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Update | New Years Eve in Paris, Uni Deadlines and Blogging Plans for 2015
Yes, I know. It’s been a while. But let’s just skip over all the excuses that I could currently be waffling about and give you a nice little update of what the last month has had in store for me…
Probably the most exciting thing in this post is that I got to spend a few days in Disneyland Paris over New Years Eve for one of my best friend’s birthday. I have only been to Disney once, and being very young and not even tall enough to ride Space Mountain, I can barely remember it. Let me just say that it was probably the most magical few days and allowed us to relive our childhood without seeming too insane. It was also amazing to avoid the stress that New Year is burdened with, and I got to spend it with some truly great people.
On my return from Paris came with the realisation that I had two rather large essays in for when I went back to uni. Final year of university hadn’t quite hit me until I really had to get stuck in and write an obscene amount of words in under two weeks. But those essays are behind me now, and scarily enough the end of my education is looming. It’s been a little bit daunting that I’ve suddenly had an epiphany that my days as a student are soon to be over, but I am actually quite excited to really get stuck into life.
Sadly with all this work and me galavanting on holidays over the christmas period, the blog had to take a back seat. However, after successfully completing Blogmas, I am more determined that ever to remain consistent with blogging. With a break has also come inspiration, so hopefully 2015 will bring some great posts. I have decided that my aim is to post 3 times a week – nothing too taxing, as I want to focus on really improving my content rather than posting for the sake of posting. The proposed schedule is Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but this is subject to change.
I apologise for this seemingly randomly thrown together post, but I think it’s just what I needed to really get back into the swing of things. Consider this my very belated semi-new years resolutions post… Better late than never, right?
New York Day 4 & Haul! | Blogmas Day #23
So today’s post marks the very last day of my incredible New York trip. We had to leave the hotel at 3pm meaning it wasn’t quite as jam-packed as the other days, so I’ve decided to include a cheeky haul at the end of this post with all the beauty bits I picked up! If you’ve missed any of the other NYC posts you can check them out here.
We started off the day with probably the most unhealthy breakfast I’ve ever had in my life. We went to a restaurant around the corner from us called Morning Star Cafe, and we were both in the mood to get something rather ridiculous. I opted for, as shown in the picture above, Waffle Smores, which was essentially a waffle topped with melted chocolate and marshmallows. Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious, but I definitely couldn’t finish it. The boyf went for a Waffle Banana Split which was equally as impressive and indulgent.
Then the only plans we had for our day was to hit up Macy’s. And boy did we… The christmas department was incredible; it had trees of different colour schemes, a countless amount of christmas decorations and my favourite of all was the wish machine, which printed out emails from children with their wishes for Santa. I think the squirrel one was my favourite…
After a spot of Pinkberry in Macy’s, and then grabbing some lunch at a cafe called TreeHaus, it was off to the airport. Unfortunately it was so much cheaper to get a non-direct flight, so we did have to stop off in Paris before we finally made it back to London. Now for the fun part…
Starting off with the more budget-friendly purchases, I popped into Duane Reade a few times too many and picked up a few bits that I’ve had my eye on for a while. From Wet n Wild, a brand I’ve been interested in for a while, I picked up two Mega Last Lip Colors in Spiked with Rum and Think Pink and the coveted Color Icon Palette in Comfort Zone which was actually really difficult to find. I picked up two L’Oreal Infallible Eyeshadows in Amber Rush and Bronzed Taupe, which we can’t get in the uk. Another eyeshadow I picked up was the Maybelline Color Tattoo Pure Pigments Eyeshadow in Breaking Bronze as these haven’t been released here yet. The final thing I got which I am so excited about is the Milani Baked Powder Blush in Luminoso, a highly raved product.
And obviously Sephora happened. We will skip over the fact that I managed to achieve VIB status in four days… I picked up the Lavanilla The Healthy Deodorant in Pure Vanilla, the Kate Somerville Nourish Moisturiser, the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz in Taupe and the Kat Von D Tattoo Liner in Trooper. From Bergdorf Goodman I actually got the best deal – I bought the Hourglass Mineral Veil Primer twice the regular size for the same price of the usual in the UK! I also popped into a random beauty shop near the Empire State, and picked up the Dose of Colors in Sorbet, which I have been wanting for a while!
It wouldn’t be right not to make the most of the amazing gift sets out at this time of year. I went into Mac and saw that they still had the Objects of Affection Pink + Rose Pigments + Glitter in stock, so I picked it up immediately because it just looks stunning. I also picked up this stunning Tarte Pin Up Girl Amazonian Clay Blush Palette which I couldn’t resist. I also had in my mind that I would pick up the Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit as it is quite a bit cheaper than in the UK. Finally, something that I had a little trouble ordering with LookFantastic, I went into the Benefit store in Soho, and saw that they still had the Cheeky Sweet Spot Blush Palette so I cancelled my order and picked it up!
I haven’t used much of this stuff yet as I was waiting for good light to photograph in. I will, no doubt, be reviewing most of this at some point, so if there is anything you’ve got your eye on let me know, or keep posted…
–RachelElizabeth
New York Day 3 | Blogmas Day #21
This was our last full day in New York as we had an overnight flight the day after. This was also the only day that I had actually booked something rather special, but more on that later…
We started off the day by having breakfast at Andrew’s Coffee Shop which is very near Macy’s. It was very busy, which we took as a good sign, and I had some really tasty banana pancakes – it had slices of banana inside the pancake, yum. We then made our way to the High Line which is an unused railway line that has now been changed into a national park. It definitely had some good views, and it was filled with modern artwork. It definitely felt like an up and coming area of Manhattan with lots of construction of new apartment buildings and offices.
We then headed to my only booked activity, which was to go and create my own lipstick at Bite Beauty Lab, but I think this in itself deserves its own blog post. Being in Soho, we then took it upon ourselves to have a nice afternoon shopping. We grabbed some lunch at the Hampton Chutney Co which was a slightly healthier option than we had had previously!
In the evening we had planned to go up the Rockefeller center, but unfortunately the weather was pretty miserable. If you looked up at the tallest buildings in the city, you could barely see the top ten floors, so we decided that it just wasn’t worth it. We did end up having a really lovely dinner at Bill’s Bar and Burger, and I had a really great beef burger with american cheese, onions all inside an english muffin.
We decided to still have a wonder around the Rockefeller because it is decorated so beautifully for christmas, with the iconic christmas tree and ice rink. Although we were a little disappointed about not going up, we did mange to catch the Saks Fifth Avenue lights show which was just opposite.
–RachelElizabeth
New York Day 2 | Blogmas Day #20
If you didn’t catch day 1 of my trip that I posted yesterday (check it out here), then I am doing a little series all about my trip to New York. This day we were very lucky with the weather, and had another day filled with sightseeing…
We began the day with a really amazing breakfast at a restaurant near our hotel called The Smith, and I had Eggs Benedict which was absolutely delicious. The home fries that came with it were also incredible.
Then we headed off to Wall Street – the last time I came to New York I didn’t actually come here, so didn’t really know what to expect. It is significantly smaller than what I imagined. It was filled with gorgeous christmas decorations though, and it was fun to be in amongst the hustle and bustle of the working New Yorkers.
The end of Wall Street brings you to the East River. We had in mind that we would get some sort of boat cruise to the Statue of Liberty to save time and money. We ended up getting a Zephyr, which was an hour long cruise that started by going under the Brooklyn Bridge, then took you round the west of Manhattan, back past Ellis Island and sailed slowly around Liberty Island so you got a great look at Lady Liberty itself. My boyfriend said this was the highlight of his trip as we had a great tour guide, and the views of the skyline on the way back were breathtaking. It was definitely worth going on a really clear blue skies day for this.
After the boat we grabbed a coffee and food and then headed to Ground Zero. I got the most gorgeous dirty chai from Gregory’s Coffee. By the time we reached Ground Zero the sun had set so we actually saw the memorial all lit up in the dark. It was quite a strange experience for me – I was quite overwhelmed and found it hard to imagine what had happened there 13 years ago. The memorial itself is incredible – the fountain plunging down into a black square of nothingness looked both stunning and quite sinister.
We then decided to go to Brooklyn for some dinner and to see the skyline from the other side of the river. This was such a stunning view, and we got an amazing pizza to share at Grimaldi’s. This was probably my favourite dinner of our whole trip.
So that wraps up the second day of our trip. This was probably our favourite day, probably due to the amazing weather! Come back tomorrow for day 3…
–RachelElizabeth
New York Day 1 | Blogmas Day #19
I hope you enjoyed my travel-related posts that have gone up over the past few days. I came home from my trip yesterday morning, and it was probably the most jam-packed 4 days of my life. Because I’m not quite ready for this trip to end yet, over the next few days I will outline all of the best bits; food, shopping and sightseeing galore…
We actually arrived in New York the night before, but we spent the evening getting our bearings in the area we were staying in, and ended up getting a Burrito in Chipotle. Being slightly jet-lagged, I ended up waking up horrendously early, and once I managed to wake up the boy, we headed out for breakfast.
We went to a place around the corner from us called Madison Restaurant, and from the moment I woke up, I was craving a big American breakfast. I had the most delicious cinnamon and raisin french toast which came with a side of vanilla cream cheese… yum. We then wondered down fifth avenue towards Central Park and had a lovely stroll around.
After exploring what seemed like most of Central Park (although we barely scratched the surface), we walked down fifth avenue on the way to the Empire State. This inevitably included some shopping (but I’ll save that for another post) and coffee, before we ascended those 86 floors.
Luckily we timed it perfectly to watch the sunset over New Jersey and still see the skyline in its full glory – if you ever visit NYC, I highly recommend trying to see the sunset. After that stunning view, we headed to Grand Central, then off to Times Square for dinner.
We ended up being real tourists and headed to Planet Hollywood – I had steak fajitas which were actually really delicious. Our first day was probably the most tourist, sight-seeing packed day, but sometimes its just got to be done…
It’s safe to say we loved our first day in New York, and crammed a whole lot in. I had already seen all of this once before, but you just can’t beat the amazing sights of the city. Stay tuned for the rest of the trip…
–RachelElizabeth