Born Pretty Store Review I Featuring Colour Changing Nail Gel* & Shell Studs*

The lovely people down at the Born Pretty Store contacted me asking if I would review a selection of their nail products. I had honestly never heard of their company before but from viewing their website I quickly realised that they were one of those hidden internet gems, with their site selling every nail art brush, pen, polish, gel, gem and decal (the list could go on) under the sun. Not to mention a selection of other products.

Jaded OOTD I with invaluable.com*

When I think of Christmas and New year (whilst being a bit of a magpie) I think of the sparkle, with jewellery, accessories and embellishment vital for finalising this 'once a year' outfit to make it a little more than just the usual black evening attire.

Tartan Tea Party OOTD

I love nothing better on a weekend than to hang out with some great people for a catchup, and last weekend took quite a classy outlook with myself and friends celebrating one of my best friends birthdays with a champagne afternoon tea for three at Boyd's Bar and Brasserie just off of London's Trafalgar Square.

Gone Fisson I Fuse Gelnamel Review

Most of you will have spotted by now from either Instagram pictures or reviews that I am the proud owner of a UV gel nail kit, which has changed styling my hands and feet forever. I purchased the Sensational gel start kit a while back but since coming onto the market Sensational have expanded and started to provide a new brand of gel's in their entitled 'Fuse' range.

The Super Belated Birthday Haul* I featuring Thomas Sabo, Oliver Bonas and Mememe Cosmetics

Although its been a good 4 months and several other friends birthdays later.. I have now finally got round to writing my little birthday haul to celebrate my crazy 25th milestone (how did that age come round so quickly!?)

Anyway, I wanted to give a few things that I was lovingly gifted from friends and family a little mention, and possibly give you a few mini reviews/more insight on some of the products if you are looking to buy them for yourself, or perhaps looking for Christmas present ideas! (there's only 67 days left you know!)

L'oreal Rouge Caresse Review

After seeing those luscious and effortlessly feminine images splashed over TV and in magazines, I had to delve (or try to) into the lifestyle of that perfectly poised Rouge Caresse girl.. By buying the lipstick of course!

The BRGR and Poncho OOTD

As most UK dwellers will know the sun is sadly leaving us with colder darker nights and early starts taking hold (so apologies for this slightly grungy set of OOTD pictures!). Last night being particularly bracing I wanted to experiment with some of my favourite winter pieces to get into the spirit of AW14. I decided to go for a monochrome look digging out this wool blend poncho jacket alongside a plain sheer white shirt and patent black flatforms. I then accessorized using my current love of 90's and long hair with a high ponytail and gold hoops to give the whole look another new twist (what do you think of the high pony?).

Revlon ColorStay ShadownLinks Review I Makeup on a budget

I'm obsessed with Revlon products. They're reliable, high quality and affordable. So I thought what better way to get back into using eyeshadows again than with my most trusted makeup brand.

Having jumped on the white eyeshadow dark red lip bandwagon that was leaping about the catwalk during fashion week for SS14, I wanted to get back to wearing shadow during the day to day and make a bit more than the mascara and light pink lip kind of effort that I'd been doing for a few years now.

Botanics Shine Away Mattifying Cleansing Mousse Review I Skincare on a budget

I am a fiend for a good facial scrub or cleanser (which anyone whos graced my bathroom will know), and having had the pleasure of being gifted with Clarins Shower Mousse and subsequently falling in love with it, and THEN taunting myself gazing at the slightly lower end Champney's Shower Mousse, but one that was still a pipe dream product that I probably couldn't really afford to keep buying. I thought to myself there must be a lower end product that has the same technology and silky calming high quality effect as this, but for your face which is affordable on a normal budget. After having a route around the Boots local to my workplace I looked at the 'Botanics' range and found this gem!

Wild contrast OOTD

Although these pictures don't do this outfit much justice I'm just so proud of this fashion find that I had to blog it. Especially when next to this lovely selection of wild flowers making a stunning contrast!

Hawes and Curtis Fashion Shirts* I 3 Ways to Wear

When Hawes and Curtis contacted me for a blog review of their new fashion shirts, I was slightly skeptical as to whether there would be anything in their collection that that would suit me, let alone fit with my taste and style. Due to their well-known industry status being firmly in the suits and business shirt attire I wasn't sure if I'd find much. 

Pretty Please OOTD

A few weekends ago I took a day trip down with my boyfriend to the sunny seaside of kent to visit my grandparents and family on their mini annual holiday away.

Natural Collection Shine Away Foundation Review I Makeup on a budget

I've been meaning to do a review on this product for a while, and since this was the brand that helped me delve into the world of foundation I thought it'd be a great product to do a budget makeup review on, as there just aren't enough truly budget makeup reviews out there.

British Summer Time OOTD I Festival Outfit Idea

I've been a little off the radar with the blogasphere lately for family reasons but I'm ready, prepared  and coming back with a bang with a whole host of new outfit posts, hauls and exciting collaboration posts still to come!

SensatioNail Gel Starter Kit Review

Are you one of those people that when it comes to your nails mother nature played you a bad hand and bred you with nails that never make it past a measly 2mm in length no matter how many skin, hair and nails supplements you take? This may be the ultimate first world problem but when you get to your mid-twenties in 2014 when nail art fashions are at their peak you start to feel your stunted nails are holding you back.

Bright Limes OOTD and Holiday Snaps!

Just wanted to post a little update here of all the snaps I took on my first girls holiday out in Bulgaria. I had an amazing time and a good break off from the hectic life schedule, but unfortunately suffered a few little mishaps along the way.... 

'The Yule Monty' Soap and Glory Review - Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of my 'Yule Monty' S&G review! This part discusses the rest of the creams and the makeup available in the collection.

My First Girls Holiday Summer Haul I featuring Primark, TKMaxx & eBay!

My first official Youtube debut is finally here! I've decided to do my first haul in preparation for my first girls holiday!.....

'The Yule Monty' Soap and Glory Review - Part 1

My company last year generously gave out gifts to all staff, with all the girls receiving Soap and Glory's biggest Christmas gift bag 'The Yule Monty', due to the sheer amount of products in the bag its taken me a while to go through and use to each to make sure I can give an honest review.. so it may be june and this may be old, but considering these products are still on the market.. heres part 1 of my review!

Brighton Brights OOTD

For a little trip out in the very rare amount of sunshine we accumulate in the UK, me and my boyfriend decided to take a trip down to the nearest seaside to London; Brighton. Call us crazy to go there via a car on saturday afternoon as the traffic and parking was horrendous but we eventually got a spot so we could enjoy the sun.

Revlon Parfumerie Scented Polish Collection

Im a fan of the Revlon polishes and if you read my blog often you'll know how much I go on about them and compare other polishes to them, but when I saw Revlon had a new re-designed collection of bottles, colours and had breathed a whole new life into the idea of scented polishes and moving away from the normal been there done that sugar scents, I had to have them.

Garnier Ultimate Blends Collection

Staring at the sheer mass of bottles on offer in the Boots hair isle, biting my lip and scratching my head.. Yep.. It was time to decide my new shampoo for the month. I know it sounds silly but I bet every girl on the planet goes through this issue often with hair products, and with such a vast amount of ranges, brands and hair claims on offer how do you make such a simple decision?

Gold Leopard OOTD

I'm sure this scarf and shirt have been featured on the blog before.. but its one of my favourites and for some reason recently I have been obsessed by a lot of backwards thinking autumnal palettes, so sorry about the lack of summer brights!

Tie-dye denim picnic OOTD

With festivals nearing sight I feel the denim and tie-dye will only be a cloudless sky away until its absolutely everywhere again, so in light of summer closing in and another of my marrakech items not getting any sunlight I felt it was time to bring out my rose tie-dye effect top and short denim jacket for a small (slightly chilly) picnic. 

Autumnal summer OOTD

Everyone's aware of my love for my chanel scarf these days so I decided when featuring it in this post I'd go routing through my wardrobe for something to go with its brown and cream tones and came out with a more autumnal themed outfit, a bit out of place for the very quick beginning to this years summer months.

Barry M Gelly High Shine Review

There's been a hive of excitement surrounding the 'Gelly Hi-Shine' polishes and when searching for a new sky blue polish, I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and do a little review on the polish quality, its last and whether it really is a constant hi-shine product.

Powder Pastels OOTD

A couple of weeks ago, I met up with a good friend of mine wayne on a sleepy sunday afternoon to enjoy southbank and the sunshine.

Polka Problems OOTD

I'm a real house of holland lover and these shoes haven't made an appearance in a while so matching multiple spot adorned pieces seemed like a good theme for this post.

Ciate Corrupted Neons Manicure

For my bestfriends birthday (and subsequently for myself) I decided to buy my first Ciate polish set and also first UV polish set, I'd heard so much good stuff about Ciate polishes that it was about time I'd tried them.

Daisy Dreams OOTD

A couple of weekends ago after a sunny day (weather which has long since evaporated) at a pub garden having enjoyed a nice tipple and a cavery, me and my boyfriend headed off down to a local park to enjoy a bit more rays.

Mint and Nude OOTD

I managed to snap this outfit a few of moons ago just before going out for a spot of lunch and shopping, which was a chance to showoff my much loved scarf that I bought out in Marrakech on holiday recently which I mentioned in an earlier post.

A bloggers Christmas - The belated present post

Its been pretty hectic round my neck of the woods as of late and this is one of those posts I have been avoiding for so long but I'm now putting a stop to it, better late than never ey!

I decided to snap a small collection of presents around my little decopaged side table so you can get a feel of my gifts from this year.

London Fashion Week 2014

So my first experience of London Fashion Week was so much fun! Although I applied and didn't make it on to the official Fashion Week list, I decided to go to Vodafones London Fashion Weekend with one of my good friends Cassie.

The Real Arabian Nights - Last day!

As our fun short adventure in Africa drawed to a close my boyfriends and I's last day was exploring the beautiful Les Jardins De La Koutoubia and enjoying the weather before drudging back to the grey dark United Kingdom.

I decided to wear my angle cut white t-shirt with my brushed gold spiked necklace, purple tartan scarf, tan satchel and pink espadrilles. This is one of my favourite summer outfits and I can't wait until the UK finally gets the sun back!

Before leaving we went back to the market one last time to grab some moroccan pastries, another tagine and a Chanel style scarf for myself which I LOVE (expect it in most forthcoming outfit posts). We also visited a highly rated vegetarian and vegan restaurant just off the square where we had butternut squash, spinach, blue cheese and pumpkin filo pastry spring rolls on a bed of summer vegetables, which was easily one of the best meals we had all week which we wished we'd discovered sooner.

And that was it for my adventure, next stop.. Rome!

Michelle

♥

What I wore
White angle cut t-shirt - ASOS
Purple tartan scarf - Vintage
Brushed gold spiked necklace - Ebay
Tan satchel - Primark
Pink Espadrilles - H&M

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(All Images taken by myself with some edited via Instagram and PicFrame)

The Real Arabian Nights - Day #3

Tuesdays adventure was dedicated to an excursion up in the mountains in Ourika Valley.

As it was one if the hottest days I decided to wear my white rose and lace detailed tunic dress with leggings, white studded shoes accessorised with my tan satchel and Disney Couture Mawi necklace. After what I got up to its safe to say the shoes didn't get out alive as you can see here now complete with rust!

As we made our taxi ride up into the mountains we stopped to take panoramic pictures of ourika village and buy a mini tagine to take back! We then went on to the gardens where they produce skin and beauty products and learned all about the famous Morrocan Argan oil and the effort that goes into creating the magic oil, which was super interesting.

We then stopped to have a camel ride which I seemed to get a little too happy about.. (you can watch a video of it on my Instagram) and eventually made our way up the rock mountain and stopped to have lunch by the river which was quite picturesque and throughly increasing my sunburn (excuse my boyfriend stuffing his face ruining the landscape ;)

After a super heavy lunch we then stupidly and precariously made our way up the Rocky Mountain (and when I say 'precariously'.. there was literally zero path -gulp-) to see the waterfall which was stunning.

It was such an exhausting day of walking overall that once we got back to the hotel it was a matter of crashing ready for our return home the next day.

Michelle

♥

What I wore
White pink rose and lace dress - Topshop
(now not so)'White' silver studded slipper shoes - Newlook
Tan satchel - Primark
Minnie mouse necklace - Disney Couture Mawi Collection

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(All Images taken by myself and edited via Instagram and PicFrame)

The Real Arabian Nights - Day #2

Day 2 started quite slow with a relaxing session on sun loungers on the rooftop of our hotel, taking in the amazing views and just chilling enjoying the fact it was a Monday morning!

As it was a little cloudy, I decided to wear my second darkest outfit so there was no fear of heat exhaustion and wore my leopard print maxi dress with gold and silver tribal inspired necklace, black and orange much loved converse flip flops, tan bag and white jewellery to accompany it.

In the afternoon we ventured to 'Maison de la Photographic' which featured a collection of photographs taken back in the 1800's picturing the people and landscape of Marrakech.

For a late lunch/early dinner we went to a place round the corner from our hotel called 'Un Dejeuner a Marrakech' which was recommended as a place to eat on our hotel map and was amazingly presented, very high standard and well priced. A big problem with Morocco is that some of the food you cant/don't want to trust for fear of illness so when you find a place like this (although you end up paying double normal prices) its a welcome relief.

I had a japanese inspired escalope of chicken in an almost Terriyaki sauce with creamed potatoes and tempura aubergine, followed by a dark chocolate mouse with crispy chocolate base. Alongside soft drinks it was 177 dh (£14) per person which you would easily pay double in London for so It's easy to say I was pleased.

We then headed back to our hotel for an early night as we had a long day ahead of us as we booked an excursion for the following day!

Two more days to go until we're home! How was your Monday?

Michelle

♥

What I wore
Leopard print maxi dress - Miss Selfridge

Silver and gold tribal necklace - Matalan

Orange and gold sandals - Converse

Tan satchel - Primark

Black cardigan - TU Sainsburys

Cat-eye sunglasses - Vans off the Wall

Cream heart ring - Accessorize

White and Swarovski crystal watch - Phosphor

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(All Images taken by myself and edited via Instagram and PicFrame)