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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A Day In Photos #1

Today I had a Saturday off, and I don't normally have a weekend day offal I made the most of it. I started the day off with catching up on my tv shows and YouTube subscriptions. Once that was complete,I rang my sister and we made a time to hang out. Before she got to my house, I did a heap of house work. I was super productive and got most of it done. Justine and I hung out for a bit at home. We then went to Feilding for lunch. As you can tell from the photo we decided to pig out a bit and had KFC. After lunch we still had time to kill before she had to go to work so we wondered around the Warehouse for about an hour. I ended up getting a top and she got 2 skirts. We came home again and played with Carwen before Justine had to go. I then worked on my blog, gave it a bit of a redesign. I also filmed a video to go up on Monday. It was quite a productive day in my opinion. 

Let me know how your day was in the comments below! Maybe even do your own day in photos? 

Don't forget to subscribe and follow me on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and facebook. 

Shannen xx

Photos taken on my phone

Edited on fotor.com

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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

Wellington Birthday Haul Part 2!

Part two of my birthday haul happened the day after my birthday. We started the day off early, arriving at the zoo about 10.30am. I'll have more about the zoo next week if you want to know more about our adventure.

Once we were done at the zoo, we went into the city to do some shopping. Our first stop was Kirkaldies and Stains. This department store is amazing for makeup. I bought 2 lip sticks, both from MAC. Both are in the matte formula. The first one I decided to get was Heroine. I love purple lipsticks. The second one I got was Candy Yum Yum. Bright pinks are also a favourite of mine.

After a lot of umming and ahhing I decided to get a MAC foundation too. I was colour matched to NW15 if anyone wants to know. I got the Mineralize foundation.  It does sheer to medium coverage and has a dewy finish. Prices for all the products mentioned will be down below.

After Kirks, we stopped at Starbucks (of course) then moved across the road to Pandora. I got a pink leather bracelet and a silver bow as my first charm. We then walked to Cosmic on Cuba and I purchased Lime Crime Velvetine in Wicked. Such a pretty dark red.

We went back to Kirks on the way back to the car and I stopped at the Mecca Cosmetica counter and picked up two Nars products. I got their blush in Orgasm (so pretty!) and their radiant creamy concealer in vanilla.

The last thing I bought on our Wellington trip part two was a pair of all black converse, which I've wanted for ages. I was originally after the all black leather ones, but they were a bit pricey for what I had left to spend. 

I'll have a swatch and lookbook for Parts one and two coming up on Wednesday so if your curious about how these colours are like on a real life human bean, then watch this space!

Just a disclaimer, yes I bought expensive makeup. I know it's expensive, but it was a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity for me so I took it. If anyone knows somewhere cheaper to purchase it please let me know because I would love to buy it all again. 

MAC Heroine= $40

MAC Candy Yum Yum=$40

MAC Mineral Foundation= $75

Nars blush in Orgasm= $44

Nars radiant creamy concealer in Vanilla= $44

Pandora bracelet and charm= $134

Converse= $69.99 (I had a $30 voucher, so originally $99.99)

To read about the first half of our Wellington adventures, go to http://kaleidocolours.blogspot.co.nz/2014/08/wellington-birthday-haul-part-1.html

Shannen xx

All photos taken in a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used

Photos edited on fotor.com

Wellington Birthday Haul Part 1!

My birthday was recently and the present I got from my beloved was a massive shopping trip. For this massive shop, we went to wellington. The plan was to go to the zoo and then do some shopping then go home, but when we actually got to Wellington, the weather had done a complete 180, going from sunny and warm to rainy and dreadful. So because of this, we just went to Queensgate in Lower Hutt.

This has to be my favourite mall in the lower North Island. Not only is it massive, but Starbucks is only across the road. Starbucks will always be my favourite cafe, always. I wish there was one where I lived.

So aside from spending money at Starbucks, I spent the rest on clothes pretty much. The first thing I bought was actually three pairs of tights. They were on a 3 for $10 special at Equip. I got a plain 80 denier tight, then I got a super thick pair that has a kind of flowery pattern on it and then I got a polka dot pair. After these, I got another pair from Glassons. These were just a basic pair of suspender tights as I needed new ones because my old ones all have holes and ladders in them. I then bought 3 dresses . One from Mirrou (the black one) and 2 from ValleyGirl. The 2 from ValleyGirl are a size 10 and were $15.99 each. The dress from Mirrou was a size large and was on sale for about $20 I think. We went back to Glassons after that and I bought the boots. They are a size 8 (as I'm a 7.5 so I can chop and change between 7s and 8s comfortably.) and were $60. I've had my eye on these boots for months and months so I decided to take the plunge and buy them. While buying the boots, I couldn't help but to grab their buy one get one free nail polishes. I got a bright neon orange and a pretty pastel pink.

There's this one shop in Queensgate that does piercings and sells all sorts of beauty products and stuff which is where I picked up my Beauty Blender dupe. It was $7 and works amazing. I'll do a more in depth review on it as I've only used it a couple of times and not on all of my cream/liquid products.

I think thats all I got in this trip. There will be a part two as we went a few days before my birthday and then the day after as well.

A lookbook and swatch post will be coming up once I've posted Part Two, so look out for that on Saturday!

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

OOTD: Smells Like Teen Spirit

Here's my 90's inspired outfit (Look how cute Carwen is!). I rocked this ensemble whilst at work today. Totally comfortable and casual. I wore coated jeans on the bottom. For those of you who don't know what coated denim is, the denim is coated in a kind of plastic feeling material to give a leathery look. The ones I have no longer have that leathery look as I've had them for a while now and they've been through the wash a few times. They are still super black though which is why I still wear them.

Then I have a stripey crop top, although in my opinion its not really a crop top, just more of a short top. This top reaches the top of my jeans, which are a mid rise. I've just chucked on my black cardi to warm things up as it's still cold where I live.

All three of those items are from JayJays. I am a fan of that brand, so you will notice as I post more OOTD posts.

Now, onto the most important part of my outfit, my shoes! These I recently picked up from Glassons. I've had my eye on them for a while now so I didn't mind dropping the $60 on them, and also, they were part of a birthday present from my beloved.

I just wore my everyday makeup (http://kaleidocolours.blogspot.co.nz/2014/07/my-go-to-make-up-look.html). This consists of a normal face of makeup: foundation, concealer, powder, highlighter, bronzer and powder. Then I wore winged eyeliner and chucked a dark purple lipstick on (Australis Grunge).

For accessories I wore my 90's tattoo choker and bracelet as well as my Hello Kitty watch from Thailand (Thanks Jo!). My nails are painted in BYS Black.

That pretty much covers my entire outfit. Any questions about where things come from or prices, just ask and I'll let ya know!

Shannen xx

Photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used

Photos edited on 

Seeing Red

I've had a bit of a change. The peachy pale colour didn't stay long, but my plan the whole time was to go bright red. Which I've now done. I have to say, I think it's one of my favourite colours I've had so far. It goes with plenty more outfits than any other crazy colour and now I don't get as many people coming up to me and asking a bunch of questions about my hair. It's a much more peaceful life being a redhead. It seems to be a lot more socially accepted than blue or pink or yellow.

Now, I've actually had my hair red since about last Friday I think. But it's taking me ages to get around to blogging about it. But I have done it now, and the world can finally know I have brilliantly red hair!

There's a bit of a funny story about when I was getting it done. I don't go to any salons, it's all done at home and this time, I had the help of Chloe, who is quite possibly the best hair colourer I've met. We had almost finished my hair,  managing to get all but my fringe and a chunk of hair about an inch thick done and saturated with dye. Thanks to Chloe and Blake, we got another box (Schwarzkopf Brilliance Luminance in L43 Smouldering Red) to complete the job, and I actually preferred that colour to the original (L'Oreal Paris Feria Preference in P67 Pure Scarlet).

Before I bought the L'Oreal box, I did read some reviews on it, and a lot of people were saying it came out plum. It didn't turn out like that at all. I find it was more of an orange red than a true red. The Schwarzkopf box came out a much more richer true red. I've also found that the L'Oreal box has already faded a lot and I haven't even washed my hair yet! Although in saying that, it has been really sunny lately and that does fade hair quite fast. I will probably repurchase the Schwarzkopf red once I need to redye it as it was very vibrant, very true, and made my hair look really shiny.

That's all I really have to say about red hair at the time being, although it's probably going to stick around for a while. I love it and I know Blake does too. If any of you guys think it does too, let me know!

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

MOVING HOUSE

Sorry about the lack of posting lately but me and Blake moved house! Things have been quite hectic with having to pack and move from one house to the next.

But today I'm going to tell you about our move. We moved from a one bedroom flat into a sleepout in order to start saving money. I plan on going back to study next year so we need to do some serious saving in order to be able to afford to do that.

Now, having a whole house full of furniture and moving into a single room caused a bit of a conundrum. What were we going to do with all our furniture? I had a room still at my dad's that we could store it all in, which definitely came in handy. We sold a few bits and pieces that were too big for my room, or that we didn't need whatsoever. I also sold some shoes to free up some space for when we moved.

In our new place, we have our room, a bathroom and a little kitchenette in the corner. Blake built us a new bed with drawers underneath so we didn't have to bring our dressers. They went to dad's and to Blake's sister. Our old bed also went to dad's.

So in our new room we have our new bed, our tv on a small tv stand, my rack, two small bookshelves and one large bookshelf. With all this furniture we still have plenty of space to move around. It's also great having our own bathroom. We have our two shelves in there from our old bathroom too.

Since we don't have any use for our fridge we had to eat as much frozens and fridge food as we could before we left our old flat. Whatever was left went into the house. We now only keep snack foods in our little kitchenette.

I love our sleepout. Its so much more warmer and cosier than our old flat, and we have the added bonus of having pets now too. Dora the cat stays with us the most, probably to avoid the puppy.

Talk to you guys soon!
Shannen xx

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

Imported Candy VS Homeland Candy

Just a warning, none of the food mentioned in this post is healthy whatsoever, except maybe the chocolate drink. That only has 60 calories in it.

Today is a post about my third love. No makeup, no clothes, all food. I love food. Food is my friend. I am always eating. I have more of a taste for savoury food than sweet, but I still have a very big sweet tooth.

I have a strong aversion to all candy native to New Zealand. Pineapple lumps, bleurgh. L&P, yuck. New Zealand marmite is alright, but no way near as good as the UK version, which by the way can't have it's label on display in this country. We went to the Brit shop today and UK marmite has had its label covered, same with Weetabix, the UK equivalent to Weetbix. Which is stupid because the UK has been around for so much more longer than New Zealand, who cares if they have the same name?

Anyways, a short trip to Milson and we come home with some Tea Cakes (equivalent to MallowPuffs for all you kiwi folk), 3 cans of Dr Pepper (although these came from the Pie Factory for only 99c a can!), Fox's Party Rings (childrens biscuts), NikNaks (crisps), a bag of M&S Percy Pigs (BEST CANDY EVER) and one sachet of Options Indulgence hot drink in Chocolate Fudge.

I find myself way more attracted to foods from the UK or America. It has a much better taste than food developed in the land of the long white cloud, imho. It may be more artificial and full of preservatives than the food here, but darn heck does it taste good.

Dr Pepper will be hands down my favourite 'exotic' beverage. Next up would have to be Kool-Aid Jammers in Cherry. These taste so artificial and great. I also like all things Reese's. Reese's Cups, Reese's Pieces.

I will always be willing to pay that extra amount to get candy I actually enjoy, and also because my beloved who is from the UK, gets excited when we find more food he's grown up with. The market in New Zealand is slowly getting bigger, with United Sweets opening up all over the country as well as their online site, along with British food shops.

Also, quick story, Blake and I are currently eating the pack of NikNaks and he grabbed one out of the bag thinking it was just a small one, turns out it was a solid lump of flavouring. These are the Nice 'N' Spicy flavour. He said it hurt.

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