Autumn/Winter update

Firstly sorry for such huge gaps in between posts. I'm ridiculously busy at the minute which means I don't get to do things like blogging and taking photographs as much as I wish I could. I really love doing these things though, and when I get chance I'll be nipping on and posting more and more!

Anyway, forgetting the regrets, it's almost winter!! Which is crazy because it feels like this year pretty much just leaped through time. It baffles me that it's nearly 2014 already. But as the weather is getting chillier and the nights darker the wintery party season draws in. This excites almost as much a Christmas because I love the thick knits worn in the day and beautifully sparkly outfits worn at night.

Specifically for this cold season I was in need of some 'going out boots', suitable for meals, days shopping and generally out and about in the chilly British weather. I was a little ahead of myself and purchased them in summer but I'm so glad because I've had longer time to spend falling in love with them!

                               Asos ALBERT cut out ankle boots £40

Up to now these have been an absolute winter staple. With the platform, flattering and unusual cut out ankle and metal buckle these are my perfect 'dressed up' winter boots.

Another staple of mine so far in the chilly weather has been this beautiful knitted cardigan from Forever 21.

                   Forever 21- Laid back marled cardigan



This cardigan has come in handy to pop over outfits and head straight out of the door. Although you can't see in the images there are also delicate and intricate buttons down the cardi which have a lovely nautical vintage effect. This Cardigan goes so well with red hair as the blue and white grained knit really contrasts to the vibrance of bright hair. Also apposed to the usual dark navy I wear, this was blue and subtle enough to wear with many different outfits, yet colourful, bright and different to most things in my wardrobe.


I shall be posting again soon. Promise!
Toodles
Red-headedness xoxo

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri review

Through this post I may get a little excited. Just putting that out there. Because in this post I'm going to talk about a recent purchase, which has literally made my life SO much easier and I absolutely adore it! Yes okay, it is only a nail varnish but you'll see what I mean in a mo.

I'm talking about the clever geniuses at Sally Hansen, and guys I get down onto my hands and knees to you for this.
The Insta-Dri Top Coat Anti Chip nail varnish.

I actually stumbled across this by accident as I was browsing the Revlon stand at Boots. I found Revlon's insta dry nail varnish (which I am yet to try) and it got me thinking about the whole Instant Dry idea. Now I've always steered pretty clear of things claiming to make your nails instantly dry because truthfully I've never believed they'd work. And although I think I'm quite a few months if not years late with this whole idea, I just decided to give one a wack. Seen as I spend sooo much time doing my nails and even more time waiting for them to dry I figured why not. So in the end I picked up the Sally Hansen, mostly because what I've heard from other bloggers/internet people was that the Revlon one was very similar if not a little worse, so I thought I'd try Sally's first! 

It truthfully works. The instant drying part anyway. I can't put into words how much easier my nail time is now I don't have to stand wafting my hands around like some sort of flapping lunatic. It says on the bottle within two minutes your nails will be dry to touch. And they are! You don't even have to wait two minutes, almost instantly they are dry to touch. It makes that quick touch up even quicker or makes creating beautiful intricate nail art worth it! It just saves that excruciatingly long wait once you've painted a beautiful pattern and sit there wishing you don't smudge them! It also doesn't smudge and spread the nail varnish you've already put on, as long as you leave maybe a minute or so before applying the insta-dry. 

Unfortunately the 'anti-chip' statement from this nail varnish isn't so true. I've found that after two days or so the ends of my nails chip, and then the whole nail varnish will peel off in one piece almost replicating my own nail. It is infuriating, especially if I spend a lot of time on a nail pattern or print and within a few days the nail varnish has chipped off. HOWEVER, I do believe  that this is worth the money and purely having the product for the convince of drying time, and this is why I am so in love with it!! 

Congrats Ms.Hansen, I'm hooked!!

(Sally Hansen Insta-DRI Anti-Chip Top Coat £5.99 Boots)

Boots- Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

Toodlepip!

Red-headedness xo

Aveeno skin relief review

Before my recent holiday I was in desperate of a new nourishing moisturiser. I can sometimes find it super hard to find a moisturiser that ticks all my boxes and is still sensitive enough for my skin (possibly the most upsetting thing about being a red head!!)

Most moisturisers I've used before have either been super duper greasy (think horrible oily skin aftermath) or not nourishing enough. My body is pretty neglected moisturising wise because I'm so forgetful, I just put on clothes and I'm like woops can't do it now! My legs, especially in winter, crack and go extremely dry so I have to muster the determination to moisturise. And that should hopefully now be easier as I have found the fabbiest cream ever!!

I first discovered Aveeno after I acquired a sample from The Clothes Show live (an annual event held in Birmingham). Although I knew this was a well known brand I had never tried any of their products. The sample I had was for the skin relief Shea Butter moisturising lotion with naturally active Triple Oat Complex for extra dry irratable and sensitive skin (phew!!) as pictured above although here in it's full sized 300ml bottle. After trying the sample I fell in love and stocked up just in time for my holiday.
The creme is a fairly thick formula which when applied directly too skin sits a little like suncream. Although it's heavy and reminiscent of suncream BEFORE it's rubbed it, once it's correctly applied and rubbed into skin, it's a light creme which is intensely nourishing. It takes a large pea sized amount to cover a fairly good area e.g top half of a thigh. Once applied it soaks in quickly enough to not have yourself walking round your bedroom like a scarecrow, a plus for all creme I must admit, but it does still sit firmly on your skin. It isn't the quickest to dry that I've tried but it's worth the wait as it keeps your skin feeling so intently moisturised, with that just sank in feeling lasting up to 9 hours after application! For me anyway. This may mean you'd want to wait five or so minutes after applying before sitting down anywhere, which I know can be so infuriating, but trust me it's worth the wait!


Hope you enjoyed this new kind of post, and I'm very VERY excited about some fab future ideas I have for this blog in the near future so keep those eyes peeling.
Thanks!
Toodle-pip
Red-headedness xo

Pandora// New love

Last month I bought some Pandora rings. I'd never actually bought anything from there before, despite the hype (*chorus of ooo's and ahhh's*) even though I'd seen some of their pieces before and was well aware of how beautiful some things are. So in June I gave in and had a little look for some rings as rings are the jewellery pieces I'm loving right now. I was at first only going to get one for starters and then build up a collection as time went buy. But of course me being me, and some wonderfully crafty sales by the lovely sales lady and I left with three. Yes 3!! I felt ridiculously guilty buying three, but an offer was available at the time to buy two rings and get the third free. I figured if at some point I was going to buy three, why not get them all today and wait a little while for my next purchase. (Ridiculous theory I know, but it was really just an excuse for myself)
One ring has an intricate Celtic pattern wrapped round the entirety of the Silver band. Another thinner band is created adding oval shaped side by side and filling their centres with a pearl dewy colouring which reflects beautiful my in light. And my final purchase was a ring with effectively ball bearings soldered together to make the simple band and a stone feature piece in a stunning dewy topaz/aquamarine colour. This last ring is also available in many different colours, it's a birth stone ring although as I didn't like the colour from the birth stone for my month and fell in love with this colour so I decided to go for it.
In the end I ended up with three beautiful rings, which I have barely taken off my fingers since the purchase!! I bought rings which were versatile enough to be stacked together as well as worn on their own. I love the simplicity of each of one, the elegance,  and pure beautiful clarity with every ring. I've had countless compliments about them, and I can happily admit I don't regret or feel guilty about my purchase at all. My new loves. I'll be back soon Pandora, watch out!!

Check out Pandora's collection of rings, bracelets, charms and much more!

                                        http://www.pandora.net/en-GB

Old and New

I get myself worked up over old and new photos, knowing things have changed, but not quite being about to work out exactly what is different.

Take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints

Firstly I want to give a hugggee apology for my extreme lack of posts! But I've been very busy. Posts will hopefully resume to more frequent times though, and I have lots of exciting ideas coming up which I can't wait to share!

In my rather large absence I did a little travelling round the south of England and visited some beautiful places. It was lovely to have time to clear my head and be in such outstanding areas everyday.

I also found the quote "take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints" whilst I was away and fell in love with it and the meaning  behind it.

I documented my travels with some scenic photography, which I thought I'd share.

Terrible sun flare here, sorry! Always such an infuriating accident!

              

 Beautiful sunset one evening

One day of my travels we hired a boat and had a day ride around the estuary. We managed to stop off at various places and explore the surrounding areas which was fab!
If you'd like to check out the company I hired with I'd suggest visiting their website, they were wonderfully helpful and such ace people! Travelling by boat gave us such freedom, and we caught the best weather whilst just floating around with lovely views. What more could you ask for?
                                    www.mylorboathire.co.uk

Redheadedness

Instagram account

Follow my Instagram account for this blog-- redheadedness. An update of all my posts, plus new posts, will be on there as well as some added extra gems thrown in for good measure, I'd really appreciate it if you would check it out.
Thanks!

Rings// My Obsession

                                                                       
                                                                Rings!

As you've probably guessed I have a huge thing for rings! In my eyes the more unusual the better, and the creative I can be with them again, even better!! I use the little organiser (seen above) to organise them into little sub groups so It's easier for me to quickly pop a few on before I leave the house. And oddly, I have now go so used to rings that whatever I'm wearing doesn't feel complete without them and my fingers feel naked. I never thought I'd say my fingers could feel naked, but apparently they do. This organiser is so cute for storing little bits and bobs in, and I adore the style and colour! (It was a piece from TK MAXX, but I can't quite remember how much it was, sorry).
The picture above is a collection of my most worn. The rings range by place of purchase quite variedly, but I love that they are all a little different, and unusual.

These are my most worn 'night out rings', and are a little bigger and bolder than the style I usually go for. Most of these rings have been presents from various people, and that's how the collection of varied style came into my possession. 

These are my 'everyday' rings and I am much more favoured to wearing these generally. All my favourite rings are in this little collection, and again some were picked out as presents, but many here were picked up by moi.

This little silver rings, is one of my favourites. Picked up from a boutique arts and crafts shop in North Wales, it was cheap as chips at £3 (although sadly isn't real silver so may not last too long, but for the price who can complain). I was drawn to this particular ring because amazingly it's double sided!! I generally wear the Celtic swirl towards the front and leave the black bead with rose gold wire embellishment at the back, but it's easily a versatile piece, and is so unusual, I just love it.

Although this ring is a little different to my favoured style simple, unusual and silver, it is still one of my up most favourites! Bought from a little stall/store in LA, California and again a really great price $4, this is more of a statement piece I wear to match up with outfits. I love the colour of the turquoise centre piece and the detailing in the silver coloured metal around the centre piece. 

This little piece is arguably my favourite piece in my whole collection. It's actually an earring which I use as a midi ringer on my baby finger. In the middle image you can see the hinge mechanism from the back of the hoop. I love the little colour discs which lit through the silver hoop, and the brightness of these in contrast to the silver hoop. This is a really delicate piece, and sits really well on my baby finger (I have super skinny fingers which makes stuff like this quite easy) and I always get a fantastic reaction when people find out it's an earring. 

This ring is the one I have owned the longest and is my favourite piece with such intricate detailing. The almost art Deco style gives an old twist on a modern ring style. I think this was from Accessorize, and if I remember rightly was a reasonable price for the  quality, and style as it has lasted me a very long time! I love the shape of this piece and it's linear almost branch shaped lines. I find this to be the perfect thumb ring, and absolutely love it!

Lastly (I'm sorry I know I've babbled a little) is another ring which most frequently worn on my baby finger. This piece is the last of my favourites and another ring that is very fitting to my usual style. The Celtic entwining pattern is what first brought my attention to the piece, and although this is a toe ring, I've always much preferred it on my finger. I love this simple and small little ring which is a staple piece in my ring collection.

I'm so sorry I rambled on for such a long time, this was meant to be a quick post! But thankyou if you read this far down, and I'll be posting again soon. 

Bye for now lovelies xx

OOTD

                                                OOTD

Hello.

Quick post here showing my outfit of the day (or OOTD). This was a quick little throw together of simple pieces which I could just bob on, and then bob out of the door. It's not very warm at the minute in the UK, so I wanted something that was light, comfortable and would keep me fairly warm (I added plain black medium thickness tights). This playsuit piece has to be one of my all time favourite buys. I picked it up at The Clothes Show live-an annual exhibition/convention of beauty brands and fashion brands alike, with some charity shop and vintage stalls in there too. This piece was actually from a vintage stall, and I loved it as soon as I laid eyes on it. The simplicity of the piece with the added uniqueness of an open back (I ADORE open backs) drew me in, and I tried it on for size. It fit almost perfectly, the shoulders were a little too large, but that's nothing some quick altering wouldn't fix. It had a flattering a-line shape throughout the bodice, and an elasticated waist which created a small flare and little pleating effect to the shorts. All these elements linked with a tie piece open back, and for the cheap and cheerful price of £25 it was mine! I love styling up this piece for day and night, as it is so versatile, and jewellery, a bag and an alternative jacket brings it straight into 'heading out' territory. 

For this day time outfit I styled the piece with my staple denim jacket. I love this jacket thrown over various outfits, as it's so easy to incorporate with almost anything, and adds an edgyness to many outfits with its Aztec print detailing across the chest. I picked up this from H&M (one of my favourite shops in the whole wide world) for I think around £24.99 at the time. For how much of a staple piece this is in my wardrobe, and the sheer number of outfits it can be paired with,I would suggest a denim jacket to ALL!

Lastly I added a simple dream catcher necklace. This necklace is a great piece for sprucing up a day time outfit! It's a lovely length, coming up between chest and belly height, and is made of material in the 'chain' section, so is adjustable if needed. I love everything dream catcher anyway, and this just caught my eye while I was out. I picked this up from a little boutique shop in LA on a recent visit for I think $3. In hindsight I probably should have bought more in various colours, but as blue is my favourite colour and this piece goes with almost everything in my wardrobe, however I'm super super happy I found it and absolutely adore it!!