Beauty Habits Worth breaking...

Happy February!
Now we bet you are preening, prettying and planning your Valentine’s Day, but have you given yourself enough thought this month? This week we have listed our top 6 beauty bad habits that should be broken before that special day. Happily single and ready to mingle? Well what are you waiting for- you’ve got even more time to get those habits in check and guarantee a glow until the next special day.
Bad Habit no 1:
Biting your nails

It doesn’t look pretty and leave your fingers in quite a sore mess, if you hate serums and potions to stop you biting them, consider good ol’ falsies! Paint them, style and file them, they will protect your nails while your own grow back, and should you try chomping on them you will be swiftly reminded why you can’t…
Bad Habit no 2:
Over plucking eyebrows

Treat your eyebrows like you would your hairstyle and find a style that suits you. Eyebrows frame the face, so overly thin ones will leave you looking over exposed and permanently surprised. If you pluck your own, stick to your natural shape and avoid plucking above the brow, otherwise tell a professional exactly what you want and never let them put their own input without your permission. Whatever way you choose, make sure to leave that pencil thin eyebrow look on ladies called ‘Delicious’ and ‘Desiree’.
Bad Habit no 3:
Squeezing Spots


Ripe, oozing blackheads yum! Tempting as it is, squeezing spots actually make them worse as the oil from your finger tips will increase the spread, not to mention you put your skin at risk of scarring. Want to get rid of those awful spots, start gulping down that H2O.
Bad Habit No 4:
Sleeping with make up on

We know you’ve had a hard day and even later evening, but don’t let it show on your skin. While washing it with a cleaner IS far more effective, in case it’s one of those nights keep baby wipes near your bed, and save your face from the unnecessary extra years.
Bad Habit No 5:
Straightening your hair everyday


Imagine sitting in the hot sun every single day, with every ray striking your skin with no protection, you’d be pretty damaged by the end of the week right? This is the similar effect you are having on your hair; in effect it will be damaged and will be more likely to break. Love your locks? Invest in some protective serums such as, Trevor Sorbie Straightening Addict which is suitable for all hair types and reduce your straightening to once a week.
Bad Habit No 6:
Not wearing the correct foundation shade

This is the biggest make up cardinal sin. Whether you tan 5 shades darker in the summer or you pale up beyond belief in the winter, know your shade and upgrade accordingly. There is nothing worse than taking what you believe is a perfectly good photo to find that you look like you got a little frisky with a bag of flour. If you can’t find your exact shade by two similar shades and get mixing until you find the jackpot.
So we’ve made our list, what beauty habits do you think could do with kicking out?

Childhood: Hopscotch, Pig Tails and Anti- Ageing Serums

Ah, childhood, such a carefree time when your only concerns were, playtime, dinner time, penny sweets and of course fretting about wrinkles and fine lines, remember those days?

Confused?

Well so were we, although it seems that maybe eight year olds do have a desire to ‘hold back time’ (to where we don’t know), as U.S retailer Wal- Mart (the brand that British supermarket Asda is now a subsidiary of) is preparing to a launch a ‘mom approved’ beauty range that is not only natural but tackles the issue of fine lines.
The ‘Geogirl’ range is to be aimed at girls aged eight to twelve years old and will have products from blushes and mascaras to mists and cleansers which will be named with the infamous text language, such ‘QTIPI’ (cutie pie) and ‘FYEO’ (For your eyes only).

Now sure this is a totally innocent product. There is NO risk of over sexualising children, no risk of further loss of childhood in a society with a great saturation of music videos, mobile phones and adult inspired clothing. Goodness forbids that a company should profit from any such thing, this would be far too disturbing, for your eyes only?
As our American cousins’ say, GO Figure…
We love fashion and dressing up as children but is this one step too far? Let us know
In the meantime for strictly grown girl fashion, just take a peak here

Our Darling Guest, Discusses More Vintage...

Our Darling Guest | Vintage clothing

we decided to ensure you receive a healthy dose of all type of vintage possible, we decided to give you something a little bit different. Over the past few weeks week we have been talking to a few fellow lovers of all things vintage, and we thought it would be nice to introduce you to few of them. We had brief chat with a vintage store owner from  Arkansas (We avoided every reference to the Wizard of Oz until now) who specialises in hunting down vintage scarves and accessories, some of which go very well with our clothes. We’ll say no more, except allow us to introduce creator of Vintage Scarf, Paula Horlick …


Hi Paula, so tell us your story and how The Vintage Scarf came to be.
Hi There! Well, I grew up in Western Kansas and moved to Arkansas in 1991. As a child I would dress in my grandmother’s, “real” vintage clothes. That would have made her around 65 when I was born in ‘61. I started selling items on eBay around 1995, just selling my old things I didn’t want anymore and got hooked. In one of the packages my mother had sent for me to put on eBay was a vintage scarf and that is pretty much how The Vintage Scarf came to be. I had already tried different selling venues and decided I wanted my own online boutique. So I built the website and started from there, each scarf is inspected by me before it is put on the website. The scarves at priced at the lower end to encourage potential customers to buy more than one,
and is affordable enough to do so.

Ah, you started very early, so what is your favourite thing about vintage wear?
Vintage wear is so sophisticated. The clothes we tailored to the body and everything matched from the hat to the purses to the shoes Oh and don’t forget that lipstick!
Definitely wouldn’t forget that! How did you discover Darling?
I was introduced through a member of a professional network I am part of after I posted a request about blogging and then it went on from there…
We’re glad you did! Speaking of which, how would you accessorise our Bea Puffball Dress using accessories from your store?
I would tie this beautiful scarf around the waist and tie it in a bow in the back [As demonstrated below]
1. Vintage Sheer Maroon Long Neck Scarf
Then I would I would tie this scarf around the neck
2. Purple And Red Floral Stripe Long Neck Scarf
Then  finally,this pin would look pretty in front of the maroon scarf.
3. Vintage Purple And Green Paisley Costume Jewellery brooch

Nice choices! By the way what vintage trend do you think will be popular this year?
I think more of the vintage accessories to compliment what you already own. You can make one outfit look like a different outfit everyday with just an accessory, I often write about this on my site.

For everyone reading, do you have a top vintage tip?
For hats, purses, and nearly any vintage accessories, simply make sure there isn’t any dust. It might be ideal if you would keep the hats in good hatboxes that are often available at typical home decorating shops. To comb off dust, use soft brass with soft bristles. Purses should be stored in fabric bags, in a way like how luxury purses are stored today. Vinyl and leather purses should breathe, so keeping them in plastic boxes and bags wouldn’t be advisable. Compacts first should be wrapped up in rolls of tissue paper or should be stored in small jewellery bags to guard them from dust, for more you can check out my site.

Before we wrap up what are your plans for The Vintage Scarf this year?
I would love to have vintage boutique or shops to partner with The Vintage Scarf and sell them in their store. Remember our scarves are one of a kind and the real deal. They are not replicas and we do not make them.

Thanks Paula! Well, you’ve heard it here first Darling Definitely Does Vintage Scarf!
So what do you think was our guest a good dose? Want more let us know!

Get that Celeb Swag Without The Celeb Tag | Kim Kardashian...

How to Do : Kim Kardashian

Celeb of the minute Kim Kardashian is everywhere right now. Love her or hate her, you have to admit the girl got some super style!
We managed to create not one not two not even three but four different looks so you too can do your thing for less, so get working those curves ladies!

What celebrity would you like up here? Let us know!

How to do Hollywood Glamour like Dorothy Dandridge

Old Hollywood Glamour: Dorothy Dandridge |Vintage Fashion

This week we explore the life of delicate beauty Dorothy Dandridge who not only displayed natural glamour, but helped to break down one of the many barriers for African- Americans in the film industry.

Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9th, 1922 – September 8th, 1965.)

Dandridge’s entertainment career started early with her singing and touring around the Southern United States with her sister under the name ‘The Wonder Sisters.’ As work dried up during the depression years, their mother Ruby Dandridge moved to Hollywood, California and found work in radio and film. The sisters were renamed in Hollywood as ‘The Dandridge Sisters’ and were given opportunities to perform in venues such as the Cotton Club and The Apollo.
Dorothy Dandridge’s first silver screen appearance was a minor role in the Teacher’s Beau (1935). In between 1937 and 1940 she appeared in three films, A Day at the Races (1937) Four Shall Die (1940) –which featured an all black cast and a Marx Brothers feature film.
While all of her early parts were stereotypically African- America roles, her singing ability and stage presence gained her popularity and led to her vocals from films often displayed on juke boxes. In 1954 history was made, as soon after Dandridge signed a six year contract deal with 20th Century Fox she played the leading role in American musical Carmen Jones. This saw her become the third African- American Actress to be nominated for the Academy Award but the first for Best Actress…

We adore Dorothy’s off the shoulder style from her evening looks to casual outfits; below we have created one of her casual looks for the modern woman below. Get the look by wearing tapered trousers or chino peg leg pants and a fitted t- shirt highlighted with a good ol’ vintage scarf for good measure, although the modern twist is the detail in the pants as it should do most of the work ( if you choose to tuck it in).
The Vintage Scarf company provided us with the scarf featured.

Love the Old Hollywood Glamour would you like anyone featured? Let us know below…

How to Pull Of The Belted Dress....

Leila Loves: The Grey Belted Dress| Vintage

There’s something soooo sophisticated about a well tailored grey belted dress isn’t there?

Whether it is worn with no accessories (apart from some killer heels) or neat black accessories to accentuate the look, you will always still ooze total class. Take a leaf out the rather glamorous Victoria Beckham’s book and get your chic on for a lot less!

Sometimes a bit of sophistication is all you need! To get your bit just click here

Get that Celeb Swag for less...

Happy Tuesday Ladies!
We hope you are getting geared up for  next weekend, and you’ve got all your party clobber nearly ready, and if not don’t forget our sale where you can party away in our figure enhancing, diamante Daniela dress and it’s certainly no squeeze at only £17! So why not give yourself that extra sparkle this Friday?
So with the sale in full force, we at Girlondon we’re having a look around at all things weird, wonderful and stylish when we spotted Jessica Simpson wearing, these hot to trot leggings.

Teamed with impressive fur lined boots and an equally foxy fur lined jacket, the Dukes of Hazard star positively puts the ‘ow’ in snow bunny. Get the look for less with our Maritza leggings for just £11 and you can also feel 98 degrees! (See what we did there?)
If you have seen a celebrity look and want to know if you can get it for less, let us know below and we’ll certainly see what we can do.

Make sure you're in the know this Spring...

We have decided to try and forget the current weather by focusing on the bright sunny months to come by focusing on all things to do with spring and summer and that means floaty, frilly and girly! With Über chilled celeb mothers Nicole Richie and Jennifer Garner  setting the example by showing  us how it’s done  throughout last year we should have a pretty good idea of what to do. Here at Leila, not only are we trying to make sure we’re up on the trends but we are in the middle of the craziest sale yet, with up to 71% off (craziness makes us think in odd numbers)
If your item has a pattern as demonstrated below, let the dress speak for itself, black tights and blacks shoes will draw the eyes to most decorated part of the body, just make sure you want attention there, as you are guaranteed to get plenty, and all for the right reasons. For plainer outfits, chunky jewellery will give your outfit a statement; put your stamp on it by experimenting with just how chunky or how bright you can go.
Our model said about wearing this floaty style of dress, ‘The dress  is comfortable, classy and feminine just what a lady needs when she is on the go and wants to looks composed and relaxed.’
We know the spring is just a little bit further so why not get prepared?

Are you getting prepared or are you still hiding from the winter? Let us know!

Darling, What Size is This?

 We at Darling couldn’t wait to get back to tell you about our fantastic winter sale, everything from the Christmas season is now 30% off, so make sure you check it out as now you can party for less as our popular Eloise Dress is now only £42! Now we KNOW you have just had you Christmas holidays, and if ours is anything to go by the last thing may want to see is a tape measure. Then again it IS vintage, and vintage is there to last so you will have more than enough time to get rid of those post- Christmas pounds, then again if you don’t read a few of our tricks and get altering…
So hopefully you should already have the basics on sizing so we thought we would give you just that little bit more on sizing vintage. Once you have got rid of your initial fear of the tape measure here are some more measurements worth remembering.

In our last blog, we mentioned ‘allowing for ease’  to avoid straining fabric and seams, especially in older more delicate garments. We say as a general rule to add two inches everywhere except the shoulders. However, for a more accurate fitting, additions should be made in the following:

Recognise your era
Clothes today rarely serve to highlight natural figures as they often sway towards an empire cut which is either higher or lower than the waistline. Therefore certain decade may have a silhouette that may feel unusual, let’s take for example the old favourite the 1950’s silhouette:

This silhouette can be contrasted with the 60’s pattern which already has leanings towards the empire line cut:

Remember Remember Remember
If you ever consider purchasing a ‘fixer upper’ make you know the following or face a lot man hours wasted in your search for vintage treasure.
1)  How much the garment can be let out or taken in
2)  If the cost of alteration (if you cannot do it yourself), is more than the item purchased. It is not a big deal if it is worthy purchase but if it is a significant amount, it might be worth letting someone else have the opportunity to deal with it.
3)  If old hemlines and seam lines will show upon alteration, it’s like putting a new bandage over an old one, it can be done but it will just defeat the purpose.

For more advice on vintage wear click here