Vanity Claire | Birmingham Fashion and Beauty Blog

ClaireJanuary 22, 2014

Five Things We Learned from Myspace

Apparently Myspace is still relevant to some people, but lets be honest. The last time most of us logged in was when we were 15 year old nuisances, with impractically large fringes. Those were the days, eh? I remember rushing home from whatever social activity I had on (usually down the park on a Friday night, pretending to sip Copacobana), to comment on my friends’ profiles being like “yooooo, such a gr8 time down the park lol. so drunk hehehehe lmao” (for those of you born after 1997, Myspace was basically Facebook but a less good version)

While pretty much no one in the history of anyone uses Myspace anymore, most of us have fond and sometimes alarming memories of adding strangers as friends and hoping that one day (ONE DAY), we might have over 2000 friends. Myspace played a big and integral role in our lives. Some might even say Myspace was that third parent we ~~always~~ never wished we had. I, for one, think that Myspace taught us a lot. From decision making skills (what profile song to choose?!) to basic social skills (because nothing says social like sitting in your room on your computer, am I right?!), we have a lot to thank Myspace for.

1. Basic HTML Skills:

Nothing said super cool and not even remotely loser-like than a customised Myspace page. I remember hiding my entire profile to nothing but “Lauren. Harry Potter is great” and a link to my profile picture/comments. Zut alors. If you weren’t quite that ~~adventurous~~ mad, you probably learned how to put in links, change the colour of your font and other exciting and necessary skills. While I’m slightly laughing about this, I do have to say that I use basic HTML in my day-to-day job that I wouldn’t have known about without the help of Myspace. So, thank you Myspace for helping me learn HTML.

2. How To Take Selfies:

While things did get a bit out of hand with Myspace selfies (taking a picture with nothing but the top of your head showing was not ok), they did teach us valuable lessons that we can now transfer to Instagram. Thanks to Myspace, I now know that I have a wonky face and look better with my face tilted to the side. I also know that my nose starts to poke out the later it gets in the day, so it’s better to take face pics in the morning. In the blogging world, taking selfies is a part of everyday life – and where would we all be without that valuable camera experience? So, thanks Myspace for teaching us how to take pictures of ourselves. You’re the best. Although of course, you can’t look at the camera. Don’t be ridiculous. And yes, that is me.

3. Your Number of Friends Counts:

People keep banging on about “quality over quantity” but I have news for you. People are wrong. If you hopped onto Facebook and got a friend request with someone who has ten friends, you would automatically think “what a socially inept donkey, there is no way in Middle Earth that I’m accepting you”. The same goes for Twitter followers. But do you know who helped us come to this way of thinking? Myspace. I spent my Myspace time adding people I had met once (or not even once) so that everyone thought I was banging and super awesome. The reality was, I had around 6 close friends and probably got myself into a lot of stranger danger. But still, numbers count and we can thank Myspace for that.

4. Punishing Your Mates is Fun:

These days, if one of your pals has irritated you, you might decide to not favourite their tweets for a while. If they’ve done something really horrifying, you might even create a “Claire is a massive troll” page on Facebook and share it with all of her mates. Back in the Myspace days, punishing your friends was a lot easier. Do you remember the coveted “Top 8 Friends” spot? Ordering that bad boy was hard work. You obviously didn’t want to offend your bezzies, but you often had to include miscellaneous cousins so they wouldn’t bully you too much over Christmas. If someone had royally irritated you (i.e. forgotten to invite you to go bowling or someone robbed your Geoggers homework) in the Myspace days, all you had to do was put them at number 8. Or even take them out altogether (SHOCK. HORROR.). Burn.

5. Quizzes Are Fun:

When was the last time you filled in a ‘How Well Do You Know Me’ or ‘What Animal Are You?’ quiz? About 5 years ago? How unbelievably sad do you feel about that? There’s nothing more fun than filling in a quiz about yourself or your bestie and knowing that all of your Myspace friends will now know that you have green eyes and your favourite band is the All American Rejects. There simply aren’t enough quizzes around these days, especially after Facebook took off their survey function and Ask FM became the worst thing to happen to bullying since Azaelia Banks was born.

So…lets all put our hands together and say thank you Myspace, for making us the people are are today. Since the good years, Myspace has gone through a load of redesigns and I have to say that the new Myspace looks quite cool but there is very little chance that I’ll be reliving my teenage years of “pc4pc?”

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ClaireJanuary 21, 2014

Outfit of the Day: We Love Fashion Competition with NOWSEEN.

Hi you beautiful people,

Well, apparently yesterday was Blue Monday and we’re all supposed to be sobbing into our cups of tea this week. HOWEVER. Claire and I are feeling positive and can’t think of anything to be sad about, especially since we found out about this excellent competition in association with NOWSEEN. For those of you who don’t know, NOWSEEN are a jewellery brand that specialise in super awesome pieces with genuine gems and proper metal (cya later Primark green fingers). And they’re also hosting a competition for London Fashion Week, where one lucky winner (and a great mate. I might pick Claire) can win Luxe tickets to Fashion Weekend as well as £100 each worth of NOWSEEN jewellery. PARDON ME AND ZUT ALORS. Bop me on the head and call me Sally.

To win, you have to post an OOTD picture of what you would wear to London Fashion week, write a blog post about it and email your entry to the excellent competition people. We obviously couldn’t say no to such a fabulous competition, so here are our entries. To win, there’s a magical voting system and the OOTD with the most votes wins.

Claire

Bardot Body: Missguided / Leather Look Leggings: River Island (old) / Fur Collar: New Look

I decided to keep things pretty casual for my LFW outfit; I know some people go uber-glam for the week, but imagine tripping over in seven inch heels and ending up sprawled in a heap at Anna Wintour’s feet. That would not be faaaahbulous. I teamed my trusty leather leggings with my new body from Missguided and accessorised with some fur (it’s chilly down in London), my beautiful Marc B bag and my new babies: the Boohoo boots.

Bag: Marc B ‘Giselle’ / Boots: Boohoo

I’m not usually one to co-ordinate shoes and bags, but I think in this case it pulls the outfit together. If you can’t be a bit matchy-matchy at LFW, then when the hell can you?

Lauren

Dress: Your Eyes Lie | Beanie: House of Hoxhore | Shoes: Converse | Necklace: Primark

I featured this OOTD in a blog post a while back (if you want to check it out, I don’t know why you would, but you can have a look here) but the most excellent and wonderful thing with this competition is that you don’t have to put a new outfit to enter. I did actually take some pics for the entry but I looked horrible and squiffy eyed, so I thought that I would feature an old outfit. My dress is from a boutique on ASOS called Your Eyes Lie and my beanie is from House of Hoxshore. I probably wouldn’t wear connies to LFW (imagine if I bumped into Kate Moss, she’d probably biff me), so I’d change those battered bad boys to a pair of chunky heeled boots. Huzzah.

If any of you stunners fancy entering, check out the We Love Fashion site where there’s an entry form. If you want to vote for either of our outfits, there’s a vote section on there too.

Good luck to us. Our fingers, toes and eyes are crossed.

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ClaireJanuary 19, 2014

Cocoa Brown 1 Hour Tan | Review & Photos

We’ve all been there. You decide fairly last minute that you’re going ‘out out’ and have to start a rushed attempt at getting ready. You’re paler than Pale Gail the Paleontologist and realise with horror that you’ve fully run out of instant wash-off tan.

You now have two options: 1, you go out pale. That’s not happening, obviously. So 2, you risk putting on a layer of normal developing tan and just not washing it off, figuring that the club’s dark anyway so it doesn’t matter if you progressively get more tanned throughout the night. Then you see the pictures the next day and realise you started the night as a bronzed goddess and ended up looking like Sir Trevor McDonald.

Well thankfully – no offence Trev – those nights are now in the past.

Cocoa Brown fake tan, developed by Irish beauty expert Marissa Carter, promises to give you a golden glow that develops in just 1 hour. I was really excited when I first heard about this; it effectively could mean the end of overnight tanning sessions and maybe, just maybe, mean that I can allow myself to have white bedsheets again for the first time since I was 15.

I was in Primark last week and finally remembered to pick up a bottle. I’ve tried it out twice now and can confirm: it’s really bloody good.

Cocoa Brown is a mousse, which is my favourite form of fake tan anyway as I find that it tends to apply more evenly and with less mess than sprays or liquids. It’s also got a pale coffee colour to it, which is dark enough that you can see where you’re applying the tan but not so dark that you have heart palpitations when some drops on your cream carpet.

A lot of the reviews I’ve read so far of the tan have commented on the smell – or shall we say, lack thereof. Cocoa Brown is missing the traditional biscuity smell that we all know and love; it’s lightly fragranced but nothing too overpowering – and certainly doesn’t smell like a Custard Cream.

But enough chit chat, WHAT ABOUT THE RESULTS?

Before Application / After Application

As you can see, the tan left me with a lovely, even coat of colour after just one hour of development. It’s not the darkest tan in the world, but I think this is still really good for one layer and of course you can layer up. The tan also gets darker the longer you leave it on for, with the Cocoa Brown website saying that three hours is all that’s needed for a dark glow.

The tan dries quickly and doesn’t feel at all sticky, and after one hour you’re ready to wash off and get on with your life. Having first used it last week I can say that it’s one of the best cases of fading I’ve experienced with fake tan; whereas St Moriz can go very speckly and leave you looking a bit like you’ve got some sort of disease, Cocoa Brown fades nice and evenly.

At £6, it’s not as cheap as brands like St Moriz – but I do think the formula’s got the edge here. Overall I’m completely impressed and a total convert to the Cocoa Brown brand. So that’s another reason for me to pop into Primark each time I’m in town – farewell, funds.

Have any of you tried Cocoa Brown 1 Hour Tan? What do you think?

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ClaireJanuary 18, 2014

Bobbi Brown Long Wear Even Finish Foundation Review.

So…for those of you who have fallen off your chairs because I bought something that didn’t cost around 50p, I am very sorry and I hope you haven’t hurt yourselves too badly.

It’s no secret that I like a bargain. In fact, Claire and I have written lots of posts here on Stylingo about super cheap makeup (MUA’s Matte Perfect Shine Foundation, for example, which costed a wild £2). I think that if you can get something cheaply, you definitely should and there is very little better than finding a bargain. Apart from Jennifer Lawrence. However, I do think there are some things you should spend money on and as MUA’s £2 foundation has demonstrated, foundation is definitely one of them.

With this in mind, I headed over to Selfridges last week and decided that enough was enough. Some of you excellent people recommended Bobbi Brown’s Long Wear Even Finish Foundation and I trust your recommendations wholeheartedly – so I went to get matched by the lovely gals at the Bobbi Brown counter. After an alarming time of nearly having my eyebrows wiped off and looking like a lunatic for the rest of the afternoon, we went with shade 3 Beige.

I have to say, I am in love. This is hands down the best foundation I have ever used. It’s oil free, so suits my skin type (which is combination/oily, ew) really well. This also helps with the application – it’s so easy to apply and feels super fresh/lightweight. It contains glycerin and shea butter, which apparently means that it’s wonderful and hydrating, as well as being generally great. According to the Bobbi Brown website, it lasts for up to 12 hours in humid conditions and also is SPF 15.

Another big NAY HUGE must for my foundation is coverage. I don’t have the best skin, so I prefer to have foundation that covers any nasties and unevenness. I was a bit way of this foundation at the start, because it’s marketed as a medium – full coverage foundation. Usually, I will always go with full and never really bother with something that would only offer medium coverage. However, I needn’t have worried my tiny little head about this. The Long Wear foundation actually gives great coverage and you don’t need a lot of product to achieve a good level of “where have my features gone”. I’ve been using about two pumps, which is unheard of in my makeup routine. It’s also totally buildable, so if I’m having a day where I literally want to cover everything in a wonderful foundation-y mask, I can do just that.

This is a bit of a weird thing to comment on, but Bobbi Brown’s Long Wear Even Finish foundation also has an excellent smell. If you’ve read my Dermalogica Skin Perfect Primer review, you may have seen that I said it smelled a bit like trees. This foundation also smells like trees, which somehow makes you feel like you are at one with nature.

Now lets get to the real nub and gist of the matter. It’s called Long Wear, but how long does it actually last? I’ve been wearing it for the past week, mainly to work (where my face is put to the test of sitting in front of a computer every day), and I have to say that it’s been lasting very well. If I’m totally honest, it probably lasts as long as Rimmel’s 25 Hour foundation, which is the best foundation I’ve used in terms of staying power. Saying that, with a few powders during the day, Bobbi Brown’s Long Wear can and has lasted me from about 8am-9pm. 13 hours isn’t so bad, AM I RIGHT?

And this is how it looks on my face, with a full face of makeup. I’ve got Bobbi Brown’s Tinted Eye Brightener on too, which I’ll be reviewing soon! (Spoiler alert: it is amaaaaaazing and I want to marry it).

The only downside in my opinion is the price. At £30, it’s definitely not the cheapest foundation on the market and while I’d like to repurchase this every time I needed some new foundation, I’m pretty sure I’ll only be doing so when I’m feeling rich or its my birthday.

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ClaireJanuary 16, 2014

Spring/Summer ’14 Key Trend: How to Wear Baby Pink

Hi there you fashionable little so-and-sos. Despite the fact that it’s still very much onesie season and we’re donning our fur coats most days to keep our human flesh all nice and warm, at Stylingo our eyes are now firmly set on Spring/Summer and what we’ll be wearing once the weather sorts its life out. While pastels have been around for what feels like forever now, this season is going to see pastel pink take centre stage ahead of all other shades. This has already started to sneak in through A/W in the form of pale pink coats and that infamous Topshop PVC skirt, but this Spring it’s really going to become a central theme. Put your worries about looking like Barbie, Baby Spice or – shudder – Miss Piggy to one side and embrace the candyfloss joy that this colour can bring.

Why put off til tomorrow what you can buy today though? Here are our favourite baby pink pieces that are currently available on the high street and online, meaning you can get Spring/Summer ready even while your toes fall off from frostbite.

Faux Leather Pencil Skirt – Missguided / Mesh Panel Crop – Missguided

Textured Coat – ASOS / Fluffy Crop Jumper – Boohoo

Ray Ban Wayfarer Sunglasses – ASOS / Clear Clutch With Contrast Purse – ASOS / Iridescent Chunky Chain – New Look / Slipper Shoes: Primark

Some people are likely to shy away from the trend for fear of looking too girly, or perhaps like some sort of human-salmon hybrid. I think the key to wearing the baby pink trend will be to toughen it up. This can be done by teaming it with more grungey pieces like leather skirts and trousers, or by opting for more unusual pink items. Leather, mesh and perspex are all materials that will take baby pink from being too pretty and instead make it contemporary.

What do you all think of the baby pink trend? How do you plan to wear it?

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ClaireJanuary 15, 2014

Maybelline Baby Skin Primer Review: Don’t Believe the Hype

After Claire’s brilliant post yesterday (about the dark side of Instagram), it feels a bit wrong to be diving in with a beauty product review. Because, you know, the issues I have with primer are definitely up there in terms of importance. While I’m throwing myself willy nilly back into beauty blogging, I do recommend you give her post a read and let us know what you think.

So.

As usual, I’ve managed to get caught up in the hype of Maybelline’s ‘Baby’ range. I’m not sure what it is about this bandwagon, but ever since the Baby Lips fiasco (which, lets be honest, was just Vaseline in nicer packaging), we’ve all been keen to see what Maybelline would bring out next. When the Baby Skin Instant Pore Eraser Primer (HOW MANY WORDS) popped up on beauty blogs and in stores, I was like “yes, get on my face”. I hurled myself to Boots as soon as I possibly could and bought it. What a mistake.

I worry that Claire and I are becoming a bit too free with our bad reviews (check out our From Bag to Bin post as an example), but the fact is we like to complain and if something isn’t right, we will most definitely share it with you. And probably use quite a few adjectives in the process.

I am just not impressed with this primer at all. AT ALL I TELL YOU. As a serial primer user, I’ve used a lot of different products over the years. From high street to high end, I’m casually working my way through what’s on the market to find the best primer out there. Unfortunately, Maybelline’s offering is way, way, way down my list.

Maybelline has described it as a “lightweight primer” for “smooth, poreless looking skin”. Personally, I like to use primers for both keeping makeup on my face for longer and reducing the size of my ~~face caverns~~ pores. So, the fact that Maybelline haven’t mentioned much about it making makeup last rang a few warning bells in my tiny head. While I agree that pores are a terrible problem that many of us struggle to deal with, I don’t really see the point of a primer that doesn’t help makeup length in any way. And unfortunately, the Baby Skin Primer doesn’t do anything for helping my foundation last. I still find myself powdering my shiny bits throughout the day and lasting wise, things still look a bit on the worrying side by the time I get home from work.

Another one of my problems with the Baby Skin Primer is the way it feels. I put a picture up on our Instagram the other day and mentioned that I found it quite greasy. With oily skin, I really hate anything that feels remotely greasy on my skin so I wasn’t massively keen on how it felt initially. Also, the gel is quite stiff, which is a bit odd when you squeeze it from the tube. After our blogger pal Imogen mentioned it felt ‘silicone-y’, I realise that is exactly what it’s like (partly because it does actually contain silicone) – it doesn’t feel nice and fresh like other primers, but rather like you’re smearing solid petrol on your face.

So…apart from it being like petrol and generally rubbish, what are the good points? Fair play to Maybelline, it does help to reduce the size of my pores. As that is supposed to be the main aim of the product, it does do quite well and it gives a nice ‘blur’ effect to my features. However, I’ve found that other primers do the job better (Seventeen’s Flawless Poreless Primer for example) and there’s no way by the Queen’s pantaloons that I would go out just wearing Baby Skin. For that, I would rather use the magical Skin Perfect Primer by Dermalogica and rest assured that my face looks mega.

This may even be the most damning review I’ve written to date (although Barry M’s TRAGIC AND WRONG Eyebrow Pen might come close), but I will finish with this: it is not a dupe for Benefit’s Porefessional. It’s not a dupe for anything, apart from maybe the tears of an Orangutan.

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ClaireJanuary 14, 2014

Pro-Anorexia and Self-Harm: The Dark Side of Instagram

Today I’ve got to sidestep away from our usual waffling about fake tan and leggings and write about something that affected me quite a lot last night. I was having my usual browse through Instagram and came across a hashtag that caught my eye – #anorexia.

Out of intrigue I clicked on the link, thinking that surely there wouldn’t be that many posts associated with this mental illness? I was unfortunately really, really wrong with this assumption. What I found as I explored the topic deeper genuinely disturbed me, and eventually compelled me to write this post so that we’re all much more aware of what exactly is being portrayed on the photo sharing site that many of us use every day – and just how easily accessible this damaging content is for people of all ages.

There are over one and a half million posts dedicated to anorexia on Instagram. What the vast majority of these photos represent is a massive online community of those who are either suffering with, or are very interested in, anorexia. This community of users are regularly sharing genuinely disturbing content including ‘inspirational’ photos of emaciated girls, encouraging quotes related to not eating and weight loss, and frankly horrific images such as these below:

Users are actually interacting with these photos, actively encouraging each other to give up certain food or go without eating at all. Whether or not the people behind these accounts are genuinely following through with the promises is unknown, but the photos reveal the extent to which this community of impressionable young girls is thriving on the site.

Arguably, you’re always going to have this sort of content somewhere on the internet. But what I found most interesting is the part that Instagram itself actually plays in this pro-ana community.

When you click on the link, the above warning pops up. To me, this is actually really disturbing – it shows that Instagram are monitoring the hashtag, have recognised its connection to those suffering from a mental illness, and yet continue to give them the option to view it anyway. Is this really their idea of safeguarding? You could argue that it’s not Instagram’s responsibility to control what is shared on the site; but then when you consider what happens when you try to search for sexually explicit content:

It seems that Instagram have taken the steps to block this content from users. Clearly naked bodies are judged to be far more damaging to young users than hashtags such as this:

Very logical.

The more I looked into the pro-anorexia content, I also came across the disturbing crossover into the world of self-harm and teenage depression. ‘#Cutting’ brings up the same warning as the anorexia tag, this time seeking to advise users on suicide and self harm. Once again though, they’re welcome to click through the warning and access over a million images focused around self-loathing and physical harm.

I’ve chosen not to screenshot any of the actual images themselves, but some of them are incredibly graphic shots of deep cuts and arms covered in blood. All bear captions claiming that the person behind the account has just made those cuts, and immediately uploaded the photos to Instagram. Here’s a snippet of just some of the hashtags used alongside these images, which again, Instagram are clearly making no effort to monitor or censor:

I won’t pretend that I understand what the people behind these accounts are thinking or feeling. Whether they’re all genuine sufferers, are crying out for attention or are just caught up in the subculture isn’t something you can assume from looking at any of the accounts. All you can really tell is how potentially damaging this all is. Most of the users are incredibly young, some describing themselves as being as young as 12 on their profiles. And if all you have to do to access images of sliced up wrists and starvation is to have access to a smartphone and click through one ‘warning’ from Instagram, then you can imagine just how many impressionable young people these warped images and ideas can be reaching. I have four nieces and to think that any of them could view content like this and be drawn into these communities is genuinely distressing.

The argument will always be there that responsibility for this lies with parents, who should be monitoring what sites their kids are accessing. In theory this is obviously true; in reality kids and teenagers will always find a way around it. There’s also the argument that this conversation, if removed from Instagram, would continue on other platforms – whether that’s Tumblr (where I know this is also a big problem), forums or chatrooms. However, surely Instagram – as one of the most popular and most accessed applications in the smartphone industry – have a responsibility to remove this sort of content from their site? No, it won’t solve the wider problem at hand – but that’s no reason to permit these communities to exist.

What do you all think of this topic? Should Instagram be doing more to prevent this kind of content?

ClaireJanuary 13, 2014

A Week In Instagram #5

Why hi there homies,

I meant to put this post up yesterday, but unfortunately I spent pretty much my whole day reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (I know, about 5 years too late), napping and then being overwhelmed by the new Sherlock episode (anybody else have an inappropriate crush on Moriarty? So glad he’s back in the game).

Anyway, Claire and I have been doing our best to put lots of effort into Instragram and post as much as possible. If you fancy giving us a glorious follow, hit us up at StylingoUK. Our posts are always fashion and beauty related and are usually laced with guilt because we accidentally spent all of our money on makeup. Here’s what we’ve been up to recently:

1. My Primark necklace and Primark fluffy jumper: have so much love for these two pieces. Massively cheap and cheerful but I’ve been wearing them constantly. I featured this necklace in my most recent outfit of the day too!
2. Claire looking like a genuine hotty off to a party over the weekend, featuring one of her favourite Barry M lilac lipsticks.
3. Shameless selfie with a top I bought at The Clothes Show (read about our trip to The Clothes Show).
4. Our love of Primark will never die, Claire picked these cheap and excellent bits of jewellery over the weekend.
5. Claire picked up this amazing MAC makeup shade in a blog sale last week, definitely the perfect colour for daywear (and nightwear, lets be honest!).
6. Another one of Claire’s purchases, recommended by one of our favourite bloggers Latasha at Today I Adore. Keep your eyes peeled for this silver hair dye review.
7. I went to buy a new foundation over the weekend and ended up picking up a Bobbi Brown foundation and concealer (WAHOO, reviews coming soon beauts).
8. How amazing are these Primark tartan leggings? Claire featured them in an outfit of the day recently and they have definitely become a wardrobe staple.
9. The result of Claire’s new silver hair dye – it’s looking fiiineeeee and I basically think she is Daenerys now.
10. Claire’s fit new boots from Boohoo. Read all about them in her haul post.
11. Claire’s epic collection of Barry M nail varnishes!
12. One of my favourite Missguided dresses, the pattern is so lovely!

Well chums, I hope you have enjoyed a peek into our somewhat exciting (?!) lives. If you want to keep up with our updates, make sure you give us a follow on Instagram, Twitter or Bloglovin. Have a fabulous Monday!

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

(do you think I’ve plugged our Instragram enough?!?)

ClaireJanuary 11, 2014

January Fashion Haul: Missguided, Boohoo & Primark

So, how are all of your post-Christmas spending bans going? Yeah, mine’s going great too thanks. Anyway, moving on…

Playsuit (sold out) £15 / Jumpsuit £25 – Both Missguided.com
I placed a cheeky little Missguided order just after Christmas, I think with the intention of getting something to wear for New Year’s Eve. In the end our NYE plans were cancelled and I ended up staying in, eating pizza and watching repeats of Stars in Their Eyes (which was surprisingly fun, actually – there was a very impressive Cliff Richard), so neither of these were worn for the occasion – but aren’t they flippin’ beautiful?

I also picked up a Bardot body from the Sweet Deal range (though that’s currently in the wash) and some leggings – which did NOT please me length-wise, being the longest leggings known to mankind and completely unwearable. Hmph.

Crop Top (sold out) £4 / Chelsea Boots£ 30 – Both Boohoo.com
Not long after New Year I ended up making a little Boohoo order too. This was for no other reason than I was fighting the January blues, and realised that these boots were the one and only thing that could bring happiness to my life. And my oh my, they have made every day better since.

Sports Bra £4 – Primark
My gym is currently twice as busy as it was pre-Christmas due to all of the ‘New Year New Me’ gym joiners – and this is a trend that Primark clearly knows all about, as their gymwear has been moved from a dusty corner at the back, right to the front of my local store. Now, it will come as no surprise to you that I don’t really need to wear a sports bra, seeing as I essentially have no boobs whatsoever – but I couldn’t say no to this neon crop of joy.

Cocoa Brown 1 Hour Tan / Sultry Eyelashes £1 each – both Primark
I’ve been wanting to try out the Cocoa Brown fake tan for ever and ever and ever AMEN, and today was finally the day I added it to my massive Primark basket. I’m going to a party tonight and am currently the ultimate pail Gale, so can’t wait to blast my skin with this and see how it turns out. I think this is about £6 a bottle (currently too comfy on the sofa to go and check my receipt, soz) which is expensive compared to my usual St Moriz – but I’ve heard such good things about it that I decided it was worth the extra pounds. Rumour has it that Cocoa Brown tan doesn’t even smell like fake tan. Wizardry.

I also stocked up on a couple of pairs of Primark’s eyelashes in ‘Sultry’. I reviewed these lashes here and they’re genuinely pretty amazing for just one measly quid.

Necklace £3 / Midi Rings £1.50 – Both Primark
Primark’s currently coming up with some absolutely beautiful statement necklaces, and this one was too much of a bargain to resist. You can’t see well in the photo, but it’s rose gold metal woven with a kind of pearlescent cream material. I also picked up a pack of three silver midi rings. I have horrendously fat fingers and so I’ve got no idea whether these will look good or not, but for £1.50 I was willing to risk it.

I also picked up some Primark essentials including tights, leggings, hair bands and a new hair donut, but thought I’d spare you the boredom of seeing those. And now I must get back to my life, and look up what ‘spending ban’ actually means…

What do you think of this haul? What have you been buying lately?

ClaireJanuary 10, 2014

Outfit of the Day: H&M Crop Top & Split Maxi Skirt

HI GUYS.

It’s Friday afternoon, I’m buzzing for the weekend and nothing can bring me down…apart from the fact I look like an absolute lunatic in these photos pahaha. But ya know, sometimes your face doesn’t behave and your hair looks rubbish. It’s just something that we all have to deal with together, no dramz.

Anywho, this is an outfit I’ve actually worn about a million times in the past few weeks. I bought the top just before Christmas for a night out with my chums back in Cheshire (where we went cow tipping and engaged in other country pursuits). It’s not my usual style, but I’ve come to love the almost-stripey pattern, especially since it scanned as ‘Fancy Jersey Top’ at the checkout. Nothing will lure me in more than something that has the word ‘fancy’ in it. As you may have guessed, this bad boy is from H&M and has become quite the staple in my ‘drobe (Claire has introduced me to layering crops over skater dresses for work and it is brilliant).

I paired my crop top with a new-ish maxi skirt, which is incidentally from H&M too. It’s from their basics range and has a delightful split to the knee – not too saucy but saucy enough to say ‘HEY, we’re not Victorian, look at my ankle and shin’. There’s not too much to say about it other than that, apart from the fact that it is black and is a skirt. Huzzah.

After slinging on my Primark triangle necklace (which I’ve featured on our Instagram account quite a lot.) and my new Primark boots, I was ready to clomp around like a manic with wonky head.

I’m SUPER not happy with my nail varnish though, which is a Kelly Brook ‘matte effect’ one. It’s bloody useless and is no more matte than my shiny nose is right now. It’s more of a textured effect (with what appears to be bits of sand in it) and basically makes it look like a mollusc has done your nails. Thankfully, I didn’t actually buy this (I, erm, found it lurking around my fella’s flat so tactfully robbed it) but be warned – Kelly Brook cannot make nail varnish, no matter who tells you she can.

For anyone who is interested, my lipstick is Kate Moss for Rimmel in shade 16. It’s rather good and has brilliant pigmentation.

What do you all think about this little outfit?

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