Beauty Review: Zuzka Serum

It's been a while since I mentioned beauty products, so today I want to tell you about my experience with a new serum I've been trying out from Zuzka, a natural beauty brand.  I use natural, paraben-free skincare and am always keen to find out about new brands in this category.



Zuzka has expanded to selling online from a Dorset-based salon, and promise that they only use certified organic herbs, plants and flowers free from pesticides and chemicals.  Products are handmade, and are also free from harsh detergents, sodium lauryl sulphate, synthetic ingredients, parabens, animal ingredients and artificial fragrance.


For the past few weeks, I have been using their Argenine Hydroxy Serum from their Botanicals range.  Please read on to hear what I thought!

Vintage Inspired Wedding Dresses on a Budget: 1940s

I have to confess that the 1940s proved to be a difficult decade to find vintage-inspired bridal looks from.  I was almost ready to admit defeat, when I came across a couple of truly fabulous options, and sighed in relief that there are actually some dresses within a reasonable budget!  Once again, all of these finds are under £300 - well, under £200 this time as they seem to have come in cheaper than the 1930s. (see my post here for 1930s bridal inspiration).

A glimpse of the gorgeousness to come...

The 1940s were a time when generally people continued to get married in their Sunday best - either a suit or a simple dress - unless they were affluent enough to afford the Hollywood silk gown that we all picture.  Gowns had changed a bit from the mid 1930s; though they may still be in silk-satin, but they weren't quite so slinky in silhouette, the necklines had perhaps changed to a sweetheart, and there may be some shoulder-pads added.  I've tried to show 'gowns' as well as dresses here, but haven't found any suit options.

Addendum: My mother, after reading this blog post, would like to add that even if you could afford it, a proper wedding gown was very, very hard to track down in the 1940s!  In our own family, a lady managed to get hold of one (black market?!) and a few months after she wore it she passed it on to another family member to wear too.  You can read more about real weddings in Britain on the Imperial War Museum website here, who are currently doing an exhibition of 'Fashion on the Ration'.

Porcelina's World 5th Birthday!

I can hardly believe it, but Porcelina's World has just turned 5 years old! I think I'm allowed to reminisce and get a bit sentimental.  It's been quite a journey, with somewhat of an evolution of personal style and an adventure into decades of vintage fashion.

The first photo of myself I ever put on my blog, back in 2010, after the Lipstick & Curls team had created these amazing victory rolls for a friend's 1940s themed birthday!

Thanks to this blog, I know more about people in different parts of the world, about my readers and fellow bloggers.  I've forged some dear-to-me friendships, and have been constantly learning about things like photography, HTML, ethical and legal issues in blogging, make-up and hair styling, historical costume, antiques, vintage jewellery, caring for vintage clothes, dealing with PR companies, writing, time-management, as well as all the posing for endless photos with cars going past honking their horns.

How To Read More Books

Have you resolved to 'read more' this year?  Are you struggling to achieve that goal?  Read on for some tips about to how to achieve reading more books this year!

1960's Harella Jacket and a Mid Station Badge

Last Sunday was just the most gorgeously sunny day, it really felt like Spring was on the way!  We go on a little driving tour of the local area most weekends, but on a sunny day we feel the need to explore a bit further and make the most of the glorious weather.

The Pre Spending Ban Spending Spree

Charity shop and car boot sale shopping ruin you a bit for proper shops.  It's like being in a foreign and very expensive country when I accidentally wander into John Lewis these days.  The exception can be some of the ridiculously discounted high street sales that they have nowadays, as well as outlets of course.

Now that my #100daysnospend clothing purchase ban is in place, I thought I'd share some pictures of the shopping I managed to squeeze in before the ban was enforced.  I didn't purposefully 'go sale shopping' this year, but the charity shops have been fruitful, and we did go to some outlets as I as after some yoga gear.  The outlets near me are particularly good for sports and outdoor clothing.  (I used to run and do yoga in any old thing but once you try the proper high performance fabrics you can't go back!).  Here's what I bought, and whether I've worn it yet:

Charity shop finds.  All modern, no vintage this time.

J Crew silk dress, £2.  Not my usual choice of colours and I'm not keen on florals, but it's silk, it was cheap, and it fits perfectly, so it might be a holiday dress contender.  Not worn it yet.

London Edge With Voodoo Vixen and CiCi & Marie

London Edge is a big trade show that runs a couple of times a year and showcases alternative fashion, including vintage styled clothing.  You can imagine my delight when the lovely Carly from CiCi & Marie emailed little old me and asked if I would like to accompany her there.

Vintage style clothing brand Voodoo Vixen and its darker side, Jawbreaker, were sponsoring the show, and were recruiting bloggers to attend a press day.  In exchange for coverage of the event, bloggers would be gifted a dress to wear on the day, and get to attend the after party.  Free dress?  Party?  Chance to meet Carly?  We got in touch with Voodoo Vixen and as soon as our places were confirmed, train tickets were swiftly booked!  We were able to choose our dresses in advance, and picked them up on the day.  Spookily, we both knew which dress the other would go for  - Carly went for the Tilly dress and I went for the Adeline dress.  What do you think of our choices?

My Rockin' Wedding Plans: 7 Months To Go

I've bought a dress, booked a band, and literally have a shed full of prosecco.  What more do you really need for a wedding?!

I'm not going to go into too much detail of my plans on this blog in advance of the wedding, because friends and family do read it and I would like to maintain some degree of surprise for them.  I do intend to do a thorough report after the day though of everything we did, including costs, because one thing that I found frustrating from reading 'real bride budgets' was that they were very vague, omitting crucial details such as number of guests!  It would sound wonderful that they'd done a lavish wedding for £1,000 and then you'd find out that they only had 10 guests.

Here's a quick run through of where we've got to with the planning, and I've tried to state what I'm doing and what the groom is doing, because we're very much doing this together.

Venues
Ceremony and reception venues are booked.  I've also booked my hotel for the night before the wedding, which is 5 minutes away from the ceremony venue (just in case - best to be close I thought, in case there are any transport dramas!).  We are very lucky in that the registry office is located in a wonderfully grand building, which you might not believe is cheaper than getting married in the function room of some hotel!  Yes, you read that correctly.  Before that, the registry office used to be located in a mediocre brick building that's now a Subway.

For the reception we have hired a Grade II listed church hall.  It's small enough to feel intimate but large enough to pack in a lot of people, and comes complete with a stage, so it will be perfect for the musical entertainment we have planned.

Bride and groom's outfits

I've got a dress, he's got a suit.  I don't have any shoes yet, or accessories, but I'm working on that, and I will need to get the dress hemmed as it's super long, even on my tall frame.  Yes, it's LONG!  Ha!  How many of you thought that I would go for a '50s tea length one?  I will be doing my own hair and makeup, so I will need to set time aside to practice over the upcoming months.

Photographer

We are very, very excited about our photographer.  It's sort of a secret for now, but I will tell you more in a separate post!.

Guests

We've made an epic list, but haven't set the invites out yet.  We didn't do a big announcement, it's not on social media, and we didn't do that American thing of having an "engagement shoot".  I told all of my friends individually so that they could get the date in their diaries, but I don't think that my husband-to-be has done that (so if any of his friends are reading this now - surprise!  We're getting married!!).  My husband-to-be is in full charge of the invitations, he has some creative plans, so I might help out with the wording and check he's got the date and time on it, but other than that will leave him to it.  I've started one of those wedding websites too so that we can direct guests to that for all the travel and accommodation details.

Catering

Our church hall reception has no kitchen facilities, so we will have to get outside caterers in (tips for South Wales caterers gladly accepted!).  We'll be putting on a bar ourselves though, so will be obtaining a licence, stocking it ourselves, hiring glasses and bar staff (another area the groom-to-be is in charge of).  There is a LOT to think about when you're arranging all of this yourselves rather than have a venue take care of it for you, but we wanted to make the bar affordable for both ourselves and our guests.  Weddings are expensive enough for people to attend, without having to pay hotel prices at the bar.

Entertainment

The groom is a musician, so we have a large circle of musician friends, and this is another area that he is completely in charge of.  He's booked a band, is trying to get a DJ, and no doubt there will be other contributors to the entertainment, including the groom himself of course!

Wedding Cake

We were going to make a cake ourselves, because if you've ever made a Christmas cake, it's really not that hard to do a basic fruit cake and wack some white icing on it.  But then one of my sisters kindly offered to get us a cake as a wedding present, as her neighbour apparently makes to-die-for cakes, so we decided to take her up on it.

Bridesmaids

Because we have large families, I am having 5 bridesmaids and 2 flower girls on the day.  I know this must seem excessive, but we both have nieces that we want to be part of the day so we could never have chosen between them.  The bridesmaid dresses have been purchased, and they're all on the hunt for accessories.  I'll wait a while to get the flowergirl dresses as they are both small children and will probably grow taller over the next few months.

Flowers

I've asked my Dad to start growing some!  I'm not sure whether we'll end up using these to decorate the venue or if they will contribute to a bridal bouquet, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.  I've also started drying vast quantities of petals to make confetti with.  I just use up the flowers from the garden, or if I am lucky enough to get a bunch of cut flowers as a present then the petals from that get dried too.  It's really easy and I've already obtained quite a pile of petals.

Rose petals dry well to make petal confetti

Decorations
I've had so many kind offers from friends and family to help us decorate the reception venue the day before the wedding.  A colleague has offered to lend me some decorations, and as for the rest, we have an impressive selection already at home (from years of being magpies), and continue to pick up bits as we see them.  Just last week I picked up a wooden sign for 40p, when I know they retail for at least a fiver!  There's also a trend for vintage suitcases, rustic logs and that kind of thing, which you can hire for around £30 a piece - whereas we get them for free out of skips...

Bargain wooden block decorations from the charity shop, £1!

There are other things that are further down the list, like wedding rings, transport and a hotel for our wedding night.  And small but irksome things, like the need to find 15 white tablecloths...

I have to say that when writing this post I had a slight panic, because I thought that the wedding being in September would make it 9 months away, but then I worked out that it's only 7 months away, which gave me a few flutters.

So much to do, so little time to be a bridezilla.

A Plot With a View

This has to be one of the most scenic cemeteries I've ever been to!  What a view.  I can imagine it's a good spot for contemplation.