Smoke Signals

Listening to the Beauty and The Beast Soundtrack.
Excited about Corey coming home tomorrow!
    I have to apologize. I was going to post my August Five Faves and a Flop today, but honestly, I have not had time to put that post together. I had a ton of reading to do this week, and I had to deep clean the basement since Corey will be here tomorrow!!! So I decided I'll post my Faves and Flop on Saturday, the actual last day of the month, and y'all will get an extra post this week!
    So. The smoky eye. Symbol of mysterious, smoldering seduction in the beauty world. But let's face it. Sometimes it's just a little too much for everyday wear. We all know how to wear it to a wedding or a night out on the town, but if you do it for your 8 am class, you look like you slept with your face in the dirt. You gotta tone it down for the daytime - here's how I do it!

1. Prep your eyes. Use a thin layer of your favorite primer.
2. Use a C-brush and a very pale golden tan on the inner half of your lids. Not too bright - the highlighting will come later.
3. Use a medium taupe on the outer half with the same type brush. Not too dark, but also not lighter than the golden tan you already used. We're just adding a slight definition to the outer halves.
4. Select a brownish-grey color, and using a crease brush, apply this to the crease and the outer-V.
5. Using a fluffy blending brush, buff out the edges and blend the brownish-grey into the taupe. They keys to a wearable day-time smoky eye are careful layering and ensuring there are no defining lines between colors.
6. Apply whatever's left on the blending brush along the outer half of your lower lids. Don't bring it all the way around like you may for a more dramatic nighttime looks. This is just a faint smoke.

1. Select a dark brown - darker than the brownish-grey from the previous step 4 - and apply that directly to the crease a clean crease brush to really define it. Blend it out.
2. Take a brown pencil eyeliner and apply that on the outer two-thirds of your lower lash line. Use the buffer on the other side of your pencil, or a dense smudge brush, and smudge it out, being sure to connect it with the color from your upper lids.
3. Use a waterproof and smudge-proof black pencil liner and line your lower waterline. Don't bring the color all the way to the inner corner, though. Just to the inner edge of your lash line. This is another way to ensure that the look is not too intense to wear everyday.
4. Apply a black gel eyeliner to your upper lash line. Keep the line thin and precise, and don't wing it out. The look is already intense enough without a wing.
5. Take a C-brush and dust your favorite highlighter on your brow bone. Be sure to select a warm-toned highlighter like a peach or golden champagne as opposed to white so the contrast between the highlight and your smoky lids isn't too drastic.
6. Use the same highlighter on your inner corners, meeting the inner edge of your lower lashes so that the highlighter illuminates the entire inner corner of your eye.

To finish up, curl your lashes, and layer on a few coats of your favorite volumizing mascara!

When will you be rocking this wearable daytime smoky eye?

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Products Used (in order of use)

• Maybelline 24-Hour Color Tattoo in Barely Branded
• Fifth shade from the top in the Physicians Formula Nude Classics Palette
• Third shade from the top in the Physicians Formula Nude Classics Palette
• e.l.f. Mineral Eye Shadow in Socialite
• Fourth shade from the bottom in the Physicians Formula Nude Classics Palette
• Covergirl Perfect Blend Pencil Crayon in Black Brown
• Rimmel Exaggerate Auto Waterproof Eye Definer in Noir
• e.l.f. Studio Cream Eye Liner in Black
• e.l.f. Mineral Eye Shadow in Elegant
• Maybelline Mega Plush Volum' Express Waterproof Mascara in Black

P-I-Z-Z-A, Gimme Pizza!

Does anyone remember that song from that old Mary-Kate and Ashley Sleepover movie? Maggs and I went through a massive Olsen Twins phase.
Listening to Almost is Never Enough.
    I did a recipe on here last summer for fresh frozen yogurt, made with fresh fruits and Greek yogurt and was rather proud of myself for doing something in the kitchen that didn't involve a microwave or a toaster oven. Turns out, I'm not as bad as I thought and there are a few recipes I kick butt with in the kitchen. Most I came up with when I moved out last year, and are relatively easy, with few ingredients, and don't require much time. This one, Pesto Pizza, is adapted from a picture and recipe I found on Pinterest.

 

Ingredients: Pinterest told me to make my own dough. So I bought Pillsbury premade Thin Crust. Pinterest also said I needed mushrooms. I said, "Mushrooms smell like feet," and nixed that one. If you like mushrooms, a) what's wrong with you? b) by all means, put them on your pizza. I bought the biggest organic tomato I could find so I could slice it thin like pepperoni.* I also bought pesto and goat cheese because these two should never be apart, and because they were part of the original recipe. Seriously, greatest combo ever.

Step 1: Prebake. Anyone else hate those dough package things that are terrifying little exploding dough bombs? Because they scare the you-know-what out of me. I stabbed mine with big knife. Anyways, prebake the dough at the time and temp dictated on the package (or by you if you're cool enough to make your own dough - what a little jump-starter you are). Mine was at 400 for five or six minutes. I did five cause our oven doesn't heat evenly and I didn't wanna mess it up.

Step 2: Chop. Whatever ingredients you have, take this time to chop them up. I'm pretty bad at making good use of my time, but I used my noodle here and *discovered just how bad I am at slicing tomatoes thin as pepperoni.

Step 3: Prep. Get all your other ingredients ready. Spoon for the pesto to scoop and spread, toppings and cheese.

Step 4: Pesto. When your dough is finished prebaking, pesto that puppy. I used the whole container, but in hindsight that may have been too much. I got a little overexcited. Pesto has a slightly stronger flavor than your typical pizza sauce and it overpowered the rest of my pizza. I'd use half that much next time, but that's just me.

Step 5: Tomato. I ended up not using all the tomato slices, but I probably could have used more. Really it's all a matter of taste, if you love tomatoes, pile 'em on. If you love mushrooms, keep them away from me.

Step 6: Bake and Cheese. Finish baking the pizza - mine was for ten to twelve minutes, and I might have undercooked it. Once again, we all know I'm weird. I don't like my cheese baked into the pizza. I put it on afterwards. Some of my childhood friends (Hannah or Suzanne) may recall me ordering pizza at Mellow Mushroom without cheese so I could put the grated parmesan on it after it had been cooked. It may be a texture thing, but regardless, I put it on afterwards. Don't judge me. You can put your cheese on whenever you want.

Step 7: Enjoy! There's mini step in there I didn't bother photographing, because it would look just like this photo - fresh cracked pepper. Don't just use the pepper shaker, it's so much better fresh cracked in big peppercorn chunks. I like mine coarse and I like a lot of it. And I definitely did undercook it a tad, but oh well. It was still delicious, and I still ate it.
   
    So take from this what you will - add ingredients, take some away. But all in all, it takes about 20 minutes to prepare and it's not super unhealthy. Next time I may even throw in some artichoke hearts because I feel like that would be delicious.

 

What do you think? Will you try it? What will you do differently? Tell me below!

Style Transition: Skater Skirt

 Listening to Cinema (Skrillex Remix) by Benny Benassi
Feeling overwhelmed. Already.
    So I recently went shopping with my friends Suz and Natalia. We hit up the mall looking for a few particular things for Natalia and Suzanne, but I had only one thing in mind: a skater skirt. See this style is cut so that it flares out right at the natural waist. It's super complimentary, can be dressed up or down, and it's very casually girly, so I don't feel like I'm suffocating in ruffles. I got very good at shopping when I moved out and had to save all my money for rent. Now I'm saving for mine and Corey's wedding, and I'm even better at it. I found one that I loved at Urban Outfitters, which was forty dollars, right when we walked into the mall. So we went to every other store that I thought may have a similar style at a lower price. I searched high and low, but I couldn't find a single other one that was cut at the right length for my long legs, and that was cute. (I found one at Forever 21, but it was cut just a bit too short, and the pattern wasn't my style.) So I went back to UO and that one skirt was the only thing I bought.*
    The great thing about this particular one is that it's a great transition piece. It can be worn in every season with the right top and accessories, and look great every time. Plus I already had a lot of colors to match it in my wardrobe. 

• Summer: To keep it light, I paired it with my rose gold sandals from Target, along with a sheer blouse and bandeau underneath. You can tuck in the blouse and wear a cute belt, or if you're feeling sassy, knot it and bare a little skin!
• Fall: As it starts getting cooler, I like to do long sleeves, but rolled up, since fall afternoons can still get plenty hot, especially in the South. A chambray works well here, with a cami or bandeau underneath, then throw on some nude ballet flats and you're good to go. As a bonus, floral prints are still hot as anything this fall.
• Winter: Some people might argue that you can't do floral in the winter, but I say, if it's dark and a smaller print, you can totally still get away with it. Ideally, I would wear tights in the winter, but the ones that would've matched this had a bad hole in them that I wasn't aware of, so bare legs it is! A tank, slouchy sweater, and scarf keep this look layered and warm. Combat boots will keep your toes toasty and also give the outfit a little edge.

What styles do you think transition well through the seasons?

___________________________________________________________________________

*I lied, I bought the flats I'm wearing in the fall outfit - the heels I was wearing were giving me vicious blisters.*