After many lockdowns and only leaving the house for essential journeys, it definitely changed the way in which I’d previously enjoyed spending my time going to the shops. I always enjoyed having a browse and taking my time but up until very recently any trips to the shops had been ‘get in, get out’ missions for me.
Now that things are starting to get a bit more back to normal, I took the opportunity to enjoy shopping in person again with a little mother daughter shopping day to Braehead in Glasgow. And it was so nice to just take our time, browse and of course, pick up a few things too. With over 100 of the top High Street stores and great places to dine, it’s the perfect destination for a day out shopping in Glasgow.
So keep reading for my Glasgow shopping guide and to take a trip with me to Braehead Shopping Centre.
Any and every shopping trip to Braehead starts with a trip to Primark for me. If you can get there just after it opens it’s relatively quiet, making it is such a pleasant experience.
I was immediately drawn to this gorgeous teal green padded jacket, which will be perfect for autumn and winter. It’s pretty oversized too, which made it even more cosy. I ended up going for the size small and it still had so much room.
I had to grab a photo of the Bambi wall. How cute is everything? If there’s one thing that Primark do like nobody else it is all things Disney.
This checked coat also caught my eye. But I felt like buying one new outerwear piece was probably enough, for now anyway. But I did grab another pair of these super cosy magic gloves. As someone with tiny, almost child-like hands, these fit perfectly. And at £1 they are such a bargain. I tend to grab a pair or two each year.
New Look truly is one of my favourite stores (it’s where I got the brilliant floral skirt that I’m wearing). And every time that I visit the store, I always end up with a wishlist as long as my arm.
I mean, how gorgeous is the red version of their iconic shirred gingham midi dress? If I didn’t already have it in pink, it would definitely have been coming home with me. I may also need to go back and pick up that cute little leopard print bobble hat too.
I’m a big fan of New Look’s pyjamas, as you might remember from this blog post. The quality is brilliant, especially for the price and they always have lots of fun designs.
I just had to add this leopard print pair to my ever-growing collection.
If you saw that money diary blog post, you will also remember that I picked up some of New Look’s seamless bras. And honestly, since then, they are the only bras that I have worn in or out of the house. They’re super comfy, fit well and come in so many different colours and patterns now. I couldn’t resist picking up the cute floral print one.
Next it was time to pop across to Boots.
I headed straight to the skincare section to pick up a few products from The INKEY List and Versed.
Then it was over to the Fenty Beauty stand as there were quite a few releases that I wanted to check out in person. And seeing them in person led me to pick up the Fenty Beauty Eaze Drop Blurring Skin Tint. I loved how light the shade of this skin tint was. And I fully bought into the hype and grabbed the Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb Heat Lip Luminzer and Plumper. Summer may be almost over but I liked the idea of having more of a glossy red than a matte lip, for me and my complexion.
From the Fenty Skin range, I finally picked up the Fenty Skin Hydra Vizor Invisible Moisturizer SPF 30. And I also decided to try a brand new release, the Fenty Skin Buff Ryder Exfoliating Body Scrub. Is it crazy to say that I already can’t wait to see what they do when it comes to Christmas gift sets?
Expect a blog post dedicated to all the Fenty Beauty/Fenty Skin bits that I picked up very soon.
Boots is seriously coming for Sephora’s crown. And this minis/travel size section, that I’d never seen before at Boots, definitely cements that. Who else has spent way too much time and money at the travel size section at Sephora when they’re on holiday?
As the Lush Halloween range had just launched in store, of course I had to pop by to see what spooky offerings they would have this year. And I was not disappointed.
If you know me, you know that I love a good horror movie, as you will probably no doubt seen over the years in my What I’ve Been Watching blog posts. So I always look forward to getting into the Halloween mood with a scary movie and lots of snacks. After having a cosy bath and getting snuggled up in a pair of pyjamas, of course.
With Scream being my favourite movie of all time, I was beyond excited to see the Screamo Bubble Bar. You know I had to grab one of those! And it was brilliant to see a few old favourites and ones that look like they will be new favourites too. I mean, how cute is the Ghost In The Dark Soap?!
I always have a little wander around the Marks & Spencer lingerie and nightwear section whenever I go to Braehead. And I was really excited to see the new Rosie for Autograph range that covers a much wider range of skin tones. Even though they’re definitely not my skin tone, I fell in love with the middle set. It truly is great to have that much needed representation addressed by a store like M&S.
After working up quite the appetite, we decided to head to Stack & Still for lunch.
To say that you are spoiled for choice when it comes to the sweet and savoury options, with there being quite literally millions of different pancake combinations to choose from, is a definite understatement.
My Mum opted for the Big Breakfast Stack, which comes with bacon, black pudding, lorne sausage, maple baked beans, sautéed onions and a fried egg, on top of a buttermilk stack of pancakes.
I went down the sweet route with the Strawberry Cheesecake Stack. This had strawberries, meringue, cream cheese, biscuit crumb and toffee sauce on a buttermilk stack of pancakes.
And as our eyes can often be bigger than our bellies, we also got a side of french fries and an Eton Mess sundae to share. Let’s just say we were completely stuffed and definitely didn’t eat dinner that night.
Finally and to walk off our incredibly filling lunch, we took a trip to one of my favourite shops at Braehead; Waterstones. Even though I do a lot of my reading on my Kindle these days, there’s still nothing quite like holding a real book in your hands. Visiting a bookstore is also a great way to discover so many great reads as many can pass you by online or in the Kindle store.
I was pretty restrained and only picked up three books, one of which I’d been waiting on coming out for a while now. And that was A Slow Fire Burning. I’ve seen mixed reviews of Small Pleasures but I simply had to grab a copy to decide for myself. And I couldn’t resist the latest Shari Lapena release in hardback either.
It really was nice to get back to enjoying the experience of shopping. You definitely don’t get the same experience when you shop online. And living in Scotland, I still appreciate the fact that face masks are mandatory inside shops. It just makes me feel a whole lot safer and less anxious about getting out and about again.
Expect another shopping trip to Braehead again soon.
Have you enjoyed being able to shop in person again? If so, what are your favourite shops to visit? And what do you think of what I picked up?
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