NYC Big Bold Volume By The Lash Mascara

I'm on the constant hunt for a volumising mascara to add some Va Va Voom to my lashes. I have tried a couple recently, one who will remain nameless for the moment gave me an awful allergic reaction. Then I received the latest family member to the New York Color mascara family - NYC Big Bold Volume By The Lash Mascara

This lovely features collagen to give an instant lift to eyelashes aswell as an individualiser brush to capture each lash, even those tiny ones in the corner of your eye.

 I did find the brush some getting used to but other than that I have gotten on really well with it.

Here are some pics of it on my lashes

NYC Big Bold Volume By The Lash Mascara will be hitting your nearest N.Y.C stand soon and will retail at €3.49. All in all, not a bad little mascara for those craving voluminous lashes.

Will you be checking this out?



Delicious Low Carb Alternatives

Since going on Nupo, I've decided to go back to my low carb ways. So far, I have cut out rice, pasta, bread and potatoes. Most of which I'm not actually pushed on but I eat them for convenience sake cooking for my two men. Lately though I have made a real effort to stop eating them and tak ethe time to cook an alternative for myself.

 With this is mind, I wanted to share my three favourite low carb alternatives. All three are vegetables and all taste gorgeous

Cauliflower

Cauliflower is a great alternative for rice or mash potatoes. You can either grate it or use a potato masher. Use it for curries, shephards pie, fish pies and stews.

Courgette

I love knocking up a quick stirfry and always feel yuk after eating noodles. Enter the humble courgette. All I do it use a vegetable peeler to make strips out of the courgette and stirfry them quickly with a bit of garlic and low salt soy sauce.

Aubergine

 

Aubergines are another great alternative. It can be used instead of roast spuds but my favourite thing to do with it, ,is slice it thinly and use it to layer a lasagne.

Have you ever used these vegetables for these uses?

My Two Weeks On Nupo

I've been a very bold girl over the last few months and putting losing the last 1.5 stone off for ages. I really have no excuse other than life with work involved is hectic and the long days mean I come home starving and stuff myself with bad things. And admittedly I had put on a few pounds.

  

I knew I needed to do something but it wasn't until an email from Nupo arrived in my inbox, that I decided to revisit my weight loss journey so I could finally get down to my pre baby weight.

 

What Is Nupo? 

 

Nupo were kind enough to send me a two week supply of shakes, soups and bars to try their very low calorie diet. Very low calorie in that all you use is their products and take in 750 calories. I really didn't know how I was going to manage with this so I decided to start over two weeks where I had a decent amount of time of work. I choose to do it this way so I only had a few full work days, the rest I was either off or in a half day.

As with any diet, you need to be drinking 2-3 litres of fluids a day. Not really a problem for me as I constantly have a bottle of water glued to me, but I was happy to see on Nupo, sugar free fruit juice, tea and coffee counted towards the intake. On the VLCD, you take six portions of Nupo a day and although the shakes were lovely, I preferred the chocolate bars. (Typical chocolate lover) 

How I got on...
 

The shakes and bars were incredibly tasty and didn't have me feeling hungry. I won't lie to you, the first few days were extremely tough. Although I wasn't hungry, I missed my food especially all the naughty things like crisps and chocolate. That just shows how bad I had become. Hubby wasn't exactly helping in the beginning, eating pretty much everything I loved but he soon stopped.

I was also sent the Spicy Thai Chicken soup to try, while it was nice, I think the shakes and bars are more for me.

I did have a couple of slip ups, mostly the days I was working 10 hours in work and then at a couple of blogger events. On my first week, I did very little exercise apart from walking to and from the Dart Stations but in my second week I broke out the cross trainer and did 30 mins before going to bed each night.  Two days in and I had lost 5lbs and I am two weeks in and I have lost 10lbs .I am delighted with this weight loss and it had definitely encouraged me to restart my weightloss journey

*I wouldn't recommend staying on the VLCD for more than two weeks, it's just a great kickstart to weightloss and you do get a good portion of your vitamins and mineral but long term healthy eating and exercise are the way to go*

 

Kiss Goodbye To Hard Skin with Soft Sole

You may remember way back before I went on holidays, I mentioned I wanted to try Soft Sole. something I didn't get around too for a number of reasons.

 

 

 

 I did try the Penneys version for €1.50 but to be honest it didn't do an awful lot for me.

Having had this bad experience, I was sceptical as to whether Soft Sole would actually do anything to the hard skin on my feet. I did the patch test and the next day I put the socks on and put my feet up for two hours.

 

 

 

 

Like with all these exfoliating peels, you don't see results for a couple of weeks but about a week later, I notice the skin on my feet had started peeling. I didn't take any pics because they were not attractive looking at all.

 

After two weeks, my feet were incredibly soft and not a piece of hard skin could be found on them. Now my feet have been neglected and in bad shape for years. I loved the Micro Pedi as it did a good job but Soft Sole has completely gotten rid of my nasty looking feet and made them pretty. I'm completely converted to exfoliating foot peels after this and plan on trying more of them.

 

You can pick Soft Sole up in pharmacies and it retails at €19.95. Have you tried any of these foot peels?

 

 

 

My Picks for Dance/Exercise Clothing

I love to dance, so much that I considered studying it after the Leaving Cert. I didn't just consider it, I seriously considered it but it got sidelined by my parents pretty quickly. To this day, I still consider taking up some sort of dance, for fun and fitness.

 

I love watching dancing shows, ranging from Pineapple Studios and Dancing on Ice, I also love Strictly Come Dancing. What I really like other than the dancing is the costumes and the dancewear they wear when rehearsing.

 

There are loads of dancewear websites out there, two I came across was Dancemania and Danceworld Both websites have a great selection, here are my picks.

 

 A comfy pair of Yoga pants to keep comfy in (€25.57) and a hot pink short sleeve t-shirt to keep cool in (€8.72)

 

 

 

 

 

A pair of shape up runners (€27.88) to help keep your balance and burn extra calories.

 

While Yoga Pants and a pair of runners are really comfy, I can't help but have Flash Dance in my head. My favourite pieces from this era have to be legwarmers (€6.50) and leotards (€36)

 

 

 

 

I love all these items but every dancer needs a bag to put them in. I love this Pineapple bag, it's girly without being too girly 

 

 

 

 

I really think I am going to try find a dance class to go to, it's strikes me as a fun way to get fit. I'm not sure what type of dance I would like to do so I think I will check out Just Dance or one of the similar schools

 

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