A Beauty Review: Merumaya Melting Cleansing Balm

I’m huge fan of cleansing balms and since discovering them for the first time about 12 months ago I've enthusiastically incorporated them into my daily beauty regime. When it comes to cleansers I'm very anti makeup wipes, they are the ultimate lazy (or, tired) girl accessory and they don’t do any good for your skin. The other option is a cream or water based cleanser but I find the whole cotton wool thing takes forever until I'm satisfied my face is clean. And then who has time to be bothered with a separate eye make up remover?!

Date Night At Tharavadu

Kerala was the first stop on our round the world adventure and we are extremely fond of this small state on India's south west coast. Every day we delighted in the fantastic spices, seafood and hospitality of this region. Kerala is famous for its beautiful backwaters, evergreen jungle and Arabian Sea coastline of golden beaches.

"Authentic Kerala fish curry (in Leeds!)" 

Skinny Spicy Cauliflower Soup

The latter half of our seven month trip was in South America and the effects of a high carb, meaty diet are really showing as I can no longer fit in to my favourite J Brands. Sob! So, for the past week since returning from our epic round the world adventure I’ve been trying to cram as many vegetables into my diet as possible. 

Ten Travel Essentials For Female Travellers

After seven eventful and fulfilling months backpacking across India, South East Asia and South America there are a few things in my backpack, well, ten to precise, that I would struggle to travel without. Unless you're flashpacking or a journalist for Condenast Traveler backpacking is a very unglamorous life, you literally carry everything you need/own with you as you go.  Yes, whatever you decide you 'need' you're going to have to carry so the idea is to travel as light as possible and the selection process of what to take is very daunting. 

Eating Cartagena

The journey to Cartagena from Iquitos was a long and tiring one, so when we woke in our cramped but beautiful hotel room we were very excited to be in Colombia. Cartagena is a major port on Colombia’s Caribbean Coast and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has a beautiful, Spanish colonial walled town and an impressive fortress that was built to defend the city against pirates. We stayed in Getsamani, a small neighbourhood outside of the old walls where back in the pirate day the African slaves used to live, more recently its where prostitutes made their living and today it’s very backpacker friendly!