Just in case anyone out there doesn’t know at this point, Mr. Real Life Style made my dreams come true by taking me on a 3 day trip to London for my 40th birthday. I’ve been asked by many of you what I bought, so of course I’ve written you a blog about it! My regular blog readers might be confused by my watch hunt, as I’d said I was getting the Apple watch. Specifically, I was lusting after the Hermès apple watch. However, I decided that with the number of watches I’ve injured over the last year due to my always moving hands and general lack of grace, low tech and lower cost might be the way to go. We aren’t even going to talk about what I did to my engagement ring…
My birthday morning plan was to get up in time to be at Selfridges when they opened, giving us plenty of time (I thought) to go to Liberty of London for hours, eat a nice lunch, and still make it to our 2pm matinee of Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Instead, I woke up at 9:15am. I had accidentally gotten almost 12 hours of sleep! This is probably not unusual when you miss a night of sleep for travel and don’t have kids, but for me, it was the most sleep I’ve had at once in probably six years. It was AWESOME.
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Shouldn’t we all start off our birthday by getting our makeup done at Selfridges? I’d been wanting to try Charlotte Tilbury’s makeup, the foundation in particular, for awhile. Of course I don’t have time for these things in real life but my birthday vacation seemed the perfect time to give it a whirl. I purchased the Magic Foundation, Wonderglow primer, and Full Fat Lashes mascara and have been really happy with the products.
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Charlotte Tilbury Wonderglow Instant Soft Focus Beauty Flash, $55
Charlotte Tilbury Full Fat Lashes 5 Star Mascara, $29
Charlotte Tilbury Magic Foundation, $44
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Have I mentioned yet that Selfridges has the best shoe department of any store I’ve ever been in? Poor Mr. Real Life Style. I just kept walking and walking through room after room of shoes, exclaiming that I couldn’t believe this was all in one store. The pièce de résistance of the whole department (IMHO) was the series of PEZ shoes by designer Camilla Elphick. I mean PEZ Panda shoes? Ridiculous. If I didn’t have two children to send to college, I would have bought them as sculpture. (Be sure to note the PEZ candy in the display below)
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After getting my makeup done, wandering through most of the store, watch-shopping, and buying my mom Mariage Fréres tea from their only outpost in London, it was time to leave Selfridges. We had time for a quick lunch and a mad dash through Liberty of London before the play. I’d had dreams of finding the new watch I’ve been needing forever at Liberty of London, my favorite store, on my birthday. Unfortunately, I was disappointed by the selection of brands, which are all available in the US, and figured I’d need to look elsewhere. The good news though is that on my second dash through the store, after the play and before our dinner at Nopi, the Ottolenghi restaurant, I discovered that Liberty had a small tea room I could come back to the next day.
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So back to the important part, the shopping. I continued running around London looking for “the perfect watch” until the next day when we returned to Liberty for what I warned Mr. Real Life Style would be a very, very long time. I decided that since I still hadn’t found anything, perhaps my ideal watch really was at Liberty, and that I hadn’t given it enough of a chance. After all, I hadn’t actually tried anything on! It didn’t take long to realize that my favorite watch was actually special, as it was a Larsson and Jennings colorway that is exclusive to Liberty of London. I also fell in love with a black watch by Nixon and figured that since all I had was one summer watch in my current watch wardrobe, it was ok to buy two.
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Larsson and Jennings Lugano 33mm Rose Gold-Silver Milanese Liberty Exclusive Watch, £225
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Nixon Time Teller Bracelet Watch, $100
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Watch shopping complete, it was time for tea! I’m so glad we didn’t get ourselves together enough to book afternoon tea someplace more formal and long-winded before we left. A few scones with jam and tea was all we needed as a break in between more exploring at Liberty. As a bonus, my seat cushion was made from my favorite Liberty pattern!
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Here is a small peek at the amazing fabrics and Liberty of London patterned items available for sale. I want that deer head sooo bad!
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Liberty of London doesn’t just sell clothing and items with their own patterns. They have super funky clothes from other brands too. My kids would think I was the coolest mom ever in this lego skirt or firetruck sneakers by Mira Mikati!
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I hope you’ve enjoyed a small slice of my 40th birthday trip to London! We did do a few things beside shopping, such as visit the Wallace Collection, see the Elton John photo exhibit at the Tate Modern, and climb all the way to the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Definitely felt no guilt at missing solidcore after that one!
Love,
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Lani Inlander is a personal stylist, working with clients who want to feel their best and look put-together every day. You can find her in the Washington, D.C. and New York metropolitan areas.
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