clean – realiTEE

Are you doing these 3 things before a workout?

Published on July 6, 2019June 30, 2019 by realiTEELeave a comment

Happy Sunday everyone, doesn’t everything just feel better when the suns out? I’m loving working out outdoors this week, it’s such a refreshing change.

Every week at 5:30am Sunday morning my alarm is going off. Yep I’m THAT girl. Crazy early morning workout even on a weekend. What can I say I like to workout before giving myself an excuse not to, although I can think of plenty while hitting snooze, but I also like to get it over and done with and have the rest of the day to myself. Also let’s face it we look better after a workout, not immediately but when the beetroot has faded we look & feel better.

As you can imagine at 5:30 am I’m not sitting there giving myself a facial massage for lymphatic drainage and jade rolling. However, there are a few things I make sure I do, no matter how tired I am, before I work out. You don’t workout without a warm up so why push your skin? It’s just asking for breakouts. I like to keep this pre workout stage as simple as possible, think basic bitch but more basic.

Here’s my 3 pre workout skin care tips.

Light.

This sounds weird I know but switching lights on, open the curtains or get outside, tells your brain to get moving. We all need a little motivation first thing.

Mini cleanse.

I like to wash my face first thing and get out anything that may be blocking my pores. I have such dry skin that I use a fairly thick moisturiser at night so I get all of that out of my skin and let it breath again. In a rush? A all in 1 waterproof miscellaneous cleaning water works wonders and will life away any dirt in your pores while removing the need for additional rinse and repeat. I’ve also being using Elemis pro collagen cleansing balm it’s too early to review the product but I can tell you with complete certainty it smells AMAZING!

Hydration.

Green tea for my body (Although I’ve been loving mint water lately so refreshing) & my disciple for my face. I know I constantly go on about this anti inflammatory oil balanced cocktail but it really is a fav right now, I’m taking it everywhere and at £15 why should it not be in your bag, on your dresser in your gym locker? Back to the point, dehydrated skin is unhappy skin. It looks dull because dead skin cells are blocking your pores. Freshen it up and hydrate from the inside out.

BONUS ROUND! If I’m heading outside on the occasion that it’s nice & dry ALWAYS WEAR SUNSCREEN. I’m a little crazy when it comes to this honestly 365 days a year no matter where in the world I am. If the sun is out so are the UV rays. All this hard work to look good I’m not going to let a wrinkle or two stop me.

Are you already doing any of these or have your own routines? Share below.

Love,

Tee

How to start your day faster & still look good.

Published on June 8, 2019June 8, 2019 by realiTEELeave a comment

Happy National Rosé Day. Surely this should be a bank holiday weekend right? We should be allowed an extra day off work to enjoy a nice chilled glass of rosé, although the British weather right now isn’t exactly screaming summer vibes. Okay I’m going off on a tangent here, lets circle back…

I don’t know about you but I am not one of those girls that can spend 3 hours + getting ready for a night out, if I’m going out I want to be out out! The whole, shower, wash my hair, blow dry, style, prime face etc etc just gets boring to me. I’m a one hour girl at most. I’d much rather be out drinking the rosé than reapplying my eyeliner for the 3rd time because the flick wasn’t right.

I’m an extrovert get me out of here…

My point is whether I’m going from the gym to the office, or from bed to the coffee shop or more importantly heading to a bar I want to be getting to where I need to be, not messing about with three different shades of blusher. But of course I ALWAYS have to look presentable, it’s just nice to take some pride in yourself right. So (no surprises here) but I have a routine, and I have this down to 45 minutes. It doesn’t matter if I’m getting ready at the gym or in my bedroom I know what products I need where they’ll be and I’m good to go.

Here are a 3 hacks I do to make sure my mornings start off right, if anything throws me off course too early it changes the whole tone of my day and I find that it will just throw me off, anyone else?

1) Sort it out the night before. Yes I’m hyper organised and if being a PA paid more I’d probably do that just for the enjoyment of organising peoples lives, but here’s what I do. I prep EVERYTHING the night before, & I mean EVERYTHING. Even the underwear I’m wearing. Because I think sleep is so important I like to get every last second I can in bed so all my meals will be prepped the night before, if I’m going to the gym my gym bag is packed all toiletries in the bag and gym clothes laid out on my chair so I can literally get out of bed, wash my face drink some water, brush my teeth get a peppermint tea to go and head straight out. This can result ion carrying about 10 different bags but it just makes life easier. I’ll also make an iced coffee the night before. I really try to limit how much money I spend on coffee a month and since I started getting coffee pods from Grind delivered (this is totally on point today as all their branding is pink, just like rosé) my home made coffees are just better. Sorry coffee shops but it’s true, I get the best London coffee straight out of my Birmingham home. Anyway, bags are packed food is ready and coffee is good to go. I’m out the door in 15 minutes.

2) Keep your stuff together. I feel like everyone is on the tidying hype lately with the likes of Mrs Hinch & Marie Kondo all over social media that organisation is in fashion. With fashion comes loads of cute boxes & storage options. I have two little boxes one for AM & one for PM (these are actually the boxes that my Grind orders arrived in, no plug I promise but they’re the perfect size, pink & really cute). As I’ve mentioned before I love to buy stuff in sample sizes because it’s just more gym bag friendly. This makes life so much easier when getting ready because I know exactly where my stuff is so I can just grab & go. Ironically there are three things I ALWAYS lose… headphones (I forget which pocket of which jeans/ coat/ bag I was wearing) glasses (which is annoying once I’ve taken my lenses out, now I need glasses to find my glasses) & keys…

3) Keep the makeup looking simple. Call me a basic bitch but I’m not a fan of a heavy made up face. I like to look like me, and if it’s a day I plan to go running at lunch or to the gym after work I really don’t want to spend ages removing layers and layers of makeup. Honestly once the skin care is done, I can keep it as simple as 4 products. IT Cosmetics CC cream, clear brow gel to brush my brows into place, bit of mascara (honestly I can live without this some days especially if I’m wearing my glasses, big glasses are great to hide behind) & Lanolips 101 ointment, 100% natural multi-balm for your lips. I love this product so much. You only need a little but it really softens the lips smells great and leaves a classy shine.

There you have it, my 3 little hacks to getting out the house and ordering that rosé so much quicker.

As usual nothing mention in this posted was gifted or sponsored but things I love and the options are my own, but I want to know yours.

What do you do on the go? Any top secrets on how to look completely put together in under an hour?

I want to know…

Love,

Tee

Gym hair don’t care!

Published on May 11, 2019May 12, 2019 by realiTEELeave a comment

I’m so protective over my hair it’s unreal. I can be like nooo my hair! But with good reason, I damaged it so badly a few years back with no stop bleach and heat that it was actually frizzled at the front. The only solution was to cut my hair into a lob, not like this made much difference considering it kept splitting anyway. So now I do everything to keep it long and healthy to the point where I just don’t wash it. It’s effort and I don’t particularly enjoy it. If you’re a regular gym goer than you know the struggle is real, because you’re most likely going to work up a sweat tomorrow so what’s the point. Gym hair, don’t care! I’ve also learnt is not smart to train arms the day you wash your hair because holding the hairdryer for so long will come back to bite you! Anyway it’s so much more fun to style dirty hair. What can I say washing my hair is not for me. However if you do a LOT of cardio you probably need to wash your hair at least twice a week to help your scalp.

I’ve recently stretched my washes out to once a week, and quickly learnt the dirtier the better. Anyway who has the time to wash their hair everyday? I’ve got this down to swimming once a week and then washing my hair straight away.

Here’s why I don’t wash my hair;

1) I pay for my colour, why wash it straight out? It’s true blondes have more fun but the more you wash your hair the more you wash out the colour. I’ve never been able to keep ashy silver tones in my hair because it naturally has a red tint (thanks dad) but since I started to wash it weekly and switched to Charles Worthington toning shampoo the colour has never been better. Exactly what I wanted, and that’s still the case 8 weeks later. When I do wash my hair I always opt for sulphate free shampoo, this one is currently still my favourite. (Added bonus shampoo and conditioner lasts sooo much longer when you use it less often)

2) It strips out your natural oils, it’s the oils in your hair that make it look shiny and healthy. Isn’t that what everyone wants? So why strip them out, makes no sense to me. You can also end up causing your scalp to produce more oils to try and replace what you’ve washed out, leaving your hair more greasy and you end up in a vicious wash cycle.

3) It’s so much easier to style. Yep, probably helped by the amount of dry shampoo I use but my hair has so much more texture and thickness to it that when I style it it actually does what I wanted, most of the time.

Hair style curls

Here’s some tips for keeping it healthy;

1) The sleep bun, doesn’t need to be a bun but keep it up/ tied back. Buns are great and I use these great crocodile clips which don’t leave a mark in my hair but braids work just as well. I’ve honestly noticed a huge difference in my hair since sleeping with it up more, when I sleep with it down it’s noticeable greasy the day after. Last time I slept with it down my boyfriend rolled onto it in the night and I was trapped, lesson learnt.

2) Hair mask, we all love a good hair mask but my hair is always so much nicer after a hair mask and gym session. Yes that’s right a hair mask and gym session, I heat from my workout helps the hair mask and it’s more efficient instead of sitting around waiting to wash it out. I will comb my favourite mask through my hair from root to ends and then tie it up, completely out of my face so no product touches my skin.

3) Grapefruit oil, I have a little spray bottle with a concoction of water and grapefruit oil. Post workout I spray a little water on my roots and blow dry them for thickness the spray a little grapefruit to make it smell nice. And I’m good to go.

It’s so much fun to get creative with your hair when it’s dirt, here’s a few of my favourite styles;

When it comes to washing your hair I’m definitely a less is more girl.

What about you? Hair secrets accepted below.

Love

Tee

Ps: nothing in this post was sponsored or gifted just products and things I’ve tried and liked.