Style Study #1: Oliwia

I've wanted to do a 'style study' feature on my blog for ages now, and I couldn't think of anyone better to do the feature on than my friend Oliwia. She works at Topshop with me as a Visual Merchandiser, and every time I see her in work weather she's busy painting or up a ladder she always looks so effortlessly cool. Her style is very individual, she isn't afraid to wear bold prints or to clash colour. She mixes high street with vintage to create her looks.

Name: Oliwia Thomas
Age: 19
Star Sign: Leo
Occupation: Visual Merchandiser 
Favourite Shop: Urban Outfitters and Topshop
Style Icon: Alexa Chung

Blouse - Primark

Jacket - Dorothy Perkins

Trousers- Topshop

Hat - H&M

Shoes - Topshop

Belt - ASOS

Earrings - Primark

Your opinions as always,

Emma 

x

New Year, New NAME!

Heya everyone!
This is just a quick post to update you all on the new name and look for my blog (as obviously I'm sure you can tell!) I just thought the previous name (emmas-box) was just a little un inspiring, and I wasn't happy with it. I also don't think it encouraged new followers or readers.
It is still me on the blog so please cary on following and reading :)
I am experimenting with layouts and designs at the moment so don't be alarmed if it all changes again!

Would love to know your thoughts on the new name.
The Fashion Underdog

Emma
x

Style STEAL!

When it comes to my own personal style I am very creative but don't necessarily plan my outfits. I kind of tend to just chuck on what I think might look alright. I guess I'm also inspired by things around me, as well as people and celebrities. 

However when it comes to this outfit...it did involve a lot of planning! I follow the Made in Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh on my Instagram, and when she posted this photo I just fell in love with the jacket! I looked in Zara where I believe the jacket might have been from but there was nothing. I even checked on Ebay but there was nothing on there I was happy with. I started to think I was running out of time, especially as I wanted the jacket for a particular occasion. I was starting to give up hope, and I didn't actually find the jacket until I came into work and saw it lying on the 'Buy It Now' rail on Topshop. And to my luck... It was in the sale (what are the chances!)

In my photo I didn't actually mean to copy Millie exact pose, and I defiantly think she wears it better. You can't actually even see the black collar very well in my photo, the lighting isn't the best. I prefer the black lining on the pockets of Millie's jacket to mine, but she was my this month style steal!

I would love to hear your opinions, or hear about any of your style steals :)

I'm off to see a Sleeping Beauty Pantomime in Bristol tomorrow, so I will do a post on Wednesday telling you how that went.

Take Care,

Emma

x

Winter Wonderland - London Bound

I have been meaning to update you all on my visit to Winter Wonderland in London ever since I got back, but with my new year hangover and being thrown back into work I just simply haven't had the chance... so I apologise but here goes.

As many of you may know I was so excited to go up to Winter Wonderland, purely because I LOVE Christmas but also because I had heard so many good reviews about it. It was held in Hyde Park in Central London, and defiantly lived up to expectations, although it was packed when we were there. I went with my boyfriend, and luckily we booked to go ice skating before online, which I'm glad we did because we might not have been able to go because it was so busy. There were so many nice little stalls you could wonder round and browse through, as well as numerous food stalls. I must say we brought some food when we were there, and it was quite over priced but I guess its all part of the cost of the day, as entry was free.

We wondered down to Knightsbridge after to check out the sales (obviously) I love getting lost in Harrods looking through all the amazing things they sell. My favourite is Pet Kingdom on the 4th floor, although the animals sold there are about 10 times the price you would pay in a normal pet shop, its still nice to have a browse around. The food hall is also another favourite, and to think some people actually do there weekly shop there... Its another world to me!

Hat - Topshop

Bag - Vintage

Dress - Topshop

Coat - Topshop

Necklace - Ebay

Tights - Primark

Shoes - New Look

We managed to pop over to Oxford Street before heading back to the Hotel, where I picked up a bag and a top in the Zara sale. Zara is one of my favourite high street shops, as well as Topshop (obviously!) I just think that everything in Zara is so unique, every time I go in there I don't know how I stop myself from buying the whole shop.

That evening we went for food in Covent Garden to this lovely Indian called Masala Zone, the food there was so so nice, and would highly recommend to anyone who loves Indian. Even the decor of the restaurant was interesting - they have loads of puppets hanging from the ceiling... sounds weird but actually it looked quite edgy and different.

This was my outfit for dinner that evening - the top and the bag were brought that day from Zara. The leather trousers are H&M, Shoes - Jeffrey Campbell, Hat - Topshop, and Necklace - Ebay (as before.)

As always I would love to know your thoughts, or if any of you went up to Winter Wonderland.

Emma

xoxo

Better Late Than Never

Its weird, I obviously didn't forget it was New Year... but it just totally slipped my mind to make New Years resolutions! I've seen loads of stuff on other peoples blogs about theirs, and read things online etc but haven't actually put mine into writing... So here goes, you heard it here first!


1. Cut down the 4 C's - Chocolate, Crisps, Cake and Cheese!... Realistically I could never cut all of those out my diet (I'm a 19 year old girl, dir?!) so hence the 'cut down' NOT 'cut out.'


2. Say YES more. It sounds so simple and stupid but the amount of things I turn down due to laziness or purely because I'm sacred to try something new. I need to say Yes more to invites, opportunities and new things.


3. Cook more. As I do still live at home, my mum does tend to cook for me a lot. And if she isn't in then i'll just grab a ready meal or make pasta...(yawn!)
Its not that I can't cook I just can't be bothered most of the time, and more often than not i'm in a rush so don't have the time to cook something. 


4. Spend LESS (especially in Topshop!) and save MORE.... My spending on clothes in particular is literally ridiculous... my mum often says to me that Topshop should pay me in clothes, and I'll admit it is hard when I work there to not buy the clothes I see.... But I am going to make a concerted effort to spend less money and save more. (Don't actually see this going to plan but i'll give it my best shot!)


5. Travel. I always say to myself I want to go there, or ohh that looks nice, I want to visit there etc. So one of my new years resolutions is to travel. There are places in England I want to visit that I've never been to and are only a train journey away. A few places on my list to visit are; 
-London Zoo (yes I've never actually been there!) 
-Swindon - Sounds weird but I really want to go there! Its only like half an hour away on the train from Bristol. Apparently they have a great designer outlet so I think I'll need to visit around payday!
-Edinburgh - just because it looks like such a beautiful city, and flights there are pretty cheap if you book early.
-Newcastle - I have a friend who goes to University up there, and she is always nagging me to visit her, so this year there is no excuses I will go!
-Marrakech. Me and my boyfriend have spoken about going to Marrakech loads of times, it looks like an amazing place to visit. I've read so much about it, with all the markets etc, and apparently its quite cheap to visit. So its on the to do list as well!


6. Join the gym.... AND actually go! Last year I joined the gym for 6 months, and probably went like 5 times?! Its such a waste of money! Always my excuse is that I "don't have enough time"... what that really means is that I actually put of going to the gym and make other plans instead. The gym I go to is great, you don't just have to go on the running machine or do weights etc, there is loads of classes you can go to as well. So when I get paid (at the end of January) I will join the gym and GO!


7. Blog MORE. Recently due to just the big buzz and rush over Christmas I haven't blogged as much as as I would have liked to have done so this year I am going to put more effort in to my blog in 2013 and hopefully all my hard work will pay off.


I have general other achievements I would like to accomplish in 2013, such as getting a promotion at work (fingers crossed) and just generally be more focused and driven when it comes to what I want to do. At the end of the day, I'm the only one who can help myself...so the more you put into something your the only one who can benefit :)

I would love to hear any of your new years resolutions, post links in the comment box and I will check them out.
Once again HAPPY NEW YEAR... I hope that 2013 brings you all that you want and will be a successful year for us all.

Thanks again.
Emma
xoxo

Striped Out

So far my week has been pretty dull, and I feel I have nothing really to look forward to after the hype of new year/christmas has gone. Personally I HATE January, I think its the worst month of the year, also feels like the longest. Typically everyone is skint after Christmas and the whole month seems to drag. 

I went to Pizza Express last night with a friend for food, we were thinking mmm where shall we go and Pizza Express never lets us down. You can never go wrong with their dough balls and classic pizza. After catching up on Christmas/New Year antics we called for the bill (obviously used an Orange wednesday to get discount!) when the waiter came over he some how managed to start a small fire on the table next to us... Quickly another waiter ran over and grabbed the water off our table to put it out! It was literally the most bizarre thing and one of those moments that happens so quickly that after we both said to each other "what just happened?!"

I hope your all having a lovely week and enjoying the start of 2013, hopefully managing to avoid fires in restaurants!

 Dress - Charity Shop

Fur Gilet - Topshop (old)

Necklace - Topshop

Belt - Topshop (came with a playsuit)

Tights - Primark

Until next time

Emma

xoxo

Happy 2013!

Happy New YEAR everyone!! It feels so great that a new year has just started but also sad as Christmas is all over (boooo!) Christmas is literally my favourite time of the year and its always over so so quickly. I'm hoping you all had a good relaxing week over Christmas and New Year, and I would love to find out what any of you were up too.

Sadly this isn't going to be a long post because if I'm honest with you I'm too hungover and need to get myself some food and back into bed (sure the feeling is mutual to some of you!) I celebrated New Years at a new club in Bristol last night called Rehab, it was a good night but drinks were far too expensive and it was overly crammed.

I didn't manage to get anyone to take a full length photo of my outfit but I was wearing my  new Black Jeffrey Campbell's (Lita) and a size 16 oversized top (worn as a dress) from H&M. I wore an amazing new bag which is greeny/gold sequins which I got from Zara in the sale.

I was wearing Millie Mackintosh's range of eye lashes (Belgravia Lash) and will be doing a post all about them later on in the week. As well as a post about my trip to Winter Wonderland in London.

Once again... Happy New Year.
Lots of Love

Emma 
xoxo

Caviar Nails - Take 2

If any of you didn't know I'm quite a creative person and I always like to try out something new. For Christmas my sister brought me some more Caviar nail beads. I've seen and read up so much about these and it seems to be a new craze for nails! 
If you buy the nail sets directly from the Ciate website it will set you back £18.00, plus postage. In my first post about Caviar nails I chose to buy my beads of Ebay for less than £3.00 which was a much more reasonable. I don't actually know where my sister got them from, but as she's a just graduated student I can't imagine she paid much more that a fiver for them!

If you want to see my first caviar nail experiment post click here. It also explains how to apply the beads, for those of you that haven't tried it before.

Would love to hear all your thoughts - as always. Thank you.

Emma
xoxo

The Calm After The Storm

Hello!
Once again... I'm starting this blog post with an apology which I guess is never a good way to start but I haven't blogged in over a week... AND christmas is over and done with. (where has the time gone?!) Makes me incredibly sad, it always goes so quickly but I did have an amazing Christmas, it was great to see family and friends, eat loads of yummy food and chill out. I hope you all had a great time too, would love to find out what goodies you all got from Santa himself.

I have to say I feel like the luckiest girl in the world! It defiantly pays of to write wish lists on my blog as my boyfriend read them! And I got a pair of JEFFREY CAMPBELL'S! I was beyond shocked when I opened the box, it was the best surprise and I literally am in LOVE with them. I need to try and learn to walk in them so I don't break my ankle when I wear them!

As well as my BEAUTIFUL shoes, I got so many lovely presents of family and friends including a new onsie, perfume, some barry m nail varnishes, chocolate and money which I'm going to buy my Pandora watch with - which was also on my Christmas Wishlist, click here to see.

Here are just a few of my photos from Christmas Day, my dress was from Topshop (obviously!) Click here to see.

Me and My Sister (Sarah)

Me and My Friend (Jennie)

My Sister (Sarah) My Friend (Becci) and Me

I would love to hear from all of you about your Christmas and your plans for New Years. I'm off to London on Sunday to go to Winter Wonderland and to hit the sales, but will be back in Bristol to NYE.

Hope your all having a lovely holiday.

Emma
xoxo

Barry M Obsession

Hello Again!
I hope you've all had a loverly week, and actually managed to enjoy the lead up to the big day... highly unlikely I'm sure as many of you may be running around like headless chickens doing last minute shopping as we speak.
I don't know if any of you have noticed BUT I decided to give Emma's Box a new look... I really would love your opinions because personally I'm getting bored with it already, I'm not great when it comes to computers or the internet so I was impressed with myself I even managed to change the colour! I would be so grateful if any of you could help me think of a design or new look.

If any of you have checked out my 'week in Instagram' posts or follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed I like to change the colour of my nails quite regularly! Especially in the lead up to Christmas with all the great range of sparkly nail varnishes there are in shops. My personal favourite is BarryM - their polishes are such good quality and they do AMAZING colours! Its not badly priced as well compared to OPI.

                

                                                          First Coat                                             Second Coat

Finished!

Nail Colour - BarryM - Pink Saphire Glitter 246

Nail Colour - BarryM - Diamond Glitter 247

These have defiantly been my favourite of the sparkly christmas nails. Its a BarryM silver polish which is used - however 5 coats of nail varnish (I kid you not!) It comes out very light, with not much glitter hence the layering to build it up. Also when it came to taking the nail varnish off... I was literally working up a sweat, but thats no surprise really considering the about of nail varnish which was on.

Nail Colour - BarryM - Peach Melba 229&Pink Saphire Glitter 246

I have this nail varnish on currently as I'm typing away to you all. Its simple with the pastely pink, then just a little bit of glitter on one nail. I think I will probably change it again before Christmas day... maybe a glittery reddish colour. Defiantly calls for a shopping trip to buy a new nail varnish!

If you want to check out my previous beauty post on caviar nails click here.

As always please let me know your thoughts - you can also email me emma_george22@hotmail.co.uk.

Emma 

xoxo