Holiday Essentials with Marks and Spencers: Part 1

A few weeks ago Marks and Spencer's got in touch asking me if I would like to get involved in their Holiday Essentials Campaign, and asked if I was going on holiday in March/April time. Now usually by this time of the year I have my holidays all planned out (I had four last year!) but this year, with the exception of a trip to Ireland with my parents and Whitby with Phil's parents, I don't have any real holidays planned at all. I was about to give up when I remembered that I'm off to a hen do in Amsterdam this weekend! As some of you might remember I went to Amsterdam last year for my birthday, so I'm really excited to go back. Plus I think it might be little different from my trip last year when Ellen and I did the Anne Frank house, the Van Gough exhibit and were home in bed every night by 9.30pm.

Now with it only being a weekend trip, we're only taking hand luggage, so I needed to create a little capsule wardrobe for my trip. I decided to choose this pretty orange and white dress and orange ballet flats from Marks and Spencer's and build the rest of my wardrobe around an orange and white colour scheme. I've also added a leopard print dress and black heels as the theme for Saturday night is leopard print!

My Capsule Wardrobe

I always try not to bring too much when I go away, and my rule for this trip was no more than two pairs of shoes! I don't need more than two pairs for 3 days! I'm also not entirely sure if two jackets and two knits is excessive. I've added in a few of my beauty essentials but obviously I'll be bringing all my other beauty and hair stuff (I hope there's enough room in my suitcase!). To demonstrate how my capsule wardrobe is going to work, I've put together all the individual outfits that I'm planning to wear each day...

Day One: Travelling and First Night

Our flight isn't til nearly 6pm on Friday, so I'm planning just to wear jeans, a cardigan and my trench coat for the trip. I'm always a bit chilly on the plane! The evening is going to be a pretty chilled one with just a few drinks and snacks, so I'm just going to swap my flats for heels and throw on my leather jacket.

Saturday Daytime: Exploring the city

On Saturday we're going to be exploring the city so I'm going for a pretty summery dress and of course, flat shoes. My coat and cardigan might accompany me too, just in case! With a long day out, I'm also hoping that Marks and Spencer's Autograph primer keeps my makeup looking great all day!

Saturday Night: Cocktail making!

As I said, the theme for Saturday night is leopard print, which is no problem for me! I'll be wearing a leopard dress (not this exact one, but a similar one!), black heels and my trusty leather jacket. I'll also be using my favourite Urban Decay palette, the Smoked palette, and Autograph Waterproof Mascara. We're going to a cocktail making class before a night on the town which sounds a lot of fun!

Sunday: Coming home

Yep it's a real whistlestop tour! We're coming back home on Sunday, so I've just swapped the simple orange cardigan for a snuggly jumper which I think will be ideal for a sleepy Sunday. I'm sticking with flats again too cause in Amsterdam you never know which direction a bike or a tram might come at you!

Stay tuned for photos of my outfits when I get back from my trip!

Charlotte x

Edit: All other items from my Polyvore sets can be found here!