New York, New York

Hi strangers, long time no blog update! It's been nice to take an extended break from everything recently, including work, uni and blogging, but it's time to get back to it and I was suggested to write a 'What I got for Christmas' post to get myself back into the swing of things, and.. here it is in a nutshell: a trip to New York. 

I still got a little stocking to open on Christmas morning full of sweet surprises that included the typical new PJs, slippers and fluffy socks, chocolates, a pair of Pandora charms and a small dose of make up too, but my 'main present' was combined with my 21st birthday present and was an amazing four day Christmassy visit to the Big Apple! If there's a time to visit New York it's definitely got to be December.

The following pictures are all taken on a phone (my iPhone or my mum's Samsung Galaxy) so they're not jaw dropping quality, but they'll do, and I thought I'd share a snippet of my life and tell you about my time in the most amazing city I've ever been to:

Saturday 30th November:

- My 21st birthday! 

- I had absolutely no idea what my 21st birthday present was going to be from my parents so it was a complete and utter surprise, but even more so when they tricked me slightly to throw me off the scent.

- Their present was one of my last to open and it was a sheet of paper that said 'Guess What Your Present Is... 3 Nights in a Spa Hotel in York' and I was absolutely over the moon! 

- Then, my grandparents passed me my present from them and it was 150.. US dollars.. which completely threw me and I asked if I was missing something as I didn't have any trips to America planned soon, which triggered a couple of smirks around the room as my Dad passed me a 2nd envelope in the same format as the first, with one small alteration: 'Guess What Your Present Is... 3 Nights in New York'.

- Smiles all around and a little while for the shock to sink in, and I looked at the date it said: 19th December, less than 3 weeks to wait! 

Thursday 19th December:

- Departure day! 

- A 2am wake up call ready to set off to Manchester airport and take the first flight out of Manchester to Brussels, and then on to JFK Airport. (It's worth noting that we flew with Brussels Airlines and they were absolutely fantastic, I'd completely recommend them and use their air service again if possible.)

- We took a shared taxi from JFK to our hotel and that was an experience in itself - inner city driving is scary! It's like there's no rules of the road and everyone just pulls in and out wherever they feel like it.. at high speeds with constant horn beeping!

- We did have plenty of time on this first day to explore and tick some things off our 'to do' list, but all that travelling had worn us out and we weren't adjusted to the time difference either, so we just had a little wander round the streets nearby soaking it all in admiring the towering skyscrapers and over the top Christmas decs, grabbed a quick McDonalds (they have food we don't have in UK McDonalds!!), and snuggled ourselves into bed ready for a big day in the morning.

Passport and Boarding Pass | Duty Free Shopping: Mac & Clarins | Frozen Rivers in Canada | Flying over America | First Glimpse of NY Skyline in a Fast Moving Taxi

Friday 20th December:

- Waking up at 6am for our biggest day of the trip my mum greeted me with breakfast in bed of a huge cherry danish pasty and supersize New York coffee.

- Up and at 'em before 8am, we walked a few steps down the road to Grand Central Station, picked up our pre-bought New York Pass that allows you free entry to all the sights of the city as well as 'hop on, hop off' of the tour bus service. 

- We walked to Times Square and got the Downtown tour bus from Times Square to Battery Park. We had an amazing guide who gave us so much information on all of the parts of Manhattan that we saw and gave us lots of interesting tidbits of history on some of the buildings that we saw. We also went past the apartment building where Beyonce and Jay-Z  live which excited me greatly.

Breakfast | Deauville Hotel (Our Hotel) | Mother | Start of Exploration

101 Building | Grand Central Terminal | Inside The Station | Times Square

- From Battery Park we got a boat over to Liberty Island. We couldn't go inside Lady Liberty herself as booking reservations have to be made months and months in advance - When my mum booked our trip there wasn't any tickets left at all until February 2014.  Still, we walked around the bottom of the Statue of Liberty and got some amazing views of Downtown Manhattan because it was such a bright and clear day. The return ferry boat goes via Ellis Island, but we stayed on boat and got ourselves a hot dog before heading back to the mainland.

 

Statue of Liberty Barbie Dolls... Have you ever seen anything so ridiculous before?? ^^

- I've included a short video of one of the moves from a street dance acts that we watched in Battery Park below:

- From there, we walked up Wall Street and further on to the 9/11 Memorial site, which caught me off guard with how touching and emotional it truly is. There's construction work ongoing at the bottom to build a memorial museum which I'm sure will be amazing to visit once it's finished. Seeing those beautifully designed waterfalls and all of the engraved names around the outside really tugs on your heart strings and I was close to shedding a tear on the realisation that the white roses inside some of the names are placed there on that person's birthday.

- We took the tour bus back from Battery Park, completing the other half of the Downtown tour through China Town and Little Italy, and ended up at the Rockefeller Center. It was interesting to see how different parts of Manhattan vary in architecture and vibe as you move through them.  

- Inside the Rockefeller we booked a slot for 'Top of the Rock' tickets and had a Starbucks to recharge whilst waiting for our turn to come. We had planned for this to be a daytime sight but time escaped us and it got dark quicker than we anticipated, so we ended up going to the Top of the Rock at night instead and what a phenomenal view! You can't help but just say 'wow' when you step out onto the viewing platform and all that stretches out for miles and miles infront of you is thousands of twinkling lights. A photograph struggles to do the scene justice, but it really is fantastic to see.

- After, we watched the ice skating outside the front of the Rockefeller - we didn't do it because the queue was a minimum hour wait and our poor feet had had enough for the day anyway - but we did battle the crowds to get a good look at the iconic giant Christmas tree and this whole evening was the highlight of my trip. Sadly, I got carried away with taking pictures earlier in the day and drained my battery right down so have had to salvage a couple of snaps from my mum. It was just magical and Christmassy with a really lovely environment, despite the busy crowds.

- Funnily, we thought we were walking back inside the Rockefeller Centre building, but in the crowded hustle and bustle we did accidentally walk inside a Michael Kors store instead. (Genuine accident, I swear!). This accidental encounter led to a little splash out and a very spontaneous purchase. You know when you just see something an instantly love it, without ever intending to? Well that happened with me and the Michael Kors Selma Tote Bag in Navy. I think I'm going to do a full post on my little baby, but in the meantime you can see which style of bag it is on the Michael Kors website here.

- Tummies rumbling we settled for the first restaurant we came across and went to TGI Friday for our evening meal (only restaurant trip of the visit!). We walked back to 29th Street from 51st Street (no joke, that is an incredibly long way to walk after an already long day), but to make it easier we walked along 5th Avenue where late night shopping is full steam ahead and popped into a multitude of shops along the way, ranging from Urban Outfitters to Steve Madden, resisting the urge to spend more money! 

Saturday 21st December:

- Second full day, we walked to the Empire State Building for 9am to make sure we definitely got a day time view of the city and to beat the weekend crowds. Absolutely amazing at the top of the Empire State, but a completely different view in the day time than from the Rockefeller at night time, although both  completely breathtaking.
- Like a true tourist, I raided the Empire State gift shop and got myself a fitting Christmas tree dec - Father Christmas making his way to the top of the Empire State Building ..King Kong style! I thought it'd be a lovely yearly reminder of visiting at Christmas time.

We've got arms-length-selfies nailed.

 I love how these are two separate pictures that almost seamlessly join together. That view is literally.. Wow. 

- We spent the rest of the morning doing some more shopping in Forever 21, Macy's (especially because they had a huge 1 Day Sale) and Victoria's Secret. I may, or may not, have spent a small fortune. 

- We went back to the Rockefeller Center for a 1pm booked slot that we had for the NBC Studios Tour, which is basically the American version of the BBC. It was a little bit underwhelming and literally the only thing that I wasn't blown away by on the whole trip. The only perk was that we weren't allowed inside one of the studios because Justin Timberlake was in there rehersing for that evening's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show. Somebody hold me back!

- More shopping to finish of the day off as we walked up to 59th Street and browsed 5 floors of Tiffany's (wall to wall with millionaires buying Christmas presents for their lucky ladies) and then went in Bloomingdales so my mum could buy a patent Little Brown Bag for a friend (and one for herself). It's a pretty cute bag and I keep meaning to put a snap of it on Instagram - I'll do it soon!

- We ended up a very weary pair from lack of sleep and messed up body clock with sooo much walking around that had caught up on us and all we wanted by this point was an early night - we could barely keep our eyes open!  So we decided to brave the NY Subway and went from 59th St to 23rd St where we got off and spent a fortune in Sephora - eeeeeeeeeep (You'll see what I spent three figures on in due course..), before walking back to 29th St and hitting the hay. No late night partying for us!

Sunday 22nd December:

- Last day! :(
- Braved the subway again and went from 28th - 59th St to do some pharmacy shopping in Duane Reade, Walgreens and CVS - names I always hear from American Beauty YouTubers and I finally felt like I could say 'Ooh I've done some drugstore shopping'. The above pictures is not the only shopping I managed to do.. Not forgetting Duty Free, I also got a couple of Wet n Wild palettes and some American exclusive Maybelline bits, which, again, will be revealed in due course. 

- We spent a few hours walking around Central Park, just relaxing and taking it all in, feeling like we were on the set of a movie, had a little nosy at Central Park Zoo and the street dance acts then looked round the New York Christmas Markets. We spontaneously bought a Christmas candle (that was nearly confiscated at airport security for being in hand luggage!) and a Tibetan Meditation ring that is supposed to alleviate stress.

- To finish things off, we got a big pizza from Little Italy pizzeria and then got a taxi back from hotel to Newark Airport all the way over in New Jersey.

Tuesday 24th December:

A day of sleeping, recovering, and last minute present wrapping ready for the whirlwind that is Christmas Day. Plus a pamper session to rescue my hair and skin from all the outdoor weather (the cold winds out on boats and on tops of buildings isn't gentle on your face or locks!) and the two long haul flights also left me looking worse for wear - yucky! 

We crammed so much into the two full days and two half days that we had there and by the end of the trip we were both completely exhausted and burnt out. We definitely could've done with one extra day there to be able to maybe go to Top of the Rock in daytime and top of the Empire State at night time as well to see how they compare, to sample some more of the New York restaurants, see a Broadway show and definitely go ice skating! 

I recently shared a 'Flipagram' video on Instagram of a compliation of some pictures from New York. It's only 15 seconds long but it's a nice little brief summary, and of course has the background song of Empire State of Mind (Alicia Keys) to it. I've uploaded it below, but I'm not 100% sure if it'll work, so if it doesn't then you can check it out on Instagram here.

So, this has kinda been like a diary entry and differs from my usual content, but it's a permanent online reminder for me, a little something for all of you to nosy at, and something to read through and take notes on if you have an upcoming trip to New York too!

I hope you enjoyed the post; I certainly enjoyed my trip! 

Coming tomorrow: American Beauty Shopping.

♥

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Little Beauty Blogg

♥

Pre-Christmas Collective Haul

Post-Birthday & Pre-Christmas Collective Haul | Featuring. Lush, The Body Shop, Soap & Glory, Clarins, Clinique, Avon, Superdrug, Primark, New Look, ASDA, and a couple of gifts. 

 

..That is what I wanted to call this post, but that's just crazy long, so I decided to shorten it down to just Pre-Christmas Collective Haul. Mannn, I have done a lot of shopping in these past 2-3 weeks. I can just hear my poor bank account crying out for me to leave it alone now!




I've had multiple shopping bags sitting in the corner of my room for the past two and a half weeks which was ideally supposed to be full of Christmas presents but when it came to sorting through it all and wrapping up presents last night I discovered that 'gifts for others' vs 'gifts for myself' was quite disproportionate: 22 things for friends, family and boyfriend ..57 for myself. Season for giving?! Slap on the wrist for me this month!

I didn't realise that it had gotten that extreme, but I do love a good shop! It's so difficult to resist things when there's so many good offers on at this time of year and going out shopping for others is something that cannot be avoided. I'll hold my hand up and say that I don't at all enjoy the experience of Christmas shopping; I find it stressful and unpleasant as I hate shopping in busy and crowded environments with cheesy Christmas songs blasting down my ears with chavvy mums ramming their prams into me trying to get past down aisles that are too small, with the added pressure of wanting to find something really special that will truely spoil someone that you care about and will put a big smile on their face Christmas morning! So, to soften the hard task that is shopping for others I pick little treats up for myself along the way :) Everything here obviously wasn't bought all in one go.. I wouldn't have the biceps capable of carrying it all back home again! It was a gradual and accumulative process.

I also had my birthday at the end of November so received lots of birthday spends that were to be used to treat myself, and treat myself I have done!! I'm sure I'll be finding a way to justify everything that I picked up for myself.. read on to find out what I've spoilt myself with and what my excuses are!

Lush
I've already done a whole separate post dedicated to this box of goodies that I ordered online a couple of weeks ago using some of my birthday money. I went all out and ordered 9 little treats and received 1 free sample of 'Fun'. My box includes 4 Christmas limited edition items including Snow Fairy shower gel, Bubblebeard bubble bar, Christmas Eve bubble bar and The Melting Snowman bath melt. I also ordered a hair mask (H'suan Wen Hua), a fresh face mask (Love Lettuce), a massage bar (Soft Coeur), a spot treatment (Grease Lightning), and a solid shampoo bar (New). Safe to say this box smells amaaazing and you can read a little bit more about it here: LINK.


 

The Body Shop
If you didn't already know, this month's issue of Glamour magazine includes a Joy Card inside it which entitles the reader to either a £3, £10, or £100 voucher for The Body Shop but you won't know how much is on it until you take it instore. This months Glamour mag was a special price of £1.50 so I knew that even if I got a £3 voucher it would still be a saving and I'd put it to good use - I looove The Body Shop! Yes, I got a £3.00 voucher and it can only be used on full price items and not in conjunction with any other promotions so I spent it on something that has been on my 'lust list' for a while and even featured on my 'Christmas Wish List' (link) and it was the Almond Hand and Nail Cream (RRP £5.00 for 30ml), so that ended up being a little £2 treat to slip in my bag.

Soap & Glory
I'm quite new to the Soap & Glory fan club and have only tried a couple of bits, but Scrub Your Nose In It is now a staple in my skin care routine and Hand Food has a firm place on my bedside table, along with Mist You Madly being my perfect on-the-go refresher. I wanted to branch out a little bit more and try the Glad Hair Day Shampoo after hearing Corrie (Dizzybrunette3 - link) talk about this in her hair care routine video and she has amazing hair so it can't be bad! Soap & Glory is almost permanently on a 3 for 2 offer in Boots so I thought I may as well throw in the Glad Hair Day Conditioner and Intensive Conditioner too and try out the whole range together.

 

The day that I had nipped to town for a few more Christmas presents happened to be the same day that Boots reduced their price of the Soap and Glory BEST OF ALL Giftset to better than half price. The previous day, lots of bloggers had been hyping this offer up on Twitter, saying how they couldn't wait to get down to Boots early and snap one up before they all sold out, and I wasn't really that fazed or tempted by this hype.. until I was actually in Boots and saw that there was tower piled high with these giftsets and thought, 'oh it's right here infront of me, everyone keeps banging on about it, might as well get one while I can!'. So I did. Happy Christmas Hannah! The set cost £27.00, originally costing £60.00 and contains 9 full size products which individually total over £70.00 - Talk about a bargain! The set includes: The Righteous Butter body butter, Hand Food hand cream, Sugar Crush body scrub, Clean On Me shower gel, Smoothie Star body milk, Heel Genius foot mask, Peaches and Clean cleanser (been on my wishlist for ages!), Sexy Mother Pucker lip plumper, Thick and Fast mascara, plus the great big pink bag that they come in too!

 

Clarins and Clinique
It's pretty rare for me to ever buy myself high end products; I can't ever seem to justify such a large amount of money for just one product, so these two items were a real indulgence for me that I splurged on whilst Debenhams had a 15% sale on beauty and fragrance. I got the Clarins Beauty Flash Balm and the Clinique Chubby Stick Intense in 05 Plushest Punch, a vibrant hot pink. I am cherishing these two very dearly and would easily say they're my favourite things in this entire haul, they just feel so luxurious and I wish that everything I own could be from Clarins and Clinique!

 

Avon
I ordered more than this from my Avon representative but returned most of them and was left with just these three products, which were part of a '3 for £10' deal which is a pretty great bargain. All I really wanted was the Supershock Mascara (this one has limited edition Christmas packaging), and the incredibly vibrant blue Nailwear Pro+ Nail Varnish in 'Cosmic Blue', but when the mascara costs £8 and the nail varnish is £6 is seemed crazy not to get a third product and only pay £10 for all three! I wasn't sure what to get and just gambled with a mineral powder foundation as I've never tried one before.

Superdrug and Body Care
MUA clear mascara - £1. Technic highlighter - 99p. Who's a bargain shopper? Me, but only sometimes. I've been wanting a little something to fix my eyebrows in place better and have been lusting after a Mac Brow Set but I didn't want to part with £12.50 for something that is a reported 'love/hate' product so played it safe with a £1 clear mascara that I actually paid for using my Superdrug points! I've heard fantastic things about this super cheap highlighter from Body Care and it is an apparent dupe for Benefit's ..Highbeam? (I think?) so I wanted to give it a little try out for myself.



Primark
Just a few cheap and simple bits from Primark; it's been too busy to have a decent rummage recently. I am absolutely loving their bargainous mega cheap but on trend jewellery that can be found in other high street shops for up to five times the price!! My friend got these Primark earrings for her birthday and when I saw that they were only £1 I just said 'Sorry, I'm going to have to copy and get some for myself'! Then I found this shirt reduced from £12 to £5 but I don't know why it's reduced? It isn't damaged and there was a whole rail full of them reduced too, in all sizes from 6-20 (or whatever it goes up to), so perhaps it's 'past season' or something? But anyway, it's pretty and thought it would be something nice to wear out to an evening meal somewhere. And then I got some tights, because who doesn't need super cosy warm thick tights in December??

New Look
My excuse for this one is that I had a credit note from last December when I returned something after Christmas but didn't have the receipt, and these credit notes expire after 12 months so I desperately didn't want almost £40.00 to go to waste by it expiring! I'm not so much a huge fan of New Look clothes, there's the odd good thing but I never have the energy to search through the tacky stuff but I was very happy with this quilted jacket that I found for £34.99. It's pretty casual, easy to wear, fitted style, light but really warm too - better than a wasted credit note anyway!

 
 

ASDA
These are what you could regard as 'essentials', except Glamour.. but it was cheaper than usual and I wanted the Joy Card for The Body Shop! I was shopping for presents in ASDA as it's great for stocking fillers and the likes of alcohol, chocolate, DVDs etc so I couldn't resist stocking up on some everyday bits while I was there; cleanser, mini deodrant, face wipes and lip balm!

 

Gifts

These were all gifts that I was extremely lucky to receive these past few weeks! Firstly is my 'International Beauty Bloggers Secret Santa' gift that was organised by the lovely Sandra at The Puzzle of Sandra's Life (link) and my gift was from the host herself - Thank you Sandra! All the way from Slovenia I was sent a Christmas hand cream from the brand Essence as well as three nail varnishes, a L'Oreal Caresse Lipstick and some chocolate - yummy! Secondly, I've been a moody/hormonal little bitch the last week and in an attempt to put a smile back on my grumpy little face my boyfriend bought me a present.. Topshop Green Room! It definitely made me smile; the boy knows the way to my heart that's for sure. And then, as if I didn't already have enough nail varnish my Nanna rolled up with a little bag and said that she'd cleared out her collection and was donating some nail varnishes to me that she no longer wants. None of the colours struck me as too exciting, but when someone is offering to give you the likes of OPI and Leighton Denny it isn't something you turn your nose up at!

 

Aaaand that's it! Finally! Well done if you made it to the end - haha!

 

I'm not sure why some of the picture quality is really clear on some pictures and a bit crummy and fuzzy on others but I'm still trying to learn my way around the settings on my new camera; one day I'll learn when the 'close up' option is appropriate and when it isn't. I would love some kind of photography training course one day, just to get me up to speed with the basics, I feel a little useless with my snaps.

 

But anyway, thank you for reading, hope you've enjoyed!

♥