Frump to Fab - Summer Solstice Sizzler

[Deleted User]

Hi folks. Please can I join. I have really let things slide over the past few years, particularly over the last 9 months. I am rarely out of my comfy fleece - this is embarrasing to admit - I even started wearing it to work (teacher:eek:).

I rarely wear make-up and when I do I can never be bothered to take it off so go to bed with it on. I occasionally try to take myself in hand and buy new toiletries or make up and then never use it!! I have some Liz earle stuff that I am going to finish using and then some other bits and bobs. I also have perfume to use up. Got some nice shampoo etc for Christmas too. My skin also has a sort of yellow look to it which I think makes me look ill.

I am also a qualified complementary therapist and have recently quit my job to focus on this full time. I feel that I need to be a good advert for my services. I am really interested in natural handmade products and will focus on these once I finish up my current stockpile. The aspirin face treatment sounds fab.

I am so glad that this thread focuses on small steps and taking more care of yourself. Any time I sign up for a 'diet' thread I go AWOL pretty sharpish as the mind set of dieting makes me obsess about food and very quickly rebel against myself (if that makes sense). I am very overweight and need to lose about 7-8 stone.

I do have a gym membership which I rarely use and intend not to renew it next year. I will focus instead on walking doing Yoga, swimming (while I still have the gym membership) and also using the 'running made easy' programme to work up to running again.

I feel that my whole lifestyle has shrunk to work and home. I rarely go out and on the few occasions that I do go out (usually for a meal) I usually feel a sense of shame about how I look. Still this has not motivated me do actively do anything lasting to change things.

Thanks to LL for starting this thread and to all the other posters for their inspiring posts. Last year I managed to pay off my debt thanks to this website. Here's hoping that this year is the year I will finally find my mojo again before I hit 40 in November.

It is getting late now but I am making a start right now. While I watch Poirot I am going to do a facial with my Liz Earle stuff.

Allie

adelight

Bitsy_Beans wrote: »

Bought myself some lovely coconut butter set (fair trade too ) from Boots sale for £5. Two women in front of me spent £300 on stuff from the sale.....I confess I walked round much of it thinking it's a lot of nothing more than tiny tiny bottles and large packaging. Clearly am getting old or MSE is having a very good influence on me. Not done much extra pampering, have been too tired but if I can get chance tomorrow it will be Zumba time

Did you go to the b'ham store? Me, my mum and sis all made lists of what we wanted from m&s, boots and lush and each of us made a beeline for one store at opening time. When I got to boots my mum was hididng in the baby section with a huge bag of goodies as she'd been literally fighting off women trying to snatch stuff :eek: She nabbed the last chloe gift set for me and I got loads from lush so now I really have no excuse not to smell good and take more bubble baths!
I also got some nice 70% off PJs in La Senza as I have developed a bad habit of hanging around my house in horrible old pjs (baggy joggy bottoms, old vests, holey jumpers!) and feel sorry for my poor OH as he actually makes the effort to shave on days off so I don't get stuble burn :rotfl: I will make an effort to at least have clean nice hair and nice pjs on when I'm bumming around the house.

adelight

[Deleted User] wrote:

I am also a qualified complementary therapist and have recently quit my job to focus on this full time. I feel that I need to be a good advert for my services. I am really interested in natural handmade products and will focus on these once I finish up my current stockpile. The aspirin face treatment sounds fab.

Good luck, it sounds brilliant. I would love to do courses in massage and facials as I'm pretty much obssessed and even practise on my oh!
Naturally thinking have 15% off all their oils atm and they're all a reasonable price without the discount, also the DIY forums at essentialdayspa have brilliant recipes and really knowledgable posters that could give you some ideas.

Bitsy_Beans

adelight wrote: »

Did you go to the b'ham store? Me, my mum and sis all made lists of what we wanted from m&s, boots and lush and each of us made a beeline for one store at opening time. When I got to boots my mum was hididng in the baby section with a huge bag of goodies as she'd been literally fighting off women trying to snatch stuff :eek: She nabbed the last chloe gift set for me and I got loads from lush so now I really have no excuse not to smell good and take more bubble baths!
I also got some nice 70% off PJs in La Senza as I have developed a bad habit of hanging around my house in horrible old pjs (baggy joggy bottoms, old vests, holey jumpers!) and feel sorry for my poor OH as he actually makes the effort to shave on days off so I don't get stuble burn :rotfl: I will make an effort to at least have clean nice hair and nice pjs on when I'm bumming around the house.

Gawd no, twas my Solihull one at Sears Retail. No one was fighting but there was a fair amount of jostling :eek: it was like people couldn't spend money fast enough :eek: i understand why people like a bargain but there were people literally with trolleys piled high with stuff. I dunno just seemed a bit gluttonous after all the gift giving the day before

They have been talking on one of threads in OS board about EVOO. Now I didn't realise you could do a version of OCM without the castor oil. I think I might prefer this as I found it hard to get the ratio of oils right for my skin.

I may in fact head off to try it now

adelight

Bitsy_Beans wrote: »

They have been talking on one of threads in OS board about EVOO. Now I didn't realise you could do a version of OCM without the castor oil. I think I might prefer this as I found it hard to get the ratio of oils right for my skin.

I may in fact head off to try it now

Funny you should say that as I just did some OCM with sweet almond oil and tea tree, it's marvelous! I must spend about 10 minutes massaging my face though and have to top up the oil but it's getting out so many plugs. Was the castor too drying for you?

Bitsy_Beans

adelight wrote: »

Funny you should say that as I just did some OCM with sweet almond oil and tea tree, it's marvelous! I must spend about 10 minutes massaging my face though and have to top up the oil but it's getting out so many plugs. Was the castor too drying for you?

Yeah it was but if EVOO works as well without all the better cheaper too as Boots don't stock castor oil anymore and it saves me buying off eBay. Where do you get your sweet almond oil from?

[Deleted User]

That's my facial done. Didn't take long at all and my skin feels better already.

Really interesting to hear about the oil cleansing method. I have stopped using moisturisers for a while now and just use a thin layer of my own homemade oil blend. I usually use almond oil, a wee bit of argan oil and whatever essential oil takes my fancy. It is about the only nod to self care/beauty that I have kept up.

adelight

Bitsy_Beans wrote: »

Yeah it was but if EVOO works as well without all the better cheaper too as Boots don't stock castor oil anymore and it saves me buying off eBay. Where do you get your sweet almond oil from?

Naissance, they are on ebay, amazon and their own site but they have the best postage offers on amazon usually. They're very cheap, esp when you buy bigger sizes. I use the naturallythinking website for bottles and essential oils. I'm only using it because it's the most suitable oil I have in B'ham, I really want to try out using castor oil, I always assosciated it with fried chicken and greasy skin :S
I just placed an order with a pharmaceutical type company on ebay for ingredients for vit c serum and zinc oxide, fingers crossed it all arrives okay. I can't get enough of DIY skincare, once you take the first plunge into OCM and make a basic serum (like vit c, so simple and proven to be effective for anti-ageing and collagen boosting) you can get creative and make some incredibly potent stuff. I should probably shut up or mooch off to the HM thread but it's dead!

allie23 sounds lovely, I love facial oils but they are a pain trying to apply foundation over :rotfl: have to use some olay on top.

[Deleted User]

Hi folks
My plans today are
1. Have a walk at our local country park. Walk directly from the house rather than taking the car - done. OMG I am exhausted. Just realised how much work I have to do to get fitter. Think the running made easy will have to wait a bit.
2. Shower and body cream - done
3. File my nails and put new nail varnish on - done
4. Wash, exfoliate & moisturise face - done
5. Make up on - done

Later on
Yoga or stretching session - Dinnae think this will happen. Distracted watching pride and prejudue on ch 12
Cleanse face - make up off. No more going to bed with it on!

heebie-jeebies

Good morning Ladies,

May I join you?

I need a bit of a kick to make more effort - I have some lovely dresses for work and decide it's easier to wear old black trousers that don't fit properly. Likewise at the weekend, I often decide not to bother with sorting my hair or showering if we're staying in :eek:

I got married 2 years ago and discovered Bare Minerals make up which I love. My sister bought me some make-up for Christmas so I'm trying to wear it more. I was also spoilt with 3 new perfumes so I have a choice, I do always wear perfume though.

I'm not in the UK so hitting the sales isn't really an option but to be fair, I just need to make the most of what I already have.

I'm back at work today but have made an effort (although I'm the only person in the office!) and have heels (boots but still), make up and perfume on.

Before next week, I want to sort my nails out as I used to be so good at keeping them nice and painted but at the moment they're all chipped and looking scruffy.