JEWELS

I admit to being a magpie, any shiny jewels and I am drawn to them straight away. I adore my fingers being bejewelled and feel sad when I have naked fingers. I do not adhere to the adage 'less is more', for me, it's always more. You may have seen my post about my obsession with Delilah Dust and their beautiful neck ornaments? So now I thought I would create a blog post about my large collection of rings.

My mother bought me the above tin for Christmas & I think it's perfect for storing them all in, here is a few of my personal favourites. 

Left to right:

A vintage thimble turned into a ring with an opal (I think) bought from a Vintage shop in Haworth.

A silver ring with a black stone, bought for my birthday from a great friend.

A gold and blue glass ring from the 1950s, bought from Salts Mill.

A silver and marble ring bought from Camden Market the day I moved my sister down to her new home.

Left to right:

An emerald and diamond ring that belongs to my mother.

A Claddagh ring bought from Aflecks Palace in Manchester on a day out with a good friend.

My mother's engagement ring, ruby & diamonds.

A Hayeon Lee ring bought from Harvey Nichols, it has a chain on the back to hold it like 3 mini rings. It used to be rose gold, turned gold & now I think it's going silver. Not cool when it cost £150, but I still love it.

The final ring won't fit on my finger, it's a silver ring from my mother that I received for passing my GCSEs many moons ago.

Left to right:

A man's ring from the 1970s with black Onyx stone.

A turquoise ring, my birth stone, also from Salts Mill in Saltaire.

Another Camden Market, a tigers eye ring. Tigers are cats & I'm a cat lady.

And finally, all I wanted when my Gran passed away was a ring of hers, I didn't get one. So my Mum bought me this from Aladdin's Cave in Leeds to symbolise my Grans life. It's a moon stone with a hint of purple, gold setting & silver ring.

Any other fellow magpies out there?

FOUNDATION REVIEW

                  

Foundation is a tricky basic to get right, I am forever looking at peoples faces and questioning the beauty professional that sold them the foundation in the first place.

I used to work at Space.nk & like to think of myself as a professional beauty junkie, I'm also a bit of a snob when it comes to skincare and make-up & truly believe you get what you pay for.

I thought I would talk you through my basics when it comes to foundation.

First step, a great layer of skincare under your foundation. I religiously use my Clarasonic (but that deserves a whole other blog post later) which creates a smooth and clean base for my skin. I shall write a blog post with my daily skincare routine soon as it's quite extensive and varies depending on how my skin feels that day. Oh & never forget to use primer!!! Anyway, back to my favourite foundations.

As a basic, day to day foundation I am currently using Yves Saint Laurent Le Teint Touche Eclat. (my colour is BD 20, bought from Harvey Nichols for £32) This foundation goes on smooth and clean and offers light to medium coverage, I do have to powder my face after application and once or twice during the day to reduce the shine. I love the smell of this foundation and being nearly 28 (gasp!) I feel I need to wear a foundation that is kinder to my skin. Brands such as YSL, Chanel, Lancome, Hourglass and others use high levels of skincare in their foundations, of course this is reflected in their prices, but like I said earlier, you get what you pay for. I had a sample of YSL's new Forever foundation before settling on the Touche Eclat one but I didn't like it on my skin.

Prior to my using the YSL Touche Eclat I used By Terry Cover Expert in Number 3, Cream Beige & LOVED it! This foundation is a dream with a painful price tag. It's £44, again from Space.nk. By Terry is a lovely range from Terry De Gunzburg, Terry is a great make-up artist who invented YSL's Touch Eclat. Terry worked very closely with Yves personally and moved on to create her own company when he passed away, taking her expertise with her. I still have some of this foundation left & I am trying to save it for a rainy day. I would buy this foundation again, however the price tag puts me off.

My foundation of choice for an evening is Illamasqua's Skin Base in SB 6.5. This foundation is brilliant, I have previously used Nars Sheer Glow in Deauville which I liked greatly until I discovered the Illamasqua one. The coverage is brilliant, blemishes are covered, it glides on without rolling and lasts all evening. I struggle with foundation colour matches as my skin is yellow tinged, this colour matches my skin perfectly and, as it doesn't contain any SPF, it looks great in pictures (no ghostly white pallor) I wouldn't use this during the day as the coverage is too heavy and it's not too great for my skin in terms of blemishes.

Have you any opinions on the products I use or any alternatives you'd recommend?

BLOGGER CRUSH

I've been an avid blog reader for the past 5 years or so, starting with The Blonde Salad, and I get style crushes on bloggers all the time.

I thought I would make this Blogger Crush post a series thing. 

My first crush post is dedicated to Zina Charkoplia of http://www.fashionvibe.net 

Zina's look is very eclectic, she has a great edge of mixing high street with high end. Take for example the amazing Zara tartan coat, which has sold out everywhere, she wears it so well and add in the Balenciaga boots. I'd love to have the time to take photos like these, they are beautiful, it helps that Zina is also beautiful. 

So here is my first blogger crush post, dedicated to Zina Fashionvibe.

HAIR

                        

I've had boy hair for a few years now, many, many people comment that I looked nicer with longer hair (cheers guys) so I am in the process of growing it back to a bob.

I really like short bobs with blunt fringes that loads of girls rock, so that is what I'm aiming for. Right now, I'm kind of in a 'Spock' phase (as in, Spock out of StarTrek, google it & you'll see) I was recommended to try Sea Kelp tablets, however when I ventured into Holland & Barratt the girl on the counter couldn't explain what 'can be used to maintain a healthy weight loss' meant. So I got scared & bought their own hair tablets, we'll see how these work then. 

                                                   

TROUSERS

                      

I am in love with my new trousers. They're were a mere £13 from ASOS Marketplace and are fully lined wool. They were a tad 'poofy' to begin with but again, back to my good friend who took them in for me on the leg. 

I have seen loads of alternatives from Topshop & Urban Outfitters but I didn't want to spend £45 upwards & I wanted some individual ones. I always find what I want at ASOS Marketplace & I've never had a bad experience (unlike eBay) so I'd recommend checking there first.

I teamed them with my over-worn Dr Marten shoes, a vintage cardigan, my vintage sheepskin coat & a plain black t-shirt.