A Handbag Headache!

With the weather having suddenly changed and being thrown into winter clothing I am finding many of my bags are a bit summery and have been cruising the web looking for an interim bag until I can buy my coveted satchel bag for the rest of winter!

I have spotted a few but I am so indecisive, let me know what you think!

I love this bag from Ollie and Nic, its a small satchel bag and is leather, I love the tooled design on the bag. I feel like it would be a classic bag I could use for a long time.

They also have it in teal

I am drawn to this one initially but I feel like the honey coloured one will go better with my teal and red coats. The best part is that they are half price from £70 to £35! 

I love this ditsy print doctors bag from River Island, its nice and big and I felt pretty multifunctional however I felt it was expensive for cord and polyurethane materials, its £44.99.

I love a bit of leopard print and I love this bag from Boden. Animal print is a big trend this winter and I thought this would look pretty cool with my red duffle coat. The sticking point for me is its £79.99 price its a tiny bag and I need a huge one!

Finally I am quite drawn to this jacquard carpet bag from ASOS. I don't mind a bit of granny chic but I'm not sure if it may be a fleeting trend. Its £36.

I think my faves are the Ollie and Nic bags but I can't decide on the colour!

What do you think?

xoxo

Spending Cash With Carl by H&M

Spending Cash With Carl literally glowed in the accessories area of my local H&M and it totally got my attention!

It really does gleam in the bottle and it translates on to the nail as well. I was blown away at how vibrant the colour was and how it was visible in natural light as well as inside.

I love the icy blue colour, this is two coats.

It costs £2.99, H&M recently launched their online store and although this particular colour isn't online yet, check out the other colours in their range here.

Jessica Muse Collection

Jessica have created a stunning new set of polishes for this season called the Muse collection.

The colours are totally on trend for this winter. Although the whole collection caught my attention I went for the two that stood out the most to me.

Victorian Crush

A wonderful shade of khaki olive green. I love this on, it feels like a really cool colour to be wearing, like a new neutral. 

I have nothing like it in my collection the only one I could find that was similar is Apple Tree Yard from Nails Inc.

Worn on the middle finger there you can see it has more blue in than Victorian Crush.

Bittersweet.

Now this was the one of all of them that I wanted the most! You have all heard about my obsession for brown polishes and this is totally the kind of thing I want! It's not the perfect one I am still looking for but I absolutely love it! It has a very tiny gold shimmer running through it that just catches the light and really glows.

They both applied beautifully, Jessica has such a great formula and although I don't have many I can highly recommend the brand. My first experience with Jessica was many years ago at a hotel spa in Bahrain, I purchased one polish back then and they have always been an intriguing brand to me. I really want to get more from them, certainly from the Muse collection and also the Naked collection.

I purchased these from feelunique.com who also deliver free worldwide.

xoxo

It's Love! ♥

Yay! I am so excited to have a new haircut!

I looove getting my hair trimmed, it makes me feel very refreshed and pretty again!

I suddenly had a day last week where I HAD to get my hair cut, almost there and then! I knew I wouldn't get an appointment with my normal hair God Simon at Toni & Guy, he gets booked up weeks ahead so I plucked up the courage to try somewhere new.

I have had many appointments where I have cried the moment I stepped outside the salon so trying a new one made me very nervous!

I had a stylist recommended at a salon next to work so I booked for last Friday. I just told her that I wanted the same but shorter! 

Et voila!

Holy moly I love it!

I have been wanting to trim my fringe for ages so she did that too, she knew exactly what would suit me and I almost cried, tears of joy this time, when she showed me the back with the mirror! I have had this kind of style before and I have always loved it but I felt I wanted to grow my hair. However I have very fine hair, but there is a lot of it, as soon as it gets past my shoulder it goes limp and lifeless, alas I will never have Kardashian style locks *sheds a tear*

So a huge thanks to Amy at Michael John for my new look, I love it!

Some slightly dodgy shots for you!

xoxo

My Inspiration for Autumn Fashion ♥

I think its obvious I'm looking forward to getting cozy this autumn, don't get me wrong I don't want to say goodbye to the summer, its my other favourite time of the year!

I love using polyvore.com. Its a great way to have fun mixing clothes from different stores or coming up with something you would never wear! 

I did one recently and this is definitely what I'm feeling for the upcoming season.

My Inspiration for Autumn by Hannah Wright featuring Monsoon dresses

OMG I love it!

xoxo

Autumn Polishes - Portland Place by Nails Inc

Wow! I love this colour!

Its a peacock, teal colour and very unusual. The only shade of its kind in my collection. 

As with all Nails Inc, two coats applied exceptionally with an incredible shine. Wear is excellent too.

I love to pair this with opposite colours like purple and pink, or tone it with browns. Almost all of my winter wardrobe is made up of these colours and my all time favourite pair of tights are this colour, so I will be wearing this polish a lot this year!

xoxo

Autumn Polishes - Chinchilly by Essie

Chinchilly is from Essie's Cuddle with Colour 2009 collection. I'm sure many of you have this polish as it was one of the must haves from the collection.

It's a light grey colour that can have olivey tones to it. It depends what you put it next to and how many coats you do! I did two and it stayed more grey, if you did three obviously it becomes darker and starts to take on those olive tones.

Also this picture was taken outside.

You may have heard that Essie tend to have good and bad polishes. Good ones are two coaters, no streaks, dries evenly. Bad ones are three or even four coats, streaks, cuticle drag and long drying times. This is a good one, the formula is nice, no streaks when applying and it wears well. You can use only two coats if you want to keep the lighter colour.

I love these kind of dusky drab colours, I think they are very chic and quite noticeable when on the nail. 

I'm always drawn to Essie as a brand despite the inconsistency in formula. I love the images they use for the collections and I love that they have recently changed their colour palette to include more unique shades, which seems to be proving very successful for them.

xoxo

Autumn Polishes - British Racing Green by Butter London

Butter London do some lovely polishes. 

This is one of their signature colours, one of the ones they are known for!

As with all of the Butter polishes I have tried they apply very well, this was two coats, and they look beautiful however I find the wear to be disappointing for such a high end brand. They are £12 each, apart from Chanel, that's the most I've paid for a polish.

It's redeeming feature is the colour itself. It has tiny glitter in it which subtly catches the light and the green colour is stunning. Very much like a little MG sports car!

When I wear it it makes me want to run through leaves in a plaid wool skirt and boots and a cable knit hat!

Calm down, its only nail polish!

xoxo

OOTD!

I'm sorry for the slightly overexposed piccy but I loved my outfit today so thought I'd share anyway!

♥ White linen trousers from Laura Ashley

♥ Red stripy top from H&M

♥ Skull scarf from Miss Selfridge

♥ Bangles from Accessorize

♥ Gold flats from Accesorize

I never wear trousers and these and an identical brown pair are the only trousers I have! I have only worn them twice! I will wear this combo again soon!

♥♥♥♥

Wild Nails!

An experimental nail art that I have grown to love!

Leopard print on pink!

WARNING this is a toe shot!

Only click to enlarge the picture if you are brave! But you will see the polish better!

I used OPI Pink Flamenco, Orly Luxe and Chanel Black Satin and used the same technique I used for my finger nails in this previous post!

Tacky I know but I really like it! I'll try this on my fingers soon!

xoxo

Bag Obsession!

It's about time I got myself a new handbag! 

A huge trend for this season will be a satchel bag. I have always loved this style but never really seen one that I like so never committed to buying one. I will be buying one for sure this winter!

I want one with a handle on the top as I can't wear across the body for too long as they really hurt my shoulder! I definitely want a tan coloured one, it's my fave colour for a classic bag, and I think its nicer than black.

There are loads of great ones around in the shops. The ultimate satchel for me would be the stunning Mulberry Alexa, but at £650 its not an everyday purchase!

If I could I'd buy this bag without a second thought! I love Mulberry and I think this design will be a future classic just like their Bayswater bag, which I 'd love too!

The one I think I will go for is from Ollie & Nic

I love the colour and the style of the bag and its a fairly reasonable price at £90.

I've always wanted a bag that I could have forever that ages well but softens with age and looks weathered but stylish. I have a few Ollie and Nic bags and I used to buy their fabric bags a lot, they were a good price and quite unusual as they were not a well known brand. I think people are more aware of them but they are not everywhere. They have a few shops now up and down the country but they also have a website. 

There are loads of great tan coloured satchels around, here are a few more

I love bright coloured bags too and this one from ASOS caught my eye too,

I love the colour, how cool would it look with a black coat and boots! Its £70.

Do you like the style of these bags or are they a bit too school like for you?

xoxo

Nail Polish Haul!

OPI have recently released their newest polishes with the Swiss collection.I loved this collection from when I first saw the promo pictures months ago!

Anyway, as soon as it went up on Transdesign I put my order in along with a couple of others I had my eye on! Here's what I bought!

My most anticipated colour, Ski Teal We Drop. I love it! Its a fairly dark colour but you know its teal, I hate it when they look black! 

I have a couple of polishes in my collection that are similar if you can't get hold of this. 

Not much difference in this picture, in person Nails Inc Portland Place is more green but No7 Totally Teal is almost identical apart from maybe being a teeny bit lighter and needing three coats instead of two.

In the bottle you can see more of a difference.

Diva Of Geneva. A colour I didn't expect to buy, but after seeing swatches on the big polish sites I loved the jewel colour of this. Seriously its stunning when its on. I would have passed it by if I had only seen it in the bottle you need to wear it to get the true colour. It's amazing outdoors in the sunlight too.

Cuckoo For This Color. Again another I didn't expect to purchase. I'm not a huge fan of frosted metallic polishes, not sure why but I prefer creams. Like Diva Of Geneva it really comes into its own when you wear it. The shimmer in the polish is very noticeable and eye catching, I loved the shade of green it reminds me of a peacocks feather!

Color So Hot It Berns is a very bright tomato red. It's really bright! I love these colours but it is very, very similar to Comet Loves Cupid that OPI brought out at Christmas. You don't need both.

Really the same, to my eye Comet Loves Cupid is the tinyest bit darker.

The same I'm sure!

Not from the Swiss collection but a polish I had wanted for a long time, Over The Taupe. In my insatiable thirst for nude, browns and taupes I had to add it to my collection! I do love it but it is identical to Essie Mink Muffs.

I can hardly see a difference other than Mink Muffs, in person, is a fraction darker but no-one would ever notice if you wore both on one hand!

As with all from the collection and as standard with OPI flawless application and formula and I expect it to wear very well.

Finally not to be forgotten, China Glaze Recycle. I have eyed this colour up for a long time, I thought it would be a good one for this winter. I really like it on, it'll be lovely in the winter with red and I though it would look quite classy with black for work.

Well, those should see me through! 

Yeah right!!

xoxo

Autumn Polishes - Brownie by Sephora

I may be a little premature starting this but I thought I would do some swatches of the colours I will be reaching for this autumn. I know its only August but its hard not to think of Fall when the AW clothes are in the shops and the fashion mags are featuring new AW 10 collections!

Brownie by Sephora

I adore brown shades on my nails. It seriously makes me happy!

I am still searching for the perfect brown, not too light or too dark, no pinky or red tones, I'm hoping it will appear this season as browns seem to be in many new nail varnish collections.

I purchased this in France, so I'm sorry to all the UK girls, I know we are so frustrated we have no Sephora!

This was two coats, it applied so nicely. No streaks or cuticle drag, which can often happen with dark colours and you get a lighter streak at the bottom the nail.

My brush has a few wayward fibres which meant a little bit of tidying up to do. This is the only polish I have from them so I don't know if that is common, could be a rogue! 

Do you have any milky chocolate brown suggestions for me?!

xoxo

Going to the Dark side!

Since coming back from holiday I have noticed a lot of the Autumn fashions and makeup collections around in the shops.

All of these warm wintery colours are making me crave dark polishes!

Seriously I am becoming obsessive!

I have my fair share of dark polishes all ready but have only worn them a handful of times. I like to wear bright light colours especially in the summer!

My predictions for the winter will be that dark polishes will be huge and I think they will come in many shades not just the usual plum and black.

Navy

Chocolate

Khaki

Steel

Mulberry

Teal

These are some of the colours I expect to be wearing this winter and I'm excited!

On a polish swatching picture binge last night, I decided to seekout Essie's A/W 2010 collection to see if any announcements had been made!

Success!

This is Essie's Fall for Fashion 2010 collection. I love it!

In Stitches – cheeky blush pink

Limited Addiction – Racy Garnet red

Sew Psyched – soft sage pewter

Merino Cool – sensuous autumn mulberry

Velvet Voyeur – intense chocolate amethyst

Little Brown Dress – beguiling black coffee

It has some of the colours I have predicted and some are named after fabrics that will be everywhere in winter fashion like velvet and merino wool.

They will be available from September.

Thanks to Chic Profile for the info!

What do you think of my predictions? Am I right? Will you be wearing these colours?

xoxo

My First MAC Palette!

I finally depotted my MAC shadows! 

Look how pretty!

I clearly like browns and neutrals!

From L-R

♥ Retrospeck

♥ Patina

♥ Mulch

♥ Tempting

♥ Sumptuous Olive

♥ Woodwinked

♥ Honesty

♥ Satin Taupe

♥ Silver Ring

♥ Forgery

♥ Swimming

♥ Humid

♥ Pink Venus

♥ Can't remember! It was from a recent collection!

♥ Creme De Violet

I have few more but I need another palette!

xoxo

L'Occitane Verbena Shower Gel

This shower gel smells so delicious I could drink it up!

L'Occitane's Verbena Shower Gel may only be a simple shower gel but I am totally obsessed with it!

It has a wonderful scent and smells very citrusy, its a very strong scent however I don't find it lasts on the skin. The powerful fragrance really wakes you up in the morning!

It leaves my skin soft and I have no reaction to it, I often do with shower gels.

There is a whole range of Verbena products from L'Occitane and I would be very interested in trying them out, including the fragrance in the range. Heres the link! The shower gel costs £12.50.

I like L'Occitane as a brand, they often use organic ingredients where possible and use sustainable resources. They also used recycled packaging. They even use recycled furniture in their offices and an electric car for journeys between factories!

Blue My Mind by H&M

I have nearly bought this colour from H&M so many times! It's so vivid it all ways catches my eye when I'm shopping.

I have to admit I'm a bit of a nail polish snob and prefer the well known brands, however I threw my snobbery out of the window and put in my basket!

I love it! It's such a bright blue, I have nothing like it!

It applied well, this was two coats and it only cost £2.99! I'll see how it wears then I may check out some of the other colours in the range.

xoxo

Wedding Outfit Update!

A little while ago I posted about a dress and shoes I wanted to wear for a wedding party.

Well the wedding was last weekend and I thought I'd show you my outfit on!

Shona looked stunning! 

The dress is from Monsoon Fusion, I had to wear leggings as it was too short for me, I was worried that the leggings would make it too casual but it didn't and I didn't have to worry about flashing anyone! 

I saved the pink shoes for the wedding and I absolutely love them! Perfect height, perfect colour and I felt glam in them! Everyone loved them!

I had only got back from holiday the day before so my tan was good and looked amazing on my legs with the pink shoes!

I took a black beaded clutch also from Monsoon and wore a pink Swarovksi bracelet with earrings in the same colour.

I wore my usual face make up but used Humid eyeshadow to pick out the green in my dress and I wore Lady GaGa lipstick. I had Nails Inc Shoreditch on my nails which is a hot pink similar to the shoes.

I had such a fab night and I felt really glam! 

Congratulations to Shona and Owen too!

xoxo

Holiday Polishes

While I was packing for my little holiday my biggest dilemma, apart from taking too many clothes, was choosing which polishes to take! 

I couldn't take too many but I couldn't rule too many out!

This was my final selection.

I think I covered all bases!

However I have to admit I only wore a couple of them! 

I went wearing OPI You Don't Know Jaques so took the bottle for top ups and repairs. I wore that for a few days until I got paint all over my hands from decorating the house!

Then I switched to OPI Shorts Story. Its such a pretty pink and it goes/tones/clashes nicely with so many if my clothes. When I say clashes I mean, I had a turquoise top on so the pink is opposite but in a good way!

Then finally I used OPI Hot and Spicy to travel home in!

I only changed my toe polish once. I wore Nails Inc Spring Mews almost the whole time!

Again it tones or clashes with the taupe and the pink I wore and looked fab with my pink Birkenstocks that I wore loads!

I only changed it on the last day to Number Seven 60's Mini Skirt, the cream colour, to go with the orange of the Hot and Spicy.

Well that was my holiday in nail varnish form! I thought I'd be more inclined to change my polish but I wasn't!

What would be your holiday polish must haves?

xoxo

OOTD!

Hey! A little OOTD for you!

A simple outfit but I love it!

White Skirt from Monsoon

Blue Tee, Navy Vest and Floral scarf all from H&M, and purchased today!

Silver bangle.

Gold bangle from Accessorize.

I love the colours together, quite summery, and I love the vintage style scarf!

The tail belongs to Bramble, not me!