Clashing Prints

I spent the weekend 'doon tha toon' ... in Newcastle.  Well, Gateshead to be exact.

Friday was spent with Florence and her Machine ... and what a talented soul she is.  It's my 3rd time seeing Flo and she never disappoints.  I was a little apprehensive about the bigger production of the show to previous gigs but I needn't have worried, I was there for a voice, and a voice is what I got! Oh, and a cape. A stunning, flowing, bejewelled cape.  WANT.

I managed to get some grizzly outfit shots after the gig on our way into town.

Scarf print trousers: Matalan
Heels: Dune
Black top: Zara
Leather Jacket: Esprit
Bag: Mango
Jewellery: Mixture of Topshop, ROX, Links of London

I went for bold scarf print jeans that I picked up (last week) for a snip at £20 from the 'Be Beau' range at Matalan.  I love the colour, print and fit of these jeans.  Probably not the best quality but in my eyes, it's fast fashion, I'm sure in 6 months time I will have no interest in wearing them again so I'd rather spend less.

The clashing red snake-print clutch is a vintage Mango purchase.  Well, that's if you count an 8 year old purchase as vintage.  I do ... ;)  I had my friends give me the okay on the clashing prints as I wasn't sure if it was all a bit too much but they gave the thumbs up and in the end I loved the juxtaposition of both patterns.

What do you think of clashing prints? Do you dare?
x

The extravagance of fur and red lipstick

My Saturday was spent recovering and reminiscing from the night before when my husband and I went to see one of favourite ever DJ's Laurent Garnier.  Fortunately for us we were still feeling relatively fresh the next day and made it out to lunch with friends.  We went to a Brazilian restaurant in town called Tropeiro for a real meat feast and left stuffed and practically rolling home. 

For some reason I keep insisting on dressing for spring.  When I look outside, it looks fairly mild and I see no frost, snow or rain ... so surely it can't be that cold?  WRONG! It's blimmin' freezing out there and I never know until it's too late and there's no going back to change into something warmer.  Thankfully we had the car today but I really need to keep in mind that winter is still well and truly with us.

Trousers:H&M; Striped top: H&M; Leather jacket: Zara; Faux fur stole: H&M; Wedge shoe boots: Dune; Belt: Massimo Dutti

In my last post I wore my fur stole and hat to glam up an otherwise drab outfit.  This time the outfit was fine but I wanted to change up the look of my leather jacket as it has studded shoulder detail.  I decided to wear my stole over it to hide the studs and went for a bright red lip just to make things a bit more interesting.

I played up on my rings today with my Vivienne Westwood skull ring, Ydeltuyt armour ring and my Thailand silver filigree style ring.

 The red lippie of choice was Estee Lauder's Extravagant Ruby.  A true red lipstick that emulates the glamour of a 50's pin up girl.  I have a drawer full of red lipstick, all slightly different from the other and all equally as loved as the next.

 

This is definitely my favourite for retro appeal ... it came out with Lauder's Christmas Collection and has a gorgeous gold glitter coating around the lipstick but doesn't transfer to the lip (kinda wish it did!).

In other news I bought a fantastic new lipstick this week that I just HAVE to share with you all so there will be a blogpost coming soon! 

x

Grand Central - what I wore ... and MUFE HD thoughts

If you have read my previous post you will know I attended the launch party for the Grand Central Hotel this week.

It was a mid week affair and I had to quickly dash home to get changed before heading to the hotel.  Now, with a launch party like this there is no dress code stated ... I had no idea if it was as fancy as black tie or if it was simply smart casual.  I decided to go with smart casual basically because I had very little time to spruce myself up in between finishing work and arriving at the event.

It turned out many people had pulled out all the stops with their outfits with evening gowns strutting by me through the corridors but likewise many business people attending had obviously come straight from the office so in the end I think I struck a nice balance. 

I wore my River Island cropped leather trousers, Zara leopard print shoes, black Mango tee, Mango fitted blazer, my worn to death H&M faux fur stole and my everyday Balenciaga bag. 

Rabbit caught in the headlights!

It was a really comfortable choice but looking at this photo, something isn't quite right.  My face looks grey ... or even greige.  Looking back I thought that my make up brushes were to blame - they are long overdue a good wash - but I think the real culprit is my foundation. 

I decided to go for a change in  my foundation that evening and went with MUFE HD Foundation in shade 125.  I know this is a much loved foundation by beauty bloggers and I have always been quite partial to it myself.  Everything starts off well with this foundation, the packaging is sleek and comes with a pump which I think should be a must have for all foundations going forward.  However, I normally notice after a few hours wear I start to look really tired and my skin starts to look almost saggy as if my foundation is slipping off my face.  For this reason I tend to only wear it when I know I won't be out long enough for it to start looking tired. 

I now feel that maybe this foundation isn't worth the hype or the price seeing as I can only get a few hours decent wear out of it.  When first applied my skin looks lovely - it offers medium coverage which easily builds to full coverage if desired, it also gives a dewy effect without necessarily requiring a powder or blotting. 

One of the selling points about this foundation is that it is supposed to photograph well.  For me, this photo is evidence that I (personally) do not photograph well wearing it.  My skin looks washed out to the point of dull and I look like I have done 6 rounds with Tyson and need a week long kip.  I can even see that my eyeshadow and blush don't seem to sit well layered over it.

MUFE HD isn't the only foundation I have found that photographs badly on me, so too does Revlon Photoready - again a foundation whose selling point is that you photograph well in it.  Estee Lauder Double Wear also doesn't photograph well for me but is a foundation I adore ...and I just make sure I avoid camera's when wearing it ;)

At the moment I think I will stick to my Rituals foundation if I think I may face the camera lens but I am keen to investigate other foundations that work well in photographs?

What do you recommend?

x

Halloween .....oooooohh!

This year for Halloween I went to my friends party in Newcastle. Jen dressed as Ursula from The Little Mermaid and I went along as Queen of Hearts. If I do say so myself, our outfits were pretty cool but I was mostly impressed with our make up which I did myself for us both.

I had tweeted a lot about this over the weekend so I thought I would show you the results.

Meet Ursula and Queen of Hearts ...
Depending how you look at it either Jen is teeny or I am massive. I am sticking to Jen being teeny, okay?! ;)

The unfortunate thing about going as Queen of Hearts and having loveheart shaped lips is that I looked permanently p****d off the whole night. Oh well, I guess it made me look a little scary in the spirit of Halloween of course.

Onto the make up ... ahhh I was so pleased with the make up...
I will give you a quick summary of the products I used:
FACE: EL Doublewear foundation in Al Fresco (this shows up a little pink on my skin and doesn't photograph too well), MAC select cover up, MAC MSF Natural
CHEEKS: Nars Laguna, Illamasqua blush in unrequited, MAC pearl highlighter
EYES: Bourjois pale blue shadow over the lid, Teal from EL Blue Dahlia collection under eye and in crease, Alice from UD AIW palette over lid and under eye, illamasqua sadist in crease, illamasqua roulette blended out at crease along with Queen from UD AIW palette and FINALLY illamasqua immortal on browbone. All this teamed with MUFE smokey lash mascara, Nadine Girls aloud lashes, Mac fluidline in blacktrack .... phew!
LIPS: Illamasqua lip pencil (unsure of name), MAC russian red

The heart gems above my eyebrow and on my cheek placed as a beauty spot was from a set of Broadway nails, nail & body art kit. I also used these on my nails. Nails in China Glaze Ruby Pumps, NYC white polish in manhattan and a glitter polish over the top.

This kit really deserves its own mention, the gems are still on my nails 4 days later and they show no signs of budging.
Now onto Ursulas make up. Ursula in the movie is obviously purple but I didn't want to paint Jen's face purple otherwise we might lose the effect and we also still wanted her to look attractive despite playing the role of a villain for the evening.
Make up summary
FACE: MUFE HD Foundation in 125, MAC MSF Natural
EYEBROWS: Lined with MAC carbon
EYES: Urban Outfitters blue eyeshadow all over lid, Zara purple duo shadow blended into crease and underneath the eye, MAC fluidline in black track to line the eye, a purple glitter liner underneath the eye, Sarah Girls Aloud party lashes (not shown in this photo)
LIPS: Lined with an illamasqua pencil, Gosh red lipstick
I then shaded and contoured Jen's face with the zara purple duo eyeshadow. This doesn't show up so well under the flash but looked fantastic on the night. Ursula's beauty spot was filled in using Urban Decay liner in zero.

Thats the finished look. I have to say I was a bit gutted to wash all that make up off after the effort that went into creating it but it has definitely got me in the mood for being more creative.

Did you dress up for Halloween?

x

OOTD & Celeb Slim update

As usual with any of my (rare) OOTD posts, they are never actually todays outfit .... this was from Saturday.

I would really love to do more OOTD photos but alas I hate posing, it takes at least 60 shots to get a decent photo, it's difficult to photograph yourself, I am quite body shy and at least 5 days out of 7, I wear nothing of much interest.

However I am tempted to start them up more regularly thanks to a new found confidence that has only been assisted by Celebrity Slim.

Back at the start of Summer when I started Celebrity Slim, my progress was steady and pretty quick. In around 8 weeks I had lost a full stone in weight. For the last 4-5 months I have managed to keep the weight off which is fantastic.

But I don't want to stop there, I want to lose at least another stone and a half so thats why this week I will be re-starting the celebrity slim process. Back to my 2 shakes a day, protein snacks and healthy dinner.

It's been easy to maintain the weight but I have got a little lazy and I know it would just take an extra bit of will power and perserverance to lose a bit more. I go on holiday in 4 weeks and would love to lose another stone but I will be a little more realistic and would be happy with at least 7lbs. Wish me luck!

In the meantime though, I have regained confidence in my appearance now that I have lost a little of the blubber. I still have my moments when I literally feel like nothing looks good on or moments when i look at photos of me and think, Urgh! But for the most part I am feeling pretty good again, hence why I am happy to start posting more Outfit posts.

So here is Saturdays ... I was doing a little shopping, going for some lunch then heading down to Newcastle for a party. There was a slight chill in the air but quite a sprinkling of sun ... LA was what I thought of when putting this outfit together. (excuse the messy dressing room in the background)

Here we have:

Grey zara t-shirt (with embellished shoulders)

H&M Fur stole (favourite winter accessory EVER!)

Aldo Aviators

Primark Jeans (shameful you may think but I should really do a seperate blogpost about these)

New Look wedges

If only I were in LA. I was actually in Newcastle for a Halloween party so I will posting some photos of that later to show you what my finished Queen of Hearts look turned out.

Anyone else trying to lose some extra lbs just now? How are you all doing?

Country style OOTD

It's not all that often you seen outfit of the day post on this blog.

As much as i'd like to do them everyday I a) don't have time and b) look like

i've been dragged through a bush backwards most days.

It was a bank holiday weekend so hub and I decided to take a trip to the Highlands for some relaxation, fresh air and amazing scenery.

We ended up staying in Glencoe but did a little mini tour of some lovely places a little further

north like Arisaig and Mallaig. The beaches near Arisaig are particularly gorgeous, in good weather you would probably think you were in the middle of the Carribean!

Since I was headed to the great outdoors, I decided I wanted to go for a Lady of the

Country Manor look. I needed to be casual, comfortable, a teensy bit glam, warm and prepared for any weather.

This is what I went with ... it was all a bit accidental but I liked how it turned out.

Starting from the bottom up:

Riding Boots from Kurt Geiger; Long cable knit socks from House of Fraser; Leggings from Stradivarius; Long vest top from Topshop; Cotton jumper with military detail from Zara; Leopard print scarf from Warehouse; Fur hood gillet from Primark; Sunglasses Oscar de la Renta courtesy of TK MAXX.

Make up was kept pretty low key with some bronzer, blush, winged liner and a bit of Ever Hip lippie by MAC.

And just incase you have never ventured to the Scottish Highlands, here are some snap shots of the weekend ...

In other news, I also purchased my very first pair of hill walking boots at the weekend so I am planning more trips up north and possibly considering the 3 Peaks challenge at some point. I just need to think of how to jazz up my hill walking outfit but that's a whole other blogpost!

After such a lovely weekend it was hard to come home to dreary wet weather and work. Oh well, another day another dollar ...

x

French Connection wishlist ...

I popped into French Connection last week to have a look at their new collection and picked out about 20 lust after items. Unfortunately for me, I am moving house this week so I couldn't splurge but give it a few weeks and I will be hotfooting it back to the store .... i've made up some polyvore sets of what I would love and how I would wear them ...

Nude seems to be the trend for spring ... usually I shy away from colours that are too pale/light but this is a trend I am really loving. Aside nude lipstick (which I have never been entirely sold on), I find that nude always looks so chic.

Nude FC by saskiathesalsafairy featuring French Connection

The sequinned dress really makes me think 'Studio 54' and instead of being quite an 'in your face' sequins, the nude tones really make it stand out as a little bit classier than your usual blingy attire. The other dress really reminds me of a Lanvin dress, I would love to wear this for a family wedding I have coming up. I would team both with smokey eyes and coral lips ... another spring/summer trend ... but when is coral never on trend for Summer?

Billy Boy

I adore this little skirt with bow belt. It is such a soft material, it can be worn dressed up or down. I am also in love with the bag and the gladiator sandals in the middle ... not sure I can justify another bag or pair of gladiators though .... but watch this space!

Jumpsuit - FC by <

I love love love jumpsuits and the Bella jumpsuit above is no exception! I think it would look gorgeous with the shoe boots and the trouser leg slightly tucked in. The floral bag girlies it up a bit. I think it would look great with smokey eyes and this time a nude lip (shock horror).
The sequinned top again has that 70's disco look, and if you don't already know, I love me a bit of d.i.s.c.o! I think it would look really cool with the harem like cropped trousers and dark berry lips!

That's just some of my picks from French Connection. I have also found a lot of lovely pieces in Zara and H&M recently too ... hopefully I can get a 'haul' in soon!

What shops are you loving at the moment?

x