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ReStyle Challenge: Add a little color

Sabrina Allard over at Pinky’s Pen recently challenged her readers to “pull some cobwebs off the clothes we ignore in our closets and find new and clever ways to wear them.” During her 10-day ReStyle Challenge, Sabrina encouraged women to really re-assess their wardrobe and ask the question: which clothing/styles really make me feel like me?

I decided to take up Sabrina’s challenge and examine my closet. Upon doing so, I noticed that a majority of it was black, gray, or white, especially my “big girl clothes” that I wear to work or important events. Kind of boring, right? So, rather than chucking all of these nice but lackluster clothes, I found ways to make them more interesting: I added a little color. Here are four of my re-styled outfits:

This one was my favorite. As you can probably tell, I love my red shoes. Many of us on a limited budget don’t always consider buying colorful shoes because they don’t go with everything, but they are a fun way to colorize an otherwise color-less outfit. I love the idea of wearing a scarf or sash around the waist, too. I totally took that fashion tip from my boss, who has been known to wear colorful ties through her belt loops.

I love this top and the skinny pants because they’re both form-fitting and comfortable at the same time, but wearing them together does make me look monochromatic, so I wore a cute pink and black striped scarf {which I bought at Peonies for super cheap} as a belt, threw on a pink necklace and paired the outfit with my pink Ann Taylor bag {also from Peonies}. Plus, I painted my toes pink :)

This outfit is of course suited to a more casual environment, but I wanted to include it anyway, mostly because I really like the shade of blue in this shirt. Oh, regarding that first picture… Stan said the lighting was “uneven,” so I tried to help him out.

Oh, natural lighting, how I’ve missed you. Here is yet another almost-fully-black outfit, but I spiced it up with bright pink tights, my pink necklace, and very pink lipstick and eyeshadow.

Thank you, Sabrina, for continuing to inspire. xo

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Avocado Face Mask DIY on Jennie Fresa Blog

I’ve mentioned before that I’m doing guest posts once a month on the Jennie Fresa Beauty Library blog. I just published one yesterday on how to make your own moisturizing avocado face mask {which also works for your hair}. Check it out!

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Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: A Hair Timeline {Part 2}

Here’s the continuation of my hair timeline:

This haircut was inspired by an issue of Nylon Magazine that had Lily Allen on the cover. It was the first cut & color I got at the first hair salon Mish worked at. Lily Allen is a pretty fierce lady, so I tried to embody that ferocity. Rawr!

After my hair grew out, Mish gave it a reddish tint and it mostly stayed that way throughout the first half of 2009.

In August of 2009, I got really daring — two colors! Actually, it was technically three. Four, if you include the base color, which was a very dark brown. We used magenta again and Mish mixed together a green and blue {both Pravana ChromaSilk} to create the teal color. This hairstyle was a lot of fun.

After the pink and teal really began to fade, I had Mish dye my hair back to a more natural light brown and mostly stayed that way — with variations of the same haircut — throughout the rest of the year and into 2010. Clearly 2009 & 2010 were not as exciting as 2008!

You might recognize my outfit from this post. I absolutely love my latest haircut. Mish finally talked me into getting bangs and I’m glad she did.

I’m thinking of putting magenta back in my hair… what do you think?

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Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: A Hair Timeline {Part 1}

Okay, so maybe my hair hasn’t changed as drastically or as frequently as Audrey Kitching‘s, but I’ve still done some fun stuff with it {I was Mish’s test dummy throughout beauty school}. Here’s a photographic collection of my hairstyles over the last 4 years:

Though I had dyed my hair before, I first dared to have unnatural colors {pink, of course!} in my hair in May 2008, for my 21st birthday. Mish used Manic Panic. I think it was Hot Hot Pink. Please disregard my silly facial expressions {Stan says I should do a “face timeline,” but I think you’ll see enough of my smug mug here}. O_o

Mish touched up the pink and gave the first haircut where I had distinguishable bangs since my Nana cut them when I was about 9. Look at those dumb expressions! I am really a ham, huh?

I went very very dark brown — almost black — so that I could look like Alice for the book release of Breaking Dawn {I was a bookseller/barista at Borders at the time}. I can’t believe how obsessed I was with the Twilight Saga. I look back on these days in shame. :( The right-most picture was a part of my hazing after I started working for Apple. Just kidding, no hazing, but I did don these crazy sunglasses for the benefit of my new co-workers during a night out.

This was the first time I visited Mish in school and the first time I had a real, professional hair cut and color. Mish gave my hair lots of texture & layers & color! Because my hair was already dark, we didn’t add any base color. Mish bleached chunks of my hair, then colored those chunks with Pravana ChromaSilk in Magenta. If you are ever going to put non-traditional colors {like pink, purple, or green}, use Pravana! But, only professional hair stylists can buy it.

These charming photos of me {one of which you might remember from this post} were taken after I dyed my hair red for Halloween 2008. I had to take advantage of the fact that it was my & Stan’s first Halloween together and make him dress up as Harry Potter before he chickened out. I, of course, went as Ginny Weasley. Mish used box hair color this time {which was my reckless choice, not hers}, so it faded pretty quickly and turned into what you see on the right. Yuck, right? But check out that Pravana! Still going strong!

…I didn’t realize how much I’d changed my hair, so this will have to be done in a few posts :)

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All Cupcake Soaps on Sale for $5!

I’ve been wanting to announce this for a few days now, but our Internet has been down since Friday! To make room for new spring scents {because I want spring to hurry up and get here!}, I’ve decided to put everything in the Cupcake Soap Shoppe on sale for $5. That’s $1-$1.50 off the original price! Yay!

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