Halloween Series #5: The Halloween Tag

Hello All, 

Less than a week to go until Halloween now, & I can't wait!

I saw 'The Halloween Tag' on Ali's, from Zombie's Wear Eyeliner, blog & couldn't not do it too!

 

What is your favourite Halloween movie?

This is hard, because horror films are pretty much the only genre of film I watch! I really love 'The Craft', all year round, but especially towards Halloween. I also love Tim Burton's films, from the animated'The Nightmare Before Christmas' & 'Corpse Bride', to spooky 'Sweeny Todd' & 'Sleepy Hollow', I think Tim Burton is amazing, so my collection of his films often make an appearance in October!

1-10 How much do you enjoy Halloween?

100! Seeing as my birthday is so close to Halloween, I've always felt an affinity to the holiday. I love the dressing up, the decor & the excitement it brings. Because of my birthday, I get presents too, so it really is on par, if not better, than Christmas for me!

What is your fondest Halloween memory?

For my 18th Birthday, my friends & I went to The London Dungeons, to the late night, Halloween special. We all dressed up, & I was so happy they all put in so much effort! It was a really fun evening as, I love the dungeon's anyway, I was excited to be turning 18 & because it was around Halloween, it felt even more spooky!

Have you always been a Halloween lover?

As mentioned earlier, due to my birthday, I have always loved Halloween! Almost every birthday party I've had has been Halloween dress up & I love the atmosphere it brings.

How do you get into the Halloween spirit?

This year, Pinterest has really helped! It's got me so excited & given me some great ideas.But usually, digging out my fake blood & experimenting with Halloween makeup, or watching the aforementioned Halloweeny films helps too. I also really like Halloween sound tracks, like the stereotypical creepy music, full of wolf howls, creaking doors, witch cackles, screams etc!

Favourite Halloween decorations?

Carving pumpkins is always fun! For my Halloween birthday parties, we used to go all out, with fake cobwebs, bunting & such, & once I move into my own place, I'll be making this happen again!

Favourite Halloween/fall scent?

The smell of fresh pumpkin is nice, & even though it isn't necessarily Halloweeny, I love the smell of fireworks & bonfires which all occur around Halloween too.

Favourite candy?

  I love the Halloween versions brands bring out, like when they replace ingredients with jam or add green food colouring to represent blood or gunge respectively. I also love the white chocolate pic'n'mix skulls 

Vampires or zombies?

Ohh that's so hard! Well, I would rather BE a Vampire, because I think they are so sexy. But I love Zombie films, & constantly plan my 'Zombie Apocalypse Survival Strategy' & I'm going as a Zombie Nurse to one of my Halloween celebrations. So I'm going to have to say it's a tie!

What is your weird/odd fear?

I don't really like certain masks, I think it's the obscuring of the face that creeps me out. I used to be really afraid of them, but I'm not as bad now. Still wouldn't go out of my way to be surrounded by masked people!

Last but not least: do you believe in ghosts?

Yes I do.  Not in the way that the media portrays them, but I do believe in ghosts. I dislike shows like 'Most Haunted' are so obviously fake, but there are too many inexplicable things to rule out ghosts. My old house, I believe, was haunted & many of my friends felt the 'presence' of it too. It was friendly though, it never disturbed us in a negative way.

I really hope you enjoyed my Halloween Tag as much as I enjoyed answering it!

I'd like to tag Shelley, from The Shelley Diaries,  Millie, from She Hearts The High Street, & Claire from Divine Obscurity & anyone else who wants to do it! Please leave me a link to your Halloween Tag in the comments, as I'd love to read them!

Halloween Series #4: Halloween Nails - Terrifying Talons

Hello All,

Having been in Bristol this weekend to visit my best friend, I didn't have a chance to write & schedule any posts!

As it gets closer to Halloween, my excitement it only growing! With 3 Halloween party / events to go to this year, & hope to wear a different costume to each.

My last Halloween Series Post, which you can read here, was fashion based, so this time I thought I would do a beauty focus Halloween post. Being fairly new to Pinterest (missjadebd) I found myself, borderline obsessively, looking at Halloween nail art. Here are some of my absolute favourites from Pinterest.

Now, although some of them look really difficult to achieve, there are so many great nail art tools & accessories out now & very affordable too! I've put together a few tools & items that I think are great for a Halloween nail art kit!

I can't wait to get my hands on the Topshop Nail Art Brush Kit, for only £10 it has 6 different tools, from a dotting tool to several alternative nibs of varying thickness & shape. I'm sure with this kit, any nail art is achievable, even for those lacking in creativity or steadiness!
I also really like the BarryM nail art pens, perfect for accurate & small details, like stripes or dot patterns. I can imagine the white pen would help create a spider web on the nails amazingly!
I've already raved about the Nails Inc. leather and skull effect kit here, & while I would wear it all year round, it's also a great was to incorporate Halloween onto your nails if you aren't a skull fan like myself.
A corrector pen is also essential. This means you can be as messy as you want, but still have fabulously frightening nails at the end!

In terms of essential Halloween nail colours, I think dark colours are obvious, especially deep purples, greens & navy. Of course black, white & red are great. Glitter top coats can add gothic glamour. Lime greens or florescent orange are options too for slimey look or pumpkin nails respectively!
One collection that really caught my eye was the Illamasqua UV nail polish collection. If you're planning to celebrate Halloween in a club, then these are perfect! With 3 great shades & a top coat, all full sized, this set is a really good price.

Tonight I'm going to be trying out some of these, so I will show my results on here!

I hope you're still enjoying my Halloween Series, & I'd love to hear anything you'd like me to cover!
 Also, what're you doing to celebrate Halloween?

Halloween Series #3: High Street Halloween Must-Haves!

Hello All.

Another day closer to Halloween festivities!

I honestly have been so enthusiastic about these posts, I wish it was Halloween permanently as I'd definitely begun feeling less inclined or excited to blog lately. However, starting my Halloween series has really awoken my love of blogging!

Although AW13 trends are largely focused on vampy looks (dark lipsticks, leather, lace, velvet etc a.k.a my style exactly), I've noticed that a lot of high street shops have dedicated sections, both online & in-store, to Halloween inspired pieces. Now some of this is just to re-promote the Autumn / Winter items, such as the aforementioned leather, velvet & lace. But most have specially themed Halloween items featuring 'typical' scary motifs, like bats, black cats or ghosts. 

I've rounded up my 'High Street Halloween Must-Haves' from Topshop, New Look, ASOS & Miss Guided. All have a mix of vampy style pieces, spooky beauty bits & seriously cool jewelry!

 ASOS - 'HELLS YEAH HALLOWEEN' 

 MissGuided - Creep It Real

 New Look - Halloween

Topshop - Ghoul Girls

The first thing I love about these Halloween collections are their names! Ghoul Girls & Creep It Real  are brilliant names for the Halloween collections. The second thing I love, of course, is the beauty products on offer. This time last year, I was working with a big make up brand / company, & was exposed to some amazing makeup artistry especially around Halloween. I've been watching an unhealthy amount of YouTube tutorials so hope to look amazing this Halloween. But I am loving the creepy make up on offer this year. From intricate spooky scenes created on eyelashes to creepy nail transfers, you can literally take your Halloween look from face to, erm foot?

Although I really like everything in my Must Have list, a few pieces really stand out.

My ASOS highlights are the Wednesday Adams inspired monochrome dress & the 'Trick or Treat' top that definitely evokes the much loved 'Celine' tees. Highly commended are the tights with glow in the dark knee skulls!

From Miss Guided I really the skeleton-hands-on-the-boobs crop top, cheeky yet creepy & the skeleton body is great too.

New Look for me triumphed with Halloween accessories for me. J'adore the Halloween cupcake kit (how cute?!) Plus the nail transfers and eyeliner stick ons are fun too!

From Topshop I love the stick on eyeliner, which I would pair with matte black lips and deathly pale skin (so my natural skin shade really...), & also the bat print. I included the asymmetric skirt, but this print is repeated through the collection on jeans, leggings etc. 

It seems this year Halloween is so much more exciting for me, which is saying something as I've always been excited for Halloween. I'm not sure what's different, but I am so excited this year

Halloween Series #2: M·A·C & Rick Baker Halloween Collection

Hello All, 

Welcome to the second in my Halloween series. Today I'm going to focus on some Halloween makeup.

You may have already seen the M·A·C x Rick Baker collection for Halloween, but it's so amazing I couldn't not feature it!

If you haven't heard of Rick Baker, you really should have! As a self confessed Horror Film junkie, I'd come across Rick Baker's name before. He is the special effects make up artist behind 'The Exorcist', 'An American Warewolf In London' & he contributed to Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' music video too. Teaming up with M·A·C has proven to be genius, as the collection looks amazing!

Based around the concept of 3 Halloween looks specially designed by Rick Baker. The unique collection is made to create three looks a Bride, a Day of Dead skull and a Zombie. The collection includes Monster FX, Acrylic Paints, Paintsticks, Eyeshadow Palettes, Chromagraphic Pencils, Set Powder, Penultimate Eye Liner & Chromacake.

 

 

 photo source

As you can see from the face charts & visuals, this collection is mainly PRO products, & while not everyone will be able to create these amazing looks, the products are versatile & could fit into you're make up bag seamlessly. 

My highlights from the collection are Face & Body in White (although this isn't new, I just really like it with my pasty white skin), the 'Monsters Bride' Palette (first of the palettes),the penultimate eyeliner (I love felt tip eyeliners!) & lipstick in 'Brick' (not pictured)

Watch this space for more Halloween inspired make up from high street/ drug store brands!

Halloween Series #1

Hello All!

Being an October baby, & particularly close to Halloween at that, I've always loved & made quite a big deal out of this holiday. In many ways, I like it more than Christmas, because it's full of skulls, black & spooky stuff (aka all the stuff I love) but I still get presents because of my birthday. 

During October, my blog will be focusing on Halloween, from costume ideas & makeup to decorations & food ideas. I've spent an unhealthy amount of time watching Halloween related tutorials & idea videos on YouTube, so have plenty of posts planned!

Now I'm not afraid to go all out on Halloween, from fake blood to all out costuming, but I thought I would start the Halloween series with some more wearable, inspired by Halloween outfits. 'Mean Girls' has taught us all that, & I quote "In the real world, Halloween is when kids dress up in costumes and beg for candy. In Girl World, Halloween is the one day a year when a girl can dress up like a total slut and no other girls can say anything else about it", but I've been quite tame with the first installment!

I've taken inspiration from characters from Halloween-esque films or series to create outfits suitable for a more sophisticated Halloween celebration.

 Beetlejuice

Stiped leggings - BooHoo | Tuxedo Jacket - River Island | Stiped Heels - MissGuided

 

 Bride of Chuckie 

White Lace Dress - Topshop | Leather Jacket - New Look | Chain Choker - Topshop

 

 Morticia Adams

Black Maxi Dress - Miss Selfridge | Black Lace Maxi Dress - New Look | Cross Necklace - Topshop

 

  Wednesday Adams

Black Dress with White Collar - Lavish Alice | Knee High Socks - Topshop | Monochrome Boots - Lavish Alice

I've got to say, I would definitely wear all four outfits. Especially the Wednesday Adams one! In fact, the dress & boots are now on my Birthday list...

Beetlejuice, or even Jack Skellington from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' is a really fun take on Halloween, it's smart but still striking.

Bride of Chuckie is an outfit I'd wear anyway. I love pairing lace with leather, especially light lace. I think it really toughens the look up.

Morticia & Wednesday's were obvious choices! I love Morticia's gothic look, & these maxi dresses give the right amount of sexiness & gothicness. I've always loved Wednesday Adam's monochrome look & pig tails. 

All these outfits are Halloween enough but with a sophisticated edge so that you can channel your inner witch. However, I prefer to go all out, which you'll see later this month!

 

 

WANDERLUST - Weekend in Paris

Hello All, 

I'm trying to section & define parts of my blog now, & want to expand from just a fashion/ beauty blog to share more of my interests. Recently, I posted about art, which I will continue to do. But this time, it's about a weekend trip I took. Hopefully the first of many 'Wanderlust' post! Let me know if you enjoy it...

As you may have gathered, I recently went to Paris for the first time as an adult. I’d been when I was 11, seen the Eiffel Tower & gone to Disneyland. But few week ago I got to go there again for work at Paris Fashion Week. I felt very ‘Devil Wears Prada’, determined not to end the trip like Andy Sachs does in the book; by screaming ‘Fuck you’ at a colleague. I knew it’d be mostly work & maybe not that much enjoying Paris, but I knew how big this experience was for me personally & professionally. I’d been wanting to go to Paris for a really, really long time but never managed to before.

Although I was only going for 3 days, working for 2 of them & was only taking a very small suitcase, I managed to take a lot of clothes (most of which, admittedly, I didn’t wear) so packing was a bit of an issue!

Work went amazingly well, & it was so lovely to see your hard work resulting in such greatness (I’m usually modest but I was incredibly proud to be part of this) so I had all day Sunday to enjoy the sights of Paris, albeit while lugging my suitcase, laptop & basically life around with me!

I’d first seen the Eiffel Tower on Saturday night, all light up and appearing, seemingly, out of no where. I honestly was in a stunned silence as it was so beautiful. So the first thing I wanted to do was see it in day light. I found the Metro system really easy to navigate, and wandering around le gay Paris was just lovely. Only having a day meant I didn’t have time to queue & go up the Eiffel Tower but seeing it was enough for me!

Next stop was , which was so weird seeing in person as I’d studied the relief sculptures on the front in History of Art. Being on  my own meant I had no one to take pictures of me with the Eiffel Tower, but I just asked someone to take on of me and the L'arc de Triomphe because it’s silly being so shy & missing out.

I had planned to do Louvre & Notre Dame in quick succession, envisioning not going into the Louvre just seeing the outside. That didn’t happen, as the arty goodness drew me in. I’ll do Notre Dame next time (I started planning my next visit on the Eurostar home!). The Louvre was great, seeing paintings & sculptures I’d learnt about in books in person. I did go into history of art mode quite a bit, which must have been quite annoying for me museum buddy, but I was giddy with happiness so I didn’t really care!

Too distracted by art, I then had to rush to Gard D’ Nord for my train back to boring London. I had beautiful weather whilst in Paris, as you can see from the picture, it was nice enough to not wear tights with my play suit (I kept it monochrome, as usual, but where more fitting than Paris, eh?). On the train home, it started to rain though, pathetic fallacy much?

I genuinely felt like I’d found my spiritual home in Paris, I had the most fantastic weekend in my life thus far. I definitely plan to go back for longer, & not to work!   

Wednesday Wish List

Hello All,

Long time no posting I know. I have been so busy with work at London & Paris fashion week (I'll be posting my Paris Fashion Week/ trip post soon so watch this space!)

This month things should calm down more so I'm hoping to post more regularly and launch my new monthly feature, which I'm very excited for!

October also sees two of my favoutire things; my Birthday & Halloween! I'll be 20 soon, which is kind of scary as it feel like I have to actually grow up & be an adult! As my birthday falls so close to Halloween, it's always been my favourite holiday, so expect to see some Halloween inspired make-up, outfit & event ideas.

But for today's post, I thought I would do a 'Wednesday Wish List' as it's my birthday coming up!

  Clockwise from top left: Black Skort- Amazon | Tartan Dress - Primark | Feline top - eBay | 'Nouveau Grunge' - Zara | Monochrome 'Smile' tote bag - eBay | White Dr. Marten's - Dr. Martens | White Skort - Amazon

 So, as usual, it's very monochrome heavy! I tried on a skort in Zara in Paris (I'm not going to stop talking about Paris for at least a month so sorry in advance!) & they are so flattering, so black & white made it onto my wish list. 

This tartan dress I first saw on Millie of She Hearts The High Street in this post. I love red tartan, and this peter pan collar and black bow combined with the flattering shape really appealed to me. Funnily enough, it also appealed to my Nan, who dresses really well! Watch out for a cute Nan & Granddaughter matching dress shot soon ;)

Next, two slogan tops. I really like white tops, with black & white imagery/ slogans on them as they can be easily dressed up or down. The 'Feline' one is perfect for a cat lover & a nice play on the very popular on the bloggersphere 'Celine' top. Similarly, the 'Nouveau Grunge' tee is really nice. I don't usually wear white t-shirts, I don't know why. I think they make me look somewhat un-feminine. However having tried this on (again in le gay paris) it is actually a really nice cut and fabric, meaning it hangs nicely. 

Another 'Celine' inspired item here. Although I do love my Mulberry bag, this monochrome tote bag caught my eye on eBay. They also do a monochrome skull embossed one, but perhaps I should leave my goth girl at home sometimes!

Last, but by no means least, my number one item on my birthday wish list is a pair of matte white Dr. Marten shoes. I have really disproportionate-to-my-height small feet, a size 4 and I'm 5 foot 6, which is equally good & bad in ways. Bad, because I believe it's the reason I am so clumsy. But good, because it means I can get away with big clumpy shoes yet my dainty little feet don't look monstrously big! I already have a few pairs of Doc's, but these white pair look so cool, I hope I can pull them off!

These are all my realistic birthday wish list items, of course on my 'dream' birthday wish list there is a lot of McQueen. A girl can dream eh? I've been really lusting after a McQueen skull scarf for a while now, maybe one day I'll save up and treat myself. I also really like the enamel skull bangle from McQueen too, but both items are very expensive for a scarf & a bracelet, I can't justify it at the moment.

As promised, I really will try and post more regularly! Hope you all have a fabulous week...