Beauty shopping in London: absolutely overwhelming!

I'm not a city person. Never was, never will be. But the cool thing about this is that, as much as they can make me cringe, cities can impress me easily. One great thing about London in particular is the amount of choice. I was finally going to be able to see all of those amazing department stores and makeup brands that I could never get in my country. The funny thing is I had been in London for around 24 times, just never for shopping. So where did I find the things I was looking for and more?

1. Selfridges

I had never visited Selfridges, and I almost walked past the enormous building between all of the smaller stores on Oxford Street. When I entered I noticed a quiet hall with jewelry, but when I walked over to the cosmetics area, I was soon overwhelmed by the crowd. I had never seen so many beauty brands in one room before. There were makeup artists at every counter busy applying products to customers. NARS was there, Mac, Dior, Estée Lauder, but in full counters and ranges, and shades! Not unimportant. I can never find the shades I like in my country. There was a full Sisley counter, Charlotte Tilbury, etc. etc. I'm one of those people that likes to browse quietly, but at every counter the lady would ask me if I needed some help. They were a little pushy, to be honest. I only just graduated so I only had around 300 pounds to spend the entire weekend, including food, so I had to buy smart and stick to the shades I was looking for. I got the perfect shade of Estée Lauder Double Wear 1N1 Ivory Nude for 33 pounds. Absolutely love that foundation, it's full coverage, matte, and comes in many shades. I also got a compact powder by NARS which I love! The makeup artist applied it to me (can you believe I had never had that done?) including the Gaeity blush which I got at Harrods later because they were out of stock. NARS is my "Mac", it's my go to product when I want to be sure that I look great. By the way, Selfridges has an astounding amount of designer clothes where you just get lost. They have Agent Provocateur, La Perla,...all in the most beautiful lounges. It seemed like I was walking kilometers between all the designer clothes. I didn't see anything I liked and not sure if it was the price tag, but there were very little wearable clothes, to be honest. Everything was about luxury.

The reality:

2. Floris

We then went to Floris, a shop that sells perfumes and soaps, just so I could buy their crisp white lilly of the valley soaps sets. The soap has a wonderful drawing carved in it of the flowers and it's just pure luxury.

3. Farmacia Santa Maria Novella

Right near Floris is a shop that also sells wonderful soaps and bathroom attributes such as antique soap dishes. I'm always looking for luxurious looking accessories to improve my spa sensation in my bathroom, so I went in there and got a classic gold metal soap dish. When you enter places like this, you actually feel like you're shopping. I also got a rose candle made in Florence. The total was over 100 pounds, but the soap dish will last forever, looks timeless and antique, and the rose candle will give off a wonderful scent without even getting burned.

4. Harrods

Just a tip, never keep Harrods as your final stop, even though it's open til like 9 pm. You just want to see everything. The fun part were the giant cakes, the toy department where lots of children were playing with the latest toys (there were no classic toys though unfortunately, except for loads of stuffed animals). The food hall was not as amazing as it used to be. Luxury seemed to be more important than ever. The lingerie department had Mimi Holliday, Aubade, La Perla, again, I just wanted it all! The cosmetics department was almost exactly like Selfridge's. I was able to buy the NARS Gaeity Blush that was out of stock at Selfridges. I also got a jumbo lip pencil. There was a huge Clinique counter, where I found more mono shades than I did at home, so I got this amazing lavender shade called Lavender Out Loud. No need to buy their palette for this shade anymore! To end the day I went to a Fresh counter for the very first time. I got a lip scrub and balm for the BF who has the most chapped lips in the world, and got myself the balm in Tulip. Oh, just a tip, there is a Godiva café at Harrods, where you can have many chocolate drinks, crème brûlée and more. A little better than those dry Harrods biscuits.

We went to more stores, and eventually, you can't spend all your money on makeup. If you can't find it here, you won't find it anywhere! London is the best place in Europe to shop cosmetics. My top tip? Harrods!

x

Helena