Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Fall Fashion

I normally hold on to summer as long as I can. I just love tanktops and bright colored clothes. But this year, there is something about the chill in the air and the idea of layers that I'm loving. So I am embracing this shift in attitude and seasons through my wardrobe. I cannot wait to wear dark colors, muted colors and no colors (black and grey). How are you feeling about saying goodbye to summer?



{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Ikat Nails


I've tried this nail design two times, both turned out pretty great and both got lots of compliments, or at least a comment of, "Wow, those are crazy nails." I think I still have a long ways to go to get them perfected. Both pinkies turned out funky, but with all the fun colors I don't think it's a problem.

Rather than show you step by step pictures, I'm going to put the video that I learned it from below. This is the girl I get a lot of ideas from; she's just good at explaining and has lots of fun ideas.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Beauty Subscriptions

Beauty subscriptions, like Birchbox & MyGlam, have so much going for them. But it must be so hard to come up with samples and themes to please all of your customers. So I think the key to finding the subscription for you is looking at previous months from the company and evaluate the overall products you receive. I was choosing between MyGlam and Birchbox and this month was going to be my last of receiving both of them - it's just too many samples every month to keep getting both.

This is the Birchbox...


1. Schick Hydro Silk razor - this was the extra
2. Eye Rock stick-on eyeliner strips
3. Viva la Juicy La Fleur sample
4. C.O. Bigelow lip gloss
5. Oil Free Moisturizer from Juice Beauty (yep, almost the same as from MyGlam last month)

Here is the MyGlam...


1. MyGlam lip gloss - this was the extra
2. Roll on Perfume Oil from Demeter (it seriously smells like deodorant)
3. Eye Shadow from s.a.l.t.y. cosmetics
4. nail polish from Circus by Andrea's Choice (super cute neon pink)
5. moisture therapy regenerative cream and cellular activator facial serum from Eclos.

To keep myself from rambling, I'll cut to what made me realize to continue with Birchbox and not MyGlam. Thinking back to all previous bags/boxes I realized that MyGlam usually had one thing, maybe two, that I was really excited about, but the other contents I hated and a lot sit unused. However, with Birchbox even when I wasn't thrilled with a box, nothing was unusable, just on the practical side and less fun. I will say, this month made me second guess this decision - when am I ever going to wear stick on eyeliner?! But for now I'm sticking to it, maybe in a few more months I'll decide that I've tried enough products and will cancel Birchbox as well. For now I'm happy with the decision.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Just a Couple of Favorites

Today Tim and I moved our cats back home and tomorrow we will move back (from house-sitting). Being back home for a couple of hours made me realize how much I missed it! So in the spirit of cherishing home and such things, here are a few things that I'm loving.


This is such a good book!! I seriously recommend it! I've read it through once and now I flip through again and again and again.


A new purse/clutch. It's so fun and unlike anything else I have. Plus I love Nemu; poor little guy got sick on both ways between our house and our friends' house.


My faaaavorite foundation right now. I'm not well versed in foundations, I generally don't wear any. This one might change that though.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Window Shopping

There's no other way to put it, I've been window shopping - something Tim would not like to hear. I don't really like new clothes that come out in between seasons. I don't want to be done with summer yet and the fall colors are not appealing. So, I browsed the jewelery.

{1,2,3,4,5,6}

If you follow those links you'll know they're all from Topshop. I also came across these "bra covers" on Topshop and had a good laugh. Who knew?


Monday, August 13, 2012

A Bit of Glitz

There is just something about this picture that I came across on Pinterest. I just can't stop looking at it.


While I love to photograph, there's no way I'd actually wear that skirt on a plain old day. However, this picture has inspired me to add a little sparkle to each day/outfit. I've also rediscovered the joy of plain red nails, like I mentioned in this earlier post. So I'ved pulled out a few spakley accessories on days that I wear plain basics.


This necklace is one of my al time favorites. And it was under $15 from Forever21.


Each of these rings are beautiful on their own, but I love pairing them together.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Friday Outfit

When I'm living out of a suitcase I rarely like to dress up, especially since I don't pack for layers. Plus I'm watching two puppies and it's rainy here, so I get really dirty and don't want to wear clothes that I care about. However, after almost a week of wearing gym clothes I needed a change.


I love putting these two accessories together, I think it gives the outfit an edgey-rocker vibe. The ring was from walmart for $3 and the necklace is from Jewelmint for $30. I love that price difference. Makes me smile every time.


I really like putting that long necklace with a scarf. So I wrapped this one up all around my neck and put my hair in a top knot. Since I didn't have clothes to layer, I went with lots of accessories. It gives the same general style with half the luggage space.



Wednesday, August 8, 2012

A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words

Sometimes I get stumped on what to write about for this blog because I'm still not sure what this blog is. Obviously from the title it's about style, but "style" is an all encompassing word. To me, style is not about just your fashion, but your mood and how you present yourself. So in my mind, you the reader, need to know me and my life to understand my style and know how to relate to it.

I think today is going to be about my life and what's going on with me. As you know, I was in Chicago over the weekend, but this week Tim and I are house sitting. This means I'm continuing to live out of a suitcase and I'm really missing the comforts of home!


It's the little things that I miss, like using my own dishes and knowing where things go in the kitchen. I miss my cats, which feels silly, but it's true. I'm also getting tired of driving in the car all the time - I've started getting lost a lot lately, so that's no fun. However, I'm finding fun little things to enjoy. The mustache tape is an old picture, but these are the little things I'm talking about. I am also enjoying plain red nails after some very colorful manicures (like this one).

I hope all of you are having a good week! The summer has gone by so fast!! In less than three weeks I'll be starting school. Crazy.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Can we pretend it's Monday?

This last weekend I went to Chicago for my sister's wedding shower. It was so fun and thanks to the weather I stayed an extra night, so I got to spend more time with her and her fiance. And then last night Tim and I hung out with some friends, whom we're house-sitting for this week. Lot's of fun!

However, none of these fun things are why this blog post is up late. Photoshop and I got into a fight. It happens frequently and even more so when I'm out of practice. So, like the title says, can we pretend it's Monday? Mostly because this post doesn't make sense if it's not.


I used to do Monday blues pretty frequently, and yesterday I was trying to think of a post to do and thought, "Man, I have the Monday blues." Pretty perfect huh? And then I came across these gems. The upper left corner and bottom right are from the same blog (which has many other beautiful pictures). And the bottom left is from here.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Marble Nails

I am super excited to do this post! Marble nails!! I had never done it before, so I watched a lot of tutorials on YouTube and cam up with a game plan. After getting one hand done I started experimenting with polishes, techniques and the water. So this blog post has the potential to be long, but I think I figured out a way for everyone to enjoy.

The main pictures are the basic instructions, but specifics will be written below each picutre/step. If you just want to see what I did, then you'll enjoy the pictures. However, if you're trying this out for yourself, then definitely read my thoughts for each step.


Get a container you don't care about and fill it with filtered, room temperature water. I got water from my Brita filter and let it sit out for an hour.

I later on experimented with different temperatures and non-filtered water. I found that the temperature. doesn't make a huge difference, but it is easier at room temp. However, I found that filtered water made a HUGE difference! The polish floated weirdly and wouldn't spread out nicely with tap water.


I set my water out and then took my time prepping my nails. I removed all previous polish, filed them and put on a base coat and then the white. 

The white helps even the most sheer polishes really pop. It's a little annoying when peeks though the edges, but I don't think it's a step you can skip. Maybe a nude color could work instead; I didn't think of that until now.


I just taped one finger at a time. There's a fair amount of set up between each finger, especially if you're doing all different colors, and I needed free fingers. 

Be precise with the tape! It's better to have a little bit of skin showing than to cover the white. You'll see in my final pictures that I messed that up a bit with this and it definitely shows.


This picture says it all: whichever colors you're using for the finger, have them open and ready. You need to be able to quickly switch between them so the polish in the water doesn't dry out too fast.

One tutorial I watched said to use new, high quality polishes. I did not find that this mattered at all. I used $1.99 polishes to $8.00 polishes and they all worked the same. Some of them were at least a year old and worked just fine as well. I think that if the polishes are goopy and sticky then they might not work.


Make sure the polish is spreading out nicely, if it's not then something is wrong with the water or polish. I didn't have any problems with this until I started experimenting. However, you need to work pretty quickly so the polishes don't dry. My first drop would usually crinkle up by the time I put my finger in, but the inner circles were just fine.


Use a toothpick to swirl the colors together, creating the marbled effect. I didn't have toothpicks so I cut cutips in half and used the stick end to swirl. I think any thin stick-like object would work. Polish does get all over it, so either be prepared to clean it or use something disposable.

Try to not let too much water in, this ruins the design and will come out as a blank spot on your nail. If the colors are not swirling easily then they're drying out. Just let the toothpick pick up that polish and try again, this time going faster.


Line your nail up with the part of the design you want to keep and drop your finger in here. Tutorials I watched said to make sure you dropped your nail in flat, but I did not find this to be super important. I put my finger in as even as I could get it, but the tape and the angle I was at kept me from going in totally flat - and it turned out just fine.

Let your finger sit in the water for around 10 seconds to make sure the polish dries.


Keeping your finger in the water, swirl your toothpick around to pick up the remaining polish. You'll notice some tiny pieces will stay behind; this isn't a problem unless it inhibits the polish being dripped from spreading. I had to change my water for the last couple of nails.


Now pull out your finger and remove the tape! You have a marbled nail! I finished off with a clear top coat after my fingers had dried off (from the water).

The next couple of pictures are some of the funny problems I had with polish...


A couple of my polishes would make these funny bubbles. Try to avoid them when dipping in your finger, you'll see on my final nails they do show up if you dip on top of them.


Sparkles can work, but they're tricky. They dry really fast so you need to drip in polish really fast. Also, no polish color shoes up, only the sparkles. I got one finger to work, but it took quite a few tries. Finally, your sparkle polish needs to be liquidy, not chunky. If it can't drip off the brush, it won't work.

I do want to specify that polish with a shimmer or sheen to it is not a problem at all. The actual chunks or sparkle specks are the issue.

I also tried crackle polish... total fail. The polish just sperated funky and then kind of crackled on the water.


These are my final nails. I made sure to point out the sparkley nail and the little problem bubble.

I like the brighter colors better, I think my thumb on the right just isn't as fun. The whole process took a couple of hours  - however, it was my first time, I wanted to go slow and make sure I did each finger correctly and I had to photograph it all. My first hand (which I did not photograph) took at least half the time.

Good luck to you if you try it! Let me know if you have any remaining questions!

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Shady Style

I love finding unique accessories to put more of my own flair in to an outfit. And since summer means I'm wearing less layers, I definitely keep my eyes peel for statement pieces. I always keep my eyes peeled, but I can be a little picky, particularly with the price. Especially with sunglasses, I'm rough on them and they break easily, plus they always get misplaced or forgotten. I've always had the price cap of $10, sometimes $15, until I found these.....


They're $40 (from justfab.com) and I'm doing all that I can to find a cheaper pair with a similar style. So far no luck, but I'm hopeful!