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Attention all thrifters, vintage lovers and one-of-a-kind, small-batch treasure hunters! This weekend Etsy is running their GET5 promo code which will get you $5 off orders of $25 or more! This promo is open to shoppers in the US, UK, and Canada! What's even cooler is that there’s no limit to the number of times you can use the GET5 code between Friday and Sunday! If like me, you have approximately a metric ton of little goodies sitting in your shopping cart and/or "saved for later" list, you can bundle them up and use that code as many times as you need to in order to secure a healthy discount on all your loot! This promo is not just limited to one shop, but is good across all of Etsy. To kick things off, here are a few new 90s era additions to Highland Fashionista Vintage that you may not have seen. Click on any of the individual garment photos with titles for more information on specific items. GenX, this next part comes with a trigger warning; some of these 90s and Y2K era garments look as if I travelled back in time and raided our twenty-something closets! Yes, we're that old that the garments of our raucous 20s are considered true vintage. Eek.

Don't worry. I don't mean "old school" as in waxing nostalgic about the days of bullet bras and talcum powder; this isn't a piece about foundation garments or cosmetic safety. In fact, it's quite the opposite of that. (But since it came up, go ahead and rely on the Environmental Working Group's database/website for all your cosmetic safety needs.) No, this piece is a keepin' it real love letter to the cosmetics in my collection that are old. Like, really old. My favorite old beauty products from the back of the drawer. The Comfort of Favorite Old Beauty Products So much of what we see and read on social media is based around the model of influencers marketing the next best thing. And don't get me wrong, I love trying new things, but inevitably, I seem to find myself ending up reaching for the back of the drawer. I imagine cosmetic years are at least as exponentially ageing as dog years, and I'm quite certain that at this point I have more than one centenarian eyeshadow palette in my makeup collection. But isn't that the mark of a real holy grail product? From where I'm sitting, there is a lot of value in a product that you are willing to pick the lint out of repeatedly so that you can keep right on using it until you can see your reflection in the empty tin. With that in mind, here I present to you a couple of my trusty old standbys. Hopefully lint free, but probably not. Bobbi Brown Bronzer in Telluride (Matte) I purchased this Bobbi Brown Telluride bronzer in a bargain bin at TK Maxx in Glasgow, not realizing that it was a limited edition piece. I am now in the midst of a full-blown existential crisis. I'm freaking out because I can see that the end is near for this product, and a brief internet search has shown me that I'm never going to be able to find it again. This is the matte version of this bronzer, and I use it virtually every day in varying amounts, mostly just to create a bit of warmth to my look as well as ensure that whatever stage of tan I may be at, my makeup blends well. It keeps me from having to have 800 shades of BB cream in my colleciton. With my increasingly silver hair, bronzers tend to go very orange on me, so finding one like this - one that's just the right amount of warmth to complement my warm skin tone while avoiding the ubiquitous orange-based brown cast...that has been at least a decade-long quest. There are a few of the illuminating versions of this bronzer still floating around out there, but I have not been able to secure the matte version. With matte bronzers, you are really able to create a more natural look, and you always have the option to add shimmer over the top to change-up the look. I have subsequently launched into a campaign of trying to find a dupe, so this is going to be a watch this space kind of situation here folks. It's hard to find matte bronzers at the best of times, let alone in the shade I'm looking for. A few potential replacements that show early promise that I will definitely be trying in the future (not limited to matte): Korres Zea Mays Blush in Pupple Brown (hard to find - also probably discontinued), Stila Convertible Color Lip and Cheek Stain in Magnolia (discontinued in the UK, can still find it in the USA), and Guerlain Bronzing Powder in Medium Cool. Revlon Colorstay Creme Eyeshadow in Praline This is my second pot of this cream eyeshadow by Revlon. This one is a no brainer for me. It's a lovely warm pinkish shade that blends well with my skin tone. Yes, it's shimmery which can be problematic for those of us who aren't 25, but the creamy formula dries down and sort of sets in such a way that you don't need to worry about it settling into your creases. I get a lot of wear out of this stuff, and I use this most days. It's quick and easy, and I just stick a finger in, do a quick few swipes on each lid, and it gives me a bit of a glow without looking too "done", which I am not a fan of. This stuff gets me out the door fast, and I'm not messing with a bunch of brushes and colors and blending tools. I haven't tried any of the other shades yet, because quite frankly, I don't feel the need to. If I want a more dramatic eye, I often use this as a base, then build up with some of my other ancient eyeshadows on top of this to get the desired effect. But these days, this is pretty much what I wear every single day. These are available just about anywhere that carries Revlon products. Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream SPF 42 in Shade 27 This is a Korean product, and it has been on the scene for a while. Finding the right shade can be a bit tricky with very little to go on other than online research and watching YouTubers half your age apply twice as much product as you would use, but with a relatively low price tag of around $10-$15 in the US, you can afford to experiment. It's a bit more in the UK through mainstream beauty suppliers, but there is a workaround. More on that in a minute The coverage of this product is quite sheer despite the very rich texture, so even if you get the shade slightly wrong as I did initially, you can still kind of get away with it. (For the record, Shade 23 was too light for me, and is a very cool undertoned light to medium shade that looks grey in the tube - but don't let it scare you. it would be perfect for someone with a light/medium complexion and cool undertones ). Shade 27 was the shade that I ultimately landed on, and it is a perfect match for my yellow-undertoned and often tanned skin. This product has a way of sort of emulsifying once it's on your skin and it really becomes quite seamless. Even if you feel initially that the shade may not be ideal, sit with it a moment, it takes a few minutes to fully settle. Incidentally, this photo is a representation of their older shade offerings. I believe they have since expanded it a bit more. This stuff has a good SPF comprised of a combo of a common chemical sunscreen and a mineral zinc oxide physical sunscreen. A little goes a very long way with this product; it lasts all day, has buildable coverage, and I absolutely love it. As I said earlier, it can be slightly more expensive (not much more) and harder to find in the UK, but if you can wait a few weeks, order it from Korean sites like YesStyle and you'll get it for half of what they sell it for on Amazon and other UK beauty sites.

Greetings everyone, and apologies for the long pause in posting - I was away for a bit and like many of you have been quite busy, but all the same I'd like to welcome you to this, my official Patricia Field / Sex and the City (SATC) 50 year-old fangirl post. Yeah, I turned 50 this past August. I didn't make a big deal about it, because really...who gives a s**t? With the exception of a particularly diva-like right hamstring, nothing has really changed all that much for me at 50, and while I thought about trying to do something with it for the blog, it felt kind of disingenuous to try and make some sort of celebratory event out of something that basically felt like any other Tuesday. I guess I don't really talk a lot about the age stuff on the blog any more because there are plenty of people doing it better than I would. I prefer to just stick with the sartorial inspo that brought us all here in the first place. Besides, If one sees a photo of a woman with a head full of silver floofy hair, it an be safely assumed she's not 25. No need to state the obvious. Anyhoo, back to why we're here. I've been sitting on this SATC "Carrie" flower dress for quite a while now (not literally), nearly two years, to be exact, waiting for my moment. But I figured since the new SATC spinoff series is out now, the time was right to dust it off and take it for a spin. I readily admit, since the pandemic hit, I miss having an occasion to get dressed all fancy. Thankfully I have you guys to bounce this stuff off of, and of course the vintage clothing shop to run, so I do get my fix...but still. The SATC Carrie Flower Dress Origin Story Back in 2008, inimitable stylist, clothing and costume designer Patricia Field did a Sex and the City inspired capsule collection in partnership with the British landmark department store Marks & Spencer. I did not know this at the time - I was busy completing graduate school in upstate New York and trying to fit my life into boxes so that I could move to Scotland, but years later when I eventually learned how I had missed out on it, being the fan that I am I was pretty bummed-out. Especially when I saw that she had done a black version of the original white Eugene Alexander big flower dress that Sarah Jessica Parker wore (and Whitney Houston before her in the 80s). To this day, I swear would consider trading one of my kidneys for that white dress, such is the extent of my lust. Fast forward to about two years ago. I was fiddling about on Ebay, treasure hunting as I am inclined to do, and boom! There it was. The black SATC Carrie dress from the Patricia Field + M&S capsule collection - in my size! I can honestly say that pulling the trigger on that "buy it now" auction was the fastest I've ever moved in my life. I'm certain I set some sort of global speed record, the likes of which would make Usain Bolt hang his head in shame. And it was worth it, because I seriously love this dress, although sadly if you love it too it may be a bit hard to find by now. But you never know - keep your eyes peeled, because guys...seriously. This thing is lit. SATC in a Post Me Too World I make no apologies for my love of SATC. Sure, when you re-watch some of the older episodes, there are moments when it is a bit out of step with our modern sensibilities, but that can be said for most episodic television programs whose currency is pop culture. When I hear women maligning SATC from a feminist perspective, I always remind them to look back at what was on television at that time from a female role representation perspective. When SATC started in 1998, the TV industry was only just starting to pull itself out from under the ""older sitcom dad with a hot younger wife" days. Hell - it still has one foot firmly planted in that sinkhole. Granted, there were also a fair amount of "teenaged" shows at the time, like Dawsons Creek and Charmed, but it was really just the beginning of the evolution of our era of TV into what we know in 2021. While we're on the subject, I will say that Will & Grace is another show of that time that certainly should get a shout out for representation, but I digress. Looking specifically at the representation of women in TV, in the Y2K era, female-centric TV ensemble casts were only still emerging from the Lifetime TV for Women days when the industry thought anything written about women needed to be either about some type of victimhood, or...if they were really pushing the boat out, a "crazy lady" storyline where a female rival is trying to insert herself into another woman's life and steal her man/baby/identity. You know, fighting over a man. That old nugget. But, at the end of the day, if you're not a fan, hey - we're all different. But if you're here, you probably like clothes. We all will have that in common, so even if you're not a fan of the show, seriously...turn the sound off if you must and enjoy the clothes! So many iconic looks - so many things I'm still trying to reproduce, even all these years later. Sometimes, ya just gotta let your fangirl freak flag fly! Sorry not sorry. Patricia Fields + M&S dress (2008) | Donald J. Pliner shoes (2010) | pebbled leather gold clutch from my Etsy shop | see below for similar pieces to create the look

If you like all things fashion and haven't been living under a rock (but really, haven't we all been living under a rock lately?), you certainly will have already noticed that Y2K era fashion has been steadily making a beeline for us over the past year or so. Nobody is more excited about this than I am. Sure, I suppose this means a resurgence in the tackier things from the era like velour tracksuits, crop tops and blingy, logo-emblazoned handbags (yes, all of those things have their place and are very much making a comeback right now), but there are also more sophisticated, tailored, and whimsical sides to this new take on Y2K style that makes me sit up straighter and take notice. Y2K version 2.0 has a better eclectic balance to it than its original counterpart. Interesting shapes, denim, sequins, and strange and unexpected textures and materials...all these things have all been incorporated into our old favorites to give our lockdown-starved sartorial auras an injection of some much needed life. This is apparent in everything from separates and sportswear to gowns, footwear and bags. However, this time around there's less of a prescribed feel to how one should wear these pieces; a sort of everything-goes attitude befitting a citizenry sick and tired of looking at themselves in sweatpants, but not yet ready to give up entirely on said sweatpants' comfort. Perhaps what's best about this latest revival is how accessible it is. You do not need to spend a lot of money to take advantage of these trends! That said, you certainly can spend a lot if you want to. I mentally spent about three million British pounds just drooling over some of the pieces I looked at while researching this post. However, if you're like me and can't afford to purchase new investment pieces (or even one new investment piece) every season, there's hope. Those of us who deal in vintage and preloved clothing are likely sitting atop a giant heap of authentic and affordable Y2K specimens, and the spring and pre-fall runways offer no shortage of inspiration as to how to incorporate these pieces into our 2022 wardrobes. Not that you guys need any help in the inspiration department. Seeing so many 90s / Y2K pieces trending really makes my slacker GenX heart swell, and I'm willing to bet I'm not alone. For those of us who remember these pieces fondly from their first run, it feels a bit like the band is back together again, so go out there and have fun with it - you got this. Y2K Style Then and Now, A Story in Pictures Trend: Shiny Silk & Satin Tops Trend: Mock Necks Trend: Minimalist Investment Leather Bags Trend: A Sleek Black Leather Jacket Trend: Colorful Tailoring Trend: A Sharp, Pointy Bootie Trend: Funky Printed Jackets Trend: Double Denim Trend: The Baguette shop the looks

To donate to humanitarian relief for the people of Ukraine: British Red Cross (UK) Global Giving (USA) Unicef Direct Relief (USA) Oxfam (UK) Medecines Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) Humane Society Ukraine Animal Rescue Fund International Fund for Animal Welfare (iFAW) World Central Kitchen

Hoooo-boyyy, it has been a stressful time here at Highland Fashionista HQ since Hurricane Ian plowed right over us in Charlotte County. However, I hasten to add that our experience pales in comparison to what many Floridians are going through. The stories being told around the state right now are both terrifying and heartbreaking. This was an absolutely catastrophic storm for many, many people, and despite being directly in the path of the storm, all of the people we know have emerged safe and sound. Our house weathered the storm well, and miraculously we did not experience any flooding. Do we have damage? Yes. Absolutely. You cannot endure 160 MPH winds without getting your hair messed up a bit. Will it be expensive? Undoubtedly. But bent pool cages and loose shingles can be repaired, and we are still standing, bent but not broken. Escaping Hurricane Ian Before it Hit We weren't actually in residence when the storm hit. My husband was back in the UK working, and I had only just left Florida a week prior having cleaned the place in anticipation of some fall rentals. I'd packed up as much of my stored shop inventory as I could carry and departed for the UK, blissfully ignorant of the coming chaos. In one week's time, I would be glued to the tiny screen on my iPhone, mainlining the storm tracking feature on my NOAA app while I watched this behemoth slowly change its predicted course and position itself for a direct hit as a Category 4 hurricane. There's a reason those of us with ties to Florida pay so much attention to exactly how these storms approach and make landfall. You may have heard Floridians refer to the "dirty" and "clean" sides of a hurricane before. Granted, there is no literal "clean" part of any hurricane, but what this does refer is best boiled-down in this handy infographic that was put out by Orlando's WFTV9 in 2020 in the days before hurricane Laura. You can read the full explanation on their page. Basically a hurricane has four distinct anatomical parts that each have slightly different impact on whatever is in its path. Front Left: This is where storm surge can be most significant Front Right: THE WORST. Winds, smaller storm systems within the storm, rain bands, lightning...all of it. The front right side of a hurricane is the everything bagel of storms. Back Left: the weakest point, still not a lot of fun Back Right: the strongest winds of the hurricane When Ian made landfall, our place was pretty much in the front to front left quadrant, and we spent a good chunk of time in the storm's eye wall, the condensed area surrounds the eye and packs the most powerful punch. In the case of Ian, that eye was thirty, yes...thirty miles wide. This clip was recorded by my next door neighbour, who captured the fury of the eye wall as it passed over. Like a lot of Floridians, she and her husband rode out the storm at home. Phew, right? At this point our pontoon boat had blown off the lift and floated away. You can see the empty lift in the background. Since 2002, homes in Florida are built to code that dictates they withstand hurricane force winds, referred to as the FBC (Florida Building Code). This change happened on the back of some of the lessons learned from Hurricane Andrew, which pretty much took out Punta Gorda in 1992. If you look at Punta Gorda (situated directly across the Charlotte Harbor from us), a majority of their homes and buildings are still standing. This is because so much of that city was rebuilt to the new Florida building code. Our home, built in 2016-2017, was built similarly. Our community has a canal system that leads to a lagoon, which then joins into the Charlotte Harbor, which then feeds into the Gulf of Mexico. Normally, when a hurricane approaches it sucks all of the water out of the harbors that flow into the Gulf, only to have it come rushing back with force once the storm passes over. It was this phenomenon that caused so much catastrophic damage throughout Southwest Florida. Unlike with the Florida building code upgrade of 2002, there is no code or amount of sand bags that will keep the raging Gulf in check when it gets tossed ashore by a CAT 4 hurricane. This was a major cause of so much of the destruction and loss of life we are seeing with this storm. We are lucky where we are situated, because the lagoon that connects our community to the Harbor via a series of canals is surrounded by mangroves, and most importantly, has a lock that opens and closes so boats can pass through. The water cannot freely just flow in and out from the lagoon to the harbor, it has to work a little harder if it wants to flood. This is a big reason we didn't get hammered by the surge as badly as they did in other places. This reverse surge phenomenon was observable in the Charlotte Harbor as Ian approached. The Aftermath of the Storm In the immediate aftermath of the storm, with literally no communications working, it felt like a loooong wait until we could get some news on our friends, neighbours and property. My husband's BFF is a concractor stateside, and he offered to go down to our house, take stock of the damage, and secure the roof to repair any shingles and make sure it was watertight. We were so relieved and grateful to him for this offer that when we finally did get a text from our neighbour shortly thereafter, it took me a full minute to process it. After reassuring us that all was well and the property came through like a champ, things took a turn for the weird. At the end of her text was the following note. "you have a couple from the UK staying in your house. Very nice. Didn't ask how long they were renting. No power or water still." Wait....what!? Our October rental showed up. From the UK. The day after the storm. They had booked through the home management company for the month, and apparently not wanting to miss their holiday and not having gotten any correspondence from the management company, flew from the UK to go to a rental house in a town where literally 24 hours prior, a CAT 4 hurricane had made landfall and left destruction and chaos in its wake. We were stunned. We had not even been able to get in touch with our home management company ourselves at this point. No comms were working anywhere near us. We had no idea if the people who manage our home were even accounted for at this point. We figured the British holidaymakers must gotten a welcome email from the rental company with all the codes to get in, and I guess just figured they'd just pitch up and hope for the best. But I'm not gonna lie, Im having a hard time wrapping my head around it. Laying aside the appropriateness of the whole thing, Just to arrive there, they had to have driven through a lot of heartbreaking devastation. At that point there was still a lot of flooding and debris on the roadways. It is actually kind of a miracle they arrived without being stopped, or worse yet without having gotten themselves in serious trouble or killed by a downed power line or some such. Like everyone at that point, we had no power in the house. No water. No AC. No sewer. At the time of this posting, we still don't have power, a week later. We did for about a day, then a damaged transformer blew. So power may be a bit of a wait. In addition, most of the screens were blown out of the lanai, and parts of the cage were twisted and loose, making opening any doors to the house an invitation to every bug in Charlotte County. But by golly these people wanted to stay. There was no way to cook or bathe. They had apparently picked up enough info to know to flush the toilets with a bucket of water, but what they couldn't know is that the houses in our area have mini sewers, a septic-type system that fills to a certain point, then a pump kicks in to suck the waste out to the main sewer. If you have no electricity, you have no pump. Eventually if you keep flushing toilets with no power, that sewage is gonna back right up into your drains and come shooting out at you through your shower drain while you're in your bathroom, unsuspectingly plucking your eyebrows. This was not the post hurricane problem set I was anticipating, and my husband and I were quite literally stunned into silence. With no comms working and our management company AWOL, how can we even begin to approach this? Renters in the house with no power! When there's no light people burn candles! My imagination was running through house burning down scenarios on a loop. My husband did finally get to speak to the people in our house, thanks to our neighbour. I have to say, it took my husband considerable time and energy to convince them that they needed to pack up and vacate our home until we could secure it and services were restored. That not so fun job fell to him because of the two of us, he is the diplomat. If you need conflict resolution, he's your man. If you need someone to reach into the chest of your enemy and pull out his beating heart while looking him in the eye à la Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, that's my department. In the end, common sense prevailed, and the couple, who were reportedly very nice, moved to another property, or maybe got refunded...I actually don't know, and I don't care. The point is they vacated and allowed us to get on with the task of damage assessment and repair. But that whole completely unanticipated and utterly weird experience did provide me with a rather stark reminder that in life, not everything is always as clear and obvious to others as it may be to us. So that's it. That's our brush with Ian. It is absolutely small potatoes compared to what many people in our area are going to have to endure for a very long time. If you wish to contribute to the ongoing relief efforts, I'm leaving some links below. If you wish to support us directly, the best way to do so is to make a purchase from the Highland Fashionista Etsy shop, or contribute to the blog. Stay safe everyone, and check the weather before you go on that vacation! Feeding Florida: coordinating all of the food banks in the state to help provide food for displaced people in the state of FL World Central Kitchen: providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises Direct Relief: works to equip health professionals in resource-poor and hard hit communities. American Red Cross: the Red Cross is focusing on providing safe shelter, meals and comfort to victims of Hurricane Ian.

Last week was awful. We had to suddenly say goodbye to our nearly 16 year-old bearded collie, Fergus. Fergus has been a central part of our lives the entire 15 years I have been in Scotland. With a (very) old dog you know that every day is a blessing, but that doesn't make losing a pet any easier. I've had the makings of a few posts sitting on my desktop for over a week now, but quite frankly, I'm just not feeling it. Eyeshadow can wait. Clothing can wait. It can all wait. It'll get done soon. In the meantime, please enjoy these photos of our beloved departed boy, and I'll be back after the massive hole in my heart has a chance to heal at least a little bit.

Hey fashionistas. I'm happy to report that after many of us who sell on the Etsy platform enquired about ways we could support Ukrainian artists on the platform, Etsy has come up with a stratgegy to help try and give these sellers a boost in trying times. There is some really lovely stuff that comes out of Ukraine, and a ton of sellers who up until recent events were earning their keep on the platform. You can read about Etsy's strategy here and lend your support!

**UPDATED JUNE 2023** Ahoy there Internetters!  Yes, I know that for many of you, this seems like a strange time of year to be providing an update to my periodic safe sunscreens postings, but I'm afraid this is just the way it is with me. When you live between Scotland and Florida, summer is winter, winter is summer, and spring and fall are more theoretical constructs than times of year, so I really pay no mind at all to the changing of seasons. I am led completely by necessity, and this past few weeks, I needed sunscreen. First off, if you're new or need a refresher, have a read-through of my previous safe sunscreen postings: The original post - Sunscreen Safety can be found here The follow-up - More Safe Sunscreens can be found here As with my two previous postings, I always check any product I am trying-out for the first time against the Environmental Working Group's Safe Sunscreens database. They have amassed an incredible amount of data and have reviewed just about every major brand you can think of that is readily available - particularly those in the US. If you have never visited this website, you simply must. Every year, they test a raft of sunscreens and rate them, giving the consumer a tidy list of some of the safest and most effective products on the market. And some surprising recommendations of products to steer clear of as well (seriously, if you're still using those aerosolized sunscreens, or worse yet any of the Ambre Solaire products - I strongly encourage you to visit this site and read-up!) Generally speaking, the safest sunscreens are always going to be the mineral-based ones -  the zinc and titanium dioxide sunscreens. Yes, they tend to leave a bit of a whiteish cast on the skin, but if safety is what you're after, there simply is no alternative. There are some good "hybrid" products out there (sunscreens that are a combination of a chemical sunscreen and minerals), but as far as effectiveness, sensitivity, and side effects go, your mineral sunscreens are always going to be at the top of the list. A Slightly Different Approach to Safe Sunscreen This time around,  I took a different tack than I have in the past when looking at sunscreens. Normally, I would look at the EWG recommendations, then order a handful of their top-rated sunscreens and take them for a whirl. However, a lot of their top-rated versions are not readily available in stores, particularly if you live in a place with limited access to more "natural" brands, which a lot of these top-rated mineral sunscreens tend to be. Added to that I get sent a lot of stuff for the blog, so I always have a few products laying-around that I did not come by because of the website. With that in mind, I made my selections this time based on things that were more readily-available in stores. Sure, I cheated a bit to make sure that the ones I was choosing had been reviewed, but this time, you should be able to walk into a Walgreens or a Boots and put your hands on the product without having to order it from Amazon. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Amazon has literally been here to the house in FL about eight times in the past two weeks as I fly into a panic preparing to return to the UK. But I digress. Here's the intel, and a quick reminder that with the EWG, the lower score is what you want - think of it as a "demerit" system -  a 1 is their highest rating. The higher the score, the less safe the sunscreen. Think Baby SPF 50+ Sunscreen $17 US / £14 UK I mention this one again because it is my hands-down favorite sunscreen of all time. I've been using it for years. It goes on easily (for a mineral sunscreen), does not leave you looking too much like a ghost, can be used on your face with ease, smells amazing, and stays on forever, even in the pool (that's not to say you don't need to re-apply, but I'm a medium-olivey skinned girl so I likely get a little more time out of it than some). This one will probably always be in my cache here in Florida.  This one gets the top rating of 1/10 from the EWG. And from me. A+ UPDATE JUNE 2023: This sunscreen is consistently in my top picks, and probably always will be. I have no notes on this. Still one of the best. Neutrogena Sheer Zinc Dry-Touch Sunscreen SPF 50+ $11 US / £21 UK While this sunscreen isn't the cheapest you'll find in the drugstore, it is without a doubt probably one of the best. This pure mineral sunscreen gets a top rating of 1/10 from EWG (the face version gets a 2/10) goes on easily, and it definitely does have less of a whiteish cast than your average mineral sunscreen. One of the best things about this sunscreen is that it dries-down on your skin and doesn't leave you feeling like a piece of walking fly paper. Need to buy some sunscreen in a pinch? I reach for this, every time. A JUNE 2023 UPDATE: This Sunscreen really hasn't been in my rotation, really only because it really doesn't represent a particularly great value for the amount of product you get, as good as siad product is. You get so much more product with just about any other drugstore sunscreen, and a UK price tag of over £20 for 3 oz of product? Eek!! If you're looking for a great option that really dries down and sinks into the skin (particularly for the face), I like the Simple Kind to Skin Light Moisturizer With Sunscreen. Granted, it's only SPF 15, so you may want to step it up a bit and try the Raw Elements Daily Moisturizer, SPF 30. Banana Boat Kids Tear-Free, Sting-Free Mineral Sunscreen SPF 50+ $8 US / £8 GBP (similar mineral-based product for babies) If affordability is what you're after, this is an excellent option - but tread lightly. Make sure you are purchasing the Tear-Free, Sting-Free Kids formula, and not one of the other many variations that Banana Boat has out (like the Kids Sport, which unfortunately is much more readily available on shelves). This tear-free formula gets a 3/10 from EWG (while the other permutations get a 6/10 and more), and it has great protection. Granted,  it's a bit more difficult to spread evenly than say, the ThinkBaby sunscreen. However, if you can find this in the store, it will only set you back between $8-10 USD, a bargain when you compare it to some of the pricier "natural" options. If you are going to be somewhere where you think you'll go through a lot of sunscreen, this is a great option. B JUNE 2023 UPDATE: At the time of the original writing, Banana Boat was in the midst of changing a lot of their formulas and branding labels, so their offerings are quite different now, and sadly no longer carry any that I would currently recommend you try. A better sensitive/kids option is the Earth Mama Baby Mineral Sunscreen Lotion.

Ahoy there summer people. Yes, I know I should have posted this at the beginning of the summer, but these days things just sort of happen when they happen. In my quest to update the blog, I have done updates on all of my sunscreen safety posts, so if you're setting out on a late summer vacation or just hanging out in the blistering heat, I've got fresh recommendations. In the USA, the Environmental Working Group has a fantastic database of safe sunscreens (as well as other cosmetics and household products), and several years back I ordered a slew of products they recommended and trialled them on various trips. As it turns out, many of my favorites are still my favorites. There are a few that are no longer available or just really hard to get, and I've offered some alternatives to those. For those of you living in the UK, things are a bit more difficult. By and large, sunscreens available to the mass market in Europe are actually slightly better than the mass market offerings in the US, yet it's pretty hard to find an accurate ingredient comparison that gives much detail about what the ingredients are and what they do, so as the consumer you are a bit on your own to do the research. Additionally, pure mineral sunscreens are always more expensive than their drugstore counterparts, and in the UK, they are ex-pen-SIVE; some that I've found cost as much as £40 (thats about $51!), and are often meant to really only be used on the face. Thankfully, my ever-vigilant husband happened upon a pretty good option for those of you in the UK, and it costs a mere £3.50! ASDA's Protect Sensitive sunscreen is a hybrid sunscreen (that's a combo of chemical sunscreens and titanium dioxide), and I can vouch for the fact that it is not only pretty darn effective, the formula goes on really smoothly, and even after 12 straight days of heavy use I did not become sensitive to it (something that often happens to me with heavy use in a humid climate). Incidentally, if you go to the ASDA site, I strongly recommend you ignore the reviews of this sunscreen, which appear to mostly be written by people who don't understand the fundamentals of how sunscreens containing mineral components actually work. The ASDA sunscreen has no smell and is devoid of all the most common "bad" ingredients like oxybenzone, relying instead on a combo of less potent, safer chemical sunscreens, combined with the mineral ingredient titanium dioxide. I found that this sunscreen applied really smoothly for a mineral hybrid, and it did not dry my skin out, like many natural sunscreens do. I used both the SPF 50 (my go-to) and SPF 30. My only beef with this product is that the titanium dioxide is a nano particle formulation, so there is potential for uptake. You can read more about that and other common problematic ingredients at the EWG site. One last point - If you are using one of those aerosol spray sunscreens, stop now. These are the worst of the worst. Even the mineral versions of these sunscreens pose a risk of inhalation, and quite frankly, they're messy and disgusting. Most of the contents of the can gets lost to the atmosphere, and there's nothing worse than chilling in your beach chair and suddenly tasting someone else's sunscreen. A Quick-Click Reference to Safe Sunscreen Reviews Below are links to all of my updated sunscreen review posts with updated recommendations. Sunscreen Safety: What Every Outdoor Enthusiast Needs to Know Save Your Skin with More Safe Sunscreen Reviews The 2018 Safe Sunscreen Update - Get Vacation Ready!

You may have noticed a lot of new little things popping up on the blog of late. I've been slowly sifting through a lot of old content, tossing some of it out and keeping and updating the good stuff (subjective, I know). If you've seen something you like suddenly disappear, have patience friend. It will reappear. But if it doesn't, drop me a line and tell me you want it back! One of those new things that has popped-up is the newly-minted Highland Fashionista Library of Books Banned in Florida. Okay, it's not really a library, it's a collection of links and a brief description to each of the banned works, a lion's share of which have won literary accolades. As most of you know, I am a part-time Floridian (sort of like a reverse snowbird), and the recent havoc being wreaked on the educators of our state is terrifyingly (but predictably) authoritarian in nature, and quite frankly, simply un-American. So I've decided to do whatever small part I can to try and help reverse the damage being done to the young minds of Florida, all in the name of protecting the children. From books. Protecting children from books. Not gun violence, mind you. Committing a violent act with a firearm is now easier to do than it ever has been in Florida, thanks to another round of incomprehensible legislation. No, we're protecting young minds from reading and books, and I can't even with this s**t. So you'll find links on the website's menu and scattered throughout that will take you to the (ongoing and in progress, probably forever) collection of mostly young adult (but not exclusively) books that to date, have been pulled from the shelves. Why Should I be Interested in Florida Book Ban Activity, It Doesn't Affect Me Doesn't it? If I had a nickel for every time I heard that come out of the mouth of an acquintence or neighbor who may not agree with what's happening in Florida, but doesn't have the energy or foresight to realize that these kids are going to be our cardiologists some day, and will have far-reaching influence not limited to the state of Florida. However, I think the best way to sum it up is what I have written on the "library" page itself: At Highland Fashionista, the freedom for anyone to tell his or her story is sacrosanct. Recent far-right legislation signed into law in the U.S. State of Florida has started a cascade of book removals from school libraries, leaving bookshelves barren and educators feeling like they have targets on their backs. Unsurprisingly, the materials being removed largely represent stories by and about the LGBTQIA+ community and people of color. ​These bans vary by county, and often are enacted after one (yes, just one) complaint. They say knowledge is power (true), but knowledge is also compassion, joy, ecstasy, empathy, pain, fear, sorrow, anger, forgiveness, and love. Sometimes gaining new knowledge may push your buttons a bit. It's supposed to. That's how we grow. Exposure to stories about people whose life experiences may differ vastly from those of our own enhances our innate human ability to connect and learn. To put it plainly, learning to hold space for other people is essential in cultivating a society not populated by idiots. ​If you'd like to do your part in helping the up and coming generations hear the diverse and amazing stories of the diverse and amazing humans of our planet, I'm happy to help. ​This list is based on an article from the Miami New Times, 25 April 2023, is a work in progress, and will be periodically updated.

Last week I posted a pair of rhinestone star earrings (almost as an afterthought) to my post about minimalist summer dressing. After getting a few questions about them in my inbox, I decided to give them, or perhaps more accurately the trend that is behind them, a bit of attention this week. Style experts have been declaring maximalism as the look of the minute for a while now, and I'm here for it. While I don't necessarily consider myself a maximalist when it comes to accessories, equally I wouldn't describe myself as a minimalist. I fall neatly in the center, fuelled by my highly artistic and painstakingly cultivated process which basically consists of me looking at some jewelry pieces and thinking "well now this is cute" and kind of going from there. The savvy vintage seller in me also feels the need to point out that lot of the maximalist jewelry trends in circulation right now draw pretty heavily from the styles of the 80s. Styles such as button earrings, abstract "artsy-fartsy" shapes, and unconventional materials are all appearing in mainstream shops again. Really, it's sort of a free for all out there right now; the one unifying factor being that most of these pieces are full of fun. Like I always say, this is supposed to be fun, right? Here are three types of maximalist-inspired jewelry that I am really loving for summer, with some pretty fantastic offerings brought to you by my fellow Etsy sellers. Maximalist Jewelry Trend No. 1: Real Shells There's a part of me that has always been inclined to dismiss real shell jewelry as tacky tourist fodder, despite my absolute love of beachcombing. However, you can save the energy that you were about to expend on lecturing me about my own hypocrisy, because this summer's beach-inspired maximalist shell jewelry trends have completely disabused me of that notion! These pieces are at once bold and organic, luxurious yet recognizably commonplace. All I can think of when I look at these pieces is sitting in a breezy tropical climate in a maxi dress sipping an adult beverage. A person could do much, much worse. Maximalist Jewelry Trend No. 2: Fringe Jewelry Any of you who have been hanging around the blog for a while already know I love anything with fringe on it! These pieces give you a bit of a glow and have a swooshy, luxurious feel to them when you're wearing them. What's more, many of these fringe pieces are extraordinarily light to wear, so if like me you love a swingy statement chandelier earring but are starting to notice that inevitable gravitational downward trajectory of the holes in your earlobes, lightweight chain fringe pieces are an excellent choice! Maximalist Jewelry Trend No. 3: Oversized Whimsy My star earrings (the aforementioned original inspiration for this post) fall into a category of maximalism I've dubbed "oversized whimsy." This is perhaps the most 80s-derivative maximalist trend on the go, drawing wearable design inspiration straight from the more-is-more nature of the "me decade." Oversized whimsy is a broad moniker, encompassing anything and everything big, whimsical and fun: stars, hearts, lightning bolts, rainbows, unicorns, sea urchins...anything that catches your fancy can fall into this category. Even those of you who aren't fans of huge jewelry pieces can enjoy the maximalist trend. Swap-out some of the chunk and heft of a solid statement piece for the color and shine of a slightly smaller, but infinitely more colorful one. Don't like chunky pieces? Choose a layered "fringe" look made from a handful of delicate pieces. The thing I like best about this trend is how flexible it is - there is truly something for everyone.