(New) Old Looking Things

Bag - TK Maxx / Cardigan and Top - Vintage / Jeans - River Island (Sale!!!)

Flatforms - Topshop (Sale!!!)

Hey, hello and hi from me, currently wrapped in my duvet like one big puffy slug - now isn't that a mental image for you all to enjoy.  I spent my whole weekend washing dishes for a very unreasonable wage, and hence believed I earned myself a new pair of delicious shoes and fabulous jeans, even though I'm supposed to be saving to pay my extortionate rent for my second year of uni (but that's too sensible and boring).  And luckily (questionable) enough, I've been asked last minute to work again tomorrow, washing dishes, all day.  So I can earn more money to spend on ridiculous things that were in fashion 20 years ago...  

I got these jeans yesterday in the River Island sale, and it was love at first try.  Having searched them up online however for this post, I am slightly confused by the fact that mine have a rip in one of the knees and the pair on the website don't.  I'll just have to presume I'm lucky.  Or that my right knee cap is so razor sharp it managed to stealthily cut through the denim without me noticing...unlikely, but possible.  I've been unsure about styling this top, my biggest bargain of the outfit, which I first introduced in this post so I'm really glad I've finally found some good jeans to go with it.  And these flatforms - well I am just enamored.  Topshop's sales never fail to disappoint me, particularly in the shoe department, and I love these because they're straight out of the 90s, one of my favourite decades for fashion.  Plus, they're only £22 in the sale - you're welcome.

I'm hoping that tomorrow goes a bit better at my incredibly glamorous dish-washing job - on Sunday I had a little mishap while trying to work out how to use the pressure sprayer at a sensible angle, and managed to cover my entire face, neck and hair in mustard mayonnaise - considering my slightly irrational but utterly immobilising fear of that particular condiment, I'm sure you can all understand it was a traumatic experience.  Wish me luck!

Ruby x

Six Sun-sations/Mini Reviews

Aloha from a rather overcast South-coast England in perfect timing for this post (ha ha).  Every few months I get sent through advantage card vouchers from Boots, generally things like 'spend £25 and get 250 points' or even more tempting 'spend £35 pounds and get 350 points'.  To some, this may seem like a cunning scheme to make you spend more money, and that, my friends, is exactly right.  Unfortunately I am one of the many victims of these voucher schemes, and decided one sunny day last week that I definitely needed to pick up a few summery bits and pieces, plus there were great offers on suncream, plus I had to use my vouchers.  Obviously.

I've put together six sunny essentials with some of the things I got from Boots as well as a few other items I've picked up.

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Number one

 I'd been on the lookout for a new facial moisturiser, and having not tried La Roche Posay before I thought I'd give one of theirs a go - the Effaclar Duo [+]  (if anyone can enlighten me as to what Effaclar means, please do), and so far I love it!  It's a perfect day cream: really moisturising but also very lightweight which is great for hot sticky days when you don't want to be lathering thick layers of cream onto your face.  The consistency is almost gel-like, and the fact that it's non-comedogenic means it's great for people with spot-prone skin (I'm unfortunately the Queen of that category).  It's quite mattifying too, so also works well as a make-up base if you've got oily or combination skin. 

 

Number two

Another summer essential for me is lip balm - ever since I bought my first EOS lip balm last year it's pretty much become my religion.  Perhaps a slight over-exaggeration, but it is really rather good.  This one, 'Aloha Hawaii Strawberry' came in a limited edition three pack with two other flavours, one grapefruit and one orange, I believe.  If you haven't tried the EOS lip balms I cannot recommend them enough, they're quite inexpensive now too and last forever!

Number three

You might recognise these babies from my last post.  New Look is a shop I never tended to go into when I was younger, but in the past year or so it's really grown on me (plus there is a massive two floor New Look only 10 minutes from my house - a little too convenient to resist).  I got these round framed retro tinted sunglasses for only £5.39 with student discount; an absolute bargain.  I'm a strong believer that you can never have too many sunglasses and these are my current favourites.

Number four

I am so, so in love with this smell at the moment - philosophy's appropriately named 'falling in love'.  For me, some perfumes bring back such good memories and this is one of them.  When I was fourteen or fifteen I found a box of this in the Home Sense toiletry department, and after one whiff I was totally sold.  It's rather a sad love story, because I actually smashed that original bottle only a month into the relationship, while running for the school bus with my sister/simultaneously trying to douse myself in its beautiful scent/discovering that actually I'm really shit at such advanced multitasking and it could only end in tears.  Luckily though I got another bottle for christmas, and so 5 years later I've been reunited.  The perfume is described as a 'sparkling berry scent' with jasmine, vanilla and blackberry - a delectable summer essential. 

Number five

I've always loved dark browns and purples for nail varnish, and this gorgeous one from Rococo in Brown Button is my go-to at the moment.  I got it from Space NK when they had a summer sale last year, and although I had never tried the brand before, I trusted in the reputation of its supplier (and the 75% off was also a good persuader) and purchased a few different shades.  This is probably my favourite - the formula of the varnish is great, really thick (you only really need one coat!) and so shiny.  I won't lie, their 'chip factor' isn't fantastic, but to be honest, I'm yet to find a nail varnish that will last more than a few days without chipping.  It's probably just a factor of my incredibly exciting and action-packed lifestyle...

Number six

And last, but most definitely not least - in fact, probably the most important thing in the sun - suncream!  I love the smell of the Hawaiian tropics stuff, it's like summer in a bottle.  Plus, these are on 50% off in-store at Boots at the moment, meaning these were only £6.50 each!  I bought one dry oil spray and one satin protection lotion, both in convenient spray bottles to compare the two.  I was hoping that the dry oil would be true to its word, but I have to say it is still quite a greasy option for sun protection.  However, the lotion is great, it's very lightweight and sinks into your skin quickly.  Plus you'll smell like you've been bathing in cocoa butter - who doesn't want to smell like a nutty chocolate bar while they're sunbathing?!

So, that brings me (finally) to a close - what are your summer essentials?

Ruby x

The Easy When It's Breezy Outfit

Sunglasses - New Look / Playsuit - River Island / Denim Shirt - Vintage

Sandals - Topshop / Bag - Urban Outfitters 

Hello hello!  Unfortunately for me, today I have still been suffering from what can only be identified as the infamous two-day hangover.  I've heard that the older you get, the worse the hangovers get and so far, so true.  My boyfriend Josh's family had a housewarming party on Saturday (one of those all-day affairs - a drunken disaster waiting to happen) which meant a lot of Pimms got drank, in particular by me.  Luckily enough, by this afternoon I managed to stop feeling sorry for myself however, and actually take off my tracksuit (I prefer to call it loungewear, darling) and get out into town for a little bit.  Since deciding to embark on a blog, I have realised that I do not know any photographers, and tend to employ whichever friend or family member is most readily available when I need photos taking, which happened this time to be my mother (you'll have to forgive the incredibly underwhelming location too, the garage doors were the best background I could find from our front garden).

  Today was surprisingly windy, so I donned this floral playsuit with an oversized denim shirt to chuck on over the top.  I got these retro sunglasses from New Look the other day when I managed to forget mine and couldn't stand the squinting - I wasn't sure if they were a little too Willy Wonka-esque but I've actually fallen completely in love with them.  And at only £5.99 (or £5.39 if you're a student like me) I think they're an absolute steal.  I'm not going to lie, their UV filter factor is probably around about zero but they do turn everything a rather romantic lilac colour.  Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

Ruby x

The Glasto Blog

Hey hey!  So, you are probably all well aware that last weekend was Glastonbury festival - since I've come back it's all I've heard about on the radio or the TV (not that I'm complaining, because it means I get to soothe my festival blues by reliving some of my favourite moments).  This year was my 4th time at the festival, and every year for me has got better and better, possibly as I've got older and my alcohol tolerance has increased...even more so after this weekend!

I went to the festival with my two sisters and my parents as well as my Dad's friend Shane - we were all lucky enough to be working as part of a volunteer team for one of the backstage catering companies, the med kitchen.  The med kitchen team manage to seamlessly pull off fantastic meals for crew and artists of the John Peel stage (my personal favourites were a chicken thai green curry with noodles and prawn crackers or a mexican feast of chilli, rice, cheese, nachos, guacamole, sour cream...oh and it goes on!) while working in a tent in the middle of a field - amazing.  We worked one shift a day serving or preparing food, washing up etc. and then got a free ticket as part of the deal.  More perks for us (and probably pivotal factors for my parents) included hot showers, half-decent toilets and segregated camping, so our festival experience was undoubtedly a little more luxurious than your regular punters. 

Enough gloating from me now, here are some snaps I took.

My sister Laura and I shared this rather petite 'two man' tent (lucky we're both midgets, there's no way two men would fit in this bat cave), which my parents used while they were travelling when they were younger.  Laura's birthday was on the kick-off day of Glasto, the Friday, and this photo is from the morning of her birthday after her first (and my second) slightly fitful night of sleep.  Being a hayfever sufferer, waking up every morning after sleeping in a field seemed to cause my eyes to shrink to the size of a hamsters, but luckily I brought so much hayfever medicine with me after dosing up my eyes soon returned to normal (see below).  It's safe to say Friday night was a bit of a mental one for the both of us - I had to sift through a fair few very questionable photos to pick out the best of the bunch from Friday night.

We saw quite a few acts on Friday, some of my favourites were Jamie XX, Ben Pearce, Wilkinson and Rudimental... after all the main stages closed we headed to Block 9.  It looks like a big abandoned block of flats from the outside, with a car crashed into the middle, but inside is a huge room with even bigger bass frequencies and plenty of lasers for good measure.  Our night ended around 6am, as we stumbled back towards John Peel and our tent, coated in mud and exhausted. 

Saturday was a little more calm: we spent a bit of time in the morning feeling sorry for ourselves and drinking lots of tea, before heading out to explore the circus fields.  We saw some interesting performances including a load of people dressed up as elderly gangster women riding mobility scooters that were blasting out hardcore rap.  In the evening, after some dinner, we were feeling much better and ventured out with Shane and Dad as well as two other girls we were working with to catch a little bit of Gorgon City, Kanye and then the show at Arcadia.  Annie Mac played a great set at Arcadia too, and after that we all went down to Shangri La and Block 9 again.

And by Sunday, we were all pretty pooped!  We caught a bit of Alt-J on the Pyramid stage before packing up our stuff, and heading to the car in the sweltering heat of a gorgeous evening.  We were so lucky with the weather, really, only a couple of showers the whole weekend!  I was glad I brought my wellies in the end though, although I was horrified on Sunday morning to wake up to find mine stolen after leaving them outside my tent...  I soon found out the culprit was my own Mother, who had 'borrowed' them to trek all the way to the Healing Fields to hear the Dalai Llama speak. 

All in all though, I had another great weekend.  For anyone who hasn't been to Glastonbury, I can't recommend it enough.  There's so much there, for all ages, and even if you are not that into music, there's endless other things to enjoy like the Circus and Theatre fields, the Kidz field, the Greenfields... all I can say is, go!  You won't regret it.  Thanks for reading guys, was a bit of a hefty one today.  I'll be back soon with more,

Ruby x