Over the past few months since I picked this up when I was on holiday back in May in Florida, I have mentioned this product a couple of times in various blog posts. I picked this product up because I had heard Fleur over at Fleur de force mention how good it was and when I spotted it on the shelf in Saks off 5th Avenue it instantly fell into my basket!

One thing I was worried about buying this product is that it is not easily available to buy in the UK - i.e. you cant get it in Boots so part of me was hoping I would like it but not love it! What a mistake this was!!! The minute I starting using this product I fell in love straight away.

As you would guess from its name - this product claims to offer 10 benefits of use.

1. Repair dry and damaged hair
2. Adds shine
3. Detangles
4. Thermal protection spray
5. Seals and protects hair colour
6. Prevents split ends
7. Stops hair breakage
8. Creates silkiness 
9. Enhances natural body
10. Flat iron spray and thermal protector

Hands up - who loves a good curry! I know I do! However it isnt just the curry I love, its the bits that go with it - the poppadoms, the nan bread and my favourite of all - the onion bhajis. When mum said we were going to try the curry in the new slimming world book I brought I decided to take to good old pinterest to see if I could find a syn free recipe for my beloved onion bhajis. This is when I came across a little beauty.



Onion, sweet potato and chickpea bhajis!!!

Ingredients:

• 1 Tin of chickpeas 
• 2 sweet potatoes 
• 1 onion (white or red) 
• Spices - we used curry powder which you can alter for how spicy you like it
• 1 egg

I've remembered this week to share with you how I did this week and I promised last week I want to share with you both the good and the bad. 

I spotted this tag over on one of the regular bloggers I follow and thought I would give it a go after all we are well and truly in the throws of Autumn.

I have just been flicking through my blog photos which I have taken in the past and I have just realised that i have had this product since the start of May and haven't even reviewed it yet!!!

I brought this product way back in May from Boots in Manchester Piccadilly when I was waiting for my train home after visiting my friend in Sheffield. I had been lusting over it for ages and decided to treat myself to it.

Now my nails have always been quite good. They have always been quite long and strong, something I am very grateful for. However I always like to keep my nails in tip top condition. I got this because basically the beauty bloggers online were saying how amazing it was. More recently in life, over the last 2 years or so (basically since I have been doing this blog) - I have loved nail polish and love changing up my nails at least once a week. Gradually I noticed that my nails were starting to feel less like their normal self.

I can say I have well and truly say that I have given this a good test. I have been using this product since I got it in May and have painted my nails every week with this as a base coat - with the exception of while I was in Florida - and my nails feel absolutely AMAZING! I can honestly say *touch wood* i havent had any unwanted braking or snaps which are the worst!

This product isnt cheap - it retails for £18.99 in Boots (well this is where I picked it up) but I would definatly say it is worth it. I am only about half way down the bottle and I have had lots of use of it - I have even treated my mum to a go a couple of times too!

Have you tried this product? Is it overpriced hype or the holy grail of nail products/?

Doesnt Sunday seem to come round really quickly! Wowzers!

This week has been just your average week mostly! The most exciting thing by far this week to happen is that we have booked our holiday!!!! We have been planning and looking through brochures for weeks now with no closer idea of where to go. Originally we did say we were going to try somewhere new but then we found the hotel that mum and dad stayed at last year on offers for an unbelievably cheap so we have decided to book that. So in the words of the vengaboys (woooah 90s throwback there) Woooahhhh were going to Ibiza!!!
I am very excited to be going back to Ibiza. I havent been for nearly 11 years so it will be nice to go back and see what has changed. It will also be nice to go and just chill out for 2 weeks. We are going to hire a car and see the island but somedays we will just relax and enjoy what the hotel has to offer. Also mum has got me exited because she tells me that there is a small diving school next to the hotel which offers a free scuba diving lesson so i will be definitely all over that! We are not going until May next year which is like 33 weeks away but it doesnt stop me being excited - particularly from a weight loss and fitness view as well! :)

Also this week me and my bestie met up for coffee and were chatting about our weekend away to Birmingham and making mental lists of things we wanted to pick up (I'll be doing a blog post so keep your peepers peeled) and I am getting very excited to go away for a proper girly shopping weekend!!!

I realised yesterday that I hadnt shared a weekly weigh in update with  you this week! I dont want you to think I didnt post because I had put on because I want to do these posts good or bad - I just genuinely forgot! Anyway I lost 1 pound taking me up to 3 stone 1 and a half lost :)

And that is pretty much my week.

My love for real techniques isnt a secret. I love their brushes and own quite a lot which has gradually grown over the past 12 months. I started off with the stippling brush which I loved and thought nothing could beat it... Then I got the buffing brush which again I thought nothing would beat.

Hello expert face brush...

The expert face brush is a dense brush and is slightly shorter compared to the buffing brush. I never thought i would love anything more than the buffing brush, however I find the dense bristles on the expert face brush is much better for buffing in not only liquid foundation but I have also used it for the No7 powder foundation which I was loving over the summer.

Unlike the buffing brush which is only available in the core collection - this brush you can buy this brush as a single for £9.99. I love this brush so much, I have half considered buying another one to use with my cream blushes however I am quite happy to use my stippling brush and buffing brushes for these :)

Have you tried this brush? Is it one of your favourite real techniques brushes or do you love another one more??

Up until a few weeks ago when we had a taster at slimming world, I will hold my hands up and say that I had never tried Nutella. However someone made something using Nutella and I instantly felt like I had been missing out for the last 24 years of my life.

I decided since it was something I had enjoyed and you could enjoy on slimming world - i took to the internet to see if I could find any other recipes. That is when I stumbled upon gold dust!!!!

Now wait for it not only are these little cupcakes amazingly tasty and have nutella in them - you could (if you so wished but I couldn't) eat 20 for 10 syns! Yes that is right! These gorgeous little bundles of chocolatey goodness are just half a syn each!!!!

You will need:

• 6 eggs 
• 14 tbsp of sweetener 
• 2 drops of vanilla essence 
• 2 oz ( or 56g) of Self Raising Flour 
• 2tsp of baking powder 
• 2 tbsp of Nutella 

I love a good eye shadow particularly one that claims it can stay around all day. A lot of my week or the latter half is taken up with work in the day and activities at night time (Guide leader on a wednesday, slimming world on a thursday and choir practice on a friday) and there is nothing worse than an eye shadow that come half past 5 when I get in from work is not longer there.

Cue the Maybelline 24 hour colour tattoo eye shadows. They retail at a good budget happy price of £4.99 and are available in 9 colours. A creme eye shadow many say they are a good budget dupe of the Mac Paint pots.

You all know my love for nail polish and over the last few months I have slowly developed a love for Essie polishes (my soul was sold when I brought my first one). I just can not resist having a look whenever I go past the stand in my local boots and although the colour range is limited, it doesnt stop me lusting (or looking online).

When wondering through Boots a couple of weeks ago, I spotted one of Essies gorgeous 2 polish combos. I was drawn in my the shades and the tag line that these are perfect for fall. It instantly fell into my basket.

Why does Sunday night come around so fast?? One minute it is Friday and the next minute its Sunday night and all we have to look forward to is another week of work ahead! I had a pretty good week the last week :)

I think the most exciting thing that has happened this week is I got my 3 stone award at slimming world!
 Ive been fancying a change in colour a while. I had a lovely new style at start of the summer which I love but I fancied a change for the autumn. Way back at the end of 2011 and start of 2012 I was sport ing a lovely mahogany colour which gradually I stopped doing for the summer then never did it again. So I decided to go for it again but this time instead of heading to the aisles of boots I headed to my hair dresser. I love the hair dressers I go to and have complete faith in putting my hair in their hands so armed with a £10 off voucher I had I went for it! I am SO happy with the results!

I can not tell you how excited the above picture makes me! I LOVE Wicked! I have seen the show in London 3 times the first time I saw it I instantly fell in love. I have been wanting my mum to see the show since that first time I set foot into the theatre to see it but we just haven't been able to organise a trip to London. So when I saw that Wicked was going on tour in Manchester which is just a hop on the train away I knew we had to go! I thought the tickets had all sold out for Manchester months and months ago but when I saw on their twitter page that they had tickets left and not only that they had tickets left for the week I was off work I instantly begged mum to book the wednesday off work so we could go to the matinee! And she did so I booked the tickets! I cant wait to see the show again and I am SO excited for mum to see it!

And that is my week! :)

I picked this up as a bit of a spur of the moment purchase. I went to the Benefit stand when they had the awesome offer on their They are Real Mascara and to tie it in I also had £10 off with my beauty card. This primer retails at £24.50 which is the most expensive primer I have ever tried but I really wanted to try it so I thought I would treat myself!

Me and my lovely friend Lisa were having a chat on Twitter earlier this week about low syn snacks that you could have on slimming world. We were sharing different ideas and I thought I would come and share some ideas with you. All of these are based on syns which are 6 syns or less (or less than 120 calories).

1. Twister Mini Lollies - 2.5 syns (Or a full sized twister is 4 syns) 
2. Alpen Light Bars - 3 syns (or you can have 2 as a Healthy Extra B) 
3. Chewits - 5 syns 
4. Curly Wurly - 6 syns 
5. Muller Greek Yoghurts - 1/2 a syn 
6. Liberte Greek Yoghurts 0% with fruit - 1/2 a syn 
7. Dairy Milk Treat sized - 4 syns 
8. Hartleys Jelly - 1/2 a syn 
9. Special K Cracker Crisps - 5 syns for 21 crisps

I was so excited to weigh in tonight as I knew I needed to lose 1 pound to get my 3 stone award.

Maybelline are kicking some serious drug store butt at the moment! They have has some epic make up releases in 2012 and seem to be fast becoming a staple in my make up bag.


Queue the master drama eye liner pencils. I love a good coloured eye liner pencils. I think it adds a bit of pop to a simple make up look and can add a bit of colour without being too over the top. I was interested in these pencils the minute they came out. I picked up the purple and the teal one but they also do a goldy shade, a pink magenta one but I didn't fancy either of these. These retail for £4.49 and are available in Boots, Superdrugs - the usual places that sell Maybelline.
The consistency of these is not like any other pencil I have tried before. It is a creme consistency rather than a typical pencil which sometimes I find can drag on your eyes. These I love! They glide on easily and the colour pigmentation is amazing!

Here you can see them swatched on the back on my hand. I love both of these. I have been looking for a purple shade like this for ages! And this teal is the perfect colour to replace my old collection 2000 one which I used to love.
I really hope that Maybelline continue this range and bring out some more colours. I am half tempted to give the gold one a try for a night out with a bit of black but I cant bring myself to try the magenta one. I would love to see a brown and black one in these though, just because the consistency is so amazing!

• Lee Stafford Heat Protection Spray - £7.99
• Schwarzkopf Got2bSexy Volumising Moose - 
• Charles Worthington Salt Spray - £6.99 (this one is the old packaging) 
• Its a 10 - $17.99 (I brought this while in the US) 
• Umberto Gianni Curl Smoothing Balm - £4.99
• Tangle Teezer - £10.99
• Vo5 give me texture creme wax - £3.89

I thought Sundays would be my little catch up of my week post... A catch up of all the things I have been doing over the week that I may not have included on my blog and a few photos chucked in for good measure!

Last Monday, I took a new step into my fitness side of things and went to my first class at the gym - and not just the sort of class you can hide at the back and pretend you can not be seen - An Aqua Circuit class! I had heard really good things about this class since I joined the gym. Basically it is not your average Aqua class such as aqua aerobics. The gym I go to also has some gym equipment that you can use in the water such as a Bike, Cross Trainer, Rowing Machine, Stepper and several machines that involve you lifting different parts of your body up etc. I didnt really know what to expect from the class but me and mum had been saying for ages that we were going to go and then one of the girls I work with went and said how good it was so we decided to go along. It was a good laugh as we went with my friend from work who also goes with her mum. I felt like I had a really good work out and we instantly booked to go again tomorrow and plan on making it a regular occurrence.

I picked this little board up on Ebay after seeing in on several peoples instagram pictures. I feel like it is a great way to track my weight loss and am excited to update it every week.

I am getting a little bit more confident with my outfits at the moment now I am very slowly starting get a waist and I have decided to show it off a bit by experimenting with a bit of tucking my top into my skirt.
I had a really stressful morning on Friday to the point where I was nearly in tears. My friend from work (who I mentioned above) doesnt actually work with us she works on the ward but she has been working in with us for the last 3 or 4 months because she wasnt able to work on the ward. I had really found someone I get along with really well and we have a right giggle and I am really going to miss not having her around. She got me this little bear as a thank you (I dunno what for) but it really made me smile when I really felt like sitting in a corner and crying.
I got a bit creative yesterday with my nails with an eyeshadow that I had free at the Clothes Show. It has been sitting in my drawer all these months because it is just far too glittery to wear on my sensitive and contact lens wearing eyes. I decided however to get a bit funky and painted my nails and then dipped them into the glitter! I am LOVING the results.

And that pretty much sums up my week.

Come on ladies, hands up - how many of us have suffered the pains of gorgeous skirts and sore legs in the Summer. I am sure it is probably just reserved for those of us with shall we say a bit more thigh than the rest but it is still a problem!

As I have lost weight over the summer and we have had the lovely weather, I have been wearing a lot more pretty skirts and dresses than I usually do but along with that comes the dreaded problem. A few years ago I picked up something called Lanacane which is an anti chaffing gel which basically you rub on to create a barrier and is meant to stop the pain of chaffing. However the gel retails at £5 for a 30ml tube and in no time it seems to disappear.

When I was in town a few weeks ago I popped into Lush to get one of their face masks and I spotted this; Ultra Balm. According to the product info it says:

For bits that Chap and Chaff. Use it anywhere that needs some moisture; as a hand cream, on your hair to keep static flyaway at bay, as a lip balm, to brighten up your tattoos, on dry knees and elbows - even to tame your eyebrows. 

It was the chaff part of it which drew me in. This product retails at £8.50 for a 45g pot but it sure goes a long way! Ive been using this product most of the summer at least 2 or 3 times a week just on my legs and you can see the usage above, not really even a dent in the top. I am going to try this for some of the other things which this is suggested for but I am LOVING this for stopping the chaffing. This is for sure going to be on my to buy list for next summer!

Have you tried this? What do you think??

Right friday is officially going to be my foodie day! So I thought I would share another of my slimming world finds with you. This one came from one of the ladies at my slimming class!

I love a good trifle. It reminds me so much of sitting around full of turkey on christmas day but when we had a taster at slimming world a couple of weeks ago, one of the ladies brought in this beauty! This trifle works out at half a syn for the whole thing!!!

You will need: 

• Hartleys No Sugar Jelly (1/2 a syn) 
• Fruit of your choice (we used strawberries)
• 2 x Muller Banana and Custard Yoghurts 
• Packet of Gelatine 
• 0% total greek yoghurt 
• Sweetener to taste