Learn Make Up Secrets: My Top Five Favourite Beauty Bloggers

Lauren Curtis

She's one of the most popular beauty bloggers on You Tube, Lauren Curtis is an Aussie girl who has captured over one million subscribers who avidly watch her videos on make up techniques, looks and product reviews. Lauren was one of the first beauty vloggers I started watching and taught me how to contour using bronzer and highlighters. She's also responsible for helping me to realise what I was doing wrong (watch her Make Up Do's and Don'ts). Her bubbly personality and self-confidence have me returning to her channel every week.

Shannon Harris aka Shaaanxo

Shaaanxo is a New Zealand beauty vlogger who loyally posts videos for her one million subscribers every week. Shannon has taught me tonnes of amazing make up tricks like how to make your lips look plumper and she always has the best suggestions for affordable make up products. Her work ethic is obvious in her well edited videos, constant video updates and thorough product reviews. Having a true love for makeup means Shaaanxo creates heaps of different looks for you to try and has created her own line of false lashes entitles XO Beauty to help you get her look.

Karissa Pukas aka SatnightsAlrite

She's a Canadian girl living in Australia with her boyfriend and super cute Chihuahua Lola. Karissa does a mix of videos that goes beyond beauty including outfits of the day, hair tutorials and general chit chat. She's fun to watch and helped me figure out how to curl my hair to get big bouncy waves and not tight little ringlets! Hop over to her channel if you like some chattiness to your tutes.

Make Up by Gio

Gio (a New Zealand vlogger) is my absolute fave you tuber for flawless make up looks that have me gasping every time she posts a video. I am obsessed with her recreations of J Lo and Kardashian looks with chiseled contours and smokey eyes. Stunning make up recreations will have you losing a few hours once you jump onto her channel.

Chloe Morello

Another Aussie beauty, Chloe has posted one of my favourite videos ever on a Victoria's Secret glamourous glowing look that I think every girl should know how to recreate. She's a super talented winged eyeliner applier and knows all the tricks in enhancing your features. If you like high end make up, Chloe is a big collector and will give you the heads up on the best new products out there.

The Scam: Garcinia Cambogia Extract Diet Pills

Article taken from Women's Health 

Tons of people are buzzing about garcinia cambogia extract diet pills—thanks in part to an Internet scam that illegally used the Women's Health brand likeness and copyrighted materials (and the likeness and materials of other respected health brands) to promote the pills. We wrote about the scam at length here, in addition to how to identify if you've been scammed.

But here's something else super troubling about all this: All backstory about scammers aside, this particular diet pill can be dangerous to your health.

Garcinia cambogia, which on its own is pretty darn delicious and healthy, is a tropical fruit grown in Indonesia. (It also goes by the name tamarind fruit.) According to Purdue University, it's rich in calcium, phosphorus, iron, thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin. All good things, right?

Well, here's where things get tricky: Its rind contains a compound called hydroxycitric acid (HCA), which proponents claim decreases appetite and prevents your body from storing food as fat. However, since garcinia cambogia extract diet pills are supplements, not drugs, the Food and Drug Administration doesn't regulate their use or review their effectiveness or safety unless, as was the case with OxyElite Pro, their use becomes linked to multiple hospitalizations, says medical weight-loss expert Sue Decotiis, M.D. That means that it's up to manufacturers to decide how much garcinia cambogia their pills pack, as well as what other health-impacting ingredients are added to the mix.

"Most brands of garcinia cambogia extract diet pills, including big names, have failed independent laboratory quality and quantity testing," says Decottis. "Also, there have been no large-scale trials comparing garcinia to placeboes or other supplements. There probably will never be any objective data on garcinia."

What's more, a 2005 study in Food and Chemical Toxicology found that high doses of garcinia cambogia extract caused testicular atrophy and toxicity in mice. Even if you don't have testicles, that's sure to make you cringe.

DIY Frank Coffee Body Scrub *Cellulite Busting and Skin Renewing*

Regulars on Instagram have probably seen a few perfect derrières cited as being buffed by Frank. Frank is a body scrub containing ground coffee which can boost circulation and help to eliminate cellulite. Coffee is also a natural exfoliant, and when added with coconut oil for hydration and orange oil for an invigorating aroma, you get a scrub that will have you cancelling plans to stay home and have a pampering session.

You can make a body scrub from the most simple household items, just be remembering the ration of one part oil and one part exfoliant. A course salt or sugar acts as a great skin scrubber, especially when added with ground coffee. I like to use coconut oil as the moisture component, but any other pantry oil will work. For perfume, pop in whatever essential oils you like but I find orange or vanilla work best with the coffee. Store in a jar and indulge yourself on the regular.

DIY Frank Coffee Body Scrub

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of ground coffee
• 1/2 cup of raw sugar 
• 1 cup of melted coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon of orange essence 

Mix all the ingredients together and store in a jar or airtight pouch.

Fitness Model Eating Plan Samples

I have listed a few eating plan sample for those of you wanting to focus on TONING and losing FAT. It is important to feed your body clean fuel to build muscle and aid in fat loss while you are training hard in the gym.

Skinny Sweets and Treats

 Here are THREE meal plans you can try. 

Please remember, these are just my ideas and what has worked for me. Make sure you are staying on top of your nutrition and eating enough for your body's energy needs. Clean and healthy food can not make you fat!

If you are eating out, remember you have to live a little and balance is key. If you want to have bread as a started, skip dessert. If you have a glass of wine, don't have the potato with your meal. Choose steamed or grilled lean meat options rather than anything fried, and load up on vegetables or salad.


Meal Plan Sample One (cardio session and weight training)

Breakfast: 1 piece of gluten-free toast with 1 poached egg, 1 grilled tomato and a cup of wilted spinach + Green tea

Pre-workout before training

Snack: Protein shake after training made with water (small amount fruit)

Lunch: Steamed vegetables with one lean grilled chicken or turkey breast

Snack: handful raw almonds

Dinner: Half a cup of brown rice or quinoa with grilled salmon and large green salad with lemon juice

Dessert: 2 pieces of dark chocolate




Meal Plan Sample Two (weight training)

Breakfast: Half an avocado, one large grilled field mushroom and 1 scrambled egg + Green tea

Pre-workout before training

Snack: 1 low-calorie protein bar (under 150 calories)

Lunch: Large green salad with one tin of light tuna and one handful of sunflower seeds

Snack: 1 rice cracker with 1 tablespoon of almond butter

Dinner: Grilled chicken breast with one teaspoon of olive oil served with steamed vegetables and 1 small roasted sweet potato

Dessert: One dandelion tea and 1 small protein brownie (recipe here)




Meal Plan Sample Three (rest day or 30 minute brisk walk)

Breakfast: Half a cup of oats cooked in light almond milk with 1 teaspoon of stevia and cinnamon, 1 small chopped banana, and one small handful of walnuts OR protein pancakes (recipe here)

Snack: One dandelion tea with one rice cracker topped with low-fat cream cheese and sliced berries

Lunch: One cup of steamed vegetables served with diced chicken breast and fresh chopped parsley

Snack: 1 apple and 10 raw almonds

Dinner: Steamed fish parcel (to make, wrap one white fish fillet in foil with sliced tomatoes, chopped fresh basil and a small serve of chopped olives, place in oven for 15 minutes until steamed through) served with steamed greens and half a cup of brown rice

Dessert: One dandelion tea topped with almond milk and a teaspoon of stevia


For more information on fitness model exercise plans, read my other post here.

Sugarfree Lemon Delicious Pudding

Citrus lovers will appreciate this tangy and light dessert that's perfect to finish off a winter feast. Whisking the egg whites separately before folding into the mixture really makes the difference in creating a fluffy sponge. Not only is this dessert sugar free but I made mine gluten and dairy free too.

Sugarfree Lemon Delicious Pudding

Ingredients:

• 50 grams of organic butter, melted
• the zest of one lemon
• half a cup of Natvia stevia sweetener + 3 tablespoons 
• 2 tablespoons of gluten-free plain flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• the juice of one small lemon or half a large lemon
• one cup of almond milk
• 2 eggs, separated
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Whisk together the melted butter, lemon zest and Natvia in a large mixing bowl until pale and creamy. 
2. In a separate bowl, add the egg whites and put the egg yolks into the sugar and butter mixture. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they are fluffy and glossy. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks into the sugar and butter until pale.
3. Add the lemon juice, vanilla and almond milk into the egg yolk mixture and stir to combine. Sift over the flour and baking powder and stir those through too. Add the egg whites in batches, folding in gently to combine. You don't want to lose the air from the egg whites by mixing the ingredients too vigorously. Take your time to gently mix everything together.
4. Grease a 1-litre capacity dish with butter. Pour in the mixture and place in the oven to bake at 160 degrees (moderately low temperature) for 35 to 40 minutes.
5. The top of the pudding should be golden brown and the cake will be have some spring to it. 
6. Serve the a dollop of Greek yoghurt and a sprinkling of fresh berries.

Why You Should Think Again Before You Lose Weight For Your Wedding Day

While I am not engaged and in the flurry of wedding planning, I do know what it is like to feel the need to lose weight for a holiday, special event or just because you think this is the year to get that ultimate body. So many women diet before their wedding day; I suppose its the 'all eyes on you' pressure that makes you feel you must look your best, and then you've got those photos that last-you-a-lifetime thing. But with so much stress mounting in planning this best day of your life, what does dieting add to that burden? Features editor Jessica Knoll at Self Magazine wrote about her life-changing wedding-diet disaster. Her uncensored version of the truth behind her motivations and desires for being thin really made me think about why any girl wants to be thinner. Read this honest account of a woman in the throes of a thin obsession.

My top three priorities when I started planning my wedding: book a venue with outdoor space, find an '80s cover band, and get ridiculously skinny. My husband's friends were all at the marrying stage, and I must have attended 20 weddings between the time I started dating him, at 23, and when we got engaged, one week shy of my 28th birthday. Each celebration had been more lavish than the last—the location grander, the dress chicer, the bride hungrier. But I began to notice that one thing was always the same: All the female guests stared at the bride with a look I've dubbed the Girl Gaze. You know: the awe and jealousy that fuse in a woman's eyes as she realizes, Hey, she lost weight. A competitive murmur began to hum in my ears, and by the time I got engaged, it had escalated to a full-blown battle cry. Now it's my turn, said a strange Gollum-like voice in my head. Feelings of inadequacy from my early 20s only fueled my weight loss bloodlust. Before I met my husband, I'd always been the single friend. So when I became the second in my group to get engaged, I couldn't help feeling smug, especially toward the friend who insisted she would be next. Walking down that aisle, a whippet in white, would show her. It would show them all! (Cue supervillain laugh.)

I didn't have much to lose. Except for a few dark semesters in college, I've always weighed about 120 pounds. I'm short (just shy of 5 foot 3) and busty. I was already an avid exerciser—a typical cardio queen who believed the longer I ran, the thinner I'd be. That, combined with a healthy-ish diet on weekdays (plus whatever—and I do mean whatever—I wanted on the weekends), kept me comfortable in my size 27 jeans. I knew that to lose weight, I'd have to stop eating and drinking like a king two days a week. I really didn't want to give up the fun, so I decided to experiment with my workouts. I threw down for a pricey membership at a barre studio, and after three months I had tightened up. But I still wasn't closing in on 110 pounds, the weight I'd determined would incite a riot of Girl Gazes.

Six weeks before the big day, I wasn't thinking about seating arrangements; I was thinking about the scale. Hovering around 118 pounds, I started the Attack Phase of the Dukan Diet, rumored to be the diet de rigueur of Kate Middleton (all hail). I went five days eating nothing but lean protein and fat-free dairy. When it required Herculean effort to walk down the block, I caved and ate broccoli (quelle horreur!). After that, I had one hard-boiled egg for breakfast, a big salad for lunch and more eggs for dinner. I also upped my barre workouts to seven days a week and logged extra cardio.

I was consumed by food fantasies, envisioning my postwedding feast. In the meantime, I filled the gaping hole of hunger with black coffee. A starving bridezilla hopped up on too much caffeine—I was a peach. My fiancé knew the torture was temporary and for the most part just accepted my madness. One night, he came home with a "surprise"—takeout from the restaurant where we had our first date, along with an expensive bottle of wine. I blinked back tears of fury. If I refused the gesture, I'd be a bitch, and if I accepted, I worried my daily report from the scale would suffer. I chose to be a bitch. I felt like a monster as he put the wine bottle on a shelf and said, "OK, after the wedding, I guess." A monster!

The worst thing about my sad little diet wasn't even the hunger, so vicious it kept me wide awake at night. It was that I had to be antisocial. There were no more boozy brunches with friends, no splitting dessert with my fiancé (who always gave me more than half, aw), no after-work drinks with my cubemates. This was a celebratory time in my life, and friends wanted to toast me and get excited with me, but I shut everyone out. It seemed worth it at the time.

In the end, I got down to 106 pounds. I had a physical before my wedding, and the results of my bloodwork were out of whack ("Stop with the eggs," my doctor warned, "you're thin enough"), but I was so ravenous for the Girl Gaze that not even that stopped me. I have two favorite pictures from my wedding day—one of me and my husband smiling happily right after the ceremony, and one of me talking to my frenemy. She has such a laser focus on my waist that she isn't listening to a word I'm saying, the pull of the Girl Gaze so strong, she forgot that it's not polite to stare. Though I cherish this picture, part of me was steeped in disappointment on my wedding day. I was swimming in my dress—the seamstress had clearly not taken it in after our last fitting—and I was irate that after everything I'd put myself through, my dress made me look thicker in the middle than I was. I spent too much of the "most important day of my life" justifying my body to everyone. "You look beautiful!" "No! Look at this," I'd say, pulling my dress away from my waist, trying to make everyone understand that I should look better than I did. I did look better. I knew it was obvious I'd lost weight, but did everyone think of me as thin-thin? Even at the lowest weight of my adult life, and even with friends and family saying maybe I'd gone too far, I felt nothing like that whippet in white.

On our honeymoon, no matter how much I stuffed myself, I had to keep going. I'd depleted my self-control so entirely that I no longer had any restraint. In the back of my mind, I thought I'd get back on track when we got home. But after we returned to New York, Superstorm Sandy ravaged the city. My husband's company put us up in a hotel until our apartment was deemed safe. Separated from my kitchen, which was stocked with my healthy staples, it seemed impossible to be good, so I just let myself be bad, and then I couldn't stop. I started skipping breakfast and lunch to make up for my after-work bingeing. I was a newlywed, but I looked forward to the nights that my husband had a work event, so I could gorge in private—how tragic is that? (Not like "your new puppy died" tragic, but you know.) In the morning, I'd run 5 miles before barre class. Exercise, which I'd always loved, now exhausted me. I was 135 pounds, and my legs felt like dead weights.

I decided to see a nutritionist. I was desperate to slim down, yes, but even more so to stop obsessing over food. She suggested I drop the two-a-day workouts and eat a bigger breakfast and lunch to even myself out. I was too puppeteered by food to do any of it. At our last session, I stepped off the scale in tears. "Weight loss is like infertility in many ways," she said. "Some women get pregnant when they stop worrying. Stress messes with the body."

Like a fever, my focus on food and exercise and my weight had to reach its fiercest level before it could break. I became so sick of caring what I looked like, and this indifference finally took the pressure off. If I had a binge, I didn't try to cancel it out by skipping meals. As my body began to trust that it would be fed regularly, the urge to binge faded. I recently weighed myself—123 pounds.

You're going to think I'm crazy for what I'm about to say next, but I don't regret what I did. And not because I racked up 87 Girl Gazes on my wedding day (at least in my head I did). I always felt that my "normal" weight was a layover until I could get to my "perfect" weight. But I wasn't any happier with my body at 106 pounds than I am now at 123 pounds, and I had to become a fun-hating hermit to swing the needle that far left. I finally realized that there is no weight at which I'll find nothing wrong with my body, but there is a weight at which I feel confident and also get to enjoy my life, and this is it. I'm in my sweet spot, where I would never turn down a cozy dinner with my husband because I'm too afraid to eat. Nor do I hope he has a work event so I can pillage the kitchen in private.

The best part about being a normal weight is that I get to be a normal person.

Strawberry Caprese Salad - Perfect Party Food

A stunning salad to serve at your next soiree, this Strawberry Caprese Salad has a few of my favourite ingredients, walnuts, bocconcini and strawberries. The simplest of fresh foods make the most delicious meals especially when you source excellent produce. Look for ripe red strawberries and high-quality bocconcini to really make this salad special.

This recipe is taken from the charming cook book 'The Forest Feast', a collection of recipes from the website of the same name, authored by Erin Gleeson. Erin 'a New York photographer who moved to the woods', lives in a cabin nestled in Northern California. Inspired by local ingredients, she creates simple, beautiful, healthy recipes anyone can make. Her writing backdrop is so beautiful, it's no surprise Erin is met with boundless inspiration surrounded by evergreen trees reaching high above her cosy retreat.

Pictures courtesy of Erin Gleeson 'The Forest Feast'

Her beautiful book features recipes inspired by her blog and most comprise of only a few ingredients requiring little preparation. My favourite recipes in her repertoire are her simple yet creative salads and her cute and chic snacks, like lavender honey and goat's cheese stuffed dates. The Forest Feast is the perfect companion for the stylish foodie.