My picks from the Hush Winter Sale!

The much anticipated Hush sale went online last night at midnight, and there were loads of bargains on offer! I thought I’d share my picks for the best items on the site…

Hush harem trousers

Here are those ever-controversial harem trousers, now reduced from £49.50 to £25! I now own a pair of Hush harem trousers in the same style (charcoal colour) and they truly are the comfiest things I own. Forget jogging bottoms, leggings and yoga pants. These are the bomb. The charcoal colour is really best suited to lounging around at home in, because the grey is very casual, so I can’t wait to see whether these burgundy ones will look stylish enough to be worn out and about.

Hush Big Sloppy Jumper

Reduced by £25 down to £40, this is a great price for this lovely, comfy jumper – a mix of cotton, silk and cashmere. Although it does crease when you’re sitting down for a long time, it’s great to slob around in. If you get a cold throat like me, you’ll need a scarf to keep yourself covered, though, because the v-neck is pretty low. And, it’s supposedly hand wash only – I’ve not had the guts to try it in a washing machine yet! However, £40 is definitely a bargain – and the red is beautiful. It also comes in grey marl, charcoal marl and dark navy. (Read my review here.)

Cardigown from Hush

On my wist-list before Christmas was the amazing cardigown, so when I saw it was reduced to £50, I snapped one up. Can’t wait to try it out!

Cable Knit Cardi Coat from Hush

One thing I didn’t get which I would have loved was the Cable Knit Cardi Coat, which is £70 off at £100. Even with the reduction, it’s still a little pricey for me, but it looks amazing and I’ve heard very good things about it!

Cashmere Madeleine Jumper from Hush

If you’re looking to seriously treat yourself, though, it surely has to be with something from Hush’s amazing cashmere range. I’ve picked out the cashmere Madeleine jumper, which is on sale for £80 (reduced from £150), but there are so many styles to choose from it’ll be hard to narrow it down!

Goldie Snood from Hush

One of the items that really stuck in my mind when I first stumbled across Hush was the gorgeous Goldie snood, which is now on sale for £25 (reduced from £45). I bought a similar item from Oasis but was never really happy with it, so I’ll be very excited to get this through. There are a range of snoods available in the sale here.

There were a couple of things that I was after that haven’t been reduced (namely the felted wool dress and the Charlene dress), so I’ll be stalking those to see if they get added. But, there are loads of amazing bargains available at the moment, so head to www.hush-uk.com while the sale is still on to bag yours!

20s Murder Mystery at New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone – I hope 2013 is treating you well so far! I posted a preview of my New Year costume for my parents’ murder mystery evening the other day – and here’s the full run down of my outfit and accessories.

'20s outfitFirst of all, I have to show off my new Miss L Fire shoes, which were a Christmas present from my husband –  I love them! And, the Art Deco detailing was perfect for the party…
Miss L Fire Streamlined 1 Miss L Fire Streamlined 2 Miss L Fire Streamlined 3

I love those details on the back… The shoes are also available in green or black at Miss L Fire’s shop.

I had a beautiful sequined dress, which consisted of black netting over the top of blue fabric, which created a really nice, two-toned effect. It showed up bright blue with a flash, but in natural light was much darker.

Dress detailing

The dress is from Principles, but I got it on eBay – I’ve been stalking flapper style dresses for years so it was great to finally get one after all this time!

Accessories

Both of my accessories in this photo were from Primark – I love picking up accessories from here, as they’re so cheap and usually great quality, all considering. Both of these items have served me well over the years! I also wore three strings of fake pearls I bought last year from Tesco… Dead upmarket, me!

Head side 2

For my hair, I used a brilliant tutorial from YouTube, which you can find here. I couldn’t get my hair to curl properly, but it turned out it didn’t really matter in the end as I was able to pin it up in curls even though it was fairly straight! It came out pretty well, I thought.

Head side 1

If you have long hair and you wanted a really easy and straight forward flapper hair style, check out this video about how to fake a bob. I tried it last year and it worked really well – everyone thought I had a hair cut!

Group 1

We all had a brilliant time – everyone did really well with their costumes, and my nan even managed to guess the murderer was the maid! I definitely recommend murder mystery nights – they’re great fun, and really cheap, plus they give you a chance to dress up… Like I need one, right?

Group 2

Bustin’ out the secret Santa gift: Skyfall and The Man With The Golden Gun

Being an enthusiastic fan of OPI’s Bond collection, I had naturally been hankering after the amazing Man With The Golden Gun topcoat; a clear base with real 18k gold flecks. At £24.99 it was beyond my price range for a single bottle of nail varnish, so I was over the moon when I got it for my secret Santa gift this Christmas – thank you, Omar! *

Having seen some amazing combos for Skyfall and The Man With The Golden Gun, I decided to break it out yesterday for a trip to the Balmer Lawn hotel for a carvery lunch with my husband! We had our wedding reception here so it’s nice to come back – and I wore my new Amelia Check Doll Dress from Collectif too – you can see the gorgeous fabric in these photos:

Untitled

Untitled

I love this top coat! It’s so opulent and beautiful – although I do feel a bit rotten when I have to take it off… It’s like throwing money away!

Untitled

(Delicious post-carvery Christmas pudding…)

I also had a trial run with my ’20s outfit for New Year – we’re doing a murder mystery and I’m going to be an AMERICAN FLAPPER. Very imaginative, I know… I’m wearing a navy Principles beaded dress with purple and gold Streamlined shoes from Miss L Fire (Christmas pressie from my hubbie), and I shall be wrapped in a dishevelled stole as per my character instructions. Here’s a bit of a preview:

20s outfit try-out

What are you guys doing to celebrate tonight? Let me know what you’re planning to wear – and have a Happy New Year!

* Yep, we always have a post-present reveal to work out who gave who what!

Vintage Clothing at Green’s Home Interiors

Just up the road from my in-laws’ place is a great little antiques warehouse called Green’s Home Interiors, which is full of furniture, books, homewares, and a great vintage clothing section with jewellery, dresses, jackets and accessories. I decided to pop in and have a post-Christmas mooch around!

IMG_0516

There were some truly amazing vintage jewellery sets there – check out these beauties!

IMG_0485
IMG_0486
IMG_0487
IMG_0491

I loved those giant golden bubble earrings from the ’80s at the front!

And check out this awesome red anchor necklace from the ’40s in this photo – it’s enormous!

IMG_0495

They also have racks of real fur shrugs, jackets and stoles on display as well. My sister in law picked up a faux fur piece here once, but all of the older items seem to be real.

IMG_0496

They also have a giant rack full of sequinned tops and jackets – very Dynasty! Or, Rita from Corrie…

IMG_0500
IMG_0501

Most of them were from the ’80s, but I found this amazing full length white dress from the ’50s – what a show-stopper!

IMG_0502
IMG_0503

I also found a really great ’70s cape and evening dress set – I actually loved this, which is weird, because I don’t usually go much for ’70s clothes, but this is just so unashamedly of its time that I couldn’t help admire it!

IMG_0505
IMG_0506

I loved this fur-collared jacket – stupidly forgot to check the price and details, but I thought I’d share the photo anyway.

IMG_0498

I’ll leave you with some more photos of some amazing accessories – if you’re in the area, make sure you stop by to check it out!

IMG_0507
IMG_0511
IMG_0513
IMG_0490

You can find the site here, or find them on Rugby Road, Binley Woods, CV3 2AX.

Christmas office party outfit

Bit late with this one, but I thought I’d post it, if only to show off my new Miss L Fire Monaco shoes! Although, it’s a bit hard to show them when the cat keeps wandering into the shot…

LK Bennett Mimi Dress 3 with Saffy

We went to the Coriander Lounge in Southampton, which is a great Indian restaurant (so great that Matt Le Tissier was there at the same time as us) that does amazing buffets. It wasn’t my office party (I work from home and the company is based in Dorset), it was actually for my husband’s work, but I know a lot of his colleagues fairly well and get on really well with them so I always look forward to it. And, I don’t have many reasons to dress up, so I have to take my chances when I can!

LK Bennett Mimi Dress 2

I wore an L.K. Bennett Mimi Dress that I bought from eBay that has a shortened skirt (great LBD), Whistles Black Spot Tights (as worn by Kate Middleton – what do you think?), a red skinny waist belt from ASOS and a gold pendant from Peacocks. Oh, and those amazing Monaco shoes from Miss L Fire!

Miss L Fire Havana Shoes

I seriously don’t think I’ve loved a pair of shoes this much in years. They are AMAZING, and another leopard print item for me! They’re black suede though, so I’ve been too scared to wear them out most of the time, thanks to the disgustingly rainy weather we’ve been having. I love rain, but not on my shoes…

I also wore the eyeshadow from my Clarins Odyssey set, which I’ve been using pretty much every day during the holidays – the gold colour is amazing, and you can layer up as much as you like – either a really heavy coating, or a light sparkle all over the lids.

Eyes close

Not pictured is a Christmas pudding hair clip I bought from Sainsbury’s that my husband requested I wear at the last minute – which everyone loved! Sadly, my shoes were under the table most of the evening, but I knew they were amazing, so that was enough for me…

24 Dec: Ciate Mini Mani Month – Enchanted Rose

Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
Behind today’s final calendar door is this very festive shade of glittery red, Enchanted Rose, the final exclusive shade.
Untitled
Perfect for Christmas Eve! This shade is lovely, it reminds me of the ruby slippers from Wizard of Oz.
Untitled
What a great shade to finish on! Merry Christmas everyone!

23 Dec: Ciate Mini Mani Month – Mojito

Untitled
Untitled
Untitled

Today is Mojito, a creamy acid green! Not very festive, but very distinctive!

Untitled
Ciate’s site says: “A true apple green. Show off your personality with this bright shade. Only for the extremely fashionable and outrageously bold.” 

Untitled

I’d definitely agree with that! The photos came out really well, but in real life, this definitely doesn’t fit in with anything in my wardrobe… It does have a beautiful, glossy finish though, and looks amazing next to those other bold colours. This is a brilliant summer shade, I reckon.

 

22 Dec: Ciate Mini Mani Month – Sundance

Sundance 1 Sundance 2

Today’s shade was another lovely pot of caviar pearls! This time, the blend was called Sundance, and contained teal and yellow baubles, along with some discs of gold.

Sundance 3

I decided it would go perfectly with Headliner, so I broke that colour out again and did two fingers on each hand.

Sundance 4

I love the way the gold discs pick up the light – no wonder it’s called Sundance!

21 Dec: Ciate Mini Mani Month – Fade to Greige

21 Dec Fade to Greige
21 Dec Fade to Greige
21 Dec Fade to Greige

Today’s colour is Fade to Greige, a cool, grungy, grey-purple.

21 Dec Fade to Greige

This creme is described by Ciate thusly: “A violetly grey that delivers a unique take on the fabulous taupe trend colour. Perfect for adding an edge to black and teaming with silver jewellery.”

21 Dec Fade to Greige

I love this colour – it’s a very dark purple, but that taupe edge just stops it from tipping too far over into Halloween territory. It totally doesn’t go with the outfit I planned for this evening, but hey – it’s Christmas! You can wear what you like on your nails, right?!

21 Dec Fade to Greige

20 Dec: Ciate Mini Mani Month – Magic Carpet

Untitled
Untitled Untitled

Today’s colour was another advent calendar exclusive – Magic Carpet, a shimmery purple glitter. Like Glass Slipper, it needs multiple coats before its true beauty shines through…

ONE!

Untitled

TWO!

Untitled

THREE!

Untitled
The polish consists of a fine glitter with larger specks inside – the formula is very thick and gloopy and hard to apply, and like Glass Slipper, I think it’ll start to peel off before the end of the day. But while it’s on there, it’s a very shiny, cheerful colour – I think I prefer it to Glass Slipper.

Untitled

What did you all think of today’s colour?