Summer 2015 is over! We may still be in British Summer Time, but the start of September always signifies the end of summer for me. The days are getting shorter, and the nights are slowly getting longer, which means it will be starting to get dark at 5PM soon which I really hate! 🙁
I can’t quite believe we’re 9 months into the year, the summer has somehow gone, and before you know it we’ll have Christmas and New Year, 2016 will be here and I’ll be taking about the summer again!
A while back I took these shots, probably the most summery ones I have….White jeans, nautical tee, linen jacket et al. Check out more of my Street Style here too.
With a focus on quality timepieces and craftsmanship, Page And Cooper are a watch specialist with a difference. Watches are carefully selected in both brand and style, and fulfil key points of criteria including bring well designed, beautifully made, rare, long lasting and importantly offer value for money.
One thing I like about a quality timepiece is exclusivity, I want luxury along with wearing something on my wrist that others will not be wearing. Page And Cooper find quality watches made by small, independent companies which you’ll not find on the high street, utilize traditional watchmakers workmanship.
I have picked out a few of my favourites from their casual collection, which have caught my eye.
Back in the mid 90’s fashion was all about sportswear, I was a teenager and lived in the stuff. The brand which was one of the most coveted was Kappa. They made football shirts for huge European teams such as Juventus and Barcelona, and general sportswear too.
Everyone was into Kappa, and it was pretty expensive for clothing when we were teens back in the mid 90’s. I remember owning a few pieces, a tracksuit being one, as well as a zipped sweatshirt being fond memories.
I heard that Kappa were making a comeback, and were selling some of their old retro style tracksuits, as well as bringing back the brand for the new generation. I actually got the tracksuit last year, and did a small feature about it on the blog.
Here I am styling it with some other 90’s and retro greats; Converse Chuck Taylor trainers, and the equally iconic Adidas Originals T Shirt. The tracksuit I previously owned as a teen was almost the same, but had the red background track pattern down the sleeves of the jacket and sides of the trousers. Still, this navy and white version was an absolute classic, and brings back a lot of good memories.
90’s style and trends are back, and I love 90’s nostalgia whether that’s fashion or pop culture, and Kappa was a bit of both. It is of course not for everyone, and probably cringe-worthy for those who think they are into high fashion because they’ve once bought something from [insert designer name here], but it brings back memories of a great era that’s what it’s all about 🙂
It’s 21st August 2015, and someone, somewhere has declared this day to be Men’s Grooming Day. Since this day is dedicated to all things male grooming related, I thought it would be the perfect time to write about my favourite products I use. Since I write a lot in the men’s grooming blog, I get to try out lots of new and exciting products for everything from skincare to hair products. It’s also no secret that I love aftershaves and scents, I have lost count of how many I now own. I do, however have a few absolute favourite products which I use all the time, if it’s not daily then it’s weekly or as often as it’s needed!
My daily men’s grooming products
Hair Products
I use a big variation of hair products, I mean big! This probably comes from the fact I used to shave my hair really short since before I was a teen right up until 6 or 7 years ago, so I never grew up with hair product, and I’m still experimenting using different styles and types. At the moment my favourite when my hair is on the shorter side is SachaJuan Hair Wax. It’s a rich creamy wax, and works well into the hair, and smells nice. It’s expensive, so I tend to use it sparingly.
When my hair grows a bit longer, and I want to create a messier look then I will go for VO5 Extreme Gum. I will have a feature on this on the blog soon. It’s a very nice gum, and is really easy to use.
In The Shower
My shower regime is really simple, although sometimes it can grow and I can add a few other products into it. At the moment it’s very simple, only consisting of three products. Dove Men+Care is my favourite shower gel. It’s unscented, which is good for me because I usually want to wear a bottled fragrance and something you don’t want to have is a clash of scents. My go to shampoo for a number of years has been Head & Shoulders For Men. It has a decent scent and works well, and gets rid of any hair product build up which may exist. Lastly I have a face scrub, and I use Dermalogica Daily Clean Scrub. It’s expensive, but it is good, and although it states it’s a daily scrub, I don’t use it daily as I don’t think you need a scrub for daily use.
Shaving
My favourite shaving products have probably remained the same for the longest time. When I was 16 I tried out an electric shaver and hated it, so had a couple of Gillette Blue Two’s and they were not great but not too bad. Not long after I upgraded to a Mach 3, and never looked back. I have tried and tested a few others down the line, but my favourite and the one I will use time and again is the Mach 3. As for shaving gel, I use King Of Shaves. I really like it, the product is cool and it’s easy to glide the razor through for a clean and close shave.
When I first started shaving I used aftershave, hence the name. I then realised I didn’t want to always smell like I was going on a night out, so tried out a couple of post shave balms. After about 10 years of switching and using various brands and types, my current favourite is again from the Dove Men+Care range, the Men+Care post shave balm. It has a mild clean scent and leaves the skin feeling nice.
Fragrances & Aftershaves
If you read my blog you’ll know all about my men’s fragrance reviews, there’s a whole load of them on the blog, and they’re all genuine reviews of scents I own or have owned. I have a ridiculous amount, and have so many favourites, each one tells it’s own story and it depends on the occasion and my mood to pick out what I want to wear.
The two I have chosen are Floris Santal and Bvlgari MAN, both have a bit of history for me. My all time favourite is Gucci Envy For Men, however even though I still have some left, it’s now been discontinued. In my search for a replacement I came across Floris Santal, which is very similar, so I love it. Before finding it I fell in love with Bvlgari MAN, it’s an amazing scent, it’s elegant and sophisticated so works well for a night out or formal evening. It’s also quite light and fun, so it works in the daytime too. It’s one of my all time favourite scents.
Last but not least…
You need to wear a deodorant, and once again I am going for a product from the Dove Men+Care range. It’s the Clean Comfort variation, and I really like it. I have spoken about scent clashing above, which is where this comes in. It has a very light clean scent, and doesn’t interfere with my main fragrance I wear.
I am a big fan of some of the Dove Men+Care products, I have featured a few on the blog before, and my favourites are from the clean comfort range including the post shave balm, body wash and deodorant.
Dove have a new range, the Hydrate+ range, and I have been putting a few of them through their paces.
Hugo Boss have added another scent to it’s BOSS Bottled line up, BOSS Bottled Oud which is brand new for 2015. As with tradition within the range, the bottle is the same design as the others, a cylindrical shape with the BOSS wording elegantly etched into the glass, with the branding Hugo Boss Bottled Oud.
Jockey is launching it’s NOS collection, and have teamed up with legendary photographer James Dimmock to produce some iconic shots for their brand new collection. They have sent over some pieces which includes a pair of boxer shorts, swim shorts and loungewear.
Schwartzkopf Professional sent over some products from their 3D MEN care range, which includes hair and body shampoo, deep cleansing shampoo, molding wax and texture clay. The range has been completely engineered for men, and has three core principles for each of the products.
The hair and body shampoo is a dual purpose care product, and is designed for both hair and body, with a pH balance which works for both. The deep cleansing shampoo gives you totally clean hair in 15 seconds, and will cleanse away product build-up and traces of oil.
The core principles of the shampoo are hair, scalp and roots. With caffeine stimulants for roots, hydrating ingredients for the scalp and sclera protein to rebuild hair structure. Both shampoos have a really nice smell, and come in 250ml bottles which run at around £10.20 each.
The styling products include molding wax and texture clay. Both are soft compounds which are easy to work into the hair, and once again come with three core principles which are hold, texture and definition. The molding wax gives off a natural shine finish and is a slightly lighter cream.
The textured clay produces a matt finish, and has a stronger hold, creating dishevelled looks. Each pot is 100ml in size and comes in at around £10.20.
The complete Schwartzkopf Professional 3D MEN range is available from Schwartzkopf Professional partner salons.
You’ve made the leap to a DSLR camera from a compact, you’ve had a lot of fun taking great photos with the kit lens you got with the camera, but where do you go from here?
What lens should you buy? If these are the questions you’re asking yourself, hopefully I can give you some advice from my experiences 🙂
So yesterday we went out, had a few games of bowling, pool and then ended up going for a few drinks in the town. I never go bowling, you can count how many times I’ve been bowling in my adult life on one hand We got 2 games & 2 drinks for £10, you can’t really argue with that! I have a great technique which is the “minimal looking effort” technique…No run up at all, just bowl the ball as accurate as I can. It sort of works, and in the first game on the very first ball I got a strike! That’s why I took this photo, it did not get much better. The 2nd game we had a few more people, and I wasn’t last, which was pretty surprising. (I am “X”, my friend entered my name as Xavi since I love Spain so much 😉 )
When we went to the town we played some pool first which is more my game, then had a few drinks at a couple of bars. We went to Harry’s, Browns, Revolution and Metropolis, and ended up in Cosy Joes which is bizarrely where we’ve been a few times now as a last bar. There was no plan to stay out, but once we get to the town we inevitably end up staying out 😛
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