Neko Case, Clear Skin Moisturiser, Pleated Skirts and Keira Knightley

It feels like forever since I've done a full blog post, I'm sorry it's been so long, I've been on holiday in Paris- which was wonderful! And I've been working loads of extra hours but anyway here it is...

Record that Rocks

I fell in love with The Killing on Channel 4 from the first episode, and along with sirens and 24 hours in A and E, for me it's a TV must see. It was at the end of the latest episode that I discovered this beaut of a track. It's called 'Hold on, hold on' by Neko Case.


Neko was born in Virginia and grew up in Tacoma, Washington. She has also worked as part of the band the New Pornographers. I adore her tender, poetic lyrics in this song and I hope you enjoy it!

I'd love to know what you thought of this song! 

Eye of the Beholder

Like many people my age I am troubled by the occasional breakout of spots, my most recent discovery to attempt to prevent this is spot reducing moisturiser. It seems like a great idea since I moisturise everyday it requires no extra effort or time so I bought two of these products and have been using them for the past few weeks. They are Simple's Clear Skin oil balancing moisturiser and Garnier's Pure Active mosturiser. 

I am impressed with both of them and I have found they are both better moisturisers than the Johnsons daily essentials I was using before. 

(I apologise for the quality of the pictures in this post, we are decorating and all the lights are unscrewed so trying to get decent lighting for pictures was a bit of a challenge. Also this one makes it look like the Simple bottle is much bigger than the Garnier one, they are actually about the same size.) 

I have found them both effective in reducing spots, I thought the Garnier one was slightly more effective at reducing spots but it does say that it can increase sensitivity to the sun, I am concerned about sun damage and so I only use this one in the evening and I use the Simple one during the day under my foundation which has SPF 6. 

I bought the Simple product in Boots for around £4 and the Garnier one was from Boyes for around £3. I liked them both but I think the Garnier one was my favourite as it was cheaper and effective but I wouldn't use it as a day mosituriser. 

Glad Rags


I love the pleated midi skirt trend for this summer into autumn. I think is this picture of Keira Knightley sums up how wearable this trend is, she's put together a a few simple pieces to create a wonderfully effortless outfit, that is easy to copy...

I spent weeks looking for a pleated skirt to copy Keira's look and I tried on loads before I fell for this Primark dress, it was £17 and think it looks great with my leather jacket and a brown waist belt. I also got a turquoise and silver ring for £2.50 that I think compliments the pastel pink of the dress well. 

(Again apologies for the quality of the picture the dress is actually a pastel pink with white polka dots with a pleated skirt.) 


Anyway that was my Keira Knightley inspired look, all I need now is the hot man on my arm! 

Thanks for reading, 

it means a lot that you took the time!

Hope you like my Sunday Smiles posts too! 

xox

This is my fifth post (yay!- thanks to all my lovely readers and followers ♥) and as five is my lucky number I thought this post should be a little different. I know 'what's in my bag' posts are hardly a new idea but I am exceptionally nosy so I love reading them and as I am quite a new blogger I think it's a good way for people to get to know me a bit better. So this is my spin on the 'what's in my bag' post. 

Record that Rocks

I love Radio One so when I'm around the house or out in the car that's usually what I listen to, Fearne Cotton, Greg James and Zane Lowe are my particular favourites. The rest of the time I rely on my iPod, its a 32GB touch third generation that I bought on ebay after saving up for what felt like forever! It is one if my most prized possessions, when I first got it I carried it round in the inflated plastic pocket, that it was delivered, in for ages because I was so scared of breaking it! I keep it now in a rather dull blue and black case. 

 The first song to come up on a random shuffle is 'Since you're gone' by the Pretty Reckless
The top five most played songs are: 
'Sex' by Big Sleep, 'Because the Night' by Patti Smith, 'A thing called love' by Johnny Cash,'Black Horse and the Cherry Tree' by KT Tunstall and 'Mr Brightside' by the Killers.
The most recently added song is 'Bear Hug' by the 2 Bears!
The highest rated song is 'I bet you look good on the Dancefloor' by the Arctic Monkeys. Enjoy! 

In The Eye of the Beholder

My everyday make up bag is a silver Ruby and Millie bag, it contains a Jemma Kidd foundation, Number 17 concealer, Calvin Klein lipgloss, Calvin Klein lipstick, Bourjois powder, Ruby and Millie eyeshadow pen, Maybelline Mascara, Garnier eye roll on and some gorgeously smelly soap and glory moisturiser. These are the products I couldn't live without:

I also have a much larger Primark Strawberry print make up bag  that contains everything else! I love the print on this bag, especially since I can't get enough of strawberries at the moment.

My nail polish collection is kept in a Jemma Kidd pink bag. I have an actual addiction to nail polish I just can't stop myself from buying more!

Glad Rags

I was unsure how to tackle this part of this post so I decided to go for an outfit of the day


One of my best friends broke up with her long term boyfriend this week so we are all trying to distract her from this as much as possible so later today we are meeting up for shopping and cocktails. So this is the semi casual outfit I'm wearing for that:

White lace dresses were a huge trend this spring/ summer particularly on catwalks such as Dolce and Gabbana and this is my take on this trend. I love the length on this dress it's just short enough to compliment the high neckline but it's long enough to protect my modesty. It's from Primark, it was around £10.

Im wearing my trusty M&S silver pumps and a vintage scarf from Blue Rinse in Leeds. I think the tropical floral pattern on the scarf is gorgeous.

Tacky or Topnotch

Since the rest of my post has been unusual I thought instead of the normal straw poll on whether something music, fashion or beauty related (or totally random) is utterly tacky or so bad it's good, I thought instead I'd show you the book I plan my posts in:

This is the page for this post:



Hope you liked my take on this type of post, I'd love to know what you thought.

Thanks for reading

Love you ♥