Getting Back to Writing (and myself)

*VOMIT*

Apologies all for that cringe inducing and self indulgent title - but believe me it's about to get worse (or maybe just a little more honest)! For the longest time I have been meaning to get back onto my faithful old wildflowers blog (I thought about creating something new but that would take far too much effort), so this is me just jotting down a quick hello and pushing myself into writing something down.

Like I say I have been meaning to get back to writing for ages, and I think what has been stopping me was the constant, nagging, self doubting thought - 'who cares what I have to say?'. Well, in fact, I have come to the fairly easy realisation that I'm probably right! I'm not saying anything new or ground breaking or poignant and really none of this is very important to anyone except one person - myself. (*Double vomit*)

Sure, maybe my musing and ramblings are interesting to my parents and some of my more dedicated pals but really the person that this is most important to is me. I won't go into it too much, but in recent years I have felt that I have lost some of myself in some way - I don't write for fun any more, I don't have the same level of obsessive interests that I used to and some of my curiosity seems to have dwindled.

Something that I think may have contributed to this is my entry into the 'adult world' and chats with friends that graduated from uni around the same time as me have gone some way to confirm this. I'm more worried these days, more confused about what I want from life and more self critical and quite honestly when I have time off from work I want just want to decompress by slubbing on the sofa watching Netflix or going out and have fun getting drunk! The main effect of all this is that I think I've probably just become a little unfocused and listless - too busy just trying to be a functioning grown up to think about developing myself or where I am going in my life.

That's why as a little exercise in self-development and mental well being I have decided it's time to stop making excuses and get back to writing, and maybe back to a little missing bit of myself in the process. The posts might not be regular, or consistent, or even very interesting, but this is something that I really want to do - as practice for my prospective future career and just to make myself FEEL GOOD!

Hopefully see you soon,

Daisy

Testing the Trends - Lipstick Eeeeverywhere

Hello, 'tis I and I'm back to put another trend to the test! This time I'm going to be experimenting with a look that's been happening on the catwalk for a while and is just beginning to creep its way into the mainstream; using one product/colour all over, as lipstick, blush and eyeshadow, to create a fresh and flushed look.

Lipstick/blush combos have been around for a while now but somehow they have managed to start sneaky sneaking up onto the eyelids as well. With brown toned lipsticks and blush/berry eyeshadows becoming ever more popular, however, it's actually not too hard to see how this strange merging has happened. We've all seen those memes about 30 minute long beauty tutorials that use 20+ products, all in the name of getting that perfect 'natural' make-up - perhaps one product everywhere is the answer?

Well, we're about to find out kids. I am going to attempt to create this look for myself using lipstick alone. I've seen a number of articles offering this as a top 'beauty hack' so I'm very intrigued to see what I will actually look like with lipstick smeared all over my face (on purpose this time and not as a result of a drunk tongue-sandwich at my first-year winter ball).

The Inspiration

The 'Everything Stick' at Topshop

Full on flush at Vivienne Westwood

Kat Dennings rocking some subtle all-over colour 

...aaand not so subtle at Anthony Vacarello

The Test

I went for this lipstick by Kiko as it's a nice browny-pinky-brick sort of shade that I thought would work well across my whole face. I simply applied my base as usual, smudged the lipstick with my finger across my lids, cheeks and finally my lips and then finished off with a lick of mascara. Here are the results...

The Verdict

I have to say I actually really like it. The pictures aren't the best quality but IRL i feel like a kind of glowy, soft, Botticelli chick. Plus this took me all of five minutes! So it may not be the most polished look but for a quick, fresh, everyday spring look I'm pretty sold, plus if you wanted you could easily ramp this up with liner, highlight and brows (I can only apologise for mine) and make it into more of a full-on make-up a-la Kat Dennings in the photo above. I think all in all I'm just impressed I don't look like I have pink-eye and would definitely recommend playing around with this trend at home!

Hope you liked, see you next time...

Daisy

Culture Vulture - Berlin, Germany

Guten abend freunde! As my pals on facebook may already know, I recently took a 5-day-long trip to the German capital, Berlin (Okay, I have been photo spamming - but I haven't been abroad in 4 years, so gimme a break!). Instead of providing a standard play-by-play of my holiday I thought I'd do something a little different and blog a bit about my observations on Berlin culture.

Now, don't go expecting any deep, social, psychological commentary here - these are just the things that really struck me about Berlin life that I thought would be fun to share! Sooo if you're insterested, here is ein bisschen taste of life in Berlin! :)

#1 The Germans fucking love baked goods

As beautiful and poignant and gritty and vibrant as the things I saw in Berlin were, perhaps my biggest takeaway was the German love of the humble bakery. There is honestly a bakery on every single street, sometimes more, from national chains to local independently owned shops, there are bakeries as far as the eye can see. Just walking around the districts or taking the U-bahn, at any given time of day every second person you see will have a little brown paper bag filled with some sort of tasty baked goodness - in the morning mostly pastry and in the afternoon/evening mostly bread (or brot in deutsch). Needless to say we dived into this particular part of German life with gusto and had a beautiful, carb filled holiday!! 

A blurry pretzel on the go

#2 Graffiti is a city-wide pastime

Of course Berlin is famous for it's amazing street art - East Side Gallery say no more - but I didn't realise the extant to which the city is absolutely covered in the stuff. I really seemed like there wasn't a single plain space left! You might think this might make for a bit of an ugly landscape but in my view (and I think the general consensus of the people of Berlin) it's really very beautiful. Unlike in Britain even the less artful examples don't really feel like vandalism and are not treated as such, with whole shops in the trendier districts entirely devoted to spray paint and face masks. The overall effect is a big colouful, citywide collage of graffiti - from insane murals to political statements to the slightly less impressive 'Hans woz ere 2k13'.

A full spray paint array at an unprotected section of The East Side Gallery

#3 The not-so-distant past definitely lingers 

Berlin may have one of the most turbulent 20th century histories of any city in the world - and this is not something that will escape your notice if you visit. Between the great economic crash, the rise of Hitler and the Nazi's, their defeat in WW2, subsequent brutal division and the fall of that great divide the Berlin Wall, Berlin has seen some serious turmoil over the past 100 years. Whilst in previous years this hurt and turmoil had (somewhat understandably) been pushed to the background of the City's collective memory, in modern Berlin it's recognised, commemorated and memorialised. With a reminder of Berlin's dark past around every corner, Berlin in 2016 does an amazing job of not only acknowledging this past, but fully attempting to educate anyone who visits. Everything is very much laid out in the open, from life in the Cold war at the DDR museum and Wall memorials, to the tragic persecution of Europe's Jews at the chilling Holocaust Memorial and information center. By being so open about its less than ideal history, the city today allows you to observe, reflect and (crucially) then celebrate the amazing city it has since become!

A striking image of a Nazi-era couple on holiday from The Topography of Terror - the museum that sits on the grounds of the former Nazi SS headquarters.

#4 They either spoke perfect English, or not a lick!

When interacting with the local Berliners I really found the language situation was one of these two extremes. Now, in an attempt to be a good citizen of the world and not look like too much of a clueless tourist, I with my 'B' at German GCSE tried my best to sprechen die Deutsch! Because of the aforementioned extremes this went down one of two ways; in the central tourist heavy areas they would hear my shaky attempt at the German language, maybe snicker a bit and proceed to speak to me in flawless English (doh!) or further out (where English suddenly was not an option) they miraculously understood me and we had a sort-of conversation, probably about what type of bread I wanted and how much of it (lots, please)! While it was nice in some places to rely on European multilingualism and speak in English, it did also really feel good to put that GCSE to good use and have some successful conversations auf deutsch!

The smug face of someone who ordered their croissant in German

Well, that's all for now guys. I could probably blab on some more but I know there's nothing worse than someone harping on about a trip you didn't go on! Hope you enjoyed this little window into Berlin life and culture and if you are ever considering going - do it!!!

Danke Schoen for reading!

Daisy

Guess Who's Back...

Daisy's back, tell a friend!! Hello all tis I, back blogging after an almost six month absence - did you miss me?! Duh, of course you did. 

Quick update - since I last blogged I have become a real adult with a job AND about a month ago me and my young sweetheart Hayden moved to Leeds! Since we now finally have Wifi set up and I was itching to have a creative outlet again, I thought there was no excuse to not start up Wildflowers once more. 

I've planned lots of fun content to write about, from fashion and style to music and hopefully some more spontaneous and fun stuff about whatever I think people might enjoy (recipes, DIYs, and any other manner of #crazy stuff - I'm wild like that). So, if you fancy, keep checking in and read whatever crap I happen to be waffling on about - it's going to be fuuuuun! 

Welcome back, I'll see you very soon, 

Daisy xxx

At the Movies - Best Big Sisters

'At the Movies' is a new feature to wildflowers where we showcase some of our favourite fashion moments from (you guessed it) the movies! This week its all about the most sartorially gifted, always cool, older sisters! They may not always be the stars of the show but they certainly know how to steal it, thriving on activities such as listening to way-too-cool-for-you bands, experimenting with veganism, sneaking out to get their belly buttons pierced and looking generally bomb-af in everything they wear.

1. Jeannie Bueller - 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'

            

If I ever get this good at layering I will consider my life a success. I mean, pink cardigan on top of people-print shirt on top of stripey t-shirt all tucked into black high-waisted trousers with braces - it's pretty much 80s perfection. The ever disgruntled Jeannie (played by 'Baby' herself, Jennifer Grey) sasses her way through this classic comedy looking cute as hell while kicking some serious ass in her quest to thwart younger brother Ferris - one killer outfit is all she needs to make it onto this list! Also, check out the baby-faced, pre-winning Charlie Sheen in the classic 'Ferris' clip - *swoon*.

Get the look:

Nasty Gal

Reebok

Mod Cloth

Missguided

2. Debbie Thornberry - 'The Wild Thornberrys'

                         


Suuuure, 'The Wild Thornberrys' started as a TV show but they did appear in several movies, and Debbie was just too cool to keep off the list! A grunge queen and fluent in sarcasm, Debbie can usually be found rocking a classic combo of a flannel shirt, crop top and baggy jeans - a quintessential grungey outfit complete with razor sharp cat-eye liner and a serious mane of blonde hair. Unfortunately the hair-over-one-eye look never quite looks this cute in real life (I think 2005-2009 serve as a hideous testament to this *emo flashbacks*) but Debbie works it. This combined with her gives-no-shits attitude makes her one fabulously angst-y big sister.

Get the look:

Bumble & Bumble

Nasty Gal

Topshop

Topshop

3. Kat Stratford - '10 Things I Hate About You'

          

The 'Shrew' herself from this classic 90s update of Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew', Kat definitely fits the permanently anguished older sister stereotype and is the polar opposite of sugary sweet and super popular sister Bianca. I mean really, she's not a heinous bitch, she's just surrounded by morons! Kat spends the movie dishing out feminist zingers while looking tough and very cool in combat boots, hoop earrings and a veritable plethora of t-shirts. It isn't flashy but Kat is a girl all about dressing for herself and no one else - she ain't out to please no man and that's exactly what makes her such a compelling romantic lead and kick ass big sister. Hey, if Heath Ledger's Patrick Verona digs it, it cant be bad! * brb, crying over Heath :'( *

Get the look:

Free People

Urban Outfitters 

ASOS

ASOS

Well, that's that for now! Lily, if you ever write list like this I expect to be on it - I'm serious.

Thanks for reading and happy Monday!

Daisy.

Testing the Trends - Blue Eye Make-up

Almost every day it seems there's a magazine or style blog shouting about the hottest/must-have/brand spanking new trend. I'm all for new trends, they keep things interesting, however there's not much use knowing about the hot trend for fur covered mules or rainbow coloured body stockings if wearing them makes you feel like the worlds biggest tit.

That's why here at Wildflowers we're putting trends to the test to see if any of the high-fashion frippery can actually translate into a wearable look and the first thing we're tackling: blue eye make-up. While the highstreet is going mad for the 70s this A/W, this one's a trend straight out of every bad 80s music video ever that I have been noticing popping up everywhere. Be it shadow, liner or mascara blue has been allll over the eyes of some dead trendy individuals so I thought I'd give it a shot.

I have to admit, from about year 7 to 9 I was a frequent user of blue eyeliner and mascara (at the same time), so those awkward tween memories did not fill me with confidence about this one! However, after getting some inspiration from the catwalks and some top YouTubers I decided maybe I could manage to rock this eye make-up throwback after all. Here goes nothing...

Blue Eyed Babies...

Subtle mascara at Mary Katrantzou SS '16

Full on glamour from YouTuber Kathleenlights

Some subtle shimmery under-eye action

A sexy blue cat-eye

Bella Hadid bringing the drama in Glamour magazine

... and my attempt...

Well, what do you think?! As unsure as I was I actually really love the blue vibe! Paired with a simple face/lip I think this is a look I can definitely see myself wearing on an everyday basis and makes a very welcome change from the brown/neutral smokey eye that everyone has been after for the past four years or so. I feel like it brings out the blue in my usually fairly grey eyes and adds just the right amount of Cyndi Lauper fabulous-ness to my otherwise normal face. In a world obsessed with kardashian kontour I am totally rooting for blue eyes to bring some fun back into our make-up bags! 

Love,

Daisy 

Eyeshadows used: Urban Decay Radium, Gunmetal & Money

Man Shirts, Short Skirts - Raiding my Boyfriends Wardrobe

Yes, that was a Shania Twain reference and I am not ashamed of it! I'm pretty sure all girls reading this who currently have a man in their lives/beds, will have either a t-shirt or a hoody that they have adopted for relaxing in - I don't know why, but there is nothing more comfortable than an oversize mans t-shirt, amiright?

In this post however I will be attempting to create wearable outfits using my boyfriend Hayden's clothes and hopefully show that menswear is not just for sleeping in!

The inspiration for this post came from a video by my hero/icon/QUEEEN Jen Im of the YouTube channel Clothesencounters. I will link her video at the bottom.

T-shirts

A good way to ease yourself in to wearing boy-clothes is a simple t-shirt. Here I've tried to do two looks, one for day and one for night, to show the versatility of a mans t-shirt.

Haydens: T-shirt  - ASOS
Mine: Skirt - H&M, Boots - Forever21, Choker - a £1 shop!

Wearing a mans graphic T-shirt for a night out is easier than you think - just squeeze into a tight skirt to suck in your wobbly bits, get on some stilt level boots and own it (whatever that means! :P).

Hayden's: T-shirt - Topman
Mine: Skirt - New Look, Shoes - New Look, Belt - Primark, Furry Thing - Bik Bok

For a more casual look I just took this stripey number and again tucked it into a skirt and added my favourite furry thing. You could wear shorts, jeans, wear it under a dress - the sky is the limit for you and your baggy T. 

Trousers

Now, you might think with Hayden coming in at 6ft and me at a significantly more minuscule 5ft 5in then trousers would be a total no-go. However, my freakishly dis-proportioned limbs (seriously my torso is tiny -  I blame it entirely for my shortness) mean that Hayden's trousers are a remarkably good fit! Obviously this won't be the case for everyone but if it is then I would definitely say go for it. Real men's jeans are far more comfy than women's 'boyfriend fit' jeans, and you don't need to bother buying them! 

Hayden's: Trousers - Topman
Mine: Top - American Apparel, Shoes - Primark, Bag - Accessorize, Belt - Primark

Apologies for the blurry face in these pictures, not sure what happened, but at least you can see the trousers! I'm a huge fan of tartan so I absolutely love these and they demonstrate how 'boyfriend trousers' can work just as well as jeans.

Hayden's: Jeans - Topman
Mine: Blouse - Next, Shoes - Primark, Tassel Thing - Vintage (Grandma's)

Aaaaand here they are, the real boyfriend jeans. I've girlied them up here with a flowy blouse and some slinky heels.

Outerwear

Lastly I'm tackling jumpers and shirts - things that can work brilliantly for keeping cozy and looking smart. Again I've gone for a casual and a more dressy look to really show off the versatility your man's threads can have. 

Hayden's: Shirt - Next
Mine: Trousers - Topshop, Bralet - eBay, Boots - New Look, Bag - Primark

Here I've gone for a sort of un-done tailored look, using a crisp suit shirt over these tapered leg trousers and lacy bralet and finished off with boots - pairing masculine items with something a bit sexier to make a (hopefully) classy evening ensemble.

Haydens's: Jumper - New Look
Mine: Shorts - Charity Shop, Boots - River Island, Hat - H&M

This is easily the most casual look I made but it is still perfectly acceptable for venturing out in public! I pretty much lived in this jumper for the last few (stressful) weeks of uni and after this treatment as a veritable comfort blanket it is still one of my absolute favourite things to borrow.

Hope you enjoyed my boyfriend-borrowed outfits! Why not instantly double your wardrobe and get borrowing yourself? 

Lots of lurrve, 

Daisy.

Jen's Video: