Friday 6 November 2015

Mermaid






Halloween seems like forever ago yet it has not even been a week yet! I thought I would share some photos. As you can probably tell I dressed up as a mermaid or rather a drowning mermaid as I had a horrific cough/disappearing voice. After pinteresting some ideas I came across mermaid make up with scales. Simple and easy for someone who lacks any artistic skills. The trick is to use fishnet tights over your head! I ended up using a wig cap, the first fishnets I bought were too thick and a practice run showed they wouldn't work. I struggled to find thin fishnets that were under £5. A wig cap at 99p was a much better idea and more comfortable to wear over your face. 

I started by applying foundation normally and giving it a little while to settle. Starting with the eye area I applied blue Seventeen eye shadow with a brush then purple Revolution shadow for definition. I attempted to contour my nose with the purple but it didn't look right instead of starting again I piled on more blue which seemed to work better. It was time to pull the cap over my face, mixed the blue shadow with some primer and applied with a cheap sponge that can be thrown out after all that shimmer will be tough to get out a beauty blender. Using the purple eye shadow to definite then used  silver Illamasqua liquid metal shadow as a highlight. Removed the cap with help of extra hands to avoid smudging to reveal the scales. Filled in brows, added liner and mascara then loaded on Revolution purple lipstick and dabbing liquid metal to the centre of the lips. I used Bleach London's hair crayons in Bruised Violet and Washed Up Mermaid in random sections which was hard to get the colour pay off and ended up giving up due to running out of time. Perhaps hair chalk would have been easier and quicker. I didn't go for whole the shell top and fish tail costume because any plus size costumes are a fortune and wouldn't have arrived on time, plus this is Scotland in October which means it's a better idea to stay warm. I already had the shell print dress and purple tights and bought the starfish clip from Ebay.

What did you get up to for Halloween? 









Tuesday 29 September 2015

The Rabbit and The Wolf






Dress - Threads 
Jacket - TU 
Bag - H! By Henry Holland 
Boots - Topshop 
Necklace - H&M 


This is what I wore for a night out for a 21st birthday. I found this dress on sale rail in Debenhams naturally being drawn in by the collar. I've never heard of the brand Threads before nor can I find any information about them. It makes me wonder if it had been abandoned in the back for awhile and now the brand doesn't exist which is a real shame because the I love everything about this dress. Surprisingly I found the jacket in Sainsburys for half price, I wasn't even in the market for a new leather (well, PU leather) jacket made me realise how battered the one I've been wearing since I was 18 was. I had been on the hunt for some more casual heels when I came across these boots, again on sale, even though they don't have much of a heel the platform adds that extra bit of height I was after. Now that I think about it the only full price item was the necklace, at £3.99 it wasn't exactly breaking the bank. 

What's your latest sale finds? 


The Picturebooks - The Rabbit and The Wolf 
 



Friday 4 September 2015

Moondust






 Dress - Coast 
Cardigan - Principles 
Shoes - Schuh 


There's something about about Coast dresses that I always love but never anywhere fancy enough to wear the beautiful occasion dresses, and normally more than I'm willing to pay for a dress I won't wear often. I came across this dress last summer it was originally £95 and I think it was on sale for about £28. A good bargain when you think about it. This dress originally had full length sleeves, unfortunately something that does not suit me but I was too in love with the way the dress fitted and moved to leave it behind. Off the sleeves came. I just love how the skirt swishes about, which you can probably tell by these photos. Despite how much I love it I don't wear it enough because the cut out give me a bit of a ridiculous cleavage that I can only get away with for a night out. I keep meaning to get some sheer fabric to put in the cutouts so that I can get away with taking it on daytime outing. The cardigan was one of those things that I picked up when looking for wedding outfit before I had a dress. Black and cropped I thought it was a safe bet and something that I could wear again. 


Ash - Moondust 

 


Saturday 29 August 2015

Wedding

 Dress - Oasis 
Headband - Crown and Glory
Shoes - Topshop
Bag - New Look 

In the seven years I've been with my boyfriend Raymond, we've had never been invited to a wedding before, which is shocking considering he's one of those people that knows hundreds of people. Raymond has been friends with the groom since school so he was invited to the whole day and as he was asked to be the official wedding photographer, I only went to the reception rather than the whole day. I would've probably ended up on my own most of the day while he was busy as I only knew the groom and no one else attending. Shy girl problems. 

Anyway as I was only going to the reception I wanted to get a dress that I could wear again. Before even finding a dress I decided that a wedding is the perfect excuse to crack out the an item from my crown and glory collection. For a girl who likes a good excuse to dress up the search for the dress was took a very long time. I ended up taking a chance and ordering this Oasis dress, they seem to occasionally have selected items in size 18 (wish they would just go up to an 18 in every item), it did fit but just needed some shaper tights underneath to make things smoother. I used this as the perfect excuse to go buy new shoes and a bag, who wouldn't?! The best buy were the shoes originally £46 then reduced in the sale but they had black scuffs all over them, I knew they would come off so after asking at the till I got them for £13.50 in the end. We had a lovely time even if we didn't manage to do much dancing as we left before people had enough drinks to break out the move on the dance floor. 












Thursday 20 August 2015

Brow Essentials



Being a teen in the noughties has meant that thin eyebrows where the shape you,.  even though I went to a professional to get them waxed back then I think they followed a 'one size' fits kinda all shape. It's only in recent years since I started reading beauty blogs that I realised brows make a big difference in framing your eyes. I only used to fill them in on a night out but now I filled them in whenever I've got make up on. Mine are still very patchy at the front but generally the shape is much better. Tweezers and a spoolie are the basics to eyebrow care but the past year or so  I've discovered some products that help me get a better defined brow. 

Threading 
Choose threading over waxing. It gives a softer more natural shape. It isn't as harsh on the skin meaning that it is as red or angry for as long (if at all) afterwards. I find that going in with your brows filled in the way you like shows them the shape you like. Don't be scared to say that if you want to areas left alone especially when attempting to grow them.

Eyebrow oil 
Eylure Brow Nourishing Oil is something I had never even heard of before, and picked it up on a whim. It seemed pricey for such little product however when used regularly it really does work and has helped my brows grow quicker than when I have just left them. Roll along your brows paying extra attention to those spare areas.

Eyebrow pencil
I'm talking about the waxy softer kind as they are much easier the get a natural look and often have a triangular shape which makes everything that little bit quicker. Eyebrow Stylist from Sleek is apparently a dupe for the infamous Hourglass Arch Brow Sculpting pencil but a fraction of the price!


Powder 
Currently my favourite way to fill in my brows particularly when things are patchy and sparse as you can build it up in areas you need without looking drawn on as pencils sometimes  can if its a larger area needing filled. Use matte eyeshadows or a brow kit, it doesn't matter as long as you find your shade. MUA and Revolution do good kits for under a fiver. I'd buy a cheaper power then invest in an proper brow or angled eyeliner brush,

Gel 
Tinted gels are a speedy way to hold and define, unfortunately they don't work for me. Too big wands for too little brows just ends in a mess. Clear gels are more forgiving of errors and set them in place to avoid smudge. Those with thicker brows can get away with using clear mascara. The best clear gel I've found is the Urban Decay Urbanbrow and at £12 it is certainly not the cheapest around. The straight stiff brush is just the right size, dries quick yet doesn't give you the dreaded crispy brows. My previous tube last me about a year with almost daily use, definitely get your moneys worth. An added bonus is the package is opaque which means you can't see the gel getting discoloured. 

 

Wednesday 29 July 2015

Strange Kinda' Nothing



Dress - Red Herring
Cardigan - Dorothy Perkins
Necklace - Accessorize 
Watch - Floozie by Frost French 
Shoes - Office

Here we have my first proper outfit post in about a year and not quite sure how that's happened! My plans for posting more often haven't went very well! I have a little backlog of photos to work through so I will get those up soon. These photos were taken in June despite the sun peaking through there was still a slight nip in the wind so the tights were still on. This was the first outing for the dress that had been hanging unloved since it's purchase in the sale many months ago. I'm not usually drawn to insect prints but these little dragonflies are subtle yet are colourful plus the dress was my favourite style. The jewellery both remind me of Kate Spade items that I'm forever lusting over which are very out of my price range, These are are filling that Kate Spade void nicely and were obviously much much cheaper. 

What your latest fashion dupe find?  



The Answer - Strange Kinda' Nothing 

 

Thursday 7 May 2015

Ae Spark O' Nautre's Fire



Ae Spark O' Nature's Fire took place way back on December 29th. Yes, it's rather late to share but I found these in my draft posts I wanted to share them as I love the photos. This is only a small selection of my favourites. This was an event hosted by the Burns Birthplace Museum, the memorial gardens where lit up with fire displays, I guess you would call it, candles, a light show on the Burn's momument and musicians playing. The Auld Kirk graveyard was lit up to it's full ghostly potential. There were even actors dressed up as devils and witches who were really enjoying being creepy and freaking people out in the dim light. I had attempted to make use of the atmospheric background but this was the day my horrendous chest infection started so I look miserable in all the photos. I'm glad I braved th cold piling on as many layers as I could because the photos don't really capture the intense heat and atmosphere of the gardens or the scale of this. I hope this wasn't a one off as I would love to go again minus the chest infection. Most of these photos were taken by Raymond because he knows his way round a camera much better than me in low light conditions and at any other time for that matter.
 

Monday 4 May 2015

Coming out of hibernation


I have accidentally let things go into complete hibernation on here over winter. The start of this year wasn't great to say the least which is probably why I had been unmotivated and uninspired. The rare appearance of the warm spring sun has been lifting my spirits and I've been missing being creative with photos and outfits. It should be easier to get photos now that I have access to a good SLR and my outfit photographer to hand whenever I please. Here's to getting the blog rolling again!