Going Gluten Free

I recently made a decision to try gluten free food to see if it made me feel any better.  I am a sufferer of migraines and constant tummy upsets, and after trying different things over the years, it was time to give this a go.
Now I was pretty excited to do something different, it gets you out of the hum drum of life.  I didn't find it difficult as it is a lot of healthy eating which I already did but I had to change a lot of dressings and sauces as a lot of these have gluten in them.  After looking around at different shops, I was quite surprised to see the number of things I could get.  Yes it is a little more expensive but i found myself getting interested in food all over again.  I was planning in advance what I would eat and made sure I had plenty of left overs to take to work the next day for lunch.  This helps out a lot.  There are so many great foods you can still have such as rice, potatoes and bread (gluten free of course).  I have a new love which is quinoa.  So yummy to have mixed through your salad or to have on its own with some roasted sweet potaoe and pumpkin..
I have now been gluten free for just over a month and I have to say I love it.  I found that it wasn't helping my stomach problems at first, but I am now feeling a lot better.  I will continue monitoring myself to see if it comes back again.  One major highlight for me is that I'm not fighting my headaches as much as i used to.  In between my migraines I would get bad headaches nearly every day.  This has pretty much stopped but am still getting my migraines ( I wasn't expecting it to get rid of them).
I will continue along with my gluten free life as it has made me feel a lot better and given me more energy and will post recipes that I find along the way which are simple yet yummy.  Most of the recipes I find are American which is a bit annoying with measurements and names different to Australian.

Makeup tip - blusher

Blush, rouge whatever you want to call it, should be apart of your daily makeup application. I had a client the other day who had eyeshadow on, a bit of gloss and nothing on her cheeks and her face looked flat and lifeless. It's another one of those " only old people wear that" issues.
You don't need to put much on and let's face it we have all seen some people that go overboard and look like clowns but that doesn't have to be you. There's no need to go out and buy extra colours for your cheeks. Just look in your makeup kit and anything that has a soft colour like peaches, pinks, bronzes or beige, can be used on your cheeks. Just dust it lightly onto the apples of your cheeks just to give a slight glow and it will also give some dimension to your face. ( make sure you apply translucent powder first or it will grab and instead of having a nice shear look you will end up having harsh blobs which you can't remove). If you don't have any shadow, try using a little bit of lipstick on your fingers and blend into your cheeks. It is best to start with a very small amount and ad extra if needed ( please note that if you are trying this, don't put any translucent powder on before hand).
You will now look sunkist and fresh for the Summer.

Makeup tip - lipstick, you have more shades than you know

You probably have a few lippy's in your bag that you love and some you bought and they just don't work for you. You would love to try some new colours but don't have the dollars to buy them.
Well don't worry because you have many colours already just staring right at you. I'm talking about mixing your lipsticks. It is very rare that I will wear just one colour on my lips. When applying lipstick to my clients, I always mix two or three colours together to create something really nice and quite often they wished they could buy it off me.
So go and dig out all those lipsticks that you haven't worn in ages, get yourself a spatula to scrape the colour off and mix with others till you get a shade you love. This will be trial and error but once you love a colour you've mixed, make sure you write it down because you will forget. Makeup is art - get painting!!

makeup tip - fresh faced for the holidays

The last thing i feel like doing when I'm on holidays is putting on makeup.  Normally its too hot and when you are away from work, can you really be bothered!
The best thing to do if you want to look fresh and summery is to get a tinted moisturiser making sure that it has an spf of 15 or more.  Now I have tried these before and there are many brands you can buy, but I found for my skin, it would always look oily after a few hours. It is best to try products on yourself as it may be fine for your skin type.   What I use instead is my fake tan which comes in a cream and i just apply it to my face and after about an hour I have some colour.  I also apply some mascara to brighten up my eyes and add a bit of lip balm for the finishing touch.
Happy Holidays!!!

I'm so sick of eating

Don't you love it when this time of year rolls around and you give yourself permission to eat as much fattening food as possible because every else is going to be. You try your hardest to limit what you have then someone sticks chocolate balls or any of those other festive treats in front of you and you just don't have the will power to say no. Yes your New Years resolution is to lose weight so until then let's eat some more. I put my jeans on today and I might ad that they feel a little firmer than a week ago, but when you have a Christmas present of $33 worth of your absolute favourite mixed lollies that your beautiful husband buys for you every year, what are you to do. What if I eat them while running on the treadmill or allow myself just two a day till their gone. Who am I kidding, I'm going to take one look at them in that bowl when I get home and say - stuff dinner, I'll just eat those so I can finish them before New Years which I will confess I have done the past two nights already and there is still heaps left. Oh well!

Makeup tips - which colours will bring out my eyes

If you have brown eyes - golds, browns anything earthy and even blues look great.
For green eyes - purple shades as well as corals, golds and violet.
For blue eyes - browns, taupes and greys as well as soft peaches and copper tones.
For hazel eyes - browns, purples and violets ( this will bring the green colour out more) greys also work well with corals. This colour eye can wear a lot of different shadows.
This is just a suggestion of colours but I'm not someone who likes to stick to the rules, try anything and everything and if it looks good, wear it, but one rule I do agree with is not matching your eyeshadow with your clothing colour.

Makeup tips - makeup brushes, your essential tools

Every girl should have at least a few good makeup brushes in their makeup bag. This is definately the best way to apply your eyeshadow, blush and lippy. They don't have to cost you a fortune, you can even get get decent ones from Target or even an art supply store. My suggestion is to have a blush brush, about three eyeshadow brushes - to get the best look on your eyes, use a different brush for each colour you put on, this will stop it looking muddy, an eyeliner brush which I get from an art store and a lip brush. If you have these in your bag you will be able to apply your makeup with a lot more ease.