Inspirational Designers

Hey and welcome back to my blog, so today is my first attempt at trying to bring in my fashion background into my blog. 

I hope you enjoy getting to know me a little better. As a fashion student, we are required to look at previous collections and analyst what the designer has done in order to make the collection so appealing, we have to reference our work based on what image inspired us and we are to note down themes that we think will link together.

At the moment, I am now working on a deconstruction unit which has me analysis the works of Maison Martin Margiela, Vivienne Westwood and Commes Des Garcon. But, for this particular post, I will be talking about my all-time favourite inspirational designers who I always look up to regardless! This has been done in no particular order. 

*Some words are linked to what it talks about... Check them out to understand what I'm talking about.

1. Alexander McQueen: I always knew he was such a big name in the fashion industry but I was never really struck by his work until I went to the Savage Beauty exhibition in July 2015. I was at awe at the experience and I couldn't believe how much of his work was so innovative (you'll be hearing this word a lot!). McQueen was always focused on the story behind his ideas, the inspiration of where the idea came from which he conveys to his audience through his garments. 

2. Alexander Wang: Both himself and McQueen started young and have made such a huge astonishing impact to the world of fashion and there is no denying their innovative ideas. Wang is a lot more subtle in what he produces if compared to McQueen. In a way, Wang's history is what really inspires me as he started at the age of 19 whilst still at university and he made it. This sort of story makes me believe that I can do it too. And hopefully I will. 

                                                                                                       
3. Hussein Chalayan: He studied at Central Saint Martins and his final BA collection was amazing. He decided to put the fabrics that he wanted to use and put them into the ground to soil them. He wanted to show decomposition in his work and it really paid off as his collection was placed in one of the Brown Fashion store. After that, he went on to experiment more with technology and started to tell more of a story rather than just a show of things. 

4. Issey Miyake: I started looking into Miyake in my first year of college as inspiration for my first unit. I think it started off as just another designer to research but he soon became a designer I needed to know more about. One of his collections that really got to me was his Pleats Please collection which was just a way for him to show different methods of using pleats in garments. 

5. Viktor & Rolf: Honestly, I only just started to really look at their history in fashion for my new unit but I had known already that they were quite popular with their fragrances. One of their recent collection was the Autumn/Winter 2015. This is such an epic collection! I am so impressed by the way they really executed this. The inspiration behind this whole collection is a canvas. That's it. That's essentially it and not only that but they proved it to be that by hanging 5 garments up on the wall whilst it was still being on the catwalk. I love how they took one idea and created a whole collection on it. This one collection has really made me obsessed with them and now I really need to buy one of their perfumes. 

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the rest of this series.  

xx

Sharin

My First Youtube Video

Hey, and welcome back to my blog.Today, I have some exciting news, I uploaded my first youtube video. From the video, you can tell I'm a little nervous by the way I cannot pronounce or form any sentences but it's a start! I'm finally ready to take the plunge! 

Before I began filming I first decided to sort out my youtube channel. To begin with, I had to make a very important decision regarding my profile picture. I believe this is one of the easiest ways to grab someones attention so I made sure I did my hair and make up as well as put on my bow headband to take a picture worth clicking on. 

I know a couple of youtubers who are know for a phrase they might always use but I decided that I didn't want a phrase, I wanted something that was going to always be in my videos and pictures and that my dear friends, is the bow headband. At the moment I only have two but soon enough, I'll find myself with a collection of them. I think this is a great way to make your mark. 

I then went on to do my channel art, the first thing you can do is research and by research, I mean, look at how other youtubers who are in the same field as you have set their channel art. It doesn't mean you have to follow strict guidelines but at least it lets you know what you should think about adding. 

At first, I was stumped on what to have as my background image as a lot of other youtubers have their face and text, but I went into my drop box account and found my folder full of images of the sky. I thought this was perfect as it wasn't over the top (being just a newbie) but it wasn't unprofessional. 

I then used a website called Canva which allows you to edit and personalize your banners and other sorts of platforms for images by giving you the right measured space to do it in. They also have some of their own creations which you can use and alter. 

I decided to add my name and what I will be doing on the channel. I think it's just simple and straight to the point. I was debating on putting down times, I would upload but my schedule is a mess. I chose two different fronts because I think it stands out better and I also added a line underneath it to accentuate it.

I'm really happy with my channel art and I think it links well with my profile picture too. Once that was sorted, I went onto the film a little something to begin my channel. I decided to start off with a haul as that way, I can continue to mention those products throughout the next few videos and kind of give my review on it. 

I started the video by talking a little about myself and what my channel will consist of to give people an understanding of where my channel is going and went straight into filming the haul. When it came to editing the video, I was using iMovie to do this task. It was my first time using it so it was a little difficult to begin with but I did it, I managed to edit the video, crop, add transitions a title, an ending credits and also add some music too. I'm pretty happy with my first time and I'll only get better with time (hopefully). Please check out my video and I hope you enjoy it. 

Thank you for reading and see you next time!

Meeting Tanya Burr and Zoella!

So I recently entered this Superdrug competition on a whim and actually won. This competition wasn't broadcast as much as you'd think otherwise I wouldn't have won because I actually entered after the deadline but I'm assuming that they didn't have their targeted amount so I was invited. When I got the email, I was really confused, reading it and immediately I sent a screenshot to my friend. My head was reeling in with the fact that I actually won. It was a weird out of body experience. The date was for two days after I received it at West field in London. I was able to invite a friend along so she came with me. 

I actually had university that day however it turned out to be a half day so I managed to get to Westfield at 4pm which gave me an hour to relax before I had to meet them. I was nervous. When it was 5pm, I went to the superdrug store and found there to be only 5 winners waiting and I had already found out that there were 25 winners, plus 25 friends who were invited too. I was in line, just behind 5 people when I was told to wait outside for my friend who was running late. 

At this point, it was already 5.30pm and Tanya and Zoe were also running late, but a lot more winners were there so we had a good 20 people who were in front of us. It took forever for us to meet them plus it was really hot in the store so people were getting restless. I think the first 10 people got a good 5-10 minutes with them and after that, it was much more fast paced and we were only given a few minutes with them. 

When I finally did meet them, I said, Hi and hugged them both. Tanya asked 'Sorry, what's your name?' and I told them. After that, I got Tanya to sign her Candy Glam Palette and Zoe to sign her Blissful Mistful spray and I told her that it was my favourite product of hers and she 'awwed' and said 'that's so sweet' to me. Tanya asked 'how my day went' and I told them about university, and said that I have a blog and it's all thanks to them'. I was a mess and I was so shy to even look at them but I did get a selfie with them. I was disappointed that I didn't get to put them on my snapchat story or even get to ask them any questions but that was all down to me because I was nervous. 

They're both gorgeous and I still cannot believe that I met them. It's funny because I remember when I first started watching them on youtube which was at least 3 years ago and thinking they were so relatable and were like a sister I never had. I only have brothers so a lot of my favourite female youtubers have kind of taken the role as my sister and I take what they say or have said as serious advice. 

I would like to thank Superdrug for holding this competition, and thank Nicole who sent me that very email saying I had won. I also want to that all the members that were there helping out with the event for trying to make it as smooth as possible. Thank you Tanya Burr and Zoe for meeting me and I hope we can be friends. 

Oh yeah, and I got a gift from Zoe which had some of her Christmas Range in it, so thanks for that.  I did try to get a better image of the Christmas grotto that they had but I wasn't allowed to plus, my friend wasn't allowed to film me meeting them which is disappointing as I would have loved that as something to look back on. 

Thanks for reading and see you soon!

Tanya Burr Cosmetics

So I recently purchased the Tanya Burr Candy Glam Christmas collection Palette from Superdrug. This is my first time trying her face make up as I already have one of her eyelashes and two of her lip glosses. I also brought some individual Tanya Burr lashes as well to compliment this look. 

To begin with, let's talk packaging! I think the packaging is cute and very girly which is a smart move on Tanya's part as most of her followers are younger viewers aged between 12-15 perhaps. The colours she used compliments each other and works well. In terms of how the package functions, I like the flip up concept and the little drawstring. 

When you open it up the back of the front cover has a heart shaped mirror with is cute but slightly small compared the to the size of the cover.The products have been laid out with the mini lip-gloss on the left hand side with the 9 eye shadows on the right and a blusher and bronzer at the bottom. However, the set doesn't come with a brush which is unfortunate as this would have made it the perfect travel palette but that being said, not everyone prefers to use the brush that comes with palettes so maybe it isn't all bad.

Let begin with the eyeshadows, from left to right, we have Snowflake (white), Chandelier(smokey grey), Plumberry (berry), Crème Brulee (rich shimmery pink), Date Night in Paris (mocha brown), Ballet Slippers (gold shimmer), Baking Brownies (dark brown), Teddy Bear (light brown), and lastly Starry Night (shimmery bronzey brown). I think that each eyeshadow is pigmented and is so diverse that you can always create different looks whether it's a night out or a day time everyday look. My personal favourites are Crème Brulee and Plumberry.

The blusher that the palette features is called Pretty Peony which I believe is from her original collection as well as the bronzer which is called Beach Bronze. I think that these two colours will work well with a lot of skin tones. I have a medium brown complexion and I find that the bronzer is just right in terms of being slightly visible on the skin.

The lip gloss, is however just a slight let down, not because of the formula but the colour. As this is a Christmas collection, I would have chosen perhaps a berry colored gloss or a pink one. The reason I am not impressed with this lip gloss is simply because it doesn't appear on my lips as a gloss but only holds a shimmer, I think it would work better on a fair complexion.

Overall, I think for £10, you really can't go wrong with this palette, it has most of the things you require to create a make up look and is diverse in what you can create. Regardless of the lip gloss, the products work and are for sure, worth the price. Get it at Superdrug now. 

Now let's move onto the two lashes I have from her collection. I have the individual lashes and Pretty Lady. To be completely honest, I found it difficult to get these lashes on and I have no idea why but I can now finally put them on with confidence. Pretty Lady is slightly fluttery but not over dramatic and is a great everyday lash for those of you who do wear lashes everyday. The individual lashes were on sale for £1.50 because they were getting rid of the old packaged products so I thought I'd give these a go as they are the same style in the new packaging. I think that a lot of use really need medium length lashes a lot more than we need long however the option is appreciated. 

The lip glosses I have is Vampire Kiss which is a blood red and Chocolate fondant which is brown toned. The packaging is okay and thee glosses feel great however I don't really like the applicator and I found that the Chocolate Fondant doesn't appear the right colour on my lips but that's only because my lips are dark. 

Overall I think her collection is great and there are some really great products, albeit I haven't tried a lot of products but I think it is worth the money and looks great too. Well done, Tanya! 

Thanks for reading and see you next time!