Bitten by the Love Bug - Valentine's Day

My Bloglovin' has been heavily saturated with Valentine's Day related posts, and I imagine there's quite a few others who are also experiencing the same thing. I'm a big romantic at heart, and as much as I hate how the companies exploit us through commercialisation of Valentine's Day, I refuse to not celebrate a day where love is celebrated.

I imagine the amount of people who are getting proposed to on this day, and the general feeling of love that must be wafting around the whole word on February 14th. Of course, not everyone's going to be feeling the vibe, I'm guilty of having been bitten by the love buy myself, but my beau won't be here on that day to celebrate with me, so I'm going to make do with a date with myself!

So I'm going to do a teeny list of things you can do on your own, and things you can surprise your S.O. with!

Things You Can Totally Do By Yourself on Valentine's Day

1. Treat yourself and your sister/mother/BFF to a fun day together

Show some love to your other loves! I spent one of my Valentine's Days with my sister - we went to the movies, got some yummy snacks, and we watched the crap out of that romantic comedy. Other suggestions: spend the day baking and eating delicious things with your other bitter single friends and watching your favourite movies whilst throwing food at the happy couples whenever they pop up in a movie. If it's a nice day, go somewhere you've been wanting to go for a while, or go shopping!

2. Have a day completely to yourself

I will take any excuse to pamper myself slash justify spending money on that dress/pair of shoes/Chanel perfume you-know-is-out-of-your-budget-right-now. I would actually recommend starting the day off with a good workout. Ensures you're gearing your body up to burn all those lovely treats you'll be eating today. Who loves and knows you the best? You, of course! So acknowledge all that you are, love yourself! Love yourself like you've never been loved before! Buy that Gucci bag and cashmere sweater, and don't regret it.

3. Go to a cafe cafe because...Japan

This is only for those of us who are unfortunate enough not to own our own pet right now, but would dearly love to be able to spend some quality time with one who is available. Cue cat cafe! If it's got too many loved up couples who are getting on your nerves because: a) you're lonely b) they don't know how to handle the cats and c) they're taking up your precious time with cute cats, just throw one at their face and they'll run faster than your mascara when watching The Notebook.

Things You Can Do With Your Loverman/Loverwoman

1. Make dinner for them

But this isn't just your normal, oh look honey, surprise romantic dinner for you where I've strewn rose petals on our dining room table! I think it'd be fun if you agreed on making a different meals of the dinner. One person does the appetizers and main meal, the other person does the dessert and drinks. Don't let each other know what you're intending to make, and see what happens!

2. Take them somewhere beautiful and tell them something beautiful

You don't need to get that 3 carat diamond ring that'll be paid off by the time the dinosaurs rise again (because they will!). The most memorable things in life are ones that you remember because they were something you felt. So if it's something that's spectacularly beautiful, you're going to remember it because you were in awe of its beauty. Taking someone where there's a certain beauty to it, whether it's the beach at night, or on top of a hill with a breath-taking view, to a beautiful cobbled old street with picturesque cafes, or to a park with a beautiful tree, it's not hard finding it if you're looking for it. And to really cement the moment, even if you're not that good with words, something from the heart means so much more than a cute teddy bear (but bring him along too!), or a dozen roses with a box of chocolates (nothing wrong with sweetening a kiss with some choccies!). A beautiful surrounding with something from the heart will definitely imprint this moment in the mind and heart of your loved one.

3. Take them to a Love hotel because...Japan

S&M Hello Kitty ftw! If you're in Japan, might as well experience the awesomeness that is a Love hotel. You know what's going to happen there so I'm not going to walk you through it...but there's a large variety of Love hotels, especially in Tokyo, and you can get all sorts of different themed rooms and well...I imagine it could get a little crazy in them. But something worth experiencing with your S.O., right?

Hope you enjoyed my little guide, I'm feeling quite inspired by all this love talk (must be the bug thing!), so I'm going to whip up a Valentine's Day gift suggestion list too!

Share and care, what's the most romantic/strangest Valentine's Day you've had? What are you planning on doing?

Fake Bake Flawless Self-Tanning Liquid Review

After browsing some photos from last summer, I began to feel envious of the tanned me, so I decided to once again dip my toes into the world of self-tanning.

After doing my research, I decided to give the famous Fake Bake a go!

It comes in a rather gorgeous purple box which includes your very own mitt for tanning, and a pair of purple gloves to put on so you don't get orange hands.

The self-tanner in all its glory. The mitt is a brown and white colour, and you use the brown side to rub the self-tanner in. The best advice I've read on applying self-tanner to avoid getting uneven colour, and to avoid getting tanner in your pores (you know, when you get that gross chicken skin look), is to prep yourself the night before by exfoliating and shaving (if you're a hairy monster such as myself), and moisturising afterwards. The following night is when the magic happens.

If you have particularly dry elbows and knees, make sure to put a bit of moisturiser (oil free) on them, and also in between your toes and fingers. Because this self-tanner does dry quickly, you want to work fast. Instead of spraying the liquid onto the mitt (I think it absorbs too much of the liquid), I spray it directly onto myself, around 3-4 spritzes per arm, and quickly rub it in in circular motions. I did actually start off with my legs, making sure I did long strokes upwards. Make sure you avoid going over the knees too much.  With whatever you have left on your mitt, or if you want to just do one spritz, this time onto the mitt, lightly go over the tops of your feet and get right in there between your little toes. With my face, I did a couple of spritzes and just kind of really tried to get it everywhere as even as possible, making sure to also do my ears, back of the neck etc. I did my hands last, taking off the gloves, I did one spritz, curved my hand so the knuckles are a bit taut, and lightly swept over them, making sure to only sweep outwards.

The beauty of this self-tanner is that it smells nice, like some sort of sweet coconut/vanilla, and it doesn't have that prominent self-tanner smell that you normally get from self-tanner products. I didn't have to wait long to get dressed, and hop into bed. In the morning, there were no marks left by the tanner on the bedspread, and I went from being Casper the Friendly Ghost...

 To a sun bronzed goddess! Transformation complete.

The brown guide does wash off a bit, but a lot of the colour remains, and if you're wanting a deeper colour, do it again the same night for more colour.

I was so happy with this product, it really was fool-proof that even I, the complete bumbling fool, could manage to tan myself without streaks, mess or fuss! I am so chuffed with this product, I think it's actually inspired me to self-tan on a regularly basis (we shall see...).

What is your favourite self-tanner? Have you tried any of the Fake Bake range?

Fitness Friday: Scrambled Eggs and Orange Paprika for Breakfast

As much as fitness is important to us, so is our nutrition. You cannot have one without the other, it's a bit of a yin and yang, Sheldon and Penny situation.

I love discovering delicious and healthy recipes that will vary up my otherwise boring food routine. This may not blow your minds, but this following breakfast is one of my favourites. It's quick, easy and tasty!

So I present to you my Scrambled Eggs and Orange Paprika breakfast á la Maria!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp oil (coconut, or anything that is available to you)
2 eggs (medium or large sized)
1/2 chopped orange pepper (a red one is just as delicious)
a pinch of salt
a pinch of black pepper
a pinch of paprika

Preparation:

In a bowl, whisk the eggs with a fork. Add the salt and pepper. Put chosen oil in pan and heat up to medium. Add in chopped pepper and cook it until it starts to get fragrant and you get a bit of colour to it. Lower heat to low and add in whisked eggs. Cook for perfection. 
Serve on plate and sprinkle paprika over the top for more tasty goodness.

I like to eat this with a side of chopped tomatoes and cucumber. I tend to put a few drops of lemon juice over them and sprinkle on some more black pepper.

As I am slightly gluten intolerant, I try and stay away from bread, but I would highly recommend this with a nice piece of wholemeal and grain toast smeared with avocado.

Enjoy!

 If you decide to give this a go, let me know what you think of it! What are your favourite breakfast meals?

Fitness Friday: Fruit Punch

Following on from the Christmas Detox post, I know how hard it is to eat healthy during the colder days, or to get out and about, we all just want to return our caves beds, snuggle up into our blankets, and hibernate our way into spring.

When you are running low on energy, you're hungry and you just want something that's warm and tasty, the colder days make it all to easy to make comfort food. Or, if you really can't be bothered, ordering takeaways, or eating out. I know I have been guilty of my fair share of butter chickens and Turkish kebab takeaways. And don't get me started on the snacks! And because I think snack food is usually peoples biggest weakness, let's talk a little bit about that.

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The best way to overcome the hibernation syndrome is to make sure that you're eating regularly throughout the day. I know that the supermarkets are lacking in the abundance of tropical fruits, but there are still many fruits readily available that should be your main go-to snack foods.

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Fresh apples, pears, oranges, kiwifruits, grapes, bananas and persimmons, these are the winter fruit that are usually readily available.

So opt out the packet of chips, or mince pie, and toss in a beautiful red skin apple, or a firm green pear in your lunchbox, and instead of that hot chocolate mashed full of marshmallows, buy a box of herbal fruit tea to keep you warm throughout those cold hours.

If you're wanting to get your daily hit of Vitamin C, a couple of kiwifruits pack a good punch. These little brown furries contain almost one-and-a-half times the minimal daily requirement for Vitamin C, so a fruit juice containing these bad boys will do the trick.

Another great snack is muesli bars -- not those that are completely dipped in chocolate with chocolate chips inside, I'm talking about the super grain-y ones that are mixed with nuts and dried fruit (a little dark chocolate on there won't hurt).

So hopefully this will give you a bit more motivation to swap in an extra fruit, or two, every day, and to keep that snacking healthy.

What are your favourite winter snacks?

Nail polish of the Ice Age: OPI My Private Jet Review

The cold weather persists and even though spring isn't that far away, it feels like I'm going to be stuck in the Ice Age forever. 
To make myself feel better about the cold, I decided to paint my nails with a nail polish my BFF got me a wee while ago. And I thought, seeing as I was being so productive, I might as well do my own review on this beautiful OPI nail polish that is known to be as Kim Kardashian's favourite shade (I've sold it to you already, surely).

Natural Light

My Private Jet is a beautiful, really dark charcoal colour with really fine flecks of silver that give depth to the colour. In the bottle you can see this sheen of amber when you rotate it in the light, it looks absolutely gorgeous! Unfortunately this doesn't translate onto your nails, but it does look beautiful if you're just staring at the bottle itself. After reading around a bit, My Private Jet has been reformulated at least a few times; there is the original holo version, one which has a blue sheen to it, and then there's my one, which has the amber hue to it.

Applied, you can leave it on your nails with one coat, streakiness is pretty minimal, but I always apply two coats and find this the perfect amount. I was very smart and didn't put on a top coat on the first day when I wearing this, and no chipping occurred, and I was over the moon, but when I applied the top coat the following day, I found that I had enough chipping by the third day that I had to take it all off, boo. There go my sexy nails.

Natural light, attempting to show the pretty amber tone in the bottle

A bit further away from the glarey sun

Overall, this is an absolutely beautiful polish that even with the chipping, I would still recommend at least having a perve at when you're by your OPI stand next time.

What is your favourite dark coloured nail polish? Are you also sticking to the darker colours because of the weather?

Fitness Friday: Christmas Detox Version

You're probably feeling the full effect of Christmas and New Years, lounging around in your loosest, comfiest pants, making sure to avoid anything that might possibly show the extra bulges you've adopted over the last couple of weeks. Okay, if this isn't you, it's definitely me currently. I didn't go too overboard, but I have been neglecting my usual routines. So I thought I'd share with you (and the poor girl who's stomach is obviously giving her trouble) some tips that might help with that post-Christmas food baby.

Morning detox! I like to start off my day with a mug of hot water and lemon juice to help flush out as many toxins as I can (and to mainly help keep my bloating in check, I bloat just by looking at bread). Leave about 20 minutes before you eat something for the liquids to swish through you.

Breakfast detox! Eat something full of fibre, like oats mixed with a banana and some super-tasty-and-good-for-you blueberries! Or some bran with a banana and some strawberries! Avoid fatty, greasy anything, and don't skip out on eating breakfast either.

Hydrate yerself! Make sure you keep up with drinking warm teas like peppermint or chamomile (which are great for an upset or bloated stomach), or even better, dandelion tea if it's available to you. Keep slurping back water, but nothing chilly as it tends to upset the stomach.

Lunch detox! Keep away from huge amounts of carbs, go for a chicken salad sans the aioli. Eat some pumpkin soup to get those carbs if you need them, pumpkin is great for stocking up on vitamins but also keeping you full. Make sure the pumpkin soup is a homemade one, or one that's from a trusted health food store.

Snack detox! You'll probably find yourself wanting to snack in between your main meals so make sure you keep your desk drawer stocked up with tasty treats such as roasted but salt free almonds, an orange or apple to keep you going, and some plain yoghurt. Keep away from sugar-free yogurts as these are more detrimental than helpful in keeping the sugar levels done and helping you de-bloat and get that earthy bacteria running better in your stomach.

Dinner detox! A slice of salmon cooked in foil with a bit of lemon and rosemary , with a side of sweet mashed potato (such as kumara), and broccoli is just the healthy punch your stomach needs. Make sure you skip out the glass of wine as you are still trying to get your body off to a good start for this year. And no huge dessert either. A couple of blocks of dark chocolate will do.

Don't be ashamed of what happened, the most important thing is that you enjoyed it! You only live once, eh? :)

Is there anything you'd like to suggest that works really well for you when you've overindulged? 

Possets Perfumes: Ribbands Perfume Oil Review

Merry Christmas, everyone! I know I haven't posted anything for a while but the Christmas holidays have been busy and blogging is made even more difficult by my lack of internet at home. It's a long story, but hopefully I'll have it up and running in a week or so! Anyway, I hope you all had a lovely time with your family and friends and received a present or two which you've been hankering after!
As I am working abroad, it meant I spent my Christmas without family and friends, so it was very strange not having a big day filled with running around to different places and eating extraordinary amounts of food, giving and receiving presents, so there will be no photos of the presents I received as I didn't really get any...but don't feel sorry for me, Christmas isn't just about presents, and I am just happy that all my family and friends are happy and in good health! I did, however, buy a few small things for myself just so I didn't feel completely left out of the whole receiving presents at Baby Jesus' birthday.

I discovered Possets through my everlasting scouring of the Internets for BPAL perfumes (Black Phoenix Alchemy). Possets is owned by the lovely owner Fabienne (what a cool name, right?) who creates all the perfumes by hand, and works hard to use the best ingredients put there for her perfumes whilst still making sure that her perfumes remain affordable to all those wanting to smell prutty. I browsed through the whole site making a huge wishlist, then I went to the Yule collection (she has season limited edition perfumes, so you gotta get in quick if you want it!) and purchased for myself Ribbands. Now, to summarise it quickly, it's a perfume that is described as being foody, fruity and gourmand. She brings it back every year sue to its popularity. There wasn't much to go by in the actual description of the perfume on the site, but I came across a couple of people's reviews and I thought it sounded amazing so I took the leap and ordered just that to start with.

I placed my order and it arrived in my mail pretty darn fast considering it's international shipping and it was so close to Christmas (I was pretty chuffed!). I received my little bottle of perfume in a tie-up bag with 2 samples from her permanent collection! I was so happy with the little extras, especially since one of them was one of the ones on my wishlist! She obviously took into consideration that I'd ordered a foody type of scent, so she sent me a sample of Bear Lake Shake Utah and Cri de Coeur (Cry of the Heart) (the one on my wishlist!).

I excitedly opened Ribbands and from the bottle it smelt like chocolate and I could possibly make out a tiny bit of a coffee liqueur scent? I dabbed it onto myself, and wet on my skin it smelt just of milk chocolate with a possible hint of mint. There is supposed to be some kind of raspberry/berry element to it, but I was not getting any. But this perfume's notes change fast. Within minutes I smelt like the most deliciously ooey gooey super fudge deluxe chocolate cake! Yum! After another few minutes this fades and a sweet scent I could not for the life of me put my finger on, sets in. After about 15-20 minutes of having dabbed this on, the berry really kicks in and it's a delicious, predominantly raspberry scent nestled in chocolate. 20 mins + and it's a delicious mix of berry and chocolate that slowly fades away.
Unfortunately the lasting power of Ribbands on me is very short and I can't smell it on myself after half an hour (but other people can). I still absolutely adore this scent and I highly recommend you go and get yourself at least a sample because it's just the most gorgeous chocolate and berry scent I've ever smelt in my life. So go! Check it out! You'd be crazy not to!

What is your favourite memory from Christmas day 2012? Favourite present? Did I manage to entice you to at least have a gander at the Possets website? Wishing you all Happy Holidays!