Passion for Fashion

A few weeks ago on the lovely Lily's blog I read about this fab 'Passion for Fashion' competition being run by Money Supermarket. You can read all about the competition here, but in a nutshell the aim is to create your dream looks for autumn/winter for under £200 each.

Now it's no secret that I both love a bargain and love putting outfits together, so I thought I'd give it a go!

I think the looks are all very 'me' - or at least how I'd like to be! There were 5 categories in total, and I found some easier than others to create looks for. I'm always dazzled by party dresses and my wardrobe consists of far too many, so I was spoilt for choice here, whereas I'm far more of a snuggle under the duvet in winter kind of girl than brave the elements, so the outdoor task was more of a struggle!

I'm really pleased with what I came up with though, and I really would like to wear all of the outfits. For under £200 each they're not bank braking either. Although I have to say, I didn't find keeping within the price restrictions too difficult - there are so many good buys on the high street at the moment that with a bit of savvy shopping you can easily create expensive looking outfits for less.

I hope (my technology skills permitting!) that you can click on each of the images to make them bigger.  I've included where all the items are from so you can take a look if you like them, and have also tried to explain the looks I was going for and why I made some of the selections I did.

I hope these outfits show my 'Passion for Fashion'. It was certainly a lot of fun putting them together. Why not give it a go yourself?!

xx

My Summer Faves!

So I've finally (reluctantly) admitted to myself that summer is over, after having to turn the heating on for the first time this week, digging out all my winter clothes and starting to browse the shops for scarves, hats and ear muffs. In doing so, I thought it might be a nice idea to do a post on what have been my 'summer faves', to point out what have been my favourite new purchases, the items I just haven't stopped wearing and my bargain buys of Summer 2010, before they are banished to the back of my wardrobe for winter! On that note, on to business...

My favourite... first!

Now I'm sure this might sound strange to many of you, but before this summer I'd never owned a pair of ballet pumps of any description. I'd just never found a pair that were cute AND comfortable. Well, that was until I discovered these little beauties for £12 in Tesco. I think the combination of bows, leopard print and jewels is so tacky that it just about works! I've worn these shoes so much this summer and am yet to find a second pair of pumps that lives up to them!

My favourite... bargain!

If we're talking on a cost-per-wear basis, my absolute bargain of the summer just has to be this floral dress from the G21 range at Asda :-) It cost £7 and I have worn it soooo many times! The great thing about it is how versatile it is - I've worn it for a job interview, nights out and just chilling in the daytime. It's so easy to transform with different shoes and accessories. It was perfect for those days when I couldn't really think what to wear, as I new I could just put this on, and with the right accessories and shoes it would be prefect for whatever I was doing - I need to get myself a winter equivalent!

My favourite... 'unusual' outfit!

My favourite outfit that I've only ever worn once and am 99.99% sure I'll never wear again is my graduation outfit, which I wore back in July for my graduation ceremony :-) After 4 years hard work (and a lot of fun!) it was a great feeling getting the gown and mortar board on - we had finally done it! I thought I might feel a bit silly wearing it, but I think you really get into the festivities of the day, and are so proud of what you and all your friends have done that it feels like such an accomplishment to finally be wearing it :-)

My favourite... freebie!

Between graduation in July and starting my new job last week I had a lot of lovely spare time over the summer months, and one of the things I busied myself with was entering lots of competitions (random I know!). I was pretty successful anyway, and won a whole plethora of goodies, from make up to vouchers, and hair products to teapots! However, my favourite win just has to be this gorgeous dress from Tesco's couture range which I originally reviewed here. I'm still waiting for the perfect occasion to wear it, but I just can't wait to do so - I think it's so pretty :-)

My favourite.... 'special' purchase!

My absolute favourite purchase of the summer overall has to be the dress I bought back in June for my Graduation Ball. Some of you may have followed my search for the right dress for the occasion, and I just knew when I lay my eyes on this Karen Millen number that it was 'the one'! I LOVED everything about it - the cut, the colour, the detailing - I just thought it was perfect. I felt really good in it, which I think is the most important thing when dressing up for a special occasion as confidence really shines through :-) And it was only £55 which I think for a dress like that is pretty darn reasonable! If you want to see more pics from that night you can look at the post I wrote back in June here.

So there we have it - my favourites of the summer :-) I hope you've liked this post. If you have, maybe I can make this sort of post a more regular thing.

What have been your favourite items from your wardrobe this summer? And what are you most excited about wearing this winter? I need some inspiration, as at the moment I'm pretty depressed at the thought of cold weather!

xx

My First Fashion Show! Tres Excited!

Hello loves :-)

I have some very exciting news to share - this Friday I'll be attending my first ever fashion show! Needless to say, I'm a very happy and excited little bunny.

I was lucky enough to win a pair of tickets to The LOOK Show in a blogging competition being run by New Look, who'll be showcasing some of their latest pieces at the event. To enter the comp, you had to write a short paragraph on your 'Top Autumn Trend Prediction'. As is always the case with me and these types of thing I got rather carried away, and instead of just writing a short paragraph this is the entry I submitted (you can click on it to see it bigger)...

New Look must have liked it, as I got an email earlier today saying I was one of their two winners :-) I'm so excited as I can't wait to see all the clothes, and apparently there'll be some celebs there too, and I do love a good ol' bit of celeb spotting! I'll be sure to post pics on here, and obviously I'll be writing a piece for the New Look blog too, so I'll post a link to that once it's up.

So now I'm off to find a friend to go with and, most importantly, decide what to wear! Any suggestions are most welcome...

xx

Feelin' Fruity!

Evenin' all!

I'm a wee bit late with this post, but thought better late than never... (I always say that when I'm trying to convince myself that my questionable timing is not a problem)...

Anyway, a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to enter and win a Rimmel competition, and as a result was sent a bundle of Rimmel goodies as a prize :-)

On Twitter, Rimmel (@rimmelondonbuzz) challenged their followers to send a picture of themselves and the make up look they were sporting that day, from which they'd choose a favourite who would win a goodie bag. As I was feeling creative and had the time on my hands (one of the benefits of having a long summer before finishing uni and starting work) I created a look based on Rimmel's Twitter logo. Now, as I've said on here before, I am no expert with make up at all, but I though't I'd give it a whirl, and even if I didn't win I enjoyed doing it. Rather than just sending a picture of my finished face, I created this little collage below which I sent to them (maybe I should change 'have time on my hands' to 'have WAY TOO MUCH time on my hands!)...

Despite having some other great entries, Rimmel must have liked it as they announced I was the winner!! They messaged to say they would send me some goodies and so I was mucho excited when a few days later Mr Postman came a-knockin'!

The gang at Rimmel Towers were extremely generous and sent me a great selection of products...

The products are...

- I Love Fruities Lasting Finish Nail Polish - 053 Apricot Punch

- Glam'Eyes Eye Shadow - 200 Spicy Bronze

- Glam'Eyes Eye Shadow - 500 Posh Peacock

- Vinyl Gloss - 330 Snog

- Stay Matte Pressed Powder - 004 Sandstorm

- Volume Flash x10 Waterproof Mascara - 001 Black

- Exaggerate Waterproof Eye Definer - 240 Aqua

If anyone is interested I can review any of these products in more detail, but for now let's just say I've tried them out and they're amazing. I'm particularly in love with the eyeshadows, and although not an obvious combination, I've found that if blended well the two colours actually look really good together (trust me!).

I have got some pictures of the nail varnish though, as I've just applied it ready for my day out in London for my birthday tomorrow (yay!). I'm not normally a fan of orange (not just in nail varnish but generally in life!) but because this is more on the coral side than red side I really like it. Also, the lid claims that when dried the varnish would smell of apricots, and I was highly doubtful this would be true (sorry, I'm a naturally cynical person, what can I say?!), but it actually does! I can't stop smelling my nails, which may look slightly strange to passers-by, but it just smells so good! Looks good and smells good - what more could you want?! I love it!

That's all for now folks - I'm off to get sorted for my birthday trip :-) Hopefully I'll have lots of nice photos to post on Sunday. Until then, hope you have a fantabulous weekend (and why not start following @rimmelondonbuzz on Twitter if you don't already, and look out for any future comps).

Kisses.

xx

It's Couture Darling, Couture...

Morning all,

I have a very prettiful new dress to show you today!

If you read my blog post here you will know that last month I was lucky enough to win a competition on Twitter being run by Clothing at Tesco. As a prize I was allowed to pick any item I wanted from their new Couture range. Cue excitement, a little bit of celebratory dancing and an hour in front of the computer deciding what to buy! After a lot of thought (seriously, it took me ages to decide!) I plumped for the ruffle dress.

It arrived the week before last and I was soooooo pleased when Mr Postman delivered it :-) Luckily it fitted and I think it is so gorgeous. Here's some piccies...

The shape of the dress is different to anything I've worn before, but I really like it.

Sorry for the scowl in this one, but my eyes are so sensitive to the sun that if I don't have sunglasses even when its a tincy bit bright I have to majorly squint and therefore end up with quite an angry look on my face!! But at least it allows you to see the ruffly neck close up.

The back is tres pretty too...

Now although I love the floatiness of the dress, I thought I'd try it with a belt just to give it a bit more shape. I thought my flowery ribbon belt from River Island did the job perfectly, as it matched the grey pattern at the bottom of the dress.

I'm not quite sure when I'm going to wear it yet (I was going to wear it to my cousin's wedding, but thought it wasn't really appropriate to wear white to someone else's wedding - I didn't want any of those 'who does she think she is' comments) but its definitely a keeper. It will sit nicely in my wardrobe until just the right occasion comes up!

What do you guys think of it? Have you checked out the F&F couture range online yet? I think there are some lovely pieces.

I won a £30 Tesco clothing voucher in a different competition recently too (see my post here on my second piece of luck!) so I can't wait to spend that now :-)

Thanks Tesco - I love my dress and am going to hang it on my wardrobe door so its the first thing I see when I wake up tomorrow! (what, I shouldn't have admitted that?!...)

xx

Lady Luck's Shining!

I am a very happy girly again today cos I've just gone and won another competition!

The lovely Tor over at fabfrocks.blogspot.com ran a competition where you had to put together a wedding outfit for under £30 using clothes from Tesco. I've only just discovered Tor's blog and I think it's really great - she has such great style and is a bargain hunter just like me! You should definitely check her out and give her future competitions a go :-)

Anyway, I put together three looks and because I couldn't decide which one was my favourite I submitted them all! I think that although summer weddings are all in the same season (obviously!) they can be totally different in terms of location, people etc, and so can require totally different looks, so that's why I made them quite different. Here's what I created...

As you can see, the 3 for 2 offer on all sale items helped me a lot! I think Tesco have some lovely clothes at the moment so there was plenty to choose from. Which is your favourite of the three looks? I think I like the first one best, and seeing as I already own the shoes (see my post on them here) I'm a quarter of the way there!

It seems I've been very lucky recently, what with winning this, a Tesco couture dress, Wild Curls mascara and some goodies from magazine competitions :-) Maybe I'll do a video to show you all my lovely prizes...

I'll be sure to let you know what I decide to buy with my vouchers!

xx

Livin' Life on the Wild Side!

I've been a very lucky lady recently, as the day after winning an item of Tesco's gorgeous couture range on a Twitter competition (see previous post), I won a Wild Curls mascara from 17 at Boots :-) Cue cheesy photo!...

Before I review the mascara, let me show you how I won it. On Twitter, 17 (@Official17) asked their followers to tweet a picture of them with 'fierce eyes', from which they would pick their 10 favourites to win. As I wasn't really doing much that day, I had a bit of a play around. Here's what I came up with... (please ignore the rest of my face which I didn't do at all- I only did my eyes)...

I know some bloggers are brilliant with make up, but I'm actually quite a novice and actually don't really own that much. However, I really enjoyed experimenting and was pretty pleased with the look I created. Here's a close-up of my 'fierce' peepers!...

And closed...

The products I used to create the look were:

17 Eyes Trio - Pretty In Pink (on brow bone)

17 Eyes Trio - Smoky Quartz (on eyelids)

Rimmel Glam Eyes Liquid Liner

NYC 'Show Time' Volumizing Mascara

What do you think? I was pretty pleased with myself and it made me what to experiment a lot more :-)

Anyway, the lovely team at 17 sent me a Wild Curls mascara really quickly and I couldn't wait to try it out. Firstly, the all important packaging!

Let me just say that I categorically LOVE leopard print, so the shiny gold and leopard print packaging is right up my street! Also, when you do the lid up, it clicks gently into place as it closes. I know this is only a very little touch, but it just makes it seem a lot more expensive than it actually is, as I believe it's on sale for only £5.99.

Here's a couple of before and after pictures so you can see the difference it made (I don't have any other make up on here, so you can really see the effect it had clearly)...

These pictures are both with two coats, and as you can see it really gave my eye lashes a great curl. Also, the size and shape of the brush, which is straight and not too fat, meant I was able to get into the corners of my eyes really easily and it did not clump at all.

The packaging claims that Wild Curls 'holds for up to 10 hours'. If I'm honest I didn't have it on for 10 hours, but I must have had it on for about 5 or 6 and it didn't run at all - I was very impressed :-)

So overall, what do I make of it? Well, in three words, I love it! I recommend you give it a go, and if you get to boots quickly you might still be able to get an awesome freebie when you buy one - a Wild Curls Eye Kit, which contains tweezers, curlers and eyeliner. Can't ask for much more than that!

Have any of you tried 'Wild Curls' yet? If you have, what do you think of it?

(Oh, and they also sent me a nail varnish as a little extra which made me smile! It's called 'Amaretto' and is part of their Lasting Fix range. It's a gorgeous deep maroony kinda colour which I haven't had time to try out yet, but it looks lovely and will be particularly cute in the winter)

Thanks 17!

xx

F+F Couture and My Competition Win :-)

Just a quick update because I am a very happy girl right now!

I follow @ClothingatTesco on Twitter and today they ran a competition to win an item from their F+F Couture range and... you guessed... I WON!!

To enter you had to tweet your best summer fashion tip and the nice people at Tesco would choose their favourite. My tip was:

I guess that at the end of the day you can't please all the people all the time, so you might as well just make yourself happy. And in the summer you want to enjoy the nice weather (if we ever have any!) and do fun things without being too concerned about what you're wearing.

Now on to the fun bit - I get to pick an item of my choice from their couture range :-)

I have to admit I never even knew that Tesco had a couture range before today, and I am really pleasantly surprised - there are some gorgeous items. You can check them out at:http://www.clothingattesco.com/brands/F+F-Couture/icat/f-and-f-couture

These are a few of my favourite pieces...

So now I need to make my mind up and tell Tesco. Decisions decisions. What do you think I should go for?

xx