All posts in category beauty

Christmas Beauty Brawl… {day one}

Today, we were challenged to review… Moisturiser!! So, I picked the simple kind to skin hydrating light moisturiser.

I have rated this product on packaging, price and the product itself. (Unfortunately, the top trumps card app is currently down so i will update with the card as soon as i can)

Packaging… 65

Price… 100 (£3)

Product… 95

Simple Says…

‘for natural healthy looking skin’

‘Our Hydrating Light Moisturiser is a perfect blend of multi-vitamins and skin-loving ingredients to keep our skin moisturised and pampered, and carries on working for 12 hours. Perfect even for sensitive skin’

What I love…

Straight away, you cannot go wrong with the price of this product. At just £3 for 125ml it is one of the cheapest moisturizers around that actually works! Because it is a light weight moisturiser, my skin doesn’t feel at all greasy and it soaks in within no time at all. I’m one of those people that hates my face to feel like there is too much product on, and this fits the bill perfectly! I love that they use all natural ingredients and no perfumes and this leaves my face feeling soft and nourished every time.

What I Don’t Love…

Although this is a cheap product, I’m not a big fan of the packaging. I prefer my beauty products to come in pretty bottles and a pump or squeezy tube makes life much easier when getting towards the bottom of the tube. Also, I have found that a few days after starting to use this product my skin breaks out a little. It clears up within a day or two though, and then my face feels better than ever!

Have you tried this moisturiser? let me know how you got on in the comments down below! Don’t forget to check out what Natasha wrote over on
Beauty by Natasha 16

Emma-Jayne xxx

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by Emma-Jayne on December 1, 2016 • Permalink

Posted in beauty challenge, christmas, December, Look What i found..., my month, Rambleings, reccomendations, Reveiw, skincare

Posted by Emma-Jayne on December 1, 2016

https://runningincouture.wordpress.com/2016/12/01/christmas-beauty-brawl-day-one/

Christmas Beauty Brawl… {intro}

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I am so excited to announce that I’m bringing my blog back with a bang!! 10 days of blogs all about beauty products. What more could you want?! For the second year, the lovely Beth from la blog beaute has organised the bloggers Christmas beauty brawl and I’m so pleased that I found out about it in time to join in this year! You can follow along on twitter or Instagram with #beautybrawl16

Basically, each day all the bloggers involved will review a beauty product. Each day is a different product, but we will all review a product of the same type (e.g. moisturiser) there may be some overlap between products as we don’t know what each other has posted until after but i know i am looking forward to seeing how everyone else rates their products! The best part? We will all be using a ‘top trumps’ card as a rating system so packaging, the product itself and the price will all be rated out of 100. We will also include more in depth analysis of the product alongside the card.

Taking part will be…

Beth – La Blog Beauté

Victoria – Victoria Life On Camera

Elaine – Early Retirement Rocks

Kimberley Jessica – Kimberley Jessica

Tori – Powdered and Polished

Laura Faye – Forever Faye

Karen – The Mad House of Cats and Babies

Gemma – An Ocean Glimmer

Ellysia – Miss Dainty K

Andreia – Andreia Prieto x

Natalie – Beauty Box Obsessed

Rabia – Rabia Qureshi

Bethany – The Beth Blog

Becky – Hideaway Blogging

Lynn – Lemons Cake

Sarah – The Passion Ease Queen.

Taylor – Reese’s Hardwear

Cheryl – Cheryl Gemma

Daisy – Daisy Says

Phillippa – Phillippa Beauty

Kimberley – Happiness Is Madness

Charli – High Street Beauty Junkie

Natasha – Beauty By Natasha 16

Emma – Running In Couture

Hope you enjoy reading everyone’s posts, I know I will!

Emma-Jayne xxx

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by Emma-Jayne on December 1, 2016 • Permalink

Posted in beauty, beauty challenge, blogs, christmas, December, life, Look What i found..., makeup, my month, Rambleings, reccomendations, skincare

Tagged #beautybrawl16., beauty blogger, beauty brawl, beauty review, bloggers beauty brawl, christmas, collab, collaberation, coming soon, review

Posted by Emma-Jayne on December 1, 2016

https://runningincouture.wordpress.com/2016/12/01/christmas-beauty-brawl-intro/

Bluesky soak off gel nail polish review…

I love getting my nails done professionally, but at £25 every 3-4 weeks it was costing me more money than I could really afford. So I went off looking for a more affordable solution. For a while, I went back to painting my nails as normal but I found that even with high quality polishes I chipped my nails really quickly. I started to look into at home gel nails. I started off looking at the high end brands like gelish and CND but at over £100 for the starter kit, it was more than I wanted to spend, especially as I have no experience with gel nails. In the end I found the brand bluesky on amazon. At half the price I was allotrope worried about the quality as when it comes to nails I’m a big believer in “you get what you pay for” but after reading mostly positive reveiws, and looking into UV lamps vs LED lamps (UV is cheaper and cures all gel polish but takes longer, whereas LED is more expensive an can only cute polish suitable for LED but will cure in 30s) and making sure I could use the higher end brands with the lamp I took the plunge. I chose this starter kit containing:

A UV lamp
3 random gel polishes
Base coat
Too coat
5 Prep and wipe wipes

You will need to get a remover, as this particular kit doesn’t come with one but there are several starter kits on amazon containing variations. However I decided to go for the extra polishes and brought acetone based false nail remover from boots.

To use, you simply set your lamp up following the instructions, then, lightly buff clean nails and paint a thin layer of base coat on each nail, then cure for two minutes. Most lamps come with a timer setting which makes this easy, mine turns of after the two minutes is up and I simply have to flick a switch to turn it on for another few minutes.

After the base coat, apply your colour. Cute for two minutes and repeat. Finally apply top coat to seal and cure for a final two minutes.

Just a little word of warning, if you get any polish on your skin while painting make sure to clean up the edges BEFORE you cure the polish. I didn’t realise, but I left some top coat on the tip of my finger and although it does eventually peel off it was much harder to remove than normal polish.

Obviously, the next test was to see how long it lasts!

This is when they were first done. J found it easy to apply, and I love how shiny it is and it feels the same as normal polish on my nails! The black triangle gems are from poundland, and I stuck them on with nail glue before applying the top coat.

This is five days in, although generally they have lasted well a few of my nails are starting to chip along the free edge. One has actualy peeled off when I washed my hair.

Although the gel polish does last longer than a normal polish I have not managed to get 2 weeks wear out of it. The bonuses to it are definetly the faster drying time and easy application but I was dissappointed with the longevity. However I would buy it again and I think, for £5 a bottle it is worth it for nearly a weeks wear as it’s no dearer than many high street polishes!

Have you tried it? Let me know what you think in the coments!

Emma-Jayne xx

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by Emma-Jayne on March 18, 2015 • Permalink

Posted in beauty, nails, reccomendations, Reveiw, Tutorial

Posted by Emma-Jayne on March 18, 2015

https://runningincouture.wordpress.com/2015/03/18/bluesky-soak-off-gel-nail-polish-review/

Scallop, asparagus and tomato pasta…

Until a few days ago, I had only had scallops in Coquilles St. Jacques, from Marks and Spencers… we had them last valentines day, and really enjoyed them but having heard horror stories about how difficult it is to get scallops right we didn’t attempt to recreate the dish at home. fast forward a few months, and I was in Tesco and noticed that they had fresh scallops that weren’t too expensive. They then sat in my freezer for a little longer as I wondered what to do with them until I watched an episode of the pioneer woman cooks and noticed she paired them with tomato pasta. This recipe, is a pretty simple tomato sauce jazzed up with the mushrooms, asparagus and scallops. If (like in my house) someone doesn’t eat mushrooms, cook them in a seperate pan to the sauce in a little butter. These scallops are Lillee approved so this dish is looking to become a new family favourite in our house!

1 pack of fresh scallops (about 300g)
asparagus (3-4 spears per person)
carton of passata
1 onion, finely chopped
10 mushrooms, sliced
pinch of sugar
olive oil
Worchestershire sauce
2 cloves crushed garlic
300g pasta
1tsp mixed herbs

Cook pasta according to packet instructions. Meanwhile, soften the onions in a large pan with a little oil. When translucent, add the garlic, herbs and mushrooms. Cook for a few minutes and stir in the passata, Worchestershire sauce and sugar. Leave to simmer on a low heat. Heat a griddle pan or frying pan, and add the asparagus. Cook until lightly browned on one side before turning over and browning the other side. it should take 5-10 minutes. When the pasta is cooked, drain and stir into the tomato sauce. Heat a frying pan with a small amount of oil. When hot, add the scallops cook for 1-2 minutes until starting to brown. Turn over and cook for another minute. Serve on top of the pasta with the asparagus.

Serves 4.

Hope you enjoy it!

Emma-Jayne xx

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by Emma-Jayne on January 23, 2015 • Permalink

Posted in family, food, healthier choice, homemade, january, Lillee, meal planning, pasta, quick, reccomendations, recipe, Tutorial

Posted by Emma-Jayne on January 23, 2015

https://runningincouture.wordpress.com/2015/01/23/scallop-asparagus-and-tomato-pasta/

What I got for Christmas…

**Disclaimer: I am not bragging or showing off what we got for christmas, I like to look at what other people got so I decided to share what I had with you**

This year, we had so much for christmas that I’m just going to show some of my favourite presents instead of everything!

My amazing husband got me a macbook!! I’ve been wanting one for ages, but the price always put me off. Luckily, we managed to get one second hand that is pratically new! It is the perfect thing for me to blog on so expect more frequent posting in the new year.

Dan really spoilt me this year. Not only did i get my macbook, i also got a beautiful new pandora charm some more of my favourite perfume, Chambord black raspberry liqueur and the b.right! skin care set from benefit cosmetics amongst other things.

A few months ago, my washing machiene gave up on me, and so we were living with no washer the day before me and lillee went to camp! My parents, ~~having had enough of washing my clothes for me,~~ brought us a new washing machine as part wedding present and part christmas present. Because of this, we really didn’t expect anything else from my parents as they had already been so generous. We were plesently surprised though with a gorgeous Yankee candle gift set

A yoghurt maker and some yoghurt my mom let us steal out of the cupboard

and a multi-fryer to which makes healthy chips and many more things according to the recipe booklet! At the moment, we have only tried chips but they were so tasty! Cooked perfectly; crisp on the outside and fluffy in the middle. Perfect presents for getting healthy in the new year!

From my Aunties and Uncles, we had a really cute owl cushion, a new loaf tin and some different bread mixes to try in it and a movie box containing sweets, an amazon gift card and a really gorgeous sign like they use in the movies!

We were also lucky enough to receive some new clothes, money and chocolates. My parents-in-law gave us a really thoughtful present this year, they took a selection of pictures from our wedding and framed them for us! At the moment, its being kept safe until we can hang it up hopefully as part of the frame wall I’m planning!

What did you get for christmas?

Emma-Jayne xx

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by Emma-Jayne on January 5, 2015 • Permalink

Posted in beauty, christmas, christmas presents, December, family, Home, life, my month, Rambleings, skincare, what i got for christmas

Tagged apple, b!right, benefit, bread, chambord, christmas, christmas presents, cooking, covent garden soup, daisy, easiyo, family, family time, food, haul, healthy, home, homemaking, house, life, Lillee, love, mac, macbook, marc jacobs, meal planning, movie night, multi fryer, owl, pandora, perfume, pictures, update, wedding pictures, what i got for christmas, winter, yankee candle

Posted by Emma-Jayne on January 5, 2015

https://runningincouture.wordpress.com/2015/01/05/what-i-got-for-christmas/

Glitter tip nail art tutorial…

Since the wedding, I haven’t kept up with my acrylic nail appointments. There are various reasons including time, and it being an unnecessary expense. As much as I love having them on, it has made much more sense recently for me not too. I will be having them back on before the end of the year, my auntie gets married in October so if not before I will definitely be having them done for the hen night! But until then, I want to make them pretty. And I have to be honest, one thing I have missed with my nails on is trying out various different nail designs myself. And changing it when I feel like it!

I love grey nails. I’ve had them similar to this professionally, although she used a different technique. But I do find sometimes just plain colour is a little boring. I don’t have the skills to do some of these amazing nail art designs out there so I wanted something simple but pretty. I personally think this ticks all the boxes!

So today, I am using:-

•Barry M nail paint in grey 293.
•Jess nail polish in celebration.
•Nail varnish remover, cotton wool pad and a cotton bud.
•Avon nail experts liquid freeze quick dry nail spray.
•topcoat/base coat.

First, I made sure my nails were clean and nail-polish free with a quick swipe all over with the remover before applying a base coat. I don’t know what brand it is, because I’ve had it for so long the label had come off.. Just use your favourite one! Then I used 2 coats of the Barry M nail paint. I use this colour on my nails a lot. I originally brought it because I think it’s a really great neutral colour but because it isn’t as harsh as black it is more wearable. At this point you can use a quick spray of the freeze spray, or wait for it to become touch-dry.

At this point, I used my Jess nail varnish. This is actually from poundland. Personally, I think it takes a long time to dry but I really love the colours in the glitter. I actually brought it for Lillee, as she loves to have her nails painted but she is worse than I am for chipping it, so I only buy her cheap ones for now.

I carefully, put a thin-ish line across the tip of my nail in the glitter. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but I try to get as many glitter particles as I can closest to the tip of my nail so it creates a little gradient meaning the line doesn’t have to be straight. If you struggle with keeping it relatively even, you could use a French manicure template to get a more crisp edge.

I finished with a topcoat, a spritz of freeze dry spray, and cleaned up my edges with a cotton bud soaked in a little nail varnish remover. And there you have it!

I hope you like it!

Emma-Jayne xx

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by Emma-Jayne on July 5, 2014 • Permalink

Posted in beauty, DIY, nails, reccomendations, Tutorial

Tagged avon, barrym, easynaildesigns, easynails, freezedryspray, glittertips, greynails, greywithglittertips, jess, nailpaint, nailtutorial, nailvarnish, paintingnails, prettynails, tutorial

Posted by Emma-Jayne on July 5, 2014

https://runningincouture.wordpress.com/2014/07/05/glitter-tip-nail-art-tutorial-2/

Going on a health kick…

So, I have to be honest I LOVE fresh fruits and vegetables. I have been known to eat an entire 500g bag of sliced cabbage and leeks to myself. (Cooked in with a tiny bit of oil and some garlic. Delicious) broccoli is among one of my top 10 foods to eat, but even so recently I’ve noticed the weight has been creeping up. A few pounds here, a few pounds there and now I’m at least half a stone heavier than I was at the wedding. Not that I managed to loose weight for I in the first place.. So that got me thinking. What is it I’m doing wrong? I live fruit and vegetables, i prefer chicken to red meat most of the time and I rarely eat bread, pasta or rice and when I do it’s the wholewheat kind. But, let’s be honest here, that’s not ALL I eat. We have ice-cream in the freezer, cheese in the fridge and this week I know I’ve eaten crisps, biscuits and pizza. Not that any of these things are bad in moderation, but that’s the key to it isn’t it? In moderation. So actually, when I think a little harder, I’ve Been indulging a bit too often. And as for water? Not very long ago, I was pretty much only drinking water. At the moment I’m lucky if I get one glass of pure water in a day. So really, when I get down to it I’m not really that healthy am I?

Well, after this revelation, what’s a girl to do? For a start, I need to put down this glass of wine and actually do some exercise! I think I’ll say it in a whisper so I don’t shock my system. I rarely do proper exercise. I take Lillee to and from school during the week but honestly? These days that’s about as good as it gets. I am aware that housework and walking are good alternatives to exercise but I have to be honest here, I don’t do anywhere near enough to actually be able to count it as doing my recommended level.

So what am I going to do? Well, I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, and although I’ve said it before and then slowly backslid. Especially when things like gü puddings end up it the trolly.. I NEED to change my diet. But I don’t want to go on a diet because then I’ll get fed up. And really, who wants to be counting calories or syns or points for the rest of their life? I know I don’t. So obviously, the answer here is to start making better choices. To eat more “clean” foods. I don’t want to stop having treats but it’s gotten quite clear that it’s not really a treat if you have it every day is it? Therefore, starting today.. ~~well, technically it’ll start tomorrow as it’s now 10pm and I’ve already eaten for today~~ I’m planning in upping my levels of fruit and veg, looking into things like chia seeds and flax seed which I’ve heard so much about but never tried and Definitely drinking WAY more water! As for exercise? Well, in theory I will start doing maybe 3 workouts a week.. But I think that will probably start to come in a little later once I have the food locked down.

Although I’m hoping I will loose some weight, this isn’t really the main reason for doing this. I want to improve my health and especially my fitness levels. Plus I want to jump on te opportunity while Lillee still prefers strawberries to chocolate and she asks to drink water if she’s thirsty. I really need to start taking life lessons from her!

Wish me luck!

Emma-Jayne xx

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by Emma-Jayne on June 27, 2014 • Permalink

Posted in beauty, food, Health, healthier choice, life, meal planning

Tagged food, fruitandvegetables, gettinghealthy, greenandleafy, health, healthfood, healthkick, healthybody, healthyeating, healthyfamily, healthylifestylechoice, weightloss

Posted by Emma-Jayne on June 27, 2014

https://runningincouture.wordpress.com/2014/06/27/going-on-a-health-kick/

New things…

I ordered a load of skin and hair care off amazon last week, and they’ve finally arrived! Can’t wait to get using it all to try and get my skin in order for the wedding! So far I’ve only used the revitalising eye roll on, but I found it really seemed to work on making my eyes feel more awake with a fab cooling sensation. I’ll let you know how I get on with the rest soon!

Emma-Jayne xx

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by Emma-Jayne on August 11, 2013 • Image • Permalink

Posted in beauty, hair, skincare

Tagged amazon, johnfreida, newthings, onlineshopping, shopping, simple, skincare

Posted by Emma-Jayne on August 11, 2013

https://runningincouture.wordpress.com/2013/08/11/new-things/

Look what I found…

Food in a jar? I’m loving the idea and I keep pinning different ideas… So, what better than chili and cornbread with the cooler weather we’ve been having this week?