30 April 2010

And the winner is ...

Thank you all for entering my first anniversary giveaway my pretties. I compiled all the entries into a database (which took forever because Google Docs decided to run very slooooooowly), and drew the winner on random.org.

There were 57 entries, and the winning number was:


NUMBER 41! Which was assigned to Kat C. Congratulations Kat C, I've dropped you an email.

Once again thank you all for reading and commenting and being a part of my Pretty Clever family, you make my day so much brighter. If I could give each and every one of you a prize I would.

Selina x

I'm Loving: Zoya Remove + nail polish remover

I plan to start doing more product reviews here on Pretty Clever and as part of that today I'm introducing a new series entitled I'm loving, which will feature the products I use on a regular basis. Of course any reviews here on Pretty Clever are my own opinion, and what works for me may not necessarily work for someone else. Also, I promise that my reviews will always be honest, regardless of whether the product has been sent to me for review or not (and if the product has been sent to me for review I will always make that clear). If you have any questions or comments about any of the products you've seen here ask away - I love hearing from you!

Today I'm featuring a product that for me is the be all and end all of nail polish removal: Zoya Remove +. I change my polish daily, and have very soft weak nails, so my nail polish remover needs to be gentle while still removing the polish effectively. I've tried a myriad of different removers in my time, and they've all worked to a greater or lesser extent. I keep a bottle of pure acetone on hand for removing those pesky glitter polishes, and it works brilliantly but dries my nails and skin out horribly. Most acetone-based formulas tend to be drying, and I've often found that the ones with added moisturisers to combat this will leave an oily film over the nails which itself needs to be removed or the nail polish won't adhere properly.

Acetone-free formulas, while being kinder to nails, generally don't remove the polish as well and I often find myself scrubbing at my nails to get the last of the polish off which in itself is very damaging. I've also found that many non-acetone removers have a very unpleasant scent - one was so bad it went straight into the bin because of the nausea and headaches it brought on!

Zoya Remove + is a low-acetone formula which claims to "moisturise, nourish and fortify the nail plate and also act as both a nail cleaner and nail prep, removing all traces of nail lacquer without streaking or staining", and I have to say it does what it says on the bottle.


I was pleasantly surprised that a low-acetone formula could remove polish as well as this - it's surprisingly close to pure acetone in the removal stakes, yet not at all drying. In fact quite the opposite - my nails and cuticles looked healthy and moisturised after using it. The nail plate is left shiny and clean with no filmy residue.

Remove + is described as having a lavender fragrance, and certainly it is pleasantly fragranced (I think I can detect lavender in there) - there's no having to leave doors and windows open while using it and no headaches from the fumes.

The 240ml Big Flipper bottle is a handy fella, with a flip top lid and pump action dispensing mechanism allowing for one-handed use, and a 960ml refill bottle is also available - very handy for someone like me who goes through a lot of nail polish remover.

Price-wise Remove + is at the more expensive end of the spectrum. In New Zealand the 240ml Big Flipper is NZ$29.00 which obviously is considerably more than your standard drug store nail polish remover, but the 960ml refill is NZ$40.00, so for NZ$11.00 more you're getting four times the amount.

For product availability near you see the Zoya website. In New Zealand the Zoya range (including polishes) is available online from Sudo-Mistair, who also stock the Qtica range - note the prices on their website and quoted above are exclusive of GST. I've purchased from them several times and I am impressed with their customer service and speed of delivery.

What about you, my pretties? Have you tried Remove + and what do you think of it?

29 April 2010

Your daily dose of pretty: Magnolia bangle from White House | Black Market

I love the line drawings of magnolias on this bangle:



That's one very substantial looking piece of jewellery. Knowing my propensity for excessive clumsiness and gesticulating excitedly with my hands I'd probably clock myself in the head with it mid-conversation. I mean it's all very good being pretty, so long as one is conscious to enjoy it.

The Magnolia Lucite bangle is US$19.99 on sale from White House | Black Market, who are in America and ship internationally.

Your daily dose of pretty: Quebec shoes by Mollini

You've all probably figured by now that I love my bows on shoes. But it's not just bows as an embellishment that lift a simple shoe into prettyfulness. The pleated fabric detail on the front of this shoe from Mollini is really lovely:



Isn't that colour just gorgeous? Unfortunately it's sold out online, but the black version is still in stock and is equally pretty.

The Quebec shoe in green or black is AU$128.00 from Australian company Mollini Shoes, who have just announced that they are now delivering internationally to Canada, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States of America.

28 April 2010

Your daily dose of pretty: ASOS Cotton Skater Dress

After yesterday's rant in place of a regular post I think we all need something pretty to remind us that the world isn't always a bad place. Obviously any world that contains something this pretty and floaty and girly and PINK can't be all that bad:


I love the puffy sleeves and pleated neckline. The Cotton Skater Dress is £28.00 from ASOS (who are England-based and ship internationally), and if pink doesn't lift your soul in the way it does mine, the dress is also available in Blue and Lemon.

27 April 2010

Do not adjust your sets

I'm in the midst of some techical problems my pretties, my commenting system Intense Debate decided to stop working so I've had to disable it and return to blogger's commenting system. Which is fine, except all the comments submitted using Intense Debate have disappeared. ARGH! I'm not sure whether there's any fix for this, but I suspect not. So if you're looking back through old blog posts and see there aren't any comments, or looking for a comment you made or a comment you wanted to reply to and you can't see it, that's because it's been sucked into teh interwebs never to be seen again.

Luckily I've save ALL the emailed notifications about comments, which means that I still have all the lovely comments on my giveaway. I haven't made the draw yet, so it would have been a complete disaster if they'd all disappeared.

So a huge thank you to all of you who take the time to comment, even if your comment's not there any more it meant a lot to me.

Also: Grrrrr. Grumble. Mutter. ARGH!

Edit: I've found the history page on Intense Debate, which saves all the comments submitted using Intense Debate. This makes drawing the giveaway winner even easier. Unfortunately their export to Blogger feature is currently disabled due to bugs so there's currently no way of getting the comments back onto the blog. 

You don't have to be a kid to be bullied

I'm going to take a break from my regular schedule, my pretties, to have a bit of a rant on a subject I feel very strongly about: bullying. I was terribly bullied as a child, right through till when I left high school, and I even wrote about it on my long neglected other blog manikpixi. My favourite blogger Forever Amber recently wrote about a poor girl who received death threats because of her red hair, and if you scroll through the comments you'll see I put in my two cents worth on that too.

Bullying is horrible and it says more about the person doing the bullying than about the person being bullied. It says they're insecure and get off on hurting other people and generally not the sort of person you'd want to be friends with. But you know what really scares me? That the bullying doesn't stop when you leave school. You step out into the big wide world and realise that outside the confines of school (where hopefully there are rules and counsellors and ramifications) the bullying continues in every facet of life. Your colleague, your neighbour, your in-law - those insecure mean little people are still out there. And sometimes it's not individual people throwing their weight around but big firms, who not only don't have rules and counsellors to put them in their place, but actually have big budgets and lawyers which allow, nay encourage, their behaviour.

And it's this situation exactly that New Zealand company Oasis find themselves in. Oasis are a small company selling a range of natural skin care solutions, and they're on the receiving end of a trademark lawsuit from big New Zealand natural skin care company Living Nature who say that Oasis' logo is too close to that of Living Nature. Now I'll let you visit Oasis and Living Nature (I'm not going to link to them sorry, I'm too cross) to judge for yourself how similar the logos are. My opinion, in case you're interested, is: BULLS**T. In fact, if such tenuous similarities can be the basis for a lawsuit I would suggest perhaps the legal department of The Body Shop might want to look into suing Living Nature, because gosh-darn it if their logos aren't both, you know, circles.

I'll let you read the news article for more about the lawsuit, but the upshot of the situation for this consumer at least is that Living Nature have lost my business. I used to be a big supporter of their products, gift bags to overseas friends almost always included a Living Nature product or two but no more. In fact after reading the article I went straight to the Oasis website (who I'd previously never heard of), and ordered myself all four of these Synergy Fragrances, which are currently on sale for only NZ$7.50 a bottle.



TAKE THAT Living Nature - I'm voting with my credit card!

Peace out!

24 April 2010

Your daily dose of pretty: Emily shoulder bag from Etsy

You know, I'm pretty sure that at some time over the last few months I'd made mention of the fact that I wasn't a handbag person. That in spite of my obsession with pretty things (shoes, nail polish, shoes, dresses, shoes, makeup, shoes, lingerie, shoes, jewellery, did I mention shoes?) I'd never found myself cooing over a handbag.

And then I did a few posts about pretty handbags.

And guess what happened? Yeah. Turns out I now have a handbag obsession. I've even somehow managed to buy myself several. Which I've not yet used.

So here's a pretty handbag:


The Emily navy cord shoulder bag is US$75.00 by EmmaGordonLondon on Etsy. I want it. I'd never use it. It's rough being me some days, I tells ya!

23 April 2010

Your daily dose of pretty: Sweet Pea mary janes by Charlie Max

If I was wearing these pretty little mary janes I'd be spending the whole day staring at my feet:



Aren't they pretty? Come to think of it, it's probably a good thing I don't have them on my feet - I'm always walking into things as it is, I don't need the distraction of constantly staring at my pretty feet or I'd be just one big bruise.

The Sweet Pea mary janes have embroidered silk uppers and are AU$99.00 (on sale) from Australian brand Charlie Max (who ship internationally).

Last chance - Pretty Clever's First Birthday Giveaway closes soon

My pretties, if you haven't entered the Pretty Clever first birthday giveaway yet, you'd better hurry because the deadline is growing ever closer. Since New Zealand is several hours ahead of most of the rest of the world I'm going to to close the competition at 11am Saturday 24 April New Zealand time (or, you know, when I get up - it's Saturday and the kids will be at their dad's!), to give those of you half a day behind us plenty of chances to get in.

So, let your fingers do the clicking, enter the competition!

22 April 2010

Your daily dose of pretty: Stand Tall Bamboo Pendant Necklace by Freedom Creative

Bamboo is amazing stuff. Not only is it the sole food of pandas ("What's for dinner mum?" "Bamboo." "Woohoo, my favourite!"), it's also the flooring material we're planning to use in our renovations (if they ever happen) and at Christchurch NZ based Freedom Creative it's used to make pretty jewellery like this:



The Stand Tall Bamboo Pendant Necklace is NZ$33.00 from Freedom Creative, who happily ship internationally so if you're outside New Zealand and interested in buying just drop them a message via their site.

21 April 2010

The deadline looms: have you entered my giveaway yet?

Don't forget my pretties, if you want to enter my first birthday giveaway you only have until this Friday 23 April. So go on, click the link. Click it, you know you want to.

Have you clicked it yet? Remember the competition is open to all my followers, both New Zealand and international. So what are you waiting for? Click. The. Link.

Your daily dose of pretty: Old Town Dress by Lady K Loves

This dress reminds me so much of a dress I bought years ago from a market in Dunedin, albeit in white with blue trim. It was the first true piece of vintage clothing I ever bought - I was so in love with it but it was so completely different from anything else I was wearing at the time (it was the late '80s, I don't even want to think about what I was wearing at the time!) that it hung in my closet for ages and never got worn. In the end I donated it to charity when I moved.


So pretty and so feminine - I wonder if I would actually wear it this time around?

The Old Town Dress is £55.00 from Lady K Loves.

20 April 2010

Your daily dose of pretty: Satin Bow Topstitched heel by White House | Black Market

Autumn only started a few weeks back here in New Zealand and already I'm complaining. Wah wah woe, where is the sun, and so on. So of course I'm staring longingly at pretty summer shoes like these:



Oooh, hey, bows! Would you look at that. I love the contrast stitching detail through the bow, so pretty.

The Satin Bow Topstitched Heel is US$88.00 from White House | Black Market.

19 April 2010

Your daily dose of pretty: Betsy Bow shoes by Office

You know those posts I do which contain a warning for pink haters? Well this is one of those. And actually if you're a polka dot hater you also might want to look away. Oh and you ribbon haters? Yeah, you too.

So now that I've sent a large portion of my audience away - TA-DA!



Could they be any more pink and be-ribboned and polka-dotty? Well actually, yes they could, but even I have my pink-polka-dotted-be-ribboned limits. Honest.

The Betsy Bow shoe is £60.00 from Office.

18 April 2010

Your daily dose of pretty: Lemon Cookie sailor dress from AsiaJam

Ahoy! There is nothing cuter than a sailor dress, and this one's a real cutie:

So, ummmm ... that model's facial expression. Errr, what look do you think she was going for exactly? The first person to come up with a non-rude answer gets a hug from me.

The Pin-Up Sunshine Marine Retro Dress by Lemon Cookie is US$65.00 from AsiaJam and is also available in red, which is quite cute too.

17 April 2010

Your daily dose of pretty: Ellamay shoes from Novo

Lace on shoes is a funny one - personally I think it often looks a little tacky. These shoes, however, do not look in the slightest bit tacky, and as an example of how to do lace on shoes well I think I should buy them immediately. Don't you?


C'mon guys, as far as flimsy excuses for buying myself shoes go, that was a pretty good one wasn't it? Wasn't it? Guys?

The Ellamay peeptoe is AU$89.95 from Novo Shoes, who have stores in Australia and New Zealand, and whose website only ships within Australia, so you non-Antipodean types might have to keep looking for some good lace-on-shoes examples.

16 April 2010

Your daily dose of pretty: Teacup Necklace by Cutie Pie

It doesn't get much cuter than a teeny tiny teacup necklace:


And as if the Teacup Necklace (£12.00) weren't cute enough on its own, you can also have a Milk Jug Necklace (£10.00) and a Teapot Necklace (£16.00).


Now all I need is a sugar bowl, then I can invite all my little mouse friends around and they can sit on my shoulders and have a tea party. What? Why are you looking at me like that? Of course I'd need a sugar bowl, some of those mice have very sweet teeth you know!

These adorable necklaces, and lots more cute stuff, are available from Cutie Pie.

15 April 2010

Your daily dose of pretty: Debutante earrings by This Charming Girl

Look! More pretties with bows on!


How could I not love them, with their little baskets and little bows? The only thing that could make these cuter would be to put a little bunny in the basket. Aaaaannnd, this is why I'm not a jewellery designer.

The Debutante earrings are £8.00 from This Charming Girl.

14 April 2010

Your daily dose of pretty: Roxy Tutu (I wanna be a fairy!)

Look at this gorgeous confection of frouffiness:


I'm such a sucker for tutus, as is 14 Year Old Daughter - who can get away with wearing them more than I can! Tutus are the reason I look forward to Halloween - I can dress up like a fairy to take a gaggle of neighbourhood kids trick-or-treating and not feel silly. Well ... maybe a little silly, but Halloween's all about the silly. And the sugar, lots of sugar.

The Roxy Tutu is US$40.00 from EverydayFairytale on Etsy, and they make them in children's, adults' and pets' sizes.

Giveaway reminder - have you entered?

Have you entered my first birthday giveaway yet? Well if not you'd best go and enter hadn't you, because there's some lovely prizes on offer.

Don't forget the giveaway is open to all followers - both New Zealand and international, and closes on Friday 23 April. So get that mouse moving, click on the link and ENTER!

13 April 2010

Your daily dose of pretty: Rosalie Button Shootie from FrockYou

First up, can I just say I think 'shootie' is a very silly word. When I own these beautiful shoes I will most certainly not be saying "do you like my new shooties". At least not with a straight face. I will be saying "do you like my new shoes". A lot. Because when these babies are on my feet I'm going to be showing them off.

Now to find a way to get these babies onto my feet.  Where did I leave The Eccentric English Boyfriend and his credit card?


Look, they're like little tuxedoes for your feet. The Rosalie Button (oh good grief I'm going to have to say it) Shootie is AU$189.95 from Australian company FrockYou, who ship internationally in case you were wondering.

12 April 2010

Your daily dose of pretty: Dance-a-thon Dress from ModCloth

I'm not normally a fan of plaid (or as we call it: tartan). Too many bad memories of my school uniforms - brown and green tartan monstrosities of woollen itchiness that they were.

I may just make an exception in the case of this dress though:



That's pretty. And even though the tulle bits might be a little itchy it doesn't remind me at all of school uniforms.

The Dance-a-thon dress is US$69.99 from ModCloth.

11 April 2010

Your daily dose of pretty: Serenade Bird Hair Slides by Eclectic Eccentric

How cute and whimsical are these hair slides?


They would be so awesome perched in my hair. And then I could be all "hey little birdie you're really cute and I like your top hat but please don't poop in my hair", and he'd be like "ma'am I'm a plastic bird, I can't poop" and I'd be like "holy s**t I've really got to start having more than a bag of jellybeans and a cup of coffee for breakfast because I totally just hallucinated that that bird in my hair talked to me!". Or something.

The Serenade Bird Hair Slides are £8.50 from Eclectic Eccentric.

Disclaimer: Product does not actually talk. Probably.
Also: Pretty Clever does not in any way recommend jellybeans and coffee as a complete breakfast. Unless you put them on top of your cereal.

10 April 2010

Today's nail: Color Club Electronica


Today's polish from Color Club's Dance to the Musique collection is Electronica, a vibrant blurple jelly packed with pink shimmer:


Of course the camera captured this leaning towards blue, but it is more purple (see the collection shot at the top of the post for a better example of the colour) and it didn't even begin to capture the gorgeous shimmer properly. I never get sick of colours like this. There are many of them around - some of which are more dupe-ish than others - but Electronica is a fabulous example and definitely a standout. Two lovely coats to apply, if you're a blurple/shimmer fan you need this baby in your collection!

Your daily dose of pretty: Maria Sem bracelet by Marzio Fiorini

New to Mink Schmink is Marzio Fiorini's jewellery range. Most of the pieces in the range are made from recycled rubber, and while 'pretty' may not be the first word that springs to mind when one thinks of rubber ('fetish' would probably be the first word that springs to my mind, but the less said about that the better), these pieces certainly qualify as pretty:


The Maria Sem bracelet by Marzio Fiorini is AU$40.00 from Mink Schmink.

09 April 2010

Celebrate Pretty Clever's first birthday - enter the competition

Can you believe it my pretties, on 6 April Pretty Clever turned one. Yes it's a whole year since I started this journey, and looking back it's interesting to see how Pretty Clever has developed. When I started out I was planning to do lots of how-to and advice articles, and instead I gradually found my niche as a Purveyor of the Pretty, with occasional reviews and fashion/beauty news thrown in for good measure. I also might have bought quite a lot of pretty stuff - it's jolly hard exercising restraint when you spend so much time every day staring at pretties!

Anyway, a blog is nothing without its readers, and to thank you all for reading, commenting and sharing in my world of pretty I'm running a competition. As quite a lot of you live outside New Zealand I thought it would be fun to have the prize made up entirely of products from New Zealand companies (which does mean no nail polish though, as there are no New Zealand companies who make nail polish). So I went and did a bit of shopping and here's what I came up with for you:


A Karen Murrell lipstick in Cordovan Natural - a lovely neutral colour. I'll be doing a post about this lipstick range soon, suffice it to say they are the best lipsticks I've ever used, and I don't say that lightly!


A collection of New Zealand made beauty products, from left to right: Merino Lanolin Skin Creme (I swear by this stuff, it is fabulous hand cream), Simunovich Olive Estate Olive Natural Soap, Trilogy Rosehip Oil, Wild Ferns Manuka Honey Soothing Eye Gel (I bought myself a tube of this too, and it feels lovely on), and a cute little Great Barrier Island Bee Co Lip Balm on a carabiner.


Cupcake themed nail files and a cupcake mirror from local fashion chain Glassons.

And finally, the fabulous Artisan Jouel very generously donated this gorgeous lampwork necklace (as modelled by 14 Year Old Daughter).


The photo doesn't do it justice - I have one of these in blue and it is so pretty.

So, to the nitty gritty. To enter you need to be a follower of Pretty Clever AND leave a comment on this post with your email address and how you follow me (and no, "I stand outside your window at night" is not the type of following I mean).

Once you've done that, you can get yourself extra entries by doing the following (each method gets you ONE extra entry).  And I can't stress enough, please make sure you tell me in the comments that you've done these too:

1. Go visit 14 Year Old Daughter's blog, read the post she's done about this competition and leave a comment.

2. Become a fan of Pretty Clever blog on Facebook.

3. Post a link to the competition on your blog.

The competition is open to all, NZ or international, and closes Friday 23 April. So what are you waiting for my pretties? Go on, enter! And thank you all for coming along on this ride with me.

xx

Today's nail: Color Club Feel the Beat


Today's polish from the Dance to the Musique collection is Feel the Beat. I wasn't sure about this one in the bottle, it looked like it could be a bit too 'safe' for my liking, but actually on the nail it's not bad at all. (Before you look, I apologise for the state of my cuticles - moisturiser STAT!):


Feel the Beat is a coppery-orange almost metallic that reminds me of glowing embers in a fire. (Poetic, yes?) Two coats and nice application that was just the tiniest bit brush-strokey.  I did notice this morning there are a couple of bald spots near my cuticles - the polish probably took one look at the state of my cuticles and tried to run away. Also, note to self: stop anthr... anthropo... anthromo... giving nail polishes human characteristics.

Your daily dose of pretty: Burgundy taffeta corset from Kate's Clothing

You know what I need more of in my wardrobe? Corsets.



Isn't that gorgeous? I'm big of boob and small of waist, I reckon I'd look damn hot in that. I mean I wouldn't be able to eat or, you know, breathe, but I'd look hot and that's all that matters.

The burgundy taffeta steel boned corset is £39.99 from Kate's Clothing.

08 April 2010

Today's nail part two: Color Club Groove Thang

The second collection released by Color Club for the New Zealand winter 2010 season is Dance to the Musique, which Color Club NZ generously provided me with to swatch for you:


Left to right: Feel the Beat, Velvet Rope, Slow Jam, Electronica, Groove Thang and After Hours.

Groove Thang intrigued me in the bottle with its purple shimmer and hints of peacock blues and greens. Somewhat disappointingly though the blues and greens fail to make an appearance on the nail.



Groove Thang does redeem itself in my eyes by being a gorgeous dark dark purple jelly (of the "so dark it's almost black" ilk) with a lighter purple shimmer packed into it that really shines when the light hits it, and I do love it, even if I am a bit disappointed that it didn't turn out like it promised in the bottle.

Lovely formula that only required two coats, and it could possibly be a one coater if you apply your polish thicker than I. And also, how gorgeous does it look with my new ring?


More to the point: how gorgeous is my new ring?

Today's nail: Color Club Love 'Em Leave 'Em



Love 'Em Leave 'Em is the last of the six polishes in the Wild At Heart collection, and the one with a true holographic glitter which is just gorgeous in the light.


There was, however, a reason I left Love 'Em Leave 'Em till last to swatch - the holo may be beautiful but the beige base colour is so totally not me. The whole day I was wearing it I would catch a glimpse of my nails and think "meh, beige". It's nothing personal against this polish - I just don't do beige. If you do though I recommend this polish, especially if you're looking for something work-appropriate but with a bit of fun. Lovely application in two coats.

That wraps up the Wild At Heart Collection, and as a whole I absolutely love it. Five glitter bombs and one metallic and (with the exception of Love 'Em Leave 'Em) some gorgeously dramatic colours - this could well qualify as my favourite collection ever, with Wild At Heart being my favourite colour-wise and Wild And Willing getting my vote for most unusual. If you like your glitters go get this collection, it won't disappoint.

Your daily dose of pretty: Senorita shoes by ... who???

Warning: if sugary pink prettyfulness makes you want to barf, you might want to look away now. Go look at some spiders or something. For the rest of you, how's this for pink and girly and pretty?



I stared at the screen for a good five minutes just drinking in the pastel pink sugary prettyfulness of these babies. Then my eyes wandered up and to the right and I saw two words that made me die inside just a little: Paris Hilton. Yep, Paris Hilton designed shoes that I like. Nay, love. What sort of craziness is this? What upside down back to front world did I wake up in this morning? Who am I? More importantly who are you and why are you staring at me like that?

So I'm going to go have a little lie-down - hopefully the world will right itself soon enough. In the meantime, if you too are in sharing this alternate universe you can buy yourself the Senorita shoes by Paris Hilton on Heels.com. They also come in leopard print. Just so you know.

07 April 2010

Your daily dose of pretty: Sparrows Bow purse from Sour Puss Clothing

In recent years I've been gradually weaning myself off the colour black as an option for head-to-toe dressing. I was actually a wee bit of a goth at one stage you know - although realistically anybody who is regularly described by her friends as "bubbly" is never going to make a convincing goth! Anyway one colour I've recently discovered a liking for is turquoise. I've not yet managed to incorporate it into my outfits, but I think this cute wee purse would be a lovely way to add a pop of turquoise:

Isn't that gorgeous? The Sparrows Bow Purse is US$29.00 from Sour Puss Clothing.

06 April 2010

Design your own trainers

Trainers aren't generally pretty. Sweaty, yes. Pretty, no. But over on the Converse site you can design your own trainers and make something that could just qualify as pretty. Lookit what I made - they're pink!



If I wanted to get these made they would cost me US$65.00, except Converse won't ship them internationally. I was quite crestfallen when I realised that, because I'm so in love with these shoes now! Still, playing around is fun, so even if you don't live in the US go give it a try.

Your daily dose of pretty: Heart Throb skirt by Steady

Now that I'm slimming down a little I'm starting to look again at clothing silhouettes that I haven't worn for a while. I've always been fond of the pencil skirt - it has the whole sexy but demure thing going for it, and let's face it a woman's tushie looks amazing in a pencil skirt.

This one is currently top of my wishlist:


I love the red and white contrast piping at the waist, and the cute heart applique. The Heart Throb skirt by Steady is US$50.00 from Too Fast.

05 April 2010

Today's nail: Color Club Wild And Willing



Next to Wild At Heart (the polish), the other colour from the Wild At Heart collection I coveted was Wild And Willing, and in fact thanks to my lovely friend Ewa in London I managed to get my hands on a bottle of it even before Color Club was being stocked in New Zealand. So now I have two bottles - man, but it's a hard life.

In terms of uniqueness Wild And Willing is the stand-out of the collection. Off the top of my head (is that not the weirdest saying ever?) I can't think of another colour like it.


Wild And Willing is truly magical. While holographic in nature the pedant in me doesn't class it as a true holo because, like Wild At Heart, it doesn't show the full rainbow spectrum one expects from a holo. The glitter in this copper coloured beauty flashes gold and, most intriguingly, green. Unfortunately there was no way my camera was going to capture the green flash for you, but it is there and it is quite alien-like when you see it.

Wild and Willing has a very thin and sheer jelly base - I used three coats but upon close examination of my photos I can see some bald spots, so four might have been preferable.