A night out

The other night I attended a Christmas concert in Dundee and then went for cocktails with a few of my lovely girl friends afterwards. I thought I would show you all a quick look of my makeup and outfit that I wore for the night out.  I apologise that the photo quality is not that great but the sun had already gone down and my phone does not take the best photos with artificial light. 

The shocking red lipstick is my new favourite by Rimmel London called Apocalips in the shade Big Bang

My belt and outfit are old purchases from Forever 21

My necklace is from New Look

 and my shoes are from Aerosoles

A day to relax

Who doesn't love a day of pampering? 

Having it done can be quite expensive so here is the way I like to unwind from a particularly stressful day or just a day I feel like relaxing. 

I first start off with running a bath for myself and lighting a few candles. 

Here are two of my favourite candles at the moment: 

The first candle is by Wax Lyrical and its fragrance is called "Winter Walks"

It looks so Christmasy and smells so lovely and fresh. I actually picked it up at Tescos for £10

The second candle is by Woodwick and its fragrance is called "Cinnamon Chai"

It's the perfect Christmas warm spice scent and has a wood wick so it sounds like a fire crackling when being burned. SO LOVELY!

Next I make myself a coffee or any particular drink I am loving at the time. 

This is my intense black coffee that I love from Nescafe and is used in the Dolce Gusto machines

I add a bit of Gingerbread syrup to it just to give a lovely Christmas flavour

Then a top it all off with a good book and moisturising body scrub. 

This book is by Elisabeth Gifford, the mother of a good friend of mine, and is called "Secrets of the Sea House." I am currently loving this book and would highly recommend it to anyone. Here is a link to a synopsis of the book and where you can find it: Secrets of the Sea House

The body scrub is one I have mentioned previously, which is my Body Shop Chocomania Scrub. 

After my bath I like to spend the time to give myself a mini manicure and pedicure if needed. Today I am debating between two Rimmel polishes over my Black Essie Polish:

First I use my Black Essie Nail Polish in Licorice

Then I'll either follow up with Rimmel London's Precious Stones in Diamond Dust or Rimmel London's Space Dust in Shooting Star

Then I finish it off with my Seche Vite top coat

So that is how I like to unwind. 

I'm off now to do just that :) xx

What do you wear to a wedding?

So as I reach the mid 20s age mark weddings are the things to look forward to as they are bound to be plentiful at this time in our lives. Having just been married little over a year ago it is something else entirely to look forward to someone else's big day than having to plan yours! Overall it is a stress free joyous occasion where you get to celebrate two people you love dearly make one of the most exciting memories of their lives! (Congratulations Andy and Daniella!).

However, I must admit I have been to very few weddings in my lifetime and therefore have really struggled with my friends up and coming big day with knowing what to wear. Over in the UK woman seem to mimic the Kate Middleton style, very elegant and classy with a fun headpiece or hat. Coming from the States I am definitely not used to wearing anything on my head for a wedding so I tend to shy a way from that a bit.

I took a day of shopping in town yesterday to try and find a dress (the wedding is two weeks away... whoops a bit last minute).  I just could not find anything I liked. All the beautiful classy ones did not fit my body shape. I have very womanly hips and anything body contouring does not suit me. I really have to go for more of an a-line or skater dress style. So after a failed attempt and feeling quite down about finding "the" dress I decided to do a bit of online searching. I had heard about a great website called ASOS that stocks multiple suppliers in the UK and distributes them from their website.

After much deliberation and searching I finally decided to not try and fit into the "stereotypical wedding day attire" and just go for what I loved and would feel beautiful in.  I also feel that if I am going to spend money on a dress I might as well get one that I can wear for a lot of things other than just one occasion.

The dress and shoes are currently on their way and should arrive tomorrow. I will keep you updated on how the outfit works out.  I just wanted to share what I plan on wearing just because I know it can be a difficult thing to shop for since you want to be dressy but not too dressy, comfortable but not too casual, and still feel beautiful.

So without further ado here is the dress:

When I saw this dress I was just so drawn to it but I couldn't quite wrap my head around the fact that it was black and this is a wedding after all, but I just kept coming back to it. So I decided to dress it up with gold accent pieces, plus I justified it because this is a winter wedding so dark colours are a bit more appropriate than summer ones. 

Here are the shoes I chose. I am wanting to get fun lacy or designed tights to add a bit more funk to the dress as well:

I will finish off the outfit with a statement necklace that has mainly gold in it. Here are some of the styles I am thinking of: 

I might try and find a nice jacket or something to put over my arms to jazz it up a bit as well!

So that is what I am thinking for my wedding outfit. It's a bit different but something I can wear for other occasions as well so I am happy with it! 

As I get the different parts of the outfit and see it come together I will post some update photos on my blog.