Velvet Lipstick

[outfit 039] Lovely Punk Photoshoot

2012-03-25T07:33:00.000-07:00

mesh top: rory beca for f21
skirt: tripp nyc
bondage belt: (similar)
boots: deena & ozzy

Feeling both a bit creative and frustrated so I decided to channel both emotions into an impromptu mini photoshoot. I really absolutely love how these turned out. I think it captures my mood and emotion of the past week. This is the style I adore most and have come back to time and time again for years, and I'm sad there aren't more personal style blogs that focus on it.

[outfit 038] sleepy mornings

2012-03-24T19:28:00.000-07:00

shirt: f21/heritage 1981
jacket: nordstrom rack
boots: thrifted nine west

A simple outfit for a morning class and an afternoon of errands. My saturday morning usually starts off sleepily staring into my closet for about ten minutes trying to put together an outfit in my head, then complaining to my boyfriend that I have nothing to wear. He glances in, rambles off an outfit for me, and I end up in exactly the opposite of what he tells me (not on purpose, I swear! I honestly have the intention of wearing what he suggested!).

[outfit 037] punk plaid

2012-03-23T19:32:00.000-07:00

top: target
pants: charlotte russe (similar)
boots: f21
bracelet: f21

It's been probably two years since I've worn these pants, but I still love them so much! I think wearing them only occasionally makes them even more special! I felt a little silly walking out in this outfit since spring has sprung, but it's still chilly so at least semi-justifiable. Even though I'm obsessing over all the latest spring looks, I haven't felt like dressing for warmer weather just yet.

[outfit 036] vintage kiss

2012-03-18T20:39:00.000-07:00

shirt: boyfriend's
jacket: nordstrom rack
boots: f21
bracelet: f21

Got hooked on trying out all sorts of different photoshop actions I found on deviantart, so I decided to give this set of photos a vintage feel that I quite like! The shirt is my boyfriend's, and it's my very favorite shirt to borrow because it's so worn and comfortable! And it went perfectly with the biker vibe I had!

[outfit 035] giraffe rainboots

2012-03-15T23:05:00.000-07:00

sweater: f21
jacket: nordstrom rack (similar)
rainboots: go jane
socks: kate spade

Lots of outfit regret in this one. Firstly, I definitely should have had on a hat, probably a black beanie. That would have really added a very much needed finishing touch. Secondly, the pants kill the outfit. Like dead and bleeding profusely. I should have put on some black opaque tights and a nice heavy skirt that comes just above the knees, in some pretty spring color like salmon or coral (such as this ASOS one). And maybe even one of the MoMA umbrellas I've been lusting over for a good year now. Maybe if it ever rains again I'll try again with this outfit (it's seriously rained like 3 times this entire winter).

[outfit 034] sunny breeze

2012-03-10T13:16:00.001-08:00

shirt: thrifted (similar)
sweater: h&m (similar)
vest: express (similar)
boots: thrifted nine west (similar and similar)
rose quartz necklace: ebay (similar)

Beautiful weather today! And I've got a delicious sushi dinner to look forward to tonight with my boyfriend and his grandfather. It's been an entire month without my favorite food in the world, so I'm very excited!

[outfit 033] denim jacket

2012-03-09T08:24:00.000-08:00

boots, sweater: f21; vintage levis jacket; amethyst necklace

Finally I have a denim jacket! My closet has felt fully incomplete without one (among other items), so I am really happy to have found a really nice one without shelling out full retail price. I also love the color of my hair against this color of denim - is that weird?

[style direction] summer 2012

2012-03-06T19:09:00.000-08:00

Taking a leaf out of Gala Darling's recent post, I thought it would be fun to put into words my own personal style goals for summer 2012.

Summer is feminine and bohemian, with a subtle rocker flair or a bit of cowgirl always thrown in.

Hair is messy, sometimes with loose curls or beach waves, but never "done". Brushing and combing is frowned upon unless done haphazardly with fingers. Subtle colors are always welcome, from blues and greens to pinks and oranges. Eyebrows are always neat but full - invest in regular threading and a good brow pencil.

Clothing is loose and not form-fitting while still remaining feminine and flattering. Sheer oversized button-downs, floral bustiers, boyfriend anything, lots of denim. DIY studs in surprising places is practically mandatory. Patterns are predominantly floral with polka dots and stripes making frequent guest appearances. Plaid is a bit stuffy but it can appear in accents and small doses. Tribal prints must not be overwhelming. American flag prints are resoundingly encouraged.

Textures and fabrics are durable but lightweight and always breathable. Leather and denim are best friends with floral. Knits are chunky but open. Tshirts are vintage and incredibly soft. Chiffon is rare and always partnered with tough accessories. Lace is too dainty for this party unless she is a vintage dress accompanied by such scoundrels as motorcycle boots and denim vest; feather accessories mandatory.

Handbags are small and minimalistic (clutches welcome!), but never say no to a fox tail keychain or deadly ponies lure.

Jewelry is either minimalistic metals or gone crazy with feathers and gemstones.

Shoes are trendy but not classy. Strappy sandals, flatform anything, joe's jeans approved, occasional studs and spikes welcome.Converse Chucks, gladiator sandals, and motorcycle boots are invited.

Skin is flawless without the appearance of wearing makeup, except around the eyes. Subtle neutral eye shadows are encouraged. Minimal outlandish colors are also acceptable. Lashes are accentuated with mascara or falsies. Lips are nude or light pink - never dark or brooding. Natural blushes accentuate the cheekbone.

Undergarments and loungewear are sassy and unique. Here is it okay to add some class. Tights and socks can take a vacation until next season.

In general, colors are neutral with surprising pops of color. Dusty rose and sheer white are the two most loved colors. Black is encouraged in small doses. Nails carry the biggest punch of color with poppy oranges, yellows, greens, and blues.

Lifestyle is spontaneously full of weekend trips, motorcycle rides, and date nights. Many summery cocktails on the balcony paired with delicious home cooked bbq, fresh fruit, and exquisite sushi. All food in moderation however. Chocolate does not have a place here. This is not a summer to lose control, rather to be carefree. Photos are romanticized and even vintage looking. Bare legs and good books. Clothing hints at a toned body from a winter at the gym.

Colors

2012-02-26T18:28:00.000-08:00

source: dossier journal via my tumblr

Lost inspiration to dress in more than sweaters and jeans lately. But I do have a separate inspiration blog on tumblr called Faith in a Phoenix that I am posting to daily in lieu of posting here. Also exercising like a fiend lately! So that takes a lot of time and energy also. I think that when I achieve my goal body, I'll be so much more in love with fashion because I'll be able to wear styles and clothing that I really love but is not currently flattering on me (short shorts, bodycon dresses, crop tops, floral bustiers under sheer button-downs *le sigh*). I will hopefully have an outfit post coming soon though! :) Oh, and my thrift and vintage finds from a couple weeks ago! I don't think I've even taken them out of the bag yet, oops! Need to start managing my time better...

[book review] The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

2012-02-24T07:12:00.000-08:00

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson is the second book of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy. This book was just as good as the first! Lisbeth, Mikael, and company are back for another crazy adventure that follows pretty much right after the first. This time Lisbeth is wanted for a triple murder with ties to a sex trafficing expose that Mikael's magazine is about to publish. Lisbeth's past is put on blast, while Mikael tries to prove Lisbeth's innocence and manage the magazine. We're also introduced to a new team of characters, the police team, and follow along with their investigations.

The pace of this novel is much better than the first, which started out very slowly. The plot gets exciting within the first 100 pages, and the end is explosive, true to the author's style. Unexpectedly however, The Girl Who Played With Fire ended in a cliff hanger that had me needing the next one right away! Thankfully, the third book of the trilogy (The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest) just came out in paperback on Tuesday, so I snatched it up, and you can expect a review as soon as I finish it!

[outfit 032] Valentine

2012-02-22T07:01:00.000-08:00

dress: f21; boots: steve madden; jacket: nordstrom rack

My boyfriend and I actually went out for dinner the night before Valentine's Day to avoid the crowds. We went to Tex Wasabi's, which is a bbq/sushi fusion restaurant. On Valentine's day itself, I got up at 5am to cook my boyfriend a bento box to take to work with him. I made bacon wrapped jalepenos with a flavored cream cheese filling, artichoke heart stuffed mushrooms, potato skins, and filled croissants. I always mean to take pictures of all the food I cook, but never remember. For dinner, my boyfriend cooked my other favorite food next to sushi - bbq ribs!

[obsessed] fuck pants

2012-02-21T15:04:00.000-08:00

Saw this on Cocorosa, and am obsessed with these pants! Especially because I cannot find them anywhere on the internet! I've been through google images, ebay, rivethead, trash & vaudeville, and even asos and tineye. I even checked etsy out of desperation. All I can gather is that they are by Tripp. Does anyone know anything about these pants and where I can find a pair???

[outfit 031] shaved head & new dog

2012-02-10T07:47:00.000-08:00

jeans: f21; shirt: ny&co; jacket: h&m; boots: xmas gift

Bahaha, the title was to freak out my boyfriend, whose two worst nightmares are me shaving my head and getting a new dog. Barnaby only looks like another dog with his new haircut! He's the one with the shaved head; I only got a much-needed bang trim. ;) (See him in previous posts here and here with his long locks!) And I made sure to tell the groomer to keep his eyebrows short - last time they left them about three inches long; it was so weird-looking! (And Barnaby wants me to say hi to his papa that he misses very much and wants to come home and rub his belly!)

Thursday was filled with adventure! Dropping Barn off for an all-day doggie daycare and grooming, then thrifting and vintage shopping in midtown (post on that coming up soon!), bang trim with my very favorite stylist Jessica, picking Barn up to bring him home, and finally class! I was so tired out by the end of the day that I barely made it through my evening class without falling asleep! So my outfit needed to be simple, with items that I could easily change in and out of and do a lot of walking in. Without meaning to, I think I end up reaching for this denim shirt every time I go thrifting!

And one last note - this jacket is not blue!! It really frustrates me that every time I include it in pictures it turns out blue! It is in fact a very pretty deep teal/aquamarine color that I love!

[outfit 030] lonely hearts

2012-02-09T12:22:00.000-08:00

pants, sweater, top: f21; necklace: h&m; boots: nine west

Yesterday was a little stressful. My boyfriend left for a long weekend to visit friends in Washington. So I've made lots of plans to try to keep myself busy all weekend (today is full of errands and a little surprise for my boyfriend to find on my blog tomorrow!). After I dropped him off at the airport, my evening became a mission to find the biggest bag of indoor weight, hairball control catfood that I could without going to costco. Somehow I always manage to find myself running around during rush hour.After that grand adventure, I curled up on the couch and spent the rest of the night playing minecraft and sipping my favorite peach champagne. It was the best boyfriend replacement I could conjure up on short notice. Complete with cuddly pup of course.

[book review] Incarceron & Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

2012-02-08T19:45:00.000-08:00

Incarceron and it's sequel Sapphique by Catherine Fisher have both received rave reviews, and I was very excited to finally read Incarceron. The plot is very unique and interesting! Finn is a prisoner of Incarceron, which is "alive" and has a consciousness, however no one but the Warden of Incarceron knows where the prison is located. Incarceron was intended to be a paradise, but it went awry very quickly and is a terrible environment where the prisoners dream of Escape. Claudia is the Warden's daughter. The setting of Claudia's world is a little strange - it is the future so some technology is very advanced, but this technology is banned because their is an imposed "Era". There was some great war that you never learn much about except that it royally fucked up the planet, so the ruler imposes Era and bans change to save the people from themselves basically. "Era" means that the characters live in a land loosely based on 1600s Europe with kings and lords who must be bowed to, horses and carriages as transportation, ladies who wear corsets and floofy dresses, etc. The plot follows Finn and Claudia as they accidentally contact one another and together figure out the secrets of Incarceron.

While the plot was ingeniously original, I am afraid that overall the books were disappointingly mediocre. The two most important parts of any story (the very beginning of Incarceron and the end of Sapphique) were the two worst parts! If I hadn't already purchased the book when I read the beginning I probably would have put it back on the shelf and never picked it up again. The beginning was absolutely poorly written. Fisher's writing style is vague and avoidant (the opposite of Stieg Larsson's writing style if you have read Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) - she describes everything she can about a situation without actually explicitly telling you what's going on. In this way, the author took the entire first page to tell the reader that Finn was chained to some train tracks. (Wow, did I just do that in one sentence!?) She used poorly developed metaphors to do this, which was altogether confusing because this new world has not yet been explained to the reader. Is there really a metal snake binding him to the tracks, or is she attempting to describe some slippery chains? Do metal snakes exist in Incarceron? At this point in the book, you have to assume that they could because you haven't been told anything about Incarceron yet, which makes it very confusing and maddening to read.

I'll just say the end was anti-climatic. All this build-up through two books, and then neither Claudia nor Finn are the catalyst for the climax at the end! The catalyst ended up being my favorite character (who I won't name!), who I had hoped would end up romancing Claudia (the author gives you poorly mixed signals on this throughout both books), but doesn't. There is no romance in the book at all (also disappointing because there is plenty opportunity!).

I would recommend the books because the creativity and plot are really fantastic (and despite their size, they are quick reads - I went through both of them together in about 2 weeks), but save it for a rainy day when you have nothing else to read at the moment.

Have you read either of these books, or anything else by the author? What are your thoughts?

inspiration

2012-02-07T16:02:00.000-08:00

images via my tumblr

[Mario Badescu] Flower and Tonic Mask

2012-02-04T08:22:00.000-08:00

This is the last installment of my Mario Badescu series! If I end up trying out any more of their samples, I will of course share them, but this is the last for now. (Previously I reviewed the Enzyme Cleansing Gel, Cucumber Cleansing Lotion, Strawberry Face Scrub, Hyaluronic Eye Cream, and Drying Cream.)

I tried really hard to love this Flower and Tonic Mask! I've decided to amass a collection of masks for every type of my-face-feels-like-shit moment. I want masks for the super dry days, the congested pores days, the blotchy skintone days, the stress pimple days, the recovering from a long plane ride days, the vacationing in humid sweaty climate days, the haven't taken my makeup off in a week days. Every type of bad skin day!! So I was super excited to have a mask to welcome into my new collection!

According to the information provided by Mario Badescu about this mask, it would fit perfectly into my congested-pores-day category. The only problem with that is that the kaolin in the mask that is supposed to unplug pores actually leaves my skin feeling heavy and like my pores are clogged. I've used other kaolin masks to the same effect. You are supposed to use kaolin masks on cleansed skin, but I always feel like I have to wash my face again afterwards with a really good exfoliant to get off all the excess residue that you can't see but you can really feel. Such a gross feeling. And when I tone afterwards, somehow my toner reacts with the still leftover kaolin residue after rinsing and cleansing again, and creates an unpleasant scent. Also, kaolin is great for absorbing oil, which my skin typically doesn't have a lot of. Though maybe a good mask to keep around for those rare super greasy feeling days?

My skin does feel great during the rest of the day, but I feel like the effects of any mask should be immediate and wonderful. And I'm not sure if my skin feels better than it would have had I not used the mask. So I'm still not sure if this will be something I'll get a bigger container of. I know kaolin is supposed to be great for your skin, and this is definitely one of the better kaolin masks I have tried.

Have you tried this mask? Do you like it, or what do you use instead when your skin feels congested? Any suggestions for my mask collection?

[outfit 029] dressing up

2012-02-03T12:54:00.000-08:00

dress: ebay; jacket: nordstrom rack; leggings: f21; boots: deena and ozzy

This day was all sorts of awkward. I wore this to my javascript class, but I had to stop at my local drug store first to pick up a prescription. I felt terribly overdressed because everyone else was in sweats. Then my insurance information wasn't working anymore and the insurance company had to be contacted, and it was a whole big mess. In the end, I ended up leaving without my prescription because I was going to be late to class. Which I was. Being late to class is one of the MOST awkward situations I can think of. The teacher gives you dirty looks, everyone stares, and I awkwardly try to find a seat as quickly as I can. Worst part was, my teacher over-added students from the wait list, so I didn't even get a computer (class is in a computer lab), and had to sit in a random extra chair in the back and take notes on the little pages in the back of my planner. Ugh.

Okay, so my outfit! I actually coordinated this outfit around the leggings! They're deceptively thin (seriously, a decent pair of opaque tights are warmer than these leggings), so I can't wear them when it's really cold out. I've had them sitting out for over a week, just waiting for the right weather. Today was a nice cool, spring-y day, so it was perfect! The boots seemed a natural extension of the leggings, and I decided I wanted to wear a dress, and it sort of came together from there. I do wish that the boots weren't so wide through the calf so they looked more flush with the leggings.

[outfit 028] good night

2012-02-02T21:37:00.000-08:00

sweater, jeans: f21, necklace: ebay; jacket: nordstrom rack; boots: jeffrey campbell

I apologize that this outfit is from almost a week ago on Friday. I'm so behind with everything! I dedicated my day off this week to fully cleaning the condo which we had let get embarrassingly messy. In the evening we put on a dvd of star wars extras and I worked on (and finally finished!) my web design portfolio, so I can use it to start applying for internships and maybe even a job!

So Friday night I hit the bars with my boyfriend and some friends. It ended up being a slightly embarrassing night because I don't drink that often, and just two drinks took me much farther than expected. My boyfriend told me I was just very silly, but I felt like that girl. Good thing I was surrounded by people I trust! These shoes ended up coming off on our long trek back to the car after our third bar (which has a real live mermaid!), and that resulted in some wonderful blisters. All in all though it was a fun night, and lesson learned for next time! Well, in theory anyways.

[Mario Badescu] Drying Cream

2012-01-30T06:04:00.000-08:00

I found the Mario Badescu Drying Cream to be super helpful for those emergency blemishes that you need to get rid of fast! Personally, I didn't find it super drying, and I was able to wear it both morning and night! Keep reading for my detailed review, or skip to the bottom for my quick summary. :)

This is my fifth review in the Mario Badescu skin care series, for the Drying Cream! (Previous reviews have been the Enzyme Cleansing Gel, Cucumber Cleansing Lotion, Strawberry Face Scrub, and Hyaluronic Eye Cream.)

This stuff is pretty awesome! It doesn't have any super unique or ground-breaking ingredients, but for some reason it really works to clear unsightly blemishes quickly! I can put it on sparingly in the morning; it has has a little bit of color to help conceal redness if I don't feel like layering on the makeup that day. And then I can really load it on the blemish at night before bed.

Even though it's called the Drying Cream, it didn't dry my skin out at all! I have dry to normal skin, so I have to be careful about products that are too drying. Also, I always use a high quality moisturizer every morning which might be why this product was not drying for me.

Because of the ingredients, I think this product is supposed to be mostly used to combat large, inflamed blemishes. But when I get stressed out, I'll get a whole host of teeny little bumps on my forehead (mostly just plugged pores). So I'll put a really thin layer of this stuff on those bumps, and the next day there are definitely less of them. This is not intended to work for blackheads though, so don't even bother.

If you want FAST results though, you absolutely need to use this with another product (like a benzoyl peroxide spot treatment or all-over facial cream - or salicylic acid if benzoyl is too harsh for your skin). The Drying Cream works, but will only do so much on it's own in a short amount of time. Personally, I found that Proactiv's Advanced Blemish Treatment works for me, and so I've stuck with it and haven't really branched out to try other spot treatments. (If you've got a great recommendation, leave it in the comments!)

Update: After having it in my bathroom cabinet for 5+ months though, I found that the Drying Cream does dry out. I'm not sure if that's just because I have the small sample container or not though. Either way, bear that in mind if you are considering this product. If you are only looking for a spot treatment to use about once a week, then this might not be for you.

So let's dig into the product. What's in it that makes the Drying Cream so great?

The acne fighting ingredient in the Drying Cream is collodial sulfur. What is the different between sulfur and collodial sulfur? From my understanding, collodial sulfur is finer and so doesn't have a very strong smell. I've used other sulfur spot treatments and masks that just smell terrible, but this does not! I couldn't even tell there was sulfur in it until I looked at the ingredients.

The Drying Cream is great for those big ugly blemishes because of sulfur's anti-inflammatory properties. If you've got a big red blemish or a painful one deep under your skin, it diminishes the swelling so that the blemish is smaller, not as noticeable, and not as painful.

The Drying Cream is great for any skin type. Sulfur is a natural exfoliant so it will help remove the dead skin cells that are plugging up the pore (biggest concern for dry skin types). And it also diminishes oil production, which is what attracts bacteria (biggest concern for oily skin types). More oil means more bacteria, which means bigger, redder blemishes that last longer.

The Drying Cream also has two SPF ingredients (zinc oxide and titanium dioxide) which I thought were a really nice addition because it will help reduce the likelihood of those annoying dark spots some people can get after the blemish goes away.

Side note: the dark spots people get from acne are an excess of melanin, which besides giving your skin it's color is also your skin's natural protection against the sun. When acne is healing, it's more vulnerable to sun damage so your skin will try to protect itself by producing excess melanin, or color. Unfortunately this protection can be unsightly. Wearing sunscreen won't necessarily prevent them, but it can help keep these spots from getting really dark and sticking around for a long time.

The Drying Cream also has many other ingredients, most notably: aloe, beeswax, lemon extract, and ervol (mineral oil).

In summary:

Skin type: All (dry, normal, oily, and sensitive)

Best used for: spot treating big red blemishes overnight.

Best used with: a moisturizer and a benzoyl peroxide spot treatment.

Favorite aspect: works for the small blemishes too!

Least favorite aspect: product dries out within months.

Price: $14 for 0.5oz

Would I recommend this product? Yes, definitely!

Like any skin care product, it has its own positives and negatives. But if you still haven't found the spot treatment that works best for your skin, give this one a try! You can pick up the Drying Cream at some Nordstrom locations (check your local store's availability before heading over, or purchase it online), as well as on the Mario Badescu website. And if you're still unsure if this product is right for you, there are a ton more reviews for it over at Makeup Alley, or you can request your own sample from the Mario Badescu website! (That's how I got mine. ;))

Have you tried the Drying Cream? What is your go-to spot treatment to get rid of blemishes quickly? Let me know your thoughts! I love discussing skin care! :)

[book review] Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

2012-01-27T07:19:00.000-08:00

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson was fan-fucking-tastic! Loved this book! I've been wanting to read it for a long time, but every time I thumbed through it at the bookstore I always decided to go with another book that I knew I would enjoy. So when it was suggested for my book club, I immediately jumped on the chance to make myself read it! The movie had also just come out, and I never watch a movie before I read the book (books are just so much more enjoyable for me, and watching the movie first will ruin the book a little bit).

The plot takes a long time to get going (as I am discovering is a trait of the author), and still not much had happened by the halfway point of the book.That's not to say it wasn't interesting or enjoyable up to that point though - on the contrary, I very much enjoy Larsson's writing style. He used the first half of the book to set up the characters, their relationships, and the setting. I admit that without such a setup, the book would not have been as good. The last half of the book is explosive though! Once shit started going down, I could not stop reading - and neither could my fellow bookclub members! We all ended up reading about the last 300 pages in one night!

The book does contain some unpleasant material, such as rape, that I was not expecting. However, it did not make the book any worse, and was absolutely necessary to the plot and character development. Overall, this is positively a book I would recommend to everybody!

I honestly have no complaints about the book. My only lament was that Larsson died shortly after submitting the manuscripts for all three books and never got to see his books become so wildly popular!

[Mario Badescu] Hyaluronic Eye Cream

2012-01-26T07:52:00.000-08:00

This is my fourth Mario Badescu post (previously the Enzyme Cleansing Gel, Strawberry Face Scrub, and Cucumber Cleansing Lotion) for the Hyaluronic Eye Cream.

Let me begin by saying that I have always been skeptical about eye creams. Since your eyes are usually the first and biggest indicator of aging, I think a lot of people are willing to throw a lot of money at trending creams that don't really make a big difference. However, I really like Mario Badescu's Hyaluronic Eye Cream! It does what it says, and keeps the skin around my eyes feeling super soft and hydrated. The cream is very lightweight and super absorbent.

It has hyaluronic acid which is a humectant. Humectants lock moisture into the skin so your skin is better hydrated for longer. It also has aloe which is super hydrating and healing. These are two fantastic ingredients to put into a hydrating eye cream.

Eye dryness has never been an issue or concern for me though, so this is something I will probably not purchase, however I definitely recommend it if you have dry skin around your eyes!

[outfit 027] deena and ozzy

2012-01-25T07:19:00.000-08:00

shirt, sweater, jeans: f21; boots: deena and ozzy; nails: deborah lippmann stardust

Yesterday was my day off (finally!), and I wasn't planning on wearing anything special or blog-worthy. However I had just received these boots in the mail about ten minutes before heading out with my boyfriend for a run to the bookstore (we're both nerds). I couldn't resist pulling them on right away! I love them! I've been looking for a pair of tall lace up boots that are super easy to walk in for ages! To pull the look together, I added this black open knit sweater I got at forever 21 last week. However hastily pulled together, I think this is one of my favorite outfits on the blog so far!

What's your latest shoe purchase?

[outfit 026] marine green

2012-01-24T12:40:00.000-08:00

shirt, pants: f21; jacket: nordstrom rack; scarf: loft; boots: xmas gift; nails: deborah lippmann starust

I decided to take the past weekend off from blogging to better juggle an extra shift at work, massive amounts of homework, and the disappointing 49ers game (so close to the superbowl! So close!!!).

So this outfit is actually from last Thursday when I had my first javascript class. It's a night class, so the parking lot isn't usually full even that first week of classes. For some odd reason though, it was absolutely packed, and pouring rain to top it all off! I had to park in some obscure lot on the edge of campus and found my classroom only by pure luck! (I have a terrible sense of direction!)

These boots were my savior as I trounced through massive unseen puddles on my way through campus. And this circle scarf, which I grabbed on impulse at the last minute, ended up being used as a hood to keep my hair from looking like I just came from a swim.

The nail polish was something I've been lusting after for a long time. I'm so picky when it comes to something that I really want, and the Deborah Lippmann Stardust was the only metallic silver I found that I really liked. I absolutely did not want anything with a lot of glitter - I think the glitter look can easily be extremely tacky. I was so happy when my parents gave me this nail polish for Christmas! It easily turned into one of my absolute favorites!

What's your very favorite nail polish?

[Mario Badescu] Cucumber Cleansing Lotion

2012-01-20T06:37:00.000-08:00

This is the third post in my MB series. My first two were the Enzyme Cleansing Gel and the Strawberry Face Scrub.

My only lament was that some of the samples they sent were not for my skin type, even though I filled out a skin survey before requesting samples. I stated that I was combination skin type, and ended up with some products for oily skin, which are a little bit too harsh for my skin. I wish there had been a way to clarify dry-combination or oily-combination, because my skin is definitely very dry after I wash my face and slowly turns to combination t-zone oily throughout the day. Excess oil has never been an issue for me though.

So the Cucumber Cleansing Lotion was unfortunately another miss. It is a 4% alcohol toner for oily skin which my skin did not like at all. Alcohol is generally not a good ingredient in toners because it can actually strip too many oils from your skin. While someone with oily skin might love this temporary reprieve from oiliness, your skin will actually start pumping out excess oil in response to this sudden major lack of any oil whatsoever. For someone with really oily skin all day long, a little bit of alcohol in a toner might be okay, but for my skin it was not at all.

The ingredients list is also unimpressive. Besides stabilizers and emulsifiers, it's only ingredients seem to be water, alcohol, and cucumber extract. Cucumber is a skin conditioner, not very different from any other common skin conditioner or vitamin.

To the product's credit though, this toner smells absolutely refreshing and nothing at all like alcohol. And Mario Badescu does make plenty of alcohol-free toners for dry-combination and sensitive skin types; I've already got little check marks in the catalog to try out the Glycolic Acid Toner and the Alpha Grapefruit Cleansing Lotion! So take my experience with a grain of salt, especially if you have oily skin - this toner might really be what you are looking for!

Have you tried this product? What did you think about it? What toner do you usually use, if you use one? I am always looking for new product recommendations, so lay 'em on me!