Face of the Day!

Hello again,

I opted for a softer look today just because I wanted to keep the light airy feel of the dress to carry all the way through my look.

I started with my basic routine: BB cream and eye primer. Then I grabbed one of my Hello Kitty palettes, Memoirs of a Kitty. I used the lightest shade to highlight my brow bone and the inner corner of my eye, the I put the next darkest on my lids. There's a gold/beige shade in the palette which I ran through my crease and finally I took the dark brown shade and just barely touched it to the outer corner of my eye just to add dimension and interest. I did a thin line of liquid eyeliner and finished with mascara. Then I took the more orangy blush from the palette and swept it from my cheekbones up to my temples, and I finished off the look with Benefit's Benetint lip stain for a light touch of colour.

And that's all I've done. It took me about 5 minutes to do, it's not very time consuming, especially because I only used one brush, a fluffy blending brush, for the whole eye make-up. Not having to switch tools every time really saves time.

I hope you like it!

Lots of love,
~Alex

Outfit of the Day!

Hi guys!

Here's my outfit for the day!

I'm treating my friend to High Tea at a local tea shoppe today, and we're taking my mom and my brother's godmother with us, too. I opted for a sundress because, although jeans are acceptable at this tea shoppe, I feel that denim is too casual for something as traditional as High Tea. The dress I'm wearing is (surprise, surprise) Olsen, it's from the New Hamptons Collection.

I've paired the dress with this Coach tattersall bag. I picked this one up several years ago at an outlet in the US.

I'm wearing a pair of wedge heels with this, I love the laid-back yet classy style of these ones. I got these at Ardene a few weeks ago.

This is my favourite necklace! It's a long chain with pink stones- like the ones on the left- all the way around with this ball of jewels on the end. It's small enough so that it doesn't overpower the outfit, but it's so beautiful that it makes a statement. This one's from Joe Fresh, I got it about a year ago.

So that's my outfit for the day! I hope you like it!

Lots of love,
~Alex

Face of the Day!

Hello again guys!

I had to rush just after I finished the Outfit of the Day post, so now I'm going to give you my Face of the Day post!

This is my go-to face, it's dead easy and only takes about 4 1/2-5 minutes to do, if you'll believe me. Usually I do my face like this every day and then I switch it up by playing with my lip colour. Some days I'll do the colour I'm wearing here, or I'll do a bright red, or I'll do a lip stain or tinted lip balm for a softer look. Any way I do it, it's fool proof.

How do I do it? First you'll need the products:

1. BB Cream~~ I'm using the Maybelline Dream Fresh BB. It's the only one I've tried, but I really like it. It gives me just enough coverage that I'm not splotchy, but you can still see the texture of my skin through it which isn't what everyone likes, but I'm a huge fan of the natural look and (cliché alert) imperfections are natural so I'm okay showing them off.
2. Blush~~ I use MAC's Springsheen, it's a pretty coral with some gold shimmer which just makes me look a little bit less like I spend all of my free time on Tumblr.
3. Eye primer~~ Considering the eye product I'm using, I'm going to say that this is optional. Most people can just use a cream eyeshadow on its own and it won't crease, but my eyelids are disgustingly oily, so I need a primer regardless of how good the shadow is. I'm using Urban Decay's Primer Potion, it's the most heavy duty one that I've found and it's honestly the only one that works for my silly eyelids.
4. Cream Eyeshadow~~ I'm using the Maybelline Colour Tattoo 24hr cream eyeshadow in Bad to the Bronze. It's neutral but just glitzy enough to make it look like I've put some real effort into my look.
5. Eyeliner~~ You can use whatever medium- liquid, gel, or pencil- and colour that you prefer, but I always use black liquid eyeliner almost every day just because I find that I can get that 50's bombshell effect really easily. And if I'm being honest, I find liquid eyeliner easiest to apply. I'm using Maybelline Master Precise in Black, it's a pen format which I love. I just bought it the other day and I'm thoroughly loving it so far.
6. Mascara~~ This one's obvious. Use your favourite. I'm using Covergirl Lashblast Fusion (the one in the purple tube). It's not my favourite- that's a tie between Benefit's Bad Gal lash and L'Oreal's Voluminous Million Lashes- but it's the one I have and I'm too poor to afford a new one just now.
7. Highlighter~~ Again, any formulation you like- powder, cream, or liquid- use your favourite. I'm using Benefit's Highbeam, but I'm using the "travel" one instead of the "regular" one. The only difference is that the travel one is in a tube with a doe-foot applicator instead of a small bottle with a brush like the other Benefit products. I like it better this way, it's easier to work with.
8. Lip product~~ As I said earlier, I switch it up daily depending on my mood, but today I've used MAC's Capitve lipstick.

 Basically I just apply the products in the order I've listed them, but I'll just walk you through my technique in case anyone's curious.

1. I start off by applying the BB cream, I use about a large pea size for my whole face. I dot it around my face and blend it in with a powder brush to give it a very even and natural look.
2. I apply the blush with a blush brush from the apples of my cheeks swept up to my temples.
3. I put a small dot of primer on each eyelid and blend it over the lid, crease and brow bone.
4. Using a concealer brush I apply the eyeshadow over my lids and blend the edges with a clean finger.
5. I apply the liquid eyeliner along my lashline and then I make a small wing at the end for that bombshell effect.
6. Mascara!
7. I do two things with the highlighter: I put it under my brow bone to brighten it up and then I put a dot underneath each eye on my dark circles instead of a concealer because just a little bit of highlighter will brighten up the whole area instead of using a tonne of concealer to cover it up. It ends up looking much more natural this way.
8. I applied my lipstick straight from the tube and blotted with a tissue and I was ready to go!

I hope you guys like the make-up! I've already got tomorrow's look all planned out, so I'll post that when I get up! Take care guys!

Lots of love!
~Alex

Outfit of the Day!

Good morning!

I've brought to you my outfit of the day this morning!

 

 Today I'm headed to lunch with my mom and her friend and afterwards I'm going to work. I work for a company called Olsen Europe, I'm a sales associate or "Wardrobe Specialist" as it says on my name tag. If you haven't heard of Olsen I highly recommend you find one near you and give them a try. I'm not sure whether we operate in the USA, but I don't think we do, so you could check out the site, but the English site is not up to date so I recommend braving the German site. Here's the link so that you can have a look, I'd suggest having Google Translate open in another tab if you don't know any German. The clothes are beautiful and even when I'm not at work I'm wearing almost head to toe Olsen. Just to let you know, I'm not being paid to promote these clothes or anything like that, I just REALLY like them!

So this is the outfit! I'll just walk you through it piece by piece and explain it a little bit. 

• I started off with an Olsen All-Way Stretch Pant in our newest Burgundy colour from the Tribal Spirit collection. It's a Lisa cut, which means a mid-rise (around the belly button) and a straight cut leg.
• Next I put on a ruffled blouse, also from the Tribal Spirit collection, and I just put one of our basic camisoles under that because the chest is just tight enough on me that you can see my bra from the side. Professionalism is a good thing :P
• I layered a skinny leather belt with henna-esque detailing, also from the Tribal Spirit collection (I'm noticing a pattern here...) just to accentuate my waist and prove that I have one.
• I finished off with a really pretty bollywood-esque necklace from the 2012 Fall/Winter Sample Sale!

I've got a few other pieces to go with it, and I'm just going to picture them below.

This is a Coach handbag that I inherited from my mom when she decided she didn't want it anymore. I thought the grey would help to cut the white/brown/burgundy thing I had going on.

Here are the shoes I was talking about in my nail post last night, as you can see they have this beautiful Edwardian textile rimmed by a black fabric. They're an oxford style but with a gorgeous twist! They're from the brand "not rated" (I believe it's all lowercase), I bought them a shoe store called Journey's at the mall where I work.

And here's a close-up of that bollywood-esque necklace from the sample sale. I absolutely love this! It looks really heavy but it's actually not, surprisingly enough!

So that's my outfit of the day, I hope you guys liked it! Have a great day, everyone, because I'm pretty sure mine won't be that awesome... the mall dies at 5:30 and I work until 9. Woo.

Lots of love!
~Alex

Gothic Edwardian Floral Nails

Hey guys!

So, for my first real post I'm going to share with you a nail tutorial that I did on deviantart. This design was inspired by a pair of shoes that I recently bought, which I'll post a picture of soon.

I really hope you guys like it!

~Alex

Hello!

Hello everyone!

This is going to be my very first post, so I'm going to say a little bit about myself.

My name is Alex, I'm a 19-year-old, 2nd year University student. I'm majoring in English with a minor in German.

I've always had a fetish for fashion and beauty and I've always wanted to express that in some way with the internet, but I've been too shy to try YouTube, so I've decided to come here and try this out instead.

My biggest influence in my fashion is the Edwardian styling behind Downton Abbey, and you will hear me referencing this style frequently! I love the idea of re-visiting the feminine elegance of the Edwardian- and even Victorian- era for the purpose of modern fashion.

In addition to my fashion fetish, I am a huge fan of make-up! Although I do essentially the same look every day, I am well versed in make-up techniques and I experiment frequently, so you can expect some interesting looks. I also do nail art, which I will post here as well.

I hope you enjoy my blog and all of the ideas that I have to offer!

Lots of love!
~Alex