Life | I am a hoarder…

Over the years I have amassed a ridiculously large collection of stuff.  It’s not that I buy an especially large amount; it’s just that once it’s bought, it’s with me for life.

On moving house I discovered that I still had in my possession copies of heat magazine from two years ago - this embarrasses me greatly.  Also about fifty lip balms came out of the woodwork - this embarrasses me even more. I realized that I have carted around the same collection of moisturisers from pretty much every house I have lived in for the past two years because despite knowing that I am not a habitual moisturiser, I still insist on buying more.

It’s the same with hair products. I am and have been for at least six years on a seemingly never ending quest to find a product that will turn my over bleached, over straightened hair into a glorious flowing mane (this will never happen). In pursuing this dream I now have an entire drawer of hair products and yet I still buy more.

The beauty blogger effect is a definite thing, I own far more than I need and yet I continue to buy.

I have decided to have a clear out. Working in fashion and in close proximity to London’s main shopping street has meant that I have a stupid amount of clothes and shoes as well as the embarrassing amount of beauty products.

Here’s the plan:

Beauty products will be used up before any more are purchased. Only when the last lip balm is finished will I buy any more. One person does not need thirty lip balms and five foundations.

Clothing and shoes will be sorted, anything I don’t love will be sold on vinted (my user name is katiepottinger if anyone wants to have a peek)

Wish me luck!

Style | Blazer envy

           

Now I don't know about you but when I was in high school I was forced into wearing a blazer as a part of my school uniform. Not even a fitted one to remind people that I am a girl, oh no! I had to wear a black boxy blazer hat was a couple of sizes to big for me due to the fact that it was a hand me down from my older sister - oh the joys of being the youngest - so after having to wear this hing for a good five years of my life I honestly thought that I never wanted to set eyes on one again. Let alone wear one by choice.

I dress quite smartly on a day to day basis anyway, my style is sort of casual Friday at an office so naturally most people think I have a wardrobe packed with blazers, but no. I'd never found one that I liked or hat didn't make me feel like a painfully skinny twelve year old wearing a school uniform two sizes too big.

That was until I saw a tangerine short suit in a shop window and entered the magical kingdom that is The Kooples. I adore it. Like seriously everything about it. I want everything. Including many of the blazers and suit jackets, unfortunately what with my own personal credit crunch still very much alive and kicking its all way out of my none existent clothing budget. But hey, a girl can dream can't she? 

Are blazers a staple in your wardrobe or are you still dipping your toes? 

Life | Quote time #1

Recently I've been having a pretty shitty time of it to be honest, hence the extreme inactivity on here (apologies, apologies). My job ended, I couldn't afford my house anymore and blah blah blah. Let's not turn this into a lets all feel sorry for me type of post as we all know I can't stand a moaner.

 

What I have learnt from all this is that you have to make the best of every situation that you find yourself in. For example, yes I lost my job in Selfridges (not due to incompetence may I add! My contract ended) but in not having this job in the toy department, yes snores, I have now found myself a new job in Cos; basically a more expensive Zara. Yes it doesn't pay as well and yes I miss the people I used to work with but now instead of trying to sell lightsabers - is that even how you spell it? I am selling pretty decently nice clothing to the wealthies that patronise Regent Street. And also, yes, I might be getting a pound less an hour than I used to but its seven pound eighty more than I would be getting if I didn't have a job.

 

And yes, I might have had to leave my beautiful riverside apartment but it means that now I can move in with the boyfriend *high five for exciting adult life move* Anyway you get the point. I like the quote above that I found on Pinterest after being inspired by the lovely Louise from A Sprinkle of Glitter because it feels like a less cliched version of the old classic 'lifes not about waiting for the storm to pass, its about learning to dance in the rain'. Basically I'm just trying to be a duck. Ok odd metaphor but you get the gist, let the water run off your back and make the best of a bad situation.

What do you think? How do you deal with hard times?

Love and whatnot

 

 

Fashion | Things I would buy if I wasn't so poor #2

Here we have the second in my series of 'things I would buy if I wasn't so poor'. I feel like these are going to become quite a regular thing on here because I am still spectacularly poor and will be for the foreseeable future! This time I didn't have any sort of budget in mind because after all, if I wasn't so poor I would buy these things! Here we have some of my ultimate dream items and well the bracelet is just because I love a bit of studs! 

Leather Satchel - Proenza Schouler - £1245

Leather Jacket - All Saints - £345

Spiked Bracelet - Humblechic - £17

Beauty | Shellac nails

Very much like with my hair I have had a lifelong battle with getting my nails to do what I want them to do! They are dry, flaky and peel off in little bits and just generally look awful. I am one of those people who hide their nails on the tube for fear of a random stranger seeing them and thinking something unsavoury about them, sad I know. Any nail varnish I put on, no matter how high end would chip and flake away literally within a day so I had been looking for a more permanent nail solution for a while now.

I stumbled upon a little beauty salon around the corner from my house the other day whilst I was looking for quite embarrassingly, a chip shop. This place does shellac manicures for twenty pounds and so I thought why not? I had heard really good things about shellac and how it doesn't chip, so I figured it was worth a go.

To cut a very long story short, I absolutely LOVE them! As you can see I chose a bright red colour called 'hollywood', thats one of the only downsides to shellac, that you only have quite a restricted colour range but the colours that they do have are really lovely and I think that there would be something there to suit everyones tastes. The whole process took around fourty five minutes but I did have a full manicure and not just the paint. In the place that I had mine done, to only get your nails painted with the shellac is cheaper as well. 

Shellac is basically a uv gel nail polish and so you apply it just as you would a nail polish and then put your hand under a uv light to set the polish. Its quick, its easy and the results are incredible!

I had these done on wednesday last week and as you can see there are no chips whatsoever and they are still just as shiny as when I got them done. They are supposed to last for about two weeks but really they last for as long as you can stand the growth of your nail showing at the bottom! My nails grow really slow so these should last me a pretty long time!

Have you ever had shellac nails done? Would you consider them?

Beauty | October GlossyBox

I've been subscribed to glossy box for over a year now and I always have mixed feelings about whether to keep my subscription or to cancel it. This month was another one of those months.

This month I received four items as apposed to the usual five or six. My items were an Anatomicals body scrub, a Dermalogica skin care three step kit, a Skinetica anti blemish solution and a Yves Rocher lipstick.

Lets start with the scrub, which retails for around the four pound mark. I'm a big fan of the Anatomicals brand having bought some of their stuff before off of ASOS. Its a brand I trust to be good quality so I was pleased to get this in my box and this scrub is pink grapefruit flavour which appears to be my new obsession! Anything pink grapefruit or mandarin I am all over lately, its something about fresh zingy scents when the weather gets more gloomy.

The next thing I was not so happy with; the Dermalogica set. Its not that I don’t like the product, which includes a cleanser, toner and moisturiser and is targeted at spot prone skin. Don’t get me wrong, I do like Dermalogica and I trust their products, its just that I had this exact same set in a glossy box that I got a few months back and I still haven’t finished this set from the last time I got it! Still the set retails for £12 and so thats my moneys worth for the box right there.

The Skinetica blemish solution I am excited to try. I almost want my skin to go through a bad patch so that I can test this out! I haven’t heard of the brand before either and I'm always up for trying out a new brand. This retails for £7 and says that you will see results in two to three days, further testing to follow...

The last product I'm sure some people will really like but its just not my cup of tea, I'm not a big lipstick wearer, I much prefer lip stains because lets face it I'm not the most ladylike or graceful person and so lipstick will inevitably end up on my nose or halfway down my chin, basically anywhere that it isn’t supposed to be. This is a beautiful shade of red and if I was partial to a lipstick then I would wear it but I'm just not!

Overall I do think I was pleased with this box but I sort of forget that I pay for them every month. When I think that these four things have cost me around thirteen pounds then maybe I'm not so happy... ah well perhaps next month will excite me more. Are you subscribed to glossy box? Would you have been happy with this months box?

Life | What's been going on?

Hello, hello, hello what do we have here then? Well the truth is we have a very sheepish me who has not posted for a very long time. The truth is is that these past two months have been an absolute whirlwind for me! I'll catch you up on it all right now.

I finally moved in to my new apartment and it was everything I dreamed and more! I don’t know if I said before but my move in day was the first time I had actually seen my new home so it was safe to say I was a bit nervous as to whether I was going to like it or not. It is stunning. Oh my God it is stunning. So moving in took up a lot of my time and so blogging and my tumblr and my twitter and whatnot just flew out of my mind; slap me on the wrist for being a bad blogger! Also we didn't have internet at that point so it was always going to be tricky getting posts up but thats no excuse now is it?

A few weeks after I moved in to my new apartment I started my new university course. I could finally officially say that I am a student at the London College of Fashion! I am loving it! Literally loving it! I think that having the university experience that I did last year (see this post if you don’t know what I'm on about) has really made me appreciate how good my new university is and how good my course is and how nice the people are. The only problem is how bloody expensive the whole thing is! I mean don’t get me wrong I get that its an investment for my (hopeful) future career in the footwear industry but Jesus! I'm already paying nine grand in fees per year and then on top of that I have to fork out hundreds of pounds that I don’t have for tools. But hey ho thats just how the cookie crumbles and I'm not complaining one bit!

Also this month I embarked on a desperate search for employment after realising how depressingly poor I am. So I only managed to get myself a job in Selfridges would you believe?! I literally am still in shock! It is my dream place to work in London! I haven’t started yet but I am so looking forward to it! I realise now that this is becoming more of an online diary than a blog...

There has been some more things that have gone on but that will do for now before this gets to be an essay!