Spring Foundation: Chanel Vitalumière Aqua

A new season, a new foundation. 

I've been a fan of Chanel's foundations since I discovered their Perfection Lumière. 

Although the Perfection Lumière was pore refining, skin smoothening, and just about an all round beauty of a foundation; I felt that this time I needed something a little bit lighter. Something that gave me more of an everyday glow than the completely concealed look that foundation can give you. 

I was busy looking at tinted moisturisers when I came across Vitalumière  Aqua. 

It's more than a tinted moisturiser, but not quite as full on as a foundation. 

The make-up is water based which means that you do have to shake it up a bit before you apply it; but it also means that it is so much better for your skin than other foundations. Which is great for my combination skin type. 

The foundation feels as though your pores are less clogged, but at the same time, it does seem to give a pretty good amount of coverage. 

I've taken a picture to demonstrate, but I'll have to apologise in advance for my slightly scared, slightly shifty looking expression. 

I am so pleased with this foundation, and I would definitely recommend it as a great, lightweight spring/summer/holiday foundation. 

You can find it here, but I would strongly suggest taking a trip to your nearest Chanel counter, and getting colour matched by one of their assistants. 

The lady who helped me was lovely, and my trip was worth it as it turned out that I needed a completely different colour than I first thought.    

Fitsperation

This post has been a really, really long time coming.
It's definitely not a secret that I've found the past few weeks very stressful, but things are finally on the up and one thing that I can thank is exercise.
It began as a new years resolution... then I got lazy.
Then, I brought a gym membership...and I didn't go. But finally, last Monday I actually got back into the routine.
And to be completely honest; I feel so much better for it!
All those endorphins that have started to buzz around my body have made what seemed like a mountain, into a molehill.
I also think that it's about time I started getting bikini ready, not just for summer; but for ever.

I don't pretend to be an expert, by any stretch of the imagination, I just thought that I would share some of the tips that I have found have helped me to get started.

I needed a little bit of inspiration so I started by looking at some fitsperation pictures on Pintrest.
If any of you feel like toning up, Pinterest is a great way to start as you can make your own fitspo mood board which you can look at every time you need an extra little kick up the bottom.

I thought I would share just a few of my favourite's with you, just to kick things off.

Before and after pictures are also a great starting point if you feel lacking in the motivational department. 

Regardless of your opinion on Miley Cyrus, I don't think there's anyone who can dispute how good she looks in this before and after. 

If any of you fancy taking a scroll through my Fitsperation board then you can do so on my Pinterest.

If your serious about getting in shape, then you really don't have to do it in the gym. As long as your getting yourself moving, your already doing 100% better than you were yesterday. 

I also find that having a nice gym kit really helps as it makes you want to get out and wear it more. 

These are a few things on my gym lust list. 

Sports Bra and Bottle

Ipod

Running leggings 

Top

Trainers

Now that you've got your gear sorted, you need to pick your exercise. 

I have a friend who loves her Zumba DVD and has seen great results,  one who swims and another who loves to go for evening Jogs. 

The gym is the place for me though, but like I said everyone is different. If you are planning on joining a gym, I highly recommend The Gym, it all feels a bit like you've been chucked into a parallel gym/space universe, which is always a plus.   

Once you've got your motivation, your kit and you've joined the gym/ brought your DVD; all you need to do is set yourself a target. 

This is personal to everyone, and only you know what you are capable of (which I guarantee is a lot more than you first thought). 

My main advise on this subject would be to set your self a larger goal, like, 'I want to have abs by summer'. And then set yourself weekly targets. Like, I want to be able to run for 30 minutes on the treadmill by the end of this week. Or I want to be able to do 100 sit ups by the end of the week. 

Last but not least; stop weighing yourself! 

muscle weighs a lot more than fat so it is better to go by how you feel in your clothes; and if you really must measure your progress, take before and after pictures or use a tape measure. 

Being skinny is unhealthy, being toned and fit is much, much more attractive. 

Let me know if you have any good fitness tips! 

Home For The Weekend #2

On Sunday morning I woke up to blue skies and sunshine (finally!), although the wind blew a little bit Mum, Dad and I decided to take a trip to Bath, take a walk through the park and have a little bit of lunch in a very cute and cosy little cafe.

All the sunshiny excitement caused me to forget my camera, so I'll have to tell you just how good my mushroom soup was. It was really, really good. Dad's English breakfast looked even better and I wish I had tried some of Mum's jacket potato. 

Once we arrived back home, I leapt straight into my pyjamas; isn't that what Sundays were made for after all?

After all the excitement of lunch I settled down to do some (more) uni work. Only a few more months to go now! If anyone's seen that scary film Mama lately, don't you think the woman on the cover of Foe looks exactly the same as the scary lady in the film?! 

No? Just me?

I hid behind my 27th cup of tea and pretended to be working...

Ellie helped with the reading. I think she may have understood the book better than I did!

And all too soon it was time to leave again.

I'll defiantly be back soon, as much as I love living in the city, its so nice to come back home every now and again.   

Home for the weekend #1

On Friday I came home for the weekend.

As much as I love being at uni, it's always nice to come home. Especially when the workload starts to pile up. 

Before I left, I was feeling a bit low, very tired and extremely stressed. Since I've been home, my mood has totally lifted. I feel a bit like I'm on holiday (shh! Don't tell Mum).

I've been offered endless cups of tea since I've been back and Dad even baked a cake, I think I'll be coming home more often! 

Most importantly though, I got to see this little lady! 

I miss her so much when I'm away and it's actually quite sad because she's been really poorly recently, so I wanted to make sure that I came home to see her. 

She never misses an opportunity to soak up some sunshine, much like her sister.

I think I must have drank a weeks worth of tea since I got back, there's a different mug in every picture (bit embarrassing). 

Unfortunately most of the day was spent catching up with uni work, whilst Roo and Rich played cards next to me.

Action shot...

Dad made a ginger cake, which he told me not to photograph as the fruit had sunk to the bottom. 

He always complains that his food goes wrong, but it always tastes amazing. 

I managed to take some time out from the dissertation to sample some of the cake. 

I found Mum buried beneath a pile of papers. 

And Dad cooked us a lovely Chinesey, noodely dinner, which was almost as good as the cake. 

I'm definitely going to come home about thirteen stone heavier.  

Ellie perked up at the sight of pudding (I had more cake).

Just look at that smirk! 

The cheeky rascal.

Project: De-Stress

As you will probably have noticed, I haven't updated my blog in a while.
It's not because I don't love doing it! I just have so SO much uni work on at the moment what with the big bad dissertation and all *sobs*.
Thankfully, I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm looking forward to Spring time more than you could ever imagine.
In an effort to keep my head above water for the last strech, I've decided to start doing a few things that will (hopefully) help with the stress; and because I can see that they are starting to work for me, I thought I would share them with you lovely lot too.

1. Make sure you eat properly.
This may sound obvious, but eating properly can make all the difference. When people are stressed their eating habits tend to change either making them eat nothing at all, or causing them to eat anything they can get their hands on.
When I feel myself going off track, I make sure that I am having a healthy breakfast lunch and dinner. And I try to  stick to it.

2. Exercise
Whether your going on a walk or to the gym, exercise can really help lower your stress levels and get those endorphins pumping around your body.
It will also make you nice and tired so that you spend less time laying awake at night worrying about what you have to do tomorrow.

3. Sleep
I don't know about you, but when I'm stressed, I tend to find myself laying wide awake at night worrying about every little thing that could possibly go wrong, only to fall asleep in the early hours and not want to wake up until gone mid-day.
I can't stress how important getting into a proper sleep cycle is for pro-activity your mood in general.
If you feel your slipping into this bad habit, don't worry! There is a way out and my friends and I call it 'Breaking the Cycle'.
To successfully break the cycle you will have to wake up tomorrow morning at a reasonable hour, I always aim for a healthy 8 am. Then stay awake until at least 9pm that evening. When you go to bed make sure that you do something relaxing like watch a film or read a book, but whatever you do, don't browse the internet! This will only keep your mind engaged and awake. Put an alarm on your phone and plug it into charge on the opposite side of the room so that your not tempted to tweet/instagram/facebook/vine/text.
It will be horrible for about 2-3 days and you will probably feel a bit like a spaced out goldfish, but don't worry; you will feel a thousand times better once you have a proper sleeping pattern.

4. Take a multi vitamin
This is not a joke, taking a multi vitamin can really help!
My dad first suggested that I take a vitamin D supplement to help with  the low mood that seems to engulf everybody, much like the horrible rain clouds of January.
I started taking it on a whim, but actually within a week or two I felt noticeably different and brighter. The other vitamins are all really good too, especially if your a student and your unlikely to be getting all the right bits and bobs in your food.
They also give your immune system a boost so your not stuck sniffling through to mid July.

5. Do something fun
This is the most important bit.
You have to do something fun, at least once a week.
It may seem like you have no time to do anything that you really want to do, but if you have time to Facebook/ Tweet, you definitely have time to meet up with your friends for a coffee, or watch a film, or even read your favourite magazine.
It's important to take time for yourself; just so that you can relax, get your head back in the game and ultimately, increase your productivity.

If you feel like procrastinating for a bit/ watching something funny/ lifting your mood; give this cheeky website a go. I promise it's incredibly ridiculous and I dare even the most stressed-out person not to crack a smile:

http://harlemshakeroulette.com/


Sorted.

Also all pictures are taken from pintrest, and can be found nestled in amongst my boards, the link's bellow!