There is a reason why autumn is my favourite season and its not just because I get to decorate the house with pumpkins and sprinkle cinnamon on everything. Autumn clothes are always the best.
Braving the windy prom in my Check dress by Unique 21
Nothing says Autumn more than green tartan and this check dress by Unique 21 is satisfying all my grunge nostalgia as well as making me feel like I should be in Heathers.
Its been a while since Ive shot an outfit post so of course it chose to be both windy and rainy on the one free morning I had to do these shots. Luckily this dress is incredibly cosy and I was able to shoot some decent shots without freezing to death.
The green and blue colour way of this dress looks so great with black tights
I am loving how this has both long sleeves and a button up collar. Its quite rare to get a collared dress over a size 16 which also has long cuffed sleeves.
the confident smile of a woman who knows she has used enough hairspray to save her beehive from the October gale
Sizing on this is fairly true. Im particularly impressed with the fit on the upper arms. if you are blessed in the bust department you might size up (sort of wish I had now) This dress is available in sizes 16-26 on the Unique 21 site and also in a size 28 here *Outfit was gifted for review but this isnt a paid review-I really liked the frock.
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I’ve been on a rather long blogger hiatus. Lots of reasons
which are not particularly interesting but a big part of this has simply been that I'm super busy with work and family. So it seems fitting that my
first product review of 2018 is Mio Skincare’s Liquid Yoga Bath Soak A cruelty free, vegan bath product to help promote well being. Perfect.
Liquid Yoga claims to be your personal masseuse in a bottle;
helping relax tight, stressed shoulders and soothing tired, achy bodies. This
sounds pretty good and active ingredients such as Magnesium-rich Epsom salts
and Arnica as well as essential oils all suggest they will help create a
rather lovely bath. Importantly, it is Sodium Laureth Sulfate and Sodium Lauryl
Sulfate (SLS) free.
What the heck does that mean? Well these two ingredients are
probably in almost anything you have that makes bubbles in your home – go ahead
check your shampoo, your bubble bath, your dishwashing liquid, your kitchen
floor cleaner and your car shampoo. Weird, eh?. Plus it’s a well-known skin
irritant linked to all kinds of not-so-nice things.
Liquid Yoga is totally free from parabens, petrolatum,
colourants, xenoestrogens, PEGs and phthalates and Mio are committed to
ensuring all of their products are cruelty free and this product is also vegan.
But what is the bath soak like I hear you ask? I’m pleased
to report Its absolutely gorgeous.
Bright green in colour its smells wonderful. This is due to an incredible blend
of essential oils and extracts, including Mentha Arvensis Leaf Oil, Citrus
Lemon Peel Oil, Cypress Leaf Oil and Lavender, all chosen to help ease and
relax muscles.
This is a soak so no bubbles, just beautifully scented water
which doesn’t leave your skin greasy (a real bug bear of mine with other oil
based soaks)
The Epsom Salts definitely left me feeling a lot more
relaxed after a very long day which included hours of driving and the Andiroba
Oil and Fig Extract softened up my craggy old skin really well.
Appearance wise the bottle is quite functional looking but
with this product it really is all about the contents.
It’s called Liquid Yoga so was no doubt formulated to help
yoginis unwind after a busy day of downward dogs but it’s actually perfect for
anyone man, woman, beast (yes I bathed Dougal the Poogle in my used bath water
and he liked it) Mio have also created a guide for how to positiviely deal with workplace stress. I am someone who drinks a lot of coffee and does a lot of work at home and I think that is something Im not going to be able to change anytime soon. What I can do though is have a little bit of "me time" in the bath. Well 1 out of 3 isnt bad.
Liquid Yoga is available from Mio and can also be found in Boots, John Lewis and on Amazon.
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This weekend the writer and presenter June Sarpong has released her book Diversity for Harper Collins. Containing the tagline “because the
world is separate enough” I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on
this.
In an article for Elle Sarpong discusses how she, as someone of Ghanaian heritage
(where age brings with it a certain reverence where older women are valued for
their wisdom and experience ) finds the Western distain for aging perplexing
saying:
Older women who have
experienced life have so much to offer us in terms of balancing work and family
life, thriving in male-dominated environments and pioneering different
approaches to challenges, whether that be inflexible hours for working mothers
or pay barriers.
Its timely to be reading all this as I have also been thinking
about this subject for quite a while. Why are attitudes towards women over
thirty so problematic? not least by women as they approach certain age
milestones.
I am forever reading how “hard” aging is for women. Daily we
are encouraged to invest in “anti-aging” remedies. The subtext being that for a
woman to look anything other than twenty-two is to somehow fail one of the invisible
tests of femininity.
The patriarchy suggests in its whiney little Nigel Farage
voice, that to have currency, women must appear youthful, juicy, fertile. Don’t
let the bloom fall off the rose.
Depressing statistics
regularly suggest the socio-economic landscape favours men, and that women
leaving the workplace to have children struggle to play catch up upon their
return but is that the only reason women so often bemoan the privilege of
getting older? Could it be that we have allowed our eyes to be averted from the
glorious power that women in their forties, and onwards possess?
When I see women in their early thirties freaking out about “getting
older” discounting other women because they are “past it” I feel a reinforcement
of a distorted mythology around women and aging.
I can totally see why they are conditioned to feel that way
but also feel unable to indulge such short-sighted views on the most inevitable
aspects of the human condition- we all get older.
Isn’t it time we
stopped talking in a baby voice? Shouldn’t we stop wanting to be infantilised? When
we post memes about not wanting to “adult” are we maybe just being really
fucking lame?
Being an adult isn’t just about paying bills and having responsibilities,
it’s about having enough experience to compare and contrast. It’s about knowing
more than the narrow prescribed curriculum you studied at school because you have
actually had time to fall in and out of love with different people, music,
books, art.
Growing older means you can have had an Egon Schiele and a Lempickaphase and know why you no longer need to hang up art prints to prove you
are smart. Growing older means you own your likes and dislikes and are no
longer ashamed to admit that The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole is still one of favourite books but feel confident to bring up The Yellow wallpaper even if it is a bit
obscure and involves ideas around madness and toxic interior design.
The question we need to ask ourselves is whether appearing
young and sweet and attractive is more valuable to us than possessing wisdom? If
knowledge is power surely increasing in years should be the goal. And yes, that
includes looking older.
Perhaps part of our resistance to aging are the options we
feel are on offer.
Are the only choices we have as women Maiden, Mother, Crone?A
bright young thing, a caregiverand then
someone waiting to be pushed out to sea on a boat made of poor pension pay-outs? Could there not be a fourth
way?
Feminists like Jennifer Baumgardner have argued since 2008 for a
fourth wave of feminism, a movement with an increased focus onintersectionality, including the
repudiation of trans-exclusionary radical feminism and a focus on solidarity
with other social justice movements.
Perhaps we also need to identify a new status that transcends
ideas of women either being girls or mamas or matriarchs and, instead identifies
us as wisdom gatherers and policy creators. Not yet crone but crone in waiting?
I’m not a young
woman, I’ve been a young woman. I’ve moved onto a new life stage which is more
varied and complex and rich than ever before and its intoxicating.
Ignore the
bogeyman of ageing He (and it is patriarchal thinking that encourages this mind-set) is too distracting. There is much work to do to create equality in the
workforce especially for WOC and for our sisters in other countries, still struggling
to access rights we take for granted.
There are real things for us to worry
about but the physical appearance of growing older is not one of them.
As Le Tigre sing in Hot Topic
Carol Rama and Eleanor
Antin
Yoko Ono and Carolee
Schneeman
You're getting old,
that's what they'll say, but
Don't give a damn I'm
listening anyway
Our tents dont need to be red but we do need to start openly revering the process of ageing. Not respecting in some patronising head patting way but actually acknowledging how time more than anything else gives us the opportunity to become more educated and more empathetic.
Don't give a damn to what society tells you, I'm listening anyway.
New 'Colour Me' Tshirt boxes - For Kids, and adults up to 5XL. Each item comes boxed with fabric pens,practice sheets & instructions. Available only at Nicky Rockets
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