Over the past month I've found myself in the city a lot which means I've indulged in a lot of shopping recently. Here are some of the things I've treated myself to lately:
The above tops are all from Primark and cost me £2-£3 each in the sale section, which is hard to argue with. At this point I've more or less removed colour from my wardrobe altogether to project a faux-intellectual Parisian Wednesday Addams aesthetic with plenty of stripes and Peter Pan collars. They're all perfect for me to wear to work aside from the long sleeve adorned with little Eiffel Towers which will be my friend on colder days.
These dresses both came from the H&M sales (grey dress £5, black dress £10).
The grey one is thick and wintry and not seasonally appropriate at all but I'll keep it stored away until it gets cold again - or possibly not because when it gets sunny outside my office turns the AC on and freezes us!
I passed the black lace dress by the first time I went into the store because the mid-section has no underlay and I didn't think the peek-a-boo would look good on me. However when I tried it on I decided to throw caution to the wind and take it home and I'm glad I did... now I just need to find an occasion to wear it to!
The black jacket is another piece from the H&M sale which I picked up for £10 (sharing a coat hanger with a Primark jersey which proves I have clothes that aren't black). It hangs open the way I wear my much-loved leather jacket but I can wear it inside the office, which has already been a blessing on the aforementioned AC days.
I've recently reverted back to jeans after a spell wearing jeggings; I've always found that the jeans which fit my thighs are too big in the waist so the stretchy elasticated waistband of jeggings seemed like the ideal fix. Then I tried on Primark's Super High Waist Skinnies and I haven't worn anything else for months. I bought a pair with ripped knees which I've been living in but I'm growing tired of the jokes about my clothes having holes in them so I just picked up a normal pair, which are down from £10 to £8 at the moment for a little added bonus.
I bought a pair of round sunglasses in H&M a few years ago and they fast became my favourite shape so since Primark currently have them on sale for £1 I grabbed a spare pair.
New in my nail polish box are two Barry M shades: Black Grape which is a dark blue Gelly polish and Crush which is a matte red. I really wanted a deep red colour and the photos of Crush look darker than it does in the bottle so hopefully it won't disappoint - plus it's matte which means it dries really quickly so there's a minimal window for me to smudge them. I've yet to try the Gelly polishes but I wear dark blue quite a lot so I'm looking forward to testing it soon.
The third bottle in the photo is a True Brit shade called It's A Monthly Thing, which came in this month's Pink Parcel and was part of the reason why I reactivated by subscription. It's a super pale grey colour which looks really sophisticated and which I plan to use instead of white for a while.
I don't blog about it much but I have a little bit of an obsession with cute stationery. I have a pile of notebooks waiting to be used, a collection of different journals, a fascination with Paperchase and a fineliner selection spanning the whole rainbow. I picked up this huge set of fineliners in The Works for £6, mostly because it has such a great selection of pinks, including a peach shade which means I don't have to use brown and orange to colour skin when I'm doodling anymore.
The glitter gel pens were £2 and they make me so nostalgic for a childhood where gel pens were a must-have item. I take them to work where I scrawl important Post-Its in sparkling cursive, the only downside is now all my colleagues want to use them too! Next up on the list: scented gel pens...
I usually pick up a magazine every time I go somewhere; as a kid I read Girl Talk and Top Of The Pops, then Kerrang! through my teenage years, but now I mostly go for fashion magazines - both the mainstream and alternative kind. I really like NME since they relaunched it as a free publication but sadly I live an hour away from the nearest stockist so I can only get it when I'm in HMV which means I miss out on most issues.
I like Vanity Fair for the articles, they print content about old Hollywood and 20th century icons as well as current stars like Amy Schumer and it makes for great company on long journeys. I bought Pop because I missed the bus home one day and had some time to kill; I still haven't finished reading it because it's a few inches thick. I've been chasing the Fame Issue of Wonderland for months since it has great photos of Matty Healy in its pages, so I finally got that today and I'm looking forward to flicking through it because Wonderland is always great.
Finally I ordered tmrw magazine online because their main feature is on The 1975 (Matty again...) and it has a homemade feel that I really like. I haven't read the cover feature yet but they've also published pieces on emo culture and the vinyl resurgence which sadly I found to be quite poorly written. The photos, however, are gorgeous - plus they sent me a couple of prints of The 1975 to sweeten the deal.
Lastly, books and music. I've picked up a lot of 2nd hand books and vinyl lately but I'm just going to concentrate on the things I've bought as new. I read Less Than Zero earlier this year and absolutely loved it, so I was glad to find another Bret Easton Ellis book, The Rules Of Attraction, on sale in HMV.
I enjoyed both Zayn's Mind Of Mine and Drake's Views when I streamed them so I picked up both of those, as well as Communion by Years & Years, which I haven't listened to all the way through yet but have high hopes for. I pre-ordered The F Bomb by Sonic Boom Six years ago (or does it just seem that long?) when they announced it on PledgeMusic and it finally arrived this week - it's been a while since I've really listened to them so hopefully the feminist-themed new material will kickstart the love I had for them in 2013.
Finally, I used some of the vouchers I won from work to pick up the gorgeous vinyl edition of I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It by The 1975. It's my favourite album this year and I urge you to listen to it if you haven't yet, it combines so many genres and pretty sounds and feelings and I can't get enough. The HMV version of the album comes in a pastel pink slipcase which hides 2 discs of clear vinyl.
