Features | Vanity Claire

ClaireJune 22, 2014

A Week in Instagram #10

Well hello there hottys!

Claire and I have had so much fun this week lurking about in London having a marvellous time being idiots. If you want to catch up on what we’ve been up to, check out our round up of the Company Magazine Style Awards and Claire’s outfit of the day from the event (mine is coming soon from when I decide my pictures don’t make me look horribly ham armed).

We’ve been up to lots of fun stuff recently too apart from the Company Awards, so here’s a little round up of our frolicking. If you want to follow us on Instagram, we are StylingoUK and post lots of stupid pictures of our feet.

Claires beautiful Beauty Works 18 inch silver hair extensions, they look amazing!
Having a little twirl in my pink Asos midi skirt before the Company Style Blogger Awards.
Claire’s beautiful new nails, thanks to Nails by Abbie in Coventry.
Claire’s sissy bought her this cute bracelet off holiday, love.

Our snazzy new business cards, thanks to Inktree in Birmingham!
Claire’s oufit for the Company Awards, read the full post here.
Another fit outfit of the day courtesy of Claire, featuring some fit culottes and fedora from H&M. Read the full post here.
A nice little floor pic of our outfits for the Company Awards!

Sunny Hackey on Thursday morning, with a pretty little glimpse of the Shard and the Gherkin.
My shoes and one of my favourite mint green skirt from Primark.
A beautiful Motel dress that Claire won on Twitter! Love that print.
I’m such a big fan of top buns at the moment. SUCH a big fan.

Sometimes we get free magazines at work and when we do, we make tea and read for England.
My recent purchases. The crop top is from Topshop and those lovely flatforms are from Primark.
We recently made Stylingo responsive, so you can read us wherever you want (preferably not on the loo).
Claire’s FIT new Primark sandals.

Banging Neu Apparel gymwear on equally banging Claire.
The lovely Rachel at the Grabble event a few weeks ago, huzzah.
Again, loving the top knot at the moment.
Some beautiful New Look goodies WE LOVE SHOES AND BAGS.

Claire’s prints and rings. Jazzy.
A recent outfit of the day, with one of my favourite Missguided a-line skirts.
Claire’s excellent London Retro sunglasses. How fit?
And another snap of Claire’s lovely Beauty Works hair extensions.

So chums, I hope that you have enjoyed this little peek into our every day lives, and if you want to follow us on Insta then definitely get your sexy asses over there. We also recently wrote a post about some Instagram accounts you have to follow, so check out that if you want some more Insta inspiration.

ClaireJune 17, 2014

A Tale of Two Hoes: The Birth of A Blogging Duo

Since Claire and I will be making our merry way to London for the Company Magazine Style Blogger Awards tomorrow (yes, we are excited and are permanently singing Fancy by Iggy Azalea), I thought that I would tell you all about the beautiful story of when we met. You might want to gather your tissues and prepare yourself for an emotional journey that will ultimately leave you changed and uplifted, just a warning.

It was a sunny day in 2009…

As two girls who now work in digital, its unsurprising that we met in the thoroughly modern way people seem to these days: Facebook. We’d both applied and got into the University of Birmingham and were about to start on the same course, so I did the stalker thing of adding Claire on Facey so that I wasn’t a tragic loser with no mates when term started.

Fun fact, I thought she was really rich and fancy because it looked like she had a walk in wardrobe in her profile pic. It turned out it was just her mates messy bedroom and I soon found out that she was actually a fellow Lambrini drinking lunatic like myself. Thank god.

Becoming uni wankers…

After bonding over inappropriate jokes, we started sitting together at lectures, going out and generally living the ~~embarrassing~~ uni life. First year is a bit of a blur of a terrible lack of eyebrows, drunkenly trying to break into people’s flats (why I ask you) and drinking a lot of tea and/or Glenns. While I’m sure we had a wonderful time, it makes me sad looking back at the horrible fancy dress and how excited we were about going out. Still, we became firm pals and moved in together in second year. And then I got a job where Claire worked. And slowly, we merged into one weird freckled/blonde bobbed monster.

The afterlife…

After we graduated, we were cruelly torn about by real life. I moved back in with my parents and Claire started a jazzy new job in the media. Not happy to stay away for too long though, Claire wangled me a job at her agency and I moved down to Coventry – where we moved in together again. After a couple of months, we decided to start blogging together (in for a penny and all that) and now even strangers call us Clauren.

Well. I just realised how boring this post actually is and that our story of friendship is actually horrifically dull. Oh well. There have been some brilliant highs (virtually everyday) and a few lows (when Claire woke up with a pie on her face, and when I lay in a pile of my own sick on her 21st birthday), but most of all we are just happy that we managed to stay friends through some frankly terrible outfits and still manage to spend more than 8 hours together everyday and not even slightly feel like killing each other.

ClaireJune 9, 2014

#Instalove: 5 Instagram Accounts You Need to Follow

So, today I am shamelessly robbing a post idea from Joelle at February Girl. She recently posted about the 5 Instagram accounts that you need to be following, and I decided that I want to spread the Instalove too. Plus, stealing things is such an adrenaline rush, it is filling the void since I gave up crack.

Without further ado, here are some of our absolute favourite Instagrammers. We’re keen beans for Insta (you can follow us at StylingoUK if you so wish) and approximately 4 hours of my day is spent scrolling through and wondering how on earth people lay their outfits on the floor so artfully. I still don’t really know. I tried it once, and it looked like a pile of dirty washing that I couldn’t be arsed to clean up.

1. @ThePixieCut

This girl is FIERCE and has mastered the art of floor outfits. Her actual body outfits are bloody brilliant too and she consistently makes me feel like chopping all of my hair off will be a good idea. Unfortunately, I don’t have a tiny pixie-like general appearance and instead of looking banging’, I would look like a boy. But anywho, I thoroughly recommend giving Laura a follow on Instagram, if not just for some serious kimono envy.

2. @BlouseAndBrows

There’s nothing more I love in life than eyebrows and blouses, so it was pretty much guaranteed that I was going to enjoy this excellent Insta account. Claire introduced me recently, and we both love this girl’s style (and are only slightly jealous of her amazing figure). She’s a relatively new Instagrammer, so show some love and give her a follow.

3. @BeautyLifeMichelle

If you are a makeup fan, then you absolutely HAVE to follow @BeautyLifeMichelle, although I have some suspicions that Gandalf or another magical being actually does her makeup. No one can be that good at it, surely. Plus, she’s Irish and now lives in Australia, which basically means she’s the most interesting person in the entire world. Big Instalove.

4. @LydiaRoseSmyth

Lydia is a fabulous blogger and Instagrammer who Claire and I ~~stalked~~ met up with last week for dinner. Her posts are so pretty and this hot momma takes an EXCELLENT selfie, there’s also a good level of food photo taking. Everyone loves food pictures.

5. @LydiaFayeJones

Apparently Claire and I only like you if you’re called Lydia. All joking aside (it’s not a joke), @LydiaFayeJones is a constant source of thinspiration, style and general brilliant hair envy. Lydia’s got an absolutely BANGING wardrobe and we thoroughly recommend you give her a follow and let your bank balance deal with the consequences.

I hope that you enjoy these Instagram accounts as much as Claire and I do and if you have any other Instagrammers that you want to share the love for, let us know in the comments below! Peace out.

ClaireMay 24, 2014

What The Idiots In Our Office Think About… SS14 Trends

Claire and I work with genuine ~~fools~~ delightful people. In an office of 6 boys and only the two of us to defend ourselves against football and their horrible pulling techniques, we have to keep ourselves amused by forcing them into girl talk. While this often involves us pestering them about their ~~tragic~~ love lives, it also can get fashion related. And safe to say, they don’t quite understand it. Just the other day, Claire wore a crop top to work and they began asking invalid questions like, ‘did you shrink your tshirt in the wash’ and ‘did you buy a baby’s tshirt by accident’. Sigh and sigh again.

So obviously, we thought that it would be a jolly good laugh to ask them some questions about the current SS14 trends and get some boys’ perspectives on all of the fabulous things us girls are wearing at the moment.

Cleated Soles

First off we showed them a picture of a pair of white cleated platforms. Safe to say that they weren’t particular fans of our summer staples. And here is what they thought:

“Errr they are rubbish”
“These are basically for the summer hooker, and in black they are even more hookery”
“I think my nan used to have a pair” and “they look like granny shoes”
“They cause an immense amount of sadness within me”
“They look like you should be in prison or a desert”

Co-Ords

Claire and I love co-ords at the moment. Unfortunately, the boys didn’t much like them. At all.

“Who the fuck is going outside in their pyjamas”
“Whether you wore a long or short version, you are going to look like a tit”
“I would stamp on someone in the street if they wore that”
“It looks like a joke”
“These are like meggings and should be illegal”
“It looks like a hospital gown”
“It’s like bananas in pyjamas, except it’s a lady”

Baby Pink

Baby pink is the must have colour this summer, and this was a SS14 trend that the boys liked the most.

“We like baby pink”
“Although not if you wear all of it at the same time, you would look like a skeleton”
It’s ok, but it might look like you’re naked if you stood far away”

Unfortunately, the lads weren’t fans of girls with pink hair, with one commenting that he would “spit on people with pink hair”.

Holographic Accessories

Holographic accessories make me and Claire hugely happy. We both love it with a fiery passion. Again, the lads weren’t keen. When shown a picture of a holographic bag, they said:

“What the fuck is that”
“Erm, it looks like a condom packet”
“It looks like someone can’t afford a handbag and has to use kitchen foil”
“It looks tacky”

Jelly Shoes

We are also fans of the jelly shoes here at Stylingo. Again, the boys were not. We showed them a number of different colours of jelly shoes and none of them appealed. Here’s what they said:

“…Oh no”
“If you are over the age of 3, you should not be wearing these”
“Do you want to look like a child?
“If you wear these, you need to have a sit down and have a long, hard think about your life and where it is going”
“Why can’t you afford real shoes?”

Well, I think that all this can prove is that boys genuinely know nothing. Let’s all just ignore them and go on put on our baby pink co-ords, match it with a holographic bag and cleated platforms. Good day.

|| Don’t forget that you can follow us on Instagram, Bloglovin’ and Twitter! ||

ClaireMay 23, 2014

Mainline Menswear Father’s Day Competition

Aw, so here’s a photo of me and my dad on the day that he sold me as a child bride.

I kid, of course – this is obviously my Holy Communion. ‘Great Catholic memory, Claire’ I hear you say, ‘But what does this have to do with fashion?’ Well dear readers, we were recently contacted by Mainline Menswear to see if we would like to enter their Father’s Day competition. Lauren and I love a good competition, but we liked this one even more because for once the prize isn’t for our greedy selves, but our dads, who can win £250 to spend on the site. Nice, eh?!

I decided to give this competition a go because I happen to be quite fond of my dad. He’s a nice fellow, often doing helpful things like dropping snacks off to me and mowing our lawn. Not that he really offered to do that – it was more of a “Oh thanks for lending me your lawn mower dad… do you fancy giving it a whizz round the garden while you’re here?” sort of situation – but he was a good egg and helped out nonetheless. He’s also notoriously difficult to buy presents for, and usually asks for either nothing or something painfully dull like a torch or a map (planning his escape perhaps?) – so I quite like the thought of handing him a voucher and letting him do his thang.

To enter the competition, all I need to do is pick my dad out an outfit from the range of clothes available on Mainline Menswear. Here is the little ensemble I’ve come up with:

As is kind of indicated by his flowing locks in our photo, my dad used to consider himself a bit of a Bon Jovi-like rock man. And he took this quite seriously – when I was born, he had a bleached blonde mullet. No. I am not joking. I suppose it was always inevitable I was going to end up a bit obsessed with my hair when some of my earliest memories involve watching my dad get highlights…

Anyway, I digress. So I opted for a kind of rock-ish outfit, consisting of some slim-fit Levis (because nobody wants to see a man over the age of 50 wearing skinny jeans, nobody), a Diesel t-shirt and these Dr Marten Bentleys so he could stand on people’s toes at a gig. And of course, his hair is a bit mousey these days so he can have some hair bleach too. Heeeeeheeeee.

If any of you would like to enter this competition then you can visit this page on the Mainline Menswear blog. I’d rather you didn’t though, because I want my dad to win so I can bribe him into continuing to mow my lawn…

What do you all think of this outfit?

ClaireMay 22, 2014

Top 5 Makeup Fails In Pictures

Wearing makeup is basically second nature to most of us tip top girls. Most of us have been wearing it since we were horrifyingly embarrassing teenagers in gypsy skirts and those weird crotchet slipper shoes. While I’m no makeup expert (erm, just throwing it on your face counts right?), there are some makeup fails that you simply can’t ignore. Some of these we may have experienced ourselves (before we became better people, obvs), and others we have witnessed from afar, shedding a tear for the unfortunate girl with too much blusher on.

Personally, I used to be freakin’ terrible at eyebrows and any form of liner. I don’t know if I was just permanently nervous or had an unusual fear of eyebrow pencils, but my hands used to shake in ways not yet witnessed by the common man. Resulting in a Picasso-esque look on my face, when I just wanted to look like Avril Lavigne.

Mostly for my own entertainment, Claire and I decided to recreate some of the worst makeup fails. From orange caked on foundation to frankly alarming lipliner, here are my top 5 makeup fails. And 5 pictures of me and Claire looking like right knobs.

1. Tragic Eyebrows

Ok, so eyebrows are a thing now. I love it, I love eyebrows and I love nothing more than drawing mine on every morning. But you know that well known saying, ‘she who hath bad eyebrows, hath failed at all that is good’? Well it so rings true with me. Whether they are misplaced, too big, too small, wonky or downright horrific, bad eyebrows need to be stopped. Call in her Maj’s army, because this is of national importance.

2. Mismatched Foundation

Another one that stresses me out more than Amanda Bynes no longer providing us with comedy gold, is mismatched foundation. I’ll actually rephrase this, because I don’t really care if you want to wear foundation that doesn’t quite match your skin – it’s the whole not-blending-into-your-neck thing that grates on me. Foundation doesn’t stop on your chinny, and there is neck blending to be done.

3. Unblended Eyeshadow

Yes, blending is really boring and yes, nobody really enjoys doing it – but the horrors of unblended eyeshadows are too many to count. Not only do you look like you’ve attempted a rubbish Black Swan fancy dress, but you look like a goddamn fool. Stylingo top tip: just blend until your hand aches, and then blend some more. For the love of pete and his dear mother.

4. Too Much Lipliner

The 90s may be back, but they will never be lipliner back. The whole lined lips with nude inner bits MAKES ME WANT TO CRY. Why. Just why. How did this ever happen? HOW?!

5. Clown Blusher

A nice blusher goes a long way. The point is to look like you’ve been for a casual jog down the road and/or like you are a healthy country girl who enjoys spending time in the great outdoors (when we are actually bloggers who like sitting at home and taking pictures of our shoes). The idea is not to look like Ronnie McDonnie.

And now Claire and I would like to cry about how beautiful we look in these snaps. If you haven’t had a chuckle at the tragedies that are our faces, then perhaps you have learned some valuable makeup tips. You’re welcome.

Don’t forget you can vote for us as Best Blogging Duo in this year’s Style Blogger Awards with Company magazine! Click the icon below to be taken to the voting site:

ClaireMay 20, 2014

A Week In Instagram #9

I know what you’re thinking: ‘Hey, hasn’t it been a while since they posted one of their completely inaccurately titled ‘Week in Instagram’ posts where they actually just wedge about a month’s worth of photos inat once in a shameless attempt to beg more followers on yet another social channel but actually just bore us to tears with their boring faces and lives?’

Well YOU ASK, WE PROVIDE, my little friends. Here’s a nice little summary of some of our activities recently, as told by squares:

1. The weather has finally picked up and this means sunglasses recently began dominating my thoughts for about 80% of the day. I was after a round pair but a lot of the ones around looked like they were bordering dangerously close to being part of a John Lennon fancy dress outfit – and then my eager eyes rested on these steampunk-esque babies and my life was complete. They cost a mere £3.99 and can be found here on eBay.
2. You may or may not know that despite looking every inch the pale English idiot, Lauren in fact hails from the exotic land of South Africa (I know – she’s from Africa, why is she white?) She recently took a trip back to the homeland, but before she arrived she had a small mare when she, err, missed her flight. I don’t know what idiot was in charge of taking her to the airport. Oh wait, yeah I do, it was me. This is a cheeky mirror selfie taken the morning before catching her re-booked flight, though, so all was well that ended well.
3. Look, she made it! Another mirror selfie, this time from SA itself.
4. Oh yes, the 90s are well and truly back my friends. I wish I’d had the good sense to keep the tattoo choker I had when I was 8 but alas, I had to fork out a whole 99p for this one to re-live my youth. Poverty, nice to meet you.

5. . No, that’s not a boil. Lauren got her nose pierced, the groovy shit.
6. I’ve been lusting after a Laura Ralph two-piece for what feels like approximately 73 years now, and finally treated myself to one. Laura makes co-ords to order from a range of unique fabrics, meaning you get to be all fancy and unique. You can take a look at her Facebook page here and order your own – because, why wouldn’t you?
7. HOW beaut is this ring from Zara Taylor? Very beaut, that is the answer.
8. I’m still loving this lipstick in shade ‘Crime’ from Makeup Revolution. You can read my full review here if you haven’t already.
9. My outfit of the day from a recent press day I attended in Manchester. My beloved Primark blazer teamed with a Topshop cami, River Island pleather leggings and Marc B ‘Giselle’ bag.
10. Yes that is a leopard print CAKE. With our faces on. This little beauty came courtesy of Baker Days, who deliver personalised cakes right through your letterbox. They’re perfect for special occasions like birthdays or anniversaries… or Mondays. Or Tuesdays. Probably Wednesdays too. ALL THE TIME, OKAY.
11. My current favourite jeans from Boohoo – rips galore!
12. A huge thank you to House of Fraser for these little bracelets. Lauren’s worn them almost daily since receiving them, and you can see them in her most recent Outfit of the Day if you’re a wrist pervert.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this little look into your day to day life! You can follow us on Instagram at StylingoUK.

Don’t forget you can vote for us as Best Blogging Duo in this year’s Style Blogger Awards with Company magazine! Click the icon below to be taken to the voting site:

ClaireMay 13, 2014

5 Sob Story Reasons to Vote for Stylingo in Company’s Style Blogger Awards

If you follow us on Twitter, Instagram or just in real life (Lauren’s convinced there’s someone living in our loft – is this you?!) then you will no doubt have heard us harping on about the fact that we’ve been shortlisted in this year’s Style Blogger Awards with Company magazine!

This is a huge, HUGE, H U G E compliment and we’re really grateful to everyone who nominated us as the Best Blogging Duo. We’re up against some fantastic other bloggers and don’t expect to win at all, but we would still love for you to vote for us if you think we deserve it!

While you should of course base your voting decision on which blog you think is the best, we’ve decided that it can’t hurt to up our chances with some good old fashion X Factor-inspired reasoning. Here we present to you our:

5 sob story reasons to vote for Stylingo as Best Blogging Duo

1. I’ve tried a dress on in Primark, only to find I’m unable to get it back off over my big man-shoulders and so have been trapped in the dress for a good ten minutes while I attempt to claw my way out of it … not once, but TWICE.

2. Lauren was recently hoping nobody had really noticed her skin during a bad eczema episode, only to have a homeless man yell “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR FACE?!” at her in the middle of a large crowd.

3. I failed my driving test not once, not twice, not even three times… but SEVEN times. I had one instructor simply say “Don’t ring me for lessons anymore”.

4. You know how you’re meant to ‘mind the gap’ when getting on a train? Lauren failed to do this once and her shoe fell down the gap. She had to walk around with one ballet pump for the rest of her journey.

5. When I was 7 I drew a dog’s face on a balloon and called my new dog Sheba. My sister then played rounders and used Sheba as the ball – Sheba popped and I cried for about 8 hours.

There… are your heartstrings thoroughly tugged at? If so, or if you just happen to like our blog, then PLEASE feel free to vote for us by clicking on our badge at the top or here. You can find us in the 4th category along, and be sure to cast your votes for all of your other favourite bloggers too! A huge THANK YOU if you do vote or have voted already, we love you very much and would butt-bump each and every one of you if we could.

Merci and goodnight.

ClaireMay 6, 2014

#TheStruggle: 10 Terrible Things That Happen To Women

So. Without belittling genuinely terrible things that happen to women around the world everyday, there are a number of horrible, NAY DISTRESSING, everyday things that happen to us lady humans. These are things that are rarely experienced by our male counterparts, and they are definitely more upsetting than when the Spice Girls broke up or even when Brit shaved her hair off (albeit barely).

Sometimes it can be hard to know what to do in these situations. In fact, it can be downright soul crushing. Whether it’s embarrassment, horror or just plain discomfort, Common Lady Problems (CLP) are a grief that many of us have to deal with on a regular basis. But what are these terrible things and more importantly, how can we avoid them – and ultimately avoid looking like raging lunatics? In no particular order, here’s what and how.

1. Applying too much hair oil

I’m sure this has happened to every girl at some point. In fact, it happened to me just this morning. I thought to myself ‘yeah, it’s hair oil day’ and BAM. I put too much in, and now I look like Severus Snape. This also goes for not washing conditioner out properly in the shower.

How to avoid: Unless you are a girl who gets up at a normal time and can afford to re-wash your hair, you’re going to have to deal with the situation pronto. One option is to wear your hair in a tight bun while pretending it is raining outside. Another option is to douse your hair in dry shampoo. This actually works quite well and you will look relatively normal until you have time to wash your hair properly.

2. Clocking someone in the same dress

No matter how much of a nice person you are, seeing someone in the same dress as you is mortifying. Yes, you could do the bigger person thing of ‘hahahah haven’t we both got great style?!’, but inside you are likely to die a little bit/a lot. Unless you know the girl in question, you can’t really demand they leave and get changed. With this in mind, there are a few options available to you.

How to avoid: Sit scrunched up in your chair and cover your body with your handbag until the girl leaves. Alternatively, never buy clothes from the high street but if you do, make sure your customise with rhinestones. Failing that, just don’t go out anywhere.

3. Tripping over in public

For some reason, girls trip over in public more than boys do. And while tripping over after 20 jagerbombs is a bit more acceptable, falling on your face in daylight hours/completely sober is not. I mostly blame our tripping over tendencies on the fact we wear complicated clothing like maxi skirts and flatforms, which are definitely tricky things to navigate. And when you do trip over (it will happen one day), the best course of action is to grab the nearest person and laugh hysterically until they laugh with you to make it all ok.

How to avoid: Don’t leave the house.

4. Sneezing after applying mascara

This is one of my personal life troubles. Whether you are a hayfever sufferer, ill-time your perfume spraying or just having ticklish eyelids (errr…just me?), sneezing after doing your mascara is THE WORST THING EVER. If I have spent a load of time getting the rest of my face right, faffing about blending things and dabbing at stuff, the last thing I want to happen is a god damn sneeze to ruin it all. And it does ruin it all. Panda eyes, having to do strategic wiping and absolutely ruined eye makeup are just a few of what we have to deal with. Three words: not cool, nose.

How to avoid: Don’t look at bright lights, don’t spray perfume just after you have done your mascara and, please for the love of Pete, take your antihistamines.

5. Orange Face, white body (and vice versa)

For the fake tanners amongst us, this is a very real concern. Getting your face and body the same colour is surprisingly difficult and there has been many a night where I thought I looked bangin’, and it turns out I looked like a white faced ghost poo body.

How to avoid: Get a foundation that matches your tanned self. Alternatively, give up tanning. Being a Pale Gail is much more preferable.

6. Drunk lipstick application

We all know the situation. It’s a Saturday night, you’ve got a fierce dress on, you’re sipping on ~~gin and juice~~ Lambrini and life is generally brill. You slip off to the water closet to reapply your lipstick and after smearing some on, you stroll back into the club like you’re fluent in Swaghili. Unfortunately, you now look like a clown. And you don’t notice until you get tagged in pics the next morning.

How to avoid: Don’t wear lipstick when drinking. Ever. Lipgloss all the way, suckas.

7. Flapping fake eyelashes

See above. Instead of clown face, it’s the flappy eyelash scenario. If you want to look like a wonky faced fool or, god forbid, you look like you’re winking at miscellaneous strangers, then the flappy lash isn’t too much of an issue. However, it is an issue if you do mind.

How to avoid: Use lots and lots of glue. Bring glue out with you. If in doubt, rip your lashes off and roam eyelash free. It’s better than winking at people inadvertently.

8. Fringe separation

This one goes out to my fringed homegirls. Claire and I have both had full on fringes during our time on earth, and we can both tell you that they are the biggest faff known to man. If it’s not too long growing into your eyeballs it’s separating so you look like Peter Andre, Ben from A1 and Kim Jong Un all rolled into one. And I can tell you this my friends, this is not a look you want to be channelling. The 90s are not quite that back yet.

How to avoid: Hairspray your fringe. It doesn’t matter if you look like a Lego man. Just do it.

9. Dress stuck into pants

Another one of life’s classic woes. After nipping to the piddly diddly department, you accidentally get your dress/skirt stuck into your knickers. It is potentially one of the most embarrassing things to happen to us girls, and you have to hope you have a nice friend who will point out your bottom is on show. Alternatively, they will just laugh at you until you finally realise that you have been flashing everyone for approximately half an hour. It just depends what kind of mates you have.

How to avoid: Wear trousers. Or don’t wear pants, but if you go for the second option, you better hope there is no gusts of wind. Because you might get arrested.

10. Smudging nail varnish

Waiting for nails to dry or dipping into a bag of Doritos and hoping for the best…? I know which one I would chose (yes, obvs the Doritos). This is definitely another one of life’s woes, and I don’t really know why they haven’t created instant drying nail varnish for £1 yet. I will never wait long enough for my nails to dry and will always regret that I bothered to paint my nails at all. C’est tragique. Tres tres tragique. What is the point in life?

How to avoid: Be patient and actually wait for your nails to dry. Alternatively, glue on false nails. MUCH easier than the trauma of smudged nails.

SO ladies – agree, disagree? Let me know in the comments below!

And of course, this is completely meant to be a light hearted blog post, but if you are a fellow woman who is struggling with any form of terrible thing – here is a list of help lines and here is another that you might find useful :).

|| Don’t forget that you can follow us on Instagram, Bloglovin’ and Twitter! ||

ClaireApril 30, 2014

South Africa 2014 Roundup

Oh hey there, it’s been a while. I barely recognise you, you saucy wench.

As you may or may not know, I have been off gallivanting around South Africa having a hugey whale of a time. I got back yesterday after 27 hefty hours of travelling and I only slightly have holiday blues (Claire is helping by occasionally making me tea). This is going to be quite a picture heavy post, because I’m sure you’re not too bothered exactly how many times I went to the beach, got sand in my eyeball and acquired another freckle…

After missing my flight because of horrific traffic and spending the night in a Travel Lodge, I was off on my merry way (after an obligatory pre-flight pint).

Port Elizabeth

This is the city I lived in for 11 years, so lots of time spent with family and friends (and their pools). Awooga. As you can see, there was no tan to be had. I also went shopping and they made me put my stuff in a cage, it was very alarming I can tell you.

Kayser’s Beach

This is a mini beach village where my granny lives, it is TINY and there is one shop. And the most perfect beach you will ever come across. Blisssssss.

Addo Elephant Park

It’s not a trip to SA without a trip to Addo. We saw 26 elephants, and lots of other animals. Amazing.

Knysna

After Kayser’s, we started the 10 hour drive to Cape Town. We stopped off at Knysna on the way, which is a beautiful beach/lake town. 6 words: log cabin with a spa bath. If you’re ever in South Africa, you have to try a Rooibos tea cappuccino too.

Cape Town

We spent 6 days in Cape Town and did SO much. A lot of time again was spent with friends and family, but we did see some beautiful stuff along the way. And eat some deeeelicious sushi along the way. If you ever get the chance to visit Sevruga restaurant on the Waterfront, please get one of their massive plates of sushi. And that is me on Table Mountain.

Simon’s Town/Vishoek

We stayed in Viskhoek just outside of Cape Town, and also visited the little village of Simon’s Town a lot too. Such a chilled out vibe and there are also penguins.

Franschhoek/The Winelands

When in the Western Cape, it’s rude not to head out to the Winelands and check out the absolutely stunning scenery and erm…sample a bit of vino. I did both and also had a cheeseboard. I ALWAYS HAVE TO GO TOO FAR.

Anyway lovely ladies (and gents – what are you doing reading a fashion and beauty blog?), I hope you have enjoyed my little South Africa gallery. Have you visited much in the country? Let me know in the comments below. Hoe.

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