Day in Manhattan/Haul: Forever 21, Lush, H&M

Okay so I had a fabulous day yesterday. I caught the early train at 9:23 into the city with my friend Andrea who attends NYU (New York Univeristy), so she knew her way around pretty well... thank god! We accidentally caught the express Peak hour train in so we had to pay $3 extra each, but we were in the city before 10:30 am which was good. From Penn Station we took the subway downtown to the Greenwich Village area where the big Forever 21 one is located. Before going there, we stopped at Starbucks where I got my standard tall, iced vanilla coffee with half and half, two raw sugars and one Splenda. Then we walked to Forever 21 and it was two floors of complete heaven. Since we were there so close to it opening, everything was neat, organized, spotless and clothes were easy to find. When I walked in, I literally was overwhelmed by the massave amount of cute clothing. It took me 3 trips to the dressing rooms to figure out what to purchase and my damage is below.





I also got a black, scoop knit tank top, but I couldn't find the picture for it. Anyway, after Forever 21, we passed a store called Strawberry which I have seen several times around the city, but never actually ventured it. The clothing was unbelievably tacky and cheap in my opinion, but in the back they were having a sale on sandals which caught my eye. We must have spent almost 40 minutes trying shoes on and I was soo close to buying a new pair of gladiator sandals for just $19.99, but I decided against it. Actually I was planning on coming back if I couldn't find another pair, but time didn't allow for that. So then we went to Aerosoles for a quick look and blehh, no luck there.


On to LUSH! Now Andrea has never been in Lush before, heck she hasn't even heard of Lush.. she was a Lush virgin. I introduced her to the wonderful world of handmade soaps and bubble bars and bathbombs.. but she didn't even buy anything for herself. She got the 7 hair items for $15 for her friend's birthday gift, and a massage bar/soap gift pack for her mom's birthday.


I picked up two things as you can see.. the Brazened Honey Mask and a little sample of the Ultra Light Moisturizer. I tried it once and it's heaven for my skin.. I have oily and acne prone on days when I'm PMSing and I can feel the mask working when I put it on for the first time. It's supposed to "exfoliate, detoxify, stimulate and nourish tired skin". Some ingredients include refreshing herbs, fruit juice, spices, ground almonds and moisturizing honey. It was just around $8 USD and so worth it. You have to keep it chilled and it has a shelf life of about a month, because there are eggs in it.



After our LUSH trip, we went to Baluchi's for lunch. It is a small, chain Indian restraunt that has multiple locations around the city. They have a fabulous lunch special where everything is 50% off the menu (excludes take out). I ordered Chicken Tikka Masala and Andrea got Chicken Vindaloo. I highly recommend my dish if you can't take spicy foods. Andrea's was so spicy, when I tried it, my face started sweating profusely. The restaurant itself feels extremely authentic, due to it's decor as you can see below. This is not my picture by the way, I found it online. The only downside was there as no air conditioning and yesterday I was so hot running around.


To find a location in New York or to see their menu, you can visit their website here. I highly reccomend trying it out if you're in the area! After lunch, I had a Barnes & Nobles gift card and I wanted to buy a book: The Lie by Chad Kultgen.



Warning, this book is NOT for feminists or women who are easily disgusted by graphic scenes and sexuality. I picked this up one day wandering around a Borders and starting reading it not knowing what it was about, but I could not put it down... so I decided to purchase it yesterday in the city. The Greenwich village store was out of it, so we walked all the way to Union Square where I purchased it there. On our way out, there was a huge H&M staring at us in the face, so of course we had to go in. I walked out pretty satisfied as I only had to pay $10 USD for this cute, teal colored dress.


After H&M, I realized we were extremely late in catching the 3:43 pm train home, so we literally ran to the subway, ran to Penn Station and at 3:41 pm, caught the LIRR back home. I did not think we were going to make it, but whadddyaa know... we did. All in all, I had a fantastic day, and I'm already planning my next trip which will be next week. I hope you enjoy reading this long post, so let me know your thoughts!