The Escape Room, Manchester

Earlier this week, I was lucky enough to be invited along to the launch party for possibly the greatest thing to hit Manchester recently. Located just a couple of minutes walk from Deansgate, you'll find The Escape Room. This is the perfect place to head when you're looking to try something out of the ordinary with your friends. 

Having opened just over a week ago, this brand new venue is pristine and you can see the effort that went into decor & themes from the moment you enter reception, with the black and yellow 'caution tape' style banners instantly getting you in the mood for a Crystal Maze style adventure. 

Upon arrival, we were led to the bar area where you can grab a drink whilst you wait for your game to start, so you don't feel rushed as you can enjoy the bar before and after the game as you please.  The bar is well stocked and boasts some of the cheapest drinks in town (£2 for a bottle of Becks!). The best thing about the bar is that it's exclusive to Escape Room players, so you won't get heaps of people wondering in, beckoned by the call of cheap drinks! 

 From the bar area, you can see the indoor and outdoor balconies, which have great views of Manchester Cathedral and the River Irwell. 

So what IS The Escape Room? There are 5 different rooms for you to tackle; The Mummy, Prison Break, Slaughter House, The Secret Lab and Room 13. The rooms have varying levels of difficulty, so there is something for anybody of any age to have a go at. Each room requires logic and problem solving to help you solve the clues and escape the room in 60 minutes.

We were introduced to our lovely team mates, Irena and Anna. We had never met before, but within seconds of being locked in the room, we were working together to solve the problems and getting on amazingly! I would definitely recommend Escape Room for team-building/ice-breaking exercises for corporate events because we got on so well so quickly.

Our room was The Mummy. I couldn't believe how well they'd pulled off the theme in the room, even the smell was exactly what you'd expect in an ancient tomb (think museum visits!). Obviously, I'm not going to go into detail about what was in the room and spoil the fun! Each room is fitted with a timer, where you can see exactly how much time you have left to escape. The timer, along with the eery music, build great amounts of tension and suspense meaning the time goes by a lot quicker than you think! Each room is also fitted with CCTV, a buzzer to contact reception and an emergency door release. This definitely put me at ease, as I'm claustrophobic and the thought of being locked in the room for an hour filled me with dread, but knowing I could unlock the door at any time definitely put me at ease and once I knew that I didn't give it another thought. 

So did we make it out? hell yeah!! We managed to beat The Mummy and escape in about 45 minutes. 

I'm not going to get too big headed though, as it is supposed to be the easiest room (and we faced some challenges along the way!). I will definitely be back very soon because I need to get on that leaderboard and Slaughter House is calling my name.

You can book your visit by heading to http://www.theescaperoom.co.uk/ and following their super easy online booking system. Just choose a room, number of players and you're good to go! You can book for anywhere between 2 and 200 people, with prices starting at £22pp and gaining discounts with the more people in the group.

I can definitely see this becoming a very popular attraction very quickly!  

The staff definitely add to the experience as they're all super friendly, enthusiastic and fun. There's just nothing else like it in Manchester, offering both a unique gaming experience and a bar!

You can find The Escape Room on Twitter here: @EscapeRoomUK

and on Facebook here: Escape Room UK

does this sound like something you'd have a go at? 

Avenue22 Make Up Sponge

There has definitely been a craze for make up sponges in the beauty world over the past few months. I never got round to buying the BeautyBlender because they remind me of my horrendous attempts at applying foundation when I was younger, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on something I didn't think would work well for me. I did buy a dupe for a fraction of the price, but I didn't really get on with it. 

These sponges from Avenue22(*) have completely changed the way I see sponges. 

They arrive in brush protectors to make sure they don't get damaged in transit. I've saved mine so I can pop them back on whenever I'm travelling. 

The sponges have a handle, which I hadn't seen before, but I think this made all the difference. It makes applying your foundation so much easier as you can hold the handle, instead of trying to hold the sponge in your hand whilst applying make up.

The sponges have a tapered end which makes it much easier to get into those hard to reach areas, such as under the eyes and around the nose. It's also useful if you want to use the sponge for contouring, as the tapered end is precise enough to contour the sides of the nose, but the sponge is big enough to blend out any contouring on the rest of the face.

You can use the sponge either wet or dry. As you would expect, the sponge expands when used wet so it covers a greater area.

The photo below shows my make up when I used the sponge dry. It was very easy to use but a tiny bit rigid for my liking, which meant I had to bounce it on my face more to make sure everything was blended. The results were worth the effort though as my foundation looked much better using the sponge than any other brush I've used in the past.

The photo below shows my make up when I used the sponge wet. It was much easier to use as the sponge covered a larger area of my face, meaning I needed to bounce it on my skin less. It was also softer, making it completely effortless. I could definitely tell when I looked in the mirror that using the sponge wet made my skin seem flawless, and I think it shows a little in the photos too. I haven't edited the photos so you can see the true results of the sponges. I also used the exact same products so any differences were down to the sponge being wet or dry.

I found that my foundation applied much faster and nicer using the sponge wet, but if you're travelling and can't wet the sponge then using it dry gives a great finish too.

My make up seems to be lasting much longer on days I use the sponge. Usually towards the end of the day my make up has sheered out, but I find that it remains as high coverage as when I applied it in the morning. 

I have cleaned mine since using them and they clean super easily. I use a face cleanser with water and the sponges come out looking brand new again.

The sponges are currently £10 (including p&p), which I think is more than reasonable. I think that they are incredible value considering the finish they give. I've never thought my foundation looked flawless before, but when using this sponge wet it gets pretty damn close! These would make perfect stocking fillers for anybody who loves their make up or is just starting out!

You can get yours from Premium Beauty Supplies by tweeting them: @Premium_Beauty1

You can also find them on instagram at @premium_beauty_supplies

or email: premiumbeautysupplies@outlook.com

Coloured Contact Lenses by Geordie Shore's Marnie Simpson

 Geordie Shore’s Marnie Simpson recently debuted her new range of cosmetic contact lenses. Marnie naturally has huge brown eyes, but admits to enjoying experimenting with her eye colour. "I wear contact lenses nearly all the time now so they have to feel and look 100% natural" she says.

Marnie has joined forces with My Cosmetic Lenses to create a stunning range of one-tone fashion lenses. The lenses are intended purely to alter or enhance eye colour and are non-prescription, so don’t do anything to affect sight.

My Cosmetic Lenses is only 6 months old but already seems very popular with a whole host of celebrity fans, including Holly Hagan from Geordie Shore and The Valley’s Lateysha Grace, Carley Belmonte and Natalee Harris. They design their lenses with a high water content, which allows you to wear them for up to 8 hours a day as they hydrate your eyes and stop irritation.

My Cosmetic Lenses focus on offering a range of colours that look natural and fit comfortably. They stock over 30 colours, including 5 from Marnie’s range: Pure Blue, Light Hazel, Misty Grey, Pure Violet and Sea Green.

Speaking about her lenses, Marnie says “It's so important for contact lenses to be comfortable and natural, I've tried loads of different ones that were all irritating, uncomfortable and expensive but MyCosmeticLenses are so different to the rest!". She adds, "I've been wearing contact lenses all throughout Geordie Shore, I don't even notice they're in anymore".

 

"People always compliment me on my eyes, the contact lenses are so natural nobody can tell. I love it!"

If, like me, you’re a fan of the show, you’ll have seen Marnie’s eye colour change a number of times in the same episode and I could never tell when she was wearing contacts and what her actual eye colour is!

The contact lenses are made to last up to a year, with proper care and cleaning. When you consider that the lenses are priced from £12.99 (with free postage!), this is amazing value and works out at just over £1 a month to give you a whole new look!

You can view all of the colours available over on  www.mycosmeticlenses.co.uk 

You can also find Marnie’s range here: http://www.mycosmeticlenses.co.uk/marnie/

Keep an eye out for an upcoming post to see me wearing some of Marnie's range!