Arbonne | Review

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Maimie from Arbonne who asked if she could send me some tester products to review. Of course I said yes, as I'm a sucker for skincare!

After a super fast delivery, I opened a package of 4 miniature testers which included  a cleanser & freshener, day lotion, night cream, and eye cream, alongside a little card saying thankyou, which put a big smile on my face!

Using only a pea sized amount when testing the products, I found that my skin felt super soft once used! Unfortunately, I didn't get to test the day lotion as my Mum nabbed it, although she did exclaim that she really liked it.
The products smell fresh and do not leave your skin feeling clogged up - they simply nourish your skin and enable it to feel super smooth!
I'll definitely be purchasing some larger sizes of this product, and seeing as these small testers lasted me weeks, I cannot wait to see how long the larger products last for.

Arbonne skincare is matched to your skin type, and are to be used exclusively as they correct the pH balance of your skin. Arbonne is a Swiss-ultra brand and all products are Botanically Based, Vegan Certified, pH Correct, Hypoallergenic, Dermatologist Tested, Certified Gluten-Free, Kosher Certified, Drug Free and Cruelty Free. I don't think there's possibly anything else they can add to the list!

If you are interested in Abronne Skincare, make sure you contacted Maimie via her website www.maimieyelland.arbonne.com

Autumn-Blaze
xxx

My Diet & Fitness Plan

It's the time of year where every individual is prepared to get their body 'summer ready', and I am also one of those individuals, but with a plot twist. As I do seasonal work, most of my days are spent in the workplace, therefore I don't have chance to go abroad this summer. However, my work friends and I have decided to book a holiday for the end of the working season, so we have longer to get our bodies 'winter ready'. Lucky for us, that gives us a couple months longer than everyone going abroad during the summer!

I am clueless to fitness, and often give up easily. This time, however, is different. During my shift at work last night, I asked the Head Chef for guidance as he is more aware of fitness knowledge than I am. Together we decided the best ways for me to tone up, and agreed to begin our diet regimes on the same day in order to encourage one another to stay consistent.

Last night we started off with a mile and half run (well, a jog for me) and I felt great after it. I slept so well, and today I woke up at 8:15am rather than my usual of 11am. Now as I eat my porridge and sip on a mug of green tea, I am going to introduce you all to my diet plan, in which some of you may wish to begin yourselves.

Food and Drinks

• NO carbs. If you wish to consume carbs during cheat day, these must be brown (e.g. brown bread).
• No red meat.
• Quorn would be a better replacement for meat.
• Fruity drinks must be consumed in moderation (this includes the likes of orange juice and apple juice).
• Flavoured water is a better option than the one above.
• If you wish to eat chips, ensure that they are made with sweet potatoes.
• ALWAYS eat breakfast.
• Porridge is a great option for breakfast, although cereal can be consumed in moderation.
• A good lunch would be a bowl of soup with one slice of brown bread.
• One banana before or after a run will maintain your energy.
• Ensure to drink lots of water.
• If consuming alcohol, ensure that it is either vodka with diet lemonade, or with diet coke. However, you are allowed single shots, and either 1 lager or 1 cider.
• Green tea to replace coffee and tea. Decaff would also be a great option.
• If you wish to have a McDonald's, you may order a sweet chilli chicken wrap, without the sweet chilli.
• Try to keep your meal times consistent each day. (e.g. breakfast at 8am, lunch at 12:30pm, tea at 5pm).

Fitness

• Running every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
• Weights (2.5kg in order to simply tone) are to be done on Tuesday and Thursday's.
• When doing weights, make sure to also do leg exercises.
• Ensure to not just run, but walk often. Walk the dog, walk to the shop, etc.

Forfeits

These forfeits only apply to myself and my colleagues, but are shown to give you a brief idea. Feel free to set up your own and share them with me in the comments!

• 25p in the jar every time we have a cigarette.
• 50p in the jar if we miss a run.
• Each time we consume something that we are not meant to have, 50p is to go into the jar.

Cheat day is Saturday night and Sunday day (I'd allow this to be 12pm-12pm) as we all work carvery shifts on a Sunday and obviously wish to tuck into one once we have finished working hard! Also, Saturday night is the obvious time for us to consume our vodka and diet lemonade.

Make sure that you also include your hobbies to this schedule, For example, I am going to start dancing again as of next month. I also live quite near to my workplace, therefore I am to start walking/cycling there when the weather is nicer. Consider the distance that you may drive or take public transport to - could you get off a stop earlier and walk for ten minutes? It's a great endorphin, especially when the sun is shining!

Make sure to let me know what you think to this plan, and whether you're going to take notes from this! Got any tips? Let me know in the comments below. I can't wait to update you all with my progress, hopefully I'll stick to this longer than a day for once!

Autumn-Blaze

xxx

Woman Crush Wednesday

Ah, Woman Crush Wednesday. I have two major girl crushes, and I thought that it would be appropriate to address this on the blog, and I'm sure that many of you will agree with me on today's WCW.

Cara Delevingne. Need I say more? 

Cara has been my #1 girl crush for many years now, and on numerous occasions that I've been told I look similar to her, I've genuinely squealed with excitement. There's something about her stubborn, yet fun personality, bold brows and sharp jawline. If I could be re-incarnated into anything in this world, I would want to be this woman.

Not only can she act AND has the face of an angel (literally, have you seen those struts down the Victoria's Secret runway?!), but she can also play the drums and sing. And beat box. Is there anything this girl can't do?! Probably not.

Aged only 23, Cara is a huge inspiration to girls such as myself. Fame has not gone to her head. She is grounded, and shows appreciation for all family, friends and fans. I adore her crazy ways, and believe that she is definitely a role model all women across the world should look up to.

Perhaps one day I'll get to meet this bold browed beauty, but for now I'll admire from afar just as thousands others do. Sigh.

Who's your Woman Crush Wednesday?

Autumn-Blaze

xxx

American Style Pancakes | Baking

Pancakes are a guilty pleasure of mine. If they didn't exist, neither would the tub on my belly, but they're far too good to resist! Everytime I stay at my boyfriends, the 6:30am get up is made bearable by the thought of the generous 15 minute journey to McDonald's so I can devour some pancakes, mmmm.

Today I decided to attempt to make some pancakes. I say attempt, as let's face it, I'm not brilliant at making them - unless I buy them from Tesco and microwave them, then they're perfect. Surely that counts?

The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

135g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp caster sugar
130ml milk
1 large egg
2 tbsp melted butter or olive oil

Method

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar into a large bowl. Then, in a separate bowl, lightly whisk together the milk and egg, then progressing to whisk in the melted butter.

2. Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture and beat together with a fork until you have a smooth batter. Allow this to stand for a few minutes.

3. Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and add a knob of butter. When this has melted, add a ladle of batter into the pan and wait until the top of the pancake begins to bubble. Then, turn over the pancake and cook it until both sides are golden brown. The pancakes should have risen to about 1cm thick.

4. Repeat this until all of the batter has been used.

5. Serve with a topping of your choice.

I chose to top my pancakes with chocolate spread, lemon juice and sugar. A greedy bums paradise! They look quite gross, because quite frankly, I'll never meet the McDonald's expectations, but practise makes perfect so hopefully I'll get the hang of it!

I hope that you enjoyed this baking post, I look forward to posting more recipes in the near future.

Autumn-Blaze
xxx

50 Things That Make Me Happy | Positivity

Today I came across the '50 things that make me happy tag'. All you have to do is simply list 50 things that make you happy - easy! I love writing a list (or ten), especially when it comes to positivity. It's such an easy way to admire the simple things, and have the opportunity to inspire others with what creates happiness for them.

1. Cups of Tea
2. Writing in my journal
3. Listening to music via a record player
4. Blogging
5. Buying a new book
6. The smell of petrol, coffee and old books
7. Prosecco
8. Sunsets
9. Long walks during the Summer
10. Hot showers
11. Peanut Butter
12. Having a tan
13. Completing a book within a week
14. Composing poetry
15. Watching Hollyoaks
16. High School Musical
17. Having good eyebrows
18. Taking photos on a Polaroid camera
19. Exploring new places
20. Walks in the woods
21. Receiving long texts
22. Late night drives
23. Late night walks
24. Having good skin
25. Receiving good feedback on my blog
26. Travelling
27. Creating memories with friends
28. Driving with loud music
29. Dancing
30. Singing in the car with friends
31. Socialising with my friends
32. Meeting new people
33. Singing in the shower
34. Cats
35. Shopping
36. Buying new make-up
37. Listening to Spanish and Portuguese music
38. Hearing others past stories
39. Learning a new language
40. Making others smile
41. Exploring surrounding areas with Stanley
42. Late night, meaningful conversations
43. Being complimented on my eyebrows (every girls dream, right?)
44. Disney films
45. Being complimented on my creative writing
46. Payday (woohoo!!)
47. Having good make-up and hair days
48. Getting meaningful tattoos
49. Reading
50. Smiling

It was actually quite hard to compose this list, as 50 is a large number and I was trying not to repeat myself, although I could add much more to the list! 

I wish for anyone that would like to do this tag to do so. Make sure to tag me so I can see what makes you happy!

Autumn-Blaze

xxx

Spontaneous Shopping

Shopping is a fabulous retail therapy, and seeing as today was payday and I've been feeling a bit run down, what's better to cheer me up than splashing the cash? I originally wanted to purchase make-up, but what I spent my money on was quite the opposite!

First of all we have these gorgeous tan Michael Kors pumps. I've been prone to buying pumps lately, preparing myself for the summer weather, and I could not resist these! The best bit? They were only £29.99 in TK Maxx. I can't wait to piece these with an outfit, so hopefully they'll be seen featured on an OOTD post sometime soon.

Admittedly, my boobs haven't grown since I was in year 6, and it seems virtually impossible to find nice bras for small sizes (Please tell me I'm not the only one!), but today I came across this lace bralette in New Look. Retailed at only £9.99, I've been looking for a bralette like this for quite a while. The small price and colour instantly attracted me, and I think it'll look great beneath a white blouse. An advantage to this bralette is that the sizing is in those of usual UK clothing sizes (e.g. size 8), therefore I had no need to worry about them not having my size. I cannot wait to purchase more of these!

Here on the left can be seen a floral air freshener from New Look priced at only £1.99. Due to this price, I'm not expecting it to be the most extravagant air freshener, however I am looking forward to having a cute little pug hanging in my car! On the right can be seen some Sugared Cup Cakes from The Hampton Candy Company. These were bought from TK Maxx as they were located next to the till and I was super duper hungry (as always). These cost £2.99 and are probably the most expensive sweets I've ever bought (Tesco value keeps me happy) but it was soooo worth it! They're super juicy with so much flavour, I'll definitely be looking out for these again.

Last but not least, I got my nose pierced! I had this done a few years ago, and I've been wishing to have it re-pierced for quite a while. I find that if I book things in advance, I chicken out, therefore it was a spur of the moment kinda thing. My last piercing was done with a gun (which it's not meant to be) and shattered my cartilage, and this one was done with a needle. Nerves kicked in and I closed my eyes and almost passed out, but it was worth the small dose of pain!

Finally, a tattoo. Yup. A tattoo. Again, a spur of the moment kinda thing. For 6 years I've been wishing to have a butterfly tattooed onto my wrist in memory of my friend, and that's exactly what I did. I originally popped into the shop to enquire about the tattoo and have the colour of my semi-colon re-touched, but somehow this happened! I'm proud of myself for not crying, not due to the pain, but because of how much it means to me. Thank goodness my Mum was sat there or I would've been a mess!

Do you find that spontaneous shopping trips are often the best? 

Autumn-Blaze

xxx

Lunch Date | Outfit of The Day

Today was one of my rare days off, therefore I took up the invitation of going out to a Tapas bar for lunch with my Nanny. It's our favourite place to dine for lunch, and as I'm in my work uniform most days, I decided to make an effort with my appearance.

I decided to wear a dress which I purchased from Topshop recently in the sale for £15 reduced from £38. I didn't realise until I got home, but the dress is actually a petite fit, therefore it would be too revealing to wear on it's own, yet looks great paired with some tights!

Black Chelsea Boots are a must have for every girls wardrobe as they go with almost every outfit. These ones were purchased from Next a while ago, and they are definitely one of the comfiest pair of shoes I own!

For accessories, I used my trusty Kurt Geiger bag which I bought from TK Maxx last year for £29.99. It's fairly small, but still fits all of my essentials such as my purse, diary and iPad mini.

Jewellery wise I went for the usual of my Tiffany & Co. Necklace, Nomination bracelet, Pandora ring, Vintage ring, and a black watch (due to having 'misplaced' my Michael Kors one, oops!).

I'm so in love with this outfit, it was perfect for dining out, and I felt so sassy! To top it off, I finished the look with bold brows, a dark purple/red lip and a smile. 

What do you think to this outfit? How would you style the dress?

Autumn-Blaze

xxx