Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good weekend. For today's blog post I just wanted to talk a little bit about my involvement with In Retrospect Magazine so I hope you enjoy seeing what I've been up to and learning a bit more about the publication!



I first became aware of the magazine when I was sent a few copies to review. I really enjoyed reading all the articles and poring over the wonderful fashion spreads, and I found that there was plenty of content to read meaning that the publication is great value for money. It targets a slightly different audience to something like Vintage Life Magazine, meaning that it's well worth picking up a copy if you're into reading about topics such as history, film and television, and music and dance as well as just fashion. You can read my full review here.

After reviewing these issues of the magazine, I also became involved in other capacities, first modelling for issue 6's Pretty in Pink feature and then through writing for the Dispatches section of In Retrospect's website.



I really enjoyed modelling for the magazine, and it was fun to put together the crazy 80s looks inspired by the film, plus I met some really great people on the day. I hope I might be able to model again for the magazine in the future, maybe doing a 1940s or 50s look which I'm more familiar with.

The Dispatches are usually shorter articles than those that appear in the magazine, and are written by a range of authors on a huge variety of topics. For my own part, I started off by reviewing several articles of clothing for the popular reproduction brand Vivien of Holloway.



I reviewed a 1940s style tea dress featuring a very sweet envelope pattern novelty print, as well as a matching set of a slash neck top and 1940s swing trousers. As well as writing these reviews, I've also written two other reviews - one of a novel by Charlotte Bingham called The Moon at Midnight, and the other of the film The Edge of Love starring Keira Knightly and Sienna Miller. Both of these reviews are part of a series called Retrospective Reviews, featuring books, movies, and other media which is not brand new but which nonetheless would appeal to those of us who enjoy what the magazine terms the "retrospective lifestyle".

I am continuing to write these kinds of pieces for the Dispatches, and in fact have just finished working on some more reviews which may appear on the website in the future. I also have several more similar articles planned, and I'd be really interested in hearing whether any of you have any older books or films that you'd like me to review for the site.
 

That's everything for now, but I do hope to be checking in with some more articles soon.

In the meantime, you can read all the other Dispatches articles here, and you can find all the details about purchasing or subscribing to the magazine here. 

Please let me know in the comments if there is anything you'd like me to review or write about for any upcoming Dispatches!

Disclaimer: This book was provided free of charge by in exchange for a blog post. All opinions are my own, and you can read my full disclosure policy here.





Hi everyone! Today I'm going to be putting together an Old Hollywood-inspired hair and makeup look which I've created using instructions from Vintage Secrets: Hollywood Beauty, a coffee table/vintage beauty source book by Laura Slater. I followed the steps to create a 1940s pompadour hairstyle and a 1940s daytime makeup look à la Rita Hayworth. I adapted the instructions according to the products I personally own, and I'll point out where my own method differed from the original instructions. I have put the excerpts from the instructions in italics so you can see which is which. Of course to see the original instructions in full, make sure you get yourself a copy of the book!



I chose a pinup girl pompadour for my hairstyle as it's quite different to how I would usually style my hair, and I love how Rita Hayworth's hair (just seen in the picture above) looked effortless and a bit less 'done', as it keeps the style fun as well as achievable and a less formal for a daytime look. 

Here's how to create this style:



I'm starting with hair that's been set in foam rollers overnight to create some nice curls and volume to my hair, so the first step for me is to remove all my rollers.



The first step to creating a basic pompadour according to the instructions is to divide the front half of the hair into three sections, so that you have one low side-parting on each side of the head. I spent some time playing around with the placement of the partings to make sure that they were even on each side, and that I was happy with the amount of hair that I was left with in the centre section.



Next, brush the central section up and away from the head. It should then be rolled back and pinned to the crown of the head with bobby pins. Again with this step I spent some time rolling and re-rolling, until I was happy with the placement of the roll and the shape of the pompadour. Taking inspiration from the photo of Rita Hayworth, I fiddled with it until I was happy that it was neat enough but I wasn't too bothered about getting it absolutely perfect. Of course if you're more talented than me or particularly want it to be very neat (maybe for a formal event? I can see this looking very sweet for a summer wedding), then you spend more time on making the roll.



Next, the instructions advise that the sides are often brushed back and secured with a clip, or more bobby pins decorated with a ribbon or flowers. I only have plain bobby pins, but I secured the sides in place and will add some flowers separately at the end.



As the pompadour only really refers to the front of the hair, you can do almost anything you like with the back. Here I am just brushing and arranging my curls into a pleasing shape before pinning some flowers into the sides of my hair.



Lastly I just gave my hair a generous spritz with the hairspray to finish off.



Here's the finished product for the hair. I'm really pleased with the result and it was very simple to follow the tips for achieving the 'do.



As I'd chosen a 1940s style for my hair, I felt a 1940s makeup look would complement it the best. The instructions show how the look can be taken from day to night with a few small changes, but here I am concentrating on the daytime version. As I don't own all the products mentioned, I made some substitutions - but if you're completely invested in creating an authentic look it might be worth getting your hands on a cake mascara, for example, instead of using a modern one.





1. Start with a natural foundation with a rosy tint and apply a rosy powder on top. Here I am using my Collection Colour Match foundation in the shade Porcelain  which is actually a bit pinker than my natural skin tone anyway. Because of this I'm avoiding using a rosy powder (which I don't own anyway) and have substituted my Besame Cosmetics Brightening Vanilla Powder to set my foundation in place.



2. Carefully outline your lips with colour and a fine brush, starting in the centre and working out. Draw slightly over your natural lip-line if necessary to create a full, heart shaped pout. Instead of outlining using a brush, I just used my usual pencil lip liner. I always slightly overdraw my lips anyway as my upper lip in particular is a bit on the small side and I also like to create a nice 1940s/50s style shape to my lips.

3. Fill in the lips with a matching shade of red, making sure they are really well covered in the centre. I am using my Besame Cosmetics American Beauty lipstick, which is probably my favourite of all the red lipsticks I own.



4. Apply eyeshadow in a natural colour that harmonises with your eyes. I'm using a taupe-y brown from Eye of Horus Cosmetics (the shade is called Ankh Odyssey).



5. Apply a line of liquid liner close to the top lashes. Widen slightly at the outer corner of the eye and extend a little beyond the lid to create an exaggerated almond shape. I used a black liquid liner as that's all I own, but I think a brown liner would have been very flattering for this look. I don't usually take my eyeliner all the way across to the inner corner of my eye as I find lining my eyes to halfway across is more flattering on my eye shape.

6. Brush eyebrows up and out. These particular instructions don't include the use of any kind of eyebrow products (pencil, powder, pomade etc) so I stuck to the script and left mine bare. There are, however, instructions and plenty of information elsewhere in the book about making up your eyebrows, so you could easily combine the instructions if you'd prefer.



7. Go with natural eyelashes for a true forties look [...] The fashion was to apply mascara painstakingly one lash at a time using a tiny brush and cake mascara if you had it (burnt cork if you didn't). Since I don't own a cake mascara and the last bottle of wine I opened had a plastic cork, I stuck with my usual mascara. Mine is black as that's what I usually prefer, but the book recommends brown mascara for blondes and redheads.



Since my hair and nails are already done, that's it for these instructions. I was really pleased with the final look and I'd definitely wear it to go to re-enactment or on days when I wanted a particularly authentic 1940s look. To make me feel more like "myself" for the rest of the day, I filled in my eyebrows using my usual eyebrow pencil, and added some blusher. I noticed that the instructions don't mention using any colour on the cheeks but I do have a Besame rouge which I was tempted to use, but in the end decided that it would be better to represent the look as instructed from the book.



As well as the photos of my hair and makeup, here are a few photos of the inside of the book to give you a little taste of what else you can find inside. I have to admit that although it's possibly not the sort of book that's intended to be read from cover to cover, I did end up reading most of the book in one sitting as it's so interesting! I'd definitely consider it more of a coffee table book than one that's truly instructional as not all of the instructions are as thorough as the ones that I followed in order to create my Old Hollywood-inspired look, but there are plenty of great tips and interesting tidbits of information. Personally I really enjoy reading about the different products and techniques that the starlets used in the past, even if I'm not actually going to incorporate them into my own routine.









If you're a fan of this type of coffee table/source book, this would be a really nice one to add to your collection. It's quite different to the two others that I own, as one of those focuses mainly on fashion and the other is more of a general overview of fashion, hair, and makeup from the 1920s-80s.

I hope you've really enjoyed seeing my recreation of two of the looks from this wonderful book! If you enjoy my content, please take a moment to like and share, and let me know in the comments if you'd wear this hairstyle and/or makeup look yourself.

I know we are mid-way through January already but I'm still working my way through a few photos from around Christmas time. This particular outfit is what I chose to wear for New Year's Day, and although I was just spending it at home with my family, I still like to take any opportunity I can to dress up.

As it was New Year, I decided on something a little bit sparkly. This 1950s skirt is another one that normally only comes out at Christmas time, as I don't get the opportunity to go out to many fancy places throughout the year. I've seen another similar skirt online that I would love to buy (normally I'd try and avoid buying two things that are so similar but in this case it somehow makes me want it even more) but as it would sit unworn in my wardrobe the majority of the time it doesn't seem worth it.

Of course for shoes I couldn't resist wearing my new babies, my Lulu Hun "Ella" boots. I haven't forgotten the blog post I mentioned which will have lots more information and better pictures of these. That will be coming as soon as I'm able to swap back to my DSLR as I feel the boots deserve better than grainy pictures done with my old point-and-shoot camera.

I don't make New Year's resolutions as I never manage to stick to them, but let me know in the comments if you made any and how you're doing with them so far!

Well this post is a total throwback for me, as it's the first I've done in a very long time using my old point-and-shoot camera instead of my DSLR. I had completely forgotten how much more difficult it is to get in-focus photos using the self timer on this camera compared to using my remote for my DSLR. I've been completely spoiled! Also, every dog walker and jogger apparently wanted to use that path at the same time I was trying to take my photos, and I never have got over my fear/embarrassment of having other people see me taking photos with my tripod.

Anyway, this is the outfit that I originally wore on Boxing Day this year, but I ended up having to retake the photos as it was so windy on Boxing Day that I just ended up looking a mess. I do like how the frost and the mist in the photos looks though, so my much neater hair is not the only reason I prefer these photos. I don't think the point-and-shoot camera does too bad a job overall - I do prefer the quality of the DSLR photos even though I never really learned how to use it to its full potential.

This outfit features a couple of my most favourite items of clothing, which I'm sure you will recognise if you've ever read my blog before - my old standby 70s wool skirt and a newer purchase, my gorgeous Dorothy Perkins jacket that I got from my favourite charity shop in Portsmouth. I love neutral coloured outfits at the time of year as well as playing with mixing different wintry textures between the wool and fur and leather.

It's that time of year again! Each year I have been going through my blog posts and picking out some of my favourite outfits from the year (even though I'm a few days late this year). It's fun to look back on what I was wearing and to see how my style has evolved throughout the year and compared to previous years. So let's take a look at what my wardrobe looked like in 2016. The name of each month links to the individual post so go ahead and click through for more photos and outfit details etc!









So what do you think? Which is your favourite outfit from 2016? For comparison, here is 2013, 2014, and 2015.

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all had fun for New Year's Eve, whatever you were doing. I didn't go out anywhere in the evening, and spent my time at home drinking sherry and watching Robot Wars instead. During the day I went shopping and went for coffee with my family, and I dressed a little bit fancy even though I wasn't going to any parties. I like to take any excuse to dress up especially if it means wearing clothes that I don't get the chance to wear often.

This particular dress mostly comes out around Christmas time as it's shot through with red and gold shiny thread so it's perfect for the season. I'm absolutely loving my new Lulu Hun 'Ella' boots which I got from Collectif Clothing. I'll have some more pictures and information on them coming shortly.