Micro trend: the Creeper-Brogue lovechild!

I've noticed these awesome little Brogue-Creeper hybrids (Breepers?) cropping up a lot recently. Annoyingly, they're all around the same slightly-too-high price range. I do have an obsession with Creepers but they are so overtly grungey, I don't think they'd suit me. Breepers, on the other hand, have enough geeky chic appeal that they would fit right in with my daily life!

My faves are the black Miss Selfridge ones, so I could get 25% off with my Topshop discount, which makes me feel less guilty...

The Miss Selfridge ones, the ASOS ones, The Urban Outfitters red ones and UO black ones

I made this little trend page in inDesign so I could play around with the new fonts I downloaded earlier. I have so much fun tinkering in inDesign, I really want to make features like this more of a regular thing. What do you think?

I'm off to kill time before the Oscar's. Alex and I are staying up super late and streaming it! I think we're going to watch Come Dine and do a bit of uni work until it starts. What are you up to tonight?

By the way, I did a handwritten post for Clare on her bloggy side-project Handwritten, to which she added a lovely illustration of me!

Hope you've had a delightful weekend!

♥

LFW Day 2 - Uncut!

Good evening errbody!


I've just got back from a rather lovely day at work and Alex is cooking a fine feast of chicken in bacon with homemade herby chips and garlic mushrooms. Nom to the max! So despite my being behind on my Final Major Project, life is lovely :)

EDIT: Have actually finished dinner now, as I've taken so long to finish this post, and can verify it was delicious!

I've enjoyed reading your entries to my Boots competition! The No7 hot cloth cleanser has had a lot of mentions in entries, I will definitely be checking that out. Click here to enter if you haven't already!

So, time for some pics/tales of Day 2 of my LFW shenanigans. I kind of prefer staggering these posts as I don't want my blog to be an image heavy bombardment on your retinas!

I was quite nervous on Day 2 (Saturday) because this was the day I was meeting up with Planet Notion (Notion Mag's website, they asked me to contribute for LFW) to go to shows and be like, a proper writer and all that. I listened to some This Providence on the train to chillax. They are amazeballs, if you like whiney American emo. Personally, I live for it.

When I got there, I killed some time before I met up with Seb from PN. I went and checked out some of the exhibitions in Somerset House where I saw these crazy Linda Farrow sunglasses:

I think these ones are a collaboration with Jeremy Scott

I checked out the Louise Gray showroom. I love the DIY sensibility of her designs. I think this picture of some shorts adorned in bottle caps encapsulates that. I was chatting to the lady that was manning the showroom and she was telling me how interns were sent out to all the local East London boozers to collect bottle caps! Haha!

Batshit crazy gloves by Yang Du:

After mooching, I met with Seb and his friend Siam and we went to the Bernard Chandran show - the first one I had to review!! Eeep! I had a different ticket to the others (I acquired mine through the blog, thus mine was a crummy print out). When blue-stickered-tickets were called into the show from the queue, I was persuaded to try and blag in with the others so we could sit together... This is the first and only time I will try the blogger blaggage we've read so much about, as I am bloody cursed.

Doorman: You can't go in, you don't have a blue sticker.

Me: *feigning confidence* No, [dropping head of PR's name] assured me I'd be seated but my ticket didn't arrive in time.

Woman next to door man turns round: I AM [head of PR]. (With an expression as if to say 'and who the fuck are you?!')

Me: ...... Touché. *rejoins queue*

It was OFF THE FAIL SCALE!! Are you cringing for me right now?

Anyway I got the moral victory, as I ended up sitting right with the photographers (on the floor, admittedly) so I got a great view and some amazing pictures!

I really enjoyed the show. You can see the best pictures of it here, and you can read my review of the show on Planet Notion. Woop!

Next up, I went to the Una Burke exhibition, another one I was writing up for Notion. I was a bit intimidated when I walked into the dark room at Vauxhall Fashion Scout with a few spotlit strappy leather pieces and a creepy film playing, but when I eventually acquired a press release I learnt a lot more about the collection. They didn't have any press releases at the exhibition, but this was definitely a collection you needed to know the backstory of. Read my short article on Planet Notion if you fancy hearing about it!

After this, I went straight to the Fyodor Golan show which was in the same building. I didn't have to write this one up, so I got to enjoy the atmosphere and the show pressure free! The show had some really nice pieces (I loved the second look below) but on the down side, the press release was littered with spelling errors. Pet hate. There was 'scaring' instead of 'scarring' (the collection was inspired by tribal rituals) and, ridiculously, 'defernt' instead of 'different'.

After the show, I headed back to the media lounge at Somerset House to chill for a bit before my next show. Vitamin Water had kindly secured me a ticket to Clements Ribeiro later in the day, and unexpectedly, they also gave me a ticket to Olivia Rubin in the evening! I went to Tesco because I was majorly hungry and couldn't be bothered to queue for soup in the lounge.

I felt mildly out of place as I chowed down on a big Smoked Salmon salad and Raspberry filled Krispy Kreme. Too fat for fashion, and proud of it!

Then it was time for Clements Ribeiro, which was in the same venue as Bernard Chandran, a gorgeous Victorian ballroom in Northumberland House. I was looking forward to this show, as I have posted about the design duo in the past and am quite a fan. But I didn't really like the 'signature' damask-fading-into-leopard print they were plastering on everything, so I was left a little disappointed. It was a fantastic experience to see the show, though. Great pics here if you want to check it out for yourselves.

After this show, I went straight to Olivia Rubin. It was more out of the way as it was at the Jalouse nightclub off of Regents Street, so I didn't see any of the familiar faces from the more fashiony shows I'd been to. In fact, I didn't see a single familiar blogger there. I could've used a friend inside the show because it was as though the afterparty had already started! Free booze, dark nightclub lighting, people from The Only Way is Essex posing on podiums for the paparazzi... On the bright side there were goody bags! Mine included some OPI polish and my favourite Ardell lashes!

When the actual show began, models walked around the walls at the edge of the dancefloor, which was actually quite high up. My camera hated the lighting so I didn't get any decent pictures, but you can get a better glimpse of the designs in this video. I liked a lot of the clothes, the brick prints and speech bubble prints were fun, but it seemed a bit more like New Look than designer.

After the show, which started very late, I had a load of time to kill before my train so I thought I'd check out the loos - as you do! Inside, I bumped into some of the models from the show, who posed for a quick snap in the glamorous surroundings of Jalouse's bogs.

I had to get a snap of the nails, which were Orange OPI (not sure of the exact shade), one with the black shatter top coat. The girls loved my gold leopard print nails, so it was a bit of a nail love fest!

I also had to get a snap of another model's crazy creepers. Turns out they are Lazy Oaf x Underground creepers that seem to be sold out now!

After I had finished papping models in the loo, I made my way to the station. On the way back through the club, I saw all of the other models hanging out and having a laugh with each other and dancing around. They seemed to be having such fun, which was nice to see, as I always imagine LFW to be pretty hard on the models.


Keeping up the habit of ending my whirlwind glamorous days in London on a highly unglamorous note, come 9.30, I was sat on the floor of Charing Cross station eating a cold cheeseburger and colder chips.

It was such a mad day. Despite not being wild about some of the designs I saw, I absolutely loved the experience of going along to them and getting the chance to see everything up close and experience the atmosphere. It was just the most fun! Mega thanks to Planet Notion and Vitamin Water for livening up my LFW schedule!

Tune in for my final day at LFW, which will be posted in the next few days!

♥

Boots Competition: Win 10 of your favourite Boots products!

I know I've been a bit slow in posting up my LFW gossip, so I thought I'd try and bribe you into not unfollowing my blog with some fab prizes courtesy of Boots! Yep, I'm literally trying to buy your love.

Boots are currently offering 3 for 2 across facial skincare, hand and body skincare and No7, until March 22nd.



The generosity doesn't end there, as Boots are kindly offering my lovely blog followers the following competition prizes:

ONE of you will win TEN of your favourite Boots branded products!

THREE runners up will win ONE of their favourite products!

- To enter, all you have to do is tell me ONE of your favourite Boots products.

Clickety click if you want to browse for a favourite!

For extra entries:

Tweet/retweet about the competition (x1 extra entry)

'Like' Boots Facebook page (x1 extra entry)

Enter the competition on said Facebook page to win a year's worth of your fave products (x1 extra entry)

Pretty plz post a SEPARATE comment telling me each time you do any of these or the extra entries won't be counted.

T's & C's

- ONLY OPEN TO FOLLOWERS: I will be checking, so please ensure you are publicly following my blog.

- Only open to UK residents

- Winners can choose anything from Boots' own brands: (No7, 17, Botanics, Extracts, Essentials, Aqua Balance, Fearne Cotton, Champneys)

- Winners will be chosen using a random number generator.

- COMPETITION CLOSES 22ND MARCH 2011
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

I thought I'd share a few of my favourites with you all, as I am a Boots devotee. Given the chance, I would honestly prefer a super market sweep in Boots than in Topshop!




I love 17's red lipstick in Showbiz. It can be a tad drying but it always looks amazing in photos and lasts forever.

I read about this Botanics eye makeup remover on a blog somewhere, and am quite hooked on it. It's so gentle and has an almost greasy consistency which makes it really easy to use without pulling your eye skin all over the place. It's only about 3 quid, and is the best eye makeup remover I've ever used!

I got the No7 Protect & Perfect day cream in a goody bag at a Boots event and am in love with it. It's an expensive one, but I truly believe it has done wonders for my complexion. I actually think my skin looks better without foundation these days, whereas it used to be really red and blotchy. Plus it's safeguarding me against future wrinkles! I'm nearly out of this, so may have to treat myself seeing as it's in the 3 for 2 at the mo!

Good luck in the competition, everyone! Looking forward to hearing what all of your favourite Boots products are!

♥

Tuesday Tip: No-sew peter pan collar tutorial!

Evening all! Cutting it very fine to get this tip posted on a Tuesday. The pressure!!

A pretty straightforward (I think!) tip to create a peter pan collar that doesn't require technical skill or money! Obviously it's no sew in the fact that you don't need to hem fabric in order to make the collar like in other tutorials, but you will need to sew it on to the top/dress afterwards! But if you're a total sew-phobe, you can always pin/glue it on!

You will need:

Some lace (preferably with a hem, like in the pic)
Top coat nail polish
Scissors
Peter pan collared clothing as a template (optional)



1. Cut the lace into 2 pieces long enough to sit at the neckline of your top (it can stop just behind the shoulder or go all the way round, up to you!)

2. Round off the edges with scissors.



3. Dab top coat on the very edges that you've snipped to prevent fraying.



4. Sew on top a tee or dress, and you're good to go!!



Hope you like the tip, here's a vid 'tutorial' too, although it is rather simple anyway! :)



Hope you enjoyed the tip. It was so much easier than I thought it would be! It literally took me about 5 minutes max!

Let me know what you think, and as always, let me know if you find any cool DIY ideas!

♥

PS - Don't forget you can get 15% off Motel when you use the code 'GEMFATALE'!

LFW Day 1 - The Look Show!

Hello strangers!

I've returned from planet fashion to my role as uni student/housewife/blogger.

The transition hasn't been too bad, as I got my marks back from my Topshop Fragrance project yesterday and got 81%! The top mark in the class apparently! I don't mean to blow my own trumpet. I'm just super happy, as this mark makes up for some unmitigated disasters in my second year.

Anywho, let's start with day 1 of fashion week, which was largely spent hanging out with Lily, Victoria, Michelle and Laura at The Look Show. Lily won tickets and kindly offered one to me! What a babe. I'm going to do a dedicated post on The Look Show because it was fantastic, but I'll save that until I have time to look through the catwalk pictures instead.

Until then, I'll amuse you with some casual snaps from the day!

Most of my pictures came out really blurry, so I have procured these images from a variety of sources (linked below)...

Firstly, here's what I wore. The pics were taken at about midnight after I'd got home so I look a smidge haggard. I'm wearing a gorgeous polka dot peter pan playsuit that Motel kindly sent me. They also wanted to treat you too, so if you type in 'GEMFATALE' at the checkout, you get 15% off all Motel branded products!





(Jacket - Topshop, Mulberry tote - LFW freebie, Nail polish - Gold Digger by Models Own, c/oVitamin Water, Models Own x Wah nail Pen c/o Models Own, Seche Vite topcoat)

And on to Friday:

Here's a literal mountain of Vitamin Water being distributed outside Somerset House. That stuff is synonymous with LFW these days! There are nearly more bottles of Vitamin Water at fashion week than there are bloggers. True story. ;)



An amusing typo of my blog name (and surname for that matter) on my invite to the Corrie Nielsen show at Somerset House that morning... may have to rebrand the blog as 'Geb Fatale'... I think it has more of an unconventional edge to it!



And onto The Look Show!




I got terribly starstruck and started papping all the celebrities! They were just milling around with us mere mortals! This was just the start of my papparazi antics of LFW... More to come in the next couple of days! So yes, here's Marina and her mousey jumper!



Here's a slightly creepier picture I took unbeknown to Marina when she was checking out the Chocolate Fountain. The Look Show definitely let my inner stalker shine through! Nice to see another girl who owes her curves to a love of chocolate and marshmallows.



Booze + Cam = ready to pap. (From Laura's blog)



My celeb snapping etiquette developed throughout the afternoon, and here is what happens when you actually ask a celebrity for a photo. They smile! Well, Keisha was too busy doing an interview to pose, never mind! Here's Sophie Ellis-Bizzle:



Me and the lovely Carina, image courtesy of Look's Facebook!



A pic Lily snapped of me and Victoria having a lol over a gross pic she took of me (I think).



And us all in the photobooth! I don't seem to be able to get in one without pulling at least one cross-eyed silly face. At least this face isn't as bad as my last photoshop gurning session... Enjoy!


After The Look Show, we all went back to Somerset House and hung around for a bit! We also tried to get into a show, but it was too oversubscribed so loads of people didn't get in. So we went for dinner instead, which was even better really! I didn't get any good pictures because it was really dimly lit in the restaurant.

Thanks for inviting me, Lily, and thanks to all the girls I hung out with for being generally lovely. Click on the names below to read other accounts of the day!

Lily
Victoria
Michelle
Laura

And Lara Lain (who works for Look) has done a great little post on her blog - an insider's perspective of the day!

I've got work today and friends round later on, so I'm not sure what this means for Tuesday Tips, but I'll see what I can do.

Can't wait to share the rest of my LFW with you! ♥

LFW Eve...

Hello gang,

Sorry for no proper post tonight. I've been getting myself ready for my most exciting LFW yet!

Lily has kindly invited myself, Victoria and Michelle along to The Look Show with her tomorrow, which I am beyond excited about. I have a few shows to go to tomorrow too, if there's time, and then there's talks of a bloggers' dinner in the evening. I think we're aiming for 8pm at Vapiano's if anyone wants to come along!

Then on Saturday I'll be meeting with Seb from Notion Magazine's website. I got chatting to him last 'season' at the Louise Gray show, and this season he's asked me to cover some LFW shows for the Notion website! So, at the moment my Saturday schedule hangs in the balance as I won't know what I'll be going to until I've met with Seb and get debriefed on what shows I'm going to! Exciting times! Will be scary/amazing to be reviewing shows in a more comprehensive manner than I do on here... No 'LOLZ' allowed on a proper website, I bet. My lolz are for your eyes only!

I'll be trying to get some street style snaps to share with you guys too, as we all love to perv over people that dress far better than us, don't we? I'm not sure how exactly I'll cover LFW on here... I might just post about any blinding shows I've seen, or maybe a daily diary of what I get up to, warts and all (loo breaks excluded, if you don't mind!)

Will be having some late nights ahead of me (even if I leave London at 9, I don't get back until like 11), but will do my best to keep you in the loop with all the goss! And at the very least my outfits. I rehearsed them today... Expect red lipstick, ankle socks, leather and leopard nails. Just the usual then!

Follow me on Twitter if you want to know the goss before it gets blogged!

I'm off to Leopardise my nails...

Much ♥

Tuesday tip: Foil Fingers - the space age way to remove glitter nail polish!

I found this tip a month or so back on Youtube, when I was faced with the gruelling task of removing my rhinestone encrusted nails.  

I had to share my interpretation of it with you lot, because not only has this technique revolutionised my nail varnish choices (I don't need to fear the glitter anymore!) but also, it is a pretty hilarious way to remove polish. Plus, after my last post, it sounds like a lot of you put off using glitter polishes because of the struggle to remove it. Prepare for your lives to be changed! 

You will need this stuff:

Tear the foil into 10 bits that are big enough to wrap around your nail a couple of times, and cut the pads into quarters. You'll need approximately 10 depending on how many fingers you have. 

Soak the cotton pad in nail polish remover, and hold it onto the nail for a moment until it starts to adhere. 



Wrap the foil around your finger and squish it firmly so it holds the cotton wool onto your nail. Repeat. 



Sit and watch TV or think about life for about ten minutes (you won't be able to text or type!) Operating Photobooth with your knuckles isn't as fun as it sounds. And it doesn't even sound fun. Says it all. 


Excuse bedhead and no makeup, I'd only just got out of bed! 

Starting with the first finger you foiled (all the F's!), squish down on the foil as you pull it off the nail. It sometimes doesn't remove all of the glitter, but it removes about 95% of it. The remainder is really easy to remove with a cotton pad. 

Et Voila! Naked nails! 

I initially thought it might be a bit of a waste of nail polish remover, but I think you actually end up using less than if you were frantically scrubbing at them with endless cotton pads. 

So you are now free to go forth and cover your nails in rhinestones, glitter and confetti! They sky is quite literally the limit! 

♥