PARIS PHOTO DIARY

I'm back with another one of my photo diaries - this stop, Paris! I'd wanted to go back to Paris for ages now with the only time I'd been before when I was much younger and not able to appreciate the city properly. I went with Carissa for her 18th birthday- we ate too much food, I took too many photos, I bought too much in Zara (there's just something about international Zara shops that just gets me every time) and this blog post is the result of it all! Due to me normally working 6/7 days a week, with my two jobs, internship, being at college and keeping islaay.com going - we had to squeeze this all in within 36 hours, so here goes!

6am overpriced vegan coconut chocolate chia seed pudding for breakfast at St Pancras station (I wouldn't recommend it)

In typical me style, I coordinated my passport, purse and train pass holder...

First sight of the Eiffel Tower from the Metro (at this point we hadn't realised that I'd taken us 30 minutes in the wrong direction and ended up at the Metro stop for our hotel instead of Printemps department store which we were meant to be visiting first, oops)

The Galeries Lafayette department store is the Parisisan version of Selfridges etc. but with this beautiful stained glass roof - it's a must visit if you're in Paris and fancy a bit of department store shopping

These motorbikes are all over the city, they seem to be the go-to mode of transport and they are ready to knock you down at a road crossing at any moment!

Parisian buildings seem to all look the same, however they are beautiful so that's totally okay

Sacré Coeur

Sacre Coeur church peeping through the end of a busy street, we went up the hill and visited it on the second day and it was well worth the trip!

An illuminated bridge across the River Seine - I cannot explain how cold it was at this point, and how long we'd be wondering around trying to stumble upon a coffee shop to warm up (this was after getting lost and waiting at a bus stop for 45 minutes (not an exaggeration!))

In true Paris style, traffic jams coming along the Champs Elysees from the Arc De Triomphe

There's only so much Eiffel Tower you can fit into the viewfinder when you're using such a zoomed in camera lens...

Looking across the River Seine from the Eiffel Tower, illuminated cities are my favourite

The Sacre Coeur church was probably one of my highlights - such amazing views of Paris and totally free to visit! It's definitely worth a trip inside too, although you sadly weren't allowed photos so you'll just have to use your imagination about what it looks like!

Hazy morning view from the Sacre Coeur

Tourist's attempts at recreating the padlock bridge - there were padlocks attached onto random gates all over Paris!

I forgot to actually take a proper photo, but these coffee beans were inside the best Starbucks I've ever been to - red velvet seats, lights hanging from rope and coffee paintings onto wood (it's the Place du Terte one). I know I sound so common white girl saying that, but it is 100x better than any of my local ones and I fell in love!

The Place du Terte artist's courtyard where Renoir, Dali and Van Gogh supposedly lived. Nowadays, it's full of painters and sketchers painting scenes of Paris and drawing portraits of people

The graffiti in Paris was a lot more of the ugly tag type, as opposed to the street art which can be found in places such as Berlin

We stumbled across a cafe which we had carrot and coriander soup and a chicken tagine in for lunch - very Moroccan!

Paris Gare du Nord train station, waiting for the Eurostar back to London

THE CAMEL SCARF

Scarf: Zara
Shirt: Primark
Jeans: ASOS
Boots: Russell and Bromley 'Reserve'
Lipstick: MAC 'Please Me'

Yet another post wearing these boots - I'm obsessed. I bought this scarf just before Christmas and I wear it so much, I have a few different scarves that I just kind of keep in rotation and wear every day. I'm actually kinda dreading summer coming round as I won't be able to wear scarves - weird, I know.

NARS VELVET MATTE LIP PENCIL IN 'CRUELLA'

 

Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in 'Cruella' from ASOS

I am a part of the ASOS blogger programme called Access All ASOS, and for this Christmas they really kindly decided to host a secret santa with a load of bloggers and other ASOS insiders! We were given a £15 voucher code each and were challenged to pick out something for our secret santa from the whole ASOS site. I was sent the name of another blogger and had to put my stalking skills to good use to track them down and pick out a present for her, I hope she like it as much as I like this!

The Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in the shade 'Cruella' is what I received as my secret santa present - I had wanted this since last year when Vivianna went on a Nars Lip Pencil craze but it was one of those things that I never quite got around to picking up. My secret santa Becky did really well to pick it out (despite seeing my tweet from earlier that day saying how much I wanted it!!) and it's safe to say it lives up to my expectations! It's got a super smooth consistency that lasts hours without you feeling as if you are wearing anything on your lips - perfect.

I got it a month or so ago, and I have been wearing it so much ever since - I really should of bought it ages ago as it has quickly become one of those lip products that makes me say "how on earth did I ever live without this before?!"

THE CHECKED SHIRT

Sunglasses: Ray-Ban 'Erika'
Shirt: Stolen from Dad's wardrobe
Jeans: Topshop 'Joni'
Boots: Russell and Bromley (Stuart Weiztman) 'Reserve'
Lipstick: MAC 'Dark-side'
Coat: Zara
Scarf: Zara

I wore this outfit when I went out for a little afternoon walk with mum (photo credit goes to her!) we went along the beach and down to the woods before going to a local art gallery, doing a bit of shoppping and then out for coffee. After, I made an absolutely delicious red thai chicken ramen type thing (based on this recipe by Heather Christo) for dinner and it was one of my favourite meals I've had in a while, I've been loving cooking recently and I blame Pinterest entirely. There's so many recipes on there that I want to make!

I've been wearing these boots so much recently, like all the time. If you've been considering buying yourself a pair then I say definitely do it - p.s. the Stuart Weiztman 'Reserve' style are incredibly comfortable! They definitely dress up what could be a very casual outfit into something a bit more sophisticated, which is what I tend to go for!

THE LEATHER SKIRT

Dress: Zara
Heels: Stuart Weiztman 'Plunge'
Lipstick: MAC 'Please Me'

I bought this dress back in the summer when I was in Morocco and as far as I can remember I've only worn it once - I have no idea why as I absolutely love it! Paired with a classic pair of black suede heels it's such a simple outfit but one that you can wear for a lot of different occasions. I like how it's still a leather skirt, but it looks a lot more chic than what you would associate a leather skirt with being. The shirt part of the dress has lovely detailing too, with the pearl buttons and gem cufflinks as you can see from the photo. It's the small details like these that can turn a simple item of clothing into one which looks a lot more expensive and special.

BLACK ON BLACK ON BLACK

Jumper: Mattalan
Jeans: Topshop 'Jamie'
Boots: Russell and Bromley
Lipstick: Chanel 'La Desireé'

I can't believe I didn't used to like wearing black, I'm borderline obsessed with it now. I bought these boots last week after wanting them for a couple years, and I'm so glad I finally made the investment! These photos aren't really doing them any justice, but they have been in all of the magazines recently and I love the over the knee boot look - I think they make a plain outfit like this look much more pulled together considering I'm just wearing jeans and a jumper! Oh and I'm wearing a turtle neck again, there's no surprise there really is there.

LONDON PHOTO DIARY

I've just got back from spending the best four days in London over New Year - of course I took my camera with me, so here's a few lot of photos of what I got up to!

So, after knowing Laura for three years I FINALLY met her and got to give her a hug and take an international bloggers selfie (#dreams). Also, big shoutout to Ellie for allowing me to live like a super cool London student with her for a few days!!

The London eye looking all colourful just before midnight (also about a million people crammed into the tiniest space, and probably the highest density of selfie sticks known to man)

Fireworks at midnight (plus selfie more sticks blocking the view, yay)

Blurry Covent Garden Christmas Tree at 2am with my friend Megan

New Year's Day parade at Piccadilly Circus (so so many marching bands)

King's Cross train station, just because I love their roof

Portobello Market - can I be rich and live here, please please

Little Venice Canals make you feel as if you're in the middle of the countryside and not London

Warwick Avenue (like the Duffy song) ps it's nothing special and neither is the tube station, it's literally just another tube station 

Trafalgar Square where we went to the National Portrait Gallery as we're oh so cultured

God's Own Junkyard in Soho - so.much.neon.

We went up The Shard with and got a faaabulous view of some clouds...

Borough Market and the most amazing Paella

The burry bokeh lights in the background of these photos is the stuff of dreams, yes?

We took Laura and her friends for their first experience of proper British fish and chips (they hadn't tried vinegar on their chips before, say what...)

Brick Lane, Spittalfields and Shorditch and all their street art, vintage shops and super cool people