Manchester avec Carys

Good Morning all! Alas, the Easter Holidays are rapidly drawing to a close but the two weeks were not spent without some fabulous friends. Last week, I drove to see my beautiful Carys (we met at uni 6 years ago as we lived in the same halls) who lives near Leeds and she took me out to Manchester for the day. Well, I couldn't go to Manchester without stopping by Harvey Nichols and Selfridges which of course meant shopping....

The beautiful Carys

Harvey Nichols Manchester courtesy of Harvey Nichols

First stop, Harvey Nichols and once Carys had eyed up their Easter Basket Hunt Competition, she was off... well, her theory was that no one else was likely to enter, so she was bound to win the hamper (only the last basket seemed to evade us but she entered anyway)!

Harvey Nichols Manchester Window Display April 2012 courtesy of Fashion Dotty

I couldn't not show you the fantastic window displays that Harvey Nichols exhibit... but I didn't get a good photo on my iPhone, so instead I'll show you one from the lovely Sarah at Fashion Dotty - you should check out her blog it's full of amazing posts and photos!

From there, we paid a quick visit to Selfridges in Exchange Square, well I say quick, it took forever with the bloody queue at the MAC counter, but I picked up a couple of bits anyway. I'd been eyeing up the Powder Foundation by Illamasqua for a while now as a potential replacement for my (sadly discontinued) Clinique Clarifying Powder so I picked up one of those in the shade PF120 - the consultant was so helpful in helping me choose the right shade. And I'd been curious about MAC's Studio Sculpt and decided to pick up one of those in NC15 (once I eventually found a consultant who was free to help me!). The other two pieces, Carys treated me to from her vast stash of a make-up collection - she is as much of a make-up junkie as I. And vast is definitely somewhat of an understatement as she has like 12 unopened boxes of foundations??!! Trust me, I counted! Well she does work for Estee Lauder Companies, so gets considerable discount and often finds me little things that she knows I like - such as a) my love of curled brush mascaras (hello, Estee Lauder Double Wear Curling Mascara) and b) how pale my skin is (welcome, Bobbi Brown Concealer Kit in Porcelain!)

Selfridges Purchases and Gifts from Carys

After perusing the beauty counters, we went for some lunch at one of the most nightclub-esque restaurants I have ever seen...

Vertigo restaurant and bar Manchester photo courtesy of Manchester Restaurants

Carys took me to a restaurant called Vertigo on John Dalton Street, and it is absolutely gorgeous inside! I'm talking silver glitter wall paper, velvet upholstered chairs, black sparkle granite tiles on the floor... and they do an amazing deal on their lunch menu - two courses for £10 or three for £14. I highly recommend you take a visit if you need some sustenance whilst trawling the shops in Manchester one lunchtime.

After lunch, we were in much need of a clothes shopping fix, so we headed to a few high street shops and picked up some new wardrobe additions. I got a lovely new dress from a Dorothy Perkins concession and Carys picked herself up the sell out blazer from Kate Moss' Mango collection:

Doll & Frog Mink Velour Bird Dress here £35

Mango Slim Lapel Blazer here £34.99

In all, a very successful day and it was lovely to catch up with the fabulous Carys. Au revoir for now, must try and get into school to do some last minute sorting out before Monday... ahh!!

Disclaimer - Most of the photos above are not by myself, well, sometimes the iPhone is really hit and miss! So check out the link in the caption of a photo to see where I have borrowed it from.