MY 21ST BIRTHDAY- PART TWO

From cake pops to photo booth props, polaroids to sweet jars, candles to pinatas and not to mention pass the parcel, gold cupcakes and helium balloons, my 21st Birthday party  was my little project for months! I tried my absolute up most to make my party the girliest ever. 

The venue was "The garden room" at Whitworth Hall just outside of Durham, a conservatory room which was the perfect place to hold my "Sparkling Afternoon Tea Party". I only invited 21 of my close family and friends, for afternoon tea, pinata wacking, adult pass the parcel, and a lot of Polaroid picture taking. 

I went to the effort of finding pictures from each year of my life to create a photo line, found tea party themed photo props, added candles and sweet jars to my tables, created a scrap book for everyone to share and write comments about their polaroid snaps, and even made mini sweet jar party favours.

It was literally one of the best days of my life, and I felt so humbled to have such wonderful friends and family around who not only shared the day with me, but gave me the most beautiful cards and presents. I must mention, my beautiful two tiered genache cake (white chocolate & raspberry and lemon drizzle) was made by The Cake House in Spennymoor, and was literally the most wonderful cake I have ever tasted! My hair was done by Hair Haus Bishop Auckland and also my dress was from Topshop... back to one of my previous posts featuring my rose gold heels- I didn't even get to wear these in the end because once I put gel cushions in... they were so UN COMFY. 

Please see a few snaps below!!

MY 21ST BIRTHDAY- PART ONE

 Yup, apparantly my birthday comes in parts now. Well it is my 21st so plenty of excuse to celebrate as much as I like! I had 3 weeks of celebrating, the first part I took a trip to London Zoo with Kyle, (he's living in Surrey now so exploring in London is super easy). I don't know if you have heard of the Sunset Safari at London Zoo, but it ran for quite a few weeks during June and July this year. Basically you visit the zoo between 6 and 10pm for just half the price of a usual ticket, to see the animals at night.

With animal themed acrobats, great food, and plenty of animal talks, the evening is the perfect time to visit the zoo as the sun goes down. The animals definitely behave differently at night, and although this is interesting, we didn't get to see the Gorilla's as it was there bed time, and some of the animals also weren't out and about at this time. Although I did get to see lions at their new enclosure! The whole evening was just lovely and I would totally recommend visiting next year!

On Saturday, we visited Portsmouth. We did in fact visit Portsmouth for my last birthday but the weather was literally awful. Thankfully this time it was absolutely wonderful sunshine! We didn't actually go to Portsmouth town, we went to the Harbour instead. Here, they have a brilliant designer outlet called Gunwharf Keys, accompanied by an array of food outlets and cinema complex (of course we went to see The Secret Life of Pets). A Saturday afternoon well spent.

TENERIFE 2016

This post is literally embarassingly late considering I actually went on holiday 2 months ago today! For once I actually decided to book last minute which was kinda stressful considering how unorganised I am, and that I had no money for new clothes and only 3 weeks until I flew! 

Last year we visited Lanzarote, so this year I thought, why not? Lets try one of the other Canary Islands. Thankfully we visited during a really amazing week of weather, and I don't know if you have ever visited... but Tenerife is a lot less windy than Lanzarote which was lovely, although at times it was a bit too hot to do anything! 

We stayed at the Riu Arecas hotel in Costa Adeje... although many people I know have visited the party resort of Playa Las Americas, we chose an over 18's hotel in one of the quieter resorts. Yup, i'm a total bore, and in hindsight perhaps a hotel full of the elderly wasn't the best when you're wanting to act like a child in the pool (lots of glares). However, the hotel was totally amazing and I would definitely recommend it to anyone! 

I found that on this holiday most of our time was spent chilling around the pool, playing crazy golf, and walking along the beach. We also decided to visit a zoo- Loro Parque which had some absolutely wonderful animals, including whales and dolphins which was 100% the highlight of my holiday. We also visited Siam Park which was literally one of the best days ever, it is known as one of the best water parks in the world, and it certainly didn't dissapoint. Although we were ridiculously sunburt after a full day there, there was such a huge variety of rides which were amazing, but nope I did not ride the kamikaze. 

As this is a fashion blog, i've included some photos below so not only can you have a nosey, but you can also see some of the outfits I wore on holiday. Most of my clothes were actually from last year, and I took so much stuff I found myself having 3 outfit changes a day! Bring on New York in November.... 

ROSE GOLD DREAM

OFFICE Angel Tubular Strap Sandals, £60

  

Man who doesn't just love rose gold? I must admit I can be a bit of an addict when it comes to rose gold, whether it be shoes, hangers, jewellery or paper clips I'm there. When I came across these OFFICE shoes I had to have them!

 

First thoughts, the price. £60 is a lot to spend on shoes you may only wear a handful of times, I am not one to usually waste money on shoes but on this occasion, 10% student discount and pay day stood in my favour!

 

I will admit, although I am rarely spotted wearing anything other than heels, I have never actually worn stiletto's due to the sheer fact I cannot walk in them- nor can I trust myself to walk in them without breaking my neck. I was also concerned by the fact these shoes have plastic multi straps, which again does not fill me with hope that these shoes will provide me with any comfort whatsoever. However, I bought these to wear at my 21st Birthday Party, which thankfully is in a carpeted room, of course this limits the damage I can do! I must admit that the straps are actually quite comfortable, they keep your foot secure without digging in, and are quite stretchy and flexible to avoid rubbing.

 

Although these are absolutely beautiful  shoes, I wouldn't recommend them for a night out...however if you're looking for a pretty pair of heels to wear for a special occasion or a short period of time then they are definitely worth a try! I will let you know how I get on... 

NIKE

 

For any of you who have followed my blog for a number of years, this post will come as a surprise I should imagine! Yep, Eleanor's wearing sportswear... is that even what you call it? Ok, so on Monday I agreed to go to 'trampoline fit'- an evening work out class, with my dads girlfriend, and as you can imagine, I had literally NOTHING I could wear for the occasion.

 

The trampoline class is held at 'infinite air', the UK's largest indoor trampoline park, which I am lucky enough to live just down the road from! I tend to go there a lot as trampolining is probably my favourite sport and the only exercise I will willingly take part in. I tend to just wear jeans and a tee when I usually visit, but as I had heard bad things about the class I knew I needed to find something more appropriate.

 

All hail the Nike factory outlets. Does anybody else share my opinion that sportswear is very expensive? Of course I looked at Beyoncé's new Ivy Park line in Topshop, but as this was going to be a one time thing I headed to Nike. I picked up this coral pink vest for just £21 reduced from £28 in the outlet, and I must admit that wearing it gave me a new lease of life!... it was such a comfy material, looked great and was perfect as I have literally never sweated so much in my life! 

 

I will definitely be investing in some Ivy Park pieces in the near future... well pay day, but in the meantime if you guys know of any sporty bits and pieces leave me a comment below!

 

*THE BALM BOUTIQUE

 

*A couple of weeks ago, I received an absolutely wonderful package from the lovely Carmelina, founder of The Balm Boutique.

 

The balm boutique offers products which are made with 100% natural ingredients, lets be honest, nobody knows what actually goes into some of our favourite high street beauty products, which can be quite scary. I was incredibly humbled to speak to Carmelina, and enjoyed learning more about this lovely company, despite her background in Law, Carmelina became a mother, and grew more concerned about the products she was using on her children. She then started to make her own alternatives using wholly natural ingredients before eventually developing more products, and the rest is history!

 

Carmelina was kind enough to send me a selection of her homemade products; a Berry Bliss Body Spa Gift Set worth £20, along with her flagship product called the Green Healing Cream worth £10, and her Strawberry, Chocolate Mint and Citrus lip glosses worth £5 each. I was advised that the balm is one of her most versatile products, due to its healing attributes it can be used for almost anything... bites, stings, dry chapped skin, burns, scars and even cuts and grazes. 

 

Berry Bliss Body Spa Gift Set-

 

Includes a berry butter bar, berry body polish, strawberry lip tint.

One of my absolute favourites from this set was the strawberry lip tint which left my lips wonderfully smooth. I had been suffering with dry lips at the time and this really helped, along with the citrus and chocolate mint glosses.

 

As for the body polish exfoliator, I did find this to be a little abrasive, however used in small amounts works really well... and to make it even better, it smells delicious... honestly good enough to eat! Finally, the berry butter bar, which is  naturally coloured Alkanet infused Sweet Almond Oil and Beetroot extract, produced such soothing effects when used in combination with the exfoliator.

 

Green Healing Cream-

 

This is literally the best thing you will ever smell, with ingredients such as Beeswax, Coconut Oil, Olive Oil, Black Cumin seed, Aloe Butter, Sunflower Seed Oil and Avocado Butter, i'm really not lying when I say its good enough to eat, but please don't! Although I was surprised by how green and vibrant the product was at first I decided to use it on my shoulders, damaged by sun burn last summer, which has caused me to now be left with dry skin. I used it every evening for around 2 weeks and found it not only left my skin less dry and full of moisture, but it also has began to repair some of the damage and has soothed any itching.

 

If you would like to try any of The Balm Boutiques products you can visit their website- https://www.thebalmboutique.co.uk/ , definitely worth a look if you want to try a product which you 100% know what's inside!... 

FOTD

 

Okay so Saturday I got a hair cut, and of course like anyone else I took a selfie to mark the occasion. Now, I'm going to put it to good use for my face of the day post. I don't really know why these posts exist "face of the day"... like what, you're going to change your entire makeup look every day? I don't this so. But as I cant think of another name for this post, i'll go with it.

  So firstly, which products am I using?   Rimmel London lasting finish foundation- 201 classic beige   Rimmel London Kate Moss mascara- 004 Eye Rock Jet Black   Rimmel London (are you spotting a trend here) Stay matte pressed powder- 002 Pink Blossom   Rimmel London lasting finish mono blush- Live Pink   Benefit Brow Zings eyebrow shaping kit- Medium   Benefit bronzer- Dallas   MAC lipstick- Velvet Teddy  

As you probably spotted, Rimmel London products make up the majority of my makeup bag. In my opinion, why spend double if not triple the amount of money on a high end product, when you can get the same result for less? My makeup routine has basically stayed the same since I started properly wearing makeup at the age of 15, with the addition of a MAC lipstick or two along the way. This tends to be my day time look, so I like to keep it quick and simple, always adding a dash of lipstick to mix my look up from time to time...

 

I would love for you to tell me all about your favourite products and makeup routines, so leave me a comment below! :)