At the start of August Sean and I flew out to beautiful Dublin for 4 days. Neither of us had been to Ireland before and with Sean's family links to the country we were super excited to delve into the history and explore the city. Unfortunately we were enjoying ourselves too much to take lots of photos and I'm kicking myself a bit now that I hardly have any to show. Anyway here is a run down of what we got up to in those few days...
Day 1 - After a very early start we arrived in Dublin at around 9am; we were checked into the hotel by 10:30am and by 11am we were riding around on a sightseeing tour bus. We needed to make the most of every second here as we only had a few days. The first few hours were spent viewing the city from the top of the tour bus, taking in lots of information as we went. There really is just so much history here and I think tour busses are one of the best ways to learn a lot in a short amount of time.
After a few hours of looking at all the touristy stuff we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our first night out. After realising I'd left my hairbrush at home (along with my toothbrush, phone charger and makeup wipes) I sent Sean out to buy me one and we were out not long after 7. The plan was to find a nice place to eat around Temple Bar area as our hotel was 5 minutes away but it was just so busy. I think the amount of people around coupled with being in a new place set me on edge and I just couldn't stay in that area. I was really annoyed at myself for getting so anxious but we soon found a little american dinner that was super cute and dead cheap.
After our slap up burger meals we headed to The Dublin Hard Rock Cafe for our all time favourite cocktail; The Southern Rock. Me and Sean are trying to visit every Hard Rock eventually and this one marked our 5th! We soon turned in for the night after deciding I just couldn't hack the Dublin nightlife.
After our slap up burger meals we headed to The Dublin Hard Rock Cafe for our all time favourite cocktail; The Southern Rock. Me and Sean are trying to visit every Hard Rock eventually and this one marked our 5th! We soon turned in for the night after deciding I just couldn't hack the Dublin nightlife.
Day 2 - The second day was also another early start. We had pre-booked tickets to Kilmainham Gaol for a morning tour but we also really wanted to change hotel rooms. After a lot, and I mean a lot of pleading with the reception staff they were willing to move us but only if we moved right then! With only 5 minutes to spare we packed everything up and popped it into our new, much nicer hotel room. We then dashed off to take one of the most interesting tours I've ever been on.
I can't even explain the emotions that go through you as you wander around Kilmainham, its so easy to feel sympathetic for the former residents and angry too but I mostly just felt sad for them. As you are told their stories it's so hard not to get emotionally attached to them. The story that spoke to me the most was of Joseph Plunket and Grace Gifford, who were married just hours before his execution. It's really worth reading about those two and the others involved in the Easter Rising but you'll probably cry, don't say I didn't warn you.
I can't even explain the emotions that go through you as you wander around Kilmainham, its so easy to feel sympathetic for the former residents and angry too but I mostly just felt sad for them. As you are told their stories it's so hard not to get emotionally attached to them. The story that spoke to me the most was of Joseph Plunket and Grace Gifford, who were married just hours before his execution. It's really worth reading about those two and the others involved in the Easter Rising but you'll probably cry, don't say I didn't warn you.
After that emotional rollercoaster we walked down the road from the jail to where Sean's grandad was born. Sean wanted to see the house he used to live in and get some pictures for his grandad. Out of courtesy for the current owners we knocked on to see if was okay to snap some pictures and explained why we were there in the first place. After talking to Patricia the new owner we discovered that Sean is actually related to her husband and we were soon being invited in for tea and to chat about Sean's family! It turns out her husband is Sean's grandad's cousin and they had lost touch when he came over to England 50+ years ago!
After leaving there we headed back to get ready for our second night and went on the hunt for some traditional Irish stew. Turns out I'm not the biggest fan of Irish stew. We decided to give temple bar another go and despite staying in a few pubs for a little sing song and a couple of pints I really just couldn't enjoy myself. My confidence was virtually none existent that night again and I'm so gutted I let everything get on top of me. For whatever reason I just couldn't get settled and felt sick again for the whole night.
After leaving there we headed back to get ready for our second night and went on the hunt for some traditional Irish stew. Turns out I'm not the biggest fan of Irish stew. We decided to give temple bar another go and despite staying in a few pubs for a little sing song and a couple of pints I really just couldn't enjoy myself. My confidence was virtually none existent that night again and I'm so gutted I let everything get on top of me. For whatever reason I just couldn't get settled and felt sick again for the whole night.
I was going to put the whole holiday into one post but I've written a lot more than I thought I would so I'll post the second half next week! I hope you guys actually enjoy my ramblings!
Have you ever been to Dublin before? Did you love it?
Thanks for reading!
xxx
Rushing around the shops a few hours before I needed to be packed to go to Dublin I suddenly realised I hadn't washed my makeup brushes. I aways give them a good soak before I go on holiday and the thought of running out of time to do so made me feel a bit unwell. Luckily I happened upon this gem of an item and my worries drifted away.
The B. Makeup Brush Cleanser retails at around £5 for a 125ml bottle which I think is a pretty decent price. The formula cleans and disinfects brushes and can be used with either synthetic or natural bristles.
To use the product you simply spray the solution onto your brush two or three times and gently rub the dirt off into a tissue. I prefer to use a couple of clean flannels as tissues tend to make a bit of a mess. You then leave your brushes to air dry and use again as normal. I found the cleanser really easy to use and my brushes were dry within a few hours which is perfect if you are in a hurry like I was.
The product also claims to condition your brushes although so far I haven't really noticed any difference. This might be because I've only used it twice and my usual way of cleaning my brushes (baby shampoo and warm water) does leave them feeling really quite soft.
I always have to comment on the scent of a product and although this doesn't smell of anything amazing it also doesn't smell bad. The scent is mostly down to the disinfectant which smells a bit like alcohol and hand sanitiser but this doesn't stay on the brush once the product has dried.
Although I'm very impressed with this product for how easy is it to use and the price, I don't think I will use this every time I wash my brushes as I think they do need a long soak every now and then. That being said this is a perfect cleaner for a lazy girl like myself and I would buy it again!
Have you tried this makeup brush cleaner before?
Thanks for reading!
xxx
With summer in full force and everyone jetting off on their jollies, I thought it was about time I put together another style guide. As everyone's idea of the perfect holiday can be different I've created looks for both city lovers and beach goers. This year I've really pushed myself to wear more dresses as its too easy to just throw on a pair of jeans and there are some gorgeous holiday dresses on the highstreet right now.
Outfit One
Grey Jersey Dress | Tote Bag | Converse | Sunglasses | Unicorn Necklace
The first look is a simple very casual style designed for hot sticky days wandering around the city. I've paired these comfortable converse with a light jersey dress and basic tote to make a practical yet stylish outfit.
Outfit Two
Star Bracelet | Pandora Earrings | Black Cutch | T-Bar Heels | Yellow Skater Dress
I've based this next look on outfits I usually wear on my own city holidays. Again I've decided to keep it quite simple with the yellow skater dress being the only pop of colour with all black accessories. I've chosen to included some pricier jewellery for this outfit as I like to really dress up for a night on the town.
Outfit Three
I was going to choose another daytime dress for this beach look but honestly when I'm on the beach I spend most of my time swimming in the sea, occasionally popping out to get a drink so I thought a pretty cover up would be more appropriate. I chose this pretty Topshop kimono as it would be perfect to wear day or night.
Outfit four
Black Sandals | Bucket Bag | Charm Bracelet | Gold Necklace | Floral Tea Dress
For the last look I wanted to create an outfit that I could see myself in, sipping cocktails by a harbour in the Med somewhere. I've chosen this gorgeous floaty tea dress paired up with a staple bucket bag and some delicate gold jewellery to top it all off.
I hope you enjoyed this style guide!
Thanks for reading!
xxx
This post was made in collaboration with JD Williams
A few Sundays ago the weather was absolutely glorious. It was the type of weather you pay £500 to fly to Spain for. Me and Sean wanted to make the most of the sunshine so we headed off to Canon Hill Park to test out the new Mini Golf Course. It was only £5.60 each for the 18 hole course and £8.50 for the 36 hole which I didn't think was too bad. We just chose the 18 holes this time as we didn't know if we would get bored of it and we wanted to save something to do next time!
The game took us around an hour to get through and we loved every second of it! There were some really easy courses and some super hard ones that we just couldn't get the hang of but it was so fun. I can't remember the last time I played mini golf and this was Sean's first ever time playing so I expected us to be pretty shocking at the game but honestly we weren't all that bad. Obviously I won with my insane golf skills.
Top - Pull & Bear ( Similar ) Kimono - New Look ( Similar ) Jeans - Primark ( Similar ) Shoes - Converse ( Here ) Sunglasses - Primark ( Similar )
I really wanted to get some OOTD photos while we were on the course but honestly I was just enjoying myself too much to pose for photos. I hope you guys don't mind these half arsed outfit pics until I get chance to take some proper ones.
All in all I really loved pottering around this little course and I can't wait to come back to finish the other half off! If you guys are ever in the area I couldn't recommend this enough as it really is just so fun!
Thanks for reading!
xxx
Yesterday I ate a Sausage Roll. And a Chicken sandwich. I managed to go meat free for a whole two weeks but honestly I couldn't hack it anymore. I've seen more veggie burgers in the last two weeks than anyone should ever have to witness in their life and I'm not doing it anymore.
The first week went really well. I scoffed down several veggie burgers, tried my hand at a meat free spaghetti bolognese and even ate my first vegetable curry but by week two I was running out of ideas and money to spend on expensive meat substitutes.
What did I miss? - One of the hardest parts of the challenge was eating out. I eat in restaurants pretty regularly and watching everyone else munch down on their meaty meals while I could only eat veggies was pretty hard. Although I really enjoyed my Vegetable Biryani ( had it twice btw ) it just didn't beat my regular dish of Chicken Pakora. I also really missed eating burgers as its probably the thing me and Sean eat the most while dining out. We did make a trip to Gourmet Burger Kitchen in the week but despite my Veggie Burger being full of flavour I easily could have ripped Sean's Classic Beef Burger out of his hands and wolfed it down in seconds.
What did I enjoy? - Me and my family go for a Carvery almost weekly and as I normally eat Turkey I thought I would be a bit stuck on what to pick instead. I didn't want just a meat free Carvery so I was delighted to see they had quite a selection of vegetarian alternatives! I opted for the Spiced Carrot and Chickpea Wellington which was actually full of flavour and even a little hot. The other thing I thoroughly enjoyed was my homemade meat free Spaghetti Bolognese. I replaced mince meat with vegetarian sausages and it actually tasted quite nice, even Sean enjoyed it and he's a big meat lover!
What is something I'm keen to try out? - Even though I'm quitting the veggie diet I'd still like to reduce my meat consumption and I'm quite interested in trying out more of the Quorn meat free range. I cooked a couple of Quorn escalopes last week and I was pretty amazed at how much they taste and even felt like chicken! I've already got a packet of 'chicken nuggets' to try out and I'd like to give some of their other products a go!
Did I eat healthier during the challenge? - One of the things I hoped to pick up from this challenge was a healthier diet. I wanted to cut out Mcdonalds, Chip Shop kebabs and other greasy fatty meals from my diet. Although I didn't visit Mcdonalds and I don't plan to any time soon, and I didn't grab a dirty Kebab from my local chippy I don't think I ate much healthier. I found myself snacking on more bags of crisps and cheese instead of sausage rolls and I even ordered a few vegetable based take aways. My diet does need changing but I don't think cutting out meat would really be the way to do it. The healthiest thing I ate in the last two weeks would probably be my vegetable stew which I cook anyway.
All in a I don't think the vegetarian life is for me. I do want to carry on eating less meat but cutting it out completely left me with very few options apart from pricey meat substitutes and pizza. My one month challenge was cut short but I'm happy I at least gave this lifestyle a good go!
Have you ever tried anything like this before?
Thanks for reading!
xxx
A few weeks back I was invited to the Miss Patisserie Event in Cardiff. I bought myself quite a few goodies while I was there, one of which was a pack of gorgeously scented Rose Bath Shards. I actually received a pack in the event goodie bag as well so I decided to chuck the lot in my bath and have a nice relax.
The first thing I noticed when I opened the packet was just how strong the scent was. I have Lush bath products quite regularly and honestly nothing I've used yet was as noticeable as this. Once I started to crumble pieces into my bath the warm water further exaggerated the beautiful rose scent.
I found it hard to mix the crumbled pieces into the bath water so I decided to run them under the water instead which made the bath shards melt much easier. My bath water soon started to turn a murky purple/ grey colour which alone wouldn't have looked very appealing but paired with the rose petals it started to look quite inviting.
The consistency of the shards once melted was very similar to the Lush bath oils. Everything settled on the surface with the different shades of purple swirling around the create pretty patterns. As it was so oily I did find that it clung to my skin quite considerably and even after I got out of the bath a lather of purple slime was left on my skin. This wasn't a problem as I always shower after a bubble bath anyway however this was harder to get off than anything else I've ever bathed in before. It also really stuck the sides of my bath and took a hell of a lot of scrubbing to clean off!
One positive with this product was that I found it perfect for sensitive skin. As you might know I suffer with bad eczema all over my body and sometimes using strong bath products makes this flair up. Although it won't necessarily be good for sensitive skin I didn't have any flair ups after using the Bath Shards.
Overall I did enjoy bathing with the Bath Shards however I wouldn't repurchase as they just made too much mess.
Have you ever tried anything like this before?
Thanks for reading!
xxx
As you might remember wayyyyy back in April I went to Barcelona for a few days. Well I finally got around to writing up the second half of my travel diary and here it is late as always! If you missed the first part of my travel diary you can find it here. So this is what I got up to...
Day 3 - We got up really really early and headed over to La Sagrada Familia, something we were all keen to see. Unfortunately we made the same mistake as the previous day and didn't book our tickets in advance so we couldn't get in. We booked up for the next day and decided to go to the Picasso Museum instead. On the way there we bought friendship bracelets, passed the Cateral De Barcelona and popped into the Lomography shop. The Picasso Museum is free for students and well worth a visit! After stopping for lunch we headed back to Park Guell as we booked tickets the day before. The park was gorgeous as usual and the view was just amazing. Although it was literally packed with tourists this still didn't take away its beauty and I would definitely go back there if I'm ever in Barcelona again. I don't really have many pictures from this day as the Picasso Museum didn't allow photography and my camera ran out of battery just before we got to Park Guell which is a bit of a bugger.
Day 4 - We finally managed to see the amazing La Sagrada Familia! It was such a magical experience, even for someone who's not religious. I'm not really into religion, I feel like it causes more problems than it solves but to be in this incredible building that had so much thought and work go into it really was fantastic. It's probably one of the pricier things to do in Barcelona, especially if you pay to go up the towers like we did, but it's worth every penny. After wandering around for a few hours we headed back into central Barca to do a bit more shopping and finally track down the illusive Paella which was fab by the way! After tea we went back to the hotel to get ready for our only proper night out. One thing we were all excited to do was go to the IceBarcelona, a bar with a temperature of -12 degrees inside. I'd been to the Amsterdam Ice Bar with Sean last year and we could only manage to stay for around 20 minutes before getting too cold and calling it quits. We all decided we need to beat my previous record and with a few drinks and a bit of dancing somehow managed to stay in for a whole hour! We stayed around this area for a little while, drinking and speaking to people from all over the world before deciding we were probably too drunk and headed home.
Day 5 - This was our final day and the only day I didn't take my proper camera out with me. After lugging it around all week I decided to give my back the day off and just take my compact and instax out. We headed down to the water front to do some more bloody shopping at Port Vell. As much as I love shopping it was starting to get a bit boring so me and two others headed out on a short boat trip around the harbour! After this we headed down to the beach as we hadn't been on it all week. By the time we found it we only really had 20 minutes to take some photos and paddle as we wanted to see the magic fountain show which started at 9. We got a taxi back to the hotel which was surprisingly cheap, picked up our proper cameras then got the subway to watch the Magic Fountain show. Although my photographs don't do it justice ( low lighting and no tripod oops) the show was incredible and well worth seeing! Its on every night for around an hour and it completely free! Its a good idea to arrive early if you want to get a good spot though as it gets super busy.
I absolutely loved my week in Barcelona and I'm sure I'll be back again in the future! Have any of you guys been to Barca? Where were your favourite places?
Thanks for reading!
xxx
So I want to start by thanking the gorgeous Amanda over at xamandajayne.blogspot.co.uk for tagging me to do this! I absolutely love doing tags and its been ages since I'd been tagged to do anything!
So here are the sins:
Wrath - What product do you have a love/hate relationship with? This is a tricky one but I think it would probably have to be my Benefit Roller Lash Mascara. When I open a new tube I love it, everything about it is perfect but I feel that it dries out a lot quicker than my other mascaras. Once it starts to dry out my eyelashes look all crumbly and I might as well be using any budget mascara.
Gluttony - What brand takes up the most of your make-up collection? - At the moment it has to be MAC. Although I have a lot of cheaper brands in my collection, I use MAC the most on a daily basis. Not everything I've bought from MAC has been worth the hype but the majority has and I doubt my love affair with the brand will stop anytime soon!
Sloth - Which product do you neglect due to laziness? - This is going to have to be my Alice Palette again. I love it but I think some of the colours are quite out there and honestly I don't have the time or effort to work out what I can get away with!
Pride - Which product gives you the most self confidence? - Easy, my Velvet Teddy Lipstick! I know everyone and their mother has this lipstick but its such a bloody good product. I have quite thin lips an this lippy really gives the illusion of fuller lips!
Lust - What item is at the top of your beauty wishlist? - Right now it would have to be DIOR Diorshow Mono Eyeshadow in 'Pulse' which is a gorgeous shimmery gold. I fell in love with it a few days ago in Debenhams but I honestly can't justify the £24.50 price tag for ONE SINGLE EYESHADOW!
Envy - Which makeup look looks great on other people but not on you? - Over drawing lips. Honestly I don't know how people do it! If I try to over draw my lips it is super obvious and I look like a bad drag queen. I've even considered lip fillers so I could get that Kylie Jenner look!
Thanks for reading!
xxx
I've never really been a huge meat fan. I like Chicken, Beef (in Burger form) and the occasional bit of Sausage or Bacon but that's about it. So this got me thinking, could I live without meat for a whole month?
I've heard time and time again that we should bring our meat consumption down, not only because of the health benefits but because of the impact it has on the environment. Now I'm not going to pretend I know a lot about being vegetarian and I'm definitely not going to pretend I know a massive amount about how the meat industry affects the environment, but this is something I really want to try out.
So as of tomorrow (10.7.16) I'm going meat free for a whole month, or at least I'm going to try. I'll be doing a little weekly post of how that week went, what I struggled with, what I enjoyed and maybe even a few recipes I've tried out. I'm not sure how easy this will be for me. I think the hardest part will be eating out on holiday, I mean how am I going to turn down a succulent Hard Rock Cafe Burger? Well I'm going to give it a damn good go!
I'd love to hear what you guys think about doing something like this, have you ever tried anything similar before?
If anyone wants to take part in this challenge with me, let me know in the comments or on Twitter!
Thanks for reading!
xxx
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