Sunday, October 27, 2013

Fabulous Events- Bring me healthy hair! The Launch of the Philip Kingsley Brand in Malta!!

Hey Guys!

The coming weeks are super super crazy!! I have a number of exciting events coming up of a number of fantastic brands launching on the Maltese shores!!

The first event I attended earlier this week was of a new hair brand which will be taking Malta by storm in a few weeks time!

Liberty Business Culture hosted a number of bloggers and hairdressers alike to introduce us to the world of 'Philip Kingsley', the man who coined the phrase 'Bad Hair Day'! 

I think you all know who Audrey Hepburn is... well back in the 60s, Audrey was filming in London when she visited Mr. Kingsley himself since her hair was looking a bit dull and viola... That is were the first products were produced! Yes you read correctly, Philip Kingsley produced his first products for the late Audrey Hepburn, a pre-shampoo and deep conditioner!

This brand has a number of interesting products, all focusing on the scalp and it's health. Having 60 years of trichological experience,  and two clinics, one in Mayfair, London and another in New York, Philip Kingsley provide a number of services encompassing both medical and cosmetic issues relating to the scalp and hair health.

During the presentation, given by the brand's UK Sales Manager and International Trainer, Ms. Lisa Elizabeth Caddy, she stated that the hair is the soul to showing our health since hair feeds on the nutrients we consume, therefore, the brand strives on helping clients' hair achieve the best nutrients it can get through their products and services.  

She also told us that Philip Kingsley once said that our hair can make or ruin our day... you can be dressed to the nines and have fabulous make up on,  but if your hair is out of control, it can ruin your day completely... this comment made me reflect, and I realised that Mr. Kingsley is absolutely right!

Ms. Caddy took us through the number of products that the brand has adopted and she noted that their approach is based on hair texture rather than the standard normal, oily or dry identification.  The first step is to identify what type of hair you have, Philip Kingsley divides this in 4 types; Fine, Medium, Coarse and African- Caribbean and then tackle any other kind of problems such as scalp problems, hair loss etc.

Ms. Lisa Elizabeth Caddy
Ms. Lisa Elizabeth Caddy 
During the second half of the presentation, Ms. Caddy then presented one of the spa treatments which is done by the brand and their representatives, something which can also be done in Maltese salons!

This scalp treatment is tailored for each individual client, were the therapist uses specific scalp treating products together with a message which left all present very jealous of the model receiving the treatment!


I am really looking forward to getting my hands on some of their products soon since my hair is something I have been looking to bring back to life! 

After the event, we were given two sample products, the Moisture Balancing Shampoo and Conditioner which I have already used twice up till now!


Thank you to the Liberty Business Culture for inviting us to another awesome event (if you are a bit confused, Liberty Business Culture is the home of the Biocare Academy)!

I can't wait to get my hands on a few more products and I encourage you to look out for this amazing brand at a store near you! In order to stay updated as to where you can find these products and when they will be on the market, I encourage you to like the official Philip Kingsley Malta page here: https://www.facebook.com/philipkingsleymalta?fref=ts

Till next time!

Martina XOXO

Thursday, October 24, 2013

OOTD- Monochrome Madness!

 Hey Guys,

Earlier this week, I was invited to a fabulous launch at Liberty Business Culture for a new exciting hair range 'Philip Kingsley' which launched it's first product for the late Audrey Hepburn! More information about that event soon!

For this event, I wore a fabulous Monochrome Skater Dress with gorgeous paneling which hugged all my curves in the right places! Yay for figure hugging dresses! It is also made out of kind of quilted material which kept me warm all night!

I paired up this fantastic dress with my gorgeous colour blocked shoes from Dylons together with my oh so favourite Jane Norman Mary Poppins Gold Clutch!

To finish off my look, I am wearing my staple Mvintage Stainless Steel Curb Chain Bracelet and Gold Stainless Steel Studs!


OOTD
New Look Cameo Rose Monochrome Flocked Skater Dress
Dylons Colour Blocked Wedges
Jane Norman Oversized Gold Clutch
Mvintage Stainless Steel Curb Chain Bracelet
Mvintage Stainless Steel Gold Studs

Hope you enjoyed this look!

Martina XOXO

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Fabulous Events- An event like no other! Personal Make Up Workshop at Biocare Academy!

Hey Guys!

So, I'm up bright and early on a sunny Sunday morning to write a number of overdue posts!

One of the posts which I will share with you today is of an event which I attended around 2 weeks ago.

Yet again a number of my fellow bloggers and I re-united at the 'Bio Care Academy' for an event like no other event I have been to before!

The Biocare team invited us for a 3-hour long workshop on personal make up taught by Biocare's Professional Make Up Tutor Jean Pillow.

Being a make up artist myself, I was very much interested in this workshop  and was even more surprised that many tricks and techniques Jean showed us, I was not aware of myself!

We were also given the opportunity to try out the 'Eva Garden' make up brand throughout the whole session.

Jean first explained that the workshop will be comprised of a demonstration and practical session were she will show us some everyday tips and techniques to do fast and long-lasting make up.

Marija from all.things.lady was our model for the night were Jean demonstrated a few tips and tricks to bring out the best features by finishing off half of Marija's face so that we can see the difference, a little bit of make up does!

I was quite impressed at the detail Jean went into, so much so, that she even explained how one can get the best use of their tools.


After the demonstration was complete, we were all given a station were we could practice the techniques shown and Jean would come and help us with perfecting the technique.

Lara from Every Beauty Addict's Bible (not very visible), Maria from Pocalocca and I
Same as before (Lara a bit more visible ;))
Dorianne from Ask Dorianne!
Jean noticed that I am quite the experiment-er, so she told me that for me, she will demonstrate a quick and easy subtle smokey eye, a technique which I have been trying to perfect ever since the workshop! Check out the end rest below!

Before and After
Below are some of the products which Jean used throughout her demonstration and we were able to test out ourselves!


If you are interested in pursuing a make up career or just want to attend a class to perfect your make up skills, I highly encourage you to visit Biocare's Make Up Course section here: http://www.biocaremalta.com/courses-make-up.html

If on the other hand, you would like to know more about Biocare's courses and/ or products, you can either visit their website here: http://www.biocaremalta.com/index.html or their facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/biocaremalta?fref=ts

Thank you Biocare, Jean and Roberta for the lovely invite and event! It was a truly enjoyable one!

Until next time!

Martina XOXO

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Diet Diaries- Update 15- Everybody's Changing

Hi Guys,

I hope you are all well!

The diet diaries are a bit late this week due to the fact that I went for my weigh in today!

If you don't know what I am talking about, check out my last update here: http://www.allthingsfabulousblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/diet-diaries-update-14-lets-embrace.html
or start from the very beginning, i.e. rewind to 7 months ago and check out my journey up till now: http://allthingsfabulousblog.blogspot.com/search/label/diet%20diaries

ALOT has happened during these past two weeks... if you have seen my latest post, you know that I recently changed my job and things are now looking up in my life! To cut a long story short, I was actually going to go back to school, however, that didn't work out but God works in mysterious ways and a new opportunity has presented itself.

Due to many changes, I had little time to actually eat and I had alot of gaps in my eating habits, in fact I was missing on my snacks ALOT, something which did affect my weight loss as you will see below.

At this point in time, 7 months in the making, I am now wearing size 10-12 (shifting towards size 10) and all my winter clothes are now literally falling off me! Please note I was a size 14 when this journey began!

A few days ago I visited a warehouse sale which I had also visited last year, however, this time it was different! Last year I was afraid that nothing fits (since I couldn't try on anything) and some of the clothes I had bought didn't fit for months! This year, everything FIT like a glove, something I am very proud of.

Why am I saying all this? At times I used to look at myself in the mirror and say hey, I look ok, I don't look that fat and I don't need to lose weight but deep down inside, I knew that wasn't right! Or else, I would say something on the lines of, that doesn't fit? It's ok I'll lose weight (little did I know that I probably would never do it)

Another thing which I want to tell you is that saying that to yourself is OK... it takes time to actually admit that you are not ok with how you look and to actually get up and do something about it... it took me a good 5-8 years to actually do something about my weight!

Anywho, enough with my blabbing, I decided to share a particular dish I cooked which was very quick and easy to do.

Parma Ham Parcels 

Items Needed:

Parma Ham Slices
Tomato
Pesto
Mozzarella
Chicken Strips

For this dish, I decided to try out this particular recipe with and without chicken.

1. Lay out as many pieces of parma ham on a small tray, in this case, I used 4 pieces
2. At this stage, you may opt to lay out a few chicken strips starting from one end of the parma ham piece till you fill up around a quarter of the piece.
3. If you decide not to include the chicken, you may substitute it by using a small tomato, repeat step 2.
4. Grab a teaspoon of pesto and place over the chicken or tomato
5. Place some mozzarella on top of everything, don't do it too thick though!
6. Grab the Parma Ham end without any toppings and place it on top of the toppings, however you should have some cms of parma ham... turn it around and fold on top.
7. Place the parcels in the oven for a few minutes 5-10 minutes is enough or when you see that the mozzarella has melted.
8. Enjoy!


So how did I do these 2 weeks?


Well... I only lost 100g... however, since I usually get weighed in the morning, this means that I actually weigh 3 quarters of a kilo less. With regards to inches, I stayed the same!

Nothing big, however, I know that since I didn't do a lot of effort I could have easily reached my target by now!

Anyways, challenges are not all easy are they?

Martina XOXO



Monday, October 14, 2013

Fabulous Focus- Curb Alert + Exciting News!

Hey Guys,

I hope you are all well!

I know I have been quite for a relatively long period of time, however, I have a good excuse!

If you follow my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/allthingsfabulousblog, you know that I posted that I have some exciting news and hinted that it has to do with the Maltese Jewellery Brand Mvintage!

My very exciting news is.....*drum roll* please..... I have recently joined the Mvintage team!! Apart from a number of office responsibilities, I will be taking care of the official Mvintage Blog!!

Without further ado! Check out my first post on the Mvintage Website featuring one of our awesome collections: CURBS!


Until next time!

Martina XOXO

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Diet Diaries- Update 14- Let's Embrace the Change!

Hey Guys,

I hope you are all well!

So much has happened throughout these two weeks in my life! 

I have been on this journey 7 months, woah! Check out my journey from the very very beginning here:

If you read my last update, you know that I had some struggles.

I'm not going to say that everything magically went for the better, funnily enough they kinda went for the worse! So many tears have been shed, gallons of heart ache and changes have been thrown my way, however, I am sitting with my head held high and looking ahead rather than looking back!

I know a lot of people who unfortunately fill a void they have in their life by stuffing their faces in order to ease their sorrows, I am one of those persons.

During these past two weeks, I was looking forward to a big change in my personal life, something that had been at the back of my mind for years. Unfortunately life doesn't always deal the card that you want dealt and I had to accept "defeat". 

I must admit, the first few days saw me barely eating or else doing the complete opposite, taking advantage of my "down days" and stuffing my face in.

I quickly realised that it was no use losing all the hard work I put in the past 7 months and tried to get back on track as much as possible.

The reason I am saying all this is to show you, my readers that you are not alone... we all go through rough patches which leave us feeling useless. 

Thanks to my pillars which I call my friends, I have managed to at least look at this situation as positively as possible.

I know I might seem as being a bit secretive or some what mysterious but at the moment I do not feel comfortable sharing what is going on in my life openly on the internet, unfortunately, anyone can read this, and from experience, I have learnt that anything you do, even in the best intention, can be used against you.

I encourage you to check out my instagram account: for a daily insight into my life and food choices: http://instagram.com/allthingsfab


Anywho, with this post I want to focus on change and positivity and with change, comes new graphics! 

I decided to spice things up a bit today by showing my current results in a different way!

Check out my progress from the very beginning till today!



After my bad result last time, I managed to get back on track by losing 600 g, yes its a tiny amount but at the end of the day, it's a loss not a gain.

Lately I have been catching up with an old friend of mine who funnily enough is going through something similar to me. After talking and sharing our latest stories, we realised that by helping ourselves look better, be it dieting, exercising or just wearing an outfit which makes us feel good about ourselves, got us through certain situations were we could have been left pitying ourselves.

The reason I first started out these posts was mainly to keep my diet in check, putting yourself in a position were you open up and share your weight loss experience with people you ultimately don't know, gives you extra motivation to succeed. Nowadays this has changed. I have spoken to a lot of people both who I know personally and just over my blog who tell me that due to these posts I managed to inspire them to at least think about doing a change and realising that hey, I am not ok with how I look and I want to change that. 

That for me gives me greater satisfaction then the numbers on the weighing scale every two weeks.

So enough with the rambling, let's march on and think positive and embrace the change!

Martina XOXO