Author: Little Luxuries By Lynsey

Lynsey’s Guide to an Amsterdam City Break

I had wanted to visit Amsterdam for ages, it always looked like a really cool city with plenty of fun things to do and see. My sister was just as keen to go so, for her Christmas present, I bit the bullet and booked us a long weekend away.

The flight from Belfast is only an hour and ten minutes and because we were on an early flight out and an evening flight home, we ended up with almost 4 full days in the city to explore which I found to be ample time. We stayed in South Amsterdam in the Hotel Olympic which is beside the Olympic stadium. The hotel itself was clean and modern, the rooms were a decent size, comfortable and had an excellent bathroom with a powerful shower. The location of the hotel turned out to be very handy to travel to the city centre as there was a metro station only 5 minutes away. We picked up a 3 day travel pass for the metro for €19 each which got us unlimited metro travel for the duration. The metro to Amsterdam Centraal took around 15 minutes.

So what did we get up to?

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At Home Facial Routine to Beat the Winter Weather

It’s safe to say the weather has been pretty woeful of late. The cold wind has crept back in which means my skin has been taking a real battering and has been looking a little dull and feeling a bit drier than usual. When it’s miserable outside, I am perfectly content to stay cosy inside and have a bit of a pamper and what better way to do that than to give yourself a nice, hydrating at home facial?

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It’s Good To Talk.

This post may or may not ever see the light of day. Contrary to the title, it’s not an affiliated post with BT (if you’re too young to get that reference I’m raging…). Anyway, I digress Cause this is uncomfortable. This wee space on the internet is my light and easy hobby. Usually I feel that anything “heavy” has no place here. However, I think the horrendous news about Caroline Flack yesterday has made us all think about opening up or being more kind. This post has actually been in a draft form for weeks and weeks, resigned to die in the draft folder, but I figure if my experience helps one other person that needs it in some shape or form, it’s worthwhile publishing.

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Boozy Brunching at Babel, Belfast

If there’s one thing that I enjoy more than a nice cocktail, it’s an unlimited supply of a nice cocktail. A few weeks back to celebrate her birthday, we took our gal Legally Brunette NI to our first bottomless brunch at Babel. 

I will admit, I was somewhat sceptical before going as to what we would get for our money. I had preconceptions of pre-mixed, watered down, batch cocktails and pre-made, just okay food. It is a business after all and I tend to believe that if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. I couldn’t have been more wrong on this one.

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Travel : What to do in Brussels in a Nutshell

So, it’s been a while since I actually sat down and wrote a full blow blog post. A lot has happened since my last post. Life got mental for a little bit but i’m back and i’m actually finding the time and motivation to write again! I always find my travel posts to be the easiest to write so I thought a quick “Brussels in a nutshell” post would be the nicest way to ease myself back in….

Last Summer, my mum, sister and I took ourselves off on a girly break to Brussels for 3 days. I had never been to Belgium before, so I was keen to explore and see as much as we could in the limited time frame. So what are my tips?

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Stepping into Summer: Palmers Foot Care Review

The time for hiding our little tootsies away in boots is over and we are hurtling toward Summer and cute sandal season at an alarming rate. To be fair, Ireland’s weather isn’t exactly comparable to the South of France and usually features a significant amount of rain, but we will inevitably get a few pockets of beautiful, sunny weather and our feet need to be prepared accordingly for when that creeps up on us.

I’m not great at looking after my feet. In fact, feet actually scare me, they’re just so ugly. So that means when this time of year pops up, my feet usually require a bit of TLC. Enter the Palmers foot care range which is designed to moisturise, hydrate and nourish neglected trotters in mere moments. I’ve incorporated 3 products from the range into my weekly pamper routine and the verdict is in*.

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New Additions to my Haircare Routine

I struggle to love my hair. Mostly because I’m too lazy to style it properly every day to ensure I have a big bouncy curly blow dry at all times – too much effort!

Instead, I try to focus on at least keeping it as healthy and nourished as I can. I’m not a total bad hair mummy after all.

My own hair is fine, a tad on the dry side and can suffer from frizz and flyaways. Not the easiest to work with. I have hair extensions in to counter how thin and fine my hair is and I’m not ready to take them out any time soon.

In the past few weeks and months, I’ve added some new products to my haircare routine which I’ve grown to love and given the fact my blog rarely features hair care products, I thought I would share my thoughts on them with you all.

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New In My Beauty Arsenal: March 2019

It’s not a secret that I’m a bit of a product junkie. When I see something new or just launched, I want to try it. When I see something on Instagram, I want to try it. In short, I’m a marketers dream! So with that being said, it’s no surprise that I routinely have new products in my rotation. Some of which I am lucky enough to be sent, others I pick up for myself!

I love seeing what’s new in other product aficionados beauty stashes so I thought I would share with you all the new products I found myself reaching for the most throughout last month!

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Skincare Sunday: Review – Alpha H Essential Skin Perfecting Moisturiser

I’m a skincare junkie. You’d need to be a blind person not to have noticed that by now. When a brand that I love, launches something new, I can’t wait to try it.

Alpha H is such a dreamy skincare brand which specialises in regulating sensitive skin types and resurfacing overactive skin. The brand’s founder, Michelle Doherty started the brand after spending years trying to combat her own adult acne and the brand is credited with being pioneers when it comes to the use of glycolic acid in skincare routines. If you haven’t tried anything from the brand, you need to rectify that immediately. Trust me.

They recently launched their Essential Skin Perfecting Moisturiser and when I was kindly offered the chance to trial the product, it was a no brainer but to say yes. Designed as a multi-purpose, time saving beauty product, I couldn’t wait to get this on my face.

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Review with Swatches: Urban Decay Naked Reloaded Palette*

When I first heard that Urban Decay were phasing out their OG Naked palette after 10 years, I (like a lot of you) was very annoyed. I have loved that palette for years and couldn’t understand the rationale as it was still hugely popular and was what really catapulted them into cult beauty brand status. Nicole Ritchie even staged a fake funeral for it on social media. The beauty world wasn’t happy.

The Naked palettes have been a staple in girls make up bags far and wide for years. Every time a new palette is released, make up junkies seem to add it to their collection without question and I’m no different really (except I don’t have the Naked Cherry palette yet, I really must sort that out!). So when Urban Decay announced there would be an update to the original Naked palette in the form of the Naked Reloaded palette, I wasn’t surprised but I was intrigued.

The Naked Reloaded palette replaces the now discontinued original Naked palette and houses 12 all new nude shades that are designed to flatter all skin tones. At first, I wasn’t sure I would be dying about this product as it looked similar to a lot of palettes that I already owned in pictures but the minute that I opened it, I started to change my mind. Here’s why….

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