rockabilly lipsy

Last Tuesday I went to the Pixie Lott for Lipsy new launch afterparty at Chinawhites. I really didn't know what kind of approach to take in what to wear, I knew that around 90% of the crowd would be wearing classic Chelsea dress attire, or the bodycon style dress (I was right, btw) and I wanted to stand out a bit, and I just wanted to mainly feel like myself in my own skin. I knew I had an old Lipsy dress from one of if not the first ever Lipsy collection and I knew it would be perfect.



Dress : old school Lipsy (think I paid around £50 for it)
Shoes : Vivienne Westwood for Melissa £98



I really like the overall look, it felt really glam and totally not like my usual party attire at all. I will definitely be embracing this style in the future for posh events (if I ever get to go to anymore haha!) I loved digging out my old Lipsy dress again - I hadn't worn it since I was about 15/16. My mum bought it for me to wear to a friends mum's wedding, and at the time I really didn't like it at all and protested a bit about wearing it. I dug it out again about 3 years later for my Aunts birthday at Butlins - it was a 70s night and I went as Blondie.

l-r, my cousin sophie, my cousins wife anna, my auntie paula, my baby sister, me and my mum (with her eyes closed!!)

So to discover this dress still fits (well only just, it was a struggle getting it over my new hips that have bloomed since I was a teen!) and still suits my style is just an incredible feeling. I love nothing better than revisiting clothes and fall in love with them all over again. I feel very fortunate that apart from a few areas of me 'blossoming' (if you will) my size hasn't really changed much and so I can recycle my old clothes from the nineties all over again. Check the first Lipsy label:





So this is the make up I went for:


Face:
NARS Sheer Glow in Mont Blanc mixed with
MAC Face and Body in Pure White
NARS Orgasm Illuminator
Topshop Blush in Flush
YSL Touche Eclat

Eyes:
Rimmel London Express Liner eyeliner for the cats eye
Bourjois 16hr Kohl Express on the waterline
Covergirl Lash blast mascara

Lips:
Carmex mint tube
All For Eve lipstick in Eve Red

I was so impressed with the staying power of Eve Red, it really stayed put all night. It was really soft and didn't make my lips feel clammy or like I was even wearing lipstick. I think I prefer the formula to MAC's matte lipsticks. The colour was also so vibrant and I was surprised how well I thought it suited my skin tone.

What do you think of my old school Lipsy dress? Do you like the outfit I pieced together?
Love, Zozo xx

a trip to the salon with aussie lusciously light

Oh man, nothing is as good as new hair feels. Especially when your hair is severely heat and colour damaged, a right frizzball and getting you downright in the dumps! I was really in need of some tlc, I mean seriously, you don't know how much of good timing this was for me, I was about ready to hack it all off. I met up with two of my genuine favourite Aussie Angels (well chuffed) - the lovely Kelly from Hair Advice and All Things Nice, and Claire from WaceyStyle and we headed on down to the awesome Tommy Guns salon in Soho.









All three of us are from the Colour Mate Aussie Angel tribe so naturally we all opted for some colour. Kelly decided to go a lot lighter with some blonde highlights and Claire went for a brighter red/orange hybrid shade. I on the other hand had other plans, I wanted pinky purple on the top and a reverse black ombre at the bottom. Fortunately my amazing colourist did such a good job and it was exactly what I wanted!

this image courtesy of aussie

We all had a good chance to relax, talk blogging, hair and just general girly stuff! I love both of these girls and Emma from Aussie so it really felt like a girls afternoon in the salon rather than an event. I've always maintained that i've loved that about Aussie, the relaxed 'friend' feel it has to all their events. I felt like we'd just rang each other up and organised a lovely afternoon - which was just such a great treat in itsself really.

this image courtesy of aussie

Turned out we were in the salon for 4 hours! The time whizzed by. I had a lot of the dead ends and frazzled fringe cut off and felt considerably lighter bouncing down the street back to the tube at the end. My hair had a much needed makeover and it just felt incredible afterwards. The colour is better than I could have imagined, it worked so well on my hair and in the light is so pigmented! You can see in these photos how glossy the Aussie Serum made my hair!

 





I had an amazing time, I really want to thank Aussie for constantly delivering wonderful afternoons and evenings that the Angels really enjoy. I can't believe how generous they were in letting me run loose with hair dye (never a wise choice!) and i'm so so grateful for them letting me lighten up my hair!
What do you think of my new style? How gorgeous do Kelly and Claire look? Seriously go and check their blogs, they're absolute gems and I love both their blogs respectively. Couldn't have picked a better afternoon, left the salon with a big grin on my face. Oh and i'd really recommend Tommy Guns, too.
Love Zozo xxx

22.05.11-29.05.11

I really like these posts that most blogs seem to feature so I thought i'd start a little week in photos blog. I'm gonna try and keep it up but we'll see how that goes, Sunday is usually a blackout blogging day for me as i'm just so tired. This morning I woke up with the most hideous headache, think it may have been a migraine. Right now i'm dosed up to the nines on all sorts and feel a bit pecular, but much less headachey. Lying in bed finally. Rubbish end to what has been a great week!

 

1/ Last Sunday Del and I took a walk over Bushy Park, starting down the river and walking all the way up to Hampton Court. It was really lovely just to do something for free and hang out together walking in the sunshine. Del got rather taken by the little boats and promised he'd rent out one when he got some money together.

2/ Another week, another Frank Turner show. This time was Frank, Ben Marwood and Jonah Matranga on Thursday at New Slang in Kingston. If you lot remember well, I ran a competition giving away two tickets to this show, and I met up with the lovely Kirsti and Rich who accompanied us for the night. I took them to meet Frank and much fun times were had all round. It was Del's first New Slang since he used to work there around 2 years ago, and not only did everyone know him but he had an amazing time. New Slang was kinda the reason why we got together so, was nice.

3. I painted my nails leopard print and Hello Kitty, following the tutorial over at Do Not Refreeze.

4. A really grainy photo of David Hasslehoff and his daughters at the Pixie Lott for Lipsy Launch afterparty at Chinawhite on Tuesday. Among them were JLS, The Saturdays, Matt Cardle, Tinchy Stryder, TOWIE cast and others! We had much fun but also felt a bit out of place as it's totally not the kind of thing Del and I would usually go to!

5. Silly faces and happy tummies at Wagamamas on Friday - an after payday treat! 

Hope you enjoyed the photos of my week. 

Love Zozo xx

hungry dog? try pippin's pantry! comment to win some too!

No, this isn't a sponsored post or a favour, just incase you were about to question! My old school chum EB has set up a little online store for tasty homemade doggy treats that look quite frankly, delicious. I stumbled across it having a nose around Facebook, as you do, and asked if it'd be alright to feature her store on my blog, as i've not seen many homemade doggy snack treat stores floating around the internet. She kindly obliged and also offered one of my readers the chance to win a bag of dog treats to sample! How cool! Now I don't own a dog myself, but I love those furry pals, and just thought this was adorable.

Pippin is EB's dog and as a rescue dog he felt particularly keen to spread the word, and he actually sent me some lovely words to say to you all!

Hi, I’m Pippin and I love tasty treats - but without all those nasty preservatives and un-natural ingredients you find in most dog treats in the shops. That’s why I started making my own biscuits at home – they are so yummy I thought I’d make them available to everyone! As a rescue dog I want to do something good with my biscuits so I am donating a percentage of the profits to Friends of Animals League to support all the good work they do. All the biscuits are homemade with natural ingredients – even your owners could eat them, although they may need stronger teeth!

I hope you enjoy my tasty treats,

Keep Crunching!

Pippin x 

I think it's so lovely that a chunk of the profit is going to charity, what a great idea. Not only can you buy from Pippin's Pantry online here (for only £2 a bag!) you can also catch them tomorrow at the Greenwich Market from 8:30am, so if you live local or fancy a little trip down to pick up the fresh treats i'd recommend stopping by! Also be sure to say Zoe sent you, EB is a wonderful girl (who I do miss dearly!).

If you want to purchase online, be sure to state if they are gifts or not, cause EB will even customise them with gift tags addressed to your dog or the giftees dog. If not just tell them your dog's name and they will address them to the dog!


Now, if you wanna get your hands on some tasty treats for your dog, here's all you gotta do! Leave a comment on this post telling me the name and breed of your dog (include a picture if you like, i love looking at pets!), and what treats you would like to give him/her - choices are between Honey biscuits or A crunchy cure for wind. Leave your email address too so I can contact you and the competition closes a week today - Tuesday 31st May.

I love supporting indie companies and not only is EB a lovely girl who's given a lot of her life to helping rescue dogs and cats, I think this is a seriously cute idea to spoil your dog. It's even better as EB - I mean, Pippin ;) - handbakes all the biscuits in their kitchen and sends them out fresh for your doggy!

If you purchase do let me know and don't forget to comment to win a bag!
love, Zozo xxx

nail trend - diy ombre nails

I love ombre hair. I really do. I know it's bang on trend and if you're not rocking Cheryl red chances are you're rocking ombre but I love it. Think it suits so many girls and is a wicked hairstyle. I've seen ombre nails on a lot of blogs recently (i'll pop links to my faves from around the net at the bottom, do get in touch if yours hasn't been included and i'll stick it in) and wanted to give them a go for myself! Only thing was, I couldn't decide between pink or blue ombre..

Here are the nail varnishes I used:

Blue hand:

 left to right : Barry M in Navy, Nails Inc in Denim, GOSH in Lavender Love, Barry M in Blueberry Ice Cream, Barry M in Blue Moon

and the polishes I used to create the pink hand:

left to right: Barry M (but the name has scratched off, ahh) MUA, Barry M Bright Pink, BeautyUK nails in Pink Explosion and Barry M in Raspberry.

I love the effect it has, I think next time I do it I wont paint my nails in two colours (damn you indecisive mind!) and just stick to one. I love the way it looks, quite a few people have been marvelling at my nails while i've been on the till at work. Love how easily the trend can be juxtaposed from clothes to hair to nails. Sweet!

Here are some of my fave nail ombre trend posts:
nicolavc86
running on happiness

I actually commented on one on a blog the other day then promptly forgot whos it was, if you remember please tweet me when this goes live and i'll add it on, also if you have one I wanna see!

What do you think of ombre nails? Will you be rocking this trend? Be sure to show me if you do!
Love, Zozo xxx

schoolgirl charm

It wasn't until I pieced this outfit together that I realised how schoolgirlish it looked. I still really like the way the clothes sit together and it's a fairly individual way of wearing them all. The thing with this skirt is it's so hard to wear nicely without making it look frumpy on my figure. This cardigan is one of my favourites ever and as always i've had to include a bit of bargain H&M! You know me all too well..



Skirt: American Apparel £25
Cardi: old Gap
Bandeau top: H&M £3.99
Shoes: Next £18
Bag: Primark £8



I guess I was going for the Chanel cardi look with a kinda English charm, but somewhere along the line it's gone totally school girl but y'know what? I don't mind. Everything is really soft and comfortable, easy to throw on, and I think it's a sweet daytime look.



What do you think of me returning to my school days? Do you like this outfit? How would you wear the AA skirt? Do let me know! Happy Sunday all.
Love Zozo xx

take makeup from day to night - feat. brand new rimmel london mascara

It's Friday, Friday, gettin' down on Friday! Now regular readers will know how busy I am 99% of the time, and I cannot even begin to tell you how many times i've got ready in the staff toilet at work for a big night out, shoving all my clothes and big heels in my locker frantically in about 10 minutes! I've genuinely even gone as far as bringing straighteners, two pairs of shoes, a box of make up, all sorts - just to make sure I feel happy in my own skin before venturing to a bar.

What's great is when you can find a product that will help you easily take your look from day to night in the easiest way possible. I've got a few items of clothing like this, that I wear dressed down in the day and simply plonk on a belt or a hair bow to make my outfit ready for a party. These are the little things that us beauty concious girls make an effort to distinguish the difference from daytime to party time, and I think they are crucial in helping to define personality.





Now, I got my hands on the Rimmel Mascara 2 in 1 Day to Night mascara, which is this nifty little thing that allows you to control flow between Length and Volume. Let's see more...





heres the 'length' wand:






here's the 'volume' wand:






It's like crazy David Blaine magic! I gotta say one thing here quickly, don't pull out the Volume wand and then the Length wand while they're not in the tube as it spills mascara gloop everywhere and makes the wand go all clammy and full of mascara. So not good, but thats what you get for being a curious Zozo I guess!

So, how does this help with the issue I was talking about earlier? I'm going to show you how to use the mascara to help take your makeup from a soft flattering daytime look to a vampy striking bold look - perfect for that Friday night out on the town straight from the office (wine concealed in handbag is optional!)

Here's my soft daytime look:
all i've used is the 'length' wand on my eyelashes








and a few hours later, here's an updated version of the same look:
this time i've added the 'volume' wand on top of the length i did earlier










How did the mascara perform? Well I found the best way of using it was to just simply use the length wand in the daytime, for that spread out, soft lash look you can see in the first photo. I then didn't remove it just added volume to it later on using the second volume wand.

I found the mascara really easy to use, and applied well. It dries quite slowly so be careful when blinking! The best way that I found to use it was always to apply the length first then the volume, but I did try the other way around and it worked just as well, except just clumped up a little bit. What I loved was that the length mascara wand was just the right size to do my bottom lashes evenly and not too clumpy. I would recommend this mascara and I'm surprised as I haven't gotten along too well with mascaras by Rimmel before but I liked the way this one applied. It's not the most dramatic mascara, if you're after big effects you wont get them, but it does provide an easy way to distinguish between daytime looks and nightime looks with an easy wand application.

Just a little FYI in the second photo on my eyes is MAC eyeshadows in Shroom, Sable and NARS Mekong, and my lips are MAC Snob!

What do you think of Rimmels mascaras? Have you tried this one? Do you have any day to night routines with products?
Love, Zozo xxx




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