WIN a 3 Day Trial of The New You Plan. Will It Be Your Weight Loss Wonder?

If you read my blog regularly you'll have seen my trial week of the total food replacement diet,  The New You Plan. It's the brain child of a local Northern Irish woman, Julie-Ann, who has built up the brand from scratch. There are other total food replacement diets out there, but the key to New You is the Secret Slimmers Facebook Page, made up of hundreds of customers sharing their highs & lows, successes & slip ups. The support you get from it is priceless, and talking to women who have lost 3 or 4 stone on th plan motivates you to stick with it.

I've put together a prize pack from products I've bought from them myself, but I really want to give someone else a chance to try the diet plan themselves, so I've boxed a three day supply of products. New You Plan have supplied a tshirt and mixer bottle for the shakes for the winner also. They also will give you access to the private Secret Slimmers group.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My own weight loss is going well, I was 9st 12 about six weeks ago, and I'm 9st 3 now. This was partially done with New You. It was the kick start I needed. 

Should you want to go ahead and place an order yourself in the meantime, there are some excellent bundle discounts at the moment. 

Good luck, and if you've any questions then you can tweet me @rudedoodle. Please also note the advice below before starting any kind of low calorie diet. 

Fall In Love With Powder's Showstopping Accessories

I featured their faux fur muffs last week, but held off sharing their other accessories because Lisa & Lesley from Powder were extremely kindly sending me some items to review.

When I opened the plain cardboard box everything arrived in, I was greeted with this; probably the most show-stopping packaging I have ever received in my six years of blogging. 

If you're buying Christmas presents for a lady in your life this year, then I'm pretty sure this is what they would love to see under the Christmas tree. In fact it's so stunning it almost looks like Christmas decor itself.  

But what lies inside this majestic, golden trimmed box?  

It holds one of  Powder's gorgeous soft felt hats. The store has a full range of designs and colour combinations to choose from. I think the prices are really reasonable. The hats are beautiful in quality and design.

But the hat wasn't all that arrived! I also had these two luxe gift bags, each sealed with a big satin ribbon. 

The first gift bag contained  Powder over the knee socks. I received the long, lace top socks in a rich mustard colour. It was Powder socks we initially found in Menary's in Bangor, where Michael saw a bright green pair that he wants to buy me for Christmas.

The little buttons on the socks are just so cute and you can see why the tag line is 'superior Scottish socks'. There's that running joke about getting socks for Christmas, but these Powder designs are pairs that you'd actually be happy about receiving on Christmas Day. 

My final gift from Powder is a pair of their  stylish gloves. Again the online store has a fantastic range of designs and colour choices, all which have a retro feel to them. I have the classic dogtooth print glove in a soft, grey felt fabric. The little button and panel design give them a vintage, driving glove look that I just love.

Powder UK is just so totally a World of Kitsch brand, so I know you all will love these accessories too. Let me know on Twitter if you buy something (@rudedoodle) and start dropping hints now if you want someone to gift you everything Powder this Christmas. 

Two Days Left to Take Advantage of the Clarins #Feed10 Gift at Menary's

There's only today and tomorrow left to get to your local Menary's store, visit their Clarins concession and pick up their free Feed 10 gift bag.

Buy two Clarins products, one being Skincare, and they'll gift you everything shown in the picture above. Great sized samples to try out and find a new favourite. You're also doing a good deed as for every #Feed10 gifts given out, Clarins will feed ten vulnerable children worldwide. 

Heres a quick look at each of the free products. 

Moisture Rich Body Lotion. Very smooth and easily absorbed, this is pretty much a full size product. 

Hydra-Quench Mask. Creamy, gentle and a pleasant scent. 

Exfoliating Gentle Refiner. I really like the texture. The microbeads make you feel like you're really giving your skin a total freshening up. 

Relax Bath & Shower Concentrate. I'm not a bath person, but I'm going to let my son keep this for his bath times. 

Hand and Nail Cream. Another product I don't use personally, but my Mum loves a good hand moisturiser, so I'll pass this along to her. 

The lovely Jennifer at Bangor Menary's also gave me the current Clinique Bonus offer when we visited last Saturday. Unfortunately that was the last day of that current offer, but they usually always have some sort of offer running, to try your local Menary's to see what offer followed up this one. 

The reason I'm still featuring it is because I was really impressed with the  Clinique Long Last Lipstick in the shade Blushing Nude.

My usual nude lipstick is Naked Beige by Soap & Glory, but this is a very close match and the texture is a real jump up in quality. It's very creamy & feels great on. I think I'll swap over to this for my day to day lip, and buy it again when the sample runs out. 

So visit your local Menary's for the Feed 10 Clarins offer until 4th October, and check out the other beauty concessions for their individual current offers. I would post about Bangor's Fashion Night Out next Thursday, but their PR lady says it's practically sold out already. If you see me and Smix at it, say hi! 

IKEA Belfast's Christmas 2015 Teaser

Available in store soon. Is there anything you've got your eye one?

My Night Routine. Potions & Lotions & Oils Galore.

Every year on my birthday in August I swear to myself that this year I'm definitely going to stop going to bed with makeup on, and I will endeavour to moisturise too. 

Every year I still ended up going to bed in mascara and tinted moisturiser, which used to be all I wore. This summer when I turned 35, I     had already started my journey towards being a makeup addict, so I've a little routine at last!

Every proper beauty blogger in the land will be screaming, 'noooooooo!' at the photo below. Apparently using any sort of baby wipe type product on your face is a bad idea. I'm a sucker for how easy they are though.

Sera from The Style Guide Blog suggested the Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water. I use it on a wipe to take off everything except my eye makeup. I can't help but think 'is this just tap water though?' as the Micellar water has no fragrance either. 

Then I use another wipe loaded with Simple Kind to Eyes, Eye Makeup Remover. It does the job and doesn't irritate the skin or my eyes in any way. 

At the weekend of late, my son and I like to have a silly pamper night. We do face masks, soothing eye pads, I even let him put my makeup on me for fun sometimes. Poor child is feeling my lack of daughter to do these things with! 

Tonight I used a peel off mask for once, 'cause they have always been fun in a satisfying peel-y way. The brand is Petal Fresh Botanicals, and this is their Invigorating Aloe & Cucumber mask. The full size product with enough for many, many masks, was only £1.29. 

It dries easily, but follow the instructions about not putting it near your eyes. I had it stuck on the area under my eyes where your bags are, and it hurt like hell trying to peel that section off! 

Also my skin felt strangely dry afterward. You would want to moisturise after peeling it all off.

My regular  night products are No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Advanced Serum. A small amount of that, which absorbs easily, then a 'top coat' of the matching line's Intense Night Cream.

I've a couple of samples I'm sometimes using instead at the moment. Puff Off! from Benefit for eye bags, and their Instant Comeback Facial Serum. Those products are okay, but I don't think they'll tear me away from my No7 products I use long term. 

The other little bottle on the right there I HAVE been very impressed by, and I'll be buying the full size product when the sample runs out.

Its the Body Shop Oils of Life Intensely Revitalising Facial Oil. The thought of using a straight oil on your face may seem daunting if you're prone to shine, but somehow it doesn't effect my skin in that way. Yes I've a big shiny face when I apply it, but I haven't found the days after I've slept in it have been any extra shiny or greasy when I've my daily makeup on. 

It comes with a tiny dropper and I use three lots all over my face. It doesn't feel greasy, it definitely feels intense. It will be a great product to use now Autumn is drawing in and the heating plus cold outside plays havoc with your skin. 

So that's my night time routine. I've the intensive oil on in this photo and you can see my skin isn't oily looking at all. I've a feeling a little gold bottle of pure oil from The Body Shop is going to be fairly expensive.... maybe I'll keep it for my Christmas list.

Happy European Languages Day! Here's My Son Dressed As a Pizza!

Michael was a pizza and his friend Connie was the Italian chef! They won first place in their class for their inventive national dress.

Could You Dress a Bridal Beauty? One Week Left to Enter the Young Designer of the Year Competition.

Calling all budding designers! There is one week left to get your entry in for the Young Designer of the Year competition, you have until Wednesday 30th September 2015.

The annual competition is open to all creative individuals, young designers and fashion students across Ireland, under the age of 25. This is a fantastic opportunity to potentially showcase your work in front thousands of people and the big names in the bridal industry. 

All shortlisted finalists’ dresses will be displayed on weddingjournalonline.com, across their social media platforms, and on the catwalk runway at The Wedding Journal Shows – viewed by more than 20,000 visitors and the key players in bridal. The Wedding Journal Shows will take place in Dublin and Belfast, January 2016.

The winning Young Designer of the year will receive:

• An exclusive interview feature in Wedding Journal magazine

• A professional photo shoot

• A certificate

• Publicity in local press and media

How to enter:

Submit your ideas in the form of an A3 mood board by Wednesday 30th September with your contact details. Entries should be sent to: Catriona Doherty, Ireland’s Wedding Journal, Penton Publications, 38 Heron Road, Belfast, BT3 9LE.

This could be you! 

Young Designer of the Year finalists will be announced on Monday 5th October. Finalists’ mood boards will be entered into an online voting competition where the public will pick their favourite design. Finalists will have two months to create their dresses as depicted on mood board designs.

Wedding Journal magazine will pay £100/€125 towards the cost of materials. All dresses must be completed by 4pm Friday 8th January and delivered to the Wedding Journal Belfast office (see the address above).

Good luck!

For further information, please email Catriona:  catriona.doherty@pentonpublications.co.uk.

Vintage Rocks, The Time Travelling Hair Parlour is Making Me Nineties

One of the things I love about Vintage Rocks Hair Parlour in Belfast is that if you give them a hair idea, or colour, no matter what it is, you can be confident that when you leave after your appointment, what's on your head will be exactly what you had inside it before you walked in.

I emailed the main woman herself, Clare, and asked her could it be possible to give me an all over, choppy, obviously a fake effect, head of highlights. Now many hairdressers would say yes then go ahead and try to give you a more natural look, they'll assume that's what you really would prefer. With Clare and her team however, they'll do exactly what you want. If that means a full head of mermaid colour, like my friend Claire got recently shown below, then that's what you'll get.

So when Clare saw my ideas, big, choppy, artificial highlights, she knew what I meant and what I was showing her was what I actually wanted done. 

She said it was a 1990s' look that was coming back into fashion. I hadn't realised that, but that makes it even cooler- retro hair! The prime suspect for making this type of highlight a hit was Jennifer Aniston, so maybe I should go the whole hog and get the cut too. Excited to get along and have it done very soon.

In the 90s' we all crimped our hair, soaked it with Sun-In that never worked, and thought we were the bee's knees when we used a pack of semipermanent Glints hair dye.​ Hair mascara was another short term colouring product, which mostly just made you look like a bird had pooed on your head.

Hopefully most of you escaped the spiral perm though, a sneaky roll over from the 80s' which should have stayed there. Perms are bound to make a comeback soon, so don't try to hide if you had one- even Posh Spice did.​