Outfit of the evening & Zucca Plymouth mini restuarant review

Hey guys, Sophie here J

I’ve been more ill this weekend than I think I've ever been in my life! I've ached all over, had the worst headache, my face felt like it had been punched repeatedly, my nose can no longer be used for breathing, etc. etc. So I’ve spent most of my weekend lying in the same position trying to keep living. Today I have finally summoned the strength to sit upright and type so I thought I’d come and do a little bit of blogging to cheer me up. I promise this post isn’t just a tale of woe, I’ve got a little outfit of the evening for you.

This was from a few weeks ago when my boyfriend and I had a little dinner date. Usually we’ll just go to the cinema or for a pub meal or a Nandos or something, so as we hadn’t done it in a while, we decided to go all out and really dress up and pick a nice place to stuff ourselves silly. As you may have guessed I did not pick appropriate attire for this.

My dress is from Warehouse and was a gift from my dad quite a while ago now. Warehouse may be my all time favourite place for occasion dresses – I would never spend hundreds of pounds on a dress and the Warehouse ones are still quite pricey but justifiably so for birthdays and such as they’re excellent quality and always feel so special. The one I’m wearing here is a silvery metallic grey, almost like a shiny gunmetal colour which is brilliant as metallics are always popping back on trend for most seasons. The neck and chest area is made up of dark embroidered beads (none of which have fallen off) on black lace, which is repeated around the waist, and there’s a bow at the back in the silver colour. Like most Warehouse dresses, it fits like a dream (at least it does before your 5 course meal!), it’s a lovely length and there’s a lovely scoop type thing going on at the back. I think every girl deserves a pretty, sparkly, go-to dress like this for when you want to feel extra special. As the dress was the star of the show I paired it with my very pretty (very high) nude wedges and matching nude clutch (on the piano seat) from New Look and kept jewellery to a minimum with a few bracelets, stud earrings and my watch.

I must apologise for the pictures here (or lack of). I did take loads but during the process of transferring them from my camera card to my laptop they got deleted by forces unknown L These are the only two that survived!

 

  My boyfriend donned a pair of dark brown suit trousers and a white shirt for the occasion, with some shoes and a grey tailored coat. We’d asked around our friends for recommendations on a good restaurant, I wanted to go to the Barbican which is one of my favourite parts of Plymouth. In the end we chose Zucca as a few people had good things to say about it. I’m not entirely sure whether Zucca is on the Barbican itself or the harbour next to it, but we sat by the window and had lovely views of the boats on the water regardless. The restaurant itself is very well presented, it’s quite snazzy looking but there’s a lovely atmosphere as the staff were so friendly. There weren’t many people in, just a few other tables and although I usually prefer restaurants to be a little busier, I don’t feel like this hurt the vibe at all. It also meant that the staff were extra attentive to us and we were never left with an empty glass or finished plate. The food was amazing, all really well presented and delicious, and the portions were huge! We ordered appetisers, starters, main courses and a desert not realising that they give you breads to start off with too, so we had gained about twice our body weights before we left and ended up taking most of our mains home with us. All in all we had such a lovely evening, we couldn’t fault the service at all and the food was delicious, I strongly recommend Zucca if you’re ever in Plymouth wondering where to go for a meal.

Click here for more information about Zucca and menus and such. 

 I think that’s all folks, thank you for reading! I was going to do a more detailed restaurant review but I didn’t know how interesting that would be and I forgot to take pictures of the food L (too busy eating it!) but I hoped you enjoyed reading anyway. Do let me know if you’ve been to any nice restaurants lately as we’re always looking for new places to go!

Love you lots

Sophie xxx

Something for the weekend

Hey guys, here’s a look I put together to meet some friends I hadn’t seen in far too long for Bella Italia and drinks.

Urban Decay Book of Shadows IV

I did a goldy browny smokey eye using my Urban Decay Book of Shadows IV, this was originally around £40 from Urban Decay at Debenhams - as far as I know they don’t carry it anymore but you might be able to find one knocking around Ebay or somewhere! 

I used Baked, Bust, Sin and Midnight rodeo:

Swatches of Urban Decay eyeshadows in Baked, Bust, Sin and Midnight Rodeo (Left to right)

Baked is a gorgeous shimmery, brassy gold with orangey undertones, ‘Bust’ is a really soft, satin medium brown with pinky-purpley undertones, ‘Sin’ is a beautiful soft shimmery rose pink, and ‘Midnight rodeo’ is a shimmery medium brown with glitter particles.

Here’s what I did:

• Smoothed some Urban Decay Primer Potion (in Original - £14.50) over my eyelid with my finger, as I find that UD shadows work best and last longer with their primer underneath.
• Packed Baked onto my lid with a packing brush, and really layered it up to get a strong colour, all the way from my lash line to my socket line.

• Blended Bust into the outer corners and about half way across my socket line with my trusty Mac 239, winging it out slightly.
•  Took some Bust underneath the eye to add some definition.
• Tight-lined my upper waterline in a black eyeliner (Smolder by Mac - £14.00) and a really thin line of a dark brown kohl (Black Brown by Elizabeth Arden) on the top lash line, which I really smudged out and blended up into the shadow.
• If I could find my nude kohl pencil I would have used this on my lower waterline!
• Finished off with plenty of black mascara (Maybelline The Falsies Black Drama - £7.99)
• and just a touch of Urban Decay Sin as a highlight on my brow bone, blended down into the shadow underneath with a clean 239.

And here’s my face!

I went for my current favourite pinky nude lipstick – Hue by Mac (£14.00) and topped off with a super thick, light-reflecting gloss:  Angel Food Cake by Bare Minerals, as it’s so wet looking and glossy (if a little sticky!).

I wore one of my new black shift dresses (as discussed here) with lacy shoulder panels and ¾ sleeves.

I let my hair fall loose in my usual messy natural curls and finished off the look with my trusty black heeled shoe boots (New Look).

Thanks for reading guys I hope you liked the look! What are your plans for the weekend??

Sophie xxx

Outfit of the night - little black dress x

Happy New Year everyone!!

I'm back at my home in Plymouth now after one of the best Christmases ever in the West Midlands with my friends and family! I spent far too much time and money in Costa, at the pub, shopping, eating and drinking but I'm certainly not complaining - hope you all loved it as much as I did. 

 

 

 I'm also back at uni as of today, although I'm yet to get back into the swing of things as I think I spent more time asleep during my lectures than I did awake. Never a good start when you're sat directly infront of the lecturer and keep snorting yourself awake as your elbow slips off the desk... I also have deadlines this week and next (boo) but I thought I'd slip a cheeky outfit post in for you x

The flash caught my eyes in a really interesting way here(!) and no amount of editing will get rid of it, sorry! I also had my eyes closed in pretty much every single other picture I had taken, if you can ignore my face I think this one shows the shape of the dress quite well. I wore this outfit on New Year's Eve, not too in your face but you can't go wrong with a little black dress. Mine was £15 from Topshop a while ago, it has a vest style top, really tight on the waist and then flares out skater-style at the bottom, loved it so much I also have it in red.  I found this  one from Boohoo, pretty much exactly the same (although mine doesn't have a belt), even cheaper (£12!), and available in way too many colours to choose from. 

Maya Scoop Neck Skater Dress, £12, Boohoo.com

My shoes were a recent investment from New Look (£49.99), as discussed here. 

 These ones on the website are almost identical, though the heel is a bit different to mine and they've crept up to £64.99 :(

Blink Black Platform Lace Up Shoeboots, £64.99, New Look.

I was only off to my local pub so I didn't want to be over-dressed, I threw on a leather jacket similar to this one to relax it all a bit:

Kept my accessories simple with a rose gold watch from Michael Kors (21st birthday gift) and my lacy black clutch was also a gift.

Welllll thank you for reading, back to essay writing for me! Or maybe I should bake some cupcakes first, priorities.

 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

Just a Quickie x

Hello sweethearts, just a real quick one.

I didn't like this photo at first but I got such a positive response on Instagram (@homezx) that I thought I'd share it with you guys too, here I am about to go out for Christmas Eve drinks! I think the red gives this look a nice festive feel for the holiday period, and I stick to black so often that seeing me in a bright colour is a rarity! 

My red skater dress has a vest top and was £15 from Topshop a while ago. I'm afraid it's no longer available :( BUT I have found you this incredible bargain to make up for it. This is the Asos skater dress in 'Bengaline', this one's less muted and a bit brighter than mine but it's such a pretty shade, I love the sweetheart neckline and the detail on the back gives it an extra something special! An absolute steal at just £10, and also available in black or light blue - go go go!

My faux leather jacket was £15 from a New Look sale a while ago, however it's very similar to this one here for £21:

 

And my shoe boots were also from New Look a while ago, I think between £20 and £30. They're suede effect and this picture doesn't show too well but they have gunmetal studs around the top, they're really similar to these for £19.99!

 

My lipstick is Russian Red by Mac (£14 from most department stores) used over Brick lip pencil, also from Mac (£11.50 from most department stores).

  

My tights are 80 denier black ones, cheap as chips from Primark or try a quick Ebay search for something like these.

I part blow-dried my hair so it was still a little damp, and pinned it up in a twisted bun for a few hours to dry. Before going out I took it down and sprayed with plenty of Elnett Flexible Hold Hairpray ( the white one). Letting my hair dry like this always gives me quite a natural looking curl and plenty of volume without using too many products! The curl usually lasts for a good few days as well, let me know if you'd like to see a step by step post?

Hope you liked the outfit! Thanks a bunch for reading.

Loves xxx

Sophie x

 

The Birds

 I absolutely love this bird dress from Primark, I got it in the sale for £5 which is such a bargain! It fits beautifully around the waist as it's really fitted but flattering at the same time. The style is quite 50s as the skirt really flows out. I'm really surprised (and impressed!) with the growing quality of Primark clothes, I know Im biased as I work there but I've bought so many things from there recently.

Teamed mine with a little dreamcatcher (I have many of these) which our Sophie bought me. This dress would also go lovely with some tan heels, to accompany the colour of the birds and a little clutch bag but I decided to make it more of a daytime look with my Docs. Layer it up with a black cardigan and a denim jacket to go out in and don't forgot the woolen tights in this weather!

    

Dress- Primark

Necklace- Gift 

Shoes- Office 

xxx