LIFESTYLE: Fitbit Charge 2 HR

Before I owned my Fitbit I thought I was getting (on average) enough steps in a day. When I was bought a Fitbit as part of my leaving gifts from my last job I was shown just how wrong I was! The suggested number of steps you should be hitting per day is 10,000 and I wasn't getting close to that which is unsurprising for someone who has what's technically a "desk job". 

Some days I won't even reach 5,000 and that's with walking around the Hospital (I now work in a Hospital) as much as I can. I've tried to up my water intake over the last few weeks which inevitably means more trips to the loo..! But even this isn't helping. 

I try to walk as much as I can outside of work, but let's face it at the end of the day I really don't want to go out for a walk, I just want to relax! I'm trying to find ways to increase my activity during the day and Furniture at Work are doing the exact same with their campaign sharing some easy "Office Yoga" moves to help desk workers be more active during the day. 

In our Hospital we have a Physiotherapy Centre which, once a week, puts on a Pilates class and as a team we are actively encouraged to attend. I'm going to go this week and see if that increase in structured activity helps. We've also almost finished the gym at the bottom of our garden so working out at home will be easier too. 

I've also set the notifications on my Fitbit so that if I don't move a certain number of steps in an hour it will buzz to tell me!

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BEAUTY: What's going to be the Summer 17 beauty trend?

Being a beauty blogger there is no hiding from the latest beauty trends that are posting about throughout the year. I go through phases of really enjoying makeup and thinking about what to reach for each day, to just not caring as long as my eye bags and red cheeks are covered. When I first started beauty blogging, way back nearly 8 years ago, I used to love looking out for the newest products and buying into the latest beauty trends.

 Ellisons have recently published an e-book all about the beauty trends for the coming season. They are predicting; 

• Matte lips will be replaced with a glossy look.
• Eyeliner will go from perfect to a smudged look.
• Finally, skin will be all about the dewy finish.

Are these trends that you will take on board?

For me there are three other trends that have recently (or not so recently) been bought into the spot light that I will be carrying on into Summer 2017. The trends may have been around a while and not new to some at all, but I've recently got my hands on the products!

• Warm coloured eye-shadow.
• I think the trend here for me started when the Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance Palette was being posted about everywhere! I've recently bought a warm palette from BH Cosmetics and it's a trend that I can't see me giving up any time soon.

• Nude matte lips
• I really wasn't interested in the nude matte lip trend at all, especially as it was so over-hyped. Then I tried the By Chloe Ferry Matte Lipstick and the colour "Envy" is just perfect, great for work and also great to wear with the warm coloured eye shadows. Apparently Chloe is famous for being on TV but I have to admit I have no idea where she's from but I love the fact her products are vegan and cruelty free! 

• Correcting Concealers
• Years and years ago when I was having one of my first melt downs over my red cheeks I was told about correcting concealers. No one had ever mentioned them to me before and they weren't widely talked about so I pretty much ignored it. I still wouldn't use a green concealer but I am a big fan of the under eye ones. Recently I picked up the LA Girl yellow concealer and I am really happy with how it helps to (almost) get rid of my eye bags!

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LIFESTYLE: 27

27. Wow.

BEAUTY: Peel off blackhead mask

If you haven't heard of one of these masks then where have you been?

From the Instagram and Facebook videos to the numerous bloggers and their hilarious videos of peeling off the mask. These masks a huge at the moment and being the type of person that will stare at a nose strip analysing what's been pulled out of my face, I bought one. 

Rightly or wrongly I've picked up one from eBay for around £3. Searching online and doing as much research as I could there wasn't really a clear winner and I'm pretty sure they are all the same but have just been white labeled. 

Anyway, I haven't used a pore strip for weeks so this nose is really ready for a mask. Let the pain commence.

Smell wise there isn't really anything significant to report but the consistency is really thick, thicker than any other mask that I have used. I guess it has to be to pull as much as it says it will out of my skin! 

Immediately after application it's a little cold (?) like most masks and I can feel it tightening already, especially on the edges where the product is a little thinner. 

I've just peeled it off and to be honest with you, this first go has left me a little underwhelmed. There was no real grand reveal and my nose looks the same. However, there wasn't as much pain as people made out and there was a little bit of dirt on peeled off piece of mask. 

Here's the up close gross photo: 

Not as much as I was expecting to be honest with you, which is a shame. Although after speaking to people on social media I think I may have put too little product on. 

I hope you've enjoyed the close up of my eye bags and uneven skin :) 

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LIFESTYLE: Night in over nights out, always!

Since moving into our house we have both been really keen to start hosting evenings in with our friends. There's a gang of us and whilst it was OK having everyone at the flat, things never seemed that relaxed as we were all crammed into a small space.

Saturday night, the AJ and Klitschko fight, would be our first night hosting our friends in our house. A date that had been in the diary for weeks and one we've been really looking forward too. This tied in really nicely with an email I received all about chill.ie 's campaign looking at night in or a night out preferences.

There is no question about it, I am a night in person. Every single time. 

I didn't go away to university, I stayed home. I don't drink so much prefer being around my own people in my own, less busy, environment. 

As a group we decided on pizza and one of the guys had a 50% off discount code which made the overall order a much easier bill to swallow. 

I was really pleased that the main event of the boxing actually started at 10pm and we weren't kept waiting for hours and then all asleep when the main event started. It meant we had a great few hours with friends and Sunday wasn't a right off. Although, not such a bad thing with a Bank Holiday Monday following. 

Talking of Bank Holidays, the last one - which wasn't that long ago - we bought an outdoor fire pit. 

This is hands down one of my favourite house purchases, but with the clear risks associated with owning one we double checked our home insurance to make sure that the back garden was covered(!!), it's so different to insuring just the contents of a flat. 

For hours we sat outside burning logs we bought from Homebase and also the sticks we had cleared from the garden the week before. Endless fun and I would highly recommend if you have the space! 

Are you a night in or night out person?

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LIFESTYLE: Changes

Another month has passed since I last opened up blogger. In recent weeks, months and even the last year I've come to realise that really do not give any care to the numbers side of blogging. If people want to comment and read then that's amazing but I'm not going to fight for it anymore. It's just not what I started this for. I still enjoy taking photos but for "normality" there's a photo of my current view and a fuzzy "real life" webcam shot to show the OOTD! 

So I guess we go back to the dear diary format, where I type like I am having a conversation with whoever is reading. If you want the glossy editorial content, you aren't going to find that here. I've really loved the recent trend of vloggers and bloggers my age acting like adults again and loosing the "perfect" glossy filter on their lives. There is a place for that and there are people who will still love that content, I'm just saying it's not for me.

I started writing this post two weeks ago and I can't remember where I was going with it so maybe there does need to be a little bit of planning! I think I was going to "update" (like everyone has been on edge wondering where I've been ha) on what's been going on. 

At the end of February I handed my notice in at a job I'd been in for three and a half years, a daunting experience and one that took a little while to come to terms with. I'm not very good with change usually, but I took the leap and I now work in Marketing at a Private Hospital. So far, so good. I'm really happy with my new role and everyone around me. I've even had the chance to observe operations! Not going to lie, I loved wearing scrubs.

On the same day that I had my last day at my previous job, we finally moved into our house. Nothing like doing everything in one weekend for someone who doesn't usually cope well with change! Hmm! Living in our house is amazing and we are loving having a garden, especially all his creatures that have come with it. 

The other topic I want to cover is the snap General Election that has been announced. All I want to say on the matter is USE YOUR VOTE. 

https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

I think that's it for now, who knows when I'll hit publish again. Hopefully soon because I've got loads of really under talked about products that I really love, DIY updates and decor things I'd love to talk about and well... my sister is due to have her second baby in two weeks - so there's that too! 


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