get the look: queen elizabeth II

her majesty elizabeth the second, by the grace of god, of the united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, and of her other realms and territories, queen, head of the commonwealth, defender of the faith, and my absolute favorite royal of all times, has been in this world for exactly 87 years (and two days- I'm always late). it was quite an eventful year for the queen: she hosted the olympics, became a bond girl, celebrated her 60th year on throne, had her diamond jubilee sort of overshadowed by kate, won a bafta, had her husband hospitalized, was hospitalized herself, and outlived margaret thatcher, all while running her usual errands, and being polished as always.

ma'am loves her dress coats, silky shift dresses and lots of tweed (all in the same color), paired with her adorably outdated, demure mid-heels, a pair of white gloves, and an extremely classic black tote. as for the jewelry department, she's rarely seen without a brooch pinned to her coat, and always three strings of pearls on her neck. she is not one to shy away from color- in fact that's where she's really unpredictable. you never can tell, really: she might be all cutesy in lavender, yellow and cotton candy, or visiting wilder territories such as fierce tones of red, purple and emerald. a slick of brigh-ish lipstick completes the look (a habit shared by many women of her generation, even if they don't use any other item of makeup). I can't claim to know what exactly her majesty smells like- although it's probably not like you, me, or the typical granny. she's known to purchase lavender products from yardley, so I'll  play it safe and go with yardley's english lavender edt (which holds a royal warrant and apparently both her mother and queen mary used).

while getting ready for another 60 years with elizabeth as the queen of england, I brought together her style hits from this year:

baby's in black at margaret thatcher's funeral- not a color we are used to see on her, so it comes as such a game changer in a weird way:

I love this rather daring wrap dress that she wore for the royal variety performance, and all the silver-y accents that come with it (including the hair! the hair!):

shades of pink make her such an english rose, it's amazing. but this ensemble must be the best of them all:

 and of course, how can one forget her bond girl frock, complete with a feather-y fascinator:

a nail story: no more waity, katie.

 in the haze of this lovely marketing madness the royal wedding has caused, butter london has created the shade "no more waity, katie" (psst, after kate's eight-year-long wait for walking down the aisle), described as "a soft griege littered with lilac glitter". sounds good to me, in every sense. oops: the shade is not available in the UK.

unfortunately, maybe because she lives in the UK so she just couldn't get her hands on a bottle of it, kate didn't opt for this lovely piece of liquid humour on her nails for the big day, but instead kept them prim & proper in a mix of bourjois so laque! nailpolish in rose lounge and essie nailpolish in allure. for a similar look, pros suggest sweet heart by OPI. I suggest any muted pale pink priced under approx. a dollar per bottle.

photos: a la parisienne, the budget babe, 10 dakika gecikiyorum

of tulle, lilly of the walley and DIY makeup: the royal wedding

pardon the unnecessarily cordial tone I will use when talking about the british royal family. being an old, old fan (seriously, let's hope my irish friends won't read this, fingers crossed); I've simply been around for too long not to do so. finally, we got wills married!

This couple was simply too sweet to pass by.

although I find them personally a bit boring at times, I was waiting for the wedding of prince william and kate middleton with an enthusiasm that perhaps matched to theirs in degree, for the big day I probably rose almost as early as they did, and by now I'm sure the house of windsor is more over the whole wedding fever than I am. so, dare I say, here you have my verdict: it was so much like being at a friend's wedding, I loved it- to the extent that at a first glance I felt like the event kind of lacked the necessary dose of va-va-voom for a major royal wedding, but now looking back I appreciate the understated elegance of every single detail and how they managed to make it a bit wills & kate rather than just royal- you know, little things: the convertible aston martin with the "JU5T WED" plate they left buckingham palace with, that kate chose to do her own makeup (although I see a tad too much mascara perhaps?), disco balls in buckingham palace- I'm completely sold.

I didn't feel like it's the best wedding dress I've ever seen, but it still pleased me thoroughly and has been growing on me. going mcqueen for the wedding was possibly the best choice kate could make, both as a tribute to the late designer and his contribution to the british fashion scene (basically defining and re-shaping the brit look, I'd say). the gown definitely has the royal finery to it, but in the most sublime and delicate way, rather than overstating the obvious fact. it tells so much about future the path newlyweds are planning to take and I love it. see how quickly lilly of the valley in bridal boquets and that grace kelly-inspired lace bodice become the next big things. and oh, that dreamy, crystal-like veil! by the way, princess kate, you got yourself a new fan here.

everybody looked so radiant and happy, including the queen. and are those three spencer blondes down there simply too beautiful to be real or is that some kind of cheerleader effect?

girls, calm down. william is going bald. william is not the big deal he was five, six years ago. plus you can still marry prince harry.