The Uniquely You Challenge

The Uniquely You challenge is a blogger challenge set up by Mod Cloth.  Each week, an item from their website is selected as the item of the week, and bloggers have to style it with their own personal twist!  I have heard of Mod Cloth, but honestly it's not a site that I had visited prior to the challenge because it is based in America.  But, since carrying out the challenge, I've found that shipping to the UK is easy peasy, and they have some really nice bits in a huge range of sizes!  (My favourites are the graphic tees, but lordy they have some nice things!)

So this week, the chosen item was Bouquet of the Season dress.  In all honesty, when I saw this I was a little worried how I would style this to make it more me.  I'm not a major lover of pink or florals, and this is very girly with pink and florals.  Looking at the dress, I first thought it would be nice for a Wedding or maybe a day at the races - not something I go to, and Weddings I tend to stick to plain dresses.  But when I thought about how I would wear it...well I think it'd be the perfect base item for festival wearing.

The fitted bust, but floaty bottom is perfect for festival style and the colours are beautifully suited to beach sunsets, or lazing on the field.  I chose to team this dress with the Totally Boss Jacket, which is a light acid wash denim to give a girly dress a bit of an edge.  I really love this jacket, and it seems to have a slight crop to it which I think is perfect for a dress of this style - I wouldn't want the jacket to swamp over the dress.

Festival shoes are a tough one...for a casual day in a pub garden, I might put this outfit with some nice sandals or flip flops.  But festivals in England, where the weather is really unpredictable, I'd need a closed toe.  I've chosen some pretty grungey boots, which are the Long Strides Forward Boots, and would slip these over a nice pair of girly, frilly socks like the Dancing on Flair Socks.  I've not seen frilly socks this frilly in the UK - I really, really love the huge frill!  (Doesn't 'frill' look weird when it's been written so many times...frill...frilly...)

I love a good necklace, so when I spied the Bead Still My Heart Necklace, I needed to fit it into this outfit!  I was a bit unsure at first, but you know what, festival style is almost an anything goes.  I want to wear this necklace with this outfit, and I want to clash the cobalt blue with this dress.  I love how chunky it is, and the cord gives it an amazing boho feel.  To really finish the festival vibes, I've chosen the Safari Finesse Hat!  I probably prefer hats to sunglasses, because I find sunglasses that actually suit me really difficult to find, but hats...well I really love this big rim hat!

So that's my outfit!  I hope you like it; it's been fun doing a challenge!  You can find my outfit on Wanelo here!

How would you have styled the Bouquet of the Season dress?

What I've Bought: ASOS

Since before Christmas, I have had an outrageous number of items in my saved basket on ASOS.  Let me put this out there - ASOS is a dangerous place.  It is too good, and has too much stuff on, but everything is too nice to leave behind so...I bought the majority of my basket, spent my birthday money and probably even a smidge more.

The only positive I can think to point out is that everything was on the sale, and I had a sneaky ASOS Insider discount code which I was allowed to use on sale items!  I've skimmed my basket down to show you my favourite bits of what I scouted from the sale!

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1.  I have been meaning to switch up my wardrobe for a while now, I'm very much a leggings/jeans girl because that's all that I own.  One pair of good leggings, and one pair of good jeans.  I know...deprived.  So I bought this dress - it's the ASOS Smock Dress In Nepi and I bought mine in green.  It also came in coral and a gorgeous blue, but I have a lot of this bright blue in my wardrobe so fancied a change.  It's half price in the sale at £12.50.

2.  This dress is the Motel Elsa Skull Dress.  It's £35 down from £60, and I think is one of those patterns which are a bit deceptive.  I think it looks like a nice lacey/paisley patterning, but on closer look, it's actually little skulls with a bit of a Mexican sugar skull feel.  Really like this, and I will be wearing this on my next night out!

3.  The item that has been in my basket the longest, and is my absolute favourite buy is this Evil Twin Buzz Kill Babydoll dress.  I love the print on it, it looks like crazy storms with lightening.  I'm a bit unsure if the fit will suit my figure, but I'm giving it a good go! I really hope I can keep it!  It was the most expensive thing in my basket at £45, but it was down from £75.

4.  The Lavish Alice Sweatshirt in Floral Print is something I've been looking at for a while too.  I really love the bright blue rose print and think this would look nice with some leggings for the day, or even with my black jeans in the evening.  They also have matching trousers which I'd love to try, but I just don't think that a print on my bottom half would look very flattering on my pear shape.

5.  This is the Noisy May Harlequin Sweat.  I think that I like this, I'm a little unsure so it may be something that I send back.  But I need to see it in real life to decide if it's a real keeper.  I like that the print is in a t-shirt shape, and it's not something I've ever really seen before.

6.  You didn't think I'd not get a beauty buy in did you?  I got this Nails Inc Kensington Caviar Top and Base Coat Duo for less than £14 with my extra discount, what a bargain.  I've had a mini of the Kensington Caviar Top Coat before, so I'm pleased I managed to get a full size with the base coat for what is essentially free.  It says this has sold out now, but keep your eyes peeled as it might come back!

7.  My favourite of my ridiculous underwear top up was this ASOS Boudoir Floral set.  The bra was a bargain at £8 and the matching bottoms were £4.50.

Did you get anything in the sale?  What did I miss?

Edit: I had to send a few bits back!  Noo!  I was right about the fit for the Babydoll dress, and as much as I loved it, the shape of the dress just didn't flatter my figure at all!  I also had to send back the Smock dress for the same reason, but the colour when it arrived was a lot darker than it looked in the picture, which was disappointing.  The Motel dress was outrageously short, and by short, I mean it didn't even pull past my bum!  It could have passed for a long top - had to go back.  BUT.  I absolutely love everything else, even the Noisy May sweat which is gorgeous!

Wednesday Wishlist #3

I really don't know why I do this to myself...create these wishlists of all the things I'm loving at the moment when I know that I literally can't afford them.  First of all, I'm meant to be saving for a house with my boyfriend.  The last couple of months haven't gone so well as I've been topping up my winter wardrobe with shoes and coats...  And second of all, it's coming up to Christmas and I have so many people to buy for!  I can't really justify spending money on myself, but...if I slip up...I'll have probably bought one (or more!) of these beauties.

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First up, we have the Illasmasqua lipstick in Apocalips.  It's an unusual choice; a gorgeous teal with a matte finish.  But before you question my choice, just Google some swatches.  It looks stunning.  A first look at this bizarre colour might put you off, who wears teal lipstick?  Well Rihanna did for one, but that's not my reasoning for needing it.  Greens are opposite reds in the colour wheel, meaning that green should be just as flattering as a red in theory!  This shade teamed with winter skin, and dark winter clothes seems to be right up my street...and to be honest, I'm not bothered if it's right up anyone elses as I love it!

All of the clothing on this wishlist is from Motel (because I've been insanely stalking their website lately) and the first is this patterned dress.  It's very bold and not something that I'd usually go for, but there's something about it that's making me want to give it a try.  I think this, some sheer black tights, an oversized dark coatigan and some chunky boots would look amazing.

The second dress is this gorgeous plain black dress in a skater style, with a nice Peter Pan lace collar.  I just think that this would be really nice for day to day wear and would again work nicely with my trusty chunky boots.

The fourth thing on my Wednesday Wishlist...this stunning Jouer limited edition palette.  Jouer isn't a brand I've tried before, but I've read so much about it.  This is the In the Red palette, and it doesn't even need explaining.  Look at it!  Connectable pieces of gorgeousness, and they're just screaming my name.  This would be perfect for winter parties, or perfecting your flawless Snow White look - neutral eyes, rosy cheeks and bold lips.  Be. Mine. Now.

Another seasonal screamer for me is the new Jo Malone Peony Blush Suede cologne.  I had a sample of this through the post when I ordered my Mums birthday present and it smells amazing.  It's the perfect mix of floral and musky and is something that I would wear a lot through winter.

To finish my somewhat seasonal ending to this wishlist...this amazing dress from Motel.  Sparkles and sequins are again something that I wouldn't normally go for, I tend to go for the more grungey look, but this would be the perfect party dress.  I'd either go for sky high heels, or tone down the sparkle with some high wedge boots.

So what do we think? Do I save or spend, spend, spend?!

As I am part of the Motel Rocks Street Team, I have a discount code available for all of my readers for a handy 20% off at Motel Rocks!  Just enter ceejayell at the checkout for discount across all Motel branded products.

Outfit Planning #1

So on Saturday, I'm going out for a meal with friends followed by some drinks around town.  I've been pretty good lately, and haven't been spending as I'm taking part in the #roseenospend spending ban!  I have done so well and I don't think I've bought anything I shouldn't have since I went shopping in Meadowhall, and that was pre spending ban!  I might have made a couple of cheeky purchases since my thirty days have been technically up, as in starting from my last spree, but maybe I've not quite reached my thirty days from joining the spending ban.

Anyway, I've been outfit planning and I've been trying to keep it cheap and cheerful, whilst still getting a good casual outfit in there.  I didn't want an outfit especially for this occasion, but one that I could get plenty of wear from.

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The first thing I have bought, which arrived today, is this tartan dress.  I was a bit wary in case it didn't match the photograph; I specifically picked this tartan dress over all the others on eBay, as it had the dark running through, which I thought didn't make it quite so garish and in your face compared to other tartan dresses that just use the red and black.  I am 5 ft 7/8 and I will point out that this dress is so much shorter than I wanted it to be!  It definitely looks longer on the image, so I want to team it with some thick black tights, probably Primark Super Cosy, and some chunky boots.  Enter Heel Berry.

My last Wednesday Wishlist featured Topshop Argo boots, but these are well out of my price range right now, so I spotted these beauts on Heel Berry.  They're very similar to what I initially wanted, minus a strap or two, but they are so nice!  I've just ordered these tonight, and they come with free delivery, so I shall report back on the quality of these once they arrive!

As the dress is patterned, I wanted a plain but striking necklace.  I hate plain necklaces when you have a statement piece of clothing on that blends in, and you might has well have not bothered at all.  This is a raw crystal necklace which is on a twenty inch chain.  I am so excited to get this!

What do you think of this Saturday night plan?  Anything catch your eye?