So yesterday my mother sister and I trundled off to Paris for the day. After a surprisingly enjoyable Eurostar journey where I spotted Reem Kanj from Five Five Fabulous we headed straight off to the American Retro warehouse sale near Les Halles.
The reductions were amazing- everything was 80-90% off and we came away with three, back cripplingly heavy shopping bags- but we got some amazing bargains and I now have a wardrobe full of Parisien cool girl style Summer dresses.
As you can see at 35 euros for a dress and 20 euros for a top whereas normally American Retro clothes are priced nearly ten times the amount it was well worth having to lug heavy shopping bags around for the rest of the day. Luckily as we arrived quite early it was relatively civilised, far better managed than any sample sale I’ve ever been to before…and certainly far more civilised than the hell/heaven on earth that is City Pharma (more on that later!).
So after hitting up the American Retro sale we headed off to Avenue Montaigne for lunch at L’Avenue which was a-ma-zing and is part of the Costes hotel group. The weather wasn’t amazing but it wasn’t terrible- we had a few rain showers and a few sunny spells, but it was overall mild and I was definitely warm enough in my Zara coat and Topshop fedora which kept my locks tamed!
I had the thai style beef with spinach and a few of my sisters frites! The food was delicious and the atmosphere was buzzing, definitely a restaurant I’m planning on visiting again. Next up we walked over to the Left Bank and straight up to Rue du Four for a trip to City Pharma- the mythical pharmacy that I’d heard so much about from Lisa Eldridge and nearly every other beauty blogger ever. I’d heard that it had the best selection of products for unbeatable prices. Sure enough I was not the only person who had ‘discovered’ City Pharma and it was absolutely packed- uncomfortably so. I grabbed a few bits and bobs in a rush and then headed for the till. The products I’m most excited to try are the Embryolisse Emulsion Hydra-Matt moisturiser, the Phyto 7 hair cream which at 8 euros was half the price it is in Space NK- bargain! and La Roche Posay’s Serozinc (I tried last night and fell in love- hydrating and lovely on the skin) and just before I went to pay I saw a row of Nuxe lipglosses that boasted lip-plumping properties- yes please! I tried it on the second I left the mad rush and it was gorgeous and my lips definitely looked fuller.
After some more wondering and shopping where I bought the most amazing silver chain ring we ended up at the tourist hotspot Angelina’s which is great to get a feel of the more commercial side of Paris. Having spent the day shopping and in and out of Maje, Sandro and IRO it felt fun to really just enjoy being a bit of a tourist and we had chocolate eclaires and brioches which were delicious!
After our indulgent Angelina’s it was nearly time to go home…not until we’d hit up Sephora though where I stocked up on some Sephora own brand like the express nail polish remover and their version of a Beauty Blender which I am very excited to try. I noticed that Clarins was a little cheaper in there so I also picked up the Instant Light Complexion Perfector in shade 002 which I’d been using a tester of and I absolutely adore how glowy and radiant it makes my skin. I also picked up the Urban Decay eyeshadow primer which I’ve heard good things about- so looking forward to trying that out!
The Paris Beauty haul!
I think I’m going to do a YouTube video on my French Pharmacy haul so I can talk a little more about each product and I’ll do a proper blog post dedicated to them too once I’ve trialled them for a week!
Happy Thursday (nearly the weekend woopwoop)
Tijan xxx