If you read my blog post a couple of weeks back, you’ll know all about my trip to the sunshine state. Now you can’t fail to think of the shopping opportunities when you have a trip to the USA planned and this was certainly the case when I knew we were going to Orlando. I’ll admit I scoured reviews and websites way beforehand, compiling a list of exactly the sorts of things I wanted or was looking for. Now I’ve been back a little while (sob), I’ve put together a post of everything I ended up purchasing, just for you!
HARRY POTTER
You might remember the big Harry Potter haul I did last year. I’m afraid you might be disappointed in me this year as I only ended up coming away with one thing! I was searching for Hermione’s Time Turner necklace which I had seen last time but unfortunately could not find it! While there are lots of wonderful things, they do admittedly cost quite a bit of money and there was nothing I wanted desperately enough to spend too much. Instead I headed for Honeydukes sweet shop and came away with this box of Peppermint Toads. It’ll look perfect on my little Harry Potter display in our house although I can’t decide whether to actually eat them or not…what do you think?
YANKEE CANDLES
There are a few outlet parks in Orlando and having visited this particular one last year, I knew there was one shop I needed to visit! If you didn’t know already, I am a big Yankee Candle fan and being an american product, they aren’t the cheapest and frankly you don’t get that much choice. This was why I made a beeline straight for the Yankee Candle shop in the outlet park, my sister close behind me. Offering six large candles for only $60, we decide to split it in half and get three each! Now the choosing was the difficult part! Think of a smell and they have it there! Leather and Churned Ice Cream were just two of the more peculiar flavours. After a good 20 minutes of wandering round, pulling jars off shelves and pulling it to my nose, I finally settled on my three candles. I went with Berry Colada, Island Cooler and Pineapple. I’m not even going to pretend I’m any good with describing scents but just know that all three smell absolutely delicious, quite sugary sweet. I seem to have gone for a summery beverage feel, which I am more than ok with!
SEPHORA
MAC
Whenever I head into a MAC store, I always head straight for the lipsticks. However, after picking up SEVEN different lipsticks which I liked the look of and finding out I already had them all, I decided it was probably time to step away from the lipstick! I’d heard great things about the pigments and having really been enjoying playing with what I put on my eyelids, I decided to have a swatching session and left with ‘Tan’ which is a pinky-brown bronze. I’ve never actually used a pigment before but the pigmentation is (obviously) incredible so I’m really hoping this will be the start of a lovely new relationship!
DISNEY CHRISTMAS BAUBLE
My family and I absoloutely adore Disney Springs, which is an outdoor complex for shopping and dining. There is lots of outdoor entertainment to enjoy such as musicians and SO MANY SHOPS. From fashion to beauty, ice cream to flip flops, they really do have it all. They even have a Christmas shop that is open all year round and this is where my last item came from! Although it feels ever so slightly wrong, you can’t help but get lost in the sheer amount of amazing Christmas decorations you can get! Think of your favourite disney film and you’ll find a whole host of decorations themed to that film. Matt very kindly offered to buy us one and I was given the (very hard!) task of picking a bauble for our tree. I cannot explain how difficult it is to pick something, there is just so much choice! My favourite disney film is The Little Mermaid but it was actually a Alice in Wonderland bauble I went with. It was in the shape of a teapot and inside was a little Alice.
Now here comes the sad part. Before I could start taking photos of said beautiful bauble, I came downstairs one morning to find the (heavily wrapped) package on the floor and Luna looking guiltily up at me. My worst fears were confirmed when I carefully unwrapped the package to find my lovely new bauble smashed! Having been left on the table the night before, I can only deduct that Luna decided it looked awfully fun to play with, hopped up onto my table (we have had words, don’t worry!) and knocked it to the floor. You can see photos of the bauble here. While I’m very glad no glass escaped the wrapping to hurt her little paws, I can’t help but be so disappointed that my little memento is no more!
BB8 DOG TOY
Yes, you read correctly! It didn’t feel right to not bring Luna a little something home, especially when she had been left at home with my Mum! (Although admittedly, considering the above, I did reconsider for a moment!) Matt loves his Star Wars and naturally picked up this sweet little BB8 (yes, I had to google to check the name!) dog toy. It felt really sturdy but as soon as Luna got her her little mitts on it, she had ripped of the poor things head of! Nonetheless, his body is still rolling around…somewhere!
Despite a few mishaps, overall I’m pleased with my picks from Orlando. There will always be so many things you lust after in America but at the end of the day, for me it’s all about the experience of visiting the place. After all, no lipstick will come close to the memories.
Emily>