Blogilates Review

For about two years now I've regularly attended Pilates class, and I love it. So when my friend told me about Blogilates Youtube channel and app, I knew I had to get it.

The way the app works is that you choose what point of your body you would like to work on and use the videos surrounding this. At my Pilates class we never use music, so the POP Pilates series of workouts are super different and really good as I find it's easier to repeat the Pilates moves to a familiar song. The way Cassey explains and shows the moves is very helpful and not over-complicated.

The thing I've always loved about Pilates is how inexpensive and simple it is, but how much it works your body, and I was super happy to find that the case, the only thing you need for some workouts are weights (or as Cassey says, a heavy piece of fruit or bottle of water will do). These workouts are definitely more difficult than a lot of the stuff we do at our local fitness centre so it's a great way to tone your muscles if you can't afford a gym membership (the app is actually free, with access to a monthly calender costing 0.99p/month)

Another dynamic that I love about this app is the forums. You can login and read through posts with other Pilate's fans before and after shots, recipe ideas and just tips to keep you motivated. I've found it's a great way to find a sense of community in an otherwise solitary app. All of the Before and Afters are so so inspiring and give you such a push and remind you to keep going with it.

Finally, another great feature of this app as opposed to just Casseys YouTube videos is the recipes section. With things as simple as detox water to healthy breakfasts and desserts, the app does give you an all round kick into healthy eating.

Overall this is one of my favourite things to use when I'm trying to up my fitness, the workouts can take from 5-20 minutes, work you really hard and are super easy to fit into your day. I'd recommend this to anyone who's trying to tone up and get fitter for summer!

If you have any tips for easy healthy eating/exercise I'd love to hear them c:

Thankyou for reading! 

Until next time,

Lucy 

xx

I'm back! Summer make up look.

Hey everyone! It's been months since my last proper post, and I'm so excited to be back. I've missed blogging so so much and now exams are over, I can get back to regular posting!

As Summer in the UK has just about started, I thought I'd show you all a summer look I love to wear.

The products used in this post are Rimmel London Stay Matte Primer, Rimmel London BB Cream 9-In-1 Makeup (Light), Naked Flushed, Naked Palette, Naked 3 Palette,  Benefit Browzings Kit (Medium), Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion, Rimmel London Lash Accelerator Endless Mascara,  Tanya Burr Lipgloss in First Date , Rimmel Colour Rush Balm in Shade 'All You Need Is Pink'

 During the summer months, I really dislike wearing foundation as it always feels so heavy on my skin. Usually I tend to go without any kind of coverage on my face, but this year I really wanted to try out some BB Creams. So as a base I have used the Rimmel Stay Matte Primer and the Rimmel 9 in 1 BB Cream. It does actually say the BB cream works as a primer, but I've felt that using an extra primer just helps it last a little longer.

I then took Naked Flushed and put bronzer on my cheekbones, sides of my nose and a light coverage on my face to give me a little more colour and help my cheekbones become more prominent. I tend to only use a light dusting of the Flushed blush as it's quite pink and can become very obvious, whereas I prefer blush to be subtle. I then took the highlighter and used in on the tops of my cheek bones and on my nose.
And voila, there's my base! Nothing fancy, just a quick simple bit of contouring.

For my eyes I used the Urban Decay Primer Potion, to make sure my shadow lasted all day and had no creases (not that I've ever had that issue with the Naked palettes). I then used just the powder from the Brow Zings Kit to shape and define my eyebrows (doing the best I could, in need of getting them done again!)

For the actual shadow, I used Half Baked as an all over colour. I love the sparkle and gold of this colour, it's super summery and brings out the blue in my eyes. I then used Trick from Naked 3 from the outer corner to the middle of my eyelid to create a more varied colour. I then used Mugshot from Naked 3 along the crease and in the very outer corner of my lids, and finally the matte colour of Dark Horse as a softer eyeliner, as liquid liner can often run and make my eyes itchy in the heat. 

I put Dark Horse on my lower lash line and put Half Baked over the top to create a soft, shimmery and smoky liner look.

To finish this off I just applied mascara to define and extend my lashes (using my old favourite mascara, it's in like every blog post I've written I think!)

(so I totally forgot to take a picture of my lip gloss and balm up close... Oopth!)

I really like two coloured lips at the moment, so for this I took the Rimmel Colour Burst Balm and put it all over my lips. I adore this colour and find it quite pinky, which is an odd choice for me, as for lip colours I usually stay quite dark or neutral. I adore these balms because they're super pigmented and so so moisturising!

I then used Tanya Burrs lip gloss and put it on the centre of my bottom and top lip, dabbing it on and blending it out, to create a sort of 'gradient' look. Tanya's lipgloss's are also super moisturising and not too sticky.

And that's that! Here's the overall look I created, I hope you like it. I'm super glad to be back and cannot wait to start blogging more again!

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this!

Lucy

xx

Life Update/Hiatus

Hi lovelies, 

I know I haven't updated in a while, sadly this is gonna be a short post to update you on why this has been the case. 

As I've mentioned before, I'm in my first year of college. It's getting to exam season, and exam season for me means a lot of stress. As well as all of that I've been trying to juggle learning to drive and working 15 hours + a week, which means I have minimal amounts of spare time. 

I love blogging and I've really enjoyed taking it up as a hobby this year, but I'll be honest - posting regularly takes a lot of time and effort, especially when I'm as picky as I am. At the moment, I'm really struggling to find that effort, especially when all my free time is spent trying to chill out or revise. I mean, I know I could throw together a few crappy, rushed posts about things I really don't care about but I really like spending my time and creating something I'm proud of. 

So, to cut a long story short, I will rarely be posting on here until end of June- beginning of July when I have more time, which really sucks. However, I think I've gotta have my priorities and unfortunately blogging has to stay in the background for now.

I hope you all understand and stick around until I can resume posting regularly again, have a fantastic few months.

Until next time,

Lucy

xxx

Primark False Nails Review

Over the past few years, Primark and I have developed a very intense love - hate relationship. I've had issues with a lot of products from there, yet others have become absolute favourites. My main gripe with our local store is how messy and disorganised it is, but seeing as it had all been redone in the past few months I thought I'd check it out.

Now I have quite long nails as it is, but I am absolutely terrible with painting them. I get impatient and bored, if I somehow manage to paint and dry them properly, it's almost a guarantee that I'll pick off the varnish. So for a while I was having shellac done, which I personally loved. However as it does, money and lack of time meant I had to stop having it done. 

Last Monday I was just having a little wander around the shop when I spotted the adorable cat false nails (middle bottom of picture) and completely fell in love with them. Half impulse, half 'they're only a pound so if they're naff it's not put me out of pocket' I bought them and rushed home to apply them. I have to admit I didn't have high hopes for the product, thinking they'd maybe last a few hours?

I was pleasantly surprised to find out they had in fact last me over a week. I'll admit, I did have to reglue three or four of them, but seeing as I constantly have to peel off price labels at work and wash up at home, I'm extremely happy with how long they've lasted. It also helps that they didn't look tacky, I think I've had four or five compliments over how good they look, some people even assumed they were salon done!

Today I popped back into town and bought the four more you see in the picture, so I'll be road testing them over the next few weeks. They have tons and tons more absolutely gorgeous patterns and block colours so I'd recommend these massively!

Instagram

Instagram

Thanks for reading!

Lucy

xx

Boots 3 for 2 Haul!

As most of you probably know, boots once again have their infamous 3 for 2 offer on all beauty and skincare products. n need of a few essentials and also had some spare money to finally buy some products I've been lusting over the past few months.I did only limit myself to 7 products as I'm trying to reduce my spending!

After using the Rimmel Wake Me Up foundation for quite a while I decided I needed a change. Seeing countless bloggers rave about the Rimmel Match Perfection (Light Porcelain - I know, I'm so pale!)persuaded me to buy it and it's absolutely flawless. It gives me amazing coverage, whilst feeling light on my face as if I'm barely wearing foundation. I also think it lasts quite a while. I prefer this to my Wake Me Up foundation because the shade just suits my skin and applies better. 

To go with my new foundation, I decided to finally give in and get the Real Techniques Foundation Brush. It's ten times better than the Avon one I had, the bristles are incredibly soft and the product applies better when using it. Once again real techniques have shown to be a fantastic brand. 

The other Real Techniques brush I picked up was the New Silicon Eye Liner Brush, I recently found a gel eye liner that I loved and I knew I'd binned the brush that came with it, the silicon aspect makes it super easy to clean, and it means the liner just glides on. I've also been using it with the naked palette's with a little water as an eye liner substitute.

I was planning on branching out and trying a new mascara, but in the end I couldn't quite make up my mind and I was running out of time, so I just picked up another Rimmel Lash Accelerator Endless Mascara which I spoke about in my first blog post. 

The last three products I picked up were definitely impulse buys. The Bourjois Colour Boost lip crayon was something I spotted whilst finding a colour for my friend. The shade I bought (Plum Russian) is a beautiful deep, berry colour that is super glossy and smooth on the lips. Granted I do have to apply it a few times a day, but it's super moisturising and gives off the richest colour. I love the 'crayon' style that seems to be around at the moment so I'll definitely be buying more of these! 

Yet another Rimmel product I liked the look of was the Stay Matte Primer. I didn't actually own a primer before now, and I felt like I was missing out on something. When I have time to use this, I do notice that my foundation and powder last for longer, and also that my foundation applies 10x better then just on my bare skin! 

 Finally, I picked up a Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint from Barry M in Guava. I just adore the colour of it and felt I was in need of new nail polish, this does actually chip quite easily without a top coat but the gorgeous colour makes up for it!

Have you purchased anything in the massive 3 for 2 offer? If so let me know what products you've loved!

Lucy

xx

Brighton Trip

So, I've written this post about 10 times, but today I am finally going to finish it. On February 19th (I know, this is super late) I went to Brighton, a place that I've fallen in love with over the past few months, as it's so cute I thought I'd share my day with you!

The first stop on our trip was the beloved bric-a-brac shop that's hidden in the lanes. It's one of my favourite places, purely because they sell everything from suits of armour to fur coats to vintage Dalek's and amazing suitcases. The shop itself is huge and made up of tons of different individual sellers displays, it's such a quirky layout and gives the impression of an 'organised mess'. I love how different one corner is from the next- oh and upstairs they have incredible vintage and hand made clothing that is so beautiful (and super expensive, oh the downside of being a poor teenager).

  

Image source

Our next stop was the incredible West Cornwall Pasty Co. . Now, when I found out we were going to Brighton again, I was super excited to find a cute cafe that sold pretty little sandwiches and cakes, not once did I think about Pasties. My god am I glad we did though. They are so tasty, they range from your bog standard (but delicious) cheese & onion, to the slightly more unusual Chicken & Spicy Chorizo (also delicious). and seeing as they cost around £4 and are super filling, it was definitely a good choice!

Just across the road from the pasty shop, there is the cutest little vintage book shop. I adore reading and book stores are one of the few places that help me relax and unwind. So of course, I was in my element here. After like half an hour of marvelling at the awesome selection, we finally picked up a couple of books, I bought a collection of Hans Andersens fairytales that was published in around 1929 and is super pretty.


Whilst on the conversation of literature, Brighton is full of comic book stores, it made our forbidden planet in Southampton look totally inadequate. We found around 3 in walking distance of each other and of course, we then spent ages freaking out                                                   over all the merch and fantastic comics! Oh to be                                                 near a comic book store, the things I could buy...

Red Velvet cupcake from my IG

Before I show you all what I spent all my money on I feel you should all know about the incredible yummy-ness that Angel Food Bakery. It's a gem hidden in the lanes that we found kind of hard to get to, but the cakes make it so worth it! I went there first in October on recommendation from a friend and it was incredible. The cakes are so so delicious, and the icing isn't overly sweet which is fab because it's the thing I hate when it comes to cupcake shops. And the fact that they're like £2 is incredible, but fair warning they are so so moreish.

And last but not least, time to talk about the mini haul that I came back with from the day. 

I think it comes as no surprise to you all that I visited Lush, I'd try to cover and say I only bought like two bath bombs, but I actually bought around six. The Brighton Lush shop is super cute and all of the bath bits looked extra good! In the end I came home with Dreamtime, Ceridwen's Cauldron, Lord Of Misrule (Limited Edition so no link to the site!), Avobath, Blackberry Bath Bomb and Honey Bee. Thank god for budgeting and friends stopping impulse buys, otherwise I'd have come home with only Lush products!

I finally got around to purchasing a new powder. Rimmel Stay Matte Powder is fantastic and so much better then my Maybelline Fit Me powder. As a congratulations for finally moving away from that horrible product, I thought I'd also buy myself a Real Techniques Powder Brush, I can safely say it's flawless. The bristles are super soft and it evenly distributes the powder to give my skin an amazing finish. Since Brighton I may have encouraged a Real Techniques obsession as I've bought two since - but that's for another day...

We somehow ended up near a Debenhams, which is never a good thing because Debenhams means Urban Decay, and Urban Decay means I spend all my money. I've had my eye on the Naked Flushed Palette for a while now and as it was triple points on beauty products, I just had to buy it. I actually wrote a bit about it in my February Favourites Post.

Finally I picked up a couple bargain every day clothing pieces. On the left of the picture you can see the flannel shirt. I absolutely adore it and I wear it quite often with a black skater dress just to give me an extra something to keep a look casual, and for £5 I can't complain. It's super comfortable and is a Mens fit, so super baggy! And then I just picked up a baggy jumper for casual wear, once again for £5. It's nothing special but it's super comfortable and will be perfect for days when I can't really be bothered with my outfit!

I hope you enjoyed this post, sorry if it was a bit long? 

Idk it was hard to write!

Lucy 

xx

Leibster Award!

I checked my inbox today to see that I'd been nominated for a Liebster award by the lovely Emily (theoxfordshopper) , I've seen a lot of bloggers do these but I never thought someone would add me to do it, so thank you!

The Rules

1. You must link back to the blogger who nominated you

2. You have to state 11 facts about yourself

3. You have to answer the 11 questions given to you by the blogger who nominated you

4. You have to nominate 11 other blogs (with under 300 followers) and set 11 questions for them to answer

5. You can't nominate the person who nominate you

6. You have to tell the nominee that they have been nominated by you

11 Facts

1. My main goal in life is to be a Forensic Scientist and it's something I've been interested in since I was Eleven. 

2. My favourite colour is blue, and I tend to always buy and wear blue or black clothes. 

3. I have an intense hatred for banana's that goes beyond a normal dislike for food.

 4. My natural hair colour is brown, I've been dying it red/ginger for five years. 

5. I'm incredibly not organised and I find it very difficult to stick to a routine (hence the lacking posts sorry everyone!) 

6. I adore Welsh and Scottish accents, I could listen to people talk with them for days.

7.Even after quitting gym like 7 years ago, I can still somehow do the splits and am quite flexible.

8. I find it really difficult to write facts out about myself, this has taken me over an hour.

9. I have two dogs (a jack russell & a great dane) and 3 cats.

10. I love Disney and I've seen The Little Mermaid so much I can recite quotes whilst I watch.

11. I have like no hobbies, unless you count reading and blogging.

Questions From Emily

1. Have you ever met any celebrities? I've met a few people I see as celebrities, from bands I like. For example I've met Mayday Parade and Boys Like Girls. And I've also met quite a few authors (Darren Shan, Derek Landy & Terry Pratchett)

2. What's your guilty pleasure? It's gotta be my love for all these incredibly cheesy - One Direction, Glee and cliché romance films.

3. What's the first thing you notice when you meet someone for the first time? Honestly? Their eyes, I'm a big sucker for really pretty eyes and eyelashes.

4. What's something you want to do before you die? I want to travel the world and see as many places and meet as many people as I can.

5. Are you a pessimist or an optimist? A pessimist

6. If you could have a dinner party with 5 people of your choice, dead or alive, who would you choose, and why? Hannah Hart - because I admire her and I feel she'd be really good at the whole interesting dinner conversation, David Attenborough because he's incredible and well, I could meet David Attenborough... Sylvia Plath just for the pure reason that the bell jar is such an incredible book and her poetry is amazing, I'd love to just have a conversation with her. Hank & John Green (they count as 1 they're brothers) because I think they'd have great dinner table conversations, and again I'd like to show my appreciation for them. Lastly, umm Dylan O'Brien because he's a top class cutie and I'd just really like to meet him

7. Favourite fictional character? Ah either Will Herondale from The Infernal Devices, Tris Prior from Divergent, Margo Roth Spiegelman from Paper Towns or Bitterblue from the Graceling series.

8. What's something everyone loves but you hate? Pickled Onions. I eat them by the jar load which is super gross but they're so tasty.

9. Favourite pizza topping? BBQ base, cheese and peperoni.

10. Are you an early bird or a night owl? Definitely a night owl, I don't do early mornings.

11. Winter, spring, summer, or autumn/fall? Spring is definitely my favourite. I love winter temperatures and snow but it makes me so miserable. I always feel like Spring is the beginning of something happy, y'know? Like the light after months of darkness.

Ah even thought that took me so long to write, thankyou for nominating me Emily, it was super fun!

I'm going to nominate the five people I follow that are under 300!

Katie - andtherestfollows.blogspot.co.uk

Shelley - shelleybusby.blogspot.co.uk

Isabelle - isabellelauderrobb.blogspot.co.uk

Jordan- jdaisygauntlett.blogspot.co.uk/

My Questions
1. If you could meet one celebrity, who would it be and why?
2. What book has changed the way you look at life?
3. What's one beauty product you couldn't live without?
4. How easy to do you find it to introduce yourself to a new group of people?
5. Top 5 favourite bands?
6. Are you introverted or extroverted?
7. What's your biggest aim for the future?
8. What is your favourite time of year and why?
9. In an argument, are you more likely to apologise or wait for someone to apologise to you?
10. What's your favourite feature?
11. If you could have any animal in the world as a pet, what would it be?

Thankyou for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

Lucy 

xx