Maxi Dresses

When maxi dresses first became popular three or four summers ago, I was NOT a fan. at that time they were loose, ankle length tubes that made even twig figured women look like tree trunks.

but now.. Though, I am 51 percent sure that I will not be caught wearing a Maxi anytime soon...I love a few of the styles that now exist out there.
If only I weren't already a tree trunk.. But if I were... say,  Nicole Richie I would wear my own design, obviously.. and that would be awesome. Winter Kate is Nicole Richie's brand.. and I am IN LOVE with her collection which is for sale here.

My favorite style is this one:

So pretty! the Harlequin dress in red floral

and the same dress in the other color,

 If I had 570 dollars to spend on these two dresses ($285 each) I would absolutely have snatched them up by now and held them in my closet for the day when I lose like 40+ lbs and am able to look good in these gorgeous dresses...

for now, I will just keep my eyes open for imitations or similar styles.

If you know of any pretty maxi's that are less than or equal to $100 and resemble the above, please please let me know, I would love to have a dress like this for my Vegas vacation in August which I hope to be about 20 lbs thinner for.. :)

What's in Whitney's purse?

Wow, this title makes me think of the game "What's in grandma's purse" where you take turns going from A to Z making up things that are in "grandma's purse". It's fun because it involves more than just naming off items alphabetically, and you have to memorize all the items in order from A to Z and repeat it before you get to the next letter... I've played it while drinking and floating on intertubes on a lake with some friends, so that might have been why it was so fun. It's silly and mindless and something you can do when you are relaxing..

I will not be alphabetizing the contents of my purse. haha. but I have photos so this wont be totally boring,. hopefully...

YouTube is full of vlogs where people show you the contents of their purse, but I'm a little(lot) video camera shy..  so a photo blog is what you get today

Here is my purse. I LOVE IT. I got it from Nordstrom Rack, I had never heard of the brand, but I saw it and I picked it up and I had to own it.  OR by orYANY
They had it in a muted brownish red color that I debated getting instead, but as I believe I have said before, black is the go to color when I can't choose.

this purse is huge, and has expandable zipper panels. So it's just perfect for me. =)

So here is what I have in my purse, with the expandable zipper panels zipped up...

LOTS of stuff.

Here is a break down.

Beauty Products

1. My paddle brush, and a grandpa comb... For days when I don't bring my huge brush.

2. a black claw clippy. I only really use these for drying my hair so I'm not really sure why or how this got in my purse.

3. 15 hair pins for brown hair. why 15? That seems like so many you say? I have no idea. I probably keep stashing them, but i will NOT have fly away hair any time soon =) It's nice to have them, since my hair is too short to really put up.  

4. three nail polishes. OPI in Manicurist of Seville, OPI Top Coat, and Nicole by OPI in Make a Comet-ment

5. I got this really cool nail file with a plastic holder specifically for my purse so that my phone, sunglasses and ipod wont get scratched up and ruined

6. two pairs of tweezers. to be fair, they were in different pockets, so I didn't know they were in there.

7. two types of mascara, one is the Maybelline Turbo Volume Express waterproof mascara, and the other one is the Badgal plum mascara by Benefit.

8. My M.A.C Eye Kohl in Prunella

9. a M.A.C pencil sharpener.

10. Nivea A Kiss of Rejuvenation Q10 Anti-Aging lip care with SPF4 =)

11. Two M.A.C Compacts, one is the remnants of my old iridescent pressed powder in Belightful, and the other is the remnants of my Select sheer pressed powder in NW15.



12. OPI Avoplex cuticle oil to go
13. Bath & Body works Fresh Picked Hand Sanitizer. This stuff smells delicious, (like cherry pie) and I love hand sanitizer. When I dumped out my purse, I was surprised that I didn't have at least three of these in it.

And on to the next grouping, the next two are much smaller I promise.

14. Rite aid Face Sunscreen in SPF 100+ hehe.

15. Blink for contacts lubricating eye drops

16. Floss. I keep meaning to start flossing daily... but you know...

17. Midol!

 

18. my wallet. it's from cost plus I think, my mom got it for me for my birthday last year. it has zebras on it. I like zebras :D
19. two pens, one green ink and one purple.
20. my phone, Samsung Memoir, its a camera! no it's a phonera.
21. old tickets to movies, the ticket to Adam Carolla at the Aladdin theater that my boyfriend got me for my birthday, the auto show, and Portland Beavers Baseball tickets.
22. Keys to my work.
23. two shopping lists.
24. a lighter, just in case I need to light something on fire... honestly, I don't smoke or anything I just carry a lighter.
25. some recipes I printed out for the future bakitude.
26. Sookie Stackhouse novel, Dead in the Family, by Charlaine Harris. This is what I read when I take the bus to work sometimes.
27. my ipod. and no headphones.. because I always forget them at work..

I think that's all I had in my purse. perhaps some day I will show you the inside of my wallet, but not tonight..

I got a manicure and pedicure done today, for my birthday which was last August.. but the gift certificate was good for a year.. =)

See? awkward pic, but you get the idea..

I have OPI Manicurist of Seville on my toes.

and a french mani on my fingers.

What kind of stuff do you carry in your purse?

Ok, That's all for now!

<3 Whitney

Makeup Maturation

If you asked 16 year old me what ONE item is the staple of my makeup collection...
My 16-year-old self would most definitely would answer eyeliner with no hesitation. I used black Prestige Cosmetics Waterproof Automatic Eyeliner  on my waterline, with some mascara and I wore almost no other makeup. That stuff is truely waterproof. and at only four dollars it's a great deal. I still use it if I am going swimming and feel like I need some makeup. 

Now that I am in my 20's my makeup tastes have evolved pretty significantly so I rarely use any black makeup other than mascara anymore. Nothing against it for sure, I actually have a M.A.C. Graphblack technakol eye-liner in my desk at work for emergencies...

I started using concealer and then foundation then blush and highlighters .
Moisturizer and primer were a pretty recent revelation for me though..
Closely following those, I dyed my hair red and got some reddish eyebrow pencil to fill in my brows.

These days I could not pick just one thing as a staple of my routine, but I can narrow it down to a few.

1. BADgal Lash mascara by Benefit Cosmetics :
My best friend Katie told me about this and it is INCREDIBLE. I hate the unnatural clumpy, sticky goopy mascara. this stuff is great, it comes in black and plum, and this is the best I've found. I bought my second tube of black and my first tube of plum yesterday. I used the plum today for the first time, and honestly I really dont notice a difference in color on my eyes, but it works the same as the black and costs the same so it's ok. I will probably use the plum for summer, since it is theoretically a lighter shade than the black. ;)

2. Iridescent pressed powder by M.A.C in Belightful :
This stuff is really pretty, it's sparkly and slightly tinted. I use it daily, sometimes in place of blush. Problem is, it was discontinued this year. so I went to the MAC store last week and asked for help finding an alternative to the irridescent pressed powder, because the color I use was discontinued, Consultant says, "BELIGHTFUL?" Turns out she was just getting ready to send the three they still had in stock back to the manfacturer, so I bought two. I guess I will have to deal with finding a replacement in two compacts.

3. Fix + by M.A.C :
This is a spray that makes my makeup last a lot longer than it normally does. I spray it on after I put my whole face of makeup on and it works as a setting spray. But apparently, this has a multitude of uses..
for foiling pigments, and eyeshadows:  I haven't tried this yet, but I saw a demo on youtube and its pretty awesome looking. you just spray some on your eyeshadow brush, pick up some pigment and swipe it over your eyelid, and it creates an extra vibrant metallic look.  You can also use it as a refresher, when it's hot out or you are feeling shiny.

4. Eye Kohl in Prunella by M.A.C :
This is my favorite eyeliner, mainly because of the color. I used to use a brown Prestige lip liner  as eyeliner, (I thought it was eyeliner and it seemed to work ok) but the color wasn't exactly what I wanted. and I found this color online, and I love it. its a brownish purple. Very pretty.

I just bought a new type of foundation, as I ran out of the one Ive been using for a couple years. It proved too heavy for summer last year, so I decided to get something lighter for this summer (if it ever comes to Oregon). It's Studio Moisture Tint SPF 15 by M.A.C. Today is my first day using it, and it seems ok so far. I like that it has sun protection. even though it's just a little.

About a month ago I came across this video called "Dear 16-year-old Me" and I am now serious about using high SPF sunscreen and trying to get the people I love to quit frying themselves in the sun..

When I was sixteen, I wore black eyeliner and crazy kneesocks, vans shoes, mini skirts and studded belts..
As the years have gone by I definitely look back at "high school Whitney" and think about what a complete dork I was then..  I don't regret that, and luckily I was never REALLY big on tanning but this video made me cry.. So I wear lots of SPF now.

Anyway, cancer sucks big time. but changing the subject...

I think I might be doing another post very soon (I KNOW more than one post a month, say whaaaaat?!) on the contents of my purse. Not super exciting, but I think it might be fun.


That's all I have for now!

<3 Whitney