Birthday Spa Day at Aqua Sana in Center Parcs!

Hi everyone! I've been abit lacking on the bloggeroo front recently but I've been missing you guys!! What has everyone been upto?? Me? Well, it was my birthday a couple weeks ago and to celebrate my best friend and I booked ourselves on a Spa day at Aqua Sana in Center Parcs, Sherwood Forest. We had such a lovely time!!

Road trip!! Beautiful June day...welcome to the UK!

Sherwood Forest, I see you!!

Yay, Center Parcs...we have arrived!!

Driving through the Parc...

So beautiful and green

Finally reach the middle! :-)

To be honest I'm not a huge spa person just because I'm slightly body conscience and for me a spa experience is about hanging out with my girl friends and having a giggle so the idea of going to a spa in a posh hotel is slightly daunting for me! But I have to say I absolutely love the Aqua Sana Spa in Center Parcs! Its such a lovely friendly relaxed atmosphere with people of all ages just chilling and chatting and enjoying the experience.

As soon as we entered the Roman looking Aqua Sana building we were greeted by a lovely warm smile at reception who ran through the sequence of the day, gave us our arm band passes and handed us the keys to our lockers that contained our robes and towels. There are a few spa options available like half day, twilight spa, treatments etc...we went for the Full day spa not including an additional treatments which was £99 for two. This included a welcome drink and lunch at the Aldo Zilli Restaurant. Once we had changed into our swimwear we went through to the restaurant where we had our complimentary welcome drink...we chose an apple, strawberry and passion fruit smoothie...happy days! :-) Then onto the world of Sauna's!! lol

I couldn't take photo's inside the Spa itsself but here is the outside and reception area...

Reception area

The Spa shop selling Elemis, Decleor, Bare Minerals and others brands of skincare and makeup...

Aqua Sana has around 15 different types of sauna/steam room's and experiences including Indian blossom steam room, Turkish room, Japanese salt steam, Greek herbal sauna, foot spa, spa pool, zen garden and loads more (full list here). I love that there are so many different things to do and rooms/areas to explore so you wont get bored easily!


I've been to Aqua Sana a few times before and my fave thing to do is have a round spending about 5/10 mins in each of the rooms...by then I'm feeling super hot so I go upto to the balcony area on the 1st floor which is open to take in the fresh crisp air and the beautiful scenic view of trees while snuggling up on a full length lounger with THE most comfiest and softest faux fur blanket! Ok so I know this sounds simple but if you've ever been Aqua Sana you know what I'm talking about...going from the hot steamrooms to the fresh air is just so refreshing!!


My favourite is room of all is the Japanese salt steam...it has the most intense heat of them all so I can't stay in there for too long but I love the intensity as I really feel like I'm detoxing and sweating out all the impurities and my skin feels amazing afterwards!

My arm band...bracelets made by me! :-)

As we had the whole day we decided to pace ourselves so we leisurely spent a few hours at Aqua Sana, had our lunch at the Aldo Zilli restaurant which was fantastic, then head out for a walk and check out the main pool. I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed the lunch! We ordered a creamy mushroom tagliatelle pasta and chicken & bacon panini. The panini was nice but the pasta was amazing! It was so fresh and delicate, the sauce was beautiful and you could tell it was made with love...it really was so delicious!


After lunch we decided to take a break, changed out of our swimsuits and had a wander around Center Parcs village shops and parks. If you're not familiar with Center Parcs it is a big holiday village based in leafy forest locations throughout the UK and France. The idea is you rent a chalet for a week or weekend and you can do as many activities as you like or as little as you like. They have looooads of different things to do! Outdoor, indoor and water based sports on their lakes, pottery painting, dance lessons, horse riding, bowling to name just a few and at the heart of the village is a big indoor tropical swimming pool under a huge dome shaped glass ceiling. So we had a little walk around the villiage and shops and stopped for a cheeky but epic dessert at the Pancake House!

Map of the park and restaurants...

Kids play area...

My friend bought me the special Jubilee Cherry one at the bottom...absolutely delicious!!

Indoor courts...

Manmade beach and lake for watersports...

Our waitress at the Pancake House was really lovely and when my friend told her it was my birthday she gave me a complimentary mocktail to say happy birthday which nice. But I'm not sure what was happening because the restaurant was empty apart from two tables when we arrived but we had to wait forever for our dessert (around 45mins!!) I have to admit despite the free drink I was getting quite impatient but when it did finally arrive it was damn good!! Warm and doughy...yum!!

We decided to swim off some of the calories by heading to the main swimming pool! Its such a gorgeous pool, I love all the palm trees and looking up to see the sky...it really does have that tropical vibe...well as close as you can get to tropical in the UK lol!! There are a couple of different slides/rapids which are awesome, a fun wave machine and a seperate outdoor pool with one a plunge pool too...I wasnt brave enough to have a go in the plunge pool though...its bloody freezing! lol

My swimsuit :-)

Bar and a Starbucks inside the dome...

Then we headed back to the Aqua Sana spa for the last hour of our day before we be kicked out by 6pm. So as you can tell I loved the whole day and litterally can't wait to go back again hopefully for a full week or weekend! But the best part of my day was spending it with my best friend :-)

Cherry Lane xoxo

p.s. sorry for the long post...I got abit excited lol! oh and also, it might seem like this post was sponsered or something but it wasnt...I just love the place lol

Carmex Lips Balms

   

These little yellow tubs have been a familiar sight in our stores for years but for some reason I've never got round to actually trying it so when this lovely little package from Carmex came through my door I was so excited to try it out! (I love the cute postcard...it totally reminds me of my fave t-shirt I got from Australia which also says Life is a beach :-)

So lets get cracking with the Classic Carmex lip balm tub! The tub itself is made of plastic with a metallic lid. When you open the lid and bring it closer to your nose, the strong scent of camphor/menthol immediately hits you! The formula is a 'proper' balm texture, it's quite a thick and rich which is great because when you apply it you really feel the product sinking into your lips making them feel so hydrated!! You also get the added bonus of that tingly lip plumping sensation from the menthol.

I love fruity scents so the strawberry flavoured lip balm was the one I was most looking forward to trying out! Its comes in a squeezy tube which is so easy to use and hygienic. The formula is silkier in consistency with a glossy finish on the lips unlike the Original balm. It has that same camphor/menthol scent but with a hint of strawberry to take the edge off.  It also leaves you with that tingly sensation which disappears after about 5/10mins and what great is this also has SPF 15! :-)

Last but not least we come to my favourite of the bunch....Carmex Moisture Plus Ultra Hydrating lip balm in Peach Sheer Tint. The first thing I notice about this is that it doesnt have that strong camphor/menthol scent of the others which for me is great because I found it a little overwhelming. This is the lightest of texture of the three. The Vitamin E and aloe really makes your lips feel so soft and hydrated with a very slight peachy tint and SPF15... I absolutely love it! 

So overall...I love the super moisturising effect of the first Orignal balm and can see this particularly being a great product to protect your lips from the harsh climates of the winter months. I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of the scent of the original or strawberry but this is almost invisible in the Moisture Plus so the Moisture Plus is hands down my fav! It really is so hydrating and I love that it provides a slight hint of colour together with SPF!! :-)

The Carmex Original tub 7.5g retails for a fab price of just £2.69 and also comes in Cherry.

The squeezy Carmex Strawberry tube 10g also retails for £2.69 and also comes in  Original, Cherry and Mint.

The  Carmex Moisture Plus Ultra Hydrating lip balm retails for £4.49 and comes Clear, Peach Tint and Pink Tint.

Cherry Lane xoxo

NOTE: This product is a PR sample but has not affected my opinion in any way.

My Birthday Wishlist!

Hi chica's! Hope you are all doing well! I'm back from my little break and thought I'd get back into the flow of things by showing you a few pieces I have been lusting after and are on my imaginary birthday wishlist! Oh yeah, its on the 29th btw so if anyone would like to get my any of these, I will love you forever! lol :-)

Mamechiyo for Shu Uermura Limited Edition Cleansing Oil £56.50

Koji Dolly Wink Liquid Eyeliner £8.60

Butter London Polish in Black Knight £9.00

Michael Kors Rose Gold Watch $295

Marc by Marc Jacobs Fluoro Turnlock Bracelet £85

Philip Kingsley Hair Elasticizer £22.30

Cherry Lane xoxo

Wordless Wednesday - From me to you...yes you!

Cherry Lane xoxo

Wishful Summer Lovin...

Hiya Beauts! I recently discovered this website called Polyvore where you can create your own collage of anything that inspires you from fashion and make-up to interior design and food. I was playing around with it a couple weeks ago and came up with this little thing...I'm dying to wear my summery clothes but with this crappy British weather I'm still walking around with my jacket and umbrella in tow just in case!

Summer Lovin by mycherrylane

Cherry Lane xoxo

NOTD: Lilacs and Polka's

Hiya Beauts! Dotted nail art seems to be all the rage these days...everywhere I look I see funky new designs. Naively I tried doing dots just with a normal nail polish brush and of course it was a mess lol so couple months ago I bought a dotting tool from eBay. It was just lying in my drawer neglected until a few weeks ago when I decided to dig it out and give it a go! 

I used ELF in Lilac with dots using a random white and George Asda purple in Hoax 49.

A little side note, I just saw this BEAUTIFUL nail polish on BritishBeautyBlogger and I think I am actually in love. It's my birthday next month so if anyone fancies getting me this, I will love you forever!! lol

Lovely Jubbly: a fusion of gold, red and blue sparkles set in magenta

As you can probably tell, I have a thing for purple lol

Cherry Lane xoxo

Nail Art Party!!

Last weekend a bunch of us blogger friends decided to have a virtual nail art party. We all had a go at water marbling and shared our pics with eachother.

Having watched a new vids on marbling a while ago...I thought this cant be too difficult. Oh how wrong I was!! Lemme tell you this...this water marbling shiz is MESSY! I wasn't at home and for some reason the internet connection was really bad so I couldn't even watch any YouTube vids beforehand to refresh my memory so I totally forgot to use celotape!  After a couple of attempts I had sticky films of multicoloured polish all over my fingers, it was a bit of a nightmare but I'm glad I gave it a ago!

It was soo fun doing it 'with' everyone else though and seeing everyone's pics afterwards! :-)
Mine was pretty tragic so I just took a pic of my best nail. First I painted my nails in Innocent by ELF then I used Barry M in Teal 334 and George (Asda) in 49 Hoax for the marbling

I still haven't mastered it yet but I definitely wana give it another go!

You can also check out Zara's at The World Through My Retina .

Have you have a go at marbling? Have you got any god tips?

Cherry Lane xoxo

My first Sasa.com Haul!!

When B from CrazyPopLock sent me her Love Package I instantly fell in love with the Sheet masks! She told me she bought them from Sasa.com and thats when my crazy lil obession with this Hong Kong based website and Asian skincare began! There are literally thousands of products including skincare, makeup, haircare, health supplements and much more with lots of Korean, Taiwanese and Chinese brands as well as high end like Clinique, Lancome, Elisabeth Arden ect.

It was so fun browsing through all the products and seeing all the different things we dont get here in the UK. A few days later I got an email from Sasa offering me free delivery over $29 (normally $75)...it was like the stars aligned themselves for me lol!! So of course I had to buy something!! Being a little bit clueless about Asian skincare and brands I just decided to pick some items which we dont get here in the UK, I later found out after watching looooads of Sasa hauls on youTube, discovering BubzBeauty channel and chatting to the lovely Jacq from Beauty Sketch (skincare guru extraordinaire) that by some fluke I did actually pick some good products! Yay!

I ordered my items on 30th April and they arrived yesterday on 10th May so it took less then 2 weeks to arrive which is not bad at all BUT I only picked my box up today because even though my order was not that big (only $36) crappy UK customs charged me £12.52 extra when it got here!! Booooo!! Apparently because the value of the goods was over £15 and came from outside the EU I was charged 20% VAT (tax) plus a standard £8 Royal Mail admin fee. I was sooooo not impressed!! But as least I know to be more careful in the future. Have you ever been charged for goods coming into the UK from Sasa or other countries?

Anyways aside from that I was still super excited...here's what I got...

Lots of styrofoam and bubble wrap to keep products safe :-)

2x Silk Whitia Highly Concentrated Collagen Hydrating Masks (Pack of 5)

Provides skin with instant moisture and nourishment

$6.80 ~ £4.20 Buy one get one free offer

Juju Cosmetics Aquamoist Hyaluronic Acid Moisture Toner 180ml

Replenishes the moisture lost when cleansing whilst also firming up skin and removing dead skin. Hyaluronic Acid is a natural substance existing in the human body to maintain a balanced pH. Not derived from artificial Hyaluronic Acid, it is a weak acidic. Free from oil, fragrance & mineral oil.

 $12.30 ~ £7.60

Leneige Special Water Sleeping Pack 20ml

Light gel type mask that gives intense hydration, vitality and brightness while restoring skin with deep relaxation through pleasant aroma. Contains Beta-Glusan, Hunza apricot extracts, chesnuts seed extract, Sleepscent(TM) aromatic essence and Himalaya Snow Water.

$5.10 ~ £3.20

Kokubo Collegen Q10 Moisturising Bath Powder 50g

Enriched with Coenzyme Q10 and collogen to replenish skin with endless moisture and nourishment. Hot bath stimulates blood circulation and metabolism. Toxins therefore drained away through high perspiration making you feel lighter. 

$1.90 ~ £1.20

Kose Softymo Hyaluronic Acid Washing Foam 150g

Easily removes dirt and impurities in pores. Hyaluronic Acid hydrates skin, leaving skin clear and soft. Fragrance-free and colour-free.

$6.80 ~ £4.20

Selena 5 Layer Cotton Pads (80 pieces)

Composed of 5 ultra-thin layers, which can be separated after soaking in toner to work like a mask on the face. Made of 100% natural cotton

$3.40 ~ £2.10

So thats everything I got! I cant wait try these all out!!! Especially the water pack and the toner...who am I kidding...I'm crazy excited about every single thing!! lol!

I've even started putting together a wishlist for my next order! When I tweeted about placing my order on Sasa I had a lovely chat with Sam from Sam Ram Beauty who told me that they sell Estee Lauder and Lancome sample lipsticks from only $3 ~ £1.90!! How the hell did I miss that before?!  So yeah... definitely want to get that next time along with some Tsubaki haircare products.

Have you tried any of these? Can you recommend any other products from Sasa?

Cherry Lane xoxo