‘Begin Again’ Soundtrack + Fashion (#TT149)

Hello lovelies!

Have you watched the movie “Begin Again” yet? If you haven’t, GO WATCH IT. It’s like a musical 500 Days of Summer and I just love it! Keira Knightley is amazing as usual, but in this movie it’s a little more special because she sings! And it’s her real voice, I was like wow it’s so good! She has that Norah Jones kind of voice but sweeter. I watched the movie like a month ago but only recently started digging out the soundtrack list. This movie is just my favorite kind of movie!

Check out some of my favorite songs off the movie:

My favorite scene!

This song is just brilliant.

Adam Levine also has his own version below.

Both versions are equally good, but I guess I still like Keira’s better as it has a different feel and emotions to it :)

The weather is so gloomy nowadays, it rains almost every single day and I just like to listen to something soothing, lightweight and calm (if that makes sense lol). This movie soundtrack is definitely my current go-to playlist. Have I mentioned that I love Keira’s voice?

I basically fell in love with Keira’s character, Gretta. Cool personality, great talent, and also awesome fashion sense! I wish I could steal her wardrobe because I love every single outfit she wears in the movie.

Love the laidback preppy-ish style! I need a wardrobe transformation!

 

Have a lovely week ahead :)

xo, Jo

Party Month (#TT132)

Hello lovelies! 

It's December!! Can you believe it? Christmas is coming real soon and it's time to party! Some of you may have or have not known that I'm not so much of an electro music fan. It's catchy and gets me in the mood but it's not something that I can listen to for the whole day (may get sick of it :x). 

But! I've been into indie pop lately and I guess this would be the kind of music that I can dance to all night long! It kind of reminds me of one episode in Lizzie Mcguire where the whole school becomes a fan of Frank Sinatra and the school dance just gets really awesome with the 70's/80's style (ref: picture above).

Here are the two bands that I've been listening to lately, plus Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Cool? Awesome? You're welcome.

Below are the types of dresses that I'd like to invest in for parties this Christmas and New Year. Not vintage, but it's feminine with an edge! Inspired by my favorite looks from the recent AMA. Cutouts FTW!

Taylor Swift in Julien Macdonald

Kendall Jenner wearing Keepsake top and skirt

Have a blessed week!

xo, Jo

SheInside Floral Gradient Shirt

White Long Sleeve Floral Chiffon Blouse

I had been wanting to get this shirt so bad! I saw it being sold in various online shops and I decided to buy it from SheInside this time considering the price and reviews from their members, which makes it my first purchase from the shop!

The material is very sheer and lightweight, but quite structured on the collar, which I like. I love love the design and the fact that the sleeves have button straps to secure when you roll up your sleeves make it even more practical during the hotter days.

I also like the stud button at the collar, which is kind of a surprise to me. One flaw that I find is that there is a tiny misprint on one of the sleeves’ end that is supposed to be clean white. It kind of looks like a pink stain but I know it’s just a misprint from the design. It’s not that obvious so it’s all good.

I reckon that it’s originally a Bershka design from their 2013 Spring collection, but seems like I failed to see it in the store. Thus, I can’t really compare it to the original piece. It looks exactly the same though (see picture below).

Have you bought anything from SheInside before?

xo, Jo

ASOS Haul + First Impressions

Hello lovelies!

Finally a haul post! It’s been waaay long overdue. Hope you enjoy!

This was my first batch of purchase ever from ASOS, after hearing so much about it from a British fashion Youtuber, FashionRocksMySocks. When I lightly browsed the site for the first time, I got hooked and in a blink of an eye I added tons of items on the wishlist!

Now that I look back, I think I was pretty crazy on the impulse buying. I spent over SGD200, which very rarely happens!! Because it was over SGD175, I was entitled for a free express shipping. I felt good at that time but now it’s like meh it’s just about a week difference. My money… Was it all worth it? You’ll see.

Clothing:

ASOS Sleeveless Smock Dress - Spice, UK 6

I’ve always wanted to own more dresses, but since I’m more of a top-bottom kind of person, I’m rather picky on my dress options. When I browsed on ASOS dresses, smock dresses are everywhere, they’re sort of replacing the skater dress popularity.

ASOS Smock Dress With Short Sleeves – Navy, UK 6

I’ve decided to go with the simple ones first. So I picked these two plain casual smock dresses, which were pretty affordable. I wanted to choose grey color for the sleeveless one as shown on the model but somehow it was not in the options, hmm.. They turned out to be really comfy, the material is good and the length is just above my knees. Casual modest dresses on the go!

ASOS Skater Dress in Vintage Floral with Tie Back, UK 6

Then I picked another dress that is more dressy and I had been wanting a floral dress for a really long time. Plus, it was on huge sale! I think it still is right now, you can click the link above.

The length is perfect for me. It’s just slightly shorter than the smock dresses. The material is a little coarse but it’s pretty thick for chiffon. There’s also another layer of fabric from the waist line till below. Also, I LOVE the details at the back. It’s perfect for those who don’t wanna show too much skin. At the front it looks really modest but there’s a surprise at the back ;) I wore this for my birthday dinner and will be wearing it again for my brother’s graduation!

Accessories:

ASOS Ears Boyfriend Watch

Finally I own a gold boyfriend watch! Even better, it’s got ears! Haha. The strap is kind of light, which kind of gives the impression of a “cheap watch”, but the overall look is still great to me! I think it’s pretty well-made for SGD54.80. I needed to remove about 3cm of the strap because it was too long. I wore it for a random photoshoot last month.

ASOS Rope Chain Hand Harness

This chain hand harness is also too long and I have yet to adjust the length. Wish they had sizes for this!

ASOS Mixed Finger Tip Ring Pack

I love stack rings! Simple yet so cute. Probably will get more of these from various places :x

ASOS Grecian Leaf Hairband

Isn’t this pretty? Well, perhaps less pretty on my head, but I think it looks great on dark hair! There’s a stretchy band to wear at the back so it’s not loose at all.

Beauty:

Korres Exfoliating Body Scrubs 150ml
Korres Rice Proteins & Linden Shampoo for Fine Hair 250ml

I’ve always wanted to try Korres! So I was really excited when I saw several Korres products being sold in ASOS for a cheaper price compared to Singapore retail price! I’ve tried the scrub and it was GOOD! I use it on my back since somehow I get a little back acne these days. I can feel that the bumps got smaller and eventually got rid off after using this! I have yet to try the shampoo. Will update it as soon as I try it! :)

Summary:

I’m satisfied of ALL of my purchases and I think I’m a big ASOS fan now. I will definitely repurchase their clothes (only at reduced price though!) and Korres or other beauty products that are cheaper online, but I’m not sure whether I will repurchase the accessories, except for watches.

It’s because I don’t know whether they’re really worth it? I feel that I can get rings, bracelets, or headband else where that offer better deals, e.g. Forever 21 and H&M. Also, they normally don’t have sales on the accessories, they focus more on the clothing department. It’s just for this case, I didn’t have time to go physical shopping so I chose whatever most convenient haha.

Have you ever shopped in ASOS before? Do share your experience! :)

xo, Jo

My first shopping experience with OASAP!

I’m going to tell you something quite shocking.. Are you ready?

Not only was this my first shopping experience with OASAP, but it was also my very first time doing fashion online shopping!

The previous post on my Essie purchase was actually after this purchase, it’s just it was quicker to post so I posted that first. All that I’ve purchased online last time was only music CDs and it was using my dad’s credit card. But since I’m a *cough* grown up *cough* now, I use my own and it feels great! :D

My first experience was not what I expected, although it turned out fine at the end. Here’s the story:

I’ve seen many bloggers doing OASAP giveaway and it drew me to check out their site and I’m glad that I did, because I liked a lot of things they have there!

But since this was my first time, I wanted to judge the quality myself and thus I purchased only 2 items.

The first one is this pair of galaxy leggings. I really like the colors, I think it’s really cool! I didn’t expect the material would be this light though, but in fact I quite like it since it’s suitable to wear in a hot weather like in Singapore. What I didn’t quite like though was the stitches. They gave me the impressions that it can be ripped easily with my fat bum, though it’s a one size. 

Galaxy Print Leggings

I’ve worn once and now I think they’re pretty strong despite its look. The exact same pair is no longer available in the website, but there are many similar ones available, take a look here.

Now comes the second item..

I’ve been wanting to have a small brown bag and when I saw this, I immediately FELL IN LOVE. This was not the brown I first wanted, but I just knew I needed to get it nonetheless. So I did.

Vintage Flower Embossed Shoulder Bag #1

I was pretty excited when I held it on my hands, I really like the details on the bag. Oh, but wait, do you notice something odd with it? Like, the SHAPE? It is slightly taller towards the right side and I was like, whaaaaat?

Not to mention that the stitches are messy and the sides of the bag are VERY wrinkled. I thought it was just because the bag got pressed too long in the package for many days during shipping so I stuffed in papers and plastics to make it fuller, in hope that it would turn to its original shape. It did get slightly better, the pics above are the results. So yes, initially it was worse.

But still, I was still bothered by the shape. It’s really not pretty and I was really disappointed. I was thinking whether to return it or not, but if I needed to pay for the return shipping, I wouldn’t do it. But anyways, I decided to contact the staff via live chat and to my surprise, she was surprised that I did not receive the package in a box (it was my first time, I had no idea it has to come in a box lol). The second pic of this post was the original package that I first received. She asked me to email with the pics but I got busy and only sent the email like 2 weeks later.

Then they replied with a satisfactory answer – they have despatched a new bag via express shipping just before I emailed them. I guess my live chat messages were convincing enough to make them do so haha.

So this is what I got. It came with a box as shown in the first pic of this post.

Vintage Flower Embossed Shoulder Bag #2

Yay the bag looks balanced! LOL. I still can comment on the stitches (yes, I’m particular and perfectionist like that), but it’s much better than the previous one.

I honestly had not bought a fashion-y bag that looks really structured (if you know what I mean) before, so I guess little imperfections like messy stitches and wrinkled material are normal? Do let me know with your experiences since I’m not so much of a bag/shoes person.

However, I still don’t think it’s worth the money. I don’t know.. it was USD35 and I guess with that amount of money I can get a better one else where. What do you think?

So I’m not sure whether I’ll be shopping with OASAP again. Their service is great though and I do have several items on the wishlist from their site. I just think ASOS has better quality, I just received my ASOS package recently and I’m fully satisfied (haul soon!). So yeah, we’ll see!

Have you shopped with OASAP before? How was your experience like?

xo, Jo

Tay and Shorts (#TT106)

I’ve been waiting for this music video to be released but late to catch the day when it was up on YouTube. So here it is! 22 by Taylor Swift!

I have to say that this is one of my favorites off her album “Red”. When I just got the album last year, I couldn’t stop listening to it!!

So I started seeing a pattern on Taylor’s style that her iconic ‘dress-and-boots’ style has been replaced with ‘shorts-and-oxfords’ more of a laid-back style. And we all know that the major transformation is with the hair. I love her with both curly and straight hair. She incorporates red lipstick almost all the time now as well.

Let’s see a short portfolio of Tay and her love with shorts!

It started off with ‘We are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ music video.

She really keeps it consistent with what she wears in the music video and on shows. It’s kind of a different case with ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’, since she looks like a hippy rebellious teen in the video and transforms into a dark broken hearted queen in her performances. Not to mention that she makes the song more dubstep-ish haha.

I’m pretty excited to see what kind of style she will adopt for ‘22’ live performances. I personally think that there’s a high chance that she will put her ‘shorts-and-oxfords’ ensemble again, since she shows it like her statement in her album covers from the beginning (one of them is the first pic in this post).  What do you think?

 

*BONUS:

I’m gonna use this song for a special day this month ;)

Not really diggin’ this song, but still post it anyway since it’s will.i.am and Spears ;)

Catchy, but taking lyrics from previous famous songs quite bugs me.

Beyonce’s “Bow Down”: http://iam.beyonce.com/post/45616969837

Hope you enjoyed this post!

Have a great week!

xo, Jo

More Macklemore! (#TT101)

Do you?

As the song is going mainstream and the video is getting viral, I ask myself: Have I ever bought any thrift clothes?

After 5 good minutes, I remembered that I did! This spongebob boxer short that I got from a sort of bazaar for S$5.

It wasn’t even a shop, it was just a bunch of people selling their stuff, new and old. Apparently this vendor (a friend of my friend) said that she bought it from Australia and have never worn it before. Well, who knows? But after several rounds of washing, the color turns darker? It didn’t fade, it’s just less bright than the first time I got it.

This is not the first time I wore a second-hand clothing though. I used to wear some of my elder cousins’ home clothes when I was younger. but of course they gave them for free. Here, in Southeast Asia, thrift shops are not as popular as those in the West. Some shops may sell second-hand clothing, but they still tell customers that it’s new. Different culture :D

Anyways, here is the second song of the week:

Hope you have a fantastic week!

Chinese New Year weekend for me, heck yeah!

xo, Jo

Swift did it again! (#TT82)

Congrats to Taylor Swift in winning the Woman Of The Year Award at the Billboard Music Awards 2012! She looks gorgeous as usual. I love her with straight hair! Not to mention that her red eye makeup totally completes off the stunning red evening gown by Elie Saab!

Recently, her two songs were also officially released on Youtube. Well, actually the second one is B.o.B’s song, but without her voice this song wouldn’t be as good! I also just found out that “Eyes Open” is also in the Hunger Games soundtrack after “Safe and Sound”.  These two songs are definitely different from what she normally does and yet she still rocks ‘em. Although “Both of Us” has a guitar touch that makes it a lil bit more country-ish? :D

And sometimes I wonder
All we care so much about the way we look
And the way we talk, and the way we act
And the clothes we bought, how much that cost?
Does it even really matter?
Cause if life is an uphill battle,
We all try to climb on the same old ladder
In the same boat with the same old paddle

Dig the songs, peeps? :)

Have a lovely week!

xo, Jo