As some of you already seen on my Instagram, couple of weeks ago I’ve surprised my mum with a plane ticket to London. She has been to London quite a few times already, but this year she visited me during the summer for the first time ever. I’ve planned to show her the best things to do in town in the summer. We’ve spent few days visiting my favourite parks, coffee shops, rooftop bars and restaurants, but there was one thing I really wanted myself (and never had a chance to do it), so I thought it would be a great idea to do it together- Afternoon Tea experience on famous Brigit’s Bakery Bus.
As my mum visited me during Notting Hill Carnival weekend, they’ve prepared a special menu and decorations.
Image source- Brigit’s Bakery Instagram
You can probably imagine my reaction when I walked in to the bus full of palm trees, flamingos and Caribbean rum- I literally felt like I am back in the Caribbean that as you know – I absolutely love. It looked just so fabulous!
As soon as we’ve sat down we were offered a drink and a little savoury sandwiches and the tour started. The bus headed from Victoria station through all the most important London’s landmarks. I honestly think it’s a great way to see the city if you’re only in town for a little while! They’ll make sure you won’t miss anything! During our tour we’ve had such a beautiful and super hot weather- London looked honestly prettier than ever!
After the starter we’ve been served Caribbean style lunch – rice & peas, Jerk chicken wings & Coleslaw- everything was freshly prepared and delicious. My mum absolutely loved eating and watching London’s vibrant life through the bus window. We’ve continued admiring the views, while chatting, taking lots of selfies and sipping chilled Prosecco.
And then the time for desserts! I had almost no more room after the lunch I am not going to lie, haha but everything looked too good to be missed. We’ve tried Caribbean tart with banana & Dulcey chocolate (my personal favourite!) , chocolate cupcakes, Sablé Breton and Choux vanilla and Rhum followed by traditional scones with clotted cream and jam. So delicious!
We couldn’t finish it all but we were offered a take away box. After the tour we’ve been also kindly gifted the prettiest coffee mug- it made it a perfect London souvenir for my mum.
Here’s both of us after too much food and bubbles
We’ve absolutely loved the tour! We definitely ate too much but had so much fun together! I think I was great way to see London’s landmarks too. If you’re planning to visit London and looking for a fun thing to do you should definitely check out Brigit’s Bakery Bus Tour!
Hope you’re weekend has started fabulous! Today I’d like to talk about the beauty products that always travel with me. As I do lots of short trips and often travel with only a cabin bag, the amount of beauty the products I can take with me is pretty limited.
These products are my absolute favourite right now :
1. Eve Lom Eye Cream
I have been kindly gifted this product few months ago and never stopped using it and taking it with me on my travels. You know these early mornings when your eyes feel so small and sort of swollen? That’s me every time I travel and wake up early to shoot! Or after a long-haul exhausting flight. Eve Lom eye cream is my little saviour! This eye cream and its triple-action formula helps to lock in moisture, diminish dark circles and reduce puffiness. It provides the long-lasting hydration and makes my face look more fresh. Also the cream contains Shea butter that I absolutely love. PS. It’s only 20ml so it takes only a little space in my travel toiletry pouch!
You already know from my Instagram that I have been loving Bare Minerals products for long time. I constantly talk about them and keep recommending them to you. Well these two have been introduced to me last year and I have really enjoyed using both of the products. The serum works perfectly for me as I am still dealing with adult acne and this product contains salicylic acid that helps to treat acne prone skin, combat blemishes, calm skin, and smooth texture.My skin tends to reacts every time I am changing places and water so I always have this product on me when I travel. The other productis my favourite lightweight oil-free moisturiser that leaves my face soft and smooth. Can’t travel without the good moisturiser for sure!
3. Elizabeth Arden Retinol Ceramides Capsules
Ok, since I have discovered this product I am honestly obsessed. I have started to use this product as retinol can reduce the appearance of lines, wrinkles, pigmentation and acne. After using if for few months, I have noticed that actually my acne scars are looking better so I continued using the capsules. They’re really easy to use : you only need to to sooth one capsule over the face each night before your moisturiser. I love the capsule format as it makes this product super portable and convenient. I normally take the right amount of capsules with me when I travel rather than taking the whole box. It saves so much space!
4. Foreo Luna Mini 2
I must say when I firstly got this product I didn’t believe in it. I’ve seen it all over Instagram and to me it only looked like a pretty looking toy, haha. Well, until my best friend started to tell me how incredible it is and how much she loves her skin after she uses it. Today I’m so glad I’ve listened to her and gave this product a try. I honestly can’t live without it! This incredible brush keeps my skin clean wherever I go. It’s a small, fashionable device, that takes only a little bit of space in my suitcase. It removes all dirt, make up residue and dead skin cells. I felt the difference on my skin already after the first use. It makes the skin looks so clean and glowy. It’s a perfect beauty product for on-the-go lifestyle. It also comes in many colours! Of course I went for pink one, haha! You can get it here.
5. Batiste Dry Shampoo
I am sure you already seen this product on my Social Media, but honestly I can’t imagine travelling without this dry shampoo. It saves me on long-haul flights, road trips and also my daily life. Batiste Dry Shampoo revitalises hair, leaving it feeling clean, smelling fresh. I absolutely love their Fragrance range! They all smell and look so pretty ( yeah, they even have one with flamingos!) I adore the tropical one! You already know it’s my favourite smell on Earth.
Slightly different post than usual, but today I would like to talk about something that was bothering me a lot recently and decided to share these thoughts with you. If you’re planning to become a travel-blogger this post will definitely help you to understand how it all works and make you more aware about how it all looks like and what to expect. As you already know, I have quitted my full-time Social Media career last year in June. It’s been almost a year of working as a full-time blogger and decided to share my thoughts and feelings.
Where to I start? Well, first of all I would like to say how extremely difficult this whole year was. It was very exciting and beautiful too, but apart from all these incredible travels, trips, all the wonderful people I’ve met and things I’ve experienced ( I am forever grateful for all the opportunities and will never ever take it for granted!) I’ve also experienced many unpleasant situations and this is the topic I’d like to touch today.
First of all- jealousy. Since I’ve left my full-time job I have experienced a lot of that. I had people questioning me and my earnings wherever I said what my job was. Even people I used to really like in the past, were talking behind my back and were trying to find out how much money I make, how can I afford living in London from “just a blog”, how can I travel so much if I “don’t work”. There were comments back home that I must be a prostitute in London, because “how can she afford places like Dubai, Seychelles and Maldives”. Then my favourite- “she must have a rich boyfriend”. Well, here I would like to add- my goal was never to find a rich boyfriend to rely on. I am probably one of the most independent girl on Earth and it would never cross my mind, no matter how hard the life is, if you need to build everything on your own from the scratch. I’ve always wanted a man who would love me, respect me and support me. A man who would be right next to me and help me fight for my dreams and be ready to work hard to build the empire together. And here we are- myself and Salvatore, fighting for our dreams, working on our careers and building this dream life since we’ve met in our early twenties and both came to London with nothing but a dream. So just to make it clear -he is not my sugar daddy ( I wish, HAHA,ok I am kidding!)
I am also not a rich kid, who was given everything from the parents. As I have already mentioned in the past, I came to London 6 years ago with £600 in my pocket, that I have saved while working all summer as an animator in Kos Island, Greece. So nope, nothing came easy and nothing was given to me- it was all determination, patience and hard work. If you’re planning to be a full-time Influencer/ blogger you need to be prepared for this sort of comments and I want you to be aware of that. To people who don’t understand this industry, it will look like we don’t actually have a job and we’re always on holidays. With the time you’ll learn to ignore these inappropriate comments and continue doing your thing anyway.
Second thing I would like to talk about are press trips as I get a lot of questions about them too. It’s truth, that we do get a lot of opportunities. We get paid to travel, create content (photography + blog advertising). Especially when you build the relationships with PR’s and travel agencies, you’re more likely to get more opportunities – if they were happy with all the deliveries before of course! However, do I only go on press trips and accept every single proposition? Of course not! I wish I could tell you how many I decline every month!
The truth is, running a travel blog full time is a constant and never-ending investment, no matter how “big” you are on Social Media. No matter how many invites come though my email, I only accept projects, destinations and hotels, that both – myself and my audience will benefit from. Also I always have my own bucket list of places I’d like to visit and blog about anyway, so I will always invest my own money in plane tickets, hotels and restaurants – NO, THEY ARE NOT ALL SPONSORED. Sometimes I even prefer to pay for a hotel, to have more time shooting content outdoors, exploring the place, rather than being kind of “stuck” shooting the hotel. I love beautiful hotels stays- don’t get me wrong, but I always try to find time for exploring the places to be able to really write about them. Not everything I do is “for the gram”. I am always trying to travel the way that I’m able to really recommend stays ( luxury and affordable luxury) places to drink, eat and things to do- and yes I do pay for all that to be able to really call myself a “blogger”and have something to say about the place rather than just write a hotel review and come back home. I don’t go to places just because the trip is sponsored. I am trying to always fit the destination into my brand and I analyse if it will be worth it for days before I say “Yes”. As you have also probably noticed, I often ask you, where’d you like me to travel next and I always keep your answers in mind, while planning my trips, to make sure I deliver to both- my audience and my clients.
So if you’re planning to become a travel blogger as you think that this way you can travel for free, as everything is sponsored – you’re wrong and this is not what you should think of when planning to turn your blog into a full-time business and a long-term career. You need to be prepared, it will always be an investment- no matter how many followers you have and how long you’ve been doing it for. Personally I’m investing almost all the money I make into next destinations and content to make sure my business keep rolling.
Next thing which is super hard in this industry- a lot of brands will ask you to work for free. I find it upsetting sometimes, as being a blogger really means being a photographer, graphic designer, Social Media and Marketing expert, video editor, a model, a creative director- all I one person. I don’t think it’s fair to be asked to work for free. It’s a job like any other. Creating content end editing takes me days and building this blog and other Social Media channels took me years. Also it was (and still is!) a huge time and money investment, so I now simply refuse working for free. However, if you’re only starting to build it, you need to be prepared, that you may be asked to work for free or in exchange for a product and I think it’s ok at the beginning as you’re starting to build relationships with brands and PR’s, but you need to learn and understand your value so you’ll know when to start charging for your work and services offered. After all, it’s hard to pay the rent with free make up and clothes 🙂
I hope this article helped you to understand how the “behind the scenes” looks like and what you need to be aware of when thinking to go blogging full-time.
I’m finally back after a little break! Recently I have been feeling a bit down and uninspired so I gave myself some time to rest and recharge the batteries. But spring finally came to London, yayyy! I am finally feeling better! It’s definitely my favourite time of the year here in London. My favourite place to stroll it’s Notting Hill! I love this vibrant, trendy area full of cute coffee shops, restaurants and beautiful boutiques. I also adore all the little streets with all the white-washed houses, currently surrounded by blooming Magnolia trees, ahhh! I went for a photoshoot with my friend Alex and we’ve shot some magical content! Hope you’ll like it!
There’s no doubt sleep plays an essential role in our health and wellbeing. It is as important to our bodies as eating, drinking and breathing, and is vital for maintaining good mental and physical health.
As I am travelling and blogging full-time since almost a year now, I’ve noticed how hard it is for me to get a good sleep, as there’s no such a thing like routine in my life. I sleep at different hotels, countries and time zones almost every week right now. I go to sleep at different hour. I change places all the time and it really takes my body the time to adjust. I also struggle with jet-lag quite often. That’s why I started to extremely look after my sleep and giving myself a little sleeping routine when I am actually at home, in London. As let’s be honest- what’s better than sleeping in own bed?
Here’s 5 things that seriously helped me to improve my sleep :
1.Ventilate the bedroom before going to sleep
It’s such a little thing but made a huge difference in my sleeping routine. I now always get some fresh air into the bedroom before going to sleep. Sometimes I even leave my window opened. It helps the air circulate at night, leading to better quality sleep.
2. Spray your pillows with a sleep spray
About 6 months ago I was recommended the product that now I honestly can’t live without. The Sleep Spray with lavender, yarrow & chamomile essential oils from Bramley has honestly been life-changing. Using it became such a routine for me. I love feeling this smell. It’s so calming, soothing which allows both the body and mind to relax, creating the perfect atmosphere to drift off to sleep. My partner actually got addicted to it too! I spray it on our pillows and bed sheets right before going to sleep.
3. Switch off electronic devices
We all know the bright screens of phones, tablets, tvs, and any other electronics can mess up our sleep cycles. The blue light given off by electronic screens send a signal to your brain that it’s daytime, even when it’s not. This is affecting our sleep. Also, being on your phone right before going to sleep gives you an extra and unnecessary stress- there’ll always be another email or message to reply to, that let’s be honest- it’s not going to make our sleep any better. It’s really hard to stick not to use my mobile phone and laptop at all before going to bed, but I am trying stay completely off for at least half an hour before sleep, to give my mind some time to switch off, relax and get ready for sleep.
4. Have a Chamomile tea before sleep
Honestly, nothing relaxes me more then a mug of a warm chamomile tea before going to bed. Even the smell of it it’s just so calming. It’s my little relaxing ritual before going to sleep. According to the studies chamomile was found to reduce stress, decrease anxiety and initiate sleep.
5. Invest in a good mattress
Last one but the most important point- a good mattress. When I first moved to London, I’ve always had a cheap mattress and never really paid attention to that, until I started to get a little older, get neck and back pains. That’s why when we’ve moved to the new apartment back in September, we’ve upgraded our mattress to the Simba Hybrid Mattress. I must say it’s been life-changing, for both myself and my partner. We’ve never ever slept so well! My partner has struggled a lot with back pains and he doesn’t complain about it anymore. Also what we really like is- the Simba Hybrid’s flexible zoned base and unique patented springs respond individually to each sleeper, so your movement doesn’t affect your partner. This is really important to us, as many times we go to bed and wake up at different times so we avoid disturbing each other. Another incredible thing is – when you buy a Simba mattress you get a 100 night trial. If it’s not a perfect match, you can return your mattress for any reason. If you decide to keep it there’s a 10 years guarantee. Also the delivery is free and it’s super quick- our one came within couple of days. If you’d like to try it yourself, I have a £75 off discount for you with this link.
Hope these tips will help you to improve your sleep!
