Wednesday 3 December 2014

Christmas Gift Guide For Her

This year has completely flown by and I can't believe it's December already. However, I'm definitely not complaining! I've been reading/watching lots and lots of Christmas Gift Guides this year and I've decided it's about time to do one of my own. As you've probably guessed from the title, this is mainly gifts for women however there are a few gifts that could double up for both genders and I am considering creating a post on a gift guide for him if that's something people would be interested in reading, let me know in the comments! Here it is...

Bobbi Brown Warm Eye Palette, £59.
This limited edition Bobbi Brown palette is just stunning and I can safely say that pretty much every girl would love to see this under their tree. The combination of both matte and glittery shade makes this palette ideal for everyone and the brown croc effect packaging just adds to the appeal of this palette. It's selling out quick but it's still available on the Bobbi Brown Official website and the Sephora Website


Bambi iPad case in printed coated-canvas, £190.
Will the hype of the Givenchy bambi print ever end? I don't know but to be totally honest, I hope not. Although about 80% of the population own the Givenchy Antigona Bambi Tote, I've never seen anyone with the iPad case before and this would be perfect for all fashion-lovers (bloggers in particular). Available at Net-A-Porter.
YSL Limited edition la laque nail varnish 24 piece collection, £405.

 If you're buying a present for someone special and they're a beauty lover (or even if they're not), then this limited edition Yves Saint Laurent gift set is perfect. With 24 iconic shades packaged in chic acrylic box, what else could you ask for? Available at Selfridges.



DKNY Fleece Logo Onesie, £59.

What's better than a onesie!? A DKNY Onesie. This is something that's definitely on my christmas list and it's actually on sale for only £47 on ASOS right now so be quick if you know someone who would love this!

Ciate candy cane house, £25.
This Ciate nail polish set is especially festive and would be perfect for a secret santa gift. On sale on ASOS right now for only £20!

One Line a Day: A Five-Year Memory Book, £8.39.

This little book is something I'm planning on buying for many people this year because I just think it's something everyone would love. Each page has the date and the space for a sentence or two for 5 years; the idea is that you can look back on it when writing it each year and see what has changed! Available on Amazon however I have seen it in store in Urban Outfitters & Utility.

I hope this post has helped you with your Christmas Shopping and let me know in the comments which of these you would most like to receive for Christmas!

Sunday 30 November 2014

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2014

If you're like me, then the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show is something that instantly comes to mind when someone mentions the month of December. If not, you're likely to still be aware of its happenings due to the huge hype on social media. I thought it was necessary to blog about this years VSFS after the abundance of photos posted by models, bloggers and the angels themselves of the Victoria's Secret private jet this afternoon. If the shows re-location to London hasn't filled you with excitement to watch this years show, then the the plane full of everyone involved and VS goody bags definitely will.

With only two days to spare before the show, social media is buzzing. And in my opinion, social media is the reason behind the hype of Victoria's Secret; seeing the angels and various other people involved with the alluring brand living their glamorous lives not only makes the rest of the world envious but captivates us causing us to want to see more and more! Social media phenomenon, Cara Delevingne, has drawn a huge amount of attention to the show over the past two years however this year, she has chosen to walk for Chanel Metiers D'art taking place on the same night as the VSFS in Austria. Now that's what you call a supermodel dilemma. But then again, who could say no to Karl Lagerfield?

So, will you be watching the show? It's happening in just 48 hours but unfortunately for us, we can't watch until December 9th however I'm sure we'll get lots of backstage action from the world of social media. I cannot wait!
All the girls ready for the VSFS!

Chiara Ferragni on board the VS private jet.

Angels Lily Aldridge & Karlie Kloss boarding the plane!

VSFS boarding passes.

Monday 10 November 2014

I'd Rather Be In Paris

Last August, I visited the city of fashion, love and dreams, Paris. This is the first time I've ever been to Paris (excluding Disneyland) and I fell in love, it is officially my favourite place in the world. I never got round to posting any pictures on to my blog from my trip and although they were taken on an iPhone camera I thought I'd share them with you to bring a little bit of Paris to your Monday morning.

Sisters ready to take on Paris!
It was a rather spontaneous trip as my mum, my sister & I only booked the train tickets and hotel room a couple of weeks before going as when we returned from a week in Mallorca, we couldn't bare the thought of rest of the summer in rainy England. We got the train from Liverpool to London and we then travelled on the Eurostar from St Pancras to Paris; each journey was about 2 hours and I prefer trains to the hassle of a plane. We stayed in the 'Best Western Le Patio Saint Antoine' and it was nice enough considering the only time we spent in there was when we were sleeping. The convenience of this hotel is that it was only a 5 minute walk from 'Nation' Metro station and only a very short journey to wherever we were going.



View from the Eifell Tower.
View from the Eifell tower. 
The first full day we spent in Paris, we were your typical English tourists. To start the day, we visited the Louvre museum however decided against waiting in the never-ending queue to get inside and instead admired the beautiful architecture of the exterior. We then made our way through the Tuileries Garden and headed to the River Seine to see the Ponts des Arts also known as the love lock bridge. I've always marvelled at pictures of this bridge and it topped my expectations when I saw it up close. Next, we headed to the boat that transported us to the Eifell Tower. As we pre-booked tickets, we managed to beat the queues and we were headed straight to the top of this extraordinary piece of architecture; the views from the top were quite literally indescribable. An experience I'll never forget. For afternoon tea, we chose an exquisite cafe called 'Angelinas'; I enjoyed the most delicious hot chocolate and some macaroons. We finished off the day by doing a spot of shopping on the Rue Cambon, a place any fashion lover must visit during their lifetime.



The Eifell Tower from the River Seine. 
Myself at the Louvre.

Looking a little too excited about being at the top of the Eifell Tower.
Afternoon tea at Angelina's.

First ever Chanel on the Rue Cambon.


Love lock bridge.

We spent day two at Disneyland Paris for my little sister (and secretly me, I am a Disney enthusiast) and although spending the day here isn't fully grasping the Paris experience, it was a really fun day reminiscing on my previous visit to Disneyland and obviously taking full advantage of the fact we were in the most magical place in the world! No one can deny loving Disney, especially me.






I've always wanted to be a Disney princess...
Walt Disney Studios!

It's a small world!

Mickey Mouse slush!

The Disney Parade!



Day three was my favourite day of all, shopping (and of course, a little bit of sightseeing). We started our day at the Arc De Triomphe, a dazzling piece of architecture with some really interesting stories behind it. We then made our way down the Champs Elysees and did a fair bit of shopping but who wouldn't when surrounded by every designer shop you could think of?! Next was the Galeries Lafayette, the most incredible shopping centre I've ever visited and coming from a serious shopaholic, that's saying something. We enjoyed ice cream on the rooftop whilst admiring unimaginable views, an experience I re-live every day. After a long walk through the streets of Paris, we headed to a metro station and made our way back to the River Seine where we found a hidden away restaurant and enjoyed a traditional French meal. To end the trip of a lifetime, we headed back to the Ponts Des Arts and witnessed the Eifell Tower lit up which was something words cannot describe.
Just in case anyone's wondering where to buy my Christmas present...

Cookie Dough ft. Eifell Tower.


Rooftop of the Galleries Lafayette.

L'Arc De Triomphe.
Tiffany&Co. 

Avenue des Champs Elysees.

Laduree-home of the best macaroons you will ever taste.

Riverside.

Leaving the city was awful and after this trip I know I am made for Paris. I'm definitely going back in the near future and I'd love to live there at some point in my life. Let me know in the comments if you've ever been to Paris or plan on going in the future!

Also, if anyone's wondering where my outfits are from...

Day 1-
Dress-River Island
Boots- Kurt Geiger
Bag-River Island
Hat-Topshop
Necklace- Zara
Watch- Michael Kors

Day 2-
Trousers- Topshop
Top- Asos
Sandals-Office
Unsure where my checked shirt is from but it's from the mens department if that helps!

Day 3-
Trousers-Topshop
Top-Urban Outfitters
Heeled Boots- Forever 21
Sandals- Office (yes, I had to switch to flats.)
Bag- River Island
Sunglasses- Dior
Watch- Michael Kors

Saturday 8 November 2014

Better Late Than Never...

I know Halloween is last weeks news and I wasn't planning on doing a post on this as beauty isn't something I usually include on my blog. However, as I really did try this year for Halloween, I thought why not tell you all about it?! I was feeling pretty sociable on Halloween and managed to make it out on the Friday and the Saturday. On the Friday I dressed as a Vampire (I know, how cliche)  and even though my outfit wasn't anything too exciting, my make-up was what really made the look. On the Saturday I decided to go as something a little more original and dressed as a 'Candy Skull' and even though my make-up, which I did myself, wasn't half as good as the previous night, the look itself was something different to what everyones used to seeing on Halloween.

Selfies. 
On Friday, I wore a maroon lace dress from Topshop that has been worn by 95% of the girls I know but I decided to ignore this fact and wear it because the colour and fabric does remind me of something a vampire would wear. My make-up was done by Maria at Lady Muck in Liverpool (find her on Instagram @mariamakeups) and she really is extraordinary. It was a mutual decision between the two of us to go as a slightly glamorous vampire, hence the gems on my head, however my favourite part of the look she created was definitely  the eyebrows; she drew them on in under 2 minutes and they looked 10 times better than when I spend half an hour on them.

Close up of make-up.
The dress.


Selfie/Close up of make-up (sort of). 
On Saturday, I wore a purple silk dress from River Island which I belted and a flower headband also from River Island. Usually, I really do despise these flower headbands on anyone apart from Lana Del Rey but I thought for Halloween, I could make an exception. I did my own make-up for this look which is why it's no where near as good as the previous nights but it's still fairly effective along with the rest of the costume.


This is the best picture of my outfit, sorry :(


I apologise for being so late with the Halloween post but hopefully some of you will have enjoyed this post anyhow and maybe you can take some inspiration for next year! Also, I'd also like to apologise for the terrible quality of these photos but as I said I wasn't planning on a blog post so iPhone camera is the best you're going to get!

Friday 7 November 2014

New Blog Name??

Sorry for the briefness of this post but I'm desperate to re-name my blog as I'm really not loving the name I'm using at the moment (mostly because I came up with it in under 5 minutes about 2 years ago). So if anyone has any ideas, that would be really helpful as I can't think of any that I love. However,  I've had a few ideas and if you could let me know if you like any of them, that would be really helpful (they're listed below). New names would be highly appreciated though because as I said I am not particularly happy with any of these names.

Ideas...

  • FendiForYourself
  • OhSoVogue
  • DontChangeTheChanel
  • GucciAndGranola
Let me know what you think of these names in the comments and please give me any ideas you can think of! 

Thursday 6 November 2014

Trend:Sports Luxe

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past few months, then you will know that Sports Luxe is right on trend at the moment and there isn't many fashion-forward individuals not taking advantage of this. If the abundance of bomber jackets and tailored joggers being sold and worn hasn't made it clear to you that Sports Luxe is what it's all about at the moment, take a look at the collection every fashion blogger is swooning over that has been released only this morning, Alexander Wang x H&M; this collection is the epitome of Sports Luxe because not only are pieces of clothing designed for sport being sold but also Wang sports bras, yoga mats and even boxing gloves, I have actually made a couple of purchases from this collection after refreshing the website page for almost an hour and hopefully there will be a post up on them when they arrive.

My Instagram feed is full of celebrities from Rihanna to Anna Dello Russo rocking sport luxe on a daily basis at the moment and I am not at all complaining because, although at first I wasn't so keen, I have really grown to love this trend and there's so many ways to wear it. I'm pretty sure sports luxe was made for the most talked about supermodel of the moment, Cara Delevingne. Cara loves to keep her outfits casual and that's what it's is all about so evidently, she has been one to watch with this trend. The model can pull off a beanie hat like no one else, a quality I am very jealous of, and I'm pretty sure that Miss Delevingne could throw any old outfit on and a beanie and still look fabulous (and sometimes I seem to think this is what she does). Her campaign for DKNY, I personally think helped to bring out the style icon inside of her as ever since, her outfits have been a little bit more pulled together whilst still looking effortless. Below I have listed some of my favourite sports luxe outfits of Caras.





One person who can adjust her style with ease is Rihanna. Rihanna can go from dressed elegantly in Alaia for the Grammys one night to out the next day in trainers and an Adidas top still looking comfortably stylish. Because of this, Rihanna has took to this trend very well and has come up with some amazing outfits, many inspired by her collaboration with River Island last year. I'm not going to go in to immense amounts of detail on how Rihanna wore this trend as I'm sure you've all seen for yourself and I don't want to bore any of you with the same details many other magazines/blogs have beat me to. But here are my favourite looks of Rihanna rocking Sports Luxe.



I have been loving putting looks together following this trend and when my pieces from the Alexander Wang x H&M collection arrive, I'm sure I'll be able to come up with many more and hopefully I'll post some here so stay tuned! Let me know how you wear the Sports Luxe trend down in the comments and leave me any links to your posts covering similar topics.


Sunday 12 October 2014

Depop vs eBay

Selling items online is something that brings me great joy as money coming in means that money can go out and nothing makes me happier than a new purchase. eBay is the go to place for most online sales people however Depop is something new for the fashion fiends out there to unite. The difference between these two sites is that although eBay has a much wider variety and larger quantity of items, most of them look rather unappealing in the usually bad quality picture the seller has took. But with Depop, most of the items sold on there are ones that many people would consider wearing and are taken at much better quality and angle.

I have started to use Depop instead of eBay as it's much easier to access from an iPhone and the fact that you can have followers on there means that more people are seeing your items as they come up on their feed. I also find it much more straight forward to use and I enjoy picking filters and making my items look pretty.

This was just a quick post as I'd like to know all your opinions on these two sites and which one you would or do use of the two. Let me know in the comments and make sure to follow my Depop account @aliceporter as I have hundreds of things to sell.

Saturday 20 September 2014

Tom Ford SS15 Review

If anyone knows how to create controversy throughout the world of fashion, it's Tom Ford and the Spring 2015 show proved this. Personally, I loved this collection; the sex appeal and gothic vibe to this show was intriguing to me and the 'slept in' hair paired with the conspicuously overdone make-up  added a real edge. However, many people feel the collection was a little too full of 'love sex and drugs' and are describing it as demeaning to women. But what I love about Tom Ford, is how eager he is to take risks, break the rules and equally, that is what I love about this show.

Lexi Boling opened the show wearing a black skirt suit, translucent tights and leopard print platforms which really set the theme for the rest of the show. The monochrome colour palette was sustained for most of the show with some deep green,burgundy, and metallic shades also added and hints of print were included at times also. Tom Ford SS15 is all sheer tops, detailed embellishment,fringing
and skirts so short you can see the end of the stockings they were wearing. The sex appeal of this collection is impossible to be misread with the high heeled shoes made even higher by a platform and the self-evident fact that the models are wearing stockings and this is what caused a huge amount of controversy and disagreement concerning the collection.

I think the main reason I love this show is the beauty side to it because I'm bored of seeing the slicked back hair and 'no make'up' make-up looks at every show and I love how Tom Ford has done something completely the opposite of this. The hair is styled to look as if the models have slept in it for days and although if I tried to do this I'd probably look more like a tramp, for this show,it's a real alluring look. The heavy eye make-up next to a very natural face (by natural I mean, no obvious contouring or lipstick) also adds to this 'slept in' look and the way the eye make-up looks as if it has smudged under their eyes contributes to it greatly. The eyebrows are messy and there is no obvious recognition that they have been filled in or even touched by a make-up artist and ,again, this paired with the unsubtle eyes is really what makes this look amazing.

Here are some of my favourite looks from the show...