Running With Music: Does it Really Help?

Recently I've been really in to going for runs, now I'm no Mo Farah, but I like to think I have a fair bit of knowledge about what is best when you go for a run and how to get further and further each time helping to achieve your personal goals. Everyone always speaks about listening to music on runs and suggests that you use fast upbeat songs to make you go faster and feel more motivated, which does work and that's great for people who have been running for years, who are trying to achieve new personal bests. But, what about beginners who just want to make it to 1 mile and push themselves that little bit further each time?

I always used to run too music and found it incredibly boring running without but, it was only until I had a chat with my dad that I realised its pretty much impossible to run out of time to the beat of the music. Now really it's a matter of personal preference, some people find it more effective running to up tempo music and every now and again I still like to listen to it too, but for people who are just starting out, that are still going strong with their New Years resolutions, maybe try giving the music a rest for a bit and focus on maintaining a steady pace and see how much further you go.

Let me know how you get on. Do you listen to music whilst on a run?

Amy

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Review: L'oreal False Lash Telescopic Mascara

I've tried so many mascaras and its been a while since I've found one that I've well and truly fallen in love with. I'd heard so many amazing reviews on the L'oreal Telescopic mascara that I decided to get my hands on it and give it a go. I've been using it for around a month now and thought it was about time I let you guys know what it's really like.

The first time I applied the mascara I wasn't completely amazed and thought it was yet another average does its job mascara and found myself slightly disappointed that I didn't agree with rave reviews that I had previously been reading. However, it wasn't until I tried it the second or third time that I realised the true impact that it had on my lashes. Not only did it make them darker and longer but I found that each individual lash just seemed to be a lot more defined helping to achieve a fuller more dramatic look. It has a thin plastic brush which automatically gives it a big tick as I tend to prefer plastic brushes as I find they cling onto each individual eyelash a lot easier, which is definitely the case with this mascara. Although I was surprised that such a thin brush would give such amazing impact. To get the best effect I find that curling my eyelashes before allows the mascara to work at its best as it helps to keep a curl throughout the whole day, which I've found almost impossible with other drugstore mascaras after being at school all day.

I also find that its super easy to remove at night which is always a good thing because no one wants to be scrubbing away at there lashes ensuring that each lash is mascara particle free after a long day at work do they?

In terms of price its on the pricier side of drugstore mascaras at £10.99, which I found is the only down side as I don't currently have a job so spending the bulk of my money on mascara is not ideal. However if you want a good mascara that's not going to break the bank then I highly recommend that you get this one.   

Amy

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A Little Catch Up

Happy New Year! I'm so sorry for how late this post is and it seems ridiculous to say that I hope you all had a nice Christmas but hey ho it would be rude not to. The last month has been so hectic with school work, the week before Christmas I had my mock exams which stressed me out beyond belief and I've been trying to keep up with all the homework and coursework I've been given, so with all that to juggle I'm sure you can imagine it's been pretty hard for me to fit in any time for blogging.

 I've been thinking a lot about blogging at the moment and after a lot of consideration I've decided to add another element to my blog. Sport. Some of you may not be aware that I absolutely love sport, exercise and just generally anything to do with keeping fit and healthy. Most my friends and family say I'm actually obsessed, and I would love to share another one of my passions in life with you guys. The idea came to me after I made my most recent blog post 'My Health & Fitness Routine and Tips' it occurred to me how much I enjoyed writing about it. I thought it would be quite convenient to do it now because well, how many of us have set our New Years resolutions as 'I want to get fit', 'I want to lose weight' or 'I want to have a healthy diet' because I can guess that many of you reading this post probably have, and I'd like to write things that will help and encourage all of you to stick with your resolutions and not give up after 2 months or even start exercising now.

In terms of a schedule and setting myself days to put up posts, I'm not going to set one. As I'm sure all of you will appreciate this year is a really busy year for me in terms of education. But, as soon as I have any free time I can assure you I'll be sitting down and writing a blog post for you all :)
 I'll try to alternate my posts so one week will be beauty related and the next will be health and fitness so it keeps everything fresh and interesting.

I hope you'll enjoy reading my new posts as much as I will writing them, and I'm really excited to see what the new year will bring for Amor.

Amy

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Health & Fitness Routine and Tips

Nike Sports Bra - £22.00

Nike Running Shorts - £13.00 (I managed to fit myself into a kids medium)

Nike Free Runs 5.0 - £80.00

So today I thought I would talk to you about my fitness routine. I love sport, I can't stand sitting down for long periods of time I just have to be active all the time. I exercise every day whether that's at home and doing my exercise routine, at school doing PE, playing a hockey/netball/rounders match for school teams or going to boxing. I thought now was a really appropriate time of year to do this post as it's coming close to Christmas (did I really just say the 'C' word?) and the New Year, people don't really want to be piling on the pounds over Christmas, I know I don't, and some people may want to get fit as apart of their New Years Resolution. Anyway, I'll get on and tell you what I do every day to keep fit.

 My fitness regime changes all the time as I think it's important to change it around a bit so you don't get bored. At the moment I'm loving finding videos on the internet it makes it so much easier as I don't have to think about putting something together. 

In terms of aerobic exercise (this is what you need to do more of if you want to shed some weight) I use a Victoria Secrets 10 minute fat blasting workout from popsugar (link here) this is really good to get your heart pumping and ready for the rest of your workout. I used to do a lot of running in the summer but as it gets cooler I tend to lose the motivation to go outside. I'll then move onto some toning exercises which I tend to do more of and a youtuber I absolutely love for this is Cassey Ho better known as Blogilates. She has hundreds of videos all specific to different parts of the body. For abdominals I love the Victoria Secrets Model Ab workout (you can see a little theme here haha) it targets every part of your abs from obliques to transverse abdominals making them feel tighter and more toned, however this is pretty hardcore and if you don't do exercise often you may struggle completing it as I know when I first tried it I had to stop a couple of times, even though I was exercising a lot already. But PERSEVERE, maybe start off on an easier video (Blogilates for Beginners) or keep doing the same video and see how much you improve keep count of how many times you stop and try to do one less each time. If you want to achieve your body goals you must keep going. It takes at least 4 weeks for you to see a noticeable change in your body and it's so worth it. You will never regret working out and getting fit. If I'm not using exercise videos I'll make up my own routines which usually consist of things such as crunches, sit ups, bicycle crunches, planks, squats, lunges, Russian twists etc I could go on forever telling you what I do. I also like going on Pinterest and looking at the health and fitness section for inspiration they have little routines on there that you can use which are usually pretty good if you can't think of what sort of exercises to put together in your own routine.

In terms of eating, I won't lie and tell you that I eat extremely healthily because I don't, I'm the first one to grab a bar of chocolate and eat it until my stomachs content, but I eat fatty foods in moderation (or at least I try to) this means that maybe 70%-80% of the time I try to eat healthily, so eating lots of fruit and veg and wholegrain bread instead of white. The rest of the time so 20%-30% of the time I eat little bits of food that I love to eat, so chocolate sweets, pasta, pizza..need I go on. But remember you can't out exercise a bad diet, don't go overboard or all the exercise that you've worked so hard at will be a complete waste of time.

Amy's 5 Top Tips on staying Fit and Healthy:
1. Drink lots and lots of water - This is something I'm trying to do more of, to help me do this I'm bringing a water bottle round with me everywhere so it encourages me to drink more. But also if you're feeling hungry drink some water before because most of the time you think you might be feeling a little peckish your body is actually craving water.

2. Ignore the scales - I got obsessed with looking at the scales and seeing how much weight I'd lost which is obserd as I was never overweight, and I felt really down if I'd put on any weight. But as my knowledge started to build around physical activity I learnt that muscle is heavier than fat and if you're working out all the time your obviously going to build muscle and weigh a little more.

3. Eat in moderation - I've already touched on this but it's so much better than dieting as you can still eat all those yummy snacks that you love. 

4. Don't focus on one type of exercise - By this I mean don't just focus on aerobic exercise and don't just focus on toning exercises they both accompany one another and work well together to give you your dream body.

5. Don't stop - stop thinking you can't do it, and that you're never gonna feel good about yourself keep going, keep pushing yourself and I promise you'll feel so much better about yourself.

I hope you enjoyed this post, it's something a little different for me to write about but I'm as passionate about sport as I am fashion and beauty so if you enjoyed this post let me know and I'll start doing some more like this. If you'd like to follow me on pinterest then here is my link ♥

Amy

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Beauty Haul

It's been a while since I've gone out and bought loads of make-up usually its just going to my local drugstore and picking up a few staple pieces that are needed. But around 2 months ago me and my sister set a date for our beauty shopping spree in London and well, we've been saving ever since. We set off early and started off at MAC down Carnaby Street and as you can probably see that left a huge hole in my pocket. We continued on and popped into places like Selfridges, Space NK and Lush. But anyway enough rambling here's what I bought:

MAC Lipstick in Chatterbox £15
A soft fuschia pink lipstick in the finish amplified.
 
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Soft and Gentle £22
A high frost peachy/bronze powder highlighter.
 
MAC Eyeshadow in Pink Venus £10
A shimmery rose pink eyeshadow in the finish lustre.
 
MAC Eyeshadow in Trax £10
A plum eyshadow with small hints of glitter in the finish velvet.
 
MAC Eyeshadow in Blackberry £10
A matte plum eyeshadow.
 
MAC Pro Colour 4 Compact Palette £6.50
 
Rimmel Soft Kohl Eyeliner Pencil in Sable Brown 011 £2.99
Dark brown eyeliner pencil.
 
Bourjous Healthy Mix Serum in Light Beige 53 £10.99
Gel foundation giving an instant anti-fatigue effect and revived complexion.
 
Real Techniques Setting Brush £8.99
Small finishing brush used for applying highlighters and powdering the t-zone.
 
Lush H'suan Wen Hua Hair Treatment £8.95
A hair mask that improves the entire condition of your hair and adds a gorgeous shine.

Hope you enjoyed my beauty haul!♥

 Amy

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NARS Delphes Trio Eyeshadow Palette

I can't even begin to describe my excitement and slight jealousy when my older sister, Rachel, rang me up and told me she was being invited to the NARS sample sale. For any of you who don't know what a sample sale is it's when retail businesses sell off excess merchandise for cheaper than the original selling price. I was lucky enough to have a little gift brought home for me which was this gorgeous eyeshadow palette called Delphes. It contains a light shimmery pink, a matte grey with hints of glitter and a shimmery olive green. I'm yet to try these out but, to be honest, I'll probably use the pink and grey a lot more than the green as I don't know how good it will look on me and its a little out of my comfort zone, but you never know I may feel a little adventurous one day and give it a go. I'm really impressed with the pigmentation of the colours but that comes as no surprise to me as NARS are notorious for having high quality make up. Which explains the price tag, normally this would be on sale for £33 (click here if you want this gorgeous palette) but my sister picked it up at the bargain price of £10, yes you heard right, A TENNER! So I think it's safe to say I'm a very happy girl right now! 

Have a lovely weekend!♥

Amy

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NOTD: Stud Effect Nails

 From left to right: Leighton Denny Crystal Finish Top Coat, O.P.I Matte Nail Envy, Essie Nail Varnish in Hot Coco and Leighton Denny Nail Varnish in Metallic Mink.

I am by no means a professional nail artist, don't get me wrong I love looking after my nails and making sure they are in pristine, condition but when it comes down to nail art I am a complete and utter amateur. I've always wanted to recreate the 'cute floral nail art tutorials' plastered all over the internet but I neither have the patience nor the equipment to make them look good enough, they all just seem to turn into a squiggly, smudgy mess - not good. I've seen this stud effect nail look quite a lot on things like Instagram and I thought whilst I had a little bit of spare time I would try it out and I'm pretty proud of the outcome, even if I do say so myself. It's such an easy and effortless effect but gives a little extra detail to a classic nude nail.

First off I took my O.P.I Matte Nail Envy and slid this onto my nails as a base coat. This is my hero nail product its a strengthener, base coat and matte top coat all in one, words cant even begin to describe how much I love this product and how much it has changed the appearance of my nails. Then I began to apply two coats of my Essie Nail Varnish in Hot Coco and leave them to dry for around 5 minutes. I haven't used this shade much but I think the colour looks so nice now that we're entering Autumn and the name just makes me feel all warm and cosy.

Next is the hard part, trying to create perfect little dots all of around the same size. Practice does make perfect and I did have to start a couple of my nails over again because I managed to get a whacking great big blob of glittery nail varnish over my perfectly varnished nude nails. So I got my Leighton Denny Nail Varnish in Metallic Mink and wiped any excess nail varnish on the rim of the bottle. (Remember: you can add to your little dots so the less nail varnish on the brush the better) Then using the corner of the brush I dab a little glittery dot a third of the way up my nail and repeat this for each nail. Again, leave this to dry for around five minutes and apply a top coat, I used my Leighton Denny Crystal Finish Top Coat, and hey presto, you're done.

Are you any good at Nail Art? Have you managed to 

recreate this look?

Have a lovely weekend!
♥

Amy

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