I don’t know why I feel that I have to be totally beautified and looking my most groomed when I am in a foreign country, surrounded by people I will probably never see again. And yet I don’t seem to mind looking as scruffy as is socially acceptable when I am just hanging around in my own country… seeing my actual friends, but that is how it goes. When I think holiday – I think “let me do a complete makeover of my body”.
So here is my top 9 pre holiday beauty essentials – aka – a list of things that I do in a mad panic in the last few hours leading up to my holiday..
1) Wish I had actually started a hardcore fitness regime in January
2) The Wash Bag Restock – Now – this one is very important to me and it is something that I do even if I am going away for a weekend… I go to Boots and buy everything that I think I could possible ever need for this holiday. I buy new shampoo and conditioner, even if I have half full ones at home. I buy suncream, aftersun, I treat myself to a ‘holiday toothbrush’. But the worst thing I do is I buy products that I think I MAY need when I am away. The last time I went away, I stood in the medicine aisle thinking ‘do I need herbal sleeping tablets for my jet lag – to France?’. (I bought them. They are still in the packet. Obviously).
I buy things that I would never use in England – just in case the unexpected happens. I go into panic mode – what if I get sick? what if I get bitten by a snake? what if I need to buy a first aid kit with sterilised needles… for my trip to Suffolk. How many packets of Diorolyte should I buy? Do I need eyedrops?
However – for the more sane among us – here is a little list of helpful things to include in your packing.
Apart from the obvious products that wash your body, hair and teeth, I would also recommend taking:
Ibuprofen – Because a headache can strike anywhere in the world. Be prepared.
Plasters (/blister plasters for those new sandals)
Nail varnish (this is possible the best thing the world to take away with you – nothing worse than boarding a plane and chipping a nails and having to look at it for a week. Pop your current colour in your wash bag for emergency top ups. (ALSO, I take those mini pots of nail varnish remover pads just incase I need to re do my nails entirely).
Mini scissors – you never know what might need to be opened.
Little plastic bags incase your shampoo leaks and needs its own private plastic wash bag.
3) Get the mane sorted
As you will have seen from all my social media channels – I cut pretty much 80% of my hair off about a month ago (stay tuned for the blog post on my hair makeover – coming VERY soon). Normally before jetting off on holiday, I like book in for a nice half head of highlights to top up my blonde bits before some sunshine. However – since the hair transformation has occurred – this part of my pre holiday routine has been replaced with a brand new obsession – Olaplex.
Olaplex is a new one for me, I know I am super late to the party, but it is now something I will never go without it.
Since cutting my hair, I have been so so so desperate to keep the remaining hairs as healthy as possible. Pre-chop, my hair was damaged, gross and brittle and the colourist/ total babe who did my transformation HIGHLY recommended that I come back in for an Olaplex treatment. Which is exactly what I did. (I got my hair cut & Olaplex treatment done with the wonderful Shannon at Daniel Galvin in Selfridges – beauttt salon – photos coming up in the hair cut blog post!)
Olaplex is amazing. It basically rebuilds your hair and keeps it strong, even if you are colouring it etc. I thought that it was the perfect treatment to do before I went on holiday as an added layer of protection from sun, sea and swimming pool damage. There are 3 parts to the treatment – part one and two are done at the salon (dreamy) and part 3 you take home with you. You should then use it about once a week and leave it in your hair for a miniumum of 10 mins. I am currently absolutely loving my designated Olaplex evenings – yes I have an evening purely for my hair treatment and a facemask – its every Tuesday. I usually leave mine in for about 20-30 mins and then wash my hair with Kerastase Chronologiste.
4) Mani-Pedi (@ Blush + Blow)
In my opinion, if you are going to have to look at your feet for a week either at the end of your sun lounger or in your flip-flops, then your toes need to be looking fabulous.
I absolutely love having pretty hands and feet for a holiday – it is so important to me / it was drilled into me by my mother that I can’t go on holiday with bad nails.
If I am going away for a weekend or a week – even two weeks – I usually book myself in to get a Shellac manicure – just so you have a bit more trust that your manicure will stay peachy for the entire holiday. (the negative of this – it sucks if they do chip as you are stuck with them till you are back).
Because I am away for 4 weeks at the moment, I didn’t want the faff of having to find somewhere to get the Shellac taken off after 2 weeks / pick the varnish off myself which I do have a really bad habit of doing. So I went for just a normal mani-pedi this time.
I headed to a brand-spanking, new, sparkly salon in Parsons Green called Blush & Blow for a pre holiday pamper session. It is honestly the most beautiful salon I have ever set foot into. It is an Instagram dream. See below for proof.
There is a salon puppy (not joking), there are balloons, gold foot
baths, pastel colours everywhere, magazine everywhere. It is heaven. And it is also so light and spacious.
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| even the toilet is gorgeous |
So I popped in a few days before I left for Italy to get my nails done, and also for a facial. I had my facial first – which is in one of the rooms downstairs. It wasn’t the most relaxing atmosphere – the room is pretty cute and the lady who did my facial was so lovely, but there were people chatting outside the room that I was in and you could hear everything, so not really the calm spa-like atmosphere that you want when having a facial. It was a nice facial and my skin felt so fabulously soft afterwards (although it did break out quite badly the next day – which I think is pretty normal?)
However I did have one little issue. Although I was wearing one of those headbands to try and keep your hair as clean as possible, I had a bit of an problem with product going in my hair. I am fully aware that inevitably you do get some of the oil etc around the hair line, however, when I was getting ready to leave the room, I touched my hair and realised that it was pretty much stiff from the roots for about an inch. There was so much oil and what felt like clay in my hair. I whipped out my phone, flipped on selfie camera and I almost squealed when I saw my reflection. The lovely lady who did my facial did apologise when she saw me, because, well, I did looked a state. What I should have done in an ideal world would be to book in for a blow dry, but alas that wasn’t possible for me. I borrowed a hair tie from a girl on reception and scrapped my hair up into a bun, but it looked awful and greasy (I really couldn’t turn up to a full day of meetings looking like that) so I had to ring my friend who lives around that area and run to his house and wash my hair in the sink before I could continue my day. So that was not great, and made me pretty stressed and late for the rest of my day. HOWEVER, that was just one blip in my otherwise very lovely experience.
After my facial, and once my hair was tied up in a bun, I went back upstairs to have my manicure and pedicure. This was DELIGHTFUL. I can’t get over how much I love the decor of this place. Gold foot baths and armchairs. I mean, you feel like a queen. I was a little bit flustered and stressed about running out of time before my next meeting, knowing I had to do an emergency hair wash, so I had a manicure and a pedicure but didn’t get my nails actually painted – which suited me perfectly. I had all the treatment side of things, dead skin taken off, nails shaped, but didn’t have to wait for my nails to be dry. If I was getting them painted – then they have the full range of Essie colours – which is BEAUT. And again, I had another very lovely lady to do my nails.
((I painted my own nails myself with to my favourite nail varnish at the moment – the Nails Inc Gel polishes. They look like a shellac/ gel manicure, but they require no heat lamp and are removable with normal nail varnish remover, honestly last ages, and they have the best colours. All named after London streets. I love them.))
Overall opinion of Blush + Blow is very positive. I would 100% go back and have already promised my friend that we will go and get pedicures in the gold foot baths when I am back from holiday – I absolutely loved the vibe in there. Everyone was lovely, and it is blooming GORGEOUS. I would love to try their blow dries and get to fully relax. Highly recommend popping in!
5) Buy an entire new summer wardrobe.
No? Just me? I raided Missguided.com, Zara, Primark & River Island before I left for Italy. Oh and Brandy Melville – obviously.
6) Order your Currency
Again – another trick I learnt from my mother – preorder your currency to be collected at the airport. From privous experiences, if you order it online and prepay for it,
you get the best exchange rate. Boom. Plus, you don’t have to stand in a queue in M&S or the Post Office – just rock up to the airport, head to MoneyCorp or one of those places, collect your notes and fly. Easy.
7) Remove all unwanted body hair
Holiday bodies should ideally be hairless. Booking a wax is always top of my list of things to do, but as the days tick by it seems to be bumped further and further down the list. Not because it isn’t important, but just because I know deep down, if I am pushed for time, I can just DIY it, at 1:30am, on the bathroom floor, the night before I fly. I absolutely love getting a proper leg and bikini wax and do think that it lasts longer/ is better overall – but, after years of practice and pain and missed patches, I am now pretty confident that I can preform a pretty adequet wax on myself. Underarms, legs and bikini wax done – all from one packet of Veet wax stripes, for under a tenner. Easy and SO much cheaper than paying someone else to do it.
8) Pack
I highly recommend that you pack in advance so you can write organised lists of things you are missing/ need to hunt around your house for. I don’t do this – because I leave everything until the last minute. Most people hate unpacking. I am one of the only people I know who HATES packing. It takes me forever. I hate it. I can’t do it. If you follow me on snapchat you will have seen my major life-breakdown-all-nighter when I was packing for this trip. I started packing at 11pm and my taxi was coming at 5am the next morning. I didn’t go to bed. I was so tired that I had no idea what I packed. But we got there in the end.
9) Write down a list of all the make up that you want to buy from DutyFree.
Because that is so VERY important. And the only reason we go to airports right?
What is on your pre holiday checklist?
xx
