What To Pack For An Overnight Stay

 It's not often that I stay in London hotels but after a recent overnight stay at Citizen M Bankside I wanted to give a little insight into spending the night away from home, including my stay and a morning makeup routine.

I don't get to stay in London hotels often as I'm London-based and choose to pocket the extra money and spend my nights at home instead but a couple of weeks ago I stayed at the Citizen M Bankside located in the heart of London which was a nice change. I have read a lot of things about these hotels but had never actually stayed in one; I love how tech savvy they are with a room that is almost solely controlled through an iPad, that is, everything from the lights, blinds, curtains and TV. Whilst the hotel doesn't offer hugely spacious rooms, they do offer a pretty ginormous king-size bed for the best night's sleep.

I was only away from home for one night but still managed to pack a suitcase so I thought I'd go ahead and share my morning waking up at Citizen M Bankside. Starting with the makeup I took away with me as well as a mini spring makeup routine and a few extra photos of the hotel for any of you who are curious to see more! I left out both my evening and morning routines but please do let me know if you want to see either of those and I will work on it! It's quite a hefty post so I hope you're ready for all the writing and imagery.

When it comes to my makeup, I've actually started experimenting a lot more. I've been incorporating new products into my routine and trialling things like colour correcting and daily mists too! I'm actually really intrigued with mists at the moment, I love just how easy they are to use. I recently got sent four new mists by Pixi and I've been trialling a few at different points in my routine. The one I took away with me was the Glow Mist as it works a bit like a hydrating primer which is perfect for travelling as it saves having to take extra products like a primer and/or moisturiser. For my base, I went for the Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation which I've been really enjoying at the moment, I don't find it to be too heavy on my skin and I think it gives a really nice flawless finish and is super easy to blend too.

I've always struggled with dark circles so I've started using pinky toned colour correctors in an attempt to combat the darkness under my eyes. Urban Decay's Naked colour correctors are probably some of my favourites because of their applicators, which are pretty much identical to your typical concealer sticks, I use the shade pink for under my eyes. I then follow with a concealer, currently I'm using the Too Faced Born This Way concealer in a slightly lighter shade (shade: light) to really brighten my under eye area.

Brows have become such an essential part of my beauty routine, it used to be all about the lashes for me but mine have never been too great and honestly, applying mascara is such a chore for me these days that I often choose to skip that step altogether. Brows on the other hand, I can't seem to leave the house without. I have quite big bushy brows anyway but there are a few sparse areas, particularly the outer corners, so I find filling in my brows just shapes my face completely. I almost always use a brow pencil, I have a mini Goof Proof Brow Pencil by Benefit which is great to pop in your travel makeup kit and to set my brows in place I use Benefit's Gimme Brow which also adds a hint of colour.

To keep things simple I didn't contour (I would say more often than not when I wear a full face of makeup I do tend to contour) instead, I just bronzed up my face using this Rimmel sculpting trio which is so perfect for an overnight stay. I tend to get bored quite quickly and like to change things up when I can so a trio like this would only be good enough for a weekend away max before I start to get bored of it. I used both the bronzer and blusher in the trio but I cheated a little bit when it came to highlighter. I love adding glow and I just had to pop in my Mary-Lou-Manizer highlighter to give me the desired effect.

I think it's only been about two weeks since I started using an eyelash primer but OMG it has changed my life. I can't get over how much of a difference it makes. I curl my lashes and then apply the Christian Breton eyelash builder and can instantly see a change in my lashes, I've never tried any other eyelash primers as I thought it was a bit gimmicky but I've started using some Christian Breton lash products (the infinite lash serum has become a part of my evening routine) so I thought I would give the primer a go and I'm so impressed. On top of that I put on a couple of coats of the Too Faced Better Than Sex mascara which is a cult classic, I really want to get my hands on the waterproof version for the summer! To finish off the look I went for a peachy lip which I've really been enjoying recently, it's just perfect for spring. I picked the Too Faced Peach gloss in peach-tease which smells as peachy as you'd imagine.

 Once my makeup was done it was finally time to jump *reluctantly* out of bed, switch on the lights in the room and after a play around with the colour wheel (yes, you can change the colour of the lights in your room! Oh so snazzy) it was finally time to change out of my pyjamas and into something for a day in the city.

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Pyjama two-piece - (c/o) Missguided (similar)

[Photos taken by Andre]