Monochrome OOTD!

dungarees// missguided

shirt // H&M

shoes // Keds

bag // Urban Expressions (Nordstrom Rack)

Hey guys! I just wanted to share my ootd with you guys real quick today- if you follow me on instagram (which you can do here!) you may have seen these overalls (shorteralls?) before. I saw them featured in a youtube video by makeupbymandy, and I KNEW I had to have them! I love the minimalist color scheme, and I think the vertical stripes make my entire body seem slimmer. 

I decided to keep the entire outfit very clean for the spring by just pairing it with a basic white v-neck and white sneakers. I thought sticking to monochromes would really make my bag pop! I really love the cobalt color, I think this bag is so fun when paired with these kinds of minimalist outfits, and I think I'm going to be rocking it all throughout the summer!

There's just a little over a day to enter my giveaway if you haven't!! I'm giving away a Naked Basics Palette, a Maybelline Brow Drama, and a L'Oreal highlighter!! Original post is here, but you can enter below!  

Stay beautiful!!

- Whitney

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Five Product Face + Giveaway!!

Hello all! I hope you're all enjoying your weekend so far! Lately, I've been finding it harder and harder to get out of bed in the morning... which leaves me less time to do my makeup before running out the door. As such, I've got my five product face down to pat. I thought today I'd share what products I've been using with you guys, just in case any of you have found yourself in the same situation (and we're getting to the end of the semester here, so I definitely wouldn't blame you).

1)  L'Oreal Paris Magic Lumi Highlighter in the shade Medium ($12.94)- On days where I'm pressed for time, I don't typically bother with primer or foundation, or really any kind of base at all. I prefer to just slap on a thick layer of this concealer all over my under eye area, and then just blend it in with my fingers. It's super brightening, which helps me to look more awake, and it doubles as a highlighter, so I like to dab a bit on the tops of my cheekbones as well!

2) Tarte Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Airbrush Foundation in the shade Medium-Neutral ($36)- I know I said I don't really bother with foundation, so I feel the need to clarify- while this is considered a "foundation" I don't really use it as one. While you do get more coverage out of this product then you would out of a typical powder (which is precisely why I use it on these rushed mornings) I still don't feel like you get the full coverage you would if you used a liquid foundation. I think instead you get a very light, natural coverage that wears really well throughout the day. It really gives that no makeup finish, which is what I like when I'm going very simple everywhere else on my face. The packaging is also really cool, there's a mesh cover over the product, and you kind of press your brush into the netting to get it onto your brush.

3) Too Faced Soleil Matte Bronzer in the shade Chocolate ($30)- Okay, I definitely went through all of my favorites posts on my blog and I'm AMAZED that this product hasn't been talked about yet. This is easily one of my favorite products of all time. As you can see, it's EXTREMELY well loved, and has lasted me so long, that the packaging of this product has actually been entirely redone. Anyways, even on days where I'm trying to jump out the door, contouring is still one of the most important aspects of my routine, so I just like to take this product in the hollows of my cheeks, up by my temples, and a bit under my chin. And it smells like chocolate, which of course makes me love it even more :)

4) Loreal Telescopic Shocking Extensions Mascara ($4.99)- This is a new addition to my mascara collection, but it's quickly becoming one of my favorites. It really gives you long, fluttery eyelashes. I think if you were going for really large, like, va-va-voom lashes for a night out, this mascara wouldn't really be for you, but for everday wear it's really lovely. I think it's the brush that makes it so good- it's got a super thin, synthetic brush with tiny little bristles all over, which really separate and lengthen each individual lash. 

5)  Neutrogena Nourishing Eye Quad in the shade 140 Sea Shell (discontinued)- This particular quad has been discontinued as far as I can tell, but as far as eyebrow shades, there's an extremely similar one in the Maybelline Nudes palette. Depending on how much time I have, I may or may not do my full brow routine, just because my eyebrows are so important to me (that routine can be found here!) but if I don't have time, then I tend to just fill in my brows with the darkest brown in this palette and then run out the door. 

And that's my makeup routine, sorted! I don't typically put on a certain lip product, I'll just opt for whatever chapstick I've got in whatever purse I'm carrying. I hope you guys enjoyed this post! I'd love to hear what products you reach for when you're pressed for time, be sure to let me know in the comments!!

There are a few days left to enter my giveaway, where I'm giving away the L'Oreal highlighter mentioned in this post, as well as a Maybelline Brow Drama Eyebrow gel and a Naked Basics Palette!! The original post can be found here, but you can also enter below. 

Bye guys! Stay Beautiful!
- Whitney a Rafflecopter giveaway

Nail Colors for Spring!!!

Hi guys!! I hope you're all having a lovely day. :) Here in San Diego we've definitely been experiencing some of that May gray (a few days early though!!). In light of that, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite spring nail polishes to brighten things up a bit.

Painting my nails is definitely one of my favorite things to do when I've got a quiet minute to myself. I love to turn on a  few youtube videos and light a candle, and the whole process is just super calming and relaxing. I'm by no means an expert, but I guess I just feel a bit like when my nails look put together, my life is a bit more put together!

In the spring, I tend to go for more light pastels and nude tones. Another really popular trend is very bright, fun colors, but I tend to save those more for summer, when the sun is out :) Here are five nail polishes I've been loving lately!

1) L'Oreal Paris Colour Riche Nail Polish in the shade 330 Smell the Roses ($4.79)- This is a matte dusty rose kind of shade that I think would be really flattering on a lot of skin tones. I find that it lasts pretty well and doesn't chip. I have it on my nails currently, it's been about 4 days and I'm just starting to see a bit of wear, which isn't bad considering I'm the worst at taking care of my manicures. Like honestly, I'm the kind of person to paint my nails and then eat a bag of chips. It's awful.

2) Revlon Parfumerie Scented Nail Enamel in the shade 60 African Tea Rose ($3.77)- Many of you said on my Ipsy haul that you really liked the shade of the Julie G nail polish I received (post here!) and I've got to say, that shade and this shade are EXACT dupes of each other. They're both really gorgeous hot barbie pink shades, but I do tend to prefer the Revlon once because the formula is a bit thicker, and on top of that, it leaves your fingernails smelling like roses!

3) Probelle Nail Lacquer in the shade Into the Blue ($6)- The thing that I love most about this polish is that it's so unique. I don't think I've ever seen a sky blue shade like this in stores before. If you have, be sure to let me know in the comments! It has a really lovely, creamy texture and goes on like a dream. I also received this product in an Ipsy bag, back in January!

4) Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in the shade 409 Good to Grape ($6.49)- This polish is probably the oldest one in this favorites collection, and it's one that I always go back to this time of year. Purple is my favorite color, and often times purple shades are too dark to wear this time of year. Alternatively, they end up being too pale, and you really lose that cool tone. I really love this polish because it's just a perfect, true, pastel purple.

5) Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in the shade 310 Almost Almond ($6.49)- Another Sally Hansen polish! I really love her Complete Salon Manicure line, the brushes are just so perfectly shaped.You can cover almost your entire nail with one swipe. This shade is a slightly shimmery nude tone, where you can barely tell you have nail polish on. I like to do 3 coats so that it's completely opaque. It's just a little something different this time of year, but it still looks very classy on the nails! 

This post ended up being much chattier than I anticipated! I hope you've all enjoyed it though. Be sure to let me know in the comments what some of your favorite nail colors are :)

There's just one last week to enter my giveaway!! I'm giving away a Naked Basics Palette, a Maybelline Brow Drama, and a L'Oreal highlighter!! Original post is here, but you can enter below!  

Stay beautiful y'all!
- Whitney a Rafflecopter giveaway

April Ipsy Review!!!

Hello everyone!! I'm back today with a review of my most recent Ipsy glambag. Ipsy is my all time favorite beauty subscription hands down. You get 5 customized products each month for an incredibly reasonable $10! It's an amazing way to boost your makeup collection and discover new brands you haven't heard of before. And you get a cute little makeup bag to boot! 

1) Klorane Dry Shampoo with Oat Milk ($19.50 for a full size)- Dry shampoo is one of those products that I don't use too regularly, but would probably die if I didn't have in my arsenal. I think it's really unique that this one contains oat milk, and with the drought going on in California, I think that this could be a really great product to use between hair washes!

2) theBalm Cosetics Nude Dude Eyeshadow Single in the Shade Flirty ($36 for full palette)- I think it's really awesome that all Ipsy subscribers received a single eyeshadow from the new theBalm palette! It's a really great way to try out a new brand without investing in the full palette, and theBalm is definitely a brand I've been wanting to check out. At first glance, I wasn't too excited about this color, as I thought it was just going to be another gold tone to add to my collection, but I was so wrong. Once swatched, I realized it's lowkey purple- it looks to be a purple/taupe with gold shimmer. It's gorgeous! Very similar to Urban Decay's Dark Horse, but a bit lighter. I think I'm going to get a lot of wear out of it.

3) JulieG Nails CORE Collection Nail Polish in the shade Damsel ($3.99)- Ipsy describes this shade as a "mid-tone pink creme" and that sounds about right. It's a very bright, rosy tone which will be perfect for spring! It reminds me of tulips and I love that.

4) MICA Beauty Eye Primer ($44.95 for a full size)- A full size is double the size that I was sent, which was already so large I will probably never finish it, which is insane. That gives this one product a value of $22. It's nice to have received a matte nude eye shadow primer, especially since I know in the summer I tend to like to stick to mattes and get away from the shimmery shadows!

Hikari Cosmetics blush in the shade Tango ($15)- This is such a pink blush!!! It's almost intimidating to look at it in the packaging, but that was also how I felt about my City Color blush and now it's one of my favorites. And this one isn't quite as scary as that one. Just from swatching it seems like you get a lot of pigmentation, so hopefully I like this one! I've received quite a few blushes from Ipsy recently and haven't been too wowed yet.

And that was it! I feel like this month I got really excellent value in my Ipsy bag- between the blush and the eyeshadow primer alone the bag value was almost 4x what I paid! I honestly just forgot to take a picture of my dry shampoo, and I apologize for that haha! Do you think beauty subscriptions are good value? Let me know in the comments!

Also, don't forget I'm giving away a Naked Basics Palette, a Maybelline Brow Drama, and a L'Oreal highlighter!! Original post is here, but you can enter below!  

Stay beautiful y'all!!

- Whitney

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Favorite SS15 Trends: Denim on Denim!!

         

Dress: Topsop

Top: Cotton On

Jacket: Cotton On

Shoes: Keds

Hey guys! I'm back today with another one of my favorite SS15 trends, denim on denim! Conceptually, this is a weird one for me to wrap my head around. I feel like for so long, it was super taboo to wear denim on denim, but it's really grown on me! Particularly when your different pieces are completely different washes. So for today's look, I went with three different denim pieces, all of different textures/ washes. Go big or go home, right?

The dress is really quite shapeless, but I like the way that the collar of my chambray top looks peeking out over the top. I went ahead and added the jacket just to help define my shape. It's definitely a very preppy, spring kind of look!

How do you guys feel about the denim on denim trend? Be sure to let me know in the comments! Also, don't forget that Naked Palette Giveaway is definitely still going!! Click here to enter if you haven't yet!!

I'll talk to you guys soon, stay beautiful!!
- Whit

How I Do My Eyebrows + GIVEAWAY!!

Hey guys!! I hope you're all enjoying your weekend so far. I've been doing a lot of style things recently on this blog which has been really fun, so I thought today I'd kind of bring it back and do some beauty! Since I'm giving away a few of my March Favorites (details below!!) including the Maybelline Brow Drama, I figured I'd show you a little tutorial of how I like to use it. I'm not pretending to be any type of brow expert, but this is just what I find works for me. I do like quite a strong brow too, fair warning!!

I like to keep my Brow products separate from the rest of my makeup, so I keep in this cute little Rebecca Minkoff makeup bag I got from Ipsy!

1) Pencil in my brows. The first thing I like to do is line/ fill in my eyebrows with a pencil. I find that this step is really where I define exactly where I want my brows to be and just how strong/dark I would like them, which is probably most important. I've been using the NYC Classic Brow/Liner pencil in the shade Jet Black, which is a huge bargain for 99 cents for two! My hair is quite dark, so the darker colors/ blacks work well for me.

2) Fill in my brows with eyeshadow. After I've finished penciling in my brows, I like to go back over them with a dark eyeshadow. I find that this serves to fill in any gaps, and to also make them look more natural and less harsh. My favorite is the accent color in the Neutrogena Nourishing Eye Quad (shade 140, Sea Shell), which I think has been discontinued, but there are definitely several suitable alternatives in the Maybelline the Nudes Palette! I just use a cheap (but very cute!) angled brush from Forever 21, and I find that's perfectly suffice, but it would definitely be nice to spring for a MAC 266 when funds are less tight!!

3) Ensure brows stay in place with an eyebrow gel. My very last step is to go over my brows with an eyebrow gel, just to make sure they stay in place all day and also to tame any stray hairs I may have. The one I've been using is the Maybelline Brow Drama in the shade Deep Brown, which I am giving away (amongst other things!!) The brush has quite a unique shape, with a little ball on the end of the wand, and the way I like to use this is to start at the end of my brow closest to my temple, take it lightly against the hairs torwards my nose, and then go in the opposite direction in a windshield wiper motion. This gel has really amazing staying power, I really find that my eyebrows look the same at the end of the day as they did when I did them in the morning!

And that's it!! It's really very awkward to take a picture with only one eyebrow done, but I really wanted you guys to see the difference, so I've done this for you.

And this is my makeup done! As is the story of my life, one eyebrow has come out infinitely better than the other. Doing my brows is one of my favorite parts of doing my makeup, I just think it really adds structure to your face and makes everything feel complete. I know this tutorial was very picture heavy, but it was my first one, so let me know what you guys think!! 

And now, for the giveaway: I will be giving away a Naked Basics palette, a Maybelline Brow Drama (shade of your choosing), and a L'Oreal Paris Magic Lumi Highlighter (also in the shade of your choosing), all in a little makeup bag, and I will be shipping anywhere in the world! This giveaway will be open until the last day of April, good luck!!

I hope you guys have enjoyed this post, please don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already!! 

Stay beautiful!!!!

- Whit 

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Favorite SS15 Trends: Fringe!!

Top: New Look

Kimono: Charlotte Russe

Shorts: Topshop

Shoes: Topshop

Hi guys!!! Happy hump day, haha. I'm back today with my second favorite SS15 trend: fringe. Fringe always comes into season around festival time, but I know for me personally, it was a hard trend to incorporate into my wardrobe for day-to-day wear. That's part of the reason I bought this kimono- I felt like it was a statement piece with the fringe (and the lace as well!) but that it would be easy to dress up or down because it was black.

For today's outfit I definitely went pretty casual with just just a pair of shorts, a striped crop top, and a pair of black slip-ons. I know black on black isn't very spring like, but it's so hard to want to break out of that monochromatic shell!

I think this outfit would definitely still fit in at a festival though, I'd just swap out the slip-ons for a pair of black knee boots, throw on a floppy black sun hat, and add a fun pair of statement sunglasses.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and my Naked Palette Giveaway is definitely still going!! Click here to enter if you haven't yet!!

I'll talk to you guys very soon, but in the mean time, stay beautiful!!

- Whit