A weekend in Vegas

I got back from spending 3 days in Las Vegas on Sunday night/Monday morning, pretty sure it was about 1am when I finally walked in the door. There were a lot of conventions in Vegas this weekend so what would usually be a 4 hour easy drive took 9 hours! It was the worst drive ever and the 15 is the only road you can take to get out of there. But other than that I had an amazing time! 

Las Vegas might just be one road but you can literally spend a two week holiday there. When I visited for the first time last year in August I really underestimated the size of the strip, assuming the road would just be a 2 lane street. Well it turned out it was 8 lanes wide and incredibly difficult to cross. The hotels look so close together, and they kind of are.... Except it took me an hour to walk five hotels down! The monorail is highly recommended. We had really good weather this weekend although I doubt Vegas ever has much bad weather, it was around 40 degrees c. We stayed at the Treasure Island which is next to the Mirage and opposite the Venetian. We arrived at 2am and I was so ready for bed at this point. 


On the Friday we did some exploring up and down the strip, I found the most awesome shop in the MGM Grand called the television shop, if you love the Dexter series or The Big Bang tv show, I think you'll love this store. I can't get enough of Dexter so I bought some blood hand sanitizer which might sound a bit gross but I love weird stuff like this, and an I <3 Dexter tshirt. 

I drank so many margarita's along the strip I think it dehydrated me! Kahunaville at the TI is a great place for drinks, they give you an extra free shot and put candy worms in your drink, and of a night the bartenders do a show which is pretty impressive and at the end everyone gets free shots. 

Friday night we went on the Venetian Gondola's, I thought it would be nicer to do a night time ride outside rather than in the daytime heat. While on the boat we got to see the Mirage volcano erupt and the clock tower show. After this we took a trip to downtown and Fremont Street, the original Vegas. You know the iconic neon sign of the cowboy that you always see in older movies ft Vegas? Well that's here. Fremont Street used to be a real road with about 2 lanes but they've since covered this so the entire thing is a walkway and covered it with a gigantic round screen. 

This is a much more laid back area of Vegas and not as glamourous as the strip but I thought it was awesome to see where the hustle and bustle used to be back in the day. I tried a fried twinkie in one of the casinos, tastes a bit like funnel cake and way better than it sounds. They have $5 blackjack here too, which I played at the 4 queens casino. Our dealer was really fun too and it was a nice relaxed atmosphere in there. One thing I love about Fremont Street is that they still have the quarter one arm bandits, meaning you win in quarters and can pull the arm instead of just pressing a button and getting a paper slip. 


I had one of the best Margarita's ever in a place called mob bar, it was made with strawberry and fig infused tequila and was literally amazing. I paid $5 for it and was much more impressed than the $17 yucky one from the Venetian.

Bad Venetian Margarita

Nice Mob Bar Margarita

I spent Saturday morning by the pool and a giant margarita (there were a LOT of margaritas on this trip). The pool at TI isn't the best, there's no theming what so ever and it's pretty small. The DJ at the pool was great fun but I think it's a shame there's not more going on, with a pirate theme there is so much more they could do with it. I had tickets for Cirque Du Soleil Mystere for the night so before we got ready for that we took a trip to Margaritaville which is somewhere I'd wanted to go for years, the food was pretty good here.

Last year when I was out here I missed the Bellagio fountain show so made sure to see it this time. It doesn't last very long but it's a nice show and worth seeing. I always loved that one scene is Ocean's 11. 

The Paris makes for a nice backdrop

Watching the fountains

Winning!

My winning ticket
The Mystere show was absolutely amazing, and I'd recommend it for anyone wanting to see a Cirque show for the first time. This was their first Vegas production and is one of the cheapest, I'd love to go and see O or Ka now after seeing this.

Kahunaville is situated just outside of the Mystere theatre and as we were coming out the bartender cocktail show was starting so we got ourselves some free shots and ordered a Big Kahuna which is a cocktail made with dry ice to give it the smoking effect. 

On the Sunday before we left we went to the Paris hotel for champagne brunch at their buffet. The Paris is by far my all time favourite hotel in Vegas, everything about it is just so pretty and I love how they've painted the sky on the ceiling to make it seem like you are always outside and in a small village town. The buffet itself was amazing, my favourite thing was the made to order crepe's. You get a glass of champagne with your food too which was really nice, I don't usually like champagne but this was nice.

In line at Le Village buffet

I'll leave you with this photo of me inside a table ;)

Have you ever been to Vegas? What did you think? Do you have any plans of your own this summer? :)

Island Margarita by Slatkin & Co

Back in March I purchased this candle from Bath & Body Works and it's still going strong! Margarita's are one of my favourite cocktails and this candle has such a nice tropical smell. Don't worry there's no tequila smell with it, it's just a very fresh and fruity summer scent. The thing I love most about this candle other than it lasts a long time, is that the smell stays in the air for days. If you don't burn this candle for 2 or even 3 days the room still smells amazing. Bath & Body Works has a variety of these kinds of scents in store and online right now, another of my favourites is the mango and peach. These aren't available in the UK but if you're visiting the states be sure to check them out. You can also check to see if yankee candle has any similar tropical summer scents.

Off to Sin City!

I'm off to The city of sin today, I only just got back from a blog break and it seems I'm leaving again! But it's only a few days this time and I will be back on Sunday so blogging will hopefully resume then. I'm not going to be taking my computer as there's a hacker conference (yep, those exist!) I'm gonna write up some posts and see if I can schedule them to post over the weekend, I've never used that feature before so I really hope it works! See you all on Monday! 

Cake Decorating

My parents own their own cake shop and when I have the time I'll go and help out. A few weeks back I decided to have a go at decorating a cake of my own, I found a design I liked and went from there. I also practiced some of my cupcake piping, so let me know what you guys think!

I saw a vintage Barbie cake online and loved the colours and the vintage silhouette so I decided to make one of my own. The silhouette I hand painted on with black food colouring from a photo I found online. I didn't have a round cake board to use at the time so just used a square one and iced that with the cake. I love pink and black and think the colours go so well together, I finally added some pink bows to the hair and board. I'm still practicing my fondant bows and trying to make tiny ones is really fiddly.

I also practiced my piped flowers, I tried two different designs, one of them was the rose design. I definitely think I'm improving and I'm happy with how they came out. 


What do you guys think?

Lipstick Collection Part 1

I  love watching youtube videos of makeup collections and reading blog posts about what products each person has, so I thought I would share what I own. I was never really a big lipstick fan until recently, I still don't wear it very much but I've started to see what is out there and the type/colours I like. My lips get dry quite often so I'm always using a lip balm before I apply any lipstick, I'll usually go for something sheer and moisturising. Matte shades don't seem to look so good on my lips and I don't feel like I can pull off the bold coloured lips. I do own a few bolder colours but I sheer them out and will sometimes add lip gloss over the top.


I decided to do this in two parts because I don't want this post to go on and on. Plus this is a picture heavy post :)

I only own four MAC lipsticks
Viva Glam Nicki - I did a post on this a few months back here

Watch Me Simmer - This was from the Shop Mac Cook Mac Collection so is no longer available, it is an amplified finish. I don't know much about MAC lipstick finishes but this is a very bright bold and pigmented colour. This has more of a matte feeling and tends to dry my lips a little so I sheer it out and put gloss over the top. This is more longer lasting than the creamier formulas. 


Viva Glam Gaga - This is one of my favourite lipsticks because I think the colour suits my skin tone more than others, it is a lustre finish. This doesn't dry my lips out and blends really smoothly onto my lips.


Innocence Beware - from the Venomous Villains collection, this I picked up from a CCO. It's a nude colour with a very slight hint of pink. This is a creme sheen finish and has a creamy consistency and goes easily onto the lips. I mentioned earlier that I prefer wetter formulas rather than dry/matte ones and this is one of the finishes that I prefer as it feels nicer on the lips. You will need to reapply this through-out the day but that doesn't bother me as I expect to with lipstick.

Dior
I have two Dior lipsticks, these are part of the Rouge Dior range. I picked these up in Duty Free. I have the colours Rare Amber which is a burnt reddish shade with some orange, and Pink Songe, which is a medium pink colour. I love these lipsticks as the colours fit my lips and skin tone really well plus they are really easy to apply. These aren't matte shades but they are highly pigmented and have pretty good staying power.

Chanel
I only own one Chanel lipstick which I got at duty free with the Dior ones. I decided to try out one of the Rouge Coco Shine lipsticks as I prefer this type of formula. I really don't like the dry feeling on my lips that most lipsticks give so I purchased this to try. I really liked the colour selection but went for something safe with Rivage, a nude pink colour. The staying power isn't too good but then with something like this I wouldn't expect it to be. This is one of my favourite lipsticks to wear.

Check back for part 2 soon! 

Collective haul

This is a haul of things I've purchased from about 3 months ago approx. I've been trying not to spend so much money on clothes or makeup lately, I haven't bought any clothes! Which is a good thing because I really have too much. I've also been saving for this trip so have been good with spending. 


The first two things I got when Debenhams were having a 10% off promotion (I think it was 10% anyways) 


I'd been looking at purchasing the Estee Lauder Double Wear for a while and after trying a sample finally decided to buy it. I chose the colour bone and will be doing a review on this soon. 

Another thing I've wanted for a while was the Rouge Volupte lipstick by YSL, this is an expensive lipstick so took me a while to finally purchase it but I'm glad I did. Will also be doing a review of this soon-ish.

I purchased two more things from Debenhams while they had their promotion going, That Gal by Benefit in the special edition packaging for the Olympics and the Coralista blush. Both I've had my eye on for a while.

I bought this Bikini at a shop in Santa Barbara over the weekend, I wanted a new one for when I go to Vegas this weekend but I wasn't expecting to spend... $80!! on one. But I fell in love with it and Roxy is never cheap, so I paid $40 a piece for it. I love the bright orange shade and betting over the top.

I also visited CVS with a 25% off voucher, I tried not to go crazy in there though lol. Usually I'll spend about $80 on makeup. While I was there I got some moisturiser. 

Brulee eyeshadow by Wet 'n' Wild that I hear so much about.

Wet 'n' Wild magnetic nail varnish, this was $4.99 and a cheap alternative to the Sally Hansen or Nails Inc polishes. I wanted to try this out for myself without paying a lot.

I also got this Milani Highlighter, I just think it's packaged so nicely.

And in a small corner of the store I managed to find this OPI polish which I've been after for a while. It's Last Friday Night from the Katy Perry Collection but has been discontinued as it was released a while ago. 

Also sorry for the quality of these pics, I'm taking them on a regular camera as I don't have my DSLR with me.


Hopefully I can get some time to do some reviews and more posts soon, either before or after my Vegas trip.  Hope you are all enjoying your summer xxx