Wishlist: Dash for the Sun

1.Pink Asymmetric Fastening Dress 2.Neutral Tuck Front Shirt 3.Battered Torque Necklace 4.Textured Stripe T-shirt Dress 5.Embroidered Skater Dress 6.Pink Framed Kisslock Purse 7.50s Style Sunglasses 8.Yellow Guipure Lace Shell 9.Denim Spotty Skater Skirt

A few weeks ago I snapped up a bargain old season Warehouse dress on Ebay and it's been pretty much the only think I've wanted to wear since, it's really reminded me how much I love Warehouse. Now that it's getting a bit warmer (well, sort of) I've been feeling really uninspired by most of my wardrobe and browsing the Warehouse website has given me the shopping bug. Warehouse have just launched a new campaign called Dash for the Sun which is all about getting rid of your boring winter coats and scarves and swapping them for shorts and floaty dresses. Whilst my changeover might not be as dramatic (or fun) as the girl in the video, I'm still hoping to pick up a few of these things from my wishlist. On Saturday 25th May Warehouse are giving away special Dash for the Sun kits including label.m and Dermalogica products and other goodies with purchases over £50 (at selected stores, have a look at the list here) to help you get ready for summer. I also noticed on the Warehouse Facebook page yesterday that you can get 20% off online purchases with the code DASH20, so there's no excuse not to do a bit of shopping this weekend!

I can't decide which of these dresses I like best - the pink one is such a gorgeous colour, the navy one looks like it would be perfect for holidays and the stripey dress is exactly the kind of dress I love for warm, sunny days. I already have a couple of stripey skater dresses but I quite fancy another one! I think it would look really nice with the pink wayfarer style sunglasses and a pair of wedge sandals. If only the weather was nice enough for an outfit like that!

You can't beat a good skater skirt in the summer, and this spotty denim one would be perfect for casual outfits. I tend to wear a lot of dresses rather than tops and bottoms, but I'm loving both of these Warehouse tops. The draped shirt looks like it would be lovely dressed up with heels and the statement torque necklace for a nice going-out outfit, and the bright lacey yellow one is completely different to my usual (all-black) style, but it's a beaut!

What's on your summer wishlist?

Gillian x

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Review: Bourjois Rouge Edition Lipstick in Rose Millesime

Bourjois Rouge Edition Lipstick in #17 Rose Millesime // £7.99

A couple of weeks ago I went to Boots to buy some shower gel and in a moment of weakness I accidentally spent a small fortune on beauty products and forgot to buy any shower gel at all. Oops. I had seen these Bourjois Rouge Edition lipsticks doing the round on blogs over the last couple of months and thought they looked nice enough, but not something I was desperate to go out and buy. But I was buying something else from the Bourjois stand and they had an offer on (always getting sucked in by those dastardly special offers!) so I had to spend a few extra pounds to get a free gift, and decided to get one of the lipsticks. It didn't take me long to settle on shade number 17, Rose Millesime, as it was the colour that immediately jumped out at me. It's such a "me" kind of colour; pink with a hint of coral, nice and bright without being unwearable. I thought it was a solid colour when I first bought it, but after getting home and trying it out I discovered it actually has a very slight golden shimmer. This doesn't really translate on the lips though, rather than looking glittery it just gives them a subtle shine.

The lipstick is pretty pigmented and gives a fair whack of colour, but it doesn't feel at all heavy and can easily be applied straight from the bullet without the need for lip liner or brushes. The formula feels really light on the lips and you could quite easily forget you were wearing anything. It seems almost like the Revlon Lip Butters more lipsticky big sister - it's definitely not a lip balm, but it feels really moisturising and takes absolutely no effort to apply. If you have particularly dry lips you might want to do a wee bit of exfoliation first, but for most people you could just slap this on and go, without worrying about it settling into any little cracks.

The Rouge Edition lipsticks are £7.99 (although there's usually some kind of special offer going on in Boots or Superdrug), which I think is a fair price for the product you get. It's a lot better than a lot of drugstore lipsticks I've tried, but it's not quite up there with the high end products. One thing that lets it down is the fact that it has that tell-tale cheap lipsticky smell which you can taste a little bit on your lips afterwards. Usually I love the artificial fruity or florally scents Bourjois products have (I've never tried a lipstick before though, so not sure what their other ones are like), but this was a slight let down for me. It's not horrible though, and not hugely off-putting, so the plus points definitely outweigh the negatives.

As for staying power, I'd say it's fairly average for a shiny, moisturising lipstick. You'll get a good 2 or 3 hours out of it, so will definitely have to reapply a couple of times throughout the day. I wouldn't really expect it to last much longer than that though, so I'm quite happy - and it's really easy to apply too so doing it on the go isn't a problem. If you're less lazy than me and did bother to use a lip liner it probably would last a little bit longer.

Overall, I really like this lipstick. The colour is such a beaut and I've reached for it most days - and nights - since I got it. It manages to be subtle enough for wearing through the day, but also bright enough for a night out. The formula is really nice and easy to use, so I think I'd definitely buy a couple more of these if any other the other colours catch my eye next time I'm shopping.

Have you tried any of the Rouge Edition lipsticks?

Gillian x

Sunday Summary #73

1.Strawberry macarons 2.Hi hi hi 3.PizzaExpress wine and pizza tasting 4.Homemade carbonara and a cheeky wee glass of vino 5.Pink Lady apple juice, so good! 6.Eurovision dressing up 7.Denmark and France are now best pals, hiyaaaa

Evening everyone, how has your day been? This post is being written a bit later than usual as I've just got home from Glasgow. As I'm sure most of you will know, it was Eurovision last night so I headed through for Morag's party. We all had to dress up as a different country, so I chose France as a) the costume was easy to put together and b) think of all the food and drink options! I went a bit overboard (as I always do with themed parties, somebody stop me) and made lots of food to take along with me, including mini quiches, homemade French onion dip, baked Camembert and macarons. I'd never made macarons before so I was a bit worried they'd be a disaster, but I think they turned out okay - although, they're not the prettiest macarons in the world, look at all those cracks! I think they're one of those things you really need to master the art of before they start to look like "proper" macarons, but these strawberry ones with vanilla buttercream filling tasted pretty good and that's the main thing! I also took some "Champagne" with me (cough Prosecco cough) and made some French martinis, then we went out after Eurovision had finished so I'm feeling a bit worse for wear today. Nothing worse than getting on a train with a hangover, with the possible exception of getting on a bus with a hangover.

It seems like absolutely ages ago now, but it was just this time last week that I was at the PizzaExpress event which I blogged about a few days ago. I could really be doing with one of those pizzas right now! Trying to persuade myself out of ordering a takeaway, but I am feeling so weeeaaaak today, I'll probably give in. Nothing useful is going to get done tonight so I think all I'll be doing is watching a film whilst clutching my Irn Bru. For once I'm actually caught up with all my usual TV serieses (definitely not a real word) so will have to have a browse on Netflix for a film instead - any recommendations? Speaking of TV, The Office finale OMG SO SAD. I literally cried for over half the episode haha, ~so emotional~ but it was the perfect ending to the show, it will definitely be missed! I also watched the season finale of The Vampire Diaries, a little bit overdramatic as usual but I do love a good teen drama. The Mindy Project finished recently too, waaaah I'm going to run out of things to watch soon and am actually going to have to do something useful instead.

The one day of sunshine this week gave me hope that summer was finally here, but the last couple of days have definitely proved that theory wrong - so. much. rain. I hate this humid, warm weather as it's impossible to dress for; I wish it was either cold and rainy so I could wear proper jackets and scarves, or warm and sunny so I could wear blazers and ballet pumps. Sort it out please, Mama Nature.

As you can probably tell from my TV and weather chat, this week has been fairly uneventful! What have you been up to?

Gillian x