A concealer that's as good as a night's sleep!

So tomorrow morning I have to get up around 5:30am. Not looking forward it!

As well as occasional lack of sleep, I also inherited a propesity to dark circles under my eyes. So, I've been a keen fan of concealer since my teens. I've tried various brands and styles from the cheap but effective Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer toYves Saint Laurent and  Estee Lauder's Double Wear.

On our recent trip to Budapest, we ended up with a fair bit of the local currency to get rid of. Lovely husband suggested a trip to Duty Free. I deliberated for ages and eventually snapped up Clinique's Airbrush Concealer. Gosh, I'm glad I did! Somehow a few light brush strokes magically make my black circles vanish into a soft radiant skin colour.

I was a bit worried that it wouldn't provide enough coverage and stay on all day, but it's fine on blemish scars and it lasts well on my sometimes oily skin. 

Clinique isn't infallible (some of their skin care is useless) but I have found some absolute treats in the make-up. 

Sadly the Airbrush Concealer only comes in a few very light shades, but if it'll suit your skin, I say get your mitts on some!

The Two Faces of January - stylish summer inspiration

I saw 'The Two Faces of January' recently - it's a great movie, go and see it! Also, it's an intensely stylish movie with bespoke costumes by Steven Noble. I'm not a blonde so I might need to change the colours, but I coveted everything Kirstin Dunst wore. The film is set in Greece in the 60s and she plays the wife of a rich man so she's all about classy shift dresses.

 We first see her in a beautiful belted primrose yellow sundress with matching hat. That boat-neck is so flattering and the colour is lovely on her.

 We also see her in a summery brownish tartan dress and flat sandals. Those sunglasses are totally wearable today. I would totally wear that whole outfit. The dress is just up my alley with the sweetheart neckline, short sleeves, pulled in waist and below the knee length skirt. Sigh!

I couldn't find a picture of Kirstin wearing it, but this greyish, beige-ish shift dress was lovely. It's a very 60's shape.














 So, I had a wee look around Polyvore to see if I could find some similar-ish dresses to those the Kirstin wore. Some of my picks are crazy-expensive designer things, but we can use them as inspiration, can't we?

Two Faces of January - Kirstin Dunst inspiration by eleanorbirdy

The perfect work dress

So I have this dress. I got in on a massive discount from an outlet store to wear to Ascot and a wedding. It's from Jaeger and it is the perfect dress. It's a raspberry/ burgandy/ cerise colour and is on the knee and well tailoured with short sleeves. The dress is made of a nice thick fabric that skims over the body and is machine washable.

As well as formal social events, I've worn it to (successful) job interviews and just generally to work in both winter and summer. It goes with all sorts of colours and accessories.

I'm kind of thinking I could do with a few of these magic dresses as they make getting dressed in the morning so easy and they look so put-together. I've scouted out a few options below with slight variations. Most of them are way outside my price range, but I can scour the outlet stores and use them for inspiration.

I just need to make sure that I don't get sucked into something that:

• Has a pattern I'll get sick of
• Is too short or too low-cut or too tight
• Has fabric that isn't machine washable and no-iron
• Isn't too clingy, static-y or creasable

Only perfection will do! 

 

What is your formula for the perfect day dress?

Work dresses by eleanorbirdy

Style AND comfort?

Oh dear, I'm turning into my mother! In my younger years I swore I'd stay in my high heels and generally not forsake style for comfort. But I'm afraid the tide is turning.

Patti of the excellent blog Not Dead Yet Style recently posted about comfortable clothing and I found myself identifying with many of her points. Her post made me think about why some of my clothing, shoes and accessories just don't work. Comfort is a key factor.

Below are is a picture with approximations of things I've bought but am either sending to the charity shop or just not wearing because they're not comfortable enough.

Big, heavy jewellery just doesn't get worn, no matter how pretty it is. Just today I removed a couple of strands of a multi-strand cut glass bead necklace. It looked stunning with the whole set of five glittering strands but it was just too heavy so I didn't wear it. Better to have three strands and a wearable weight. 

Uncomfortable things/ failed purchases by eleanorbirdy 

The platform booties are there because they really weren't comfortable enough for miles of walking during a weekend, the fur trim made them too seasonally specific and they were too casual for even relaxed work days. A good idea but just didn't work for my lifestyle. I do still wear heels (even stilettos) but not above about 3 inches and only for office work. Also, I'm really fond of the less-frumpy shoes from comfy brands like Clarks and Footglove from M & S.

The dress was also a good idea (in fact I have several similar ones) but somehow the hemlines seem to magically shrink. This is a psychological comfort issue. I am not comfortable with my thighs on display. 

I really don't know what it is with the hems on dresses but I often have this issue. Do I pull them down when I'm trying them on in the shop? Or not walk around enough to check if they ride up? Do they shrink in the wash? Is it me getting fatter or just less confident? Anyway, I now have several floral print jersey dresses that I'm not wearing. I'm keeping them in the hope that something might change. What, I don't know... I just can't bring myself to send them to the charity shop yet.

One last thing that always turns out to be a shopping fail are tops that need ironing. They're not uncomfortable of course, I just don't iron so they hang around unworn for months on end. A shocking waste. I must train myself not to buy tops that need ironing. (Or start ironing, you say? Pshaw, get away with you!). 

Where do you stand on the comfort versus prettiness spectrum? Do have shopping traps that you regularly fall into?

Shopping bargains!

Ooh, I had a good shop yesterday! I got some lovely bargains that I thought I'd share with you...

I had a do yesterday evening and thought I'd have a browse around to see if I could find a nice new top to wear. I managed to find a whole new outfit of things that I'm sure I'll get plenty of wear out of. First of all, the top.

On my screen this Warehouse top looks black, but it's actually midnight blue with sparkly threads in the knit. It's in a batwing style with a short zip at the neckline on the back. I love the colour and the combination of casual and dressy. Also, it's reasonably warm for going out on winter nights. I think it'll be really useful.

I needed to replace my black work trousers and these Reiss trousers were hugely discounted. If you're looking to buy them be warned, I had to go a size down from my usual size and even then they're a bit loose around the hips. On the positive side, they're the right length for me (I'm around 5'4), machine washable, comfy stretch material and they look fine under knee high boots for smart-casual work wear.

Last night I wore them with the blue top for a cocktail do at a friends' house and going out to a bar.

Edited to add: I now know why they were so cheap - the fabric is developing snags after only two days on.

My most bargain-licious purchase was this Mango coat for just 20 pounds! It's mostly synthetic fibres and not suitable for really cold weather but ideal for coming into spring. It looks good wrapped around instead of buttoned with a black belt pulling the waist in. Or I can just embrace the over sized boxy-ness of it. It'll go beautifully with my black and white check skirt and my black and white leopard print scarf but I'll wear it over everything as it's quite neutral.

So that's my weekend's spoils. They've already been put to good use so I think they'll prove to be wise investments.





Let me know what you think of my bargains or if you've snapped up any treats recently in the comments below.

Visit Copenhagen? Maybe I'm getting jaded...

It was my lovely husband's birthday last weekend. He's fond of travel so I popped onto friend internet to see where we could go on a cheap flight. Copenhagen looked good. I booked flights and a few weeks later we hopped on a plane.

Pros:
* Delicious food with some new tastes - we ate a cake with a creamy topping made with sea buckthorn berries.

* The royal family lives right in the centre of town and there's quite a nice museum with lots of royal history right next to their house.

* The National Museum has lots of interesting Viking things with all captions in English (and it's warm inside!)

They threw lots of things in a bog as sacrifices - helpful for future generations to ogle!

* Magasin du Nord is an attractive (and warm!) department store with good food at the restaurant in the basement. We had fried fish, dark rye bread, salad and chunky skin-on chips for dinner. I got a couple of fine merino wool cardigans for 50% off the normal price.

Magasin du Nord

Yum dinner!

 * The free walking tour was a good way to orientate ourselves to the city and learn a bit of history. Two and a half hours outside in the wind was a bit much, though.

Brrr!

Nyhavn (New Harbour)

King Frederik's Church - he wanted somewhere posh to go on a Sunday so he built this.

* Everyone spoke English - helpful as we don't speak a word of Danish!

* Clean and safe - we felt perfectly safe walking around the city, in fact we were often the only pedestrians! There were a few people on bikes, but the city seemed reasonably empty of people (or maybe they were all huddling at home in the warm).

Cons:
* Cold! -4 with a -11 windchill and only a light dusting of snow on the second day to cheer us up (we like snow).

Icy river!

* Grey - Copenhagen seemed to a city made of grey pavements and squares, grey buildings and grey skies with hardly any trees or vegetation generally. There was a little more colour down by the harbour but where we were was a deserted grey plain with hardly even a pedestrian to break the monotony.

* Cost - we knew Copenhagen would be pretty expensive when it came to eating out, but it meant that I felt kind of hungry most of the time I was there as I didn't feel I could justify ordering enough food. We did manage to find a nice coffee chain called Baresso who did reasonably priced food and hot drinks. Coffee was definitely better in Copenhagen than in England - sorry England, you're just not great at coffee. On the plus side of the cost issue, our hotel was a good quality budget hotel for a very reasonable price.

* The Tivoli amusement park was closed for the winter. I'm not normally an amusement park kind of girl, but this one opened in 1843 and looked (from the outside) pretty amazing.

Dry fountain with Tivoli in the background

All in all, I guess I'd give Copenhagen a six out of 10. It's not quite as good a European city break as somewhere like Bruges in Belgium, but it would probably get a better score from me in spring or autumn when it's not so cooooold! 

Any suggestions on where we should go next?

Fixing wardrobe holes

After Saturday's useful wardrobe sorting exercise, I worked out a short list of things I need to fill in some gaps in my working wardrobe.

I had a few hours in scouring shops this afternoon with my mental list at the forefront of my mind. I could hunt and gather much more quickly and easily than usual. I have triumphantly carried home some useful items.

Firstly, a black and white check skirt to go with my pink cardigan, grey cardigan (and of course all my black tops). This is the third skirt in this shape I've bought from M & S over the past couple of years. The slightly longer (21 inch) A-line mini really works for me. I've linked to their website as I couldn't get a decent picture of the skirt.

Secondly, I found a couple of easy care, easy wear dresses. These were both on sale - the burgundy one from Oasis was only 10 pounds! The black and beige one is Billie & Blossom from Dorothy Perkins. I've got another dress by Billie & Blossom which has proved to be comfortable and flattering. The dress washes well and doesn't need ironing, which is also a bonus. Both of them will go beautifully with a pale pink or grey cardie over the top.

The only thing I failed to find from my list was a nice grey top. There wasn't much in the way of grey about and the things I found just weren't right. I'll keep my eyes peeled and see how I go...

Anyway, a good day's shopping, I think!

A sneak peek at my stupid wardrobe

So I've been going through a 'I have nothing to wear to work' patch over the past month or so. I do find that the weather in England changes so much that I kind of need to change my outfits every six weeks or so. New Zealand had a lot less seasonal variation. It's not quite the dead of winter now, but it had changed enough since autumn that it was time for a re-think.

 I got inspired this morning and pulled out all my work clothes. This is all my work 'bottoms' i.e. skirts and trousers. As you can see, it's a stupid collection - basically nothing in the way of neutrals and only two pairs of trousers.

I did have a pair of black jacquard trousers which recently wore out that I haven't yet replaced. I also recently got rid of a pair of grey trousers that were a bit big and very frumpy. I have just put that fuchsia-coloured satin skirt in the charity shop bag as it's too short and just not the right style for anything.

I took a close up so you can see these trousers are cobalt blue and black pattern. I really like them and they fit well.

My other favourites out of this lot are the two wool mini skirts (red and purple) from M & S. They're just above the knee on me, warm and flattering. I wear them all the time for work and also a bit of casual going out or weekends.

 So, then I added in all my tops that were warm enough to be worn as stand alone pieces (i.e. not t shirts or tops that are just worn as under-layers).

As you can see, I've got a lot of blue and blue-green/ jade colours. I've also got even more black tops than I show here (which makes sense with all those colourful bottoms).

The pale pink wool cardigan is clearly a bit of a wardrobe orphan. I need to get some bottoms to go with it. I do have a nice plum coloured dress with a beige pattern that goes nicely with the pink cardie.

Here are all the clothes with helpful accessories. The pastel coloured necklace makes the pale pink cardigan more modern. I also got a blue/grey/mauve statement necklace which I should make use of with my blue and pale coloured tops. The patterned velvet scarf you can just see with the blue stuff is brilliant as it has mauve and red it in on a black base so it goes with lots of my clothes.

Through this exercise, I realised that my floral patterned Polish scarf would go very nicely with my red skirt and white jumper.

Unfortunately the bright red scarf and belt clash nastily with the deeper red skirt. I either need to buy a new scarf or just wear the scarf and belt as a pop over a neutral outfit. 

I've had those dark turquoise shoes for ages and haven't worn them much as a) the colour is tricky to style and b) they're half a size too tight. Still, seeing them there makes me think I should make some more use of them. They are a really cute 1940's design.








So, after this helpful exercise, it becomes clear that I need just a few things to make my work wardrobe work.

• At least one grey top nice enough to wear on its own but suitable for layering under my pale grey cashmere cardigan. 
• At least one or two more work dresses - knee length, comfy, with sleeves, machine washable. 
• Bottoms to go with the pale pink cardigan - a tweedy greyish skirt? a pair of grey trousers that somehow aren't too boring?

My challenge is that I have two workplaces with quite different requirements.

Workplace one:
- Need shoes suitable for walking 20 minutes to work and back (mainly my knee high riding boots in winter which don't work with some trousers)
- More casual environment with potential for getting a bit dirty
- Cold and possibly wet on the way to work, medium temperature in the office

Workplace two:
- Driving and sitting so I can wear heels
- Often roastingly hot during winter as the heating is on so high
- Can be cold in meeting rooms and if I got out for a walk at lunch
- More formal environment

Anyway, if you haven't done this exercise, I do recommend it. I found it enlightening.  After today I've cleared out a bag of things that just weren't working and I've now got a shopping list. I'll let you know how I get on.

Scent-ual memories

In response to the Duchesse's lovely post about how perfumes have changed, I thought I'd share some of my smelly thoughts.

I still mourn the loss of Parfum d'ete by Kenzo. I wore it daily for about a year until the I used up my bottle. The original version was light enough for daytime, but complex and lush. It smelt to me like a bunch of very fresh flowers from an expensive florist that had just been misted with water.It lasted all day and worked layered on a bit more heavily for evening.

The new version just isn't as interesting - lighter, more synthetic-smelling, not up to par.

I still have my bottle of Estee Lauder's Youth Dew from 10+ years ago as it's such a strong evening scent that I don't wear it much. I love it though - it makes me feel confident and strong and sexy. It's a smokey, musky sort of smell that reminds me of an outfit like a feminine cut tuxedo with nothing underneath.

I've never liked the name, but I'm glad I've still got the perfume to enjoy on special occasions.

Since Parfum d'ete I've never really found one good daytime scent. I've experimented with various light florals i.e. White Gardinia from the Body Shop is nice for summer and the Rose 4 Reines Eau de Toilette from L'Occitane is nice, but a bit sweet at times. I love the packaging of the Penhaligons samplers I got for my birthday, but the actual scents are mostly a bit sweet and powdery for me.

I inherited Coco Madmoiselle by Chanel from my mum. It's not one I would have thought of for myself, but it does kind of work for daytime and it certainly works for evening. It's fairly strong and a bit 'chemical' in some ways, but I like the complexity of the scent and the way it changes. I particularly like how it smells after a few hour's wear, sort of warm and slightly musky or spicy.

I find the packaging a bit bland for the price, but I guess that 'simple, sleek' thing is Chanel's brand. Basically, I'm a bit up in the air about this one.




 

Mum did get it right with a favourite perfume that I wouldn't have chosen for myself - Classique by Jean Paul Gaultier. I prefer the perfume, rather than the eau de toilette as I think the perfume as got more warm, slightly musky, vanilla-y notes, especially when it's been worn for a few hours.  

I was given a travel sized set of four different Gaultier perfumes and I've recently used up both the perfume and EDT of Classique so I think I need a full sized one. Luckily it's common enough to be widely available and often on special. I hope it's being made to the same recipe as a few years ago or else I'm going to be disappointed.

What about you - any suggestions? What are your favourites?

TKMaxx - my happy place

How much do I love TKMaxx? Well, let's just say that I can spend a good three hours browsing around our reasonably small store in Bristol. I also love saving money (of course!) and finding good new designers. I tend not to look at the clothes as I find the quantity and randomness a bit overwhelming but I love the handbags and scarves and beauty products.

Like these, but dark purple...

I popped in last week for a quick look around and lucked out with some lovely purple leather gloves. The exact same brand and style was 16 pounds in Debenhems - 12 pounds in TKMaxx. Thanks guys!

And I'm currently wearing a lovely scarf by Cynthia Rowley. I'd never heard of her, but I got an excellent greenish peacock feather printed summer scarf a few months ago and now I've got this little beauty for my collection too.

It's reversible - one side black with cobalt blue polka dots, the other side black with a multi-coloured paisley pattern on velvet. It's got lots of useful colours in the paisley to go with a range of outfits. It seems like they'd Cynthia Rowley scarves would pretty expensive as her clothes aren't cheap, but I can't find any of her scarves anywhere on the internet. I guess they must be old stock. Suits me if I get them cheap!

I've also been introduced to Jane Shilton by TKMaxx. Again, I'd never heard of her as a designer, but I got a cute little boxy cream and chestnut brown leather bag by her for summer. Just recently for my birthday I got the little number in the picture to the left. It's nicer than it looks in this photo - leather with a textured fabric bit on the front. It's about 30cm long, so big enough for the essentials but small enough to be light to carry. I do like a cross-body strap to keep my hands free as I'm walking. And yes, purple is one of my favourite colours.

A couple of months ago (having run out of my usual duty free Clinique), I treated myself to some Elizabeth Arden skincare. I'd never used her stuff, but now I'm a fan.

I got the Visible Difference Optimizing Serum Set. The exfoliating cleanser, serum and moisturiser work together beautifully to make a visible difference (the product does what it says on the tin!). My skin looks plumper with fine dry wrinkles smoothed out (temporarily, or course but the SPF 15 helps with reducing sun damage as well). They're only 30ml but as I say, I've been using them about every second day for a couple months and I haven't run out yet. For only 20 pounds instead of around 40-60 pounds elsewhere, I'm pretty pleased.

So yay for TKMaxx! Have you found any nice bargains recently?

WHY is buying a car so hard?

So I've just been through the car purchasing process and am moved to ask WHY is buying a car so damn hard?

I might be coming a little late to this pain as I didn't really have this problem in New Zealand. My lovely brother is a mechanic and he was very helpful with car buying. He looked over cars we were interested in and sometimes even just presented me with a car and saying 'buy that one' (which I did and it was great).

Moving to the UK a couple of years ago, I needed a car urgently for work. I bought one off a mechanic recommended by a friend. I felt a bit ripped off as I paid at least 400 pounds too much for an old car with high mileage, absolutely no mod-cons and a leak that dumped cups of water onto the front footwells. However, I begin to think that I got off lightly. At least that car was mechanically sound and did me 20,000 miles of reasonably trouble-free driving (except for the time that the engine exploded in the fast lane of the motorway... and the leaks that led to it fogging up so badly I had to drive with a squeegee in my hand).

Anyway, we thought it was time to get a safer, comfier car for winter driving on my a long commute. We saved up and started looking around online. On Saturday we looked at a rubbishy one in Wales from a private seller then just had time to get to a car dealer a bit further away before they closed for the day. We managed to look at the car but not test drive it as they said that they needed a staff member to go in the car and there was only one guy on. Great! We had a good look around the car and all the signs were propitious. We arranged to come back the on Sunday for a test drive. By the way, it was over an hour's drive and we had to pay the not particularly cheap bridge toll each time. AND it was howling a gale by the time we drove back.

It was still cold and stormy the next day when we headed back and managed to test drive the car (without a staff member in the car, fancy that! I think he just couldn't be bothered on Saturday. Or he was testing how committed we were...).

During the test drive there was a knocking sound in first gear but we thought (hoped) that might be from a loose inner wheel cover thingy. We were told the car was 'Category D' but didn't really know what that meant.  The dealer said he didn't know what was wrong with the car that it had been written off by the insurance company. We had a thorough look around and couldn't see any damage. We tried to negotiate on price and suddenly, the friendly nice car dealer turned on an instant! Not a jot was coming off the price!

We discussed it for a while and finally decided to buy the car. We put down a deposit and hurried out of the cold rain into a cafe to warm up.

Of course when I got home and started searching 'Category D' my heart sank. We debated for a couple of days whether to pull out, try to get a mechanical check and pull out if it was no good or to just go through with it. We decided to go through with it.

We had another drive over the bridge and through the rain into Wales to pick it up later that week. (Don't tell anyone I said this, but I think it always rains in Wales.) Anyway, the car seemed okay except for the rattling in first gear.

In order to find out what the 'Category D' issues were, I booked it into the mechanic as soon as I could for a thorough check over. A few hours after I dropped it off I got the phone call from the mechanic. He asked how recently I'd bought it then bluntly said, "Take it back". I explained that I'd foolishly bought it as a written off car so I couldn't take it back. Besides, on paper it was a great car and car buying is so goddamn awful I didn't want to go through it again!

Basically the car had been in a reasonably big collision hitting the front driver's side area. The driver's side front wheel was inches back from where it should be, the whole engine had been pushed back and the shock absorber was busted. Lots of money later, my new car is more or less sound and safe to drive.

Here's hoping I get to drive it for quite a while so I don't have to go through the hell of buying a new car anytime soon!

So, I've learned that it's essential to get a mechanical check BEFORE committing to buy the car! Have you got any tips or horror stories to share?

How much is enough?

There has been a lot talk recently about simplicity, quality not quantity and ethical shopping. I've been wondering, as I build my winter wardrobe... how much is enough?

I can't fit all my shoes in the bottom of my wardrobe yet I just put a pair of ankle boots in an online shopping trolley. My jumpers are bulging out of my jumper drawer, yet I struggle to find five tops to wear for a working week. Should I follow the common wisdom of spending eye watering amounts on a few perfect items and wearing them to death?

Well, no I couldn't bring myself to do that. I enjoy variety so I'd be bored silly. Plus, I think that no matter how hard you try, there will be some shopping mistakes. It'd be gutting to buy something super-expensive that just didn't work.

Janice from the brilliant blog The Vivienne Files recently posted that the real power shopping is:

Purchase
Only
When
Everything is
Right

She is so right and I do try to follow this advice. I also have regularly clear outs and donate stuff to a local charity shop. Still... I struggle and I wonder how much is enough? How many dresses? How many skirts? How many shoes?

I think part of the problem is that there are so many niches. I bought wellies (gumboots) but I only wear them a few times a year. They're really useful, but they take up a lot of space.

I have grey ankle boots and beige ankle boots, but I could really do with some black ones too. (Actually I shouldn't have bought the beige ones - They're not as useful as I thought they might be).I have high heels in many of the colours of the rainbow, but I could collect dozens more to go with various outfits.

Recently we had a small cocktail party without all the equipment that we left behind in New Zealand - no cocktail shaker, no martini glasses or crystal tumblers, no fairy lights, no plastic ice cubes or wineglass charms... and you know what? It was fine.

Maybe another learning is that making do and multi-tasking and maybe even being slightly wrong are okay. What do you think?