Lust Haves #1

As the title of this post suggest, these are a few items I have been lusting after lately :0) Unsurprisingly, given the dismal weather we have had this summer so far in the UK I am thinking only of winter wardrobes now!

This absolutely incredible shopper bag from Zara - (Image & product found here!)

This gorgeous leather jacket from Warehouse - (Image & product found here!)

This lovely looking cosy jumper from Topshop -(Image & product found here!)

This delicious Roberto Cavalli fragrance. I have been hankering after since I sniffed the advert page for it in one of my monthly glossy magazines - (Image & product found here!)

And finally if its not too much to ask I would love to go back to here and escape the awful summer in London...

Pousada Casas Brancas, Buzios, RJ, Brazil - (Image from here!)

Haul! Zara, Monsoon (?!) and more...

So I have basically broken my spending ban...oops! But then again I am always on some kind of spending ban... and I didn't go that crazy and I only picked up 4 items all together... so I am pretty pleased with myself about that if I am honest.

Of course I had to get something in Zara, and the piece that I picked up was a shirt, of course. I am obsessed with shirts from Zara at the moment. This time the shirt is a bit more 'crazy' for me though, whilst still sticking to my overall understated, ahem *boring* style...and I love it. In fact when I wear it I feel like I ought to be on the set of the recently relaunched Dallas. Yee-Ha!

Zara Link - Here!

I also picked up a pretty adventurous blazer too! In fact not sure what has happened to make me so bold of late with my choices... again, this is pretty tame but if you knew me you would definitely be thinking 'Blimey, are you all right Jana!?!' I am totally obsessed with blazers to the point that my husband has specifically asked me to stop buying blazers as I am running out of hanging space, but I love them. They are so useful and can completely change up a really basic outfit. I found this one in a 50% off sale!

The blazer is by Moschino. (similar here)

I have searched high and low for a link but cannot find the exact one anywhere.You may also notice that I am wearing my ColorBlockShop necklace that I mentioned in this post. I absolutely adore this necklace, and have worn it to death! Love it! I get so many compliments on it whenever I wear it too, which is a nice little added bonus! I am also just wearing a plain white vest from Zara, obviously, which is this one.

Last but by no means least I found these little gems in Monsoon. I am not sure why I went in there as I never do, but I was on a mission to find a body so went anywhere and everywhere on my hunt...I ended up not finding a body however....

Link!

No idea what is going on with the red rash I appear to have in the picture, odd as I didn't notice one in real life! And sadly the necklace isn't on the site so I am guessing it it sold out.

What do you think? What purchases have you done recently?

xxx

Jana

BeneFit Haul: Coralista and Hoola :0)

I don't think I have bought anything from BeneFit for quite a while...I did go crazy for some of the their smudge proof shadow liners in 2010 and earlier this year I acquired the first blush that I have ever owned that I actually use, the Hervana. It is amazing by the way. Other than that I have not really used anything BeneFit much since I was in high school, I think... and that was a REALLY long time ago now... sob.

After the success of the Hervana blush, which by the way I do genuinely wear every single day, I decided to go back to BeneFit and see what else took my fancy.

After looking at lots of swatches on-line and reading almost every review on MakeupAlley, I decided to plump for the Coralista blush. 

I don't know why I used to be so scared of blushes, and I also don't know why I never tried this one given its been around for a long time. It's probably because its quite a scary looking blush for the uninitiated.

The colour in the pan is really quite bright and for someone who is still relatively a blush 'virgin' it appears to be quite scarily bright. 

Despite this I took the plunge and I was even quite liberal with my first application. I found that the colour pay-off was still quite sheer, in spite of how vivid it is in the pan and really flattering. Highly recommend this one. I am in love. Yes, this does have a bit of 'sparkle' which I don't mind as I like the glowing look, but if you are into a matte finish then this may not be for you :0)

 

(quite a 'heavy' swatch)

Last weekend I smashed the bronzer I had been using adoringly for over the past year, the Clarins Mosaique bronzer (which was a huge limited edition one, I think,... and it lasted me, literally, yonks -I got it in May last year, I think ). I had obviously hit pan on this one, but it would have lasted me a good 4/5 months still I reckon. Then I dropped it (not for the first time), but this time it was beyond saving.

I destroyed what has been my only go-to bronzer whilst getting ready to go out for dinner so I wasn't best pleased that I then had to rummage through my stash to find something to use, which I recently completely streamlined (ie got rid of things that I had been hoarding for years) which is when I stumbled upon my old BeneFit Hoola bronzer.  From the first swirl of my brush over my forehead it was instant love. WHY? WHY? WHY did I stop using this stuff? It's amazing and the most natural looking 'olive' bronze tone I have found. I mean I loved my Clarins one, but even that one was a bit orange at times if I was a bit heavy handed.

My old Hoola bronzer was looking very tatty to say the least and totally smashed up and icky. So, obviously, I had to go and get a new one.

 Here it is, in all its beautiful glory. 

And even better, it comes with the magnetic flip lip cover with a mirror inside, which I much prefer to the old style. I will still finish up my old Hoola, I am determined not to be wasteful, BUT I just couldn't resist making sure I had my back-up ready for when the old one runs out,
which should be any day now.

BeneFit also managed to score brownie points as they offered me a very generous 5 ml sample of their Hello Flawless Oxygen WOW foundation (HFOW). Is that a mouthful or what?! I can't say that I was in the market for a new foundation, as I love my Invisible Fluid foundation from Estee Lauder (its amazing). But if its free, I am going to try it, and I'll make sure I let you know how I got on with it.

Have you hauled at BeneFit lately?

xxx 

Jana

Zara haul, euro-style.

I spent a few days in Valencia last week to visit my baby sister and soak up some sun for a few days as the weather in the UK has been absolutely dismal.

One of the few shops I make a point of stopping in is Zara. I know sounds ridiculous as we have Zara in abundance in London, but its just cheaper in Spain and they have more stuff, and stuff that hasnt hit our shores yet!

Here are a few pieces I picked up that I am LOVING right now :

Gorgeous 'lace' turquoise skirt - link!

I have been wanting a nice simple and clean white blazer for a while so got this...

 

and because I am obsessed with this colour I had to get this one too.
They don't have this colour online yet, but here is a to the white one - link!

Aztec print t-shirt - link!

 They don't have this one on the Spanish site, but I think I paid about 15Eur more or less.

I genuinely could have gone crazy but I had to act with some restraint. So much amazing stuff in there at the moment. If I did a post of all the stuff I wanted to buy this post would be ridiculously long so I'll refrain myself. :)

Another shop I discovered while there that they don't have in the UK (to my knowledge) is Utuerque. I believe it is owned by the same people that own Zara (don't quote me on that as I'm not sure) and they had some great stuff there, albeit slightly more expensive.

link!

 I fell in love with these flats and am totally kicking myself for not getting them. I am tempted to order online, but annoyed as they were 69Eur in Spain and would be £79 plus shipping to UK. Oh well. On a brighter note, I did manage to find lots of gorgeous shoes....but I'll save those for another post :)

Have you hauled at Zara recently?

xx
Jana