UGG'S AT VOGUE?

"The Secret's out : Confessions of Vogue's Ugg Addicts"

Yes ladies that ^^^ is the unbelievable headline seen on the Vogue web site recently!! What is the world coming to? Will we see Anna Wintour sitting front row in Milan or Paris sporting a pair of Ugg Adirondacks next? Well the latter is doubtful, but Vogue definitely was rocking some Ugg love, even Refiniery 29 was gob smacked and had to comment on this seeming dichotomy. As Connie Wang states in R29 " the article allows a few staffers to come out of the shearling closet."

But it's not just lowly office staff we find when we read the Vogue blog but some of the upper rung staff, including senior market editor, Grace Coddington and Andre Leon Talley, who was previously the contributing editor. In fact Andre explains in true Vogue style, “They are the best practical shoe—not only because they can handle the slush on sidewalks and curbs while keeping your feet warm, but they’re also easy to accessorize. I have them in ebony, which I call my black tie, and bark brown, and they were specially monogrammed for me in Russian red. I of course got carried away and ordered them in triplicates. They’re lined up in my hallway by color, and I rotate them on a daily basis.” Only Andre would have monogrammed Uggs and order them in triplicate, ah how the other half lives hey?

Vogue Accessories Editor Selby Drummon

sporting her Uggs to work.

Least you think Vogue are advocating leggings or denim shorts with Uggs, the uniform of college age girls everywhere it seems, they are not, of course they're not, they are Vogue after all! Accessories Editor Selby explains to us mere mortals that, “to make them work, I paired them with a silver lace Dolce & Gabbana dress—sometimes one must elevate.” So did you get that? leggings with Uggs are a big no no, while a D & G dress is a yes! Moreover Vogue went on to put up several design boards incorporating Uggs, check them out below.

1) Ugg Australia Adirondacks $3,252
2) Michael Kors herringbone print dress $1,195
3) Fendi patchwork shagreen 2jours bag (price upon request)
4) Diane Von Furstenberg tights $41
5) Ileana Makri diamond snake ring, $3,015 and diamond eternity band $1,450 and Monique Pean rectangular quartz ring $2,710

So, not a Primani legging or shorts in sight!

The board below is my personal favourite, the one I thought most wearable.

1) Ugg Australia Madelynn boots $160
2) Rag and Bone fedora $226
3) Kenzo sweater $453
4) R/13 skinny jeans $325
5) Narciso Rodriguez python clutch $1,700

1) Ugg Australia Shanleigh boot $240
2) Etoile Isabel Marant Alika coat $715
3) Pamela Love Maia ear cuff $138
4) Whistles tights $20
5) Etoile Isabel Marant Greta dress $525
6) Derek Lam Hayden sunglasses $285
7) Pamela Love double finger ring $240

1) Ugg Australia Sundance ll boot $250

2)Givenchy Nightingale leather shoulder bag $2,364
3) Tom Binns small bullet studs $99
4) Mother The Looker yekkow skinny jeans $270
5) Topshop chunky rib sweater $90

1) Ugg Australia Classic tall boot $195
2) Joseph Ford naval peacoat $825
3) Proenza Schouler tie-dye tissue top $364
4) Yigal stretch leather trousers $1,595
5) Reed Krakoff Track tote $1,390
6) Nike+ Fuelband $149
7) Victorinox Swiss Army Alliance bracelet watch $495

Apparently this whole article was born out of an Alexa Chung tweet last week in which she posted a photo of herself wearing Uggs and captioned it "My deepest apologies" Vogue decided no apologies were necessary for such a fashion faux par, and seeing as Alexa is their darling they went on to write this article to prove they are tight with her and any fashion choice she makes. It reminds my of the story about the Emperor's new clothes, with Vogue reminiscent of the Emperor and Alexa being the tailor. Because much as I like the way young women wear Uggs with their skinny jeans and leggings they have no place in the iconic fashion directory that is Vogue, but then again this article was from American Vogue and they have been receiving a lot of flack lately about how un-stylish they are in comparison with their UK and European counterparts. I think they need to stop kissing Alexa, and all the other young Vogue darlings butts, and recognise that even those paragons of fashion occasionally get it wrong. What has happened to Anna Wintour? Will we see her in a shell suit strolling down 5th Avenue one of these days? Perish the thought, let us hope she kicks butt in the Vogue office for this rather gargantuan slip, especially hot on the tails of NYFW!!

P.S. I wonder if Mulberry will think of re-naming their Alexa bag now that their muse has caught the bug for Uggs lol

All photos American Vogue online blog

Mulberry bags LFW

Mulberry bags A/W 2013

It's hard to believe that a couple of years ago Mulberry didn't have enough money for catwalk lighting, but under the guidance of creative director Emma Hill revenue has jumped from £45 million to £168 million in five years. So how did Emma do during London Fashion Week? Is her Autumn/Winter 2013 line going to boost those sales even more? Take a look and make up your own mind.

Getting ready for the catwalk

 Mulberry introduced  the new Suffolk bag, here in midnight blue

The new Suffolk bag in Off White with heritage Mulberry detailing.

The Small Suffolk bag, in Pheasant Green Ostrich Leather

The beautiful Willow Tote in Oxblood, with Haircalf and Ostrich detailing

The Tasha with metal tag hardware, gorgeous!

The Willow clutch

The new Bayswater 

The Bayswater Shoulder with a carved ladybird lock

So, are you feeling some Mulberry love?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this collection, what's your favourite bag? Mine? I kind of love them all lol

*All photographs from www.mulberry.com & @mulberry_editor

Decleor Flower Essence Moisturising Mask

Review : Decleor Hydra Floral Moisturising Mask

In the past I have always used Decleors' peel off mask.I received this as a Christmas present and this is my first time using it. 

It has a creamy consistency and doesn't tighten like a lot of masks, it actually soaks into the skin. The instructions say to use it once or twice a week, leave it on for 5 to 10 minutes, I left it for 10 minutes, then remove any excess with Decleor's tonifying lotion, I used The body Shop's cucumber toner to remove the excess, although most of the mask had soaked into my skin after the 10 minutes.

(Please excuse the scary dark eyes, I haven't slept more than four hours for days now :( and I think scraping my hair up in a clip makes it look even worse.)

This photo was taken within a couple of minutes of my applying the mask and as you can see it was already soaking into my skin.

I don't know if you can tell from this photo but my skin was so smooth, soft, and even glowed a little after using the mask, and at 52 my face doesn't often glow believe me! Its' effect was much better than the peel off mask I have used in the past, presumably because this type of mask actually soaks into the skin rather than lying on top and then being peeled off.

All in all this mask was amazing, the best face mask I have ever used. Decleor state that it is " a new generation intensive moisturiser using the technology of aquaporins - true cell irrigation channels - and targeted active plant ingredients" It does seem different to anything that came before from Decleor, and definitely deeply moisturises. I have normal skin so I can't say how it would work on oily or dry skin, but I can't imagine it would work much differently than it has on me.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely! It retails for £26.50 for the 50ml size,  and you can buy it here 

Let me know if you have used this mask yet, and if so what do you think of it?

Bargains on Beauty Products!

Lower prices on some beauty must haves!

So many of the beauty bloggers community love Steam cream, and this is a great offer. TWO tins of steam cream for £18.80. Not  bad a saving, as they are £12.95 each, when purchased separately  Also FREE WORLD WIDE SHIPPING!  it is here at this link...

here which is the steam cream web site.

If you prefer to get 3 for the price of 2, just choose your two favourite tins, enter the code LUCKYDIP at check out where it asks for PROMO CODE and you will receive a third random patterned tin free! These steam creams are also available in the sale at ASOS for £10!

The next offer was posted on one of my beauty groups on facebook by Emma Connolly, thank you Emma. It is for a Real Techniques blending brush, for only £3.99! You can get a further 10% off using the code GLAMOURZOMBIE TOO  (Also thanks to Emma for posting this)

Click here for the Real Techniques brush.

Superdrug are again doing their "buy 1 get 2 free" deal on their own brand hair dye. I always stock a few of these when they are on offer and then if I am too broke to buy my favourite hair dye I just use one of these on my roots. 

The hair dyes are here

Still at Superdrug, they have a few DKNY fragrance gift sets left for £22.99 here which is less than half price. Last night they had all three options available, but today only two are left, so I would hurry up and order these if you want them. These sets are available at Debenhams for £32.16, on sale!

PLEASE NOTE FREE SHIPPING ENDS AT MIDNIGHT TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 14, 2013!

Amazon always have good prices on Oil of Olay products and this particular one is one I like very much, but would never pay full price for, I'm a full time bargainista remember :)  This is available for £9.24 here  This size is £29.99 from Boots and £19.99 from Superdrug.

Clinique chubby sticks are my favourite lip product ever! If you love Super Strawberry #07 you are in luck. because Amazon have them for £6.99 instead of the usual £16! I just wish they had my favourite colours for this price. You can buy this here

This Fithy Gorgeous nail polish is available at Debenhams for £3.60, reduced from £12. It is only available in the colour shown, pewter, but if you like it this is a great price. you can buy it here

Debenhams also have the Illamasqua lip gloss, but only a couple of shades left, for £5.39 down from £13.50. Again if you like the available colours it is a great bargain. Go here to buy it.

This is the Bliss Zest Wishes set, available at ASOS for £6.50, down from £17.50 originally. You can go here to buy it. It contains minis of body butter, shower gel and hand cream. This would be a nice one to put away for a little gift for someone.

Again from ASOS is  the Stila Limited Edition Sparkle Luxe Eye Shadow Palette. This is on sale for £14 down from £30, and you can buy it here

The Elizabeth Arden ceramide lash extending mascara is available from fragrance direct,in black or black-brown for £6.50 here. It is also available on Amazon for £9.62 and you can probably search ebay for other low prices on this.

Well that's all the time I have for now, so I will leave you with these offers. If you know of any great offers it would be lovely f you could put them in the comments below for everyone to see. Also if you try to buy any of these products and find them out of stock please let us know about that also. I have just tried to purchase all of these products to check they were in stock and they were. Hope somebody finds a bargain on here :)

Sally Hansen - Brisk Blue

Review of Sally Hansen in #430, Brisk Blue

Now this is one of my favourite blue polishes ever, and that is saying something as I have a lot of blue nail polish! 

The colour you see in the bottle is exactly what you get on your nails. One coat would probably have been ok, but I applied two, over a Leighton Denny base coat, and topped off with an OPI rapid dri top coat.

Brisk Blue

With flash

Without flash

Like I said, I love the colour and it is true to the colour you see in the bottle, but I was very disappointed in the brush. Although at first I was excited to see such a long handled brush, as I find them so much easier to use, the actual brush head was like a stick almost. It made a neat application almost impossible and I ended up with a lot of polish down the sides of my nails. Because I love the colour so much this won't put me off using it, but I will be sure to check on Sally Hansen insta-dri polishes in future and try to avoid them if all the brushes are like this one.

Hopefully you can see what I mean by "almost like a stick" in this photo!

Have you used any of the insta-dri polishes from Sally Hansen? And if so, what did you think about the brush?

John Greed Jewellery, the Valentine Bloggers Challenge

The wonderful people over at John Greed jewellery offered a challenge to the blogger community to create a Valentine's wish list, in the form of a mood board, with a minimum of four items from their website, and up to the value of £250. I don't really enter this type of challenge normally, but when it involves the beautiful jewellery at John Greeds' well, I jumped at the chance! I find it very difficult to choose things for myself and I was very tempted to choose gifts for my Mother and my children, even though this is just a wish list and not an actual shopping list. But the instructions ask for our wishlist, specifically a wish list of jewellery "that you'd like to receive this Valentine's day" so that is what I have done. My choices were fairly easy considering the huge range of incredible jewellery available from John Greed jewellery, as every single piece I chose has meaning for me. Here are the pieces I have chosen, that I will be lucky enough to receive if I am the winner of this Valentine's day bloggers' challenge!

My Wish List

Swatch watch £51

You can find this amazing watch here on the John Greed web site. It is the Swatch Draconem, designed by tattoo artist Tin Tin. I love the artistry of tattoos, but have never felt they suited my life style, so, apart from the very small one I have on my hip, which was to commemorate my 50th birthday, my own little rite of passage into middle age, I have steered clear of them. This watch is a beautiful compromise, as I can wear the work of this amazing tattoo artist and enjoy his design every time I check out the time, but still be visibly tattoo free.

Pandora elephant charm £30

.

 Elephants have always been very special to me. Their familial ties are so similar to our own human ones. They partner for life, they keep their children with them for years, and if they loose a child, or their partner, they pine for the  rest of their lives, I just love them. I had a life long dream come true last year when I got to ride an elephant through the Indian jungle, and this Pandora charm will always remind me of this special animal and that very special time in my life. You can find this Pandora charm here.

                                                           

AVON Sleeptherapy Range

Sleeptherapy by Avon

I have always had trouble sleeping, and over the years I have tried everything to help me along that illusive highway to dreams. In the past  five or six years though, it has become much worse, due in large part to the fact I have a very painful spinal disease, and my quest for the magic potion that will knock me out has spanned far and wide. Recently my niece became an Avon representative, and although I am not a huge fan of Avon make up or fragrances I have made sure to order something off her for the past couple of months. In last months brochure I saw a range called "Sleeptherapy" that promised to relax me enough to enable me to fall asleep easily, and although I was full of doubts about that claim I ordered the complete three part set. The set comprises, a body wash, a pillow mist and a sleep balm. I paid £5 for the complete set as they were on a special offer.

Dreamy body wash

I was excited to try this as I anticipated being enveloped by the fragrance of lavender within masses of bubbles. Well, there were masses of bubbles, but as for being enveloped by a lavender fragrance, well that didn't happen. There was at best a slight lavender smell, but nothing more. Not to be deterred I went in the bedroom and sprayed my pillow, and the whole bedroom, with the Goodnight pillow mist.

Goodnight pillow mist

This product did have more of a lavender fragrance than the body wash, coupled with a sugary sweet undertone, but no where near the strength of fragrance of previous room/pillow sprays I have bought, but it was pleasant enough and I assumed the three products must work in a cumulative way so as not to over power the senses. I then opened the restful night sleep balm, and took a large sniff of it, again expecting a wonderful lavender fragrance to waft up to me.

Restful night sleep balm

This was the biggest disappointment of the set, there was almost no fragrance at all! Still I was willing to try it, but with very little hope left that I was going to get a great nights sleep now. I rubbed my finger against a white solid which appeared very like a lip balm, and proceeded to put quite a large amount onto my wrists and temples, as Avon advises, well they say either, or, but as there was hardly any fragrance I thought I would double up. It had the consistency of petroleum jelly, just a little more solid, like set lard! I didn't like the greasy feel of it, and felt I had to be very careful to avoid my hair line.

So, did I like it? Did it work? Would I recommend it? No, no and a resounding no! I had never held out much hope that this set would in fact help me sleep, as so many better products in the past hadn't, but I did expect there to be a lovely lavender fragrance that would relax me - there wasn't. I have since read many reviews on line and a few raved about the pillow mist, saying their whole bedroom smelt of lavender, what? Now all I can think of is that recently Avon changed the packaging of the pillow mist, from an aluminium type can to a plastic bottle and perhaps at the same time altered the formula, either that or the people impressed by it have never actually smelt lavender. I didn't find many positive reviews for the balm, with almost everyone agreeing it had next to no fragrance, and I found none for the body wash, perhaps it is a new addition to the sleeptherapy range? All in all this was an absolutely useless buy, and if it had been more expensive I would have asked for my money back. In fact even at this price if my niece wasn't my representative I probably would have demanded a refund as the products are not as described, no where near in fact.

Have you tried any of Avon's sleeptherapy range? If so what were your impressions of it?