Lusting after... Bad A$$ rings & pretty things

I was recently asked if i'd bought anything lately... in my head I was kinda thinking 'so, does this include online splurge or do you actually, physically mean walking into a shop and purchasing something which involves the exchange of hard earned cash?' Other than my dream dress purchase via Cocosa, it has been forever since I bought anything. Scout's honour...

I can't remember the last time I swooned at anything exciting, but whilst doing the rounds and looking for some summer accessorizing, I came across this long chained feather necklace and large stone cocktail ring from H & M. Yup, I swept these up in a jiffy and both weren't crazy expensive either, job done.

Even after my mini shopping stint, I still can't help but go gaga for these gorgeous rings!

1. ID knuckle duster ring by Mawi 474 euros
2. Bronze Lizard Onyx ring by Kara Ross reduced to £66.50 also via asos
3. Topshop triangle cut out ring £7.50
4. Low Luv 14ct Tripe bar ring by Erin Wasson redeuced £67.50 via asos

5. Vivienne Westwood silver square box ring £195 via asos
6. McQueen Spiral Twin skull ring (also available in gold) £150 via Harvey Nichols
7. This is so reminds me of the YSL Arty ring, but gorgeous otherwise. $16.95 Via Sportsgirl Aus
8. Agate cocktail ring £10 via River Island

Lastly, whilst grabbing the links for these rings, I've just spotted Lanvins new Medailles Crystal ring via Harvey Nichols, it is gorgeous!!! Which of these are tickling your fancy?

Hope you're all having a wonderful week!

Steal of the century: The Ultimate Convertible dress!

It's miiiiiiiiiine! I repeat, I finally scored my dream dress.... I haven't bought anything this epic in ages. One seriously cool dress & 15 ways to wrap and wear it!

Ma-jor purchase in royal blue, one size fits all, talk about genius!

Most of you will know that when a special online sale is due to take place, you do not step away from the laptop. In my case, I dragged mine with me knowing that Cocosa (UK) was hosting the Two Birds designer sale, which was about to kick off in a mere few hours.

I swear I only react this insane when I want something reeeeally bad, ok, no that's probably an understatement. But since I missed out big time on the previous Two Birds sale, I told myself I would not be making such a rookie mistake again. Last time all the amazing dresses sold out like an hour and a half, and I was gutted to say the least. (The collection has sold out already at the time of writing this).

So let me relay how I very nearly did not get this dress.

• Cocosa emails me the day before with a preview of forthcoming sales, I see the Two Birds brand and a little birdie inside my head tells me that's the label I missed out on before.
• Eyes pretty much pop outta my head as I oogle all the fabulous dresses in a myriad of jewel colours. The dress I want was £250, now £119, i'm thinking, 'baaaaargain - I-must-have-it-now!!!!'. Really, this dress is going to get some serious wears.
  
• Set alarm to remember to go online at midday the next day.
• Today: Click on the page of the dress in the colour I want and close laptop set to that page.
• It's nearly midday UK time, need to find wifi connection, done, phew.
• Ok, it's 3 seconds gone and the sales are open, click on add to basket... noooooooo! The screen is blinking, and screaming 'checking availability' at me. Next thing I know it says someone else has put the item in their basket, should they not proceed with the purchase it will then be made available again. I click back to the Two Birds sale page (back and forth at least 5 times) and literally click 'add to basket' on 2 other dresses (held only for 7 minutes by Cocosa) - gotta have back up, know what I mean?
• So after a good 8 minutes of not being able to breathe properly I click back to the royal blue dress and find it's available again, breathe, click 'add to basket'. I had to uncheck the 2 other dresses I didn't want and finally, hoorah after filling in address and payment details it is MINE!

Honestly, I felt like tearing my hair out at one point (B if you're reading this, i'm sure you'll sympathize with me), especially when I kept clicking back and forth to the royal blue dress page (which loaded really slowly each time) & it kept telling me there was none available.... aaaagh!

So, why am I so kerrr-aaaaazy about this dress? Well, sometime last year I saw Vahni of Grit and Glamour in a stunning knot and tie dress, seriously V looked a million bucks (as she always does, see here) & the dress looked gloriously amazing. But for the life of me, I cannot find that particular post of her in that dress or who it was by again, all I knew was that I wanted a similar-ish dress.

The different ways to wrap/wear this dress

So what do you think? Score of the century or what?

Have any of you had any interesting or shall I say desperate, 'me-wants-now' online shopping attempts only to have someone (almost) beat you to it? Seriously, if this were in a shop and there were only one dress, i'd have versions of Rachel, Monica and Phoebe shopping (hunting) with me, whistles blowing all the way!

images via twobirds, edited by me
NB: twobirds is available in US, Canada, Australia and also the UK.

Miss Selfridge Fall Highlights & World-Wide delivery

It's like I can't wait for the Autumn leaves to start falling or something (and those of you in OZ are like, bring on the Sun please!)....and it's not like Greece will ever get bitterly cold, but this morning Marie Claire had some super duper gorgeous Miss Selfridge press pics to show and I just had to share!

I absolutely die for the middle look - I've seen Doctors style bags around already but this floral number is interesting. Love the fur trim flying jacket too!

Miss Selfridge is one affordable high-street brand name who has gone from super sexy in the early 90's (they sold dresses galore, especially LBD's best) to spot on fashion with their own signature style. I am seriously loving how they have introduced a ridiculously awesome collection for Fall. Why?
Well you know how fashion can just leap from trend to trend and from pale pastels to bold jewel colours in a jiffy, Miss Selfridge have incorporated some of the trends/stories/colours they had from past seasons but simply moved it on so that you can mix the outfits/pieces up with the old and new! Genius!!!

So some of the key trends & styling for Fall include:

Hippy Chic & Bohemian Luxe, lots of layering, beiges to brown, New twist for a Bonnie & Clyde-esque story with pretty soft, neutrals, winter pastels, tone on tone, peaches, creams, blacks with different textures, finishes, structure & heavy embellishment, A 60's couture feel, think Twiggy in shift dress with pearl collar trim detail, very girly, and Victoriana gothic theme - lace, embellishment and not forgetting creams with gold.

Do we like???

Ok, the other thing i'm going to point out because I know all of you lovely readers are stylishly International, is that they deliver world-wide, with a standard delivery (approx 5-7 days from placing the order, £5-£10.50 for delivery) to the following countries:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Eire, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Italy, Finland, Greece, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Republic of Korea, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United States of America. Unfortunately nominated day delivery is not available at this time.

Source/ref: Miss Selfridge & Marie Claire UK

Cheap thrills! Delicious Rings under £20/€20/$20!

I've been digging through my ring collection of late only to find that some of the rings I have either lack lustre, are scratched, or have lost a gem...

It's clearly high-time I picked up some new fabulous pieces. for all you recessionista fashionista's, these precious babies are all under $20, £20, €20!!! Bargain!




From top, left to right:

• All rings by New Look, UK - delivery Worldwide is £5 only! Plus they have a sale on too!
• Giant Flower ring-£6 available in blush too
• Shell flower ring - £5 available in an assortment of bold colours
• Resin Rose ring - £1!!! available in other colours
• Chainmail Bow ring - £10

• Forever 21 (F21) Burst filigree ring - $3.80
• Asos Bonjour double finger ring - €10
• Topshop heart and wings ring - £5
• Topshop Heart & arrow ring -€7.50

• F21 - Boysen beaded ring - $6.80
• F21 - Gaia stone ring - $5.80
• F21 - Luxe Gem ring - $3.80
• F21 - Bold vintage ring - $5.80

So, which ones will you be buying?

NEWSFLASH! I have a really exciting post to share with you all this Friday, so keep your eyes peeled...All i can say now is that if you love Vintage you will love this gal! She's simply beyond amazing!

As usual, tomorrow's post will reveal a talented individual in the fashion industry for "I want this Job" feature!

All images via Forever 21, Topshop, Asos.com, New Look

Jewellery Spy: Pretty pendants

above: Regal Crown hand stamped wax seal necklace £210

I always get a bit giddy over cool pieces of jewellery, so you can probably imagine how i felt when i stumbled across this Jessica De Lotz collection of wax seal style pendants from her collection titled 'Love Story', how romantic!

As a talented Central St. Martins graduate, I look forward to seeing more awesome pieces of jewellery from Miss De Lotz (cool name or what?) and her brother Benny.

Speaking of pendants, I recently noticed that Tex, from Fashion Butter had almost the same gold pendant as myself, check out the similarities here. I really love this beautiful sovereign coin pendant capturing the memorable battle between St. George and the Dragon as it's my first ever gift from my man when he tracked me down in Athens airport about 4 years ago... sigh!

I've seen a few gold coin pendants floating about, most are bought as gifts. The one above is of Athina via here.

I also love this jeweller, Christina Guenther on Etsy, who makes the most beautiful had stamped sterling silver pendants, with the offering of customizing too, check it out ladie. Note that there are others who do similar 'hand-stamped' pendant on Etsy, but i do so love the cute messages by Christina.

images via: Jessica De Lotz, Ancient Creations, Etsy

Monday Morning Lust

The hayfever has already kicked off and I feel double yuck, have gone through countless 'Big' boxes of tissues and my nose could seriously rival Rudolph's right now. Crikey! The only thing getting me through my morning are these yummy images.

I'm partial to a bit of Chinoiserie, but i have to say, this amazing cushion caught my eye with pink graphic stencil detailing - what a way to bring out the modern in something classically traditional. You can find more cushions via this link here.

image via inside avenue

This yellow Hollywood Regency Table lamp is just gorgeous - I want it please!!!! Definitely on my Wish list. My recent obsession with all things Hollywood Regency doesn't end here, check out the Jonathan Adler Butlers tray table below! Sigh!

Last of all, i came across this image of a totally organised and delicious dream closet via Canadian House & Home. I would love a walk in wardrobe with all the extra's too, try your luck here to win your dream closet makeover ($5,000 by California Closets) filled with a $5,000 worth of fashion by Bayview Village! Ok, i'm not not exactly state side, so can't enter into this, but a girl can dream.

Shopping list: Beauty

I love all things to do with fashion & beauty. With beauty, the stuffs gotta work and be at a reasonable price. That said I don't and paying for something that produces effective end results and is simply amazing, than opting out for something cheaper and not so great. Given a comparison, beauty in Greece comes with a whopping price tag. I haven't quite gotten used to and neither found the ideal equivalent to Rimmel or should I say 'high street' beauty & make up. My supplies are running low ladies, which inevitably suggests a flying trip to the UK soon. Yippee!!! I've already started drafting up my initial list of beauty goodies I want & need. I don't know about you, but these products have never failed me and depending on budgets these are some of the most amazing, really works wonders beauty products. This one sensational product doesn't really fit into any particular category purely because it does everything - my best friend & I used to carry a tube everywhere!!! Elizabeth Arden's 8 Hour cream - great for chapped Lips, glossy cheeks, soothes scrapes (& burns) and you can mix with powder eye shadow and create a oil slick kinda look.

Face/skincare:

Simple Vital Vitamins Night cream - in the morning my skin feels soft, what a delight. I also love the Clarins Multi-active Night/Day cream, Clarins Beauty Flash Balm (£26.50) for those emergency days and the Olay range of day creams with SPF. My mum used to use the Olay Classic care beauty fluid - 100ml religiously and has great skin (but i might put that down to genes). After they changed the brand name from 'Oil of Ulay' to 'Olay' the scent and the actual lotion seems to have changed too. I'm not loving it so much now. Have used Lancôme and also Estée Lauder too, they're ok for me but why pay more when you can get something that works just as well? I've got some Dr. Nick Lowe anti ageing creams I bought before to use next, so will report on that another time. I don't really buy into the anti-ageing cream stuff but I am reaching the age where lines are showing. Right now I just make sure I slap on the SPF everyday & try (being the operative word) to eat well to prevent further damage. Greece is getting sunnier by the day now and getting a sun tan just isn't a priority anymore. Not when you know that 10/20/50 years down the line you'll end up looking leathery - think the lady from 'There's Something about Mary' (shudder).

Make-Up: I love to play so much and experiment on my girls.

Lips:

Cheap & expensive glossies in tubes are great as long as they don't have an overly sticky consistency, which i find that this is the case with Lancomes Juicy Tubes (but I just so love the smell and yummy colours). You do get super shiny lips though.

I love Pout's Lip plump - in clear, i have no idea why they've shut down but i miss their gorgeous girly products - they absolutely rocked the lips department. Equally good in the plumping department is 'Sexy Mother Pucker' which you can buy at Boots for around £8.
Other amazing Lip glosses i adore are: L'Oreal Glam Shine Lip Gloss - £8
Benefit Lip gloss in 'Kiss' - it's a very soft shade of pink - £14
Also love the Dior lip gloss sticks too. Very delicious.
Mac lipstick in 'Girl about town' - i love this hot pink colour - £12.50
Love Mac for their vibrant variety of Lipstick colours and also YSL lipsticks.

Eyes:

I could go on forever on this section but maybe another time. I have short eyelashes, and as a kid growing up I wanted so badly to have my friends eyelashes which were like 12mm long. What's a girl to do but try every kinda lash extending mascara?

What's working for me are:

Max Factor's Master Piece Max Mascara - £10 - This rocks! Clinique High impact Mascara - £14.50 - This is really good and the wand doesn't clog up to much too. Rimmel Extra super lash mascara w/curled brush - £5 - I also wanted to have curled/upwards lashes too, so i bought this in hope. It's a good all round mascara for everyday use but there are better mascara's. Bourjois Volume Glamour - £8 - Have used this over and over again - tis pretty good.
Someone's just bought me the Dior Showcase Extase mascara - will report back on this another time and also Maybelline Colossal mascara - £7 with it's rubber wand.

Eye shadows

Love YSL, Bobbi Browns Shimmer wash range, Mac for colour and staying power, Shu Uemera - Iridescent colour crayon set - my lovely friend bought this gift from the states and they can be crushed and blended using the finger and has great staying power. I love that you can use the sticks as a high lighter, eye-liner and eye shadow too.
Benefit's Show Offs - £12 Super shimmery product for eyes, lips and cheeks.

Rimmel soft Kohl Eye Pencil - £3 - I cannot live without this product, it's inexpensive and incredibly effective. Easy blending too.

Foundation:

I don't really use foundation anymore, living in a hot climate just doesn't do any good whatsoever, either that or the fact that I'm much more comfortable in my own skin now. In the past I've used L'Oreal's True Match Foundation - £10 or Bobbi Brown - where the colours were matched perfectly to my skin tone.

Concealer

It's worth splurging here mainly because you want to cover up big time and have good staying power! Mac - Moisture cover concealer - £12.50 - doesn't dry out the spot in question. Rimmel Stay matt concealer - £5 - provides a much thicker cover but colours available are not so great which is where Bobbi Brown comes in. Her Creamy Concealer is amazing as is the Corrector (for under the eyes/uneven skin tone) both £16.50. Talk about saving the day...

Bronzer/Blushers

Hmmm, I love bronzers, they transform me from scary, pasty ghost into a glowing human being. I was also bought a gorgeous hot pink cream blush from Milan years ago and all I can say is that it changed my life. Carrie Bradshaw eat your heart out girl! An orange or hot pink cream blush added (by finger tips) in a sweeping upwards motion on your cheekbones/upper apples of your cheek area - mind you only need a little can just give you that healthy, rosy look. Most of my cream blushers and hot coloured powder blushers are from Hong Kong from either Sa-Sa or Bonjour.

I love and religiously use Rimmel's Natural Bronzer - £5.50 but am currently using one by Marbert (at Harrods - i bought this on sale for a fiver-bargain!!) There are a great range of iridescent, shimmery bronzers/blushers out there with varying shade in one set, so as you sweep along you get a highlighter and a deeper colour-depending on what you look you're going for. Bobbi Brown, Dior, Givenchy amongst a few others have excelled in this department.

Highlighters:

Benefits High Beam - £17.50 - I luuuurve this product for adding a swift bit of shine to your cheekbones, under the brow and a few other places... There are more inexpensive versions out there, this is just one 'splurge' product i love to use. I also love H & M (yes as in the fashion chain) for their Shimmer Powder in Gold which I use on the eyes and cheeks sometimes - it's really shimmery! I bought it for around £3-4.

Face cleansers:

Clarins One step Cleanser - £17.50 - I always pick this up at the Duty Free for a lot less, this removes all the nastiness and make-up on your face leaving it soft and smelling wonderful. A cheaper version without the frills but also amazing? Simple Conditioning Eye Make-up Remover - £3 - mainly for the eyes note! Problem skin - I know breakouts are the worst thing that can possibly happen, especially around the time of the month amongst other things. Clean & Clear Deep Cleansing cream wash - £3 or Clean & Clear Blackhead scrub - £3-4. To be honest i can't remember which one rocked it, but it was the one that exfoliates well, leaving no shiny skin and also felt tingly.

Body moisturiser:

Palmers Cocoa Butter Body Lotion - £3.50 - Holy Bananas this is my can't live without product ever! It's cheap, smells so yummy you want to eat it, leaves the skin feeling properly soft and re-hydrated and is simply Wow. I've used this product for like 16 years and counting.

Also need to get more of The Sanctuary's Body Moisture Spray - £5.50 - this is also amazing, smells amazing and leaves the skin super soft. It's not too oily either.

Oh my god, this post is like an essay and i haven't even added images yet. I'm officially a beauty junkie, yikes!