Good afternoon you lovely bunch! As any regular readers of this blog will know, Lauren and I make no secret of the fact that we’re bargain hunters – in fact, we probably blabber on about being skint a bit too much and you probably think we’re desperately hinting for you to send us money in the post (note: we are). View Full Post
Short Girl Problems: The Best Petite Clothing
They say that good things come in small packages – but what if the package wrapping just doesn’t fit?
Lauren and I are both self-confessed hobbits. I always liked to ambitiously declare myself as 5’3, though a cruel machine at the gym recently broke the news to me that I am in fact 5’1.8 (the .8 makes all the difference). Lauren comes in even smaller than me – some rumours suggest she is as little as 3 feet tall, and just wears special shoes like Tom Cruise.
Here is a recent photo of us.
We both quite like being short – you never really have to worry about finding a boy who’s taller than you, you’re brilliant at hide and seek because you can easily fit into most cupboards, and you can often get away with paying child fare on the bus.
One thing which is a proper snore about being short, though, is the clothing issue. Trousers drag along the floor. Midis cut us at awkward angles. We trip over our maxi skirts (Lauren face-planted in the middle of Birmingham City Centre just a few weeks ago due to this. Of course I didn’t laugh when she told me. Not one bit). Yes, these problems could all be fixed by altering our clothes but, frankly, the furthest I ever got in textiles lessons in school was making a puppet that was supposed to be a rabbit but more closely resembled something you might pull out of the hoover when you have a blockage. The domesticated life is not the one for me.
Another option is sizing down in ‘normal’ ranges. I have quite a few size 6 dresses in my wardrobe which, if you saw my hips, you would know is NOT my true size. But going a size smaller means you have less material, so it can be spread across your body better (sorry, I couldn’t find any better way of saying that). This is a good tactic with bodycon stuff, dresses in particular – I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for a pair of jeans, as fitting a size 10 bum into size 6 jeans will just result in an arse split that will be difficult to hide as you hand it back to the shop assistant.
My TIP TOP TIP though, is to find out where do good petite ranges. Things just look so much better when they are made for someone of your height – they keep you in much better proportion, plus you have less bruising from falling over all the time. So, here’s my list of the top 3 places to head to for petite clothes.
Topshop Petite
Topshop are hands-down one of my favourite shops that cater to my little-legged needs. They always have a decent sized range and often do petite versions of the season’s best-sellers, so we don’t have to miss out just because of the poor genetics passed onto us from our parents.
ASOS Petite
ASOS’ petite range is another personal favourite of mine, particularly for maxi skirts and dresses. Whereas Topshop only stock sizes 4-14, ASOS go up to a 16 so the majority of us tiny tots (did I really just say that? Yep, moving on) can find something to wear. What I also like about ASOS is that they do a lot of pieces exclusive to the Petite range. This makes me feel like I am in some sort of special club and can sashay around in amazing dresses that would leave taller girls flashing their foofs.
New Looks – 915 Range
Okay, DO NOT LAUGH. But buying kids’ clothes really is a superb idea if you’re petite. Have you seen how tall these 14 year olds are?! I have a slight problem with New Look’s 915 range because as I browse the crop tops and mini dresses, I can’t help but wonder where on earth 9 YEAR OLDS are going dressed like that. But that is a problem for parents and not for us short shoppers – so just enjoy the cheaper prices and worry about the nation’s children at a later date.
Are any of you petite? What are your tactics for dressing for your height?
Skincare Tag: What Is My Daily Routine?
The lovely Liza at Glambeautys tagged us in a skincare post that’s going around that the moment. If you haven’t already, check out her blog – it’s one of our favourites and her ‘how to contour’ post is top notch. Fifi from FifiMcGee also tagged us in this skincare tag, so I thought we’d better hop to it and get one done.
I decided to do this tag because, like any brilliant team, Claire and I both have different interests in the fashion/beauty blogging world. I’d definitely say Claire is the fashion expert and her outfit of the day’s are genuinely fantastic (it doesn’t help that she is a teeny tiny person and looks fabulous in everything). On the other hand, I’m more of a beauty fan and I get excited about things like moisturiser, skincare and makeup. We dabble in both, but as I have a bit more of a skincare routine, I though I’d take the lead on this bad boy.
So…what IS my skincare routine?
1. Describe your skincare routine in five words:
Fresh, Moisturising, Experimental, Thorough and Regular (snore snore and snore. There’s nothing fun about routines!)
2. What is your skin type?
THE WORST KIND – oily and prone to breakouts. It’s very upsetting and the skin type nobody really wants but I do my best to keep things in check. When I do breakout, the spots I get are horrible. Darn you skin, darn you. If I could I would carve off my skin and transplant it with someone else’s but I’ve heard that most people would think that would be a terrible idea. And also vaguely strange. And possibly death inducing.
3. What is your favourite skincare product?
At the moment, my favourite skin care product is my Nivea Soft moisturiser. I initially bought it to use as hand cream but it can be used on the face too. It smells lovely and isn’t too heavy. Perfect as a day moisturiser and base for makeup. I love the Nivea brand so much right now that I want to marry it and have lots of really moisturised babies (ew, gross).
4. Top blemish zapper?
Sudocrem is always brilliant, but I like using witch hazel and tea tree oil if my spots are particularly bad. Which they always are.
5. Face wipes….yay or nay?
I’m not using them at the moment and they aren’t great for your skin, but they are useful when you haven’t got time/can’t be bothered/too drunk to do a proper makeup removal.
6. Toner….yay or nay.
I love toner – it helps to remove any cleanser left on my skin and it also REALLY wakes me up in the morning! At the moment, I’m using one by Clarins because I’m really fancy. So fancy that I plan to invest in a yacht and sail around the world with Jay Z.
7. High end skincare or high end make up?
I would rather buy high end skincare because I think that you can really notice the difference in quality, which is something that isn’t always true with makeup. In an ideal world, I would have both but a gal’s gotta compromise!
8. You’re in a French pharmacy and can only buy one item, what would it be?
I’ve heard LOTS of good things about Bioderma, which is a brand I’ve not yet been able to try. I’d love to try some of their products aimed at oily skin – particularly the Sebium H20 cleanser to sort out my greasy head.
9. Top skincare tip.
Always remove makeup and stick to a routine. My skin has got a lot better when I regularly cleanse, tone and moisturise. Everything looks better when your skin is looking good too and makeup is definitely enhanced when you don’t have to faff around covering up spots. Also, you can feel smug that you have a skincare routine and look at the lesser people who don’t in horror while saying ‘Oh darling, you simply must moisturise. THINK OF THE WRINKLES.’
Well there you have it gals, that is my skincare wisdom shared and hopefully appreciated. As this is a very picture-free post, I thought I would treat you all to a picture of my face to finish it all off in style (I hope you can all hear the sarcasm in this, I don’t think that my face is a treat. Except for my millions of male suitors, of course).
We would also like to tag these lovely ladies, if you haven’t already done the skincare tag before 🙂
– Becky at BeckysMakeup
– Ambi at Bombay Rose
– Lauren at Living In A Boxx
– Sophie at That’s What Sophie Said
– Tori at Tori’s Tales
– Georgia at Fashion Oyster
– Imogen at Imogen Massey Beauty
Barry M Sequin Nail Effects in White: Review
Everybody knows that Mondays are the most tragically depressing of days, and the only thing that can possibly cheer you up is having new nails for the week ahead. It was this fact of life that must have driven me to throw this little selection of nail treats into my Boots basket yesterday, despite only popping in for hair dye (as a side note, don’t you hate it when you accidentally dye your top layers ginger and leave the rest blonde? I know I do…) View Full Post
Outfit of the Day: Neon Tshirt and a Maxi Skirt.
My unabated love affair with the neon trend continues. When I came home with this top yesterday, Claire sarcastically said “Oh, I didn’t know you liked neon”, which I think was a bit rude really. I think that girl needs an attitude adjustment. She has a point though, my last few shopping trips have all included something neon and I’m seriously wondering whether I’m investing too much into this trend, only to be rudely awakened by the dark colours and gloominess that the autumn/winter trends will bring.
But as our dear and beloved friend Drake would say, YOLO. I love the colour of this little neon pink number and I can see myself getting LOADS of wear out of it before the hot weather runs out. Basic tshirts are something I don’t have enough of, so it is a useful little addition to my wardrobe.
I wore this outfit out for dinner at a friend’s house yesterday (nachos, YUM) and I’m horrified to say that the WHOLE outfit is from Primark (apart from my necklace, phew). I bought the maxi skirt a few months ago, it’s nothing special but it’s nice and flattering. My love of crosses is nearly akin to my love of neon, so I whacked on my big cross pendant (bought from New Look), a pair of sandals (Primark, I’m sorry) and a brown bag. The top was a mere £3.50 from Primark, what a genuine barg!
You might notice a bit of a change of scene for this OOTD. I thought I’d treat you all to a sneak peak of my bedroom (this post is practically an episode of Cribs). As you can see I have really nice carpets, I think the puke green marbled effect really compliments my eyes. I also have a chicken ornament, nothing more needs to be said about that.
Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and keep your eyes peeled for lots of exciting posts this week!
Missguided:‘Sweet Deal’ Value Range
Working in an office on a business park, where the only place to venture out at lunch to is a manky bench round the corner, I have become quite the regular online shopper. Online browsing can become repetitive and boring, but every now and then you find something that, in my case, literally makes you slam your hands on the table and shout ‘WHAT THE EFF?!’ The last time I experienced this kind of shock was when ASOS started stocking Primark – this time it’s another exclusively-online retailer that’s made me want to throw a stapler at the wall in excitement (what, that isn’t a normal way to express yourself?) View Full Post
Rihanna Style: Swooning at the Diamonds Tour.
Claire and I have come to the conclusion that we must have been genuinely the best people in a past life because karma has been very good to us this week. After Claire won some nail wraps in a Twitter giveaway and we were given bottles of Argan oil, we had concluded that it had been a successful week of excitement. THAT WAS UNTIL YESTERDAY AT APPROXIMATELY 15.45. While we were working extremely hard and wondering whether the 10th cup of tea would be the one that would send us over the edge, a phone call came through.
Claire took it and managed to stay very calm saying things like “ah, brilliant. yes. thank you” so I automatically assumed it would be something boring to do with KPI or ROI (or whatever it is these marketing types enjoy nattering on about). Little did I know. It turned out that our boss couldn’t make the Birmingham Rihanna concert last night so kindly donated his tickets to us. Needless to say, we were massively excited and I spent a good 15 minutes shouting “HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WORK IN THESE CONDITIONS.” We immediately started panicking about the state of our work faces and that we looked vaguely like idiots, so we had to do what every beauty blogger would do in times of crisis. We legged it to Boots after getting the train and hurriedly applied makeup using our iPhone cameras as mirrors on the way to the NEC.
It turned out the tickets our boss gave us were in the hospitality suite that included dinner before the show. As we were discussing whether or not there would be cocktail sausages and a buffet, we were shown up to the restaurant and presented with two glasses of champagne. There were no cocktail sausages. We were forced to choke down a five course meal (sigh, isn’t life hard) before heading up to the show deck to watch RiRi. Erm. Has anyone actually BEEN in/on a show deck before? Can I just say that a private bar, lounge and swanky leather seats were something I was not expecting…obviously having a healthy mixture of vodka, gin and archers was obligatory.
Rihanna was amazing, brilliant and we have big lesbian crushes on her now. If we had been more prepared for the concert (or gig? is it acceptable to say gig for an event where you don’t get beer in your hair?), we might have treated you all to an OOTD post, but neither of us looked that interesting. SO INSTEAD, we’re going to do Rihanna’s OOTT (outfits of the tour…). She is genuinely the most beautiful woman on the planet and can pull of anything…even things that seem like terrible ideas. Claire has already expressed an interest in purchasing a shiny dress patterned with dollar bills and I’m thinking of investing in a pair of neon chaps.
Act 1:
I believe this little number was designed by Givenchy’s creative director and Rihanna looked AMAZING in it. Homegirl can rock thigh high boots, that’s for sure! Fans of Rihanna might have seen on Twitter that she’s dyed her hair a sort of grey colour. We couldn’t hugely tell the difference, but it looked very shiny and nice anyway.
Act 2:
I think Rihanna might actually be the queen of the varsity/sports luxe trend. I love love love this outfit, even the thigh high white leather boots (which Claire and I thought were trousers for a while, until we saw a flash of bottom). The ‘Sea of Desire’ top was designed by Raf Simmons and she wore a bra and shorts by Wolford. Her EPIC over the knee boots were custom made by Christian Louboutin. Oh, to have custom made Loubs.
Act 3:
Rihanna’s second look was designed by Adam Selman and Manolo Blahnik for her snakeskin boots. I love her little crop top, it is brilliant in a I-drive-a-ferrari-so-I-got-a-crop-top-to-match kind of way.
Act 4:
Oh. My. Goodness. RiRi looked absolutely stunning in this dress/top/skirt combo. Even though me and Claire are not the biggest fans of red, Rihanna has made me reconsider my stance on red clothing. This two piece top and skirt was also designed by Adam Selman and her shoes were Manolos again.
Act 5:
This hologram dollar bill dress is FIERCE. She came out with a matching jacket but I wanted to give y’all a full picture of how brilliant she looked in this. She had matching hologram trainers on, which were designed by Pierre Hardy. Her dress was designed by Adam Selman again. I want one.
Act 5:
Rihanna’s jumpsuit was absolutely beautiful, onstage it was SO shimmery and excellent. It was designed by Lanvin and the heels/belt were Manolo Blahnik again.
These pictures were borrowed from Rihanna Overdose because we only had our iPhones on us and our pictures weren’t great! I thought I’d give you a little collage of our evening as well (lots of photos of our dinner paha!)
What do you think of Rihanna’s style? Have any of you guys been to the Diamonds tour? What did you think about her outfits? I was pleasantly surprised that there wasn’t anything TOO slutty (if by pleasantly surprised I mean horribly disappointed) and my personal fave was her sheer varsity-style top. There were similar tops that apparently were available online but are now totally sold out, which is is definitely not surprising.
We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and RiRi is definitely our new gymspiration (I say that while I munch on a bag of cheese and onion crisps…).
The Best Nude Lipstick: MAC vs E.L.F
If you read this blog regularly then you may know that I am girl who is on many quests. I’m on a quest for the perfect mascara, a quest to learn contouring, a quest to find something I love more than crop tops – I am basically the Zelda of the fashion and beauty blogging world. I am also on a quest to find brilliant nude lipsticks. I have raved before about what a fan I am of them, being an avid lover of all things neutral (except for Switzerland) (this is a joke; you Swiss girls have got it going awwwwn). View Full Post
July Glossybox: Or, A Tale of Disappointment & Woe
Happy Wednesday darling ones. So, this month I finally caved in to the temptation of Glossybox. As I’m sure all beauty bloggers out there know, Glossybox is a subscription service where each month you receive a box full of beauty goodies in the post. They range from samples to full-size products, and are usually a mixture of make-up and beauty bits. View Full Post
Outfit of the Day: Monochrome Bodycon & Red Wedges
Dress – H&M / Wedges: Topshop
I went out last night. Please take a second to let that sink in – I went out on a MONDAY night. I’ve been a real member of the working world since last August so weeknight drinking has very much became a distant memory to me; these days, I feel a bit dangerous going to an 8pm showing at the cinema. But a day off work today meant that a night out simply had to happen (did the eight Jagerbombs have to happen? I’m less sure of that). View Full Post