Bank holiday Friday was rolling around fast and my friend was coming down from Manchester for the weekend. We decided that it would be good to do something in a different city, so I googled "Best Cocktail Bars in Southampton" and up popped Bring and Mix.

Just putting it out there now, the results of my google search were completely true. Bring and Mix is the best cocktail bar in Southampton. Hands down.

The premise of the bar is a prohibition theme, and you take your own spirits and they mix up cocktails for you using a whole host of different juices, herbs and other ingredients. It is table service so you can fully enjoy the experience without those ever so annoying queues.

It is reservation only as the bar itself is small- it seats only 32 people. When booking, the website gives you time slot options, we opted for the 8.15pm as we had to get the train back. It costs £19.00 per person and you can sit there and have your cocktails mixed for you for two hours. They also ask for a 25% deposit upfront when you make the booking- so for us, it was £9.50 which I wouldn't say is unreasonable.

The bar is very discreet, the front of it isn't how you would imagine a bar to be. A few days before I received an email with the address and what to do when we got there. We were also given a code we had to say at the door to gain entry. Once inside, the prohibition theme continues and soft jazz covers of modern hits played. The decor also went with the theme of the 1920s prohibition era.

We turned up, bottles in hand, said our code and in we went. We were prepared to be dazzled and dazzled we were. We took Stoli Salted Caramel Vodka and Absolut Mango Vodka and had a whole host of different cocktails. To be honest, I'm quite glad we stuck to the same spirit because I would have been absolutely trollied had we mixed!

The rule of the bar is that each round you have- the whole table must have the same cocktail- which was absolutely fine by us! We were also asked whether we wanted specific cocktails or just to surprise us and we went with the surprise- which I'm so glad we did as we had cocktails I maybe wouldn't have tried before. We also had the opportunity to say if there was anything we didn't like/ were allergic to- which is definitely important if you have allergies! The staff were very friendly and super helpful.



In all, I had 5 cocktails over the course of 2 hours (pictured above is just a small selection!) and my friend had 6. My personal favourite was the chocolate pudding cocktail which we were served first and is also pictured at the top of this post. It was gorgeous. I could literally have it all day, every day. The bill was also served to us in such an adorable manner- in a hollowed out book!



If you happen to live in the Southampton/ Winchester area and love a good cocktail, I would 300% recommend a visit. You can book here on the Bring and Mix website. I can't wait for my next visit!

The dilemma of whether we should be spending half our wages on make up each month still goes on and with the incredible products coming out from high end brands such as Clinique, Urban Decay, Charlotte Tilbury and TooFaced (to name a few!) it's kind of hard to resist. However, the market for drugstore make up brands are changing and drastically improving.

I thought it would be good to test out a couple of palettes from high end brands and a couple of palettes from drugstore brands, see how they fare against each other and see whether I'll be able to save some money picking up drugstore alternatives. I will be rating them out one to four stars on blendability, colour range and overall.

In the high end corner, we have the much hyped Naked Heat Palette by Urban Decay and the Modern Renaissance Palette by Anastasia Beverley Hill.

Naked Heat Palette


Price: £39.50
Available from: Feelunique (amongst others)
Review: Ding ding ding we have a winner! For me, although the price is quite steep there is a large choice of colours and this dared me to go out of comfort zone and experiment with more red shades (I've always been a traditional browny/ gold kind of smokey eye girl). It's properly shown me the light with using burgundy and red shades as they all tie in together.. I also found that the brush that comes with this palette is fantastic. The packaging is functional but I think it's really pretty. Not as pretty as the Anastasia Beverley Hills Modern Renaissance palette but still pretty nonetheless.

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Modern Renaissance Palette


Price: £41.00
Available from: Cult Beauty
Review: What can I say about this palette? I fell in love just looking at it. The packaging is sleek and the velour feel top is definitely different to the majority of plastic topped palettes. The colours were very pigmented, and it came with a good brush. The colour range is incredibly too and I have to admit- I'm literally obsessed with Love Letter. It's quite expensive but the pigmentation of the colours  is fantastic.

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In the "drugstore" corner (I literally couldn't think of another way to term this, so American!), we have the Ultimate Shadow Palette in Warm Neutrals by NYX and Mad about Matte by E.l.f (which I was super excited to see a concession of in my local Superdrug!).

Ultimate Shadow Palette in Warm Neutrals


Price: £16.00
Available from: Cult Beauty (amongst others including Boots)
Review: I liked a lot of the colours from this palette, but for me, the wasn't a single shade which really stood out, unlike Love Letter from the Anastasia Beverley Hills Palette. It's definitely a good introduction to the warmer shades so before splurging on one of the higher end palettes purchasing this palette might be worth it to make sure that warmer colours suit you. I also don't think that colours came out as strong as they looked on the palette. The packaging is rather basic, but is definitely functional. For the price, I definitely think this palette is worth it.

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Mad about Matte


Price: £12.50
Available from: Superdrug
Review: The colours were all fairly similar however they came out of the palette rather strong. The lighter colours also barely showed on my skin- and I am pale! The packaging, much like the NYX palette is rather basic and it's a bit tricky to open if you have acrylic nails like I do! However, it is relatively cheap and would be a good introduction to the smokey eye.

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Overall Verdict: I definitely think that the higher end palettes are more blendable and pigmented but they are definitely more expensive. If you are unsure of the type of colours that would suit you- it would maybe work best buying a cheaper drugstore brand with similar colours before making the leap to the higher end, more expensive palette. Don't get me wrong however, the drugstore palettes are still blendable and with some good brushes you can definitely make them work for you. As I said before, for me the Naked Heat Palette by Urban Decay is my favourite.

Having just spent the last three/ four days in Barcelona, I thought it would be fitting to write about my mini holiday. I am lucky to have one of my best friends living in Barcelona so I had the opportunity to go out and visit her, taste the amazing food and see the sites.



The Sights (from left to right)

I am a little bit of a geek and I love sightseeing and being able to see the history and culture of a city. Over the course of three days, we walked over 70,000 steps visiting some of the most beautiful sights in Barcelona.

Barrio Gotica- Translated is the gothic quarter- a lovely short walk from Las Ramblas, which is the main strip of shops and restaurants, and every where you look there is stunning architecture and quaint coffee shops, patisseries and shops.

La Boqueria- This traditional market is another sight which is just off the Las Ramblas strip- full of hustle and bustle and has a great insight to Spanish culture. The fresh juices are amazing.

La Sagrada Familia- We walked to this cathedral designed by the renowned architect Gaudi and before we turned the corner- I didn't see it. We turned the corner and it was absolutely huge (literally no idea how I didn't see it!) and absolutely stunning, definitely worth a visit if you are planning on going to Barcelona and make sure to pre-book as it got sold out very quickly.

Park Guell- To get to the park there was a slight hike up a hill- but once we got to the top the views were breathtaking. Unfortunately, it was sold out to go and see the famed mosaic wall so we had to settle for the seeing the wall from the other side.

Font Magica de Montjuic- This one of my favourite sights in all of Barcelona- it was amazing. So many pretty colours and lights, along with the music- the atmosphere was electric. We were however, in the soak zone- it was slightly windy so we ended up quite damp and it was very busy so I'd suggest getting there with time to spare.

Casa Batllo- This building is another Gaudi masterpiece, situated along a bustling street of shops such as Michael Kors and Gucci. It's definitely worth a look, but going inside is rather pricey (around 30 euro).



Cocktails (from left to right)

As a cocktail enthusiast, I was delighted to find that cocktails are literally found everywhere in Barcelona. I had countless jugs of Sangria and all of them were faultless but some of the speciality cocktail bars we found stood out the most to me.

First One Cocktail Bar- This was a great little find on the first night- this bar is covered in post it notes and is so cute. We grabbed a cocktail- the amaretto sours in here are amazing (and are only 5 euro) and sat down. Each table has a pack of post it notes on and pens so that you can add your own messages. We then had a live guitarist and singer start performing. It was only a small bar but one hundred percent worth a visit.

Sugar- Again, another little small bar just down from First Cocktail Bar- the drinks were relatively cheap and they did a good tequila sunrise. It was quite busy but it had a good atmosphere.

Taberna Milgritos- We ended up in here after we had a quick nap and needed a pick me up- we had the cocktail of the day for 5 euro which was delightfully refreshing and also a shot of tequila- because- when in Spain....



Food (from left to right)

Everyone loves food. Some of the restaurants we went to were absolutely outstanding and the pictures above just show a selection of the food we sampled over 3 days.

101 Mini Burgers- My friend had been to the sandwich equivalent of this restaurant so we decided to give this little burger place a go. The patatas bravas were out of this world and I love the selection of mini burgers we had. You can choose from a selection of beef, pork, chicken and seafood burgers. My favourite was the Italiano burger- so fresh and delicious!

FOC- I did some research before going to Barcelona and came across this little find on Instagram. We had burritos and strawberry sangria and I kid you not this is the best burrito I have ever had. Think pulled beef and guac. CAN YOU GET ANY BETTER!?

Marmalade- Amazing brunch. We had scrambled eggs on toasted baguette and chorizo hash- fresh and so so scrummy. Service was incredibly slow- but it was so worth it.

Cafe & Tapas- This is the most pricey meal we had in our entire visit- they added a 20% surcharge to sit outside (and it was a beautiful day so we sat outside anyway)!! However, I was not going to leave Barcelona without having Gambas al Ajillo... and they did not disappoint. I love Gambas.

Chok- Another Instagram find and my god it did not let me down. I had a mini chocolate cronut (I'm not huge on sweet stuff) but oh my gosh it was so so delicious and located just off Las Ramblas so very convenient.

We also managed to fit in not one, but two visits to one of my favourite shops on earth- SEPHORA! I maaaay have spent a little too much in there, but hey, I was on holiday!

I would definitely recommend a visit to Barcelona, it is full of history and stunning architecture, not to mention the copious amounts of tapas and sangria.