Victoria Secret Bralettes.

Now for a limited time Victoria Secret Pink is have a sale on these special little sports bras called Bralettes. I have to say these are the most comfortable sports bra I have EVER worn. They are amazingly soft and they aren't so tight they cut off our circulation. I absolutely love to just lounge around the house in them, sleep in them, and do yoga in them. In fact, when I do yoga all I wear is a VS Bralette and VS Yoga Pants. These babies are so comfy that I forget I'm even wearing a bra! They are $16.50 a piece and as of right now they are 2 for $24. There are many ways to wear them. One way is to even layer the under a cute tank top to allow a little bit of the patter on the bra to peak out (This may sound trashy but its absolutely adorable). Another awesome thing is, the back part of the straps unhook so you can criss-cross them for when you wear razor back tanks. Its another reason to fall in love with them! There are nine different colors and patterns: plain black, grey leopard, white, purple, blue leopard, green, yellow, pink, and pink leopard print. I own the yellow, purple, blue leopard, and pink leopard ones. If there was one item that you could buy from Victoria Secret I would say to go for these bralettes, they are HOT right now and flying off the shelves! I believe the sizes either go up to Large or Extra Large. So hurry and buy yours now! Check em' out here!

Gorgeous Post-Workout Hair

I can't go one day without going to the gym. Some days, even when I'm extremely busy, I'll still go and have a sweat session at the gym. I have some awesome tips for ways to get fresh without having to redo your hair. When I'm really tight on time I like to put my hair in a shower cap or tie it back and just wash my body. The reason is, I have pretty long hair and it takes quite some time to blow dry it. I have a few awesome products and tips that I like to use after I workout to tidy my appearance. At the beginning of your workout, put your hair in a bun that you wrap around itself (like a ballerina bun) instead of a pony tail. This will help prevent those nasty hair tie bumps. If your hair won't stay in this style the whole time your at the gym try using a fabric scrunchy rather than a regular hair tie. Once your finished with your workout head into the gym bathrooms. If there is a blow dryer available (or even a hand dryer), flip your head upside down so that way your roots of your hair are exposed, then blast it with the cold setting on the blow dryer until your hair is dry. Once you flip your hair over it should have a bit more life than before. Now, use a dry shampoo, a few good brands are Pssssst, Fredric Fekkai, or Ojon. You can find these at either Target or Sephora. Lift your hair at the roots and spray where it greasy or dull looking, then allow it to dry for a few seconds. After it dries, finger fluff your hair to give it a bit more volume. Lastly, set your hair with hairspray to get the finishing look. Hair spray will make it look glossy and fresh.

Cupids Bow

If you have naturally thin lips it can be really frustrating trying to make them appear fuller. The best way to make them look plumper is after applying lipstick you dab a bit of lip gloss on your cupids bow (this is the top of the lip area right beneath the nose). This lures the eyes to look at the top of the lips which is the fullest, sexiest part. Now you don't have spend money on expensive lip plumping treatments! If you want your lips to get that tingling sensation that lip plumpers give try to find a lip product that has cinnamon in it. It will give your lips a natural plump.

You Ate It, Negate It!

Now I got this idea from Shape Magazine. I thought it would be a great thing to post on my blog every once and a while to remind people how many calories certain treats really are and what would would have to do to burn it off! So today I thought, since its Summer and all, that I would list a few things that may be at a Summer BBQ.

One Serving of Chocolate Ice Cream (1/2 Cup)

Calories: 143

Total Fat: 7g

Carbs: 18g

Protein: 2g

How To Burn It Off: Going on a leisure bike ride (under 10 mph) for 40 minutes.

One Serving of Lays Potato Chips (1 oz)

Calories: 150

Total Fat: 10g

Carbs: 15g

Protein: 2g

How To Burn If Off: Kick Boxing for 18 minutes

One Cup of Home Made Potato Salad

Calories: 358

Total Fat: 20g

Carbs: 27g

Protein: 6g

How To Burn If Off: Playing a game of Soccer for 55 minutes

Can I Have A Venti Passion Iced Tea Lemonade, Please?

I don't know you guys but where I live the Passion Iced Tea Lemonade is the new fad drink at Starbucks. I've had it and I loved it! But, then again I love any type of tea iced or hot! If your trying to watch your figure this is defiantly a drink for you. Its pretty low in calories for a Starbucks drink and it satisfies your sweet tooth! Its 190 calories for a Venti and zero fat. The only downside to this drink is its high in sugar, it has 49 grams! Eeekk, right?! Well, I was thinking and you can easily cut that sugar in half by ordering it in a different way. All you have to says it you don't want it sweetened. It will cut about 31 grams of sugar! Now, this won't change the flavor of the drink at all (in my opinion). Now, there's only 18 grams of sugar! If you've ever watched the Baristas at Starbucks make this drink, its quite gross. I watched them the other day and I realized they put six full squirts of this liquid sweetener in your drink and I'm not exaggerating, I counted! It made me wonder how much crap was in that sweetener that was going into my body! Gross, right?! Anyway, hope this quick little tip will help you out in the future! Have a healthy day! P.S I'm going to try to do a regular "Healthy Body Swap," this will be when I find a popular food or drink and explain the nutritional value of it. They will usually be pretty unhealthy but I'll find ways to make it healthier. Just like this post! I hope you guys will enjoy them!

Happy Fourth of July!

I feel that the Fourth of July really puts you in that Summer mood! I'm totally excited for fireworks (: I know that many of my readers out there are trying to stay healthy and not eat a lot of junk food! So, I wanted to share with you guys a couple recipes that I'm making with my dad today and a few tips on how to snack lightly! 

• First off, don't be too uptight on what you eat today, meaning, allow yourself so wiggle room. Just think, you can work extra hard on your workout tomorrow and be fine. The more you restrict yourself, the more likely you will binge!
• If you have already started munching on all the junk food and can't stop, don't beat yourself up about. There's always a new day tomorrow. I like to do a detox the day after I eat super unhealthy meaning drinking nothing but water the day after and munching on fruits and veggies all day. Also remember, one pound is equal to 3,500 calories.
• Before you eat, drink a glass of water it will fill up a little bit of space in your stomach and not make you over eat.
• If your craving something sweet, try adding a low-cal Crystal Light packet to your water to curve your sweet tooth. If your still craving whatever it is after 20 minutes, then go ahead and have a piece of the darn thing! Just make it a reasonably sized one!
• When at parties, try to stay away from the snack table. For instance, don't stand and chat by it that will make you more likely to grab things to snack on. 
• If you think that there won't be any healthy snacks, pack your own. ( I always pack a couple things just in case.) A few of my favorite things to pack are portion controlled low-fat chips, an apple or a kiwi, grapes, edamame, and a granola bar.
• If you want to snack on things go for things that aren't too sugary, fried, or grease soaked. So if you want chips, lean more toward the ones that have less grease.

This Forth of July my parents are trying to watch what they eat. Our family decided to make  kabobs on the grill, which is extremely easy and fun. Each person in our family is able to customize their kabob. There really isn't a recipe we use for this because we just pick out stuff that sounds good. All you need is skewers and your good to go. We like to put things like shrimp, scallops, lean mean, chicken, green and red peppers, mushrooms, and more! Of course, those don't all go on one. We usually pick three to four things we like and create a pattern on the skewer. Another great thing about kabobs is, you can make dessert ones too! We like to buy apples, pineapple, mango, and strawberries. Then you place them on the skewers and grill them until they get a nice golden color.  Squeeze a bit of lemon juice on them to add a little bit to the flavor. Then you can either allow them to cool and drizzle with a bit of white and milk chocolate or create a special dip for them. The dip is very simple, its just plain vanilla yogurt with cinnamon added to your taste. Once you've mixed that together, your finished!

Happy Earth Day Everyone!

Today is the 40th Anniversary that were are celebrating Earth Day! For those of you that don't know, Earth Day is a day where people from all over the world try to conserve the Earth as much as they can. People who are really environmentally aware like to keep going all throughout the year! I'm one of those people, I love our Earth and I want to keep it going as long as we can! I even devoted a blog to it! (Check that out here (:). For today on my Beauty Blog I wanted to make an updated list of all the great brands that are either Vegan or Eco-Friendly! Hope you all have an amazing Earth Day! Remember, use candles tonight instead of electricity! It'll make Earth Day even more fun than it already is! 

Eco-Friendly Brands:

Urban Decay

Cargo PlantLove

Tarte

Eco-Tools

Physicians Formula

Burt's Bees

Alba Botanica

Origins

Aveda 

The Body Shop

Lush 

EOS

Yes To Carrots

Garnier Fructis (New Bamboo Line)

Tresemme (Naturals Shampoo)

How To Get Fabulous Flat Abs!

This has been a very popular question that people all around the world want the answer to. Its pretty simple, and I'm not just saying that. Its a few simple lifestyle changes. Such as working out more often, limiting sugar, and eating flat belly friendly foods! I will try to make this into a series so that I focus on one part of the body each post (i.e. legs, arms, etc). Now first, onto the exercise!

Exercising;

Tons of people have made the mistake of assuming that the only way to get a flat tummy its to do hundreds and hundreds of crunches. Well, that is part of it but not all of it. You actually have to do Cardio along with all the crunches! Yeah, you heard me! The reason why is when you get your heart rate up that speeds up the fat burning process, which leads to burning belly fat and fat other places! Have a sweat session also will slightly increase your metabolism leading you to burn fat all throughout the day more than you usually would. See how Cardio is an important factor? So, try to keep a steady Cardio plan to do along with the exercises I'm about to explain. Cardio includes anything that gets your heart pumping! It could be dancing (Zumba!), swimming, running, cycling, power walking, or hiking! (Of course there's always more than those options too!) Now FINALLY, on to my ab workouts! The only equipment you need is a Yoga Mat which is optional and 3-8 pound dumbbells! P.S "A" is the beginning pose and "B" is the ending pose.

 A)                                                                          

 

B)

3 Count Leg Lowers 10 Repetitions- Place your hands lightly behind your head and raise your head only off of the pat. Lower legs down in three counts then in one count pull them back to the beginning pose without using momentum.

3 Count Leg Lifts 10 Repetitions- This is the same as the exercise above accept reversed. So starting down ("B" would be the beginning pose now) and raise your legs in three counts then in one count lower them back into the beginning pose.

Bicycle 30 Seconds (Fast or Slow)- Place your hands gently behind your head. Then pull one knee into your chest while extending the other leg. Twist toward the knee that's into your chest. Its as if you were trying to touch your shoulder to your knee while keeping your arms extended, so you can't see them when you look straight forward. Then switch and pull the other leg in and twist the other way.

A)                                                                        

B)

 

Dead Bug 12 Repetitions- Start with arms crossed over your chest and your knees lifted at a 90 degree angle (Picture "A"). Then extend your legs out as if you were trying to touch something far away with your feet. (Picture "B")

Crunches With Knees Down 20 Repetitions- This is just your basic crunch. Place your hands lightly behind your head without interlacing the fingers. Then try to lift your shoulders off of your mat. When doing this exercise try not to have your chin to your chest or you chin to the ceiling. Also, avoid pulling on the neck.

Crunches With Knees Up 20 Repetitions- Same crunch as the exercise above but while holding your knees at a 90 degree angle.

Crunches With Legs Up 20 Repetitions- Once again, same exercise as the "Crunch with Knees Down" but you have your legs extended in the air. 

Ankle Touchers 20 Repetitions- Lie flat on your back with your knees bent and feet out far enough that you can't touch your ankles just lying there. Lift your shoulders off of the mat. Then extend and lift your arms along side of you. Try to lean to one side and touch your ankle. (When you do it right, you should feel a very tight feeling in your side, this is working your Obliques which are your side abs.) Once you lean to once side, reach toward the other side and touch the other ankle. Once on each side is considered once. So you would reach right then left and that'd be considered one.

Ankle Reaches With Weights 20 Repetition- This is similar to the "Ankle Touches" but your standing. It targets the same area of the abs. First, stand up straight with your legs at hip distance. With your arms down at your sides holding 3-8 pound dumbbells. Reach down once side of your body and then come back to center. Then reach to the opposite side. Once again, doing one on each side is considered one. 

Oblique Crunches 20 Repetitions Each Side- Lie flat on your back and extend one arm to the side and place the other behind your head. The side that the arm is extended on that leg will cross over your other legs knee. So if you have your left arm extended you will cross your left leg over your right knee. Raise up like you are trying to touch your shoulder to your knee but keeping your arms the way they arm. Then switch and do the opposite side. 

Eating Right:

Another huge role in the process to getting flat abs is eating healthy. If you try to cut out at least one bad thing a day it gets you one step closer to that amazing stomach you've always dreamed of! 

What To Eat/Drink:

Fruits and Veggies

Whole Grain or Wheat Bread (Instead of White!)

Almonds (Natural fat fighters!)

Yogurt

Veggie Soup

Salmon and Halibut

Green Tea (Its a natural fat burner!) 

TONS AND TONS AND TONS OF WATER! (I can't stress this enough that you need to drink tons of water!)

These foods/drinks are proven to be great for a flat belly! Just make sure you watch your serving sizes, accept for the fruits and veggies you can have as many of those as you want!

What Not To Eat/Drink:

Foods that are high in bad fat, unhealthy carbs, and sugar.

Soda

Its pretty easy to tell what you should and shouldn't eat. If you just start looking at the nutritional value you'll learn that not everything is flat belly friendly. 

Tips:

When doing the exercises above and just whenever you remember to, pull your belly button into your stomach. That means always keep your abs tightened.

Sometimes when you feel hungry, your aren't actually hungry. Your body just gets confused with thirst. So before you start cooking up a meal. Drink a glass of water and see if that helps.

Blast fun music when working out, it'll make it go a lot faster.

Don't feel guilty if you splurge a bit on a fattening food or something, there's always the next day to fix it.

Keep a log of all your progress, its motivating and keeps you going toward your goal! Also, set a designated time to workout, it'll help you keep on track!

This is an actual picture of me and I wanted to put this in here to show you that it is possible! I'm proof and I actually practice what I preach! If you work hard enough you can get to your goals!

Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Palette Dupes.

Now as you may have know by now, Urban Decay's Alice in Wonderland Palette is sold out! Before you start searching for one on ebay, read this post! I was looking at a tester of the palette at Sephora. As I was looking at the shadows I was swatching them on the back of my hand. I was deciding whether or not I really wanted one or not (before they were sold out). Then, I realized that the shadows I swatched looked a lot like ones I already had. It ended up they were all shadows that were already out as singles or in palettes but just renamed. I played around more with the single eye shadows until I got matches and I researched more about it. The names of the shadows in blue are from the Alice Palette while the other names in green are normal single shadows you could purchase from Urban Decay.

 

• Underland - Flash
• Alice - Painkiller
• Chessur- Chopper
• White Rabbit - Polyester Bride
• Oraculum- Baked
• Queen- Last Call
• Wonderland- Maui Wowie
• Curiouser- Grifter
• Muchness- X
• Mushroom - Mushroom
• Absolem- Homegrown
• Drink Me Eat Me- Sin
• Midnight Tea Party- Midnight Cowboy Rides Again
• Vorpal- S&M
• Mad Hatter- Twice Baked  
• Jabberwocky- Oil Slick 

P.S The only color I don't have a swatch of is S&M sorry guys!

How To Get Healthy Hair!

Our hair goes through so much everyday. It has to deal with hot styling tools, hair products, and pollution. All of those factors contribute greatly to unhealthy hair. Sometimes, it just needs some TLC to keep it looking fabulous! The tips listed below are ones that I have discovered that work well for me!

• Use a deep conditioner once a week on your hair. This allows it to gain strength to repair itself from the week. (Try Garnier Fructis Fortifying Deep Conditioner, 3 Minute Masque)

• Have a lazy day! Pick a day that you can give your hair a rest from hot styling tools. Braid your hair or put it in a bun the night before so when you wake up and take it out you'll have gorgeous waves!

• Before you dive into the pool (or ocean), rinse your hair with water and apply a leave in conditioner. The hair follicle is very porous so it will absorb pretty much any chemical in the pool. This will cause it to become dry. Applying a deep conditioner makes the hair absorb that instead of the icky chlorine and salt water. (Try Garnier Fructis Leave-in Conditioning Cream)

• If you want extra volume instead of teasing it try hair rollers. It gives you that all around beautiful lift, not to mention it makes it look shinier too! Use bigger sized rollers for more volume and smaller ones for a curlier look (that has volume of course!) (Try Conair CHV14J Instant Heat Jumbo and Super Jumbo-Sized Rollers)

Smudged those freshly painted nails again?!

Don't you hate it when you wait over 30 minutes for your nails to dry and they still get messed up?! It makes me just want to take all the nail polish off and forget about it! Now, I found out a great tip that has helped my nails dry faster. All you need is a bowl or sink full of ice cold water. Then you just soak your nails in it for about 15-30 seconds. This technique basically hardens or freezes the nail polish. Once your done, pat your hands dry. Then apply your clear coat and repeat the soaking process. When your all finished, your nails won't be fully dry, but they will be hard enough that they won't smudge! Just be careful because if touch the top of your nails too hard it could leave finger prints! If you want to make your hands softer, when soaking your nails in a bowl of water add 3/4 milk and only 1/4 water, but still keep it cold. Then soak for 10-15 minutes. This will make your hands remarkably soft. Have a wonderful day and please leave some feedback! I love hearing from everyone! 

                                                              xoxo,

Trying to lose weight or stay fit?

I have always been a huge water drinker, I love it! So naturally, I opt for water instead of soda or sugary drinks. For some other people, they don't show as much love toward water. If your trying to cut back on soda, lose weight, or just be healthy h2o contributes a great deal of help. When you drink water instead of soda that slices over half of your sugar intake plus it cuts out empty calories. Another way it helps you lose weight is if you drink water when your hungry it will sometimes make your hunger go away. The reason for that is because sometimes your body confuses thirst with hunger so you eat when really your just thirsty. Studies have been shown that people who drink more water than the daily recommendation have a lower body percentage, not to mention give you healthy, glowing skin! Now, if you have problems with drinking water because it is flavorless, I can help you with that! Sometimes when I get bored with my water, I like to spice it up and add either sliced of or zest of a lemon, lime, orange, or cucumber.(Surprisingly, cucumbers adds flavor!) Adding one of the items above to your water gives it a great appearance, which most likely will entice you to drink it! So remember, when in doubt, drink it out!

Last Minute Gift Ideas!

Its that time of the year where your freaking out because you realized you forgot to get a sibling or a best friend a present! Well, I have some ideas to help you all out!

For the Best Friend:

Bath and Body ScentBug with Two Fragrance Oils, Refill Packs, Fuzzy Socks, and Body Lotion

http://www.bathandbody.com/

For the Caring Sister:

Sephora Brand Scent Sampler: Now this is a really cool gift, the recipent gets 10 samples of Sephora's number one selling scents. Then there is a gift voucher inside that allows them to pick out one favorite of those 10 and get a full sized bottle.

http://www.sephora.com/

For a Loving Mother:

Lady Gaga's New Cd (The Fame Monster) and Burt's Bees Polka Dot Mani Pedi Gift Set

http://www.target.com/ & http://www.burtsbees.com/

For the Brother:

Axe Body Kit and $15 itunes giftcard

http://www.target.com/

For The Boyfriend:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 or Assasins Creed 2

http://www.target.com/

An adorable Fall hairstyle.

So lately I've been playing around with my hair and I found a super cute hairstyle. Its using medium sized rollers and then braiding your bangs (or layer(s)) back or a few small braids around the head. I found that this is a super flirty look and I found that I get a lot of complements when I wear my hair this way. If you look at the picture to the right of Blake Lively (Serena from Gossip Girl) the hairstyle I do is pretty much identical. The reason you use the rollers instead of blow drying or straightening the hair is because the rollers give the hair more volume. The volume adds the beautiful bouncy texture, it also creates a cute flip out of the hair at the bottom. I'm going to explain how to do this hairstyle as well as I can online.

1. First brush out any tangles you have in your hair.
2. Then apply a heat protecting spray all over your hair and comb through.
3. Once you have done that now section your hair out in fours.
4. Clip back all but one section of hair, so the one section is easy to work with.
5. Then take about 1 1/2 inches of hair from that section and put the roller in.
6. Repeat until you finish all sections.
7. Once your hair is all in the rollers lightly mist hairspray over the top of the rollers.
8. Then sit about 10-15 minutes or until your rollers cool to spray it with hairspray once again and then take them out.
9. When you have all of your hair down run your fingers lightly through it a couple times or if your hair is likely to get greasy by the end of the day then shake your hair out a few times.
10. Once that is done you can spray it once more with hairspray just to settle the style.
11. Then braid your bangs, layers, or pieces of your hair the way you want to braid the.
12. Now your finished! Lightly mist a shine spray all over your finished style and your ready to go!

Tip(s) of The Day!

Are you guys sick of those "very attractive" bikini bumps you get when shaving your bikini line? I've learned a way to prevent/treat the bumps around that area. When shaving that delicate area sometimes the razor and your skin can cause friction between the two. This is what causes the bumps to appear. Not only are they ugly, they can be painful too! First off, when shaving make sure you have a razor that is not dull. I like to have a razor for that area and one for my legs. Another thing I like to do is use my hair conditioner around the bikini line (not inside, obviously, that would burn!) This allows the razor to glide along your skin and leaving it feel very soft. Once your done with shaving and you all dry take a deodorant (a clean one, just buy a mini one at Target for a dollar!) and glide gently across your bikini line and once again not inside your area. I use this tip every single time I get out of the shave. Now the results may vary, but I have found that it works on almost everyone I have told. If you have sensitive skin stick to a fragrance-free deodorant. I like to use a mini Dove Go Fresh Deodorant.

Summer Hair Tips!

Summer is now here! I wanted to share some great Summer hair tips and styles!

A really cute way to style your hair during the summer without much effort is to braid your hair and sleep on it and when you wake up you'll have perfect beachy waves! Then just scrunch with some hairspray and shine serum and off you go!

To protect your hair (and scalp) from the sun, use a misting sunscreen to spray a small amount over your head, then just let it fall onto your hair and scalp.

Before your day, when your getting ready use a heat protecting spray all over your hair. Even if you're not using hot tools on your hair it can still protect it from the heat outside.

Rinse your hair with cold water before entering a chlorine pool. The chlorine can soak into your hair follicles and it can damage your hair. Rinsing it before hand allows your hair to soak up and have no room left to soak up the damaging pool water.

During the Summer you must use a deep conditioner at least once a week. I tend to use mine twice a week during the Summer. The sun is very hard on our hair and it needs to R&R at the end of the week!

Avoid using hair ties that have metal clasps during the Summer. The metal can react with pool chemicals, break fragile hair, and get really hot from the sun!

Before you go to bed, take a shower and dry your hair until its just damp. Then twist it up into a bun and sleep on it. In the morning before you take it out hairspray all around your hair. Then take out your bun and finger tousle it and you have tousled, voluminous hair!

Jojoba oil works wonders on frizzy hair.

Wear a hat when in the sun for longer than 5 hours!

Try using organic products this will help your hair in the longer! Also don't forget that hair can get sun burned too and the way it heals is you have to get it trimmed!