Arundel Castle

As it was my mothers birthday yesterday, we decided to make the most of the British summer and go out. We love our history and visiting castles, so we took a drive to Arundel to visit 'Arundel Castle'. This is also the castle where they filmed 'The Young Victoria', which is one of my many favourite films.

This is one of the sides of the castle (I'm not sure whether this is the front or not). This to me looks unreal and does not look like i'm in England, I mean there is no cloud in the sky! They also held a cute little market that set you in the medieval times, which had events such as cooking, clothing and jousting, which was amazing, because I become a geek when it comes to this sort of stuff!

We also visited the chapel, which was right by the castle and gardens. Although it was amazing and stunning with the stained glass works and woodwork, yes I admit I love that stuff, it was creepy.

The next few photos are from the gardens, which were so peaceful and calming, besides the scorching hot weather.

This kind of day out, is also suitable for younger children, as they held so many activities for them and still keeping it educational. Overall one of the best days so far of summer. Next on my list is to visit Kensington Palace, so stay tuned for a post on that! 

Thanks for reading!xo

Alice

Top 5 Summer Reads

I have always enjoyed talking and sharing about my favourite books and I thought this was be the perfect time to as it is now holiday season! I find that I practically go through my entire book collection. Below I have managed to select 5 of my favourite books to suggest and recommend some awesome reads perfect for summer. 

1. Hester Browne - The Vintage Girl 

This book is great if you like adventure and investigation stories. This story focuses on a young women who ventures to a house in Scotland belonged to her heritage. This book allows you to follow her journey in investigating the secrets of her past family members and soon discover a 

2. John Green - The Fault In Our Stars

A romantic young adult novel with comedic tone and language. This book has been the rave for months, along with one of the best authors, 'John Green'. The success and popularity of this book has lead to becoming a major motion picture. It is the perspective of a young teenage girl, Hazel, who suffers from cancer, but leads to her meeting her love, Augustus. This book had me both crying and laughing, honestly the only book that I have felt quite emotional about. I am quite put of watching the film as I expect such high expectations from the book, but I will probably end up watching it either way. 

3. Rainbow Rowell - Eleanor & Park

This book is very similar to TFIOS, with the original love story of a teenage couple, however the thing that makes this story unique is the differences and how the characters are created. The best thing about a book is watching the character progress and develop, especially for a teenage character, which this book definitely succeeds. 

4. Neil Gaiman - The Ocean At The End Of The Lane 
5. Rainbow Rowell - Fangirl 

A Trip to New York City

The last week I have had the opportunity to go and visit one of the most famous cities; New York. Although it was an educational trip with the college, it literally felt like any ordinary holiday. From going on boat rides, museums, Brooklyn bridge, walking around central park and of course shopping in Times Square. I have met some amazing people, which felt like we were a huge family. Through our experiences with our lost luggage and cancelled flights, they were a few ups and downs, but everyone supported each other. As I have so many items and adventures to share with you, I have decided to break this topic into three blog posts, otherwise this will be a long essay. 

On The first day was a walk through Times Square to get to the sea for a boat ride to see the island where the Statue of Liberty is placed. Just walking through New York is amazing, there is something going on at every angle. We all witnessed to buses crash right in front of us which made all the windows to smash, something you don't see often in the UK.

One of the best visits we went was to Times Square. The atmosphere is so friendly besides how busy it is. The best shop we went to was Toys R Us, it was literally heaven, with three floors full of toys. 

Above was a panoramic view of Central Park. It is unbelievable how big it really is; we ended up walking the full length of the park to eat lunch, although it was tiring, it was definitely worthwhile.

 We also walked over one of the worlds famous bridges 'Brooklyn Bridge' which although doesn't look as attractive as expected, it sure had the best views of sea and skyscrapers. As you can tell by now, this trip included alot of walking, which resulted to alot of us with bruised, swollen feet.

Lastly, was my all time favourite adventure, which was to the top of the rock, which basically gave you the full scale of how big New York is. You could see for miles, full of buildings. This was taken around 8:00 pm, just as the sun was setting. It was peaceful and calming, one of the best views I have seen. After the sunset, gradual lights of buildings lit up, which against the sunset was perfect. Overall the perfect end to the trip. 

Makeup Monday #4 - Barry M Spring Collection

Barry M is a popular drugstore nail polish brand which have many unique products including, Gelly, matte, nail effect and the makeup essentials. My personal favourite is the Gelly hi-shine line, so I was so excited to see they were bringing out three new shades for spring. The hype for spring this season is pastel colours, so the colours are pastel blue, pink and green. As seen in the picture below I only have the blue and pink to review. This is because the green was sold out when I purchased them and I haven't seen it since. 

Firstly the name of the shades are cute and adorable, matching well with the colour. I believe the green shade is called, 'Sugar apple' which I personally sounds quite high street, similar to the Essie products. Though this means they have alot to live up to. The consistency of the varnish is quite thin and sheer. I found it took about 3-4 coats to get a good strong balance of colour. Even with the amount of layers I put on as well as a clear top coat it managed to chip quite quickly. Though overall I would say the rose hip is a beautiful colour once applied. I also found the blue applied much easier than the pink and also didn't chip as much. Overall I recommend to go for the blue or either green, as they may not take as much layers/coats and are much less time consuming.

Thanks for reading!xo

Alice

BLOG UPDATE

Hey blog readers!

I apologize for the serious lack of blog posts; I have been caught up with coursework and deadlines as well as the horrible dreaded exams, so instead of writing my posts I've been doing revision. I also found it difficult to balance out time to prepare, shoot, edit and write for each post twice a week, so I came up with the solution to upload a blog post whenever I can, but to give an aim to upload at least 4 a month, so 1 a week. However I will still be titling them 'Makeup Monday' and 'Fashion Friday', just they won't be every week. You will see alot more exciting posts to come as now the long summer holidays will give me so much time to write. As my blog is primarily beauty and fashion based, I have also decided to add in a lifestyle theme etc.so including day trips and weekends. 

Thank you for reading!xo

Alice

Makeup Monday #3 - My Perfume Collection

Firstly this perfume is possibly my favourite and most worn fragrance. As labelled it is from Next, which I think is one of many stores that stocks affordable pretty perfumes. This is the New York Eau de Parfum. It is not over powering, which makes it a really good everyday perfume. As you can tell from this image I have used this quite alot, so much that now I have just purchased my second bottle. I really recommend checking this one out, or for an alternative the London and Paris are just as good but with slightly stronger and floral scent. 

This is another favourite of mine, purely because of the sweetie scent, which reminds me of candy floss and summer. The bottle is also beautiful with the ombre effect. This perfume was from the body shop, and i say 'was' as it unfortunately is not on the line anymore. I believe this was also a summer limited edition, hence the sweet scent. As you can tell from the image I have barely used it, this is purely because i know i won't be able to purchase another, therefore saving it as long as possible. Hopefully I can find an alternative that is similar to it!

This is my most recent perfume, I have worn this only a few times because it has a strong scent to it that I like to keep for going out. This perfume is the Katy Perry, Killer Queen. I fell in love with the packaging, bottle and of course the smell. I know that this will last me for a while! I have also seen over social media, e.g Instagram, that there is going to be a new Katy Perry perfume, identical to this but in purple, called 'Oh So Shear', so that will be going on my wish list! 

Links-

New York Eau De Parfum

Katy Perry Killer Queen
Justin Bieber Someday
Accessorize - Enchanted fragrance
The Body Shop - Fragrances

Fashion Friday #2 - Shoes Of The Season

These style of shoes is the bringing back of old school shoes. These replicas are also known as t-bar geek shoes. They are simply made up of the traditional black patent material, buckle and cut outs at the toe. After being on my wish list for a while, I finally found the perfect pair for me purchased from River Island. However I can't seem to find the link for these exact ones online, but I have found similar ones on Topshop which I have linked below. 

These shoes are one of  the most comfortable shoes I own/ed. The main advantage of these is that they can be worn for any look and can make an outfit look smart or cute. I wore these with a blue simple dress and they automatically transformed the outfit to a smart casual. For a cute and girly look, dressing them with either a skirt or dress would be ideal. To create an even cuter, pair them with lace frilly socks; another  fashion craze. Another advantage is that the outer sole has really good grip, linking to it being a good all-day shoe. Though because of the minimal padding on the topline and insole it may be an irritate and cause a rubbing on the feet; but from my experience this lasted for the first couple times I wore them and now they're absolutely fine. 

These types of shoes have proven they've got popular as they now have re-introduced jelly shoes. These are my main childhood shoes for me; I remember wearing them when going to the beach on holiday. New Look specifically own a complete range of different colours, which I will be of course purchasing a few of. They are a bargain as well, at only pricing at £10; Compared to the ones below which cost me £30. Though from their success in popularity I'm sure you will find a bargain in purchasing a cheaper pair and that look identical. 

Thanks for reading xo

Links-

Margate T Bar Geek Shoes
Lace Trim Ankle Socks
Jelly Sandals