Becoming a (Fairy) Godmother OOTD Post with Jacques Vert

Last Sunday I became a Godmother! It's a great privilege to be asked to be godmother to my friend Laura's daughter. Laura and I went to secondary school together and have stayed close friends to this day.

I was a bit stumped over what to wear, I wanted something smart and special enough, but I really didn't want to buy anything new.

When my sister was choosing our bridesmaid dresses last summer she deliberately chose something that we could wear again. Since this dress was worn on such a special day I decided it would be great to give it an outing on another very happy occasion. Whilst this dress is no longer available Jacques Vert have some other great vintage inspired pieces, as below.

Jacques Vert

I think Jacques Vert is a fantastic option for people who love a classic style, they have some beautiful dresses at the moment which nod to the 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's.


This dress has an unusual abstract floral pattern, it reminds me of Monet's Water Lilies. The blend of yellow, blue and grey means you have plenty of options when it comes to accessories. The fabric is thick and falls very nicely, it's lined and this kept me warm on a less than sunny day!

The dress is a classic A line cut with a gentle v neck, it's super flattering. As it was chilly I wore a navy cardigan with it, tied at the waist and to tie in with with the yellow in the dress I wore my Hotter shoes with thick navy blue tights.

This dress is very versatile, here is how I wore it for my sisters wedding last summer, with my silver Hotter Donna's and a silver bolero. It's a great dress for wearing in different seasons as the style and the print can be dressed either way.

I went for a size 14 and I found the sizing more generous than the rest of the high street and could size down in future.

Since I am growing out my roots and the weather is very unpredictable at the moment I decided to wear my hair in a poodle, so my roots wouldn't show in photos and my curls wouldn't get battered by the wind. As it is quite a large hairdo I kept my accessories to a minimum and just added this little lemon flower to my hair to coordinate with the dress pattern.

Other vintage inspired items I am loving from Jacques Vert at the moment are:

Left to right: Layers Soft Print Dress Was £159.00 Now £127.20

Lace Godet Dress Was £169.00 Now £135.20

Petite Leaf Lace Dress Was £179.00 Now £143.20

Delicate Lace Soft dress Was £179.00 Now £143.20

Lace Drape Cape Dress Was £179.00 Now £143.20



*(5 Images remain property of Jacques Vert)



It's well worth having a look at the various styles on their website 

My mum also rocked a bit of a vintage inspired outfit with this Marks and Spencers smock dress that she bought at an outlet store, mustard coloured tights and these too cool burgundy buckled shoes from Clarks. Looking good mum!

Now I just need to source a wand to make wishes come true...bibbidi bobbidi boo!



Love

Lucy

x

International Women's Day - Women in Wartime

It's International Women's Day, which got me thinking...

In the vintage community there is, by some, a lot of reflection on whether we glorify the era's we have an interest in. Our communities interests, in the 1940's especially, can sometimes come under scrutiny for being seen to be pro-war or anti feminist.

I found this amazing book a few months ago and it contained some really thought provoking messages from women's magazines in the 1940's and challenged the way I viewed the female experience of WW2 and the messages that were delivered to women at the time.

By: Jane Waller, Michael Vaughan Rees

So many people are of the opinion that people who appreciate the vintage scene are harping back to a time when a woman's place was in the home, that we want to be the weaker sex in 2017 and that we are anti the progress that has been made in the name of feminism.

But the above is insulting, not to us the 2017 enthusiast, but to the women of the 1940's, the hardships they faced, the progress they made and their ability to "pick their battles" at such a terrible period in history.

The extracts below are some of my favourite from the book: 

Equality? 

An extract written by a female writer, Barbara Hedworth writing for Women's Own Magazine, reflects on the positive societal changes felt by women in such a challenging time.

"Wherever I go in these darkened days, everyone I meet seems to be like a new friend. That, in my opinion, is the silver lining of the heavy clouds of war. All human beings in this country have become equal. We are no longer individuals..."

Now of course history tells us that factually there was inequality, women were paid less for the same jobs for example but women of the era felt a shift in the way people responded to them. They felt equal, even if that wasn't really the case, and now was not the social, political or economic time for striking, that would obviously come later.

Women's magazines, as this book highlights, played a huge role in opening women's minds to such issues.

Women in the Home? 

Rosita Forbes, writing from America for Women's Own, about the British female workforce noted

"In Britain just about seven women of every available eight are doing wholetime war jobs"

The idea of the perfect 1940's housewife is frankly laughable. Women had been "in the home" for many decades prior to WW2 but this was an awakening in terms of women in the workforce and undertaking jobs that were usually exclusively for men and a vast majority of women revelled in it.

Moral amongst women was remarkably high considering the climate, with this renewed sense of purpose. This actually took a dip in the 1950's when the women were expected to return to their previous social status. The idea of the housewife would be forever shifted and whilst change would not be immediate a lot of the proof in the pudding came from the necessity of the female worker in the 1940's.

No Allies for the Women? 

Things were far from perfect for the female workforce in WW2 but one particular recognition of women as equals to their male counterparts was brought about by an intervention by Churchill himself

"But as the war stepped up women were allowed to volunteer for jobs which had hitherto been considered very unfeminine...however they were treated in a pettily separate way...these women gunners were not supposed to consider themselves part of the battery. Nor were they allowed to wear the badges to which their male comrades were entitled. It took a visit to a battery by Churchill himself to change this."


Empathy for the enemy? 

Could the women of Britain be the key to empathy in the face of the atrocities on their doorsteps, this writer certainly seems to think so...

One of the more beautiful extracts from this book comes from a piece entitled "In Courage Keep Your Heart" by Storm Jameson

"In this war, when we look at our loved ones and dread for them the agony of an air raid, the thought springs into our minds that a woman in Germany is suffering precisely the same sharp terror.

It will not be easy, once we see death in our streets, not to hate. We must find some way of preventing it in ourselves. Not so much out of any hard and fast morality, but because hatred poisons the very life of the person who gives way to it, because it is impossible to hate another human without hating ourselves, since we are not different from other people.

A woman is not comforted by the death of her loved ones by punishing other women through theirs"

This passage can speak to as many women today as it did then, if we have the ability to recognise the experience of and sympathise with the hardships of fellow women across the globe we will be all the richer for it.

Happy International Women's Day.

Until Next Time
Love
Lucy
xx

Going Back To My Roots

My hair is on a quest. Having been bottle black for some time now I decided on a bit of a whim to grow my hair out to my natural colour.

I love how black hair looks on others but I do think it might age me in the coming years. Also I would love to try something more adventurous when the time comes, I'm dreaming of lilacs and pinks, and reds, oh my!

I've grown my hair over the last two years and it was the longest it had ever been so I was nervous to go for a chop however it badly needed it.

Again on a whim I decided to pop into a hairdressers in my new local area and happily they could fit me in that day. I'd been trying to drop into my usual hairdresser for a while but between work and other commitments it wasn't happening sadly.

I am a nervous customer at the best of times but here I was agreeing for a perfect stranger to cut my locks. No turning back now!

Avalon salon, Crouch End

I was introduced to Tori, one of the creative stylists at Avalon and she did a consultation. I explained about my outgrown vintage cut and showed her the diagram of a middy and she actually took an interest. Some hairstylists won't care to look at a 50s diagram but the lovely Tori entertained me.

Before

We decided to chop off a lot of the length and go for the four inch bottom layer, taking each layer up as per the diagram but blending the layers so they are not quite so blunt as that can definitely look odd when it's not vintage styled!

After

Although it felt weird having so much cut off I was thrilled with the end result and went home to do a pincurl set to test out my new tresses. As with all vintage styles I have to "find my layers" again as with my old hair I could set it without even a mirror (in fact I did at the Christmas ball)

Pincurls! 

The salon is bright and modern and intimate which I prefer as you don't feel like one of many cattle coming off a conveyer belt with the same haircut.

Tori was lovely too, I like a hair dresser who likes a chat! We were talking about my plans for the colour, the vintage scene and the local area, I will definitely be popping in for trims whilst I grow this colour out.

I would highly recommend this salon, the staff are lovely, the quality of the cut was great and the price was very reasonable. I paid £40 for a wet cut.

Let's just hope my hair grows in double quick time as the rather attractive root line, and ok I admit a couple of sneaky greys, are already driving me a bit mad!

Bye bye hair! 

Until Next Time
Love
Lucy

Hair Today Gone Tomorrow

A friend and I were discussing just the other day how well put together teenagers and twenty-somethings look these days. Thanks to YouTube they are totally skipping the frosted eyeshadow and rollerball lipgloss phase and stepping straight to MAC. We decided that it just wasn't fair, we had served our time of hideous haircuts bad make up, we'd earned our stripes!

On the back of this conversation I thought it might be fun to take a look back to a time before I'd found vintage and, well basically laugh at my monstrous hair. Welcome to my twenties, don't judge...

Blonde Ambition

Every now and again I get the urge to be a lighter colour, hence the reason I am growing my hair out now. What I lacked was the patience to wait and this resulted in some horrible highlights and very dry hair! Don't try to lighten your hair at home, EVER!

 

 

Fringe Benefits

I go back and fourth on the fringe quite a lot, one thing I am very self consious of is my forehead (my sibilings and I measured ours once, mine was the biggest) I've had the riot girl fringe, betty bangs, side swept and a rather weird choppy thing that looked like I'd cut it myself.

 

The Long and Short of It.

I seem to have spent the last decade growing my hair in order to cut it again, wanting some cool and modern style that I can never carry off and then I added the cheapest and nastiest hair extensions! I go for more classic cuts these days so that my vintage styles take so I think these days are behind me!

 

 

Thank goodness I found vintage! 

Now eyebrows, they are another story. Perhaps I'll perfect them in my 40's. 

Until next time 

Love 

Lucy 

Lessons In Lucite

As with all things in life sometimes we have to learn lessons the hard way.

I have been perusing the bootsale app Shpock for some time and was thrilled to come across this lucite bag for £40.

This was to be my christmas treat to myself and it was for collection 2 miles from my house! I couldn't believe my luck.

I have always wanted a lucite bag and this one with it's carved lid in browns and yellows was perfect, or so I thought.

The bag had the most beautiful carved details on the underside of the lid.

I went and collected the bag from a lovely local lady who informed me that it belonged to her mother in law who had passed away a year ago and, she told me, she has so much other stuff to sort through.

I expressed how sorry I was for her loss and she said she hated using the technology of the app. I gave her my number and told her to feel free to get in touch if she had anything else she would like to sell. This lady was not a vintage seller.

I was so gleeful all the way home, I kept looking at my new bag and thinking how well it would go with my bakelite bangles.

I was a little distracted by the kid on the buss eating chips and stinking the whole place out with vinegar, but as it turns out it wasn't his food that was the problem.

When I got home the smell followed me there. I examined the bag and noticed it was wet inside and stank of this vinegar smell. Luckily I have some experts amongst my vintage facebook friends and one of them quickly jumped to help me out despite it being almost christmas eve and probably not having time for my silly questions.

You can see here the brown sticky marks that have since appeared.

They told me to get the bag away from other plastics basically. When a Lucite bag smells of vinegar and is greasy/wet, and has a condensation look to it (I took these to be wear and tear) the plastics have begun to break down but also this can spread to other things, there is no cure for it. It's known simply as "the disease" she informs me.

My bag couldn't not be cured, there is no handbag Dr to call, nothing to be done. I was a bit heartbroken.

The clouding on the lid, like condensation is another sign to look for. 

I contacted the seller who said her son had cleaned it with water before I arrived, I took it upon myself to tell her what the expert had said and also that it can spread so if she has other items she needs to be careful and examine everything and get rid of anything with similar signs. I also told her that if she is not sure what it is made of she should be especially careful as lots of nasties were used in these old items, I was worried for her son too if he is digging around in this stuff.

She could have offered me a refund or return, she could have said something but no offer was forthcoming. When I informed her the bag was not useable she said it was a shame. No sign of my money back, it's a case of buyer beware on that one as I have no rights in this case, sold as seen.

So the lessons I learned on this one would be:

• When buying things from a dark rainy doorway take time to examine them. 
• Sniff things before buying them (attractive)
• Handle them, check inside, run your fingers around them to see if they feel greasy/wet 
• Look for cloudiness or condensation looking marks
• Count your blessings when you don't get formaldehyde exposure  

As for the fate of the bag I didn't know what to do with it since I didn't want something nasty going to landfill and it's just so bloody beautiful but I don't want it in the house. 

The sensible option seemed to be to use it as a planter and take it to my grandads grave, he was in the fashion trade and was a very fashionable young man himself. I put some stones in the bottom and filled it with these fake plants (I don't want to kill real plants with the nasties) we'll see how long it lasts outside.

Nicest and most expensive plant pot I have ever bought that's for sure! I'm sure I'll find my dream bag one day, I am also sure it won't be £40. 

So be careful out there shoppers, we are all learning new things every day about our vintage treasures. I hope this helps some of you avoid this pitfall. 

Until next time 

Love 

Luciteless Lucy 

Post Party Product Reviews

Christmas 2016 was so busy for me, I think I have only just recovered. I had been meaning to write this post for ages as I used so many new products in the party season, some better than others, here are some reviews you might find useful.

Brit Rocks Vintage Nails, £1.29 per pack

I picked up three packs of these nails in gold, red and blue to match my party outfits as I knew time would be tight and I am a fan of being able to pop the nails on and off to suit.

Unfortunately the best thing I can say about these nails is that the packaging is cute. The glitter on the gold nails was patchy at best but it wasn't so noticeable from far away.

The main issue was that the nails split, in the same way a natural nail would. They didn't feel especially thin so when it happened to the first pair I wore I thought I'd just got a duff pack, but when I wore the red ones on a night out they also split meaning I had a sharp ragged nail all evening which is so annoying!

The red ones were also poor in that when the nail connected with the glue the colour bled everywhere, and where some glue escaped from the side of the nail it stained my cuticle red, which looked like poorly applied polish. If I wanted it to look like that I would have just painted them myself after a few sherries!



So all in all these are a 0/10 product, they didn't last more than a few hours, were poor quality and created more work than they solved.

I took myself off to the nail shop in the end and treated myself to a full set of acrylic Dita nails which I am loving.

Maybelline Lasting Drama by EyeStudio £7.99

My mum took the advice of a friend of ours who does the most fantastic make up looks and bought this eyeliner on her recommendation. I am in love with my poundland inkwell eyeliners so I was excited to see if a more upmarket product could offer anything my current brand didn't.

I have to say I am not a huge fan of this eyeliner, I like my eyeliner to be inky black and this one needed a couple of layers before it was to my liking, also the brush that comes with it was thicker than it needs to be. I might try again with a thinner brush (I find nail art brushes good for this) but all in all I wasn't so impressed with it that I could throw out my poundland one!

5/10

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil - Milk £5.00

I am always after eye products that will form the base of a 50's eye and I have real trouble with whites. I have some skin tone products for my 40's looks but because I am quite pale there is never a real contrast for the more pin up style eyes I like to do.

This eye crayon goes on easily and blends well, the pigment is very strong and it can either be blended or layered up depending on the drama factor you want. The price is very reasonable for it's performance. It will budge a little if you are going to wear it all day so I had to use an urban decay primer potion underneath to help it stay.

7/10

NYX Liquid Suede - Cherry Skies £6.50

I had wanted to try out the darker lip colours for a while after seeing so many good pictures on Instagram. I love the bright vibrant 50's reds but I wanted something darker and less novelty to try.

This lip product goes on like a gloss and dries to a matt finish. I have found products like this drying in the past, especially in the cold weather but this one not only stays on really well (I only retouched a little in the centre of my lip once in a day) but didn't dry my lips out.

The packaging is really cute and the wand is also a good size for accuracy.


I would recommend using a lip liner as it may bleed on some people but also it just helps it all stay in the lip boundary.

8/10

NYX Soft Matt Lip Cream - Copenhagen £5.50

I also bought this lip colour to try out something other than red, it performs in the same way as the liquid suede and I was just as happy with the results. The bottle is smaller making it more portable in tiny party purses.

8/10

*To note - the smaller lip cream product is 8ml and £5.50 and the larger Liquid Suade is 4ml for £6.50 which I think is really odd. I'd definitely buy the the lip cream again but I can't say I would pay the extra £1 for half the product!

NYX Full Coverage Concealer - Green £5.50

As regular readers will know I get psoriasis and since having the flu I had two rather large red areas on my face which were proving stubborn to heal. I haven't used a green concealer in ages as my skin had been so good up to now however since parties involve photos I decided it was worth picking one up.

This green concealer is one of the better high street ones I have tried, I have been through a lot of cheap crap trust me, it takes the redness out of the areas you want it to but isn't overwhelming green (which these products aren't meant to be) and layered under foundation you would not have known that the redness was there.

It's a light creamy consistency  which heats up well with the warmth of your skin, anything too waxy means you are pulling your face about and if you have redness that is all it needs!

Another thing I love is that it doesn't smell of anything, really odorless which is good, unnecessary perfumes are bad for problem skin too. I'd love try out more in their concealer range.

9/10

Eco Tools Mystic Luxe Trio Brush Set £30.00

I decided to buy myself some new make up brushes in the sale, I am not a fan of having huge brush sets and really only need a few key brushes so this set was perfect as it had all the basics covered with none of those brushes that usually sit in my make up box gathering dust.

You get 9 brushes in this set including:

• Foundation brush 


• Full coverage concealer brush 


• Airbrush concealer brush 


• Stippling brush 


• Blush brush


• Lip brush Eyeshadow shading brush 


• Eyeshadow blending brush 


• Angled liner brush 

These brushes are PETA certified (I am aware not everything in this post is) the bamboo is from renewable sources and the aluminium and plastics are recycled.

The brushes are super soft and there was no hair loss when I used them, the eyeshadow brushes give a really lovely blend and I am so impressed with the airbrush concealer brush as I usually apply concealer with my fingers and the shape of this brush gives a flawless blended finish in record time. I would definitely buy from Eco Tools again.

10/10

Lashes - Eyelene £1.00

I always buy cheap lashes, I've had more expensive ones but if you buy the right brand you can get away with the budget ones. I used to wear lashes everyday but only use them on special occasions now after some eyelash loss drama! I do use a more expensive glue, the Revlon black lash glue, as it keeps them put all day.

These lashes were great, they were a little long and needed a trim but better too much lash than not enough. See Top tip!

The lashes had a thin base that was easily disguised in the lash line and lasted all evening without any hassle. Sadly I forgot to take a photo before I flushed them down the loo after a night out but the range is worth checking out anyway!

9/10

I hope you enjoyed these reviews. If you have any recommendations of products to try or are a company with products that you think would be  good fit please get in touch at rockabillybrunette@gmail.com



Until next time

Love

Lucy



*All products were purchased, I am not affiliated with any of these companies, all views are my own.