Sunday, June 28, 2015

Outfit | Spotted Moth

Hey guys! It's been quite a while since I've posted an outfit/personal style post here. Things have been quite hectic and on the days that I have off from work and/or school, I usually spend with friends or relaxing with my boyfriend. Because of that, I haven't really had the energy and time to contribute to shooting outfits for the blog, which sucks because I've had some pretty cute outfits in the past couple of months. I also feel like my style has changed since my last post. While I still tend to go for dresses with a cinched/nipped waist, a full, flare, or pleated skirt; cardigans, and cute blouses, I've also kind of branched out to high waisted shorts (which I had been talking about wanting for months a while back), high waisted pants, sneakers, and crop tops. I feel like my style has become slightly more urban. Working at Crossroads has definitely opened me up to more personal style tastes just because everyone that works there and that I've met through there has such a distinct style. It's so inspiring and has inspired me to branch out of my comfort zone a bit. 

For example, this outfit. I've fallen in love with looser silhouettes. I used to be all about that fitted/nipped waist and fuller skirts, but lately, I've been reaching for babydoll dresses and looser fabrics. When I found this dress at Forever 21 for $13, I waited about a week before purchasing it because I figure that it would show up at my work (Crossroads) but it didn't so I ended up caving and buying it. At this point, the majority of my wardrobe is coming from work. I don't have an issue with that since I'm getting such nice clothes in fairly good condition for a fraction of the original price. Now, it drives me up the wall when I see instagram closet sales and see the sellers pricing items way more than they should and then seeing people paying that price. It's ridiculous. It's almost as ridiculous as the poses I'm doing in today's photos. It's been a while since I've photographed myself and I feel like that rustiness and anxiety comes across in these photos. No big deal. I'm sure I'll get back into the swing of things.
 Outfit Details:
Dress | Forever 21
Socks | Crossroads
Shoes | Crossroads

Also, look at these cute cats that Court and I became attached to while living in Davis the past year. The white one is Kit Kat and I named the black one Panther. They're community cats so everyone in the community feeds and takes care of them. We were told that Kit Kat was originally abandoned by her original owner. Her owner just left her here when she moved! I wish I could take Kit Kat home. She's such a sweetie little kitten. 

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Review | Too Faced's Melted Liquified Lipstick in "Melted Berry"

Product: Too Faced's Melted Liquified Longwear Lipstick in "Melted Berry"
Price: $21.00
Link: too faced | sephora
Review: So I'm very late to the bandwagon for this product, but I was always turned away by the $21 price tag. As a moderately poor college student, I just couldn't justify spending more than $10 on a lip product and even then, I have to research and research like crazy before even spending that much. Anyways, I was always very happy with my NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams (which I didn't even like that much at first) but soon, I started wondering about Too Faced' Melted lipsticks and other liquid lipsticks. Everyone was raving about them so I decided that before buying one of these, I would test them out in store. I was always putting it off because I was either in the middle of a time constraint or I was with my boyfriend. Then, my chance came when a friend of mine wanted to go to our local Ulta and buy some makeup for some weddings she's attending this summer. So we went and while she was getting help, I was testing out some of the Melted lippies. I tried out the darkest shade "Villain", "Chihuahua (I think that's the name?)", "Fig", and the red shade that's darker than "Berry". I immediately loved the texture of these and the pigmentation. So intense. As soon as these touched my lips, I knew I was going to be buying one of them. I decided on getting "Berry" because it's a color that I'm comfortable wearing in my daily life. These last for a long time. I left the store with "Chihuahua" on my lips because it ended up being a pretty neutral/nude on my coloring and I didn't want to wipe it off my lips. I wanted to see how long it would last. Like I said, it lasted a while. I even napped with it and it was still on my lips when I woke up. Staying power is A+ and the pigmentation stays strong. With eating and talking, the color faded slightly but it was still noticeable and very pretty. I can definitely see myself buying a Melted lipstick every payday. I now understand why so many people were raving and spending the money on products like this and the Anastasia, Jeffree Star, and Dose of Colors liquid lipsticks. These things are amazing and so perfect. It's still pretty expensive though so I'm not going to go too crazy with purchasing these guys. That's really the only reason I knocked off a point for my final rating. I want products that are affordable, great quality, and long lasting. Too Faced is just a tad bit too expensive to check off that affordable box. Other than that, it's a really good product and the applicator is soft and applies evenly. Make sure your lips are properly primed and moisturized. These can be a tad bit drying. I'd say the finish is semi-matte. I've seen it look like a MAC satin-finish lipstick on some people and matte on others (like myself) so I'm not a hundred percent sure, but you could easily apply this and top it off with a clear gloss. If you do want a more glossy finish, Too Faced does have a line of Melted lipsticks called the Melted Metal line which is essentially the Melted lipsticks but with a more glossy finish. Also, you can totally wear these without a lip liner. I didn't find that it bled at all when I wore it, but you can still wear a liner underneath.  
Rating: 4/5


This is just one layer of "Berry". I put a layer on top of the layer of "Chihuahua" and it looked really good. Again, make sure that your lips are properly primed and moisturized because this product can be quite drying. I do like that I can make it more day-time wearable with just one layer and then layer it up later on in the day for a more evening-time look. 

Monday, June 15, 2015

Review | Secret Key 'Let Me Know' CC Cream

Product: Secret Key "Let Me Know" CC cream
Cost: $7.19 (ebay) | $12.33+shipping (Amazon price)
Link: ebay | amazon
Review: Just a heads up, this will be the first of some Korean beauty products that I will be reviewing in the next couple of days and/or weeks. Okay, so this is the first CC cream I've ever tried. For those who may not know, CC creams came about after the popularity of BB or beauty balm creams. CC means color correcting or color control cream. Coverage varies for a lot of these balms and depends on the brand. For a lot of Korean CC creams, I've noticed that a lot of them are white creams that contain little color balls that burst and adjust to your skin tone for a perfect color match. At least that's what they advertise. I've found that with this CC cream despite advertising a perfect color match, when blended on my face, it's still a bit lighter but I expected that. With Korean makeup styles, the point is to brighten and illuminate the face while with Western makeup styles, the point is to match your face coloring to the rest of your body. And as someone who has naturally tan skin, I didn't expect a Korean CC cream to be able to perfectly match my skin. So with color matching, I wouldn't give this cream a perfect score. It's got light to medium coverage so it won't completely cover blemishes, spots, and under eye circles. You'll definitely need an extra layer or two or a concealer. I use a light layer and then concealer for my circles and if I'm feeling like adding the extra work, I'll use another concealer for my spots and blemishes. There is a slight scent but it pretty much goes away when you're blending it onto your skin. I don't really like the applicator because I don't think it's very hygienic. I like products with a pump since I'm not really touching the product and letting it go back in, if that makes sense. Other than that, I like this CC cream well enough. It's not the first thing I reach for, but for everyday usage it's alright. It's got a really high SPF content which is great for me cause I live in a very sunny place but don't wear this if you plan on being photographed with flash photography. For those who might not know, since this has a high SPF content, that means that your face/anywhere with this product on it, will be super shiny with the flash. I have oily to combination skin during the warmer seasons and that can leave me a little shiny later on in the day so it's good for me to set my T-zone with a setting powder like Rimmel's Stay Matter Pressed Powder. Long term effects that I've noticed include my skin tone looking a bit more even. There are less blotchy spots of red throughout my face and the texture seems a lot smoother. I do like this product and use it quite often. I probably won't repurchase it though once I run out. 
Rating: 3.5/5

Swatches: 

Half blended:

Fully blended out:

On the left is the product on my nose and then on the right is it blended out with my finger tips and a stippling brush. As you can see from the above blended out swatches and the photo below, it's quite brightening so be wary if you have darker skin than myself. It might result in an ashy finish or in an almost white paint-like finish. 

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Life | Self-Acceptance and Love

I promise that the photo above has something to do with what I'm about to write. I promise. Anyways, I want to preface this post by saying that I think the whole spiel about accepting and loving yourself before you can love and accept love from someone else, is bullshit. Pardon the language, but seriously, it is total bullshit. Loving and caring about someone else is not some experience that is exclusive to one group of people (people who accept and love themselves) and no one else. 

Growing up, there was so much of that mantra in "chick flicks", magazines, books, tv shows, and music. Young people, usually young women, were told that when they are able to reach self-love and self-acceptance, love will come more easily to them. So for years, I struggled to reach this amazing level of self-love and self-acceptance. I struggled with why people I knew who hadn't reached that level were in relationships or were at least dating. I thought, "Huh, maybe I'm doing it wrong?" then as I got older it became "Maybe something's wrong with me and that's why I can't accept/love myself." That dumb mantra made me feel worse about myself and made me hate myself. It made me feel like there was something wrong with me and that I was so wrong that I couldn't even love myself. 

It took me so long to realize that that kind of thinking is really really toxic. Loving and accepting yourself is really difficult, especially when you're someone who is outside of the "norm" (white, healthy mental health, stable emotions). The journey to loving and accepting yourself is long and like I said before, difficult. Loving yourself is so much harder than loving someone else. It's easy to say that you love yourself and that you accept yourself for all your imperfections. At the end of the day, I definitely don't think anyone is truly content with themselves yet we still have millions (that's a logical number, right??) of happy and content couples that are in love. Take my boyfriend Court and I for example. When we first started dating, we were both insecure wrecks with my boyfriend probably more so than me. As we continued dating, this mantra of accepting and loving yourself resurfaced on tumblr. I showed it to Court and I think he was annoyed with it because here we were, two people who were insecure as fuck, yet perfectly content and in love. We've gotten to the point where we constantly take and post pictures like the one above. We're both still not completely secure with ourselves, but that didn't and doesn't stop us from having a healthy relationship.

I hope this is making sense by the way. Anyways, my point is that you don't have to stop yourself from dating if you aren't completely secure in yourself. If you think it's necessary, do you, and take the time to focus on you. If you are chastising yourself because of this mantra, maybe taking it to heart isn't the right step for you. Like I said before, it's hard to accept yourself and to love yourself for all your perfections and flaws, but don't think that you have to completely accept yourself in order to be in a healthy relationship. I think that as long as you can find things about yourself that you love, that you are confident about, I think that that's just as good. I don't like myself completely but I still find things to love or accept about myself (it helps that Court is there to help me through my anxious insecure freak outs too) and even then, just surround yourself with good and kind people that you love and admire and it will help you to accept and love yourself. I don't know how to explain that one, but it works. 

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...