A very successful writer friend of mine gave me some advice when I pronounced  two  years ago, that my future would be in the written word. He said that writing is like a muscle and it must be exercised everyday. Well here’s a post Christmas and New Years larks and capers, heads up. I am currently doing writing lunges and downward facing dogs, in an effort to be a prizewinner in the race to bring you style gold this year. Ain’t no big thing…

Just for my own comfort and to make sure that you all really listened to my helpful, possibly bossy recommendations, I am giving you a quick round up of stuff that stayed! These pearls may span over a couple of posts. Yeah.

Black Leather Converse

My precious babies, my go-to style shoes. Some of you have already dipped your toes into a pair of these. Couldn’t love you more. They are a Wardrobe must and you will not need to show your passport when you purchase. They are for everyone who would like a pair. Without deviation or hesitation I could insert my plates into one of my many pairs of these truly iconic style items and even if I was blindfolded and had no idea what I was wearing, my trusty  Converse trainer will define my look and shove me out the door looking the business. They are financially a very low entry item that can party with the rest of your fashion pack. They will elevate or ease any style statement. I was at a Christmas  drinks party down in Dorset and someone there was wearing her bestest, bestest new, one time only, super expensive gown with a pair of well loved white canvas Converse. She looked cracking. Let that be a lesson to you.

Now to the underpinning of the vestiges of beauty that I insist on hanging on to…

Topshop Glow   Mac Strobe Cream   Hylamide Glow

For a very quick slap around your make up face, these are my best friends. Topshop Glow is in a tiny pot and I’m still on my first one. This potion managed to locate my cheekbones and  my brow bones, camped on them and shouted. Marvellous. Mac Strobe Cream is not my habitual moisturiser but in order to mysteriously glow and shimmer without people questioning just admiring, I add a petite pois size amount of it to my moisturiser or my once in a decade use of foundation, and then stroke it onto my face and voila! I look alive. Tremendous. Hylamide Glow has sometimes overnight, flown me from my pillow to The Maldives and returned me to my slumbers, subtly baked. Radiant. They are smoke and mirrors products. Mrs V‘s face has been highlighted and contoured on the many occasions when I’ve remembered to apply them. Am going to apply them more in 2017  because on close, retrospective scrutiny of some of my published photos, I can tell when I have and have not applied. They are sneaky, slippery, subversive beauty products. None of us are above that kind of help.

Do you know what? It’s the little things isn’t it?