Eyeko Pretty

 

Eyeko (LOVE in Japanese) was created in 2000 by the beauty creatives Max and Nina Leykind. The very pretty make-up range hails from London and has a star studded following including the likes of Sophie Dahl. Not only pretty and coveted, this range is rather wonderfully affordable - Only £3.50 for nail polish! And to make it just that little more appealing, UK shipping is entirely free!

 These are a few of my favourites:

 

I can't wait to get my hands on one of these Fat Balms! This balm adds a hint of colour and shine, and also doubles as a touch of blush when dabbed on the cheeks! It's multifunctional nature is really appealing and I love the chunky packaging. They're £6 each, or available to buy as a set of three at £13.

 

Their nail polish is currently available in 14 contemporary shades, though as far as I can tell they're all limited edition, which would suggest new colours are continually added. I'm particularly a fan of the Posh Polish, I've wanted a nude/taupe shade for quite some time and so far I've only heard rave reviews as to how well it Eyeko nail polish applies. 

The Eyeko Graffiti Eyeliner Pen is also firmly on my list of desired items. I frequently use liquid liner and am really intrigued to try one reminiscent of a felt tip! The pen is designed for ease of control whether you wish to create thick or thin lines, smudge proof and long lasting, what more could you ask for? They're £5 each (the black and navy have my vote) but the three can be purchased for a mere £10.

If you are considering ordering from Eyeko, use my code and you'll also receive a free gift with your order - exciting! (Only applicable to orders over £10)

Max C London

Floral Skater Dress in Cream

Tie Back Strappy Dress in Black

THANK YOU to the lovely Gem Fatale!! I recently won one of her Third Year Bloggiversary giveaway week prizes! She ran the most amazing week of giving away a different prize each day, including a free Wah Nails manicure, Bertie Boots, Me and Zena jewellery, Tabio footwear (amazing!), a No 7 range and two Max C London dresses! I've been so very lucky to be one of three people to win two Max C London dresses as pictured above.

(I hadn't realised the postman had left them next door with my neighbours, so was thoroughly excited to open the parcel when I got home from London yesterday evening.)

The first is a floral skater dress, I've never been sure if I can really pull off light colour dresses as I'm rather large in the derriere, however this dress is the perfect shape for me, fitted in the top and flaring out from the waist. (A good hip hider) It's super soft and a made of a much thicker cotton jersey than I thought, making it ideal for the colder weather - I can't wait to team it with thick tights, chunky boots and a big cardigan.

The second is a rather lovely LBD. It has a great 1950's prom dress feel to it! So again, a massive thank to Gem, I can't wait to wear them! If you haven't already, make sure you take a look at Gem Fatale's blog.

Rose Print Dress

Stripe Collar Dress

I hadn't really been aware of the MaxC London brand until my recent foray into the blogging community and having won these dresses, I felt it was about time to take a better look. The above two dresses are my favourite on their website, I've seen the rose print dress featured on numerous blogs. The floral pattern is just so lovely, the subtle colours ideal for Autumn and again, like my skater dress, a very flattering shape. The stripe collar dress is for want of a better word, so 'cute'! I think it would look great teamed with a blazer for an interview. (Yes. I'm still hoping someone will eventually want to interview me.) Again, it's not a colour I naturally lean towards and yet I find the dress utterly appealing.

Collar Dress

Rose Skater Dress

MaxC create a variety of dresses, skirts, knitwear, tops and accessories that aren't your standard high street fashion, making their website worth a look. Or two. x

Don't say in a letter what you can't in my ear

Wedgewood Polka Dot Tea Story

Royal Albert Polka Dot Rose 1930 three piece set.

Royal Albert English Chintz 1940 three piece set.

Royal Albert Hartington Lane 1990 three piece set.

John Lewis Polly's Pantry cup and saucer set.

Urban Outfitters Floral Thermos

Urban Outfitters Map Flask

The last two weekends I've been up to London, and while killing time waiting for trains or for Charlie to finish work, I decided to start the dreaded Christmas shopping. Well, I say dreaded, normally it is, however this year I actually have ideas for presents which is making the entire process far more enjoyable! Anyway, this led me to explore shops such as Selfridges - it's not somewhere I had ever really considered going, let alone buying anything from, but I was fairly surprised to discover the entire place isn't soley consumed with things out of my price range!

Anyway, while exploring the store I came across the kitchen area (I guess?) and sadly now I have fallen in love with cups and saucers. 

Many cups and saucers. 

This naturally doesn't help situation: Christmas however I felt they were all too pretty not to share! (I've also thrown in a few Urban Outfitter's treats for good measure.) The Wedgewood Polka Dot Tea Story range is just so wonderfully pretty and I also very much desireth the Royal Albert Polka Dot Rose 1930 three piece set. I always see these things as multi-function, not only can they be used as intended (exciting tea vessel) but as a means of creating a background for photographing jewellery! I know, I need to get out more. I'm nearly as much of a sucker for pretty china as I am for stationary and packaging. 

What do you think? Have you discovered any lovely china... perhaps something a little less harsh on the bank account? I start to worry if I owned something so lovely I would be terrified to use it as it would be so mortifying if you accidentally broke it!!

I have so many things I need to blog about, I have one other post half done and about two others partly mentally prepared! Expect to be bombarded in the next week or so.... x

Time rolls the back wheels of my mind

 

Weekend in Images

I apologise for my absence, this last week has just been hectic busy, but here, essentially is my weekend!

Shall I explain?

On Saturday, Charlie and I drove to deepest, darkest Wales for the Wedding of Sarah Hannah Rodgers and Brendan David Hill! The wedding was lovely, Sarah looked stunning and Brendan was wearing a brown cordroy suit, what more can I say?! I wish I had actual photos to show you, however once we left the church, it absolutely poured down - I'm not sure how everyone else managed to stay looking rather wonderful, but I resembled a drowned rat. (I ran to the car - in heels, increasing my soaked appearance and threw my camera in the boot) The picture above was an outfit test the day before (the lighting was horrible, hence the black and white status- I've realised I'm incapable of true blogging style outfit posts. Not only do I always look awful in photos  and I don't have a large enough blank space anywhere in the house. Hence the rather weird 'sat on bed shot'. I guess I'm not going to be a popular fashion blogger then!)

Sadly this means there are no photos on me wearing the rather wonderful Iron and Wine bobby pin set I was kindly sent by Crown and Glory. (The only way I could try to salvage my appearance after situation: Rain was tie my hair up with an elastic band. Yes, literally an elastic band, it was all I could find) Anyway, the wedding was really Autumnal in feeling - golden leaves were scattered along the reception tables and created centre pieces. Charlie and I had a great, if long day and I can only hope it was thoroughly enjoyed by Brendan and Sarah.

Charlie and I then trekked back to London on Sunday from mine, by the time we got there I was so hungry and desperate to pee we stopped at Ikea and indulge in hot dogs. (50p for a veggie hot dog smothered in Ikea mustard - wonderful!) When we finally got home we crashed out with House and an Indian (after Charlie showed me how to make books! Once I've perfected this, I'll probably blog about it...)

On Monday I went and met a friend I literally haven't seen in nearly three years and it was so unbelievably great to see her. We spent the day catching up while being 'cultural' and visited the Tate Modern and Britain. The Muybridge exhibition is excellent, I thoroughly recommend visiting. It's so vast and the images so beautiful up close. We did conclude that we had actually gone around the exhibition backwards, however this certainly didn't taint our enjoyment of it! (We also went to a great place called Leon's for lunch -  The Sweet Potato Falafel wrap was amazing!)

Then on Tuesday I headed to Covent Garden for a little Christmas shopping, where I rather naughtily purchased myself the lovely lavender Topshop Snood I've coveted for quite some time! (It's been out of stock online for ages, so when I saw it I rather impulsively just bought it.) I also purchased these rather wonderful earrings. I know they lean towards the gaudy, but I love the Art Nouveau-esque shape and the colour combination. I've realised when I make my own jewellery I have a tendency to lean towards shades of the same colour. These earrings have made me realise I should perhaps be a little more adventurous with my colour choices, I may even try to make a necklace to accompany these! (I can't wait to wear them in Paris!) I then headed back to Highgate to meet Charlie from work for Lunch, we went to a great place called Dim T. I've never been before, but it was lovely. (Sorry, this blog post is ridiculously food based! The Sweet Coconut with tofu noodle bar was incredible! I don't think I've ever eaten out so much in one weekend, I need to get back on the running!) Then I caught the train home.

In the last few weeks I've realised that I feel like I haven't experienced Autumn for years. I've been so snowed under with Uni work and the stress I always managed to attach to it, that I don't think I left the house much and if I did, I wasn't paying attention! The landscape is just beautiful at the moment, especially when it's accompanied with crisp, cold weather - I'm starting to think it might be my favourite time of the year. I'm heading back to London this weekend, which Charlie and I fully intend to spent relaxing (last weekend was so hectic!) but hopefully if the weather is nice, we can take Archie for a walk to Kenwood and I'll actually be able to take my camera to capture Autumn (and wear my snood.)

x

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

New Esme earrings, now available online. Hopefully I'll introduce a few new colour ways as well. x

Rosy faced

 

I've been a little slow getting this together, but a little while back my boyfriends wonderful sister, Tiff went through my CV (she works in HR) to make it more appealing and hopefully make me more employable. I've never been all that good at selling myself, so I really appreciate the time she's put into making it look good. So as a little present I've made her a customised version of Olive and combined it with Crown and Glory's Pocket Full Of Posies bobby pin set  - she absolutely loves pink, so I really hope she likes it! (Tiff and her husband also have a pet rabbit - Peanut - he's adorable, which is why I felt the necklace was appropriate.) I'm posting it tomorrow, so I guess I'll find out if it goes down well.

I had planned on photographing the hair slides myself, however I couldn't bring myself to undo C&G's wonderful packaging! As you may or may not know I'm a sucker for packaging, hence why I've photographed it for you. I'm also starting to think maybe I need to step up my own packaging for Wallpaper Rose. I love that Crown and Glory really has it's own visual identity as a brand, I think I perhaps need to work on my own!

I'll hopefully have few new pieces to show you this weekend, but I hope everyone has a lovely one, what are your plans? 

This evening has just disappeared, I don't think I've done anything useful! x

All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey

Green Wrap Around Dress - Love Label £38

Black Blazer - Topshop £60

Imogen Necklace - Wallpaper Rose Jewellery £12

Iron and Wine Bobby Pin set - Crown and Glory £6

Golden Drew Drops - Crown and Glory £8

Cherry Pie Nail Polish - Models Own £5

Black Suedette Bow Platforms - Miss Selfridge £45

I'm still internally debating as to whether I'm allow a new new dress for the wedding I'm going to at the end of the month. I know realistically the answer is no, however it doesn't appear to have stopped me looking! I have pretty much given up of the lovely Pearl Lowe dress I showed you in my last post - I don't seem to be able to find a large enough Peacocks anywhere. 

Anyway - technically, I wasn't actually looking for a new dress to become attached to. However, when reading Llymlrs's blog, I found she had created a really lovely outfit with a simple yet classic playsuit. (I still find that the jury is out on playsuits - I like them on other people, but I can't help but feel I would look dreadful in one.) So I followed the link to 'In love with fashion' which I soon realised was a featured brand in Topshop, Love Label. I've looked at many of their items, but I don't think I've ever actually tried anything on. Anyway, low and behold I discovered this beautiful dress. It's a very similar shape to Lily's playsuit, but in dress format. The colour is simply perfect for the time of year, to which I have fully embraced with accessories! (Have you seen Crown and Glory's new pieces?? They've hit the top of my wish list) The berry florals and burnt-orange leaves perfectly compliment the dark sage green of the dress, which I've further enhanced with the Imogen Wallpaper Rose necklace - in varying green tones.

I then teamed this with a blazer, as it's going to be cold and I don't think a baggy cardigan will quite cut it in the elegant/appropriateness stakes. I'm starting to think realistically, I'll probably have to wear a dress I already own (boo) and perhaps invest in a blazer. I only have a grey one from Primark, which fits me quite badly. I don't suppose anyone has suggestions for places to find blazers that are nice, but without the Topshop price tag? I'm having no ebay joy! x