The Trouser Transition: Why buying trousers was the best decision I've made

It's no secret to anybody that I'm in love. I'm in love with dresses and skirts and clothes that swish about if I spin like something out of a Disney film. At only 5'4", I've often struggled to find trousers that a) fit me properly in terms of length and b) that don't make me look like the shortest, fattest pear in the supermarket. For these reasons, I sort of gave up on looking for a good pair of trousers a few years ago, but after seeing this checked pair for just £10 in Primark and thinking about how cold my legs get on my daily walk to uni (feel for me, people), I decided to give them a try, and welcomed trousers back into my life; and what a sheltered life I've been living!

It seems that in the few years I've been avoiding this item, I've been missing out majorly, as the second I tried these on I began to see endless outfit possibilities. The simple yet exciting design means I can team these with a block or neutral colour shirt and easily have a simple statement piece and a smart-casual outfit with very little effort or thought.

It would seem that I learnt a life lesson in Primark this weekend (the last place I'd ever think this would happen), and I discovered the importance of keeping your mind open. I'm definitely going to have to return and get this style in another 3 patterns, minimum!

Squared nails: Worth the hype?

I clearly remember being about 14 and insanely jealous of my way cooler classmates with their professionally filed French manicures (which were never complete without a diamante on the thumb, obviously), and would watch in envy whilst they scribbled away, wishing I had equally such neat and even nails to worry about in netball training. I never got around to actually getting this shape myself, applying my claire's accessories £2 pink polish liberally to my short and damaged nails on Friday evenings and scrubbing it off Monday morning before school to avoid a detention. As I grew up, though, I tended to veer more towards oval shaped nails, carefully filing them until I deemed them perfectly even, and rarely revisited my past dreams for squared-edges. After seeing a friend's gorgeous flat-topped gel nails, however, the 14 year old me came flashing back, and I decided to see whether the style suited me.

Initially, this felt weird. I'm not used to scratching an itch and leaving a mark from the harsh edges of my own fingers! It's also shown me the difference nail shape can make to the appearance of your fingers and hands overall, which meant I really couldn't stop looking at my own almost unrecognisable hands after so long sticking to the oval shape, but after a few hours and numerous compliments, I'm starting to really like this style. It's even quite exciting to have another option in mind when I do my nails (and you know I love to regularly change them up), and I think I'll keep this new look for a while longer, yet.

I have definitely gone off the French manicure with diamantes, though. That one can stay in the year 9 classroom.

Royal Geographical Society Drinks

This first October weekend started off pretty wonderfully with the first event of the academic year from my school's old student association taking place at the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington. I decided to keep my outfit simple, and start to introduce some more Winter colours into my wardrobe, like this forest green skater dress with a cutaway in the chest and a gorgeous black velvet pattern of intricate swirls adding detail. This is a pretty old favourite dress of mine now, so I can't remember exactly where it was from, but the simple black heels with a mesh inlay were from Primark just this week, and I'm absolutely thrilled with them! They added just enough detail to prevent my feet looking boring, but not so much as to detract from the dress, and I got loads of compliments throughout the evening. In order to keep myself warm, I threw on my favourite grey and white checked Topshop coat from the Topshop Petite range, and was grateful of it walking to and from the venue on the cold streets of London!

In order to keep things simple, I tied my hair in a half up-half down style to keep it out of my face and pulled a few front strands loose to soften the lines of my face. Additionally, I kept my make-up simple with a quick and small cat eye liner flick and a brown shade lipstick - a favourite of mine for the Autumnal months.