The Spring Dress Wish List

The recent milder spell of weather and odd sunshine bathed day has me full of hope that Spring might be on the horizon; I do remember having this same train of thought last year though and then we got hit by The Beast From The East so we’ll see how long this optimism lasts! Still, un-predictable weather aside it’s been a long time since a wish list post graced this blog, so here we are with my current obsession- dresses perfect for that transition in to Spring.

Monki Wrap Dress | Joanie Star and Scallop Dress

I love the bright and bold prints on both of these dresses, especially the star and scallop print on the Joanie dress. The Monki shirt dress looks perfect for dressing up for work, or down with trainers for the weekend, and the Joanie number is a bargain at just £30.

Floral Skater Dress from Oasis | Unity Posy Midi Dress from Joy

Both Joy and Oasis dropped off my radar for a while, and both used to feature regularly on the blog back in the day. These floral dresses are both ideal for Spring and I’ve made myself a promise to frequent these stores more regularly for inspiration and the occasional purchase when budgets allow. I did pick up an awesome dress in Oasis just after Christmas which is coming up in a blog post soon. Florals for Spring may not be groundbreaking, but they sure do work.

Ruffle Floral Dress from Warehouse

I saw this dress pop up on Warehouse’s social media recently and instantly fell in love. My current shopping ban means I can’t make the £69 purchase at the moment but I’m mentally making excuses to break the ban; would it be perfect for a late Spring wedding I’m going to? I’d love some opinions on this as it might be enough to justify the spend!
What’s caught your eye lately? I’m loving the high street right now, and it’s the worst possible timing to feel so inspired to shop as all of my spare pennies are being filtered towards spends for the epic holiday Bob and I have planned…it’ll be worth it, but I can feel my halo slipping.

Vegan Friendly Velvet Matte Lipsticks from essence!*

Regular readers of the blog will know how much I rate budget makeup brand essence (you can find my previous posts here).

It has been a while since I tried anything new from essence but I was recently sent three shades from their Velvet Matte lipstick range and wanted to share my thoughts on the blog.

Lipsticks c/o Essence

Firstly these lipsticks are an absolute bargain at £2.30 each (available from Wilkinson stores and online at Wilko.com). I firmly believe that what essence save on fancy packaging they pour in to product quality.

And that’s not to say these lipsticks look terrible, quite the opposite. I like the minimalistic design and lightweight casing, but it’s the performance of these lipsticks that truly won me over. Soft and luxurious feeling with amazing lasting power- I popped one of these on for work the other day, around 8am and it was still going post lunch, somewhere around 2pm which far exceeds many lipsticks I regularly wear. These give intense colour and a great matte finishing without drying out the lips, again, something many more expensive brands can’t quite pull off. The shades I was sent are typical of what I would usually pick (although they were sent at random) but the entire range caters for all tastes with 12 colours in total.

From left to right- Shade 10 (greedy coffee), Shade 01 (donuts go nut), Shade 04 (hungry pink)
The lipsticks are also suitable for vegans and available now! Have you tried anything from essence recently? I’m really far behind on their new launches so let me know what I’m missing.

Products sent to me for blog consideration, I was under no obligation to post.

Ace the Races with PrettyLittleThing*

It’s been a very long time since a brand approached me about a clothing collaboration so I was more than a little bit excited when PrettyLittleThing got in touch about styling up some race day worthy outfits. I’ve never been to the races myself but have seen plenty of coverage from those who have and I had my own idea of the kind of style I’d like to sport- PrettyLittleThing have everyone covered though with a huge selection and my toughest choice was narrowing my selection down! In the end I picked two outfits that I feel wouldn’t be out of place at even the grandest of race days, I’d love to know what you think and what you’d have picked.

Dress | Shoes both c/o PrettyLittleThing

I fell in love with the retro vibe of this chocolate brown midi dress instantly, the sleeve detail is so unique and it hangs beautifully. I wouldn’t usually go for such a delicate shoe but I love how the rose gold looks with this outfit, and despite having to size up in the shoes (hello wide feet woes) they are a lot more comfortable than they look.

Dress | Shoes | Bag all c/o PrettyLittleThing

This emerald green dress is unlike anything I have ever owned before and I was in two minds about picking it as I wasn’t sure a plunging neckline would be my friend. Thankfully it worked, although a bit more in the boobs department might have helped! I was taken by the tied cuff details and the wrap around effect, I kept shoes more subtle this time as the dress is far more revealing than anything I usually wear, and I couldn’t resist adding in this little marabou feather clutch bag for a finishing touch.
Have you ever been to the races before? As a complete novice, how did I do with my outfit selections?

The Beauty Sleep Elixir from Beuti

Despite my best intentions, this year my skincare regime has been seriously lacking, and whilst we might be rapidly approaching the last weeks of 2018, when I was sent a product loved by the likes of Rita Ora and Iggy Azalea to try I figured it’s better late that never and set about trying to up my game.

The Beauty Sleep Elixir* by Beuti is the first product to launch from the UK based brand. It’s a brand new complexion booster with anti-inflammatory properties, made up from 14 plant-based oils (I’m not going to list them all here, but highlights include Caribbean coral extract, chia seed oil and neroli flower oil).

This little bottle of golden oil is designed to tackle “inflammaging” – a condition where your skin ages due to inflammation over a prolonged period of time. This can be caused by every day things such as sun exposure, pollution or simply using the wrong products for your skin (definitely guilty on all accounts here).

You can either pop on a few drops of this elixir under your makeup, or use it over-night to allow your skin to renew itself, with the promise of younger, brighter looking skin I couldn’t wait to try it.

I’ve been using the Beauty Sleep Elixir for just over a week now, mainly under my makeup in the morning as it’s all I can do to remove my makeup before bed, let alone pop any products on (I know, I know). I’m not going to share a before and after, mostly because my face is looking a bit…bruised thanks to a brutal wisdom tooth extraction, but I 100% noticed a difference after just the first day.

It’s going to take a lot to get my poor, neglected skin back in tip-top condition, and that’s going to be one of my main goals for 2019, but things are definitely looking better. I’ve shrugged off that dull, grey tone that comes from spending too much time in an office with central heating, and overall things just look smoother and dare I say it…more youthful. This isn’t a cheap product, it costs £42 for a 30ml bottle, but a tiny bit goes a long way- literally one pump works beautifully under my makeup, and probably two pumps would do a nighttime slathering.

You can get your hands on this wonder oil at lookfantastic although you’ll have to wait for it to come back in to stock as it sells out pretty much as soon as it hits the website.
One thing I have learnt from my experiments with skincare is that it does pay to invest, and I’ll genuinely be buying more of this when my bottle runs out.

Has any one else tried this product? And what are your best tips for getting in to a solid skincare regime? This girl needs all of the help she can get!

Product gifted to me for blog consideration, terrible skincare habits, puffy face and opinions are entirely my own.

Indulging my ankle boot obsession with Fashion World*

If I could only wear one style of shoes for the rest of my life it would without a doubt be ankle boots, it doesn’t matter what time of year it is, they are what I gravitate to and I’ve been living in the same two pairs of boots for the last couple of months. This could, of course have something to do with the fact that these are the only shoes I’ve got around to moving house with me- the perks of having my parents’ living near by is that I didn’t have to move everything at once, handy as we’ve had a couple of storage hiccups, and to be honest I haven’t really missed most of my shoe collection (although I will be glad to have them all under one roof in the new year!)

Now I’m done with my Christmas shopping- insert smug gloat here- I’ve gone back to my routine browsing of things I would quite like to own, although now all of my money has gone on Christmas, and unexpected vet bills, it really is a case of browsing only.

Today’s edition of “share my pain in lusting over things I can’t yet afford” features ankle boots (as the post title might have given away), specifically those from the magnificent collection over at fashion world.

I kind of feel I’ve covered all bases with my browsing here, from smart to casual, from day to night, I’ve fallen in love with an ankle boot for all occasions. I think my favourite pair has to be the black ones with the pearl detailing, such a pretty way to liven up an otherwise plain party dress, or for wearing just to feel expensive…and expensive they are not, costing a very reasonable £26.00 in the wide fit style, which is perfect for my flipper feet.

You’ll also find a selection of familiar brands on the fashion world website – from irregular choice to mode in pelle (which is who the delicious burgundy button detail boots are by).

What shoe style would you choose to live in?