Worldwide Wardrobe Competition

When I read about the Worldwide Wardrobe Competition from Travel Supermarket I thought it was too good an opportunity to pass up. All you have to do is create looks based on five different locations and activities around the world for under £200 and say why you chose your items. The five themes are sightseeing in Paris, clubbing in Ibiza, shopping in London, cocktails in New York and partying at the Full Moon Party in Thailand. There is a winner for each city and the prize is a trip to the destination your outfit was inspired by. You can enter all five, or pick however many you want. I chose Paris, New York and London.

I chose London because despite the fact that it's incredibly near to Dublin, I've never been there before. Keeping in mind that I was creating an outfit for a shopping trip, it had to be comfortable as well as stylish, as London is one of the most stylish places in the world. I chose a printed 90s inspired midi dress from ASOS as it's a great transitional piece since the weather still isn't great this side of the world. I chose the leather jacket because like I said it's still jacket weather at the moment and in London you have to be prepared for rain, snow and sun! I chose the Topshop boots because I felt that the midi dress would require a slight heel to balance it out and boots are always handy for an unexpected rain shower while out and about, the heel isn't too high so they would still be comfortable for shopping all day. The Zara Taylor ring is another 90s inspired item, it reminds me of the mood rings everyone used to have when I was younger. I finished the outfit off with some inexpensive accessories. The Zara messenger bag is big enough to fit the essentials in for a day out and the two tone colour brightens everything up. Finally the oversized ASOS sunglasses are always handy to have in your bag in case the sun decides to shine. 

Total: £198.99

I  have recent first hand experience of sightseeing in Paris and my main objectives for this outfit were comfort, practicality and of course some Parisian inspired style. I found this striped dress from Next and I based everything else around it. I added the denim jacket because layers are always a good idea when your going to be going between being outdoors and indoors all day. One of the most important things you can wear when walking around a city sightseeing is comfortable footwear, so I chose a pair of shoes from Clarks as they always have the most comfortable shoes. Another must have is a small cross body bag that you don't have to worry about. It's perfect for keeping your passport, wallet and other essentials. The sunglasses and belt are self explanatory, I thought the ring would add a nice bit of colour to a pretty neutral outfit and the watch is just a bit of fun as well as being practical so that you can keep an eye on the time for museum opening hours. 

Total: £189.97

It's always been one of my dreams to visit New York and what could be more classically New York than a Breakfast at Tiffany's inspired black dress. I chose some simple black court heels to wear with it and some gold and coral accessories. A simple coral clutch, a cocktail ring and some cute Marc Jacobs daisy studs to echo the cut-out detail of the dress. 

Total: £195.86

I found it was more difficult than I thought it would be to stay under the £200 limit but I'm very happy with the end results. I chose outfits that I would actually wear in each location and it was actually quite fun looking through different sites for the right pieces. 

You can find all the details on how to enter here.

If you decide to give it a go please leave me a comment and let me know so I can have a look at your outfits!

Emma x

Violet Crush

I was at the Estée Lauder counter last September and saw that they had a new collection out called Violet Underground. The stand out products for me in the collection were the lip colours. There were two velvet lipsticks Violet Crush and Black Cassis and matching glosses in Rebellious Violet and Chaotic Currant. 

The one that really grabbed my attention was Violet Crush, a velvet finish lipstick in a stunning shade. Since it was a Limited Edition shade I knew I would regret not getting it and I'm so glad I did. 

I have never seen a lipstick colour like this one before, the texture is smooth and creamy with a matte finish but my lips don't feel dry after wearing this for hours. It also lasts on my lips really well and doesn't need constant re-applying. I seriously adore this lipstick and contemplated getting Black Cassis too but decided it as too similar to my Revlon Black Cherry to justify spending €24 on it. 

If you haven't tried Estée Lauder lipsticks yet, I would definitely recommend taking a look at them, they really are beautiful and the packaging it something else! 

This shade doesn't seem to be available on the Estée Lauder site anymore but I'm sure if you did some digging around you could find it somewhere. 

Emma x

Seaside Saturday

This past Saturday Donnacha, Kate, Eric, Simon and I visited my family in Skerries. We went to Stoop Your Head (Stoops) for lunch. Their seafood chowder is the best. Afterwards we joined my aunts at Olive for coffee and dessert. These two are some of my favourite places to eat in Dublin county. If you're ever in the area, I can't recommend either highly enough. 

The sun shone for the first time in ages on Saturday, long enough for us to be able to sit outside and eat lunch. 

I just wanted to say a quick thank you for all the lovely comments on my last post, it really made me so happy to hear from you all. 

How was your Easter weekend?

Emma x

I'm Subtle Like a Lion's Cage

I can't believe it's been three months since I've done an outfit post. The last time we took photos was on Christmas day and unbelievably it was colder yesterday taking these photos than it was on Christmas day. In fact in was so cold I couldn't even bear to take off my coat to show you my boring old black dress so don't worry, you weren't missing anything. 

Coat- given to me by my granny

Shoes- Marks and Spencers

Tights- Penneys/Primark

Beret- eBay

Brooch- Vintage from Etsy

Necklace and Rings- Zara Taylor Hello Sailor Telescope Pendant and Three Brass Rings set

Gloves- Accessorize

Bag- Zara Basic Shopper

Scarf- Ruche Oxford Circus Plaid Scarf (now only $5!)

Nails- No7 Me! Me! Me!

Lips- Chanel Pirate (review coming soon!)

This has pretty much been my uniform over the past three months. Simple dress, warm coat, beret, scarf, gloves and lipstick (of course). I don't think I've ever been more excited about the Summer, I need some sunshine after this 6 month Winter! I just realised while browsing through my Tumblr dashboard the other day that this beret is a similar colour to the one worn by Suzy in Moonrise Kingdom. I was looking for the perfect check scarf since September and finally found this one from Ruche, it was such a good price and their international shipping is very reasonable. I like that it's not the usual red colour, even though I do really like the red ones. I've also been wearing this bag almost non-stop since I bought it in October. 

As you may already know, the past three/four months have been among the most difficult in my life. I've had almost all of my family, my boyfriend and brother in law suffer from varying levels of ongoing illnesses, I lost my grandfather and have had some bad news about the company I work for too. All of these things combined with the atrocious weather (seriously, blizzards in late March?) have resulted in a complete lack of outfit posts and a lack of posts in general. At one stage I was thinking of throwing the towel in and just stopping altogether, but thankfully that didn't last long because I soon realised that blogging, whether it was writing, photographing, reading or emailing my blogger friends, was one thing that was getting me through the tough times and taking my mind off things. Blogging combined with spending time with my family and my closest friends and throwing myself into work have all meant that I have kept positive and stayed focused on the good things, however small they are. 

Thank you for being a part of that.

Tell me how you are, comment or email or whatever, I'd love to hear from you! 

Emma x

Me! Me! Me!

These are what I like to call my Barbie nails. I don't tend to wear pink nails that often but there is something about this colour that brings me back to my childhood and those bright pink boxes I opened at Christmas and Birthdays. 

Me! Me! Me! is one of the No7 Stay Perfect nail colours. These polishes have a large brush which is so easy to use and are opaque enough that you can get away with just a single coat. No7 products are available in Boots in the UK and Ireland and in Target in the US. The nail polishes retail for £6/€9. 

What nail polish have you been wearing recently?

Emma x

Caudalie Skincare

For some reason I rarely talk about skincare here despite it being something that I spend a lot of time researching and using. I wanted to slowly introduce you to my favourite skincare so I thought I would start with one of my most recent discoveries.

If you're an avid reader of beauty blogs you will most definitely have heard of French skincare brand Caudalie. I really like the ethos behind the brand and I love to see a brand that is committed to using natural ingredients. You can read about the vine and grape derived ingredients used by Caudalie on their website. It's a great read for anyone interested in skincare ingredients and what their purpose is in a product. 

I had been reading about their products for a while, the Beauty Elixir being one of the most popular, after being mentioned by Lisa Eldridge in one of her skincare films. They are finally being stocked in selected pharmacies around Ireland now and I was very excited when my mam told me they had started stocking Caudalie products in the local pharmacy in my home town. I picked up a few of the sets after Christmas to try out some more of the products. 

The Divine Oil is another of the best selling Caudalie products. At Christmas they released a gift set including a 50ml bottle of the oil with a 50g Crushed Cabernet Scrub and a mini candle. Divine Oil is a multi-purpose oil that can be used on body, face, hair, cuticles, in a bath etc. It comes beautifully packaged in a glass bottle with a spray nozzle which is one of my favourite features of the packaging. It contains argan, grape seed, hibiscus and sesame oil, shea butter extract, anti-oxidant grape Polyphenols, it's scented with two types of roses, vanilla, cedar, pink pepper and grapefruit. 

It has a rich natural scent and I can imagine it would be amazing to spritz some of this into a bath and just inhale the aroma (sadly I don't have a bath in my apartment so this is but a dream to me!). I've been using this quite sparingly because it is expensive. I've used it on my hair by spraying it into my hands and rubbing them together and then smoothing it through the lengths and ends of my hair where there is still some dryness from when it was coloured. I've used it as a body oil too but I have yet to use it on my face as I haven't needed to.

I love body oils and have used the Palmer's Cocoa Butter Oil for years and years so it's nice to try something a bit different. I will definitely repurchase this but it is something I will save for when my hair and skin really need it because it's too expensive to use every day. 

The scrub smells unbelievable too as does the candle. The scrub contains six anti-cellulite and draining essential oils and leaves my skin soft and smooth but still really moisturised due to the oils. The scrub retails at €26.88 for 150g and the oil is €33.75 for 100mls. 

The Lip Conditioner and Hand and Nail Cream came in a little gift set too. It took me a few uses to really love these. I adore the lightly vanilla scented Lip Conditioner, it's so handy for keeping in my bag now that my NUXE stick lip balm has run out. It has 99.5% natural ingredients, it repairs damaged lips so it's great for when my lips are feeling dry and it's also anti-ageing so it's an all round winner for me. The hand and nail cream is perfect, apart from the scent which I am just not crazy about, it's a bit too sweet for me but nothing that would stop me from repurchasing it. This is again a nourishing and anti-aging hand cream with grapeseed, orange pulp, shea butter and grape oil. The lip conditioner is €6.88 for 4g and the hand cream is €15 for 75mls. 

The Beauty Elixir is a product people seem to either really love or really dislike. I am definitely one of the former, although it did take me a while to fall in love. This is the first Caudalie product I tried and after using it for the past year I honestly don't ever want to be without it. When I first tried it the scent caught me by surprise. It contains grape, orange blossom, rose, balm mint and rosemary and if you can imagine all of those scents together that is really what is smells like. It's very invigorating and calming and it is the perfect finish to my cleansing routine. It's also great to spray on during the day for a pick me up or to set or refresh make up. Caudalie say that it is a treatment that smooths away fine lines, tightens the pores and gives the complexion a boost of radiance and I completely agree.

I try not to use this every single day because I don't want my skin to get used to it, but if my skin feels dull or I'm having a bad skin week I will use this to brighten it up. It comes in a gorgeous little glass bottle and is €14.38 for the 30ml and €40 for the 100ml. Feel Unique are doing 10% off all of these products at the moment and they can generally be found cheaper in pharmacies. 

I've also tried the Instant Foaming Cleanser and the Shower Gels which I have loved. If you're looking for some great quality skincare, I can't recommend this brand highly enough. I will definitely be trying out more products and repurchasing the ones I have. 

What skincare brands do you swear by?

Emma x

Five TV Shows...

...I've been watching recently.

The Walking Dead

I liked the first season, I didn't love it but I thought there was a lot of potential. I was completely let down by the second season, it was just boring. The third season however has been amazing! It is filling the tension gap until Breaking Bad returns later in the year. It has had me gasping and watching through my fingers on many occasions this season. I also love watching Talking Dead afterwards and seeing interviews with celebrity fans of the show and cast and crew members. Daryl has to be my favourite character, isn't he every girls favourite?

Dawson's Creek

Where do I start? My love affair with the Creek started many years ago. I watched DC when it was first on Irish tv and it's remained one of my all time favourite TV shows since. I think this is my first time properly re-watching it from the beginning and I'm about to start the third season which is my favourite (fans of Pacey Witter will know why). If you preferred Dawson to Pacey (like my friend Simon) I don't want to hear about it! ;)

Girls

I started watching Girls before all the hype/controversy on a whim. Donnacha and I have found it very hit and miss and it's hard to pinpoint why. One thing I noticed and Donnacha agreed was that all of the female characters on the show are stereotyped to a certain degree whereas the male characters aren't and that bugs me. I like Adam and Ray best and I don't have any major issues with the other characters except I cannot get over why Zosia Mamet's character talks like something out of an Amy Poehler sketch on SNL. I don't love it or find it as amazing as people are making it out to be but there is something that keeps drawing me back every week.

 

Enlightened

Enlightened. I cannot recommend this show highly enough. It's on HBO as well as Girls and if you had to pick one to watch, this is the winner by far. Although it's just finished it's second and possibly final season it just blew me away. I am a huge Laura Dern fan so when I saw she was in this I immediately wanted to see it. It's written/created by and stars both Laura Dern and Mike White (who also wrote some Dawson's Creek, some Freaks and Geeks, Dead Man on Campus, School of Rock and The Good Girl etc.). Luke Wilson, Diane ladd (Laura Dern's real life mother), Timm Sharp (Marshall from Undeclared), and Dermot Mulroney are all in it too as well as lots of other familiar faces. That's all I'm going to say because I would love you all to watch it. Two stand out episodes are the ones centred on Diane Ladd's character and Luke Wilson's character. It's the most unique and original television I have seen in a very long time. 

Home Movies

Donnacha and I have been re-watching this in the evenings. It is the cutest/weirdest show about Brendon Small and his friends Melissa and Jason and the movies they make together. Jon Benjamin of Archer and Bob's Burger's fame (one of it's creators Loren Bouchard also created Bob's Burgers) does a few of the voices. It's seriously hilarious. Jason and Coach McGuirk are my favourite main characters but I also love the weirdos Walter and Perry. This won't be for everyone but the subtle humour is amazing. 

Have you seen any of these shows? What do you think of them? What are you watching at the moment? Do you have any recommendations?

Check out my last Five post here.

Emma x

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5