break Archives - Irish Beauty Blog Beautynook

Edinburgh definitely wasn’t supposed to be a shopping holiday. We were only there for two days. Myself, John and my Mam went. We explored the city (which is awesome by the way). We did some of the tourist attractions. Camera Obscura is definitely something to do if you go, and ate and drank ourselves silly. On the last day our flight was in the evening so we pottered into the city and the shopping just happened. My mother is a professional shopping in fairness so she took us all along for the ride 🙂 I ended up getting some fashion bits, beauty and homeware bits too. Compiling it all together I realised I had enough to compile a haul 🙂

Also myself and John casually got married in Camera Obscura.

My brother paid for the very intimate ceremony. £2 to be exact. Don’t worry it wasn’t official, if we ever do get married I probably would’t wear a veil…or a denim jacket 🙂

Edinburgh city is really great place to shop as well as sightsee. It’s not too big so you can get around pretty easy by foot and there’s lots of great stores to peruse.

I was particularly excited to see Anthropologie. I’ve never been inside one of their stores, although I have lusted after their products online. I have seen UK YouTubers I follow with their amazing Slivered Geode Coasters. I knew I wanted at one strictly for Instagram purposes 🙂 They are 14 quid a pop! I ended up with two. My brother bought me one (wedding present ha), and then John kindly bought me one too.

I also got the prettiest monogrammed mug which was on special for £8.

You can shop the Gilded Shapes mugs here.

Primark aka Penneys got hit a little as well. They seem to do a thing where you can buy some stuff in certain stores but not in others so it’s always good to have a little looksy.

Apologies, I have no idea if any of these are available in Ireland.

I picked up two pairs of trousers.

I have a really similar black pair from New Look and get a lot of wear out of them so I thought I would pick up a couple more.

This super cute t shirt was £8.

Definitely more for Spring, but you have to act fast in Penneys so this went into the basket too 🙂

I chose two of the cream eyeshadows from their newly released In The Nude Collection.

I actually went to the launch of this collection here in Dublin a couple of weeks ago and these were one of the products I was impressed with. They were only £2!

The last thing fashion related thing I bought is probably my favourite.

Yes, they are Disney themed!!! I just fell in love with them, they’re so cute right? They have Mickey and Minnie AND lipstick kisses on them! And they were only £10. I am a child at heart for sure.

A quick look around Superdrug just to see if they had anything different than in Dublin made me leave with two things.

Although I’ve tried a fair few items from Makeup Revolution, I’ve never tried anything from their I Heart Makeup Range. Now I’m fully aware that these are a complete rip off of Too Faced, but sure look they were cheap 🙂

The Chocolate and Peaches Palette went into my basket. It was £7.99.

Keeping on the peach them then, I got the Peachy Pink Kiss Blush. This was £4.99.

I will keep you posted about how I get on with them.

I decided on this trip that I was going to keep a look out for a baker boy cap. How fashion forward of me. Initially I had bought this one before Christmas from ASOS. I bloody love it but unfortunately my giant head is too big for it as it’s made from quite a ridged material.

This striped one was spotted in Zara.

I put it on and although I liked it it’s not as universal as just a plain black one. I was about to put it back the mammy whipped it off my head and bought it. It stayed on my head for the whole day after that and I love it. Although the boys kept calling me a train conductor 🙂

I was still on a quest for a plain black one, and ended up spotting this corduroy one in Topshop.

Because of my big mallet, I didn’t want one that was too puffy and if it had hardware I wanted it to be gold, this fit the bill perfectly.

The Mammy then spotted the same cap in pink and insisted on buying that one for me too. It’s not on the website so I can’t link it sorry.

Yes, she is a shopaholic. So now I am the proud owner of THREE baker boy hats! There’s a grey one too that she wanted to get as well, I had to reel her in at that point 🙂

The last thing I got was this little gold star and moon pendant from Topshop also.

It was on sale for £3 and I absolutely love it.

And that’s it for my Edinburgh fashion, beauty and makeup haul. We had the best time there. Myself and John are already planning to go back. Have you been? Click here to check out our Brussels vlog.

xxx

I was very kindly invited to the very beautiful Galgorm Resort & Spa a few weeks ago. If you follow me on social media, you would have seen myself and John being treated like royalty to celebrate their Wellness Day and their new extended facilities.

We were blown away the minute we stepped out of the car in all honesty. The grounds of Galgorm Resort & Spa are so beautiful, our candid snaps do not do it much justice.

Galgorm cater for weddings and big occasions too, so they have two Rolls Royce casually parked on the grounds for when they are needed. There was actually a wedding on that day so one was away on duty 🙂

The foyer.

There was a small group of us including press and bloggers, so we partook in the Wellness Party Package. Here’s a link to it on the website. It includes:
• Celtic Sauna Ritual
• Body & Mind Class
• 1 course lunch in Gillies
• Private use of the group treatment suite for 3 hours
• Smoothie & fruit on arrival
• Thermal Village Experience
• 25 minute treatment each
£90 per person Mon – Thurs/ £100 per person Fri – Sun
Based on a minimum of 10 people

I’m just going to include all the pics I took to give you a bit of an insight. We did spend alot of the day in the water so I couldn’t bring the camera too close, but it might give you an idea of what to expect.

The spa uses products from both Aromatherapy Associates and Voya.

The Galgorm Resort & Spa Thermal Village contains an Orangery, the Celtic Sauna, a snow cabin, a Sanarium, snail showers, waterbeds, and an indoor pool. Then, the River House is situated in the middle of it all where the private treatments take place.

We did some exercise to begin with and then went and experienced the Celtic sauna Ritual, which was like nothing I have ever done before. I’ll quote Galgorm here if that’s ok to describe 🙂 ‘Originating in Finland and now practised world-wide this is Galgorm’s unique presentation on the Aufguss sauna ritual. Your Sauna Master will guide through this meditative experience where a ritual with towels is used to agitate the air, lessening the intensity of the heat and allowing you to breathe in the essential oils infused into the air. You will complete the ritual with a meditation session in the River House followed by rejuvenation and refreshment in the Orangery where you can float away into a state of utter relaxation.’

After lunch, it was time for our spa treatments. I opted for a back and shoulder massage, that made me feel like bubble wrap. All my knots and tension was taken care of. John opted for a eye treatment and was so relaxed he actually fell asleep on the bed 🙂

And then, we just spent the rest of the day in the sauna, pool and hot tub hopping. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon, right?

Our room for the night was one of the newly built deluxe room that overlook the Thermal Village. This was our view for the evening.

Because we were so darn relaxed, we forgot to take some pictures of the room before we messed it all up. Here’s some from the next day, but you get the gist 🙂 All the formal info of their deluxe rooms is here.

The bed felt like a king size marshmallow and I wanted to bring the light up mirror in the bathroom home, not going to lie 🙂

The room comes with a complimentary mini bar which is a really nice added extra. It has some snacks and drinks, and includes Galgorm’s very own craft beer. This can only be gotten in the resort. John being the beer connoisseur that he is, really enjoyed it.

In the evening we were treated to a really tasty meal in the on site Italian restaurant Fratelli’s.

After undoing all the wellness of the day with lots of delicious grub, we ended the night in the Gin Bar. A gin lovers paradise.

The next morning, we had breakfast before we left, which was a sit down affair with a buffet full of fruit and pastries and then whatever you want from the menu. It was the perfect way to end a beautiful and relaxing break at Galgorm.

We ended our stay in Northern Ireland with a trip to the Giant’s Causeway. The weather was pretty miserable, but it’s such a beautiful part of the country, so it was worth it 🙂

Overall, our experience in Galgorm Spa & Resort was an amazing one. Neither myself or John had ever been on a spa break and after this, we’re already planning our next one.

If you are looking for somewhere to go as a treat to unwind and relax, I would hand on hear recommend it.

Thank you so much to all the staff for having us.

xxx

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Fashion, Beauty And Homeware Edinburgh Haul