Cheeky BooHoo order...

I may have just placed a sneaky BooHoo order.... 

I fell into the usual trap - I watched a couple of haul videos on YouTube earlier which just made me think 'aaaah clothes, aaaaaah internet shopping', and now here we are. I added over one hundred pounds worth of items to my BooHoo basket before taking a step back and putting my thinking cap on and realising this was a bad idea. Mainly because there's that thing coming up... what's it called??? Oh yeah, CHRISTMAS! Which means I need to be sensible with my monies. So I removed quite a large portion of my basket and stuck with these three:

1. Grace Deep Plunge Velvet Skort Playsuit - I'm thinking this will be perfect for a night out at the weekend. Plus I have some killer new boots which will look awesome with this. I would recommend the old trick of ordering two sizes of playsuits on BooHoo. When I've bought playsuits before I've fit sizes ranging between 8 - 12 on there so it's always good to order an extra just to see.

2. Ellie Pom Pom Trim 3/4 Sleeve Swing Dress - I just love paisley prints, which is my only justification for this. I could do without the pom poms but I suppose you can't win them all.  

3. Anne Embossed Velvet Smock Dress - And this one is sorting me for Christmas day! 

I know I've bought two items in berry red velvet which is normally something I would stop myself from doing, and when I was having my 'basket cleanse' I would've made myself choose just one. BUT in this case I really liked the red velvet and thought that since the playsuit is very much a 'going out' outfit which I would only wear for a proper night out (not just a meal / drinks), it would be ok to get a more casual dress in the same material that could either be dressed up or down depending on the occasion. 

As I said, I had much more in my basket that I got rid of, but two dresses worth an honourable mention are:

1. Penny Peacock Print Smock Dress - Really cute pattern here which I think could be quite versatile and wearable both in and out of work which is always good. The only reason it didn't make it into the final basket was simply that I only wanted one patterned dress (the embossed flowers on the velvet dress don't count!) and I preferred the paisley one above! 

2. Una Fox Print Pleat Front Skater Dress - You know how we talked about my cat collection? Well I also have a pretty significant fox collection too and I can't resist things with foxy patterns on like this adorable dress. However, I feel this would be one of those purchases where it's all fine and dandy and cute until I actually try to wear it. I feel like I would end up looking like a small child. Also, I've just bought a fox print scarf (so that will have to satisfy my fox print needs for the time being).

Until next time :)

The Cat Collection #3

Cat shaped mug = mug perfection.

This is a rather new addition to my cat collection - I saw it in Urban Outfitters (it is still in my local store,  but sadly it is sold out online) a couple of weeks ago and although it was love at first sight (as with all my cat paraphernalia), I didn't buy it immediately because I was unsure as to what I'd do with it and I'm trying with all my might to stop spending quite so much money on nick-nacks such as this. However, after trying and failing to put it to the back of my mind, I went back in to the store the other day and bought it. By this point I'd convinced myself that I'd thought of a good use for it...

Voila!

I've recently bought some new make up brushes and thought this little dude would be perfect to store them in! So yes, my purchase has now been satisfactorily justified!

Until next time :)

I love an Urban Outfitters sale (plus a discount code!)

(L: Cooperative Knitted Dress in Daisy Print - R: Cooperative Pleated Dress in Gingham)

I just wanted to share this with the interweb because I bloody love OU but sadly I hardly ever buy anything from there because it is so darned expensive! I've been eyeing the gingham dress up for an age and I was watching Faye from FayesFix yesterday (Sunday is a great day for lazing around and watching YouTube, isn't it?) and she featured this dress in her haul, which just trigged all my memories and the feelings came rushing back. Then she said it was in the sale and I was immediately on the OU website ordering it. Then I thought, 'ooh I'll just have a little peruse and see what other delights are on offer' and I saw the daisy print dress. I'm not sure how it'll be on, but I thought it might be quite good for work in the colder months. I sometimes struggle with work wear because I want to look smart but I also don't want to look like every other person in the office, or older than my years. Which is the effect more traditional work wear can have on me (granted this is partly due to the fact I look about 12). But I thought this was a respectable length but still quite young and fun (and at £20, you can't really complain).  

Also, UO currently have a discount code floating around the internet for £10 when you spend £60 (the code is LETSFEST if you're interested). These two dresses didn't quite make it up to £60 (in fact the order was bang on £50) so I decided to see what else I could find to bump my order up to £60 so I could get the £10 off. Basically I was looking for anything that I quite liked for £10 so I could feel like I got it for free, which is always great. I ended up getting this phone case, which I really enjoy. It got the price up to £62 so I got my £10 and only actually spent £52. Yay! I mean for OU that is pretty good. The full price value of the two dresses was £97, so I got them for almost half price.

What are your favourite OU picks at the moment?

Until next time :)

Mini-Haul : Boots and The Body Shop

One thing you should probably know about me is that I am a bonafide shopaholic, so I practically always have enough new purchases in my possession to do a "haul".

I have tried, in vein, over the years to get my boyfriend to show an interest in my shopping, but, sadly it rarely works and I have to internalise the need to share my brand spanking new clothes/home accessories/beauty products. Sadly it is a burden I have to bare.

I must admit, I do harbour an intense love for hauls. I think the attraction is a mixture of living vicariously through other people who have money to spend (or not), and getting fashion ideas (read: copying) from people who are probably 100% more fashionable/cooler than me. I do enjoy fashion hauls way more than beauty ones like this, but alas, you can't win them all.

So, now I have this snazzy new blog, I am taking my first, tiny steps into the world of the "haul". History is being made!

I realise this is a long introduction to a relatively small collection of purchases but I am new to this and am still finding my feet. (Also, I am aware I need to learn how to use my camera properly...)

So on my lunch on Monday - after being insanely good with my money all month - I caved into my urge to buy pretty new things. I ran around my town like a mad woman. I had a Cath Kidston voucher, which is why I left the office in the first place - and I was hoping to find some clothing in the sale (the only time I can ever remotely consider buying CK clothes) and on the way I accidentally went to The Body Shop and Boots.

(L-R: Dreams Eau du Parfam £5, Passion Fruit Shower Gel £3, Papaya Shower Gel £3 and Vitamin E Face Mist £8)

The Body Shop had an insane sale on, and since I am a card holder, I got an extra few offers (I'm not 100% sure what the offers were but I loved them nonetheless!)

I always like to buy The Body Shop perfumes in the sale because they are always a real bargain and I enjoy the scents (I have a couple of others and highly recommend them). I find they're a good every day perfume for when you don't want to go out smelling like your either a. on a date or b. going on a night out with the girls. I know there are more subtle day time perfumes around but to be honest, I really resent paying £30+ for perfume to wear in the office around people that probably don't know or care about what perfume I'm wearing, so I like to save my more expensive perfumes for evenings out and use ones like this for every day wear.

I generally use cheap and cheerful shower gel (I'm aware there's a money saving theme here - what can I say, I'm Northern) but I do like to have a few nicer bottles as well so these ones are right up my street. I've just run out of Soap and Glory's 'A Foam Call' so I decided to pick these two up. They were both a bargain at £3 and they smell absolutely divine.

Finally, I got a Vitamin E Face Mist. Now this was on a total whim. I got to the till and gave my Body Shop card and the lady told me that as it was my fourth purchase I got a free £5 voucher. So in a bit of a mad discount loving panic, I picked this (which was £8, but I paid £3). I always use their Vitamin E Intense Moisturising Cream and love it, so I thought I'd give this one a go. Not sure how I'll get on with it, but I'll let you know.

(L-R : Maybelline Baby Skin Primer, £7.99 and Maybelline Baby Lips in Pink Punch, £2.99)

Aaah Maybelline, aaah Baby Lips. Need I say more?!

There isn't too much I can say about these two as the general blogging world is head over heels for both. But here are my two cents.

I don't normally use primer but the I love the Baby Lips/Skin branding so much I thought I'd give it a whirl. I've dabbled with Benefits Porefessional before, and found it ok but nothing special. I didn't get a noticeably better look after using it so it fell to the wayside. I don't know if the same will happen here (maybe Primer just isn't for me) but I am looking forward to using it anyway. 

The Baby Lips are a sort of repurchase. I have the 'Cherry Me' and 'Peach Kiss' varieties already, and I very much enjoy them. I wanted to get 'Pink Punch' because currently I'm into the whole 'English Rose' look and I frequently go for a porcelain skin, rosy pink cheeks and baby pink lips look. However, sometimes it isn't always appropriate (nor can I be bothered) to put a full on lipstick on, so this will be absolutely perfect for those days. 

I did buy a couple of other things but they are not very interesting (a body puff and some face wipes...) I also did find something in the Cath Kidston sale and it is AMAZING but I think that may feature in an OOTD when I am brave enough to snap a picture of myself.

Until next time :)