Peaches & Cream

Two major colour trends that are unavoidable this season are Orange and Nude. There are many variations, from burnt orange to coral, peach to beige, cream to stone, and thankfully the ever wonderful British high-street has caught onto this trend so we can all invest in our summer wardrobes without paying silly prices.

I've picked out some of my favourite affordable finds...

1 - Asos - £30

2 - Topshop - £15

3 - KG by Kurt Geiger - £55

4 - Topshop - £60

5 - American Apparel - £32

6 - Urban Outfitters - £85

On another note, how fab is this ring?!

BLING!

Grab it from Miss Selfridge for £10 before they all go!

Elle's Spring Gift

I'm a tad late on posting this, but you still have a few weeks to go out and get it. The new UK edition of Elle (May) is giving away a FREE Kurt Geiger gift card worth £15 with the magazine. Yep. No small print. Just a £15 gift card. How generous of Elle and Kurt Geiger. They really do love us poor little shoe collectors.

(collectors edition cover)

So with that in mind, I took on the chore of sifting through kurtgeiger.com's endless collection of shoes to see which one's we should be keeping an eye out for in store

1 - 'Bermondsey' from the Kurt Geiger Fashionista's range - £220 - very Louboutin



2 - 'Hyper' by Carvela - £120 - a great pair of heels to brighten up a simple outfit



3 - 'Hartest' by Kurt Geiger - £149 - still lusting after these beauties months later, and they've now cut the price by half!



4 - 'Cecila' by KG - £140 - worn casual or dressed up, tan is always a good colour to accessorize with in the summer, and these peep-toe shoe boots are gorgeous!

5 - 'Nolita' by Kurt Geiger's Fashionista's - £240 - 3.1 Phillip Lim anyone? Yeah I thought so too :)

6 - 'Nadia' by KG - £65 - A nice simple pair of gladiator flats and essential for long summer days, these shoes will go with almost everything

If you got the money...

...you're lucky! Take advantage of the Net-A-Porter sale and get more fabulous peices for your money. They've added more items and made further reductions.

I've picked out some of the investments I'd like to make if I actually had a salary...

These gorgeous nude Jimmy Choos - reduced to £263.90

This adorable Juicy Couture coat - £129.50

This chic Marc by Marc Jacobs dress - £178.50

This cute Miu Miu skirt - £215.60

This aqua Mulberry Milton bag; a great shade for the summer - £389

Sorry, I couldn't help myself! Had to put a bit of Zac Posen in here, and I've been lusting after this classic dress since I first saw it at full price. It's now reduced to £1561. Not the cheapest item on offer, but worth every penny.

Grab Yourself a Bargain

Calling all Londoner's - The Topshop Oxford Circus sale does still have potential. I haven't really bothered with the sales since boxing day; I never usually find anything worth buying anyway and it's all a bit too hectic/jumble-sale-like for my liking. However, whilst in Topshop on Thursday (yes I know I've been meaning to do this post since that very day), I thought there'd be no harm in having a gander, and I'm glad I did. A pair of gold shoes that I had my eye on a while ago were reduced to £10!

Score! Very rare to find any decent shoes left on the size 8 rack this far along... Plus, a gold dress I found was reduced to £25. Unfortunately they only had size 12's left so it's a bit baggy...

I also found another dress, in exactly the same style, in the new stock, which was only £32, and they actually had a size 10, thankfully. It made me so happy inside when I tried it on that I had to buy it... even if I do have to wait several months at least until it's warm enough to actually wear it...

A Fair Exchange

So America is recieving Topshop - the store that makes me proud to shop on the british high street. They're also getting the largest store in the world, bigger than the milti-storey Oxford Street flagship. This upsets me a little. We got Abercrombie (hmm) but the prices are actually twice what you would pay in the US. What I would really like is if we had a Forever 21 store over here, or cheaper shipping at least! There are so many bargains to be had, but when I glance over the shipping costs I feel a little ill inside. So surely, if they're getting Topshop, they could give us Forever 21? Ok, so it's not as good as Topshop, but every now and then I find some must-have gems which are half the price you would pay in our trusty shoppy toppy. Here are a few of my favourites from just having a quick gander. You can see many more on their website. Maybe if you combine shipping costs with a friend it could work out cheaper for you both?



http://www.forever21.com/

A Few Beauty Essentials...

As opposed to doing another christmas wish list themed blog (way too many gift guides floating about now, and who is really still buying all their presents?) I thought I would share a few things that are, in my opinion, some essentials that you may want to treat yourself to.

A Mason Pearson boar bristle brush, (that's a lot of B's). This extra large brush is £75.25 on HQ Hair, but if that price is a bit steep for your budget then you can do as I did and buy the child sized brush for £29, which is still actually a decent size. These brushes are great for distributing the oils in your hair, and the natural bristles are much better for your hair than plastic.

Kerastase already has a fab reputation, but if you can only afford one thing from their hair care range be sure to invest in a deep conditioning hair mask. They have products to suit many a hair problem, and your hair will definitely thank you for it. This Nutritive Masquintense Fins is designed for very fine/dry hair and is £20.40, also from HQ Hair.

Just as I was about to give up on ever finding a concealer to lift my confidence and hide my incredibly dark circles, I decided to give trusty Benefit a go and spent £13 more than I already was on their Boi-ing concealer. Described as industrial strength, I can see how. Its thick creamy formula is a must, especially after sleepless nights. It's worth the £15.50 price tag (http://www.benefitcosmetics.co.uk/).

A good body brush is for life, not just for the summer. Combine this with a good body scrub and get your circulation going, keeping away those nasty lumps and bumps on your thighs and giving you super smooth skin all over. This nifty brush is only £4.31 from Boots.

I'm personally not one for painting my fingernails. It usually chips within two days and I'm too lazy to keep re-doing them, so I just keep them neat and short with a nice coating of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength. It's a base coat, top coat, gloss and strengthener in one. I also use it as a base coat for my toe nails, which are actually never, ever seen without colour. It lasts me forever, I usually get a new bottle every christmas. You can purchase it from Boots for £7.78.

There are many things I'm yet to discover - such as the miracle body lotion or the super exfoliator - but I still have a lot of time to stumble upon these. I have learnt the wonder of taking a good A-Z supplement, and Sea Kelp tablets are great if you want to speed up your hair growth (don't expect miracles though, you still need patience). In the mean time however, if someone would like to donate £200 to me for a permanent blow dry at Daniel Hersheson's then please don't hesitate!

Thank you for reading x

All I Want for Christmas...

With less than one month to go, I thought I would share with you some of the things that are on my wish list. That is, if someone in my family were to inherit a lot of money within the next 26 days..

THE studded Gucci shoe boots! I'm having a thing for both studs and black shoe boots this season, so these would be perfect if anyone's offering?

If they happen to be sold out, which would be no surprise, I would hapily settle for this pair.

The more I blog, the more aware you will become of how OBSESSED I am with getting a Chanel bag.. and this is gorgeous... Nice shade of grey, I prefer these chains to the ones with leather intertwined (they tend to look fake) and I prefer the simple twist lock without the CC logo, as that tends to make them look fake too. AND, the more I admire Chanel bags, the more I prefer the larger sizes... definitely a jumbo for me, which unfortunately means an even less realistic price tag.

On the topic of Chanel, how cute are these tights? I've been lusting after them for months, thinking, 'they're only tights they'll be £50 max'. Nope. The kind lady at the Sloane Street boutique informed me of a price somewhere around £180. I snag tights too often to take that risk, but if someone else where to buy me them...

Insanely high Dior Couture shoes - combining my love of studs, bows and extreme height in one hot pair of shoes. Let's face it, I'd never be able to walk in them, and if I could I would resemble the BFG, and my boyfriend would not be best pleased once again as my love of sky high heels means I tower over him. But still, I'll make a shrine for them in my room... I just want to admire them on a daily basis if I'm honest. Worth every penny...

This whole Zac Posen outfit (or the whole Fall collection if youre feeling generous). The magpie inside me loves the sequined detail and on the whole it just appears to be such and adorable flattering dress. Even the pom poms all the models sported in their hair have been on my mind since I first saw this collection many months ago. I finally bought my black wool today, so expect a future blog on how DIY pom pom making goes. In the mean time, BUY ME THIS DRESS!

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So to conclude, I have discovered I seem to pay a lot more attention to accessories than I do actual clothes, unless particular things catch my eye - in which case it's most often couture. I seem to be a bit monochrome both with my own wardrobe and what I lust after, despite the fact that my favourite designer is my number one partly because of his use of vivid colour (John Galliano in case you were wondering). Maybe I need to step outside my comfort zone and experiment with colour some more, however 'classic' black and white is...

Images: Style.com, The Fashion Spot.