3 Beautiful Budget Watches

Now, I know we would all love a Rolex or a Cartier watch but unfortunately we don’t all earn a footballer’s wage. So we have to buy what we can with what we have. Fortunately, there are more affordable watches that look more than what you paid for:

Lorus Stone Set Bracelet Watch RC369AX9

They may not be diamonds, but they certainly sparkle. Stones are set in the stainless steel bracelet and the rectangular bezel which makes it appear elegant and stylish and much more expensive than it actually is.

Sekonda Temptations Watch 4253

Sekonda watches have been doing well in terms of their ladies collections which are packed full of sparkles. I have a Sekonda Twilight Pearl and it’s so beautiful that people assume it cost a lot more than £50. This rose gold Temptations watch is both sporty with the linked bracelet and the stones in the bezel and at each hour make it feminine.

 

Accurist Collection Bracelet Watch LB1346P

 When I first saw this watch, I was amazed at the colour. A gorgeous gold toned watch with a sophisticated oval dial highlighted with stones set in the bezel. The most expensive out of the three at £80, it is definitely a watch to purchase if you want something luxurious but aren’t willing to pay for a true gold watch.

These three watches can be viewed at The Watch Hut.

The Anatomy Of A Luxury Watch (Guest Post)

I have always been interested in watch movements, which is why skeleton watches are my absolute favourite. I love being able to see the mechanics, as it really does look beautiful:


This Bulova Accutron watch is on my "what to buy if I had a lot of money" list at the moment. I adore how the dial is cut out at the 12 o'clock mark which gives you a glimpse of the inside.

 Or...


 This men's Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch. It saddens me that the majority of amazing skeleton watches are all for men.















The Watch Gallery have produced a video that shows a watchmaker, Jamie Hardes, disassemble a Rolex watch and it has made me understand what parts of the movement I can see on skeleton watches. It is incredible how such small pieces are so necessary to start time:

Begin a Breitling Watch Collection, with Colt 44 (GUEST POST)

With the recent news that David Beckham has become the face of the new collection, Breitling for Bentley, Breitling watches have made a soar from the skies and onto the wrist of a stunningly rugged celebrity, creating excitement and intrigue.

For those who want to start exploring the Swiss brand Breitling, there is hope for those not on a Beckham budget.

Starting from £1,920, begin a Breitling collection with Colt 44. Experience the performance and reliability Breitling watches have had to offer since 1884, presenting a caliber ten times more accurate than a standard quartz movement, enclosed in thick sapphire crystal and steel, water resistance up to 500 meters and an 8 year life battery fit with an End-of-Life indicator showing when to change the battery. Four straps are also available to suit the wearer's needs: Leather, Diver Pro, Ocean Racer or Professional.

Buy a Breitling watch without breaking the bank, with The Watch Gallery.

VISIT BREITLING'S OFFICIAL WEBSITE

I'm back, and I come with bargains!

Good morning, Readers! (Yes, it's morning to me... even at 1pm)

I haven't been posting for a while due to travelling around Europe and graduating and having to be social with friends and family. I apologise, but it doesn't mean I haven't been finding bargains in the recent sales and events! Even though my bank account number has taken a huge dive.

Here are a few items I have successfully bought not at the full retail price:

Asos is a huge bane in my life, and most possibly in your life too. It's a wonderful haven of beautiful and funky clothes which are constantly in and out of the 'Sale' section. Here, we have the 'Crop Top with Scribble Tattoo Print' which is currently at £12 on Asos. However, I bagged it at £9.50, which isn't a  huge savings but it wasn't £12, so I'm happy.

This skirt is so durable and flattering to wear, that it's one of my favourite buys. Originally £38, I obviously wasn't going to buy it at full price. But when it went into sale for £19, I was all over it. It is also still currently gracing the 'Sale' section with it's presence at £17. Gogogogo!!!

Lastly from Asos, we have the Vintage Tattoo Print shirt. Originally £36, it was in my 'saved items' for months and months whilst I impatiently waited for it to go into the sale. It finally did (obviously, else it would not be in this blog!!) and I bagged it for £18. Like the skirt, it is still in the sale, and is £14.

Like Asos, I always browse the Sale section at Topshop. I love a lot of what they sell, but I do believe it's overpriced.

Look at this jacket. Just look at it and marvel at its unique PVC clear heart. I know I did when I first saw this jacket in Topshop. When I saw it, however, it was over £40 and I died a little inside. One day though, I went into Topshop when they were having a big end-of-season sale and I saw one of these jackets hanging up, no label and no indication as to where it came from. I asked the sales assistant to tell me how much it was via the label, and it was £20! I was so happy, and I was also happy that it was a size 8. Now, I am definitely not a size 8. I am at the top end of size 12. But this jacket fit perfectly, a size 12 would have drowned me. So, I got a wonderful jacket for half price and it happened to fit. Win!

Lastly, clothes wise, I bought something else in the Topshop sale:

This dress makes me smile. It did when I first saw it at full price of £32, but then the price made the smile vanish. Defeated, I knew I would probably never own it. Went to the sale a week later, and it was on sale! I had an extremely lucky day in Topshop, and both this dress and the jacket match perfectly with them both being heart-related.

Finally, I thought I would share this amazing bargain with you all. If you go into Boots at the moment, Pantene shampoo and conditioners are on buy one get one free. So I got both of these for £3.79 (I think it was) instead of over £7! Oh, I do love you Boots.

Time to get fit for the summer with sale shoes!

Summer is creeping up (finally!) and I, for one, have eaten so much takeaway food the past couple of weeks. I blame the boyfriend for visiting...
At university, we had free membership to the gym which I completely took advantage of and I surprisingly loved it. But now, back home, I am poor and to even step into a leisure centre or gym nowadays sends the bank account in a frenzy. Thankfully, I get discount on going swimming and going to the gym (gotta love Job Seeker's...) but I thought it was worth looking into going running. You don't have to pay for it (aside from time in bed, perhaps) and it's a great way to stay fit and lose weight. If you're like me though, and the thought of even walking to the shops makes you tired then it's fair to say you ultimately do have to spend money- on trainers. Yes. I didn't own trainers. Aside from three pairs of Converse, I was trainer-less. Going to the gym in trainers showed me that Converse are definitely not great for working out in, and so they definitely won't be great for running in. So, up Birmingham (as usual) I stopped into some sports shops as they have huge sales on at the moment, like every other shop.

I'm a size 4, and therefore, apparently in JD Sports my shoe size is considered a Junior size........... So it took me a while to actually find the sale section for my size. On this hunt, I wanted to find trainers that would be good for both running but also look quite nice as I'm going around Europe in July and I would wear them then, also. Most of the shoes in the sale are focused more on fashion and style, rather than durability. I did however come across one pair:

The first thing that struck me was the colours. Black and red is one of my favourite colour combinations. The second thing that struck me was the fact that they were £10. My budget was £15, so I was very happy with these! I have also noticed that wearing old athletic trainers is in fashion at the moment, so if I decide to go down that path then these will also go in handy as I think the colours would work for it!

Make-up removers I use that cost little

Being a huge fan of make-up, it's fair to say that when I do wear it I wear a lot of it! Bioderma make-up remover is currently on my 'what to buy when I have money' list, but until then I have to count the pennies and purchase cheaper alternatives. I still look for a make-up remover that does the job, though. Make-up on the skin ages you, so if it's not removed thoroughly then your skin will age much quicker! So removing make-up completely is very important if you want to look as young as possible and to not break-out.

For the past year or so, I have been using Garnier's Simply Essentials 2-in-1 make-up remover. It contains no alcohol, or no perfume, which is a BIGBIG bonus for the skin. You can get it from Boots for £2.99. It works well, makes the skin feel clean and doesn't require rubbing if you're attempting to get waterproof make-up off (it removes waterproof make-up very well!).

If you pop into Boots right now, they currently have a 'buy one get cheapest free' on Garnier products! So I bought one of the Simply Essentials make-up removers alongside the Fresh Essentials eye make-up remover. In my opinion, the 200ml Simply Essentials is a much better product that the 150ml Fresh Essentials eye make-up remover as you can use it for eye make-up removing as well as facial make-up removing.

Alongside these two Garnier products, I have been using their new Pure Active make-up remover purifying gel:

It is a 2-in-1 product that both removes make-up and cleanses skin, helping to target imperfections. I have oily skin that is prone to blemishes, which is what this product aims. Before this product, I had never used a cleansing make-up removing face wash... I wish I had before! It has never been so easy for me to remove my make-up, and it also removes waterproof eye make-up. It's such a holy grail for us lazy girls, believe me. You can get it from Boots for £4.99, which is a good price for a facial cleanser, a make-up remover and a spot treatment!

It's sale time!

Waltzing around Birmingham town centre, I couldn't help but notice the masses of 'SALE' signs plastered in shop windows. Being poor, this both saddened me and intrigued me. So I made it a mission to buy some clothes for under £10. Yes, £10.

I have been a huge fan of wearing brogue shoes at the moment. The pair I can't stop wearing are a Marks & Spencer's pair- that I found in a local charity shop for £10 instead of £30-£40! However, brogue shoes look good with a pair of cute little socks, or socks in general, in my opinion. I only own about 10 pairs of black socks from Asda and a few with cute patterns on but that is it... So one of my missions was to find some cute socks to wear with my brogue shoes.

The Topshop sale started yesterday, and so me and my best friend went there before anywhere else in the Bullring to have a look. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything cheap and wonderful that caught my eye so I gave up pretty quickly. I did however find some socks which were on sale for £2 instead of £4. I also discovered that I still had £2 left on my Topshop gift card that I got for my birthday so these were technically a free pair of socks and definitely helped my £10 budget and sock mission!

COS also had a sale on. I have a love/hate relationship with COS. I absolutely adore the clothes, shoes and accessories they sell but I can't afford much in there so I've never bought anything from there. Thankfully though, I found these cute pair of socks on sale from £5 to £3.50. The socks I've bought are thin like tights which I was looking for due to the sun slowly making an appearance here in the UK- sweaty feet is not pleasant in hot weather. 

You might be able to see the black panel on the heel, which I think makes these socks pretty unique and would be nice to wear with sandals where the heel is on show.

My sock mission had been fulfilled, and so me and my friend went to one of our favourite shops hidden in the back-streets of Birmingham- COW Vintage. For those of you who don't know, COW is a fashion shop that, as you may have guessed by the name, sell vintage clothes, accessories, shoes and jewellery. 

(http://vintagereflection.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/cow.jpg)

I went in with no hopes of finding much for under my remaining budget of £6.50, but I looked anyway. A jumper suddenly caught my eye on a hanging rail:

This jumper, ladies and gentleman, was £5. I could easily see other retailers selling a jumper of this quality for much MUCH more considering the leather and suede panels (apologies to any vegetarian or vegan readers!). I'm not sure what I'm going to wear it with yet, but that's part of the excitement... isn't it?