Bicester Village

Before I start this blog, do you guys know how to pronounce BICESTER VILLAGE?
If your not from the UK, you will probably call it "BYE-CHESTER village" lol, no? Well, I did... a few years back. The actual way to say it is: "BISTER", kind of like blister without the "l".

For those who don't know what Bicester village is... it is a designer outlet located roughly 2 hours away from London! It's so far the best outlet I've ever been to. I can never find anything I like in other outlets, the stock is always poor or old. Bicester is different, the stock is not old, some are actually pretty new! But even the old stock is pretty nice too. The have have new stock coming in very regularly to keep up with the vast amount of visitors.

Speaking of visitors, the place is filled with asian tourists! They even have specific bus tours for Bicester Village, it's pretty epic!

Since Bicester Village is quite far, Me and 6 friends decided to rent a 7 seater car to drive up instead of taking public transport. We knew buses and trains would not work well with our heavy loads of shopping bags in the end XD

We left Camden, London around 10am and arrived in location roughly 12pm. The journey was long, so I need to say a big thank you to our Driver, Jeff! Even though he gave us all whiplash from the several harsh brakes and scary road rages!

When we got to the car park, to our horror, it said full. Our reaction was literally NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Even though it was to be expected as we arrived slightly late. We decided to drive in anyway and was stopped by a man to say we can't park here... we argued and said, yes we technically have the right, we just don't have a space yet! The man's choice of word wasn't very nice but we ignored him anyway. Not even one lap, we saw a family leaving... PERFECT! We stalked them until they left and took their space >:) Who says we can't park here eh eh eh?

Bicester Village has approx 130 stores, ranging from high end luxury designers and high street labels to fancy homeware, cosmetics and kids clothing. It is just shopping paradise!

There are also a few restaurants, cafe and pop up eateries. Before we start our hardcore shopping spree, we decided it was a good idea to eat first.

We tried the Jamie Oliver cafe... I had this fancy looking hotdog:

Check our little crew out :D we could easily blend in with the asian tourists!

After the quick bite, it was shopping time!! We spent literally 2-3 hours in Ralph Lauren boutiques because the lovely Yvonne had a family & friend discount voucher and we took advantage of it! Although it meant paying everything all at once... which was no fun as we had to stand by the cash point for ages XD people behind us weren't overly happy... but it was fascinating see the digits go up o.o 

The total bill at the end was a whopping £1200... with discount it was...

Still a bargain right?

I got myself two shirts and a really good quality cardigan (can't remember the name of the material, apparently it's good)

I adore this pink and white stripy shirt! Can you believe it originally costed £82.50!!! Even at £39.99 I still would not buy! But with Yvonne's voucher, I got this for £20! BARGAIN!

Did you know Ralph Lauren do amazing (but super expensive) home ware? I found out that the candles smellllssss like heaven! Yankee Candles cannot compare!

The picture below shows the range that I ABSOLUTELY adore but it was very expensive!

The RRP was £45, Bicester sale price was £23 and with my friends discount, it comes £11.50... which was still too pricy for a candle XD I settled for a cheaper range!

I got this diffuser instead for £8!! Smells equally as good but not as strong!

I really like the Tory Burch store :) loving the retro patterned decor!

 I went to look at the TB flats and handbags, but none of them tickled my fancy.
The only thing that caught my eye was the card holder wallets.  I really loved the style and look of this one, but the colour selection was not great :(

Oooohh... so many wallets but nothing special!

After, we popped in to Kate Spade!

Looked at the bangles... they didn't fit :'( It's a hard life being petite.

Pretty bangles <3

I found another card wallet that I REALLY liked. I was even queuing for it ready to buy it but decided against it last minute :'( Although, I wanted it... I don't need it... 

So I put it back! I always keep a phrase in my head when I buy things - "IF IN DOUBT, DO WITHOUT!" my lovely pal Alyssa told me this before and it's been stuck in my head ever since!

Although, looking at it now... I kinda want it now >.<! WHYY APRILL!

Next, we had a quick browse at the only cosmetic store in the village! There were soooo much goodies.

Was really intrigued with the Bobbi Brown skincare range! Never came across it before! Have you tried? If so, let me know :)

One of my major purchases was my Burberry scarf! I always wanted one and after seeing this baby...

....I JUST HAD TO! Although, the reduced price was still pretty steep.... £140! 

Me and Yvonne both got one each!

I also bought a Gucci scarf too... which I now regret :( I was going for the mature look for work but i think it looks a bit over-mature... what do you think?

We shopped from day until night! 

Bicester Village is so pretty at night time!

By 7pm, my legs were sooo tired, I was thirsty and dying for food. The dreadful part was the 2 hour commute back to the city. Lucky for us we get to sleep, poor Jeff had to drive us back! I felt really bad!

Back to the city by 9pm... got a free lift to a nearby town and then a bus home! Arrived home at 12am completely exhausted and starved as I only had a hot dog to eat throughout the whole day.  Lucky me :) my loving sister cooked me dinner from scratch at midnight. She probably felt sorry for me as I was about to make instant noodles at first XD 

Family comfort rocks!

I spent a lot of money in Bicester >.< I could not post half of the stuff as a lot of them were gifts for family and friends. But you guys will see my purchases being worn/used on my instagram :) follow me @apecakes

I hope you guys enjoyed reading! 

Let me know your thoughts of my purchases or the outlet itself. Have you been? 

If so, what's your fav shop?

Peace out!