lifestyle | Vanity Claire

ClaireMarch 12, 2014

Nuvo Masquerade Ball & Fashion Show

Last night we were lucky enough to be invited to a charity masquerade ball at Nuvo bar in aid of Birmingham’s Children Hospital. The event was organised by the wonderful girls who study fashion at BCU and featured everything from a fashion show and dancers to topless butlers, henna and a photobooth. Drinking on a work night? Never a good idea. But when it’s for charity? HELLO VODKA (just doing it for the kids, you understand).

The show was hosted by the beautiful Miss Birmingham 2013, Rachel Barker, who we were lucky enough to meet before at the fashion event at Lilly-Lou. She did an amazing job and it was lovely catching up with her after the fashion show – even if she is so glossy and tall that she makes us feel like we’ve just rolled round in a bin (which to be honest, we often have).

(It’s a hard job being Miss Birmingham, isn’t it Rachel?!)

The whole event was brilliantly organised and everyone had a great time. We got chatting to some lovely people, including Kirsty who you might recognise from this series of Take Me Out, and of course the girls from BCU. Drinks were flowing and the photobooth was used far too much.

Like the drunk Cinderellas we are, we needed to dash off by midnight to catch our train home – but luckily not before some of the winners of the raffle were called out. Errr, guess who bagged a little £50 Primark voucher?!
Yeah, so my new address is Smug Lane, ChuffedAsShitVille.

Overall the night was a huge success and a great amount of money was raised for Birmingham Children’s Hospital. A big thank you to the girls from BCU for organising such a wonderful event and for inviting us! You can follow their Twitter account @BricoleurEvents to keep up to date with their future fundraising efforts – then you too can do things like this and feel no sense of shame at all – because IT’S FOR CHARITY.

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ClaireFebruary 28, 2014

Girls Carrying Condoms: Why the Taboo?

Well yes, this is a big ole’ collection of condoms. Don’t act like I haven’t caught your attention, because I know I have.

Don’t fear though, you are not about to read a condom review from yours truly. If that’s the sort of thing you’re after then there are plenty of blogs out there to cater for you (a rather eye watering amount actually, believe me), but I’m far too prudish for that – no, instead you have to listen to me getting on my soapbox again – hurrah!

One of our friends works at the PR agency currently behind the launch of the Geordie Shore gang’s collaboration with condom brand Skins. After all, who better to guide us through the world of sexual health than the Buck Squad? Now, a condom release wouldn’t usually make its way into this blog but to coincide with the collaboration, the company conducted a good old bit of market research into sex in the UK and people’s attitudes to condoms, and it really got me thinking.

Here are just a few things they found out:

Nearly 80% of Brits would consider casual sex
However 48% of those don’t carry condoms with them
63% of people admitted to having unprotected sex in the past
45% have gone ahead with unprotected sex simply because they didn’t have a condom on them
26% reported that they were too drunk to remember to use one

All of these figures mean that it’s little surprise that 10% of the people asked admitting to having had contracted an STI at some point.

Now, I don’t want to point the finger at my fellow vajayjay owners, but I would put quite a significant sum of money (maybe as much as £12) on a large portion of that 52% of people that don’t carry condoms being female. I think even today, when a lot of us generally believe that as long as you’re single and not hurting anyone then you can get yo’ freak on with whoever you want, that there’s still a bit of a taboo about girls carrying condoms.

A lot of people still think of it as being the boy’s responsibility, since he’s the one with the penis and all. But the fact of the matter is that it’s YOUR body it’s going into, so we should definitely be taking some more responsibility too. I’m sure we’d all recoil in horror if our dentist went to put his fingers in our mouth without a pair of gloves on – we would say “ERGH get off me you vile creature”… so why don’t more of us say the same thing to our gentlemen callers?

I think some girls probably worry about it looking a bit slaggy to carry condoms, or they think the man in question will judge them if they’re the one to produce it before the magic moment. FYI, having condoms does not make you a slag – it makes you a sensible woman with a strong mind, a woman who prefers Gucci to Gonorrhea.

There will also undoubtedly be cases where a condom will be available, but the man in question might try to avoid using it. It’s a pretty common complaint that condoms lessen the sensation for men, and I know there are plenty of girls who don’t really like them either. However, just stock up on a pack of the bad boys below and tell the man in your life to shut up and pop one on.

Yes, in an ideal world we’d all have regular STI checks by law and would all carry around a little card that shows we safe from all of those non-sexy sexual diseases. However, I’m not Prime Minister yet so this doesn’t happen – and do we really want to risk taking people’s word for it?

I’m aware I’ve come across a bit man-hatey in this post, which wasn’t my intention at all. I know they’re not all evil villains whose sole mission in life is to run around putting their willies in things without a condom. I know there are plenty of upstanding gentlemen out there who always carry protection and insist on using it – and to those men, I salute you! But to make up for the other men who aren’t quite as strict or responsible, I think it’s definitely time for girls to take rubber responsibility.

What do you all think on the topic of girls carrying condoms? Do you think we need to start being more responsible?

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ClaireFebruary 26, 2014

Do Tea Detoxes Actually Work? | Slendertoxtea Review & Giveaway!

Detoxing has always been pretty big news in the health world, and it seems that recently the popularity of ‘tea detoxes’ has rocketed. This version of detoxing involves cleansing your system simply through drinking some specially blended herbal teas. There are quite a few companies around at the moment offering these products, and one of these is Slendertoxtea, who were superbly kind people and sent me 14 days’ worth of products to try.

Slendertoxtea state that their tea detox will help to:

beat the bloat
aid weightloss
increase your energy
increase your metabolism

I was really intrigued to try one of these detoxes for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I’ve been healthy eating and gymming for months now but still find that bloating is an issue, particularly as the day goes on. Secondly, I’ve always quite liked the idea of ridding my body of toxins but haven’t quite fancied only eating apples for three days like some other detoxes advise. And thirdly, I just love a little experiment.

How Does Slendertoxtea Work?

I actually agreed to review the products before I had any idea how they worked. I know, how wise of me(!) I assumed it would be a ‘skip breakfast and have this cuppa’ instead situation, but I was incorrect. Once I actually scoped the website out I was pleased to see that the tea detox involves no cutting out of food whatsoever. The process is simple: you have one tea each morning as soon as you wake up, and then crack on with all of your daily meals as usual. Then, every other night you also have an evening tea.

Obviously for the tea detox to be 100% effective, you should be eating healthily too. The website has a pretty handy Eating Plan you can download if you would like some guidance on what to eat, and it has some additional information on foods to avoid too.

Now, I will be very straight with you all. The nub and gist of the matter is that this tea detox works due to having a laxative effect. There, I said it. Those of a sensitive disposition should look away now, as this review is henceforth me talking about pooing.

Slendertoxtea is a colon cleansing tea that, to put it simply, flushes you out. This is due to the herbs in the tea, which have apparently been used by South East Asians for many years. The tea needs to be brewed for around 15 minutes in either warm or cold water and then… the magic begins.

My Slendertoxtea Experience

I was a little wary once I realised how the detox was going to work, and even more so when I read the packet that instructs you to begin your detox on a weekend when you’re not at work. ‘Oh gosh,’ I thought, ‘poo explosions imminent!’

However, I’m pleased to report – and I’m sure you’re all pleased to read – that this wasn’t the case. My effects didn’t kick in until the second day and for me, it was not remotely a bad experience. While the website does warn of slight nausea, headaches and hunger pangs, I actually felt fine during my teatox. My loo breaks were increased, yes – especially on the days following the morning tea and the evening tea – but they were, er, shall we say quick ‘trips’ so it didn’t massively disrupt me.

I’m lucky enough to work in an office though, where nobody really cares how often I leave the room – I will say that if you work somewhere like a shop, bar or bank where you’re not allowed to just run off when the mood strikes, then this might not be too practical for you. There was one day where I had a client meeting to go to in Wales – knowing this involved a long journey and long meeting, I decided to skip the tea on this day. Other than that, I found that the effects of the teas didn’t really bother me too much. On top of this, I did genuinely start to feel much lighter and healthier as the days went by, so my feelings towards the tea were very positive.

I hadn’t weighed myself prior to the detox so I can’t tell you whether it worked in shifting any pounds, but I do think my bloating was reduced and I felt overall much better about myself. I can hand on heart say that I will definitely consider purchasing another set of these teabags in the future. I think they would be a great way to keep me feeling energised and cleansed every other month or so, and especially before a holiday or after a heavy and regret-filled weekend.

The Slendertoxtea teabags are available in 14 day, 28 day or 3 month packs and prices range from just £9.99 to £89.99.

Giveaway

If I haven’t put you off with my somewhat crude review (just being honest, ladies and gents…) then Slendertoxtea have been generous enough to offer a free 14 day teatox to one of our readers. Just enter in the standard way below that we all know and love, and we’ll reveal the winner in 2 weeks!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

There’s also currently a discount available on the Slendertoxtea website, which gives you 20% off your tea detox. Just enter ’20twitter’ for your discount!

Would any of you try a tea detox, or have you? Good luck with our giveaway!

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ClaireFebruary 24, 2014

A Week In Instagram #7

Hey there hot stuff(s). We’re back today with another Week In Instagram post. As always we are big fat liars and these photos span a time period much longer than a week, but we know you won’t hold that against us. So, what have we been up to?

1. Summer is just around the corner, meaning that it’s time to shed the blubber of winter and jiggle our bums all the way to the gym. I find that having semi-pretty work out wear is one of my key motivations for actually going to the gym (sad, I know) and I’m loving these brights at the mo. The sports bra and bottle are both from Primark’s sports range (which I heartily recommend, FYI) and I’m not at all sure if you can guess the brand of the leggings and trainers. It’s just not obvious at all.
2. Lauren tracked down some House of Holland false nails in Boots that let you pick what to spell out on your hands. Aw, what a cute idea you may think. Well, not to Lauren, who instead of writing her name or a nice message of love and peace, chose to write ‘Thug Life’. Oh well, the life chose her.
3. Look how gosh darn fit Lauren looked on a recent night out donning her new Primark skort and a bardot body.
4. I was lucky enough to be sent this dress courtesy of Karma Clothing recently, and I bloody LOVE it. Perfecto now with black tights (as seen in this OOTD post) and it will be even more perfecto come the summer.

5. A little selfie before I went out for some dinner recently. That’s my hair and nose and eyes and mouth and everything, hurrah!
6. Just some more of our Stylingo philosophy that we’re intent on sharing with the world. Some say we are like Gandhi but split into two people, others say that we are idiots…
7. Lauren sporting her new Barry M nail polish, which is the ‘Lady’ shade from the Royal Textured Glitter Collection. Fancy ja?!
8. We struggle to get to work without our travel mugs of tea each morning, and this one from Primark has been recently added to Lauren’s collection.

9. A ginger selfie.
10. Who says you can’t wear a crop top to work? Er, probably my company handbook actually, but who bothers to read that?
11. Another recent Primark bargain for Lauren – can you believe this cost just £5?!
12. My favourite new makeup product of the past month is without doubt Seventeen’s new Instant Glow cream bronzer. Click here for my full review.

What have you all been up to lately?

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ClaireJanuary 31, 2014

5 Reasons Why Carrie Bradshaw is a Chuffing Idiot

Every now and then you read a blog post that’s so utterly brilliant you have to praise it, and then immediately decide to steal the idea. Jenn from Photo-Jenn recently wrote a post entitled My Love-Hate Relationship with Sex and the City where she details every single reason why Carrie Bradshaw is a bloody moron in the first Sex and the City film. I wholeheartedly agreed with every point and it reminded me of all the other reasons I have for hating Carrie.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I love Sex and the City. I have most of the series’ on DVD and re-watch them regularly. Interestingly, when I first watched all of the episodes when I was about 15/16 I actually really liked Carrie. In a discussion with a friend, we even decided that I was ‘the Carrie’ of our group. At the time, I was really pleased with this; now I realised that it was my friend’s way of saying “You’re a massive bellend”.

In this post I will document all of the main things that annoy me about Carrie Bradshaw.

1. How She Is An Awful Friend

Carrie Bradshaw is first and foremost a truly terrible friend. You might not notice this on first watching, but you start to notice that every single scene where Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte have bothered to join this little idiot for brunch or cocktails revolves around Carrie’s drama of the day (which is usually stupid). Whenever any of the others try to talk about any of their life problems – which include divorce, pregnancy, cheating and, y’know, CANCER – Carrie always manages to dive in with one of her quips and bring it back round to her. If she was my friends I would definitely lose my temper and ram my brioche down her throat.

Also, do not get me started on the episode where she falls out with Charlotte because Charlotte won’t lend her an insane amount of money to make up for her years of being a financial disaster. Piss off Carrie, whack your shoes on eBay and stop being such a bitch.

2. How She Keeps Going Back to Big

Putting my personal dislike of Big aside (what are we meant to find attractive about him exactly?) I think Carrie and Big can singlehandedly be blamed for a whole generation of women constantly going back to damaging relationships and horrible exes. The decision to have them ultimately end up together was a terrible one. All it told us was ‘oh, you know that man that’s quite mean to you and never commits and makes you cry and picks you up and drops you again and gets married to someone who isn’t you and then cheats on that person with you and causes you to cheat on your boyfriend too and then doesn’t even want to marry you and obviously just hates your effing guts? Yeah, just stick with that – because it will all work out in the end!’

Just… no. Where is the logic, writers. Where is the humanity.

3. How She Treats Lovely Aidan

In conjunction with the above point, one of the things that makes Carrie Bradshaw a huge chuffing idiot is how horrible she is to Lovely Aidan. Lovely Aidan, with his dog and his leather jackets and his sander and chisel… He is the perfect human man, and what does she do? She fucks him over completely. Loads. First she cheats on him with Big – which I cannot even comprehend – and then vigorously pursues him to get him back. Even though he makes it quite clear how emotionally damaged she left him (I defy you to not sob at the “YOU BROKE MY HEART!” scene), she decides to still force her way back into his life and treat him as a plaything.

After being a pissy bitch for ages over the fact that he is not 100% over the affair, and screaming “You have to forgive me!” at least thirty times in one scene (reality check Carrie you harlot: he doesn’t), she then actually decides, once he’s forgiven her and been lovely and proposed, that actually she can’t even be arsed to wear the ring properly, or have to spend any time with him, or be nice to him.

She also thinks it’s perfectly reasonable to stay friends with Big. Who she CHEATED on Aidan with. Which brings me on to my point I feel most vehemently about:

4. HOW SHE LETS BIG COME TO THE CABIN

This is an absolutely atrocious Carrie moment in the long string of atrocious Carrie moments that essentially makes up the entire franchise that is Sex and the City. Aiden has been nice enough to take her back, forgive her affair, tolerate her friendship with fellow-affairee, AND bring her for a lovely little break in his cabin. She spends the whole trip being, unsurprisingly, a mammoth bitch – mainly because there are squirrels. She then has the audacity to invite Big to the cabin. To Aidan’s cabin. To hang out and drink wine.

Carrie, ARE YOU BLOODY MESSIN’?!

5. How She Thinks She’s A Wild Horse

For those of you who are lucky enough to be unfamiliar with this scene, Carrie has ended up outside the engagement party of Big and his new fiance, who he actually likes. Rather than taking this as the clear sign it is that she’s a crap person, she instead manages to delude herself that the reason she’s single is because she’s too fabulous. This is because she’s wild, like a horse. She shares this terrible moment with a proper mental horse who starts kicking off on the street and probably ended up being made into glue. I wish Carrie could meet this same fate.

What do you all think of Sex and the City’s leading ~~lady~~ idiot?

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ClaireJanuary 14, 2014

Pro-Anorexia and Self-Harm: The Dark Side of Instagram

Today I’ve got to sidestep away from our usual waffling about fake tan and leggings and write about something that affected me quite a lot last night. I was having my usual browse through Instagram and came across a hashtag that caught my eye – #anorexia.

Out of intrigue I clicked on the link, thinking that surely there wouldn’t be that many posts associated with this mental illness? I was unfortunately really, really wrong with this assumption. What I found as I explored the topic deeper genuinely disturbed me, and eventually compelled me to write this post so that we’re all much more aware of what exactly is being portrayed on the photo sharing site that many of us use every day – and just how easily accessible this damaging content is for people of all ages.

There are over one and a half million posts dedicated to anorexia on Instagram. What the vast majority of these photos represent is a massive online community of those who are either suffering with, or are very interested in, anorexia. This community of users are regularly sharing genuinely disturbing content including ‘inspirational’ photos of emaciated girls, encouraging quotes related to not eating and weight loss, and frankly horrific images such as these below:

Users are actually interacting with these photos, actively encouraging each other to give up certain food or go without eating at all. Whether or not the people behind these accounts are genuinely following through with the promises is unknown, but the photos reveal the extent to which this community of impressionable young girls is thriving on the site.

Arguably, you’re always going to have this sort of content somewhere on the internet. But what I found most interesting is the part that Instagram itself actually plays in this pro-ana community.

When you click on the link, the above warning pops up. To me, this is actually really disturbing – it shows that Instagram are monitoring the hashtag, have recognised its connection to those suffering from a mental illness, and yet continue to give them the option to view it anyway. Is this really their idea of safeguarding? You could argue that it’s not Instagram’s responsibility to control what is shared on the site; but then when you consider what happens when you try to search for sexually explicit content:

It seems that Instagram have taken the steps to block this content from users. Clearly naked bodies are judged to be far more damaging to young users than hashtags such as this:

Very logical.

The more I looked into the pro-anorexia content, I also came across the disturbing crossover into the world of self-harm and teenage depression. ‘#Cutting’ brings up the same warning as the anorexia tag, this time seeking to advise users on suicide and self harm. Once again though, they’re welcome to click through the warning and access over a million images focused around self-loathing and physical harm.

I’ve chosen not to screenshot any of the actual images themselves, but some of them are incredibly graphic shots of deep cuts and arms covered in blood. All bear captions claiming that the person behind the account has just made those cuts, and immediately uploaded the photos to Instagram. Here’s a snippet of just some of the hashtags used alongside these images, which again, Instagram are clearly making no effort to monitor or censor:

I won’t pretend that I understand what the people behind these accounts are thinking or feeling. Whether they’re all genuine sufferers, are crying out for attention or are just caught up in the subculture isn’t something you can assume from looking at any of the accounts. All you can really tell is how potentially damaging this all is. Most of the users are incredibly young, some describing themselves as being as young as 12 on their profiles. And if all you have to do to access images of sliced up wrists and starvation is to have access to a smartphone and click through one ‘warning’ from Instagram, then you can imagine just how many impressionable young people these warped images and ideas can be reaching. I have four nieces and to think that any of them could view content like this and be drawn into these communities is genuinely distressing.

The argument will always be there that responsibility for this lies with parents, who should be monitoring what sites their kids are accessing. In theory this is obviously true; in reality kids and teenagers will always find a way around it. There’s also the argument that this conversation, if removed from Instagram, would continue on other platforms – whether that’s Tumblr (where I know this is also a big problem), forums or chatrooms. However, surely Instagram – as one of the most popular and most accessed applications in the smartphone industry – have a responsibility to remove this sort of content from their site? No, it won’t solve the wider problem at hand – but that’s no reason to permit these communities to exist.

What do you all think of this topic? Should Instagram be doing more to prevent this kind of content?

ClaireJanuary 3, 2014

3 Rules for the Early Stages of Dating

Today I step away from our usual fashion and beauty ramblings and come bearing you a gift: the gift of my dating wisdom.

Okay, I will understand if you don’t want to take dating advice from someone who is a long-term member of the singleton club and always gets dumped once actually in a relationship… BUT whilst I may be quite clearly terrible at relationships, I consider myself to know a thing or two about the dating game, – specifically that early stage of dating after you first meet, where you’re still texting and trying to suss each other out.

Based on my years of sad experience after sad experience, I have compiled this list of Dos and Don’ts to help us all tread through the waters of the dating ocean without accidentally thrusting our foot into the jaws of a piranha.

Still with me? Hurrah. Let’s begin…

Rule Number 1: Do Think Through Your Texting Tactics

When you’re in the early stages of getting to know someone, most of your communication is probably done via text. By now, we all know about the basics of dating texting etiquette, whether you like to admit you indulge in these childish games or not. For example, if they leave it an hour before texting back, you leave it an hour and a half before texting back. Secondly, you want to come across as a sociable person so you exaggerate your daily activities slightly. You “just went out for a few drinks after work” when actually you popped to the Tesco Extra to get a bottle of Fanta, and you’ve just had “a chilled night with a couple of mates and a takeaway” when actually that chilled night was spent completely by yourself, eating Curly Fries and watching Here Comes Honey Boo Boo marathons.

A general rule is that if you don’t have anything interesting to text then probably just don’t bother. I was once texting a boy who seemed to have good potential, only for him to ruin it one night by texting me “Are you watching Corrie?” What? No I’m not watching Corrie, and if I was watching Corrie then we are not at that point in a relationship where we’re going to make conversation about watching Corrie. I don’t know, maybe it was a really interesting episode of Corrie that night, but it was a texting faux pas that automatically put me off said soap fan.

Rule Number 2: Do Recognise When It’s Not Going Well

This can apply to texting, but mainly this is a rule for the date itself. First dates can be painful, but nothing is more painful than one party being obviously not interested while the other one thinks that this is the beginning of a beautiful thing.

I once agreed to go on a date with a boy who, in the texting build up, I thought I really liked. Once we got out on the date though, I swiftly realized that this wasn’t for me. I don’t know why, maybe it was because he had a pair of those pretend glasses on, which automatically signaled to me that he was a douchebag. Anyway, I suffered through a few drinks in the pub we went to and with each drink my mood was quite visibly drooping.

At one point he popped out for a fag (which I refused to join him on because “I don’t want to” – I really was being a bit of a bitch) and the barman came over to me to ask if we were on a first date, because all the staff thought it was really obviously awkward and I wasn’t having a good time. I debated asking the barman if he would like to join me on the date instead, but decided in the interest of civil politeness I would wait for my date to return from the smoking area so we could leave.

Upon his return though, he suggested us going onto a second bar. What? How could he not tell that this was going awfully? I tried to make my excuses – “Oh, well I’ve actually got to go and get my train, the last one’s at half 10 so…” but then he just said he would pay for my taxi home. I didn’t quite have it in me to say “NO you twerp, I’m leaving” (unfortunately I’m not that much of a bitch) so I ended up being trapped on the date for another 3 hours and 2 more bars.

You know how on The Undateables, they always have to take a chaperone with them? I basically wish all dates could be like that, and when their fake glasses annoyed you, you could quickly signal to your chaperone who would come over to help you put your coat on and explain to your date that you would now be leaving.

My advice here is: learn to recognise the signals that the person no longer wants to be there. Particularly if they say OUT LOUD that they want to go. Let them.

Rule Number 3: Don’t Be Too Keen

And so I save the most important for last. There is nothing more unattractive than somebody who comes on too strong and makes it too clear that they like you loads, like mega loads.

Case in point: I recently agreed to a date. This man was ex-army and now a personal trainer at my gym, so you would think he’d be the strong silent type. Wrong. After just a day or two of the initial texting game, he started talking about how much he was looking forward to our date. Okay, nothing wrong with a bit of interest. But then a couple of days before the date, he text a phrase that will forever haunt my dating memories:

“Yeah, I’ve had a bit of a shit day. But it’s okay because it’s only two more sleeps til I get to see you.”

TWO MORE SLEEPS. What am I, Christmas?! I was at this point violently sick into my own lap at this awful show of keeno. Looking back, this should have been enough to make me delete his number and change gyms there and then; but I decided to swallow down my vomit reservations and still go on the date. Mistake. Following said date – which was lacklustre at best – he proceeded to text me incessantly telling me how much he liked me, asking for feedback on the date (yes, really) and seeking constant reassurance that I wanted to go on a second date with him. Did I? Let’s put it this way: I am now at a new gym.

Now, I’m not saying that we don’t all fall prey to the keen gene now and then. A couple of years ago I was seeing a lad who I was borderline obsessed with, and I liked him so much that one night I ended up drunk outside his house wrapped in a bit of old carpet – but that’s a story for another day (i.e. 17^th of Neverember). But why was I so unbelievably keen with that boy? Because he was so unbelievably not keen on me. Ah, the old adage is true: treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em wrapped in the carpet.

Basically, no matter how much you like someone and think they’re The One in a Mark Corrigan-esque manner, you have to keep your feelings to yourself.

These are my dating rules – what are yours?

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ClaireDecember 5, 2013

A Week In Instagram #4

A while ago we started our brilliant new feature ‘A Week in Instagram’, designed to give all who care (i.e. nobody, not even my mum) a glimpse into our lives away from the crazy world of blogging. We began this feature back in October and then, er, forgot. For quite a while. What can we say, it’s been a long week…

1. How bloody adorable are these three rings from good ole’ Primark?! t only cost about £4 for the pack of 3 if I recal. Now they just need to bring out some even gaudier gold ones and I’ll be happy as that Larry fella.

2. How bloody adorable is my hair first thing in the morning?! Answer: not very. Extension problems.

3. Sometimes we disappear round the back of the ~~bike sheds~~ office building to ~~snog~~ take OOTD pics. Here is a lairy outtake from that yobbo Lauren.

4. Never one to stick with the same look for long, Lauren recently dyed her hair black. What do we all think y’all?

5. We finally, FINALLY decided to bite the bullet and spend our cash on something useful as opposed to endless lip glosses and Curly Wurlys. We formally introduce you to our beautiful new camera, which will hopefully make our dreams of having decent photography on the blog a dream come true. For those interested, it is the Nikon l820 Bridge Camera and we bought it from Argos where it’s currently almost half price. Also, it’s purple!

6. Little LOTD (Leg Of The Day) from work last week. Leather look leggings from River Island and my much loved (read: ancient and smelly) studded pumps from Primark.

7. We received this amazing present last week from GingerFox.co.uk. We think this ‘Vanitea’ mug (you know we love wordplay like this, be still my beating heart) is the perfect Christmas gift for any beauty-loving girls in your life. Firstly, the mug is mirrored so that you can check out how smokin’ hot you look while sipping your tea, plus it comes with a little lipstick pen! Ginger Fox specialise in novelty gifts likes retro games, mugs, gadgets, keyrings and a whole host of moustache-themed bits and bobs, so definitely check them out if you’re stuck for ideas this festive season.

8. Last Friday we had our work’s Christmas party at a restaurant followed by a comedy club in Birmingham. Sounds quite sophisticated, yes? So of course we had to destroy this image by drinking gin on the train over there. Well, Lauren had gin… I had a blue WKD. Stay classy, San Diego.

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ClaireNovember 28, 2013

Currently Watching: eBay Wishlist #3

In the words of Simply Red, ‘if you don’t know that I love eBay by now, you will never never never know me’ (pretty sure that’s how it goes anyway). As always, I’ve been keeping my beady eyes on lots of products, and here are my ultimate favourite things on my watching list at the moment:

1. Tiger Print Vest (£6.38) – tiger prints were popping up all over the show a couple of months ago, with H&M in particular embracing everyone’s favourite striped animal (obviously zebras are a close second). I love the tiger head emblazoned on the disc on this cami, and at less than £7 including postage, the fact that it’s not season appropriate bothers me as much as something that bothers me very little.

2. Finger Tip Rings (£2.58 for 5) – has anyone seen the film Interview with the Vampire where Tom Cruise uses a nifty thumb ring to slice open the veins of his victims? I know that scene wouldn’t usually scream ‘fashionista’ but these finger tip rings really remind me of that, in a good way. I would of course use my rings for good though, not evil.

3. ‘Laundry’ Sign (£5.95) – as you may know, Lauren and I recently moved into a new bachelorette pad. I think this would be great in the kitchen above our washing machine. Not only will it look stylish and chic, but there’s always a chance that we can lure some eligible men in and they’ll be forced to drop their pants (NO UNCLE ROGER, NOT YOU)

4. 3CE Lipsticks (£4.40 each) – a while ago I reviewed some 3CE lip pigments that were, in a word, dope. They seem to be a really good brand that have a strong focus on pigmentation and colour, so I’m intrigued by their range of lipsticks. 108 in particular looks right up my nude-lip-lovin’ street.

5. Decorative Birdcage (18.50) – another decor piece I’m lusting after for the new abode, this birdcage would look amazing with some candles or flowery bits in. Or maybe our golden skull Yorick that currently sits on top of our fireplace – no? Too weird?

What do you all think of these pieces? Anything that you’re loving on eBay at the moment?

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ClaireNovember 25, 2013

Exante Low Calorie Meal Replacement Diet | Review

Hey there you sexpots! In our borderline obsessive mission to ‘branch out a bit’, I’ve got something quite different for y’all today. I was recently given the chance to trial a week’s worth of Exante diet products, and having read a blogger review not long ago I was intrigued to give it a go.

I’ll start by saying that I’m pretty sure I’m not Exante’s target audience. I’ve got a BMI of around 21 so don’t really need to lose any weight, but I’m in the midst of a health kick and have been dedicating my life to the gym and spinach (exciting stuff, let me tell you), so I was still keen to see is a diet like this could give me an extra boost. I’ve also got to admit that I’ve always been pretty cynical about these sort of systems, so was mainly interested to see whether the diet’s claims – that you stay feeling full and receive all the vitamins and minerals you need – were true or not.

How Exante Works

Exante is a low calorie meal replacement system that consists of shakes, soups, snacks and ready meals that you eat in place of your normal meals. There are three options that you can choose from depending on how much weight you want to lose:

Total Solution: this is the VLCD (Very Low Calorie Diet) option, where you completely replace your food intake with Exante products. You have three products per day, which amount to 600 calories. This is obviously an extreme diet, and is only recommended for people with a BMI of only 25.
Working Solution: on this version of the diet – which is known as an LCD (Low Calorie Diet) plan – you have three Exante products each day, plus one low-carb, high-proten meal that you make yourself. This should be no more than 400 calories, bringing your daily intake to 1000 calories.
Simple Solution: this is I suppose the ‘easiest’ of the diet plans – again, you have three meal replacement products a day, but you’re also allowed a meal of up to 600 calories.

I decided to go for the Working Solution option; I think as I don’t have much weight to lose I would have been advised to go for the Simple Solution, but my evening meals recently have only been around the 400 calorie mark anyway so I figured I’d chance it.

The science behind the system revolves around a state that your body supposedly enters into once a LCD or VLCD is undertaken called ketosis.The calorie deficit that’s created once you’re having less calories than you need causes you to enter ketosis, which, according to the Extante website, is “a normal metabolic state… where your body will use its fat stores to produce energy”. So rather than relying on carbs for energy, you’ll be running off your own fat (there’s a pleasant image) and thus the fat will go.

My Products

I received 21 meal replacement products to last me 7 days. These consisted of 5 shakes, 2 bars and 14 soups. I definitely would have preferred to have more shakes and bars rather than quite so much soup – it was also unfortunate that about 45of the soups were mushroom flavoured, which would definitely have made me throw up into my own lap if I’d had to eat them.

My first few days on the diet actually went brilliantly. I had a shake for breakfast, soup for lunch, a bar for a snack and then my usual evening meal (which is never too exciting anyway – omelettes and chicken salads abound).

The shakes are honestly really, really nice. They’re creamy and thick, and I liked all of the flavours I tried (strawberry, chocolate, vanilla and banana). The soups are nice enough – as exciting as what are essentially cuppa soups can be anyway – though I don’t recommend blending them as suggested, as I found this made it go weirdly frothy. The bars were also really nice; quite stodgy so you felt like you were eating quite a big portion, which is much better than your standard cereal bars that can disappear in two bites.

Unfortunately with only 2 bars and 5 shakes, this dream combination didn’t last for the full week. On 2 days I had to resort back to my trusty breakfast friend porridge for breakfast, then have a soup or 2 throughout the rest of the day. It was on these days that I got a little bored of the diet and I’ve got to say, if it wasn’t for the fact that I knew I had my evening meal to look forward to then I might have given up earlier. I think the Total Solution would be fine if you had the ready meals though, as this would add some variety.

But what about my main concern, whether I’d feel full and healthy? I have to say that despite my reservations about diets like this, I was actually full and satisfied all day. I was also going to the gym most nights, and never felt at all weak or tired like I expected I might. I also didn’t find myself having any cravings, though this might have been down to the fact that I’d already cleaned my eating up a lot in the weeks before.

The Verdict

Considering I started out quite cynical about the diet’s claims, I have to say that the products did pleasantly surprise me in the way that they kept me full and energised. While I still think that there’s no substitute for healthy, clean eating (and that this is actually pretty easy to do once you get into the habit of it), I can see why these sort of plans could be a good option for certain people who want to kick start a new eating regime.

The Exante diet plans start from £3.87 per day, making them one of the cheapest meal replacement services on the market today. If you don’t want to commit to the full plan, then you can also buy the products separately via their shop.

Have any of you tried Exante? What do you think of Very Low Calorie or Low Calorie diet plans?

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