We've been working on a cheeky campaign to celebrate Playful Promises reacquainting itself with its more seductive side.
"The Product of a Mischievous Mind" features quotes from classic novels by authors including Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell. Although innocent in their context, read today, these quotes take on risqué and suggestive meanings – if your mind is mischievous enough!
You can hear Miss Miranda read these quotes in a series of sumptuous videos, with more to be released soon.
The work launches with a bold series of print ads and packaging, which use typographic trickery to suggest the female form. More quotes are housed on the campaign site at www.playfulpromises.com/mischievousmind
Emma Parker, the founder of Playful Promises:
The timing of this collaboration was perfect for us; since the recession there have been fewer boutiques to sell to, and the ones that are buying are taking safer options, making sure they are well stocked with white/black and beige bras. As a brand we spent a lot of time trying to be more commercial but in reality we are a more sexy brand and the pieces that sell well for us are the more daring pieces.
Because of this we have decided to put the focus on our own retail site, as well as those special retailers who understand our brand; to not worry so much about being commercial and instead do more of what is actually my favourite kind of lingerie design – the sexy stuff. It seems to be working as when we re-introduced our ‘ouvert’ briefs they have been one of our best selling lines ever!
Visit A Mischievous Mind
For this tutorial I was inspired by the colours of our Mia set! The gorgeous pink and blue cherry blossom print was created exclusively by our in-house team, so you won't see it anywhere else.
For this tutorial I'll be using some colourful pressed eyeshadow and loose eyeshadow from Sugarpill, along with their Idol false eyelashes.
I love my makeup bold and bright, but you can lay it on as thick as you like, and be as creative as you like. The great thing about these pigments is that with less product on your brushes, you can create a more subtle look!
Step 1: Using a flat brush apply the Afterparty pressed eyeshadow along the crease of your eyelid and drag around the outer edge of the eye in a curved shape. Continue the colour along the lashline of your lower lid.
Step 2: Using a medium blending brush blend the colour outwards all around the eye. Use a clean brush to add Lumi loose eyeshadow on your brow bone and blend downwards into the blue.
Step 3: Clean off the brush you used for the previous step and add the Dollipop pressed eyeshadow to your lid and the corner of your eye. Using a thin brush, add just a touch of the pink to the waterline.
Step 4: Using the brush you used for step 1, apply the Magpie loose eyeshadow along your crease, blending out towards the outer edges. Make sure you add less towards the inner eye, and more towards the outer, so you are creating an oval shape.
Step 5: Add a touch of Lumi to the inner corner of your eye, and the centre of your lid.
Step 6: Using liquid or gel eyeliner (I swear by Collection's Liquid Liner), create a cat-flick, starting low on the inner eye and gradually sloping upwards to the outer eye. Add your favourite mascara to the top lash.
Step 7: Add your favourite lashes - I used the Idol eyelashes, I love how the little beads work with the Lumi pigment!
There's 20% off makeup at Playful Promises with code "MAKEMEUP" all weekend (offer ends 3rd Feb), and to celebrate I've put together a new tutorial!
This time I was inspired by our beautiful gold lace Penelope set
For this tutorial I'm using two different types of eyeshadow - loose and pressed. A lot of people prefer pressed eyeshadow as it's less messy and easy to transport, but I find that the pigments and shimmers of the loose powders are just so much more fun! If you drop any on your face while applying, don't worry - just use a cotton bud to wipe the mess away. Some people also prefer to put their foundation on after the eye-makeup, which would cover any mistakes.
I love my makeup bold and bright, but you can lay it on as thick as you like, and be as creative as you like. The great thing about these pigments is that with less product on your brushes, you can create a more subtle look!
Step 1: Using a thin or flat brush, etch out the basic shape of how you want the black section of the shadow to look. If you are worried, you can first draw a very light line with a kohl pencil before applying any eyeshadow. I used Bulletproof Pressed Eyeshadow to create an exaggerated cat-eye flick on the outer eye, and two points towards the inner eye. I also pulled the colour round to my lower lid, a third of the way along.
Take time on creating the curve of the flick; if you have trouble keeping the line, you can cut a curve out of some paper or card and use this as a template. It's fine if any other section looks a bit messy, as this will be blended out or re-shaped with gold.
Step 2: Use a medium sized blending brush to apply Stella Loose Eyeshadow to the crease of your eyelid and start blending upwards. The closer to the crease, the more eyeshadow needs to be on the brush - always move your brush from the inside of your eye out towards the flick.
Step 3: Now you can start blending the gold into your look. Using a clean brush, load the Goldilux Loose Eyeshadow onto your brow bone and blend down into the black. I find the easiest way to blend is to gradually sweep the brush across, lower and lower - you may need to add a touch of black onto the brush to make a seamless blend.
Step 4: For this look I also used a small brush to apply Goldilux along the bottom lid, where it will blend into the black. Add about a cm or so of gold onto the centre of the top lid.
Step 5: Use more Bulletproof to the outside and the inside of the top lid, blending closer to the centre into the gold. Add mascara to the top lash and to the outside corner of the lower lash.
Step 6: Using a very thin brush, neaten up the black point(s) by the inner eye. Don't blend this as you want the black to be a dramatic point-shape here.
Step 7: Use your favourite gel or liquid liner to mimic the cat-flick on the outer eye, but only bring the liner to about halfway along your lid.
Step 8: Add some false eyelashes (I used the Saint lashes as they are the most "natural" for this look). Position so they start about a quarter of the way along your top lid, as close to your lash line as possible.
As RuPaul says:
If you can't love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else
And what better excuse than the Valentine's season to think about how awesome you are!
In the lingerie industry, Valentine's Day is one of the key selling times of the year, that's no secret. While we love to think about our lingerie being gifted to a partner (not necessarily just for a man to buy for a woman), we know that the constant push of V-Day makes some people feel left out.
So, while we might shout about our Valentine's Gift Guide, we also want to make sure we do something special for those that may not be celebrated or celebrating this Valentine's Day!
We're giving away a goodie bag worth up to £100 to a winner picked at random.
All you need to do to enter is comment on this post telling us what you love about yourself*
It doesn't have to be something physical; maybe you love that you have a certain skill, or that you have conquered a goal that you recently set for yourself.
For extra chances to win, you can become a fan of us on facebook, follow our twitter, follow our Pinterest or sign up to our newsletter (which also happens to give you a little discount code as a thank you!). Follow the instructions on the rafflecopter below!
*please do not enter if you are planning to give the goodie bag to someone else, you should buy them lingerie to show them how much you love them instead ;)
We've reached 2015! Happy new year!
We had a cracking year, here's a little run down of our favourite bits!
January
For the past few years we've been teaming up with other indie brands for the big Love Bomb! In January, we decided, rather than shoot models in the designers' lingerie, we'd shoot the designers themselves (apart from Curvy Couture who couldn't join us). For 6 days each brand ran a different offer or discount in the run up to Valentine's Day, and we all talked about what we loved about each brand.
We started to launch our SS'14 collection, featuring the neon pink Nancy and peppermint green Penny sets!
February
One of the most common pieces of feedback we get from our customers is the need for a wider range of sizes. As a small brand, with the cost of each different bra size being significant, we just aren't able to please everyone and create as many sizes as are requested. Our standard size set went up to 36DD, and the most common requests were for E and F cup sizes, so we took the plunge (no pun intended)!
In February we launched the Lily collection, which included 32E, 32F, 34E and 34F sizes in both an open cup bra and a balconette bra. The feedback we received was amazing! The E and F cups almost completely sold out within a matter of weeks, which proved to us that the extended sizing was a good idea, and worth including in future sets. We have since re-stocked this line and included 36E and 36F cups also.
March
Starting with our friends, Kiss Me Deadly, we launched guest brands on our website and in our Boxpark boutique. Soon followed by French brand, Maison Close.
April
We started to bring in our AW'14 collection, including our Jackie set! We were really happy with the lookbook for this collection too, as it was quite different from our previous ones with it's minimal, 60's feel.
May
As we work a year ahead, we shot our SS'15 lookbook in May of this year. This allows us to take the collection to tradeshows and show our stockists what we will have available for the next year. Many stockists plan their next seasons based on pre-orders they place at trade-shows.
Here's our model Laura with her "bodyguards", our makeup artist Cheyenne and hair stylist Dee!
June
This year marked our 10th birthday, and we wanted to celebrate in style! Emma, designer and creator of Playful Promises, planned and organised an extra-special collection to be manufactured in the UK. We teamed up with artist Karina Akopyan for a special print featuring an exclusive circus illustration (photo on the left), theming the entire project around vintage circuses.
The result featured gold fringing, bodysuits, bra sets and more, each a new style for Playful Promises. Each piece is an incredibly limited edition, and once they are gone, they are gone!
August
We said hello to Mia, another F Cup set featuring an exclusive print designed in-house and detachable suspender straps!
September
We began stocking makeup from Sugarpill and Shien Cosmetics!
October
We shot a new Halloween lookbook inspired by Victorian Spiritualism, which mixed and matched pieces available at Playful Promises.
November
We began stocking boudoir accessories by Spanish brand, Secret Play
We took part in the Lingerie Secret Santa campaign, with fellow independent designers! This box of goodies went off to our secret santa all the way in the US, Clare Bare.
December
We shot our AW'15 collection with some of our favourite models, Miss Miranda, Miss Deadly Red and Veanne (IMM)! We are SO excited about this collection, which should be arriving from April onwards!
The stunning retro-inspired Brigitte arrived, as the final part of our AW14 collection.
The first part of our Spring/Summer 2015 collection, Gwendolene, has just arrived!
What's next for 2015?
We've got so much planned already for 2015, and so excited to be able to show you what we've been working on!
