FALL FASHION | And an intro to Hillcrest Mall, Richmond Hill

Late last month I had the opportunity to head up to Richmond Hill and check out the recently revamped Hillcrest Mall. Hillcrest sent a car to pick me up and even let me bring a friend along for the fun! Today I am going to share some of the neat blogger experiences I had while I was there, and of course what I ended up buying!

On October 20th Hillcrest launched their new South Wing which includes Sporting Life, H&M, Aritzia, Pandora, and Sephora. Unlike some of the larger, more iconic malls in Toronto, this smaller mall has more than enough parking (trust me, I walked through the parking lot-- more on that later). It was a really positive shopping experience-- easy to get around, a good enough food court, and lots of benches to rest our tired feet on. I really appreciated that they had a good selection of my favourite stores, including higher end options. I've noticed that some of the more suburban GTA malls are really stepping up their game , and I think that is great for customers.

Before I get on too much in this post, meet my friend from high school, Courtney. You can check her out on Instagram @missmintmermaidmakeup . 

When I was in high school I couldn't understand why my mom didn't want to go downtown to the mall on the weekend. Not only were the stores better, but I mean, who doesn't want to go downtown? Now that I work downtown and am there five days a week, I do my very best not to be there on the weekends. Improving the malls in the suburban GTA means that teenage Alanna can have her favourite stores,  and that teenage Alanna's mother doesn't have to drag herself all the way downtown. 

To help launch their revamp Hillcrest created a truck to drive around Richmond Hill. People had the opportunity to enter to win an outfit of their choice (valued at about $1500) and to learn about some of the new stores in their backyard. 

I wanted to win the dress from The Bay on the far left. Courtney fell in love with the Sporting Life outfit on the right with that lovely scarf.

For dropping by the truck we also both got a makeup bag in the most useful size!

After spending some time at the truck it was time to head into the mall! I am going to give you a quick run down of the stores we went to, in the approximate order we went to them. Hillcrest was nice enough to give me a $150 gift card to the mall to find some great fall fashion pieces. Only... well I ended up splurging.

We started at BCBG and I immediately saw exactly the coat I was dreaming of: camel, wool, knee length, flowy and flirty, but no belt. I tried it on and fell in love! It was even 30% off. However I placed it on hold, because it would be a pretty depressing shopping spree post if I went to one store and left. I knew it was love though.

Then we went to Sephora where we booked Courtney an appointment at the Benefit Brow Bar.

Next up we walked around The Bay. MAC had all of their holiday collection on full display, and wow was it beautiful. Thankfully MAC's PR had already sent me some pieces so I was able to resist. You can read about MAC's Holiday 2016 collection here. We poked around a few more cosmetics counter and then stumbled across a Tony Moly display, where I bought one of my friends a birthday gift, and Courtney found some unique little pieces she had been looking for.

We then had a quick lunch break before heading back to Sephora. Courtney had her first brow service with them and she left looking GREAT. The lady there did such a fantastic job. Then I helped Courtney spend about another $50 to hit VIB Rouge #sorrynotsorry.

I wanted an (affordable) scarf to compliment my new jacket, so we stepped into Reitman's and I found the perfect scarf for $23, and Courtney found a nice blanket scarf. I also found some really affordable (like $4) fox socks. 

We ended off our trip by stopping in at Shoppers Drug Mart to pick up some necessities, and then hopped back in the car home. We had a lovely girl's day and each found some beautiful pieces!

Here is the perfect coat I found at Hillcrest! I will be sharing a Fall Outerwear Fashion video on my channel in the next few weeks where I will also be featuring my new scarf, and tips for finding the right coat for curvy girls. 

Have you ever been to Hillcrest before? What do you look for in your fall boots, jackets and scarves?

All photos in this post, except for the photo of my in my new jacket, were provided by Hillcrest. The photo of my in my coat was taken by my friend Emma Reid.