Made in Chelsea

Love it or hate it, the Made In Chelsea TV series has rekindled the British love for Sloane Square, the Kings Road and Chelsea. 

Even the Jack Wills store on the Kings Road loves Made in Chelsea and their shop windows adorn Jamie Laing. 

As a Londoner I have always had a soft spot for Sloane Square. As a teenager I would while away a good few hours walking up and down the Kings Road checking out the vintage second-hand stores. One of my best purchases that I still own is an original 60's candy floss pink leather jacket. 

Sadly few vintage shops remain on the Kings Road but if you are in London make sure you check out:

• Frock Me - The original London vintage fashion fair. Next few events 6th April, 4th May and 8th June. 
• Deuxieme - A fantastic collection of pre-owned designer clothes. 

There is also a great Oxfam boutique with hidden designer gems. 

Anyway enough rambling onto the main purpose of this post. When I got the chance to do a Made In Chelsea tour of my favourite haunts, I just had to say yes. 

Chelsea for those of you who haven't watched the show or visited the area Chelsea is a very affluent area. 

The average flat costs £1.4 Million. Ouch I hear you cry. 

The tour lasted a few hours and gave us the opportunity to see the places that appear on the show and where the Chelsea cast can sometimes be spotted handing out. 

As a foodie I was pleased that our tour started in the wonderful Duke of York Square. The square houses Partridges...


A true Chelsea institution and has been grocers to the Queen since 1994. It is a foodie haven, if you visit you must check this place out. 

On a Saturday they house a food market with over 40 stalls sharing their wonderful food delights from bread, cheese, olives and fresh oysters. 

Nothing beats fresh oysters than with shallot vinegar and chili.

Our second stop was Phene Street. 

For those of you who watch the show you will know that The Phene is owned by Lucy Watson's Father. This place has seen many a heated argument between cast members but this month saw Lucy celebrate her 23rd Birthday with her ex Spencer Matthew's and Stevie Johnson at the very pub below. 

Next stop was BlueBird (restaurant, bar, cafe and shop) a socialites paradise and the very heart of the King's road. Many of the Made In Chelsea cast have been seen here. 

In an art deco garage The shop at Bluebird has amazing clothes by designers Marc Jacobs, Emma Cook, and Alexander Wang. 































Every shopping trip needs a pit stop to refuel and the cakes from the Bluebird cafe were amazingly Yummy. 

Our final and last stop on the tour was TheJamTree. 

                    

The outside garden here been used lots for alfresco filming on Made In Chelsea and the after show parties to celebrate the completion of filming are also held here. 

The inside of the pub has a wonderfully jazz interior. 

The toilet walls are even adorned with cassettes. 

Thank you to Debbie who was our tour guide, whilst we didn't meet any of the cast members on our tour we had great fun shopping. If you fancy checking out what would make your perfect tour check out the channel 4 website here.  

Britmovietours

BeautySpotter - new hair and beauty app

Hello peeps, how is everyone doing? 

I couldn't wait till Friday to share this post, I was just too excited. I don't know about you but trying out a new beauty salon can be a nerve racking experience. You can never be really sure if you are entrusting your hair and nails to someone who will make them look beautiful or someone who will create a beauty disaster. I have had a few in my time. 

BeautySpotter is a great new Beauty app that takes the worry away so you can find and share new hair and beauty salon discoveries.  

            

You can search for salons with keywords – from hair and skin type, occasion and style to salon brands and products

 BeautySpotter founder Gemma Bellman:

“Window-shop for your favourite “look” before

 you book!” 

 

If you haven't downloaded the app already what are you waiting for? 

To celebrate the launch of the app BeautySpotter team have opened up a pop-up at Boxpark in Shoreditch London.

They will be offering free treatments from now until Sunday 23rd February 6pm. 

They will be joined by a host of London's top talent from the likes of BeautyMART, Jones & Payne, WAH Nails, Mowgli AVEDA and The Painted Lady.

 

Pop-up Salon - 19 - 23 Feb (Wed - Sat 11am-7pm / Sun 12-6pm) 

BOXPARK Shoreditch (Unit 29)

2-4 Bethnal Green Road

London

E1 6GY

@BeautySpotterUK 

@Aveda 

@BeautyMARTUK 

@JonesandPayne

@PaintedLadyLDN

@WAHNAILS

Valentine's Day in London

Hello peeps! Happy Valentine's Day, I hope you've all had a good week and a special day. Life of late has been a little hectic so today I decided me and my other half were in need of a little bit of relaxation and some time together. 

We've wanted to go to the Mad Hatter's Afternoon Tea at the Sanderson Hotel for so long. What better time to go than for Valentine's day, so off we went battling against the wind and rain. 

The Mad Hatter's Champagne Afternoon Tea is £48 per person and includes a glass Champagne. Before we could be a guest at the tea party we were asked to drink a magic potion to shrink ourselves ..

                                                

On sitting down at our table you can instantly see that considerable thought has gone into every aspect from the plates, cups and tea offered.

We were offered four different types of tea: Rhubarb and Custard, Strawberries and Cream, Apple Pie and Mint Choc Chip. 

As tea is per person we opted for two different ones to try, rhubarb and cream, and mint choc chip. So to not displease the Queen we got on with the pouring duties. The mint choc chip was my personal favourite. 

The offering for afternoon tea is superb. 

Like every good afternoon tea we begin with the savouries and try to ignore the beautiful cakes on offer above. 

The sandwiches consisted of smoked Cumbrian ham with mustard on sun dried tomato bread, cucumber and chive cream cheese on spinach bread, cold smoked salmon and lemon butter on dark rye bread and egg mayonnaise with watercress and smoked sea salt on lemon bread. 

To follow that homemade savoury and sweet scones, served with butter and fruit preserves with clotted cream. The quiches were lovely a perfect mouthful of cheesy goodness. 

Then it was onto the sweets and the Mad Hatter doesn't disappoint. 

The carrot meringues and strawberry and cream homemade marshmallow mushrooms go down a treat. But my eyes are definitely bigger than my belly (well almost). So we move onto the cakes on offer.

The 'Tick Tock' Victoria sponge is wonderful, very lite but packed with flavour of strawberries and cream. 

The multicoloured offering in the picture above is a cheesecake. Not any cheesecake some smart patisserie has been at work here. Inside the creamy cheesecake is an explosion of mango that bursts on cutting. 

The green tea and white chocolate mousse is also a smart offering with a cup that houses the mousse being edible too. 

If at this point you can fit anything else in and I seriously doubt it... There is a jelly wonderland on offer. 

We at this point were seriously stuffed. So I made off for the nearest resting place I could find for a afternoon siesta. 

After a recharge of the batteries and so near to Oxford Street what is a girl to do? Oh...shop of course and walk off some of those calories. 

I absolutely love what Oasis have done with their shop for London Fashion Week, so creative. 

Well peeps wishing you lots of love and laughter, I better venture off or my other half may not be my Valentine next year. 

Sanderson Hotel 
@SandersonLDN

Tangle Teezer

We've all been there when the wind whips up your locks into a blustery frenzy or you wake up with the bed hair from hell. 

As a child with thick long locks I remember well my mother trying her best to get tangles out of my hair. Try as she might and god did she try, some knots just wouldn't release themselves. I looked like the hair monster. 

In this situation she was left with very little choice but to cut them out. This in principle was fine if they were hidden or towards the bottom of my hair but when at the top of my head I spent much of my childhood looking like a gremlin with tufts of hair.

Now I know most of you reading this have heard of Tangle Teaser well this lass hadn't. Maybe if it had been round when I was a little my childhood could have been revolutionised. 

So on reading many other reviews about how amazing the Tangle Teezer is at getting tangles out I purchased myself one. Even better it is a British made product. 

The brush its self went through my wet hair really easily and surprisingly released many of the knots that with a standard brush I would have had to fight with causing damage to my hair. 

The brush has different levels of bristles and possibly this is where it gets its magic from.  

Now I have mentioned before I have thick hair and when using the brush on dry hair like a normal brush I have to say I was disappointed. The brush simply did not run through all my hair. It only brushed the top sections of my hair without going all the way through leaving knots. 

So while this brush has revolutionised brushing my hair when wet I won't be chucking away my everyday Kent Brush. I hope that Tangle Teezer will look at creating a brush that works for those of us with thick locks. 

@tangleteezer
@Kentbrushes

Hippodrome London

I have been really looking forward to sharing this post, mainly because I had such a great night out last Saturday. Our destination was The Hippodrome in London Leicester Square for dinner, a little bit of gambling followed by a show. 

As a foodie I was looking forward to sampling the food on offer at Heliot's Steak House. 

Every good meal has to start with a few cocktails. 
The one on the right is Adam's apple (£9.50) vodka, shaken with peach, black raspberry lacquer, fresh lemon and apple. 

The cocktail on the left Hammersmith Cobler, Gin, orange, lemon, lime and watermelon (£9.50). 

I wasn't quite prepared for how good the food would be, high quality, tasty and reasonably priced.

For starters we opted to share Beef Carpaccio, rocket, Parmesan and aged balsamic (£4)

Tuna Tartare, pickled ginger, wasabi, soy and mirin (£6) 

Both starters were excellent, the beef carpaccio was wafer thin just how I like it and with the rocket and balsamic was a good choice as a lite starter. The tuna was yummy too but easily could have been half the size and with less wasabi cream. 

For mains it was an easy choice I opted for surf and turf (£19.50). Succulent steak, scallop and huge prawns. 

I mean huge prawns.

The dessert menu is also offers lots of choice and priced at £5 good value.

I opt for Cherry Bakewell with milk ice cream an oldie but a goodie. 

My eyes definitely are bigger than my belly, after dinner to say I was stuffed would be an understatement. The Heliot's Steak House was a great suprise, wonderful food and service.

Afterwards we headed for the gaming tables to try our luck at roulette. With some tables at £2 a go on the main floor and £1 in the basement to play roulette, it's a great way to learn without loosing lots of money. 

Sorry no pics of the tables this wasn't allowed. 

I did however get some pics of their amazing toilets check this out...

Inside they had wonderful comfy sofas, huge mirrors to do your makeup and GHD straightners. Each toilet has its own friend. 

We managed to make our money last for ages, perfect timing to join The Soho Burlesque Club starring Miss Polly Rae.

This was a first for me having not been to a Burlesque show before. For those of you also unsure what it entails you can have a sneak peak here:

Miss Polly Rae is a phenomenal entertainer striking the balance perfectly between naughtiness, comedy and an engaging show to watch. 

Overall a brilliant night and one that I cannot recommend more highly. 

42-43 Cranbourn Street, 
Leicester Square, 
London 
WC2H 7JH

020 3641 8326
www.hippodromecasino.com