Thursday 5 June 2014

Recent purchases and bargain buys

Payday showed its beautiful face last week and in my book, that means only one thing - shopping!
I headed off to town with one of my best friends and fellow shopaholic, Jade and spent far too much money on clothes as per usual.

Unfortunately it wasn't a successful shopping trip for me because I made the rookie error of not trying things on before buying them and therefore got home to find nothing fit me! However, after a second trip and a few exchanges, I now have a few new purchases that I am super happy with!


My absolute favourite buy has to be these Leigh Super Soft Skinny Jeans from Topshop. I never really shop in Topshop, because I feel that it's one of the more expensive high street fashion retailers and I rarely have any money so I tend to steer clear. That's not to say I don't love their clothes, I've never had any problems with anything I have bought from there, I just can't afford to do it very often! However, we headed in for a browse and ended up picking up a whole host of jeans to try on in the fitting rooms.

Generally I have issues with jeans, because I can never find any that fit me soundly. I am quite a slim person, and during my adolescence, the only shape I had was that of a stick. I had no shape and was incredibly thin for years, but then all of a sudden I finally gained hips and am now still a slim person, only with an abnormally large derrierè. For this reason I struggle with jeans and the only place I've found that sell jeans which do fit me nicely is, H&M. But, since we had plenty of time, I thought I'd grab a few different styles in Topshop and see which ones did me favours and which ones didn't.

Of all the styles I tried, I found that the best were the Leigh range. The pair I tried on were incredibly comfortable, looked good, fit me well and left me plenty of room to eat as much as I would in a pair of leggings and not feel like I'd been cut in half. With this in mind, I scouted round the shop for other styles in the same range and came across this pair, which I am in love with. I have worn them to death this last week and can safely say that even though they were about £34 with student discount, they are definitely one of my soundest investments.



To go with my new b-e-a-utiful jeans, I picked up two cami style tops from H&M. The one on the left is probably my favourite, it has a beautiful floral pattern and has buttons up the front and a racer style back. I'm not massive on floral but I love the print on this. The second one, on the right is very me. It is a simple cami with a black and white chevron style print and I love it. I love this style of vest at the minute and they look great with a good pair of jeans. I think both of these were around £9.99 in H&M.



Keeping with H&M, on my first shopping trip I bought this dress in a size 8 because although I am usually a 10 or 12, this style of smock dress is a bigger fit and since there were no other sizes, I thought I'd see if I could get away with an 8. This did not happen, I got stuck in the dress. I was gutted, I'd fallen in love with the boho paisley print and style of this dress and when I realised I couldn't even get my arms through it, I could've wept. I headed back to H&M yesterday to exchange the dress and could've wept again because out of nowhere, there was now a 14. Even though it wasn't a 10 or 12, I needed to own this dress, so I tried the 14 on in the fitting rooms and beamed from ear to ear to find it fit almost perfectly. I am so happy about this and can't wait to wear it. I love smock dresses and now I am on the look out for more in the same style. This dress was £14.99 and well worth it.



Another recent purchase I am obsessed with are these flat velvet chelsea boots from ASOS. I am severely lacking in decent shoes and all I ever wear are Converse or Vans and therefore was in dire need of something I could wear with all the pretty dresses I seem to be acquiring lately. I did have a pair of creepers which doubled as ankle boots as my go to dressy shoe, but they are starting to fail me and need replacing. I started looking online for something similar, something cool but dressy, and actually came across a few styles that I liked, but these ASOS boots came out on top. They were £35 and another solid investment, allowing me to ditch my scruffy sneaks in favour of something a little more prim and proper. (But not too much, it is me we're talking about...!)

Last but by no means least on my list of recent purchases: Scrunchies. Yes they're back in fashion, yes they cost twice as much as they did in the 90s and yes everyone and their mum are wearing them, but I don't care, I'm all over this! I seem to be hoarding scrunchies since I jumped back on the bandwagon and have acquired quite a collection. They are so much more comfier than a regular hair elastic and don't rip my head apart when I've had them in all day for work. Pretty and practical, that's what we like. Here are a few of the ones I've bought recently. Coloured, tartan, velvet, you name it, I'll buy it!


And those are all my recent bargains and buys, I love this type of post so feel free to link me your own recent hauls!