Your daily dose of pretty: ASOS Bird Print Chain Clutch

It would appear I am still obsessed with bird prints, if my love for this purse is anything to go by:

I love the colour, and the kissing birds print. I also love the fact that it's currently on sale on ASOS for £12.50. Although as always that's not an excuse for me to buy it...

Your daily dose of pretty: Babycham Sherbet Polka Dot Cork Wedges from ASOS

I don't know why I do it, but every year when New Zealand summer is drawing to a close and autumn and winter styles are appearing in the shops I torture myself by looking at the summer shoes coming into UK stores.

So, the fact that we've been having an Indian Summer here the last week or so is a good excuse for buying these, right? Because look at that cute bow, and that pop of blue. Too cute!

The Babycham Sherbet Polka Dot Wedges are £49.99 from ASOS.

Your daily dose of pretty: Miss KG Minnie Bow Front Platform shoes from asos

According to the latest email from asos "The brightly coloured stiletto heel is back". I wasn't aware it had ever gone away. I mean why would you want something this gorgeous to go away?

That bow! They had me at red platform stiletto anyway, that bow is just the very pretty icing on a very very pretty cake!

The Minnie Bow Front Platform Court by Miss KG is £80.00 from asos.

Your daily dose of pretty: ASOS PREMIUM Pleat Shoulder Dress With Full Skirt

I'm couch-bound and slowly disappearing behind a mountain of wadded up tissues today my pretties, because I have a cold. If I had the energy to do anything other than reach pitifully for another tissue I'd be roundly cursing the universe for giving me this cold so soon after the last one. Obviously someone somewhere thinks I enjoy sneezing and sniffing and coughing. Great. Thanks.

Anyway, luckily for you the pretties don't have to stop because the always gorgeous and delightful Amber over at Fashion Police has posted a dress which I am utterly in love with, and I'm sure she won't mind me sharing it with you. The link that is, not the actual dress because that would cost an awful lot in postage.

The colour above is called Deep Peacock, which is gorgeous. I am also in love with the version in black - so much so that I would dearly love to buy both:

I just love the slash neckline and fitted waist. I find myself wondering if I could get away with buying both and claiming some sort of fever-related amnesia.

The ASOS PREMIUM Pleat Shoulder Dress With Full Skirt is £50.00.

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.

LBD Barbie: I can has?

Let's face it - I'm just a big kid really, aren't I? So it's no surprise that the Barbie Little Black Dress collection has me all aquiver. Available in a variety of hair styles, hair colours, skin colours and of course LBD's, these Barbies are a great excuse to play with dolls:

Six of the Barbie Little Black Dress range are currently available on ASOS, and Barbie Little Black Dress Two is my favourite, because she totally looks like me:

Totally looks like me. If I was a plastic doll. And considerably slimmer. With longer legs. (And possibly Asian?) Oh ok, the only thing we have in common is the haircut!

There are also four accessory packs available for hours of Barbie dress up fun. Go check out the Barbie Lounge on ASOS and indulge your inner child!

Post-Christmas hauls

Christmas has lasted a while here. At least that's what I tell myself every time I spend more money on polishes - it's just another Christmas present to myself because I'm generous like that!  Anyway, here are a few pictures for you of polishes and other stuff I've given myself recently:

First up, from todays mail, some polishes from Tsuya Tsuya. I can't remember whose blog I discovered this brand on (if it was you drop me a note so I can give credit where it's due). I ordered Green from the Candy Shop Collection and Purple Dot from the Incandescent Collection.

One small gripe: the website only shows one photo of what I assume is the Candy Shop collection, and there is a drop down menu allowing you to choose between the three collections (the third is Classic French), and then choose how many polishes from the collection you want. Tsuya Tsuya then email with the colours available in each collection for you to choose from, but it would be really nice to see each colour listed separately on the website, currently it's a bit of a lucky dip choosing by colour name only.  Luckily I love the two colours I bought, plus they came packaged in a plastic pouch with a nail file (decorated with lemons) a buffer block and a 'magic' nail buffer, along with a cute little drawstring carry bag as modelled by a sleepy Fred!:

 
The photo doesn't do justice to the gorgeous glitteriness of Purple Dot - a purple jelly base packed to bursting with pink glitter. Aside from my minor gripe about the website design I was impressed with the communication and customer service of this Singapore-based company, and of course the free gifts!  Tsuya Tsuya nail polishes are S$12.90 each.

Next up some Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab nail polishes from Black Phoenix Trading Post.  I was on the site ordering a couple of their awesome tshirts as Christmas presents for The Eccentric English Boyfriend (this one and this one), but I couldn't possibly do that without putting some of their gorgeous nail polishes in my basket now could I?

Robotic Scarab, Destroying Angel and Smokestack. Great names, great colours - can't wait to see these babies on. US$9.00 each.

Some Mode cheapies found in a drugstore bargain bin, a new brand to me:

Blue Steel, Party Girl (much greener than the photo suggests), Style Magnet and Midsummer Dream.

Some Constance Carroll polishes - they seem to be updating their packaging and the colour range available in New Zealand has improved from the reds and pinks I previously knew them for:

Diamond, Midnight Rouge, Midnight Blue and Viva Las Venus.

The Range of Color Club polishes available in New Zealand is also increasing much to my joy - although it's still nowhere near their full range. I nabbed this navy blue beauty at the drugstore the other day:

Naughtycal Navy. At what point do you think I should admit I have too many navy polishes? No, no, you're right - I could never have too many navys.

Remember when I said I'd ordered two pairs of shoes in the New Look sale (in direct contravention of my no-buy, but totally justified because they were on sale and cute, so there!) - well turns out it was actually three pairs, but one pair was a cute pair of trainers for 14 Year Old Daughter so they don't count.  Here are the other two, apologies for the tiny grainy photos taken on my netbook's webcam in bed - just because I can laze in bed with my netbook and take photos with the webcam!

Purple cuties! Less blue and more gorgeous vibrant purple in real life than in the photo.

More cuties! I'm not sure about the placement of the strap though, I may end up cutting it off.

And of course I threw a couple of cheap polishes in with my order:

Star Gazer 128 and 131.

Finally check out these cute little spider earrings I picked up for NZ$5.00 in the Diva sale:

Adorable!

Today's nail: ASOS Paint by Ciate in Alexa

I finally received my Eyeko ASOS Exclusive Vintage polish.  I ordered it from ASOS and then Eyeko did a promotion where they were giving it away with other orders on their site which was just typically bad timing on my part! Of course there was no way I was going to order just one polish now was there? I mean this is me we're talking about here, who'd ever expect me to be that restrained - I may have included a couple of others in the order. ASOS won't ship nail polish outside of the UK so I had it sent to The Eccentric English Boyfriend's mother and she included it with our Christmas parcel:

At back is an ASOS Paint by Ciate gift set in Sienna and Alexa, and at front is Eyeko Vintage Polish, Nails Inc Portland Place and Nails Inc Duke Street.

And here is ASOS Paint by Ciate Alexa:

Love it! A gorgeous dark navy blue that could almost be a one-coater - I used two though. Really lovely formula that I think I would describe as jelly - it's so dark and pigmented that it's hard to tell. And that colour - well I love navy blues and this one is stunning. Similar to but not quite as dark as Eyeko Vamp Polish, it retains its blue hue in all but the lowest of lights rather than appearing black as some very dark blues can do. This colour has knocked Eyeko Vamp down a couple of notches in my favourites list because of its ease of application and also its gorgeous glossy finish.

This little kitty needs to go to the dentist

See the look on this cat's face?



That kitty obviously has wisdom teeth problems, because that's the exact same look I have on my face right now.

Yep, after 20-odd years of pretending they don't exist my wisdom teeth have finally gotten the better of me, and I'm dragging myself to the dentist tomorrow. I haven't been to the dentist since I was 16, so this is a BIG deal. Also, ouchies - which explains the paucity of posts over the last couple of days.

However, the tshirt is cute, and distracts me momentarily. £16.00 from ASOS.

More Eyeko polishes

Eyeko have completed their new collection of five polishes with the release of two new shades - Nude and Purple:

Of course I've already received my set of the first three polishes (Cosmic, Indigo and Lilac) so now I'm going to have to place another order for these two! For today only Eyeko are selling the full set of five polishes for £10.00, which works out to £2.00 per bottle. The bottles are normally £3.00 so that's a nice wee saving.

You may recall me saying that Eyeko would be releasing six new polishes in 2009. Well I wasn't wrong, but the sixth polish (called Vintage) is an ASOS exclusive:


So what do you think of these latest Eyeko polishes my pretties? I'm not sold on Nude, but Purple and Vintage look pretty good, and in the interests of having the complete set I'll probably buy Nude anyway!

The Eyeko special is here, or you can buy the polishes separately here. The ASOS exclusive polish is available here.

SQUEE! And then more squee

I am one very bouncy blogger this morning, as I won a competition. The wonderful Mary over at Body and Soul (go show her some love) ran a giveaway of the new Essie Sweet Time of the Year Collection:



Can you even begin to imagine how excited I am about getting my paws on Mint Candy Apple?

So I've been bouncing around the house this morning attempting to share my excitement with all. The Eccentric English Boyfriend was decidedly underwhelmed. The conversation went like this:

EEB (sarcastically): Yes, very nice dear.
Me: But it's three less polishes that I have to buy.
EEB: Given the breadth of polishes available out there I rather doubt that. You'll just find other polishes you want to buy. In fact I rather suspect this will just feed your addiction.
Me: But I love nail polishes! And I told you I wouldn't buy any more shoes for a while, and I haven't, have I?
EEB: That's because you haven't left the house!
Me: But that wouldn't stop me because I can buy them online ... WAIT! Does that mean that as long as I don't leave the house I can buy shoes?

At this stage EEB went a very funny colour. Bless.

Anyway just when I thought my day couldn't get any more exciting, Mr Courier Man dropped three parcels off. Ok one of them was for EEB - software or something. But the other two were for me.

First up from Mika J, a nail art instruction book, and a pack of 12 nail art pens:



Look at the Fred whiskers at the bottom!

See:



He was checking to make sure I hadn't bought any shoes.

Here's the other six colours in the nail art set:



Then a box from asos. Because they were having a sale AND they sent me a £10.00 off voucher for my birthday. So, you know, it would have been rude not to buy something!

So I got the cute tshirt that I blogged about:



They didn't have it in my size, so I bought one for 14 Year Old Daughter.

Then some Too Faced Shadow Insurance, which I've been reading rave reviews about:



I'm interested to see how this goes, because a lot of primers and eye creams make my eyes water. Not a good look.

Then this gorgeous dress, which I had to put on straight away:



It's purple! And it disguises the wobbly bits! Also - LAWKS my mirror needs a clean.

And finally these little cuties by Rocket Dog:



Aren't they adorable ... oh ... yeah ... they're shoes. But no, it's totally ok because I'm pretty sure I ordered them before the no-shoe-buy promise. Pretty sure. And anyway, sale AND £10.00 off birthday voucher. Totally justified. Totally.

Your daily dose of pretty: in which I try, really I do

*sigh* ... asos are having a sale. I try to be restrained, my pretties. Really, I do. I search high and low to bring you the prettiest of the pretty, and I fall in love with so many things. But, and this is the important bit: I. Don't. Buy. Them. Mostly.

And then asos have a sale.

*sigh*

I mean, just look at these (£52.00):



I know, I know, they have cork soles. But look at them, for the love of all that is pretty, look at them!

Or what about these elegant beauties (£54.00):



Also, purple! (£20.00):



And that's just the shoe department.

What about this (£18.00):



Or this cutie £24.50):



And oooh, what about this (£22.00):



And also, KAPOW! (£8.00):



14 Year Old Daughter is in love with this (£10.00):



So. Much. Pretty. Why? Why must this be? When will the reasonably priced prettiness end*?

* No, seriously, when will it end? It doesn't say on the website!

Your daily dose of pretty: the cutest packaging and the longest product name

I'd never heard of the makeup by B Never Too Busy to be Beautiful until Hey Dollface blogged about their lip barrier. It turns out their unbelievably long brand name is isn't the only thing that makes them stand out - they also have some utterly adorable packaging.

Take this lip gloss for example:



Or this face powder:



And I love how this refillable eyeshadow has a 'B' embossed on it:



Available on asos, prices from £4.40 to £18.60.

Your daily dose of pretty: in which I relive my childhood

When I was a little girl I loved Barbie. I mean LOVED. I had several Barbies, and a bike, and a horse (which I constructed a stable for) and, best of all, the Barbie Townhouse which had a lift and a working light. All these years later I still love the girliness of Barbie and all her pretty outfits. When 13 Year Old Daughter was little I got great joy out of buying her Barbies, and I was very sad when she grew out of them and we gave all her Barbie stuff away.

Which brings me to today's pretty:



That's the Pauls Boutique Loves Barbie Customised Patent Twister Bag from asos. Yes it's a wee bit silly, but compared to some of the other bags on offer in the range it's positively restrained and I do like the pink Barbie head silhouette. £80.00 from asos.

Your daily dose of pretty: Faith Lecloudy Cross Strap Sandal

Awww man I love this shoe. I love the criss-cross detail of the straps, the platform, the stiletto heel, but most of all I love the colour which on my screen looks royal blue but which the site assures me is purple. Either way I don't care, awesome colour, awesome shoe - WANT!


£70.00 from asos.

Shoes, shoes and purple tutus

What did we do, my pretties, in the days before teh interwebs? How did we shop? Obviously we went to the local shops, but before teh interwebs someone like me in little old New Zealand could never have bought ridiculously cheap stuff in the asos sale without getting on a plane and flying there. I love teh interwebs!

A big box arrived today, and between me squealing and the dogs barking the courier man looked quite concerned.

Here's the box:



Umm, yeah, that would be Fred in the box. He didn't come with the box, obviously. He quite liked the poofy plastic things, until I stood on one and it went POP!

Here's the first pair of shoes, modelled by 13 year old daughter (her feet are slightly smaller than mine, but does that stop her from 'borrowing' my shoes, noooooooooo!):



Here's the second pair of shoes (pink!):



And a doggy bum!

The shoes were something like £7.00 each - wow!

And here's what I bought for 13 Year Old Daughter:



Damn camera-hogging dogs.

There was squealing when she saw the tutu. It was only £5.00, so I bought one for her BFF as well, which means there'll be more squealing when she comes over this afternoon.

Did I mention how much I love teh interwebs?