I am terrible at sale shopping. I get stressed by messy shops (must be the memories of Saturdays spent folding jeans), I get my head turned by stuff that is not on sale and inevitably come home with stuff I don’t actually want. So this year I’m being more considered.
The work ‘black-tie’ event appropriate dress 
First things first – avoiding last minute “whaddya mean it’s black tie?” panic. This Darling Skater Dress with Polka Sleeves from ASOS would do the trick nicely. And Hallelujah – it has sleeves! Down from £59 to £38.
Trainers. For ‘sports’ 
Urgh, yeah New Years resolutions and all that. I need some decent trainers and I like these Nike Air Max Triax 94s from Schuh. I like Nike as they tend to be quite narrow and I have narrow (but long) feet. Down from £87 to £56.99.
New, non-tatty Boyfriend Jumper 
I love a slouchy jumper to wear to work, but the ones I have are looking a bit worse for wear so need replacing. I love this BDG Waffle Boyfriend Jumper from Urban Outfitters, especially the colour. £20 down from £45.
A Treat for being a Good Shopper 
Because you can never have too many cat themed t-shirts. This CAPTURE by Hollywood Made t-shirt at ASOS is £18 down from £55. What an adorable bargain.
And that’s it. Er, not counting the Lush order that’s on its way. Total cost is £132.99. Not too bad considering I totally need this stuff! What do you have your eye on in the sales?
Look, Smurpho loves it too! 5 reasons I rate this app:
This app costs 69p, which I think it worth it as it’s a bit of a lifeline for me at Christmas, I do tend to get carried away with Christmas shopping and seeing the budget I have set and what I have spent helps me keep it under control.
For someone who spends a vast amount of time online, I do love a good piece of stationery. Evernote and the like can shove it, you’ll never part me from my paper notebooks. Where other bloggers fill their IKEA plant pots with make up brushes, mine is filled with pens and pencils. And Smencils. That’s scented pencils to the uninitiated.
Staedtler Fineliners, Sharpies and gel pens, fancy patterned calculators, neon highlighter tabs and mini rubber stamps. These are a few of my favourite things.
Muji don’t just do make up storage y’know, they also do awesome acrylic magazine files. And when the magazine file overflows, they get cut up and go in the folder.
A small selection of my notebooks. There is nothing I love more than a good notebook! NOTHING! A cute notebook is honestly one of the best presents you can get me. Some of these have a use – my Nail Polish Diary (cats), my Job Hunting Journal (skulls, obvs), and my Ticket Stub Scrapbook (you can work it out), the rest are still to be assigned but no less loved.
And the current cream of the crop – a polar bear eraser. I couldn’t bear (haha) to use him, instead he stills on my desk looking up at me, reminding me not to make mistakes lest I have to rub his adorable little face in it. Here he stills on top of my current blogging notebook. It’s a little beat up because it goes everywhere with me. Not shown are my matching orange pens (one blue ink, one black). I’ve got the stationery addiction bad.
I kinda have a bit of a magazine addiction. So I’m starting a new series here – A Mag Education aka What I Learnt from the Magazines I Bought This Month. Sound good? Lets go.
First up – who won the battle of the freebies? We were given a generous offering from Marie Claire with a L’Occitane hand cream (I got the violet one which smells divine) but it has to go to Instyle for its trio of Ren’s skin care minis.
A special guest from the States! Nail It busted some nail related myths including the whole “you need to let your nails breathe” one. Nope! Nail polish every day it is. 
Nail It also taught me that I will never have the patience to paint my nails with oil paint, no matter how cute that textured tartan look is.
Speaking of tartan, Look taught me that ‘funnel necks’ are officially a thing and that I need this beauty from Closet. Tartan and Funnels – double trending done!
“Would you try Hollywood’s Corset Diet?” Hell no! I’d like my organs to stay where they are, ta very much.
Turns out Company are “well impressed” with little old me! Aww.
Olivia Wilde is pure awesomesauce. I loved her The Dos & Don’ts of Turning 30 feature. “I’d rather be a good person who makes people happy than a dick who wins a nobel by 32.” Slightly implying that Einstein was a dick, but hey, it was funny.
I am a sucker for a heavy-handed film reference or two. I loved the styling of this photo shoot.
Obviously, with this being a new app, a few things need to be ironed out, such as suggesting dresses on the male profile (although each to his own I guess). It also doesn’t seem to be completely synced with the websites of the store. Mallzee suggested the above striped dress for me, which I love, and when I tapped through to buy, discovered was reduced to £14 in the ASOS sale. Now I certainly ain’t complaining about that!
OH: Do you like this?
10 things that are currently on my beauty wish list. 10! I’m so greedy. Luckily most of this stuff is fairly inexpensive. I am still on a spending ban for this kinda stuff though, so it’ll just have to remain a wish list. For now.
I do love a good freebie. I’ve been drooling over the Bumble and Bumble Surf range but unfortunately my budget doesn’t stretch to £20 shampoo. Luckily, Elle have kindly given us a free sample of their Thickening range. I haven’t tried this yet but I’ll report back when I do!
I love sharks. They’re getting a lot of attention this week due to Discovery’s annual Shark Week, but the one thing that’s a bit of a shame is the number of programmes that are aimed at driving people’s fear of them. Shows like ‘Great White Serial Killer’, ‘I Escaped Jaws’ and ‘Sharkpocalypse’ are fun but do nothing for the long term protection of sharks. I’m not saying we should attempt to go swimming with sharks but there should be less fear-mongering and more appreciation for the role they play in the oceans eco-system.
Dyed my ombre pink and I’m so pleased with it. It’s so bright! More pink than it looks in the above photo, I used Schwarzkopf Live XXL in Raspberry Rebel. I just hope that it’s not going to dye the hotel swimming pool pink!
Still on daydreaming about house decorating and I think that this bedding is ‘the one’. At £60 for the duvet cover and £35 for the pillow covers, it’s a bit steep but I looovvvee it!
I’ve just finished watching season 1 of this and I’m devastated! I need more! What happens? For the love of God WHAT HAPPENS??? It’s so good.
I absolutely love Sighh Designs phone cases! Pretty difficult choosing the cutest but I ordered the nail polish design. Also love this sushi one!
How have I not seen China Glaze’s Summer release until now? I need these!! Maybe not the jellies (don’t see the point myself) but deffo the cremes.
First an app and now a book, Elsie and Emma are fairly spoiling us recently. Looks gorge – obv!
Summer always seems to be a good time for magazine freebies and Marie Claire is really stepping up to the plate. Last month I was kinda underwhelmed by the Ciate Caviar beads freebie (aren’t they a bit over now?) although I know it was a pretty sweet deal with the matching nail polish. This month however, super excited. This eyeliner pen is amazing! Eyeko is a brand I’ve never tried but heard good things about. Well done, Marie Claire!
Can we just stop for a moment to appreciate the pure awesome that is this swimsuit? Oh how I wish I could afford a Black Milk Clothing swimsuit! They have so many amazing ones:, Galaxy print; Dinosaur; R2D2; Jaws vs Ariel!!! But my favourite has to be this tiger one. And tigers love water so it makes perfect sense, fact fans.
Most of the time Matalan’s homeware collection can be a bit going-for-the-antique-look-but-actually-a-bit-heavy-on-the-faux for me, but sometimes it looks like something straight off of my Pinterest page. Neon. Colour-blocking. That is all.
And if Innocent is the taste of summer, this is the smell. Seriously, go into a chemist and sniff it, it’s amazing!
First thing I’ll start when I get my own house will be a succulent garden. Lovely and easy to look after – perfect!
It’s always jumper weather in Scotland and I love this lilac one from Topshop. At £36 its a pay-day treat and also available in blue, yellow and peach. This one looks like the perfect match for Barry M ‘Prickly Pear’. Must have it!
This coral and white satchel is gorgeous. I wish I could have one in every colour!
Ok, I have no idea how these work, apparently you can shake them up for a sheer colour or apply as is for a graduated effect. Regardless, they’ll look pretty cool on your dresser.
