Outfit Post - Pretty Floral Tea Dress

This is just a brief outfit post, I wore this out to dinner with the hubby a few weeks ago. I really love this dress and it is a total Primark bargain buy I got last year. I had stopped buying items from Primark because the quality on them really is awful and I wanted to start buying better items that would last longer, even if they cost a little more, but when I nipped in for hair clips I saw this little beauty hanging right by the door! It was fate, it was the day of my sisters 21st birthday party and I hadn't decided what to wear and this was perfect. It is just so cute and sweet and totally my style, and it was only £17. The weather wasn't quite warm enough to wear it on it's own so I paired it with this simple chiffon drop hem shirt I got for Christmas from Everything5pounds.com (another bargain!)

 Dress: Primark

Shirt: Everything5pounds.com

Shoes: Ruby Shoo via AG Meek

So what is everyone up to today? Anything fun?

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!

Tis my birthday today!!! 

I have been a very lucky girl already, my family took me out for an indian meal when I was at home on Tuesday and gave me my presents. So excited! Me and Jon are off to London on Monday for a night and to see STOMP the show. Yay! Lucky me!! 

Jon is taking me to get a new pair of Ruby Shoo's tomorrow as my birthday gift, as I love the new summer collection!! AGMeek is the only place around that sells them, so I get to go try them on and decide which pair I want.

I am having a few peeps over tonight for a little party, so will possibly have some pics from that after the weekend, but for now here are a few pictures of my last few birthdays! You can see how much I have changed (not a huge amount really!

 My 18th Birthday!

My 19th Birthday!

 My 20th Birthday

My (and Rachel's) 21st Birthday 

 My 22nd Birthday

 My 23rd Birthday

24th Birthday

My 25th Birthday

Outfit Post - A Cowgirl Twist!

It was our works staff do last week and we went to a great place called the Hang Fire Grill which takes place in The Canadian pub in Splott every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So to honour the event we decided to dress up with a Western Theme. So here is my take on a modern cowgirl outfit.

 Dress: Converse

Shirt: Spy Denim Menswear

Tights: Random from TKMaxx

Shoes: Ruby Shoo via Ebay

Necklace and Ring: via Etsy

 I didn't have a cowboy hat so I figured bunches would have to do.

 I thought the heart print tights would add a bit of extra fun to the outfit and I don't have cowboy boots but I had just bought these Ruby Shoo denim shoes on eBay and they needed some breaking in, so I thought they would be perfect for this outfit. I managed to get them at a bargain price, they usually sell for £40-£45 new and I got these for £11 on eBay and they are practically new, barely worn on the sole at all.

 And to finish the outfit off some fitting jewellery for the outfit, my stag skull ring and bulls head necklace! Love them lots!

So what do you think, did I manage to look Western enough?

Have you done any fun fancy dress recently?

Outfit Post - A moment of sunlight

A little outfit post for you all. This is the cute little butterfly dress I managed to score at TKMaxx in the sale. We actually had a few odd days of decent sunshine last week so I thought it would be the perfect occasion to wear my little sundress.

 You actually have a few shots of me wearing my specs, which I don't often do on the blog.

Dress: Lili via TKMaxx

Shoes: M&S

Glasses: Osiris

Earrings: Stella & Dot

Watch: Vivienne Westwood

Beauty Review - Arran Aromatics Lavender and Lemongrass Shampoo

This is another review of a sample I picked up a few months ago while I was staying in a cute little cottage in Scotland. This is the Lavender and Lemongrass Shampoo from Arran Aromatics. 

Arran Aromatics £9

The combination of the two scents sounded great but in reality it smelt more like the old fashion Dove or Palmolive soap my grandma used to have. That fresh but plain soapy smell. It's like neither scent was strong enough to actually smell it and they ended up cancelling each other out. It wasn't really to my taste in all honesty. But it lathered pretty well so I didn't need to use a huge amount of it to cover all my hair with soap suds. 

After washing my hair it was really knotted, more than usual when I don't use a conditioner (I only use it every 3 or 4 washes or it gets greasy). However, after getting all the knots out and drying my hair it was actually really shiny and soft, it was as if I had used my high shine conditioner or an expensive shampoo. I can definitely overlook the not great smell and the knots to get the silky end result I currently have. So overall I would say it is totally worth the price and I wish I had a bigger bottle of it!

Has anyone else tired Arran Aromatics products before?

Anyone else had a surprising result from a shampoo? 

Beauty Review - Jergens Ultra Healing Moisturiser

Can't remember where I got this sample from but as I have a small patch of dry skin on my chin and a very dry forehead I thought I would try it for a few days and see what happens. It is the Jergens Ultra Healing Body Moisturiser. 

I started applying it to my forehead and chin about a week ago. I do it after I shower and before I go to bed. I currently don't use any other face moisturiser.

The scent is really nice, clean and fresh, not scented or fragranced at all - so it just smells creamy, which is great as I was applying it to my face and don't like anything to perfumed. 

The consistence is quite wet, but not runny, just not thick like a butter or body lotion. This meant for me that a little went a long way as I was applying it to smaller targeted areas. I only had a 25ml sample and I still have loads left, feels like I have barley made a dent in it to be honest.

The question is did it work? Well actually where I applied it on my chin I found if I added to much it wouldn't get properly absorbed and would leave a bit of an oily residue that I could rub away when it had dried. But my skin is already feeling a lot softer, it hasn't made a lot of difference to the little dry skin problem I have there yet though. 

On my forehead on the other-hand it absorbed really well, don't know if this is to do with the skin itself or the levee of dryness maybe, but it seemed to soak into my skin pretty fast and leave an instantly more moisturised feel. After a week my forehead is feeling much better and is far less dry and flaky than it had been, I still get a little issue just above my eyebrows but I am hoping with continued use that maybe that will be sorted out too. 

If you like the sound of it and want to try it for yourself it is available at Boots, Superdrug or Amazon and 200ml is usually around £3-£4. I think it is well worth that price, and a little goes a long way so this would last ages if you only used on targeted areas rather than an all over moisturiser.

Has anyone else tried any of the Jergens products? What are your opinions? Any of the other items I should try?

This is not a sponsored post, I had this sample with a number of others I currently have. All views are my own and I aim to give honest opinions of all products I try. 

Beauty Review - Millennium Nails Heart Nail Art

My mum bought me this huge nail art kit for Christmas from Millennium Nails, which she managed to pick up via a Groupon Offer. The original kit was worth over £100 but she managed to get it at a great cheap price luckily. A few of the things aren't items I would use but there was lots in there that I thought could be fun to play with. So when I needed some cute nails for the blogger event a few weeks ago I though I would try the holographic hearts that came in the kit. 

I painted my nails a sky blue colour from George at ASDA then added the Millennium Nails Top Coat to use as an adhesive for the little hearts. After applying them with a tweezers I pressed them down firmly and put a quick coat of the top coat over the top again, just to hold them on. So when I left the house they looked like this...

 But within an hour the top of the hearts had started coming off, the fabric of the hearts was actually separating and peeling apart, leaving the bottom fabric still attached to my nails, and in some cases the fluffy little bit of padding which made the hearts 3D, which then caught on lots of stuff - not impressive! Considering I had used  their own top coat to hold it on I was really unhappy with the quality of the hearts, and how the actual holographic heart itself had separated from the base fabric it was made from. By the end of the evening out of the 10 hearts I was wearing 5 had peeled off. 

 They are absolutely useless! I would never advise someone to buy them, which is lucky as I can't actually find them on their website anyway. 

So there you have my opinion of the Millennium Nails Heart nail toppers. Considering this was meant to be product review month I am not doing too well, as this is only my second review! Ah well, I shall keep plugging away at them when I find some more time!

Cruzan Rum Video

As the title suggests I have a post which is a little different for you today, a great new 'tourism' video from Cruzan Rum. I'm not usually a rum drinker but in a good cocktail rum is great, think Mojito's or Daiquiris. Plus Cruzan Rum has a great selection of cocktail recipe suggestion on their website.

So please check out their video, it's great fun I promise! 

This is not a sponsored post ladies this is a Fashionista Events opportunity.

Cross-Jones Photography - Nelson Family Reunion Photoshoot

Thought I would give you a little look at the shoot we did last week for the Nelson Family, you can check it out on the Cross-Jones Photography blog or on our facebook page. Please take a peek and let us know what you think.

This is little Imarni we took photos of when she was just 10 days old, she is now 5 months old and has grown so much!

Outfit Post - Butterfly Dress in the Sun

Just a little outfit post for you all. Me and Jon did a lovely family photo shoot last week, we just managed to catch one of the few days of good weather we have had in Cardiff and the photo's came out beautifully. Just check the link above if you would like to see a few of them. I bought this dress a while ago from TKMaxx but had yet to actually wear it, I thought the glorious weather was perfect for wearing this dress. I originally had my Daisy Print cardigan on too, but it was way too warm.

Some pictures of me with my glasses on! You don't see them very often.

 Dress: Lili via TKMaxx

Sandals: M&S

Watch: Vivienne Westwood

Studs: Stella & Dot

Glasses: Osiris

Found any bargain recently? Are you a TKMaxx kinda girl or are you not into sorting through all the rails? 

Jewellery - The Stella & Dot Zoe Lariat Challenge

This is the Stella & Dot Zoe Lariat £85. At my trunk show our stylist Louise said there was 12 ways to wear this piece but she didn't know what they all were, so she challenged us to find them all.

We took that challenge!!! Rachel offered to be our model for the night!

 Thats's 12...and here's 1 more for luck!

So thats 1 piece for £85 which can be wore at least 13 ways - just £6.53 for each way making it quite reasonable (women logic there!)

What do you think of the piece? Do you like the idea of a multi-functioning piece of jewellery? Would you buy the Lariat?