Stylist Magazine Beauty Picnic

Last night I was invited to the Stylist Magazine summer beauty picnic. M&S bubbles, Space NK makeup and manicures? Marks & Spencer food and drink? I'm in.

These things can be billed much better than the reality, thankfully this didn't just live up to expectations, it exceeded them on all levels. On arrival, a gorgeous goodie bag awaited, bonus. I personally prefer to wait until I get home, OK at least on the tube until I dive in to a goodie bag. Firstly, so not cool to pretend to be impressed by a goodie bag, secondly I like the surprise. My date however could not contain herself! B was right in excitedly telling me what was stuffed under the tissue paper, you however have to wait. (I will tell you it was satisfyingly heavy, and there was a sneaky copy of the latest stylist magazine poking out)...

Having my nails already done (obviously) and my make up fully prepped, I was keen on the hand massage on offer from the Space NK treatments available. I can see how one would be completely made over had they the time or inclination.

Luckily we arrived in good time and there wasn't a queue for such services. We had our massages which took between 10-15 minutes, I wasn't counting nor was I aware...I was enjoying. I also haven't any photos of myself enjoying the treatment (I was enjoying it, duh...) but you get the idea. It was heaven. I chose the Brighton scent from the four products available. They are all based on traditional UK scents from the southern coast to the Scottish highlands via West London.

B then wanted to take advantage of the manicure and nail painting, so I stocked up on a plate of  food and waited with her for a manicurist to be available. The goodies was compliments of Marks & Spencer, who had on offer some delicious sandwiches, rolls and deserts. I wasn't aware they stocked some of the things and I'm in M&S a fair bit! The chorizo and chicken rolls were the stand out for me, as was the patisserie cream on the fresh fruit tarts, deelish.

Rococo nail varnishes were on offer, one of these may have also been in the goodie bag...

Choux - or something creamy like that. Yum

Fresh fruit tarts, the patisserie cream in these was incredible

The Cava flowed freely and the setting was gorge. The harpist set the mood amazingly, and was rocking a seriously gorgeous simple yet elegant long black dress.

Apply heavily from hand to mouth to cure bad hair day

All in all a top evening. So the goodie bag...what lies within, luckily for me the Brighton bath and body lotion, the same scent I chose in the moisturiser for my hand massage. It honestly is divine, every time my hand comes near my face (even now hours later) I can smell it. You are unlucky that you can't. Also within; a 'Jean Queen' lip gloss and a Rococo nail varnish in a colour that would suit anyone. The total  RRP of the goodie bag is over £55 (I Googled, this is not advertised in the bag!)

Check out the bath lotions here

Buy yours here

You can buy this here

Thank you Stylist Magazine for inviting us, thank you M&S for the food and drink and thank you Space NK for the pampering. We felt truly spoilt and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, it was a treat to be on Manchester Square again after working there relentlessly all those years ago...

Tweet Pin It Now!

Carrie Travels; The Amalfi Coast

Following my Sorrento marathon of a post I promised an update on both the Amalfi coast and Capri. Now I intend to keep that promise.First thing was first - we had to head down to the harbour of Sorrento to get the boat. You can drive, but sailing around the coast is far more fun. This was down the mammoth cliff face (almost) via 131 steps. Yes we counted. The harbour is pretty gorge. 

On arrival in the port of Amalfi it was bloody windy. We aimed towards what looked like the centre of town and tried to escape the blusters. We seemed to find the central square very easily. It was lovely. Drink was the first thing on the menu, out of the gale was preferable. We ended up at a lovely little 'typical' cafe just at the foot of the church stairs. We wanted a light lunch so ordered wine and a slice of pizza. I would love to see what the whole pizza looked like if these were slices!

While here we seen the most gorgeous beagle puppy. The owner even tried to make him pose for me but it was to no avail he was far too interested in sniffing out everything around. To work off the pizza slice we walked up the stairs to the church. We couldn't go in as I was not wearing a dress past my knees and did not have anything to cover my shoulders with. Not that bothered...we could still see some nice shops...

Not your average pizza express

Where we had lunch

As in Sorrento the fruit and vegetables are amazing. I particularly liked the natural Viagra on offer.

We hopped on the boat back into Sorrento and walked up the million stairs. I liked Amalfi but it was good to be back. It could just be we didn't know where we were going but it felt very small and that there wasn't much to do.

Tweet Pin It Now!

Race Day; Macmillan Cancer 10k

This Sunday marked my first ever 'competitive' 10k. Following the marathon I was inspired to up my own game and give a bit more purpose to my frequent running. I opted for a Macmillan Cancer fundraising (FUN rather than competitive) race. It was more of a challenge to myself than to wonder where I came in the scheme of things. My race was against the clock...(that came out way cheesier than I was intending)

My 'training' was unstructured to say the least, mainly from necessity. I run the 3 miles to work an average of 4 times per week and at least one other longer run at the weekend. The raining plans I see online feature lots of walking, which I don't need. I therefore just went with my best instinct. I was also scuppered by a week in southern Italy and a few days away with work.

On the day it was gorgeous and sunny - aka hot. Luckily the race was kicking off at 10am so it wouldn't be too hot by the time I finished. I can't really moan about anything else or give any other excuses...only that my training wasn't as it should have been.

For breakfast (in case you are interested!) I went for two small bananas and an alpen bar. I also loaded up with a couple of Lucozade lites. Still on my diet you see! My carb loading the day before was also weak...a Marks & Spencer count on us mushroom risotto for lunch with a count on us Cajun Chicken Fettuccine with one wholemeal pitta for dinner. More carbs than I've had for a couple of weeks, but still I was going to be burning them off.

I started really fast, a minute under my target mile time. I needed to slow down but felt good. Sure enough not before long I was running comfortably at my target time that would allow me to hit my 'stretch' target. Unfortunately that didn't last. I ended up running in and around my 'safety' target time. There were a couple of sneaky but long hills on the course (three times around the seemingly flat Regents Park in London). The hills and the heat were tough, but I powered on.

Going strong rounding the corner into the second lap

My second lap was unexpectedly slower than my first, but my target was still achievable. Finally on this time around I could take notice of the 8 and 9k signs that had taunted me on my first two laps. The park was of course not closed to the public and at one stage I tripped over a runaway dog. I stayed on my feet but gave the owner a knowing look of disdain. 

Finally the end was in site, the last 2k felt like 10k on it's own. It was ridiculously tough. Luckily I had arranged my music perfectly to account for this so the epic Florence and the Machine Shake it Out came on just when I needed it.

Smiling, but dead

I hit my safety target just. I'm keeping it a secret target. I know I'm not the fastest person in the world but boy did I try. I now have a target to beat next time. They had a tent of snacks and I allowed myself one finger of Twix. My supporters got more benefit tucking into the rest. I however got to enjoy this all myself!

Tweet Pin It Now!

En-Ger-Land, En-Ger-Land, En-Ger-Land

For the last few days I have been at a film festival. Cannes I hear you ask? Tribeca? Well no. Sheffield. Oh the glamour and excitement. It was actually an interesting and productive couple of days. If you are so inclined there is a link to a documentary/movie you aught to check out below - Being Elmo (and this is in no way promotion, we have nothing to do with it, it just looks ruddy good!!)

Anyway, on to the title of this post. While in Sheffield the second game of England's Euro campaign was on. England have not beaten Sweden in a competitive match ever (apparently). This was rectified last night after a very nail biting match that ended 3-2. Now I like to watch football in pubs. Rather a lot actually. A bit of atmosphere goes a long way to my anticipation and heartache that usually comes with watching a game.

Looking a bit school uniform-esque

The emotions of an England supporter go from elation to doubt to self defeat to expectation back to elation, if you're lucky...I literally had a sore throat from screaming at the TV, nothing compared to these obviously die hard northerners residing in the pub with me.

We now have to go through the whole thing again on Tuesday when England take on the Ukraine - a game we should really win (she says...) The above picture is what I had on for the occasion, whipping off my sweater for the game. I really like this years blue strip, but I prefer the above white one (from the 2010 World Cup) to this year's which has more red accents.

Also while in Sheffield I was still trying to maintain my diet. Not easy when travelling with work, having long days late nights, early morning and hosting/attending a multitude of cocktail parties. For convenience on the first evening we went to Strada. I was worried. I really didn't fancy a salad but figured in an Italian where Pizza and Pasta were going to be front and centre it was going to be my only option. I was really pleasantly surprised to see 'healthy choices' subtly marked on the menu with a small leaf next to the options. The surprise (or maybe it's not too much of a surprise) only one of the four salads had this mark signifying it had less than 600 calories.

Working dinner

More restaurants should take this approach, it really helps to make informed decisions. It also allowed me to opt for the black cuttlefish ink pasta with crab and other delightful things instead of making a bad choice of a chicken salad that had more calories and would be way less satisfying. I am impressed and was not at all jealous of the mammoth pizzas that covered the rest of the tables. The side of broccoli I ordered was supposed to come in a chili butter (yum) but I asked for this with chili but no butter. It was delish Thank you Strada.

Just in case you are so inclined and are a fan of Elmo (if you aren't, you are clearly in need of this)...

Tweet Pin It Now!

I am Samson (and I'm imPress'ed)

...and my nails are my hair. Lost? OK I am also lost without my nails. Every three weeks for as long as I can remember I have been preened to cuticle perfection and cannot stand being without them. (You know Samson was the guy who had all his strength in his hair and couldn't function without it, that's generally how I am without perfectly pointed pinkies.)

I've had gel nails for years, so recently decided to try other means and give my nails a bit of a break. This included a gel like paint which while giving the desired effect was thicker than my normal. After attending London Fashion Weekend one of the 'goodies' in the goodie bag were imPress press on manicure nails. As I was firmly in my cycle of going to the fab Vietnamese place on Kingsland Road (East London) I tossed them into a draw and basically forgot about them.

After having the thick gel paint I felt bad going back to my normal 'woman', so I elected to soak off the nails. This is the first time in I don't know how long I had seen my own. Not all that pretty. I also hate nail varnish. It chips, last about 5 minutes and takes forever to get on properly, not to mention off without staining your nails. It was then I remembered about the ones I had discarded months ago. It was a Monday (bank holiday) and I was going to a party followed by a fairly relaxed week outside of work, so I figured to hell with it I could do without being perfectly manicured for a week.

Day 1, before I was convinced

I hoped they would last the party at least then I could go back to my regular place in a few days time and admit defeat plumping for a brand new set. Then Tuesday came and they were firmly gleaming in place. Then Wednesday...Thursday....SUNDAY. They were amazing.

Hour 2, still not convinced, but pretty imPress'ed

There is nothing harmful to your nails here, even the gel I regularly use while better than acrylic is pretty harsh on your little hands. These feel like a really sensible alternative to give my nails a little R&R. I only intended to use one pack THEN go back to my normal...but I am curious as they come in a multitude of nice colours and pattens, I found myself buying another box. They cost upwards from £7.99 depending on the patten. For a week's worth of nails this is pretty good. More expensive than having them professionally done in East London (don't even start me on places like Nails Inc, they are ridiculously expensive and the Vietnamese/Chinese places do a much better job for a fraction of the cost.) This is only because you have to re-do them more frequently.

The upside? If you lose one, chances are there is another in the pack that can patch up that finger! Hurrah! The packs come with 24 nails in 12 sizes, definitely one size fits all in terms of a pack. The only problem is that the magic 'prep pad' that comes with must make your nails susceptible to the sticky adhesive on the back of the nail, as when I tried to stick one on it wasn't so firmly on as before. I haven't seen if you can buy the prep pads separately, but this would definitely be a good idea.

Different packaging to a few months ago (Above)

Choose your sizes

Start with the pinky, finish with thumbs

Ta-dah! Manicure in minutes

So I scoffed at the adverts...PAH as if Nicole Scherzinger has stick on nails...
I discarded them into a draw when they were free and now I've coughed up my own dough for them

imPress Nails are available in Boots in the UK, my local one which isn't huge had 12 colour varieties. Not too shabby. They don't seem to name the colours, but the free ones we re a dark maroony red, and I've gone for a brighter more corally red to top up.

Find out more

Tweet Pin It Now!