Spa Break at Seaham Hall

A couple of weeks ago, my husband treated me to a few days at a spa hotel. He chose Seaham Hall Hotel and Serenity Spa near Newcastle, which turned out to be an incredible choice. It's a lovely hotel and spa situated on a cliff top near the sea.

I forgot to take a picture of the hotel exterior, so here's one from their website.

Our room was huge! It was just a regular room, but looked pretty much like a suite to me, with 4 rooms (including bathroom).

What I liked about this hotel was that you do not have to walk outdoors to get to their spa. We could then just get changed in our rooms and walk to the spa in our bathrobe and slippers.

The walkway from hotel to spa, with an elephant at the end. The whole spa had a South East Asian theme, including a Thai restaurant which overlooked the hotel's vast grounds.

The alternating mood lighting.. Sorry for the slightly squint picture. I took these pics with my husband's iphone and I'm the worst photographer ever.

One more elephant pic for luck. Sadly I couldn't take any pictures of the facilities (for the privacy of other guests and spa users).

The spa was simply amazing. They had a pool, hydropools, outdoor hot tubs, a hamam with jacuzzi, ice pools, saunas and steam rooms. My husband and I also got a massage in a twin room. It's the first time we ever had a massage in the same room, was great!

Hotel Website: http://www.seaham-hall.co.uk/

Look: Using Pixiglow Tint and Paul & Joe Minou

Hi everyone, here's a look I did using two products I've posted about recently; Paul & Joe's Blusher Stick in Minou and the Pixiglow Magic Tink Tint.

Both products came out fairly light and pink on me. I probably won't use them together next time as together they wash out my complexion slightly. It really doesn't help that i'm wearing light coloured clothes too. I've been looking a bit pale these wintery months, so I don't think I can get away with light lip AND cheek colours.

I have got to say though, the Paul & Joe blush is so cute. Here's a pic of it taken from my recent post. I really love the pretty pink shade too.

A pic of the products used in today's look. I forgot to include the eyeliner.

Products Used:

Shiseido Integrate Gracy Eyebrow Pencil in 963

Bobbi Brown Gel Liner in Black (not shown)

Clarins Instant Definition Mascara

Paul & Joe Blusher Stick in Minou 002

St. Tropez Skin Illuminator in Rose (as highlighter in cheekbones)

Pikiglow Magic Tink Tint

Hope you have a great week ahead! I'll finish with a couple of pictures of a water village in Sabah taken on our travels.

Our Mount Kinabalu Climb

I thought I'd share with you some pictures of my recent Mount Kinabalu Climb. Mt. Kinabalu is in Sabah, Sawarak and is the highest peak in South East Asia. My friends were very surprised to hear that there were mountains in Malaysia. When I told then it was the highest in S.E. Asia, most of them said 'Wow, the tallest maintain in Asia?' I had to explain to them that 'no, sweet dears, that would be Everest...'

My dad, husband and I went just after spending Chinese New Year in Kuching, Sarawak with my relatives.

The majority of the climb was in horrible pouring rain, but we managed to take pictures during the rare moments where it was dry.

Us at the beginning of the climb. 'Selamat Mendaki' means 'Happy Mountaineering'.

A beautiful waterfall along the way.

I absolutely adore greenary. Well, nature in general.

My dad and I in the early stages of the climb. It was just starting to rain.

The further up you get, the larger the difference in vegetation.

Lodgings halfway up the climb. I don't know why my husband took a pic of this one rather than the one we stayed in. Ours was tiny compared to this and made this one look positively luxurious.

We woke up at 2:30am the next day so we could reach the summit before sunrise. I reached the summit an hour before sunrise so sat the shivering in the dark for quite a while!

The wait was worth it. Once the sun started coming out, I realised just how spectacular the view was.

I have to say that sadly our most spectacular pictures are terribly blurry, as my husband forgot to take it off manual focus!

My husband, on our descent.

I can't believe I passed all this beautiful scenery in the dark on the way up.

Going back down was great fun.

There were no more pictures after this as it started to rain heavily. So we decided to leg it back to base camp rather than suffer a minute longer getting drenched in the rain!

All in all a really good climb. I'm truly proud of all the natural sights my country has to offer. I've spent my childhood hiking in the rainforest and visiting the beaches and caves, so it was really nice to view a whole different kind of scenery.

My trip to Peru - Machu Picchu and The Amazon

Hi everyone. Sorry for the last of posts, I've been backpacking in Peru for the last 2 weeks. It's been a tiring trip of 3am starts, camping, cold showers/no showers and high altitudes but I enjoyed every minute of it.

Here are some pictures Id like to share with you. Bear in mind, I was backpacking. For more of the trip I was wearing minimal to no makeup. By the end of the trip I was severely sleep deprived, so I'm going to look pretty rough in some of these pics!

*All the pics can be enlarged by clicking on them*

Boat trip on Lake Titicaca, located high in the Andes.

Me with our guide, and a new friend from the group

Tequila Island

The most amazing lunch ever. Was in love with the view.

My husband and I and the rest of the group. Was such a great mix of people from all over the world, and we all grew close during the trip.

Our 3 walled accommodation in The Amazon. The 4th wall is the jungle. No electricity, no hot water. Creatures found in our room included:

- a bug the size of my palm with super long antennae

- a mouse watching my husband shower

It got dark by 6pm, so we used our head torches for light or else shower in complete darkness.

The food was amazing. Always 3 courses, lunch and dinner.

The night walk was pretty creepy. You never know what's lurking at you feet. Above is a wild Rainbow Boa. I mustered enough courage (stupidity?) to touch it. Below is a Wandering Spider. The most venomous spider in the world.

As creeped out as I was about the night walk, I still enjoyed it. We also got to see Bullet Ants which have the most painful bite known to man. Our guide also switched off his torch to render us in complete darkness for a minute to fully experience the amazon at night. It was wonderful! My eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness and I felt like I was seeing the world in a new light. Like I was in the movie Avatar or something...

Children living in the Andes. So cute. They have to grow up fast though. The older girl is about 3 years old and already has to look after her little sister while their parents are out farming.

More adorable children.

Day 1 of our 3 day trek up the Andes. (Though we trekked so fast we finished a day early-yay!)

The view was spectacular, and made the hard trek really enjoyable.

Me at the second pass of the trek. 4600m above sea level. A few of us were horsing around until the rest of the group arrived.

Me in glasses in our tent. All vanity went out the window during this trip to Peru. I found myself bespectacled and makeupless a lot.

Finally we arrived at Machu Picchu. Such a beautiful sight, the whole place felt 'otherworldly'.

As if we hadn't had enough of hiking, we climbed up Wayna Picchu. In the above pic (with my husband in red) you can see what a steep climb it is. In the Incan days, Wayna Picchu was the spot of a guard tower for Machu Picchu.

Our group resting at the peak of Wayna Picchu, surrounded by clouds.

More pics to illustrate how steep it is. Sorry if we all look a bit rough, we've been camping for the last few days and have been up since 3am.

Husband on the edge of the abyss.

Machu Picchu is behind me covered by cloud. Have better pictures of the aerial view of Machu Picchu that I forgot to put up!

More pics of us exploring the great city.

We sat here for ages just enjoying the view (and recovering from our hike up Wayna Picchu). You can see Wayna Picchu in this pic, it's the tall peak behind.

For me this trip was a great experience. It was amazing to see places like Machu Picchu and the Amazon. We also got the stay with a local family in a small native island community (complete with frogs in the bedroom and toads in the bathroom). We learned the basics of the indigenous language of Aymara so we could speak to them. I learned alot from this trip and now no longer take the little things for granted like; running water, having a bathroom, and having a bedroom without frogs.

I also spent my birthday in The Sacred Valley (or Urubamba Valley of the Andes), which was a truly memorable experience.