Powerscourt Hotel is a 5-star hotel tucked away in the woodlands of County Wicklow only 30 minutes from Dublin city centre. With 200 lavishly furnished guest rooms including 93 suites and 36 holsed of championship-quality golf, the resort is a stunning complement to the sublime formal gardens of historic Powerscourt Estate in County Wicklow. It is a fabulous location boasting some of the most amazing views of Ireland.

The reception lounge is warm and welcoming - one of the busiest hotel receptions I've ever seen but a great comfortable atmosphere where guests can relax and enjoy the beautiful views beside the fire.

The spacious rooms have an amazing rooftop terrace , they are fitted with marble bathrooms, rainforest showers, interactive televisions, recessed bathroom TV, walk in wardrobes and electronic controls for everything. The only downside is the tea / coffee station is pretty poor for a room that is so amazing.  ESPA products were left in the bathroom which is always a nice touch.

Breakfast was a little disappointing. Unfortunately, the Sika restaurant was closed for renovations during our stay leaving guests to eat a buffet style breakfast in another location. Buffet style breakfast in a 5 star hotel.....Staff did their best but we noticed a few unhappy guests......
We skipped breakfast on the second morning and instead ate at Avoca in Powerscourt House.

Other dining options include Sugar Loaf Lounge, which serves cocktails and Afternoon Tea as a specialty.  Light meals are also served here.. Booking Afternoon Tea is a must as it's extremely busy.

Those who enjoy a more rustic experience can visit  McGills Irish pub, which also serves some traditional Irish meals.

With 20 impeccable treatment rooms, including a private Spa Suite, a 20-metre Swarovski Crystal-lit heated pool and a state-of-the-art thermal suite, award-winning ESPA at Powerscourt Hotel has everything to recalibrate body, mind and spirit. I had an amazing ESPA facial , which you can read about HERE!

Powerscourt house is a 10 minute walk from the main hotel and is a must see. It offers some of the best views in Ireland, overlooking the breath-taking Sugarloaf Mountain. It’s a wonderful place to relax and enjoy a coffee at Avoca Terrace Café. I can't wait to return for a spa weekend with my girlfriends! Amazing,

Check out www.powerscourthotel.com for further details.

If there’s one thing that fashion month provides, it’s plenty of opportunities to experiment with one’s wardrobe, updating classic silhouettes with personal style. One individual that brightened up Fashion Week was fashion favourite Olivia Palermo. She kept things simple, slightly restrained throughout the week, opting for a decidedly seventies vibe with touches of modern flair. A M&S suede skirt-and-boot ensemble was given texture via a fur collared coat, while other looks were tailored yet relaxed and carefree. At Diane von Furstenberg and Tommy Hilfiger’s shows, Palermo tried her hand at elevating bohemian and festival-girl style, pairing distinctive outerwear with flared trousers. But it was Palermo’s feminine aesthetic that truly set her apart from the pack—whether in the form of floral dresses, livening up a dark palette with a fur accent, festive sunnies, or startlingly chic heels. With three more cities to go, We are on Olivia watch!

 

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What is your favourite look?

LINK TO NEW ESPA FACIAL REVIEW HERE! 


With 20 impeccable treatment rooms, a private Spa Suite, a 20-metre Swarovski Crystal-lit heated pool and a state-of-the-art thermal suite, award-winning ESPA at Powerscourt Hotel has everything to recalibrate body, mind and spirit. If you get peckish during your visit,  the Spa Café offers a carefully designed menu to guests during their Spa Retreat, with delicious light meals, herbal infusions and a range of other beverages in harmony with ESPA ambience and philosophy. Located beside the stylish Spa reception, dining here is comfortable and relaxed, with clients usually in their luxurious robes, taking time out between treatments.

I spent an afternoon at the ESPA to fully recharge my batteries & have my annual facial!  Sometimes all that is needed is a few hours of pure relaxation, and that is exactly what I got at ESPA. It's amazing!

Every ESPA personalised facial includes a consultation, SkinVision analysis, cleanse, exfoliation, personalised facial mask and finishes with an application of a booster serum to suit your skin.

For the sensory test, my therapist, Robyn asked me to select a scent which I was 'drawn' to- I selected the herbal spa fresh.
Before beginning my facial,  Robyn used a UV light machine to analyse my skin and its problem areas to help her decide what type of facial I needed – rehydrating, brightening or regenerating. After careful analysis , she decided on a brightening facial. The UV lights shows pigmentation and problem areas, It showed that my problem area was dry eyelids, which turn a bright purple when dehydrated. No surprise there as I have never ever used an eye cream! One to add to the ESPA list.

The results were fantastic. My skin felt glowing, clean and beautifully smooth afterwards. Robyn was engaging, professional and highly skilled. I like therapists to talk about the products they use.


After the facial, I was ushered to the relaxation room overlooking the beautiful Powerscourt gardens, where dried fruit , water and passion fruit sorbets were available. Perfect place to enjoy more R&R. Guests can also enjoy the thermal suite and vitality pool.





All products used for the facial are listed below...

Espa clear face mask
€38 - liberty.co.uk

Espa face care
€35 - johnlewis.com

Espa face cleanser
€31 - johnlewis.com

Espa face care
€74 - liberty.co.uk

Espa face care
€65 - liberty.co.uk

Espa eye care
€31 - liberty.co.uk

Espa skincare
€27 - liberty.co.uk

Espa eye care
€49 - liberty.co.uk

Espa beauty product
€31 - johnlewis.com

Espa mud mask
€43 - johnlewis.com

Visit www.powerscourthotel.com/espa-over.html for further details.

After a shaky start in reality TV, Olivia Palermo has built a solo, worldwide brand out of looking lovely.



If a young woman seeking social recognition in New York is going to get spotted by anyone, it might as well be NYC’s premier star-snapper, Patrick McMullan, which is what happened early in Olivia Palermo’s career. Now a flourishing representative for numerous fashion and beauty brands, latecomers on the social scene might wonder at her talents. Because the city’s partygoers are generally in accord over one thing, she is seldom photographed uttering a word. Ever.

“Fashion has always been an interest and that really evolved as I got into my early adult years,” she said, taking a hearty bite from a cookie and launching into our chat with gusto. “Everyone grows and evolves.”
Years after a notorious court battle with SocialiteRank.com, which published a letter purported to be from Ms. Palermo begging for acceptance among other socialites in the city, she is flourishing career-wise. Not even a bad run-in with an overwrought reality television series, MTV’s The City, where she worked in the PR department of Diane Von Furstenberg and later at Elle.com, could pierce her armour. The striking 28-year-old with a waifish figure is now ogled by nearly 1.8 million people looking at her Instagram posts every day, unphased by the blogging competition. “We all have our own careers. There’s room for everybody,” she said with a diplomat’s flourish. Self-styled Ms. Palermo has resisted attempts by uber-stylists to strip her naked or style her. She remains a New York fashion independent.

'I was born and raised in New York City, and I lived in Greenwich for a little bit,” she told The Observer. She graduated from St. Luke’s School in New Caanan, and went on to attend The American University of Paris and The New School in New York where she had a brief stint studying media. Her father is a real estate developer, while her mother is an interior designer—not the dynastic, fashion-sphere upbringing one might expect. The science behind the Palermo machine is a difficult one to fully understand but that has not stopped her from becoming a favourite with Vogue.

She has scored gigs as a consultant—“giving her two cents” —at the recently imploded Piperlime. Despite Ms. Palermo curating a collection for them, the Gap-owned e-retailer could not get a foothold.
However, the Piperlime demise is no more than another career blip for Ms. Palermo, who seems to get stronger with each setback. Her most recent appointment as creative director of British cosmetics brand Ciaté will be her biggest role to date. “Besides working with Rochas in fragrance a few years back, this is a nice, new way to kind of segue into beauty, and it goes hand-in-hand with fashion. Fragrance is an accessory, and you need it to complete your look.”


Other projects include a video campaign with skincare giant La Mer, an e-commerce partnership with RewardStyle and a collection of Olivia Palermo x Aquazurra shoes on Net-a-Porter. She also co-designed handbags and home goods for Aspinal and Westward Leaning, respectively, to benefit her charity of choice, ADCAM, which she partnered with after befriending William Kikanae, a Maasai Tribe leader in Kenya. “He’s amazing,” she said matter-of-factly. “He’s been able to build three schools, all No. 1 in their region. He’s very about empowering women, and that’s why I jumped on board.”
The Olivia Empire does not end there. She has a small team of employees spanning New York, London and Hamburg—“We like New York, German efficiency and a British twist!” she quipped. To keep content on OlivaPalermo.com fresh, she travels to the four fashion capitals at least twice per year for the shows. “It’s so easy. Let me tell you, I have it down to a science,” she said. “When I’m on the road it’s just me. I can be in like five different cities in a week, so I’m not over-packing, I’m bringing the basic essentials, and some great accessories, in my opinion, the basics. Rimowa [luggage] I highly recommend, and not just because my husband is the face. We were strong supporters before he was the face!”


Her husband, the equally striking Johannes Huebl, is a street style favourite, and also a man of few words. The soft-spoken German is known for his work as a model and photographer, though he is on his way to building a similar outfit for himself as a brand ambassador and designer. The two met through mutual friends in 2008, and married in June last year in small a ceremony in Bedford, N.Y. Ms. Palermo’s Carolina Herrera wedding ensemble alone, which included a pair of formal shorts with a tulle skirt overlay, caused a blogosphere uproar. Along with Mr. Butler, Ms. Palermo’s Maltese, Dumbo, Brooklyn, is the couple’s borough of choice. “New York’s not the same city I necessarily grew up in. I love Notting Hill in London, and this is as close as you’re going to get in New York,” she said, gesturing toward the window. “I lived in Tribeca, and Johannes lived in Brooklyn Heights. We actually came across Dumbo seven years ago, sort of stumbled upon it walking the dog one day. It was by complete chance, and we fell in love with the area.”
For now, home affairs take a back seat to business. “The next chapter is really focusing on e-commerce,” she revealed. Expect a range of Olivia Palermo-designed everything in due course. In the meantime, with Fashion Week upon us, or “fashion month” as Ms. Palermo refers to it, business is taking a front seat. “I’m doing Fashion Week, but in moderation. I always do London, but this season I have to be in Dubai, and I’ve never been to Dubai. Then I’ll have to come back to New York and work a bit. Then Milan, and definitely Paris.”

OP

Read the full interview on Observer/style

Healthy -ish Cookies

Thick, chewy peanut butter oat chocolate chip cookies made without butter or flour. Delicious!

 

• 1 cup chunky peanut butter
• 2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup rolled oats
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2/3 cup chocolate chips

 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C, in a small bowl mix together the oats and baking soda; set aside.

 

In a large bowl beat peanut butter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract with an electric mixer until smooth (about 3 minutes). Mix in dry ingredients with a wooden spoon, then gently fold in chocolate chips.

 

Roll cookies into 2 inch dough balls and place onto sheet 2 inches apart, then BARELY flatten the top of the cookie with your hand. The dough should be pretty sticky. 

 

Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes and remove when edges barely begin to turn a golden brown. The cookies may look a little underdone, but they will continue to cook once you remove them from the oven. Cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 16-20 cookies. 

Healthy & easy! 

 

RED Valentino red flower dress
€920 - revolveclothing.com

Valentino two tone pump
€820 - harrods.com

Kate Spade leather purse
€180 - katespade.com

Monica Vinader ring
€570 - boutique1.com

Kate Spade tech accessory
€35 - katespade.com

NARS Cosmetics red lipstick
€28 - beauty.com

NARS Cosmetics beauty product
€57 - sephora.com

Jo Malone beauty product
€105 - bergdorfgoodman.com

Essie nail polish
€7,45 - beauty.com

Jo Malone peony scented candle
€57 - bergdorfgoodman.com