♡ FITSPIRATION: The Band-Wagon Story ♡

Uh oh... Guess what happened. 

I fell off the exercise bandwagon. Yup. It's bad.

Today I plucked up the courage to go out and go for a run around the beach with my friend at about noon, and maybe only fifteen minutes into the run was I spluttering and panting and going crazy and that's when it hit me that I hadn't done any consistent exercise for a good two...(maybe two and a half) months (I told you it was bad), and only the odd set of push ups every other night as an alibi. 

Pleease don't judge me, we've all been there!

As of today, I'm going to re-boot my system, detox of all the feeling sorry and guilty about myself, and start over. 

Maybe the reason why I fell off the band wagon was merely because I had fallen into the habit of doing precisely what I'm about to show you...

     ♡ EXCUSES, EXCUSES, EXCUSES

It's a universal truth that making up an excuse is always sososososo much easier than actually doing something, and I hands-down guarantee that I've done this before. Procrastinating is one of my talents.

However, like most problems in life, there are always hidden solutions, and exercise is just one of those. 

- Don't have time? Wake up earlier, go to bed earlier. Hard? Hell yes. Worth it? Hell yes.

- Don't have a gym? Unless you live in a plane or under the sea, I'm sure that outside of that front door, there is an explorable mass of land of which you can run for kilometers. If there's not, then where do you live?

- Don't know how to start? You don't know until you try, AND you don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. Throw out all the junk food, smaller plates means smaller portion sizes, easy youtube tutorials and workshops and books. 

     ♡ FEELING SORRY FOR ONE'S SELF DOESN'T DO ANYTHING

It's natural. Really. I promise. But does it get us anywhere.......hardly....

Dust off your crown, Princess, sh!t happens and we just need to get over it! Refresh with the sun coming up tomorrow. Promise yourself. Make sticky notes of encouragement as stick them somewhere you can see them and start off slow...which leads to my next point...

Need motivation?

- Check out Lorna Jane's Move Nourish Believe blog. It's fabulous. 

- I've been reading Lauren Conrad's blog and it covers pretty much every aspect of girly life, including a specific segment directly related to fitness. It's also fabulous

     ♡ THE "I'm going to wake up tomorrow at five and do a spin-class" MOTTO

I think it's fair to say we've all made this mistake.

Pretty much the number one rule of exercise and fitness to start off slow and then build up to it. Rome wasn't built in a day, honey, and believe me, you won't be doing yourself any favours by going all out on the first day.

If anything, there's maybe an 80% chance that this won't play the way you want it to, and only puts your body and mind under stress.

Not only does this lead to physical problems such as shin splints (you know that nasty ligament pain on the outer side of your calf that you can't stretch), Achilles rips (just above the back of your heel) and other bodily pains such as knees, respiratory and back, but over-exercising also leads to negative psychological consequences such as "that was awful, I'm never doing that again" which will only discourage you further.

♡ ♡ ♡                                          

                                         Luxe

♡ The Perfect Manicure DIY ♡

It's no secret that a good manicure can make or break an outfit. 

While indulging in a professional manicure is always the best way to spend a Friday afternoon, being a full time student, I don't have a lot of time on my hands, nor a readily available abundance of money to splash out on perfect nails, however, giving yourself a professional standard DIY manicure can also be a difficult and messy practise without the proper techniques.

By observing what my technician was doing in the salon today, I was able to pick up these tips and tricks and hopefully achieve the perfect DIY manicure:

STEP ONE: Always start off with clean nails. Enough said. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap gets rid of any grubbiness and yuck that may be lurking on the surface or nail beds. 

STEP TWO: Remove dead polish. While it may seem like the "easy way out", painting over already half-chipped nails is a big no-no. It ruins the nail surface, not to mention that it looks really cheap and careless. For shellac, you must use pure acetone on a little cotton ball and then wrap the finger in aluminium foil for ten minutes. After that, you can use an orange stick to scrub off any excess. 

STEP THREE: Clip. Please. Talons are for eagles - not humans. 

File the nail down so that it is smooth. I always attempt to file my nails in an oblong or "squoval" shape. The "squoval" shape is strong enough to stop any chips from occurring in contrast to an oval or square which are prone to this.

Buff the surface of the nail which an orange stick. This is important as it gets rid of any tiny bumps on the surface of the nail.

STEP FOUR: I then pamper my hands with a moisturising lotion. Right now, I'm using Soap and Glory's Hand Food.  I highly recommend this. Not only does it moisturise to the max, it smells divine, dries quickly, and unlike a lot of moisturisers, it doesn't leave my hands all greasy for the rest of the day. Bonus :)

STEP FIVE: Go ahead and apply a clear base coat. This establishes a smooth surface for the colour to go on.

STEP SIX: Depending on the pigmentation of the polish, apply two coats - maybe three if it's semiopaque

STEP SEVEN: My secret tip...or maybe not so secret ...get a Q-tip or swissper or whatever they call them, dip it in some nailpolish remover and just lightly wipe away any imperfections such as polish on fingers or whatever. You're welcome :)

♡♡♡QUICK REVIEW ♡♡♡

For my DIY manicure, I used Sinful Colours in the shade Snow Me White - a product I received in my November Bellabox. I'd never used a Sinful Colors polish before as I haven't seen them in the shops in Australia yet. 

♡ 100% pigmentation with two coats

♡ Quick dry

♡ Smooth to apply

♡ Long lasting

The only negative was that the first coat was slightly streaky but with a second coat, that was all fine. 

♡♡♡

Luxe

❀ ♡ Hello Aussie Summer ♡ ❀

❀ Time to detox from the winter ❀

and start

❀ again ❀

Mood: Smiley and bubbly

Colour: Pastel pink and cream

Scent: Victoria's Secret "Such a Flirt" body mist, Marc Jacob's "Honey" perfume

Music: Sensitivity by Alex Goot 

Colour of fingernails: Can't find my Czechbook by OPI 

Motto: Don't take life too seriously...no one gets out alive anyway 

♡ REVIEW: Victoria's Secret Fantasies Body Mist ♡

Now that Spring time down south is officially making it's peak, it is officially floral season once again and time to make the most out of the season to be floral.

I find body mists a perfect way to spritz up an outfit as they're light, easy to wear and leave you feeling refreshed and fabulous whether it be a busy Monday morning, mid-day after lunch, or before going out at night. 

What I'm Reviewing:

♡ Strawberries & Champagne: wild strawberries and bubbly :P

♡ Sheer Love: white cotton and pink lily 

♡ Pure Seduction: red plum and sweet freesia 

♡ Such a Flirt: starfruit and white orchard 

♡ Hello Darling: white nectarine and peony 

♡ Love Spell: cherry blossom and peach 

♡ Amber Romance: amber and creme anglaise 

♡ Pure Seduction: 

Scent: Red Plum and Sweet Freesia
Rating: 9/10
Pros: Smells like heaven and once you're hooked, you can never go back :O
Cons: Slightly overpowering

This is definitely my favourite of the whole collection so far. You can kind of see above that Pure Seduction is definitely the one I've used up the most. I got the dual pack with the body lotion so unlike the others, this body mist bottle is only 125mL in comparison to the others of which are 250mL, meaning that it's small enough to tuck into my bag just for a refreshing spritz throughout the course of the day.

♡ Such a Flirt: 

Scent: Starfruit and White Orchard

Rating: 8/10

Pros: Pretty, flirtatious but not seductive, cute

Cons: Can be a little shy in the sense that it wears off after only a couple of hours so you need to keep applying

Scent-wise, this is my second favourite underneath the one above. The scent is super Spring and perfect to spruce up a beautiful Sunday morning. Literally, think stepping outside when the sun is shining, wearing a summer dress and feeling magnificent with birds tweeting and you're favourite song playing in the background. This is the scent that goes with that scenario.

♡ Hello Darling

Scent: White Nectarine and Peony 

Rating: 8/10

Pro: Makes Monday mornings, or any morning earlier than about 8am just that much easier

Cons: It ran out too fast :(

Okay. It's a Monday morning, it's raining and you have a tonne of work to do and even though you've only been awake for twenty-five minutes, you just feel like nothing's going the right way. HOLD UP, SISTER, a spritz of this and it turns the whole morning into a fairytale. It's liquid motivation to have a wonderful day. The nectarine fills in the capacity for the day's little luxury so you can go into work with a smile, smelling fresh and beautiful. I find this scent best suits in summer. Did you know that the peony is a traditional Chinese symbol meaning "King of the Flowers"? There you go, now you do :D

♡ Love Spell: 

Scent: Cherry Blossom and Peach 

Rating: 7/10

Pro: a bit more sultry and sexier than the former - perfect for going out at night

Con: I only got the body lotion so it's a bit hard to distinguish the fully developed scent of this one.

Like the other VS body lotions, this one leaves my skin ultra moisturised which is perfect for winter as I find that my hands especially dry out with the cooler weather. I tend to apply this just after a shower in the morning and it pretty much lasts the whole day for me. 

♡ Strawberries & Champagne: 

Scent: Strawberries and Champagne

Rating: 6.5/10

Pros: Classy, pizzazz, very unlike the rest of the mists

Cons: The scent can become a bit overpowering if not applied with modesty. 

This is my second oldest; what I really like about this one is that it's perfect for going out on a Friday, but it's not necessarily trashy per se, however, a lot of popular perfumes (especially all the celebrity perfumes i.e. Britney Spears) have a prominent sickly scent and while it's quite "in" and the scent that most of my friends go to, I don't really like it. Unfortunately, this one has a tinge of that scent, though if you apply it properly and don't go crazy (a mistake I've obviously made), it's great for a fun night out.

♡ Sheer Love:

Scent:  White Cotton and Pink Lily 

Rating: 7/10

Pros: Together with Flirt, this one sum up Spring in one scent.

Cons: Not very strong at all, I guess they call it Sheer Love for a reason :P

My lovely friend bought this for me for my sixteenth. I find that this one is very delicate, modest and cute, though really lovely. I kind of envisage myself wearing this with my mother's pearls, if you know what I mean. It's a bit more sophisticated than the rest and more of a Sunday white's lunch than anything.

♡ Amber Romance: 

Scent: Amber and Creme Anglaise 

Rating: 8/10

Pros: For me, this smells like cold winter nights with a cup of hot chocolate watching Downton Abbey

Cons: Strong scent, but still beautiful

This one's the cold winter night sitting at home watching TV or reading a book, or maybe I just turned it into that? I tend to wear this to bed as it has a really lovely vanilla and homely and calming scent on. If I could describe it in any other way, I'd say that unlike the others, it's a bit more eau de parfum instead of toilette as it's a bit more passionate (?) I don't know. 

As a wrap up, if you haven't owned any of the Fantasies Body Mists from VS just yet, I'd definitely urge you to go out and give it a try as they're cheap, and beautiful and the perfect way to spruce up any outfit. There are so so many different scents and I'm sure they all appeal to different people depending on what they like, so I'm sure there's something for everyone.

♡ ♡ ♡
Lucy

Where Am I? Life Update

Can you believe that the last time I posted on this little blog was July? Like, what? To answer some questions, no I have not died, nor gone to heaven (touch wood) but I've just been so extraordinarily busy with my (Australian GCSE equivalent) and pre-study and family and relationships and I literally just kept forgetting to post on my blog.

Breaking it down so I don't babble on for too long:

- I've turned sixteen!! YAY! But I barely feel any older or wiser or maturer...

- I broke up with a guy. Not sure how to feel about this yet, but everything happens for a reason.

- I blew my phone and parent's internet bill a few times ;P

- I've been busy as a beaver studying for my exams

- My vocal coach is trying to find me a busking license and a gig to perform at so I've been going crazy over that!

So there you have it. A wrap up and life update. Even though I've not been blogging and I suppose it's only acceptable to say that I'm kind of out  of the swing of blogging and posting and whatnot, I prommmmise that over the months I've conjured some fabulous new ideas for blogging (that of which including pre-blogging and posting when I need to, as well as having a specific schedule so I don't forget :P) and that I'm back and I'm here to stay.

♡♡♡

Lucy