Sun, Sea & Sangria.

Hello, hello!

As some of you may know, if you follow me on Instagram or know me in real life I have just been on a sweet little getaway to Puerto Rico, Gran Caneria. Can you believe that even in September the temperature was in the high 30s?? I couldn't. It was a lovely week of sea, sun sangria & seafood. I have never eaten such a vast and glorious amount of fish and shellfish in my entire life, mixed with the sea views and cheeky cocktails safe to say it was a week to remember. Right before we went I decided to treat myself to a brand new DSLR, and I got in some perfect practice on this holiday. So I thought in this post, rather than a heavy focus on text I would just show you all what I wore, and what I sore on holiday.

This first set of images are my sea themed, cool toned images. I wanted to really reflect and put emphasis on the beautiful tones of the sea, especially in these shots in my blue bikini which tied in perfectly. I had a lot of fun editing these images and giving them an overall blue tone, seeing the flow between images makes me realise the importance of editing. It makes the images so much nicer to look at, as well as enhancing the beauty within them. I am also SO HAPPY with the new quality within my images, before I was only using the camera on my phone - which was all I had access too at the time. But, now seeing the difference it's given me so much more drive to just keep on creating content and improving more and more. 

This second collection of images are on the opposite side of the spectrum, full of warmth. Obviously alongside the beautiful turquoise sea we had the glorious heat. These images represent that, and the warmth and happiness I felt the whole time I was there. I really wanted to show two opposing sets of images that represented two sides to the holiday. I wanted to play around with tones and hues and create a story within the images, rather than just throw all my holiday photos into a post and call it a day. This way, at least I think, it makes the images more interesting to look at as well as give you more of a real sense of how I experienced my holiday and what I felt. Two of my favourite things in life is the sun and the sea, and I think this really reflects that.

So there are my collection of a select few images from my holiday, a collection of landscapes, nature and style. I like the idea of combining these things together, be it more cohesively in the future. Trying to tie together nature and fashion, two of the things I hold dearest too me. Now that I have my camera I feel a much wider sense of freedom, where I will be able to experiment more and bring together much more unique and high quality content. I'm super excited for the direction that I see my  blog moving in, and I can't wait to develop and strengthen and show my progress along with it. I am so proud of the way these images have come out, and I really think they reflect my holiday perfectly. It is so nice to be able too see my own personal improvement, and that just drives me even more to keep developing myself!

XOXO, EMMA 

Rainbow Bright | Festival Series

Hello, Hello!

So with festival season being so nearly upon us in the UK, and with Coachella flooding our timelines over the past couple of weekends I thought that there was no better week to start my festival series! In each post I will be styling a different vibe / aesthetic and posting many more tips and essentials for festivals in general. I am only attending Parklife this year because I'm also going on holiday and your broke gal cannot afford both. However the fashion is my favourite kind so whenever summer comes around I want to make it a central feature on my blog, because there is no better time to express yourself than at a festival! So without further ado let's get into the look.

Let's start with what inspired this look, the rainbow crop top. This is new in from New Look, it is £15.99 and can be bought online HERE. I was having a little browse in the shop the other day and naturally my eye was gravitated towards the rainbow, and it was love at first sight. I'm not normally into off the should / bardot tops, but the cuffs are that far down that having them ride up wasn't an issue. The quality of it is amazing and soft, and not see-through! As soon as I bought it  I knew it would be perfect for festivals, as it's super bold , colourful and fun but it's also practical enough for you to dance your little heart away. I feel like a number one tip for festival styling (if there is such a thing) is that rainbows / rainbow stripes are ALWAYS a good idea. 

Originally I wanted to style this with just some high rise bikini bottoms (which I have on underneath) with the fishnets, but I am just not brave enough for that! I just wasn't comfortable with it, but when Parklife actually does come around you never know, maybe it is just the thought of me wearing it when it isn't the festival that is the issue? We shall see! So instead I decided to throw on this very 80's colourful pleated skirt, which is actually see through. It is a kind of mesh / sheer fabric so in person you can see my high rise bottoms underneath, which I actually love. It is super fun and playful.  I think the colours in the skirt match pretty perfectly with the top, but I also love the way the prints clash.  Another tip - the most your items clash the better! There is no better place to make an outlandish statement than a festival, so just play around and have fun with it! After all the funniest thing about it is that there are no rules.

So if there wasn't ENOUGH colour in this look, I decided to add another. This is the most incredible reversible oriental silk jacket, I prefer the lime green side as it really packs a punch and gives off a different vibe to the outfit. It gives the look a new level, and the added layer is great for the evening when it gets a bit chilly once the sun has gone down. It's something I always forget and then it gets too 10pm and I'm there shivering trying to keep warm in the crowd. I love the added colour as it contrasts the ones seen in the top and skirt because it's neon, and I know for sure I will not get lost in the crowds in this!

For footwear there was no other contender than these incredible platform trainers, reminiscent of the buffalo's which are so on trend right now. They actually are super comfy because of the massive platform, but I do feel like a broken ankle might be in works if I fall over / loose my balance. But hey, I will get a good view in the crowd though! I desperately want to wear these for parklife, I just don't know if they are going to let me groove away in them safely, so watch this space too see if I actually wear them or not. The finishing touches with the accessories, are simple but effective. I am not an accessories person, but I can get on board with a good hat and some good shades. This Spice Girls cap needs no explanation, it is absolutely iconic with their styles being forever festival inspiration too me, it is only fitting I feature them. The shades are just yellow lenses from Primark, only £2! Get yourself down there and grab a pair, because they are 100% not worth spending more than that on, I mean we are all just doing it for the gram aren't we? The final thing, fishnets. I don't think any festival look, well any look for that matter is complete without fishnets these days. Plus, my legs feel too bare without them.

So there you have my first instalment too my festival series! I thought it would not be me if I didn't start with a bold colourful playful look. I have another couple of outfits that are going to look absolutely KILLER, so keep an eye out for them once this British weather clears up again and I can get shooting. I also might do a makeup post / tutorial, haven't decided on that yet, I might just do a list of key makeup essentials on creating the perfect festival look... we shall see! Hope you stick around to find out!

XOXO, EMMA 

My New Fruit Salad Hair!

Hello, hello.

If you've been here a while (or known me IRL a long while), you will know that I love experimenting with hair. I think I have had near enough every colour under the rainbow, from Green too Pink. However, one colour I hadn't used before was yellow, and I was dying too try it. Which, is how my new fruit salad hair came about. I randomly decided one day that I wanted yellow highlights, and on Easter Weekend I made it happen. I also thought that I could talk you through the process and the products we used, alongside showing off my new do! I absolutely adore it, and I have also received the most compliments ever for this colour combo. So, without further ado let's get this show on the road!

As you will know if you have been on my blog before, (and if not, hello! I would love for you to stay) I started with a pink base which was pre-bleached beforehand. If you're not comfortable using bleach at home, and / or if you hair is not strong or in healthy enough condition please *do not do this at home*, go to a salon. I know that is hella expensive, but it's for the sake of your hair. If I'm completely honest, I am not sentimental about my hair. I happily cut it off from near enough waist length to shoulder length without flinching, life is too short to worry about hair! (In my eyes anyway). I knew that I wanted highlights, but I also knew that I didn't want them to be proper chunky and really obvious stripes at the roots. But, too my rescue my mum (who is the hero of this whole process) said she had a plastic highlighting cap, so we used that to pull through the strands of hair that we wanted to use.

Once we had all the strands through we wanted to use (which took ~FOREVER~ do not go into this lightly it takes so so long), we then mixed together the bleach to highlight them. We used the Jerome Russell BBlonde range, with the high lift powder bleach and maximum cream peroxide Vol. 30. These are readily available in Boots / Superdrugs / Savers in the UK and are very affordable, and they do work. I've used them before, and I trust the outcome which is why we used them. It's a 1:1 ratio, and that was all we need. 1 sachet of powder and one little bottle of bleach did a full head of highlights on me, however keep in mind the fact that my hair is shoulder length and I have quite a large undercut. This didn't take long, and also didn't take long to develop, however in hindsight if we left it on a little longer the ends would've been more blonde.

Once we rinsed the bleach off and dried the hair we realised that the hair was pretty much white at the root and the ends were a dirty blonde, which meant that we decided to go with a yellow too orange ombre rather than just yellow. Luckily I already had orange dye in, from when I used to have orange hair. This also didn't take long to do, however I left this on a lot longer than the bleach as it isn't as damaging, and the longer you leave it on the more the colour saturates your hair and lasts longer. So once that had developed, hours later than starting the process we thought YAY DONE. Ha, nope.

Once it was all rinsed and dried I decided I wanted too add some more pink as we had pretty much lost all the colour, so we bought another pink dye and just went through my hair and picked out places where they would work best and Voila! Finally done. This was one the most, if not THE MOST difficult hair dying process but the outcome is pretty gosh darn impressive. I can't believe how much depth and how many different tones and colours there is in it, the other day a customer at work said it looked like 'literal fire' and it made my freaking day. Obviously it isn't perfect, but for a home done job I think me and my mum outdid ourselves.

So what do guys think? Do you like my new hair?? I personally LOVE it. I feel like Hayley Williams circa Misery Business and my 12 year old self would literally be jumping for joy if she could see me now.  My love of colour is not just within my clothes, I share the same passion with my hair! I think I will always be a colourful haired gal, as whenever I go a *normal* colour it never lasts long. Let's hope it washes well and doesn't fade too much, I've got all my fingers crossed that it doesn't.

XOXO, EMMA 

Current Thrift Favourites

Hello, Hello. 

As we have established here on my blog, second hand shopping is my favourite past time. Now that the weather has got better (for now at least), it has meant that carboot season has arrived, so I have been out thrifting more than ever. If I am brutally honest with you, I buy way too much to show all at once (unless I was on YouTube, which maybe one day I will be), so what I have decided to do on my blog is pull out my favourite finds at the minute, tell you why and style them up. No doubt these will end up being monthly at least, as I just cannot seem to help myself when it comes down to sustainable fashion. 

Last week was probably the holy week of thrift finds, I have found some true hidden treasures so I think there is no better week to start this series out. The bits I have picked up are from both Charity Shops & Carboot's, and I will go through the pricing of each item when I get round too it. So without further ado, here are my current thrift favourites. 

Now, is this A LOOK OR IS THIS A LOOK? AH, I am so obsessed with this Scary Spice 90s vibes, it is killing me. I don't even know where to start with this look, it is doing the most. So let's do this chronologically and work from the head down. This hat has got to be one of the greatest accessory finds I have ever come across, it was on a hat stand at the back of one of my local charity shops and I almost walked straight passed it. Luckily I was caught a glimpse of the Kangol logo and nearly had a heart attack. Kangol bucket hats have got too be one of the most trendy street style accessories out there, but the fact that this is red faux fur makes it even more freaking cool. The tragic thing is, I nearly didn't buy this because it was £5! For a hat in a charity shop near me that is pretty much extortion, however I'm glad I decided to get it because this is probably the coolest hat I have ever owned. 

Moving on down to this iconic leopard print flared jumpsuit, I am well and truthfully obsessed with this piece. If you would've told me a few months ago that I would ever be wearing this much leopard print I would've literally laughed it off, but now I am obsessed with it. I am also 99% sure Scary Spice rocked one of these in the 90s, so I am definitely feeling the vibe. This was a carboot find at the mere 50p. I honestly didn't even look at the size, I just knew I had to have it. It looks like a late 90s / early 2000s piece and is in near perfect condition, and I was so happy to find that it fits me like a glove. I threw this old oversized Adidas coat over the top to make the look more casual (and I also think this would make for an absolutely incredible festival look too). This is also an old thrifted find, but is now actually up on my depop if you want to give it a new home! (username: emmalouisloves ) 

Finally, the absolute killers that are the most incredible platform shoes I have ever laid my eyes on. I found these in the same charity shop as the Kangol hat - unbelievable right? However these I almost missed! It was my dad that pointed them out too me, he knows me far too well it seems. These were a purchase though that proves that there is no harm in asking! They were priced up at a tenner, pretty darn steep but considering how much this style of shoe costs new, only a fraction of the price. However, there are a few scuffs on the toes and they aren't in ~perfect~ condition, so I went and asked if there was any way I could get a discount. Alas to my success, the manager came out and said that I could have them for £6! What a steal! It just goes to show, if you think anything is too overpriced for it's condition do not hesitate to ask if they will knock a little bit off the price, if you don't ask you don't get. These are going to come so in handy for festival season, and festival styling lookbooks - which I will 100% be doing in the future, so watch this space for those. 

So those are my top three current favourite thrifted pieces, however there are so many more I would love to feature, these were definitely the winners. No doubt there will be many more of these to come in the future as my addiction to thrifting does not seem like it going anywhere any time soon. But for now, that is me over and out!

XOXO, EMMA. 

Unnecessary Pressures, "Me" Time & Being True to Yourself.

Hello, Hello.

So lately I have been thinking about this ideal and pressure that we (bloggers) put onto ourselves to document everything that happens in our lives. Even if blogging is your full time job, you still need time (and moments) which you shouldn't feel the need to capture. It may seem slightly selfish, especially with the fact that being a blogger you are choosing to put your personal life out into the world - however there are some memories which are ones that are just meant for you. No one should ever feel bad or disappointed if you don't manage to shoot or get usable content, there is always another day - it is not the end of the world. What would be worse would be compromising your day and stressing to try and fit everything in. I think it's super important to find the right balance, if I was so caught up on shooting and making sure I had proof of what a fabulous day I had, it might've actually compromised how MUCH of a great day I had. For example, these amazing images where shot by my best friend Sophie @ Steep Drop Media in Newcastle. ( The link to her website is here, and the Instagram account is here too see more of her bad ass work). However,  a few weeks prior we had planned to also shoot in York, but the day got away with us and we didn't get enough time - and that's what actually started this thought process and blog post. That was such a lovely day that we had for ourselves, but at the time I couldn't help but feel a little bit bad, guilty even - about not getting any usable content. It is such a destructive path to go down because you are literally burning yourself into the ground, trying to make everything perfect when the best in life comes naturally.

Now don't get my wrong some of my favourite days are spent shooting, and I love and enjoy them. Like I said, this day shooting in Newcastle was so much fun, and was one of the best days I had had in a long while. However not everyday has to be a shoot day, and not everything needs to be documented. Knowing and accepting that is such a powerful thing, because it allows you to take a breathe and enjoy your time. I was honestly putting myself under all this unnecessary pressure, which in the end can draw the fun out of life, and then what would be the point? I had an equally good day in York having a well deserved catch up, and as much as a lovely lil shoot to accompany it would've been, I'm almost glad we didn't have time. I love blogging, it is a huge part of my life, and a passion. But it doesn't meant that I should feel this weight and pressure on me to make sure that every single thing that I do is content-worthy. I have decided that I need to change my thought process, I am going to tell myself that some days are meant for "Me" Time, and others are for blogging. I think this will really help my work ethic and my mental health, and it doesn't mean that if I feel like I want to take a few shots during "Me" time I can't, it just means that I shouldn't feel the pressure to make it happen. I have found myself getting so caught up on making everything I do "bloggable", which in the end is taking away from the natural beauty of blogging. I honestly really think this will make my content so much more enjoyable, and it will relieve me of all this unnecessary stress I am putting myself under at the same time.

This doesn't just apply to blogging either, we live in a world dominated by social media, with Instagram being the top dog, and the exact same process applies here. We all feel this mad pressure to get some lush shots of our food and coffee, instead of enjoying the moment first and connecting with the people we are sharing it with. It is such a hard and complicated point to get across, because I love social media - but I don't love the pressure and rigidness of it. My favourite things to post are images that project who I am as a person, bright bold and colourful abstract edits and candid / laughing images. My content is about what makes me happy not what I think is acceptable, or - "bloggable".  I have noticed a lot more engagement on my Instagram account now that i am more myself and I think that speaks volumes, and backs up what I am saying that being true to yourself and not trying to fit the mould is what matters.

It all comes down to the undoubted pressure that we all place upon ourselves, the pressure to always be creating good quality content, and keeping it fresh and interesting. But in this process we are loosing the organic way of blogging, which creates the most natural (and therefor best) content of all. Ultimately, if the shooting doesn't come naturally on the day don't force it. I  have found that my favourite shots are the ones where I am laughing or messing around, the ones where I am not thinking too much about "blogging". Or like this shoot in Newcastle, we went on a mini adventure, a lot of it turned out unplanned and spur of the moment, and that is what I loved most. Having fun and experimenting, and showcasing your personality and who you are is what is most important. Some things are meant for you, and that is 100% okay. But more so, don't make everything you do revolve around if it is good content or not - yes that's cool and undoubtedly will encourage you to do fun new things, but it is also putting a lot of unnecessary strain on yourself. What is important about blogging is how you choose to let your personality shine - no matter what you are doing, what people will come back for is YOU. So, instead of thinking everything you do needs to be bloggable, have more faith in the fact that there is really no such thing as "bloggable" - you create that on your own through being yourself.

I know I have definitely gone of on a tangent on this one, but I think I've put my point across. More than anything it has reminded me of the truth to blogging, and how we all really need to go easier on ourselves. I know for those who are reading this who aren't bloggers this may seem a bit odd, but hopefully it will give you an insight as to what goes on behind closed doors, but more so is just a reminder to be yourself! No one should ever feel the need to fit into a mould of what society has deemed acceptable. What will be will be, and what comes naturally is always the most beautiful thing. So until next time,

XOXO, EMMA