October Favorites

Once again, the end of a month has rolled around. October has one more day in store, Halloween! Although it's been years since I actually went out on Halloween, I still love it, and make sure to do something fun every year. This year, it will probably just be a night of candy and a my favorite halloween movie, Hocus Pocus. If you need something to do, why not watch my October favorites, and maybe you'll get some inspiration or find some new products to try out. Because I'm totally an enabler. If you want to subsribe to my channel you can do that HERE, and I'd be very happy for it.

My Bicester Village Experience

I'm so excited that I finally get to share this video and blog post with you. As I mention in the video (even though I manage to use the wrong word, but hopefully you got the gist), I had origianlly wanted to vlog when I visited Bicester Village on October 2nd. I had planned everything out, and I wanted just to show you guys what it was like there, and give you an impression of what to expect for anyone going there in the future. Something like that is exactly what I would have wanted to see myself, because I am a crazy planning lady! But I did obviously forget to take my camera into consideration, which killed my vlog plans. So instead, I thought I'd make a chatty video, and just talk about what it was like. I did of course also want to show you what I picked up there, and I didn't think three things was enough for warrant it's own video. It ended up being a pretty long video though, but I just hope it will be helpful for anyone curous about the village.

If you've yet to watch the video, and haven't heard of Bicester Village before, it is a designer outlet village, located just outside of Oxford in the UK. If you're planning a visit, make sure you watch the video, and also visit the Bicester Village website. The day (or, half-day) we spent there was such a fun experience, and I have to say that it's much more luxurious there than I would have thought. It seems to be a very popular tourist destination, and there were especially many tourists there from South-East Asia and the Middle East. It seems to be the norm as well, because many of the SAs in the bigger stores could even speak Chinese, and I think Japanese as well, which I thought was just so cool. There are tons of guest sevices there to suit everyones needs, and there's even a little play area for kids there. There are several places to eat in different price ranges, but I would suggest brining a bottle of water and maybe some snacks, just so you don't have to spend ages in line for something so little.

I thought I would write a few lines about the stores that I visited, hoping that this will be helpful as well. I was very impressed with most of the stores, but a few were a bit dissapointing. I didn't visit every single store there, and I didn't really check prices most places, but here are a few thoughts:

• Anya Hindmarch This store was quite small, but it was cozy and not crowded. They had a good selection of older season items, from bags, to wallets and make-up bags. They also had a good selection of Marano clutches from different seasons. No new season items.
• Dior Looked like a typical Dior boutique, nice and white. I went in here several times to browse, but no one ever offered to help me even though it wasn't very crowded. I can't remember seing any bags, but they had scarves, shoes, childrens wear and a small selection of accessories and small leather goods (that I believe are very old, but at good discounts). I don't think I saw a single handbag, and no tribal earrings in sight either.
• Dolce & Gabbana One of the bigger boutiques, and although I didn't venture all the way to the back, they had a good selection of sunglasses, and also small leather goods and shoes. I think they had clothes as well, but I didn't look at them. Not as crowded as Gucci and Prada.
• Furla A quite small and quiet store, but bright and clean. They had tons of bags, and even more wallets.
• Gucci Another big store, and very crowded. It was almost impossible to get help here, and I gave up waiting to help to look at a cute makeup pouch. They did have a very good selection of leather goods, many different handbags, womens wear and even shoes.
• Jimmy Choo This was the biggest dissapointment for me. I went in to see if they had older colours of a pair of sandals I've wanted for a long time, and they did, but they were in terrible shape, and with a tiny discount. The front section was very clean and they had a ton of shoes and even some handbags, but in the back, where you would think you could find some good deals, and also where the older seasons were, it was just a big mess. Dirty, obviously rewened shows for £50 off? No thank you!
• Kate Spade A typical Kate Spade store, with a very good selection. Tons of bags, wallets and phone cases, a good selection of jewellery and I believe they had some shoes as well. No stationery unfortunately. This was one of the few places I interacted with the staff, and they were all very friendly and helpful.
• Juicy Couture Not the most impressive store, but they had crazy amounts of track suits if you're looking for a set (or five), and I think I remembered thinking that the discounts were pretty good. They had regular clothes as well, but the jewellery was almost non-existant.
• Marc Jacobs/Marc by Marc Jacobs Here you could find some of the classic style MBMJ bags, and the seasonal colours in particular had descent discounts. They had some accessories as well, and I think clothes too, althought it's getting a bit blurry since that was the first store I went into. Don't remember actually seing anything from the Marc Jacobs part of the brand though.
• Molton Brown I think they had more or less a full selection. Tons of soaps and lotions, and gift sets too. They didn't have the bigger sizes that you find in their regular boutiques though. Know that some products are in old packaging and may have other names. They actually had a rule that you had to buy atleast two items, which I thought was a bit wierd. Prices were good though, and I think it was £15 for one body wash and the discounts grew the more your bought.
• Prada Probably the biggest store, and quite overwhelming. Extremly crowded, but the staff was very helpful. They had some handbags, but not a big selection and I don't think I saw any classics. The selection of small leather goods was okay, but only in select styles and old seasonal colours. They had some sunglasses as well, and I think you can find some other accessories as well. The shoe department was pretty good, and they had a ton of clothes. A ton! The upper floor is menswear only, everything from small leather goods to clothing, but without the crazy amounts of people.
• Saint Laurent Clean open store. Think I saw a few handbags, but I didn't spend too much time there. They had a few pairs of Tribute sandals and Tribtoo pumps, but in seasonal colours only.
• Tory Burch Not a very big store, but pretty crowded. They had bags, clothes, shoes, accessories, more or less anything you could expect from a Tory Burch clothes. No new or classic pieces though.
• UGG Australia A nice and open store, that wasn't crowded. They had both the typical UGG shearling boots, and regular shoes, both for women, children and babies. They even had the boots in classic colours, and I'm pretty sure they were discounted (although not alot). I really regret not picking up a pair of slippers here, a steal at £60!

I only picked up three little items, but I'm very pleased with my haul! It's been almost four weeks since our visit, and I'm still extatic about my Anya Hindmarch clutch! I didn't really think of the fact that I happened to only get gold things, but that just goes to show how much I've fallen inlove with gold, after avoiding gold for almost all my life.

All in all I'm so pleased with my first visit to Bicester Village, and I highly recomend it for fashion and designer lovers out there. I will be going back, without a doubt, and I'll make sure to save some more before our next visit. If you're going from London I would take a day, because you will be browsing for a long time. I hope you found some help in this post and video, and don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions. I'm not some Bicester guru, I have only been there once, but I will do my best.

Before I leave you, I just want to sum up my top three tips for anyone going there:

Be patient, have an open mind, and make a budget!

29 Hours in London

Hello everyone,

Long time no see? It's been a while since I blogged. I actually posted this video on Monday, but I am just now getting around to posting it here. Since coming home from our holiday, I haven't really been feeling like myself, and I've been lacking in energy as well. I don't want to get too personal on this blog, but just know that more posts are coming! I have so many posts and videos planned, and I can't wait to get back into the grind. I do love blogging, which is why I do it, but sometimes you just have to take care of yourself and just focus on getting better. I really hope you understand.

But regarding this video, it is my (somewhat) long awaited London vlog. As I state in the intro, this really isn't a vlog I'm very proud of, but I wanted to post it so that you can decide for yourself if you want to see it. I really love London, and I wish I could have shown you more from my days there. If you've followed me for a long time, you know that I travel to London quite often, atleast once a year on average, so there will probably me one, or more, London vlogs in the future, as well as vlogs from other travels, because we are going some exciting places next year! If you haven't already seen my haul from the trip, you can view it HERE. I also have a playlist featuring all my vlogs.

London Beauty Haul

I'm so glad to finally show you the beautiful things that I picked up in London last weekend. I got to cross several things of my eternal wishlist, which I'm very happy about. I think this may have been my best haul ever, and I'm just so excited to try out every single thing. I have tried a few since filming, and you will definetly be hearing more about a few of these in my October favorites. As always, if you want a review of a certain product, just let me know and I will do my best. And regarding the vlog, just leave me a comment here if you want to see it. If you want to subscribe to my YouTube channel, you can do that HERE.

ON MY RADAR | NEW IN BEAUTY

I'm back with another installment of On My Radar, and today I feature products that are more or less brand new. I always try and keep up to date on new releases, and being a total makeup junkie I always find a bunch of new things that I want to try out.

• Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution lipsticks (£23) I love me a matte lip, and these new lipsticks from Charlotte Tilbury has me all excited. I believe there are ten shades that just launched, and they all look so gorgeous, and of course very matte. I've even heard people say that these are the best matte lipsticks ever. I've yet to actually try anything from Charlotte Tilbury (allthough I'm dying to), but the wishlist just got a little bit longer with these.
• Gucci Makeup Possibly the biggest makeup launch this year is of course Gucci. I'm a big fan of Gucci and Italian designers in general, because I just love that hint of tacky. The packaging is just a bit over the top, which I think Gucci lovers will appreciate. I know I do. I basically want to try everything, but the single eyeshadows really stand out for me. I also want to try the lipsticks, blushes and bronzers. And maybe the polishes while we're at it. Sadly, I hear that the lipglosses are shit. Right now it's available Saks, Neiman Marcus and gucci.com in the US, but if you're in the UK you have to get it from gucci.com. Still waiting on the UK department stores, and hopefully shipping to Norway!
• Burberry Runway Nail Collection (£90) I originally went searching for the super limited edition spring/summer 2015 nail polish sets when I was working on this post, but it seems that they are already sold out (they will go on sale as singles in the spring though). But I did come across this faull/winter 2014 set which was just as beautiful, if not more. It comes in a beautiful box with six shades worn in the Burberry Prorsum FW14 fashion show. So this obviously isn't a super new launch, but who cares, it's perfect for autumn!
• Chanel Rouge Allure Gloss ($34) Whenever Chanel brings out a new product, I am in there like swimwear. These glosses are so new that they've barely even popped up online yet, but they did launch in stores last week. Not sure if that is worldwide, but atleast in the UK, and I believe rest of Europe as well. These are supposedly quite opaque, but still glossy.
• Giorgio Armani Eye & Brow Maestro (£26.50) Looking at the name, you may think that this is just another eyeshadow or eyebrow gel product, but according to Giorgio Armani, this is a serious multi-use product. They claim that it can be used for lining, eyeshadow, contouring, even root touch-ups, and of course eyebrows. But the really exciting part for me, is the fact that they included a red shade. And it's making me want to try red eyebrows. Gingers usually just go for brown or taupe brows, but I would love to try it, just to see what it would look like with brows that match my hair, which is the norm for everyone else.
• Dior DiorSkin Star Foundation & Concealer (£32 & £22) I wasn't too excited when these first launched in September. I like Dior foundations, but nothing about this seemed too special. I guess I was wrong, because everyone has been raving about this. It seems like it may be the best foundation launch this year, so of course now I want to get it. I like that there's a matching concealer to go with it, but I wish the colour selection was a bit better, since there are just five concealer shades.Luckily the foundation comes in 16 shades, and even the very pale will find a shade here.

September Favorites

I'm back from my little holiday in the UK, which means I can finally present you with my favorites from September. A little bit late, but I didn't want to skip it either. Not alot of beauty favorites this month, but with all the shopping I've been doing lately, I know next months favorites will be a big one. I really hope some of you enjoy my random/lifestyle favorites as well, because they're an extra big part of this video. At the very least, I do enjoy sharing them!