~ Valentines 2016 ~

~ Valentines 2016 ~

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On the evening of February the 12th, Aidan turned up to my door with a gorgeous bunch of 18 roses. I absolutely adore red roses and love that he puts the time and effort into buying me the perfect bunch each year. The 12th of February, as you all know, isn't Valentines day but we had to make ours last over the 12-13th because Aidan went away to see family on the 14th. 

I thought I would document this cute this day trip surprise Aidan had in store for me on the 13th, I will try not to be as cringy as possible. I promise!

We woke up at 8:30am and headed down to our train station; at this point, I still had no idea where we were going or what we were doing at all so I was super hyped up. I literally do NOT have the patience for surprises. 

I wore a striped jumper for Urban Outfitters (it was freeeezing), ripped jeans from Select, brown boots from Primark and a khaki parka from Matalan. Also, I create a soft golden/orange glitter eye to match my jumper and a nude lip (Mac's Mehr).

We arrived at Madame Tussauds at 10:30 and pretty much walked straight in, despite the large queue waiting outside. I was super excited as a couple of weeks back I told Aidan I really wanted to go here this year and he booked us a trip. 

Spending hours taking pictures with actors, pop legends, the Kardashians, HARRY STYLES, scientists, monarchs and more, my little legs started to get tired. After finishing looking thoroughly through the rooms, we watched an amazing 4D film, including multiple super heroes, followed by a small ride.

How can you go to London without having a little shopping break? I spent a lot of my time in Urban Outfitters - Aidan made a huge sigh of relief when he saw they'd placed a huge sofa on one floor - obviously created for the extremely bored boyfriends. However, I didn't buy anything from there; I just couldn't find anything I reaaaaally wanted. 

At the end of our shopping antics, I bought the Clinique Chubby Stick Sculpting Contour, Charlotte Tilbury's Bond Girl Lipstick and The Girl On The Train book (which I have read already oops, it was incredible. Comment below if you've read it or would like to see a review on my blog).

As it is our tradition, we ended up in Northumberland Avenue's Prezzo for our pre-Valentine's meal; I'm a fussy eater so stuck with unadventurous options. I had the Cibatta w/ balsamic and olive oil for starters, margherita with season chicken for mains and chocolate fudge cake and icecream for dessert.

To finish the evening off on a cringe/romatic note, whichever you want to look at it as, we took a walk to the place we had a photo on our first anniversary together, followed by a long walk along the embankment. The rain was really light and soothing - we both really like the rain so it was extra addition to a great day.

Finally, before heading home, we stopped by St Paul's Cathedral because neither of us had seen it up close. The architecture/exterior was beautiful and I could only image it to be more stunning inside. I love looking at old buildings, I think there is just something so incredible about them. I would love to live in a old-styled, vintage house - how cool would that be?!

I hope you enjoyed reading about our day. Apologies that it isn't a normal fashion/beauty themed post. 

Lots of love

Adventures in London

Adventures in London

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What have I got in store for you all today? A little lifestyle post on my boyfriend and mine's trip to London this past Tuesday. We decided to come back a year on from our one year anniversary which you can read about HERE if you are interested. This account of the day will include many photos, some purchases and mini descriptions of what we got up to during the day. Hope you like it!

Outfit of the Day:

White Cowl Neck Top ~ Newlook

Navy Flower Patterned Trousers ~ Newlook 

Pink Blazer ~ Primark

Purple Handbag ~ Newlook 

Necklace ~ Wallis

White+Gold strapped sandals ~  Primark

(There seems to be an unintentional theme - oops! At least it is affordable, right?!)

The first stop and main event of the whole day was visiting London Zoo. We both are a huge fan of animals; I find them super interesting to watch and love looking at how different creatures move/survive etc. On arrival, Aidan bought us a guide that included many facts about the various animal encounters equipped with a map to help us around the zoo. The aquarium was our starting point - the tropical fish tanks were my favourite, the varying colours of both the coral and fish stood out for me. Oh, and this fish looked so strange and unique so I thought I would snap a photo of it!

Strolling around the edge of the zoo, we came across some alpacas, donkeys, llamas and camels. One of the donkeys was really playful and kept rolling around the floor on its back like a dog, it make me laugh a lot...

Penguins are one of my favourite animals to watch in a zoo. The enclosure was really big as it held a fair few penguins inside. There was a large area you could sit to watch them whilst eating but Aidan and I decided to stand up close by the tank and take a closer look. The water was so clear so we could see perfectly under water. 

One of my favourite sections of the zoo was Butterfly Paradise. A large blow-up dome with high temperatures was set up in the centre of the park - this held many butterflies in which you could enter, take photos of and have them land on you. Unfortunately, none of the butterflies seemed to like us so I had to capture photos of them on the leaves. Each butterfly had either stunning coloured or complex patterned wings which looked gorgeous to stare at as well as take photos. Here's a little selfie of us in a mirror - HEY!

Above are a small percentage of the other animals we watched during the day. I loved stroking the goats, they were so so cute! Aidan's favourite animal was the pygmy hippos; they were very small compared to the average hippo size.

After spending a lovely 4/5 hours in the zoo, we became a peckish pair and headed off for some lunch. However, before we grabbed somewhere to eat we took a couple photos of the Marble Arch since it was in passing. Today, I tried capturing many sights on my phone camera as I haven't seen a great deal of London, despite being born there. 

Whenever eating out, Aidan and I always end up opting for an italian restaurant and no shock, as you would have noticed from last year's trip, we ended up having lunch at prezzo. For starters, I ordered cibatta bread with balsamic vinegar and for main I had a margherita pizza with chicken as an extra topping. The thin crust is heavenly, the food is 100% worth the money and Prezzo will forever be my number 1 restaurant. I also took a gross toilet selfie so you guys could take a closer look at my outfit.

Shopping was next on the agenda. It had begun to get quite late so we were fully aware that it wasn't possible to shop for long. This gave us the idea to come down again in the near future to spend the day solely shopping and sightseeing, as we didn't get to do much today. Urban Outfitters was the best shop I've been in; I looooove all the qwerky bits and bobs they have scattered around the shop. The only thing that stopped me from buying something was the high prices of most products. Aidan also thought it was cool to take a photo of me next to the BLOG, BLOG, BLOG, BLOG sign - bless him!

I can finally state that I've been inside a real life Kiko Milano. Woo! I had so much fun finding some bargains here as there is a huge 70% sale both online and in-store at Kiko. I was stunned to pick up some incredible deals (I will show you them later on in the post). I hadn't had much luck with makeup until we got here; everything I wanted in Selfridges/Debenhams/House of Frazer had sold out!!! 

When finished walking around the shops, we wandered down different roads taking in the beautiful sights of London. Trafalgar Square was super pretty at night because of the changing-coloured fountains displayed in the centre. 

To finish off our tightly packed day, we saw Big Ben up close and my god it looked incredible. It was so fun taking photos of this famous monument - who'd have thought a gigantic clock could be so photogenic, eh? I also took a lovely snap of the Thames and the London Eye. London is such a beauty in the evening.

It was time to catch the train home; we grabbed a quick drink at Costa from St Pancras Station and headed towards our designated train. Aidan went for the raspberry fruit cooler whereas I decided on the watermelon and strawberry. It was a struggle not to fall asleep on the way back, I was sooooo exhausted and my feet killed from walking.

Purchases of the Day :

Kiko Eyeshadow ~ 124

Kiko Water Colour Eyeshadow ~ 204

Kiko Long Lasting Cream Eyeshadow Stick ~ 38

Real Techniques Bold Metals Collection ~ 301 Flat Contour Brush 

Thank you for getting this far and joining myself and my boyfriend on our outing to London. I hope you all have a wonderful day and let me know what you're up to in the comments!

Do you like going to the zoo? Have you purchased any makeup products from Kiko Milano?

Lots of love