Nasty Gal: The clothing brand.

Earlier today whilst making the latest set for the Fashion Friday segment, I stumbled upon an advert for a clothing brand I had never heard of, Nasty Gal. Intrigued, I clicked on the advert and took a little while to browse through their website. Unfortunately, this brand seems to be targeted at UK size 6-8/US size 2-4 skinny minnies with small boobs and long legs - my figure is mostly opposite. It is not curvier-girl friendly at all, but the clothes are still rather nice to look at (although the price tags make me want to run and hide under my duvet for the rest of my life). However, there are many unique, modern and interesting pieces, and here's my pick of the best!

The pink dress was the first item I saw that I immediately fell in love with. I loved the design; the neckline is something I have not really seen before and is definitely the kind of dress I'd want to buy if I was going out clubbing (or something along those lines). The blue dress reminded me of Cinderella's which attracted me to the dress straight away. I love the laced up bodice, it gives a sort of medieval feel but the whole dress is still up-to-date and modern. Finally, I couldn't not include an LBD in this - I love the one-armed mesh detail and the fact the whole dress is rather abstract. It is definitely a dress I would look into buying (if I ever had the money!).

The cat leggings are the cutest! As I was scrolling through the leggings section, they were definitely the first to catch my eye and that is why they earned a spot in this blog post. If they were Siamese cats, they'd definitely remind me of the cats out of Lady and the Tramp (yet another Disney reference whoops). These galaxy shorts are amazing, although very pricey. Call me a hipster but I love galaxy print things, although I don't own anything myself. The pastel rainbow jeans kind of match with my background! They would completely, if I didn't edit the background to be a little bit darker. I have never seen jeans like this before; one of the many unique items Nasty Gal has to offer.

I adore dip-dye at the moment, so this colourful top stood out to me straight away. It's so cute and spring/summery and would look excellent with cut-off shorts. The blue fade shirt is super cool, although I would prefer if it wasn't mesh - I'm not too keen on see-through shirts as it means I have to buy a suitable top to wear underneath it too. Now, I have a little bone to pick with Nasty Gal - Judas Priest and Slayer, as you may or may not know, are heavy metal bands prominently famous in the 80s. Obviously, this sort of music isn't so popular nowadays although they do still have a large fanbase made up of people from all age groups. However, shirts with classic metal bands' logos emblazoned on the front being sold on modern womens' clothing websites (meaning merchandising stores are not included in this right now) are usually bought by people who do not actually like this music, and who just want to look 'cool', 'edgy' and 'grunge'*. Ugh. Right. Okay. I only included these shirts in this picture to be able to add in that rant, and the rant is over. If you are interested, here is the Judas Priest shirt and here is the Slayer shirt (although you are much better off buying a similar shirt from an official licensed merch store and cutting it up yourself - it will cost a lot less).

Anyway... back to being nice to Nasty Gal because after all, their original pieces are adorable.

Behold... light up trainers! If you're old enough, you'll probably remember when you were considered cool if you had trainers that lit up as you ran/walked/stomped on the ground to make them light up. I remember having a pair, and they were my favourite shoes in the world at the time. So these trainers make me feel nostalgic and I almost forgot how cool they were! Secondly, these amazing platform wedges were the first shoes I saw (or at least the first that stood out to me). I love the studded spike detail on the back and they'd be something I'd want to wear whilst performing onstage. Thirdly, the round, black, pearl detail sunglasses are very aptly named 'Audrey Circle Shades' - at first glance they definitely reminded me of Audrey Hepburn. They aren't really sunglasses I'd wear, but I still wanted to include them in this post. Finally, and the last item I will be showing you today, the purple and blue sunglasses. They're quite strangely shaped, which makes me like them even more, and the fact the purple and blue fade into each other give it a softer effect to balance out the obvious edginess from the frame.

Thank you for reading this post, I hope you enjoyed it! Overall, I think Nasty Gal's clothes are very beautiful, well designed and incredibly unique, however I don't think I'll be buying anything from there any time soon due to the high price of all the items (the perks of being a student, eh?).

- Kirstie x

*GRUNGE IS A GENRE NOT A STYLE AND THESE BANDS ARE MOST CERTAINLY NOT GRUNGE!

Fashion Friday #9

As I was browsing through the Topshop website at college the other week looking for ideas and inspiration for my final gig outfit (which I have now decided on), my friend pointed out to me these amazing leggings with giraffes on. So... today's (or should I say yesterday's) set is based around these same leggings.

I think the background detracts from the actual outfit... oops.

I have tried to keep the rest of the outfit as simple as possible as the outfit would be overpowered if there were two key pieces. I think the little print on the tee is quite fitting to the leggings!

You can buy these leggings from Topshop here for £25.

- Kirstie x

University updates and Minecraft.

So... I have some very, very, very good news on the university front - I have been offered an audition at Southampton Solent University, my first choice! I got the letter through yesterday and my audition is on the 6th June at 10am. Unfortunately, because travelling there includes a two hour bus journey (plus extra time waiting for buses etc.), I have to get up at 6:30am. Which I never have to do. But I guess that won't be too much a price to pay if I get a full offer from Solent at the end of this all! For the audition, I have to prepare a 2-5 minute long song of my choice to play on bass, read an excerpt of sheet music (oh lawdy Jesus I am not good with that kind of thing) and finally, improvise over a backing track which will be given to me on the day. Luckily, I've been doing a lot of improvisation work this year at college, so hopefully that will be a piece of cake! Anyhoo, wish me luck because I am sure it will come in handy! :)

Onto my second topic of this post. MINECRAFT. My sister has been home ill from school this past week, and since I have Mondays and Tuesdays off anyway I stayed home with her (I stayed home Wednesday too because I really could not be bothered to go in). We have the Minecraft demo on Xbox, so we decided to give that a little go. 'A little go' turned into 'we spent a very long time on it' and honestly, I can say I am totally addicted and cannot wait to get the full version! Amber also found a version for phones/iPods/etc. so I have installed the demo version of that too and I can't get enough of Minecraft. Seriously, if you haven't tried it out yet, GO AND TRY IT OUT NOW (or whenever you have time to). It is honestly so addictive and cute! According to a lot of people, it is better on the computer because of modding and such, but according to my friend today, there may be a modding kit coming to Xbox too so... watch this space.

- Kirstie x

Beauty Review #1: Solait Gradual Tan Lotion {Part 2}

So, I finally got round to applying the medium/dark lotion again and of course, I post this late. Procrastination at it's best, right? I procrastinate even the things I enjoy doing (e.g. writing for this blog).

I applied the lotion Monday night and again, immediately saw a glow and slight change in my skin tone. I still wasn't expecting big results as it is gradual tan lotion after all. On Tuesday morning, I noticed a definite change in my skin tone and I definitely had a tan line where I hadn't applied the lotion, which made me very happy! I think the trick with this lotion is you have to keep applying it until you get the results you like. I am going to apply it for the third time tonight and then hopefully I will see even better results!

Meanwhile, this will be the end of the review. Just a friendly reminder this is vegetarian/vegan friendly, the product has not been tested on animals. I would definitely buy this product again, it is great value for money and from what I can tell, rivals even the bigger brands of fake tan! This shade of gradual tan is best for those who want a noticeable but still subtle change in skin tone, rather than a very subtle one. I'd say this kind of tan is only for making it look very, very natural rather than having the full on bronzed effect that you'd get with instant tanners. I rate this product a 4/5 as it is not everything I'd hoped for, but still very, very good and very lovely on the skin (it moisturises!).

- Kirstie x

Playlist for the Week #9 {20/05 - 26/05}

Maybe I'll just make this a Monday thing now seeing as I have failed, for the third week in a row, to post this on Sunday...

MONDAY: Brand New Start - Alter Bridge
I was looking for a song that could sort of go with the fact that the football season is over and now I'm sad. However, this song has a happy vibe to it because it reminds me the season will start again soon and it'll be a new start for Southampton to (hopefully) work their way up the league!

TUESDAY: Almost Easy - Avenged Sevenfold
Avenged's Wembley date sold out within half an hour of the tickets being put on sale, so the line "come back again, it's almost easy" is me singing to the tickets to come back so I can buy one and see Avenged. This is the third time I've missed out on them, raaageeeee!!

WEDNESDAY: Next Year - Foo Fighters
As some of you may know, I'm planning on going to university in September and if things go my way, I'll be living there. However, accommodation is only available for the first year of uni so I'll most likely be living at home again. As in, "I'll be coming home next year".

THURSDAY: It's Not You - Halestorm
If you listen to the lyrics, this is a sort of "screw you" to the last guy I was with. I'll let you in on a little secret - I always liked his best friend better. ;) I also saw this song live at Download last year, which was incredible as I have a massive thing for the lead singer, Lzzy Hale. She is so awesome.

FRIDAY: Heartbreaker - Pat Benatar
This is another one of the songs we're learning for our final gig. Although this song is technically 70s (it was released at the very end of '79) we're still doing it as our argument is that Pat would've toured with the song during the 80s, and was also more successful during that decade.

SATURDAY: Weekend Wars - MGMT
I haven't listened to MGMT in a while and this has always been one of my favourite songs by them so that's why I decided to include this song in this week's playlist. Also because it has the word 'weekend' in the title, and of course, Saturday is the first full day of the weekend.

SUNDAY: Hysteria - Muse
Dude, the bassline is so amazing. I have never, ever, ever been able to play it, it's just so tricky but as soon as I get the hang of it, it'll literally be the only thing I ever play on bass in my free time! Also, the song is pretty damn decent too. Here's your occasional (and first) fix of Muse on my blog.

P.S. I still never put the tanning lotion on, so the post is delayed again, until tomorrow. I am rubbish, I know.

A strange end to the season, to say the least..

..the football season, that is! Look away now if you're really not interested in football - I'm going to ramble on for a fair bit about the last couple of weeks!

First of all, there was an insanely massive surprise last Saturday, as Wigan Athletic took on Manchester City in the FA Cup final and ACTUALLY WON. 1-0, in extra time! This disappointed me as I am a Man City fan and for the goal to just be out of Joe Hart's reach above him dug the wound deeper. However, what makes this situation even more surprising is three days later, Wigan confirmed their relegation from the Premier League to the Championship after losing 4-1 to Arsenal (and also confirmed my main men Southampton a spot in the Prem next season!). A disappointing setback for City, but they really weren't trying their hardest that day and for Wigan, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (whereas City win things a lot more often) so I do believe Wigan were the more deserving winners. Congratulations to them, and I wish they were able to push on and stay up in the league but maybe we'll see them again in a couple seasons' time!

Secondly, an amazing win happened on Wednesday - Chelsea beat Benfica 2-1 to win the Europa League, to have the amazing achievement of holding both European titles at the same time seeing as they won the Champions League last year*! I am immensely proud of the guys as they are a team I have liked for a very long time. It was a very well deserved win, with amazing goals from Fernando Torres and Branislav Ivanović (seeing as he is a defender, this was amazing! Also his first goal for the club).

Also, FC Barcelona won La Liga last week! No surprise there really, but what was really amazing was that they never moved from the #1 spot in the league table, all throughout the season. Go Barça!

Today was the last day of the Premier League season (and probably the last day for most other leagues too). It was both a sad and happy day - a few footballers have retired this season; Michael Owen, Paul Scholes and Jamie Carragher all played their last games today and one of the most famous footballers ever, David Beckham, played his last match yesterday. It's another signal to the end of my childhood, as all four of these English legends I grew up watching play for our national team. Total respect and congratulations to these guys, as they have all had amazing careers and contributed heavily to English football as we know it. However, Michael and David have both contributed to overseas teams too, playing for Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan and LA Galaxy between them.

A few managers have either left, retired or been fired which is always a sad moment in football. Football legend Sir Alex Ferguson announced his retirement from being a manager a couple of weeks ago - as most people know, he has been the manager for Manchester United for over 25 years. Most clubs get rid of their managers after one or two seasons, so for Sir Alex to have been a consistent manager for so long is an amazing achievement. There is no denying he is one of, if not the greatest manager to grace football. Congratulations to him, as he is a great credit to football. David Moyes announced he was leaving his managerial position at Everton the same day Sir Alex announced his retirement; funnily enough, it was confirmed he is to become United's new manager only a few hours later! Rafael Benitez had been set to leave Chelsea at the end of this season for a while now, and there's major speculation that my favourite past Chelsea manager, José Mourinho, is set to replace him. I am really hoping he is coming back, as he was Chelsea's manager when I first started supporting them and I've always thought he was an amazing manager, pretty much level with Sir Alex (they were even rivals when José was managing Chelsea). Finally, we received the sad news that Roberto Mancini had been fired from his managerial position at Manchester City, the day after they lost the FA Cup to Wigan - also a year to the day he guided City to win the Premier League title. Guess we'll have to wait and see who becomes City's next manager...

Today, the final games of the season were played (obviously). I think the most interesting game was the 5-5 draw between West Bromwich Albion and Manchester United - it must have been a very well played, interesting and tense game. There has never been a 5-5 draw in the Premier League, so they also made history! The rest of the results were:
Chelsea 2-1 Everton
Liverpool 1-0 Queens Park Rangers
Newcastle 0-1 Arsenal
West Ham 4-2 Reading
Southampton 1-1 Stoke City
Swansea City 0-3 Fulham
Wigan Athletic 2-2 Aston Villa
Manchester City 2-3 Norwich City
Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Sunderland
I don't think many people were expecting Man City and Swansea to lose! This was slightly disappointing as it affected Southampton's overall finishing spot, as did many of the other fixtures including their own seeing as they walked away with only one point rather than three (which they would have got if Rickie Lambert's goal in the first minute wasn't disallowed as he was ruled offside). However, I wouldn't have wanted Michael Owen to lose his last ever game, so I'm not too upset. It doesn't really matter too much where we finish, as we are still going to be in the Premier League next season and hopefully finish in the top 6, if Morgan Schneiderlin's prediction is right! Let's just say this won't be the first time he's proved people wrong...

P.S. hopefully my next post regarding football will be my announcement of getting a job at St Mary's Stadium! Not getting my hopes up because they usually end up being crushed

- Kirstie x
*note for those who may be confused - the Championship and the Champions League are two different things. The Championship is the second tier of the English football league system, whereas the Champions League is the biggest European competition between non-national teams.

Beauty Review #1: Solait Gradual Tan Lotion {Part 1}

This is the first beauty review I have ever done - so bear with me if it's a little patchy!

...that pun wasn't intentional, I swear.

Anyway - I have tried out both the Light/Medium and Medium/Dark tanning lotions. They are Superdrug's own brand, so that is the only place you can get this tanning lotion from if you're looking to buy it too - the usual price is £4.99, but it is currently on offer for £3.29!

As you can see, the bottles are virtually exactly the same except for the little label specifying which shade it is, so be careful you pick up the right shade you want! Also, this product is suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

I tried out the light/medium shade first as I am quite pale; I noticed it gave me an immediate slight glow which I liked. It smells delicious with a coconut scent too, but it quickly fades once the lotion has been absorbed, leaving a slight biscuity smell which, luckily, isn't unpleasant at all. The following day, I noticed a very slight change in my skin tone, however after this it faded so I had to re-apply the tanning lotion. I wasn't very content with how little my skintone changed - I expected it to be a little bit darker! However, I would recommend this to someone who is only looking for a very, very subtle change. I expect this would work better on someone with very, very fair skin.

After this, I decided to try out the medium/dark toned lotion. Again, it had the same coconut smell fading to the biscuity one, and I noticed a bigger change in immediate glow than the light/medium lotion - this was a good sign as I wanted to go darker than the result of the lighter toned lotion. The morning after, I definitely noticed a change in my skintone; I looked like the result of staying out in the sun for a few hours, safely tanning. However, it has faded slightly so I am going to re-apply the lotion tonight and see if I have better results tomorrow morning.


[UPDATE: I didn't have time to put the lotion on last night, so I will do it tonight and post Part 2 tomorrow]