Homewares Hauls!

I've been winter hibernating lately, but that hasn't stopped me from shopping up some homewares. You know you're getting old when you've stopped attending fashion sales but instead get excited about buying homewares.

I hit up the Le Creuset sale and bought a whole heap of cute cast iron stoneware which I've always wanted to buy. Clearly, it was all about picking the right colours so these are just some of the items I hauled.

I'm loving the mini cocottes in the background - the set of 3 is in french red-white-blue colours. They're quite small, but perfect for individual entree sized portions. Or baked eggs for breakfast. The red pot looks small but is reasonably sized at 14cm so I'm loving it sick. And though I have a tonne of teapots, I couldn't help but buy the turquoise-y one to leave at my desk at work as the mug-pot combo.

Seeing the words 'Special Edition' was enough to convince me, but then I opened the box to find these pearlescent finish mini cocottes and I was sold.

The same day I was naughty and decided to hit up Peters of Kensington, one of my all time favourite places. I had a voucher leftover from Christmas so I finally bit the bullet and bought me the Limoges I've been dying for. If I could pick any colour, I probably would have picked the pastel purple or pink but this was too much of a bargain to pass up - the larger breakfast cup and saucer set for just $85 with a further 15% off. Incredible!

A few weeks earlier I hit up a special staff sale on Dyson vacuum cleaners. So we went from having 1 Dyson to 3. Overnight. Ridiculous, but amazing!

And threw this picture in for good measure - the usual Catch Of the Day trap hit me when I only wanted the Logitech ipad mini cover keyboard, but to make shipping more worthwhile I chucked in some hosiery. I need new sheer black hosiery anyway so it was still worth it. If anyone is looking for a good iPad case, I cannot recommend this one enough!

And that my friends, is just some of the shopping that has been keeping me busy lately. I've actually been pretty good only spending small amounts here and there, but clearly I can't resist me a good sale!

Ebay Find - Ring Snuggies

Has it really been a month since I last posted? Apparently, it has! And I'm about to head overseas for a short break so more radio silence from me unfortunately.

Anyway, onto something random I stumbled across recently which I thought I'd post about: ring snuggies. Yes, you read right, snuggies.

So I'm sure most of you would know about ring re-sizers in the form of metal bars inserted into rings to allow you to make the ring fit more snugly. The other option is petite rubber tubing that can be attached to the ring that also helps.

Well, here is the improved version of the snuggie which is actually spiral in nature so it won't fall off the ring and fits much better.

I bought these on ebay and the seller had a myriad of options from different thicknesses of the tubing (to resize by 1, 2 or more sizes) as well as different tubing widths to cater for ring bands of different thicknesses. Complicated at first, but I bought a package deal of multiple thicknesses and widths to try out and it set me back a grand total of $10 including shipping from the UK!

I'm pretty happy with it, but I've only tried it on my Georg Jensen daisy ring. I was going to try it on my newest purchase, a much more decadent diamond purchase but I thought that probably deserved a proper resize!

What random useful ebay items have you stumbled across?

Weddings + Bridesmaids

No, don't get too excited yet, I'm not getting married. My friends, however, are all getting hitched and next year is turning out to be a mammoth wedding year! I'm going to be bridesmaid for at least one of those weddings and so I've been tasked with helping in a tonne of ways.

Being the bargain hunter that I am, I've been finding some great things online with the sales lately.

This Zimmermann dress is a cute colour in real life and great fabric, and a bargain on sale at the moment for just $196. I'm not usually one to go for Zimmermann but they are popular amongst bridesmaids, and at those kinds of prices they're definitely a good option for any fashionable bride and bridesmaid.

Now I love J Crew and they have a tonne of options. I love this grey one above, and it comes in a million different hues. At approximately A$275 it's not quite as cheap, but a lovely option though admittedly it can probably be recreated elsewhere for cheaper.

Though a lot of sizes have since sold out, this beautiful punchy pink one is just A$100 and a great vibrant pink that I'm sure is popular amongst brides.

And what about this one for the floor length styles (which I will probably be looking at more, for the particular wedding I'm attending). At A$360 on sale it is a little more pricy but considering you can literally pick any colour of the rainbow, it is around the same price as Australian stores but without the full colour range. I just love this 'wild beet' colour.

For something a bit different, this Jayson Brunsdon diffusion line dress at Myer retails for just $179 and is cute for a floral, more casual wedding. And for wearability, this could definitely be worn again after a wedding!

Have you come across any great bridesmaid appropriate dresses lately?

My H&M Australia Picks

April 5. Unless you've been living under a rock you would know that date is the day H&M lands in Australia.

If you haven't already noticed from my blog posts, I love H&M. People are always a bit shocked given the presence of high end designer wears in my wardrobe - they think I'd be more of a Topshop or Zara kind of girl. No, no! It's all about choosing the right thing at H&M. The base prices are definitely cheaper, but if you venture into the mid end ranges they're great quality, great designs and happen to fit me perfectly. Plus, they have the most amazing sales. Part of their business strategy involves ensuring stock doesn't sit on shelves for more than a set number of weeks. After that, they have to put those items on sale and thus there is a never-ending sales rack in H&M. Love!

My favourite H&M items are amazing blazers (no more than US$60, and often cheaper), great work dresses (including a black crepe back dress I bought in Morocco for the equivalent of 7 euros) and a beautiful coat from Hong Kong that was worn by Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl.

Anyway, enough of my H&M rave. I'm patiently waiting for Australian online shopping to launch. In the meantime, these are the items I am loving:

Premium 100% Wool Felt Hat - $24.95: I am totally getting this when it's available to buy online!

Sweatshirt Skirt $49.95 - I love the colour of this. I need to see the fabric to see if its worth the price but I can see this being very wearable all seasons of the year! Remember my comment above about choosing wisely at H&M? Fabric is such a big indicator and so this could be a definite hit or definite miss. We will have to wait and see! But gorgeous cut and colour.

Double Breasted Coat $39.95 - This coat is 51% wool, uber cute, seems to have the signature Swedish well-cut design that fits me like a glove and is under $40. I mean really, what more can you ask for? Pity I have a tonne of other coats already that are similar, including a Zara one that I bought when I lived in the US and even on sale it was $80. You get the price differential already, yes?

Figure fit coat $89.95 - I want this. It is gorgeous. So elegant. A bit more pricy, but again its 60% wool but looks more light weight and perfect for our mild Australian winters.

Sleepwear Set $27.95 - OK so it may be polyester, but its super cute and looks comfy and still quite luxe despite being chain store. And really, Peter Alexander quality is not that much better usually but much pricier!

And because I can't help myself, a few other cute items that I would need to see in real life to know for sure. But uber cute overload!

And I haven't even got to the Homewares yet - I fell in love with the homewares store and collection when I went to Sweden. It was my guilty pleasure. I love that they will be bringing it to Oz!

The prices on the Australian website are actually decent too - shocking, I know! But we will have to see if the same can be said for the full range once it hits stores. I'm a little disappointed that some of my favourite items (work out wear, swimwear and the full work wear range) aren't available but I am patiently waiting!

What are your favourite items?

Christmas Sephora Haul

Around Thanksgiving time Sephora had some great discounts - 10 and 15% off deals for those in the higher level of their Beauty Insider loyalty scheme which I have somehow spent enough to qualify for! Anyway, I made the most of having a US mailing address and got my paws on a huge haul. It meant that I saved myself 15% on items I would've purchased when I visited the US during Christmas anyway. The downside was that I wasn't able to enjoy picking them all out at the Sephora store but that was probably a good way to save myself some money!

Oh and when you order online you get a tonne of samples! That whole bottom row is samples in fact :)

So these were the things I needed: Stila concealer and Sephora brand liquid eyeliner which has become my daily staple and at <$10 is amazing quality for a liquid eyeliner.

And here were the extra things I bought because, well, I felt silly wasting a perfectly good 15% off discount voucher!

Urban Decay Basics Palette - this is awesomely sized, being smaller than my iPhone 5! The colours are a matte which is great for me, but a little too...'dusty' for my liking. The fallout is a little craptastic as well which I knew already from the many reviews I read on MUA but nevermind, it was cheap at under $30.

I love me some good NARS - and when I saw my beloved orgasm/laguna duo comes in a mini travel size I couldn't help myself. I mean, when you travel it is just perfectly sized! Plus I love the travel size items at Sephora purely because I never use a full bottle anyway so the travel size is the perfect volume for me. This is their famous tinted moisturiser I thought I would try out.

Beauty Blenders are all the craze so why not try it for myself? So far I like it, but sponges just waste product in my opinion. They soak up so much that is just unnecessary. So in that sense I prefer my Real Techniques brushes, but I do like the even complexion you get from using this. And the solid cleanser I thought I'd try for all my make up brushes to motivate me to clean them more often!

And finally, I chucked in this Deborah Lippmann nailpolish gift pack because it was cute and I thought it was about time I try her nailpolishes. I've known about her for years but never bit the bullet to buy her polishes. Well can I say I am suitably impressed and wish I had bought her creme polishes earlier! They're so opaque after even just one coat and they're quite impressive pop colours. This is She Bop and glitter Happy Birthday which I've been using this week and they're quite fun and cutesy. If a little Barbie. But there is nothing wrong with that!

SJP Shoes

A lovely fashionable friend of mine alerted me to the announcement of sjp - Sarah Jessica Parker's new shoe line to be released on 28th February. She had an exclusive reveal with a series of photos where she shows the shoes to Gayle King and here are some of the images. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of some of the shoes for the price point (we're talking $400 USD) but I do love some of the imagery.

This pair is actually uber cute, but I can't see any of the collection being anything particularly new. It all feels quite derivative of some of SJPs favourite designers (think Manolo). Her collection also includes the trenchcoat being worn here and comes in navy too.

The pair on the right has her 'signature' grosgrain ribbon - I have a pair of Dior shoes which are quite similar!

And is this not the most beautiful shot? I wish I had a living room that looked like this! And came with a closet full of shoes ;)

What do you think of the new collection?

Images thanks to O magazine.

New Louboutins!

Late last year I found out that I was getting a bonus at work, to my surprise! I didn't think I would be eligible since I had only just started working there. It also coincided with the start of the Christian Louboutin sale so what better place to drop some cash, right?

The 40% off sale at Louboutin turned out to be great for me because they had a) classic styles and b) items in my size! I am the most common shoe size too so that shocked me.

So here I present my newest babies:

I couldn't resist these grenadine pink Simple 70s - one of my all time favourite Louboutin styles and 70s are so comfortable. Personally 85 are my holy grail, but they're so hard to find that I in fact have never been able to get my hands on a pair. Can you believe the day after I bought these bright pink ones, I went to Bondi Junction where they had just sold the same pair in classic red in my size! =o In any case, I have a pair of red peeptoes so these are probably a better fit for my collection. I happened to wear these last night and they're super bright and fun!

These were a little more pricey but as soon as I put them on I was in love. The platform and T bar style of these Lagoulas are so comfortable I practically felt like I was walking on air. I couldn't believe it! And these come in black too, but the red are just something a little special. I've since discovered these have been worn (in black mostly) on the red carpet by a tonne of celebrities including Cate Blanchett. I feel I am in good company :)

What is your newest Louboutin purchase?

Office Secret Santa

Does anyone else hate workplace Secret Santa/Kris Kingle/Gift exchange things? I specifically mean the type where you pick a name at random and have to anonymously buy them a gift. It is so difficult and when you involve the workplace dynamics and price limits it gets so difficult trying to find something that is fun and novel, or useful and practical, or all of the above if you're just that awesome!

My group of friends used to do Christmas lunch/dinner where we would do Secret Santa where everyone would bring a random gift but then you got to choose from the pile at random and then 'steal' from each other. That is so much easier (and arguably more fun!) because there's no pressure as to who you're specifically buying for.

Anyway my workplace has decided to have quite a high budget of $30 per person which on one hand is great because there's scope to actually buy something useful, but on the other hand I'm at last minute having to find something practical and not too ridiculous! We only found out on Friday who we were buying for and we have 2 weeks eek.

Anyone have clever ideas for a male?

These are currently in my catchoftheday basket as potentials....

ASOS order!

It is somewhat hard for most people to believe, but I popped my ASOS cherry the other day, making use of the 30% off click frenzy discount code to purchase some snow bunny gear for my upcoming Christmas trip in the Northern Hemisphere.

Truthfully, I do have a lot of warm weather clothing and didn't really need to buy more but I have nothing that is lightweight, fashionable, windproof and also not too precious. I'm funny when I travel, I don't like to take anything too precious and delicate for fear of it getting damaged or lost. Any excuse, right? With the ASOS deal the puffy winter jackets I was looking started at well under the $100 mark which I think is great value for something that will keep you toasty warm in sub zero temps!

I figured if I was going to potentially have to return stuff anyway and pay for that, I might as well order more so I came out with three jackets that I loved the look of.

I'm being a bit lazy and not bothering to take more photos. I ended up loving two so much I kept them both because I'm torn!

This red one below was the one I returned purely because its too casual looking for my trip, but I actually love love love it! If I lived in a colder climate city I'd totally have kept it. It reminds me a bit of a snowfield jacket - like what ski instructors might wear?

And I mean who doesn't love a fur trimmed coat? LOVE the black one because of that factor. And this red one actually had a soft wooly hood too! <3

Anyway, at A$290 for all 3 I figured I had nothing to lose!

Kirribilli Markets Stall this Saturday!

Once again I'll be having a market stall at the uber awesome Kirribilli Markets this Saturday 23 November from 7am to 4pm! If you've ever had a market stall before you'll understand why I've been so busy lately - clearing out stuff to sell is hard work!

Anyway I have a whole range of designer clothes, shoes, accessories, bags, make up and homewares. Denim brands include Tsubi (the original tsubi with a T!), Sass & Bide, Marcs and paperdenim&cloth. designer label threads from Marc Jacobs, BCBG, Wayne Cooper, Sass & Bide, Alice McCall, Akira and a whole host more cheap buys.

It is all stuff I just have never worn or won't wear so I will be clearing them out at cheapo prices so if you're in the area stop by and have a shop :)

Time Out Sydney even lists the Kirribilli Markets as amongst the best in Sydney, so maybe you'll find some other stuff there too!

Louboutin Patent Black Simple 100s

I had been looking for black patent Louboutin black patent simple 85s for the longest time, but they're perpetually out of stock online and in physical stores around the world (trust me, I've tried looking every country I visit!). When I randomly chanced upon my size at David Jones recently in 100s I just couldn't say no. And with a pile of vouchers to spend, these basically cost me nothing and were a welcomed present to myself :)

Welcoming to my shoe family, my holy grail shoe!

So perhaps I have too many black pairs of Louboutins that practically look identical? I am planning to sell one of the pairs...but for now I look like the crazy person obsessed with black.

iHerb Haul #3

If you follow me on twitter you would know I made another iHerb order a month back which involved more Real Techniques brushes and a few other tidbits!

The Real Techniques brushes had previously been sold out so I thought I would snap them up now, despite there not being a 20% discount code or anything like last time.  I didn't really need them and so I probably shouldn't have bought them, but seeing as I'm lazy with cleaning my brushes I thought just rotating the use of my brushes was a good compromise. I may start using the powder brush more but I don't like it as much as the others I bought previously.

Anyway, my favourite of the lot is the infuser + lid glass tea cup which is fabulous! It was on super discount so it was only $7 from memory, and there is a glass infuser inbuilt which then sits perfectly within the teacup lid when you're done steeping your tea. I love it because I often want a single cup of tea and don't want to have to waste a whole pot, plus this goes in the dishwasher!

The erythritol is my sister's request - apparently its a replacement for sugar? She's all into her health foods!

Don't forget to check out iHerb and use the discount code RLN426 to get at least $5 off your order ($10 if you spend enough). 

Georg Jensen Daisy Ring

Recently, I started a new job and as with all 'life' events and milestones I like to mark them with some kind of purchase or nice meal or some other special something. This time I happened to walk into Georg Jensen where they had select pieces from the acclaimed 'Daisy' collection on sale so I just couldn't help myself but add to my ring collection.

Isn't the packaging just so elegant?

I've always loved the Daisy collection, and its based on Queen Margrethe of Denmark's love for the Daisy (you'll often see her sporting some kind of Daisy motif jewellery item). This ring is delicate in that the black is actually all enamel embedded into fine sterling silver. The edges of each petal are actually small grooves so that the ring isn't just a circle, but actually with defined petals. It is really quite beautiful!

Unfortunately they had absolutely no stock in the country of the smaller sizes so I had to settle on one that fits my second finger, but I still quite like it! :) 

Priceline 40% off Skincare!

Of course half the world shopped up big during last week's Priceline 40% off deal on Skincare. I love how they rotate these deals across the different items. Skincare is definitely an area where 40% off is much appreciated because the items are staples you always need and are often on the pricier end.

Anyway, this ended up being my haul:

I'm so happy Trilogy Rosehip Oil was included on the deal because most places tend to exclude it. I actually probably didn't really need to buy it seeing as I still have a stash from the last Myer sale, but 40% off was just too good. And the Neutrogena moisturiser is my cheapie but good moisturiser that can last so I always buy when its on sale!

Then I read some bloggers thinking of buying the Clarisonic 'copy' that Olay make and I'd been meaning to try Clarisonic (which of course is quite pricey). At a mere $20 with the sale this Olay version was an easy purchase, and for $6 (sale price) I chucked in the extra replacement heads.

On first look opening the box I was impressed by it. I've used it twice now and am happy with the cleansing it does in terms of not being overly harsh, and it does feel like its doing a good job in at least getting rid of dead skin cells especially on the T Zone. My main concern was it just moving around dirt from one part of the face to another but so far no issues, but my skin has been playing up lately (lots of blind pimples!) so I will report back once I've been using it for longer.

What did you buy during the Priceline sale?

Kensington Compact iPad Keyboard

I bought this from Catch Of The Day a while back and I've taken it travelling with me.

We've got 2 computers amongst 3 travelling so I've just brought my ipad with me and when I'm using that as my only 'computer' I need a proper keyboard to type faster and get things done quicker! Stupidly enough, I have the most compact and least heavy computer of the 3 of us (Macbook Air) yet I'm the only one not bringing my computer. Go figure!

Anyway I was tossing up between this and an actual keyboard case but chose this because a) its more compact b) this was cheaper and c) I didn't really want a case.

This is really really compact at barely 1cm thick and as you can see it is just a little bigger than the size of the ipad itself. I don't like those case + keyboard combo things because I often like to have just the compactness of the ipad to carry around rather than the added bulk of the case. Instead I use an uber cute Kate Spade sleeve :)

The best thing about it? The keys are actual keys, not those weird jelly like protrusions that respond to key presses. There is actual depth to these keys and key pressing is really quite easy despite the slightly compressed keyboard size. And it charges by USB so no pesky batteries to deal with!

iHerb order #2

I made a second order with iHerb recently when they had the 20% off Real Techniques brushes which I blogged about a few weeks back. I had credit to spend so my haul came to a grand total of $8 including postage which is bargain bargain bargain if you ask me!

I forgot to change the f stop on my camera setting so the photo is a little blurred but you get the idea!

It is pretty ironic that I ordered the Tea Tree oil antiseptic, a product from Australia, and had it shipped from the US. It cost US$8 from memory and I've never actually seen it in stores here (not that I've tried hard to look) but my threading lady uses it on me and I quite like it. Then again, I love anything tea tree oil related!

The middle is the Expert Face brush which people rave about though I haven't started using it. I think I'll use it for my liquid foundation to see how it fares against the stippling brush. I've been using BB cream more recently instead of foundation though so for that I've just been using a normal flat foundation brush.

On the right is cheapo US$5 rose hip oil. I get the feeling (based on colour) that this stuff is not very potent, but I wanted a cheapie to use on my body rather than wasting my expensive Trilogy stuff.

And finally in the middle was a freebie - a lip balm that I thought might be handy. It was free anyway!

Remember if you want to order at iherb use the discount code RLN426 to get $5 off your order or $10 off if its $40+.

Priceline 40% off Haul

Apologies for my tardiness with posting this - a few weeks back Prieline had 40% off all make up/cosmetics. I really didn't need anything but I went to take a look because I needed some retail therapy and got a few items I had actually been wanting (though didn't need).

Rimmel Liquid Eyeliner
I have 2 other liquid eyeliners - a Sephora one which I bought cheaply and had started using almost weekly, and a Dior one which is amazing but annoyingly time consuming to apply so not great for working day wear. So I thought I might as well stock up on a cheapie liquid eyeliner for those occasions I just want to fineline for going to work (which is quite a lot recently!). It came down to $6 or so I think so I wasn't expecting much, and it does an OK job.

Rimmel Lipstick
I just wanted a fun punchy lipstick so bought this one again for $6. I actually haven't tried it yet because my lips have been uber dry but will report back once I have!

I went to another store and got a few other items

Models Prefer falsies was just because at the cheapo price they are, I thought it would be useful to have in case I ever wanted falsies for an evening look.

Essence eyebrow pencil was again because I haven't got an eyebrow pencil and at $3, it was a worthwhile investment I think!

Garnier Sensitive Skin BB Cream
So I'd read amazing things about this BB Cream and even though I already have enough Foundation/Tinted Moisturisers to last me a decade, I thought this was my perfect chance to try it as it came down to only $14 I think from memory. I also realised the sensitive skin option (50ml) was the same price as the normal option (30ml) so of course went sensitive skin, seeing as that is also the best description for my skin type. I've been using it fairly regularly recently and while the coverage is a little too light for me I like the feeling on my skin and how natural it looks. SPF is always a plus also! I think the reason why I think coverage isn't so good is because I'm comparing to my workable MUFE Face & Body Foundation which I can layer to a coverage necessary for whatever blemishes I have at any given time.

Revlon Photoready Skinlights
This was more money than I really wanted to spend, but I've been looking for an illuminator that wasn't going to set me back big bucks seeing as I would barely use it. This is known to be a good dupe for Benefit High Beam in the pink light tone, but I ended up getting the bare light tone as it is more natural on my more tanned skin. I'm liking it so far though it is indeed very subtle and was quite pricey ($18 from memory)

Did you stock up at Priceline?