Finding the right glasses for my face shape

Well, this is weird, isn't it!? Seeing me in a pair of glasses that aren't sunglasses!

I've got a bit of a love/hate relationship with specs - I love how they look on others, but when it comes to myself all I can think about when it comes to glasses are those awful pink ones I wore when I was 5! So awful, in fact, that my cousin decided to dig out that specific childhood photo of me on my grandpa's funeral to "lighten up the mood". To my horror, it worked... ;)

Yes, I was not a beautiful child, especially not as a speccy 4 eyes - which is why I quickly took my glasses off as soon as my classmates commented on them. Lucky for me my eyesight got a lot better when I grew up, and I didn't have to wear my glasses anymore.

Nowadays, however, (20 years on!) I think a pair of glasses can work great as a fashion accessory, and I've decided to do a trial with some of the glasses from Glasses Direct. The collection I've gone for is Scout, as I really like the shapes and colours of their frames.

I could choose up to 4 pairs to trial, and they were delivered within a few days in a flat box that could easily fit through the post. 

The first pair, and my favourites, were these cat eye shaped specs with a subtle brown lace pattern. The style suits my face shape and the earthy colour works well with my complexion. A nice, soft and natural look!

 

I do like the fact that these pale dusky pink glasses are more quirky looking, and a bit oversized. I believe you call this style Wayfarer. You end up with a bit of a playful look, which could be good in everyday situations, but I would probably not wear them to work. I also think they would look better on someone with a lighter complexion, and blonde hair. However, with my slightly rounder face they are known to be a good match, style-wise.

Another pair of lace patterned glasses, but with a straight and very corporate rectangular shape. It's the same style as the very first photo, but in another colour. These are so wrong for my face for two reasons; 1. My face is too round for these. 2. My ears must be a bit uneven, because these glasses sit really wonky on my face, and you can see it even clearer with the glasses having such a straight shape. Nice glasses though, but they would probably look a lot better on someone else!

When choosing a pair of glasses, think of the 4 basic face shapes (round, oval, square and heart shaped), and basically don't choose a round style for a round face, or a square style for a square face, etc. If you need help determining your face shape you can simply ask your optician. Glasses Direct has also got a whole section on their website which can help you choose the right glasses for your face shape.

What are your thoughts on glasses? Do you love or loathe them?

Would you wear a pair just as a fashion accessory?

A new online shopping experience that will blow your mind!

Imagine this... you've been invited to a wedding, and you've got this image of yourself in your head wearing a stunning blue lace dress, similar to one you recently saw on Pinterest.
But we all know what Pinterest is like... everything obviously looks amazing, which is why people repin images. But these repinned images often turn out to be 2 years old, and the dresses you've spotted are long gone, and nowhere to be found.  

Pinterest is great for inspiration, but not when it comes to shopping!

So you start looking around in what feels like a hundred online shops, including Asos, River Island... you name it! You probably forgot a lot of your favourite shops in the process, as you're panicking so much as to where to find the perfect blue lace dress.

Well, stress no more ladies, cause here comes Lyst!

Lyst is an online platform that works as a personal shopping experience.
Basically, you can browse all of your favourite shops at the same time, follow brands, or just browse randomly for new in items.
When you find an item you like you can add it to a list, or 'lyst' as they would call it, and you can go back and look at it closer later. 

I tried the filtering system to find blue lace dresses, and found lots of nice ones! I added my favourites to a lyst, where I could then compare them all. 
It's so much easier seeing them next to each other, rather than going back and forth between internet tabs and and several online shops! 

Out of the 8 blue lace dresses I compared in one of my lysts, I then took my favourite one and added to another lyst, which I personalised with a photo of myself and my friend wearing wedding guest outfits last year. 

I went back browsing the new in items, and created a little wedding guest outfit with accessories that will go well with the blue lace dress. 

When you've decided if you want to buy any of the items in your outfit lyst you can simply click on the item and Lyst will redirect you to the shop and its specific page. 

This is so clever, and it's such a hassle free way of shopping when looking for specific things. Or you could just use it to get inspiration from all your favourite shops at once!

Well, Lyst has definitely blown my mind, for sure.

You can find my lysts here.

Learning about sports supplements, health and fitness

On Sunday, myself and fellow blogger Jennie from Life Styled by Jennie, made our way down to Predator Nutrition in Leeds for an exciting drop-in event. The event was to highlight the launch of a new BSN fitness nutrition product, and to celebrate it all the store had invited two well-respected fitness celebrities.  

 

Local fitness profile and Ms Bikini Tall Miami Pro Carly Tierney welcomed us by the door with a couple of product samples; a pre workout NO Xplode drink with dragon fruit flavour, and the new salted caramel Syntha-6 Edge protein shake.

Once inside, Jennie and I had a browse around and inspected all the weird and wonderful supplements and diet products. None of us have really used sports supplements before, so it was really interesting seeing what there was. 

We also got the chance to have a little photo and Q&A session with James “Flex” Lewis – a famous bodybuilder and champion of a high number of bodybuilding contests in both Europe and USA. And oh my, he was big! Even the muscles in his hands were so pumped up that it was difficult to shake his hand!

He was just one big muscle machine! And no wonder – apparently he started bodybuilding when he was only a teenager. 

We were asked if we wanted to take the #TrueMass challenge – a challenge where you have to hold two large bags of protein powder weighing approximately 5 kilos each at shoulder height for as long as possible. And of course we did! We were the first (and possibly the only) girls taking the challenge during the event. I obviously wanted to show Flex who was boss, and flexed my muscles for 1 minute and 11 seconds. Haha! Him and his team gave me some compliments on my “guns” though. I know I have quite big arms for a girl, and I’ve been working them even harder in the last few days!

I got so inspired by all the muscly people at the event that I’ve exercised every day this week so far;

Monday: 50 minutes powerwalk

Tuesday: 50 minutes powerwalk, 45 minutes fat burning body weight training & 15 minutes abs

Wednesday: 35 minutes power walk, 60 minutes Zumba

Thursday: 30 minutes HIIT circuit training

We’ll see how long I’ll be able to keep it up for… I just wish I had a gym buddy to go with, so that I could stay proper motivated!

Flex, do you fancy a gym session with me? ;) I’d actually love to learn some more about bodybuilding, and wouldn’t mind a challenge.

I’ve even clicked home some new fitness fashion from an online store, which I will show you in an upcoming post. Wearing nice gym clothes makes me feel more confident when working out, and it’s a great motivator.

BSN were nice enough to send us home with a great goodiebag, including several samples of their new supplement shakes, as well as gym gear such as a shaker, headphones and a gym top. I was wearing mine to the gym last night, and I did indeed feel strong ;)

Thank you so much to Predator Nutrition for inviting me to the event.
If you're curious about learning more about the event you can read Predator Nutrition's article about the day and the celebrities.