Month: January 2015

London.

I love living in London, there is so much to do and explore. I live in Greenwich not far from the 02 arena making it so easy to travel around London on the jubilee line.
Last weekend we stayed alittle closer to home and tried out the Emerites Airline- the cable car the takes you across the river from the North Greenwich to Victoria Docks. It was a really nice afternoon. The cable car opened in 2012, it’s a practical way to cross the river but it is also just as much a tourist attraction. The trip takes about 10 mins each way and you can buy a ticket at the entrance or for a cheaper price you can board using your oyster.

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It was a gorgeous day last Saturday, bright clear skies despite it being bitterly cold but what do you expect for the middle of January. We wanted the catch the sun set so boarded the airline about 4:15, it was quite quiet we didn’t queue for long and was well worth the £3.60 it cost. The view is incredible especially with the bright orange sun setting behind us.

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Over in Victoria Docks we had a walk around and took some pictures by which time the sun had set, the trip back was even prettier seeing London all lit up was so nice. If you are in the area I would really recommend you try it out, it runs till 8pm every day – I’d say going when it’s dark is better though. It’s cheap and relatively new and definitely a most just to say you”ve done it.

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Get to know me.

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I’m 20, a student and living in London. I always read blogs, possibly one of my favorites in Anouska Brandon http://www.anouskaproettabrandon.com/ I love her style, she keeps it simple with a lot of monochromes and clean lines. I just think she is great! I started a blog to have a place where I could put my thoughts on everything that matters to me, at the moment I’m not sure where this blog will go but you have to start some where.

I would describe my style as minimal, I wear a lot of neutral tones often with just a touch of colour, dark burgundies and forest green are great to play around with at the moment along with textures- I am all about textures right now- black on black can look so polished when you mix up the textures and fabrics: coated black jeans, a fine knit jumper and teddy bear coat all black but will look far from boring. Black is defiantly my go to look for winter, day or night black is perfect- you can always add a little splash of burgundy into the mix, maybe your nail polish or a cozy scarf and you are done. marble, wood + gold //

Along with fashion I love interiors. I am forever scrawling through Zoopla looking at the gorgeous apartments near by in London. I am not going to be able to afford them for years and years and years (if ever) but I look anyway. I judge a house on its kitchen, if it has a fuss free, modern, clean line kitchen, it makes it through the first round, I then move onto looking at living space and bedrooms and a modern stylish bathroom is a must. I always look to see how I would dress any space; dark woods, off white walls, warm neutrals with metallic accents screams understated class, that and huge floor to ceiling windows overlooking the London sky line sounds like my kind of place.

textureI did A levels in Art, Textiles and Photography, I have an eye for good composition and colours, at the moment I just wish I could do more with it but its hard to find the time but again minimal and abstract with an array of textures and I’m sold. Dance has always been a part of my growing up and I am currently in my 2nd year at Trinity Laban studying Contemporary Dance for my degree. It literally takes up all my time, I’m enjoying it but at the moment I feel there are so many artistic and creative paths that interest me I’m just hungry to get out into the real world and put them all into play.

Hopefully this has given you a little in site into who am I so please stay tuned for more posts to come

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Tone Tone Tone.

Fixing your hair colour used to cost you loads at the salon but now there is a whole range of different toners and colour correctors out there in your drug store and even supermarket.

If you are a brunette you will most probably have a natural warm, reddish undertone. In the sunshine your hair may have a reddish copper shine. The problem is when you start to lighten your hair this reddish pigment becomes more prominent and this is why your hair can sometimes turn out an awkward shade of orange. This is perfectly normal though and with the use of a toner you can balance out the orange colour with a purple pigment to cool it down and give it a more ash finish, this can also make your hair appear brighter and healthier because it be a more natural colour.

Purple toners are most commonly used to help achieve a platinum blonde colour, they are also used on grey and white hair to fight against yellow discolouration. These products work really well on lightened brunette hair too because it is the same principle- you want to remove the warm orange and yellow tones.

Toners are less damaging on your hair than hair dyes and colourants as they generally don’t contain ammonia or other harsh chemicals.

I would recommend Touch of Silver Twice a Week Brightening Shampoo. It is aimed at really light coloured hair such as platinum blonde and grey so its vibrant violet colour can course a colour build up and a purple tinge to the hair if over used but on my brunette hair I use it almost every time I wash my hair and it helps maintain my ash tone perfectly. This product is great. It is priced about £3 which is perfectly reasonable, it leaves my hair feeling strong and shiny and my hair even stays cleaner for longer plus it smells great. I can not fault this product! A definite staple shampoo for lightened hair. 

A similar product is Silver Shampoo by Bleach London it is more pricey at £5 a bottle and if I’m honest, has an unpleasant chemically smell and the results were no different to Touch of Silver. The product still works really well but when others are cheaper and have a nicer smell they are going to win every time in a comparison.

When lightening your hair, I believe it is important to work with your natural colour, don’t force it or dye it a new shade just lighten what you have and use toners such as purple shampoos to keep your hair looking bright, healthy and natural.

The New Shade of Brunette.

Ombre or Bayalage- Once you’ve tried it you will never go back .

Ombre is the perfect way to lift and brighten your hair with a soft and worn in, natural finish. It looks great on all hair colours, it is easy to maintain and simple to achieve at home. I am a dark brunette and this post is mainly aimed at similar brunettes but can similarly work on blondes and other shads. Everyone wants what they don’t have! Brunettes wish they were blonde, blondes want to go dark, if you have curly hair you wish it was straight and straight wish it was curly. It’s just the way it is. Lightening my hair has always played on my mind, this technique allowed me to lighten the colour of my hair without the worry of going a horrible allover orange colour with dark roots showing through (literally every brunettes worse nightmare when considering going blonde).

The trick, in my opinion is to start off subtly and build it up over time.Casting Sunkiss Jelly with Doutzen Kroes I started with Loreal’s SunKissed Jelly:

The product can be used on wet or dry hair. I chose to work on dry hair as you can really see where you are applying the product and have more of an idea of the finished look. I applied a generous amount to my finger tips and ran in through my hair, starting 2 to 3 inches from my roots and running it right to the ends, you don’t need to be too neat and careful. You ain’t looking to cover your whole head, it’s best to leave some hair untouched to add depth of colour to your look, just be sure to frame your face and concentrate most the the product around the front sections but don’t forget to apply some to the back lengths as well.

This product is great because it is gradual, just apply and leave it in. This allows you to build up the colour to achieve the shade you are after without going too far. I used this jelly 4 times over the space of 2 weeks before i was happy with the result, i had lifted the colour on the lower two thirds of my hair while maintaining a subtle transition with no lines or hard edges from the brunette at my roots.

You could leave it there… But for a more dynamic finish I chose to highlight over the top to give more depth of tone to the hair. For this i used Loreal Preference Glam Lights Kit, again on dry hair i used the comb applicator to paint the product into my hair in narrow strips, I focused this mainly on the bottom half  of my top layers and throughout the whole lengths of the underneath layers. I kept an eye on the lightening process and rinsed the product out after 20 mins. I was now left with a subtle fade into copper with dynamic high and low lights throughout.

The most important step now is Tone Tone Tone. check out my next post on the best ways to keep your ombre look bright and fresh.

Thanks again for reading x

ps. please like and follow me:)

Nike Roshe Run.

Nike brought out their Roshe Run collection early last year and they have proven they are here to stay. They are light weight comfortable and really mold to your feet due to its woven upper textile. They look great with anything whether your wearing them for the gym or just everyday they work great with skinny jeans or dress them up suit trousers. This minimal shoe work extremely well in black and white. Laura from Fashion Landscape seen in the image to the left has paired her Roshe’s with black skinny jeans, black high neck jumper, Toupe long coat and slouchy beanie for this wrap up, relaxed day time look.

2015 is well under way now and for me the Roshe Run winter in burgundy suede are a great way to add a splash of colour into your step. Whilst as spring gets ever closer to these light grey perforated Roshe’s are gorgeous and a great way to lift your outfit- these are way up there on my Wish List for this year and would be perfect with toupes, greys and distressed blue jeans.

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Roshe Runs are prices around the £70 mark. The Roshe Runs Winter are currently on Sale at £64.99 at Footasylum

The Perforated Roshe Runs are £74.99, again from Footasylum

http://www.footasylum.com/nike-womens-roshe-run-perforated-trainer-086715/

http://www.footasylum.com/nike-womens-roshe-run-winter-trainer-086711/

Pandora.

So Pandora have recently introduced their new Essence range. It is a more dainty and minimal collection featuring precious stones and glass set in their signature sterling silver.

Express the essence of you with the delicate range of symbolic charms.campaign1

The collection is much more unified, each bead is near enough the same size all very spherical and neat. Each bead represents a quality from Love to Faith to Wisdom and so on.

Pandora has also made these new beads non slip on the bracelet by lining each bead with silicon. This allows you to position each charm exactly where you would like it and in theory they will not slide around your wrist. 

But the bad news, these new Essence charms are smaller than the original bracelets and are therefore NOT compatible. Similarly, it is advised that you don’t put the Moments charms onto the Essence bracelet because although they will slide onto the bracelet they will be too heavy and not sit right among the smaller beads.

My issue with the Moments collection is that some of the charms are clumpy and a bit too clumsy for my taste. I have the grey leather bracelet and love how the silver charms look sat next to the white Mariano glass beads but i find the beads a little too dominating when next to the smaller silver charms. I wish they would introduce some smaller more spherical glass beads and precious stone beads in the neutral colours offered in the Essence range.charms

So I am left in a bit of a dilemma. I really like the simplicity and delicacy of the Essence collection but I don’t want to buy a whole new bracelet and discard my other charms. My suggestion is that Pandora starts to steer their Moments collection to feature some of the qualities  of their new range. I would love to see some of the precious stones brought to both collections as well as the more spherical beads.

Maybe I will eventually give in to the Essence collection and start a new bracelet but for now I would prefer to see some new, delicate precious stone beads introduced to the Moments collection.

Here Goes… My First Post.

Hello I’m katie

I’m 20, a student and living in London.

I’m studying Contemporary Dance at Trinity Laban but my passion stretches across all things creative and visual as well as into fashion and design (basically anything chique should have my name on). I want my blog to be a place of inspiration, from looks to trends, to all things i’m loving and interested in right now.

I hope to stick with this blog and watch it grow.

ps. Thank you for reading

Everyone’s got to start somewhere xx