Hair How-to - Heated Rollers

Hey my lovelies,

I thought I would do a post / video on how I use my heated rollers. I get asked quite a lot how I have done my hair and to be honest most of the time I haven't done anything, my hair is naturally very wavy so I'm lucky in the sense that I don't need to do much to it but it doesn't stay that way for very long, It seems to have a life of its own and gets more and more wild by the second!

So when I know I want my hair wavy but also want it to stay that way I like to use my heated rollers, I find that the heat sets the curls and helps it stay in place for longer!

You to can look as glamorous as me!! Hehe!

Heated rollers are one of the best inventions! They are so easy to use and you get great hair styles in a short amount of time! The set I have are from Babyliss Pro and cost me around £40.00, there are lots of different sets out there to chose from and with places like argos doing them they are more than affordable!

Here is my video tutorial showing how I achieve my wavy hair....

I hope you liked the video and that this has helped!

Stay gorgeous

Grace xoxo

Real Techniques Make Up Brushes!

This is a blog post that I think I could sum up with one sentence..... Real Technique make up brushes are AMAZING! But as readers of my blog I feel I should give you more than that!

I purchased these brushes at the beginning of March and as a lover of new things I didn't want to actually open them! Once I did and had put them in my brush belt I had the perfect opportunity to give them a good trial last week as I was part of the Bristol Fashion Week Make-up team.

I fell in love with them instantly, they are amazingly soft and that is due to the Ultra Plush Taklon bristles, these work really well for high definition work. I found that although they are soft they are still firm enough to get a good application of product. I loved the Buffing Brush after applying the models base I would use this to buff the product into the skin and it literally made the foundation look flawless!

The brushes come in three colours Orange, Purple and Pink, each of which represents a different range. Orange is for Base, Purple for Eyes and Pink for finishing. They are really light weight which is great when you have hundreds of brushes in your belt weighing you down!

I initially got the Core collection and the Starter set (base and eyes) they come with a brush case which also turns into a brush stand. Both sets are a complete bargain at £21.99 each which is an amazing price for 4 or 5 brushes, sometimes you would pay that or more for just one and it would be as good!

The starter set consists of a Base shadow brush, Deluxe crease brush, Accent brush, Pixel point eye liner brush and brow brush

The Core collection consists of a detailer brush, Pointed Foundation brush, Buffing brush and a Contouring brush

I was so happy with the two sets I already had that I popped into boots on my break and got the Blush brush which is awesome! It cost £9.99.

I can not say enough how great these brushes are, they are so good that at least three of my models last week went and purchased them before they left, one of them called them the magic brushes and offered me double what I had paid for mine so she could have them.....I did have to point out that she could just go in to the mall and buy her own which she did!

Do you have any of the Real Technique brushes? What do you think of them? If you don't have them yet you really should!

Stay Gorgeous

Grace xoxo

Weight Loss Wednesday

Well this week was a total shock at the scales, a good one though! The scales showed that I had lost

-4.5 lbs!!!!

I honestly do not know how that happened?! I was really good and didn't cheat but still I didn't do anything different from the weeks before! I am extremely happy about it as it takes my total to 77lbs which is five and a half stone! I was in so much shock that I asked if I could weigh again just in case the scales were wrong! This is a big amount of weight to lose in one week and I think that next week may be a stay the same week as a result of it, but that would still be fine!

So this week I wanted to make you all aware of what I think is a dieters dream! I'm sure most of you would have heard of it by now as lots of people have tweeted about, I am talking about Chocolate Philli! Now some people will think of cheese and chocolate not being a good combination but it is amazing! If you like cheese cake you will love this as it tastes like the middle of the cheese cake and you feel like you have had something really naughty but you haven't!

I have mine on rice cakes or on toast with chopped banana on. It is also good for having with fruit skewers as you could heat it slightly and dip them in! The choices are endless! It has a value of 2pp for a 30g serving.

I have yet to find anyone who dislikes it so if you haven't tried it yet I suggest you do! It seems to be offer in most supermarkets at the moment too!

Hope those of you losing weight have had a good weight loss this week!

Stay gorgeous

Grace xoxo 

Fashion Week!

This past week has been a fashion filled one for me! Bristol Fashion Week took place at the Mall Cribbs Causeway, it consisted of 18 shows that were packed with gorgeous models, fabulous clothes, sky scraping heels and plenty of entertainment from the compares Mark Heyes and Andrew Barton.

I was lucky enough to be invited to the Bloggers show which was on Friday, we had great second row seats so got to see every thing close up. All the up coming seasons must haves graced the catwalk including pastel shades, clashing patterns, 1920's inspired styles, festival chic and so much more! Bristol Fashion week is made of high street brands including Hobbs, Miss Selfridge, H & M, Jigsaw, Marks & Spencer, River Island, John Lewis and many more, which means that all the trends sported on the catwalk are readily available so there is no need to go with out any of the must have items this spring / summer!

The show as always was amazing, I already can't wait for the next one!

 Bristol Fashion Week Main stage!

 Mark Heyes and Andrew Barton

 The first scene, Pastel shades!

Rule Britannia....The finale, with this year being the UK's year, this is a theme that is being carried by all brands!

This is just a few of my favourite pics but can see lots more on my Facebook page here!

For those of you who didn't see my millions of tweets over the past week not only did I attend Bristol Fashion Week as a blogger I was also asked to be part of the Make Up team so I spent the week back stage! I have to say despite it being stressful sometimes I feel like I have the best job in the world! It's a hard life playing with make up and schmoozing with models! The look we were asked for was to go with the Pastel colour trend, everyone had pastel blue eyes with strong winged liner and for the first scene they all wore peppermint green lips, then with 60 second change over we had to get them swapped over to bright pink lips! When I finished on Sunday I felt like I never wanted to see blue eye shadow again!

 My "office" for the week!

 The gorgeous Becky ready for the first scene, peppermint lips and all!

Like I said, its a hard life!

This is just a few of the back stage pics but you can check out the rest on my Facebook page here!

If you get the chance to go to the Autumn / Winter show you really should, its a really great show!

Stay Gorgeous

Grace xoxo

Snake Skin Spring time nails!

I recently purchased a clutch bag which I love, It was a huge bargain at £12.99 from New Look! It was originally to go with a specific outfit but I ended up buying different shoes so had to buy yet another bag (although you won't hear me complaining!)! This bag will be great in the summer as it is pink and orange and has gold detailing on it. As well as being cute it inspire a nail design!

As well as top coat, nail varnishes and top coat you will need some kind of chain (I used a necklace) and some pliers to cut the chain, I have also used a Konad stamping tool but you could do that free hand.

Here is my tutorial video so you can see how to get the look....

Hope you like it!

Stay Gorgeous

Grace xoxo

Weight Loss Wednesday!

Hey Sugars,

So this week was a success at the scales with a weight loss of -2 lbs! I had prepared myself for a stay the same week as sometimes I can be a week behind and with my birthday celebrations the weekend before I was sure it might come back and bite me in the bum, but it didn't so I am thrilled!

This week I thought I would show you a few of my meals that I have had with their pro points values, sometimes it is very easy to get stuck in a rut with food and simply by changing a few things you eat can give you the boost you need!

Now I get 34 pro points per day to eat, for my breakfast I normally have cereal which is 3pp and then give myself a daily milk allowance of 2pp which I use for my cereal and then the odd cuppa!

 This is a lunch option, It is a John West Salmon Light Lunch - Moroccan Style which consists of Salmon, cous cous and peppers, in the ww shopping guide it is pointed at 5pp but when I worked it out from the nutritional values it came up as 7pp so I used that to make sure I was covered! I put with it 3 rice cakes (2pp) and 50g of low fat soft cheese with cracked black pepper (1pp) and an apple (0pp), the total of the lunch is 10pp. Depending on how hungry you are you can graze on this all afternoon of gobble it up in one go!

 Here I have a wholemeal pitta bread (4pp) with Lettuce and Egg (2pp) and have a spoon of light mayo (1pp) in there too, My favourite crisps are Sainsbury's Be Good To Yourself Paprika flavoured potato and Soya Crisps (3pp) and an apple, The total for this lunch is 10pp.

 I try my best not to have too many ready meals but they are great for days when you are busy, This is a Sainsburys Be Good To Yourself Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni (9pp) which I teamed up with roasted Butternut squash (0pp), I like to try and pretend they are chips!! And some roasted veggies (peppers, onions and courgettes all 0pp) This meals total is 9pp.

I was absolutely starving on the day I had this meal (hence the huge amount of food on my plate!!), I'm not a vegetarian but I do really like quorn and this is actually one of my favourite quick meals! This is Quorn Escalopes with a pesto and mozzarella filling, two of them is 14pp, I added salad and roasted veggies with (all 0pp) which more than filled me up!

I try to snack on fruit through out the day but I also like to have the weight watchers bars most of which are 2pp and you can see the other low pointed snacks I have in WLW from a few weeks ago here!

I hope this gives you some new ideas for yummy meals! What are your favourite "diet" meals?

Stay Gorgeous

Grace xoxo

Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

I know that there has been a lot of hype over the Naked Palette from Urban Decay over the past year or so but it wasn't something I went out and bought! Well they have bought out a second one which some of you may remember I put in my birthday wish list! I didn't exactly get it for my birthday but I did get some Debenhams vouchers so I went and purchased it myself!

I said before that I think I prefer the colours in the Naked 2 palette, although they are all fairly neutral there were a couple of new and exclusive colours that I really liked!

 The colours are really usable, there are plenty that can be used day to day and then others you can add in for a more dramatic look!

The palette also comes with a double ended brush which is really soft, its great for blending!

I haven't swatched the colours (if you want me to then please let me know!) as I have seen a few other posts with it on already!

What do you think of the palette? Have you got either of them, which do you prefer? I'm looking forward to creating some Make Up Mondays with this palette!

Stay gorgeous

Grace xoxo

Make Up Monday - My Saturday night Make Up look!

This weeks Make Up Monday I am sharing with you the make up look I wore on Saturday night for a friends birthday party!
I had some new false lashes from Urban Decay which are demi lashes which I really wanted to give a go so I created a simple black smoky eye for my night out!

 I think the flash on my camera has made my make up look quite light but you can see it properly in the video below!

Here's an extra OOTN, I had to share this dress as it cost me .....£7.50!!! Bargain!

Here is my video tutorial showing you my full make up look....

Happy Make Up Monday!

Stay Gorgeous

Grace xoxo

Everyone Loves a Freebie......Cosmopolitan Magazine

This months issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine is a definite must as It has some great freebies!

 I love that you can get a handbag sized copy!

 The freebies I picked up were the Moisture surge and Superbalm Moisturising Gloss from Clinique.

Other products you can get your hands on are the High Impact mascara and the 7 Day Scrub Cream

As they come in trial sizes they are perfect for your handbag or an over night kit! Cosmopolitan costs £3.50, so if you haven't already I highly recommend it this month!

Stay Gorgeous

Grace xoxo

Weight Loss Wednesday

Hey my loves,

This weeks Weight Loss Wednesday is quite exciting for me as on the scales it showed that I have lost

-1 lb

Which may not seem like much but added to my total it means I have lost 70.5 lbs which is half a pound over 5 stone!!!! I can't even describe how happy I am about it! 

Over the weekend I went out to celebrate my 30th and had an amazing night, not only because I was with my friends and family but because for the first time ever I felt like a million dollars! I got so many compliments which I was so appreciative of and it actually drummed into me just how much my hard work has paid off! 

Now my weight loss journey is far from over, I would like to lose another 2 stone but I am realistic so will just see how I go, but when I compare these two photos I am genuinely thrilled!

Now as I did go out this weekend I did try my best to be sensible, we had a meal which I pre ordered and chose Chicken skewers for my starter and then Salmon for my main, both of which were really good, I didn't order any dessert as I assumed there would be cake and I had a slice of that which actually only worked out to be 6pp! But what I was worried about was alcohol!! I don't drink very often any way so to be honest I don't really need much....But I did manage to put 5 Peach Melba cooler cocktails away, which I have to say would have been worth a weight gain as they were good!! For those of you who follow Weight Watchers you will know about the 49 weekly points you can have, now I personally don't feel they work for me (I'm not able to do much exercise so I think you need to be able to balance it out), but this week I used them all and I still lost, fingers crossed it doesn't catch up with me next week!

What are your tips for drinking whilst on a diet? Do you stick to spirits and soft drinks or do you have any cocktail secrets to share?

Hope you have all done well this week!

Stay Gorgeous

Grace xoxo

Birthday OOTN

Last weekend I celebrated my birthday and had the best night ever! Here is my Outfit Of The Night!

 I wore a really simple LBD, it has some detailing just above the hips which is great for enhancing your waist! It was yet another bargain from Dorothy Perkins, it was originally £32.00 but I got 25% student discount bringing it to £24.00, I added colour with dark red wedges which were £14.00 from Primark and a matching clutch which is actually my sisters!

 Jewellery was a selection of gold and black bangles and some knotted earrings (probably all from Primark!).

And here is my Make up and Hair for the night, I must add that these pics were taken when I came in (I was running behind before going out!) so I may look little worse for wear!

Stay Gorgeous

Grace xoxo

Make Up Monday - Product review!

If you follow Make Up Mondays I'm sure you will have read how fussy I am about mascaras! Well My favourite mascara is Falsies from Maybelline, I have tried many others but always end up back with my trusted favourite!

Well you may also have seen that they have released a new version "Flared" to its Falsies range, Whilst pondering in the make up isle I'm thinking to myself its from the same range so surely it will be just as good?! So I have to give it a go....

 Same packaging but the flared formula has wings painted on the lid!

 The brush is thicker at one end to give the winged effect

 This is one coat of the mascara, You can see the effect it gives, I would normally apply a couple of coats.

All in all I really like it, it isn't too different from the original Falsies which is good as I love it but having the new shaped applicator brush gives a slightly different look which is great!

Have you tried it yet? What did you think?

Stay Gorgeous

Grace xoxo

Oh Crap.....I'm 30!

This time last week I was  celebrating my 30th birthday! I had a lovely day and luckily I am managing to drag it out all the way to this weekend when I will be celebrating with my friends and family (Plenty of pics to come next week!).

I feel completely spoilt as I got sooooo many gifts and cards plus about a million messages from people on Facebook and Twitter which was amazing!
I have to be honest as I was dreading turning 30, there is this invisible list that you suddenly feel you should have checked everything off on it! It is the cause of many freak outs which of course are completely unnecessary but now the day has been and gone I can reassure everyone that it's ok, my hair is still intact as are my teeth and I don't have any wrinkles (well no new ones!)!

 I love all my cards despite the fact they are all reminding me that I have hit the big 3 0!

 One very spoilt girl!

 I asked for a new Camera on my wish list and in the end I chose a bridge camera, I love it and have been snapping away since last week!

 My mum gave me an extra card just from her, she said the picture reminded her of me!

 My amazing sister surprised me with 30 presents which was so lovely and thoughtful!

She was very naughty buying me a Links of London bracelet and two charms, It is amazing and I have wanted one for years, I love it so much!

Many people have said that life starts at 30 so here's to that! I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone that sent me messages and birthday wishes, I feel very loved! I will update you all next week with my weekend of celebrations!

Stay Gorgeous

Grace xoxo

Weight Loss Wednesday

This week saw the scales drop by 

0.5lbs! 

I am slightly disappointed as I really wanted to have lost 1 lb this week but any loss is better than no loss!

Last week I celebrated my birthday and as I really wanted to see a loss on the scales I decided I was still going to stick to the plan! So armed with a weight watchers cook book my mum chose some recipes for my birthday tea..... and no, you are never too old for birthday tea!

So we had chicken skewers, prawn and asparagus salad, new potatoes and roasted peppers with pesto! YUM! As if all of that wasn't enough we even had room for some cake! Now my favourite cake in the world is red velvet and my mum makes it the best, but this year whilst I'm on my mission to stay on track we went with a weight watchers chocolate torte which was only 5 pp for a slice....Don't worry I polished my halo!!

 Here is the yummy cake and to make it extra special my gorgeous mummy added some glitter!

Here I am having my cake and eating it too!! And I don't feel at all guilty!

So it just goes to show you can lose weight even when you have a special occasion in the diary, but saying that I am going out to celebrate properly this coming weekend so it may be a totally different story next WLW!! I have already chosen my menu and I did go for sensible options and I have my 49 weekly pro points for a couple of cocktails, fingers crossed I have it sussed!!

How did you guys get on this week? Would anyone like the recipe for WW chocolate torte?

Stay Gorgeous

Grace xoxo

Make Up Monday - Competition Entry!

I know today is Tuesday but I have a good excuse why Make Up Monday is a day late! Yesterday I was in London for the ITEC National Student Competition at the Professional Beauty Exhibition, where with a few others I was representing my college. So I thought I would share the pics of my entries with you!

The first part of the competition was to create a 1950's Glamour look with a modern twist, I was really lucky to be lent a Vintage Vivienne Of Holloway dress to make the look authentic!

I used navy blue and gold on the eyes to give a glamorous winged effect and then made the lips more modern by adding glitter to the red.

The second part was Pop Icons, I assumed that everyone would choose Lady Gaga so I decided to choose Nicki Minaj! My thinking behind this was that she always wears bright colours and her hair is always out there so that's what I went with!

I loved the result of this look, the bright colours looked amazing and I liked doing the detail of the leopard print down the face and neck! The hair was fun and I made the bright coloured balls from chicken wire and wrapped wool around them!

Unfortunately I didn't place any where but I did have fun taking part, but I have to say when people say its the taking part that counts.....RUBBISH, I wanted to win! hehe! There were over 40 people competing in each part so it was tough but definitely glad I took part! It was nice to do some pretty make up with college, it makes a change from the theatrical stuff we normally do!

What do you think of the final looks? For more pics please check out my Facebook page.

Stay Gorgeous

Grace xoxo