LookBook #2: Kimonos

Welcome to my second lookbook! Today we have an insight into how I personally style my kimonos. My entire collection (all 4 of them) comes from JayJays. I will also write down where I got the rest of my outfit from as well.

I hope this helps/encourages you to embrace the kimono!

Look #1: Winter

Top: JayJays

Jeans: JayJays

Boots: Kmart

 Look #2: Spring

Dress: JayJays

Sandals: Lippy

 Look #3: Autumn

Dress: JayJays

Boots: Kmart

 Look #4: Summer

Top: JayJays

Shorts: JayJays

Sandals: Lippy

Yes, I know I own a lot of JayJays. I can't help it. They have awesome stuff.

Let me know how you liked this cookbook. Personally, this is way better than my first one, which you can see here: http://kaleidocolours.blogspot.co.nz/2014/06/daisies-are-new-black.html

But that's what happens when you get more confident and comfortable, isn't it?

Shannen xx

All photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used

Photos taken by Blake <3 

Ankle Boots: Flattering ways to wear them

 With ankle boots, there is basically two standard, universally flattering ways to wear them. 

The first way is to wear them with anything that sits above the knee. This is because the ankle boot tends to cut you off at the skinniest part of your ankle. To counter act this, you need to show the other skinniest part of your leg which is your knee. This lengthens the leg, and doesn't cut you off, making you look short. 

The second way is more for winter time, or for people who prefer to wear jeans. The same idea applies, so as the boot cuts you off at your skinniest, you need to show a bit of flesh above the boot to give the illusion of a lengthened leg. To do this, all you need to do is roll your jeans up, leaving no more than an inch between the top of your boot and the bottom of the roll.  This achieves the same goal as counter balancing. It lengthens the leg and we avoid looking like we have short legs. 

With boots, never pull your jeans over the top unless they are flared or a boot cut. If you wear skinny jeans with boots, roll them, or bunch them up so they are sitting just on top of the boot. We are giving the illusion of a lengthened leg.

I've included photos of five different types of boots to give an idea of how they can be worn. I have included a pair of heeled boots, two different style of ankle boots with a cut out, a short riding boot style and a pair of combat/military boots.

Heeled Boots

Tassle Boots with Cut-out

JC Coltrane style Boots

Short Riding Style Boots

Doc Martens

Of course with any style, your personal style works best. This is just simply a guideline. A lot of these boots can still look great all bunched up and grunge-y looking. or really neat and tidy rolls. It really doesn't matter as long as you are happy with how it looks. 

I hope you enjoyed this post!

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Shannen xx

Photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used

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Matte Lip Creams; Swatches and Comparisons

At the moment, in the makeup world, there has been an insurgence of lip creams, glosses and stains. These are really good if you want a bright opaque colour, but don't like to reapply every hour or so. They are a great way to finish off any outfit, by either making it a stand out point, or matching it to an aspect of your outfit.

I have 3 Australis Velour Lips and 2 Lime Crime Velvetines that I am going to swatch and compare for you today. In my personal opinion, Velour Lips are a cheaper alternative to Velvetines, as they retail for about $15 whereas Velvetines are about $30.

Both brands are great if you are trying to abstain from purchasing cruel products, as they are both against animal testing. I'm not sure if either brand is completely vegan, but at least they are one step closer to being vegan.

I'm going to swatch Lime Crime first, as I only have 2. I also find that Velvetines are a much thinner formula than Australis. With every swatch, I'm going to include a photo with flash, and without so that you can get a better idea of what the colours look like.

The first colour is Utopia. It is a bright purple colour with pink, or warm, undertones. This formula is quite thin and I find two coats is perfect.

With Flash

Without Flash

The next colour is Wicked. Wicked is a dark, vampy red. This is thicker in formula than Utopia and only requires one good coat.

With Flash

Without Flash

The first Australis colour is called Rio'D. It's a very bright, even neon, orange. I find that the formula for these are very thick, and can be quite drying.

No Flash

With Flash

Second is called Ma-Li-Boo. This colour is a very bright pink. Its quite a true pink in my opinion, as I can't see it swaying towards warmer or cooler tones.

With Flash

Without Flash

Lastly, we have Ny-Cee. This is a real 50s pin-up kind of red. A lighter version to Lime Crime's Wicked. It's definitely blue based rather than orange.

With Flash

Without Flash

I hope this post helped you out with the different matte lip products you can get. This is just comparing two different brands, but there are countless more out there on the market. If you liked this post, let me know and I can see what other lip swatches and comparisons I can do.

Shannen xx
Photos taken on a Canon 600D
18-55mm lens used
PicMonkey.com used to edit photos

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Birthday Lookbook and Swatches

Welcome to my first LookBook! For those of you who don't know what a LookBook is, it's basically a compilation of outfits that all come under a certain theme. Like sometimes you'll see a black and white LookBook, where all the clothes are black or white. Or maybe you'll see seasonal ones for summer, winter, spring or autumn. But in this case, my LookBook is a compilation of outfits put together from clothes I bought while in Wellington shopping for my birthday.

In the first picture I am wearing a t-shirt dress I got from ValleyGirl. I paired it with black socks and a taupe pair of ankle boots I got from Dotti. I wore my hair down and straight just to make it a bit more casual. Also it was a semi warm day so I skipped on tights and just threw on a black cardigan. 

In the middle picture, I'm wearing the dress I picked up form Mirrou. This day was colder so I wore the boots I got from Glassons, a pair of tights I picked up at the same time and my camp jacket from JayJays. I also threw on a cream scarf just to lighten up the dark tones a bit. To add a bit of a girly touch, I clipped my hair back in a half up half down style.

In the last picture, I wore this outfit out to my birthday dinner. The t-shirt dress I got from ValleyGirl along with the first one. I wore tights that I grabbed from Equip as part of a 3 for $10 deal and I just chucked on my creepers to add a bit of an edge. With my hair I just clipped back my fringe. I threw on a black cardigan as it was night and cold outside.

From my second half of my trip, I picked up a lot of make up. I've swatched here what I think is worthy of showing off the colours. In other words I didn't bother to show my foundation and concealer as you wouldn't be able to see them anyways.

Lime Crime Velvetine's go on like a lip gloss and dry matte. There is no need for a lip liner (or so the packaging says). I found this amazing to wear all day. I didn't need to reapply once, even after eating and drinking. It stuck on hard. Which also made it a bit hard to get off, but they do say on the packaging to use a certain type of makeup remover. I got the shade "Wicked" which is a very dark vampy red. Beautiful!

MAC's lipsticks in "Candy Yum Yum" and "Heroine" were eye catchers for me. They're bright, vibrant, last a long time and are matte also. And my god, do MAC lipsticks smell amazing. They smell like a vanilla cake batter or cookie dough. It's incredible. Heroine isn't showing up as true to colour. It's a much more pale, but vibrant purple. Candy Yum Yum is a bright true pink.

Nars blush in "Orgasm" is used by almost everyone. A lot of the gurus I watch on YouTube have it and rave about it. So I decided to give it a shot. And it's amazing. I don't even bother using a highlighter anymore when I use this. Its the perfect peach and its so shimmery (which I love) that it replaces my ELF facial whip. The colour is perfect for pale skin like I have. It's not too much but it still stands out in a subtle way.

Shannen xx

All photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used

Photos edited on fotor.com

Shoes make me happy. I'm superficial. Whatever

Today, I bring to you my shoe collection! It is definitely much smaller than it was last year as I moved out of home and into a much smaller space. I used to have over 40 something different pairs of shoes, with a much larger heel selection than what I have now.

These days I have 20 pairs of shoes, literally half of what I used to have. I hope to one day have an extensive shoe collection, when me and my beloved have got our own home and he's built me an extravagant walk in wardrobe with a glamorous chandelier in the middle of it all.

So currently, my shoe collection stands at 4 pairs of boots, 2 pairs of ankle boots, 1 pair of creepers, 4 pairs of converse/converse style, 2 pairs of vans/vans style, 5 pairs of flats, and 2 pairs of heels.

All my shoes are listed from the left, and the top row.

All my flats: -Leopard loafers (Rubi, part of a 2 for $30 deal)
                   -Sparkly loafers (Recycle Boutique, $4.50)
                   - Studded loafers (Rubi, $10 (?))
                   - Kitty loafers (Rubi, part of a 2 for $30 deal)
                   - Steve Madden dupes (Kmart, $7)

Converse/Vans: -White Converse (Shoe Connection, $100)
                         - Burgunday Converse dupes (Rubi, $10)
                         - Pink Converse (Recycle Boutique, $35)
                         - Black Converse (Shoe Connection, $100)
                         - Pink sparkly Vans (Shoe Connection, $120)
                         - Hello Kitty Vans dupes (JayJays, $20)

Boots: - Biker boots (JayJays, $20)
           - Studded combat boots (Hannahs, $50)
           - Cherry Doc Martens (TradeMe, $80)
           - Black Doc Martens (Shoe Connection, $250)
           - Floral combat boots (JayJays, $49.99)
           - Taupe ankle boots (Dotti, $30)
           - JC Coltrane dupes (Hannahs, $50)
           - Creepers (Hannahs, $50)

Heels: - Steve Madden Sparkly (Hannahs, ?)
          - Jeffrey Campbell Spiked Litas (Shoe Connection, $250)

All my shoes except one pair, I bought myself. Sadly I don't often get to wear my heels because my Steve Madden heels are exceptionally beautiful and I only reserve them for special occasions. My JC Litas I hardly wear mainly because my sister has them a lot, and they need spikes replaced and the leather fixed up. I would love to wear them more often, but I just never get the chance.

All my other shoes I alternate between them quite regularly. They all get an even amount of wear. I never really spent too much on a piar of shoes except for my JC's and my Doc's. That's only because my Doc's will last me a lifetime and I wanted to treat myself to a pair of really nice shoes.

Shannen xx

All photos taken on a Canon 600D
18-55mm lens used 
Photos edited on fotor.com

Cleaning Out My Closet

Hello my name is Shannen, and I'm addicted to shopping.

Today was a day off from work so I decided to clean out my clothes. Because I work in retail, I am regularly buying clothes, so this expands my wardrobe pretty fast. It also means that I end up with a lot of clothes that I do not wear, mainly because it is no longer on the shop floor.

Every couple of months or so, I make a day where I go  through my entire wardrobe and get rid of anything I haven't worn in the last six months or so. I do this so I have more room for new clothes, but also I don't like having a lot of clutter, and my wardrobe is exposed so I don't like seeing it all crammed into one area.

All the clothes I decide to get rid of go to my sister, or to my beloved's sisters. I have thought about selling them, but I don't like having a massive pile just sitting in the corner waiting to be sold and posted off. It's an untidy idea that I do not want. So instead of this I just take it to my sisters or the girls and they get to go through it and take what they want. Whatever they end up not wanting, I take to a charity shop like Salvation Army. That way I am also helping people who need decent clothes to wear.

Just a nice short post today!

Shannen xx

All photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used

Edited on fotor.com

Daisies are the new black?

From left to right: summer, spring, autumn and winter

Working in retail I pick up on current fashion trends pretty fast, and I don't need to read any magazines to confirm it. I just take a wander around the mall and see what other stores are carrying.

This winter it seems that daisies are taking over. First this trend started with flower crowns. Then it was on all different types of tees. Then as it started getting colder in the southern hemisphere, leggings started sporting this floral pattern. And now that we are fully into winter, it has taken over sweaters and jumpers too. The daisy trend has to be my favourite of the season. I've always been a huge fan of florals, so it was a no-brainer for me.

In my personal wardrobe I have 4 daisy items that I have styled so that this trend can carry on into all four seasons. I have a summer, autumn, winter and spring look that will show how to style this beautiful trend that has popped up.

Please keep in mind that I am only 5ft tall so some of these outfits may look better on taller people, such as the maxi skirt.

Also there will be a lookbook video coming that coincides with this post, I just have to build up the courage to sit behind a camera for a long period of time!

I hope you enjoy todays blog post!
Shannen xx

Summer: Daisy top (JayJays) - Acid wash shorts (Supre) - Converse (Shoe Connection)
Autumn: Knit jumper (Supre) -  Daisy leggings (JayJays)  - Spike combat boots (Hannahs)
Winter:  Daisy sweater (JayJays) - Khaki jeans (JayJays) - Doc Martins (Shoe Connection)
Spring: Daisy crop top (JayJays) - Maxi skirt (Supre) - Ballet flats (Recycle Boutique)

All Jayjays products are either available online (www.jayjays.com.au) or in store

All photos taken on a Canon 600D
18-55mm lens used.
Photos edited on fotor.com

Welcome to my blog!

This post is going to be a little bit aboout me and my life. A quick way to get to know me and what this blog is going to be about.

First of all, I'm Shannen.
I'm going to be running this blog. Hopefully I'll be making at least two posts a week.
Secondly, this blog is mainly going to be about my main passion in life, aside from cats and my beloved, which is fashion. There will also be other posts on whatever catches my fancy that week. As it's my blog, I'll be running it my way.

For a long time I've always been interested in clothes and shoes. I've always had a pretty large shoe collection. As it is standing today, it's probably the smallest its ever been, only due to the small space that me and my beloved now live in.

So apart from fashion and all its beautiful counterparts such as makeup and hair, I do have other interests and I'm sure that they will come out in my future blog posts.

I'm going to try and keep my blog to a main focus. But my attention span is short so there will be random posts about random topics.

I hope you enjoy all future posts!
Stay tuned!

Shannen xx

All photos taken on a Canon 600D with a 18-55mm lens.
Edited on fotor.com