Blue Shirt Gold Skirt

Bought a very tiny, very tight gold pelmet skirt in Topshop late last year. It takes quite a lot of courage for me to wear, it is completely arse skimming so a pair of tights are kind of a must if you want to feel protected. If you prefer to feel the air between your legs then that's fine too. The material isn't exactly flattering especially to my post week long junk food binge self but tonight I was feeling brave. I love the skirt although I am bit scared of it. It's good to step out of your comfort zone with your clothes sometimes but I always team it with long sleeves and limited- if any cleavage. So to go out to dinner this evening, I decided on a blue shirt from Gap. What do you think?

Natural Nail Trend- On Cheap Buffers

What with the natural look being in at the moment, I thought instead of painting my nails to go out to dinner tonight, I'd buff them. This was obviously a spur of the moment decision as I bought my buffer from mini Sainsbury where I was also buying nude tights to wear with a desperately short gold skirt- more on that later. It was only a three step buffer so my hopes were not high, the file obliterated my poor nails. Serves me right for being a little over enthusiastic. N.B never use a cheap file, my sister who is a beautician tells me most nail files are way too rough for natural nails. Step two- the ridge remover part was ok but I don't think I have any ridges. Step three, the actual shine part was a disaster. I buffed the crap out of them but I was rewarded with the most feeble shine. I suppose you really do get what you pay for. I will rescue them with just a coat of Blush by Jessica. Think that's about a tenner from John Lewis.

Estee Lauder French Nudes- Nudité Review

Anyone following Spring Summer '13 beauty trends will know that the nude or "your own nail but better" look is big at the moment. I'm thrilled that this is in fashion as I love nude nail polishes. Estee Lauder has released a lovely nude collection and I decided to try the Nudité colour. Now apart from perfume, I've never tried Estee Lauder cosmetics so I didn't know what to expect when I picked it up from the makeup counter this morning. At £14.50- available at all Estee Lauder makeup counters nationwide- this is pricier than OPI or Leighton Denny so I hoped it would be worth the money. The packaging is undeniably gorgeous and glamorous and makes you feel very grownup when you apply it. My only quibble is the brush, I don't think it allows for perfect application. There was a bit of streaking that was sorted out with a second coat. I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite for shine and to minimize chipping. I have to say I absolutely love the colour and is extremely flattering to my rather pale skin tone. It looks very sophisticated and basically I couldn't stop looking at my fingers the whole night! Other nudes include a milky pink in Ballerina, a chocolate colour in Bittersweet and So Vain, a sort of shimmery taupe.

Graze boxes-totes amaze.

I love Graze boxes. They are soooooo cute and my particular package gives me the perfect mix of healthy snacks mixed with a few sweet treats. If you are health conscious (like me) but would still like to snack on yummy things then Graze is perfect. A weekly box gives you four little punnets which you could take to work or class and would greatly reduce the temptation to buy chocolate or crisps. My favourites at the moment are Bounty Hunter- a lovely mix of dried cranberries, coconut flakes and chocolate, Vanilla Seeds- which I like to mix with breakfast cereal or organic yogurt and Copacabana- a mix of dark/milk chocolate buttons with brazil nuts. Graze has also inspired me to make yummy dark chocolate, fruit and nut mixes, myself for when I run out of my weekly supply. I love how good nuts are for you but find them difficult to eat. So I usually have nut butters like almond but now I find brazil nuts slip down better with a teensy bit of Green&Blacks dark chocolate (70%). A good thing too, since brazil nuts contain healthy doses of mono-unsaturated fats which are great for your hair and skin and are a good source of protein. Snacks containing fat and protein are ideal as the protein combined with the fat promotes satiety and therefore (hopefully) you will be less inclined to make bad nutritional choices!

No Meat Challenge Day 6- Trying New Things

Although we said good riddance to veganism on day 3, I'm awfully glad that we are still veggies for the rest of the challenge. It has made us more adventurous in the kitchen. I love food and cooking but can get set in my ways. This week we opened one of Madhur Jaffrey's cookbook and tried a kidney bean curry. It was pretty good. However my favourite curry by far was one that we ate today. It was Madhur's hard boiled egg curry in a dehli sauce. It contained cream, chilis, tomatoes and yogurt and was very filling. I wish I had taken a picture. I'm pretty sure that if we hadn't tried the challenge, we would have never discovered how delicious egg curries could be!

Vegan Challenge Day 4.

Ok... So the vegan challenge didn't work out. Well it did for three days. We are switching to vegetarianism for the remainder of the challenge. And believe me, it will be a challenge. I absolutely adore red meat and chicken and fish... I have decided that while eating loads of fruit and veg is great and nuts and seeds and beans..... I believe that eating only those things is just too restrictive. On top of that I think there is substantial evidence to suggest that meat should be part of a human's diet. For example although dark leafy green vegetables are a great source of iron, meat sources of iron are more readily absorbed by the body I'm not saying we should eat meat by the truck load in fact quite the opposite. I've never thought it healthy that a lot of people have meat as the main focus of the meal but I do think it should play a role in our diets once a day, a few times a week. Why still keep up the challenge if I think meat is so great? Because you can have too much of a good thing. We were eating too much of it, especially red meat, not to mention we nearly always choose organic meat. That IS expensive. So it will give our bodies and our wallets a welcome break. Hopefully after the challenge, we'll be able to have a few vegetarian days a week and not see meat as the main part of the meal.

Vegan Challenge- Day 1

For two weeks my fiancé and I are going to follow a vegan diet. To reduce the chances of me breaking the challenge I am going to post my food intake and thoughts here. We are mainly doing this for health reasons as a sort of cleanse. We both eat rather too much meat and want to give our systems a rest as well as see if we feel any better. I also would like to see if we lose weight. My stats for Day 1 are 54.85kg, I'm 5ft 5. I will post his later. Today's diet will be: BREAKFAST Banana with peanut butter. Fruit smoothie. LUNCH Houmous with vegetables Gluten free oatcake with marmite. DINNER Chickpea curry made with lentils spinach cashews and coconut milk. Drinks: Herbals teas, such as Yogi and Pukka. Won't be drinking much black tea as the tannins hinder the absorption of iron