Ted Baker Goodies

Just a couple of months ago I reviewed Ted Baker's Workshop Accessories line here so they reached out to me to say, "Thank You". I think that is so sweet because brands don't often offer thanks when you write nice things about them... its something which would be so easy for them to do, and yet, as not many of them do it, those that do really stand out. On top of the, "Thank You" email, they asked me to send them my home address, so on Thursday, I received this lovely package in the post...

*Even the box is luxurious!* 

Outfit of the Day: Christmas Fayre

Hello festive bunnies!

Here's a cute winter outfit for ya'll... Could have done with a scarf as I spent most of the day freezing my nick-nacks off but you know, we all get it wrong sometimes...

I always love to get excited about Christmas far too early and this year has been no exception! My family decided to throw together a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and ever since then I'm in a really super-festive mood, so it was rather convenient that my old school was running their annual Christmas fayre this weekend. My boyfriend, his mother and I threw on our gladrags (in my case, a red bodycon from Forever 21, my sisters Topshop Tinie Tempah vest, her Topshop coat, my navy Dorothy Perkins tights and my khaki Forever 21 booties) and braced ourselves for smashing the tombola...

And we did :)

We managed to get all of this for just £17!!!

Not bad eh? I think it will become a bit of a Christmas tradition to us as we probably won't need to buy another bottle of wine until the New Year... CLEARED UP :) One of these bottles was worth £10 from Morrisons and another was worth £7. Most of them were worth over £4 so we saved quite a wedge of money. Great success.

I have lots of blog-related Christmas plans so stay tuned over the festive season as I will be working hard to do regular posts.

Do you have any Christmas traditions? What have you been wearing in the colder months? Would you have hated us for winning most of the bottles on the tombola table?

Love and snuggles

GabriellaSofia

x

My Plans For London Fashion Weekend...

Having spent the past few days feeling a bit like death cooled right down, I am really hoping and praying that I am 100% recovered for Sunday the 23rd of September, because I'm going to London Fashion Weekend and after looking at the jam-packed schedule of fun activities, I'm going to need all my energy...

So I've got it all planned. I'm hoping to roll into Temple tube station at about 9.30am and my dream day plan is as follows...


Sunday 23rd September

10am - Arrive at Somerset House for London Fashion Weekend!

12.15pm - VIP Styling (A celebrity panel talk about key looks for Autumn/Winter and trends for Spring/Summer, sharing their top styling tips and telling stories of styling disasters hosted by Amber Atherton, Jessie Ware, Kim Howell and Avigail Claire)

1.45pm - The Sunday Fashion Panel (The expert panel discusses, What makes a fashion trend? Hosted by Hilary Alexander, Lydia Bright, Olivia Rubin and Nick Ede)

2.30pm - Twenty8Twelve Fashion Show

3.15pm - The Elle Panel The Beauty Panel (An inside preview to the hottest hair and beauty trends of the season hosted by Tony and Guy, Elizabeth Arden, benefit and more)

5.00pm - Trend Catwalk Fashion Show

Now, I'm not sure how long any of these things are going to last so I might be being exceptionally ambitious with my time, but hopefully that will be my plan. Apart from these different events though, I'm not quite sure what else will be happening as I've never been to London Fashion Weekend before...

Have you every been? Is it like The Clothes Show where there are tons of stalls and a beauty area? Are you attending London Fashion Weekend this year?

If you don't yet have a ticket, don't forget to go enter my giveaway where you can win a ticket to the event right HERE... Good luck!

Love and snuggles
GabriellaSofia
x

London Fashion Weekend Press Pass Giveaway

That's right guys... I'm giving one lucky blogger or vlogger the opportunity to win a Press Pass to London Fashion weekend. Don't all stampede at once!

The lovely Charlotte from Single Market PR sent me two Press Passes for Vodafone's London Fashion Weekend which runs from Thursday the 20th of September until Sunday the 23rd and as I can actually only attend on the Sunday, I wanted to give a little back to my lovely followers and fellow bloggers who have supported me through a really hard year.

So what do you have to do to win?

1) Follow my blog (at the right of my page you'll see three little grey boxes... click on the top one and hit 'Follow')
2) Leave a comment telling me your blog or vlog name, a sentence on what it is about and finally why going to Fashion Weekend would benefit your page.
3) Follow me on Twitter @HauteFuture and Tweet ' @HauteFuture is giving away a Press Pass for London Fashion Weekend #bbloggers #fbloggers #lifeblogs http://hautefuture.blogspot.co.uk/ x '
4) Leave your Twitter handle and email address so I can get in touch if you win!

Pretty simple, huh? I would love for whoever enters to come on the Sunday with me as because of the late notice of this giveaway I don't believe I'll be able to get to the post office in time to get it to you if you need to go any earlier... Plus, then I won't be on my own all day! Win-win situation :)

Obviously this prize does require you to be able to get to London on the 23rd of September (Sunday) in time for 10.30am as the event starts at 11am until 5pm.

I will only be seriously considering bloggers or those who plan to start a blog in the very near future solely because this is a Press Pass and it is not just a free ticket. I wouldn't want to give this prize to someone who doesn't blog when there are tons of girls out there would kill for the opportunity to have this extra bit of blog content. I hope you all appreciate that!

The giveaway closes on Friday the 21st September at 8pm. I will be announcing the winner both here and on Twitter and I will be choosing the winner based on the comment which is posted here. I will be choosing the person who I think will make the most of the experience... I think that is fair.

So, let the games begin!

Love and snuggles
GabriellaSofia

150 Follower Giveaway Winner is...

So I'm sure you've all been waiting on tenterhooks to see if you'll win my giveaway... NOT haha. However, I really wanted to run this giveaway so that I could pay all of my followers and subscribers back for all of the help and support you've offered me. Starting and running a blog takes up a lot of my time and my energy and yet every minute is worth it when I read a comment, or see a retweet, or gain a new follower or subscriber. Really it is :) So watch the video to find out who has won my selection of goodies plus some random surprises also. Thanks for everything

Please check out my other sites and let me know what you think in the comments box below:

Please follow me on Twitter at:

http://twitter.com/hautefuture

Click 'Follow' on my blog which has tons of reviews, beauty-fashion-lifestyle features and more:

http://hautefuture.blogspot.com/

Subscribe to my Youtube channel where I post hauls, tutorials, outfits of the day and WAY more:

http://www.youtube.com/user/HauteFuture?feature=watch

Also check out my facebook page at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/HauteFuture/149057205180776

Please rate, like, follow, comment and subscribe and I promise there will be loads of beauty, fashion, lifestyle, culture and gossip material going up on here each week :)

Thanks for watching, guys and I'll see you soon!

Love

gabriellasofia x

The Versatile Blog Award...

Only bloggers truly understand how lovely it feels when another blogger recognizes your blog as one of their 'favorites', or when they compliment you on something you've posted... So imagine how great it feels when you're given a 'Blog Award' and are mentioned in someone's Top 7 blogs worthy of congratulations on their page.

The lovely Lucee from LuceeLovesBeautyBox has very kindly recognized HauteFuture as such and I literally can hardly contain my pride :) When you blog, along with putting in the time and energy with each post you publish, you also insert something very personal; you. This is why it makes me so happy to receive the Versatile Blog Award, it's very touching for me, and I just wanted to say a great big thank you to Lucee, all my readers and everyone who comments on my videos and posts. Its fantastic to be able to see how much support everyone's given me with my blog, and I think it's very important to say thank you when it's due. This is why I'm running my first ever Blog Giveaway in which I'm giving my readers the chance to win a collection of beauty goodies including products from the likes of Nails Inc, Models Own, Juicy Couture, 17, Nars, Dior and Barry M amongst others. Please head over to my Giveaway Page in order to be in with a chance of winning :) This is my thank you to you guys!

Anyway, without much further ado, the rules of the Versatile Blog Award require that the winner provides 7 secret facts about themselves, so here goes...

1) I am half-Dominican, speak Spanish (my mom's first language) and cook a mean rice, beans and fried chicken... which I eat with a banana chopped up over the top, just as the Dominicans do. I do this with chilli con carne and chicken noodle soups too. If you never try it, you'll never live!
2) I'm not part of a group of friends. I have a handful of friends that I'd trust with my life, but we don't spend a lot of time together and we're not a group as most of them don't even know each other. I've always been somewhat of a lone ranger, despite not being a psychopath, nudist or total female dog. I feel like sometimes with friends, spending too much time together can be more of a hindrance than a help. To see who my friends are, Check This Out.
3) I'm a total television addict. Like, it's a serious problem. Programs I can't go without watching include: Casualty, Holby City, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI NY, Grey's Anatomy, Pretty Little Liars, One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, 90210 and Cold Case. And on top of that, I like watching: Toddlers in Tiaras, The Girls Next Door, Kendra, The Kardashians, Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami, Kourtney and Kim Take New York, Big Brother, The Steve Wilkos Show, The Jerry Springer Show, The Ellen Degeneres Show, My Super Sweet Sixteen, Teen Mom, 16 and Pregnant and WAY MORE. See what I mean when I say it's a real problem? Bar my blog, my television dominates my life.
4) When I was 19 I was invited to and attended an audition for The Apprentice. The grown up one. However, I wasn't successful but had a fab day!
5) I worked at Walt Disney World in Orlando last summer, making dreams come true for a living. No joke. If you want to hear more about my Disney Journey, head over to my other blog All We Need Is Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust, and my Disney College Program Youtube Channel TheGabriellaSofia.
6) I go on a diet every Monday. I give up every Tuesday.
7) I could gladly spend all day every day in bed. No, I wouldn't get bored, lonely or depressed. I'd read mags, watch telly and write blogs and I would be as happy as can be!

So that's it! All that's left for me to do now, is pass the award onto some bloggers who I think are worthy of The Versatile Blog Award... I think there is a certain number of bloggers I'm supposed to hand it over to, but I'm not sure what that number is, so I'll just give it to a handful of faves. *Drumroll please*...

Victoria's Vintage

Tokki and Oliver

Miss Holly

Yoyo and Bel

Pretty In Pink

Well done girlies! You're all fab, put in a lot of time, energy and YOU into your blogs and that's why I'm pretty addicted to them :) They help me to wake up in the morning and relax at the end of a long day. I love them, and I hope you'll all keep up the good work, I sure will! If you could, please do me a favour and put my sexy new button on your page... All you have to do is paste the code underneath my button on the top right hand side of this page into a HTML widget on Design and I'll love you event more! This is what my button looks like...




Even if I haven't given you a Versatile Award, please post me your links in the comments box beneath, and maybe even 7 facts about you. I always want to know my readers better and be more interactive with everyone, so please use the comments as I ALWAYS reply.

Love you all
gabriellasofia
x

Nail of the Day With Nail Rock Wrap Review...

Hey there!

Sorry for the sparse postings recently... been too busy trying to get some surprise goodies together for my Giveaway!

Anyways, here's just a quicky about my Nail of The Day and a mini-review of Nail Rock nail wraps.

So I've tried my hand at the nail-wrap trend and I can honestly say that I don't think I'll be trying this again in a hurry. What a palaver! I'm not sure whether this is down to the brand or just down to the fact that nail wraps don't really work for me, but I was sorely disappointed with the effect of applying this Nail Rock black-and-white stripy pattern to my nails. I obviously only put it on my accent ring-finger nail, and this alone took me about five minutes per nail and essentially just looked and felt like I'd stuck a sticker on. Very cheap looking and tacky, and I felt it was peeling off from the tip of my nail after just an hour of jabbing away at my laptop keys which was very annoying after all the effort I'd gone to.

To apply the wraps, I prepared my nails first by using some nail varnish remover on a cotton pad to clear away the remnants of any old polish and also any dirt or grime that maybe have invisibly stuck to my nail and would have made it even harder for the wrap to adhere. Once I'd done that, I buffed my nails to make them shinier and create a more even surface as suggested on numerous online pages regarding the application of this kind of nail art. Now it was time for the wrap. Peeling the sticker from the backing paper I placed the square shaped edge against my nail bed as suggested, leaving a tiny bit of space between my cuticle and it, in order to prevent peeling. I stretched it across the nail (as directed by Nail Rock) so that I wouldn't get any air bubbles under the wrap and folded it over the end of my nail. I actually even tucked it under my nail all around for the next part, which is where I think the nail wraps failed me. I began to file off the surplus wrap which was really hard work. I actually hate filing my nails anyway (I'm weird... I much prefer clipping them into shape!) so I didn't enjoy this bit, and I had to do this for quite a while so as to prevent any damage to the nail, the wrap and my sanity.

Anyways, once I'd done it and the end had peeled off I thought, 'Huh, so that's it?' Looking at my nail I was seriously unimpressed. I mean, it looked almost perfect, but I hated the design and the plastic-y appearance of the wrap too. Nonetheless, I painted my clear coat over the top, did the other nail and was finished. Unfortunately, like I said, I may as well not have bothered with any of that as the nail wrap was beginning to peel from the tip of my nail shortly after.

Basically, I didn't like the effect, I didn't like the application and I didn't like the longevity of the product. I'm glad this came in the terrible GlossyBox forced on my sister at The Clothes Show or I would have been seriously disappointed if I'd paid for it and had the same experience.

And yet, this is just my personal opinion and I know that some people love wraps. Perhaps I was applying them wrong, my nails are rubbish or I'm just an idiot, but either way I can't see myself purchasing a pack of nail wraps in the future. I think they're just glorified stickers, like you get when you're a child but they call them 'wraps' to make them sound more adult. However, if you would like to buy some wraps like these, you can click through to Nail Rock and find that similar products retail at about £6.65.

I'm a huge fan of Topshop nail polishes and this colour is no exception. I received this colour as a Christmas gift and I think it was released with three other colours just for the season so it's no longer available in store. Plus, because it's just a mini and I've lost the box I don't remember what the shade is called :( It's a kind of deep-grey, deep-khaki colour and it's lovely! Similar gift sets from Topshop Nails retail at about £12 for three minis. Bargain.

What do you think about nail wraps? Was I applying them wrong? Does anyone else prefer hand-done nail art to these sticker-type things?

Thanks for reading and enter the Giveaway!

Love
gabriellasofia
x

HauteFuture's First Giveaway Including Barry M, Juicy Couture and Models Own Goodies!

So this is my 'Thank-You-Followers-and-Subscribers-for-Being-Amazing' giveaway! Watch the video, then get entering :) The giveaway ends on the 14^th February 2012 which I figured was nice because then someone gets to win something on Valentine’s Day. I will be drawing the winners from a hat on the 14^th and to prove that it’s all been fair I will record and post a video of the draw! This giveaway is open world-wide so everyone should enter, and please tell your friends. Swatches of the products to come soon and more sample-sized surprises to be included... 

How to Enter...

1) All those entering MUST be a follower with GFC (Google Friend Connect) - You can do this by clicking 'Follow' in the top left hand corner of the screen, or by clicking 'Join This Site' down the right hand side of my page next to all of the mini pictures of my followers. Once you've done this, you must comment and state something like 'I'm following as _____' and say your GFC name. You must also give your email address so I can get in touch with you if you win. This will give you 1 ENTRY.

2) Follow @HauteFuture on Twitter. This will give you 1 ENTRY!

3) Click 'Like' on the HauteFuture Facebook Page. This will give you 1 ENTRY!

4) Subscribe to my YouTube channel. This will give you 3 ENTRIES.  

5) RT this: 
'Head to http://hautefuture.blogspot.com/2012/01/hautefutures-first-giveaway-including.html to #win #giveaway prizes from @BarryMCosmetics and @modelsown Thanks @HauteFuture x' 
This will give you 3 ENTRIES.

6) Tell your friends... If a friend of yours begins to follow with GFC because you've told them to, make sure they mention it in their comment down below and they will get 1 ENTRY and you will get an extra 5 ENTRIES! If you're a blogger, you may want to write a post about this giveaway, if not you may want to mention it in a Facebook status or show your friends my page or something like that :) 

Everyone wishing to be entered must state their various applications in their comment... For example, 'Hi, I follow with GFC as MaryBean. I also RT'd as MaryBean3, and I follow with that name too. I subscribed on Youtube with the name MayBe and I 'Liked' as Mary Berlap on Facebook. My email is marybean@gmail.com. Hope I win, thanks! x' This person would have won herself 9 ENTRIES into the giveaway. If her friend Jenny began following and said in the comments 'Hi I follow as Jenbo2012 and I was referred over by MaryBean. Email me if I win at jenbo2012@yahoo.com x' Then Mary would now have 14 ENTRIES and her friend Jenbo2012 would have 1 too! Simples :)

Once again, thank you so much guys for supporting me in my blogging and vlogging. It means an awful lot, and I hope that very soon I will be able to organize another giveaway when I get 300 followers! Good luck <3

Love

gabriellasofia

x