Travel Diaries: Norwich, England

Hey everyone,

This post is particularly special to me because Norwich is my hometown and where I was born. We began our trip by taking a train from Bath into London, and from London into Norwich where my bestest friend Gracie picked us up! Here's what we did!

After Gracie picked us up we went back to her lovely house and got settled in before taking the short drive to the village I grew up in, Upton. We walked around the duck pond and wandered through the marshes.

First stop, located conveniently across from the duck pond was my old house, and of course I had to take a picture. 

We walked around the marshes to the boat dyke and then onto the local pub for some dinner. We were pretty exhausted at this point, so we pretty much went home and jumped into bed. 

The next day Gracie had to go into Norwich for uni, so Fraser and I took this chance to walk around the city and see some museums. We looked at the art gallery at the UEA, and then onto the Castle Museum in Norwich. We stayed almost all day, and then went home to change and get ready to go back into Norwich for dinner and drinks with some of my old school friends.

The next day we did some tours around Norfolk, beginning in Heydon, a small town where Frasers great-great-great Grandfather died. (Maybe one less 'great', I can never remember). Incredibly we found his headstone, and then moved on to the next destination. 

We drove through Holt into Cromer, a beach town, and stopped for a veggie burger at lunch followed by spending a lot of money in an arcade. From Cromer we drove onto Thetford forest for a tree climbing experience called 'Go Ape'.

I'm not a massive fan of heights, but I did finish it to everybody's surprise! Climbing was not my thing, but I loved zip lining around! 

Heres just one photo of me struggling.

We had quite a short time in Norfolk due to a potential train strike, so we had to leave a day earlier than planned. The next day mainly consisted of travelling down to London and then over to Enfield to spend time with Frasers brother. 

I hope you enjoyed another Travel Diaries!

Thanks for reading!

Megan

Essie's "Naughty Nautical" Nail Polish

Hey everyone,

Today's review is on Essie's Naughty Nautical, a shade from the Summer 2013 collection. I think it's available from Essie's website, but I found mine in Winners, they almost always have Essie shades from collections that aren't available anymore which is awesome. 

Inside the colour is much more green than blue. It has a very subtle shimmer which only picks up in bright sunshine or when you move, I'm surprised the inside lighting captured it! 

In bright light you can see more of the blue/teal tones and it makes for a very bright summer manicure, something usually out of my comfort zone. 

Excuse the orange nail polish on my thumb, as you can see below I had painted my toenails in Essie's "Meet Me at Sunset" which is a bright orange. 

Overall the formula of this polish is nice, smooth application with opaque coverage in two coats. I think this will make a really nice addition to my collection!

Thanks for reading! 

Megan 

Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette

Hey everyone,

Today's review is a very special one. I finally got my hands on the Urban Decay Naked Smoky palette, the fourth addition to the Naked eyeshadows. I own every one, of course, and the quality and pigmentation of these eyeshadows is no different than the rest. All buttery, shimmery, yummy goodness. I had a bad start when I ordered online and accidentally sent the package to my rental 2 hours away, luckily the BF was there and was able to bring it home for me a few (very long) days later. No harm done, apart from my major disappointment. But here's a review on a product that certainly doesn't disappoint! 

Heres the collection of all four Naked Palettes. Something about stacking them all up brings me great satisfaction.

From top to bottom is Naked Smoky, Naked 3, Naked 2 and the original Naked palette. You can see there are some similarities throughout, but I find enough of a difference to justify using them all and I think they each offer something new or different.

The packaging is different for a Naked palette, this new Naked Smoky comes in a plastic container rather than tin like the two previous, or a felted cardboard like the original. Similar to the original, however, is the magnetic opening which is really nice. The palette has a massive mirror in the lid which takes up the entire thing, I really like this because it becomes useful and means if I take this travelling I can use the mirror for all of my makeup, not just the eyeshadow.

The first four shades are: High, Dirtysweet, Radar and Armour.

All four of these shades are very shimmery. 

High is a muted pink champagne shade which would be a beautiful highlight shade.

Dirtysweet is a warm gold shimmer with a high-shine finish.

Radar is an antiqued gold/light bronze shade perfect for all over the lid.

Armour is a green/grey khaki shimmer with some gold flecks running through it.

Up next are four more shimmer shades, these more metallic and less glittery than before.

Slanted, Dagger, Black Market and Smoulder.

Slanted is the most glittery of these shades. It's a sparkly grey/silver.

Dagger is a deep grey/almost black shade but has a midnight blue tone to it.

Black Market is a satin black shade, not shimmery, but not entirely matte either.

Smoulder is a darkened purple satin shade that can be used lightly to show more purple, or packed on to become much darker.

Next are four matte shades in Password, Whiskey, Combust and Thirteen. 

Password is the perfect cool-toned blending colour for the crease. An awesome transition shade.

Whiskey is a warmer transition shade but is also really nice for a matte smoky eye.

Combust is a pretty neutral peach shade, I think this almost matches my skintone so i'm not sure how I'll use it, but its very pigmented and smooth for a matte shadow.

Thirteen is an ivory matte shadow, making a lovely brow highlight and great finish to this palette. 

The palette also comes with a double ended brush, this end is more of a stubby pencil brush, perfect for inner corner highlighting or under the eye blending.

The other end is a longer blending brush which is really nice for transitioning colours from the lid to the brow bone. 

Overall I am really excited about this palette. At first I was unsure and concerned about the similarities, but now I can confirm that there are a lot of things you can do with this palette, and it's very quickly become a favourite of mine. There are plenty of everyday options, and some really lovely deeper shades for the perfect smoky eye!

Thanks for reading!

Megan

Travel Diaries: Bath, England

Hey everyone,

I'm continuing my travel diaries series today, which is basically a little blog post every week about a different destination. These recent trips are from May, but I wasn't sure if I'd post them or not, so they are a bit late. Previous posts include Reykjavik, Iceland and Paris, France. Check them out! Today's post is all about arriving in the UK and spending a few days in Wiltshire visiting family. I spent time in Salisbury, Warminster and Bath and here's what happened!

 Our trip began by us taking the Eurostar from Paris to London. From there we took the tube to Hatton Cross station and my Uncle Ray and cousin, Connor, came to pick us up. We arrived in the evening and we were pretty exhausted. We took a shower, ate some delicious Chinese food and then went to bed. 

The next morning we drove in to Salisbury to see the cathedral. We stopped at the pub pictured above called 'The New Inn'. There was definitely nothing new about it, but we had a delicious lunch!

Salisbury Cathedral was spectacular. It was overwhelming how big it was and how it dominated the landscape around it. I'm not a religious person, but I recommend that anyone visits if they are in the area, the architecture and history of the place is mind-blowing! One of my favourite things to see were the incredible stained glass windows and the architecture of the entire cathedral, the foundation bricks were laid in the year 1220. 

 Pictures truly don't do this justice, and this was only one window. There were several surrounding the entire cathedral, some much larger and more detailed than this, and others much smaller, and so high up that you could barely see them.

I thought it was important to add Larry into my post, he is one of my Aunt and Uncles 5 cats, and to be honest Larry was a bit of a princess and very entertaining during our stay. 

The next day we went to Wookey Hole, a cave system in Wiltshire. It was really cheesy, with tours mentioning the Witch of Wookey Hole and various dinosaur figures and creepy old Victorian arcades. It was still very amusing, and despite the cheesy tour, the caves were pretty amazing and the surrounding area was beautiful. 

Later that day my Uncle dropped us off in Bath and we went to The Pump Room for afternoon tea. We ordered the vegetarian platter and had an awesome time eating delicious desserts and drinking two massive pots of tea. There was a pianist playing in the background, and we sat around in the incredible Georgian tea room, probably the first and last time we sat and treated ourself this trip!

After our tea, we wandered over next door to the Roman Baths. The baths are incredible and it's quite overwhelming when you think about how old it all is. The museum was really well done, and we spent a lot of time wandering through other tourists and seeing everything we could. A good tip is to not take one of the little handheld speaker things, unless you really need one, because they basically read you all of the information already listed throughout the exhibition but tend to hold everyone up. We read everything in about half the time and didn't have to stand around waiting to start a new recording while there were people standing in the way. 

After going to the Roman Baths we walked over to Bath Abbey and wandered around, another incredible place to visit. Afterwards, we crossed the river, bought a drink and sat enjoying the view!

I hope you enjoyed another Travel Diaries post. 

Thanks for reading!

Megan

Tattoo #2.

Hey everyone,

So while in London, England I got a new tattoo. I had thought about it for a long time beforehand and had emailed the artist back and forth for a few months before the actual appointment. I had decided on a mandala with a mendhi style rather than a geometric or dotwork design. Here's some pictures and what I thought! 

Here's my arm before the tattoo, a picture taken to show my future children and for my mother who probably likes a small reminder of how it looked before! 

I had my tattoo done at The Family Business tattoo parlour in a really nice area of the city. 

It was a really cool place and everybody there was really nice. Unfortunately I had to go it alone because you weren't allowed to have friends come with you, but the artists made you feel comfortable and at ease. 

  

My artist was Ricky Williams, an incredible guy who obviously has a very steady hand. Definitely follow him on Instagram @ricktattoo

  

Here's a closer picture of the detail in the tattoo. I really love the line work and how perfectly symmetrical it is. 

  

Here's how it looks on my arm and the overall placement. 

I used tattoo goo and dove scentless soap to clean it. It did bleed for a few days and my arm got pretty swollen, but after about a week it was completely fine and healed perfectly. 

I hope you liked this post! 

Thanks for reading. 

Megan 

Cauldalié Moisturzing Toner

Hey everyone,

Today I'm reviewing a purchase I made in a Parisian pharmacie, so before I even tried it out it was extra special. It's the Caudalié Moisturizing Toner which is described to cleanse and revitalize the skin, all while preparing it to benefit even more from the rest of your skincare regime. 

I didn't buy the full size because I was travelling, and also because it was more expensive but this is a very good sized amount. I love that it comes with a pump dispenser, two pumps is usually enough to cover my face and down onto my neck. 

It does have a slight scent but it's not too overwhelming or perfume-y. It's refreshing and light with some citrus and earthy notes so it doesn't interfere with anything else you want to put on your skin. 

I think this is a really nice toner in the summer, and I find it especially refreshing and nice to use in the morning and I think if has helped with retaining moisture and keeping my skin cleaner and clearer. It's very gentle, although I don't use it on my eye area so I can't say how it works on the eyes (it does say it can be used on the eyes though). It leaves my skin feeling clean and fresh and I think it's worth trying out. I'm not sure if I'd rush to repurchase, but I definitely have enjoyed using it so far.  

Thanks for reading,

Megan 

Travel Diaries: Paris, France

Hey everyone,

I'm writing this post to continue with my travel diaries from Reykjavik which seemed to go over really well, and lots of you read it which was really nice to see. I'm not a travel expert by any means, but I do love travelling and I think writing about it all gives me something nice to look back on. In my previous post, which you can read here, I left off by flying out of Keflavik airport at 1am. We arrived in Paris at 6am, feeling like 4am Iceland time.

 We stayed in a very Parisian feeling one room apartment found on Air Bnb. The landlord was fantastic and the place was great. This was our view from the big french windows which I loved! We arrived super early and luckily we could get into the apartment right away. We napped for a few hours and then began exploring the city.

One of our first stops was the Eiffel Tower. We actually the best view from furthest away in a little park directly facing the tower, but we wanted to see it up close. It's quite overwhelming for quite a small landmark, but because there aren't any skyscrapers or buildings taller than the tower in Paris, it has quite an effect.

 The lightbulbs in our apartment were orange, so you'll have to excuse this picture. I later stopped at a pharmacie and had a mega skincare haul. I'll write some reviews soon, usually I like to wait on skincare to really give it a good try. Anyway, the gentleman working there was incredibly professional and lovely to talk to, and he gave me loads of samples- perfect for my next trip!

That night we met with some friends, Andrew and Jess (who was also featured in my Chicago post!). We walked over to Notre Dame, before leaving because there were rats on the street and also because there was a jazz bar/ex-torture chamber calling our name. After a few too many we sat on the patio of a typical French restaurant and ate a plate of crepes. Not a bad day at all.

 The next morning we met with Andrew, Jess and our friend Geoff, who was studying in Paris at the time. He gave us a walking tour of the city and we decided to look at most things from the outside and didn't visit any museums since our trip was so short. We had a picnic featuring baguettes and cheese at Luxembourg gardens and then separated for suppertime before reuniting at our apartment for the evening. 

We all had drinks at our apartment, and it was really nice to be reunited with some of our best friends. We drank Icelandic vodka and played games, the whole time I said "we must see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night!". We had decided to leave for midnight, but lost track of time. Luckily, Jess came running out of the bathroom saying "It's 11:50!" so we ran down the streets and turned the corner to see this. It was breathtaking and beautiful, and we bought two cheap bottles of champagne and sat around having the best time on our last night in Paris. We stayed until the lights turned off at 1am and wandered back and separated for the night, ready to reunite for a hungover breakfast at a cafe by our house. 

The next morning we drank tea and coffee, while Geoff auctioned off his textbooks to us by describing them and hoping we'd bring them back to Canada for him. I didn't eat much, but what I did have was delicious and then we parted ways and headed to the Eurostar headed for London.

I hope you enjoyed another Travel Diaries post. I love having these to look back on and I hope you enjoy reading it!

Thanks,

Megan

Burt's Bees Lipgloss Review

Hey everyone,

Today's blog post is reviewing the Burt's Bees 100% natural lipgloss in the shade Summer Twilight. It's a sparkly deep berry shade that is quite sheer when applied. 

It comes in 10 shades and is packaged in a standard lipgloss tube with a doefoot applicator. 

It didn't have too much of a scent and applies evenly. While it is sheer (as any gloss would be), it still applies a nice amount of colour and shine. 

This particular shade has some gold flecks and a warmer toned shimmer to it. It's very flattering and not as dark as it looks in the packaging. 

I think it makes a nice everyday gloss but has a bit of pigment if you want something a bit darker than usual. It's a perfect transition for a new lip colour wearer, or for someone who prefers a gloss over lipstains or lipsticks. 

I hope you enjoyed this review!

Thanks for reading. 

Megan