Mediamarmalade

Year: 2011

  • The Fur Of My Dreams

    The Fur Of My Dreams

    I absolutely love this Reiss faux fur coat, it’s so totally glamorous and makes you feel a million dollars when you put it on. Despite the fact that I looked like a blonde gorilla wearing it, I have been lusting over this fur coat for AGES. There’s just been one thing putting me off, and that is the price tag. £245 for this little beauty. But Christmas has just come early thanks to the big bods at Reiss, who as of Tuesday have launched a HUMUNGOUS sale on all their amazing clothes. This jacket is now a whopping £100 cheaper at £145 … now that I may just be able to squeeze in :)

  • A Beautiful Face

    A Beautiful Face


    I popped to Gunwarf Quays in Portsmouth today to do a tad more Christmas shopping. Gunwarf is full of outlet stores including the likes of Kurt Geiger, Jack Wills, Ralph Lauren, French Connection etc, so you always manage to grab yourself a little bargain. As is becoming my Christmas tradition this year, I managed to purchase two little treats for myself too (quelle surprise). There is a fab cosmetics store which I’ve never actually been in before, and boy have I been missing out. They have top quality makeup at outlet store prices … yes i know, hard to believe the pure luck of this. Mac, Estee Lauder, Clinique, and Bobbi Brown were my fave brands featured, and I really can’t believe the discounts.
    I purchased these two Clinique make up goodies, at a bargain of a rate. Firstly the Super Balanced Clinique Foundation RRP £21, I paid £14.75 & secondly Clinique’s Shimmering Stripes blusher (Limited edition) RRP £24, I paid £12. Hard to refuse right?

    I’m not usually a big foundation wearer, I tend to stick to my Benefit Boi-ing cover up or my new Benefit Gorgeous Gal concealer to hide my imperfections but every now and then I do wish I had a good foundation which is light on the skin but a miracle at covering blemishes. The Christmas season and the unworldly consumption of mulled wine and beige food (we like to call the extreme canape consumption ‘media beige’ in my industry) has made my skin suffer even more than usual, so I thought it was about time I invested in a good quality but hard working foundation to help me look a little more human.
     
    I’ve heard a lot of reviews about the Estee Lauder double wear foundation so instinctively I went to purchase this (RRP £26 but in this store it was £16). However then I tested this Clinique one, and being a big Clinique fan anyway, I was very impressed with how light it was on my skin and yet how well it covered and cleared all skin imperfections. I’ve been very very impressed with every other Clinique product I’ve used, and I live by their skin care products so I decided to be brand loyal and choose this ‘Super Balanced’ foundation in Neutral (no.65).
    My second treat was less of a necessity and more a little indulgence as I absolutely loved the colour palette and I’ve been interested in buying a powder blusher for a while now. I usually use my Bobbi Brown Blusher Stick or my Benefit Benetint, but as much as I love both these products, I still wanted a nice powder blush as I do feel a powder sits a lot more lightly on your skin. So when I saw this cute little compact blush I was instantly grabbing for my purse. It was a toss up between the Clinique blush and the Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick blusher, now don’t get me wrong I LOVE the Bobbi Brown blush and bronzer sets (I use the bronzer set already), but to be honest the Clinique one was £10 cheaper and actually the colours were a lot more vibrant on the skin, and so the Clinique shimmering stripes powder blusher got my vote in the end. 
    I’m totally chuffed with both my purchases and can’t believe that for the foundation and the blusher I paid £26, opposed to the £45 it should have cost me. I don’t even feel bad for treating myself yet again at that rate … it would have been rude not to :) I may even go back to stock up on some Mac Lipstick and eyeshadow sets too.
  • Street Princess Delivery

    Street Princess Delivery

    I am finally home for Christmas and as if that wasn’t fab enough, I also came home to a little package from Street Princess. All my jewellery arrived in super speedy time YAY. I thought the items were packaged beautifully, all in individual pink chiffon bags with a Street Princess tag attached to each item. I couldn’t have been any happier with all the pieces I bought, I always get nervous buying online as you never know exactly what you are getting, but I was super chuffed with all my picks. The necklaces were the perfect length and the earings and bangles are so cute. It’s all really good quality too, i’m already teeing up my next order now & getting a couple of things for my sisters too :) So all in all, I am a very happy little lady.

    Don’t forget to use my 20% off voucher code if you want to order some of these fab items too. Just visit Street Princess’s site and enter MARMALADE20 at the checkout ;) Merry Christmas.
  • Cuddle Me Tight

    Cuddle Me Tight


    I was in Bristol this weekend and on Sunday (in between my car breaking down and my dramatic tears) we popped into Clifton Village to grab a yummy coffee and have a nosy in some of the AMAZING boutique clothing stores. I have a couple of favourites up there, Montiq which is great for gorgeous costume jewelerry & fab vintage clothing pieces and Maze which has the most gorgeous high end fashion items from a range of amazing designers. Whilst sobbing my heart out (dramatic I know, but my car breaking down is my worst nightmare this time of year) we were browsing the boutiques and I came across the most beautiful Velvet fur cape in Maze. It was sooo unbelievably cosy and cute, but my eck expensive (£250+). I thought I’d take a little piccy to share with you all. Naturally I cropped my face out as I was looking a little drab and my eyes looked like a frog eyes by this point from the tears ha ;)

  • Gracie I Adore You

    Gracie I Adore You

    So I went to the Mulberry sample sale a couple of weeks ago, and despite finding the most beautiful black suede Gracie shoulder bag (I blogged about it), I managed (by some kind of miracle) to walk away empty handed. Now the annoying thing is, whilst I did manage to save myself a few hundred bob (which given my car has just got poorly AGAIN, is probably a good thing) I can’t stop thinking about that little bag and how fab it’d look with all my festive party outfits. To add insult to injury, I’ve just seen the gorgeous Gracie bag in House of Fraser in a cute camel colour variation too … and I heart it LOTS. Ohh I’m starting to get maturity resentment .. why was I so responsible. Damn me, I should have bought it at the sample sale.

  • It’s All Black & White

    It’s All Black & White

    We had a lovely meal on Saturday night for my boyfriends dads birthday. We went to one of my fave restaurants out in ye old west country called The Old House at Home. It’s the cosiest country gastro pub, with some of the tastiest food around :) I wanted to look nice for the occasion but also wanted something a little elasticy as its always a full 3 course meal and lots of vino, so I opted for my fail safe French Connection black and white stripe dress, it’s an oldy but never fails me as its just so comfy.
  • Colour P.O.P

    Colour P.O.P

    Its Saturday, a week before Christmas and I still have only purchased 3 presents. HELP. Naturally I woke in a panic and have turned straight to the computer to start frantically browsing for potential gifts to give my little sister, boyfriend, dad, nan, friends… ahh the list goes on. But here’s my problem … I end up on River Island, Topshop, Miss Selfrdige, Asos etc etc, just checking the ‘New In’ sections incase there’s anything i’ve missed in the last ummm 10 hours? ha!
    So whilst on my distracted ‘Christmas shopping’ online browse I’ve come across these fab colour pop wedges from River Island. Now I know its about 3 degrees outside (in some places snowing), and we’re all in a fur coat and winter boots mindset, but seeing these cute shoes has started making me dream of warmer climates and the summer fun in 2012 we have to look forward to.
    So I know its early, but clearly I need to start being a little more organised with my seasons shopping. Perhaps now is the time to start ;)
  • Trinket Treasures

    Trinket Treasures

    I think one of the best things about blogging has to be the opportunies you get to meet new people who have the same interests as you and of course the chance to find out about new brands, online stores and shops that you wouldn’t otherwise come across. Through the wonderful world of twitter I found out about a fab new online jewelerry store called StreetPrincess, selling the sorts of trinket bracelets, necklaces, earings and rings that I adore. As you can probably tell from my last post (about my new jewelerry stand) I am a big fan of dangly gold necklaces & chunky bold accessories as I always feel like they add a little personal touch to an outfit. So after checking out this online store, I decided to treat myself to some of the beauties that were available. The stock available includes the sort of treasures you’d expect to find strolling the streets of Camden and Portobello or foreign markets in Morocco & Singapore.

    So here is what I bought: Valerie Vintage Earings, Fiona Feather Necklace, Polly Peacock Necklace &  the lovely Naheeda who runs Street Princess also gave me this gorgeous Patty Pearl chain bracelet as a complimentary treat :) which was so sweet of her. But the fab news is Naheeda is also going to offer all my lovely blog readers 20% off all her designs too! Just look out for the badge that I’ll be adding to my blog page and use the code detailed at checkout. Merry Christmas indeed.
  • Sass & Belle Beauties

    Sass & Belle Beauties

    I’ve had a total nightmare of a day today, so after work I popped along to Sass and Belle which is a little vintage boutique around the corner from my office in covent garden to cheer myself up. It’s total kitsch heaven and full of little vintage inspired nic-nacs, home accessories and cute trinkets. My family and I completely love this store and our house is FULL of their quintessentially country cottage esque goodies. They have some gorgeous home pieces and when I saw this jewellery stand I fell in love. If you need more jewellery items to add to your collection, you could go to Jacobs The Jeweller and have a look at what items they have to offer. I do already have a jewellery stand and boxes and just random pots of jewels, but I also have a lot of Jewellery so I had a good enough reason to get it I feel. The best thing about the store though, is that everything is such reasonable prices, my jewellery stand was £9.99, which I think is a total steal.

    If you need to get Christmas presents for friends and family still, I would fully recommend having a little nosy in store or on their website as you’ll find so many amazing gift ideas and no doubt a lot of gems you’ll want to get for yourself too. I’ve already got a couple of my pressies from there already :)