Sparkle at the Christmas Party!

I have noticed a few clothes shops don't seem to have much in the way of party dresses at the minute, which is disappointing since there are always nights out and parties to go to during the run up to Christmas and over New Year. Dorothy Perkins and Topshop seem to be particularly bad for partywear this winter.

Here are a few shimmery party dresses that I have managed to find online.

This ASOS Sequin Bodycon Dress in the colour 'ink' is available from their website, www.asos.com for £55.00.

This Kelly Wrap Sequin Bodycon Dress is £35.00 online at www.boohoo.com. I love the exposed zip down the back.

This Jane Norman Sequin Cowl Back Dress is reduced from £50.00 to just £37.50 online at www.houseoffraser.com.

This gold (although it looks silver to me) Debbie V Back Sequin Dress is available for £35.00 at www.boohoo.com.

ASOS.com have this ASOS Sequin Top Skater Dress available in navy for £50.00.

This French Connection Spectacular Sparkle Dress is amazing, but I cannot justify the £160.00 price tag that it carries at the minute. It is available at www.frenchconnection.com or www.very.co.uk.

I am not really an occasion buyer. I don't go shopping for an outfit for a specific occasion. If I see something I like I buy it, knowing that an occasion will come up when I could wear it.
I think I'll have a look to see if this comes up in the sales and I'm sure an occasion will arise in the New Year.

This French Connection Siberian Stripe Sequin Dress is available from www.frenchconnection.com for a whopping £280.00.

As for shoes and clutches that sparkle, a few items have caught my eye while I was browsing online.

Shoes (left to right):
1) Quiz Silver Crystal Glitter Peep Toe Platform shoes £19.99 reduced from £34.99 www.quizclothing.co.uk
2) New Look Black Lace Peeptoe Court Shoes £24.99 www.newlook.com
3) Red Or Dead at Schuh Lindy Hop Glitter £68.00 www.schuh.co.uk
4) Irregular Choice Iced Gem Abigail £82.00 www.schuh.co.uk
5) New Look Silver Glitter Metal Panel Platform Court Shoes £29.99 www.newlook.com

Clutches (left to right):
1) Accessorize Animal Clutch £45.00 www.accessorize.com
2) Jimmy Choo Cayla Champagne Glitter Clutch Bag £625.00 www.jimmychoo.com
3) Quiz Silver Glitter Clutch £21.99 reduced from £26.99 www.quizclothing.co.uk
4) New Look Black Scallop Bead Clutch £19.99 www.newlook.com
5) New Look Green Embellished Holographic Box Clutch £19.99 www.newlook.com

The Irregular Choice Iced Gem Abigail boots are my my favourite of the sparkly shoes and I love the New Look Green Embellished Holographic Box Clutch. I saw someone with the box clutch on a night out recently and I really liked it, although it is quite small.

The Jimmy Choo clutch is one that I was looking at this time last year in more of a glittery silver rather than a diamante design. It was reduced to around £400.00 in their summer sale this year, but it wasn't reduced in the glittery silver I had liked and £400.00 is still way too much for me to spend on a clutch bag.
I love the metal sided magnetic flap on the top.

Let's Buy Shoes!

The current range of shoes by Irregular Choice are not finding their way onto my want list!

There are shoes that I like, but I don't like them enough to want to buy them. Here are a few designs that I like from their website.

The website is currently selling lots of trainers as well. They look as though they are aimed at teenagers though and I am not a massive fan of them.

Many of Irregular Choice's older designs have disappeared from the website, but their outlet website, www.letsbuyshoes.com is full of gems at massively discounted prices.
Frustratingly I already have many of the styles on there, which I paid for at their full prices.
These are the designs I have in my collection.

They are now priced between £25.00 and £39.50, but are available in limited sizes.
I love all of these designs, but my favourites are We Found Love and Can't Touch This. I haven't had the chance to wear We Found Love yet, but I love the colour and the pretty flowers on the front.
I have Can't Touch This in about 10 different colours including these three. I absolutely love the design. The ones in the middle are my favourite and they are now only £29.50, which I think is an incredible price for them.

There are plenty more on the site that I don't have, but quite fancy.

I love this lot. Slam Dunk look amazing. They are also available in black, but I prefer coloured wedges as I always find some other shoes for black outfits.
I have posted about Cookie Club in the past. You can also get them in black and white, but I prefer these two colours. Unfortunately they don't have my size in either colour or else I'd snap them up.
I have also posted about Look At Me before, not being able to choose between the two colours.
I have two pairs of Abigail's Party boots already, but these ones caught my eye today. I think they'd go really well with jeans.
Eyelash Flicker are a cute pair of polka dot heels, which are priced at just £25.00!

I have used www.letsbuyshoes.com in the past, but their stock has never been so great! The designs they are selling are better than the ones on the main website, www.irregularchoice.com, although not all sizes are available.

Christmas adverts 2013

One month today until Christmas and less than a week to buy an advent calendar. I am feeling pretty unorganised.

I was doing so well, having sorted out most of my sisters' presents a few months ago, but since then I haven't bought much at all.

I haven't been overly thrilled with this year's Christmas adverts to be honest, but I do like a few of them.

Boohoo's advert is probably my favourite as it's full of sparkle.

I also quite like the Boots advert and wish someone would leave a bottle of Marc Jacobs Honey on my doorstep!

The Marks and Spencer advert is atmospheric and fun.

The John Lewis advert cost £1m to make and is part of their £7m Christmas advertising campaign. It is nice enough, but a bit overpriced if you ask me.

Nina Ricci fragrances and limited edition fragrances in general!

I'm a bit obsessed with perfume at the minute. I have my eye on all things Nina Ricci as I am in love with the Ricci Ricci perfume my sister bought me a while ago as a birthday gift.

The bottle is gorgeous. The scent is even nicer with top notes of rhubarb and bergamot; heart notes of moonflower, Indian tuberose and Centifolia rose and base notes of sandalwood and patchouli.
It is sweet and bitter at the same time. It is quite a heavy and mature scent. I would definitely recommend it.

Even though I have had this for a while I have now got it into my head that I need all of the other fragrances in the range. The fragrance was first launched in 2009.
This fragrance, Dancing Ribbons, first launched in 2010, has an equally gorgeous bottle.

I really want this. I was a bit concerned that one of the notes in this is ginger as I find that it can be too harsh for me, but a lot of the reviews I have read say that it doesn't dominate the fragrance and it is not too harsh or overpowering so hopefully I'll love it as much as the gorgeous bottle.

The top notes are listed as ginger, raspberry and rhuburb; the heart notes are tuberose and rose; the base notes are sandalwood and patchouli so it has quite a similar composition to the original, Ricci Ricci.

The 2011 release, which I hope to add to my collection very soon, was this Reflets Mysterieux (which translates to Mysterious Reflections).

Another gorgeous bottle and a similar composition.
Its top notes offer rhubarb accords.The heart notes are Centifolia rose and moonflower and the base closes with a sensual and elegant patchouli trail.

There was another fragrance added to the collection in 2012, Mademoiselle Ricci, which seems to move away from the original composition in favour of something a bit different. This fragrance has top notes of wild rose and pink pepper; heart notes of nerium oleander, rose hip and laurels and base notes of white wood and musk.

2013's summer release was Mademoiselle Ricci L'Eau, which came in a pink frosted bottle.

This offering has notes of rose, peony and lychee.
I have been looking for this fragrance, but cannot find it to buy anywhere on the internet, which seems ridiculous as it was only released this summer.


On the subject of fragrances that are difficult to find, I have been wanting Vera Wang Flower Princess for ages now. I have all of the other Princess fragrances in the range, but Flower Princess was first released back in 2006, the same year as the original Princess was launched and was available as limited edition world-wide, while permanently available to the Asian market.
On Friday I was browsing www.allbeauty.com, formerly known as cheapsmells.com and they are selling the 100ml bottle of Flower Princess for just £34.00.
I was over the moon and my other half kindly offered to purchase it for me there and then so I am very excited about it arriving in the post in the next few days. It'll be great to finally complete the set.

There are a few other fragrances, which I really want, but you can't buy anywhere. There is Cacharel Amor Amor In A Flash, which came out at the beginning of 2013, but by the end it is nowhere to be found.

There is also Marc Jacobs Daisy Silver edition, which was released back in 2009, but is now impossible to buy.

There are loads of DKNY fragrances that I'd love to own too, but they are impossible to find limited editions.

A lot of them are only from last year or the year before and they're no longer available.
It's annoying how limited the limited editions are these days. I hope I manage to find a few of these to add to my collection.