Golden Ticket Giveaway

The Fragrance Shop have just launched their biggest ever giveaway. Starting today with the purchase of £10 or more either instore or online, you will receive a golden ticket with the chance to win a fantastic prize. You could be jetting off to New York to meet the face of the new Boss fragrance for men, Ryan Reynolds. Be the envy of all your friends with a new Marc Jacobs couture bag, an engraved Guerlain Idylle 500ml EDP bottle or a trip for 2 to Milan with £500 to spend in the Emporio Armani showrooms!
Every ticket is a winner with literally thousands of money off vouchers and prizes to be won. What have you got to lose?
(offer runs until 30th Sept)

More New Irregular Choice

I'm finally catching up on all the posts I was supposed to write last week. I'm feeling much better today-I think I was just frustrated at being tired both physically and mentally. However I've got loads of exciting beauty reviews coming up, I'm just editing the images now. Anyway, I never got round to posting these new shoes from Irregular Choice that arrived at Schuh last week.

I get really excited when it's styles I haven't previewed before-so the Northern Bambi and Northern Floral wedges had me giddy! Bambi come in black or purple and feature the wonderful striped wedge heel that recurs throughout this seasons collection. And honestly who can resist a cute little Bambi scene? The flowery pair are available in red or turquoise. I love the floral fabric heel, but for some reason I'm not so keen on the bow on the uppers (me not keen on a bow-what's happening?), the uppers just don't excite me as much as the heel. Actually when I look at them properly, it's the added trim I don't like, the floral bow on it's own would be perfect.
The Golden Girl makeover given to Oz, I've blogged about before. I think they're really cute-available in black or delicious plum. Finally, the cortesan shape never fails to impress although Sweet Heart are a little too mismatched and thrown together for me-available in red or black. All shoes are £69.99 and available now from Schuh.

Ebay Shoes

A little later than anticipated, here is a collective group photo of the shoes I'm selling this week on ebay. My blue winged J-Lo lookalikes, shimmering aqua Miss Sixty sandals, the gorgeous bold leopard print Jessica Simpson courts, rosette peep toes by Shoemissy, studded ankle boots from Oasis, spotty Luna sandals by Irregular Choice, Topshop ribbon heels and a couple of pairs of Office Dolly Interbow courts alongside lots of Matalan heels and others. Hardly been worn and all in excellent condition with really low starting prices and I post worldwide (payment by paypal). I won't post a link to my ebay page here, but you can easily search to find the shoes ; )

Coming Soon

I have in my hands the brand new mascara from Rimmel which doesn't launch until September. I've been trying it out these past few days and will let you know how I'm getting on next week-as it's top secret until then!

Review & Swatches: No7 Autumn Limited Edition & Purple Liquorice Liplicious

I had a few No7 vouchers to spend so I set my sister off on the trail to get me some new things! Aside from the purple lipgloss I wanted so much, I bought the other items unseen-from the new Autumn Limited Edition collection.
There are 2 lipsticks in the new range (£9.75), Plum Rebel or Nude Rebel-I got nude (obv-although from the website images the plum looks pretty too). They come in a square casing with snakeskin feel fabric on the end which is quite cute. This shade is a nice terracotta-ish nude, not what I would class as pale nude, more a light brown. I didn't find it completely matte-the flash picked up a sheen and there is definitely a very slight shine (but no shimmer). I haven't had the chance to wear it lots yet, but it feels nice and velvety and provides a true-to-the-tube colour. Swatches at the bottom of this post.
I was very intrigued with the Stay Perfect Matte Top Coat (£6.75) which is also limited edition. It completely transforms regular nail polish (any kind) so that it has a dull, matte finish which was hugely popular on the catwalks last year. It's totally an oxymoron that nail 'polish' be matte and I admit it can take a bit of getting used to-but I kinda like crazy nails, so I was keen to test it out. I applied it (immediately) to my thumb nail, over the Boots Limited Edition Barry M lilac shade which is a creme (shiny but with no glitter or pearlised finish).
It goes on exactly like a regular top coat (shiny) but quickly dries and magically turns matte. It can slightly alter the colour underneath, as you can see in the swatches when shown with the other fingers. I don't hate it but I'm not totally converted either. I'll definitely use it again and play around with darker colours or glitter or pearlised polishes to see how they transform. I suppose because I usually opt for high shine varnish it will just take a while to get used to it. I did start to notice a slight sheen to the nail after a few days, but I think that comes from using hand creams etc. I'll be sure to post more images when I try out other colours with it.
Finally the gorgeous, sparkly, deep Purple Liquorice lipgloss. This is one of the new colours in the Liplicious gloss range £9.50 (not limited edition), that I spoke about the other week. I struggled to get decent images of it because it's so dark.
The glitter is sporadic on the lips which is surprising given the intensity of it in the tube. (naked lips above, Liplicious Purple Liquorice below)
In the second swatch image below you can see the greyish tone that I was taking about. On the lips it can vary from purple to grey depending on the light.
I'm really liking that No7 are trying something different and not playing it so safe and I'm really pleased with all my purchases. Have you bought anything that you like from No7 recently or have I tempted you to try any of these products? Remember to click images to enlarge.

My New Facebook Page

As you can see I've now started a joint facebook page for Pink Haired Princess and The Shoe Girl Diaries, so you can keep up to date with what's happening. I toyed with the idea of joining twitter...I still might, I'm just not sure if I'll know how to work it! Anyway, just click the Facebook button to the right and like the page! I would love to see you there.Here are some really large images (click them) of part of the new Pearl Lowe at Peacocks range which is due to be released in a week. I'm so looking forward to it! I was talking to the very helpful staff in the Dundee store last week because I spotted a few PL items and I hadn't realised they carried that line. They do, but they only get a few pieces in. Apparently they can ring around other stores though to get you items that they don't stock. They always seem very accommodating and helpful which is brilliant. I'll probably just end up ordering online because I don't want to wait until next time I'm instore. Also, apparently there is a lookalike of the gorgeous lace dress Daisy wore in the video I posted earlier in the week, which will be in the Christmas PL/Peacocks collection!

Discount Codes

I'm sorry I've been AWOL this week, I've just been feeling a bit down in the dumps and really tired. I've not been feeling very creative or the desire to write-sorry. Anyway, apparently it's a bank holiday weekend, so there are loads of discount codes floating around. I've just noted a few that popped into my email inbox today-hope they are of help to someone : )

Oli-free delivery on full price fashion until (midnight) 31st August: RNMP
Just Beauty Direct-20% off everything including sale items until (midnight) 30th August: BH20% (all orders come with free samples)
Clinique-free delivery on orders over £30 until (midnight) 30th August: BANK30
Spoiled Brat-10% off everything: BANK10
Punky Pins-free uk delivery when you spend £5 until 31st August: no code needed
Lipsy-free delivery until 1st Sept: no code needed
George at Asda-free delivery when you spend over £25: gfreedel

Pretty Platforms

If you have a party or wedding to go to soon, you're probably going to need these shoes. New in at River Island, huge platforms in soft nude with corsage detail to pretty them up. The flower is removable, so yo can dress down the shoes too! £74.99 available in sizes 3-8.

JC Meets Stardoll

Proof yet again that my Stardoll me is much more on trend than the real me-she has the Jeffrey Campbell Lita boots already!! Grrr! Of course in Stardoll world they cost $5 star dollars, in real life they cost $160 US dollars-which I just don't have right now. I seem to be permanently envious of the cartoon me though-it's pretty great to be able to pick and choose from high end designers and high street and the best bit-everything fits!
Solestruck by the way are currently sold out of the red, but still have the brown, black or mustard. They are also getting grey and khaki leather, plus the black and brown in suede. To be honest I still haven't made up my mind which shade I prefer. The mustard is kinda calling my name right now, although I'm keen to see what the grey look like.

FOTD: Purple Lips

Yesterday I decided to break out the 'fall lips' already! I say 'already' but actually you would be forgiven for thinking it was the middle of winter today-torrential rain and freezing cold! I went for Urban Decays Vinyl lipstick which is a dark purple. The UD site describes it as plum, but I would definitely say it's more purple. I wore it with Lancome lip crayon in Violette which is an old limited edition item as I recall-it's very dark purple. The lipstick smells of liquorice (quite strong at first) and never, EVER make the mistake of licking your lips when wearing this-euch! It tastes disgusting and is the only thing that puts me off these lippies.
My eyeshadow is from the (discontinued) Lancome Color Focus Quad 350. The white shade and then the grey (Erika F I believe) in the crease with L'Oreal SuperLiner Carbon Black and No7 Extreme Length mascara in black. My blush is Too Faced Brightening Blush in Pinch My Petals with MAC Summer Rose Beauty Powder to highlight.
The pictures were taken really quickly and in bad lighting y'day, but I'm sure you get the idea. My hair is straight for once (I always wear it curly or wavy now) and looks quite fuzzy in these images-I'm sure it didn't look like that in person, hee hee! My dress is Pearl Lowe for Peacocks and you can see yesterdays shoes on The Shoe Girl Diaries.

Primark Jewellery Haul

So I went to Primark today for the first time in months-I've taken some really quick photos of my loot. There's a definite winter vibe in the store but I was really disappointed to see a dress in either dusky pink or black that was totally my style with a spotty pattern and bows on the sleeves that was out of stock in my size. Even worse was the fact it was reduced to a fiver! They usually only get one or two in my size though, so if you don't get it first thing-it's gone! There actually wasn't that much in the dress section. I nearly cried when I spotted a dress with little horse print all over it. "Ponies, it's got ponies"!! They even had it in my size, then I realised it was a playsuit not a dress. My mother wouldn't even let me try it on-30 years old and she's still saying what I can and can't wear! She's probably right though, it was quite short and I doubt I would've gotten away with it-I was pretty pissed at that though because the fabric was so great.
I did get a little black dress, nothing exciting but quite cute. To be honest I don't think I'll be purchasing much this season. I'm not keen on most of the catwalk looks, aviator jackets, military detailing and khaki aren't really my thing! Seeing as the clothes were pretty crap, I headed straight to the jewellery in search of that ring I posted last week. To my surprise I actually found it and it fits (there's one side smaller than the other).
They actually had several animal things that I picked up including this bird brooch. My favourite-the super sweet, tiny little bling mouse that I've named Milly. A wasp ring which is quite small but cute. Plus this hare ring that I absolutely adore-joint favourite with Milly. You have to be careful though as some things border on the tacky side! There was a kingfisher necklace in lilac and pink but I decided it looked a bit cheap, (maybe with the right outfit though-don't want to offend anyone who has it!).
I also got these things...a black plastic bow hairband, really heavy ball ring, cameo ring with butterfly and flower, huge beaded bracelet and pearl bow brooch. I also got some new black leggings (for £3!!). The whole lot came to just over £30 (dress was £11)-can you imagine what that would have cost me in Topshop!