Pretty Little Thing, Missguided, House of CB Outfits

We cannot profess how much we truly love online shopping.. our wardrobes and the postman could probably give you a rough idea though! We've never really loved milling about the shops and if we do go to town it's either for cocktails or we've planned it down to the finite details ie. exact dress from exact shop.

THIS MY FRIENDS is why we adore all the online shops currently slaying atm; PLT, Missguided and House of CB.

Today we've decided to share a few outfits (mainly night out) that we've worn and love from all three brands. Links to some of the items below.

Pretty Little Thing

Amy

Bralet - own

Lourdes Black Asymmetric Flare Trousers

Lorraine

Black Long Sleeve Plunge Slinky Midi Dress

Missguided

Amy

Black Bandage Ribbed Crop Top

Black Bandage Mini

Choker - own

Fur Coat - Pela Vato

Amy

 Top - mentioned above

Trousers - PLT (mentioned above)

Choker

House of CB

Lorraine
Choker
'Anelle' Powder Blue Bandage Dress

 'Sukina' Wine Red Velvet Dress - no longer for sale

xxx

Waroeng Windsor - Indonesian Cuisine

Now we know we go on about Sushi in 70% of our 'Food' posts buuuut we are equally obsessed with all East Asian cuisine so when we found this hidden gem we were absolutely OVER THE MOON.

Waroeng Windsor is a small family run Indonesian Restaurant located in Aldershot, Hampshire. The chain originally started as a catering company providing Indonesian delicacies to events/festivals throughout the South East but have expanded into an actual restaurant.

The staff in the restaurant are so so sweet and extremely welcoming. We got the opportunity to meet both owners which was lovely! One of favourite parts of the experience was when our Mum mentioned we had lived in Indonesia and had an opportunity to discuss where we lived visited, favourite dishes and memories. Mama P also got a chance to communicate in Bahasa Indonesian (official language) again!

Another part we enjoyed about Waroeng Windsor is that the kitchen is visible from your table so you can see your food being cooked or tea steaming if you fancy a cheeky peek.

What we ordered:

Food

Beef Rendang: beautifully cooked beef in a creamy, spicy sauce

Nasi Goreng: Rice dish accompanied by chicken satay (beef also offered) in addition to a fried egg. Literally heaven.

We swear to you this food is HEAVEN. If you've never tried Indonesian food please please visit and just order one plate off the menu and we guarantee you'll have a new fave cuisine and be booking a flight asap

Drinks 

Now for once we're not going to be reviewing cocktails in a restaurant (there's a first for everything guys haha) Firstly the drinks menu caters for all by offering authentic Indonesian Beers, Coffee (hot and iced) aswell as Tea. We sampled them all:

Indonesian Coffee is insane aswell as the contraption used to heat it! Proper throwback to our lab days in Chemistry. The coffee is place in the equipment as  ground beans then poured into your cup once in heated liquid form. Sugar and cream are available but we preferred it black.

Iced Coffee: Starbucks eat your heart out babe. This Iced Coffee is our new absolute favourite - the coffee itself is placed on top of condensed milk. Yas condensed milk *heart eyes* so you can use your spoon to mix it up and reach a level of sweetness that suits you. We could have had 6 in a row, honestly.

Tea: Amy absolutely adored the tea - it has a sweet, fruity taste - we'd liken the taste to bubble tea. The tea is served warm and we were offered as many re-fills as we wanted because the tea continues to brew in the back and we were told it tastes the best after about 3-4hours! 

We didn't stay that long because of our stupid short parking ticket buuut next time we're going to park in the shopping centre and definitely stay longer. Not just to sample the other dishes on the menu but we still haven't tried the desserts...

Located at 2 Upper Union Street, Aldershot GU11 1EX, England

Literally 2 minutes from the shopping center in Aldershot.

xxx

Answers to questions we get asked frequently...

Q.Where are you from? 

A.We’re pretty mean when it comes to this question and make people sweat a bit. Specify! Do you mean UK location or heritage? We are mixed race (Kenyan and English) born and bred majority in Preston and now live down South. Might get it printed on t-shirts tbh

Q.How long have you lived down here?

A. Just over 5 years

Q.Are you twins? 

A.We get asked this a LOT lately whether it is taxi drivers, bouncers, waiters, festival goers etc. Absolutely baffles us because we actually look really different if you pay attention, we’re different shades for a start! Maybe it’s the makeup that confuses people? Anyhow we are born 4 years apart folks with Lorraine being older.

Q.How many siblings have you got?

A.There are 4 Popely's

Q.How do you pronounce your surname? 

A.Think of the Pope then add ly (‘lee’ pronunciation) on the end. It is one of our biggest pet peeves when people pronounce or spell it wrong so we’ll love you if you say it right. 

Q.Are you ever at home? 

A.Genuinely we’re at home 70% of the time in hoodies and onesies eating and having the puppies biting us BUT we are planning events,holidays constantly. If we don’t have anything planned for the next month we start to get sad and restless – tickets often get purchased after a few glasses of Rose but in short yes. 

Q.Favourite festival so far?

A.Amy - Hideout 

Lorraine - AMP Lost & Found 

Q.Why did you start a blog?

A.We ourselves love to read other bloggers content and follow a lot on Instagram purely for the fact we find their travels, tips and stories inspiring plus we think it’s a brilliant way to document your life. This blog gives us the opportunity to share our tips/advice on our experiences eg. Holidays, festivals, restaurants. Most importantly IT’S FUN!

Q.Would you consider YouTube?

A.Possibly, it would feel a lot easier to portray our personalities and humour through camera as opposed to through literature BUT it would involve a lot of research and time investment which we’re not open to just yet.

Q.How did you learn to do make-up?

A.This question is more so directed at A who is queen at it especially eyeshadow (yes Lorraine wrote this section lol) A is self-taught, she invested in some make-up palettes and YouTube is a god send to refer to for techniques and colour combination inspiration.

Q.Where are you going on holiday next?

A.We’ve literally just booked a holiday for next year haha but we want to keep it a secret until its closer to the time. We've done a blog post on locations we'd like to visit in 2018 so that may provide a clue...

Q.Do you two ever argue?

A.YES but not very often and when we do it is full on and depending on the reasoning we get physical. Lorraine backs down when it comes to punches but if its words Amy will back down first and try to coax a conversation again. Never fallen out for more than 24hrs though

xxx

Revolución de Cuba - Reading

On Monday we were craving some delish cocktails (nothing new there, we know) but decided we'd venture to Reading. We are absolutely loving Reading at the moment, whether it be for cocktails, sushi, Victoria's Secret, MAC the list goes on! 

So decided we'd  try a restaurant we hadn't previously been to and ended up in Revolución de Cuba! The restaurant is primarily Cuban food PLUS every single cocktail is Rum based *heart eyes*

Now the good part... what we ordered:

Tapas 3 for £14 

Albondigas, Chicken Quesadillas, Crispy Fried Squid Tacos

PLUS we got some Cheesy Cuban Fries NOMMM

Drinks: Coco Loco £8.75, Pineapple Daiquiri £8.25, Bloom Gin & Tonic £8.50, Mangoes to Cuba £8.75

We also received countless free servings of Tortilla Chips from our lovely waiter - we're hoping this is the norm and we weren't just super lucky.

Happy Hour between 3pm - 7pm, we'd recommend only going during happy hour if you're mainly after cocktails over food. This is because although the drinks were beautifully presented and tasted lovely, £17 for two cocktails isn't really worth the money if you're like us and end up having 5/6.

The decor was gorgeous and really suited the South American theme. 

For all our fellow instagram fiends, there are SO many cute spots for photos in here. In the back corridors (lead to upstairs part of restaurant and loos) there are multiple sofas with varied backdrops. We only took photos by our booth but plan on having a full on photoshoot on our next visit hehe

Location: 138 - 141 Friar St, Reading RG1 1EX

Literally 5 minute walk from the station which is perfect and another 5mins to the Oracle Shopping Centre.

xxx

10 things we all secretly love about coming back from holiday

1. Reunited with own bed 

If your bed isn’t more comfy than that of a hotel something is very wrong. Nothing beats finally getting home after a flight and climbing into your own bed; cold sheets and all

2. Shower that you know and love

Any showers that aren’t your own are super difficult to figure out and hotel showers often have less pressure than our one at home so when we get back we actually feel clean again

3. Using Pound Sterling again

We treat holiday money like monopoly notes tbh which our bank balances definitely don’t thank us for. A bit of calm is restored once we've got ££ back

 4. Food

If you’re like us and do a lil detox/diet before the holiday, returning = piling back all the pounds you frantically tried to lose. Viscous cycle folks. 

5. Time to post all your holiday photos

We give it a good go when away but due to lack of Wi-Fi, sobriety and care for the gram we often don’t bother then do a mahoosive spam when home

6. Reunited with our pets 

7. English crisps 

Petty but true, Lays is a poor alternative plus Croatia only had paprika flavoured crisps which was very odd and lunch was always very disappointing. If and when we return we’ll 100% be taking some cheese & onion packets in the case #necessities

8. Being able to have good, STRONG Wi-Fi 

9. Get to show off ya tan

If you’ve seen us in the weeks following on from a holiday you’ll know that we wap out our tan lines at any given opportunity 

10. Booking the next holiday

Best cure for holiday blues? Booking another flight! We are sooo guilty of this 

xxx

Landmark Hotel London - Review

About a year ago we had the opportunity to stay at a gorgeous hotel in London which we just HAD to blog about...

The Landmark Hotel is hands down the most luxurious, breath-taking hotel we've been blessed to stay in.

Not only is the location absolutely perfect (opposite Maryleborne station) but the staff, amenities and decor were perfection.

The hotel offers a Spa & Health Club offering various therapies including massages and hot stone treatments *heart eyes*. There is also a steam room, gym and sauna to take full advantage of!

In the centre of the hotel is a large atrium which is filled with palm trees sunshine and dreams lol basically it is a mahoosive courtyard with a lovely cafe in the centre; 'The Winter Garden' and many  of the rooms overlook it.

ROOM

Luckily we managed to nab one of the rooms that overlooked the atrium!

Our favourite part of the rooms is the marble bathrooms including a marble bath and modern shower lush - also the toiletries were not just average brands but treats from the luxurious Molton Brown and The White Company.

PLUS robes are provided with an L embroidered initial which Lorraine obviously fell in love with and pretended was her own personalised robe *Amy rolls eyes*

PRICE

Doubles from £264 in low season; rising to £360 in high. 
Great Central Suite from £2,000. 

Breakfast not included - priced at £26 for continental or £31 for full English. 

Free Wi-Fi.

SERVICE

Excellent, as you'd expect; staff are professional yet personable. Concierge is also available. 

If you leave your shoes outside your room in the evening they will be cleaned and returned by the morning - I mean c'mon people...

We also decided to go to the theatre to watch 'THE BODYGUARD'. The front desk staff kindly offered to buy these on our behalf (pay through hotel) and the seats were better than we've ever managed to book at the West End. Literally we were about 5 rows from the front and in the middle - mahoosive perk of staying in this luxurious hotel.

Side note this was absolutely amaaaazing and Beverly Knight did an exceptional job of singing all the Whitney classics. 

L clearly enjoying the complimentary champagne

FOOD

We didn't actually dine here as our day was so jam packed! After the theatre we decided to go to Chinatown and SOHO for cocktails. Having said this the hotel does offer an excellent breakfast priced at £31 for full English. This can be eaten below in the cafe or upstairs in the comfort of your fabulous room.

LOCATION

Situated literally right next to Marylebone station - Bakerloo line which allows easy connection to Central London. It literally took us 12mins by tube to Leicester Square and about 17mins in the uber back in the night.

Writing this long overdue review has made us super crave a trip to London, we hope to write a few more hotel reviews in the coming months!

xxx

4 Beauty Products we're loving right now

BODY

Shimmering Dry Oil Honey - smells delish, we love any product that makes our body smell lush (Palmer's Cocoa Butter is our go to)  and this one gets our approval. Provides a nice shine on top of the skin - more so in photos than real life. 

Perfect for a nightout when you want  a bit more definition on arms, legs (shins) and collar bones. Although the liquid is bronze in colour it won't actually give you a tanned glow unless you are already tanned. 

Only criticisms are that we could have done with more shimmer and the bottle doesn't allow too much product out at once - would have preferred a spray cap!

£18 Stockists: Body Shop

CHEEKS

MAC Mineralize Skinfinish - Cheeky Bronze  we adore this highlighter - the rose/bronze shimmer is super pigmented so we tend to use it on top of our cheek contour. 

One of our favourite aspects of this product is that it compliments multiple skin tones: the pink colour tones are perfect for rosy cheeks if you're of a pale complexion, but the bronzing factor also compliments the brown melanin in our skin. 

£24.50  Stockists: MAC cosmetics, Debenhams, House of Fraser

EYES

Red cherry lashes (no. 523) we initially discovered this brand of lashes thanks to one of the Kardashian’s make  up artists. We follow Ariel on Instagram and he mentioned using these lashes on Kim a couple of years ago. It crazy because you’d presume they’d be super expensive but on eBay they’re less than £3. LOVE them. 

Super long in length and lightweight, plus they’re real hair not synthetic – solid rival for Eyelure in terms of evening lashes. 

A task we'd advise is that you cut the strip a bit shorter before use  -  tends to be a little long for our lids. 

£3 - £5 Stockists: eBay

LIPS


Nicki Minaj lipstick – we are ride or die n fans  (ever since we saw her slaying in that mahoosive diamonte 'Barbie' chain in the Bedrock music vid) - throwback to 2010).  PLUS we’re absolute suckers for a celeb collab with MAC cosmetics so when it was Nicki we were on a train to Reading (our nearest store) quick time. 

We went for the shade Derriere. So beautiful and it especially suits a darker skin tone, which we are SO grateful for as we personally don’t suit lighter pink shades of lipstick. 

£16.50 Stockists: MAC cosmetics, Debenhams, House of Fraser

xxx

7 Things you need to know before attending a festival abroad

Due to the fact Hideout Festival released the line-up for 2018 yesterday (and pre-sale ticket link) we've been reminiscing on summer *starts to whimper* and have decided to do a post on 7 things we feel you MUST know before attending a festival in paradise aka anywhere that’s sunny that isn't UK lol:

FLIGHTS/HOTEL

Book the hotel and flight ASAP! If you trust that the line-up will be strong, book before it's even released. Festivals abroad always release the dates well in advance. It'll be way cheaper trust us and it's one less thing to worry about!

ADD-ONS

There will always be add-ons to the ticket eg. Boat parties, welcome party, pre-party. Don’t forget to budget for these! If it's a big name performing then buy a ticket the minute they're out especially Hideout. The boat party tickets for the likes of Hannah Wants & MK sell out same day.

SHUTTLE BUS

L's been to 3 abroad festivals and they've always had some type of coach system to transport festival goers to site. We'd recommend budgeting for this and also factoring the bus route/stops into where you decide to book accommodation.

CULTURE

Festivals are super intense (in the best way) - by this we mean if you actually wanted to experience the culture and country you're visiting there's not a chance you'll do so whilst the festival is on. We LIVE at the festival sites and want to make the most of all the acts so recommend if you did want to sample local life you fly in a few days earlier than the festival start date OR stay on and fly out a few days after it's all over.

PLAN

Buy the programme + plan who you're going to see. Being spontaneous is over rated. Let's not lie there's going to be about 5 acts minimum you've decided you HAVE to see, so why chance missing them. We organise each day based on the dj set times; also helps us decide what time we need to start pre drinking/ when to catch shuttle/ when to come home from pool parties and have a breather before evening sets

SECURITY

Security are stricter. Acting a fool in UK gets you a slap on the wrist, abroad it's jail time folks

SET-TIMES

UK festivals tend to start at 12-2 and shut-down at 1am whereas abroad they're split into two parts. The  midday sets finish at like 6/7ish then the evening sets begin at about 8 till 6am. 

If your hangovers normally get the better of you the 'morning after' just rule out the pool parties and accept you'll only be hitting up the evening sets. If you're hardcore (you are our people) just know you're going to push your body beyond belief attending pool parties and evening sets buuut good lawd will it be worth it!!

ADDICTION

You're going to have the time of your life. Swear to you, just be prepared to be addicted.

xxx

IKEA TRIP + MINI HAUL

We absolutely adore IKEA and seeing as a store has now opened nearby (Reading) we felt it would be rude to take the quick drive down for a visit. We didn't buy much but we're not redecorating our rooms so didn't really have a lot of reasoning to back us going wild. 

We did however have an amazing afternoon and thought we'd do a little blog post listing the reasons we love this Swedish Paradise as well as our purchases!

MINI HAUL

Candles SINNLIG £1.75 We bought two scents: 'Red Garden Berry' and 'Peach and Orange'

Hangers BUMERANG £4 pack of 8

Clothing Rail MULIG £6.95

Beer tankard MJOD £1 - we bought 4 and will have pre-drink in no other

aaaaandddd some plants

REASONS WE LOVE IKEA:

CANDLES ARE LESS THAN £2

We cannot walk past a candle and not buy it on a good day but when its this 

cheap its impossible

FOOD

We know everyone goes on about the meatballs (we rate them too don't worry) 

buuut have you tried the Daim cake  - heaven  huns

FAMILY VIBE

Everyone seems to go Ikea as a family outing which is super cute and we 

love people watching so it's jokes seeing the different dynamics. 

Especially when the dad's are left unattended with the kids - 

we saw one  guy fully in the bed with his kids running wild in the room 

FLAT-PACK = SELF ACCOMPLISHMENT

Flat-pack items are as close as we get to DIY 

We're not gonna lie its a pretty nice feeling when you've FINALLY finished battling with a set of instructions and little screws and wallah you're masterpiece is created and you can sit back with a glass of wine

HOME DECOR IS LIFE

 IKEA is like heaven for inspiration and ideas

FULL OF STUFF YOU DIDN'T KNOW YOU NEEDED

. Eg. The German mugs - We weren't aware our pre-drinks were basic until 

we spotted this beautiful creation before us.

We can't imagine ever drinking from any other glassware ever again  

(wine and champs being the exception) 

SWEDISH

Other than H&M its the second closest brand that lets us get our

hands on Scandinavian style/decor.


GO BIG OR GO HOME
IKEA really champions you buying more than one thing.
We don't possess the skill of self-restraint so feel right at home

BASICALLY A MAZE
It's like a maze and some stores are very oddly laid out so you literally don't know what products are around the corner. One minute we were looking at towels the next martini glasses?!


xxx


P.S our rail is still yet to be made so if anyone wants to be an absolute babe and make it for us we'll love ya forever