Tag Archives: Scotland

The Gorgeous hotel I stayed at in Edinburgh

26 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by in Fashion

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Recently for a work event I had to stay at a Hotel in Edinburgh.  Since it was for a work event I just wanted something at a good price near the venue I had to go to, and that was pretty much all I considered when looking for a place to stay.

When I got to my hotel it was so nice that it was almost a shame to go to my event. I just wanted to stay in and enjoy my hotel room. For me it is easily the most luxurious hotel I have ever stayed in, but it certainly wasn’t the most expensive.  For the night the room was £59, or £69 with breakfast.

This is what my room looked like:

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The En-suite was lovely too:

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Seeing this amazing shower made me disappointed that I had turned up with freshly washed hair, I wanted so badly to properly try it out. The hotel did provide shower caps but I have quite long hair and I wouldn’t have had time to dry it if I got it wet. I checked the water pressure though and it was great. The shampoo, conditioner and body lotion provided were from The White Company.

The Excellent Little Touches

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The hotel is in Edinburgh so some complimentary Scottish Tunnocks biscuits were a really nice touch. I had a teacake before I even explored the room.20150326_143039 20150326_143303

This little dress stand thing ( yeah I have no idea what it is actually called) was my favourite thing in the room and I want one at home. Unfortunately the straps of my dress for the night were silky and would slide off so I still had to use a coat-hanger.20150326_143220Yep, my room came with it’s own GHD’s, I wouldn’t have brought mine if I had known. I’m pretty sure all of the rooms had GHD’s because a colleague of mine also stayed the night there and she had some in her room too. Her room was a little different to mine but equally lovely.20150326_143057The TV was in the mirror.

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So which hotel offers this gorgeous great-value room? That would be the Murrayfield House Hotel in Edinburgh. It is a stone’s throw away from Murrayfield stadium and really near to the city centre. I still can’t believe it was only £59 a night. I had breakfast (which was really nice too) so for me it was £69. I don’t have any reason to stay in Edinburgh again any time soon but I’m pretty sure I’ll find some excuse to stay here again.

So, if you are looking for a hotel in Edinburgh you know where to find a great one.

*This was not a sponsored post, I just stayed at this hotel and thought it was too nice not to share it with you.*

Breige x

Trying out Alison Stewart Hairdressing

25 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by in Uncategorized

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So last week I went along to the Alison Stewart Hairdressing Salon in Kirkcaldy and was treated to a free (for review) cut and blow-dry with a head massage thrown in.

Leaving my house I looked like this:

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Obviously it had been a while since my last haircut and I was ready for a change so I walked into Alison Stewart feeling excited about how I would look when I walked out.

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The Salon looks impressive outside and inside it is stylish, bright and modern. I knew just from the decor that I would be treated well here. Clearly a lot of thought went into the layout and design of the salon to make it inviting to customers.

Just to the left of reception was an incredibly well stocked display of the professional products that you can buy from the Alison Stewart salon.

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The salon floor was laid out in an attractive half-moon shape. I really liked this minimal look, hair dressing salons are always busy bustling places but this clean no fuss look promoted a more relaxed atmosphere.20140816_123759

 This coupled with the relaxing effect of my head massage had me feeling comfortable, calm and not nervous at all about getting all my hair chopped off.20140816_113945

I was very surprised when I realised it had taken an hour and a half for me to get my hair done. The relaxing setting and comfy chair meant that I wasn’t counting down the minutes until I could leave. I only felt like I was there for 30 minutes or so all in. My boyfriend/photographer for the day probably felt differently about the passage of time but the staff made him feel very welcome and we were both asked a couple of times if we would like tea or coffee etc.

My stylist, Mairi, used the below products from the Kerastase range on my hair. I can honestly say my hair was the softest I have ever felt it, even two days after getting it cut, so I might invest in some Kerastase products to use at home. As a bonus they smell great as well as working wonders.  Mairi used Nectar Thermique on my hair, a leave-in nourishing cream for use with heat-styling and Nectar Ultime with Imperial Tea Extract – this is actually a beautifying oil aimed at colour-treated hair and my hair has no colour in it, I just leave it natural – but Mairi had already worked a few wonders by this point and I was very happy with the end result so I would use this again.20140816_120131

 For my new look I decided to get a fringe and lots of layers, and Mairi delivered:

20140816_123718After my haircut I explored the Salon (told you I didn’t feel like I had been there long)  and found a chic beauty area for nail and beauty treatments:20140816_124113There were also gorgeous treatment rooms with showers! This is the first salon I have been to that has showers.Showers are obviously perfect for washing off massage oil and leg wax so all beauty salons should have them. I was really impressed with this. 20140816_12415120140816_124258Overall I really loved my experience at Alison Stewart, I was treated like a VIP and I’m certain that is the way that they aim to treat all of their customers. Not only did Mairi give me a great cut (exactly what I wanted) but she talked me through each step in caring for and styling my new do and gave me a booklet with personalised recommendations for hair care products to take away with me.

Even though I would have to drive for an hour I would definitely go back. The service and results are well worth the travel time. I was lucky enough to receive my cut and blow-dry for free but for anyone wondering, the cost for my cut & blow-dry, head massage and styling products used was around £53.00 – not bad for a new do, some pampering and a lesson in hair-care all from a Salon Director.

There are currently 2 Alison Stewart Hairdressing Salons, one in Kirkcaldy and one in Glenrothes so if you live nearby you should definitely pop in for a trim and experience the Alison Stewart Treatment.

To find out more about Alison Stewart Hairdressing visit www.alisonstewart.co.uk 

I would like to say Thank You to Alison Stewart and Mairi for inviting me to the salon, treating me well and giving me a great new look. I would also like to thank Kelly Jones at AJPR for making this opportunity available to me.

 Thanks for checking out my blog 🙂

Rainbow Room International Blogger Event

30 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by in Beauty, Glasgow, Hair, review, Scotland

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Last night I attended the Rainbow Room International Blogger Event (Thanks for the invite Laura!) and I received a one-on-one styling session with a lovely stylist named Jillian Free.

When I arrived at Rainbow Room International I was 10 minutes late (because I have a terrible sense of direction) and the event was already well under way. I walked in and there were people everywhere. Over the top of other blogger’s heads I could see a nail bar and  a Dermalogica facial bar. I hovered in the queue for these for a while before noticing some people going upstairs. I followed them.

And was greeted with this:

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This was only half of the room, there were bloggers getting their hair done on the other side of those mirrors as well.

A lovely member of staff spotted me hovering and led me over to Jill to get my hair styled.

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Jill sat me down and asked me if there was anything that I would like to learn how to do and if I had any problems with my hair. I told her that I wear it straight a lot (like in the pic above) and that as my hair is so long and heavy that it sometimes looks quite flat. I also said that I would like to learn how to French braid my own hair ( I can’t do the back of my head)

So Jill set to work solving my hair problems for me.

First of all she was surprised by how thick and heavy my hair is:

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But this didn’t faze her at all and she got to work.

To combat how flat my hair was, Jill showed me how to correctly back-comb my hair by holding it very loosely at the bottom and teasing only about an inch at the top. Jill demonstrated this for me and then let me try it for myself. Thanks to Jill I will never have flat hair again.

Then Jill showed me the best way to French-braid my own hair:

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You pick a starting point, keep your hands as close to your head as possible and keep braiding as far back as you can. Gradually you will be able to braid further and further back until you can do all of your hair.

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Jill curled my hair with GHD’s which took a while because I have so much hair. I could feel the room getting emptier around me and I felt really bad for keeping Jill for so long but she didn’t seem to mind a bit.

I had planned on getting a facial after my hair was done but my hair took quite a while (entirely my fault) and when I went downstairs to the facial bar there was still a queue and I didn’t want to make the staff’s night any longer by joining it so my boyfriend and I decided to go for dinner. I’ll definitely have a facial on my next visit to Rainbow Room International since they certainly impressed me enough to make me want to go back.  

I had a really nice evening, had my hair styled for free, and learned a lot so I’m really glad that I went along. The only down-point was that I hurried off without realising that there were goody bags! To be honest though, I think this just shows how good the event was since looking for a goody bag didn’t enter my mind (at blogger events, a goody bag is usually the first thing I look out for.)

When I was in the salon I didn’t manage to get a decent photo of my finished look (I have a bad habit of blinking in pictures.) When I got home and realised this, I had another photo taken so now you get to see the finished look that survived going for dinner and travelling from Glasgow to Falkirk :

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It was a little less curly and my journey had made it a bit frizzy but I’m actually as happy with the lived-in look as I was with the just-finished look so I know this is a great all day style for me. I also think it would be quite a pretty Valentine’s Day style.

Thank you to David at Rainbow Rooms International for hosting the blogger event. Thanks to Laura for inviting me to it and Thanks a lot to Jillian for making my hair pretty and teaching me lots 🙂

Thanks for checking out my blog 🙂

Clare’s Law to be implemented in England and Wales

25 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by in Feminism, News

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Today on  the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women it has been announced that a scheme which allows people to find out  if their Partner has a history of domestic violence will be rolled out accross England and Wales.

The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme has been piloted in Greater Manchester, Wiltshire, Nottinghamshire and Gwent for over a year. It is known as Clare’s Law in tribute to Claire Wood who was murdered by an ex-boyfriend with  a history of violence against women.  The aim of the scheme is to prevent tragedies such as Clare’s by giving people the right to apply to Police Forces for information about their Partners in relation to domestic violence.

The Pilot so far has generated 111 Disclosures. It is yet to be confirmed whether a similar law will be implemented in Scotland. 

What are your thoughts on Clare’s Law? Comment Below.

P.S Don’t forget to enter my Premae Giveaway