And Other Stories

Girls Day in London Town

08:43

Last week I went into London to see one of my friends from Madrid who was in the country for a week or so; and of course we had a proper girls day out, I'm talking, brunch, shoe shopping, makeup shopping, more food, finished off by sitting on the sofa with a glass of wine catching up on just about everything! 

I thought it would be a nice idea to share with you some pictures of the places we went so you yourself could check them out the next time you're in Londres. 



Food


A girls day out isn't complete without a nice meal or two. The first place we went to was Balthazar in Covent Garden for some brunch. This place is notoriously hard to get a table during lunch and dinner time, but you'll be fine if you're just going to brunch like we did. I could not recommend it enough, the food is amazing and the atmosphere and decor isn't something you find everyday; Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures while I was there, the pancakes had all my attention! 



For lunch, my lovely friend took me to one of her favourite places to go in London. Caffé Concerto has restaurants scattered all over London; we went to the one in Knightsbridge. The decor and atmosphere was all very 'up market Paris' and the food also has the same feel to it. We had the warm duck and pear salad topped off with a glass of prosecco and my God was it amazing. I managed to take a few pictures while we were there. 
                  
                                                                         Me and Ksenia at Caffé Concerto (Isn't she pretty?!) 

                                        
                                                                      Red lips + prosecco + my new ring
Shopping


I personally didn't do a lot of shopping, all I brought was a ring (Shown in the picture above) but I did have my first trip to & Other Stories located on Regents street which is where I brought my beautiful new ring, and we also popped into Space NK. 



The morning we went into London I had seen a tweet by a blogger (I can't tell you which one, my memory is awful, apologies) mentioning this store called '& Other Stories' and made a mental note to visit it if we had enough time, and funny enough we stumbled across it when walking down Regent Street; in typical Lara style I kind of fan girled and jumped up and down saying how much I wanted to go in, and I was not disappointed. It's a bit of a miss + match store selling pretty much everything, from gorgeous shoes to cotton buds. The layout of the store can only be described using two words, clean and chic, making it a shoppers heaven. So whether your in London or any other city where this store is located I highly suggest you go in and look around, there are so many beautiful things in there; you could either come out with some beautiful new clothes or some new body products.



We then moved onto Space. NK and I think I deserve a round of applause for not buying anything; However we were in there for about 25 minutes. Ksenia was introduced to the magic of Nars and I was educated in the Goldfaden MD products, the gentleman that served us was amazing and I wish I had found out his name. As with everyone that works in Space NK he was really informative and knew what he was talking about and really made you interested in the products. I was given a sample of the Goldfaden MD 'Doctors Scrub' and 'Vital Boost' Moisturiser so I'll be giving those a test run in the next few days to see if they would be a good investment and I will let you know. 


                      

A few snaps of the & Other Stories store on Regents Street. 




Ksenia getting her makeup done in Space NK - she finally got introduced to Nars!



I hope you liked this post, it's slightly different than what I usually put up but I thought it would be interesting for you guys. 

Lara x

Avene

Lip Recovery Programme: Lush + Avené

09:03

Being such a lover of lip balms, dry lips have never really been a problem for me, however this summer was an entirely different story. Not only were my lips severely chapped and sore, but the skin surrounding my lips was equally as bad; so I went on a hunt for the products that would be most affective and the products I purchased and have now come to love are the Lush Lip Scrub in Bubblegum and the Avené Cold Cream Lip Cream. 





Lush Lip Scrub in 'Bubblegum'


The first step I took in combatting my dry lips was to gently remove the dead skin that was just sitting there, to make sure that the lip cream would be able to do its job properly. A friend of mine recommended the Lush lip scrub, so while in Mallorca I popped into the shop and picked up a pot. 
There is a reason so many people have this product, it is simply amazing and its something I actually enjoy doing as part of my weekly routine. Its made from all natural ingredients meaning that when its time to remove the product you just lick it off, which for someone like me who is easily amused by stuff like that I found it pretty cool. The grains are really tiny meaning you get a nice gentle scrub, which wont irritate your skin. Priced at £5.50 you can't really go wrong, a little goes a long way with this product!


Avené Cold Cream Lip Cream



The second step in my little routine was the Avené's Lip Cream. I didn't have my Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream with me and my Nuxe Reve de Miel wasn't doing much for me, so i went to the pharmacy in Mallorca and they advised me to get this product. Priced at nearly 9€ I was praying that this stuff would work, and I'm happy to report that it did the trick and then some. It comes out as a white cream, but once applied it gives your lips a lovely clear sheen with a velvet feel, keeping your lips feeling hydrated for a good few hours. 



After using these products for a week, my lips were back to their normal self just slightly more sensitive. If you are going through the same sort of thing i would highly recommend that you look into purchasing these products and in the mean time you could do a homemade honey and sugar lip scrub followed by your favourite lip balm. 

Lara x