Shop The Centre, Livingston

Hello everyone! I've been blogging for over three years but I recently got my first blogger opportunity in my home town. I come from a town called Livingston, its about 20 miles from Edinburgh and its well known for its shopping centre. What's that shopping centre called? The Centre. Placed smack bang in the middle of town its the place to go in Livingston if you're looking for something to buy, eat or somewhere to catch up with a friend over coffee. Home to many shops including Topshop, Lush, Primark, New Look, The Body Shop, River Island, H&M, Dorothy Perkins, Debenhams and much more. I could literally spend all day listing the shops. And outside there's a row of restaurants: Nandos, Ask Italian, Wagamama, Chiquitos and a Harvester. 

The Centre have launched their own blog which you can read here and they invited me down as a local blogger to have a wee shop and give the place a review. I love shopping at The Centre and have been doing so for years. Its so easy just to pop down when you live so close and having all the shops under the one roof is so convenient. Livingston is well connected to Edinburgh and Glasgow with buses and trains but also has a done of parking. Last year my blogging BFF Charlotte came through to spend the day with me, we shopped 'til we dropped and had a great lunch at Chiquitos. 

I was very kindly supplied with a gift card* for The Centre so that I could do some shopping. They're running a promotion for July where if you spend £50 or more on a Wednesday you get a £5 gift card and 20% off some of the restaurants and if you spend £100 you get a £10 gift card and the same 20%. I think that's an amazing opportunity especially if you're spending a lot of money anyway! To start off with my shopping I went to Boots to find myself some new face powder, as there isn't much left in the one that I already have. I decided to go for the Soap & Glory One Heck of a Blot powder as its cruelty free and I've read some good reviews for it. I also couldn't help picking up a Barry M nail polish as well. Did you know that all of Barry M's products aren't tested on animals and the majority of them are vegan? They really don't advertise that enough! This colour is Papaya and its a gorgeous orange coral. It looks amazing on, someone even asked  if I'd had my nails done!

I'm going to Geneva at the stat of September and we're only taking hand luggage so that means I'm likely only taking one pair of shoes. So I wanted a pair that were going to be really comfy to wear for all of the walking but also stylish. I decided to put what was left on the voucher to a pair of New Balance trainers from Schuh! At first I was going to go for a black pair but they didn't have them in my size. I tried on the navy to see if they would fit so that I could order a black pair but I actually fell in love with the navy and left with those instead! This week I've been trying to wear them around the house as much as possible and they aren't actually as comfortable as I would have hoped but hopefully after they've properly broken in they'll be really comfy!

And lastly I ended up in Waterstones! My gran had actually given me some vouchers earlier in the week that she said she'd had since Christmas and just never spent. So I had a very thrifty shopping trip! I really can't avoid a buy one get one half price deal in Waterstones so I ended up buying The Apple Tart Of Hope by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald and Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige. Both of these sound like such fun books and I can't wait to read them. I also bought Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill which is our Sassy Books read for July(more on that here).

All in all a pretty successful shopping trip! Have you ever been to The Centre?

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