Thursday 29 March 2012

"Primadonna life the rise and fall"

Playsuit: TK Maxx//Watch: ASOS//Necklace: Urban Outfitters

Like everyone else up and down the country this gorgeous weather has thrown everyone into a phase of wardrobe dilemma- bring out the summery clothes? Or suffer slowly in your winter ones? Loved seeing what people have brought over the past few days to look stylish in the spring/summer trends. I decided it's still not quite hot enough to get both my legs and arms out so today I reached for my trusty play-suit and teamed it with tights. I got this at the beginning of last summer on an impromptu trip to the local TK Maxx with friends. I always used to be very cynical about TK Maxx, the one near me back home is pretty awful and stocks brands you have never heard of before. However, this one near my uni was amazingly well stocked and with plenty of things on offer. I snapped this up for £15- I love the bow and dot print whilst the white lacey trim gives it an extra something along with the flattering drawn in waistline.(I'm a sucker for patterns, prints and lace!)

Now when I see TK Maxx adverts promoting that they go "direct from the designer to you" I no longer grumble and instead get quite excited! Whilst this dress is made by a brand I had never heard of TK Maxx were stocking items like Hunter wellies (SQUEAL- very exciting to a country girl like me), Crew Clothing and an impressive selection of beauty and hair-care products. One of my best friends never ceases to amaze me when she tells me her latest cardigan, shoes etc are from there! If you want a bargain and are not after something too specific then TK Maxx really can be a rewarding shopping experience and it's nice knowing that not everyone will have what you are buying too!

I think the quality and the range of the products really does vary from store to store (I'm convinced Londoners get the best choice)! Have any of you bought any bargains in TK Maxx? Or are you a bit cynical like I used to be? xxx

Wednesday 28 March 2012

Versatile Blogger Award



Firstly I would like to thank (crikey I promise this isn't an Oscars speech) Bek over at Rose Paddle for awarding me the Versatile Blogger Award! She has a lovely blog, I am an avid follower and I recommend you pay it a visit. Considering I've only been blogging since January this year which was on a complete whim I am overwhelmed that people read my little space of the internet and seem to enjoy it.

I love reading everyone's blogs and seeing what everyone is wearing, reading reviews. I had no idea how lovely the blogging community is, I really appreciate everyone's comments!

So now onto the 'rules' of the award:
  • Thank who nominated you with a link back to their blog (tick)
  • Reveal 7 facts about yourself
  • Nominate 9 blogs and pass on the award to them.
7 Facts about me!
  • I'm studying Classics and Archaeology at University after originally studying Business Administration and changing after 3 weeks (yes I know neither are related to fashion or beauty at all, but I love it!).
  • Only my closest friends know that I have started this blog as I want to keep it personal to me and fellow bloggers.
  • I have a cat called Ted and a dog called Mallon, Ted is convinced that he is a dog and the same size as Mallon.
  • I hate fizzy drinks like Coca Cola, Pepsi, Fanta etc!
  • My dream is to own a Mulberry handbag.....(one day!).
  • I'm pretty good at impersonating accents.
  • My favourite TV programmes are Homeland and New Girl.
My 9 recommended blogs:

There you have it, be sure to check all of these out, there is a real mix of fashion, beauty, lifestyle and baking! Thank you very much again to everyone who reads my blog :) xx

Sunday 25 March 2012

"Warm in the cold night air" - Rachel's week

Hi everyone! Rather than doing lots of mini little posts I thought I would collate this weeks happenings into one. Has everyone been enjoying the sunny weather this weekend? I had a lovely shop around Canterbury yesterday.

1) Obviously this isn't me! But I wanted to share with everyone how lovely my friend Alice looked on Friday night before she went out for the evening. I did her hair,  after several failed attempts at creating curls with straighteners on previous nights out we were adamant we would finally crack the technique.....and we did! It took a lot of patience but she looked great in the end.

2) + 3) These are my belated Valentines presents from my boyfriend that arrived yesterday! He asked way back in February what I wanted so I suggested a watch. The one that he initially got me though from Urban Outfitters was meant to have the letter 'R' on the face of the watch, instead they sent an 'F' after weeks of telephoning they finally said they didn't have any more watches with the 'R' (so annoying and a useless customer service department). But this is the happy ending, he found me an alternative and I now have this beautiful watch from ASOS (and the pretty earrings in pic 3 too- I'm a lucky girl).

4) This was my face of the evening for a meal out with friends on Thursday night, we had the most amazing Chinese and Indian food (all you can eat as well- BONUS for a greedy person like me!). I had dyed my hair the day beforehand and it has gone a lot darker than what I was actually hoping for, it's growing on me though! (I used Dark Chocolate by L'oreal Casting Creme Gloss). See pic below for my full outfit! It's difficult to tell from the picture but the skirt is actually covered in black sequins. I've had the skirt for years and never had a suitable top to wear with it but after re-discovering it last week I was adamant on wearing it so Alice kindly lent me the her white t-shirt from Topshop. Does anyone else have a sequin skirt? 


5) A pic of me and my friends out at the meal enjoying our cocktails (I decided to let my hair down after taking the initial pic in number 4 but it was the same night!).

6) These cheeky things have been keeping me going with my essay all week, the excuse of it practically being Easter seems to be just about justifying it. What are everyone's favourite sweet treat?

T-shirt: Topshop, Skirt: H+M, Necklace: Topshop, Bracelet: Urban Outfitters

Also I've recently got back into Twitter, if any of you want to follow me I'm @racheleprior xx

Friday 23 March 2012

Spring pumps and playlist

(Shoes: Primark Jeans: Gilly Hicks)

These are my new beauties, aren't they cute! I bought them on my way back to uni on Monday (have to cut through Stratford Westfield to get to one station from another), my feet were roasting in my winter brogues so I paid a quick tactful trip into Primark. It must have been about 6 months from when I last bought something from there as I'm never convinced by the quality (and the so-called ethical production of the goods). But I could not resist these as they were only £6. It's a little bit tricky to tell from my picture but they have blue and white stripes all over them with a dark brown lace going around the shoe. I'm going to be truthful and accept that they probably aren't going to last me all of the summer but for now I have some cute little pumps that go with practically everything! Do any of you buy shoes from Primark? Or do you prefer to invest in more expensive ones?

Also I thought I would share with everyone a little spring playlist of songs that I am loving at the moment (both old and new). If any-one has any recommendations or know of any really good covers I'd love to know!

1) The Holloways- Two Left Feet. This is such an up-beat tune and I can never seem to listen to it without bopping along (have recieved some very odd looks whilst doing this in public).
2) Ben Howard - Only Love: My obsession with this man is probably unhealthy BUT he is an amazing singer and this is a great song (this is a great acoustic version!).
3) King Charles - Bam Bam: This is a pretty recent song from King Charles (noooo he isn't a dog or our future king!) seems nice and suitable for the better weather at the moment and another one you can't help but bop along to, WARNING this gets stuck in your head very easily!
4) Lana Del Rey - Blue Jeans: This girl can do no wrong in my eyes and I'm loving the remastered version of this on her album plus she has got a hottie with her in the music video!
5) Young the Giant - Cough Syrup: Credit for my knowledge of this song has to go to the boyfriend for playing this song relentlessly and getting stuck in my head, growing on me and ending up loving it. Genius chorus.
6) Marina and the Diamonds - Primadonna: Not too sure about her new hair'do but this is a nice summery tune and love the range of her vocals!

There you have it my mini spring playlist. Upcoming post over the weekend about my new hair (slight hair dye mishap!) xx

Sunday 18 March 2012

Tea Dress and Scones

Dress: Republic (belt included), Leggings: Topshop, Boots: New Look

Happy Mothers' Day everyone! Have you all been spoiling your mummies? I love reading everyone's Sunday round-ups at the end of the week so I've decided to do my own too. This is me wearing my newest buy- a dress from Republic. I was feeling particularly stressed with uni work so went for a little shop in Canterbury to cheer myself up and I found this gem in Republic in the sale (£15 rather than £25!). It's now referred to by my sister as my 'Pocahontas' dress, but hey I love the film so I'm more than happy to work that look. The belt has some beads and feathers at the ends which adds a nice touch. This is going to go through into spring and summer with me as it also works without tights and leggings.

I said in my post last weekend that I was going to be in a play on wednesday, it went really well and everyone that came to watch said they enjoyed it (brownie points awarded to the boyfriend!). Don't know if anyone is familiar with ancient Greek plays but they tend to be pretty rude, so it was a good giggle! Below is a picture of me and some of the others that starred in the play in our costumes (I'm in the bottom right with a flower in my hair).


Yesterday I went with my Mum and sister to Aldeburgh (seaside town in Suffolk) or 'Chelsea by the sea' as locals refer to it as due to the amount of Londoners that have second homes there! The weather really wasn't great so we didn't even make it onto the beach and instead took shelter in a gorgeous tea room. It had a lovely vintage theme to it (with an amusing range of tea coseys available) and I had the most gorgeous cream tea. 

So all in all I've had a really good week, and I hope everyone else has too! Where are everyone's favourite seaside towns? xx

My sister and the tea coseys!

Friday 16 March 2012

Zebra crossing

After my first attempt at nail art I've been looking out for more inspiration ever since, I bought this 'Nail Rocks' kit from Topshop as the idea of being able to apply them with no glue seemed perfect for a lazy beauty addict like myself!
I'm back home in the countryside for the weekend and so decided to indulge in a bit of pamper with my sister. Here is how my nails turned out:
I really recommend these! There is no way I have a steady enough hand to have achieved this with just nail varnish...and the smoothness of the stickers means no bumps and I'm less likely to pick at them! Although you have to trim them to suit the length and width of your nails it isn't too much of a faff! With student discount these came to about £5.80 which I don't think is too bad for a special treat, it will be interesting to see how long these last for.

Has anyone else tried these nail wraps? Or any other similar products? Would love to get some recommendations! Also thank you so much everyone for your lovely comments on my last post, have read them all and it is definitely spurring me on to blog more! xxx

Saturday 10 March 2012

A little bit of colour!

Cardigan: New Look, Heart peter pan blouse: Topshop, Blue trousers: New Look

Hello! First of all credit must go to my house-mate Tom for taking this photo, my camera is misbehaving and doesn't like indoor settings, he took this on his professional camera (he has his own blog too with some amazing photography which you can see by clicking here- check it out!).

This is one of my favourite outfits at the moment as its suitable for all the changeable weather we have been having! I love this Topshop blouse so much, its really versatile but I haven't plucked up the courage to wear it without a top underneath it! The peter pan collar seals the deal and all in all makes it a firm girlie/flirtie fave of mine! I snapped up these trousers a couple of weeks back (they are an even more vibrant blue in real life!), I seem to live in dresses and shorts so these make a nice change. I'm loving all the different colours available at the moment, we're spoilt for choice! Really want to get a red pair too. These are from New Look and I got a size 8, I find their sizes come up really big though so have to wear a belt with them! Also I have seen several posts of people wearing pastel colour trousers and they look really nice too, think its safe to say plain old jeans are going to be feeling very left out this spring/summer! What is everyone's verdict on the battle of BRIGHTS vs PASTELS?

I've had a busy old week with rehearsals everyday for a play I'm in next week (fingers crossed I'm not going to forget my lines!!), I have never done acting before so it has been nice to go out of my comfort zone. Have any of you done any acting/plays/drama before? Tonight I am attempting to make something a bit more adventurous for dinner rather than good old reliable pasta and making my boyfriend and me sausage casserole with sweet potato wedges....shall hopefully turn out ok!

Here is my song of this post, I'm sure everyone is familiar with the Temper Trap who sang the amazing 'Sweet Disposition' (y'know in 500 Days of Summer) anyways they are making a comeback and this song is off their new album- very excited! Thoughts everyone on it? As good as the older ones? Have a lovely weekend! xxx

Sunday 4 March 2012

Clinique review

One of my first posts (click here) I did when I started this blog back in January was about my experience at a Clinique counter and buying some of their products. I bought the '3 step routine' which is unsurprisingly a 3 step treatment of facial soap, clarifying lotion and a cleanser and 'City block sheer' a facial moisturiser with SPF 25. The woman that gave me my consultation was adamant that the '3 step routine' would only last me 2 weeks as it was in the smallest size they did and what she called 'trial-run size' but two months later and I still have half of all the products left! 

After about a month into using the products I wasn't sure if they were actually working so I stopped the routine for a couple of days and instantly had a break-out! So I quickly started using them again. Whilst my skin isn't flawless now I am certain it is better than it was, the combination of the products (can't quite pin-point if there is one in particular that is better than the others) has given me smaller pores, less redness, and no more of the dreaded shine! 

(The '3 Step' products, excuse the rubbish quality! My camera is misbehaving at the moment)

As I had a non-existent beauty regime before I started using these Clinique products I must admit that it has been a lot easier than I was expecting to get into the routine of using the products daily. I have also got a lot stricter with myself in ensuring that I take off all of my eye-make up too before I go to bed (these Clinique products are quite strong and are not to be used on eyes!).

So if anyone is contemplating on what products work well for keeping a nice complexion and giving your face a healthy glow then I really recommend you try the Clinique '3 step' its so easy to go to a consultant desk in any department store (I recommend going to one in Debenhams as you can sign up to the beauty club card, I got 500 bonus points for my first purchase which is £5!). The Clinique consultants are really friendly and will be more than happy to tell you what skin type you are on their chart and which of the '3 steps' is perfect for you! 

Would love to know if any of you use the '3 step' too? Or any other Clinique products? Would love to get some recommendations!

Also here is my video for the post, thought that in-keeping with the whole face-care theme that 'Toothpaste Kisses' by The Maccabees was slightly relevant?! Plus they are an awesome band!