Twas The Week Before Christmas For All To Freak Out

If you are anything like me you are freaking out about Christmas and the gifts you need to buy.

I appreciate that this is especially hard for my family since I don't shop on the high street. I also have to be careful with what products I use so bath sets etc can be problematic.

So I thought I would do a quick blog round up of my favourite vintage inspired last minute gifts to give anyone shopping for a vintage enthusiast some ideas...

The following are designed to be easy buys without having to worry too much about sizes, skintones etc.

Make up 

You could buy your vintage loved one a compact, more specifically a Stratton compact. Stratton do lovely giftware and many of their products have matching pieces so you could inspire a collection. I love this icons compact with the black and white portraits and this is available in a number of different options as shown. Visit their website for stockists.

Visit: http://www.strattonofmayfair.com

A make up palette is always a great gift, especially when it is something you wouldn't normally treat yourself too. The Balm is available at Debenhams and I received the "How Do You Like Them Apples" cheek and lip palette last year (£28) and the colours are really vibrant, the consistency is great and the pigment lasts all day. The packaging is also cute, which matters (it just does, don't ask me why!)

I am loving the Voyage palette this year, although at £37.50 it is not cheap!

Visit: http://www.debenhams.com

Benefit always have some great christmas specials and this year they have put together some of their best products into these oh so cute dolls head gift sets. You get some great products at a considerably better price than if you bought the items individually and this particular one offers make up and some skincare so it's a nice combination. Beware - these are selling out fast! £39.50

Visit: www.benefitcosmetics.com

Hair 

If the vintage enthusiast you are buying for is new to vintage hair then Claire's accessories is the place to go. They have a range of products that are great for a novice or for a vintage lover with very little time. 

Scunci is my favourite brand for vintage inspired hair tools (they do excellent pillow rollers!) and at the moment these are 3 for 2 at Claire's! Below are my beginners gift recommendations 

Visit: http://www.claires.co.uk 

Reading material 

There is still time to rush in an amazon delivery and the following is I would recommend for a vintage enthusiast, just make sure they don't already have it! 

Style me Vintage - any of the books in this range would go down well as these books are excellent resources for tips on vintage styling and shopping. My personal favourites are...

Visit: www.amazon.co.uk

Robes 

I don't know anyone who doesn't love a robe and a vintage inspired wrap that will leave your vintage lovely feeling glamorous and pampered is always sure to be a hit. It's also something we all to often neglect until someone buys us one! 

These two are my personal favourites from House Of Fraser. I love the oriental details of the Biba one or if you are buying for your sweetheart she could easily make like Dita in the sexy see-through robe.  Buying them something to go under it is optional ;-) 

 

Biba £60.00 / Bluebella £36.00

I hope this helps anyone struggling to buy for a vintage honey. 

I look forward to bringing you a Christmas and New Year round up soon but in the meantime I wish you all a Merry Christmas! 

Love

Lucy 

*Images property of Stratton, Debenhams, Benefit, Claire's, Amazon and House of Fraser respectively. 

**All views are my own. 

Allied - Know Thy Enemy - Film Review

I don't watch much modern cinema these days but when a film set in 1940's London presents itself, well it would be rude not to.

Much has been made of the film "Allied" featuring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard and vintage circles have gone crazy for the costume design thanks to Joanna Johnson. 


Pitt (Max Vatan) and Cotillard (Marianne Beauséjour) meet in North Africa on a secret mission, neither have met before but they will be living and working together until their mission is complete. Both just happen to be completely sexy and not ravaged by war. 


Marianne appears as a live for the moment gal and draws the somewhat more business like Max into her world of throwing caution to the wind. As it turns out caution to the wind will get you pregnant!

Fast forward to London and the couple marry despite Max's boss giving him words of warning about relationships in the workplace. But there is already a bun in the oven so a quick wartime marriage is the least that could be expected.

The couple are living in bliss in Hampstead with a beautiful daughter, Marianne plays the dutiful housewife whilst Max continues with his war work. What could possibly go wrong?

When Max is called into the office he is expecting to be offered a promotion but instead is informed that his wife may be a spy of a different kind (don't you hate it when that happens?) and sending information back to the Germans. Max's furious outburst at his superiors is forgiven (Max seems to get away with a lot in this movie that would not have gone down well in the 1940's military) when he agreed to test his wife to find out once and for all.

Max is not convinced that Marianne could possibly be hiding such a dark and terrible secret but no sooner than he agrees is the seed of doubt planted and he starts to imagine a different side to his wife, the spy he met and married whilst barely knowing her.

I of course won't spoil the ending, the film is a good watch for the 1940's romanticist of course but the actual story, despite it being a long film, felt a little rushed and incomplete.

The characters who surround the couple seem somewhat redundant for most of the film, especially Max's sister, the out of the closet lesbian, which I found very annoying to be frank because 2 women making open references to their relationship and french kissing in public in 1940's would not have been socially acceptable and to pretend it would cheapens the struggle LGBT people had during those years (and beyond) also it wasn't relevant to the story in any way so I am not sure of the motivation for it.

Aside from a few scenes in which planes crash or there is an air raid, other than Max's job being a reference point, the realities of living in wartime are lost in this movie so if thats the kind of realism your looking for then it may not be for you.

If your looking for some escapism you might enjoy it, the costume work is amazing and deserves all the press attention it has been getting, and as stories go it's enjoyable and does make you do some guess work as to Marianne's status.

The Wartime Wardrobe Round Up 

Marianne's day wardrobe in North Africa is a feast for the eyes, very stylish and classic 

A killer dress for a killer scene - this gown took my breath away and was shot in such a beautiful way that you could see every movement of the fabric on camera - worth buying the DVD just to slow-mo this dress 

The character also has some serious loungewear game in this film, I had robe envy! 

There is a scene in which Marianne's wardrobe is open and I spotted the shoulders of this dress then, sadly you don't get to see much of it in the film so I had to imagine the rest. 

Note to self - if I ever marry a man in a blue suit wear a powder blue 40's dress - I loved this wedding outfit so much! 

London calling - calling for heavier coats and scarves. Marianne may not have such a stylish wardrobe in the London scenes but she is stereotypically British in her attire which I loved. 

Coats replace the lounge wear in the London scenes and although the history buff in me wants to complain that most people wouldn't have had endless amounts of coats the fashion fan in me loved looking at them.

Oddly this is one of my favourite pieces from the movie, this sweet little floral shirt which wouldn't look out of place in Cath Kidson. 

So there you have it, my round up of my favourite outfits of the movie. 

I hope you enjoyed looking at them too! All images are property of Paramount Pictures. 

Until next time 

Love 

Lucy

x 

I've got flu under my skin - my guide to getting better

I haven't been able to do any blog work this weekend, or have any fun on my last weekend in London before I move, because I was visited by the cruel flu mistress.



But it did give me the idea for this blog - the ways in which I get better, some standard, some a bit strange.



So Thursday saw a scratchy throat, and by Friday I felt and looked a mess. I was due to go to my works Christmas lunch so I dressed up in my Christmas skirt and had planned to look like I did at the tiki Christmas party a few weeks ago

Because I woke up at four unable to sleep I did my hair and make up, I was hopeful... I was foolish

It was touch and go, to be honest I was going to go home, but I went to the lunch, ate my food that I couldn't taste, I had a rather lovely hot toddy that the wonderful bar lady made me and went home to bed uncharacteristically early.



I slept for four hours and woke up sweating through my bed sheets and have spent the last two days in bed either freezing my arse off or kicking off the covers and all the time wondering how I would get to the loo without falling down the stairs, yep it was bad.



The ballet dancers I hallucinated did provide some of the entertainment so at this point I'd like to thank the Royal Lemsip Company for their performance.



So here is what I did to feel vaguely normal today...



1. Drugs - don't listen to all that "the more you take the less effective they are" when it's this bad just take them and take them regularly. I've been scarily delirious this weekend but whenever I look a dose I took a screen shot of my phone so I could remember the time - handy flu hint!



2. Food - don't worry about what you are eating and don't listen to anyone who says you should starve a fever, you have to eat but you won't feel like it. My rather impressive shopping list consisted of...





Essentials-

Cold and flu tabs

Ibuprofen

Cough mixture



Hot toddy ingredients (not to be mixed with the above)-

Lemon juice

Honey

Mini bottle of whiskey



Soft/sugary things-

Pot noodles

Jelly fruits

Marshmallows

Ice lollies

Aero bubbles



Ingredients for death row dinner

Instant mash

Gravy

Peas

Yorkshire puddings



Alternative drug of choice-

Vimto squash - drink as much of this crazy sugar high inducing shit as possible.



The death row dinner is just that, if it was your last ever meal what would you eat, and that is mine, I had it this afternoon once I could stand at the cooker and it warmed the cockles of my heart. Choose anything that reminds you of your mum basically.



Hot toddies are only for the night time and only if there has been a break in your medication (I'm not a doctor but mixing the two is a bad idea) it will help you sleep but only have one otherwise you'll just be shit faced with the flu and life will be much worse.



I've not got through all this of course but had I not been feeling better today I would have survived a few more days in bed with my food stash, you only want to go shopping once!



Things to do-



If you are anything like me you will be bored, don't actually try and do anything though. I can be my own worst enemy in this way. I found a 1940's movie channel on YouTube and proceeded to watch some good old fashioned movies, some I snoozed through but the background noise was welcome in my slumbers.



Don't try and read or do anything productive, what are you hoping to achieve?



Don't speak to anyone but trusted people, your delirious and not making much sense so don't speak to anyone important, it's like being drunk - no matter how bad it feels and how much you are crying texting your ex will not help!



The aftermath.



Clean your ill sheets, I have fresh linen all ready for tomorrow because I'm still a bit sweaty and dizzy at the mo. But tomorrow I'll love that I can get into non infected sheets. Boil wash the ones you've been sleeping in, they've seen some things now, they need 90 degree therapy.



Have a nice bath, if you are drinking your hot toddy in the bath like me then don't have it to hot or it will make you dizzy and you don't need to sweat any more than you have. I got some radox muscle therapy bubble bath (although it says for men, unsure when bubble bath became gendered?!)

Wash your hair cos it's gross, you know it, I know it.



The main thing will be your skin, you'll probably have dried up like an old prune in the last few days, moisturise but also use a face mask if you have one. I get psoriasis which has flared up because my body has been busy fighting the flu so my face is red and tight and dry. It's a good look.



I decided to try Starskin from Behind The Scenes TM which I had stashed away for just such an occasion.

It's a face mask that has a serum all over it and is like a burn mask in a way (that's what the design is based on) it's like a jelly consistency which was really cooling and soothing on my skin which was itching like mad.

Yes you will look ridiculous! Ha!



You don't wash your face afterward you just take off the mask and rub the remaining serum in. It feels really nice, I'll have to assess tomorrow if the redness is any less.



For £8.50 I would use this product again and would try some of the other versions available as they have a few different masks in their line.



I also did a deep conditioning hair treatment to help my brittle hair which, despite all the water I have been drinking, felt like straw.



So there you go - eat, drink and watch many many films, then scrub up a little to feel a bit more precious. That's my flu survival guide without a chia seed or smoothie in sight.





I hope you all stay healthy this winter and hopefully next week I can bring you some vintage loveliness!

Much love

Lucy

ACHOO!!!





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