New York, New York!

In New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of,

There's nothing you can't do, now you're in New York!

These street will make you feel brand new, Big lights will inspire you....

Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York......

I had the most amazing week in New York City in September with my friend and London flattie!!

Here a some pictures from our NYC adventure... 

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge

A Grays Payaya hot dog; a New York institution!

Drinks and dinner at underground SoHo hotspot Mexican bar La Esquina

Browsing around the beautiful deli that is Dean & Deluca

Walking the NY Highline on the West Side

Indulging in hangover burgers at Bubby's!

Reflection and remembrance at the 9/11 World Trade Centre Memorial
NYC Skyline at sun rise after a late night out in the city that never sleeps...
Tennis at the US Open Quarter finals
To-die-for eggs at The Dutch. Egg's benedict with a difference because served on a cheese biscuit and covered with a spicy hollandaise sauce. My flatmate branded these as one of the best egg she's ever had for brunch and coming from her, that is a BIG call, trust me ;)

Visiting Brooklyn

Strolling around Central Park

Death by dessert at The Gramarcy Tavern...but what a way to go! ;)

The Dutchess at The Dutch - great place for Brunch in Soho!

Out in Midtown - Empire State of Mind! 

Brunch at La Bottega

DUMBO Park in Brooklyn

Delicious dinner and drinks at Aria in the West Village - prosecco shots anyone?

More highline walking..

Me and the 'wife' out in town! 

Photobooth fun at the Ace Hotel Bar!

 

As you can see our week in New York was filled with shopping, exploring, partying and lots and lots of eating. But more on that later because I will do a 'food diary' post to show you all the delicious food we ate and fabulous places we visited. After such an amazing week we really did not want to leave this incredible city but we both knew that it was probably the best for our credit cards and waistlines to return to our London home! My flatmate was the perfect NYC partner in crime and I am truly so lucky to have found such a great flattie and friend. Therefore, returning home wasn't so bad after all because.....

Thanks MiMi for a brilliant holiday - Love you lots.

Happy Hump Day everyone :) 

Pampering at the W with Bliss Spa products

While I was in California for my best friends wedding in Carlsbad, I stayed at the W Hotel San Diego. The W's are known for being luxury boutique hotels, generally marketed towards a younger crowd. They have a common theme of minimalist modern decor and hip, informal names for categories of rooms and public areas. For example the lobbies of all their hotels are known as the "Living Room." W Hotels attempt to include the letter W wherever possible - the swimming pool is known as "Wet", the concierge is known as "Whatever Whenever", the laundry bag is known as "Wash" and so on.

 

However what I loved the most about my stay at the W was their bathroom products! They stock your bathroom daily with lovely mini products from the brand 'Bliss'

 

I'd personally never tried any Bliss Spa products before but apparently Bliss has 22 spas located around the globe. "From Hollywood to Hong Kong, Boston to Barcelona and Dallas to Doha, they aim to bring the latest and most effective spa treatments and products, challenging convention along the way and infusing everything with our signature Bliss touch - all to make you look and feel absolutely 'spa'-tacular."

 

So let's have a look at the lovely goodies they treated me with at the W!

Love the modern, fresh packaging of these products!

 

For in the shower there was:

Lemon + Sage Conditioning Rinse (link)

Lemon + Sage Supershine Shampoo (link)

Lemon + Sage Soapy Suds Body Wash (link)

 

And for some further pampering there was:

Fabulous Foaming Face Wash (link)

Lemon + Sage Body Butter (link)
Bliss Body Bar (link)

 

My absolutely favourite was definitely the Fabulous Foaming Face Wash. This 2-in-1 cleanser and exfoliator with rose hips, chamomile and passion flower is one of their best selling products.

You get some light foaming action after rubbing the product between your hands and the small, soft, round exfoliator beads gently cleanse your skin without leaving your face feeling soapy or dried out. The smell is probably the best part; it’s so refreshing and sweet at the same time I couldn’t get enough of it! I would recommend this face wash to anyone that is looking for a simple, soothing, exfoliating cleanser. I am definitely hooked and am going to purchase this for my bathroom at home after using it for a few days at the W Hotel. They sell it in a travel in a travel size (60ml at £6.50), regular size (197ml at £18.40) or even a super-sized version (460ml at £25.60). Think I might go super-sized because it gives you 30% savings and comes with a handy pump!

 

Have you tried any Bliss products before? xoxo

California Love

I hope you are all having a fabulous week! After an amazing week the Californian sunshine I have now arrived in New York City for some serious shopping and eating girl time adventures with my London flatmate! A lot of you have been saying how you have enjoyed my holiday updates so here a little collage of pictures to summarise my week in Cali!

Pinkberry PEANUTBUTTER frozen yoghurt. Uh-mazing!

Driving around 90210. Yup Beverly Hills :)

Thirsty anyone? Buffalo wing or Bacon soda....uh no thanks!

Delicious lunch, felafel wrap, at Toast bakery in LA

'Slumming' it at the SLS Beverly Hills hotel. Loved this place, felt like a Hollywood starlet staying there. We had a bit of a celeb spotting when Drake walked past us in the lobby!

Sunbathing time at the SLS rooftop pool....so relaxing!

Feeling very Baywatch at Santa Minoca beach!

Cool art display called 'Urban Lights' at LACMA museum.

Tandem biking along Venice Beach :)

JUMP!!!

Paddleboarding in Mission Bay by San Diego

Pacific Beach in San Diego.

Starbucks Drive-Thru, only in America!

Pre-wedding day drinks in Carlsbad with friends

What a lovely moment. The bride walking down the 'aisle' with her proud dad

Such a beautiful ceremony on the beach & they both look incredible in white!

Me on the beach after the ceremony. It was such a great day.

I will do a full post on the wedding showing the makeup I did for the bride.

I really can't believe it's Wednesday already, I only have 5 more days left in NYC before I fly home to London again. I don't want this holiday to end....

Happy Hump day everyone! Xoxo

Lunch at Clementine's in LA

As a bit of self-proclaimed foodie, before going on holiday, I made sure I did my research to find some great 'go-to' places for meals. On one of my favourite blogs, Cupcakes and Casmere, Emily recommends the cafe Clementine as a fab place to grab lunch or to "meet a friend". So when we randomly drove past Clementine's one afternoon in LA we felt this would be the perfect spot to stop for a bite to eat!

Check out the massive Rolls Royce that pulled up outside whilst we were there! The place however isn't posh or exclusive. It has a lovely relaxed cafe feel that serves a variety of organic and freshly baked or prepared food.

Inside the cafe they have an widespread selection of fresh food to order from the counter or a menu with even more options. All their muffins and sweets looked amazing and I was very tempted to grab one of their granola-to-go boxes...just because ;)

In the end I decided on a mixed salad plate which meant I could choose three salads from the deli counter..now the only problem was which mouthwatering salad to pick! To drink I got their tropical iced tea which was very refreshing!

My scrumptious mix was the summer chicken salad, the grilled squash medley and the beetroot lentil salad with goats cheese. Nom nom...

Sitting outside on the terrace enjoying our lunch!

 

This was probably one of my favourite cafes in LA so I would definitely recommend it if you are ever in the area :) You can read Emily's other great recommendations in her 'Guide to LA' here. From her list I also went to Urth Caffe, Toast Bakery and Sur restaurant. Have you ever been to LA; if so what's your favourite cafe there? Xoxo

 

Sunbeams....

Quote of the week...Sorry for the lack of blogging but I'm definitely having plenty of good thoughts and enjoying the many sunbeams that California is providing me!!

Keeping cool in the rooftop pool at the SLS Beverly Hills Hotel :)

Bikini by River Island

Happy hump day everyone! Xoxo

 

My Yacht Week Photo Diary

Warning warning, this post is very picture heavy. But as promised here a photo diary of my holiday in Croatia with The Yacht Week!

I think these photos speak for themselves that I had a pretty incredible time.....

Lots of Yacht Week boats, beautiful sunsets on the water, partying in Hvar and some sailing lessons

Sunset photoshoots

 

Sailing and soaking up the sun

Pre-party prosecco on the boat in Palmizana marina before heading to Hvar

Hvar Town

 
Hvar Day! Jump if you are having fun :)

Group shots with the skipper in the mast!

Exploring the beautiful Croatia!

The old fort party in Vis! 

The last day; the Yacht Week sailing regatta!

Our boat 'Team Nauti'

Me; Roxy....A Little Nauti? Never ;)

The last day, leaving our boat again after the most amazing week!

I have the most amazing memories of this trip that will last me a lifetime and I was lucky to meet some fantastic new people along the way. After a week of sailing. lots of partying and not a lot of sleeping, I do admit it I was a bit of a broken woman on my return to London and my own bed had never felt so good :) Fore more information or to book your Yacht Week holiday check out their website www.theyachtweek.com/.

My new bikini purchases #

Because of my impending sailing holiday to Croatia I was looking at my bikinis a while back and concluded that my collection was definitely due for a refresh this summer! So for the last few weeks I’ve been searching the web and tried on many in stores but I just couldn’t seem to find any that I absolutely loved. That is until I came across this gorgeous bikini at Reiss!

ALBI - bandeau style petrol blue and gold stripe bikini from Reiss - now on sale for £34! (link)

The bikini comes with removable halter neck trap and has lovely gold d-ring detailing to the front and cube-finished tie-side bottoms. This is me soaking up the sun in them while I was in Como, Italy :)

Then the other day while reading some celeb goss online I spotted these photo's of Ashley Tisdale in a bright fringe bikini and it was love at first sight! I just knew I HAD to get my hands on them.

How cute do they look right?

So I googled and googled away and found that the bikini she's wearing is the Audrey Bikini by L'Space. The funky bikini comes with a citrus halter neck fringed top that is supposed to enlongate the torso to give you better bikini cleavage and the bottoms are a fun colour patterned design. 

L'Space Audrey Bikini with Foxy Tab bikini bottoms (link)

I got all excited about ordering one for my holiday but then found that they were pretty much sold out on every webshop! I emailed online beachwear company Beach Elements and they replied saying they’d just had some come in stock and could get one shipped to me within 3 days. What great service and tada  three days later my new bikini arrived in London - I am one happy girl :)

Do you like my new bikini purchases?

As you are reading this I will be wearing one of these new bikinis whilst sailing the crystal blue waters of Croatia on my holiday!! Next week, while I am away I have lined up a couple of guest posts from some of my favourite bloggers. I hope you enjoy them. See you when I get back :) xoxo

I'm setting my sails for Yacht Week!

In only THREE sleeps I will be going on a holiday which is bound to become one of the best summer experiences of my life!! Think sunshine, sailing on a yacht with my friends and partying with people from all over the world. Sounds amazing right; well let me introduce you to ‘The Yacht Week’!

The concept of The Yacht Week is that you gather your best friends, go online, pick the country you want to spend the week sailing, choose the date and book your boat! Then just show up for the best week of your life to soak up the sun and party the nights away. Think this video sums it up quite nicely ;)

The locations you can choose from are The British Virgin Islands for winter/spring or Croatia, Greece and Italy in the summer. I’d heard so many amazing stories from friends last year about TYW so when the opportunity came around to book a boat for the Croatia – South Route 2012 with friends, it didn’t take me long to scream a wholehearted YES!!  

 So on Saturday, me and five friends (+skipper, phew someone that can actually sail our boat!) will be taking off from Split, Croatia for an epic voyage with great people from all over the world. Apparently ‘Every day is exceptional. Every night is magical. Crystal clear water, fresh winds, regattas and yacht parties will make the experience the journey of your life.’ BRING IT ON :)

Counting down the days - can you tell I am EXCITED???? :)

  For more information on The Yacht Week check out their website www.theyachtweek.com.

 

Happy Hump Day everyone! xoxo