Kathryn

Body Scrub

& Other Stories Body Scrub

Yummy for the body...
Yummy for the body…

When the new store & Other Stories was due to open, it was like Christmas on crack for fashionistas. The newer, more high-end version of our beloved H&M was met with a crescendo of enthusiasm but sadly I, sorry little wannabe style-setter that I am, was, ahem, rather at the back of the queue. To be precise, i only visited last week.

When I got there I was indeed bowled over by the store, the aesthetic, and the promise of a more streamlined yet individual wardrobe. At a price. This girl has & Other Stories tastes on an H&M budget (despite what the website says, I still can’t equate a £45 polyester scarf with ‘affordability’).

I did, however, manage to snap up some sparkly socks for a fiver (which I’m going to pair with black sandals for my work Christmas party – oooh, daring!) and this rather wonderful scrub.

Reasons to love a body product from a fashion store? Let me enlighten you:

  1. The packaging. I love the medicinal look for the jar and the label, almost like something your doctor might prescribe if they were concerned with aesthetically pleasing medication. Looks pretty nifty on ye olde edge of the tub (that is how the cool kids are talking, isn’t it?).
  2. The smell. Citrus doesn’t sound like it should work with brown sugar but it absolutely does. The citrus notes come through first with the gorgeous richness of the sugar following on. If they could make this into an identical scent, I’d buy it.
  3. The consistency. Lovely and rough, you know this will slough off dry skin like the proverbial hot knife through butter. Lovely for keeping your skin secretly soft underneath fluffy jumpers.
  4. It works! This is a genuinely good scrub, and I have tried many low cost ones. I only really do low cost on body exfoliants because if I weren’t so lazy I would make my own for practically nothing, so why I would spent serious chunks of my beauty cash on a pricey number is beyond me. Stick with this: at £7 it’s a nice little bargain price, touching almost into what I like to call the ‘baby luxury’ end of the market. In short, you won’t be ashamed for people to see this, which brings me to my last reason…..
  5. It’s from & Other Stories. C’mon, would you have read this far if I said it was from Poundland? OK, maybe you would, but the product is inherently more interesting because it comes from a store with genuine cache. And let’s face it, if you haven’t got the dosh for their wonderful neoprene clutches and £45 polyester scarves, then a £7 punt on a body scrub is going to afford you a bit of purchasing pleasure.

Yummy – but only for the bod!

*This product was purchased and used entirely without the endorsement or request of the brand in question. Pity Party will only review products we genuinely like, although we can be bribed with food to say silly things about celebrities. #justsayin

Category: Style
wedding

True Moments When I have Lived

I stumbled across a quote from Oscar Wilde on Pinterest the other day that read, “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist.” Aside from my first reaction, which was disappointment at reading this on a social media site as opposed to a dusty tome (that’ll be the middle class pseudo-intellectualism coming out…), I felt the truth of the quote running through my like a modest wave of recognition.

Because that quote is so bloody true! Between the struggles to earn a living, look after family and try to carve a life out for ourselves, the time we actually spend to experience and feel is limited. Living is the joy, the rush, sometimes the fear or the pain, but you know it when you do it. After the recognition came a beautiful current of electricity when I realised that I have had moments of truly living, which was a relief as my default setting is rather moribund and depressing on the subject of my own achievements.

So allow me, if you will, to share these more recent moments with you. What are yours? I’d love to know! A lovely little follow-up could be on the cards with some shared moments. How nice!

Helicopter ride

helicopter

I turned 30 in 2012 and my mum bought me an experience voucher for a helicopter ride. It was only a twenty minute affair in a small craft at a local airfield but I LOVED IT! The exhilaration, the fear, the James Bond-esque delight when I walked under the propellers… The fact that I got my husband on the same flight as me for twenty quid was just smashing too.

Swimming in a waterfall

waterfall

2012 was clearly a good year for living as this was also the year I went to Goa (where I did so many wonderful things I really need to do another post) and swam in a waterfall. Small confession: I didn’t swim right underneath it, but I did get close and the falls themselves were beautiful. I felt brave, empowered, and in awe of nature. Marvellous.

New family

family

In 2006 I discovered that I had an older sister and niece that I’d never known about. It was the single most maturing experience of my life, being both wonderful and scary at the same time. My sister Ginny is a mythical beast of intelligence, humour, and pure shopping ability, and she was my sister from the moment we first timidly spoke on the phone on an August evening nearly 8 years ago. She has since been my bridesmaid along with my niece Kate and has shared in various life events, as well as providing a place of solace and much wine with her home in Swansea. Beautiful and real are some of the best words to describe my sudden family explosion.

Wet ‘n’ Wild in Mexico   

w&w

 

Last year me and my husband went to our first ever wedding abroad which also became our first ‘proper’ holiday with friends ever. And it was very cool! Imagine the happy vibe of a wedding for a whole week at an ultra all-inclusive resort in Cancun…. Doesn’t get much better really! One of the best days was the group trip to Wet ‘n’ Wild where we not only got to party on a boat on the way over, but got to play in an awesome wave machine once we got there. My husband and I have a particular fondness for waves and took turns in dragging each other in a rubber ring to where the waves hit hardest. It was pure unadulterated FUN and I think it should be prescribed on the NHS.

Offspring gig 2009

offspring

Big sis Loz has opened my cultural horizons on many occasions but none more so than my first proper gig experience at the Brixton Academy to see The Offspring. Everything fell into place: a couple of bottles of beer got us on our way at dinner before the music started and the venue is one of the few to boast a cloakroom, allowing for maximum dancing potential without being a danger to fellow music-lovers. We danced, we drank, we stuck out heads out the train window screaming into the night on the way home. Although we’ve enjoyed Gogol Bordello, Metallica, Green Day, and Linkin Park since, that gig was the best of my life so far.

Wedding Day

wedding

I have never known time to go so slowly and yet so fast as on my wedding day. The walk up the stairs to the ceremony room felt like it took a year but then the ceremony was over in seconds. The moment I felt more connected to the soul of the universe (sorry – the memory makes me come over all unnecessary) was when we started to recite our vows and my now-husband turned to me to look me in the eyes as he pledged himself to me forever. I have never meant it more than when I said, with every ounce of being that I had, that I would love him forever, and that connection is one that has not been matched since. Which is surely a good thing seeing as it was my wedding day n’all!

Category: Life
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Sneaker Problems

Kicks, strides, sneakers, trainers – whatever you call ‘em, I gotta problem with ‘em.

It’s not that I don’t like them. No, it’s that I LOVE them. Having been reared on a diet of movies like Heathers and Clueless, the notion of wearing a trainer for leisure, especially with jeans (God forbid), was entirely alien to me. Of course, I had a flirtation with L.A. Gear trainers after going to Florida in 1992, and again in 2001 when I went to New York and discovered that skate shops actually existed, but that was it. Trainers were synonymous with a lack of style or with exercise, an unholy alliance if ever there was one.

But that all changed when Converse All Stars started popping up all over the place, and especially on the feet of the parka-wearing yummy mummies that were my secret heroes when reading magazines about women who live in Primrose Hill and have their own online businesses selling kaftans from Sri Lanka. Since then, well…..

Scary thing is, that isn’t even my whole collection! I have three pairs of trainers for sport, another pair of wedges caught under my husband’s work boot (ewww, stinky) and a pair of plimsolls that I can’t find. Oh, and the emergency pair at work for when my shoes become stabbing little torture devices after a day of work.

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The main problem is that there are just too many choices around at the moment, as the monthlies have started to attest to.

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My problem is that I like every flavour on offer. What trainer tribe am I? Ummm, all of them?

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I started with the classic Converse, my first beloved pair accompanying me to Egypt and India. My new Christmas pair will hopefully give the pinkies a wee rest.

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Then I got all into the wedges, even wearing this ASOS pair to the Vogue Festival last year (when I met Sasha Wilkins of the Liberty London Girl blog *major swoon*).

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And then I got all up in the face of the Vans-style plimsolls although I was typically too cheap to indulge fully. This red pair are from Primark and got rather demolished during my trip to Mexico last year (it was an all-inclusive hotel. What more can I say?).

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I took a little dance past leopard print, with diamantes no less…..

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…. Until I arrived at my current destination at the slip-on trainer. These are by Zara (the monotone) and Next, no less!

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These are just too easy to wear, looking cute on tight-covered feet with skirts or dresses, and perfect for the commute. I am going to try not to buy anymore which should be easier now that I’m feeling a more sporty vibe…..

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The hi-tops are quite old but the New Look pair just seem to pull a cool shirt + skinny jean outfit together perfectly. And now that big sis has been seduced by a proper sporty Nike Air Max pair, who knows what’s going to happen next?

What do we think, eh? A sneaker too far or, in the immortal words of MJ, don’t stop ‘til you get enough? Yeah, you’re right. I pity the fool that disagrees with a classic MJ toon. OWW!*

*As Michael used to say. No, I did not stub my toe. Philistines.

Category: Style