Copper Garden

Life, Style and Travel

Instagram: @coppergarden

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Packing

My Virtual Suitcase For Three Weeks In South Africa.

I know what you’re thinking.. bloomin’ heck Jess is off to South Africa again?!?! Yes, yes I am. But this time its for a bigger adventure than before. We’re going to be driving 13 hours from Johannesburg to Cape Town to spend a week there doing tons of cool adventurous things we didn’t do before. Then back to Johannesburg for two weeks in the mountains with our good friend Sam. I promise you that this trip will be much better than any we’ve previously done to South Africa and I’m already so so excited! I’ve decided to give you a ‘virtual wardrobe’ instead of the usual packing video because I think its much easier to shop. So if you see a picture on the ‘gram, an outfit in my vlogs or anywhere else online.. then you can refer back to here and shop everything from one space. Simple!   JavaScript…

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London, UK

A Hidden Hotel Worth Knowing About | The Arch, London.

It’s no secret that I live in London, but I’m always on the hunt for fancy hotels in my city for work or play. I like being able to work from a new space or just feel like I’m creatively free from my usual office, because there’s nothing more inspiring to me than a change of scenery. But its also nice to relax and rejuvenate in a new space. You know feel a bit like Serena Van Der Woodsen living out of a hotel room.. without the New York streets. And what better place to start than a beautiful Georgian hotel in central London?! The Arch hotel is located in the heart of Marlybone, perfectly quiet but a stones throw away from Oxford Street for shopping or getting around the city. The hotel is a perfectly old London style with a touch of modern, thanks to the owners interior flair.…

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London, UK

Why Doughnut Time Is A Blogger AND Vegan Instagram Dream.

We’ve all seen the extravagant doughnuts on social media, it would be hard not to. The mint green decor and floating doughnut sign make it hard to walk past Doughnut Time and not grab yourself a bite. Whenever I’ve walked past, there are always a few tourists and bloggers snapping away (and I like to think I found it before the hype..). The chain is originally from Australia but has popped up in the likes of Notting Hill and Old Street with the most OTT doughnuts you’ve ever seen. Whether they are topped with percy pigs, kinder eggs or various other treats – each doughnut makes my mouth water. Every day there is a similar variety with limited edition flavours popping in and more vegan option than I’ve seen elsewhere. I guess that is what makes an Instagram must visit, isn’t it? A lick of pastel paint, extravagant products and…

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London

Shoreditch on Film.

  I take my Instax Mini everywhere with me and have a ridiculous amount of photo albums filled with mini film pictures from various trips, events and general things I don’t want to forget. On a recent trip to The Photographers Gallery, I found a disposable camera for only £6 and couldn’t resist picking it up for a bit of a retro session with friends. There is something so exciting about waiting a few days to see what you captured and its perfect for documenting a little day out in the hipster capital of London, Shoreditch. The particular day in question happened to be a random frozen outburst from the Beast From The East 2.0. Unfortunately positioned between warmer days so we were all snuggled up in as many layers as possible to pretend it wasn’t arctic – but that kind of adds to the effect doesn’t it. Hayley, Adrian, Joe and…

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Alpujarra

A Yoga Retreat in The Spanish Mountains | Kaliyoga.

I will be the first to admit that I didn’t think a yoga retreat would be my cup of tea. My mind is constantly in overdrive with an inability to switch off so I just assumed that if I ever did one, my mind would only be ‘half present’. I also thought that retreats were for the true Yogis with lots of raw vegan meals and chanting around a fire in the evenings with minimal communication. BUT thats definitely not what Kaliyoga is about.. can you tell I’ve seen too many American movies? 2018 has been a mental challenge for me so far which I’ve briefly touched upon in my ‘online voice’ post. I’ve felt distant, uninspired and fairly sluggish in every aspect of life. Every morning I would wake up and fully intend to go to the gym and eat healthily, but fail miserably each time. My work balance…

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Blogging

How To Be Productive When You Work From Home.

Working from home definitely sounds like a dream. Even now I’m writing this, I can picture this fab life where everything is sunny, my productivity levels are high and my apartment is spotless. What could be better than jumping out of bed, grabbing a Nespresso coffee and walking no more than 10 steps to your desk and being greeted by new beauty samples or a quick article write up!? Nothing. Nothing is the answer until you think about the reality of the situation and how quickly productivity can dip! Working at home isn’t always the dreamy wonderland that you’d imagine and it can often be a bigger challenge than the 6am alarm to head to the office. Switching from work to home mode in the same space means you’re either unproductive or struggling to put your MacBook down at 9pm. Its also difficult not to compare yourself to other bloggers…

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Solihull, UK

Style Lessons I Learnt From My Mother.

Meet my mum, Maggie. The woman who gave me the crazy love for a cup of tea, unique laugh, sense of humour and inability to stop talking – but also gave me a sense of style. When I was growing up, I remember always being worried that Iʼd end up with my mums distinct laugh or cringe at some of her jokes – but both of these things are now traits of hers that make up a big part of who I am. And in all cliche, she is a big inspiration of mine. My mum has always worked hard and put herself first. Sheʼs been around the world living in a campervan for weeks at a time and even ran her first marathon in her fifties. Sheʼs basically a pint sized superwoman – but maybe Iʼm biased. As much as I eye roll when she tells me about her…

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Blogging

Rediscovering My Online Voice.

My online voice. Hmm. I’ve pondered over how to begin this post for a few weeks now. On this particular occasion, I’ve been sat at the kitchen table so long that my coffee mug is empty and my inbox has been checked more times than I could count (and its still giving me the little red bubble of doom to tell me I’m not finished). But I’m still not down to the actual writing.. I guess you could say that I’ve had writers block, or just paid mind to the fact that blogging feels like its dying. Over the last few years everything has changed – evolved into a hybrid of its former self. Blogging isn’t what it used to be but that doesn’t mean it needs to fade out completely and the realisation that I shouldn’t stop doing something I love just because I worry more about whether or not its…

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Ashford, UK

His ‘n Hers Valentines Outfits.

It isn’t often that Adrian and I are in pictures together. Usually one of us is behind the camera trying to get the perfect shot. Last week Ashford Designer Outlet invited us down to shop for our outfits to wear on Valentines Day. I’ll stop here and just mention that we aren’t the conventional ‘lets go out for dinner after you’ve given me flowers’ kind of couple and much prefer a night out or burger in bed. However, for a cocktails and dancing kinda night you still need to look good.. right? I bet you’re wondering what we brought, right? I’ll start with the absolute mens outlet game changer. All Saints stock leather jackets year round and Adrian had been eyeing up a biker style for ages, so when we found this one for £138 (way under half of the full retail price of £350).. it was pretty much love…

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Beauty

My Final Results With ProActiv+

Can you believe it’s been six months since Proactiv+ first graced Copper Garden?! I’ve been using the range daily since August and couldn’t wait to share the finished results with you. All of my previous posts can be found in the ‘journey to better skin’ with information on my skin story, a couple of product reviews and a little chat about feeling confident when you’re bare faced. I’ll be honest, this is the first time I’ve ever really had a ‘routine’ with my skincare. I’m questioning why it took me so long! I used to just take my makeup off with micellar water and use the occasional face mask… but it didn’t go much further than that. Recently – through using the products – I’ve realised the importance of sticking to something more effective. Now it’s all about these three steps; cleanse, tone, moisturise.  GET 20% OFF SITE-WIDE WITH THE…

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Girl Talk

Lets Talk About Contraception.

Contraception. Most of us use it, so why do we find it so difficult to talk about? Natural Cycles has been getting a lot of press recently so I thought I’d talk about my experience. At around the age of 17, my friends and I would head to the local sexual health clinic with lots of other embarrassed teens. We didn’t have much knowledge of the types of contraception available other than condoms or the pill. Being naive, we opted for the pill because its what everyone else was taking. Why should it be different for me? I had no idea. It sounds really stupid now I’ve grown up but at the time, I didn’t even question that every woman is different and what works for one might not work for another. It took me quite a while to come off the contraceptive pill and realise that I wanted something…

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