ghd Flat Iron

Ok ladies, I must rave about my new flat iron.  I got the ghd Rich Ruby Gift Set on Black Friday and have been using it ever since.

I had been looking for a new flat iron for a while before getting this one.  My old flat iron was a trooper.  It was made by FHI and I had been using it since like 2007!  Well, a couple months ago, the cord connection became finicky.  It would only turn on if the cord was placed in a certain position.  I kept using it like that for a while because I couldn't decide which new iron to get.  Then ghd was having a 50% off sale on Black Friday, so I pulled the trigger.

Well, it wasn't love at first sight though lol.  I actually was annoyed right from the start because this company is British, even though they do sell in the US and have a US website.  When I tried to buy it on their website, my credit card company flagged the transaction as possibly fraudulent.  So I used a different credit card that went through ok.  I thought all was well, but ghd then decided my transaction was shady and placed my order on hold.  They didn't provide me any contact info so I couldn't even call them to explain what happened.  I emailed them but apparently British people celebrate American Thanksgiving too because I got an out of office message saying they were out for like 4 days!!  What!!!  I was really annoyed with that, and might have sent them another email letting them know that I'm more than happy to spend my money elsewhere if they didn't want it.  =P

A few days later, they did approve my purchase and since they ship out of LA, I received my flat iron the day after.  Of course, at this point, I'm like... mehhhh... mentally preparing to return it already.

But... I opened the box, and woah, it's so pretty!

This is what it looked like, with a wrapper outside of the box:

Here's the actual box when you take the wrapper off:

Tadaaaa!!!

The storage/travel case is heat and water resistant, and has a divider on the inside, a zipper on top, and flap over.  It's bigger than I thought it would be:

So then, I went to try it out right away.  It heats up within like... 10 seconds or something crazy fast which is awesome.  But then I realized that there was no temperature setting!  My old FHI iron had a range or 250-475.  Even my friend's Conair flat iron from Target that costs a lot less had temperature control.  I couldn't believe that a flat iron that costs this much didn't allow you to adjust your own temp.  So I googled this, and apparently they believe there's an optimal temperature setting for everyone's hair, and it's around 425.  Well, I thought that was a little cocky of them.  I knew from my experience with my old straightener that nothing less than 475 worked well on my hair, so I was pretty sure this iron was going back...

Well... I'm totally eating my own words now!  This is in fact the best straightener I've ever used!  Whatever temperature it is set at does wonders for my hair!  It doesn't burn, and makes it smoother.  I have pretty straight hair already, but I do have bangs and they are usually really messed up looking when I wake up in the morning.  This iron makes it look perfect, and I also quickly run it over the rest of my hair too, just because it makes it uber straight and shiny!  I can sleep on my hair all night, and it is still as straight as can be the next morning.

I also only use flat iron to curl my hair.  For some reason, when I use a curling iron, the curls fall out quickly.  But when I use a flat iron to curl, it stays forever.  Seriously, forever.  It won't fall out until I wash my hair.  So that was my next test for this flat iron.  It passed the test with flying colors too!  These two pictures below are the finished product of my hair with looser, kinda like beach wave curls.  I basically used thicker strands of hair while curling, and held the iron on my hair for shorter length than I normally would.  I really like relaxed curls.

For my boudoir photoshoot, I curled my hair using this flat iron as well, but I made slightly tighter curls by using smaller strands of hair and holding my flat iron onto it longer.  I actually curled my hair the night before the shoot, then slept on it, and it still looked pretty good the next day!

So there ya go, best flat iron ever!!  Now I know why it costs so much.  If I had known how well it would work, I would have paid full price for it a long time ago! 

Sunday Funday! Last of 2013!

I seriously cannot believe how fast this year has gone by.  Only 2 more days left!  Holy crap!  Maybe my internal clock is really off or something, but I feel like December just started and Christmas is over already!  Christmas is not that big of a deal to me, and all I did was go out to eat.  I had lamb, duck, and pork belly lol.  Then lobster on Friday.  So I am totally over eating out for a while.  Thank goodness there's Kevin from FitMenCook.  I have been obsessed with this guy for months now.  If you don't follow him on Instagram, you should.  He makes really awesome 10-second videos on Instagram with all kinds of creative and super easy healthy meal recipes.  He even lists out the macros, and it's given me many ideas!  Like yesterday, I combined his olive tapenade chicken rolls recipe with his popcorn shrimp recipe, and made popcorn olive tapenade chicken rolls!  Lol.  It was so freaking delicious, and it felt like I was cheating!  I even made my own sauce to go with it, which was simply a blend of 0% fat cottage cheese and dijon mustard.  Yum yum.  Also fits my macros perfectly.

I baked them in a cupcake tray, because I was afraid the rolls would come undone.  Turned out really well actually!

It makes me feel better to make some delicious and healthy meals, since I've been eating out a lot.  I haven't been doing too badly, though.  I am actually seeing better definition in my abs, since I've been using all my extra calories to train hard at the gym!  I went to workout on both Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  I love the gym this time of the year.  But I'm really scared of what's going to happen next week when all the resolutionists start pouring in.  Sigh... 

Monday 12/23

What I did:  Lower body!  Followed by 30 minutes of cardio on 15%.  

What I wore:  Lululemon cool racerback in power purple, with Energy bra in currant underneath.  Mod Moves crop in groovy stripe nimbus, and Adidas adizero adios 2 shoes.

Swiftly LS in fruitie tootie as to and from:

Tuesday 12/24

What I did:  I had a short day at work, so I headed to the gym very early.  I did my shoulder/tri and then cardio session, to prepare for pigging out later!

What I wore:  I wore my new Express sexy stretch camo leggings!!  lol... they were perfectly fine for working out, albeit being on the thin side.  But it was upper body day so it didn't matter much.  I wore it as crops (just pulled the bottom up and folded it over itself), and paired it with Splits59 Devon tank in black, and Lululemon Centered Energy bra in flash under it.  Nike Free shoes in crimson.

Splits59 Vail Cutout pullover in barberry/apricot as to and from:

I posted this earlier, but my outfit for Christmas Eve dinner was this Nameless embellished dress that I duct taped under and made into a shirt lol, with Express scuba leggings, my awesome lamb skin boots from China, Calvin Klein blazer over, and Balanciaga bag.

This is how the dress looks as a tank... taped it over:

Not obvious at all, IMO!

Wednesday 12/25
What I did:  Not gonna lie, I barely made it to the gym... came so so close to skipping it!  But I am very glad I went.  I felt much better!  I did my scheduled back/bi workout, followed by 30 minutes of cardio!

What I wore:  Lululemon swiftly racerback in angel wing paisley, with power purple free to be bra under.  Run For Fun crop in black paisley (haha!), and Nike Free Bionics in purple.

Thursday 12/26

What I did:  This is normally my rest day, but since I am on stay-cation from work, I decided to go to the gym anyways.  I did my lower body strength + plyo supersets.  Then I decided to change up my cardio a bit by doing full on 1-minute sprints on 15% incline, as opposed to fast walk.  Did about 10 of those and came pretty close to dying so I called it a day!

What I wore:  Lululemon seawheeze cool racerback in retro stripe multi, with Lorna Jane Duo bra in yves blue under.  Lululemon Lab Perennial tight, and Nike Frees in violet.  I think I like the LJ bra under this tank, because the blue is a close enough match to the blue (wish blue?) in the tank.

I love that the tank and shoes are a perfect match lol:

Friday 12/27

What I did:  Upper body supersets!  Then cardio again, went back to 30 minute of fast walk/recovery interval, because it's easier to watch TV at the same time that way... hahaha.

What I wore:  Lululemon Ta Ta Topper tank with free to be bra in faded zap under it.  Coal Team Spirit crop, and purple Nike Free Bionics.

Bra goes with shoe laces, obv.  :)

Saturday 12/28
What I did:  Stadium stairs run for 20 minutes.  This one is always brutal but at least it's fast.

What I wore:  Under Armour Achieve tank in high vis yellow, with pow pink Lululemon free to be bra under.  Black Beyond Yoga black skort, and Brooks Pure Drift shoes.

Sunday 12/29

What I did:  Well, it was rest day today, so I went on a 3 hour hike... lol.  I'm so used to walking fast on the treadmill at 15% incline, so walking up is really easy for me now and I barely break a sweat, even in 80 degree weather.  Can you believe it's 80 degrees here at the end of December??  Anyway, downhill is a different matter.  I hate it.  I went to hike at Echo Mountain, in Pasadena.  There used to be a hotel on top of it, with a trolley that would take you up there.  But it burned down about 80 years ago.  There are still remnants of the hotel and the train tracks though, which is kinda neat.  Here's what it looks like at the top, see the train tack on the ground?

What I wore:  Lululemon Swiftly racerback in pink mist, with Victoria's Secret Angel sports bra under.  Lululemon Energy skirt in potion purple, and New Balance Minimus Road shoes.

Oh yeah, I wore the pink mist Mind Over Matter pullover briefly, because I thought it was going to be cold lol.  Ended up carrying it around the whole time of course.

Here's me hiking in action... and resting at the top!  Haha!  Oh I forgot, but I also wore the Lululemon Shady Lady visor that I got at the warehouse sale for 4 bucks.  It was actually quite nice and lightweight, and stayed in place the whole time!  

So after I came home, I was pleasantly surprised by a package from Lorna Jane!  My first thought was that I forgot I had ordered something?!  But then I opened it and they had sent me a 2014 calendar/planner book!  It has cute little motivational sayings for each day, as well as workouts, healthy living tips and recipes for meals and smoothies.  It's very cute and so nice of them to send me!  Makes me feel a lot better about just spending over 100 bucks there yesterday on two bras lol.  I think I will actually use this planner!

Here are some sample pages:

Eat this not that

Smoothie recipes

March workout calendar

chocolate bark recipe!!  Omg they really know the way to my heart lol

motivational sayings and workout challenge

Isn't it cute??  Big Thanks to Lorna Jane!  I love this thoughtful surprise!  :)

I hope you all are having a great holiday season!  One more week and it's back to the grind.  :)

Two New Lorna Jane Bras! Sunrise Bra & Paladium Bra!

I went to Lorna Jane today to exchange my Miranda tank for something else.  I had that tank for about a month now and haven't felt the urge to take off the tag and wear it.  So I figured that meant I wasn't too crazy about it.  It has passed the two week return/exchange period, but I thought I'd give it a try anyway.  They said I could exchange it for anything else.  Woohoo!  I got two more bras... I just couldn't help it!  I love their bras.  I could have gotten way more stuff too, since they have some very cute things in store right now.  But I had to stop myself from buying so much workout clothes all the time...

The Sunrise Bra I got in pale fluro orange is so pretty!  I could always use a bra in orange/coral type of color.  Since I have 2 pairs of shoes that have orange in them, it's very easy to match.  This Sunrise bra has the same mesh overlay as the Portia bra that Lorna Jane sent me to review a while ago.  I love how the mesh looks, especially under burnout or other semi-sheer tanks.  The Sunrise bra has a more interesting back design though.  I love it!  I got it in size S, which seems to be a good fit.

I'm actually wondering if I could layer this bra and the Portia bra!  The Portia bra fits on the loose side, so maybe I can take the padding out and then wear it over this one!  Gotta play with it later...

And this is how it looks on:

The Paladium bra in sparkle yves blue is super pretty, because... well it sparkles!  I normally would not have gotten a bra in a color I already own (Duo bra in yves blue), but couldn't resist this one.  Besides, I wear the Duo bra all the time because I find the color to go with everything.  Also, I have nothing that sparkles!!!  This bra is also from the LJ Black line, which I find to be superior to their LJ Classic line but same price.  So that's how I justified buying it.  :)

This one runs super small though.  I normally wear S or XS in Lorna Jane bras, but I tried on the S and it was super tight.  Ended up going with size M.

Here it is on me:

The back straps are satin:

I am much happier with these two bras than the Miranda tank.  So I'm glad I was able to exchange it out.  I still ended up spending about $100 bucks after tax though, after taking into account the return of the Miranda tank.  That's a lot of money for two sports bras.  I wish Lorna Jane was cheaper!  I'd buy a lot more of their bras if they were.... say... $45 a piece, vs. $65.  Oh well... now I only buy the super unique designs so it probably saves me money in the long run!

Merry Christmas!

Hello everyone!  Just wanted to say that I hope you are all having a great Christmas!  If you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you had the day off to relax as well!  I slept in today and had a great workout this morning.  Not planning to do much else today since I did my eating last night.  Yesterday I went to get my nails painted red, and I wanted a little white snowflake design on one nail.  I am pretty sure I got the most horrific snowflake ever!  Hahaha!  It was actually quite comical.

Seriously, wtf is this?!  It looks like a bunch of white dots and I could have done a better job myself:

I couldn't really see it until it was done, and I was in a hurry to get out of there so I just left it be.  But after I got home, I just couldn't stand it anymore and painted it gold myself lol.  So now I'm rocking unmatched nail colors.  Oh well.

I posted this on Instagram/facebook earlier today, but I was quite proud of myself for being creative for last night's dinner outfit.  I really wanted to wear a sparkly red shirt, but I didn't have one.  After some time, I realized that I had this Nameless red dress I bought back in March that was still hanging in my closet with the tag on!  Soooo... I got a little creative and folded it to the shirt length that I wanted, and duct taped it on the inside so it would stay up.  :D

Not too shabby huh??  It stayed up all night with no problems.  I actually like it much better as shirt, and will take it to a tailor to get it taken in.  So, that was my little Christmas "miracle".  :)

Anyways, wishing you all a merry day.  Hope you got what you wanted from the big man up north!