Valentine’s Day Beauty

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I’m a big fan of Burberry beauty, and a recent convert to Dior, and I picked out my favourite hot pink, baby pink and really red shades from the brands to create three simple Valentine’s Day looks!

Valentine's Day Nails and Lips

From the top, Vogue is my latest lipstick purchase – an outrageously girly hot pink from Dior which goes nicely with their new limited edition spring Bloom nail varnish. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it makes a lasting impression!

For a more subtle and romantic look, one of my favourite neutral pinks is English Rose from Burberry – and now a matching shade of nail varnish has been launched as part of the brand’s neutral shades. I can’t wait to try it!

Finally, what could be more classic than a red lip paired with red nails? Dior’s 999 is probably the most famous red shade on the market, and was reformulated in 2013 for Dior’s 60th anniversary and based on lipstick 9, the first lipstick Christian Dior ever created. Rich, deep and flattering, the colour also comes as a nail varnish – both perfect for a Valentine’s Day look!

I’ll be doing a post on Vogue and Bloom and the two 999 colours soon, but in the meantime, how about I leave you with some pictures from my visit to Christian Dior’s house in Granville? It’s now a museum dedicated to the fashion designer, and is definitely worth a visit!

Main house of Christian Dior
Christian Dior Museum Gardens
Christian Dior Museum Perfume Collection
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Bag ‘n’ Shoes: Next Sludge Boots and Zatchels vs Jacky Tsai Skulls Saddle Bag

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I thought it was about time I did another bag and shoes post – especially considering that the bag in question is a limited edition design, only available for another week or so! I bought this bag late last year from Zatchels – it’s part of a collaboration with the Chinese artist Jacky Tsai, and the range consists of satchels and saddle bags with three designs on; the iconic floral skulls design, the psychedelic virus pattern, and the purple and lime green petrol motif. As soon as I saw the saddle bag with the floral skull design, I knew I had to add it to my collection!

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As you can see, the leather is printed with a beautiful pattern of skulls crafted out of silver flowers. Here’s what Zatchels says about the design: “Instinctively recognizable, Jacky Tsai’s skulls print designs take inspiration from one of his most well-known pieces of art, the iconic Floral Skull design he created for Alexander McQueen. The placement and positioning of the skulls show a 360 degree view of this unique piece of art. A deep black background sets off the metallic skull shapes.”

Alexander McQueen = right up my alley! You can purchase this design for a limited time at Zatchels’ site here for £85, along with the other designs here (satchels are £165).

The boots I’ve been wearing pretty much all winter – they’re no longer available from Next, but you can purchase a similar design here. Simple, basic, flat heeled boots are the perfect addition to my winter wardrobe, so this was a definite no-brainer purchase for me!

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What do you think – will you be picking up one of these beauties whilst they’re still available?

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Russell & Bromley / Stuart Weitzman Corkswoon / Coco wedges versus Hobbs Myra wedges

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You might have noticed my slight obsession with the Duchess of Cambridge – she’s one of my favourite style icons, and I’ve always had a soft spot for the royal family. So I’m very happy to scoop up any Kate purchases I come across when they’re brought to my attention by the lovely community over at What Kate Wore’s Facebook site!

One of my favourite ever shoes that Kate’s worn are the Corkswoon wedges – designed by the American label Stuart Weitzman, they were sold in Russell & Bromley stores here in the UK for a short period. Unable to get my hands on a pair, I plumped for the copykate Myra wedges from Hobbs, which retailed at £125. Thanks to a variety of reasons, I was only ever able to wear these out once, when I went to a Greek restaurant last year.

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Needless to say, I loved them, but being a perfectionist, I couldn’t help but jump to it when I saw that Russell & Bromley had made the wedges available again to buy! At the price of £255, though, they’re over twice the price of the Hobbs Myra wedge, so in the interests of retail science, I decided to do a side by side comparison! But first, here is the epic story of how I got my wedges…

The Corkswoon wedges – as they are called in the US – have been renamed to ‘SW COCO’, and I found out from R&B’s Twitter account that they were available again for the new season. (Also available in a pretty silver shimmer colour too!) Unfortunately, by the time I got myself organised (three hours…) my size (7/40) had sold out. I decided to take a chance and ordered the 6.5 but they were too small. So, I signed myself up to receive updates when my size is made available again. Every morning at 9am I’d get an email to say my shoes were in stock, but after checking, they were sold out again, leading me to believe that there was massive demand that R&B was keeping up with by getting in new shipments everyday. It turns out I was hilariously wrong, as I eventually emailed them to ask them if they could put a pair aside for me as an exchange. What had been happening was that the email system was telling everyone who was on the list when a new size came in, even if that wasn’t the size they were after. In fact, there were no new shipments and they weren’t expecting any more through(!) BUT, they checked their inventory and found a pair in Mayfair for me. I rang the store right away, and they were able to post the shoes out to me. And so, they arrived today. And thus ends the tale!

Now for the comparisons! Hobbs Myra is on the left, and Corkswoon/Coco is on the right:

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As far as I can tell, these are the main differences: the colour of the navy on the Coco is deeper and more even. The nap seems to be shorter, which gives it a tidier appearance. The cork differs slightly – the Myra has a more spotted finish, while the Coco has a series of lines… (I tried to look up to see if these have a special name but I couldn’t see anywhere that they do!) When it comes to fit, the Coco actually fits me much better than the Myra wedge. The back seems to be higher, although the Myra wedge has a nifty piece of cord at the back which helps to maintain grip. Finally, the most obvious difference is the cute gold SW button at the back of the Coco wedge!

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If you’d like to see all the pictures in high res, you can visit my Flickr set here. You can also see another comparison between the Myra wedge and the Next wedges that they did last season which were a good match for the Coco wedges here.

As I don’t need both pairs, I’m going to be selling my Myra wedges – they’re size 7/40 and if you’re interested just email me using the contact tab above! As they fit me better than the Myra wedges, I decided to keep the Coco, but I honestly think that the Myra wedge is a fantastic replikate, especially considering the enormous price of the originals. The Cocos are nicer, but twice as nice…? I’m not certain!

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#SNAPPYFEET competition

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Just a quick update – I’ve been selected as a nominee for the #SNAPPYFEET competition being run by Vestiaire Co on Facebook. If you’d like to vote for me, you can do so by clicking on this link: Vote for FFF. Here is my entry:

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You might recognise it from this post back in Halloween!

I’ve also posted this at https://www.facebook.com/WhatKateWore, and in honour of my love for the community, I will be donating £50 to one of the Duchess of Cambridge’s charities, Place2Be (http://www.place2be.org.uk/) whether I win or not! So get clicking on this link to give me a boost, if you’d like! https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151816367356073&set=a.10151816367026073.1073741832.115867246072&type=1 Of course, if you don’t like, there’s no need to do anything – I will literally NEVER KNOW. But if you do, many thanks!

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Shop the Sales 2013

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What with work, socialising and shopping, I’ve barely had time to blog recently – but don’t worry, because that is set to change! Back to regular posting, and back to my weekly bag ‘n’ shoes posts, too!

Meanwhile, here’s a taster of the sales goodies I’ve been hauling in over the past month – some of them are much coveted items whilst others are ‘I-can’t-resist-a-bargain’ impulse purchases…

Shop the Sales 2013

I have a weakness for glitter, gold and French Sole, so when these Henriettas went in the sale for half price (£60) I couldn’t resist. The navy ones were also on sale for the same price, and I told myself that I was being restrained by not buying both… Then at the weekend, my husband and I happened to go into a French Sole store where they had the navy (bottom left) in my size, so I claimed another pair as a Valentine’s Day present! Just have to wait until February to wear them, but I’ve been taking them out of the box to admire them every so often…

The Mulberry gold dress in the centre was down from £495 to £75 in Bicester Village, and I couldn’t believe the price tag at first. It’s a beautiful shimmery soft gold, very pretty indeed.

Another Bicester bargain, this Alice Temperley scarf was just £22 and has a lovely neutral shade to it.

The dress on the far left is a green wool dress from Cos, which I first saw at the lovely Lilac Pages blog. I love the shape and so I stalked it until it went on sale on Christmas eve. It actually didn’t arrive until early January though!

Another ‘patience is a virtue’ purchase is the Great Plains Palace Wrap coat. I have a picture of this pinned to my noticeboard by my desk and was eagerly awaiting the sale. When it was reduced from £140 to £110, I gave up a little bit, but then it was reduced to half price and I snapped it up immediately!

These Mulberry signature heels are divine, and although I was really after the flats, I consoled myself with the high heels and bought the McQ by Alexander McQueen suede biker flats on the right as well…

The central green Anya Hindmarch clutch is the bargain of the century for me. Originally on sale for £595, I found it at Bicester for £50. It plays ‘Deck The Halls’ and is adorable, but sadly, you can’t even fit a lipstick inside it! I’m happy with spending £50 on it though, it’s very quirky.

Finally, the bottom right purchase was my final and most extravagant. A half price exotic tweed large Lily in flame from the Mulberry outlet store. I saw this bag months ago on a style blog and fell in love. It’s also been carried by Jennifer Lawrence – and who doesn’t love a bit of J-Law in their wardrobe? Anyway, it’s probably my favourite Mulberry bag to date, and I’m thrilled I managed to scoop one up.

So, have you been shopping in the sales? Pick up any bargains? Let me know!

2013 in review

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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 24,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 9 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Gold for Christmas

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It seems as though gold is definitely in this year, and in honour of the season (and in order to satisfy my window shopping habit) I’ve put together a collection of some of the hottest items in this season’s most festive colour! I was inspired by Burberry’s beautiful gold beauty collection – and when I saw Mulberry’s new Metallic Mushroom range, I knew there was no hope for resisting…

Christmas Gold

Bag ‘n’ Shoes: Russell & Bromley New Dry and Hobbs Lanesley Bag

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I had a different set of bag and shoes planned for this week, but I abandoned that idea as soon as the postman came this morning!

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Ever since I saw the Duchess of Cambridge pictured in the gorgeous New Dry suede and faux fur booties last week, I was desperate to get my hands on a pair. I already had aspirations for some Ruby Drys, but wedges are so much easier to walk in, and how could anyone resist the beautiful fur trim of these gorgeous shoes? They’re designed by Marvin K in Italy for Aquatalia, and exclusively available in the UK through Russell & Bromley here. As soon as Kate was seen in them, of course, they sold out, but after stalking the page for days I was rewarded when my size came up on Tuesday! (In the US, the style is called Neptune, as you can see above – although the fur trim is rabbit. They were on sale but now are sold out.)

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These shoes are just as beautiful in person as they look online. Comfy, snug and super smart, they go perfectly with jeans, which is exactly what I wanted! They come already protected from the elements (hence the ‘Dry’ part of the name, which is a range of boots in suede from the brand), but you can also purchase Nano spray from Russell & Bromley to top up the finish. I paired them with my Lanesley bag from Hobbs, which is one of my most frequently used bags and puts up with all kinds of abuse without complaining. The Lanesley was a bit of a replikate for the Mulberry Polly Push Lock bag Kate was seen with in 2011, and is the perfect size for an iPad too! But no one cares about that, do they? (Sorry, Lanesley, you know I love you!) This post is ALL ABOUT THE SHOES. And so I leave you with this glorious sight:

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Worth every penny! Keep checking back to the listing for these boots on Russell & Bromley’s site here, because as the returns come in from last week’s orders, quite a few new sizes keep popping up! Good luck…

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11 Dec: Ciate Mini Mani Month – Jingle Belle

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The first, and only, glitter of the bunch was under the 11th door of the Ciate advent calender: it’s Jingle Belle!

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This seems to be an exclusive for the calendar, and is a hot pink glitter with gold sparkles. I applied it over the top of Kiss Chase, from 8 Dec, which gave it a very pink base underneath.

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As you can see, depending on the light, the colour appears either coral or pink – but either way, it was very pretty! I was initially worried about how well it would apply. Considering that the glitter is very fine, I thought it would go everywhere, and be difficult to remove from your fingers. But a quick wipe with some tissue (dampened if needs be!) worked a charm, and it’s even fairly easy to remove compared to some other glittery top coats. Again, nice job, Ciate! I definitely want to try out some different glitter top coats now!

11 Dec glitter

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10 Dec: Ciate Mini Mani Month – Speed Coat

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Top coat is a funny old thing. It seems essentially useless and is incredibly boring to contemplate, but actually, it’s one of the most important parts of any girl’s nail varnish stash. The right top coat not only makes your colour last longer, but it can also fix bumps and lumps in the finish, and even set your varnish faster – and harder. I’m a long time convert to Seche Vite, just like any other nail blogger, so I was interested to see what Ciate had to offer.

10 Dec opening

Colours are always exciting, but an essential like this is good to have in a sample size for travelling, and it’s great as a way of convincing those who aren’t quite sure yet that that top coat is actually worth using! Not only does it hold your caviar manis in place, but it also brings out the shine in other top coats.

Ciate says: “Speed Coat is an award winning Formaldehyde free top coat which guarantees touch dry nails in sixty seconds, locks in colour and can extend colour wear. Taking the nail industry by storm, this formula has won many industry awards since its 2008 launch. Including U Magazine’s Best Top Coat award. A high gloss finish and chip free for up to 10 days, this gorgeous product delivers a perfect performance.” You can purchase the new and improved formula here – currently priced at £11.

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Here’s yesterday’s Pillow Fight, layered with Halo, on the left. On the right, I’ve topped Halo with Speed Coat. As you can see, even in the incredibly subtle medium of photography, there’s a much glossier shine on the Speed Coat version – and it was much more pronounced in real life. Speed Coat is an impressive blend – thick, easy to apply, and it brought out a deeper shine on my finished nails. A keeper!

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