Eating Better Feeling Better

This time last year I decided to swap my usual sugary breakfast cereals for a super healthy smoothie and generally cut out the refined sugar.  The decision was mostly fuelled by my constant feeling of tiredness and falling asleep at around 8pm most nights! That and the fact I was really noticing the weight piling on! Enough was enough!  

My lunch and evening meal were already quite healthy.  I was however a serial snacker!  I could easily eat up to 3 full size chocolate bars a day! I did some research and came to the conclusion that the problem was indeed too much refined sugar and not enough fruit and veg.  So out came the blender!

I tend to stick to the same smoothie recipe, which is.....

Half a cup of frozen blueberries

Half a cup of frozen mango cubes

1/4 of a large cucumber

2 medium sized carrots

1 cup of watercress

1 cup of spinach

400ml of mango juice. 

This is enough for two people.

We have been having this for breakfast 5/6 times per week  for a year and we feel great!  I would usually get at least one cold/flu type virus around Christmas time and last year I didn't!  My skin is clearer, My hair and nails are healthier and I've dropped a dress size!  I would recommend breakfasts smoothies to anyone, they are quick and easy to make.  I make ours the night before and store them in the fridge, then when you wake up all you have to do is give it a good shake and enjoy!

It was cutting out chocolate that I struggled with the most.  At first I tried to cut it out completely, I managed 2 months! Which I didn't think was too bad. ... I then decided that cutting right back to 1 bar per week worked better for me, it's nice to have a little treat! I'm a big believer in everything in moderation!

xox

Hourglass Immaculate Liquid Powder Foundation and Veil primer

This weekend I decided to treat myself a little (maybe a lot!) I finally bought the Hourglass Immaculate liquid powder foundation and the Veil primer.

The foundation has been described as a miracle for people with oily skin, this is what really drew me to this foundation as I have particularly oily skin.  It is also marketed as full coverage which again for me is perfect, I have a few acne scars that I prefer to be covered.  They have a really good colour range and the lovely lady in Space.NK colour matched me to Golden which is spot on.  So far so good!

The Primer claims to eliminate redness, minimizes pores and soften fine lines, it has a satin finish and is water resistant.  Again sounds perfect!

The packaging for both of these products is beautiful, as you would expect.

I was really excited to get home and try out these little beauties!

What I thought......

The application for me is not great, it's quite hard to work with due to how quickly it dries.  The first time I tried it I did so without the primer and I was shocked at how it looked! Patchy and just not nice! I used my fingers to apply as the brush I usually use just seemed to be eating the foundation! So it was quite difficult to blend.

I tried again the following day, this time with the primer. This really did help the aplication as it seems to slow down how quickly it dries and I found blending to be easier too. All in all with the primer it looked and felt so much better.

The coverage, they claim that it is full coverage, I would have to say it is more light to medium.  For me this was a bit of a let down, while I like my make up to look natural, I also like it to cover my acne scars, which this just didn't do.

The finish however is gorgeous! Really matte but not powdery looking.  I stayed shine free for about 5 - 6 hours before I started to look dewy, not oily, dewy.  I usually get about 3 hours shine free when I use Colourstay as a comparison.

Overall I have to say I was a little disappointed, mainly with the coverage.  I will continue to use it and hopefully find a way to make it work, as the finish is just what I'm looking for.  I ordered the Ambient lighting palette to see if that might help with coverage, fingers crossed......

Thanks for reading.

x