I always feel very excited when I can feel a freebie in the plastic wrapping of Glamour upon seeing it in my postbox, so when I opened my August edition, delivered on Friday, I was very happy to see a mini Clinique Chubby Stick as a freebie – I feel very content when a useful, interesting or untried free gift comes along.
This August a few magazines are bring out great free gifts with purchase, which are a fantastic value for money – and they have already hit the newsagents!
It took me a while to go through the Elle accessories report, out a few weeks ago. There are so many choices that I decided to concentrate on my favourite types and created picture gallery with my heel, bag and jewellery picks.
Just as I would with an outfit, I am starting with the high heel shoes: it might come as a shock but I haven’t fallen *madly* in love with any number in particular – none made me want to cash my shoe fund immediately.
Having said that, I could easily see Lara Bohinc’s Tatjana courts in leopard print gracing my footsies – definitely my favourites, these amazing shoes have a somewhat art-deco brass circles sitting on the leopard print calf and at the top of the heel, giving them an amazing texture. I really love the metal details on the shoes upper – Bohinc’s Tatjana collection is definitely worth checking!
A self confessed heel lover, I am fascinated by their architecture, thickness, material and texture so I was immediately drawn to the heel shape in some selections, special attention to Miu Miu and Prada, with very exquisite heels (I had to go to Selfridge’s Shoe Galleries to actually touch the Miu Miu’s – they are amazing!). Their shape was almost remitting to historical/costume footwear, with the back of the heel quite prominent and the high heel itself quite chunky and arched outwards, almost like a “C” at the back of the shoe.
Designer until then unknown to me, Chrissie Moriss stood out – amongst my favourites are the Liliana peeptoe shoe boots, the Metropolis and the Dakota – they play beautifully with geometrical shapes on the body and the black Liliana has very sexy heels with a “precious” stone at the end. Fierce!
Other favourites are Giuseppe Zannoti Design’s orange suede sandals, Jimmy Choo’s Kerfield, Flaxley and Kemp, Camilla Skovgaard’s grey peeptoe and grey and silver with zips stilettos, Charlote Olympia’s Cordelia tall boots, Alejandro Ingelmo’s Nighthawk (what a cool name, I am glad the shoes live up to the expectation!) and Pierre Hardy’s leopard print circle cut out sling back sandal.
Style wise, lots of sparkle, multicolour compositions and loafers seem very strong. Platforms are still present.
Now, the bags – I noticed that there are many clutches featured, especially box clutches. Amongst my favourite are the Prada python, Miss Dior jacquard, Valentino snakeskin box bag, Jimmy Choo Candy and “Lanvin Evening”.
Satchels and totes also appear quite a bit, as well as fur/pony skin. Other picks are Chloé’s Aurore, Celine Trapeze, Versace Metallic bag (with the iconic Versace Medusa head made in gold metallic mesh, with long-ish straps, lush!) and also from Versace, an embossed number with tassel, very pretty.
Victoria Beckham‘s bags appear a few times, with their clean, sharp cut, straight lines design, and my personal bag obsession, the Mulberry Bayswater, appears as a fox-riveted haircalf incarnation. I did miss Chanel, only one pick for Coco’s brand and that didn’t blow me away.
As far as jewellery go, big, bold cuffs are everywhere, chunky collars and chokers too. Among my favourites are a Louis Vuitton collar, a BOSS Black red feather brass cuff (gorgeous!), a Cavalli shell gold cuff and an owl ring, a Vionett gold cuff and a D&G star necklace.
Needless to say, the shoes are my favourite part – and I don’t see them as merely accessories! I enjoyed going through the report, and overall, it does provide me with plenty inspiration when looking at accessories to buy.
After much procrastination to commit, I decided to subscribed to some magazines. One of them, Elle, has sent me a Smashbox make up set as a welcoming gift.
I am very sceptical about things that come free – I have been terribly disappointed in the past – so I opened the envelope with an anticipated dissatisfaction.
I would love to say that I was proven wrong and started vehemently believing in free stuff – this is not the case, but I can say I was pleasantly surprised with the goods I received: O-Gloss Gold, Photo Op brightener and Soft Effects Powder Eyeliner, in aubergine.
My favourite one is probably the eyeliner. When I saw the “aubergine” colour, I was a bit annoyed and thought: “typical, they never give you a great staple, like black, for free!”, but it turns out that it is quite dark, and close enough to be worn as an option to black.
For me, the best use was to recycle my eyeliner, I tried it on top of my reliable albeit very tired after a long day at the office, MAC smolder eye kohl and it looked fantastic. In the morning though, when applied on fresh eyes, it was a bit messy, as it is very loose and fine powder, and the line was a bit rough – but maybe I need to get used to the applicator. Once you get it right (it took me a few minutes, a cotton bud and a foundation retouch below the eyes!), it looked ok.
The lipgloss did what it said on the tin – it changed from a guilded gold to a peachy tone and apparently, the peach colour of this intuitive lipgloss adjusts to your skin, giving you the best match for your complexion. Lips looked nice, the colour was good for me, I really like the golden sheen and the consistency and taste of the lipgloss were alright.
As for the highlighter, it was satisfactory, but not better than my usual Benefit High Beam or my YSL Touché Eclat.
All in all, I can say that I probably wouldn’t buy them. Maybe I could give the eyeliner a go but the £17 price tag for the duo (the black is paired with the aubergine), makes me think if it is really worth it. Good to try new brands and products though, and what I will probably do is use its applicator with other eyeshadows, as quite like the idea behind it, and see how it goes!
So Many Lovely Things 