FIVE CRUELTY FREE FAVOURITES. | Volume 1

Welcome to a new monthly series I hope to keep up here on ShoStyle - Five Cruelty Free Favourites.

MOLINARD X ALLBEAUTY. | REVIEW

'Molinard, the renowned and venerable Grasse perfumer, is a family history that has thrived for five generations,  forging a legacy with a passion for creation. An adventure that defies time, remaining true to its values and maintaining its exacting standards of excellence, quality, and tradition.'

WHAT TO WEAR? - OCCASION WEAR (ALL UNDER €100)

Have an Occasion coming up? Be it a wedding, graduation, the races or something else, I've found some of my current online favourites that should help you out on your occasion wear hunt. Everything listed is under €100 to help you look stylish without breaking the bank too much. Let me know your favourites or even better let me know if you end up purchasing any of my suggestions!

NIGHT AT NOX.

I was kindly invited along for a night in Nox Hotel Galway and some of you may remember I spent a night there before and was more than pleased with my stay so I was only delighted to be asked back. I brought my cousin Eimear as my guest as it was her birthday a couple of days previous to our stay so a night away together was just what we needed for a much needed catch up.

  THE ROOM

We were given a room with a double and single bed and were so kindly greeted with some yummy treats. First impressions were that the staff were as friendly as always, check-in was a breeze and the room was clean and fresh for us. A massive bonus for me was that the temperature of the room could be controlled manually and as someone that over heats very easily, the heat was immediately turned off much to my delight although Eimear wasn't all too pleased about this as she's the type of person that loves to be in unbearable heat, whereas I can't stand being too warm! Another thing I noticed and really appreciated was the hair dryer provided in the room, it wasn't one of those crappy hotel room hair dryers which take about 10 hours to dry your hair. Massive thumbs up from two gals that have large manes of hair! The beds were super comfy and both of us struggled massively to leave them the following morning.

DINNER AT FORK

Fork is Nox's restaurant located just off the lobby area. We had a delicious three course dinner here and were left with some serious food babies after. I would probably say my favourite dish was the Goat's Cheese Bruschetta which I had to start and Eimear highly rated her steak sandwich which she had as her main course. Check out what we had below..

Starter

Main Course

Dessert

THE DECOR

The Decor is so fab in Nox, it's modern with the main colour themes being navy and gold which are both very rich and bold. I could sit in the lobby for hours and well, we did just that! Sipping on Autumnal Spiced Latte's in comfort while looking out at the rain.. Yep it was as ideal as it sounds.

So if your'e thinking of taking a trip to Galway, make sure to check out Nox Hotel!

Love Shona xo

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BACK TO COLLEGE CASUALS.

AFTERNOON TEA AT THE HOUSE HOTEL | GALWAY.

Yesterday evening, myself, Aimee (floralesque.com), Ciara (ciaraswalsh.com), Kerrie (bellaandvogue.blogspot.ie) and Kieran (@galwayplayer) met for some afternoon tea in The House Hotel here in Galway. It was certainly an evening of firsts for me as I had never been in The House Hotel before nor had I ever had Afternoon Tea, which is a practically seen as a sin if you're a blogger as it's guaranteed to be an Instagramable experience.

The House Hotel is located in the heart of Galway's Latin Quarter and is renowned for being Galway's unique city centre boutique hotel. I had always heard great things about the interiors of the hotel so that was certainly something I was excited to see for myself and I can tell you now that I  was not disappointed in the least. It's vibrant, modern and is oozing with quirkiness which is something I adore in interiors. The afternoon tea was hosted in the lobby which has a main colour scheme of pink and is full of comfy couches and chairs to nestle into while you indulge in all of the scrumptious treats.

There are 4 types of Afternoon Tea in which you can choose from, the first being 'The House Traditional Afternoon Tea' and that costs €19pp, then there is 'Afternoon Tea with Bubbly' and that is €25pp, there is also 'A most unusual Afternoon Tea with Hendricks Gin' and costs €28pp and finally 'Afternoon Tea with Champagne' which is €30pp. Just a little note... all Afternoon Teas must be pre-booked in case it is something you are thinking of trying out! :)

We decided to book the first option which is 'The House Traditional Afternoon Tea' and we were required to put a deposit of one person so that was €19. We booked it for 6pm so it would suit everyone that was working etc. so it's good to know it doesn't necessarily have to be in the afternoon, it can also be a lovely way to spend an evening.

So you are firstly offered your teas/coffees and if you drink neither you can opt for a hot chocolate like Aimee did so everyone is catered for! Then comes the food and my god, were our mouths watering as it approached the table. Our first thoughts were - we are never going to get through all that food, there was loads so even though we chose the least expensive option, there certainly was no shortage of food given!

The first tier consisted of savoury food so it was sandwich type food I guess you would say. My favourite from that tier would have to be the brown bread with spinach and goats cheese as that is pretty much 3 of my favourite foods all piled on top of each other. The other choices were yum also, I literally can't fault them, there was nothing I didn't enjoy. 

Next, there was a layer of scones and to my delight, there was not only fruit scones but plain ones also as I strongly agree with James Kavanagh on his comparison of raisins to the devil's droppings. Everyone else nibbled on the fruit ones but I stuck to the plain and they were delish, I just find something so comforting about a scone accompanied with a hot drink.

Lastly, but certainly not least were the sweet treats, there were mini eclairs, salted caramel squares which by the way literally just melted in my mouth, oh my god, like I couldn't believe the yuminess! There were also brownies which had the most perfect hard layer/soft centre ratio and lemony cake bits which I also enjoyed immensely as anything lemon flavoured is guaranteed to be a hit with me. Can you tell which tier was my fave?

We finished off the evening with a cocktail each and firstly I couldn't get over the massive selection of cocktails The House Hotel have available, it is by far the largest cocktail menu I have ever seen. I chose 'Summer Garden' (the clear/green one in the pic) which contained Beefeater Gin, St.Germain elderflower liquer, apple juice, fresh lime and house infused rosemary. It was definitely right up my street as it was refreshing and didn't have any nasty kick to it. Feel like I need to make a few more trips to The House Hotel and make my way through their cocktail menu! 

I have sat back and tried to think about a downfall from the evening as I always want my reviews to be as real as possible but I honestly can't fault the evening, I really enjoyed it! It was a nice relaxed environment with good food and great people, what more could a gal want.

Love Shóna xo

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SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS.

 If you follow fashion at all or are on any form of social media, I'm 99.9% sure that you are well aware that frills and ruffles are currently having a major fashion moment. They're everywhere! To be honest, I do tend to jump on board the latest trends all the time but I have not fallen in love with a trend as much as I have this one in a while. I want all of the frills! 😍

The moment I put on frills or ruffles I instantly feel like this emoji - 💃

And she looks like she's having a bloody great time so who wouldn't want to feel like that emoji! If you didn't notice by the shots I took in this top from Crave Closet, I had so much fun wearing this top, I adore how it moves! So here's to adding lots and lots of frills to my summer wardrobe and apologies if you're not a fan of this trend because you will be seeing a lot of it from me 😏

OUTFIT DETAILS

TOP - CRAVE CLOSET

JEANS - FREDDYS FROM OLIVIA DANIELLE

Love Shóna xo

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*this top was gifted by Crave Clost, however, I did choose it myself and all opinions are my own.