My FOTD: Pop Of Colour Lips

If you follow me on twitter, Last Sunday I posted my outfit and face of the day. I love wearing simple makeup when it's very hot out but I don't like to look like I just woke up and walked out.

I find that wearing a nice pop of color on your lips helps to brighten your face (and your mood) without much effort.

Lips:
Makeup Forever Lipliner in pink
MAC Chatterbox Lipstick

Eyes:
UDPP
UD Chopper eyeshadow
MAC Smolder in the waterline and smudged on the upper lashline.
Maybelline Colossal Mascara

Cheeks:
Bobbi Brown Apricot Blush (perfect match for the lipstick)

Face:
Nars sheer glow foundation in Stromboli
Ben Nye Banana set powder
Smashbox Suntan Matte Bronzer

Necklace: H&M

Hope you like!

XOXO,
Awilda

Fashion = Dessert !?

Those yummy macaroons are made by mixing up different kinds of tea w/ other flavors. 

Pink, purple, black and brown (caramel) macaroons. 

Yellow, red and light brown macaroons.


White macaroons are made of Morocco mint + green tea flavor!


Aren't those colorful macaroon looking adorable n' delicious lining up here!! ^^

Thanks to the FOOD industry, I'd pick up whatever delights me at the first sight w/o worrying much of going wrong w/ the choices. 

However, the vagaries of fashion industry would confuse people so much that I sometimes have a hard time understanding the aesthetic underpinning for such a so-called fashionable statement/looks. Ah, perhaps I would categorize those as the eerily work of art to me!:P


Today is the second day as we family are back in USA.  I am trying my best to help my kids cope w/ the jet lag. There are a lot of summer activities awaits for my kids starting next week so I have to make sure they are ready by then!


What's the plan to keep them awake during the day?


Sunshine!!! ^^


A lot of sunshine will keep them awake so we went up to SF city this morning. 

My ODJ. 


1. Top: 

• Vince tank top
• 20,000,000 fragments tweed jacket w/ blue trim

2. Bottom:
J Brand skinny cropped jeans in Khaki 


3. Accessory:

• Sonia Rykiel Swarovski crystal owl brooch as necklace
• BR gold studs belt
• Lilith brown stripes scarf
• San Diego Hat co. tan knitting cap (bought at Wholefoods Market)
• G-shock (orange face) watch (bought when I was in college..... :)) 
• Chanel matte black reissue in 226 

4. Shoes: 
Chole tan/nude ankle wrap flat

w/ Tom Ford Jacqueline style sunglasses

w/ Karen walker Gee Gee in Milky Pink

And I like the unexpected KW pink sunglasses better. 

The shade is actually very dark and you almost can see that brown hue in this wine Christian Louboutin Bianca 140 mm heels. 

This CL Bianca I picked up this morning will never be my first choice if I ever saw her on the shelf. But w/ the sale price and surprisingly elegant and cheerful look than black ones, I'd go for this pair as my wardrobe staple. 

This pair has similar color as YSL's new fall patent wine/purple pumps. 

W/ my ODJ, nice looking. I think!

Ilona is very hyper when we were in SF city.  

She started dancing on the sidewalk when she heart drum/music people played by the street. 

Now, would you please excuse moi!!

z..z...zzzzzz.....zzzzzzzzz

xoxo Rachel

Work it Out

Hello my lovelies,

It's been a long week hasn't it? Or it sure feels like it... Recently I have been failing to get to bed on time and to prevent myself from pressing snooze 6 times in a row! Perhaps it's the heat, though I shan't complain as I love summer and hot weather and hope that it carries on indefinitely.

Having spent a lot of time in tropical climates, through travel/ extended holidays and living in a very hot part of the world for a number of years when I was younger, I feel prepared for hot weather. However, I have been struggling recently with my summer wardrobe of all things. Now, let me just begin by saying that i have a wardrobe of summer dresses. I can't help it, I love them! Brights, pastels, whites, neons, florals, floaty, sexy, drapey, maxie... I can't get enough! Whenever I go into any shop I walk straight over to dresses, everything else seems like a little bit of a chore.

However, none of these are really suitable for work. Since I work in a conservative office environment I can't really wear anything too bright, bold or short, but I refuse to compromise and be boring, which is why I feel I have to tread a very fine line. This seems to be problematic especially in summer, when there is just too much temptation (and trust me I have seen some very inappropriate things floating down the streets)!

Also, what throws me off about summer office dressing is the completely unintuitive temperature change. While the heat is sweltering on the tube and outside the air con inside is desperately over compensating and blasting you with arctic air. What I have come to realise is, no matter what I wear, or how hot it is during the day, our office will always be freezing. Therefore, I can afford to be a little more skimpy on my way to work, at lunch, or on my way to client meetings, but keep a cardigan or pashmina with me at all times for indoors. Luckily, my job involves a fair bit walking outside so I do get to see the sun now and then ;), though it seems silly really to carry a warm jacket/ cardigan with me wherever I go!

My usual style has come to be a fitted/ structured dress, mostly sleeveless, (which I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing in the office, but is perfect when outside) coupled with a cardigan. Not exactly exciting, but it beats suits hands down. At times like these I feel sorry for men as they have absolutely no choice in the matter :(, and despite a few strange, strange individuals I have seen I know linen on men will (should) never catch on.

Dress from H&M (years ago), cardigan from Juicy Couture, who surprisingly have some really nice work appropriate pieces such as blouses, skirts and I even some suits... I guess they are not all about velour trackies after all ;).


As for makeup and hair. Well I seem to be stuck in a routine. I have got the time down perfectly every morning so it's easy to stop being adventurous.

Makeup wise I keep it neutral:
Dior Forever Foundation spf 25 - an absolute God send in summer as it stays put through the heat,
NARS Laguna bronzer,
Any peach/ pink blush - recently loving MAC's ripe peach,
2 shadows - something light and shimmery on lid and matte creamy brown in crease eg. MAC wedge
Liquid liner - either Eyeko or Dulce Cosmetics as both are 'marker pen' style so super quick to use,
Estee Lauder Sumptuous Volume Mascara/ Chanel Exceptionel waterproof - black, volumising, stays put
Lip balm- Anatomicals stop cracking up, amazingly moisturising, non-sticky and looks like a vinyl clear gloss.

 

Hair is even more simple. I curl large sections using the Babyliss conical wand, then separate the curls, twist/ braid/ clip back the front portion and hairspray it to death to elude the humidity and Tada! 

Sorry for the jumbled post, I just love reading people's every day routines and get a sneak peak into the inner working of their hair/ makeup/ wardrobe.

Would you guys be interested in more outfit of the day posts that are work appropriate? If enough of you reply I shall maybe set my alarm 5 minutes earlier so I can have time to take photos... or just hit the snooze a few times less ;).

Enjoy the weekend my lovelies and happy gay pride weekend for those involved!! Is anyone going to see Perez at the 02 tomorrow? xxx

Good Times/Bad Times

GOOD TIMES

1) I have another wedding dress fitting today...any excuse to put that gorgeous dress on! There had been a big complication with this as I originally asked for the dress to have a lace up, corseted design at the back.  But the company who were making it phoned to say that the style of the dress would fall better if the back was a zip and button design.  So I bowed to their expertise and agree to go with that.  However, the corseted designs are ordered a size smaller as they cinch you in.  Guess what...the shop forgot to change the measurements so I ended up with a dress that was slightly too small for me.  It zipped up to the bottom of my shoulder blades but struggled to get it any further.  SO as you can imagine, I was close to tears at this point.  That was in March so although I didn't want the added pressure of having to slim into a dress, I knew I had to step up my efforts at the gym to reduce the size of my back.  The last fitting I had was 3 weeks ago and the dress zipped up but it was a bit tight and felt a little restrictive.  In the last 3 weeks I have lost 6lbs so I'm confident today that the dress will fit really well.  What's a wedding without some kind of drama!ha ha.

2) I rediscovered the joy of rocking up to a book shop, getting a coffee and sitting around for a couple of hours reading random books.  I used to love doing that but I never seemed to have time.  I love dipping into different types of books in the store, you find yourself getting totally sucked into it and become oblivious to the fact that you're on a bean bag in a book shop.

3) Even though I'm being careful about what I eat, I still allow myself a small treat every day.  We all need a little bit of sweetness in our day!  My current choice is a treat size Crunchie bar, straight from the fridge...you can't beat it!

4) It's my hen night this weekend so I'm excited about that! I have been lucky enough to have two, a weekend in Edinburgh and now a night out in Aberdeen.  I will get a post up about that next week to let you all know how we get on!

5) I was in town with my mum yesterday with the intention of only havng a browse around the sales.  My mum, however, was in a spending mood! I'm very lucky that my mum has great taste in clothes and accessories so often I get to borrow things from her.  She bought an absolutely gorgeous bag from Warehouse yesterday for £28 and said that we could share it! So it's mine for this weekend...yippee! I love everything about this bag, from the rattan effect exterior to the gold coloured details...it almost looks designer! It is big enough to hold all of my crap in the daytime but not too big to carry around on a night out.  It also has a chain that sits inside so you can use it as a clutch or pull the chain out and use it as a shoulder bag.  I am in love with it!

BAD TIMES

1) My dad phoned to tell me yesterday that his best friend, George, had been at his leaving party for work and he was enjoying a couple of drinks in town.  I've known George ever since I was a little kid.  He didn't want to drink too much so he only had a couple then left the bar to get the train home.  Somewhere between the bar and the train station, George fell really badly and hit his head.  Luckily someone saw him fall and called an ambulance.  He fractured his skull and there was bleeding on his brain so they induced a coma with sedatives to keep him calm and as still as possible.  We are still waiting on more news about his condition but we are all thinking of him and praying that he makes a speedy and full recovery.  It's hard to believe that something like that can happen so easily.  It's things like that that make you realise how precious life is and how we all need to live for today and tell the people we love how much we care about them.