Minggu, 23 Agustus 2015

Summer Trends You Can Wear In Autumn






At the intersection between seventies style and seventies fancy dress, you'll find me hop, skipping and twirling around in this retro inspired get up. Bell sleeves- check, (faux) suede - check, tan mules - check. And who can ignore the palette of saturated red, sepia tones and rich rust? Yes, it might blur the line between a trend and playing dress up, but when costume looks this good who really cares?







With summer slowly ebbing away - despite the fact we had that little heatwave yesterday here in the UK - it's time to make the most of bold colours before returning to muted palettes of smoke, charcoal and carbon. But thanks to boho trends filtering into the new season, these separates can easily be interchanged with other pieces when the temperature drops. Roll-necks and A-line mini skirts are a classic combination, and this floral blouse begs to be thrown on under a pumpkin coloured coat. Just add skinny jeans, cropped kick flares, or if you're really into the retro revival, floor sweeping flares.







Top - Zara | Skirt - Zara | Bag - H&M | Topshop Huey Mules





Minggu, 16 Agustus 2015

3 Easy Boho Braids with Mark Hill Hair #MakeYourMark




If you've been following my blog for some time now, then you'll be fully aware about my obsession over my hair. It's always been my thing. So naturally, the hair flick emoji is always my most used. Name a hair phase, I've done it (apart from the pixie cut- never ever the pixie cut) The Avril Lavigne skater phase (so long and greasy, basically), transcending into a little indie-cindy (violently swooshing fringe and messed up layers), then finally finding my place between loose waves and soft curls. Although I feel like I'm in my own personal hair nirvana, there's been an abundance of gorgeous plaits and twists doing the round on instagram I've been dying to try out. So when when Mark Hill and the wonderful people over at Label PR sent over some soon-to-be released products for me to try out, I thought why not have a little fun now? So I decided to challenge myself to do 3 easy boho braided hairstyles. 
I started by using Mark Hill's XL Volume Amplifying Shampoo. You can't have beautiful bouncy boho hair if it's flat! Then I applied the Styling Primer on towel dried hair. Super soft just-washed hair isn't ideal for braiding, but this product allows you to keep maximum control. Once the hair was dry I curled my hair using the Babyliss Soft Waves wand to achieve loose boho waves- you can watch my tutorial for this over on my YouTube channel! Finishing it off with a good spray of the Freeze Hold HairsprayThen, the braiding fun began! Believe me, these were actually easier than they look!

Two-Strand Twisted Crown
















Probably the most challenging of the three boho braids, I actually followed a YouTube tutorial by Luxy Hair for this one. But it's pretty easy. You simply take two strands of your hair at the side of your head (I decided to leave some hair to frame my face), pull the strand closest to your face over the other one and drop it, then pick up another strand, pull it up and over, and then continue to the back of your head. I pinned one side at the back, then repeated the other and pinned them together for a gorgeous two-strand rope twist. 

The Back Plait
















Who came up with the name back plait? Seriously, how un-romantic and un-sexy. Okay yes, it was me that came up with that name. I made this style up myself just by playing around a bit and then had no idea what to name it, so I figured I'd go with describing what I could see and like magic, the back plait was born. Simply scoop some hair from the side of your head and the crown back as if you're going to do a little bit of a Brigitte Bardot bump, pin the hair, then plait down and secure with a little hair elastic. Super easy. Then fix it with a little more Freeze Hold Hairspray. 

Grown-up Pigtails
















When I was aged 4-10 I wore this hairstyle every single day. Sometimes with ribbons in it. It's a look that's so girly that it can be a hard one to make work at 23 years of age. I simply parted my hair, made two plaits - tying with an elastic a good few inches before the bottom of my hair - and then pulled some parts out to mess them up and loosen the braids. The overall look has that laidback, sexy, boho, prairie girl thing going on. Surprisingly, it's not as Amish as I expected.
So there you have it! Three easy-peasy boho braids. Which is your favourite?