Venice- Day One

Venice is very, very surreal. 
The city exists soley on water and as you arrive by water taxi, you feel like it can't be real or that you're on the set of a movie. You feel as though you must be dreaming, or that you're in some crazy alternate universe. 
It's truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in real life.

So yesterday, our first full day, we set off to explore the city... getting lost in all the winding labyrinth esq streets, taking photographs and video footage. 
We checked out a couple of Venetian mask shops, picked up some gelato (it really had to be done), and sat outside a cafe by the water drinking strong Italian americanos, and planning our day.

We were planning on finding the famous church, but ended up getting distracted and taking a gondola around the city. 
It was one of the most relaxing experiences ever, the lapping of the water, and the driver singing in Italian to us. I have to say, Venice looks even more incredible from the water level of the gondola, sickeningly romantic, too!

We managed to duck out of the rain, find a local restaurant tucked away in one of the side streets, and enjoyed some traditional food and wine, before having a little bar crawl on the way back to our hotel. 
The great thing about all the bars we went to, was that they are all in cake and chocolate shops, what a genius idea?! Cake and alcohol all in one place, these Venetians sure know how to live!

DHC Deep Cleansing Oil

I don't know about any of you but my skin is certainly taking a hit with all this cold snowy weather we're having at the moment in the UK.
I've never really suffered with it before but my skin has become dry, flaky and scaley. Kind of like when you have 'crocodile skin' from sunburn. Sadly though, it's not due to sun exposure!

I've been using DHC Deep Cleansing Oil for the past few days with the hope that it might rescue and re-hydrate my skin a little. I must say, I've been very impressed so far. I wouldn't normally feel too happy about putting oil on my face, but desperate times...

You just squirt abit onto your fingertips, and massage all over your face. If you have make up on, you can still pop it on straight over the top as it dissolves & removes all make up too, it's quite similar to the famous Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish in that respect.

I've been loving using this before bed, I have no need to moisturize after using it, & it makes my skin soft and smooth ready for make up application, bonus :)

Oh, and it's scent free which is great in my opinion (I'm so fussy about smells you see).

Have you ever tried DHC deep Cleansing Oil? What do you go to to rescue your skin from the cold weather?

I'm off to Venice tomorrow (eeeek!), so I'll be blogging from Italy over the weekend, I can't wait to start photographing :)

My new favourite candle

Hey kids, 
I know most of you beauty bloggers out there are big candle fans, so I thought I'd let you know about my new favourite, it's Aspinal of London Grapefruit scented candle. 

I absolutely adore the smell of grapefruits, this is fresh, citrus, and just gorgeous. It fills up the whole room and is just divine. At £25 it's pretty much the average price you'd pay for a long lasting candle, and totally worth it in my opinion. So if any of you are looking for a new scent, I recommend this one.

Have you tried any candles from Aspinal? What are your favourite candles?

Have you got nice plans for the weekend? I think mine will be quite relaxed, involving pancakes and movies.

Easter High Tea at the Gallery Mess in Chelsea

Being a huge fan of traditional high tea, when the lovely people from the Gallery Mess got in touch and very kindly asked if I'd like to go and sample their special Easter High Tea, I jumped at the chance. 

Stef and I have eaten lunch in there a couple of times when we have been wondering around Chelsea, and it has never failed to impress us. 

If you haven't been before, the Gallery Mess is a charming little restaurant/cafe/bar, all rolled into one, attached to the Saatchi Gallery. With it's exposed brickwork, an eclectic collection of sculptures and neon artwork dotted around, it has a really great contemporary feel to it. I especially love the fairy lights in the giant flower pots. 

After meeting with the restaurant manager, we were given a selection of loose teas too choose from (I went for Earle Grey, Stef for Green Tea), and a couple of glasses of prosecco. 

The Easter High Tea arrived on a gorgeous slate cake stand, very impressive. 

The bottom layer had cucumber sandwiches, and salmon and egg on perfectly crisp little rolls. The top layer was full of Easter egg themed sweet treats, cakes and warm scones with jam and rich clotted cream. My favourite was a toss up between the chocolate teacake and the white chocolate egg with mousse inside, YUM!!

I must say, it certainly tasted just as good as it looked!

The Gallery Mess is the perfect place for brunch, with a relaxed atmosphere, friendly staff and great food. In fact, we like it so much that we are even going to look into having our wedding party there. 

Anyway, I'd definitely recommend the Easter high tea if you're in the area and fancy a little Easter treat. It's perfect for a girls brunch, date or family time. 

Have you ever been to the Gallery Mess? 

Clarins Liquid Bronze

Every now and again, I like to delve into the world of fake tan. As you know, usually I am pretty faithful to St Tropez, but I have been a little fickle lately.

I suppose in the colder winter months, most of our beauty routines change somewhat. I don't usually change my tan at all, I love to have a bit of colour on my skin, but I thought I'd try out a more subtle winter kind of tan. 

Clarins Liquid Bronze seemed like a good choice, it's a nice high end brand, known for their good skincare products. Apparently it's an award winning product...

Unfortunately I tried it for a few days and just really could not get on with it at all. 

I applied it with a cotton pad just before bed each night, and although it was very moisturising which is a nice positive, I just wasn't wowed by it at all. 

One of the good things about it, is that it doesn't have that horrible fake tan smell. I wouldn't go as far as saying it smells particularly nice, it just doesn't really smell of much.

After the first use, I couldn't really see much difference in my skin colour at all. After the next few nights, I developed a subtle, yellow toned kind of colour, not really very nice at all. I also found that it stuck to the dry parts of my skin and became patchy. It didn't last for very long either, it's worth mentioning that it comes out very watery, and it's white so you can't be sure of which areas you have covered. Not great. 

I suppose it could be good if you nice if you are naturally very pale and just looking for an extremely subtle tint, but for me, this product has a huge thumbs down. I definitely won't be buying it, and I wouldn't recommend it, not for £18. Can't win them all, huh? I'll be crawling back to my good old St Tropez with my tail between my legs now! 

What are you guys up to this weekend? For me, today involves yoga, and then later on, I have very kindly been invited to sample the Easter tea menu at the Gallery Mess restaurant in Chelsea. I do love a nice high tea, I swear sometimes I'm an 80 year old trapped inside a 20 somethings' body!!

Photo Diary#18 I smash expensive things.

Saturdays face | Woken up with a fresh home-made smoothie | New art | New art2 | Nimrod the puppet boozing | Honest Burger | Friday night chocolate shot

My weekend had a little kick start on Friday night with a nice juicy steak, and these delicious chocolate shots (how cute?!). I know how to spend a Friday night in, that's for sure :p

On Saturday Stef & I scooted to Battersea affordable art fair, where I proceeded to smash a very expensive sculpture into lots of little pieces with my handbag. Yup.
Mortified does not even come close, I don't think I've ever gone so red in my entire life. I actually wanted to cry, so did the sales woman too, for that matter. Devoed.
I swiftly retired to the bar to numb my disgrace and calm my nerves. Lesson learnt, don't take a giant tote bag to an art fair. I swear I'm the clumsiest lady alive.

After a couple of glasses of prosecco, Stef picked these new drawings for our living room wall and we scooted home to hang them up. The one of the 'grumpy couple' really made us both laugh, just had to have it.
On Saturday night we headed over to our friend Zacks house for a little drunken dinner party, I'm certainly feeling very fragile today!
Stef & I decided to head to Honest Burger and feed up our hangovers. I never realised how cool Brixton market is, theres tons of really cute restaurants, it's very much like Camden, great if you're a foody like me. We'll definitely head back to try some new food. Anyway, I went for the 'honest burger', and it really hit the spot.

Tonight will be spent drinking home-made fruit smoothies to detox, catching up on some reading, nail painting, oh and throw in a facepack too :) Sundays are the best. 

I've been totally obsessed with this song this weekend, literally every time I've been doing my hair or make-up, I've had it on repeat, I just love it. I also resisted buying this hat, although I think I'll probably cave and purchase it tomorrow. We booked a trip to Venice at the end of this month (the hotel looks insane), and I feel like I need this hat to complete my Venice attire.

What did you get up to at the weekend?

Have you ever eaten in Honest Burger, or smashed up any artwork?! 

Reading list- a handful of my favourite blogs

I thought I'd page a little homage to the girls behind the great blogs that I read on a regular basis.
There are so, so many, it was tough to pick just a handful, but these girls are constantly amazing and I always get a little buzz when I see they've updated. Geeky, huh?!

Corrie from Dizzy Brunette3- Whenever I see Corries’ photos, I get major hair envy, tell me it's not just me?! Corries’ blog always makes me laugh to myself, she has such great humor in her writing and no matter where I am, reading her posts is guaranteed to make me smile. I think her personality always comes across which is really nice :)

Kayleigh from Couture Girl - I'm pretty sure most of you already know and love Kayleighs blog (if you don't, where have you been?). She's absolutely stunning always a great 'go to' for fashion or make up tips and advice, she's tried it all. I love her personal style, and she's such a sweety too.

Megan from Wonderful You - Megs is a another lovely lady, her blog is full of fashion and beauty, her photography is beautiful and she's also one of my favourite Youtubers to watch, she's a natural!

Laura from Belles Boutique-  Lauras' was actually one of the first blogs I started reading, she inspired me to start my own. I love that she updates so regularly and her blog is so crisp and perfect. She's always attending exciting events and reviewing high end products, so glamorous! I swear this girl is lipstick and blusher queen too...

Michela from Beauty Habitue - This girl has some serious style. A fellow Vogue lover, she screams classic chic. One of my favourite posts of hers is the monthly instalment of what's in my handbag. Her blog deserves way more followers!

Anna Saccone- I'm sure you must all know Anna's blog too. I only discovered her blog and youtube channels a couple of weeks ago but I've been hooked since then. Seriously, every lunchtime I watch her latest upload. She has the most adorable baby in the world, her blog is a mix up of beauty, lifestyle, baby and mothering tips. She seems so genuine and just really lovely.

So, those were a few of my favourites, do you read any of these blogs? 
Which are your favourites? 
Feel free to pop links to any others, I'm always on the look out for more blogs/tumblrs/instagrams that take my fancy.

Here are a few of the products I am currently coveting. Surprisingly for me, they are all quite reasonably priced.

Anyway, it's been a week since payday and I haven't actually bought anything yet, how good am I?!

1. Urban Decay Naked Pallette, the original £32.40 (currently on offer)- I'm not even sure I would use this very much, I just want it because everyone in the whole blogging world seems to own it and constantly rave about it. I really like neutral shades on the eyes too, and this has lots of them.

2. Zara Boots £30- How cute are these? I do need to stop with the recent Zara shoe obsession though; I can see it getting quite out of control!

3. Benefit Bathlina £22.50- I've said it before, but I don't usually rate Benefit products. This body balm however, honestly smells of perfection; that’s what lured me in! You don’t even need to wear perfume with this, and it's super moisturizing too. Great for giving your skin that special little 'photoshoot ready' glow. I should have put this at the top of my list really hehe    

4. YSL Touche Eclat £25- An obvious choice, yes ladies? I've purchased this before a few times as a little treat. It’s one of those things I wouldn’t exactly call a ‘staple’, but it certainly is nice to use. It's an absolute lifesaver for waking up tired eyes and brightening up the complexion. Especially on those early shifts!

Have you tried any of these before? What’s on your wishlist at the moment?

Photo diary #17 Okay Pal

Starting the weekend with a cake-pop treat | At the pub down by Borough Market | Eggy breakfast | Chanel pop-up shop

I've been an awfully bad blogger of late, haven't I? One of the main reasons I've been a little absent is because most of your lovely blogs have now been blocked on the network at work :( boo. So if you've noticed I'm not commenting on your blogs, that's why. I'm having a couple of weeks off soon, so I can't wait to catch up properly with everyones blogs and videos.

So anyway, back to the photo diary, what was I up to this weekend? Here’s an ever so quick round-up, I'm afraid I didn’t really take very good photos this weekend though...

If you're a Londoner you'll know that Saturday was gorgeous and sunny, so we headed over to Borough Market, and devoured delicious falafel wraps and smoothies, before 'accidently' ending up in the pub and doing a mini bar crawl to North London. Woops.
Oh, and not forgetting our random drunken visit to some kind of underground museum... I'd love to tell you the name of it, but it's totally slipped my mind (wonder why?! *hic*)

We ended up hitting Lucky Chip, a candle lit chicken restaurant above a pub in Kentish Town, that I would describe as 'posh KFC'. Unfortunately, I inhaled my food far too quickly to stop and take photos for you guys, so you’ll just have to trust me on this one, it’s insanely good.
The best part of Lucky Chip though, has got to be the beans. Oh, the beans *sighs*. They were the tastiest beans ever. If you ever go there, make sure you order a double portion!

On Sunday I had an ice-cream date with my best buddy Laura (yes, I am aware my whole weekend seemed to evolve around food). Nothing better than an ice-cream date, huh?!
I'll admit it did turn into a little window shopping date too. Surprisingly we were both very restrained, despite trying on a bazillion things in Zara (my weakness) and lusting over lipsticks in Chanel. Fun girls day out though!

So it was a relatively quiet weekend really.

What did you get up to at the weekend?

Shimmerbrick

A couple of weekends ago, my friend Amy and I, were chatting about make-up (as you do) over a glass of wine in a cute little pub in Chelsea. She whipped the Bobbi Brown Shimmerbrick out of her handbag and I instantly fell in love. 
As soon as I swatched it, I just knew I had to have it. Luckily, I had a shoot coming up the next week (more on that later), so I could completely justify it. I don't actually really love any of the bronzers in my make-up artist kit, so, the following day, off I popped to Selfridges.

The Shimmerbrick has such great pigmentation; you hardly need to load up your brush at all, a couple of sweeps across the palette will do. I'm not sure my blurry Iphone photos really do it justice at all!
Anyway, I love the subtle shimmer and the lovely pearly effect of this, the 5 different shades combined add a gorgeous textured tone to the cheeks.
It also doubles up as a highlight too, you can actually use the lightest shade to highlight your brow-bone and tops of your cheekbones.

I've used this on a few different people now, and it seems to be very complimentary on most skin tones (I opted for the original bronze palette, but they do about 4 other varieties too). It's a lovely natural ‘sun-kissed’ bronze colour and not orange at all like some bronzers tend to be.

As you probably all know by now, I am a sucker for packaging, and the Shimmerbrick is really no exception. I just love the black, shiny classic box it comes in, and that satisfying compact 'click'. It's sturdy enough to chuck in your handbag with no worries of smashing too. So. although it will set you back £32, in my opinion, totally worth it.

 
Have you tried the Shimmerbrick before? What did you think of it?

Oh, and before I forget to tell you, Selfridges are offering a complimentary make over to celebrate the launch of the new Bobbi Brown collaboration with Katie Holmes, you just have to ring them to book in :)

P.s Go and have a little nosey at Amys sewing Blog, The Little Tailoress, she's one talented lady :)