My Week In Pictures #9

This week, although I’ve been on a healthy eating buzz I must admit that I may have had a few too many treats over the weekend (a ‘few too many’ did include half a birthday cake even though it was nobody’s birthday), but hey – what’s the fun in being an adult if you can’t eat birthday cake at any time of year, right?! Everyone has their own vice, cake is mine unfortunately. Just for the record, I do feel the need to add that eating nearly an entire cake by myself is not something I do regularly...and it’s just as well, haha! Other than my little binge, I’ve been enjoying other things such as a spot of shopping with my mum and chilling out. I’ve had quite a bit of work to do this week...yawn, but I’ve been enjoying reading Binky Felstead’s ‘Being Binky, My Life in Chelsea’ to wind down on an evening.

Well, this little lady looks a bit relaxed!  //  Came across this little beaut whilst shopping with my mum  //  Oh god yes!

Percy pigs, mmm  //  Reading Binky Felstead’s ‘Being Binky’ before bed  //  True dat

Instagram @katesbeautystation

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DIY Shabby Chic Faded Roses

This post has a slightly different theme than my usual beauty related ramblings, I just so happened to notice these pretty dried roses in my mum’s living room today. She’s always doing lovely creative things like this and I thought it’s such a nice thing to do with old cut roses when they are a bit past it, rather than simply throwing them away.

She says it’s really easy to do, all it takes is to simply let the roses dry out in their vase before removing them. She then ties them into pretty little bunches using garden twine (although any old bits of string or ribbon will also do nicely). They are then left to completely dry out at room temperature. If you’re using dark coloured roses, be sure to place them on newspaper or some kitchen roll so their colour doesn’t mark the surface they’re lying on. When you’ve done this, you can place them anywhere you like and enjoy them. These roses above are displayed on a shabby chic cake stand which I think looks lovely, this is definitely something I will be trying out myself.

I think it’s nice to see and appreciate the beauty of things at all their various stages of life. I didn’t think it when I started writing, but maybe this is one of my beauty ramblings after all. What are your thoughts?

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Primark Haul!

Today on my Youtube Channel I share with you the contents of my shopping bags from a recent cheeky trip to Primark. A word of warning – if you grew up in the 90’s like I did, you may well love some of the items in this haul! Hint, it features glitter jelly shoes, as well as Barbie and My Little Pony clothing (among other age appropriate items!).

If you enjoy this video and would like to see more, be sure to hit the ‘like’ button to let me know!

Enjoy

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My 'Week' In Pictures #8

So I’m a tad late in posting my weekly pictures, again...groan! But as of now it will be a weekly staple on my blog, you can hold me to it! I have a planned schedule for blogging and youtubing so I’m all organised and have absolutely no excuse not to keep on top of it – that means I will be blogging a lot and uploading youtube videos at least once weekly (hopefully more) but there will definitely be at least one new video a week for you to have a little look at! These pictures are from the past month and it’s been a busy one, I have arrived home from Dubai and have been absolutely loving the British summertime, you just can’t beat it in my opinion! So without further ado, here are the pictures from my past month in Instaworld. If you’d like to see more, you can view my profile here!

It was a mint green skinnies with Nike Free Tri’s kinda day  //  Healthy eating is going well  //  Morning sunshine in the garden - no filter!

                                Love being back home  //  I actually look my age in this picture!  //  Cooking buddies

Nina ultra pro in fuchsia rage is ah-mazing!  //  MAC All Fired Up  //  Pink glitter nails make me happy

Instagram @katesbeautystation

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Fitness Friday

                                                                                                                                                                                      tumblr.com

Its Friday and I’m feeling inspired today, so in light of my previous series of ‘Feel Good Friday’ posts, I thought I would share with you what has led to my spark of inspiration. This week I’ve been on a total health buzz, I’ve joined a gym (for the first time without stopping by a Chinese takeaway, KFC or some other fat laden food joint on the way home and then being filled with food guilt as well as fried loveliness – oh dear). I’ve also started eating healthily, I’m not on a weight loss diet, I just want to fill my body with actual fuel rather than empty calories, which means a lot of fruit, veg, fish and basically any food that comes without a label – my logic is that if it has an ingredients list, it most likely isn’t natural and therefore my body has no need for it. Whole foods are the way forward for me now.

My main motivation for starting the gym is to get fit, at the tender age of twenty five I find that years of not being into my fitness are starting to take their toll, I get breathless easily and find that my body just isn’t responding quite as quickly as it used to when put under pressure (eg. running to catch a cab or hurrying up a flight of stairs, that’s right – pressure! Haha). My thoughts are, if I feel like this at twenty five, what on earth will I feel like at fifty five?! That was motivation enough to get my act together and to get my heart healthy.

So far this week I’ve been to the gym three times, I’ve run and done a few weights etc, of course with a proper warm up and cool down. My boyfriend is a qualified sports scientist with lots of experience under his belt so he fills me in on what I need to be doing and helps to motivate me. My other source of motivation has been my best friend Kate who is also on a fitness kick at the moment, so we’ve been going to the gym together and helping each other along too. My main aim is to be able to run for longer than 5 minutes without feeling like I’m going to pass out or have a heart attack, of course it will be nice if I see myself toning up along the way (which I better, the amount of pain I’m currently in! Haha). But in all seriousness, my heart health is what matters most to me and to raise my level of overall fitness is what I’m aiming for, a lifestyle change if you will, as opposed to a phase that will pass after the Summer when I no longer have any need to get my pins out, as has been my experience in previous years.

Wow, that was more than I ever thought I would have to say on the topic of exercise! Are any of you watching your health and fitness at the moment too? Any tips would be appreciated, as you’ve most likely gathered I’m a total fitness newby! Do let me know if you’d like me to make this into a weekly feature, I’d be more than happy to share my progress with you, as long as you want to hear it!

Hope you’re enjoying your week and have a lovely weekend!

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May Favourites!

Today on my Youtube Channel I chat about all the things that I have loved during the past month! If you like the video, be sure to let me know by giving it a thumbs up!

Enjoy!

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MAC Paint Pots - Soft Ochre vs Painterly

MAC’s Paint Pots are fab, they can be used as a primer before applying your eyeshadow, or as a shadow in themselves. Unless you like a skin coloured eyeshadow though, Soft Ochre and Painterly are best used as a base. Both apply easily with fingers or a brush, both will go a whole day without creasing and both will make your shadow last all day (or night) – everything you want from a primer, right?!

So what’s the difference between the two and how do you choose one over the other? Well it really is very simple, basically the only difference is that they’re aimed at different skin tones. As you can see, while they are both skin coloured, Soft Ochre is yellow toned which will balance pink tones in the skin and counteract any redness around the eyes, while Painterly is much more pink, which is great for sallow toned skin as the contrast really brightens up the eye area. Wearing pink on the eyes if you have a pink skin tone is a recipe for disaster as it will give a look of being flushed and a bit piggy (for want of a better word), while if your skin is yellow toned, wearing yellow on the eyes can make you look, in all honesty, quite unwell. Counteracting these undertones is what Soft Ochre and Painterly are great for.

 I have an olive skin tone and I love using Painterly as a base for shadow as well as by itself if I just want to look like I’m not wearing anything – like the way you’d use a natural lipstick for a ‘my lips but better’ look, this is a ‘my lids but better’ if you will. My mum uses and loves Soft Ochre as she finds that by balancing out the pink in her skin, it really brightens her eyes.

If you’re unsure of what your skin tone is and would like to find out, staff at any makeup counter will be able to fill you in!

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