Competition: Barry M & Ax Paris

Ax Paris have teamed up with Barry M to offer not just 1 but 5 lucky winners the chance to win 2 Ax Paris dresses of their choice and a Barry M gift set worth £55!!!

To be in with a chance of winning click here. Good luck :) x

Models Own Ice Neon

We adore these neon polishes from Models Own! They will make the perfect summer shades and Fee from Make Up Savvy has swatched them beautifully... making us want to buy them even more!

Have you tried these new polishes? Do you love Models Own? 

Guest post: Basement Boutique

Hi, I’m 20 year old Serena Ozgowicz from the blog lovesprettywildthings and I run my own online shop BasementBoutique.co.uk I set Basement Boutique up in March 2010 when I couldn’t find any part time work and decided to find a job I would enjoy while in school without having to get up at 7am on a weekend. I know, lazy! Running a business alongside a blog is a really fun way of making a little extra money or becoming your main source of income. I’m going to share with you my top tips for setting up your own online store and then share a little discount with you!   

Sell products that you enjoy making, or sourcing. It’s all about doing what you love.

I picked jewellery and shabby chic home ware because that was my passion. For example, if you make hair bows, then setting up a shop selling lots of patterned bows would be a great start for you to expand from. If you like customizing vintage clothing, there’s a great market for that!

Buy a domain name, and have an inviting layout.

You want your store to look as professional as possible, and having a domain name and a great design is very important to match what you’re selling. I use big cartel which is very easy to customise, but there are other hosts such as storenvy that are great! You could even use Etsy. I would definitely recommend big cartel as it takes care of everything for you.

Don’t be put off if it doesn’t go worldwide in a day- advertise.

You’re not going to sell out overnight and advertising is key to your success, which is why running a store alongside your blog or youtube is great advertisement for yourself. Setting up social networking sites for your store is great for finding new customers and holding competitions.

Think about your postage costs.

You want to make sure that your postage is a reasonable price and is easily found by anyone visiting your site to avoid copious emails regarding where you ship to and how much it will be. (Trust me, it gets annoying) So if you only want to ship within the UK, make sure the information is accessible.

Do your research.

Make sure you plan everything before you set your site live to avoid any mishaps or angry customers. Find out who’s selling what, is there is a gap for a store like yours, and most of all have fun with it. I love having my own little space online to sell what I love and connecting with people who have similar tastes.

If you have any more questions, you can email me at basementboutique@hotmail.co.uk

Now a little discount code to share with you guys: If you spend £8 or more from now until the 21^st March you will get 10% with code ‘etail’ simply enter the code at the checkout for your discount.

Hop over to my blog to see more from me. J Big thank you to etail for letting me guest post!

www.lovesprettywildthings.blogspot.co.uk

Dove: thought before action

We spotted this clever video from Dove on Mashable and thought we'd share it with you guys! 

Dove are continuing with their long running 'Real Beauty' campaign, which has caused some debate before, however we think that this video is going the right way to promote true beauty - by removing Photoshopping on advertisements!

Dove created a Photoshop action (a tool you download to apply an effect in one click), which supposedly added a glowing effect to skin, however it actually undid all re-touching and effects that had been applied previously and added a Dove logo and the quote 'don't manipulate our perceptions of real beauty'. This action was uploaded to commonly used action download sites. 

What do you think to this campaign? We personally like to see clothes and beauty products modeled/swatched on bloggers, as we find it's more realistic. We can actually imagine ourselves wearing clothes seen on bloggers, better than when seen on models. What do you think?   

Celeb Style: Rihanna

With the launch of Rihanna for River Island on Tuesday we thought it would be apt to focus this weeks Celeb Style post on the lady herself.

Rihanna wowed us all at the Grammy's a few weeks ago in this magnificent custom made Azzedine Alaia red dress. Not one to shy away from some rather bold outfit choices, Rihanna has often stepped out in clothing we can only dream of being able to wear. For example this stripe Acne two piece and bright blue Raf Simons coat aren't something you would probably wear to the shops, however Rihanna pulls it off effortlessly.

With style coveted around the globe by many women, we couldn't wait to see what she had created for River Island. The collection boasts key pieces, minimal colours, and stand out accessories. Whilst some have said it's 'boring', we personally think it has been well thought out. Everything can be mix and matched and is very versatile. But most importantly the collection screams Rihanna, we can imagine her wearing everything from the collection.

A couple of our favourite pieces are below.



What do you think of the collection? Is it representable of both Rihanna and River Island?
What do you think of Rihanna's style? Are you a fan of hers?

If you'd like to guest post for our blog and write a blog post on a particular celebrities style like this, please email bloggers@e-tailwebstores.com