Carry On Bag - Beauty

I'm ever so slowly packing. Very, very slowly. But, since one of the products I ordered off of Amazon came in, I decided to start packing the lotions, shampoo, moisturizer part of my luggage. The bigger containers went into one of my suitcases that will be checked,  but for the carry on bag, I had to raid my stash of hotel and beauty counter supplies.

via Amazon

Yes...I have a stash. And I'm not ashamed, when I travel anywhere, that's what I end up packing from. It's just easier, and cheaper, than running out to Walmart or Target and raiding their $1 section for the mini-sized products.

And tonight, I suppose I'll start packing some of my measly number of clothes that will translate over to the weather in Scotland. There's about a 25 degree (Fahrenheit) difference in temperature at the moment.

Or, put another way...that has made everyone but me laugh. The average summer temperature over there is about the average winter temperature here (if it's a cloudy and rainy day).

I've bought a huge coat. And gloves. And glove warmers. And a snuggie. Don't judge.

Makeup Art

Oh dear, I didn't mean to take such a hiatus. I got overwhelmed with UK Visa stuff. I'd hate to do everything right and then not be able to enter the country. Especially since I told everyone I was going...

This weekend I went to visit my auntie, who got me a wonderful "congratulations" cake. She's an English teacher and when she had the bakery pipe wording on it, she made sure they wrote "Carpe Diem". Isn't that sweet? My Aunt is the best.

Anywho, when I was taking art history classes I managed to avoid the modern/contemporary classes up until the last minute. Because I honestly don't understand them. At. All. When I did take my one contemporary class...I combined it with my art theory class. Two birds, one stone and all that. It was one of the scariest classes I ever had...because it was just not my cup of tea. And I didn't get most of the art.

I can take you on a tour of the Louvre, the Met, the High (in Atlanta), or the Getty but if we go to the MOMA or Tate Modern...I'll probably be more confused than you.

So recall all that, when I tell you that this contemporary (make-up) art is ridiculously awesome.

The makeup artist is named Ayami Nishimura, and the photographer is named Rankin, who's based in LA.

That's cool right? Especially when you consider that I can barely manage not to poke myself in the eye with the mascara wand.




Links:

Ayami Nishimura's website
Rankin Gallary's website. The Gallery is where the exhibit is going to be located.
article about the exhibit, Photographer Rankin Teams Up with Makeup Artist Ayami Nishimura For Beauty Book and Photography Exhibition

Carrie Underwood's legs

if I make it to the gym tomorrow, I should probably reward myself with a cookie. I real one too, not one of those imaginary ones that my doctor thinks I should eat.

Carrie Underwood is, of course, a star. So part of her job is looking amazing. And she has wonderful legs to  show off.

And she doesn't eat fast food. Or meat.

Sometimes a girl just needs some chicken nuggets. And if I miss the elliptical the next day...well, I'll just have to suffer the shame.

Anyways, this article, is all about her exercise routine. They even have names for some of these exercises. I've never heard of most of them, and the rest I avoid by sheer will power. For instance, "Squat Jacks"...doesn't that make you want to go cry in a corner? It should.

the Royal Ascot...is not the Kentucky Derby.

I'm talking hat wise.

I can get down with some fascinators, I can even deal with some of the more "creative" things I've seen at British weddings. I'm a bit worried when I can't tell if your hat is legit, or if it's a manic bird attacking your head. There's a problem if I might need to shoot your hat. That's all I'm saying.

(I still secretly love all the ladies who wear the crazy hats...it takes some fashion cojones to do it, so mad props...even if I have an urge to shoot your hat).

There were some new "fashion" rules at Ascot. I don't know what they were. It didn't seem to stop the hats at least.

Patriotic ladies! They look fabulous!

THIS lady...is my favorite. 

I'm not kidding. I love her. She can come over for red velvet cake and mint julies anytime.

sea of hats...and top hats! I love the top hats!

Might be the best dressed ones! 

Images are from Hats off for the Ascot Races

Accompanying article that explains Royal Ascot and more pictures, Hold on to your hats, it's a windy day at Royal Ascot and UK's posh Royal Ascot clamps down on wild fashion

Southern Hair

I'm not even going to lie. I am super, SUPER excited about the fact that they're re-making Dallas (the TV show). Since GCB went off the air...I need a southern guilty pleasure!

With BIG hair, and big attitude and lots of  "bless your hearts".

Speaking of big hair...the first time I went to NYC, a lady stopped me and told me she knew I was southern because of my hair. I was a bit nonplussed because it wasn't even that big at the time.

Designing Women southern hair via Secrets of A Belle blog

I'll admit, I'm fairly lazy when it comes to my hair. Messing with my straightening iron or curling iron or even teasing in the morning seems like a total cut into my sleeping time.

If I'm going to spend any time on my hair, that doesn't involve ponytales or just a simple brush through, I usually just put in curlers and let them sit for about twenty minutes. With tons of hair spray. Of course.

It's not that I can't pouf or tease my hair. I'm pretty good at that. It's just something I think you learn to do in the south. And honestly, when I hang out with other southern women, I tend to southern-fy my hair more than I would if I hang out with other (non-southern) people.

Southern hair tends to be big. Teased. High (so you're closer to God of course!) and did I mention...BIG?

1. Big Southern hair from BlogCritics
2. Carrie Underwood hair from  Wedding by Color blog
3. Jessica Simpson pouf, image from Thoughtful Spot blog
4. Reese Witherspoon hair  (high, poufy pony!), from Recession is the New Blonde
5. Image from Extraordinary Hair by Jaclyn Beith

But lets discuss Texas hair...specifically Dallas. My auntie lives in Dallas and she's a total hoot. She has pretty red curly hair that always made me jealous when I was younger. I wanted red hair so bad! Especially curly red hair. Alas, I was born with brown, straight hair. Boo.

I asked her if they were filming the show Dallas in the city Dallas but she didn't know, so I can't get any inside gossip. I'll just have to wait until it shows this week. So excited!

I'll leave you with "Dallas" hair from Miss Texas and her hairstylist. Fabulous! I didn't even think about spraying down the comb/brush and putting it in the hair that way. I've been creating a hair-spray haze over my hair when it's time to set it. Whoops?

Miss Texas (Ashley Melnick) and her hair stylist Jessica Weckherlin

Cos Bar at Target

Target's newest collaboration is with a bunch of boutique shoppes. I've been trying to curtail my shopping habits so I didn't rush out right away and get any of the new stuff.

By the time I managed to get around to perusing Target, most of the stuff had been pretty picked over, but I still got some cute things from the Cos Bar "shoppe".

I've only managed to play with the two nail-polishes so far but I'm quite excited about the rest of the stuff.

Target.com foot file, eye mask

Target.com tweezers (purple) and (green), body butter and body scrub

From Target.com, purple (L) and bronze (R)

I'm not a massive fan of all the colors and packaging though. It's kinda strangely Halloween-ish. Not that it stopped me on the tweezers. But it's why I didn't get any bags or mirrors--not quite my style. I think it had to be a lot of other's peoples because the line was mostly sold out.

From GirlyBubble

Additional Websites:

1. Target.com
2. Cos Bar Website
3. Cos Bar on Pinterest.com

Seriously?! Ashwarya Rai just had a baby for heaven's sake

So...I totally got into Bollywood this past week. I love Netflix for this reason, there's a bunch of Bollywood movies on the Instant Stream and the last one I watched was called Aisha

from Aum Aparna

It was cute (which I think was what it was going for). It reminded me of Clueless/Emma. It was a great girls night in movie. 

That's not really important, I just thought I'd share the movie I watched. My Indian film oeuvre is pretty bare but I do know who Ashwarya Rai is (more or less). It sorta hit the news (not really the American press as much) that since she had her baby, she hasn't gone back to this perfect pre-baby body. And there's this website that's being mean to her about it. Seriously? She had a freaking BABY. What is wrong with those people?!

Ashwarya Rai, pre-baby from Daily Mail

I get that it's her "job" to be glamours, but not everyone is superhuman like Victoria Beckham. And lord, I couldn't do any of that to save my life. I like snickers bars too much. 

Here's the pic that everyone is commenting on. 

from the Daily Mail

It looks like she just had a baby and is getting situated in the car right? It's not the best picture of her, but she doesn't look bad or like a cow. 

Well, strike Bollywood actress of my job list. I couldn't handle Indian media or the pressure. Lord!

Related Links:

1. How the 'most beautiful woman in the world' has been accused of betraying her country or failing to lose her baby weight from the Daily Mail
2. Aishwarya Rai criticized for not losing her postpartum baby weight fast enough from Celebitchy.com
3. New Mom Aishwarya Rai is too fat, says assholes from Jezebel.com
4. In depth article from the Sydney Morning Herald on Aishwarya Rai and the comments on her weight

More Ombre nails and newsprint nails

I feel like ombre nails are stalking me. I'm completely in love with the outcome of my second attempt (I did a softer blue and white combo). My friend sent me a link to a site that talked about newsprint nails and right up the page (one helpful scroll up) was another ombre tutorial.

without sponges.

To be fair, I like the sponge tutorial better, the blend is just much nicer, but if you want an artsy more mod/flair style. This is the technique.

from Lulus blog

Then, because I can't stop blog stumbling, I found a DIY ombre glitter manicure. Be still my heart.

from DIY ombre glitter bling gelish manicure

Although--sometime in the future, this (below) is going to happen. Granted, on the weekend, when nothing professional is going to happen. Because to be fair, unless you work at a fashion mag, I don't think you can pull these off at work. 

via Lulu's blog

Images and techniques from: 

1. Beauty How To: DIY Ombre Nails from LuLus a la Mode Blog
2. Ombre Glitter Bling Gelish Manicure from Granola 2 Glam Blog
3. Beauty Trend: Word Nails from Lulus a la Mode Blog

Stupid farmville leads to new awesome nails!

I think the only thing more stressful than the applications to college has been paying the application fee...for anything out of my home state.

It's just that paying my applications fees is happening the same time as some jerkface in New Jersey tried to steal my credit card number to play games on Facebook. Luckily, my card company caught it and wouldn't let any of his payments go through (or mine). And when they called me to tell me, we had a lovely time wondering what game he must be playing (farmville? mafia wars? some zombie plant game...We never could figure it out).

Sadly...nothing got paid on my end and I get to wake up tomorrow and try again. Which involves me calling the cc company and asking nicely for all these payments to go through. As long as it's not farmville.

Considering I'm completely useless tonight...everything is a go except fees...I might as well re-do my nails. And I'm thinking of trying something new. An "ombre-stain" mani or gradient nails. I went to Lauren Conrad, Amy Nadine and Kristin Ess' website (The Beauty Department) first because I remembered a post that they did involving a sponge and nail-polish.

from The Beauty Department's website. That's Kristin, Lauren and Amy.  

I also did  a google search and found another website...because one is never enough! It's called the Nailasaurus. How cute is that?

So, the basic premise is to mix the nail colors together-but not completely- and then dip the sponge in the color and transfer it to your nails. Easy-peasy.

Here's the tutorial from The Beauty Department. They also have step by step instructions (for instance...in picture no. 2, the sponge is soaking in water...not another clear-liquid-that-my-cousin-is-quite-fond-of). So you might want to hop on to the link in the paragraph (it's straight to the page) in case you want to read their tips.

I have old makeup sponges that I've never actually used (multi-pack for Christmas...from like...middle school days. oh wow). So this is for sure happening tonight! But I'm not feeling doing the gradient nails exactly. I'm thinking simpler and only about two (or three). Since it's my first time. So I'm going to mix and match but mostly use Nailasaurus' tutorial.

She has step by step instructions as well...but I'm only going to show two pics because I don't think I could explain it better than she does.  Basically, mix the polishes and put on your nails. I think I'm going more contrast...since I'm so artsy (I'm so not).

The Amandas organize a bathroom

Organizing my bath products tends to happen bi-monthly. Mostly because I ask for bath products as gifts for Christmas and my birthday and because I'm a drug-store bath product junkie.

Unfortunately my bathroom storage is next to nil. And the bathroom itself is really narrow. Luckily between the Amandas Facebook page and Pinterest...I've found some ideas!


The Amandas bathroom and makeup storage ideas:

from the Amandas Facebook page

via Pinterest

1. door storage idea from bhg.com
2. in wall storage from houzz.com
3. drawer storage from This is Glamorous

via Pinterest

1. in wall storage from bhg.com
2. under cabinet storage from bhg.com
3. in wall storage from bhg.com

1. iheartorganizing.blogspot.com
2. bhg.com

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/TheAmandas
Pinterest.com


Update: Wow...I completely missed the fact that Amanda linked to this! Be still my heart! Since Amanda (and the rest of The Amandas) was nice enough to play down my crazy obsession with her...I'll mention that you can click the little tab under all this labeled "The Amandas" and see the rest of my love for her. Or click on Categories above...where she has her section.

And thank you Amanda for the love!

beauty...on the cheap

I LOOOOOOVEEE Pinterest. Sure, I spend most of my time on the site convincing myself I have the domestic superpowers of Martha Stewart instead of admitting the fact that I get easily distracted and would probably NEVER finish that DIY earrings holder.

But I'm a step up from some of my friends. I have never set a toilet on fire (true story) nor I have burned the kitchen in the dormitory with easy mac (also true story...). In comparison, I'm a domestic genius!

But that's besides the point. So...favorite thing on Pinterest has to be the beauty pins. Which is how I happened upon the Real Simple website. Some of these aren't new to me (lemon in hair, sugar as a scrub) but some were super interesting, although I don't know if I could bring myself to slather my hand in cooking spray.

• Cooking Spray as Manicure Setter 
• Cornstarch as Makeup Setter

• Baking Soda added to Shampoo to remove product buildup in hair
• Baby Powder as Dry Shampoo
• Lemon juice as hair lightener (flashback to the 80s right?)

• Vaseline as Mascara/length enhancing shine by Petroleum Jelly
• Sugar as a Lip Scrub

Beach Essentials

It's April...which means it's warm enough for the beach! Yay!!!

I love going to the beach--as long as I can sit under an umbrella, slathered in sunscreen with a good book and plenty of water.

My beach bag is packed (with lots of books) and I'm thrilled to have a lax day with one of my girlfriends (who's visiting from up North).

1. Big floppy beach hats are a must! Skin cancer is nothing to be lax about. This is a pretty one from Sears.

2. Cute sunglasses help with the glare from the sun. Plus, they protect your eyes. I love retro ones!

3. Flip flops are made for the beach! P.S. You don't want searing hot shoes after being on the beach all day. Turn them over and put them under your towel. The soles won't burn your feet then.

4. Do you know the best time to buy bathing suits? Winter. Victoria's Secret always has the cutest bikinis.

5. Lacoste Beach Bag (I LOVE this bag. It's so summer-ey!).

6. I've read this book twice. And I still love it. I saw it had won an Edgar Award when I was browsing around Borders during it's closeout days (sadness). I don't even know what an Edgar Award is, but Tana French so deserves it. In the Woods was so titillating! It's a murder mystery in the present with a murder mystery from the past all set in Ireland.

7. Staying hydrated (from non-alcoholic drinks) is important. You would not believe the number of people I've seen drop because of lack of hydration. And if you use eco-friendly water bottles it's better for the environment. Plus these are super cute. I have one in purple that I love!

8. Sophie Littlefield's A Bad Day for Pretty. Which is another crime novel (but it has a romance in it!). AND she has great titles. A Bad Day for Sorry, A Bad Day for Scandal.

9. Chapstick. Or any moisturizing lip balm. But I like Chapstick (with SPF)

10. Picnic baskets! Even if you hit up one of the great seafood places on the beach, having snacks is always  a great idea. Be ready to fight a seagull.

11. Elizabeth George's 17th Lynley novel called Believing the Lie. I love her series. I might not know any British royal things...but I know who Lord Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton is (don't tell me it doesn't exist). It's a murder mystery too. There's a theme here...

12. Sunscreen. I don't know how to say it without sounding like a crazy person. Wear sunscreen. ESPECIALLY on the beach. Skin cancer is horrible. And yes..I wear SPF 100. I own that bottle.

13. While browsing TJMaxx last week I saw a medium sized bundle of beach mats. I didn't really give it much of a thought until I passed by again and saw that the pile had dwindled down to about five mats. Obviously they were selling fast. I moseyed on by and saw the cutest things ever (they had been rolled up). They were Tommy Hilfiger and the price was really low (reeeeally low). I have the pink flamingo and green mat. I love it already and it's going to the beach with me.

14. Fun leopard beach towel. Ah-mazing

15. Ok. I'll admit this is a bit extreme compared to my TJMaxx deal. But this is a beach mat for more than one person. Plus is has pockets for drinks and your phone. It's brilliant! AND it was designed by a SCAD (great school) graduate named Julie.

How to walk in high heels

Guess what I bought?! The cutest shoes ever! I got them at Target (I know... I have a problem) and they're Mossimo. I'm trying to convince myself that I need a super cute dress to go with them...but since I'm still purging my closet I really shouldn't go shopping. Like, really shouldn't.

Aren't they pretty?! I love them. I just wanted to show them off but what the blog post is about was this girl I saw while I was out and about today. She was wearing heels. And clomping. 

I mean...clomping. Very loudly. I couldn't decide if I was being mean by noticing but it was so distracting. 

Granted, I'm not an expert walker or model or anything coming close to giving professional advice. But I did go to charm school (that's right...charm school). And I know how to walk up and down staircases with a book on my head. Without clomping. You aren't allowed to clomp in charm school...you're only allowed to glide. 

So I found this video while perusing beauty channels on YouTube (because being productive on Sunday night isn't any fun). And it explains how to walk properly in high heels. I needed a refresher course as well. So here it is!

Links: 

• Shoes from Target - Mossimo Peep Toe Heels
• YouTube Video Link - How to Walk in High Heels

Another BB Cream post

So I've been playing with the Garnier BB Cream I bought in light/medium. After perusing through about ten different beauty forums looking at reviews and suggestions, I found a post that suggested mixing it with foundation.

Image from here

My camera charger cord is MIA, so I'll have to post pics later but now I'm only slightly orange-ish (hardly noticeable really).

Anyways, the whole point was to link to this thing I found via Pinterest (which is sooooo highly addictive). The site's called Total Beauty, and their editors made a list of their favorite BB Creams. Garnier's version makes their cut because it's affordability.

I'll put the link below. I'm seriously considering the Boscia or the Dr. Jart after I run out of the Garnier (and all my other tinted moisturizer). It'll be awhile...I'm a tad bit addicted to make up.




Links:

http://www.totalbeauty.com/content/gallery/best-bb-creams

Beautiful Hair Ornaments

I first saw some on this blog, then even more when I went out to meet a friend for lunch. A lot of ladies had some form of sparkle or flower in their hair. To be honest, I haven't worked anything sparkle related in my hair since prom. But I do love things that sparkle!

The goal is to be able to pull it off without looking young (in an immature way). So this is what I found when I looked

The Beauty Department, Lauren Conrad and her friends' site, has a really cute idea

from here

Zappos sells a bejeweled headband

Urban Outfitters has a headband and hair comb for a more understated glitz

The Rodarte hair accessory is a bit intense but still pretty cool. I don't think you can buy them because they were created in-house but this blog has done a DIY on them. 

Simple hair pins with peals attached