JULIEN MACDONALD SS16

So on Saturday I had the best day, and still can't actually believe I got to go to Julien Macdonald's London Fashion Week show! I was lucky enough to get invited through a family friend, and so grateful for the opportunity bearing in mind I one day hope and pray to be a fashion photographer, wish me luck. I really didn't know what to expect other than super stylish, intimidating people but I have to emphasise how friendly and nice people were. Part of the reason I was excited to go was to get some street style photos for my portfolio and people may not look easy to approach to ask for a photo but they really, honestly are. I managed to get some good street style photos so keep an eye out for that post coming soon.

So it was obviously as expected amazing, I loved every minute especially when I spotted the lovely Rosie and Binky from Made in Chelsea taking their front row seats and the beautiful Lucy Watson following, let's just say I'm a bit of a Made in Chelsea fan, 'a bit' would be an understatement. I was happy enough just standing there watching the long line of celebrities and bloggers walk in, let alone when it eventually all kicked off. The show consisted of amazing metallic, bold patterned statement pieces with bold make-up containing massive amounts of eyeliner, black eyeshadow and slick back hair to match. Julien also launched his first menswear line which contained lovely looking male models with beautiful cheekbones wearing almost exotic, jungle inspired, bold patterned pieces.

I absolutely fell in love with some of his pieces, especially the almost copper coloured dress, and I've decided if I ever get married I will wear a dress by Julien Macdonald because 'the wedding' dress was so beautiful and impeccably designed not to mention just to wear around the house. I still can't believe I got to go and want to do it all over again, Julien Macdonald's show was absolutely amazing and I loved every single design. Keep an eye out for more London Fashion Week post's coming soon.

THE PAPER BUNNY

I was so excited when Ghostparties's Kate announced her shop was opening and they had some Paper Bunny products that I had been wanting for a while in stock but of course they completely sold out within days. So in my disappointing mood I thought why not just order straight from Paper Bunny themselves, they are based in Singapore but do ship to the UK and the conversion works out as the same prices, I think I payed around £5 shipping which isn't that bad considering the items are coming from Singapore. I only ordered two items, keeping in mind that the delivery came quite fast and the whole process was super easy so I could order more another time. The first thing I went straight for was the famous marble notebook that everyone seems to have, and who blames them because it is the most cutest notebook I've seen especially with the lovely gold engraving on the front. It is quite a small notebook but nonetheless I love it, and definitely want some more from that range.

The second item I bought was another item that everyone went for, it's the gold foil print with a list of places that I would also love to go to. I completely love this print, and for a while now I've been trying to collect as many different prints as I can, but I'm so fussy, so when I saw this I definitely had to have it. I mean that gold foil detail alone not to mention that it matches the marble notebook. So I definitely recommend if like me you didn't manage to get some of the Paper Bunny items you wanted from Ghostparties's shop you take a look on their website and just order straight from there, the service was great as well as the quality of the items themselves, and don't be put off by the whole Singapore dollars it converts to the same or slightly cheaper.

LINK TO THE PAPER BUNNY WEBSITE

CHANEL MAKEUP

A while back when I was in the lovely city of Paris I picked up two wonderful beauty products from Chanel, and it's only now I've got round to giving them a go. I'm how you say quite protective over my lovely little high end products but I have learnt to let go a little and have worn my Chanel lipstick all week, yep every single day and I mean everyday. Anyway, I managed to pick up the Chanel Stylo eyeshadow pen in the shade 'Caroube' which is a metallic dark brown, I had been wanting this for a while and they finally had it in stock in Sephora! I absolutely love cream eyeshadows, they're so easy to work with, all you have to do is apply it to your entire eyelid and either blend it out or build up the colour. This packaging is also a plus and makes it even easier because of the precision of the pen tip, I'm hoping they still have this for a while so I can pick up some more colours.

The second product I picked up was a lipstick, and my god there was a lot of choice and after standing around clueless for a good half an hour I picked up the Chanel Rouge Coco Ultra Hydrating Lip Colour in the shade 'Adrienne' which is a beautiful everyday nude. I absolutely love this lipstick, it's so hydrating and still manages to last all day on your lips, with the exception of eating. They have some beautiful colours in this lipstick collection, all lovely nude colours for more everyday looks. I could have bought every colour but of course Chanel makeup is slightly pricier but is such a nice treat or make such a great, thoughtful gift for someone. I'm definitely planning on treating myself to some more Chanel makeup because they're such great quality and not to mention the packaging.

THINGS I MENTIONED:
Chanel Stylo Eyeshadow Limited Edition - Caroube
Chanel Rouge Coco Ultra Hydrating Lip Colour - Adrienne

A TRIP TO COWBRIDGE

I love having Saturday's off especially when I actually have plans and it's not raining for once so me and my mum went for a wander around Cowbridge where it is quite posh but has some really cute shops and cafe's. I'm not going to lie I also used this chance to go to Waitrose to get some treats because it's right in the centre and has the biggest car park so I mean how could I not.

Cafe Aroma

I could have sat in this cafe all day in the sun, and it was lovely how they had these huge open windows, to let all this natural light in, which is also a plus for taking photos. Next we headed to this lovely second hand shop, that is just filled with wonderful, random things as well as local artists work such as greetings cards and art prints. I could have been in there for hours looking through lovely vintage items such as cute little tea cups and old records.

Wandering around Cowbridge is so lovely and is just filled with flowers, bunting and so many beautiful vintage bikes. I think we got lucky with the nice summery weather which doesn't happen often here in good old drizzly Wales but it was nice to chill and walk around nosing around little shops.

We came across this lovely flower shop, that smelled amazing and they had some beautiful flowers and also succulents which are my favourite. It was hard to resist but remembering my capability to look after flowers I thought it was best to not get them as my cactus's aren't looking great.

The Bay Tree flower shop. 

I'm so thankful for a sunny day for a change which meant I got to wear my espadrilles that I'm obsessed with, so of course I had to do a little outfit of the day. Please ignore the cringe smile on my face, I'm new at this so no judgement but I hope you enjoyed this slightly long post...

TOPSHOP jacket, jeans, shoes & bag. Primark turtle neck top,
Olivia Burton watch & Quay sunglasses.

LIEBSTER AWARD

So today I was nominated for the Liebster Award by the lovely Life-by-Becky and The Editor-In-Chic, who's blogs I will link because its so good and they deserves so many more followers. I'm so happy considering I only started my blog a few months ago and it makes me want to write so many more posts now I know someone's actually reading them. Although I'm fairly new to the whole blogging thing and the blogging community, I'm so glad I decided to go for it and start a blog, and just think its such a great thing.

RULES LISTED BELOW:
- Once nominated make a post thanking and linking the person who nominated you
- Include the Liebster Award sticker in the post
- Nominate 10 other bloggers that have 200 followers or less who you think are worthy of the award
- Let them know they have been nominated by commenting on one of their posts, you can nominate   the person who nominated you
- Answer 10 questions asked to you by the person who nominated you and create ten question for your nominees

Life-by-Becky QUESTIONS:

- Who/What is the motivation behind your blog? I started my blog a couple a months ago but I had been considering starting one for so long, but of course I was unsure of what to write, if anyone would even read it, so roll on the negative questions. But when I finally did, it just sort of came naturally and the writing wasn't as hard as I thought and I just began writing about things I like, am interested in such as beauty products, interior's and fashion. I also get a lot of motivation from the thought of how writing a blog could help me in the future, help me get into uni or land a job I want and I think there's so many possibilities and opportunities to gain from writing a blog as well.

- Where do you find your inspiration? I get a lot of inspiration from things around me, like new beauty products I've purchased and I immediately think this would make a great blog post and maybe someone would find a first impressions or review helpful. I also get inspiration from social media and other blogs and seeing other bloggers success encourages me to keep writing and just how much I actually enjoy it as well.
- What gets you out of bed each morning? I'm going to be honest other than work or an event or plans, not a lot. I used to be such a morning person, and I still am a little, but I really appreciate sleep much more than when I was younger so if I know there's the possibility of a lie in, then there's really not much getting me out of bed including breakfast as I honestly despise breakfast time.
- Who is your role model? I find this quite a difficult question as there's no one in particular that I look up to, but there are a few like family members for example my mum who's worked so hard and always put me, my sister and my brother before her own needs and wants. There's obviously a few celebrities like Angelina Jolie and probably my favourite person ever, Steve Irwin who did so much with his life.
- What is your favourite meal? I'm generally quite a fussy eater and also have a few dozen food allergies which doesn't make anything any easier but the one thing I'm not allergic to is sea food and shellfish, thank god. I love shellfish, mussels and squid being my favourite which is great in paella which I could also eat everyday.
- If you could have anything in the world, what would it be? I guess it would be good health including the ones I love, and also stability and having the opportunity to achieve some of the things I want to do like go travelling with my best friend.
- What do you do in your spare time? Other than go to work and attempt to write this blog, I like watching as many episodes of my favourite TV shows in one night as I possibly can and as many times as I can. I enjoy reading magazines, books and once in a blue moon I'll go to the gym or do some form of exercise and of course going out and shopping.
- What is your mantra in life? I'm really not for the whole cringe, motivational life mantra, but I suppose if it was to be one thing it would be to not give up on what you want to achieve, there's always time.
- Where do you see yourself in 5 years? So I would be 24...fingers crossed I would have finished uni by then and have some sort of idea what I'm going to do with my life. Hopefully I would have been to Thailand by then and will still be writing this blog with a let's hope, a few more followers.
- Winter or Summer? I'm 100% winter all the way, I always end up looking forward to summer but then hate it when it finally comes around. I'm a much bigger fan of thick jumpers, oversized coats and cosy pyjamas while watching films on a rainy day, sad I know but I mean who doesn't like that and it's a great excuse to eat my weight in chocolate.

MY NOMINEES:
Life-by-Becky
Frankly Flawless
Lovejordanashley
The Editor-In-Chic
Lovejordanashley
Emjbaker
Isabel Louise Beauty
Holabelleza
Molly-ap
Forever September

Everyone here has such a great blog and there's so many more I could have linked, and I'm so grateful for Life-by-Becky and The Editor-In-Chic for nominating me.

AUGUST NON-BEAUTY FAVOURITES

There's been a couple of non-beauty favourites that I've been obsessed with this month so I thought I would share them with you, *you being anyone who bothers to read this. So the first favourite is the best pair of sunglasses I have ever decided to buy and I'm pretty sure everyone would agree with me when I say this brand knows how to make amazing sunglasses without fail every time, it's the 'Steel Cat' sunnies from QUAY! I could not contain my excitement when I managed to get the last pair on ASOS, I ordered them praying they looked remotely decent on me but who cares when sunglasses are this beautiful. Luckily they managed to not look too big on my pee head and I've been wearing them literally everyday and I just think they make a boring outfit more interesting. I will definitely be getting some more pairs and at £25 for this quality who wouldn't.

My next favourite is slightly random but still a good one, it's Fentiman's Rose Lemonade from Waitrose, one of my all time favourite supermarkets when I feel like spending lots of money on lovely food, but my god this tastes so good. It tastes like Bill's Pink Lemonade but is much easier to get your hands on and not to mention cheaper, I love vintage looking drinks so the packaging of this is also a plus. I'm always buying random nice looking drinks, purely to fill my room with lovely looking vintage bottles, seriously there's about 12 in my room right now just lingering there, but I would definitely give this a try the next time your in Waitrose.

Last but not least is the pair of shoes I have constantly been wearing, that's if it's not pissing it down here in rainy Britain, is these amazing leopard print espadrilles from Topshop and even better I got them in the sale. I had originally wanted these when they were full price and I wasn't a 100% sure and instead at the time bought my also amazing, leopard print sneakers by Carvela, Kurt Geiger that were reduced to £39, I mean how could I not? But finally came almost the greatest day ever *slightly over dramatic* when lovely Topshop decided to reduce them to £25 from £45! And of course I bought them straight away in fear they would sell out, I have been wanting a good, sturdy pair of espadrilles for so long. I'm so glad I managed to get my hands on these and although it's essentially autumn, these will be great for next summer and even spring.

THINGS I MENTIONED:
Quay Steel Cat sunglasses
Fentimans Rose Lemonade
TOPSHOP leopard espadrilles - out of stock but Topshop always restock similar pairs for spring & summer