Maintaining Vintage Style As a Mum

Vintage inspired style is not a quick to get pretty scheme. Those of you who pursue it know that sometimes it can take hours just to style your hair to make it look as you would like it. With an option of preferably setting it the night before to have those beautiful curls in the morning.

Make-up? How about that perfectly drawn cat eye? Yes, it all becomes easier with practice, but it will never be something you can do in 2 minutes' time. You can, but you don't want to go out into the street like that...

If you are a parent, you probably also know that with a small child, let's be honest, most of the time you have 5 minutes for yourself to get ready. And that includes going to the toilet and eating something, too (possibly not at the same time). So how to upkeep this style, even if our life gets very busy?

When I fell in love with vintage style, it was for life. This is who I am and always have been. I talked to friends who also said they simply cannot put jeans on and go out as "modern" people. I feel the same. If I didn't dress accordingly, I feel I would lose myself.

For this reason, I had to find a way to cut my routine in half and come up with a few tricks in order not to give up and quit. So here are a few hacks that work so well for me.

Vintage (inspired) clothing

I always start with the dress. This weekend I decided to wear a Bernie Dexter, particularly for the reason that my daughter loved the lively colour and print so much. She was looking at it, smiling, trying to catch the bees. I just love this vintage style dress, as you jump into it, pull the zip up and you're done. No buttons, lacing up or anything fancy. The material is fantastic, absorbing moisture to the maximum. Perfect solution for a busy mum.

But the best feature of this vintage dress is its waistline. I still have a little extra weight from pregnancy; the high waistline hides it beautifully, accentuating my figure. And it has pockets!!

Dress checked: two minutes.

Vintage style hair

When starting my routine, I always begin with setting my hair. The reason for this is that if I do so, it will be out of the way and it's easier to apply make-up next. No flyaways that smother your perfectly drawn lips or get into your eyes, causing them to water and smudge the mascara.

To me, vintage hairstyling is art. I would like to make it clear that whenever I have the time, I do love to patiently brush out and form those curls to perfection.

However, if we are honest, unless you have money to constantly have your hair washed and styled at the hairdresser's like in the good old times, you will not have the time to constantly sculpt a masterpiece and keep up the perfect updo if you are a parent. Which, in return, can be frustrating.

So here is a time-saving hack that works so well for me.

To save time and be able to get the baby and Andy ready before the sun set and the car show ended, I opted for a very quick solution. First I just separated my fringe from the rest of my hair. I quickly made a few loose curls with my fingers on the top of my head and pinned them down. With a rat and a little teasing, I made a bumper bang. I tied it all up with a bandana and sprayed half a bottle of hairspray on it.

This was a perfect solution for the following reasons:

- My hair wasn't curled and would have looked neglected otherwise.

- It was very hot that day, so my neck was free and my hair wasn't making me feel even hotter.

- Rosie wasn't pulling on a perfectly styled vintage curl either.

- I can always show off gorgeous earrings.

- Lastly, I was able to apply a beautiful, metallic red Dior lipgloss that I bought that day. It was windy on the seafront and had my hair not been out of the way, people would have been asking me "Why so serious?"...

Hair checked: 5-10 minutes.

Vintage make-up

Up until this point, the baby was happily playing in her bouncer, but to do my make-up, I had to "change the game" a little, so I put her into the baby gym to carry on playing. She enjoyed herself and I quickly got started with the make-up.

I am generally not a fan of cementing one's face - less is more to me every time. The hack in case of my make-up routine are actually my eyes. I have always had hooded eyelids - something I never liked. I am sure we all have things we are not crazy about on ourselves, however, the goal is to turn these imperfections to our advantage.

Hooded eyelids are not flattering with thick eyeliners applied. The application of the eyeliner is, as we all know, one of the most time-consuming and difficult parts of vintage make-up application.

So to save time and have a thin line on my lids, I use fake eyelashes and that's really it! The lashes are connected with a thin, black line, and that is really all I need. If I applied a layer of eyeliner on top of the lashline, my lid would completely disappear. And that line, I can tell you is dead straight. I add the wing, and done.

I used to fiddle with drawing the line for hours, adding another bit, then finally either ending up with a huge buildup of product or a perfect line onto which I glued the lashes and then it disappeared underneath. A complete waste of time if you have eyelids like mine!

After slapping on a thick layer of 50+++ sunscreen, I put on a thin layer of liquid foundation+blush+lipgloss to look fresh in the summer breeze by the sea and that's really it! Again, less is more....

Make-up checked: 5-10 minutes. (But if I really mess it up even so, I can always show off some of my fabulous vintage sunglasses!)

It also helps to do your make-up and/or hair sitting next to the baby.

Baby

Rosie was not fussy at all.

My time-saving baby hack nr. 1: I always have a bag ready to go: nappies, bibs, creams and toys, adding only food and drink before leaving the house. I checked her nappy and if she was hungry (she wasn't) and that was it.

Partner

However, the partner. Right? The trick is to keep asking him questions if he has done this and/or that while you are getting ready, otherwise, you will pack everything, get yourself, plus the baby ready, and end up in the hallway with the baby and the bags, waiting for him to fix his hair, polish the shoes or find the keys.

Luckily, Andy is a sweetheart and knows he needs to hurry...

Finally, he grabbed his camera, and we headed off to the show. Take a look at the amazing seaside fun people were having that day! Even though the water was only 9 degrees, many swam in the sea!