What I Bought In NYC

To follow up on my post about my trip to New York I thought I'd show you what I bought whilst I was out there. I do realise a few things I got you can get over here in the UK but it seemed to work out cheaper and it was also an early birthday treat.

Of course I had to get myself a souvenir, I saw this mug in Starbucks and it was so cute, with the little yellow taxi and a silhouette of New York City wrapped around it, I had to get it! I was tempted to get the classic I heart NYC from an actual souvenir shop but decided to opt out. 

I got myself a little Macy's makeup bag, its the perfect size to fit in my handbag for those busy days, it looks so classy and is really good quality.

Onto beauty I bought a few things from MAC, I got the Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in the shade light plus which was a repurchase as I have had this before a while ago. I then also got the Studio Finish Concealer in NC15, I've never had this before and have always debated on getting it so this time i thought why not! 

I also went into Sephora, now I could have happily bought a lot more from there but by this time I didn't have that much money left, so I decided to get something that of what I knew you can't get over here in the UK, so I got the Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tars Trio, I will be doing a separate blog post about these with more detail but so far I am loving them!

I also picked up some Moroccan Oil, I can't remember what the store was called, but it was a drugstore. My mum used to have this and I always used it when I was home and my hairdressers use it, so I thought it was about time to buy some for myself! 

I forgot to photograph it but I also got myself the bloggers favourite, an EOS lip balm in strawberry flavour, it was great to protect and re-nourish my lips from the bitter cold whilst we were there and still over here in the UK too.

Then finally of course I had to get something from Victorias Secret, especially that they had an amazing sale on! I got a nightie and a dressing gown and it came to about $35 - $45 instead of being more than that per piece! The quality of these products are amazing and the price was so good I just had to. 

So, that's everything I got! Just a short and sweet post. Have you tried or got any of these products? What do you think of them?

My Trip To New York

With my university course we were extremely lucky to have the chance to go on a trip to New york at the start of this month, it still seems so surreal that I actually went there!
We left at 4am on Monday 6th January and got home 1pm Sunday, with a 5 hour time difference, its fair to say I became pretty jet lagged. The weather was freezing, we were there during the 'polar vortex' as they said on the news over there, it was around -20c wind chill on the first day but by the end of the week it had gone up to around 10c.
Whilst we were there we stayed at the Hotel Wolcott which was so close to everything! It was only about a 10 minute walk to the centre of Time Square. The hotel was very pretty and we had muffins and coffee for breakfast, I shared a room with my friend Grace, the room was spacious and had all you really needed.

Day 1 - Tuesday
On the first day we went to Macy's in the morning and up to Time Square, we didn't go for long as we then headed back to the hotel to go to FIT the Fashion Institute of Technology, whilst we were there we were surrounded by bottles of different scents and had a seminar about perfume, learning about top notes, base notes and more, it was only an hour long but so interesting!

Day 2 - Wednesday
We decided to go up 5th Avenue and look at all the classic must see stores which included Tiffany's and Saks, sadly I don't have the money to be able to get something from either of those stores. Can I win the lottery yet? We then headed up to Central Park and even went to the zoo there, we were gutted not to see the cast from Madagascar, however, we did get to see Snow Leopard cubs, they were stunning. As sunset came round we headed up the Rockefeller to get some snaps of New York from the top, it was worth the $27 that's for sure! Never seen anything like it in my life. I could've happily stayed there until dark but we did end up heading back down for some dinner.

Day 3 - Thursday
We decided to head out to Brooklyn, of course there was plenty of graffiti, even brands like Red Bull were creating graffiti adverts instead of just using posters. We went into several thrift stores, they are so much bigger and better than over here in the UK I swear!
We also found THE cutest store called Brooklyn Charm, being a crafty person who has also made jewellery in the past, I could've been in there all day long, I was in heaven. You could create your own unique jewellery pieces, buy pre-made pieces or just buy supplies.
Our lecturers recommended us to go to I Hate Perfume, they create scents but in a different light to perfumers, they want to create memories with them. They had a collection that smelt like different sweet treats, definitely my favourite collection of them all.
We then finished the day by going to the Brooklyn Museum and went to the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition, it was by far the most interesting exhibition I've ever been too, the mannequins had projectors on their faces and they would sing and talk, pretty freaky at first look but so cool and innovative.

Day 4 - Friday 

This was our last whole day in New York! So we had to get plenty done.

We went to the 9/11 memorial grounds, they had created such a beautiful memorial in memory of all those lost, it was heart wrenching to see how many were lost in such an awful event. Roses were left in the names of those who's birthday it was that day. 

Afterwards we went down to go see the Statue of Liberty, but unfortunately it was so foggy we couldn't see it, we were gutted!

On the way back we got the subway to Grand Central Station, it was so cool to finally seeing it for real instead of just in the movies. 

Later on we stopped by outside Condé Nast where magazines such as Vogue and Glamour are created, so of course doing a course in Fashion Communication we had to stop by! I also did most my shopping that day as I had a rough idea of how much money I actually could spend on some goodies, of course going into Victorias Secret and Sephora. 

To finish our day we went out to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe, it had the best atmosphere and amazing food! Photos of that can be seen on my Instagram at alexhowe1995. 

On our last day we went to the Library and took in the last of New York before leaving around midday. We were so gutted to leave and the turbulence on the plane didn't make leaving any more fun!
The trip was so inspirational and had been a dream of mine for years, I never imagined I would have completed that dream at 18 years old. I just have to go back!