Re-invent Your Clothes For Summer! (Fashion)

 Hello everyone, as promised today is my second fashion blog post. This one is going to be about how to reinvent some of your old clothes for summer. This could either be through fixing broken items or updating out of fashion items to make them more trendy.

One small piece of advice to consider before continuing reading this post, I didn't do any of this reinventing to any of my most loved clothing items or extremely expensive ones. I would highly suggest you do the same when you first experiment with these techniques, as you don't want to ruin something that cost you a lot of money.

The first way that you could refresh an old clothing item is by cutting it. From a menswear point of view, "cut off" style vests are extremely popular for spring/summer 2014, so a possible way to reinvent an old T-shirt would be to cut the sleeves off. I actually had to cut the sleeves of this T-shirt as it had a rip in the armpit. Make sure that you draw a guideline of where you going to cut so that you can make sure both sides will be even, and also make sure that once you cut the fabric you stretch the gap that you have just made as far as you can and then release. This makes the fabric "curl" and less likely to fray.

I was recently looking on Topman's websites at some of their key trends for summer 2014, and noticed that cut-off or sleeveless denim shirts are becoming increasingly popular. I decided that instead of spending around £40 on one of these I would simply cut the sleeves off one of my old denim shirts. It is important that you use fabric scissors or extremely sharp scissors for this type of cutting as the material is much thicker. I would also advise that you cut as close to the seam, where the arms attached to the body of the shirt, as possible in order to avoid fraying. This not only makes the shirt more trendy, but also makes it more summer appropriate as the sleeveless option is much better for the warmer weather.

Now, although some may argue that the tie-dye trend was more of a 2013 thing. I personally feel that the vibrant pops of colour are really cool way to inject some excitement into your summery outfits. This applies to both men and women, as tie-dying is such a diverse technique due to the large variety of colours and patterns that you can use/create. I have tie-dyed a number of different tops in the past couple of years, however this one is one of the most recent ones that I reinvented for the summer. I used a darker red towards the centre and blue towards the edge, I also mixed the colours to create a purple gradient, and I really like the way is came out. This is a really easy thing to do at home is all you need is a tie-dye kit, bucket of warm water, salt, and elastic bands, which are all very easy to come by. Also you don't have to buy a top especially to tie-dye, any old plain white or light-coloured tops would be suitable. Again saving money over buying a pre-died T-shirt from high street shop.

The final option for reinventing clothing in today's post, is somewhat of a craze this summer. The trend of ripped jeans has come back around big style, and the high street shops are ripping everyone off by charging so much for this destroyed denim. I love the look of ripped jeans but refuse to buy them full price, so instead I just rip my own.  Cutting slits or holes into the knees of your jeans using sharp scissors and then fraying the edges using tweezers or rubbing a hairbrush over the edges, creates a worn in and vintage ripped jeans look. How destroyed you want the jeans to look decides how big the holes or how many holes you should make in the jeans. I've done quite big and multiple holes in these jeans, however in another pair of skinny jeans only put one very thin slit in each knee. My tip would be to put your jeans in the wash after completing the fraying in order to seal everything into place and avoid the jeans becoming over-frayed.

I hope you enjoyed this post, it's probably been my favourite one to do so far. If you would like, I could do some YouTube tutorials (a series of 4) on how to do the cutting of the shirts, and the tops, and ripping of the jeans, and the tie-dying. YouTube videos are something I would like to get into and I feel like this might be quite a good way to ease myself in. As always share this post with all your friends and give me any feedback that you may have.


See you Sunday. X

What To Toss From Your Wardrobe (Fashion)

 Hi everyone, so firstly I want to say thank you for the amazing response to my first two posts on the blog since it launched last week, the response has been somewhat overwhelming. Last week you had two beauty/skin post and this week you are going to have two fashion posts. If you like this idea are interchanging week by week between beauty and fashion and let me know as lifestyle posts will not be frequent enough to be included in any rotor.

As I'm heading up to university in September I decided that it was time I cleared out my wardrobe. This is something that a lot of people have to do if they are leaving to go to university, or moving house, or moving out... or just someone who has too many clothes and not big enough wardrobe. I hope these tips, that apply to both men and women, help you in choosing "what to toss".

First things first, my top tip is to organise your wardrobe into categories e.g. put all your shirts together, all your T-shirts together, all your trousers together. This helps you see more clearly what you have a lot of e.g. if you put all your white tops together you will see that you have way too many white tops! (I do). Another tip is you look in the mirror before you go into your wardrobe and think about what size you are. Have you lost weight, have you put on weight, are you taller, what waist size are you, what shirt size are you, etc. This means that it is more clear as to what clothes will not fit you e.g. that XS top that you bought three years ago may need to go. So my first tip in choosing what to toss is anything that's too big or anything too small. As you can see from the photo I got rid of a shirt that was in size small that, although still fits me is not my type of fit as I preferred an oversized look, and I also got rid of a T-shirt that what is way too short me and actually looks more like a crop top (not a good look). In terms of the "too big" section I got rid of a number of pairs of jeans, as you can seen the photo large pair of jeans fit me last summer and then the other jeans shown for comparison are my current size. There may be some lifestyle posts about my weight loss and healthiness journey however currently I'm a bit apprehensive.

As you'll see from the following photos there are some very questionable fashion choices in this post, and the only thing that makes me feel better about it is that everyone probably has items like these in their wardrobes. One of my most important tips for what to throw out from your wardrobe is this, know your self. Know what colours suit you and what styles and fits suit you, the brown jumper featured below is a perfect example. Brown is not my colour and it never will be my colour so I'm never going to wear because I know it's not my colour therefore, it's gone. Also over the years I've learned that I prefer a lower neck line on my tops and jumpers therefore the grey jumper also featured in this photo will never suit me and I will never wear it because it's very high and close to the neck. Items in your wardrobe, clothes don't have to be broken to be thrown out, but if you know you're not going to wear them because they don't suit you or your fashion tastes, then get rid of them.

Having said that items that are broken or have significant wearing tear, toss. A prime example is knitwear, if it starts to get the little woollen balls of fluff hanging off it... ( apparently the technical term is "pilling"). These can be removed, but the quality of the jumper never be the same and it just looks old and dirty. So those items are an immediate toss. Also anything with a print of either a picture or of words printed will eventually fade through washing and will get to the stage where the print has faded so much that you can't make out the design anymore and that stage things like that should go.

I have two more tips and I'll try make it quick, the first one is that anything that was a ridiculous purchase or a trend purchase should probably go. Unless it's something you still like to wear, for example the tie-dye trend is done however I'm keeping all my tie-dye tops because I love them. However a perfect example of something that should go is this pirate map T-shirt that I wore, I did love it, but now it's over. Also this ridiculous deckchair print polo shirts has to go. Some other trends I can think of that probably should go in some of your wardrobes include glittery pumps, overdone leather, peplum tops, wedge trainers, and neons to name but a few. (All very 2012.)

My final piece of advice about what to toss is anything that you have duplicates or lots of similar variations of. For example I have two almost exactly the same striped tops so one of them had to go. Also I have piles of T-shirts I wear purely for exercise so I threw out quite a few of them including this Reebok one. There are some circumstances where having more than one something isn't a bad idea like a classic black dress or white T-shirts. But you don't need that pair of hot pants in every single colour of the rainbow, ladies.

So to recap my 6 top tips on what to toss when doing a wardrobe clear out are:

1 - anything too small.

2 - anything too big.

3 - anything that doesn't suit you in terms of colour or fit.

4 - anything that's broken or worn.

5 - anything that was a trend that you now aren't so fond of.

6 - anything that you have multiples of.

Hope you guys enjoyed this, I really enjoyed making my first fashion post and I will see you all on Wednesday with another one.

Summer Empties (Beauty)

 Hi everyone, so today I'm going to do and empties blog post. I see a lot of these on YouTube and I guess they're really good idea because from a shopping addict point of view you have to use the whole product up, which is something I never usually do!

Ive split this into two sections, hair and skin/body. The first thing from the hair section is a shampoo. A little back story to this is that I've always had really thick hair, however I've always been obsessed with getting even thicker hair, so a shampoo that claims to thicken always catches my eye. The shampoo from the new range by L'Oreal Paris called Fibrology. It claims to "penetrate and instantly expand hair leading to 80% more body in balance". I really enjoyed the shampoo as when I purchased it I had just bleached my hair for the millionth time and it was starting to feel a bit thin and brittle. This shampoo restored my hair to its thick and original form, so I would definitely recommend it.

My next empty is an all time favourite, the L'Oreal satin supreme hold hairspray. This product is awesome and I will continue to repurchase it until I find one that smells better, whilst still achieving the excellent hold (it smells a bit like an old lady). My favourite feature about this product is that it disappears at the stroke of a brush meaning it's very easy to remove and you don't have to wash out of your hair the end of the day or night out.

The next empty is a product that I've owned for over a year, it's an argan oilnourishing mask from the brand Phytorelax. I believe it was a purchase from TK Maxx, and I quite like it. It didn't blow my mind or give me extreme softness and good condition, but I quite liked it to put it in second day hair or as a more intense replacement for conditioner. I found that weighed my hair down in a good way as my hair can be quite puffy when it's just been washed. Having said all this it did cost over £10, and I have tried other hair treatments that were much cheaper and more effective. A good example of this is the John Frieda total repair conditioning mask/deep conditioner.

Now moving on to the skin/body products. Firstly I'm going to talk about a product from Soap and Glory. They are one of my favourite brands available on the British high street, the witty names and amazing smells make them a staple in my bathroom/bedroom. I've just finished the "Breakfast scrub" , which is a body exfoliator made with a number of natural ingredients including oats, Shea butter, bananas, almond and honey extracts. It smells amazing!!! Like maple syrup I literally want to eat it when I put it on my body. And it also did an amazing job at evening out the texture and dryness of my skin, a definite repurchase needed. ( A post coming up in the near future where exfoliating the skin is a key part of the "process".)

The next product is and aftershave/fragrance. I'm extremely fussy when it comes to scents so I don't usually like people to buy me them for my birthday unless I have asked them to get me a specific one. ( Would you like a favourite fragrance/fragrance collection video? Comment below.) However I really liked the "David Beckham instinct sport fragrance". It hasn't lasted very long but I think that's because I used it every single day since my birthday when I got it which was in March, and so actually for a 50ml bottle it's lasted quite well. I won't go into the notes/base notes Etc blah blah blah because I'll save that for a separate blog post specifically about scents, however I will say it's very fresh and manly and quite "awakening" - if you can use that word to describe a fragrance. I may actually re-purchase this, however as you'll see from my collection in a later post and do you like to try out lots of different fragrances so I may move on to something different.

Final product is a skin saviour, the L'Oréal Paris Skin Perfection 3 in 1 Purifying Micellar Solution. I found this product after running out of my Bioderma which I bought in Paris about two years ago. I like Bioderma so much because it was an extremely deep clean which I needed as I got bacterial breakouts quite regularly. Again I'm going to review this product and compare it to Bioderma in a separate blog post however for now I will say that I like it a lot, and I already repurchased it multiple times.

And that's all for this blog post. I hope you liked my empty/mini reviews, if you have any more blog post suggestions please email me or Facebook message me or comment on this blog posts because I'd love to hear your feedback!!
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Introduction!

Hi everyone! Just a brief blurb so you know who I am and why you ended up here. I'm Sam and i'm and 18 year old student from the Isle of Man moving across the UK. As part of my preparation for my university course in Fashion marketing I decided to start this blog to hopefully reach out to brands and to get involved with businesses, but also to give people something interesting to read. I shop a lot for clothes and skin products so I felt that my excessive collection and years of shopping experience of some of the best and worst products meant that I could speak about that on this blog and try and impart some tips or advice onto both men and women about fashion, skincare and lifestyle. Although there are plenty of male makeup artists and male fashion designers, there aren't a huge amount of male bloggers so hopefully that's a gap i can try to fill. I really hope you enjoy my blog and continue to read my posts. Have an amazing day :-) x


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                           Twitter = @samnewuk   https://twitter.com/samnewuk

Summer Holiday Essentials (Beauty)

 Hello everyone, today's blog post is going to be about summer holiday essentials. I recently went on holiday to North Wales in the UK. I know what you're thinking, you don't need many summer holiday products for an English summer holiday, however it was surprisingly warm. So in this post I'm going to discuss some of my favourite products that I used on my summer holiday and that you may find useful for yours, enjoy.

I'm going to talk about six products, half of the products are for the face and half of them are body products. This is a skin and body post so if you're looking for something fashion or lifestyle there are plenty of other posts coming soon.

The first product I'm going to talk about is a moisturiser. Moisturiser from a skincare point of view is key for any summer holiday as exposure to the sun dries out all skins, dry skin is also then more likely to burn which has serious health consequences. Therefore keeping your skin moisturised on your summer holiday should be very high on your priorities. I have given you two options for moisturiser in this blog post, firstly the newly released Vaseline "sprayand go body moisturiser" which has become a firm favourite of mine this summer, or alternatively for those wanting a solid moisturiser The Body Shop"Body Butters" are another favourite of mine, especially the travel sized pots featured in the photos. (Stay tuned for another body moisturiser related post in the near future!) - I won't say too much about these products in this post however I find both of them light, non-greasy and effective at re-moisturising the skin after a day of sun worshipping, they also both retail for around or under £5 and smell delicious!

The final product that is a must in the body care summer essentials section is some form of sun protection. Protecting your skin from the sun is so important for health care and anti-ageing points of view. I naturally tan quite easily however I still use SPF 20 whilst on holiday. I would highly recommend the Garnier Golden protect range which is the one featured in the photos as they are water resistant and they have a number of different SPF levels for different skin types e.g "SPF 20 is medium protection for fair skin that tans easily" - very useful.

Now moving on to the face products, as mentioned previously SPF especially for the face is key to avoid sun damage and increased rate of wrinkles and ageing. Now if you're lucky and you have a relatively un-sensitive skin, you can just apply some of your body sun cream to your face. However if you have sensitive or break out prone skin, as do I, a facial moisturiser with SPF included may be less likely to break you out, while still giving you the protection from the sun. This is because the moisturisers will be aimed at the face and therefore will be dermatologically tested or hypoallergenic. My moisturiser is a Clarins HydraQuench lotion for normal combination skin with an SPF of 15. It's quite expensive at around £30 however there are much cheaper options available on the high street.

The next product for the face is a lip balm, this is key as you may not know that you can actually get very badly sunburn on your lips, which could result in lips being dry or cracked.  Keeping them moisturised with an intensive care lip balm is most likely to avoid dry or burnt lips. I chose the Maybelline baby lips intensive care lip balm which is super cheap from boots and I found worked very well. The final product I'm going to talk about is not essential, but very nice if you have a greasier skin. The Boots botanics rosewater toning spritz works very well at refreshing the face after a day of sitting in the sun or a run on the beach, it's also claims to cleanse impurities and freshen the skin. I could not have lived without this was when I was on my holiday as I get a very "hot face" very quickly. (imagine me as a beetroot)

I hope you all enjoyed this post and expect a lot more from me in the near future. If you have any feedback or comments don't hesitate to add a comment underneath this post or email me directly, my email is in my description box.
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