A Trip to the Zoo

Hi guys! This last Monday my boyfriend and I decided to take a trip to down memory lane and head over to Colchester Zoo for the day. We got to the zoo super early to make sure we didnt miss any of the animals and to beat the queue's , however when we got there it was pratically deserted (thankyou winter weather!)

This is us (forgive my lack of makup and dazed look, it was too early in the morning for me!) in the underwater Sea Lion enclosure. Luck was on our side and we had glorius sun all day (even if it was windy aswell). We stayed until about 2.30pm So spent most of the day strolling round the park.

Colchester Zoo recently celebrated its 50th anniversary and is well known for being one of the biggest and best zoo's in the UK. Both me and my boyfriend Ben agreed that a day around the zoo beats lagging around town anyday!

For 4 hours we felt like small children again, bouncing round the park and enjoying the mini-train ride. There was so many different species of animal to see, my favorite (despite myself being a cat lady in training) being the Red Panda, and Ben's being the Monkey's and Fish, specifically the beautiful Orangutang. Unfortunately we kept missing the talk's and feed's by minutes but normally they are a mjust for me as they are so fun to take part in!

I couldn't leave out a picture of the cute small Squirrel Monkey's we found! Myself and Ben fell in love with these gorgeous creatures due to their playfulness and their ability to entertain for hours on end!

So that pretty much sums up our day at Colchester Zoo, Just to let people know, I prepared a picnic for the zoo as I think it was a bit more appropriate, and as I'm a student, money doesnt come easy!

I hope you guy's enjoyed this type of post, as it was fun for me to write!

Click on "Colchester Zoo" to head over to their to their site.

When was the last time you visited the Zoo?

Let me know in the comments or on Twitter!

Prairie Charms #PrairieXmas

Recently I was contacted by a lovely company called "Prarie Charms" about an opputunity to review their products for #prairiexmas, of course I said YES straight away! A couple of day's later I received the most gorgeous fuchsia parcel in the mail. I had a little fangirl moment (I love letters and parcels to an obsessive point) and opened the parcel to find my delicately wrapped gifts. I received some beautiful products and couldn't wait to try them on.

My favourite piece was the Kaiya Multi Wrap as it had so many uses and looked absolutely stunning! Normally I don't really have much interest in jewellery, but I loved the idea of using the Wrap for multiple uses and I think this might encourage me to start accessorising my outfits!

It can be used as a hairband - a particularly good item for people who have annoyingly long hair like myself.

 As a necklace to add a small simple statement to an outfit.

But by far my favourite is the wrap bracelet as I can pop it on as I'm running out the door and it will instantly jazz up my outfit!

Next is the Vanessa Retro Hairband. I've always liked the look of these hairband's, but been scared to try them as I was sure they would show off my rather large forehead (not good!). However I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by this beautiful vintage floral piece. 

The wire inside the material also meant I could style it into a cute bow shape!

Normally I love bows, unfortunately the Limited Edition Tartan Bow I was sent didn't quite make the grade. The material wasn't the correct length which made the bow's shape look a bit distorted. However I love the colours and the idea of the (much sturdier) crocodile clip keeping this beauty in your hair.

And last but not least are the Vivenne Knot Ties. These are lifesavers! Brilliant for quickly tying up your hair without leaving kinks in your barnet and they even look pretty cool on your wrist too.

Everyone who participated in the blogger event also received a discount code, and I've already decided what I'm going to spend my pocket money on! 

The Harper Glitter Bow in Poppy Red looks so pretty and I can't resist!

A massive thank you goes out to Prairie Charms and owner Stephanie for providing all these beautiful items for me to review and keep. Another amazing fact is that 10% of profits made from this project have been donated to the charity GOSH, which makes me feel much happier about spending my pocket money. I also want to mention how lovely and helpful customer service has been, helping me along the way via Twitter and email.

Why don't you give them a visit at Prairie Charms?

Or their Twitter Page?

Did you take part in #PrairieXmas?

Comment your link and tell me what you think!

Talk to you later,

AnnieMAC

xxx

The #RushBloggerMeet

Last week I was pleasantly surprised by an invite that popped up in my email for a bloggers meetup, being a big newbie in the world of both blogging and beauty I was instantly buzzing with excitement (more like screaming the house down) and rsvp'd straight away!

I headed down to London all dolled up, donning a bright red primark dress and some cute black heels ready for the evening event. Safe to say I wasn't expecting to get there 2 and a half hours early, for the heavens to open (turning my sophisticated evening look into more of a drowned rat) or my heels to cause me a pain similar to someone chopping off my toes, but the main thing was I made it. This was my first time traveling to London alone, so I was very nervous (probably looked like I has having a seizure to onlookers). So after helping myself to a cream cooler and Costa's free wifi, I still had an hour to kill, luckily the National Art Gallery was just down the road and my inner art student couldn't resist a visit!

Finally the time came for the meet-up to start, I was still a little early so I took full advantage of the free manicures before any queues started (My nails were painted with O.P.I's Big Apple Red) and had a little explore before the venue got packed with bloggers. The event was being held at the House of Rush in Piccadilly and was organised by top beauty bloggers, Becky (Lipgloss and Lashes) and Laura (Lauzzenger). I travelled upstairs to find dazzling chandeliers, trays of mouth watering nibbles, free bubbly and a range of treatments and products for us bloggers to try.

This was also where I met my first blogger friends Natalie (TheFashFeed) and Angelica (LoveFromAngelic), we quickly got chatting and realised that we all had a lot in common! We all headed upstairs to experience a mini "Oxygenator Facial", the machine pumps out  pure oxygen, which is  sprayed or 'air-brushed' over your skin giving you instant hydration, whilst also smoothing out any fine lines or wrinkles. I really enjoyed how this made my face appear hydrated, and fresh, whilst keeping my makeup in tact! This facial made me feel much more awake for the rest of the night.

I also managed to observe the Live Botox session where Dr. Gillian Carver applied a "Top-up" to the clients previous Botox instalment. I was taken aback by how quick and small the procedure was, as-well as how natural the finished product looked. For anyone interested in future Botox treatment I recommend looking into Epsom Skin Clinics.

I met so many lovely bloggers during the course of the night, here are their links and i thoughrly recommend you check them out: 

Olivia (BeautyfromtheFjord)

Angelica (LovefromAngelic)

Monica (MakeupandLondon)

Rachel (BeautyQueenUK)

Dani (SoManyLovelyThings)

Sophia (BeautyinmyMind)

Zoe (FaceValueBlog)

Tijan (TijanSerena)

Anna (AnnaNuttal)

Amanda (HoneyPopKisses)

Carima (Scrapbookofallsorts)

Selina (MissFashion1994)

Natalie (TheFashFeed)

Sheen (GoldenandSheen)

I also got a cute little goodiebag which contained:

A Catherine Colebrook Tote Bag

A Smooch Blusher
2 W7 Lipsticks
Some Magic Soap
A South Beach Discount Code
A Sample of Structure Paste

A massive thankyou to both Laura and Becky for organising this wonderful event and to Rush Hair and beauty for hosting.

P.S. If you guys want to have any treatments done at The House of Rush you can quoteBLOG20 for 20% off any Beauty Treatments and MICRO50 for 50% off Microderm Treatments.

But this expires on the 31st of October!

AnnieMAC

Twitter|Youtube|Bloglovin'

GlossyBox Review || July 2013

I bought my first ever GlossyBOX in july and I must say I was mightly impressed! The products came in a little turquoise box with little coral images on it (very suitable for the month). 

I wanted to start off with my favorite product from the July box, the "Bamboo Style Boho Waves Tousled Hair Mist". Normally on a day-to-day basis I dont like doing anything fancy with my hair, it takes way too much time and effort for the 5 minutes I get in the morning before college (I confess I am that person who will skip doing their hair occasionally in the mornings), but spritzing a couple of pumps of this each morning gave my natural waves a boost and transformed them into cute curls instead of frizz. I've been dying to get some sea salt spray for months and now I can't live without it!

For those of you living in or visiting hot countries this summer staying cool is essential and so is this facial spritz by antamologie. One thing I want to highlight is that it has a very unique smell as the product also contains lavender! I honestly don't know how to explain it except by using the word "fresh". I would of preferred this as body spritz instead of facial spritz.

One product I didn't enjoy was the "Sleek Pout Paint", it was a very big disappointment. Supposedly "Lip Paint" is meant to provide you with long lasting and full colour however when I tried it it actually felt like I was applying acrylic paint to my lips (not a nice experience). Apperence-wise it looked like a young child had drawn all over my lips in windows paint, definitely would not recommend this.

I didn't have much use for this "Coola Mineral Suncream" as I live in the UK (it rains A LOT). However my new NARS foundation (as you may have seen on my youtube channel) doesn't contain SPF, which being a "pale freckled red head" was my worst nightmare! People with fair skin have to take extra precautions to protect their skin as we get sunburnt easily which causes skin damage, wrinkles and could leave us with a high risk of skin cancer (so for extra protection I used it under my everyday make-up). It's scent is almost a combination of plastic and suncream, but it left my skin soft and protected, which made me feel good inside and out.

Last but not least is the "Essie Sleek Stick" which I had high hopes for after reading rave reviews about "Essie's" nail products. They come in a range of different patterns which all look lovely however most of the nail stickers said to have been "designed to fit perfectly for my nail" really didn't and only covered up about half of my nail. Also I found that I the nail stickers were very delicate and would bend on themselves if brushed against something slightly making them very impractical. In the end they were half-peeling off my nails by a few hours so I decided to take them off. I liked the look of this product however these beauties were not long-lasting!

All together I was very happy with my first beauty box, and I am looking forward to trying out and reviewing even more unique products in the future.

What beauty boxes have you tried and tested? and which one is your favourite?

Tweet me at @AnnieeeMAC

♥

Joining AWWCollab

Quite a while ago I auditioned for a collab channel called “AWWCollab” there was a massive response to the audition’s and many youtuber's entered. I didn’t get a place on this channel but added one of the founders on tumblr anyway because she seemed really nice and she had an awesome blog. Earlier tonight I saw a post on her blog saying that the collab channel’s Wednesday had dropped out of the collab, so eagerly I typed a message to see If I could reapply for the channel. I just got a message back from the collab and not only did they say “I remember your audition” and “you were one of the people we really wanted to pick” but they said “WE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE YOU ON THE COLLAB CHANNEL”. I literally freaked and stopped breathing…..seriously. I cannot thank you guys enough for letting me join this awesome collab!

SO GO SUBSCRIBE TO THE COLLAB HERE OR BE SQUARE!:    http://www.youtube.com/user/awcollab

also check out my personal youtube:

www.youtube.com/anniemac3295

and my twitter:

@annieeemac

♥

"Exploring Canada" continued

For the last post in my "Exploring Canada" Series I head off to Ottawa to visit my relatives. Since 2011 I've only been on a couple of city holiday's (i.e. sightseeing) with my mum, and this year after finishing my A2 exams it was really refreshing to go on holiday to just relax by the pool with an ice cream.

We took many (too many for my tummy) trips down to the quaint town of "Merrickville" for original ice cream, including a watermelon flavor and an orange/black licorice flavor (yuck!), we also had a couple of boxes of "Poutine". Now for those of you who have no idea what i'm on about "Poutine" is a traditional Canadian specialty, made up of chips smothered in gravy and cheese curds. Sounds disgusting right? It has to be one of my top must-try food's if your heading to Canada on a holiday! It tastes delicious and is highly addictive.

For a fun activity we decided to go out white water rafting for the day, perfect for a hot summers day! We went with OWL rafting who provided us with excellent (not to mention gorgeous looking) guides for the day, and we set off on a yellow school bus (I have an unhealthy obsession with these vehicles). During the day we paddled our way through several rapids and even surfed against a few! Due to being in a sports raft (6 people) instead of a 12 man raft we were bound to find ourselves in the rapids a little...big understatement.

This is my favourite shot from the holiday, it's my younger cousin "Drew" and myself at his 16th Birthday party. To conclude this post I had a lovely time in Canada and I can't wait to go back next year! It was a wonderful way to socialise with my much missed cousins and the trip really motivated me to get off my sofa and do something with my life, so here is a little bit of motivation for you:

Hope that gives you guys some happiness for the week, do tell me if you would like to see more travel posts or motivational posts in the comments below or tweet me at:

@annieeemac

Also I have joined bloglovin! So remember to follow my blog on there and my "Exploring Canada" video should on Youtube by monday :)

♥