Archive for July 2010
TopShop shoppitdy shop!
TopShop shoppitdy shop!
TopShop!
When I was a student, I was the TopShop girl. Head to toe. I spent far too much in there.
Evantually with the store card paid off, I realised I should probably cut my TopShop spending down and somehow I actually more or less cut it out completely. I had moved away from student towns and cities with big TopShops. Consequently my local TopShop seemed pretty poor in comparison. Occasionally I will buy an item in there but not like I used to and the card, that has gone!
However a new, bigger TopShop has opened where I was haulling yesterday and when I went in for a little peek, well to be honest, I was quite impressed.
First because they are winking at me, let’s go to the bling.
A beautiful light gold leaf cuff. Now bling may be quite a new obsession but I’ve always been a fan of bracelets, bangles, cuffs and such wrist-like ornaments. So this is going to be one well-loved addition to my collection. I think that it will be especially nice in the autumn, add a little class as the leaves start to fall and the nights get darker.
Carrying on with my green fingers theme. I also got this long flowery ring. You will all remember my Tanya Burr big gold dancing ring (http://essjay23x.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-dancing-ring.html). Well I wanted big in the opposite way this time and when I saw it, I knew that this was what I had been looking for.
This ring may not be the showiest in the world but it is delicate, pretty and comfortable. My dancing ring can get a bit heavy for my poor fingers sometimes.
Oh and the TopShop ring was only £1 when I got to the till. Happy, happy, happy . . !
I’m very impressed with my TopShop jewellery. In fact, I picked up many more items before cutting it down to these two. Now I want to go to an even bigger TopShop and see the Gogo Jewellery that Holly http://www.ymbeautyblog.com/2010/07/gaga-for-gogo.html has gone Gaga about.
I also got this lovely leather purse. I thought that it was about time that I got myself a proper purse. I’ve never really being one for purses with lots of pockets and card holders before. My last few purses were just little coin-like ones and I would just ram whatever I could in there. They were also all black. Time to change it up and get a little colour. There were lots of colours to choose from and I nearly picked a classic brown but the little girl in me picked up the pale mint colour. It is really cute. Hopefully now, I will finally be able to find my slightly larger purse in my massive bag without emptying everything out at the tillpoint!
I also got one of these boyfriend type blazer things and a cream tunic dress. I spotted the dress and remembered seeing it in a post from Laura (http://www.lollipop26writes.com/2010/07/little-outfit-of-day-type-thing.html). She suggests combining the very girly dress with a more masculine blazer to balance the look. I want to learn to think like that! At the moment, when I am trying to put an outfit together, all I normally do is throw a couple of things I don’t hate on and hope for the best. However, Laura’s explanation made sense. Balance sounds good so on spotting the dress, I decided to experiment a little.
Now I was only going to try the combination on but it really did look good and much better then a lot of the other things I’d picked out myself to try so yes, I have invested!
If you get a chance, try this dress on. Honestly it made me feel so light and there is something about the way it falls. I just want to skip around and I think it is just about long enough to twirl around and around in!
As for the blazer. . ! Well to be honest, these boyfriend blazers have never appealed to me. They look great on everybody else but on a hanger, they just look so masculine and mundane. And since I know that I can barely pull anything off from outside my comfort zone, I have never even tried one on (or even wanted to). However, it worked with the dress (I think it helped that it was from the Petite session. I had a quick look at some in the normal section and the arms looked way too long) and now I’m inspired to see what else I can pair it with. Rumour is, these blazers are quite versatile if you’re daring enough.
Funnily enough one of my favourite tops which I’m sure I’ve shown you on this blog before, is a TopShop one from about three years ago. It, too, is cream and conceals the tummy area well. This top is like an old friend but it is a chore to iron. Yep, it looks great creased but only in the right places. I do cherish this top though and it has had a lot of wear. I hope that I can say the same about my more recent TopShop purchases in three years.
So do you like TopShop? Brought anything interesting lately? Are you in to a certain look at the moment? How do you work the Boyfriend blazer?
X
Skin wonders, I’m begging, please!!!
Skin wonders, I’m begging, please!!!
These are just a few of the things I have employed to try and help. I have spent quite a lot on skincare products since my mission began and to be honest, it has been a rollercoaster. I have read a lot of science and a whole lot of marketing over the last six months or so. The result being that . . . my skin seemed to hit the lowest point of ten years!
I have used Clinique, Clearasil, Neutrogena, Botanics, Avenno, No 7 and more. I have took Magnesium, Primrose Oil, Starflower oil, Cod Liver Oil, Milk Thistle, Silica, Vitamin D, Mutivitamins and more. I have drunk green tea and antioxidant cococtions. I have plastered my skin in honey, lemon, strawberry masks, chocolate masks, sudocrem, toothpaste and more.
I should add I haven’t done all of these things all at once. Yet!!!
You see, I was starting to wonder if there was any such thing as a ‘Deliver me wonders!’ skin routine. Very few products or combinations have made any great impression. . . until now!
I have been doing the same routine for about a week and fingers crossed, I think it is helping very, very, very slowwwwwly.
*****
*Two or three times a day, I buff lemon juice in to my wet skin. With at least one of these applications, I usually throw some sugar on to the cotton pad too, creating a Lemon Scrub Kandee Johnson Style http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vkCR2ZWAe4&feature=player_embedded. I then buff and rinse. I have in the past used Lemon Juice like Muhsine as an occasional treatment and it is partly because that
seemed to work that I’m working with the lemons again. Lemon juice contains AHA which is found in a lot of skincare products and this kills off the dead skin cells and helps new cell growth. Muhsine has written about lemon juice here http://bubblegarm.blogspot.com/2009/07/lemon-juice.html
*I apply Sudocrem at night (and when my skin feels irritant) to any blemishes. Occasionally I might dab a little Clearasil toner on to blemished areas if they are irritating and I’m going out. Sudocrem is much too obvious! For unaffected areas, I stick to moisturiser. At the moment, I’m trying Aveeno Cream.
*I have applied the Neutrogena Gentle Cleansing Mask to blemished skin areas about three or four times.
*When I wear make up, I skip the foundation and powder. I do not apply any make up to bad skin areas. I also remove my make up as soon as I can with a Neutorgena Make Up remover and a lemon wash/scrub.
*I have added so many red grapes and berries to my diet and a bit more fruit and veg, in general.
*I am trying to cut down on dairy products. I have moved from fruit artificial yogurts to natural yogurt and solid cheese to cottage cheese.
*I have one Green monster every day at breakfast usually with as much spinach as I can get in a dish to microwave.
*Whenever I can, I’m trying to keep my hair pulled away from my face.
*Oh and I’m trying to drink at least one green tea a day and drink lots of water but uh, you know me and the water thing. . !
*****
Phew, I think I deserve good skin now and ooh, remember fingers crossed, it is on its way! I have more of a glow and the blemished areas do seem to be drying out and going away. Go, go, go . . !
The only problem I have now is that I’m not sure what change is, also known as skin miracle, and helping my skin.so much. Therefore, editing the whole rigamorole would be risky. Argh, my only hope is that this routine will become habit and not the hard work it feels at the moment.
X
MAC Rodarte update!
MAC Rodarte update!
Firstly Mizz Worthy has posted a very moving video here http://www.mizzworthy.com/2010/07/lets-regroup.html
Secondly, since my earlier post http://essjay23x.blogspot.com/2010/07/mac-rodarte-collection.html, MAC have made another statement with new promises. You can find out more about this here http://www.vexinthecity.com/2010/07/mac-bows-to-pressure-over-rodarte.html .
Some still feel that MAC could do more. This post http://www.tackyblueeyeshadow.com/2010/07/mac-you-cant-be-serious.html speaks very passionately about that and includes a link to an online petition that Olivia of http://healingbeauty.co.uk/ set up. The petition which you may want to consider signing can be found at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/macrodarte/.
If you’ve been on holiday or aren’t sure what I’m talking about then Shantel breaks the controversy down here http://shantel121.blogspot.com/2010/07/rodarte-and-mac.html
X
MAC Rodarte Collection.
MAC Rodarte Collection.
MAC are due to release this collection in September. Rodarte have stated that the collection was inspired by the landscape that they saw on a road trip in Texas.
One of the nail polishes is called Juarez. Juarez is a town in Mexico full of factories which employ women to work for very low wages and in harsh working conditions where sexual harrasment is common place. A vast number of women have gone missing, been raped or murdered on their way to work. Locals estimate the number of murders to be around 5000 although the authorities speculate about 400. It is alleged that the Mexican police have done little to investigate these murders possibly because the victims are primarily poor women.
Aside from Juarez, other product names in this collaboration include Factory, Bordertown (Angelina Jolie starred in a film ‘Bordertown’ loosely based around the murders) and Sleepwalker (most of the offences take place as women workers travel to and from shifts in the factories).
A promo picture has also been released with this MAC collection featuring a very pale, ghost-like female.
MAC have apologised for the offence caused and have stated a portion of proceeds from this collection will go to help those in Juarez.
I hope I have got all of the details right, there are many more indepth posts out there. I found most of my facts in Yinka’s (http://www.vexinthecity.com/2010/07/mac-rodarte-collection-ignites-juarez.html#more). A very informative post with a number of links to related posts and to Amnesty. I would also imagine that there could be some further statements from MAC this week.
Now a lot of us have strong opinions one way or another as to whether the marketing of this collaboration is acceptable. Indeed I saw one tweet asking if we would accept it if MAC had instead created a collection that related to 9/11 in the way this collection relates to Juarez. However, what I want to focus on is one thing and actually it is relatively trivial compared to the issues at the core of this controversy but ‘What were MAC thinking?’.
It does not matter if they have the right to create such campaigns or not but why did they bother? I just feel that anybody could have foreseen the controversy that it was going to cause and I can not see how MAC could squeeze additional product margins out of this collection with this campaign marketed as it is. So, no financial gain. Even if some customers are not as outraged as British/US Bloggers, the very best MAC are going to do with this collection is equal what they would normally get from a collection. So what was the point in a corporate brand, whose primary aim is probably profit, doing this and guaranteeing themselves some bad hype when it seems they are set to gain absolutley nothing?The campaign almost comes across as a desperate cry for attention but surely MAC don’t need attention that badly.
As you know, I am quite new to beauty blogging and indeed, MAC but I do know that many (dare I say most?) beauty blogs feature MAC heavily (ahem.). Now I find the products more often then not of great quality but there are plenty of brands out there who probably deliver enough to satisfy our day to day needs yet some (and yep, I’m counting myself here) seem to class MAC differently to any other cosmetic brand. In Laura’s (http://lollipop26writes.com/) latest video, she mentions how a haul in MAC is different in the thrill factor it provides.
I’m sure as an avid blog reader, I read at least one post each day which heavily features MAC. I am encountering MAC every single day and this might be quite pathetic but maybe I see MAC almost as a friend (and one I aspire to as well) rather then just another brand. I guess this collaboration reminds us all that MAC are another huge multinational brand. And this is where it hurts because long ago, I accepted that such brands have their own rules so maybe it is not surprising that MAC have caused some controversy. These days, most multinational brands seem to. However, I am a little bit surprised that MAC have let this go so far.
Many of you know MAC so well knowing all the latest release dates and product information and yet, despite providing such great customer satisfaction for so long, it seems that MAC know nothing about their customers at all. Otherwise surely they would have foreseen this furore.
I would presume that MAC’s customer base is mainly female as are the victims in Juarez. The females there are often victims of crimes or behaviour which impreach ‘womens’ rights. Many of MAC’s customers are going to relate to such issues. I’m not sure how MAC thought they could spin this collection so postitively to a largely female majority market. They have millions of female customers all over the world, mainly in the developed countries where women on the whole are fortunate enough to have voices. MAC must have known, especially in this digital age, that people were going to join up these dots rightly or wrongly and there would be this controversy. Why go to all the trouble of designing a collection and then marketing it in a way which quite obviously is going to get all this bad press especially when their Viva Glam collections are so applauded?!
Also it sounds like the colours in MAC-Rodarte collection are not suited to all skintones. Therefore, they have already eliminated some customers interest so why market this collection in this way and disable its success even further?! *Shakes head in disbelief*, it seems senseless!
I saw a comment somewhere (sorry I can not remember where, I have read a few posts tonight) that art does come out of darkness and such risks are more ‘acceptable’ these days.
Maybe?!
However MAC are such a huge brand with what I would imagine generally are pretty standard, mainstream, customers (as far as individuals are standard). I’m not sure the number of people drawn to the collection because of the brand’s new ‘edge’ are going to make up for the number of people that they have lost.
Saying that looking to the long term, I can’t see this been the end of MAC but I do wonder if people are going to think of them a little differently now. Maybe they won’t be quite so “bestie” anymore.
The one good thing that has come out of this controversy is that I now know about Juarez. I didn’t before and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone. It may be slightly naive of me but I only hope that now so many more of us are aware of the situation there then in some way, more help can be given to the people.
Oh and as Yinka suggests in her post, we all need to make our own choices as to how far we condemn/boycott MAC, if at all.
X
Getting the Glow with a Green Monster!
Getting the Glow with a Green Monster!
My mission is to make more of myself. I’ve previously talked about how I go through phases. One week, it is all about the lipstick. The next, it is all about the bling and then the next, haircare. At the moment, it is less about the products (just a little less though) and more about good old fashioned science or as I prefer to call it ‘beautiful living’.
I’m trying to find out more ways of living which could actually help me make more of myself now and in the long run.
Yesterday I had my first ‘Green Monster’.
In fact, mine was browny. It looked gross and it smelt foul but actually it tasted ok. It certainly tasted yummier then my very first green tea. These green smoothies are supposed to give you a HUGE increase in energy and decrease your cravings for sweet things. Oh and this is a direct quote from Angela the founder, ‘My skin has also become more clear and my hair and nails started growing like weeds!’
Yay, I’m excited about this little drinkie.
The main ingredient is spinach. This or kale is mandatory as is some form of milk. However as long as these two ingredients are there, you can add any other ingredients you want (many people do choose seeds and fruit though), blend and ta dah, you have a Green Monster!
Since I can never have too many antioxidants, I added 5 or 6 large strawberries then a banana and a very small scoop of sunflower seeds to my little Monster.
It tasted like a creamy banana, strawberry concoction with a slight tinge of something else.
Obviously, the spinach or the kale is always going to add some nutritional goodness. Spinach has Iron, Folic Acid, Dietary Fibre and Vitamins A, C, E. Milk provides the Calcium but the rest is up to you. You can make your monster as calorific or as slimslime as you like.
I had my monster for lunch today and along with the leftover strawberries, I didn’t feel any hunger pangs or any need to top my meal up with anything else. I will certainly be having more and it will be a bonus if my skin starts to glow!
I found out about Green Monsters in Gemmas fabulous video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1UF0AIILk4&playnext_from=TL&videos=9QAsnig1oxo Gemma always provides excellent links and information. I love her channels!
There is also a whole movement here http://greenmonstermovement.com/.
I also think that many of you will love ‘Oh The Glow’, the blog where the Monsters originated.
Angela is a health blogger who has completely changed her own life and got her glow again. Now, she is inspiring others to do the same. This blog is so different to any I’ve come across before (admitedly I haven’t really lurked in the “healthy living” communities) and you really have to take a peek to see what I mean. I only found it on Friday night but I stayed up hours reading Angela’s stories and her amazing ideas. Today, I can not stop talking about this blog. Check it out here http://ohsheglows.com/
What with green monsters and green teas, I’m now starting to think as long as it is called ‘Green something‘, it will be good for me!
Have you tried a Green Monster? What do you think of the inside out approach to beauty and life?
essjay23x 