Travel: Disney World, Florida (part 3 of 3)

Day 4 Friday 18th March 2016

Friday started late because someone (who shall remain nameless, but I'm sure you can guess!) ended up drinking a little too much the night before, and spent the morning with his head stuck down the toilet - while I slept in. We'd planned to return to Typhoon Lagoon, so weren't too disappointed, and instead got to Hollywood Studios in time for me to meet up with some of the rest of the group to ride the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. Siegfried's scared of heights, so didn't want to partake in this, and lovingly spent the time getting me a drink and a snack. We then headed to what I was probably most excited about: "For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-a-long"! It turns out we probably didn't even need FastPasses, as there were shows throughout the day and you just stood in a waiting area before filing into the theatre. Mostly I was just glad that we decided to see it at all, because it's probably now my favourite memory of the trip (bar Be Our Guest, of course).

It wasn't just a basic sing-a-long, but an interactive one, with two Arendelle "historians" recounting the Frozen storyline, with pauses for the songs. These two characters actually kind of stole the show - they were so funny, and had loads of jokes appropriate for all of the older viewers (i.e. mums/dads/siblings/boyfriends etc.). Siegfried got a bunch of hilarious footage; neither of us are gifted in the singing department! But it was fun to be able to sing a long without caring what you sounded like, and during the grand finale Elsa and Anna came out to many awesome effects - including fake snow!

Travel: Disney World, Florida (part 2 of 3)

Day 3 Thursday 17th March 2016

Thursday was an extremely special day, as Siegfried and I had a table booked at the Magic Kingdom's Beauty & the Beast-themed restaurant, Be Our Guest. I'd been wanting to go here since I'd heard about it from a university friend who went during our year abroad, but this desire significantly increased after Siegfried and I watched the film not long after we got together. The movie occupies a special place in our hearts; we think of it as "our" movie (like when couples have particular songs). So the first thing we'd done when we decided to go to Disney World was to ring for a reservation. Having done extensive research, I was keen to get a lunch reservation, as it reflected the best choice and value for money. But when we first rang (literally about six weeks prior to our trip!), Be Our Guest could only offer a breakfast reservation. Thankfully, after two more weeks of ringing almost daily and a tip to not try again until the week before we arrived, we managed to book an 11:30am table. 

Travel: Disney World, Florida (part 1 of 3)

Warning: this post is probably going to end up being much, much longer than intended! I knew I’d want to blog about my time at Disney World because it's such an exciting place to have been able to visit, but we packed so much stuff into just four and a half days that now I don't know where to begin! I think I'm going to split it into days, and cover a couple of days per post - that way I’ll also get in some time to gather my thoughts properly.

I haven't been to Disney World in Florida for 15 years (I felt so old when I figured that out!); I still can't believe I didn't make it there during my year studying abroad in the States. I'd definitely planned to, but life happened and I never really had the time and money to spare. When I moved back to England, it seemed even more out of reach, even though my boyfriend is (thankfully) also Disney crazy. His family actually used to have an apartment in Florida, so he's been to Disney World a lot, but financial issues meant they've since had to sell the condo.

Anyway, amazingly, his friend Katie kindly invited us to be a part of her Spring Break trip this year - her parents are part of Disney's "Vacation Club", which is kind of like a cross between getting a holiday on finance and having a timeshare. So they had "points" (how it works is very confusing; I looked it up and was still a bit baffled) to use up, and Katie booked a two-bedroom villa in Disney's "Old Key West" resort for us! It was three couples and two of her single friends - a really nice group. Even with free accommodation, my boyfriend and I were still a bit worried about cost, but we decided it was worth the splurge if it meant going to Disney World together!

Product Review: ColourPop Cosmetics Ultra Matte Lip and Lippie Pencil

I first saw ColourPop lipsticks on one of my favourite bloggers (as featured in this post), Nicole Alyse, as she’s a big fan of matte lip products. But they really appeared on my (/everyone’s) radar when Kylie Jenner’s “lipkits” were released; yes, unfortunately I fall prey to krazy Kardashian marketing sometimes (see what I did there). Consisting of a lipliner and a matte liquid lipstick in the same shade, they retail for $29/£20 plus nearly $8/£5.50 for (U.S.) shipping - if, that is, you can get hold of one (they frequently sell out in 10-15 minutes, and are restocked sporadically). So, naturally, many people - myself included - started searching for cheaper dupes. In fact, one conspiracy theory that went viral was that Jenner’s lipkits were actually ColourPop lipsticks simply repackaged. And whilst I have no idea if that’s true, a quick Google search for “Kylie lipkit dupes” throws up a ton of similair ColourPop offerings - at the incredible price of $6/£4 for an Ultra Matte Lipstick and $5/£3.50 for a Lippie Pencil (liner).

As ColourPop currently only ship to the U.S. and a select few other countries (with possible “additional duty fees”), I decided to take advantage of my American boyfriend by ordering some products to his student dorm in Washington D.C. for me to pick up when I next visited. As everything was so cheap, I ended up getting two Ultra Matte Lip colours and one Lippie Pencil; although shipping is $5/£3.50, you can get a $5 off coupon when you sign up for their newsletter, so my total was only around $17/£12! I’d heard some pretty bad things about the delivery, but mine got to my boyfriend within about a week and it was packed really well. I opened it up when I got to him a few days ago, and was really impressed with the packaging and appearance of the items.

Product Review: Estée Lauder Double Wear foundation

I’m not entirely sure how long I’ve been looking for a "perfect" foundation, but I know it’s taken me two BB creams and two liquid efforts to find it. Until I was about eighteen, I didn’t wear much make-up (or at least I can’t remember doing so!). I can recall using a lot of cheap Seventeen pressed powder compacts, and then making do with just a basic concealer dabbed on the most offensive spots. For special occasions, my sister usually made me up, so I wore whatever she had in her make-up bag! Then there came the big ‘Beauty Balm’ (BB) explosion, and - off the back of several rave reviews I read in magazines and the like - I bought Smashbox’s ‘Camera Ready’ version. This worked for quite a while, as it boasted SPF 35 and was a lightweight, low-coverage option for my low-maintenance needs. However, as those needs developed into more complex (some may say borderline obsessive…) demands on my make-up, I started casting around for alternatives. This was whilst I was living in Washington D.C., and when I heard that Benefit had launched their "bigger than BB" Big Easy "liquid-to-powder" product, I popped down to the Sephora in Georgetown to pick it up for (slightly) less than I’d be able to in the U.K. Unfortunately, all that did was convince me that I was definitely a liquid, and not a powder (or liquid-to-powder!) kind of girl. It also made me aware of how annoying it is that you can’t really test products before you purchase them. Sure, lots of beauty counters offer mini-makeovers these days, but if they really know what they’re doing they’ll use an abundance of things (clever lighting, mirrors, sales people etc.) to convince you to buy. 

So I was pretty pleased when I found an "invitation" (read: coupon) from Estée Lauder to get a "10-day sample of your perfect foundation" - Double Wear Stay-in-Place Makeup - in a recent copy of Elle. My knowledge on the brand had somewhat increased in the recent months due to my outrageous obsession with all things Kardashian (no judgement, please); Kendall Jenner is their newest spokeswoman (read: stupidly high-paid model). I started looking for opportunities to visit a counter and take advantage of the offer, but it wasn’t until the New Year that I managed to get to one. The process was quick and easy: a friendly Estée Lauder consultant matched my shade by working with me to narrow it down from her three original picks to the one I felt would work the best with my skin and its needs. This was 1N1, or "ivory nude", and I got a 4ml pot to take away with me, tucked inside a little leaflet with details of the shade written down. 

Café Review: Reloved Tearooms (Dorchester, Dorset)

It feels like I’ve only just managed to sit down after one of the busiest weeks ever! I worked six days in a row, with three of those days being 10+ hour shifts, and I am shattered. Even after I finished yesterday afternoon, I immediately had to leave for a trip to visit my grandma (what a romantic start to Valentine’s Day, eh?!). 

So today’s post is just a quick review of a café my mum and I came across today in Dorchester. We’d left dad going through the list of odd jobs Granny’s always got stacked up for him, and took the dog for a wander through the town. When I was little I used to find Dorchester really boring and uneventful, but it’s sort of come into it’s own recently! Little independent shops and boutiques have sprung up, and their trusty department store Gould’s has had a much-needed facelift. It’s sometimes difficult having the dog with us, but a few places are happy to let him come in with us, or we take it in turns to browse whilst the other one waits outside!

Birchbox Review: January

I really liked this month’s box; not only did it come with some great products, but there were two freebies in the shape of a cute “#nofilter” slogan pocket mirror and five awesome postcards with some lovely quotes and graphics on them! Again, it was apparently a collaboration with Pinterest but I've yet to see exactly why... Anyways, I’ve also just opened this month’s (always behind, me!) and it looks just as promising!