Self Portrait

Self Portrait for a long time has been my favourite fashion brand. Not only are the designs so uniquely beautiful, I love the fact that they have such an iconic look defining them, yet they manage to create different collections each season whilst still remaining true to their identity. 

Another thing that really draws me to their brand is their clever use of pricing, a huge factor involved when buying an item of clothing. Self portrait have cleverly found a balance which ensures that they reach almost all sectors of the market. For example the average price of a dress is around £250, now I know that at that price it won't be for everyday wear. However, I feel that in most cases it is a perfectly reasonable price to pay for a prom/formal or a graduate ball for instance. So automatically they appeal to a lower market sector as a luxury item.

A step up from this are the celebrates within our country, such as Chloe Lewis (reality star), Mollie King (singer) and Laura Whitmore (tv presenter) all of whom are well known throughout the UK and potentially over seas, but are not defined as A - Listers such as Holland Roden, Reese Witherspoon and Maisie Williams. who are all known globally. 

What I feel is really clever is that Self Portrait have been able to branch into all of these sectors with ease, and by having both branches of the celebrity world wearing their garments it creates a trickle down effect, enticing the public into buying their clothes. 
You can literally buy something that has been worn by your idol, and I believe that this is an extremely smart pricing and promotional choice as a brand. 
As you can see in the following images different status celebrates can be seen wearing the same dress at completely different occasions; for example, Maisie Williams is wearing 'Self Portrait' and the 'Screen Actors Guild Awards' and then Nadia Forde is wearing exactly the same dress at her launch party. Too very different social events. 

Maisie Williams & Nadia Forde

Anna Camp, Mollie King & Laura Whitmore

So

Until next time my lovelies,

Abi

x

Christmas - My Top 3...

It's no secret that Christmas is my favourite time of year. I love being surrounded by family, giving presents and food; lots and lots of food! 
So I really wanted to do a post based around Christmas and after some time thinking about what I wanted to do, I decided on a Christmas Top 3;
- Songs
- Films 
- Books
- TV Adverts 
- Food/Drink 
These are the categories that I'm going to focus on within this post, but over the next week I'll be uploading a post based around fashion at Christmas.
Let's get started...

Songs 
This category was probably one of the hardest to pick a top 3 because I adore Christmas songs, but I managed to choose my favourites. 

3. 'Merry Christmas Everybody' - Slade - I just love this song I think that it's happy and upbeat, perfect to get you in the Christmas mood.
2. 'Well Did You Evah' -  Robbie Williams - Now I know that this isn't a Christmas song, but in my family this album, for as long as I can remember, has always been played at Christmas and this is my favourite song off of it. It reminds me of something that would be played at a Christmas party.
1. 'Last Christmas' - Wham!  - For as long as I can remember this has been my favourite Christmas song, it's the one I always request at the Christmas parties and the one I turn up loud on the tv and radio. I mean who doesn't love a bit of Wham? 

Films
Now this was probably one of the easiest categories and probably one of the most clique, but who doesn't love a completely cheesy over the top christmas film? There's nothing better than being snuggled up with family watching a christmas classic.

3. The Santa Clause - I really cannot believe how many years ago this film was made! It's the one film that I remember watching every year; and every year it never fails to get me excited for Christmas time.
2. The Polar Express - This film is the newest in my Top 3, and the reason it's on here is that it truly keeps the magic of Christmas alive. It doesn't matter if you're young or old it will have you wishing that a Christmas train would arrive outside your door.
1. Home Alone - I'm pretty sure that this would be many people's number one choice of Christmas film. It is a classic. There isn't a lot more to say. It contains love and laughter that  is so heartwarming and I can't go a Christmas without watching it.

Books
3.  'Let it Snow' - The thing I love about this book is how the 3 stories are all intertwined, this detail made reading this novel really interesting as it felt like something that could be occurring everyday. 
2. 'My True Love Gave To Me' - This book was released last Christmas and contains 12 short stories by some of the best YA authors of this generation. What I really like is that each story is completely different from the last and each has a different take on Christmas. 
1. 'Christmas with Billy and Me' - By far my ultimate fave Christmas book. I adored the first novel and was so happy to hear that a Christmas novella was being released. I felt that this book defined the season. It was warm and loving and built around family, reading it warmed my heart. 

TV Adverts
For adverts I didn't focus on this year alone, I looked at my favourite adverts over the last few years, which made choosing my Top 3 really easy. I think that there will always be adverts that stick in your mind and that's what happened with me.

3.  Aldi (2014) - I just love how Aldi have hit Christmas dinner with the family on the head. The grandparent's in onesies is a particular favourite of mine. I also love how it brings families together in the simplest of ways.
2. Sainsbury's (2014) - I'm not even going to try and deny it, I cried my eyes out at this advert, the history behind it and the message it translates is beautiful yet also so very heartbreaking; and that's why I love it.
1. John Lewis (2011) - The reason why I chose this as my favourite advert is because not only do I think its so heartwarming, the concept is something very close to me; I love giving gifts far more than I do receiving them, I love being able to give back to those who do so much for me.

Food/Drink
Christmas food, one of my ultimate favourite things about this time of year and on Christmas day I am pretty sure that I eat my entire body weight in food, leaving me in a food coma by the end of the evening! 

3.  Mince Pies - A Christmas staple, and I'm ashamed to say that I have only recently discovered my love for mince pies, particularly warmed with whipped cream perfect for a crimbo snack.
2. Penn State Pretzels - Now these aren't really a Christmas food, however every year at this time without fail my Mum will buy the Christmas tree shaped pretzels, and again without fail I will eat the whole bag! 
1. Hot Chocolate - I'm pretty sure that this drink will forever be my favourite thing about Christmas food/drink. There is nothing better than being snuggled up with a book in your had/ film on TV and a huge mug of hot chocolate; piled high with marshmallows and cream. What more could you want? 

So

Until next time my lovelies,

Abi

x

H&M - Make-Up Review

 When I heard that H&M were realising a make-up collection, I knew that I had to get my hands on some of their products and test them out. The products themselves would not be available in every store across the country, luckily the store in Nottingham was going to contain the collection.

Personally I feel that being able to physically see the product makes a huge difference to a potential purchase, as it enables me to clearly see colours and test pigmentation for myself. 

So as I made my way into store I was full of excitement, (make-up shopping is a favourite of mine) and the first thing I noticed was the sleek nature of the products and the packaging. Gone was the tacky high street packaging and in its place was products that had a cream, gold, and black theme throughout. Each stand, which was colour co-ordinated to match the products, contained items that were area specific, for example there were stands dedicated to eyes, face and body. After spending a good 10 minutes just looking at what they had to offer I decided to pick up 2 nail varnishes and a bronzer. I could have gotten so much more believe me, but student budgets held me back! 

Before I review the products I bought, I just wanted to talk about how pigmented their eye shadows were. All of their products had testers and the nail varnishes had nail swatches, and when I tested out some of the eye shadows onto my hand I couldn't believe their pigmentation! They were so bold and bright, and as well as this the colour stayed on my hand for so long and was really hard to get off, whilst being annoying on my hand, that was promising for my eyes. So I may be going back to purchase a few of those! 

I picked up 2 nail varnishes in the colours 'Milky Tea' and a glitter called 'Copper Cascade' each retailing at £3.99. The brushes are thick and flat, which are perfect for applying the colour onto my nails. I was honestly surprised at the quality of the varnishes, I only needed to put on two coats and the colours were strong and remained glossy. After painting my nails, I had a few people ask me whether it was a gel varnish that I had on, so that was a bonus! Another thing that I really like about these varnishes is that they dry pretty quick and they don't chip after a day like most drug store brands. 






The bronzer I chose was called 'Sunrise Glow' and the pigment is amazing, it provides a subtle bronzing to my face and it contains a small amount of shimmer, which I love! The only downfall is that the fallout after putting it on my brush covers the the rim of the packaging, so it constantly needs to be cleaned, however for the price, £6.99, that was my only complaint. 

Overall I am very impressed with the quality and pigmentation of theses products; and I would recommend them to anyone who was interested in giving them a go! 
I hope you liked this, I really enjoyed writing it and reviews are definitely something I would be interested in writing more of,
So

Until next time my lovelies,

Abi

x

Marks & Spencer - SS 16

I'm not going to lie, I have a not so secret love for Marks & Spencers, something that my bank account definitely doesn't thank me for! 
I feel that so many people have a very one sided view of the clothing at M&S with the first thing usually coming to most peoples' minds 'their clothes are for older women.' Now I'm not saying that this is what everyone believes but it is certainly a stereotype I have come across many times, and unsurprisingly my love for the store came from both my Nan and Mum being avid shoppers there. 
A few years ago I completed 2 weeks work experience within their Visual Merchandising team, and loved every minute of it! I really enjoyed seeing how enthusiastic they were about each coming season and how they wanted to compete within the fashion big leagues alongside Topshop and Zara; and for me, I believe that this could be possible if they redirected some of their campaigns and potentially lowered their prices to fit more with a younger target market. This is because many of the pieces within Marks & Spencer are very beautiful and a perfect take on the seasons' trends. The example I wanted to give in this post, is their recently released 'SS 16' campaign.
 What I'm not saying is that every piece is right on trend, however I do feel that many of the staple pieces in this collection are perfect for the coming season and items that I will be longing for in my wardrobe.
So next time you think about walking past your local M&S maybe pop in and see what jets you can find.
My personal favourites from this are the leather Khaki dress, which funnily enough when I showed this to friends was mistaken for a garment from either Topshop or Cos, and the white culottes with suede jacket.

  

(Images aren't my own - sourced from Google)

Until next time my lovelies,

Abi

x

There's just not enough time...

Hey Everyone,

I’m so sorry for the time it has taken me to upload a new post, and my reason for this is sort of explained within this title. Time. It doesn’t matter how much you plan, there is just never enough of it, ever.

I wanted to write this post, as my time management is something that I have been really struggling with recently, particularly over the last couple of weeks. This is because of various things, such as University, lectures, seminars and out of hour’s projects; as well as an increase in my work schedule due to Christmas. This post stemmed from a conversation I had within my TA group at Uni, as I expressed my own personal worries about finding enough time, and what really amazed me was that I was by no means alone in how I felt, many other girls nodded in agreement.

Now this post isn’t about me feeling sorry for myself; No, its about me wanting to tell all of you that feel stressed and frankly sometimes a little overwhelmed with regards to time, that you are not alone and that, yes, it is very much okay to have a little cry to your Mum on the phone and wish that you had 5 minutes to yourself to have a nap.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve learnt that it’s okay to feel a little lost and that dealing with time management is a learning curve, that is individual to us all; but what I did want to do was share a few of my top tips on how to cope with juggling your time; 

Image sourced from google.

1.   BREATHE – seriously just take 5 minutes, make yourself a cup of tea, hot chocolate or whatever you fancy and take sometime for yourself.

2. Ring a family member or a friend, most of the time it’s such a reassurance to hear a friendly voice and have a chat.

3. Make a weekly schedule, fill in the times that you have taken up with work and university, and from there slot in all the other jobs that you need to accomplish.

4. Set yourself goals, by this I mean, say to yourself by the end of this week I will have wrote two blog posts and read 3 chapters of my book. (The key to this is making sure that they are reasonable and accomplishable goals- don’t overwork yourself!)

5. Finally, my best advice would be to ensure that you eat regularly and have plenty of sleep, nobody can function well on an empty stomach and three hours sleep.

Hopefully you find a least one of these tips useful if ever you feel overwhelmed, and just remember, you will not be alone, many other people will feel the same way you do.

Image sourced from google.

 Until next time my lovelies,

Abi

x