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Heroine In Heels is a top 10 London lifestyle blog aimed at the modern day woman. Covering things to do in London, restaurant reviews, hotels as well as where to go in the world when you want to escape London

Heroine In Heels is a top 10 London lifestyle blog aimed at the modern day woman. Covering things to do in London, restaurant reviews, hotels as well as where to go in the world when you want to escape London



I wasn't a girlie girl growing up. In fact I was pretty much the opposite of me now. I wore tracksuit pants and wore a baseball cap every single day. When all the girls at Brownies wore skirts, I wore trousers, and I didn't wear makeup until I went to college. So having treatments like manicures and pedicures was alien to me. Whilst I've had my share of manicures now, pedicures? Up until this Saturday I'd never had a pedicure in my life. Some might recall in horror at what the state my feet were like- and probably rightly s after years of cramming my feet into heels for 12 hours a day.

So age 25, I felt like I should finally try a pedicure. But after all this time, I might as well go for something a little different. So step forward K West hotel and your Jelly Pedicure.



The K West Hotel is a hotel and spa over in Shepherds Bush. It used to be a music studio that Bob Marley once played at and so the music theme runs throughout the hotel. Currently they've transformed the library/ chill out space into this quirky summer hideaway which also has lots of books all about music and the legends of rock and pop.



But my journey took me downstairs to there spa. The spa at K West is pretty renown even for people who never stay over, it gets a lot of bookings. Apparently they have a Narnia-esque snow room, but sadly it was being used when I came.



But I wasn't too disheartened as I was whisked off to the Nail Bar for my pedicure.

The K West hotel had grabbed my attention because they'd just started doing a very unique pedicure called a Jelly Pedicure. Not Gel like the nail varnish, but jelly, as in what you usually have with ice-cream. OK maybe not the same stuff- I wouldn't recommend trying to eat this.



Rather than a traditional soak in soapy water, Aloe Vera jelly crystals are added to the water, and yes, like when you add jelly cubes to water for dessert, the water starts to thicken in a jelly mush. 

The reason they are doing this as this pedicure is extra mositurising. It softens the skin intensely and the aloe Vera penetrate the layers of skin on your feet. So if you have hard skin like me it's better than just filing off the top layer. 


After a soak, the traditional filing happened but now the skin underneath would be super soft too.




This was repeated a few times, to make sure all the hard and dead skin was scrubbed off and that my feet were like a babies bottom soft. 

The jelly is a little strange at first, but it sort of wraps its way around your feet and gives it a nice warm hug. 


Finally it was time for a polish. What I really love was that the colour you pick, you get to take home with you for topups. 

So how was my first pedicure? Well I honestly can say my feet are so soft and smooth now. I'm feeling them as I type this and the biggest difference is the back of my heels which really was quite embarrassing at how bad it had got. But now I'd be proud to wear those summer sandals.

Check the Jelly Pedicure out at K West Hotel in Shepherds Bush.

Last week the UK went into absolutely meltdown as temperatures soared. Twitter was ablaze with people saying they were dying from the heat, and memes of the Wicked Witch “I’m melting” were going viral. Right now the sun might not be quite out as strong, but summer is firmly here, which means one thing in my opinion; summer terraces.

As someone who doesn’t like beer, larger or cider (So the general contents of pubs) I never understood the appeal of a beer garden when I was at University. Yet now that I’m older and I’ve discovered the likes if cocktails and champagne, a terrace is pure joy. The warm weather, a cold crisp glass of bubbles, it really is a little luxury.


Now you’ve probably read on here about the Four Seasons, many many times now, but it’s because I just keep going back, again and again. To me, it feels like a little tucked away haven amongst the hustle and bustle of London. Especially their terrace, as it’s a walled garden surrounded by huge skyscrapers, which makes it feel like a my little secret garden.

For summer the Four Seasons and Veuve Cliquot have opened up, well aptly named, the Secret Garden, so Saturday night and I was down there like a shot. 


Bubbles all round ladies!


Oh and who better than to share this with than Angie Silverspoon? I love Angie, and I love that whilst we met through blogging, gosh, about 3 years ago now, that we are firmly friends even outside of blogging. I’ve made a little promise to myself that I plan to spend more time with my friends this year. I know it’s hard for us all as we are all so busy, with work and families, but even if its only once a month I see each friend for a catch up, it means things don’t slide.


The terrace has gotten the food just right, by serving tapas style nibbles. The range is quite diverse from Malaysian Beef, Paneer (I’m obsessed with Paneer since India) and flatbreads. The thing with the Four Seasons is, the food is darn good, they no how to use flavours and premium ingredients to add depth.


On Saturday I had been rushing around so much, and felt quite stressed to be honest. I’ve lost my camera charger- I turned my house upside down and even went to my office on Saturday to look for it (which is 2 hours away from my house) and still couldn't find it- so I made panicked around the shops trying to buy a new one. Then I had a couple of blog jobs to do, and so then before I knew it, it was 6pm and I hadn’t ate or drank all day. So I may have indulged in a little off terrace menu food and got their truffle risotto as let me tell you, it is HEAVEN! 

Honestly it is so so good, I wish I could have bowl after bowl after bowl. Honestly, it’s that good. Please, if you come to the terrace, order some risotto?


Of course, I couldn’t not try their summer cocktail range. Now I’m annoyed at myself as I didn’t write down the name of the cocktail I had, and at the time, I thought I’d remember, obviously that was never going to happen, (but I’ll add it in when I find out), but the summer cocktail I had, honestly was do damn good. The Four Seasons are nailing it with the risotto, the cocktails and always credit for serving me panner. 

The terrace is the prettiest space, and if you are an Instagram lover, you really can’t go wrong with this backdrop. Me and Angie ended up moving inside once it got drank, and carried on the girls night way into the night. I’d really recommend Four Seasons Secret Garden to you, so check it out whilst we still have some sun!



For a blogger who blogs about London I haven’t done a very good job of laying down some guides for you guys. I talk about individual spots that I love, but actually if you are coming to London you’d probably want an itinery of all the different spots you should visit.

So my aim for the next few months, is to write some guides to London for different types of trips, and seeing as I’m writing this whilst eating a pizza, I thought I should start with a foodies itinery to London.


Maximize Your Time

The key to doing both a full time day job and running a successful blog, is maximising your time. You need to become good at multitasking and working on the go. Train journey in the morning? Use that time to schedule your tweets for the day and send out a few emails to brands. Lunch time? Use that time to post on Instagram, reply to the morning’s emails and make some notes on blog posts you want to write when you get home. Coffee break, reply to 2 emails whilst you wait in line. It’s all about squeezing out bits of work where you can. Can you schedule a blog meeting near your work and do coffee at lunch time? Keep it to an hour and you’ll be back at your desk in time.
Then as soon as I get home from work I can focus on the main task of what I have to do for the blog, and I try and keep to a schedule. I’ll sit down for 30 minutes, unwind and relax which is very important. Then I’ll write the blog post text for the next 45 minutes. Then I’ll go and make some dinner and maybe read the news or something. Then after dinner I’ll edit the photos for the post and put it together. Finally the rest of the evening (Usually about an hour) is left for me to sort out for tomorrow, and whatever else is happening.   

Outsource

Now this is a little controversial, but I don’t mean get someone to write your blog posts for you as I know ghost writing in blogging was talked about recently in Marie Claire. But I do suggest if you can (and can afford to) outsource some tasks to someone else. It’s what all the management and business books suggest (I’m reading a great one at the moment called The Four Hour Work Week which I think it actually perfect for bloggers) Do you do fashion blogging? Why not outsource your photography to another blogger? That way you save time trying to organise a shoot and the editing process. Another idea would be to outsource your emails to a Virtual Assistant. I haven’t tried this, but my day time work colleagues who have other businesses use VAs for their emails as they two have two business on the go and face the same issues. Or if you are struggling to find time to go to events and produce content, why don’t you take on a one off guest post. Pass on your invite to an event to a blogger you respect and ask if they’d like to attend as a reporter for your blog? You get content and they get a new audience to speak to.


Be Efficient and Selective.

I remember when I first started getting invited to blogging events and emails from brands, I was just so excited for someone to think I was worthy that I said yes to absolutely everything. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m still super excited that people want to work with me, but it just isn’t possible to say yes to everything and that’s ok. You don’t have as much time to go to that press day or that face cream launch as someone who does it full time. They might be able to pop by and if it was worth it, excellent, but if not, then no huge loss. But we have very limited time (Usually a few hours for after work events) so choose what you go to carefully. Is it a) something you really love, like a product you use all the time, or a brand you admire. Or b) do you think it will lead to further opportunities? Networking is super important and I highly recommend making time for those events.


Negotiate

You are going to find that many events and opportunities are during the day now. I mean I get it, PRs and other people involved from the brand don't have to work overtime and it's usually cheaper to host an event during the day too. So I do get it, but it can't cause a pang of envy and resentment when you have to turn down event after event because you'll be filling out that Excel budget. However it isn't the end. Negotiate with the brand, pith alternatives to them. A restaurant is hosting a blogger lunch? Pitch your own girly lunch at a weekend and round up a few blogger friends. Beauty brand doing a launch? Pitch doing a first impressions video to them. The ideas are endless, just brainstorm a few ideas and bounce them around with your contact. They'll love that you are giving your own ideas over as it will create fresh new content for them.

Photos beautifully outsourced to Lydia Collins Photography 

Give Yourself More Credit

I can’t tell you the amount of times I beat myself up over things. I’ll see bloggers tweet about going to meetings and I’ll feel bad for not scheduling blogging meetings, or I didn’t finish that blog post on the day that I wanted, so I get annoyed at myself. I’m one of those people who gets stressed by always wanting to be the best, BUT as a friend and blogger told me the other week, I’m doing TWO jobs and so whilst I might not be able to have all those meetings for the blog, I’m smashing it in job that just happens to not be public. So yes I might not get people tweeting me I’m doing so well at the moment, but that doesn’t mean I’m not in life. It’s just a different industry and so I’m (trying) to give myself more credit and so should you.

Take a moment at the end of every week to write down 3 things you aced this week- not just blogging, in fact I encourage you to write non blogging things, and then give yourself a pat on the back and something as a treat, like a night off with a face pack and a glass of wine, because you deserve it girl. 

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I've been thinking alot lately about how I can be more efficient day to day. As well as this blog, I work full time in The City and I've been feeling a little burnt out. I was desperately trying to find ways I could balance my London foodie lifestyle with the job, when it occurred to me. Why try and fight it? Why not embrace it? 

Most of my lovely readers are not bloggers, and so most of you will have "regular" office jobs too, so it hit me, why am I not talking about this more? This blog has always supposed to have a little aspiration in it, but the heart of it was always relateable. I mean the name Heroine in Heels came about, as I was about to move to London to start my City life and it was a symbol of the power woman, the girl boss, living that have it all lifestyle. 

So I've decided I'm going to focus alot more of content that speaks of the career woman, whether that be weekend travel so you don't have to use holiday, or workwear fashion, with the later being this post. 

So with that in mind I shot my first lookbook video all about 3 workwear dresses perfect for summer, as I know it can be so hard to dress smart when black and grey are no longer options. Please let me know what you think as I'm super proud of it. 


But that is not all! I'm also hosting a Giveaway!

To celebrate me doing YouTube regularly now, I'm giving away these beautiful Kenneth Jay Lane silver earrings with £60.

To win, all you have to do is subscribe to my YouTube channel and tweet my lookbook video (There's a handle share icon on the top right of the video).

Please use the rafflecopter widget below to enter your details so I can track entries. Once you've subscribed and tweeted, just add your username to rafflecopter widget and after the deadline, the winner will be chosen at random.

T&Cs
Entries open to all European Countries.
Giveaway closes 16/06/17
Those already subscribed can still enter by tweeting out the video and adding their details to the widget.















Gin. It's the spirit on everyone's lips these last 6 months. It's also the most British of tipples, which means when the sun decides it wants to peak its head out for us, the gin starts flowing. 

I'm no exception to the rule and love gin, so when I heard about a press for gin event, I was pretty much over like a shot.


Press for champagne had its moment a few years ago, but gin? Now that I can get onboard. 

Although it's not actually a permanent fixture, but a pop-up by Brockmans gin. 

So what is press for gin, I hear you ask? Well my lovelies, at each table there was a bit old button and when you hit that, the waitors watche buzz with which table, and they come over with your gin. What more could you ask for?


The pop-up bar is actually in the most beautiful location, called the Victorian Bath House, which is this tiny old little Victorian building nestled in amongst the giant glass and metal of Liverpool Street. I've actually walked right by it so many times and yet never noticed. 


Each ticket came with 3 gins and accompanying snacks including a gold topped ham hock bun. Well what did you expect for the gin lovers? A bownof peanuts?


Actually what was really cool was the entertainment. Gin and a muscle bound man doing a light show, now we are talking.


I half felt like I was at one of those secret societies that city folk join and this was one of their monthly gatherings. I hoped there would be no initiation though...


My usual consumption of gin is limited to gin and tonic, or sloe gin and lemonade if I'm feeling particularly summary, which was why it was really interesting to see all the ways Brockmans​ serve gin.

Brockmans is quite smooth, yet intense gin. Whilst it has the botanicals like other gins, it's the orange notes that make it unique and perfect for both summer and winter and you can either do winter spice or fruity summer drinks.

Or of course, fancy drinks like dry ice and wow all your guests. I think I might leave that to the experts though.


And as much as the gin was amazing, one of the highlights of the night for me was the incredible fire breathers. I took a million photos but I've tried to limit it for you. Just look at these women!


Bloody hell they were incredible. Time to pick up a new hobby maybe?


The final drink was needed after holding my breath watching that show!


Of course, the night wasn't quite over. Brockmans had one last surprise- gin ice cream! Yes. 

I left with a much lighter head than I came, and maybe slightly blind one the eyes from the bright lights of the fire, but the pop up is super fun. Even if I did get a little trigger happy pressing that button! 

The next pop up will be on for three nights in July 24th-26th . 
So make sure you check it out when the tickets are released later this month, as for everything it's only £25pp and it's a really fun night out.