My Week in Photos 1

Hello! It's been a pretty great week. Celebrated my mom's birthday, sipped a lovely lychee martini, and ate a lot of good food! Looking forward to the Grammy's tonight :)

Style Icon: Alexa Chung!!

Hello!! I've decided to start a new series in which I gush about a style icon of mine. This week, and first in the series, is none other than Alexa Chung. She's no stranger to receiving love and admiration in the blogger community. I chose her because she is fresh in my mind from looking at dozens of pictures of her when I was contemplating cutting my hair. I've been really really wanting to get her book, but every time I see it i decide against it because it is a little pricey. Maybe one day I will bite the bullet. But for now, I will admire Alexa's effortless cool-girl style through pictures on the internet.

I don't look to Alexa for thinspo or fitspo, but oh my goodness do I admire how she can put together an outfit that seems completely none put together. I picked the three pictures of her above because they sum up what I love about how she dresses. How she can pull of both grungy 90's inspired outfits as well as rock a pretty floral dress. I'm also really jealous of how well she can pull off those dungarees. Overall, I drool when I see her in any outfit she throws together. I've gone through many different styles over the last years, and I think I'm growing out of my pastel baby doll dress phase into something more like how she dresses. It sucks when you have a closet full of clothes that you don't think suit your personal style anymore! But that's just how it is, I guess. Anyway, OBSESSED with miss Alexa Chung lately. Seriously can't get enough. :)

Review: Jo Malone Blackberry and Bay

Jo Malone Blackerry and bay

I can't rave enough about Jo Malone. What a classy, sophisticated, beautiful brand of fragrance. Obsessed. Now, I've been wanting to get my little paws on ANYTHING Jo Malone for quite some time, and finally got a little bottle of one of my favorite scents from them. Blackberry and Bay cologne is unlike anything in my collection of floral and sweet perfumes. This scent is clean, and fruity in an alluring, rather than cutesy, way. Perfect for the colder months in my opinion. The official description on the website is like this:

Childhood memories of blackberry picking...A burst of deep, tart blackberry juice, blending with the freshness of just-gathered bay and brambly woods. Vibrant and verdant.

It's a bit warm smelling when mixed with my body chemisty, not sure that makes sense. I tend to put in on my wrist rather than my neck area just because I feel like it blends in with me better there. It's quite expensive, so I only got the little bottle for now, hopefully my collection will grow (with candles!). I feel these fragrances and packaging designs are timeless and will look beautiful in any perfume/cologne collection.

OOTD: Mmmm Pancakes!!

Hello! I haven't done a blog post like this for a while! My outfit doesn't haven anything to do with pancakes...but I did go to a pancake house yesterday!! It's disgustingly sunny and hot in California this January (which makes me unhappy) so that's why these pictures look like they were taken in summer!

Velvet crop top: Topshop

high waisted shorts: Brandy Melville

rings: Brandy Melville

Layered necklace: Papers and Peonies

Hamsa necklace: Nordstrom

I'm working on getting better OOTD pictures. It's hard when you don't have a tripod set up or anybody to take them for you! Anyway! My boyfriend and I went to the Original Pancake House (not to be confused with IHOP) and oh my goodness is it delicious. He got the cornbeef hash with eggs and I had the dutch baby pancake, which is an oven baked pancake with powder sugar and lemon on. I ate the whole thing and let me tell you, it is massive! It was my meal for the whole day haha!

I'm drooling all over again. Might go snack on his leftovers ;) I leave you with this picture of me and my dog, who is struggling to get away from me. But I swear she loves me.

Review: YSL Rouge Volupte Shine in Pourpre Intouchable

Hello! My boyfriend very generously got me this lipstick as a gift after receiving some bad news, and oh my goodness is it amazing. The YSL Rouge Volupte lipsticks are worth the splurge in my opinion and I will definitely be buying another when the time is right. They are so smooth and moisturizing and make your lips look like little jewels!

The color I chose was of course, this deep berry purple called Pourpre Intouchable. I picked it mostly because I knew I wasn't going to be getting many YSL lipsticks anytime soon, and I wanted a color I knew I would wear often. I just can't seem to stay away from the berry lips!! This particular shade of the Rouge Volupte line have tiny, tiny shimmers in, but don't make my lips look frosty or glittery. It's just a very nice extra touch.

It's not super pigmented, but if you layer it up there is a lot of color pay off. It's perfect if you're doing a heavy eye because you won't look like you caked on all your makeup. It has everything I love in a lipstick: moisturizing, a gorgeous color, and easy to wear! Plus, it smells fruity and delicious!! :)

My "Oh No" Skin Care Routine

Wow. It's been FOREVER since I updated my little corner of the blogs. My excuses would include working a full time retail job leading up to the holidays and just not having time/inspiration to think about my blog. I've gotten a few new products and quite a bit of new clothes which I can hopefully do a lookbook soon. I just need somebody to take the pictures haha.

So, carrying on. I've struggled with my skin since I was 9 years old. Thankfully, now that I'm 23 it's calmed down a bit. I still get breakouts, almost exclusively to the lower cheek and chin area. Honestly, when I'm not breaking out I don't do the whole shebang of a skincare routine. I usually do a bit of spot treatment to any tiny pimples but that's as fas is it goes (due mostly to laziness)! However, when I DO have issues I found a routine that seems to work best for me.

These are the products I use. I first cleanse with the Fresh Soy Cleanser, then do the cupcake mask, rinse it off and do the Perricone MD Pore Minimizer and finish off with the Origins super spot remover and the overnight moisture mask. Each of these products is great on their own, but in a desperate attempt to get my nice skin back, I found that using them all together really made a difference the next morning.

The Fresh Soy Face Cleanser is my newest purchase. It's a bit pricey, with the smallest size being $15 but it's really nice!! It smells like cucumber, which I can't stand the taste of but the smell is cool and refreshing and the consistency is a smooth, almost gel-like formula. It feels great on the face and leaves it feeling clean for hours.

Now THIS is the luxury item. I'm not sure about other Lush stores but mine doesn't always carry the fresh face masks, so when I get this it's definitely a treat. The Lush cupcake mask is meant to calm oily acne-prone skin. It smells wonderful and feels so cool and refreshing when you put it on after just taking it out of the fridge. I've never tried any of their other masks, but I highly, highly recommend this one.

I put this Perricone MD Pore Minimizer on right after the face mask. This is good stuff. I've always struggled with my pores and I really feel that this helps keep them under control. It's not a miracle worker, but I don't expect any pore product to be. It has a clean, almost herbal smell to it which is quite calming when I put it on at night.

The last steps include my ever so loved Origins products. This is my second little bottle of the super spot remover. It's expensive for such a little bottle but don't let that throw you off because it lasts a loooong time. Again, it's not a miracle worker, and doesn't do much for those spots that got beyond the surface, but it's a good preventative treatment. It's also good for those pesky white heads. My approach is if it's burning, it's a good sign. Now, I use the Drink Up intensive overnight mask when I'm serious about getting my skin into shape. I am so so so bad at moisturizing that I feel whenever I use this it makes up for my irregular and infrequent moisturizing. It smells so fruity and tropical that I love putting it on. It is quite heavy so a little goes a long way. If you can't stand your face being oily before bed then this isn't really for you, but when you wake up with a super soft face in the morning, it all seems worth it.

This has been my current skincare routine. The products are a bit random and all over the place, but I find that this has been working great for me. I'm going to try and get back on the blogging wagon since I'm no longer working for the majority of my days. Hopefully I can get more fashion-y posts up, since that is where my true passion lies. :)