gluten free Archives - Page 3 of 4

saharasplash11 May, 2016

The Dubai Series: Day One

So you’ve read all about my travel preparations and essentials over the last few days, now I’m here with part three of The Dubai Series: Day One with the best beauty and fashion in the Middle East!

We landed at 7.30 in the morning so we had the whole day to enjoy as soon as we got there. We headed straight for the spa at the Dubai Polo Club!

Paul and I enjoyed Balinese massages which were so relaxing, all the stress of flying just disappeared along with the scents and sounds of the experience.

We spent the rest of the day chilling by the poolside, and had a light bite to eat with virgin pina coladas.

I had my Alpha-H factor 50 which kept me safe in the sun all afternoon.

For the evening, we were off to Maison Mathis to surprise our friend for their 40th birthday. They still didn’t know we were in the country! Here are the details of what I wore:

House of Holland by Eylure lashes were a must for this special occasion. I love the full lash effect that the ‘luffly’ lash gives, they made my eyes so mesmerising with the long, dark lashes.

Here’s the full outfit, I wore a gorgeous maxi skirt from House of Celeb Boutique and a neoprene crop from Boohoo.com.

I matched my cool blue theme with these stylish nail wraps from ThumbsUp Nails in style ‘Cleo’. They are so quick and easy to apply and will have your nails looking salon perfect in just ten mins! No dry time needed!

My bracelets are from the fabulous Corbico Jewellery. This is the 3-piece ‘Audrey Bracelet’ set which I absolutely adore, they look so glam without the high price tag and I wore them throughout the holiday. They are available right here from Corbico online, and the best part is that they are elasticated!

That’s it for The Dubai Series: Day One, stay tuned as tomorrow it’s Day Two with lots more fashion and accessories!

Saharasplash X

PR Samples included

saharasplash10 May, 2016

The Dubai Series: Travel Essentials

Today’s Tuesday, and on Tuesdays we do travel essentials! Take a look at what I took with me to the airport in part two of The Dubai Series: Travel Essentials

Just Bee drinks were my drink of choice for the journey to the airport. I couldn’t take it through security with me, but the green tea and lemon gave me just what I needed for the tube journey to Heathrow Terminal 5. The honey infused water is so refreshing, Just Bee are the perfect travel essential for a thirst quenching pick me up.

As a coeliac, I’m always looking for new snacks that are easy to carry around in my handbag. I was looking to take something easy along with me for the plane, and something tasty…

Snact are a wonderful company which I have blogged about before this year. They are 100% fruit and so naturally gluten free and vegan too. I took their brand new flavour with me- apple, blueberry and banana which was amazing.

Next up for those sweet cravings are the wonderful Cocoalibre. These are a new brand I have just discovered, and just in time for my travel essentials! Also gluten free and vegan, this chocolate is super luxurious and was such a sweet treat high up in the sky! Cocoalibre comes in beautiful packaging and they really do go the extra mile for allergy sufferers with their chocolates.

Of course we all know that your skin can suffer on longer fllights due to the change in pressue and the oxygen quality. So in my bag I had the perfect thing…

The Timeless Truth Travel Pack! This cute little travel pack is the real deal if you’re after a bit of pampering as you travel. The pack comes with three compartments, a makeup remover wipe, a cleanser and then a fibre mask. Timeless Truth think of it all with this star item!

Next up is another brand new discovery from Alpha-H. I took their marvelous Absolute eye cream with me on board as this realy helps to reduce dark circles and puffiness around the eyes. I find that my eyes can get very puffy during a flight, so Alpha-H came to my resue!

The last item on my list is something which I never knew you could take on a plane. This is Batiste dry shampoo. Of course, it has to be a travel size can, but this made my day when I found out I could take this little gem with me! I took the tropical spray with coconut scent.

So there you have it, Part 2 of The Dubai Series: Travel Essentials!

Saharasplash x

If you missed part one, catch up right here with my travel preparations!

PR Sample

saharasplash17 April, 2016

The Blogger’s Tea Party at PopUp Patio

It’s that time again, time for another Bloggers Hangout event! This event was focused on food and drink and was hosted at the Pop Up Patio in Hoxton. It was a great location for a smaller event, and I took thetrousseaudiaries along with me too!

First, to the fashion:

I’m wearing a white lace boho blouse from Forever 21 and some tan high waist wide leg trousers from F+F. I went with a funky print shoe from the M&S Limited collection to finish my look- I got these in the sale at just £8.50! Best buy of the month.

Now, onto my top 5 brands from the event:

The Cocoa Den

The Cocoa Den is a company owned by Kate Burton who specialises in handmade chocolates. She creates the most intricate designs in chocolate, it was wonderful to see her creations as well as taste them too! Virtually all her chocolates are gluten free and they were so lovely! Here are my favourite designs:

Just Bee Drinks

Just Bee drinks were really awesome. They have just gone through a complete brand relaunch and I was really pleased to meet them at the event. They infuse each drink with just a single drop of honey and they use the best honey from this family-orientated business. They stock in Selfridges, Fortnum and Mason or you can buy from them directly too. A 12 pack is just £19.99 and they have 3 delicious flavours to choose from:

Chikas Snacks

Chikas snacks were really popular at the Bloggers Tea Party. Inspired by West African heritage this company is all about making a change for the better. Chikas snacks offer you a way to eat healthily (suitable for vegans and gluten free) and at the same time help do some good. For every subscription box ordered (starting at £4.99) you will also be paired with a child who needs support to receive an education. The snacks are so delicious, my favourite was the plantain crisps!

Drink Me Chai

Drink Me Chai are the number one instant Chai drink in the UK. I know I have been guilty of spending way too much money on chai tea lattes in Starbucks in my time, and so Drink Me Chai are the perfect solution for saving money and still being able to have those luxury drinks. Much like a hot chocolate, all you have to do is add hot water or a water/milk combo to 3 teaspoons of the mixture. It’s so perfect and blended so well, it’s definitely the best instant drink I have tried. These are available in Sainsburys, Tesco and Waitrose for £2.50!

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Snact

I reviewed these guys in my snackly box review a few months back, and it was great to try some more flavours. These snacks are 100% fruit so they are vegan and gluten free. The flavour is intense and so fruity! These are the perfect snacks for on the go, busy bloggers and for in the office too. They have also just launched a brand new flavour- apple, blueberry and banana which I am dying to try, they didn’t have it in time for the event so if I get my hands on a pack I will let you know on Snapchat and Twitter!

Thank you so much to the Bloggers Hangout team for organising such a fun event, Merrell and I had a great evening and we will definitely be blogging more about the brands there in the coming months! If you have any questions about any of the brands mentioned in this post, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter.

Saharasplash x

Catch up on the latest beauty post here- I trialled Mintycoco natural teeth whitening for 14 days!

saharasplash10 April, 2016

Brunch at The Hard Rock Cafe

I hope this post isn’t too long, but I just have so much to say about this particular spring weekend. I’m going to start with the outfit, then move onto the food and the drink because boy there was a lot of it! If you read on to find out what I got up to last weekend, I can’t promise you won’t come away feeling really hungry! You all have to go to brunch at the Hard Rock Cafe…

So first to the fashion:

I decided to go all black for the Rock and Roll brunch, black is my go-to colour and always looks classy. I’m wearing a Karen Millen crop jacket on top of a bodysuit and skirt.

The lace skirt is from Forever 21 and my bodysuit is H&M. I accesorized with a pair of gorgeous gold heels (also forever 21) and my bag is from LYDC.

Croc print and lace crochet really work well together!

So now onto the main event at the first ever Hard Rock Cafe to open, we queued outside and waited to be let in for 10am!

We were seated just inside on the main floor. We had great views of the restaurant, bar and also the band setup behind us.

As well as all you can eat for food, there were bottomless mimosas, bloody mary’s, tea and coffee.

The band led by A.J Moore and Johann Tingall played 3 sets, each set to go with the 3-course brunch. They played breakfast at tiffanys and other really great classics from Journey to Wheatus!

The waiters didn’t stop moving for the whole 2 hours, they were so happy and were enjoying bringing us the food just as much as we enjoyed eating it!

As you know I am gluten free, and the Hard Rock Cafe really has outdone itself since getting accredited by Coeliac UK. Craig, Jonathan and the kitchen and staff have made sure that anyone looking for a gluten free meal can come and enjoy not only the brunch on Sundays, but also enjoy a main meal and dessert from their gluten free menu. For brunch, I had just as much choice as the regular customers- they made gluten free pancakes and waffles which were fabulous, and I even had fried chicken which I have never had in any restaurant since being a coeliac! This along with mushrooms, tomatoes, crispy bacon and diced potatoes saw that I didn’t need to eat another bite for the rest of the day.

The bottomless brunch experience was absolutely amazing, I cannot thank the Hard Rock Cafe enough for such a great time. You can book your bottomless brunch for next Sunday right now right here! They are running the brunch right up until the end of April so get in there and get stuffed! (in the best way possible)

Saharasplash x

For another amazing experience, find out all about how I got to meet a real live owl at one of the poshest places in town!

saharasplash5 April, 2016

The Owl and The Huntsman

The owl and the huntsman went to Claridges for a beautiful braided crown. Okay not really the huntsman, but I certainly did! This post is all about the owl and the huntsman and of course my braided hair!

I was so excited to see the second instalment in The Huntsman series, this time it was all about a winter’s war between two sisters. Snow White was far far away as we got to learn more about Eric’s story (Chris Hemsworth). We arrived at Leicester Square for 6.30pm and were kindly greeted by the Feref team just inside the Vue Cinema.

We had front row seats in the theatre and enjoyed a glass of wine as we watched the film. I loved it even better than the first one, which is quite rare for a sequel! It was reminiscent of the Hobbit in so many ways. The quest to destroy an evil golden object and they even did battle with goblins. Plus the fact that the majority of the film was spent in the woods. This is in no way a criticism of The Huntsman: Winter’s War though, it was a thrilling journey full of surprises and had the perfect balance of humour, adventure and heartthrobbing moments.

The adventure, however, did not end with the movie. I was lucky enough to get invited to a magical mirror room lunch in celebration of the film’s release at Claridges Hotel:

On Thursday I set off for Bond Street station on my lunch break for a wonderful experience. The magical room was filled with scrumptious gluten free delights and a few more surprises too.

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The Braid Bar from Selfridges were there to give us the most amazing hair styles plus they had organised nail and makeup sessions too. I went for the Claudia braid from the braid bar baes and it was so beautiful! I felt like a queen straight from the fairytale, all I needed was a huntsman to come rescue me!

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The star of the show was a real life snowy owl. Not many of us wanted to touch, but we did have our cameras at the ready for some photos. I spoke with his carer and he loved the attention from the press and the bloggers!

I met 3 new blogger buds too, the Mandeville sisters and Joy Ogude– say hey to these girls on social as they are brilliant at what they do.

I can’t thank the Feref team and Universal enough for such a magical experience, from seeing the owl and tea at Claridges to seeing The Huntsman: Winter’s War preview screening of the film. I also came away with this awesome huntsman hoodie which I will be styling up very soon no doubt!

The Owl and the Huntsman saharasplash-13

The Huntsman: Winter’s War is in cinemas now so go see it on the big screen over the next few weeks

Saharasplash X

To get more action on my latest events, see what I got up to recently at the Her Boutique Sip and Shop!

saharasplash18 February, 2016

The only way is Niche

For coeliacs and those who are gluten free, it sometimes sucks when all you’re craving is a gorgeous burger or some fried chicken. Even living in one of the world’s most popular cities sometimes has its limitations when it comes to living gluten free. It’s not easy when you’re out unless you have scoped out the area you are travelling to to see what’s about. So here’s where Niche comes in. Located just a 5 minute walk from Angel, Niche is a completely gluten free restaurant. I want to tell you all about my visit there and why, for me, the only way is Niche!

So we (my partner in crime Paul) arrived for around 7.30 and were immediately seated near the window. It is a quaint place that can seat around 25 people. The lighting is relaxed and chilled and the music is lovely so it’s a perfect place to take your gluten free bestie or your partner.

The menu is laid out on the table so you can begin to feast your eyes over all the possibilities as soon as you are seated. I went straight in for the starters and ordered the Parmesan and cheddar doughnuts. As I said, fried food is a tough one to find as a coeliac! Paul had the soup of the day which was tomato.

Both were really lovely and flavoursome and the presentation flawless- we each paired the starters with homemade lemonade. For the mains, I had to go for the Cheeseburger with extra avocado. It’s not every day I get to order a burger with the bun! It was so beautiful when it came out, I didn’t want to eat it… but I did 😉 Paul had a fantastic sausage and mash- I nipped a bite from his plate too, it would be rude not to sample his dish!

By this time we were both feeling full as the generous portion sizes settled, but I had my eye and heart set on ordering a cheesecake and so that’s what I did. The passion fruit cheesecake was lovely. Sadly my dessert was far too much for me to finish it all off after the first 2 courses, but somehow Paul polished off his chocolate brownie with ease. I must say that both desserts were delightful and I wished I could have finished mine!

Needless to say I really recommend Niche to all gluten free Londoners and travellers as it is such a fantastic place. The service was sublime, the food divine and not a drop of wine in sight! Go check Niche out now and see for yourself how great the dining experience can be for coeliacs. We sometimes forget that our diet does not control us, we can decide where we want to eat. The only way is Niche when you’re looking for some extraordinarily good gluten free food so thank you so much Niche for hosting us!