MSH Backup

Now that it’s officially spring (hurrah!), it feels like the perfect opportunity to blow those wardrobe cobwebs away and invest in some new season staples. I’ve been merrily window shopping over the last few weeks, and now that payday has finally rolled around, I’m braced to invest in some new bits and bobs- after a long overdue declutter! It will come as no surprise to regular readers that & Other Stories is my current shopping destination of choice, and their spring styles are well and truly ones to invest in over the next couple of months: Striped Shirt, £27/Sheer Knit Top, £45/Tie Kneck Blouse, £49/Straight Fit Blazer, £89/Mirrored Round Flame Sunglasses, £23/Stone and Stud Ring, £13/Horsebit Buckle Loafers, £79/Leather Covered Diary, £23/Ribbed V Neck Top, £23/Trio Pocket Crossbody Bag, £89, all & Other Stories You can never really go wrong with a good quality striped top, and this style is a brilliant staple option, lending itself as well to smart dressing as to casual e...

One of the best things about working slap bang in the middle of London is the sheer variety which it offers, whether that’s in terms of the myriad of sights to see, spectrum of shops or plethora of new foodie haunts which pop up so regularly. If anything, I sometimes find myself well and truly spoilt for choice for lunch options during the week, which is why I always tend to prefer exploring new haunts at the weekend- as well as having more time to enjoy them, it means that my bank balance can breath a sigh of relief! One such recent exploration comes in the shape of Eat by Chloe, which has recently opened just off of Drury Lane: A few years ago, I think it would have been difficult to imagine an exclusively vegan food outlet occupying such a prominent position in the heart of the West End, but such is the power of the ‘wellness’ movement I suppose! The first UK branch of this US-born chain is definitely made with the Instagram generation in mind- complete with statement neon signs, sh...

Now that the clocks have sprung forward, I think it’s ok to say that spring is finally here- and not before time! However, having glanced at the weather forecast for next weekend, I’m not getting my hopes up for a particularly mild Easter, and am instead injecting touches of spring into my everyday style choices whilst keeping as wrapped up as the unpredictable weather demands. Recently I feel like I’ve been living in more or less the same succession of outfits, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, as they say:  Coat- Whistles  Top- H&M  Trousers- Espirit (via ASOS)  Shoes- Marks and Spencer  Bag- & Other Stories  This Whistles coat which I picked up just before the end of last year is an investment which has well and truly earned its keep and become a real staple buy. It’s been essential during the last couple of chilly spells which we’ve had, and is wonderfully cosy to wrap up in on a frosty morning. Another recent favourite comes in the shape of ...

With the end of another month in prospect, and a four day Easter weekend just peeking tantalisingly over the horizon, it seems high time for another reading round up. I’ve snapped up a hearty collection of new reads over the last month or so, and having started perusing the pages of these new volumes, I’m really looking forward to getting lost in them over the next couple of weeks- having next weekend bookended by two Bank Holidays offers the perfect opportunity to settle down with a selection of serious page turners: Women & Power by Mary Beard is a volume which I’ve been wanting to peruse since it was released, and International Women’s Day earlier in the month seemed like the perfect motivation to treat myself. I’ve also been loving Civilisations on BBC2, and this is a great companion read. Charting the history of and discourses surrounding women and specifically focusing on their relationship to power, it’s a really accessible, well plotted piece of writing, drawing on insigh...

Whilst waiting for this thaw to finish and for spring to kick start in earnest, I’ve been making a to-do list for the start of spring. I’ve posted before about the sense of renewal which comes with the start of a new season, and spring in particular always seems to bring with it a new burst of energy, which usually tends to motivate me enough to finally have a declutter/sort out my wardrobe/file all of my post! As well as that, over recent weeks I’ve been road testing some new beauty discoveries, which have been real boons to my daily routine: A long overdue repurchase of Glossier’s Moisturising Moon Mask provided me with the perfect opportunity to snap up another of their Generation G lip colours (all about that free delivery!) This colour has been on my radar for a few months now- Jam is a deep berry which is a lovely alternative to my usual go-to red, and the buildable formulation makes it perfect for all occasions, whether you’re after a subtle or statement look. I’ve also been tes...

Never mind the Ides of March, once again it's the snow and ice we've all got to watch out for! I had a funny feeling that we'd not quite seen the last of winter, and this weekend it came back with a bite- even harder to bear when the weather had been so lovely and spring-like! Lulled into a false sense of security as I was, on Saturday I found myself rummaging around in the recesses of my wardrobe to (however reluctantly!) dig out some cold weather appropriate attire:  Coat- Vintage Jumper- Red Herring at Debenhams Jeans- & Other Stories Hat- Accessorize Scarf- Accessorize Shoes- Gap Bag- & Other Stories Try as I might to convince myself that it's spring (even this backdrop didn't quite defeat the snowflakes), it seems that, for now at least, Mother Nature has got other ideas! Wrapping up in layer after layer, I tried to keep things a little bit lighter with this floral motif knit from Debenhams, tucked away under a vintage coat which is wonderfully warm. I...

I don’t know about you, but by the time the weekend arrives, there are few things I enjoy more than spending Saturday scouting out new foodie favourites. Gone are the mornings of trekking to Oxford Street (these days I can think of nothing worse!), supplanted instead with leisurely wanders and perusing the menus of some new dining discoveries. Last Saturday, before heading to the theatre, Hannah and I made a pit-stop at 40 Maltby Street to sample their small but perfectly balanced selection of dishes:    With a tiny menu served out of an equally tiny kitchen, 40 Maltby Street is a wonderful option for a leisurely weekend lunch, but somewhere it’s worth arriving at early to avoid the queues which build up as the neighbouring market gets busy. We selected a handful of dishes to share between us- celeriac croquettes which were wonderfully flavoursome, and pork rilettes served with fresh bread baked by St.John- one of the most moreish dishes I think I’ve ever tasted! We also sampl...

Now that it feels like spring is in the air at long last, I’m eagerly anticipating packing away my winter coats for another year, and rediscovering some fair-weather wardrobe favourites too. For now, however, we’re trapped in that tricky transitional limbo where it seems to be gloriously sunny one day, and tipping down with rain the next, making it almost impossible to plan what to deck yourself out in in advance. It’s at times like this that I’m always grateful for those wonderfully versatile style staples which lend themselves so well to switching up for all occasions: Jacket- Zara  Jumper- Whistles  Trousers- Espirit (via ASOS)  Shoes- Nike  Bag- Oliver Bonas  The first trip out of the house of the year sans coat always feels a little bit preemptive, but in an attempt to will spring on just that little bit faster, last weekend I threw caution to the wind and plumped for this check jacket from Zara. Slightly oversized, it’s perfect for layering-here I popped i...

New beauty launches always tend to provoke a flurry of excitement, and over the last year or so Glossier’s have definitely been deserving of the hype. From their debut into the UK market towards the end of 2017, to their pop up shop in London , they’ve well and truly cracked the stealth marketing game. No surprise then, that their most recent unveiling received a suitably stellar premiere last weekend, debuting for the first time on the Oscars red carpet. Step forward, Lidstar: I'm usually a creature of real habit when it comes to eyeshadows, but this launch well and truly piqued my interest, thanks predominantly to the cross-section of colours on offer. For my first Lidstar duo, I opted for Moon and Cub- an almost sheer pearl and warm rose gold respectively. It's early days, but so far, so promising- they're surprisingly long lasting, and the colour payoff is great- Cub in particular is a great alternative to a lot of the more neutral browns which I tend to reach for. My o...

February, finished! Although it's the shortest month, contending with the weather over the last couple of weeks has made it seem to drag on for far longer than 28 days, don't you think?! I'm very glad to have bid farewell to the snow for (hopefully!) the foreseeable future, and am very much looking forward to the prospect of spring unfolding imminently. It's definitely my favourite season- and I always feel so optimistic as things start to burst back into life. As well as that, I'm looking forward to a long Easter weekend at the end of the month, as well as some other lovely plans in prospect in the interim. Looking back, February seemed to pass in something of a haze- but here's a peek at some highlights: Monday motivation!/Beautiful flowers from Bloom & Wild and Nikki Tibbles /Covent Garden bursting with Valentine's prettiness/Black Panther. What a film!/Sunny Somerset House/ Dinner at Spring / New Aesop beauty essentials /Snow slipping away This weeke...

Happy International Women’s Day! It’s always great to celebrate inspirational women, and this year the sense of solidarity is perhaps more palpable than ever. 100 years after selected women in the UK were awarded the vote, the last six months or so have seen the birth of a new type of activism in the wake of #MeToo and the Time’s Up movements; people finding their voices to speak about behaviour which has gone casually unpunished and unchecked for far too long. The commonality of harassment towards women- whether in the workplace, in the street and everywhere in between is no excuse for it to be explained away as ‘banter’ or ‘nothing to worry about’; indeed, when #MeToo went viral towards the end of last year, I found myself backtracking through instances in my own experiences- and getting angry with myself for not saying more about things which had happened to me at the time. I think the new culture of culpability and change which these movements are encouraging is brilliant- making a...

With the absolutely icy temperatures of last week, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has found my skin in need of some serious tlc. Lovely as it was to witness one last flurry of winter, the practicalities of keeping safe and warm whilst still trying to navigate a transport system which is predictable at the best of times was a little bit of a nightmare, with last Friday night in particular resembling something more Mad Max than most of the train carnage I've seen before! Spending longer than anticipated out in the cold, whether that be slipping and sliding to work from the underground, or waiting on the platform for a train to appear, my face in particular has felt a little it more like sandpaper than skin. Fortunately enough, a few weeks ago I picked up a new addition to my arsenal of face masks which has well and truly earned its keep over the last little while: After loving the dry sheet mask  so much when I tried it recently, I popped back to Charlotte Tilbury to pick...

Although we're not quite at the end of winter just yet - (how bizzare was last week?!!), I'm hoping that we won't have too much longer to way until spring is here in earnest. Whilst it's not quite warm enough to pack away my winter wardrobe just yet, I've been switching things up a little it of late with some new additions to my jewellery collection. Small yet perfectly formed, these little trinkets have become firm favourites of late: Regular readers will know that I'm a big fan of Zara Simon's range for Accessorize, and these earrings are my most recent purchase from the collection. As someone with multiple ear piercings, this trio of small hoops is perfect- especially as they're ideal for switching up with some other favourites without being too over the top. Another addition to my jewellery box from the same range comes in the shape of this constellation necklace- a piece I spotted on a whim and couldn't resist. I think something like this would ...