Dedicated Follower of Fashion

Road Test: New Glasses and Awkward Self Portraits

I'm a prolific contact lens wearer. To the point that my eyes sob, actual tears, when I peel them out of my eyes. Gross huh? So I decided that in 2012 I was going to look after my eyes a bit more - you know, because I kind of like being able to see. The day I got my contacts changed my life - I felt pretty for the first time since I was about 7 (that's when I got my first pair of glasses) and as a result rejected glasses for a really long time.

But thanks to a perfectly timed offer from Refinery 29 Reserve and Lookmatic I was able to grab two new pairs of prescription glasses. Woo. I was really impressed by the service, they arrived faster than my contacts (which are pre made) and despite being enormously blind (-7 y'all!) the lenses are really slim - and these were just the standard thickness.They're also rather cool non? (though Mr Style says I look like Harry Potter in the first pair!)

Anyway - I'm sure now that I have trendy glasses, that I can actually see out of, I'll be wearing them a lot more!

In the first pic I am wearing Andy in Tortoise and the second pic Apprentice in wood. You can buy them at Lookmatic for $88 a piece.

Kelsi x

Road Test: The Dry Bar

Ok. I was a total Dry Bar skeptic. Total. Mostly because I've spent years honing my hair styling skills, and when I actually bother to do it, it can look quite good. The key phrase there is "when I bother to do it". My hair is very long (I can do a Lady Godiva - I'll leave that to your imaginations...) it's also really thick and quite curly. To style it my favourite way, including washing it, it's going to take over an hour. At least.

Whereas at Dry Bar, from wash to exit. Half an hour. Sure I have to pay for that privilege. Sure I have to travel across town (can we get an East side/Glendale location please?) but man, it's actually worth it. Who knew?

The whole experience was great, we were greeted warmly, offered a Mimosa (I only drink juice if it has champagne in it...) I had a very chatty stylist who I adored (apparently the feeling was mutual as she exclaimed "I'm obsessed with you - can we be friends!") and she manipulated my knot filled barnet into beautiful waves... I believe they call that a mutually beneficial relationship folks.

I took my mother in law along with me as we had a wedding to attend the next day and we both came out extremely satisfied with our "do's". The picture above is from the day after - having slept on it and not brushed it (I don't brush my hair, hence the knots..) and it still looks pretty fab non?

So a glowing review for The Dry Bar and a promise to return. Not bad from a former skeptic. Not bad at all.

Thanks Dry Bar!

Kelsi x

P.S Yes this was a freebie - but I'll pay to do it again, so what does that tell you huh?

Dedicated Traveler: Hedonists Guide to....

When planning our trip to England last month I found myself a little stuck. I wanted to show off London to Mr Style - parts he hadn't seen, not the touristy stuff, the cool local stuff. Not having been a local in London for almost six years I went to internet for help.

Within minutes I'd discovered the Hedonists Guide to London, and promptly introduced myself to folks behind the guides and they invited me to review them. I opted for both London and Los Angeles. The two cities I know best, in the world.

I'm a travel freak in as far as I need to know everything about a city before I visit - I love playing tour guide, so a good guide to essential.

The London guide is aesthetically, incredibly pleasing. Hot pink, embossed, with no glaring "TOURISTS GUIDE TO" and what not - which would be quite frankly embarrassing to pull out in your own city. Being a girl who's stylishly inclined I was already sold.

Fast forward to the contents. Every trip to London with Mr Style thus far had focused on West and Central London - being that was the area I lived in. However in the past decade, East London has grown in to an excellent area of London (ah gentrification) - as with most East sides in major metropolitan cities. In a parallel fashion, I have also grown into a person that would enjoy the East side of a major metropolitan city, so naturally this trips focus was on East London.

Thanks to the Hedonist Guide to London we secured an uber cool and affordable hotel in The Hoxton (my review is here). I also discovered new and fun places to eat and drink (Uh, Callooh Callay, Shoreditch anyone?) and felt like a local in no time, so by the time we actually arrived in London - I was taking my local friends to the cool places. I'm that girl. 

I can't wait to go back to London in February (for more than 48 hours) and use up the whole of the guide.

The Los Angeles guide is a little more conservative in appearance (go figure) it's sleek, black, but still subtle in appearance - so even though I've lived here for years and my accent betrays my residence, I can play tourist without looking like one.

I can't imagine how difficult it is to create a guide to Los Angeles, it's a sprawling mass of mini cities, each with their own distinct identity (much like London) except the business turnaround here is pretty rapid. I've lost count of what the last cool place to dance was - and the likelihood is, it's the same cool place to dance it was ten years ago - it's just changed names 10 times.

Despite all of this The Hedonist Guide to Los Angeles does a really good job of covering Los Angeles - even the parts I was honestly ready to criticise them for not covering (being the kind of Los Angelian that doesn't go west of Los Feliz and east of Venice...) the East side was well covered - still maybe not as covered as I would have it - but still it was there.

My Los Angeles classic favourites like Dominicks and The Dresden Rooms were there, but many were notably missing - I found the Snack section more appropriate for dining than the restaurant section and was impressed to see it included Portos and In n Out Burger (Los Angeles classics!).

Really notably missing was an extensive guide to downtown - it's such a diverse part of our city, the flower markets and the fashion district were both missing. Also our extensive vintage selections were largely skipped over.

In both guides, London and Los Angeles, I did feel like the shopping sections were fairly weak - but I'm a fashion blogger and a shopping obsessive - so it's likely most guides, unless entirely devoted to shopping, wouldn't satiate my needs!

Overall the Hedonists Guides are some of the best travel guides I've come across in years of extensive travel. Affordable (under $20) compact, good looking, lightweight and diverse in content. They also offer extensive online guides (now completely free), a fancy iPhone app and the guides are available in over 50 countries.

"Hedonist Guides to" are available here.

Kelsi Smith.

 

 

 

Road Test: I Found a Fossil. A Really Big and Awesome Fossil.

The lovely folks at Fossil, being the lovely folks at Fossil, deemed me worthy enough to receive one of their beautiful purses shortly before I jetted off to England - and the pre travel timing couldn't have been more perfect.

Whilst in the UK I decided (in a very impromptu fashion) to give my purse the "lymelight" during a day trip to Lyme Regis, a small town on the Jurassic Coast, infamous for their beaches literally littered with fossils - or at least it's supposed to be - immediately after tourist season it's a wee bit harder to find a fossil, but fortunately I brought my own.

Fossil purse, Fossil Beach. Geddit?

When the purse first arrived I honestly thought "lordy, that's a BIG bag" - but in actuality it's the perfect size. Being a firm believer in public transport and about to embark on a mammoth trip (now that fossil pun was entirely incidental) I tend to load my bag with a TON of stuff and fortunately - even fully loaded, the purse never got too heavy.

An essential feature is the phenomenal amount of pockets and compartments of varying sizes (iPhone sized, iPod sized, wallet sized, sunglasses size) - and pockets and compartments you can actually zip up. A purse that I can organise? Amazing - will I actually keep it organized? Probably not. But that's just me. It also zips up entirely - perfect the plane (for avoiding overhead compartment spillages) and perfect for traveling on the tube (for avoiding potential "spillages" into the hands of pickpockets).

I think my favourite thing about the bag comes down to pure aesthetics. How flipping gorgeous is this leather? I love that it has a pebbled detail, I think the colour is so rich and the leather is super soft. It goes with everything and is incredibly versatile. The vintage detailing, keys, locks and keyholes are all wonderful features that add to the personality of the bag as a whole. Whilst I'd imagine the jangling of the metal detailing would drive some folks insane - I enjoy an outfit that jangles and we all know how I feel about the vintage aesthetic (oh you don't? I love it.)

In case you hadn't noticed I'm pretty much head over heels with this purse, and see myself using it for years to come - and I'm confident the leather will wear beautifully - my very own Fossil, mine for millions of years. Well maybe. Science, nature and stuff might intervene ;)

Purse courtesy of Fossil. Available for purchase at $248 here as part of the Fossil Vintage Re-Issue Collection.

Kelsi x

Road Test: Glen Ivy Spa

Last week I got to spend a much needed day doing literally nothing. Now in all honesty, I'm really not very good at relaxing. Being still is not something I'm good at - so having it "forced" upon me in the form of visiting a spa to review, is somewhat of a necessity.

The Glen Ivy Spa is situated in Corona at the base of the Painted Hills - the area is actually very gorgeous and tucked away from the hustle of the city - upon arriving you really feel as if you've discovered something that no one know's about - or rather you would if the parking lot wasn't brimming with cars.

Despite the amount of cars, and being at peak season, the spa didn't feel over crowded and the amount of people didn't disturb the tranquility too much. I'd be extremely curious to visit off season, however, as I'm sure the atmosphere is entirely different.

We started our day with lunch - it was only 11.30am but we took the advice of the staff and hit the café before the lunch rush - this was definitely wise - as we left the café the line was out the door. I opted for the veggie lasagna (though apparently everyone else in the café opted for the giant plate of chicken nachos) the food was extremely good. Despite being a "heavy" dish, I didn't feel bloated, but felt pleasantly full. Perfect spa food.

After lunch we changed and headed to one of the pools. This pool is around 2.5 feet deep and filled with "floaties" (or as we call them in the UK - "lilos") - this was probably my favourite space - lounging in the sun, but in the water was perfect on a super hot day. My only complaint here would be the bees - we kept finding dead or dying ones around us and my intern Gina did get stung (which she handled like a trouper...I would have whined soooo much) - this did make it a little hard to relax. Minus the bees this pool couldn't be more perfect.

Next we switched to our old bathing suits (as per recommendation as the red clay can stain) wearing an old bathing suit was quite an ordeal for me, being that I've gained 40lbs and 3 cups sizes since any of my old suits....this was the only one that covered my nipples, so I went with it.

We jumped in the mineral spa first to open up our pores - you have a choice between a group pool which seats about 10 and smaller pools which sit 1-3 people - we were lucky and got a small pool to ourselves immediately with no wait. The pool was hot and relaxing (as you'd expect a spa to be) and the sulphuric stench was evidence of it's natural minerals.

After the mineral pool we headed to 'Club Mud'. Club Mud features a mud pool with a pile of red clay in the center, if you're not brave enough to enter the pool there's also an area with misters and a pile of clay. The idea is simple - cover yourself with the refining clay bake in the sun or the stone hut, brush off the clay and shower! My skin felt super soft after the treatment and the element of fun in slathering yourself with mud is not to be missed.

 


We changed back into our far more appropriate swimsuits and spent the next hour lounging by the pool - we had every intention of participating in the water aerobics pictured above but chickened out and just watched the class instead.

Overall our day at Glen Ivy was wonderful, it's the perfect, quick, easy and inexpensive escape from Los Angeles and I highly recommend it. I cannot wait to visit again in the off season and perhaps sample one of their many wonderful treatments!

Our trip was courtesy of Glen Ivy for the purpose of review, but a day pass to the spa is really inexpensive - access to everything above is $46, Monday-Thursday and $59 Friday-Sunday and holidays. There is a discounted entrance fee when combined with a treatment and treatments (which include massages, manicures and facials) range from $49 to $159.

To learn more about Glen Ivy visit their website and follow them on Twitter.

Thanks so much for a wonderful day of much needed relaxation Glen Ivy!

Kelsi x