Lisa Mary Anderson

What's worse than Winter and dealing with the cold? The toll it takes on your body.. Like cool, I'm already miserable cause it's bloody cold, let's make my skin dry, my hair frizzy and also dry, and my sex life non existent because I don't shave my legs anymore. Cool, cool, cool. 

The cold has never liked me, so much so that when it get's really bad I get Dermatitis on my hands. I am actually allergic to the cold. So that's why it's so important to me to make sure that I am taking my winter skin care very seriously, and not end up looking like the reptile I clearly am. 

I have started incorporating much more rich moisturisers to help add back in the moisture the cold strips from my skin, as well as Retinol from Skinstitut which helps with skin cell production. Retinol is a form of Vitamin A that promotes cell renewal in the skin by increasing collagen and elastin production. 

My lips cop it massively and can often become cracked so I always carry around a Lip balm with me that is mainly coconut oil based, and one of my favs is from Hurraw which costs under $4. 

 I try to only use natural make up products that have as minimal chemicals as possible in them, and have been an avid user of Dusty Girls Make Up for over 2 years now. I use the Earth Cream (a BB cream), the mineral foundation and the Bronzer everyday without fail. I have also discovered the incredible Quintessential Romance Eyeshadow Palette which has the most beautiful tones for creating warm eye looks that I have used here. 

  At night time is when your skin repairs itself the most. This is when you should be applying your face oils or your thicker moisturisers to allow your skins to absorb all the goodness while you rest. I love the Keihls Pure Vitality Skin Renewing Cream or the FACE OIL. I have also been adding in the Skinstitut 100% Vitamin C Powder which assist with Collagen production and fighting free radical damage. 

I have also been doing face masks at least once a week to help counter balance the damage the cold is doing and been opting for the Skinstitut Hydrating Mask, which is a little 10 minute job that you can slap on while you dry your hair and rinse. No mixing of Finnish clay with water sourced from Mercury while it's in retrograde and applying with a brush made from unicorns hair.

There are also basic tips that you should ALWAYS follow, not just in winter to ensure you are looking after your skin:

Don't forget your SPF factor. It may be cold but that sun is still harsh, so keep your skin protected from the UV rays that cause pigmentation and wrinkles that we all try to avoid.

Take your make up off with a gentle cleanser or make up remover everyday. 

Try to not work out and sweat with make up on as you are opening up your pores and yur make up clogs it up straight away. Plus that feeling of make up on your skin when you sweat is just Gross.  

Drink LOTS of water. At least 2 litres a day to avoid Dehydration and your skin drying out.

Eat your greens. 

What does your winter skin care regime look like? Let me know in the comments.

Stay tuned for my Natural Make up blog post next week with the perfect make up look to make you feel like it's summer!

There are days where the energy just flows: you look at your inbox with delight as you smash out tasks, your diary is organised, and you tick off things on your to do list, you enter the gym like Rocky into the ring, ready to smash your workout. 

And then there are days where putting pants on, answering the phone, having meetings or even responding to questions of any nature feels like an even bigger bane of your existence than paying tax. 

"I just can't be fucked. I have no motivation; how do I get motivated again?" - Said everyone, ever and one point of another. 

And the answer? Who knows! Often, you'll hear:

Give yourself some direction and you'll know where you're going!

Write down some goals so you feel positive when you achieve them. 

Take a break and come back to it with a fresh mind. 

Just get started! You won't find motivation, you create it!

And all of these are lovely in theory, but what do you do when you are sitting looking longingly at your phone, hoping you will become a millionaire who can travel the world without a care and live the life you have always dreamed of, but get stuck feeling hopeless because you don't know how to change where you are? And even if you can figure that chestnut out, it will take months or years! How do you keep putting one foot in front of the other when you struggle to put on your shoes? 

This is me today; struggling. Feeling overwhelmed by my desire to progress, grow, move forward and achieve, but no fucking idea of how I can do these things TODAY. 

I made my to do list and ticked things off as I went. 

I responded to emails and cleared out parts of my inbox.

I write out some goals to start giving me some direction and plans.

Hell, I even had some one on one time with the big boss which makes you really feel like you are learning, and for a short while, "MOTIVATION - LET'S DO THIS!".. and then, gone. 

**I literally had an "ah ha! moment as Oprah calls it" writing this next sentence.**

Motivation isn't something you find behind your couch, its not hiding from you. You create motivation based on your desire to achieve and when you have clear intentions set. Which writing out makes me realise that although I have an idea of where I want to go, my road to get there is very murky. My steps towards where I want to be aren't laid out for me to be able to know if my footing is in the right direction and no way to measure if I am on the way to my dream, or if I might as well have Toto under my arm travelling down the yellow brick road on the way to see the Wizard of Oz!

So really then, the answer to how do you find motivation, is by stopping and looking at why you feel so flat; what is the true cause of your shitty mindset? Be REALLY honest here because the bull shit is what got you here in the first place, and that honesty is the key to changing your attitude, actions or both to be able to find your motivation again. 

**Scuttles off to go find direction and set some goals** 

And if that doesn't work, here are a whole bunch of quotes that made me feel better, because Tumblr. 

As I sit here writing, I have just finished crying because I couldn't find the podcasts I had saved in my library to listen to and got so frustrated by this, that I cried. In reality it's not this annoyance that is making me upset (Seriously, where the fuck do they go when they are saved but not downloaded, for the love of god please someone help me?!), it's me being drained and a bit lost, and happen to be having one of "those days." 

I'm in a transition period between where I am and where I want to be, and not 100% sure of how to get there, and that leaves me feeling quite unfulfilled when I don't see some tangible direction or steps being taken. It also means that change is happening in that change there is discomfort because I don't feel like I am aligned with where I want to be. My momentum and my head are pretty much there, I feel like I should be living it now, but my day to day doesn't match up. 

And so I have days where I feel like I am wasting my time, others are wasting my time, draining my energy, but it's because I don't really know what the fuck to do with my energy! Just dreaming of escaping to the beach, my happy place. And today is one of those days.

So, me not finding the podcasts that I had saved, made me cry. My inbox is overwhelming me because I just don't want to answer the emails I am getting. The tasks ahead of me seem super tedious and redundant. The event I have on tonight which I was so excited for now sees like a chore having to put on a smile and "network," making small talk which I HATE! And I am beating myself up about the fact that I feel this way.

This is why I am a hypocrite. I even was messaging two friends this morning about taking it slow, being kind to themselves and that it's okay to have bad days, and yet here I am not taking my own advice or listening to the lessons that I have learned. So, instead, this is how I will tackle the day:

I am not trying to power through and make myself feel worse when I don't achieve the workload I feel like I should.

I am making a list of things that I NEED to get done today and ticking them off slowly which helps me feel like I have been productive. 

<----- I am ordered myself a peanut butter smoothie, because what doesn't peanut butter fix?!

I am allowing myself to be okay with having a slow day.

Making space for "me time" tonight and instead of forcing myself into a situation where I will more likely than not feel incredibly uncomfortable, I am going to go home, have a hot shower put a face mask on and do some writing.

Do you have days like this? And how do you handle these days? 

Over the last 18 months, I completely fell over. I let all the things that bring me joy and happiness fall to the way side because they just didn’t bring that joy to me anymore. Rather, they felt like a chore, and that included blogging and social media. What was my creative outlet, putting my inspiration into something tangible that I could be proud of and share with the world, was now a tedious task that I just couldn’t be fucked with. I lost myself.

And it hurt. It ached as I longed for something that I couldn’t quite understand was gone or why, but what I was missing wasn’t the actual process of content create and writing, it was my energy and mindset. What used to be my driving force that pushed me out of bed every day, that kept me up late to get it done, that saw me trying to hustle ever damn day to make it happen, had just disappeared. 

I became a victim of our societies, and my own pressure to think and be positive all the time, and in my constant avoidance of natural waves of emotions that involve sadness, negativity and sometimes just thinking “fuck everything!” I ended up manifesting it. I focused so much on trying to see the silver lining and trying not to be sad because I was so scared of my past experiences with it, that I literally made this happen by letting fear determine my actions. 

I beat myself up about it for so long too. Instead of just feeling pain, I also made myself suffer by being angry at myself for feeling this way. Welcome to what Mark Manson refers to as "the feedback loop from hell." You feel crap and then make yourself feel worse through guilt and judgement of feeling crap, and the cycle continues. 

Sometimes, there are just bad times, weeks, months. And we can try to always be looking for the positives, but in reality, we are then constantly ignoring a huge and vital part of life where we grow and learn; hardship. Not every day is sunshine and rainbows with dancing unicorns farting fairy floss. Some days, you are Eeyore and there is a giant grey cloud that follows you wherever you go that you just can't find an umbrella for. AND THAT'S OKAY.

Again, to paraphrase Mark Manson, author of "The subtle art of not giving a fuck,” (Which I highly recommend reading/listening to. it's amazing!), constantly searching for a positive experience is in itself a negative experience, because you're never appreciating what you do have and learning from the bad times, and accepting your negative experiences, is itself a positive experience as you are relinquishing control and understanding that sometimes, shit happens... Mind fuck, but true. 

I've started to re-evaluate what brings me joy and what makes me happy. I have started to make more time and prioritise these things, like travel and being spontaneous, which I have never really been good at. I have started to put myself first and understand that work is work and it will always be there, somethings are more important. And I am learning to appreciate the good in everyday rather than living for the weekend, and to give less fucks about other people’s opinions and judgements.

So, I am just going to do me for a while, and see how that treats me, and in the process of making that decision, I am finding my voice again, which must be a sign I am on the right track!

Have you lost your voice before? How did you find it or are you yet to? Share with me in the comments, and let's help each other on our journey back towards ourselves and our happiness.

There are some brands that you just love and always will for whatever reason. When all else fails, you turn back to this brand/s for outfit reassurance and wardrobe staples and end up leaving with 3 or 4 pieces extra because AMAZING!! Maybe they just nail it each season and you can never go past them. Or their jeans are the denim fuzz to your peach that perks it up like they were made just for YOU. Perhaps their bras give you that extra lift that makes you have a Shania Twain "I feel like a woman" moment. Or, maybe their logo is really cool and ya just like 'em. Either way, for me that old faithful is Glassons.

My love for Glassons started in New Zealand at the age of 12, visiting the Bay Fair store every weekend to see what new goods were in store, and try to portion out my saved pocket money to be able to afford even just one thing. I remember saving for that $59.95 for my first ever piece that I bought myself - A turquoise bomber jacket with removable hood and elasticated ribbed trimming. I loved it so much  It had SO many pockets... 

My love of Glassons has never left me thanks to their affordable fashion, on point buyers and making seasonal trends so accessible. Not to mention transcending across The Tasman with me. To this day, I still shop at Glassons and this summer have loved their Linen range, ribbed one-pieces, off the shoulder tops, denim shorts that aren't so cheeky you can see what you had for breakfast (I literally bought 3 pairs), and tie front tops. That's why I couldn't wait to wear ALL OF IT on my recent trip to Noosa! And for the record, this is not sponsored, I paid for all of this myself.

Black Denim Shorts: Slouchy Cheeky Shorts now $19.99

White Crop Tie front: Tie Front Blouse - Similar but not the same fabric

Denim Shorts: Slouchy Cheeky Short now $19.99

Black off shoulder top and Ribbed Oe piece not available online. 

Glassons never fails to bring out seasonal hits that don't cripple your bank account, and with so many boutiques and online stores coming and going, Glassons never fails to impress! Check out some of these pieces hitting the shelves soon that I spied: 

If you haven't already, go and hit up their Instagram feed and fill your hearts desire with style inspo!

Until next time thrifty lovers,