March Monthly Favourites!

Monthly favourites are some of my most enjoyable posts to write because I get all excited talking about the things that I've been loving this month, who doesn't like talking about things they really love?! But every time it comes to write another monthly favourites I have this thought pop into my brain, "holy hell! It's almost (insert next month here) already?!" and it instantly makes me feel like my grandma who's constantly wondering where the last 20 years have gone. This month I got a promotion at work (just an itty bitty one but hey, I'm movin' on up!) and also received my acceptance letter for school, both of which make me really excited for the future.

Kookoo for Kiehl's...

I have been loving Kiehl's so much this month it's a little bit ridiculous; at the end of February I gave into curiosity and went in to Kiehl's to see if I could get a sample of the Midnight Recovery Concentrate and Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado after seeing how much Estee from essiebutton loved them, that girl has yet to let me down with a recommendation! First of all, if you're ever interested in trying something from Kiehl's go in and ask for a sample, they're super generous with their samples and always recommend amazing things. Clearly I fell in love with those two products and ended up buying the full size versions and when I purchased the Midnight Recovery Concentrate the lovely gal helping me gave me a sample of the Powerful Strength Line-Reducing Concentrate which clearly I also fell in love with because I'm pretty sure Kiehl's can do no wrong.

I talked a little bit about why I love the Midnight Recovery Concentrate here but when I wrote that I was just starting to try out the eye cream and let me just say that stuff is the bomb! Good bye scaly alligator eyes (thank you!) and hello happy soft eyelids, never thought I would be talking about my eyelids like this...

In The Shower...

I first stumbled upon the Soap and Glory brand five years ago when I was living in Ireland, I was hooked. Sexy Mother Pucker turned out to just be a gateway lipgloss into a downward spiraling addiction of fantastically scented and adorably package cosmetics and skin care.

When I lived in Ireland my roommate and I were hooked on the Sugar Crush Body Scrub, we would buy them in bulk when Boots had them on offer and stockpile them in our bathroom; needless to say I was ecstatic when the Soap and Glory line available in Canada expanded and this became readily available once again. It's such an amazing fresh sweet lime scent, and the almond oil makes it quite nourishing as well. I think this for me is more of a nostalgia item because every time I use it I instantly feel like I'm back at our little flat on College Road.

The Smoothie Star Breakfast Scrub is a newer discovery for me, I picked it up from Boots back in January and have been using it sparingly as it hasn't made it's way over to Canada yet; UK friends I have a Boots shopping list if anyone loves me enough to go on a wee little shopping trip and send over some stuff! I mentioned here that as soon as I saw it was Maple scented I was a goner, it's a Canadian thing.

LUSH's Snow Fairy shower gel is another thing I buy in bulk every year; I usually buy one right when it comes out and then I wait until they have their online sale on Boxing Day when it's Buy One Get One Free and I order like six to get me through the year. It's got a really sweet almost cotton candy like smell and like I mentioned before when you use it with American Cream Conditioner your hair smells like strawberry shortcake!!

The last wee little thing in my shower right now is a trial size of Tokyo Milk's Tainted Love Shower Gel that I got in a travel pack at Sephora that contained the shower gel, a roller ball and a hand creme. I loved this scent because it was the perfect mix of floral and warm musky fragrances with a combination of vanilla bean, orchid, white tea and sandalwood, to say this fragrance is sexy would be the most family friendly way to describe it...

Hair Care

There's not too much in the way of hair care this month as I've really been liking the products I've been using the last couple of months, you can check out my February Favourites to see what I've been using. But one thing I've had to change up since getting my hair done a couple of weeks ago is my hair mask. When I deep cleanse my hair once a week it lifts the purple out of my hair which then needs to be touched up. Instead of paying to get my hair touched up every two weeks or faffing about trying to re-colour the one section myself I've brought back an old favourite from when I had pink hair, which is a colour and conditioning hair mask combo! I do this every two weeks to prevent my purple from looking a bit dodgy. I mix half a tub (for my short to medium length hair) of La Riche Directions Hair Colour in Violet with a dollop of the Klorane Desert Date Hair Mask and apply it to DRY hair, twist it up into a bun and leave it on all day (this is clearly done on a day off) and rinse before bed.

I use the Klorane Hair Mask weekly on it's own as well, it's a wonderful mask - super hydrating and doesn't leave your hair limp.

Fragrances

These two aren't particularly new to me but I found myself reaching towards them the most this month out of my perfume collection. 

The first one is Fleur de Vanille by Fragonard, this fragrance holds a very special place in my heart. I found it back in January when my boyfriend and I were in Paris, we stumbled upon a little market on our way to Notre Dame and I insisted on sniffing every fragrance and soap that this little flower stall had (because I have a severe addiction to perfumes...) I didn't think much of the perfume as I already have so many vanilla-y perfumes but I spritzed it on my wrists out of habit and we began to walk away. I kept sniffing my wrists and thrusting them in Pete's face demanding he sniff them as well, this perfume was simply amazing and like nothing I'd ever smelled before; it vanilla alright but with ylang-ylang, heliotrope, rose, chocolate, cocoa and musk. It's a rich warm scent but refreshing all at the same time. I've been using it sparingly, mainly when I miss Pete insanely as it instantly takes me back to Paris, because when I first got home and looked online I couldn't find it anywhere! Imagine my joy when I stumbled upon a website that ships to Canada just now whilst looking for a link for this post! Pete can attest I just sent him the most overly excited text message haha.

The other is probably a more recognizable perfume it's Princess by Vera Wang, this is a fragrance I remember smelling when I was a teenager and falling in love with it. I never purchased it back then but on a recent trip to the States my mum saw it for a ridiculously good price at the Duty Free and remembered that I was pining after this (good memory mum that was over 7 years ago!) It's a much more floral fragrance than I typically wear but I found with spring approaching (not that you could tell from here, it's snowing as we speak) I was looking for fresh fragrances than my typical musky vanillas. I was still pairing this with an amber body spray to tone down some of the floral and it's actually one of my favourite fragrance pairings nows! I'm all about layering your scents to achieve a more personal scent.

Bit's and Bob's

First of all is this gorgeous statement necklace from Zara; if you follow me on Instagram then you probably saw me post this exact photo the day after I purchased this. I fell in love with this at the store but wasn't sure if I loved it enough to part with $50 for a necklace made of shiny metal so I kept the receipt in case it wound up just collecting dust. Now let me walk you through the conversation I have with myself every morning as I'm getting ready for work "Oooo maybe I'll wear my necklace from Zara today, it would look great with this outfit. But I just wore it yesterday.... Maybe I'll wear a different necklace today and I can wear this one again tomorrow. But I really want to wear it....But I can't wear it four days in a row..." and so on and so forth, needless to say I've already got my $50 worth out of it and threw my receipt into the bin with vigor!

Television: Well I should say Netflix since I don't ever really watch television. I don't know what it is with me and British period dramas but I'm hooked. January was Downton Abbey, February was Call the Midwife and March has been a case of binge watching Foyle's War and The Bletchley Circle.

Tea: Just like switching up the fresher fragrances for spring I went into David's Tea looking for a new more spring like tea than the rich black tea's I've been drinking lately. I left with Green Seduction, which is a green tea flavoured with bits of pomegranate and rosehips, it's EXACTLY what I was looking for and I've already drank my way through 100g....

Blogger/Vlogger of the Month: The adorable little Brit Suzie or better known as Hello October. I found her blog via Bloglovin' one day and after reading her blog for a couple weeks I made my way over to her YouTube channel and I've just fallen in love.

Book: The past couple months I've dedicated to reading the books on my "To Read" shelf and not allowing myself to purchase any new books until I've gotten through the ones I already have (doesn't mean there isn't a list of books to purchase scrawled in my daytimer...) I picked up The History of Love by Nicole Krauss well over a year ago when I had a giftcard for a small local bookshop, I don't know what originally attracted me to this title but I know I've spent the last year and a bit skimming over it on the shelf thinking it sounded a bit too airy-fairy and that I wanted something a bit more mentally engaging. Whilst going through Pete withdrawls a couple weeks ago I was in the mood for some mind numbing romantic blather and without any Nicholas Sparks on hand I figured I'd give this a go. Boy was I wrong for skipping this book for so long! If you're a Nicholas Sparks fan then sorry guys but this isn't the book you're looking for, this is so much more. I haven't felt this emotional invested in characters before, it wasn't a romance book at all but like the title states, it's a history of love, love in every sense of the word. There's no way I can give you any sense of plot because it's not a linear story, you just need to pick it up and give it a read!

What have you guys been loving this month? I'd love to know, leave some suggestions for me in the comments!

If you guys' haven't entered the giveaway contest yet, click here for details! It's open until April 4th.

IT'S A GIVEAWAY!!

AND THE WINNER IS: Kelsey Anderson! Check your email for further instructions! Thanks everyone for entering and supporting my wee little blog. 


So I'm probably more excited about this than you guys haha! I've been threatening a giveaway for months when the Facebook Page hit 50 likes and as of right now we're still a couple away from that goal, BUT I decided to go ahead and do this as a thank you for the massive amount of support everyone showed to my Food, Beautiful Food post.

I've been collecting bits and bobs for so long I actually have THREE boxes worth of stuff for this giveaway which means that once a winner is selected I can create your own little box of goodies based on your personal wants and needs. I decided to only show you one of the three boxes so that I could still keep some of the surprise.

In your winning box you will find a collection of full size products and deluxe sample sizes of some of the more pricey products I wanted to share with you guys. These products may have appeared in my blog previously (I'd be glancing at my monthly favourites posts for January and February to get some ideas of what you might be seeing...) or may be a completely new surprise!

Brands you may see in your box include:

Fresh

MAC

Sanoflore

Yves Rocher

David's Tea

Kiehl's

My Beauty Diary

Etude House

Bison

FaceQ

Dermal

LUSH

L'Occitane En Provence

The Body Shop

and more...

All you have to do to enter is click the link below and follow the instructions:

Enter the Giveaway!

The Process: My Morning Skin Care Routine

So a couple of weeks ago I had a request to share my skin care routine, I started off with my evening skin care routine which might seem a little odd but washing my face at the end of the day is one of my favourite things in life, I look forward to it as soon as I leave work. So today I thought I would bring you my morning routine!

The Process:

In the Shower...

Step 1: MAC's Lightful Cleanser I should seriously have stocks in this products or something for the amount I talk about it, but seriously this stuff is the bomb! Perfect for a nice refreshing morning cleanse and works wonderfully with my Clarisonic. You can read more about it here, here and here, told you I am kinda obsessed...

Step 1.5: Soap and Glory Smoothie Star Breakfast Scrub My boyfriend used to tease me that if you wanted to sell something to a Canadian all you had to do was make it smell/taste like Maple Syrup; clearly Soap and Glory caught on to this tactic because I AM HOOKED! I picked this up on offer at Boots back in January and while I've got a bazillion tubs/tubes/bottles/bars of shower stuff on the go this is one of my favourites. A nice thick scrub that smells just like maple syrup and leaves your skin soft and smooth.

Step 2: MAC's Lightful Softening Lotion Here's another old favourite you guys are probably used to hearing my rave on and on about. I love this particularly in the morning because when you splash some on a cotton pad and run it over your face it removes dry skin instantly making the texture of your skin softer and easier to apply make up to. You can read more about it on my blog here and here.

Step 3: Avène Thermal Spring Water Spray I absolutely adore using this spray before applying serums or moisturizers, I find it really opens up the pores and allows what you apply afterwards to really sink in. This is another one that has gotten quite a bit of publicity on my blog you may have seen it here, here and here. Clearly with that much love you might be surprised to hear that once I finish this can I am actually going to be trying a new spray, what blasphemy right?! I've finally given in and ordered the Omorovicza Queen of Hungary Mist that was on my Wishlist.

Step 4: Finally some new products you haven't heard me ramble on about yet!! In the palm of my hand I like to mix a little bit of the Kiehl's Powerful Strength Line- Reducing Serum (I've also added this into my evening skin care routine as well) with 2 drops of Fresh's Seaberry Moisturizing Face Oil and massage that into the face and neck, you want to let it sit for a couple minutes to really absorb before applying any moisturizer. 

Step 5: While my serum/oil concoction in sinking in I like to apply my eye cream, Caudalie's Vinosource S.O.S Morning Eye Rescue. I have super sensitive eyes; sensitive to eye creams, if I have a minor food allergy my eyes are the first thing to swell up, they're just a pain in the butt. Not only does this not irritate my eyes at all but it also helps bring down my puffy eyes after someone has fed me mushrooms when I told them I was allergic... but that's another story! This stuff is also hydrating without leaving a sticky residue that will interfere with eye make up.

Step 5.5: I like to prep my lips by applying a nice thick layer of NUXE Reve de Miel Baume Levres Ultra-Nourrissant Ultra-Nourishing Lip Balm so that they're soft and moisturized come time to apply lip products.

Step 6: While letting my face soak up all the good stuff I've just slathered it in I like to move onto moisturizing the rest of the skin on my body, right now I'm loving The Body Shop's Coconut Body Butter (It's on sale 50% in stores and online so now would be the perfect time to stock up on body butters!!) I've grown up using The Body Shop's Body Butters on and off since I was probably ten and I just keep coming back to them; amazing texture, wonderful fragrances and they really do hydrate all day long! I'm particularly obsessed with anything coconut right now because it reminds me of summer and well, I live in the land of endless winter, seriously - it's still snowing...

Step 7: I've usually got pretty good skin but around the same time every month a couple nasty little spots decide to creep up on my face, last week I went to Murale in search of an answer to my problems. Having dry, sensitive skin makes blemish spot treatments pretty tricky but she suggested Blemish Gel 5% by B.Kamins, this is the first thing I've tried from this Canadian skin care brand and I'm loving it! It dries up the blemish without drying out your skin and can even be worn under make up, every girl needs to have this on hand!

Step 8: This is usually the part of the morning where I would go stuff my face with delicious breakfast but for the sake of this post let's just skip on to the next bit. Moisturizers! I'm still using and still loving my Delarom Revitality Cream (I even dedicated a whole post to it here if you want to read about the vanishing forehead wrinkle) and considering I've been using it for three months now it makes the $107 price tag a little easier to swallow, but with the pile of creams I brought back from Paris I still have to work my way through it'll be a little while before I'm replacing this bad boy after it finally runs out.

Step 9: This is a more optional step but on the mornings I've got some extra time or I really feel like pampering myself I like to massage some Nuxe Huile de Prodigieuse into my appendages, it just feels so luxurious and smells fantastic. This is clearly another one of my favourites, you can read more about it on my blog here, here and here.

Not quite as extensive as my evening routine but pretty dang close! What are some of your guys' favourite products and is there something you think I would love? Let me know in the comments, clearly I love to try new things!

Food, Beautiful Food: Eating My Way to Health and Happiness + 5 Day Beauty ReBoot

Today's blog post is going to be a little be different and I hope you don't mind as it's a subject dear to my heart; food. For those of you who don't know me personally, and even most of you who do know me, probably don't know my story, let me explain to you how I became the strong, confident and happy woman I am today because I haven't always been this way, actually it's still pretty knew to me. 

I was a pretty happy little kid and quite an active one too; I've loved swimming for as long as I can remember and would throw a fuss when it was time to leave the beach or pool. I also played soccer for a number of years, but as I got older I began to gain weight...

In second grade is when the other kids started to notice that I was a "fat kid" and the teasing started; no one wanted me on their soccer team at recess because I couldn't keep up with the ball. I was always the first kid out during tag and dodgeball because I was slower than every body else and I dreaded gym class and would often fake ill to be excused; this is when I discovered my love for food. Food made me feel better because it tasted good and made me feel good while I was eating it, so I kept eating it. I was seven, I didn't know what "comfort eating" was or that food addiction was even a thing.

By the time I was eleven I weighed 170lbs, extremely depressed and the teasing had turned into vicious bullying. I had no friends at school and would spend recesses hiding in the library so I didn't have to face the school yard. Do you remember the good ol' pre-Facebook days when everyone had a Nexopia account? I do, they were some of the worst days of my adolescence. I checked my page daily, not to talk to friends like most adolescents but to delete the cruel comments that were constantly being posted on my page; I was embarrassed that these horrible things were everyone to see and no matter how often I deleted them they just kept posting more until I finally deleted my account. I would cry as I read every word.

My weight fluctuated all throughout junior high and high school as I tried one fad diet after another, when I graduated high school I had got my weight down to 160lbs and then I moved to Europe...

I spent the next year eating and drinking my way from Ireland across Europe. Yes, that is a drink in each hand, yes they are both mine, yes I did that AT LEAST five nights a week for a year. Between partying all the time, not sleeping enough and eating garbage food due to a tight budget my weight ballooned to the highest it has ever been...

By the time I got home from Europe I weighed 180lbs. I was extremely unhappy, unhealthy and hated everything about my body. I would look in the mirror with disgust or just completely avoid looking at the mirror altogether some days. I was never comfortable around people and my food addiction got worse. I didn't realize at the time that it was in fact a food addiction, it wasn't until my health took a turn for the worse that I really started paying attention to what I was eating and why I was eating it. I was eating foods full of unhealthy fats, simple carbohydrates and lots of sugar and I was eating them because I was bored and unhappy. 

Shortly after I returned home from Europe the headaches started. Pain so unbearable I would lay in the dark and cry myself to sleep, I saw my doctor every week and we tried every pain killer and anti-inflammatory and some times a cocktail of both -at one point I was taking 4 Oxycotin's a day and was still able to function the pain was that bad. This is when the headaches turned into migraines; I wound up in the ER more than once because the migraines were unrelenting and excruciating. I spent 6 months with a constant migraine where some days the pain was so bad I would vomit and black out. I was finally sent for an MRI and referred to a neurologist.

Three days before my 21st birthday I got some of the most terrifying news of my life; I had a brainstem glioma, or in non doctor jargon - I had a tumor located on my brainstem. My neurologist requested another MRI and referred me to a neurosurgeon, it took me four months to get another scan and an appointment. I spent the next four months sinking further into my food addiction taking all my fear and uncertainty out on food; I was terrified of what was inside my own head and what it might do to me. I became depressed and cried myself to sleep every night for the first while, all while smiling and trying to be brave for the ones around me who were also terrified of what my next appointment might bring.

The meeting with the neurosurgeon brought good news and bad news; the bad news was that due to the placement of my tumor it was completely inoperable because it was located in the midst of healthy tissue in a highly sensitive part of the brain, surgery would be highly risky as it may damage the surrounding tissue leaving me with no motor skills and radiation was too dangerous an option to explore as well. The good news was that in the four months since my last scan it hadn't seemed to change size or shape so it was in all hopes a non-malignant tumor. I was required to continue MRI's every six months with follow ups with my neurologist and neurosurgeon.

This is when the slew of medications increased, my energy levels decreased and I started to realize that maybe my relationship with food wasn't a healthy one. I had been seeing an acupuncturist for years for pain management and we discussed how ineffective all the pharmaceutical treatments had been and that maybe it was time I look for another solution. She lent me Hungry for Change, an amazing documentary on the worlds best medicine: food (It's now available on Netflix and I strongly recommend giving it a watch if you haven't seen it yet.) A future of prescription drugs and pain wasn't something I wanted so I asked my neurologist if I worked hard enough and changed my lifestyle he thought I might be able to come off my medications, he thought I might be able to lessen them but the prospect of being completely medication free was an unlikely one.

This is me in May of 2013; a couple days after my 22nd birthday, a year after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, I was taking 16 pills a day and still in pain and I was fed up. I weighed 180lbs and had a body fat percentage of 36%, I was classified as overweight and on the verge of being obese. This is my "before" picture and the beginning of taking my life back.

I started a food journal, not just tracking what I was eating but when, what I was feeling while eating and why I was eating (was it because I was hungry, bored or upset?) I had tracked my food back in high school as well but in an extremely unhealthy manner; I would count calories (where did the magical number of 1,200 cal/day come from?!) and punish myself with endless cardio if I went over 1,200- I began to view food as the enemy and exercise as punishment. Believe it or not even while I viewed food as the enemy I was still addicted, I would deprive myself and then binge and cry. This time I was determined to change my life, my attitude, my energy levels and my happiness, not just my body. Instead of counting calories I count macronutrients (check out flex-i-ble dieting by Krissy Cagney here for more info on macronutrient counting and eating for life) to make sure that I was feeding my body what it needed to be strong and healthy instead of focusing on depriving it of calories to look a certain way. 

This is when my relationship with food changed; I realized I had a food addiction and how I had abused food for so many years. I started looking at food as fuel for my body and not as a means of cheering myself or giving me something to do. I overhauled my diet (from here on out diet refers to "the foods eaten, as by a particular person or group") so that 80% of what I was eating was whole nutrient dense foods that my body required and only 20% was for "enjoyment" purposes. Note that I LIMITED these enjoyment foods NOT ELIMINATED. Part of leading a happy healthy life is leading a balanced life.

I introduced fresh vegetable juices and smoothies to my diet and began lifting weights and using High Intensity Interval Training instead of endless cardio. I've fallen in love with food again but we now have a healthy balanced diet, I don't restrict myself from eating what I enjoy but I also eat what my body needs.

This is me today. I weigh 148lbs, I have a Body Fat percentage of 23% which is classified as athletic, I lift heavy weights because I love to, have a healthy relationship with food, I'm happier than I've ever been before in my life and have a new found confidence. As of today I have been 100% medication and pain free for three months.

Aside from today being my three month anniversary of being off medication I am also starting my 5 day "reboot" that I like to do every couple of months and that's actually what sparked this epically long post. My reboot consists of: Days 1-3 fresh fruit and vegetable juices and smoothies. Day 4: Reintegrating plant based, nutrient dense foods. Day 5: Reintegrating dairy, grains and other foods. Now before anyone gets all huffy about "detoxes" and "cleanses" let me just state that this is something I personally thoroughly enjoy doing when I'm feeling sluggish and lackluster, I continue to count my macros during this reboot to make sure I'm not depriving my body of the fuel it needs, and after day 5 I feel amazing. Do what works for you and listen to your body! During days 1-3 I drink 5 juices a day, three of which are blended with protein and fiber powders, I'll list my juice recipes below and if anyone wants to see the types of foods I eat on Day 4 let me know and I'll post them on my Instagram account for you guys to see!

1. Mean Green: Cucumber, Pear, Celery, Lemon, Wheatgrass, Spinach -blended with avocado (for a dose of healthy fats), protein and fiber powders.

2. Zinger: Carrot, Apple, Ginger (great for a boost of energy mid-morning/afternoon)

3. Alkaline Green: Zucchini, Apple, Fennel, Lemon, Broccoli, Spinach - blended with protein powder.

4. Vital Greens: Cucumber, apple, lime, spinach, watercress and flat parsley.

5. Coconutty Milk: almond - coconut milk, organic maple syrup, himalayin pink salt, organic peanut butter - blended with protein powder.

And as a special treat since you hung around this long and read this whole post, I present to you: Beauty Super Foods, why the ingredients in these juices aren't just good for your insides but your outsides as well! I italicized the ingredients below that are in my juice recipes but feel free to mix up ingredients and experiment with your own recipes!

Beauty Detox Foods

according to Kimberly Snyder 

(check out her book here)

for Beautiful Skin:

red bell peppers
coconut
avocados
spinach
watercress
figs
sweet potatoes
cucumbers
acai
pineapple
almonds
walnuts
flaxseed
pears
cabbage
turmeric
probiotic & enzyme salad (a recipe found in the book)
arugula
onions
raw apple cider vinegar
garlic
lemon
for Beautiful Hair:
pumpkin seeds
dulse
carrots
radishes
nutritional yeast
for Beautiful Eyes:
papaya
beets
blueberries
apples
celery
collard greens
asparagus
bananas
for Beautiful Body:
broccoli
brussels sprouts
sesame seeds
romaine lettuce
fresh cilantro and parsley
buckwheat and oat groats
kale
hemp seeds
quinoa
millet
chia seeds
for Inner Glow:
bee pollen
sunflower seeds
sprouts
spirulina and chlorella

Do you guys like fresh vegetable juices? What are some of your favourite combinations? Let me know in the comments!