Why don't you love me?

The last few days have been spent preparing for, and then attending Tash's parent's 25th wedding anniversary, (which took place yesterday at a seriously posh old manor house in Staffordshire), a seriously fabulous affair that involved lots of singing, dancing and generally getting more than a bit drunk. I wore a pink French Connection dress, which I am in LOVE with - I wish I could wear it every day. Might have to post a photo of it at some point - I rarely do outfit posts, but I'll make an exception for this dress, for it is simply beautious. Tash also wore excellent shoes, not sure I've got a photo of them, but I may have to track one down as they were epic.

Anyway, while I'm still recovering from my lovely (drunken) weekend, I thought I'd do a quick review of the Topshop tattoos. I posted about them in May and have finally managed to get my hands on some (they didn't have any in the Liverpool store so I had to buy them online). Actually, the ones I posted about previously are quite different to the ones that are currently available to buy in stores. When I posted back in May, there was maybe four or five different tattoo sheets available to buy; some just contained one large image while others had a few smaller ones. Topshop seems to have improved upon these initial designs, as there is now a pack available that contains three sheets of tattoos with lots and lots of different designs to choose from.

Temporary Tattoos, Topshop, £5

These are quite obviously Chanel-inspired, even moreso than the first batch they brought out, which did feature swallows and chains etc, but were still quite simplistic. These ones, however, are a lot more detailed and pretty, with lots of different 'bracelets' and jewelled charms to customise them with.

I wore two last weekend in London - a flower design on my foot and a bracelet around my wrist, and I was fairly impressed; the designs are very pretty and I especially like the little highlights of white in the 'jewels'.

Floral foot

Charm bracelet

Charm bracelet (other side)

When it comes to applying them, it's just the standard process of holding a damp cloth to the back of the design for about 30 seconds and waiting for it to lift off the backing paper and stick to your skin. Very easy. What was tricky though, and I imagine this would be the case for any other similar tattoos, was applying the bracelet tattoo, as you had to kind of wrap it around your wrist and hold it in place so that it didn't slip. It would probably have been easier if I'd gotten someone to help me, but of course, I never do things sensibly. You can also see, in the first picture of the charm bracelet, just above the star charm, where the two ends of the chain overlap a bit messily - I couldn't quite work out how to get them to line up, but again, I'd imagine if you had someone to help you it would be quite do-able.

Now the pictures above were taken straight after I applied the tattoos, and as you can see, the charm bracelet had already started to split a bit. They don't have great staying-power; don't expect them to last much longer than a day, especially not in the heat; I applied mine on the Friday afternoon and by the Saturday afternoon, the one on my foot had mostly been rubbed away and faded. I wore this swallow design on my wrist for the party yesterday and it seems to have fared a little better;

although, you can see that it's started to fade and the edges are rubbing away a bit.

All in all, while they don't last very long, I do still really like them; I think they're ideal for one-off wear, such as a night out. The designs are lovely, the pack has a really good range of images to choose from and they're only £5 - winner!

I've not changed my mind about permanent tattoos; I'd never get one as I'm certain I would eventually get bored and regret it, but I am a big fan of the whole temporary thing; there's just so many possibilities! Plus, I like the slightly rock and roll vibe they give off (let's be honest here, I'm about as rock and roll as Alvin and the Chipmunks, but just humour me, ok?).

So what do you think? Will you be sporting some Topshop tatts this summer?

from now on you can call me Mystic Meg

Ok, now I don't want to show off here, but, well I'm going to - I totally predicted this.

Back in March, I did a post about the Chanel temporary tattoos and suggested that high street stores such as Topshop and Urban Outfitters might take inspiration from them and bring out their own ranges. And they have!!!

This clearly means that I am psychic.

Except, not really, obviously, because this is just how fashion works - high street stores always copy take inspiration from the high-end designers. But still, I'm quite excited that the two shops I mentioned are the ones that have actually done it. I just had a quick browse through some other online stores (Miss Selfridge, New Look, H&M and ASOS) and can't find any other tattoos, though I'm sure they'll follow suit soon.

The Topshop ones are very clearly inspired by Chanel; some of the designs include birds (now I'm no ornithologist, but I'm pretty sure they're swallows), flowers and strips of chains. Funnily enough, the Chanel tattoos also had swallows, flowers and strips of chains. However, the Chanel ones were very pretty and feminine whereas I'd say the Topshop ones are little more edgy and kind of 'rock and roll' (if that's the right way to describe them - hopefully you can see what I mean from the pictures) There's five different sets available (some packs contain several small tattoos and some just contain one large one), and they're priced between £4 and £6.50.

images from Topshop.com

The Urban Outfitters tattoos are very different. Firstly they can only loosely be described as 'tattoos' as they're more like body stickers. They remind me a bit of those crystal tattoos everyone went mad for in the late 90s/early 00s. There's also only two designs available; a butterfly and a bunch of flowers. They're very pretty and sparkly and they're available in white, black and gold - I can see them being popular with festival-goers. Only problem is, Urban Outfitters have done their usual trick of going "right, new product, very pretty, quite eyecatching actually. Let's price it at something ridiculous!" The butterfly costs £14 and the flowers cost £18.

£18 for a glittery sticker?!

Sorry Urban Outfitters, but you just lost me. I know the Chanel ones were about £50, but there was loads of designs in the pack. And they were frikkin' Chanel! Anyway, maybe I'm just being a bit of a tightwad, what do you think? Would you pay £14 and £18 for these babies?

images from UrbanOutfitters.co.uk

Anyway, next chance I get, I'm heading to Topshop to get my hands on a pack - I'm particularly drawn to the chains. What do you think? Will you be sporting temporary tattoos this summer? And which do you prefer Topshop or Urban Outfitters?

Temporary high

My general opinion of tattoos is that, while they can look quite cool, I'd never want one myself because, a) I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to pain and b) well, they're very permanent aren't they? Sure, you may love having Donald Duck on your shoulder now; it's a conversation starter if nothing else, but a few years down the line, he may just serve as a big, web-footed reminder of what a complete idiot you used to be. Saying that though, a Donald Duck tattoo may be preferable to a tattoo of say, your ex's name; after he broke up with Winona Ryder, Johnny Depp changed his "Winona Forever" tattoo to "Wino Forever" (so I guess they just crossed out the "na" part?), which, quite frankly, is just bloody stupid. And even if you don't go for someone's name or a cartoon character, even if you think your tattoo is the classiest, most sophisticated piece of artistry ever to be carved into human flesh, consider this little pearl of wisdom from my mum...

how will it look when you're wearing a wedding dress?

(I can only assume that my mum is directing this thought towards women rather than men, because, let's be honest here, if the groom comes down the aisle in a wedding dress, you've probably got more to worry about than how his tattoos look)

So all in all, tattoos are not for me. However, when I was much younger I was a big fan of the temporary kind; they always seemed to come free on pre-teen magazines like Mizz and Shout. I clearly remember sitting in my room with a wet flannel pressed against my arm, counting to thirty (because you had to count to thirty or it wouldn't work) patiently waiting for the magic to happen. Sparkly suns, flowers, rainbows; I had them all! I was practically a tattoo connoisseur! Sadly though, when I was about 13, we were in school getting changed for PE and some mean girls teased me, saying that fake tattoos were 'so immature' - kids can be so cruel. After that I stopped using them. (apart from last October at my friend's hen party when I bought a pack of My Little Pony transfers and made everyone wear one - we looked AWESOME!)

But HA! In your faces, mean girls! Thanks to Chanel, temporary tattoos are making a comeback!

(images from style.com and Elle UK)

First seen adorning the limbs and decolletages of the models at the S/S 2010 show, the limited edition Chanel tattoos, (officially named "Les Trompe L'Oeil De Chanel"...I have literally no idea what that means...) are available to buy from Selfridges and Chanel stores, though they may have already sold out. Each pack contains five sheets of transfers and they cost £49 (or $75 on the Chanel site) but I just looked on eBay and they're selling for at least twice that amount.

The packs contain a selection of intricate chains, pearls, flowers, swallows and the Chanel interlocked Cs logo, and what's quite clever is that they all fit together, so you can wear as many or as few as you want.

I haven't been able to find any really good quality images of the tattoos, but here's a video of the Chapman sisters (my absolute favourite youtube makeup artists) trying them out;

The £49 price-tag means that I won't be buying them any time soon, but they are very pretty and I can see them being a big hit with all the serious fashionistas out there. It'll be interesting to see whether Chanel has sparked a trend for temporary tattoos, I mean, most of the things we see on the catwalk do eventually trickle through to the high street and I for one would LOVE to see stores like Topshop and Urban Outfitters bring out their own versions!

The more I look at them, the more I think they're actually quite innovative. If temporary tattoos were to become a big trend, imagine how your beauty routine would change! "Foundation - check, mascara - check, lipstick - check, tattoo?" Plus, what implications would there be for accessories?! Do they replace jewellery altogether or could you wear them with necklaces and bracelets layered over? Ooooh just think of the possibilities!

What are your thoughts on these beauties? Would you wear them or do you think they're best left on the catwalk?