Harem Pants

Judging by the types of posts that I am writing at the moment, this blog may turn distinctly feminine in the next couple of months.

Currently I really like wearing harem pants. I think they are sleek, slimming and smart. I wore them in the Caribbean as they are cool to wear in the high heat and humidity whilst keeping you feeling ladylike by not showing too much skin walking around public places. I found them to be quite versatile in the outfits that I came up with, pairing them with a cute crop top, or tucking in a vest top or a t shirt. They would probably also work with a longer sleeve too although I have not tried personally. I would say you can style them with sandals, boots or heels or maybe even trainers if you want to be super casual.

Here is a photo of me enjoying dinner whilst on holiday wearing a colourful crop top with my black hareem pants. I would like to point out that my boyfriend bought me a couple of crop tops, I’m not brave enough to buy them myself!

I wore black heels with the outfit, I thought it was a smart-enough evening outfit. I have a longer crop top that only reveals a tiny bit of my midriff, if showing that amount of skin is too much for you.

Here are some examples of an outfit containing harem pants:

From Dorothy Perkins, the link can be found here .

From Matalan, the link can be found here.

This link from ASOS shows an outfit with a very similar black strappy crop top that I also wore with my black harem pants.

Hope I inspired you to try something new!

Amy xx

Style – Picking Three Words

Hi all,

I remember reading somewhere that it can be a good idea to create your own personal style, by picking three words to describe it. Then, when it comes to replacing clothes or shopping to add to your collection, having the three words makes it easier to maintain your personal style. So I thought that I would give it a go. The only problem is that you actually have to pick just three words! I found it slightly difficult to narrow it down to three, as I could write four to five.

Comfy
I have never been a woman that sacrifices comfort for fashion, I can’t bear to be cold or to be in pain in order to fit into something. I would say my style is comfy but I didn’t really want that as part of the three descriptive words. It makes me cringe to use this word as you then automatically think of frumpy! One of my favourite trouser/legging (tregging perhaps) material is corduroy. I have them in three colours and whilst they are obviously comfy, I do think they are quite nice to look at too. I tend to lean towards clothes that are stretchy, so that you don’t have to struggle to fit into!

Here is an example from H&M: Comfy Example Link

Feminine
Although most of the time when I see my outfit in photos, I don’t look overly feminine on a day to day basis, feeling and looking feminine is something I would say that I strive for. I often find being practical and feminine to be rather contradictory. It could also be described as high versus low maintenance. Trousers for example aren’t hugely feminine, especially regarded not-so a few decades ago. I am referring to a piece of clothing that makes you look like a lady. So the second word is feminine.

Here is an example from Dorothy Perkins: Feminine Example Link

Sweet
The third word is sweet. I like cute details and pastel or pretty colours. Think bows, lace, sweet phrases or pictures, patterns and textures.

 
Here is an example from New Look: Sweet Example Link

I considered the word dreamy. What I mean by that is floaty almost boho details. Combined with the other two words, I didn’t think this word is representative of my current style or of any realistic future style.

Here is an example from Dorothy Perkins: Dreamy Example Link

Additional – co-ordinated
An additional word that may not count as a word, is co-ordinated. I have mentioned in a previous post that I don’t like wearing too many colours at once. This means limiting the colours in your outfit, including accessories. I would say no more than three or four personally. I love when I can get matching colours.

What do you think?

Ciao for now,

Amy x

Younique 2017

Hello,

Like a lot of people on social media, I tried Younique makeup last year. Someone in my family sells the make up and I guess eventually wore me down to trying a product. I don’t buy new things very often, whether that be clothes, make up, shoes, bags etc.; so at the beginning of the year I still had makeup from a few years ago (which can’t be good for you surely). So I started replacing makeup.

I had seen a lot of liquid lipsticks advertised and found myself rather interested in trying one. I am very dry in general, so trying a matte lipstick was not the best idea shall we say.. Wanting to replace my red lippy and seeing the Younique liquid lipstick on sale, I chose a shade I thought was in between pink and red. However, when it arrived it was a bright red! It is not a colour that you
could wear bare faced and I struggle to wear red lipstick because I have yellow teeth. To be honest I gave the liquid lipstick to my sister who can wear red lipstick.

I also tried the lip Bon Bons though. The one I ordered was in the shade Red Velvet Cake, this is a purple shade lip balm. It happens to match my natural lip colour and looks really lovely on, providing a texture and colour half way to a lipstick. I’m not sure if it keeps my lips hydrated because I struggle with most lip products that claim to keep your lips hydrated (including ones like Vaseline). If you’re interested, the best lip balm I have come across is REN’s.

I had won two raffles on my family member’s page. One of the products was the mineral eyeshadow pigment in I-can’t-remember-what-shade but it was a matte mid brown. I’ve only tried it once as an all over colour and it was quite nice, a shade that seemed to suit me. The next raffle win was also an eyeshadow pigment, this time I ordered a light brown.

I ordered a cream shadow in coral and a peach coral lipstick, hoping that they would be nice summer colours. I had an old coral lipstick by Avon and have chucked it out now, so although the new lipstick will be more of a peach colour, I hope it will be a good replacement shade. The lipstick is more coral than Avon’s pink-y coral.

Edit: I changed the tense of this post to reflect me actually posting the draft a year after it was written…

Amy xx

Estee Lauder Double Wear Nude Foundation

I have fairly recently purchased a new foundation by Estee Lauder. I was bought the Double Wear foundation for my birthday the year before last I think it was, the shade was Shell. I always thought that I have very pale skin, so as their lightest shade I figured I would be ok and I assume my boyfriend thought the same as he bought it for me. I found the shade to be too pale, particularly outside of winter, and the texture wasn’t a perfect fit for my skin type. My skin is mostly dry, with very dry spots at certain places. This is the third foundation I’ve ever owned and tried, so I made adjustments and figured that when wearing the foundation I would have to use a heavy moisturiser to reduce any texture on my face. The Estee Lauder lady at the Debenhams counter advised a cream moisturiser, then another advised I use the serum (to which my boyfriend who was surprisingly with me at the time, foolishly bought! It’s rather expensive). So I apply the serum, then a moisturiser before applying the Double Wear foundation.

At another Debenhams Estee Lauder counter several months ago whilst shopping with my Nan, I spoke with another representative about matching to my skin tone and I also tried out some of their lighter foundations. With my Nan also advising on the correct colour foundation (to which I have now tanned), I picked the Double Wear Nude. It is a cushion stick, whereby you rotate the bottle and it dispenses the foundation onto the cushion sponge and you use that to apply and blend. I have to say I am very impressed with this one! Just a note that when editing this draft, there is now a Double Wear Nude Foundation that is not in the cushion stick bottle.

As it is a lighter style of foundation, the texture suits my dry face (no need to heavily moisturise beforehand!) and it gives a very natural finish which I prefer (I love my freckles). I only ever wear makeup for a more special event than everyday, say an important meeting at work or a night out; but I keep feeling the urge to just improve my face a bit. This is the struggle I have with makeup that I have mentioned before. I get scared that if I wear it regularly, I will become unsatisfied with how I look naturally; something I have noticed with a lot of girls that do wear makeup regularly, they no longer feel comfortable in their own skin. Plus I can be rather lazy and low maintenance.

This draft was written about 8 months ago, since then the cushion has half come off which a lot of customers complain about. I have switched to using a foundation brush and I thought the foundation still looked ok. My boyfriend tells me the finish doesn’t have as nice a texture so I am considering getting a beauty blender. The issue I have with them though is that the recommendation is to wet it with water before patting the foundation on, I was under the impression that water generally means the possibility of bacteria to grow?

Every time that I try to revert back to the original foundation bought for me, or the slightly darker tester shade, I am always told that I look very pale. The problem that I have is that my face is naturally darker than my neck and body, I assume due to actual exposure to the sun. Plus my freckles are orange-y, a lot darker than my natural skin tone.

Here is a photo of my makeup and brush:

Another add is that I have recently started to use the Estee Lauder foundation brush, prior to that I used the A11 Dirty Works foundation brush. I was bought the Estee Lauder one so thought I had better start using that one, otherwise the Dirty Works one worked fine.

See ya!
x Amy x

New Games That I Have Played

I have just recently started playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, after downloading it during the Christmas sale. So far so good, I am impressed and hooked! It is a rather scarier game than I am used to, with some horrific monsters, but I think I am coping ok. The gameplay feels so fresh compared to what I am used to with Skyrim and Assasins Creed/Shadow of Mordor. It has taken me a little while to get adjusted to the change in inventory, crafting and levelling up. I think the spells panel is quite cool, it reminds me of the shouts in Skyrim, I suppose that magic isn’t that dissimilar either.

I am currently stuck on the Ladies of the Wood storyline, and seem confused which path to take after researching online. I want to save the orphans but I have read that the evil in the trapped tree spirit is actually worse than the horrid crones. I’m hoping that you are able to defeat the crones at some point later in the general story. Decisions, decisions!

Note: Since drafting this post last month, I have moved on from that storyline. One of my friends confirmed that in terms of the storyline, it is better for you to save Gran and kill the tree spirit. I am now on the storyline where you are making good progress in finding Ciri with Yennefer. At this point I will just mention that you get the choice to choose lovers during the course of the game. Since I find it very difficult to make decisions (out of fear that I will make the wrong choice), I googled the storyline and wanted to stay with what is written in the books.

So in summary I am loving this game so far!

The new game I have played and completed prior to this is Assasins Creed Black Flag. Although I’m not a big fan of the Assasins Creed games, I do love a pirate game! I liked the storyline, graphics, history and I loved that you could board the ships and have ship battles! So yeah I think the game is really cool. Since completing the main storyline, I haven’t yet gone back to fully complete the game.

You can find the link to the game’s official website here: https://thewitcher.com/en/witcher3

Keep gaming guys!

Bye x