Harrods at Christmas + the £22,500 Bowl.

For the second half of our Christmassy day in London, my sister and I headed to Knightsbridge for a mosey around Harrods. As much a destination as it is a department store, it's pretty crazy to see how the other half live - £22,500 for a crystal fruit bowl, I was dumbfounded!

Before checking out the Harrods Christmas windows, we popped over to Harvey Nichols after rumours of a Burger & Lobster. I've heard about them before but never had a chance to visit, but let me tell you something, I don't think I ever want to eat out anywhere else in London! With a limited menu of a burger, whole grilled or steamed lobster or a lobster roll for £20, Burger & Lobster has essentially ruined all other restaurants for me, forever.



I went for a lobster roll (twice the size of the one I had at Neptune and Prawn when I visited Northern Ireland in September) and my sister had a grilled lobster, both were incredible. We accompanied our meal with a Hawaiian pineapple cooler for her and a grapefruit soda for me. And in case you're wondering what a £20 burger looks like, let's just say it's much less impressive than the lobster - I mean, if you like your burgers to be all bap then go for it, but it's pretty obvious that the lobsters are the star of the show here.



With our tums full of lobster it was time to hit Harrods, and I guess I'll let the pictures do the talking from here on in. You definitely need a map, something we didn't manage to pick up until just before we left.






I was a little disappointed to discover that the hilarious and fun pet section had closed at the beginning of the year. No cooing at £5,000 Siamese cats for me or any chance to check out potential outfits for Doll (I wouldn't, obviously). We did manage to grab a cream tea at the tea rooms and had fun guessing the price of things, we also managed to get lost a few times but there's nothing quite like this place at Christmas (+ toy department = incredible).





If only this guy wasn't £72. :(




I pretty much want all the Stieff stuffed animals, they'd play a great part in creating an indoor jungle.








We detoured to Carnaby Street before going home, better lights than Oxford St. in my opinion. ♥

March Glossybox: Harrods Edition.

Having read LlyMlrs' review of the Harrods edition Glossybox she got when she attended the launch party, all that was really going through my head was, 'a new lipstick would be pretty nice'. I've never used a whole lipstick so a sample size would have been perfect, and because it was a Burberry lipstick and I've never been able to afford a lipstick like that, plus it would be wasted if I could due to my sad case of 'small mouth-thin lip syndrome'; at the very least a sample lipstick would have slightly relieved my distress. Alas, it wasn't meant to be, and being out and about while seeing all the negative comments about this month's Glossybox I was worried I would end up even more disappointed without the lipstick. I don't think I am though.

The reason I didn't review last month's Glossybox is because while it was all lovely, it was just a bit unexciting. I mean you can never have enough shower gel and the sample sizes definitely come in useful, but I have eyeshadow up to my ears and I would have rather had the soap version of the Dr. Bronner's product. I am feeling a lot better about this month, as there are a couple of things I wouldn't have considered, which is what was so nice about my first Glossybox back at the beginning of February - I'm planning on picking up a full-size bottle of Murad's Skin Perfecting Primer because I've since decided that it's actually amazing, much better (in my opinion) that the similarly-priced-but-much-smaller Porefessional from Benefit.


I guess I was a bit excited when Glossybox's collaboration with Harrods was announced but I had no idea what to expect. It made me feel pretty satisfied that once again Glossybox would be worth the money. This month's box arrived looking pretty as usual, wrapped in a special Harrods ribbon, there is just something about Glossybox that feels luxury generally but this looked extra special.


Valentina Eau De Parfum by Valentino
I'm on the hunt for a new perfume having finally exhausted various Christmas and birthday presents. Firstly I'd like to say that this sample product-design is wonderful, I got my first perfume sample like this with an order from Space NK at Christmas, the perfume was good anyway but for the size, this sample lasted a fairly long time so I'm expecting a couple of uses out of this one to ease off my perfume hunt for the time being (which my bank balance will probably thank me for). I think this is quite a pretty fragrance but slightly too floral and sweet for me, I generally prefer a slightly fresher fragrance, but that's just my preference.


Molton Brown - Vitalising Vitamin AB+C Bath & Shower
Glossybox do love to spoil with the shower/bath products don't they? This smells amazing, not sure if I'll noticed the difference that the vitamins are supposed to make but at least I'll smell nice.


SK-II - Skin Signature
This is perhaps where I think Glossybox may have got their tailoring a bit off this month. I mean they say it's never too early to start worrying about wrinkles, but I'm 22, and I don't so... It smells lovely but as an anti-ageing moisturiser and due the fact that I don't have particularly dry skin, it looks like this will be one that I'll pass on to my mum.


Lancôme - Hypnose Drama Mascara
I'm currently using Rimmel's Scandaleyes Mascara and it's just at that nice stage where I no longer have to worry about only having two eyelashes when I leave the house. I've never really been one for expensive mascara as I kind of like the clumping although I'm willing to give this a go to see if I can be converted.


Clarins - Extra Firming Body Cream
Body moisturiser is another thing that I got loads of over Christmas, it might be a little while before I get around to trying this out, and again Clarins seems like a brand that's a little bit too 'old' for me, but it's also a brand that I trust to do what it says so I'm betting that I will be pleasantly surprised.


Shu Uemura - Cleansing Beauty Oil
This was a product that really surprised me and the one that I'm looking most forward to using. I don't think I've really seen anything like this before. I do wonder if it will work well on my skin as I tend to be oily/combination so I wonder if oil would be the right thing to use, but that's one of the great things about Glossybox and samples and I'm willing to give it a go.



It's a bit of a shame that due to their collaboration that this month's discount for these products is only available at Harrods but it's unsurprising given that it's a special edition box. There is discounts on further products not just in the box though, which is quite nice.

In a way, after all I've said, I guess this was a bit of a mixed bag, but that doesn't mean I'm not happy with it. I'm looking forward to seeing what my sister got in hers, although we do keep getting mostly the same despite our difference skin/hair etc types so I wonder whether Glossybox really is as tailored as it says, a criticism that seems to be very much at the front of today's disappointed outcries. Not quite a bandwagon I'm jumping on just yet as on the whole I'm pretty pleased.

Are you signed up with Glossybox? What did you think of this month's offering?

Harrods.

So, yesterday my Gran took my sister and I to Harrods.
I'm not sure whether it was because it's Christmas time, but it really was magical. If that doesn't sound lame, it has everything. I didn't even realise. We had a nice afternoon tea there, which was pricey but worth it. It was such a nice afternoon, I came back feeling really Christmassy.
These are the photos I took, being a tourist attraction, no one minded me getting my camera out, it was nice to not be looked upon as suspicious.

For some reason, which I didn't catch, the theme for Harrod's 70th anniversary was the Wizard of Oz.
Too cute :)




I wanted one, just to have, but I guess Harrod's can keep it for £40.









Probably quite a novel gift for your dog, but when it comes down to it, almost entirely pointless.







© Ruth Johnston 2009 More photos here.

I couldn't sleep last night for all the worrying I did about all the work I've yet to do. I have to finish off reading for the Issues in Contemporary Media essay and have worked out that if I'm doing a book for Documentary Practices it needs to be sent to the printers before the New Year in order for me to get it before the deadline. I could make one, but I think for this project a standard photobook is more apt, and a bit more sleek. Plus I'm not very good at that kind of thing - that is actually what I'm going to put in my RDB. So I'm going to have to select my final images even though I haven't taken them all yet.
I've selected around 100 images, which probably needs to be narrowed down to 30-40 for the book. Shouldn't be too hard but I don't know if they're all good enough. I guess it means the RDB work won't be as strenuous though, what with the actual final piece being done.
STRESS.STRESS.STRESS.
On the plus side, at least I've done the Case Studies for Project Management (the exhibition project) - as well as completing all my development notes - I've only got a bit of research that needs typing up and I probably won't worry about that until a couple of days before the hand in...

Bring on the two days off Christmas Eve & Day bring. ♥
It also snowed yesterday, but only for a bit.