I've been shopping....

Well, spring was definitely in the air today and if there is one thing a bit of ever so slightly warmer weather does to me it's bring out my need to shop!  I didn't want to go too mad as I am saving that for when I get to my target weight but I did pick up a couple of goodies!

First up, the bubblegum lip scrub from Lush.  I have seen this raved about on so many blogs and I was so pleased to finally get my sticky mitts on it

Unfortunately, I really am not very impressed by this.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but for £5 I think I was just expecting a bit more than pink sugar.  I lost loads of it trying to get enough out and just keeping it on my lips long enough seemed a struggle.  Is it just me?  If you have this and love it the please tell me how you use it as I really want to understand the hype!

The next item is something I actually bought yesterday but I used it for the first time today. so thought I would include it.

Sorry for the bad photo but I could not find anywhere that didn't cause the light to bounce of it.  This is the  MUA Undress Me Too eye palette - £4 from Superdrug.  I love this, love love LOVE this!  I have always fancied the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette and this is the complete dupe.  Whoop!  MUA really excel when it comes to their eyeshadows and this is my favourite palette yet.  The Heaven and Earth was good, the Undressed palette was great and this is even better.  I'll do a proper review of this soon but if you spy this in Superdrug you should definitely buy it!

My last few items are all shoes.  Ooooh shoes....they are my thing!  There's a very shallow piece of Lisa that can't help but think my life would be more rosy if I was walking around in  pair of patent black, uber high Louboutin's.  Those red soles do funny things to me.  One day Lisa, one day!  Today was a more practical shoe day.  In Primarni I picked up a couple of pairs of ballerina flats for work...

Firstly some go with everything black ones, couldn't resist these with their mustache  they remind me of the ones Zara had a while back.

These little twirly ended lovelies were £8 and worth every penny to help brighten up my tootsies on a glum Monday morning.

I couldn't resist this next pair as they were such a billy bargain..£2!  For shoes!  Both the same size and colour and everything, look, look.....

These were reduced from £12 and I think they are bootiful!  I think they will look good peeping out the bottom of my black work trousers and I also have a couple of dresses that these will look good with.  

And finally, my favourite purchase, courtesy of my husband's bank card!  I have wanted some of these for aaaaages and today hubs said I could have them as my mother's day present from my two little monster's.  Knowing the size of the moths that have taken up residence in his wallet, I was in Office before you could say 'dodgy bunch of flowers from the petrol station'

Yey! I finally own a pair of Converse!  As all of my jeans are skinny I don't think normal trainers look right on me but I can't wear Uggs all year round.  I did buy some Nike blazers at Christmas but hubs told me I was too old for them (cheek) so I took them back.  I can't wait to wear these, yahoo!

So, that's all my bits and pieces.  I haven't quite tamed the shopping beast yet...I'm hoping to get to Boots tomorrow or one night after work so there may well be another shopping post coming up soon!

Have a lovely day everyone!!

Back to blogging...Where I have been!

So, there is a wee bit of a gap in my blog.  I have been so caught up that  have barely read a beauty blog and just have not been in the right place to write one.  Why you ask?  Well, it's all because of my diet!  I have been faffing around trying to get to my target weight since my daughter was born....and that was 3.5 years ago!  I could finally cope with my extra tyres no more, and with 1 stone 12 pounds needing to be shifted to get to where I wanted to be, I ordered a months supply of Exante.

If you haven't heard of Exante, it is a food replacement diet where you replace meals with their products.  Similar to Lighter Life or Cambridge and a bit like Celebrity Slim or Slim Fast.  There are various options you can follow, some allow food as well and the Total Solution does not.  The total solution (a very low calorie diet or VLCD) states that you can lose around a stone a month so this is the option I have gone for.  You have 3 Exante packs a day, totalling about 600 calories, drink loads and loads of water and that is pretty much it. I won't go into the science of how it works (ketosis) but there is loads of info on the Exante website if you are interested.

Here is a little picture from the Exante website to show what I have been eating every day for the last 3 weeks:

It's been really tough (though made so much easier due to my friend on Twitter, the lovely @t_toperula doing it with me) but so far I have managed to shift 1 stone 4 pounds!  Not bad huh?

I must stress here that although you order this diet over the internet, Exante do state that you must have a BMI of over 25 to order.

Now the bulk of my excess weight has gone I feel ready to get back in the swing of blogging again and I definitely feel that I deserve a little treat to celebrate, especially as I can no longer have a cup of tea and a Double Decker!

I think blogging will be an important tool in maintaining my weight loss as I am going to need something to keep me busy and away from the fridge!

I do have one beauty tip for you...drink more water!  You hear it all the time but how many of us actually drink enough?  I certainly didn't!  On this diet I have been drinking around 3 litres a day and it has done wonders for my skin, better than any moisturiser I have ever used.  My skin is less dry, less spot prone and just looks loads fresher.  I will definitely be making more of an effort to drink more water in future!

Now I just need to work out what my little treat to myself will be...time for some blog reading I think!!