BERLIN 5TH - 8TH

It's finally the end of my first uni term and I had the perfect end of the term, a short trip to Berlin! We were told there would be a trip to Berlin during the first week and I had to make sure I got a place on the trip, Berlin has been on my list for a long time. And I can't think of a better time to go than when it's all festive and cold, which it definitely was freezing and we got to see a slight bit of snow on the last day. As much as I love this time of year and the cold weather it was slightly irritating wearing that many layers and looking like the Michelin man every day but comfort over style especially when it was that cold! There wasn't really any specific reason behind the trip and wasn't really relevant to my course but that wasn't a bad thing. We did the usual historic and museum visits, I'll leave some photos down below of course!

I love how cool and laid back Berlin is, and I especially love the continuous beautiful pastel coloured flats that line the streets of Berlin. Our hostel was quite central which was great but they have great public transport, Britain needs to take note! A day pass cost about 7 euros but that included a journey on the tram, tube and bus. I loved how easy it was to navigate as well! 

My favourite place we visited had to be the Eastside Gallery! Of course, going to Berlin I expected to see a lot of graffiti but this was so cool and 100% worth the cold walk down there! I love how different each piece was, and that they change all the time and keep up to date with current events with a response from different graffiti artists. Of course, there was a 'fuck Trump' piece which I still find amusing, my favourite piece had to be the colourful swirled piece one with the faces. I could have stayed there for hours just looking at the same pieces but we headed for refuge in the warmth of our hostel.

We also headed for Checkpoint Charlie early in the morning and a few other museums, of course, I knew some of the Berlin Wall histories but learnt about it so long ago it was nice to learn some more. I love Germany and it was just so lovely and festive with it being December and all. Another favourite was the endless Christmas Markets, with so many Bratwurst's and crepes as well as alcoholic hot chocolates which are a must! The Birmingham German Christmas market was nothing compared to the actual Berlin Christmas markets, obviously. I also loved exploring Berlin at night, it's such a beautiful and interesting city!

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and look forward to posting more in the New Year!

NOVEMBER FAVOURITES

November's favourites aren't a long list but I thought the products were still worth a mention. My first favourite is the Nars Eyeshadow Duo in the shade St-Paul-De-Vence which is a lovely warm brown with almost peach shade to match.  I reach for this product on a daily basis and use these shades as my everyday eyeshadow. They're not to glam a glitzy which is why I can get away with wearing these shades even if I'm only doing a natural makeup look. I do love this product and have my eye on a few other shades. My next favourite is another eyeshadow product, it's the By Terry Ombre Blackstar cream eyeshadow in the shade Frozen Quartz. I picked this product up a while ago and have recently been picking this up again. This is such a beautiful shade with dusty pink tones running through the shade. It's really easy to use and blends well, I love using this all over my lid and take a slightly darker shade and blend it into the outer corner of my lid. I love cream eyeshadows and definitely need to reach for them more often!

I, of course, have to mention a Glossier product in this month's favourites! It's the Birthday Balm Dotcom which I have honestly not stopped using and seem to be running low already! I have always had such dry, chapped lips and nothing seems to help other than really heavy lip balms which I don't like to use in the day. But this product seems to make a difference even though it's not a very heavy balm. I also love this scent and really like the tint of glitter so I tend to not wear much lipstick when I'm using this product. 

That'll be the last beauty favourite and onto my last favourite of November which is a style favourite. It's a mustard faux-fur Zara jacket which I cannot stop wearing. I have been wanting a faux-fur jacket for so long and when I saw this Zara jacket and for only £29.99 I had to get it! I love how fluffy this is, I reach for it pretty much every day and it's so comfy for uni and early morning lectures! I definitely suggest that if you're looking for a faux-fur jacket to put on your Christmas list this year then you need to try this jacket from Zara and it comes in different colours! - I will leave everything linked below if it's still available.

Links:
Nars Eyeshadow Duo - St-Paul-De-Vence
By Terry Ombre Blackstar cream eyeshadow - Frozen Quartz
Glossier Birthday Balm Dotcom
Zara Faux-fur jacket

A VISIT TO MY FAVOURITE CITY - LONDON

I finally got to visit my favourite city again on Wednesday this week, London. I especially love London at this time of year, it's so festive everywhere you go with Christmas lights hanging on every building and street. My main reason for my trip to London was to see the Basquiat Boom for Real exhibition at the Barbican. Basquiat is my favourite artist and I love his work and I had to make sure I went to see this exhibition. The exhibition was well worth the wait, sadly I wasn't allowed to take photos but I did sneak one or two in. I, of course, paid a visit to the gift shop and managed to pick up a poster and a few postcards even on my student budget. If any of you are in London and fancy a visit to the Barbican this exhibition is well worth the entry fee, it's on until January the 28th. You also have to make sure you check out a piece of work from the Banksy which is under the tunnel around the corner from the Barbican, it's pretty much on the way to the Barbican from the underground station, so you can't miss it!

We headed to Carnaby next and our first shop was, of course, Crumbs & Doilies, because who doesn't love cake for breakfast! There's always time for a pit stop for cake when you're in London. Some of my favourites include Primrose Bakery, Peggy Porschen and of course Crumbs & Doilies. I love that each bakery is slightly different, I love where Crumbs & Doilies is, right in the middle of Carnaby in the Kingly Court. And is Carnarby looking oh so festive with it's Christmas Carnival! I love that I'm only a couple of hours away from London and it's so easy to jump on a train which next year I'm planning to do much more often because there's always something going on in London!

We didn't really have much of a plan of what we were doing for the day but it was nice to just have a wander around London and just see some things that I might miss on times where I come to London with a fully loaded day planned. We walked through Soho and I did manage to resist all of the magazine shops for once. Soho is such a great place and there's always something interesting to look at, another favourite is the Photographers' Gallery. 

Although walking around London is great, it was so cold and I definitely didn't dress that well for cold weather. We wandered over to the Tate Modern which is quite a nice walk but a very long walk. I do love the Tate Modern because there's always something new to look at and again a visit to the gift shop is always great. We did have some great fun on the swings they currently have on the ground floor at the entrance of the Tate. Anything childish and fun is always great!

It's been quite a while since I've been to Covent Garden so I thought we'd head there for the end of the day. I love the Christmas decorations at Covent Garden and with all the market stalls not to mention the beauty shops. I did pop into the Deceim pop up shop and picked up The Ordinary coverage foundation, so I will try this out and let you know what I think. At this point, it had gotten especially cold and dark so we took refuge in the Covent Garden Grind for a good few hours. I love the Grind coffee shops and it was definitely a great choice of place to chill out for a bit before my train back to Birmingham. 

I'm thankfully back in London pretty soon for a lovely festive day at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park on the 15th of December so there will be another London post very soon. I honestly can't believe how fast this year has gone, there are still some posts to come so keep an eye out!