Travel Shop Live

In continuation of skincare and cosmetics post , listing out the hair care products below: Hair treatments: Roots: I always believed that the brands which work for my hair wouldn't work for my skin and vice versa. When I tried solid hair oil treatment from Lush which didn't live up to my expectations, my belief only got stronger and I didn't try any of their hair products for a long time. Few months ago, I noticed my hair growth reduced drastically and came across Roots treatment from Lush. It really does help and my there is a significant improvement in my hair growth. Already finished with a tub and when a friend agreed to bring just one thing for me from UK, this is one I chose. H'suan wen hua: I got this one as a sample and loved the way my hair felt after using it. When my Roots tub was halfway through, I had to return home and wanted to buy another pack. However, I got H'suan wen hua instead - wanted to get both but my luggage already exceeded allowed...

After 2 trips with Coach travels, we went for the third trip on our own to Windsor castle. It was again not pre planned and only two of us set to Windsor castle on Sunday morning right after my trip to Stonehenge and bath. Initially, it didn't feel very advantageous to go on own - the isn't much price difference (out of London train tickets are almost twice for 1-2 travellers as opposed to group tickets for 3 or more) and we get to spend same amount of time in the castle as provided by tour packages. However, figuring out the way to castle and exploring different eateries and ice-cream parlours was quite fun. Also I liked the railway station very much, maybe more than castle. It got quite a few vintage looking stores but of latest brands (I saw bare minerals store for first time😁) and good number of restaurants. Since we started bit late, it was lunchtime by the time we reached the station. After browsing through few restaurants, we decided on sandwiches and waffles in a ...

As fun as shopping is, it is quite easy to get carried away. Especially when travelling overseas, we come across so many things which are either not available or too expensive back home, it's hard to resist. While I am following my skincare and haircare routine regularly and going through the products as planned there are quite a few unopened ones. To make things more difficult, Black Friday sales kicked in and few more are on their way to my stash. It's high time I need to list out the stuff and plan how to use them. Starting with skincare Face wash: Currently using herbalism cleanser from lush which is soon to be completed. I have a sample of ultra bland which I would be using next as it is getting colder. Then there are la Roche posey face wash and lush fresh pharmacy but I may save them for summer. I'm planning on using  burts and bees clary sage face wash as I am getting dry patches around nose, mouth area and I read this wash would be useful - hope it works. Howeve...

Gandola ride in Venice, surfing in Australia, hot chocolate in Switzerland, waffles in Belgium, architecture in Greece, art class in Florence - surprisingly Paris was never in my wish list. Well, according to my close friends, I don't have any romantic glands in which case it makes sense that the most romantic city didn't make it to my wish list. However, travelling from London made Paris a mandatory travel destination and I visited the place twice. Even though it's a well known fact that Paris is also a shopping destination, I always assumed it would be extremely expensive to shop there. However, with a little bit of online research and inputs from an equally shopoholic friend, I soon realized that shopping in Paris is quite economical (Of course, anyone trying to shop in Galeries  Lafayette or luxury outlets in Champs Elysees wouldn't agree). Listed below are few places I shopped for cosmetics: Super markets: this is the last place I would have expected to be ab...

My second day trip is very much impromptu. Group of friends got an offer and booked the tickets the night before - next morning we got into the double decker coach. This time I quite enjoyed the coach travel as our driver and tour manager are super nice and friendly plus I was with fun group😜. Our first stop was Stonehenge and, even though we didn't have much of expectations of the trip, I still felt a tinge of disappointment. I was hoping we could walk in-between the stones and would be able to touch them, however, the nearest we could get to the stones is a good ten feet away from them.   Loved this guy more than Stonehenge😍 After about an hour, we started from Stonehenge and made our way to bath. Rest of our gang already went on Europe tour by then and they felt like we were in Rome ( I was still waiting for my schengen visa at that time and didn't get a chance to visit Rome in my later trip either😥).  We roamed around a bit, had a baguette for lunch (my...

My lips tend to dry very often and I had the habit of peeling the dry layers off when I am occupied or nervous. Result - pigmented lips. To make up for the damage, lip products ooccupy major share of my skin care/makeup collection. Listed below are the lip products I am currently using and few thoughts about them. Starting with lip balms: Maybelline baby lips: all time favorite. Don't remember how many of these I went through - I rarely repurchase lip products but this one is a frequent buy. Burt's bees lip balm: I believe this is the very first purchase from boots (along with Dr Palmer cocoa lip balm which got damaged when I forgot it in trousers pocket and washed them in machine 😥). I use it during night as it's non tinted and have no SPF. It's provides good moisture without feeling heavy - in fact it don't even feel like anything is applied. Body shop Shea lip butter: it's quite common to get lip balm in most offers or skin care kits. I got this i...

After spending every weekend for about two months visiting few of the popular tourist attractions in central London, I wanted to explore places out of London and what's better than notorious England countryside. Still not completely confident to travel on my own, I went with couch travels - quite convenient in many ways, however, I would most definitely prefer travelling on own. I didn't get off to a great start as underground transport was cancelled over the weekend which, I later learnt, is not uncommon in London and wouldn't be of utmost inconvenience as there would be replacement bus services, however, the commute time changes considerably. (Note: always check transport schedule especially when planning to catch a bus or train out of London,  ahead of time. Registering oyster card online enables weekly updates on any disruptions). We reached coach stop almost 5 mins later to scheduled pick up time which attracted quite a few disapproving glares. After about 2-3 hour...

I rarely get a chance to see the bottom of containers as I am quite forgetful and often buy stuff without realizing I already got them or, for not so frequently used ones, couldn't find where they are. How delighted was I to see bunch of emptied bottles while packing the baggage in London. Limited living space have it's advantages :). Body shop strawberry body polish : this is a travel size pack (got in 3 for 2 offer). However, it lasted about six months when used twice or thrice a week. Liked it a lot and want to bring back a few but couldn't due to it's leakage prone packaging. Khadhi saffron shampoo : my favorite from the brand. Bought a new pack before starting to London. Soon after I bought 400ml bottle of tresemme platinum strength shampoo (which I did not manage to complete in 8 months) for regular use and carried the Khadhi shampoo for swimming, which is not very often, and it got finished in about 3 months. Wilko bubble bath : after using couple ...

To get a bigger view, we have take a step back or a step up (#feelingsmart 🤓). Main reason I prefer flying is to enjoy the views. Here's the list of views from my travel diaries. 1. Flying from London to Paris - spot the Eiffel tower? I expected it to be clearer 😶. 2.  Paris from Eiffel tower summit - the first one might be from mid level 🤔              3.  Somewhere between Madrid and Valencia 4.  Barcelona from a hillock 5.  Man O' war bay - Durdledoor, London 6. Chair  lift at Needless park - Isle of Wight 7. Paris  at sunset - 2nd floor of Eiffel tower 8.  Mt. Titlis, Engelberg, Switzerland 9. Flying from Milan  to Brussels 10. Thames from cable car, North Greenwich   11. Taking off 😢- Heathrow airport 12. Flying from Indonesia to Malaysia - Bali islands