PRETTY YOUNG THING

* this post contains pr samples, these have been marked with an asterisk (*) I have not been paid for this blog post and all opinions are honest and my own.

I thought i'd share a couple of goodies i've been trying out over the last couple of weeks. I've never heard of Pure Chimp before but I was very interested when I found out that they stock Natural products like this cleanser and shampoo bar and they kindly sent me a couple of bits to try out.

The Pure Chimp Super Cleanser is very different to my usual cleansers, I tend to go for cream cleansers or oil cleansers. This has a more solid form and you mix it with water to create a paste and then put this straight onto the skin and massage. This is a really lovely gentle product which draws out impurities. The texture of the products makes it feel like your exfoliating the skin and getting rid of that dead skin too which is great. You rinse with cool water, I tend to use a cloth to make sure i've removed it all. It smells incredible, seriously it's gorgeous. It's a lovely sweet scent, it's kind of fruity and nutty and it's just gorgeous. Really like this product and I think the jar would last a really long time as you only need a tiny pinch of product so it's a great value for money too!

Next up i've been trying the Super Shampoo Bar too, I love shampoo bars, I've tried a few from Lush in the past. This one is really easy to use and did not disappoint. I've actually been struggling with my scalp recently as it's gone very dry. This was lovely, really gentle so great for sensitive skin. You lather it up with water and it's so foamy you get some great bubbles and again a little goes a long way. It leaves the hair squeaky clean and nice and shiny. It leaves your hair smelling lovely as it contains banana extract. It's a really lovely product and again a great value for money as a little goes a long way.

If you like your natural products and want to try something new then check out the Pure Chimp website for more Natural Skincare. They also stock a selection of Matcha Green tea and 5% of their profits go to charity which is fab so i'd recommend checking them out!

I'VE JOINED SLIMMING WORLD! Saturday was my first weigh in and i've lost 4LB I'm so proud of myself for sticking to plan all week and I seriously can't believe how good it is. I thought i'd share a few things i've been doing this week and what I thought of my first week and my progress.

The main thing that sold Slimming World to me is that fact that you can eat so much, your allowed to eat whatever you want. Nothing is banned on Slimming World however you have 5-15 syns per day and things like chocolate and naughty things are going to cost you syns.

You can have one Healthy Extra A a day so this is like milk  and cheese, this makes sure your getting the right amount of Calcium each day and one Healthy Extra B so this is bread, cereal or porridge and this means your getting the fibre you need.

After this it's pretty easy, you can eat whatever you like some foods are free meaning you can eat as many as you like and some of these free foods are speed foods. You should eat alot of these as they will help you loose weight faster, you should have 1/3 of each plate full of speed foods. Finally syns, you can find out syns for things by searching the Slimming World App or your book that you get at group, if you can't find something you can usually google it and find out the answer.

I've been so full all week, i've been eating lots of salad, veg and fruit which is fab. I've been cooking new and exciting meals and Clints been eating the same as me so he's really enjoying the recipes too.
Even with work i've stuck to plan and we went for an unplanned meal out the other night and I managed to pick something that only cost me a few syns.

I've decided alongside slimming world I need to make an effort to be more fit and exercise more. I don't want to be all flabby so I'm trying to tone at the same time. I have made an effort to exercise this week. I've been going for walks and doing my fitness dvd which has really motivated me.

I had my first weigh in on Saturday and i'd lost 4LB which is amazing. I'm so happy I decided to join Slimming World and I can't wait for my next weigh in! It's really exciting and everyone at my group is lovely and my consultant is fab!

If you have any questions about Slimming World feel free to leave a comment or email me and i'll try and answer for you, but as I said this is my first week. I've made a Slimming World instagram account so if you want to follow me then here's a link https://www.instagram.com/amypyt_sw/  I am sharing lots of meals and fitness photos.

I'm loving it guys and i'm so glad I decided to join! Let me know if your part of Slimming World and how much weight you've lost ?

So today i'm talking about Alexi London which is a lovely jewellery brand who have lots of gorgeous jewellery over on their website. I was recently sent this necklace which I absolutely fell in love with on their website and it's even prettier in real life. I'm going to a wedding reception next week so this necklace is perfect, i'm not 100% sure what i'm wearing yet but this necklace will make a lovely edition to any outfit. The delicate silver chain makes it very wearable, I think you could easily wear this for an occasion or just for everyday because of it's simplicity.  The Cubic Zirconia stones are so pretty and add a sparkle to any outfit making it perfect for any occasion. I really like nice simple necklaces like this, it is also avaliable in gold. They have a really good selection of necklaces, earrings and rings aswell as bracelets over on their website.

The lovely people at Alexi London have given me a £50 Gift Card to giveaway to one of my lovely readers so be sure to follow my bloglovin and twitter as well as signing up for the Alexi London newsletter to be in with a chance to win, fill in the rafflecopter below. The competition is running for two weeks from today and will end at 12:00am on April 2nd 2016.

Head on over to the Alexi website and check out their huge range of products to choose from and don't forget to enter the giveaway below to be in with a chance to win a £50 Alexi Gift Card!
*T&C's are below.


a Rafflecopter giveaway




* Terms and Conditions of the giveaway
The giveaway will start on 19/3/16 and end 2/4/16 at 12:00am. There will be one winner. Winner must fill in the Rafflecopter form and complete each mandatory section. I will be checking that the winner is following both bloglovin and twitter accounts and has signed up for the Alexi newsletter. 
The winner will be sent a vouchercode worth £50 which they can spend on the Alexi London website. I will pass the winners details over to Alexi London who will then provide the winner with the voucher code. This is not my responsibility and I will not be held responsible if there are any issues with the prize. 

I'm no expert or lifestyle guru but I thought i'd share a few ways that I budget now that I live in my own place with Clint. Neither of us have lived alone before so it was all very new and we really wasn't sure if we could afford it or not.

The main thing is to be organised when you first move in you have to sort out things like reading meters and phoning the providers, council tv licence people etc so i'd put aside a few hours to sit on the phone or computer to do this. I'd right a list with the telephone numbers and your readings first before you phone up.

Once you've sorted all that out you should have a rough idea of how much your bills are going to cost, if you've been living on your own for a little while you will already know how much your bills are. It's worth writing this figure down and remembering it, so then you know how much you need to have in your bank to cover the bills.

Most of our bills come out on the first of the month which if you get paid at the end of the month like me this makes the most sense. I set up a joint account and used this for all of the bills to come out of. This way we both transfer enough money into this account and have our own bills still in our personal accounts and then any left over money is our own. We tend to take it in turns with food shopping and going out for meals and share the cost of these things.

It's good to plan your month financially so if you know you've got a birthday coming up or your cars due an MOT next month then it's worth putting a little a side for that so I'd recommend saving a month or so in advance that way you've got some money put aside for if you need it and if you don't it's up to you, put it towards your bills and have a little extra money that month or spend it, go on a day out or a nice meal. Any extra money that I put aside i'd save a put towards a holiday.

Saving Money 

There's always ways you can save money, when we moved we both cancelled our gym memberships and Clint got rid of his sky package at his parents house. This saved us about £140 a month! Although I really want to join the gym again I have found ways to work out but without it costing any money, I walk to work now which is a good 20 minutes there then 20 minutes back. I have a few fitness dvds and we got a Kinect for the Xbox which you can work out with. I'm still burning the same amount of calories I did at the gym but it's not costing me £35 a month. I would love to save up and go back but at the moment I can't really afford it.

Get loyalty cards etc, our Tesco clubcard saves us so much money, we tend to do most of our shopping at tesco and Clint occasionally gets fuel from there so our points add up and we get vouchers in the post, a few weeks ago we got £8 off our shopping and last week they sent out vouchers that give you £3/£4 off for the next 6 weeks if you spend over £30 so we can make great savings on our general food shop.
I also have a boots card which I have over £25 worth of points to spend, I sometimes use this when money is a little tight and I need essentials or need to get my eyebrows done etc.
Also use apps like Vouchercloud and Vouchercodes to find the vouchers, if your shopping or going out for food etc theres tons of vouchers which can save you money! Check out moneysupermarket too for great tips for saving money using vouchers.

I want to have a good sort out and ebay some things. Ebay or a carboot is a great way to make a little extra cash. If you know there's a new beauty release coming up and you won't be able to afford it you could sell a few things you don't use. I have a wardrobe full of things I don't wear and you can use that money for things you would use. I'd recommend keeping money in your paypal account aswell. I find I save money better when I keep it in my Paypal and then if I do want to buy something I use the money straight from my Paypal so it doesn't come out of my own money in my bank.

Going out? We didn't really go out much before but we did eat out loads, I love staying in and eating home cooked food. We still go out here and there but it's lovely to get home from work, cook dinner and chill. We easily spent £100+ a week on eating out, that pretty much covers our food shopping for two weeks!

Meal planning is a really good way to save money. If your always throwing food out then your basically throwing money away. Sit down for a few hours and plan your week. Now i'm doing slimming world I find I do this anyway but it's great to get an idea of what you need to buy when your shopping , write a list so you don't pick up things you don't need just because they are on offer for a pound! This way you reduce the amount of food you throw away and have more time to chill because you can prep and already know what your eating so no need to spend ages deciding what to have.

I hope you enjoyed this, as I said i'm no money saving guru but we have managed to live on our own for nearly 5 months now and i'm loving it. I never thought i'd be able to afford to live alone but we are and I still have a little bit of money left over each month to take a trip to Primark or go out for a Pizza Express!

The sun has finally greated us with his presence, spring is here! I thought i'd share a few products that I think are perfect for spring. I love wearing pinks in spring and adding that glow to the skin.
One of my top picks for spring is Glow in Polished by Topshop, this is a gorgeous highlighter which you can use on the brow bone and cheekbone, aswell as any other areas you wish to highlight for a really subtle shimmer. It's such a gorgeous highlighter and so affordable. Clarins always have amazing Spring releases,  check out my blog post featuring my 2016 favourites. The Clarins Instant light lip perfectors* are such a gorgeous natural lip color perfect for the spring. They are so soft and lovely on the lips.  I absolutely love my Urban Decay Naked 3 palette when I want to use pink eyeshadow however I thought i'd share a couple of my Mac favourites, I love expensive pink, this is a gorgeous dark pink with gold shimmer. This is one of my absolute favourite eyeshadows. I picked up Mac Bouffant this time last year, I think it was a Limited Edition shade but this is a lovely light pink, it's a really light natural colour. I thought i'd pop the Nars Multiple in Undress me* in this blog post aswell, this is a gorgeous pink shimmery shade. I haven't used this much at all and would love to use it this spring. I thought i'd include the Ariana Grande perfume aswell, I've been using this loads recently, it's a nice sweet scent which is perfect for spring. I got this for Christmas and started using it a few weeks ago. I've been reaching for it everyday, it's such a lovely spring scent.





  

I thought i'd share some of my favourite make up brushes with you, since I started using make up brushes i've noticed a huge difference in my make up and it looks so much better. I have always stuck to high street brushes and don't really use any high end make up brushes. My favourite brush for foundation is this EcoTools brush, the bristles are not really close and are really light so you get a lovely light, natural finish. You can use this brush for blusher, bronzer and powder not just foundation. I use the Bold Metals Collection by Real Techniques Tapered Blush for my concealer, and highlight. I tend to use it to blend my concealer as its a lovely buffing kind of brush and it buffs out your concealer so it's perfect. It's a little big for the inner eye but I love it for under the eye. I've just started using the Becca highlighter, you can read my review here. I've found this brush is perfect for applying highlighter to the cheekbones. The Real Techniques pointed crease brush from the Bold Metals collection is such a good little brush, amazing if you struggle with a smokey eye as it makes working product into the crease so so easy. Another eyeshadow brush that I love is the Spectrum blending brush, I love using it to blend eyeshadow out for a more subtle smokey eye.  The Real Techniques brushes are such a good value for money, i've had this eyeshadow buffing brush and Blusher brush for years. They have been washed so many times are are still my favourites and are in such good condition.

I love my brush collection, I use alot of Spectrum eyeshadow brushes and have a some more Real Technique brushes and EcoTools in my collection. I have looked into buying new brushes a few times, I like the look of Crown Brushes and Sigma brushes but now i'm happy with my trusty old high street faves.

What are your favourite make up brushes ? Have you tried any from Crown or Sigma and would you recommend?

* this post is in collaboration with Ocean Loans