My night time routine is something I don’t appreciate, and honestly is the most rush part of my day. As after a long day, a full routine before bed is something I tend to skim over as quickly as possible. However when I do take an extra few seconds to enjoy and take care of the wind down I really do appreciate it in the long run.

The first thing I love to do when I get in from a long day, that can either be from work or just a day full of errens. I love to get my comfiest, whether that may be a new pj set or leggings and a t-shirt and get the kettle on. I am currently having an herbal tea obsession, so I like to raid my jar to find a tea and have a cuppa.

At this point of the evening, I tend to catchup with anything outstanding, that needs doing from that day, whether it be finishing a blog post, or work bits. I like to get anything sorted before I sit down to eat as i feel like I still have my whole evening to chill and work is done for the day.

Once food has been eaten the world is good again. For me once I have eaten I do tend to unwind a little. I take this opportunity to take my face off from the day. I do (99%) of the time a full skin care routine including some of my favourites; Elemis Superfood Range, including a two of their new launches. There is something very relaxing about taking your make up off and having that feeling of removing the day.

Pure bliss…

As my evening comes to a close, I tend to get into bed (with another herbal tea) and reach for a book. This reading marlerky is a new one for me, I am currently reading Becoming by Laura Jane Williams and I am loving it. I love curling up into bed, diving into a good book, this will be something that I will try and keep consent in my evening routine.

Once my evening draws to a close and I can fell myself drifting off, I will put my book over on the side table and make sure all my lights are turned off. I love to have a peaceful dark room, when Bedtime_Blissuk got in contact with me asking if I wanted to try one of sleep mask, I jumped at the opportunity. I have always struggled with finding a good sleep mask that fits comfortable and actually does the job. The one from Bedtime_Blissuk does all this and fits perfect for eyelash extensions too!! I would recommend this sleep mask to anyone and everyone, its also perfect for travel.

I really want to start to get into a good bedtime routine, I feel like it sets you up for the next day and its a little bit of ‘me time’ at the end of a very busy day!

Much Love xx

There is nothing worse then your alarm going off at 6am. The day has begin, the rush to get yourself out of the door and on your way to work, the last thing I want to do is be sitting at the dressing table contouring and highlighting my face to oblivion.

For me, quick easy make up is the only way to get through the morning, using products that are breeze to use. I wanted to share with you a few make up bits and what I like use, all these products are for me now staple products that I have re-purchases time and time again.

I need make up that is going to last 12hours plus and is going to look amazing at 9am but also by the time I have finished, I live for a flawless staying power.

In the morning I spend about 10 minutes doing my full face, the products I use and love are:

• Charlotte Tilbury Wonder Glow Beauty Flash
• Clarins Everlasting Foundation in Shade 105
• Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer in Vanilla
• Nars Soft Matte Complete Concealer in Cannelle
• Charlotte Tilbury Brow Lift in Brooke S
• Charlotte Tilbury Legendary Brows in Linda
• Laura Mercier Loose Setting Powder in Translucent
• Soap & Glory Solar Powder in Bronzo
• Nars Blush in Orgasm
• Hourglass Lighting Palette Ambient
• Rimmel London Glam Eyes Liquard Liner in 001 Black
• Clarins Mascara Supra Volume in 01 Black
• Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat in Pink Venus
• Charlotte Tilbury Lipstick in Pillow Talk
• Estee Lauder Pure Colour Gloss in 25 Praline Paradise

I love a bronzed fresh face look for my everyday ‘work’ look, I will now and again mix my lipstick colour up but 99% of the time this is my go too make up look. I love the finish and also how quick and easy it is to do in the early hours in the morning.

Much love

Alice xx

The weather has been truly cold and miserable over the last month, the joys of January! The skin is fighting a consent battle with keeping its-self hydrated, radiance and plump with the daily actions and environments that we do without thinking and my skin has defiantly suffered with the cold and central heating and needed a kick start after Christmas.

I have always been good with my skin care and is something I really do enjoy and have a passion for. I love to try new products but have a bad habit of not finishing products!

For cleansing I love a good foaming cleanser that will remove my everyday make up and also leave my skin feel clean but also hydrated, I have been using a combination of Clarins Gentle Foaming Cleanser and Clarins Water Purify One – Step Water Cleanser for my double cleanse. By the time I get to toning (Elemis Soothing Apricot Toner) there is not a single trace of makeup left on that cotton wool pad which makes me so happy!

For hydrating I have been using two products that I got in the Glossy Box Christmas Advent Calendar, first is an facial oil Mitchell and Peach Radiance Facial Oil. This facial oil is going to work faster and quicker in the skin, great for that added hydration. On top of this I layer with a Nip & Fab Dragon’s Blood Fox Plumping Serum, layering oils and serums under your moisturiser is going to give the skin that added extra that in colder months it really does need.

In the morning I will finish of with my travel size Charlotte Tibury Magic Cream, at the moment I am enjoying this however I am not too sure whether I would purchase it in full size.

My skin is loving the added attention and I can already see such a different in how my skin looks and feel plus my make up applies so lovely, which is always an added bonus. A good skin care routine is by far one of the most important things you can do for you skin and also you.

Much Love

Alice xx

Stepping off of the tram to the sound of bagpipes, we are here, we are in Edinburgh…

Visiting Scotland has been on my list for a very long time now, and with one of my friends turning 21, celebrating in Edinburgh was the idea situation.

We stayed in a gorgeous hotel right in the middle of the city centre, The Principal on George Street, its the perfect location for anyone whether you are a first timer like we were or not. As soon as you step into The Principal there is a sense of calm, the perfect step out of a very busy city. The interior of the hotel is stunning in itself, it has a lovely cosy feel to it, perfect for getting in from the cold. The food is also incredible and the cocktails are on another level completely!!!!

We had a few places that we wanted to visit and if its your first time in Edinburgh I would highly recommend Edinburgh Castle. Edinburgh Castle is gorgeous, if you are able to, I would recommend walking through Princes Street Gardens up to the castle. It is a steep walk up the hill but the views you see all the way up is stunning, perfect to do with a clear blue sky.

The castle itself wasn’t a let down at £18.50 per person to enter there is definitely lot to see and visit, we spend a good couple of hours wandering but you could spend a good half a day. We also noticed there was a few action talks going on, not too sure whether this is an all year around thing or not!!

After the castle I would highly recommend waking down Royal Mile, this is a mile long road with shops, cafes and pubs. The architecture on this road was incredible, there is so much to see. I think this throughout the city.

If you are looking for something to do for an afternoon, I would pay a visit to Edinburgh Zoo or National Museums Scotland. The Zoo is a must do just to see the Pandas as these are the only Pandas in Europe, there is something very magical about seeing them. The zoo is up a steep hill throughout so do bare this in mind.

Food wise you will not be disappointment, there are some gorgeous places to eat and drink. That will happily suit everyone and anyone. A few places we visited for dinner Contini ( the perfect Italian) and The Refinery (a quirky bar with good burgers and cocktails)

Edinburgh is a gorgeous city, there is something very eery about the place. You can tell the city is steeped in history, I will be back and already planning another trip. If you haven’t been, go, you will not be disappointment.

Much Love

Alice xx

As the clocks strikes midnight on New Years Eve, we all get a new start. A new start to achieve whatever we want in one single year, a new start to draw a line under the past and change our future. I love the idea of this, the idea of suddenly whatever happened in the previous year doesn’t matter anymore, no one cares. All everyone cares about is whats to come, how your going to carve your future into a different way.

There is something so very powerful about the new year and a fresh start, so why do we get so caught up on making new promises to ourselves that are the same every year and we end up breaking by mid Jan.

We get so disappointment in ourselves for breaking this promise that we have set out to achieve, to end up living the year from day to day achievements or failure of said promise and honestly what is the point.

2019 I shall not make a resolution, if i don’t make it to the gym than never mind, if i don’t stick to dry January thats okay, if i don’t post on instagram every single day then who cares!

This year I want to enjoy every moments life brings, every hug to every tear. I want to make plans and have adventures, most importantly I want to enjoy life while holding my standards high but also my acceptance. I want to bring that magic back to life both in my own but also everyone around me.

As we awake up on New Years Days, lets take this new fresh start to love life again and live every day to the full! (cheesy I know)

Much Love

xx

There is something very refreshing about going to the countryside, there is something about the silence, the cosy pubs, the fresh air. I find it very grounding, and I very good way to get disconnected with the world and social media.

That is exactly what we did last week (apart from a few insta posts!) We spend the week in the Yorkshire Dales, it was so nice to just spend quality time and enjoy the little things in life, plus we weather was gorgeous.

During the week the dogs experienced a few new things such as waterfalls, cows & sheep, and we experienced some lovely cosy pubs and a gorgeous Sunday roast at Simonstone Hall (I would highly recommend) Every evening ended with the most gorgeous sunsets and we managed to get some lovely photos.

Much love

xx

Charlotte Tilbury is one of my most favourite make up brands. It is a brand that I don’t often shop from on a daily basis, it is still very much a treat splurge and something that I get a lot of joy from. There is something very special with shopping with Charlotte Tilbury.

I have a wedding coming up and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to purchase a few bits. I am thinking of doing a little ‘Get Ready with Me Wedding Guest Edition’, so you will be able to see these beauties in full swing.

I treated myself to Pillow Talk Lipstick at the beginning of the year and it is my go to every day lipstick, I absolutely love it!! For the wedding I am thinking of going a little more dramatic with the eyes and want to keep the lips more on the nude side.

Pillow Talk is a little more brown tone for what I was thinking of going for, so I picked up B.I.T.C.H Perfect from the K.I.S.S.I.N.G range. Of course, I needed a lip liner to match so I picked up Lip Cheat pencil in shade Pink Venus. These two are just beyond perfect and I am so excited to use these for the Wedding. The colours for me are the perfect pink nude!!

Eyebrows are my worse nightmare, I am so bad at doing my brows. Even though I do get them tinted and wax on a regular basis but when it comes to maintaining and enhancing them with makeup i struggling a lot. I find looking for brow products very overwhelming, there is just too much from pencils, to gels to tints, it’s a mind field.

As I was scrolling through all the gorgeous make up items, i stumbled across a brow kit called Flawless, Defined Brows which contains Eyebrow pencil & Sculpt and Shade Eyebrow Gel. I feel like these two products are pretty foul proof so (fingers-crossed) I should have fabulous brows!!

I always love a charlotte Tilbury parcel coming through the letterbox, I can not wait to use these products to their max and create the perfect wedding guest makeup look. Be sure to keep an eye out on my Instagram and here on my blog for the full look.

Much Love

XX

We can get so involved with living that we actually forget to live! We live for the latest instagram post, the next seasonal pumpkin spiced latte and pleasing everyone in our lives but what about us?

What about living our lives for us? Living our life how we want too and not how society  wants us too. I will hold my hands up and say ‘this is me’ I can get so caught up in the world and just doing my everyday routine.

Over the last few weeks all this has just got a little too much, and i needed out. I needed to be away from the ‘perfect’ I needed time to enjoy the moment and actually live!

With this in mind Mr and I made a very spontaneous trip to Port Solent, for a spa weekend. This was actually what I need and i think what Mr needed as well. We found a great deal at the most gorgeous spa hotel that was stunning from the moment we arrived. The hotel was called Solent Hotel and Spa.

We spend the weekend eating, drinking, relaxing and spending quality time with each other. I even manged to persaude Mr to have treatment in the spa. It was so nice to just enjoy life and live life, rather than worrying about everything and anything.

The life we live in can be so manic and stressful, I think I will be taking a few more ‘me’ days or even weekends in the months to come. It was honestly so refreshing stripping everything back, getting away from day-to-day life and social life.

Much Love

xxx

 

 

Anyone that know me, knows how much enjoyment and happiness I get from spending the day wandering around Palaces and Manor Houses. I think I get the satisfaction from being a young girl and believing in fairy tales and the big castles and just letting your imagination run wide with you. This is something that has never left me.

Luckily for me I found a man who will spend his afternoon wandering around the most gorgeous country manor houses.  While he was working away last week he decided that on the Friday I should join him and we can have a little visit to Penshurst Place and Gardens, he found this little gem on his way back and forth to work.

Friday came around and off we went to this little gem, I didn’t know anything about this place as we drove through some gorgeous little villages, enjoying every single moment.

We had a lovely afternoon, the house has connection to Ann Boyle and was used for a lot of filming. The gardens were even more gorgeous, stand alone gorgeous, every way you looked there was something new, every turn around the corner there was another secret garden. The photos do not do it justest but below I have shared my favourites from the day.

Much Love

xx

This last week has been such a whirlwind, I still can’t believe the kindness and love that I have experienced over the last couple of days. For anyone that wasn’t aware, I celebrated my birthday on Saturday (2nd June) and turned the grand old age of 23 – I am fully aware of how young I still am and all that, but to me I am getting old!!

Birthdays are something I get excited over, whether it be someone else’s or my own. However I never tend to do a lot, the ‘norm’ for me is a family birthday meal and maybe a little spa day with mumma. But this year was something out of this world.

This years birthday is different in a few ways – first I have the most gorgeous boyfriend by my side and second he wanted to plan and surprise the whole thing (something that took me the whole month to get my head around).

When someone plans or puts a lot of effort in for you, there is also so much expectation the other person holds. The other person is always thinking, stressing and even over analysing what may or may not happen. This was definitely me, I love surprises but I hate not being in control and knowing. Even with me badgering my boyfriend for the whole month he kept his plans a secret, and honestly I am so happy that he did.

I am so over joyed, grateful, overwhelmed and utterly unbelievably lucky to have such a lovely lovely person by my side that honestly planned one of the most greatest weekends of my life!!

A little pre warn, this post is going to be very long so please grab a coffee, tea and get comfy.

Saturday 2nd June

Of course I was up at the crack of dawn, beyond excited to see what the day held and where we were off too. I did however hold off on waking Mr up for about an hour or two!!

After presents and breakfast, we headed off. I was told to close my eyes while Mr put the address in the satnav and we were off. We did have a few stops on the way before we got to the place we were staying. The first stop on the map was Burford Garden Centre, to most people this would have been a very strange place to stop and honesty I was thinking the same but oh my this place is beyond gorgeous. Everything was super cute and pretty, they had a little farmers market going on inside and out. We had a little wander around, decided that we needed rainbow pasta in our lives and grabbed some lunch. The reason to why we stopped here was: one to grab some food but mostly because Burford is the gateway to the Cotswolds.

After another little drive we turned up in another charming little village. Bibury, this village was once described ‘as the most beautiful village in the Cotswolds’ and oh my it’s beyond anything especially in the sunshine. There is a little row of cottages by the river called Arlington Row which are the most photographed cottages, they also play a part in a few British films and tv. Of course I had to get some photos!!

Wandering around the village of Bibury we suddenly realised the time and decided to head to the hotel (at this point I still had no idea where we were staying)

We turned off the main road and up a little drive away to a gorgeous country manor house. Anyone that knows me knows that I adore an old manor house and this was something else. Everything about it was charming from the detail into the wood on the staircases to the high ceilings. This would have been the perfect place for a cosy weekend away in winter but then an again gorgeous in the summer to wander around the rose gardens and that was exactly what we did!

A few cocktails later it was time for dinner, we had the three course set menu in the hotel and overall the food, drink and atmosphere was perfect. By far the best end to the most amazing day.

Sunday 3rd June

The weather was so gorgeous that we had breakfast outside, outside!!! Once waffles had been eaten and tea drunk we head out for a day of more surprises.

Mr had planned a little road trip, passing through some of the most prettiest villages and town, while going down some of the best roads. This for me was the highlight of the trip, the thought and effort that had gone into planning all that would have been insane. Plus I love things like that. I have no idea all the places we passed throughout the day but I shall pop some photos up from my favourite.

Dinner that evening was at the Fish Hotel about 20 minute car journey from our Hotel. We eat in their fish restaurant called the Hook. I love fish and throughly enjoyed the menu and wine. The whole decor of the place was also to die for so major points there as well. Once dinner was finished, we sat outside under fairy lights and finished our wine while chatting about everything. Honestly the whole weekend feels and felt like dream!!

Monday 4th June 

There are worse places to be waking up on a Monday morning, that is for sure, however there was a little bit of me really gutted that this was our last day here. I would have loved to have spent the week here and is it a place we will be coming back to over and over again.

Before I could dwell on the last day for too much longer Mr had plans for today as well. I got a few choices for where we went and I decided we head to Snowshill Country House and Gardens.

These gardens are probably the prettiest and gorgeous ones I have ever had the pleasure in visiting. It was the perfect finish to a perfect weekend.

I can not thank Mr enough for this birthday weekend, I loved every minute. Every single detailed had been planned but also planned with me in mind and every second contained everything that I love in life.

I think we have found our little place, we will be coming back to the Cotswolds for years to come and I can not wait to return and explore everything a little more and go to all the places we didn’t get the chance to go.

A massive thank you!!!

Untill next time my lovelies ……

xxxx