Primark are doing it ever so right this season – I may even abandon my first love Ann Summers in favour of some of these adorable sets. And, unlike AS – these sets are only TEN POUNDS each. I may never have to wash my underwear again. Vivienne Westwood said you never had to wash a bra anyway, right? Check out these beauties and get looking out for them in your nearest Prazzamarni:
I’m going to start this post with: Matalan, please start stocking Size 6 (please point me in the right direction if I’m wrong, but I’ve never found any in my local stores)! Pastel is looking to be absolutely mega this season, with uber-girly malibu pinks being the apparent colour of choice. As a general fan of a currently quite ‘The Coven’-esque wardrobe, this might take some getting used to, but the promise of sun and cocktails is seeeeriously getting me hyped up. Fudge off January: nobody likes you. Here are my favourite picks for Matalan SS14:
Just give me a second to wipe the dribble off my lip… For £16, I will most definitely be snapping up this little beaut. The beading around the collar, at least from this picture, is delicate and tasteful, the coral colour will suit pale ladies like myself to the hills and back, and the geometric pattern is hitting the trend nail right on the head.
That panelling, guys. That panelling. Usually, if you threw the word gingham at me, it’d conjure bittersweet memories of school summer dresses – namely, playing ‘horses’ in them and managing to become the subject of most parents’ distaste as I always pulled the ties off my friends’ dresses – bit carried away. Aaaanyway, this dress knocks that literally oldskwl misconception out of the park: this skirt is sophisticated, fun and has already got me mentally running for lace white socks. I’d even consider layering this skirt over the cocoon dress – pretty sure that’d work.
Pink jackets are the shit right now, if you don’t own one: you shouldn’t even be here (I don’t have one yet either). Channel your inner Regina George, bring her into SS14 and embrace that colour palette: it’s only going to do wonders for your complexion, daaarling. There is an IT pink coat floating around right now, I was in a frenzied blogger discussion at a LUSH even about it last night – we’re thinking Coast or ZARA, but this is a bargain dupe.
It’s like the pink ladies have been teleported into the 21st Century. I’d team this with a lemon or mint green fluffy jumper and a visit to the new American diner that just opened in Lancaster: the new drink of choice is a strawberry milkshake this season, ladies.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll have had several metaphoric knicker-changing sessions already this pre-season, wetting yourself over the incredible amount of actually wearable co-ord sets coming out to play. For those days where milkshakes and Lana Del Rey aren’t making your heart soar, this moodier hue will definitely keep you ticking on-trend boxes. And at £30 for the set? Oh boy.
There are no words, apart from: I now need to buy a new leather jacket.
Graphic monochrome will just forever remind me of Gwen Stefani circa. The Sweet Escape, which is never a bad thing. Are chunky gold chain necklaces here to stay then, too? The question on everyone’s lips: will monochrome ever die?
The darker sister to our opening dress, I’ll be channelling my inner Edie Sedgwick and Twiggy in this 60’s inspired number. Styling tip: stick to full monochrome with cobalt blue nails to be painfully on-trend.
Which pieces have got you already reaching for your debit card?
Back to my namesake ‘Ebony’ locks, not a moment too soon. Being born with jet black hair and having it slowly fade over time from the sun and whatnot, I’m forever popping the darkest dark brown hair dyes on that I can – just to top up the colour without making it look like a weird black wig. If you’re a fan of super dark hair too, you might be aware of the weird bold all-over colour that comes with using jet black dyes: it’s always better to use a really dark brown one so it remains multi-tonal. And this dye has it all:
This revolutionary product allows you to apply your base dye in one application and then, if you have medium/short length hair, there will be enough in the bottle for you to reuse it for top ups or root applications. Due to its clever double cylinder design, you don’t have to faff about with the usual chemistry lesson of mixing all the lotions and potions together (which can often go wrong if you’re as dippy as me, and has in the past), instead just using the pump to apply straight on. This makes for a quick and easy hair dye session! If you have short hair, the box says there is enough formula for two applications and a root touch-up; medium length is enough for one application and a root touch-up and long hair is just one application in a box. I was pretty dubious about this claim, given that my hair is past boob-length and generally, one box of hair dye is never enough and I come out looking like a patchy bastard. However, I was pleasantly surprised: it covered the entirety of my thick mop consistently and came out great.
One issue that I would have with the reusable aspect is, if you’re going to be wanting to use it again: tread very carefully whilst applying. Once it was done, the bottle was covered with dye – so you may want some baby/make-up wipes on hand to wash it all off before you store it for next time. Incredibly, and almost dubiously, L’oreal claim that you can keep the hair dye indefinitely for your next application – which is brilliant if you have short hair, I could imagine it transpiring to be highly cost-effective! Speaking of, get down to Superdrug: the hair dye is currently on offer for £8.99, instead of the usual £10.99 price. If you’re looking to buy other beauty products in your next shop, however, I’d suggest Boots as the hair dye is currently included in their ‘Buy-one-get-one-half-price’ offer, but it’s at the full price of £10.99 there. I’m tempted to stock up on them, given they apparently never go ‘off’ or ‘weird’!
The next part of my little hair transformation is that I’ve bought some white-blonde streak extension pieces on eBay that I’m going to dye pastel mint green and pop into my hair for a colour injection, every now and again. The main irk for people with dark hair is that it’s nearly impossible to go white blonde and then brightly coloured without making an absolute pigsty of your hair’s condition. So I’m just going to dye some random Russian woman’s hair and clip it onto my hair instead…
Spring/Summer is a pretty broad wash for different hair styles this year, so I thought I’d collate the ‘It’ styles from various fashion inspirations and influences flying around at present. And me? Well, I’m still hooked on a picture I saw in a Glamour issue recently: long, copper-toned with a full fringe – now I’ve just got to wait for my damn Student Loan to come through and it’ll be mine!
As I’ve mentioned here and there in my recent posts: I’m currently on holiday in Marrakech, lucky lady I am. But, if you’re a United Kingdom dweller like myself, you’ll be all too aware of the absolutely grim weather we’ve been having recently, so I had to do a last-minute high street raid for my holiday clothes – less than 24 hours before we jetted off, oops! Lately, I’ve noticed that the high street has been getting a little dull: Topshop’s gone on some bizarre and rather hideous sports-‘chic’/nerd rampage, River Island will always have a damp cloud looming above until they embrace student discount but, as is increasingly apparent these days: New Look is on the ball!
Moisture Rich? They weren’t kidding.
After over six months of religiously using M.A.C’s Matchmaster foundation, the time came for change. Thankfully, this coincided with Christmastime so I dragged my Nan to Chester for the day to hit the Debenhams make-up counters: hard. If you’re pale, like me, you’ll be all too aware of the annoyance that comes with being turned away by nearly all brands with “We don’t have anything to suit your shade” and probably stick to one foundation for life – I do not blame you. But it got to the stage with my M.A.C foundation where I’d either lost some colour between the April when I bought it, and the December when I replaced it, or for some reason it just didn’t suit anymore, so change was a-comin’.
I’ve been on an absolute retail therapy spree recently, but at least I’ll be meh and dressed decently. Before this Urban Outfitters haul, there’s another one that I need to post about – where I took major advantage of their 20% off for students offer – which I do believe is still on! However, there is currently a pretty damn good mid-season sale on with many pieces up to 50% off. Here are my picks:
Okay guys, you’re going to have to be nice to me on this one – despite the fact that I used to post trillions of dumb videos of myself singing on YouTube when I was about 15, I’ve never made anything like this, that I’ve had to edit in any way. So, here is my first make-up tutorial of sorts, let me know what you think of it and supply any constructive criticism if you wish to!
We’re moving!
I’ve decided to take the leap and buy an actual .com domain and make a proper go of this blog – because I’m getting quite a lot of good feedback about it and I absolutely love writing for it. Within the next few days, MeticulouslyOrganisedChaos will be moving from WordPress to .com – meaning you can reach me at www.ELNfashion.com by the end of the week! How exciting!
Tell all your friends and bookmark the page ready for the opening – and I promise I’ll have some great posts lined up for you, along with all my old posts from this blog sent over.
I’ve got to admit it – Next is seldom my first choice for any kind of wear but next season, this might just be changing. Next have launched their A/W 2012 collection and it is pretty scorching. If you’re looking for something to spruce up your work wardrobe and make the coming weekdays seem that little bit more exciting, you may want to invest in at least a couple of these pieces.
