Bardot on a grey day

Yesterday I was lucky enough to have a wonderful massage at The Fig Tree Spa in Lenham, Kent. I was very kindly bought a voucher by my Sister in Law and finally got around to utilising it... and boy was it ever needed. I'm sure the poor woman's fingers must have hurt trying to tackle the mega knots in my shoulders and whilst she did a great job I think it would take at least 20 massages to get those bad boys out. I'm also pretty sure my two year old undid all her good work within minutes when he insisted I carry him on a walk around the picturesque village. Ahhhh, but it was lovely and relaxing and so nice to have a few minutes of being pampered. I was so groggy afterwards I think I would have quite happily slept on that table for hours. My legs went numb and my hands tingled so clearly my back is in need of some serious attention - I wonder if I can persuade the Husband to make it a weekly thing?! In my dreams. I must get back there soon though, it was too nice.

As I was going to be undressing and my neck, shoulders and back were going to be massaged and covered in oils I decided to forego doing anything much with my hair. I just washed it and caught the sides back with some plain black hair combs I bought recently on Amazon.

 I wore my super bargainous peachy/pinky coloured ribbon-esque earrings discovered accidently on a quick shopping trip in a Sainsbury's supermarket.

Make-up was a little flirty flick of the eyeliner in my Barry M liquid liner in plum and a red lip. My lipstick was a matte one from NYX in gorgeous shade called 'Eden.' I've had this lippy for a while but this is the first time I've worn it and I love it. It's super pigmented and doesn't feel dry on my lips.

The weather was grey and fairly humid to boot so I wore my black ankle grazer jeans from H&M which I rolled up and paired with my black and white striped Bardot top (also H&M and currently in the sale for only £6.49). I love a Bardot style top as it feels quite glamourous without being over the top. My only issue was getting it to sit right - it takes a while when you first put it on to get the 'flap' to fold all the way around at the top of it which is quite difficult to do on your own. Then, it's getting it to stay put. I think I was fiddling with it the whole day as it moved very easily whilst I was going about my usual activities (running around after a toddler and picking up & playing with the baby for example).

I then helped to define my waist and add a little pop of colour with my 2" Vivien of Holloway belt in blue. I was originally going to put on my black one but couldn't find it but actually think the blue looks better in the end.

To finish off the look I wore my Dune black and white ballet flats and carried my small tan satchel from Accessorize. Both featured in previous posts.

Over all I liked this outfit and I think wearing more form fitting styles suits me and makes the most of what I have. Nipping my waist in and not hiding under baggy options definitely looks better but can make me feel a little self conscious. The top is lovely but a little irritating, not sure if there's a way around it moving so much. Was contemplating sewing it in place but not sure how well the stretchy material will take to that nor whether my sewing skills are up to the challenge. I felt very hour glassy which is a nice feeling and I'm proud of myself for going out in public wearing it and not shying away from my figure and people looking at me. I had to pop to the garage to fill the car up with fuel before heading to the spa and it was slightly tortuous standing in the queue waiting to pay and it feeling like everyone was side-eyeing me - really need to get over that! Need to work on my confidence more but I'm improving slowly everyday. I'm actually wearing my bright red lippy out of the house - a big step for me, haha.

Oh and quite weirdly but very flatteringly, someone on Instagram was inspired by one of my posts to create a painting of it.

Here's the original post:

Mermaid waves this evening. Night IGers 😘✨ 🐬 🐙 🌊 🐳 #iger #ig #goodnight #nightnight #mermaid #mermaidhair #bluehair #bluehairdontcare #uk #waves #mum

A photo posted by My Rockabilly Summer 💋 (@myrockabillysummer) on Jun 20, 2016 at 1:46pm PDT

And here's the painting - can you spot the difference?! :D

Oh and very excitingly for a brief glimmer of time my OOTD post was featured in the top posts section of Instagram for #retrostyle alongside the likes of @kirstiemydear and @missvictoryviolet. Nearly died.

A photo posted by My Rockabilly Summer 💋 (@myrockabillysummer) on Jun 22, 2016 at 5:33am PDT

It's so lovely and exciting that people are liking my Instagram posts.

Thanks for reading!

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Nautical but Nice OOTD

I loved what I was wearing yesterday so wanted to share it with you here... I felt really flirty 50s, put together and swirly but was still able to run around after my two year and feed my bubba. So a winner for sure!

The only downside was my Tiffany charm bracelet kept catching on my skirt and I've lost my beloved snowflake charm *ugly crying face.* I got the bracelet on our honeymoon in New York for my 30th birthday, including this charm, so it has a lot of sentimental value. Fingers crossed it turns up but no luck so far.

I bought this lovely navy coloured midi skirt from New Look. It has two layers; a satiny underskirt and a mesh striped layer on top with a stretchy waistband which means it fits close to your waist. It's lovely and swirly and I really like that the underskirt is shorter than the top layer as a midi skirt can come up too long on a short arse like me. It comes in six different colours on the site and it's far too tempting to buy a few of the other colours... Better keep my shopping trigger finger away from their website.

I popped my breton navy and white striped top from La Redoute on with it for a nautical feel and finished the look off with a 2" red elasticated belt that I recently purchased from Vivien of Holloway. They do a variety of colours of the belt and also offer a 3" width - I went with the smaller one as my waist is quite short and I find thicker belts can sort of swallow me up.

My hair was a simple suicide roll with a ponytail which I accessorised with a red chiffon scarf. I recently purchased several of these scarves from Amazon in a variety of colours so expect to see a lot of them in the coming posts, haha.

My ponytail did a pleasingly neat curl under. Along with my charm bracelet *still ugly crying* I had my new trusty tortoise shell style stud earrings, usual Converse glasses, comfy but cute Clarks 'Henderson Luck' tan sandals and my old small tan Accessorize satchel bag which I bought an age ago. They don't have my exact bag anymore but there are plenty of small satchel type bags on their site.

I really enjoyed wearing this outfit so I imagine I will wear it again!

A photo posted by My Rockabilly Summer 💋 (@myrockabillysummer) on Jun 21, 2016 at 12:19pm PDT

It was National Selfie day yesterday (like I need an excuse) so I did my first car selfie before I had to rush off. I'm sure if any of my neighbours saw me they must have thought I was a right narcissist. Which I suppose I am these days :D

Thanks for reading.

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From Rockabilly to Forties in 3 steps

In my last post I created a large barrel roll coupled with my first attempts at a French Twist and finished it off with a grey bandana. 

I then decided to create a second look based around the big top roll I had managed to make as it seemed such a shame to waste something that had taken so long! I quickly run through the second style here in this post:

This time I added to the large front roll by pairing it with two victory rolls and simply pinning the rest of my hair back. I then added in a gorgeous slide of multi-coloured flowers I bought recently on a big floral hair accessory splurge from ASOS. 

Also, I'm wearing my new favourite square stud earrings in a tortoise shell style finish... also a purchase from the faberoo ASOS. They just seem to go with everything and have that simple retro feel to them.

It's so messy when I look back at it in these photos. I have a lot of practice before I get those lovely smooth finishes I've seen on Instagram and on the internet but it was fun to switch up the style from one to another - these few changes really took the whole look from Rockabilly to Forties. I've still to experiment with pomade at this point and from what I can tell, it will really help to mold the hair style and give a better finish than hairspray does.

I then unpinned the back of my hair and clipped it all together with a large gold barrette. I think this suits me better... I always feel so severe with my hair all up and away from my face like this. I love how this turned out - it's so colourful and vintage feeling.

And that's it for today's post... will be back tomorrow with another experimental vintage look.

Thanks for reading. 

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There's no place like home

I took a break from the blog over the weekend as my Husband was off work for a whole two days and it was Father's day on Sunday. That hasn't stopped me playing with my hair, make-up and clothes and generally obsessing over my Instagram and everything Retro, Vintage and Rockabilly though.

There's been a few looks I've thrown together and photographed over the last week or so that I haven't put up on my blog yet so I thought I'd make a start on showing them to you today... It's a horrible, grey & rainy 'Summer' day here and I'm still sat in my pyjamas with my two year old. I've distracted him with a bowl of snacks and an introduction to 'The Wizard of Oz.'

 Dorothy and her ruby slippers forever 

Before I get started, I mentioned in a previous post some 40s style suede shoe boots from Clarks and a trusty old star shaped bag from River Island... I took a photo of them with my Nikon and efficiently forgot to add them. So here it is in case you wanted to see what they were like. This bag is my default going out bag and it's starting to show. It's very pretty and has garnered many an oooh and aaah from other ladies but it is rather impractical for carrying anything larger than a lipstick due to it's shape! The shoes are really comfy and the 'V' shape at the front is really flattering as it shows off a well turned ankle - very forties.

Look of the day

So, I had my first attempt at a french twist - I have never tried this style before and in truth my hair is still too short at the bottom to really get it right. But, I'm still pretty happy with this and have Lauren Rennells and her fab book 'Vintage Hairstyling' (pg. 122) to thank for it. The trick is to brush your hair over to one side and then insert bobby pins flat against the head and then roll the hair over them and then pin the roll in place. Those first pins then give the second lot of pins something to grip onto. My mind was blown, hahaha. I never knew this technique and it really works. Can't wait for my hair to grow so I can try this with more of a beehive element.  

Hair is too short - boo.

At the front I wanted to go for a large barrel roll and wanted to go pretty big as my previous rolls have been on the more sedate side. I also added in a grey bandana and then did my make-up and added some black plastic circle stud earrings.

Make-up wise I did the usual and used the good old Eylure falsies to keep it fun and flirty. I decided to try using a dark red lipstick. It's a NYX matte lippy called 'Siren.' I'm not entirely sold on the look on me but I did get some positive feed back on Instagram so maybe I just need to get used to it!

I'm not a fan of wearing my hair so far up and away from my face in real life so don't think I would incorporate this in an everyday look. But, I have had a lot of fun doing it and anything that is experimental and hopefully improves on my technique is a bonus. It could be neater and it's full of hairspray (which really dulls the hair) but I think it's ok over all.

A photo posted by My Rockabilly Summer 💋 (@myrockabillysummer) on Jun 14, 2016 at 5:15am PDT

Until next time, thanks for reading.

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Testing this old eyeliner hack

I decided to try and improve my eyeliner technique today - or rather perfecting the flick. I've been winging my eyeliner for years but have always just drawn it on freehand with varying success. If there's a trick to getting the flick on point without hours of obsessive drawing/redrawing then I'm in! Anyone else who is obsessed with this makeup style knows the liner itself makes all the difference and I've still to find my perfect one... I'm currently liking my Barry M in plum - I bought it in black thinking it would be just as good but for some reason the brush seems to be different and I don't like how it draws or the result I get with it.

The search continues - if anyone has any liners to suggest please do leave a comment!

Some of the many others I've tried and liked:

• One of my all time favourites has been the YSL shocking false lash effect eyeliner but at over £25 a pop it's not cheap.
• I started out with the Boots own brand '17' eyeliner pens which were fine but smudged at the drop of a hat and didn't last well through the day. It's been a while since I used them though so it may well have an improved formula these days. They are significantly cheaper and I think a good one to begin with if you're a newbie and not sure it's a look you'll do a lot.
• I also quite liked the Bourjois waterproof Clubbing eyeliner for festivals but it does have a tendency to flake once it gets wet (or very old).
• I've also tried a gel liner (which comes in a little pot with a tiny liner brush separately). I can't remember for the life of me what the brand was now (I want to say Chanel but can't be sure) but it was gifted to me & had one half of the pot in navy and the other in black. I quite liked it but found it drew a very bold line and sometimes you want something more delicate. I also found it harder to draw a nice precise flick (although with this hack it might be a lot easier to achieve). If you're interested in reading further on the gel liners out there there's a good Independent article on the top 11 gel liners here.

The flick hack

The basic principle of this hack is to use tape to guide where the flick goes. I've seen it a few times on Facebook and elsewhere but have never tried it and as I'm getting back into my make-up I thought now's the time. I've seen one woman using Sellotape but to me that seemed a bit harsh on the skin - especially around the delicate eye area so I went with some low tack masking tape we have around the house. If you want a good tutorial video to watch here's one from Tina Yong and she uses surgical tape that you can pick up from your local chemist.

As this was more about the flick I decided to draw on the rest of the eyeliner first (please ignore my ungroomed eyebrows!):

Then I applied the tape. Where you position it depends on the angle of the flick you want - I try to continue the line up from my bottom eye rim (if that makes sense). 

 This feels a bit like I'm trying to tape my crows feet back or something, haha.

And then I drew on the flicks...

The tape's come away a little here - you need to make sure it's stuck down before you draw or it won't work well

What is this face?!

Because the tape is there you don't have to be too precise - although you do of course have to make sure the top part is neat as that's not going to change when the tape comes off. I also joined the flick up with the rest of the eyeliner more to get the classic cats eye look. 

I let the liner dry and then peeled off the tape and here's the results:

As you can see from below I was really pleased with the outcome and will definitely use this hack again.

Thanks for reading.

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