(OUR BATHROOM)

(OUR TERRACE)

TUI SENSATORI RHODES

You guys all know I love a holiday! So if you have been following my latest holiday over on IG (click here to follow) then you will have seen I have just been to Rhodes and it was another amazing holiday. But it was a brand new hotel so I wanted (as always) to give you guys my honest review of the hotel I stayed in.

THE BACKGROUND INFO

Every year my mother & myself love to go on very glam, very calm holidays. We like 4 poster beds, adults only & lots of cocktails and photo locations. We like modern, new, white, marble & swim up rooms. So when we seen this in Jan (meant to open in May) we booked it straight away. All we had to go off was artist impressions so when it was meant to open in May and got put off until a week before we were meant to go was a bit worrying.

(OUR BEDROOM)

FIRST IMPRESSIONS 

When we turned up to the hotel it was late at night so it was dark but coming into the hotel it was clear that there wasn't much around and there was no big entrance until you got further into the hotel. But when we walked into the lobby - my jaw was down. The decor, was so nice and its so me. Theres literally amazing decor from the floor to the ceiling (honestly, look up). It was big, tonal colours and very modern. They have these sensory pods in the lobby which are a cool touch.
They have fruit infused water & cool towels on arrival (I'm sure its meant to be warm towels?)

But the staff seemed very lovely. We were guided to the buffet but since it was late there was only a selection of cheese and desserts on offer but that was okay for me as I wasn't hungry enough for anything else.

They took our cases straight away from the bus to our rooms so we didn't have to deal with dragging them around.

After eating we went to our room which first impressions it didn't look anything like the artist impression as I'm sure the artist impression was all white room but the room was mostly all wooden. But nevertheless it was a good first impression especially the bathroom.

(COCKTAIL FACING THE MAIN POOL)

(OUR SWIM UP POOL)

THE FACILITIES 

This hotel is the biggest hotel we have been to in the past few years as we tend to go to quite small quite hotels.
It has:
- Italian a la carte
- American a la carte
- Greek a la carte
- Healthy a la carte
- Buffet restaurant
- An outdoor cinema/ Stage
- A bar for the stage
- A bar where they have live music
- An adults only bar near the beach
- An adults only pool
- A kids pool (with slides)
- Tennis courts
- Archery
- A sports bar
- Gym
- Spa & indoor pool
- Nursery
- Snack bars
-An architectural site

(THE GREEK RESTAURANT)

THE FOOD

I was super super excited that it had a lot of restaurants because I get quite sick of the buffet so it was a nice change to have a different restaurant most nights. The ONLY bad thing is that you had to book at reception or via the ATLANTICA app but when we arrived there was restaurants that were fully booked and you can only book 2 days in advance. If you wait until the night before then chances are it will be fully booked. So a couple of nights we were stuck with the restaurant but its in a really good location if you sit outside as theres normally entertainment on which you can hear. Plus the buffet has good food ( only thing for me was the flies around the food) but I know that cant be helped sometimes.

Kuzina - The greek restaurant was amazing and its in such a good location (basically in the middle of the pool). Also the food during the day from the greek restaurant is amazing too (service a bit slow during the day) and they serve gyros, chips, greek salad and more! This is also where you can get cocktails which is handy as its around the main pool. Waiters do come round but there is only one so sometimes you're better going to get them yourself.

Caprice - the Italian restaurant is available for breakfast, lunch & dinner. We went for breakfast once but there was only omelettes and fruit basically so we had a coffee and went back down to the buffet as that has everything. But for dinner it was amazing! The starters, the main and dessert. From start to finish it was gorgeous, plus they do pizza!

Liberty - the American restaurant is away from the main pool and near the architectural site. It was nice to have a nice juicy burger to be honest because its something you miss from home and you cant always get them at the buffet. Although I found that some of the plates came without everything it stated it would come with e.g the brownie for dessert said it was coming with popcorn & basically sounded amazing - it came just as a plain brownie which was very dry.

Gaia - the healthy restaurant it next door to the Italian which is in the best location as it overlooks the whole hotel so it has amazing views. They have amazing salads for starters plus the whole menu has calories etc next to it so if your calorie counting this is perfect.

Citrus - this restaurant is adults only but also please be aware you have to pay for this - so we didn't visit as we didn't see why we would pay since there are so many nice ones included. But we have heard its really amazing!

Buffet - the main buffet restaurant has everything. apart from Nutella - they say its Nutella but its not actual Nutella which was disappointing since they have pancakes and waffles! But I actually found a dessert I liked because normally I find buffet desserts to look good but tasteless.
                                   

(CAPRICE RESTAURANT)

(BUFFET RESTAURANT)

THE DRINKS
Theres lots of bars around the hotel but what I found was the lack of menu's. They have about 5 cocktails on the menu at the beach bar which are disappointing plus the service there is slow.

I ended up having wine and mojitos because they didn't have any Gin cocktails or cucumber to go with my gin and tonic. But in the lobby bar they have more choice but I actually seen that some nicer cocktails you had to pay for which is not good.

So basically don't get your hopes up with the drinks selection.

Since we had a swim up room too we asked about drinks delivered to our room but they were clueless and hadn't even thought of that but if you wanted any sort of room service you were charged.
Because we normally get a swim up room so we can sunbathe on our terrace and use our own pool but because of the drinks we actually had to go and sunbathe at the main pool.

The wine & beer were nice though!

Soft drinks - I found their Fanta lemon to be not actually Fanta Lemon, i'm guessing it was the cheap version.

(SWIM UP ROOMS)

(OUR TERRACE VIEW)

OUR ROOM

We booked a 'double swim up room with terrace' which was room number 3006 which was based exactly opposite the greek restaurant.
At first I thought we weren't going to have much privacy but it was okay actually. It was nice on an evening to be getting ready and have a cup of tea listening to the lady playing the piano.

Since we were close to the entertainment including the outdoor theatre it was noisy. On the nights where we wanted an early night - we were still awake at 12am as the entertainment goes on until then so there no chance of an early night but good if you love the liveliness.

The decor is gorgeous - very minimal but modern. it has a big bathroom with marble everywhere. But the main attraction is the terrace with the swim up pool. We shared a pool with about 5 other rooms but there was only one time the whole holiday that there was me and someone else from another room in the pool at the same time. It was good where we were as there was the music from the bar opposite so it felt like we weren't totally on our own and separated from everyone.

You get a mini bar that we were told was free but once we drank the first lot they charged to fill it up - strange.

Walking through the hotel theres just places where you're still stunned at how amazing the overall feel is like when I found these rooms I was like what are those rooms called and how do I get one of them!! I just think online its not very clear as to what room is what and even when we booked in the TUI travel agents they weren't even sure.

(ADULTS BEACH BAR)

OVERALL THOUGHTS

As you can tell, theres still some teething issues with the hotel and staffing - like the maids not really cleaning the room but thats a small issue that they're trying to solve as time goes on. I don't think they were ready to open when they did and it feels like they're still playing catch up but by now they should be in a much better situation.

The whole hotel is perfectly decorated and theres no issue on that end. You won't regret going here because we had an amazing time.

I tell you what totally helped is the facebook group who share everything from tips like to make sure you take mosquito repellant and any updates of the hotel. Plus customer photos which show what its really like... find the facebook page here

They also have trips that you can go on but we literally just like to stay in the hotel relaxing!

(CAPRICE - ITALIAN RESTAURANT)

Would you love to go here?

p.s hope this helped anyone thinking of going here.

Laura xox

We've all had those disaster hair situations - more than we would have liked. It is so hard finding a hairdressers that does what you ask for with no mistakes. Hair can cost a lot of money and the slightest mistake or miscommunication can make it go so wrong.
I have learnt that.

I had found a hairdressers that I thought was the one I would be going to forever. It was expensive - god it was so expensive. But I bloody love my hair and I would pay a lot to look after it. I had been going there for 4 years, until I had a disaster. I complained & it got sorted but it made me look back at my hair for the past 4 years and realised I wasn't ever happy with the outcome after the toner washed off.

The image below shows the pic on the left was the fixed hair compared to the image on the right was the disaster. It was yellow & I looked like a skunk. Never a good look.

So I decided enough was enough & went on the lookout for a new salon. But really thought about it & realised I need to work with the hairdresser more, explain what I want more & not settle.

NEVER SETTLE.

So I headed to Gallery108 and thought I would change my tactic. Things I said to my hairdresser:

- exactly what you don't want
- the thing you're staying away from ( it was warm tones for me)
- the worst scenario
- exactly what you do want
- what you eventually want to achieve

We have to remember, our hairdressers cant read our minds. But I do think hairdressers need to be more real with us, we don't know that it might not look exactly like the picture we've just shown you.
Yeah we can go in and say right I want this - the hairdresser will try but we need to know that theres a possibility it could not look like that or it might be a bit warmer than we want.

I want to work with my hairdresser, not let her do all the work and then I expect it to look like exactly what I wanted even without fully explaining everything. Plus the most important thing is to be honest!

Whats your worst hair story?

Laura xox

SVS NOUVEAU LASHES
These have become the latest lash craze & I had to jump on it and try them out.

S - SPEED
V - VOLUME
S - STYLE

So whats different? It's all down to style and technique - you can choose how full you want them, how long you want them, how curly you want them but also you can have longer towards the end of your eye to elongate your eyes or longer in the middle to open the eyes more.
The technique that is carried out by the lash technician creates a fluffier  & more natural look by alternating lash length.

I used the salon finder to find a Nouveau lash technician that specialises in the treatment in my area - and I came across my gal  Mel - @lissylashesandbeauty

THE PROCESS

Once your comfortable lying down your technician will start to prep your lashes by making sure they're all cleansed with an oil free cleanser to make sure they is no excess oil on the lashes to prevent lashes not sticking.

You will be asked what look you want to go for, what length and what curl so have an idea in mind or ask your technician to see some images for example to help you chose. I went for the curliest as I have quite straight lashes but also quite long.

I wanted quite a full look but something to make my eyes look wider so she created a look where the longest lashes were in the middle but you can get cat eye looks where its longer towards the outsides.

Once your lashes have been chosen you will then get an eye pad put over the top of your bottom lashes so they don't get in the way or stuck. This is your time to close your eyes and relax for the duration AKA nap time!
Once the lashes are primed they're ready for their masterpiece. With SVS you're creating fluffy lashes so as you can see on the image above, my lash technician draws on the pads what length should go where. Each lash extension is carefully glued onto individually onto your own lash.

AFTERCARE

- You need to be careful not to get them wet for 48 hours straight after.

- Brush them morning & night with a clean mascara wand (this helps to fan them out more and helps to collect any stray lashes that have fallen out)

- Be careful not to rub or pull your lashes

- Don't use eyelash curler

- Clean your lashes and lid with their NEW Lash & Lid cleanser set which helps to get rid of any dirt and makeup 

- infills every 3-4 weeks

I am completely in love with them because they're more of an everyday lash compared to RUSSIAN VOLUME lashes plus they look more natural but without the need to wear mascara - which BTW takes half the time on a morning.

Have you tried SVS Nouveau Lashes before? If you want to try other Nouveau treatments they do LVL, Russian Volume, Extend & express.

Laura xox