Toned down culottes

Something a little more neutral in styling today from polina_bast. This is like a look for an overcast summery day (i.e. every day in Scotland!) with the use of the summer-based culottes. I love them paired with grey and I think they really help this Nelly Cropped Biker Jacket stand out, in fact it's not a piece I'd ever really thought about before, so this look might have convinced my next purchase! The accessorising is simple with black bag and boots, plus I love the deep red lip colour =D

Menswear chic

A bit of a dark masculine look today from Polina_Bast featuring the new menswear release! It's a great look for this sweater and it's tied in nicely with an individual style. I particularly like the use of a skirt with it, along with the designer bag choice, of course, but it's the hair and makeup which totally sell this look! The hair is perfect for the sweater combination and it doesn't feel out of place on a female doll at all =D

I T G I R L S | Release Review

Friday brought us a new It Girls collection, and I have to say, after seeing the spoilers I would have thought maybe Nelly and not It Girls - a pleasant surprise nonetheless! The ad looks amazing and makes me wanna be one of them, an 'It Girl' so it's definitely doing the job. And that hair on the left, I want perfect locks like that^

So this was the usual size of release with a lot of choice and also styles and items which are perfect with the season - especially the choice of knits which I am grateful for. I also think the colours are pretty season-appropriate too, so all round a pretty decent choice there!
There were fewer accessories with this release, but I'm quite pleased with what we did get because two bags, shoes and a scarf is enough for me! I adore the design of both the Mini Me Handbag and the Boho Chloe Inspired Bag and both are pieces I look forward to styling for my Bag It Up Challenge because I have plenty of ideas already. I passed on the Oversize Wool Camel Scarf for right now, but the colour is great as is the StarCoin price^ I did purchase the Snake Suede Shoes because of the colour and that snake suede patterning, it's minimal but enough to make them stand out against other shoes - I plan on doing a set of Styled Outfits with them in the new year.
Onto clothing now, and there's a good range available. Knitted pieces are the focus and there's more than just jumpers and sweaters to choose from. The Knitted Mini Skirt has a lovely purple-y colour, while I also like the teal shades of the Knitted Tassels Dress, but is it kinda bad that I wanna try knitted trousers? I think they could be good ... might just be me in that camp^ But the sweaters are good too, there's deep green with the Knit And Braids Sweater and icicle-cool with the Ice Blue Braided Sweater. I also like the femininity of the shape and design of the Blue Wool Sweater. And all of these look pretty darn good with the best piece of the collection - the Suede Over Shoulder Biker! This jacket is amazing, and definitely rivals any of the leather ones in this style we've had in the past. I particularly love the little details on the collars and the sleeves, giving it a unique touch. Both pairs of trousers from the release are pretty good and provide for contrasting styles. The Beige Wide Pants have a chic vibe and would look great in a formal style, while the Cropped Of Pants would work great with other dark colours and in casual looks, I think I'm gonna give these a go with some nice sneakers first^
The prices range from 11 to 21SD's, which is pretty much on target for the store and for the items. I didn't feel like I was being ripped off at all and I was happy to pay what the items were set to, happy all round =)

And now my styled outfits for this release:

Firstly the Suede Over Shoulder Biker. In my first look I also included Mini Me Handbag, which works nicely with the Faux Fur Top colouring. And I think the shape of the jacket works well with this style of look. For my second I went with a dress and shirt - definitely a more summery or even spring look! I think the shape of the dress suits the jacket reasonable well and it's a combination I'd wear again.

And for all my love of this winter collection, my looks with the Blue Wool Sweater are very much summery, and I didn't intend this at all - what is wrong with me?! Anyway, loved wearing it with navy in my first look, I just wish I could have found a good matching jacket (and ignore my bad editing!). My second and third looks are paired with white and I think the sweater looks good with both the culottes and the dress, making it a versatile piece. Accessorising these two looks definitely wasn't tricky!

And finally a couple of quick features:

This is Polina_Bast styling the Suede Over Shoulder Biker along with the Cropped Of Pants in a very stylish look. I love the addition of the navy top, I think it makes a great difference in the outfit^

And secondly this is Zeszyteres wearing the Mini Me Handbag in a monochrome look. I think the bag suits this style of dress well with the low v cut and the leather jacket will always work well^

And lastly *starrr* wearing the Cropped Of Pants too, but I love the glamourous casual feel this look has, which I think particularly comes from the addition of this shimmery coat and the more simplistic belt - great work!

Nautical

A little out of season with this nautical look from Polina_Bast, but I still think it's awesome! This LE shirt seems a bit underrated for me, because it can clearly look good. I like the Melbourne Minimalism lace underneath, it's a good wear for both pieces in that respect, and the white jeans are a classic. Also think this is a great style for those loafers - it reminds me that I need to wear mine more =D

C A L L I E S P I C K S | Release Review

Last week brought us our fortnightly dose of Callie's Picks, and this theme was Inspired By - totally great! The homepage ad is chic and minimalistic, but importantly it doesn't over do it, which works very much in it's favour, so let's see the store:

Two floors of items were released, and as I said, themed on 'Inspired By' which I love and I think a lot of other members do too^ It's great to see some of these pieces back that we can get our hands on, but there are some of the newer items too, like the YSL Studded Purse and the Valentino Tribute Tote.
While we're on the topic of bags, I think I'll start with the accessories this time - there truly is an abundance of shoes in this release! I count 8 pairs, including one for guys (I'm kinda jealous, wanting a girls version of these right now!). The absolute star in this part was the Shoes Inspired By Celine - I think most people have been after these for a while and they've been pretty hard to find. And at a price of 7SD's there's really no wrong at all^ Not much jewellery, just the Owner Necklace which was originally from Givenchy and costs just 5SD - it's quite nice and I do think I'll get around to wearing it sometime.
We'll stick with the Celine theme and I'll mention the Skirt Inspired By Celine, another piece a lot of people have been after and I've been lucky to have the original since it's release a long time ago in the Plaza. It's versatile and great to style, so it's a wonderful piece to have included in this release.
On the rest of the clothing, there's a lot of McQueen, which is fine, but not something that I myself am all that bothered about. I kinda prefer the stand-alone items like the Paint Splash Suit Jacket or the Billowing Black Trousers. One thing that did surprise me was that I thought I would love the Anna Sui Inspired FF Coat, but actually I don't like it on my doll at all, so not everything that looks great in the store or on other looks by other members necessarily will work for all individuals!
The prices range from 7 to 34 SD's with most items in the middle ground. A few pairs of shoes are in coins and there are a couple of SS/Royalty only pieces.
I didn't purchase too much so I didn't end up spending many SD's (luckily I didn't because LE came a few days later), but here are looks featuring the Blouse Inspired By Lanvin and the Shoes Inspired By Celine:

It's hard to tell if this shirt is orange or red, but whatever colour it is is fab! I love it with whites and creams^ Also adore my last look there, think it's perfect with the shoes and also these Hotbuys pieces =)
Lastly one quick feature - I think Polina_Bast has styled the to perfection! It's one of those pieces that I'm really still thinking about purchasing but it has a slightly odd shape to work with, hoping seeing this will help me make up my mind =D

T R E S S U P | Release Review

Monday brought us a brand new floor of Tress Up to the Beauty section of the Plaza - I think the blue of the homepage ad is a lovely tone, and for me at least draws my eye. The models fit together quite nicely with their long locks and their 3 different, yet tying together, makeup looks.

The store itself is absolutely jam packed with hairstyles, 17 styles in total! There's quite an abundance of shoulder-length styles, but there a a couple of long and short hairs thrown in there too. Quite a few of the styles look a little familiar, so maybe some inspiration has been taken from StarDesigns like I think it might have been before (?).

Anyway, I really liked the look of most of these on first glances - I think they're all pretty well designed and each is quite individual in the store and in the Tress Up brand as a whole, which is getting pretty difficult with the number of styles there have been in total! So I tried everything on and gave each piece a good think before giving it a maybe or a no. Some of the larger styles, like the Messy Sunday Hair or the Feeling Flirty Hair just didn't work for me at all. They didn't suit my doll, nor did I really find myself wanting to wear them either. But I do quite like some of the long, slightly flatter hairs like the First Impression Hair or the Ready For Work Hair:

But for me the shorter styles definitely take the cake in terms of favourite styles, now I'm still waiting to see someone absolutely rock the Relaxed Spa Hair or the Back To School Hair before I'll buy them, but they're on my wait list right now. But the two I new I wanted to purchase immediately were the Saturday In Hair (I wear this a lot in RL, haha!) and the First Date Hair (my hair in RL is like a cross between this and the Ready For Work Hair, so they're total winners in my opinion^):

I really think these 4 styles which I purchased will keep me kitted out for a little while in the hair department!

Now I do think the downside to this release was the prices - the range was 17 to 27SD's, with quite a number of pieces above the 20SD mark, which is quite pricey. The 4 pieces I bought came to about 70-80SD's, which is a lot if you don't have a lot of SD savings or are new to the site, so buying all the pieces you like might take a while. The bonus is that these collections don't tend to leave the Plaza for quite a while, so I wouldn't worry about it right now^

The styles have been seen on quite a few dolls, and I think there are definitely a clear three favourites - the London Break Hair, the First Date Hair and the Ready For Work Hair, and they definitely are looking like classic styles to me!

Featured on Polina_Bast, miver and AudreyHepburn.

A Popular Style

A new MS.TQ collection was released this week, I myself amn't that much of a fan, but one hairstyle has really taken off around the site - lets take a look!

TOP ROW L-R = AnnMason Asya2004 J.Cool.J Mia1435 BOTTOM ROW L-R = Sarah.Parker. SarahVIP Polina_Bast AnaCleta.

I love how you can take just one hairstyle in one colour and make it work and look different in a whole number of different looks! I've been pretty bad with trying out makeup recently, but after snapping all these looks with the hair, I noticed each dolls makeup so much more, and it's great at the individuality between them, it's honestly becoming a bit of an inspiration and my little cogs are turning up there for my dolls makeup looks for the future! Plus I might buy that hair now, I think it would look awesome in a formal setting, but can't wait to try it out in a casual look, may look amazing with some sort of hat or elaborate hair accessory =)