Happy Holidays from Metro Chica

Wishing all my readers happy holidays where ever you are!

If my Christmas Party was ‘Black Tie’…

… I’d like to channel the elegance of these full length dresses. But its not, so I’m hoping to get inspiration from the more informal beauties instead!

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All these dresses were pictured in the last week – it’s definitely party season!!

Printemps Christmas Windows

I had heard lots about the Christmas windows of the ‘Grands Magasins‘ in Paris, so after work last week I stopped off on my way home from work to take a peek. While Galeries Lafayette’s lights are amazing, their ‘Noël Rock ‘n Mode‘ windows were largely uninspiring. You can see a little video here. Luckily Printemps is next door and didn’t disappoint! The theme there is ‘Noël Rêves d’Évasion’ and the 11 windows each cover a different magical city – Moscow, LA, Paris, Tokyo etc, paying homage to Karl Lagerfeld (who was there to reveal the windows last week with the stunning Vanessa Paradis). The windows are full of little puppets in amazing outfits, in different guises and cities, and really make you stop and stare intently at each display to see the level of detail gone into each little doll. Check out this video to see more!

All photos ©Carina Okula

Moving on…

I hope everyone had a great Christmas? Mine was very relaxing and fun – though I missed my little brother lots! Santa was very good and left me loads of lovely treats including books, jewellery, clothes, boots and cosmetics. The snow was a bit of a nightmare but melted away quickly, and we weren’t too badly hit with water and power cuts in comparison to some. There are some pics of my Christmas below… So now I have the start of 2011 to look forward to, and will celebrate tomorrow at a friend’s wedding

Every year in the time between Christmas Day and New Years Day I go though a series of rituals as a way of saying bye to one year, and to welcome another. I should probably do most of these more than once a year, and maybe it isn’t the best time of year to do some but its my thing, and I love when I’m done. So what do I do?

• I go through my wardrobe and do a massive clean-out
• I look at my clothes, shoes and jewellery and pick out the bits that need to be fixed, stitched, re-heeled, dry cleaned or re-worked and get them to the people who can fix these things!
• I throw out lots of makeup that’s probably way past its use by date….
• I get a hair cut! Tomorrow in fact….
• I go for a seaweed bath (I adore seaweed baths – Kilcullen’s in Enniscrone, totally amazing)
• I think about the places I’d like to visit in the coming year – first up, Beijing & Shanghai
• I make some resolutions – though I have been told some are more like aspirations

So tell me, do you have any way of saying goodbye to one year and welcoming the next??

 

Happy Christmas!

Wishing you all a lovely Christmas where ever you are xxx

What I will be wearing tomorrow…

Christmas Series: The morning after the night before…

Christmas is the time of year I go out the most – especially in the weeks coming up to the holidays. Between work parties, catching up with friends, and family gatherings, I seem to spend a good chunk of time trying to hide signs of tiredness or a hangover! Down through the years I have perfected my ‘morning after‘ makeup and here are some of my tips:

Before you get into bed that night:

Try your best to take your makeup off, even if you only use a makeup wipe!

Slather on a good rehydrating cream – I swear by Origins Drink Up Intensive overnight mask at this time of year.

Drink a pint of water, no matter how difficult it may seem to force more liquids into you…

The next morning

Start with something like Clarin’s Beauty Flash Balm (one of my favourite products ever) to tighten the skin. Use a good eye cream (I like Eve Lom) and some eye drops to fix tired looking eyes.

Makeup is key here. Dont pile on the foundation – instead use clever concealing to hide the bad bits (under eyes, blemishes, discoloring). Use a brightening liquid like MAC’s Strobe cream to give a fresh dewy look.

Avoid red/pink/purple eye shadow as this makes your eyes look more tired. Use a white pencil in the inner corners of your eyes to brighten them and along the waterline. Benefit have a good one. I usually lash on the mascara, 2-3 coats, after I curl my lashes.

Blush is a good idea to make you look a bit more perky. Keep your lips simple but lots of lipgloss can detract from tired skin so choose a nice nude or pink shade.

If you are in a rush, revive last nights hair with some dry shampoo and massage it in to give more volume to your locks. A few curls or a fancy hairband will disguise unwashed hair too!

Finally, smile and don’t tell anyone how you are really feeling

Images via We Heart It

Christmas Series: Pretty pics to get us all festive!

All images via We Heart It

Christmas Series: The best films to watch

My favourite Christmas movies

It’s a wonderful life

The Holiday

Nativity!

While you were sleeping

Bad Santa

Love Actually

Elf

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Home Alone

Scrooged

How the Grinch stole Christmas

The Muppet Christmas Carol

 

Christmas Series: Christmas Cake Cookies

I’m a terrible cook – woeful in fact! But I love my food. One of my favourite things about Christmas is all the food that’s about – and the lack of guilt over eating it all! I love sitting down late at night with a stuffing toastie or some cookies and warm milk, rather than the usual Christmas fare such as turkey or cranberry sauce. So when I saw this recipe on Like Mam Used to Bake I had to try it out. Like I said, I’m no cook but I managed these and the smell alone made me want to devour them immediately! Hop over to Like Mam Used to Bake for more delicious recipes and musings – love love love that blog!

Recipe taken from Like Mam Used to Bake

Christmas Cake Cookies
(Makes 12 large cookies)

110g/4oz Unsalted Butter, softened
170g/6oz Dark Brown Sugar
0.25tsp Salt
1 Large Egg
1tsp Vanilla Extract
2tbsp Water
2tbsp Brandy
2tbsp Treacle
90g/3oz Plain Flour
0.5tsp Baking Powder
0.5tsp Baking Soda
1tsp Ground Cinnamon
0.5tsp Mixed Spice
0.5tsp Ground Nutmeg
100g/3.5oz Oatmeal Flakes
30g/1oz Crystallised Ginger, finely chopped
40g/1.33oz Raisins
40g/1.33oz Sultanas
40g/1.33oz Currants
40g/1.33oz Dried Cranberries
50g/1.66oz Almonds, blanched and chopped

Method after the jump!

The Christmas Series

Now that its December, I can finally mention the ‘C’ word – CHRISTMAS!!!!! And how Christmassy does it feel out today with the snow falling, everyone rushing home and bad movies on the TV… For the next couple of weeks in the run up to the holidays I’m going to do a Christmas Series on the blog. This will be a series of posts covering topics to do with the festive season including online shopping sites, gift ideas, outfit ideas, pretty pictures, suggestions on how to unwind, food, movies, beauty tips, and whatever else I come up with! If you would like to see anything in particular let me know in the comments.

In the meantime, get over to Blaubushka and check out her great picture idea on ‘The Meaning of Christmas‘ – I’ll definitely be submitting something!