Pin-curling and charity shopping!

Since it was the Easter holidays I have been to Brighton. I've really found myself missing Brighton since I moved back to the south. I think its because I'm so close, but 2 hours on a bus is just a bit too far for me to bother with a day trip so I'm really glad to be back for a bit.

One of the reasons I was so happy to visit again was to go shopping! During my time in Brighton I've managed to find a small selection of favourite shops that always have some good bargains. Perticular favourites include Snooper's Paradise in the North Laines and the charity shops around George street in Hove (especially Age UK and Oxfam).

This trip was not exception with some wonderful bargains to be had (thank you birthday money!)

I had also arranged with a friend to go out dancing on Monday night so I whacked up my hair in wet set pin curls to let it dry out (I also spritzed with a little setting lotion).

A few people asked me how I did this so I tried to take a picture of my hair...

I also included some pictures of how I style my hair too:

1. Once it was dried I took the curls out - picture top left
2. Then ran my fingers through to loosen up the curls - top right
3. Then used a paddle brush to brush through the curls - bottom left
4. And kept brushing until the curls smoothed out, I think added a little clip at on side - bottom right

And here is the finished look! Sorry its so yellow, the lighting in the hallway was terrible...

The dress in this picture is the Hobbs dress I got in a charity shop in Hove, it was an amazing find especially as such a flattering fit and one of my favourite colours! 

Dress: Hobbs via AgeUK

Cardigan: Monsoon sale

Scarf: Lush gift wrap

Shoes: Hotter

Glasses: Lipsy25 via eBay

 I finally think I'm getting there with this vintage setting thing, I just wish that my hair didn't fall out so quickly, but I'm looking into ways to help make it last a bit longer so watch this space!

Outfit of the day: Blue and yellow on a windy day

It was my birthday recently and a very well timed Monsoon sale meant that I could get my hands on a lovely tea dress for a bargain price.

This dress is a gorgeous navy crepe with a crochet neckline. Since the colour combination of choice at the moment is blue and yellow I wore the blue dress with this yellow crochet cardigan that I got in the Monsoon sale around this time last year. The neck scarf came from Lush and was wrapped around a gift once upon a time (the best kind of gift wrap).

I wore this outfit for a mini picnic near the sea front at Whitburn near-ish to my home town. It was a glorious day, but boy was it windy!

My feet look a little bit like they are buried in the grass, but look how lush it looks! I love spring, it really brings out the vibrant colours in nature.

I wouldn't say I completely hate the windswept look, however I do think it makes me look a bit like medusa...

I went for a slightly different make up look this time too - slightly more subtle with a rosy lip.

Do you like to be beside the seaside?

Costume Review: Pirate costume cosplay

Last weekend one of my friends had a birthday party. It was no ordinary birthday party however, it was a pirate-themed-murder-mystery AND fancy dress was mandatory. Now that is my kind of party!

Anywho, the timing of said party was pretty poor unfortunately as it fell just after a a trip to my parents to pick up a bunch of housey stuff. So with that, a 9 hour car journey and unpacking I really didn't have the time to make a costume.

But fortunately for me Kent based Mega Fancy Dress came to my rescue when they agreed to send me a costume and wig of my choice to review**. Even better, they had a great selection of Pirate outfits! Pirate seems to be an increasingly common party theme so there is a huge range of pirate costumes out there from wenches to captains, form skirts to trousers and even the odd sexy pirate...

My character for the party was Jean Golddust, the town gold dealer, so I needed a look that was slightly less stripy t-shirt and cutlass and more like a land loving lady.

                              

Here is the look I went for:

I managed a fair bit of success during the night. As the town gold dealer I knew a fair number of secrets and was able to sell quite a bit of information to the town governor and grave digger, meaning I finished the night having tripled my pirate dosh. Although, I suppose that's to be expected with the town gold dealer.

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Anywho, what did I think of the costume?!

Well one of the issues I know a lot of people have with bought costumes is that they never look like the advertised pictures.

So for reference here is the promo image from the Mega Fancy Dress website (and the item is here):

And here is my finished look:

I think it actually turned out quite well! Overall I would say I was very pleased with the costume, it was a sized costume (in a 12-14) which meant that it fit quite well! It was a fairly simple dress with a corset style bodice that fitted over the top and the dress section was great, I especially liked the fact that there was a black frilly lining under the skirt so that it could look like a petticoat. 

The bodice part was not quite as good, it was a sort of foam at the front with a stretchy polyester back portion. I know this is used to give a better, more generic fit, bit it meant that the costume could look a little cheap from the back. I'm sure no one looks that closely though.

Having the stretchy bodice did mean that there were customisable options to the costume so that you could ensure the best fit. The bodice was okay, I suppose you could lace it up slightly more open on the top of bottom depending on your shape (something I would have done in hindsight). 

But my favourite customisable option was the skirt length.The straps on the bodice attach to laces hidden underneath the skirt so that you can pull it as hitched or as long as you want. I really loved this detail as I am not a fan of the super short skirts you often get in bought costumes and it meant that I could wear the skirt slightly hitched but still preserve some dignity... although I did wear this outfit on a bus, in the daylight...

I really loved the skirt!

Sadly the headband that was meant to come with costume was missing in the packet. I managed to make do by stealing a bandanna from a local treasure hunter though to tame the wild and wavy locks provided for me by the showgirl wig.

The wig was a bit cheap looking up close, but I expected that based on the price of £8.99, but it did the job especially with the bandanna over the top. It was actually surprisingly comfortable as it was just elastic underneath meaning it was pinned with a few pins but it didn't did into my head the way some more fitted wigs can. Always a bonus.

Anywho, that's about it for pirateyness, it think I made an okay pirate... ish. What do you think?

**Full disclosure: I was sent the costume and wig to review free of charge. All thoughts expressed in this review are my own.

Thrifty Outfit: A blue monsoon floral dress and a mustard cardigan

I went charity shopping for summer dresses the other week. My excuse is that since I've gained a bit of weight I needed to buy new summer clothes, but I think that may have been just that, an excuse. But when you're on a thrifty hunt, especially at this change of season, there are lots of bargains to be had.

One such find was a lovely 50s style prom dress from Monsoon that I wanted some time ago and had just about forgotten about. I think the print on it is absolutely gorgeous so floral, but without being overly light in colour like so many summer dresses can be. The fact that is was only £5 in a charity shop was the icing on the cake!

I wore the dress with a mustard yellow cardigan that helped to pick out the yellow details on the dress print (and the daffodils!). Although I have to say that I'm not so sure about the fit of this cardigan, upon reflection, I think a more fitted shape with this dress. 

As its not quite summer yet, I chose to wear blue tights so my legs didn't get cold and I wore shoes from Hotter. Yes, Hotter, I laughed so much when I found these blue t bars, I thought finally, I'm an old lady buying comfortable shoes. But then I thought again, and remembered that I've been buying Clarks for so many years that I've been an old lady on the shoe front for a very long time.

Unsurprisingly, the shoes are super comfy and they aren't so unfashionable. In fact I think they are pretty good for a vintage inspired look.

Just to maximise the florals I also took my Yoshi satchel. I'm so obsessed with satchels. I've had this one a few years now and its lasting super well.

I also wore my current favourite pair of glasses. I've been lusting over the Lipsy25s on Tesco's opticians website ever since Retro Chick posted her review some time ago. I managed to snipe this pair and a pink pair off eBay for £15! I did have to get them reglazed with my prescription but the website perfectglasses did that for me for £7.50 and they did a perfect job!

It meant it was a bit of a faff to get hold of them, but I saved a good £70 on the glasses so I can't really complain...

...also, they're AMAZING!

Really one of the antique shops on the street at Tunbridge Wells had some large mirrors outside so I couldn't help but take a silly quick snap.

This one was rather weird as it was a long line mirror sitting on the floor. I ended up with a weird shot of my husbands and my feet.

I want to leave you with this lovely view of the road near my flat. Look at that sky!

Dress: Monsoon via Hospice in the Weald

Cardigan: Topshop via eBay 

Glasses: Lipsy via eBay/perfectglasses 

Tights:  Accessorize sale

Shoes: Hotter

Have you managed to find and summer dresses in charity shops?

Disney Princesses as fashion icons through the years

Just a quick post today, I've recently seen a lot of images of Disney Princess in various forms, but this one struck a chord with me as I think it is one of the greatest pieces of fan art ever!

1: This picture was made by Baelor on Deviant-art - WOW!
2: Ariel is closest to the year I was born but I prefer the clothing of Cinderella
3: How lucky was I to be young in the early 90s with all those amazing Disney princesses?

I think this image makes for great inspiration and I think one day I'd like to have a go at all of these outfits!

I hope you like the image too, check out https://www.facebook.com/bealorART for more of her pictures, they are amazing!

Outfit of the Day: Spring in my step with a Cath Kidston dress

Is that spring I sense in the air? I hope so, I'm starting to get a little bit sick of winter tights.

Anywho, with a bit of nice weather my husband and I decided to go for a stroll about town while the gettin' was good.

For said stroll I decided to wear a lovely Cath Kidston tea dress I got from eBay a couple of weeks ago. I've never seen this style of dress before in CK and it was a bit more up my street than the usual tunic style peter pan collar dresses that are really popular.

Of course I bought it second hand for less than half the RRP.

It was super nice to be able to go out without a coat on too! The shoes were from Clarks last year and have lasted surprisingly well for ballet pumps. I was quite impressed. They have a little more cushioning than usual so they don't make me feet ache as much as the cheap ones tend to.

Look at this picture, there are actual SUN RAYS caught on film!

Last but not least is a make up close up (check out part of my fringe with a mind of its own in the wind!). I have been using MAC make up for a while now so managed to save up 6 empty things and I finally tried taking them into the shop to exchange for my free lipstick.

I chose the shade Dangerous as its a bit more of an orange tone than my usual Ruby Woo and I thought it would be nice for spring. It isn't quite as matt as Ruby, but it is pretty matt and it is by far the best orangey red I've ever tried.

What do you think?

Dress: Cath Kidston, via eBay

Shoes: Clarks

Pearls: Thrifted

Sunglasses: North Laines Brighton

 Can you feel spring in the air?

Charity shop find: A vintage Jaeger skirt

I have been looking for a tan/camel skirt for a while. It has been a bit of a difficult one to find, I don't know why, it just seems that this is not the kind of style that has been very popular recently.

Anyhow the other day I lucked out in a charity shop while killing time waiting for the train! I came across an amazing tan Jaeger skirt in my size! Now given that the skirt is a size 16 with a 30 inch waist I would suggest that it might be from as early as the 1970s but I find it really hard to tell with styles like this. The Vintage Fashion Guild website is really helpful when dating clothing that has labels in it though -  mine definitely looks like the 1970s one.

It has a huge set of pleats with a really swingy style so I'm sure one day it will be great for dancing in :)

One thing I really love about older Jaeger is that the quality is fantastic. This one still has the original buttons and two sets of hook/eyes for fastening inside and a full lining, for which I'm grateful for as 100% wool can get a bit itchy.

I'm a little stuck in a rut at the moment though as I'm not very good at dealing with the winter-spring transition. I left home without a coat for the first time today and I was so afraid that I'd get too cold. Not that I had any problems with being too cold as the weather lately has been pretty nice.

I decided to take this transition slowly though and I teemed this skirt with a jumper from M&S that has a little bit of an 80s vibe to it biut I simply adore the sequin birds on the top of it. I also wore some blue opaque tights that I got for £1.80 in the Accessorize sale. I would highly recommend Accessorize tights, especially the opaque colours - they are simply amazing in quality and fit. They are my favourites.

Lastly came the clogs. They have been on here briefly before but they got a proper outing today. I truly believe that clogs do not need to be limited to summer, I think they look perfectly good with opaques!

Skirt: Jaeger

Jumper: M&S (via eBay)

Bag: Sue Ryder

Tights: Accessorize

Clogs: Clarks (thrifted)

My eyeliner in this post is also slightly different, I tried using a different mac gel liner. This one was blue and called waveline, but you know, its just not as good as the blacktrack, it smudges much easier and doesn't last as long. I wonder if its something to do with the blue pigment?

I'm currently trialing the collection 2000 gel eyeliner and my experience is all good so far :)

Do you have any Jaeger? Is it any good?