Beauty review - Nails Inc. varnish

After discovering that Glamour Mag was giving out freebies again, I scrapped the highly important uni work, threw on some trainers and ran to my nearest shop. Much to my dismay ASDA had fresh run out, which meant no free Nails Inc. for me! At a hopeful last shot at happiness, I popped into Co-op, thankfully they had a few copies left, although the woman on the checkout was clueless and foolishly questioned "You want three of them?!" After offering a polite smile and accepting her ignorance I answered "Yes." and joyfully skipped out of the store with my new goodies!

Upon returning home, I ripped the 10ml of joy out of the packaging and investigated the vibrant colours inside the bottles. First was a blackened navy-blue colour, as usual the varnish is thick, smooth and gloop free. I could imagine this colour matching perfectly with a tailored white blazer or silver sparkly party dress! Second, in contrast to the dark twilight-esque shade, comes a pretty, girly baby-pink. I worry slightly as sometimes pinks can be see-through but this seems as if it will be perfectly opaque. Last, but certainly not least, my favourite of the bunch (pictured below) - a bright, sexy red! I'm a big fan of red nail varnishes and this is the best one I've seen in a while. The subtle glitter pigments give the red a shiny, gel like finish, a varnish to envy any professional manicure. 

So, congrats Nails Inc. you appear to have smashed out another 3 fantastic shades and I'm sure boosted Glamour Mag sales yet again! I sure know where I will be sending Santa to fill up my Christmas stocking!

Reasons to love: Festival fashion

After just returning from my personal favourite festival of the year (LEOPALLOOZA - a boutique festival, close to my home-town), I've been considering my love of 'festival fashion'. I think the main reason its so admired is the way it creates a whole unique style of its own by incorporating a broad range of peoples different approaches to current trends. I am pretty sure I've read that annual music festival Coachella has a lot of impact over the styles that will be available for months afterwards - high street and designer. 

Here are my reasons for being such a festivalfashionlovingfreak. 

1 - If your doing the festival thing properly and staying for a few days, you probably won't be able to wash. Bit of a strange reason without explaining myself, so that's what I'm going to do... (Explain myself). Basically no few day festival would be half as trendy without the three day mud build up on the Hunter wellington boots, random splashes of mud on waterproofs/skin/hair/clothing and (this is the best one) a wide array of gorgeous headbands cleverly used to decoy the look of greasy hair. 

2 - After about 5pm people are usually pretty drunk and care less about what they look like, which in turn makes them look cooler and more fashionable. 

3 - Whatever style you opt to incorporate into your festival outfits - it always looks relaxed and effortless. Particularly when in Great Britain as people will be wearing baggy clothes in the rain or baggy clothes in the shine... Clearly it wasn't just Madness who loved 'Baggy Trousers'.  

4 - There is no gender, age, race, size or shape discrimination when it comes to festival style. Anyone and everyone can do it and generally look cool! 

5 - ROCK vs POP. Some how the mix of leather, denim, studs, feathers, shorts, bikinis, army boots, wellies... (No this isn't fifty shades of grey)... The mix of pop and rock fashions mixed together work perfectly... In a way they have never worked together before!  

Grunge fashion - Do or die?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dephisticate

However cool the grunge look is, I can't seem to get my head around it. I spend hours upon hours trawling through pictures of celebrities on the internet and its safe to say some of the people I envy most are the ones who are able to pull off looking like a corpse. The black leather, studs, baggy tees and rips all look super cool in my imagination, but in reality can sometimes lead to people looking like a dancer from the 'Thriller' music video. 

Just think Taylor Momsen, from Gossip Girl, she looks great with her stacks of black eye liner but it must be a serious commitment to devote yourself to that kind of extreme look everyday, I hate to imagine how panda-esque her eyes would be after forgetting to take off her make-up before bed! It doesn't only appear to be a grave effort make-up wise, after the release of her band Pretty Reckless's debut single, named the ever so jolly, 'Makes Me Wanna Die' she appears to have gone into hibernation. The disadvantage of the grunge group, other than the eye bags, is that you can only venture out at night and have to appear aloof and mysterious at all times. It all seems too much of an effort to me. 

Saying all this, the late Amy Winehouse had oodles of style, the way in which she mixed grunge with vintage/retro style was very clever indeed, this allowed herself to create her own iconic image. The way she mixed her tattooed arms and thick black beehive with girly floaty vintage dresses screamed post-modernism and was enough to make any fashionista weak at the knees! All with a feline felt tip eye liner flick! 

However for now I think I'm going to stay away from the 'Thriller' look... The nearest I'll be going to that is next Halloween, though then hopefully no-one will recognise me! 

Old fashioned glamour - Why the 50's rocked

aphrodite-in-nyc

Whether its in the form of an oversized hat, a layered & laced pastel two piece or 1920's cocktail flapper dress, old style vintage glamour is everywhere! And I can't get enough. Most people who know me are fully aware of my obsession with the 50/60's and know that if I had the wardrobe and the money, I would dress like Marilyn, Dusty or Audrey every day of the week! And the added bonus of the style recognition modern day ladies receive from wearing any vintage shape, shade or design, is enough to make any woman convert from modern neons and brights to vintage headbands and petticoats!


After downloading Lana Del Rey's gorgeous début album last week, she has become my new obsession, though she has been slated in the press recently over cosmetic surgery rumours and her seemingly amateur/inexperienced performance style, no-one can deny her effortlessly cool style. She does what others before her have tried and failed at. Taking on a vintage look for everyday and making it look sexy and sophisticated, if only we all had her eye for such perfect style (or her stylists). The video for her recently popular single 'Video Games' is very vintage inspired and fits together perfectly with her sound. Shamelessly guilt free, I admit her music is very much on repeat. 


Another striking difference between fashions from now and then, which makes me appreciate all things vintage that little bit more, is the shape of the women wearing these floral prints and lace. However lovely it is to have a slim, six packed frame, the ladies from the eras that I adore all knew how to embrace their curves and did it oh so effortlessly (but thankfully in a less obvious way than bootylicious Kim Kardashian)! So thank you vintage ladies with big bottoms, for providing modern day fashionistas some stunning fashions to indulge in and lust after for centuries to come...   


Adios! 

Candy coloured envy - Spring pastel trends

Not is it difficult enough being a student, making important decisions about the future, picking the university to study at for the next 3 years and preparing for knee shakingly difficult exams. Louis Vuitton decides to add another obstacle to a fashion concious, young woman's load and it comes in a range of perfectly pastel shades! Yes, its the Louis Vuitton, spring/summer collection 2012. The hard hitting, nail biting problem here is that no student (unless your extremely well endowed), is going to afford any of these pieces...

Despite the unforgiving and unaffordable price tag, the collection could only be described as perfection. So, bravo Mr. Marc Jacobs, thanks for once more forcing me to peer into my high street wardrobe and quiver with overwhelming dress envy! Crafted from silks, lace and layers upon layers of sheenful, transparent material,  these stunning retro-inspired pieces are obviously a serious investment and I'm making a pact with myself to one day be the proud owner of at least one item. 

At least I'm not alone, picking up this months issue of Glamour Magazine, I couldn't help but notice their similar obsession with the collection and after viewing some pictures of the unveiling event on-line, which looked like a cross between Swan Lake and Barbie, I could quite understand why myself and the rest of women kind had gone ever so lightly loopy in lemon... However sad it may be to know I have absolutely no chance in affording these gorgeous items, which are engraved into my fashion forward memory, I'm pretty thankful I'm not a designer obsessed, WAG queen (as I can't imagine that would be any part fun), but instead will just have to wait till cheaper, badly made copies come out on the high street. 

Over and out! 

First-post: Didn't have a clue

^ This is me!

Hey, so, I'm pretty new to this blogging lark! But hope to soon learn and be a pro... If I stick to this I plan to be sharing my thoughts and ideas on all things fashion related, possibly the occasional music reference (not that I'm much of a critic) and maybe a mention of beauty and make-up... Just because I can! So if your ever ludicrously bored and have literally nothing else on the earth to do, have a gander and let me know what you think :)