Wednesday, 31 January 2018

GOLD THREAD



Jumper / H&M

The Day I Finally Learnt How To Do My Make Up Like A Pro.


One makes many mistakes growing up and undoubtedly a lot of mine involved some seriously bad style and make up decisions. Of course you could argue that these were all necessary on the path to finding my own identity and helped me evolve to my current look but although my dress sense found it’s groove over the years even until recently I really struggled to get my make up “right”.

In fact I had never really learnt how to put on a proper face of make up (my mum was of the persuasion of once in a while putting on some mascara and sometimes some ill advised bright lipstick in contrast to her fair Scandinavian complexion), nor am I of the generation that really got into YouTube and its seemingly endless streams of beauty tutorials. This ultimately meant that until a few weeks ago I may have used make up every day, and probably too much of it at that, but didn’t really know what I was doing and if what I was doing was even the right thing to make the most of my face.

I wanted to change that as part of my New Year's resolutions for 2018 and eventually stumbled across Bobbi Browns How To lessons, quick and free one to one tutorials at one of their beautiful shops around the country in which one of their expert make up artists takes you through all the make up basics in a half an hour session.

There is no obligation to buy anything although I used the opportunity of having a real expert on hand to invest in some real essentials, which as it turns out I had been seriously missing in my life. I picked up so many little tips and tricks and also realised that I was putting the wrong focus on the wrong areas in my face, learning some real basics that I shamefully just hadn’t been aware of before (blusher - no idea what it did or what I was missing out on by not having one).

Since then my beauty routine has become a lot less stressful, able to achieve a more professional finish in less time then ever and has also awakened a real interest in me to learn more about beauty.Below some of my new make up essentials that I think every girl should invest in:

Vitamin Enriched Face Base
I have super dry skin so for me this base is absolutely key so that the make up applied doesn’t just look caked on but actually soaks in and covers properly. I love the fresh scent and none oily consistency of this and have made it a ritual to put it on first thing in the morning. Highly recommended.

Concealer & Foundation Stick


I love this skin foundation stick by Bobbi Brown as it feels a lot less heavy than your conventional cream foundation and it has a good even finish all day long. The older I get the more I also value a decent concealer as I am prone to dark circles under my eyes (I am a notoriously bad sleeper), with this one blending in wonderfully with the foundation.

Mascara & Blusher


Before my little make up tutorial I was using B.B. cream and foundation but had no idea that one needed to add a bit of shape and colour to ones face with a stroke of blusher to stop looking rather one dimensional and monotone coloured. It may only be a small extra step to add to your make up routine but for me it has made a huge difference! Mascara is of course quite basic and I have been using it for years but make sure you find one to suit your eyelashes. I for one have really long eyelashes so need a brush shape that separates and curls them rather than lengthens them.


Naked Palette


What I learnt in terms of using eyeshadows really was a game changer. I had always heavily relied on applying a black eyeliner to highlight my eyes, going through some questionably phases of literally having a Nike sized tick on my eyelid. During my make up lesson however I learnt that I could make my eyes stand out in a much more natural, subtle yet equally effective way. It’s all about finding earthy shades that suit you and applying them to frame the eye. I’m still learning the blending and am experimenting with different shades but the Naked Palette by Urban Decay that had been lying around my room forever (hence why its slightly dishevelled appearance) has proved the perfect starting kit to make me an (eventual) expert in the field of eyeshadows. I haven’t picked up my eyeliner since and can’t say that I miss it yet!

Tuesday, 30 January 2018

PINK LADY

Suit / & Other Stories
Earrings / H&M
Shoes / Urban Outfitters

Thursday, 25 January 2018

BY THE RIVER

Dress / H&M
Shoes / Mango

Wednesday, 24 January 2018

My top tips for a grown up and stylish bedroom (from the girl that lived in one that looked like it belonged to a 16 year old until now)


BEFORE:

AFTER:

Get rid of the things you don’t need!

Unless you are a millionaire or are very fortunate to have inherited an amazing flat in London it is very unlikely that you have buckets of space to waste when it comes to your living situation. Most people will have to fit their entire life into one room so you may as well be clever about it! I used to have 2 huge rails of clothing out which ended up wasted a quarter of the room. Did I wear all of what was hung up? Of course not! Which is why I condensed the rails into one, freeing up an entire corner of my room, sold lots on Depop (making money that I used for redecoration bits and bobs) and folded up neatly all the seasonal stuff I wasn't going to wear for another half year to store in my build-in wardrobe. To my pleasant surprise by the end of this operation my core capsule wardrobe was cut down to one neat (and colour coordinated) rail and my mind felt a lot more free without so much unnecessary crap in my life and room.


BEFORE:

AFTER:

Don’t stop at your clothes!

I did the same for my vast collection of custom jewellery and sunglasses that previously rather lavishly inhabited the entire and only desk in my room. It may have looked cool but it only really collected dust and again cost me actual functionality of the room, making it near impossible to use the desk for anything but showing off my bling. 

A quick bin of whatever pieces I was never going to wear again / were broken and an Ikea shop later I moved all my remaining sunglasses and jewellery into a stylish little grey cardboard drawer set and within few minutes had not only gained a new workspace to type my blog posts up at but an actual place to eat my dinner that wasn’t my bed or sofa. The biggest upside to this new attitude? Once you learn what it means to have less clutter you also stop buying stuff for the sake of it and begin to sell what you don’t need. I for one am all about less is more now. 



Accessorise!

My new interior direction may sound more grown up but it doesn’t have to mean that my room is less stylish. Indeed for me it was all about finding cool little room accessories to add that finishing touch. I absolutely adore my amazing framed prints from Junique, who have a fantastic selection of affordable art online. I also bought some great little plant pots for a couple of quid from trusty Tiger and to fill them headed to Columbia Road flower market on a Sunday (top tip go around 3-4pm to get the real bargains), buying myself some easy maintenance succulents and cacti that have, I am happy too announce, survived so far!!! They might not scream STATEMENT but these pieces have injected some subtle personal touches into the room without deterring from the Scandi chic look I was going for!



Invest where it’s worth investing in!

Next on my to buy list: a decent mattress, as my back is seriously suffering from the old one in my room, and some proper duck down pillows. Yes, expensive and boring purchases but the older I get the more I realise they are the ones worth making!

Monday, 22 January 2018

ALL BOWED UP

Beret / Topshop
Dress / Sister Jane
Sunglasses / Quay Australia
Boots / Zara 

Thursday, 18 January 2018

COLOUR BLOCKS



Shirt / Gant
Skirt / & Other Stories
Boots / Mango

Tuesday, 16 January 2018

WINTER TARTAN

Hat / Topshop
Earrings / & Other Stories
Tee / & Other Stories 
Skirt / Topshop

Thursday, 11 January 2018

GOLDEN TOUCH

Beret / Topshop
Jacket  / Missguided
Roll Neck / Kettlewell Colours
Dress / 5Preview
Boots / Mango

Tuesday, 9 January 2018

My New Year's Resolution? To live more in the real world.


Social media. It’s an invention that has been a blessing and a curse to me in equal measures. My expertise in the field became the foundation of my adult career, indeed my job as social media and creative strategist didn’t exist a decade ago, and my blog, which I have for years promoted through various social media platforms, has given me so many great opportunities and given me the chance to show what I am all about to an international audience that I can’t deny how important being connected and constantly “social” is in my life and how at time I have caught myself scrolling down my feed even when there a lot more interesting things like the company of a good friend to be enjoyed.

That however isn’t my main issue with social media. No it is the simple fact that it has actively led to me feeling a lot more anxious than I should be given that I have pretty good life with a job I love, friends that I can count on and good health. 

Indeed being of a rather nervous disposition anyway I have often agonised for hours why a pic wasn’t getting as many likes as it should in my eyes (especially after spending even more time debating which filter to apply and which final image to pick), wondered why certain bloggers had gained hundreds of thousands of followers since I started and I was hovering at the 5k mark for years (though I do believe in quality not quantity) and on a more every day level caught myself questioning whether I have done something wrong or have been a bad friend when I saw friends posting insta stories galore but was yet to receive a reply to a WhatsApp sent days earlier to them. 

The worst thing about all this worrying?! It achieves absolutely nothing and is a complete waste of time and energy. It’s kept me up at night more times than I’d liked to admit, based on some kind of FOMO whether it’s about where I am with my career or friendships and sometimes boils down to the simple desire to be validated, accepted and loved. The problem of course is that true happiness and being validated by others doesn’t come from someone pressing “like” on some picture that in no way reflects reality, it comes from within and from the people that really care about you, that don’t exist through a screen but open a bottle of wine with you when you’ve had a terrible day at work. 

Ignorance is bliss and I feel our generation has sadly lost this privilege. I for one don’t need to always see the things that I am “missing out” on. 2018 will be the year when I don’t eagerly wait for a reply the minute I see a double blue tick on WhatsApp and worry what I have done wrong when I don’t get one, or count the likes on every post as if my life depended on it.

Of course I will still post on social media because I love wearing my outfits, eating delicious food, travelling and documenting it all with my snazzy iPhone X, and of course I still work in the industry and i have to hope it stays around to keep me employed but social media and our digital world should be about connecting with people and sharing ideas not, as I have felt a lot last year, about making us more lonely and anxious than ever before.

PINK & YELLOW

Jumper / Zara
Dress / Missguided
Boots / Topshop