WORLDWIDE WARDROBE COMPETITION

The lovely people over at Travel Supermarket have launched a competition to challenge us fashion bloggers to put together some outfits suitable to wear in different destinations, doing different activities. There's a £200 limit and there will be a winner from each destination. The prize... to go to the winning destination and get £200 to buy the outfit!

The destination choices are:

• Sightseeing in Paris
• Clubbing in Ibiza
• Shopping in London
• Cocktails in New York
• Partying at a Full Moon party in Thailand

The rules state you can create an outfit for one or all of them but I'm just going to pick the three I'd most like to do.


COCKTAILS IN NEW YORK

Dress; ASOS

Shoes; Forever 21

Ring; Topshop

Clutch; Miss Selfridge

Necklace; Topshop

Lipstick; Topshop

Might seem like playing it safe with an LBD but it's a classic for a reason! I picked quite a floaty number though to make it a little more girly but still sophisticated for such an event. I kept the jewellery quite simple as the bag is such a statement item, that I am totally in love with! And of course you have to finish this look with a bold red lip.

SIGHTSEEING IN PARIS

Dress; Topshop

Sunglasses; H&M

Boots; Topshop

Belt; Dorothy Perkins

Bag; River Island

Necklace; New Look

Lipstick; Topshop

I decided I'd go for a much more casual look for going sightseeing. A jersey dress is perfect because they're so comfortable and great for whatever the weather throws at you; just need to add tights and a chunky knit if all went wrong with that one! Decent footwear for all the walking around and a good sized bag to keep hold of the camera, sunglasses and phone for all that Instagramming that would inevitably be happening.

SHOPPING IN LONDON

Skirt; ASOS

Shirt; Topshop

Socks; Topshop

Shoes; ASOS

Hat; H&M

Bag; Forever 21

Necklace; Topshop

When in London, the fashion stakes need to be raised! I went for a monochrome look this time and I absolutely think this is my favourite and the most I'd definitely love to do. I've never been to London but I know that it's going to be a massive leap from shopping in Preston so I chose some good quality, comfy and flat shoes to see me throughout the day. Keeping up with the fashionable folk of London, I added a bowler hat and a collar necklace which will jazz up the plain white shirt. The skirt is definitely the statement piece of this outfit. Such a unique print, I love it!

Part of the competition is to nominate five other bloggers to take part in the competition which runs until the 5th June. You can find out more about the competition here.

Thank you to Mia for nominating me and I will be picking Louise, Joanna, Yasmin, Amy and Emma to take part!

Good luck everyone!

BANK HOLIDAY HAULING

How lovely is the weather today?! Pretty much unheard of for a bank holiday weekend, surely? Even more unheard of is that I actually have the bank holiday off work! And as I mentioned in the previous post, I have a new job. I leave my current one on Thursday so today was the only, and last chance, I had to use my staff discount card so I had to go and take advantage of that...

A good half of it was me actually (kind of...) being sensible and buying work clothes. And I also bought my sister some things from Topshop but on to my purchases..!

I wrote in the last post how I was after a striped top and I took a trip to the retail park a couple of days ago and found it in there. The stripes are navy but they're very close to being black so I won't feel too out of order by wearing black at the same time as it.
I picked up the grey jersey skater dress today. I already have it in a deep purple and I practically live in it so thought it made sense to buy another colour. They are the comfiest dresses ever.

I rarely buy anything from Miss Selfridge anymore but I saw this as I was leaving the store and I really like the cut out detail on the front. I was pretty impressed that it was only £18 full price too. As you can see though, the material is super crease-y, which I usually avoid, but it'll look nice with some of the other bits I bought today.

Then I popped into H&M. The burgundy top was £6.99 (I think) and it just a basic tee but I fell in love with the colour. Then another crease-prone blouse... The colour is a really pale baby blue; really nice and this will probably be at the work wear side of the wardrobe. I think this one was about £12.

Your eyes are not deceiving you, I have bought jeans!! This is a big deal. Really. I have some of the Dorothy Perkins black jeggings (which are actually super comfy and are really good quality) which I wear at work when it's just too early for me to function and pick something decent to wear but I never wear them when I'm out of work. I've been eyeing up the infamous Topshop Leigh jeans for a month or so now so I decided to try some today, and also be brave and get a light denim rather than black, and I actually really liked them. It did seem strange seeing me in jeans but the fit of them is quite similar to the aforementioned jeggings but they're even softer. I'm sure I'll feature them in an outfit post one day.

More trousers?! (Feels weird saying "trousers" instead of "pants" but I don't want to confuse any Southerners! ;) ) Pretty boring black trousers for work that I got from Dorothy Perkins. They're a skinny fit and actually feel really nice on.

Both these blazers were £11 in the Primark sale (only down from £15 like...) I've been wanting a few blazers for work but I want full sleeves and most are cropped sleeves. These are perfect for what I want. I didn't want black because I already have one and I wanted them to be quite lightweight and not too structured as well (not asking much clearly.) Absolutely love the blue one. The colour hasn't shown up as nicely on camera  but it is lovely.

And finally... of course I had to get a lipstick! I also had mentioned this in the wishlist post. I think I swatched all the lipsticks I don't already have. My hand looked ridiculous! I stuck with my original choice and bought the shade "Hazard".
I think I may have to listen to my friends now and stop buying lipstick. Definitely run out of room now.


So I am all spent up and have a new wardrobe ready for office work! Very very excited to properly start. I only have three shifts left in retail which does seem a little scary seeing as working in a shop is all I've done since I was 16 but onwards and upwards!

WISHLIST #4

Exciting news in my life... I finally got myself a new job. I've worked in retail since I was 16. I've been made redundant twice and although for all those years working it has pretty much been full time, my contract hasn't been full time so hours vary so much and I never know how much money I'm going to earn each month. I used to love retail but I've quickly fallen out of love with it and I've been wanting to change fields, learn something new and find full time work for a while. I've managed to get myself a full time job in an office as an admin assistant and it's going to be a lot of work but I'm really excited. I've done a couple shifts already but I properly start at the beginning of June. It also means I get my weekends back and won't need to be getting up at 6.30am on a Saturday morning!

So, I've just under 2 weeks left of being a retail girl so I'm going to have to spend on my staff card whilst I still have it and I do need some suitable office attire. So here's another wishlist post!

Dress; Topshop

Lipstick; Topshop

Playsuit; Miss Selfridge

Top; Topshop

Lip Bullet; Topshop

Blazer; New Look

Sunglasses; Topshop

Blush; Topshop

Rings; River Island

Apologies for it being Topshop heavy but gotta get that discount whilst I can!

I love me a good jersey dress. So easy to just throw on when I don't know what to wear. Admittedly I have too many but I love the button and pocket details on this one and it makes it different from the others I have. According to the website, though, it isn't in my local store. Boo!

I've also been after a Breton striped top like this for a while but ideally I'd rather have black than navy stripes. I'm not really a navy lover. This looks oversized and perfect for tucking into shorts though.

I've already bought sunglasses this year and I always buy aviator style ones but there's something about these ones that I love. Not sure I'm too keen on the tortoise shell design though...

If you've never used Topshop makeup, I really recommend it. I have a few of the lipsticks already but I love this colour. Not really a summery colour but it looks really rich and the formula of their lipsticks is brilliant. They've also recently launched the Lip Bullets, which look a bit like the ELF lip colours I bought here, but definitely keen to try out the Topshop version (even if they're more expensive!) I've also got really into blush recently and I'm looking at trying out cream blushes. I've got an MUA one which I like but the colour isn't very pigmented.

I tried a denim playsuit on in Forever 21 recently but it had a cut out back design and that made it not really fit me on my back but I really like the look of them. Hopefully my store will have this so I can try it and see if I can pull it off! When I tried the other one, the colour of the denim and the fit of it made me look like I'd been kicked out of the 90's.

I've always really liked blazers but I've never been able to wear them. They seem too formal for normal day wear and they don't fit in with what I wear when I'm at work. However, with my new job I can totally get away with it, yay! I already have a boring black one but this colour is beautiful!

Finally, everyone and their dog has the top of the finger rings from River Island now and I want them. I actually want the ones that are like criss-cross but the website doesn't seem to have them anymore. I never realised how reasonably priced River Island's jewellery was before either, just a little side note.

I think I may have to take a trip to town this weekend now. What are you lusting after at the moment?

I'm seriously so excited to start a new chapter in my life (hey cheesy!) but this year I really wanted to sort my life out finally and I feel like this is going to get me somewhere.

And I know my blog posts aren't very routined but once I start my new job properly, I'm not going to be free during any weekdays so posts may get even more sparse. But bare with me and stick around and once my personal life is in order, I can properly work on the blog! 

Hope you are all wonderful!

MY FIRST GLOSSYBOX

This month Glossybox celebrated it's 2nd birthday and for pretty much all of two years, I've been wanting to try it out and see what the fuss was about. If you don't know what Glossybox is, then it's a monthly beauty box that costs around £10 and in it you get 5 samples (sometimes full sizes) of beauty products including hair care, skin care and make up. There's often higher end products in too making the price worth it.
I decided to just take the plunge and I ordered a 3 month subscription (for the time being) as it works out a bit cheaper and my box arrived this week...

In my box I got a full size mascara from Jelly Pong Pong. I've never heard of the brand so excited to try it out, as if I don't already have enough mascaras on the go..!
Then there's L'Occitane En Provence Angelica Hydration Cream... sounds posh! It seems to basically be a moisturiser but my skin seems to be getting dry recently so hopefully this will work a bit of magic.
There's a mini pot of Prime & Create Mixing Medium which seems intriguing. It can be used as just a primer or you can mix with powder makeup products to create a more cream finish. Never heard of anything like that before!
I also got a Headlines Colours nail polish in a beautiful pale lilac colour. I think this is a new brand and they seem to retail at £9 at normal price. Also, I've recently got really into painting my nails so pretty happy about this.
I think my favourite thing in the box is the Caudalíe Divine Oil that can be used on the face, body and hair. I've been using Argan Oil in my hair for a while now and I'm just about to run out so I'm excited to see how this compares.
There was also an extra gift of a load of little nail files that will definitely come in handy.

Overall pretty impressed with my first Glossybox and I'm excited to use all my new goodies!

DRESS LIKE...ERIN MCNAUGHT

I'm on a roll with these Dress Like... posts! And today's is someone who became a new girl crush at a pretty rapid rate.
Erin McNaught is an Australian model and TV presenter and she was once Miss Australia! She's an absolute babe and she's about to marry Example so there's a pretty decent list of reasons to be jealous of her right there. And the girl got style!

Rather than doing the usual "By day/night" categories, I found it easier to do it more on colour palettes. Let me know if you prefer this way!


DARK

 

Trousers; Mango via ASOS

Top; New Look

Shoes; New Look

Lips; Topshop

Trousers; H&M

Coat; Topshop

Nails; Models Own (Snow White)

Watch; River Island via ASOS

Necklace; Topshop

Shirt; Dorothy Perkins

Bag; Marc B @ Topshop

I love the crazy print clash and how she gets away with it. Teamed with statement yet simple accessories.

LIGHT

 

Playsuit; Warehouse

Blazer; H&M

Ring; Topshop

Jumper; Topshop

Skirt; Daisy Street

Highlighter; Topshop

Shoes; H&M

Lips; Topshop

Nails; Models Own (Black Magic)

Bag; Dorothy Perkins

Shoes; Dorothy Perkins

Erin has killer cheekbones so you'll definitely want to invest in a good highlighter to show them off. She's just fabulous!

And now I want the Warehouse playsuit so badly...

CHEER UP, CHARLIE

On a typical Sunday I will wake up, get out of bed an hour later, have bacon butties, put a onesie on and stay in bed with my laptop watching films all day. And that is my favourite kind of Sunday.
Yesterday, I did do that but I felt really rubbish all day and started on a self-loathing trip which is never fun. So today I decided that even though I was going nowhere, I would put some nice makeup and clothes on even though I'm just sitting in the house watching Game of Thrones.

Blouse; Dorothy Perkins | Skirt; Miss Selfridge | Cardigan; ASOS | Shoes; Primark | Vest top (worn underneath); Dorothy Perkins

I'm pretty much in love with this skirt right now. It's really difficult trying not to grab this everytime I go to get dress in the morning. I also dug out this blouse this morning. I got it from Dorothy Perkins last summer and I really don't give it enough love. The flowers on it remind me of a dress I had about 15 years ago that I was in love with.

I've had this cardigan a couple of months now but I've basically lived in it since I got it. It's from ASOS and it's so comfy. It kind of has the varsity feel to it with black outline down the front. It seemed silly buying it with summer coming up but of course England being England, we don't seem to be getting any nice weather.

The shoes are from Primark and they were £3 in the sale. My Primark had a tonne of them so hopefully everywhere is the same because I really like them. I didn't own any black everyday shoes which seemed silly and I stopped buying Primark shoes a while ago because they just fell to pieces but these feel a bit better quality than they have been previously. Although, after a 9 hour day at work in them, my feet are quite achy..!

Nivea Express Hydration Primer

GOSH Velvet Touch Primer

Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation '51 Light Vanilla'

Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer '010 Ivory'

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer 'Fair'

MAC Mineralised Skin Finish Natural 'Light'

Benefit Browzings 'Dark'

ELF Eye Primer

Sleek Au Naturel Palette 'Toast, Taupe, Bark, Noir'

Natual Collection Eyeshadow 'White'

Rimmel Scandaleyes Eyeliner '005 Nude'

Benefit They're Real! Mascara

Benefit Bad Gal Mascara

ELF Blush 'Giddy Gold'

ELF Healthy Glow Bronzer 'Matte Bronze'

ELF Matte Lip Color 'Coral'

I was really keen to use my new ELF products today, as you can probably tell. The lip colour is definitely more nude than coral but I quite like it. It's a bit too nude I think so I may have to mix it with a pink or something.

The blush is nice. I haven't really decided yet. I accidentally put too much on the blush and had to blend like crazy.

The bronzer doesn't seem to pick up much product on my brush but I think this is probably a good thing for just getting a subtle contour and not getting a brown line down my face.

I used the Flat Eyeliner Brush to line the lash line using the Noir colour from the Sleek palette. Really like this brush! Much easier to line with than the others I have.

As for my eyes, I really like this Sleek palette but I decided to play with some colours I don't usually use (besides 'Bark'). I'm very much a "matte makeup" girl but I used 'Toast' and 'Taupe' together to get a nice golden, shimmery look and then I put 'Bark' through the crease. I really like it actually. Definitely need to start straying from my comfort zone a little bit more. 

Also, did not realise what a good job this mascara actually did! Everyone and their cat seemed to have picked up ELLE magazine with the free mini sample in however, I bought the sample size from Boots a few weeks before I knew ELLE was doing this. Very annoying to say the least! Especially as I didn't think it was even that great before seeing this photo. It is an absolute pain to take off though and I get a horrible 'spiders leg' look if I put it on my bottom lashes so I have to use Bad Gal for those.

I feel a lot better today and I think dressing up may have helped. Well that tied with a brilliant Game of Thrones episode and buying Les Mis on DVD...

Hope all you guys are feeling fine and dandy!

xx

JUST ANOTHER ELF HAUL

I posted a little haul of things I bought from ELF way back in September and I have bought things from them since then and this week I found myself back on the website yet again and I saw there was a discount code running so this happened...

Angled Eyeliner Brush | Flat Eyeliner Brush | Lip Primer & Plumper | Nourishing Cuticle Pen | Blush 'Giddy Gold' | Healthy Glow Bronzer 'Matte Bronze' | Matte Lip Color 'Rich Red' & 'Coral'

ELF is an online makeup store that sell cheap, and actually good, makeup and brushes. Sure, you get the odd dud product but for the prices you can't grumble. Also, the delivery is super quick. Depending on what time you order, it generally comes the next day.

I already have quite a good few ELF brushes that I use all the time. The Angled Eyeliner Brush is from the Studio range and was £3.75 and the Flat one if from the Mineral range and is currently in the sale for £3. All the brushes I already have are from the Studio range and they're all so soft and they wash well but I'd never bought any of the Mineral brushes. At full price they are usually £6 which, is still crazy cheap, but decided to try this out. I have a couple of angled brushes I use for when I line the lid with eyeshadow but they aren't great so hopefully this will do a better job.

I've got really into doing my nails nicely and all this nail art jazz but I'm so bad at taking nail varnish off. I just pick at it until it's all off and my nails look a bit horrible now which makes me sad. This cost me a measly £1.50 so if it doesn't make them look nice and healthy it won't be the end of the world. I might review it when I've used it for a while!
I'm not sure why I bought the Lip Primer & Plumper. Probably because you had to spend over £20 to get 20% off. This cost £3.75 and one end is a primer for lipstick (there's primers for everything these days, isn't there?!) and the other end is one of those balm type things that make your lips all tingly and supposedly makes them seem fuller. I hate my thin lips so we'll see how we get on with this.

These Matte Lip Colo(u)rs are also from the Studio line and are usually £3.75 but they were in the sale at £2.50. I bought these after watching one of Emma Pickles videos were she raved the 'Rich Red' one. She said that they last all day and posted a photo on Instagram of the wear of it and I say you can never have too many lip colours so I bought two. The 'Coral' one doesn't seem all that coral. It's definitely more of a peachy-nude but still seems pretty. Looking forward to trying them out.

When they bronzer arrived, I was a bit scared by the colour. It seems a lot darker than I thought it would be but I swatched it and it doesn't seem over pigmented so it should be okay as a contour powder. This again was inspired by Emma as I noticed she uses it for contouring and she looks incredible. This was £1.50 too so cheap enough to try out. I can always give it my sister if it is too dark for my Casper skin.
Finally, the blush is in the shade 'Giddy Gold' and was also £3.75. The colour is impossible to take a photo of but I was also quite scared of it when it arrived. I was imagining it more to be a highlighter shade but it seems really orange. When I swatched it though the colour was really lovely. I've got other ELF blushes and I really like those so hopefully this will be just as good. I love how they've put their logo into the blush now as well. The other I have doesn't have that.

There's a code on the ELF Facebook page which lasts all of May if any of you want any new goodies for yourself.

REVIEW: GOOD THINGS FIVE MINUTE FACIAL

I bought the Five Minute Facial Face Mask by Good Things about a month ago, as seen in my haul post here. I've never tried Good Things before but there was a really good offer on so I went for it. I wanted to use it for a while before giving a review on it and now I've been using it for around 4/5 weeks so here goes..!

Five Minute Facial; £5.99 at Boots

I've been using this once or twice a week since I got it; usually just when my skin feels a bit dry or is looking a bit dull.

The directions state to put a thin layer of the face mask all over the face after cleansing and after 5 minutes, use warm water to rinse off.

Obviously the product is called 'Five Minute Facial' so you'd expect it to work quickly and quickly it does! I'm not really in to face masks (though, I keep wanting to get them...) so this is really good if you don't want to sit around with clay or mud all over your face for an hour. The product has a sort of creamy clay texture to it and a little bit really does go a long way with it. Once it's all over the face, you can instantly feel it drying and after 5 minutes it generally is fully dry. However, I usually leave it for 10 minutes, sometimes longer, usually because I've got too caught up on YouTube!

I'll then use a muslin cloth and hot water to clean it off and just splash my face with cold water.

The product claims to make skin clearer, brighter and smoother. I don't feel like my skin looks any brighter with using this but to be honest, it isn't all the dull in the first place. As for making my skin clearer, I'm not entirely sure. My breakouts got a lot better but this last week or so they got worse again but I'm also using other products to help with that so I couldn't say if this was the product causing them.

Smooth skin, however... YES. When the mask is drying it feels like you getting a major facelift and then after it's washed off I just want to keep touching my face (which isn't a great idea) because it's just so soft!

Another thing I like about it is the smell. Once it's on the face you can't really smell anything but when you open the tube and are putting it on it smells incredible. It says it contains superfruit extracts of avocado and goji berry. I will be honest and say I don't know what either of these actually smell like but there is definitely a berry smell to it and it's so good!

Although I don't feel it's brightened my skin or cleared it up, I do really enjoy using this product and for the price it's definitely worth trying.

THE MET BALL 2013: BEST DRESSED

The Met Ball is the fashion event of all fashion events and anyone who is anyone attends in the most amazing dress they can get their hands on. The Met Ball is takes places every year to celebrate the annual opening of the Metropolitan Museum's fashion exhibit in New York City. This year the attendees where told the theme was 'Punk: Chaos to Couture'. When I heard this I got a bit worried thinking the red carpet might end up looking like the late 70's threw up all over it with everyone in tartan with piercings and studs everywhere and crazy mohican hair styles...
Some of the guests just stuck to their gorgeous dresses but some really took to the theme and interpreted it in their own way and there's so many I just love!

These are going to be in no order really but Anne Hathaway was definitely my complete favourite of the night.

I love how it isn't a typical Anne choice of outfit but she rocks it so hard! And the new blonde hair looks incredible on her too. She was wearing Valentino and I think she looks just incredible and sexy.

Face of Burberry, Cara Delevingne, wore the brand and I love it! The plunging neckline is great on her too.

Kate Bosworth's Balmain dress is just too pretty.

Michelle Williams wore a black Saint Laurent with a lovely dip hem.

Blake Lively in Gucci. Just look at that train!

Rooney Mara was very vamp-chic in Givenchy Haute Couture.

The always beautiful Kate Beckinsale in Alberta Ferretti.

Can't tell you how much I envy this girl's wardrobe. Hailee Steinfeld is 16 and got to be the face of a Mui Mui campaign and she wore a Donna Karen dress for the MET Ball this year.

And another wardrobe I'm envious of... Taylor Swift wore J Mendel. I love all the detailing of this one.

Game of Thrones beauty, Emilia Clarke wore a red gown by Ralph Lauren.

Model Jourdan Dunn wore Topshop. (I can't seem to find a red carpet photo of her on her own, sorry!)

And Miranda Kerr looked smoking hot in a cut-out Michael Kors dress.

Who were your favourites from the MET Ball? Anyone I've not mentioned?