Tag: Shopping

Afternoon Tea at The Rubens

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At the weekend, my friends and I went to London for afternoon tea at The Rubens At The Palace!

Afternoon Tea at The Rubens

My friend had bought some vouchers so it ended up costing us £16.50 per person, which was pretty reasonable.

The room we ate in was beautiful, and although our table was pretty low, it made it easier to take photos!

Afternoon tea at The Rubens Afternoon tea at The Rubens Afternoon tea at The Rubens Afternoon tea at The Rubens

I wore my Hush leopard print scarf, and a wine coloured skater dress from ASOS (saw it on The Lilac Pages and fell in love, it’s such a great shape!).

Afternoon tea at The Rubens

Our sandwiches were delicious – the chicken bun was particularly good, with flaked almonds giving it a great texture. There wasn’t really enough cream to go around on the scones, and the jam was weirdly runny, but to be honest, we enjoyed the scones anyway. They were light inside but slightly crisp on the outside, which was tasty indeed!

Afternoon tea at The Rubens

The cakes were slightly hit or miss – I had a try of everything except the banoffee cupcake, and some of them were very good, but the layer cake was a tiny bit stale… But, hey – there was plenty of tea! I much preferred the Assam to the English blend they had, which is uncharacteristic. Usually I’m completely the opposite of a tea connoisseur.

Afternoon tea at The Rubens Afternoon tea at The Rubens

The great thing about The Rubens is that it’s so close to Buckingham Palace, so we popped on over when we’d had our fill (and yes, we were stuffed at the end!).

Buckingham Palace

All in all, I wouldn’t pick The Rubens over the other places I’ve been for afternoon tea in London (hey, The Ritz is pretty darn snazzy, y’hear?) but it was lovely to try somewhere new. The voucher price (through Virgin) was decent enough for four people, although the current deal isn’t too much of a saving on their listed price!

(Psst, don’t forget, UK readers can enter my competition to win 12 share bags of Popchips here!)

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21 Dec: Ciate Mini Mani Month – Fade to Greige

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21 Dec Fade to Greige
21 Dec Fade to Greige
21 Dec Fade to Greige

Today’s colour is Fade to Greige, a cool, grungy, grey-purple.

21 Dec Fade to Greige

This creme is described by Ciate thusly: “A violetly grey that delivers a unique take on the fabulous taupe trend colour. Perfect for adding an edge to black and teaming with silver jewellery.”

21 Dec Fade to Greige

I love this colour – it’s a very dark purple, but that taupe edge just stops it from tipping too far over into Halloween territory. It totally doesn’t go with the outfit I planned for this evening, but hey – it’s Christmas! You can wear what you like on your nails, right?!

21 Dec Fade to Greige

9 Dec: Ciate Mini Mani Month – Mistress

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Yes! I am a massive fan of classic red nails, and this is truly a brilliant colour – and very festive, too! A tiny hint of pink, but an overall bold, brassy red – perfect for modern and vintage looks. Here’s what Ciate says: “Everyone loves and needs a classic pillar box red. It’s the ideal go-to colour if you need to get noticed no matter what you are wearing.”

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I think of all the colours I’ve had so far, this is the one I’d be most likely to have purchased anyway, and it’s good to know that there’s a really good go-to red in the Ciate range for me!

7 Dec: Ciate Mini Mani Month – Cutie Pie

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Today it’s Cutie Pie! In the bottle, it’s a solid baby pink hue, but it actually goes on very sheer, giving your nails a French manicure look. Here’s what the Ciate website says about this creme: “A soft, girly pink. Apply one coat for a hint of pink gloss on your nails or three coats for clean light pink hue.”

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I’m wearing three coats in this photo, and it’s still very sheer. It was also hard to apply without streaks, but I think I just about managed it. This is the kind of colour I wouldn’t pick up usually, but after applying it I realised that I already have a very similar colour (French Rose from Rimmel) that I bought to do French manicures! I don’t think this sheer colour suits my damaged nails, but if yours are in good condition it’s a lovely neutral tone. Very romantic and subtle – good for weddings, maybe!
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Victory Rolls by The Powderpuff Girls!

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On Saturday 1 December, I got my hair and make up done by the lovely Claire from The Powderpuff Girls! The company had a stall at Judy’s Affordable Vintage Fair, so I popped along to get all dolled up!

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I had already decided I wanted victory rolls, because it’s a look I’ve never been able to do on myself, and I wanted to pick up some tips at the same time as seeing what it would look like! As you can see from this picture, my hair is ridiculously long, so I’m definitely planning on having it cut soon to make styling easier!

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I guess the main tip I came away with was – don’t be afraid to backcomb to insane proportions! The hair you can see in the picture above hasn’t been sprayed at all, it’s just standing up all by itself!

(As a side note, don’t you LOVE the Powderpuff Girls’ uniform?!)

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Another thing I’d been doing wrong with victory rolls is trying to curl my hair from the ends down – Claire started from the middle and wound backwards from there, and it definitely made it easier to do!

I also got my makeup done with the classic red lip and cat-eye flick.

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The whole thing was a very reasonable £30, and I even got to take a free powderpuff home with me too! This is the third time I’ve had my hair and make up done by The Powderpuff Girls, and each time I’ve been really pleased with the look and the style’s holding power. They use Paul and Joe products along with some other brands you can see on the site, and it really makes a different to how long they last. I’m definitely thinking of investing in some Paul and Joe foundation – Claire wrote down all of the products she used on me, which was awesome!

Come back later in the week for more about the fair, my outfit, and the real reason we were in London… to see Viva Forever!

4 Dec: Ciate Mini Mani Month – Prom Queen

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Yay! My first ever Ciate Caviar! I’ve been dying try these out ever since I heard about them, so this morning was like an early Christmas for me!

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The calendar comes with a cute little funnel to pour the beads back into the bottle when you’re done. I’d read about how to do these Caviar manicures on various blogs, so I knew what to do – and it was very easy, I have to say! I’m not sure what I thought would be hard about it, but it was very quick and simple to pour the beads onto my wet nail, push down, and then repour for extra coverage. I applied it over a plate with a sheet of greaseproof paper on it, so I could just fold the paper up and pour back into the bottle, and it all went without a hitch. I only did one nail on each hand, because I didn’t want to get carried away – plus, I cook a lot and I didn’t want to shed baubles into my fajitas tonight (oo er!).

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As for the Caviar itself, it was everything I hoped for and more! Again, not a colour I would have picked for myself, but I love it – the mixture of blue, silver and pink is very pretty, and the nail’s texture is divine. There are also pieces of flat, hexagonal, reflective discs in the pot, which add a bit of interest to the baubles.

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I’m very impressed with how well the baubles are sticking to my nail at the moment – I applied top coat to the tips, but all of the balls feel very sturdy. However, the test will be whether they can withstand a shower – I’m betting not, but I’ll let you know tomorrow!

I’m in Cake Stand Heaven!

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If there’s one thing your royal wedding watching party (or afternoon tea) should be, it’s stylish. Think sundappled table settings, gorgeous china sets, dainty cakes and even dantier sandwiches. If you’re like me, you probably only dream of owning a proper tea set, and one look at retailers like John Lewis, where they sell aforementioned ‘proper’ tea services, will probably push that dream even further away. It’s actually surprisingly difficult to find really nice tea sets (unless you have mega bucks, in which case EVERYTHING’S easy) as I discovered once I started actually looking for some. But then, I found it… Cake Stand Heaven…

Green and Yellow Art Deco Tea Set

This gorgeous website specialises in selling really beautiful china sets in quirky colour schemes and styles. Last year, I inherited a pretty partial set of glade green china from my nan, and was at a bit of a loss to know what to do with it, until I saw this, a beautiful set of gold and green mismatched china which pulls together the gilt and green elements of my nan’s beautiful set. Alas, that one has already been sold, but here’s a similar one:

Vintage Mixed China Tea Set with Lustreware Teapot

By simply picking a couple of colours out of your favourite china trio, you could built up your own – or purchase one ready made at the reasonable price of around £95 for the entire set.

Whoever styles these and puts them together is my new guru of the art of afternoon tea. Check out this amazing Mad Hatter’s Tea Party set:

Mad Tea Party Vintage Mixed Tea Set

I just love their range of quirky cake stands which come topped with cups, milk jugs and even teapots!

Pale Blue and Gold Vintage Tiered Cake Stand

Can you imagine that top cup filled with some pretty country cottage flowers to compliment the colour scheme? I certainly can…

Cake Stand Heaven even offers a bespoke service to find products in your colour scheme, but there’s so many delightful sets on their site you’ll probably more than enough to browse through… And, if you check out their site and follow them on Facebook, you could even win your own cake stand! Now, that’s pretty neat!

www.cakestandheaven.com