Tiny Glass Chillies and Enamel Orchids

After visiting the excellent Ballgowns exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum in South Kensington today I picked up a couple of pieces of garden-inspired jewellery.  As befits the UKs leading design museum the V&A boasts an amazing shop full of gorgeous stationery, clothing, homeware, jewellery and more inspired by their archives, current collections and temporary exhibitions which I definitely recommend checking it out if you’re in search of a special gift or just fancy treating yourself.

This tiny glass chilli ring was so much fun I just had to buy it at £4. I love the colours and the detail.

Secondly, here’s a pic of my candy-stripe phalaenopsis orchid which lives on my kitchen window sill…

And here’s a pic of my new orchid earrings – realistic, right? 

That’s because they are in fact real flowers which have been preserved in some form of resin. These were quite expensive for me at £20 but I’ve been lusting after these since their release months ago so I decided I should finally stop merely obsessing over them and finally get round to buying them today. I spent literally minutes going through the selection that they had in the shop as, being real flowers, each pair of earrings was different.  In the end I settled on these because of the amazing veining detail. If only I knew the secret of setting flowers in resin I would definitely try making more jewellery like this myself!

BarryM Body Glitter Gels and Some Fun Jewellery from Brighton

Just in case you haven’t noticed yet I looooove glitter so when I saw these little sparkly pots for just £2.99 each in Topshop the other week I couldn’t resist.  I usually buy BarryM products in Superdrug but I don’t recall having seen these in any of my local stores which I why I bought them in Topshop instead (the huge Topshop flagship store on Oxford Street sells several different brands of cosmetics and accessories on the ground floor in addition to its own Topshop ranges).

The product is called Body Glitter and it comes in various shades and designs.  They’re available in a range of shades and I picked the two that contained tiny shapes – one with silver stars and one with red hearts, both suspended in an iridescent glitter gel.  I know that you can also buy these tiny glittery shapes loose but I like this glitter gel as it makes them super easy to apply.

I took a few photos from different angles to try to capture some of the effect of the glitter .  The gels are quite concentrated so you do get a lot of shapes even when you pick up just a small amount of gel, and it’s also quite buildable so it’s easy to keep adding more product until you get the effect you desire.

My eyes were a bit sore today so I decided not to wear any eye make-up and just glam my cheeks up with a bit of glitter instead.  I think this is such a fun product as you just need a tiny amount to create a high impact party look - I simply took a bit of product on a finger tip and dabbed it across one of my cheekbones and temple.

Above: dewy foundation, shimmery blush, and BarryM Glitter Gel – 5 minutes to a fun glitzy spring time look!

Admittedly the effect can look like a strange spotty skin condition and dandruff (if you get glitter in your hair) from a distance, but I promise that it’s very pretty when it catches the light!  I enjoyed wearing this today anyway and I’ll definitely be wearing it again.  It was easy to apply and didn’t really flake off, although it would if you touched your face a lot.  It washes off easily with warm water.  I would also just add to be careful not to get any in your eyes as the edges of the stars and hearts would definitely poke a bit – ouch!

In the photos above I’m wearing one of the new pairs of earrings I picked up yesterday.  I went with a couple of friends for a day trip to Brighton which is full of quirky clothes and jewellery shops and I picked up some earrings from a fair trade shop.  I really like fair trade jewellery as it’s often made from natural or recycled materials, it’s creative and it’s usually very well hand made.

I got a pair of bicycles made from wire and a pair of dragonflies made from  tin cans.  There was also some information on the packaging about the community of artists who had made the jewellery.  These were £4 each – which is really good value considering the quality and detail of the designs.  If you like costume jewellery then it’s definitely worth having a scout around a Fair Trade store as there are some lovely designs out there and the stock is constantly rotating too so there’s always something new to pick up.

I also bought this rather sparkly butterfly cuff from a small jewellery store as it was only £12 which I thought was a good price for all the detailing.  It’s inlaid with a ton of glitzy stones in an array of bright colours.

I am so easily suckered in to buying new costume jewellery, even though I know that I have so much already.  I really have to get better at remembering to wear it every day so that I can enjoy what I have more!

Daytime Pumpkin Eyes

I had the day off work today (hooray!) and came up with this bright but wearable look whilst playing around with my current favourite eyeshadow, Vapour by Illamasqua which I picked up a couple of weeks ago on sale.  It’s an intensely pigmented but very wearable matte orange.  Today I teamed it with a dark green eyeliner.  (Pls see also my Autumn 2011 colour chart for more seasonal colour inspiration).

Above left to right: powder eyeshadow by Illamasqua in Yearn and Vapour – both used in this look

I applied Yearn over an eyepencil as the dark green eyeliner.  I’m also wearing my favourite cold weather blush in Scandal by Accessorize, which looks very red in the pan but applies to the skin as a lovely subtle golden rose shimmer.

I’m wearing some funky golden monkey drop earrings that I picked up on sale in Topshop a couple of months ago.  I have buckets of crazy costume jewellery like this already but I just couldn’t resist these when I saw them!

I just wanted to do a quick post tonight but I’ll hopefully be back tomorrow with some amusing shots of some of my latest crazy hair/head accessories.

Sunday Afternoon at St Pancras

I had afternoon tea in St Pancras train station today, which was looking lovely in the sunshine.

As I was in the station I had a quick browse around some of the shops while I was there.

I got a straw hat from Accessorize which was £9 in the sale.  I think I shall have to make a trip to the countryside as it seems to be the kind of hat to be worn whilst floating about on a small lake in a rowing boat or whilst running barefoot through a meadow…or maybe that’s just me.  Hmm. 

I’m not wearing any foundation in the photos above – could my skin be looking so refined and dewy thanks to my recently purchased perfecting cream by Melvita, or is it just a coincidence?  Who knows, but if my skin’s still looking like this when I run out then I’ll probably be repurchasing it just in case it is thanks to the perfecting cream!

I also got a pair of tea cup earrings (£6) to add to my growing collection of afternoon tea-themed accessories:

and another baked duo eyeshadow in shade 11 Aphrodite. Accessorize give a student discount of 10% on non-sale items so it worked out cheaper buying it there than in Superdrug. I love the fact that not only are Accessorize baked shadows great quality (apply smoothly, have good pigmentation and are long lasting) they also look so beautiful in the pan – the dark half of this one looks like a chunk of precious rock with its sparkly black with copper and white veining.  I don’t really wear black eyeshadow but the veining in this one gives an interesting finish that’s definitely not just black.

 

I also got a couple of loose pigment mineral eyeshadows from Neals Yard Remedies that were on sale at £6 instead of £12. The packaging is quite standard and the pots contain 1g of product each.  They have a sticker on the side saying that they’re 11% organic and 86% minerals, just in case those numbers mean anything to you.  Neal’s Yard also say that these are vegan friendly, they have the leaping bunny from BUAV to show they are not tested on animals, and they’re even Soil Association approved.

I got a light green called Sage and a dark brown called Truffle which I think could be used together to create a nice smoky look.  The shadows have a lovely smooth consistency and a slight shimmer and I’m looking forward to wearing them this week as I’m into my greens at the moment.

Sale Jewellery Summer 2011

Q: Hmm, what’s to be found in my two newest shopping bags?



A: A big pile of costume jewellery (mostly) picked up at half price in the summer sales.  Scroll down for my close-ups!

woodland creatures stud earrings, £3.99 full price, H&M. I actually picked these up full price in Feb this year but I thought they were so cute I’d post some pics.  My favourites are the hares and stags.  The hares are even both different – you can see that one has a bent ear.

lime-threaded dangle earrings, £6.25 half price, Topshop

ballerina & rose stud earrings, £2.50 at half price, Topshop

turquoise robot necklace, £4.25 at half-price, Topshop
I actually had the same pendant in a different colour and length before which I bought several months ago.  I can’t resist a piece of cute robot paraphernalia though so I went ahead and bought this second one too.

top: orange & metal earrings, £3.25 at half-price, Topshop bottom: raven claw & turquoise earrings, £2.50 at half-price, Topshop

stag head necklace, £5 at half-price, Topshop

clockwise from left:
cube necklace, £8.50 at half-price, East
freshwater pearl earrings, £3 at half-price, East
blue wooden earrings, £3 at half-price, East
East is a great place to check out at sale time if you like jewellery made from natural materials such as wood, shell, stone and pearl.  They have a great selection marked down to half-price.

Some Topshop Make Up and Robot Earrings

Topshop are offering a 20% student discount this week so I thought I’d take advantage of the extra discount to pick up a couple of pieces from their make-up range which I hadn't tried before.  I bought an eye crayon (they are jumbo eye pencils shot through with glitter) in a glittery turquoise shade called Sea, not because I particularly need yet another glittery blue eye pencil (!) but because it was reduced from £5 to £1 so with my student discount I only ended up paying 80p for it – bargain!  I also chose a lipstick pencil in a bright pale coral called Coy.

The colours are quite impressive and I hope you can get an idea of their intensity from the shots below.

The eye crayon is very soft, glides onto the skin and is easy to blend.  It’s packed full of glitter, which also blends out nicely, so they’re definitely worth checking out if you’re a glitter bug – but best avoided if not.  As the crayon is very soft I would recommend using a primer underneath or powder on top to set it for longer lasting wear.

I like the idea of lipstick in a pencil format because you literally draw your lips on so I think you can apply colour more accurately than from a conventional lipstick bullet.  I like the fact that although it’s a pale shade “Coy” is very opaque so the colour that you see in the pencil is the colour that you get on the lips.  It can apply a bit unevenly so well moisturised lips are a must, but on the plus side even though it’s a matte lipstick it has a creamy consistency that doesn’t dry out the lips.  I also love this colour itself which I think is quite unusual and lovely for the summer.  The full price of this product is £7.

I also bought these robot earrings because I love robot motifs on clothes and jewellery and these little guys were just too cute to resist.  Their heads, arms and legs are jointed so they wiggle when you move, which I think is a nice detail.  These cost £7.50 full price.

Payday treats from Topshop + Miss Selfridge

Friday was payday, hooray!  This also coincided with an email I got from Topshop telling me about a flash sale they were having (I’m not really sure what a flash sale is, but it had the word sale in it and that was all I needed to hear to pique my interest) so I hot-footed it down to Topshop on Oxford Street after work on Friday to have a browse.

The sale was OK; I grabbed about six or seven items to try on and although there were plenty of “nice” things I was quite restrained and managed to convince myself that I really have enough “nice” things in my wardrobe already and I don’t need any more, so if I was going to buy anything I might as well make it something a bit interesting.  In the end I bought just one thing which was a pair of fluffy shorts reduced from £50 to £25.  They don’t really look like shorts at all and reminded me of a ballet tutu, or perhaps an ostrich’s fluffy bum!  OK so that description perhaps doesn’t make them sound so appealing but really I just liked them because they were good fun.

	Do you think I described them well??  He he.  I wore them today with a fitted blazer and light pink tights which were my nod to the ballet trend.

I also popped into Miss Selfridge today where they were also having a mid-season sale and I picked up some accessories.  I really don’t need any more accessories but they are quite inexpensive in the sale and again they’re good fun so I just bought a couple.  I really need to devise a new storage system for all my accessories though as I have so many that I never get round to wearing as I’ve got them squirreled away all over my room and I never think to dig them out.

A giant pompom to wear on my head!  (Around £3.50)

It reminded me of Scandinavian knits, of which I’m a big fan.  It’s also just a fun way to lighten up any outfit.  The band is quite easy to cover with my hair too.  (Oh yes and I do wear braces in case you noticed that my teeth look a bit funny above!  I actually love them though as they have straightened my teeth soooo much since I got them fitted just over a year ago).

Teddy bear cut-out leopard print earrings.	So kitsch I just had to buy them!  (Around £3.50)