Perfume Heaven - Style Over Substance?

So today I want to talk about perfume basically because I was lucky enough to receive perfume from three of my favourite brands, Orla Kiely, Marc Jacobs and Lush this Christmas.The funny thing is these three perfume brands perfectly sum up the three strands that make up my personal style - classic, fun and hippy chic.

In the spirit of sharing my passion about these perfume brands and my fetish for glass I dreamt up my own mini campaign inspired by my bottle of Orla Kiely perfume. I'm really into toffee and caramel tones at the moment and although I find it a difficult colour to wear I love wearing accessories in that tone, as you can see from the image above.The Orla Kiely design is so chic and sweet with it's toffee coloured flower shaped stopper and long glass bottle.

 I immediately fell for it's vintage charm, it has a real Art Deco feel, I can imagine Daisy from The Great Gatsby using it on her dressing table. Featured in my campaign is a vintage silk scarf, a favourite necklace I was given and a sweet vintage family of china horses I inherited  recently, I loved the idea that the mare and her two foals stumble across the bottle whilst on a walk and are curious about what it is. I arranged the bottle on the background of my silk scarf to look like  a fallen log.

My New Years Resolutions For 2013

Courtesy Of Lomography 

    

Happy 2013! I thought I would share my alternative New Years Resolutions with you -

  My New Year Resolutions for 2013 

1.Be utterly fabulous

2.Eat whatever is in the cupboard till it runs out

3.Master the art of the new grunge look for 2013 it's far easier than digitally remastering my bed head hair in mornings.

4.Only do one thing at a time it's far easier.

5.Accept that odd socks are a sign of personality and wear them with pride.

6.Create my own signature perfume.

7. Create my own signature walk.

8.Dance for two minutes on the hour when working from home.

Have you made any New Years resolutions?

Cheats Guide To Getting Party Ready

image courtesy of Agogo Fashion

Happy New Year lovely Fashionable Frolickers! I'm celebrating with a seafood supper with friends what are you up to, more importantly what are you planning on wearing? If your still in a panic about putting your look together try my cheats guide to getting Party ready!!

Get Oriental On Your #Sale Shopping Radar

Daisy Thomas - Tiger Tiger bag

Catwalk images - courtesy of Breaking Trends

Catwalk images - courtesy of Breaking Trends

Three reasons why you might want to get oriental on your sale shopping radar right now - firstly it's one of the easiest fashion trends to wear this spring, come on any item of clothing that does not require a single button or zip to fasten it, just the quick satisfying yank of a good looking satin obi belt makes for easy post Christmas pie pudding and the rest, dressing, button straining is not such a good look so that's my first reason anyway.

 I'm all for opulent dressing for both daytime and evening so buying into a long or short Kimono jacket is all good and the perfect second reason in my opinion for buying into this spring13 tend now whilst it's garnished with those juicy red sale reduction tags.

 The third reason is very simple there is still time to enter the My Passport To Style handbag giveaway and win one of Daisy Thomas's beautiful hand crafted handbags with an oriental flavour worth a cool £55.00 just make sure you leave your email address before the 7th of January 2013.

Although I admit the third reason is not strictly a sale it's a steal when all you need to do is click your mouse a few times and input your email here to win one of Daisys bags. Check out my round up of my favourite oriental pieces from the ASOS sale! What do you think of the S/S 2013 trend for oriental will you be adding to any existing oriental pieces, are you a fan of the obi belt?

*All images courtesy of ASOS 

    

It's Nearly That Time Again

 Happy Christmas! Thanks For Stopping By To Read My Passport To Style This Year.Wishing All You Fashionable Frolickers A Christmas That Melts Your Heart Not Your Snowman. xxx

Christmas Gift Wrapping In The Land Of Oz

It seems there are quite a few people in cyberspace who have been gripped by Oz fever and I'm one of them! I usually like modern Christmas decor everything from black fir trees to dreaming up a Christmas tree made from a wire mannequin, nothing quirky has been out of bounds, but this year I wanted to create something a little more traditional as well as fun, so when I came across this beautiful craft book with tutorials centred around OZ I was a very happy munchkin!

Avoid Dodgy Socks - Last Minute Gift Guide For Men

  I'm a bit of a sucker for gadgets and wizardry when it comes to Christmas gifts, so I would fit the mould for a gift buyer for men perfectly, but there is a but, I don't like gifts that have extra functionality unless they also offer quality, despite what we sometimes think at this time of year, men don't want a pair of funny socks unless they are made from a superior blend of fibres that will allow their feet to breathe. So first up on my last minute Christmas gift guide for men has to be a pair of Adidas Originals Superstar.The number of men that I know that are always up for a bit of Adidas Originals is well, a lot, so when I came across this slick very wearable pair in grey with the high shine of patent grey stripes running across them amongst JD Sports  range of trainers I thought they had it all, on closer inspection there was still more to come, the trainers come in four other colours and also, believe it or not, with 4 sets of inter-changeable stripes and two pairs of laces - yes you heard me right men can customize these trainers as and when the mood takes them at £65.00 I think that makes this pair of Adidas Originals Superstar a pretty solid gift choice.

 Bath time would not be bath time without a little ducky, but how about a rubber ducky that acts like a floating speaker whilst the egg shaped transmitter works its magic, I thought you might like that one - and the speaker does work it's been tested by a source close to me, ooh have you heard me, put me in a mile radius of gadgets and I think I'm Moneypenny at HQ! You can get hold of the Audio Duck for £14.99 from WHSmiths.

 For men that like to cook, in my opinion cooking doesn't get much more macho or fun than blowing things up or using dry ice, chemistry boff and chef Heston shows you how, oh and how to make the perfect cheese toastie and his famous triple cooked chips,his book Heston Blumenthal At Home from Waterstones is priced at £22.50. Follow that up swiftly with the perfect way to make an expresso with the De'Longhi Icona Espresso Coffee Machine in manly aubergine at £169.95 from John Lewis if your feeling generous.

 So finally we come to what I believe are the ultimate in Christmas socks made from lisle yarn in black and white with a tiny white skull motif, they are pretty sharp, priced £16.00 from The Kooples.

 *This is a sponsored post*

#Gwen Stefani | My Christmas Party Inspiration!

 

 

 Most of you probably know by now that I'm a huge Gwen Stefani fan, I love the way she manages to combine a rock attitude with her unique elegance and grace, I was pretty chuffed (northern expression) to see her on the cover of January Vogue, she looks amazing and has given me a bit of a leg up when it comes to deciding what I might wear for the Christmas party.I really like the clever way she has been made to look like she is wearing a large broad brimmed black hat, which frames her platinum hair like a halo and helps her makeup really pop!We have seen Gwen Stefani on many magazine covers over the years, see some of my favourites below, but I think this look really captures Gwens personality perfectly. She's got me reaching for my red lipstick as we speak!  

 

 

 

 

Celebrating Reaching 600 Posts #Giveaway!

Hi Gals, I'm celebrating reaching 600 posts here on My Passport To Style this December 2012, thanks to all UK and overseas followers for your lovely comments and for taking the time to read my blog posts and for inspiring me to write regularly about fashion, style and everything in between.To thank-you I have teamed up with Daisy Thomas accessory genius to give you the opportunity to win one of her unique hand crafted digital print handbags.This giveaway ends on January 7th 2013, so you still have time to enter, TO FIND OUT HOW TO WIN the spectacular Eye For An Eye bag excuse the pun! Click here and good luck!!    

* All images of bag featured here courtesy of Daisy Thomas image of snowman sourced via google images 

Daisy Thomas Handbag Giveaway

Tiger Tiger

Cosmic Clash

An Eye For An Eye

An Eye For An Eye emerald and gold key panel detailing 

I'm  really excited to announce a very special Christmas giveaway open to all My Passport To Style followers UK and overseas! If your all about luxury at Christmas with a good measure of cool thrown in, you will fall as hard as I did for Daisy Thomas's exquisite digitally printed handbags, inspired by one of the most luxe items on the planet the famous Fabergé eggs which were first created in Russia and later owned by Royalty. Daisy's handbags come in three colourful designs, An Eye For An Eye,Tiger Tiger and Cosmic Clash.

 Made from durable canvas each handbag features a long slinky chain handle and a very wearable classic shape. I like the fact that Daisy has considered the fun factor in her designs, most of us like to constantly change up our style and reinvent our look, so each panel of her handbags features a completely different print and design.

Her bold bag designs showcase a candy box of colours and dramatic fairy tale images from prowling tigers to floating golden keys.They all have a gold base made from faux leather and you can even customise your bag by choosing between a purple or lime green lining. Cost £55.00. I think Daisy Thomas bags will still be working hard post Christmas party season in the wardrobes of boho babes,oriental princess and of course at the chicest festivals next year.

Want to win Daisy Thomas's amazing Eye For An Eye Bag? Leave a comment below. This giveaway ends on January 7th 2013 at 10pm (GMT) and I will randomly select and announce a winner here on January 8th 2013

To increase your chances of winning the Eye For An Eye bag, you can gain one additional entry for doing each of the following:

• tweeting about this giveaway 
• blogging about it
• following/subscribing to My Passport To Style blog/twitter

For the first two, please leave a comment below with the link to your tweet or blog post.
*This giveaway is open to readers worldwide.*

*Please note I received a Daisy Thomas handbag as compensation for featuring this giveaway, all words and views expressed are my own and all images featured belong to Daisy Thomas.