What I Wore: Backless

Jeans, KappAhl; shirt, Seduction; bandeau, made from an old pair of tights; shoes, Indigo by Clarks

I wore this outfit last Thursday, but I only got around to posting it today. Looking back, I would have rolled the cuffs like I did yesterday, but I still love the outfit. I bought this shirt over the summer and I hadn't worn it yet. I can't believe it took me that long to wear it though, I absolutely love it!

I definitely want to get more tops with open backs, I could never figure out how to wear them but I'm starting to think that open backs with contrasting or matching bandeaus, I think I could make it a sort of signature. I don't know if I could be consistent enough to have a true signature look, but I think what I'm trying to say is that this is definitely a look I could welcome into my wardrobe.

Thoughts? Requests?

Love, Rosie

What I Wore: Almost Panic Attack

I know I've been doing a lot of outfit posts lately, and I know you are probably getting bored of them, but my life is starting to get insanely busy. I have stuff all day this Sunday, and I am away all of next weekend and the weekend after. Add into that trying to keep on top of all my homework and actually sleeping from time to time and you have a recipe for a very busy Rosie.

Jeans, KappAhl; black tank top, Joe Fresh; pink tank top, local market; sandals, Birkenstock.

I almost had a major panic attack this morning when I put on my shoes and realized my jeans were half an inch too short and looked absolutely ridiculous. Then I decided to roll the cuffs, and I think I love them even more like this. I have so many outfits that are going to look amazing with these jeans. :)

Thoughts? Requests?

Love, Rosie

What I Wore: Love or Hippo

 Dress, vintage; shoes, Birkenstock; belt, Joe Fresh 

This dress is insane. It is quite literally a rectangle. Still, when my mum found it at the back of the closet, I knew I had to wear it. I spent all day swinging from loving it to feeling like a hippo, but I think my final verdict is that this is probably the most comfortable dress I have ever worn, and that its still pretty cool.

How could I resist a black dress with gold crocodiles/lizards?

Thoughts? Requests?

Love, Rosie

Product Review: Wearable Birkenstocks?

A few weeks ago, I did something I thought I would never do. I bought* a pair of Birkenstocks. I have always associated them with my parents, which isn't a bad thing, but I always thought they were way too well, dorky/hippyish for my style. I had to face up to the facts though: I am still a teenager, my knees are hurting more and more frequently, and I only get this one body for the rest of my life. The conclusion this brought me to was that I was going to have to stop wearing heels/shoes with no arch support ALL the time. 

The short version of that rather longwinded paragraph is that I bought* these shoes, the Birkernstock Mayari:

I am so happy with my choice! 

I wanted to get them in black, but the sales woman and my mother talked me into getting these, and since there weren't any black in stock in my size, I decided to just get the coppery-blackish ones. They look slightly greenish gold in the picture, but they are a warmer colour in person. It turns out these shoes go with pretty much everything I have tried to wear them with so far, from all black, to blue and bronze, to red, purple and pale blue. They are really and truly neutral, you know they are there, but they don't detract from the colours of the outfit at all. 

The second thing I absolutely love about these shoes is the fact that it is like walking on clouds. Even my most supportive walking shoes have very noticeable feeling when I have them on, not painful necessarily, but you know they are there. With these, it's like you aren't wearing shoes at all, except your feet never get sore. I haven't tested how far I can walk in them, but I wore them all day for a couple days and didn't feel any pain.

I have yet to try and wear them with a skirt, but I have a feeling they will go quite nicely with at least some of my skirts. The miniskirts might not get along with them too well, but I can still wear other shoes some days.

This post is pretty much me talking about why I love shoes, but what do you think? Have you ever worn Birkenstocks?

Love, Rosie

*Ok, so my mum bought them. But I picked them out, and she wasn't even planning on buying me shoes.

Regal Inspiration

I had a few days off this past week, and without any new episodes of Bones to watch, I decided to give The Tudors a try. I have been fascinated by the Tudor era for years, and I still count Queen Elizabeth as one of my inspirations and idols. ANYWAYS, I'm finishing the last episode of the first season at the moment, and I'm totally loving it. I particularly love the costumes, and while I'm not sure how historically accurate they are, they amazingly beautiful.

I'm not wild about the cut of this dress, but look at that fabric! It's so rich and so RED.

I haven't reached this scene yet, but I came across this picture when I was looking for the images in this post, and I couldn't resist the dress in it. I'm usually more of a black and silver girl, but the cream and gold combination is drawing me in.

The iridescent blue of bell sleeves over the paler greenish blue of the under-sleeves is inspiring me. I will have to experiment with it soon.

Once again, I haven't seen this scene yet, but would you look at the necklace? And the head piece!

Red crushed velvet with gold accenting? Yes please! It doesn't get much more regal then that.

The costumes in this scene are part of a play, but I still love the little ruff. Is it not wonderful?

Even if this style of dress was only accessible to a fraction of a percent of the population, and even if it is slightly impractical, it is still beautiful.

Thoughts? Requests?

Love, Rosie

What I Wore: Difficult to Style Sweater

Jeans, Old Navy; sweater, gift from my grammy; shoes, Birkenstock. 

Spring has truly arrived! For the first time in months, I was actually a bit too warm. I'm not quite ready to venture out in miniskirts and tank tops yet, but I will be happy to embrace bare legs again. 

And I most definitely plan on wearing my new sandals a lot. I almost bought them in black, but the sales woman and my mother convinced me to go for the sort of bronze/black shade, and I am most happy I let myself be influenced.

This sweater is fast becoming one of my favourites, along with it's nonidentical twin. The only thing I don't like about them is that the bright colours, sparkles, and slightly awkward length make them extremely hard to style. I'm not letting that stop me though, and I have a few plans for them in mind

Thoughts? Requests?

Love, Rosie

What I Wore: Dramatically Childish

The weather was unseasonably lovely today, so I decided that I would take advantage of the weather and spend some time outside.

Skirt, ???, thrifted; shirt, Gap; belt, Bluenotes?; hat, ???; shoes, Hush Puppies.

Of course, unseasonably warn for April in my part of the world means around 12 degrees (Celsius), so I wore long sleeves. The sun was out full force though, so a huge floppy sunhat was necessary to protect my face from sunburn. (And it makes me feel wonderfully dramatic.) I then decided to confuse the neighbours by spending a good fifteen minutes dancing around the lawn, off in my own world. (It was wonderfully childish.) 

Thoughts? Requests?

Love, Rosie

Mad As A Hatter Makeup

Today is the last day in my Alice in Wonderland week, and I did a sort of interpretation of the Mad Hatter's makeup.

This is what you will need:

lime green eyeshadow

bright purple eyeshadow

black liquid eyeliner 

black mascara

whatever foundation/concealer you usually wear+the lip gloss/lip stick of your choice 

When I thought about the Mad Hatter and his eyes, it wasn't the crazy make up that I really remembered, it was the bright green eyes. Since I don't have any lime green contacts, and I doubt many of you have easy access to them, I decided to cover the lid with green eyeshadow instead, so it flashes a bit when you blink. Here's how to get the look:

1. Apply whatever makeup you are going to put on your skin. This is the step where I put on concealer. I also put on a bit of barely tinted lip gloss at this point.

2. Use a sponge applicator to pat the lime green shadow all the way up to the crease of your eyelid, but not into it. Make sure you get a nice intense colour.

3. Use a small angle brush (I used my MAC #266) to apply a fairly heavy line of purple into the crease. Using the same brush, apply a line of purple to the bottom lash line, getting a bit thicker at the outside corner.

4. Use a sponge to pat the purple eyeshadow up in the outer corner in the eye.

5. Apply a thin line of black liquid eyeliner to your upper lash line. I used the liquid liner for my waterline, because it gives a crisper, darker line. You could use an ordinary pencil liner for the waterline though.

6. Finish off the look with your mascara of choice. (I'm wearing Maybelline's Lash Stiletto (for length) and CoverGirl's Lash Blast (for volume).) 

What do you think? Would you consider wearing makeup like this for an "ordinary" day?

Love, Rosie

Dressing like the Red Queen

Although it is true that the Mad Hatter is by far my favourite character from Alice in Wonderland, I have a sort of fascination with the Red Queen. I wouldn't say I exactly like her, but she is a very interesting character. I sort of want to go into more detail, but one of the main reasons I write this blog is to get away from all the analyzing I do at school so I'm just going to talk about her style. 

The Red Queen, obviously, wears a lot of red, and card motifs are common in her wardrobe, specifically hearts. Once again, I feel a Commentaire Composée* coming on, so I'm going to move on to the pretty clothing.

Queen of Hearts Outfit by RosieUnknown 

I'm not sure how happy I am with this outfit. I think the shoes are off, and I feel like something is missing. Still, I think it really captures the essence of the Red Queen fairly well.

I have now been trying to write this post for over an hour now, and everything I write quickly turns into an in depth analysis of her character, the symbolism of her soldiers being playing cards, or her choice of the colour red. So I give up. I'm sorry. French class has killed my brain. I'm going to leave it at this:

Red is a colour that shows confidence, whether it is real confidence of fake confidence. And who can resist the lure of a crown?

Thoughts?

Love, Rosie

* A Commentaire Composée is a horrible sort of essay, with incredible amounts of structure. Although, from what I have heard, they will be the least of my worries in the years to come.

Top Notch Top Hats

In case you hadn't caught on yet, I recently realized that I absolutely adore the Mad Hatter as portrayed by Johnny Depp in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. And once I had realized just how amazing he is, I started appreciating the merit of a fabulous hat. 

So today, in celebration of madness and extravagance and living in the moment, I am going to share a selection of wonderful top hats I found while obsessively trawling Etsy.

This first one is by OlgaItaly, and I find myself drooling over it. It is a perfect example of a hat a person could wear everywhere. Personally, I think it would look great with a simple pencil skirt and sweater for grocery shopping, or with something crazier for a night out.

 I'm seriously in love with this beauty by Gypsy Lady Hats. A hat both amazing and extremely versatile (it's black and white, it will go with anything!) and with beautiful curves? So rare!

This next one, also by Gypsy Lady Hats,  appeals to my darker side. I have dreams involving this hat, a lot of eye makeup, stunning red lips, a sexy black dress and possibly a cigarette. I don't smoke, but the netting reminds me of how beautiful a haze of smoke can look in a picture.

Yet another beauty by Gypsy Lady Hats,  this one I see more perched a top a sleek bun, crowning a powerwoman outfit: sexy but modest black suit, crimson silk blouse, and black Louboutins, with that little red sole peeking out.

And last but certainly not least, a truly over the top masterpiece by Envyart. The creepy doll faces, the netting, the fur?, all of it, it just calls to me!

Which hat is your favourite? Would you wear a top hat as a part of an "everyday" outfit?

Love, Rosie

Product Review: Green Beaver Lip Shimmer in Bordeaux

 I decided to rearrange the schedule for this weeks post a bit, it just ended up being that the post scheduled today wasn't really ready enough to be published. Instead, I'm reviewing Green Beaver Lip Shimmer in Bordeaux.

To start, these are my lips without anything on them:

And now, my lips with several very carefully applied coat of the lip shimmer:

Now, on to the review;

Colour: I like the colour. It's not the very dark red that the packaging and product led me to believe it would be, but it's a nice colour. I was hoping it would give me gorgeous dark lips like the White Queen:

Even if it didn't give me the colour I wanted, it was still a lovely colour.

Quality: This stuff is AMAZING. I like it just as much as the Burt's Bees Lip Shimmer I have been using for over a year. It is moisturizing and healing and protecting and all sorts of lovely things. That being said, my lips are in very good condition to start, so there wasn't much to be done.

Packaging: This is where everything falls apart. Honestly, my Burt's Bees Lip Shimmers come in bright yellow packaging, this stuff is lime green. They are fun, but it must be possible to get all natural,  good quality lip shimmers in understated packaging. My big problem with the packaging though is that the thing to make the stick of lip shimmer come up farther doesn't work. Sorry about how vague it is, but what I'm trying to say is that once I wore it down to the plastic, I can't make it come up any farther. I don't know if mine is faulty or they are all like this, but I'm pretty mad. I would wear this stuff everyday, but I can't get any out!

Over all, the actual product is amazing, but the packaging is a bit annoying. I will definitely be buying it again though.

Thoughts? Requests?

Love, Rosie

PS: Ages and ages ago, I wrote a guest post on the blog at ChapOAir, a site that helps you find Cheap Flights. If you want to listen (err... read me) ramble on backpacking stylishly, please check it out.