MIXING THE METALS

Ask me a few years ago, and I would have claimed rose gold to be my favourite type of jewellery. I then moved onto gold, then more recently silver, then onto both gold and silver. What? Mixing metals has been a new thing for me and I actually have been enjoying it. I know a lot of people hate the clash between gold and silver but I really like the contrast. 

What got me into this is the larger necklace from Primark. It cost a mere £1.50, so isn't the best quality but the concept is what I love. The gold 'v' is about as statement as you will see from me when it comes to jewellery, but it's pretty thin and dainty, and what I personally like is the thin contrasting silver chain. In terms of necklaces I also have some more subtle options, and I have a selection of gold ones from Forever 21 that I sometimes wear at once, or wear one with this silver knot necklace from H&M. 

In terms of rings, I have quite the collection, as I tend to go a little bit mad in the sale section of H&M, and pick up a good four packs at a time - especially when my older ones are looking a little worse for wear (I don't have the money to invest in pricey rings). I like either really thick, bold rings or very thin dainty ones, and at the moment I have a good mix of the two, in gold and silver, both midi and regular in size. I love wearing rings, because I have quite short stubby fingers almost and I really dislike my bare hands, however when I wear lots of rings they look far more elegant. 

Do you love or hate the mixed metal look?

THE CAMEL SCARF

Since spotting a lust-worthy camel scarf in Topshop, I've had my heart set on one for the perfect Autumn/Winter staple. I didn't really was to part with £16 for a scarf, so when I found one in Forever 21 in Florida for $9.80 I couldn't resist and picked it up immediately. It's not incredibly thick, but still its not like the £4 scarves from Primark which are rather thin and slippery. It's the nice weight that you can wear it inside or outside and not be too hot nor cold.

It's a different texture than many other scarves, and my friends told me it looks like a 'potato sack'. Well, they aren't wrong. It looks slightly woven with thicker threads than usual but I really love it. The colour is perfect, it's a little darker than the one I saw in Topshop, but still looks so classic. It's just the sort of scarf I can throw on when I want to be warm but don't want to look like my neck is being consumed by woo. I really love it.

I imagine I'll be getting endless wear out of this - especially when I'm walking to school in the brisk 7:45am cold this winter...lovely.

GOING FOR THE CHOP

After a very spur-of-the-moment decision on Saturday night (which entailed quite a lengthy session of scouring Google Images for pictures of every blogger who went for the chop), I decided to get my hair cut. Not professionally, just by my mum in the kitchen. Yep, you heard. My mum has been cutting my hair for me up until about the age of 12, and I have only been to the hairdressers for something short of 10 times maximum.

I was practically hyperventilating and as she hacked off the first chunk of hair off, it's safe to say I squealed and made a spectacle, but, there was no going back after that so she continued and I walked up to the mirror with hands over my eyes, and luckily absolutely loved the finished product. I started testing out styles, not even bothered by the hair left behind on the table that resembled a small rodent.

I did wake up Sunday morning with a minute feeling of regret but as soon as I looked in the mirror, saw where my hair used to look ratty and dead, and began waving and curling it, that feeling went away. I will say I like this curled, but very lightly with some texture enhancing spray through the lengths too - with this length of hair you really can go for the gritty look.

I look forward to celebrating how quick my hair takes to dry and wash, as well as enjoying the new look I have going on - honestly, who knew a trim (or a few more inches than the latter) could make me feel so fashionable?

EXPERIMENTAL EYES #1 - POP OF ORANGE

 Now Summer is here, I thought it'd be a good time to start being more experimental with my eye makeup and add in some colour. I always try purples and blues with little success and never really contemplated orange-coral colours until I saw 2 colours from my Sleek Blush By 3 in Lace that I thought could make an interesting eye look... and I really love the result. 

I used quite a large variety of products within the process so I'll try and keep this short and sweet. The Avon Eye Primer was the first step to blank out the lids and avoid creasing, followed by a coat of the Dainty Doll Cream Blush in Billion Dollar Babies (is it cheek products for eye shadow day today?!), as well as the MUA Colour Blast Shadow Stick in Stay all over the lid, with the Stila Smudge Stick in Oscar Fish blended into the outside corners. I then took the contour colour from the Sleek Face Form through the crease to warm things up as well as putting Half Baked from Urban Decay in the centre of the lids.

On the lower lashline I put the Stila Smudge Stick in Angelfish, followed by Chantilly from the Sleek Blush By 3 (also pushed into the waterline) as well as Crochet on the outer half. I did this with a small dense tapered brush to really pack on the colour and used the same technique to focus this bright colour on the outer crease. I took the brush I used for the contour colour very lightly to blend the edges.

The liner is a mix of the Maybelline Colour Tattoo in Blackest Black and Barry M's Blink Waterproof Pen. On my lashes is a coat of Soap and Glory Thick & Fast followed by the Sheercover Lash Fibres and then Too Faced Lash Gasm Mascara on top of them.

I said I wouldn't ramble but would you look at that... I did. With simple glowy skin and a nude pout I predict this look will be getting a lot more wear from me in the upcoming weeks. Also, watch this space, this morning I photographed a pink and gold look for you so maybe this can become a mini 'experimental eyes' series?

A NEW HAIRSTYLE: HALF UP 'HIPSTER BUN'

For me my hair is usually the same old same old - either straight, waved after sleeping on plaits the night before, or curled by twisting it up overnight. I got into the 'half up, half down' look a while back but after seeing a video where Lily Melrose took this look further by creating what she labelled as a 'hipster bun' and remembering it earlier this week with Megan we each gave it a go and I really like the look.

It's simple, just take a section of hair from the top section (although it's dubbed as a 'half up' style I definitely steer clear of pulling half of my locks up for this look), and tie it with a thin bobble lightly. Then, twist this chunk of hair and wrap it round to create a small bun. I pull some out to make the front more bouncy and shake the bun a bit to loosen it, take some pins/another bobble and secure it into place and it's complete within minutes.

It definitely takes some getting used to, I'll admit I felt a bit of a tool whilst wearing this for the first time as I felt like I was carrying something on the crown of my head, but I got used to it and now it is easily becoming a go-to hair fix. I will say a couple of times I have had some hair well and truly tangled among the hair tie upon removal (one incident involved me having to cut a few strands free), but just go gently when tying it up to begin with and when unravelling it and all is well.

With light beachy curls I feel this could change the look entirely and is something I shall be attempting tomorrow morning... I'll report back on that one via Instagram soon.

A NEW WARDROBE ADDITION: CHUNKY HEELED SANDALS

NEW LOOK CHUNKY CLEATED SOLE GLADIATOR SANDALS £24.99

Since Megan has been wowing me with her sense of style these past few weeks, (as well as Lily Melrose), I have been determined to build up the staples in my wardrobe, and the prime place to start for me was a pair of shoes - and in particular, I was after some chunky sandals with a heel.

I ended up going a little higher on the heel than I was anticipating, but the inch of platform at the front kind of levels it out. As a teen, I haven't had much experience with heels but I have no problems walking in these which is a massive plus. For £24.99 I feel like these look so much more expensive and I'll definitely be getting my wear out of them.

They are so simple, and I can dress them up and down (trust me, I have been experimenting - as you will see from the upcoming outfit posts I have planned), and I even went as far as trialling them with frilly socks - is that still a sin? I am actually tempted to buy myself the same pair in white - I might as well complete the duo...?

All I need now is to build up the rest of my wardrobe with basics and staples. I am planning to make an outfit post a new feature on weekends - how would you lovely people feel about that?

FESTIVE TARTAN NAIL ART

Tartan is slowly but surely becoming my new favourite thing. Considering when I went to London at the weekend the 't' word was mentioned in numerous conversations, and I lust everything and anything covered in the print, it is time to fess up to my addiction, and what better way to do it than try out some coordinated nail art. 

It would appear that Lily Pebbles has literally just done a post on this idea too, but I promise my pictures were taken 3-4 weeks ago in preparation, and that I haven't copied! Basically, this is that kind of nail art that looks so complex, but takes you a matter of lines, and minutes, to complete the job. 

The colours I used were OPI Red Light Ahead... Where? as the base colour, and then I used green, black, white and sliver stripers to create the stripes, and in a few different lines, and the tartan look was complete. The stripers were from the brand 'Rio' in case you were curious, but any will do. 

I think this could be my chosen nail art for the 25th, but then again, Megan gave me some smashing monochrome Nail Rock Nail Wraps for my birthday yesterday, which I cannot stop staring at...