Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Better Than Before

Before
Last week I specifically noticed my eyebrows in the mirror and thought "Oooh, gotta do something about this."  All these beauties on Instagram and YouTube have perfect eyebrows that often don't even look like they're made of hair.  Painted but not painted.  Filled in but not fake.  They also tend to wear flawless makeup...

At nearly twenty-four, proper application of makeup escapes me.  I see a value in it (enhancing your existing beauty) and a fault in it (time component, potential to rub off on things).  Eventually I will learn to highlight, conceal, enhance, define, color (all the makeup verbs).  Until then, I could at least clean up my eyebrows.

Now, eyebrow shaping is like magic.  I already know this (and if you don't, I am now a temporary product of such magic).  The caterpillars above my eyes have been tweezed, threaded and waxed before...just not regularly.  But I should probably change that so last weekend I made an appointment with Anastasia Brow Studio at Nordstrom (referred to by my momma).  They use these stencils-- full arch, high arch, medium arch, etc--to mark the shape, then wax around and tweeze to finish.  I wanted to keep my fullness so the esthetician (nice word, eh?) used the full arch stencil.  

Did you know that eyebrows can have cowlicks too?  On my inner edges hairs lie straight up instead of curving nicely with the rest.  Apparently those hairs are a cowlick and I can train them to grow in a curved direction with a brow gel--tinted or clear.  Brush/flick up and then over to lay the hairs down.  Hmmm, okay...beauty lesson of the week. 

So there's the before above.  See the after.  I hope the magic can be seen well enough (used my iPhone for these and sometimes I take grainy photos--by accident--instead of clear/crisp photos).  If you can't see the magic, trust me, it has gotten better with each passing day lol.  I'll look in the mirror and be like "Whose pretty face is that?!"  It was pretty before, but now there's something extraordinary about it.

After
*Currently using Lancome Brow Experts Modele Sourcil in Naturel (some kind of clear gel, ya'll)

Alright, alright, alright. Until next time.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Oxford Blues



Oxford for the shoes and blues for the color scheme and the lighting failure outdoors (sadness thanks to my darn skills with the red light box)...when I titled this post I didn't realize it's also the title of a 1980s movie starring the deliciously blue-eyed Rob Lowe.  Thanks again, Google.

So spring is officially here and today was quite beautiful.  But I could not for the life of me figure out how to capture the beauty of the outdoors (balcony) with a subject (me) thrown in.  So I moved indoors... 


These blue/white striped oxfords were purchased on a whim last September...and I have yet to wear them anywhere.  I meant to reevaluate the shoes and maybe return them but then I let the receipt expire.  
Trying to establish personal style shouldn't mean shopping for new things all the time and it definitely shouldn't mean allowing things to collect dust in the back of your closet.  I suppose that I am really going to try to wear everything in my closet. Learning to treasure my clothing, where treasure = wear it out/wear it well.

Essentially wrote about this same thing two posts ago (oops!).  Some things should be repeated often.  Other things, not so much.  Freshening is in order, just in time to fit the connotations of this new season.  Everyday is a good day to begin a goal, a transformation or a renewal.  Yes, we've got New Year's Resolutions, new semesters, spring, milestones and life transitions...but everything in between is a good enough day too.
Something to think about.  

And that is all I have for today.  Until next time, enjoy the last week of March!

lite brite
Outfit Details
Cynthia Rowley tank dress (TJ Maxx)
New York & Co vest 
Report oxford shoes (Nordstrom Rack)
JewelMint Clara bracelet
American Eagle tiny gold cross earrings

*Just starting reading The Color Issue of Instyle...already influenced before I knew it.  Flexing my power...

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Limits of The Red Light Box



The red light box (i.e my Samsung point and shoot) accompanied me to Nigeria in December and while there I tried snap more than the typical touristy let's-do-the-same-pose-in-front-of-a-different-background photos...and that's why there's an image of an old beat-up passenger seat from a car (below)!  But really, who else finds the top two photos interesting?  Would I be the only one over-eagerly raising my hand?  The second one is so perfectly crisp, I think I could stare at it forever and just appreciate all that rubbish of a mechanic's junkyard as simplistic art.  Or I could just stare at it.  

The basic difference is the use of flash. Shutter speed became slightly faster with it on (but I'm not sure why).  I remember carefully activating the flash as I tried to keep the camera in the exact same mid-air position.  I wanted to see a clear effect of setting change.  And see it I did.
Notice the pain, the agony, of this seat
Background: Goodness, that day was bright and hotter than hot.  My uncle was taking me from Ajalli to Owerri but we stopped at this mechanic's to check out his car.  If it were just him, my uncle said, he'd travel with his car.  But since he was transporting his niece (and my momma was anxious about my safety from across the ocean) we stopped and ended up having a driver pick us up.  Nigeria and drivers....and they're not taxi drivers.  It seems you can (and often have to) get a driver to take you from A to B (if B is more than an hour or two away).  The roads are not so special.  But Nigeria was/is so special to me.
this dinky phone had (slow) Facebook access!
this land is your land