Monday 30 December 2013

Must be love

Today I attended a beautiful wedding. I originally didn't think I would be able to attend due to lack of date (how sad!) but a text from a best friend the night before saying that should could come, gave me under 12 hours to prepare myself and find an outfit. On this occasion I am glad I hold the title of 'Clothes Hoarder' and pulled out this never worn little gem. A festive red dress, originally from New Look, purchased on Ebay for under £5. I have never found the right time to wear this as it is a little dressy. But I deem a winter wedding that perfect occasion.  





Went for a bronzed make up look. Using a little Soap and Glory palette that I found in my Christmas stocking. A perfect quad of nude and bronze shades. Also gravitating towards my old trusty Bobbi Brown shimmer brick, with the perfect amount of shimmer and colour. I love the colour of this L'oreal lipstick however a little unimpressed with how long this colour actually stays on the lips. A few reapplies were needed.  
L'oreal Paris- Collection Privee by Eva
Soup & Glory Lid stuff
Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick Compact- Bronze

Annie x

Sunday 15 December 2013

Party cleanser

The party season is in full swing and I myself have been hitting the town for the last 4 weekends straight. For someone who has a deep fondness of my pyjamas and dressing gown, this busy partying schedule is commendable. 

Unfortunately not managing to capture many of my past outfits of the nights, but with the aid of self timer I managed to get a quick snap of last nights. A great party piece of mine is this find from the girls section in M&S, bought for £12. The advantage of being a petite lady like myself allows me to just about get away with an age 13 that just about covers my derrière. But hey, what else says party like all over sequins and a flash of thigh!  

After a combination of long island ice teas and £1 rose wine it is fair to say I am not looking or feeling my freshest. In comes the face cleansers. You see, it is very hard to remove the nights make up with burger in one hand and a facial wipe in the other. So going in full hog this morning.
Starting my using the L'OREAL cleansing solution. Said to have similar properties to the well raved about Bioderma. With a large cotton pad this removes any trace of the left over make up and grime from the night before. Going in for extra measures with this oil cleanser from Lush called Ultrabland. It cleanses the skin without leaving it dry and irritated. Such a lovely product that makes your skin feel....well as we say here in Wales, Lush!
And last nights Fanta beverage is doing a good job at keeping my mouth from drying up.
Hope everyone is enjoying the festive season.
Annie x 

Thursday 28 November 2013

On strike

I am coming down hard on myself, I have put in place a spending ban. With Christmas on it's way my bank account has received a brutal battering. No item of clothing shall be purchased for myself, by myself, until, until I reach breaking point or payday. Which ever comes first.
I want to start delving into my wardrobe's (yes wardrobe's, plural) and wearing some long forgotten items. So here I am replacing the new with the old. Starting with the eldest item of the outfit, my trusty white jumper. Bought from Primark by my mother in my first year of uni in a bid to keep me warm. Despite a little bobbling under the arms this jumper is in tip top condition and still super soft. 
Added a pop of colour with a lime green shirt purchased this summer in the H&M sale. Unfortunately not coming up so well in these pictures are my navy smart trousers, bought again from Primark. The elasticated waistband is coming in handy with the recent influx of mince pie eating.  





Annie x 

Sunday 24 November 2013

Retro

My outfit for a girls night out. Went to a club that played the finest the 90's had to offer. On that 90's theme Im feeling like a french spice girl in this crop top; which unfortunately aint so crop and too short to be a full length top. Its one for a tucking in job. Loving this green leather look skirt from Asos, they also have a navy blue version that I am still eyeing up. Stuck on my leopard print boots for a bit of a clash and also so I could wear a nice thick pair of ski socks inside. This Cardiff girl (unlike many others) will not be contemplating going out this winter without a coat brrrrrrrr

Striped crop top: New Look sale
Green pleather skirt: Asos £7.50
Leopard print boots: New Look sale
Let us pay some appreciation to the newly appointed photographer, my father. A very patient man indeed.

Annie x

Thursday 21 November 2013

Northern lights

Spent the past weekend up north in Manchester visiting my boyfriend. Out of the 4 days I was up there, 2 of them were spent exploring Afflecks Palace. Such a cool place, could spend all day looking at the beads in the bead shop (sad? yes maybe) 
Caught a quick snap of my outfit of the day. As I mentioned in my last post, glitter is now acceptable to wear, everywhere. 
So here it is in my glittery black jeans. Picked these up in H&M recently for £4. Unfortunately the glitter had transferred onto the seats of a car, which isn't necessarily a bad thing #discocar  
Chanel suit inspired cardigan from Primark, reduced to £5
Light pink T-shirt, ebayed 
I need to get used to the awkwardness of public picture taking. How do people do it!? As usual apologies for the artless picture taking however the boy did come up trumps with a vintage find for me! Stay tuned, it's a good'un.
A lovely weekend trawling the christmas market and drinking mulled cider. With the dark nights here and festive lights, it is starting to look a lot like Christmas....and its only November!

Annie x

Thursday 14 November 2013

Confetti

Here is my new dynamic duo. Christmas is in the air and so that makes glitter acceptable to wear, everywhere!! As soon as I saw this glittery nail varnish in the new Cardiff e.l.f store I wanted it. On to the base coat. Im already an avid fan of MUA's lipstick and eyeshadow and so it was time to branch out to nail varnish. Jumping on the white nail varnish trend with this Tip-Ex inspired nail varnish. 
MUA- All Nude £1
E.L.F- Chic confetti £2.50























So here's the verdict on these new products. MUA you have not impressed me. Not too sure if its just the colour but it took about 3 coats to look...ok. The brush was itzy bitzy and the consistency very watery. This is just going to be used for nail art use in future. Having said this I love the final result. Now lets see how long it stays on.....  

Annie x

Monday 11 November 2013

E.L.F

For those of you that may not be familiar with eyeslipsface.co.uk let me fill you in. E.l.f is an online makeup website with a large range of products for (you guessed it) your eyes, lips and face....also nails but 'elfn' isn't such an effective name. A lot of their products range from £1.50 to about £10. I had made an online purchase maybe 2 years ago to see what all the hype was about. I ordered a lip gloss, blusher brush and pressed powder and I have to say that the products were so so and didn't see much use on my face. They have since been shunned to the back of my makeup draw. I think the only problems with e.l.f is firstly, the company is still relatively new and so finding useful reviews on products are hard to come by; having said this most items on the website do have reviews from customers. Secondly as it is a website you are unable to swatch samples to check colour and consistency before purchase, also colours transcend completely differently when pictured. However this last aspect has been resolved for me, as e.l.f has come to Cardiff.    
Situated in Morgans Arcade the new and shiney e.l.f store. Myself and my cousin entered like two curious kittens and exiting with hands and arms full of sample swatches. They stock almost everything from the website however limited stock on the lower priced items. Before the store had opened, I was excited thinking I could easily start stocking up on the £1.50 make up brushes, however they only seem to stock the higher priced equivalents.        

After swatching and feeling up every item in the store I ventured online to take advantage of one of e.l.f's many promotions. 50% off when you spend £20!
So I made my order, however then had to wait a whole week for it to arrive, with only an apology email to compensate. Lets hope that the products aren't as disappointing. Reviews to come.... 

Annie x

Sunday 10 November 2013

Procrastination


Today I need to fill out a job application for a potential job post. And so what I seem to have done is anything but that! I really hate talking about my skills and experience and just job applications in general.
So instead I have....
  • Made 3 cups of coffee
  • Eaten one mince pie (never to early to get into festive food)
  • Burnt myself on my curlers 
  • Done 50 sit ups
  • Watched the whole of Gavin and Stacey series 3
  • And one of the most important, browsed www.choies.com
Im addicted to 'choies' and I want it all! The designs are so different and unique, and as I have an irrational fear of wearing the same outfit as someone else on the street, this is ideal for me.


The prices are so reasonable and with free shipping you really can't go wrong. Im just looking to find the catch. Will see you in my next post when I will be poor, but have some nice clothes to show for it.


Annie x

Saturday 2 November 2013

Halloweeniieee

Happy Halloween all. I wore my mini witches hat once last week for my girl guides session, although I didn't win the costume competition (pfft, robbed) and spent the evening melting chocolate for chocolate apples and making sure the girls weren't getting too hyped up on sugar. I felt I had to get the full £2 worth out of my witch hat/hairband. I really begrudge paying too much money on fancy dress, so here you have it, my makeshift witches outfit.

 You can always rely on H&M for some 'out there' clothing items that we all have in our wardrobes, just like these:


This striped shirt which has a Beetlejuice vibe and has been worn on many occasions. I love layering it under jumpers with the stripy collar poking through.

Shinny silver jeans, which I really thought I would never wear and then halloween happened. Seen as I have once dressed up as a moose for halloween, sliver trousers are no biggie. They may make another appearance as I love the fit and the look. Might style them up with some chunky knits for a bit of a contrast. Oh yes and did I mention they only cost me £5!!
  
When Halloween comes along, subtlety is thrown out of the window. So I went for a drag queen vibe as I plastered on my eyeshadow. 
I had so much fun and loved the excuse to make the most out of my Urban Decay palette. I do normally tend to stick to neutral colours however on this night I branched out and used a shimmery berry colour called 'Last Call', it's such a lovely colour and I will be experimenting to see how I can wear it minus a witches hat. 
I wet my eyeshadow brush slightly to pack on this MUA eyeshadow in the creatively named,'shade 3'. Such a great colour pay off and seen as they are a mere £1 each, I will have to stock up on some more. The best part was that it was all still intact even as I queued with the students of Cardiff at 2am to get me some big mac.  


Hope you all had a great time what ever you did and didn't get too spooked! 

Annie x

Wednesday 23 October 2013

Dark clouds, bright hair

It's here, the cold and the rain has arrived. I have spent over 7 hours in the hair dressers this week. That is a hefty amount of time in which I could have spent doing other things like, blogging. So here is my hair, bleached and dyed within an inch of its life. If I could settle with one hair colour that would be great! Since the age of 15 my dad has despaired as he has to re grout the bathroom tiles every time I have a change in heart and hair colour. Maybe one day I will return to my dull, boring dark brown hair colour; however for now it is bright copper, in other terms Ginger.

With the mix of colours in my hair I also mixed it up on the outfit front. Combining textures and colours with this metallic sparkly t shirt and pink and brown check flannel shirt. Added my brogue vans, which make me feel like Im ready to brake out into a little tap dancing number.

Metallic T-shirt: Next sale
Check shirt: H&M very old
Jacket: River Island sale
Jeans: Primark
Bag: Oasis







Annie x

Tuesday 8 October 2013

Im with the band

Just styling up my collection of band tee's. I call it collection , some may call it hoarding. Not many rules apply with styling band tee's other then a few biggies. In my opinion you must...
  • Know the artist
  • Have listened to at least 3 songs
So yep that covers it,  heres how I styled up mine......

Found this Run DMC gem in the boys section in h&m. Reduced down to £2, clearly the young boys of Cardiff need to do a bit of research into 80's hip-hop. Paired it up with my acid wash jeans and my favourite trainers at the moment, these lilac suede Rebook classics. 

Some ironing issues going on with these shorts. Went for an unintentional military vibe here but I think it works well. I like the pop of colour from the red.


It is my duty as a Welshie to support our local produce. 


I was so close to pairing this combo with some Morrissey inspired thick rimmed glasses but restrained myself. Just letting the top do the talking.


Adding a bit of colour whilst sucking myself in with these Topshop Joni jeans


Annie x

Friday 4 October 2013

Want or need?

Want or need?Topshop pale blue prom dress, £80 / River Island white tux jacket, £45 / River Island jumpsuit, £40 / Vans sneaker, £50 / Accessorize shoulder bag £27 / Topshop earrings / Lipstick, £7.50

What you may not know about me is that I am a Girl Guide Leader. In this weeks session we are discussing what things in life do we want or need. For example we need food and water however we may not need a blue fluffy dress.....but I sure as hell want it.
Ok so whittling it down I may only need one of these items. On a recent night out, I was busting some moves on the dance floor and my bag strap snapped off. Luckily a friend stood in and tied it around my neck, just like a bag necklace. This ultimately made me look like a crazy woman but also makes me bagless and on the hunt for a new one. I love the simplicity of this bag from Accesorize, it would go with everything and therefore I need it in my life. Done, in bag, moving on....
I am not very experimental when it comes to earrings. Hoops have always scared me. When I was younger a girl, who attended mass and played my flute in orchestra I felt as though they were too old for me and made me look, dare I say it, a little tarty. But now I am a full fledged adult at the grand old age of 22 I feel it's time to give them another chance. I love these gold earrings from Topshop, also at £7.50 not exactly breaking the bank for an experimental item.

As for the other items I shall get these when I win the lottery. Failing that they are going onto my growing christmas list.

Annie x

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Paint box

I have made a recent discovery in my local Boots store and I for one couldn't be happier. I found SinfulColours nail varnishes on a decollate little stand. I was first drawn in by their amazing colours and then to top it all, they cost a meagre £1.99!! I follow many beauty bloggers and I have never heard anyone mention this brand, which is cray because they are bloody brilliant. They apply well and last longer then any of my fancy nail varnishes from my collection including Leighton Denny, OPI and No.7. Boots current offer of buy one get one half price may explain this hefty collection. It really does seem that I will not be happy unless I acquire the entire colour collection.

Here is the line up...
Pistachio - Nail Junkie - Nirvana - Feeling Good - Boogie nights - Ruby Ruby - Folly

Hopefully your local Boots are stocking these little gems, if not do not fear the website looks like it has a small selection here and if in doubt try Sinful Colors website




Annie x

Friday 27 September 2013

Rain dodging

Just a quickie; here's an outfit of the day. Off to town to do a few errands. Taking full advantage of the lack of rain and wearing my old trusty knitted cardigan; not a waterproof in sight. Its so warm and a lovely colour.
My outfit is a huge sale fest as it is made up of barginous clothes.

Floral shirt: New Look
Green skinnys: Miss Selfridge
Knitted cardigan: H&M
Patent shoes: New Look
Necklace: Miss Selfridge  

I've been making a fine collection of nail varnishes called 'sinfulcolours' which I will have to discuss in a future blog post. Just for starters this colour is 'pistachio' and it's damn fine!


Annie x

Wednesday 25 September 2013

Hopscotch polka


A little outfit post from a recent night out during my trip to Brighton. Something I have not mentioned on this blog is my recent change of hair colour. A complete accident which occurred in my makeshift salon that is my bathroom but I think I am gunna roll with it for now and see how I get on. Only downfalls to this hair colour is that I have to rule out wearing certain colours. Red and orange is a no no which is a shame coming up to winter but I am sure I will survive.  
Loving my new snazzy tartan trousers from Primark for £12. With subtle navy and green design and also a leather trim around the waist band I find these great value and right on trend for autumn 2013. 
Added a few gold details with:
 Zara heels: £29.99
Primark top: SALE £3
Asos cat watch: SALE £10


Annie x

Sunday 22 September 2013

Brighton Rock

Back from a week away in Brighton. How could I not bring along my new Fred Perry find to the iconic location of the film Quadrophenia. I love this film and the mod iconography surrounding it. I even so managed to add aspects of mod culture and clips of this film into my dance dissertation, very loosely and not very successfully may I add. The brand Fred Perry is famous for its relation with Mod fashion, culture and music and still reflect this in their current collections such as Twisted Wheel and their collaboration with the late Amy Winehouse.

 So, about the dress....as I had stated in a previous post I am starting a somewhat small collection of fred perry items. Bear in mind, I am still poor, so I regularly scout ebay for little gems. And a gem is what I did find. It has to be said, this is an odd dress but I am so amazed by how unusual and different it is. I have never seen a dress like it. Major downfalls of this dress is the fact that it is completely see through also without a belt it has a unflattering box like shape to it. But where theres a will theres a way; and a black slip and belt to amend these slight issues. The dress is 100% silk and I have no idea when this dress was available to buy which makes it all seem slightly mysterious and a truly individual dress. 

*Hope you enjoy the song at the bottom of the post*
  
Disclaimer: Apologies for the lack of angles in this outfit.My boyfriend is not a photographer or a chap with an artistic eye, however he has a pair of hands, a set of eyes and some patients. So that will do for me     







Annie x

Sunday 25 August 2013

The logo

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A few months ago I took out a book from the library that was all about Audrey Hepburn and her style. What surprised me was that I had never seen pictures of Hepburn in her old age. The latest film I watched with her in was My Fair lady, which came out in 1964. Naively the thought had never even past my mind that she would look any different because we are so used to seeing her iconic pictures from the film Breakfast at Tiffany's as her character Holly Glightly. The book had so many beautiful pictures of Hepburn looking amazing and effortlessly stylish in elegant gowns, but this one is the image that caught my attention the most. Here she is in 1988 working in Africa helping the charity UNICEF in a plain polo shirt with a small Lacoste logo. In my opinion, Audrey Hepburn was beautiful inside and out. 





Adidas t-shirt: £20
Skirt: H&m £12.99
                        

Yep alright not as beautiful and elegant as Audrey Hepburn but heey here I am. Loving this adidas T-shirt bought for me as a christmas gift. Not really a fan of the sports luxe trend, I think this may be due to the fact that I spent the majority of the three years of my dance degree in tracky pants, leggings and trainers. Having said this, this tshirt is still feminine enough with a good old polka dot. Not too sure what else to style it with so I think I might experiment with different fabrics and textures.

This second outfit features a vintage Fred Perry find. I love the retro feel of this outfit and wonder, if there was a filter on this picture would it make you question when this was pictured? I seem to be making a small collection of fred Perry items. I find the logo very subtle and elegant, just like Hepburn in her Lacoste shirt. 


Annie x

Saturday 17 August 2013

Yo, Kimono

Channeling my inner Asian with two new kimonos. They are both lovely light weight items that add a bit of interest to an otherwise boring outfit. My most hated part of my body is my top half . I am very conscious of how bony my collar bones are and how gangly my arms are.  With this I have issues with jackets and tops that aren't fitted as I find if they are too big then it will make me appear smaller then I am. Silly I know but everyone has those little body niggles and hang ups that alter the way in which we dress.  



The first kimono was an eBay find, originally from h&m I won the bid for under £5 including postage. The label stated its was a size XS however when it arrived I was a little disappointed as it was huuuge. Tried it on and at first I felt like a wizard, I wasn't impressed. Having said this, I did try it on whilst I was wearing pyjamas so I then decided to style it up and realised it actually looked great on. I figured out that due to its bagginess it should be styled with something fitted underneath.


The second kimono was also an eBay find. Originally from River Island this was again a size 6 however still on the large side. I love the contrasting colours of the teal and orange. Here I have decided to wear it with muted colours like the grey and light blue and bring out the orange with this lovely orange and gold necklace from ASOS that I received as a birthday prezzie. I have recently started seeing Kimonos pop up in shops on the high street. Primark have a couple of lovely silky ones with oriental prints priced at around £15. I think they are a great alternative to a cardigan or blazer and adds a bit of interest to an outfit.

Annie x
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