I am so excited to be heading to Paris at the end of this month for a whole week. And even more, I cannot WAIT to wear some of my favorite outfits in the most chic city in the world. Naturally, I had to buy a few things to augment my wardrobe and make it worthy of France. Which is how I found IfChic, a website that makes shopping fun. You collect coins each time you visit the site until the 24th of the month, when you get to use them to shop! Talk about gaming the system! Read on for more details!
THE SHOPPING GAME
So here’s how it works: you can poke around the IfChic site everyday and while you’re doing it, these spinning coins worth $2 each pop up. You click on them to collect them – up to $6 worth per day – and throughout the month, they add up in your bank. On the 24th of each month, you have 24 hours to shop with them during the #ifchic24 shopping event when many styles you’ve been admiring all month go on sale – sometimes at up to 50% off.
The best part about it is that a lot of my favorite indie brands from other countries are available on IfChic – like Cameo the Label, Finders Keepers, Elliat and Keepsake.
CHOOSING MY PURCHASES
I gave this a lot of thought. It’s not that often that you get a bunch of coins you can use towards purchasing clothing, bags, jewelry, eyewear and shoes, so I wanted to be sure that what I chose was going to be useful to me before, during and after my trip.
A simple and portable spring handbag was definitely on the list first and foremost, and this yellow bag really stuck out to me because of the shape and color – how perfect for travel. Plus, it went on sale on the 24th! I woke up to find a price reduction to make it under $100 – score!
There will be plenty of evening events during my week of travel, so a chic new going-out dress was on my radar while I shopped, as well. This one really stuck out to me because of the sheer ballooned sleeves and the flower appliques. I loved that it was black, simple and full coverage – yet somehow a bit sexy because of the short hem. Plus, Elliat is one of those awesome labels from Australia that I’m a huge fan of. I was so happy to find items from the line available to me in such a fun shopping environment!
RECEIVING MY ORDER
My favorite part about this experience was actually opening the box! Inside were both of my items, placed carefully in IfChic sacks and wrapped in tissue paper – like I’d just ordered the most precious things in the world. It felt so luxurious!
STYLING MY ITEMS
And then of course there was the unwrapping of the items and figuring out how I was going to use them. This dress will be PERFECT in Paris for a night out with my friends. I paired it with these laser-cut, open-toed booties because the texture and pattern mimicked the sheer sleeves and flower appliques. I chose simple vintage rhinestone earrings, sleek and simple hair and red lipstick to keep the look chic yet sexy. The keyhole cutout in the front is really flirtatious, too. I couldn’t be more happy with my choice!
As for the bag – I can’t stop wearing it. It’s such a lovely spring color and a really comfortable size – just big enough to hold my necessities, and just small enough to stay out of my way while I’m on the move. I’ll definitely wear it while strolling around the city of love each day!
Floral Applique Dress: Elliat on IfChic (c/o) // Laser-cut Booties: Badgley Mischka at Nordstrom Rack // Rhinestone Earrings: vintage // Yellow Cross-body Bag: Jay M on IfChic (c/o) // Red Lipstick: MAKE in Scarlet
Mark your calendars, dear readers, for the next #ifchic24 shopping event – coming up on May 24th, 2015! But until then, head over to the IfChic site to start collecting your coins and scoping out your purchases – if you start today and if I’m doing the math correctly, you could collect ($6 over 14 days) $84 in coins! That’s how much this yellow bag cost! GO! GO NOW!
I hope you’ll have as much fun shopping as I did!
Belle
