Disco Dupes

So I have FINALLY finished my dissertation, after about six months and 20,000 words overall, such a relief! To celebrate we headed out for a meal of amazing Nepalese Tapas (no, I hadn't heard of it either!), then for cocktails. I can't remember the last time I went out for a spontaneous night and we ended up having such a good time!

This was the outfit I chose, loose enough to hide my food baby, but still a bit more dressed up than usual. My top was a total bargain from the H&M sale, reduced to £7, I'm really liking the stuff in there at the moment. My boots are Primark, £15 and I'm wearing a Model's Own Golden Peach nail polish.

But...my favourite part of the outfit is my new purchase...disco pants! (or disco pants dupes, I don't have a spare £60 for the real thing!) I got these from the Dance Direct website when I was stocking up on leotards and tights, they were only £12. Ok so they are just shiny lycra leggings, don't have the high waist or pocket detailing, and maybe don't 'suck you in' as much, but come on, they're so cheap! And I think they look pretty similar in this outfit!

Has anyone else found any good disco pant dupes? Leave a comment letting us know where you found them so we can all get on it!

Mini Barry M Haul

Woops! Was walking past Superdrug after a particularly pants day of writing my dissertation and decided to cheer myself up in the best way I know, buying MORE nail varnishes!
Although I don't think Barry M are the best nail varnishes in the world (I love love love Models Own, and I've just got two Essie polishes which seem really nice), I do think they have a great colour selection, get on the latest trends pretty quickly and most importantly don't break the bank!
At either £2.99 for a 'normal' polish or £3.99 for a 'gelly', you can't really complain!

Looking forward to pairing these shades with pastel spring looks, and also think they would work well with monochrome outfits, just to give them a pop of colour. I'm also really looking forward to trying the glitter topcoat, maybe over my new pale pink Essie?

Has anyone got any good nail art or colour combo ideas for my new purchases???

xx

Origins Never a Dull Moment cleanser

My new holy grail cleanser!

With a wedding next year I want my skin to look its very very best, and have noticed over the past few weeks that my face seems to be getting drier and drier (to the point where my cheeks are flaking off, not sexy!), as well as breaking out in spots!

Now I think it might have something to do with the stressiness of my last year of Uni, but I figured it was a good excuse to start a better skincare routine!

I keep hearing Origins' name mentioned on a few different blogs and decided to have a look at their website. They had some pretty good deals on, where if you spent over a certain amount you got free samples (woops!).
I know that everyone seems to have their favourite cleanser (usually Liz Earle or Emma Hardy!), but I've just not found one yet that I absolutely love, and can get excited about (yes, I want to get excited about a cleanser!).

Until now...

My naughty purchases!

I picked out the 'Never a Dull Moment' cleanser, which you can get here for £17, a little pricey, but this seems to be the norm with nice cleansers at the moment!

The first thing I noticed when using this is the smell, THE SMELL! It's really fruity, and smells just like Spring, which I find helps to wake me up a little in the mornings. I think its the Papaya extract coming through, but either way, it's yummy!

When I started to rub this in it foams into a lovely rich, creamy consistency, which I didn't really expect, but really liked. It honestly feels like you are doing your skin some good as you use it!

I've often found that I need to double cleanse to get off the last remnants of my make-up (I'm looking at you They're Real mascara!), but this melted my eye make-up away without having to pull and tough the area.

All in all I found it a lovely cleanser to use and think I'll be sticking with this for the moment! I can't say whether it has brightened my skin as yet, but I'll let you know if I notice a difference. After trying a few of their products I'm so impressed with Origins, and would fully recommend them if you suffer with sensitive skin like I do. Rather worringly I can see that I might be spending a few more pennies on their website in the future!

Do any of you have any good recommendations?

Karen xx

We'll always have Paris...

A pretty picture heavy post today, as promised all about my trip to Paris.
I had an amazing time, it's such a beautiful city and the weather was brilliant, oh and obviously we got engaged, so that was pretty good!
We saw all the usual sights, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, The Louvre, Musee D'Orsay, The Lovers Bridge, and my favourite (see if you can guess why!) Jardins des Luxembourg.
In the evening we strolled around the river, ate Chinese and Indian food and drank in cocktail bars. It was a perfect getaway!



Not sure why all my pics are so small, oops!
Hope you enjoyed having a little look at my holiday album. Has anyone else had a trip away recently?

Karen xx

Guess who's back...

So I'm back! With a new blog title and some very exciting news!
Can't believe it has been almost a year since I last posted, a few things got in the way, like third year of flippin Uni!

So we'll take things one at a time-

1. New blog title. I've recently started a new sideline, making custom and glitter nail polishes under the name Northern Sky Nails (named after my favourite ever ever song!) so figured it's easier just to have everything under the same name. Bit of a new design too, felt like a wanted something a bit more minimalist rather than bright, seeing as I'm getting older!

2. Hopefully a bit of a new direction, with more structured posts and maybe even some videos if I'm feeling brave! Have gotten a lot more comfortable with my style over the past year and am also a lot more into beauty, make-up and skincare than I once was, so you can expect lots of reviews, favourites and recommendations!

3. Guess who's engaged! That's right! I'm more surprised than you are! My ridiculously lovely boyfriend (or fiancé now, crazy!) proposed whilst we were on a holiday in Paris, and after asking him if he was joking for twenty minutes I obviously said yes!!! We are now in wedding planning mode (or we will be after I hand in my dissertation!) It still hasn't sunk in, but to wet your appetite here's a quick picky of the ring, which I LOVE!

Eek! So sparkly!

It's a Tanzanite stone, which is only mined in one mine in Tanzania, making it incredibly rare, surrounded by twelve diamonds on a white gold band. I'm always drawn to coloured stones when looking at jewellery and this is PERFECT! In different lights it looks both blue and purple, I think the boy did pretty good!

Will post a bit of Paris summary soon with some more pictures of our trip!

Karen xx

Prague...

So I'm back from Prague, my little holiday with my mum and am now back on the blogging! Took pictures most days and nights of what I wore. I don't know about you but I find holiday dressing really difficult. It's warm so I can't go with my usual chunky cosy jumpers and cardigans. I mostly just wear a sundress and sandals, but sometimes it can be difficult to feel like 'me', do you get what I mean? Anyways, here are most of my outfits, as well as some choice pics of Prague (a beautiful BEAUTIFUL city!)



I had a really lovely time and walked so so far, taking in some fantastic sights.
Saw the Castle, Charles Bridge, Museums of Modern Art, Music and Mucha (an art nouveu painter), masses of Churches, the University gardens and went on a river cruise. It's such a stunning city, even things like toilets and info points are set in gorgeous buildings. My favourite thing to do though was to order drinks and a bite to eat in one of the main squares then just sit and people watch, amazing!

On a side bloggery note, is anyone else having issues with their pictures on blogger? For some reason it will only let me write captions and resize one photo, really confused! Let me know you knowledgable people!
Also, have decided to try and set my blog up with more of a routine, so look out for weekly themed posts...exciting times!

Have you been anywhere nice this holiday?

KJ xxx

A little recipe...

I know this is usually a fashiony style blog, but one of my major passions in life is food so I want to be able to share this with you too. Thought I'd start with my favourite ever recipe, and my signature dish...tomato and pesto risotto. Trust me, it tastes oh so good!

WHAT YOU NEED

• Jar of pesto (you could make your own, but it's a lot of effort for a little bit of pesto!)
• 200g risotto rice
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 red onion
• Cheese
• Garlic puree

So what do you do?

1. Chop the onion and lightly fry with a teaspoon of garlic.
2. Next add the rice to the pan and fry for a minute or so.
3. While the rice is frying, blend the tomatoes in a food processor so that they are smooth.
4. Add the tomatoes to the rice and then STIR! You have to stir as though your life depends on it, otherwise you will get a burnt risotto and a ruined pan.
5. This stage will take around 20 minutes, stir until the rice absorbs the tomatoes, and it is al dente to eat.
6. Then add the pesto, I add around 3 tablespoons but it is up to you how pestoey(a word???) you want it.
7. Then grate the cheese and stir into the risotto.
8. Then serve and ENJOY!

I love love love this so hopefully you will too. D always makes some chicken to put on top, but I normally go with a handful of rocket, up to you!

Enjoy!

KJ xxx

Leopard and leather...

Leather Jacket-New Look OLD, Top-Topshop OLD, Scarf-Topshop OLD, Skirt-Primark OLD, Shoes-Topshop.

So my 'wear my wardrobe' challenge is still going pretty well! Found an old leather jacket that I haven't worn in yearsand went for an autumny look with a burgundy vest and snoody scarf. Can't believe I found this skirt as well. I bought it the first time I ever went shopping in Manchester with my friends at the age of 14! So an 8 year old skirt! *Do excuse my flasher pose in the 2nd pic, just wanted to show you the patterns and colours of my scarf.

Just wore this outfit to a friends' birthday drinks. Went to some bars and a pub, was nice to see some old school friends and was just a nice chilled night. Apart from the Olympics of course, winning 3 gold medals in the Athletics-amazing! And on a side note, Jess Ennis' abs-AMAZING! She always comes across so well, what an inspiration! (cheeeesy!)

So tomorrow I am off on a little trip, but will have some bits and bobs scheduled so do keep checking!

KJ xxx

The challenge...

T-shirt-Topshop £14, Skirt-Tesco OLD, Necklace and bag-Primark, Shoes-Topshop

Today has been full of running some very boring errands like doctors appointments, shopping and getting travel insurance sorted-nothing too exciting to report there!
Although I do have good news on the exam front, found out that I got a 91 honours in my recent ballet exam, which is suprising as I didn't feel it had gone that well, but I am massively pleased!
Also, the girls who I put in for tap exams did really well too, with the majority getting distinctions, so that was a lovely suprise!

So onto my new big 'challenge'! As I work at a dancing school I only earn during term times, which is a bit rubbish during school holidays. This means that over summer I MASSIVELY struggle for money, however I still get tempted by all the pretty new things in the shops and on websites. To try and save some of my pennies I have decided to try and buy as little as possible until my next pay day comes in October. I'll be showing you each day how I have tried to either restyle an old item, or beg, borrow (but not steal!) my way to any new clothes.
With this challenge in mind I headed to my Mum's for lunch yesterday, where I still keep a fair few clothes from when I was younger and picked up 3 bin bags to bring back. Some of it might be total rubbish but hopefully I can find some gems!
I actually rediscovered this little skirt from Tesco about 5 years ago. I used to wear a long top over it but I decided to try it as a high-waisted skirt and think it looks pretty good with my faithful white tee.
The necklace was a Primark sale pick up a few weeks ago, 50p! Can't argue with that!

Is anyone else trying to rewear their wardrobe???

Wish me luck!

KJ xxx

Under the sea

Denim jacket-VERY old from river island, DIY dip dye, t-shirt £3 Primark, Jeans-£25 M&S, Shoes-£14.99 Topshop

Quite a casual outfit post today as we just went to some friends to watch some of the Olympics (seriously addicted!). Saw the printed t shirt in primark the other day for a teeny tiny £3 and thought that was pretty good, I really love the colours and fishy print!

I've had this jacket for about 10 years (if not more) and it's pretty shapeless and a bit boring so I decided to indulge my love for all things dip dyed and try a DIY job. It was really easy and a pretty cheap way to make my jacket that bit more exciting.
I bought some pink dye (Dylon flamingo pink) from John Lewis, I know you can get it from Ebay but I actually found it to be quite cheap at JL so would recommend that!

1. Dissolve the dye with the correct amount of warm water.
2. Then add this to 6 litres of warm water with 5 tablespoons of salt in.
3. Add the bottom of the jacket to the water and swirl the water around to ensure that the dye is evenly spread.
4. Stir every fifteen minutes.
5. After half an hour add a little more of the jacket to the dye.
6. After another fifteen minutes take out the jacket and place into a bucket of cold water.
7. Then wash in the washing machine, without any powder or liquid.

And there you have it! A fancy pants dip dyed jacket! While I was at it I also dyed a pair of shorts and tie-dyed a white vest and they all look pretty good!

On another note, do you like my skull nails? I got these nail stickers from an internet shop and absolutely love them! Will post soon on some of the other designs! *Nail varnishes used are Model's Own Lilac Dream and Jade Stone.

Back to watching the Olympics!

KJ xxx