The Round Up: May 10, 2013

Happy Friday everyone. Today's round up is what we call Jenny's dream manicure edition. I recently discovered some new fun tidbits on www.sephora.com and have been contemplating whether or not to try them out. 

Two of the three new polish effects below seem pretty simple even  a moron like me could pull them off. Check them out and let me know if you have already tried any of them and how they worked out. If i try them for myself of course I will fill you all in on the outcome :) 

1. Ciate Chalkboard Manicure: What Sephora says." A kit to turn your nails into chalkboard-style fashion statements"

How COOL is this? I really hate calling something "cool", but honestly, THIS is COOL! Simple explanation, this is the most wicked idea ever. It looks simple enough, my only issue would be drawing on my left hand (I'm left handed and cant even hold a pen in my right hand) and also I'm not too artistic so a smiley face would be the only design i could pull off. Still, if i borrowed a talented friend of mine and got help this could potentially turn out to be really cute. I think I may try it.....

2.  IllamasquaPranormal Nail Varnish:  What Sephora says. "A nail lacquer that glows under UV black light." 

If i was still big on clubbing and night life this would be a pretty awesome polish to try out. Although I don't think I will ever come into contact with a black light for the rest of my life this is still worthy of a mention. So for all you cool kids who are still out there partying, enjoy. 

3.Julep Neon Nail Dips: What Sephora says. " Accent your manicure with a pop of color and wollop of texture" I really like that word, WOLLOP. Word of the week: Wollop, try using that in a sentence over the weekend and let me know on Monday how that went ok? 

I'm not sure what a nail dip is, but it sounds like something THIS girl will not be able to handle. Although I do like super bright nails. And I have to say Julep makes a mean nail polish, I almost trust that this will be a decent product. 

The Rookie Department Part 2

Happy Monday! The sun is shining here in Toronto and over the weekend walking through the city I noticed everyone has busted out their spring summer wardrobe; amaze-balls! While our short term forecast calls for sunny skies and a light breeze I know much better, here in Toronto we experience brutally humid summers! Brutal I tell you!

So what is a fashionista to do when she spends an hour drying then flat ironing her locks, only to step outside and experience frizz of epic proportions? 

My answer is to pull your hair back and suck it up. For those of us that abuse their pony tail privileges even when it’s not humid we may be looking for something a bit more interesting here.

With that said, as promised in my last DIY hair related post I tried out a few more styles, and below you will find a detailed account of my experiences. 

The Sock Bun: a reader of mine commented that the sock bun was fairly high on the difficulty scale, and I agree. Depending on your hair length it can be a really b*tch! My hair reaches my hip bones; therefore the sock bun is not only a neat way to pull my hair back, but also a great arm workout (try holding your arms above your head for ten min as you roll your hair down a damn sock).  My main issue is getting the hair smooth around the sock in the last step. Making a nice high poly tail, finding a sock, and securing with bobby pins once you’re done are all quite easy. Make sure you use a fair amount of hair spray at the end to keep fly away’s at bay, the style looks best if it is sleek rather than messy. Sleek = chic, Limp/frizzy = grandma 

I would rate this style as an 8 out of 10 on the chic scale. Mainly because EVERYONE seems to be sporting a sock bun these days.

Difficulty factor would be 4 out of 10 for medium length hair and a 6 out of 10 for long hair.

French Braid Bun: I spotted this step-by step a few months ago and tried it once myself, with beginners luck I managed to pull it off pretty effortlessly. But this past weekend when I had a helping hand i realized it really is a better hair style for those of us that have someone on hand to do the braiding. Bestie noticed me struggling with my braid as it reached the back of my head and decided to take over. Her tip was to keep the braids TIGHT! 

Check out her creation below, I think she did a pretty damn good job, and it looks a lot like the picture above. I finished it off with a shine hair spray to control fly always and make it more sleek at the front. 

I would rate this style an 8 out of 10 on the chic scale. 

Difficult rating would have to be at about an 8, while its not impossible to do on your own, the final product is much nicer if you have someone French braid your hair for you. 

Would you try out the French braid bun? If you have and want to share any tips or tricks then please do so in the comments below. 

I should mention I have two other styles that I have clipped and saved and will be trying out one this weekend. If you have any others that you would like me to try feel free to leave a link or picture also in the comments. I would love to be your guinea pig :) 

Links a la Mode: April 18 2013

I never knew my struggle with styling my own hair and throwing make up on like a drunk monkey was a common stress point until I blogged about it last week. Thanks for all the comments and thank you IFB for choosing my post as part of your weekly round up. 

Just so you know, I have continued with the hair, make up and manicure DIY and I have an update coming for you all very soon...stay tuned.

In the mean time please check out the links below for some good reads :) 

Links à la Mode: April 18th

    

Anna Lou Eliott: 3 ways to wear white: for day, night and work

    

Attire Club: What We Can Learn From Superheroes

    

Cosmolawitan: Dove: Empowering Women With Its Ad Campaigns

    

Dressed up on a cloudy day: How to Combine Colors : Analogous Colors

    

Fashion is Evolution: 4 Tips for Pushing Yourself to Achieve Your Creative Goals

    

Fashion Moriarty: Are female politicians reduced to what they wear?

    

Hey Mishka: 5 Globally Conscious Festive Accessories For Summer

    

HH Designs: Glamping: My Overall Lack of Roughing It...

    

Lara Lizard: Test : Are you the cutest creature of the social media?

    

Incognito: On how Man Repeller got me thinking about fashion in Japan

    

Modestelle: Mercedes Benz Australia Review 2013-2014

    

Mis Papelicos: My 6 Easy Steps to Happiness

    

Nothing to wear: The Rookie Department: Hair Styling For Beginners

    

Runway to Style: 7 Style Guidelines To Look Your Best at Prom and More

    

Style Bazaar: Blogging: How important is your location?

    

The Curatorial: Vale Jewelry: Algorithms and Delicate Jewelry

    

Undercover Dress Up: Interview with lolita icon Emilka P.

    

We Are Ready Made: Irreverent Youth

    

Wild Beauty World: War Paint

    

Youth Savage: Fashion Blogging vs. the World

The Rookie Department

I've never been a pro when it comes to styling my hair, applying my make-up or doing my own nails. It’s not that I don’t try; but I'm just not great with these things, my one and only hair style is blow dried + curled with a large barrel curling iron to keep the frizz down and add volume, it’s my go-to hair style and has been for years, it has never let me down through many different hair lengths and styles.

But recently I wanted to step it up a notch.

Part of my recent success with hair styling is owed to the World Wide Web. Yes, surfing the net for endless hours has contributed to my life in a meaningful way; who knew? It was only though Pinterest that I discovered “The Beauty Department" .  With step by step pictures and written instructions even an idiot like me can pull off most of the looks they post (some are still a bit too difficult for me , baby steps, baby steps).  I also found this site, which happens to be a wedding site but has many cute hair and make-up ideas.  

Why didn't someone tell me about these sites sooner? I have been trying out many styles over the past few weeks and I wanted to share with you the results. Many of us “Pin” these pictures but never, ever attempt them…well here goes.

The photos you are about to see are my genuine, FIRST ATTEMPT at these styles. I hope you find this helpful, and if anything at least amusing :) 

The Bouncy High Pony Tail: Any idiot can pull off a high pony tail right? WRONG! There is more to it than just pulling your hair into an elastic band. For a recent event I decided that having my hair down for over ten hours probably wouldn't yield positive results, so I went for a high, bouncy ponytail. I styled my hair as usual, from wet, to blow dried, then curled as if I was going to be leaving it down. Then I teased the crown (it was my first time ever teasing my hair) and flipped my head upside down to get the pony tail high on top of my head. Now, I'm pretty sure flipping your head upside down is NOT the proper way to get your hair into a pony tail, but if thats what you gotta do then don't be ashamed. I needed assistance with wrapping a strand of hair around my pony tail to conceal the elastic because after 5 failed attempts I was ready to shave my head. NB: since then I have managed to figure this out and do it myself. My tip with this style is to make sure you curl your hair properly from the beginning  don’t be lazy and curl it once it’s up in the pony tail because it won’t have that same “bounce”.

So you know, I was going for this...

And I was able to produce this....not too bad, I would give it a B+ with room for improvement. 

The “Heidi” Braid Look. I tried this when I was in Milan last week. I managed to pull this together while my hubby was napping. It honestly didn't take very long and my only complaint is that my arms were KILLING from keeping them held up the entire time. So added bonus: its a hair style and a work out all in one! Without the ability to see the back of my own head (obviously) these were the best braids I could pull off, not bad eh? The front frizzed like mental, but it was a very humid, rainy day. I’d like to re-attempt this one when the weather is less extreme. It still looked pretty cute nonetheless.

The instructions and prof version looked like this...

The twisty way to keep hair from frizzing: Disclaimer* I did this one wrong..haha. 

So, after blow drying your hair you twist it back and away from your face it helps reduce frizz, and you can get dressed and do your make up while your hair sets. Sometimes I rush through things and often I don’t read instructions properly, this is obviously one of those times. I twisted my hair in the correct backwards motion, but tied my hair around the back which only made it more difficult, but I believe it still produced the same results. My hair was frizz free, and I think I will be trying this one again

And that's all Iv'e got for now, I have a list of other cute styles and one which I forgot to take pics of (sowwy) so I will likely be back with a Part II. In the meantime  does anybody know of other fantastic website with hair styles like these? Or do you have any style that you would like for me to attempt? If so please leave links or ideas in the comments below. Thanks :)

Nailed It: Part 4 DIY Edition

Most people believe that left handed individuals have a more artistic and creative mind. Alas, as a lefty myself I am excluding from this generalization. My artistic abilities are definitely lacking, while I believe I do possess a spark of creativity I find it very difficult to bring any of my ‘visions’ to fruition. This lack of artistic ability extends to anything DIY, hands on, or involving a demonstration of penmanship. My writing looks like that of an 8 year old, actually an 8 year old would be insulted if they knew I just made that comparison.

Needless to say painting my own nails is a challenge I hardly taken on. Trips to a nail salon are the only thing that keep my nails in decent shape seeing as I can’t even file my nail in a straight line. As mentioned HERE several weeks ago  I purchased a set of cute Essie Sleek Sticks nail stickers and had been dreading the day I actually attempt to apply them.

That day came this weekend when I tried the new product out, without the assistance of a professional and also in a dimly lit room to make matters worse. You will notice from the images below that it was actually a pretty painless process. I simply read the easy to follow instructions provided with the stickers and off I went.

Beginning with a totally bare nail all you do is stick the sticker starting from your cuticle and apply pressure on the entire nail. Make sure to choose a sticker size that works best, everyone's pinky, index finger or thumb nail is different, so they give you several size options which I thought was a smart move. 

Next, use the file they provide you with the kit and file in a DOWNWARDS motion to remove the extra sticker from the edge of your nail. I found this was the most difficult part for me, because I was kinda ripping the sticker as I did this. 

This was my finished product, I only applied the stickers to two fingers on each hand because I wasn't sure how it would look on every single one. I then painted the remaining nails a nice light pink.

You probably noticed the stickers were not very flat, they were a bit bumpy and peeling from the tip of the nail. I then proceeded to shower and hours later they were peeling off also from the cuticle. I was heading out for a bday celebration for a friend of mine and they managed to last through dinner but I ended up peeling them off because they were getting stuck in my hair and down right pissing me off.  I guess my conclusion is that the stickers are not for me. Not to say that if applied by someone with more beauty or DIY skill they wouldn't turn out just great.

A friend recommended I try out the Sally Hansen  Nail Effects saying they lasted an entire week when she tried them out recently. 

Does anyone else out there have a recommendation or perhaps a tip on how to apply them better? I have half a pack left and will consider trying once more so that they don't go to waste. While I know doing your own nails is hardly considered a proper DIY this was my first attempt and I'd like to one day be able to say I'm not totally incompetent, so I will be trying again.