Wooo ok, it's been a LONG time since I've been on here! Am currently in the midst of fourth year university life, flitting like a hummingbird between Omeros, The Satanic Verses and an Arabic essay all due in for next week. Will hopefully immerse myself back into the world of fashion blogging soon, probably when I have a deadline the following day and I'm procrastinating in denial of it all!
In the meantime, the picture below was taken what seems like a decade ago and was my third submission for Lookbook, but I never got round to embedding on here. If you like, please hype!
Muchos gracias

The Magic Number

Topshop Eye Candy

Okey dokey, let's get back into the swing of things. First thing on the agenda is to apologise for how my lookbook picture in the post below has turned out. Too much to the right for my liking. If you want to see how it's meant to look, click on the lookbook link and check it out, maybe even give it a hype hehe. Plug plug shameless plug.

So I've decided this is going to be a generalised post on DUH DUH DUH ... makeup. It's not quite fashion, but makeup goes through trends just like clothes do, it's just that most of us like to stick to the looks we know and are comfortable with when it comes to decorating our faces. And in spite of what you might think, my knowledge of makeup and how it works is terribly miniscule. I only ever wear eyeliner (and on a night out, mascara) so that's all I really know about.

Zara's always had a makeup range sitting in their shops, Urban Outfitters have just introduced a whole new line, but I'm going to focus on one of the most highly anticipated assortments of makeup to hit the high street, Topshop Makeup. I may be a few months late in reviewing it, but at least we know what the real deal is now. Copious amounts of magazines praised and hyped the range before its release date was even published and it nabbed my attention. I'm one of the biggest Topshop freaks you'll ever meet - to use a cliche, I'm like a kid in a sweetshop everytime I enter it, so it gave me hope that their makeup would be on a par with their Imusthaveeverything clothes.

Topshop showcased their makeup collection on the catwalk and in true, quirky Topshop style, subverted the usual parade of glamourous Cindy Crawfords strutting down the catwalk, with models styled to look like wild, furry woodland 'brownies', complete with monobrows. Surprisngly they somewhat pulled it off, but I doubt I'll be copying it anytime soon.
I used my first purchase for my second look on lookbook.nu, although to be honest you can't see it too well in the pictures I used. So here's one I made earlier:



It's not a brilliant picture, but you can see a little bit of the colours I used. I bought a black eyeshadow crayon in Midnight. My verdict? Well, at £6 I thought it wasn't too badly priced, it's extremely easy to use and much less fiddly (for those who are less dexterous of hand) than the more conventional palettes of eyeshadow you find. Another plus point is that it can act as an eyeliner as well, which is how I used it. Any bad points? Only a minor one; allow it to settle for a bit otherwise it'll smudge onto your eyelids, which as you can see, is what happened to me. But if my beloved Look Magazine is anything to go by, I am unintentionally bang on trend. Apparently the smudged, poorly applied makeup look will be a big trend for seasons to come. (I'm not so certain of this, but let's pretend it will be, for my fashion credit's sake.)


So it's a thumbs up for the eyeshadow crayons. Midnight is good for that smokey effect, Orb (white) is good for dotting around the tear duct to make yourself look more awake, (a good tip I stole off a friend) Sea (turquoise/blue) is good for flashing some colour and brightening up eyes and Satchel (brown) suits the hazy romantic look that is so prominent today.

There you go, a Topshop Makeup winner. Now for a loser. Their Eyeliner. It's a deceptive little thing - you walk into the shop, tear yourself away from all the wondrous items of clothing in there and surrender to the intrigue that surrounds the Topshop Makeup stall. You pick up their black eyeliner - a staple of any cosmetics bag - inspect it, then pick up the tester version of it. Twist off the lid and draw a line on the back of your hand. You never actually try it on your face do you? Not eyeliner at least. I've never seen anyone stand there applying the tester eyeliner actually onto their eyes. This is where the deception craftily lurks. It comes in the form of a felt tip pen, accessible and easy to use and amusingly reminds you that you're actually just colouring your face in - and on the back of your hand appears a strong, thick black line that's hard to smudge.

My mother bought one and came to me the next day asking if I wanted to try it because it was so ineffective. The skin of the back of the hand and the eyelid must differ pretty significantly because as I found when I tried it, the ink refuses to come out of the pen and the end result is is that you look like you've used a felt tip pen that had run out about a month ago and have slovenly smeared it over your eyes. Topshop eyeliner: nil points.
If you want a good, cheaper alternative, go for Rimmel Exaggerate Waterproof Eye Definer. It's a twist pen so it saves on bothersome sharpening and has an eraser on the end to eradicate any mistakes made when applying it. I used this eyeliner in Aqua Sparkle, the blue colour which is around the corner of my eyes in the picture.

And now for one thing I haven't tried - it's not solely for the eyes but I'm intrigued by it. Oh yes, it's Mariah Careys best friend, GLITTER. We all have that angelic little eight year old still stuck inside of us somewhere, longing to be a mermaid when she grew up. This was a time when you thought if you chucked glitter all over yourself it instantly made you prettier. We've grown up now and hopefully know a bit better, but there's something still so appealing and feminine about glitter - when applied correctly. Glitter has the potential to look a bit over the top and draggy if it's piled on. But, as shown in the picture below, glitter can transform you into a smouldering hippie with cascading golden tears (poetic, non?) - a perfect look to get away with this festival season. In the picture a gold glitter is used on the face and if I were to try this out, it's the colour I'd like to experiment with as it's closer to a skin shade than the other colours available (Lagoon which is a blue colour and Gilt which is pink, a colour which is too reminiscent of the eight year old girl situation for my liking). Unfortunately, they've stopped selling the gold coloured glitter online and I haven't found it in any of the Topshops I've been into, even the Oxford Circus one. Sigh. My inner hippie and inner eight year old will have to wait.
It hasn't been the most balanced or diverse review, as I've only looked at three of their products - but to be fair, if I were to examine anymore products this post would mutate into something the length of a short novel. What I've gathered from the products I've tried and from what I've heard off friends and family is that the range is varied enough for you to experiment with new styles and looks without spending a fortune and it's vast enough to find amongst all the nicely packaged rough, a few trusty diamonds, that you'll definitely go back for more of.

They Call Me Mellow Yellow

Bare time, Bare legs

Wow. Ok, it's been a while since I've written on here, my reason being that the past month has been a mish mash of exams, a trip to France and summer vacation induced laziness. But do not fret, I am back with avengence - and with a particularly robust examination on both our best friends and worst enemies - our legs.

Displaying bare legs is usually an easy way to inject a bit of glamour to a look (when executed with a hint of ladylike poise of course) the determiner really of how good you look when showing off your pins is, in the infamous words of our fairy gokmother Gok Wan, that it's all about the confidence. Cringey. But true.

There's not much to aid us in showing off our legs in all their tightless glory, but it's when we cover them up that I begin to adopt some rules. Bare your midriff, live in your trackies, wear a watch on your ankle, really, dress how you want. But when it comes to leggings, that's when I start becoming a pretty massive judgmental snob. I warn you now, Ima go all preachy on you. I really am. I've even made some commandments - that's how strongly I feel about these special spandex creations.

Leggings for me are reminiscent of a time when you would've found me learning to tie my shoelaces, watching Power Rangers in the morning and pretending to be a princess in the living room. About six years old. I sadly don't indulge in such activities anymore. (Ok, maybe the last one). So I was quite amused when I noticed their formidable return to fashion and finding their new home to be in the women's section. I've never worn them because I don't think they'd look quite right on me, but you know what, they actually look quite good. Weren't expecting that were you? BUT (and I stress this but), you have to wear them right, otherwise you will have me rolling my eyes and growling like a terrier behind you.
LIKE YOU KELLY ROWLAND!



Ok, she doesn't look too bad. But I do think she could've improved vastly on this outfit. It may just be me with my mind in the gutter, but the first thought that popped up in my mind when viewing this photo was CROTCH.
Anybody else? If her top had just been an inch longer, she wouldn't be appearing on this page. It's just that tiny bit too short and unfortunately creates a tiny camel toe effect, not what you want to associate with a beauty like Miss Kelly. Perusing the rails in H&M the other day, I overheard a mother say to her teenage daughter: 'No Rachel, you can't wear that top with leggings, you need a long top.' This made me so ridiculously happy I actually wanted to go high five this supermum. Yes Rachel, do you really want to be drawing attention to your lady bits to the crazy public of Derby? I seriously hope not. I formed a discussion on lookbook to see what the fashion savvy had to say about it and the overwhelming response was 'I'd rather not see it.'

So, the first commandment of leggings is:

1. Thou shalt wear a top that covers your behind to banish unholy stares to the crotch area.

Some of you may be saying, but it's not like she's actually going about exposing herself, leggings keep you covered. To me, leggings are almost like tights. It would be improper if a girl was going about in tights wearing a top that didn't cover up her bum, right?
Now I'm going to contradict myself. You can get away with attiring yourself in leggings and a short top. What?! Yes. I didn't think it at first, but then I saw it with my own eyes when a few fashionable Leeds girls were sauntering about in town. I actually wish I'd stopped them now for a photo to put up on here. But here's the thing, their leggings were of good quality, thick, well fitting and completely opaque. That's the kind you want if you're gonna wear a short top. The next box to tick is to make sure your top dangles no lower than the top of your hip bones. Even go for a crop top if you're feeling brave. This will avoid that undesirable camel toe effect and will proportionalize your body, so you don't have to be dealing with any of those unholy stares. Unfortunately for some, this look will be more successfully pulled off by those of you of a slimmer physique. I am afraid for bigger girls, this may end up exhibiting your fuller body in an unflattering way, so it's best to keep to the longer tops.

2. Thou shalt purchase leggings of a modest cloth when wearing shorter tops.

3. Thou shalt adorn yourself with a top no lower than the hip bone when wearing leggings.

Kelly Rowland is a bit of a serial culprit when it comes to leggings...


She's got a winning smile and an enviable body - but something just doesn't look right here. Yes, it's those damn leggings. She's got killer legs and she really isn't doing them any justice here. Sometimes a trend will not suit you. Chinos look ludacris on me. Tulip skirts make my hips look even bigger. My point is, just because everyone else may seem to be wearing something, doesn't mean you have to follow. Find out what suits you and what doesn't. Simple as.

4. Thou shalt not mindlessly follow fashion and the masses.

Two more to go. And this one's an easy one: make sure you're wearing the right underwear. Wear a thong if you can endure them or get down to Marks and Spencer and buy some seamless briefs. VPL is never a good look. Especially with something so clingy as spandex.

5. Thou shalt not be an advocate of the visible pant line.

Time for the final rule. What's it gonna be? I'll tell you now, it's a personal preference. If you can pull off this look, I salute you and would very much like to see it.

6. Thou shalt never wear yellow leggings. You look like a chicken.


Congratulations go to those of you who had the patience to read all that. But leggings truly are a tickly cough of a nuisance for me. Sad, I know.

Right, time to quit my jibber jabber.

Lookbook: The Libertine

Hellooo there! So I've recently become a member of my beloved lookbook.nu and below is my first look, so if you like, please hype (click on the black HYPE button next to the photo) cos then I get cool points :D

Lookbook