Gainz Fitness Gym Clothing Review

Is it just me or is there nothing.... and I mean absolutely nothing worse than buying a pair of brand new gym trousers, only to figure out they're see through when you step into the squat rack?? I mean c'mon I don't need to be drawing anymore attention to myself here.

When Gainz fitness offered to send me some of their gym wear for an honest review of their product, the first question I asked was if they are 'squat' proof, because there was no way in this world I was going to be able to give you guys an honest review (well a positive one anyway) if they where see-through. You will be pleased to know I have put them to the test and they're indeed squat proof! hooray...booty gains for us all!

Lets talk leg length... yes you read that correctly. Gainz fitness have produced these extremely comfortably (I actually lounge around in these when I'm not even at the gym) in different leg lengths. Short, Regular and Long. Now I'm 5ft nothing and every single pair of trousers I own are all bunched up at the ankles which obviously doesn't make for the best look and is damn right annoying to be honest, Imagine how pleased I was when I slipped these on. They fit perfectly and looked brilliant.

The design of these is spot on, with a medium high thick waist band they're super comfy so no digging in and no need to constantly keep pulling them up. I really love the quote on the back of the waist band which reads 'find a new limit' I mean all us girls can relate to good quote... right? Im not  the only one surely??

Quality wise I waited until they had been washed a handful of times to see how they would shape up. I was initially worried the Gainz fitness logo would vanish after a few washes because I know most of my gym shark ones have *SOB* however they still look BRAND NEW. They wash superbly which is always a big thumbs up for someone like myself who is at the gym on a daily basis.

I will 100% be buying clothing from this range. New companies are popping up on instagram daily with a range of gym clothes and competition is SO fierce, however for a well priced, stylish pair of gym trousers which will fit like an absolute glove look no further....

My only gripe would be I want more range of colours/patterns and I want them NOW!

You can shop the look here

Ashley xox

Easy peasy coconut chocolate bites

I'm addicted to everything and anything that involves coconut at the moment! So I figured why not share a receipe with you guys including my new coconut sugar from GoNutrition! This organic coconut sugar has a much lower GI than table sugar. Whilst regular table sugar is a massive 100 coconut sugar is much lower at around 35! This will help in avoiding sudden spikes in blood sugar and insulin.  

You can purchase through GoNutrition here at just £3.49

What you will need; 

100g Shredded coconut 

2 tsp Lucybee Coconut oil 

50ml Alpro coconut milk

15g Rowse honey  

2 tsp GoNutrition coconut sugar 

30g 90% coco Dark Lindt chocolate 

Directions 

Combine 80g shredded coconut with 2 tsp of coconut oil into your food processor on high power. You will need to scrape the sides occasionally. 

Add your coconut milk, coconut sugar, remaining shredded coconut and honey to the mixture and again mix on full power. 

Once you have your 'batter' roll into balls of a size of your choosing (I made 5 large ones) and place on a plate. 

Melt your chocolate and drizzle it over your coconut balls then dust with a sprinkling of shredded coconut. 

Leave to set in the fridge for an hour. 

Let me know if you have any other coconut receipes up your sleeve that I should try! 

Ashley xoxo 

Fat free chocolate deconstructed cheesecake 144 calories!

Sweet tooth out to get you again? If you fancy something chocolate flavoured and super thick like cheesecake try my healthier alternative! 

100 grams Fat free Quark

1x Options Belgium praline hot chocolate 

- Sprinkle of grape nuts 

- Strawberries 

Mix the Belgium hot chocolate sachet with 100-150 grams of Quark

(I prefer to add more Quark usually as this is really thick and rich) add some grape nuts to the bottom of the ramiken, spoon in mixture then sprinkle some more grape nuts on top with a sliced strawberry.. Easy as one, two, three! 

144 calories 

18g carbs 

9g sugar 

1g fat 

15g protein 

Have any of you got any suggestions on some desserts I can try? Let me know! 

Ashley xoxo 

Flourless protein chocolate muffins

I LOVE CHOCOLATE!! 

It's SO frustrating when you're eating well, training hard and want something sweet which isn't going to break the calorie bank. This is the perfect recipe to curb your sweet tooth without undoing all of your hard work and with only 4 ingredients it's super easy! 

They are low carb, packed with protein and don't contain any flour... Winner! 

Ingredients: 

2 ripe bananas 

2 tbsp coco powder 

1 scoop gonutrition triple chocolate protein powder 

20g honey to sweeten (optional) 

15g dark chocolate chips (optional) 

Pre heat the oven to 175 degrees

Combine all ingredients and blend in your food blender 

Once blended you can either now mix in your chocolate chips or save them to top the muffins (I put half mine in and saved half for decoration) 

Fill the cupcake liners near enough to the top (I actually used two cupcake liners to make sure they kept their shape) 

Bake for 15 minutes 

Leave to cool before serving

Hey presto! Grab yourself a cuppa and sit back and enjoy this guilt free snack. Remember if you want to go super healthy you can cut out the honey or chocolate chips but my sweet tooth needed curbing! 

Per muffin without chocolate chips

Calories 94

Carbs 4g

Fats 0.75g of which saturates 0.5

Protein 5g

Sugar (honey) 14g

Per muffin with 15g of chocolate chips 

Calories 113

Carbs 6g

Fat 2g of which saturates 1.25

Protein 5g

Sugar 16g 

Let me know what you think? 

Ashley xoxo 

Unicorn print phone case for under £5!

ITS SO FLUFFY!!!

I'm sorry but anything unicorn related just makes me instantly thing of despicable me. You know that absolute adorable screen with Agnus! God I absolutely love it! 

So I'm all over unicorn print at the moment and I keep seeing all these super cute unicorn phone cases and I just knew I had to have one! However being the bargain hunter I am right now (Christmas is a killer) I found the most PERFECT phone case and for just £4.99 it's even got glitter and heats quicksand! 

Pick it up here!

Love Ashley xoxo 

Creme De La Mer - Is it worth the big bucks?

Creme De La Mer is one of those products you're constantly seeing in magazines and hearing that all the celebrities use. With its smallest bottle 30ml being £105 it's not something you really want to be plunging into without much consideration so I decided after having first used this 3 years ago that I would share my thoughts... 




Creme De La Mer was developed by a NASA scientist, Dr. Max Huber, who had some sort of experiment explode in his face leaving him with severe burns. He couldn't find any products to repair his face so spent 12 years perfecting a skin care product that would heal his skin. Straight away you're thinking wow a scientist? This isn't a dermatologist. This right here is a scientist, a scientist who made a treatment to heal his BURNS!? It was also bought out by Estée Lauder in 1966 (we all know how much I love Estée Lauder) 


The product comes in a minimalistic white jar with a spatula so you can remove the product without contaminating the rest. When you remove the moisturiser it is a very thick white cream, to apply you should warm it up between your fingers at which point it will turn into an almost see through liquid. This took me a while to wrap my head around, I was convinced that I had just spent a small fortune moisturising a couple of fingers! However don't panic, apply with pressing motions on both cheeks, forehead and neck and you will instantly feel this sinking into your skin! Now I know some people use this in the morning and evening however this isn't something I personally use prior to my makeup. I see this more as a night time product and use it before bed due to the fact I feel it takes a good twenty minutes to sink into my skin although with saying that I'm sure I wake up some mornings and can still feel it which I'm certainly not complaining about!

This cream is SO hydrating and definitely leaves me with glowy skin (I know that's the biggest cliche ever, it's so true though) I have very sensitive skin and this hasn't made me break out at all - hooray!

The smell is a crisp clean floral smell and is not at all overpowering.
I absolutely adore this product and it's by far my favourite moisturiser, it makes me skin look glowy, moisturised and all over smoother. This is my absolute go to product during the winter months and it never disappoints!



I've tried a few products from the Creme De La Mer range would you like to hear about those too? Have you used any of the products yourself? 
Love Ashley xoxo 

Born this way foundation - Too Faced

Coconut water has stole the limelight recently claiming to seriously hydrate your body, so obviously it's not surprising that it's now being incorporated into our makeup too! So does it work?

Packaging - it comes in a glass bottle with gold trim and plastic pump, hooray a pump! When you're paying for a decent foundation I don't think you should have to be paying extra for a pump so this ticked a box in my head straight away. I love the packaging from the girly embossed box to the frosted bottle, although I will say it can be extremely hard to find the correct colour on an average day let alone when the bottles are frosted! 

This claims to be a medium to full coverage foundation and I would say it's more on the medium side. In fairness I only used the one pump and when I used more it did give me a fuller coverage but it looked cakey! It drys very fast so I wouldn't hang around blending this in. I found applying with my fingers worked best although my beauty blender also worked well (a brush leaves a streakier look) I have very dry skin at the moment due to this cold weather and it did me no favours making my skin look more flakey, It also looked a little patchy so not natural looking as it claims. 

I wear Estée Lauder double wear usually and although this foundation gives me more of glowy finish which I much prefer it doesn't give me the full coverage or work well with my dry patches. Everyone's skin is different though so maybe it would suit a more oily skin type. 

 

I found it worked best with my smash box primer, a loose setting powder and my urban decay makeup spray - it did last all day. Overall I would be happy to wear this foundation during the day (once my skins a little less dry) however if I wanted to go out for the evening with the girls I don't feel like this compares to my Estée Lauder so considering the price I won't be repurchasing it a hurry! 

Have you tried this? What do you think? 

Ashley xoxo

Green energy smoothie

I hate vegetables. I hate salad. I hate healthy food in general to be honest.

I love the look of it. I love the benefits of it. I love to throw them all in my blender so I don't have to taste them! HA! 

Welcome to my four ingredient energy bursting green smoothie!

Ingredients needed;

Spinach 

Parsley 

Pinapple 

Tangerine 

You can either follow my measurements or make them up yourself there is no right or wrong and everyone's tastes buds are different, feel free to throw in extra ingredients and find out what suits you best!

I used 25g spinach, 5g parsley, 100g pinapple and one tangerine about 100g

Calories: 85

Carbs: 13g 

Sugar: 14g all natural 

Protein: 1g

Fat: 0g

Fibre: 2g

Vitamin A: 57%

Vitamin C: 49%

Calcium: 4

Iron: 8 

The above amount made a small glass seen below. This is a new recipe for me so obviously I would just up the amounts for more (feel free to make more and freeze) This however was actually enough for myself today. Be sure to chew the drink a little and swish it around your gums before swallowing, don't gulp it all down at once but instead sip it over the course of half an hour or drink half and then the other half shortly after. 

Benefits of parsley;

Rich in vital vitamins such as Vitamin C, B 12, K and A which will keep immune system strong and heal your nervous system. It will help flush out excess fluid from your body therefore helping your kidneys. 

Benefits of spinach;

Tons of vitamins including iron, vitamin C, A, E, K, B2 and B6. Loaded with flavonoids which act as antioxidants. Great source of protein, zinc, calcium and omega 3 fatty acids plus tons more! 

There are so many benefits to drinking smoothies it's the perfect way to get extra veg and water into your diet, because it's all blended it's much easier to disgest as your body is no longer working so hard to break down the food and extract the nutrients. Mixing both fruit and vegetables will make sure to keep the sugar levels balanced unlike eating fruit alone. You're getting a ton of vitamins and making them from home at a fraction of the price in the shops! 

I'm aiming for at least one a day, so feel free to give me your favourite recipes to try! 

Ashley xoxo

Little London break

So with it nearly being Christmas we decided a little break away Christmas shopping was just what was needed! Well I say Christmas shopping but I only bought myself stuff - whoops! 

I was so ill the night before that I'm surprised I even made it. I think I spoke all of about 6 words on the car journey on the way down and whilst the family went from station to station in selfridges food hall deciding what food they where going to indulge in, I settled for a smoothie hoping it may bring me some much needed vitamins! 

We parked the car up Saturday just a short walk from Paddington station and began our long day shopping! I actually spent next to nothing purely because I was just to ill to shop.. Yes I Ashley Rivett was too ill to shop around forever 21!?!? So I settled for a new pair of boots although I have to say I'm very happy with them, I did have to go through every pair to find my size and luckily grabbed the last size 4! My luck was beginning to change! Then I just picked a pair of black petite jamie jeans from topshop to wear that evening. 

We stayed at the Paddington court hotel in a club room which was lovely! So much better than I expected. The room was modern and very clean and the receptionists made us feel very welcome. The bed was extremely comfortable and we all had a very good nights sleep. The location for us was perfect, we where just a short ten minute car journey from the shard and again from Westfield shopping centre for our plans for the next day. 

There is a tiny little bar in the hotel which I was strongly fond of purely because my disaronno and cranberry I asked for was 3/4 disaronno and a splash of cranberry all for £4.50. Won me over big time there ha! 

For dinner we headed out to the restaurant Roast. The place was wonderful, again plenty of alcohol was flowing and the food was delicious. 

I had the T-bone steak with bone marrow and a little sausage meat pie. The peppercorn sauce was to die for! 

My boyfriend had venison which again was delicious! We had apple crumble and almond and citrus cake for desert. We certainly left full! 

Next up was the shard. I've always wanted to go and we where so close by that this was the perfect opportunity! Cocktails here we come!! The view is incredible, I could have stayed all night looking at that view and people watching, although I will say it was SO hot in that bar! Here are some pictures of the shard (unfortunately all are taken via my iPhone so not of the best quality)

Below are some items bought over the weekend... Not all of them are included because I will do some different blog posts. I've thrown in some extra photos from the whole weekend in general :)

I had such a lovely weekend away with my parents and boyfriend. Family time is so precious. Thank you for a perfect weekend xxx

Christmas quiz

1 - What is your favourite Christmas movie? 
I'm sorry I'm going to have to be so generic here and say Elf, The grinch, love actually and of course home alone. I can't pick one. It's impossible. I'm not going to lie just to try make myself seem different, there's a reason everyone loves these films! So I'm completely generic on this one guys 

2 - Do you open your presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? 
Christmas morning! I think I've opened maybe one on Christmas Eve a couple times, just a little stocking filler, but the rest are all saved for Christmas Day. I'm terrible at Christmas, I hunt out my presents and then feel so annoyed with myself once I've found them. One year my mum even hid them in the loft figuring because I'm 5 foot nothing and there was no ladder in the house they would be safe. She was wrong! I don't recommend balancing chairs, bins and books on top of one another ha!

3 - Do you have a favourite Christmas memory? 
It's the only time my family all comes together so I don't think I have favourites as such, although with that being said it was my daughters first Christmas last year and waking her up on Christmas morning is certainly up there. 

4 - Favourite festive food? 
Christmas dinner, extra crunchy roast potatos and pigs in blankets - yum! 

5 - Favourite Christmas gift? 
Honestly? I'm spoilt rotten at Christmas. My family and friends all do so well in getting me such nice things. My mum in particular is brillant at getting personalised keep sakes. My mulberry last Christmas had me grinning ear to ear though! 

6 - Favourite Christmas scent? 
I've bought a glade wax burner recently and bought the cinnamon and apple wax melts. They're Devine! I think it's my new favourite for sure. 

7 - Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions? 
Besides going to bed SUPER early so Christmas comes quicker? No haha.

8 - What tops your tree? 
A gold Angel - my little one picked her out this year, although she doesn't spend much time actually on the tree. It's my girls new favourite best friend - she likes to cuddle under the blanket with her. I'm going to keep her forever and hand her down when I'm older.

9 - Favourite festive song? 
Mariah Carey - all I want for Christmas is youuuuuuu

10 - What is the best part of Christmas for you? 

FOOD! I'm a big food lover - I get so excited and I'm constantly checking when dinner will be ready. I love being able to have an excuse to grab a bottle of dissarono first thing (completely acceptable on Christmas Day) all my family being together, presents, just  everything okay?!? 

Ashley xoxo