On Saturday afternoon my boyfriend and I packed our bags and headed up to The 5* Culloden Estate and Spa for an early Valentines treat.
When packing for a night away I like to keep the clothes and products I’m bringing with me to a bare minimum. I wore my favourite Zara black leggings and a Next denim shirt meaning I only had to pack a jumper for the next morning, my pj’s and a bikini. I then pack two beauty bags, one for makeup and one for skincare and other essentials.
My skincare and essentials bag
I pack all of my essentials in this Clairns bag, I love the bright orange and pink and it’s the perfect size. I also like to bring some cotton pads for cleansing, I use baby essential cotton pads rather than cosmetic ones as I feel they’re softer on my sensitive skin.
These are all the things inside my bag!
Number one is my Bioderma Sensibio Micellar Water – I use this everyday to take off my makeup, I splash some on to one of my baby essentials cotton pads and gentle rub all over my face, I then take two more cotton pads, dampened with micellar water and take off my eye makeup.
Neal’s Yard Remedies Calendula Cleanser – I have a mini pot of this cleanser that I have been trying out and so far I’m loving it! Neal’s Yard Remedies use as many organic and natural ingredients as possible and they’ve been great for my skin, I’ve had no reaction to this cleanser and it didn’t dehydrate my skin. This cleanser contains Calendula and Jojoba which softens and soothes the skin. I like to double cleanse to really make sure all my make up is gone so I use this after my Bioderma Micellar Water on a damp face and massage it in. I then take another cotton pad to wipe the excess product off and rinse my face with warm water.
Bioderma Hydrabio Serum and Masque – after my double cleanse I then apply my serum. I love this serum, it is super lightweight and smoothing and makes your skin feel baby soft. I take a single pump and massage it over my face and neck. I then apply a reasonable amount of the hydrabio masque over my face and neck, although this masque is meant to be taken off after ten minutes, my skin is so dehydrated that there’s no excess product left when the time is up! I like how quickly both of these products melt into my skin, then I don’t have to worry about getting product all over my pillow or in this case the beautifully soft and squishy Culloden pillows!
I also brought my Burts Bees pomegranate lip balm, OPI Avoplex cuticle oil and my Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour cream, as I said in my previous blog post, I take these everywhere with me! I packed a nail file too just in case I had any nail disasters, I hate chipping part of a nail and not having a nail file to fix it as I spend the rest of the day catching it on things. I love my mini travel size tooth paste, it’s perfect for a night away and takes up no space at all and obviously I bring a toothbrush too. (forgot to pop it in the photo, oops!)
Finally my last items in my bag are my Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume and a Daisy body lotion. This is my all time favourite perfume, I have a large one on my dresser and then this mini travel/ handbag sized one. The packaging is adorable, I love the giant daisy on the lid and I just love the smell! It’s fresh and not over powering. I also packed the body lotion as I knew I’d be spending lots of time in the pool so didn’t want my skin to become dehydrated, the body lotion is lightly scented, the same as the perfume and also has a subtle sparkle throughout.
From the second you enter the Culloden Estate and Spa, you get a feeling of utter relaxation. We were met by the door man who took our bags and showed us to the reception area, we were checked in and headed up to our room, the Kintyre, on the 6th floor. We had a gorgeous view of Belfast Lough and the spa. After dropping off our bags we headed down to the Cultra Inn, a small restaurant and bar in the grounds of the estate, for drinks and to watch the rugby, the staff all had a relaxing manor and made you feel at ease. Once the rugby was finished we made our way towards the restaurant area and had an absolutely delicious dinner! I had the lightly battered scampi and my boyfriend got steak (his favourite treat when we’re on holiday). Of course seeing this was a treat we went all out and got dessert too, I got a gorgeous chocolate torte with fresh cream which just melted in your mouth! We spent the rest of our evening back at the main hotel bar enjoying the live piano music before heading up to our big comfy bed which had been turned down and we’d been left some pillow chocolates, fresh water and some lovely fluffy bathrobes and slippers! In the morning we headed down to the Mitre restaurant in the main hotel for breakfast. There was a breakfast buffet with fruit, yoghurts, cereals, breads and the tastiest breakfast muffins! We also had a cooked breakfast, I got fried eggs, mushrooms, soda bread and potato bread (for those of you who have never experienced the joys of Irish potato bread it is well worth getting on a plane so you can try some, a fry will never be the same again without it!) My boyfriend got freshly cooked pancakes with bacon and maple syrup. After our lovely breakfast we headed back up to our room to pack our bags so we could leave them at reception while we spent the rest of our day in the spa. The spa at Culloden has a pool, jacuzzi, steam room, gym, small nail salon and numerous treatment and relaxation rooms. It also has a juice bar for juices, fruit and light snacks. Walking through the doors felt like entering another world and my boyfriend and I throughly enjoyed our day of relaxation.
If any of you are planning a trip to Northen Ireland, I’d definitely advise you to check out the gorgeous Culloden Estate and Spa, it’s so relaxing and in the perfect location to explore Belfast and all it has to offer. I hope you enjoyed this post, please leave comments, I love hearing your opinions!
PaleGirlRambling xo
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