stefhope.

Recently I have been trying a lot of night serums to try and improve the texture of my skin – I am glad to have found the Nip + Fab Glycolic Fix Serum. I haven’t really ever had the best textured skin, now that I wear make-up on a daily basis I notice the areas that are not the best even more. My make-up will stick to those areas or the texture pushes the make-up up over the area – this makes it even more noticeable to me. One night I took my make-up off and got really frustrated with my bad skin and took to google to find a product that would help me – the one that kept popping up and had good reviews was the Nip+Fab Glycolic Fix Serum. I quickly bought the product and as soon as it arrived I tried it out… needless to say I was not disappointed. I used this product   each night and it just blurs any bad texture areas, it makes my skin feel so soft which is what I look for from many of my skincare products. As this product blurs the texture it makes my make-up...

For many months now I have been using a waterproof mascara as I feel like it hold a better curl and last a lot longer without dropping or shortening the curl. One thing I could not stand and quite frankly dreaded was having to take the mascara off to apply a fresh coat, I used to spend ages tugging at my lashes to try and get all the product off but for some reason my lashes just never felt clean, I always felt like there was still a coat of mascara on them. I searched the shops for removers that were specific to taking off waterproof mascara and even they did not seem to work either.  I loved how to mascara looked and I did not want to have to try and find another mascara that looked as good. I was looking through Beauty Bay a few months back and found the brand Mario Badescu and I remembered watching a video of Zoe where she spoke and raved about how good the brand was. Since I had tried everything else I didn't think it would hurt to give their waterproof ...

My first week back at Slimming World and I would say that it was a complete success! 99% of the time I was on plan with just one day where a Nandos may have happened!  It paid off! My first weigh in and I lost 2.5lbs! I am delighted, it just goes to show you that if you stick to it then it pays off and you will see the results that you want. If I lose 2.5lbs every week I will be one happy girl! Lets hope this week I am just as determined as I was last week! Start Weight - 12Stone 12.5lbs Current Weight - 12Stone 10lbs To Target - 1 Stone 10lbs Thanks, Stef x

For a couple of years now I've been suffering with the worst case of dry/cracked lip imaginable. All day I am constantly applying lip balm as my lips without anything covering them is agony. They constantly crack and then bleed, they flake off and to be completely honest it isn't exactly very nice to be talking to someone and feel as though they are just staring at your flakey lips. So since I feel like I am an expert in the field of lip balm as I own and have tried what feel like hundreds over the past two years that I would give you my personal opinion on a few Lip Balm I have tried out recently and wether they were work the money, and if they have done anything to help my lips. 1. La Roche-Posay - Barrier Repairing Balm I initially bought this as I had heard Estee Lalonde rave about how good it was for helping her lips from being so cracked and sore so thought it would help me. I use this every night and lather it on my lips and yes I do think it helps...

So again I have another first week at Slimming World - I plucked up the courage to go back to my old group and finally get my butt in gear again. I hadn't weighed myself before I went so I had no clue where my weight was in relation to the last time I got weighed - which was just over 6 weeks ago. A gain was expected and to be honest after the Christmas pig out and the New Year drinking I would not have been surprised.  However, I stood on those scales and I am the exact same weight I was 6 weeks ago! I am in shock. It was a pleasant surprise and one i will happily take. I had to get a whole new membership which included a new book - this I am very happy about. I really needed that fresh book so that I did not have the last time I joined and all those horrible weight gains looming over my head.  I set myself a new target which is 8lbs lower that my first one - I have a new goal and one which I am very focused on achieving! I feel that if I come on here eve...

Following on from my 2017 Goals post I decided to write about my fresh start at Slimming World. As I said I joined Slimming World in December of 2015 and for the first few months I really enjoyed having a new project to focus my time and energy on. However, I do think I went about it the wrong way - in the beginning I restricted what I ate so much that I barely ate anything that was not completely free on the plan and barely used any syns - and even though back then I had great weight losses and was very happy with how I looked, there came a day where I cracked and ended up eating anything and everything that was bad for me. Because I restricted myself to so much from eating the things that I enjoyed i just broke and ever since then I never really looked at the plan the same way - I was never very committed to it after that. I really believe that having the 6 weeks away from the plan and allowing myself to miss then plan and miss eating the healthy foods that I used to, I ...

I am the worst person ever for sticking to any goals that I set myself. I either just give up days after setting them or I totally forget that I set them at all. But this year I want to be different, I want to write my Goals for 2017 down and try really hard to tick them off and actually stick to them throughout the whole year. I sat down a few days back and really thought about the things in 2016 that made me not happy and change this habit in 2017 and make my goals achievable.  Goal Number 1 - To stick to Slimming World the entire year. I joined Slimming World in December of 2015 and for the majority of the year I was pretty good and stuck to it about 80% of the time - resulting in me losing 1stone3lbs in total. However, over the last 2 months I have totally fallen off the wagon and eating everything in sight - so that weight I lost is probably all back on now. So, I am making this happen this year and going to rejoin my class on Thursday and will be to target by t...

I don't know about anyone else but I find it so difficult to find presents for people, I am not the type of person that goes shopping and sees gifts that my friends or family would like. I have one friend that goes shopping and sends pictures of things she knows all her friends would like - why am i not more like her? Gift shopping for me is such a daunting thing. What if they don't like it? What if they already have it? So I thought I would have a good look online and see if i could find some gifts that every girl would like and put it together so that I have a starting point for my own Christmas Shopping! For the Make Up Lover Feel Unique have some amazing gifts sets for that women in your life that loves herself some makeup NARS Get Real Audacious Eye & Lip Set -  FeelUniqueNARS NARS Set includes - Mini Nars Audacious Lipstick in Leslie and Bette - Nars Audacious Mascara in Black Moon Retails for £48 Selling for £32 Charlotte Tilbury ...

I imagine that whether you prefer to use a Brush or a Beauty Blender sponge to apply your make-up is very much down to the individuals preference. For years i applied my foundation with a flat brush and I wasn't ever 100% pleased with how the make-up would look or sit on my skin. It would always looked streaky or like it never sunk into the skin in a nice way - it always sat on top of the skin and was never blended very well. Then I found a Beauty Blender at Space NK and thought I would give it a go since the brushes I had tried never seemed to work very well. I was really impressed with the finish that the Beauty Blender - it really made the foundation sink into the skin so it made it look such a natural finish.  The other reason that I enjoy using the Beauty Blender to a brush is that it takes a lot less time to buff the foundation into the skin. With the brush I feel like I stand there for ages buffing it into the skin and never seem to get the outcome that I ...

So since writing my first Slimming World Update I really have been making more of an effort to stick to the diet and actually lose some weight. I weighed in this afternoon and i am really happy that in the last two weeks i have lost 3lbs!! This takes me back to losing 1Stone in total. I am so happy with that result. Now comes the hard task - sticking to it and not going in the total opposite direction that i have done previously. So as of today i am 100% on plan and will be making great changed to my diet. Something i really should have done a long time ago. I still have another 1Stone to lose to get me to target (which i think i change when i reach it to lose more weight) but i am getting there. Very slowly but surely. I have my work Christmas night out on the 25th of Nov and would really love to wear a beautiful dress and feel confident so hopefully by then i could lose another 7lbs to be at 1.5 stone lost... Hopefully forever. Thanks For Reading. Stef x

I recently found a website that you can purchase Colourpop lipsticks from! I find that in the UK they are pretty hard to get your hands on. The major issue i have with buying make-up (lipsticks in particular) online is that you never truly know what the colour is going to look like. Even after looking through and watching countless swatch videos on YouTube - you just never know what they will look like until they arrive. There were countless shades that i loved and wanted but i restricted myself to buying only two.  I got the shades 'Scrooge' and 'Donut' on the website i felt that these shades definitely were different looking on the website.  Scrooge looked like a pinky red colour and when i put it on my lips its more of a dark purple colour - perfect for the autumnal weather Scotland has got at the moment. This one i am happy with the colour and feel like i would wear it during this time of the year. Donut look like this really lovely ...

For a few months now I've been testing out the new Tarte: Rainforest of the Sea Foundation.  I've been using this as my everyday foundation - before I was using the Chanel foundation and I felt that it was too heavy on the face for everyday ware and also very expensive to be replacing every second month. So far, I've been loving this. Its so light on the skin - it gives you a very natural glow and the coverage is really good as well. It gives a good amount of coverage but it also very buildable. I use this with my Beauty Blender and I find this helps with the natural finish of this foundation. It buffs into the skin very easily. I have tried putting this on with a foundation brush but don't think it gives as natural a finish as using the beauty blender. I found it left a very streaky greasy feeling to my skin that i do not get with the beauty blender. I also love this foundation as the smallest amount goes a long way. A few pumps of this and it ...

So.. I've been doing Slimming World for a total of 40 Weeks now, and i must admit its been more than a struggle for me. I know that Slimming World work and is a great 'diet' to be on. Why? Because you can eat as much of the free foods on the plan as you want - foods such as, rice, potatoes, noodles and vegetable. What more do you want from a diet? However, looking at all the foods you can as much as you want, would make you think that you would not want to eat all the rubbish foods and takeaways - it really does not. I still find it hard to change my eating habit that has been with me for a very long time. So to say my Slimming World journey has been rocky is very accurate.  As you can see from my graph it has been a rocky rocky road. I got my 1 Stone Award on the 14 of April this year - since then I have gone on my American holiday and ate like a pig. I've struggled to get over the fact that my holiday is done and I need to get my focus back on...

Out of the many perfumes that I seem to hoard - my favourite this month has to be the  'See By Chloe' I've been loving this perfume since i bought it a few months back on my holidays. The thing I love about perfumes is that when you buy them on a holiday or wear them for a special occasion - as soon as you spray it you are instantly returned to that amazing time in your life. Each time I spray this I am returned back to the beautiful hot air of Las Vegas - instantly making me happy but also a little sad that I am not there anymore! The notes in this perfume are from  Base Notes ; Top Notes Bergamot Heart Notes Apple blossom accord, Jasmine Base Notes Sandalwood and Vanilla This perfume is lovely for any occasion - sometimes i spray it on just to wear to work and it lasts throughout the entire day - even being able to smell it when I come back from work. Or sometimes i spray it when I'm going on a night out and it just lingers for a...