In Love With Fashion: Blogger Challenge

It's incredibly rare that I ever take part in any blogger challenges, however the recent In Love with Fashion monthly challenge grabbed my attention. Each of their bloggers have been asked to create an outfit on a budget surrounding one of their sale dresses. After skimming through their sale items, I fell in love with this Love Red Gathered Sleeve Tea Dress at the bargainous price of £22. I could easily see myself wearing this dress to work, to go shopping and dressing it up for a night out, it's so versatile. The colour is really bright, sticking to my New Years Resolution of adding brighter colours to my wardrobe and it also looks sophisticated, following my plans to go for a more demure wardrobe for when I'm married next year.

I'm teamed the In love With Fashion dress with an affordable £1 pinkish red lip from MUA, a pair of kitten heels from Everything5pounds.com, a pearl inspired necklace from ASDA at £6 and a beautiful vintage inspired bag from Ebay at around £18. This outfit comes in at £52 (excluding shipping) and I think that's a perfect price for a complete outfit. After all in some high street stores you can't even get a t-shirt for less than £30.

Overall, I love this outfit. It's great for adding a burst of colour this January and will also see you through to Valentines Day in February, after all red is the colour of love.  If I wasn't on a spending ban I'd probably rush out and buy each item straight away. This doesn't stop you though, I recommend going over to the In Love With Fashion website and checking out their sale items, there's so many beautiful pieces for you to snap up, especially if you're trying to reinvent your style this season.

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Here comes the bride - Wedding Invitations

As many of you will know, in just over a year's time I will be getting married and right now, the pressure is on to get all the preparations started. Before I got engaged, I envisioned myself as a Bridezilla knowing exactly how I wanted things and frequently throwing temper tantrums. In fact, I'm now completely the opposite. I'm calm, collected and I have a kind of 'don't really care aslong as I get married' attitude. The struggles me and James have faced during our times together and the loss of some really prevalent people in our lives has made us realise that we could get married in shack and still be insanely happy. We're looking for a low key, intimate affair with friends and family being our focus. 

Sometimes having a laid back attitude is the best way, but then again, there is a time when it becomes borderline lazy. I admit, I've very much become that person. I keep looking at the list getting all excited and then when I realise how much work I have to do, I freeze and try to distract myself.  I really underestimated how much there is to arrange when you get married. I mean - I don't know the difference between chrysanthemums and gypsophilas and don't even get me started on the various descriptions of wedding dresses which all inevitably conclude they are the same colour, white. 

Despite all this ranting, I'm very much excited about the wedding and marrying my handome prince. Aslong as we make it down the asile in one piece, I'll be a happy bunny. To make sure there is a wedding to attend, it's vital that I start looking into wedding invitations. I'm intending for all my wedding invitations to be sent out before the middle of September and I haven't really started the search. Recently I came across a few designs on Vistaprint. Vistaprint was never my choice of wedding invitation makers, until I came across this design.

I love the little flowers and the simplicity of this invitation. When dreaming of my perfect invites, I was looking for something along these lines. I'm not a frilly type of person and I don't want to invest a huge amount into invitations when the majority of them will be thrown away. I love the price range of these invitations (10 for £12.74) and I think they look rather classy. With all these thoughts pottering round my mind, I ordered a few samples and when they arrived, I was really impressed.

The card seems really sturdy, which is great as you know the wont get damaged in the post and the gloss makes them look more appealing. The text is simple yet pretty and the border looks vintage which fits in with my wedding theme.

The design is replicated on the inside of the invite, along with the same text for the information. On this sample, you can see I have made a few mistakes, but for a tester it looks really good. I've shaded my wedding date and information for privacy reasons. As much as I love you all and would love to invite you all to my wedding, I simply do not have the catering budget!

What do you think of these designs?

http://www.vistaprint.co.uk/

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Valentines Lips with Barry M

"Pour yourself a drink, put some lipstick on and pull yourself together" - Marilyn Monroe. 

For decades a bright red lipstick has been seen as the epitome of confidence for women. It symbolises sexuality, feminism and the powerful stance that women can often have over men. Red lipstick in particular is associated with lust and glamour, which was mainly bought to the forefront of media attention by the likes of screen goddesses Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor during the 1950s. When reaching for our favourite shade of red lip paint, we often think of the 1950s as it oozes a classy, sophisticated appeal. In the 1960s, many women were accused of having mental disorders if they did not wear lipstick. Lipstick was classed as a necessary accessory for women. 

With Valentines Day just around the corner, it's time to honor our true inner goddess and get the guys lusting over our kissable lips.  There's no better colour than red for this occasion and I'm going to suggest that Barry M shade 121 should take place in your makeup purse.

Barry M Shade 121 is called 'Pillar Box Red' and in my opinion, resembles the colour of old phone boxes. Bright, vibrant and very classic, this Barry M lipstick has a fantastic creamy texture and glides on effortlessly with barely any smudges. The one downside to this product is the fact that it's a little dry, but if you apply lip balm before hand and keep your lips hydrated, you shouldn't have any problems.

The lipstick is very vibrant and really brings your lips to the centre of attention. If you're too scared of colour this lipstick probably isn't for you, but I still suggest you give it a go. The colour red is great for anyone with a daring personality and this lipstick looks wonderful on brunettes.  The lipstick can be bought for £4.49 which is easily affordable and a great little treat for valentines day without going over the top.

I have always been a fan of bright red lipsticks, I own approximately 30 different shades at home and I'm admittedly turning into somewhat of a 'red lipstick hoarder'. Nevertheless, nothing will stop me. I'm passionate, a little crazy at times and I love a great challenge. The colour red sums me up perfectly.

I shall leave you with a song called 'Red Lipstick' by Kesha!

What's your favourite coloured lipstick?

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Wedding Planning

As many of you know, I've been engaged since April 2012 and I have some exciting news to tell you all. As of yesterday evening, me and my partner James have placed the deposit down on our wedding reception. I'm beyond excited and I seem to have gone into wedding overdrive. I'm not getting married until 2014, but it's great that we're so prepared and we can have a gradual planning session rather than doing the whole 'Don't Tell The Bride' thing of booking a wedding within 3 weeks. Of course, being a really girly girl, I'm so excited about trying on wedding dresses in the near future, so I decided to celebrate by showing you some of my favourites online.

My wedding theme is 1950s/60s. Me and my partner can't choose with decade we really prefer, so we're going for the turn of the decade. Think Dreamboats and Petticoats and early Beatles. I'm looking for a dress with plenty of elegant lace and quite big. This top dress is from the Maggie Sottero range. I love the beautiful lace top half and how the lace trails along the bottom. I have slightly bigger hips so I like the fact that this dress goes in at the wait then out again.

This second dress still has the lace elements that I really like, but it's much more slimline. I'm not overly keen on the gloves, but the dress looks beautiful. It's simple, yet incredibly elegant.

The final dress is known as the 'Snow White' dress. I love the floral decoration on the top and the fact that it looks so retro. Right now if I had to choose one dress, this would definitely be it.

 Whilst we were discussing wedding plans at the hotel last night, we were told that the hotel is pet friendly and that guests are allowed to bring dogs if they are struggling for accommodation. Words cannot describe how happy I am to hear that my little yorkshire terrier, Ozzy, can be a guest at my wedding. Of course he isn't allowed in the reception room, but he can be in my wedding pictures and have a lie down upstairs whilst we all party. I definitely need to look at dog tuxedos...

Which dress would you choose?

x

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Dirt and Glitter Soaps

(image taken from Dirty and Glitter website)

Most women like to feel sexy, glamourous and hide away all the prep work that takes place behind closed doors. Unless there's something I don't know about, there's no woman on this earth born with a full face of makeup, chocolate scented skin and beautifully set hair. Getting ready for even a normal day out can take quite a while and it's those little luxuries that speed up all the hard work that make great presents. For those who remember, I introduced you to a brand Dirt and Glitter awhile back but unfortunately my post had been deleted. Therefore  I'm reintroducing one of the most beautiful little soap companies on the block. 

(image taken from website) 

Dirt and Glitter are a small London company that create custom designed soap. Unravelling the cliche of men who don't like to be clean, Dirt and Glitter have a mens and women's soap range, making them a perfect choice for valentines day gifts.

(image taken from website)

Some of my favourites on the website include this cute little lolly pop stick and the chocolate cupcake that I was sent to review a while back. All the products are within a student and bank card friendly price range - with some of the soaps starting from as little as £2.99.

Here is the chocolate cupcake soap i was sent several months ago. As you can see I still have the majority of the product left and I use this nearly everyday. The soap sells for £6.99 on the website and I would say I've had it at least 6 months, making this a £1 per month usage rate.  For anyone that loves chocolate, especially chocolate cupcakes, this is definitely the product for you. It looks great for those who collect soaps too. My auntie has one of the biggest collections of soaps I have ever seen and I can guarantee she would be totally jealous of this little marvel. 

Make sure you check out all the other products at http://www.dirtandglitter.co.uk/

Have you tried any Dirt and Glitter products?

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60s Inspired Makeup

I've always been fascinated by 60s style, music and culture. Short little dresses, beehive or curly hair and bright colours are a few of my favourite things in life. Bridget Bardot is one of my favourite all time models - she was the reason I longed for blonde hair and my inspiration behind this post. Summer fun always has a connection to the 60s. It was the time of the revolution, freedom and finally, women were free to do exactly as they please. So here's my 60s inspired makeup...

For my '60s look' I decided to use my new MUA cosmetics. At £1 a time these highly pigmented eyeshadows and lipsticks are great for a colour boost. I'm in love with their new 'Nectar' shade as it lasts for quite a long time considering the price and it really makes those lips stand out. Nectar is also a lower cost duplicate of Macs Ravishing, another one of my favourite colours. 

I started my makeup by using Ginvera's new BB cream.In the 1960s, women were still playing around with colour, so makeup looked more fresh than natural most of the time. By using a BB cream, it has given me a soft sheen over my face, without being caked in product. I then proceeded to my eyes and eyebrows. I wanted to experiment with my MUA products, so I decided to use a small amount of vaseline on my eyebrow then use the MUA Matt eyeshadow to fill in my eyebrows. This colour is a perfect match for me and blended in so well - £1 is such a great price for such a versatile product. I then used the eyeshadow to fill in my eye sockets and finished with a small amount of black eyeliner on the top. The eye mascara I used was Avon's Super Curlacious (I will be reviewing this later) which came out of this months Marie Claire magazine.

The second set of products I used for this makeup look are by Sheer Cover. I've never used this brand before and I was kindly sent a few products to try. I'm really impressed by the quality of these products - the blusher blends really well and I really enjoy using the eyeliner. If I have one little criticism about the products, it's that the eyeliner smudges a little bit too easily, but then again, it's perfect for shading. I used the Sheer Cover Classic Brown eyeliner under my eyes to give a softer alternative to black. On my cheeks, I used the Ginger blusher (the one on the left). This gave me subtle tangy orange glow on my cheeks, giving it warmth and using a trademark colour of the 60s

The whole look was finished by using my MUA Intense Bright Orange lip liner and the lipstick shade i mentioned earlier - Nectar.

To achieve the ultimate 60s style, I backcombed my hair into a tiny beehive and let half of my hair dangle over the shoulder. 

Here's some 60s nostalgia for you - a song based on makeup!

What do you think of my makeup look?

♥♥♥

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