ootd: high waisted printed trousers

Blazer - Oasis • Top - River Island • Trousers - American Apparel • Shoes - Chanel • Bag - Celine • Sunglasses - Miu Miu • Watch - Michael Kors

After a week of illness, I was happy to step in to the sunshine in my favourite new pyjama style trousers with an equally comfy blazer. I think this outfit is the very definition of my style at the moment; one part printed trouser, one part blazer mixed with fabulous shoes and a handbag. The trousers are an ideal combination of tailored and relaxed. The high waisted, fitted cut is offset with the soft, silky material.  Shiny gold shoes may seem an ostentatious addition to the outfit but they couldn't be any more perfect to me. I think they are great to smarten up a rather slouchy and relaxed outfit, which hopefully confirms to onlookers that I have not in fact, walked out of the house in my pyjamas. Although that may not be a bad thing.

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fash-thing of the week: what's in my handbag

Celine luggage tote • Miu Miu sunglasses • Filofax • iPhone • Louis Vuitton purse • Topshop Oyster card holder • Vogue • MAC illustrated makeup bag • LP Skin Therapy uplifting facial water • Figs & Rouge Rambling Rose balm • Chanel le crayon kohl intense eye pencil in Black • Revlon Just Bitten lipstain in Lovesick • Bobbi Brown intensifying long-wear mascara in Black • Shu Uemura 24K Gold eyelash curler • MAC lipstick in Cut A Caper & Must Be Red! • Clarins Crystal balm in Crystal Coral • REN Vetiver v7 hand & body moisturiser

This week I've been really in to WIHM which is a website which combines two of my loves: snooping at people's handbags and makeup. It allows you to see what some of the top industry insiders have in their bags and you can also try out samples of the latest beauty must haves. You can even upload your own handbag for people to take a peek at, I uploaded my handbag if anyone wants to take a look at what I thought of these particular beauty products. I certainly do carry around a lot of stuff on a day to day basis, which may be why my shoulder always hurts, but you never know what you're going to need! Although I did have a good tidy up and took out the million pieces of paper and receipts that always seem to be floating around the bottom... And carrying 4 lipsticks is actually quite restrained of me, sometimes I actually find 7 or 8 rolling around in the depths of my bag. Whoops. I also always find myself carrying around a magazine, for essential bus reading purposes of course, and also my lovely new Filofax - yes I do have an iPhone but I like writing everything down on paper, I somehow can keep track of my life when it's placed in a diary. Heaven forbid if I ever lost it! So what do you carry around on a day to day basis? 

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ode to a handbag (or two...)

If you’ve been reading my blog for some time, you may have noticed that I have a certain love (i.e. obsession) with handbags. Especially handbags of the designer variety. I’ve been very blessed to receive quite a number of bags as presents and I’ve also saved up money to buy a few. The problem I have is, as soon as I feed my habit, I find myself wanting a new bag almost straight away. I’m always cruising websites and wandering around shops to see what’s new in. One of those shops is Harrods I don’t think I’m alone when I say there is nothing I like more than striding through those grand glass doors and heading straight to the handbag section for a cheeky look around. So you can join in with the fun, I thought I would comply a little wish list of bags that I’ve spotted and loved.

First we have the gorgeous Mulberry Del Ray - £795, obviously one of the hottest bags on the market at the moment. I love the doctor bag shape and the gorgeous colour, yes it might be a tad cliché to get the latest celeb it bag, but I love it and that’s all that matters.

Next, I’ve been lusting after the Chloe Small Paraty Tote - £1,020. A bag so pretty and so pink that it’s hard to resist. Yes lighter bags may not be the most practical colour for a leather bag but as long as it’s looks good, why not?! I think this would be a great little addition to my collection and I’m really drawn to the piping effect on the front.

I’m also lusting after the MICHAEL Michael Kors Medium Hamilton Tote - £285 which is relatively cheap by my taste as I always have a habit of falling in love with the expensive bags (why oh why?!). I’ve been wanting to get a brightly coloured bag, and you can’t really get much brighter than yellow. Might be a difficult colour to wear, but I think I'm ok with that! 

I’ve also had my beady little eye on this beautiful YSL Chyc Leather Tote - £1,599, even with its eye watering price tag. Now it’s been announced that YSL is changing to SLP I think I need a bit of Yves in my life. I don’t know whether they will still feature the ‘Y’ hardware on the newer bags so I really want to get it whilst I can. Sad I know, but I feel I need a bit of classic fashion history in my life. Also, I love the lizard effect on the leather, yum. 

So guys, what do you think of my handbag wish list? Is there anything there catching your eye or have you seen anything on Harrods that you’re majorly lusting after? I’d love to know as I could quite possibly talk about handbags all day.

  ♥

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post, however the love of handbags is all my own.

ootd: white blazer and leopard print denim

Blazer c/o Clothing at Tesco • Top - Topshop • Jeans - MW Matthew Williamson • Shoes - Topshop • Bag - Miu Miu • Necklace - Topshop • Sunglasses - Miu Miu • Watch - Michael Kors

The large majority of this weekend was spent lazing and enjoying the glorious sunshine in London. After a few manic weeks of work and travel, it was nice to sit back and relax a bit. Saturday consisted of a yummy lunch with one of my besties Lucy (who I forced in to taking these pics - thnx!) and a leisurely stroll around Notting Hill. I love looking around the magnificent old town houses, pretending that some day I will live in one, and it's especially fun to do so when it's nice out. The outfit was thrown together for maximum comfort and breeziness. Some of you may question how so many layers are breezy, but the jeans are lovely and light, so perfect for pale people like me who fear baring all with those harmful summer rays out. Don't get me wrong, I love the heat and the summer sun beaming down on me, I just cover up to save my poor skin the hassle of sunburn. And yes, I am far too lazy for suncream.

The rest of the evening was spent painting nails, as it usually is when one of my friends comes around. Perhaps I should open a nail salon and start charging... Sunday was an equally lazy day, made up of more summer strolls and a quick shopping trip to Westfield. I managed to stock up on the essentials of toothpaste and a new toothbrush (hiya 3 for 2) but somehow also found myself buying 8 new nail polishes. Yes 8. Apparently I really do need to open that nail salon, if for nothing more than to keep my nail polish habit going.

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fash-thing of the week: miu miu culte sunglasses

Culte Sunglasses • Miu Miu

This week has been all about my new Miu Miu Culte sunglasses. Something I have been coveting for some time, ever since I saw the Miu Miu AW12 campaign. I initially wanted the gold frames featured in the campaign, which have also been seen on many celebrities including Rihanna, and I did in fact go in to the Miu Miu store in Westfield. When trying them on I fell more in love with them, if there's even possible, and I knew they had to be mine. However, with a £225 price tag, seriously thought had to go in to whether, I did in fact, need yet another pair of sunglasses. After much deliberation and thought, I decided to get the navy version. Firstly because they are nearly £60 cheaper and secondly, I thought this colour would be far more wearable and classic. I feel the gold, as awesome as they are, might date very quickly and when you're spending that amount on one item, you need to make sure it's something timeless. I also think it's quite rare to find navy blue sunglasses, which is a good enough reason for me.

I was first drawn to these sunglasses as I loved the unusual, hexagonal shape. I'm a huge fan of my cat eye glittery pair so I was intrigued to see how these would sit on my face. I'm a huge fan of oversized sunglasses anyway, so knew these would be perfect for me. Overall, I'm so pleased I bought these and that's why they're my fash-thing for this week. I've pretty much worn them everyday and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

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mac lip bag illustrated by julie verhoeven

I forever have been and always will be, a sucker for anything kitschy or cute or limited edition. When I saw these gorgeous MAC makeup kits illustrated by Julie Verhoeven, I knew I had to add one to my collection. There are 4 different versions of the kit - peach, pink, nude and, the one I went for, red. As you probably know, I am a huge fan of a bright statement lip so I decided that red was the one for me as the other kits looked a bit too tame for my liking.

The bag itself, is pretty bloody beautiful in my opinion; with a very simple design by Julie Verhoeven, it just adds a little bit fun to your everyday makeup routine. It's the perfect size for throwing in your handbag with your essentials for the day.

The Lip Bags each come with a liner, a lipstick and a dazzleglass. I got in the red kit a liner in Freehand, a lipstick in Must Be Red! and a dazzleglass in Totally Fab. All together they create a pretty stunning look and individually, I think they look pretty good too.

I firstly lined my lips using Freehand, freehand surprisingly... (Terrible joke, moving on.) It has a lovely creamy texture making it very easy to glide on but it also has a very sharp precision line. Most of the time, lip liner is the step that I forget to do (or choose not to do out of laziness) but it's great for making sure that your lip colour doesn't bleed and also helps if you want to make a certain shape along your cupid's bow. I then filled in the rest of my lip with Must Be Red! which is a very orange toned red, quite different to the although red lipsticks in my collection as I tend to stick to blue tones; which our slightly easy to wear in my opinion. However, I am trying to be slightly more adventurous and I have added a few orange lipsticks to my collection, so really it's about time I got a red-orange.

Must Be Red! is a cremesheen formula, which honestly has to be my favourite of all the MAC formulas available. It has a great rich pigment, meaning that you only need a single slick to get a good colour payoff. It also is very moisturising, which is great for someone like me who suffers for quite dry lips. It does look quite matte on the lips but without the drying effect of most matte lipsticks.

I then added Totally Fab which, like most lipglosses, is quite thick but (thankfully) not quite as sticky as the majority of glosses. It is a very yellow/orange toned red too, which makes sense as it is meant to be layered over the lipstick. It is also jam packed full of glitter, so much so that it is actually quite gritty. I do like the shine and shimmer it adds to the look but I'm not sure whether I'm actually a huge fan of the dazzleglass formula. 

Overall, the liner and lipstick combo is my favourite and what I will be using quite regularly, I'm not a huge fan of lipglosses in general so I'm not really that surprised that I'm not a fan of the dazzleglass. I did mainly buy the kit to get the bag, so I guess the added lip products are just a bit of a bonus! I'm pretty pleased with the liner though as I think I will be able to use it with the majority of my other red lipsticks which is always a good thing!

What do you think of the MAC Julie Verhoeven collaboration? Will you be buying anything from the range?

♥

giveaway: beauxoxo glitter hair bow

Beauxoxo is a cute little online shop with some gorgeous handmade hair pieces, which I'm sure a lot of you have had the pleasure of viewing before. I decided to buy these amazing little glitter bows a few months ago after Michelle's lovely post about them. As a massive fan of all things glittery (I think I was a magpie in a past life) and knew I had to add one (or maybe two...) to my collection. Georgie stocks a HUGE range of colours so I did struggle to choose but in the end settled on these two beauties below.

They have the usual hair clips on the back meaning you can wear them pretty much anywhere you want on your head, or even on your clothes - click here to see my outfit, from all the way back in January, where I wore them as a little bow tie. Georgie loved the way I styled the bow so much that she very kindly offered to send me one to giveaway to you lovely people!

I really wanted to give this away as it's a product I really love and I always like to say thank you to the kind people who take the time to read and comment on my little old blog. I think it's such a cute addition to any outfit or hairstyle and I hope whoever wins really enjoys it. The bow is all nicely wrapped up from Georgie so it's really like receiving a little present! Woohoo, I like presents. I decided to let Georgie pick the colour so I actually have no idea what colour you will be getting, that adds a bit to the excitement no? So if you like glitter and hair bows this one is definitely for you!

I'm going to open this up internationally so wherever you may be, feel free to enter! All you have to do is follow this blog and fill out the Rafflecopter form below. I've put a few extra ways to enter too, but nothing too strenuous! It'll be open for a week so hopefully everyone who wants to enter will get the chance! Thank you again to Georgie and of course, you guys.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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schwarzkopf silhouette colour brilliance: lauren conrad updo

Something a little bit different here on the blog today; as part of a competition I was asked to use the lovely Schwarzkopf Silhouette Colour Brilliance range to recreate a celebrity look. This is something a bit different because frankly I'm quite rubbish with hair. I'm always envious of people who have gorgeous well put together, but oh so chic looking hair. Mine usually just looks like a mess, mainly because I'm too lazy to do anything with it apart from spraying a bit of dry shampoo in the roots. So here we are, me creating a hair look. I took inspiration from the gorgeous Lauren Conrad and decided to do her simple, beachy, relaxed updo. Honestly, I'm quite impressed with the results.

I firstly ran the Silhouette Colour Brilliance Mousse through the ends of my hair, I used this as a base as I knew I would be curling my hair. This was great because my hair is quite heavy and always wants to fall back to my usual straight/wavy/mess hair so the mousse really helped to hold all the curls that I created. I just used a pretty standard curling iron, but you can use whatever you usually use to curl your hair, whether that be a curler or straighteners. 

I then separated out the front parts of my hair and made the back section in to a messy bun at the base of my head. You basically just have free reign to be as messy as you want to be with this, if you want a more polished look, just twist the bun tighter and make sure it is secure with hair grips. As I wanted to stay quite close to Lauren's look, I went quite messy and relaxed - which is probably the best approach when you're a bit of a hair novice like myself.

I then took small sections of the front part and carefully draped and pinned the hair to create the sweeping sections at the side. Again, this can be as messy or neat as you want it to be, you can even put in some plaits or twists, whatever your heart desires really. I kept it quite simple and just swept the hair back in to the bun. With the leftover hair at the end of the swept side, I twisted it around and put it in to the bun. This will make sure that you don't have any bits falling down and also thickens up the bun at the back.

I then took the Silhouette Colour Brilliance Hairspray and doused my hair with it. As I said before, my hair is quite heavy so quite easily falls out of place so I need a good hold on my hair to make sure it stays in place. I really like this hairspray as it doesn't leave your hair all hard and crispy as some of the stronger hold hairsprays do.

To finish the look, I then sprayed the Silhouette Colour Brilliance Extreme Gloss Spray (sorry I can't find a link!) to add a lovely shine to the hair; I think this is my favourite product of the range because I often feel that my hair isn't as shiney and glossy as I want it to be. It's a great way to finish off any style to give it that Hollywood gloss effect.

Overall, I was quite impressed at how easy it was to recreate this look, I did it before work so it just shows that it doesn't take too long! I really loved the products, I was impressed with the formulas and they left my hair feeling soft, but with added hold. Again, I would say the Gloss Spray is my favourite of the products and I would really recommend this if you wanted to add some shine to your hair.

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Disclaimer: These products were provided for free for me to use to recreate my chosen celebrity look, as always my opinion is 100% honest.