Fitness Motivation and Tips

At the moment I've been using the gym a lot and exercising more, so that my body looks its best in the summer time. I really enjoy working out; I've always been a very active person and I feel really good when I exercise and eat healthily.

I'm not in any way a 'fitness freak' or a health doctor/specialist but I thought my readers would appreciate my viewpoint on it.

One thing I would suggest before you decide to work out is to plan your routine. I would recommend just getting a notebook/paper and write down what you want to achieve in the next week/month/year. Having a goal to set yourself will help to motivate yourself to exercise. Then you want to plan your exercise around your daily routine; whether you choose to work out every morning, every other evening or just on the weekend is completely up to you.
You also want to really think about what type of exercise you like. I wouldn't suggest exercising just because you're friends are or just because it's exercise. If you don't like/enjoy the exercise you're doing, it's more likely to demotivate you and your body. They're so many ways to exercise, so explore and choose the right thing for you.

When exercising and perfecting your body, you need to be aware that you NEVER compare yourself to anyone else. It's okay to be like 'wow her body looks amazing' or 'Her legs look so nice!' but you should never
aspire your body to look like someone else's, because you are YOU and that person may have body issues just like you so be aware of that.
But there's nothing wrong with going on Tumblr or Instagram and looking at some fitness accounts, the Ryan Gosling picture is a cheeky favourite of mine.

Another thing with regards to eating more healthily, just think about what you put in your body will determine what your body will look like on the outside. So if you're constantly eating Mcdonalds and junk food, your skin is more likely to look not as good as if you eat a lot of fruit and vegetables daily. Also, if I do eat chocolate/biscuits 'shit' basically on a daily basis, my body and mind won't feel very good.
Whereas if I'm eating a bowl or raspberries and strawberries, I'll feel better about myself.

Another main rule for eating healthily is to NEVER skip meals. Some people think that skipping meals is healthy and will help you lose weight, it's not the answer. I tried it and I found myself snacking when I got home from school on junk basically. So it's important to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner with a few balanced, healthy snacks added in.

Finally, I would recommended having a friend along with you for your 'exercise journey' if you like. It helps if you've got someone with you so that they're going through the same thing, and they'll feel better about their body as well. It's better and more enjoyable to go to the gym and do exercise DVD's with a friend as well! :)

♡ SUMMER ESSENTIALS ♡ Fashion and Beauty

Summer is one of my favourite seasons, one thing about it is the weather. It's usually always sunny and it stays light until late in the evening too. It also means that when summer is on it's away, school should be over very soon.
I also love the clothes that the shops bring out this time of year; they're really bright and colourful which makes me feel really happy.
So, these are my fashion and beauty summer essentials.

Enjoy! Lots of Love.

My first essentials would be a good pair of shoes/sandals and a nice hat or hair accessory; by that I mean something like a floral crown or headscarf. Those are more for complementing a outfit, but a sun hat or regular hat is perfect for the summer time as it looks good and will protect your face and hair from the sun - having a burnt face isn't a good look in my opinion.

Usually in the summer, I'll be going on holiday or doing a lot of walking, so a good pair of shoes is essential. These JuJu jellies from ASOS are bigger than ever this year, they don't make your feet sweat and they're really comfortable. I also like how they're a bright colour rather than your usual brown or black sandal.



A few products that are essential to me in the summer time; firstly is some sort of curly hair product. Curls can be more difficult to maintain in the summer because of the heat and if you visit the beach or pool quite alot. You're hair can begin to look quite damaged; so if I want to achieve the 'sea beach' hair look, I'll use this Garnier Texturising Gum which is based for curly hair and gives you that 'beach surfer' hair which looks really natural and is easy to achieve if your hair is wet or dry.
A beauty product I tend to use a lot more in the summer is a cream blusher. This is a peach and pink duo by Topshop and I love it! Cream blushes maintain alot more in the heat and the colours look really fresh. I don't wear a lot of makeup in the summer anyway, but if I'm going somewhere all day or if I'm going out after a day at the beach, this is a great multi-purpose product. You can apply it with your fingers because it's easy to blend and the colours come up on the skin really pigmented.
The 3 products to the right are absolute life savers, especially for pale skin like mine. The first being sun cream. I think every body tone and skin colour should use sun cream no matter what. I'm not a fan of sun cream, I hate the smell and the stickiness it has but I know it'll protect my skin, and they're many more formulas for people to try like sprays and oils. I use factor 30 as I'm guaranteed a tan and my skin to be protected.
If unfortunately I do burn, I'll use after sun or this 'after burn'. It's amazing if you burn easily or if you have really pale skin. It's a cooling gel that you can put on your skin and it cools and reduces the redness rapidly. It's available from Boots or on line, and it works a lot faster than usual after sun.
I also like to top up my tan by using a gradual one. I mix this in to my moisturiser to gradually give me a stronger glow and tan. This one is by No7 and I would also recommend this for pale skin as it looks really natural.



As I said before, one of the best things about summer is going on holiday! I'm going to Crete this year, and my next two essentials would be a pair of good sunglasses and a cute bikini. I also have a cute polka dot swim suit which looks really cute also.
My sunglasses shown are from TX Maxx and I bought them there because they're discounted and I'm guaranteed they'll be UV protected. There's no point buying sunglasses if they don't contain UV otherwise they won't protect your eyes.
My bikini is from Motel Rocks, and I love it because of the 'bralet' style and the high waisted bottoms. I've noticed a lot of people have been buying the Triangl bikini's but they're not my cup of tea. I prefer the vintage style. I originally bought this from ASOS, and they do some great bikini sets.
I love seeing different shapes and sizes on the beach, I think it's great that lots of women want to embrace their bodies.

 

My final summer essential would be a pair of high waisted denim shorts. They sell these everywhere; from car boot sales, vintage and charity shops. The top pair are from Oxfam and the bottom I bought from Camden in London. I think shorts go with everything, and I like getting my legs out in the summer so they'll tan. I love the shape of high waisted things and they're so many variations of shorts out there.

May/June Favourites 2014 | Beauty, Fashion and Other Things

I've decided to begin doing monthly favourites on my blog, because I enjoy taking pictures and talking about the products that I've mentioned. It also lets my brain register what I have been liking and what sort of things I can try next month.

I haven't done one in a while as my main focus has been on my exams, so I haven't had lots of time to go shopping and to try different products out. But over the past week or so; I've managed to relax a little more meaning I had the time for the odd shopping splurge or the odd hour or two to fit in a good film that I was yet to watch.
I like the mix of favourites better than fashion/beauty related because I find them a little repetitive. I like learning about what people have been listening to or watching, usually that'll tempt me to try it out.
June is one of my favourite months- the sun finally comes out and its guaranteed a little, exams are over or almost finished so school becomes a lot more relaxing, meaning I get to spend more quality time with my loved ones.

If you've tried any of the things I've mentioned, let me know what you thought or what your favourites have been this month!

My first favourite beauty/skincare product would be this recently purchased face scrub from the brand 'Good Things' which I got from Boots. I'm familiar with their brand and really like their products. They have sort of a 'purple' range for oily/combination skin at the moment, which were their first original products; and for the spring/summer they've brought out this new range to brighten and rejuvenate skin. The colours on the packaging immediately caught my eye, and they were having a half price promotion for it's launch so I couldn't really say no. I love the idea of this product containing honey and oats as I know that's really good for the skin. I love this brand in general as it's aimed at younger skin, it's made from really healthy and natural ingredients, and it's not tested on animals. I use this scrub once, maybe twice a week if I need to. It's good for a good-skin day because it just clears and brightens the skin. I think this is a really good product for normal skin, but for people who's skin is quite dull and they want to add some brightness and let the skin glow.
My second beauty product is another recent purchase; I got this about a month ago.
 I'm quite familiar with the brand 'Witch' as I've tried a few of their products before. Somehow

I'd never come across this and I wasn't so keen of some of theirs I'd tried, but I thought I'd give this a go. I was looking for a spot treatment which could reduce the size of both small pimples and then the odd big spot. It was only £3.99; their usual price as well which I thought was really affordable. Like a lot of spot creams, you have to use the product consistently to see clear results- I wouldn't say this product is a miracle worker but it has helped my skin to become smoother and less spot prone. I really liked the gel consistency, I don't think I would have bought it if it was like a moisturiser or cream. I also like that you can leave it on overnight, so it can get to work. The layers are build able so you can apply as little or as much as you like. It doesn't peel or itch which is what I've experienced from other spot creams and it gives a sort of tingly feeling to the skin which I liked because you know it's starting to work. I still don't think I've tried it enough times to see a bigger difference, I have tried better spot products but I'm going to keep at it and see how it turns out.
My third and final beauty product is one that I was really surprised with. When I bought my monthly magazine 'Company' this month, it came with a free mascara. I know that larger magazines such as Glamour and Elle give away a lot of higher end products such as Benefit or Nails Inc full sizes and samples. But Company was giving away their own brand mascara. It looked quite cheap if I'm honest, I wasn't riding on it being anything special. I was going to throw it away but then I decided to try it out for a week or so; it wasn't as if my eyelashes would burn off or anything.I haven't had very good history though with own brand magazine make-up in the past, so I was a little sceptical to try this out. I usually like my mascara to coat evenly on my eyelashes; I love that makeup-no makeup look and I like my eyelash colour to look really natural. This mascara honestly did the job really well. From the first time I tried it, I used it religiously for the couple of weeks after and I was really impressed with it. The only downfall would be when I was taking it off at night, it was thicker than I thought it was but for a magazine mascara it was a favourite of mine for the month.

Moving on; I've got a couple of fashion items to talk about and then I'll finish with a few miscellaneous bits.
This piece of clothing is a shirt which I bought about two weeks from now, and I literally haven't stopped wearing it. It's a shirt from Primark- it has that gingham/checked pattern in a blue with daises over it. This is one of their few items in Primark where you buy it and it's honestly one of the best purchases you could have made. I think their £10 shirts are one offs, and their bang on trend and really affordable. They're easy to care for and I find this pattern in particular to go with jeans really nicely. I have a more boxy shirt from Primark which is blue with polka dots on, and literally I have worn that to death. I don't think I could have gone wrong with a shirt from Primark - I just love everything about it, especially the floral pattern as I don't think it would have caught my eye if it was just plain.

A pair of shoes I've managed to dig out from my wardrobe and rock once again are my Ju-Ju jellies sandals. These are even bigger this year than last year, they're lots more variations and colours of them, I am really tempted to buy more! These sandals are like Marmite - you either love them or hate them. I actually really having been loving them at the moment while the weather has been sunnier. They're really comfortable; although not the most practical for lots of walking. They just look really nice for the summer with a pair of denim shorts.

So that's really my fashion and beauty favourites from the past couple of months. Now that my exams have finished at school, I've been able to indulge in more social media and different things.
FILMS that I've watched and I love were Vendetta (Starring Danny Dyer), Gangster Squad (Starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling) and Kidulthood. These are films that I'd just come across and I really enjoyed watching them.
MUSIC that I've been listening to at the moment in particular are artists such as Iggy Azalea and Ariana Grande; they're albums have been spot on at the moment and they're perfect summer songs.
FITNESS is something which I've needed to get back into, and my mum bought a new smoothie maker for us. So I've been experimenting and making lots of flavours of smoothies, my favourite so far has been strawberry, raspberry and banana :)