London Lust, Part II: Shopping!

I know you’re waiting for this post! 😀 To be honest, one of my main reasons to go to London was shopping. Of course I was curious about the city itself but I definitely had a major interest in all London has to offer shopping wise! 😀 Speaking of Europe, London and Paris probably have the best and most exciting image. Berlin’s pretty nice too, but you know it’s like that: You never appreciate what you have.

I had high hopes in London’s shopping culture and was mostly satisfied. We started (and somehow also ended) our shopping trip in Oxford Street, which is a huuuge street that stretches itself through 4 underground stations. So yes, it’s a long road down shopping heaven. What surprised me the most, was, that there were only chains. No matter if it came to clothing or food: Starbucks, H&M, Forever 21, Subway and McDonald’s EVERYWHERE. With all the little independent stores in Berlin I have to say that actually surprised me the most.

For all of you, who are travelling to London, or might wanna travel there in the future I made a map on Google Maps where I marked all stores and locations where my cousin and I went. You can access the map by clicking here: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=204239747316826321378.0004c8e7f6425d1c48f3a

What stores I really recommend to shop at Oxford Street are (of course!) Topshop, Urban Outfitters (right next to Topshop 😀 ) and Dorothy Perkins. The latter was a surprise; I just went inside because I saw a lot of girls with bags from that store. It didn’t look that promising on the first look but they really had some awesome clothes! I guess it’s one of these stores where it heavily depends on the actual collection, maybe? :> However, I loved everything they had and ended up buying a cute black (partly lace) dress. But enough words, let’s begin with why you came here! 😀

For those of you who remember my wishlist I made for London you can see that I finally got the Topshop studded cardigan and a new pair of Dr Martens! These items were expensive, however, I wanted them for such a long time now that I could justify these buys for myself. Plus, I’m working! I spend my money how I want 😀 The belt at Urban Outfitters was love at first sight (wait a minute if you wanna see it in action.) Speaking of expensive: No matter how nice London is to shop, there are definitely a lot of cheaper places around the world. From cosmetics to clothes I didn’t even think once „Oh, look how cheap that is!“ Nope. Never.

Shine-through partly lace dress from Dorothy Perkins. This was love at first sight too! I just love the awesome details at the collar and how it’s shine through yet conceals everything. I loooove that dress so much, so glad I bought it!! ^-^ This was about 50$ if I remember right..

Dress and belt in action! 😀 I also bought this necklace from Rock Rebel which is a Rockabilly company. Do I need to tell you that this was love at first sight, too…? (Necklace was about 30$ >_<„) AND LOOK AT THAT AWESOME COLLAR DETAIL!! xD I’m in love, can you tell..? 😀

I also bought these cute studded loafers at Primark. I wanted such shoes since spring, but I couldn’t fit the shoes in Japan so I am a bit behind with that trend. Usually I wouldn’t buy summer shoes in autumn but these were only 12$ and they are so comfortable too! So I reall couldn’t say no, could I?

For the clothing part, that’s all I bought. Yep. You shocked? Well, look at all the prices! I decided to rather get myself some classy, well-made and worth-of-buying items than just buy a lot of anything. I rather have 5 expensive pieces I really love than having 20 cheaper pieces for the same price which I won’t wear often.

Funny fact: After shopping I realized that I just bought exactly one whole outfit! All these items can be worn together; from the dress, to the cardigan to the shoes! Didn’t notice until the end of the day 😀

With that spare money that I had left (I basically was broke after 6 hours of shopping) I bought two palettes from Sleek Make-Up which I wanted for soooooooooo long and I have to say these palettes are AWESOME. Super pigmented, color stays all day and the glitter ones never smudge. I’m hooked and will definitely buy that one palette that I couldn’t find anywhere at Superdrug. I look forward to review the primer and do an EOTD with that awesome glitter eyeliner I got in turquoise 😀

Lastly, I bought some treats for myself and my family/boyfriend at home which is chocolate & tea. I love everything sweet and chocolate is one of my favorite things to eat ever. Also, my mom and I are big tea lovers so that’s why I got green tea + peach for myself and black tea + lemon for my mother (and drinking chocolate for my boyfriend and I for the colder days ^-^)

As a conclusion, I would say that London has great opportunities to shop – if you have the money. I didn’t really find any interesting store outside the big shopping areas like Oxford Street. Notting Hill looked like Harajuku from the stores; so if you like a bunch of stores that literally all sell the same cute lacey dress, go for it! I never really shopped much in Harajuku to be honest. I’m pretty sure London also has some low-budget shopping places hidden somewhere :3

I was very happy that I got everything I wanted and even a little bit more, so I couldn’t be happier! Did you ever take a trip abroad to go shopping? Or do you prefer the local stores in your area? I personally love to go shopping and interact with all the people along the way. It’s a form of culture, after all! Hope you enjoyed this post, I made it with a lot of love! 😀

Have a lovely day! Much love,

Sam