All Entries in the "Beauty" Category
Soak me now or lose me forever!
Oooo-weeee!!!! My body be training, my muscles be tired and I need a little somethin’ somethin’ to pick me up!! Well Elemis have done just that with their ‘Aching Muscle Super Soak’ £32.00 from timetospa.co.uk, we’re tempted to call it ‘Aching muscle Super Fly’ but that’s cos we got a little carried away with this stuff when the body was feeling weary! Now see a lot of ‘soaks’ make claims about their healing powers and we’re not the type to beat around the bush. This stuff do what it say it do!!!
And it’s strong!!! You know when you’re sitting on the bath and you’re like “yeah that soak has cleared out my nostrils something good…I can’t imagine what it’s doing for my musculature!!! Every last inch of it!!”
We’re not surprised, it has a Sea Salt base to detoxify and cleanse! Let’s take a moment for those ingredients shall we!!
Rosemary – Stimulates circulation, relieves joint pain
Juniper – Excellent diuretic, minimising the pains of muscle spasm and the aches of arthritis. Oh yeah, I need me some of that!!
Thyme – Stimulates and creates heating action. Who knew!! I thought that was just for cooking yo!!
Birch – Reduces muscle spasm
Clove – Deeply warms tired muscles. Deep warmth! Oh yeah!!
Saponified Coconut Oil – Deep cleanses and foams. That shizz just sounds good!!! Saponified, yeah I need my coconut oil saponified!!
Cos I like to glow not burn!!
Now I’m not gonna lie. I be brown, so some might say that my skin doesn’t burn!! Well think again, cos brown or no, this girl can burn in the sun!! And since I like my bags to be leather and not my skin, I’m all about Melvita Sun Cream SPF 30 – 75ML, £24.00. 
It offers high protection for fair skin (and brown, I already told you I burn!!) without leaving any white residue. Mmm Hmm! This smooth, hydrating cream gives supreme sun protection in a skin conditioning base. That’s right, moisturise my bad self while I get kissed by the sun!! The micronized mineral filters enable the formula to quickly absorb into skin without leaving a greasy residue. Capuacu Oil and Tahitian Turmeric Oil combine to deeply moisturise and nourish skin, while Pongamia Extract protects from sun exposure. Sold!! I’ll take three!!
Luxuriate in the Burberry Glow!!
I remember the first time I possessed an item of make-up that made me feel special just applying it! You know, you pull out your Chanel lip gloss and you’re like, damn I’m fly!! This gloss is gonna make my lips pop and I feel gooo-ood!!! Call me fickle, but there’s something about luxurious make-up that brings me maximum glee in anticipation of the task at hand…making moi look purdy!!!
Now Burberry the absolute dons of British Fashion are wow-ing us with their Burberry Beauty range, available exclusively at Harrods. Is it really necessary to put Harrods ans exclusive in the same sentence? Anyways, we are feeling fruity about their Light Glow Natural Blush £28 for that effortless natural fresh complexion. Inspired by Burberry girl and her different expressions and effortless attitude we love this bangin’ blush!! Burberry Beauty is relaxed, unforced and sophisticated articulating and enhancing a gals own personal attitude and energy. Could you love it any more? Now must keep saving for that timeless trench…it will go really well with my rouge!!
Maintain your pretty and schedule your grooming!
Are you the kind of girl that says, “I really must book in to get my eyebrows threaded” or “I’m in desperate need of a haircut”. A tut in your direction!! Nice eyebrows, non-rats-tails hair, and a pruned bikini line are part of your basic essentials!! Unruly eyebrows, split-ended hair and a deforestation requirement in your nether regions ain’t gonna make you feel good on a crap day!! By the time you’ve realised you’re looking a little more neanderthal than one might hope!! All your therapists are gonna be booked up and you’re gonna be Suzy Scraggle for the next fortnight!! So ladies do yourselves a favour next time you are at your place of prune, book in your next appointment. I don’t care if you’re a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants gal, those pants don’t look so pretty with an untamed flower underneath comprende!! And you may need to work the timing the first few times, I used to thread every four weeks and now it’s every four and a half weeks, I’m hoping it will stretch to five in the next few months. So get booking to keep yourself in trim, and indeed trimmed!!
Thanks Grazia for keeping it real when it comes to Botox!
Woot, my BFF got me a subscription to Grazia mag for my birthday and I consequently love her forever!! I was delighted with the latest issue to nip through my letter box stressing how uncool Botox and other face fixers are!!! Now when I see somebody who has botox, I don’t say oh wow look at that wrinkle-free skin! I just can’t help myself thinking about how that person is trying to look younger. And when someone claims that I too will want to have botox as soon as wrinkles visit my face, I just get plain angry!! Nobody is injecting funky stuff into my face. Full stop.
So Grazia reports that anti-ageing treatments can actually prematurely age you!! Take crow’s feet for example. Dabbling too much around your peepers can indeed cause the muscles of your upper cheek to wither! Ain’t no amount of rouge gonna fix up them cheekses!! And botox to the forehead can be too much of a contrast to the face (I spot it every time) and can eventually make your eyebrows look too far apart if you have too much in between your eyebrows. Kylie. It’s the waxy, slightly raw look that really puts me off, and the non-expression even when engaging in a deep belly laugh. Just looks weird!!
The mag does go on to suggest less offensive treatments to uncrinkle the wrinkle, but you know how we do at FGHQ, au naturel keeps up sweeter!!
£1 Skin Scanning Assessment…Do It!!!!
Ladies you know how we feel about keeping the skin tight! And with the sun chasing our tails, we need to make sure we are doing all we can to stay protected! Most skin cancers are caused by long term exposure to the sun, and with over 100,000 new cases of skin cancer diagnosed each year (10,000 of which will be melanoma, the deadliest form of the disease. So we’re welcoming the ‘Face-Facts’ facial skin assessment at sk:n, the UK’s No.1 skin clinic.
The Professional Cricketers’ Association have teamed up with sk:n to screen the entire England squad, including Andrew Strauss, Graeme Swann, and Matthew Prior. However, the ‘Face-Facts’ skin scanning assessments are available to those of us that don’t play cricket for Enlgand at their local sk:n clinic. The session consists of an in depth chat with a skin expert to ascertain skin type and skin care habits as well as a thorough assessment under a UV lamp which clearly shows existing sun damage and identifies any other problem areas or changes to the skin. Love this, one is so paranoid about the dangerous rays of the sun and now I will see whether there actually is any or not! How perfect! Those with healthy skin are able to receive immediate reassurance, whilst anyone with abnormalities is immediately referred to a dermatologist for further investigation.
The assessment, which normally costs £25, is priced at a special rate of just £1 – and 100% of all proceeds raised will be donated to the British Skin Foundation for skin cancer research. Staying beautiful and being charitable, could it be any more Fit Girl!!!
To book a ‘Face-Facts’ facial skin scanning assessment call 0800 028 7222 or visit www.sknclinics.co.uk for more info.
Since the sun is shining and stuff…
Yep the weather be scorching right now, and you ain’t gonna look so hot with sunburn angels, so let’s take a sun protection class. It’s due, and you know you need to read it!!!
OK so whilst we all know a little sunscreen love is what a FG needs, you need to know that there has been a rise in Melanoma among fair skin, indoor workers.
So let’s talk rays. The UVB rays are the burning rays, and these rays cannot penetrate the cloud, glass or clothing but they will cause the skin to burn. The UVA rays are the ageing rays and they do penetrate the cloud, glass and clothing, further more they cause the breakdown of collagen and elastin and cause damage deep down in the skin. Feel free to scream, if people look at you in the office and you explain to them the reason for your yelp-age, they will understand, it’s only natural!
An FDA study noted that although indoor workers with lighter skin types typically receive 3-9 times less solar UV exposure than their outdoor counterparts, only the indoor group demonstrated an increase in incidence of malignant skin cancer. As a result, the scientists theorise that the UVA light penetrating building windows may lead to mutations and a break down in Vitamin D, which would otherwise help protect the skin against Melanoma.
This research has emphasized the importance of broad spectrum sunscreens that protect from both UVA and UVB light. So my foundation has spf in it, but that doesn’t matter! You need the good stuff, proper full on non-tinted-moisturising-glow-producing mumbo jumbo!! Just the hardcore sunscreen! And besides SPF only relates to the UVB protection and there are currently no guidelines or for manufactures to disclose their UVA protection levels, but this could all be about to change with an impending set of FDA proposed sunscreen guidelines.
So FGs remember this:
1. Look for broad spectrum UVA & UVB sunscreens
2. Look for sunscreens that contain anti oxidants to combat the free radical stimulated by UV exposure.
3. Look for sunscreens containing Oxybenzone, Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide as these specifically protect against the UVA rays
4. Opt for an SPF30 and no higher, as SPF30 confers about 97% of the protection against UVB, where as a SPF50 only nets you about 1-2 additional % points and usually contains more chemicals.
5. Make sure you wear your sunscreen both in and out doors and not just on sunny days – this applies to your children too protect , protect, protect all the time!!
Season the pain away!
Don’t you just love it when beauty products combine your fave culinary ingredients for a little soothing love! Well since I like a little ginger in my tea, and am all about black pepper, I got kinda tingly when Aromatherapy Associates De-stress Muscle Bath & Shower Gel, £34.75 arrived at my desk!
This little bundle of purpleness is a welcome relief for tired, heavy limbs, and has no nasties which we love!! Feel your stressed or aching muscles and joints come back to life as pure essential oils of ginger and black pepper help optimise circulation and release stiffness and tension. And darling lavender, a known analgesic, brings support to tender muscles after heavy exercise, what more does a gal need!!
Will a pedicure make me run faster?
Ain’t no shame in asking such questions. You may laugh, but in my mind happy feet equals fast feet. Dry, cracked, unpolished tootsies are not gonna be feeling the speed-love methinks. So as my marathon prep whittled down to less than three weeks, one had to cover the all of the essentials…should I have to be rescued by some cute paramedic at mile 20, I needed to be preened!! After all, at mile 20 the hair will be skew-whiff, the sweat patches will be pronounced, and the only feminine thing left would be the nails and the tootsies!! Did I need a mani-pedi?? Hell yeah!!
So off I skipped to Malika most commonly known for its threading prowess, in the dangerously equipped shopping haven that is Westfield, for some getting-rescued-by-a-cute-boy prep!! (incidentally, there were a distinct lack of cuties in the St John’s Ambulance crew on the day, but that’s neither here nor there…) So anyway, I opted for ‘fishnet stockings’ red on the tootsies and ‘sugar daddy’ pink on the hands, just to let my Rescue King know that I am both sweet and fiery at the same time, and welcome gifts at random (list provided upon request).
My therapist was lovely and actually told me how to care for my feet keep them baby soft!! How many beauty therapists do that? So I now have my daily routine with some hints and tricks about how to keep the feet buff and my hands looking like they’ve never washed a dish in their life (ahem…note choice of ‘Sugar Daddy’ pink on nails…) I was a spoilt girl and my nails were just dazzling!!
Ministry of Waxing SOS Virgin Forest Rescue Kit
OK ladies, are you ready for the Ministry of Waxing SOS Virgin Forest Rescue Kit. Now with the use of the words ‘forest rescue,’ one would be forgiven for thinking we are on a mission to protect rainforest devastation, which should be at the forefront of all Fit Girl values, and is not to be dismissed! But today girls, we are addressing other pressing issues, think, less rainforest protection, and more, taking care of your very own garden. Yes girls, down there. Do you get what we mean by forest now? Oh yes, we’ve all been there!!! Ministry of Waxing is there for the seasoned flower-garden-pruners among you, but have created an extra special treat for virgin waxers.
This handy not to mention cute little box contains some of Ministry’s best selling products to help you carry out a professional wax job at home. These include:
A full size tub of Ministry of Waxing X’ed Out Cream – this miracle skin saviour is alcohol free and blends anti-inflammatory ingredients, antiseptic, exfolients and humectants to banish any swelling, rashes and pesky ingrown hairs in your lady garden area as well as helping slow down hair growth. Are you a fast grower girls, do you go from a few spring buds to a full on wild flower garden in less than a week? Then you need this, we all need this!!!!
A Squeezy Animal Stress Toy – choose from zebra, pig, bear or koala. Just grip onto your squeezy little friend to help ease away any pre-wax tension and ouch moments!!
A Body Mop Buffer – use to gently exfoliate your Brazilian/bikini area in the shower to prevent any lumps, bumps and trapped follicles as regular body buffing will lessen any prickly appearance. You need to be smooth between the sheets, know what I mean girls, prickly doesn’t cut it!
You must must must visit the website ministryofwaxing.com just to hear the music, I was LMAO!!!!! The SOS Virgin Forest Rescue Kit is £26 and is available to buy directly from the Ministry of Waxing salon or via mail order on 020 7409 7343
All I want is everything!
OK, so maybe I secretly understand that to have everything means that one would be an extremely spoilt brat and appreciate nothing! However, I like to protest it, at least once a year, just to let my inner-brat out!! But if a company comes up with a product called Everything Balm, then I absolutely want it!! What is even more exhilarating, is that one can indeed possess ‘everything’ for a mere £12 from trilogyproducts.com
This multi-tasking beauty tool really is the balm for everything, to satisfy thine inner-brat! With Beeswax, Marula nut, Olive, Certified Organic Rosehip Oil, Jojoba, Avocado, Vitamin E and Honey, this botanical super emollient can be used to soothe and protect dry skin (amen), soften chapped lips (praise), strengthen cuticles (oh yeah), as a relaxing massage oil (hell yeah), to smooth skin post-shave (mmm hmm), for after sun relief (aahhh), and is natural and pure enough for babies (what I have to share it?)
A Dreamy Treat for Feet
Ladies it’s nearing that time when you need to get out the tootsies, y’know give them a little airing, pedi at the ready girls, dry feet are categorically not cute. Nobody wants to file their nails with your heels, yes?! (said in Gordon Ramsey snappy tone) Anyway, the point is there’s still time, let the pamper-age start here. If your little tootles have been cooped up all winter in knee highs and uggs, it’s time they had a little relief. Cue Belli Foot Relief Cream, £20 from www.cupcakemum.com
Cooling peppermint, cleansing tea tree oil and soothing shea butter combine to comfort swollen, tired feet, relieve calf cramps and leave skin feeling cool,refreshed and revitalised. Yes please! Can I get a cute boy to slather my feet in the stuff? That would be dreamy! I love the packaging too. It makes me want to have an all white dressing parlour with gorgeous fabrics draped everywhere, and squeeze and spritz perfume bottles from the 1940s.
Look cute, without overdoing it, when working out!
So when do you go to the gym ladies. Morning? Evening? At lunch? Either way, it’s always best to let your skin breathe when getting a sweat on, after all, you don’t want the pores to be clogged resulting in a spot or two. Nobody needs that! My point is that whilst the smokey eye look and the latest red lip is not appropriate for the gym, one shouldn’t be expected to go make-up-free. I’ll be the first to admit I don’t like going anywhere without my rouge! It gives me that extra lift! Or you may have other reasons at the gym, like fancying that cute guy that always ramps it up on the treadmill, and the joy you feel watching his toned behind (not that I am encouraging you to be a gym perv, I’m just being real here girls.) Anyways, you don’t want him to see you bare-faced-cheek…at least not those ones!! (sorry, couldn’t resist). So if your skin needs to breathe, but your face needs a little perk up, then why not try the Lip and Cheek tint £5, from Models Own! it will give you that subtle glow that you need, without you looking like you’re going out for the night…you want to be prettied, not pitied!!
Throw this in your gymbag, so you can workout without looking washed out!!
Bobbi Brown We Salute You!
Hail Queen Bobbi, creator extraordinaire of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics and general long-standing advocate of ‘real women’ and a champion of individualistic beauty. Us lucky girls got to catch up with Queen B (like it!!) to chat to her about her new Pretty Powerful Campaign!
To mark the launch of the Pretty Powerful Campaign, Bobbi Brown UK has conducted research into women’s attitudes towards beauty. Key findings show that:
• Only 50% of British women are happy with the way they look
• 16-24 year olds were the most likely to say they were not happy with the way they look (61%)
• 84% of women do not aspire to look like anyone else
• Nearly half of women would prefer to be an improved version of themselves than look like a high profile figure – this despite our fascination with ‘perfect’ celebrity images (Hell to the yeah!).
FG: So B, tell us about the concept behind Pretty Powerful.
Queen B: Pretty Powerful symbolizes my belief that all women possess natural beauty, and with the right tools, are empowered to a higher level of pretty… Pretty Powerful, Pretty Amazing, Pretty Gorgeous, etc.
FG: Could this campaign be the start of a cultural shift, celebrating a more realistic ideal for women?
Queen B: After so many years of seeing a similar “cookie-cutter” beauty and fashion images in the media, I do hope that we will start to see a cultural shift towards a more realistic potential for all women. I have always said that beauty is about embracing what you have naturally – not conforming to an unobtainable standard or looking exactly like everyone else. I think it’s time for all people to use the right tools and makeup knowledge to celebrate their own inner confidence – and look and feel their very best in the process.
FG: B, how will this Pretty Powerful campaign empower women?
Queen B: Pretty Powerful is a way for women to take a step back, press the ’reset’ button, and truly think about what is important to them. I’m hoping that Pretty Powerful will inspire women to embrace their own inner confidence so that they shine from within.
(She’s our new BFF!!)
FG: You once said that, as a teenager, you were desperate to look like Cheryl Tiegs, until you discovered Ali McGraw and were able to appreciate a different kind of beauty. What do you say to women who feel they’d like to look like someone else?
It’s simple advice, but I always tell women to be who you are. This means everything from learning to love your lines to appreciating your unique features. I think we should start using the phrase ‘living’ instead of ‘aging’. Lines are proof that we’ve lived life. We get them when we show emotion, when we laugh, and when we express ourselves.
It’s also really important to live in the present. We spend a lot of energy feeling bad that we don’t look like we used to, or that we don’t look like someone else — instead of appreciating what we do look like. I hated my arms when I was a teenager and often wore long-sleeved shirts. Now I look back on pictures from those days and I think that my arms looked fine. I would have saved myself a lot of adolescent angst if I had made the best of what I had at the time. So start appreciating yourself now.
Throughout March the campaign offers women nationwide the chance to visit the Bobbi Brown counters so artists can teach them a few simple makeup steps that will help them feel prettier and more confident. Get yourselves down there girls, literally the icing on the cake!!
Was Valentines unkind to you? Wrap yourself in chocolate baby girl!
Look ain’t no shame in it!! Who says receiving chocolate on Valentines is all that?? Hell, you’d probably be thinking that it was gonna add a little extra grab to your love handles! For many ladies, chocolate = guilt. Who needs that?!! Anyway, you can imagine my delight when I got my ass booked in for a Chocolate Body Wrap at Neville Hair and Beauty in Belgravia darling!
So I was feeling a little stressed before I went in. I kind of had that, oh I wish I was chilled for my wrap feeling, forgetting that that is the whole idea of the treatment, to make you chilled! I think the main factor affecting my stress was the fact that I was in desperate need for a pedicure (y’know, that half polish on, half polish off toenail look) and knew that the tootsies would be revealed to my therapist who would think me a heathen for not even bothering to take the remaining polish off!
Anyway, my initial chill-free disposition dissolved during the first part of the treatment, a full body lavender exfoliation. My thoughts of insufficient toenail-cuteness washed away in the shower with my little lavender beads. Chilled and ready for part two, I sauntered back onto the therapy couch for a full body massage with orange candle oil. Now I thought this candle oil somehow didn’t come from an actual burning candle, but there it was sitting there, burning away, ready to, as far as I was concerned, burn me!!! With one eye open, I watched my therapist slowly pour the candle oil onto my body, ready to make a dash for the door if it hurt – it’s amazing how one is willing to make a dash for it, even in paper knickers! – needless to say it was nice and warm, and I returned to my relaxation.
So in case you were already thinking it, yes, by prepping my body with orange oil, before slathering chocolate all over it, I was indeed going to turn into a chocolate orange delight!! Who knew a girl could feel so tasty!! Which of course leads me to the actual chocolate smear-age!! So, my lovely therapist proceeded to start adorning my pins with chocolate, I never smelled so damn good in all of my life!! Before I knew it, I was inside a layer of chocolate!! Desperately trying not to lick it off, I laid there enjoying the aroma, minus the guilt! Then I was all wrapped up, in this foil-like blanket no less, so me and the chocolate could get frisky! That’s right, seep on into my pores oh divine chocolate, make me beautiful!!
Meanwhile, I got a corrective facial and a foot massage, just to ensure that every inch of me was pretty. Let me tell you girls, laying there, all wrapped up in chocolate, getting my feet rubbed, was sheer bliss!! I was in heaven. My therapist had told me that the wrap increases your endorphins by 370%, make that 500%!!! Once you get this wrap, there ain’t no turning back!!
So if you find yourself sitting on the couch eating chocolate, staring at the phone, waiting for him to call, instead of toning your butt at the gym, why not go for a chocolate wrap instead. All the pleasure without leaving a trace on your figure. Indulge yourself with a 1 hour 45 minute Chocolate Body Wrap…go on…indulge yourself!!
A small V-day gift-to-self!
We are loving these cute little soaps from British soap merchant Heyland & Whittle. These new petit Olive Grove soaps – £5 are gorgeously decorated with a single red rose and come in the cutest mini hat box. Each soap is hand–blended with olive and coconut oil, goats milk and aloe vera and its fragrance is reminiscent of a Mediterranean Olive Grove. A divine little luxury FGs, no? If V-day leaves you sansa bunch of roses, treat thine self to your own at www.heylandandwhittle.co.uk
Workout SOS: Dry Shampoo!
So working out makes you look fab, but I’m not gonna lie, the old hair gets quite a going over with several trips to the gym. I’ll admit, I tend to slick it back under a headband to add an element of chic to what would otherwise be greasy hair in desperate need of a wash. I’d heard of dry shampoo before but kind of thought, well, no. Well I take it back, every last word of “as if that stuff works!” cos it does 100% I am loving Klorane Seboregulating Dry Shampoo with Nettle right now which is literally a hair wash in a can! Grab yours for £7.50 for 150ml from the Garden Pharmacy.
Rumour has it that they also have 50ml cans too, perfect purse size for emergencies on a night out. Although one would hope that you actually wash your hair before you go out, cos em, if not, then that’s just kind of skanky. We’re talking about workout SOS’ here, not how-to-not-appear-like-you-don’t-wash on a night out!
Ooh I want me some of that nail polish!!
Coooeeee!! Hi. We’ve been rather taken with this extremely delish Red Red Wine nail polish £5, from the sweethearts at Models Own!! Y’know since V day isn’t that far away, we just wanted to make sure you are on trend with this little number. As gym girls we’re partial to having the nails looking fresh and clean, but come the weekend, those babies get painted!! Yep, Friday night routine honies is all about accessorising with a splash of colour on thine fingertip-lets! We’re hoping that you’re gonna jump on board for the Love Handle Challenge too, so you can slip into something a little…well…slinky! Make sure the nails are a shade of hot Red Red Wine and you are all set! Sing it! Red red wine you make me feel so fine….red red wine you make me feel so fine (with reggae beat in background.)
These last minute gifts are just darling from the Powder Rooms!!
OK button it!!! We haven’t finished our Christmas shopping yet either so thank God we have found this little gem The Powder Rooms!!! And for all of you smug, “ooh I bought mine in November” sorts, you’re going to be crying into your wrapping paper when you see the finds you have missed!!
Let’s start with Lip Lingerie Panties in a Bunch, packaged up like little cupcakes. These best selling lip glosses are packed with vitamins and lip plumping fabulousness!! Ladies, a necessity no? £26 for six gorgeous pairs!!
Next, how about Lash Lingerie Lash Extensions £23.50 Embrace the glamour of the fifties with these eye-opening dazzlers!! Who needs mascara when you have lashes for all occasions: Sparkly lashes that glimmer in candlelight; Swooping corner lashes that flutter in moonlight; and Full lavish lashes for an irresistible feline effect. Once you fake lash, you’ll never go back!!
Finally, take a moment for this Jade Lavender Eye Mask £34 to keep all light out from your peepers when trying to get your beauty sleep! ‘Tis filled with lavender to lull you to sleep in a haze of smelly loveliness!! You can thank us later when you rid yourselves of any unsightly bags!!
Orders can still be placed up until the 22nd/23rd for Christmas delivery…thank God!!!
Gym Bag Essentials…you gotta stay fresh
The whole of the Fit Girl team pranced around with glee when we received the new Palmolive Soft & Gentle deodorants with a little soybean oil added to make your armpits super smooth!! Yes please!! We particularly like the funky colours of these darling sweat busters. Grab yours for £1.75 from supermarkets and chemists.
On that note, are you waxers or shavers? We definitely tend to wax or epilate…shaving leaves a little more shadow than one might like!
