Smart gloves, smart present

So as it's now only 5 weeks to Christmas (eeeeeeeek!) my Christmas shopping is well under way. I don't know about you but I always find that when I'm shopping for the ladies in my life I could spend and spend without running out of ideas. The men, however, are a different matter! They are always so difficult to come up with new ideas for, and I don't think they'd quite appreciate a lovely make up set in the same way as my mum and besties would do!

I was recently sent these Smart Gloves from Paramountzone and I think they'd make the perfect gift. They're so practical, allowing him to stay in touch and stay warm all at the same time and what man doesn't love a new gadget?! The site has loads of boys toys and cool gadgets for men so I'll definitely be placing an order for the men in my life!

I wore the gloves to a football match recently and was really impressed by how they kept my hands cosy, but I could still tweet about the game, text my friends at the same time! Must haves!!

Watch a gift

So it seems I've been away longer than I thought I had. September and October have been pretty busy months for me. With a holiday in September and completing my acrylic nails course in October I feel like I haven't had a minute to spare. But hey I'm back now and ready to get right back into my blogging stride!

And what better way to start than with this fab watch I received from the lovely people at watchagift.co.uk. In a stunning rose gold colour, my new favourite metal. And with a sparkly leopard print face, my always favourite print. This watch was right up my street!! The face is bigger in real life than it looked on the site, but that's a good thing in my books. I've included a pic of the watch on my wrist so you can see what it looks like in relation to a real arm.

At just £25 this watch is such a bargain, you'd need to really look closely to realise it's not a more expensive, designer style. I'll definitely be back on the watchagift.co.uk website as I continue my Christmas shopping as they have so much choice for men and women and the styles are all really reasonably priced.

Nails of the day - 3 for the price of 1

As we had a family party last week, my sister in law Laura and my friend Victoria tasked me with doing their nails the night before it. So I thought I'd share the designs with you. Both were firsts for me, and I really loved the end result, as did the girls luckily enough!

For Victoria I did my first ever Aztec nails design. A bit of a mix match of colours and designs meant she could work her outfit around it for the next night. When she showed her nails to her boyfriend he told her they looked like Spanish pots, result!

Laura had asked me to do her a design in black and white but pretty much left the rest up to me. I decided to try out a Paisley print design, which I've been looking to do for a while. I was really pleased with the way they turned out, but decided just to do the design on her ring fingers and highlight the rest of her nails with a polka dot trim.

After spending all my time doing their nails, waiting for coats to dry etc, I ended up with a pretty boring design on my own nails! An all over pail pink with neon pink leopard print on my ring fingers. They did go with my dress though...outfit post to come! Please ignore the dodgy fake tan on my fingers. It was just freshly applied...

What do you think? Which design is your favourite?

 

BassBuds review

I pretty much spend my life listening to music. When I'm in the house, in the car, at the gym, you name it my iPod's usually on a constant shuffle....not in public though, my cringeworthy music collection would scare off even my closest friends! So when I was sent these gorgeous earphones from BassBuds I couldn't wait to try them out.

Now I'm not gonna pretend I'm some kind of expert when it comes to the technicalities of headphones or the optimum acoustics or anything like that, but aren't they pretty??? They come in this fabulous display box like a piece of jewellery and in a selection of amazing colours. Although I've got to admit I was chuffed to be sent this black style, they're pretty suave! But the piece de resistance is the beauty of a Swarovski crystal in each bud. I know I sound a lot like a girl here, but if they sparkle I'm pretty much sold!

Don't worry though they're not all style and no function. The headphones sound really amazing too, they come complete with various sized soft ear buds so you can choose the right pair for the best fit for you. Plus they have a wee mic so you can use them with your phone, and a button halfway down the wire so you can play and pause your music or answer calls.

Check out the full range on the BassBuds micro site.

 

Dreaming of holidays...

After a miserable summer of rain, rain and more rain, I am desperately in need of some sunshine.  To make matters worse, I've definitely started to notice the dark nights coming in earlier over the past couple of weeks and have even contemplated switching on the heating on more than one occasion! Don't get me wrong, I've not quite done it yet, but my chunky knitwear is getting way to much airtime for August as far as I'm concerned!

Hubby and I are going to Spain in a couple of weeks with some other family and friends, but we're already thinking about going further afield next year and booking a big holiday, once we've cleared a tiny percentage of our "new house debt"!

A family wedding earlier in the year brought some extended family over from South Africa and talking to them has made me really want to visit. It sounds absolutely beautiful and is definitely high up my list of places to visit.  So I've been having a wee nosey into flights to Johannesburg and they're actually really reasonably priced. Plus apparently it's really good value once you're there too.

I'd love to visit the Victoria Falls and experience a safari, they're definitely both on the bucket list! But other than that it just looks like a really beautiful country.

Have any of you been? Would you recommend it? And what other experiences should I add to my to do list??

Outfit of the day

This is a wee outfit I wore to work a couple of days ago. I've been trying to make a bit more effort with what I wear to work recently. Trying to pick my outfit the night before and get it all ironed and organised, otherwise I end up chucking an outfit together last minute before I leave and hating it for the rest of the day.

So yesterday I wore my polka dot trousers that I last wore here and teamed them with a black peplum top. I wasn't very sure about peplums at first, but I'm loving them now. They hide a multitude of sins and big lunches!

Top and trousers - M&Co

Shoes - Zara

Necklace -Fossil

Two for one shoe porn

I've fancied a pair of high top trainers for quite a while now. As much as I love the amazing heeled styles around just now, at 5 foot 10 without heels I don't really think they're necessary! So when I spotted these beauties on the Dune website I fell in love.

In a gorgeous neutral shade and luxurious suede they look just as expensive as the Ash heeled styles, and they'll go with everything. As if that wasn't enough, a wee swipe of the side zip reveals a hidden touch of snake print. In my calculations that makes them two pairs of shoes for the price of one....and that makes the £75 price tag a total bargain!!

Victoria Beckham glasses

In another life, about a million years ago, I used to work in an opticians. In fact for a while I thought I wanted to be an optician...I soon got over that though! But either way I've always had a bit of a thing for specs. Every time I get my eyes checked I always hope they're going to tell me I need to wear glasses. I'm sure I'd hate them if I actually had to wear them, but I just always think they look so sophisticated, sexy and down right trendy!

So now that the fabulous Victoria Beckham is adding to her ever growing fashion empire with a range of prescription glasses, I think it's time I booked myself in for an eye test...

The gorgeous Mrs Beckham proving my point about glasses wearers!

The range will consist of 6 styles in 3 colourways each and they will be launched in October. At a bargainous....ahem....£260 retail price, I think I'll need to start saving my pennies now and hopefully by the time I'm 50 and a glasses wearer I might even be able to afford a pair. Will you be investing in a pair?

BAM Bamboo Clothing

I'm a bit of an online shopping geek - it comes with the occupation unfortunately. So I love it when brands launch new websites or new ways to shop. BAM Bamboo Clothing have just done exactly that. With their new mobile site from MoPowered. Visitng their site from a mobile or tablet, the site automatically optimizes itself to make your shopping experience as easy and pleasurable as possible

BAM make Eco-friendly and ethically made bamboo clothing. Having never worn bamboo clothing before I wasn't really sure what to expect. But when I received a bamboo vest and pair of socks from BAM I was more than impressed. As well as feeling really comfortable to wear and lovely and soft, I was reliably informed that they are also temperature controlled, anti-bacterial, anti-static and UV protective. Multi tasking clothing - I like it! I'm actually wearing their Bamboo vest today, so I'll maybe squeeze in a wee outfit post later to show you. It's a really flattering shape and sure to be one I wear with everything! In fact I might need to invest in more colours too.

Have a look at the BAM website and let me know what you think!


*PR sample

Nails of the day - neon leopard print

After having a touch of the midweek blues today (I've got a cheek after a 3 day weekend!), I decided to cheer myself up with some fun nails. I applied Nails Inc in Floral Street as a base, two coats gives a gorgeous, bright white shade, it always reminds me of the old days when we used to paint our nails with tipp-ex! Then I did the leopard print design down one side of each nail using Nails Inc in Chelsea Park, a bright neon coral shade, and the Models Own Wah Nails nail art pen in black. And I finished off with a quick coat of Seche Vite.

I was really pleased with the outcome. What do you think...?

 

 

Cinderella's Loubis

I love a good fairytale, and what happy ending would be better than being given a gorgeous pair of limited edition Cinderella shoes?

Christian Louboutin has redesigned the iconic glass slipper in honour of the Blue Ray release of Cinderella later this year. And here's what the man himself has to say about the gorgeous lace and crystal embellished beauties.

"Cinderella is not only an iconic character when it comes to beauty, grace and fairytale love, but also shoes. Her character and her story dictated the design to me, it was all there in the pages and the words of this tale. The slipper is the magic wand of transformation, which conjures confidence, beauty and love The dream is a major factor in my language of design. There are no limits in the world of fantasy and there is always a happily ever after."

The initial sketch

The finished product

The shoes are limited to just 20 pairs worldwide, and they'll be given away to fans in a give away. I'll race you to the front of that competition queue girls!!

Project Perfect

When the gorgeous Sarah from Fashion is my H2O told me about her new Project Perfect mission I couldn't wait to get involved. Her aim is to make all of us feel gorgeous no matter what size we are. Each week she has 6 bloggers all in different sizes from 6 to 16, and each person styles that week's selected item of clothing in their own way that makes them feel body confident and happy in their own skin. It's such a fab project and shows that we really don't all need to fit in to a particular shape or size in order to be beautiful.

This week's challenge was to style a blazer. And here's what I wore!

Blazer - River Island

Shorts - vintage

Top - Primark

Shoes - Topshop

Necklace - Fossil

Each of the other bloggers look amazing in their blazers, what a gorgeous bunch! Have a look at Sarah's fab blog here.

 

Carry on camping

Other than the odd Duke of Edinburgh expedition during my school days, the only camping I've ever done has been at T in the Park. (The best festival in Scotland by miles!) This year is the second year in about a decade that we've not been going to TITP and I've got to say that I'm not really too disappointed by that fact. As you've all experienced, it has rained here constantly for weeks and the whole area is bound to be a soggy, filthy mud bath....not my idea of fun. However seeing all these camping lovelies in the Cath Kidston summer sale has gone some way to changing my mind. Who cares about a bit of rain when you get to wrap yourself up in your floral sleeping bag and spend the night in a cowboy teepee??? Plus they're so cheap in the sale, maybe I should stock up now in preparation for next year...or try out some glamping before then...

Cowboy Teepee Tent was £75 now £50

Stripe Camping Stool was £12 now £8

Petal Dome Tent was £85 now £60

Bath Flowers Torch was £6 now £4

Petal Sleeping Bag was £25 now £18

 

Are you going to any festivals this year? Go on make me jealous...

 

Nails of the day - Juicy Blue

I decided to go for a combo of my favourite Models Own shades and created a gorgeous subtle sparkly finish. I layered Beth's Blue under the Classic Juicy Jules and this was the outcome.

Elizabeth Arden Flawless Finish Foundation

After being a dedicated devotee of Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation for a couple of years now, I decided it was time for a change. I don't know about you, but no matter how good I find a type of make up, after using it for a long period of time I just don't see the same results any more. I know I'll go back to Double Wear one day though, and I'll probably fall in love with it all over again.

Anyway, I took a wee wander in Debenhams to see what I could find. The Flawless Finish compact on the Elizabeth Arden counter caught my eye. I remember my mum used it years ago and really liked it. And I quite fancied the idea of a compact foundation for a change - so much easier for quick fixes when you're out and about!

The girl on the counter tried the make up on me and I really liked it. She explained that by using the included sponge dry or wet you can vary the coverage of the foundation depending on the look you're going for. Personally I quite like a lot of coverage from my foundation, not that I have particularly bad skin or much uneven skin tone...I just like to feel like I'm wearing make up. I know that sounds bizarre!

I've been really pleased with this foundation. I've not used the sponge that comes in the compact very often, only when I'm out and about, as I've found that I get the best coverage when I apply the foundation using a foundation brush. Mine is a MAC 190 brush. I have used sponges a couple of times when we had warmer weather and I was just looking for a light covering, but I'm yet to try it with a wet sponge so I can't report on how that goes. My colour is Porcelain Beige, to be honest the colour names are the only negative I have about the product, each colour is named a different type of beige...I just know that when I go to replace this I'm going to get confused about which beige I am. Oh well, good job I've written it here so I can remember!

What foundation are you using now? Have you tried this Elizabeth Arden one?

Get ahead get a hat

It's Royal Ascot week, which can mean only one thing, the best hats in the world come out to play. Personally I can't carry off a hat, they just don't look right on me. Although in my mum's mind the bigger the hat the better...I think had it rained on my wedding day, everyone in attendance could have taken shelter under the brim of her headgear.

Not being able to wear a hat doesn't mean I can't have a right good perv at the beauties on display at Ascot though...

The Queen of accessorising pulls it off again

 

A patriotic Minnie Mouse

 

Captain Hook meets a parrot

 

A record and peacock feathers, an obvious combination

 

And the award for the most subtle hat goes to....

 

source

What I wore to the Scottish Fashion Awards

I was lucky enough to be invited along to the Scottish Fashion Awards on Monday night with the beautiful Lisa from Juicy Satsuma. We had an amazing night of celeb spotting and, more to the point, fabulous outfit spotting!

The problem with being invited to an event like this - with the cream of the crop of the Scottish fashion world in attendance - is picking just what to wear! Getting the right balance between staying true to your own style, being a bit fashion forward, but not looking too try-hard is no easy feat! So I decided to follow my favourite mantra WWKD (what would Kate do) and recycled an old favourite. I last wore this Mint Velvet dress when we had a housewarming after our big move earlier this year and I decided it had the right amount of sparkle and high-end-high-street for the fashion awards. I teamed it with my new favourite Moda in Pelle shoes (they're so amazing they may even deserve their own post at a later date) and my ever faithful New Look blazer toned down the sequins a touch. I kept the jewellery minimal with just a long beaded necklace from Oasis.

Outfit picked, the next challenge was the hair and make up transformation, as us girls know, we don't wake up looking this gorgeous. Here's a wee selection of the products I used on the night, and a wee mid-makeover shot - including one remaining trusty Velcro roller!

When we arrived at the awards our first stop was the VIP red carpet to do some papping (next time we'll remember the step ladders like the pros). Unfortunately we missed Alexa in her Christopher Kane dress and the gorgeous David Gandy. But we did manage some shots of some legends while we were there. Brix Smith-Start was her usual eccentric self sporting a statement Louise Gray dress with a graduated hem. The designer herself then made an appearance in some rather fabulous clashing prints and a dash of neon hairspray!

Designer of the year Christopher Kane was rather dashing in his studded shirt. I later discovered I was sitting beside his partner Declan during the awards show, something I was rather chuffed about until I told my husband and he replied with "who's Christopher Kane?" don't worry I'll be giving him an education pronto!! Scottish model of the year Tali Lennox was stunning in the flesh, and her dress was gorgeous. But the tiny catch we noticed in the skirt of her dress certainly helped bring her back down to being just a mere mortal!

The awards were amazing as you can imagine, with musical performances, fashion shows and Alexa was a charming and funny host. For more info on the actual awards, including the performances and who won what, check out the gust post Lisa and I did on Mabel's Log. It has all the important details you need! After the show we had a bit of fun with in the photo booth in the foyer of the Armadillo. Looks like we still need some practice before they'll nominate us for model of the year. All in all we had a brilliant night, we left the boys at home watching the football while we indulged in all things beautiful and fashionable, bliss!! And who says you need to be a VIP to get a freebie? Every seat had a bottle of Highland Spring water waiting for us, yip, my life is just a blur of glitz and glamour!

Queen Victoria

So it seems that in this Olympic and jubilee year everyone's getting a bit patriotic. It's even affecting our superstar expats! The ever fabulous Mrs Beckham has been living in the states with her gorgeous family for over 5 years, but still very much classes herself British. And her Victoria Beckham fashion line is based in London, something she is fiercely proud of.

She's also been shouting about how wonderful Britain is as an ambassador for the GREAT Campaign, a project which aims to promote the UK around the world. I love this video she made as part of the campaign. She looks so natural and happy in front of the camera. While also looking gorgeous as always, in one of her own designs.

 

 

A different Brazilian..

As well as having red hair, (a blessing and a curse I'll tell you!) I was lucky enough to be gifted with the driest, thickest, coarsest (is that a word?) hair you could ever imagine. AND it's a not quite straight, not quite curly, mess of kinks...oh boy am I sounding gorgeous right now or what?! One of the only treatments I've found to tame my hair is the Brazilian blow dry. It really does make a massive difference to my hair.

Not quite a straightening treatment, as many think it is. The blow dry actually smooths the hair and makes it a lot more manageable and easier to work with for up to 3 months. Unfortunately it's not the cheapest treatment out there with most salons charging anywhere between £150 and £300! Now as much as I love it, and I really do swear by it, I just can't justify spending that kind of money on my hair. Therefore any time I've had a brazilian blow dry I've bought it on an offer from one of the daily deals sites, Groupon, Itison, Living Social, etc. They don't appear on the deal sites all that often, not like fish pedicures or spa packages, but if you keep your eyes peeled you can get a real bargain. I tend to pay about £60 for mine, and as I don't colour my hair, or really do much more to it other than a cut and style every couple of months, I feel like I can really justify the cost.

So I went for my latest Brazilian Blow Dry treatment last Thursday in the Illusion salon in the east end of Glasgow. It was my first time in the salon and the staff were all really friendly. They used the La Brasiliana treatment. I've had this particular brand used before and it's definitely one of my favourites...I'm becoming a bit of an expert now!! They also recommended after care products to use as after the treatment you shouldn't use shampoos and other products containing sulphates as it won't work as well. Luckily with this particular one you can wash your hair the next day, although before you wash it you really need to keep it perfectly straight; no ponytails, kirbies or tucking your hair behind your ears. One treatment I had in the past I still had to do all these things, but I was told not to wash my hair for four days...that really wasn't fun!

Unfortunately I don't have any before and after pictures as even before my hair was always straightened, and there's no way I'm posting a picture of my pre-straightened barnet on t'interweb! But the images on La Brasiliana's website shows just how much of a difference the treatment can have on your hair.

My own hair is now so much lighter, shinier, softer and less frizzy than it was before. I still need to blow dry and style it, but it takes a fraction of the time that it used to.

Have you had a Brazilian blow dry? What did you think of the results?