Sweaty in Seville

A few weeks ago, Mum and I spent a fabulous long weekend soaking up the sunshine in Carmona, a beautiful white washed town just outside Seville. While I was there, I shot some photos for a Workout Diary for Sweaty Betty, as well as a fun little video on my Poolside Fitness Routine! The workout clothes from Sweaty Betty really are another level when it comes to looking and feeling great while you workout, so I thought I'd share some of my favourite looks.

Firstly, the cardio outfit. I chose the Slider Training Tights, Athlete Vest in Grey Marl and Upbeat Padded Bra top for my morning workouts. The gorgeous cobbled streets of Carmona provided the perfect setting for some high-intensity sweating to kickstart the day. I chose layers - the colourful sports bra under a grey vest. It wasn't long before the sun got high in the sky and was dying to cool off.  A warm-up jog through the shady side streets was followed by some short, sharp, uphill sprints. My new Nike Flyknits were perfect for running, walking and toning exercises and are incredibly light so perfect for travelling After 30 minutes the endorphins were pumping and I felt ready to start the day, while the rest of the sleepy village just starts to stir!

Long weekends away mean that space in my carry on is limited so I took the Visama Yoga Pants which can be reversed to switch up between this gorgeous blue and coral pattern, and a more neutral grey shade. Usually I'd wear something a little looser for yoga but these work perfectly for my stretches! The coral yoga vest also has hidden support so I don't need to worry about a sports bra, so  less washing! Woohoo! 

On the mornings when I work up a little later but still wanted a high intensity workout I chose my cropped Visama Yoga Pants  again (same as the above, but reversed!) and the Athlete Vest top in Coral Candy which shows off my tan nicely (if I do say so myself!). A slow, fat-burning jog up to the highest point in the village was a great way to start the day, and I got into the zone with my gym playlist, which currently includes Lean On by Major Lazer, Stronger by Clean Bandit and Hold My Hand by Jess Gylnne.

While in Seville, I filmed this fun short video on some exercises that you can do without leaving the pool area, have a watch!

What are your holiday workout essentials?

An Unexpected Favourite

So guys,  you know a foot cream is pretty special when it has an entire blog post devoted to it, right?! Uh huh.

A few weeks ago, I attended a colourful and fabulous event in the Space NK store in Knightsbridge, to celebrate the launch of Prismologie, a new brand which uses colour to excite the senses, invigorate and enhance. The range is separated into colours which each have unique properties; their Red Hour range gives a burst of energy, while Indigo Interlude helps you relax and rewind at the end of the day.

The Indigo Interlude Foot Cream is exclusive to Space NK, and does just that. A lavish product, and one which I had never really thought about using before, but I've recently been getting into a luxurious routine of moisturising my feet before bed, and not only is it cooling and soothing but the ingredients within the sumptuous moisturising cream include mood-enhancing actives, and an incredible oud fragrance which immediately lulls me into a state of relaxation.

Yes it's a foot cream, yes it's not that glamorous, but if any foot cream is worth devoting an entire blog post to, it's this one. I'd almost go as far as to say that it's become my favourite part of my evening routine, just making the time to pamper myself in this way has become a little luxury that I could become quite accustomed to!

Have you tried anything from Prismologie?

Win Tickets to Wireless Festival with New Look!

Hands up who else's Instagram feed was filled up with fashionable festival snaps yesterday from the New Look Wireless festival?! Mine most definitely was! And if all of those pictures have got you in the festival mood then you are in luck because New Look have kindly given me a pair of tickets to Wireless Festival on Saturday 4th July to give away to one of you guys!

It couldn't be easier to win, all you have to do, is watch my recent Outfit Diaries video, and choose which New Look piece from the video that you'd most like to wear to the festival, then tweet a screenshot of the video clip including the chosen piece, along with this message:

'I want to #WIN tickets to Wireless! Here's my fave piece from @FashionMumblr's video:' 

Don't forget to register your tweet in the Rafflecopter below, as well as getting some extra points with the additional tasks for more chances to win! You can tweet the message every day between now and Thursday at midnight, to increase your chances of winning.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
The competition closes at midnight on Thursday 2nd July, and the winner will be contacted on Friday morning.

Watch my Outfit Diaries Video here to choose your favourite New Look piece!

For bonus points, you can share the Facebook post about the competition from the Fashion Mumblr Facebook page here.

Good luck!!

London Afternoon Tea at Biscuiteers

Few things are as British as an Afternoon Tea, and they don't much more patriotic than the Biscuiteers Afternoon tea which I recently visited with Mum on Northcotte Road in Clapham. The relatively new Biscuiteers boutique offers a fabulous London-themed afternoon tea, complete with Telephone Box and Tube Sign biscuits, finger sandwiches, scones and tea.

At just �48 for two people, it's a very reasonably priced tea, making it the perfect way to spend an afternoon catching up with friends or family without splashing out on some of the more lavish teas in London. If your visitor is from out of town then they will adore the red white and blue twist to the tea, the Union Jack brownies were definitely a highlight! We chose from a broad selection of teas, ranging from Vintage-Inspired teas from China, to traditional English Breakfast.

The Biscuiteers boutique itself is full of fun and fabulous creations, with biscuit tins for all occasions, such as 'Thank You Teacher' for end of term treats, to Vegetable Boxes, Full English Breakfast Biscuits, and of course bespoke creations perfect for any occasion.

The first time I discovered Biscuiteers was when one of their perfectly iced creations popped through my letter box as the most fabulous 'Thank You' note I'd ever received! Since then, I've spotted the delicious biscuits at blogger events and parties alike, most recently as a 'Well Done, you made it!' treat after the Benefit Brow March.

If you're feeling creative you can even design and ice your own creations in the beautiful boutique, or let the experts do it for you if you have a design in mind!

The Afternoon tea is a delightful way to enjoy an afternoon in London, sampling all the tasty treats that Biscuiteers has to offer, you'll even leave with a little goody bag filled with all the treats that you couldn't quite manage on the day!

Have you heard of Biscuiteers before?

10 Useful Links & Apps for Bloggers

There are some websites / apps / links that make all the difference when it comes to creating and maintaining a blog. Whether it's improving my organisation (I have a full time job as well as writing the blog, so organisation is key!) or  the quality of my work, or even just keeping track or my analytics, these sites are ones which I use on a daily basis, and would highly recommend to all other bloggers.

1. IFTTT - I first mentioned this app on my Instagram Tips post, and so many of you commented or tweeted me saying how useful you found this app in particular. You know how Twitter just shows a link when you share your Instagram pictures? Well, this app posts your instagram picture  and its caption to twitter, automatically. By creating 'recipes' on the app, you can not only turn your instagrams into tweets, but also set up 'rules' such as 'When I post a new post to Blogger, create a post on Facebook showing the first image, and title of the post.'

2. Iconosquare - This website is really interesting if you want to find out stats about your Instagram account. I've recently become quite hooked on checking my followers, unfollowers, and seeing which posts create the most engagement.

3. Onlypult - I spent so long trying to find a website that lets you schedule Instagram posts with absolutely no luck, gave up my search, then stumbled upon Onlypult recently. I'm still only on my 7 day free trial but so far am loving it! It's going to be so useful when I'm on holiday and won't have wifi access all day, I can just schedule a few Instagrams to go out throughout the day. SO handy!

4. Pinterest - I devoted a whole post to Pinterest and how you can use it to drive traffic to your blog here, and seriously, use it. It really works, it's so great at reaching out to a whole new audience. Ideally you should spend a few minutes every day pinning, so I have the app and spend most of my commute browsing through pretty pictures!

5. Unroll.me - I used this a couple of weeks ago to unsubscribe from a whole chunk of those annoying subscription emails that somehow I'm still receiving (including ones from a university dance society that I stopped being a member of about 5 years ago!).

6. Afterlight - also mentioned in my Instagram Tips post, Afterlight is one of my essentials when it comes to editing pictures ready to post online. It brightens, sharpens and adds clarity to your images, making even dull photos look bright and sparkly ready for you to share!

7. The NET SET - OK I'm kind of biased because I the company that I work for provided the software that powers the cool part of the NET SET app, but basically it's incredible because you can upload any picture you like, and then the app uses Visual Search from Cortexica to find the most similar fashion items on Net-a-Porter. So say I see Rosie Huntingdon Whiteley wearing a gorgeous floral jacket, I can upload a picture to the app, then shop the most similar products on the site!

8. Bitly - Especially for if you want to create links in the description box of your YouTube videos, this website is really useful at turning long, complicated links into ones which are only about 12 characters.

9. Buffer - If you're out and about all day, have a day job, or generally forget to tweet regularly, then you NEED Buffer. You can schedule up to 10 tweets, including links and images to go out at your chosen times throughout the day. I absolutely rely on buffer for keeping my Twitter up to date while I'm at work, and it's also really useful for analytics too as you can see which of your tweets got the most engagement.

10. Dropbox - If you are halfway through some work, or just want to have a back up place for storing your files, then you can use Dropbox to store everything in the online cloud. It's great if you work remotely, or want to share images or documents with anyone else.

Do you use any of these links or apps? Let me know if you can recommend any others!

Holiday Beauty Prep

Oh yes, that time of year has come again where I raid through my 'Summer Beauty Box' and pick out all the creams, lotions and potions which shake up my beauty routine to help me look and feel a little more holiday ready. As you read this, i'll be hopping on a flight to Menorca for a long weekend, but the holiday beauty process started weeks ago...

Before baring all, I like to give myself a head start in the tanning department, and this means picking the most flawless looking fake tan. Before tanning I like to prep my skin (more on this here), and recently I've been testing out the Sienna X Bronzing Mousse, which gives my skin a bit of a pamper by moisturising and protecting from early ageing signs, as well as giving an incredibly natural looking pre-holiday glow. The mousse gives a guide colour making it super easy to apply without any streaks, and this gradually develops into a lovely deep glow.

On my face, there's two products which are essentials in prepping for holiday. Firstly, the Kae ArgaSun Tan Activator. It's a natural serum which prepares the skin for the sun and then repairs and comfort the skin after sun exposure. One of the key ingredients is Carrot Oil which promotes an even and long lasting tan, and Argan Oil which prevents skin from becoming dehydrated, and encouraging cell renewal. I've been using this each morning for a couple of weeks now to hopefully stop the usual scenario of my face being several shades paler than the rest of my body!

Another facial tanning obsession is the Clarins Radiance Plus Golden Glow Booster which I spoke about previously here. Clarins do literally the best self-tanning products and these tanning drops are seriously special. You just add a few drops to your moisturiser (or body lotion if you have the body version) and it adds a beautiful subtle colour, you can even tailor the number of drops you add depending on the effect that you want to create.

My hair often becomes incredibly dry and knotty if I don't apply sun protection, so I've already stashed the Windle & Moodie Invisible Day & Night Cream in my beach bag to protect from UV rays. It also has the benefit of being a conditioning leave in cream, giving my hair a lovely healthy shine and feel - an essential after a day on the beach!

The Lancaster Tan Maximizer After Sun Oil is one of those incredible multi takers that not only heals the skin from a day's exposure to the sun, but also injects skin with the nutrients it needs to help it tan better, and more safely. This will be going in my hold bag for applying after my evening shower - anything that can help me achieve a more flawless and safe tan while I'm away is a winner!

What are your favourite products for Holiday Beauty prep?