Floral Trousers and #Passion4Fashion Linkup

I have been on the hunt for a great pair of floral trousers for years. I just couldn't find a pair that were the the right colouring, length or price. 

Thanks to a little boxing day shopping i found these beauties at River Island.

 The perfect floral trouser. The colours are beautiful, the ankle skimming length, perfect, the price , on point at a mere £15!

It was the holy grail of floral trousers. I'm so pleased to have added them to my wardrobe, they have multiple remixing possibilities, such as with stripes, a blouse or a plain tee, with a blazer or leather biker jacket. I am very happy to add them to the gang.

So with the first sign of a bit of spring-sunshin(still cold, not gunna lie), i pulled them out and popped them on with this blush knit sweater with already added bling.

Thats another thing i love about them, they are the perfect year round trouser.

Happy floral trousers make for a very happy Rachel!

Do you own any floral trousers?

Floral Trousers: River Island

Sweater: F&F

Shoes: Matalan

Jacket: Gifted

An InLinkz Link-up

Beauty Spotlight: Chanel

 I have wanted to start doing a little bit about beauty products for some time, but for some reason i just hadn't gotten around to doing it.. Photographing product (or anything actually, hubby is my resident photographer thankfully!) isn't really my forte, and Salvatore (thats the mister) is a busy little worker bee lately so the odd outfit photo is pretty much as much as i can get from him of late.
So photographs aside...
Chanel
Oh Chanel. Luxury personified.
Now, as we all might know i am quite the frugal shopper. I shop a lot but i tend to air on the cheaper side of shopping when it comes to clothes, even my makeup bag is over-flowing with high-street cosmetics (which i also do love..more on that soon). But you know when you just want to be indulgent and treat yourself? Well that's where i stood. I was in the market for an excellent foundation. Not an ok, or make-do foundation, but a fabulous one that would feel like a second skin.
I had heard amazing things about theCHANEL VITALUMIÈRE AQUA so thought i'd hit up the Chanel counter to see what they had to advise.
When i was there, i was treated like a princess, the whole experience was just wonderful. they treated me to a full face makeover, listened to  my requests and recommended what might work for me, all the while treating me to wonderful little tid-bits of information from make-up to Coco Chanel herself!

When it comes to foundation, everyone is different. I have very oily skin and find my foundation can be gone by mid day if it isn't primed, i can often look shiny (Oil slick anyone? Very pleasant i know.) and because of this i tend to opt for a matte finish. The dewy glowy foundations look great on other people, but me? Well they just make me look extra shiny, so for me it had to be matte. So the Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua was not the right one for me.
With the advice of the make-up artist we went for CHANEL PERFECTION LUMIÈRE VELVET.
Ladies, let me be honest with you here... It feels absolutely beautiful. It does exactly what it says on the box, it feels like velvet. When i walked out that day i literally had to slap my own hand away from touching my face constantly, there is no other words for it other than beautifully velvet.
I have tried A LOT of foundations over the years, and this one by far feels the nicest.
The colour chosen for me (20 beige) is also perfect, making it appear flawless.
I have quite red undertones and freckles so i have a very uneven skin tone, this perfects my tone and evens out the colouring very well.
Application wise, it glides on and blends in very very easily. I use a foundation brush and apply a small amount which actually goes a long way. At £33 it isn't cheap (or what i would class as cheap.. my usual foundation budget is £12-£15) but i would say it value for money as a little goes a long way.
Downfalls? I would say it doesn't last as long as some of my other foundations. even when primed it i would say it does wear off through the day, leaving just a little left at home time. Like i mentioned though, i do have oily skin and this is common practice for oily skinned girls..meh #oilyskinissues
Will i re-purchase?
Yes, yes i will. The colour, the feel, the application are all perfect and with a little touch up from my powder compact(below) i have found it to be the nicest foundation i have ever worn.

Whilst there i also purchased the CHANEL LE BLANC DE CHANEL Multi-Use Illuminating Base.
As i mentioned, with skin like mine the red need toning down so this primer/base works well to start my skin off on a more even keel. It also feels lovely on, and on my days off i will often just use this with a touch of concealer where needed just to brighten my face (and not scare off the neighbours..:)

My latest purchases have been the 

CHANEL POUDRE UNIVERSELLE COMPACTE Pressed Powder. 

This is to go hand in hand with the foundation and to carry around in my handbag as a touch up. I wouldn't say there is any absolutely outstanding qualities with the pressed powder, but the colour is natural and the feel is light weight not cakey like some powders can be. Just for the chic lady in me though, it is lovely to pull out the Chanel compact and touch up. Coco Chanel really was the epitome of chic and the packaging and products all reflect that.

Whilst i was purchasing the powder I also through in to my virtual cart the CHANEL ROUGE COCO SHINE Hydrating Sheer Lipshine (in shade 63 Rebel). Buying make-up online can be difficult, more so if you've never bought that particular product before. This lipstick is lovely, its a high shine subtle red (as opposed to the normal bright red i go for) It's perfect day wear, and build-able to a more obvious red. The only flaw is that it doesn't last long. Often, for me, hi-shine formulas don't  stay put for very long. This needs topping up a lot. When its on it is a very natural colour, so if you are looking to venture in to reds this could be a great starting point.

Next time i think i may try CHANEL ROUGE ALLURE Luminous Intense Lip Colour as these seem more vibrant and have very good staying power reviews.

Also on my hit list isthis pretty blush again as a handbag top-up.. it just looks beautiful!

Wearing just the base, powder and the lipstick with one coat.

So there we have it girls, Chanel.. i'm a total fan!

Do you own any Chanel make-up? If not would you ever take the plunge and purchase?

Hair lightening stage one; Black to brunette

 Towards the end of last year i decided i no longer wanted to have black hair. I never really intended to have black hair, but after years of home dying a dark brown and then graduating to black it was just where i had ended up. For a long time i had loved it. I think black hair and red lip can look stunning. But my hair was looking lack-lustre even after it had been freshly dyed. It had become dull and the black was no longer shiny but it looked matte and one dimensional.
So i started to research how to shift black hair, hitting up Youtube to see if it was something i could do myself. Quickly i realised i would need to involve the professionals as hair stripping has a lot of stages (some of them quite scary---see below image of flame hair!lol) and it wasn't something I was prepared to take on myself.

Here's a little before and after shot to give you an idea of how black my hair was and to see how much lighter we've gotten with just stage one.

So me being me, i decided on the Monday and had my appointment booked and was attending in 2 days time on the Wednesday, in my local friendly hairdressers (FYI Hairs n Graces in Talbot Green are amazing if you're local in South Wales), we set to it with a quick look at the colour chart and some photos i'd pinned and thrust at the hairdresser expressing "make me look like that please!" and off we went.

The "hair stripping" process is basically trying to draw out as much of the colour from your hair as possible. The only way to do this is peroxide in high volume. 

They set to it and applied the peroxide all over my hair. I was literally the darkest black you could possibly be, so they explained to me that there was no way of knowing what the outcome would be with this first application. After years and years of black application there was A LOT of build up, so to break through that was going to be tough. Knowing this i kind of expected my hair to not really lighten but to at least start in the process was enough for me.

So where was i? Oh yes, we applied the peroxide all over the hair and then we waited.

The lovely hairdresser checked it after and hour and decided my hair could withstand longer so she left it on for another 15 mins, after which she checked again and found a lot of the hair had taken well but there was definitely some stubborn parts that were proving tricky to lift, in particular the front bands of hair that fall around my face. After an hour and a half they were still pretty black, so we upped the dosage, so to speak, with a higher peroxide just on those particularly stubborn parts.

That was left for another wee while (at this point i had a numb arse and had had my fill of coffee and magazines) then rinsed off.

This is the result of the stripping

Oh yeh i had flame coloured hair for a while there. A lady and i were giggling in the hairdressers about how this could catch on and become a new trend!LOL

From here we could see what we had gotten too. It lightened a good 4 shades and had kicked out a lot of warmth as you can see with the reddish colour on the ends. So we decided to go for a warm redish brown colour. This again was then applied all over and left to set for about an hour.

And this is what i have now. A lovely warm multi-tonal colour. 

I never intentionally wanted red hair but i kinda love it. 

Like i mentioned this is just stage one as i do intend to go lighter.. how light i hear you ask? I'm not entirely sure yet. I'm thinking maybe in my next visit (in 6 weeks) i may try for a little ombre, something like this possibly and maaayybee progressing on to this.. who knows..

For now i am happy having fun on this hair lightening journey and just seeing where it goes. 

Have you ever had any drastic hair changes?

Blanket wrap casually styled with jeans and a blouse

 My first post with my new lighter hair..
So long black hair, it was swell! But as they say; A change is as good as a rest, and the mood struck to finally do something about it. It's still darker than where i want to be colour wise, but its a good starting point for moving in to lighter shades.. Yay for change! I'm planning a full hair post for later this week, so keep an eye out for that if you're wondering about hair lightening!
So this weekend has been blissful, no work for me and lots of cuddles  with Neo and puppy Cassy, plenty of reading, way to much eating and lolling about, it was lovely (of course along with the obligatory, washing, ironing and general boring stuff).
As for outfits? Well it was casual all the way of course.. uggs were on and pj's mostly, but when clothes for called for i opted for simple, drapey and comfy. Perfect for returning this bum back to the sofa and wrapping up in a blanket. I think its just amazing that you can legitimately wear a blanket out and call it an outfit. Ladies fashion has come on leaps and bounds in regards to comfort hasn't it. Joggers are now fully accepted forms of day-wear and can even look super smart, trainers now look uber cool styled with smart trousers and blankets are now perfect for outerwear!
Don't you just love how fashion progresses.  Being a woman can sometimes be hard work (lord don't i know it!!) But sometimes i feel exceptionally proud and pleased to be a woman... yes i got all that from joggers and blanket wraps.. amazing what some r&r can do to a girls thoughts ;)

Is there a comfy trend that you have absolutely love?

Blanket Wrap & Blouse: New Look

Hat: Primark

Boots: c/o Duo Boots

Bag & Necklace: Yosa

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