My London Weekend and Haulage!

Hallo ladies!

Last week I spent a few days in London for business and pleasure. Everytime I go, time flies by and I never actually get round to any sight seeing. This time for the sake of “adventure” me and Mr Candy took the Bus which was a 4.5 hour journey.

Never again. I never used to be travel sick but now I totally am, and I tried to sleep through the shaky, bumpy journey for most of it. I was so exhausted and I will never, ever take the mega bus/coach again. I’d rather scooter down.

Anyway, this time I had lots of things I wanted to haul and I did quite well! Here are some bits I picked up:

1. Uniqlo

I went here for some Paul & Joe Beaute T-Shirts!

As we wondered down Oxford Street, we popped into a Uniqlo store to ask if it was the Flagship. The conversation went like this (no lie).

Me: “Excuse me, is this the Flagship store?”

Lady: “No, this is Uniqlo”

Me: “Oh yes…but is this the Flagship Uniqlo store?”

Lady: “No, all our clothes are imported from Japan.”

As I backed away slowly, I realised I would have to have a rummage in every Uniqlo store I walked past and eventually we found the Flagship store. Upstairs were the Paul & Joe Beaute t-shirts!

I got this:

And this:

I think the best designs had gone but I found 2 I thought were ok anyway. I also bought a Aristocrat’s t-shirt because I am 4:

Prices are good, £12.99 for the Paul & Joe, £6.99 for the Aristocrats.

2. Top Shop

I spotted Orelia Jewellery so made a visit to the store especially. I ended up buying quite a few things (d’oh!).

I got some earrings that were in the sale at £7 and £10 each:

I love these ones:

I got this long necklace – turquoise/green is my favourite colour and this is quite lightweight:

I also bought 2 bracelets but I’m gutted as the leather cord bracelet doesn’t fit me! it wraps around but I don’t have very small wrists so it doesn’t go round properly. ARGH!

Closer look on the bracelet that DOES fit me!

I hope I can return the bracelet at the Manchester Top Shop – possibly not if they don’t have the same concession but the leather bracelet cost me £20 :/

3. Japan Centre

I always go into the Japan centre to buy some beauty magazines. The top 3 that I always buy if they have them in stock is: VOCE, Biteki and Maquia. They aren’t cheap at all at around £10.20p each but I love looking at the pictures.

Not very interesting this month if I’m honest, though.

They also had half price sushi (it was about 8.30pm) amazing! We bought loads to take back to the hotel. I also always buy snacks to take home. I saw these cute rice toppers and had to get them. Once contains salt and black sesame, one has cod roe:

Here’s what they look like! They just add a little flavour to plain rice:

The sesame topping:

One thing I did notice – and this has happened to me before at The Japan Centre – is that they have items which are pretty close to their sell by date. One of the toppings expires in 02/11, one in 07/10 which is only 2.5 months away. I have had this happen to me before…I may contact them because I think its a little sneaky.

4. MAC at Westfields

The second day we went to Westfields which was a lovely looking shopping centre, a bit like The Trafford Centre in Manchester but with less teenagers wheeling buggies.

I innocently wanted to look in MAC for the mineralized loose powder foundation – got to the door and was stopped by security who told me I had to queue even though there was a bout 12 people inside and just little old me who wanted to get in.

Mr Candy stared, extremely bemused by this, and about 8 minutes later I was let into Mecca…oh wait no. The MAC shop.

I was largely shoved out of the way for a while but – to their credit – someone did serve me (I see this as a miracle) and I made my way with 2 little buys.

I got the mineralized foundation in Medium Plus and the Lip Glosss in English Accents:

Nothing exciting really, after I had spent time queuing I felt like I had to buy something.

5. Inglot at Westfields

Inglot was different from MAC – a bigger shop, nice sales assistants (but in all honestly a little pushy – I was stalked from the moment it was clear I was buying).

Another one of the girls clocked my newly painted fingers, and asked if I had a manicure. Yes, I said (and it hurt too).

“Where I am from…it actually looks like you’ve had a manicure” she said, inspecting my fingers. I didn’t tell her the manicure in question only happened 4 hours earlier.

Nevertheless, the palette system is soooo cool and the colours are pigmented and beautiful. You pick a palette (holding 2, 3, 5, 20 – all sorts of shapes and sizes) and fill it with what you like!

The blush palette was £26:

My opinionated SA wouldn’t let me pick anything too light for my skin (I wanted a highlighter!) but nevertheless, I was so impressed by the pigmentation of these blushers:

I got a matte peach, a lighter shimmery peach, a peach-pink which looks a lot like Nars Orgasm and a bronzer shade:

I also bought a 10 pan eyeshadow set for £32. I could have so easily bought another 20 so I just went with my gut instinct.

The eyeshadows are lovely, so soft and pigmented, totally impressed with it.

I chose a nude base (matte), a highlighter, a gold, a warm and cool brown, me being me and loving blues and greens I got a bright blue, bright green, lime green, the nicest purple I could find and a black infused with gold glitter.

Sensible? Its the best way to cover all bases I could think of!

Swatches:

6. Hamleys

In Hamleys I basically got abused by every Toy Demonstrator on every level, the guy who blasted cold air in my face and the one that honked his horn at me as I emerged at the top of the escalator and made me shriek (on a PMT day he would have got a black eye).

Nevertheless, what an amazing shop!

Actually I picked up lots of things for my cousins (all 15 and younger) and got myself:

A little Hello Kitty notebook and a tin Super Mario 1-up Star filled with mints! I love Super Mario - Nintendo Til I Die!

London was a lot of fun but too brief. I walked so hard the heel of my shoe fell off. I kept walking even though I knew it had fell off I was too ashamed to pick it up (Mr Candy rescued it, men are better at things like that).

Finally I will say:

DO NOT TRAVEL BY COACH.

DO NOT TRAVEL BY COACH.

DO NOT TRAVEL BY COACH.

EVER.

What did you do this weekend and what did you haul?