Monochrome - and Link Up

I'm a big fan of the monochrome look, which is not as many think, wearing black and white.  It applies to a single colour, which can be worn in different hues, applied head to toe.

Green for St Patrick's Day

"Green for St Patrick's Day? How original," - it could be a quote from Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada.  But, whatever. Green is the thing for the Irish saint's day.

St Patrick's Day celebrates the Roman Catholic feast day of the patron saint of Ireland. St. Patrick died on March 17, 461. But he wasn't even Irish. Patrick's birth name was Maewyn. He was born in Roman Britain. He was kidnapped into slavery and brought to Ireland.

He escaped to a monastery in Gaul (France) and converted to Christianity. He went back to Ireland in 432 as a missionary. While Christianity had already taken hold in the country, tradition has it that Patrick confronted the Druids at Tara and abolished their pagan rites, making Christianity more widespread.

That's the history out of the way. It was great to be able to get out into the spring garden, already colourful with forsythia, wallflowers and blue muscari. I have quite a lot of green in my wardrobe, as you may know if you've called by the blog before.

Everything I'm wearing is an old wardrobe stalwart, except the new pearl necklace from Mango. The green sequin top was a bargain from Dorothy Perkins a couple of years ago.  The skirt, ditto, from TU at Sainsbury's. The coat, which is surprisingly warm, came from Marks and Spencer a few years ago. And the boots are probably a decade old. There's a glimpse of green tights. I would probably look too much like a leprechaun if I was wearing shoes!

I used the green shades in my Huda Beauty Emerald Obsessions palette  (I wrote about it here).

My husband's parents were both Irish, although they lived in London for many years. On St Patrick's Day Marie, of whom I was very fond, always came round with some fresh shamrock. We never knew where she got it from.

London always has a big St Patrick's Day parade, and here are the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the parade at Cavalry Barracks in Hounslow last year. As you can see, Kate is wearing green. Green for St Patrick's Day? Has to be done.

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Disclosure: nothing in this post was gifted.

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What I'm doing to stop using plastic

Who could fail to be horrified and dismayed by the deluge of pictures showing birds and sea life being tortured to death by carelessly discarded plastic? What initially presented itself as a miracle in transforming our lives is now the planet's biggest nightmare. But we can all take steps to try to reduce our use of single-use plastic, and to apply pressure for more non-plastic packaging. Here's what I've started doing:  small steps, but we have to start somewhere.

This concealer really works! Plus #WowOnWednesday Link Up

It's sad but true ladies that as we get older, we have more to hide. On our faces. It's not just pesky under eye circles but redness around the nose and pigmentation.

I've used dozens of concealers in my time, starting at age 14 with Rimmel "Hide n Heal" as it was called then.

Most of them start out OK:  there's a degree of coverage, then, over the hours, it all falls apart.  They either disappear or "pill," flaking into your lines and making you look far worse than when you started. But now I've found a real game changer in the world of concealers: Charlotte Tilbury's Magic Away liquid concealer.