Breaking my back this week – New post on my handbags and what I lug around .

2007 Summer bronze/brown Mulberry Bayswater.  – Libertys £500

Back story- A reward for myself after scoring my first job in London and a 5K pay rise. 

I used to work in Kent in a little village that was a 10mins bus journey away from my house.  It was a really easy job, but it was dull as…. All my friends lived in London and I longed to move there.  6 years later I am still here and I still have a huge love affair with London.   The Bayswater bag is Mulberry’s cheaper take on the Hermes Birkin bag.  Back in 2007 the bags cost £500, and not the whopping £900 that they do now.   Mulberry as a brand have turned hugely popular in the past couple of years.  With their new covetable bags such as the Alexa and Lana every man and their dog wants a Mulberry.  The Bayswater will always have a special place in my heart as this one is my one and only.  She is very battered, worn and loved.  The Bayswater remains a popular choice amongst the London Ladies, however the ones I see are mostly box fresh and not loved as mine.   I love bags with a bit of wear in them, the Bayswater in my opinion gets better and better with age.   The leather is really floppy and soft now so when it’s on the floor it puddles in a lovely gloopy bronze pile of leather gorgeousness.  The only problem with these bags is because they are so big you can literally fill them up with an enormous amount of stuff.  The shoulder straps are really narrow so it cuts into the shoulder when you carry it.  

Inside my handbag

Make up bag

-bobbi brown powder

-Lipstick queen in medieval

-free blush brush from Clinique

-Tarte Amazonian blush in natural beauty

-concealer Nars in ginger solid form not liquid

Clear plastic wallet

Trying to be more transparent (ha ha) with money so when I buy stuff I use cash now.  I like that its clear to I can see how much money I have easily. Oddly this is missing for pictures as it is in my pocket when I was taking pics DOH! 

Brollie

-I am paranoid about rain, I hate getting wet.

Tissues

-I have super sonic hay fever

Antibacterial gel

-London is dirty and minging

Perfume Neroli Bianca Guerlian.

-I LURRVEE THIS!  So yummy so orangy so summery.

Kindle

-I currently reading ‘The Kingsmaker daughter’

Keys work and home

Hand cream

-Dry monkey mitts even in summer

Deodorant

-Because I am sweaty betty

Hair serum

-Hairy monkey that stuck its fingers in an electric socket otherwise.

Two hairbands wrapped around hair serum bottle

-Because I sometime just want my hair out of my face!

Hair brush –Tangle teaser

-I hate knotty hair.

Any mulberry favourites?  What do you lug around day to day? 

Thanks for reading 

Carrie xxx

What are you thankful for today? Taking stock of the internal stash...

I love blogging, I love reading blogs, and I love everyone’s individual take on something. I love buying beauty products. I love when something new comes on the market and I enjoy the ‘hunt’ and the ultimate ‘purchase’. I love it when bbloggers forgo the new and re-find, re-use and re-love items in their stash. 

 It’s this trend of ‘shopping my stash’ that got me thinking about the wealth in my life that is not confined to a tube, or a pot. It is very easy to get caught up in the hype of beauty and strive to possess the ‘new’ thang. This can quickly lead to putting emotional importance on physical things. I admit I do get sucked occasionally. I am sad that hunting the newest shade of nail polish took over time that I could have spent with friends or family. Now that is just wrong. 

 When I was younger I did have a lot of self-confidence issues. (Is it no surprise that I like beauty then…. ohh amateur psychologist) My counsellor told me to list down all my qualities every morning. Surprisingly and as cheesy as it sounds I really started to feel better about myself after listing all the good things about myself. Now every morning for the past two months I write down what I am thankful for. Almost every morning I say I am thankful for my fiancée. (Loves me warts and all) This exercise really brought me in focus as to what is important to me in my life. I am also starting to look out for what is good in my life now, as opposed to think what is rubbish, and imagining how much better life would be if X, Y and Z happened. I look at my list and I am very blessed and I do take a lot for granted. 

 I love beauty products, I don’t think there will come a time where I am not fascinated by them. However they won’t take over what is really important in my life, and no amount of make up or skin care will ever compare to that. As I get older I realise that it’s the memories and experiences that I have had that make me richer as opposed to the things that I have or had possessed. What are you thankful for in your life? Is it your friends? Is it your family? Go and give them a big hug and tell them you love them.

 I love you Ben, and I love you Sarah. Thank you for being in my life, it would definitely be a sadder place without you.

 Thanks for reading 

 Carrie x

Washa washa washa.....

Washa washa washa ….. There have lately been a clutch of articles promoting washing your hair. Loving it! (Carrie does a crazy dance in the living room) 

1. A blog that I follow that is as funny as it is fabulous. Sonia is hysterically funny and doesn’t take herself too seriously, check her out. http://runwayhippie.com/2013/08/01/when-in-doubt-clean-hair/

 2. Last week Stylist wrote about hair care. Kudos to the beauty team, their advice is always sound week to week. 

3. Apparently next month Allure August, Kate Moss it quoted say ‘if in doubt what your hair’. * I don’t know as August edition hasn’t come to UK yet. Which is rubbish as we are ALWAYS a month behind, and it blooming hard enough to get a copy as Selfridges for £4.40 each month grumble, grumble grumble, moan, grumble some more…….. 

This is a topic that is close to my heart as a couple of months I had horrid itchy puss filled warts on my head. http://www.makedoandmakeup.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/shampoo-and-conditioner-for-spotty.html 

The cause of this? Not washing my hair enough. For the record I have the greasiest scalp and skin in the world. The texture is fine, wavy and there is a lot of it. Here is me in my specs and just air dried hair. (I don’t blow dry my hair in summer, my hair hates heat so I generally bung is some serum/thickening cream and let it do it’s thang) 

And here is me with my length of hair behind my back. 

If you have a dry skin and wash your hair once a week then this post really isn’t for you. However if you have friends who do have greasy hair tell them to wash their hair more often people! For me I wash my hair every day without fail, and warts disappeared and my hair went back to its wavy, shiny, itch-free- self again. I have heard from friends there are magical formulas to get rid of spotty scalps, which incidentally is very common problem, but I just got a gentle formula shampoo for daily washing and standard conditioner. Bang problem sorted.

 My mother from a young age would tell me the following:

 “Don’t wash your hair every day as you are washing all the natural goodness out of your hair” 

Well natural goodness is sweat, sebum and dirt, so no you really should wash that goodness out of your hair. However occasionally I do forgo a shampoo and just rinse my hair if it is feeling a bit on the dry/sensitive side. 

“Don’t wash your hair during your period its ‘REALLY’ bad for you” 

When I ask what ‘BAD’ will happen to me unsurprisingly she can’t tell me why it’s bad for me. As far as I am concerned these are old wives tales and I find it really annoying that these types of myths get bandied around like truths. There really aren’t any proper rules and regulations when it comes to beauty. The only one that really counts is 

“If it works for you and you are happy stick with it” 

We all have different skin/hair/colouring/preferences so what may be one girl’s/guy’s treasure may be your trash, or conversely the other way round too. There is many a time I have bought something and it just hasn’t worked on me, because my skin was too greasy. Or I have bought a shade of lipstick that wasn’t blue based because it was a trend amongst beauty bloggers. (Orange is a big no no noo!) So the point of this post, try new things, don’t necessarily believe what you Mum tells you. 

Oh yeah and wash your hair often if you have spots on your scalp. What old beauty myths are mythbusting this week? Any good results? 

Thanks for reading

Carrie x

On my quest to find the perfect pink nail polish- Essie 'Watermelon'

I stumbled on a post by Kate from ‘Ghostparties’ about ‘watermelon’ by essie a month or two ago.  This instantly went on the want list, where I promptly forgot about it until I stumbled into Superdrug in Bond Street tube station mall last weekend.  I went in initially for some hay fever tablets and found the Essie booth with all the new formula, Essie nail polishes.   To be honest the stall looked like a dogs dinner, and most of the good colours were gone.  However one colour they did have in abundance was ‘Watermelon’.  For the price of £7.99, and the fact that I had just enough points on my superdrug card I snapped this up immediately.  In my excitement  I also forgot about hay fever tablets, fail!

The colour is a beautiful fuchsia berry pink, that verges on red but not quite.   It is really opaque so you can get away with one coat if you wanted to.   It also dries really quickly which surprised me.   I have been wearing it for about three days and the chips are just beginning to show slightly right on the very ends of my short nails.  I love this colour so much I am currently sporting this on my nails and my toes, which I never do normally.  

What colours are you sport on your nails and toes this summer?  Any recommendations?

Thanks for reading

Carrie x

Summer scents- Branching out

 I am a creature of habit I usually just stick to 3-4 perfumes and keep it that way. However as I have grown up a lot of perfume smells have old associations which I would rather distance myself from. (i.e. when rubbish boyfriends bought you a scent and now when you smell that scent you only think of them and how rubbish they were). I generally like floral scents but I have been branching out to newer scents that are musky or figgy. Not that summer is upon us I have been craving something fruity to suit the weather. Here are two new ones that I have purchased/been given. 

Honey by Marc Jacobs £50 for 50ml. 

In most department stores and Boots online and in store. 

On my hunt for the perfect wedding table decorations in Selfridges I was spritzed with Marc Jacob’s newest offering ‘Honey’. Now I am not a fan of the bottle designs (I hate ‘Lola’ bottle design it looks a Triffid*) however I do like the smell of ‘Daisy’ but I have never liked it enough to actually buy it yet, even in Duty free. I am however a massive fan of the original Marc Jacobs scent, the one in the plain black and glass bottle. Which you don’t really see around now-a-days incidentally. The bottle design for honey is horrendous. Don’t get me wrong I am half Chinese so I normally LOVE cute plastic stuff but as a perfume bottle, but my exacting requirements dictate the bottle should be beautiful. You are after all going to display this on your dressing table. Honey’s bottle is just a cutesy stupid design with stripy bees all over it like a fat kid over cake. (Actually ‘Daisy’ is quite pretty in comparison now I think of it) The smell of Honey is lovely so that makes up for the stupid bottle. Honey is a fruity mix of Pear initially that mellows in to mandarin to Honeysuckle. After about an hour wear on me it turns to a honey vanilla with a woody undertone to prove its not completely gutless as a scent. I used to like fragrances with pear in it (Petit Cherie by Annick goutal was my fave) however with those kind of perfume you literally have to keep spraying it on to smell of it, which is why I didn’t repurchased it. Also after a while Petit Cherie turned a bit flabby and ceased to excite me scent wise. Honey is a scent that has some interest to it which is why I bought it. This has about 4-5 hour lasting time on me, which is fine as I usually have a top up spray during lunch time. *For those who don’t know a triffid is a vicious plant from a novel written by John Wyndham, which is basically plant life form that takes over earth and renders people dead with a strike of it’s sting tenticle. It’s not a bad read for those who like science fiction. If you have ever been on a Paris Metro the flowers on the outside of the ‘Le Metro’ entrance were the inspiration for the Triffid. “Day of the Triffids” by John Wyndham 

* update...the bottle is slowly growing on me.  It's rather jolly sticking out of my handbag this morning 

Nerolia Bianca by Guerlain eau de toilette £39 for 75ml. Available in Selfridges and John Lewis.

 This is my first proper Neroli perfume. It is lovey and orangey and I am obsessed with this scent at the moment. I normally don’t look at perfumes at Guerlain however I only found this as during the John Lewis beauty event I went to a couple of weeks ago one of the Grazia Ladies recommended it. It branches on a room spray smell, but there is something about this that reminds me of something happy in my childhood. I don’t think it was my Mum, but maybe one of her friends or an Aunt. A lot of reviews I have read about this say it is cheap, nasty and disappointing in comparison to some of Guerlain’s other offerings. Seeing as I am completely new to Guerlain’s perfumes I have nothing to compare this too and love it regardless.

The wear is not great about 2-3 hours.  Top notes on are as you would expect orange, bitter orange and scents that emulate being under an orange tree.  There is as mentioned before a 'eau de colonge-y' room spray smell which makes it quite sharp and clean smelling.  After an hours wear you still get the more mellow orange sweetness followed by a warm creamy vanilla smell which is nice and homely.  

I love the design of the bottle, it's so grown up and sophisticated.  It would look stunning on any dressing table.  I like the engraving of the bee on the lid. The price is not bad for the amount you get.  I know it's and eau de toilette so that is probably why. 

What are your summer scents? Any recommendations? 

Thanks for reading

Carrie x

My Favourite Handbag of ALL time - Balenciaga Part time.

My Favourite Handbag of ALL time- Balenciaga.

You are never too fat for your handbag. Shoes will scuff, clothes will get holes or stains, but a handbag is for life. 

I was with my little 8 month niece last Sunday. I was doing a couple of wedding shopping bits and my sister in law and brother joined me. We sat down to have some cupcakes and coffee. While my niece was on my lap she kept on trying to grab my handbag. To which both her parent promptly said 

“ She completely obsessed with handbags already”

To which I said

 “ If I don’t have any daughters she can have my collection, when I am too old to care about them”

 Yes that is right I am in the possession of a couple of designer handbags which are heirloom worthy. I also have a feeling from my fiancée’s family tree that I am not going to have any daughters. (No ‘X’ chromosome sperm if you must know, Henry the VIII would be very jealous). I think every woman should own a least one really good handbag in their life time. Or several to get even wear between all of them. I know some women like Chanel, Celine or Mulberry, but something about the Balenciaga bag just really spoke to me. 

I first noticed the Balenciaga bags about 4 years ago in airport arrivals. I was in the line to get through passport control in the US, and lady who was opposite me in the line but about 20 people behind and this beautiful handbag tucked in the crook of her arm. I think from memory she had a ‘velo’ bag with rose gold hard ware in Navy coloured leather. Now I like handbags, I really like handbags, but this was the first time in public I had actively gwaped and drooled like an idiot over someone else’s bag. I loved it so much I actually asked the lady where her handbag was from. She answered ‘It’s a Balenciaga.’ When I turned 30 I decided to treat myself to my ultimate handbag choice. Due to the price of it I decided that ‘the’ bag did not belong on the arm of my 20-something self, and I waited til I was 30 to tote this baby around. The bag in question is my Balenciaga part-time in anthracite coloured leather, with giant rose gold hardware. 

I had wanted this particular bag for 4 years (I googled the brand after airport incident) before I finally got my mitts on it, and because I waited for it is very special to me. The giant ’21’ hardware is currently discontinued in the Balenciaga bags and has been replaced with a lighter ’12’ hardware. However due to the price of the bag, they really don’t sell that quickly so if you go to department stores such as Selfridges London they will usually have a couple in the back if you ask. In fact if you ask the ladies in Selfridges they will get out their whole back catalogue if you want, and are still super nice even if you don’t buy anything. Which I admit I have done a couple of times over the years and walked away with a full wallet . I advise that you do peruse several times to get a acquainted with the bag, so when the times comes to buy it from Ebay you know exactly what to look for. ;) Another great source is Purse forum who will post reputable sellers of Balenciaga bags and accessories on Ebay. If you have the patience Members of the Purse Forum will authenticate your bag for you as well. Ebay is a fantastic source for Designer bags, but as with buying from private sellers just cover yourself with the right precautions. (I am sure you know what they are without me having to go into detail.) It would have been amazing to get a Balenciaga bag from Selfridges, but it was just too expensive. I think I would have been really sick afterwards especially seeing as I got mine for nearly half the price off ebay, brand new with tags. If you can let another lady have buyer’s regret, be smart and try and buy their ‘buyer’s regret bag’ for half the price. Trust me whatever you want at some stage it will appear on ebay. 

As you can see from the photos the leather changes colour with each setting. It’s really a beautiful green/blue/grey/black so it goes with a number of outfits. It also has really pretty rose gold hardware which I am completely in love with. Good things really do come to those who wait. I think that if I had just got this in my twenties this would probably be in a bin somewhere with several cigarette burns in the leather. Because I decided that this was a grown up bag I am really am treating it with kid gloves every time I use it. The average woman in Britain would rather a new handbag than a holiday so clearly I am not the only one obsessed with handbags. However I think I would still rather go on holiday….. 

What bag have you promised yourselves? I always think an expensive handbag is a treat and should be bought after you have achieved something like getting a new job, and reaching a certain age. Thanks for reading. Carrie x

Brow Maintenance

Brows are meant to be sisters not twins…

This is what the lady who waxes my eyebrows tells me each month. I am sure if you are like me you will know the exact pain of having over plucked during your teenage years. There are a couple of blank spots in the shape where there should be hairs. The shape is not quite what it should be. While they are not quite as bad as I make out to be, it is one of pet peeves women often have about themselves. (pores, hair, weight) Just another thing to bemoan and obsess over. I do have regrets especially when my mother points it out and says my face it ‘ruined’ because of eyebrows *sigh* then proceeds to tell me what I should have done when I was a teenager. My counter argument to her is this :1. She didn’t bother to get off her bottom and take me to beauty salon when she should have. 2. Nor did she bother herself to teach me properly how to pluck my brows thus, my brows are like this today. As you can imagine that goes down like a lead balloon. However she is an archetypal Chinese mother so she really cannot help herself. (Chinese mothers are stern, unforgiving, shouty, impatient, and rubbish at teaching their young.) It’s okay though you quickly learn from a young age to counter act their arguments with history and logic. I have gotten to the point in my life where I am the one teaching her about how she should apply her make up. I digress…. So how do I go about showing my brows to the world. Well it took me a while to get the hang of it, and find a happy medium. While I love the Cara Devigne and Lily Collins full strong eyebrow look, when I have tried to emulate the look it just looks really fake. There are however a couple of products that I swear by…..

Brow Zings by Benefit £23.50

A coloured wax and setting powder, brushes, tweezers and mirror.

I do go to Benefit to get my brows waxed about once every 6-8weeks. They often after waxing, go to town with tinting my brows colouring them in with this combo, and in their excellent salesmanship, try and get me to buy this and several other products at the same time. Don’t get me wrong I like the look that the Benefit employees have but it’s a tad to polished and done for my style. My fiancée often knows when I have been because I look like a “Painted lady”. Not sure if that is a complement or an insult. I do love this product as you can use this with a lighter hand than the girls at the Benefit counter and get a more natural look. However I have put this a the back of my makeup drawer simply because it is so fiddly to use every day. On a normal day I give myself 20mins to do my face, and this just can’t be factored in every day. Perhaps because I haven’t mastered it properly yet… anyone out there can use this with their eyes closed yet? The coloured wax does tame the unruly hairs and the setting powder well, sets it all day. In the wee kit you do get two brushes for application, a flat one and a angled one. Best of all there is a tiny tinnie pair of tweezers to pull out stray hairs. It is a really dinky kit and good for travel.

Speed brow by Benefit £13.00

A brown gel to tame unruly brows in small mascara tube.

I use this on a daily basis. I really do need to get another one as this one is proper manky. If I am not sporting any kind of eyebrow pencil or colour I will always put this on to tame any flyaways. My eyebrows are fairly long and are prone to sticking on my forehead so this does the trick to keep them in the right place. The gel is slightly tinted brown, however on the eyebrows I don’t really notice a huge difference in colour. (apart from the fact that the hairs are behaving themselves). If you have massively long eyebrow hairs that need cultivating I would recommend that you give this a go. You will quickly find that you can’t live without it.

Kevyn Aucoin Eyebrow pencil in Brunette £19 from Space NK.

This is a slim pencil that is perfect for filling in gaps in your brows. I find with other pencil that they are so chunky that by the time you finished filling in your brows the effect is really fake looking. The colour is really good as well, a lot of brow pencils I find too dark, and I have black hair! The pencil itself has retractable lead, and the texture of the pencil is slightly waxy so it helps a little bit with the grooming the hairs in the right direction. There is a spooly brush on the other end of the pencil which you can use to comb your brows or smudge the product with. It’s small enough to actually draw on hairs if you want to, I usually smudge the colour in my eyebrows with the brush or my fingers. This product really enhances your brows in a really natural way that isn’t drawn on, or tinted on. It makes you look like that you never had any plucking accidents in your teens and you have perfect brows. Which let’s face is the look that everyone ‘really’ wants. I normally don’t take this pencil with me. In the morning I apply my make up and leave it at home, I find that it lasts me the day. I have read from other reviews that this pencil does not travel well. The lead end of the pencil does not have a lid, so if too much of the product is out of the pencil it tends to break/crack off which results in wasted product. So if you like to take your brow products with you this probably isn’t for you. What brow products do you swear by?

Always interested in new suggestions and try new things.

Thanks for reading Carrie x