed with this box and the selection it has to offer so far.
I'm a bit disappointed that I can't find it on their website, it's quite hard to navigate through and I couldn't find it. Maybe it's a store exclusive or something but I would have liked to know if I could buy it again and see how much it is.


Are you a tea fan? Do you like trying out loose leaf teas like this?

L xxx

FOTD - Current Favourites

Hey All

It's been a long time since I've shared any favourite make up or done a face of the day so I thought I'd combined the too and show you some of the products I've been reaching for the most lately.

I love the difference make up makes to my features. Being pale and with light hair means my features can get lost without make up so I can't be without brows and mascara!

Products used:

• Kat Von D Shade and Light Eye Contour Palette
• Mac Studio Fix Fludic - NW20
• Body Shop Shade Adjusting Drops - Lightening
• Benefite Brow Zings - Light
• Ebay Brushes
• Real Techniques contour and buffing brush
• Mac 168
• Nars Radiant Creamy Concleaer - Vanilla
• Urban Decay 24/7 Concealer Pencil
• Seventeen Blush - Nude
• Stila One Step Correct Primer
• Urban Decay 24/7 Liner - SmokeOut
• W7 The Queen of Brows - Light Medium 
• Avon Infintize and Aero Volume Mascaras - Black
• Phees Make up Shadows - Peppered, Sphinx, Deadweight and The Original Highlight.
• Mac Amplified Lipstick - Fast Play 

I'm always one for a flawless base but lately I'm really struggling, I seem to be more pale than normal and no foundations are working properly. The Shade adjusting drops have been an amazing find. I've been able to use my foundations that have been sat to one side more and I'm getting a better colour match. Studio fix fluid isn't my favourite Mac foundation I'm more of a pro longwear fan! Browzings has been a regular use since I discovered it. It just gives perfect definition and will always remain a firm favourite. The same goes for the Nar concealer! I love this stuff, it covers sooo well! I fancied a bit of extra brightening this day so used the urban decay concealer underneath too. For me the eyes are always a touch smokey. I love the shimmer in the Phees Shadows and they are just so pigmented!! I used peppered over the lid, with sphinx on the out part of the lid, shades from Kat Von D palette through my crease and deadweight through the outer v to smoke it out then used the UD liner to line my lashline. I added the original highlight to my inner corner to brighten it up and used it as my highlight. I used the Kat Von D palette to contour. The middle large shade is perfect for this I love the colour it is. My cheeks are an old discovery, a random blush I found in my collection but absolutely love. The lips are a shade I can't stop reaching for. It's perfect for everyday and a great neutral shade!

What are your current make up favourites?

Love M

xxx

Life Update

Well hello there!

It has been a reeeeeeeeeeeeeally long time since I've written a life update. There's been a lot going on but nothing too exciting.

Mostly things in my house have been breaking left right and centre - it has been a crazy expensive few weeks and I've used all of my savings to replace and fix things. So when I haven't been trying to sort that out I've been trying to do as many cheap things as possible!

Firstly, my step count on my Fitbit has been shocking. I've been trying to walk before work a few times a week and also on my lunch times to get my count up. Once I get out there I feel so much better, but it can be hard to get up early. The mornings when the weather looks like this really help!






I've even picked up a snazzy new pair of trainers - my other ones were 2 years old and there wasn't any padding inside any more, just the plastic!

As well as this I've been eating as healthily as I can and have joined a new gym. The Vale Resort is a pretty popular place, it's also expensive! I've been going to the local leisure centre since moving to my house but really miss the classes from my old gym which was a members only.

After a 21 day trial I obviously loved it, and joined as a full member. It is expensive but in my eyes, spending £40 a month on a gym that I don't go to is more of a waste than £55 on a gym that I got to 4 times a week and has allllllllllllllllllllll the extras including a personal trainer, sauna and steam room and Les Mills classes.



I've been trying to vary my food as much as possible and get as many veggies in, including trying out zoats. If you haven't heard of zoats before, they are basically zucchini (courgette) oats where you grate half or a full courgette into a bowl of oats and milk to get some extra vitamins into your meal.

I've also got into making rice out of vegetables, grating whatever I have in the fridge including cauliflower, courgette and carrot or even all three to make a bed for some chicken or salmon to go on.
I can't always make it to the gym but I can eat better, so this is a good start!

But sneaking in the odd piece of cake when visiting Waterloo Tea Gardens is always welcome, and when it's a spinach and pistachio cake it barely counts right?!

As well as things breaking in my house, my car has had a bad month. I already had my tax, service and MOT due. After that my car then decided to roll down my drive and into my house as the brake caliper had got stuck and worn away the brakes, a passenger door lock broke, a wing mirror fell off and I also need a tyre! I can't begin to tell you how much it cost and how utterly broke I have been wit also needing to pay for my glastonbury ticket, but I've spent a lot of time at home watching netflix to save every penny and over the last two months have managed to save myself a lot.

It's the grim reality of being an adult but I need my car to get around so selling it isn't an option.

I also had a weekend where my parents went away and I was dog sitting. It was a lush weekend and we had plenty of walks together, he's very active so needs 3 walks a day and loves playing in between. Chasing him around a table is one of his favourites so I was kept very busy! He's a pampered pooch!

Not much more to add than this really, hopefully the next few months will be a lot more exciting. I haven't even been anywhere with work and don't have any plans for the foreseeable future. Fingers crossed a trip comes up soon!

L xxx

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