Month: May 2017

MY FAVOURITE 2-IN-1 LUSH CLEANSER AND MASK

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It’s time to mask all things facial related! Yes, that means getting down to the bottom of those gnarly pores, blackheads, whiteheads and blemishes the natural way!

If you’re like me, you enjoy all things skin related. Facial masks are a regular, and of course, every day cleansing is a MUST! A happy face means a more confident you, and a confident Betty, means all the more reason to have those boys poreing (pun intended) their hearts out to you!

All natural, fresh ingredients!

I have been a regular user of normal store bought face washes, toners, moisturisers and everything in between, but since being pregnant, and after the extensive research that I have been doing about all the different chemicals that make up majority of these products, I have decided to opt for a more natural route of face bathing!

I have always had naughty skin, so much so, that at one point my spots were so uncontrollable that I had to resort to Accutane. If you know how bad Accutane is for the human body, then I hope that paints a clear enough picture of what my actual face was looking like at the time.

Since being pregnant, my skin has become more sensitive to harsh chemicals, which may be a good thing, since I have now switched over to using more of a natural range of products which I am totally enjoying. I can also totally pronounce all of the ingredients too, which is an added bonus!

The self preserving type is the best type!

Today, I am going to share my 2 favourite 2-in-1 all natural mask and cleanser with you. All organic. All natural. And all fabulous!

Up first, we have the Mask of Magnaminty . This tub brings more to the table than expected. It’s pretty much a 2 in one jar of awesomness! This peppermint mask can be used as a face or body mask and comes in two different sizes – a big tub and a baby tub.

The Mask of Magnaminty

This concoction is self-preserving, which means that it doesn’t need any synthetic preservatives (generally the ingredients that you can’t pronounce) to keep them fresh.

The freshness of peppermint oil and kaolin clay promote a feeling of tingliness and freshness. This mask is also great for redness of the skin (which I have) with its soothing vanilla properties. You can also enjoy a 15-minute moisture burst from the honey in the mask too. The consistency is spot on (excuse the pun) and thick which makes applying the mask to dry skin oh so easy.

Minty fresh!

My other current favourite from the LUSHious range of products is Angels On Bare Skin. This tub of goodness is frightfully heavenly. I will say that at first, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the smell, but after a few sniffs and wafts, I began to LOVE it! This might also be due to an over sensitive pregnancy snout. This product is a little different as it is not a mask, but rather a cleanser, both for the body and face – BINGO!

Angels on Bare Skin!

The consistency is crumbly with plenty of ground almonds, lavender and camomile oil. The lavender is super refreshing against unhappy skin and is an absolute skin savior with its disinfectant properties that help banish bacteria from the pores. How pore-fect!

To use this, simply scoop a few crumbles onto your hand and mix with a dash of water to make a paste. Massage this onto the face or body and rinse to have a smoothly cleansed face!

All of the crumbly goodness!

P.S I totally got my boyfriend to try the Magnaminty mask with me, and he secretly loved it. So come on girls, get your bubbly out and have a pamper night with your man!

Until next time,

Mycaila – Jade

xxx

SPLIT APART BY VISAS – OUR STORY

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It’s not every day that you fall in love with a Scotsman who you’ve met in your home country on a wild night out.

It’s also not every day that you two quit your jobs and make plans to travel overseas together after dating for only THREE months.

And it CERTAINLY is not every day that you happen to find out 3 weeks after arriving in Scotland together that there’s a baby on the way!

It is however every day, that families are split apart by visas.

And it is also every day that all the plans that you two have together get put on hold while temporary plans are made, knowing that many months will be spent apart.

I am not complaining about this, I am simply stating facts about our little friend called “life”.  Life is weird. Life is unpredictable. It is also happy and sometimes it can be sad. Life can be fair and of course, something that the boyfriend and I are experiencing now – life can be pretty damn unfair at times. But alas, with life, we learn how to deal. Whether you’re dealing together or apart, you still just deal.

Smiles and flaring nostrils in Windsor!

When leaving Scotland to come home to South Africa to apply for my next visa, my other half and I said our goodbyes to each other. Trying to brighten a sad moment between ourselves, we kept saying that it’s “not for long” and that “I’d be back soon”, but of course there were tears. Airports can be such happy places, but also such sad ones too.

We already knew that it was a risk for me to be flying back to South Africa because of how far along I was in my pregnancy at the time, not knowing how long my next visa could take to be approved or not. The fact that the visa that I was currently on was the incorrect one to begin with wasn’t really working in our favour either, but we were only trying to fix our visa agency’s mistake.  We had 4 weeks to get my next visa sorted. This would take us to my last week of pregnancy where I would still be allowed to fly back on the airplane. We had everything planned and I flew home with all of our visa documents.

Fooling around at Loch Lomond Shores!

Those 4 weeks turned into 6 months. Yes, SIX whole months – for reasons that I choose to not explain, but let’s just say that we weren’t dealing with the brightest cookie in the jar via the visa agency.

Over the next 3 months, my other half will be missing out on my growing tummy – our growing tummy. He will be missing out on feeling our baby’s kicks, and watching our baby grow. He won’t be here for our baby scans, or be able to listen to our baby’s heartbeat at the check-ups.

Over the next 6 months, there will be no more night time cuddles or Sunday morning breakfasts together. He’ll have to start making his own packed lunches for work and doing his own laundry (always a huge deal for men). I won’t be there to welcome him home after a long day at work or spend our usual nights cooking dinner together in our kitchen.

A day of exploring in Edinburgh!

We have started our life together in Scotland. We have our own home. Our own space. Our own routine and independence.

We had it all planned that we would be having our baby in the UK. We had been going to regular midwife appointments and had met the lady who would be delivering our baby. Everything was comfortable and we had everything figured out.

It’s been a week since we have found out that we will be apart and things have settled. We have had to move forward from what we cannot change. We have had to re plan the birth of our baby, which will now be taking place in Cape Town and my other half has now planned to work plenty of over time to make up for the cost of us having to live double lives and to earn enough leave days to fly to Cape Town for the birth of our baby.

Our first rugby game together in Scotland!

There is a silver lining to every situation. One thing that we both need to remember is that this is all temporary and will be fixed with something more permanent. What I am learning is that there is no amount of distance that will keep us apart. There are always risks with the things that we do, and while living our little friend called “life”, these risks taken can sometimes have unpredictable consequences.

In “life”, regardless of the situation, with every challenge thrown our way, we always need to try our best to be positive and look at the situation from all angles. We are handed situations for a reason, but we just haven’t quite figured this one out yet.

Not only will this make us even stronger than what we are, this will also make us appreciate the time that we do actually spend together. At the end of the day, this is also a small sacrifice for a much bigger picture of our hopes and plans for our family.

Wintery mornings in London together!

P.S We have since gone with a new visa agency who we have full confidence in helping us going forward!

Until the next life update,

Mycaila-Jade

xxx

MOTHER’S DAY FACIALS WITH HEY GORGEOUS! [BAYSIDE MALL]

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Firstly, HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all the new mommies, grannies and god mommies out there! Today we celebrate all the years of putting up with tantrums, attitudes, and memories of laughter, love, surprises and everything else in between.

I for one know that I have given my mom grey hairs, an occasional wrinkle (not that she has many) and of course, I have been accountable for all the marbles that she has lost over the last 24 years. Apparently I WAS an absolute terror and my “terrible two’s” lasted all the way until I was 22!

With the excitement of becoming a new mom myself later in August this year, and realizing that I MIGHT have a Naughty Nelly of a child on my hands, I decided to treat my mom and myself to a Skin Evening and Brightening Facial at Hey Gorgeous (Bayside Mall) to celebrate Mother’s Day and hopefully reverse all those years of stress and apparently the odd “wrinkle” that I caused.

Atlantic Sea Kelp & Brown Rice Cleansing Powder looking dashing!

We started off with the Atlantic sea kelp & Brown rice cleansing powder for a pre cleanse and skin polishing, you know for all the years of stress. This mask was left on our skin for 1 minute and was then massaged in with a cleansing brush. While this mask was getting to work we could totally feel our faces tingling and our  skin was already feeling so much happier! After that, our masks were wiped away with warm water.

Step 1: Looking a little like Shrek in my Sea Kelp Cleansing Mask

The Peach and Rosehip seed cleanser was applied next. This cleanser smelt amazing! There were whiffs of maple syrup and orangey wafts of deliciousness, and not to mention the subtle sweetness of the peaches in the air! While the snouts were enjoying these smells, our faces were having this concoction massaged in with the cleansing brush.

The Peach & Rosehip seed Cleanser and the Vitamin C Toner posing for pictures together!

After that, our moment of heaven was wiped way with the Vitamin C Toner, which is superb for an instant burst of freshness, and helps with collagen production to fight those wrinkles (yet again, for you Mother and all those years of torture) and of course ensures evenness in the skins tone and texture.

Step 2: My mom looking all happy and enjoying the cleansing brush!

The Goji Berry Face Mask was lathered onto our faces next, and that was it, we arrived at our next moment of heaven! Believe me when I say that this smelt more amazing than your grandma’s baked apple pie, and of course has less calories too!!!

The Goji Berry Face Mask with REAL bits of berry in it!

The mask was massaged in with a sponge brush which was so soft and helped penetrate those pores. This was left to work its magic over the next 5 min for those everlasting years of “terrible 2’s” before being wiped away with water and soft cotton pads. Our faces felt softer than your average baby’s bottom (not that I have felt many) and I could feel instant relief from my chin area that was misbehaving with a breakout of super painful spots.

Step 3: There’s a berry on my face!

Goji berries are also fabulous for its anti-aging potential by plumping up those fine lines and hydrating tired skin. You can’t go wrong when evening primrose oil, shea, mango butter, green tea and honey are having an absolute party on your face! Talk about being pampered!

After being wiped away with water, the Vitamin C Serum (for age defying purposes) and the Skin Evening and Brightening Serum was massaged into our faces and left to sink into our skin, helping with moisture and yes, those little lines, yet again.

Step 4: Vitamin C Serum and Skin Evening and Brightening Serum

Afterwards, the Revitalising Eye Cream was applied around the eye area and was massaged in with a super duper magic wand that was heated up.

Step 5: The Revitalising Eye Cream and The Magic Wand

We finished off the treatment with the Skin Lightning & Brightening Moisturiser which helps correct the skin tone. And believe me when I say that this tub of awesomeness is the absolute tits! Wafts of Liquorice Root can be enjoyed by the snout as well as shea butter, coconut and jojoba oils which left my mom feeling like the Fabulous Fiona that she is! I also loved this moisturizer and thought that the entire treatment was to DIE for – even though I TOTALLY walked out there alive!

I absolutely love these products being all natural with no preservatives and have also recently found out that Hey Gorgeous now ship worldwide – how fabulous! There was such a friendly warm atmosphere in the room when having our facials done and we were made to feel right at home and treated with such happiness and had plenty of laughs at the Bayside Mall store. We absolutely loved our facials and I definitely cannot wait to go back and try out all the others.

Look at my mom, all happy and realizing that the last 24 years of torture from me have totally been worth this facial!

I am currently testing out their Belly Butter and Stretch Mark Healing Oil for my growing tummy and will be doing a full review on these once my little one has surfaced after August this year.

Alrighty ladies, head on over to your nearest Hey Gorgeous Store for your facials!

P.S There’s a 30% discount for all facials done on a Friday!

Until next time,

Mycaila – Jade

XXX

15 MIN SALMON & PRAWN RED CURRY [LOW CALORIE RECIPE]

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My boyfriends mom totally introduced me to this bowl of hot authentic deliciousness and MY OH MY, is it worth every mouthful and heated runny snout. Last  night, myself and the boyfriend decided to get the Wok out and make this very dish ourselves, and I thought that I just HAD TO share this recipe with you guys! This is a super low calorie meal and has such a spicy kick to it. This meal literally takes 15 minutes to cook and is SO EASY to prepare and make – what a double whammy!.

INGREDIENTS

  • Fresh tender stream broccoli
  • Handful of whole sugar snap peas
  • 2 fillets of salmon (cut into chunks and de skin)
  • 1 x 200g pack of cooked prawns
  • 2 birds eye red chillies (chopped)
  • 1 heaped tablespoon red chilli paste
  • 1 tin coconut milk
  • 1 tsp coconut oil
  • Sprinkle of coriander

WHAT TO DO

Bring the heat to your kitchen, your taste buds and possibly your bottom with these super easy steps.

Fry your chopped chillies and red curry paste in 1 tsp of coconut oil on a high heat for a minute or two. Add half a tin of coconut milk and whisk together and let simmer on a medium heat for a couple of minutes . Add raw salmon chunks and the rest of the tin of coconut milk and leave to boil for about 2 min on a higher heat. Add your cooked prawns for another 2 minutes and  ½ cup boiling water for consistency. After that, add your broccoli and snap peas to the mix and let simmer to your desired crunch of veg (+-3 min).

Serve with a sprinkle of coriander and enjoy your low carb, low calorie curry!

Until next time,

Mycaila-Jade

xxx