Birthstone Beauties: Style Not Age Challenge

Gail Hanlon from Is This Mutton in a blue and white outfit inspired by her birthstone, blue topaz

Dear friends. Welcome to the latest Style Not Age Challenge, where five intrepid blogging friends take turns to set a prompt each month that inspires an outfit.

This month it's the turn of birthday girl Jacqui, who chose Birthstone Beauties: outfits inspired by our birth stone.

My birthday month is November, and I have the choice of two birthstones: topaz and citrine. Topaz comes in several colours, notably blue and orange. I have a couple of pieces of jewellery in blue topaz and built an outfit around this pale blue shade.

Topaz is a symbol of honour and strength. It was believed to bring longevity and wisdom. The blue variant represents loyalty and righteousness and is associated with true love which is clear-sighted, trust, relationships, and communication.

I'm wearing a Powder Blue top and Electric Blue belt by Kettlewell, white trousers (old) from M&S, last year's blue wedge sandals and a denim jacket (old) from Amazon. A blast of colour is provided by my Kurt Geiger Rainbow bag, which has stripes in various hues including blue.

My jewellery is a topaz pendant which I bought on the Greek island of Hydra a few years ago, and a dainty topaz bracelet from Etsy.

Now let's see how my blogging friends got on. Anna from Anna's Island Style says she doesn't have much in the deep red of her birthstone, garnet. Instead she borrowed a jumpsuit from her friend Fiona (who takes her blog photos). There's no brand label on it. Anna's top is ancient, from TK Maxx, belt was from eBay (also ancient) and the sandals are new from TK Maxx.

Anna from Anna's Island Style in jumpsuit representing her birthstone garnet for the Style Not Age Challenge

Irish blogger Hilda from Over the Hilda was also having problems with her birthstone, aquamarine, but remembered her daughter had left a bag behind when she moved out. It has aquamarine tones and came from River Island. Then she remembered a dress with lots of blues, bought for €10 fom Dunnes Stores. The white mules from Asos were a present from her daughter. She also has a very blue sky!

Jacqui from Mummabstylish, whose challenge this is, has created a sensational outfit with one of my favourite birthstones, emerald. She says she doesn't have much green in her wardrobe but spotted the shoes and worked her outfit around them. Trousers are old, from Zara, with a slinky yellow top from Matalan. The jacket is actually a beach cover-up from F& F, but doesn't it look great worn as a duster?

Emma from Stylesplash is lucky to have ruby as her birthstone, which she says she has always loved. Emma is wearing a monochrome outfit in different shades of red to reflect the multiple tones and levels of saturation found in rubies.

Her jacket is from Zara (last year's), the top and trousers from River Island, the bag is really old from eBay and her trainers are from Zara (a few years old now). For jewellery, Emma chose a ring with an uncut ruby and one with a red glass stone. Her necklace, which was a gift from Isobel, has a small ruby in it.

I hope you enjoyed our jewel of a collection of outfits, and don't forget, you can find more pictures on each of the blogs.

Is This Mutton has a series of posts about the history of birthstones: Topaz, Emerald, Aquamarine, Ruby, Garnet

There's a new post on Wednesday with the #WowOnWednesday link-up. Hope to see you then.

Sharing this post with: On Mondays We Link Up at Glass of Glam, Top of the World Style at High Latitude Style, Chic & Stylish at Mummabstylish, #SpreadTheKindness and #Linkup on the Edge at Shelbee on the Edge, #AnythingGoes at My Random Musings, Turning Heads Tuesday at Elegantly Dressed and Stylish, Style with a Smile at Stylesplash, TFF at Doused in Pink, Lizzie in Lace, Confident Twosday at IDoDeclaire, Rena at Fine Whatever,, #Neverendingstyle at The Grey Brunette, Fancy Friday at Nancy's Fashion Style, Weekday Wear Link-Up at Away from the Blue Sunday Showcase with Chez Mireille and Elegance and Mommyhood (first Sunday of the month), Talent Sharing Tuesdays at Scribbling Boomer, Link Up Pot Pourri at My Bijou Life, Traffic Jam Weekend at Marsha in the Middle, Fabulous Fridays at Lucy Bertoldi

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