Wishlist: Party Season

1.Embellished Sleeve Dress 2.Black Embellished Neck Maxi Dress 3.Crow Skull Necklace 4.Glitter Platform Court 5.Snake Ring 6.Snake Panel Clutch 7.Plum Lattice Bodice Dress 8.Cream Eyelash Lace Top 9.Grey Beaded Mini Skirt 10.MAC Russian Red Lipstick

So it seems Christmas party season is almost upon us again. I use this mainly as an excuse to buy things covered in glitter and sequins, and the shops are doing well to cater to this at the moment. I am loving all the embellished dresses and glittery shoes that are adorning the high street just now.

I really neeeeed this River Island maxi dress in my life. I'm going to my favourite university society's (history soc represent) winter ball at the end of November, so I feel that's the perfect excuse to purchase said dress. I was going to buy it last week but they were completely sold out online, so I ended up ordering a different maxi dress from ebay. Now that this one is back in stock I'm so tempted to order it too. The only problem is that it's backless - there is no way in hell I could go out in public without a bra, would need to come up with some devious solution to keep everything in place!

As always, I am loving animal themed jewellery. Definitely tempted to ask for the Bad Passion bird skull necklace for a birthday present (massive hint to any of my friends who might be reading this!). I'll be 21 next Monday - so old. :(

What are you lusting after in the shops at the moment? Do you like the glitzy side of winter fashion or do you prefer cosy jumpers and wooly tights?

Gillian x

Outfit: Serpentine

Dress: H&M
Shoes: New Look
Necklace: H&M
Earrings: Topshop

Yet another going out outfit, clearly I go out too much! I was at another friend's 21st so I felt that was a good enough reason to buy myself a new dress. I love animal print, although I usually stick to leopard print. This snakeskin print is lovely, a little bit classier than leopard maybe, but still a bit more fun than plain black. This dress is ridiculously short though, definitely verging on a tunic! I think it would look great with leggings and boots for daytime as well so I'm sure I'll get plenty of wear out of it.

Sticking with the snakey theme, I wore these Topshop earrings too. I can't get enough of animal themed jewellery! I'm currently on the lookout for some bat jewellery, but all I've found so far are plastic things clearly meant for children's Halloween costumes!

If you're a regular reader of the blog, I'm sure you will recognise these shoes. They are comfy and go with everything, perf! It does mean I tend to neglect my other shoes, however. I have so many nice pairs of shoes but I always end up choosing something black. It's just the best colour, I can't help it!

Do you like animal themed clothes and jewellery?

Gillian x

Outfit: This Friday Night

Dress: Closet via Dorothy Perkins
Shoes: Schuh
Belt: New Look
Ring: ASOS
I wear so much black all the time. It's a really bad habit but at the same time, black is the best colour so I don't really care! I wore this outfit last night to go out for my friend's 21st birthday. Had a great night but I'm suffering today, this post is being written in my bed, accompanied by a bacon sandwich and a big glass of Irn Bru!

I originally bought this dress in pink and I loved it so much that I went back and got the black version too. Skater style dresses are my favourite, they're so versatile and easy to wear, and they're really flattering. This one has pockets too, which is always a bonus. I would quite happily buy one of these dresses in every colour, if that wasn't such a weird thing to do!

I wore my ridiculous sparkly shoes out for the first time and they were surprisingly comfy. And when I say comfy what I mean is my feet are still in one piece and I didn't fall over - so they were much better than I expected! Lots of different people complimented me on my shoes (including the bouncer! Aye those are quality, hen) so that made me smile.

Wolves are one of my favourite animals so when I saw this wolf's head ring in the ASOS sale a couple of years ago I snapped it straight up. It looks a little bit like a bear, however, but I still like it! I don't really wear it that much because it's really big and a bit of a statement piece but as my outfit was really plain I thought it worked quite well.

I'm off out again tonight so I think lots of BBC iplayer and an afternoon nap is in order to make me feel human again!

Gillian x

Review: Garnier BB Cream

I had heard of BB creams a couple of years ago but didn't really have a clue what they were and so promptly forgot all about them. When I saw Garnier had released their Miracle Skin Perfector All-in-One BB Cream I suddenly became interested again and couldn't wait to try this out. Sometimes I feel like I wear way too much makeup in the daytime but I would never go out without any makeup on at all, so I was looking for something with light coverage that would make my skin look good. I've tried out one or two tinted moisturisers and wasn't hugely impressed so I was hoping this BB cream would be exactly what I was looking for.

I have no experience of 'real' BB creams to compare this too, but I really like it. It does seem pretty similar to a tinted moisturiser to me, but it has a different consitency and gives better coverage without looking heavy like a foundation would. It's also less moisturising than I thought it would be, I tend to still use a bit of my normal moisturiser before applying this.


1. Before: no makeup. 2. After: Garnier BB cream + under-eye concealer, blusher and finishing powder.

My skin is in pretty good condition but my skin tone is quite uneven (see photo above - rosy cheeks, redness around nose, lots of freckles!) and the BB cream definitely helped to even this out. I don't know if I would go so far as to say it blurred out imperfections, but it certainly gives enough coverage that I didn't need to use concealer anywhere apart from under my eyes. I like the fact that some of my freckles still shine through as it's not too heavy, sometimes with foundation (see below) I feel it covers everything up a bit too well.


1. Garnier BB cream + under-eye concealer only. 2. Normal foundation, concealer, blusher and finishing powder routine.

The BB cream is designed to be an 'all-in-one' so you can just put it on and go, but I don't like the finish of it by itself. It's way too shiny for me, some people really like the look of dewy skin but I prefer to be nice and matte! I also wouldn't wear this on its own as I find it's just a bit too dark for me - a bit of light finishing powder on top solves this problem. It's currently only available in two shades (I'm using Light, and it's also available in Medium) but hopefully some more shades might be introduced.

Overall, I would recommend the Garnier BB cream but I don't think it's completely amazing. I would be interested to try some other kinds of BB creams to see how they compare. I can see myself getting a lot of use out of this for daytime wear but if I'm going on a night out I would definitely stick to foundation.

Have you tried the Garnier BB cream yet? What did you think of it?

Gillian x