Wish list - Prada earrings

Just come across these beauties - aren't they gorgeous!

Prada £320.00

I really love anything with roses on, I'm obsessed with Rose scented perfume.

At £320 they ain't cheap, so I'm wondering if anyone has seen any good dupes or anything similar in a more reasonable price range?

x

Clinique mini haul

I’m a completely suker for Clinique bonus time… or any bonus time/ 3 for 2/ extra advantage card points/ free gifts/ new products… you name it!

Luckily (or should I say unfortunately!) there is a big Boots just been opened right near my office so I’m in there every few days looking at what’s new, on offer or just catches my eye.  My purse has never been so empty!

This year I’ve promised myself will be the year of using up stuff because I always find that if I buy new products and prefer them to my old products, that the old ones end up sitting in a draw in my bedroom never to see the light of day until I’m foreced to have a clear out.

With this is mind, I DID need a new mascara as my old one didn’t seem to be working as well anymore (although it’s so hard to tell when a mascara has actually run out, isn’t it). But when I found out it was bonus time, I did stock up on eye cream.  I always use the same Clinique eye cream, so I figured this didn’t break my rule.

I bought:

High impact curling mascara.  This is the best mascara I’ve found so far, it doesn’t blow me away (alas I don’t think I’ll ever find the perfect mascara) but I miss it when I try another one and it’s very long lasting (in fact, it’s a pain to get off!)

I also bought:

All about the eyes rich.  I haven’t used the rich one before,  but I get such dry skin around my eyes if I’m not careful that I thought I’d go for it.

In the bonus time I got:

·      Superdefense SPF 25 Age Defense moisturiser

·      Eye shadow compact in French Vanilla, Night Plum and Stone Violet

·      Repairwear Laser Focus Wrinkle and UV Damage Corrector

·      High Impact Mascara

·      Superblam Moisturising Gloss in Grapefruit

·      Liquid Facial Soap

·      Cosmetics bag

I’m not a big fan of gloss, I don’t like the feel of it on my lips, so that will be straight on ebay but I’m excited about the serum because I’ve wanted to try that out for a while and it’s a good travel size.  

I’m not 100% sure about keeping the eye shadow, I have a lot of colours similar, what do you think? Should I try it?

x

Blog Hopping!

I'm taking part in the latest blog hop, a few of the ladies I follow have taken part and it seems to me to be a good way to find out about new blogs as well as let other people see what I'm doing.

I thought this might also be a good opportunity to ask what you like about my blog and what could be improved? Don't be shy!  And if you're a new follower, particularly if you found me through blog hop let me know, it's always lovely to hear from people.

If you want to do some blog hopping, here's a link

x

All I want this weekend is a dipped hem dress

I desperately want a dipped hem dress to take to Italy with me in 2 weeks.  What do you think of these?

I really love the colour of this Jolie dress, but I'm not sure it will suit my figure.

Jolie £36

I love, love, loved this, until I realised it was backless :) 

Republic £28

This new look version is rather safe, but at £7 could be a good casual weekend look.

New Look was £19.99, now £7

I'm not sure what this will look like on, but it might be good for my Mother-in-law's 60th birthday meal in Italy with some heels to make it look less dowdy

Red Herring was £35, now £17.50

This is probably my favourite, although I'm not 100% convinced of the colour

Very £35

What do you think? 

x

The Versatile Blogger Award

I was awarded the versatile blog award by the lovely Rachel and Emily, thank you ladies!

Here are the rules: 

-Thank the person that nominated you with a link back!
-Tell 7 things about you!
-Pass this on to 10 newly discovered blogs and let them know they received the award!

Here are my 7 things:

1.     One of the things I’m most obsessed about at the moment is acquiring a Michael Kors Rose Gold watch.  I’ve just found out my company is giving me a voucher to put towards one as my leaving present – wohoo!

2.     My favourite place in the world is the Lake District.  I’ve had some great holidays there and it's where me and Will got engaged.

3.     I love spring, it’s my favourite season.  My colleague Tom just bought me some daffodils for my desk so I’m really feeing the joy of spring today.

4.     I love sweetcorn and regularly eat it straight from the tin.  I also love couscous and rice, especially if it has chorizo or halloumi with it!

5.     I’ve given up chocolate for lent.  At first it was really difficult, but now I don’t even miss it (probably because I replace it with non-chocolate cake and sweets!)

6.     The one make up item I couldn’t live without is mascara – I have boys eye lashes

7.     I also couldn’t live without having my eyebrows threaded every 3 weeks, it’s the one beauty treatment I always splash out on.

I award the versatile blog award to:

Lizzie

Roz

Rachel

Emily

Lizzie

Lauren

Jessica

Sam

Becky

Annabelle

x

Re-review: Ojon Damage Reverse Serum

I’d like to take a minute to re-review Ojon Damage Reverse Instant Restorative Hair Serum which I had only briefly tried out when I wrote my post on March’s Glossybox. 

I was quite stroppy about what I’d received in my Glossybox this month as there were some things that other people received that I wanted to try out but didn’t receive in my box.  So when I tried Ojon, it was somewhat begrudgingly.

I want to say from the outset that this does make my hair get greasier a little quicker than it perhaps would if I hadn’t been using it, in fact I’m needing to wash my hair pretty much everyday.  BUT on an average week I’m pushing it to wash my hair every other day anyway.

I’ve been using this every time I wash my hair for the last week and I’ve really noticed that my split ends are a WHOLE lot better.  I thought maybe this was a smoke and mirrors thing and that the product was ‘gluing’ my split ends together.  So, today I decided not to use it to see how my hair turned out and I’m pleased to say the split ends still looked a whole lot better.

This is great for anyone who like me is trying to grow their hair and needs to keep it in good condition.  It would also work well for those with coarse or frizzy hair.

What they say:

Helps restore hair's healthy appearance as it tames frizz and flyaways. On contact, this weightless, highly concentrated multi-tasking serum fortified with nature's hair-repairing golden elixir plus exotic Rouge Oleifera penetrates the hair shaft to help strengthen weak hair, fix flyaways and tame frizz. Helps restore brilliant shine and softness to dull, damaged hair. Adds suppleness and manageability. Speeds styling to help prevent future damage.

x

Blazer days

Blazers are definitely my favourite trend of the moment.  I'd been seeking a nice electric blue one for a while, so when I found this one from H&M for £24.99, I made it mine straight away.

I loved it so much, I went back the same day and bought this bright pink one for £19.99.

When I'm having one of those days when I hate all my clothes and want to replace my whole wardrobe, I put one of these on and they instantly update my outfit.  The bright colour really picks up my mood too.

x

My top Spring wants

I’m feeling full of the joys of spring today. These little beauties are some of the things I’ve been lusting over for my spring look. 

Mac Strobe cream

I’ve wanted this, like, forever! I first got into illuminating products when I used the Body Shop illuminating Vitamin E Day Moisturiser and have been using similar products on and off ever since.  I love them for spring because they give you that nice, natural dewy look.  I’ve heard lots of good things about the Mac version and have been desperate to try it for ages.  But, problem is I’ve got lots of cheaper alternatives at home such as Soap & Glory Hocus Focus and The Bright Stuff which I feel I should use up first.  

OPI ‘It’s my year’

I’ve seen a couple of reviews of this on the blogosphere and I just love the colour and sparkle.  I’m giving my nails a well earned rest from polish at the moment, but I’m thinking of buying it for myself for when I’m back on the varnish in a couple of weeks.

Office brogues

Brogues are my staple go-to shoe for work days and I’ve wanted some grey ones for a while.  I’d love to get these ones and replace the wide laces with some grey ribbon for a really girly look. They’re a bit on the pricey side though so I’m going to look into some cheaper alternatives

Misguided blazer

Since getting obsessed with blazers (more on that later!) I’ve been thinking about purchasing a grey one to wear over nice summer dresses for the spring.  I also really want a light peach colour one, but I haven’t seen one I like yet.  I’ve not bought anything from Misguided before, but I’ve seen blogs with people wearing the blazers and they always look really good.

Anthropologie dress

I came across this on Pintrest and fell in love with it straight away.  I don’t really have the arms for strapless dresses but if I did (or if by magic I manage to get them) I might have actually had a big splurge on this.  Expensive but really pretty and an amazing print.

H&M dress

This might turn out to be a bit short for my pastey legs, but I love the idea of wearing it with some red pumps for a fuss free spring/ summer look.

x

Embracing ice cream shades, albeit in a small way!

I love the pastel ice cream shades that have sprung up this season.  I'm still transitioning into my spring wardrobe and haven't updated it with any proper pastel or ice cream shade clothes because I've been a bit broke recently and... well, I am a little nervous at wearing such light colour clothes to be honest.

On my lunch break last week I notices these beauties in Accessorise and snapped them up straight away to break myself in gently with the ice cream trend.

£2.50 Accessorise 

£4.00 for 2 from Accessorise

£2.50 Accessorise - or free if they're still on 3 for 2! 

This gorgeous broach was a present from a good friend of mine for getting a new job :)

£10 Accessorise

x

A little birdie told me...

I'm starting to get a little obsessed with bird prints! They're so cute and girly.  These are my three favourite things so far.

I picked this up from Dotty P's last week.  It cost £36 which is a little more than average for Dorothy Perkins so I wasn't sure whether to keep it or not, but I can' resist those little birdies!

I picked this scarf up from Accessorise at Luton airport on my way to Amsterdam for a work trip.  I couldn't resist the bright colours.

I bought this scarf when I was on a company day in Notting Hill with work.  My colleague and I were feeling a bit down and we bought these from a market stall on Portobello Road to cheer ourselves up. Whenever I wear it, it makes me feel better and I love that whenever I see her wearing her's, I know it's because she's trying to make herself feel more confident.

x

INGLOT eye shadows

I first became aware of INGLOT when my boyfriend was auditing their first UK store, in Westfield Shepherds Bush (he's an accountant).  He came home and told me that he had been working for a REALLY expensive make up shop from Poland who stock every colour you could think of.  I was put off at first because I thought it might be out of my price range.

A few months later, whilst shopping with my friend Roz we went and had a sneaky peek.  It's not as expensive as Will made out, he clearly doesn't know much about the price of cosmetics :) A single eyeshadow costs around £9 and a selection of 3 smaller sized shadows is about £11.

They stock a wide range of cosmetics but the real beauty of it is the range of colours.

Not quite as dark as this in real life

On my first trip I picked up this beauty, which remains one of my favourite colours.  It's real versatile, a single layer is great for work/ day time but you can build it up for the evening for a rich colour.  I find it's long lasting too.

Lovely translucent colour

The have a Freedom system where you can mix and match colours, I picked up this on my last trip which I based on a selection of Benefit eye shadows which I liked the colour of but felt they had no staying power.  It makes a good smokey eye.

I'd heard on the grapevine INGLOT were opening a shop in Manchester but it's not on their website so not sure whether that information is correct or not.

x

My favourite recipe

Happy Friday everyone! I wanted to share with you one of my favourite recipes - Chicken and Chorizo Jambalya.  This is a recipe I saw in Good Food magazine sometime last year and has fast become my all time favourite.  Apparently it had the highest amount of hits of any of their recipes on their website last year (most of them were probably from me!)

Tastes even better than it looks!

The reason I love it is because it's healthy and so versatile, you can add extra ingredients to make it your own and it's suitable for so many different occasions.  It's quick enough for a midweek meal but feels special enough for a casual dinner party.  My favourite thing to do is to take the leftovers in for lunch to work and make all my colleagues jealous of the smell wafting from my desk. I sometimes leave the chicken out if I'm feeling a bit broke and that works fine too.

n.b. the recipe can be found online on the Good Food website, but I have altered it slightly because I always find there's not enough stock in the original.

1 tbsp olive oil
2 chicken breasts
1 onion, diced
1 red pepper
2 garlic cloves
75g chorizo
1 tbsp Cajun seasoning
250g long grain rice
400g can plum tomatoes
450ml chicken stock

Heat the oil in a large frying pan (best if you have one with a lid, otherwise use a big saucepan).  Fry the chicken for 5 - 8 minutes until golden.  Remove and set aside.  Fry the onion for 3 - 4 minutes and then add the pepper, garlic, chorizo and Cajun seasoning,  cook for 5 minutes more.

Stir the chicken back in, add the tomatoes and stock, cover and simmer for 20 - 25 minutes until the stock is absorbed and the rice soft.

Enjoy :)

x