Dress Dupe

So in my hunt today for a dress to rock to my Engagement Party...(I don't even know where or when I'm having it!) I googled "cocktail dresses" and came up with this site WWW.NewYorkDress.com who have some pretty awesome and sort of pricey dresses by the way. Anyway I'm looking for something that says bride, something that will stand out, something that will make a statement like goodbye single life, hello being a wife! I'm looking for white which is sort of hard to find this time of year but I came across this dress which sells for $220. It's kind of Kim Kardashianesque well at least the model is but I can picture her wearing it circa 2 seasons ago! seen here. Cute dress but not for me for my engagement party! Anyway after spending the past 3 hours of my workday looking at gorgeous dresses slightly out of my price range of $200. I decided let's look at forever21 for shits and giggles. I have found some cute dresses that looked like they cost $200 ok well maybe $100, alright $50 there when I was in a jam plus there was a cute dress I saw there last week I was eyeing up for Christmas in which I couldn't find on their website but I did however come across this dupe (well sort of) for the $200 dress shown above! Is it an exact replica well no not quite but they definitely used the same fabric to make the dress which goes to show how much they mark up everything that has a "name". If you really love either of the dresses I'm posting links below! Issue NY Dress from newyorkdress Forever21 Dress

GIrl on GIrl Hate!

So ladies I am writing this because it is something that affects me on a daily basis and something that really, really, gets under my skin! It's something we are all guilty of every once in a while some more then others. We all have said at least once in our lives, "I HATE GIRLS!" or "That's why I only have guy friends". Ok first off unless they are gay, most guys (considering you are a halfway decent looking girl which we all are!) DO NOT just want to be our "friends". I don't care who it is, deep down inside somewhere, somehow in every "guy friend" there is a small glimmer of hope even the size of a poppy seed, one day you will become uncontrollably attracted to them in some way, shape or form! Even if they aren't in love with you ask 10 straight guys and I bet you at least 9 of them will tell you that they would sleep with their best female friend! Now we all know whether that line is ever crossed is 99% up to us!
With that said, now more then ever (and I have been guilty of it too from time to time) we jump and make a snap judgement about another girl based solely on outward appearance, "Oh she's a bitch" or "she's a whore" but what it all boils down to is a 7 letter word J•E•A•L•O•U•S•Y! We all feel threatened every once in a while when a girl we deem prettier then ourselves walks by! We stare each other up and down like 2 tigers in the jungle about to pounce on one another and before ever getting to know one another we assume things and right then and there we decide not to like one another. Some who are really evil haters will use the Don Corleone approach to keep our friends close enemies closer! I think girls have more "Frienemies" then real girlfriends and that is just plain old sad!
Well I have took a personal pledge not to judge girls like that anymore! I don't think I was ever so terrible with it anyway because I have been on the other side of the fence being judged without being known and it's a lonely feeling! I have rid my self of all jealous, hating frienemies and I chose only to surround myself with the few other girls in my life that feel the same way I do! I don't hate girls but I can't control if they hate me! I am not going to change being who I am to make others happy and if you are going to judge me then I probably am better off not being friends with you and vice versa! All I know is that I am going to treat all other girls equally even if and if your cool then we can be friends! I have accepted that there are millions of women that are prettier, have bigger boobs, nicer butts, dress better, have better hair, better clothes, nicer cars and that's ok because I love me more then anyone just the way I am!

So I ask you all to think before judging! At least to try to have a 5 minute conversation before writing another girl off as a bitch, skank or slut! You will probably make a few decent friends in the mix.Leave the judging up to the guys, we need to stick together!

My first Coastal Scents Palette

So after all the hype I decided to give in and order my first Coastal Scents palette! Typically I'm not one to order makeup off of the internet without first seeing it in person. I have enough trouble finding colors I like in the stores! I couldn't decide which palette I wanted to order for my first time. I fought between the Original 88 and the Shimmer 88. Finally I decided I probably would not use the bright greens & blues in those on a normal basis so I then began a battle between the Warm 88 & the Metal Mania. Finally I just bit the bullet and in my brain replayed all of the many Cosmopolitan articles about what makeups work best for Women in their 20's, 30's and 40's. Deciding its only a few short years until shimmery colors start setting in my wrinkled up raisin like eyelids I dove head first into the Metal mania palette head first. I chose USPS Standard Flat rate Shipping. I believe it was about $8 and change (a little hefty but well worth it) I ordered it right before leaving work on Friday. It was waiting on my doorstep today by lunch which is Monday! I was shocked it flew right up the Eastern seaboard from Florida to Long Island over the weekend. I was so excited I couldn't wait to go home to get it!

Anyway I'm not going to go into detail about the packing bubbles or the logo on the palette. Who gives a rats ass right! Just like men its not about looks its about what's inside! Thank god its not like my fiance cuz if I opened it up and saw a couch potato watching the jets game I would have blown my brains out right there on my front porch! What I do love aboot the YouTube guru reviewers though is that they have to point out the very obvious like they are holding it open and they have to tell you there's a mirror and two useless sponge applicators as if you are blind and cannot see them with your own 2 eyes. Anyway I actually believe it or not found the sponge applicators useful for highlighting the inner corner of my eye!
Anyway let's get to the product! First off the Colors are way more vivid then the picture on the website. If there's a video for the palette you buy I suggest you watch that for a more realistic depiction of the colors. A lot of the colors look similar in the pic but that is not the case at all. Since I was in my car on the way back to my boring day job I swatched a few colors on my hand. They were nice and silky smooth like a silky terrier! Good pigment as well. The thing that dissappointed me was that to me in the pics on the web the pots looked big as if each was a size of at least a quarter. That is not the case at all they are more like a penny. That made me a little upset and I felt duped but at the end of the day what did I think I was getting for $20?
Time ticked away at my boring mundane job as my vision clouded up literally (today was my first day wearing contacts to work) all I could think of was getting home & taking the cloudy contacts out of my eyes so I can play with my palette!
My drive home was like a Monet painting and to add insult to injury it was the first day of daylight savings. Finally home I got my right contact out no problem but the left one was a bitch. Finally I ran up to my room grabbed my brushes and came back to my kitchen table to go to work. The lighting in my kitchen was not so good so I ran up to my bathroom when I was done & the true beauty shined! I was actually pretty surprised what I was able to accomplish with bad lighting & a half scratched cornea.....perfectly blended brightly colored beautiful eye shadow!

I am in love all over again! And I most definitely will be ordering more palettes in the near future! The possibilities are endless! looking over the entire thing I think I will use at least 75% of the palette which is pretty good. I own other palettes that I purchased from Ulta with their line of shadows which I believe (and I'll probably be shot for this) are better then Sephora's. Reason for me hating on Sephora's eyeshadow is that I purchased their Purple Smokey eye tutorial Palette and it was probably THE WORST eyeshadow I had ever used! Those crappy eyeshadows you get for Christmas when you're 13 are better! Is that to say all of Sephora's shadows are that crappy? No I know the baked ones are good but based on that Purple Palette I purchased from there I would be scared to spend the money on another!

In conclusion, I really enjoyed the Coastal Scents 88 Metal Mania Palette & I will be buying more from them in the very near future! Next on my list from them are 2 of the Go! Palettes both Cairo & Beijing I want to try BH Cosmetics as well and see if they really are the same. According to many people they are made by the same Parent Company and are identical in quality but I must see for myself.

P.S. I forgot to mention that all these shadows were applied over URBAN DECAY PRIMER POTION!!!!

Finally a logo!

So I finally made a logo for the blog! It took long enough huh? Anyway I guess now would be a great time to give you all a little background history and my intentions for writing this blog. Before I do so I guess I should give you all a little disclaimer. I am in no way shape or form a beauty industry professional. I am just your average girl, who makes average money and buys average things to try to look good! Shopping and product testing and researching is sort of a hobby of mine and since friends and family know this they often ask my opinion. I am sick of reading magazines that only show you Lavish Luxurios items that can only be purchased by rich people. To me its like walking into a puppy store and seeing all these cute little things and not.being able to purchase one cuz your landlord doesn't allow dogs. For lack of a better term its a big cock tease!

    I refuse to believe that the only way to look good is to have to spend $85 on a plain white t-shirt! To me there are times to spend and times to splurge and only on certain items such as shoes. You wont get much milage out of a cheap pair of shoes but you can find plenty well quality shoes in stores like Marshalls & TJ Maxx for a resonable price! Plus if you see a really nice pair that's slightly out of your range there's always lay-away.
        Anyway to give you qll a little background on me I am a 30 year old woman born and raised on Long Island. If I had to explain my sense of style it would be classy with an edgy flair. I love black, neat looking taylored items with an edgy flair. I am a sucker for anything with studs, leopard print & bold hues of blue & army colors as neutrals. Ok I just realized you are probably envisioning Snooki right now! Notice I said classy though! I can probably write an entire book on every Snooki fashion faux pas but I don't have time! I live in at least 5 inch heels on at all times I haven't owned a pair of sneakers in years! They just don't look right on me! My style icons are audry Hepburn , believe it or not I love all three Kardashian sisters sense of style as well as Jlo and Sara Jessica Parker! I come from an big beautiful Brooklyn born and raised family and as a young girl in the 80'sI looked up to all my beautiful, styleish aunts! With their big hair they never left their houses looking anything less then fabulous. I watched them push around baby carriages in stillettos never missing a beat with their hair or makeup! They are the reason I am who I am today! Even my nana who is 85 and the sweetest most wonderful woman in the world (aside from my mom) is still rocking heels even after breaking her hip! He gorgeous pictures from the late 1940's are an inspiration. They are all the ones who instilled in me that you can look like a million bucks without spending a million!  Thanks to them I am a bargain hunter in the truest sense of the word. Someone sense of fashion who I always truly admired oddly enough was my dad! My dad passed away over 5 years ago. When he was alive he was always dressed to the nines and I believe I got my need to always look neat and well groomed from him. I never saw my dad wear a pair of sneakers, a sweatshirt, or t-shirt or even jeans like you see most dads wearing.  He was always in a neatly pressed pair of slacks with the crease perfectly pressed down the middle. Each Sunday night he would pick 5 outfits out and he would spend a good hour or so at the ironing board preparing his outfits for the week and when he was done ironing them he would hang them ever so neatly on the hangers (neatness is one attribute that didn't dive into my gene pool) and leave them there for the week. He even folded his clothes to put them in the hamper when they were dirty! His hair a timeless classic that he literally hadn't changed since the age of 10 was always neatly combed and quaffed. My Dad was the pillar of class and he is greatly missed.