Weekend Wear: Garden Party Getup

The sun came out this weekend (and he's still here!) and The Boy and I were invited to our first barbecue/ garden party of the summer. Never one to shy away from a theme I decided to dress in what I am now calling my Garden Party Getup - featuring lots of florals, GIANT sunglasses and a straw hat!

The dress is actually the Only White Dress I Own - and even at that, it isn't completely white. It's adorned with big yellow flowers and has a heart-shaped cutout on the chest. Sound familiar? I was in love with this dress from the Luella (RIP!) Spring/ Summer 2010 collection, but when I was unable to get one I discovered this shameless ripoff 'inspired by' frock from good old Florence + Fred at Tesco (DING!) at a fraction of the price. I'm not sure which one was responsible for creating such a good knockoff, but my money's on Fred.

A couple of years ago I bought these sunglasses from TK Maxx. They're Vivienne Westwood and a really pretty pink/ purple colour. They were £14 and even came with a proper Westwood case to store them in - I love how treasure hunting at TK Maxx can totally pay off! Even though I had just bought another pair of VW sunglasses about a week previous (AT FULL RRP, who's idea was that?! Probably mine, whoops) I still couldn't resist adding these to my ever-growing collection of sunnies and wear them the most.

OK, so the straw hat. I know, it all looks a bit like the part in Mary Poppins when they all jump into the picture - but I think it looks really Summer-y and I never get the opportunity to wear it since I appear to be in a wind tunnel at all times. And the hat was an even bigger bargain than the sunglasses - it was a mere 50p from Primark! When I had the hat and dress on together I wanted to carry a croquet mallet around as an accessory and find some penguins to dance with a la Bert from Mary Poppins. That didn't happen, but I did listen to old pop songs in the back garden with family and friends and eat lots of yummy food so it was still an awesome day (despite the lack of dancing penguins).

Finally, with sunny skies and little chance of rain, I wore my little Marc Jacobs-esque mouse flats from Primark. I know that these shoes will surrender at the first sign of water so I'm trying to wear them on dry days only. They are so adorable though, and an affordable alternative to the Marc Jacobs/ Charlotte Olympia animal flats that I covet so much.

What did you wear this weekend? Did you get out and enjoy the sunshine? Have you ever felt the urge to dance with some penguins?

Thanks for reading! 

PS: I've linked this post up to the lovely Melaina's blog -  you can check out her What I Wore Wednesday feature here and maybe even get involved yourself!

Beauty Bites: US Drugstore Haul

On my holiday blog post, I mentioned that I had bought some make-up and beauty products while in Florida. I thought I would split my hauls into two separate posts: what I picked up at drugstores such as Walgreens and Wal-mart, and then I will post separately about the goodies I bought at Sephora. In this post I will summarise my drugstore haul. WARNING: This is a pretty long post by my standards and a lot of make up chat!

Before going on holiday I had made an unofficial list of products that I have read about on some of my favourite overseas blogger babes' and beauty reviewers pages and wanted to try for myself. Normally when I go on holiday I try to take advantage of the lower prices on brands such as MAC and Benefit, but for this trip I decided to focus on brands that are difficult to get in the UK. If I really want that new MAC lipstick, at least I know I can get it in town but there are some things that I can't just stroll into Boots or Frasers and pick up. So as tempting as it was to get some cheaper high-end goodies or some new Revlon Lip Butters, I decided to stick with the harder-to-get products.

I would say that the biggest of my drugstore hauls came from Wal-mart. Not only did I find their prices better than Walgreens, but they had products that were exclusive to their store and I really liked their range. The first brand that I went to look at was Flower, a cruelty-free cosmetics line by Drew Barrymore that promises the quality of a high-end make up brand at an affordable price. I have a lot of love for Ms B as it is, so I was keen to see her new collection of make up and pick up a few things. I would say that Flower (also the name of Drew's film production company, fun fact) offers a lot of choice when it comes to foundations, concealers, BB creams and powders. There seemed to be lots of different textures and coverages to choose from. I knew that I was likely to buy a lot of make-up on this trip so limited myself to only a few things from each brand. I decided on a bottle of About Face foundation in shade LF2 and a Lip Service lip butter in Tempting Tulip. I haven't tried the foundation yet but the lip butter is a nice, non-sticky formula with the option to build a deeper colour.

I next hit the Covergirl area. We don't have this brand in the UK but anyone that has ever watched America's Next Top Model or read important US magazines will be familiar with the 'Easy, Breezy, Beautiful' tagline and celebrity faces representing the company. In fact, Drew Barrymore was a previous face of Covergirl (do I see a pattern forming here?) . The selection of Covergirl products is MASSIVE - picking out a couple of things is always a hard task when there are lots of nice things to choose from! I opted for the new Outlast Stay Fabulous 3-in-1 foundation, concealer and primer as I had read rave reviews about it declaring it as UH-MAY-ZING and was curious to try it for myself. I bought the shade in ivory, one of the palest shades from the broad spectrum of colours available.

I had only looked at two brands and already picked up two foundations - this is very unlike me as I am a creature of habit when it comes to foundation (normally darting between Soap & Glory's Show Good Face and Benefit's Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow foundations, and no-one else ever gets a look in). But both of the foundations I chose do look high quality and get excellent reviews so I look forward to trying them both.

From Covergirl I also decided to pick up a tube of their newest mascara, called Flamed Out. This has just been launched recently and Pink is the face of the product. It is described as being able to deliver bold lashes that 'curve up and out' so as someone that wants the eyes of a Disney character (not asking too much, am I?) I look forward to seeing if this mascara delivers the goods. The last Covergirl product I picked up was some Clean pressed powder. I haven't tried any of the Covergirl goodies as yet but look forward to it.

Remember Hard Candy? I used to love Hard Candy! Their cute packaging and bright colours made them a favourite of mine as a teenager. And then one day they were gone from the shelves! I re-discovered them a few years back, rebranded and stocked exclusively in Wal-mart. Now, this line is really inexpensive so it's easy to go a little nuts if you aren't careful! I have bought some of their lipstick (meh) and blusher (awesome) in previous years so decided to try out some of their Sheer Envy primer and All Glossed Up lip stain in Pout (their lip stain is a similar idea to a Clinique Chubby Stick). So far I've tried the lip stain, and while it has little staying power is does deliver a hydrating shine with a pop of colour so I still quite like it.On a second trip to the make-up aisles of Wal-mart (OOPS) I treated myself to some of Hard Candy's nail polish but I will write a separate review of that one!

The next brand that I looked at was ELF. Ah, ELF - holy grail of the bargain lover and urban legend to many. Now, I am aware that you can buy ELF online in the UK but I sometimes like to see things (especially make-up) for myself before buying online. ELF (Eyes, Lips, Face) aim to provide studio-quality make-up at extremely low prices - all products are between $1 and $3. Like Hard Candy, the low prices make it easy to toss loads into your trolley and think about it later. I was trying to be considerate of what I was buying though, so settled on a lip stain (this one was more the marker-pen consistency that I'd normally expect) in Pink Petal, an eyelid primer, a concealer stick (have used it a few times and it's fine so far), an all-over colour stick in Pink Lemonade (I really like this product after a couple of uses) and an eyeshadow brush (I've still to use it properly but it feels like nice quality).

Finally, I indulged my lip balm obsession and picked up an EOS ball in Summer Fruit (yum but not pictured - you can see what it looks like here), pomegranate flavoured Carmex (double yum) and Yes To Carrots chapstick in mint. I've tried all three of these so far and they are all great. I especially love the dome shape of the EOS lip balm, it's quite unique to what we have in the UK.

I'm really happy with my US drugstore beauty haul - I'm looking forward to trying all of it!

Have you tried any of these products? Which is your favourites? Any US drugstore goodies that you'd recommend?

Thanks for reading!

Sale-ing through January

Shortly after Christmas (or, in the last few years, shortly before Christmas), people start to get excited about the sales. You would think that due to the shopping frenzy in the run-up to Christmas, people would be sick of the sight of shops and want to avoid them for a while. Of course we don't. It's just like that quote from The Godfather, "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in".

It's amazing how huge red signs in shop windows can convince people that getting out of bed at 7AM (and that's if you're not planning on hitting the Next sale) is a good idea. I do enjoy a good sale, but I enjoy my bed too and this year I was especially enjoying spending time with our families. Which is why I didn't even consider hitting any sales until 29th of December. By then, most hardened sale veterans will argue that "most of the good stuff is gone", and that may be true for the most part but I still did OK. 

I wasn't looking for much this year, I wanted a cape and managed to get it, anything else was a bonus. So now  I am here writing the "here's what I got in the sales" blog.

In October 2010 I blogged about capes having a fashion moment and have fancied one ever since. Last year I had my eye on a little fur-trimmed H! By Henry Holland number, but sadly never got round to buying it. In the long run, I'm quite glad I didn't now, as I would have had less scope to buy this beauty by Monsoon in their sale:

Leo hooded cape, £42.50 (was £85) by Monsoon 

 I had spotted this cape while it was full price. With its buckle fastenings and fuzzy leopard-lined hood, it was everything I wanted in a cape. As soon as it went in the sale, I was declaring (in full Wayne Campbell mode) "it will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine". Slashed at 50% off, this was my main sale purchase.

Next up was a trip to Topshop. A quick scan of the clothes rails and my interest wasn't really piqued enough to keep rummaging. There was no chance of me squeezing into a size 6 and that's always what's left in the things I like when I go to Topshop sales, however I notoriously do much better shopping for accessories in Toppers. This year was no exception: I managed to get £54 worth of swag for a mere £11. Not bad at all!

I am a huge fan of cute slipper-style flats, Topshop has really produced an excellent line in them (currently in love with Topshop's Vectra3 studded slippers). I managed to bag these bad boys for a fiver (reduced from £20):

 Wink slipper-style flats, £5 (were £20) by Topshop

I love them, but with their velvety finish I will need to wait until this horrible weather dries up to wear them. I also stocked up on 3 pairs of Topshop's colour pop cotton mix tights in green, blue and pumpkin colours. These were all reduced from £8 each to £1 each, hurrah!

The Topshop haul concluded with a little bit of homeware. I picked up this little guy; he is a candle, but I won't be lighting him. After you give them a name it's much too painful to see them melt, and he goes with my Ben de Lisi dog table lamp anyway:

 Bulldog candle, £3 (was £10) at Topshop

I managed to get some bargainous candles elsewhere that I was quite happy to light (Yankee Candles reduced to 59p and 89p in Clinton Cards of all places). Finally, not one to be outdone, The Boy managed to do pretty well himself in the sales too! He scored a denim victory over at Urban Outfitters, after scoring two pairs of jeans - one pair of Levi's and one pair of Lee jeans - for an impressive £40 all in. Both pairs would have cost £150 total at full price so it was high-fives all round.

I will no doubt pick up one or two other bits and pieces over the next few weeks. Even though I kept my sale shopping to a minimum this year, I'm still pretty happy with what I got.

What did you get in the sales?