Back in May, E.L.F. rolled out its Chipotle beauty kit, a burrito-shaped bag filled with best-selling makeup. It was so popular, the two brands took their collaboration a major step forward. The new E.L.F. x Chipotle makeup collection is a full 3-piece line with a seriously cute makeup bag. It’s all new products this time and they’re actually inspired by classic Chipotle ingredients.

“Following our first launch with E.l.f., which sold out in less than four minutes last spring, we’ve taken our collab to the next level with beauty products celebrating our real ingredients in totally unexpected ways,” said Tressie Lieberman, Vice President, Digital Marketing and Off-Premise of Chipotle, in a statement.

The collection launches March 10 at 11am PST, but if you’re a member of E.l.f.’s Beauty Squad, you shop first on March 9. And it’s not just makeup. March 10 is also when the Eyes. Chips. Face. Bowl launches at Chipotle. The vegan bowl was curated by iconic drag queens Trixie Mattel and Kim Chi.

There’s also a way to get free chips and guac. When you buy the eyeshadow palette on E.L.F.’s website, you’ll get a digital coupon for free Chipotle Chips & Guac in your order confirmation email, through April 15. Check out all the goods, below.

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.

Extra Guac Face Sponge Set

This avocado-shaped sponge comes with a mini pit-shaped sponge for hard-to-reach areas.

ELF.

Eyes Chips Face Makeup Bag

It looks just like Chipotle’s tortilla chip bag.

ELF.

Chipotle Eyeshadow Palette

The matte, shimmer, and metallic shades are inspired by classic Chipotle ingredients.

ELF.

Make It Hot Lip Gloss

This plumping lip gloss has a salsa-colored tint.

Back in May, E.L.F. rolled out its Chipotle beauty kit, a burrito-shaped bag filled with best-selling makeup. It was so popular, the two brands took their collaboration a major step forward. The new E.L.F. x Chipotle makeup collection is a full 3-piece line with a seriously cute makeup bag. It’s all new products this time and they’re actually inspired by classic Chipotle ingredients.

“Following our first launch with E.l.f., which sold out in less than four minutes last spring, we’ve taken our collab to the next level with beauty products celebrating our real ingredients in totally unexpected ways,” said Tressie Lieberman, Vice President, Digital Marketing and Off-Premise of Chipotle, in a statement.

The collection launches March 10 at 11am PST, but if you’re a member of E.l.f.’s Beauty Squad, you shop first on March 9. And it’s not just makeup. March 10 is also when the Eyes. Chips. Face. Bowl launches at Chipotle. The vegan bowl was curated by iconic drag queens Trixie Mattel and Kim Chi.

There’s also a way to get free chips and guac. When you buy the eyeshadow palette on E.L.F.’s website, you’ll get a digital coupon for free Chipotle Chips & Guac in your order confirmation email, through April 15. Check out all the goods, below.

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.

Extra Guac Face Sponge Set

This avocado-shaped sponge comes with a mini pit-shaped sponge for hard-to-reach areas.

ELF.

Eyes Chips Face Makeup Bag

It looks just like Chipotle’s tortilla chip bag.

ELF.

Chipotle Eyeshadow Palette

The matte, shimmer, and metallic shades are inspired by classic Chipotle ingredients.

ELF.

Make It Hot Lip Gloss

This plumping lip gloss has a salsa-colored tint.

Previously, I discussed the effects of estrogen on your body, including subsequent weight gain. The hormone I will be discussing in this article is cortisol, also known as the stress hormone.

It is a sad fact of modern day life that you may be affected by constant stress due to ongoing life challenges and work demands. What you may not be realizing is that this constant stress is adding an extra layer of fat deep in your belly. Not only is this unsightly, but this excess belly fat is unhealthy and difficult to get rid of.

Belly fat releases chemicals which trigger inflammation. In turn, this increases the likelihood that you will develop heart disease or diabetes. Unfortunately, cortisol is raised when you are stressed and slows down your metabolism, because your body wants to maintain an adequate supply of glucose that it needs when dealing with stress.

Cortisol

Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands. It’s known as the “stress hormone” because it’s released when your body senses stress.

Like other hormones, it’s vital to survival. However, chronically elevated levels of cortisol can lead to overeating and weight gain. Another connection to weight gain is cortisol’s effect on appetite and increased cravings for high-calorie foods.

Cortisol Induced Weight Gain

Problems arise when you are in a constant state of stress. Exposure to cortisol over a long period can lead to weight gain, as your appetite and insulin levels are continuously increased. Continual stress leads to a constant state of excess cortisol production, which stimulates glucose production. This excess glucose gets converted into fat, ending up as stored belly fat.

Alongside the stress and the resulting chronic overload of cortisol, you also feel tired and listless. You reach out for high carb foods to renew your energy and comfort yourself, with the end result of even more extra inches accumulating around your belly.

It is generally accepted that stress-induced cortisol weight is usually gained around the waistline, because fat cells in this area are more sensitive to cortisol. The fat cells in your abdomen are richer in stress hormone receptors, are particularly sensitive to high insulin and are very effective at storing body fat.

Unfortunately, this is the most dangerous place to gain weight, as it can lead to metabolic syndrome, diabetes and heart disease.

Signs of Cortisol Induced Weight Gain

• Weight gain particularly around the abdomen and hips
• Difficulty in losing weight
• Bloating
• Water retention
• Breast swelling and tenderness
• Headaches
• Mood swings
• Irritability
• Sluggish metabolism
• Foggy thinking, memory loss
• Fatigue
• Trouble sleeping/insomnia

How to Decrease the Hold Stress Has on Your Body

If you change your reaction to stress, or change what causes stress, you can completely change your body’s chemistry, lose weight and improve health.

• Avoid living a fast-paced, high-stressed, fear-based lifestyle. Fears you are holding inside can increase stress levels. An abundance of worry and fear can add 4lb of belly fat alone!
• Pay attention to lifestyle improvements that allow you to take time out and look after yourself.
• Adopt attitudes of forgiveness, letting go, positive attitudes and feelings of gratitude.
• Step away from toxic family and friends that may be causing undue stress in your life.
• Follow a balanced, real food-based diet. Follow the food charts given at the start of the program.
• Do not eat on the run, at your desk, standing up or when you are feeling high levels of stress. This interferes with the absorption of the nutrients.
• Don’t cut calories to extremely low levels. When you are under stress the need for nutrients is greater.
• Research has shown that when soothing music is played during medical procedures, cortisol doesn’t rise as much.
• Try and get a good night’s sleep. One study of nurses found that those who worked night shift had increased cortisol levels by 50-80% as opposed to those that worked day shifts.
• Get a pet, even if it is a goldfish!

Yoga and Meditation for Stress Release

Practicing meditation can significantly reduce cortisol production. Most things that are in your control when it comes to healing with stress include relaxation techniques, yoga, exercise and meditation. When the source of stress is ongoing marital or sexual problems, specific counseling may be required.

Yoga is one of the best practices you can do if you need help to relieve stress. We all have stress in our lives, but what we do with that stress, and how we let the stress affect our life, is the real issue that needs to be addressed.

If you would like to know more about the benefits of yoga here is an article I wrote where I open up about my not-so-happy experience with yoga and what I did to turn it around and make it an amazingly wonderful experience.

Have you found yourself under stress lately? What did you do to relieve the stress in your life? Or, perhaps this is the first time you have been made aware of how stress can impact your life. I would love to know what changes you made to help you be more aware of the stress in your life, and what you did to help cope with it. Please share your experience in the comments below.

Imagine the scene – your birthday comes round, and you are so happy to have had lots of lovely cards sent to you. They sit on your mantelpiece, you truly enjoy looking at them, and then a couple of weeks down the line, it’s time to take them down. So you bundle them together and add them to your ever growing collection of keepsakes.

Some Memories Are Special

In your lifetime, there have been a lot of birthdays, and celebrations, and weddings, and christenings, and new homes and sadly there are illnesses and bereavements too – all of these things bring with them memories – sometimes happy, sometimes sad.

But why are they so sentimental? Because they represent milestones in your life and milestones are special. Because some of these cards are sent from people going through milestones of their own.

Those cute cards from your grandchildren. The thank you cards from your children when they left home and thanked you for everything you did for them. That heartfelt message from a friend when you lost someone special or that card from your partner when you first feel in love. These are truly special and deserve their place in your home.

Not All Mementos Are Made Equal

But what about the cards that are not quite so special? The ones that don’t have an extra- special message, the Christmas cards from a neighbour or a work colleague that you have to wrack your brains to remember who they are, the cards sent on your child’s 6th birthday from every member of the class…

The sentimentality behind these fades over time yet they are still bundled up with all the other truly special ones you have kept with your keepsakes.

There will undoubtedly come a time in life when those cards become overwhelming. They have stayed in those boxes untouched and unloved for years if not decades.

You may be allocating valuable space in your home to sentimental items of average or low value, and that space would be better used for things you are using on a more regular basis for the life you are leading now.

So How Should You Tackle Sentimental Cards?

The vital component when you are tackling sentimental items is to favour quality over quantity. Once you start to focus in on the truly special ones, you will retain a more meaningful collection of keepsakes. But it can be an evocative, sometimes difficult, journey to tackle sentimental items, and it is often something we have procrastinated over for years.

Once you have made your decision to declutter your cards, you need to be ready for a change in mindset. Sentimentality is a vital part of human nature, but when the amount of cards you have means you can’t enjoy the truly special ones, it’s time to really focus in on quality over quantity.

6 Tips for Decluttering Cards

Here are a few tips to help you along your way:

• Who are the cards from and is that person special to you?
• Look carefully at the message inside. Was the message personal? Does it give you that warm fuzzy feeling inside?
• Can you make the decision to only keep cards from special birthdays – 1st, 21st, 50th, 60^th, for example?
• Get well and sympathy cards can take you to a very sad place. It is worth thinking through whether that is having a positive effect on your wellbeing.
• If you have a celebration where you receive big volumes of cards, for example, Christmas, these can be a simple place to start your decluttering.
• If you want to do something with the cards, like scrapbooking or putting them into digital format, do you have the tools you need to start the project?

Tackling your sentimental items can be one of the most rewarding and enjoyable decluttering projects you will ever do, but it can be tough to make that mental leap to favour quality over quantity.

If you want a helping hand, come and join our FREE Managing Mementoes Masterclass on Tuesday 9th March at 8pm UK time, and we can help you work through the emotions that are holding you back from making the right decisions when you are decluttering your sentimental items.

Have you kept your card collection to a minimum or do you feel overwhelmed by the amount you have? Where do you keep your cards? Have you come up with some clever ways to display them so you can enjoy them regularly? Let us know in the comments.

Back in May, E.L.F. rolled out its Chipotle beauty kit, a burrito-shaped bag filled with best-selling makeup. It was so popular, the two brands took their collaboration a major step forward. The new E.L.F. x Chipotle makeup collection is a full 3-piece line with a seriously cute makeup bag. It’s all new products this time and they’re actually inspired by classic Chipotle ingredients.

“Following our first launch with E.l.f., which sold out in less than four minutes last spring, we’ve taken our collab to the next level with beauty products celebrating our real ingredients in totally unexpected ways,” said Tressie Lieberman, Vice President, Digital Marketing and Off-Premise of Chipotle, in a statement.

The collection launches March 10 at 11am PST, but if you’re a member of E.l.f.’s Beauty Squad, you shop first on March 9. And it’s not just makeup. March 10 is also when the Eyes. Chips. Face. Bowl launches at Chipotle. The vegan bowl was curated by iconic drag queens Trixie Mattel and Kim Chi.

There’s also a way to get free chips and guac. When you buy the eyeshadow palette on E.L.F.’s website, you’ll get a digital coupon for free Chipotle Chips & Guac in your order confirmation email, through April 15. Check out all the goods, below.

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.

Extra Guac Face Sponge Set

This avocado-shaped sponge comes with a mini pit-shaped sponge for hard-to-reach areas.

ELF.

Eyes Chips Face Makeup Bag

It looks just like Chipotle’s tortilla chip bag.

ELF.

Chipotle Eyeshadow Palette

The matte, shimmer, and metallic shades are inspired by classic Chipotle ingredients.

ELF.

Make It Hot Lip Gloss

This plumping lip gloss has a salsa-colored tint.