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Weddings. My first "adult" wedding threw me straight in at the deep end, as the Maid of Honour. There was so much more to do for the day than I first realised that I wanted to list everything I used, booked and bought in a handy little guide so that when the time comes, wedding season won't throw you off like it did me!
Dress and shoes
When I say dress, I mean dress number 1. The bride and groom were blending their cultures, so after the white wedding as such, came the Arabic and Ghanaian outfits to end the night. The latter was handmade by the groom's family, and a keepsake I'll always cherish. My church dress was a gift from Chi Chi London. When they offered me a dress from their bridesmaid collection, it was perfect timing as the group were just deciding on the choice of dress for the day. Mine was a dark green floor length gown with a cowl neck and the most gorgeous pleats. We added a pearl belt and nude heels to finish the look.
Nails
I was kindly gifted a voucher by Treatwell towards a beauty treatment of my choice. I chose to go for a mani pedi a couple of days before the wedding. Treatwell have thousands of options for treatments, so I chose a nail salon close to home to pop to before the bridal shower. I asked for white on the toes, and nude gels on the fingers. I loved how I could prepay before I went so that the salon would already know what I've booked. Click here to book your treatment through Treatwell.
Hair and Makeup
Blow LTD also kindly gave me a voucher towards an at-home treatment. I went for a Super Glam makeup look and it was brilliant that I could get the makeup artist to come straight to my hotel room, especially with the weather on that July weekend in particular. I was in and out of the chair within 40 minutes and jumped straight into my hair. I knew that out of the two of them, I'd be able to do my hair myself rather than my makeup. Lee Stafford sent over a bunch of hair care products and the Makin Waves hair styler to try out. The styler gave subtle mermaid style waves, instead of rings, which was perfect as I knew my hair would start to drop out the minute we went outside. My waves lasted all day and I just pinned the sides back and had my side fringe out in full. Click here to book your treatment through Blow LTD and here for the styler!
Hotel
I'll go into a lot more detail about the hotel in another post soon but honestly staying in a hotel the night before the wedding (and the night after) was a blessing. My room, the bride's and a few of the groom's friends and family were next to each other, so being able to pop back and forth the morning of the wedding was fab.
I hope this bus stop tour of my thoughts was helpful. For now my first adult wedding is complete. And honestly, I'm quite ready for the next one.
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I spend every Saturday lugging my suitcase around busy East London streets, and to be honest, I wouldn't change a thing. Today I talk you through my routine, where to shoot, where to eat and where to treat yourself after a long few hours shooting.
7am: alarm goes off, get ready (and probably pack suitcase because I leave everything until the last minute)
8am: bus to the station
9am: meet a mate and shoot some ideas (mostly "there'll do)
9am-1pm: shooting shooting shooting
And I now realise how boring that all sounds now I've written it out but GO WITH IT.
Okay so location time. Liverpool Street Station is a hub. There's the Exchange next door, with pretty steps and on the weekends, the bars and cafes are closed so the outdoor seating is a hidden gem to use. It's always pretty quite up there (because nothing is open) so the perfect place for a quick change. I always wear cycling shorts and a vest top so no nudity occurs.
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| The Spitalfields shops |
You've got Spitalfields Market around the corner too. Here's where I spend most of my time. There are a tonne of different shop fronts, market stools and hidden roads that I won't shoot in the same place more than once in a few weeks. For food and drink, there is of course a bundle of restaurants inside the market, including a pub and food stall/trucks too. I usually opt for Costa, purely because I like tea & cake AND there's a toilet too for outfit changes. For a treat too I've visited Duck and Dry too, for perfect hair for the photos. It's so quick, half hour to 40 minutes for a blow dry and style. And I can NEVER recreate the bounce and volume that they do there, at home. They've now extended too, with a bar and even more hair eggs (is that right?!). It's Instagram worthy too, if you were wondering, with a flower wall, light word signs and that bar I mentioned? It's pink marble. Oh gosh indeed my friend.
At the back of Spitalfields, slightly more North (as in a few feet away) is Shoreditch. The cool people's paradise. Now, if you're looking for coffee then Shoreditch Grind isn't far, just on Old Street roundabout, but I'd opt more for Brick Lane. The road is packed every minute of every day however. I'd recommend shooting at one of the far ends, as it's 'less' busy and some of the roads are one way too, so less traffic for those walking across the road shots. My pamper NO.2 location is the new Luka Spa. I attended their packed out launch party and was kindly gifted a gel manicure and Swedish back massage. Get a massage if you can. Shooting 6 outfits then going into a dark room with the sounds of waterfalls and just calmness, was a wonder I'll never forget.
Other Eastal locations include the likes of St Pauls, The Sky Garden, and even the Shard, if you don't mind heights.
The East of London is home to many fab places. It's my home, my workplace and happy place.
The end.
Duck and Dry blow dry: Before and after
When I was 15 or so, dying my hair was a yearly (or more) hobby I rather enjoyed. I wanted the "omg it looks so different" comments and have always had a dislike for my dark brown hair. It got to the point two years ago where my hair was so damaged and so dry that cutting it into a bob was the best thing for it.
I loved that bob, and wouldn't ever rule out going for it all off again, but my hair doesn't like to grow fast, and after 6 months or so I start to yearn for flowing locks again. You see the issue here? Anyway if I wasn't going to cut it, I needed something else to do. So back came the dye. When Whiteman Soho agreed to become my Hairy Godmother, I was over the moon. The consultation came first, discussing which shade would suit my original colour as I'd chosen a balayage. I had a patch test and came out very much excited for my appointment the following week.
My stylist was Billy, and he knew exactly what he was doing from the colour to the cut so I'd recommend him to anyone. We started by going over everything, double checking what I wanted then he explained that he would do a more blended balayage as I wanted subtle tones rather than icy blonde to start. After an hour or so of applying, it took no time at all for the colour to stay put. It was washed out, toned twice and conditioned to keep it healthy. I asked what to do about going into the pool on my holiday in a few weeks, and Billy said to put a leave in conditioner on beforehand, if anyone wanted to know.
We chopped the ends off, fixed up my fringe and was treated to a blow dry and curls. I love it. The colour is a very soft beigey blonde and starts high up enough that you can't really see where it starts, but nothing on the root, aka low maintenance. I really couldn't recommend Whiteman Soho and Billy enough. If you fancied booking click here for their site. The salon itself is so modern and simple, and adds to the experience itself, plus it's located in the Ham Yard so you'll be feeling very fancy walking out after too! Oh and whilst you're there, you may as well head to my favourite restaurant in the area for a quick lunch and a show off of your new look ;)
A big thank you to everyone at the salon, my hair is perfect and ready for the summer now!
*This was a gifted experience by Whiteman Soho.
My hair. One of the banes of my life for such a long time. I always did the thing where you hide the back and pretend it's really short. Ah to be young again.
My hair story:
I've had stupidly long hair since forever really. I would trim it but never cut short. It was healthy enough until I was say 13/14 and decided that I needed blonde highlights all the way through. If the colour wasn't bad enough against my deep brown natural shade, the highlighting cap was one of the most painful and traumatic things I've ever been through. I'd rather have a tooth out.
Not too soon after, I decided to cut my barnet off, just under the shoulders I hoped for. However, let it be known that once wet, or freshly cut my hair will curl. And curl it did. Once I had chopped, I found that for a while, my hair sort of shrunk itself even shorter, curlier, and safe to say, I didn't buy my year 9 school photo that year.
I left it for a few years to grow out, although it naturally grows at record speed anyway. I finished my GCSEs and was heading into sixth form. We started a few weeks after the rest of the school and I remember going into Superdrug with my friend Nikita, buying a 'dip dye for dark hair' kit and getting her to sit on my bedroom floor whilst everyone else was out, to dye it. I still had the leftover blonde streaks from a few years before so I thought topping up the colour on the ends would look nice. This was bad, but not my worst mistake as you'll see. I popped the still dyed, not yet washed out, hair into a bun and went to meet my sister at school that afternoon. I remember of my boy mates asking what on earth I'd done and the dye hadn't even come off yet.
Year 13. I apologise to anyone who had to see me for that entire year. So a year had passed since the dip dye and once again I was feeling adventurous. I decided to go a light brown/dirty blonde shade. Let it be known that I am my dad's child. Super pale skin and extremely dark hair. The colour, as always, didn't go to plan and I ended up with bright yellow hair. I wouldn't even call it blonde. My eyebrows stood out and my fast growing roots made their appearance within days. I remember walking into the sixth form block and every single person turning around, confused, my friends included. That was in September and by my birthday in November I dyed it completely black to try and counter the colour. Once again, a mistake. For a while the dark colour stayed and became lighter so it looked like my natural colour. But it didn't stop getting lighter. The yellow started showing through and I realised that some parts weren't actually dyed black at all. As my hair grew out for another year and a half, I had my normal brown shade on top, and bright orangey ginger from mid way down. It wasn't straight either. The orange started from a U shape from ear to ear from growing from the roots. I cut my hair for my 20th, but even that couldn't get rid of it all.
And then.. On the 17th of February 2017, I arrived back in the UK from Amsterdam at approx 10am. I had booked an appointment at Toni and Guy a few days beforehand for 4pm on the day I came home. I sat down and the attractive hair washing man washed my hair. Very well I must add. 10/10 would wash again. Anyway I sat down and Louise, the stylist, asked what I wanted. I showed her picture of someone with shoulder length hair and just said 'that'. She asked if I had thought about this beforehand and not just woken up with the idea one day. Definitely a mix of both. She grabbed a handful of the back of my hair and just told me to watch. Annnd it was gone. She popped a few layers in, made the back very short (top of my neck line) and the front a tad longer. It was shorter than I had wanted but looked better than I could have imagined.
I felt like I had gone from this weird haired teenager (a 20 y/o, but sh) to looking older. It suited my long chin better than before and instantly felt healthier. I couldn't have been happier.
Since the chop I have gotten it trimmed once, two weeks ago. This time at a hairdressers near my house which was half the price and a family friend. He didn't cut it as short as last time, which does worry me slightly as my hair does grow fast so it'll grow out quicker, but we'll see how it goes. It is still it was far better than having flicky out ends of when the back grows and contours with my neck line after a while!
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| I added waves with a medium width curling wand. |
I use pretty much any shampoo and matching conditioner my mum buys. I do adore the Aussie ranges and anything with coconut seems to keep my hair healthy. I use a Umberto Giannini hair mask every time I wash it to make sure the hair has moisture and I'll blow dry upside down. At the Blogosphere pamper event in May, one of the Schwarzkopf ladies recommended to do this for shorter hair as I was finding it hard to keep volume after years of long hair pulling it down.
I adore my hair shorter and, as much as the hairdresser visits are more frequent, I feel far more confident with it and would recommend the chop to anyone!
I've officially been buying my monthly subscription box for a year now and I don't think I'll be stopping any time soon. I've discovered one of my new favourite brands (Naobay) and been sent make up products that are both affordable but higher quality than some products you'll find in Boots or Superdrug. Today I bring you my first impressions of the products I've received this month, which includes a cute GB makeup bag for my glossy anniversary!
LUXIE ROSE GOLD ANGLED BRUSH £10.42
The bandwagon has come around once again and I'm in love with this rose gold brush! Its very soft so I'm excited to see how this fairs up against my Real Technique babies!
OLAY REGENERIST SKIN PERFECTING CREAM £29.99
I'm still hanging on to my teenage skin, but it's never too early to prevent signs of ageing. I love finding new facial creams that work so I can't wait to use this!
I'm more or a cream girl than a serum lover but the RPP of this is quite high for quite a small tube so if the quality meets the price, then this may change my mind...
Travel sized. Always perfect when testing products. I look for specific things for a hair product but this is said to leave the hair 'lustrous' and 'hydrated'; two things my hair is lacking in!
And finally...
SO SUSAN LIGHT DIFFUSER £14
I've had products from this brand previously but haven't had the opportunity to test them properly. This highlighter and contour shade (I'm guessing...it's just a dark brown!) have potential so I may have to test them out and review them soon!
Let me know if you've tried any of these or have suggestions for other products from the brands?
Buy GlossyBox here!
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