Minnie Mouse Face Mask

Whilst in Topshop the other day I noticed something by the till which caught my eye - it was a lil Minnie face mask! Its by a brand called Mad Beauty, and this mask had Rose water in it which is calming to the skin. 

The little image of the mask on the back is a little creepy, so was praying that it didn't look as creepy as I thought. 

It definitely looks a bit weird, no gonna lie... It's quite wet on the face too, you can really smell the rose water too, its fairly pleasant. As its so wet, it does move down the face a fair bit whilst wearing it, but rearranging it a little isn't a huge deal.  

When you take the mask off it leaves a lot of residue on the skin, so you've got loads that you can rub into your skin for a bit of extra moisture. I've got fairly oily skin, and I found this left my skin  feeling a little weird. It's hard to explain, but it felt both dry and tight and oily? Like it felt like there was a weird greasy layer on my skin but also it felt really tight... 

I'm not sure if buy this again, but as it only cost £4 I'm not that bothered about it being a bit weird. Maybe it would be good for you if your skins dry, wouldn't recommend for the oily skinned gals though.. 

Have you tried these masks before? What did you think of them? 

My Reasons for Working Out

Hellooooo! So today we're going fitness-y, with a post all about the reasons I work out! 
So a very obvious reason for working out is to look good, but its not as simple as that, I want to feel good as well as look good. I want more than to look good, I want to feel more comfortable in my own skin, I want to feel stronger and I want to see my body progress and be able to push myself further than I have before. 

- I work out to feel strong
I'm currently on a small "cut" - so basically trying to reduce my body fat percentage for a leaner look overall. Technically I shouldn't be getting stronger whilst cutting but as I'm eating more calories than I originally was back at the start of the year I'm managing to progress a little. 

My back and shoulders have progressed sooo well its unreal, also David says my triceps are bigger than his - I hope hes joking as his arms are huge! lolol
My legs and bum are feeling stronger now too, and the muscles on my legs are definitely getting bigger. 
I'm really excited to see how much more I progress when I start my bulk - basically eating more to feed da muscles. Grow muscles grow!!

- To feel more confidant 
Going back to pole in March gave me so much confidence, and then going regularly to the gym with David in May gave me even more confidence. I never in a million years thought that I'd be going to the gym 5/6 times a week, and I honestly never thought I'd be brave enough or confidant enough to go to the gym by myself lifting all da weights with da guys. 
Bossing the gym like the superwoman I am. 
When I went to Fuerteventura in July I felt amazing, felt so at home in my own skin and even though there could have still been improvement I felt so much happier about myself than I had for a long time. 

- To combat stress
I was near enough crying daily due to stress from my exams, and it was so nice to be able to even just get half an hour to work out. Lifting some heavy ass weights and getting some of my stress out was just what was needed to keep myself a little more grounded. Also if you ever want to sweat it out and burn out ya legs, get yourself on the stairmaster cause o boi! 

- To see how much I improve
See that crazy happy looking girl in the picture above! Yeah that girl never in a million years thought that she'd manage to climb to the top of the pole, seeing yourself improve is such a a huge motivator, be it making it to the top of the pole for the first time or lifting heavier than you had previously. Improvements big or small make my strive to continue working out. 

-Reaching my goals
Hello to boyfriends cute shoulder press face. 
I set myself goals so I have things to strive towards, things to push me forward. My current goal is to get to at least 18% body fat by the end of my cut whilst retaining my strength. 
I know I want to be able to squat my body weight - of which I'm fairly close to managing, then I'd aim for double my weight ect. 
Long term as well, I'd love to take part in a competition as well - at the moment I'm torn between bikini or powerlifting - completely different in ways of training so I'll need to decide what I want to do and start my training for it too. 

Do you work out? What are your reasons for exercising? 

Protein Pick n Mix Haul

I've decided to bulk up over the autumn winter time, so I'm putting on weight but I want to try keep the fat gain as low as possible, but heres the thing, I snack a hella lot. I decided to put a cheeky wee Protein Pick n Mix haul, all da snacks. 

 Snack bars! I got 4 of the Milky Way protein bars, I've tried one of these so far and they are tasty but they don't taste as good as an actual Milky Way - boo! Would recommend though, they weren't too chewy, and tasted pretty good. 
I also got one of the Barbell Cookies and Cream bars, this does not taste like how I expected it. Other Cookies and Cream bars taste amazing but this one tasted a wee bit like coffee... Maybe I just had weird taste buds. 
I got one of the Confetti Cake Crunch My Bars. This was really nice, but a bit chewy. 
I've yet to try this last one but its the Fulfil Cookies and Cream bars. 

 Next up we have the My Muscle Mug Mug cake - this one is Red Velvet. I've not tried it yet but I've seen a few people on Instagram talk about this one and they had only good things to say about it. 
I also got a Swolesome foods cookie - this was amazing, it had a surprise jammy filling inside it. If you were looking for a decent macro treat that actually tastes amazing then this is the treat for you.

 Jim Buddy's Donuts are heavenly. Actual heaven in a plastic tub. The Chocolate Orange one was the better of the two but they were both outstanding. You need to eat them pretty quickly though thats the only thing, I think they say to eat within 5 days. 

 GRENADE SHAKES ARE AMAZING! Ok, these taste amazing, all the flavours are beaut (although don't tell the others but White Chocolate is my fave). I got a set of 6 as they were better priced when you bought more. As a post workout these are great, I also though have one if I'm running late and dont have time for breakfast. 

 I also got two of the PEScience Select Proteins, I got them in Snickerdoodle and Cookies and Cream. I actually only got these cause a fitness Instagrammer I love was using these to make cake. And I like cake so it seemed to make sense. 

Final two products are Kodiak Cakes Flapjack and Waffle mix - I've used this before and love it so this is just a repurchase, I use it along with protein powder to make pancakes. I also got the Nuts'n More Hazelnut Spread, still need to try it so I'll update you on my twitter about the taste if you fancy knowing how it is. 

Thats all for my Protein Pick n Mix haul, is there anything you like the look of here or anything you think I should try soon? 

Shearer Candles | Haul

Awhile back David and I were wandering aromatherapy had town and decided to go have a look in Princes Square, one of the shops we decided to go into was Shearer Candles. The candles they sold smelled amazing, and although at the time I couldn’t afford to buy any I knew I’d be back to pick up a few. 

Flash forward to when I got paid, whilst killing time in town before a meeting one day I decided to pop in and see what I wanted. There was s few things in the sale so I didn’t spend as much as I might have otherwise - I’d also set myself a max spend of £40 (I’d already spent £25 on candles that week, whoops, you can see that haul here though if ya like). Shearer Candles are a Scottish Company, founded in Glasgow, and are the UKs longest established lifestyle candle company. 

I decided to get this massive 3 wick candle, its their 20th anniversary candle, its got a lovely soft scent to it - on the jar it says its Amber and Rose. My mum thinks it smells like patchouli oil, but I think it just smells soft and sweet, almost a bit like honey. This candle was £15 in the sale, and has around 60 hours of burn time in it. The design on the label is really nice too - very Scottish but still elegant. 

I also got the Rhubarb and Raspberry scented candle, and oh boi this smells hella good. This scent is new for 2017 and if you were to section off your scents into seasons then this would definitely be more of a summer scent, but thats not gonna stop me from burning it through autumn. It was £9 for this candle, and I think it smells just like those rhubarb and custard sweets you can buy. Its a lovely juicy mouth watering scent. The jar is a weighty pink/ purple colour with a silver lid, the lid doesn't have a rubber rim or anything on it so it will fall off if your not careful, but thats not an issue for me. 

I got a few tealights from them too - they were £2.50, and are peach and tamarind scented. They smell divine, you get 8 in a pack and even whilst burning they smell beautiful. I got them with this lovely candle holder in mind. This is so cute whilst a candle is inside it, the tree design is lovely. There was three size options for this holder and I got the middle size, it was £15 and is perfect for the autumn winter time. 

Have you tried anything from Shearer Candles before? 

Bath and Body Works Haulin'

So, recently I found out there are some lovely people that sell Bath and Body Works products on facebook groups... This has been v much fun for me looking at new things and also very much not fun for my bank balance. I've gone so crazy with it recently and I think I've spent a good £100 on a few candles, body washes and pocket bacs. 
I'm also v tempted to buy more candles and some of the car scent things cause my car could do with smelling a lil better. 

So the first few things I bought were a couple of Pocket Bacs and a little holder for them cause y'know it looked cute and I'm a sucker for this kinda thing. The pocketbac's that I bought were the Sweet Pea and the Stress Relief ones. I've had both these scents before but in shower gel forms. They smell amazing and are definitely one of my favourite scents. To go along with them I got the holder, this one is a really pretty silver stone type one - its got little gem stones in it too, very pretty and will be a cute way to hold my pocketbacs. 

Next up lets talk shower gels! I got two of their shower gels, first one is the Japanese Cherry Blossom - I've had this shower gel before and loved it - hence me buying it again. Also bought the Pretty as a Peach shower gel. This smells so sweet, I cant wait to cover myself in bubbles.

 So the first of three candles I bought was Flipping Awesome. Flipping Awesome is Pumpkin Pecan Waffle Scented. It smells insane! Absolutely insane. My mum isn't a fan of this as its really sweet in scent but I love it, it smells beautiful. I think it will have a really good throw and will fill the room really well. 

 I also got Pumpkin Cupcake scented candle - again I adore this, it smells pretty similar to Flipping Awesome, but different enough to make having both worthwhile. Again the throw in this I think will be amazing - like fill the whole home good. 

Final product - the Vampire Blood Halloween scented candle is beautiful. It smells so lovely - a bit like berries, so its very fresh, the candle itself looks really nice - very Halloween-y, but y'know in a cute way.

Next time I get shop happy for Bath and Body Works what should I try and get? I need to calm down with the candle buying cause I now legit have a box full of candles in my room - better get burning. 

TK Maxx Candle Haul

 Hello candle people! After seeing a few people on twitter recently talking about DW Home candles I decided to take a look in TK Maxx after work one day. I found a few that I loved and a few more that I bundled into my arms - I had to leave a fair few behind unfortunately, I'll be back for them eventually, mark my words. 

 I got two candles from DW Home, a large 3 wick candle and a smaller jar. The smaller candle is in the scent Lychee, its housed in a burgundy jar with a rose gold lid. This smells so nice, very fresh and sweet - I'm hoping the scent doesn't disappear while burning. The jar costs £2.99, it doesn't say how long it will burn for but £2.99 for a beautifully scented candle is amazing value. 
The larger jar is in the scent Vanilla Blackberry, its got the same gold lid but the glass jar for this one is an ombre jar. It fades from a yellow, to a deep blue shade. This smells heavenly, its both fresh and fruity and cake-y. A strange mix of things when you think about it, but it smells divine. This jar costs £7.99, and if the £2.99 for the small jar was good value then this is phenomenal. The three wick jar says it has appox. 26 hours of burn time, which doesn't seem like an overly long amount of time for a fairly large candle, but we'll see how long I get out of it.  

 I saw this cool looking candle on the shelf and decided to take it with me - they had a Whisky scented one, this candle is Gin scented and by the brand M of W.G - aka Makers of Wax Goods. This candle is a large glass jar, with a wooden lid. Everything about the candle is perfect, it looks so crisp and grand. Quite rustic looking I think. Scent wise, its crisp and fresh. It'll be perfect for burning if you want a pleasant not overwhelming scent. I'm not sure how much I spent on this candle, the sticker appears to have been ripped off at some point. 

Olivia Blake is the final candle company I bought from. When I saw this I originally thought it was a Jo Malone candle, as the packaging is very very similar. The scent I got is Red Berry and Clove, on the box the scent is described as a rich black cherry with hints of cinnamon with a deep woody amber base. It smells really fresh with a light cherry scent, I think it will smell insane whilst burning. This only cost £5.99 and for what looks like an amazing dupe for Jo Malone candles the price is pretty good too. 
TK Maxx have such an amazing and vast range of candles to pick from, I'm excited to see what other scents I can find in stores over coming months. 

Have you bought any candles from TK Maxx recently? What brands do you recommend I try and find?  

Snow Fairy Candle

For my birthday my amazing best friend spoiled me with so many lovely things - a couple of which will feature here over the next few weeks! But for now we are gonna talk about this delicious smelling candle! 
The candle in question is from Bags of Thought and smells just like Lush's Snow Fairy, hence the candle being called Snow Fairy. Bags of Thought have so many scents, from Chanel to Dior, they have it all. The jars cost £19.99, and are about the same size as a medium Yankee jar.

The Snow Fairy jar smells utterly divine! It smells just like the bottles of snow fairy, as its quite a strong smell even without burning it I thought it would be really strong whilst burning but its quite a soft smell. Its not over powering in anyway shape or form. Its light and sweet, and oh so yummy. 
Caitlyn I praise you for getting me this candle - but also curse you cause now I want to buy more!

AVON | Reed Macaroon Diffuser

This yummy diffuser is another of the gifts Caitlyn gave me, shes a huuuuge candle lover so its no surprise I got a couple of home scents from her. Trying to convince her to start a blog - shes just as beauty obsessed as me! 
I've never had a diffuser, I don't know why I never had one till now, its basically just a candle minus the potential to start a fire. Constant fragrance no hazard.
The diffuser I am now the proud owner of is this beaut lil one from Avon, is smells like cake and if I didn't know better I'd try to eat it. 

  
The scent is Macaroon, and is maybe the nicest thing I've ever smelt. I've had this sat in the room I blog in for a couple of days now and as soon as I walk in I'm hit with the nicest sweet smell. It is in no way over powering, you will get used to the smell after awhile so dont worry about that (if you are worried about that), but with that in mind if you left the room for a little while and came back to it you'd certainly notice the beautiful aroma again. If you don't like cake-y scents though I'd maybe say this scent is noot for you. 
The design of the product is really simplistic and minimal, but the pink and silver label looks classic and effortless. Even in a really minimal, Scandinavian type home these wouldn't look out of place.
They're super affordable at just £6 and have a few other fragrances - if you're interested in this one though you can find it here.

Arbonne Mini Haul

Hey everyone, so a few months ago I was approached by a consultant for Arbonne and was asked to try some products. I tried a bunch of their skincare and fell in love pretty much instantly, my skin was much clearer, softer and in general nicer looking after just a few days. Shortly after trying the products I was given the chance to join the girl who gave me the samples team, and to be honest I didn't even think about it, I instantly said yes. The products I tried were amazing, and getting a discount through working for them on the products was in itself a huge bonus. 
So I joined officially at the end of September as a consultant, I'm telling you this out of complete transparency - I want you to know that I do work for Arbonne as a consultant ( Imagine me as a Avon lady but y'know for Arbonne instead...) 
So when I put my first order in I bought a few bits of their makeup to try out - cause y'know how much I love my makeup. I also bought my favourite thing from the skincare I tried, and got a free gift too. Lets talk products now, shall we? 

Arbonne Make-up Primer
This primer feels like velvet on the skin, the primer says it minimises the look of fine lines and imperfections - it also helps to keep makeup looking good all day. 
I've tried this once already and it made my skin feel amazing, and I think it did help the foundation also last longer. I wore this with the foundation for about 6 hours before my oily skin started to push through - a little bit of powder though and I think it would have been fixed. 
I'm going to try this out some more and then do a proper review of this, but so far I'm pretty impressed with it. 

Arbonne Foundation
I got the shade porcelain in this foundation and it is a near enough perfect match for my skin, there are 15 shades in this foundation so theres a decent amount of shades to pick from. This foundation held up really well, it only started to look a bit weird after 7 hours, I didn't set the foundation though so it might have held up better if I'd set it - I'll play around and let you know though in a proper review. First impressions though are good. 

Arbonne Eye Makeup Remover
I've yet to try this, so I can't say how effective it is. I don't tend to use eye makeup remover, usually I just take any and all makeup off with my Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish, but it might be good to use this first then cleanse properly. 

Arbonne Moisturising Night Cream
For some reason I didn't take a picture of this on its own - so apologies. I never used a night cream before trying the Arbonne one. When Cassie let me try it I fell in love with it instantly, it smells so lovely - sweet and fruity but the scent is all natural - and makes your skin feel so lovely. Just need a new oil controlling day cream and I'll be set! 

Arbonne Intelligence Genius Resurfacing Pads
I got these pads as my free gift for joining, they're pretty pricey not gonna lie. But I've been using these pretty consistently since I got them and I'm so far impressed with these - since using these I honestly feel that my skin is less bumpy and feels so much softer. My breakouts have been minimal too and my pores seem smaller. I'm going to do a more in depth post on these soon but I'm so impressed with these so far and I cant wait to finish using them. 

So thats my haul for now, more hauls from Arbonne will be coming. Have you heard of Arbonne before, what do you think of these products? Any questions on them feel free to ask. 

The Fox Tan | Review

You know those products you see being advertised with amazing results on Facebook and instagram? Well the Fox Tan for me is one of those products. I kept seeing it on my instagram feed with sun kissed girls raving about how amazing their tan is because of The Fox Tan products.

The day I put an order in for this I'd found out Davids cousin had bought this too and absolutely swears by it, so it's good to know that real life people - not that the instagram people aren't real, but yknow - actually love the product. She even wants to compare tans with us when we get home - I'm still gonna be pale in comparison but if it can help me get even a little bit of a darker tan then I'll be more than happy. 

David is gonna use it too, he naturally takes colour really quickly and this holiday is gonna be his first abroad holiday in I think 5 years? So his skin will soak up the sun and by the end of this week I fear he'll be golden - hate being the pastey one all the time.

So, The Fox Tan are an Australian company and they basically state on their website that their products will help you get to your darkest possible natural tan quickly without having to spend ages in the sun or in sunbeds. They're also cruelty free and vegan which is amazing as so many massive brands still aren't, and it's an issue that a lot of people hold close to heart. The fact that companies still test on animals is a compete joke, JUST STOP ANIMAL TESTING GUYS!!!

So this was my colour pre fox tan - as you can see I'm still holding some colour from a few months ago when I went to Fuerteventura. 

Since David wants to use it as well as myself, so when I put an order in for it I bought an extra bottle. So first thing I bought was the Complete Fox Pack, the set costs £23.99 and comes with The Rapid Tanning Mist and the Rapid Tanning Elixir. I also bought a spare bottle of The Rapid Tanning Mist, £13.99. 

The Rapid Tanning Elixir is basically a moisturiser that you use in the build up to UV exposure, we used it a few times before our holiday and daily whilst on holiday. They say online that it activates through UV exposure, and the more you use it the more melanin that your body makes. 

The Rapid Tanning Mist says it will allow you to get really dark quickly, we shall see though. Both the mist and elixir are filled with lots of super ingredients, they'll moisturise the skin, keeping it nourished. Neither of these products have SPF in them, so you'll still need to use an SPF under this. 
The packaging is cute, although I will say the bottles are small, with only 120ml of product in each bottle. The bottles are a pretty but simple, the bottle itself to is a really lovely blue shade - can't decide if it's a mint or a turquoise - with pink and black logo with a white lid (black lid for the elixir). 

The Rapid Tan Mist is an oil, but when sprayed it's a bit yellow. I'd due to this maybe say be wary if your wearing a white bikini. It smells really nice though, fresh and fruity with a hint of coconut. Basically smells like holiday in a bottle. 

The elixir is more cream like, but a little goes a long way with it as it seems to be a bit oil based. David described the colour of it as being like coronation chicken - it's definitely a good way to describe the colour that's for sure. Scent wise, it's very similar to that of the mist, they both have a really pleasant smell.

They both leave your skin feeling really soft, and not at all oily, and are absorbed in pretty quickly. 

After a week of using these everyday I've gotta say I'm fairly impressed, now I'm by no means golden brown but I'm definitely a lot darker than I normally would get after a week in the sun. I don't know if the photo really does it any justice but I am darker than before so I'm more than happy. 
Whilst away David and I went through just over half of the Elixir and near enough a full bottle of the mist - might have been more than a full bottle actually as we used both bottles a few days.... So although the bottles are small, the product lasts ages, if it was only you using these I think they would easily last a month at least if you're using them daily. We're going to continue using them whilst going for occasional sunbeds and we'll see if it can get us any darker.  You can also buy these from Pretty Little Thing, I think it might work out a bit more expensive but you can get them quicker. 
Have you tried The Fox Tan before? What do you think of it, or is it something you'd give a try...