Sandy Santa

I accidentally bought one too many Lush gift sets before Christmas (did I really, or is that just my excuse?!) No really, I did. This santa scrub was included in said set, so I thought I'd have to use it up over the festive period... it would be rude not to. 

Sandy Santa is a citrus flavoured body scrub, perfect for getting rid of that wintery skin. I used this in the shower and was very impressed with the results. If your skin isn't too dry, you can quickly use this scrub and get away with not having to use a moisturiser afterwards due to the orange, rosewood and sandalwood oils. I also only use a third of the scrub at a time, as the whole thing would be way too much for me. So you can get about 3 uses out of a product this size - bargain!

I have to say though, Santa's red hat did create a massive mess in my bathroom. The dye is really pigmented and went absolutely everywhere! Luckily it didn't stain at all, but it did temporarily look like there'd been some awful accident in my bathroom. 

Overall, I love this scrub and I'll be definitely looking at Lush's other scrubs for a less festive replacement very soon! Have you tried any of Lush's body scrubs? x

Khaki dress

Dress & leggings - both Topshop (I can't find the exact dress online anymore :()

I hope you've all had a lovely Christmas! The 'real' Christmas day was spent with my family and Josh in Birmingham, but now we've travelled up to Lincolnshire to see Josh's family for a second Christmas. I get two Christmas days which means two Christmas dinners, yaaay! 

This is an outfit from just before Christmas - I wore this out to Nandos and cinema. This dress was only £20 from Topshop a little while ago, I really want another one in a different colour but I can't find it online any more. I also need to sort out an appropriate bra for this dress too, the straps just look weird with the crossed/harness style top. Apologies for the awful colour of the photos too!

What did everyone else get up to over Christmas? x

Merry Christmas!

What better way to say Happy Christmas than with a smiling Christmas pudding?!

Just a quick post to say Happy Christmas to you guys! I hope you're having a lovely day, whatever you're doing - hopefully eating lots of yummy food and watching Christmas TV!

Merry Christmas :) x

#SWBXmas

1. Tea and cake

2. Sophie from Crown and Glory, Paige from Paige Joanna, Amy from Amy Valentine, me, Megan from The Briar Rose and Steph from Stephanie Dreams.

3. Leanne from Leanne Marie and Michelle from Daisy Butter.

4. B/Brownie from Soul Sparkler, Tara from The Style Rawr and Amie from Credit Crunch Chic.

(I have KimmyP to thank for these photos as I didn't take my camera along - Thanks Kim!)

Last Sunday, I went along to the South West Bloggers' Christmas Party at The Birdcage in Bristol with Kim. The Birdcage is such a cute little venue, it's a cafe with a stage for live bands and a small vintage shop at the back! The perfect place for a blogger meet.

We were greeted with tea and cake by The Birdcage, which considerably helped my hangover, along with little tokens for Christmas presents from the organisers of the event. We took our tokens over to the tree to see what goodies we could get. I picked a parcel which contained a pair of tights from Tights Please, a 'No Tangle' hairbrush by Macadamia Oil plus a small bottle of Macadamia Healing Oil Treatment and Deep Repair Masque. 

Later on in the afternoon we all took part in a Christmas quiz - our team came third! We definitely weren't expecting that. Then, some bands took to the stage and played for the rest of the event. 

It was lovely to spend the afternoon with so many bloggers I regularly speak to, but there were so many people there too! I still need to go through some of the blog cards I picked up from people and check out their blogs :)

Did anyone else go to the event? Did you have a good time? x 

Motel wishlist

1 // 2 // 3

4 // 5 // 6

Like most bloggers (and most non-blogging females), I love a good Motel shopping spree - even more so when there's a sale or discount on!

Motel are running an amazing promotion at the moment, you can get an extra 50% off their sale items with the code XMASPREVIEW50. This is valid until the 17th of December so click here to get shopping :)

The items above are some of my top picks from the sale. I love the last dress, I have a similar one from Topshop but it's pink - I prefer the grey material with multicoloured metallic stripes through this one! It's much more Christmassy! 

I also really like the strapless body - it has tiny cross beads around the bust - it would be perfect with a skater skirt or shorts for a night out (and it's only £12.50 with the discount code - bargain!). 

There's such a good selection of items in the sale, you're bound to find a bargain! What's your favourite pick from the products above, or the whole sale? x

Florence

 // Cathedral // dome inside the cathedral // pretty carousel at night // posing on the carousel // 

// drinks at the Hard Rock Cafe // Ponte Vecchio bridge at night //

I mentioned a while ago that I'd been a bit absent from blogging because I'd been away on holiday, so I thought I'd show you guys what I got up to. Sorry for all the pictures! Hopefully it loads okay for everyone. 

We travelled to Florence, in Italy, after a few days of visiting Josh's sister and her boyfriend in Southampton. We left from Bristol airport, very early on the Tuesday morning and arrived home on Saturday afternoon. 5 days and 4 nights felt like the perfect amount of time to spend in the centre of Florence! We went to visit our friend Jess, who moved to Florence in September to become a nanny. She doesn't have to work between 9am and 3pm, while the kids are at school, so we met up with her on some of the daytimes and she showed us around the town. It's awesome to have your own personal tour guide who knows what you'll find interesting and enjoy seeing!

We saw loads of beautiful cathedrals - they're all so grand and intricately decorated! The domed ceilings are all painted, similar to the second picture above, and you could stand and look at them for ages because there's so many different elements to see. We also went and saw the famous painting called The Birth of Venus  by Boticelli and Michelangelo's 'David' sculpture. I'm not a massive art gallery fan, but I really enjoyed the Galleria dell'Accademia where the David sculpture is on display. They were showing modern art mixed throughout the historic paintings and sculptures, which was really interesting.

While we were in Florence we were typical tourists; going on the carousel, eating loads of ice cream and way too much pasta and pizza! The food we had while we were there was amazing. I took a couple of pictures of meals (I wouldn't be a blogger if I didn't!) but most of the time I was too excited to eat it, so just got stuck in! We also visited the Hard Rock Cafe, where we had the most expensive drinks I have ever experienced. It was €8 for a single measure of Southern Comfort and lemonade! But the atmosphere of the bar made up for it - there was so much cool music memorabilia to look at, we spent about an hour just wondering round and looking at everything on display!

Overall, I had an amazing time in Florence and I'm so jealous that Jess gets to live in such a beautiful city. I would definitely recommend visiting for a few days if you're after a city break (there is a massive selection of designer shops in the city centre too ;)).

Has anyone been to Florence before? Which is your favourite city to visit? x

My Christmas party dress

Motel Rocks - Cillia Sequin Skater Dress

Sorry for the weird pictures in this post - the first two were actually taken when I got home from the night out, at about 2.30am oops. Also, my pro photographer (Josh)'s hand was over the flash in the second picture. You just can't get the staff these days. 

Anyway, this is the dress I wore to my work Christmas party on Friday night! It's the Cillia dress by Motel. We went out for a meal, (so the skater style was perfect to hide my food baby!) then for a few drinks in a vodka bar, then onto a club. I love the long lace sleeves on this dress, they make me feel really elegant. I didn't really accessorize the dress, I felt like with the high necked front a necklace looked a bit weird. I just wore it with a small black and cream satchel and some black suede wedges.

What's your Christmas party dress of choice for this year? x

P.S. Motel do have 30% off their dresses at the moment - so if you're still looking for your party dress, just enter the code DRESSNOV30 at the checkout!

Oh hey,

Long time no see! I've been pretty absent from the old blogging world for a couple of weeks - I've been away on holiday, then since I've been back I've been busy with work, social stuff and trying to get all my Christmas shopping done! Josh keeps reminding me that he's bought all of his Christmas presents and wrapped most of them too - whereas I've only bought about half!

I've pretty much been living in similar outfits to the one above recently - hat, scarf and usually a few more layers on top. So nothing very exciting, but it's soooo coooold! I'm also showing off my new camera in the photo above, it's a Nikon D3100 and I've been having fun playing around with that and trying to take some half decent photos! I don't know how everyone feels about edits on photos, but I wasn't really feeling the photos in their original state so added some effects ha.

Anyway, I'll be back with some proper posts soon. How is everyone? What have you been wearing while it's been chilly? x

Kelly Brook makeup at New Look

Kelly Brook makeup from New Look*

I'm not a makeup snob or anything like that, I have a massive mix of both 'drugstore' and higher end makeup, but I haven't really ventured into makeup sold by clothing retailers before. They just don't immediately pop into my head as a place to buy makeup - but saying that, I've actually been pretty impressed with this Kelly Brook range so far!

In the last image, I'm wearing the blusher, the palest eyeshadow, the mascara and the lip gloss along with Estee Lauder DW light foundation, Rimmel pressed powder and Collection 2000 eyeliner. I'm going to do a separate post of the eyebrow kit and the nail varnishes :)

Blusher in 'Bardot Pink' - The packaging of this blusher is so cute, the lid is covered in polka dots and the signature Kelly Brook bow. There's a small brush concealed under the blusher, but I chose not to use this as it's pretty small and used my Real Techniques blush brush instead. The blusher isn't as pigmented as I'd like, so it took a little while to build up the kind of colour I like, but once on it stays put and has lasted all day. I really like the delicate pink colour, it's perfect for a hint of winter colour. 

Smoky Eyes palette - The greys and darker colours in this palette don't suit me at all so I used the pale, champagne-y colour. I love this shade, it's the type of colour I would usually go for in the daytime. It's actually surprisingly pigmented compared to the blusher and again it lasted all day with a tiny bit of creasing but nothing serious. 

Mascara - This was the item that I was most impressed with. The massive brush really separates the lashes and gives amazing length. It takes quite a few coats to get your lashes looking thick but that's fine, everyone does that anyway!

Lip Gloss - Finally, I don't usually wear lip gloss at all, but the colour of this is a gorgeous neutral daytime shade which isn't sticky! It actually felt like I was just wearing quite a heavy lipstick, usually the thought of sticky lip gloss puts me right off, so this is awesome :)

Have you ever tried any of the Kelly Brook makeup range, or any other makeup ranges by clothes retailers? x

Sorry about the massive image - I was a bit lazy and put it all together on Picmonkey - please let me know if it takes ages to load or anything and I'll sort it out. 

Like Santa, but in website form...

Ask Her Friends is a genius website especially designed to help your boyfriend/husband/dad/whoever choose the perfect gift. If you need to give someone a push in the right direction for Christmas, then this is the perfect tool!

Ask Her Friends lists a wide range of products, from makeup to music to mini-breaks! Most guys I know tend to prefer buying presents all from one place, they don't like to shop around, so this is the perfect one stop shop! The brands listed on Ask Her Friends covers everything you could possible want, there's OPI, Bobbi Brown, Clarisonic, Urban Outfitters, Topshop, Paperchase, Orla Kiely and loads more.

Not only is Ask Her Friends great for listing so many amazing brands and stores all in one place, it also gives the buyer the chance to create an 'Advice List'. This list can then be shared via Facebook or email with the recipient's family and friends, so they can advise, rate and comment on which of the shortlisted gifts would be loved the most.

If your gift buyer has no idea where to start, then they can get some help from the 'Idea Map'.

 Just answer the questions to suit the recipient and the Idea Map will give you some suggested gifts based on your answers - could it get any more helpful?! Well yes actually, there's a blog too with more ideas for the perfect gift :)

I would be so happy to receive loads of the items on this website, so instead of blatantly hinting about one gift to your boyfriend, point him towards Ask Her Friends and receive something unexpected, but perfect instead :)

*sponsored post 

JLS

My boyfriend, Josh, travels round the country doing various DJ gigs and running events, so I quite often get to tag along and join in the fun too! The picture above is an example of this from a couple of weeks ago, at a Freshers Ball, where we stumbled upon a meet and greet with JLS.

It was pretty funny, the queue to meet them was massive! People were just being shipped in for their photo, then shipped right off the other side of the stage - so much for meet and greet - it was just a 2 second photo then gone! I'm not really complaining though, I got to snuggle up to Marvin which I was quite happy about. Aston didn't seem to happy about this though and tried to get in on the action too haha. This is in no way intended to sound like I'm bragging (I'm not sure JLS are anything much to brag about anyway), I just wanted to show you guys what kind of things I get up to when not working or blogging!

My beloved leather knee-patch leggings, which I'm wearing in the photo above, died a sad death recently :( I think they got too hot in the tumble-dryer and one of the leather patches melted and stuck to itself :( does anyone know where I can get some replacements? They were originally from H&M, but it was soooo long ago when I got them.
I'm also not too sure about JB's trousers?! (I'm not going to lie, I did have to google it to find out his name :| oops) What are they?! Studded chino type things... weird!

We had rubbish acts at my Freshers Ball - I think it was Stavros Flatly and I can't remember who else :| - who was at yours? x

Lacy dress & ankle boots

Leather Jacket: H&M (kids shh) // Dress: H&M // Boots: Topshop (similar here)

And then the boys joined in...

Me & Pob // Josh thinks he's funny

This is a quick outfit post from a night out last weekend. It was Halloween weekend but we went out for a friend's leaving party, so didn't dress up. 

Apologies for the slightly wonky pictures, we had had a few (cough, aka many) drinks by the time these were taken. Then Pob and Josh decided they wanted to get in on the blogger posing haha. Cheeky! It was such a good night out, many hilarious things happened which probably shouldn't be broadcast on the internet, haha!

Anyway, outfits like this are my standard, easy to decide on, night out choices. I love wearing my ankle boots and frilly socks, they're so comfy! I'm not really a high heels person, I can barely walk in them sober let alone after a few drinks, so I tend to go for cute ankle boots instead. We also don't tend to go to 'normal' clubs, we usually end up in the slightly grubby gig venue type clubs instead - so heels aren't always suitable.

What's your standard night out outfit? Do you wear heels or prefer the comfy version like me? x

Models Own - Hot Stuff

Models Own - Hot Stuff - Mirrorball Collection

Ahmagad, it's a blog post from Emily. I've been reaaally bad at blogging recently, my excuse is that I've been feeling quite ill so just want to eat and get into bed when I get home from work and not sit at a computer for any longer. But anyway, hopefully I'll be feeling better soon and back on track with blogging :)

This is the second of the 3 Mirrorball nail varnishes I have - 'Hot Stuff'. I love the randomly shaped pink, gold and purple pieces of glitter in this nail varnish. There's large squares, triangles and small 'regular' pieces of glitter. The image above is not the neatest of nail varnish I've ever done but oh well haha. The nail varnish applies really easily and the glitter spreads out well which is always good. But as per usual with glitter varnishes, it's a nightmare to get off.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out and commented on my 'Camera Advice' post a while ago, I have decided to go for the Nikon D3100 DSLR camera :) I'm so excited to start playing with it! x 

Graduation Dress Wishlist

1 - 2 - 3

4 - 5 - 6

My University graduation is about a month away now and I'm still searching for the perfect dress. These dresses from House of Fraser are some I've had my eye on for a while. The first dress on the top row and the middle dress on the bottom row are my favourites, due to the neutral colours I think they'd go well with the crazy gown you have to wear! I'm really worried about the little hat too, I had to measure my head and put the size in online, but I'm worried I've measured wrong and it won't fit! Graduation is supposed to be relatively formal I think, so I'm not sure if the bodycon style would be completely appropriate but oh well! One of my other options is this Motel dress, which do you think would be best?

After the graduation ceremony I'm going out for a meal with mine and Josh's families at a restaraunt called The Story Teller. They do amaaaazing food, a combination of Mexican/Caribbean which sounds a bit weird but it's just yum. Despite me and Josh being together for nearly 2 years, this will be the first time our families have met! How weird is that - living opposite sides of the country has that effect sometimes haha. 

Which one of these dresses is your favourite? What did you wear, or what would you wear to graduation? x

*Edit (21st June 2013)* I have also featured a more recent Graduation dress wishlist here.

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Six Must Have Denims for 2012/2013

Denim is one of the most, if not the most, essential materials of any style-conscious individual’s wardrobe. Although when one thinks of denim, jeans immediately spring to mind in reality denim comes in many fashionable guises. In fact rarely a season goes by when denim, in one form or another, makes its way off the catwalk and into the high street.

If you’re keen to embrace the denim trends of the forthcoming season, check out these six must have denims for 2012/2013.

Cowboy Denim

The fashion trends of the 1950s that were inspired by the cowboy movies of the time are back with a vengeance for the 2012/2013 season. This year’s western-inspired denim is all about being flamboyantly adorned with embroidery, fringes and studs – straight out of the Wild West! 

1 - 2 - 3

Cropped Jeans

Cropped jeans are staying in the limelight for the 2012/2013 winter season. Similar to skinny jeans, cropped denim jeans that are cut below the knee, midway down the calf or just above the ankle, look fantastic with a variety of shoes, including killer high heels and flats. 

1 - 2 - 3

Coloured Denim of Earthy Tones

Since spring this year, coloured denim has been a key feature of the designer and high street stands. Although the lighter and pastel colours of the spring and summer have given way to darker and more autumnal hues of wine, plum, burgundy and brown, as long as its denim and earthy it’s in fashion!

1 - 2 - 3

Denim Jackets                                                                               

The fashion favourite of the 1990s is entering the limelight once again as denim jackets are a leading focus of the forthcoming season. This year’s denim jacket craze is all about wearing the jacket with layers and mixing it with items of clothing that aren’t conventionally associated with denim jackets. For example, wearing the jacket with a smart pair of trousers, a glamorous shirt or evening dress will look ultra chic.

 1 - 2

Double Denim

Whilst wearing double denim has traditionally been a definite fashion no-no, this season’s bold statement of mixing denim with virtually anything has meant a path has been opened for a double denim trend.

Experiment with mixing jeans with denim jackets, cut off denim shorts and even denim shirts to try your hand at this bold look.

Torn and Ripped Denim

It seems all the denim trends of forgone decades are making a comeback this season and none more so than the ripped and torn denim craze of the 80s. Torn denim, whether it’s a jacket, shorts, shirt or jeans is the ultimate symbol of a trendsetter for this season.

 1 - 2 - 3

What's your favourite denim trend? x

*This is a sponsored post.

Camera Advice

I'm looking to buy a DSLR camera but literally have no idea where to start. I'm using my mom's Nikon in the photo above and I'm tempted to buy the same one, but  just wondered if anyone had any beginners advice or recommendations for me?

I'm not planning on becoming a professional photographer, or anything even remotely close. I would be using the camera for nice holiday/general life photos, as well as using it for product and outfit shots for my blog. I don't need amazing effects or anything like that, just want good quality photos. :)

Can anyone think of a suitable camera for me? Which camera do you use? And what was your first DSLR? x

Models Own Mirrorball Collection - Boogie Nights

Models Own Mirrorball Collection - Boogie Nights

I'm sure you've all heard the hype around this Models Own collection, if not then where have you been?! Well, I caved into the hype and bought a couple of these polishes while they were still in stock online. Unfortunately they have now sold out online but I've heard they'll be in Boots stores around mid-October!

The Mirrorball collection contains a range of polishes with big chunks of glitter, in a variety of shapes and colours. Boogie Nights features pink, purple and blue shards of glitter. I applied the polish over the top of Models Own Purple Blue from the Beetlejuice collection (review/swatch here). I don't think this base colour was the best choice, as much as I love the two polishes separately, I don't think they work as well together as other colour combinations might. 

But anyway, I love Boogie Nights! The pictures don't do it justice but I just want to stare at my nails or the bottle and twizzle it like a kaleidoscope. I'm excited to try it over the top of other colours, or even just on it's own. I'm not so excited about trying to get it off though... why are glitter polishes so hard to remove?!

Have you tried any of the Mirrorball collection? Which colour would you pair Boogie Nights with? x

soup soup, tasty soup soup

Roasted red pepper and tomato soup by Nigella Lawson

So today's post is slightly different to the fashion/beauty posts I usually write. But I've had a bit of 'writer's block' recently and not really found myself drawn to blogging in the past week... until now, when I decided I wanted to write about soup (as you do).

Does anyone else find that some weeks you just don't really feel up to blogging? I've been feeling a bit under the weather the past week and have just wanted to eat and get into bed when I get home from work, so my blog has kind of taken a backseat. But I'll be back on track soon, I'm sure :)

Anyway, I made this soup at the weekend and it's pretty tasty if I may say so myself. I found the recipe on the Nigella Lawson website.

If you want to make this soup, you will need:
- around 800g ripe tomatoes (I didn't measure but guessed & used two packs of small vine tomatoes)
- 1 large onion (...or 2 small)
- 2 red peppers (I only had 1 red & one yellow... all these brackets show I'm not very good at following recipes)
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- salt & pepper
- vegetable stock

1. cut up the tomatoes, peppers and onions into large chunks and place in a roasting dish. Leave the garlic whole, in the skins and add to the roasting dish. Add salt and pepper.
2. pour the olive oil into the roasting dish and mix it all up, making sure everything is coated in oil.
3. cook at 200C for 30-45mins, until the veg is slightly charred.
4. make up the stock (I used OXO cube so followed the instructions on the box)
5. once the veg is cooked, pick the garlic out of the roasting dish and squeeze the insides out of the skins back into the dish.
6. add the stock and all the veg into a saucepan, then blend using a handheld blender. Make it as smooth or as chunky as you like :)
7. serve with some home-bake rolls.

This is the perfect soup for a cold autumn evening. Let me know if you try this recipe out, I hope you like it! x

Motel Wishlist & DISCOUNTS!

Top row (L-R) Motel Gabby Sequin Plunge Back Dress in Iridescent Green // Nala Peplum in White & Black Baroque // Zena Bodycon in Gothic Placement Print

Bottom Row (L-R) Tess Sheer Shirt with Cross Beads // Dana Off Shoulder Crop Top // Hillary Strapless Body with Cross Beads

Motel Rocks are running a promotion over the weekend (28th - 30th September) that I thought you guys would like to hear about! I bloody love Motel stuff, but I'm not going to lie, sometimes it is a bit pricey! They occassionally do pretty good discounts, so when I found out about this one I thought I'd spread the word :)

The images above are a selection of my current favourites and next to them are the prices with the discount applied :) I looove the Gabby Sequin dress, perfect for a bit more of a special night out. When I was typing that I was thinking about Christmas parties... but felt like I couldn't write that as it's still only September, argh haha! The off shoulder top is amazing too, I'm sure I had something similar when I was about 10 - retro or what!

Anyway, onto the good bit - discounts! This weekend Motel are running:

20% off tops and skirts with the code: PAYDAY1

25% off bottoms with the code: PAYDAY2

30% off dresses with the code: PAYDAY3

aaaand, there's free next day shipping for the weekend too! :)

I hope this is helpful to you all - I know I'm definitely going to be purchasing a few bits this weekend :)
What's your favourite Motel item at the moment? Are you going to buy anything? x

*This post isn't sponsored by Motel at all :) just wanted to share this promotion with you guys! x

Revlon - Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain - Darling

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Lip Balm Stain - Darling (longest name ever)

This is my favourite lip product at the moment, I think that's pretty good going by 'drug-store' brand Revlon, seeing as my normal fave lip product is my MAC lipstick in Creme Cup!

This is a pencil type stick by Revlon, which is very easy and smooth to apply, nourishing and long lasting! The packaging and actual colour of the product made me pretty wary at first, I didn't think I'd be able to pull off lilac/purple lips. But because it's a balm/stain, you can apply this product for as little or as much colour as you like! This is great for me, I love wearing a hint of lip colour in the daytime and something a bit more drastic at night - this is the perfect two in one product!

I didn't think that a product would work well as both a balm and a stain, because balms tend to wear off pretty quickly - however, the colour from this product does actually last! The balm side of the product is very hydrating and stays put for quite a while too! Overall, this product is great and I definitely need to pick up some more shades :)

Have you tried this? What did you think? x

P.s. I have been spamming (sorrrry everyone) every social media site at the moment with this Louboutin competition - but if you haven't already checked it out then you should! Who wouldn't want to win a classic pair of Louboutin heels?! x